The Wilting Ballad

10

From the fog outside, she appears. Shadow that is a thousand years old. Her majestic black horse thumps the soil of the earth, ready to snatch. Berick throws the tied, unstable, unconscious prince down beside him when he saw her. Descending from the sky or from the darkened forest that curtains the road to the flat top hut he doesn't know. To be perfectly honest he doesn't much care either.

He heard the shuffling of his comrade rising up the stairs and out the door, he sense their presence at his heels. Berick, being an open-minded realist, went through all the possible outcomes of their encounter with this creature. He knows the likeliness of them all surviving is thin.

She stood there, mere twenty feet away. Her terror blooming. Her long hair was a smoke flowing in the air. Her raiment was black smog itself. With her horse that brings shadow, she paced forward, darkening the forest further. "Ah.... not just any Shīza. A Star." She mused upon seeing them, as if remembering she makes a circle with her mouth, "I suppose I should thank you. To take the fall for us like that." She said, shaking her head, her voice distant yet purposeful, "I'm grateful for you. All of you! Not only you Stars. All of you!" She gave a slight bow, like an actor at the end of a play.

Murky thoughts plague their minds. Surveying their deepest secrets and long-time desire. Cassav saw a world without any form of magic, where she lived a life of joy and duty, with a working husband and sons and daughters, even grandchildren running around creating a mess. In a house with pleasant neighbors and friends. A world where no war is fought and where none of her loved ones is dead for serving a greater power.

Meanwhile, Hermis saw a world where he surpasses all Star that was before him. He saw a world where the Shīzas are accepted once more. Where he is hailed as a hero in the midst of hardship and where he can alter the rules in his favour. A world where he didn't leave Xarabia alone to fight an enemy he knows he can't defeat. Iuftas saw a world healed by him. Where people point to him when asked 'who is the best healer?'. And where his love awaits him in a comfortable home. Alfaus saw a world where he is the strongest fighter. Where he is the champion of the gods.

Berick saw a life where he is left alone, where he saves his sister, where he rescued them from the fire. If only...

Feeling the scruffy cold hand of Jejtsu on his spine. He awakes before he finished dreaming, he didn't know exactly when he had kneeled but he find himself kneeling, "Not you." Said Jejtsu from his rear, he stares sideways at his junior who also happens to be her new leader.

The shadow woman looks puzzled for a few moments but maintains herself. She scrutinized Jejtsu, frowning, "Who are you really, girl?" She asked, visibly interested. "Who exactly are you to... resist my illusion?"

"She can rip out your secret, most intimate desire and use them against you. Perhaps control you." Jejtsu continued to Berick, ignoring the inquiry of the woman in black. She watched Cassav, Hermis, Iuftas, and Alfaus kneeling, deep in a dream, consciousness on the brink of being extorted. "They're stuck in their own illusion, Berick. I fear if we don't wake them soon..."

Berick nods and stands, boiling a river fiercely in his mind. Fusing all its steam with his body. Blue mist hurdles over him like a second skin, guarding him like silver armour and strengthens him, enhancing his speed, making him light as a leaf. "Understood." He said, his seriousness spreading a wide grin on the dead gorgeous face of the shadow lady. "Long time." He murmured, reminiscing to his last fought battle, "Do what you need to!" He said to Jejtsu, who was already working on Cassav.

This should be interesting... she thought, slowly sliding down from her horse. "Tell me your name, Shīza." She said, feeling the smoke that cloaks her. Catching the off memory of an old forgotten man. Very much like this one.