A Halavris And The Hillside

Chapter 2: The Mage, The Paladin And The Dhampyr

     The blow hadn't knocked Bryn out for long. It had, however, left them with a broken nose and a black eye, though that was the least of their problems as they came to a couple of hours later. Slumped on the grass in the centre of camp, Brynlee had been rebound and placed next to the lantern. The agony of being near the light left them catatonic. Around them, they could hear the forest and the camp, but despite their best efforts, they could not react to it in any way. Their bones ached, and their blood thundered in their ears as the lantern seemed to hold them in place with an iron grasp.

     At some point, perhaps at dinner, Gilbert talked the most.

     "I grabbed some books when we were back in Perpetua and started researching the Halavris family." He was saying. "They were a long line of what were essentially vampires that ruled over Umbra."

     "So then this one's a vampire as well?" Tarian asked.

     "Not exactly." There was the sound of flipped pages, and a book slid across a table. "Four generations ago, this one's great-great grandpapi broke the line of pure blood vamps and instead of embracing a childe, he married a changeling. Somehow, through magic or some shit, no one quite knows, they had twins. These were living, breathing, warm-blooded vampires with the ability to shapeshift at will as long as they weren't in contact with the sun. They call them Shadow Shifters. Unnecessarily edgy if you ask me, but these motherfuckers are practically unkillable."

     "Well, that's just fucking great." A new woman's voice chimed in.

     "There still is a way. This world's version of Apollo, Sol, doesn't seem to like these things too much. So, he made weapons made of glass using fire from the actual sun and gave one to each kingdom. Some of them were lost during a war, but do you remember Edward? Royke's guard who gave me real sketch vibes? He had one of them. I'm sure it'll be a public execution if we bring this one back to him."

     Someone shut the book, and silence settled over the group. A job's a job they supposed. Once they got paid, what happened to the bounty wasn't their problem.

     Any conversation after that faded away as Bryn had let the roaring in their mind drown the outside world. Slowly they flitted in and out of consciousness. They no longer felt the pain, simply the tight of the lantern pushing in on them, the ringing of emptiness in their head, and that dry hole where their magic should have been.

     At some point, the sun made its way around the far side of the Ewalesh Mountains, a circlet of massive mountains perched in the centre of everything. Their shadow made way for the night, and the light from the moon, which crowned them like a halo, illuminated the forest. It wasn't until Enul's light was brightest over the clearing that the Hillside decided to retire for the night.

     Dormiddon, the name Bryn had learned belonged to the leader, had first watch. The world around them did not exist, so it was not until he spoke that Brynlee realised that he had seated himself directly beside them.

     "You're not scary." Bryn felt him nudge their shoulder, and fire speared up into their neck and skull. "I mean, you are. You're an unkillable fuck off shifter. But you, you are not scary." He paused, perhaps waiting for a snarky response or an indication whether they were still alive. After a long moment of receiving neither, he took a breath and continued. "I know you could have wiped us out if you wanted to. It would have been the easy way out. But you don't want that blood on your hands, do you?"

     Bryn didn't bother trying to move. They didn't think they could if they tried, and their tongue was glued to the top of their mouth.

     Far away or perhaps directly in front of them, there was the sound of movement as Dormiddom stood and reached to their other side. The pain was more than they'd felt before, as if Dormiddon held the lantern directly to their skin. As if the actual flame of the lantern had set them alight. However, there was more movement, and slowly it faded in the way a fire fizzled out in the rain rather than being doused by a flood. Footsteps made their way across the camp and halted far away. He'd brought the lantern away and hidden it behind a tent.