Arkadia: Lightbringer Clan

Chapter Fourteen

Bloodied, injured and some unconcious, the group on their Steel-Forged horses are received at the gates of Fosurbs around the afternoon, their citizens stood tall and look on with pride, they know not what has conspired, but the face of these bloodied warriors say they've won, some citizens that sees this claps, some stood silent as they see the bodies of the fallen, some cheers to the warriors making their way to the Lightbringer Clan Spire to receive treatment and aid.

The soldiers guarding the Spire nods and signal the gates to be open, it is similar to the Palace gates however, the distinction is the Lightbringer symbol is etched on this stone gate instead.

When they enter, medics and nurses rush to their side, relieving them of their burdens, Leaf and Alisif is immedietely taken to a medical room, the rest are treated on the spot.

Verra manages to get her aid done quickly, "we are glad you are mostly unharmed your Highness" the nurse and medic bows, "It's due to these great warriors... and my cousin!" she says triumpthly, smiling.
The medic and nurse bows again, and excuse themselves from her.

Mr Eid walks over to her, under the bright afternoon sunlight, this place looks beautiful albeit the bloody mess the soldiers and heroes will leave, Mr Eid gestures Verra, "I see that you know." in a hushed tone.
Verra lips pursed, simply nods. "Is it painful for him?" reciprocating the tone.
"... I don't know, the boy is not from here, I found him in the rain just outside of Fosurbs in one of my missions back in the day."
Mr Eid gestures her to go to the side, in a corner where they can see everyone but ears away from those who would listen.
"I found him not as a young boy at first, but in his wolf form."
"You mean.... when he turns... big?" Verra looks at Mr Eid.
"The boy can turn to some other animals other than what I suspect you saw... he was in a regular wolf form at the time."
Verra flashes back to the wolf monster she's seen during the battle.
"His power comes mostly from his emotional state, he has it in control most of the time but when it surfaces, it isn't pretty, he loathe to use those powers too, it reminds him of something I'm not aware of." Mr Eid smiles.
"But I'm glad he can share that secret with you, even if it's to literally save all of us at that moment, I think he made the right choice."
"Shapeshifting..."
"We don't know if it's fully magic or it's part of him, Tots and I..... " he pauses. "We haven't been able to figure that part out, but it doesn't seem to affect the Flow.."
Verra clutches Mr Eids' arm, gently says "Thank you... and we're sorry for what happened to Tots."
"What?" Mr Eid smiles confusingly, "Why would you be sorry?"
"Well, if we had ju-"
The mentor returns the gesture of kindness, and shakes his head, "I'm sure Tots would be happy to know that we got the Speaking Stone safe to the city, and her... passing has actually led us to a big problem that we may not have seen.."
"I apologise Duchess, I meant to say thank you for your kind words."
Verra replies, "No! it's okay, we need to be around for each other no? that's what the city and its people is all about."
"I hope Leaf and Alisif is okay..."
Just then, a medic walks up to them, "Your Highness, your friend Alisif the Mage is awake... and we are feeding her food as we speak, claims she is very hungry."
The two chuckles, "... and Leaf?.."
The medic nods, "he is in stable condition, he will be awake in a few hours."
They sigh in relief as the medic excuse themselves away.

-

"... and it said that'll keep me as a pet and harvest my skin for spells stuff!" as Alisif honkers down on a big roasted drumstick still on her bed but sitting upright, "I was so ticked I almost wanted to burn that whole place down!" and she levitates another drumstick into her other hand, "what a loser!"
Portis laughs as she hears this, "Well if you did, you might accidentally summon another Pit Fiend with that massive amount of magic."
Alisif stops midway her chicken and embarrased, says, "I know that." and continues to chow down on food.
Leaf breathes quietly asleep on the other bed, "damn he can really sleep." Alisif says and looks at him, staring.
Portis nudges her shoulder, "you wanna wanna share with my cousin or-"
Alisifs' face turns red and throws a drumstick at Portis, who catches it, "what are you saying!?"
Portis just shrugs as Verra and Mr Eid walks in, the room is filled with light from the afternoon sun, the bed-ridden friends are on comfy mattresses, with green blankets covering Alisifs' lower half, and a fully tucked in Leaf.
"Portis! you're already here."
"Course, I need to make sure that this one here doesn't bother the medical staff too much." and chumps down on the food she caught.
The group relieved to see each other alright, proceeds to talk with each other, after a long chat Mr Eid speaks up,
"We're gonna report to Advisor Berator as soon as we are cleared to go to the Palace... except the bed-ridden ones."
"I can go!" Alisif perks up.
"No, you stay here, the medic mentioned how deep of a sleep you were in, and they weren't sure if you'll wake up in the next few days." Verra points out.
"Must've been a massive spell to knock you out like that." Portis says.
"Whole shoulder? yeah... a lot, a lot." Alisif phrases noticably simpler.
The standing trio looks on as Alisif slowly gets more drowsy by the second, probably still exhausted, or maybe food coma.
"Wouldn't that create another Pit Fiend with all that magic?" Portis confused.
"When there, Pit Fiend dead, body still there, so no Pit Fiend." she squints her eyes as her words get simpler, she yawns and falls back into sleep.
"I'll explain when we're on the way to the meeting." Verra assures her cousin.
The three of them decided to leave the pair be, it had been a lot for them the past few hours, so they went ahead and rested elsewhere before heading to the Palace.

-

In the dark red horizon, the boy awakens.
He gasps, surprise that he's still alive but his conciousness is not where his body is, his conciousness is in the Dark Place he calls it.
He is surrounded by water, just maybe half an inch of his whole body.
He sits upright, and calls out "What happened?"
Animal figures start appearing in front of him, some flying in, others appear from the water, some from shadows beyond what he can see with his human eyes.
"You live." as many voices speak as one through a wolf-like being.
"I know that much."
"The girl, she healed you."
"The duchess? but she doesn't have magic."
"No... the other one, the one who flies."
"Ah...."
The animals rests in front of him, both looking at each other.
"Not satisfied?"
"We would've died in service of you boy, you asked for power and we gave it to you, and you failed to use it properly"
The boy stays quiet.
"Maybe I did want to die so I don't have to deal with you." he sneers.
The animals hears this and start to sneer, snarl, and the ones flying ruffles their feathers.
"We are a part of you! you dare deny us? you who were born with OUR gifts?!"
"I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE THIS THING."
The boy shouts this, water vibrates but the air still and quiet, his voice echoing beyond.
"We did not choose this either boy, but you have strength beyond your other beings, be it human, elves, orcs... you are meant to be more and yet you choose to hide it!"
The boy grits his teeth, "I don't want to talk to you."

-

Leaf wakes up, the sun shining on his face through the window, he looks to his right and sees Alisif soundly asleep.
He sits upright, and put a hand on the shoulder that was bitten off, looks at Alisif and whispers a soft thank you.
He rests back into bed, going through his mind, the initial fight, the Pit Fiend, Tots body... and the decision to tell Verra his biggest secret.
He looks up the ceiling and contemplates if that was the right decision, it seems to be for now.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Leaf snaps back to the present and turns around to see a droopy eye mage, "No... why would you say that?"
"Because I heard you said I don't want to talk to you... and I was really sad so I just closed my eyes back up but then I started thinking it probably wasn't me.... right?" her eyes squinting at the boys eyes.
He smiles, "no it wasn't you... maybe it was a nightmare.... and thank you by the way." and gestures to his shoulder.
"Hmmmm, we haven't talked too much and it's kind of weird that you know that I was the one who healed you."
"Who else but you?"
Alisif noticably blushes and instinctly use magic to throw a chicken straight at Leaf, surprised, it hits his face and knocks him out again.
"No! damn it.... why'd you gotta say it like that..." she puts the blanket over her head and pretended that nothing happened.