Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

69. Through the Mist

The sporadic buzz rattled the insides of Elaine's ears, and as she fell to the ground, a consistent ringing noise permeated the area as if the fabric of reality was vibrating along with her eardrums. Standing over her, Laurence still had his wand brandished before him, a milky purple light engulfing its tip.

Squinting, Elaine raised a hand to the side of her head and slowly arose to a crouch. She hadn't seen what had attacked her—the creeping fog had, by this point, swallowed up large portions of their surroundings, hindering her vision to such a degree that Elaine didn't have the confidence in herself to venture inside of it and navigate her way out—just that Laurence had quickly arrived at her aid.

He hadn't lowered his guard yet, his eyes losing every trace of the drowsy gravity they usually contained, and instead, he shifted his leer from side to side as if anticipating a subsequent attack from their yet-to-be-seen opponent. The purplish light radiating from his wand served as a functional torch to ignite the infectious fog's haze, but she knew that if it continued to thicken, it'd take more than a flash of Essence to keep them from losing their bearings.

Returning to her feet in a clumsy wobble, Elaine flinched as Kara appeared beside her, concern painting the girl's face. "Elaine, are you okay?" she asked worriedly, taking one of her arms. "It happened so fast! I thought you were a goner!"

"No, no, I'm fine, Kara," Elaine reassured her with a smile, though the instability in her tone reflected her fluster quite well.

A larger figure emerged behind her, but another blink revealed him as Rolland, every bit as anxious as Kara, perhaps even more so. The wound on his forehead leaked a line of blood over his swollen eye, and as he opened his mouth to speak, Elaine could see that a few teeth in his bottom jaw were broken. "What was that just now? It came out of nowhere. Did more Griffins show up?"

"It was Cael," Laurence muttered, sparing a momentary glance over his shoulder before rapidly returning to searching the fog. Elaine was taken aback; this had been the most attentive she'd seen of him so far. It was a little bit jarring, but it comforted her to know she had a somewhat capable fighter on their side.

"Cael?" Kara repeated confusedly. "I thought he ran off?"

"Evidently not," Laurence whispered. "Right now, he's probably thinking he's more than enough to take on the four of us alone. If I cared—which I don't—I might have been offended by that, but his Mist Magic will be tricky to dispel."

"That's for sure," Elaine nodded, fingers tightening around her wand. The colossal galbora trees and rows of sizable hedges and shrubbery had vanished in their entirety behind the veil of the mist, and a coldness that seemed at odds with the humid climate of Glyph Forest traveled in rolling winds to rustle her hair and shudder the blue-colored cape blanketing her shoulder.

"Stay close together, you guys," Kara urged them. "We can't afford to be separated, not in this mess."

Elaine seconed the notion, and together, all four of them took steps nearer to one another. All the while, the expansive, bluish-gray clouds consuming mouthfuls of earth, plant, stone, and wood crawled for them, whispers carried within the heart of their obscurity. Now, Elaine couldn't reason how far the fog reached. However, she was aware that it was conjured by a spell, meaning that it was probably only contained in this area of the forest.

If they took their chances and made a beeline straight forward—assuring that they stuck together, of course—they would have to outpace the fog clouds eventually, wouldn't they? Or was Cael such a powerful mage that his mist could swallow all of Glyph Forest? Speaking of, where had Cael gone? He had to be somewhere close by, didn't he?

Suddenly, as that thought entered her mind, Elaine discerned a surge of Essence bursting out like an explosive. Emerging from the misty clouds at the speed of a bullet, there was a dazzling burst of turquoise-colored energy. It blitzed straight towards them, straight towards her. Grunting, Elaine lifted her wand, shouting, "Primary Magic: Cutumo!"