First thing I noticed was the trees. They seemed to stretch on forever, their leaves so closely intertwined barely any light passed through them.
I stared at the trees for a long time, thinking. My limbs felt heavy, the physical drain from the fight with the daemons making it almost impossible for me to move.
My relic was just out of reach, half buried in the dead leaves and my cloak was torn and stained with blood.
I was getting too old for this.
The potion the Healer gave me before I left the coven was on my belt but I felt too drained to even reach for it. I was numb all over, and I had lost all sense of time to even begin to understand or think how long I was laying here. Was it long enough for the Ulfric to put out a Locator on me? Would I die here before they had a chance to? Will I be found by other daemons first?
Will my last day on this world be spent laying in dry leaves, a fingertip away from my weapon, staring up at the canopy of leaves above me?
I wouldn't mind that at all.
I let my eyes fall closed.
"We have a missing Ripper, sir."
I turned my eyes away from my laptop screen sharply as the young mage burst into my office. His bright green eyes glowed eerily in the semi-darkness, and my exhausted mind recognised him as a Seer a second longer than it normally would.
"How long?" I asked, abandoning my laptop at the desk and picking up my hoody as I made my way to the door. I hadn't even been Alpha Guardian for a two weeks yet and I already had a Grade A nightmare on my hands.
"Which one?" I asked, throwing open the heavy oak door and making my way down the corridor. "How long has she been gone I need details!"
At 4 am, there was eerie silence throughout, broken only by the sounds of our own urgent voices.
"Uh, well she left for her uh... for her ... assignment late Thursday night... uh, sir- Alpha... sir." he stuttered nervously. Any other day I would try to console and calm the young underling, but right now there was no time for that, sadly.
"Has a Locator spell been cast?" I inquired, holding him by his shoulder as he almost missed the first stair leading down into the Seers' quarters. I kept a hold of him as he stumbled, a fall down these stone steps would surely kill him. And not even a Healer as gifted as my father can fix that.
"It's being cast right now, sir." He quivered. "By uh... by your b-b-brother."
"Mikel? Good." I flipped a light switch at the bottom of the stairs and let go of the underling as I broke into a jog as I headed to the room where the Seers would be congregating currently.
My sharp ears picked up low and nervous chatter from the other side of the door and I opened the door and entered without knocking.
"What do we know?" I barked, my eyes grew hot for a split second and I blinked away the magic that was reacting to my turbulent mood.
"Sir, we lost her around 40 minutes ago." A blond haired Seer spoke up, standing from her heavy oak chair to bow as she addressed me.
"Do you know which Ripper is missing?" I circled the large oak table which was packed with Seers save one seat, which sat empty. Most of them were older than me, yet their eyes, all bright iridescent green, pleaded with me for help.
"Ripper Dire, sir."
I sighed and ran my hands down my face. I've met the Ripper many times, her identity hidden beneath a large black hood and a mask was designed to look like a wolf.
"What was her last location? Do we know?"
"The Borderlands, sir... she was on a Hunt."
I felt my heart sink, to lose a Ripper at a time like this would mean hell for our coven.
"Her life force is gone completely?"
"No, but it's too weak for a tracking spell. We have a good idea where she is, but..."
"Then I can't send any of my Guardians... not if you aren't sure where she is."
"We can't leave her out there!"
"I know!"
I wasn't able to hold back the flare of power which erupted from my body and the room of Seers fell quiet. My eyes felt hot, and there was a tingle under my skin where the magic sat, waiting for another attack. I sighed and closed my hands into tight fists, walking away from the table to face the window. In the glass, I saw my own stormy grey eyes glowing back at me in the darkness.
"We need all the protection we can get in these times, I know this..." I muttered. "But how are we going to get her back here if we can't find her location to send someone for her."
The entire room fell silent, and my sharp ears could hear the clock on the far wall ticking away the seconds until we lost one of the covens greatest weapons.
I couldn't afford that. I turned back to the room and looked around with a grimace, what I had planned was stupid, I know this, but a war was a time of sacrifice.
"Let Mikel know I'll need the information he gathered from the Locator spell." I said breezily. My mind was somewhere far off into the Borderlands, the only way to get her back anyway was to somehow get her lifeforce up enough for her to survive the Transporter spell back to the coven.
"Sir, exactly who are you going to send for the Ripper?" the blond Seer asked.
"Noone," I told her. "I'm going myself."
********
Hi, so I decided to scrap my original concept for this story and completely rewrote the prologue to suit the new storyline I concocted in my head. I really really hope you guys enjoy my new story!
Happy reading
Shay
