Passion (Book 1 of "The Fantasy of Life" Series)

Chapter 49

York

Kel fell in front of me. I screamed and fell down pulling her close to me. I looked to the right and I saw Marhara lying on the ground, lifeless but breathing.

Cullen cried out and pointed his right at hand at 3 different Ashen, each one being absorbed in a purple light. The light grew and grew and the Ashen began to scream an ear piercing scream until they fell into ash. One simply shook the light off. It was still scary, Cullen had a lot more power than we'd ever thought.

Valen let thousands of weapons rain from the sky. I was able to bring dew from all of the greenery so his blood was watered down, he was still pretty strong, but wasn't letting me do anything, he was scared that I was still weak. Collectively they'd only managed to kill 7 Ashen. Kel got two of them and Valen got two more, Marhara had one and Cullen just killed two. It wasn't looking good because the Ashen seemed much more powerful than normal.

I looked down at Kel. She was extremely weak, and hardly breathing. I shook my head violently and whispered as I held her tightly against my chest. "Ganahass, ream jun shuslan, ger fanoth."

It was the same thing she had said to me after I faught Shirajiin, except I replaced the word son with daughter.

Her breathing became less laboured, but just as it did the wall behind us blew out and we were all pulled out of the cave as a bright light poured in and bounced off the back wall, the force of it pushing us violently out of the cave.

I fell on my face outside of the cave, my face in a thin layer of sand, the ground hard just under it. I lifted my head weakly, blood pouring from nose and I looked over the area.

I saw Valen laying on the ground similar to the way I was to my left, a few feet beside him was Marhara, he was still lifeless. To my right was Cullen and Kel, far from each other. Kel had more life in her than before but she was still very weak. It took a lot of magic to do the little bit I did, and the fall really wasn't good for me. Cullen looked fine, but very weak. Roughly 17 Ashen emerged from the cave. One less, I believe than what should have still been alive, one must've died from the blast. Valerie, was very carefully standing, one arm was mostly gone. It looked it was burned off but at the same time the end of it looks almost like an assortment of particles. And she had an arrow sticking out of her eye.

Ashanaya was no where. I looked around frantically but she was just gone. Her bow was on the ground, the string snapped. Her quiver was laying just ahead of it, about 6 arrows still inside.

"Where's 'Naya?" I saw Valen slowly try and stand, though he was having a lot of trouble. "What have you done with her?"

"I didn't do anything." Valerie was trying to sound calm but I could hear the pain in her voice. "She did it to herself, trying to kill me, I assume. Stupid girl never would have been able to."

The news hurt him. He fell to the ground, holding his hand against his chest.

Somehow, I was standing. I was surprised, I didn't remember doing it, and I certainly didn't remember having the strength to do it either, but I was standing and glaring at Valerie. I noticed this was one of the first times I'd ever seen her. She was tall, her ears pointed and her eyes red. She had the frame of a human, much bustier than any elven girl. She had long straight black hair. Her features not nearly as jagged as any other Ashen, though at the same time, she seemed too far gone to ever save.

Voices flashed into my mind, Marhara's, Kel's and Ashanaya's.

I miss her. With giving birth to a stillborn child and holding the weight of the entire clan, she's got a lot on her shoulders.

I may have been a newcomer but Ceylorn wasn't. I wish there just was another option.

Marhara.

I never had many friends back home with Geoffrey- He left bruises and cuts and he didn't want anyone to see them.

He looked at me like I was a broken toy he was never supposed to touch in the first place. I never saw what was wrong with him, I was so stupid. I didn't even think anything was wrong when he started... touching, me.

Kel.

Oh, they're not for the rune, I added them myself. They mean 'I wish you well, in the eyes of Avanashe.'

I'm not sure. I like him, but I haven't put any title to it and I haven't let it get too serious. I don't like the idea of him possibly only liking me for the spring he drank from. I want him to actually care, not only be with me because of the influence of ancient magic.

Ashanaya. She never told me her problems, just advice and help. She was nothing but a good friend, and she cared about everyone above herself.

"Don't you dare call her stupid." I didn't raise my voice but I spoke with so much power that the ground around shook violently. I began to rise from the ground and blue light radiated from me. My staff appeared at my back. My voice changed to cryptic and strange, but loud and angry. "You're the only stupid one here you voshk. You may be able to best some people-" I saw fear in her eyes as I rose. "But you could never hope to beat me." I swung my staff down and a giant trench opened up in the ground, that if my magic worked right, led down to the centre of the earth. Her and at least 10 Ashen began to fall in, I quickly slammed it shut. Valerie's indoctrinary popped out of a small crack it left. I could tell it was hers because it was larger than the others and darker, but strangely beautiful, like she was. It held the same power she did.

I fell back down, but floated about a foot or so from the ground. Everyone else seemed too weak to fight, laying on the ground practically dead. To do what I wanted it would take all of my magic. To kill all the Ashen left, and hopefully heal everyone enough to keep my friends alive, it would kill me.

I spun the staff around and pointed it to the sky. A light pink mist fell from the sky like light rain and fell over everyone. I spun my staff again and pointed it at the last 7 Ashen. I opened my mouth to talk but I was interupted.

"York, no!" Valen tackled me to the ground. He stood and ran to where I was, he pulled out a small dagger that he kept fastened around his waist. He quickly dug it into his wrist. A tear rolled down his cheek. "I won't lose you too."

Thousands of weapons appeared behind him and all of them rushed toward the Ashen, and Valen was pushed back about five feet, from the energy it took.

"Valen!" I ran to his side and fell to my knees, I pulled him up to me. He was barely breathing. I couldn't tell if his heart was beating. He was completely lifeless.

I looked back to where the Ashen previously were, 6 of them were dead, the 7th was holding Marhara like a human (or elven in this case) shield. It had an evil look but it was very weak. Marhara clawed at it's arm but it wasn't doing anything. The Ashen picked up Valerie's indoctrinary. I reached my hand out, opening my mouth to say something, anything, but the Ashen interupted me.

"Master didn't want this one. But we need our duchess back. Master speaks to us through her. We need her." It slammed the indoctrinary against the back of Marhara's head and purple light beamed out from them, energy exploded from them and threw us away. I saw Cullen and Kel soaring to my right. I closed my eyes and concentrated, I pulled them closer. As they got closer I began to hear their screams, they were alive. They got close enough for me to grab them. I pulled Cullen close with my right arm while holding Valen with my left, and Cullen grabbed Kel.

I tried as hard as I could to muster up wind to soften our fall so that we wouldn't die from the fall. I had no idea if it worked, the best I could do was hope so I kept my eyes closed and prayed to every god that came to mind, nymphan, elven, human, kindred, or druid, that I had enough power left to keep us from dying.