A Million Roads to Nowhere

The End to All Things

His moment of panic at hearing his name diverts his attention and he barely registers the sword coming at him until it slices a line down his leg and his knee buckles. Ivo flies screaming at the man and Patrick braces himself up with his sword, desperately trying to keep to his feet.

Lesser restoration, he thinks frantically. Aodhan taught me that, for emergencies.

He summons his magic to his fingertips and presses them into the wound, allowing it to close a little bit, alleviating the pain until he can rest. If he heals it too much, he'll heal it wrong, but if he doesn't heal enough he's going to be too weak. Just by a glance down, he knows it's deep.

"Signe!" he yells over the noise.

"Patrick!"

He follows the sound of her call, heading in a vague direction. He can't see her and he has to shove his way through the crowd of fighting people in search. Ivo takes the blows that land in his direction and the familiar hisses and blinks in and out, as if having trouble staying in this plane of existence.

The portal.

Patrick tries to locate it over the mass of soldiers, barely catching a glimpse of the towering structure before making a dash for it as soon as he is able. The healing spell has numbed the pain enough that he can think of other things. This won't kill him.

Signe's standing by the portal, gripping onto the side of it as if trying to keep herself from falling over. The ground near it warps and he sees stars as he approaches, piercing pain shooting through his eyes.

"What's happening?"

A wind is picking up, more like a storm's wind than any that should happen this time during spring. It whistles in Patrick's ears and he barely finds enough footing to stand. Signe's hand glows orange, pulsing as she feeds her magic into the stones.

"It wants out," she screams. "Help me keep it closed."

Ivo shrieks like a banshee and completely vanishes the moment Patrick's hand presses against the wall. Patrick tries to summon his magic and he has difficulty garnering any energy to do so. A few sparks of magic snap at his fingertips and some strain is taken out of Signe, who visibly relaxes.

The space in the doorway shivers and Patrick doesn't think that the two of them are enough. Aodhan and William are too far away and Alistiar is out of the question. He scans the field for Clementine and like last battle, she's conveniently missing.

"Signe, I can't-"

The wall starts to shift, at least the feel of it. Patrick presses his entire weight against the stone and watches as off in the distance, an explosion of red magic sends a pile of bodies flying through the air.

Oh, shit.

Patrick sees the next blast coming before it happens- another one out on the field breaks apart the crowd and sends them skyward, crashing down to break bones. Ten seconds later and one happens closer. Alistair must have timed these, set them ahead so he could do more magic during the battle. It's unfortunately smart and it sets them back far more than is comfortable.

Two more blasts happen and the next one happens right next to the portal. Signe's eyes go wide as the red light whispers and spreads out around their feet like a fog. There's enough time to register the inevitable, but not enough to try to move out of the way. The trap goes off right at their feet, a blast of red energy, and the force sends them violently to the sides in opposite directions.