Eros

At Last, You Die - 87

Father Bailon knew not to move as he opened his eyes. It wasn't the first time he awoke with a blade across his throat.

The candle cast the man looming over him in dim lighting. He knew Ebonsteel's taint as soon as he saw it, pulsing through the veins of his left arm, crawling up his shoulder, chest and side of the neck. Snaking up his face, slowly but surely, reaching for the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

"Heal me, or die with me."

Knowing Ebonsteel wounds, he knew the chances weren't in his favor. Then again, he wasn't really given a choice.

With a sigh, Father Bailon sat up, and got to work.

-

The central plateau was wide awake in the dead of the night, fires warding the darkness. Every Skytalon from child to elder was at work, spreading supplies and caring for the wounded.

Only when Kaido fell with exhaustion, the cowards found courage to come and demand him.

"No." Alora said, struggling forward with Kaido's limp body leaned on her shoulder.

Two elves of the entourage circled to block her path with extended spears.

"You best keep it peaceful, Silverthorn." Vaelyr Skytalon stepped before her, the chief of the northern tribes, and the grandson of the Archferal. "Enough blood had been shed."

"Not for you, apparently." Alora set her glare at him, too tired to mask her anger.

"The people demand justice."

Alora raised an eyebrow. "I only see you here."

"He killed dozens of our own!" Vaelyr raised his voice. A crowd was quick to thicken around them.

"And he saved hundreds." Alora replied. "He was the one who killed the magi and razed the catapults. We would've been standing in ashes if it wasn't for him."

"He is wild and powerful beyond reason, at his presence, we are all at risk."

A smile curled her lips then. "How else did you expect to receive Damuzar's help, with rainbow butterflies and fuzzy feelings?"

That made him pause. Made everyone pause.

"A Velsarian slaughtering elves at Damuzar's will? Could your claims be any more propestorous?" Vaelyr spoke with his authoritative assertiveness, but she saw his eyes dart along the buzzing crowd as he wove his words. She put a crack in his confidence. If Kaido was to survive, she had to shatter it.

"You might have retreated too far to see it, Chief Skytalon, but Blackrose was more a beast than man as he fought. Damuzar changed him, gave him the strength and fury to fight like no mortal can."

"So we should hail him as a hero? Thank our luck that he happened to kill more Veramorians than Skytalons?"

"If you are so keen on giving thanks, you can thank me."

Once again, her words brought silence. The crowd so quiet Vaelyr didn't need to raise his voice. He did anyway.

"Why by the wild should I thank you?"

Someone from the crowd answered before she did. "Because it was she who sent him upon the Veramorians!"

"She led us while our chief cowered on the wall tops!" Yelled another.

"How dare you accuse our Chieftain of cowardice!"

The crowd riled up in arguments between one another. Within seconds, it looked like everyone well enough to stand was shouting and shoving.

"Enough!" Vaelyr roared over the commotion, hushing it. "Doubtless, Silverthorn has been helpful, but that is irrelevant. Blackrose was given a chance to redeem himself, and in return multiplied his crimes. As Chieftain of the Skytalon, I judge him to death."

"Your judgement is what's irrelevant." Alora replied. "Since it was the Archferal who judged him before, no one but the Archferal can judge him now."

"You said my grandfather burnt." He snarled.

"When an Archferal passes, another Feral rises to take their place."

"Yes." Vaelyr sneered at her. "The strongest of Ferals."

"Hold him." She told the two warriors behind.

They exchanged hesitating looks before they took his weight off her shoulder. Even when he was out cold, they feared him.

Alora turned towards Vaelyr. The anticipation silenced the elves better than any crowd-leader could.

His eyes locked with hers, and blazed with power, their verdant glow burning bright as flames. He wasn't confident for nothing. Of the Ferals she came across, his was second only to the Archferal, the evocation of it forcing onto her senses.

Alora didn't stand to show. Her powers no longer need to be urged, they flowed through her, detaching from strains. When she first turned a beast, she had become one with the wild, her will becoming its own.

She let the furs slip from her body as she leapt forth. Claws ripped the new boots she was given, clothes tearing over expanding muscles, her skin slicking into silver fur in a verdant haze.

Her swung hands reached Vaelyr as the paws of the panther, smacking him off his feet, and pinning him in the snow under her. She bared her fangs, maw gaping before Vaelyr's face as a roar thundered deep from her chest, echoing through the Grove.

The Chieftain froze beneath her, paralyzed in terror.

Alora stepped off him, and raised her head high, roaring out a second time. The crowd roared with her. Even the elves who spent most of their lives in their city-like home reconnected with the wildness of their blood, raising hundreds of voices to the skies.

If there were opposers to the new Archferal, they could not be heard.