Bladeshire 28
By David C. Daoust
Chut felt like he may have seriously harmed Chantilles. Her reaction to the cross being pressed against her, made Chut doubt himself. Initially, anyway. It was clear to his sight, that whatever was possessing her, was abruptly evicted out of her system. She’d really only stepped on him twice during her freak out. Lucky for the inches-high Chut, Spriggan could take a walloping!
Chantilles could not believe her own actions, she could not understand what had come over her. She was hungry, incredibly hungry, even before they had entered the Everwold… but once she, and the trio of fairies that had brought her there, came across the diminutive ‘Tomnen’, introduced as native-mortals of the Everwold, she just could not control herself.
Chantilles was appalled as her teeth sliced into their delicate flesh…Despite this, she drank the blood—fast. The thought of their blood in her mouth… so disturbing. It filled her, tainted her being. She did not realize the shift, all she knew was that she was no longer feeding, no longer committing a massacre on the little people…
The frantic peasant girl reached up and felt her teeth, even as she wiped the non-existent blood from her. She found her teeth were normal again. The blood, gone… the elf queen’s body with them. She was herself again. She found the snail-staff was in her hand and hurled it away! The light went out, inexplicably to Chantilles. She could not know that the elf Queen, Llyalith, had used it to cast a spell that illuminated the darkened chamber.
The darkness enveloped them all.
The light spell was broken, Khadory found himself plunged into darknesss, even as he reached Chantilles. He could feel her writhing about, he struggled with her as she fought to clean herself… of whatever upset her. He’d never seen her act this way. With the spell broken, and the light extinguished, new worries crowded into his mind.
They had successfully captured the demon-possessed Hindal within a coffin. A coffin that was sealed shut… Could that spell, the one that held the prison shut, be broken too? Hindal could be a threat again now that the wizard had been forced from the young girl’s body. He’d dropped the axe when he moved to help Chantilles… he back tracked quickly, crouching, searching the ground for his weapon.
The cold touched his flesh before he felt the axe– his thoughts bent. The girl was going for the axe. His own thoughts supplied that she was going to hurt herself with it. It fed into the image. ‘The girl?’ Chantilles. Whatever put the thought in his head did not know her name. Khadory would never say ‘the girl’ in relation to Chantilles… she was there in his heart; she always had been. The thoughts pushed back against the realization. Chantilles was mad, the darkness affected her more. More than that, the demon had her in its thrall, just like it did when he convinced him he was losing against the ghoul, just like it did when it controlled the old man…
Khadory pushed back against these thought–against the Darkness. He pictured the frantic girl, more– Hindal trapped in that coffin… alone, the old man may not even know why. Something welled up within, he summoned thoughts of the light. He brought his beliefs to bare; he searched his memories. Specifically, the light that erupted from him when his mind was being invaded… when the invocation saved him. Destroyed whatever it was. No, he knew, the entity was not destroyed, banished. All was made clear, in that moment. He knew then, it was not Llyalith the first time. It was not Llyalith that tried to change his memory. It was pieced together in the Light as it erupted around him. This was different then the light of the invocation. This came from within, from his own power, a tool to be used, summoned forth in this moment of desperation.
Khadory could not explain, he never would, it was just more of his faith, made manifest… something never meant to be questioned.
The light filled the chambers, forced the demon from his mind. It was unable to escape to what corners the darkness may still possess. Not this time. It was trapped, it was a shadow… like the one he had witnessed before, smaller, weaker somehow, but still demon. This one screamed much the same as the first as it dissipated in the light.
Khadory fell to the ground, exhausted. It was Chantilles, still disheveled and wide-eyed, that rushed forward to help him, her turn to offer aid, as the demonic threat was banished back to the Vale.