Aliya didn't sleep well. She usually had no problem sleeping, she needed it most times. Since she was up early she decided to leave early. She couldn't recall where a Leyline point near her destination was so she decided to just walk there. She began to gather all her stuff together, checking the condition of the dagger she carried. She grabbed the blue hilt just above the diamond shaped Water Rune embedded in the golden guard and pulled the blade out of the purple sheath with golden filigree. Engraved into the blade was an ancient Spirit script that wasn’t very well known in the modern age. The blade was a little worn, despite her meticulous care of it.
“Dang! It’s chipping already! It’s only been a month!” Aliya sighed upon seeing the blade had a new chip in it. The dagger was her Tether, it contained her true form and allowed her to remain solid and not dissolve into Mana. It also kept the Darkness from poisoning her. She’d had problems as of late trying to maintain a proper Tether, they kept deteriorating. THe problem seemed to be occurring more often and she couldn’t figure out why. After her last one was destroyed she was forced to use the dagger that was a gift from her brother, Lios, that she had held onto for centuries. Even though she could have used it before, she always had other options up until last month when she was away from civilization doing her research and it broke unexpectedly.
“I’m going to have to find a new one when I get to the capital. Especially if I want to keep this… If I find Lios I'll have to ask him to repair it for me!” She carefully fixed the dagger in its place on her belt behind her back, on her belt and she was ready to head out.
She quickly made her way to the edge of Gaylette, unaware that she was being followed by Breyze with Pree on her shoulder. Breyze hesitated at the edge of the city. She had never been beyond the outskirts of Gaylette. She was nervous but also excited. This would be her first adventure, she didn’t just have to hear about them from Pree. She looked at him and he gave her a reassuring nod.
Breyze smiled and they followed Aliya out to the Blinkem Wetlands, just beyond the grassy hills surrounding Gaylette. The cliffs that once surrounded the area were replaced by knotty trees of a forest that spilled into the wetlands. The air grew more humid and the grassy areas outside the dirt road were muddy. Large pools of water had all sorts of plant life growing out of it and those that crossed the pathways had wooden bridges spanning over them that were covered in patches of moss.
Aliya heard a deep low growl and some rustling in the tall grass. Emerging from the blades was a mass of dark purple feathers shrouded in a cloud of Darkness. Aliya silently ducked behind a tree just off the road. Peeking around the tree she noticed a twisted appearance of a large swamphen, it’s beak was all bent out of shape and some of its flesh was rotting away, practically dripping off it’s body. It’s void eyes scanned the area as though it were looking for prey.
Aliya spotted more down the road and grew concerned seeing so much of the local wildlife being corrupted by Darkness turning them into Demons. She couldn’t help but wonder if the war hit a nearby town hard since Darkness could only come from humans. When too much Darkness was in one spot it often leaked out and started infecting nearby life.
Aliya snuck along the edge of the forest trying to avoid all the mindless Demons. It wasn’t long before she came across the devastating scene of the town of Ervic. The destruction was heavy. Almost every building was either damaged or collapsed. Large boulders and spires of stone had caused most of the destruction, many of which were splattered with blood. There were wide cracks in the ground where the earth had been split open.
As Aliya walked through the town she saw the few humans around were all bandaged up as they looked for belongings and resources even a handful of people were even turned to stone. There were some tents in the town square where humans were residing and the worst of them were recovering.
“I see…” Aliya felt the weight in the air as she took a deep breath. “The Earth Legion did this... All the Darkness in the area came from these humans' fear.”
“A Water Faerie! A Water Faerie!” A child cheered and bounced up to her. Aliya thought she was surprisingly happy given the situation. The young girl's smile was a bright light in all the darkness around. Her large sky blue eyes sparkled with excitement over meeting a Water Spirit as she held tightly onto her cat stuffed doll. “Miss Water Faerie are you here to help us!?”
“I am!” Aliya knelt down to her level and smiled at the adorable girl that came to greet her. “Would you take me to anyone who needs help?”
“Yeah!” The little girl nodded, her thick strawberry blonde hair bouncing as she did. She grabbed Aliya by the hand and led her to one of the tents. She quickly burst through the tent’s entrance, fabric billowing back to make way for the girl and Aliya to enter. “Mommy! VeeVee! Look, I found a Water Faerie!”
“Oh goodness, Lee! You did!” A youthful blonde woman, by the name of Molly, lit up. Aliya could tell she hadn't much rest and even though she was helping others she was still bandaged up. Molly’s face still lit up with the same sunny smile as her daughter, Lee. “Forgive me but you don't look like one of Water Celestial’s Legion. Definitely not the clothes they wear...” She pointed out trying not to sound disrespectful.
“I follow Lady Azurius in my own way.” Aliya kept a warm smile and gave a slight bow of her head to put her mind at ease. “I am here to help!”
“Thank Mother! I'm beat!” A skinny looking Wind Spirit groaned out as he slumped down in his chair. “Healing Magic Artes are definitely not my forte.” He had been doing his best to try and heal the people all beat up laying in the tent, but at most his artes could just relieve pain.
“You have done more than enough, Vox.” Molly lightly patted his spiky dark green hair and he felt reassured instantly.
“Have you sent for members of The Water Legion?” Aliya asked them, hoping some form of aid would come to them since she couldn’t stick around forever.
“My brother left last night to do just that.” Vox turned around in his chair. Aliya saw that his leg was bandaged up.
“I hope he comes back safe,” Molly’s face strained with worry as she pressed a hand against her chest. “Isn’t The Earth Legion camping out on the road to the port?”
“He’ll make it somehow!” Vox waved away his own concern about the matter. “I wish I could have gone with. Those jerks busted my leg though. So I stuck around to heal everyone else.” He vaguely informed Aliya on the matter. He then directed a look of curiosity her way. “So, Sister, how are you at the healing?”
“Splash and Dance! Here's a relieving trance!” Aliya smiles and taps her foot on the ground and it splashes like water. “Ocean’s Lifesong!” Fairy-like illusions popped out of glowing mana flowing out of the ground’s now watery appearance. It began to heal everyone in it. The fairies lingered a bit longer making them smile before dissipating into more healing mana. After all the illusions disappeared, a small rough piece of water mana crystalized in Aliya’s hand. “That should do it.”
“Is that a Rune?! Did she just cast a Healing High Magic Arte?!” Vox was absolutely stunned. He hadn’t seen a healing magic arte that powerful before, granted he was relatively young for a Spirit so he barely had a chance to consider a Healing High Magic Arte could exist until he saw the Rune form before his eyes.
“Water Faerie! Water Faerie!!” Lee cheered, her excitement over the spectacle couldn’t be contained. She skipped around next to Vox who looked a little jealous over the fact she was cheering for a Spirit that wasn’t him.
“You never hyped me…” Vox stuck his lip out in a pout.
“Maybe if you weren’t so lazy!” Lee stuck her tongue out at him. She always enjoyed teasing him in good fun. It was a mutual feeling because they were such close friends.
“Ooh! I'm going to get you for that!” A playful smirk fell upon his face as he got up and chased after her. She giggled, hiding behind Aliya. Vox stopped realizing he was no longer in pain when he stood. He tapped his leg rather hard on the ground to confirm. He looked at Aliya with an excited grin, “Hey, you fixed up my leg too!?”
“Can’t have you completely out!” Aliya winks at him before turning to Molly. “How are you doing?”
“Oh these weren’t anything too serious to begin with. Thank you for finishing healing them, though!” Molly beams, grateful for all the assistance she’d been receiving since the chaos had started. “If it weren’t for Vox helping myself and Lee they’d be a lot worse. I feel bad he got hurt protecting us.”
“Don’t sweat it! I’d do anything for you two!” Vox stood tall and proud. They were the two humans he considered family. When The Earth Legion started their attack he was standing between them, defending Molly and Lee as best he could, getting them out of their collapsing house and guarding them from The Earth Legion Spirits hell bent on killing all the humans they could.
“You are too good to us!” Molly patted Vox’s head again. She turned to the newly healed townsfolk and raised her voice, “Alright! Anyone who is healed up now should head out and see what they can do to help the town!” Molly had taken more of a leadership role in the past couple days after having lost so many townsfolk. She was not as impacted by the devastation as some of the others, she lost her home but her only blood relative, her daughter, was just fine and she herself wasn’t extremely injured. She was well known by everyone in town and though she was so caring she was still firm about what needed to be done for the town of Ervic to get back on its feet.
“What? We can’t get a little more rest?” A man in his teens whined as most of the others complied to her orders.
“You want to live in a tent for the rest of your life? The sooner we can get everyone in on this, the sooner we will have our lives together.” Molly glared at him and pointed to the tent’s entryway. “So quit your whining and get your lazy butt out of this tent!”
“Okay! Okay! Whatever you say, Miss Coller….” The young man groaned, knowing she was right, as he got up and left the tent with the others.
“I saw some people were petrified when I arrived,” Aliya said to Molly as they stepped outside the tent as well. “Could you tell me more about the cause? There's a possibility I could reverse it.”
“I saw who did it,” Vox was glad they were able to get away from her. She seemed to be the most vicious and spiteful among them even from the brief glance he caught of her. “She was wearing a mask but whenever she took it off anyone in her sight turned to stone.”
“A Petrification Curse from a Gorgon Spirit?” Aliya placed a hand on her chin trying to think of the best way to go about it. “This is going to be tough, I was never great at dispelling curses,” Aliya huffed. She hoped that the relief group from The Water Legion had someone more capable of handling curses.
The small group approached one of the humans, now turned statue, and Aliya looked at them with a pensive expression. “Harder still since the nature of each one’s petrification is different. I’ll be able to analyze the mana and how it reacts just fine but reversing the curse is another story. It might be a while…”
“You can save them right?” Lee tugged at Aliya’s jacket looking up at her with a worried look.
“I’ll do my best, don't you worry!” Aliya said after taking a deep breath and giving her a warm smile. She wasn’t certain she would be able to find a solution before she left but at the very least her analysis of the mana would come in handy for whoever was more capable of reversing curses. It was the best she could do.
“Hey Vox, mind distracting Lee for a while?” Molly whispered into Vox’s ear. She could pick up a little on Aliya’s uncertainty so she figured the less distractions the better.
“Sure thing,” Vox nodded and smiled down at Lee. “Come on Lee-Lee! Let’s let them work in peace! We can go find something else to do!”
“Okay, Vee-Vee!” Lee skipped happily, taking his hand and he led her away.
“They seem close,” Aliya couldn’t help but smile watching them go.
“They are,” Molly had a nostalgic smile on her face. “Vox is a pretty young Spirit, probably no older than Lee really. They pretty much grew up together. He’s always been there for Lee. He was the only one to really cheer her up after her Father died. Vox has been too good to us.”
“What’s his brother like?” Aliya asked out of curiosity, wondering if he made it to The Water Legion by now or if he was stopped.
“Exal? Oh he’s a sweetheart too. He’s protected this town for decades. Supposedly before humans could even see him.” Molly lit up as she talked. Aliya could tell she held a lot of admiration for Exal.
“So he’s this town’s guardian?” Aliya figured if he had been around that long then he was strong enough to have a protective aura to expand to the surrounding area, likely one that slows the spread of Darkness. She had always remembered this area being so pure as she’d passed though on her travels before so it made sense. “Since he’s not here I’m guessing his Tether broke in the chaos so he’s able to wander so far to get help.”
“Yes, he was tethered to a statue that was in the town square, it was encrusted with Wind Runes.” A serious expression fell across Molly’s face. It was as though something important was taken from her. Aliya began to realize just how much this town meant to Molly. “I know without a Tether, Darkness is poisonous to Spirits. I managed to recover a family heirloom from what used to be my home. It was a sword that had Wind Runes embedded in the blade. Turned out it was perfect for him, almost like it was made for him.”
“That’s good because without his aura to protect this area the Darkness seeped out into the plant life and animals, he certainly would have been affected.” Aliya’s tone matched Molly’s. The situation around Ervic was grave to say the least. “This area is pretty dangerous to Spirits. I wonder why The Earth Legion is sticking around?”
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