At the Altar of Dragons

Session 33 | Chapter 4

I stare at him dumbfounded, waiting for an explanation that will help me understand why this was okay – why he thought disappearing in the middle of a war zone was justified.

Layna yells, “I have you do this,” gesturing up and down at his older form, “so that you can help, and then you disappear?”

“I almost died!” I cry, trying to keep the fear from my voice.

Alba approaches him and wraps her arms around him in a hug, a hug she’d given everyone except me. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” she wails again, and my vision blurs, sulphur floods my veins, and ash coats the back of my tongue.

“Get your hands off of him!” I scream.

Lendys, to his credit, doesn’t hug her back, instead rolling his eyes.

Unable to cope with this level of theatrics anymore, I turn to Layna and sarcastically say, “I love that she hugs Lendys, but not me. It’s great.” She gives me a knowing look in response.

Alba releases the embrace and smirks at me, before walking back over to where Perona, Zeref, and Crimm are seated.

Zeref repeats his question about our skyship plan, and this time Lendys answers, “We discussed it at the dojo.”

Through gritted teeth, Layna demands, “Where the fuck have you been?”

Lendys looks momentarily confused at her frustration and replies, “I was doing what needed to be done. What’s going on here?”

“What does that mean?” I ask skeptically.

Layna, equally skeptical, offers, “Did you steal a skyship?”

“No,” Lendys smirks. “I cleared the area.”

I sit back, deflating at the realization that the area surrounding the garden entrance was unnervingly quiet for a reason. And that reason is standing in front of me. “That’s why it was so quiet outside?” I mutter, all venom lost from my tone.

“Yeah…”

“I appreciate it,” Perona states from the other side of the room.

Under her breath, Layna groans, “Still, let us know next time, gods.”

With our party assembled, Perona starts to fidget before standing. She asks, “Can we move and talk? Because I don’t know how long his ‘clearing’ is going to last.”

“We can,” Layna replies, but her tone is hesitant. “But we need to know what happened to you, so let’s go.” She stands and readies to leave.

My gaze flits around the cabin, scanning the faces of each person. All of those who went with Perona wear contorted and guarded expressions–hiding fear or covering it with anger. In turn, Raesh and Layna both look as lost as I am. I truly thought that their reunion had been total, with the other group sharing the events of their encounters before Zeref and I got here. I hate admitting that this minor act of inclusion quells the fire in my veins a little.

Everyone starts to get to their feet, and I mentally check in on my stealth spell that I casted earlier with Zeref. The shadowy hum of the arcane energy feels depleted, so I will need to recast it before we head out. With a group this size, we’ll need every advantage we can get to stay hidden.

“Can we walk and talk?” Alba inquires, the first reasonable thing she’s said today. If we plan to navigate this city in the middle of the siege Zeref and I just fled from, there’s no reasonable way to have a conversation as a group. “I think we should stay here for a minute while we finish sharing our story,” Alba offers.

I roll my eyes, annoyed that the arrogant cow is making sense all of a sudden.

Zeref leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and offers, “We now know that everything in the city is being affected by the Omni. Do you think we should try to talk to him?”

“No,” I bite, my pulse quickening at the thought of reaching out to this mechanical god that has somehow stifled all other divine presences in this region.

“That’s a terrible idea!” Layna adds. “No, he’s actively trying–”

“I don’t think it’s the Omni,” Perona cuts her off.

I meet her gaze squarely for the first time today, and state, “It is.”

“Everyone that has an Omni token is glowing white or destroying the city!” Layna pleads, putting her hands on her hips as she paces back and forth.

Zeref stands up and blurts, “The issue is that she’s being framed for killing someone in his church, and he’s mad about it!” He gestures to Perona as his gaze moves back and forth between Layna and I.

“What?” the elf and I shout in unison.

Zeref recoils slightly, asking, “Oh, we haven’t gotten to that part yet?”

At least I wasn’t the only one who thought we’d been left out of the information exchange. I clench my jaw at the mild sting and turn my gaze to Perona.

“No,” Layna replies. “No one explained anything.”

Lendys sighs, “I believe that’s why they say ‘take time and learn’. Find out what actually happened.”

Perona turns around in the doorway of the cabin, her eyes a burning violet, as she huffs, “I’m bleeding from the sides of my head, because the Bitch Queen ripped flowers out of my skull to frame me for the murder of the Pope of the Omni,” she claims, “and I know she’s lying about it, because she admitted it, she’s going to use the Southern Forest and the Omni as a scapegoat to go to war against the Northern Forest.” Perona takes a quick breath before she continues, “She wanted to use me. She wanted me to agree. I told her no, because her explanation had holes. So no, I wasn’t going to help her. She knocked all of us on our asses, stole my sword, stole my signant, ripped flowers out of my hair—”

The silence that follows is palpable. My jaw hangs agape, and none of the others can meet anyone’s eyes. Our group's collective shock and shame at these events sobers us more effectively than falling into a trough outside a tavern.

Layna is the first to break the silence, muttering under her breath, “Fucking bitch…”

“So when I said it’s my fault we’re at war, that’s what I meant,” Perona concluded.

At that, our speechlessness is broken and everyone offers alternative reasons for the situation the Feywild is faced with at present.

“It’s not your fault we’re at war,” Layna states.

“We would’ve been at war either way,” Alba echoes.

“You were just a tool–Markus said the regions were locked in contentious conversations already,” I inform.

“When we talked with the Queen and Morden, it was before they had even attacked you. From what it sounded like, war was already on the horizon,” Layna explains.

“They had the set up ready. They were just looking for the trigger,” Zeref reasons. “We just happened to be in the wrong place.”

Perona sighs, “What it sounds like to me is that the Western Forest plans to take out the Northern Forest, and she’s going to use the Southern Forest to do that. She’ll use the Omni and his temple to do that. She’s got the excuse she needed when she framed me for the Pope’s murder.”

“Which takes me back,” Zeref replies, “Would talking to the Omni or attempting to help–”

Perona shakes her head and shrugs. “I don’t know. But I think it would be best if we got somewhere safe before we tried to reach out.”

“I mean this is the safest place we have right now…” Layna states, her words trailing off almost in question.

“It’s not,” Perona answers.

At the thought of staying here, especially now that we know the circumstances, my senses heighten, and it’s clear how vulnerable we are in a city controlled by the entity who believes our party is responsible for this crime. I look up, trying to meet any of their eyes, as I firmly declare, “Distance. Distance is what we need.”

“We’re in the middle of a city where every thing and person is controlled by the Omni,” Perona voices my concerns. “If it goes wrong, we’re descended on. When I say somewhere safe, I mean somewhere isolated.”

“If we need to, you can leave me here. They won’t attack–” Zeref stupidly offers as a possible plan, but I cut him off, done with this martyr bullshit people try to play at.

“You’re not staying here.” It’s not a question. It’s not an offer. Because there is no possible scenario where one of us is staying here without the rest of the party.

He turns to protest. “I can catch up to everyone with Blue.”

“No!” I shout, allowing the fear to amplify my tone.

Perona adds, her voice cracking and showing an emotion other than anger finally, “I’m not going to risk losing you.”

“We need to stop splitting the party, because we split up and you guys apparently all die and she’s framed for murder!” Layna frustratedly reasons, before slipping into a breathless string of words. “Markus was telling me that I should’ve gone after you and stayed with you. I said I trusted the party to protect her!”

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“Oh we tried,” Alba retorts, and I audibly groan, knowing full well that tempers escalated the situation.

“Obviously we need to stay together for manpower alone,” Layna states, rolling her eyes at the minotaur too.

Alba looks shaken, the first signs that she is anything other than smug in the aftermath of their encounter. “I think we need to know where we’re going before we leave here, because here is pretty safe right now,” she mutters, her voice betraying her fear.

I shake my head and once again, try to rally the group in order. “Skyship to the Northern Forest.”

“How?” Alba pleads, shaking her head at me with wide eyes. “Where? Where is this skyship?”

Zeref and Perona pull out their maps, and I cross the room to read them. “So, we find the one closest to us and pray for the best?” Zeref asks, glancing at me as I study the regimented layout of the city.

“How far away is it?” Alba pipes up again, and I grit my teeth. If this damn woman pushes me one more time, I’m going to lose the tenuous hold I have over my emotions. I take a deep breath, knowing despite my lack of urban knowledge, we’re going to need stealth and accurate navigation to get out of this city. I can’t lose my temper like she did. I will not let her turn me into a hypocrite.

After another moment, I reply, “About three miles away.”

“That’s not too far,” Alba says, perking up.

I manage to grunt in reply.

“Okay, well, we already know those white things are the augmented followers of the Omni,” Alba states, but this information is new to me. Nonetheless, it doesn’t change my reply.

“Force and magic only,” I declare, my tone deadly firm. I won’t watch as another one of us gets hit by those creatures, or worse, ends up as a skeleton on the street.

“They were turned into those creatures,” Alba adds, almost ignoring my comments again.

To drive my point home, I reply, my voice involuntarily cracking at the memory, “They-they hurt.”

“Okay,” is all Alba says in reply.

From the front of the cabin, Lendys asks, “What do you mean?”

I spin on him, unable to hold back the raw emotions any longer. “What?” I bite, “I had to go get Zeref!” I allow every word to be coated with venom and the undeniable hurt I felt when I couldn’t find him. A knot wells in my throat, choking back everything I want to say, but I wouldn’t dare speak freely in front of the party.

You left me.

You should’ve been there.

I needed you.

His gaze is soft as he asks, “Did you get hurt?”

“Yes!” I shout.

Finally, it seems Alba registers that she might not be the only one suffering in this moment, and asks, “Did you get hit?”

I direct my burning glare on her, red tinting the edges of my vision as she comes into view. “I felt like I was being torn apart! Have you seen what they do? Buildings and people reduced to nothing!” I cry, my voice getting louder and louder as the sting of sulphur grows in my veins.

“Oh,” is all Alba replies with. At least she has the decency to look a little humbled.

“So yeah! I got fucking hit by one of them!”

Lendys moves across the room, coming to stand directly behind me. He places his hands on my shoulders, tenderly, as if the act was second nature. Warmth pools from his palms into my body as he lightly massages, stitching back together the fractures in my bones, removing the aches from my muscles. It takes every ounce of effort and focus I’m capable of to not lean into his healing magic, lean into his touch and savor this moment.

I telepathically reach out to him, but all I can manage in such a public setting is, You disappeared.

His magic continues to heal me as he replies, I had to take care of a few things.

After he releases my shoulders, I school my features into surprise, pulling from the fact I am genuinely surprised that he’s doing this in front of the party, and awkwardly mutter, “Thank you.”

Alba turns her attention to Zeref, inquiring about his health, and that conversation pulls most of the party’s attention away from Lendys and I.

Clearing the area? I ask silently. Thank you. You didn’t have to do that by yourself though.

I was watching over you while you were getting Zeref. He pauses for a moment before continuing, his tone revealing, I had to make sure nothing bad could happen after I felt…

You… I sigh. Of course you felt the attack…

I’m reminded that this was our first battle since learning about our soul bond, and the fact that we can feel a minor sensation when the other is injured. Guilt washes over me at my incorrect assumption that he left me, but it’s quickly replaced by my continued anger at him not communicating with me.

I did. The connection goes silent after his reply.

Perona turns from Zeref and looks at me, really looks at me. She tenderly asks, “Do you need any healing?”

I blink, a little dumbfounded that she wouldn’t have discerned that was what Lendys just did. I shake my head lightly and reply, “No, I’m okay now.”

“Okay,” she nods.

Lendys, hey? I try to get his attention once more. I’m okay. I made it out fine. I wasn’t fine. It’s truly a miracle that I wasn’t completely annihilated by the creature, but I am fine now. Are you okay?

While the others are taking inventory of our supplies and readying to leave, I study Lendys, checking to see if he sustained any injuries while he was out ‘clearing’ and ‘watching over me’. His shirt sleeves are charred at the edges, and there’s a couple spots on his pants; it's all signs that he took at least one hit.

I’m fine, he replies, but you should pay attention to them.

I narrow my eyes at him, a mixture of defiance and annoyance spinning in my mind as I avert my gaze a moment later. I clench my jaw and release a lung full of air.

Thank you, I don’t need you worrying about me at this moment, he adds.

Closing my eyes, I lock my mind down, wanting to scream into an empty void. Between the party and now Lendys, that’s what it feels like is happening anyways. Every time I offer something to the group conversation, or I even so much as try to explain to him the level of fear I have that something irreversible will happen to him, I’m met with silence, with dismissal.

How in the fucking hells does he not understand this already!

It scares me how much he means to me, even with the additional history of my time with Goose. And as a result, the thought of something happening to him because of me, directly or indirectly, makes me sick. My training and experience in the conclave was always that the individual is expendable. An individual can die with honor defending our cause. An individual can, and should, sacrifice themselves if the situation calls for those measures to aid a greater whole.

But I am no longer an individual.

If that’s what you need, I reply back to him, my tone neutral.

Thank you, Rasvim.

I hate how those words, those words in his voice, with that tone, cool the fire smoldering in my veins. Not entirely, but it retreats beneath the surface as my shoulders relax, and I turn my full attention back to the group.

I clear my throat before reiterating, “They hurt a lot when they hit, and don’t run past them or they will target you.”

“Oh, fun, okay,” Layna groans sarcastically, rubbing a hand over her face.

Alba, apparently acknowledging my existence now, replies, “Ah, got it, so we avoid them completely.”

Over the next few minutes, we study the map, planning our route along with any potential alternate paths we might need, to the nearest skyship port. It looks doable, and a tenuous confidence comes over me that we might just make it out of here alive.

“I will use my magic to conceal us,” I state, then begin to organize our party for the journey ahead. Memories flash before my eyes of hunting parties we would have at the conclave, when they sent us out in search of corrupted drakes and wyrmlings in areas of the mountain range. Before it can influence my focus, I package that memory away, refusing to contemplate what we actually were doing at the time. Scanning the party, I instruct, “Our perceptive people need to be in the front and rear to keep an eye out for attacks. Everyone that’s more vulnerable needs to be in the middle of that circle.”

Perona folds the map of the Southern Forest down to a compact, manageable size for travel. She taps her finger on the port’s location, almost as if mentally declaring ‘we will end here’. At that moment though, a thin blue line glows along the surface of the parchment, outlining the quickest route to the port just as our maps initially did with our original points of interest. Perona closes her eyes and groans, “I forgot the maps do that.”

Alba glances over her shoulder and comments, “That is awesome.”

“The Omni really does have the best maps,” she says begrudgingly. “Unfortunately–” She gestures wildly around us, indicating the city and the predicament we currently find ourselves in, “Everything. Let’s go!”

Before we exit the tunnel that will take us from the peaceful, natural setting of the Crystal Garden, I inform the party, “My arcane reserves are low, so this is the last time I’ll be able to cast this spell today. Let’s make the next hour worth it.”

Everyone nods in understanding as Alba asks what our group configuration is going to be as we travel. Perona looks at me, again startling me with her acknowledgement, before stating, “You’re the best navigator.”

My eyes narrow skeptically as my gaze flicks from her to my bow, held ready in my hands. “I need my bow accessible…” I mutter, trying not to sound cold at the obviousness.

“Do you want me to walk with you so you can have your bow? You can help me navigate, but then your hands will be free?” Perona asks.

“That works.” I nod as Layna moves to flank me on the other side of Perona. I take a moment to say an incantation, and as the final glimmer of magic light fades from my fingertips, the shadows at the mouth of the tunnel elongate to meet my feet, wrapping around me like a warm, protective embrace. I lean into it, comforted knowing that my magic can still help the party, even if they aren’t my biggest fans at the moment.

As if on cue, Alba taps me on the shoulder and mutters, “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

I stare in shock at the brazenness of the woman in front of me. Before I can manage a reply, Layna sarcastically comments, “Oh, how sweet of you.”

I stumble through a response, knowing that if I say what’s really on my mind, it will result in a fight, and more problems for our party as a result. Getting out of this godsforsaken city is my priority right now, so I swallow my pride and anger as I mumble, “Sure. It’s fine. When we get to safety, we’ll have a chance to talk.” Reluctantly, I add, “I’m glad you’re not dead either.” The words fall flat on my tongue, coating the back of my throat with ash, as I swallow down the hollowness of the statement.

The party falls in line and the hesitant confidence returns. I scan the group, searching for the face that will give me even more assurance.

Lendys isn’t there.

My stomach drops and I groan, whispering under my breath, “Fucking hells.” I expand my visual search, the rest of the group noticing Lendys’ absence too.

Alba offers, “He’s probably going around killing shit.”

I stare numbly at her for a moment before continuing my scan towards the tunnel ahead of us. I truly wonder if the minotaur genuinely thinks that is comforting me, or if she just truly doesn’t ever use her brain in social situations. “Probably,” I mutter absentmindedly, walking a few paces down the tunnel. “But if a person’s life is connected to yours, maybe let them know where you’re going…”

At this point, my vision focuses enough to make out his form beyond the mouth of the tunnel beyond. He’s a number of streets down from us as he thrusts the blade of his greatsword into the chest of one of the glowing creatures. He pulls it down, cleaving through it before releasing his blade and continuing deeper into the city.

Fucking hells.