Chapter 105: Reunion
Burning flames blasted the creatures into pieces, scorched the rot out of them, and scattered their blood hissing against the earthly walls rising about Valens. Dozens, hundreds of them rushed toward him in mindless fury, red eyes scathing, the tips of their claws gleaming, the fog churning and rolling around him.
He sucked in a deep breath and beat on, a boat against the tides, forcing his way through the waves, never lingering long enough to give them a chance to pin him still. He couldn’t stop. That was about the only thing he understood during the short time since this madness had begun. He couldn’t stop, and it was just that simple.
Mana was a problem, though. It burned taking breaths now. The reek of the air sent chills crawling down his spine. His skin was all prickly and sensitive, feet stinging dully, mind reeling as he considered the reasons behind this chaotic mess of a rebellion.
Something about the fog, Valens thought. It was wrong. It felt wrong, as if it had a mind of its own. He could understand the discretion carried out by the Shifters for the longest time, but what about the men and women? Children? How were they related to the business when the only thing they had against his flames was their senseless intent to take a piece of him?
They didn’t have weapons. They came at him with their hands, as if they thought their tiny nails would somehow prove a better weapon than the Shifters’ elongated, painfully sharp claws.
Something was controlling them, and that something had to do with this damn fog.
Yet Valens didn’t have the time to stop and think about it. Instead, he sent them stumbling back with an occasional Gale as he made a run through the poor ring of Belgrave, toward his place where he hoped Selin awaited him. That hope was fast dwindling, since every new street that welcomed him had already been caught in a heap of chaotic madness like the prior one.
There were men and women, he saw, battling out in the open against the beasts. Men and women of respectable quality, holding their ground, albeit barely. They didn’t look aware. They didn’t look in control. All they were doing was giving a response to their neighbour’s sudden transformation into the Wicked.
Police were there, and then there were adventurers scattered in some houses, and esteemed Mages huddled in the Resni’s Tower. Even the total of them could scarcely make a dent in this swarming horde. Belgrave was ill-fitted to deal with a trouble of this magnitude.
It shouldn’t have happened. Valens knew that with the boundaries active, an intrusion of this kind wouldn’t be possible from the Broken Lands. The authorities could find the Rifts when they opened and take appropriate action against them. A breach from the inside, however, wasn’t expected.
Valens was about to use another Light Feet onward when pressure settled over his shoulders. The Shifters and the horde of people trying to claw their way up the earthly walls paused. The air grew cold, and colder still, as an eerie silence fell around him.
[You are in the presence of an Ancient One.]