Chapter 2: Golden Lights
Memories, to Enya, were like tides. They came and went, sometimes brought to the forefront and at other times pushed far back, faded and distant. Within this sea of memories, only a few moments remained constant, solid boulders that jut out from the waves, unmoving against the passing currents.
The most prominent of these was the day Maren had found her. While much of her early years were a blur of faceless figures and rooms that were at once foreign and comforting, that day alone was so sharp it was piercing. The smell of iron and rotting wood in the air, the shifting shadows that danced at the edges of her vision, the hulking monsters crawling across rubble. A woman in bloody armor grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the destruction, carrying her away. A new home with a new mother and sister.
Now, with the thing looming over her, blood dripping down twisted limbs, she knew beyond a shadow of doubt that this, too, would become one of those memories that firmly implanted themselves into her mind. She stared, transfixed at those bloodshot red eyes peering down at her. The head tilted, exposing a line of bone in its next as the flesh surrounding the gaping wound peeled away.
“No, wait, you’re not awakened yet.” The voice was raspy and hoarse, certain vowels sounding more like gurgles, yet it still managed to be filled with amusement. It lifted a hand, and Enya vaguely registered that the thing was reaching towards her.
The clang of metal. A squelch.
By the time Enya had processed what was happening, she blinked down to find her sword held in front of her, dripping crimson, and a decapitated hand lying at her feet. The creature blinked and glanced down, expression unchanging as it inspected the wound.
“That’s a pretty clean cut,” it remarked. Enya distantly wondered if she’d gone crazy. The creature shook its arm, dripping blood across the ground without a care, but then, did a corpse still have feeling left in it? Could the thing in front of her feel pain? “This might actually be fun.” It laughed again, and Enya shuddered. “Good good, I was getting bored.”
The creature held its arm out, and a soft golden glow encompassed it. The sliced flesh quivered, and before Enya’s eyes, it pulled and stretched, enveloping over lengthening white bone and weaving itself overtop until, when the glow finally receded, a perfectly formed hand was left in its wake.
The first time Enya had watched Theresa use form magic, it was after Raynor had gotten sliced in the arm after he’d officially begun Paragon training. She’d watched in awe as the girl had concentrated, fingers glowing a soft white, and the edges of the wound had drawn closer together as though pulled by an invisible string. She hadn’t been able to fully close the wound, simply slow down the bleeding, and had been exhausted when she was done. Still, Enya had thought it was one of the most fascinating things she’d ever seen.
The creature currently in front of Enya didn’t look remotely tired, nor were there any traces of crumbling or melting skin, the consequence of form magic. It took a step closer, and Enya raised her blade higher, instinctively taking a step back. Focus, she heard Maren’s voice whisper in her head. Don’t let them surprise you.
The creature stopped walking, and Enya tensed.
Then, it was right in front of her.
Enya heard a shout that she realized must’ve been her own as she flung herself backwards, landing on the ground and rolling over before she firmly planed her feet on the ground and pulled herself up into a crouch. Her heart beat heavy against her rib cage, lungs heaving for breath. And the creature, standing where she had been a mere second before, simply looked on with growing glee.
Its fingers glowed gold again, and Enya ducked as one of the charred bodies left over by the pyre rose, its limp form suddenly flying at her at impossible speeds. Motion magic too?
It occurred to Enya, in that belated, numb sort of way, that she really might die. Killed by this strange creature in the body of a corpse with far more magic than it should have.
She leapt across a chunk of rubble and ducked behind, barely dodging a sharp plank of wood sent whizzing past her. She heard footsteps, slow and languid, and risked peering around her hiding place to get a glance at the creature.
It was moving forward slowly at an almost relaxed sort of pace. Its body glowed gold, and with each step it took, piles of debris morphed and flattened as it cleared a path for itself. Enya cursed under her breath and pulled back. The rubble she was hiding behind wouldn’t last long; she had to move fast.
Keeping her body low to the ground, she darted behind another pile, moving as far away as she dared to while staying hidden. She knew she couldn’t keep running forever. Given the scope of the thing’s power and its seemingly infinite magic reserves, this entire area would soon be flattened and she’d have no place left to hide. Her eyes drifted to the road, mind churning. Could she run? No, the creature looked like it was about as proficient in motion magic as it was in form. Enya was barely passable in the latter; she wouldn’t be able to outrun the thing, especially not when she could still feel the lingering heaviness in her limbs from the Decay’s earlier attack. Besides, she thought as she gripped her sword tighter, she couldn’t lead this thing to the village.
Slicing into the creature wasn’t an option; its freshly shaped hand was proof of that. What if she burned the entire body at once? Could that stop it from healing itself? It would take a lot of magic, but she’d rather deal with the consequences than die here.
The twisted forms in front of her twitched, and Enya barely rolled away in time before they were flung back. At this point, only the outer edges of the ruined town and the pile of charred bodies were still in their original, unflattened form. The thing was toying with her, Enya realized. It could kill her now, but it wasn’t. She grit her teeth. If that was the case, then she would use that to her advantage.
Keeping her body low, she began to run around the perimeter of the debris, keeping the collapsed buildings and trees as a barrier between her and the creature. For her plan to work, she’d have to get close enough to touch it. She didn’t have the power to light the entire thing on flames at a distance.
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Enya crashed against the ground as her foot caught on something, but she immediately yanked herself up and continued running, not looking back.
First she had to weave around the objects being flung at her, then close in and manage to touch the creature. The motion magic would be hard to deal with, however. She had to make sure it couldn’t escape. Her eyes drifted over to the growing piles of charred bodies being flung around, and she swallowed, mind churning.
Skidding to a halt, her shoes dug deep into the earth, kicking up rubble and dirt. Don’t hesitate, that voice in her head said again. She darted forward, not pausing to even look at the creature, and began to spiral around the thing.
As she’d expected, more corpses were thrown her direction, varying speeds and directions. The charred pile was steadily dwindling down. The half detached limb of a body smacked into her side, causing her to stumble, but she forced her legs to keep moving. She ran, circling closer and closer as the bodies thrown towards her began to form piles around them: an artificial wall of tossed corpses.
She grit her teeth and tugged at her magic, entire body enveloping in a red glow. She felt like she was burning alive, her limbs, her heart, her lungs. Not yet, not yet, she repeated to herself. She was running out of space to run, but she had to keep going for a little longer, just until the open space around her and the creature was small enough.
As she ducked under a detached leg sent spiraling at her head, she made her decision.
Enya jumped forward, pulling her magic, focusing on the burning sensation coursing through her body. The creature’s eyes widened slightly and it raised its hand, its fingers beginning to glow gold, but Enya didn’t dodge or flinch away. Instead, she grabbed that outstretched arm and released.
For a moment, nothing. Then, her vision filled with flames.
The ground beneath her feet burned. She felt like she was suffocating and distantly registered that it was smoke, rising in coils from the pile of corpses encircling them, the corpses that were now lit with flames. Still, she refused to release her hand, keeping her grip firmly around the creature’s arm even as her skin burned.
And then, in the brief second that she met the thing’s eyes, it smiled, and a wave of cold washed across the clearing.
Flames died down, frost crept along the ground, the air itself froze. Enya collapsed onto her knees, hacking a mixture of blood, dirt, and ashes onto the cold ground. She forced herself to look up, to see what had happened, and she felt a glimmer of hope when she saw the blackened mark scorched onto the creature’s arm from where her hand had gripped it. That hope immediately vanished when its skin rippled, rolling across its body like waves, and the skin folded over and reformed itself in front of her eyes.
By the time the golden glow had faded, the creature looked more whole and alive than it had at the start of the fight. Enya’s heart dropped.
“Not bad,” it drawled, taking a step forward. Enya numbly realized that she’d dropped her sword during the earlier attack. “Careful though, if you use that much magic you’ll end up killing yourself. And that wouldn’t be very fun for me.”
A hand stretched out, glowing gold, and Enya thought she should move. But her limbs were heavy and cold, and her vision swam with blurry, shifting shapes. A familiar prayer to the Twelfth rose unbidden in her mind, and she found those words ringing in her ears as the hand came closer and closer and—
Stopped.
The thing froze, and with what little consciousness Enya had left, she vaguely registered a burst of energy emanating from far behind. It was warm, as soothing as a soft breeze, and yet at once so solid and heavy.
The thing’s eyes darkened. “What’s she doing here,” it muttered, and Enya was too tired to read the emotion coursing through those words.
The hand drew back, and as Enya blinked tiredly up at it, the thing’s entire body glowed gold. Its skin did not warp or twist. Instead, little bits of its arms and legs began to break away, floating off into the sky as glowing golden lights. The creature grinned down at her, those red eyes staining the glowing gold with sharp contrast.
“I’ll see you later,” it said. “Don’t die before then, okay?”
And with a final, practically cheery wave, its entire body burst apart into a swarm of golden lights. They swirled around the ruins of the twice destroyed town before rising higher and higher into the sky, floating away until they were no longer visible. They looked almost like stars, Enya thought distantly.
As the creature vanished from sight, Enya felt a stinging cold sensation fill her body. It began where her heart was and slowly spread through her veins. Her head throbbed, and suddenly it felt like too much work to keep her eyes open. Too much magic, her mind supplied before she collapsed onto the ground.