As ti resud, the air displaced by Borealis’s massive form surged around us, whirling in eddies that smashed against my wards. Screams rose from the city below, where we seed to teleport to just a few hundred feet above a bustling market. With every beat of the ice demon’s wings, gales tossed stalls and people in all directions. Frigid snow whipped with the winds, covering the rooves and streets in a thin layer of frost.
The air shuddered, and slowly, trembling, I turned my gaze up, and my eyes grew wide. The sky had vanished, swallowed by a raging ocean of brilliant white light. In the heartbeat I’d looked at the city, the lances had collided with the Grand Aegis. Waves of energy scoured the golden mbrane, but the only hint of instability was a series of ripples spreading across the shield where the lances had initially impacted. The explosions spread like water on a plate, only flickering out as they neared the edge of the Grand Aegis, nearly a mile in diater.
The storm of mana ruptured as the shockwaves finally surpassed the initial explosion, sweeping past the rim of the Grand Aegis and crashing into the mountains on either side of the breach. The earth shook violently as the peaks broke beneath the onslaught, sending avalanches of shattered earth and stone cascading down the slopes. The wards on the city walls flared as the avalanches crashed into them, barely holding under the force of millions of pounds of rubble.
The earthquake continued for another few seconds, toppling buildings shaken by Borealis’s winds. There was destruction, suffering, and chaos everywhere I looked, but I slumped back, resting my head on R’lissea’s chest. Her heart beat against my ear, swift and erratic as mine own.
"It worked," she said, tightening her grip on my waist.
"But why?" I mumbled, my eyes fluttering in an effort to remain open. "Why did they fire on their own city?"
She hesitated, chewing on her lip. "I...did they know?"
My tail curled tighter around her waist. "Know?"
"That we would save them?" Her voice trembled. "That we would be here?"
"No, I--" my breath caught as a chill raced down my back. It was faint, almost undecipherable amidst the crystal enchantnt, but unmistakable. "...she’s watching."
Silent Stars was a spell that required the caster to remain concentrated on it, but after the first skyship attacked us...I rembered nothing. My soul had given so many active warnings I’d failed to notice the far more subtle prickling of Verity’s gaze.
"How long...?"
I squeezed my eyes shut, tightening my grip on her. "I don’t know! I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. I failed, and–"
"Xiviyah!" The sharpness of her caused my eyes to snap open, eting her gaze. "No one could have predicted this. Well," she hesitated, eyes flicking from mine, "...soone did, but...look, it’s not your fault! You’re the reason we’re alive in the first place."
"It’s not over yet," I said, looking back up the Grand Aegis. "If they knew we’d protect the city, they knew we’d be here. And that ans–"
A single lance slamd into the Grand Aegis, causing us both to jump. Ripples washed out from the impacts, slightly more pronounced then before. A second lance hit a heartbeat later, and then a third.
"They’re insane! Don’t they know that if we decide to leave, the spell will fail once you get out of range?"
I gritted my teeth, clenching my fists. "We won’t leave, not as long as they keep firing. And that’s exactly what they want."
"But what can they do? If they want to keep us pinned down, they won’t be able to attack us directly. Isn’t this a stalemate?"
I started to nod, only to pause, tilting my head. Silence. The roar of the previous lance faded away, but the next one didn’t land. R’lissea and I stared wide-eyed at each other for a single breath before my soul buzzed, and we dove flat onto Fable’s back. I warned Borealis through the Nexus, but it was too late.
A bruised, dilapidated skyship sank beneath the Grand Aegis, half of its deck a ruined ss of ice and twisted steel. As soon as its glowing mana cannon cleared the rim, it discharged, sending a spear of seventh-level mana hurtling toward us.
Borealis darted forward and began to glide out of the way, but the tip of his wing clipped the Grand Aegis. The wing bent, the feathers grinding together with a sound like shattering glass, flipping us into a tailspin. I scread, hugging Fable for all I was worth, as the demon dropped from the sky.
The world spun beneath us, the two suns—one dusty red, the other a searing white—stretching into fiery arcs across the sky. Borealis’s wings snapped out, the sudden reversal slamming my head against Fable’s shoulder. Black dots sward my vision, and my stomach continued to lurch without .
"Look out!" R’lissea cried.
Fable’s muscles bunched beneath us, hard as granite. I opened my mouth to scream, but the world blurred into a dizzying kaleidoscope, and I bit down hard on my tongue. Hot, coppery blood filled my mouth as the jolt of acceleration tore from Fable’s back. My fingers grasped at his fur, but this kind of speed was sothing a first-level body couldn’t begin to comprehend, much less handle.
R’lissea cried out and caught my hand, hauling into her lap. I clung to her, straddling her waist, my arms locked around her neck. Over her shoulder, I could see Borealis flare his wings out. A brilliant white glow rose behind him, filtering through his crystalline feathers like a stained glass window.
It was the light of the second sun—no, the lance from the mana cannon. But Borealis was too close to the ground to dive, too large to maneuver out of the way. The empire had set a perfect trap, forcing us to create a cage they could hunt us in.
Borealis’s screech cut above the roar of the incoming lance. He flapped once more, maintaining his altitude, before stretching out his wings. They ford a vast, shimring wall across the entire sky, hiding most of the city from view.
"No..." I whispered, reaching my hand toward him, tears welling in my eyes.
The world turned white.
Harsh light invaded the corner of my vision, penetrated my eyelids, and branded dazzling starbursts across my pupils. A deafening roar followed before it went eerily silent, leaving behind only a faint ringing in my ears. I cried out, but my voice never reached my ears.
R’lissea hugged close as a faint shockwave reached us, buffeting our wards with the strength of a stiff breeze. I clung to her, blinded, deafened, and weightless, anchored to reality by her warmth alone.
We hit the ground with the force of a teor. A terrifying instant of nothingness, then R’lissea and I were flung from Fable’s back. The wind roared past, a desperate attempt to cushion our fall, but it wasn’t enough. R’lissea twisted in the air, shielding with her body as we slamd into the unforgiving earth.
The breath was driven from my lungs, cutting off my scream. Fire burned across my back, and sothing hard—a rock, a branch—smashed against my tail. Pain exploded through , radiating from my tail with an intensity that overwheld my consciousness, plunging into darkness.
I regained my senses alone, curled in a ball, hugging my tail and sobbing uncontrollably. Slowly, with trembling fingers, I traced over my tail, nearly blacking out again as I brushed the edge of a laceration. My back burned with several jagged gashes, and just breathing caused my ribs to ache. Every beat of my heart sent blood spurting from my tail and welling up from the cuts on my back, soaking my torn clothes and pooling on the rough cobblestone street.
I reached for my mana but slumped, a low groan escaping my lips. It had only been a few seconds since I’d cast the Grand Aegis, and my reserves were empty. I’d gone so dry I’d even lost hold of the Nexus, cutting off from the others.
Gently, I stroked my tail, forcing myself to focus. I mustered what little strength I had left and my soul cast a second-circle healing spell. The magic barely reached my wounds before my mana ran dry again.
I touched the wound on my tail again, hissing as the pain flared. My back was bloody and raw, but my tail... my tail was already growing numb. The inquisitors had spent a long, long ti experinting on my body and had discovered just how vulnerable the appendage was. Not only was it packed with nerves, causing the extre pain I was feeling now, but it held a major artery connected right to the heart. Severing it would lead to similar blood loss to cutting my throat, and judging from the amount of blood pooling in my hands, it must be at least damaged.
A tattered mory bubbled up through the waves of pain, bringing back to a ti all too similar to this. When I was lost and alone, hovering on the edge of death. A mory of the only act of kindness I received before Soltair offered his traitorous hand.
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