You're Not Him

⭑ · · ᯓ 𐃈 ᯓ · · ⭑

Felix’s arms still vibrated from the force of his companion’s opening strike. Kite tensed up like she wanted to charge in, but Felix waved a hand to halt her advance as if to say ‘I’ve got this’.

“Elora, snap out of it!”

Felix parried her next few jabs, almost too fast to follow, pushing into the last one to drive Elora backward, but only momentarily. She sped back in low to the ground, the spearhead passing dangerously close to his groin. A drop of sweat rolled down Felix’s brow, grimacing at the thought.

She’s quick.

“This isn’t like you!”

“And what entitles you to that opinion, I wonder?” Elora scoffed. “Imposter.”

She twirled her spear above her head, meeting Felix’s axe with a downward swing. She wasted no movements, aiming for every vital point within reach of her weapon. Sparks flew from blued elven steel. Elora’s retractable polearm was a work of art, though Felix hadn’t ever imagined it would be used on him.

He, of course, wasn’t aiming to kill, but he had a difficult time tracking the elf’s movements to properly redirect her momentum. It was a delicate dance, and even Felix didn’t know how much longer he could maintain his focus.

“Your existence is an affront to his memory!”

“I’m him, Elora. I’m Felix!” He insisted. “You’ve… got to believe me…”

She didn’t look like it physically, but Elora carried some real force behind her strikes. She was somewhere between Kite and Crow in that regard, not quite reaching the speed of the former or the sheer strength and cunning of the latter, respectively.

However, she hadn’t used her greatest weapon yet.

“I won’t believe a single word that comes out of your mouth,” Elora growled. “Your deception is plain by the way you look at me. Like a stranger!”

“But wait, that’s not…”

Is that how she sees it?

“I don’t think talking is gonna cut it, Felix.” Kite punched her palm. “We’ll have to try blunt force.”

“Fighting the enemy is one thing, but each other?" Felix blocked another strike with the haft of his axe, kicking away from Elora’s piercing strike. “She’s obviously not herself.”

“Which is exactly why we’ll have to beat some sense into her.” Kite wore a toothy grin. “Worked on you.”

“‘Not herself’, he says. That’s rich coming from a man who wears his face!” Elora retreated backward, putting some distance between them. “Your defense is commendable, faker, but your stance is sloppy. That’s a dwarven masterwork you hold in your unworthy hands, that axe, and once you’ve been vanquished, I will return it to its rightful owner.”

Elora twirled around, dragging the butt of her spear through the dirt to carve a circle around herself. In a swift motion, she bit her finger until a bead of blood formed, kneeling with the same hand planted down inside the circle. She muttered something incomprehensible, her green cape flapping behind her.

At least, it was foreign to Kite as Felix’s eyes widened with a memory of something he’d researched back at the Studium.

Ancient elvish!

“Don’t let her cast!” Felix shouted.

But it was too late.

Roots exploded out of the ground from every direction, one curling itself around Felix’s right ankle. The abruptness of being turned upside down made him lose his grip on the axe, watching it tumble downward with the loosened rock chunks.

Defenseless, a stray root sharpened as Elora looked on, and shot towards Felix’s gut. He braced with his arms crossed, but the piercing sensation never hit him…

“Hands off, lady!” Kite swung her arm twice, her fingers flat, as slices of wind freed Felix from Elora’s grasp and severed the other root from the ground before it could pierce her companion.

Deftly dodging roots as they moved to crush her, Kite charged across the clearing into range of the magic circle for a punch. A raging fire in her emerald eyes and her voice rumbling like thunder from her petite frame, she channeled wind magic into her fist.

“HAAAAAAAAH!!!”

“—?!”

Her focus on Felix, Elora hadn’t even seen it coming as Kite’s knuckles crunched against her face, snapping her head sideways with a burst of wind behind the strike. It was enough to make Felix’s face contort reactively, but even he knew that Kite could ill afford to hesitate.

She retreated to Felix’s side. For his part, he was left mostly unharmed. Though landing on his backside after being held upside down sure didn’t feel too pleasant, he might admit. He nodded in thanks to Kite as he retrieved his axe.

“Do you think that did it?” Kite wondered, unsure.

The roots had frozen in place, not receding or attacking them. Elora brought up a tender hand to her face, smearing the red that dripped from her bleeding upper lip. She pierced them—mostly Kite—with an icy glare, her neck craning unstably.

“Definitely not…” Felix flinched again.

They were interrupted by a rumbling underfoot. It almost knocked them off their feet, Elora’s included.

Something shifted within her as the elf muttered something, nodding to herself as though she had come to some sort of decision. Felix readied his guard, preparing for the next attack.

Is she casting again…?

Rather than continuing the fight, however, Elora turned around and fled into the trees, carving a new path through them.

“Hey, wait, Elora!”

“After her!”

Felix and Kite attempted to trail her by the scent of mad aura, but Elora magicked the path behind her closed like a zipper, leaving only closely-knit trees in her wake. It stopped their advance cold.

“Don’t think this is over!” Elora shouted from behind the tree wall, her violet gaze showing hints of sadness through the closing trunks. “Don’t you understand? Happiness exists in the past. You’ll see soon enough now that the seal is undone. Farewell for now, imposters.”

With the mention of a seal and their compromised party member’s quick retreat, it gave them the sinking feeling they’d had one pulled over on them. The frustration boiled over as Kite slammed her fists down on her knees.

“Damn it!”

Felix frowned.

With the path forward blocked off, their only choice was to head back to the village and regroup, but the miners were still missing, Elora was gone, and they hadn’t even begun to ascend the volcano yet to investigate.

“I don’t understand…” Kite shook her head, scowling. “I hit her way harder than I hit you. So why didn’t she react at all?”

In truth, she was impressed Elora had eaten that punch and remained on her feet, given the effort Kite had put into it. Felix suddenly remembered the warning he’d been given by Chief Andres in his sleep.

“…don’t listen, don’t… remember…”

Combined with what the voice had offered him, the promise to return everything he’d lost, Felix settled on a breakthrough.

“It’s because she chose to remember.” Felix finally said. “You snapped me out of it before I could commit, and you refused outright. This enemy we’re fighting, the man Chief Andres mentioned, he must play on people’s desires, their pasts. It’s nostalgia, but it’s still magic.”

“If it’s magic, that means there’s a caster somewhere…” Kite rubbed her chin. “Given the timing, it could be that guy we saw before the elf lost her marbles.”

“Maybe so.” Felix agreed. “And Elora seemed to think that the Mad God is involved somehow, if the haze surrounding the victims is any indication.”

“I don’t know much about any of that, but I’d bet our caster is also the one who told her to undo the seal. And I really can’t help but wonder what that could mean for Cloudspire?”

As if to answer Kite’s question, the island rumbled again, the vibration traveling through the floating ground beneath their feet. Whatever it was, it gave them a bad feeling.

“It stands to reason that the only way to drag Elora—and the other willing victims—out of it is by defeating the one influencing them.” Felix hoped. “And then maybe we can convince her that the present isn’t so bad after all. Right?”

Kite smiled, bumping Felix’s fist with her own.

“Right.”

He said that, but they had their work cut out for them without their most capable party member. Ironically, though Felix didn’t blame her, the guild posting required a Champion Class mage to accept the quest…

Elora…

And it would be that very same mage that they’d have to overcome if they wanted to save Cloudspire and everyone in it before all was said and done.