Into the Light

“I told you, elf. People lie, elves corrupt, and the land is rotten. Stop fighting for a lost cause. Give in and join me.”

A laugh rose from deep within it as it held out its hand.

“Come to me. Cast off the bloodline that has corrupted you. Free yourselves from corruption and face the lie.”

Its voice rose until the rubble trembled.

Silas remained silent, his head bowed. He seemed to be considering it, but Leyade cried out in fury.

“Enough!”

Her shout rang across the courtyard, making even Silas flinch.

“Corruption, lies, hypocrisy... What would you know about any of it? Just look at yourself! You tell us to join you, that we elves are the corrupt ones... But I only see one corrupted creature here, and it’s you!” She pointed her bow at it. “You say they lied to him, but you’re the liar. What could you possibly know about something that happened goodness knows where when you’ve been trapped here for centuries?”

Her voice dripped with scorn.

“You say Silas wonders why I have it and he doesn’t. Well, I ask myself the same question every day. But do you know what? I’ll never get an answer, and frankly, I don’t care. Why me? What does it matter? I just want to save my people.”

She stepped towards the half-elf.

“Silas, lift your head and look at me.”

He met her eyes, ashamed.

“I don’t know what happened in your past, or whether you resent or envy me, but I don’t care. You’re a good man, and if that’s how you feel, you shouldn’t be ashamed.”

She moved closer.

“What did those illusions teach us? That we have to face our feelings so we can...”

She left the sentence unfinished for him.

“So we can use them to help us... Accept what’s inside us and move forwards...” he replied painfully.

“Exactly. Say it, Silas. Do you resent me?” she asked, looking into his eyes. “Do you envy me? Tell me. Is that how you feel?”

She pressed him, drawing closer still.

“No...” he murmured.

“Say it properly, Silas. Be honest. Open up for once.”

He looked at her and clenched his fists.

“No! No... At first, I did wonder. At first, I wanted to be you. I wanted Kalindra. I wanted to be able to save people, but...” He paused. “I don’t deserve it. When I met you, I realised that. I wanted it out of anger, bitterness, pain... But you...” He sighed. “You want it out of love, Leyade. You want it to save your people. Your heart is so great that the ramal reached out to you.”

He gave a quiet laugh.

“Fuck, Leyade. You’re incredible. Over time, I’ve come to admire you. Look at you.” He gestured with both hands. “We’re standing in front of a terrifying creature, and you’ve decided to give me a pep talk.”

He laughed in earnest.

“And it’s actually worked.”

Leyade rested a hand on his shoulder and held his gaze.

“Then let’s turn our doubts into the strength we need to win.”

Silas nodded, covering her hand with his before turning towards the dark being.

“Well, no one can say I didn’t try...” The creature laughed again. “But you elves are all the same. Fickle, foolish things.”

It created several shadowy copies of itself, which lunged at them. Leyade dodged one and fired an arrow into it.

“Go for it, Leyade! I’ll cover you!”

Silas cast a spell, and a magical projectile shot from each of his fingers, striking the shadows head-on.

Leyade took a running leap, using a rock to propel herself into a somersault over the shadows. They reached for her as she landed, and one caught her before she could get away. Sharp claws tore through her leather armour and sank into her side.

“Ah!” She gritted her teeth and instinctively pressed a hand to the wound.

When she pulled it away, her fingers were stained with blood.

There was no time to see how deep the claws had gone.

She drew three arrows from her quiver, nocking and firing them in quick succession. The first struck the creature and set part of its bark alight; the second grazed its ear, slicing off the tip; the third missed.

Unfazed, it smothered the flames with a hand. Then it cast a spell, and an enormous pit began opening beneath Leyade’s feet.

She leapt clear. Avoiding the hole was easy enough. The real problem was that it now separated her from Silas.

Leyade readied more arrows and fired again. They struck the creature with precision, leaving trails of fire across its battered, splintered body.

Meanwhile, shadows surrounded Silas, reaching for him. He dodged the first as rays of searing heat streamed from his hands and struck them.

One creature burst apart and vanished into the darkness.

Another seized the moment to pounce.

Silas moved aside, but not quickly enough. Its claws tore through his clothes and sank into his shoulder. He gave a strangled cry and retaliated with a surge of energy that hurled it several metres backwards.

Blood quickly soaked the fabric around his wound.

He glanced at it for only an instant.

He could not stop.

In the distance, the pounding footsteps of the approaching horde grew steadily louder.

Hearing them, Silas decided to finish the shadows quickly. He ran between the ruins, drawing them after him until they were lined up behind him. Casting swiftly, he shouted:

“Lance of Resounding Thunder!”

Lightning fell from the sky and struck his hand. He redirected it towards the shadows, which burst apart amid crackling electricity.

Now he had to reach Leyade. But first, he needed to cross the pit.

Leyade dodged rubble falling from the walls with every fiery explosion the creature unleashed. Her arrows cut through the smoke and struck its bark, but it gave her no respite, lashing out with sharp claws and enormous bolts of fire.

She dodged one.

Then another.

The third clipped her.

The impact spun her round and knocked her to her knees. Pain seared through her arm, where clothing and leather had been scorched. The skin beneath burned.

She was on her feet and drawing her bow again before she had even checked the injury.

“You cannot defeat me. Your arrows barely hurt,” the creature warned.

A gigantic fireball appeared before it and hurtled towards Leyade. She ran for a ruined wall, but the explosion caught her before she reached cover.

The blast threw her against the stones.

She hit the ground and, for several seconds, could not breathe.

Her whole body hurt. The wound in her side was still bleeding, and now every attempt to rise sent an even sharper pain through her.

But she forced herself up.

Taking shelter behind the wall, she looked at her bow.

‘It’s right.’

“I’m barely hurting it...” she murmured through clenched teeth.

Suddenly, lightning struck the creature from behind.

It turned towards Silas. He hovered in the air on enormous dragon wings formed from magical energy.

Leyade had hurt the creature. Not enough, and certainly not as much as Silas’s latest attack, but its body was visibly damaged.

She stepped out from behind the wall and took aim.

At the sight of Silas, the creature made several gestures. His wings flickered and vanished.

Silas dropped several metres.

He managed to restore them before reaching the ground, but too late to avoid the impact. He crashed into the rubble and rolled among the stones.

“Silas!” Leyade screamed.

“I’m all right!” he called back immediately.

He did not look it.

He struggled upright, pressing a hand to his side for a moment. Then he lowered it, drew a deep breath and faced the enemy again.

After that, he decided against risking another flight and stayed on the ground.

The creature smiled in satisfaction just as Leyade struck it with two more arrows.

But something strange happened.

The arrows did not catch fire. It was as though something she could not see had absorbed the flames.

The creature laughed, pulled them free and tossed them aside before turning to attack Silas.

Silas cast a spell, breathing a stream of flame at it.

Or so it appeared.

A thin layer of energy formed in front of the creature, shielding it and absorbing the fire. That answered Leyade’s question about her arrows.

“Oh dear. Don’t your little flames hurt any more?” it asked, laughing. “What will you do now?”

Leyade bit her lip.

She had seen Silas’s lightning spells strike and injure it, but even that power did not seem enough. Her own elemental arrows no longer so much as tickled it.

She stood still for a few moments, thinking, while Silas sent a jet of acid towards the creature.

Then she felt something.

An intense warmth radiated from Kalindra at her belt.

The ramal wanted to face the creature.

Leyade looked down at it.

It was the answer.

But she was afraid to use it. She had never fought with it before.

Looking up, she saw Silas searching for her gaze. His lips moved, and she understood him clearly.

‘Of course. Do it.’

Leyade drew a breath, put away her bow and wrapped her hand around Kalindra’s hilt.

“Help me once more, Kalindra.”

She drew it firmly.

Sun-coloured radiance pierced the darkness of the night. Holding the sword as best she could, Leyade prepared to attack.

The creature burst out laughing.

“How brave. Using the very source of your friend’s anger and envy against me...” It turned towards Silas. “That is what makes her special and you not. She doesn’t care whom she hurts, so long as it helps her win.”

It stared straight at him, trying once again to turn him against her.

But this time, Silas approached calmly.

“Do you know what? You’re right,” he began. “She is different from me.”

Leyade glanced at him in alarm.

“But not for the reasons you think. She doesn’t use other people’s feelings to hurt them. She isn’t afraid to show her own, to admit she’s frightened, uncertain or capable of making mistakes.” Silas drew on his magic, casting without words or gestures. “And that is precisely what makes her special. She can use her fears and doubts to face someone like you and defend what she believes in.”

A sticky vine burst from the shattered ground. Before the creature could react, it wound around its body, climbing swiftly and pinning it in place.

“Now, Leyade!” Silas shouted, moving aside.

The elf sprinted towards it with the ramal in her hand.

Every stride sharpened the pain in her side. She could feel blood beneath her armour, and the burn on her arm throbbed, but she kept running.

The creature tried to cast a spell, but it could not move its hands. It struggled, barely able to shift.

Leyade kept coming.

Putting all her will into the attack, she lunged and drove the blade home.

Kalindra pierced its bark with almost no resistance.

The creature shrieked in agony.

Leyade watched the wood around the blade begin to dissolve as though touched by acid. Light spread through the creature, pouring out through the gaps and wounds their attacks had left.

The darkness drained from its body.

Its black bark slowly faded to a greyish brown, revealing an ordinary tree-like being beneath, like the one Leyade had seen in the painting.

She stared in astonishment.

“Did we do it...?”

The being crumbled to ash.

Only a small metal box remained on the ground.

Leyade picked it up.

Suddenly, a crash sounded behind them.

The creature’s scream had drawn the other corrupted trees, and they were pouring into the courtyard.

Elindra flew towards them, terrified.

“Go, go, go!”

Leyade and Silas looked at each other.

Both were battered. Blood stained Leyade’s side, her arm was burnt, and every movement sent pain through her. Silas’s clothes were torn and bloody around his shoulder, and he still instinctively pressed a hand to his side after the fall.

Neither said a word.

They ran.

They crossed the courtyard and scrambled over a ruined wall. The movement sent such a sharp pain through Leyade’s side that she almost fell, but she kept going.

The sun was beginning to rise.

The creatures pursued them. Some leapt over the wall, but as soon as sunlight touched them, they shrieked and collapsed.

Seizing their chance, Leyade and Silas kept to the sunlit patches until they reached the neighbouring forest.

There, Silas cast a spell, taking Leyade’s hand in one of his and holding Elindra with the other.

A magical circle appeared beneath their feet, its lines glowing purple.

A flash enveloped them.

And they vanished.

They reappeared before a cottage in the middle of a clearing.

The moment they arrived, Leyade fell to her knees. The pain in her side was unbearable.

Silas crouched beside her and examined the wound. Clicking his tongue and muttering curses, he hastily took out a potion and made her drink before she could protest.

Elindra flew through an open window and returned with another potion for Silas.

Leyade felt the hole in her side slowly begin to close. A strangled cry escaped her as the wound rapidly knitted together. The bleeding stopped; muscle and skin had regrown, but a sharp ache remained.

“Thank you, Silas...” she managed at last.

She looked at him. He had sat down beside her with another grimace of pain and an empty potion bottle in his hand.

Relief softened his expression.

“I’m glad you’re all right...”

He rested his forehead against hers, closed his eyes and remained there in silence for a few moments, catching his breath.

“I owe you an explanation,” he whispered. “When we’re feeling better, all right?”

Leyade lowered her head onto his shoulder and nodded.