Wizard of the Wood

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26

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Ten beams of searing hot energy shot from the fingertips of her adversaries. Each had an unnatural glow to them as they arced through the air and hurdled toward Essie.

Thankfully, she was ready. Unlike before when her guard was down and she was poorly prepared for flashes of memories her mind had locked away, Essie was ready for whatever they had to throw at her.

As she had done before, she raised her hands into a fist with her middle and index finger pointing outward. She threw her arms to the side as the beams came within range and each beam split, scattering and exploding to her left and to her right.

Essie breathed deeply as she drew a mental line in the back of her mind.

They will not cross this line.

They will not cross this line.

I will not let them cross this line.

Essie’s mantra repeated over and over in her head as she watched each of her once close companions prepare a different spell to fire at her. All the while Daemia stood there watching, as though she were waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Essie did not have time to worry about what was running through Daemia’s mind. She wanted to know what she was planning, but there was not enough time for it. Instead, Essie focused on the bottles hurdling toward her head and what appeared to be jagged shards of ice shooting up from the ground coming right for her.

“Hang on tight,” she muttered as she crouched and tumbled out of the way, missing one of the massive ice spikes by inches. There, crouched, she raised her fist and flicked her fingers, sending five beams of narrow flaming blades at the five individuals.

Thinking fast on her feet, Essie concentrated and sent ice shards of her own along the barrier of the others, keeping low to the ground so the ice shards would attack stealthily.

Another, sickening beam of green energy whizzed past her head. Essie’s eyes fell on one of her other prior companions. There was something in their eyes that possessed a loathing – a hatred.

As she continued fighting spell after spell, rolling and dodging, casting as fast as her mind could formulate the words, she tried thinking of something – anything – she could say to them to make them stop trying to destroy the town.

Essie rolled out of the way again and stared at each of their faces with a fierce intensity.

“You! All of you!” she roared as she leapt into the air while the ground shifted and shook beneath her. “You cannot be okay with this! You cannot be okay with slaughtering all of these people so callously!”

Two of them once again chucked the bottles into the air as two flaming spheres hurdled toward her head once again. Essie slipped into the splits, barely dodging the fire above her, and once again summoned the tethers that hooked onto the bottles and sent them to the tree line.

“Don’t you understand that she is manipulating you? You have a choice! You can be free. Don’t give up now when you have the opportunity now!” shouted Essie. Essie’s call to action was almost immediately drowned out by Daemia’s sinister laughter which sent chills down Essie’s spine.

“They will not hear you, Ezra. I doubt they care now,” grinned Daemia. “They know what you are. They know what you did.”

Essie flinched as the images of her bloodied hands flickered in front of her. Like watching the embers of a flame flicker in and out of life, Essie watched as bloodied hands – her hands – slashed at the air with wild fury. What they were aiming at, she did not know. What she did know was that in that fraction of a moment when she was distracted, everything shifted against her.

The five had advanced quickly and had surrounded Essie within a matter of moments. In a purely instinctual motion, Essie flared her fingers and kept her arms braced and a golden sphere of protective energy surrounded her.

The five surrounded her and began pacing around the sphere. Essie felt like a caged animal, surrounded and protected only by a thin barrier of energy created from her arcane force of will. Their eyes pierced through the golden barrier with a loathing hatred while Daemia’s taunts continued through the shield.

“Ezra, do you remember what you did to Kurst? How you nearly blinded him? Remember Venra? You two were on so many training exercises together. Didn’t the two of you almost fall off the edge of that cliff into the ocean?” taunted Daemia. “And what about your precious companion Lusha? You took on many of her punishments if I remember correctly. So much for loyalty. Dephligm? Anything to add? Oh! That’s right. You can’t add anything. You have to remain silent. Remember Ezra? You took his tongue – burned right out.”

As Daemia’s words pierced through the golden shield which protected Essie’s physical body, it could not protect Essie’s mind.

With each scenario Daemia wove into existence with her words, it came to life in Essie’s mind. She could see it all. She watched as the flames from her hand grew out of control and began to burn along Kurst’s brows. Essie shook in her shoes as the edge of the cliff neared and she and Venra were skidding to the very edge, barely stopping themselves in time.

Essie watched as she was forcibly pulled away from Lusha and attached to the menacing slab, restrained by leather and chain. Every emotion reeled in her mind as she watched that same crimson lightening seizing her arm and latching onto Dephligm’s face. His scream was seared into her mind.

As if on cue, the dam in her mind began to crack. The veil was being dragged away and revealing the monster she feared she was. Memories wrapped around her throat, choking her. When did it become so hard to breathe? Essie shuddered and fell to her knees, desperately trying to keep her wits about her while keeping the shield up to protect her and Rylir.

“Essie? Essie! Breathe!” shouted Rylir. “Focus Essie. You can do this!”

Sadly, fate decided to send them a cruel smile.

What neither Essie nor Rylir saw was that each of the five were preparing a force spell to shatter Essie’s shield. They noticed too soon, and the five turned, delivering an immense blow that, combined with Essie’s unstable mind, left her shattered.

Essie was instantly blown off of her feet and pinned down by the force of all five of them. Rylir, who was clinging onto Essie’s shoulder for dear life, cowered as he watched the five approach and hover over Essie.

“Essie. Essie! Get up! Come on,” begged Rylir. Before Essie could fully comprehend what was going on, the five laid waste to her. Fire erupted under Essie, charring her back and burning through her clothes. A poisonous gas surrounded her nostrils, making her gag. Instantly, she coughed and tasted the horrid taste of iron filling her throat. Ice numbed her extremities as the frigid blasts relentlessly hammered her.

Punch after punch, blow after blow, Essie tried to block the onslaught of attacks while also being restrained by invisible tethers keeping her stretched thin.

Was this going to be the end?

There was no way this could be happening.

Essie stared up at the grey sky.

It was a good life, wasn’t it? She tried, didn’t she?

It was one sound… one sound that brought her back from the brink…