Chapter 5: Death in a Monastery

With the guards of the Solar Prime Order enclosing around her and Minister Doth grinning eagerly, Alyssa’s options for escape weren’t incredibly varied, but fortunately she had anticipated some form of a double-cross. She placed the scroll into her satchel and calmly kneeled down onto her right knee and placed both hands palm down upon the floor and waited, silently counting to herself; “three, two one.” Just as the guards were in striking reach of her the building began to violently shake knocking everyone to the ground, except Alyssa and she didn’t wait for them to regain their footing as she bounded out of the room and into the hall.

Running with the building trembling furiously was no easy task, but she had done it previously when a deal with an assignment turned sour and she had barely escaped with her life intact. She was hoping that she could improve upon her previous performance. With paintings and bits and pieces of the walls and ceilings breaking down and falling in large chunks she twisted and turned through the monastery corridors. Once she found an empty room, which wasn’t entirely falling to pieces she attempted to open a portal out of the monastery, but something was blocking her.

“Damn it!” Alyssa shouted. She should have expected that her magic would be blocked. With a number of guards attempting to intercept her, she didn’t have the time to try and break through the enchantments blocking her spell, so she would have to run for now. That was something that she would have to improve upon for future use of the “escape plan.” One thing she did though was create a tracking spell that allowed her to find the entrance of the monastery, since that was the only exit in the entire building, at least that she knew of or saw from the exterior. A subtle silverly residue was visible to her and she followed it in spite of the building crumbling down around her.

Running down stairs without falling while the building was shaking was tricky enough, but the guards began firing crossbow bolts at her as well as hurling javelins, which most of them missed because of their inability to effectively aim. Some however very true enough to cut parts of her arms, legs and neck though; a few she had to summon a shield to block from impacting on her flesh. After reaching the bottom of the stairs she dashed across the large open room towards another corridor but crashed into a group of monks and a guard. Fortunately for her in the confusion only the guard took the opportunity to kill Alyssa, but she killed him first by taking a dagger sheathed on her leg and stabbing him in the neck.

As the guard gurgled out blood and the monks attempting to stand, Alyssa dashed off again through the corridor. She ran with all the speed she could muster, and kept her eyes straight ahead of her, which was why she didn’t see the large guard crash into her from the side who then slammed her against the wall. Every bone and muscle in her body seemed to screech in agony, but the burly guard wasn’t finished and then took that opportunity of her dazed state to pick her up and throw her against the opposite wall.

The pain was beyond excruciating. Alyssa was a born fighter and fairly strong, but she was not a hulking ogre, and tended to use more subtle methods of dispatching beings and creatures at a distance than melee brute force. Without missing a beat, the guard attempted to crush her chest with his giant, armored boot but she rolled out of the way which gave her just enough time to reach a nearby crossbow, aim it and then discharge the bolt with landed right in between the guard’s two shocked eyes.

Resisting the urge to lay back down, Alyssa wiped the blood dripping from her nose and sweat from her forehead and pushed on. She was close to the exit, but the Order wasn’t making her escape and survival easy so she pushed her willpower as far as it could go. Her determination was rewarded as she exited the corridor and emerged into the colossal anteroom which entered through and there was sunlight.

A burst of energy seemed to come deep within her wellspring of willpower, and she attempted to supplement it with a spell, but something was still blocking a good deal of her magic. Behind her amidst the chaos of the building coming down, she could hear shouts and battle cries of the Order’s soldiers then crossbow bolts began flying and “zipping” past her. Orders were screamed to close the mammoth doors, but it was too late as Alyssa jumped across the threshold and rolled across the landing stopping just before the stairs.

With her breathing heavy, she quickly stood to her feet and attempted to get her footing and balance back. Luckily, the doors had nearly shut keeping the interior of the guards behind them, so she could take her time and do some proper magic. However, the guards stationed along the wall were aiming their crossbows and shutting the gate, so very she summoned fire and wind and in a bright fiery display they bonded and a phoenix appeared. She climbed onto the creature, which was slightly larger than a horse, and it soared into the air above the monastery just as the perimeter guards loosed their crossbow bolts all missing.

Safe above the melee of the monastery, Alyssa gave herself a moment to relax and breathed, but the moment was short-lived. From behind she heard the loud hissing of grells and a cacophony of wings flapping. A glance over her shoulder and her heartbeat increased significantly; an incredibly large swarm of grells was pursuing her and this time she doubted she would be able to survive if she came within the grasp of their talons.

“Just what I need; more of those bloody creatures.” Alyssa said, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in her chest. The sheer exhaustion of what she had been through was limiting her focus, so she tried a few simple spells such as creating a thick mist to hide from the grells, but they just pushed right through it and continued their pursuit.

The phoenix suddenly dove down towards the ground with dizzying speed. She looked over her shoulder and saw that she had gained some distance from the grells, but they too dropped down into a steep plummet. Turning around she saw that they were fast approaching the keystone portal, and so she had the phoenix slow somewhat so that the impact of landing wouldn’t crush her. She had to time it just right as it sounded like the grells were once again gaining and closing in on her.

Alyssa watched the ground rapidly approaching near the keystone portal with intense concentration. She took a deep breath and counted softly to herself, “one….two…three!” She then leapt from the phoenix and hit the ground and rolled her body across the ground for several feet stopping just next to the keystone portal. The phoenix ignited into a fiery pillar of flame that shot up into the sky blocking the grells for a few seconds as Alyssa got to the portal, grasped its stone surface and uttered, “take me to Sharr.”

The keystone portal sparked to life and in a few moments the light blue pooling of light appeared and just as Alyssa crossed through it, the hissing grells reached the ground, but then she heard nothing, and the screeching and hissing vanished.