Turmoil into Torpidity

Gram stood among the ring of people that blocked them. Neither in the front nor the back. Her face stood out in its composure. All of their faces with the same harsh light from the bonfire.

"What did you do!" Danielle said.

Melorandious hand clenched her arm like a vice, holding her from rushing the older woman.

"What did I do?" Gram said. "You're the ones who didn't tell us the Aldles Hunters were on your trail!"

"Mel?" Danielle said.

She caught his eyes, trying to gauge his honesty. Seeing the wind changing, Melorandious looked from Danielle to the crowd. The whining hum ever nearing.

"The Aldles hunters shouldn't even be aware of our existence, let alone our location," he said. "Would Nimus have led us here if he thought we would harm you? I had no reason to believe we were putting you in any danger!"

"Nimus? The fisherman?"

The mention of Nimus disjointed their single mind for a moment. Gram frowned.

"They're fiends!" she said. "Just having them here puts us in danger. We can trade them for our safety!"

Melorandious pulled Danielle closer to him. As he tugged at her satchel, Danielle realized he was after the orb. She jerked it away. The crowd broke open as Nimus entered.

"Gram, what are you doing?" He said. "You should have left already."

He saw Melorandious and Danielle in the center. He pulled them toward the crowd.

"You need to leave, now!" He said.

The crowd shoved Nimus back.

"They're staying."

Gram rested her hands on her arm.

"Nimus," she said. "You don't understand, we need these two to trade for our safety."

Nimus jerked his arm away. His eyes widened to the whites with horror.

"You've lost your mind," Nimus said. "We have an oath of hospitality. You'd be leaving them to die!"

"They did it first," Gram said. "They're the ones who lead the hunters to our doorstep."

The humming song pitched high with a disturbing nearness. Everyone jolted and passed a glance over their shoulder. Kreening like the cries of the wind harnessed for the melodies designed by people, the sound had reached them. Danielle could feel it vibrating in her bones. Pinpointing its origin proved impossible. It bounced from one direction to the other.

A muffled gasp.

Danielle spun to what Melorandious was already watching. A man a head taller than anyone Danielle had seen held Nimus in a chokehold. They stood covered from head to toe in armor of leather spotted with dark metal. Not a piece of it shining, even in the fire's light.

Melorandious' hand felt like it was breaking Danielle's arm. The crowd scattered, but Danielle heard the terrifying noise of cries being cut silent. Her blood felt like ice.

"Please, no!" Gram said. "Not Nimus! The two you want are right in front of you!"

Gram fell to the ground as another hunter appeared to backhand her. One moment the space had been void, the next, a hunter filled it. Melorandious peered into different directions, and jerked Danielle one way only to turn another. Gaze darkening, he held her closer.

"Give it to me," he whispered.

Danielle slowly reached into her satchel, her fingers stiff with fear. Gram's face twisted as she propped herself up on her arms.

"Aldles hunters are supposed to protect people against Magi," she said. "Why hurt us? We're simple wanderers."

The hunter looked down at her.

"You think yourself clever," he said. "Know better. We know Rovers use sigils just like any other nation corrupted by Magi. Burn this sight into your memories to tell your god."

He slid out a sword. The blade as dark as the rest of what the hunters wore.

They're going to kill her, Danielle realized.

With adrenaline, Danielle shoved the orb into Melorandious' hand as she twisted herself out of his grasp. He reached for her again to no avail. Her feet managed not to trip as she rushed between the raised sword and old woman.

"Wait!" She said. "We're who you want! Us! We're the fiends! Leave them out of it!"

The hunter paused. Danielle imagined it was from surprise more than anything else. Gram's face twisted with an unrecognizable expression, shadowed by Danielle before her. The young woman saw the hunter make a slight readjustment in the angle of the blade. A shake quivered through her.

I'm gonna die? She thought. For a hag that probably brought us into this.

But she didn't move.

Melorandious brought his hand up. The hunters swiveled towards him.

"Stop!" he said.

"His horns are broken," one hunter said to the other.

The sword came down. Nimus swung his head into the face of his captor. Gram shoved Danielle out of the way. And Melorandious closed his raised fist, the tattoos along his arm lighting up. Danielle's sight was blinded into white for a moment.

"Urgh."

Gram stood with a sword lodged in her shoulder. The hunter across from her had erupted into flame. Everything he wore to the flesh behind it became highlighted by flames. The old woman spat on the masked face.

The hunter crumbled into ashes.

Melorandious repeated the gesture. This time the bonfire erupted. Melorandious pulled Danielle away from Gram and the hunter before the bonfire disintegrated, throwing all into darkness. Danielle saw the old woman sinking to the ground as they fled.

They rushed away into the taller fields. Those not stomped into the ground by the fleeing crowd and dancing. Danielle felt her headache with each step and jolt. The humming song sang again behind them. To Danielle, it felt like a piece of the harmony was erased from it.

Melorandious shoved Danielle to the ground. And there they waited. The humming moved closer and farther away.

Melorandious held the orb in his right hand pressed to the ground. She glanced at him but dared not speak. Even her thoughts hung silent in those stretched-out moments. By force of will Danielle kept herself from thinking of what could be.

A humming whine distinguished by its nearness stopped. Melorandious carefully peered up and saw only the grass and night sky. The colors of the two were almost indistinguishable. Patiently peering at it, he saw a slight shimmer.

With one of the castors gone, the spell weakens, Melorandious noted to himself.

He lept up. Danielle heard the shing of metal and felt the hunter fall to the ground. She stood as the humming of the hunters congregated on them. Melorandious raised his left hand. The sigils on that arm shone. Bringing his open palm down and the ground around him became mud.

Danielle saw spots. Her head pounded as she put her hands on her knees. Light erupted for a moment. Melorandious had enflamed a hunter behind her.

She heard grunts and clangs. Melorandious must have taken a sword from one of the fallen hunters.

Danielle looked and found one nearby. Focusing to keep herself from falling forward, spots swam across her sight. A quietness had enveloped her without notice.

Melorandious stood at a standstill with the last one. No humming sang as the two circled each other. There was a contrived strain to his movements. Danielle didn't know if this was from injury or weariness. The hunter seemed fresh. But he was wary. The two were also some distance from the mud Melorandious had created earlier.

Danielle tried her best to creep across towards the general backward area of the hunter. A step, then two. She fought her hurry as Melorandious fought on. The infrequent clashing of swords.

Behind the hunter now, she lunged with the sword. He spun and whacked the blade. It tore from Danielle's hands. She fell to the ground.

The hunter stepped forward with his sword raised, only to stiffen. The sharp tip appeared through him. As it disappeared the hunter slumped to the ground.

Danielle jerked away from the hunter as she grabbed the dropped sword. Melorandious and her stood listening. All they heard was the other's ragged breath.

"All right," Melorandious said.

Danielle fell to her knees, stabbing the sword into the ground as her head swam. The tension left her, leaving only aching pain. Melorandious pulled her up. Mostly leaning on him, they stumbled away.

Melorandious dropped her against a tree. Danielle's last memory before exhaustion claimed her was him tracing sigils into the ground.

Hours passed. Night deepened and lightened. Before dawn rose, Melorandious sat next to Danielle. Dirty and tired. He stared blankly into the distance, holding a sword.

The Aldles hunters did not reappear. Either dead or fled, Melorandious did not concern himself with which. Eventually, as a cloudy sky came into clarity, Nimus hurried across the hills. He followed the path of bent grass Melorandious and Danielle left behind.

As he spotted Melorandious, Nimus gave a short wave. Over his shoulder were the bags Melorandious and Danielle had spent so much time on the day before. Melorandious watched his approach the same as he'd watched the landscape.

"Are you all right?" Melorandious said.

"Yes," Nimus said.

Nimus halted as his foot hit the row of sigils scrawled into the dirt. He reached out and touched an invisible wall.

"Not bad for dirt as a medium," Melorandious said.

"How are you casting anything?" Nimus said.

Melorandious shrugged.

"Did you come here only for our bags?" Melorandious said.

"I came to thank the two of you," Nimus said. "For what you did for Gram."

Melorandious cocked his head at that.

"She's alive?" he said.

"For now," Nimus said. "But she has a chance because of you two."

Melorandious nodded.

"I'm also sorry," Nimus said. "She spoke of what she did as our healers prayed over her."

Melorandious gave his full attention to Nimus now.

"What exactly did she do?"

"She sold you out to the Aldles," Nimus said. "Hoping that two fiends would be enough to open their city to us."

"Foolish for an old woman," Melorandious said.

Nimus closed his eyes in acknowledgment.

"They'll chase the two of you," Nimus said.

"I know," Melorandious said.

His tone lowered with ire.

"Are the rest of you lot even going to help clean up the mess?" Melorandious said.

"We can't do anymore," Nimus said. "To bring you along is suicide! We don't fight."

"Then run along as you lot are famed to do," Nimus said. "We've put a perfect target on our backs by defending ourselves, now they'll follow us into the hills while you go in the opposite direction."

Nimus ground his teeth.

"It's not right for kids to die just based on Gram's folly," he said.

"Don't bring your children into it," Melorandious said. "They're already dead as long as you let people like your dear old gram run unchecked. If not this time, the next time. And maybe when they've paid the price for the folly that she should've paid, maybe then you won't feign ignorance for things you gave warning to."

Nimus and Melorandious stared at each other.

"I didn't know and I can't know what I don't know," Nimus said. "If I had known— I'll try not to let folly run its course again."

Nimus dropped the bags outside the circle.

"Thank you again for what you did," he said.

And he walked back the way he had come.

In another place, a day earlier, Hannah saw her sister's message.

|Sure am!|

"That liar," Hannah said.

She chuckled. Hannah had dragged her sister into trying this game, begging her to ignore the pay-to-win aspects and anime art style. It was free, and it looked fun, and that was good enough for her.

She clicked the launcher on her desktop, smiling from ear to ear with anticipation. The music echoed out before anything appeared on the screen. She watched the cut scene about the gods and races with glee. The title screen opened up after the cut scene closed.

I have to make a character before anything else, she thought.

She did that without incident or great deliberation. Choosing a class that worked as a tank, with the race that was closest to elves. She watched the entire cutscene about her character being an amnesiac and sent a message to Danielle when she had finished. Jumping around as she waited.

After no response, she figured she'd finish the starting area first. They probably wouldn't be able to meet until they got through it anyway.

After spending a few hours on that, she eventually went to bed.

Only in curling up did she realize her sister had never responded. A little pang of abandonment hit her, but she brushed it aside. Hannah had also forgotten to check up on her sister's messages, so she didn't feel too hurt by it.

Maybe she finished making a character and went to bed when I didn't respond, Hannah thought.

The messaging app the two used was not installed on Hannah's old phone, so looking at the messages would take turning on her computer again.

I'll check tomorrow, she thought.