Demons in the Trees

Darius gathered his things, throwing on his satchel in silence as he watched Cryon sleep, his cap pulled over his face. The mage's chest rose and fell slowly as he rested. The silence of these woods set an eerie chill in the air. Darius was used to the whispers of life in Seimeir's woods. But here, it seemed as though all had passed to the void.

Darius made his way through the brush, peering back every so often as he exited the tree line onto the road. From there he crossed to the other side of the street and into the woods opposite of where the mage slept. Now his trek would start, and he would make his way to Warshden. He traveled at an odd angle to the road, making sure to create distance from it as he continued north to ensure that Cryon would simply find him by following the roads.

That man.. if he decided to kill Darius, it would be swift. Darius knew his odds against that mage, and they were not good, which is why he had to reach Warshden as soon as possible. Facing Cryon would have been one thing.. but the assassin mage? That is another. Mimic was a mage whose hands were stained in the blood of many, and it was rare that his targets ever survive his hunts. His game was not one to be played, rather, to be trapped. Once you are snared, the chains dangle with his fingers as he toys with you; a puppet and it's object of entertainment.

But how did he find Darius? All of the assassins that had tracked him down were killed, he was certain of it, otherwise he wouldn't have fallen for Darius's lie before. So how would he have known? A lucky prediction, maybe?

Then a thought crossed Darius's mind. A though that set a wave of guilt crashing down upon him. If that mage was really who he thought he was.. then that meant everyone he'd met before, all the sailors… they were.. he shook his head. Now was not the time for guilt.

A snap came from above him, and he froze, looking up into the canopy over his head.

Silence.

So that was why the woods were so quiet.

A blur of motion charged out from the foliage behind Darius, catching him off guard as a dagger plunged into the center of his back. But the dagger simply rang out a loud metallic clang as it bounced off of him.

The attacking assassin stared down at the dagger in confusion just before a flash of crystalline light flew through the air and his head was cleaved from his shoulders. Darius stared down at the corpse, his crystallized arm dripping with crimson.

He looked around him. The Black Rose had found him. Rather, they'd been tracking him, following him and the other mage as they made their way down the road, waiting for him to step out of line before attacking. Which meant they had likely woken up the other mage by now. A jolt ran through Darius's heart as he realized this. Rather than elimination the other assassins, he spun on his heel and kicked off, tearing up the ground as he ran at full speed away from the place. If the other mage was awake, he was presently tracking Darius down now. He had no chance of escape now, but he had to try, he couldn't fight, and he refused to just lay down and die.

Darius's eyes flashed as glass formed across his body, crystallizing over his clothes and his face as he whispered a spell and crashed his foot into the earth which sank beneath the force as he exploded into the air above the tree line, flying through the air at top speed.

A flash of silver soared across the night and slammed into Darius's hand as he smacked it away before descending to meet an assassin that had attempted to follow. Darius's foot comet with the Assassin's mask, flying down into the earth, the man's head splattering on the earth beneath Darius's foot as he landed before taking off again.

'This is bad!' Darius thought in a panic, 'How could I have been so careless? I thought our everything other than the obvious! Damn me!'

As Darius rose once more into the sky, a blur flashed above him, the figure's foot crashing into Darius's side as a shockwave shot from the impact and he was sent crashing through the trees and slamming to the ground. He rolled across the grass, managing to rise to his feet, his eyes searching frantically for an enemy.

"TMP"

To his right a tree shook. He looked up, and countless masks stared back at him. The tree was filled with Black Rose assassins, and among them was one who stood taller than the rest. His mask was pitch black, and the eye slits curved like daggers, thin protrusions shooting out from either side of the mask like horns. A sharp, toothy grin was etched into the mask's face, a twisted smile much like that of the mage he'd met before. He wore a long, billowing cloak of black that was torn at it's edges. His collar and wrist cuffs were silver trim and all across his body were straps that held a variety of different daggers and swords, all gleaming silver in the night. Upon his back was a much larger blade, extending down past his waist as the thin edge shone against his black garbs. His fingers were covered by metal claws and the tips of his boots gleamed silver.

"You are clever, boy. But it is as I said before." He spoke. His voice was much darker now, a cold hiss like the voice of the abyss itself, calling from the fathomless dark. "While it can be a virtue to have such wariness, it can also be your downfall."

"I don't know, seems to me my lack of trust was well placed." Darius spoke. His voice was deeper through his mask.

The mage stood from his branch. "Maybe so. But in turn, it may be what gets you killed, boy. But I suppose I could reward you clever mind for figuring it out. So, in turn, I shall tell you the honest truth. Of course, I am not Cryon. That fool couldn't spin a lie for the life of him. No, my name is Etto. The sixth mage, and Ruler of the Black Rose."

"I'm well aware. I figured that out from our little spar." Darius said. He needed to extend the conversation as long as he could while he tried to figure out some kind of way to escape. But how?

"Oh? That's when you figured it out? Pray tell, what gave me away?" Etto asked.

"When I told you how I got rid your little group at sea. I never turned them to glass. It only proved that you couldn't see points in time."

"I see, you spun a lie to confirm your suspicions without selling yourself out. Clever." He raised a hand to his mask, tapping it's chin. "You would make a fine assassin, boy. How about I offer you a deal as before? I don't want to kill you, kid, it'd be such a waste of potential. So how about this, if you help me kill Alabaun, I will take you directly to the Nameless Lord himself, and I shall speak for your prowess. In turn, you shall be granted your life, and you will work for me. How does that sound?"

Darius was quiet for a moment. Did he fight? Run? Or did he fake an agreement with Etto and take his deal until they reached Warshden?

"Think about it. You won't have to worry about a war. You won't have to worry about being killed, or always being in danger, you won't have to look over your shoulder every day of your life as you have for the past twelve years." He continued.

"Yeah, but something strikes me as odd. If you don't mind my asking, of course." Darius spoke, getting an idea as the faintest amount of arcana began to gather in his body.

"Go on."

"You are called the mimic mage, right? According to the tales, you have such prowess that you can not only take on the form of your chosen person, but also all their magical abilities. So why is it that you couldn't use Cryon's spells to convince me? Such as actually seeing into the past to confirm my story on what happened to your ship?"

Etto slowly cocked his head to the side, the mask's blank grin making it far more eerie in the dark than it might've been otherwise. He seemed annoyed by this question, which is exactly what Darius wanted.

"There are.. limitations to the ability. But I can use the magic of mages I mimic." He spoke.

"Then why didn't you? Your little 'time leap' wasn't even that. And from what I've heard, that's the most simple spell at Cryon's disposal. All you did is move incredibly fast from point A to point B." Darius said. "You even denied casting a rupture spell, one of the simplest spells a mage can do. Seems to me there's more of a limitation than you are letting on."

The other assassins looked over at their boss, whose eyes now leaked wisps of black. He was definitely irritated now. Darius was second guessing whether making him mad was a good idea or not, but it gave him some time to gather arcana, and that's all he needed.

"Boy, I suggest you step off." Etto hissed, reaching for his daggers. The masks of his goons turned back to Darius, who grinned beneath his crystalline helm.

"You are far too young a mage to be que-"

'SNAP'

In a sudden blast of light, particles of glass exploded across the forest, shooting out in massive blades of glass that tore through the forest as Darius shot up into the sky crouched atop a crystalline pillar as the assassins' blood splattered. Etto leapt up after Darius, running across a separate pillar, still rising higher and higher, their prismatic glow lighting up the night.

"Stupid child!" Etto roared.

"For an assassin, isn't it kinda embarrassing to be out done by a kid?" Darius mocked, standing high as he folded his arms, looking down on the other mage. "You have me all the time I needed to gather arcana, and now you are met with my strongest spell. You seemed to have such fun playing with my weaker spells, so this must be exilerating for you, right?" Despite his confident air, Darius's heart raced within his chest. This was risky, one wrong move, and he would be dead.

Etto's body began to blur as he drew his blades and flashed from point to point, making his way across the countless spires of glass as he made his way to Darius. Darius tapped his finger on his arm, and the spires suddenly began to spin as they cracked and massive chunks split off, forming into a splintered storm of glass blades and crashed through the air, relentlessly running Etto down.

"You're a fool kid!" Etto roared over the sound of shattering glass, shadows erupting from his cloak in waves, folding and churning like wings of smoke as he shot up at Darius. A silver blade flew past Darius's face as the glass fell out from beneath his feet, the pillar folding in on itself as he dropped away from the mage while huge blades rose from the glass around him, jutting out at the assassin who blurred out of sight.

'Damn!' Darius cursed, 'Where'd he go?!' His eyes flew about, but all he could see was crystal king glass. But then the shadows at his feet began to shift, and as his eyes widened, he made an effort to leap away, but it was already too late as the sky was blotted out by shadows as though the apocalypse had fallen on the world and a spire of shadow shot down on Darius as Etto flashed into existence crouched below him, a trail of silver cutting across Darius's chest, splitting open his midsection.

And the shards flew through the night like stars.