Morning of…
A warm blanket covered her face that traced down from temple to jaw. It felt familiar, comforting, firm yet soft. It was a touch she knew from a memory long since passed and she was content to keep her eyes close and breathe in deeply. It was her mother’s touch, one she remembered of as a child sleeping upon her mother’s lap during lazy afternoons when there was actual free time to do such things.
“Time to wake up my dear,” her mother said affectionately, combing her hair between her fingers and giving her a peck on the cheek. “There’s much to do.”
“But I don’t want to,” she whined, hiding a grin of a spoiled child. The scent of her mom’s light perfume mixed with the natural environment around them. The sound of birds whistling atop a tree and the wheat field could be heard swaying with the gentle breeze.
Her mother chuckled with a huff, “No one does, now up and at ‘em.”
Yawning, she stretches her limbs, the tips of her toes and fingers tingle and strain as she reaches out to the extreme. Her mother didn’t push or prod any more as she took her time, which seemed a little strange but she thought nothing of it. Even Priestesses of Dwayna knew how to take a moment for themselves.
Finally, feeling as though she had dragged it out long enough, she opened her eyes, half expecting to see her mother. Instead an ugly visage greeted her; the fields were scorched and the hills were barren and cracked, her home was on fire and the sky was an ugly mix of red and brown, like a mixture of blood and dirt blending together.
“What?” She stammered as she pushed herself up. Where was her mother? What was this place? Her home, her parents! There was howling in the distance, not of wolves but of Char. Off at a distance she saw a pyre and something else. A figure was tied to it, and she knew instinctively who it was. She choked at the sight, her pulse raced and she could only cough out at the nightmare she was in while her legs moved at their own volition toward it, “By the Gods, mother…!”
Her mother called out to her and she ran faster, her legs threatening to buckle under the strain, her lungs burned painfully and she was nowhere closer, her mother was so far, so far away…
“Alexia!” Someone had jerked her awake and the monk sprang up from her prone position, a hand upon her shoulder to support her frantic jump as she reached for her wand instinctively. The monk stopped in her move as her eyes adjusted at the sight of Aiden, the handsome Paragon whose smile could warm a morning chill away. “Bad dream?” He asked softly, “You were talking in your sleep.”
She nodded absently, “No more than usual. How long since sunrise?” The woman yawned and rose from her hide blankets, pushing them away quickly. The irony of it, she realized, as she surveyed the landscape, was that her nightmare matched her reality. A land broken and torn asunder, skies that were a constant mélange of browns, greys, reds, and (from a far distance), light blue. The only peace out of that nightmare was her mother didn’t die like some sacrificial lamb on a pyre; no, she died defending Ascalon like so many others had.
“I’m not too sure actually, it was already sunrise when Anita and Preston woke me to be their eyes while they went out scouting. I’d say maybe two? Three hours, at most?” Aiden shrugged and moved off to wake the others.
Alexia nodded and began rolling up her blankets. Today was a big day. The big day, to be exact. They were close; she could feel it in her bones. They had searched for months, crossed back and forth in hostile and friendly territories in search of it. Of chasing leads, dead ends, and echoes long faded; each one had been a fight to get and most of it had been half-truths, higher risks and more often than not outright disappointments. It still amazed Alexia that despite their perilous (and grudgingly admitting only to herself, exciting) journey, her guild members had remained. She silently thanked Dwayna for it; she had a debt she could not repay for in one lifetime if they saw this through.
Anita and Preston could be seen at a distance, Paddles the lynx ever by Anita’s side, the Rangers slowly making their way back to the campsite. Soon, soft murmurs began to overcome the morning silence. Alexia rubbed her hands together in anticipation of finally finding one of Lord Odran’s portals.
That night…
“Keep running! They’re right behind us!” Alexia ordered.
“You’d think they just give up, if it weren’t for their reinforcement, we’d have had them!” Cherry huffed out, her legs were tiring as she struggled to keep pace.
“Keep moving!” Erick shouted ahead of them, Reyna ever by his side.
Aiden whispering a hymn to Dwayna, to speed the group’s movement; a slight fraction of that power sped the group's speed marginally. Shirley and Traxt stopped momentarily and both elementalists called up chilling winds and a field of fire respectively before running to catch up with the group. Anita and Preston nocked a few arrows back, a couple of which caught the creatures, piercing through the creature’s legs, crippling them. Anais and Elizabeth did nothing but kept running as ordered; their skills relied on something dying first. Cherry and Alec were likewise useless to halt the advance, their specialties also relied on engaging the enemy to do anything meaningful.
“There’s the portal!” Alexia exclaimed with a huff, short of breath but no shortage of eagerness to get there as fast as possible; a silent prayer to Dwayna floated in her thoughts to show mercy upon the tired guild and see them there quickly. As far as Alexia was concerned, the portal was the most beautiful thing ever created, as long as they reached it. They still had a ways to run, and the back of her mind was warning her they wouldn't make it. She ignored it, focusing on getting there instead.
It was said that Lord Odran’s portals led to different places in Tyria, even into the Mists, the Hall of Heroes, the multiverse itself. None of this could be substantiated as most of Odran’s journals were lost, possibly destroyed and what few remained were claims through word of mouth, rumors of rumors, and a few fragmented documents kept by other nations deep within their vaults. Alexia had only managed once to get a glimpse of the forbidden texts, no more than two minutes of it before she had made a run. She was an official renegade for breaking into Kryta’s vaults; to be executed on sight.
From there, she had approached Ascalon’s army with the idea to send an expedition and find one of the portals. They laughed at her, calling her a mad whimsical fool for thinking such portals existed. A myth at best, a fool’s tale at worst and they scorned her for wasting their time. Alexia didn’t bother defending herself; she had halfway agreed with their assessment. But she had hoped to find weapons, allies, maybe even power greater than their own, to fight against the Char and after that rebuild Ascalon one brick at a time. Without Ascalon’s funds backing her, she relied on her guild, and to her surprise the group agreed to the adventure, a journey eight months in the making.
Closer now. The portal swirled in a lazy clockwise spiral. Energy crackled and floated about in random fashion of blue, white and purples. Nothing could be seen on the other side, and Alexia could only imagine what they might be able to find once they stepped through. A weapon that could turn the tide, knowledge of the arcane, or even divine intervention to cease the madness that had tormented her home for so long. Anything, anything, would be better than what it was now.
“Make haste!” Aiden commanded, cutting her out from her reverie as she ran, somehow those simple words from the Paragon were enough and motivated the rest to keep pushing forward.
Distant howling (that felt uncomfortably close) could be heard and Aiden looked back, seeing a tide of Char at the horizon. The portal was just over the hill ahead of them, growing bigger by the moment and likely to be larger than life when they reached it. If they reached it. They wouldn't make it in time, with the char advancing swiftly; for the char were always faster and stronger, and no amount of spells or divine encouragement was going to do the trick. Humans stuck to their mortal coil with sheer will and stubbornness, but in the end none could stand in the way of these foul beasts.
This was the moment they had all waited for, but Aiden was struck with grim realization and the handsome man stopped in his tracks, the dust beneath his feet swirling in his sudden pause. Perhaps this moment was not meant for all of them.
Alexia noticed and stopped quickly almost tripping over her own feet; the rest of the guild did the same.
“What are you doing!?” She shouted, already weaving through her companions to face Aiden.
“We can’t outrun them to the portal. I’m staying back,” Aiden said firmly, gripping his spear and shield. He looked upon his group of friends with a charming smile that held an edge of sadness. “They’ll catch us before we reach the portal, I’ll buy you time.”
“No!” Alexia said vehemently, shaking her head. The char were advancing, but they still could make it – at least that what she had been saying to herself, “We keep moving, we don’t have time to talk about this. I’m ordering-”
“I’m sorry, Alexia, I can’t follow that order. You all should go now, don’t waste this.”
“I’m staying then,” Alec said, the young Mesmer said, placing his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You can’t say no, family stick together.”
“Bloody idiot, that’s what you are,” Shirley huffed and gripped her staff, and no sooner she added, “So will I.”
“No!” Alec, her husband shot back approaching her as he shouted, “you will do no such-!“
She pushed him aside suddenly and walked a few feet ahead of the guild facing the looming char forces and thrust her staff into the air and screamed, pouring as much anger and will into her spell:
“By the stars in day and night
By Balthazar’s fury and might
I call upon thee;
With brimstone and fire
Rain upon mine enemy!”
Shirley gripped a piece of stone, a glyph of elemental power as she cried out her incantation, crumbling it to dust as her eyes shone white with magnified power. The heavens responded and a firestorm rained upon the Char; fireballs that descended from the skies and impacted with devastating blasts, peppering and scorching the already torn earth with craters. Screams and howls of agony filled the air, Char could be seen flying in different directions as the firestorm tore through their rank and forced them to break rank and run in chaos for any cover they could find. Shirley breathed heavily, gripping the staff with effort.
“There,” she panted, pleased with the effect of her devastating spell, “That should hold them off for a little.”
“You’re going with them!” Alec started again, ignoring the blaze across the land and the cries in the air.
“Shut up,” Shirley said evenly but reached out to hold Alec’s hand, “I’m going with you.” Before anyone could get another word in; the entire guild began arguing among themselves instead.
Paddles meowed a low rumble at Anita’s side, the lynx raising its head to look up at her master while Preston patted it between its ears. They two had kept quiet, but then they always did. Anita looked at Preston after a moment, and the ranger seemed to understand as he only nodded in response. The woman didn’t look at the rest of them but simply said loud enough for Alexia to hear, “We’re staying.”
Alexia’s world was suddenly very small at the sight of her guild, her only other family, shrinking before her eyes. She hadn't felt this way since the lost of her parents and she wandered through Ascalon with whatever detachment that would take her in as long as she could fight. How silly that I should get attached, she thought to herself bitterly. Guilds formed and broke apart frequently. It was something of a testament that she managed to keep the guild together this long. But she led them, she took care of them and they worked like a well oiled machine, so to speak. Now half of them were breaking to keep the rest from dying in vain. Her heart sank.
Aiden had reappeared by her side again, a soft thud upon the ground as he planted the butt end of the spear into it and the two surveyed both the arguing in front of them and the field of slaughter ahead of them. He was another issue, someone she had kept a good distance from though the man was only attracted by it. Odd, that she actually grew fond of him, but now... now was just dramatic cliche to declare her feelings.
"You know I’m right," Aiden started again, his voice soft, "We’ll hold them off, you and others get to the portal."
“You’ll die,” she said simply, purposely not looking at him.
He smiled, and Alexia caught it with the corner of her eye when she did look but turned away just as quickly. “At least it something worth dying for,” he said.
The Paragon wanted to do something more; to lift the woman’s chin up and capture her lips with his. He didn't and she made no move herself.
“We have to go,” Alexia said after a moment, conceding to the plan. Finally she turned to him, mustering the courage to look him in the eyes; those placid blue eyes that she always knew could lose herself in, “Aiden, I…”
“I know...” Aiden said and looked down for a moment. Something passed across his features for a moment and just as quickly it disappeared. His calloused hands gripped his spear and the straps of his shield tighter. “Go.”
And just like that, Dwayna’s Vigilant was split. Elizabeth walked up then, seemingly out of nowhere. Her disheveled and bloody armor did little to compare with the cold eyes upon her beautiful facial features. “Found a new type of minion I could raise with the Char. I just bought you all a little more time. I’ll be staying also, besides,” in a rare display, the Necromancer smiled at Alexia, “I have a score to settle.”