Elegy for a Star

CHAPTER SUMMARY - SPOILERS

When she opened her eyes again, she saw Joyona leaning forward, her gauntlets upon the blades of the hag’s shears, holding them open. A white light built around Joyona’s palms. She grunted and strained as the beast put all of her leverage into the cut.

The hag leaned forward, toppling Joyona onto her back and standing over her, squeezing those gigantic scissors into Joyona’s forearms now. Tess was certain that anyone else would’ve been cut in half by now, but Joyona held.

“What can I do?!” Tess shouted, looking around for anything she could hit the creature with, and she picked up a rock the size of her fist. Tess reeled back and threw it, striking the creature in the head. The beast turned to look at her through the holes in her mask, but her eyes were hollowed out and bloody. “What the fuck,” Tess cursed.

The beast struck Joyona across the head and then charged after Tess. Those shears opened wide, rusty and covered in blood, before Tess saw a thin line of light burst through the being’s head, straight through to the other side. At the same time, a volley of arrows, seven in all, fell atop the creature from the sky. Tess turned to see Mairaela firing shot after shot at an incredible speed. 

The creature toppled, collapsing to the ground, and Mairaela lowered her blow.

Despite the shot leaving a hole in its head, steaming with heat, and arrows riddling its back, it rose and dove at Tess from just a few meters away. Tess held out her hands, trying to urge magic through them.

Nothing happened. What had she been thinking?

Joyona crashed into the monster, intercepting it and saving Tess. She took it to the floor and pinned its arms to the ground. Her armor glowed brighter and brighter before it exploded in a fiery storm. Each panel and piece of her armor exploded off of Joyona’s body and held in a golden sphere around her. The creature beneath her body was crushed into the ground, squished to pulp. Joyona slowly stood up, and the armor returned and reattached to her body. The front of it was bloody.

“You alright?” Mairaela asked Tess. 

She simply nodded, “Yeah. Thank you.”

Joyona checked the dents in her gauntlets, turning to face Mairaela and Tess, “That was the Hag of Blackwood. Nightmare story back in my tribe that was used to scare kids into avoiding staying out too late.”

Mairaela queried, one eyebrow raised, “And it was here?”

Joyona nodded her head, “Took my fears and made them real, I suppose. Or I’m already experiencing Void sickness.”

Tess wondered if that was the “messing with your head” that Philomena had mentioned.

Mairaela tested the tension on her bowstring and said, “No, I saw it too. Definitely hag-like.”

“I apologize for not dealing with it faster,” Joyona explained, “I was a little surprised. Won’t happen again.”

Tess couldn’t imagine what would’ve happened if Joyona had been focused. Joyona didn’t even get hurt. Her armor was barely dented.

“Don’t sweat it, Joy,” Mairaela assured her, “But we still need to find the Dame.”

Tess was beginning to worry about Gwen. If they ran into something like that hag, Gwen was bound to have run into something similar. But something else itched at her mind.

“How did you do that?” Tess asked, looking between Joyona and Mairaela. “The armor and the arrows. How did you do that? That wasn’t just ‘good with armor’ or ‘good at archery,’ that was magic.”

Mairaela shook her head, “Not magic. We require no Wyrd but our souls to perform these feats. Remember, there are no laws in this world. There is potentially nothing that binds us, but the real world expectations are hard to erase completely, so we are still, for example, stuck to the ground by gravity.” Mairaela waved one hand before she started rambling too much, “Point being, we can imagine some incredible things, and with the integrity of our souls, we can make them come to life.”

“That is incredible,” Tess muttered, her envy for a gift growing deep inside of her. The feeling of unfairness built up in her mind. So many had a gift. It wasn’t a rare thing, even if it was rare to have a moment in your life to use it. Why was Tess one of the very few to be so unfortunate? Magic has been useless so far. She needed to practice. It wasn’t intuitive like their gifts.

There was an explosion in the distance; a muffled puff of air. It set off alarms for everyone, looking around themselves for any sign of danger.

Mairaela’s sharp ears perked up and she shouted, “Above!”

Just in time, Joyona twisted and ran to intercept whatever it was. Tess looked up and saw a blue ball of light dropping from the sky. It stood out due to its coloration upon this dismal, nearly monochrome background. It looked like a comet’s tail, streaking through the air, but far, far too close for comfort. The rush of air tossed Tess’ clothes about, but she had no time to even think of holding them down.

Joyona caught the blast like it was a tangible, palpable object, but her feet drove into the ground. She struggled against it, wrestling with it, trying to keep it at bay and keep it contained before it annihilated all of them. Her strain turned to yelling, as pieces of her armor fell away under the pressure and force of this near-explosive power.

Tess felt a tug on her arm, and a pull. Mairaela tapped her on the forehead with an arrow and Tess could see her reflection in its arrowhead. “Hold on,” the Fey said, turning and firing the arrow at a nearby hill. Just as the explosion went off, Tess’ vision blurred and smeared all around her and all she could hear was a mighty rush of wind before she was suddenly standing upon a hill, an arrow stuck into the ground beneath her feet. “What-...”

Her words were cut off by an explosion, half a kilometer away, a mighty surge of concussive force that put Tess on her back. Tess was confused. Too many things—too many impossible things—were happening too quickly. She couldn’t keep up with it. Was part of having a gift being able to think quicker, react faster?

Tess tried to imagine magic forced through her hands, but nothing happened. She didn’t know what she was doing. She felt like she was just pretending, and gave up on the effort.

Miri spoke up in her mind again, “You could save them if you just let me free.”

“Quiet,” Tess replied, trying to push the demon out of her thoughts.

“When it’s our life on the line, we’ll see what you think then.”