Authors Note: All the characters, story line, and everything else you read in this story is the property of me. I created all this from my own imagination and I ask of you not to steal any of it. I plan on turning all this into a fantasy series one day. Thank you.
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After the meeting, the Magicians went their separate ways. They never had a plan. Not until they knew the enemy could they even begin to think of one. So they set out to find any signs or clues to who, or what, was planning an attack on the city.
With staff firmly in her hands, Kenora set off for the Darkwoods. Whatever it was, that's where it was hiding. And that's where she had to go. Two things she did know, though. It couldn't be a demon. Demons were solitary creatures and one would never attack a city alone. There were times when demons did attack in a pack, but the chill she had felf from Shadowdance was too small for a pack of them. It could possible be Cerwirs, little goblin-like creatures that attacked in packs of hundreds. But she didn't worry. One gust of wind from her would be enough to stop them.
When she reached the stairs of the castle, Chester was blocking the entrance.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded. "Out of my way, Chester!"
"As your protector and brother, I cannot allow you to do such a foolhardy thing."
"I do whats needed to be done," she told him. "And this is such an occasion as that. Now, please move, Chester!"
"Do you really think you're helping us by possibly getting yourself killed?" he demanded of her, clearly getting angry by the rising of his voice. "Nobody has any idea what lurks in those woods, other than what's already inside it! And those creatures are dangerous enough!"
"There's no way I'm going to stay in the castle and not do anything!" she protested. "If you don't get out of my way, then I'll have to make you! The fate of the city depends on us!" Holding out her staff, she quickly summoned her magic from within her and steered it to the tip of her staff. She planned on using a big enough gust of wind to push her brother out of her path. He, however, was quicker. He grabbed her staff and flung it to the side, where the gust knocked over a vase of flowers on the floor and shattered.
"I afraid you've made a huge mistake just then, my dear," Chester told her, much too evily for him," attacking me." Pushing her back, he flung out his own staff. Kenora was struck by the powerful wind he summoned and roughly slammed into the wall behind her. As she opened her eyes and regained her vision, she caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes for just a second. But they were there. She had not been seeing things. This creature was not her brother.
"Your a demon," she choked out, for most of her breath had been knocked out of her. Her vision was unsteady. That was a powerful wind attack.
"Oh, bravo, princess, bravo," the demon clapped sarcastically. "I could never outsmart you." He had changed into his true form, simply a handsome young man with bat wings and everyday clothes.
"So it was you I felt in the Darkwoods," Kenora said, leaning on her staff for support. "You can't be alone if you came all the way into the castle. How dare you pretend to be my brother!"
The man chuckled as if it were a joke.
"What is your purpose for coming here?" she asked, her breath completely returned. She faced him with her staff held before her, ready for an attack.
"Do not bother using your last breaths asking things like that," the demon suggested, drawing a sword from its sheath on his waist. "Your end comes now, Enchantress!" With lightening fast moves, he attacked her, but just as fast, she blocked his moves with her staff. He fell back, stunned, one hand resting upon the wall. "You are trained well for a princess."
"And you are not for a demon!" Charging forward, she tried to put her staff behind him and trip him up while he was stunned. Then she planned on finishing him off with her magic. All her plans were shattered when he dropped his sword, pulled out a knife, and kicked the staff from her hands, all seeming to be in the same motion. The breath was once again knocked out of her as her back calloded with the wall, the demon's knife pressed against her neck.
"I'm not that easy to defeat, Enchantress," he growled, his wings unfolding then folding back up. "Make another move at me like that and I shall have to cut that slender throat of yours." With his free hand he traced one finger from her chin to the top of her dress. "And you wouldn't want that, now do you? If I never had a duty to do, I'd take you back with me now. I'm sure a pretty thing like you should be more than able to keep me company on those lonely days and nights."
Kenora struggled to raise her hands, but they were frozen to the wall. In fact, she couldn't move any part of her, except for her head. "What duty?" she demanded. He smirked at her. "Answer me! What is it you are here for?"
"You shall know when all is complete."
As her anger rose, so did her magic. Even without her staff, she summoned up all the power within her and released it. The demon man went flying backwards. As quickly as she could, using her magic, she lifted the sword, blade up, preparing it for the demon. He never screamed nor yelled in pain as he fell upon his own blade. His blood flowed down the sword onto the carpet below. Pity. She had always loved that carpet. Blood stains were the hardest to get out.
Now that the demon was dead, she was able to hear the sounds of fighting somewhere far off. Sounded like the whole army of Jupiter was battling a pack of demons. Was it possible that hundreds of demons joined together and attacked the city? It was known to happen. Just rarely.
Picking up her staff, she examined it for scratches.
It was beautifuly carved, with realistic vines twirling around the whole staff. Flowers bloomed from the vines and leaves filled in the empty spaces between. The top curled like a candy cane and nestled safely inside was an ice blue globe, called a Magic Orb. The ice blue color was the color of the Coven she belonged to. Gusts of wind whirled about inside the orb. The wind symbolized her strengths in magic. Summoning huge gusts and even tornados was what she was best at. Fire she always had some problems with. She avoided using it as much as possible.
With her inspection over, she puzzled over which way to go. Did she really want to go in the direction of the huge battle? Not unless her family was there. They were the main thing on her mind. But after they split when the meeting was over she had no clue where they were. Most likely Ash was in the battle and the real Chester was looking for her. Jasmine and her mother mother might have gone to fight their own small battles. Which made Kenora realize. Anyone in the castle could be a demon in disguise. Guess she's just have to find a way to tell the demons from the real people. Now to decide which was the right way to go.
If she wanted to find her twin brother, she'd simply just have to follow the sounds of fighting. Out of the four children of King Koasin, he was the most war-smart. While in his apprentice years, he studied war, weapons, battle plans, and past wars. He knew a great deal, and was still expanding his knowledge.
Her mother and Jasmine had studied the same things as Kenora. Herbs and healing. All three preferred to use the healings properties of some plants over using their own healings powers as Magicians. However, Kenora had also expanded her studies to the mystical creatures of the past and present. She knew about all the important beats of history, what they did, their names, all of it. Her mother only knew about the Unicorns of the past and present, while her sister concentrated on Dragons.
Chester, the oldest of the four, knew about the enemy and the creatures they used and controlled. He even knew abit on the Deities Above, something he thought inportant for someone studying the opposite of Above, the Underworld. He knew demons, Sainties, Cerwirs, and any other creature from the below world of fire and evil. Seekers were not from the Underworld, but they were still evil and dangerous.
She decided that Chester would be the better choice to look for. She had no doubts that he was searching for her, so better to find him as soon as possible and stop his worrying. No matter how old she got or the amount of experience she gained, he still thought of her as his baby sister and wanted to protect her from all dangers. It touched her, and at the same time annoyed her. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. No one knew it from first glances, but she was a very powerful Enchantress. Many an evil being challenger her. They thought she'd be an easy opponant. None survived to tell the tale and warn their fellow camrades.
It was dark and quiet in the castle halls. No doubt the servants and maids had all fled to safety. The bodies of the ones who never made it Kenora came across from time to time. Even the bodies of some demons, male and female, she happened upon. Each demon corpse she examined for what had killed it. They may prove to help her in her search for her brother. She was looking for burnt demons. It was after the fiveth demon corpse that she found one.
It lay against the wall on the first floor. Chester had used a lot of magic on this one. It was so burnt she couldn't tell the gender. The skin on the wings had been completely burnt away, right to the bones. In fact, the skin of the whole demon had been burnt clean off. A pool of boiling blood surrounded the body, boiling still from the fire. The empty eye sockets stared up at her. The mouth was frozen into an endless scream. She turned her eyes away. This was much more than she could handle. From all the blood on the floor, it was like every vein had been exposed and every drop of blood in the body poured out onto the carpet. Before her stomach had a chance to refuse the dinner she had earlier, she left behind the horrible sight and smell to continue looking for her brother.
She came across the burnt bodies of other demons, but none as grusome as the first. That one must have been the first one killed by Chester. All others were just destractions along the way. Nothing to waste much time on.
The trail lead her outside and then stopped. She looked about her. Nearby she heard the sounds of fighting, much closer then before. More bodies littered the ground outside the castle than in. Amongst them even the bodies of Cerwirs. What exactly was going on? Moving among them, she stumbled back at the sight of a demon laying flat on its back, with arms and legs sprawled every which way. It was unlike the demons in the castle. Though this one had the basic shape of a human, it was as like a human as a snake was.
It was completely naked except for a loincloth wrapped around its middle. Horns stuck out of the top of its head and its ears were pointed upward. The skin was red and covered muscles like those of a strong human man. This demon did have many characteristics of a human. The eyes, though they may be closed, ranged from light red to dark red. The demon's snout was longer than a human's. It reminded Kenora of a dog's muzzle. Long talons on the feet and hands were deadly when used in battle. The wings, spread out on either sides of the demon, were huge, bat-like, and the same color as the skin.
Slowly and carefully, she retraced her steps to a patch pf grass free of bodies. Sapion demons, Cerwirs, and Animalia demons. All attacking the castle at once. Why? Only once in history has a thing such as this ever happened. Thousands of years ago, when Hades had been terroizing the world in search of a Unicorn with great powers. Of course, he failed and everything was plunged into calm and peace. Until that one Unicorn died and Hades was set free from the spell of confinement laid upon him by the beast of Magic. This sudden attack on the castle must mean Hades was after something very important. But why attack her? It made no sense. Was what Hades sought so badly hiden inside the confinements of the castle?
"Kenora!" someone yelled, startling the woman. It was Basil, running towards her, a great deal of sweat falling down his young-looking face. She turned to embrace him in a hug.
"Are you hurt, Basil?" she asked, all excited from worry and concern over the others. "How are the rest doing? Are they alright? Have you seen them since-" She stopped when he held up his hand for silence.
"Take it easy," he soothed. "I have seen them. I know where they are. But there is something else I think you'd better see first." There was much distress and pain in his voice, that it worried and scared her. Without another word on either of their parts, she followed him.
When they reached their destination, she never saw anything out of the ordinary. Just a pile of bodies and blood. She was about to ask Basil what was the point of bringing her here, when something from deep within sparkled at her. Fearing the worse, she couldn't force herself to approach the pile. Nor could she look at it anymore. Without anyone teling her what it wass, she knew. With a heave heart, she knew.
The rest of the Magicians Circle stood in the direction she was looking. Her mother sat on the ground with the head of a black unicorn in her lap. Stunned and too afraid to speak, she walked to them. Citty allowed her daughter to take her place with the Unicorn. Immdetaitly Kenora went to check the pulse of the stallion. She began to feel better when she felt the pumping of his veins.
"Have any of the herd survived at all?" she asked softly, while inside her mind she was asking, why? She thought the herd had escaped. What drove them back to their deaths?
"We're really sorry, Kenora," Jasmine told her older sister. "We tried to save them all, but since all the mares either had foals or were pregnante, they were easy targets. Shadowdance was the only one to survive."
"Not even the yearling colts are alive?" Kenora asked, and again, that same thought in her mind. Why?
"They weren't strong enough to take on demons or Cerwirs," Jasmine replied again. "There were just too many. We were almost overwelmed ourselves, but Shadowdance saved us. He used his magic to destroy them all in one swipe. Unfortunately, he was too late to save his family."
"Can he be moved?" Kenora asked, stroking the once brillant Unicorn's tangled mane. He was covered in cuts and gashes of all sizes. It pained her to see him this way.
"He lost a great deal of blood and used much of his magic," Ash answered Kenora this time. "Best not to wake him yet."
"I shall do a small healing on him, then," Kenora announced. No one argued with her.
Laying her hands palm down upon Shadowdance, she dug deep into herself for enough magic to heal him enough to move around on his own. It was very simple for her to do. Sometimes, if a Magician was going to heal someone, they would prew up a potion or antidote. Those were Magicians only studied or taught in the arts on one form of magic. To be able to heal someone with their hands, knowing both forms of magic were required. Most Magicians studied the opposite form they were taught as novices, to expand their skills. Some, however, about half of the total number of Magicians, were taught both forms of magic.
As Kenora continued her healing on the Unicorn, she could feel his strenght slowly returning. The wounds that had once covered the animal, now looked nothing more than simple scratches. The beautiful shine of his lovely coat had almost completely returned. His breathing became normal and his chest rose up and down at a steady rate. The Enchantress stopped the flow of magic from her to him right there. The rest he would have to do on his own. As was restoring his own magic his own task. No one could do that for him.
She opened her eyes. She found that when using a great deal of magic like just now, the best way to concentrate fully on what she was doing was to close her eyes and block out any destractions.
"Good, you've finished," Ash sighed, glancing around him like a deer when it sensed danger. "All the demons and Cerwirs are either dead or gone. But there is still the feeling of evil in the air. There is something else coming out of the Darkwoods."
"What?!" cried Chester, his knuckles going white from gripping his staff too hard. "There's more? What else could they possible dish out at us?"
In answer to his question, an arrow came flying from the woods. He reached up and closed his hand around the arrow. Then he held it to his face for examination.
"Seekers," he breathed with disgust. With a small snap he broke the arrow in half and threw it to the ground in rage. "I knew long before something was terribly wrong with this world. But this is worse than we all expected. Seekers fighting alongside the very creatures they hunted and killed. That can be the only explanation to why Seekers are attacking after beasts of Hades." He withdrew his sword and held it at ready. "Kenora, I do not want you to fight."
The Enchantress had risen up with Shadowdance, who now stood awake. Now she turned on her older brother with outrage. "I can't just stand back and do nothing. I am the least injured one here. I should-"
"You are the only one as closely knit to Unicorns. Perhaps in the whole whole population of Magicians. We are needed in this battle. You are needed with this Unicorn."
Shadowdance nuzzled his muzzle in Kenora's arms.
"I know you are right, Chester," she sighed glummily. "I will obey your wishes on one condition. If the battle gets rough and you need help, allow me to help you."
Her brother simply looked at her as he thought about it. She could be very stubborn if she wanted to. Seemed like many people were. So if he told her he wasn't going to agree with her terms, then she will disobey him and fight. Yes, he had no choice.
"Have it your way, little sister," he said. "But only if we really need help. That Unicorn needs you more than we do."
Nodding in agreement, Kenora then turned and lead Shadowdance to a secluded area near the castle walls. He leaned his head on her and put the rest of his weight on his feet. His eyes stayed downcast and he never said a word.
In front of them, the group of six Magicians faced the Darkwoods, men prepared with swords, Jasmine with two shorts swords she had aquired from the mass of bodies, and the last two ready to use their staffs as quarterstaffs. Kenora's own staff, she now realized, was under the hovering invisible spell at her side. When she gripped it, it became visible. To protect Shadowdance, she cast a protection spell surrounding both of them. Then the arrows came.
It was a small amount at first, but after a second, a whole wave of them washed over the Magicians. Since they were weakened anyway from the first battle, the Seekers thought to finish them off with a brage of arrows. Despite how injured they were, the Magicians managed to surround themselves with a protective barrier of their own. The arrows bounced off or snapped into little pieces upon hitting the spell.
Just as fast as they started, the rush of arrows stopped. The Magicians Circle broke the protection spell around them, save Kenora. She kept hers up. The thing she was protecting was far too precious.
From deep inside the Darkwoods there came the sound of many charging people. Yells and shouts from up in the air revealed the left over Demons from the castle who hadn't of been killed. They were fleeing to leave the rest up to the Seekers, who at the same moment were rushing from the forest. They clashed with the Magicians in what appeared to be an unfair fight. To the untrained eye it was. However, to someone who knew the strength of even one Magician, the odds were very evenly matched.
Kenora felt completely helpless hiding inside her barrier like some scared little mouse hiding from a cat. And she hated it. Getting in on the fighting was what she liked to do. Not hide away like women were stereotypically thought to do. Like a weak damsel waiting in some tower for her prince or knight to come save her. No, she may not have much physical strenght, but she had more than enough magical strenght to make up for it. She was sure the barrier would hold if she were to leave it's protection and fight alongside her family and fellow Magicians.
Gently, as to not desturb him, Kenora lay Shadowdance's head down upon the ground. Then she rose and grabbed her staff from the air besides her. If she could see her face, she knew she'd see a very determined woman. Her eyes burned red hot fire and every muscle in her slender body was tensed and ready for battle. No way was she gonna let even one Seeker away from her. Not for what had happened to Shadowdace's family. She sought revenge.
She hardly felt the barrier when she passed through it. Her mind was set upon vengence. And upon the closest Seeker to her. However, before reaching the man, she spied the glinting blade of a sword almost hiden below a knight's bloody corpse. Disguarding her staff, she picked up the sword in two hands and proceeded forward.
The Seeker did not hear her approach, so it was very simple to kill him with the sword. The next ones were not so easy now that they knew she was there. With the swift ease of a woman born with a sword in her hands, she slew every Seeker coming after her. There were many more than she would have thought. All coming after her at once. They probably thought that because she was a princess, she would be quite simple to do away with. They couldn't be far from the truth.
"Kenora!" she heard Chester cry at her. Through the fighting she could see short glimpses of him. "What are you-? How didi you-? I told you not to interfere!"
"I was not going to sit back and watch you fight!" she protested. "My barrier is holding up fine! What would they want with a common Unicorn?" 'What is their purpose for coming here, anyway,' she thought.
"We want nothing with this Unicorn or this city," a man told the princess. When he spoke, the Seekers surrounding Kenora stopped fighting and made a trail from her to the man. Kenora, too stunned at this strange event, watched what must be the leader of this band walking towards her.
"If you want nothing with this place, then why did you attack us?" she asked angrily, sword held point out.
"Orders from our boss," was the slinky reply. "We're only following orders."
"Whose orders?" she demanded. "Tell me or be slain."
The Seeker Captian laughed at her as if she had made a joke. "Not a smart move, princess. Kill me and then how will you know our boss? My men follow me, I follow our boss. They do not know who our boss is. Only me." He stood before her now, one hand on his sword's hilt and the other by his side. "So kill me, princess. Go right ahead. I'll take the name and location of my boss to the grave with me." Then he smiled at her.
'Cocky little bastard,' she thought. 'He knows I won't kill him. And I can't. Not when he holds valuable information. Then what am I to do?'
"Those were some flashy moves for a princess," he remarked. "You couldn't have of learnt to do that in the palace."
"I never," she growled. "And it's none of your damn business where I learnt it, neither! What is your reason for coming here?"
He never answered her, just waved his arms around. It was then she realized something about the Magicians and other Seekers. They were frozen in time. It was like someone pressed the pause button on the battle. Only her and the Seeker leader could move.
"We have all the time in the world," he chuckled.
Something in Kenora suddenly snapped. "I don't care if you hold the name of your boss!" Sword held firmly in hand, she lunged at him. "I'll finish you!" But he was too fast for her to hit and she ended up embedding the blade so hard and far into the ground that she had a hard time getting it free again.
"You will never catch me, princess," he sneered.
"Shut-up!" she screamed, swinging the sword up for his neck. Instead, she severed the head of a frozen Seeker. It toppled to the ground, blood gushing from the wounds. The body fell down, as well, two streams of crimson joining into a pool. The spell had broken on that one.
She stared stunned at the body. That could have been one of the Magicians. In her blind fury and with her own hands, she could have murdered one of her family or friends. As this new realization dawned on her, she dropped the sword to the ground and fell to her knees. She was so broken up inside that she never heard the Seekers leaving nor the sounds the Magicians made as the spell upon them lifted. Only did she come to when her twin put a conforting arm around her.
