Chapter 26 #2
My raven circles overhead, sending back images of Varam and Mira reaching their positions. The soldiers below remain unaware that death watches them from three directions.
When everyone is in place, I send shadows flowing down into the valley. They pour into the camp, snuffing out the fire and plunging the soldiers into darkness. Shouts of confusion reach us as men fumble for weapons they can’t see.
The slaughter begins immediately. Varam’s group strikes first, blades finding throats before their owners can cry out.
Mira’s fighters close in from the east. Some try to flee, but we’re prepared for that and cut them down.
Others attempt to rally, but Mira's and Varam's blades make short work of them.
I’m moving down the southern slope when desperation crashes through the bond.
The emotion drowns my awareness of everything around me. Panic, determination, and underneath it all a kind of desperate resolve. It tears through my consciousness.
A sword blade drives deep into my shoulder before I can avoid it, punching through leather and into muscle. Pain flares, but it feels distant compared to the chaos in my mind. I dodge sideways, too slow, too distracted, and the soldier’s follow-up strike opens a line of fire across my forearm.
Control. Focus. This is what kills you—not the blade, but the distraction.
But controlling the emotions battering through me is like trying to contain a flood with bare hands. Her emotions pour through every barrier I have, overwhelming the discipline that’s kept me alive.
The soldier presses his advantage, driving me back. And just as quickly as it starts, the distraction disappears. My shadowblade takes his head cleanly.
Varam appears beside me as the last enemy falls, his eyes taking in the blood seeping through my coat.
“You're wounded.”
“It's nothing.” I don't tell him that Ellie's emotions almost cost me my life.
We drag the bodies into the forest and cover them with stones and fallen timber. Their weapons are distributed among our fighters. Every movement sends fresh pain through my shoulder. The wound is deeper than I admitted to Varam, not that it matters. It’s manageable and won’t kill me.
We finally reach Greenvale sometime after midnight. The village is silent, Stonehaven and Millhaven’s people settled for the night in makeshift shelters.
Greenvale has absorbed another crisis, another burden. I should feel satisfaction at eliminating the immediate threat, at protecting these people who chose to shelter us. Instead, I find myself at the edge of the settlement, staring northwest into the darkness.
Dawn finds me still there, unable to rest, unable to think of anything except what kind of danger Ellie is in.
“You haven’t moved in hours.” Varam joins me just as dawn turns the sky pink. He settles beside me on the fallen log I’ve claimed as a watch post, his own eyes following my gaze to the northwest. “When did you last sleep?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters. You’re wounded. You haven’t rested properly in days. Even you have limits.”
“Something is wrong.”
The connection between us pulses with residual anxiety, a constant low-level distress that makes it impossible to ignore.
“The emotions I’m feeling from her are stronger than they’ve ever been.”
“You want to go to her.”
The simple statement exposes everything I've been avoiding. I turn to face my friend.
“Every instinct tells me I need to find her. But these people depend on our protection.”
“Do they?” Varam’s voice is quiet. “You've spent so long carrying everyone else’s survival that you can't see they've grown stronger. Look at what happened yesterday. The villagers organized aid without panic. They didn't flee when they learned about Millhaven's fate.”
“That doesn't mean they can survive without us.”
“Maybe not. But they're not helpless children waiting for rescue either.” He pauses, studying my profile. “The question you need to ask yourself is whether you are staying because they truly need you, or because duty feels safer than admitting you need her?”
His words lay bare something I've been fighting to ignore. Duty has always been my armor against loss, against caring too much about anything I can’t control. Responsibility for others keeps me focused, gives my survival meaning beyond mere existence.
But the thought of her facing danger alone while I remain here …
“I've never had to choose between people I'm sworn to protect.”
“Maybe it's time you learned that protection sometimes means trusting others to share the burden.”
“I can’t abandon Greenvale.”
“You're not abandoning anyone." Mira’s voice floats out of the darkness, seconds before she joins us. “You're trusting them. Nyassa is a Tidevein. She can force a moat to form around the village. Defenses can be built.”
My head turns northwest again. “It will take at least a day to reach Ashenvale from here on foot.” But as soon as I say it, I'm already considering another option. “But there is another way. I could open a path closer to Ashenvale …”
Varam goes very still beside me. “The last time you tried that—”
“It nearly killed me, yes. But I was wounded, and Sereven’s crystal interfered. The circumstances are different now.”
“Are they? You’re exhausted, and with this bond distracting you …”
“Conventional travel will take too long.”
“And if what you’re planning kills you? What happens to her then?”
I shake my head. My power is at full strength, and I'm not wounded or desperate. The risk remains, but the variables have shifted in my favor.
More importantly, through the bond I feel Ellie's emotions spiking again, a sharp burst of adrenaline that makes my own pulse race. Whatever is happening, it’s growing more intense by the hour.
“If you go, we're coming with you. Ashenvale is dangerous, and we don't know if Sereven returned there.” Varam's voice is firm. “Stonehaven's leaders and Nyassa are more than capable of running things here.”
I look between my two oldest allies, reading the determination in their faces. They’ve followed me without question, trusted my judgment when wisdom demanded retreat. Now they’re offering to risk their lives on my most dangerous ability because they understand what Ellie has become to me.
I look northwest again, toward where I know she waits, and the choice that has been building since dawn finally settles into place.
For the first time in my life, I am going to choose what I want over what duty demands.