Chapter 2

 

The young priestess surveyed the scene before her. Ahead; rolled a large expanse of fertile land, stretching as far as the eye could see: through an endless labyrinth of hills; valleys; gorges towards tree-like knots of dark menacing metallic structures reaching skywards. She glanced to her right, a sound catching her interest. The priestess lifted the binoculars hanging around her neck to her eyes, homing in on the sound as clearly as she could.

About a mile away from her: down the Cliffside where she was perched, there was a small group of soldiers out on a patrol. Their ochre uniforms partially covered by huge cloaks printed in dispersal pattern material, signified that these were soldiers employed by Artemia: the main agricultural corporation of Mecharia Rex: the largest of the structures within sight. The girl listened to their conversation: her long sleek blonde and dye hair swaying playfully in the breeze.

“Well work is work. We are lucky to even get employed out here in the middle of nowhere.” the first suggested.

“I did not enrol at Caladri to be snapped up for employment by Artemia! I want to fight! Not guard a bunch of farmers from bandits and nomads.” Growled the second: angrily.

“Be careful what you wish for: this is only our third patrol since being here. You cannot be bored with the work already?” A third asked; the only female of the three.

The priestess considered their words from her distant vantage point.

“What are you listening to Anique?” a young female voice chirped beside the teenage girl.

Anique turned to her companion, an Ethereal guardian. “Meila shush. I’m trying to get information from them.”

Meila stared into the deep dark emerald green of the elf-girl’s eyes, before shrugging her shoulders and taking her place next to Anique beneath the camouflage sheet.

Anique turned back towards where the soldiers had headed: nothing.

Unfortunately the wind had changed meaning that the elf girl could no longer eavesdrop on the conversation of the three soldiers. She sighed in resignation, before walking away from the cliff edge. The valley breeze flowed past her, causing Anique to pause. She licked her finger before raising it to the sky, trying to read the direction of the wind: again the wrong direction. This annoyed Anique: it was not particularly fun trudging three miles back to the campsite where her tribe had decided to pitch themselves. She gathered her camouflage sheet and her rifle before setting off through the thick tangled trees to the track laden clearing where several large defensive vehicles stood. Anique set off at a steady pace, making sure that she would not wear herself out in her trek across the terrain towards the campsite. She glanced towards Meila: gone. But such is the way with her, she would move as freely as the wind.

Anique enjoyed dancing upon the winds when they flowed favourably: it was a fun experience although it was not flight as such it was, something else. Dancing the winds as the other elves called it was not something to describe but to experience; all that was clear about it was that it was the quickest form of transport available when not in a vehicle. But as always that depended on the fickle winds themselves.

Anique continued onwards; trudging steadily down the slope into the woods. This was one of her duties anyway, but not one as her role as a priestess of the tribe.

Instead it was something that her uncle: Maculus, taught her, the role of the scout. Yet her bloodline was running thin with her father’s and uncle’s generation as both were; or even are; half elves, as the more common term is known, for those with a waning of the Ethereal’s power. It was largely due to her mother that Anique had any elven blood at all: a fourth generation Arcanii one descended directly from the Ehereals- half human half of them. The Ethereals were beings not of this world: beings with many names: Ancients to some, Ethereals to others they were semi divine and the only gods available in the absence of any true deity.

Anique continued to walk steadily onwards down the slope and into the woods: she could feel the pressure and contour of every rock and root through the soles of her boots. The tattered things had served her well the past three years; but now they were falling apart, she had best acquire some new ones at some point.

As Anique wound her way through the increasing tangle of trees: the path that she had used earlier should be around here somewhere: like the trail which had now appeared before her.

Anique looked at the woodland path which opened before her; despite being isolated from it by a large thorn filled plant.

“I think this is it.” The priestess mused to herself, uncertainty in her voice.

She glanced around the bush: trying carefully to find any way around the dense, thorn-filled underbrush. No such luck for her today it seemed. Now if there was a clear breeze it would be possible for her to step right through with no problem: yet no breeze flowed through the trees: not a whisper of wind. Anique crouched down onto the ground, unslinging her long sleek rifle: a piece of equipment for hunting as much as for attacking foes in self or communal defence. She pushed it forwards with two hands whilst lying down flat onto the ground. She pushed the case for the binoculars around her hips so that it was now resting on her bottom, before beginning the crawl through the dark mass of twigs. Her belt tugged at her waist making her wish that she did not have to wear a skirt in terrain like this. The material seemed to slip against her knees as she tried to use them to propel her body forwards in conjunction with her arms. The slimy: semi liquid quagmire of mud beneath her bubbled and stuck to her clothes as well as her hair.

“I should really wash myself at some point this week. All I need to do is get back to the camp as soon as I can.” She muttered to herself as she emerged from the other side of the thorns.

She rose carefully, brushing the thorns that had snagged themselves onto her clothes and tangled into her hair. She looked ahead down the trail which snaked its way sinisterly through the darkening trees. Anique readied her equipment again: checking the double sided camouflage sheet for damage, before setting off down the slope along the path.

A gentle breeze flowed past her: and with it the sound of teeth crunching viciously on bones. Anique stopped dead in her tracks: the sound was clearly audible to her, even without the advantages of her elven linage. She crouched down; a mix of fear and curiosity overcame her: what was it?

Anique went through the things that it could be: Wolves, bears, big cats: those would be the least dangerous of things that could inhabit these woods. She removed her binoculars from their case as she crouched down so that she could see clearly through the trees at what it was crunching so noisily on bones.

The things that Anique wished were not having their afternoon snack on a poor creature were those which shared their bloodline or aspects with the Ethereals. Lunan were a possibility: although on the whole, no matter which animal they were descended from they could be reasoned with: elves by their definition were also Lunan being that they were descended from the Ethereals.

She raised the lenses to her eyes, trying to focus on what was ahead of her. The mass of foliage around her obscured her view, forcing her to creep down into the mud and leaf litter. Just ahead: at the bottom of the slope, Anique could see the edge of good sized clearing: it seemed as if the crunching sound was defiantly originating from there. She crawled forwards until most of the clearing was visible: there was a definite group of figures sitting around a vehicle. Anique was unable to identify its class, but what worried her were the figures around the vehicle. Again she raised her binoculars to her eyes. From what she could see: there was a well-dressed lady with deep red hair, lounging about in the vehicle, everything about her would not seem amiss from someone travelling from one of the settlements: except from the small trickle of blood which had run down the side of her chin. Absentmindedly the woman lifted a finger: wiping the blood from her chin before sucking it clean in her mouth. Anique felt a chill run down her spine: a vampire. She moved her binoculars to the other figures within the clearing. Their forms were varied: yet they all seemed humanoid, were it not for their grotesque proportions: proportions not belonging to any human or even any of the Lunan.

“Impius.” Anique breathed in terror.

 It appeared from the tattered pieces of cloth strewn around the Impius that they had managed to ambush a scouting group of nomads or city soldiers moving through the forest. She was not surprised that there was a Vampire with them: they were the only beings apart from the Ethereals capable of controlling them.

Anique checked around her surroundings to see if there might be a way out from here. There was, but it would mean her having to go into the clearing to reach it, as the land on either side of her was difficultly steep, she also could not only rely on the wind to travel. Because of the nature of the bushes behind her it would be difficult to go back that way without alarming the Impius.

Instead she would have to remove the things that threatened her: the Impius.

She carefully unslung her rifle and fixed the scope onto its mounting. Anique checked the ammunition already loaded into the gun: ten shots, more than enough to slow down five Impius. She raised the weapon to her shoulder, securing the butt against her body, before balancing its weight as she pressed her cheek against the firearms stock. Anique shifted her body slightly so that she was in a secure firing position: aimed the crosshairs onto her first target. The one in the middle: closest to the vehicle would be the first one to aim for: mainly as it was turned away from her and, if successful; it would be torn apart by the others before the vampire had a chance to react. The tiny red dot traced its way across the skull of the hunched demonic monster, eventually coming to rest on the base of its skull. Anique braced herself for the kick and fired. The creature fell forwards: hitting its head against the side of the vehicle, before bouncing backwards onto the blood covered grass. The vampire woman was thrown into the vehicle as the Impius impacted against the side of it.

“That’s a bonus.” Murmured Anique to herself, she kept her sight aimed around the same target: watching as one dropped the arm it was munching on to look at its stunned compatriot.

“Go on.” She urged quietly as it sniffed the immobile body before it. It suddenly lunged forwards, ripping out the throat of the downed Impius in a shower of blood. It was not long until it was joined by the other three. The woman seemed to recover and peered over the edge of the vehicle’s open roof: she appeared resigned that the monstrous beings around her were tearing each other apart. She seemed to be searching for something. Anique realised what it was she was searching for: her. Anique slowed her breathing, trying to hide herself within the mass of foliage. The woman looked directly at Anique as she stayed frozen for every second.

The vampire looked away as the Impius finished tearing apart Anique’s victim to munch casually upon its flesh. Cautiously Anique removed the sight from the rifle, placing it into its pouch before checking the rest of her equipment: another clip of ammunition, a flare and her knives.

Well knife was a loose term for the largest of the three, a foot long curved blade: weighted to cut through plants with ease, as well as flesh. Anique cursed quietly to herself for forgetting to use it earlier with the tangle of bushes: something which would alert the vampire and the things around her to Anique’s presence. She slowly moved around the small slope area; keeping one eye on her assailants at all times. She watched as the woman started to turn back towards her. Anique stopped suddenly- trying her best to keep still. There was one thing about vampires: you can never be too careful; they were more than likely to have been born with, or occasionally acquired: supernatural powers, particularly the use of magic. Anique wished that she would not be noticed.

“You seem to be in a bit of a fix.” Chirped Meila cheerily; near to Anique.

Just her luck: the Ethereal just had to decide to appear now. It wasn’t that Meila was unhelpful; she was a very useful companion to Anique- she just had a knack of appearing at a bad time.

“You could say that.” Anique replied with a quiet dark flatness in her voice.

“Need any help?” she offered nonchalantly.

The elf-girl looked at her: her interest piqued. “That would be useful: what do you suggest: a distraction of some sort?”

Meila smiled an eternally enigmatic smile before vanishing into thin air. Anique smiled to herself returning to her cautious approach towards the forest glade. The Impius continued their feasting around the vehicle. She searched for the woman: gone.

Anique began to search for her frantically for her: it did not take long; the vampire was standing on the opposite side of the grove.

The sound of an explosion followed closely by an inhuman yelp caused the two of them to turn: the Vehicle had been thrown through the air: trapping two of the Impius beneath its shell. Anique charged forwards towards the last two standing Impius. They turned to face the elf only to be shot point blank by her rifle. They both fell back knocked unconscious: it would take more than a bullet between the eyes to finish off an Impuis, in fact there was only one way to dispatch them. Anique dropped the rifle so that it hung around her shoulders by its strap. She reached round her back to remove her big knife: brought it up above her head whilst gripping it with both hands before bringing it down on the demonic monster’s neck: half decapitating it, drenching Anique in blood. Anique tried to wriggle the blade free, pushing energy around her body, summoning up the magic from her bloodline. Unable to free the blade, she placed her left hand on the creature’s neck and pushed with her magic, channelling it to sever the last remaining sinews and vertebrae from the Impius’s body. Anique glanced up, readying herself to move in response to whatever came. She saw the vampire before her raising a pistol at Anique’s head. She focused her magic around her as the pistol cracked off a volley of shots. The bullets stopped a foot from where Anique was half crouched. A breeze blew gently through the clearing; Anique took it, rising harmlessly over the shoulder of the last Impius which had been knocked down by her shots, as it swiped down clumsily to where Anique had once been. The elf brought her blade above her head: allowing her own weight to add power to her strike as she fell through the arms of the demonic beast: cleanly removing its skull from its shoulders with the short sword.

The click of a loaded pistol sounded next to Anique’s right ear.

“Freeze girl.” Ordered the vampire woman; a silvery harshness in her beautiful soft voice.

The sound of the wind dancing through the trees brought music to Anique’s ears.

“No chance.” She smirked, as the gust of air took her into the mass of trees.

Anique landed gently on the soft ground of leaf-litter. She looked up to be greeted by a blurred image snaking its way through the trees towards her.

“I asked you to freeze.” The silvery voice of the woman purred in Anique’s ear.

“Shit.” Anique breathed; feeling her body start to loose strength and her vision begin to fade, “overload.”

The woman watched as the girl collapsed before her. She sighed in resignation; placing her hand on the elf’s head, reading her past as quickly and carefully as she could.

“So he is here.” She murmured to herself.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked behind her as she leant down to carry the girl back to her tribe.

“Do not worry; I will not harm your mistress. Or you could say I cannot.” She replied, not turning back to the Ethereal that had appeared behind her.

 

She groaned with discomfort: her head ached as if someone had poured lemon juice into her skull, before shaking her vigorously. Cautiously; she opened her eyes, to be greeted by a kindly silver bearded face.

“So how do you feel Prima?” He asked the girl.

Anique groaned again before answering, “A bit rough uncle, but that is expected from an overload.”

Maculus smiled at his niece’s words. “Well that is expected when fighting a group of five impius.”

Anique woke fully at those words, “How did you find out?”

“An old friend of mine told me.” He replied, he replied elusively, before continuing in annoyance, “An old lover of mine as well she was, the same person you saved and then were rude to.”

Anique looked at him quizzically annoyed. “What?”

“I used to be with your uncle when we were younger. That was when I was still an Arcanii.” Sounded a silvery female voice in a casual tone, “Then I was chosen for the splitting: even then it was our feelings that kept me from deteriorating into a blood addicted maniac, as most vampires are.”

Anique glanced towards where the elegant red haired vampire woman leaned nonchalantly against a sturdy wood tent post.

“Sorry. I just thought.” Began Anique.

“That I was a threat?” The woman finished with curiosity in her voice. “I do not blame you in that situation: although really the Impius were guarding me from running off. Did I mention how dull and insane most vampires are?”

“I think you may have said that already Fliss.” Maculus answered in a gently critical tone.

“I did?” She asked unsure

“Yes, pretty much Fliss.” Maculus replied.

“Oh well.” Fliss shrugged in unclear resignation, before leaving the tented construction.

 

Anique rested for the remainder of the day, except for waking to eat her evening meal. She had already submitted the rest of her report to Maculus. Her mind wandered as she slept until she emerged; walking down a long white-stone corridor, which merged into a colonnade running through a beautiful lush garden: with a stream of ponds running through it. Anique knew instinctively what she was wearing: what she always emerged here wearing: a long white dress which floated through the slight breezes like a silk cloud.

As always Meila walked beside her: a vaguely humanoid girl surrounded by a semi divine glow. When Meila was in the real world; although physically less defined she appeared more human than when she wandered in her own city. Meila was not the only Ethereal that Anique had met in her sixteen years, but she was the only one she met frequently. But then Meila was Anique’s guardian Ethereal, something uncommon or even rare amongst the elves. This time she could see a single Ethereal ahead of them: one that appeared very human.

“The more human they look; the less human they are.” She whispered to herself.

The two of them approached the Ethereal ahead of them: Her silver hair flowed elegantly over her thin shoulders: whilst her honey yellow eyes pierced Anique with a certain sharpness. Physically the Ethereal appeared not much older than a thirteen year old human: meaning that her partner was probably in their late teens or early twenties.

She nodded towards Meila who ran forwards: the two began conversing in their strange rhythmic language. Anique managed to catch one or two words but not as many as she would have liked. Even amongst the words she recognised, none of them were of any consequence: Anique was not even sure that the words she recognised were translated as they should be, in all honesty she did not know what was said: she could only guess words by their frequency.

The sound of an approaching rain shower distracted Anique from the Ethereal’s conversation. The neon green grass began to darken to a deep blood red hue as the arcane pink sky grew to a heavy shade of toffee marmalade. The downfall increased in volume within a matter of seconds, during which the two girls moved their heads closer together allowing them to communicate. With the conversation now drowned out, Anique absentmindedly turned her attention to her surroundings once again. Around her blood red liquid cascaded down from the roof of the colonnade, covering the entire panorama in a heavy sheen of infinite crimson darkness.

“Anique.” Intoned a grim; feminine teenage voice.

She turned towards the source of the voice: to be met by the tawny golden eyes of the silver haired girl.

“I am called Aoi.” She shouted across the din of the storm surrounding them, “My partner may require your assistance in the coming days: change is approaching. If the two of you survive long enough, we may meet again. There is word that you may become significant to us in the future according to a seer. But what role that is, I do not know.”

A prophecy? Questions as to the details of the prophecy began to run through Anique’s head.

“Why me? What makes me important, or your partner for that instance?”

Aoi smiled to Anique “At this stage not even the prophet who foresaw the possible events knows for sure, yet I am not mistaken of your importance in future events.”

Anique looked at the girl disgruntled at the answer given, the question was not quite answered and she had more to ask. “So who is this great prophet? Also who is your partner?”

“You will know who she is when you meet her: as for the prophet, be aware they may be closer than you expect, or they could be far off. Just hope you survive the week.” Aoi replied cryptically, not confirming anything that could be of use to Anique.

The priestess turned to look at her partner for answers as Aoi began to walk off down the long twisting corridors and streets of the white stone city. Meila glanced away, unable to meet Anique’s gaze.

“Is what Aoi said true?”

“As far as we can tell it will be. The details have yet to sort themselves out. It might be best to talk with your elders, if you survive the night that is.” Meila replied.

“What do you mean about that?” Anique asked as the blood red water began to spill over onto the flagstones and touch the edges of their feet.

“You will see.” Was all Meila would say as the city faded into the oblivion of transitional mist.

 

The sound of heavy rainfall greeted her as she woke. Around her the tent was empty of any other occupants. Anique knew that she would not see Meila for the rest of the week, going between the worlds like that seemed to take a large amount of energy.

Yet something seemed off in the air around her. Anique strained her ears to hear what it was. It fleeted by, hidden amongst the hustle and bustle of the camp. She rose gingerly from her bed, her bare feet padded along the lush leaf litter as she made her way towards her boots. Anique glanced up quickly: there it was. She pulled her boots on quickly, concern of the impending danger. The air outside the tent was cool, chilling Anique on contact. She shivered, but continued listening. She could tell from the surrounding tents and vehicles that she was near to the centre of the camp.

“Priestess. You are up now: I did not expect that.” Grovelled a member of the tribe camp: a human woman from a half elf family, the final link to show the last of their bloodline.

“Hush.” Responded Anique: in an audible silence. “There is something out there: what I cannot tell. Warn the Elders.”

The woman looked at Anique stunned, but she ignored her and paced onwards towards the perimeter of the camp.

There it was again: far off in the infinity dark mass of wood, mud and rock. Her thoughts drifted back to the group of soldiers she saw patrolling the valley earlier: she half hoped it was going towards them, but also hoped it was going elsewhere. Anique scolded herself for thinking that: anything mentioned by Ethereals are likely to occur, even though only one sixth of them were rumoured to be seers.

“There is danger out there priestess: I can smell it.” Murmured a gravelly voice; next to Anique.

She turned slightly towards the speaker to identify who it was. Finistrus: one of two Wulfen that had decided to help the tribe as best they could. Why they left their pack was not known except by the two brothers and the elders who accepted them.

“It seems that my ears are as sharp as your nose. I keep catching glimpses of danger on the winds: it appears for a second then goes.”

He looked up towards Anique from his crouched position.

“Have the Elders been informed?”

“I hope so, I sent someone to warn them: either that or we warn the camp by signalling a call to defend.”

“So what is your answer priestess?”

Anique breathed in: there was another priestess in the camp, one of destruction: yet she was getting on in age, unlikely to last the year out at a guess, so some of the responsibility fell to Anique.

“Call to defend.” She ordered with a stern flatness in her voice.

Finistrus nodded in acknowledgement before signalling three sharp barks in three blasts, the signal to call to arms, this was echoed by a succession of whistles down the line. The camp began to spring to life, with a multitude of elves running either to safety in the middle of the camp or to the perimeter defences and guard vehicles.

Finistrus handed a radio to Anique, which she took graciously. “This is Anique Prima Maculus. A threat to our tribe has been found: Its location is currently unknown, be prepared to engage it if required.”

Silence fell across the entire camp, everyone listening and watching out for the oncoming onslaught. Anique continued listening as well: the sound was defiantly there, a wild howling, almost human almost beast like, or was it both howling in unison. She tried her best to place what the noise was, she knew she had heard it before: of course, it was the same night she lost her old friends: the night when the camp was almost overrun by a horde of three things which truly terrified them: Impius, blood starved vampires and feral dark elves. It was on that night that the camp fell from being close to five hundred in strength to just over one hundred.

She listened as the invisible wave approached closer and closer in the deep darkness of the night.

A shot cracked across the silence of the camp as the screeching neared, followed by a yelp.

“Got one.” A male voice whispered in self-glorification.

Anique kept looking ahead into the tangle of trees: peering through the night sight of her rifle. Beside her both Finistrus and her uncle crouched prepared for the oncoming hell. Behind Anique knew that Fliss was standing with her rifle raised in the second rank.

Movement ahead and the sound of scurrying feet on leaves, caused Anique to track it with her rifle, even though she knew that her uncle was likely to see it fully before her, probably getting the kill shot in before she had chance to line up her sights. Anique half wished to have been born a few weeks later, then the elements would be right for her to share the same element as her uncle. Then again, it was useful in other ways.

Suddenly there was a noise far off to one side of the line: causing Anique to turn: the bloodthirsty mob of demonic attackers had impacted against the line. Anique Turned: training her rifle onto the skull of a large Impius which was lunging towards the knot of travellers. The bullet flew straight and true: slamming forcefully into its head: causing it to collapse momentarily, enough time for it to be dispatched. Two rifles fired in rapid unison around her: followed by a third and a fifth, then a tenth. Anique turned back to her original firing position to see the shapes emerging rapidly from the dense woodland. She struggled to keep track of the enemy numbers, but one thing was clear: there were too many for them to deal with unless. Anique stretched out her right hand: feeling the air gather densely around her arm. Suddenly she released it: causing a shockwave to ripple through the trees, ridding their opponents of their advantage whilst taking several of the Dark elves with it.

Pain began to fill Anique’s body, causing her to collapse: tremendous fatigue weighing her muscles down.

 

The howling continued for hours, yet it seemed more distant as the night went on. Anique was returned to bed, whilst others of the tribe carefully ventured out to finish off what remained of the assault force. Anique tried to rest as best as she could, yet the thought that she needed to see the elders nagged at her until she eventually drifted off without noticing into a peaceful sleep.