It’s… it’s not possible… Amethyst looked down at the single mud-covered sandal the elves found. Her heart thundering in her chest as her mind raced for any answer. She knew Hecatolite, her indomitable will, her overwhelming power, the odds of her sister losing a fight was… Impossible! Hecatolite was unstoppable… 

Memories of her sister's torn soul flashed through her mind, missing an arm, face scorched beyond recognition. Or the time she tried a “new skill”. A new memory pushed its way to the front of her mind, their own legs twisted and broken… Amethyst fought the urge to vomit as her hands trembled. 

“They say they will go back out tomorrow to search.” Wolf said solemnly, “but…” He was quickly silenced by a swift glare from Himari.

“Amethyst.” Himari said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder, in truth she knew Hecatolite was alive; though she couldn’t bring herself to say “safe”. Not that Himari actually thought Hecatolite herself was in any danger. Even if the entire forest descended on her, Himari felt Hecatolite would survive somehow. 

She thought briefly about Babylon’s news, the guardian of the forest… She was able to just refuse to die. Himari shuttered to think of what it would take to actually kill Hecatolite. She had been, despite everything, human when she was stabbed through the heart. 

Pushing that thought aside Himari turned her attention to the now pale Amethyst. She wanted to simply tell the young woman where Hecatolite was, having chased the bee back to its hive; she is currently harvesting the hive. But the system would keep her from sharing that much information…

“Wolf,” Amethyst called in barely a whisper, snapping Himari out of her thoughts. “Get the ship, bring the crew. If they can’t find her then we will do it ourselves.” 

“What?” Wolf turned to her; confusion clear on his face. 

“Go get the ship,” she snapped, pointing out into the bay. “We will search the whole forest if we have to!” 

“Amethyst,” Himari protested, “They already told us we can’t dock the ship here. We can’t force them to…” she paused when she heard a slight rustling noise, several of the elven soldiers taking up a defensive position at Amethyst's sudden movement.

“If they are giving up,” Amethyst hand blurred as she drew her sword pointing it towards Rilitar, “then what choice do we have.”

“They are not giving up,” Himari grabbed her arm, “They are just going to wait for the sun to come out tomorrow.” She gestured to the setting sun, “Hecatolite is more than capable of spending a night in the forest; not to mention what good will having the entire crew here do? Their pirates, none of them can even see in the dark. We would have to wait for the sun to come up regardless…” she stammered, rambling in an attempt to calm Amethyst as Wolf immediately held his hands out towards the Elves, trying to placate them as they drew their weapons. 

Himari was thankful Amethyst had taken to wearing Hecatolite’s filled bands, the mage bane waslikely the only thing holding her back from simply teleporting to the ship; the thought that Amethyst likely had more than enough power to simply force the spell to work crossed her mind, though the possibility of leaving the bands behind if she did likely kept her from trying. 

“What exactly is going on here?” A voice boomed up the street, freezing the elven soldiers in their place as everyone’s attention snapped to the two figures rounding the bend into the abandoned town. 

A mixture of emotions flashed between everyone present. Himari was thankful to see Eryl, calmly walking up the path. Her emotionless expression brought a calm to the situation allowing Himari to relax as Eryl scanned the crowd. 

Amethyst however felt something very different, something deeper as her sister’s words slammed into her mind. He's as strong as dad… the fur on her back stood as she locked eyes with the man, her hand tightening around the grip of her sword as she involuntarily stepped back. If Hecatolite was here, Amethyst was sure she could do something about this man, the one she said she didn’t trust. Her sister would protect her… she always protected her… 

Amethyst’s heart thundered in her ears as a truth that she had denied; no not so much as denied, just never realized. Hecatolite always protected me… suddenly for the first time in a very long time, Amethyst felt weak. Without her sister here to shield her, to support her; against a single man that was as strong as her father.

Her entire body betrayed her as she shook, her eyes locking with the elven man who flooded the empty street with a torrent of mana that washed over her. Her breaths became ragged as the reality sank in, suddenly everything seemed clear in her mind as her focus narrowed on the man; she was outnumbered, basically alone against an entire group of heavily armed soldiers along with a high-powered mage. It was strange, her entire world felt as if it narrowed to a pinpoint, the tip of her sword pointed at the elven mage. He is the biggest threat....

Amethyst jumped as a figure appeared beside her, all her training paying off as her sword flashed towards the figure only for her hand to be violently grabbed, stopping her swing. Her entire world spun as she found herself suddenly tumbling through the air. With a thud she slammed into the ground, the air being forced from her lungs as she landed flat on her back.

She scrambled to sit up only to find herself pinned under someone, “Amethyst,” A monotone voice slammed though her as the world finally came back into focus. She wheezed, looking up to find Eryl pinning her to the ground, a knee on her chest as one of Eryl’s hands pinned her arm, the elven woman’s full weight holding Amethyst in place. “Please, calm down.”

24.2

Eryl was surprised to see the normally levelheaded Amethyst brandishing a sword towards the Elven guards. Wolf and Himari attempting to defuse the situation, though it was clear that any moment now a fight was about to break out. She had to do something, if Amethyst were to lose control she could be just as dangerous as Hecatolite. No, she would be worse. Eryl thought, realizing that if Amethyst were to attack, eventually Hecatolite would join into the mayhem and then there would be no stopping them. 

No, she couldn’t let that happen. She had to do something, figure out what happened… She saw an opening, the abrupt change in Amethyst posture as she pointed her sword at Astari. Eryl could see Amethyst's eyes suddenly shift as her blessings began to form on her skin, but it was clear she was not paying attention, not scouting the area with mana…

Faced with a Deity, Eryl knew she was at a disadvantage; hells, even if Amethyst wasn’t a divine soul in all reality Eryl would still be at a power disadvantage. It wasn’t so much that Eryl was weak, but not having a proper “soul” came with significant drawbacks. She was master of all magics, able to cast any spell with vast knowledge to create intricate spells and operate the very system itself but the main weakness was she was slow. 

Her own soul being a construct, Eryl lacked a proper “affinity” for magic, she could still use magic but without the natural connection to a mana type she would always need to form a circle and chant; unlike Amethyst who had a space affinity, allowing her to “cut corners” when casting spatial magic such as negating chanting or being able to use a simple spell circle for a higher level spell. Eryl could “teleport” as the younger woman did, but she would need form a complex spell circle in her mind, focus on it and likely chant for nearly a minute to convert enough of her own mana into “spatial mana” to do so; even then, it would be highly ineffective use of mana.

But, with Amethyst distracted she had a chance. She had enough time to cast a simple spell, nothing fancy, a simple boost to her speed. 

“Step of the wind”; flooding the spell with twice the normal mana might have been overkill, but the result was impressive. Appearing beside Amethyst in a spray of dirt, Eryl couldn’t help but be relieved she reacted by simply swinging her sword. If Amethyst had immediately begun teleporting around, or rapidly switching the position of her sword Eryl might have been in trouble, but, in a straight up fight Eryl had the advantage of not only size but experience. 

She was surprised that, even after being pinned to the ground, Amethyst did not pull on her magical power to fight back… “Amethyst please, calm down.” Eryl said, looking down at the young Deity beneath her.