“I shouldn’t have taken this job,” Elaina grumbled, wiping her plastered hair from her forehead for what felt like the hundredth time. The persistent patter of the rain in the forest around them almost drowned out her complaints. She’d left town as quickly as possible to make up for what she perceived as lost time.

Elaina had been out here for hours, and so far, the only thing she had to show for her trouble was every last inch of her body being soaked through. It would have been mildly annoying in any situation, but with the extra armor and gear she was carrying, it was much more of a slog. The only saving grace she had in all of it was the road itself. Constructed expertly by the Solacine Imperium in the days when Zelmesca was one of its provinces, the road had given her firm footing that would have been sorely missed anywhere else. The roads were all over Zelmesca, some in better conditions than others, with this one being one of the better ones she’d traveled so far. She was soaked, but at least she wasn’t covered in mud.

It was worth noting that besides the rain and the trees on either side of the road, there hadn’t been much else out here. It was the kind of thing that might bore a person to tears if they didn’t know what to expect out here. Paeral, like many of the other patrons in his establishment, had many stories about the area and the dangers it held. Knowing what to expect kept her on high alert, with a hand resting on the pommel of her sword at all times. The redhead would be ready at a moment’s notice to empower her weapon and draw it on any who would intend her harm.

Elaina was a Swordmage, specially trained to combine the magic in her blood to augment her combat abilities. Her weapon could be made lighter, sharper, and more durable, while her own physical capabilities could be enhanced to make her stronger, faster, and more durable in a similar fashion. Though the training she had received in her magic was relatively rudimentary compared to the formal Swordmage orders of the region, her training in the blade had not been lacking in the least. She’d been instructed by one of the finest Swordsmen in Zelmesca, a vampire named Alister, who had trained her on her sister’s behalf.

Elaina had been on her way south to Tenebre Dontae to see if she might have been able to receive additional training on the more magical aspects of her swordsmanship. Alister had been an excellent teacher, but Elaina felt it was time to add a few more tricks to her repertoire if she was going to hold her own in the world. She’d read some texts that referenced the skills and abilities of the warriors of the Vishanti, a race distantly related to the vampires in the south. The sooner she finished things up here in Zelmesca, the sooner she could move on.

There’d been no sign of the caravan, or anyone on the road for that matter. Despite being the only road connecting South Gate to the rest of the realm, it appeared completely deserted. Considering the weather, Elaina wasn’t sure if that could be regarded as unusual. She hadn’t spotted any sign of a struggle, wagons that had veered off the road, or anything indicating that the caravan had come through here. So she tracked further and further north along the road, keeping her head on a swivel for any indication that someone had been here in the last few days.

By noon, the rain had eased to a light drizzle, allowing Elaina the chance to get up under a willow just off the road to sit down and have something to eat from her pack. It was nothing special, just an apple and some old hard cheese, but getting off her feet for a little bit was worth it. The ground under the willow was relatively dry, so she pulled her boots off while she ate to let her feet dry off, hanging her stockings off of one of the tangled roots. She didn’t expect them to dry out much. For that, she would need to wait until later when she could get a fire going, but every little bit would help. Her feet were already beginning to look a little worse for wear from the walk in the rain.

Now that she was out of the rain, she could better appreciate the natural beauty of her surroundings, gloomy as they were. There was a certain majesty that it all had, covered in green and flourishing despite the corruption that had seeped into it from so far away. Elaina couldn’t help but wonder how much more inspiring it would be once the corruption was cleansed from the waters and it was all allowed to return to its natural state. She wondered if it was strange to feel such a sense of peace and optimism in a place like this, being that it was so much different from where she’d grown up. Places like this, though, overrun by the power of nature, always seemed to appeal to her. This was, perhaps specifically, because she’d spent so much of her life locked in a castle.

As Elaina took another bite of the hard cheese, she felt a strange feeling down the back of her neck, one that made the hair stand up on end. It felt distinctly like someone had walked up behind her, but when she whirled around to look, all that was there was the tree trunk she was sitting under. Confused, the swordmage stood, despite being in her bare feet.

“Hello?” she called, but the only sound to answer her was the continuously drizzling rain thrumming against every surface around her.

Elaina took a few steps to one side, glancing around the tree trunk and trying to see through the curtain of the willow beyond, “Who’s there?”

Again there was no answer, only the rain. But even as her eyes told her that she was alone, she still felt a presence lingering somehow just beyond her perception. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she drew her weapon, “Whoever it is, I don’t want a fight. But I have plenty in me when I’m pushed!”

Again, nothing. She walked up to the edge of the willow’s curtain, where the ground started to become moist again and peered out into the gloom of the swamp. She remained that way, completely still with her sword at the ready, for what felt like several minutes. There was a space between some larger trees several dozen feet away that felt like something was there, staring back at her. It was like being stared at by someone concealed entirely in darkness, but as dreary and overcast as it was, it wasn’t dark enough to hide anyone. Yet the feeling would not leave her; it wouldn’t cease.

“Hm,” Elaina grunted. As persistent as the feeling was, nothing had come of it, and she couldn’t afford to stand here all day having a staring contest with swamp trees. She glanced around one last time before returning to her spot amid the gnarled roots and began packing her things back up. If ever there was a sign that break time was over, this was it.

The socks hadn’t dried out much, nor had the boots, but there was no time to quibble over such things. Not only did she have people to find, but she now had a persistent feeling of being watched following her around. Once she was packed and back on the road, the feeling faded only for a short time before it returned. It was hard to tell if it was paranoia at this point or if it was genuinely something following her, unseen and unheard somehow.

As Elaina tracked further north along the road, more ruins appeared amid the trees. Old broken stone pillars, statues, and crumbled walls from things built long ago lay half-submerged in murky water and mossy mud on either side of the road. Paeral had informed her that travelers would often use the more intact ruins as places to make camp, so this was where she was most expecting to find signs of people having come through here. The trick would be separating those signs from those of the people she was trying to find. If she were lucky, she would stumble upon them behind schedule due to a broken wheel or some other mundane issue. The further she traveled, the less likely that felt to her.

Once again, Elaina drew her weapon to have at the ready. This was where things were going to get tricky. She would have to call out in case someone was lying injured somewhere out of her line of sight. In doing so, she would be alerting anyone who might intend harm upon travelers exactly where she was. The risks were high, so it was best to be prepared.

“Hello!” she shouted, “Is anyone out there? If you’re hurt, I’m here to help!”

Carefully, Elaina picked her way off the road to wind her way through the ruins and undergrowth. Though she tried to remain mostly on firm ground, it was impossible to do at all times, eventually leading to her being covered in mud up to her thighs. She continued to call out, hoping that someone would answer but got no reply. How much time she spent shouting into an empty swamp was verging on the ridiculous. The feeling of being watched had only intensified, and the light of the day was beginning to fade, and with it, the temperatures started to drop.

It was time to call it and make camp, but even as the thought entered her head, she heard a faint male voice call out in the night.

“Help!” it pleaded fearfully, “Please! I can’t walk!”

Immediately Elaina picked up the pace, surging forward with renewed vigor, “Where are you?”

“This way! Please, hurry. My leg is broken!” the voice answered ahead of her. Or at least it seemed as though it was ahead of her. The rain had slowed almost entirely to a stop, and both she and the unknown person’s voices were echoing wildly off the trees. Every move she made created some wet squelching or sloshing, further complicating her ability to pin the source of the voice down.

“I’m coming; just hang in there!” she yelled back, finding a strip of more solid ground where she could break into a run, “Keep talking so that I can find you!”

“Hurry!” he responded, the fear growing in his voice. It sounded like it was coming from her left now, so Elaina pivoted and bolted through an opening between some gnarled trees. She would have to carry him out if he had a broken leg. If it was an open wound, then he was likely in much worse shape than perhaps even he realized.

“Do you have any light? Something to signal with?”

“What? No. Why are you doing this? I just need you to help me!”

Elaina felt a cold feeling run up her back, accompanied by a swell of confusion, “Please stay calm; I’m coming. I just... I can’t see you!”

“I’m right here!” the voice was more frustrated, this time coming from her right. It should have been coming from just ahead of her based on what she’d been listening for earlier.

“...Are you moving?”

“N-No! How can I? My leg is *Broken!* Gods, please don’t let me die out here.”

“You’re not going to die out here!” but even as she said it, she had no idea if it was true. The voice had moved yet again, shifting just slightly ahead of her and once more to the left.

“Don’t leave me!” the man’s voice cried, “Where are you going!?”

This time the voice was... behind her. Elaina slowed to a stop, glancing around frantically. It had grown much darker, and she was almost knee-high in swamp water with little idea of where the road was. This wasn’t right. It was all wrong.

“Fuck,” she growled under her breath as the pleas for help continued to echo through the trees, now joined by additional voices. She’d been had, and now whatever it was generating the calls for help was taunting her with more.

Elaina closed her eyes and began to replay the movements she’d made through the trees in reverse as best as she could. She’d been moving at different speeds due to the mud and the water, but she was pretty confident she could navigate her way back if she was careful. She didn’t know if whatever lured her out here would allow her to reach the road. Likely it was the same entity, or entities, that had been watching her for most of the day. A swell of fear rose in her, a familiar panic from when she was much younger, accompanied by a sense of dread and impending doom.

“Sh sh shhh,” she hissed to herself in an effort to calm her nerves, “Don’t panic. Focus. You’re not helpless; you just have to stop and think.”

The first thing she had to do, was get a lay of the land. To do that, she was going to need to see. That, at least, was something she could handle easily enough. With a brief effort of will, she was able to ease a small portion of the magic within her out through her fingertips and into her sword. As the spell took hold, the blade of the weapon began to glow a soft blue which grew gradually brighter as she mentally made adjustments to it. Usually, she would use red light because it somehow didn’t interfere with her ability to see in the dark. Right now, she needed to see as much around her as possible. The soft blue shifted slightly toward white, casting eerie warped shadows in all directions around her.

“Alright, what do we got here,” the swordmage muttered to herself as she took stock of her surrounding, “Lots of trees. Roots. Moss. Shitty water. Shitty murky water..”

As she lowered the blade toward the surface of the water, she could see how much cloudier it was in the places she had passed through. Each footstep she had taken had churned up more mud and sediment on the bottom, leaving a shifting trail of brown clouds in the dark water behind her.

“Okay, that’s a start,” she assured herself, following the winding cloud of sediment back the way she had come. All around her, the calls for help intensified, becoming accusatory of abandoning them to die in the swamp. It was maddening, a cacophony of echoing blame being hurled at her from every direction. She suspected that was the point, so she did her best to put it out of her mind by mentally narrating what she was doing and what she intended to do next.

She returned to the strip of solid ground she’d bounded across, her tracks visible by the light of the glowing sword. Once across it, she was back down into the water, with enough sediment still floating around to continue following her trail back. The sound of the pleading around her began to recede now that it was no longer affecting her. Eventually, everything fell back into silence, and her confidence grew. But just as it had risen to the point that she was now much calmer, it was suddenly shattered by a large chunk of something that dropped into the water just in front of her with an immense splash.

Now she was covered head to toe in the muddy waters, and the cloudy trail she had been following was completely obscured by the heavy object that had narrowly missed her. Her movement to spring backward only added to the disturbance in the water around her.

“Oh, come the fuck on! Are you serious with this shit!?” she shouted into the dark, her glowing blade shimmering just below the water at her side before she lifted it again. From the trees, her voice came back at her, not as an echo but as a perfect mimicry of what she sounded like.

“Oh, come the fuck on!” the voices repeated back at her from seemingly every direction. She let out a wordless scream of frustration, and again the voices came back at her as an exact duplication of her voice.

Elaina scrambled to find any sign of the path she had been following before, but it was pointless. Every inch of the water around her that the light could reach was clouded with that muddy sediment. With one foot, she felt around under the water in front of her, bumping up against a large chunk of stone. Likely an errant part of the ruins lying around before it had been lobbed in her direction. Before her fear could rise too far within her, she repeated the process earlier of calming herself. She'd die here for sure if she lost control and focus.

It was strong, whatever it was. Likely it was one of the fiendish gargoyles that Paeral had described to her. And while he did not mention sound mimicry, he had explicitly said they had an aversion to bright light. The chunk of stone thrown at her could just as easily have been an attempt to snuff the sword’s light out as it was to confuse her backtracking. She was fairly certain that it was something that she could use. She didn’t know if it was one creature or many, but if they were willing to attack sources of light, she might be able to use that to draw them out.

Elaina hunched over slowly as her voice continued to assault her ears. She'd heard no one liked the sound of their own voice, but this was probably one of the worst circumstances in which one could be subjected to it. She lowered herself into the foul-smelling water, up to her shoulders, reaching down with her free hand until she could feel the mud against her gloved fingertips.

With a large glob of mud in one hand, Elaina brought it up out of the water as she slowly stood back upright. Squeezing it firmly, she was able to wring some excess moisture from it, forming it into a crude ball shape. She turned it over a few times, repeating the process to continue shaping the surface of the mud ball as the noise continued in the darkness beyond the light. She’d never done something like this with her magic before, but she couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work. Her being a swordmage didn’t mean she could only perform magic with a sword. She’d done it with various tools in the past to improve their efficacy, but never something so crude.

“Laugh it up,” Elaina grumbled as she once more pushed a portion of her magical ability down through her fingertips. This time, instead of bestowing it upon her sword, she placed it into the body of the mud ball. Elaina smirked as the ball of mud flickered briefly before emitting a bright white light. It wouldn’t last long, but she wouldn’t need it to.