At the moment when the red light became too blinding, Lalauri did her best to shield herself as the space in front of her became overwhelmed with the sounds of barking hounds and the shaking of the earth. She could hear the shrieking of the mutants too as whatever had attacked them from above seemingly tore them to shreds. Lalauri forced her eyes open, though. She had to try and get back to the cave to make sure the girl was alright. Quickly getting back on her feet, she did her best to run around the field of light and the battle scene that it was hiding.
The entire inside of the cave was bathed in the red light, including Keridwen. While she was no longer crying in pain, the girl was shivering and had an incredibly high fever.
“I don’t know…” said Lalauri, tears welling up in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m sorry, little one. Of all the people you could have had as your rescuer, it happened to be me. The one who loses everyone. I’m cursed and now you will be my latest casualty…I don’t know how to help you. I don’t know how to save you from this place…”
“Do not be afraid…” the deep voice came from outside the cave entrance, from within the wall of red light. “We have been sent to aid you.” Finally, the light began to fade considerably. The red light turned to a soft warm glow like twilight, and Lalauri could finally make out what the source of it was: at the entrance of the cave stood five great and shaggy dogs—Giant Mastiffs no less. Their fur was a mixture of golden blonde and black fur, and woven into their fur was a sort of mirage of a star-filled night sky. Lalauri watched in amazement as shooting stars dashed across the celestial dogs’ fur.
“What…who are you, celestials?” Lalauri asked, cradling the girl in her arms to protect her.
It was the hound in the front that responded. “We are The Hounds of Twilight…Daughter of Twilight.”
“How…how do you know who I am?”
“We were forged by your Heavenly Father, Yggomni, and sent by His son, Lorraullion, The White Faun, to be your guardians. It was also He that gave you the strength and speed you needed to escape and protect the little girl now behind you.”
“Yggomni sent you? But why? Why would he allow for all this? This adytum is now lost!”
“It is not lost.” said one of the other hounds. “Yggomni has chosen you to be the one to begin the cleansing of this holy land, and in doing so allow it the chance to begin healing so that it may act as a sanctuary for others.”
“In order to do this,” said the first hound. “You must retrieve the Anthem.”
Before Lalauri could object, the little girl stirred in her arms.
“Did you…I saw you dogs attack my parents…did you kill them? Did you kill my mommy and daddy?” Tears began welling up in her eyes just as she began to sob loudly. “Why would you do that?”
The hounds stared at her, and for a moment, Lalauri thought she saw something like genuine concern flash in their eyes.
“I am sorry, little one.” said the first hound. “Your parents—along with the rest of the people in this village—had chosen to walk down a path that ultimately led to their deaths. Their magic consumed them entirely and had no one intervened, they would have consumed you for your magic.”
Of course, this did little to comfort Keridwen or calm her down in any way, and Lalauri—having lost loved ones more times than she cared to remember—knew far too well the pain she was being forced to endure.
“Please,” Lalauri looked up at the four hounds. “If it is Yggomni’s will that I am to purge Panok and his scions from this land, then show us a way out of here so that I may reclaim Anthem and use it to fight him.”
“Very well, but first…” The first of the hounds walked closer towards them, lowered his head, and the stars of his empyrean body—as well as the bodies of the other hounds—began to increase again in brightness. “By the power bestowed on us by Holy Yggomni the Father, Lorraullion His Son, and The Living Light, I hereby command your wounds to heal and in doing so encourage your souls to be uplifted, Children of the Faun.”
Lalauri then finally gave a sigh of genuine relief as her wounds were healed by the divine power bestowed on the hounds by the Godhead. Then the same warm power washed over Keridwen, and the little girl’s crying began to cease somewhat for it.
“Th…thank you.” Keridwen sniffled.
“You’re welcome, child. Now come. We must hurry to reach the sword before the enemy thinks to seek it out first.”
*
As the Hounds led the two out of the cave, Lalauri looked up in the sky and gasped; the skies were filled with clouds that shimmered with a phosphorus green light. And above the clouds, the silhouettes of various obscured winged beasts of all sorts and shapes flew overhead. Lalauri had both seen and heard of moments like this, though not in a very long time. Whenever a fell-muse powerful enough to earn the title of a Living Idol was getting ready to march out and wreak havoc on the Mortal Plane, they would first gather their war host. Lesser fell-muses—demons—as well as all sorts of monsters and corrupted spirits would gather in the heavens in anticipation of whatever plans their dark masters would be preparing to unleash. Lalauri shuddered to think what would happen if Panok was allowed to leave with his army at full strength—what she saw now in the skies and what she had seen with the mutant villagers was already enough to cause alarm.
After the Hounds assured them that they would use their powers to conceal them all from the demonic beasts flying above so they could travel uninterrupted to where Anthem was, Lalauri and Keridwen hopped onto the back of the largest of the Hounds of Twilight and they floated safely into the air and away from the cliff side. Lalauri sent up a prayer of thanks to the White Faun, still, she had to admit that now things were complicated even further. With Keridwen’s parents dead, what was she to do with the girl once all of this was over? Did she even have any other relatives? Then she realized that if the girl did, they would have been amongst the other villagers and therefore thoroughly corrupted or otherwise dead like the others. This brought up an interesting question, though: if the other villagers ended up so corrupted by the fell power that Panok brought them, how did Keridwen manage to resist it?
Unless of course, she didn’t. Perhaps she was never fully exposed to the corruption that Panok had inflicted her people with. Would doing so have made it impossible for the demon to use her in his ritual? Yes, that must have been it. For the resurrection spell that Panok was casting, Keridwen’s seemingly vast well of magic would have had to remain untainted in order for—
“Excuse me, Miss Knight? What’s your name?” Keridwen asked, looking up at her with large eyes.
“Oh? Oh!” said Lalauri, snapping back to reality. “I’m sorry, little one. I was just lost in my thoughts. What was it that you were asking me?”
“Your name? You never told me it.”
“Oh…I’m sorry. My name is Lalauri. Lalauri Imafenduwell.”
Then to Lalauri’s mild shock, the girl smiled up at her weakly. “It’s nice to meet you…I know that you know my name already, but if you want, you can just call me Keri. That’s…that’s what most people called me in Khar Vell anyway.”
“Well, alright then…Keri…if that’s what you’d prefer, then that’s what I’ll call you.” Lalauri felt awkward—she wasn’t really sure what to say next. Give her monsters to fight and she could handle that with ease. However, when placed in a situation where she had to make conversation, she often felt very much at a loss as to what was the best thing to say, despite her several millennia of interacting with others. That’s what she got for avoiding others for a good chunk of that time and being imprisoned for another large swath of her life. Then she remembered Sir Anxo and how often he would be the exception to that rule. The young paladin was always enjoyable to talk to, now that she thought about it…she tried in vain to push down the tears welling in her eyes when she thought of him—her friend. One of the few real friends she had had. Gone like most of the others from this world—from this life.
Thankfully, Keridwen did not seem to be waiting on her to say anything else. Instead, she looked past Lalauri and forward into the night sky as the Hounds of Twilight carried them through the starry sky toward the edge of the village of Khar Vell.
“Can I ask you something, Miss Lalauri? Why did the White Faun let this happen? Why is He letting us go through such a horrible night when he knows it scares me? I feel like I’m having one of my nightmares again, only I keep pinching myself but I won’t wake up. I don’t even have mommy or daddy to tell me everything is alright now…so why did He let all of this happen?”
“That’s a very…complicated thing you ask me, little—Keri…I’m not sure if I can speak for Him, but I think I might be able to give you a best guess as to what He intended for these recent events.” Keridwen looked up at her with new tears in her eyes, and Lalauri couldn’t help but think of all the people she had just lost in this single day alone. Good people. Paladins—fellow champion-knights that had served with her as they tried to restore peace to the Greater Wilderness and the Free Border Dominions of Tesardess within. War-Pastor Gennady and his son, Sir Anxo, Lady Aine, Sir Axlan, Lady Christabel, Sir William, and Sir Besian—they all had lives, hopes, and dreams of their own, which now would never be realized.
“We live in a dark and fallen world, little one—Keri. Sometimes…sometimes bad things happen and there’s simply no reason for it. But the White Faun allows us to endure difficult times in order to strengthen us— in order to make a horrible situation bear a silver lining. Hard times can be a funny thing—they can either break us, if we let them, or they can reforge us into something stronger. I believe that’s why He lets us go through trials such as this. The hope is that we trust Him enough to let him reforge us and make us stronger through the struggle we endure in times like this. It’s also a chance for us to meet with Him and get closer to him so that we can rely on Him more.”
The child had no response to this. She simply sat there quietly, hanging onto Lalauri as they flew onward.
“Miss Lalauri…”
“Yes?”
“If we make it out of here, what happens then? What happens to me? Where do I go?”
Now it was Lalauri’s turn to say nothing for a minute. She simply did not know what to say other than, “Do not worry. I will…I will make sure that you are taken care of, though.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure you are safe and that your needs will be taken care of.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“We have arrived!” said the hound they were riding on, saving Lalauri from having to come up with an answer that she did not have yet.
The five empyrean Hounds gracefully dove down to the fountain near the entrance of Khar Vell where the whole night had started. All of the bodies of her fallen allies were long gone. Perhaps they were taken for some other foul purpose—maybe to be used as undead slaves or for another ritual entirely. Perhaps, when all of this was over, she could organize a search for their bodies so that they could be properly laid to rest. What had not been cleaned up from the blood-stained scene were the bodies of the mutated villagers that they had managed to slay before they were captured. Apparently, Panok cared little for laying his dead to rest.
In the middle of the corpses, sticking proudly out of the back of one of the villagers was the Anthem; never one to enjoy being stained with the enemy’s blood for long, the blade had apparently cleansed itself of any such impurity. The waning light of the pale moon above them shimmered on the empyrean-steel blade, bolstering its unearthly twilight glow.
“We shall leave you here.” said the Hound they were riding on. “Reclaim Anthem from the corpse and use it to take on Panok. Use the sword’s power, Anthem’s Vengeance, by letting it tear into the foul flesh of the Enemy’s demonic kinfolk. But wait until the sun begins to rise so that the blade may be used at the zenith of its power.”
“Yes, alright. Thank you, I will.” said Lalauri. “But what about the girl?”
“We will take her outside of Khar Vell and wait there with her for your return once you have finished in this adytum.”
Lalauri nodded in return. “Alright…very well then.”
“Good luck, Miss Lalauri!” Keridwen said over her shoulder as she let the Hounds guide her out to safety. “I will pray for you! Do well!”
“Thank you, little one.” Lalauri smiled. “I will do my…my very best…” But as the child disappeared through the hidden entrance with her new guardians, a wave of uneasiness and dismay washed over her like a tidal wave. She did not have to wonder why.
This little girl was counting on her, just like her allies did. Would she meet the same fate? Had she just given the poor girl false hope? What if Panok did defeat her and then simply strutted his way out of the adytum to recollect Keridwen? Would the Hounds of Twilight be enough to stop him from doing so? Lalauri did not doubt their power—she could sense their power when she was near them—but would they be powerful enough to stop a living idol?
Lalauri then shook her heavy head. Of course they were powerful enough. Those celestials could protect Keridwen far better than she ever could. In fact…if anything were to happen to her, there would probably be no better custody for the girl to be in than in their own. Or perhaps they could even deliver her to stay with Lalauri’s grandmother in the Jordlands after she was gone…yes. Perhaps it was time to finally let go of all her stress and worries. For real this time.
No more losing anyone dear to her, and no more losing anyone that dared to try to get to know her either. Could the trail of death that she had laid in her wake after all this time finally end here in this fallen sanctuary? She never once considered simply letting Panok kill her—of course not! She would never just stand there and demand that the enemy kill her. But…what if she just did not—or could not give it her all? What if she only did her best? What if after a long day and night of fighting and hiding, in the middle of a final battle with Panok and his forces, her strength were to simply just…fail her at just the moment when the enemy’s weapons were about to strike her? What if she just allowed them to—
“Daughter of Twilight,” said the largest of the Hounds, and Lalauri was surprised to hear a low growl coming from the depths of its empyrean throat. “Panok is not the only one who can read minds, elf. Come stand before me. Now.”
