#the warden of the silver hand was an assholeee

[sheabutterskyes]

The Mask of White Waters

XLIII | Clarity | Part 2/2

Content warning: Blood, Violence, 

–

There were three Envisioners standing around a small fire, voices low, but energy tense. Two men and one woman – each of them tracing sigils in the loosest layer of dirt, and none of them aware that they were being watched.

Caia was unable to identify if there was a warden present. They all wore similar and ordinary clothing, scarfs hiding any identifying marks on their necks.

A night-bird’s call echoed through the make-shift camp once, and then twice before someone looked around and nudged their companion.

“Hear that?” she asked quietly.

“Why are you spooked? Never seen a masked warrior?”

All three of them had straightened up now, but none amused.

“That was a joke… even Marlowe hasn’t seen one.”

The second man shook his head.

Caia waited for a third call before breaking a branch over their knee and tossing it towards the humans.

The panic was instantaneous in two of them, the pair stumbling into each other before summoning power to their fingertips.

The other, Marlowe, slowly turned to face Caia’s direction.

If there was a warden among the group, it was him.

A branch was thrown from the other side of camp, and the pair once again startled and changed directions.

Marlowe did not move.

Caia nodded at that, and began to move away, disregarding their hiding spot. They moved slowly at first, waiting for the Envisioner to catch sight of them.

By the time he had decided a course of action, the others had already been lured away, recklessly throwing out their powers.

Marlowe cursed beneath his breath, looking back towards his comrades, and then back at Caia before turning his back completely to the masked warrior and racing to get the others.

He was smart. Though this now left Lueth outnumbered.

Caia quickly went to accompany them, finding one of the Envisioners bleeding on the forest floor along the way.

They almost hesitated.

Almost.

They should have known that when it came to Envisioners it would not be so straightforward to simply lead them away and end it there.

When Marlowe found his last remaining comrade, she was shivering.

“Kyran was supposed to be meeting us out here. What if he gets caught alone?”

He reached out to grab her shoulder, “Kyran will be alright… where is Domenic?”

She shrugged his hand away, “They got him.”

Her hoarse voice was nearly a whisper, yet rang loud and clear to Caia.

The Envisioners fell silent.

Lueth’s voice was the next thing they heard.

“If we push them slightly closer to the village, they will likely turn back for the night.”

Caia nodded, “Good. Push them.”

Lueth was fast and nimble and all but silent. Caia could hardly follow their movements... until Marlowe had decided enough was enough. There were sigils forming around his feet, glowing as if the very heart of the earth was becoming exposed. It shined in his eyes before he uttered a single word and threw his hands towards the surrounding darkness.

Trees snapped, birds took to the sky, and Caia saw how Lueth had barely escaped being hit.

Perhaps Lueth was fast, but that had been too close.

Caia removed their mask.

The branches scratched at their face, the ground beneath their feet uneven and slippery from damp leaves. Every other step, the night erupted with light and energy, and Lueth was no longer the hunter, but the hunted.

Caia quickened their pace, attempting to get to Lueth and pull them away. The Envisioner’s methods were familiar. This was a warden they were dealing with.

Somehow, the two Envisioners had closed in, and Lueth had begun to slow down just enough to be knocked back a time or two.

Caia hesitated behind a large tree, catching Lueth’s gaze.

The moment they took a breath they felt a new rise of energy in the air, and pushed away from the tree, grabbing onto Lueth roughly, throwing them down to the ground just as a powerful torrent caught Caia and sent them crashing into a tree.

They hit the ground and rolled over, scrambling to their hands and knees only to be hit again. The pain was not as harsh as they recalled, even as blood dripped down onto their hands as they pushed themselves back up.

The warden was close now, yet there was no anger in his energy.

It was not until he turned away in surprise that Caia realized there had been a furious ringing in their ears drowning out the sounds around them.

They glanced around for any sight of Lueth as they shakily got to their feet.

“Stop!”

The new voice was the first to greet them as the ringing subsided.

Marlowe held his hands out in warning, which did not stop the person from approaching. The man all but crashed into the warden as he immediately caught sight of Caia.

There was a moment of clarity as they stared back. But it was quickly lost to confusion and a wave of weariness as they stumbled onto a sigil in the dirt, one that had likely been placed there earlier.

It was a heavy, tired feeling that pulled them back down to the ground.

“Don’t kill them,” the newcomer pleaded.

“Kyran,” the warden started.

Caia blinked, feeling themselves fading.

“I can’t, I can’t let y-you.”

There was an extended silence, and when the warden replied, they could not make out the words. All they knew for sure before fading completely, was that the Envisioners were moving away from them.

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TG -> @alwolfe​