Vel liked to think that once, long ago, she’d enjoyed being within forests. It wasn’t true, of course, but she’d certainly hated them in the time before the end of the world for different reasons. The mosquitos, the mud, the branches and brambles tearing at her dresses… they’d all seemed like such pressing impositions.
Her fingers tightened around the handle of her lantern as she pushed through a curtain of vines and leaves. It was the middle of the night, and the wavering glow given off by her light felt woefully inadequate for its intended purpose. Every snap of twig in the distance set her to squinting into the darkness. Every flutter of wind made the forest move with apparent hostility, branches swaying toward her like grasping arms.
“Lilian,” she whispered. “I’ve told you before that I can hardly see in sections like this.”
There was no reply, and Vel felt a surge of annoyance that bordered on pettiness toward her friend. It was more a product of the situation than a fact. No one had forced her to leave Silke and journey across the ruined countryside. She’d chosen this for herself.
“Lilian!” she hissed, stomping her foot against the dirt.
A hand clamped down on her shoulder and she spun around, nearly smashing her lantern against a tree in surprise. She took a breath, recognizing Lilian’s dark eyes and letting go of a portion of her tension.
“Someone’s feeling antsy.” Lilian flashed a wide smile, nearly baring her fangs, and gently massaged her fingers into Vel’s shoulder. “Do you want to stop for a bit? Recollect ourselves?”
“I don’t need to stop,” said Vel, prickling with frustration. “I just… You go so far ahead. I can’t navigate this terrain as easily as you can. This lantern barely gives off any light!”
“That’s the point,” said Lilian. “The last thing we’d wish to do out here is… well, you know . Give ourselves away.”
The threat of the revenants never went away completely, regardless of where they were or how they traveled. They traveled by night, for Lilian’s sake. She did the scouting, assessing potential paths forward before coming back to lead Vel, a workable, if slightly condescending arrangement.
“How far are we?” whispered Vel.
Lilian glanced around the surrounding trees. “You would know better than I. We’re in the Malagantyan. Assuming we don’t encounter any surprises, I would think we’d arrive tonight or possibly tomorrow.”
Vel pursed her lips, taking a closer look at the trees, what little of them she could see by the light of her meager lantern. The area could have looked familiar, she supposed, but it had been years since she’d been back to the farmstead. Would she recognize it by daylight, let alone by dark?
“What happens if we’re too late?” whispered Vel. “What if my aesta already—”
A branch snapped in the forest to their left. One of Vel’s least favorite sounds in the world, immediately followed by another as a low, hungry moan gurgled out from the darkness. There was a sudden flood of noise and movement, and it felt as though the night itself was closing in on them, with its desecrated servants of death and evil.
“Get behind me!” hissed Lilian. “Remember what we talked about.”
“I’m ready!” Vel hefted the crossbow loose from her shoulder and began cranking back a bolt.
She’d gotten a fair bit of new practice with the weapon throughout their journey, but it wasn’t a skill that she took pride in. She couldn’t help but see the faces of the revenants she killed, regardless of how ruined they were. She saw their eyes, the space which their souls had once filled, the lives of the people they’d once been.
Lilian guided her to an open space within the trees before moving a few steps to her side. They’d had a few scares with Vel misidentifying targets in the dark, though, thankfully, none had led to injury. Now, they always fought either side by side, within view of one another, or back-to-back.
She locked her eyes on a lumbering shape as one of the revenants crashed forward through a thorny bush. The crossbow bucked against her shoulder as she released the first bolt. Her aim was true, and the revenant sank to the ground with a good few inches of hardwood poking out from its forehead.
She had to place her trust in Lilian to cover her as she sank down and hurriedly began cranking another bolt into place. Lilian was as much a monster to the revenants as the revenants were to her. Vel barely saw how she worked her violence in the dark, moving with unreal speed, crushing skulls with punishing kicks and outright severing heads with ruthless claw strikes.
“Look out!” Lilian shouted and threw herself into Vel. They fell in a tangle of limbs.
Vel took care to keep the crossbow pointed at the ground in case it went off in the fray.
One of the revenants had attacked from an unexpected angle. As often seemed to be the case, that one surprising interruption left the other monsters with an opening. Vel sat up and readied her weapon, overtaken by a sinking sense of dread as she realized there were now more targets to choose from than she would have liked.
“Leandra’s bush!” hissed Lilian. “We’re running. We can’t take this fight!”
She tried to push Vel into motion, but one of the revenants tackled her. Lilian went down, wrestling the monster back and baring her fangs in a hideous expression of her own. If the revenants had a sense of fear, it might have counted for something. Vel felt as though she was terrified enough for everyone present, alive or dead.
It happened so quickly that even if she’d been readying her aim, her bolt wouldn’t have traveled fast enough to make a difference. A spurt of blood came gushing out from the revenant’s neck as its head fell sideways from its body, dangling by a mere flap of skin.
A swordsman stood over Vel and Lilian, features shadowed in the dark, but his weapon unique enough to be clearly recognizable. The sword’s edge was made of ice, a small, eccentric detail which brought Vel so much relief that she nearly burst into tears.
***
Damon stared at the faces of Vel and Lilian, the former terrified, the latter bloody and snarling, and almost couldn’t believe it. The almost came from the presence of the revenants, which made it hard to indulge in his own sense of surprise.
He’d taken to treating his broken myrblade like the weapon he wanted it to be, rather than the weapon it was. The upper two-thirds of the blade was pure ice, harder and sharper than it would be if frozen naturally, but still prone to snapping at unfortunate times.
He stabbed another revenant, slamming the open palm of his free hand into its chest to clear it from the weapon afterward. Three more were bearing down on Vel and Lilian, and he felt his heart pounding out a crescendo of emotion as he glanced by them again. He slashed with his myrblade, felt the blade slice clean through the neck of the first before shattering against the skull of the second, and switched tactics.
Myr, along with her enchantment, were a part of him now. He could do things with his hands that he’d only ever dreamed of doing with the sword itself. The remaining revenant let out an aggressive hiss and tried to snap its jaws at him. Damon dodged, set a hand on its shoulder, and with a directed force of will, froze the monster solid.
He exhaled through his nose, the twin trails of ice-cold smoke tickling his upper lip. For a few seconds, the only sound on the air was of Vel and Lilian catching their breath, both brimming with fear and adrenaline.
He couldn’t keep himself from chuckling with relief.
“It’s not funny!” said Vel. “Why would you laugh at finding us in danger?”
“Because I’ve missed you,” he said, still grinning as he pulled her into a tight hug. “And I spent a good half hour tonight plotting about how to convince you to do what you apparently had a mind to do yourself.”
He held her by the shoulders, staring into her face. Her blonde hair was a frame around the edges, and he could see the light from her lantern reflected in her deep green eyes. She wore a green and black tunic, with a gray cloak that clasped around her neck with an emerald brooch.
He kissed her on the lips, stealing the moment for himself. He felt Vel press into him, free and uncaring, so different from how she would have once reacted to his affection in the open, in front of Lilian. He even snuck a bit of tongue, but she was still Vel, and gently pressed a hand to his chest before he could do anything too over the line.
“Well, it would seem as though you’re back to playing the role of the hero,” said Lilian. She leaned as she spoke, whispering the words into his ear, standing closer than she needed.
“With so many defenseless damsels wandering aimlessly through my backyard, it’s hard not to be,” he said. “The Malagantyan has grown more dangerous over the past few years.”
“Your backyard?” asked Vel. “You’re camped nearby, then?”
“In a manner of speaking.” He was still holding her hand, and he took Lilian’s as well, leading them both along. “Come on. I’ve got something to show you.”