Tales of Elandria

Three

Alone Again

The two made their way into the street, Shiloh’s mind on the meal she had been promised. As they exited the infirmary, she realized they were crossing the road to Lapoul’s Place, and excitement brimmed within.

In a few strides they crossed through the doorway of their destination, when suddenly a great shadow settled over the town. Shiloh paused on the stone step and turned around, looking out at the darkening sky. She felt the temperature drop dramatically; her breath hung in the air like a thick cloud. Shiloh looked at Gennie in time to see her face lose all color.

“RUN, SHILOH! RUN!” she screamed, bolting back out into the town.

Shiloh leapt into action, but instead of seeking refuge inside, she ran after Gennie. This was her first taste of freedom since she was a child, and she was not letting it go without a fight.

Shiloh’s heart was pounding in her chest now as she drew in sharp, labored breaths. Her feet carried her to the center of town, and she stopped; a strange noise coming from her left. She turned to see ice thickening on the vendor’s cart, creeping up the solid wooden frame like ivy desperate for light. Above, tree branches bowed under the weight of rapidly forming crystals.

Shiloh focused her mind on her reserve of magic and drew in a long icy breath from the air around her. She did not know what was causing the disturbance but decided to combat it by concentrating her might on warming the land where she stood.

The aura took shape without hesitation and swirled around her; a bright rose-colored essence imbued with healing heat. The energy pushed outwards from Shiloh and into the street, past Gennie, Lapoul, and the second merchant. Everywhere the magic touched began to warm. Ice crystals melted and grass began to sprout. Leaves filled with life and became green and lush once more.

Shiloh pushed her aura as far as she could. She sensed the edge of town, where dwellings were no longer present, and the land was barren. Suddenly her aura hit a dark and powerful wall unlike anything she had ever felt.

She opened her eyes as the aura dissipated; her vision momentarily clouded as she wondered at the failure of her magic. In the confusion, the warmth had passed and cool air once more filled Shiloh's lungs. That was when she heard a sound that made her blood run colder than the icy needles which quickly reformed all around her -- the fast-approaching thud of hooves.

Shaking herself to the present, Shiloh whipped around in time to see a man on horseback plunging his sword right through Gennie’s chest, the force of the blow knocking the woman violently to the ground.

“NO!” Shiloh raged, starting in the direction of her fallen friend as the horseman rode shamelessly past.

Wild-eyed, she saw at least ten other horse backed men wielding heavy swords, dark cloaks flowing behind. They carried with them torches; trailing austere flames behind as the men galloped in from all directions towards the center of town.

She reached her fallen friend in three long strides and kneeled to scoop her into her arms.

“You’re going to be all right,” Shiloh lied. As she spoke, she noticed Gennie’s eyes shine with tears, and her life force faded fast. Shiloh tried to heal her, but the magic evaporated as quickly as she summoned it. There was a power here that was not natural magic.

A familiar tingle of fear caressed Shiloh’s unwilling spirit and made her blood run cold. She was useless to these people.

As she knelt there in the street, holding Gennie, her world went quiet. Carnage raged around Shiloh in a silent blur. Flashes of past trauma began to overwhelm Shiloh and she tightly gripped the body in her lap.

She looked down into her arms and saw she was holding not the physician who had saved her, but a child whom she could not save -- a little boy no more than five lay crumpled in her lap.

Shiloh's head dropped. Her eyes fixed on her own knees, which were resting in a pool of cold blood. Around her, parts of the others were scattered about; half-eaten and disregarded. Maldrake stood in front of Shiloh, big as a boulder. With leathery, bloodstained skin and a rusted cleaver on his hip, he lumbered towards her. As he leaned in close to her face his rancid breath made her stomach turn, and she wretched on the boy in her lap. Sadness and shame filled her as the monster laughed with joyful abandon, just inches from her nose. "I wouldn't make it hurt so badly, if you weren't so damn cute when you cried," he whispered in her ear. As he did, his form shifted into that of Gorgahl. He kissed her on the forehead, right before gripping a handful of her hair and forcefully slamming her onto the cold ground.

Shiloh snapped back to the present, dropping Gennie's body to the ground. The awful sounds of the moment came rushing in; screaming from every direction, the pounding of horse hooves on the dirt road, and the familiar crackle of fiercely burning wood.

As she looked up from the body of her newly found and now-lost friend, the carnage she witnessed reminded her all too well of the terrors she had lived through in Gorgahl’s prison.

Before her eyes, four cloaked men holding coils of rope were dismounting their horses. They knelt and began working cordage around what Shiloh recognized as Lapoul's body. The men remounted their steeds and commanded them to ride at full gait in the four directions of the Earth, pulling the unfortunate man off the ground. The sound of Lapoul’s appendages being torn from his living body pierced the air alongside his screams of agony. Shiloh stood in absolute horror and watched as the limbless torso fell to the ground with a dull thud, only to be immediately trampled by another of the troupe's ruthless horsemen.

She looked down at the lifeless body of the woman who saved her and stifled her sobs. The men were now parading through the town whooping and hollering, setting fire to every building they encountered.

Shiloh summoned her magic once more. Rage burning within her, she began to manifest an aura of vigilance more powerful than any she had yet to produce. A bright white light pulsed from her being and traveled the land faster than a fleeting thought. The intention of vigilance swept through the town, overwhelming every creature it touched, except Gorgahl's men; they continued their raid unaffected. Shiloh's emotions fueled the aura, empowering all who were under its influence to share in her mission; to find the monster who was responsible for Gennie's death. Shiloh searched as well, hoping that finding and killing the one responsible would end the hellish events unfolding.

The world around her was a whirlwind of flames, ash, and anguish; the very same air that was frozen mere moments ago was now suffocating her with the dense smoke of smoldering embers. The flames climbed higher all around her and made it almost impossible for Shiloh to keep her eyes open in search of the man who perpetrated this massacre. Nearby woodland creatures began calling to Shiloh's spirit from the north, though none could brave the wall of flames to reach her. The birds, however, were so pulled by the aura that they formed a circle above her. Shiloh knew they had found something, the connection she had to them was a result of her magical aura. She felt that it was their intention to direct her where she needed to go. Shiloh changed her course and kept her eyes on the swirling avian beings above her.

As she looked to the north, she saw a break in the flames, they had reached the edge of the burning town; she felt an intense energy. A tall man was standing next to his horse, calm and collected, in vivid contrast from the chaos raging behind them. He moved with purpose and took his helmet off his head. Shiloh’s heart skipped a beat. The man that stood before her was no stranger. He was, in fact, quite the opposite.

His bright eyes were undeniable, a green not unlike the wild ivy that grew near the river. His hair, the deep color of the mahogany tree. Everything about him was almost the same.

“Gentry,” Shiloh breathed, forgetting for a moment that she had just watched this man run Gennie through with his sword; the very same one he had hanging on his hip, Gennie’s blood still covering the blade. Shiloh was confused. The last time she had seen him they were thirteen years old, and cell mates. They had been together in that prison for three Winters and grown closer than any of the other children had. But now there was something wrong with him. Not only had he aged considerably but his energy had aged much more than his body. Suddenly, as if he could hear her forming thoughts, Gentry spoke.

“This is just the beginning.” He said. His voice was distorted, and his movements were labored. There was something perverse about this interaction, but Shiloh could not source it. Gentry moved to close the gap between them and placed his strong hands threateningly on her cheek. He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Her breath caught in her chest.

"I wouldn't make it hurt so badly, if you weren’t so damn cute when you cried," he whispered as he removed his filthy calloused hand from her tearstained face. Gorgahl. Shiloh knew that he had the ability to shift his form but had only ever met Keldor and Maldrake. Gentry’s body looked at Shiloh and laughed, visibly taking pleasure in Shiloh's apparent confusion.

"How are you here right now?", Shiloh asked. "Where is Gentry? The real Gentry," she added, moving closer to him.

"He is still in here, sleeping in a small corner of his mind, you could say," he responded. “You know, I have been working on this one for a while, and I gotta say... it was worth all the trouble. It feels good to be in such a… pure… vessel.” He choked the last few words out behind a scoff that made Shiloh’s heart ache for her friend.

"You never wondered where all your little friends got off to?" he asked her, a smile crawling across Gentry's face. "One after the other, they would break," he said, slowly beginning to walk around her. " I destroyed their will to fight; their will to live and they surrendered to me, entirely," he said, widening his arms to mock embrace. "Once they did that, all I did was leave a small mark on their soul and their bodies were mine. I can be anywhere, I can be anyone, I have children who have grown into loyal adults throughout Elandria; all willing to surrender to me at a moment's notice. Soon, I will have you, too," he sneered, facing her again.

Shiloh had heard enough. The time to end this was now. She tried to push an aura of binding onto him and was surprised to see that it evaporated mere seconds after coming into being. Her heart began to race.

“Oh that,” Gentry’s body said, gesturing to Shiloh. “That whole ‘paralyzing me with your mind’ trick you do, that is over.”

“What do you mean, ‘over’? I still have my magic; I will never be yours. You will never control me,” Shiloh spat at him.

“I would hate to give away a good ending, truly, so I’m not going to spoil it with details.” He smirked. “I will leave you with this though; don’t fight it,” he said as he drew in a long breath and extended his arms towards her. “Just come back to me, where you belong. And maybe I won’t kill everyone you have ever met.” Gorgahl’s vessel spoke the last words with a sickening air of joviality. It was as if he had just promised a small child a sweet in exchange for good behavior. Shiloh’s blood boiled.

She summoned all her remaining power and attempted to manifest an aura of truth. She needed to reach Gentry’s soul; to touch his spirit and know that he was still inside that vessel. Yellow air surrounded Shiloh and she channeled it in the direction of Gentry. Once again, the magic was negated as it entered his airspace. The effort it took to expel that aura emptied Shiloh of all strength she had left. She was tapped out. The energy left her body with such haste that consciousness was not far behind. She felt herself falling towards the earth. On her way down the last thing she saw before her head hit the ground was the young girl from the edge of town; the one with the sweet-smelling basket, burning alive while tied to a merchant’s cart. Her screams echoing through the air ominously as Shiloh’s world faded to black.