eidolonic | Enchanted forests and dark mages

Well, this was just great.

Normally Erk had no issue with forests. They had their tactical uses, and there were few places where communing with the spirits was easier. Anima was the magic of the natural world, and there was no shortage of nature here... but something about this particular forest felt off. It was too quiet, too still. Almost as if the woods were watching him. A childish thought, certainly, but he still didn't like it, and he didn't wish to remain here any longer than necessary.

And he was not lost. He was not. Just because he'd somehow managed to lose track of both his enemies and his allies... all right, fine, he was lost. It shouldn't even be possible--armies made a lot of noise, how did one lose them--yet he found himself suddenly very alone on this strange stone path amid the trees.

There was a rustle of movement up ahead, and Erk froze before darting off the path, mentally berating himself for his inattention. He'd been so focused on finding his way out of here that he'd cast aside caution and left himself wide open to ambush. Careless. If it was an enemy mage he could take a few hits, but if it was an archer...

He waited, crouched in the undergrowth, but no arrows flew his way. And so, after a minute, he advanced cautiously. There--the edge of a yellow cloak peeking out from behind that tree. But did it belong to friend or foe? There was really only one way to find out, and Erk exhaled slowly, steeling himself... and readying a Thunder spell just in case. The glow of magic enveloped his hand.

"I know you're there."

Lugh froze. He'd been detected! He began summoning the energies--but no, wait. The stranger sounded like they wouldn't hesitate to attack if Lugh proved to be a threat, but a soldier from Bern wouldn't have waited to do that. They'd have just tried to kill Lugh immediately, without mercy. They were like that.

He took a deep breath and tucked his tome back into his clothes. He could feel the stirrings of magic already, and didn't want to look like a threat (although he wasn't sure he ever did). With his hands open at his sides, he stepped out in front of the stranger.

...Who, actually, didn't look all that strange. Lugh's apprehensive expression turned to puzzlement. "Who are you?"

...Nino?

No, just a momentary trick of the shadows of the forest. It was a boy. A mage, judging by his clothing, and younger even than Erk himself... but not anyone from Lord Eliwood's forces. He didn't appear keen on fighting at the moment, however. Truly, he just looked about as lost as Erk was. With a relieved sigh, Erk let the energy of his spell dissipate uncast.

He kept his tome in hand, though. The boy might just be a civilian hiding from the conflict... or he might not be. Erk had let his guard fall once already, and that was one time too many. He wasn't going to make another careless mistake.

"I'm Erk. I fight with Pherae's forces." He gripped the tome tightly and watched the other boy; if that information elicited a negative response, he was ready. Against a fellow mage, he would hold his own. "Who are you?"

Erk... it did sound familiar, still, but Lugh couldn't place the name or the face. He hadn't let go of the tome, either, though he'd let the immediate spell go without casting it. Lugh couldn't blame him for that, although it made him wish he'd kept his hand on his own book.

"I'm Lugh," he said. "You're with Pherae too? But I haven't seen you before... did you only just meet Roy?"

It was a big battlefield, after all. Lugh wasn't sure they'd gone anywhere since Araphen without picking up a new ~~spare~~ person who wanted to fight against Bern.

"I haven't seen you before, either," Erk pointed out in a tone that implied an unspoken obviously. They'd have had no need to identify themselves otherwise. Nor was the boy's name familiar... but at the rate that Lord Eliwood's troop picked up new members, it wasn't unreasonable to think that there could still be a few whom Erk hadn't yet encountered personally. "...And I haven't met Roy. A friend of yours?"

Brand new recruits, perhaps. He'd give Lugh the benefit of the doubt; if he was an enemy, he should have either attacked or fled the moment Erk stated his allegiance, not continued to chat. 'Small talk' wasn't exactly a known Black Fang battle tactic. Satisfied enough that he wasn't in immediate danger, Erk tucked his tome away, and glanced down the path ahead of them.

"If your friend's also in this forest, we should find him quickly. We've got to get moving... we've fallen too far behind the main force. Somehow."

Lugh fiddled with the clasp of his cloak. He didn't know if he could call Roy a friend, really. They knew each other, but for all he was young, Roy was the commander and Lugh was one of his soldiers. But besides that, how could Erk be fighting for Pherae and not know who Roy even was? For a moment Lugh wondered if Erk was a spy after all, but that'd be a pretty silly cover story, right? It didn't even make sense.

"Roy, the son of the Marquess," Lugh said. He looked around; Erk was right about the second part, at least. The longer they were here, the more unfriendly the forest seemed. Lugh stepped forward hesitantly along the path, seeing no better option. "I hope this leads us out of the forest. I don't want to get left behind."

"Another Marquess's son?" Erk was certainly meeting his share of relatives of Marquesses on this venture. Which Marquess, though? Lugh couldn't mean Pherae, unless Lord Eliwood had a secret brother no one knew about. Erk searched his memory, trying to recall who had a son named Roy, but his knowledge of Lycian noble houses wasn't on par with his knowledge of Etrurian ones.

Well, any ally was a welcome one. He nodded in agreement with Lugh, and turned to continue down the path... only to stop dead in his tracks as the very air around him suddenly seemed to distort. Training kicked in, and he leapt aside just in time to watch a swirling purple-black void appear where he'd been standing a mere moment ago.

...Apparently they weren't as distanced from the battle as they'd thought. "Eclipse. Just great," he breathed as the dark magic ran its course and petered out. Resistance wouldn't help them against this spell... and it was long-range, meaning they had to find their attacker and close the distance before they could even think about fighting back. Unless--

"Do you have a Bolting tome?"

That didn't seem to clear up anything at all. Why did Erk keep talking like there was another set of Pheraean nobility he knew and Lugh didn't?

But before he could keep pestering Erk about it, the unmistakable hum of dark magic broke through the silence of the forest. Lugh jumped behind a tree, watching as the violet-edged sigil swirled and impacted in on itself. For a moment he wondered if it was Raigh being startled, but no--Raigh would have recognized his voice. And he didn't have an Eclipse tome, Lugh knew that for sure.

He shook his head to Erk's question. The best tome he had was Elfire. "I know Eclipse is hard to aim," he whispered. But Raigh said that it was also one of the most dangerous of the elder magic spells. "Should we split up and look for him?"

Edited 2016-11-06 14:34 (UTC)

Elfire was better than anything Erk had on him--he'd used his own copy up earlier and only had Thunder left--but it didn't help them at the moment. They were going to have to do this the hard way, weren't they? In this forest, just figuring out where the attack had come from could prove difficult. He considered Lugh's suggestion briefly, but then shook his head.

"We can't assume there's only one," he whispered back. In the unnatural stillness of these woods, even their hushed voices sounded too loud to his ears. "Whoever cast that spell could have half a dozen paladins with him for all we know."

Not that two mages would fare much better against half a dozen paladins than one would, but they'd at least have slightly improved odds, and in battle you had to take every advantage you could get.

Erk made his way quickly into thicker cover. "We should keep to the trees, off the path. We'll be even harder to hit that way." Thank goodness for lousy hit rates. And Eclipse would only have four more uses left, at most... so long as there was only the one copy of it. He frowned.

"We really should find our allies before we try to engage an unknown enemy. If we can. I'm not even sure which direction to start looking..."

Half a dozen paladins... not likely in the woods, Lugh reassured himself, but then there were plenty of other soldiers that didn't have problems navigating the trees. A myrmidon or two out here could be deadly. And they could move much more quietly than a knight or an axefighter. So Erk's point still stood.

He followed Erk into the thicker foliage, trying to make as little noise as possible, and thought about who'd been nearby before he'd gotten lost. Shanna was flying around above, Elen and Chad had been together, he thought he'd seen Rutger too. Lugh stared up at the thick canopy. It barely let in enough light for them to see each other; no chance of spotting a pegasus.

People went in circles in the woods, didn't they? But if they went around marking the trees, they'd leave a trail for their enemies to find. "If we don't know what direction to go, we might as well start by going forward," he murmured. "At least then we'll be moving."

It was difficult to argue with that logic. With a nod, Erk pressed onward. "It's as good a direction as any, I suppose." And it certainly beat going nowhere. So long as they kept moving, they were bound to find their way out of this forest eventually... right?

He tread lightly, senses alert for any sight or sound that could signal another attack. The Eclipse user hadn't yet tried his luck again... perhaps they were moving out of his range? Or perhaps he simply didn't want to waste magic when the spell was likely to miss. Whatever the reason, Erk was not about to let himself relax. Especially when their surroundings were becoming darker and more oppressive the farther they got from the path. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it felt as though the woods around him were trying to suck up any lingering trace of light or sound.

And soon, that wasn't the only obstacle to getting themselves less lost. A fog was rapidly building, forming a veritable grey wall ahead of them. Perhaps they should pick a different direction after all... but when Erk paused and looked back the way they'd just come, the sight that met his eyes was more fog.

"...Ugh." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is the last thing we needed."

Oh... fog. Lugh resisted the temptation to wave his hand through it, as he'd done when he was small. Someone might shoot it with an arrow if they saw. There was something about this fog, too--this wasn't just the fog of a damp morning.

Had the dark mages conjured this up themselves? "This isn't normal," he whispered. He didn't have a torch on him, and he doubted Erk did either, but that might end up doing more harm than good.

"But they won't be able to see us very well either," he said, still quietly but more brightly. There always had to be a bright side, didn't there? He looked to the forest floor and found a wood aster. Plucking it, he put it at the foot of the tree--that would mark their path without being so obvious as a scratch on the trunk. "Let's make this our starting point and go from tree to tree. We'll run into either the enemy or the end of the forest sooner or later."

Erk had to agree with Lugh--this wasn't normal. "It closed in far too quickly..." he whispered back. What's more, it had been a perfectly clear, bright day before he'd set foot in this accursed forest. It was unnatural... which made him think that it may well be the work of dark magic.

And because it had been such a clear day, he had neither a torch nor a Torch staff on him. They were going to have to risk marking their trail; it was that, or unwittingly walk in circles until they got picked off by enemies.

Nodding in agreement, he moved on to the nearest tree, the vague shape of which he could just make out through the rapidly-encroaching fog. He searched the ground for another wildflower to place at its base, then continued on to the next, and the next. Soon, however, something changed. Instead of endless trees emerging from the greyness before them, the forest parted just enough to make way for a path.

A stone path. One that looked exactly like the one they'd left behind them.

Was it a different path? Or had they gotten turned around already? Erk halted and glowered at the stones, as though he hoped to coax some answers out of them, but of course none were forthcoming. He ran a hand down his face.

"...So now what?"

Lugh stopped short when he saw the stones. He looked back at the tree he'd just put a flower at. He had been sure they weren't going in circles!

And why was Erk asking him what to do? He was the--well, actually, no. Erk was just about Roy's age, but the longer they spent together, the more Lugh felt Erk was someone to be relied on, not another bewildered youth. "Um... I guess we should just follow the path," he said. It was probably to a trap, but it could also be to the mages who had set this up, and maybe they could beat them.

"Uh--E-Erk, how good of a mage are you?" It felt weird using his name, too.

The question caught Erk off guard, and he hesitated, opening his mouth to answer but quickly shutting it again as he realized he wasn't sure what to say.

How good a mage was he? Compared to the others he knew, certainly nothing special. He'd studied hard to become one, but even Nino, who'd never had a proper magic lesson in her life, would probably surpass him soon. And then there was Lord Pent, who could scour the Nabata desert clean of bandits with one Elfire tome...

Erk frowned. "I have a long way to go before I can compare to my teacher." If only Lord Pent were here right now. He'd know exactly how to get out of this mess...

But he wasn't here, and no amount of wishing otherwise would make it so. They were on their own, and Lugh was looking at Erk as though he were someone to be relied upon, so he couldn't afford to doubt himself. They just had to deal with this mess themselves.

"...I can hold my own, though." And Lugh had to be a reasonably decent mage, if he could wield Elfire. And since it didn't seem that they were going to be able to locate their comrades anytime soon...

He gave a resolute nod. "The path it is, then. Let's try to be quick about this." Of course it was a trap, but avoiding it had gotten them nowhere. All that was left was to spring it and hope for the best. With a deep breath, he strode out of cover and onto the stones, clutching his Thunder tome tightly.

Lugh wondered who Erk's teacher was--someone who was good at it, someone important too, judging from the state of Erk's clothes. The modesty didn't surprise him.

He followed Erk onto the path, but he avoided actually putting his feet onto the pale stones himself. It felt superstitious, almost, but it was all part of the the unwholesome feeling about this place.

Lugh kept his own Thunder tome in his hands, one finger between the pages. That was why, when he heard the low sound of chanting and the blacklight of Flux forming in front of him, he could let it fall open immediately and fling his hand upwards. A lightning bolt crashed into the trees ten feet away, accompanied by a squawk of pain but not a death. The page burned away and Lugh flipped to the next quickly to the next, acting on instinct to finish his enemy.

Erk turned quickly toward the quiet murmur of chanting, but Lugh was even quicker, and when it became clear that he had this foe well in hand Erk took instead to scanning their surroundings, eyes darting intently from tree to tree in search of more hidden enemies, tome open and ready.

The fog had thinned somewhat since they'd stepped out onto the path, but still, no further attackers made themselves immediately apparent. Lugh felled the Flux-wielder, and several long moments passed in suspenseful stillness before Erk allowed himself to turn his attention to the fallen shaman, moving in close to examine the body.

"He doesn't look like Black Fang." Erk frowned. The style of robes was a little different, unfamiliar to his eye. But if not Black Fang, then what was he doing in this battle? Who did he fight for? And a quick search of those robes provided some equally worrisome information: "...No Eclipse tome."

Which meant that there was at least one other foe still out there. As if on cue, the fog seemed to close back in around them, and Erk felt, rather than saw, the unsettling energies of the dark magic manifesting around them.

"Watch out!"

Black Fang?

Lugh knew that name. But from where? He could hear it being said--not by Father though, not by Raigh or Chad either. It had been someone else. Black Fang....

He snapped out of his reverie when mist flooded over the body at his feet, and he realized that Erk had been talking before calling out his warning. But it was too late. The hexagonal sigil of Eclipse with its attendant flames blocked his view of Erk and he could only raise his hands in a fruitless instinct to ward it off as the inky orb surrounded him. The dark red blade of the spell whipped around and struck him once, twice, four times before it whirled into oblivion.

Light, such as it was in this forest, returned. Lugh put his fingers to his face and stared when they came away red. He coughed. Blood ran down his chin and he collapsed onto the dark mage's body.

Erk bit back a curse as he realized that the spell wasn't going to miss this time. It was on target, and Lugh wasn't going to be able to dodge it. This was going to sting... but it wouldn't incapacitate. Lugh was perfectly hale at the moment, so he would be all right. He wouldn't be rendered out of commission by one hit.

...At least, he shouldn't have been. But as the dark magic faded away, it quickly became clear that it had done far worse than Erk had expected. There shouldn't have been that much blood. Lugh shouldn't have toppled forward onto the body of their foe.

"--Lugh!"

Blast. What had happened? A critical hit? No, no, Eclipse wasn't capable of such a thing. It did a set amount of damage, weakening its target in predictable increments.

Increments that were not this big.

Of all the times for Erk not to have a Heal staff. He didn't need one, the Tactician had insisted. Priscilla, Lucius, and Lord Pent each had one... which did absolutely no good when none of them were anywhere to be found.

Erk was never going into battle without a staff again, expert tactical advice be damned.

He had a vulnerary, though. He would have very much preferred an elixir, but it was better than nothing. Hurriedly, he knelt by Lugh's side, propping him up on his lap--less gently than perhaps he should have, but there wasn't time. With their enemy still out there, they were sitting ducks right now. Unstopping the bottle, he held it to the boy's bloody lips.

"Here. Drink it."

Please drink it, Erk mentally pleaded, because there's no way I can carry you out of here and dodge magic at the same time...

Lugh stared at the charred robes an inch from his eye. The orphans. What was going to happen to them? Chad. Raigh. He had to tell them to look after the others. He had to say sorry. They'd never admit it, ever, but he knew how much this would hurt them. How was he going to find them and say sorry?

Raigh. Lugh hoped he'd never get an Eclipse tome. It hurt. He tried to tell himself that Bern deserved it. Raigh would think that. He'd find Eclipse just for this.

Then he heard cloth rustling and arms pulled him over onto his back. This was just like back then, looking up into Erk's face, but maybe it hadn't looked so panicky and--when? When was back then? Obediently, Lugh drank, the medicinal taste of the vulnerary mingling with the blood in his mouth. His thoughts cleared up: forest. Dark mages. Erk.

It still hurt through every bit of him, but he could sit up now. "Ouch--thanks," he managed.

That had been far, far too close. Erk sighed loudly in relief when Lugh sat up, and pushed the vulnerary into the other boy's hands.

"Drink the rest of it," he insisted. "There should have been two doses' worth."

Lugh would probably need to be able to do more than just sit up, after all. If they were going to get out of this accursed forest alive, they were almost certainly going to have a fight on their hands.

And they were going to have to move, first and foremost. The longer they stayed in one place, the easier they made it for their enemy to target them... and Erk was quite thoroughly sick of being a target. It was well past time they took this fight to their foe. He stood, resolute, and held out a hand for Lugh to take if he needed it.

"Come on. Let's deal with this and get out of here."

"Okay." Lugh gulped the rest of it down and accepted Erk's hand up. He swayed a little bit as the vulnerary finished its work and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, a little disturbed by the sticky feeling of blood. He never wanted to be hit by that spell ever again.

Was that movement? He went still--he grabbed Erk's elbow and nodded towards a thinner patch in the fog. A dark mage holding a tome with a six-sided symbol on it was trying to get closer to his apparently vulnerable targets.

When Lugh pointed out the movement in the distance, Erk immediately dropped back to the ground, pulling the other boy with him. Concealed by fog and undergrowth, or so he prayed, he watched the figure grow closer and more distinct, and noted the tome.

Eclipse. This was him, and it didn't appear as though he'd spotted them yet. But why would he be trying to get closer? He was outnumbered, and Eclipse was useless at close range... but then, he no doubt expected one of them to be collapsed on the ground nearly dead right now. He probably figured the other had fled; it would have been a sensible thing to do.

They could use this to their advantage.

Swiftly, Erk unfastened his cloak and draped it around the body of the shaman Lugh had felled a few minutes ago. It wouldn't fool their foe for long, but with luck, they wouldn't need it to. They just needed him to let his guard down and venture close enough to be within range of their magic, and they'd have him.

As quietly as he could, Erk slipped behind the nearest tree and motioned for Lugh to follow. He readied his tome, barely daring to breathe, as their enemy finally caught sight of the motionless red-cloaked form and moved closer to investigate.

Lugh held still as Erk concealed the body of the enemy shaman under his own cloak. That was a clever idea. As slowly and cautiously as he could, he readied his Thunder tome.

The shaman was close, and crouching like this Lugh could see his face. He had a scar running down the left side of his face. Lugh's hands tightened on his book. Should they kill him right away? He wanted to--there was no telling if the scar was from an unjust attack, or someone's last attempts at self-defense.

But it struck him also that if they could wound him without killing him, they could ask him questions. And they definitely had to get that tome out of his hands. And just as he reached the conclusion, the shaman twitched the cape aside to reveal his erstwhile comrade.

Lugh didn't waste time. Aiming carefully, he sent a bolt of Thunder between the shaman's hands, spitting the Eclipse tome to the ground and adding some burns in the process.

Edited 2017-01-03 00:48 (UTC)

Erk's attack was much more direct. At the same time that Lugh's bolt struck the Eclipse tome, Erk's struck the shaman himself square on. Their foe cried out, seizing and falling to his knees, but one strike from Thunder was not enough to kill a fellow magic user, especially not one powerful enough to wield Eclipse.

Still, it should ensure that he wouldn't be a threat while they questioned him. Because Erk also wanted to ask him a thing or two.

He scrambled from his hiding place once the shaman went down and all but pounced on the dark tome, just to be absolutely certain it didn't find its way back into the wrong hands. He'd hang onto it until he found his comrades again, and then he'd give it to Canas. It still had three uses.

Finally allowing himself a long, relieved sigh, Erk straightened up and faced their enemy.

"Who do you fight for?"

Slowly, the man raised his head, his hood falling away from his scarred face. And he began to laugh.

"Why are you laughing? What's so funny?" Lugh demanded. Even though Erk had so quickly disarmed the shaman, Lugh didn't feel at all out of danger. He stood close to Erk--in fact he almost wanted to stand behind him, but that didn't feel like it came from fear.

Not that he was busy analyzing his instincts right now. The shaman, his scarred face fully revealed, finally stopped laughing and sat back, looking up at them with a derisive sneer.

"It's not for, boy. It's against." His eyes locked onto Lugh. "And it's against you, Fangspawn."

Fangspawn? As in, Black Fang? Erk glanced from the shaman to Lugh and back again, brows furrowing. That couldn't be right. If Lugh was associated with the Fang, surely he'd have attacked Erk by now. He'd had every opportunity to. And he really didn't seem like the 'assassin' sort...

...But then again, neither did Nino. And Lugh did bear a resemblance to her... was there a connection? Had Erk been a fool to trust the other boy all this time? Or was the shaman just trying to mess with them--pit them against each other, perhaps? Or was he completely mistaken about who they were, and this was all just a truly horrible misunderstanding?

(If it was the latter, Erk was going to have some extremely choice words for him.)

And why Fangspawn?

Erk's confusion must have been very apparent, because the shaman broke into mocking laughter once again, though his injuries clearly pained him.

"Still clueless, eh? Heh, no idea, either of you, who your new friend really is." Another sharp bark of laughter, and a grimace, before he turned his defiant gaze to Erk. "You're a long way from home, boy."

Erk gripped his tome tighter; a part of him was tempted to just dismiss this man's words as nonsensical ramblings, finish him off with another blast of Thunder and be done with it. But he hesitated, and glanced sidelong at Lugh.

"...I don't suppose you'd know what he's jabbering about."

Lugh shook his head slowly. He still couldn't place here he'd heard the words Black Fang, much less why this man would be calling him their spawn--wait. Wait, did he know something about Lugh's parents?!

"All I know is that I'm an orphan from Araphen! I don't know anything about this--this Black Fang. Or why you attacked us!"

The man's face twisted. "You have the gall to complain about getting orphaned?! That black blood you sprang from killed hundreds! It did this!" He pointed at his scar. "I'm here to ensure their crimes are put to rest. Forever."

"You mean--" Lugh's eyes went wide. He looked at Erk. "But--but he doesn't have anything to do with it! Why are you attacking him?"

As Lugh and the shaman bickered, Erk felt his sense of exasperation steadily growing. The more they said, the less sense they made. The less sense any of this made. If this man hated the Black Fang so much, what was he doing attacking members of Lord Eliwood's army? Who did he think they were fighting against? And if Lugh was with Pherae, how did he not know who the Fang even were? He may be a new recruit, but he should have been told who the enemy was. No one went into battle without knowing at least that much.

Erk pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the beginnings of a headache.

"Both of you, stop. We're going to go over this very slowly." Unwittingly pulling off a decent impression of Pent's running-out-of-patience tone, he looked to Lugh and continued. "I fight with Lord Eliwood's forces. You claimed to as well, but whatever our allegiances," here he turned to the shaman, "it should be glaringly clear that neither of us are part of the Black Fang."

The man sneered at him, but Erk forged ahead before he could interrupt. "I don't know who you think we are, but if you seek to put the Fang's crimes to rest, as you claim... we're on the same side!"

Lugh froze at that tone. It was a bad thing when Erk used it--not that he'd know, though, why did it sound familiar? It wasn't the same sort of way Father had talked when he was angry. But he quieted down. His eyes darted to the shaman again, who was sitting back with that contemptuous look on his face, evidently not in a rush.

And--Lord Eliwood's forces? Was Eliwood intending to join the battle again? Lugh bit his lip. That wasn't likely, not with what everyone said about the marquess' health and the state of Pherae's troops. More important were the shaman's words about the black blood you sprang from.

Lugh didn't remember much about his mother. She had left one day and he never knew why.

"Eliwood, enemy of the Fang?" said the shaman. "Then why did he embrace them in his ranks?" His sneer curdled as he looked between Erk and Lugh. "And some more than embraced. Leaving us with their hatchlings."

Lugh opened and closed his hands. This was still confusing, but one thing was rapidly becoming clearer. "You're talking about my mother, aren't you. What did you do to her?"

"He embraced former Fang members in his ranks," Erk corrected tersely. "Both Jaffar and Nino left that organization willingly." That was an important distinction to make. Several members of Lord Eliwood's force still had qualms about fighting alongside them--or alongside Jaffar, at least--but they were no longer Black Fang.

And for what it was worth, Erk was very much of the opinion that you accepted whatever aid you could get when you were trying to prevent a second Scouring.

Oh, but how he wanted to blast that sneer off the dark mage's face. Did the man really think he was in any position to be so snide and cryptic? He was unarmed and injured, and still he teased them with fragments of an explanation that made no sense whatsoever. 'Hatchlings' of the Fang members who joined Eliwood? Impossible. Neither of them had children. So why did Lugh think this had something to do with his mother?

At Lugh's question, though, the shaman threw his head back and laughed raucously, heedless of the pain of his wounds. "You really want to know, boy? Heh, you'll find out soon enough. Go ahead and kill me. Others will take my place. We'll deal with you exactly as we dealt with your dear, sweet mother..." He cackled again, and turned his cruel gaze to Erk. "...And with your father."

as we dealt with your dear, sweet mother.

The words filled Lugh, raw and hot, flooding him until they brimmed over. He had spent so much time and effort training himself to be angry when bad things happened, to act and not weep, that nothing else could happen but what did now.

With a wordless yell, he lauched himself at the shaman, holding his tome in both hands and beating the injured man with every ounce of strength he had. Lugh was a small and skinny boy, and the shaman was a grown man, but the ferocity of the assault would have been trying for all but an armored knight. All thought of stealth and strategy was forgotten. Lugh could only see the dim face of his mother, smiling, the vague form of his father disappearing (the shaman's revelation could not penetrate conscious thought, but somewhere in his mind it had fitted together), Raigh's tears and later his mask of coldness, Poppa, the orphans, the soldiers of Bern--and this man, this hideous excuse for a person and his hideous friends had started it, there at the root of every sorrow in Lugh's young life.

He would tear it out and burn it to the ground.

...Well. That was unexpected.

Erk stepped back in shock when Lugh threw himself at the shaman in a sudden explosion of fury. He still had no idea what was going on--who were Lugh's parents? What was their connection to the Black Fang? What did any of this have to do with him? But the other boy had clearly pieced something together. For a moment Erk could only look on, uncertain as to whether or not he should intervene... but then he sighed, long and loud, and left Lugh to his rage while he went to retrieve his cloak. He had no reason to step in.

Their foe had all but admitted to killing Lugh's parents, after all. This was his fight. Although...

"...Your tome will work better if you use it as intended."

Whether Lugh would even hear him or not, he didn't know. But Erk refastened his cloak around his shoulders and simply stood aside, unable to bring himself to feel any pity for the shaman as the other boy vented his anger. He would wait this out.

Once Lugh was calm again, though, they were going to have to talk.

Lugh blinked himself back to reality. Ah... he looked up at Erk, donning his cloak again, and down at the shaman, now unconscious with a face covered in blood. He had heard a crunch. It must have been the man's nose.

He stood up slowly and stepped back, turning his tome over in his hands. Lugh could kill. He had forced himself to do so many times by remembering the awful things that Bern had done to the people he loved. But none of the soldiers he'd struck down had been lying senseless at his feet. That made it harder. And Erk... Erk hadn't moved to check him. In fact he seemed exasperated more than anything else.

But the shaman had told him who Erk was, why Lugh kept feeling a strange sense of having seen him. Lugh didn't know how he would feel to see a man killed even if he was only temporarily helpless.

His father had been an age for fatherhood, though. This person beside him was no older than Roy. "You, you--you know her. Nino."

So Lugh didn't kill the shaman after all. ...Well, unconscious was good enough. At least it shut him up. And the fog appeared to be lifting; not just thinning, but actually retreating, and with it, the menacing atmosphere that had cloaked the forest since Erk had first set foot in it. He took a deep breath, appreciating finally feeling like he could breathe again.

Perhaps they'd actually be able to find their way out of here now.

"I know her," he confirmed with a careful nod. "She fights with us." Good, the other boy seemed like himself again. Maybe now Erk could finally get some idea of what this was all about.

"You are a relative of hers, then. ...Yet somehow, you know nothing about the Black Fang." He fixed Lugh with a flat look. Explain.

Lugh could explain, but that look Erk gave him was unsettling. And, as he watched the creeping fog creep away, he had doubts about that explanation. How was he supposed to tell a boy just a couple of years older that he was going to get married? That he was now talking to his son by the girl who, from his words, he had only met a short time ago?

...That he and his wife were going to die? Because it had been years and years, and Lugh had always felt that his parents would have returned if they had been able to. Meeting Erk only made him more certain of that.

"I know the name. I know they had something to do with Mam--" he stopped as the word came out. "My mother, Nino. But she was older. Older than you. What's going on?"

The words tumbled out before Lugh could stop them. He knew Erk didn't know the answer. Telling him that much would be enough for Erk to handle. But Lugh couldn't check the instinct, the feeling that somehow Erk would know anyway.

'What's going on', indeed. His mother Nino? Erk's first thought was that this must simply be a case of mistaken identity, and there was more than one person named Nino involved with the Black Fang... but that didn't account for Lugh's undeniable resemblance to the Nino he knew. He did look like he could be her son... in twenty years or so.

For several long moments, Erk simply blinked at the other boy as he tried to digest this information. If nothing else, though, at least he could be quite certain that Lugh wasn't a Fang spy or anything of the sort. A spy would use a believable cover story.

And if, if Lugh's story was somehow true... well, the shaman's words suddenly became much more concerning. He had killed Lugh's mother. And his father...

"...Hoo boy."

It couldn't be possible. He and Nino--and Lugh was--no, it couldn't be possible. There had to be a logical explanation. There had to be. And 'I'm speaking with my future son' was anything but.

Erk shook his head and ran a hand through his hair with a slow sigh. "I think... I think we need to find our comrades. Whether they're Lord Eliwood's force or--whoever you're with." Master Pent must be able to help sort this out... or even better, the Archsage. "If we can speak with Lord Athos, surely he'll know how to make sense of this."

"...Lord Roy. He's Lord Eliwood's son." Lugh could feel his insides getting cold. The fog was going away, and maybe that meant that whatever time-shifting enchantment the shamans had conjured was lifting. But which time did that leave them in? If it was Lugh's time, Erk was dead, Erk and Nino both. If it was Erk's time, then Lugh didn't even exist yet. But it was possible that Erk might be able to save himself and his wife.

And if Lugh was saying incomprehensible things, he had obviously gotten it from his father, because Erk's mention of Athos in the same breath as Pent of Etruria was nearly as bizarre. "Um... do you mean, going to a church or a shrine?" Lugh said. That was the only context in which it made sense. Lugh was only aware of Saint Elimine having a church, but for all he knew each of the Eight Legends still had followers.

He looked around. There was the path again, the one he'd followed into the woods. That would be back to his own time, right? "Which way did you come from? I think we should go in that direction."

Enchanted forests and dark mages

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I'm sorry I'm so slow orz

Not to worry!

<3

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I RETURN

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