Souls, Spells, and Shadows

Tyche Hates On Alys

A rune glowed green on her shoulder, and an aura of light sprang up. A shield rune. "Clever." The tall, dark man remarked, retreating slightly. "Incantare: Potentia Umbra." The shadows around the slight, lean girl curled around her immediately, and with a wave of her hand, she sent them flying at her opponent.

He ducked away gracefully, but all around him the shadows lengthened, rose. The girl smiled, thinking she had won the fight, until the man raised a hand, and the shadows dissolved. But the girl had disappeared. He looked around, and suddenly, her knife was glinting at his throat.

A skeleton hand reached up, snatching it away, and the girl groaned. "Surgite pugnate, spiritus!" She exerted her will over the spirits of asphodel, tugging on their souls. They were forgotten, alone, forever wandering; they were the easiest to call because no one remembered them and they wanted to remember themselves. The man raised his hand, and they halted. The girl glared at him, channelling her power, fiercely fighting, and...

She fell backwards, drained. The incredible rush of power was gone, and the spirits faded and disappeared. The man sighed, offering her his hand. "Alys, you need to remember not to use up your power till you're sure of winning."

She sighed. "And I still can't beat you, Dad. Can't you stop being so disgustingly powerful for once?"

She was fighting drowsiness, feeling half dead. "I'm gonna-" She fell asleep before she could finish her sentence.

....................

She woke up sometime around three pm, and went out to check the wards around the house. A daughter of Hecate and legacy of Hades, Alys was one of the most powerful demigods in the world - and one of the strongest smelling. A monster could smell her a mile off, hence why Hecate, as a favour to her father, had cast the wards of protection that kept their house safe. Nevertheless, Alys checked them every night.

You could never be too careful.

Alys walked around the circular border, feeling rather bored. It was always the same routine, over and over. Soon, in three days and a year to be exact, she would finally be twelve, and her father would take her to Camp Half-Blood. Until then, though, she was stuck living the same old routine. She'd probably memorised every incantation in her spellbook, every myth in the world - and not just Greek mythology either. And she still couldn't beat her father. Checking the perimeter forgotten, she slumped face down in her backyard and-

A strange thing stepped into the yard.

Typical. The one time a demigod didn't check the perimeter, a monster just had to appear. Not just one. Two more followed, and then - oh, gods, how many were there? A veritable flood poured into the yard, and Alys conjured a protection spell before they could touch the house. Her father ran out. "Alys! Run!" he screeched.

The monsters were pouring in like a tidal wave, paws and claws and hooves banging against Alys's protection spell. Cracks, thin and bordering on unnoticeable spidered up the green shield.

Another minute and it would break. Alys's father grabbed her shoulder, and Alys turned. "Go." he whispered urgently, "Use the mist to make you invisible."

"But-"

"Go!"

Alys's father's golden eyes flashed, and she knew it was no time to argue.

Wait, what? Golden eyes?

Aly's father had brown eyes.

Of course. The monsters could smell her even if they could not see her. If she so much as put a toe outside the shield, she would be devoured. But an eidolon in the body of her father, who had beat her in every fight, was standing inside the shield with her.

She walked slowly toward the edge of the shield, and suddenly turned. "Incantare: Nullus Motus." Her father froze, and Alys stretched out her hand, willing the eidolon towards her, fighting fiercely, feeling her power drain away. A golden orb burst out of her father's mouth, hovering in front of her.

And exactly at that moment, the shield broke.

Monsters broke through, and Alys raised a wall quickly, but not quickly enough. They poured over her unconscious father, stopping to savage him on the way, and lunged at her. She threw the eidolon at them, forcing it to possess the body of an Odontotyrannos, and watched as it lumbered to attack the other monsters. Her vision was growing fuzzy, and she had just enough strength of mind to shadow travel as far away as she could.