Aiyana

Chapter seven - Inara, Sage of Life

Ahren, Ahren Forest
Elfish Tribes, Coren Tribe
Castle of Life

Lydia Hollow

There she is; my mother.
Alora Hollow. The true ruler of Eiria.
"What a joke! The Great Alora's daughter. No magic!" the raspy voice whispers.
"She's weak! I mean, are we supposed to feel protected by this powerless little girl?" another voice pierces my ear. "Stop..." I mumble, almost unable to move my lips and tears glazing my eyes. The voices laugh.
"Aww, she's gonna cry!" I look all around me but nothing. Everything is just pitch black nothingness. I'm alone. All alone, staring at my mother and voices in my head. "They're right..." I sob, dropping to my knees, "I'm weak..." I cover my face with my hands and quietly sob as the voices laugh in my head.
But then I hear crying. I lift my head up and stand when I see a red door. It has a gold handle and the pane is white but its paint is chipped. I wipe my eyes and step forward.
"What are you going to do?" I stop. I clench my fists and take a deep breath.
"Anything I can to help whoever needs it." I grit out, baring my teeth at the invisible people. I expect them to laugh or make fun of my cringy line, but they don't. It's quiet. They're gone.
As I approach the door I feel a strange warmth on the palms of my hands. I hold them up and examine them, but they look the same.
I lower my hand to the gold doorknob and twist. I pull the door out to my right, as the crying becomes more clear; like it was muffled before through the door.
I cautiously step in, two steps, three steps, four steps. The crying seems closer. Five steps, six steps, seven steps. I close the door. Eight steps, nine steps, ten steps, the crying turns into sniffles. Eleven steps, twelve steps, thirteen steps.
Fern.
I inhale sharply, my hands flying up over my mouth. "Fern," I croak.
She gasps when she hears me, and her head flies around to look at me.
"No..!" she cries out, tears streaming down her face. "Fern!" I shout, stepping forward to her. The darkness around us quickly envelopes her crying face, stopping me from taking another step. But before she vanishes a pair of red eyes close behind her then disappear, and I'm sent up on the floor in a cold sweat.
My eyes shoot to the couch on my left, and my heart drops when Fern is not there. Fern...
I jump out of bed and look around at everyone. They're all here, fast asleep, even Dorian is passed out sitting by the window. I rush to Dorian and grip his shoulders, shaking him desperately.
"Dorian! Dorian, wake up! Wake up!" I shout, him groaning until his eyes squint open then widen. He grabs my arms and I stop shaking him.
"Lydia! Lydia! What! What!"
"Fern's missing!" my eyes glaze over with tears as a dark look crosses Dorian's face.
I pull away and kneel on the blankets I had slept on, retrieving my spellbook from the cozy mess. I stand, then jump surprised by Dorian's hand on the arm holding my spellbook.
"What are you doing?" his eyes gleam, showing he's serious.
"I'm getting her back!'
"Okay, just wait a second,"
"What's going on?" Elara pipes up from under the mountain of blankets, wiping the sleep from her eyes.
"Fern's missing!" I exclaim in desperation. Elara sits and stands up quickly, glancing to the couch then to Dorian before her eyes set on me.
"Okay, I'll go search the house. She could have just woken up restless," and she disappears into the hall.
Ancy with worry, I summon my magic spear and stand near the front door. I hear Dorian summon his bow and arrows, Devan waking up and summoning his elemental weapon, too.
I hear Elara's loud and sharp footsteps before I see her unsheathed ice sword and something clutched in her left hand. As she approaches I realize it's a chunk of Fern's horn.
"Krills. Dorian, can you track her?" Elara hands the horn to Dorian and he eyes it for a moment before bringing the chunk to his nose and sniffing it. His eyes dilate when his head lifts up pointing behind us. "I got it," he says as he vanishes his bow and hurries to the door, waiting for us to follow.
Dorian's nose leads us to a path of the woods we didn't know was there, the air chilling the back of my neck and sending uneasy shivers down my back.
As we trudge further, the trees seem less alive. "Dia... is that tree... rotted?" Elara whispers to my left as I follow her finger to a black as midnight, completely rotted tree. I look back at her, trying to hide my thoughts with a small smile.
"Don't worry about it. Just keep going," she nods soberly and gazes to her left, examining each tree with rising alarm. A small squirrel squeaks under Devan as he jumps higher in the air with a shriek. We all turn and draw our weapons, looking for the danger. We roll our eyes and vanish our weapons, continuing.
"Sorry," Devan whispers behind us, hovering cautiously.
I watch as the good tries quickly vanish, and dead rotting trees surround the path. My gut clenches at the lack of life as a shadowy figure rustles behind a tree to my right. We all stop and turn, alarmed but our weapons stay vanished.
"Shadow?" Elara whispers. "Y- yeah... let's keep going."
The sound of the trees groaning and creatures running fill the air, along with Devan's tiny complaining whines.
Suddenly, the castle of life comes into view. I think? Its structure is the same, but the vines are now completely black and oozing red and black slime, the natural light green forest-y color now a damp brownish dark green.
"Dorian," I mumble, all of us stopping to look at the structure, "is she here?" he looks at me and nods, then looks back up at the castle.
I step forward first and then they follow, my hand reaching the front gate with a shaky breath. As we step closer the air grows heavier and it gets increasingly difficult to breathe. As I open the door a gasp escapes my lips as my hands cover my mouth. The inside is full of dead vines that ooze red and black slime, and they intertwine the stair railings. I take a deep breath and remember my friends behind me, then turn the corner. I see two cages on either side of the throne, and on it sits Inara. Her eyes slowly open, but they're not her eyes. The color is a dark muddy green, and a sly smirk crosses her lips when she sees us.
"My, my, Fern, look who's finally here," Inara announces, as my eyes shift to the cage furthest from us and spot Fern's small form hunched over holding herself. She looks up and her eyes widen when she sees me. I notice a missing part of her horn, and remember the chunk Elara found. My eyes glaze over but I stop myself.
"No! Get out of here, it's a trap!" She sounds so scared. Then Inara maliciously laughs, turning my attention back to her.
"Oh, how cute! I'm sorry dear Fern, but their minds seem to be set on saving you," my eyes look back to Fern with helplessness, "just look at the determination in their eyes..."
"It's not Inara! It's him! It's the Dark Entity! Please, save her," Kazumi cries out from the cage closest to me, as Inara flicks her hand and the cage is thrown at the wall, Kazumi grunting in pain.
"Dia, do you think she's still in there," Elara chimes in to my right. I'm slightly steadied by her presence.
I look at Inara, her once warm rosey cheeks now pale, and her once beautiful bright green eyes now red and dark, complimenting her evil smile. She has to be, I think, she has to be there. I turn to Elara, noticing Devan and Dorian, as Kazumi's groans surround our thoughts.
I nod, relief briefly crossing Elara's face, then back to seriousness.
"Di, what do we do? Does your book have a way to..."
"Remove an ancient and powerful demonic Entity from one of the thirteen sages? Well, I'm not sure, I- I would need time to read the page, which we don't have much of right now. I mean maybe the exorcism includes personal connection but wouldn't Kazumi have been enough to wake her up? If not personal connection then the Ancient Exorcism Method, which I am first of all not familiar with and second we don't even have the materials for it, plus-"
"Lydia, Lydia," Dorian grabs my shoulders, "breathe. We can buy you time. We'll distract her."
"B- But-"
"Dia, we got this," Elara steps forward, ice sword shining in the dim light.
"Yeah, leave it to us!" Devan lands on the ground, a smile on his face.
As I look at my friends, I can't help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude. I smile. Dorian lets go of my shoulders, and I retrieve my book, it falling into my hands.
"What's the plan, Dia," Elara asks. I take a deep breath.
"Distract her- him- it? It. distract it for as long as possible. Whatever you can do, just be careful. Also, don't seriously injure it. No matter who or what is possessing her it's still Inara's body. Sages do heal quickly, but not if the injury is too extensive. Just slow it down long enough for me to research the Exorcism, and then make me an opening."
They nod.
"Sages~ fleeing already? Without rescuing your precious mix-breaded Elfin friend?" it snickers as they all turn, Devan returning to the air and aiming an arrow straight at Inara's head.
"Devan! Were you not listening?! Slow down, not kill!" Elara shouts, Devan shooting his arrow at a Vinet that was starting to twist around Fern's cage. The vine is blasted back, but doesn't die.
"My bad," he says, dodging a Vinet as it slashes at him.
I run around the corner and sit on the ground, opening my book and pointing above the center of the page.
"Localiza, Ancient Exorcism Method."
The pages tremble, then quickly fly to the left, stopping on a page in the middle of the book.
My finger glides over the words as I say them in my head.
The Ancient Exorcism Method, Demonic Entities and more.
As my eyes hastily race down the page, sounds of Elara's ice sword slashing through Vinets pushes into my mind. I push it out and focus.