Song of the Piper

::5:: Thrown to the Wolves (Part 2)

Music is Steel for Humans from The Witcher 3 OST. Play it!

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I opened my eyes. The lycanthropes were gone, and I was back in the room. I was lying on the floor, crutches flung aside. Elise's face swam above me, stern and set in stone.  I realised that I didn't feel any more pain.

Experimentally, I lifted my left arm. With delighted shock, I saw that it was there, completely intact, as though the lycanthropes hadn't ripped it away at all.

"Get up," Elise said, unsympathetic.

I scrabbled onto my knees—holding back a shriek when I accidentally twisted my bad leg—and picked up my crutches. "What was that?" I gasped, fighting off a shudder. I could still feel the lycanthrope leader as his gleaming fangs pierced into my bone.

"An illusion." Elise waved her arms about, gesturing towards the room in its entirety. "This is one of our many training rooms. Here, we can conjure images almost as powerful as the real thing. We use it to train our sorcerers. I specially selected this room because it's our best."

Barely leaning on my crutches, I let my hands roam around my body, checking to see if there were any wounds to indicate my scuffle with the pack. Nothing. Just a little bump on the back of my head where I had hit against the floor, I supposed. But the feeling of being torn apart still clung onto me. Bile rose up my throat; cold sweat soaked my rumpled clothes. My limbs were shaking badly.
Elise then strode over to me, grabbed my shoulders and shook me until my teeth rattled. I instinctively pulled myself out of her grip. She shot me a withering glare. "Klaudia, look at me." I didn't. I was not letting her see my vulnerability. "Look at me. You're all right. It was just an illusion."

I finally looked at her. She gave the slightest nod of reassurance. I swallowed my fear and nodded back. Elise said, "I probably shouldn't have forced you to fight your way out of the illusion like that, but it was necessary for you to learn quickly. You have powerful magic, Klaudia. Don't forget that. You need to learn to use this power to fight off the monsters. We have lost so many good men and women over the years—we need everyone we can get. Do you understand?"

I understood, though it didn't make the illusion easier to digest. "Yes," I whispered harshly.

"Good. What you faced back there wasn't the worst of them," she added. "There are far more corrupted beings in the wastelands—things that you and I have to face for the rest of our miserable years."

Elise sounded surprisingly bitter as she spoke. My eyes snapped up in interest. She startled, just realising what she'd just said. "Anyway," she resumed, schooling her tone into neutrality, "calm yourself. Think of a way to save yourself the next time."

"Wait, I have to face the lycanthropes again?" Panic seized my lungs.

"Yes. You are not getting out of this room until you've killed them all, Klaudia." She met my cutting look with a cool, unfazed one. "You have a Medium. Learn to use it."

"Shouldn't you at least teach me a few defensive spells?" I argued, exasperated. There was no way I was going to walk straight into the pack without some idea of what I had to do. 

"I had learned how to defend myself without aid, and you shall do the same. Magic is instinct. Let it come to you naturally. You only have two options: live or die. I think it's best if you learn your lesson now."

Abruptly, she wheeled around and picked up her song again.

Mist started to fill the area. I hissed, recoiling like a savage cat. The lycanthropes took shape once more. "What are you doing?" I yelled at Elise, who was walking around the points of the star. I threw my crutches aside, taking up my flute into playing position.