Magic Born: The Uprising (Wattys2016)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: After Math

                  

Chapter Twenty-Seven: After Math

          Branches and leaves swatted Ceridwen's cheeks as she raced back to the outpost, on the back of Artemis, tightly clutching Egon's staff. Rayner, Adisa, and Rolland followed. Rayner and Adisa were mounted on Ares. Rolland rode closely behind on Apollo.

The group reached the entrance and Ceridwen leapt from her horse, and dropped to the ground in a painful song of sorrow. Tears bled from her mossy eyes and seeped into the grass.

Rayner raced to her side and embraced her in a hug.

"Ceridwen I'm so sorry..." Adisa's voice was the only sound that rang out, as everyone stood around in silences.

"Sorry?" Ceridwen's body sprang upright. "You're sorry?" A scowl erupted from her face as she growled. "You didn't even try to save them, you let Theresa bleed out, you left her there...You could've gone back."

"It wasn't worth everyone dying..."

"They are worth everything, you spineless sap." Ceridwen roared as she swung her fist, clocking Adisa in the cheek.

Adisa's instincts took over, her eyes merged into a cave of coal and she jolted both hands forward. Two shadowy snakes flew from her palms, one wrapped around Ceridwen's waist and the other grabbed Ceridwen's throat. Ceridwen dropped Egon's staff, stunned and in searing pain. 

Adisa gritted her teeth and the snakes tightened. Ceridwen began to lose consciousness.

"HEY!" Rayner shot up a blazing wall of flames in-between the two girls, and the darkness released Ceridwen.

Adisa stumbled backwards as Ceridwen fell to the ground. Adisa's eyes widened in fear as she trembled with shook.

"You're a monster!" Ceridwen's word dug their claws under Adisa's skin.

"I...I...I didn't mean...I'm so sorry..." With every word Adisa tripped backwards until she was sprinting to the woods.

"Adisa wait!" Rayner raced after her. But the dark Magic Born disappeared in a cloud of black fog.

As Rolland helped Ceridwen stand, Mace, Lilith, Synth, Cecelia, emerged from the forest and raced towards the outpost.

Mace slid off of Mercury. Lilith tumbled off of Nilas and raced to Mace, as Synth and Cecelia arrived on a camp horse.

Lilith embraced him in a hug and tears streamed her face.

"You're safe; we are all safe..."

"That's not true..." Rayner's voice was shaky. His eyes dropped to Ceridwen as she, picked up Egon's staff and turned to walked inside a tent. "Theresa and Egon...They're dead..."

A sheet of dread froze over Mace's body. The ground beneath his feet glazed over with a white frost.

"It's my fault." Mace mumbled.

"What?" Rayner said, not half hearing, or not wanting to believe what he had just heard.

"I killed them, I'm the reason they're dead."

"Mace, Don't!" Lilith reached for his shoulder. "Don't do this to yourself..."

Mace shrugged her off.

"I've held it off for long enough!" Mace said to Lilith

"What are you talking about...?" Rayner asked in a horrified whisper.

"I was spying on the group, Vestomer captured Lilith and threatened her life. He said he'd have Duzna torture her if I didn't comply." Tears began to form in Mace's icy eyes. "I stopped feeding him information as soon as Lilith was save, but I guess they already had enough knowledge to know we were planning an attack." A tear dropped from Mace's face, froze in mid-air, and shattered when it hit the ground.

"Did you know?" Rayner mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Mace questioned.

Rayner's eyes caught fire as his hand spiraled up in an inferno. He lunged forward and wrapped his flaming hand around the collar of Mace's cloak.

"DID YOU KNOW IT WAS A TRAP?!" Rayner Barked.

"No, I swear!" Mace cried out as his upper garment turned to ash.

Rayner's hand sputtered out and he stormed off. Mace dropped to his knees and began to weep.

Everyone began to slowly fade away, disappearing into tents.

Lilith kneeled beside Mace and embraced him.

"This isn't your fault..."

"You're wrong...and their blood will forever stain my hands."

***

Rayner ripped open the flap to Ceridwen's tent and rushed inside.

Ceridwen stood over her bed packing a knapsack, and refilling her quiver with arrows, dried tears still caressing her eyes.

"Where are you going?" Rayner asked.

Ceridwen threw her quiver over her shoulder and began to walk past Rayner. "To find out how to bring Egon back!"

Rayner reached out and grabbed Ceridwen's arm.

"That's suicide!" Rayner pleaded.

"I have to try."

"You loved him, I can see that, but he wouldn't want this."

"You don't know what he would want." Ceridwen snarled, ripping from Rayner's grasp.

"There's no way to bring him back...He gone."

"You're wrong, there is a way...The Island of Lost Souls..." Ceridwen watched Rayner's eyes widen, and then she ducked out of the tent, and left.