After Empire of Storms

Chapter 25

SO SO SORRY For not updating! If I ever go this long again just yell at me to get me back to writing! Enjoy!

Elide woke to a hammering on the wooden door leading to her rooms. The noise echoed around the spacious room, unrelenting in its attack. 

Elide groaned as she slid off of the monstrous bed onto the cold stone waiting below. Her twisted excuse of an ankle had barely skimmed the ground before a cold wind swept into her room, circling her bed as if scanning for an enemy. 

Flinching at the cold, Elide sighed as she placed one foot in front of the other, slowly toeing her way through the dark room. The pounding had not ceased its attack, and the relentless banging had wormed its way into her skull, a small ache forming at the back of her neck. 

Gritting her teeth against the small hurt, Elide crossed her chambers quickly before throwing open the door. A darkness that Elide had grown accustomed to slithered through the open space. The Lady of Perranth pulled her nightgown closer to her body before stepping into the antechamber. 

The accommodations were an endless maze compared to her small keep in Perranth; compared to any place she had ever considered home. Like her bedroom, the room beyond was dark, though a small fire had flickered there before she fell asleep. 

The knocking increased, and Elide grimaced as she reached for the door, yanking it open with a snarl. "Lorcan--" 

Her voice was ripped away as she saw the creature standing there, already reaching for her with its talons, its body gobbling up any light managing to sneak through the cracks in her room. 

Elide opened her mouth to scream as she stepped backwards, only to collide with the empty fireplace. Ilken. But how had they reached her-- 

Elide scrambled back, her nightdress snagging on stone as the creature entered the room, it pace unhurried. Her screams only seeming to excite the creatures. 

Grabbing the steel poker from the fireplace, Elide flung herself towards her recently vacated bedroom, clawing her way towards the window. 

The Ilken only smiled as the steadily approached, black teeth splitting to reveal a rotten mouth. A hissing noise escaped from the Ilken converging on her door, their laughs and stares making her feel more exposed than she had in that dungeon.   

Elide lunged for the window, her stumbling fingers dropping the poker as she unlatched the glass and shoved it open--Only to stop in her tracks once more. 

An army approached, steadily, a black mass consuming all life in its path. The once vibrant Terrasen forest now shiveled under the claws and talons of those monsters running over it. Blood ran down the grass in streams, bodies slashed open as they piled on top of each other. 

The army was darkness incarnate. She fell to her knees at the sheer size. And at the front--Oh gods, at the front...

Elide vomited onto the stone floor as the Ilken in her room screeched at her to stand, to fight. That young and old and wise voice that had guided Elide her entire life was gone--not hiding--but gone. 

And she could do nothing but shake as those talons reached out for her, pushing back her dark hair that had come undone in her frantic escape--

"GET UP." The pure command in the voice had Elide jerking forward, eyes opening as she pushed back the suffocating bed sheets that were tangling her--caging her--

The sheets crumbled to dust in time for Elide to reach the side of the bed and purge her stomach of that night's meal. Cool hands tugged back her hair as she vomited onto the clean stone below her bed.