Chapter 5: Blades and Bone
The forest exploded.
From beneath rotting leaves and shattered stones, skeletal hands clawed their way to the surface. Ancient armor clanged as long-dead knights hauled themselves from the soil, eyes glowing faint blue beneath rusted helms. They carried weapons warped by time — and hate.
Kaela lunged into the fray with a shout, her sword a silver arc in the gloom. Her first strike shattered a skeleton's ribs, her second cleaved through its skull. But for every one that fell, two more took its place.
"Fall back!" she shouted. "Thalen, cover us!"
Thalen hesitated, frozen. His father's shade watched him even now, unmoving, as if daring him to strike. Arcane power coiled in Thalen's fingers, heat rising. He could feel the spell humming in his veins, but the voice — that voice — kept cutting through his concentration.
Coward. Unworthy. Always hiding behind others.
He squeezed his eyes shut. "Be silent!"
He drove his staff into the ground. Magic erupted in a shockwave, incinerating a ring of undead in radiant flame. For a moment, there was silence.
Then the sorceress spoke.
"Impressive. You have potential… but no control."
She raised both hands. The roots of the forest bent to her will. They writhed from the soil, grabbing Kaela mid-charge and slamming her into a tree. She groaned, winded, struggling against the vines.
"Lira! Help her!" Thalen cried.
Lira reappeared at Kaela's side, breathless and wild-eyed. "This forest is getting real grabby, Kaela!"
Kaela didn't even blink. "Try stabbing harder."
"I am! But there are so many of them! Like a family reunion if your relatives were moldy skeletons!"
Just minutes before, she'd been poking at bones with a stick.
"That one looks like it died waiting in line," she had muttered. "For what? Oh! Maybe a bakery. 'Death by cinnamon bun delay.'"
Kaela had glared. "Can you please focus?"
"I am focused!" Lira had replied, grinning. "I'm scanning for magical pastries. That's how you find cursed relics — you follow the sugar."
Then a skeletal hand had grabbed her ankle.
"GAH! Okay! Rude!" she'd shrieked, kicking free and stabbing downward. "I do not consent to toe nibbling!"
Now, as she returned to Kaela's side, the ground cracked beneath her feet. Her eyes widened.
"Oh no no no—"
The earth gave way.
And Lira, dagger still in hand, vanished into the dark.
"Lira!" Kaela screamed, slashing through vines, too late.