Chapter 61

**Merianna**

Stepping on the earthen ground of the forest again felt like I was in a recurring dream. Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t that long ago when Thyrion followed me out into this forest the first time around.

“Thyrion, you go and look around the Village to see if you can find anything there. I’ll go around the forest’s edge to see if anything might be hiding around there again.” I said as I started sauntering off to where I had come across Dermon in the forest that first time.

“Oh no you don’t.” Thyrion said as he caught the collar of my shirt from behind.

“What are you doing?!” I demanded.

“You aren’t going to go off and have all the good adventures without me again. Trouble seems to follow you around like a desert spider follows your shadow.” I looked up at him questioningly.

“A desert spider?”

He blinked down at me. “Have you ever been to a desert?” I shook my head. “Ever seen a Lion?”

I thought back for a second and nodded. “Sketched in one of the Library’s books.”

Thyrion gave me a dubious stare. “You are out here fighting powerful ex-Council members, Demons, roaming battlefields and taking Bounties.Yet you haven’t really stepped foot out of Eriu before?”

I shrugged. “No one in the Order ever thought that it was needed. Probably since I’ll be sent to other places through Bounties anyway.” That was my reasoning in any case. Not that the topic ever came up with the others.

He raised his eyebrow at me. “I think the reason is more likely because they all have unlocked their past memories and were all over the Realm in all their previous lives. So to them nothing is essentially new, and they probably assumed that would apply to you too. Have you unlocked any past memories?”

“Nope. None. Nothing at all. Well I have vivid dreams sometimes, but nothing that makes any sense. And nothing that’s like the other members in the Order.”

Thyrion heaved a heavy sigh. “Everyone in the Order has gone through the Crystaline Memory spell in the early stages of their past lives. It pulls their memories to the front of their consciousness at a certain age of their new lives. So you’re saying that you don’t have anything like that?”

“Nope. Fog had explained it to Nelia and me when we first came and started learning. We also had the spell performed on us not too long ago, but it doesn’t look like we have any past lives to speak of really.”

“So you’re telling me… that you and your sister are complete newbloods, yet you are as talented and skilled as someone that had multiple past life experiences?”

I shrugged again. “Raska, Nana Ara, Fog and Noch are ruthless teachers?” I supplied as an explanation. “In any case, we’re here to work, not for you to figure me out.”

He frowned down at me with a slight pout. “I wonder if I will ever come to understand you.”

I smirked and started wandering further into the trees. “Well, with the way you are now, I won’t mind being your friend. So you can then have all the time you like trying to solve your mystery.” I was actually getting more comfortable with Thyrion lately. He seemed to have dropped all pretenses of being someone else and rather looked to be himself more often.

He gave a chuckle and followed after me as I made my way to the place where I had previously found the gate marker. I stretched my senses over the area, but couldn’t find anything new lingering on the astral plane. Everything was still, there weren’t any new energy flares to signal new or changed circumstances.

We scouted through the whole outer rim of the forest, but couldn’t find anything suspicious. Once we started making our way through to the village, it was a different story.

We prowled around the buildings that were still left standing. We didn’t pick up on anything at first until we reached the area where the battle was the worst. Thyrion suddenly grabbed a hold of my head and shoved me down to the ground behind a broken wall so forcefully that my face nearly scraped the rubble.

When I snapped my head up to yell at him he slapped his palm over my mouth and pointed to the area on the other side of the wall. I frowned up at him but slowly peeked through one of the cracks at my eye level. I immediately froze the moment I saw a silhouetted figure standing over the gaping hole that had once been the cellar that I had been blown out of when I fought Dermon.

Squinting through the hole, it seemed like he was talking to someone through a charm or artifact he held in his hand. I could hear vague mumbling from where I was but no clear words. I silently cursed myself for not having any charms on me that allowed for enhanced hearing. I also cursed myself for not having invested more time in practicing the spell Raska had taught me that had the same effect. After all, a charm was basically a spell that had been implanted into an object for easy use so you didn’t need to create it from scratch all over again.

I sneaked a glance over to Thyrion only to see a small glow coming from his right hand and gaped indignantly. The bastard had a hearing charm on him all along!

Without warning I clamped down on his palm that held the charm, which made him jerk in surprise,  and turned back to my crack in the wall. I turned all my focus towards the man I saw standing on the far side and felt the charm’s spell flood through my arm to my ears.

At first there was silence and vague mumbling as the spell started tuning my hearing.

“- none at all.” I heard come over the link, then there was a pause of silence as the man shifted slightly.

“Why you weren’t able to kill them, is what bothers me more at this moment. If you had succeeded, then we wouldn’t be in the predicament we are in right now.” A mumbling buzz came out of the object he was holding, but I couldn’t distinguish any words.

“You do realise that we are doing you a favor by assisting you in this endeavour of yours merely because it will benefit our plans as well. We can still carry our plans out without your assistance in the end.” Another round of incoherent mumbling emerged from the object. It frustrated me so much not to be able to hear the other end of the conversation. I will have to ask Thyrion later if he was able to hear anything that I couldn’t.

“Warlock. A dark one.” Thyrion breathed next to me. I flinched at the sound of his voice so close to me and glanced over at him with a frown only to stop short of scowling at him.

I’ve known Thyrion only for a small amount of time, but I had never before seen such a look on his face… it actually sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the man next to me right then was the same one that was forever teasing everyone around him. In a strange way, the sight was refreshing yet scary...

“A Dark Warlock, here of all places...” He gritted out.

My heart skipped a beat as I heard his words and realisation hit me. Dermon did mention that he was in league with the Dark Warlocks, didn’t he? I knew the general significance of being affiliated with Dark Warlocks, but I’ve never come across one myself, so I had no experience to link to the knowledge.

I glanced back to where the Dark Warlock seemed to be finishing his business and crouched down a little more. I was still young and lacked the experience of the other witches in the Order, but even I could tell that it would be very bad if that Warlock knew we were watching him.

I let go of Thyrion’s hand and started to turn towards him. Thyrion on the other hand seemed to have different plans.

He quickly rose up on his feet and towered over the small remains of the wall we had been hiding behind. Reflexively I grabbed his hand that was closest to me and tried to pull him back down quickly. He wasn’t budging… I couldn’t even tip him off balance!

“You, Warlock!” He yelled out, which obviously caught the Warlock’s attention in an instant.

I was glaring daggers at Thyrion as I still kept trying to silently pull him back down with all my might. My heart started racing as I practically felt the Warlock’s gaze turning towards our direction. I started digging my nails into his arm to try and pull his attention back from the Warlock, but he didn’t even flinch.

You idiot! You huge colossal maniacal idiot! Grains for brains! Wait until we manage to get back to the Order! I’ll show you a whole new world of pain you had never experienced before! I threw at him with all the mental strength I had. If he had bothered to turn his eyes to me even once I knew he would have been able to see all my words written on my face. Sadly he didn’t even bother to look down at me even once.

“A Witch?” The Warlock’s deep tone mused incredulously. “Why is a witch calling out to me?”

“I am curious about the conversation you just had. Would you mind answering a few of my questions?” Thyrion asked with a dark smile spread over his face. I quickly let go of his hand and ducked further down behind the wall. That was it, I was done trying to pull him away. If he wanted to fight that badly, I wasn’t going to stop him anymore. I didn’t need the new collection of injuries that this encounter was sure to give. That’s it, he was on his own. 

Sorry Noch, I couldn’t keep him in check. May your wish for his imminent demise come true. I thought as I started looking for a way to quietly slip away. My heart plummeted when I noticed that our little broken wall was one of very few others sprawled very very far away from each other. It was impossible to travel through shadows, and digging through the ground with magic would get me noticed without a doubt.

“I do not answer to the likes of you, Witch. In fact I shall intrude upon you for a moment and request that you come with me quietly… along with that little thing behind the wall next to you.” At the mention of me I completely froze in my spot and felt a cold line of dread creep down my spine.

I quickly glared back up at Thyrion to see that he was finally glancing down at me this time. And it seemed that he could read the expression on my face perfectly well by the small grimace he sported.

“I’m afraid that I must decline your offer, as we have our own plans and schedules to keep to.” He replied politely. A muscle under my right eye was starting to twitch with irritation at the pretend-formality between the two of them. Once this was all over Thyrion was definitely going to get strangled.

“I regret to say this, but that was not a request. If you do not come with me peacefully, I shall drag your corpses back with me if need be.” The Warlock stated coldly. I couldn’t see what was happening on the other side of the wall, but I could definitely feel a charge of energy spiking through the air and building up momentum from where the Warlock was. This was bad…

Just as the charge in the air reached a peek, I jumped out from my hiding place and made a mad dash for the next wall within my sights. I let out a yelp as I was suddenly yanked backwards off my feet and slung over a hard shoulder.  I looked up from Thyrion’s back to get my bearings and yelped again when a streak of razor sharp air suddenly zipped over my head as Thyrion ducked sharply to the left.

“What on earth are you doing?! Put me down! I’m faster than you!” I yelled as close to Thyrion’s ear as I could get.

He gave a cheerful chuckle. “If I let you go off on your merry way, you’re going to abandon me and leave me here to rot with no way to get back to the Order.”

“You’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself! Stop making excuses!” I thumped his back with my fists, which only made him chuckle more.

“Oh but I know it to be the truth! I saw your face back there!” He yelled back over the sound of an explosion of fire that erupted behind us. He quickly paused and put me down as he scanned the area. I also had a look around and was surprised to see the Warlock still standing in the same place as previously, but this time with energy lines lighting up the ground he stood on with a dark blue glow.

It was my first time seeing a Warlock’s magic, so it surprised me to see that his magic was purely pulled from the ground and within himself. There was absolutely no pull of energy from the air. I had read that their magic was more based on logic than ours, but I could also feel dark energy rising from him. Similar to that of a demon’s.

“Watch out.” Thyrion said calmly as he pulled me. It was then that I felt another wave of sharp air cut through the area I had just been standing in.

“Run that way.” Thyrion said as he thumped my back and made me run around the edge of the village’s destruction. I had no idea what he was plotting but it was getting on my nerves. We should be getting out of here, not running up behind the Warlock to do who knows what.

“First Noch and now you! If you’re so eager to die then don’t drag me down with you!!!” I yelled as I dodged to the right, only to have Thyrion follow my lead.

“Oh come now! Even if you die, you’ll most likely just come back again eventually!” He quipped happily with a chuckle as a fire spell exploded behind him.

“I can’t believe I’m stuck with you! You’re even worse than Noch!!!” I fumed indignantly.

“Now now, it’s truly not that bad. I have a plan!”

“Don’t drag me into your plans either! If you have a bone to pick then go pick it on your own!” I made a turn to go right and just made it past the first tree that bordered the forest. Only to end up hitting something solid and bounce off of it so hard that my eyes stung with pain. “Ouch.” I uttered miserably from the ground.

“No time to be taking a break my dear.” Thyrion said as he dashed over and swiftly lifted me up into his arms. “There is no chance of us getting back into the forest right now, the bastard set up a barrier to prevent us from escaping.”

I glared up at him with all the anger I had. “It would have helped, had you mentioned that earlier.”

“With all your boundless talent, I had figured that you already noticed it. Is this perhaps your first time fighting against a Warlock?” He asked with an innocent smile.

I was not going to confirm nor deny anything for him right then. Especially since another ball of fire exploded close by. Too close for my liking. Thyrion dodged it swiftly and made my stomach lurch uncomfortably when he unexpectedly tossed me into the air in the next moment. I let out a shriek of indignation that got cut short the moment that another pair of strong arms caught me in the air.

I quickly looked up only to see Zerial’s scowling face, I then whipped my head around to look down and saw Thyrion finish sending a powerful earth spell towards the Warlock. He reflexively held out his arms in the next moment as he moved, but then looked up quizzically when what he had expected to happen, didn’t.

“I was about to catch her!” He yelled up indignantly.

“So it seems, but seeing how the situation is unfolding, I do not trust you with My Lady’s safety. Especially since this seems personal.” Zerial scowled down at him. “Finish your business here, you are aware that time is short lately.”

Thyrion gave an unsatisfied huff and turned his attention back to the battle he started. I on the other hand turned my attention back to Zerial who had no intentions of landing as he kept beating his powerful wings and held me securely in his grasp.

“You do know that I don’t like this kind of treatment, right?” I asked him with a scowl of my own.

His scowl vanished the moment he turned his attention to me. “Oh I’m fully aware My Lady. But please understand that I take your safety very seriously. Especially now that we know who and what the enemy is affiliated with. If that man down there can manage to bring the Warlock along to the Order alive, it would make gaining more information easier.”

“I bet that Noch is going to love that.” I muttered as I heard another explosion erupt from below.

“Indeed, My Lady. I can actually think of quite a few other people that would also love that outcome.” He said happily.

“Is that so?” I asked curiously. Right at that moment Noch was the only person that sprang to mind because of the times that he bragged about how he was the best person for bounties that had to do with gaining information from other parties. Sometimes the amount of pride he took in that fact was positively frightening.

“Raska would be another individual that would enjoy extracting information, wouldn’t you agree My Lady?” He said with a grin. Raska had completely slipped my mind, but Zerial wasn’t wrong in assuming that. With Raska’s track record with torturing her own students, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her in the Order’s dungeons hammering nails under people’s fingernails to gain information.

“Well… now that you mention it. I can clearly picture her in the middle of something like that without batting an eyelash.”

With a sigh I glanced back down at where I could still hear Thyrion and the Warlock battling against each other. I happened to glance down at them just as Thyrion blasted the Warlock with a combination of fire and air that knocked the Warlock right off of his feet, and out  of his magic circle. He was sent flying backwards from the blast, straight into one of the few stone walls that were still standing. Although, that poor wall didn’t stay upright for long after the Warlock was slammed into it.

Thyrion watched the Warlock fall onto the ground unconscious along with the wall that nearly buried him as it crumpled.

“Do you think he’s done?” I yelled down to Thyrion from where Hezerial still refused to let me down.

“He might be, but also might not. I’ll just keep him contained until we can get him into the Order’s dungeon.” He said while advancing on the prone Warlock.

“Since it seems that you have everything under control, Zerial and I will go through back to the Order.”

“No need to be in such a rush, I’m coming along too!” Thyrion yelled from below.

I looked down and spied him hauling the warlock over his shoulder. I had the thought that Noch was going to love having our new visitor around.