Chapter 71

**Merianna**


The meeting had gone a lot more smoothly than I had thought it would. Noch had spearheaded the explanation of the infiltration as everyone listened. Jernok only gave his opinion every here and there when he saw a hole in Noch’s plans or when he had other concerns.

Seeing the two of them worked so seamlessly together on the plans made me wonder why people were petty enough to let past circumstances get in the way of amazing teamwork. I wondered if it was just a quirk of human nature.

After the meeting was concluded and we were divided up in our respective grounds that consisted of two infiltration and one backup group, we set off through the gateway. Fog had explained that their base was inside a cave system in the face of a mountain. Noch had shipped me into one of the infiltration groups since I was so good and undoing barrier spells. He said that my lockpicking skill could come in handy, even though Councilor Jernok was highly against sending a “child” into the enemy’s territory. He shut up once Noch commented that I had once almost completely dismantled all the barriers on his staff though. Apparently accomplishing that was something worth praising, since then he had nothing more to say against my going.

The plan was simple, but it was the best they could come up with considering the location of the base. Since it was inside a vast cave system that we didn’t have knowledge about, it would be hard to try and infiltrate from a “back door” since we didn’t know if there was one. Not to mention it would be extremely easy to get lost while running if someone caught sight of you.

The plan was to use stealth and speed. The smaller infiltration teams would go first and knock out as many guards and members as possible while locating the area where our main targets would be. Killing the Dark Warlocks was out of the question since they haven’t done anything wrong yet and hadn’t done anything against us witches either. If we were to be overwhelmed, only Noch, Jernok or Fog was allowed to send a message to the backup teams to charge in and assist. Ela and Zerial would stay close by in the ether and would only act as soon as the demons reared their ugly heads.

Very simple and straightforward. We weren’t fighting a war after all, not yet anyway. It was probably also going to be hard for them to fight in the cave system as well since there was a lack of space for their magic circles. We also didn’t know how much energy could be inside of the cave system for them to be able to use with precision.

It all made sense to me and everyone else at the meeting, but I couldn’t help but have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind. I couldn’t see them possibly trapping themselves inside their own base in such a way. Not that Noch and Jernok didn’t also have the same concern. All I had to do was knock out as many Warlocks as possible, as quickly as possible.

Actually seeing the mountain base of the Warlocks with your own eyes was much different from only hearing about it. As I was sneaking in the shadows behind Raska, I could appreciate the beauty of the area. I could hear a waterfall on the other side of the mountain, and almost gaped at the scenery of sheer rock faces, small canyons and extending cliff faces that served as nesting areas for local birds. Not to mention that the mountain was surrounded by a dense pine tree forest on all sides. It made me sour to know that the Dark Warlocks had taken over this area, they clearly didn’t even appreciate what was around them.

“Entrance up ahead.” Raska’s voice floated towards us as she came to a steady stop ahead in the shadows.

The rest of the group behind me also came to a stop. I missed having Jasnine with me, sadly she was with Noch, Nana Ara and Councilor Jernok that was heading to the second entrance. The four other members with us consisted of two older Order members and two Council members. It was the Council members that kept making me feel uncomfortable. Sure I was young, but that didn’t mean I was going to voluntarily bow out just because they kept giving me “get out of here” glares.

As we emerged from the shadows to hide behind bushes, I whirled my gaze around to the two Council members and gave them a glare of my own for good measure. They seemed to be taken aback by my level of hostility but wisely didn’t say anything. The other Order members on the other hand shot knowing expressions at each other.

“Two guards outside, barrier around the entrance. It’s possible that they have magic circles inscribed close by as well.” Raska reported in a whisper. “You all have your weapons ready?”

We all nodded. Raska had once again pulled out her knives and swords that had been dipped in her precious “Lillian’s” poison. I didn’t like using it, but it was without a doubt the best solution to use for incapacitation since physical blows could land incorrectly or not work on the target. Sadly all the Warlocks needed to stay alive, no matter how much they fought back. Damn rules.

My train of thought stopped short for a second. Come to think of it, maybe Noch shared the same sentiment. He never did like following rules. Oh my soul… don’t tell me that I am actually turning into another version of Noch! 

I didn’t have more time to agonise over the impending revelation. Raska had jumped up from our hiding spot and made her way over to the first guard like she was a ravenous ghost. That was my que to go and dismantle the barrier the warlocks had erected. I ignored the sounds of the guards hitting the stone floor and evaluated the energy around the entrance.

“Hmph. How can such a young sprout dismantle something this complex?” I heard one of the Council members sneering behind my back.

“If that’s how you feel, why don’t you give it a go?” One of our Order members retorted scathingly.

“Come now guys, this is not the time to start fighting amongst ourselves.” Said an optimistic peacemaker. I couldn’t make out which side he was on.

I tuned out their idle arguing and focused on the energy. I noticed multiple threads of energy originating from one specific point near the bottom right corner of the entrance.

I made a small sound of interest and noticed the arguing silencing behind me. Without another word I pulled out a simple stelle I forever carted around with me and moved over to that single point. A very small spell circle was carved into the side of the stone. It was hardly noticeable unless you were actively looking for it.

I glanced at the Warlocks’ inscriptions and was surprised to see that they were not all that different from Rune spells.

“Oh, I should see if there are any books in this cave later. Raska, please remind me to look for some Warlock spell books.” I said nonchalantly as I moved closer.

“Not a problem Merianna. Do you find their way of using magic interesting?” She asked with a chuckle.

“Yes, very actually. Jasnine will find this interesting as well I think. It’s very similar to Rune spells.” I commented as I added one simple Rune symbol into the inscription. Once it was added I didn’t even need to run my energy through it to activate it. The energy that the inscription gathered automatically did that for me.

Raska smirked as the barrier vanished in a puff of mist. The two Order members with us threw jabs at the Council members, who were thoroughly proven wrong. Thankfully they didn’t say much else as Raska started leading the way into the darkness. It may still have been daylight outside, but the interior of the cave seemed to be a complete world of its own.

It was my first time inside a cave of any sort. The cold damp air that hit my face the moment we set foot inside surprised me. It made me incredibly glad that the Warlocks had set up fluorescent crystals in strategic ledges. I wondered if they also lived inside the cave. The thought wasn’t very flattering. You would expect ogres or goblins or the like to live in caves, not high maintenance magical-inclined humans.

“This way.” Raska whispered as she led us down another tunnel which felt like it was going even deeper into the mountain.

Along the way we ran across another group of warlocks that seemed to be milling about. I really hoped that we would be able to find the place where Dermon was hiding soon. I also hoped that we wouldn’t run into any troublesome warlocks. So far things were going well, and I hoped it stayed that way.

At least this was only a group of four warlocks. Our little group fell straight into positions and followed Raska as soon as she gave the signal to move. We dove back into the shadows and incapasitated them in short order. The atmosphere within the caves seemed to get heavier the deeper we managed to go. It made me wonder how Jasnine and Noch’s team was doing at the other entrance.

Raska suddenly came to a halt and extended her hand in a gesture for us to hide. Barely even a second after we hid ourselves again, an ominous aura suddenly came drifting around the corner we were hiding at. My breath froze in my lungs as the feeling of the menacing energy brushed against my senses. My body suddenly started trembling as my heartbeat sped up. It was the same feeling I felt when Zerial and I first saw Dermon with the Demons in the forest.

Again I couldn’t help but be certain that I had felt this aura somewhere before, and that I had to do everything in my power not to get noticed by it.

My eyes were fixed on the spot that the aura came from. As the aura came closer to the edge of the corner, I kept my eyes peeled open, I didn’t dare to blink. When the source of the aura finally seemed to pass past the corner, I couldn’t see anything, but I sure as hell felt it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered Fog telling me once that we would be able to feel the auras of demons and other ethereal entities, but not necessarily see them because of the veil between our realms of existence. The only time when entities would be able to be seen, was if someone had the talent to be able to see past the veils, or if a gate was brought into existence to allow travel between the realms. Those were the times when witches were mostly called upon to protect this realm from the demon hordes that flow in through those gates. Luckily occurrences like that happened so rarely that it skipped multiple generations.

Tracking the path of the aura with my eyes was useless, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. Every one of my instincts were telling me not to get noticed.

Someone poked my back, which made me nearly jump out of my skin. Without looking back I grabbed the hand that poked me and gripped it tightly in an effort to not let anyone move anymore. My eyes stayed trained on the path the aura took until it disappeared around another corner.

Only then was I able to let out a sigh of relief, that was when I noticed that the hand I was gripping was desperately trying to get out of my grasp. I finally let go to look at who the hand was connected to. I was almost not surprised to see that it was attached to one of the Council members.

“What was that for?!” He hissed at me while he rubbed his bruised wrist.

I looked him in the eye to make sure that he knew I was serious. “That was a Demon. If you had made any other move or sound, we would’ve been done for.”

The Council member looked at me with a raised eyebrow. He obviously didn’t believe me, probably because I was too young to have credibility in his books. He looked up to Raska in front of me. She had turned around and was looking at our exchange. She didn’t say anything, she merely just nodded in confirmation that what I said was indeed correct.

He seemed to deflate at that and just sat back on his haunches. He clearly didn’t have any intention in apologizing for doubting me or nearly blowing our cover.

“It looks like we are almost at the heart of this cave system, let’s continue.” Raska ordered and silently moved with the shadows again. I was hot on her heels as we kept our eyes open for any other Warlocks in the hallways. 

We were making good progress until we started moving past a small corridor to our right. The darkness down the obviously unused corridor suddenly seemed to pulse as I was in the process of passing by it. So much happened at once that I barely registered half of it.

A dark claw-like hand suddenly appeared out of the darkness and grabbed me around my mouth, preventing me from screaming. My heart sank and all I could do was reflexively gasp through my nose. Another hand clamped down on my shoulder and started dragging me into the darkness.

I heard Raska’s surprised yell as I was forcibly dragged into the darkness and enveloped in a grip that I couldn’t break away from. I couldn’t see or hear anything, I could only feel the sensation of incredibly fast movement through the void. It almost felt like I was being pulled through walls and gaps that no one would ever have been able to get through.

The only clear thought I had at that moment was that I was going to die.