Shavas staggered out of the portal, and landed on the ground with a sharp intake of breath. The dreadful magic had sunk in deeper, and both of her arms were lined with the painful marks up all the way up to the shoulder.
The vein in her forehead pulsed as she struggled to maintain consciousness after her exhausting trip. One didn't sleep in the other realms, and despite it being the same day here in reality she had traveled straight across that barren landscape for about a week.
The springy grass felt marvelous against her sweat soaked skin, and the knarled branches of the ancient oaks graciously shielded her quivering body from the unforgiving sunlight, and bathed her in shadow.
Anyone who didn't know better would think this just another of the countless clearings strategically placed within this cursed forest, Shavas knew better. This was her home, and she drank in its familiar feel with ferocity.
Shavas raised her hands and chanted the incantation, her fingers twisting in exotic patterns at certain peaks in her speech. The clearing echoed with a hollow roar as The Black Mage Tower materialized out of the gloom.
The Master of the mage tower beamed with pride. Her fingers trailed across the smooth crystalline surface, finally resting in the tall mahogany doors. She wrapped her hands around the tarnished loops of metal and gently pushed her magic through the keyhole, and pulled the doors open.
Two guards stood at attention in the entryway, as was only proper. Their swords gleamed with a venomous promise in the flickering torchlight.
There was a creak of metal as they bowed, as low as the stiff armor would allow. "Mistress” They murmured as one. The two men were brothers, and looked the same as she remembered, it seemed as though mere days had passed, instead of many years, most of those in the cold realms of death.
Shavas idly hung her cloak on a peg, and nodded to the two, Bradley was the name of one and... Perhaps Gregory... Yes, Gregory was the other.
"I will retire to my rooms now gentleman, I believe there are two others here with you. Or there were when I left..?" Bradley nodded, and she proceeded to ascend the stairs with haste born out of panic. She burst through the doors into her richly furnished room, and paused for a mere moment to trace the elegant embroidery on her silk coverlet before descending on the rolls of parchment stacked neatly on her desk.
Shavas tore hungrily through scroll after scroll, sometimes reading only a few words before tossing it to the side with as angry growl. Her Panic approached a peak after hours of searching to no avail, and with grim determination she opened a drawer and set a crimson bladed knife at the corner of the desk before shifting through a stack of papers. She had tipped an inkwell over in her haste and its contents dribbled into the cracks in the wood, and down onto the floor where it lay like a pool of dark blood.
Tears raced unchecked down her cheeks. The stinging sensation intensified with the passing of countless hours as if the magic sensed the possibility of her escape, and was working with renewed ferocity to dispatch its latest victim. Maniacal laughter drifted through her head in waves and she clutched at her scull with a wail of hopeless agony. The libraries in the basement were too vast for her to find help in the allotted amount of time she had. With a scream she ordered the guards to abandon their posts and search them bringing up anything pertaining to demonic curses, and to be damn quick about it.
Shavas's misery only intensified when she removed every stitch of clothing down to the very last stocking to find that almost her entire body from the shoulder sown was spider webbed with that dreadful, painful rash.
She began reading again, this time she worked with the knife clasped in her hand. Her clothed lay in a pile on the floor, and the guards left messy piles of books in the corner as they struggled to grope their way blindly through the sorceress' quarters for it had been made quite clear in the past that none were to lay eyes upon her flesh lest she permit it.
The last scroll dropped from her hands.
Shavas's heart beat in her throat as she choked back a scream. It was nearly impossible to think, her mind, clouded with the poison of evil insanity worked properly only two thirds of the time, and it just wasn't enough. She sank to her knees, and clutched them to her in a fetal position, cradling the knife in-between her thighs, and the taught skin of her stomach.
The door clanged open, and boots echoed across the marble floor, occasionally muffled as they treaded over the lush carpets spread haphazardly around to simulate a homey feeling. A thin, feminine hand reached down to pry the knife away from Shavas's clutching fingers.
Cool arms cradled the weeping sorceress's head, as they skillfully leeched the magical poison from Shavas's weak body.
Shavas awoke some hours later, groaning sleepily. A young woman, perhaps in her twenties sat at her bedside humming contentedly, she swayed slowly back and forth to the beat of her melody pushing against the bedframe with a booted foot to move the rickety old rocker that had doubtlessly been imported from the servants quarters. Her forest green velvet gown was loose to accommodate her generous belly, stretching to clearly outline the life growing within her. The look suited her though, and she was still stunningly beautiful. Her wispy, flaming red hair was loosely curled and her peach like complexion was unblemished. Most startling though where the golden eyen not unlike her own that gazed at her steadily from beneath delicately arched brows.
"Well met mother, and a good thing I arrived when I did."
Her casual greeting caught Shavas by surprise, and she could only gaze with muted shock at her vagabond daughter who rocked slowly. Humming happily as she continued reading a novel written by a depraved old man some centuries ago.
Shavas sunk back onto her cool sheets with a heavy sigh. There was no point in discussing the recent turn of events with Freya. Despite the cheery tune she hummed, there was a cold glimmer of... Something behind her eyes that clearly stated that she was well aware.
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