Chapter 4: We Could Be Friends

Carl had commanded Elvyah to watch Kozen

and so she did. She watched Kozen try to set the entire building on fire and

she watched him get hamstrung for it. She watched the men at his side fall

helplessly beside him and she watched their foes disappear into wind as

suddenly as they had come. Damn! The plan had been simple, there was no chance

that a large group of people had managed to sneak into the Demolition site

unnoticed, that anyone had snuck in at all was a suprise. Accordingly Carl sent

a small group to meet them, Kozen and his lackeys. The two sides would clash

and Elvyah would strike from the shadows, killing or maiming a deviant in the

process so Kozen could take the victory and if that wouldn't work then she

would get back to Carl and he would send in reinforcements based on her

reports. What they hadn't expected was that Kozen would be beaten so quickly

and by a complete unknown as well.

The unknown, there was something about her that sent shivers down Elvyah's

spine, Elvyah prided herself in her perk Shadow Glimpse, a side ability that

allowed her to read opponents and this was someone she could not beat. The

woman wore equipment that stank of forge enhancements, a black form fitting

battle suit with twin wicked looking curved daggers at her hip, forge enhanced

weaponry, there were no Forges in Tenlight. It took a moment for Elvyah make

her decision, the battle was lost. The fog had completely enveloped the ground

floor, at this point trying to set it on fire without someone who could control

fire would only set the building ablaze. The Demolishers would be forced to

abandon it and the Staves would rout them. If they fled the rising fog now, the

Staves would rout them and if they kept fighting the fog would knockout all but

the sturdiest deviants and once again they would be defeated. So Elvyah took advantage

of her deviation's greatest strength, she fled, once she was certain she was

safe from harm she would decide on the next course of action.

Carl stared out at the battlefield but he saw nothing. He could feel the noose

tightening, he had been outplayed at every turn. Gods how had it come to this,

just a few minutes ago he had believed he could still win. Jored had come to

him tired but determined this was the first time an all-out attack from him had

been thwarted and he burned with the need to even the score. In retrospect it

had been a grave blunder to let him launch a second strike when he was so low

on Despair but how could he have known things would turn out the way they did!

Curse them all!

Steven had stood beside him in the moment when he made the error that would

dash his already poor chances at winning, stewing in that eternal rage of that

become synonymous with Steven.

"Alright but I don't want to see so much as their charcoal remains"

what use were hand signs when the opponent had the upper hand.

"Definitely!" Jored signed.

"Steven you'll clear a path out for Jored if things don't go as planned,

he might not have the Despair to streak back"

The man said or signed nothing but his skin retreated beneath pitch black metal

scales. He would follow the plan but Carl harboured no illusions that he didn't

blame Carl for the attack. Just as he had blamed Carl for every bad thing that

had happened in the last twenty years. Spineless, Carl had paid the price and

collected his dues only a lesser man would do otherwise. What was it to him if

Steven still mourned the price he paid twenty years ago?

Space had been cleared for Jored, somehow Kozen had failed and the fog

continued to grow, although slower now that it had expended it’s stockpile.

Carl had hoped that the deviant responsible for the cloud would run out of

Despair entirely but it seemed that had been a vain hope. They had so little

time, if they didn't take out or severely weaken the main force soon, they

would lose without a doubt. Where was Elvyah, she didn't get herself killed did

she? Jored burst through the sky even more fiercely and powerfully than the

first time, purple forks crackled around the main bolt wildly and Carl allowed

himself to hope that it would be enough, that whatever deviant had stopped the

first blow would be overwhelmed and they would all die! What actually happened

though was both sobering and frightening. The bright yellow silhouette moved,

one moment it was hovering above the Staves the next it was in front of the lightning

bolt. A flash of blinding light forced Carl to look away and when he looked

back, the silhouette held Jored by the neck, ***** and merely human. It tossed

Jored into the mass of Staves, where he would likely be killed and returned to

hovering. Gods! Then Steven had insisted on making the matter worse, he would

finish of the glowing man himself. Carl hadn't stood in his way for one Steven

wouldn't listen and then there was that chance that stopping Jored had depleted

it's Despair after all rather than attacking the glowing man retreated. And so

Steven triggered the full strength of his deviation, his flesh became blade and

his eyes flame. Waves of heat radiated from his body and large black wings

stretched out behind him. Slowly his black armour became red with heat, the

angel of demolition. There was a time when Steven could take multiple forms

depending on his prevalent emotion, now rare was the day when he did not become

the angel of black and red.

Cleaves remained airborne trying to appear the image of omnipotence whilst

struggling to get the energy that raged through his body under control. He had

far too much energy and far too little Despair, if he ran out of Despair before

he burnt out the energy... He needed to spend it on something, if he was careful

he could blow up the trebuchets without killing too many people. He readied

himself to fire taking the time to ensure he did not instinctively let out too

much, that was when he saw a large black winged man take off from the building

his master wanted. There was an opportunity here, the man was strong for a

backwater town like this one and if Cleaves wasn't careful he would force

Cleaves to a point where he did not have enough Despair to control the energy

within him. That had almost happened in the lightning strike from before, he

had been forced to let out a blast of light -the least harmful form of energy

Cleaves could expel- to get things back under control. Still Cleaves was sure

he could outmanoeuvre the brute and get rid of excess energy in the process.

Besides it wasn't as if he could just let the guy do as he wished, not when

master needed protecting.

When the two clashed it was in an entirely different manner from the earlier

collision. The bright man fired off two blasts of yellow light at Steven who

didn't even attempt to dodge. Kael half expected the blasts to shear right

through his 'uncle' but the man barrelled through them unaffected. The bright

man fired another blast that hardly seemed any different from the first two but

it knocked Steven back and almost sent him careening into the ground. Luckily

he managed to right himself before hitting the ground, then with a powerful

beat of his wings he shot towards the yellow man faster than Kael had thought

he was capable of moving. The yellow man darted out of the way and hit his

uncle with another blast, this one saw him ploughing through the earth. His

uncle rose and waved his arms in what should have been a vicious but ended up

coming across as comical way. Again Steven shot forward and the man avoided him

and launched another blast, only this time Steven spun out of the way

erratically and threw a red hot spike at his opponent. The man knocked the

spike aside with a blast that streamed at Steven, leaking yellow light. Steven

avoided it with cunning grace and harried him with four rapidly tossed spikes.

For a couple of exchanges Steven kept at it, ducking and weaving with energetic

aerial manoeuvres only to be driven into the ground with a blast at point blank

range.

"He can't win, the enemy is holding back and still he can't even

scratch him"

Kael turned around to face the steadily rising fog. All around him Demolishers

ignored the fog and kept firing at the enemy.

"We are losing... no we have lost"

Two heart beats, his uncle was in the air doggedly trying to land a blow, his

father shouted to draw attention and then signalled something, the Demolishers leapt

of the roof of the building, two floors below. The enemy didn't fire arrows at

them as would have been wise to but rather broke out into a sprint charging for

their lines and the Demolishers charged to meet them. Two heartbeats, he was

all alone, him and the fog, Kael made to leap, it was pointless they had lost,

still he would lose with his brethren. When suddenly the fog jolted forward,

racing towards the Demolishers faster than they could run. He watched them fall

until his father and a handful of deviants were all that remained. Then the fog

left, disappearing without a trace, it was over, utter defeat. For some reason

he felt like he needed to be with the fallen Demolishers and so he leapt. For a

second he was airborne, his heart thumped wildly and the second stretched, his

mark whirled so fast he could feel it burn. When his body hit the ground, his

mind was not with it. He dropped like a weighted sack, unconscious. No one saw

the arms that stretched out of his shadow and pulled him below.

Cleaves hit the metal demon with the heaviest blast yet, it tossed the man

clear across the air and into the grass below. Yet the man got up again only

burning hotter, Cleaves felt exasperated, he was drawing close to his limit, he

would either have to reduce the little bird to rubble or let his own deviation

rip him apart and there was hardly a choice in that. Still the metal man was

strong, master would have been pleased to own it, if only it knew it was a blow

away from death. That was the answer! The armoured man rose to his feet and

took off running at him, the moment before he leapt into the air Cleaves fired

a beam putting as much energy as he could into it. The beam radiated so much

power it was visible. Whether it was the shock or the shock wave his opponent

stumbled, then looked at him, the truth could no longer be ignored, Cleaves

could kill the tin man with a single blast but the metal man didn't stop

defeated like Cleaves expected rather he charged on more recklessly than

before. A single blast punched through his mid-section like it was clay dough.

Dead, dying it hardly made a difference to Cleaves. Cleaves dropped to the

ground, he was out of energy. He was going have to walk, bummer.

Elvyah had been right but that wasn't enough, now she had to make the right

choice. She had already made it, honestly that had been the easy part,

accomplishing it was the problem, one wrong move and she would have to run. Her

targets had been careful but not nearly enough. Not when they were so slow and

she was so fast. Not when they hid themselves with light and the light hid

nothing from her, she could see them now. They thought were hidden but it she

who was invisible. She roused the despair within her and mentally reviewed her

plan of action. Then it was flurry of action, she burst out shadows with

startling speed, her outstretched arms trailing with slivers of shadow, all it

took was a bit of will and the slivers became tendons, a little push and they

streamed ahead of her pulling her with them. Bough, an energy deviant who

turned enemies to mush with deadly vibrations was struck in the head by a thick

club of shadow, perhaps a little too forcefully but she could not risk a

counter attack. Lysa her protégé was sliced and then wrapped by shadow ribbons.

Bough was visible to anyone now, the girl on the other hand was visible only by

the black strips that held her in place. Whilst the girl struggled pointlessly

against her binds Elvyah shunted Bough into the shadows, she had to be quick it

would not be possible if he woke. Then she turned her attention to Lysa.

"Be still or I'll make you still" she said in a menacing tone that

did it. Lysa went as rigid as a plank of wood, now the shadows would accept her

too.

The two of them had been heading towards the Tenlight family estate which

Elvyah had considered doing herself. However ultimately abandoned in favour of

getting in the graces of the new force that had managed to do what the

Tenlight's had failed to do for almost twenty five years, absorb both the

Staves and the Demolishers, all without revealing who they were. No this was

better, after all she had a feeling the Tenlight's wouldn't be around for much

longer. She reached within her and felt for Despair, the fight had exhausted

her reserves almost entirely but that was okay, the next step shouldn't require

any fighting. If things went wrong she could always run. She pushed through the

shadows and joined the never ending currents that run in every shadow. They

would take her and her prisoners to where she needed to be.

Elvyah didn't have to wait long, she was spotted almost as soon she emerged,

the building's location had been chosen with that in mind. Not that look outs

could stop her from going where she wished. Still sneaking in would not be

helpful, she supposed she might be able to rescue Carl and few other deviants

but joining the Tenlights would be preferable to that. She glanced around

nervously, she was not suited for fights, particularly those where her enemies

where aware of her presence before the fight. Simply handling Bough and Lysa

had left her with little more than the faintest traces of Despair. Then there

was the woman who could stay hidden even from her to consider, the thought

almost made her decide the Tenlights where the better choice but she would not

let herself run away. The tall grass here meant she had thousands of shadows to

flee through, there was nothing to worry about, she reminded herself. Still

images of Kozen having his *** handed to him plagued her.

"Hello"

Elvyah leapt back, startled, the woman in the battle suit had arrived. This was

the first the time she had come across a deviation that hid so perfectly from

her light sensitivity perk. This woman could kill her, she fought down the urge

to run and smiled at the woman. Time to make it or break it.

"Jumpy little thing, aren't you?" The woman mocked, Elvyah was a

lethal assassin and she was only too aware how little it took to claim a life.

Some deviants got stupid, thinking they were invincible when in truth an

ordinary person could do them in.

"I want to speak to your leader"

"I am the leader"

"No you sure as hell isn’t."

Silence then laughter, for a second Elvyah was scared had she been wrong, did

she misread her opponent but she had been so certain. She was about to correct

her mistake when the woman spoke.

"I suppose there isn't much point in denying his existence but tell me

this, why should I let you? What does master have to gain by meeting up with

you?"

"I have gifts" with a push of her low despair Elvyah released Kael's

body from the shadows. "He is GodMarked and I have two other deviants, for

your leader"

"Hmm, and how do I know you won't just try to kill master"

"I am not ready to die for another man's gain, and I don't see how killing

your master would be anything but that"

"Hmmm, you couldn't kill him if you tried" the jibe cut deep but

Elvyah had leashed her pride ages ago, she didn't make stupid mistakes and she

wouldn't die a stupid death "Alright, I suppose I don't have reason to say

no little bunny"

"Thank you"

"I presume you won't be joining us inside" the woman mocked.

"No, I like it here"

"Yes, surrounded by your burrows so you can flee in a moment’s notice,

weaklings like you have no place serving my master. Perhaps my master will turn

you and your worthless gifts away and I can play hunt the bunny"

Anger, fear and better judgement battled within Elvyah, luckily for her either

fear or better judgement won, sometimes it was hard to tell difference between

the two. Regardless Elvyah bit her tongue, she knew the woman's type, people

who felt the need to provoke and hurt others for morose pleasure, she herself

wanted to spike the woman with a shadow and set her over an open flame, see who

was the bunny then, so she could understand them. The only way to win against

them was to ignore them.

The woman seemed to get the message because she picked up Kael's limp body,

turned around and made a dash for the former Demolition site, disappearing in

mid stride. It had been odd how he had fallen unconscious suddenly but you

didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

The master, he wasn't anything like Elvyah had expected. He was tall she

supposed, for his age (which wasn't much when that age hovered between twelve

and fourteen), gaunt and pale, almost sickly really. He had particularly black

curls, the kind of black that was rare amongst ordinary men and common place

amongst deviants and yellow pupils that reminded her of cat eyes although they

were quite obviously human. He was definitely a deviant not that she had

expected different there were no mortal leaders on this side of the forgotten

ranges anymore. The boy swaggered towards her with the unshakable confidence of

a winner, he was well trained she could tell that much, undoubtedly better than

she was but he lacked the presence of a person who had danced with death to

many different songs. A unique and powerful deviation then, she would have to

tread cautiously, besides the glowing man from before and the uppity cunt

flanked him.

"Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Avin, Avin Crow" he sang out in

the too high voice of a young boy but the last name 'Crow', it scared Elvyah.

This was the right choice after all.

"Elvyah, my lord, I'm humbled to make your acquaintance"

"Splendid, my scalpel tells me you bring gifts"

"And my servitude if it pleases my lord"

"Good, good Elvyah I think we could be friends, why don't we shake on

it" he said with an outstretched hand. An outstretched hand, it was stupid

to shake a deviant whose deviation you didn't know but it was doubly stupid to

piss off a Crow.

With a deep breath she reached out, every hair on her body standing on end. He

clasped her hands with a goofy grin and then yanked her forward with strength

that completely overpowered her. The fucker! In the corner of her she could see

the cunt pull out a knife and the man's hand start to glow. Well **** them all!

She was an escape artist! She moved into the boy's embrace shouldering him

hard, for all the good that did, he was as solid as a jacked up boulder. His

mouth opened wide to reveal two pearly fangs, motherfucker! With a surge of

Despair more powerful than she had thought she had in her and a lot more than

needed for the job she slipped into his shadow, narrowly avoiding a

debilitating cut and a painful kiss. The glowy dude tried to force her out by

lighten up the place but all that did was displace her. She would have loved to

skewer the brat but she didn't have either the despair or the heart to do that.

Sighing, she let the shadow currents carry her and her bundles where they

wished, without despair the only other choice was remaining rooted but that was

no good. She would come up for a top up later, when she was far away from the

Crow. What next? The Tenlights? No, they were doomed. It seemed she would have

to leave the town of Tenlight, and convince Lysa and Bough that she saved their

lives and they should work for her or at the very least work with her. Bough's deviation

was too tasty to ignore and Lysa, well at least she wouldn't be totally

useless.

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