Free Fall

Aurei and Eleazar regroup before renewing their battle against the Death Knight

40.

Free Fall

 

With blazing speed, Aurei let go of the light sword and grabbed Eleazar’s wrist as they fell.   Suddenly his descent decelerated to the speed of a snowflake as the Feather Fall effect of Aurei’s ring slowed down their fall.   She held on tightly to him and fortunately, they did not have far to fall, for only a few moments later he landed headfirst into the snow, followed a second later by Aurei.   The other contents of the room did not have such a gentle landing and was strewn all about.  

Eleazar pulled himself out of the snow with a somewhat wild expression on his face until he realized what had happened.

“Are you okay?”  He asked Aurei as he held the howling black sword away from her.

“Thanks to that friendship ring, yes.  Did you recover your darkness stone?”

“Yes, it bought me some time, but I had to find it in the dark and place it back in its lead holder in order to see to fight.  Thantus was setting everything on fire and a fire in the dark is horrifying.   It was a good idea, on your part, throwing it into the room.”

“Where are the Death Knights?”

As if answering that question, debris began to be thrown back from nearby and Thantus pulled himself to his feet, reaching over his shoulder to retrieve the sword on his back.   His armor had completely lost its orange glow, but his dead eyes burned with rage at them.

Behind him a short distance, Alvis stiffly climbed to his feet in the deep snow, still clutching the Ice sword.

“Take care of Alvis - don’t kill him if you can; I’ll deal with Thantus.”   Eleazar commanded, not taking his eyes off the Death Knight.   The half-Drow seemed to more and more covered in shadow, now appearing to Aurei almost as if he were a pureblood dark elf instead of half Faesidhe.   Her sense of dread about the darkness sword still lingered, but she had no time to dwell on it.  

 

Instead, she quickly grabbed up the Light sword from where it had fallen nearby, and ran as best as she could, through the snow that was nearly halfway to her knees, toward the tormented form of Alvis.    As she approached, he once again pointed at her with the end of the ice sword and she knew what that meant.   A moment later the icy gale resumed, this time growing more and more powerful as it pulled the snow from the ground and channeled it at her.  

Aurei bent into the wind, her eyes closed as she tried to continue forward in the hurricane force blizzard.   With all of her strength, she tried to point the light sword toward where Alvis stood, but the wind was too great.   As the point dipped toward the ground, she willed lightning to come forth, but just as the bolt was forming, the wind pushed the sword tip into the deep snow.

There came the usual cracking sound, followed by the smell of ozone after a lightning strike.   Suddenly the hurricane wind ended and she looked up in surprise to see Alvis’ form jerking and gyrating as electricity surrounded him.    The snow had somehow conducted the bolt to him.    Aurei stumbled forward, hopping across the snow like a fox.   Alvis’ electrocution ended and he fell back in a sitting position in the snow, looking completely stunned.   The ice that had incased his form had shattered and laid in pieces around him.   Aurei closed in, her great sword raised high to strike.   Alvis threw his arm in front of him, squinting in the blinding light with a look of horror on his face.  

His face!   Gone was the frozen tormented expression from his face.  

“Sir Alvis?”  She yelled, her sword dropping to her side.

 

“D-d-don’t hurt me!”  His voice was weak, confused, and scared, the sound of someone who had undergone terrible agony.

Aurei noticed that the yoke around his neck had lost its green glow.  

“Trust me, Sir Alvis, I’m your friend.”  With that she swung her sword carefully in a gentle, underhanded stroke, catching the loop of the yoke, which she lifted up and over his head and tossed far away.

The man just stared at her with hollow eyes, “I… I know you.”

“I’m Aurei Bugley, Sir Alvis.   Stay here, you’ll be safe.  I have to help Eleazar.”

The knight still looked confused, but nodded and Aurei spun and raced across the snow toward Eleazar and Thantus.