Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lornaine Forest

The journey had taken nearly an hour into the forest. Even Aderyn was beginning to feel her wings grow heavy. The only thing to shake her out of her daze was the sudden and very dark shadow that swept over the three witches as they traveled.

The medicine witch fluttered to the ground next to the pack of wolves. They had taken a very sudden pause before a small pathway ahead, so dark that even Loumere's keen sight couldn't pierce the gloom.

Aderyn scratched the ground with her tiny claws. Just standing before the path made her uncomfortable, and immensely so. It felt as though the gloom peered back and watched her. She felt like a mouse in a field, a fish on a hook. Hopelessness soaked her soul like a wet rag and pulled her down.

She hadn't even noticed her own panic, the way she flew sporadically into the trees, the wolves, the ground, trying to get away from an imaginary panic that took her over.
 
As the others stopped, the ebony orb of smoke expanded and stretched to the size of a man as it also slowed to a halt. Once the cloud settled, Arianne stepped from within and dismissed the fog with a wave of her hand. Almost immediately, a chill ran through every fiber of her being. The witch suspected they might be close, if for nothing other than the fact someone had to have created such a compulsion, such a looming, physical 'cloud' of terror.

While Fabre had seen horrors even beyond her own mortal comprehension, clearly her peer had not. Aderyn had not even left her avian state before going berserk. She needed to keep the situation from spiraling out of control any further, and deemed use of force, albeit minor, necessary. Her abyssal fog billowed from the ground beneath her feet, quickly coalescing into a mass around the size of several people. As her hand moved, so did the amorphous blob, and it lurched into the air as Arianne attempted to catch the colorful bird.

Several attempts later the witch managed to actually catch Aderyn, quickly closing the fog's gentle, yet firm grasp around the avian sorceress. The smothering dark, bewitching in its emptiness, sought more to distract her than to actually directly calm her down. Although, its master was one of the few that actually found comfort in such an abyss.
 
As she found herself locked into Fabre's grasp, the small bird squirmed but didn't break free. It only took a moment for her to calm down. She had experienced something similar in the past, though the memory was traumatic at best. The small bird took a deep breath. She kept her eyes away from the darkness as she rose her her arms, form expanding and growing until the silhouette of the witch could be seen.

"I'm... I'm fine now, Arianne. I'm sorry." Aderyn held her hand up to her eyes, masking her from the darkness. The feeling of something looming over her never went away, however.

The pack of wolves veered into the dark passage. Loumere growled softly, feeling the threat creep upon her. "It is beyond there, what you seek."

"I saw nothing from the skies except a shade blocking out the sun," said the medicine witch. She was crouched now, fingers combing gently through her hair. "What powerful magic. How could this have happened without our notice?"
 
Once Aderyn's pleas were heard, Fabre's hand opened to command her puppet-shadow to release her peer. Once its task was complete, the dismissed smoke sank and dispersed into the earth.

"The same way these things always happen. Lay low long enough, have enough things elsewhere distracting anyone that would stop you, and almost anything can be accomplished. A shame, really," Arianne looked away from the others, trying to peer into the false darkness and see through it, but to little avail.

Fabre knew some that could likely see through such a barrier, but alas, she was not one of them.
 
"We should contact the other witches now. Dark, light, it doesn't matter. We either need to seal this away or demolish it, we... we can't let this place thrive."

Aderyn pulled a length of rope from her pocket and began to tie an intricate knot. "I can make a small barrier for now, but it's not going to hold. I can't even be sure it'll work at any length of time, but-" Shakily, she approached the dark path and began to tie the knot around a tree at its entrance. "I can't leave this like this..."

The closer the medicine witch got to the path, the more threatened she felt. Even still, she pressed on past the warning. "Arianne, is there anything that... that... tha..."

Aderyn fell silent, and shortly after fell to her knees. The wolves rose with their teeth bared. The darkness before them wavered, then hummed. It was subtle but grew with an aggressive swiftness.

Then, with the suddenness of a bullet, hands shot out from the path.

One grabbed Aderyn by her heart, another wished to entangle themselves with the legs and snouts of the wolves. Many reached for Arianne's limbs and her face.
 
Before Arianne could offer a response, similar hands had begun to grab a hold of her. Before it could pull her in, the witch reached into her sleeve and drew the ceremonial knife out of desperation, swiping at her assailants and managing to sever enough to break away. The knife began to crackle and glow with energy as Fabre found a long enough opening to cast spells again. Each slash with the empowered blade carved through the dark mass with ease as the witch slowly chopped and hacked even more room to work with.

Fabre knelt briefly to pick up her staff, and with it projected a small runic circle around her. Glyphs and symbols began to swirl around the dark witch as her eyes shone a brilliant gold, beacons in the encroaching haze not unlike the recent incident at Aderyn's garden. After several more moments, Arianne raised her staff with both hands as the mass with its hands began to beard down upon her again.

Then, a deafening blast shook the ground beneath their feet. The burst of arcane energy seared away the dark in a circle 20-25 meters wide, at least temporarily stymieing the hostile advance. With some of said time, Arianne produced her cellphone and simply speed-dialed one of the contacts.

"Luciana? I'm in Lornaine, we're having issues. You need to hurry," Fabre hung up before even letting her peer respond, stuffing the phone back into its pocket and moving to regroup with Aderyn and the wolves.
 
The wolves had successfully torn down the hands that had grasped for them. Puddles of blackness surrounded them as the hands were slashed, mauled, and bitten. Aderyn, a witch who scarcely found herself in the middle of battle, did not have the same luck.

She had fallen to the ground, either from pain or shock, with several wounds in her chest, surrounding her heart. Her breathing was shallow and her skin paled. It looked as though the hands had been pressing their way into her ribcage in an attempt to rip her insides out.

"We must move. That was a warning!" roared Loumere. "There may be more coming!"

The wolves tucked tail and ran off, though Loumere lingered behind for a moment more before turning. "It would not be wise to retrieve Aderyn so close to the darkness, but if you will risk it, I will carry the woman."
 
"We aren't leaving her here," Arianne turned back towards the incapacitated Aderyn. This battle was no longer a mission of deterrence, this was now one of extermination.

Fabre tapped her staff against the earth again, this time several dozen pillars of fire almost immediately erupting from the ground beneath the amorphous mass. Without hesitating she followed with a sweeping gesture, even more flames spewing from her staff to engulf any and all darkness that stood between the ebon-clad witch and her peer.
 
Dried branches snapped beneath the heavy paws of the great bear as it wandered the forest. Although it was of a native species, they way it snuffled about and wandered would strike even the most novice of ecology majors would recognize it as unnatural. It paused, raising its snout at some far-flung scent, before lowering itself to the ground. As it settled down, a portion of a tree and brush separated from the surrounding forest, slowly shedding the leaf and bark-like covering from flesh beneath. As the form approached the bear, it resolved into a pale, red-headed woman trailed by the leaves she had shed. She patted the bear comfortingly, then hopped astride its back.

Clad in a simple black t-shirt and brown leather jacket, with khaki pants and heavy black boots, she seemed prepared for the rough lifestyles of the outdoors. Another pat on the bear's neck and it stood, then began rushing through the undergrowth. She spoke softly to it, her single braid of hair flipping about slightly as the bear's gait jostled her, but she held fast to its thick fur. Cedar had found something in the forest, and she wanted to know what it was. Trespassers were common enough, but he wouldn't run so fast for something that simple. There was more dangerous game afoot.

Minutes passed, the only noise around her being the heavy panting of the bear and the wind in the leaves. She often rode like this, but rarely was it towards danger. As such, she began to prepare herself, drawing strength and speed from the world around her. As she tapped deep into her Druidic magic, her thoughts began to shift. Where they normally were chaotic and jumbled as only the thoughts of humans could be, now her mind took on the clarity of a cloudless night sky, broken only by the stars of her needs and thoughts. Scattered as they were, they remained easy for her to work with. As the power flowed into her, eventually stopping as she thinned her link to the earth like the cork of a wine bottle, she felt her senses heighten to that of Cedar's and beyond. She could smell the stench of magic foreign to the forest now and it drove her emotions towards anger. More mages dared to come to her home. A shiver ran down her spine as she and Cedar grew close, causing her to stop him with a quiet sound.

She eased herself off his back and to the ground, letting the strength she'd gathered fade through her skin to allow her to once more appear to simply be a part of the forest's natural state, the magic covering even her clothing without issue. With practiced steps, she crept forward until she could see...a darkness. It was not what she'd been prepared for, and she had no knowledge of the cause. She didn't like it, whatever it was, but she could certainly tell that it, and the women being attacked, were magical in nature. Rather than rush in to aid them, she stayed where she was, wondering at the possible outcomes.
 
Briefly, the darkness shrank away from the flames. The moment was long enough for Loumère to jump forth and snatch Aderyn's collar in her teeth, dragging her along the ground as she scrambled back towards Arianne. Loumère's lips didn't move as she cried, "RUN!"

When she had darted close to the dark passage, she smelled it. The thick, tarlike scent had been present since she followed the magic ring's trail, but its odor had mixed with something else. It wasn't just blood, but an overwhelming stench of spilled bile that nearly knocked her senseless. She had known this smell before, beneath the eyes of a predator. It was something she tried to avoid at any cost.

No sooner had Aderyn been snatched from the entrance, a growl crept from the path, hastening Loumère's departure. She didn't see the red headed lass and her bear when she zipped past her. The fear was too great.
 
With all of her peers accounted for, Arianne began her retreat. Even if destroying the mass was possible by herself, there was no telling what might come next, and her companions were already injured. With a raise of the witch's hand, a small wall of flame erected before her to stave off the darkness. While the fiery barrier held steady, Fabre turned and ran after her peers.

She would need to regroup and bring others, next time.
 
The women and wolves were fleeing. They had come all this way into the forest, and now they were going to leave this blot of...something for someone else to deal with. Typical mages. She dispelled the cloak of leaves that she used to keep herself hidden and stepped from the brush, Cedar poking his head out shyly before the scent of the magic swarmed his nose. He snapped back through the undergrowth and dashed off, much to Aoife's dismay. She had hoped he would stay and help her with this, but she figured she'd find out why he ran later on.

As she approached the manifestation, she began to shut down her sense of smell, removing the enhanced portion from her magic and then dousing it the rest of the way until she smelled nothing at all. Her sense of smell now gone, Aoife began to cast magic beyond that of simple concealment and enhancements. She pulled off the heavy leather coat and let it fall to the ground, her deep teal tattoo easily visible as it wound down her arm. With a few sweeps of her arms and words muttered too softly to be heard, a shimmering amber light began to race around her body before shooting into the earth beneath her. She walked before the darkness, never touching it, and repeated the process. After each time she made the motions, changing them slightly with every instance, an impression in the ground would form in the shape of a rune over a foot deep and two feet across in every direction.

She was building a ward to hold whatever this was in place until it could be fixed. Unfortunately, her concentration was all but absolute, and she was only paying cursory attention to the darkness itself.
 
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A second roar cut through the air, this time with a different ferocity. Loumère felt a wave of magic whip through the air with the intent of breaking the barrier the druid attempted to create and quelling the fires the Umbre witch had summoned.

Claws of an unnatural size reached forth from the path, attached to a talon the size of the druid's bear. They curled deep into the earth and created deep gouges. The sheer size of the limb was far larger than the path could reasonably hold, further exaggerating the magic at hand.
 
The burst of magical energy knocked Aoife from her feet, causing her to skid several feet back across the ground and amass numerous shallow scrapes over the tops of her shoulders. She gasped briefly, the wind knocked from her lungs, before rolling onto her chest and pushing herself upright once more. She turned to face the path as the claw reached out. Scrambling like mad, she was able to avoid being skewered by a foot or so. Too close for comfort.

"Oh no you don't. Not in my forest!" Aoife shot to her feet, the amber light from before streaking up from the ground to her outstretched hand. She began to churn her arms in more sharp, angular motions than before, this time focusing on the darkness itself. Small pinpricks of that light shot from her, floating at the edge of it as she paced before it, the large talon well to her left. As she ran, this time paying heed to anything possibly coming out after her, she pegged small bits of light to the ground, glad to see them connecting by filaments of light as they set themselves up. It was a faster way to ward, but not what she preferred. It did, after all, drain more energy from the earth.

"Are you two just gonna sit there and let your problems run wild, or are you gonna help me?!" she cried at Arianne and Loumère. Her hair was a mess of a braid, and she had amber-colored light shaping in her hands, forming more little pitons to be used as needed. "Because if you dare to leave this here, so help me I will send it to the city after you, and then you can deal with your own thrice-damned problems."
 
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All three witches were long gone. Loumère was swift, even carrying the unconscious Aderyn, and Arianne kept up too easily. Aoife's cries did not reach them.

A growl rolled through the air as Aoife planted the pins of light. From the path, something strained, then pulled itself with the mighty talon from it. Perhaps the gaping maw of a lion was unexpected, especially paired with the rather vast, batlike wing that stretched up and into the air. The talon of the creature clenched against Aoife's magic, but instead of breaking it, the touch attempted to...

...absorb it.
 
Aoife stopped at the growl, watching with mixed feelings of slick and awe as the monstrosity showed itself. This was beyond her, and although she dearly wanted to remove it from the forest, she knew she wasn't going to be able to. Outside aid would be needed.

"Oh fuck me..." she mumbled before gathering the magic in her hand. she pulled the floating specks of light back to float around her, using them to ward herself from the creature vice hold it back, then began to sprint away. As she ran, she shed that light back into the ground, simply hoping the magic would protect the earth if it wouldn't stop the beast.

"Damned mages fucking around here. This mess is there's, and if they won't clean it up without prompting, then I'll just have to persuade them." She turned as she ran, passing deeper into the undergrowth of the forest, hoping against hope that the creature had not given chase. She didn't have much of a plan, after all.
 
The forest became quiet as the beast retreated to the path once more. A feeling of unease still surrounded the area, and Loumere was sure she would never return.
 
Several hours later, Loumère and her pack returned to the forest, though they were far from the corner of the forest that they had been attacked. Her pack surrounded her, dwarfing the transformed witch substantially.

They had dropped Aderyn at the hospital minutes before. They were so close to the city that lights were still visible through the trees. A paladin had spotted her but not before she was able to make a swift escape. Such long journeys left her winded, so the pack rested beside a small stream, occasionally sipping from the water.
 
Out from between the forest's trees, perhaps a dozen yards upstream of the pack, emerged a large brown bear and a red fox. For the experienced hunters that the pack was, it was obviously not normally a pairing one would see, and hardly two creatures that might be at complete ease with one another. Not to mention that the strong smell of leather and soap were fresh and mixed witht he smell of fox.

Both beasts drank from the river, the fox darting farther out into the shallow waters, showing an equally unnatural string of marking along its right side.
 
The wolves lifted their heads in unison to watch the bear and the fox. Both were common creatures within Lornaine, but rarely were they seen together. Loumère knew better and expelled a bit of magic to activate the pack's spellsense, trying to discover any magic that may be floating about the two creatures.
 
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