The fairies settled back on her shoulder.
Ash grit her teeth and used every bit of will in her body to focus on the hypnosis.
Akiye moved. Before she could give the leftover hypnosis a final shove, Akiye moved. She threw the mud she was piling up over her own shoulder, knocking two fairies and burrying them in a pile of mud. The other two reacted quickly but Akiye was fast too.
She turned on her spot. Mud caked hands shot out, catching one of the fairies. With a loud cry she thrust her fist into the pile of mud, burrying another fairy under. Akiye was free. Free of hypnosis. Ash focused on Vance who had made quick work of the fairies. She turned to Mayra. "Go with Vance and don't come here. If you need to, keep singing."
Then, Ash moved towards the groove of trees and found Akiye through the darkness, stumbling from stumps. Once her hand was on the person, she called, "it's me," and gripped her shoulder. Then she pushed out the darkness from within the groove, clearing Akiye's vision as the last fairy zoomed about the small space, going in random directions to save herself.
The fairy and Akiye came face to face but the fairy was now holding a staff. It was a young thing with purely black eyes, constantly trying to pull Akiye under hypnosis. Akiye stiffened for a moment, then relaxed.
"It's not working," she told herself. She looked at Ash wide eyed, almost shouting, "It's not working."
Ash tightened her grip. "You won't be hypnotized again. Do what you need to do."
Akiye turned around and moved her wrist, a whirlwind of mud, leaves and twigs began to rush around them but the fairy moved her twig-staff and the mud flying into the air shot out towards her face. Akiye put her arm out to block it while used her wrist to twist something. Sure enough a small log rushed at the fairy. The space in the grove was just enough for a set of four people. With the two of them and the whirlwind, it was impossible not to get hit or scratched. She buried her feet into the ground and lowered herself, focusing solely on covering Akiye. With enough layer not to get even a scratch as the twigs and leaves slid across her body, her own skin, however was beginning to sting from a few surface cuts. Ash had been cut and bruised before. The non magical kind. Two twigs scrtched across her nose and cheek, one cut through the tip of her nose while the other slipped by. Before Ash could feel what happened, a splatter of mud caught her in the shoulder and pushed her off balance. Her hand slipped from Akiye, whose hand froze.
Ash pulled herself together and caught Akiye's shoulder. "I am here."
Akiye looked down at her hand and shook her head, eyes pinched, "thank you," and turned to the
Outside, she felt the population double. Two other people joined Mayra and Vance. No. Not just joined, they were running straight for the part of the bank where Vance had put down the fairies. Ash split her focus between providing protection to Akiye and darkness around Vance and Mayra. Even as she held Akiye's shoulder tightly, her consiousness was outside the groove, her senses filled with Vance and how he moved out of the new people's way. She quickly picked up that the new arrivals were on all fours, leaping and growling. The sound travelled to the groove. Ash wondered if it was Karn or Karlene. Did they get hypnotised?
Suddenly, something shot up from the corner of the eyes and got caught in the whirlwind and got thrown towards a tree. Akiye, present fully in the moment, fighting against the enemy, was fully engaged into the wind magic against the fairy. The other fairy, slid by the bark a little and shot off, bleeding, half it's finger length body red with blood. Unlike others its eyes were not black, rather small and normal, pupil barely visible. It dove into the ground, into the golem and picked up a normal twig, double its size. The twig expanded in thickness with vines sprouting and wrapping around it. Ash realised how fairy magic worked. They could use their eyes and voice but to channel their magic, they had to use a medium.
Ash whispered, "knock the staff out of its hands."
Akiye nodded slightly. Ash reached sideways with her leg and tried to reach the fairy with her foot but the whirlwind around them was too strong. Her shoe flipped off and flew. Ash wanted to curse. The wolf outside were running around blindly, split and coming together slowly, with Vance and Mayra in the middle. Ash wished she could be there for them. But Mayra knew how to fight, she was the one who had taught her. And Vance and a knight could protect himself. The problem was if the wolves were Karn and Karlene, Vance might not take effective measures.
Ash looked at the fairy on the ground, that pointed her staff at the pile of mud. She needed to finish this quickly. They needed to finish this quickly.
Ash took a deep breath, let go of the darkness outside the groove and focused on a new kind of magic, a new kind of blessing, the kind she had not yet practised but she knew she possessed. She focused on the staff and imagined the unseen magic within the golem. The mud was beginning to swirl and shrivel, began to tighten around itself, finding a shape, rising up into a human shape. Akiye's head shifted slightly but she did not have the time to fight another the fairy. Ash's show shoe flew straight for them. Akiye caught it and threw it right back. The fairy whirled out of the way and Akiye raised both hand, the whirlwind broke, tuning into a toroid gust that rose upward. Ash's hair flew up. Akiye's hair hit her in the face. The fairy controlling the mud flew up. The mud flew up and rose from it two other fairies, caked in mud fromhead to toe.
Both their winds were broken, twisted and rage filled their eyes.
Outside, Ash could still sense the wolves but she couldn't sense Vance anymore. Mayra's movements were also faint but closer, as if she was moving around with the dispersing darkness, taking advantage of her environment.
Advantage of the environment. Ash whispered, "earth magic. Akiye. Use earth magic."
Akiye turned her head slightly as the two fairies on the ground picked up their own twigs and began turning them into staff.
Akiye pushed her arms out, extending them as far from her body as she could and the trees around them began to move. From the roots, their entire lengths began to shift away, loosening them earth around them. The half made shape of the golem, staggered. Still not infused with life, it began to stagger.
The whirlwind around them started again, slow and wider. Ash looked up. The fairy thrown up into the branches had not relented yet but the half dead fairy was nowhere to be seen. The golem began to loose its shape, blobs of tight mud shaking offs its body and falling around their feet.
the whirlwind was lighter still. Ash tried again, kicked her foot to the side and this time it connected with the body of the golem, if not the back of the fairies. The two of them rushed out of its fall. Even with broken wings, they were fast.
The circle around them was bigger and the darkness had thinned out to show them night outside, twinkling with the light of the moon, almost full. The trees gave the illusion that they were moving.
Then she heard a voice, "put your weapons down and follow me, the war is bloody, the peace is..."
It was a song. A siren song. If the fairies could over power sign with hypnosis, a siren should be able to confuse and hypnotize a fairy too. As suspected, the fairies pinked their eyes and shook their heads.
Ash tugged Akiye, "let's get out of here."
Akiye nodded and raised her arms, twisting her wrists inwards with fingers spread at odd angles. "Bow."
Her voice came out scratchy and whispery. The threes all bend inwards. Akiye spun and caught her wrist, "now."
Together they jumped out of the way of the trees, out of the enlarged groove. Ash saw Mayra not far from them, still singing, eyes transfixed, her hand wildly pointing to one side. Ash scrambled to her feet and set off running sideways. Mayra kept singing and Akiye followed her.
In this place, the darkness had not dispered fully. The spot of trees, Ash realised were clustered in odd spaces. there wasn't one golem or one Akiye hypnotised for the job, there were many of them. None of the groove of tree of four trees had an opening enough for her to peak inside. When Ash paused, she went around to cluster closest to her, to find an opening. True enough, there was a golem, as tall as herself. She peaked into the next groove and found another golem taller than herself- almost the length of a centaur and entire circumfrance of the groove stared back at her with empty eyes. Suddenly a fairy dropped from above and sat on its head, her staff pointing straight at Ash.
A hand came over her shoulder, pushed her away. Akiye stood in her spot, finger pointing at the fairy. The branches fell from top. Ash quickly reached out a hand on her shoulder but Akiye shook her head, "go. I will take care of this."
And so Ash left, running again, not sure where she could find Vance. Unlike usual mates, she couldn't hear his heart like she was supposed to. She couldn't find him like she was supposed to, she didn't pick up the direction of his presence like she was supposed to.
All she could do was run towards the place he was last at but there was no one. There were signs of a fight, dragging and paws on the ground but nothing else. There were no cluster of trees or suspicious looking spots around. The path to and from the usual hangout spot at the bank was free of any visible problems she could look into. She ran to the bank first. Nothing. She ran back to the hole in the wall.
And she found him. Close to the hole, blood matting his neck and ear where it had been bitten off and blood on one of the white wolf's mouth.
Ash did not approach them. Vance was fighting two on one, trying his best not to hurt his friends. The best Ash could do was concentrate from afar and pull of the affect of hypnosis from inside their body, from around their mind. She focused on the bloody wolf first. smoke oozed out of its eyes, nose and ears, and the wolf staggered sideways, changing shape, shrinking into a naked Karlene. Ash focused on Karn next, bigger and wilder, the hypnosis rose up from his body in black smoke, it darkened his fur and the wolf, mid-jump shuddered. Vance caught its neck and slammed it on the floor. Karn howled and threw its feet, snapping its jaw. Ash raised her hand, imagined herself pulling at the wisps of hypnosis, out of his brain, out of his eyes and ears, and sure enough, it poured out.
The wolf shuddered and began shrinking. The process was much slower. Ash felt like Karn's hypnosis wasn't as simple as Karlene. It felt heavier, like Akiye's, deeper and longer, clinging with more resiliance.
Once Karn had shrunk back to himself. Vance ran over to Karlene, removed his shirt and covered her. Then he turned and ran back to her. "We should check on the chancellor before its too late."
Ash pointed back, "bring Akiye and Mayra here. It's better for them to be together and have each other's back. There are more fairies hiding in this place than we know."
Vance eyes wandered behind her, as if trying to look for them before he ran. And he ran faster than usual. Ash felt her hair fly and felt him returned before it settle back. It was the first time she couldn't follow him with her eyes alone.
Akiye stood before her, finger still pointing, eyes blinking, "what...?"
Ash explained quickly, "Karn and Karlene. Out of hypnosis. Stay together. There are more fairies in the place."
Before Akiye could not, Vance came back with Mayra, smiling ear to ear. "It's exhilerating," she said.
Ash wrapped her arms around her friend and said, "don't let them be hypnotized again. Get back inside as soon as possible."
Mayra patted her back, "worry not about me. Go and do what you must."
And just when Ash felt a little relieved, Mayra looked behind her, "take care of her. We will talk about this," she pointed a finger back and forth between Vance and her, "when you get back."
Ash gave her a flat look, "can we deal with this first?"
Then she climbed through the hole and headed inside, Vance right behind her, caught her by the waist and ran, her feet flying behind her.