“Oh…nothing much.” They spun around to see that Ithani and Armita were standing closely behind Bobbas. Too close for comfort. The younger Culao sister smiled sweetly at them. “I just wanted to make sure you won’t be able to follow us. Right, Armita?” The older sister nodded again.
Owain looked at them, befuddled. “Wait, what are you talking about? What’s going on, Armita?”
Ithani kissed her teeth as she cupped Armita’s chin and moving her head back and forth. “Unfortunately, my big sister can’t talk to you right now. She’s too busy following my orders and one of them was not to talk to you.”
“Orders?” Chiara wondered.
“That’s right. She only obeys me now since that’s what sisters do,” she confirmed and bared her teeth. “And here’s one now: Armita, retrieve the Lashival for me.”
As soon as she said that command, Armita’s head suddenly shot up. While she wore a determined look on her face, her eyes were glassy. Before a surprised Owain or Chiara could react, she quickly rammed the handle of her left butterfly knife into Bobbas’s stomach and then hit him on the back of the head with the other when he buckled down in pain, knocking him unconscious. Before he could even fall to the ground, Ithani caught him in her arms. “Thank you, Armie!” she said in a singsong manner as she clutched their target tightly like a doll. “You make your sister so happy now!”
At first Owain stared at the two Isharans in shock but he quickly overcame his bewilderment. “What are you two doing!? Tell me what’s going on here!” he demanded angrily.
“You want to know, do you, hm?” Ithani let out a boisterous laugh and stared at Owain and Chiara, who were taken aback by her appearance. Her red eyes twinkled as she looked at them, amused by their reactions. “Well, my dear sister and I are going to take our friend over here and bring him back to the Kasama.”
“You’re a Duermon!?” Chiara gawked. Ithani just smiled condescendingly at her. “B-b-but how? Tristé would have…”
“I would like to tell you, but, unfortunately, I don’t have much time. You see, the Kasama is waiting for me, and I don’t want to keep him waiting,” she apologized mockingly.
Owain quickly pulled out his bow and aimed an arrow at her. “Like hell I would let it happen!” From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Chiara had done the same.
She just laughed. “I figured you would say that so I decided to keep you busy.” Clearing her throat, she shouted in a terrified voice, “Armie, please protect me! They’re trying to kill me!”
Armita turned to look at them; her face was now distorted with fury though her eyes were still glassy. Without any hesitation, she stepped in front of her sister so Owain couldn’t take a shot. Then she quickly lunged at them and began slashing at them, leaving them no time to defend themselves. At the same time, she made sure that she was still between them and her sister so they couldn’t have a chance to strike the latter. “Stop it, Armita! Don’t you recognize us?” Owain pleaded desperately as he used his bow to block another fierce attack.
“It’s us, Owain and Chiara!” as the latter was positioned behind Owain, to protect her. With the attacks coming in quick succession, she didn’t have time to cast a spell or two. “We’re comrades, remember?”
However, she was relentless in her attack against them while Ithani crackled. “Don’t bother pleading for your pathetic lives! My sister will hunt you down until you’re dead!” she taunted as she slowly dragged Bobbas away from the fighting. She then cried out again, “Armie, they’re trying to hurt me! Help me!”
As soon as she heard her sister’s cries, Armita increased the intensity of her attacks, attacking them with quicker slashes. “I must protect my sister,” she mumbled numbly, continuing to swing her knives at them.
Owain flinched when he felt the blades made several slices on his arms. Though the wounds were shallow, they still pained him. However, he felt his endurance was slowly ebbing away. His knees were feeling wobbly, and he was losing his grip on his bow. Armita must have sensed it too because she suddenly did a roundhouse kick, which connected and hit him on his right side.
“Oof!” he gasped, landing on top of poor Chiara, who yelped with surprise. Rubbing his sore side, he glanced up to see Armita staring down at them with her blank eyes. She pointed her knives down at them as if she was waiting for permission to kill them. Sure enough, it came.
“You got them where I want them!” Ithani praised her older sister. By now, she had dragged Bobbas to a safe distance where they couldn’t reach him. “Now kill them before they could have a chance to hurt us!”
An obedient Armita nodded and began to thrust her knives at them. Out of instinct, Owain quickly used his body as a shield to hopefully lessen the impact on Chiara and squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for the first stab to occur. It didn’t happen though. Instead, he heard a metal clang as if her knives struck something glass. Opening his eyes, he saw a strange barrier, which must be what Armita had hit, and a pair of black boots. Confused, he looked up to see whose boots do they belong to and could only gape at the sight before him. Right in front of him was an Aerian.
He was stunned. The whole time he had thought that the fabled winged people were just a myth, but lo and behold, one was standing with her back toward Chiara and him. She had long, white hair that fluttered in the wind. She also wore a blue-and-white playsuit and knee-high boots; from his view, he could see that armor covered her arms and legs. In her hands was a blue-and-gold winged spear. “An Aerian?” a baffled Chiara gaped.
However, the Aerian’s attention was on her opponents, especially Ithani. After her attack was blocked, Armita had leapt back and placed herself in front of her possessed sister, who seemed amused. The mind-controlled Isharan had a wary look on her face as she posed in a fighting stance and stared at the angel. “A Duermon?” the Aerian wondered aloud, staring at Ithani with her red, glowing eyes, and got into a fighting position as well.
Ithani smirked. “I was wondering when you’re going to show yourself, Aerian,” she taunted as she tightened her grip on their target. Upon seeing Bobbas captured, their savior tensed up. “I see that you noticed my ‘friend’ over here. I can’t wait to see your face when the Kasama uses him against you and those imposters!”
“As if I’ll let you get away!” the Aerian retorted and charged at her.
The Duermon smiled and as soon as the Aerian was close by, screamed, “Sister, protect me! The Aerian is trying to kill me!” At once, Armita jumped in the way and blocked the attack. Without any hesitation, she swung her knives at the Aerian, who was forced to back away. Nevertheless, she refused to give up and attempted to reach Ithani again. Each time, Armita would stop her and counter. During the battle, Owain was able to see the front of the Aerian and was frightened by what he saw – the visor that covered the top half of her face had hundreds of red eyes. They would look this way and that way; some would blink as if they were actually from a living being.
Meanwhile, Ithani just crackled as she watched with amusement at the angel’s futile attempts. The whole time Owain and Chiara could only watch in amazement that they didn’t notice Talic and the others arrive behind them until they were right next to them. “Are you two all right?” Talic asked as he and Tristé helped them up. Cuzo guarded in front of them, watching the battle unfold in front of him; his fur was straight up as he made a low and dangerous growl.
“We’re fine,” Owain answered and glanced over at Armita and Ithani. He then noticed that Talen wasn’t with them and began to panic. What if Talic and Tristé were under a spell as well? “Where’s Talen?” he ventured.
Tristé pointed over to the Aerian. “Over there. Apparently she was disguised as that boy the whole time.”
“We were interrogating Talen when he or rather she suddenly blurted out, ‘There’s something wrong’ and hurried back to camp before we could stop her. Imagine our surprise to see Talen changed into an Aerian right before our eyes,” Talic explained. He kept looking over at Armita with a worried expression. “What happened? Why is Armita fighting her?”
He and Chiara shook their heads. “I don’t know, but Ithani is actually a Duermon in disguise. She managed to hypontize Armita to do her bidding and now has Bobbas!” the Kreesian exclaimed. “What should we do?”
Talic didn’t immediately answer. Owain noticed that he wore a grim expression and realized that his friend was afraid that Armita’s mind was lost like Leomas’s. They needed to find a way to break Ithani’s spell but how? He couldn’t attack her because Armita would use herself as a human shield. At the same time, they couldn’t risk falling under the spell too.
Luckily for them, the Aerian made their decision for them. After parrying with Armita, she found an opening and used her spear to knock her opponent off her feet. Then she quickly created bindings made out of light and shadows, which she wrapped around Armita’s arms, legs, and waist to restrain her before she could jump back to her feet. A furious Armita cursed as she struggled to get free, but the angel ignored her as she knelt down. Touching two fingers on the Isharan’s forehead, she muttered something underneath her breath. Armita’s eyes widened as her body jerked before it relaxed as she fell unconscious. Owain breathed a sigh of relief; it looked like Armita will be all right. Talic must feel the same way since he immediately ran over to her to check on her. “I’m going to see if she’s hurt,” Chiara said hastily, hurrying after him.
All of a sudden, he heard laughter. Shit! He was so busy watching the fighting that he forgot about Ithani. Turning around, he was shocked to see her holding a needle ring. She has it in her person the whole time!? What happened next shocked him. Still laughing, she pricked her finger, coated the ring with her blood, and then tossed it in the air, creating a portal to another part of the Isha desert. Wait a minute; he thought only the gods could use the needle rings! The Aerian most likely thought so too because she stood there for a moment, stunned.
Seeing their reactions, Ithani smiled condescendingly. “While I enjoy meeting you all, I need to go. The Kasama is waiting for me after all,” she apologized as she backed slowly into the gateway with her prisoner in toll. She looked over at him and the others before she added, “By the way, thank you for the lovely present. The Kasama will be most thrilled to have him as our guest of honor.”
Upon hearing those words, the Aerian quickly overcame her shock and went into action. Before Ithani could enter the portal, the angel created a magic circle below her feet, preventing her from escaping, and flew at her with her spear aimed at the Isharan’s heart. Instead of being terrified of her impending death, Ithani just smiled and raising her hand, said, “Since Armie couldn’t do a good job of delaying you, I guess I’ll have to do it myself.”
All of sudden, the Aerian cried out in pain and crashed into the ground. Alarmed, Owain and Tristé ran over to her as she slowly got on her knees while clutching her left arm. “Are you all right?” he asked, helping her sit up. Even though she looked like she was in agony, she nodded without looking at him. Her armor was sinking back into her skin at the time so he was able to notice something glowing under her clutched hand and realized that it was a Velscendus Cult insignia tattooed to her arm. That was when it dawned on him what happened before; Ithani must have used it against the Aerian to cause her intense pain. Looking back at Ithani, he was dismayed to see that the barrier preventing her from escaping was gone, and she and Bobbas were now on the other side of the portal.
“Ha ha! Nice try, Aerian!” she taunted as the portal slowly shrank. “I hope you like my goodbye present for you! But don’t feel be that upset. My master will be coming back for you and end your sad existence once and for all once we have complete control of the Lashival!”
Cursing, the Aerian pushed Owain’s hands off her and attempted to perform one last attack. With all of her might, she threw her spear at the possessed Ithani, but it was too late. The portal closed shut, and the weapon hit nothing but air. Frustrated, the angel collapsed to the ground and pounded her fists to the sand. Owain could only watch helplessly. Their target was taken away right in front of them, and he was now in the hands of a dangerous enemy.
Owain looked at them, befuddled. “Wait, what are you talking about? What’s going on, Armita?”
Ithani kissed her teeth as she cupped Armita’s chin and moving her head back and forth. “Unfortunately, my big sister can’t talk to you right now. She’s too busy following my orders and one of them was not to talk to you.”
“Orders?” Chiara wondered.
“That’s right. She only obeys me now since that’s what sisters do,” she confirmed and bared her teeth. “And here’s one now: Armita, retrieve the Lashival for me.”
As soon as she said that command, Armita’s head suddenly shot up. While she wore a determined look on her face, her eyes were glassy. Before a surprised Owain or Chiara could react, she quickly rammed the handle of her left butterfly knife into Bobbas’s stomach and then hit him on the back of the head with the other when he buckled down in pain, knocking him unconscious. Before he could even fall to the ground, Ithani caught him in her arms. “Thank you, Armie!” she said in a singsong manner as she clutched their target tightly like a doll. “You make your sister so happy now!”
At first Owain stared at the two Isharans in shock but he quickly overcame his bewilderment. “What are you two doing!? Tell me what’s going on here!” he demanded angrily.
“You want to know, do you, hm?” Ithani let out a boisterous laugh and stared at Owain and Chiara, who were taken aback by her appearance. Her red eyes twinkled as she looked at them, amused by their reactions. “Well, my dear sister and I are going to take our friend over here and bring him back to the Kasama.”
“You’re a Duermon!?” Chiara gawked. Ithani just smiled condescendingly at her. “B-b-but how? Tristé would have…”
“I would like to tell you, but, unfortunately, I don’t have much time. You see, the Kasama is waiting for me, and I don’t want to keep him waiting,” she apologized mockingly.
Owain quickly pulled out his bow and aimed an arrow at her. “Like hell I would let it happen!” From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Chiara had done the same.
She just laughed. “I figured you would say that so I decided to keep you busy.” Clearing her throat, she shouted in a terrified voice, “Armie, please protect me! They’re trying to kill me!”
Armita turned to look at them; her face was now distorted with fury though her eyes were still glassy. Without any hesitation, she stepped in front of her sister so Owain couldn’t take a shot. Then she quickly lunged at them and began slashing at them, leaving them no time to defend themselves. At the same time, she made sure that she was still between them and her sister so they couldn’t have a chance to strike the latter. “Stop it, Armita! Don’t you recognize us?” Owain pleaded desperately as he used his bow to block another fierce attack.
“It’s us, Owain and Chiara!” as the latter was positioned behind Owain, to protect her. With the attacks coming in quick succession, she didn’t have time to cast a spell or two. “We’re comrades, remember?”
However, she was relentless in her attack against them while Ithani crackled. “Don’t bother pleading for your pathetic lives! My sister will hunt you down until you’re dead!” she taunted as she slowly dragged Bobbas away from the fighting. She then cried out again, “Armie, they’re trying to hurt me! Help me!”
As soon as she heard her sister’s cries, Armita increased the intensity of her attacks, attacking them with quicker slashes. “I must protect my sister,” she mumbled numbly, continuing to swing her knives at them.
Owain flinched when he felt the blades made several slices on his arms. Though the wounds were shallow, they still pained him. However, he felt his endurance was slowly ebbing away. His knees were feeling wobbly, and he was losing his grip on his bow. Armita must have sensed it too because she suddenly did a roundhouse kick, which connected and hit him on his right side.
“Oof!” he gasped, landing on top of poor Chiara, who yelped with surprise. Rubbing his sore side, he glanced up to see Armita staring down at them with her blank eyes. She pointed her knives down at them as if she was waiting for permission to kill them. Sure enough, it came.
“You got them where I want them!” Ithani praised her older sister. By now, she had dragged Bobbas to a safe distance where they couldn’t reach him. “Now kill them before they could have a chance to hurt us!”
An obedient Armita nodded and began to thrust her knives at them. Out of instinct, Owain quickly used his body as a shield to hopefully lessen the impact on Chiara and squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for the first stab to occur. It didn’t happen though. Instead, he heard a metal clang as if her knives struck something glass. Opening his eyes, he saw a strange barrier, which must be what Armita had hit, and a pair of black boots. Confused, he looked up to see whose boots do they belong to and could only gape at the sight before him. Right in front of him was an Aerian.
He was stunned. The whole time he had thought that the fabled winged people were just a myth, but lo and behold, one was standing with her back toward Chiara and him. She had long, white hair that fluttered in the wind. She also wore a blue-and-white playsuit and knee-high boots; from his view, he could see that armor covered her arms and legs. In her hands was a blue-and-gold winged spear. “An Aerian?” a baffled Chiara gaped.
However, the Aerian’s attention was on her opponents, especially Ithani. After her attack was blocked, Armita had leapt back and placed herself in front of her possessed sister, who seemed amused. The mind-controlled Isharan had a wary look on her face as she posed in a fighting stance and stared at the angel. “A Duermon?” the Aerian wondered aloud, staring at Ithani with her red, glowing eyes, and got into a fighting position as well.
Ithani smirked. “I was wondering when you’re going to show yourself, Aerian,” she taunted as she tightened her grip on their target. Upon seeing Bobbas captured, their savior tensed up. “I see that you noticed my ‘friend’ over here. I can’t wait to see your face when the Kasama uses him against you and those imposters!”
“As if I’ll let you get away!” the Aerian retorted and charged at her.
The Duermon smiled and as soon as the Aerian was close by, screamed, “Sister, protect me! The Aerian is trying to kill me!” At once, Armita jumped in the way and blocked the attack. Without any hesitation, she swung her knives at the Aerian, who was forced to back away. Nevertheless, she refused to give up and attempted to reach Ithani again. Each time, Armita would stop her and counter. During the battle, Owain was able to see the front of the Aerian and was frightened by what he saw – the visor that covered the top half of her face had hundreds of red eyes. They would look this way and that way; some would blink as if they were actually from a living being.
Meanwhile, Ithani just crackled as she watched with amusement at the angel’s futile attempts. The whole time Owain and Chiara could only watch in amazement that they didn’t notice Talic and the others arrive behind them until they were right next to them. “Are you two all right?” Talic asked as he and Tristé helped them up. Cuzo guarded in front of them, watching the battle unfold in front of him; his fur was straight up as he made a low and dangerous growl.
“We’re fine,” Owain answered and glanced over at Armita and Ithani. He then noticed that Talen wasn’t with them and began to panic. What if Talic and Tristé were under a spell as well? “Where’s Talen?” he ventured.
Tristé pointed over to the Aerian. “Over there. Apparently she was disguised as that boy the whole time.”
“We were interrogating Talen when he or rather she suddenly blurted out, ‘There’s something wrong’ and hurried back to camp before we could stop her. Imagine our surprise to see Talen changed into an Aerian right before our eyes,” Talic explained. He kept looking over at Armita with a worried expression. “What happened? Why is Armita fighting her?”
He and Chiara shook their heads. “I don’t know, but Ithani is actually a Duermon in disguise. She managed to hypontize Armita to do her bidding and now has Bobbas!” the Kreesian exclaimed. “What should we do?”
Talic didn’t immediately answer. Owain noticed that he wore a grim expression and realized that his friend was afraid that Armita’s mind was lost like Leomas’s. They needed to find a way to break Ithani’s spell but how? He couldn’t attack her because Armita would use herself as a human shield. At the same time, they couldn’t risk falling under the spell too.
Luckily for them, the Aerian made their decision for them. After parrying with Armita, she found an opening and used her spear to knock her opponent off her feet. Then she quickly created bindings made out of light and shadows, which she wrapped around Armita’s arms, legs, and waist to restrain her before she could jump back to her feet. A furious Armita cursed as she struggled to get free, but the angel ignored her as she knelt down. Touching two fingers on the Isharan’s forehead, she muttered something underneath her breath. Armita’s eyes widened as her body jerked before it relaxed as she fell unconscious. Owain breathed a sigh of relief; it looked like Armita will be all right. Talic must feel the same way since he immediately ran over to her to check on her. “I’m going to see if she’s hurt,” Chiara said hastily, hurrying after him.
All of a sudden, he heard laughter. Shit! He was so busy watching the fighting that he forgot about Ithani. Turning around, he was shocked to see her holding a needle ring. She has it in her person the whole time!? What happened next shocked him. Still laughing, she pricked her finger, coated the ring with her blood, and then tossed it in the air, creating a portal to another part of the Isha desert. Wait a minute; he thought only the gods could use the needle rings! The Aerian most likely thought so too because she stood there for a moment, stunned.
Seeing their reactions, Ithani smiled condescendingly. “While I enjoy meeting you all, I need to go. The Kasama is waiting for me after all,” she apologized as she backed slowly into the gateway with her prisoner in toll. She looked over at him and the others before she added, “By the way, thank you for the lovely present. The Kasama will be most thrilled to have him as our guest of honor.”
Upon hearing those words, the Aerian quickly overcame her shock and went into action. Before Ithani could enter the portal, the angel created a magic circle below her feet, preventing her from escaping, and flew at her with her spear aimed at the Isharan’s heart. Instead of being terrified of her impending death, Ithani just smiled and raising her hand, said, “Since Armie couldn’t do a good job of delaying you, I guess I’ll have to do it myself.”
All of sudden, the Aerian cried out in pain and crashed into the ground. Alarmed, Owain and Tristé ran over to her as she slowly got on her knees while clutching her left arm. “Are you all right?” he asked, helping her sit up. Even though she looked like she was in agony, she nodded without looking at him. Her armor was sinking back into her skin at the time so he was able to notice something glowing under her clutched hand and realized that it was a Velscendus Cult insignia tattooed to her arm. That was when it dawned on him what happened before; Ithani must have used it against the Aerian to cause her intense pain. Looking back at Ithani, he was dismayed to see that the barrier preventing her from escaping was gone, and she and Bobbas were now on the other side of the portal.
“Ha ha! Nice try, Aerian!” she taunted as the portal slowly shrank. “I hope you like my goodbye present for you! But don’t feel be that upset. My master will be coming back for you and end your sad existence once and for all once we have complete control of the Lashival!”
Cursing, the Aerian pushed Owain’s hands off her and attempted to perform one last attack. With all of her might, she threw her spear at the possessed Ithani, but it was too late. The portal closed shut, and the weapon hit nothing but air. Frustrated, the angel collapsed to the ground and pounded her fists to the sand. Owain could only watch helplessly. Their target was taken away right in front of them, and he was now in the hands of a dangerous enemy.
