Exhaustion had weighed AJ down, dragging him underneath it’s bottomless depths. Aided by Brian’s sleep touch, but still. He had needed that. Nothing magical should have been able to get in through the shield that Brian had left over him. He’d been in a nice, cozy cocoon, safe and sleeping, when something started to tingle at the edge of his senses.
At first he hadn’t paid any attention to it. Drifting in and out of sleep, letting the pure joy of being surrounded by nature fill him up, he’d been content to stay where he was .Whatever he was feeling in his mind was coming from that little knot of emotions that was Brian, and he knew that if anything serious was going on, Brian would have woken him already.
But that weird tingle in his senses wouldn’t go away. It pushed and nagged at him, dragging him up out of sleep and forcing his mind to wake up. Even though he’d been asleep for only about twenty minutes, he worked to make his brain alert. If he didn’t figure out what this feeling was, he would never be able to rest.
Through bleary eyes he looked up, analyzing the shield that Brian had put over him. Hmm. He’d have to take that down before he’d be able to really find out what was up. So, with a few twists and pulls, he got the shield free and was ready to send a thought to Brian to ask what was going on. That was when it hit him. That tingle that had been there before now became a full fledge alert in his mind.
Without realizing what he was doing, AJ had looked over the edge of the tower. Since becoming full elf his eyes were much sharper, and could see further away. He had no problems seeing the scene down below him. Brian’s last shout before he turned away didn’t echo fully up to him, but it didn’t need to. AJ looked to where Kevin and Nick sat, and that wrongness intensified. Instinct led AJ to leap over the edge of the tower top, preparing the weaves of air to slow his descent.
He used them at just the last moment, making his impact into Brian in just the nick of time. A part of his brain continued to use air to cushion their fall, while the other part was focused totally on the shield he was now weaving around Kevin, who had been prepared to pounce on Brian’s retreating back. A brief burning sensation was at the back of his mind, but he ignored it in the face of the immediate danger. He didn’t need to think twice about what he saw in those eyes, or what he read in Kevin’s aura. Nick’s either. His young friend was back, just as ready to pounce.
AJ divided his flows, slamming a shield down over each one of them. The shields were made to keep them contained, both physically and magically. Once he had those made, he looked around and saw everyone rushing forward, weapons in hand. “Hold!” he shouted to them. Some still didn’t listen, and AJ put more command into his tone. “I said hold, damn you all! Not a soul move toward them!”
Very slowly, and very carefully, AJ pulled himself off of Brian. He kept his body between Brian’s and Kevin’s, though, and slipped down into a defensive crouch, his hands held at the ready. Even though he was pretty sure his shields would hold, it wasn’t something he was willing to risk Brian’s life on. Nothing was worth risking Brian’s life.
Kevin lunged for the edge of the shield, battering his fists against it, and AJ felt himself snarling. A growl built low in his chest, aching to be set free. In response, the creature, for that wasn’t Kevin acting that way, lunged again and snarled back, snapping his teeth like he wished to bite his way out of his prison. He hands were bent like claws, and the shrieks he let out were sharp and unearthly.
“Why is Kevin shielded like that?”
The whisper from behind him caught AJ’s attention as nothing else would have. He looked back to Brian for just a split second, eyes traveling over his lover to make sure he’d survived the fall ok. Then he looked back to Kevin, and over at Nick. “That’s not our Kevin.” He hissed, shifting in response to Kevin’s movement. “Something’s possessed him, and if I hadn’t felt the magic in the air, you’d be dead by now.”
His words seemed to cut Brian to the quick. Shock flashed in the bond, followed by fear. AJ wished to the Gods that he could spare the time to reassure his lover, but if what had possessed Kevin and Nick was what he thought it was, they were all in danger. “Someone go get Ero for me.” He snapped out at the air. He didn’t have to look to know that someone was running to obey his command. “Kings guards, around the King, now!”
A group of warriors raced forward, surrounding Flreu and backing him away. Richard, Geoff, Howie, and Isleen backed warily away from Nick’s prison, making their way over to where Brian was at. AJ felt them bringing Brian to his feet the rest of the way. Still running off instincts, AJ shifted his body so that he was covering his friends. If it broke through his shield, he was determined to be between it and those he loved.
“I want this area cleared as quickly as possible.” AJ called to all who were still standing. “At all costs avoid getting close to the shields! I repeat, stay away from the shields!”
“Alyck!” Flreu called from the middle of his guards. “What is it?” Unspoken was the warning that Flreu needed to know what to protect his people from.
There was no way around saying it. If he let them go inside without giving them warning, and something went wrong, he would be responsible for the lives lost. But to tell them could create instant panic. So he tried to keep his voice low and even, dividing his attention between his shields and his King. “I can’t say for sure, but I believe they’re possessed by ryursa spirits.”
Gasps echoed around them, and suddenly everyone was moving quicker. The guards whisked the King inside in a blink of an eye. With a minute the courtyard was empty but for him and his friends. They still stood in a group behind him, ready to show their support in any way they could.
Without looking away from the two under shield, AJ spoke in a low voice. “You should all leave while you can. I don’t know how this will turn out.”
“I’m not leaving you, or my friends.” Brian said simply. He put his hand on AJ’s shoulder to show support. Howie stepped up, putting his hand on AJ’s other shoulder. “I can’t leave them either, Alyck. Or you.”
The others echoed the sentiment. AJ appreciated it, more than they could ever have realized. Not only for their emotional support, but for the energy that Howie and Brian were feeding to him. Though he’d forced the exhaustion away, his magic was still seriously depleted. A twenty minute nap wasn’t enough to restore it. The small inflow that they gave him allowed him to keep on his feet, and think more clearly.
“What is a ryursa spirit?” Isleen spoke up from the back of the group. Her question had them all looking at AJ, waiting for an answer. AJ sighed, having known that they would ask, and afraid to tell them the truth of it. But he had no choice. They deserved to know.
He didn’t waste time just talking, though. While he spoke he opened his magic, centering and grounding himself for what he would have to do. Gaining strength to feed into his shields, which the two were battering so strongly against. It was taking a lot of his energy to just keep the shields up. Even though he’d tied them off, that just meant that he wasn’t forced to hold them perfectly in place. He still had to feed them energy to maintain their strength as the two assaulted them.
“A ryursa spirit is linked to blood magic. That is the only way to call them up. They’re pure spirits. Of what, no one really knows. We don’t even know if they ever had a shape before, or if they’ve always been spirits. But they are angry spirits, and they feast on blood. When a blood mage summons them, they can place them inside of anyone, human, goblin, it doesn’t matter.”
AJ looked at the two men who had been his friends for years and felt a pang of fear. “But they work off your emotions. Anger, mostly. They can lie dormant in you until your anger peaks, and then they take control and they won’t go dormant again until you fulfill that need for blood. Blood, and death, for it’s the death that allows them to continue to live in you. When in a killing frame of mind, nothing can stop them. You can’t take them from their prey. No prey who has ever been attacked by someone possessed has lived. A possessed person is capable of walking into a castle this size and killing every man, woman, and child inside within an hour.”
“Sweet Jesus.” Someone whispered. It sounded like Geoff, but AJ wasn’t sure. He was staring at the two under shield and trying to think of what to do. Just at that moment, one of the King’s guards came out carrying a limp Ero. AJ sighed and gestured them over. “Richard, Geoff, can you two help hold him in place for me?” he asked.
While they got situated, AJ looked to his friend and his lover. “I need your help with this. I’m fair fagged out right now, and if I don’t link I doubt I’ll be able to do all I need to, and I’m the only one who knows what it is that needs to be done.”
Neither answered in words, but Brian and Howie suddenly joined their magic together, letting it grow and become linked, and then Brian was linking with AJ. For them to link was as easy as breathing. On a subconscious level they were usually linked anyways. Joined together like this, with Howie brought into the meld, also managed to bring Howie into their mind link. Enough so that they could speak together, even if Howie didn’t realize it at first.
Brian looked at AJ and gave him a private smile. ‘What do we need to do, song of my heart?’ he asked him. They both saw Howie start, and AJ actually chuckled a little. ‘Yeah, Howi, this link is a little different. You’re kind of in our bond with us, so to speak. It’s a link on a deeper level, cause you’re pulled into our bond. So, your thoughts are our thoughts and ours are yours. Now, as for you, heart song, what I need you’re already doing. I just need the energy to help direct what I’m going to do.’
A sigh from Howie caught their attention, as well as his amusement. ‘Gah, you two even think this way? Disgusting.’
That was enough to have them chuckling. But then AJ got back to business. He went over to where Ero was and spun the weaves that he would need. Then he placed his fingers on Ero’s temples and delved into his mind. It took a moment to get through the pain, and the madness, and the horror that was there. AJ had to bring each part of it into himself and find a peace in them to be able to move to the next level. By the time he was actually in Ero’s mind, he was almost sweating.
But now came for the hard part. He had to sift through Ero’s memories to find what it was he was looking for. The experience wasn’t pleasant for him, but he managed to keep Ero separated from it so that he wouldn’t be hurt by what he was doing.
What he saw turned AJ’s stomach. He threw up another shield, this one to keep Howie and Brian from seeing what he was seeing. He couldn’t stop them from feeling the side effects of what he felt, but at least he could keep them from the images he saw. They burned into his brain and turned his stomach. Images of Ero’s torture, of the things that Galiina had made him do. But most specifically the way that Galiina had summoned the spirits and had Ero transport them to Nick and Kevin’s room to slip them in while they were sleeping. Gods above, he was right. He’d known it, somewhere inside, but he’d hoped that he was wrong.
Once he saw all he needed to, he slowly pulled back out, that process almost as hard if not harder than going in.
When he was finally free, he looked at his friends and sighed. ‘I was right. To fix this, it’s going to be hell.’ He warned them. ‘It’s going to take a lot of energy. Yours as well as mine.’
‘What are we going to do?’ Howie asked him.
AJ looked around at them all and took a deep breath. “I’m going to have to persuade the spirits to leave. Otherwise, they’ll stay in there until they starve. If they starve, so do Kevin and Nick.” He answered out loud. The courtyard was silent.