Etherea: The Lost Daughter

8

Ash choked the air, embers flying across the ground, flames licked at her skin. It was stifling, Nia could only stare as always. Her feet rooted to the scorched ground as beasts flew through the air, plumes of smoke and fire billowed before her. Tears stung her eyes as vast stretches of forest suddenly turned to dust, at either side Fae collided. The gnashing of teeth and the snarling of beasts churned her stomach as she watched. Men, women, it did not matter, Ciars forces cut them each down in their stride. As blood soaked the ground, Nia felt the hope seep away from the earth. Her limbs moved of their own accord, feet burning as she tore through the army before her. Rage unlike no other had cast a red mist through her vision. When her eyes cleared and the smoke thinned, Nia saw not herself, but her mother stood amidst a sea of bodies. Drenched in blood and soot her chest heaved before an agonising scream left her lips. 

Nia shot from her bed with sweat cascading down her back. Relief filled her that it had been another memory and not a vision, Nia could not stomach the thought of her own companions cut down on a battlefield. She drew a cold and clammy hand across her brow as she rose from the bed, she had to save her mother. Nia could not bear thought of her suffering, not after all she had been through. As she bathed and thought, Nia contemplated her options. She knew she had spent too long in Torrins Manor, yet she had promised to free his sister and she could not just disappear in the night. Her stomach lurched and Nia found the contents of her supper splattered across the marble floor. With a groan she pulled herself from the molten bath, shivering violently, and began to clean as her mind wandered. 

Too many things needed to be addressed, the curse Duane had set on her mind, the raging power bubbling beneath her skin, the mysterious man who could give them answers. Nia did not necessarily trust that he would have answers, for it had been Nessa who provided the information and Nia knew she did not trust the woman as far as she could spit. Most important, she still needed to find and free her mother, but how? My mother knew storming those gates would end the Fae, but it is not as if I can just knock on the front door. 

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"Take me with you to Galeria" Uaine stared across the short table as if Nia had grown three heads, although if she had known about Galeria she would have understood. He had been unable to find a cure for the curse Duane had set upon her, much to Nia's disappointment. "Absolutely not" Torrin snapped, Rian begrudgingly sat quietly to his side. The younger Fae threw Nia a sympathetic look as she opened her mouth to argue. There was no stopping her once she had decided something; this would prove somewhat of an issue as Torrin shared the same temperament. "Have we not determined that I can protect myself?" Torrin glared in response, his jaw taught at the idea of her trudging through the swamps of Galeria. "You cannot control it, who's to say blindly throwing yourself at an enemy will work every time?" 

Torrin knew it was harsh, and unfair. As a mere mortal Nia had torn through a pack of Faelcu and lived to tell the tale. Even before they had been turned into the mindless, cruel servants Duane had made them, the Faoladh had been some of this land's fiercest warriors. With access to her powers she had already won against a creature so terrifying even the eldest Fae did not wish to cross its path, she was far stronger than he gave her credit for. The flames that danced in her eyes gave Torrin the feeling she had been thinking the same thing. 

Cannot control it? Blindly throwing myself at an enemy? I'll show him. Her temper soared; Nia hardly knew where the anger had come from. Perhaps it had all finally caught up with her. Nia stood, it had been so easy to summon light into the chamber beneath the grounds it gave her pause and she thought for a moment. Torrin felt unease as a smirk grew on Nias face, white rope wrapped around his middle in a flash. A blanket of magic wrapped around him "Nia what are you doing?" Uaine asked as he stood, torn between the decision to speak to her or lunge for her.