The City of Wind and Ice

Chapter 7:Fear that what you cannot see.

Philomel woke up, drenched in sweat from a vision that had come upon her at the end of her dream, of Nothing, but it wasn't nothing as in.. nothing was there.. she could feel its pressence as it  stared upon her, but she couldn't recognize the being, she would want to call it death, but even death has its depictions, regardless of this she has gotten up, seeing alexander training in the corner, she crawled over to bylur and nudged him, waking him up.

Bylur: "5 more minutes.."

Philomel: "you've already slept a majority of the past 10 years..  get up we have  to prepare to set out, the abyss won't await forever."

bylur groaned, getting up using an axe greataxe to help himself stand up, he looked around them seeing the black snow that had rained overnight, of course this only meant bad things, Bylur called over to alexander but by the time he  had gotten up alexander was gone, having left his things behind its rather obvious that he didn't leave on his own Accord.

Bylur: "Philo..? i think something already breached our barrier, i can't sense Alexander anymore"

Philomel: "a monster?, or do you think it could have been a humanoid"

Bylur: "i doubt alexander would let himself be swayed by a humanoid, he's after all more clever than he seems, I assume it was a monster.."

Philomel: "so.. we should look for him, shouldn't we? he's our one and only ally, losing him would hurt a lot."

Bylur: "Prepare yourself, whatever took him is rather strong, it might even have access to strong mental magic, i myself am immune to it just like i am to all other elements that aren't amplified.. but i don't know anything about elves, you might be vulnerable to it yourself."

Philomel: "Don't worry, i'm also rather resistant to mental magic, and all other types of psychics and mind manipulation."

the 2 enhanced their clothes and body with layers upon layers of mana and dimmes the outputs down as to cloak themselves, their aura and pressence entirely and utterly disappearing, ultimately erasing their traces of existence from the view of any being not currently physically seeing them, a perfect technique to fool and trick monsters and demons, Those beasts after all rely and take pride in their mana.

In a far away cave, alexander is hanging from the ceiling on a rope, his arms and legs and stomatch tied and linked with rope to the ceiling in a way which restricts his movements so that he cannot escape, outside the cave a tall cloaked figure is fighting off a alpha wolf,  and after effortlessly killing it, the figure brings the wolf and skins it alive, putting it on a stick above a campfire to cook it, the figure finally sits down and sighs, stretching, their frame is rather muscular but not large, their body athletic, refined, chiseled almost, the figure took off their hood, but not its mask, their mask resembling something akin to tribal markings, Their hair long and crimson red.

They spoke out, looking up at  alexander

???: "human, what is your name and what are you doing in our terrain."

Alexander looked down at the masked figure, a sense of dread washing over him upon the realization that the person who had captured him was able to speak, the only monsters capable of inteligent speech are demons and the beings that aren't monsters are either ancient races.. Or beings beyond his understanding

Alexander: ".. i'll tell you if free me, you can easily handle me with magic again if i turn on you, can't you?"

???: "You're not a mage, your only way or harming me is your precious body so i don't think i will, Just so you know  i'm being merciful, i could have already killed you but i found you, a human capable of speech intriguing, Interesting even, now tell me your name."