A Brief Interlude - Part 4 - Sword and Sorcery
No Sanctuary
A Brief Interlude - Part Four - No Sanctuary
"There is nothing left for me here."
The moment he said those words, the world shattered around him; all he could see was distorted out of shape; his senses rebelled, colors washed over him in nauseating waves and gravity pushed and pulled in all directions at once. His stomach lurched and he began to retch.
"Look at me," Asra commanded, her voice cutting through the sensory chaos. He did, and her eyes held his, anchoring him. In that moment of connection, a sudden realization came -
He loved her
Despite the horror, despite the loss of life that weighed on his soul, he still felt something akin to hope.
Then, without warning, he fell hard to the ground, the impact driving the breath from his lungs and moments after, his vision tunneled to pinpoints of light, and then darkness.
Awareness returned slowly, sense by sense, like rising through deep water toward a distant surface. He became aware of soft moss beneath his body; then the smell of Asra’s natural fragrance of wildflowers in the rain; followed by her voice calling to him.
"You are awake," Asra said, smiling, her face hovering above his.
“Hello,’ he smiled back at her. His mind still seeking equilibrium. With Asraa’s help he managed to sit up and take in the surroundings.
"Beautiful," he said.
The light in this realm had a quality unlike any he had ever known. It was daylight, but gentle, as if it were filtered by silk. Everything had a timeless quality. He was surrounded by trees whose trunks spiraled upward, which had leaves above that were unnaturally vibrant and saturated in color, with emeralds and jades intermixed with blues and purples and colours that he had never seen and had no words for. Most extraordinary was the magic itself. It was visible, tangible, and real. It swirled like a mist but was as bright as fireflies and it smelt like the moment after the first rainfall.
"This is real?" he asked, reaching out to touch a nearby plant whose leaves curled toward his fingers.
"This world is no different to your own," Asra replied. "Just with a little more magic."
She helped him to his feet. For a moment, Davi’s spirits lifted with the sheer wonder of it all. Then, unbidden, images of the desecrated village flooded back. He saw the crucified Whitelighters, the slaughtered civilians, and with them, the utter destruction of all his remaining hope.
Asra placed a cool hand against his cheek.
"The memories will fade," she said softly. "Not disappear, but become bearable."
"How can such evil exist when there are places like this?" he asked.
"Even this place is not immune to war. For every section of forest like this, there is another that has been burnt, or has succumbed to the disease of corruption. The magic is fading…’ She pointed toward a distant section of forest where the colors seemed dimmer, the trees sickly and sparse. "The boundaries between realms have weakened. What poisons your world seeps into ours, and what drains our magic strengthens Vexis’s sorcery."
Davi understood now why the fae had reason to fear Archoness Vexis as much as humans did. The war he had been fighting wasn't just for human survival. The stakes were far greater, the war extended to all realms touched by magic.
"So what do we do now?" he asked, feeling the strength of his purpose returning.
"First, we rest," Asra replied, her expression softening. "Then we search for those who might be able to help us, someone who understands this prophecy about water and light and what it really means.” "But before that..." She grabbed his hand, her fingers cool and strong as they interlaced with his. "Follow me..."
Without warning, she began to run, pulling him along paths that seemed to form beneath their feet as they moved. The forest parted before them, branches bending away rather than impeding their progress. Davi found himself laughing despite everything, for the simple joy of movement in this place was intoxicating. The magic swirled around them as they ran, responding to their passage like ripples in a pond.
Suddenly before them lay a lake of such pristine beauty that Davi stopped in his tracks. The water was impossibly clear, reflecting the gentle sky while simultaneously revealing depths of darkest blue. The surface rippled with gentle waves that followed the ebb and flow of the magical wisps that surrounded them.
Asra released his hand and stepped to the water's edge. Without hesitation or self-consciousness, she began to remove her clothes, dropping them to the ground until she stood naked before him.
"Come in," she called as she waded into the lake. "You wanted to bathe."
Davi couldn't breathe for a moment. Her naked form caught the light in impossible ways, her skin pale as moonstone, radiating an opalescent glow that seemed almost otherworldly. His eyes traced her form - the sweep of her collarbone, the subtle fullness of her breasts.She was a woman, in all essence of the word, but she wasn't fully human. Her outline wavered sometimes, as though at any moment she might simply dissolve. And her skin bore luminous patterns, intricate and alive, which pulsed and flowed through every fiber of her being.
She slipped beneath the surface and began to swim away, her movements so fluid that she barely disturbed the water. After a moment's hesitation, Davi began to remove his armor and clothing, placing them in a neat pile carefully beside Asra's discarded garments.
The air felt strange against his bare skin. Alive. And when he stepped into the lake, the sensation intensified tenfold. The water embraced him with a gentle warmth that pulsed with its own energy. He paused, breath catching, as the heaviness inside him seemed to shift. The water wasn’t just cleansing dirt and sweat. It was pulling at something deeper. The ache of old battles, the weight of grief, the shadows of horror. He could feel them unraveling and dissolving into the lake. Relief.
He began to swim. The water supported him in ways normal water didn't, almost guiding his movements. Magic flowed through it just as it floated in the air above, and he couldn't tell if the tingling across his skin came from that energy or simply from being here with her, naked and vulnerable, with anticipation of what was to come.
When Asra swam back toward him, he saw her true nature revealed. In water, she transformed. Her body became almost see-through in places. Her limbs lost definition at their edges, blurring and dissolving so that he couldn't tell exactly where she ended and the lake began, until the boundary between woman and water simply ceased to exist.
The lake itself seemed to respond to her presence. Currents wrapped around Davi's body like invisible hands. When he reached for her, he half-expected his fingers would pass right through, but instead found surprising solidity. She was both water and woman together, fluid and tangible simultaneously. He wondered if she could change that balance at will, become more solid or more… Her arms circled around him, and the water shifted. He felt drawn to her by firm yet gentle rhythmic pressure. When their skin touched, something happened - a tingling exchange, her essence flowing into him, his light into her.
"The war can do without us for a while," she said, her voice comeing from the water all around him.
"I love you," he whispered. He hadn't planned to say it, but it was the truth.
She kissed him back. Her lips felt solid enough to press against his own, yet fluid as the water that was her true nature.
For one perfect moment, he was happy - truly happy. He could have stayed forever in this embrace… but soon after the water suddenly turned freezing cold, and the peaceful sky transformed into a churning mass of ominous and heavy clouds.
Asra pulled away, passion instantly replaced by alarm.
"I hear voices," she said. "The Half-Troll!."
"Stay here." Davi turned and swam toward the bank with urgent purpose. The magical lake seemed reluctant to release him, the water clinging to his skin in luminescent droplets as he reached the shore. He had only enough time to grab his sword before four figures emerged from the tree line.
Two faces he recognized instantly—the mercenary leader and his half-troll bodyguard from the ruins. The other two he assumed were professional killers.
"You again," sneered their leader, standing safely behind his green-skinned bodyguard. His eyes, however, fixed beyond Davi to where Asra remained in the lake, her pale form visible beneath the surface. He snorted, gaze flicking back to Davi's naked form. "Look at you - standing there with your cock out like some village idiot.." A cruel smile spread across his face, revealing blackened teeth. "We're not after you. We're here for the fae bitch."
Davi straightened, water still cascading from his bare form, but his grip on the sword remained steady. In this realm of magic, even naked and outnumbered, he felt a connection to something primal that steadied his resolve.
"I'm not letting you take her!"
The mercenary's face contorted with contempt. "Men! Get him!"
The two mercenaries advanced. One held his blade with competent form but tense shoulders. The other moved with the wary steps, eyes calculating distances and angles. Their weapons bore crude sigils along otherwise serviceable blades - enchantments supposed to give them an edge against magical beings, but in almost all cases worthless, sold by charlatans.
Naked against armed men. Not how I planned to die. Adrenaline flooded Davi's system, familiar and unwelcome. The first attacker lunged - a diagonal slash that would have cleaved him had it landed. Years of training took over. Davi twisted aside. His counter-attack caught his opponent completely off-guard. Steel parted flesh and scraped bone with a sound Davi had heard too many times before. Blood sprayed across his chest, warm and sticky. The man's eyes widened in that moment of realization that always comes too late. A killing blow.
Davi had no time to watch him fall. The second mercenary was already charging, faster than expected. One down. The second's faster than he looks. Davi spun, instinctively kicking backward. His bare foot connected with mercenaries armored chest - pain shot through his toes, but it bought him precious seconds.
The surviving mercenary circled now, breathing hard, sword held defensively. Sweat trickled into the man's eyes, but he didn't dare wipe it away. Their blades met with a jarring impact. The mercenary was stronger than he looked, or was his strength boosted through desperation. Metal scraped against metal. Davi recognized the mercenarie’s attack sequence from a thousand practice yards - hesitant defense, predictable lunge, obvious redirection, desperate swipe. The man might have paid for training, but he hadn't paid enough.
A shadow shifted behind. Something massive. Too late, Davi sensed the half-troll's approach. The troll - I forgot about the damned troll! His mistake. Massive green arms wrapped around his torso, catching his sword arm and pinning it to his side. The crushing pressure forced air from Davi's lungs in an undignified gasp. His ribs creaked ominously.
Desperation made him kick backward, aiming for the troll's knee. His foot connected with nothing but air. He tried to throw his head back, hoping to catch the creature's face, but the half-troll jerked away, a rumbling laugh vibrating through its chest.
Can't breathe. The pressure increased. Black spots danced at the edges of Davi's vision. The remaining mercenary approached slowly now, satisfaction evident in his ugly smile. The man took his time, savoring the moment, sword raised for a killing thrust.
Not like this. Not with her watching. Davi managed to twist his wrist just enough to deflect the incoming blade - barely. The effort cost him his grip. His sword clattered to the ground, the sound terribly final.
Unarmed. Outmatched. Black spots growing larger. This is where he would die, here in this strange place, far from home. Odd how clearly he could still think while his body failed him.
The lake erupted. Gone was the gentle water nymph. In her place stood something ancient and terrible that made Davi's heart stutter despite his predicament. Asra's form rippled with barely contained power. The water itself responded to her rage, swirling around her outstretched hands before compressing into a high-pressure torrent. It shot toward the half-troll with devastating force.
The jet missed - but only just. Perhaps deliberately. The display of power startled the half-troll. Its grip loosened for a crucial moment as it bellowed in surprise. Davi seized the opportunity, driving his elbow back into what felt like soft tissue. Something yielded with a sickening sensation. The creature grunted in agony.
The mercenary, seeing his advantage slipping away, lunged forward to finish what he'd started. His blade came straight for Davi's chest, all his weight behind it. A killing stroke delivered with poor form - too committed, too desperate.
Davi twisted. The mercenary's momentum carried him forward, directly into the half-troll's path. Steel meant for Davi's heart found the creature's chest instead, sliding between ribs. The half-troll's eyes widened in shock and betrayal as it looked down at the blade protruding from its body.
Everything happened quickly after that. Davi fell forward, gulping air into starved lungs. His fingers found his fallen sword. He staggered to Asra's side, legs weak, head swimming. Behind them, the half-troll collapsed, dark blood spilling on and corrupting the enchanted soil
"Enough!" The mercenary leader's voice cracked with fear barely disguised as authority. He raised something that made Davi's blood freeze - a scepter, its crystal head pulsing with sickly green light. The same scepter he'd seen at Carradon Ridge. The artifact that had summoned Vexis.
The man struck the ground with its base. The crystal shattered - not broke, but disintegrated, releasing its power in a blinding flash that forced Davi to shield his eyes. Thunder cracked overhead, and a bolt of lightning tore from the suddenly darkened sky, striking the earth with impossible precision. Where it hit, reality fractured. The very fabric between worlds tore open, exactly as it did at Carradon ridge.
Through this nightmare portal emerged a monstrosity.
Janek. Gods, there he was - real, not just stories to frighten new recruits. The Abomination. Its head lurched into view first - deformed and twisted, all wrong angles where there should be symmetry. Had a snout, elongated like some dragon ancestor. Mismatched eyes - one sickly yellow with a reptile's slit pupil, the other clouded white but somehow still seeing. Seeing him.
The stench hit next. Like bodies left too long in summer heat, mixed with something sulfurous that made his eyes water. The creature's neck was thick as a tree trunk, mottled with scales and weeping sores. Davi had once seen the aftermath of a torture session where a man had been burned with heated metal. Janek's skin looked like that, everywhere - as if his entire existence was an extended torture.
Strangest was how parts of the monster seemed to be assembled from pieces that didn't belong together. As if whoever or whatever had created it only vaguely understood how bodies should work. Too many joints in some limbs. Too few in others.
Steam rose from its red, blotchy skin - from the sores that covered its body. Burning from within. Each lumbering step seemed to cause fresh pain, and yet it kept moving. The Whitelighters' archives mentioned this - how the beast existed in a state of perpetual agony, driven by its mistress's will rather than its own.
And there she sat.
The vampire witch. Archoness Vexis. Perched calmly atop the suffering monster as if it were a comfortable throne. Her beauty was obscene when paired with such ugliness. Perfect features like a statue carved by a master, skin pale as moonlight on fresh snow. She wore midnight blue tonight, though he remembered black at Carradon. Her platinum hair didn't move in the wind - not a single strand. That was what struck him as most unnatural, somehow. Hair should move.
"Well," she said, her voice chilling, "look what we have here. The last Whitelighter captain and Asra the fae." Her gaze shifted between them with predatory interest. "How fitting that I should find you together, the very convergence the prophecy foretold. Water and light, together,be it mingling in futile defiance."
Asra tensed beside Davi, her form shimmering with barely contained power. "You know nothing of the prophecy, Vexis," she spat, her voice suddenly deep and cold, like water rushing through stone.
The Archoness laughed. "I know enough. 'When water meets light in fateful embrace, destruction or salvation will take its place. Did you think your little fairy rhymes were secret?" Her smile widened, revealing more of those unnaturally sharp teeth. "I've been spreading such prophecies for centuries."
Davi moved instinctively to shield Asra with his arm. The mercenary leader, seemingly forgotten in the presence of these greater powers, stepped forward with an indignant expression.
"We had an agreement, M'lady. The fae creature was to be mine."
The vampire witch turned her cold gaze upon him, contempt etched into every perfect feature. "Not anymore. She will be a key ingredient in my ascension ritual."
"But... my payment!"
"Humans!" she uttered, her voice dripping with disdain. "Do you really think any deal made with you is binding?" She turned to her monstrous mount. "Janek! Bon Saraat!"
She pulled on a chain connected to a collar around the beast's neck. The creature rose to its full height, nearly twenty feet tall, and lunged forward. One taloned hand swung out in a vicious arc, connecting with the mercenary's body.
The man didn't even have time to scream. His body separated into three distinct chunks of flesh, blood, and bone, spraying outward in a grotesque display of violence. The remaining mercenary took one look at his leader's remains, dropped his sword, and fled into the forest, crashing through the underbrush in blind terror.
Davi and Asra remained motionless, as Janek lumber towards them. The abomination's breath came in wheezing, bubbling gasps that filled the air with a putrid stench.
"You should have run," Archoness Vexis said, smiling. "But I am glad you did not. The world pivots on the axis of water and light, and you have made this so very easy for me."
Her voice deepened unnaturally as she began to chant in a language that burrowed in Davi’s mind. The portal behind her widened further, and through it came a large prison cage mounted on wheels, pushed by at least ten half-human, half-animal creatures in ornate battle dress.
Davi felt Asra's hand close around his, cool fingers interlacing with his own. He glanced at her and saw not fear but determination in her ever-shifting eyes.
"If we're captured together, all is lost," she whispered. "One of us must survive to stop…."
Archoness Vexis thrust both hands forward. Sickly green colored energy, shot from her fingertips directly at Asra. The fae woman released Davi's hand and moved - not dodged, but flowed, her body temporarily becoming almost liquid. The beam missed her by a handspan. She countered immediately, a pressurized stream of water surging from her outstretched palms. Davi could feel the raw magical energy it contained.
Davi charged directly at the hybrid guards while Vexis was still focused on Asra. His sword found the first guard's throat - not cleanly, but messily, catching on something that shouldn't have been there. Blood splattered his face, metallic and too hot. He yanked his blade free and pivoted toward his second opponent. Thrust. Connect. And another dead.
A quick glance toward Asra showed her still locked in magical combat with Vexis. Their powers met in a crackling nexus between them, blue light and green vampric darkness pushing against each other. Asra's watery blue light seemed to be yielding ground. The witch was stronger. She can't win alone. Need to help her.
A mace whistled past his ear. Too close. Davi ducked beneath the swing, his body responding before his mind registered the danger. His blade found the gap beneath the third guard's armor. A grunt. The creature fell.
Guards everywhere now. One after another. He killed mechanically, efficiently. The way he'd been trained. Fourth guard, fifth. Each death bringing him closer to his goal, but still too many between him and Asra. The remaining guards retreated back with newfound caution, weapons ready.
Davi feinted left, then sprinted right - not toward the guards but toward Janek. Attack the mount, not the rider. If he could disrupt Vexis's concentration, even momentarily, Asra might gain advantage. The creature reacted slowly, its massive form sluggish compared to Davi's desperate speed. A claw swiped at him - he ducked under it, reaching the creature's leg.
Let it flow. Ancient Whitelighter training surfaced in his mind. Words of power he'd been taught as an initiate. He closed his eyes briefly, drawing on his internal light. The words came unbidden, an incantation of purification and cleansing. His sword responded, beginning to glow with brilliant radiance. Pure. Clean. The antithesis of Vexis's corruption.
The blade plunged deep into Janek's leg, steel and light penetrating scale, muscle, and bone. Where they met, light exploded outward, burning away the corruption that animated the abomination. The monster released a deafening shriek that shook the very air, like a thousand rusty temple bells being struck by hammers made of pain. Janek lurched backward violently, nearly throwing Vexis from her perch.
Her concentration broke. Her green beam wavered.
Asra didn't hesitate. Disengaging from the magical duel, she fled toward the treeline, becoming partially translucent as she ran, her form blurring with speed and fae magic.
For one precious moment, Davi felt triumph. She's getting away. But he'd miscalculated Janek's recovery. The creature's leg - the one he hadn't stabbed - descended with unexpected speed. Davi tried to leap clear, but the talons caught him mid-jump. Pain exploded across his chest and side as claws tore through his flesh. The world spun sickeningly as he was thrown through the air.
He hit the ground hard. Ribs cracked. Breath gone. Blood flowing from multiple wounds. Through a haze of agony, he saw Asra hesitate at the forest's edge, looking back at him with an expression of such sadness.
Run! Don't look back! The prophecy depends on you now! He tried to shout the words, but nothing came from his mouth but a bubble of blood.
The last thing he saw as darkness claimed him was Asra's slender form disappearing into the trees. Despite everything, despite his own fate, satisfaction warmed him from within.
She escaped, and that was all that mattered.
Dear readers, we are heading towards the end of this story. I hope you have enjoyed it so far. This is my contribution to Warrior Wednesday on the 21st of May 2025. Pinging organizers
follow them (for their own work) and their recap newsletters to find more great fantasy stories to read on Substack.
Excellent supernatural horror and action cliffhangers. The work to form this into a traditional serial shows.