Forty

         I fought furiously to express that I meant no harm, that I was not there for nefarious purposes but the assassin would not relent. I fought only to defend myself countering his blades with the shaft of my mace blocking what I could with my shield but it was a losing battle. I downed mana serum and potions and healed myself at every chance but I could feel my reserves of the mystical energy waning and I knew that I would not be able to keep myself up forever, that it was only a matter of time. I cried out and screamed over and again my purpose for being there in every language I could think of, but I knew that it fell on deaf ears and that I was not understood.

           I was growing weak; I could feel the life draining out of me as my wounds bled profusely. Billy was doing everything he could to hold the woman back; she spit and howled furiously at him as she tried to lend the assassin aide. I struggled to stem the flow of blood with my shield hand and my prayers but it was too much. I slipped to the ground my legs caving from beneath me and stared into the sky too weak to look elsewhere. Billy hit the dirt, suddenly on his knees beside me and tried to lift my head off the cold hard ground. He screamed at the woman but all she did was cross her arms and look away. I coughed and felt the hot splash of my own blood coat my cheek. My lungs barely worked and would not continue to for much longer. I gripped the front of Billy’s robes and choked…

          “Elethor.” In the Asmodian pronunciation and Billy nodded.

         “Elethor,” he said and then spoke in broken Elysean, “Go, go Elethor before.” He smoothed the hair from my eyes and nodded emphatically, encouraging but I did not know what he meant.

         “They’re coming. You have to warn your people.” I closed my eyes and struggled to hold on to life and felt for my kisk, but it was gone… and the tears welled. I was so close to accomplishing my goal I had to be sure they had to be warned I felt desperately for my kisk and found something else, a bind nearer than Elysea. I mean I could feel the thread of my soul bound so far away in Sanctum but I also felt a second thread, one that was bound much closer, though in a direction opposite where I had come from, where my kisk should have been. The woman began shouting at Billy again but he waved her off and I tried one last time to make him understand, pulling the thick bloodstained envelopes from inside my armor and thrusting them at Billy.

          “Take these to Elethor, you have to. He has to be warned.” Billy crushed the papers in his hand around mine and nodded excitedly.

         “Yes! Elethor. You go, before. Close eyes go Elethor, before.” I sobbed; I didn’t know what he meant. I prayed and struggled to live to make him understand but my body was quickly denying me. I shook violently and could not draw air and though I fought I could feel my body giving way, returning to the flow of aether and I felt calm and I was ready to let go and I closed my eyes and thought of my beloved Elethor and faded, I took the chance and followed that piece of my soul, not to Sanctum where I had bound but the closer one, though I knew not where I would end up.

          I collected to myself again and collapsed to my hands and knees on thick carpet. My mace dropped from nerveless fingers and my shield clattered against the wood of some great desk. My body was whole, as if I had resurrected at a kisk and I felt no soul sickness but I was so very weak. I struggled to my feet with the last vestiges of strength that remained in me my head swimming from the recent blood loss. I saw the great Asmodian male, at least I thought he was a he, so broad of shoulder, arms massive though I could not see his face, obscured as it was by his helm but his two handed sword I did see and it was rising and very ready to cleave me in two. My eyes widened and I put up my hands in a futile defense when the clear, familiar commanding voice rang out and the gladiator stopped. I turned but everything seemed so slow and when I saw him I collapsed to my knees again, my heart and mind flooded with relief as Elethor rounded his desk and reached for me, his arms caught me up and I sank gratefully into them as he lowered me carefully to the floor.

          Elethor… I had made it, somehow and in some way I had made it. Oh thank you Aion. Thank you Father. His expression was fierce and worried as he began pulling apart buckles and straps to find where the congealing blood coating my armor emanated from. I felt my wounds were sealed and I was whole again and I tried to speak but my voice and mind failed me as the world flashed with gray and white streamers that fell from my vision obscuring everything. I tried valiantly to hold on, to not pass out or faint and to deliver my warning but it wasn’t happening. The best I could manage was to interlace the fingers of my right hand with his hand nearest it and give a faint squeeze that I hoped would reassure him. It was all I could do, all I had left in me before the world blurred and became too hazy to bear and I closed my eyes and fell away into the merciful dark confines of unconsciousness.