They had traveled for the better part of the day, Jaeden by his horse, Trelissa’s guards and Holtan on their horses surrounding Trelissa’s wagon. Trelissa , this time around, opted to ride along her wagon, one of her merc’s at the reigns. Overall, it mattered little. Trelissa’s desires were still firmly affixed to Jaeden’s Ranuri mark, still freshly overpowering his own from the previous night spent in her tent, which at the moment was nothing more than to have untroubled travel on the way home. And for the most part, that first day of travel did go smoothly, with only the sounds of a few wolves howling calls to each other breaking any semblance of quiet, boring travel through the woods.
It had been maybe two bells before sundown that the entire group decided to stop and make camp. While the merc’s and Holtan busied themselves with setting up Trelissa’s tent, Trelissa had pulled Jaeden aside, guiding them down to the nearby stream. There wasn’t much to be done there, save for Trelissa to once again make physical contact with Jaeden with a simple hand being brushed along the cheek. After, it was a simple matter of them passing the time as Jaeden, at Trelissa’s request, began showing her certain intricacies of woodland skills. It had started with tracking, as Jaeden showed Trelissa some simple tracks ranging from wolves stalking prey or coming for water, to birds pecking at the grounds for insects and worms that laid plentiful underneath.
For the most part, Jaeden caught the desire that Trelissa found it all boring, and instead wanted to see something interesting the wild provided. Perhaps another Journeyman, giving Jaeden another opportunity to display Woodland Wrath. Though what little of Jaeden’s own self was left, wasn’t too keen on such a situation. He still felt slightly fatigued from using the divine bow yesterday.
“Well, here’s something new.” Jaeden then said, waving Trelissa over.
“Fox tracks.”Trelissa began to follow, still slightly uninterested, but willing to follow along until camp had been fully set up. Jaeden slowly began following them, as they lead towards a tree overhanging the stream.
“Looks like it was stalking something, or trying to avoid it.” Jaeden said, observing the tracks intently.
“Hard to tell, as the tracks weren’t too deeply imprinted into the ground. But it was trying to move quiet.”“Hold on.” Jaeden then suddenly said as he moved further, following the tracks before finally seeing them shift from small paws, into small feet.
He felt Trelissa hovering over his shoulder, looking down at the tracks.
“Do you think a human caught it?” Trelissa inquired.
Jaeden slowly looked around.
“Only if it was a starved, escaped human slave who was barefoot.” Jaeden said, looking at the tracks more closely.
“They lead in the same direction of the fox, but to appear out of nowhere, which would mean that said someone would have had to have dropped from above. And there are no tree limbs hanging over head.” Jaeden explained, shaking his head.
“No, my guess is that it would be Kelvic.”Jaeden could suddenly feel Trelissa’s urgency rising, her desire to head back to camp suddenly overpowering.
“They should be done with the tent by now, Jaeden.” Trelissa said with a slight sharpness to her tone of voice.
“Let us head back, immediately.”“I don’t think you would have to worry about some random fox Kelvic.” Jaeden said, trying to reassure Trelissa.
“I am not.” Trelissa snapped suddenly.
“I’m concerned about a specific fox Kelvic.”Before Jaeden could utter a word about the possibility of Red finding them after this amount of time, Jaeden’s ears twitched at the sound of dried leaves crunching under foot. His head spun around quickly and his gaze snapped to the source of the sound. There, behind the tree the tracks had been leading to, stepped out the nude female figure that was all to familiar to Jaeden, and brought about the slightest pang of resistance towards Ranuri he had managed to garner since first succumbing to Trelissa’s touch.
“I think she means me, Jaeden.” Red said, her voice quickened by both excitement at finding Jaeden, and anger over what Trelissa had reduced him to.
Jaeden had already felt the desire before Trelissa had uttered the words, his hand already twitching under the feeling, but moving slower towards the hilt of his sword as he heard Trelissa’s voice hiss the words,
“Kill her Jaeden. Kill her now.”It was that split second of hesitation that Red needed. She had traveled long enough with Jaeden, knew enough about the mark, that she knew almost instinctively what had to be done. She rushed forward, her feet digging into the ground as much as they could, and her legs pushing her forward as strongly as possible to cover the short distance between her and Jaeden. She knew, after all, how quickly Jaeden could draw his sword, and how improbable it would be for Red to even get close to Jaeden once he had drawn his sword. It took barely the tick of a chime for Red to cover that distance, her hand slamming along Jaeden’s own, forcing the sword back into its sheath. Jaeden half expected an attack to come next, as he began to duck, about to take a step back. Such played into Red’s next action as she quickly reached up with her other hand, snatching Jaeden by the back of his head and, surprisingly or not, proceeded to kiss him deeply.
All movement on Jaeden suddenly stopped, his body hunched over forward, his feet planted along the ground as, finally, someone’s desires other than Trelissa’s began to fill his being and Ranuri mark. It gave him the one thing he had been lacking for the past few days. A choice. And suddenly Jaeden fell to his knees, the two desires intermingling for a moment before beginning to conflict. Trelissa’s strong desire for Jaeden to remain obedient seemed to battle Red’s strong desire for Jaeden to be free of such influence and be himself once again. The outcome of such a battle of desires, and which one Jaeden would choose, would be clear to both women, but the time it would take was not. As much as Jaeden’s true self had desired to be free of Trelissa’s influence, her desires had become a familiar thing under constant subjection to them over the past few days. In small, they had grown a foothold in Jaeden’s own sense of self. And removing them would take the desires of someone familiar, like Red, invading and eventually causing Jaeden to remember what he was before, and choose to be that person again.
Trelissa would try to prevent such, however, as she began stepping forward towards Jaeden, her hands outstretched to grasp at him. This was met by the sudden blurred movement of Red’s foot thrusting out and catching Trelissa in her chest as Red hopped over Jaeden’s knelt form. The strike sent a violent pain coursing through Trelissa’s body as she let out a gasped yelp of pain and began to stumble backward onto her back, clutching at where Red had kicked her.
“You bitch!” Red hissed, slowly beginning to approach Trelissa, her eyes seething with anger. There was a hunger for violence that had not been seen in Red’s eyes since she had first met Jaeden, and faced down the very people who had caged and collared her.
“I’ll see you dead this day for what you did to him.”There was little Trelissa could do on her end to dispute this fact, as she rolled to her front and began to crawl away from Red, fear beginning to shine in her eyes, in a desperate attempt to escape. As talented a Hypnotist mage as she was, Trelissa was completely reliant on those she had enslaved through her honey soaked words to be her shield and weapon. With Jaeden lost and the rest of her mercenaries back at camp, she was at Red’s mercy, having no offensive or defensive skills of her own. She couldn’t even cry out for help as she still struggled to recapture the breath that Red had knocked out of her with the first kick. More unfortunate for Trelissa, was the fact that Red was fresh out of any mercy for her.
Trelissa’s eyes went wide with freight as she felt Red’s fingers grip her hair like a vice, suddenly pulling her up. The next that would come would simply add another swelling of pain as Red’s knee was driven into Trelissa’s face, as Trelissa felt bones in her nose crack and that hot blood begin to pour out over her lips as he body vaulted backward from the force of the blow. Trelissa’s hands went to her nose, grasping at the pain as her eyes began to water. It wouldn’t be long before she felt Red’s foot stomping into her mid-section, forcing her breath away again before Red straddled Trelissa’s body, drawing back fists for the inevitable hurt she was about to unleash. Trelissa raised her hands defensively, almost trying to sob and plead for mercy, each attempt halted by a fist rained down into her face by Red. Eventually, her ability to talk was quickly taken out the equation as Red finally drove one of her fists into Trelissa’s throat, causing her to choke and cough as her airway closed for a brief moment.
Finally, Red’s fury reached its culmination as her feet planted along the ground, and she pulled Trelissa up. Trelissa, dazed, battered and bloodied, barely had the strength to even stand at that point as her legs wobbled and threatened to give out on her. She wouldn’t have the need for long before she found Red forcibly throwing her towards the stream with a wrench of her hands and twisting of her body, putting all of her weight and strength into the throw itself. Trelissa’s body flew through the air for a brief moment before gravity pulled her back to the ground. Her body landed with a hard thud over the cool earth, momentum carrying her into a roll until she splashed into the stream’s waters below.
Red approached Trelissa now, like the predator would approach its wounded prey. She was moving in for the kill. Horror filled Trelissa’s eyes as Red’s hands slinked around her throat and began forcing Trelissa’s head under water. She had no strength to resist. Trelissa barely had the strength to grasp at Red’s wrists or raise her hand to Red’s face defensively. All Red had to do now, was simply hold Trelissa there, until all signs of struggle had ceased. Her mind was already committed to the act. Before she could see it to fruition, however, she felt a heavy hand along her shoulder.
“Enough,” said a voice from behind Red.
Instinctively, Red spun around, throwing her fist at the owner of said hand. Her face went to shock when her fist slammed into Jaeden’s gloved hand, halting her attack.
“Red, that’s enough.” Jaeden said with a somber tone in his voice, slowly lowering her fist.
“You’ve done all that you needed to.”Red’s eyes began to slowly tear up, as she stared deeply into Jaeden’s eyes, seeing the light that had been in them once more. The expression had been murky, and through the bond Red felt Jaeden’s emotions burdened, but overall, she could tell she had him back. Because that light of caring, despite what he had just been through, was still there. He stopped her not so much to save Trelissa, but to save Red from going entirely through such a malicious act. Killing someone to defend yourself or someone you care about was one thing, but Jaeden knew that killing someone out of wrath alone was a road he didn’t want Red to go down. He had been there himself once before, and generally the maliciousness of such an act was something one couldn’t easily shake free. It stayed on the mind for a long time. Red knew this, instinctively almost from simply feeling Jaeden’s emotions once again. And for that, all she could do was fight back an overwhelming need to cry as she quickly wrapped her arms around Jaeden, embracing him fully.
“I thought I had lost you.” Red said, her voice a bit shaky.
“I was lost, but you brought me back again.” Jaeden replied, as his left arm embraced Red around her back, his right cupping around her head as he kissed the top of her head softly.
“I can’t tell you how much I love you for that Red. Despite what we may encounter in the future, or who, just know that you are the most important among them to me.”Red kept her embrace tight, wishing for time to stand still and the moment to not end. The moment, however, would be broken by the sudden groan of pain that Trelissa had released, laying there along the shore, barely conscious. Red quickly turned around, he rage for the woman starting to show in her face once again. Jaeden’s hand grasped Red’s arm firmly, preventing her from vaulting on the woman all together again.
“Let me kill her.” Red requested of Jaeden.
“No.” Jaeden said, pulling Red away from Trelissa slowly.
"Sorry Red, but this is something I have to do. Otherwise, her influence will linger in my like a disease.”Red let out a barely audible scoff of disappointment before finally stepping back and folding her arms. Jaeden slowly stepped over Trelissa’s body, dropping to one knee as he drew his sword. Trelissa looked to the sword for a moment, before looking up to Jaeden with a pleading look in her eyes.
“Didn’t we have good times Jaeden?” Trelissa asked, a sorrow filling her voice, mainly over the fact that such action Jaeden took held no real surprise for her.
“Didn’t I treat you good?”Jaeden’s hand slowly reached out, stroking her hair a couple of times gently before lightly wiping away blood from her face, cleaning her slowly swelling face the best he could. In the end, he shook his head to her questions.
“That wasn’t me, Trelissa.” Jaeden said simply.
“The Jaeden you turned me into? He had fun, and you treated him well, so long as he did what you wanted him to. But that wasn’t the real me.”Jaeden could see Trelissa’s eyes begin to water, this time not from pain, but more the disappointment and sorrow Jaeden could see in her eyes that things were ending this way.
“This will be done Trelissa. The fact is, what I turned into could be blamed on Nikali’s mark.” Jaeden explained, lightly brushing his thumb along Trelissa’s lips.
“But I can’t do that. Not this time. Because you knew about her mark upon me, and you knew full and well that you were using it to manipulate and change me. Just as you knew how you were turning each an every one of your guards using your magic. You stole them, and you stole me. Not only did you steal us in body, but you stole us in sense of being to. You took away who we were. Knowingly. And I can never forgive that.“Trelissa began to slowly sob as much as pain would allow her to, her hand slowly reaching up and grasping Jaeden’s left hand as it caressed her cheek lightly.
“I’m all alone, aren’t I?” Trelissa said, that one realization practically crushing the slight insanity that magic had scarred onto her psyche, if only for the moment of her death.
“Yes.” Jaeden answered simply.
“And the saddest point of that fact, is that you only were alone because you didn’t realize that you did have someone. You had someone there who was with you, without your magic’s influencing him. But take solace in that, because of this fact alone, I pity you more than I hate you, and will make your death quick, skipping any of the suffering I might have made someone else go through for what you did to me.”Trelissa looked to Jaeden’s sword once more before her gaze moved back to Jaeden’s. There was an acceptance in her eyes by that point, but also still a lingering fear.
“Does it hurt?” Trelissa asked.
“Only for a quick moment, I suspect.” Jaeden said as he raised his sword, pressing the tip along Trelissa’s chest, right in the location of her heart.
“If it is as most wounds go. You’ll feel a pinch, a quick sharp pain for the blink of an eye, and then everything will just go numb. Barely the length of two breaths. It will at least be better than feeling Red’s fists, and having your lungs fill with water as she holds your head under the stream.”Trelissa laid there for a moment, silent, then finally gave a slow nod, looking up to Jaeden. Before she could utter any word of doubt, Jaeden’s right arm tensed as he force his blade through. The steel made its way through flesh, muscle and bone swiftly before finally piercing Trelissa’s heart. A slight grunt of pain could be heard escaping Trelissa’s lips, he whole body stiffening from the sudden shock of a lethal wound, before it finally went limp along the shore and her head rolled to the side, out of Jaeden’s hand. It was likely she hadn’t died instantly, but Jaeden could tell it took her less than a chime, her heart being practically cut in half by Jaeden’s sword. It was a quick death, and for the most part, a clean death delivered by Jaeden’s hand. Such was likely a lot more than anyone else would offer her.
Jaeden slowly pushed himself to his feet once again, pulling his sword free from Trelissa’s body. He remained silent for the longest moment as he wiped his blade clean, stepping away from the stream as he came to a stand next to Red, looking back in the direction of camp.
“Do we go now?” Red asked Jaeden.
Jaeden slowly shook his head. “No, the others back at the camp will have to be……addressed, unfortunately.” Jaeden replied, letting a desperate sigh escape his lips.
“They’re completely devoted to Trelissa and will likely seek out revenge. Especially Holtan. Considering the gold Trelissa won from using me and what she might have back at her home as well, they would certainly have the resources to track us down again. Likely much easier than they had done so before. Most importantly though, Fortunado is back at camp, as well as Woodland Wrath. I can’t abandon either.” Jaeden slowly looked down to his arm, seeing the color of Kelwyn’s mark encircling the flesh of his wrist slightly under the fabric of his clothing and gloved hand.
“We’ll need a giant twist of luck in our favor to pull this off though. It is two against fourteen. Though Kelwyn’s mark may help us out. Then again, it may just get us killed that much faster too.”“Well,” Red said as she rested her hand along Jaeden’s wrist,
“what if I were to tell you that you wouldn’t need your mark?” Jaeden slowly looked out towards the forest once again, before giving a slow nod to seemingly nothing. Before long, the group of Kelvics she had run into along the way suddenly came out of various places they had been sitting in hiding at, much to Jaeden’s surprise.
“What if I told you,” Red said, snapping Jaeden’s attention back to her,
“that it was actually ten of us, against eleven of them?”
Then Jaeden saw Balkin’s champion. Over twelve feet it stood as thunderous hoofed legs slammed along the ground, kicking up dirt with each stomp. Its skin was almost green, had a leather like quality as massive lower armed had spike like scales and gorilla like hands supported it’s massive upper weight with the legs. Two more sets of arms, long and muscular had almost a human like quality to them, save for the hands which seemed to have talons in place of fingernails. A hunch lined it’s back, and along where the spine would rest, spikes protruded from its back. The head of the creature seemed to be the smallest thing along its body overall, as a what appeared to be scarred and rotted flesh made up the cheeks and brow, no hair lining any part. Horns grew out from along the upper sides of its skill while small black eyes searched around for its next target. A subtle echo, something that seemed to be a mix of a roar and hiss escaped the creature’s mouth as it opened, the appearance of sharp, serrated teeth were bore menacingly at the five remaining men who stood to face the beast.