Ascending Legends

[BookWyrm]

Dayn felt his stomach churn, feeling like there were butterflies that suddenly were eaten by bats that began to fly around in there instead. Dayn reached into his pouch and pulled out a small box as he slowly knelled down in front of Arryn, taking her left hand in his. "Arryn, dearest beloved," Dayn opened the box, revealing a silver ring decorated with knotwork designs, "will you marry me?"

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn's eyes widened as she processed Dayn's proposal. Marriage was a big thing... Hel, her mother hadn't even met Dayn yet. And maybe they should get to clearing her name before their engagement was a thing.... Arryn nodded quickly, smiling and unable to speak as a few joyous tears came to her eyes. After the ring was on her finger, she knelt down with him and put her arms around his neck, holding him close as she laughed for some reason, likely just releasing some of the intense emotion inside. She didn't quite know how she felt, just that it was good. She pulled back and then kissed him slowly.

 

[BookWyrm]

As Dayn felt Arryn's embrace and her lips touch his own all of his anxiety came washing out as tears streaming down his face. As they kissed Dayn pulled Arryn close to him, holding her tightly as the finished their kiss before wrapping their arms around each other. For a long while Dayn couldn't say anything, he simply cried and laughed and was just an overall emotional wreck.


Finally after several minutes Dayn held her face, kissing her gently before laying his forehead against hers. "You've made me the happiest man alive Arryn."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled and said, "I like that. I like you being happy. You fixed me, and I love you so much. I only want to see you happy, and I'm happy." She kissed him again, then laughed and said, "You'll be meeting my ma as my fiance or.. husband, depending on how long it takes to get to Rorich... Gods, eventually, you'll be my husband...." Arryn laughed and kissed him again.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn laughed. "Oh gods, that'll take some getting used to." Dayn wiped away the tears from Arryn's face before wiping away his own. "I.....I don't know what to say." Dayn smiled, laughing as he shook his head. "I've never felt this happy before. Ever." And it was the truth, Dayn couldn't remember a time when he was happier. Of course he thought back on when he and Kara were married, and the day Lia was born, but something about that paled in comparison. Yes, he would always love them, but in the end when they had reunited for that one time during Samhein Dayn felt released from his past. It would seem that they had both helped each other overcome previous struggles.

 

[Dragongal]

"Same for me," Arryn laughed, still giddy. "I guess all I can really think of saying is... I love you, Dayn." She kissed him again, then smiled. She sighed, then said, "I don't want to go to that meeting tomorrow. Honestly, at the moment, I don't want to do any of the work we were sent here to do. None of it. I just want to be close to you and tell you I love you."

 

[BookWyrm]

"I understand. If we could escape it all and leave this damned city I would not hesitate." Dayn sighed, knowing that despite the change of the situation they still had a job to do. "I hate to crush this moment, but I can't help but think about what happened here on Samhein. I think back on Riverbend, what they tried to do with Addy. They succeeded here, and a family lost a loved one. From what they said, many families have lost loved ones. Arryn, I'd run away with you to the far corners of the world, but I can't leave this unfinished. But I swear to you, after this job, we are taking some time for ourselves." Dayn stood up, helping his fiance to her feet. "I can tell you one thing though, we're not doing anything unless we get some sleep."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn kissed him slowly, holding him close, the pulled back and said, "I know you're absolutely right.... On all accounts." She climbed into the bed, then waited for him before curling up against him, nuzzling against his neck as she rubbed her thumb over his cheek lightly. "Arryngale Braegland... I like that." She kissed his cheek then nestled up against him before falling to sleep, still smiling.

 

[BookWyrm]

The next couple of days passed swiftly. The raid team assembled and fleshed out the plan: The garrison was going to be the main fighting force, the rangers would provide ranged assets, Dayn would push in with the main raid force with Arryn, the two mages would push in along the flanks, while the other mercenaries would storm in from the back with the inquisitor. The necros had holed up in a ruined temple and the rangers had cut off their means of exit with well placed holy glyphs. When the day came the assembled forces pushed into the caverns of Old Town and steadied themselves.


Dayn had seen battlefields before, but this was something completely new. The rangers struck out at any of the necros who were stupid enough to show themselves, all the while the battle mages hurled spells and elemental fury at the ruined temple. Dayn and Arryn stood side by side in the ranks of the garrison. Dayn wore his full kit and held his bastard sword in his right hand, his left hand free to wield his magic. The garrison marched steadily forward as the ranged units continued to assault the temple that the necros were held up in. Dayn reached over to Arryn and took her hand, squeezing it gently. His wolven senses were on full alert, and he could already smell death on the air. "Hold fast love."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn glanced at him with a smile, a slight green fire in her eyes. "Did you forget, this isn't dissimilar to what I used to do for fun." She squeezed his hand back, and the next thing she knew, the battle had begun. She put up a quick illusion, pushing past the first number of their enemies, before dropping it and cutting into the back few, mostly those with distance weapons. Shield, undercut, toss corpse, use as a distraction to slit a throat, shield. As one man charged her with a dagger, she put up her shield with the consistency of ice, watching him go to her right before reaching out, grabbing his shoulder from behind, and slitting his throat. She looked around, and she noticed a necro priest of some form looking at her and saying soem words. She felt a headache coming on, so in a split second, she'd raised her crossbow and put a bolt in his head. She had to duck a swing from a sword, stabbing the man in the stomach before pushing him forward to be killed by some of the garrison. She spotted Dayn and smiled, before returning to the fight, mostly taking out potential distance attackers.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn caught sight of a necro knocking a guard on his back. Taking off at a sprint Dayn grabbed his blade in a half sword position and swung, catching the necro's leg with the guard and tripping him up before bringing the pommel down onto his face, splitting the mask to a spew of blood before giving the guard and hand up. Any chance he had Dayn watched Arryn, keeping up with her movements and making sure she didn't get into a pinch. Parrying one sword, Dayn reached out and grabbed a necro by the arm while activating his pyromancy, setting the man ablaze before yanking him off balance and sending him hurtling over the edge of a cliff. With the combined might of the guard, the mercenaries, and everyone else the necromancers in the outer courtyard fell easily. "Push into the temple! End this madness!" The inquisitors screams to push urged the troops forward as they broke down the door leading into the temple. Dayn caught Arryn before she could enter. "Stay out of there Arryn, please." With her being susceptible to mental magic or dark magic Dayn wasn't going to risk it, especially now that they were to marry.


Dayn charged in along side the Inquisitor to find that the Necromancer channelers were already in tranced in their ritual. Needless to say they didn't wait for it to finish. Dayn and the soldiers ended the channerlers trance with blood. As they walked out from the temple Dayn searched for Arryn, finally seeing her among the crowd. He walked out wiping his blade clean with a torn cloak before sheathing it and standing in front of her, his armor spattered in blood. "It is finished."





The celebrations began shortly after sunset, and despite being welcomed to the table Dayn turned down the offer and took the payment instead. "We have many things to take care of, and we must be on our way soon." Dayn left the palace and walked back to the inn where he met up with Arryn in their room. As Dayn entered the room he found Arryn with her back to the door. Quietly shutting the door Dayn crept over behind her before bear hugging her. "Our payment is secure, and we are free to do what we wish." Dayn turned Arryn around and kissed her before continuing. "So, what'll it be now love?"

 

[Dragongal]

After the battle, and during some of it, especially while Dayn had gone in to kill the channelers, Arryn had been healing wounded and finding the few innocents that had been captured and not yet slaughtered, helping prepare the corpses of those that were killed for transport. All in all, not the brightest day in her book, but it was not unlike her old raids, helping the slaves afterward. The first moment she'd been able, she'd bathed to get the blood off of her - it wasn't her blood, it wasn't her enemies blood, it was the blood of innocents, and she couldn't stand having that on her skin.


Arryn set down her book before kissing him back. "I suppose we could go look at that property we spoke of. Ride or walk?" That was a two day ride through the merchant's path, or they could take a path directly East - it wasn't magicked, or a shortcut, but the snows hadn't fallen yet, and it would get them to the land they wanted to survey quickly.

 

[BookWyrm]

"I'm in no rush, so I say we head east, and we walk this time. I'd sooner shift and let you ride on me the whole way than end up with more saddle soars." They packed their gear and left the Inn for the busy streets and burgs. Dayn felt his heart pounding as they pushed their way through the crowded burgs towards the last gate out of the mess. Dayn took Arryn's hand and held it tightly as they wandered through the crowds like salmon swimming up stream. When they finally burst out of the crowds and through the last gate and into the farmlands Dayn sighed with relief. "For a minute there I honestly felt like wolfing out just to scare everyone out of the way."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn looked up at him past the rim of her hood. “That is a tempting thought, however, that damned inquisitor might go after you. I don’t want to have to kill anyone for a while. I had to patch enough human violence up yesterday. I hate having to heal kids like that….” Arryn looked up at him again and smiled, squeezing his hand. “But we don’t have to worry about that now. now we can just… walk. Once they got toward the mountains and the main pass, Arryn look him off a deer trail, stopping occasionally to look closely at the ground or a tree for a marker, before continuing, taking him on a magicked merchant path straight East, instead of the one from from South-West, where they’d come from. “There’s one of these to each main city nearby, and only one that goes West, because nobody wants to go into those swamps unless it’s an emergency, which is, y’know, why the paths exist. This East-West path is more hidden than the Southwest-Northeast one we took.”


Arryn paused, facing a cliff-face in the rock, where the path ended. She tapped a tree next to the path, and the cliff-face disappeared, revealing a clear path that gradually went up the shallow slope. She took his hand, smiled, then led him through. Pines grew along the path’s sides, and there was a thin layer of snow, which began growing slowly with the light snowfall that fell upon them.By night, they were half-way through the path, and Arryn pointed out a clearing that had relatively little snow, set up a shield to keep the heat in and snow out, and helped Dayn with setting up camp.


(You may timeskip to next day

 

[BookWyrm]

Another dreamless night ended with a cold morning. Dayn sighed as he sat up and tended the fire before getting breakfast ready. Dried fruits, smoked meats, and an ale horn to split between them. Not the most comforting breakfast but at least it was filling. "I think I'm going to like having a house together. Being able to wake up under our own roof, in our own bed, with no worry about being bothered by other people." Dayn chewed on a bite of smoked pork as he pondered over the thought. "It's not that I mind the winter, I just don't like traveling in it." Dayn realized he had been grumbling. It may have been the weather, than again it could have been the uncomfortable root that had stuck in his back all night. He finally gave Arryn and apologetic smile. "I don't mean to complain love. I guess I'm just ready for a change of pace."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn smiled and said, "I understand. I doubt Aric would have any trouble with us wintering - if he does have any more jobs for us, they can wait."She kiseed his cheek and smiled. Soon enough, they were packed up and continuing along the path.


A few hours after noon, Arryn felt a slight headache in the back of her skull, the kind a dogwhistle might produce. She glanced around, figuring it couldn’t have been an illusion spell giving her the headache, and was likely nothing. She glanced at Dayn and smiled to him before turning her attention back to the road, watching the brush for anything that might cross their path, not considering looking at the trees.


It waited patiently, until its target was at just the right spot, to do what it was created for. The serpent was patient. When the moment was right, it dropped off of its branch and onto Dayn’s shoulder. It was lightweight and smooth, the scales having no texture, but its glowing red eyes were the clear giveaway of its origin. However, there wasn’t time to notice such a small detail, as the moment it hit Dayn, it bit down into his shoulder, its fangs piercing through cloth and flesh before releasing its lethal venom into his blood.


Arryn rushed to his side immediatley, grabbing the snak to pull it off of him, and it dissipated into smoke in her hands, leaving a broken glass phial in her palm. A conjuration! She sniffed the phial, then looked to Dayn in horror, saying, "I-it's an alchemical acid.... I can't heal it, I can't even suck the poison out, it's - it's.... I can't even make an antidote...." An alchemical acid was any potion or poison made through alchemical means. These were normally more potent than plain potions, and more rare.

 

[BookWyrm]

It all happened within seconds, otherwise a reaction might have been possible. Dayn stared at the broken phial as it lay there in Arryn's hand, his hand gripping his shoulder as he tried to comprehend what was going on. "An alchemical acid?", Dayn stammered slightly. "You mean......you.....not even....you can't......nothing?" Dayn felt his heart start to pound in his chest uncontrollably. Dammit stop! You can't lose it now! Dayn looked at Arryn, the fear crystal clear in his eyes as he felt his body beginning to get very weak. For some reason he stayed standing, whether his lycanthropy gave him a slight edge or not he didn't know, but at the moment Dayn was terrified to move his body. "I....I can't feel my shoulder."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn put her hand over his shoulder and began countering the effects of the poison in his blood, and said, "I didn't say nothing. I can combat the effects of it, but, only so long as I have mana. You're going to need an antidote, and it's nigh impossible to get one for an alchemical acid, they're nearly impossible to make...." she let her voice trailed off, then looked at him and said with determination, "But I know someone who can make one. We just have to get there." Arryn thought over things, looked around, and said, "Okay, we'll have to follow this path, then take another merchant's path North, to the mountains... that's a three day walk if we're going at a moderate pace - we can't go too fast, or your condition will degrade faster, and I'll have to use mana more often, too slow, and I'll eventually run out anyway. We just have to make it to the mountain pass...." Arryn didn't like having to do what she would have to, but she wasn't going to let Dayn die.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn felt himself slipping off into panic until Arryn laid her hand on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and he leaned his head forward, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. In any other situation he would have thought about shifting, but they didn't have the time to think about rigging his gear for his wolven body. "Lets go then, we can't waste any time." Dayn let Arryn lead as they traveled onward towards whatever destination Arryn had planned. At the moment Dayn didn't care where they were going, his focus instead on trying to keep himself calm, cool, and collected.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn gave him a quick kiss before taking his hand as she led him. When night fell a few hours later, she insisted on making a camp, explaining, "We'll rest a few hours, then walk a few, rest, walk, it'll keep either of us from getting too exhausted before we can reach the pass." After they'd eaten, Arryn curled up with Dayn on his bedroll. She wasn't going to waste mana with shields, so they'd have to use body heat for warmth. She didn't tell him that she'd slipped a very mild sedative into his food so he'd fall asleep. She knew she should get some sleep too, but it was difficult. When she did wake a few hours later, she nudged him to wake him up, break camp, and keep moving.

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn opened his eyes, trying to orient himself. Had he fallen asleep? He couldn't remember much after they ate. He helped break camp and they were soon on the move again. Dayn could feel his body aching as a weariness fell over him. It reminded him of having a bad fever: aching, weariness, loss of appetite, and generally just feeling crummy. By the end of the day Dayn was barely able to keep himself awake, but when they laid down to sleep he couldn't find a way to get to sleep. In the end he might have slept three hours that restless night, and what sleep he managed to get was plagued by nightmares.


The next morning Dayn felt even worse than the night before. He rubbed his weary eyes before looking at Arryn and giving the best smile he could muster. "We're that much closer now."

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn tried to smile back and kissed him, looking at his weary face with evident concern. Healing him multiple times each day was definitely taking its toll on her. They needed to get to the pass now. She still held his hand as they walked, though it seemed more like she was literally leading him now. His condition was degrading quickly, and there wasn't anything sh could do about it without putting him at risk. After healing him a few more times, by evening, she was exhausted, but there was some good news: they were at the pass. Now, however, they had to wait. Arryn set up a small camp, trying to make sure Dayn would be comfortable. She wasn't sure how she was staying conscious, much less him. "Now we just have to wait a bit, okay love?"

 

[BookWyrm]

Dayn laid back on his bed roll, mostly out of it, before reaching over and taking her hand gently with what strength he could muster. He managed a faint smile before drifting off into somewhere between sleep and unconsciousness. The only thing that he could make out clearly during this time was the moon, which shone brightly overhead, it's mournful face downcast and watching over him. A mist formed around them that night, hovering in the camp like a ghost. Two crystal blue eyes formed in the mist as a shape moved over near the head of their bed roll. Hold fast.

 

[Dragongal]

Arryn searched through her pack and pulled out a small, silk bag. She gently emptied it out on the ground, revealing what looked like many coloured marbles. She picked up a red one, glanced at it, then smashed it on the ground, shattering the hollow glass. That would send them running to Dayn's aid, and her own... now she just had to wait a bit. However, she couldn't stay awake, she she propped herself against a pine next to Dayn and tried to stay conscious, quickly failing. She didn't even notice the mist that rolled in later. Arryn was woken a few hours later by the sound of hooves; three sets of hooves, in fact. She looked up at the approaching people and smiled weakly, still exhausted.


“Atria, by the gods! Why are you here and who is he?” Matthias asked quickly while Theodas got off his horse and rushed to her side and Kalie rushed to Dayn’s. They knew the drill; as long as they did their job, they could talk. If they couldn’t multitask, they couldn’t talk.


“His name,” she panted, groaning slightly as Theodas helped her stand, “Is Sir Dayn Braegland.”


“What is wrong with him?” Kalie asked, checking Dayn's pulse. Matthias stiffened, she noted, likely because she’d mentioned Dayn’s title; both Matthias and Arryn knew it was wrong to be so prejudiced against nobles, but thanks to their first encounter with a noble as kids, it was hard to see it otherwise. She had gotten over it, but with his wife here and the last time nobles had come to Rorich, she didn't blame him for his suspicion.


Arryn took charge of her old crew without even meaning to. “Theodas, tend to Dayn please, Kalie, if you’d not mind assisting me… Thank you.” She focused on Matthias again and said, “Dayn was poisoned. We have to help him. I’m certain that my mother will be able to cure him.”


Theodas caught sight of the pendant hanging around Dayn’s neck, then looked to Arryn and noticed hers. “He’s welcomed by the nature spirits… by the gods, you are too! How…?”


“Later, Theodas, right now, he’s dying.”


Theodas nodded, then set his pack down, looking through and pulling out two potions. He handed one to Arryn, and the other, he carefully poured down Dayn’s throat. “That’ll keep him stable for a while yet, and you’ll get some mana back, Atria. If we take too long, you can heal him.”


Matthias nodded and said, "Atria, you know the drill, you'll ride with Kalie, we'll put him on the stretcher between Theodas's horse and mine." Arryn nodded and helped them as she could, then got into the saddle behind Kalie, though she nearly fell asleep while doing so.

 

[BookWyrm]

The group rode off to a haunting chorus. Wolves, all throughout the mountain pass, raised their voice in unison as the riders hurried towards their destination. Alongside them a ghost ran, matching the horses in pace with ease. It's body appeared faint and almost transparent, practically invisible against the snow, but the piercing blue eyes and darkened scar along it's left eye gave it's presence away to those who were perceptive enough to notice.


Arryn, hold strong.





Dayn groaned, his eyes barely opening. He heard the sound of hooves trampling the ground, something being drug, and wolves howling. He looked up into the sky, the pale moon still baring down it's face towards him as he slipped off into unconsciousness once again.