A Dream of Empire Ch. 016

"Yep. The moral, I think, is not to trust Catrionan sorceresses," he dryly jested.

"No! The moral, Talos of Evora, is not to blindly trust the first opinion that you find."

"I like mine better," he shrugged.

"Oh, I bet you-"

Talos held up a hand, forcing Alanna to halt her train of thought. Tatiana's heart dropped in her chest, and both she and Alanna rode up beside him.

"Do you hear that?" he whispered to them. Tatiana turned her worried visage and listened to the horizon, but she couldn't hear what had Talos so spooked. Was his hearing really that-

"Woooogah!"

She heard it then. It was a faint Orcish war cry, very far off and from the direction of Overton in front of them. Talos immediately urged his stallion to a gallop and set off towards it, and his sorceresses followed in his wake.

The cry only grew louder as the trio galloped over hill after hill, and through stream after stream. They rode with all haste towards the Orcish chants and towards the beating of drums, when by all accounts they should have been riding away. The perks of traveling with a man so unmalleable.

Only four miles later did they crest the hill overlooking Overton, a small village with a great stone bridge straddling a river gorge at its opposite end. Most of the village had already been put to the torch, and a massive, dreadful host of a thousand and two was visible on the opposite bank of the river. At the head of that army of ravenous green beasts was one far larger, black, and with metal armor strapped to his intimidating form.

The howls of the great black Orc at the head of the host echoed over the hills, guttural and terrifying. The rest of the host replied with a single, roaring word.

"Ish shagga oogah!" the black Orc bellowed.

"Woogah!"

Tatiana gulped and shivered with fear, and turned towards Talos for his decision. She figured a hasty retreat would be in order here, but it wasn't her choice to make.

"Tatiana," he said with his eyes fixed on the dreadful host. She rode up next to him.

"Yes?" she replied with heart aflutter.

"I need you to port Alanna back to Eastwatch and to the King. They've no idea this is coming. Can you do that?"

She gulped again, but nodded for him. He wasn't looking at her however, and so she vocalized the affirmative a second later.

"Yes. And what of us, Talos?" she breathlessly asked.

He nodded towards the village. "We're going to save those people," he answered far too confidently. "There are two prongs to the fork of time, Tatiana; the one where we stand idly by and watch as evil reigns supreme, and the one where we aren't cowards. I was never one to follow the former, but I need your help to ensure I see the next sun."

Yes, of course. He needs her help. She could... she could... she had no idea how she could help him fend off an entire army. She would have to learn, though, and learn fast.

"Get her there, now."

Tatiana cantered beside Alanna without delay, and placed a gloved hand on her outstreched arm. She looked ever so nervous and worried of Talos' unbendable will, and appeared as if she'd already accepted a loss in a telepathic argument with him. The perks of riding with a man so uncompliant.

"I'll keep him safe," Tatiana assured her with as much confidence as she could muster, Alanna giving her a trembling nod in reply. She shut her eyes and dreamt of a square keep flanked by watchtowers, and the enchantress was gone in an instant. Tatiana rode next to Talos, who's eyes never left the chanting, roaring host of green.

"What do we do, Talos? What do I do?"

He pointed towards the edge of the village, towards the lone stone bridge spanning the deep chasm at the opposite end. "We need to destroy that bridge. The next crossing is twenty miles downstream according to our map, far enough to give Alanna the time that she needs. As for you... I'm sorry, Tatiana; I've no idea what spells you're capable of casting. I wish I paid attention."

She shook her head. "I-its no matter. I'll follow your lead."

"Ruining the bridge is in the realm of possibility, right? Like you did the Alessia?" he asked of her. She nodded. "Alright. Remember, only the weak-minded aren't afraid before a battle. And if we get separated, port yourself to safety before looking for me."

She nodded after a moment of thought, but had already decided not to follow his instructions of cowardice. Talos willed his stallion to a gallop, towards the burning houses of Overton and towards an unknown fate, and Tatiana unquestioningly followed him there.

"Ish shagga oogah!"

"Woogah!"

The screams of those living through a nightmare grew ever louder as they neared. Men, women, children, all fled from the dreadful host behind them, carrying nothing but those items most precious to them. Many Orcs had already entered the village without formation or any sense of order, and were burning and killing what they could lay their bestial hands on.

Talos drew his sword one-hundred yards from the first ring of houses, and shifted his gallop towards a peasant family fleeing a pair of roaring Orcs. He galloped past the peasants and leaned from his saddle to slash down the first, and continued his charge towards the town.

Tatiana, having no method of directly combating an Orc, contemplated which spell to use to exterminate the second - just before a crossbow bolt slammed through it's neck, and it fell to the ground gurgling it's defiance. Tatiana had her horse trample over it and followed after Talos.

She then remembered her role should be one of supporting Talos, a man far more powerful than any summoned demon she could possibly muster. She signed the Invocation of Nehara to conjure an illusory host of twelve riders around the man, and had half of them break off towards the edges of the village, hoping to draw the attention of the two-dozen beasts in front of Talos.

Her deception was a failure, likely due to Talos' war cry as he charged towards the Orcs. All turned towards him and the six apparitions flanking him, and bellowed a cry of their own as Talos lept from his stallion to gut the first of the group. He pirouetted through the next, side-stepped another's swing, and took the head from another still. Tatiana signed her next illusion spell, crossing her forefingers together to create a 'T'; her own personal incantation, designed specifically for him.

Talos' form soon blinked out of existence into a plume of black dust, then reappeared again in another when he struck at the next Orc with a horizontal slash, only to disappear again. His being now straddled two separate strands of time, plunging through the aetherius every time he swung his sword, but he wouldn't be aware of the travel besides the clouds of smoke popping from his body. He blinked into existence to rip the guts from an Orc, disappeared mid-spin, and felled another when he returned. Talos' stallion returned to the fray and knocked down a wailing Orc just before Tatiana had Mundus take it away, by transmuting the dirt beneath the Orc into an ever-shifting quicksand. All twenty soon had their flames of life extinguished, or wished that theirs was; Talos placed a hand on his horse without delay, and Tatiana broke the spell she'd cast on him. She wasn't entirely sure of the results of riding on horseback while traversing timelines.

She turned her attention towards the bridge, ever-closer but still a thousand thousand miles away. More Orcs were traversing the small stone bridge in an ever-growing stream of horrid, muscular green, and Tatiana had her riders charge them. They wouldn't do much, but it should halt their surge for a confused moment at any rate. Talos charged that way next, but not before exterminating a naked Orc performing unmentionables to a poor, poor peasant woman with a clean cut through it's neck.

The pair needed a distraction, Tatiana knew; Orcs were now clambering through windows and doors to either side of them to halt their advance. She extended two fingers, then four, then two again, and swished the sign of Rho through the air in front of her. A red portal, accompanied by the most ear-piercing, shrill squawk this side of the Liminal Gate formed above her.

"Beezlebore," Tatiana shouted to the gigantic red bird that apparated above her head, thirty times larger than an ordinary cardinal, "the green ones want to hear you sing! They want to see your dance!"

"Squawwwwk!" Beezlebore happily agreed. He landed on Mundus with a ground-shaking crash as Tatiana rode away, and created miniature earthquakes as he hopped around the burning street, dancing as well as his proportionally-tiny bird feet would allow. Tatiana wasn't pursued as she chased after Talos, but she demanded the world create a five-foot barrier of dirt behind her with a swish of her hand, just in case. The world rumbled, the mundane trembled, and the wall appeared as ordered.

Talos was now dismounted once again, still fifty yards from the bridge, with a limitless host of green between him and it. Tatiana once more invoked her personal spell with a crossing of her forefingers, and Talos resumed his unknown journey through time as he danced through countless hapless opponents. Her illusory riders weren't doing either of them any good at this point, so she destroyed them. She created a dozen more Talos' instead, Talos' which appeared as if they were popping in and out of reality just like he was.

Tatiana couldn't believe it; she was actually laughing in the midst of so much death and bloodshed. She cackled towards the heavens and raised her hands skyward, releasing a dozen shimmering orbs of light to crash down onto enemies left and right to confuse them. She felt as if she had infinite power; with so many strings around her, and passionate ones at that, she had an unlimited source of will to draw upon. She knew sorceresses were feared in battle for this very reason, but this... this...

A trio of roaring Orcs charged at her from a crumbling inferno of a building to her right; she casually pulled the building down with an unseen hand, toppling it onto them as they ran. Beezlebore squawked somewhere behind her, and squawked happily at that, likely due to the existence of so many unwilling dance partners. She shut her eyes and ordered her summon to fly forward to support Talos, who was spinning through Orc after Orc as he danced through time and plumes of black dust.

"Squawwwwk!" Beezlebore joyously greeted as he flew just above her head and towards the fray. Tatiana giggled as he crashed to Mundus and hopped and bounced between dance partners, his bright red feathers glimmering in the sunlight as he squawked and moved. Beezlebore would never hurt a fly, of course, but damn was he doing his job! Tatiana knew he would get extra pets today. She charged forward atop her black mare towards Talos' position, which was now threatened to be overrun from three sides.

She considered her limitless amount of options to prevent that very thing from occuring. With so much power at her fingertips, she could conjure just about anything... and so she decided on a symphony. An ear-shattering, omni-directional symphony of trumpets, laid in a circle around Talos' position. Tears of joy formed in her eyes as she conducted Revan's Sixth Concerto with her fingers, played at a decible fifteen-times louder than was possible by the mundane. The horde around them dropped their weapons and clutched their ears with both hands, but their efforts wouldn't matter at all. Tatiana demanded they listen. They must hear her music. Well, all of them except for the Orcs in a twenty-foot circle around Talos of course.

Tatiana laughed. Tatiana cried. Tatiana brought the hells down to Mundus as she opened portals to the Great Wastes of Isbrygga, where it always thundered no matter the season. Blinding purple thunderbolts rained from above all around her and Talos, and she cackled with joy as they zapped Orc after Orc with their immense power. She had to disable her portals to the north ten seconds later, though, lest she get tired from sustaining so many.

Tatiana suddenly drooped in her saddle, but kept herself steady with a deep breath and another spell cast towards her heart. She blinked her eyes awake as the music from the trumpets around her started to die off.

"Hey! The bridge!" a man shouted at her as he tugged at her leg. Right!

She lept from her mare, stumbling, and fell to her knees. Talos pulled her up by the sleeve and shoved her towards the stone bridge, a bridge which separated her from a thousand and two Orcs slowly lifting themselves to their feet and picking up their crude weapons of war.

She shut her eyes and knelt atop the blood-soaked stone when she reached the bridge. She placed her hands on top of one another, pressing her will into it. The bridge was new; just recently built during the previous year, and by quality stonemasons at that. She took a deep breath and muttered a single word as chaos reigned around her.

"Obliterate."

Tatiana shivered as the stone beneath her cracked, crumbled, and fell apart, just before all the world suddenly went black.

-=-=-

"Squawwwwk!"

Tatiana groaned in pain as the world slowly returned to her. She was on her side and laying atop an unknown hill as a shirt-less Talos worriedly looked on her. He shook her and bit his lip.

"Come on Tatiana, wake up..."

"Mmh... Talos..."

Talos' frown disappeared. He sighed with relief instead, and fell to his knees in front of her. "Tatiana! What can I do? What do you-"

"Squawwwwk!"

"What do you need, Tatiana?" he asked again with a wince. She shook her head and tried sitting up, but felt horribly dizzy. And tired. And... she forced herself to her knees, turned, and expelled everything in her stomach into the grass. Talos held her hair as she coughed and sputtered for another minute, all the while her giant bird flew in a circle overhead, creating massive shadows and uttering that ear-piercing, mind-numbing-

"Squawwwwk!"

"Can you shut him up?" Talos asked of her, rubbing her back as she fell onto her butt. She gave a tired nod.

"Beezlebore," Tatiana croaked, lazily raising a hand into the air. The bird crashed into the grass beside her, his head twitching left-and-right as he looked her over. She patted one of his wings.

"You were really good back there, Beezlebore. Everyone loved your dance. You're the best dancer and singer in all the worlds I've ever visted. You can return, now."

"Squawwwwk!" he squawked one last time. Beezlebore's entire being was suddenly engulfed by flame, and his body was hastily incinerated into nothingness until only a single red feather remained, floating on the wind. The feather blinked out of existence a second later.

Talos sighed. "Thank the fucking gods. You know that fucking bird followed us the entire ten miles out of town, right?" he told her in his 'I'm definitely not amused' voice. Tatiana giggled, wiping her mouth as she did so.

"Yes, he does that," she smiled. "You only need to tell him he's the best and pet him. That... that completes the contract. Believe it or not, no one in his world ever pays him any compliments," she giggled again.

"Somehow, I believe you," Talos grinned. Tatiana laughed again, and finally took a gander at their immediate vicinity. She didn't recognize it.

"Talos, how did we get here?" she asked him as she scanned their surroundings. Talos pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

"You were out as soon as you destroyed the bridge back there. But, oh man, you fucking destroyed it. The entire thing collapsed from end-to-end, taking fifty of those bastards in the process. Anyway, then Spirit came along," Talos nodded to the horse, who whinnied, "and got us both to safety. The Orcs behind us were scrambling to follow of course, but gave up about a mile outside of town when they couldn't catch up. But man. Man! I feel like I have sixteen years again. Tatiana, you were absolutely, positively incredible back there, and... how are you feeling, by the way?"

"I'm..." she trailed off as she thought on his ask. She was dizzy, her throat was sore, she had a mind-splitting headache, every bone in her body was feeling some level of pain, and she smelled horribly of Orc's blood. Yet...

"I'm great, Talos. Never have I felt so alive. Gods. You were... I don't even remember. Terrifying. Amazing. The most spectacular warrior I've ever laid eyes upon or ever read of. Talos... we just took on an army."

"You're damn right we did!" Talos exclaimed with a pointed finger. "But don't you even start on me. You were fucking... you were far more impressive. I've never seen such magics in all my years. Nothing even comes close," he declared with a wave of his hand.

She beamed at him and his sincere compliment, then tried to push herself to her feet. Talos helped lift her, and they stared happily at one another for a moment when she found her footing; one heart-thumping moment where nothing mattered but him and her. They embraced just after, leaping into one another's arms. Neither soul muttered a word for another moment or ten, until Tatiana stumbled upon the realization that they were missing a party member.

"Where's my horse?" she eventually asked. Talos released her, shaking his head.

"I'm... sorry, Tatiana. She didn't make it out. Hells, we barely did. Don't worry, I'll let you ride mine," he said, losing his enthusiasm. Tatiana pouted, and they hugged eachother again for another infinitely-long moment.

"And we didn't save those people, did we?" Tatiana murmured into his naked shoulder.

"No," he softly replied. "Maybe a few. But, what's most important that we tried. We can't save everyone, Tatiana. Besides, just look at the whole painting; we just prevented two-thousand Orcs from crossing into Solais proper. That's gotta count for something, right?"

She nodded into his shoulder. He was right, of course. She eventually released him so they could get going and leave their troubles behind, and only then noticed the blood on her glove.

"Oh no! Talos, you're hurt!"

"I-it's nothing, really," he assured her as he twisted around, displaying a foot-long cut through his upper back. Tatiana gasped. She felt woozy again just looking at it.

"Don't you dare move, Talos of Evora. Let me mend you."

"But we gotta-"

"Shh," Tatiana shushed him as she brought her hands to his back. "This won't take long at all." It wasn't a deep cut, fortunately, though she did feel that much more unstable once she'd disinfected and treated the wound two minutes later.

"There. Just one more story to tell," Tatiana smiled as she patted his back. Talos thanked her, and helped her to his horse when the matter was resolved. He didn't bother putting his shirt back on. Heck, he probably didn't have a single article of clothing that wasn't stained by blood anymore.

The pair soon made their way south as the sun set over the western hills, smiling, loving, and complimenting one another for the entirety of their short journey until nightfall.

-=-=-

Tatiana and Talos were fortunate enough to find a small cave just as dusk set in, and not a minute after Tatiana dismounted was the couple in one another's arms once more. To her, it seemed as if everything between them had changed. Sure, she knew that they were perfect for each other before, but now she had undeniable proof from the gods that it was true. More than that, Talos now knew as well. He couldn't keep his hands off of her, nor she could of him. And as they stared into each other's eyes, they couldn't resist a kiss that had been months in the making.