(Amaia)

(Please read the Author’s note)

Kacir darts in low, chain spinning. He wraps it around the creature’s forearm. With a vicious yank, he rips it off. Rahria is right beside him, ripping another throat out entirely with her fangs.

The creature viciously snarls, trying to shake Kacir and Rahria off, summoning purple electrical strikes. My shield protects them from his raging attacks.

Even though it’s being torn apart, the central head watches me. Always me. I feel something inside my belly that’s unsettling. Standing in front, I protect my companions.

We have to finish it before depleting our energy completely.

I close my eyes and open myself fully.

My elemental magic rushes into my sword. Both blades charge up at the edges, and electrical power sizzles on them.

The creature senses it. All remaining heads converge toward me at once, jaws wide, fangs dripping venom.

"Hold them!" I shout to my teammates.

Mintaka slams his axes together and drives a wave of ice outward, freezing three heads mid-lunge.

Kacir’s chain wraps another and wrenches it sideways. Rahria tackles one from above, dragging it down in a fury of claws and teeth.

I need to do it before it regenerates again.

The path clears.

The central body remains and the head has its eyes solely focused on me.

My wings beat behind me, lifting me into the air. Below me, the battlefield is chaos with my companions fighting it.

The monster roars and spreads its wings fully, trying to shield its chest from the attacks.

I swing my cackling sword and slice through one tattered wing.

Flames trail behind my blade as the membrane tears.

~Trrrrr!~

Mintaka attacks its wiggling legs, thrashing at them. The creature crashes down, earth splitting beneath the impact of its heavy body.

There, between the armoured plates, I find a gap. This has to be his weak point. The moment is here where I can kill it once and for all.

I gather everything in one final attempt. This has to work; my energy is at its limit, and any more use of it will result in me fainting.

All the elements spiral into the sword until it feels like I am holding a giant and not my sword. My vision narrows. My heartbeat becomes like the distant thunder.

This strike will end it, and it has to end it.

With one final glance at my expecting and tired companions, I thrust my sword forward.

The blade aimed straight for its heart or where I think it should be.

The creature lifts its face just in time when the top of the sword inches closer to the fatal point.

Its red eyes blaze and then they flicker almost in a plea. Like embers smothered by rain. The red drains away and his eyes turn.

Forest Green. Bright. Familiar.

Something flashes in them. These eyes, I can never forget these eyes, no one possesses eyes like that.

The specs of gold and blue that are dusted in the irises are nothing I have seen on another.

The world tilts for me, the sword slows and halts.

The monster’s expression changes in response to my reaction. Not rage or hatred but an immense amount of pain, I witness.

Confusion hits me, followed by recognition.

These eyes. I know these eyes.

I have known them since my childhood. Laughter made them brighter, the gold danced in them.

How can I ever forget?

My grip trembles. The blade hovers inches from its chest and yet I can’t pierce it.

My lips quiver. Could it be?

"Amaia, finish him. What are you waiting for?" Mintaka shouts from below. Still swinging his axe, cutting the limbs.

"Stop, stop, hurting him," I scream, tears make my vision blurry.

Confused, the three of them watch me.

"What? Why?" Rahria asks, bewildered but my gaze shifts to the monster, which I am confident is not a monster at all.

Suddenly, a voice booms around us.

"Kill the creature to retrieve the staff and win the Inter Guild Wars. Refusal to kill, showing mercy will result in automatic defeat. No winner will be announced this year if the creature is allowed to live."

I let my wings bring me down, the strength leaving me. The sword feels so heavy in my hand that I let it drop. It hits the ground with a loud clutter.

"I can’t kill him and I can’t let any of you hurt him as well." I turn towards my teammates with teary eyes. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Mintaka rushes towards me, holding me in his arms.

"Why?" He questions in confusion.

My gaze shifts to the creature, who has lowered itself on the ground, watching me with desperate eyes, whimpering in pain from the wounds we have given it.

"Because that’s not a monster. That’s a Fae," I say quietly but open the mindlink.

"I think it’s my brother, Aziel. The one I thought was killed by the Dread Army."

They gasp. The Mindlink gets flooded with their questions but my attention is towards the creature I believe to be my brother.

I let go of Min and move, slowly approaching him. My hand reaches, fingertips tremble as I touch the central face.

He closes his eyes, letting me touch. A single tear slips out of his haunted eyes.

Something extraordinary happens, something no one must have even imagined.

He begins to shift. The wings, the extra heads, the slithering snake-like legs everything disappears only to be replaced. Silvery blue wings, normal legs, silverish-golden hair and the face I remember from my dream.

Sunken cheeks, tattered clothes hang on his bony body. He seems to have been dragged through hell.

"Aziel!" His name leaves my mouth in a bare whisper. A dam of emotions seems to have broken on me as I rush towards his frail body and hug him.

"Is that really you?" I ask, crying. His arms come around me, holding me to his fragile body. All I feel are bones as if he has been starved for a long time.

"Amaia, you are alive," he whispers into my hair.

He recognises me, my brother recognises me. "You got your wings and look how you have grown up," he proudly says.

"And you too? I can’t believe it." I sniffle, unable to hold back my tears. I hold his face, my thumbs rub along the protruding bones.

What had they done to my brother? I am going to wreck them, all of them, the ones responsible for hurting him.

"Holiness, what’s happening?" Rahria cries out from behind me.

But, I am so lost in hugging Aziel. There are a trillion questions I need to ask him but the time is not on my side.

Gas sprays open from the ceiling, sending forth a white gas that begins to fill this space. My shield shoots out of me, trying to protect everyone but my energy is on its last legs. The gas is being ejected with such pressure that it swirls all around me.

"No, no, we need to remain conscious...," I cry out.

"Amaia..." Min’s broken voice comes from behind me as I hear several thuds.

They have fainted...we are going to be taken away, my brother is going to be snatched from me when I just found him.

No! No! I want to scream so loud, I want to pull my hair and just escape this hell with my brother.

Tightly I hold onto him. Not wishing to let go, never wishing to let go.

"Amaia, listen to me before we faint and I am taken away," Aziel says in a gaunt voice.

My head begins to feel dizzy...

Eyes refuse to remain open.

"Please, don’t... leave me....Aziel," my speech begins to break, I can hardly think.

"There are others, a lot of other Faes and other species too. They are experimenting on them. The monsters and creatures you face are real people and most of them can’t shift back. I have a woman with me, she is a powerful witch..."

That’s all I hear before my body sways and I faint along with my companions.