Chapter 160: War And Loss

Zahaine

This battle I thought was harder fought than the last. I heard Tali scream, and then we rushed to the structure. In the back of my mind was breaching that place, but then Tali ended up solving that for us. In her anger, she immediately ported to behind the enemy, and in this case that meant she ended up inside the structure, on those battlements. She yelled and was wielding her sword, and my 1st instinct was to trace to her side, so that’s what I did.

I hadn’t been the only one as the rest of my brothers all were there with me, then I saw the pack start to trace in as well, no doubt being able to follow Cerberus. We had shields, so they were not able to take us down with their magic, as they were some others, so we were able to begin to cut through them.

I honestly don’t know how it happened, I think someone was able to open the gates of the structure somehow, but the group was finally able to get in here and begin to fight them more one on one close combat. So, then it was swords, claws, and teeth, and less magic flying everywhere.

In the end I found myself surrounded by the bodies of gargoyles, dark protectors, animals of different species that had the mark of the evil taint, and I saw at least one bone witch. I would have to start burning everything in a moment, but I just stood and breathed in. I looked and made sure all of my brothers and Tali were alright. I relaxed when I saw each of them. I did notice a few injuries, but nothing too serious.

There were also the bodies of those that had fallen, Fae, and a few of our protectors. That was what was around me right now anyway. I have no idea if we had lost any of the dragons or Hosaith animals. I thought I had seen a couple fall and that is what had set Tali off to begin with. I found myself looking for her again, and when I found her she must have felt my eyes as she turned and met my gaze.

We didn’t say anything, we didn’t need to, all we needed right in that second was to know the other was not really injured and still standing. We could figure the rest out, I just needed to make sure my soul was still intact, and she was so my breathing eased.

I started to burn the bodies around me, and I saw a dragon land on the battlements not far away and begin to as well. Then the others who could help began to do so. I was surprised at the level of fire some of the gargoyle bodies required to burn, but eventually we got it all taken care of up here. I found my way to the stairs leading to the lower level, and again I had more work to do here. Eventually, I needed to take a break for a bit.

I saw Simion coming up to me so I waited for him, “You need to take a rest, you are expending yourself, so give your body a chance to recuperate before you start doing anymore.”

“Yeah, you caught me as I was looking for the door to do just that, where is everyone else?”

“Cerberus is checking on the pack, it seems they lost one, so that affects all of them. Then the goddesses and dragons are working on outside cleanup and dismantling spells or something. Tali is with the remaining Hosaith animals, as several of those were lost and she’s taking it rather hard.”

I nodded, “I’ll go and find her, just be with her for a bit.” He nodded and walked off to speak to Sihilich who I saw just walked into the hall.

I continued out the door and started looking around for Tali, finally spotting her a little ways away with a fallen Hosaith animal, and I could tell that she was very upset and I suspected crying, so I traced to her rather than take the time to walk. As I suspected when I got close she was weeping.

Without any thought I just took her into my arms and held her against my chest, letting her cry against me. As I looked around I saw several of the animals down, and no doubt Tali was feeling their loss. I knew she also carried guilt, because they had followed her to protect her. She’d told them they could stay behind, but they had followed her, honestly as Gia said they would.

So, with that in mind, no doubt their loss would hit her hard. I could see the sadness in that, and I felt bad they had died. I of course didn’t have the connection to them she did, so I couldn’t completely grasp how she felt, and we both knew that. So, the best thing I could honestly do was just what I was doing. Love her, hold her, and support her while she grieved.

“He was so sad, when I got that collar off of him, I could see it in his eyes, that whatever had happened had actually hurt his heart, and he was sad. He was so protective of me, that he was determined to follow me. I can imagine that they saw the biggest as the most threatening, so they took them out first, he’s who I saw fall right at the beginning. The female is gone as well, again a big target, so they took her out as well. I just wished I could have zapped them back home all happy and content.” I heard her sniffle.

“Well baby, I can’t imagine how you feel and I won’t pretend that I do. I would like to think that the last couple of days with you probably helped to heal those hurts that had been inflicted. Now, he no longer has to worry about any of that. I know it sucks ass though, and I am very sorry, baby.” She noded against me.

“Can you take care of them? I know you’ve been working on a lot already, and i had thought I should be close in case you needed to draw on the boost from me, but I had to come and check on all of these and help the ones I could.”

I nodded, “No problem sweetheart, I’ll take care of it.” So, I burned their bodies and she stayed and watched saying goodbye as she did so.

I could more clearly see what she’d been saying as we took care of the rest. The largest animals had been the targets. So, now that was all taken care of and we were recouping. Now, we had to get an accurate headcount, and then decide where we were going from here.