Chapter 5: A night to remember.

Once everyone seems to be sleeping, Black Raven gets up from her bed and checks the windows. Oddly enough there does not appear to be a way to open them without breaking them. Moving forward to the door, it seems to be locked which gives her a chuckle. "No wizard is going to keep a Raven from snooping around." She takes her lockpicking tools from her belt and opens the lock quickly enough. As she opens the door she looks upon the spiked back of a monstrous creature laying on the ground in the hallway. It seems to have caught her scent and slowly it rises up onto its bend legs, looking over its hunched back at Black Raven. The piercing gaze of those blood red eyes giving her pause, she reaches for a cup on a table near her as the creature growls at her. "Easy there.. this isn’t real.. just an illusion.." She throws the cup at the beast which seems to just anger it. It leaps at her but she is quick to close the door, its claws digging into the thick wood. "Oh shit, that thing is real!" Black Raven struggles to breathe as she locks the door and barricades it with a cabinet.

The beast seems to have withdrawn however, and can no longer be heard.

As she catches her breath, she notices Pandora is awake and meets her judgemental gaze.

"It’s to be expected a wizard would have some defence against thieves in the night. Is it that you can’t fight that urge to steal, or are you just trying to piss off that wizard on purpose?"

Black Raven moves to sit on her own bed. "Come on, it’s a challenge. I never stole anything from a noteable wizard before. Few thieves can say they did. And I bet he has plenty of magical trinkets and jewelry that will be worth a lot of money. Besides, you seem to have strong urges to throw yourself into battle. I’d call it silly, but you’d call it a challenge so we aren’t that different then, are we?"

"I was born a warrior, so I belong on the battlefield. You where born a thief like your sisters, so I presume the challenge calls to you. But we aren’t here to fight or to steal. We are here for Celidia so that she might learn some controll of her magic, and maybe Morbius might find out how he got to be a half dragon."

Black Raven glances a moment at Celidia, who is sleeping peacefully in her own bed.

"Come on, she’s completely helpless. She is bound to cry when someone so much as gives her a mean glance. She just needs to toughen up."

Pandora stands up and moves over to Celidia, watching over her.

"There’s a war coming.. You have seen it yourself. Black knights and necromancers.. the dead are rising. While Celidia may be the weakest link in our group when it comes to mentality, you know damn well that she is more powerfull than any of us. We will need her in that war."

"Sure she has power, but its wasted on her! Even if she could controll it, she would still be scared of hurting anyone."

"Well I am sure she will be less restrained against the undead.. and personly I’d rather have a powerfull wizard at my side who is not some manipulating arrogant bastard like the one upstairs. Celidia we can reason with, she does consider us her friends. Even you."

Black Raven chuckles. "Seriously? Gods, she is so pathedic."

Pandora frowns at her. "The best defence against mages is another mage. And I imagine Alanir is much more powerfull than that necromancer we faced. Before our trip is over, you will be quite happy to have her consider you a friend when she saves your life."

Black Raven waves her hand dismissively. "Eh, for now she is more likely to blow us up than any other mage. But don’t worry, I’ll catch some sleep for now. Be a dear and kill that beast in the hallway if it manages to get in."

"Sure thing."

Soon, all three of them are asleep, but they all seem to get quite a memorable dream..

Celidia’s dream.

Celidia finds herself buying groceries from an old man, on the market of a small village. She is not alone, there is a small boy and two little girls with her. As she looks down and smiles back at them, she knows they are her own. Carrying the groceries together in a basket, they stroll back home under the clear blue sky.At home she plays with her children and bakes a pie for them, while using simple hand gestures to make a broom sweep the floor. Bruce comes home from hunting, carrying a boar. He kisses her as he lays it on the kitchen table. Her dream ends with all of them having dinner together as a happy family.

Pandora’s dream.

Trying to look through the thick fog, Pandora can hear the clashing of swords and cries for battle. Dark figures strike at her, she fights them off with ease but can hardly see them. She kills all those who come at her,  none can best her which gives her a sense of pride. Suddenly an armored knight strikes at her from behind, she can almost feel the slash at her back. Turning around in anger, she knocks his helmet off with her counterattack, and recognizes Garrick Firesnake. "Why do you fight against me? You are my friend."

Garrick’s bloodied face looks determined at her, his eyes filled with hate.

"Someone has to stop you."

Pandora looks at him in surprise, as the fog clears up she can now see the dead bodies of kings and queens laying at her feet, as well as familiar faces of her former mentors and warriors she has fought beside in the past. Even Bruce lays amongst them.

"He looked up to you.. he respected you.. he knew he could never defeat you, but he fought you nonetheless. But your bloodlust, your thirst for battle.. it has no bounds it seems."

Pandora drops her sword as she falls to her knees as she realises what she has become.

Two more figures approach, which she recognizes as Morbius and Celidia.

Morbius seems mad already, Celidia fearfull at first, but her fear turning to rage as she sees the lifeless body of Bruce. "Bruce!! No, you monster!" With tears in her eyes she charges fire and lightning in her hands, Pandora can only look back in tears at her as she sits ready to accept her fate. Suddenly she is shocked by a knife in her back, and stares straight into Black Raven’s cold eyes when she turns her head. "From me, with pleasure." As she feels a second stab, Pandora screams and wakes in a cold sweat.

Her heart is still pounding as she looks around the dark bedroom, relieved to realise it was just a dream. "That.. should never become reality.. Never." Calming down, she lays her head back down on her pillow and soon returns to sleep.

Black Raven’s dream.

Black Raven finds herself on the rooftops after a succesfull burglary. Running off with her filled pockets, a low growling sound causes her to look back but she sees nothing. Looking left as she runs, she only sees an old man behind a window. She hears glass shattering to her right and when she turns her head she looks staight into the red eyes of the beast she saw earlier, she falls down the roof as the beast bites her neck and claws at her. As she hits the street, she wakes up with a gasp, and looks at the door.

She quietly takes her small crossbow from her pack, and lays her short swords, daggers and darts ready, laying on her bed with crossbow in hand as she keeps her eyes on the door.

Next Chapter: New Chapter