Gvera Cross by Blackheart Ravensoul (uplifting books for women TXT) 📖

I thought. " she said.

"What happened?"

"The one who did this, used a human as a sacrifice."

" A sacrifice?"

Now he noticed all the blood in the ground.

" As I thought the gate is still open, the sacrifice was used to amplify their power and to lure creatures from the other side, the more creatures come the wider the gate opens, the wider the gate opens the more creatures can enter our world. " She explained."

But you destroyed the body." "

It won't close the gate, only a necromancer knows how to do that. "

" So, you mean a creature can appear here at any time?!" the boy panicked

"It's day now, we should be safe. One more thing, the woman that was murdered had the mark of the Order on her, most likely the witch of the Order in charge of the gate. "

He looked at he confused

" The Order?"

" I don't know much about it. Just an old legend my dad told me: once long ago at a time of darkness and war five wizards formed an alliance to save their people, they created the law that we must follow and started the first clans, then their students took over as peace keepers, then their students and so on, until this day."

" I see. Then this necromancer is the Orders problem." The magician said.

" Yes, but what if they don't know about what is going on?! If we could find a way to get in touch with them and warn them. .."

"We could ask around the villages nearby, but first we need to get out of this forest." He suggested.

Leaving the gate behind they headed south. With night approaching and untold dangers lurking in the dark they rushed to find a way out of the woods. Only stopping to stock up on water in a nearby stream. While filling up her water bag the witch noticed something in the water, it was a white sea shell bracelet. Gvera remembered the dead woman in the circle had one just like it on her wrist.

" I think they came this way" she showed her finding to Solean. "Maybe she lived nearby, being the gate keeper and all."

They continued going in the same direction as before. The sun had already began its descend into the shadows of the forest. The exhaustion of the days adventure began to catch up to the duo. They began to lose hope of finding a way out before sunset. Solean suggested looking for a suitable tree for the night. The forest had gotten much thinner and the ground wasn't a smooth as before. Now they were struggling to climb a rather large hill.

Finally reaching the top they stopped to catch their breath. In the light of the setting sun, through the trees they saw what looked like roofs.

"A village!" Solean shouted happily " it isn't very far, I thing we could get there before nightfall."

Gvera nodded. So the two ran down the hill trying to beat the approaching darkness.

Hidden Power

 

Their joy was short lived. It was still bright when they reached the village. The stone houses with straw roofs stood silent in the light of the setting sun. There were no signs of people in the street, no barking dogs, no sound of chickens clucking or cows mooing. All the usual village sounds were replaced with eerie silence. Solean turned to his companion:

" Gvera" he whispered

She only nodded confirming what both of them assumed.

"Do you think we could cross the town until night fall?" he asked. "

"There might be creatures here , we should hurry. They could be hiding in the houses, any place that's dark"

They walked forward with caution. They didn't get far when the bracelet started glowing. Stopping in their tracks they looked around. Nothing but quiet emptiness all around them. Regardless Gvera drew her enchanted dagger preparing for a fight. He followed her example and prepared his flute, thou not sure if it would word on something from Death. Slowly the two began walking again. They had reached the middle of town by the time the crystal turned red. They heard a roaring howl from behind one of the houses.

"Here it comes" Gvera said" but the sun isn't down yet, it might be weakened."

The creature emerged , it seemed dazed, slowly it walked towards the girl.

"Gvera, cover your ears, I'll try to confuse it."

The magician played his flute trying to paralyze it, thou the creature didn't have any visible ears. The necromorph stopped in its tracks and it seemed to be sniffing the air. The witch used this opportunity and ran towards it, stabbing it in the side with the dagger. The beast howled and spat fire at the girl. She jumped back to dodge it but fell. Somehow the creature sense it and lunged at her, she tried to roll to the side but it pinned her down with its giant paw. The necromorph was preparing to unleash a torrent of flame at her face when it suddenly howled in pain and turned around. Gvera jumped back on her feat, it seems that Solean threw his flute at the thing, and now the creature was approaching him. Trying to save her comrade she jumped on it's back and stabbed it, embedding the dagger as far as it would go. The Necromorph howled and stood on its hinder legs trying to shake her off. The sorceress rolled off to the ground but the dagger remained stuck in in its back.

Her head was slightly spinning from the fall and she blinked to get her vision back to normal. Solean was trying to get the thing to attack him again. Trying to get up Gvera noticed something she had never seen before. There were white threads, like spider webs coming from her finger tips and connecting to the creature where she touched it.

"I wonder if I could tie it up." She thought.

She ran around the monster a few times. The white thread wrapping around it's feet, where it touched the creature it seemed to burn it. The necromorph fell to the ground howling in pain and slowly melted into a pile of blackened bones.

"What did you do?" Solean asked, panting from running around from the creatures fire.

"I tied it up. Didn't you see it?".

"See what?" he looked at her confused

" The thread" she looked at her hands, but it was gone.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine" she said" thou it was really weird. There were these white things like spider webs, and these black ones from the creature stretching into the forest almost like strings. I didn't see it all at first but when I did beating that thing was kind of easy. "

Solean said nothing, it made her feel slightly worried.

"Do you think the necromancer will notice that we killed that thing?" he finally spoke

" Hard to say, he might just go back to the gate and summon another one."

"Right. Are there any more of them here?"

Gvera shook her head, the bracelet wasn't showing any signs of danger.

" I fear we will have to spend the night here" he said" it's really gotten dark, and traveling at night when there might more of hose monsters out there doesn't sound wise."

The girl agreed. They decided to stay in a nearby house, first examining every corned to make sure it was safe they barricaded the front door with some furniture and closed the wooden window panes.The night was cold, but they lit no fire, fearing the light and smell of burning wood might attract unwanted attention. They sat in silence eating bread and cheese they found in the house. Gvera thought about what happened. Magicians used snakes as the symbol of their magic, wizards named their clans after otters, weasels , raccoons and similar animals. Gvera's father's clan was called The Brown Weasel. She wondered if there was a magic associated with spiders. The silver spider necklace had belonged to her mother she was sure of it. Who was her mother? A witch like her? Or maybe she was whatever the spider is .

"Spiders and spider webs, what kind of magic is it?" she thought to herself.

"Solean, can ask you something?" "

Sure, what is it?"

"All magicians use snakes as their symbol?"

"As far as I know, the familias all have a snake in their crest. The most powerful familia in all of Kalmer has a cobra in their crest.The familia I used to belong to use a Viper as their symbol. Since I got kicked out that makes me a anguidae, a half snake half lizard. That how all the outcast all branded. "

"I see, and have you ever heard of somebody using a spider as their symbol, as a magical symbol.?"

" Can't say I have, but that may be because there aren't other magical communities on Kalmer except for magicians."

" Right, and I've only know the wizards of my clan my whole life. It must some brand of magic unknown to us."

"Right, any ways I'm tired, I think I'll go bed." He said getting up.

"It is pretty late, I'll go too."

They went to the second floor, for safety they stayed in the same room. There two small beds in the opposite sides of the room. Solean chose the one by the window and seemed to fall right asleep. Gvera on the other hand stayed awake thinking. Her father never spoke about her mother, she always thought because it was painful, maybe something bad happened to her, maybe she just left him and ran off with somebody else, maybe she was dead. But maybe there was another reason. If her mother was related to the spider magic, then Gvera was too. Her father mentioned several other brands of magic but not the spider, whatever it stood for, but if her mother was a spider he had to have known. Yet he said nothing. Maybe the spider stood for something bad, maybe he was just ashamed of talking about it. So many questions in her head that demanded answers. Part of her was glad that this little adventure happened, not because innocent people were being hurt, no, as much as it scared her at the same time everything was happening so fast it barely left any time to feel homesick or depressed. When her journey first began a week ago she felt like it was all a bad a dream and she will wake up home in her bed. With nothing to occupy her mind but grief she wandered the woods aimlessly. 

She paused her thoughts for a moment, the bracelet was giving off a faint glow, but it soon disappeared without changing color.When she finally fell asleep she dreamed of tall snowy mountains. There was a storm in an ice covered valley. Five figures of people in black emerged, their faces hidden by large hoods, they stood before a cave at the top of the mountain then one by one vanished in it's darkness. She noticed one of the men had a red snake on the back of his cloak. Then dream began to disappear and she fell into a deep sleep.