Book 1 - Chapter 2.6
When she finally caught up, Sol found the town square was empty save for only Nyx. She stood defiantly in the centre, surrounded by the semi obscuring mist. Her hands were at her sides, but lightning still sparked from them and created a golden halo that lit up the hazy air around her body.
"I'm here, you monsters!!" Nyx shouted. "I'm here!! So come and get me!!!"
Just as Sol opened her mouth to shout at Nyx to come back and call off her suicidal plan, the first shadow appeared. It stalked out of an alley on the far side of the square. Its shape sharpened in definition as it neared Nyx, its lantern eyes trained on her. Another followed from a different alley, and then another.
Sol counted five and her breath hitched when the sixth clicked past her out of the alley she was hiding in. It didn't even register her presence, but like the others was focused only on the mage.
Nyx flicked her eyes towards the monster closest to Sol and with the same swift motion as before, blasted it to ash with a single bolt. Packages of foods that the creature ate earlier flew from its remains and scattered across the cobblestones with soft thumps.
Nyx's eyes caught Sol's and she shot her a glare that said, "I told you to stay" before she turned he attention back to the crowd of shadows that had grown to nine strong.
The monsters kept their distance from her, wavering on the edge of the square. Their mouths were open and threatening but there was no fire. Only mist drifted from their gaping maws as they maintained their threat display.
When Nyx stepped forward the shadows shifted back. Her confident smile returned as she lifted her hands again and shot three more bolts of lightning at the shadowy mass in quick succession, turning three more of them to ash and stolen food.
But her fourth bolt only made it halfway across the square as a weak crackle, and Sol watched in dismay as Nyx dropped to her knees, shaking and panting with her hands clutching her chest.
The monsters advanced on Nyx with slow and deliberate steps until they loomed over her. With all their glowing eyes trained on her it looked like she was under a spotlight. They let out crackling barks that sounded almost like laughter and their mouths lit up with flame.
Sol felt the scorching heat of the inferno on her back as she dashed out from her hiding spot, scooped Nyx up in her arms, and tumbled into an alley on the opposite side of the square.
They both briefly gasped for breath before Sol lifted Nyx in her arms again and kept running deeper into the network of side streets. She took narrower paths just as Nyx had before, hoping that the same trick would work twice.
In time the roars behind them diminished and she was able to stop in an alcove nestled in between some nicer looking buildings. Sol wheezed as she caught her breath and wished she had her canteen with her and not left it back in the alley with her discarded sack. Her body tingled with adrenaline.
Nyx thrashed in her grasp and Sol released her. The mage pushed her away from her completely and stood up so that she was looking down at Sol.
"You lied to me!!" She said. She was shaking, her hair was already more messy than it was before, and her clothes were askew from their rough escape.
Sol, still breathing heavily but not so much than she couldn't answer said, "What?"
"You didn't give me your real name! You don't trust me! Our pact should have been enough to slay twice as many of those monsters, and I only got five!"
"I don't know what you're talking about. That's my real name." Sol licked her lips in irritation and thirst "Also I don't know how much trust you can expect out of someone you've coerced into fighting walking nightmares!"
"You don't need to fight!" Nyx cried. "You wouldn't need to do anything besides stay out of the way while I took care of everything!"
"Well it looks like you can't, so what do we do now?"
Nyx ran her hands through her hair, brushing it out of the way of her eyes. "I-I'll try to think of something, but we're running out of time. Eventually they'll just burn down the whole town for the chance of killing us in the blaze."
"Well that's no good." She rubbed her neck thought. "Maybe it's time we head out to the fields?"
"No."
"Alright fine." Sol took a moment to check the status of her bow, still slung over her shoulder and undamaged despite the tumble it took with her.
"You know I've never seen someone do what you've done." She said softly as she counted her arrows.
"Not a lot of people have."
"Have you fought these things before?"
Nyx looked down, but didn't meet Sol's eyes. "Yes."
"How many did you kill."
"Only one."
"Well, five is definitely an improvement!" Sol leaned forward to catch her eye and gave her a reassuring smile.
Nyx caught Sol's eye and almost let a smile cross her face in return, but it was overtaken by her standard frown. "It should have been more." She took a few steps away from Sol. "You should have been enough."
Sol ignored the tension in her shoulders and neck.
"Well turns out I'm not." Sol got to her feet. "So you're stuck with me until you find someone who is."
Nyx gave her a withering look in response.
"How are you feeling?" Sol asked. "How long do you have to rest before you can use that lightning again?"
"Like I did before? I'm not entirely sure. Around an hour? I would have to test it again to see."
"Is it only lightning that can destroy those things?"
"No." Nyx shook her head. "It's magic, and it can be any kind."
Sol raised her eyebrows in recognition. "Magic? So what you were doing is magic?"
"Yes." Nyx's eyes alighted back on her. "Do you know what it is?"
"Yeah I know magic. I grew up surrounded by it, but nothing that looked like what you did. The witches do magic. Folks will call it something else, like enchantment or more commonly, witchcraft. It's not." Sol waved her hand trying to describe what Nyx did. "Raw. It needs things to attach itself to like talismans and brooms and other stuff."
Sol paused in thought.
"So... if it's magic you need to kill these things, it doesn't matter how massive the show is?"
Nyx nodded her head, watching Sol closely.
"So if you were able to, say, enchant a bow and some arrows with a bit of magic, and someone shot one of those things with said enchanted arrow, they would go poof?"
"I... suppose... Yes. Yes I could do that."
"Good!" Said Sol. The sky above the buildings turned orange and an explosive roar echoed out from the town centre. "Because I think we've just ran out of time."