Dedicated to Parogar. His writing speed is insane. 

---

Chapter 11 - Planning Ahead

---

The next three days saw the Silverborn hounded by constant attempts to slow them down while the nearing shadow cycle swung ever closer above their necks. 

The old highway was, as promised, infested with demons. The stone road they followed was long since overgrown, having been surrendered to the wilds over fifty years ago. If she looked hard enough, Skye could make out the abandoned ruins of a town's outskirts, usually ghostly pale walls long since claimed by vines between the trunks of new trees. 

There was one bonus to the demonic activity. Had they not taken to the area, Skye suspected the vegetation wouldn't have been held at bay over the years enough for the Silverborn horses to make it through. 

Movement shook the undergrowth, followed by a high pitched shriek only a demon could produce. 

The shout went out. "Left side, imps!" 

Skye remained stationary and gripped the hilt of her sheathed dagger while the Silverborn turned to face the threat--a small group of imps attempting a charge. Just like the last one and the one before that, it took them barely five minutes to dispatch but even so, it was time they couldn't spare. Every five minutes it took to deal with imps that would only later respawn to harass them again was five minutes less they had to reach Alguarde before the shadow cycle. When the attacks were coming day and night nearly every half an hour with no set pattern or prediction, it added up in more than just hours. 

Skye could see the dark lines forming under the eyes of every Silverborn, hear the wistful edge to their words as they conversed quietly among themselves. 

They're tired. 

She suspected she was little different--she had the beginnings of a headache to confirm it--but it was hard to continue sleeping when the squeal of an imp ripped through your dreams even if she wasn't the one on watch nearly every night. 

Tayne's horn sounded, and the Silverborn set off at a walk once more. For such a large group, they ate away at the distance, the quick-step pace of their horses leading Skye to suspect the animals possessed the endurance and speed of their human counterparts, if not more. 

One of the horses riding in a trio stopped, her rider turning in the saddle to search the crowd behind him as the other two continued on ahead. 

The sandy coloured hair told Skye it was Luke even before he grinned and started keeping pace with her and Jesse. 

"To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" she asked, already suspecting the answer. 

Luke attempted a bow in the saddle and nearly fell off. "Apparently I'm a nuisance, so I'll be staying near you two for a while! Just think, you both get the joy of putting up with my pesky self!" 

Skye gave him a small smile, appreciating the way he'd put 'I've been told to babysit you'. "I think your Advisor takes the prize for biggest pest in this forest." 

Luke's face darkened. "If the prize is a one night camping trip alone with a demon, I'll be happy to give it to him myself," he said. The words met with Jesse's horrified face. Luke just shrugged. "You heard what he said about Skye, Jess. He deserves whatever painful end he meets."

Skye ran intervention. "Do the demons still want a taste of elf?" she asked quickly. 

"Yep," said Luke with a sigh. "They're still ignoring us, trying to break through and get to you, though I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish."

"And you still won't let me help?" Skye asked hopefully. 

Luke scrunched his mouth and closed an eye, looking pained. "I know you want to, Skye, but even if you can defend yourself--"

"Which I can."

"--Which you can," added Luke, though he didn't sound sure. "If we put you on watch duty, that section of the line would take all the stress. With you in the middle, it spreads it out a little better."

Skye clucked her tongue. "I don't like being useless."

Luke smiled. "No one does, except maybe Donovan. He enjoys it, too." 

She hesitated before replying, unsure how to phrase the words. "Just because of...how you found me," she said quietly. She couldn't tear her eyes off Alida's tangled mane. "It doesn't make me invalid. I'll prove it to you if I have to."

She couldn't see Luke's face when he replied, but she heard the confused edge to it. 

"What is there you have to prove?" 

Skye gripped Alida's reins harder, studying the shadows flickering through the forest around them. 

"Everything. I have everything to prove." 

*+*+*+*

With four hours of daylight left, Tayne could no longer ignore the tainted at the dinner table.

He ran a hand through his hair. "We're not going to make it to Alguarde before tonight when the shadow cycle hits. It might have been closer if these attacks weren't harassing us, but as it is now..." 

Wrain held out a hand for the map and Tayne surrendered it gladly. Looking at it for another five minutes wasn't going to change the lines or bring Alguarde magically closer to them.

"We've made good distance, all things considered, but you're right," said Wrain. Tayne waited for the dreaded question. "So what's the plan?" 

Tayne rubbed his temples. "From what I see, we have two options. Either we ride straight through whatever the demons throw at us and don't stop for anything, or we make a stand when night comes and pray we make it til dawn before moving on as a group." 

"I don't like the first one," said Wrain. "Attempting to push through a tainted will scatter us, injure a lot beyond repair. Maiming the horses would make us easy prey for anything else, and we aren't getting to Alguarde tomorrow without them."

"Not to mention if we get forced into a fight, we'll be seperated," said Tayne. He threaded his fingers through Wing's mane, finding comfort in her warmth. "Which means we need to start organising our defenses now. I'll call Luke back, Nissa too. She can usually predict the demon's movements with a ridiculous precision, and if we're calling a meeting, we may as well give everyone a short break."

Wrain cleared his throat. "May I suggest including the Sentinel in the meeting?" Tayne frowned. "I know you'd rather keep her out of the fighting, but there's a very real chance the Master may appear, and if he does, she'll be the only one with a hope against him."

"She's new to all this," said Tayne. "And I don't think she has much hold over her magic yet. If the Master comes, can't we use our swords to spellbreak anything he shields himself with?" 

But Wrain was already shaking his head. "We can spellbreak enchantments left on other things because the Sentinel has to pull ether from the Nether realm and place it on the thing they're trying to enchant in the mortal realm. By doing that, they sever the enchantment's connection to the ether, but..."

Wrain trailed off and gave Tayne an expectant look. 

The lessons never end.

"If the enchantment never leaves the Sentinel, it's still in connection to the ether inside the Nether realm, and we can't wear it away because it'll repair any damage we do to it in the meantime," guessed Tayne. The elder Silverborn nodded his approval. "Just great. I guess we'll need her ready anyway, so it won't hurt." 

A horn blast and five minutes later, the Silverborn came to a halt. Tayne, Wrain, Luke, and Nissa stood around an improvised table with the map rolled out flat. A few other Silverborn and Donovan lingered around the edges, clearly interested--or pretending not to be. 

I don't know why he bothers, thought Tayne as he watched the Advisor pretend to inspect a nearby horse. The reason I have these meetings in the centre is so anyone can listen in. Even him. I have no secrets from them. 

Skye was the last to join having been held up by a Silverborn with a gash across their leg, an imp's revenge for its temporary death. Tayne watched her press a green-lit hand to the injury, concentration consuming her face before pulling away. The Silverborn thanked her before walking away, limp-free. 

Tayne was surprised to see how... Silverborn she looked. Someone had managed to find her armour that fit better. Though the breastplate didn't quite sit perfectly, she looked more comfortable in the pauldrons and greaves than he would have expected, her hand casually on the hilt of her sword hanging by her side. The only thing that misplaced her to the group was the elven streaks of colour through her hair. 

Priorities, Tayne.

With Skye present, he explained their dilemma quickly. All agreed with him that they should make a stand, that simply charging through was hoping for too much. None of them seemed too optimistic about their chances in a fight either, but neither did they say anything out loud. 

"First things first," said Tayne. "What do we think is likely they'll throw at us? Chances of tainted, the Hunter, possibly the Master?" 

Everyone looked to Nissa. The woman had an uncanny sense for predicting the demon's movements. The ability had saved them on numerous occasions, allowed them to sneak around set ambushes, and Tayne didn't question it. 

Nissa's mouth pressed into a line. "They are, without a doubt, planning something when the shadow cycle hits. Tainted--more than usual, plus the usual fodder of minor demons with a mix of the middle kind. It's likely the Hunter will lead them, but I doubt the Master will show up unless he feels they're losing." Her eyebrows lowered into a point. "Which, I must say, is not likely."

"We'll have to organise tainted groups, three or four Silverborn to one," said Tayne. "Possibly two if their numbers extend past that. Luke, that's your job." 

Luke nodded his understanding. "What about the Hunter?" 

It was Wrain who fielded that question. "The Hunter will only involve himself in the fighting if he's been given a specific target, which is likely with a Sentinel in our midst. If he's aware of her magic, he will be cautious, but all the same, he isn't a tainted to be taken lightly." His eyes shifted to Skye. "He'll be completely fixated upon you when he decides to engage. How much control do you have over your magic, over the forest?" 

Skye lifted a hand, currently home to three green sparks trailing along her fingers. "Not a lot, but I'm slowly working it out. I can heal, that's about it." 

"We can still use that," said Luke. "I'd like to keep Skye in the middle of the fight, spread out the demons, possibly use her position to draw pressure off a side if necessary." 

Skye didn't look happy about that, but remained silent. 

Tayne's brain was spitting out ideas, how they could best utilise the new member in their group. "We'll set up some kind of basic station, bring injured Silverborn to you for healing. Having knights being able to get back up and fight would be invaluable." He turned around, looking for Jesse in the small crowd. "Jess, how did you feel after being healed?" 

Jesse jumped out of his skin at the sudden question. "Uh, great! Fit as a Silverborn stallion! Could go for days and days!"

Tayne nodded his thanks and turned back to the group. "So we have that."

"We have another issue," said Luke. "The demons--the imps attacking us at the moment--are dissolving back into the Nether a lot faster than they usually would, and it's been speeding up as we're moving forward. Means if it comes to a fight, we might end up fighting the same demons twice."

"It'll be the shadow cycle's approach," said Wrain. "The shadow is stronger then, thus the demons respawn faster." 

"It's never happened like this before," said Luke. "Is this a special shadow cycle or something? Extra demons, come one, come all, kill one get two free?"

They turned over ideas for a few minutes before Skye spoke up. 

"Could be a portal nearby," she said with one eye squeezed shut. 

Wrain looked like he'd been struck by lightning. "Of course, a portal!" He gave Skye a quizzical look. "There aren't many of those around nowadays, how did you figure it out?" 

"My home was attacked by demons once, nearly ten years ago," said Skye, sounding slightly distracted. "Demons nearly destroyed us with sheer numbers."

"You survived it?" asked Wrain. "How did you manage to close it?"

Skye shrugged. "It closed by itself. We saw two figures in the area around the same time but couldn't confirm it either way. We were just busy trying to pick up the pieces we had left."

"I'm guessing this portal won't take us to Alguarde, right?" asked Luke. Nissa punched him in the arm for his trouble. 

Wrain's expression was grim as ever when he replied. "Normally, when killed, a demon's essence sinks back through the veil between the mortal and the Nether realm where it reforms before being put back out to the mortal. With a portal, it speeds up that process tenfold. If it's nearby, we could easily be fighting the same demons every twenty to thirty minutes."

"So we should just be glad tainted don't reform after death," muttered Nissa. "Too alive when they're made." 

Tayne ran them through the rest of the meeting as they discussed strategy, namely what to do if the Master showed up. The best plan they had for that was to give Skye a group of Silverborn to back her up and hope for the best. As they continued to talk, Tayne swore he could see a humanoid figure pirouetting inside the treeline, ragged appendages coming from their back as they watched his Silverborn back. 

Strange.

Eventually, everything had been sorted as far as possible at this time. They'd agreed on a preferred site, a general tactic and defence while planning for several outcomes. Anything else was just wasting time, and Skye appeared to no longer be interested, instead chewing on her bottom lip, slowly blinking her eyelids like she was trying to not fall asleep. 

As Tayne was running over everything one final time, imbuing a Whisper into the spheres to be passed around, Verdrana ran up and whispered something to Nissa before disappearing out again. 

Whatever it was, Nissa wasn't impressed with the news. 

"Nathaniel's sword is still missing," she explained. "I have a feeling that the Whisper he got on it was important."

"It was probably a message to his girl," said Luke quietly. "He was due to be married to one of the daughters of the tailor's near Karrosh's place this cycle."

"Maybe," said Nissa. She didn't sound convinced. "But if any of you find it, I want to know what it says."

Tayne sighed, rolling up the map. "I think that's it, unless someone has something else they'd like to--"

Skye staggered to the side like she'd suddenly lost her balance. Luke steadied her arm but it was snatched away with an instinctual movement to her sheathed dagger. Luke backed off, hands up, as Skye dug the heel of her hand into her temple and grit her teeth. 

"Sorry," she said after a minute, giving him a half hearted smile. "Still kind of...flighty, I guess, after being handled by those animals."

"It's all good," said Luke, already over it. "Your head okay though?"

Skye straightened herself out, but it wasn't hard to tell the posture was forced. Worry sprouted in Tayne's mind as she gave them yet another unconvincing smile.

"Just a bit of a headache," she said quickly. She turned away, heading back to where Alida stood waiting. "I'll be fine."

Out of Skye's sight, Tayne's eyes met Luke with an unmistakable message.

Watch her. 

*+*+*+*