Dedicated to CrosSs for being an awesome fan.

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Chapter 13 - Mob Mentality

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Night was nearly upon the Silverborn when they reached their chosen clearing.

The stars clung to the sun, holding it above the horizon and buying them precious seconds to prepare. The Silverborn dismounted and assembled, wasting no time to get their assigned tasks completed for the stand with the largest stakes they'd ever had balancing on its success. 

Minutes passed by in a flurry of activity. 

The white-flamed torches were lit. Any unneccessary gear was packed around the centre in rest stations or organised to form small barricades to divert the smaller demons. Weapons were sharpened and charged with what little energy the etherstones still possessed, armour was donned and the horses fed. 

Tayne found Luke standing at the edge, discussing a defensive strategy Wrain had suggested, apparently an improvised version of what the Silverborn of old had once used. Knowing he'd only hinder the explanation if he were to join in, Tayne turned to make his way to where the group of relief Silverborn were stationed and ran straight into Verdrana. 

She recovered her balance quickly and didn't waste words on apologising. 

"Nissa sent me over," she said, glancing back over her shoulder. "Something's wrong with Skye."

That was all Tayne needed to get him moving. "Where?" 

"In the centre, where we set her up," said Verdrana, already leading him there. "She was fine, just kept touching her head, shying away from the lights we were setting up like they hurt her eyes but then she nearly fell over." 

Voices came into range over Verdrana's explanation, brushing against the edges of his hearing with fragmented sentences overlapping all at once.

Nissa. "--breathe, let it out--"

Jesse. "--c'mon! Just--"

Skye. "--there's too much, I can't--"

"And now?" asked Tayne. 

Verdrana's tone said it all. "And now she won't let us near her." 

They rounded the corner into the barricaded area they'd set up for Skye to heal the injured to find Nissa and Jesse facing Skye. Though Nissa's weapons were sheathed, Tayne recognised the look on her face. She was ready to do whatever needed to be done. 

"Skye," said Nissa. "I need you to take a deep breath and tell us what's wrong."

"It's just a headache!" said Skye. She clutched her head with one splayed hand, the other held out as if to keep the Silverborn at bay. "I'm...I'm fine. Just a little dizzy." 

Nissa tried again. "We can't help you if you don't let us."

Skye scrunched her face. "I don't need help. Keep preparing things, I just need a minute to sit down and..."

Tayne didn't realise the teal streaks in Skye's hair were glowing until they picked up intensity. Whatever caused it coincided with the cause of Skye's headache, because her outstretched hand flew to join the other at her head while her knuckles turned white under the pressure. 

Skye sank to her knees with a noise pressed into her lips. Jesse leapt forward to steady her but a flash of emerald, borderline golden light forced him away, flinging him off his feet. With her neck bent down over her chest and elbows digging into the dirt, Skye managed to twist and find her voice. 

"Magic," she whispered. "Too much magic, I can't... I can't block it out, and it's splitting my skull trying to tell me--" Skye gasped as the streaks flashed once more, coughing to recover. "I can't, and they're all pushing, all trying to tell me--"

She cut off. Tayne advanced a step. 

"What's trying to tell you, Skye?" he asked, risking another step from the green light that'd sent Jesse sprawling. When it didn't come, he took another, holding out a hand towards her. He thought he imagined a slight shake of her head, and added, "If you can't tell me, show me." 

He didn't think she was going to, didn't know if she even could as he edged closer without a sign of the light. But slowly, unsteadily, her arm extended, the limb shaking like a leaf in the wind, and Tayne didn't hesitate to take it. 

A sharp, pressuring pain at the back of his skull whisked him into darkness where nothing but a sense of constricted togetherness existed. Images melded together, sounds became noise as they were compiled to the same track and his body was alight with heat and cold and damp and dry. 

Somewhere in the deafening noise, Tayne heard Skye's voice. He latched on to the sound, forcing himself to move without moving through the sea of sensations swallowing him whole. 

He found Skye, or what he assumed was Skye since it was a small, elven figure coloured only in greens. She turned to him, taking his hand like it grounded her as much as her presence was grounding him. 

It's the forest, came her voice. It keeps pulling me in, trying to show me something but it's too much. The messages are getting mixed up because they're all trying to tell me at once and I don't know how to stop them.

Tayne focused on her grip, feeling his thoughts sway. What do we do?

I have no idea, said Skye. The images around them pressed closer, forcing them back to back. It grew stronger as we got closer to this place, kept sucking me into whatever this place is. I thought I could just ignore it, but they're going to kill me if they don't stop this. 

Somewhere outside the mental sphere, Tayne's ears picked up voices that seemed rough and jagged against the melded sounds.  

"Get Wrain!" 

"What's happened?"

"We think Skye's magic is overloading. Tayne tried to help but we can't get through to him and her magic won't let us near them."

The voices sifted back into the noise that was beginning to sound like the forest. sticks crunching underfoot, branches cracking to the ground to eventually become soil, the wind rustling the leaves on all levels to produce an earthen melody. If he listened closely, the sound gave meaning to the images, rivulets of water, trunks, plants and the tiny things that scurried in between. 

It's beautiful, thought Tayne. 

The images around them suddenly made sense, the warning spread between them clear and urgent. He looked at Skye, who was staring at him with a strange expression. He had to tell her, warn her of the trap they were sinking into. 

He took her shoulder in a hand. Skye pulled away, eyes wide. 

Tayne? Her confused thought was mixed with a drop of the understanding he craved from her. Tayne, you're not a tree! He pushed forward. If he kept going, she'd understand, she'd get the message, she would know--

"Tayne! Listen to me--Acknowledge them!" 

The order cut through the jumble of noises. For the briefest moment, Tayne had the sense that he'd lost something important as he found himself standing alone, Skye staring back at him.

"Tell her to acknowledge them, Tayne! She can't hear us anymore, they're focussed on her and they're using anything they can to get to her. She needs to acknowledge them!" 

It sounds like Wrain, thought Tayne, wondering why that would be important. 

Wrain? Did he say something? Skye's voice was harder to hear, but he didn't need to hear it. He just had to tell her. Tayne, please! 

The plea was accompanied by a tug at his mind. He was reluctant to let go--he didn't want that sense of isolation a second time. He belonged with the many, the forest life around him that thrived in a massive system of energy linked together. 

"Acknowledge them!" 

Let go!

Skye tugged again, hard enough to make the images fade around him. The brief seperation gave him back enough will to let go, release his own grip on the forest's holding him. 

Tayne blinked.

The noise was gone, his sight once more on Skye--the physical Skye--in front of him with her hand still wrapped around his. Green light radiating off her body flickered up his arm, the edges of which brushed his shoulder. 

Skye's mental voice anchored reality down. I'm sorry, I didn't realise what they'd do to you.

Wrain... Wrain said to acknowledge them, Tayne whispered. 

He felt Skye concede the point and break the contact. Her hand fell from his to dig its fingers into the dirt, her face a mask of concentration decorated with sweat and pained lines. 

Tayne retreated, trying to wrap his head around it. How had he lost himself in it so easily? He wasn't weak willed... was he? The trees had pulled him in. He hadn't even realised. To make it worse, among the feeling that he'd been violated was, strangely enough, regret that it'd ended.

A hand, Wrain's, lowered down before him, offering him help to his feet. Tayne took it, but didn't yet meet the elder Silverborn's eyes. He didn't need to be told how he'd failed. He knew it already. 

"Are you okay?" asked Nissa. Skye's silent struggle continued on the ground. 

"Fine," said Tayne. He sat down, giving his muscles time to figure out how to work before he fell over in front of his Silverborn. "What happened? 

Everyone looked to Wrain. 

"Likely the nature deity is attempting to protect Skye through the forest," said Wrain. "Only the forest doesn't understand individuals and Skye is yet to learn how to protect herself from it. A nature deity's greatest strength, yet their greatest weakness."

"And the magic that sent Jesse backwards?" asked Nissa. 

"A new Sentinel's magic is unstable," said Wrain. "It reacts to instinct over all else. A burst of power triggers the change in their soul that allows them to use magic, opening them up to the ether in the Nether realm, but it leaves them vulnerable to similar bursts until they can learn to control it." 

On the ground, the green aura still flickered around Skye, occasionally spreading across the ground to highlight blades of grass before the sparks raced off into the trees. She remained in the same position Tayne had left her in, one hand to her head, one digging in the dirt while a heel dug trenches into the dirt. 

"How long does that control usually take?" asked Tayne. 

Wrain remained silent for a moment. "In my time, it would take years." 

Tayne resisted the urge to swear. Nissa didn't feel the need to do the same. 

"But," continued Wrain. "It would also take years for them to be strong enough to make direct contact with the forest, if not longer. Some nature Sentinels never managed it at all, and others completely lost themselves in it when they tried too early." 

"And that means what?" asked Nissa.

She slapped a hand against her side in exasperation. The sound snapped Skye out of her trance-like state. The green aura retracted inside her skin, leaving her bathed in the silvery glow of her Silverborn armour. Skye's eyes opened, the hand digging into the dirt relaxing against the ground as she looked up at them and gave them a nod. 

"I acknowledged them," she said. "The portal's nearby to the north, directly ahead on this highway. If we make it til morning, we're going to have to deal with that...but I think there might be a way around it. 

While Nissa moved over to Skye and questioned her, Wrain eyed Tayne, who caught the barest glimpse of hope in them. 

"It means we might have a chance in this fight after all," said Wrain. 

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A/N - Comment/vote if you're enjoying/hating/feeling like a unicorn.