Dedicated to Bababoey2u ~ You're the best derpy dragon around. 

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Chapter 4 - Fight for it

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The darkness hung over Skye like a blanket, and it felt like the only thing keeping her together.

Unable to see the mark on her shoulder, only feel its rhythmic throbbing as her heart fed it blood, her thoughts spiralled out of control. Her imagination told her the coin sized mark was spreading, pulsing, pushing, sending roots out over her skin to claim new territory while she lay on the ground helpless to fight against it with anything but willpower. 

Is this how demons are formed? Skye curled tighter, like it'd somehow slow the process. Is a mortal marked, and their body is slowly claimed by the corruption? Will I feel it inside my soul? 

Her body wouldn't stop shaking. Sweat coated her limbs from the exertion it forced on her. In Skye's mind, the mark would flare, sending its power through her body until a secondary, chilling wave like before pushed it back. The process, what she assumed was her body fighting back, was a constant war inside her and one she refused to lose. 

The corruption will not take me because I got upset over a flower. Another shiver gripped her, causing her to nearly bite her tongue. A flower, Skye. It's a damned plant!

She steadied herself with breaths, furious that she hadn't taken the chances to free her soul from her body before this had happened. Her first chance had been when she broke free and killed a group of her guards, turning the sword on them instead of herself in the futile hope of freedom. Her last chance had been the lake. It'd almost claimed her, but it hadn't been good enough. 

But without a tainted there in front of her, she hadn't been able to do it. The other elves would be relying on her to do so to keep their location safe. The corruption could break anyone. It'd broken the Sentinels, and it'd break her. It only needed time. 

I will not give in. A wave wracked her body. Skye grit her teeth. I will not betray them. I will not be who they say I am. 

What felt like an eternity later, Skye heard voices approaching her door outside. She pricked her ears, trying to catch their conversation. 

"The fact that the Master's here is enough," said one voice. "It might be easy for him to travel inside a shadow cycle, but outside of it—not including the spike he used to get here—he's just like the rest of us."

Another scoffed. "I didn't realise you were the expert on shadow Sentinels."

"Um, well." The first gave an awkward cough before continuing. "Either way, the fact that he used the spike in shadow ether to get here means this elf's important. He's never bothered coming here before now and he wouldn't have left the Citadel if she wasn't."

A third voice entered the fray. "Let's just get the elf to the Commander before he decides to turn that blade of his on us instead of her, yeh?"

The lock on the reinforced door opened with a click. Light streamed through the gap, forcing Skye to squint or be blinded. She backed herself into the corner, fingers curled into fists against the ground. She waited for them to swarm her, pin her down like they usually did but only two guards entered the room. The other three stayed outside, continuing to speak amongst themselves. 

"The Commander's a piece of work, even by our standards. Tries too hard to be the Master, if you ask me."

"Heh. What's the theory on him? Master tried to turn him tainted but something went wrong?"

It hit her. 

They expect me to be complacent. Skye flicked her gaze between them. They don't think they have anything left to fear. 

When they stood before her, Skye relaxed her posture. 

"Let's move, elf," said the left guard, nodding for her to get up. "Commander wants a word with you."

The other guard, the one wearing a headband, didn't look so sure about the lack of rope. Skye recognised him as the one who'd suggested she take off her boots at the lake. "The Master said to bind her, just in case."

The first guard snorted. "You seriously think she fought it off?

"We chose it. She didn't. Maybe something's different?" The guard shrugged. "All I'm saying is she's killed a bunch of us already and I don't want to join them."

One of the guards outside laughed at that. "Ha! Look at her, Riln!" He made a wild gesture in Skye's direction as she got to her feet, a vague hope rising in her. "What's she going to do against five of us? She's barely out of her second decade! You're not scared of a little elf girl, are you?" 

The wary headband guard shook his head. "Fine. Let's go." 

Skye walked out of the room between the guards, not quite their equal but somewhere near that level. Moving down the hall, her eyes scanned the environment looking for anything she could use to her advantage.

Take that guard's sword, put it through the one beside him. They passed the second door, nearly at the main area where the staircase connecting the three levels of the building was located. Nothing light and strong enough to do damage anywhere else unless I get desperate. 

They couldn't make it to the interrogation room. The hallways were too narrow and the Commander wasn't an idiot. He'd tie her down to the table before he started, believing her corrupted or not. The only chance Skye had was if she made a break for it while she still had room to move. 

When they levelled with the mouth of the stairs, Skye made her move. 

Her hand darted out, snatching the protruding grip of the guard in front's sword. She harnessed the momentum gained from unsheathing the sword and smashed the hilt into the chin of the guard to her left, catching him mid-sentence. The guards reacted, reaching for their own swords, but they were too slow to stop her as she plunged the blade into the back of its original owner. 

He fell forward with a cry of agony, wrenching the grip from Skye's hand. She didn't have time to pull it out. The remaining three guards had drawn and were edging around her. 

Without a weapon, Skye did the only thing she could. 

She ducked under a horizontal slash, rolling out of the movement on her shoulder and bolted for the stairs. She swung herself around on the banister, leaping down as many stairs at a time as she dared even as shouts of alarm raised hell above her, but she didn't stop. 

By some miracle, Skye made it out of the building without contest. Outside, she faced a different problem. 

No alleys or alcoves close enough, thought Skye, scanning the open courtyard. Judging by the abandoned stalls, it'd been a market area before the town was taken over by corruption. Nowhere to hide and not enough trees to use for cover.

The footsteps behind her gave her seconds to make a decision. Without an option to throw the pursuers off her trail for a minute or two, Skye backed up and pressed herself against the outside wall beside the door frame, praying to the deities it'd work. 

The guards burst out the door, swords in hand, and copied Skye's same desperate search from a few moments ago.

"The hell did she go?" said one. "She can't be that fast, dammit!" 

"Told you we should have bound her—"

Skye struck. 

She pounced on the right guard from behind, if only for the reason that he carried his sword in the hand opposite her position. By chance, it was the headband guard. He cried out in surprise, dropping his sword as she threw her weight into him, crashing them both into one of the nearby lamps that lined the streets. 

The sturdy pole bowed as the guard's body hit it, causing the candle-lit lantern it held to fall open on his head like a misshapen funeral cover. From there, one knee to the head was all it took to shatter the glass and set him screaming. 

She evaded a pathetic thrust from one of the remaining guards, retrieving lantern head's sword from the ground in the same movement. 

Skye faced them down and gave the careless idiots a thin smile. 

"What, scared of some little elf girl?" 

The same guard who'd attempted the thrust snarled and lunged. Instead of meeting his blade head on, Skye pushed it to the side with the edge of her own. The guard, expecting to meet resistance, stumbled forward. He didn't recover from the mistake as Skye capitalised on it, bringing her stolen sword around and thrusting it into his chest. 

A swing from the remaining guard cut through the air towards her. Without time to pull it out and unwilling to surrender her weapon a second time, Skye pivoted on her foot, swivelling the body her sword was sheathed in around and using it as a gruesome shield. 

 Dull thuds of metal on flesh vibrated down the blade. Skye reached out with her free hand, picked up the sword her shield-guard had dropped and swung it at the legs of the one remaining. He promptly collapsed, and she made her killing blow. 

Skye stood, breathing harder than she would have liked. The three weeks of captivity had taken their toll. Her shoulder was burning from the strain, and she didn't want to risk harming it further. It left her using her left hand, which while possible, was not ideal, or finding a less stressful method of dispatching corrupted. 

In a town this size, there's going to be hundreds of humans, and that's assuming there aren't demons around. Skye traded her sword for a lighter one. Can't fight them all. Just have to sneak past and hope—

"What in the name of the deity happened here!" came the Commander's gravelly voice from the doorway behind her. 

Skye didn't turn around to check. She reversed her grip on the sword so the point was behind her and ran.

She made for the closest alleyway she could see with only the knowledge that she was running away from the lake. The Commander's voice rose above the silence, ordering anyone and everyone to cut her off before she reached the forests. Skye briefly considered hiding inside one of the buildings but quickly cast off the idea. They'd comb the area for her, assuming the Sentinel couldn't sense her to begin with. 

The Sentinel. I'll never— Dread crept over Skye, hope dying with every adrenaline fuelled step before she steeled herself. Have to at least try. 

The alley ended with an abrupt drop to a street below. Never one to be intimidated by heights, Skye hooked her fingers on the ledge and jumped down. Her feet scraped against the wall as she caught herself and pushed off the stone to continue her flight. 

A heavy thud sent vibrations through the ground. Skye grit her teeth and pushed harder. 

The Commander was following her. It left no room for error. If she made a wrong turn, ran into a group of guards, he'd catch up, and as much as Skye hated to admit it, in her current state she wasn't sure it was a fight she could win. 

A group of soldiers ran at her from straight ahead. Skye avoided them by taking a blind left turn, and immediately realised her error as her fingers touched solid stone. 

It's a dead end. 

It was too late to turn around. The soldiers closed in on her, sealing her in the alley. She tried a door but the handle remained firm. With her back against the wall and no other option, Skye readied her sword. 

The soldiers moved in on her. Skye bared her teeth. 

One of them seemed to think diplomacy was an option. "Put the sword down, elf, and we'll—"

"And you'll what?" said Skye. Her face tingled with anger—not only at them but at herself. She'd had a chance. She'd wasted it. "Throw me back in that room while the corruption claims my soul and my body is twisted into a demonic carcass?" 

The soldier who'd spoken frowned. "We'll—"

"Out of my way, whelps," growled the Commander. 

A huge, gloved hand pushed the soldiers out of the way as the rest of the Commander's hulking body shoved through the group. In his hand was the two-handed sword he favoured, and as always, the velvet cloak hanging over his back. 

"You've caused me enough trouble, girl," he said. The metres between them vanished quicker than Skye would have liked. "I'll be glad to see you crushed beneath the corruption when the Master is through. Be sorrowful that I am forbidden from killing you, as tomorrow, you will wish you were dead."

Skye snorted. "Forbidden from killing me, or just can't when I'm not tied up?" 

The Commander lifted the sword and pointed it at her. "Drop the weapon or answer to mine." 

"I'll take that as a 'can't'."

He charged. 

Skye evaded the slow moving sword thrust with ease and kept calm. In the narrow walls of the alley, the Commander couldn't wield his two-handed sword effectively. The adrenaline was rising in her, the only reason she was still on her feet at all, but she needed it under control to keep her advantage. He couldn't kill her. She had no such reservations. 

The Commander came to the same conclusion about his sword two swings later and changed strategy. Keeping the tip pointed at her, he stepped forward, pushing her right back against the wall. It left Skye with a choice: try and push past and into the open where his sword would have room to move, or leave herself at the mercy of the blade. 

Skye feinted left. When the Commander's blade dropped and scraped against the wall to follow the movement, she threw herself into a roll on his right side, flicking her blade around as she stood to catch him on the back of the legs. 

He howled in pain. The soldiers raised their weapons at Skye as she found herself trapped between an angry Commander and a wall of edged steel. 

The soldiers began to make various demands of "drop the weapon" when the Commander's voice silenced them. 

"Leave her!" he ordered. "Block off the exits. It's about time you all got a reminder as to what happens when you defy the corruption."

The soldiers split. Skye hesitated, wary of deceit before the Commander's sword drove her out into the cobblestone street lined with houses. She spared a glance for her surroundings, taking note of the exits now choked with soldiers. 

The Commander came out, swinging his sword in a large arc around him. 

Skye adjusted her grip on the sword. Somehow, she had to manipulate the situation into something she could exploit. Something that could get her past the blockade and into the forests while praying the Sentinel didn't come after her. 

It took one blow from the Commander's sword for Skye to realise she couldn't take another. The impact alone nearly ripped the sword from her hands, but power was all he had. There was little technical skill to his swordplay. 

Skye exploited that, dancing around the next strike as it came and trading a blow from her own sword to his wrist. With every thrust and swing that missed, the Commander's face turned increasingly red until it was borderline maroon from Skye's game of keep-away. 

More than once, he tried magic. Pathetic, black tendrils that attempted to distract her long enough for him to land something. Fuzzy illusions established themselves on various objects as a cart became a horse and a lamp turned into a tree. After the first few glimpses of elves she knew among the crowd, Skye ignored them completely. They had nothing on the golden light she'd managed to hallucinate earlier. 

"Almost got me there, Commander!" Skye called as once again, the sword was too slow. "You do know you're supposed to hit me, don't you?" 

The remark drew cautious laughter from the crowd. Skye took a savage pleasure watching the Commander's humiliation and his attacks grew increasingly desperate. Another minute of this, she could lure him into a charge, send him barrelling into a group of guards. He'd clear the way for her.

Then, everything went wrong. 

As Skye leapt backwards out of reach of the sword for the millionth time, the heel of her foot caught on something and she tumbled backwards, hitting the ground hard. Blinding pain flashed up her arm. Her head slammed against the corner of a crate and stars danced before her eyes. 

When they cleared, the Commander was standing over her, grinning. 

"Game's over." 

His foot came down. Skye snatched her arm out of the way. She tried to regain her footing but the Commander pushed her back down, keeping the high ground advantage. Still dazed, Skye wasn't fast enough to get out of the way and the Commander smashed the toe of his boot into her side. 

But she wasn't done yet. Skye kicked out, catching the side of the Commander's knee where she'd previously cut it. He toppled forward with a staggered step to stop himself. Skye used the brief respite to scramble to her feet and ready her sword, about to drive the point straight into the Commander's exposed stomach as a pressure began at her throat. 

The Commander wore a murderous look. His gloved palm faced Skye, fingers outstretched. A black aura wrapped around his form, flickering and distorting the air around him. His fingers curled into a fist. 

Breathing became harder. Skye's lungs felt like they were on fire, her entire chest like it was about to cave in. It wasn't like her near-drowning experience of before, where the water had simply replaced the air and left her feeling empty. 

This was agonising. 

Her mind couldn't conjure the golden light to comfort her this time around as black spots crept in to edge her vision. Skye dropped to the ground, hand at her throat. She knew, in some corner of her mind that any orders not to kill her were far from the Commander's thoughts. All he wanted now was revenge. 

Skye's hand fell from her throat. Her lids grew heavy, the rest of her about to collapse inward when a voice split through the veil. 

"Enough!" 

The word's thunder echoed through the street, severing the tendrils of invisible magic around Skye's neck. She hit the ground, unable to remain upright, chest heaving as her body frantically replaced the oxygen it needed. 

Through hazy eyes, Skye watched as the Master approached and pointed at the Commander. 

Something about the Commander shimmered. A grey, ghostly echo of his body, minus the cloak and cape, appeared beside him, revealing the hardened plates of exoskeleton that lay concealed beneath the clothes. 

Shouts of alarm came from the soldiers in the crowd. Skye's thoughts hit the same conclusion. 

The Commander... The Commander's ghostly echo walked forward as the Master beckoned it forward. The wiry tail usually concealed under the cloak flicked behind it. He's not fully human. He's a demon—a tainted.

"I let you keep your essence long enough, Commander," said the Master. He raised his hand, revealing something that glinted. The echo emitted a ghastly scream as it was sucked in and vanished from existence. "You now yield entirely to the shadow eternal. Your will is no longer your own." 

The Commander's voice was strangely dead. "My will is yours, Master." 

The Master sneered. "Indeed it is, Commander." 

Skye managed to push herself up as the Master strode over. He took her by the arm and dragged her to an awkward position to examine her shoulder. 

"You're more resilient than I expected," he said, turning her arm over. "But no matter. I suspect you'll be much more willing to help me than the Commander, and I must say, I'm eager to begin as soon as—"

A flash of white light cut off his words. 

Where once empty space had been, a human looking girl with black hair, garbed in elegant purple rags stood, hands on her hips. Something flickered behind her back too fast for Skye to get a good look at. 

Are they... wings?

"Ebony," said the Master. "Why have you left your post?" 

The wing-like structures flared and closed behind Ebony's back. 

"Weeeeeeeeeell," began the girl, clicking her tongue against her teeth. "There's been an interesting little development. Monumental, really!" She paused, continuing only when the Master narrowed his eyes. "Our guest fiiiinally woke up!" 

The Master's eyes flashed. "The celestial? She's awake?"

Ebony nodded enthusiastically in reply, literally bouncing up and down on the spot. "It's great news, isn't it!" 

The Master ignored her, turning back to Skye. 

"It appears our chat will have to wait," he said. "I know it's rude of me, but I'll have to leave you in the now-capable hands of the Commander once more. I hope you'll be waiting for me when I return. I have a most interesting proposition you just won't be able to refuse."

Skye glared at him. 

"Oh, you think you'll escape if I'm not here?" said the Master, sounding more amused than anything. "That you'll run back to your village?" He snorted. "You're marked. The elves won't take you back, dear, and you won't last long in the wilds by yourself. Not with all the demons around and the shadow cycle approaching."

"I resisted your mark," hissed Skye. "You have no control over me." 

The Master's hand slid up her bicep to grip her shoulder. Before Skye could pull away, his fingers dug into her skin. Her flesh molded around his palm and a searing heat forced Skye to scream as what felt like the muscles were separated from their tendons and her bones were left bare. 

He released her. Skye staggered back, barely able to keep her mind coherent. 

"What..." she breathed, clutching her shoulder, ignoring the heat against her hand. "What did you do?" 

"We'll see if you can resist that," said the Master. He turned on his heel. "Commander, I want her talking by the end of the day. Ebony, take me to the Citadel. Now."

The black haired girl spun around, looking surprised. "Really? Now? It's not a shadow cycle and there's no spike for you to—"

"Now, Ebony!" 

The girl shrugged and skipped over, placing her hands on the Master's wrists. 

"Just remember, it's not my fault if you'll be staggering around for the next few days, Master," she said. 

And in a flash of white light, they were gone. 

Skye was left standing in a circle of bewildered soldiers, the will to escape burning within her but nothing left to fuel it with. She pulled her hand away from her shoulder. Her breath shuddered as she saw what the Master had left behind. 

She didn't recognise it as her shoulder. Her tunic had been burned away under his palm to reveal the skin—or what had been skin beneath. The pale surface was an angry violet colour, giving way to indigo at its edges. No longer was it smooth, but covered in frozen ripples that outlined a hand. 

Skye was too shocked, her body too numb to cry. She stood there, staring at her shoulder in silence as the dead-eyed Commander laced a chain around her wrists and dragged her off, back up to the building she'd run from earlier, to the table she'd feared being shackled to, and shut the door behind him. 

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