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Balor?

If I could have said his name out loud, I would have.

Balor’s eyes met mine as he stood there. Just stood there. He mouthed something to me, but I couldn’t hear it. Then, he fell to his knees. Volund came up behind him, and I tried to scream, tried to doanything, but I couldn’t.

Volund yanked something out of Balor’s back and held it up.

A knife. Covered in blood. Then Volund plunged the knife into Balor’s back again. And again. And again.

NO!!I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t move. All I could do was blink the tears from my eyes as I drowned. My eyes slowly rolled to the back of my head, and the last thing I saw was Volund shoving Balor’slimp body to the ground in a bloody mess.

This was my end. I came all this way to find answers, and I was going to die before I got them. Die alongside my uncle.

The world began to slowly slip away. But before I could accept my fate…I felt him. His energy erupted through the ruined city like a hurricane in the middle of the sea – violent and lethal and no way to escape it.

I forced my eyes to open, and saw Elias slam his body into Sarai. She flew through the air, crashing to the ground several yards away.

I rolled onto my side, vomiting up the water before finally being able to gasp for air. Tears stung my eyes, and my lungs still burned. But they weren’t the only thing. The seared marks on my skin were excruciating. I pushed past it and looked up and watched Elias, in human form, facing off against Sarai.

Elias held his dagger, attempting one blow after another with inhuman speed. Sarai had created some sort of water shield around herself that was somehow impervious to Elias’s strikes. Having the small lake nearby was not acting in our favor.

I tried to focus on her blurry form behind her water forcefield. I could see her pulling something from the ground. No, not the ground. Her foot.

My knife. Mysilverknife.

No! Elias!

She pried the blade from her own foot, then turned it upwards, just as Elias was about to strike again.

I couldn’t scream for him, the water still in my lungs needing to be expelled. But the fear I felt in that moment could have conjured the gods.

Just before Sarai could strike, Elias stopped in his tracks, turning to me as he felt that wave of fear. One step further and Sarai would have slashed the knife through her water shield and gutted him.

But my relief was short-lived because Sarai’s water shield transformed into a tidal wave that crashed down on Elias when his focus was on me, flinging him backward and into a nearby tree. I felt a sense of pain shoot through my arm as his bones cracked from the impact.

Before Elias could pull himself up, Sarai used her same dirty trick that she used on me, and began magically forcing a large tendril of water down his throat and into his lungs. I felt the pain as his airways closed. I was all-too familiar with the feeling of drowning.

I turned and coughed up more water. “No!” I finally was able to scream. I stood up and ran towards him, but was suddenly yanked backwards by my hair.

“Not so fast,” Volund hissed in my ear as he pulled on my hair and brought his knife to my throat.

In a panic, I looked to my right, and saw Balor lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath him.

A scream erupted from me, causing Volund to tighten his hold and press the edge of his blade into my neck.

“Balor get up! Get up!!” I screamed. But I knew he wouldn’t. My uncle remained on the cold ground, unmoving. “What have you done?!” I shrieked, bringing my elbow back so hard I felt one of Volund’s ribs break under the impact.

The Sprathian king screamed in pain, and I pulled away. I turned, grabbing his bloodied knife from his grasp and pointing it towards him.

“Sarai!” Volund squealed.

Before I could strike, the witch pivoted towards us, her eyes filled with rage at the sight of Volund in distress. I noted a shift in the words she chanted, and the vine of water pulled out of Elias’s throat and levitated through the air. Then she threw her hands forward, the water shooting at me like a giant arrow.

It crashed into me, and I nearly fell backwards from the force. Volund’s knife flung from my grasp as the water began to swirl around my hands and wrists. The water pulled me to the ground, my knees bruising from the impact.

I tried to stand myself up, but was only yanked down harder. I squirmed and thrashed, but my attempts to escape the spell failed. Sarai had me bound by her magic, tethered to the ground like a dog on a chain.

I watched helplessly as Elias slumped over, on the brink of unconsciousness from having the air ripped away from him for those long moments.