To Void is to Breathe (solo)

[Wrenmae]

Winter 34, 511 AV They'd said the job would be simple. It was only combing the edges of Sunberth on reports several people had been approaching the city of Anarchy. The idea was to corner them, chain them, and sell them for a profit. Purely commission, little under half gold return. It was a ware and suspicious sort of deal, but with the recent rash of slaver murders, it wasn't surprising the industry had to adopt desperate strategies to outsource. Now Shroud pushed through tangled branches and upturned roots with desperate, hissing breaths, putting distance between himself and the bloody scene behind him. Not all information had been purely correct. Rather than catching a few girls and their father, he'd run afoul of an accomplished morpher protecting his progeny...one of the girls was a kelvic besides, a bloody lion. The screams of his partners echoes in his ears as he vaulted a dip in the land and continued sprinting, breath pushing out in and in in short explosive bursts. He had to meet with the other patrol, safety in numbers. The last had not been prepared and as far as he knew, he was the only survivor. Likely because he had the good sense to run the moment the two started changing. He could hear bushes and stones torn away behind him, the rampaging passage of either the father or the lion following his progress. Shroud cursed. One of them would have stayed behind to escort the children into the city. Once there they could sign in with some damn gang and that was it, slavery became next to suicidal to attempt. All in all, the night could have gone better. Could be going better. Shroud sprinted, death on his trail.

[Wrenmae]

In terms of speed, Shroud really wasn't anything special. He pushed his legs forward, almost with will alone, but he could hear the crashing of brush around and ahead of him as the faster creatures overtook his dash and circled around in front. He could hear them there, and paused, knowing they expected him to continue forward and directly into well laid plots or sharpened teeth.

Instead he skidded to a halt, gasping his breath as the two stalked around him. Both were slaked with the blood of his former companions, but this was no longer about hunting, it was about revenge. They would come together probably, vaulting on two sides as to confuse him. One would inevitably find his back and then he'd be dead.

It was time to think.

Kneeling to the ground, his fingers made sharp, angled lines in the dirt, drawing out a rudimentary glyph into the soft mud there. It wasn't ideal, certainly, and he really wasn't pressing for the most complex of things. The shape was an easy one in his mind, simply expediting casting. Already he knew how best to deal with the threat...he hadn't the prowess to face them down with blades or magic...but perhaps mitigating their prowess may be an option. He muttered as he drew, whispering quiet incantations to himself, nonsense that helped to focus his mind and still his body.

He was calling the Void.

He had no sooner channeled the Void into the makeshift glyph than the noise stopped. Position marked, prey spotted. Wren stood up, facing one area of the darkness and cracked his neck. This would be a swift egress, a pounce, simultaneous movement to provoke the most divided attention.

They charged, he touched the glyph and brought up the Void.

Both leaping at him, father and daughter alike, were caught by surprise...how could they not? Without knowing the nature of the thing in front of them or even if Wren was a mage, they could not adequately prepare themselves.

The man sized hole neatly engulfed the first lion, but the morphed father hit it at an angle, destroying the Void itself as if bouncing off a wall, hitting the ground with a panicked yowl and twisting to face the caster.

Wrenmae was ready, eyes narrowed and teeth grimacing at the creature.

He drew his long dagger, wove it in the air between them.

"You've lost a daughter," the mage told the morpher calmly, stepping around the black hole in the night clearing, "Walk away, or lose your life."

Instead, the creature charged.