It was another two days of walking before the group found anything of interest. Two days of fighting with monsters and each other. Two days of trying to stretch out the limited food they had. Two days of Elora answering the many questions her companions had about Nowhere, about where they were going, what they were going to do. She was more exhausted than she had ever been in her long life.

The first night she detailed her entire trip in Nowhere, including her father taking Nyal's body for a while. She talked about seeing Gaizma again, after explaining who he was, a lengthy conversation in of itself.

She had voiced her concerns about facing off against Gaizma to Nyal only on the second night. Ragen and Mikhail had been asleep and Nyal had been on watch. She had woken up in the middle of the night, finding herself unable to fall back to sleep despite being tired.

Overcome with exhaustion (at least, that's what she said happened), she spilt all her problems to her closest friend. He reminded her so much of Corpius, and she told him as much. He had only smiled at her and asked what he was like. It took her back to when she was young, only just born. Those first few years after her creation was full of fighting and friendship.

She'd found friendship in Corpius and the other warlocks, but especially Corpius. She had loved him, and he had loved her, but they never did anything about it. They couldn't, not during the war due to the constant fighting and the threat of death. Not afterwards because Elora had taken on a new role, the Gate Keeper. She hunted down any ties to the Zlohiel that were left, protected the Key and the Gate. Corpius wrote his books, ran the Guild, protected the kingdoms that were left. All in all, they were too busy. And before she knew it, Corpius's time was up and she was alone.

There had been plenty of fighting in Gaizma and the other Zlohiel. She had had her first run-in with the powerful dragon not long after she had been created. He had taken charge of all the dragons, but not all the Zlohiel. He had told her there was no chance of her winning, but she had won that fight by a small margin.

At the time most of them ran rampant, every single one thinking the realm belonged to them. The had joined together to some degree during the war, only because they didn't want to get wiped out by the warlocks.

Each species had their own leaders, some even had more than one. Gaizma had liked to think he was in charge of all of them, but at the time she knew they were only doing it to get rid of a threat. She knew that when it was all over, they would be fighting among themselves for who got the title of supreme ruler.

There was so much fighting, so much death. It wasn't the greatest introduction to the universe. Immediately thrust into a war, she had had to protect the remaining Healers from being killed by the dragons. At the time they were the biggest threat. If they were taken out, then the rest of the Zlohiel wouldn't be a problem. But the Healers kept dying and fights got worse and everything grew stronger, including the enemy.

They did win, eventually. She didn't tell Nyal about it though, he already knew the story. Instead, she told him more about Gaizma, who he was, what he had done, why he had come to power. There was still some even she didn't know, only because it had happened before her time and no one had the time to fill her in back then.

The dragon had killed his way to the top, showing that he was much more powerful than the rest. They followed him like he was a God come to save them. It didn't matter what he did, who he killed, where he went, the followed him regardless.

He was their biggest threat and he had been out to get Elora constantly in the first war. He had known she could stop him, and he hadn't wanted that. They fought every time they saw each other, both barely making it out alive. He had been the last thing she had seen when she opened the Gate, his roaring face as he realised what she had done.

He would be worse now that he'd escaped the Gate. He would have gotten stronger after all those years. He had all the Zlohiel under his control. She was weaker, much weaker than she had been in the first war. He would be coming for her and he would kill her. There was no doubt about it, she couldn't face up to him if they met, not now.

This was what she said to Nyal, that she was worried about seeing Gaizma again after so long. Worried that she wouldn't make it in a fight against him when she had to save the realm. She didn't want to die before she even has a chance to save everyone. Nyal had tried to comfort her, tried to tell her that he would be there, that he would keep her safe. "That's not your job," she'd snapped and lied back down to sleep. They didn't talk for the rest of the night or most of the next day.

The second night passed quickly and quietly. They were attacked during the day time a few times, but it was nothing the little group couldn't handle. There was one fight during the night, not long after the sun had completely set. A group of hissing vampires had attempted to ambush them, who spoke of the end of the realm and death to everything. Elora paid their words no mind as she tore them apart.

That morning they found themselves walking along tall cliffs above a beach of bright white sand. The water rippled out as far as she could see, the huge waves crashing loudly. At times she found herself wondering what was past all the water if there was more to the realm than just Veridun. She assumed there was something else past Ammos in the north but had never decided to explore it herself.

Perhaps if she survived, she would go on a trip past Ammos, her and Nyal. There was no doubt that he would enjoy whatever it was they found beyond the desert kingdom. She smiled to herself, knowing that it was only a fantasy and would remain like that for a long time. Who knew how long it would take to defeat Gaizma and the other Zlohiel, especially now that he had control of most of them? She imagined that some of them had defected and gone to do their own destruction, but the powerful dragon was bound to have many more creatures than she could possibly face.

"How far are we?" Ragen asked Nyal, pulling Elora from her thoughts. She was grateful for the distraction, sick of her thoughts turning sour whenever she dared to drift off. They stopped at the edge of the cliff, watching the water and listening to the distant calls of the seabirds, a sound she had missed so dearly. She hissed, staring at the beauty of the sun glistening off the rippling waves, a perfect juxtaposition to the situation they found themselves in.

"Not far," Nyal replied, his voice almost dreamy like he wasn't paying much attention to him. A quick glance showed him staring at the water much as she had been. She smiled at him, but he didn't see. "Another day or so maybe."

Ragen sighed and turned away, walking behind the rest of them. Out of the corner of her eye Elora saw Mikhail gaze after him, eyebrows furrowed, and lips turned down into a frown. She said nothing, did nothing and instead stared back out over the water.

Part of her was glad that they would be arriving soon, she was growing tired of the walking and the fighting. They were beginning to run short of food, and the lack of animals wandering around made them unable to hunt for anything they could eat. Leaving the forest had removed the access to the berries they had been feasting on.

The wind picked up in a sharp gust that made Elora take a step backwards to keep her balance. It whipped at her cloak and hair, pushing the long strands high into the air. She closed her eyes and for a second it was like she was soaring through the air; the smell of the ocean and the grass filling her nostrils, the whooshing of the wind as it battered her face and tickled harshly at her wings. It made her want to jump from the cliff, without saying a word to the rest of them, and just fly away and away, until she couldn't see the cliffs anymore.

With a sigh that was carried away by the wind as quickly as she let it out, she opened her eyes and stepped back. "We must go, staying in one place for too long is dangerous," she said, but it sounded like a feeble excuse to her ears. She grazed her fingers along Nyal's arm to let him know they were going before she followed in Ragen's footsteps.

Her legs ached from the walking, even with the nightly stops to rest. Part of her missed the horse she had been given by Silas in Dreeva, even if she couldn't remember the name the young girls in Hav had given it. A horse would have been nice, but it would have made them too obvious.

The cliffs began to dip down towards the beach, the grass fading to pale sand that stretched out towards the water. Ragen was far ahead of them, she could see his small body wandering down. She could hear the other two walking behind her, their footsteps crunching faintly on the grass.

Her eyes drifted back to the beach and the water line, watching the waves crawl up the sand lazily. Something obstructed the path of the water, causing the foam to swarm around it like it was trying to pull it in and make it a part of itself. At first, she thought it was a large piece of wood that had drifted in from the sea, but upon closer inspection she found it twisted at odd angles that were just unnatural for wood.

She pointed down at it, looking over her shoulder at Nyal, a sign for him to come over to her. He looked confused for a moment, unsure of what she was gesturing to. "Is that?" he started, and even though he didn't finish his sentence, Elora still knew what he was asking. "By the gods."

She took that as a cue to spread her wings. If she was right, if Nyal was right, then whoever was down there needed help. The quickest way to get down there was to fly. She heard Nyal take a step back and tell her that he would meet her down there before she launched herself in the air. She didn't allow herself to relish in the feel of the wind like she had wished and instead flew as quickly down to the pale sand as she could.

The closer she got the more obvious the body became. It was that of a mermaid, a rare creature found in the oceans of Veridun. They rarely came towards land. They only showed their face if they absolutely needed to. She had only ever seen them when she hid the Gate down below the ocean for twenty years. They didn't class themselves as their own kingdom, but instead a part of both Riba and Voda.

Elora couldn't see any detail until she had nearly landed in front of the waterline. The mermaid was blonde, with a green scaly tail that shone in the sunlight. Her hair was stringy and dried out, stiff against her shoulders. From what Elora could see, she wasn't moving, her face planted into the sand.

Her feet thudded into the ground, kicking up sand all around her. She had to keep moving so that she would not fall and winced at her dodgy landing. She nearly fell right onto the collapsed mermaid, stopping herself right before she could trip. She crouched down next to her and pushed her dried out blonde hair away from her face.

She glanced up at the cliffs, watching the tiny dots of her companions run down towards her. If the mermaid was alive, she would need Nyal's help to heal her. She was sure he could use salt water, she knew he had used sweat beforehand.

Elora pressed two fingers under her jaw against the girl's neck, feeling for a heartbeat. She felt a dull beat against the tips of her finger and breathed out a sigh of relief. She leaned back onto her knees, trying to figure out how else to help. Moving her would be a bad idea, something could be injured, and she would only make it worse. She would have to wait for Nyal.

All she could do was figure out what had done it. it could only be something in the water, and Elora could only imagine what had happened to all the other mermaids if there was something down there. Looking around, all she could see was the rolling blue water and the pale sand. There wasn't a sign of anything in the water, but she couldn't see down into it clearly.

She bit her lip hard, ignoring the pain and choosing the panic instead. She couldn't see what had hurt the mermaid. She didn't know if it was still around. She gathered her powers, paranoia overpowering logic, and stood from the sand. She needed to get a better look at the water.

She held in the scream that threatened to spill out of her mouth when the hand clamped around her ankle. She went to blast the being that grabbed, before realising that it was the mermaid. She was awake and moving.

Another check told her that Nyal and the other two were still running for her. She crouched down again and stared right into the purple eyes of the young mermaid. She was gasping for breath, sand covering her face and body, grains of it spilling out her mouth. She arched up, her tail flopping and splashing in the water. Her hand moved from Elora's ankle and tried to go for her face.

"Ple- Please," she started in a raspy voice. "You need to go. It's coming."

"What's coming?" Elora asked, feeling the clammy palm against her face and smelling the salt of the water like it was poison.

"I don't- I don't know," she groaned, curling into herself. She was in pain, she needed Nyal. Another glance upwards. He was nearly there, running across the beach as his life depended on it.

"It will be okay," Elora said in an attempt to comfort the terrified mermaid. "We can help."

"No one can help," the mermaid replied, not looking her in the face anymore. "It's coming. It will kill us all. You need- You need to go."

She could hear Nyal's footsteps on the sand when the soft palm was ripped from her cheek. In the blink of an eye, the mermaid was pulled across the sand with a loud, agonised scream and into the deep blue waves. All that was left of her presence was an imprint in the sand and a smear of blood being pulled in by the tide.

Nyal's footsteps thudded to a halt as Elora moved backwards, her wings spreading out in preparation to flee. She tumbled against the sand, trying to get back to her feet and away from where the mermaid once lay.

"What in Veridun was that?" Nyal asked when he caught up with her, panting loudly. "Did she swim away?"

Elora turned to him with wide eyes, going to open her mouth and reply. She made barely a sound before she was interrupted by an almighty crash from behind her. Water drenched her wings and clothes and pushed her towards the sand hard.

Shocked, she spun around, hand on Nyal's arm to keep her balance. Water sprayed everywhere, splattering against the sand and their bodies, feeling more like icicles than drops of water. Something was flopping about in the water, something huge, something ready for a fight.

As it rose up from the water, Elora drew upon her magic, gathering her darkness all around. Prepared for the battle that was to come