Village of GhostLight (End)
On the tower Meredith struggled to defend herself against the Blood Witch. Through down, Meredith could not continue the fight. The Witch stopped and from Meredith's broken staff created a cursed vision of it. A new staff formed in the hands of the Blood Witch, formed by blood, black glass, and wooden shards from Meredith's old one. With it the Blood Witch casted a crimson unstable magic into the swirling sky. "With this staff all the dead will rise from each corner of the earth. From the rubble of your tower, I will make my throne. My siblings will ascend unchallenged through their gates and this realm will once again see our flames."
The two Knights arrived as Meredith was on the ground weak from battle. The Scarlet Knight faced the Blood Witch as the Faceless helped Meredith. "I see a dark power in you Knight and a worthy opponent. You walk with the light of the sun but you still feel the pull of the darkness. The fire that burns in you is one from between realms, perfect." The Witch smiled sinisterly. The Scarlet Knight looked to the Faceless Knight. The Witch continued, "Yes he too has a hunted past, but he has chosen a path already. I sense conflict still in you, both flames trying to consume one another and you stuck in the middle." Meredith walked forward with her sun burning sword, "She is not alone, Witch! Your desires will not be fulfilled this day, you will fall as your companion did with his Immortal Army." In raged the Blood Witch casted a spell into the sky and fire balls of ghost light fell upon the tower. "It was not you who defeated him, but I will find the one who took my love from me. I will inflict a pain worse than death upon them, one slower than your electric sisters." The Witch laughed as she sent blood tendrils at Meredith. The Faceless Knight cut them in a dash as the Scarlet Knight charged the Witch. Meredith went to destroy the staff. The Witch fought both Knights at the same time as Meredith broke the staff with her flaming sword. The Witch casted a red magic spell that sent a shockwave of power across the tower. At the same time the beam of light from the staff rose into the sky and an explosion of sun light and red magic filled the sky.
The Scarlet Knights eyes opened and saw Meredith covered in ash and debris. Half over the edge of the tower was the Blood Witch holding the Faceless Knight by the throat as she ascended. "How weak they send a broken Knight who can't even speak to those he leads. No wonder the Indigo Knight left your command at the first opportunity, and the clueless wizard followed his orders over your own. Now the sun witch and the only compatible one among you are dead." The Witch smiled with delight as she drove her nails into the open spaces between the Knights chest plate and helmet. From her nails she began to drain him of blood and his life force. When she stopped suddenly, seeing the Scarlet Knight from the corner of her eye. Her sword was facing her already with blood on it's tip. Her palm was bloody. The Witch rose in anger and fear as the Knight chanted. Before the Witch could reach her the Scarlet Knight fell upon her own sword. To late the Blood Witch instantly disintegrated from the closet point to the Knight, backwards her bloody form was unbowed and she become nothing, erased from existence. The Faceless Knight struggled to reach the Scarlet Knight, the last she said to him, "Return crucifix to my father."
The Tower began to shake as the dark clouds broke apart by sunlight. Together the Faceless Knight and Meredith helped each other escape the collapsing tower. In the fall some of the keep also fell away.
The Faceless Knight rested in a nearby ruin building as Meredith returned to the ship. At the docks she found the ship in disarray. It had taken on water and was covered in bodies of crew and undead. Without the Witch's power and the cover from dark clouds they could not remain. The fisherman was also dead, his body over one of the broken masts.
The debris settled and together the Knight and wizard gathered the bodies of their fallen group. They took them to the south eastern edge of the island. Their Meredith waded into the shallow waters and raised her left hand. From an orb she told the others in the Tower of Knowledge what had happened. The leaders of the Knights also received this message from Azar's orb, given to them in honor of the Ebony Knight. Three ships from Labyrinthia arrived within half a day.
With birds gathering across the island and covering the sky, all worked to bury the bodies. All the bodies of the undead were barred on the northern rim of the island. The ship crew had their own graveyard made at the northern most point. On the southern most part of the island where Meredith had sent her message, they built the crypts for each of the fallen members of the group. During their construction the Forsaken Knight found the Faceless Knight in the islands ceremonial grove. On his approach the Faceless Knight knelt and presented the Scarlet Knights sword to him. The Forsaken Knight took it, "I forged this sword myself and imbued it with the ruins and magics long forbidden. I taught her everything she knew. I raised her out from darkness and trained her to use it with ethereal energy. She called me father and in away saved me from my own darkness. If not for her the Order would have hunted me the same as a monster. She brought light to all those she knew. Rise Knight, have no shame. I do not blame you. She knew what she was doing, I trust you can understand and perhaps you have already seen." The Faceless Knight stood and bowed with acknowledgment. He wrote and gave his journal to the Forsaken. The Knight read it, "Than if she has chosen you, I will teach you how communicate with her and when your ready I will gift you her sword".
When all was done the three ships and all who came left. Meredith returned to thr Tower of Knowledge and under went many months of healing from both physical trauma and the mind sickness. She was the only wizard to withstand its influence for so long. The two Knights were the last to leave the island after stopping once more at the finished crypt of the Scarlet Knight. The island would remain uninhabited.
C.A.A Patton
