As they grew closer to the small tree village, Zasian could make out the distinct forms of creatures. A small group of them were emerging from the mist and approaching the trio.
"Perfect," the priest said softly, still smiling in anticipation. "A welcoming committee."
Aliisza parried a strike from one of the hound archons trying to surround her and took another step back. The celestial warrior closed the gap and swung his sword at her again. Her foe wasn't trying to injure her. His attacks were slow, methodical, not designed to slip past her defenses so much as wear them down.
"Surrender," the archon said, raising his sword for another two-handed strike. "It's only a matter of time before you must. Save us all some aggravation."
Aliisza smiled and whipped her more delicate sword up and out to block his. The blow rang in the mists of the forest, and it sent a tingling up her arm, but she didn't let that show. Instead, she took another step back until she pressed against a tree. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two more archons closing in. They held a net between them.
Aliisza followed up her parry with a feint to the archon's knees, then used the space she had created to duck around the tree. She heard the creature's blade strike hard against the trunk, but she was already sprinting toward a fallen log with another clump of bushes, nearly as thick as she was tall, nestled against it.
The archons had relentlessly pursued her since she had become separated from Tauran and Kael. Kaanyr had gone off in his own direction, but the other three of them tried to remain together, closing ranks to defend themselves from the swarming onslaught of archons. They could not maintain their positions, though. The creatures utilized a clever tactic to divide them through rapid and repeated teleportation. They used their attacks to drive her to one side or another, then they popped into the area she had just vacated, becoming wedges, separating her from her allies. They were herding her away from her compatriots.
Once Aliisza had realized their intentions, she abandoned her efforts at staying near the other two and sprinted through the forest, ducking and weaving in haphazard directions to evade their attacks and confound their strategy. The new tactic prevented them from closing in on her initially, but they had the numbers necessary to surround her.
The alu nearly took to the air then, thinking to outrun the archons by winging her way into the canopy and beyond. She had gotten only a few feet off the ground when that innate sense of danger she sometimes experienced washed over her. She peered up into the trees and spotted devas awaiting her there.
Giving up on fleeing by wing, Aliisza returned to the branch, where the archons continued to close in. Over and over, she managed to evade the creatures, but each desperate maneuver took her farther and farther away from her companions.
She no longer even heard the sounds of distant battle ringing through the misty forest to indicate where they might be.
She was alone in her fight.
Nothing you can do about it now, she chided herself. Find them later. If they're still standing.
"Surrender," the one chasing her demanded.
Aliisza did not turn around. She leaped and spread her wings. She glided over the low scrub brush and came to rest atop the fallen log. She turned to survey her pursuit.
The archon closest to her took one faltering step before drawing up at the edge of the scrub. He eyed the greenery as if considering how best to get past it, then he shrugged and blinked out of existence.
Aliisza had anticipated his tactic, and when he appeared next to her atop the log, she muttered a quick arcane phrase and looked away. A flare of magical light flashed right upon the tip of the archon's nose. He yipped in surprise and flinched, falling backward. He swatted at the afterimages dazzling him, but Aliisza was already moving away.
She sprinted the length of the log and leaped, spreading her wings to soar over the other archons closing in. The pair with the net tried to unfurl their rope trap in time to throw it up and over the alu, but she lunged past them and glided to the ground on the far side.
Her newfound freedom didn't last long. Once again, the archons materialized ahead of her, cutting her off. No matter which way she turned, they appeared there. It was maddening.
Can't outrun them, she decided. Got to outsmart them. Got to hide, slip away.
Aliisza turned to sprint in yet another direction, aiming for a small draw between two large and rather prominent trees. Her sense of foreboding warned her that something menaced her from above the hollow, but she ignored the sensation. If she executed her plan well enough, she might be able to slip away undetected.
The alu darted into the shallow depression and flourished one hand in the air as she uttered a magical phrase. A cloud of mist arose, thickening into an impenetrable veil that obscured Aliisza from everything around her.
In the next breath, she reached within her tunic and pulled out two different bits of material needed for another pair of spells. The first one, a small lump of a sticky substance, she squeezed between her thumb and forefinger as she verbalized the magic needed to render herself completely invisible.
Once she had vanished, she took the second one, a small fragment of fleece, and tossed it to the ground near one of the two trees. Instantly, an image of herself appeared. The illusory version of the alu crouched down next to the bole of the tree as though hiding.
Satisfied, Aliisza turned and pushed herself up from the ground as quietly as she could and spread her wings wide. Just as she was rising from the thick, cloaking mists in which she had hidden, the first of the archons drew near. With one last mental command, the alu sent her illusory image aloft, causing it to wing its way in the opposite direction from her own path. The mirage version of the half-fiend appeared from within the mists and shot forward.
The closest archon gave a shout and pointed, and other celestial warriors took up the pursuit. Giving a small, silent sigh of relief, Aliisza flew away.
She hadn't made it twenty feet before she became visible again.
Above and slightly behind her, a commanding voice yelled, "Here! She's trying to sneak away!"
Cursing, Aliisza glanced up and spotted one of the angels swooping toward her. He was pointing at her and motioning for the archons to pick up their pursuit again. A heartbeat later, several of the archons appeared nearby, teleporting into positions to surround her once more.
Aliisza cursed again and drew up into a hover. She spun and flew straight at the deva, hoping to catch him off guard.
You're not taking me back there, she swore. Not so you can play mind games with me.
The deva, who wore his golden hair trimmed short, started at the sight of the alu rushing at him. Aliisza thought she might have stunned him enough to feign an attack and zip away, but the angel recovered and opened his mouth to speak.
The next thing Aliisza remembered was spinning dizzily as she fell to the ground. Her ears rang and she could not orient herself so that up was up. She struck the soft forest floor with a jarring exhalation and bounced across it until she finally came to a stop. She lay there, gasping for air.
A pair of archons appeared near her and began to unfurl their net. "Surrender," one of them said dispassionately as he worked to envelop her within the confines of his snare. "It's pointless to keep fleeing. You cannot get away."
To the Hells with you, Aliisza thought, but she had no strength to resist.
Two more archons gathered around her and the deva joined them. As a group, they stretched the net out over Aliisza and pinned her to the ground.