#nisela

Can anyone hear me? Please!

“Someone’s in trouble. I can hear them-”

The others look first at her, then each other, then at their surroundings. “You’re sure?”

“Yes!” She nearly shouts it. She can feel the other’s panic laced into the words in her mind. “Not out loud. None of you are hearing it?”

Their faces say no.

Well. That part is a touch concerning. Such desperation, but not broadcast in a way that all of them can hear? She can feel no warning from the Huntress, though. It may not be a trap.

“Look, up there!”

Two specks growing larger in the sky. One brown or gold- hard to say for sure from here- and one a brilliant red in the sunlight.

Help!

Well. That she can do. She just needs… “Nisela! Make me fly!”

Nisela looks between Kaelen and the approaching specks. “Make you fly?”

“Yes! Hurry!”

Nisela grins. “Alright then.” She shoves a feather at Kaelen and spreads her hands.

Kaelen can feel it immediately. Her feet lift inches from the ground before she forces them to touch down again. She smiles at Nisela. “Perfect.” 

“This will only last a few minutes, so-” Kaelen is gone already, sword out as she rockets into the sky. She can vaguely hear Nisela cursing below her, but it doesn’t matter. 

Please. I’m so tired…

“Land behind me!” Kaelen shouts into the wind, hoping her intent is enough to communicate with whatever is speaking to her. 

Thank you. He fears… he fears lightning. 

That’s all well and good for the others, but Kaelen has a sword and a shield and not much else at hand.

The first speck, smaller than the second, is a griffon, gold-feathered and dipping closer to the ground with every wingbeat.

The second is a dragon.

---

The scream grows louder and louder until something roughly troll-shaped hurtles past them and keeps falling. Nisela peers over the edge. It’s a very long way down. The screams continue long after it vanishes from her sight. After nearly a minute it cuts off abruptly and the faintest thud echoes against the stone walls all the way back up. 

Then the screams start again, above them and growing louder and louder until it passes them again.

“This is not how this spell is supposed to work,” Nisela says.

“Y’know, I really didn’t figure it was,” her sister says.

Thud. Screams.

“Do you really think Dar had to have us come down here to deal with this?”

“Definitely not,” Nisela says, watching the poor creature fall past them again with some sort of horrified fascination. “He probably just wanted me to see it. Possibly to laugh at my reaction.” She traces a design in the air and holds, waiting for the troll to hit the bottom and return. “Den.” She releases the spell as it falls one last time. Thud. Silence.

“Well at least that one worked,” Alison says. “How badly did you mess up the spell on the knife, man?”

“I didn’t,” Nisela says. At least, she’s pretty sure she didn’t. A solid 90% sure she hadn’t botched the transportation spell. “Maybe it just interacts weirdly with trolls?”

“Could’ve been the knife, too. Those things aren’t exactly designed to hold enchantments.”

“True.” The troll hasn’t reappeared, so the counter must have worked as intended. Nisela shrugs. She is almost surprised to find their brother still with them, sitting on a stray piece of fallen stonework, chin resting on his hand.