Gaia's Champion Ch. 19

Daelina and Darren watched in horror as the wraith drained the life energy from the mother and child. Anger overwhelmed the fairy woman and through it, she drew upon Gaia's magic. She focused her will and unleashed a blast of pure energy at the wraith. Being a creature that thrived off death and decay, the energy knocked the wraith sideways, sending it flying.

It wailed in agony, then anger at its feeding being so rudely interrupted. It stood up and approached Darren and Daelina, its previous targets forgotten. It gathered its Dark Magic, fashioning it into a spell of draining, and fired it at the couple. On reflex, Darren's arms came out, invoking a barrier spell to protect them. The magic that was supposed to drain them hit the shield and dissipated, becoming nothing.

The wraith wailed in frustration as its spell was defeated and readied the spell again. Daelina was faster this time and lanced out with a spell similar to the wraith's. The major difference was that instead of draining any magic it had, the spell sought to knock any life energy loose from it. The bolt of energy caught the wraith off guard, and it was thrown back, with green life energy falling out of the apparition.

"Darren, scoop up that energy, now!" Daelina cried out.

Nodding, Darren did as he was told and used his magic to collect the stolen energies. He called it to him, and the energy rushed to him, collecting much like a cluster of lights. The wraith reached out, as though trying to stop Darren, but Daelina hit it with another blast, weakening it further. It cried out in pain and frustration, before it retreated into the shadows, before vanishing altogether.

"What in the name of Gaia was that thing?!?" Darren growled, half expecting the creature to pop out of a nearby shadow.

"It was a wraith, Darren. But it's gone for now, thank Gaia," Daelina told him.

"How do you know? How do you know it's gone?"

"Do you feel cold at all?" Daelina asked him.

"I... I did! But not so much now," Darren replied, looking down at his arms. His eyes widened when he saw they were covered in goosebumps. "How did you know?"

"Pass me that energy first. I'll explain after we help these poor people," Daelina told her boyfriend.

She snapped her fingers at the energy in his hand, before gesturing for him to hand it over. Darren pushed it towards her and Daelina took it from him and sorted out which energy belonged to whom. Drawing upon her fairy magic, she pushed the energies back to their rightful owners.

The mother and son had since gone catatonic, not seeing what was going on around them. Daelina was glad for that, and the isolated area around them, as there was no one else near them she could see or sense. The energies merged back with the fallen humans, bringing them back to life from their petrified state. Darren watched in amazement as the two of them started blinking, coming back to.

"Wha-what... happened?" the mother asked, coming back to consciousness first.

"Looks like the two of you suffered a bout of sunstroke and needed a moment to sit down. How do you feel?" Daelina asked.

"Mind's a little... fuzzy. I remember... Nolan saying his head hurt," the mother remembered. "Nolan?"

"M... mommy?" the little boy mewled.

"Come on. Let's get you two somewhere proper to sit, and something to drink. Sunstroke is no joke," Darren replied, offering his hand to help them up.

Between Darren and Daelina, they were able to get the mother and her son, Nolan, on their feet and over to a park bench. Darren found a food truck in the parking lot of the park and bought a couple of waters. After giving it to the pair and checking that they were OK, the couple left the would be victims behind and rushed out of there. They found a small and secluded spot where Daelina could work her magic and they were soon small and flying.

"Would you mind telling me what the whole bit with the wraith is?" Darren asked.

"Wraiths are beings of pure shadow and darkness, feeding on the life energy of those around them. It has been a while since I've seen one and I've never had to fight one before today," Daelina replied.

"You've seen one before? When?"

"Many centuries ago, when the lights of our city still glowed brightly. During the war," Daelina explained.

Darren winced, knowing that the war was a touchy subject for his fiancée. He'd asked a few probing questions about it, but hadn't asked for too much in the manner of details. He could tell that it was something of a sore spot, not just for Daelina, but for the other fairies as well. Darren focused his thoughts on the wraith and placed a few more questions to Daelina about where they were headed.

"Back to the house. The archive from the Sons might have some answers about how to fight such a being," she responded.

"Didn't you just say that you fought one before?" Darren wondered.

"I said that I saw one before, not that I fought one. I've seen a fight ensue between fairy soldiers and wraiths, but I never joined in such a fight. I wasn't taught the magic needed to fight them," she stated.

"You think the Sons' archive could hold some answers?" Darren queried.

"It's worth a shot. It's better than doing nothing but fearing for your life while you wait for it to come after you," Daelina told him.

"Point taken."

The pair soon arrived at the house, just as some others were getting back. Daelina put Darren down, before working her magic to make them big again. This caught some of them by surprise, as not everyone there was accustomed to seeing magic used every day. Daelina hurried up to them and told them what happened earlier, and how the wraith had retreated when it was confronted by them.

"Damn it! I wish we had more time, but it seems like this wraith has wasted none," Phalmina griped.

"Wait, you knew about the wraith before this?" Darren queried, his anger rising.

"We all did. It was right after you had broken from your father's control and Sheena had found her way to the glade. Phalmina had told us," Daelina stated, using her hand to indicate herself, Xaera and the other fairies, "that there was a wraith on the loose, but that it was weak. We tried locating it on our own but have had zero chance in finding it. This encounter today gave us what we needed to track it."

"So, hold on. You're telling us that there's a soul sucking ghost out there, that could drain us dry and we'd have no chance at defending ourselves?" Luke snapped.

"Not no chance, no. Today was an eye-opening experience and one that shows us we will need to step things up," Daelina explained.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth queried.

"The wraith has gained enough power to attack living beings in broad daylight! Broad, daylight! Let that sink in for a moment and what it means," Emalia stated.

"Shit! If it was strong enough to overcome a woman and her child at the same time..." Amy started.

"Then it's not far off in coming after any of us!" Phalmina told them. "OK, so there's a Ward of Protection set here, at Jason's, Eva's and Liz's homes. Who else needs said protection?"

"My place and my auntie's," Karla replied, making her request known.

"We'll get that done today, so don't worry for now. Lina, do you still recall what it felt like, being around that wraith?" Phalmina asked.

"Unfortunately. Why?"

"If we focus our magics on that sensation. Pooling our power together, we could track the damn thing and possibly defeat it. If nothing else, we could at least weaken it, before it goes after anyone else," Phalmina suggested.

"Good idea! With the three of us, we should be able to bring that thing down!" Daelina agreed.

"What about the rest of us? How can we help?" Xaera asked.

"You lot can go inside and research everything that you can on wraiths. What they can do, how they move about, but most importantly, how to kill them," Phalmina told them.

"Wouldn't you want this info before you head out?" Luke wondered.

"We need to move against it now, while its trail is still fresh. If we lose it now, we might not get another opportunity like this again!" Emalia replied.

"Fair enough," Eva replied. "You three heading out now then?"

"Yeah. We should be able to handle the damned thing. It was strong, but not strong enough to overcome Darren's defensive magics. With the three of us, it shouldn't pose any real threat and we'll be sticking together to hunt it down," Daelina stated, easing Darren's fears.

"Still, you three be careful! Especially since two of you are carrying little ones," Eva told them.

"Don't worry, mom. We'll be all right," Daelina replied. Without another word, Phalmina shrunk down, with Daelina and Emalia joining her moments later. The three motes of light then took off at high speed, heading in the direction of the park where the wraith was found.

"They'll be OK, Darren. Lina can handle herself," Amy told her brother, while he stared in the direction the fairy women had gone off in.

"I know, but I worry all the same," the young man said, smiling slightly.

******************************

The fairies arrived at the park soon after leaving the house, with Daelina leading them. They stopped at the shadow of the tree where the wraith had faded, tapping into their magic to attempt to track the wraith. All they picked up though was a faint trace of the darkness that the apparition had emanated. Phalmina huffed in frustration, thinking they had missed their window.

"Damn! I hoped we could still find it!" the blonde fairy griped.

"Hmm. You had an idea back at the house. Something about pooling our magic?" Daelina started.

"Could be worth delving into. Ema, come here," Phalmina called out.

Emalia skipped over and the three of them joined hands, focusing their magic to work as one entity, rather than three. Their senses expanded and they could sense far more than what they initially would. The range at which they could sense things was greater as well. It took a few moments, but as their magic worked, they finally could sense something... sinister, emanating just west of where they stood.

"Do you sense that?" Daelina questioned.

"I do. By Gaia, it's... cold!" Emalia shivered.

"At least we have a direction of where we need to search. Come on, you two!" Phalmina said, as she flapped her wings and took flight. Emalia and Daelina weren't far behind, flying with their sister fairy seconds later. As they flew toward the frigid feeling, it became sharper, more pronounced.

They looked below them maybe twenty minutes later and noted that they were in the town. They flew past the newer part of town, as the cold sensation was further past it. It wasn't long before the feeling intensified and the neighborhood looked a little rougher than what they'd seen so far. They not only sensed the cold sensation, but a lingering feeling of wrongness, which hung over the large building, which was advertised as a motel.

"It's here. I can sense it's... darkness," Daelina stated.

"I can as well," Phalmina agreed.

"Must be looking for a target to drain, since you interrupted its feeding," Emalia said.

"Have some life-giving bolts handy girls. We're going to have to flush it out," Phalmina told her friends. Green runes and sigils wreathed the fairies' hands as they drew near the structure. Focusing their senses, they searched for the source of the darkness and homed in on it. They found it on the second floor of the motel, behind a ratty blue door with the number twenty-three on it.

"In there?" Emalia whispered.

"Yeah," Daelina replied.

Staying in their tiny forms, the fairies slipped underneath the door and zipped in. They found a wiry young man, wearing a greasy undershirt and filthy jeans, leaning back in a chair. A needle was stuck in his arm and he had this look of distorted bliss on his face. Above him hovered the wraith, feeding off him, sucking his life force out of him as he was doped out of his mind.

Wasting not one second, the fairies attacked the apparition, blasting it with their magic. The wraith shrieked as the magic slammed into it, as its feeding cycle was broken yet again. It turned to face its assailants, thinking to feed on them instead, but saw that it was outmatched. Facing one fairy would be something that it could manage, but facing three of them? No way it would still be around after that. Seeing no other option, the wraith rushed past them, ghosting right through the window.

"After it!" Phalmina cried out, zipping for the crack in the door. Daelina and Emalia followed suit and were out of the room in seconds.

Daelina hesitated for a moment, as she looked at the young man, who was wasting away in the chair. He was still alive, but barely, and she was unsure if he'd ever wake up from his high. After bouncing the idea around in her head for a few seconds, Daelina made a choice and acted, sending a charged bolt of life-giving energy to the young man.

The magic poured into him, taking every mote of it into his body, like a sponge would suck up water. Where his skin was once pasty and lifeless, it now glowed with the vigor of youth. Seeing her work done, Daelina dashed through the crack in the door, joining her fairy sisters. They were chasing down the wraith, thinking to catch it, but it was moving too fast.

Daelina smirked as an idea jumped into her head, and she took off skyward. Once she reached a decent height, she stopped, surveying the area below. It was headed for another structure nearby, which looked like an abandoned garage. She noted how the fence separating the motel from the garage was overgrown with ivy and creepers. Seeing the wraith flee before Emalia and Phalmina, Daelina called upon her fairy magic and wove a spell to catch the wraith by surprise.

In seconds the spell was ready, and she launched it at the fence, saturating the plant life with Gaia's magic. The wraith wasn't looking where it was going and flew headlong into the fence. The spell that Daelina used was a barrier spell, which would deter any living being that tried to pass through it. But an undead apparition, like a wraith, would hit it like an electric fence.

The wraith screamed in pain as it flew right into the barrier, dancing like it being shocked. It then careened away from it, much like someone huge had swatted it away. It landed in a heap right at Phalmina's feet, just as she reached it. She and Emalia yipped in surprise before they brought their magic to bear on it. Daelina swooped down to join her friends, adding her magic to theirs.

"Good catch Lina! I thought it was going to get away from us!" Emalia enthused as she worked her spells to contain the wraith.

"Not on my watch!" Daelina grinned as she, too, formed Runes of Containment to bind the wraith.

Between the three of them, the wraith was nearly bound, as the runes the fairies were using had weakened it. With a roar of defiance, the wraith drew upon its Dark Magic, pulling from what reserves it had, and broke away from them. The fairies were shocked at its power, having underestimated just how strong it was. Before any of them could react, the wraith launched a Dark Spell, forming it to confuse and disorient the fairies.

It had used most of its strength to break free, and its energies were fading fast. It looked to where they stood and noted that a small piece of itself was left behind. The piece itself had several runes latched onto it, preventing it from returning to the wraith. Though it dearly wanted to reclaim that part of itself, the fairies were coming to, quickly shaking off its Dark Spell.

Using what Dark Magic it had left, the wraith vanished in a flash of energy. When the fairies came to several seconds later, they saw their quarry had eluded them yet again. Where the wraith had stood, was now a blackened scar on the ground. The three of them searched with their eyes and magic, but could detect no trace of the wraith or where it had gone.

"Damn it!" Phalmina cursed.

"We had that blasted thing in a Binding Spell! How in Gaia's name did it break free?" Daelina fumed.

"Seems like it has abilities we don't know about. But we didn't end up empty-handed!" Emalia piped up, heading back to where they had bound the wraith. On the ground, floating inertly, was the shard of the wraith that it had left behind. It sat there, spasming and twitching, like a severed limb. A couple of runes still glowed on the floating mass, keeping it in place.

"Well, at least that's something! Now we should be able to track the damn thing!" Phalmina told her friends.

"Let's complete these runes and get back. I want to know where this creature has gone, and fast!" Emalia said.

Without any further prompting, the fairies floated around the blobby shard of the wraith, casting their spells. They created a cage for it, so the dark essence of the wraith wouldn't touch anyone and corrupt them. Once the magical cage was done, they empowered it with additional runes, containing the essence and protecting it. With the protection spells done, a final rune was placed upon it, keeping it safe from the defensive magic of the house.

"You think those runes will hold?" Daelina wondered.

"They will. For now, which is all we need, until we can build a proper containment vessel," Phalmina told her, using her magic to shrink the caged shard, before drawing it to her.

"What happened to that young man the wraith was draining? Is he still alive?" Emalia queried.

"He was barely clinging to life when we left. I took a moment to give him a shot of life-giving magic. He should wake up and hopefully make better choices with his life," Daelina stated.

"How powerful a blast did you give him?" Phalmina asked.

"Powerful enough to wake him up and restore his health some. He was teetering on the edge of life and death when the wraith fled. I didn't want him to sit there, unable to wake or do anything," Daelina told her friends.

"Let's hope that he isn't stupid with this second chance you gave him," Emalia replied, before the three of them took flight.

******************************

Miles slowly came to, waking up out of the high that he had been in. It had been a weird one this time around, weird, but also frightening. Normally, when he got high, it was pure euphoria, something that took him to a place of bliss. This time, though, was more like a nightmare, one which he feared he wouldn't wake from.

He remembered the darkness that had encroached on his high, blackening everything. Miles could feel the very essence of it, which was what he supposed pure evil would feel like. He shuddered at the memory, not wishing to relive the horrifying moments he had endured. The one thing that stood out, though, was a being of light, which drove the darkness away.

Miles didn't know who or what it was that had changed it, but he was thankful for it, regardless. From what he could remember, the being was female, telling him to wake up. He did, following the path back to consciousness as he always had after shooting up. He looked down at the needle in his arm and frowned, pulling the object out of his skin.

After going through that nightmare, Miles knew he couldn't use again. He wouldn't, knowing the depths of the nightmare he had just suffered. He only used as a means to get away from the nightmare that was life, not to step into another one. He sighed and stood up, walking over to where he left his stuff in the room. Miles then caught his reflection in the mirror and stopped in tracks.

He had always known that he was a scrawny waif, the kind that most people could easily beat down. Hell, because of the drugs he was constantly using, he had only become thinner and weaker. The man staring at him in the glass was someone entirely different. This man looked healthy, youthful, alive! Miles touched his face, to be sure he wasn't seeing things and sure enough, what he saw was real!