Lysander crouched on the dirt, the tip of his sword scraping against the ground as he began drawing.
The blade carved lines through the soil, forming a rough map of the area they had discovered. A crude outline of the building appeared first, followed by the surrounding terrain, the tree lines, and the estimated positions of the Shriekers surrounding their objective.
The Sirens gathered around him, their enhanced night vision allowing them to follow every mark he made despite the darkness. Their eyes carried a faint glow as they studied the map, each of them trying to find the flaw in what appeared to be an impossible situation.
Lysander drew a wide circle around the building.
"The structure is here," he said, tapping the center with the tip of his sword. "And this is where the problem begins."
The surrounding circle represented the Shrieker horde.
Saige leaned closer, examining the drawing. "It'll be harder to detect us if we just fly high." His gaze shifted toward the sky above the distant building. "It's nighttime. If we keep enough altitude, they might not even notice us."
Raine immediately shook her head. "We can't risk that."
Saige looked toward her.
Raine glanced back at the Pegacampi resting several feet away beneath the cover of the trees. The creatures were huddled together, their wings folded tightly against their bodies as they rested.
"We can't risk them getting a hold of the Pegacampi," Raine continued. "I'm not letting one of those things get anywhere near them."
Nobody argued.
The Pegacampi were not just their transportation. They were companions, living creatures that had carried them through countless dangers. The thought of one being dragged down by the horde or taken by one of the cannibals was enough to eliminate that option entirely.
Lysander looked back at the map. "We can't fly," he said quietly. "And we can't go through either."
The group fell silent.
The distant noises of the Shriekers drifted through the night. Thousands of shrieks blended together, forming an endless, unnatural murmur.
Lysander remained focused on the drawing for a moment before slowly lifting his gaze. "Kair."
The siren looked toward him.
"You and Emery scouted the area. Did you find anything? Any possible route?"
He crouched beside Lysander and pointed toward the circle surrounding the building. "It's not concentrated on one side. When Emery and I observed the area, we found them surrounding the entire structure."
His finger moved around the map. "North. East. West." Then he pointed toward the southern side. "Even south."
Lysander's expression tightened. "Even south?"
Kair nodded. "There is no clear path."
The realization settled over them.
Lysander looked back down at the map.
"How many?"
Kair glanced toward Emery.
The other siren stepped forward.
"Estimating the exact number is difficult," Emery said. "However, based on their average size, spacing, and the density of the formation, we can calculate an approximate range."
She knelt beside the drawing and extended the outer boundary of the circle Lysander had created. "The horde maintains a safe distance from the building itself. Approximately this far."
She marked the distance. "Using the visible concentration as a reference, the surrounding area would require this many individuals to maintain the formation."
She paused. "At minimum..." Her eyes moved toward the distant building. "There are several thousand Shriekers surrounding it."
The words remained hanging in the air. Even the Sirens, who had fought against impossible odds before, went quiet.
Lysander stared at the dirt.
"There's also another problem," Kair added.
Lysander looked up.
Kair pointed toward the building. "We're not even sure if there's actually anyone inside."
The others turned toward him.
His eyes narrowed as he looked beyond the endless mass of Shriekers. "The person who gave us this direction... they could have set us up. This entire thing could be a trap."
Lysander remained quiet for a moment, considering the thought. "That is also a possibility."
The admission did not make anyone feel better.
Kair pointed to the drawn square box in the dirt. "We've observed this structure for quite some time. We couldn't get close enough without risking detection, but..." He paused. "I haven't seen any movement."
Lysander looked at him. "None?"
"None." Kair shook his head. "Even with my Velaric eyes, I couldn't detect anything. No people moving around. No activity inside. Nothing."
The discussion reached another dead end.
No openings. No visible entrances. No movement inside the building. For all they knew, the stranger could have sent them into a trap, and they were wasting precious time trying to rescue people who had never been there in the first place.
Silence settled over the group until Raine suddenly spoke. "What about underground?"
Every pair of glowing eyes turned toward her.
Raine frowned at the attention. "What?"
Lysander rested both hands on the pommel of his sword and looked at her expectantly. "Go on."
She shrugged. "Maybe we're thinking too much about getting through the horde. What if the way in isn't above ground at all?"
The idea lingered in the air for a moment before she continued.
"I mean, we sirens do it all the time. There are plenty of hidden places beneath our settlements." A smug grin crept across her face. "I've got a whole stash of buried treasures and personal memorabilia somewhere beneath my house."
She glanced around at the others, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "And before any of you get any bright ideas..." she pointed a finger around the circle, "...if I find out someone dug up my stuff, I'll end you."
A few of the sirens exchanged amused looks.
Lysander ignored the threat entirely, though the corner of his mouth twitched upward. "That..." he admitted, "...is actually a good point." His gaze drifted back toward the distant silhouette of the building. Do humans build underground as well? I mean... can they?
No one answered.
The question passed quietly around the group as each Siren searched their own knowledge for an answer. Despite everything they had learned about humanity, none of them had ever paid much attention to what lay beneath human cities,
Callista was the first to break the silence. "I would think so."
Everyone looked toward her.
"Within the last century alone, humans developed weapons capable of leveling entire cities." She folded her arms thoughtfully. "If they're capable of engineering something that destructive, I see no reason to doubt they can construct infrastructure beneath the earth. It seems like a reasonable conclusion."
Lysander nodded slowly. "...Then perhaps there's an underground passage." His eyes drifted toward the three herbalists. "Saige. Emery. Siena."
The three looked up almost simultaneously.
"What?" Saige asked.
Lysander gestured vaguely toward the ground. "I don't know... maybe ask your tree friends if there's some sort of tunnel beneath the building."
Saige stared at him. "My... tree friends?"
"Yeah."
The herbalist pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "That's insulting."
Lysander blinked. "How is that insulting?"
"Because trees aren't my friends." Saige looked genuinely offended. "They're sentient beings, you moron."
Emery nodded in agreement. "Yeah..." she muttered. "Why would you say that?"
Lysander looked between the two herbalists, visibly confused. "Alright, fine. I'm sorry."
Before the conversation could spiral any further, Siena quietly raised a hand. "I have an idea."
The group turned toward her.
Instead of looking at Lysander, Siena looked directly at Callista. "What if Callista drains them?"
Callista tilted her head. "The horde... or the people inside?"
"Both."
The suggestion was met with another thoughtful silence.
Callista shifted her attention toward the sea of Shriekers beyond the trees, her expression becoming increasingly contemplative. "Hm..." She rested a finger beneath her chin. "I'm not even sure Shriekers possess Vitalis energy."
"They're technically living, aren't they?" Raine asked.
"I have no idea," Callista corrected. "Whether they still carry Vitalis is really another question entirely." Her eyes remained fixed on the distant horde. "If they do..." she murmured, "...then yes, I should be able to draw it out."
She glanced back at the others.
"But I'd rather not discover I'm wrong while standing in the middle of several thousand Shriekers."
"So we test it first," Lysander concluded.
Callista nodded once. "That would be preferable."
Lysander pushed himself to his feet, brushing the dirt from his hands before resting his sword across one shoulder. "Excellent." He started walking. "We're getting you a test subject."
~~~
The forest had fallen quiet again by the time footsteps emerged from the darkness.
Lysander led the way between the trees, his sword resting over one shoulder while Raine and Saige followed several paces behind. Between them, two Shriekers stumbled and thrashed violently, their movements restricted as thick vines wrapped around their torsos and limbs. Every attempt to break free only caused the living restraints to tighten further.
The rest of the group looked up from where they had been waiting along the roadside. A few sirens had been tending to the Pegacampi, checking their harnesses and calming the creatures after the disturbance. Others rose to their feet as the three returned with their unwilling test subjects.
Callista's gaze settled on the pair of grotesque creatures, their decayed bodies twisting against the vines. "...What's with these two?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "They look nasty."
Raine brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, sounding almost too casual for someone who had just wrestled with the undead. "I tore out their vocal cords."
She gave one of the shriekers a light kick as it continued to writhe on the ground.
"Figured it'd be best if they couldn't scream."
Callista gave an approving nod. "Good thinking." Her attention returned to the creatures, her expression becoming noticeably more focused. "Set them over there... then everyone step back."
Without a word, Saige guided the bound Shriekers toward two sturdy trees standing only a few feet apart. He placed a hand against the rough bark and closed his eyes.
The mark at the back of his neck shimmered with a soft glow.
A quiet rustling spread through the forest.
Roots pushed through the earth as if answering an ancient call, while thick vines slithered down from the branches overhead. They coiled around each Shrieker with deliberate precision, binding wrists, ankles, torsos, and shoulders before anchoring themselves around the trunks. The creatures strained against their restraints, rotten muscles twitching as they fought with mindless persistence, yet every struggle only encouraged the forest to tighten its grip.
Saige opened one eye, studying his work. "Easy..." he muttered, more to the vines than to the Shriekers. "Don't rip their arms off."
The living restraints obeyed immediately, loosening just enough to keep the creatures immobilized without tearing brittle flesh from bone.
Lysander watched the herbalist work with quiet appreciation before stepping back beside the others. "Will they hold?"
Saige gave one of the vines an experimental tug before nodding. "They're not going anywhere."
One of the Shriekers snapped its jaws repeatedly, clouded eyes darting from one Siren to another. A guttural rasp escaped its ruined throat, little more than air forced through shredded flesh where its vocal cords had once been.
Raine folded her arms with a satisfied smirk. "See? Worth the effort."
Callista stepped forward, stopping just beyond the creatures' reach. The flickering firelight painted the decayed figures in shades of amber and shadow as she examined them in silence, her eyes tracing every wound, every unnatural movement, every detail that distinguished them from the living.
For several long moments, she simply observed.
Then, without taking her eyes off the Shriekers, she spoke. "Let's see," she murmured. "If there's anything left inside you to drain."
The others quietly retreated, giving Callista the space she had asked for. Even the Pegacampi were led farther back, their riders gently guiding them away from the restrained Shriekers. Though the creatures remained unusually calm, a few pawed uneasily at the earth, sensing a force they could not understand beginning to stir within the forest.
Callista stepped forward alone.
The two Shriekers immediately lunged against their restraints, jaws snapping hungrily as they struggled to reach her. Thick vines groaned beneath the strain while roots anchored themselves deeper into the earth, refusing to yield. Their ruined throats could no longer produce the deafening shrieks their kind was named for. All that escaped were harsh, rasping breaths through shredded flesh.
Unmoved, Callista slowly raised both hands. Her palms faced the creatures, then she closed her eyes.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the mark upon the back of her neck shimmered.
A soft golden glow traced the intricate markings etched into her skin before settling into a steady radiance.
No one spoke.
They simply watched.
This...
...was the power of a Senzara.
A Gift so exceedingly rare that even among sirens, few would ever witness one wielding it at its full potential.
Callista drew a slow, measured breath.
Her shoulders remained perfectly still as the mark upon the back of her neck glowed a little brighter with every passing second, more of her own Vitalis flowing steadily into the Gift.
The shriekers continued to struggle. To them, none of it mattered. They cared nothing for beauty. Nothing for power. Nothing except the flesh standing before them.
Then something changed.
At first, it was so faint that only Emery noticed. "There..." She pointed toward one of the shriekers' feet.
Delicate strands of golden light began emerging beneath the creature's skin.
They traced the outline of veins and arteries with astonishing precision, climbing slowly from its feet toward its legs. More luminous threads appeared within its fingers, branching through each knuckle before winding up its forearms like glowing roots spreading beneath glass.
The light continued its ascent.
Gold...
Then amber...
Then a deep burnt orange.
As the glow neared the creature's chest, the color darkened further until it resembled dying embers.
Brown.
Then...
Black.
The darkness gathered around the heart.
Then...
Nothing.
Callista frowned.
She could feel the Vitalis. It was there. She could sense every thread of it as clearly as she had sensed the golden energy flowing through the rest of the body. Yet the corruption surrounding the heart refused to move. It clung stubbornly to the creature as though it had rooted itself into every fragment of its being.
Another pulse of light spread across the mark at the back of her neck.
Still nothing.
A small crease formed between her brows.
"So that's where you're hiding..."
The words were barely more than a whisper.
She drew a slow breath and steadied herself. Rather than forcing the corruption free, she gathered more of her own Vitalis, feeding it into the Gift with greater precision.
For a long moment, the corruption refused to yield.
Then a single strand of black smoke peeled away from the Shrieker's heart.
Callista felt the resistance weaken.
Without hesitation, she poured just a little more of herself into the extraction.
The lone strand became several. Several became dozens. Within seconds, the corruption finally gave way, rushing from the creature's chest in twisting streams toward her outstretched hands.
Only then did Callista allow herself the faintest smile. "Come on..."
The shriekers convulsed violently.
Their rasping grew frantic as the smoke poured steadily from their hearts, drawn toward Callista by an invisible force.
Still, she did not move.
Her hands remained suspended before her, fingers slightly spread as the black mist flowed through the air in slow, twisting streams.
The transformation began almost immediately.
Moisture abandoned the creatures first.
Their decaying flesh tightened against brittle bone, shriveling before the Sirens' eyes as though centuries were passing in mere moments. Loose skin clung to skeletal frames while exposed muscle darkened and cracked beneath the relentless extraction.
Raine watched in horrified fascination. "...They're drying out."
The process accelerated.
One Shrieker jerked violently.
A sharp crack echoed through the clearing.
Its left arm detached at the shoulder, striking the ground with a hollow thud before crumbling into brittle fragments.
Moments later, the creature's neck gave way.
Unable to support the weight of its own skull, the desiccated vertebrae collapsed, sending its head tumbling lifelessly into the dirt.
The second lasted only a heartbeat longer.
Its ribcage folded inward with a sickening series of cracks before the entire body caved in upon itself, leaving little more than a withered husk bound within Saige's vines.
Only then did Callista open her eyes. They shone with the same golden brilliance as the mark upon her neck. With a single, fluid motion, she drew both hands sharply back toward herself.
The black smoke surged all at once.
Every remaining strand of corrupted Vitalis tore free from the Shriekers in a violent rush, spiraling across the clearing before gathering into a dense sphere suspended between her palms.
The light vanished.
Silence returned to the forest.
Where two ravenous Shriekers had stood only moments before...
...two dried husks remained, hanging motionless from the vines, as though time itself had claimed them centuries too early.
And floating between Callista's hands was a swirling mass of black Vitalis, twisting endlessly like smoke that refused to dissipate.
For several long seconds, no one moved.
The sphere of black Vitalis continued to churn between Callista's hands, its smoky tendrils curling over one another as though searching for something to consume.
Only after the golden radiance faded from the mark upon the back of her neck did Callista finally relax her shoulders.
She looked back at the others and offered an awkward, almost apologetic smile. "...Well." A small breath escaped her. "First time for everything."
The sirens exchanged uncertain glances.
None of them had ever witnessed a Senzara extracting Vitalis before—let alone whatever that had become.
Siena was the first to break the silence. "...That was incredible."
Curiosity quickly overtook caution as several Sirens instinctively stepped closer, eager to examine the strange mass of smoke swirling between Callista's palms.
"Wait." Callista's voice was calm but firm. She took a careful step backward. "Don't."
The group stopped immediately.
Callista continued. "Stay where you are."
She lowered her gaze to the black Vitalis, watching it twist and coil around itself. It behaved unlike any Vitalis she had ever manipulated. It felt...wrong.
Heavy.
Cold.
As though every hateful emotion imaginable had been compressed into a single, restless mass.
Lysander frowned. "Why?"
Callista remained silent for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "One of the oldest principles in nature is that energy cannot simply cease to exist." Her eyes never left the swirling smoke. "It changes form. It moves. It is transferred."
She slowly closed her fingers around the corrupted Vitalis without allowing it to touch her skin.
"I pulled it out of the shriekers..." Her expression became noticeably more serious. "...but that doesn't mean it's gone."
She could feel it resisting her Gift.
The darkness.
The malice.
An endless hunger pressing against her will.
"I don't know exactly what this is," she admitted quietly, "but I know enough not to let it enter another living body."
She looked back at the others.
"If even a fraction of this were to seep into one of you..." She shook her head. "I don't want to find out what it would do."
No one argued.
The uneasiness in Callista's voice was enough.
Raine folded her arms. "So where exactly are you planning to put it?"
Callista slowly surveyed the forest before her eyes settled upon one of the nearby trees. "...Sorry, herbalists." She gave the three herbalists an apologetic glance. "But it has to go somewhere."
Saige immediately followed her gaze. His eyes widened. "Wait." He hurried in front of her, raising a hand. "At least let me find a dead one."
Closing his eyes, Saige rested a hand against the nearest trunk.
The mark upon the back of his neck shimmered faintly.
Silence spread through the forest.
The surrounding trees swayed almost imperceptibly despite the still air, their roots whispering through the earth in a language only a herbalist could understand. Saige remained motionless, listening rather than searching.
Nearly two minutes passed before he finally opened his eyes. "There." He pointed across the road.
A lone tree stood apart from the others, stripped bare long ago. Its trunk had long since dried, and not a single leaf remained clinging to its skeletal branches.
Callista inclined her head. "Thank you."
She crossed the road alone while the others kept their distance.
Stopping before the lifeless tree, she gently pressed both palms against its weathered trunk.
For an instant...
Nothing happened.
Then the black smoke began to move.
It seeped from between her fingers and disappeared into the wood, spreading beneath the bark in branching streams. Vein-like patterns illuminated the trunk just as they had within the shriekers, though this time the glow was dimmer—sickly.
Dark amber.
Then brown.
Then pitch black.
The decay began almost immediately.
Chunks of bark loosened and dropped to the ground in brittle flakes. The branches overhead shuddered before snapping under their own weight, crashing one after another into the undergrowth.
Cracks raced through the trunk with sharp, splintering reports.
The already-dead wood withered further, as though death itself had been forced to die a second time.
Its gray surface blackened until it resembled charred timber left behind by an ancient wildfire. Thin wisps of smoke escaped from the widening fractures, yet no flame accompanied them.
The forest fell silent.
Even the wind seemed unwilling to touch the ruined tree.
Callista slowly withdrew her hands, and the black Vitalis was gone.
The forest remained eerily still.
The blackened husk of the dead tree stood as silent proof of what they had just witnessed. Its bark had long since crumbled away, leaving behind a brittle trunk riddled with dark fractures. Even the surrounding undergrowth seemed reluctant to creep any closer, as though the corruption lingering within the wood had warned the forest to keep its distance.
Raine wandered over to the ruined tree, giving it an experimental poke with the tip of her boot before glancing sideways at Callista. "...Remind me never to piss you off."
Callista let out a quiet laugh. "Don't worry." She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm more scared of you than you are of me."
Raine looked at her suspiciously before a grin slowly spread across her face. "Good answer."
The two shared an amused glance before their attention drifted back to the tree.
"So..." Raine said, breaking the silence. "Now what?" She gestured toward the endless darkness beyond the road where the distant horde waited. "Are you actually going to be able to do what you just did..." She paused, searching for the right words. "...to several thousand Shriekers?"
Callista's smile faded into a thoughtful expression. "...Probably not."
She folded her arms, replaying the experiment in her mind.
"What I just did required concentration. Precision." She glanced down at her hands, still remembering the unnatural weight of the corrupted Vitalis. "If I attempted to drain all of them at once, I'd likely collapse before I finished."
Her gaze returned to the distant field. "I'd have to do it in sections." After a brief pause, she quietly admitted, "...And to be honest, the thought of repeating that process over and over again makes me feel sick."
"I thought it was cool."
Everyone turned toward Lysander.
He stood with his arms folded, studying the charred remains of the tree with genuine admiration rather than horror.
Kair chuckled. "Honestly... me too." He shrugged. "If I were ever given the chance to change my Gift, I'd probably choose Senzara."
Callista couldn't help but smile. "Thank you." Her fingers absentmindedly traced the back of one hand. "I love my Gift too."
The warmth in her voice lingered only for a moment before Lysander's expression became serious again. "Then all that's left is figuring out how we're going to use it."
He walked back toward the rough map they had carved into the ground. His sword still stood where he had left it, its tip buried several inches into the soil beside the crude outline of the building. Wrapping a hand around the hilt, he pulled it free with a muted scrape of steel against earth before lowering the blade to the map once more.
"We'll need to move quickly." The tip traced a slow line through the circle representing the horde. "If hundreds of Shriekers suddenly begin collapsing, whoever's inside that building is going to notice."
He looked toward the horizon. Though the forest remained dark, dawn was inevitable. "We have the advantage while it's still night. Once daylight comes, every movement becomes more dangerous."
The group silently nodded.
Time had quietly become another enemy.
Callista sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "...Suddenly I wish Kriesha and Atticus were here."
A few quiet laughs passed through the group before the weight of the mission settled over them once more.
Callista looked back at Lysander. "So..." She gestured toward the map with an open hand. "How are we going to execute this?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note;
Was hard trying not to make Callista too OP 😩 I wouldn't want her Gift though, with great power comes great responsibility and honestly...that sounds like a lot of work. 😵💫