Noah’s face showed his discomfort. The hand holding the gem still crackled alive with energy but the glow had been halved from the radiance it emitted before the lightning bolt was expelled. Noah was taking the glow as an indicator of the gem’s charge and the static around his hand as a display of the next spell’s ready and deadliness. The hand at his side came up to his face as he searched his pale palm for blood. When it came back clean, he nodded to Elann’s words and took a breath. In the distance his sister was still readily protecting a batch of commoners. She was fighting with a guard, her magic and his steel acting as the shield for the batch of people they had in a corner of the camp.

He looked to Elann as her bow strained to loose two more arrows in succession. He watched the projectiles sail through the air to strike at their targets, making them pause and stumble with their new pain before swords were driven through them to their ends. Noah’s eyes went back over the field afterwards, noting the guards were pressing in on the bandits and repelling them. The collection of magic and steel on the trio’s side gave them an added advantage, there was also the fact that divine presences resided over the battle. Zulrav lent his aid by producing winds for Aimee’s magic and the stormgems were invaluable to Noah’s safety.

Noah heeded Elann’s words and found the leader atop his horse, protected by four bandits who were acting as his buffer from the pressing guards. He brought his gem up again and let the lightning erupt from the rounded tip towards the bandit leader. Determined to end the battle, Noah let the gem surge with its remaining reservoir, and watched the bolt, unblinking, as it struck the man in the center of the chest, the impact throwing him off his horse who bolted through the buffering footsoldiers. Noah dropped the now dull stone as the heat from the eruption was enough to scald his hand in that instant. He shook his palm as the shouts of the bandits came and went, a retreat being sounded to their relief.

He looked to his hand in the moonlight and noted the temporary red spot the stone had imprinted on his fingers and palm. The stone’s glow was no more as it lay dully in the grass at his feet. Noah looked up to see the guards chase off the remaining bandits. His left hand went back to his right side, the ache he ignored temporarily to dispatch the bandit leader now coming back. He staggered back to the wagon and rested his bottom on the ledge to catch his breath.

Aimee quelled the flame in her hand and returned the campfire to its natural state. There was a hollow feeling in her chest and a buzz felt in the forefront of her mind. She swallowed thirstily and knew that she was nearly overgiving in her feverish defense of the campers. The guard she fought with clasped his gloved hand over her shoulder and complimented her valiance with a nod of respect. She muttered a thank you but found herself looking more for Elann and Noah. She had barely witnessed the last strike of lightning which streaked out from the wagons, so that was where she went, running in the darkness.