[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/RQaJfun.png[/img][h1][b][color=B22222]C L A R A[/color][/b][/h1][hr][b][color=gray]IFRISE FOREST — SOVEREIGNTY OF DRYADLIS[/color][/b][/center][hr]
A surge of pure malice ripped through the air, and it tore at Clara's very being.

She was already on the floor, hands and knees pressed to the soil in an attempt to actually get up and get [i]moving[/i] again. Now she just felt stuck. Couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't [i]breathe[/i].

The malum energies clung to every part of her body, muscles, bone and all, it swarmed in her throat and seethed in her gut as if she'd been force fed poison, as if she was decaying from the inside out, and it smelled and tasted [i]putrid[/i] and [i]wrong[/i] and she could feel it [i]everywhere[/i], all over, and it [i]burned[/i], [i][color=B22222]gods, what's happening to me?[/color][/i] A terrible shiver overtook Clara's body, as if she'd been hurled into the rapids of a freezing cold river. It was overwhelming.

So she shut her eyes as tight as she could, as if it would somehow make everything disappear. The pain, the nausea, the dread, the [i]fear[/i], all of it. Just as she had done all those years ago. Just as she had done when the inquisitors came after her family, and she couldn't do anything about it.

Her hand clawed at the dirt beneath her.

And the soil hummed under her fingertips.

Something murmured in the back of Clara's frenzied mind, a voice that was not her own, but one she recognised immediately. It was a voice she hadn't heard in years, one she feared she had long forgotten.

[i]"…so you must hear it, feel it, embrace it. Open your senses to the earth, and it will lend you its strength."[/i]

[i][color=B22222]Mother.[/color][/i] She cried out to the distant memories, but heard nothing in return. Her fingers dug deeper into the soil.

[i]"…which is why you should never forget your blood. Your people."[/i]

Clara took a deep breath. Several deep breaths. Her body started protesting against the waves of malum that had infested her, and her mind tried calling out beyond the malicious blockade. 

[i]"This is the one thing they can never take away from you."[/i]

And Ifrise Forest whispered back.

Clara opened her eyes, and slowly rose to her feet. She still ached all over, still felt nauseous, the malum energies still buzzed in her head like an angry wasp nest. But she had to power through. The fight wasn't over yet.

Soon enough she made it back to the group, just stopping short of where Pagonia, Lazulin and Etoile stood. Clara gave them a weak smile, when really her body was rearing to get rid of this crazed maleficarum and get out of this hellhole of a forest. Her ether danced over her skin, ready to sprout, and her eyes burned bright with a desperate determination. 

[b]"[color=B22222]I'm no good a fighter like the rest of you, but I'm sure you know what I [i]can[/i] do by now,[/color]"[/b] she croaked, the taste of the maleficarum's ether still hanging from the tip of her tongue. She then directed her gaze to Etoile: [b]"[color=B22222]so if there's anything I can do to help defeat [i]that[/i], then you can bet on every god above that I'll gladly take the chance.[/color]"[/b]

She'd be damned if she let anymore kids die in front of her again.