Aura was distinctly more intimidating in the middle of a battle, than she was sitting at your dinner table. Tristan tensed, knotting her fingers in the rough fur between Celidon's shoulders, trying to keep thoughts of the tower at bay. There was little use. He lowered his gaze. Bodies lay scattered amongst the grasses and the ruins of the campsite, some in blue and silver, more in disorderly shades of grey and brown.

People were dying, his people were dying, and it was all his fault. They wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for him.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, setting his jaw. "I'm not leaving anyone behind, not this time."

A woman's scream captured his attention. Tristan wheeled to his right, a girl, only a little older than him with a blonde braid...Madeline, was being backed into a tree by a guard with his visor down. The soldier struck out at her with his sword, only just missing, his blade finding wood instead.

"There's one you won't be getting," Tristan spat in Aura's direction, breaking out into a run. His vines went ahead of him, snaking their way up the man's leg and along his arm. The guard gave a shout of alarm, pulling his dagger from his belt. It was all Maddie needed. She dived clear of him, scooping her bow up from the floor where he'd forced it from her hands.

Tristan summoned more vines, replacing them more quickly than the guard could hack through their stalks. They wrapped around his sword and wrenched it from his grasping fingers. Tristan grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the groin. As he crumpled inwards with a grown, Tristan pulled the helmet from his head and threw it down, the visor moving with a clatter. Pushing the guard backwards into the tree with the ball of his foot, Tristan summoned another cluster of plants to bind him in place, sprawled amongst the roots, his fingers far away from any weaponry.

"Stay down," Tristan told him. He glanced to Maddie.

"You okay?"

She nodded, and then tipped her head back at the tree.

"Gimme a boost?"

Tristan nodded, a smile flickering in the corner of his mouth. He urged one of the tree's branches lower, lower enough for Maddie to swing herself up onto it. As she pulled an arrow from her quiver, he turned back to Thoth and Celidon. Thoth was pointing at something. He followed his friend's finger just in time to see Toby's head hit the floor with a sickening wet slump. Blood dripped from the woman-guard's sword. Tristan's stomach turned over. He didn't dare look down at his own, knowing the ghosts he'd find there.

Thoth. He had to get to Thoth.

He phased through a guard, crossing the space between them in a few long strides. He rested a hand on Thoth's shoulder, as Celidon threw himself forwards.

"Cel, leave!" Tristan called.

"Go get her, mate" he told Thoth instead, in almost a whisper, "we've got your back."

put all your faults to bed

TristaN

you can be king again