Mired Mind

Voah walked into the north archway with a prayer on her lips. It calmed her mind somewhat and pushed back the whispers she had been hearing and dulled the headaches.

As she walked forward into the corridor her torch illuminating the way, she saw that the cobblestones and smooth brick walls gave way to the rough and ragged terrain of a cave.

Suddenly from the darkness a woman appeared. She was tall, with long brown hair, brandishing a spear. The metal spearhead reflected brightly against the light of her torch. The woman's skin was covered in something that at first she confused for algae or barnacles. These patches of her skin illuminated bright or dull as if glowing.

Halted in her steps from the figure emerging out of darkness, Voah’s immediate urge was to pull her blade in defense, but upon seeing the visage of this figure, what appeared very similar to the carving Hunter made of Cambena’s aspect, she felt awestruck and was compelled to kneel.

As she moved to kneel, the woman took two steps forward, nimbly moving across the cavern tunnel. The Arbiter could see swirling patterns of blue tattoos in the woman's skin as well as what she had mistaken for algae. Her eyes drawn to the the patches covering the woman's skin as if part of the ink. The woman raised her spear and brought it down across Voah's head. The Arbiter barely brought here sword to bear to spot the impact inches from her face.

A huge cloud of spores was released from the woman's skin covering the Arbiter's face.

~The mould...~ she realized too late, as a sharp pain flares behind her eyes.

The sudden clarity of her situation shot a pump of adrenal through the Arbiter. Her mind was mired by the mould and must have been for some time now. She was relying solely on muscle memory.

So foolish! She couldn’t trust anything she was seeing. But she certainly felt the contact of that blow.

Should she fight back? It could be Tarmen, Alexis, Gonyaul… When had they split up? Could have been hours ago.

She scrambled backward to her feet, trembling, holding her sword and torch up in defense as she inched back to the water chamber keeping the spore woman as far as she could while keeping her guard up against her.

The woman was fast... or Voah was slower... The cloud of spores hung around her head. Every breath she took made her vision swim. She could hear her heart beat inside her head, the sound threatening to burst her hear drums. The woman's spear twisted in front of her, the point missing Voah's face by centimetres. Hefting her spear, she banged the butt of her weapon against the Arbiter's gut. Voah bent over before seeing the woman twist again, bringing her spear down on her head. Darkness came crashing down.