Valentina shook her head softly, trying to blink away the tears.  She lifted her chin, rolling slightly against the ground, trying to sit up.  This motion caused a rather odd looking pendant to slide into view from her corset, a blood red gem glowing with a strange inner light.  She winced.  "If you don't get me out of here, my step mother is going to be along with a full force to try and take me back.  And I don't think you'll stand a chance against her.  Please.  Get me away from them, and I'll... I'll do anything you want," she sobbed, her eyes dropping back to the ground.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Alexa was not on her horse.  One of the undead had managed to land a good enough hit to cause the horse to rear, dumping her into the dirt and dust unceremoniously before bolting off back toward the city.  Now she was afoot, her blade a whirling case of steel about her.  Her attention jumped from one target to the next as she danced around the field, the Runners moving with her as a single entity.<br/><br/>The roots ripping from the ground had her backpedaling, but only a few feet, before she lunged forward, ducking under the flailing plants, just in time to see the arrow fire towards Feena.  "DOWN!" she snapped, her own aura pulsing outward in a wave, the Runners closest to her speeding between the flailing roots to her side.<br/><br/>She focused her will, feeling the strange intrusion of another aura probing into her mind.  She erected barrier upon barrier in front of it, even as her body fell into a subconscious rhythm of block, withdraw, stab, clear, turn, repeat.  She had never felt an aura of this power, but she wasn't about to give in to it, not when so many of her men were counting on her, and the reinforcements were on the way.<br/><br/>The battle was going badly, and if the cavalry didn't arrive soon...  But just as she thought it, a horn sounded off toward Sequen, and a dull thunder arose.  Her head whipped around as she ducked under a root trying to wrap around her throat, wincing as the thorns glanced off her face.  She saw the gleam of armor and spears, and gave a yell.  "Stand fast, soldiers of Sequen!  Our reinforcements have arrived!" she snarled, and barely managed to snatch her ankle back as a small root tendril sought to wrap around it.  She lunged forward, trying to get to Feena's side.  The fae was going to be in serious trouble when this was over.  IF they survived this fight.<br/><br/>The cavalry surged down the low rise, the sunlight flashing off the weapons and armor of the riders, winking in places on the armor protecting the flanks, chest, and forehead of the horses.  They thundered down into the midst of the swarm of dead, crashing on them like an inexorable wave.<br/><br/>It was at that moment that the illusion broke through her barriers, and she went rigid, her knuckles turning white on the handle of her blade as her eyes went wide.  She twitched, shaking her head as her aura faltered slightly, retracting to half the distance, several of the men faltering and bolting back toward the city.  Her right hand shook, the blade rattling softly from the twitching.  One of the Runners went down, and his scream came in tandem with the whispered words as if Krathen were right behind her.<br/><br/>The words had a strange effect on her.  She spun, the blade lashing through nothingness, nicking one of the flailing roots.  She stood there, panting as she fought back the sensations of Krathen's aura, her teeth gritted as her eyes lit ablaze with anger.  Turning, she began a slow, inexorable advance, not toward Feena, but toward Anastasia, murder in her eyes and on her face as she only paused to destroy any undead that got in her way.  "Son of a bitch," she gritted, her hand still shaking as she advanced.  The Demon Lord's little display had rattled her, and it showed.