Fallen Star

by Ivan Kal

  Narzarah walked to his three Champions.

  “Stay together. Don’t let Vin catch you alone and off guard. Go,” Narzarah told them. He saw Ming-Li grin and then jump ahead, Ashara and Lei following closely behind. The three of them crossed the distance to the hole in the wall in an instant and then they jumped over the burning homes and disappeared into the city.

  The two armies roared and charged, running past him. Narzarah walked slowly with his back straight toward his pavilion to watch. He could feel the Lashian commanders watching him, but he didn’t give them so much as a glance. He needed to get to his part of camp quickly; he didn’t want his “allies” to see just how much that attack had taken out of him. They didn’t need to know that—the image of him in their heads had to be that of an unimaginably powerful force.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  KYARRA

  Present

  Kyarra looked at the pillar of fire spreading up into the air, and time slowed down. She could feel the amount of power gathering there, and she could tell that the attack was meant for her shield. She just couldn’t believe that anyone was capable of holding so much power. With her fragment, Kyarra could, but her mind would break long before she reached even half the amount channeled there.

  As the pillar of violet fire started to come down, a million thoughts flashed through Kyarra’s mind, but she couldn’t act on any one of them. She could only watch.

  When the pillar first struck the shield, she felt a sharp pain inside of her head as the energies of her fragment battled with those of another. Then the ward keeping the shield in place cracked, and the shield was pushed apart. In slow motion she could almost see it unravel as the fire burned through the anima holding it together. The pain in her head increased. She saw the blade fall, shatter her walls and then strike into her city. Houses were vaporized and the resulting explosion expanded, destroying entire blocks that surrounded the impact site, the debris flying in all directions, some getting very high up into the air before crashing back down into the buildings below.

  Her shield was disappearing, slowly unraveling from the impact point outward all around the city. The pain inside her head reached a crescendo as Atiok yelled something out. She couldn’t move by herself—the pain was blinding—but just before her eyes closed, she saw a piece of debris flying straight at the roof she was sitting on.

  Then darkness took her, and she knew nothing more.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  VIN

  Present

  Vin shook his head, disoriented, and looked around for a moment. He didn’t know where he was. But then he remembered. He’d seen Narzarah charge an attack, saw him cut through the shield and down toward his head. Vin had acted fast, as fast as he had ever acted before. He grabbed Master Jeressi next to him and Shadow Stepped away from the walls and into the city, but he hadn’t escaped far enough. When he had exited the Shadow Step, the attack just landed on the ground. Vin and Jeressi had been away from the initial blast, but the shockwave caught them, sending them flying from the roof and far into the city. Some piece of debris had to have hit his head, because he didn’t remember much after that until right now.

  He looked around and found Jeressi lying next to him in a pool of blood. His head was split open and his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Vin gave a quick prayer for the man’s soul and then stood. He was in a building of some kind, one he had crashed into through the roof. His body was far stronger than that of an ordinary person, but he still felt bruised all over. He jumped to the hole and climbed out, looking around himself.

  Out there, Vin saw chaos and madness. He had been blown almost to the other end of the city, and all around him was destruction. Fire was spreading on the other side of the city from where he was, where the walls were, now sporting two giant holes in them. The houses were destroyed the closer one looked to the impact, and the others were smashed to rubble. Those lucky ones who had survived stood alone amidst cracked walls and broken roofs. There were screams all around him, people crying out in pain or fear, simply because they didn’t know what else to do.

  Quickly Vin reactivated his sensory net and covered the city in front of him. Focusing in order to see through the thick mist of anima. Almost immediately he noticed three forms. Recognizing them instantly as spirit artists, he cursed. He should’ve known that Lei and Ming-Li would come. He didn’t know who the third one was, though—there was too much aura in the area for him to truly be able to sense anything other than that they had ki. He saw them running into the city and for a moment he thought that they were running toward him, but then he realized that their direction was slightly to the right of him.

  Vin turned and saw Kyarra’s palace there next to him. He cursed, realizing that they were headed there. He doubted that they could sense him at this distance, but it made sense to head for the palace. Vin jumped to the neighboring roof, ki flowing from his upper back to form his tendrils as his blades appeared. From his middle back followed another pair, and finally from his lower back came his last. His six blades stabbed into walls and roofs and propelled him forward. He slingshot himself forward and reached the palace walls, climbing over them and onto the building itself, his blades moving in a flurry, moving him up the building’s side in the blink of an eye. He reached the top and saw that half of the roof had been destroyed, hit by debris.

  “Kyarra!” Vin yelled as he headed to the area where his net told him she was. He found her lying form next to some rubble and he saw Commander Atiok crushed just a few paces away from her. He looked her over, seeing that she was fine except for a broken leg, and the fact that she was unconscious.

  “Kyarra, wake up!” Vin screamed, but there was no response from her.

  He looked around at the roof, not seeing anyone else.

  The three spirit artists would be here soon, and he didn’t think that the broken roof was a good battleground against three people that were probably as strong as him—especially not with an unconscious Kyarra for him to worry about.

  Quickly, he came up with a plan. He glanced about for Kyarra’s fragment, but didn’t see it anywhere. The Sun Blade was however still attached to her waist. Without looking further, he picked Kyarra up and jumped off the roof, heading deeper into the city. She could call her fragment back to her, so it wasn’t a priority for him to find it. His net searched all around, focusing around his home and the harbor. A few moments later he found the people he was looking for in the streets.

  He crossed over the rooftops, passing terrified people below. Those who saw him screamed louder. Soon, he dropped in front of two people running toward the harbor. They readied their weapons and magic, but lowered them when they recognized him.

  Jirross looked at Vin’s blades while Teressa had a look of relief on her face.

  “Vin!” she called. Vin walked over on his blades and then lowered himself next to them.

  “Here, take her,” Vin told them, pushing Kyarra into Jirross’s hands. “Go to the harbor, Captain Corvo is still there. Get on the Norvus and get out of the city. I’ll catch up later.”

  “Wait!” Teressa yelled as Vin turned to leave. “Where are you going?”

  Vin grimaced and looked east. “There are people coming this way. We won’t make it if we run.” He turned to look at them. “Go!”

  Then he was off, his blades biting into the walls as he climbed on top of the rooftops. He saw the three coming and he pulled back his net to focus only on them. Now, when they were closer, he recognized Ming-Li and Lei, both on the sixth step of the Path. But the third one… At first, he was confused. It couldn’t be what he was feeling—yet then he realized that there could be no mistake. He was feeling his own ki, or that of his old body. The three of them dropped onto the roofs around his and looked at him.

  “Those are impressive,” Ming-Li taunted, but he ignored her. He had eyes only for the other woman. It was not his body, yet it was. He looked at her face and saw his features mixed with those of someone else. Golden hair,
and familiar eyes…

  A stab of denial flashed deep inside his heart. He recognized her, but it was impossible. Ki flew to his eyes and he opened his true sight. He saw her soul, burning brightly like a star, and there at her core was the tether that touched everything, corrupting it all with red aura.

  “Ashara,” Vin breathed her name. “What have you done?”

  He couldn’t keep the horror and disgust out of his voice. He saw her recoil from it, her once beautiful eyes now filled with anger. “What I had to survive.”

  “Ashara—”

  “You abandoned me,” Ashara hissed, glaring at him while holding his former spear tightly in hand. “You and Kyarra forgot about me, left me in a slavers hold to rot, to…”

  Vin’s eyes widened. “You left, you didn’t even say goodbye!”

  “I wanted to, I changed my mind. I was coming back to see you, and then they found me. But you, you didn’t even look for me! You would’ve let me go! You didn’t want me around!” She was yelling and rambling, and he could tell that she wasn’t in a right state of mind. The Arashan god must’ve done something to her.

  “Please, Ashara, you don’t need to be with them, come with me, everything—”

  “You know,” Ashara interrupted again, “I used to think that you were so wise, that you knew so much. But now I understand that you know nothing. You are just a spirit artist…one concerned only for himself.”

  Vin opened his mouth to speak, but Ming-Li interrupted by filling her two swords with ki and calling her serpents out of her swords. Four heads appeared and coiled around her, ready to strike. “Enough of this reunion bullshit. You owe me a rematch—and this time I am not going to go easy on you.” Ming-Li grinned at him and then Wind Stepped at him.

  Vin might’ve been shaken, his mind and eyes still focused on Ashara, but his net was tracking everything. His blades moved, intercepting her snakes. Four blades cut through them and the other two went for her chest. She was surprised, he could tell, and she managed to get the swords in front of the two of his blades but she was just a moment too slow as one of his blades cut into her shoulder. She jumped back and escaped his range just as the other four blades smashed into the place where she used to be.

  She growled as she looked at the shallow cut, and then glared at him.

  “Ming-Li,” Vin heard the voice of the third person on the rooftops: Lei. “Stop. Don’t embarrass yourself any more than you already have.”

  Vin saw Ming-Li open her mouth to respond, but instead she looked like she thought better of it. Vin turned to look at Lei. He remembered the man allowing him to escape from the Arashan; there had been regret in his eyes, and shame.

  “Kai Zhao Vin.” Lei bowed deeply, which Vin returned.

  “Xhao Wa Lei,” Vin said. “You’ve gotten stronger.”

  “I have,” Lei said. “And you have regained much of your former power.”

  “Not all.” Vin glanced Ashara. She had a calm look on her face now, but Vin could see the anger and hatred in her eyes. His heart cried out for her, but she had gone to his enemies, and he didn’t know what to do now.

  “Enough,” Lei said, bringing Vin’s attention back to him.

  Vin looked at the man. He wore traditional spirit-artist armor, along with his Clan’s signature battle gauntlets. A small hope reared its head inside of his heart. “Please, it is not too late yet,” Vin said. “The three of you can still come back to the right path.”

  Lei shook his head sadly. “We have all made choices, and it is our duty now to see them through. There is no going back. The Path leads only forward.”

  Vin glanced at the others. Ming-Li sneered at him, and Ashara shook her head at him.

  “You really have no idea what you are fighting,” Ashara told him. “You have no idea why you are fighting. Lei is right—I have made my choice. A choice for power, for safety and strength. I don’t need you to keep me safe anymore.”

  Vin’s heart broke to hear her speak in that way to him. She had been his first friend; his best friend, his soul mate. How had he not seen this? How could have he missed so much pain in her soul that she would trade it for power? That she would go to the Arashan?

  Vin steeled his heart. He was a spirit artist, and there was no need for further talk. His six blades spread around him, pointed at his enemies.

  “Very well, then,” Vin declared, steel entering his voice. “Come.”

  Ming-Li was the first to act. As Vin had expected, she Wind Stepped to his side of the roof, her serpents appearing and breathing fire at him. He could feel the flow of ki inside of them and he knew that if that fire touched him, poison would seep into his skin. He Shadow Stepped away, appearing a few paces to the side and whirling his blades around himself, aiming at Ming-Li’s body. His net tracked everything, so he knew that Ashara had Wind Stepped behind him. Now she altered the trajectory of her spear, as he was no longer where she was previously aiming. Vin Shaped blades and sent them her way, forcing her to defend.

  Ming-Li’s serpents coiled around her, their fire intensifying and blocking three of his blades as they slammed into her from the side, sending her flying of the roof and into the building next to them. She crashed through the wall and disappeared inside.

  His remaining three blades snapped together above him as Lei flew down from above. He smashed his fist into his blades with such force that the roof beneath Vin’s feet exploded inward and he fell through. He crashed through the ceiling and into the room below. Fortunately there was no one there as most people were ruining in the streets.

  Vin’s blades stabbed into the walls, stopping him, and then like a spider he moved through the house as a shape followed through the hole after him. Ashara’s spear charged with lightning ki and she sent a bolt at him. He put one of his blades behind him and swatted it away, sending it into a nearby wall that destroyed the support of the ceiling, and the rest fell on Ashara while Vin got down through the hole in the floor and made for the stairs.

  With a moment’s respite, he called his shadow cloak over his body as the gauntlets on his hands crystallized and dark blue claws extended out of them. His blades stabbed into a wall and he punched it, blowing the wall outward, leaving the house and getting out into the street. Ming-Li waited for him on the rooftop, her swords pointed at him and spewing fire down into the street. The few people that were unfortunate to be close enough to be there burned under her careless attack. Vin folded three blades across his back, protecting himself as he used the other three to move down the street and then behind the corner and away from her line of sight.

  He knew that he was at a disadvantage. He was a better fighter than all of them. Ashara didn’t seem to be able to use his true power—the only thing he saw and felt from her was on the level of the sixth step. For a moment he wondered why, but he didn’t have the time to take a closer look. Ming-Li was rash, but she was powerful. The one who concerned him most was Lei—he held the most power out of the three, and he was the only one moving and acting intelligently.

  With his sensory net Vin had complete awareness of his surroundings, and he knew where the three of them always were in relation to himself. He knew that Lei was on a roof above him before the man even made his move. Vin pointed two of his blades upward and fired a beam of shadow ki straight where Lei had just landed. Through his net he saw his attack hit, but not do much damage—Lei followed a defensive Way, and his capabilities were truly impressive. Still, Vin had forced Lei to jump back to another roof.

  Vin stabbed his way to the top of the buildings surrounding him and climbed on top of them. His form covered in shadow, he looked at his opponents. Lei was standing close to Ming-Li, and just then Ashara exploded out of the house he had buried her in, flying into the air. It was his technique, but he could see that she hadn’t mastered it. She floated above the buildings and then moved to stand next to the other two. She clearly couldn’t fly for long.

  A stab of fear came through Vin—he knew that this wasn’t looking good f
or him. He was better, but there were three of them, and it looked like they were finally ready to act together. Fights between spirit artists didn’t last long; a few exchanges at most, unless they were completely evenly matched, and that was rare. The three now knew his capabilities, and would alter their tactics accordingly. Yet he couldn’t run away, as there was no chance he could escape. Getting to a ship would be foolish as they would be able to follow and sink the ship with him on it. Running anywhere else, and he could only run into armies.

  He could only stay and fight, give Teressa and Jirross time to get Kyarra on to the Norvus and out of the city. He was a spirit artist—death was no stranger to him—but he didn’t want to die now. Not here, and not like this.

  He had to defeat the Arashan—that was the only thing that mattered.

  Vin pulled ki from his outer core, forming his spear—a copy of the one Ashara was holding—and charged. He couldn’t let them dictate the battle. He crashed into their roof with all of his blades moving independently, fighting against all three of them at the same time. He stepped in front of Ming-Li and stabbed at her with his spear. They exchanged a few blows and she tried to have her serpents strike at him, but every time she tried, a blade from his back would be there to block it. He danced with all three of them on the roof, his ki burning through his channels and conduits as he tried to keep up with the fight as well as watch through his net what they were doing.

  One of his blades managed to smash down at Lei’s shoulder, his armor plate bending but not breaking, and he heard a bone crack and Lei grunt. As he smashed one of Ming-Li’s swords away, sending it flying, he whirled around and stabbed at Ashara’s legs. Her reflexes were as good as his had been—lightning ki filled her and she moved quickly, but not quickly enough. His spear scored a deep cut on her thigh, and she cursed and stepped back. Then he turned back to Ming-Li, stabbing at her face as she came at him.