Three Visions

by Tony Johnson

  “We’re going to hide all of the city’s ships behind the Stacks,” the Naval Commander pointed to a dangerous collection of rocks jutting out of Lake Azure while standing with the Dwarf in the lighthouse tower. “When we’re signaled, we’ll sail west, as close to shore as possible, and stop before Port Misthaven. We’re assuming the army will attack the main gate, so by firing all our cannons at their right flank on the beach, we can force many of them to divert their attention towards us.”

  For the second half of the day, Grizz teamed up with Steve, where the two of them worked together to create three new sets of armor for Ty and Shana, and for Kari to use in the future. To pay homage to each of their elements, they made Ty a lightweight, yellow suit of armor that perfectly fit his skill set of being a fluid and agile fighter. Shana was given green armor, and Kari, who didn’t have her element, but who they all expected would get the element of water, was given armor in a color of blue that matched her bow. Along with the armor, each hero was given chainmail by a prominent Casanovian blacksmith.

  This will be good for us, thought Steve. Chainmail is usually only worn in big battles by the army’s leaders because it’s so expensive, but since the five of us will be so heavily involved in the attack, I feel better we can all have this added protection.

  Continuing their work, Steve buffed out the dents in his red jousting armor while requesting that Grizz, because of his years of experience, craft him matching red greaves, cuisses, and boots. Not only did Grizz take it upon himself to build those, which he employed Dart and Nash to help, he also created a specially-made spear for Shana, while Steve crafted two swords for Ty that he knew his brother would love. In the three weapons, the Dwarf and Human placed the equivalent gemstones that match the hero’s element: a green emerald in Shana’s staff and yellow topaz in the hilt of Ty’s primary sword.

  Steve joined Ty, Grizz, and Shana at Ms. Latimer’s house, where they all shared dinner. Casanovian and Almirian families are probably sitting here just like us, having quiet, emotional dinners, not knowing if fathers, sons, and other family members will be sitting in the same spots tomorrow night after the battle, he thought.

  “Tomorrow is the big day,” Steve announced after they finished their meal. “The sentries say the monster army is resting just five miles from here and that they’ll probably begin marching at first light.”

  “We’re as ready as we can be,” Shana looked at her to-do list, which had nearly everything crossed off. Each of them visually imagined how the battle would go and went over the order of attack plans, elaborating on what aspects they were involved in. When Ty discussed the gryphon mount he had chosen and how he was excited to fly alongside Crimson Singe in battle, Steve asked, “I thought you were working on a secret project along the main road near the main gate?”

  “Yes,” Ty confirmed, “but I want to be in the air to see it in action.” He then went on to fill his companions in on the plan and how it would work. After everything was discussed from start to finish, they debated backup plans and even backups to the backups in case things went direly wrong.

  “Alright,” Steve wrapped up their nighttime meeting, “I think it’ll be easiest if tomorrow the five of us meet at the infirmary, so Kari doesn’t have to worry about walking too much. We can talk about any last minute issues or ideas and head out from there to our different locations around the city. Try to get some sleep so you’re well-rested,” Steve encouraged, then said goodnight to his friends.

  Heading to the infirmary to spend his final night there with Kari, Steve arrived to see that an extra bed had been placed in Kari’s room, on the other side of her nightstand.

  “I asked the clerics if there were any extra beds so you wouldn’t have to sleep in a chair tonight,” Kari explained, having waited up for Steve to get there. “They brought in this for you. I can’t thank you enough for staying here every night with me. I know that chair probably wasn’t too comfortable to sleep in.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Steve admitted, “but it was where I wanted to be. Thank you,” he kissed her, expressing his appreciation for her attentiveness. “This was so thoughtful of you.”

  As they climbed into their respective beds and lay flat on their backs staring at the ceiling, Kari began praying aloud for Steve, knowing it would comfort him because of his strong faith.

  “Alazar, thank you that everything has worked out to get us to this point where we have a fighting chance against Silas’s army. I pray you will give Steve the courage to lead tomorrow and that everything would go according to plan. Thank you for blessing Ty, Shana, and Grizz with elemental powers and please give them safety tomorrow. Let us all be reunited after the battle in health and happiness, having achieved victory.”

  Following her prayer, Kari fell asleep. And although she intended her words to help put Steve’s mind at ease so he could get a good night of rest, the warrior couldn’t keep his eyes closed. Please Alazar, he prayed as he laid there in his throes of anxiety, please let us achieve victory tomorrow.

  “Look at all of us, color-coded in our armor!” Ty remarked in the morning, trying his best to use his jovial mood to help his fellow heroes not be too stressed about the battle.

  “Are you fighting?” Shana asked as she sat on a bed next to Kari in the infirmary room, noticing the Halfling wearing her blue suit of armor.

  “No, but I’ll be helping to direct all the sick and injured to the dungeons,” she explained how she planned to make herself useful. “This brace I’m wearing helps a lot and I’ve been walking as much as I can to build up my stamina. Steve wanted me in this armor mostly for protection. Where’s Copper?”

  “He’s taken a liking to my son,” Grizz overheard the women talking. “All those two do is play together. But, I’m sure the direfox’s natural side will come out once the fighting begins. I, for one, will love seeing him in action again.”

  “How long will it be now?” Shana asked, thinking about her first battle, trying not to show her trembling hand as she stuck her fork into her eggs. All five of the heroes ate a filling breakfast the infirmary’s chef brought to them.

  Talking with his mouth full, Ty answered, “Grizz and I talked to Rylan first thing this morning. He says the army has started marching. They should be here within a few hours. He said people are already heading to Highland Forest to take their positions. They’re getting there early because they’re so anxious.”

  “It’s like that all over the city, too. There’s aleady people in the arena, on the battlements, saddling up aerial monsters, on the ships, and hunkering down in the dungeon,” Grizz added. “Rylan also pointed out we should anticipate heavy rain and wind. It’s overcast now, but it looks like a storm is rolling from the east.”

  After the five ate their filling breakfast, energizing them for the battle, Kari noticed Ty and Steve exchange sealed envelopes that each of the warriors placed in their pockets.

  “What were those?”

  “Warriors, before a battle, often write letters to their family or loved ones,” Ty explained. “They give them to a fellow warrior, whose job it is to deliver the letters to the intended recipients if the author is felled in battle. Steve gave me two and I gave him one. Usually, letters are burned if the warrior who wrote them survives and it’s encouraged that they say the things they wrote to the person they wrote them to.”

  “I like that idea,” Kari said. I wonder if Ty wrote his letter for Steve and if Steve’s are for Ty and me, but I don’t want to be presumptious.

  Taking time to relax and talk to each other, trying to help keep each other’s minds occupied, Steve eventually got up and spoke to the group about why he had asked them all to gather together with him.

  “This is the first time we’ve all been in the same room at the same time. Alazar’s five elect,” Steve explained, not knowing if anyone else had realized that fact. “I wanted to gather here, just the five of us. I know some of us have had our differences,” Steve looked to G
rizz. “I know some of us have discovered tragic parts of our pasts,” he turned to Ty and Shana, “and others suffered devastating injuries,” he held Kari’s hand as he sat in the chair next to her. “But we’re all here now and we’re a team.

  “We, like no one else, know how important it is to win this battle. The kingdom will not be able to make a comeback if we lose. We need to stop Silas. Alazar made certain people his elect throughout history and gave them the elemental spirits so they could fight the evil of their day. That is our responsibility now as we face Silas and the monsters that are about to attack Casanovia.”

  It was at that moment, immediately following Steve’s monologue, Kari received her vision.

  Chapter 100

  “You’re insane!” Kyra screamed at Malorek in the middle of yet another argument. Her accusation caused Malorek to slap her across the face so hard it knocked her to the floor. It was their fifth fight this week, and the sixth time she had been hit. What made it worse this time was that she was painfully struck with the warrior’s metal gauntlet as he was briefly home for dinner during his night shift break.

  The couple had yet to reach a full year of marriage and already had twin boys, Cyrus and Silas. The newborn babes were growing well, but Kyra had raised them herself. Malorek was barely involved with the family. If he wasn’t working, he was anywhere except home. He often claimed he was hunting, but Kyra had a feeling he was in involved in far more nefarious things. On some nights he wouldn’t come home at all. Rather than being a marriage where she and her husband built up, loved, and empowered each other, she felt that he was crushing her spirit and weakening her will to live.

  At many points in her marriage, Kyra considered moving out of her apartment with Malorek to go back and live with her parents, but she feared what Malorek would do if she left him. Kyra also couldn't bring herself to swallow her pride and face her father and mother. She was ashamed for getting married behind their backs and moving out of the castle.

  Every day, the princess wished she had listened to her father's intuition about Malorek. It hadn't taken long for her to realize that her entire relationship with her husband was fabricated and he was not at all the person he purported himself to be. In less than a year, he had exhibited deceitfulness, adultery, gambling, and drunkenness, and each of these only seemed to be getting worse with time. Kyra wondered if Malorek had any moral compass at all. And what she found today, the crux of their current argument, had proven her husband far more sinister than she could’ve ever imagined.

  “You’re going to kill my father?!” Kyra held up a notebook with Malorek's notes and drawings in it, depicting a detailed plan of how he planned to assassinate King Zoran.

  “I told you to never go through my belongings!” Malo yelled, grabbing her wrist to pry the notebook from her unrelenting fingers.

  “Answer the question!” Kyra half-yelled, half-cried, as she defiantly got up to stare her husband in the eye.

  “Why else would I have married you?” he answered her question with one of his own. “This is a patriarchal society. I have a right to the kingship until Cyrus is sixteen.”

  “I can't believe this! I have to get out of here! I have to warn my father,” Kyra voiced her plans aloud in panic, heading upstairs to grab her babies from the nursery.

  “Don't ever turn your back on me!” Malorek yelled, grabbing a handful of her hair as she reached the fourth step, and used it to violently jerk her backwards. Kyra tumbled down the stairs, smashing the back of her head into the wooden floor.

  Up until this point, Kyra felt she was strong and could deal with the various forms of mental and physical abuse, but knowing Malorek was willing to kill her father, she was scared for her own life.

  “That’s it!” she shouted from where she lay on the floor, holding the back of her head, checking to see if she was bleeding from the impact. “It’s over between us. I want a divorce!”

  “A divorce? Why, because this isn't good enough for you?” Malorek gestured to the house they stood in. “I put this roof over your head, I put the food on the table, and I gave you two kids, just like you always wanted. Everything you wanted I've provided!”

  As soon as Kyra opened her mouth to speak, Malorek punched her. The fragments of two chipped teeth bounced across the floor as a trickle of blood came from her mouth. She was forced to listen to Malorek as she held her jaw, in too much pain to argue back.

  “You’ve been spoiled your entire life growing up as the princess,” he yelled as he smashed vases, dishes, and overturned furniture in his rage. “Everything you wanted, you got. You take everything for granted and have no appreciation for what anyone does. You'd view things so much differently if you grew up in an orphanage like I did. You'd understand that everything you hold dear can be taken from you in a second. I think it's time you learned that lesson.”

  Pulling a dagger out of his belt, Malorek walked upstairs.

  “No!” Kyra cried over and over again as she followed him from behind. She beat her closed fists into his back, but his plate of armor prevented him from even feeling the blows.

  Walking to the crib where his two sons had been sleeping, but were now awake, crying from the noises, Malorek pressed his dagger against baby Cyrus’s neck. “If I gave them their life, then I can take it away,” he told Kyra with a maniacal look in his eyes.

  As he pushed the blade into the baby’s neck, Kyra picked up a flower vase and smashed it into the back of her husband's head. The blow knocked Malorek unconscious, sending him falling to the floor.

  Kyra looked into the crib, expecting to see Cyrus dead, but there was only a small amount of blood coming from a cut on his neck. She knew it wasn’t fatal, but still deep enough that it’d leave a scar that would remain on him for the rest of his life. With her husband still lying motionless, Kyra scooped up the babies, one in each arm, and ran outside.

  Celestial warriors noticed her and her baby’s injuries but, at first, didn't recognize Kyra as the princess. Her once beautiful face had been reduced to multiple stress lines and dark circles under her eyes. Her hair had lost its shine and her radiant glow had been taken away, only to be replaced by bruises.

  Once Kyra revealed her identiy, the warriors put her and her twins in a horse-drawn carriage and accompanied them directly to the castle.

  Kyra had not spoken to or seen her parents since their fallout after she told them of her elopement. Weeks after she had moved out of the castle, the royal couple attempted to visit their daughter at her new residence, but Malorek sent them away after a hostile argument which he later told Kyra was Oliver's fault for instigating. After that, her parents sent handwritten letters, but Malorek disposed of them without ever telling Kyra they had come.

  When King Zoran and Queen Evalyn heard that their wayward daughter had arrived at the castle, they abruptly left their meetings and ran downstairs to greet her. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Kyra ran into their arms, weeping uncontrollably at their embrace. Two warriors had taken the babies to the infirmary to make sure they were okay after seeing one of the twins covered in blood from a gash on its neck.

  Oliver held his daughter by the shoulders and stepped back to examine her. He saw the bruises and welts Malorek had left, as well as scars from previous beatings. His face turned red and his body filled with anger.

  “Bring me Malorek!” he roared, angrier than he had been at any point prior in his life.

  Chapter 101

  Quintis Quinn stood high on a rooftop, overlooking the many majestic lights across Celestial’s skyline. Overhead, the blue moon shone against the dark backdrop of night. Reaching into the quiver behind his right shoulder, he notched an arrow into his bow and searched for his former friend, Malorek.

  Hours ago, it had been a typical day. Quintis had been on patrol until he was hastily thrown onto a team of ten men on a mission directly from King Zoran himself. Their objective was to head to a designated house and retrieve Malorek, alive. Quintis
was considered one of the best archers in Celestial, so he usually found himself recruited for important missions, but this one took him by surprise.

  The last time he had seen Malorek was at Sarah and Caesar Canard’s funeral. He had no idea why the king wanted Malo brought in alive. Nonetheless, Quintis stood on the rooftop across from Malorek’s apartment and watched nine highly skilled warriors, two of whom were Guardian Knights, simultaneously burst through the front and back doors of the house.

  The team was told that Malorek was presumed to be unconscious in the upstairs bedroom, having been knocked out by a vase, but upon arriving in the room, their target was nowhere to be seen.

  It wasn’t until the warriors split up and began searching throughout the house that Malorek emerged. Having been hiding in the shadows, he had gone unnoticed by all, including Quintis, who didn’t see Malorek until after he stealthily killed the second intruder. To alert the warriors throughout the rest of the house that Malorek was downstairs, Quintis shot an arrow through a first story window, causing it to shatter loudly. The remaining seven warriors converged on the dining room, leading to a violent, loud, and bloody fight.

  King Zoran had given specific orders to have his daughter’s abuser brought in alive, which handicapped the warriors’ mission. In an effort to spare Malorek’s life, they each gave less than one-hundred percent in their attack while Malo fought like his life depended on it, refusing to be captured.

  As Malorek wildly attacked, Quintis cursed as he was unable to get a clean shot to immobilize the enemy. There was nothing he could do as the carnage played out in the windows before him. Blood was spraying everywhere, sparks clashed off swords, and men were shouting and screaming. When everything stopped, only one body remained standing. Malorek slumped against a wall, breathless from the fighting.