The Trial

by James Hunt

  "A new god has risen!" Rasj the Red bellowed throughout the hall. Niyana heard men enter the Chapel, see the Father's crumpled body on the floor. As one of the men leveled his sword at Rasj and looked to engage him in combat, he was run through by his comrade to his own surprise. The Guard kicked him off his sword, now red with blood, and in a twirl severed the man's head cleanly.

  "I bow before God," The man said and went to one knee.

  "Kill the disbelievers." Rasj commanded and strode to the middle of the hall where a stunned Brylen and Niyana looked at each other and the approaching monstrosity. Brylen drew his swords first, but Rasj had closed the distance between them in a single leap, snatched the elf up by the neck, and broke it with a sickening twist by his mangled wrist.

  "NOO!" Niyana screamed involuntarily as she saw her friend die so easily and fall to the floor. She yanked her own blades out but not before that same monster had snatched her up by the head. She had to drop her blades and grab his thick hand for support before he pulled her head off her shoulders from his sheer strength. She struggled as he walked out into the afternoon sun and presented his captive to all those that would see. Huanguard loyal to Rasj bowed to one knee, the rest were busy culling their ranks as men cried out in death screams all around. Death and blood was everywhere as The Monastery was being purified for the coming of its new God.

  "Bind this one," Rasj commanded and threw Niyana to the ground. She landed ungracefully and tumbled through the dirt. Before she could rise, hands were upon her, tying her hands behind her with rope, and then around her neck to make it choke her should she try to struggle. She was lifted up by her arms, dragged out into the courtyard and dumped onto the ground next to a Zecairin woman in blue robes. They looked at one another and recognition crossed between them.

  "you?!" Niyana hissed at The Mischievous. The Mischievous only laughed madly at the dark twist in fate.

  "Ah, I see you know one another." Came Helrith's whiny voice. Niyana looked up at him, saw his smug expression, and met the real master of this cabal.

  *****

  "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Tamain cursed to himself silently as he watched from the rooftops. He sent whispers out carried on the wind to their targets as fast as they could. This was not a contingency they had planed for. As they watched human kill human he wasn't sure which one to help before it was all too late and mostly over. This had been planed from the beginning and his people were caught unawares.

  "Hold, wait!" He instructed his people. "Move in if they look to strike at her! We need more time!"

  "Kelria! Rouse Corella, she's slept it off enough, we need an escape route now!"

  "Kalek! MOVE! They have her! Looks like an execution! Brylen is down!"

  "windmaster..." came a guttural voice from underneath him. Tamain spooked, looked over the edge of the rooftop he was perched upon and saw just a large box attached to the wall. There was a latch on the outside, and he could smell a foul human inside. "...open this lock." The voice instructed. "then be prepared to carry them over the wall."

  *****

  Kalek sent the hand signals across the ranks as fast as he could. Archers pulled back their arrows and took quick aim. Kalek drew his blades, ready to give his signal. He looked to the east wall to where he had stationed a reserve group, but could clearly see them already engaged with the enemy. Bodies were dropping rapidly.

  "MOVE!..." Kalek heard the call on the wind.

  "MOVE!" He reiterated before the rest of the message was conveyed and leapt from his branch. He hit the ground at a dead run, flanked by a dozen leaf knights, their blades already in their hands glinting off the sun's rays. Not but halfway down the hill he had hoped to see a flight of arrows overhead but none came. He glanced over his shoulder and could see fighting breaking out in the treeline with some unseen enemy. They were formidable these humans, they had prepared for the Lunarians. He cursed himself silently, and prayed that his mother would fend them off in time.

  But he could not come to her aid. He had his mission, and so his feet never slowed.

  *****

  "The Father has fallen. His weakness has poisoned us." Rasj called out to his men as the last of the unfaithful had been silenced.

  "Kill me and Lunar will erase you from this world." Niyana said to Helrith, her desperation was obvious in her voice, but she managed to keep her fear still hidden.

  "Your own brother paid us to get rid of you," Helrith laughed at her. "We need to make good on that promise. Despite our failure in leadership." he gestured around himself. "All of this is because of you, Princess. The Huanguard never fail. Failure is a heresy."

  "He paid you?!" she practically screamed as she struggled against her bonds. The one part of her mind that wasn't cracking into hysteria had realized that the longer she kept them talking the greater chance she had for a rescue.

  "In a manner of speaking," he smiled coyly.

  "Helrith?" The Mischievous giggled. Her red eyes glared at him lustfully. "do you remember the hot iron you shoved inside of me? I've been trying to think of something worse to do to you, and I finally came up with it." She said gleefully. Her comment made his sickening smile fade away, and he looked to one of the men standing watch over them.

  "Let me leave here and you can still claim to be rid of me, I'll live in exile I swear!" Niyana shouted as she saw the guard draw his sword. "I have knowledge and magic I can tra-"

  A metal blade swung beside her and red spray covered her face. Niyana fell sideways and stared aghast at the headless body of The Mischievous. The head rolled to a stop and faced away from her.

  Niyana screamed for help and mercy.

  Rough hands picked her up and dropped her back on her knees. She looked up one last pleading time into the sickening face of the fat man.

  "The devils of Light and Dark seek to corrupt us! Their punishment will be swift and righteous!" Rasj boomed for all to hear. Niyana turned to look at Helrith one last pleading time.

  "I have power I could share." she offered quietly. Helrith scoffed, and Niyana knew it to be futile. Whoever this man was, he was more than what he appeared to be as he now seemed to command the Disruptors. Behind him, Niyana saw someone sickly shuffle out of the chapel. She tried to watch him, but the fat man wanted her to watch him instead. As Niyana looked up into Helrith's gaze, she saw that malicious wickedness that hinted at an even darker secret. She knew he was toying with her, and she waited an eternity for the words to hear her out to come from his lips. But something behind him distracted her. A flying man came from the open doors of the Chapel. It wasn't so much that he flew as that he leapt really high, and came down really fast with a spear aimed at the fat man.

  A moment before he was to skewer the portly man, Rasj the Red shoved Helrith out of the way and took the spear through his leg. The flying man hissed unnaturally, his eyes red with the same demonic power as the Zecairin's and he twisted the spear in Rasj's leg.

  "Rassssj..." Trent hissed out gutturally from between inhumanly sharp teeth. A leathery red tail whipped back and forth agitatedly behind him.

  "W-wolfe?!" Helrith's stammered in disbelief as he crawled backwards and tried to get to his feet. "N-no, that can't be! KILL IT!" he shouted to everyone gathered. "Its not a man! Kill it! If it gets away, the Mother escapes!"

  Rasj grabbed the man's head with both hands and squeezed. Trent's skull shattered with a sickening crunch of bone and gore. But the body pulled the spear out of Rasj's leg and tried to stab him through the heart. The moment he saw the pullback for the strike, Rasj threw what was left of the headless abomination against a wall. Men descended on it hacking the unnatural creature to bits as gore and blood sprayed all over the ground and air.

  Tamain dared to stand up. He knew his camouflage would flicker from his movement if someone was looking his way, but this new distraction was what they so badly needed. He could see Kalek running down the hill, and activity in the trees behind them with no arrows coming their way. This was the one chance to keep th
is horrible situation from getting worse.

  "NOW!" he whispered to the wind and sent it out to his people On a whim he leapt down, dropped his camouflage and bashed the lock off the wood bars with his boot. The man inside opened the small door and stepped out.

  "Kill her!" Helrith snapped as he rose and started to walk hurriedly toward the chapel. The Huangard had finished dismembering what had once been Trent into bits that finally stopped moving independently.

  The swordsman that had killed The Mischievous moved away from the brief melee, and drew his blade up high for the killing stroke.

  A wood shard flew through the air end over end and impaled him through the neck. He fell backwards with a wet gurgle and slowly choked to death on his own blood.

  "Rad!" Rasj snarled at the attacker. The soldiers, instinctively poised to retaliate, spooked at the mention of that name, and parted to make way for the gangly man.

  Rad strode forward with heavy breath.

  "...spread your cloaks out." the words came to them on the wind. "...prepare to glide."

  Tamain kept them in his sight and called his magic in front of him. A ball of swirling air formed. Then another, then twice as many, then twice that, and again until twelve orbs hovered in a row. He sent them out towards the charging Lunarians, and a chill ran down his spine when he saw Zecairin lizard riders emerge from the treeline behind them.

  "fuck..." He whimpered, this situation was going from horrible to nightmarish, but he kept his concentration. He saw that his message had been received, each Leaf Knight was holding their cloak open behind them.

  Tamain placed a vortex before each sprinting elf, and careful matched their speed and direction. This was the taxing part - each elf weighed different than the other and each one required individual finessing to make this work. First one lifted off the ground, then another, then five, then nine. Finally all twelve floated up into the air. Tamain felt his brain trying to throb out of his head, this was it, only one shot.

  He aimed, pulled on all twelve, released the orbs, and elves flew.

  "Rasj..." Rad growled. "Look up..."

  Rasj wouldn't take his eyes off Rad. But the men beside them startled as twelve angry shadows descended upon them from above them like vengeful angels. Five men died outright, impaled from the landing elves, their death cries steeled their comrades into action. Each elf rolled into an attack onto the nearest Huanguard. A massive melee erupted around them. Those not slain outright engaged the battle fully and pushed back the Lunarians. Shadows shimmered out of the corner of the eye, and an unsuspecting Acolyte brandishing a spear clumsily found his throat slit.

  "Shadowraiths!" one managed to get out as the killing blow got his cheek instead of his throat. Chaos erupted in the courtyard, as armed men who had been watching the elite push back the Lunarians suddenly found themselves equally embattled. With their back and flanks compromised the Huanguard's offensive faltered. This gave the Lunarians a moment to press the advantage. Bodies were dropping on both sides, blood and screams of pain accompanied the terrible battle.

  Rad never took his eyes off Rasj. Neither did the red giant.

  Rasj took a step forward, testing his tenderly healed leg. A wince of pain curled his lip. The chaos around them ignored both men. It was something about the deathly stillness of how they stood that made any onlooker immediately decide to find another target.

  Rad sprung first. Halfway between them he kicked up a discarded dagger, snatched it out of the air, and threw it at the man's head. Rasj dodged it easily, but it brought him right to the side to meet Rad's knee as it rose quickly to land on his chin. Rasj threw up both hands and struck downward, counterstriking the blow in an attempt to shatter the knee. Rad kicked out suddenly, taking the blow on his elbow, but delivering his own bone crushing strike to Rasj's wounded thigh.

  Both men crumpled backwards. Rasj unable to stand. Rad's left forearm dangling loosely and grotesquely from a dislocated elbow. The difference being that Rad was still mobile, and slid forward into a sidelong kick at Rasj's shoulder. The large man twisted to block it, but the angle had accounted for his larger limbs and he couldn't grab Rad's leg in time, his forearm took the brunt of the blow, but his shoulder took the rest and he toppled sideways and slid across the ground a few feet away.

  Rad was on him an instant later, with his arm around the big man's neck in a choke hold. Without the use of his other arm, he couldn't get the leverage he needed to make it effective, but it was enough to distract Rasj, and the moment he reached for Rad's arm, he threw his leg around the large man's chest and grappled him down to the ground. To his surprise, Rasj had anticipated this maneuver, grabbed Rad's grappling leg and slung the man through the air with a vicious roar.

  Rad's body crashed through the plaster and timber wall of the mess hall and disappeared in the cloud of smoke that erupted.

  An Lunarin Knight tried to take the opportunity to finish off the large red man, but the moment she struck out with her blades to take the man's head off, she found them embedded in her own chest. She toppled backwards with a look of disbelief right before the life left her eyes.

  A shadow tried to finish what she had started, but Rasj whirled on it, snatched Gerrick up into the air, and slammed his forehead into the Zecairin's nose, shattering it, and killing him instantly.

  "Rad?!" Niyana shouted over the settling debris as she hurriedly climbed through the makeshift doorway with a Huanguard sword in one hand and an Lunarin blade in the other, both red with blood. A man rose from the rubble and looked up at her with one deadly eye, and one shattered one.

  "Follow Helrith. Kill what you find down there." He took a step towards her. She froze, unable to shake that murderous gaze of his, made all the more hideous by his starved complexion, and battered body. He grabbed her arm fiercely. "Now!" he barked. "Don't let him near it. Follow The Mischievous, she went after him not long ago. Leave him to her, but make damn sure you kill whats down there or all of this is for nothing. GO!!" his screamed shattered her out of her shock.

  Niyana fled out the real door, got her bearings, and ran towards the chapel. Inside, she found the altar split apart revealing stairs descending steeply down below. The smell of a musty catacomb welcomed her. Without slowing her speed she dove down, allowing gravity to carry her through the air. She stuck out her weapons, letting the metal dig into the stone and grind sparks into the darkness. This both illuminated her way, and slowed her descent as she approached the bottom. She hit the ground, tumbled and rolled, and continued her pursuit at a dead run.

  ****

  A Huanguard soldier accompanied Helrith through the darkness. He carried the torch as the fat old man led the way. The sorcerer was in a foul mood, cursing about betrayals and devils escaping as he wound his way deeper in. The soldier just looked around cautiously, trying to keep the torch in his hand ahead of him, as well as his spear at the ready.

  "Whatever you see down here, if you mention any of it, I'll feed you to it." Helrith barked.

  "My lips are sealed." The man replied. "I bow before god."

  Helrith trudged on until the catacomb tunnel opened up into a wider chamber. This place was not made by an ancient order of human monks. It was much, much older, and very elaborate. Humans couldn't create the stonework pillars that held up the arched ceiling so high above.

  The soldier whistled his appreciation. Helrith stopped in his tracks and gave the man a murderous glare.

  "Sorry," The man whispered. Helrith scoffed and rolled his eyes disdainfully. But didn't say another word. The soldier suddenly looked uncertain that he should continue following the sorcerer.

  "Teagan isn't it?" Helrith commented. "fourth year? Almost a master aren't you?"

  "Aye," Teagan acknowledged and tried to stay in formation with the torch.

  "That will be all Teagan," Helrith said and conjured up a wisp of blue flame in his hand. "I am close enough now." The unnatural fire grew brighter. Helrith turned around to regard the Huanguard. Teagan looked at him qui
zzically.

  "How many fourth years still use a spear?" Helrith condescended. "Who are you?" he demanded. Teagan looked like he was about to protest until he saw the blue flame start to spin into a fireball. He looked to the torch ruefully.

  "Someone that wishes this was a rod of red hot metal," he said, his voice changing to take on a feminine tone. Helrith snarled and threw his flame at the man. Teagan was engulfed in it, but when it burned away, there was no body. "Yes, this is close enough you fat pig." The Mischievous cackled from the darkness overhead.

  Helrith staggered backwards.

  "You died!" he protested. A barrage of blue fireballs streaked through the air exploding harmless off the stone ceiling in random directions.

  "I've died many times since I came here." she cooed from the shadows. "And yet I am still here." she added a disembodied cackle for good theatrics. The sorcerer conjured up a ring of fire around him, orange flame rose as high as he was, and it moved as he moved, giving him a mobile wall of defense from attackers.