Chrysalis
Page 4
A thought occurred to her. The Brotherhood of Shadows must be thinking this exact same thing.
When she reached her housing, she found Sephiel waiting for her. Though Tianna was Sephiel’s guardian, many assumed that the young Xegin was her ward who took care of her due to her blindness. It was as convenient a cover as any for her abilities, so she did nothing to quell such rumors.
She relayed everything to her comrade, for there were no secrets between the two, and when she was done, Sephiel was silent. “Well, what do you think?” Tianna asked finally.
“I think that you should have accepted long ago and been done with it.”
Tianna laughed. Sephiel was always good for making things sound easy. “Oh, I don’t know. General Gamma has been good to us, has she not? In any case, I’m not making any decisions until I’ve had a good night’s rest. Come, let us eat.” The small Xegin nodded, and headed for the kitchen. Tianna did not follow right away. The information regarding Tyrannes still bothered her. She didn’t want Sephiel to worry too much so she decided to drop it for the time. She’d just enjoy the rest of the day and worry about everything else tomorrow.
3
“What is this?”
Keta was hoping that his first visit to Teforia, the land of peace, would be a nice one. Things rarely worked out nicely for him.
The trio had gotten an early start. Pent had explained that they were mere hours from the border to Teforia. They could be in the nation before midday. It was such a great start to the day.
Instead, the three of them were greeted by smoke on the horizon. Alarmed, they had quickened their pace, and arrived to see the border gate in tatters, set aflame.
There were bodies scattered around, as if a battle had taken place. They wore the same type of armor that Keta had seen on Tianna and Sephiel back in Frostclaw Village, distinguishing them as Xegin soldiers . Oddly, there was no blood on the ground, typical of a skirmish. The corpses were darkened and smoking, from what he could tell.
“What happened here? It’s a massacre!” Max said, stepping forward. But he was stopped by Pent. “What is it?”
“There’s a Demon up ahead there,” Pent nodded in the direction ahead. There was a hooded person sitting on a rock amongst the wreckage. “Well? Why don’t you come over here and say hello?” Pent added, raising his voice.
Keta saw the person rise from the rock they were sitting on. It was a woman, based on her figure, garbed in the Brotherhood of Shadows robes that Forsythe and the others all wore to show their allegiance. Her hood was up, but he could make out demonic eyes that flashed underneath.
“Hello boys,” she said as she lowered her hood, blonde hair peeking out. She started to walk towards them, but stopped once Pent put a hand to his blade, drawing it to show defiance. “Aww, no warm welcome for me?”
Pent let out a curse. “This isn’t good. I think that woman is a Nor Telos.”
“Huh? What’s a Nor Telos?” Keta asked. The old Master had taught him how to read and write, but Keta had never learned much of the history of the world. In this, he was as ignorant as a child.
“How little you know of the world, Night. Nor Telos are a Demon clan. I’ve seen those markings before. However, this does not make any sense. That clan was wiped out by the Humans years ago...”
The woman was slowly moving forward again. “Not all of us. Some of us were left alive to be experimented on. You know how the Humans are,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“What do you want? If you are with the Brotherhood of Shadows, then you must know that we are your enemy,” Pent said bluntly.
“Indeed. Which is why I have business with you. The Master has asked that I make sure you interfere no longer,” the woman said, as if not a care in the world.
Keta figured it’d be best to engage in conversation first. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I’ve never seen you with the Brotherhood before. Are you aware of exactly what the Brotherhood is doing?”
The woman stopped abruptly. “Well, of course I am. The Master is going to remake this world for us all. I would die for him. Which of course stands to reason, that I would kill for him. So I have a favor to ask of you all. Would you please die for me?”
It was Max who broke the silence, with laughter. A great big thunderous sound. “I didn’t think I would get a laugh such as this today. Are you two seeing this?” Max said, turning to Keta and Pent, thumbing over his shoulder. “That woman over there wants to fight us...and by the looks of it, she’s alone.”
Keta didn’t want to be as disrespectful as Max, but he noticed the audacity of it all as well. He and Pent were quite capable swordsmen, and Max was a greater Demon. What chance did she have against them?
Pent was oddly silent, and when Keta turned to look at him, he could see that the boy showed concern on his face.
“You’d best be on your guard, you two. Do not let the fact that she’s a woman distract you,” Pent said. When he saw the confused looks that had come upon Keta and Max’s faces, he added, “Nor Telos are an unimpressive clan, save for their women. They are notoriously called weather witches.”
“Weather witches? Why are they called that?” Keta asked, already dreading the answer.
Pent gave him a look of incredulity. “To put it bluntly, they possess the ability to call forth lightning, I believe. Quite an interesting power.”
“Are you kidding me? Like ‘shock you to death’ lightning?” Keta cried out in disbelief. Master Inferno could combust and manipulate fire, and now this? Demons were quite the formidable opponents, it seemed.
The boy nodded his head. “Indeed. I’m not sure but I think their entire clan, or at least their women were Greater Demons, like Max and this Inferno guy. You recall the clan hunts back in the day, yes?”
As if anybody could not, Keta thought sadly. Years before the second Great War, the Empire had begun to antagonize the Demons by hunting some of their clans to extinction. It turned out that it had been calculated and they were targeting clans that housed Greater Demons. It was awful. The old Master had told him this was one of the reasons Sanction had been formed.
“Regardless, look out for that one. I know that they can generate electricity through touch and generate lightning around themselves. However, I’m unsure what else they can do. If that was all, they would not have been so widely feared. Don’t let your guard down,” Pent said.
Keta immediately backed up and took up a position near the boy, fixing the woman with an uneasy stare. If Pent and his Demonic eyes were having trouble thinking of a way to deal with her, it was bad.
Pent shook his head. “We’re dead if we fight her out in the open like this. However, if they can only control the elements centred around themselves, we might stand a chance. Even so...you’d be hit with a nasty shock if she can get a hold of you.”
“What are you cowards doing? It’s just one woman.” Keta realized that Max was still standing out in the open, staring at the woman with crossed arms.
Keta was mortified, but Pent reacted with a look of intense fury. “What is that idiot doing? Is he trying to get himself killed?”
“Drop your weapons now, or your friend ends up reduced to ashes,” the Demon woman said, halting her advance and turning to Max. She held up a hand and it began to crackle with energy. As lightning danced around the woman, he knew that things had gone from bad to worse.
This complicates things, Keta thought to himself. Due to Max being stubborn, she had the upper hand at the moment.
“If we drop our weapons, we’re dead either way. I hate to say it, but we might need to cut our losses and stick it out,” Pent whispered to him.
The comment hit Keta like a slap in the face. “By cut our losses, do you mean let Max die?”
Pent was unaffected by Keta’s outburst, glaring at him. “We drop our weapons, we all die. If we keep them, it’s possible we can pull back and think up a strategy to combat her. Don’t be a fool and kill us all off for your morality.”
“He’s right, Keta. Don’t worry about me,” Max said with the same reckless grin that the Demon always had on his face. “You two might need those silly weapons, but a real Demon fights with his own power. I mean, lightning is just another type of fire, right?”
The woman was clearly as agitated by Max’s defiance as Keta was baffled by that logic. “Right...that’s enough of that. Okay boys, what’s it going to be? I’ll give you to the count of three. One...” the woman said, her eyes on their weapons. Keta knew Pent would never discard his weapons. Likewise, she was far enough away that they could not reach her before she engaged Max. “Two…” Pent began to back off, his eyes darting to the terrain around him. He had abandoned Max, but Keta wasn’t about to leave a comrade behind. He started to run towards the woman.
“Three.”
It was not the woman who spoke. Rather, it was a man who had appeared behind the woman, his hands held behind his back. How he had gotten there was a mystery. The woman turned around and their eyes met.
This person, a Human nonetheless, was a soldier, as noted by his uniform, though it was not Empire red, marking him as one of the Teforian colony members. Unlike the Xegin, they didn’t wear heavy armor, dressing in free flowing outfits that made it easy to move around in. It was a battle style Keta preferred; to be unhindered. Though he did notice that the man wore a metal sleeve on his left forearm. It seemed an odd ornament.
In the presence of Demons, he was unassuming. His blue clothing matched his eyes, but his clean cut blonde hair contrasted the terribly unkempt attire. He wore a sword at his waist, but he lacked the large gun that most Humans toted around.
Why would a Human carry only a sword? Keta mused. From his experience, most of the Humans were terribly inept at sword fighting. It was why they continued to work on technology such as guns and Xegin. Curious, he waited to see what would happen next.
“Hello, Milaryna,” the stranger said simply.
He expected the woman to become furious. What he was not expecting was for her to step backwards so fiercely that she nearly stumbled to the ground. She looked up at the newcomer and Keta noticed something he had not seen from her yet. Fear.
“You could attack me, but we both know that after a while, I would emerge the victor. Out of respect for you, I will allow you to leave right now. If I find you in these lands again, you know what will happen.”
The woman looked at the stranger, and for a few moments, the two were engaged in a staring contest, lightning crackling. “I did not expect to see you here. This complicates things,” the woman said. She held his gaze for a little longer, neither blinking, before she dropped her hands to her side, the lightning around her vanishing. “You always did have a knack for throwing a wrench into my plans,” she added, with a mischievous smile.
The man matched her smile. “Well? What will you do?”
The smile faded. “Since you were kind enough not to turn me into sliced meat, I will take advantage of this courtesy. I offer you this advice though. Leave this place. Nothing good will come of staying. The time of reckoning is at hand.”
And with that, she turned on her heel. As she began walking away, fog began to form at her feet, starting to envelop her. The last thing they saw before she disappeared into it was the woman putting her hood up once more. Pent was right, there was more to this woman than they knew currently.
She will be a problem later, Keta thought.
Both Keta and Pent watched the scene, neither able to make sense of what had just occurred. While they were still stunned at this revelation, the strange blonde haired Human came up to the two of them.
“Gentlemen.”
***
Erisda Walker wasn’t used to all of this chaos. He had enjoyed the peace of Teforia for years. And now it was engulfed in a war. And from what he had just witnessed, it was an assault from both within the nation and without. Milaryna...that was a face he had not seen in quite some time. And it did not bode well. A fight with her would have been costly. It was very fortunate that she had left without incident.
But he had no time to dwell on that. Not when he had some strangers at the very border of his nation. And of the three of them, another face was familiar. “I hope you understand that I have some questions for the lot of you. But first, you have my thanks,” Erisda said, looking directly at the youngest of them. “I know you were aware of my presence. If you had not distracted that woman, I wouldn’t have been able to make my approach.”
The young Demon nodded, and his companion spoke up. “What? You knew this man would save us?”
“Not really. But I did know that someone else had arrived and was observing the situation. The fact that he didn’t rush out and try to do something like you and Max was a good sign that he was no fool.”
“Is...is that why you weren’t attempting to help Max? To lure her into a false sense of security?”
The young boy had sheathed his weapons and ran his hand through his blonde hair. “Come now, you make me seem like some kind of monster. I’m not so afraid of a weather witch that I wouldn’t attempt to fight her. I just made the smarter tactical choice by allowing that guy to flank her,” the boy said, nodding at Erisda.
Erisda chuckled as the exchange between the two continued. The other stranger had come to his senses and had walked over to them. But still, what to do with these three? His thoughts were interrupted when the silver haired youth had come up to him with an extended hand.
“Thank you for helping us. My name is Keta Night.”
Erisda took the hand and shook it. So Keta Night was still the same as always, Erisda thought to himself. He didn’t seem to recognize Erisda, so he saw no reason to reveal his knowledge of the young man.
The second one revealed himself as Max Revia, and the youngest introduced himself as Pent Telim. “It’s nice to meet you all. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Erisda Walker, general of the Teforian Human military. Now, please explain why you have arrived at our border.”
It was Pent who spoke up first. “Hang on a second, how does a Human from Teforia know someone from the Brotherhood of Shadows?” He asked accusingly. The kid seemed the most level headed of the trio, which was quite odd, but nonetheless he was perceptive.
Erisda was in no mood for such perception however. “I believe I asked you a question first. Regardless of what your intent is, you are at the scene of a grave violation of my nation’s laws. I will have answers,” Erisda explained.
“Watch your tone, Human!” Pent said, fixing him with a glare. “I used you for my own purposes, but I don’t answer to your kind.”
“Pent, let’s try not to antagonize the authorities,” Keta said, trying to calm the Demon boy.
Max stepped forward and brushed Keta to the side in response to this. “No, the kid is right. I’m grateful that he helped us, but I will not bow down to a Human making demands of me. You are not a Demon, you wouldn’t understand. We have done nothing wrong yet.”
Erisda chuckled inwardly. It looked like the silver haired youth could sway his comrades no longer. Indeed, how could one such as Keta Night hope to control Demons, Erisda thought. So then what were his options? Would he fight them all here? The thought had crossed his mind, but he decided against it. “Very well. I don’t want any trouble. I won’t fight you. But you will be coming with me. I am a general after all. I must act in the best interest of my country.”
“If you think Pent Telim, son of Peter Telim, will be bested by Humans, you are gravely mistaken.” The boy had already drawn his weapons and was ready for battle.
But it was the larger Demon who intervened, placing a hand on Pent’s shoulder. “No...this ain’t a fight we should be picking anyways. What matters is that we get into Tefo
ria. We can explain everything.”
Erisda laughed. “I didn’t expect you would be the voice of reason. But yes, I will hear all you have to say.”
That seemed to have diffused the situation at least. It was Keta who spoke up next. “You’ll have to forgive my friends. They are...difficult to understand sometimes.”
Erisda shrugged his shoulders. “Just because I am Human doesn’t mean I don’t have Demon friends. I know exactly what they are like. That woman there was an acquaintance in my youth. And there is your answer as to why I have knowledge of the Brotherhood of Shadows. Those of us in Teforia choose to live there so we’re free from the hatred of the Empire. I’ve answered your question, now I hope you will reciprocate,” Erisda said.
And so Erisda listened to them recap their story. He didn’t interrupt at all, waiting until the tale had concluded. “So you are saying the Brotherhood of Shadows is here now?” Erisda asked at last. Keta nodded. “And you need to get to Zelrega to see your friend?” The younger Demon nodded. “And you hope to accomplish all of this without any help from my people or the Xegin?” The other Demon nodded. Erisda shook his head. “You are all damn fools then…”
Pent flared up. “What did you say?”
Erisda held up a finger and pointed towards the remains of their border gate. “The entire country is in a state of war. The border should have been sealed up tightly. With this recent attack, every city in the nation will be on high alert. Any intruders would be detained. Did you plan on fighting your way out of every encounter?”
The three of them looked dumbfounded at this revelation. They are all idiots, Erisda thought to himself. But then, he remembered how he had been at that age and realized it was simply how youth were.
“But I met a Xegin soldier in the Frostclaw Village. She could have taken me but she let me continue on. So I just thought…” Keta was saying, but he trailed off.