A War of Silver and Gold

by Minerva J. Kaelin

  The tentacle moved, caressing the floor beside Cassia's feet. She dodged, taking a few steps to the side. Her keen, warrior's reflexes snapped into place. The silver dagger flew into the air, Cassia's hand firmly grasping it, she brought it down to the spongy flesh of the monster's limb, cutting through tissue and fishy tendons.

  Cassia jerked away, her hands cradling the daggers with impossible force. The monster turned its attention back to Ael with an excruciating high pitched scream of pain.

  The forest floor vibrated again with the sound. Low whispers travelled throughout the forest, from behind them, from the trees slightly speaking in their ancient, eternal language. Soft, like a veil of silk, caressing the flesh of the two elves, soothing them.

  Lake Shryvvar was on the other side of the Wall. On the Nevdori side. Cassia knew the woods around, had spent a lot of time trying to understand them. This was a part of her lands.

  The monster's eyes shone through the lake waters. Yellow, menacing, devilish, eyes of demons and monsters, monsters from other realms. However, Elaine had found it, was still a great question in Cassia's thoughts.

  The slimy body peaked from underneath the lake's surface. The eyes of yellow malice turned golden with the sun, the iris contracted, focusing on Cassia and Ael. The squid, giant and unfaltering screeched. A voice so loud, Cassia's hair stood, Ael's heart beat faster than ever before.

  The giant monster twisted, tentacles thrown up madly into the air, it screeched again. Ivory, rotten teeth flashed from somewhere behind all those sets of tentacles, sharp and waiting, waiting for a worthy meal.

  They had to get out of there, out before the monster found a way to return to the shore.

  Flashing didn't work, not in the vicinity of the Lake Wards and Wonfare was only one way, one way. Cassia cursed, how could she not have been careful? She had studied Runology for hundreds of years and yet that tiny, little bit about Wonfare had slipped from her.

  The squid turned again, long limbs reaching the shore. Its great cups grasping the grass with malice, pulling itself out of the Lake.

  Cassia panicked, grasped Ael's shoulder and willed her magic to pull them out of there. Her green sparks collided with the unyielding yellow forces of the Lake. She winced, the powers were much greater than hers. Whatever being had placed them up must have been some form of deity.

  The pain began from her right leg up to her left shoulder, tearing her apart, but she greeted her teeth, preventing the great terror from entering her system. They were trapped, trapped, trapped and no one could get them out. No one, not unless the Lady, or a higher power allowed them out.

  She braced herself against the floor, her magnificent sword and the various silver daggers adorning her sides simmered against the sun, against the light of the morning sky. If she couldn't get out, she would kill that giant squid, she would kill it and then damn it back to whatever realm it had squeezed out from. Her braided hair was slowly falling freely from her plait, dark locks reaching in front of her, blurring her vision.

  The breeze was soothing as if the gods were nodding towards her. Her. The one who had cursed them and damn them a thousand times over and over again. And in her gut, a great pang of power spluttered forth, engulfing her system, her eyes, her breath.

  She was going to skin that monster, pull the cups from its tentacles one by one, as slowly as she could, as painfully as she could manage. She was Cassia Silverweaved and nothing could terrify her. She was the monster story that parents told at nights to their children. No giant squid from another realm could terrify her.

  She held her hands before her, daggers slightly inclined towards the giant squid. Her heart pounded like a mad war drum, but her eyes were trained on the beast. It sliced and screamed, hungry for revenge for his cut tentacle. Hunger, animalistic hunger.

  The beast moved the remaining tentacle closer to its massive body, and in its place, it thrust forward another longer and thicker.

  Cassia followed it, running along the bank, daggers flashing with a savage light. She jumped, daggers drawn, thrusting forward with impossible speed.

  The blades pierced the callous flesh of the squid. The creature screamed in pain and moved it tentacle manically from side to side, dragging Cassia along with it.

  Her marmoreal grasp around her daggers caused her to be thrown down, to the rocks behind her. Her bones cracked, but she didn't even wince. She would chop that bastard till there was nothing but yellowing eyes and thick, filthy pieces of flesh.

  Cassia screamed as she was dragged up in the air. Her body hanging vertically from the squid's tentacle. She could do nothing but scream and press the daggers further into the beast's flesh. She wiggled, pressing her muscles together, forcing the blades to slide down the long tentacle of the beast.

  She dragged the daggers down, using gravity to assist her to slice open the monster.

  The monster lowered the tentacle with force downwards, trapping Cassia between the ground and its heavy limb. Her tender back groaned, her tendons and bones cracked again.

  When the beast made to pull its tentacle up, she pulled her daggers out of the beast's flesh. A white, filthy form of blood splattered all over her clothes, coating her in its filth. Cassia could barely move, her arms hurting, but she gritted her teeth, pressed the back of her hand on her oozing wound at the side of her stomach. Silver blood coated her flesh and clothes, mixing with the white squid-blood.

  She groaned and stood, pulled her dagger up again, her arms frail almost failing her. She managed a few pained steps back, towards the woods.

  As if the trees were trying to hide her, conceal her, their barks opened to the side, allowing her entrance in the woods.

  She pressed her back against the tree, glancing at Ael.

  The squid had one tentacle wrapped around him, squeezing, pressing, asphyxiating him.

  Why wasn't he fighting it?

  Cassia pressed her palm against the wound in her side. No, using magic to heal herself would cost her energy, valuable energy.

  She turned glaring at Ael once again. He wiggled against the tentacle, screamed and cursed, but he did nothing else, he didn't try to pull a dagger from his side, he didn't even chant, didn't use runes. Nothing, he remained there allowing the giant bastard to suffocate him to death. Cassia's eyes turned red, angry and infuriating. The scene before her justified her reasons for never taking a partner with her when she was in missions.

  She shook her head. Foolish lycan.

  She twisted around, sheathed her daggers and pulled her sword out, holding it with two hands, the blade pointing downwards.

  She looked at the beast, its eyes searching somewhere in the woods for her to burst forward and trap her.

  But she was Cassia Silverweaved, she fought monster till she was but a sickly child in the careful, however, hateful hands of the King. She didn't fall for childish ploys.

  She moved, eyes concentrated on her target.

  Her muscles rippled at her thighs, confined by the leather leggings she wore.

  Her mismatched gaze never faltered, it was as if the world stopped around her, slowed down and waited, waited for something terrifying to happen.

  Her steps were sure, hard, damaging the earth underneath, but it didn't matter. Only one thing mattered.

  Survival, survival, survival.

  She twisted her hands again, sword raised, but still, the blade faced downwards.

  She jumped up, fueled with her impeccable magic, Cassia allowed to course through her veins. She rose up in the air, facing the giant squid.

  Yellow eyes glaring at her with hate, spite, the savage need to consume, to survive. Cassia was no better than the squid, but in Nature's eyes; the strongest and more terrifying beast survived.

  She had ever been that beast. It was her curse to survive.

  She flew, directing the blade down, towards the flesh of the beast between its eyes. That was where a fisherman told her once to strike a squid. She still remembered that tiny detail. Cassia remembered
everything, everything. She never forgot, never forgave.

  The blade made home.

  The woods stilled.

  The beast stopped moving, tentacles unclenching, loosing their grasps.

  Ael fell down with a wince, but Cassia paid him little attention.

  The yellow eyes crossed in the middle, glaring at her with all the malice it could find.

  Then it dove in, limp body, dead flesh, falling down into the darkness of the Lake, dragging Cassia once again with it underneath the surface, soaking her in the lake water.

  She screamed, but her voice was muffled by the water.

  The limp beast continued to fall downwards, but the sword was carefully sheathed into the squid's flesh.

  Cassia tugged at the sword, but it didn't give away.

  A light, a light blurred her vision somewhere deep in the Lake's bottom. A bright light, illuminating from a box. She blinked willing herself to concentrate back onto the sword in her hand.

  The buzzing of the waters made her panic, but she kept her eyes trained there, on the handle in her hands.

  She willed another part of her magic in her palms and with a final pull the sword was unsheathed and she was floating upwards. She had to get air in her sore lungs.

  Her eyes met with the light in the bottom again, but her blood oozed powerfully out of her side again, the lake water made it sting so bad she winced again.

  Hands raised to help her swim back to the surface. She fought with the waters, her blurry vision and the buzzing, but she succeeded, pulling up to the surface, allowing fresh air to enter her nostrils.

  She gasped and padded to the bank, her hands sore, but she managed to drag herself to the side, onto solid land. She lay on her back, gasping and struggling, eyes facing upwards to the sky. The sun had moved, up to the heavens, but it was still low enough to coat almost everything in a warming light.

  "Cassia," Ael's voice came from beside her, but she didn't open her eyes.

  Another flashing light reached around them, moving them both away, somewhere Cassia didn't know, but she could barely care, barely care as unconsciousness wrapped around them.

  + + +

  Cassia's world spun, her head throbbed, but she managed to open her eyes.

  Her body pulsed; her veins reverberated with the pain of whatever had been injected into her system.

  A white light blurred her vision.

  "Cassia,"

  She twisted her head to the side. Ael.

  "Cassia,” he said and sat down, somewhere.

  Where was I? A bed. It must have been a bed, she was somewhere. Ael. Ael was there, too.

  She tried to talk, but her lungs were weak, she coughed, coughed again, raising her hand to her mouth.

  "Take it easy, will you?"

  She eyed him suspiciously. Then everything came rushing back. The Lake, Wonfare, the squid, her daggers, her wounds, Ael being squeezed by the monster. Her anger at him for being utterly useless. She tried to sit up, make her muscles work, function in some way, any way. She huffed in annoyance as she finally managed to let her back press against the headboard, controlled the muscles of her arms and back. Her head spun, but she closed her eyes, blinking quickly.

  Her voice was hoarse, her mouth dry, as she asked, "What happened?"

  Ael quirked an eyebrow and bit his bottom lip, shaking his head. "You saved me."

  "I know, I did, but,” she cleared her throat. "But what happened after that. I can only remember a light."

  "I don't know, we were suddenly back in the courtyard, back in Feremony."

  Cassia blinked. "That's impossible,” she shook her head. "Wonfare is a one-way transportation route, it doesn't bring you back."

  "I don't know, but that's all I remember. I passed out, Mersila found us coated in our blood and that filthy thing from the squid. She managed to get Aine in and treated us."

  Cassia shook her head, it didn't make sense. Nothing made sense and she didn't like this, she never liked things she couldn't understand.

  Whoever had pulled them back in Feremony must have been powerful with magic. She only knew of one being powerful enough to do this task without hurting them in the process. She blinked. That elf absolutely despised her and wanted nothing to do with her, he would have left her happily there, to rot for the rest of eternity.

  She blinked again, pulled the covers back. Ael stood, hands thrown in the air in surrender. He said, "Try not to move much, your wounds were deep and a piece of silver got to sting on your insides. Aine had to slice around the wound to pull it out."

  Cassia winced silently, but she shook her head. She didn't need anyone to mother her, she was a warrior. Blasting Orcus, she didn't even remember her own mother. "How about you shut up, Ael? It's been bad enough, the bitch didn't have the sword."

  "The whole mission's fruitless, I gather."

  "What did you expect? She is a cranky, older-than-Nature fairy. I for once believe she would have given us a hint."

  "She gave us," Ael tilted his head and pursed his lips. "She said it's somewhere with snow, snow as cold as your heart."

  Cassia winced again. "Oh, bullshit." She groaned as she managed to stand. "My heart's not cold." She cursed again. "And we are in the middle of a rutting winter. How many places that there is snow you know of in this season? Because I know many."

  He chuckled. "No need to be a bitch, dear."

  "Don't even start,” she growled. "Whatever happened there, that squid, was because my temper got out of the way."

  "Right,” he shook his head. "Might I kindly remind you of your duel with the pristine Lord Griswold tomorrow?"

  Cassia cursed a long curse from the language of the Dwarves. Ael flinched at the despicable word at the gentle voice of the she-elf before him. She did have a very...roguish tongue for a princess.

  "That despicable elf calls himself a Lord of the Adanei, but when a time of need comes he backs away. Had his mother never taught him what honour means?"

  "Of course, you don't know," Ael muttered silently, glancing at her with those wide, blue eyes of his.

  "Don't know what?"

  "His father cast his mother to the Dragon Caverns when he was an infant. I don't think he ever met her after this. She was presumed dead. Pathetic elf, his father."

  "Whatever,” she waved her hands and moved towards her vanity desk, her wounds throbbed, but she brushed the pain away and sat on the chair before the mirror. To say she was a mess would be an understatement. She looked dreadful. She did have fight a giant squid though, a few moment of looking like shit would do nothing to her reputation and Ael didn't seem to mind.

  "I don't like him, too, but do try to lure him to your side he would be a great asset."

  Cassia threw him a look from the mirror and tilted her head to the side. "Hello, have you known me? I have a charming personality, he loves me. Of course, he does. I have already threatened to gut him and then burn his corpse in the middle of his City."

  Ael chuckled. "Charming, indeed. I should have foreseen it."

  She rolled her eyes. "He is not my concern for now. I don't even care about what he thinks. I do care about the sword." She shook the sword. "If the King finds it, Orcus would be the least of what he could unleash upon the lands."

  "Then we do research, in the library. But for now you have to heal, you have a Lord to duel with tomorrow."

  "Bloody, slimy worm of a Lord."

  43

  The sky seemed as if it had fallen over their heads. It was cold and misty, a strange combination that was anything but the Feremony Cassia had come to know. Somehow nature was angry and despicably irate. It was beyond Cassia’s ungodly powers to stop the course of the weather. She had barely tried to summon her human runes in the morning to pull the dizziness out of her head and minimize the side effects of drinking more Flamebolts than her organism could manage.

  She had merely brought her sword and dagger with her on the training grounds at noon. She didn’t bother with warming up since her
head was far too dizzy to even think of anything else than falling asleep.

  She sat on a stone bench at the peripheral line of the training building. She had preferred wearing leather that day instead of her normal silver armour. It was an uncertain choice for she didn’t know what kind of sword Griswold wielded. If she knew she could have assessed the fatality of the weapon and would have worn something more proper.

  Ael had been fighting in the ring at the west side of the ring and thankfully paid little attention to what she did. She stared at the soil on the ground. Griswold was late. Ten minutes late and she was already beginning to grow anxious and angry. She didn’t like being unpunctuality, she simply didn’t.

  Back in the Citadel when she had been two minutes late for a council; the King had thrown an ordeal and commanded a senior advisor to whip her at the centre of the room as a fine example of the consequences when someone defied him. He had done enough things to her to hate him more than she had hated the old Lord of Feremony. At least Lord Conor had a motive to initiate her torturing, the King had had none.

  Her blood thrummed, she could loudly hear the flow of it with her ears and the thudding of her heart echoed inside her chest. She was not nervous; sword fighting was a natural thing for her. Since she was young the King had made it a habit to shove a sword into her small hands, not big enough for she had been a rather small elfling.

  She had to blame her human nature for this.

  Cassia cleared her throat and raised her eyes towards the entrance of the building. She winced when she saw Griswold walking down the corridor, his black robe billowing behind him, a silver brooch holding it in place at the front. His sword strapped to his belt.

  A longsword.

  Cassia’s laughter couldn’t be contained. A longsword was probably not the best option for him. His sharp, straight blade was no worthy opponent to her flamberge blade. She never used longswords in duelling for a reason. The flame blade was designed particularly for damaging flesh and inflicting deadly wounds, designed to slow down the impact of the opponent and make numb the hands of the enemy.