Eventide Scriptures I - The Shattering of an Era

Chapter 16.2 - A Clash of Blades and Lies (Part II)

The room below was a war room, evident from the maps on the walls and the large table in the center filled with miniature soldiers and fortresses. Three men surrounded the table, pointing and discussing.

One of them used a scepter to push a group of mounted soldiers on the map. He had the typical wizened look, with a thick beard and a corpulent body. Ryse recognized him as King Ordofel van Jofiter of Isofea. Beside him was Isfan van Jofiter, his second child, whose belly curve was no less prominent than his father's.

"Advisor Marfas, Princess Revionne demands our response by this evening." Ordofel's words became well-separated as soon as Ryse enhanced his hearing.

Marfas, older and leaner than Ordofel, clasped the edge of the table with both hands. "Princess Revionne's proposition for an alliance neither confers significant advantages nor poses detriment to our interests. Nevertheless..."

Ryse's attention diverted when he caught the sound of a fourth person's breath. In a dim corner of the room, a figure in a brown cloak descended from the ceiling just as he had done earlier, without making a sound, like a drip of a candle. A sharp, hand-long blade protruded from the slit of the cloak as the figure poised to strike the King from behind.

Ryse unleashed a Prana technique, Ether Edge. Blades of energy extending from his four fingers sliced through the window bars, and he dove onto the table amidst falling glass shards.

"Guards!" Ordofel raised an alarm before he could say anything. Explanations could wait because the intruder now lunged with a drawn weapon. Ryse pushed Ordofel aside with one hand while his Ether Edge in the other hand parried the assailant's weapon.

The assailant retracted the weapon and stepped back. "Fool!" she exclaimed.

Ryse's jaw dropped and his eyes rounded at the turn of events. Accompanied by a groan, a dagger protruded from Ordofel's chest, piercing through his layers of orange-themed clothing, staining everything red.

Ordofel fell to his knees. He and Ryse shared the same dazed look when they saw the blood-stained dagger in Isfan's hand.

"Please refrain from displaying excessive astonishment, Father. You expected that something like this would happen sooner or later," Isfan said.

Marfas rushed to the King's side. "Healers! Summon all the Healers!"

The look of shock faded from Ordofel's face as his expression slackened, no longer showing signs of life. However, the same shock still froze Ryse's face. He had plunged headfirst into a botched job.

His divided attention gave the cloaked assailant the chance to bypass him and target Isfan. Ryse deployed another Prana technique, Somatic Drive, granting his entire body a brief burst of rapid movement, and rammed his shoulder to the assailant. She staggered a few steps but did not fall.

Before Ryse could plan the next move, the door burst open, and five fully armored soldiers rushed in with drawn swords.

"He murdered the King! He murdered the King!" Isfan shrieked, pointing at him with a bloodied finger.

"I just saved your ass!" The seriousness of the accusation made Ryse defend himself even though he knew it was meaningless. And once again the assailant took advantage of his distraction to slip. This time, the target was Marfas, whom the assailant grabbed by the arm.

"Release him–" Ryse's words were cut off by the thrusts of five swords into his body, forcing him to retract.

The assailant manifested a pair of interlinked fiery rings on her back, resembling red wings. A burst of flame from the rings sent her and Marfas flying through the roof window and disappearing into the darkness.

Now, only Ryse remained with a prince who had just committed regicide and parricide, and five soldiers eager to kill him. Before the weight of the situation could compel him to flee, a woman with ash-blue hair and her two attendants entered through the door.

He thought of nothing but escaping – or so he should have.

Instead, his mind fixated on the woman, observing her in his own decelerated flow of time. She was like a frozen blue rose, cold with a beauty not naturally occurring. Her long hair, slightly waved at the ends, was like the waves she commanded in the ocean. Her ash-blue eyes could make someone drown while smiling. There was a beauty as well as peril radiating from her.

"He murdered the King!" This time he was thankful to Isfan, whose villainy drew his mind back to the room. He regained his senses just in time as the five sword tips were about to pierce him from various angles.

Ryse activated Somatic Drive, bending his body backward until his hair swept the floor. The blades sliced through the air just a hand's breadth from his chest. He drew Tempest and tripped the five soldiers. Then, without pausing, Tempest coiled around the remaining bars of the window, and he pulled himself up.

The soldiers had surrounded the palace by the time Ryse reached the roof. As he pondered the best escape route, the Arvanian Princess emerged from the same window. Crossed ice needles formed from the window frame, providing her footing. Her blue eyes glowed in the darkness, and ice spears with tips aimed at him hovered around her.

Ryse unleashed Mistral to the south. A series of green discs lined up in the air, and he ran across them. The ice spears hissed in pursuit. He had to rely on his Somatic Drive and all his acrobatic skills to dodge.

He was fortunate to escape unharmed, and fortunate that the princess did not pursue him. Perhaps she did not want to get too involved in a situation whose full context was unclear to her. A wise move, wiser than he was.

Mistral had its limits. After the sixth disc, there was nothing but empty air. He leaped as far as he could and, just before landing, stamped a green Gale Bolt on the ground to soften his fall.

Ryse managed to put a considerable distance between himself and the soldiers around the palace, but they knew the direction of his escape and pursued in droves. What they did not know was his destination was not the southern corridor but the eastern cliffs.

The darkness served as a protective veil as he veered east. His only thought was to escape because his mission to stop the Mentor was far more important.

He could have cast Mistral in succession if he had planned the timing of his spells from the beginning. However, his goal was to deceive the enemy, and running through the air would make him an easy target for enemy Mana Decimae.

He reached a cluster of trees at the foot of the eastern cliffs, with just enough time to search for a sewer entrance. He had overheard in the tavern about a sewer connected to the city but did not know its exact location.

As he parted the bushes, a loud thud sent thick stone slabs into the air. A fist punched out of the sewer hole in the ground, making him brace for an ambush. However, the figure emerging was not an enemy.

"Varne!" Ryse let out a muffled exclamation.

"You again!" Varne responded.

"They're over there!" The soldiers' shouts were closing in. Varne's use of Prana had drawn them all.

"Varn, no time for details. We need to escape now! Use the sewer!"

"Hold on! There are soldiers inside too!"

"Then we'll have to scale this cliff," Ryse said, seeing a group of soldiers crossing the tree line. He grabbed the first crevice in the cliff wall and began to climb. Various curses and several profanities from below indicated that Varne followed the advice.

"Archers!" The call was followed by the twang of bows and the whistling of dozens of arrows.

Ryse and Varne activated their Prana Armor. The iron-tipped arrows clanged against the back of their Prana Armor and bouncing off.

They continued climbing until the edge of the cliff shielded them from the arrows. Deactivating their Prana Armor, they ran into the dense forest.