The Shield Bearer

Chapter 14

It took everything in Rene's power to slow down from her enhanced run. She skidded to a stop, just inches from Tijer, who was quickly turning to protect himself from whatever was coming at him, so quickly.

All eighteen orcs and Gregory turned and just stared at Rene, as if she was a ghost. Rene was just as shocked by the sight of all of them, as they were, of her. She had expected to teleport to an old abandoned fort, not into a fort, that was fully intact and occupied by everybody that had been there when Jensen had put a sword through her back.

Reflexively, she spun around and felt a gut wrenching sense of dejavu as she saw herself, with Jensen standing behind her. His face was triumphant as he thrust his long blade through Rene's past self's back and chest. Rene's chest tingled and then ached as she remembered that horrible sensation.

She felt Gregory rushing past her, his face contorted with horror. It was then, that Rene realized that Gregory and the orcs didn't actually see her. She was somehow witnessing this event. A coldness settled into her gut as she saw a large shadow passing across the weak, winter sun that had just risen. Rene remembered that shadow, being the last thing she saw, for a very long time.

But now, she could look up at the sky, to see the source of that shadow. She had half expected it to be a dragon or some great flying beast. But what she saw, was much more frightening. A large object was falling through the sky, with a fiery comet tail behind it. "When the star fell..." Rene now, began to understand that reference, made by her potential captors.

The orcs rushed past Rene and toward Gregory. Tijer actually grabbed Gregory up, lifting him off of the ground and forcing him past the scene of Rene, dying and into the shelter of the barracks. The shadow passed, going well beyond the fort and then, Rene felt the ground beneath her feet begin to shake violently. She turned to see Jensen pulling the sword out of her now limp body. His eyes were filled with a strange mixture of joy and terror as he turned the blade back and placed it to his own abdomen. He then leaned forward, impaling himself on the blade that he had used on Rene.

As he dropped to his knees, he looked up and his eyes seemed to settle on Rene. She had he strong impression that he could see her. In her heart, she knew that he thought that he had done some great deed, by putting that sword in her back. But she wasn't going to let him go to the other side, without a touch of the truth about how wrong he was. "Your actions will not bring back The Mistress." Rene spoke with an authoritative tone. His eyes widened and she knew that he could hear her.

"I am not The Mistress!" She exclaimed this to his horrified eyes. "The Mistress is not the hero that you believe. Your actions today will not bring some grand age of enlightenment. Instead, you have condemned me, to nearly two decades trapped in a frozen void." Tears began flowing down his cheeks now, as his life force began to fade.

"Can you forgive me?" His voice was faint.

Rene stood there, hesitant to offer him that comfort. She had never withheld her gift of comfort, to those that she had to watched die, before. But she hadn't been asked to forgive the man who betrayed her and his own people, for a foolish dream. Rene couldn't do it, to make his transition easier. But she did it for another reason.

"I will forgive you, not because you deserve it. I will forgive you, so that my heart can be free of the burden of your actions." Rene felt that uncomfortable twinge in her chest, fade away. She knew that it wouldn't be back.

"Thank you." His last breath left him and he fell over, his body next to Rene's. At that moment, Rene learned why the orcs had rushed into the barracks. The shaking in the ground had grown in intensity and a wall of pure kinetic energy came rushing toward the fort, from the direction that the fallen star had flown in, directly to the south.