Fall of a Hero: Hearts Without Foundation (a Fantasy Adventure)

Killer

The crowd gathered around Lord Mundus began to panic. Medics were summoned but it would serve no use. If he really was dead.

Somewhere off, I heard a distant discussion of two nobles.

"How did this even...?" one mused, absolutely dumbfounded.

A serf ran beside her master. "Sir, I have seen it. He was thrown with witchcraft by him!" She urgently pointed to me. The noble's reaction was hesitant until another slave piped in.

"Me, too! The Lord Mundus was trying to kill him, and he flew him back in defense!"

And another witness.

"I definitely saw him do it," Nuntius added, "guess he caught on to Mundus's little ploy."

The rat!

I hadn't meant to kill Mundus. Not at all! I just wanted him gone.

Now he was. In his place there formed an angry handful of nobles.

The noble man who had inquired of the lord's death raged at me, "Savage! Who would murder his own protector and master? And even one known for mercy!"

Nuntius stepped in before the crowd like a leader. His face was contorted, suddenly filled with mock disgust and fury.

"Savage serf!" he accused, "You were given your place in society by the gods, and you murder your master! All of us...we know our place. We accept it because it is deemed honorable, but you, no you have defiled the gods. You soulless narcissist!"

Mum pressed through the accumulating mob. "Fet'ven-" she softly began.

"You have ruined our lives! Our happy lives," dramatized a young maid serf, "We will surely be raided by robbers and those beasts that lie outside the manor!"

A serf gardener clung to her son. "That or the other manors will divide our families!" she wailed.

I tried telling them it was an accident but they wouldn't let me talk! The mob was growing by the second.

"He attacked, and I was defending-" was all I could manage.

A well-dressed man wearing white and gold garb rallied beside Nuntius and the nobles, shouting, "Behold, Kudram will surely judge you!"

Enervent had found her way to this place of excitement and opened her mouth to speak. I braced myself for her accusation.

"Listen, all of you!" Her voice was loud and clear over the rest of the talkers and the statements lowered to murmur. She acknowledged the people with a subtle gesture.

"I happened to see it, too. I believe that someone else had said Fetoven was acting in defense, and I saw the Lord Mundus come at him with the Enchantress Jez's blade! And yet, by some strange power, the serf protected himself against an angry master bent to kill him!"

Someone yelled, "Why in Alicubi would the gentle Mundus try to kill a mere serf?"

Mum answered, "Well, we all'd be know'n that the Mundus be quite a dreamer, especially in the like of making his own son a jest-ur."

Maccus, who I caught hiding behind a nearby tree, blushed and ducked from view.

"That's hardly enough to justify," a dark-haired noble retorted.

What I needed was proof. Proof of why Mundus wanted to kill me, but what was there to help me? What was...?

Obviously, what I needed were the Etchings!

"People!" I addressed, mustering up as much charisma as I could, "I have proof that I was targeted! It's in the form of the Etchings!"

Serpo, who had remained silent in the mass, came next to me and gruffly whispered in my ear, "What are you DOING? They can't know about the tablets! Word spreads..."