Kingdom of the Nine: Hail (I)

Chapter 8

I look back to Mia now. She's still trembling. The Crux is eating her energy away, I can feel it.

"Mia, are you..."

"Behind you!" Her voice cracking.

Vermidia emerges, her cloak tattered, her face twisted with fury. "You think this is over?" she hisses.

"I've kicked your ass twice in two days. Do you really want to add a third to the tally?"

"Oh is that what you think? I've left each time because I realized I'd rather not waste my time, especially when killing you would have made finding that so much more tedious. Why kill you when I had you to do all the work for me. Now that you have it though, it's a different story."

"You're such a..."

She interrupts me before I can curse her. "Manipulative mastermind? I know."

I draw my blade at her. She remains staring at me, unfazed by its presence.

"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves and do something rash."

"Leave us now, or I'll kill you right here where you stand!" My words make her gasp. She's playing at something. Buying time maybe? I can't see exactly what it is she's playing at but she's forming a plan, I see it in her eyes.

"I'd rather not waste anymore time Hail." With that she fades into a mist. I feel her fingertips on my mind. I try to shake it off but I can't, it's gripping me tighter than ever. Her whispers growing. I feel her breath on my neck and her presence in my ear. I see flashes of her standing over Zen's body. The way she slit Eluna's throat. Is she taunting me?

"I know your fears Hail... I know what will break you." She whispers followed by deep cackling.

"Get out of my head!" I scream and feel her leave.

I open my eyes to see shards of ice covering the ground around me at my feet. I then pan my head up and Zen is standing there in front of me. His side dripping with blood. I freeze, the sight of Zen standing before me—bleeding, broken—twists my gut. His eyes, dark with grief and anger, pierce through me like a blade sharper than the one in his hand. This can't be real. I watched him fall. I know he's gone. But here he stands, and every fiber of my being wants to believe it's him.

"Zen?" I ask as I step closer.

He's looking down at the ground and sobbing. "You could have saved her..." he mumbles. "You could have saved Eluna!" He shouts and draws his blade at me.

"Zen..." I start, stepping forward cautiously, my blade lowering. "This isn't you. You know I did everything I could. It wasn't my fault..."

"You let her die!" he roars, his voice cracking with grief. His blade trembles in his hand as he takes a step toward me. "You stood there, while she bled out!"

I stumble back, my mind reeling. The flashes of Vermidia's whispers still cling to my thoughts, and I know this has to be her doing. Another illusion, another trick to break me down.

"I couldn't save her!" I shout, my voice rising. "You think I haven't been haunted by that since the moment it happened? But it wasn't my choice, Zen, you know that! There was nothing I could do!"

Zen shakes his head, his face contorting with rage. "No, you chose this, Hail! You were always so wrapped up in your own destiny, looking for a way to leave us, you never cared about us. You wanted us gone!"

His words slam into me like a punch. "That's not true..."

His blade flashes as he lunges toward me, his movements quick, precise, just as I remember him in combat. I barely manage to parry the strike, our swords clashing with a loud, metallic ring. I push him back, my breath catching in my throat.