The Blade Witch: Songs of Eldrin, Book 0.5

Chapter Seventeen - Fall of the Faithful

Thirsty flames licking their way up the length of Estra's exposed blade without a second thought. The crowd parted quickly at the sight, making a small clearing as they moved to a safe distance. Even the guards hesitated their approach, looking at each other in doubt before one of them decided to press their luck.

The thickly muscled woman raised her club to swing, only to find her arm opened from wrist to elbow before she got the chance to make another move. The heat in the air seemed to rise to blistering degrees in an instant. The other guards pressed towards Estra to assist their wounded comrade, a few of them coming to the same harm in quick succession. Estra took wounds of her own, but it wasn't long before the guards shrank back in the face of the Blade Witch's desperate onslaught. Only a crossbow bolt whizzing by her face close enough to ruffle her hair was enough to bring Estra back to reality.

"That's enough!" the guard captain's voice rang out with the power that only a person accustomed to absolute authority could muster. Estra found herself forced to a stop as she scanned the prison walls, eyeing the crossbowmen above.

"Drop your weapon woman," the guard captain warned her. He stared down at her from the platform, only a few dozen more steps in the distance. Estra could have covered the distance with ease, if it weren't for the quickly growing collection of guards separating the two of them, not to mention that one more step closer to the prison would put her within much more manageable crossbow range.

"I can't do that," Estra said, her voice coming out in a heated snarl. "You've got someone important to me up there, and I'm not about to let you put her to death on the word of that monster."

The guard captain's brown eyes measured her carefully, taking their time in their appraisal. "The Blade Witch correct? Those flames of yours are hard to miss. I've heard a lot about you lately, especially after your debacle at the circus the other night."

Estra didn't offer the man an answer, instead, searching about for anything that might help her cause. The only thing she discovered was Brennan slowly approaching her from behind and a maddening itch running across the back of her hand.

"Tell me, who is this girl to you?" The guard captain asked, considering Lency for the first time.

"Like I said, she's someone important to me," Estra answered.

The guard captain frowned at her statement, this time glancing at the giant. "Tell me, Dost, what are this girl's crimes?"

Estra's eyes made contact with the giant's for the first time. Her face twisted into a painful snarl as the memories of her last night at the convent assailed her. There was no shortage of emotions that ran through her body, throwing her flames into a wild maelstrom of gold and scarlet, burning away her sleeve as they devoured her blade and threatened to engulf her arm entirely.

"Well, are you going to speak man?" the guard captain urged the giant.

Dost spoke without breaking his sight away from Estra, his tone going from accusing to a slow drone. "The girl is a victim herself more than anything. Helena obtained her as payoff for a debt and it's her blood that she's been using to fuel her rituals."

"So, it can be said that the girl is the root cause of this all then?" the guard captain asked.

"No," Dost stated with certainty. "This all started a long time ago. With a different girl who was just as much of a victim as this one is."

"So, you're saying the girl is innocent?" the guard captain asked, ignoring the giant's cryptic statement. "You mean to tell me that she had no choice in the matter?"

The giant man grew still enough to have been a statue. Even his breathing seemed to have stopped, but Estra could sense the thoughts running wildly through his mind before he made his next statement.

"We all have a choice," Dost said. His words carried loud enough for the entire crowd to gather, but they seemed to be directed solely at Estra. "One thing I've learned throughout my life. There is no innocence in Eldrin."

The guard captain rubbed a hand through his greying beard, his brow creasing as he came to a decision. "That's that then," he approached to guillotine himself, resting a hand on the lever. Lency raised her head for the first time, her blood-soaked hair falling free as she faced Estra with tortured grey eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came through the girl's broken jaw, only a long moan that tore the Blade Witch's heart from her chest. "The girl's fate is sealed Blade Witch, and your actions have made it more than clear where you stand. It's a shame, coming from someone who's supposed to stand against those like the Defiler, but if you're not with us then you're against us. That's the way the world works."

Estra dropped her weapon, rushing towards the platform in desperation. The guards moved out of her way, both wary of the blazing hand she stretched towards Lency and sure that she wouldn't make it in time. She had just come to the edge of the steps when the thrum of the lever releasing its burden sounded out, carrying with it the sad song of glistening steel cutting its way through both a young life and Estra's last hope for any justice in the world.

Jet black hair, struck the side of the wicker basket, causing the wicker basket to tip over and sent its load rolling down the steps to come to a rest against Estra's boots. The Blade Witch looked down into the eyes of the only friend she'd ever known. A rainfall of tears falling from her face into the pool of blood gathering beneath her soles.

For an instant, everything turned into a meaningless nothing that stole away her thoughts and senses. Her mind was blank, every sight around her was featureless, the ever-present slosh of the crashing waves in the distance faded into white noise, and the world seemed unfathomably distant.

Somewhere in that faraway place, a bard placed his hand on her shoulder, blistering his own skin trying to pull her away. Then everything came back in a thunderclap of blazing fury. A scream that could bring fear to a dead man's heart cried out to the sky. Golden flames stretched out their long tendrils recklessly, feasting on both the guards that protected their leader and the innocent bystanders that trampled each other in their helpless attempt to find safety. The person that had once cared for the safety of the innocent was nowhere to be found. In her place stood a person suffering in anguish. One whose only thought was to burn away all the suffering she'd ever witnessed in this world.

Bolts rained down on the Blade Witch without direction as they tried to find a target while blinded by the light of her power. A few of them inevitably found their goal, dulled by her armour, but still managing to sink deep into her skin and bring Estra to her knees. As her flames died out a guard rushed towards her, weapon raised, prepared to risk his own life to end the massacre. The tired woman looked up, nothing left to give, and fully prepared to take the blow. Instead, an enormous fist crashed into the side of the guard's helmet, denting in the metal and sending the man flying.

The last scene that Estra saw before she fell unconscious was a confusing one. A giant stood over her, hands outstretched, creating a barricade between her now vulnerable form and her would-be assailants. The guard captain approached, exchanging heated words with the giant. The discussion was intense and lengthy, but apparently, some agreement was reached and weapons were holstered, just before cold manacles were slipped onto Estra's wrists and she found herself being dragged towards the towering walls of the prison she'd once told herself only the cursed and the godless would ever find themselves wandering.