SOL

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

It was not yet midnight as Rayna moved down the dirt road connecting Murdole and... what was once Halstor. She could not feel how cold it really was, her Enforcer jacket provided little warmth, and she wore nothing over it to protect her face from the icy wind. Her only source of warmth was the rage boiling her blood and pushing her forward, popping her veins almost to their bursting point. She kept fingering the grip of her revolver, thinking of nothing but exacting her murderous hate on the Castra soldiers that butchered her town, and the young man who caused them to even come to Halstor.

As the moon grew higher in the sky and the wind became stronger, Rayna tried desperately to only feel her hatred, and put the slaughtered faces of her mother and fellow Enforcers out of her mind, at least long enough for her to use her anger, and handle her grief later.

As Rayne mined her hatred, she approached Murdole. As the town came fully into her view, the sadness she had been trying to so hard to suppress leapt into her heart, and she could feel tears beginning to come to her eyes. Murdole, like Halstor, is another small town with a simple market as its source of income, but built new quarters to house Enforcers, with the rest of the town looking old and wooden. Rayna would occasionally walk with her father to Murdole as a child, to buy an old merchant's pork soup and tapestries, something she rather enjoyed. Yet looking at Murdole now, with no home or father to go back to, she only felt disheartened and pain.

As Rayna stared at the town, swimming in her melancholy, she heard a loud bang come from one of the larger buildings in the town; a short, rectangular tower building made entirely of grafstone. Rayna snapped out of her trance and regained her focus, setting her gaze on the building before moving swiftly towards the town. She firmly gripped her revolver, still in its holster as she entered Murdole's main district. She moved quickly but cautiously, making sure not to be seen by Castra soldiers or anyone else who could pose a threat. As she walked and moved through Murdole towards the tower, she realized something odd- it was silent, and she saw no one around. Rayna slowed her pace, feeling chest tightened, stopping long enough to look at her surrounding near the heart of the town's market, listening for any sounds, looking for any signs of life, but saw nothing, and she felt scared.

Rayna picked up her speed again as she passed through Murdole's center, seeing the grafstone tower grow closer, before stumbling over something in the road. She looked to see what it was, her eyes widened at what it was.

"An arm!" Rayna's mind began to race, and she started breathing heavily.

Shaken, she kept moving towards her goal. As disturbed as she was by the severed arm that tripped her, she had to stay focused. This was a mission, one she could not fail, no matter how many doubts weighed her down.

"Is he there?" A voice barked. Rayna's head snapped up and she froze. "Answer my question!" It barked again, followed by a gunshot, and burst of terrified screams. Rayna felt her heart drop, the soldiers were here, and so were the citizens, or what was left of them.

"They're executing the townspeople." She realized, still walking. As the voices of the soldiers and townspeople became clearer, they also started to come into view near then end of the market street. Once they were fully in her sight, Rayna ducked into a nearby alley, not wanting to see the bodies and tears of these people, and the cruelty of Castra that Rayna witnessed first hand. She blocked out any noise while moving through the alley, her eyes firmly locked on the grafstone tower while trying to be quiet, hastily dashing from alley to alley. Once at the end of an alley four streets from the market, she could smell the remnants of the gunpowder that caused the explosion earlier-the tower was just across the wide street. It looked old, its wall's cracking and chipped, the wooden door was broken, most likely from the Castral soldiers, and a thin cloud of dark smoke was leaking out of the also-broken windows.

Rayna peered around the alley's corner to check if any soldiers were near, her grip once again tightening on her the grip of her gun. She began taking slow, deep breaths, readying herself to run to the tower, and confront the soldiers she knew were in there- she could have her vengeance.

Just as she readied her body to bolt into the street, a piercing cry came from the tower. It was masculine, different from the screaming she heard from the Murdole townspeople, but familiar. Another scream came from the tower, and Rayana remembered that voice- it was one of the Castral Soldiers!

"No way," She thought in disbelief. "Could it be some sort of resistance? More Enforcers?" Rayna knew most of the Enforcers were located in Halstor, but held hope when she heard the Castral soldier's dying cries. In a quick flush of hope, Rayna dashed across the street, forgetting the other soldiers in the town, and recklessly drew her revolver and burst through the broken door. Any hope or joy Rayna felt upon seeing the other side of that door quickly dissipated and turned to both confusion and horror when she saw the floor covered in dead Castral soldiers, and a young man in a large black coat, with rose red hair, standing over them, holding a large, decorated sword covered in the blood of his fallen enemies.

The young man immediately looked at Rayna, who froze when that same gaze fell on her again, cold, steely, and dark. He threw his sword up to rest it on his right shoulder, the pure white sleeve on his left shining brightly, and he said,

"You again, huh?"