Candlelight Fantasia
There was talk of sedition.
There always was in Alexandria, as there probably was in the capitals of any land on the Mist Continent, ranging from the drunken boasts of braggarts who believed that they could lead better than those appointed by station to lead their lands to genuine threats posed by those who coveted power and sought to attain it. General Beatrix of the army of Alexandria was aware of both types, and while she viewed the former type as being somewhat inevitable...it was the way of fools to believe that they had the answers that their leaders did not...she viewed the second type as being dangerous. It was her sworn duty to protect the throne of Alexandria, and she took it as seriously as she did anything else...and given that she had trained herself to be the greatest fighter on Gaia, putting herself through training that would have broken some easily, that said something. She viewed traitors with the ultimate disdain, because in her mind, to break faith with a ruler was to break faith with one's self, and that, to her, was an unbearable crime.
Nearly as unbearable a crime as what the man that she and her guards pursued had committed.
She only had a few details, shouted to her by one of her lieutenants, Maia, as she had begun the pursuit; that a guard detail had encountered a man attempting to gain entry to the upper levels of the castle, where Queen Brahne and Princess Garnet lived, and in the process of determining his intent, the man had drawn a short sword and had wounded one of her guards. Now he fled through the maze of the lower levels, clearly lost and in a panic; she could hear his footsteps just ahead of her down the corridor that they both ran down. The criminal, Beatrix judged, was going as fast as he could, while she was barely exerting any effort at all. Beatrix sometimes wondered if that was fair, and decided that it was. If you wanted to be strong, you could chose to be strong, and so you were. She knew the layout of the castle as if it were the back of her hand, and she knew that the chase at least would end shortly, in a dead end, and she prepared for combat. That it was unlikely that this man could defeat her never entered her mind; she never took chances in combat. Ahead, she heard the man run into the obstruction that she had recalled, a solid oak door locked from the other side, serving as a security checkpoint within the castle, and he swore as she came around the corner. The criminal was dressed in the fashion of a native of Alexandria, in fairly decent clothing that suggested he was a merchant or some sort of trader, which was probably how he had gained entry into the castle. Merchants had too great a run of the lower levels of the castle, Beatrix knew, a thing that she had always disliked, but Alexandria was known for its commerce, and a certain amount of trading had to be negotiated through the castle itself. As the man, who was thin faced, almost sallow in complexion, turned to face her, Beatrix resolved to change this to whatever extent that she could. The criminal saw her, truly saw her, and went pale. "You...you're..." he gasped. "You're Beatrix!"
Beatrix nodded resolutely. "Yes, I am. You invaded areas that are off limits to you, you attacked and injured one of my soldiers, and you are under arrest. Make things simpler and surrender to me, sir."
Ordinarily, her reputation as the greatest swordswoman in all of Gaia was enough to disarm most fighters, yet, strangely, this one took a tighter grip on his short sword and assumed a combat stance. "I can not betray my master that way! Face me!"
Beatrix let her hand fall to the pommel of Save the Queen, her warblade, yet did not draw it. "I don't think you're worthy of facing my blade," she replied, not boasting, simply making a matter of fact statement. "If I draw my sword, you die, that is the truth, and you know it."
"Do not mock me!!!" The criminal raised his blade and charged her, an exceptional attack for most fighters; as usual, he aimed for her right side, for the eye that she concealed under a silk bandanna. They can be so predictable, Beatrix thought. To the naked eye, it seemed as if she scarcely moved, a mere dip of shoulder and head, and the criminal's strike missed. He tried to bring his blade up at her, aiming at her ribs, but she spun away, still leaving her sword in its place. "Fight me!!!" the criminal bellowed, his frustration evident as he swung his sword at her in an over handed arc...
...that ended when Beatrix effortlessly caught the blade in one gloved hand, as if she was catching a ball thrown to her by a child. The criminal struggled to move the blade nearer to her face, but she remained resolute, almost like a rock. "You never had a chance, poor fool," she told him, pulling the sword from his hands with ease. She expected that to end the fight, but amazingly, it did not; the man balled up his fists and attacked again. What drives this man to continue to struggle against me? she wondered. She decided it was time to end the fight, and she struck the man once, on the temple, with the flat of his own weapon, knocking him out. She found she almost admired his tenacity; had he possessed any ability of his own, it could have been an interesting battle.
From behind her, she heard the clatter of feet, and she turned to regard a detail of guards led by Maia, the red haired beauty that had notified her of the attack on one of her people. There were four more of the female soldiers of the Alexandrian army behind her, showing how prepared for the situation Maia was. It was hard to catch Maia with her guard down, Beatrix knew; she had trained her well. Maia saluted the general, then looked down at the unconscious heap of the criminal. "Well done, General," Maia said.
"He was a stubborn one," Beatrix admitted. "He continued to battle even after I disarmed him." She handed the short sword over to Maia. "His weapon. How is the guard he attacked?"
"Larissa? She'll be fine. The wound was long but not deep. She'll have a scar to remind her to be careful in battle."
Beatrix toed the unconscious heap of the criminal with the toe of a boot. "Something made this man fight me even when he stood no chance...he mentioned having a master. We need to discover who this man works for, as soon as possible. Take him to the prison area and find out for me, Maia. Then double the guard in the common areas to prevent this happening again, but keep it quiet...use the domestic guard." The domestic guard consisted of women of arms disguised as common castle servants, and usually guarded the upper levels, or when the Queen and Princess appeared in public. Beatrix liked the idea of having soldiers operate under a cloak of relative invisibility. "Queen Brahne will doubtlessly approve of the idea of enhancing security once I tell her how close this brigand was to her and the Princess."
"One can only hope that Her Majesty sees with the clarity of her general, ma'am." Maia nodded to the unconscious form of the criminal, and two of her guard lifted him to his feet and bound his hands behind him. "Whatever he knows, we'll find out."
"I have complete faith in you, Maia. I need to report to the Queen." Maia saluted her again as she walked away, but Beatrix's mind was elsewhere. Who sent this man here...and what was his true purpose in entering the higher levels? Beatrix knew that she would find out...Maia was nothing if not thorough...but until she found out the reason why, she would remain troubled.
One could not help but be amused at Adelbert Steiner and his Knights of Pluto Beatrix considered as she enter the throne room and saw that Steiner was already there, gesticulating wildly as he addressed the Queen.
The Knights of Pluto were amongst the few male units left in the Alexandrian military, and, once upon a time, they had been amongst the elite fighters of the Mist Continent during the age of warfare that had created the current political structure of the land. Times, Beatrix knew, had changed. Steiner was by no means an incompetent fighter, but his skills lacked in comparison to hers, and her influence upon the Army, in the form of the discipline she brought to the female units, had weakened the already tenuous position that the Knights of Pluto were in further. It was all too bad, Beatrix mused; beneath the bluster and eagerness to prove himself to Queen Brahne, Steiner was a loyal knight. "Your majesty, there are knights already in position to safeguard the Princess, but the throne room is too accessible to attack," Steiner was saying to the Queen. "Perhaps it would be prudent if you relocate to your quarters until this brigand is apprehended."
Brahne nodded her head towards where Beatrix stood. "General Beatrix's presence here suggests that the intruder has been dealt with, and if not, I certainly feel that there is little that one man can do to me with her defending me."
Steiner turned towards her, a sullen glare on his face. "General, have you apprehended the intruder?" he asked.
Beatrix ignored Steiner and, following protocol, bowed to the throne and to the woman who sat on it. It was not given to Beatrix to criticize the Queen, but she could not fathom allowing herself to become the slovenly, rotund woman that the Queen appeared to be. It offended every sense of discipline Beatrix had, but Brahne was the Queen, and as such she deserved respect. "Your majesty," she began, "the intruder is in custody. I dealt with him myself."
"You did, and yet he still lives?" Brahne chuckled. "Beatrix, you're losing your edge," she chided her general.
"The intruder spoke of having a 'master', your majesty. Leaving him alive seemed prudent until we can ascertain exactly for whom he is working."
Steiner frowned. "Do you believe that a foreign government dispatched this man?" he asked.
"I am not willing to hazard a guess, Captain," she replied, emphasizing his rank in such a fashion as a way to remind him that he had neglected to use her rank. "Once we have questioned him, then we will know." Steiner nodded; he might fancy his Knights to be rivals to hers, but he was aware of how efficient her knights were; Maia would get to the truth. "However, your majesty, the intruder was dressed in the garb of a merchant. With all due respect, the freedom given to merchants in the castle is a risk to the safety of you and the Princess. I humbly request that you allow me to increase the usage of the domestic guard, and limit access to certain areas of the castle."
Brahne's eyes narrowed. "Alexandria is a harbor city, General. Our vessels travel the oceans of Gaia, trading with all nations and our harbor in turn accepting trade. If word spreads that Alexandria has limited the ability of merchants to conduct business with me, it could threaten our trade status."
"Yet, your majesty, no nation could blame you for attempting to insure your safety," Beatrix replied. "And the intruder was found very close to the quarters of the Princess, after all."
Brahne considered this, then said "Increase the usage of the domestic guard...and General, I would suggest that perhaps your troops are somewhat to blame for allowing a lone intruder such access to the castle."
Beatrix bowed again. "The fault is mine, your majesty. I shall not fail you again in such a fashion."
"See that you don't, General. You are dismissed. Find out who sent this man, and why." Beatrix saluted the Queen, then turned on her heel and left the throne room. She had already transformed the moment of shame that she had felt from Brahne's rebuke into the fuel to improve further. One never stops improving, she thought, one only becomes stronger.
As Beatrix exited the throne room, she saw a young girl with long hair, dressed in a white gown that bared her shoulders, approach, flanked by two of Beatrix's knights. Garnet, the fourteen year old princess of Alexandria and heiress to the throne, noticed her and called out. "General Beatrix? I understand that there was an...incident."
Beatrix turned and bowed respectfully to Garnet. "Yes, Princess, there was. Fortunately, little ill came of it."
Garnet then asked the question that Queen Brahne had not, showing one of the crucial differences between mother and daughter. "Was anyone injured, General?"
"One of my knights was wounded, but she will recover. The intruder is in captivity, and you are safe."
Garnet breathed a sigh of relief. "Could you tell the knight that was wounded that the princess regrets her injury, and that her service is valued by myself and my mother?"
"Certainly, Princess." Beatrix looked one of the knights guarding the princess in the eye, and that was order enough in this case; the knight would relay the message. Garnet thanked Beatrix, and then entered the throne room, clearly intending to see her mother. Most people who saw Garnet only saw the exterior, the lovely girl that was going to grow up to be a beautiful woman, and judged her on those terms. Beatrix knew better; there was a hidden steel to the princess, and more importantly, a sense of compassion that would serve her well when she was the Queen.
So long as she had generals such as herself to defend her when compassion failed.
The room was a space twenty feet square, adjoining the spartan quarters that belonged to Beatrix, and within that room was only a ring of candles on wrought iron stands ten feet in diameter. Beatrix stood at the center of the ring, Save the Queen in her hands, her stance casual yet prepared, eyes closed. Normally, Beatrix trained in the military training camps outside of Alexandria proper, drilling promising prospective knights, for the simple reason that her sword techniques were so powerful that they could well damage the castle if they were used here. The power of a Holy Knight was greater than the enemies of Alexandria knew, and a Holy Knight armed with Save the Queen, one of the three Sacred Swords, was nearly invincible. No, what Beatrix did here was more along the lines of meditation, training her mind, in a setting that she found familiar. She calmed her thoughts and concentrated, drawing on an inner calm, and as she did her sword began to move as she performed some of the basic exercises that she had learned years ago, standing in a ring of candles such as this, in front of the greatest swordsman in the land...
Beatrix, nine years old, seeing with both of her eyes, stands in the ring of candles that she was heard whispers about from her fellow students of her great master. She is dressed in heavy leather clothing-light compared to the armour that she would later wear once she entered the army of Alexandria, but heavy enough given her age. She carries a short sword that seems to weigh one hundred times more than the wooden practice sword she has used since she was six years old. Her master stands before her, dressed in light clothes and carrying the simplest of combat staves and she can only think:
he is armed. She has heard stories that the master rarely faces child candidates with weapons, simply because he does not need them. Beatrix does not doubt it...yet she can not help but think of the simple fact that, since he is armed, he must see great potential in her. "So," he calls, his tone jaunty, "You are Beatrix. The child who disarmed Messamer in a training duel." Messamer is the first instructor here at this rather special school that child candidates face, and Beatrix found that he looked down on the children that he trains. She had defeated him rather handily in their last training duel. "I have told him countless times that we are in the business of creating fighters here, but he persists in seeing only children. The lesson you taught him may never leave him." He chuckles. "Well, shall we begin?" He indicated the ring of candles that surrounded them with the end of his staff. "These are the limits of your life, little Beatrix, until I deem you fit. Unless you are asleep, or training with the general population, you will be here." The master laid the staff on his shoulder and looked down on her. "Why candles, you ask?"Beatrix managed to find her voice. "Why, sir, if I may ask?"
"Consider them a metaphor, little one. They are like life, after all. They require air to burn, just as we require it to live, and like us, a candle lives a brief existence, burning down to nothing." He slashes his staff at the nearest candle, the air of its passage blowing the flame out. "And a single blow can kill it."
"Here, then, is your goal, Beatrix. You will leave this circle when you can defeat me...but only if all of the candles in this ring are lit when you do. You are to consider them to be the innocent, who you must never bring to harm. You have the potential to become a Holy Knight, and a Holy Knight must be willing to protect life at the cost of her own. Do you understand?" Beatrix nodded. "Then attack me, little one."
Beatrix did not hesitate, did not have doubt; she attacked, a blur of motion that rivaled the speed of professional adult soldiers, her short sword slicing upward in a deadly arc with frightening speed...she senses the candles flickering in the air, and knew that she would have to learn to control her motion...but that would come later-
The most searing pain that Beatrix has ever felt in her life explodes from the left side of her rib cage.
Her master has struck her in the ribs with a motion that barely registered to her eye, and as she realizes exactly how far she has to go to in her training, her master strikes her across the jaw, knocking her to the ground and sending her sword flying. Beatrix gasps for breath, her jaw and ribs sending signals of agony to her brain that she can not deny. Her master-who is not being cruel, just doing his duty-stands over her and smiles gently. "I am not Messamer, Beatrix. Disarming me will not be easy."
Beatrix rises to one knee, an arm over her ribs, her breath coming in short, hot gasps. "Yes, sir." she manages to say, and that takes a supreme effort. She sees her sword out of the corner of her eye and she rolls towards it, sweeping it up and rolling over to return to the offensive....
Her master strikes her in the forearm, in the shoulder, and in the upper thigh in less time than it takes to tell it, and Beatrix slumps to the floor, nearly unconscious. Her master kneels beside of her and says "This, too, is a lesson, Beatrix. There will always be someone better than you. I know that you have been trained to not let your emotions show in battle, in order to better focus your abilities, but in this case, I would not blame you, child, for crying."
Beatrix rose painfully to her feet and assumed her defensive stance. "I am Beatrix of Alexandria, sir. And I do not cry."
Her master nodded sagely at her. " We shall see, little one. We shall see."
Beatrix was brought back from her musings by a knock on the door and Maia calling out, "General, we have a name from the intruder."
Beatrix walked around the room and gently blew each candle out, remembering what her master had told her about the candles as a metaphor for life. "I'll be right there, Maia," she called.
Maia saluted her as she entered the room, and announced, "Joshua Lamplight."
Beatrix scowled. "Lamplight? Isn't he a rather minor trader?" That she had even heard of Lamplight at all was testament to the diligence with which Beatrix safeguarded the people of Alexandria; she found it prudent to know the names of every foreign resident of Alexandria.
"Yes ma 'am. Trading largely in airship and Mist engine parts, does far more business with Lindblum. Yet the intruder-Lawlthorn is his name-gave us that name."
Beatrix sat down at the desk that was one of the few furnishings in her quarters. "And you are certain of the veracity of this information?"
"Given that Lawlthorn is currently in the guard hospital due to, erm, the methods by which I uncovered this information, I'd stake my reputation on it." Maia was not a person who enjoyed the tactics of interrogation, but then Maia had been the first to discover the wounded Larissa. " He was sent by Lamplight."
"Did he tell you his mission?"
"Reconnaissance. He was ordered to see how secure the higher levels of the castle were, and that's all. He knew nothing else."
"I see." Beatrix thought about the situation, then said, "We'll need more than that to apprehend Lamplight, won't we?"
"In all probability, yes, General. Now, as to Lawlthorn, what shall we do with him?"
"Allow him to recover to the extent that he can leave the infirmary. Then return him to the cells. If he is to be executed, that choice is Queen Brahne's to make. And we'll need him to justify any action against Lamplight. How is Larissa doing?"
"Fine, General. In fact, she should be released tomorrow, and has already requested to return to duty."
Beatrix smiled; that was admirable dedication. "Request denied. She needs to recover her strength before she returns to duty. Now, tomorrow, Maia, let's plan on a visit to Joshua Lamplight. If he is guilty of this crime, then heaven itself help him."
Maia saluted again. "Yes, General." Maia took her leave then, and Beatrix considered what she had heard. I can name ten merchants off of the top of my head that I would have suspected in this before Lamplight; he has shown no sign of wishing the throne harm, or even being a security risk. Could someone be setting him up for this? It was a thought to be considered, but Beatrix knew that she would not know until she stood before Lamplight and looked into his eyes. She rose and returned to the ring of candles, to train herself further in preparation for whatever life threw at her.
To be continued...