II. THE NAME IS STRYKE

"Pull the helm down over your head," Lieutenant Murrue spat as she was attempting to array Kyra in the enchanted Armor. Her wound made the task difficult, however, as she repeatedly winced from the pain flaring through her shoulder. "Hold out your arm," she said with a sigh.

Kyra, however, was preoccupied with thoughts of the dark-haired Knight from before.

That cannot have been Athryn. There is no way he would be here...

Looking down, he a curios engraving in the metal plate drew his thoughts back. "Stryke?" he read aloud. Suddenly, he felt a rush of power as the energies woven within the suit surged within him.

Sealed with a word...

"There," Murrue said finally, damn near exhausted from her trying battle. "A Knight of Earth," she said in jest, despite her wound.

Kyra, however, merely regarded her with unblinking amethyst eyes. Now fully arrayed and with little else to do, he began to walk around, testing its feel. The metal was surprisingly light and he could move his arms around freely. He also noticed he no longer felt any discomfort from the great heat that still surrounded them.


"Leave this place! All of you must go now!" members of the local guard were shouting hurriedly in the streets, as commoners and magistrates alike fled to the nearest shelters away from the scores of mounted warriors advancing practically unchallenged from the coast.

Tolle, Miriallia, Sai and Kuzzey halted just as a swathe of land collapsed in front of them, buildings shaken so hard they broke like twigs from the artillery of the Zodiac warships off the coast. They stood there gaping, frozen with terror at the sight.

One of the Squires turned as Sir Athryn strode up to him, clad in the new enchanted Armor engraved "Aejis". It's plate was like burnished crimson and for some reason the warrior felt a surge of valor as he gazed upon its striking appearance.

"Sir Athryn!" he greeted cheerfully. "Your new Armor complements you magnificently."

"Sir Rusty has failed," Sir Athryn lamented bitterly

"What?" the Squire replied in disbelief at such a rare tragedy. Few Humans could boast of killing many Adepts in direct combat and those that did regularly were a source of wonder and dread.

"The other Armor is in the possession of an officer of the Alliance for now," Sir Athryn explained.

Not far from them, Kyra emerged from among some trees with the wounded Lieutenant over his shoulder. He had insisted on carrying her, to which she had agreed for the sake of haste. She could not keep up with her shoulder like this and she had no desire to be left behind to the mercy of the Zodiac. Looking to the side through the helm, he caught sight of Tolle, Miriallia, Sai and Kuzzey running away frantically. "Tolle!" he exclaimed, but the boy did not appear to hear.

"Damnation," the enemy Squire cursed as he fired an arrow at Kyra while his attention was thus distracted. It slammed headlong into the Armor plate but fell away, bent and twisted.

"Your arrows are useless against that enchanted plate," Sir Athryn scolded the squire.

Taken aback, the Squire slung his bow over his shoulder and drew his sword. "Then I shall repossess it and become a Knight myself," he boasted*. "You should depart for the ship," he called back to Sir Athryn as he advanced, preparing his assault.

Sir Athryn looked down at the ground, lost in his own thoughts.

What could Kyra hath been doing there?

The Squire broke into a run toward Kyra and Murrue, sword raised to strike.

Kyra instinctively leapt backward, higher than he thought possible, deftly dodging the blow. Landing upon his feet, he stumbled forward, however, attempting to catch his balance.

"Keep away from him!" Lieutenant Murrue scolded Kyra from over his shoulder, wincing at the landing. "If you want to live!"

"I am trying," Kyra replied through his teeth, breathing heavily. Sweat began to bead his forehead inside the shining bascinet.

Undeterred, the Squire rushed toward them again. He vaulted and slashed his blade downward, poised to cut through Kyra's skull.

With no alternative, Kyra instinctively raised his free arm to block the blow. Magickal sparks flew away from the impact, notching the blade deeply

"What?" the enemy Knight retorted in disbelief.

"This Armor," Kyra muttered, a tingle spreading at the base of his spine. "Of course! Magick..."

The Knight retracted his dirk, taking several uneasy steps backwards, unsure of how to proceed with the attack. "What is that Armor?" he demanded.

"These suits of Armor appear to hath several different magickal wards cast upon them. Your old sword can no longer harm it either," Sir Athryn explained dryly.

"You must leave her," the Squire countered with embarrassment. "Stop wandering around."

Kyra, meanwhile, set Lieutenant Murrue back to the ground, unable to withstand the assault while carrying her around. Urging her to take cover, he turned back to face the Zodiac warrior, standing shakily as he readied himself as best he could think too.

With a final uneasy glance toward Stryke, Sir Athryn sprinted off towards the harbor.

Upon the safe departure of his superior, the Squire resumed the fight. "Even if you hath such Armor," he boasted, rushing forward and slashing Kyra viciously across the shoulder. "Your form is horrid."

Kyra tried to dodge but again the Squire struck him, now across the chest, knocking him down by the force of the blow, but otherwise leaving him unharmed. Surprisingly, however, Kyra could feel the strike echo in his chest as if there was a cavity hidden within the cuirass.

Struggling back to his feet, Kyra looked over to see his friends still trying to find refuge from the chaos of the battle.

"How arrogant the Humans are, to think they can control something like magick," the Squire taunted as he stepped forward, ready to kill. Raising his sword, he thrust it toward Stryke while his friends stood by in terror behind him.

Just before it plunged into his chest, however, Kyra intuitively dropped onto his knee, letting the blade slide harmlessly through the air above him, and pushed forward, slamming into the Squire's chest and driving him down to the ground.

"There are still innocent people here!" Kyra shouted at the Lieutenant who stood by idly by gawking in awe of Kyra's quick repose. "Do something about it since you cannot fight. Hurry!"

The Lieutenant nodded, motioning for Tolle and the others, catching the desperation in his voice.

"If you people are going to forge something like this, try doing it properly," Kyra muttered to himself, his mind penetrating each spell woven about its surface. "This is terrible! How can they expect to make practical use of enchanted Armor using this kind of magick?" he spat.

"It hath not been completed yet. It cannot be helped!" Lieutenant Murrue asserted, urging him to focus on more pressing matters.

But with things left as they were, there was no hope of coming out of this in one piece.

The Squire begrudgingly stood to his feet, dusting his mail off. "You!" he seethed.

Kyra closed his eyes to clear his thoughts, his mind racing as it connected with the mysterious cavity beneath the cuirass. "There!" he exclaimed. It was a large crystal, the true source of all the Armor's magickal potential. Pressing in, he drew out its great power, hurriedly dispelling the poor enchantments from its plate back into its depths and devising his own improved ones.

Rushing forward once more in an attempt to swiftly behead Kyra this time, he was driven backward once again by a hastily extended Armored Squire was thrown backward into an outlying structure, the powerful gauntlets of Stryke unscathed.

Shaking his head, Kyra returned to the task at hand. These new enchantments would be efficient and more powerful. Well perhaps not more powerful necessarily, but certainly more effective in accomplishing their purpose and simpler to release.

Lieutenant Murrue looked on in wonder as his speech came out in rapidly-delivered soft mutterings, too low for her to discern, seemingly oblivious to the world around him.

This boy...

Kyra's eyes snapped open beneath the helm, the spells completely redone in the span of mere moments; an astounding feat. Complete!

"What changed? Suddenly, this man!" the Squire raged contemptuously as he stood to his feet again, spitting blood, his helm smashed in from the blow. Drawing his bow again, he strung an arrow and let it fly at Kyra, the head slamming into his gut.

Kyra leapt into the air once more, dodging another shaft. "I need a weapon," he spat. Just then he noticed the pair of daggers strapped onto his faulds. Drawing them, he saw that the names "Armure" and "Schneider" were engraven upon the blades. Dropping back to the ground, he ran forward, daggers in hand, toward the Squire.

"Damnation, running around like that," the Squire cursed as he cast a desperate blast of air at Kyra. Missing its target, however, it rushed behind him, wreaking destruction upon its corner of the city as it ripped through one of its feeble structures.

"In a place like this?" Kyra shouted in disbelief at the man's wanton disregard for the lives of the islanders. "Stop this!" Lunging forward, he circled around and drove one of the daggers into the Squire's shoulder, who dropped his bow in pain. Its enchanted edge clean through the inferior mail and Kyra drew it away bloody, taking a step backward in revulsion. The Squire collapsed to the ground, his helm rolling away, wounded but alive.

As he lay on the ground, Lieutenant Murrue noticed his eyes rolling back into his head, however. "This is dire, get away from him!" she shouted to Kyra.

Ere Kyra could react, however, a bolt of lightning shot down from above and struck Kyra, throwing him backward and charring the ground upon which he had stood. The fallen Adept has used the last of his energies to seek for a deathblow.


In the hidden caverns beneath the harbor, Natarle, painfully burned in several places, struggled to to her feet, finding it difficult to stand at first. Gradually, her dark surroundings came into a dim view. "What of the ship…Archangel?" she muttered painfully. All around her were strewn charred bodies and burning stores.

How did they breach this place? Damned Zodiac!


Meanwhile, at the harbor, the battle between the Order of the Zodiac and the Marseille's armed escorts raged on, rapidly succumbing to the former's favor.

"The rudder is stuck!" the helmsman cried out in panic as the ship, engulfed by flames which licked and tore at its wooden hull and masts, slammed into the shoreline, spraying sand and seawater high into the air and felling several outlying trees. The broken body of its helmsman lay sprawled upon the ground, thrown violently from the impact.

Sir Mwu, witnessing the devastation of the Marseilles from atop his stolen warhorse, muttered wearily to himself, "Is there nothing we can do about the difference in our forces' power?"

Affording him no time to ponder such matters, however, a mounted enemy Knight came rushing at him from behind, sword drawn. Quickly drawing his own sword and, parrying the strike from behind, Sir Mwu pulled the horse around, causing the enemy to lose his balance as the horse reared, throwing him from its back.

Vaulting from the saddle to the ground, Sir Mwu then kicked off the fallen Knight's helm and, moving incredibly fast for a Human, fired an arrow into his stunned face before remounting.


On the deck of the Vesalius, Captain Frederyk was watching the battle on the island with great interest. "Sir Ayrora has been slain," he remarked with surprise.

"It seems that a particularly irritating insect is still crawling around out there. Sir Rusty hath not returned either," General Lord Rau remarked above the sound of the cannons.

The Captain turned toward the General in confusion. His eyes, the only part of his face that could be seen through his distinctive helm, were stone cold.

"Leave things as they are," the General assured him, heading to leave. "I shall go and retrieve it myself."


"Is there anyone here?" Natarle shouted into the caverns, coughing from the lingering smoke.

As she continued to stumble around, her feet kicked the Captain's charred body. Stooping down, she closed his eyes in reverence sadly. "Are there any survivors?" she shouted again, holding back tears.

Through the smoke, she beheld a group of people walking toward her led by a man holding a hastily made torch.

"Marshal Natarle?" the man asked . "Thank goodness you are alright!"

"Ye are alive?" the Marshal asked in disbelief.

"The few who survived were those on board the Archangel at the time of the attack," the officer with the torch explained. "Remarkably, its enchanted hull protected it from catching fire."

"Are you aware of the situation?" Marshal Natarle asked. "What of the Zodiacs' warships?"

"Truly, I know not," he replied. "We are cut off."


On the shore, Sir Mwu noticed the enemy warships departing from the coast, apparently satisfied with the destruction they had wreaked. "Are they retreating?" he muttered doubtfully, driving the horse to a halt. "But…there is still this feeling." He readied another arrow nervously. "Who goes there?" he called out.

"Can you sense me just as I can you?" General Lord Rau whispered as he crept toward Sir Mwu atop his own steed. His silver armor gleamed in the light but apparently remained unseen by the vigilant Knight, a curious power at work. "What a sorrowful fate we share...Mwu." He spoke the name as if it had a foul taste, readying his strike.


In front of the Morgenroete workshops, Kyra, no longer wearing Stryke's helm, strode toward Lieutenant Murrue, who had finally swooned from the exertion and was laying nearby. He laid his hands upon her and, closing his eyes, began carefully restoring her. Miriallia, Tolle, and Kuzzey all watched in amazement while Sai nodded knowingly.

Slowly the Lieutenant's eyes opened and she dimly beheld Miriallia kneeling over her.

"You should not move yet," Kyra said calmly.

She just stared at him, still somewhat dazed, trying to collect her thoughts.

"I am sorry," Kyra said looking down. "I was irresponsible."

"Would you like some water?" Miriallia asked, offering her a pouch.

"Thank you," Murrue replied gratefully as she took it and drank.

"The craftsmanship on this Armor is incredible!" Kuzzey said giddily as he held up the discarded bascinet and looked it over.

"Get away from that!" Lieutenant Murrue shouted angrily as she flung her dagger in Kuzzey's direction, startling him. The helm fell to the ground and rolled away as Kuzzey jumped back in shock.

Tolle looked at her in horror as she strode over towards them, her crossbow suddenly aimed at them.

"What are you doing?" Kyra demanded as he ran after her. "Stop! They carried you whilst you were dazed."

She turned towards Kyra coldly, crossbow aimed for his head, the only exposed part of his body. His eyes narrowed as he stepped back angrily. "I am grateful for your aid. But that is a secret of the Alliance. Tis not something that commoners are permitted to meddle with."

"What? Is not Kyra wearing it right now?" Tolle muttered to Sai, who pretended not to hear.

The Lieutenant again turned her crossbow on them with a tinge of annoyance. Tolle raised his arms quickly. "Everyone come here," she ordered. "Form a line."

Kuzzey swallowed hard.

After they had all lined up beside Kyra, she said, "Tell me your names, one at a time."

"Sai," the one with spectacles led.

"Kuzzey," the youngest followed.

"Tolle," the outspoken one said.

"Miriallia," the girl said softly, her knees knocking together.

The Lieutenant turned toward Kyra, awaiting his answer impatiently. "Kyra," he said finally, his eyes contorted into a steely glare.

"And I am Murrue, a Lieutenant with the Alliance of Earth," she said. "I apologize, but I cannot allow you to go free."

"What?" Sai spat angrily as the others nodded.

"Regardless of what transpired, ye hath seen a military secret," Murrue explained. "Until I can speak with my lords, ye shall have to remain with me."

"You cannot be serious!" Tolle replied.

"Ye will obey my orders!" the Lieutenant replied sternly.

"I am just a student from the college," Sai tried to explain in frustration, beginning to panic. This day had just been too much. "We are neutral! We hath nothing to do with any armies!"

"And why is the Alliance on Heliopolis anyway?" Tolle asked suspiciously. "That certainly is strange."

"That is why this has happened," Kuzzey agreed, nodding his head.

A bolt flew just over Kuzzey's head. He dropped to the ground, clutching his head in terror as he shook with fear.

"Be quiet!" the Lieutenant ordered, trying to keep the situation under control. "Ye are children who know nothing of the world. Saying that this does not concern you because ye are neutral is foolishness. The Alliance's secrets are here and ye hath all seen them. That is the only truth."

"This is so unreasonable," Sai muttered.

"Unreasonable or not, we are at war with the Plants, with the self-proclaimed Adepts**," she said.

Kyra bristled.


Climbing up from the shoreline in search of stragglers from the raiding parties who had ravaged the coast guard, Sir Mwu trotted cautiously through the woods in saddle, bow drawn and ready.

Just then General Lord Rau emerged from his hiding place behind a tree upon his own horse, firing off several arrows at Sir Mwu's burnished armor.

"Bastard," he muttered. "There is but one who could let arrows fly as quickly as I. So you are behind this then, General Rau? I should hath known!" he shouted angrily as he willed the horse into a sideways dash, reposed backwards in the saddle and fired two arrows in return.

The General rode to the side to evade the shafts, however, as they streaked past and embedded themselves in the trunks of some tree.

"You always seem to be in my way, Sir Mwu!" the General spat, as he righted himself and took off through the woods in a gallop towards the city. "But I suppose I am the same to you."

"Halt!" Sir Mwu shouted as he raced after him, slinging his bow over his shoulder and gripping the reins hard to match the steed of the General's superior warhorse.


On board the Archangel, Marshal Natarle began examining the great ship. Built to sail in and out of deep or shallow water with ease unlike the heavier battleships of years anon, there were rows of sails stretching across the higher tiers, each affixed to a pulley which allowed them to be adjusted individually for greater maneuverability. Just beneath the rigging was a long hollow roof, fortified by bored iron, stretched out over the main deck, protecting the crew from volleys and barrages from the air, with openings for her freshly cut masts and along the sides for the rail and main cannons. Several lower decks ran the length of the ship to its rudder containing quarters for the crew, stores, and a large armory, each with a thin balcony stretching around the entirety of the circuit which afforded a view of her surroundings. For artillery she was unmatched in her diversity, boasting an assortment of turreted cannons for greater versatility, ballistae, ribauldequin, catapults and culverin, all stocked with large stores of enchanted munitions.

"As expected of the Archangel, it cannot be sunk with this kind of magick," she remarked finally.

"Is the portal still open?" Arnold, the soldier with the torch, asked.

"This must hath been a diversion," the Marshal cursed, oblivious. "The Order's real goal was Morgenroete! Damnation! How is the city? What has befallen the Armor?"

"To attempt to set sail without the rest of the crew would prove nigh impossible," Arnold continued.

"While ye discuss it, how about ye ponder what we should be doing next," the Marshal spat as she unlocked a special cabinet and began perusing the ship's guidebook. It contained details like what spells were to be cast on the ship for various tasks, how it was to be cleaned and what was to be done in the event of mutiny and such. "Morgenroete may still be under attack and ye suggest that we stay here and abandon them?"

"Here they are," Romero interrupted as he brought more members of the crew to Natarle up from their hiding spots below deck.

"I need gunners, men on lookout and somebody to man the helm," Marshal Natarle ordered.

"Right away miss," they replied as they ran off to their new duties.

"There are still enemy warships out there," Arnold scoffed. "We cannot fight."

"Quiet!" the Marshal said angrily. "Hath the enchanted cannons loaded and ready when we emerge from the portal. The enemy may indeed be waiting for us on the other side. Can you manage that?"

Arnold looked at the cannons doubtfully but nodded, running off toward them.

"Raise the anchor! Loose the sails," Marshal Natarle shouted, stooping down with a cut of chalk. Carefully, she drew a large circle and a forward facing triangle inside, within which she placed the replica of the ship, made from the same wood as its hull***. "Everyone concentrate on the ritual! Arnold be ready!"

The crew took out wings from a rare bird from the ship's stock**** and began chanting a spell they had been trained in unison, swirling their arms around as the slow, precise words echoed eerily throughout the cavern. Slowly a magickal wind began to whip at the sails

"All crew, be prepared for battle on the other side," the Marshal said finally, bringing an end to the ritual. "Set sail!"

The conjured wind slowly blew the Archangel across the cavernous pool toward what appeared to be the wall of the cave but was actually a dimensional portal connected to the surface by magick.


Rapidly ascending a hill overlooking the city, General Lord Rau called down a stroke of lightning towards Sir Mwu, who was hotly pursuing him.

"In a place like this!" Sir Mwu spat, as the ground was set aflame beneath the horse, its hooves leaping forward to evade the magickal assault. He shot another arrow up toward the General who deflty evaded the shaft just as he crested the hill.

"I would be glad were you to die here, Mwu," General Lord Rau hissed as he shot another of his deadly arrows into the thin mail in between the plates on Sir Mwu's arm. Vaulting into the air from his saddle, the General delivered a spinning kick into Sir Mwu's shoulder, sending him sprawling to the ground whilst he reposed upon the horse in his stead and resumed his ride toward the city.


Silently fuming, Sai returned to Kyra and the others atop a wagon, just as the Lieutenant had instructed him. "This is the one, right?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you," Lieutenant Murrue replied, quickly surveying its contents.

"What should we do now?" Sai asked warily.

"There are weapons to be used in conjunction with the Armor stored in the wagon," she explained. "Bring them hence."

Throwing off the sheets and canvas which had been buried overtop them, Sai, Tolle and Kuzzey began examining the various weapons and handing them to Kyra, who then divined what spells were cast upon them.

"Schwert Gewehr," Kyra said as he noted the inscription on a large broadsword.

"This one is engraved 'Midas Messer'," Kuzzey said as he displayed a wicked looking boomerang.

"I cannot lift this," Sai said as he struggled with a large, leather-strapped cannon.

"Here," Kyra said as he easily hefted it out of the wagon with the supernatural strength afforded him by the Armor. "Agni?" he read absently.

"I wonder if our parents took shelter?" Sai asked sadly, disinterested with their present business.

"I just want to go home," Kuzzey cried.

Suddenly, they caught sight of an explosion which erupted in the hills to the south. Running out from the smoke was what appeared to be a Knight in gleaming steel armor upon horseback, pursued by another warrior whose plate was the color of bronze.


As he cleared the smoke, General Lord Rau regarded the activity below, the wind blowing his blonde hair back forcefully. "There it is," he grinned as he drew his saber, the shrill ring of the gleaming metal piercing the air and giving those across the way quite a start, despite the distance which still lay between them.

"The last one!" Sir Mwu muttered hoarsely as he ran down the hill after the General, his eyes drawn to the sheen of the pearlescent Armor.

"Secure the weapons!" Lieutenant Murrue shouted to Kyra and his friends. "Put on the helm!"

"Now you shall meet your end!" General Lord Rau declared.

Suddenly off to the west, however, a large warship, flying the ensign of the Alliance of Earth, appeared on the water, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What is this?" the General said as he turned toward the vessel in surprise.


APPENDIX II

*One possible way for a Squire to become a Knight was by performing a deed of great valor, recognized by both the Sovereign Council of Lords and the Grand Master of the Order of the Zodiac.

**The sorcerers of Earth bestowed the term "Adept" first upon the late Lord Jyorge, the first enchanted spirit, in the Fifteenth Year of the Era of Magick in acknowledgment of his great power and learning.

***A long held principle of magick was that things which were once in contact remained in contact no matter the distance between them or changes to them, allowing magick to effect it even from afar. Although this effect steadily weakens after contact is broken.

****Magick cannot create something from nothing, but energy can change forms depending on the whims of the caster. For this reason, the rituals of Humans often required the sacrifice of some sort of material component naturally or artificially endowed with abundant energies, such as mystic salves, rare herbs or precious gems. Those chosen for a given ritual were often somehow psychically related to the effect desired through various occult sympathies and antipathies in order to act as a proper focus as well.