Hallien's trial was a mockery as both Tilaria and Hallien knew of the outcome. Tilaria had killed Arlen to save Asgard's princes and stop Hallien's plan to start a war and dethrone Asgard, but she was still the one getting executed. The unjust irony was sad, although not unexpected considering the circumstances.
Galia curled her lip slightly as she sat and waited for his appearance. It was obvious this was a waste of time, and they ought to just kill the halfbreed now. She drummed her fingernails on the desk impatiently waiting to get this over with. There wasn't very much of an audience present, but what few who were here had already arrived.
Like most of those present Galia wore a green silk tunic, sleeveless and cut to show her midriff, and capris also made of green silk. In addition the normal attire, she had a pair pf detached sleeves made of a sheer fabric that came to her wrist. It was common enough for a female to wear them.
The detached sleeves were held in place by a pair of copper armbands that were engraved with a pattern of leafy vines. Her right armband, the flashpiece that she stored her magic in, had clear quartz crystals overlaying the leaves. Those crystals had been dyed from clear to the same mint green color of her magic due to the amount of her magic she had stored in them.
Hallien's seat was just above hers, and to her right was Arlen's empty seat and Daris's beyond that. Daris looked as bored as she did, and idly traced the white threading on his sleeveless tunic that he wore under the greatcoat. He did not meet Galia's glance as usual.
Even to this day Galia could not understand why Hallien had chosen Arlen, one of those Dökkálfr descended things to sit on his council, let alone to be his second in command. She could almost laugh as she imagined the situation that might arise should Arlen had ever needed to take command as Regent of Alfheim. Luckily that had never happened.
Hallien was a little soft in his mind in more ways than one. The mate of the ruler of Alfheim was not decided by the ruler. It was decided by the people to ensure that the line of Alfheim's royal family remained pure. Galia was supposed to have been Hallien's mate, but Hallien had sidestepped tradition yet again by choosing Galia's younger sister Anastasia. Anastasia was a cripple, not genetically crippled no, but her right hand had rendered useless when she had been at the wrong place at the wrong time and a curse went wild. It was foolish for someone crippled like Anastasia to become Alfheim's queen.
Galia sighed and laid her hand flat in front of her to stop drumming her fingers. She was the leader of a strong but firm faction that advocated at eliminating the "contaminants" from Alfheim's genetic pool. Such things included Night Hairs, halfbreeds, and those who would intermarry with them to further dilute the Ljosalfr's purity. It would exterminate anywhere from ¼ to ½ of Alfheim's population, but Alfheim was a planet of life so it would recover quickly enough and be better for it.
Hallien had never given her any lead or right to exercise her plan, which annoyed Galia as much Anastasia becoming his mate, and Daris and Arlen always sided with Hallien. She had never stood a chance before, but suddenly she did. If she could get one of her allies into Arlen's position then she might be able to pass a few laws through to at least separate the contaminants from the general population. Once she started then it should be easy for her to continue.
Daris wanted to lessen the effects Night Hairs, Halflings, and others like them were up against and increase equality. If he got one of his followers into Arlen's seat then Galia's task would become even more impossible. What Galia didn't know was of Daris's plot to get the power he needed by force. Once he became Alfheim's king then one of the things he would do was to give the power back to all of Alfheim's people, but doing so meant he would have to kill his cousin and nephew first.
Out of nowhere, Hallien appeared and sat in his seat. Daris had finally returned Galia's glare and they silently fought over Arlen's seat, not even noticing that Hallien had arrived. Hallien was certain he knew exactly what the two of them were fighting over, and he wished Arlen was here. Arlen would get the two of them to shut up and behave.
"Bring her in," Hallien ordered, the Emerald Crown heavy on his brow.
Hallien's words surprised both Galia and Daris since they did not know he was present, but they straightened and looked towards the doors as they opened. Light vines, their crystal flowers emitting gold-green light, wove around the room from the walls to the tables and even up to the rafters, encompassing the room in a sphere of light from all direction so there were no shadows. The soft yet bright light reflected off the dark gray copper-highlighted metal of the Immortal Guard's armor as they walked in.
Hallien wasn't sure why, but he felt suddenly irked to see only Immortal Guard. The Immortal Guard were Alfheim's version of Asgard's Star Guard, and by using them it was almost like they were copying Asgard instead of playing to their strengths by using the Silver Arrows. Perhaps it was time to start restoring the Silver Arrows to their proper place as Alfheim's vanguard and defender.
One Immortal Guard led, and two walked behind him in a triangle formation. Tilaria was in the middle, and in the situation she looked her young age. Her weapons were gone, and the restrainer cuffs she wore had been upgraded so she couldn't unlock them and access her magic. Without magic or blades, Galia didn't believe there was anything she could do. Daris knew better, and was curious to see if she could survive this and be of further use.
Despite knowing that she was charged of murder and she would be found guilty she walked with her head held high and her shoulders straight. Her step was light and sure and she excluded an aura of calm and confidence. For certain, if nothing else the girl was royal.
"Tilaria," another elf on the ground began. "You are charged with the murder of Councilor Arlen Vanderson and-"
Tilaria took a breath and whistled. It was a very loud and shrill whistle that made the collective elves jump and left their ears ringing. Elves had very sensitive hearing. Daris actually showed a sign of discomfort by rubbing his ears and muttering "ow" softly.
"A little Æsir trick," Tilaria explained with a smile. "It's called whistling."
Hallien frowned, wary of her confident she was. Tilaria took a mental breath, aware that she would have just one chance to do this. Daris had always stressed her usage of the Arcane, so she figured this should please him.
Her smile, when she smiled, was more baring her canines sharpened into fangs by use of blood magic. "So… How about we skip this?"
She waved her cuffed hands at the gathered elves. Hallien tilted his head to one side but did not interrupt. He was curious, and still on guard as to what the fel she was doing.
"I am charged with murder and knowing you also conspiracy and treachery." She ticked off the points on her left fingers, her right hand at an odd angle. "And I am going to assume that Alyndra knows her job and has already figured out exactly how I killed your precious Arlen."
Her voice was harsher then she meant it to be when she poke the last sentence, but she could already feel the rush of blood magic coloring her vision and clouding her mind with its deliciously metallic scent. A drop of blood fell from her right hand to the floor of woven branches, and Hallien saw a few more dark drops fall. He slowly raised his eyes to Tilaria's smile, fear snaking into his chest.
"I killed Arlen with blood magic," Tilaria announced bluntly, "sort of like this."
The Guards turned towards her at her words and Hallien saw her open her right hand. Her silver lock pick that she had cut her hand with pinged to the ground, sounding like crystal or falling glass. It was covered in blood, just like her palm.
Daris almost smiled triumphantly, but remembered not to as Alfheim couldn't afford to learn he was a blood mage yet. He was satisfied however, glad that she had turned to blood magic so quickly. If she could escape here alive then perhaps she would be of further use to him and his plans after all.
One Guard tried to grab her restrainer cuffs to activate them and render her unconscious, but Tilaria was too fast. Drawing on the power of blood magic, feeling the overwhelming rush that came from the use of it, Tilaria let herself get swept away in the power and her moral inhibitions slip away. You could not have morals when using blood magic.
She placed her hand on his chest as she danced around him, and red glowed as her concussive blood hex flung the guard back like a rag doll. Tilaria could hear his bones breaking, and his choked breath as every bone in his body fractured into shards from the force of the blow. It was a rush to her that made her smile as the guard died.
One of the elves screamed, Galia realized. Then realized she had been the one to scream. Tilaria had killed an elf just like that and she was not done yet.
The second Guard swung his blade, but Tilaria caught it on the impervious metal of her restrainer cuffs, feeling the swords enchantments slice through the hexes on the cuffs designed to suppress her magic. He took another swing but Tilaria caught the edge of the blade on the back of a hand. Smiling, she jumped slightly into the air and brought a foot down on the Mythril blade, snapping it in two. She was so much stronger now. Another concussive hex sent him sliding off his feet.
Too much, too much, too much! Galia's mind shouted at itself. She stood and fled, the rest of the gathered elves take their cue from her, choking on the bitter iron taste of blood magic. Hallien stood, but realized he couldn't move anymore. The pure power of blood magic weighed down on his limbs, purring as it echoed within his soul.
Just as Tilaria's fuchsia irises became blood red, so did the red reflect in both Hallien and Daris's eyes. Daris thrilled in the rush however while Hallien recoiled in horror. Not here, he had to stay under control here!
Tilaria ducked a swing from the third and tapped her bloody hand on his chest as she dodged his blade. She bared her fangs in triumph and curled her bloody fingers closer to her palm as she hopped back, almost waving something to come, come. The last Guard was suddenly paralyzed from her touch, and Tilaria tilted her head in an almost curious manner. Then she tightened her hand and made a sharp, jerking move toward her chest.
Hallien ducked his head at the Guard's scream and at the most terrible chocked noise. Swirls of blood poured from his skin, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth as his life slipped away. The blood tore through his body, curling around Tilaria. Once the last bits of blood were drained Tilaria relaxed her hand and the elves body fell to the ground. The blood now swirled protectively around her.
Tilaria slowly looked up at the remaining Guard. Her pink eyes were red-black, the unnatural color spilling past the rim of her iris and the black of the pupil. To his credit, the Guardsman stood his ground, even with his broken sword trembling slightly. He was terrified, but the blood tasted sweeter when filled with fear.
Hallien tried desperately to move but the magic was too strong. There was nothing he could do thanks to his affinity without tapping into blood magic himself, and that he would not do again. He glanced at Daris, knowing that she would have to be an arch blood mage to manage something of this degree. Daris stood there, either frozen or in shock as he was. Only a blood mage would be paralyzed by the blood at this point, and Hallien drew his lips from his artificially sharpened canines when he realized who Tilaria's mentor was.
The doors slammed open, revealing more Immortal Guard. Hallien wanted to shout at them "no, stay back," but could not. Only blood could stop blood now, and Tilaria would simply feed off their blood. The girl tilted her head to one side, looking more animal then human, still handcuffed.
This was bad, Hallien thought, trying to twist his hand to materialize his disruptor. The Dökkálfr loved blood magic, so their disruptor would not be stopped by the blood like any other magic would. Suns, he needed to act quickly. Maybe he could do something, Hallien thought and bit down on his lip until a drop of blood ran down his chin.
The Guard shouted no idiotic war cries as Æsir often did and simply ran forward. Tilaria raised her hand, her golden hair half-hiding her face. She looked no more like a creature then now. A ripple of blood responded and raced out like a shockwave. When it hit the first few Guards, the Guards were lifted into the air, shrieking. Their flesh was torn form their bodies, dissolving into a combination of energy and blood and all that clattered to the ground was armor, clothes, and bones.
The Guards behind them skidded to a stop, staring. A visual nexus of energy had surrounded the girl, and the Guards stopped outside the killing line. Lieutenant Rane was one of the Guards left staring at the Halfling, trying not to cough up his lunch from the smell of eviscerated flesh. He threw his sword but when it hit the nexus, it shattered, sending bits of metal flying back to the Guards.
A kill aura, Hallien thought as he closed his eyes to draw off the blood, expanded beyond her skin to encompass a large area. As Hallien started to let the iron-tanged magic snake into his soul for a spell, he was suddenly locked in place by a memory.
He was a child, with Arlen, Anastasia, and his other friend Myrin. The four of them had infiltrated Anar's base shortly after he had killed Amras and tried to make himself king in his place. Hallien was holding the Emerald Crown in his hands, desperate to keep it from his uncle by any means possible, and so as ever he fell back on his blood.
How the crown's purring song that sounded like the rustle of leaves and murmur of brooks twisted to a lament by Hallien's careless action. The forest around him had lost their leaves, and withered branches had fallen. Animals died where they stood, and the pain he had caused Arlen and the others still made his hands shake.
No, Hallien thought and released his blood. He had not used his blood magic since that day, and could not. It would corrupt the Emerald Crown and turn its melody into a funeral dirge, and since it was connected to Alfheim's lifeforce it would only kill the realm again. As king the Emerald Crown would respond to his magic even if he was not wearing it, so he could not use his blood magic without corrupting Alfheim's lifeforce as well.
The nexus around Tilaria wavered, and Hallien realized gratefully that expanding the kill aura had taken too much from her. That was the problem with using blood magic, you needed a steady supply of blood to keep casting. Tilaria seemed to sense that her rampage was coming to a close so she threw another concussion hex that temporarily cleared the field of opponents.
Then she raised the restrainer cuffs that bound her wrists, and the blood in the air absorbed into the restrainer cuffs through the crack that had been made by the sword strike in visible tendrils. The air cleared visibly, and the crack grew as Tilaria charged the blood magic within the restrainer cuffs.
The cuffs exploded without warning, sending bits of metal everywhere. Tilaria lowered her freed hands with a smile. She had overloaded her cuffs in the most extreme degree, Daris noted casually. Not the most graceful technique but blood magic specialized in blunt strength, like a hammer instead of a scalpel.
Hallien knew he had only a brief respite before Tilaria killed more guards to feed her blood, so he managed to make the disruptor materialize in the air and fall into his palm. He tightened his fingers around the grip as he had practiced to do and changed the setting as he raised the disruptor. It was no longer set on stun as it had been before.
"Die," Hallien hissed and pulled the trigger.
The bolt of electrified plasma flew through the air and Tilaria turned at the sound of the shot, her movement just a little too slow. More blood splattered to the ground, and Hallien smiled as Tilaria stumbled back. He wasn't quite used to the disruptor yet, and it seemed he had missed a kill.
She could not feel pain so deep in the blood's rush, but some part of her knew that something had just happened to her left shoulder. Tilaria didn't know what, but she didn't like it. Hallien shot again, sure he would get a kill this time, and Tilaria tried to flick her left hand. Her hand didn't respond, so she snapped up her right hand and threw up a defensive ward.
Hallien smiled victoriously when she did that, for he knew the special ability of a disruptor and why they were such feared weapons against the mages. When a disruptor shot hit a magical ward it would instantly shatter the ward inward, towards the mage to harm or sometimes kill them. Tilaria had just raised one of those wards.
The disruptor worked like it was supposed to, and Tilaria's ward shattered towards her. He could tell that she didn't comprehend what was happening as she fell backwards and crashed to the floor. Hallien lowered his disruptor a few degrees so the barrel faced down, certain that he had her under control now. Although he was planning to face Daris about being affected by the blood magic he was stopped when Tilaria grabbed the half of the sword she had broken earlier, wrapping her fingers tightly around the saber's sharp edge that small rivulets of blood ran down it.
She focused, and suddenly the shard went flying through the air. Hallien glanced back just as the shard hit the forearm that had the disruptor in it. He dropped the disruptor and grabbed the injured arm, staring at the metal sword piece that was embedded in his arm.
His magic instantly reacted to try and heal the damage to his arm, but because of all the blood his blood magic came to life. Hallien knew in panic that it was not good. The blood would hurt the crown, and Alfheim would suffer. There was nothing for him to do other than lower his eyes from Tilaria, and shut down his magic before that happened.
Daris watched in slack-jawed shock as the Emerald Crown began to change. The maple leaves made of emerald that linked together to form the Emerald Crown's circular band began to turn red and whiter. Delicate golden vines wove the leaves together, only it became an eerie silver-black and took on an appearance similar to thorny briars. On his brow was the jewel of the crown, a stylized sun made of amber and topaz. It lost its shine and glow, and turned dull and black. Hairline fractures spread along the sun and the rest of the leaves.
Hallien dropped to his knees, and the Emerald Crown fell from his brow to the ground with a crystalline ringing. Daris thought about snatching up the crown right here and slaying Hallien early since he knew it could be blamed on Tilaria, but his plan was thwarted by the rest of the Immortal Guard Tilaria had stunned starting to stand. Tilaria was long gone, but they were here.
Slowly, surely, Hallien's breathing leveled and he got his blood magic under control. The Emerald Crown began to fade back to its old self safely, and without warning Hallien collapsed. Daris wasn't sure what to do about Hallien's collapse but the guards made it clear that he wasn't going to be killing his cousin anytime soon.
"Guards!" He shouted to them. "Tilaria has injured King Hallien. He needs to be taken to Alyndra now."
The Guards came and were stunned to see Hallien lying on the ground, and quickly picked him up. By now the Emerald Crown had returned to its normal state. Daris was amazed at Hallien's control and reserve as those were two things blood mages did not have. Although he was loathe to do so, Daris set the Emerald Crown on Hallien's chest and made a shooing motion to the Immortal Guard to go already.
He let them leave with Hallien's limp form and the Emerald Crown because after all, Hallien would soon be dead and Daris would regain the crown. With or without Tilaria's help. Crow had been right, Daris thought as he walked down the steps top floor level where the bodies were. He was right about Hallien, and that meant that what Daris was doing was the morally right thing to do. Hallien needed to die.
Who all saw Hallien being a blood mage coming? The Emerald Crown is tied to Alfheim like the Casket is to Jotunnheim, so it has to stay pure. Blood magic is about the opposite of purity which is why he can't use it. Whatever Crow told Daris about Hallien must have been interesting to have turned the cousins against each other, so what is Hallien's true name?
Do you remember how in chapter two Hallien was thinking about Arlen. He mentioned that he had heard hundreds of times from Arlen how dangerous blood magic was. This is why Arlen was saying that to him. Before Hallien became king when he could still freely use his blood he used it a lot, way too much actually. Although he's broken the habit now he's very different when he's younger. The story of Anar's fall might be worth writing for a spin-off... hmm...