Chapter Fourteen - I Think You Scared Him Off
A tap came at the girls' bedroom door. It groaned on its hinges as the person behind it eased it open. "Samara?" Clay called. "Can I talk to you?"
Samara could hear her bunkmate shift on the bunk below her. But the bead-loving elf didn't move.
"Look," he said, "I know you're upset."
"What was your first clue?"
He continued as if he hadn't heard her, though she was sure he had, "But your captain was here this morning."
She clutched her blanket closer.
"You forgot something there," he continued.
"I know," she huffed.
"He came to give it back to you."
Samara sighed, but the frown creasing her lips eased a bit as she rolled over to peer at the elf outside her door. He was staring back. As if it were an invitation, he opened the door a little wider, stepped inside, and closed it behind him. He walked to the bunks, his eyes flicking briefly to Ledert's beneath Samara, and folded his arms on the edge of the top bunk. She could see the bangle in his hand, but didn't reach out from beneath her blanket to claim it.
"Just between us," he said, "you, and me, and Ladybird..." He sighed. "You know I don't care for him, but I don't like seeing you like this."
"Yeah, well," she muttered.
"I don't believe he was there. He had nothing to do with it."
Samara stared into the drummer's eyes. "What do you mean?"
"He didn't know," Clay explained. "At least, he didn't seem like he knew. I'm no mind reader, but when we told him to leave, that's the first time he's ever looked hurt."
Samara tentatively reached for the bangle in Clay's hand. She pulled it to herself and peered at it with delicate fascination. "You're sure?" she asked.
"I wouldn't tell you if I wasn't," he said.
Samara leaned forward, reaching for the back of the drummer's head, and kissed his brow. "Thank you."
Clay stood back, and nodded. But then he shook his head, and the frown on his lips deepened. "Look, I mean, this is just talk," he said, "but you move fast, and I think someone should tell him Lady Vesper and Zane were discussing the possibility of an assault on that fort you've been visiting."
"What?"
"You didn't hear that from me."
He was leaving the room. Samara threw her blanket aside, and rolled her lower half off the edge of the bed.
"Hey, watch it!" Ledert exclaimed.
Samara's feet caught on the edge of Ledert's bunk, and she jumped to the floor. As Clay was reaching for the door, she grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around.
"What?"
"See for yourself," the drummer said.
He proceeded into the hall, and Samara was right on his heels. She saw nothing out of the ordinary in the hall, except that the band hadn't pulled out their instruments to play. Rad and Holly were further down the hall, near their room. Samara made her way towards the stairs that led up to the audience room, where she could make out several murmuring voices.
"They're deciding whether it's worth it to begin the march now, or to await further instruction from Zane," Clay explained. "But Lady Vesper has already amassed everyone she means to bring, and if they're going to attack, it'll happen before dawn tomorrow."
Samara rushed back to her and Ledert's room. She collected her pack, adjusted the shoulder strap, and her fingers brushed over one another. Normally she would think nothing of it because normally it didn't matter. But right now, there was a priceless stone missing from her finger as a result of her hurt, and it would hurt a lot worse if she didn't collect that ring and put it back where it belonged.
Samara bent to the floor, getting down on all fours, to look under the bed for the gold band and the rainbow crystal affixed to it.
"Is that what you're looking for?" Ledert asked.
Samara leaned back and glanced up at her redheaded roommate. Ledert peered back around the edge of the book in her hands, and pointed a finger in the direction of their dresser. The crystal was sitting right there in plain sight. Samara nodded, and snatched it. She gasped at the relief it gave her to slide it back around her finger. She turned back to the other dark elf, and dove into bed beside her. Ledert lowered the book, staring bewilderedly at the bead-wearing elf. Samara threw her arms around the Ledert and gave her a tight squeeze.
"I'll be back," she said. "I promise."
Ledert nodded, and Samara crawled back out of bed. As she left the room, Clay stood, waiting, in the hall.
"Take this," he told her. There was a scabbard in his hands, about a foot long. The hilt and blade inside it were heavy. She had seen this piece before, but not often. It was a hunting knife. "I know it's not much, but in case that magic of yours isn't enough I'd feel better if you brought it along."
Samara nodded. She threw her arms around Clay, too, before tucking the blade into her bag. The hilt jutted from her pack and she couldn't buckle both clasps, but as long as she didn't have to carry it in her hands, it was fine. She peered up the stairs one last time before heading out of the Forest Metropolis.
Coty lay sprawled out on the grass on the lake side of the fort. Night had come early today, maybe because of the clouds in the sky. He frowned. It wasn't as much to look at without the stars. He set his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes to the darkness.
"While the captain's out, aren't you supposed to be in charge?" Emilia asked.
"Yeah," Coty muttered, "and as your substitute captain, I'm telling you to buzz off."
"Coty!" she snapped. "I've been in the lookout tower all day. I haven't seen you lift a finger since the captain left."
Coty pulled one of his hands from behind his head, and reached for the sky. "There," he said. "I've lifted four fingers and a thumb. Now will you leave me alone?"
Emilia crouched over Coty, and poked the older knight's belly with the hilt of her sword. Coty rolled his eyes at her, and rolled onto his side so that he held his back to her. Behind him, Emilia huffed.
"What are you doing out here, anyway?" she asked. "There are beds inside, you know."
"Well, I was waiting for Valko," Coty said, "but I think you scared him off."
He couldn't hear her jaw fall, but he did hear it snap shut again, and he grinned. He also heard the shuffling her skirt as she stood again.
"Fine," she huffed.
She stomped in a clatter of armor back in the direction of the fort. Coty lay there on the grass for several minutes more. His eyelids were beginning to feel heavy, though, and if he stayed there any longer he might fall asleep on the grass. Not that there would be any ill with that if Lucian was there watching over the fort. But without the captain around, Coty pulled himself back to a seated position and shook off the urge to sleep.
He picked himself up off the ground, and yawned long and loudly into the palm of his hand. As he stretched his arms above his head, he saw a faint glow in the distance. It came from the Marais region. First he blinked, and then he squinted into the night. They were light elves. He stepped forward in haste, as if the few paces would give him a better look at the figures silhouetted by the shimmer of their wings. He couldn't tell how many had one pair of wings, and how many two, but there had to be almost twenty light elves heading their way.
He considered the number. Besides him and Emilia, there were a couple other knights in the Argent Erable brigade stationed at the site. The construction crew was a dozen strong. Even if the captain had been around, they were still as many in number as the light elves approaching. Besides Valko and Gil, he was also sure that the light elves didn't care much for them. His shoulders began to shake when the elves were near enough for him to identify the one who led them. It was Zane.
Coty spun on his heel and raced for the door. When he had shoved it open and slammed it shut behind him, he cried to the people in the fort, "Someone give me a hand!"
"Coty, what are you doing?" he heard Emilia ask.
He was reaching for a thick block of wood leaning near the door. It sat there expressly as a bolt to barricade that door.
"Light elves," he gasped. "Lots of them."
One of the builders was quicker than Emilia was, and grabbed hold of the other end of the fat plank. They dropped it in place, into the holsters on either sides of the north-facing doors of the fort, and Coty turned back to Emilia.
"Thank god you're armored, girl," he breathed. "Everyone, grab your weapons! Now!"
Emilia stood back as Coty raced past her. Of course his own armor was in one of the rooms of the fort. He stepped around piles of bricks and buckets encrusted with mortar, and over the wooden planks that had been carelessly strewn about the interior of the fort. His mind reeled. He couldn't pull his armor on fast enough.
When he returned, his spear in hand, he looked around for the other knights. "Joel, Alfa!" he cried. "What do we do?"
The other knights looked as lost as he did, their mouths hanging open and their hands on the hilts of their weapons. Alfa shrugged, and Joel shook his head.
"Where's the captain?" Joel asked. "Don't tell me he ran off with that elf again."
Coty shook his head. "No," he said. "I mean, he did, but he passed through again this afternoon. He was headed towards the elf region with the general."
"If they're in the elf region," the other knight mulled, "then why are the light elves here?"
"Hell if I know!"
The doors of the fort shattered in a mess of light energy. The plank still barred the path, but it did little else and it didn't stand for long.
"Human scum!" cried a voice Coty had heard before. "You'll pay for what you've done!"
Coty's attention whipped back to the door as Zane's elf magic cut through the board. The fort rose high, but it didn't have a closed ceiling. Only a few rooms, sleeping and meeting quarters, against the cliff face had full roofs. Zane stepped inside first, his feet firmly on the ground, but the elves who joined him in the north-facing foyer were afloat and they were all free to attack from above the human knights.
Coty called to the knights over his shoulder. "Get in formation!" He tilted his spear, and took measured steps towards the light elf who led the assault. "I don't know what you're playing at," he said, "but we've done nothing to you!"
"Nothing?" the elf scoffed. "Nothing! That's what you call slaying our guardians?"
A javelin of light materialized in the elf's hands. He strode forward, driving it against Coty's steel lance. Coty staggered back a step before his soles gripped the earth and he threw the light elf back. The knights behind him parried blades of wind as they projected through the air from the smaller light elves behind Zane. Coty heard some of the builders cry out behind them. Though they sounded fearful, they didn't yet sound as though they had been injured. The leading light elf struck against Coty's lance again, and this time it was the stand-in captain who was driven back. More of the light elves outside poured into the fort. There were bows and arrows of light, similar to the ringleader's javelin. They struck as hard against the knights' defenses as iron did.
The bigger, four-winged elf leading the attack drew back and raised his palm to the knights. Coty twisted his lance and deflected what he could of the sparking balls that shot from the Zane's hand. The last one, he missed with his weapon. It barreled into his shoulder, and though it left no abrasion on his skin, the sharp jolt left him reeling. The light elf strode forward again and took hold of Coty's weapon. Coty gripped his lance firmly, and given the advantage of his leather-palmed gloves held better than Zane did. But Zane wasn't holding to claim the piece. He walked straight forward, into Coty, and still recovering from the shock Coty wasn't quick enough to prevent the elf from gaining ground.
As he was driven farther back, he could see that he was not alone. The smaller light elves had driven back the other knights, though not without themselves taking damage. The builders had also taken up their axes, hoes, shovels, anything they could get their hands on to defend themselves. But while they were busy defending their skins, they were quickly losing the fort.
"Retreat, Coty!" Emilia cried. "We should retreat!"
"But—!"
Zane shoved farther against Coty, and when an inch of space opened between them, the light elf released the lance with one hand and with the other slashed with a vacuum blade beneath the knight's steel. Coty staggered back, narrowly avoiding damage as the blade grazed his breastplate. The exit on the Radiata side of the fort had been opened. The men who had worked so hard to build it were scrambling out into the south side of the Cuatour region and back towards Radiata. Coty wasn't so sure about the smaller elves, but Zane was overpowered. He doubted even Lucian could stand up to the four-winged elf. He slashed at Zane, but the light elf bobbed out of the radius of the attack. Smaller light elves closed around the knights, as if to funnel them out of the fort.
"Coty, come on!" Joel called. "It's not worth your life!"
Even as the knights followed the builders out onto the path behind the fort, the light elves still advanced. Coty realized too late why the full light elf force he had seen approaching hadn't filled the fort. Some of the elves had flown right over it, and awaited the men who had been flushed out. They were already chasing the builders from the area. Coty swung his lance in a broad arc to stave off the light elves flanking him before they could strike.
He was twisting back to Zane, aware too late that his back had been turned for too long, when another body crashed into his and sent him careening forward. He whipped about to attack his assailant, and instead stopped dead at what he saw.
The light elf who led the assault had been about to attack him. The one who had crashed into him was Valko. And between the two, driven right through the smaller sentry elf, was Zane's javelin of light. The javelin dematerialized, and for a moment both elves stood aghast. The smaller elf seemed to stare blindly forward as the clothes on his back began to stain.
The larger elf gripped the front of Valko's shirt, his eyes wide with rage. "You!" Zane spat. "How dare you show your face here!"
Valko groped for the hole Zane's javelin had left in through his shirt, gasping sharply as his fingers reached the wound. He turned his hand towards the larger light elf and cast blades of wind at him. There wasn't enough space between them for the attack to reach even half of its potential, but Zane still flinched. He cast Valko back, and the wounded elf stumbled and fell.
"Coty, behind you!" Emilia screamed.
The knight whipped back around. A couple of the other light elves were closing in on him again. They weren't nearly as strong as Zane, and when one fell to his lance, the other hesitated to attack again. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed to Coty the charge of the lightning balls that Zane had hit him with earlier. Before the attack could discharge, the four-winged light elf yelped and staggered back.
Coty had returned to parrying the other light elf when he heard Zane cry, "Unhand me, filthy human!"
The parries quickly turned him and the light elf against whom he defended himself in a half-circle, and he could see behind her what had caused Zane grief. Lucian gripped the larger light elf's hair and pulled him away from where Valko had fallen. Zane twisted about and stabbed at Lucian with his vacuum blade, and Lucian had to release him to avoid taking the blow. The captain didn't have his sword. All he held with which to defend himself was a knife that did not resemble the ones each knight carried.
Lucian and Valko weren't the only two to join the battle. Samara was bent over the downed sentry elf, and flame-like tendrils of magic curled from beneath her fingers into Valko's wound. Restorative magic, he assumed. As Coty became caught up in the company, he was knocked back a step by his assailant. He took a full swing at her with the point of his lance, batting the elf aside as she put up a barrier of leaves and wind in her defense.
Coty stepped quickly to the blonde dark elf and the downed sentry. Valko hadn't lost as much blood as the knight had feared. Samara shook as she strained to close the wound, and didn't seem to notice much else around her. Valko was watching the captain and the leading light elf as they continued to clash only a few steps from where they sat. Coty looked to what the sentry saw, how Zane seemed to glow. More than just his wings, his whole being shone.
"Samara, Coty," the sentry choked, "run!"
When that light peaked, Zane channeled the energy into his hand and thrust his arm skyward. Coty didn't think twice before grabbing Samara by the arm and yanking her off of Valko. Needles burst from Zane's palm, lighting the sky like fireworks. The dark elf staggered after Coty as he ran. Their shadows grew bold before them and the ground shook beneath their feet as the light rained down.
Samara continued to stumble after Coty as they disappeared in the hills between Fort Ledanesis and Radiata. No longer facing an immediate threat, she yanked back against the knight's hold.
"Let me go!"
"I need to know," Coty said. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," she cried. "Lord Cepheid is dead. Lady Vesper is preparing for war. Zane's already attacked. And Lucian and Valko, they—"
Coty spun about, gripped the dark elf by both arms, and stared into her eyes. "Don't say it."
"But I saw—"
An arrow whizzed past their heads, and Coty whipped back around to find its source. "Hold your fire!" he called into the shadows.
When her eyes had adjusted well enough to see from whence it came, Samara found the woman whose success they had celebrated that night in Radiata, and the wild-haired man with whom she had danced. They weren't concealed at all, though they were covered in dried mud, and blended with the dirt and trees along the outskirts of the path.
"What happened to you?" Coty exclaimed.
"You already know," the wild-haired captain sneered. "The wind dragon is dead. And you're fraternizing with the enemy."
"Enemy?"
Sawyer gestured past Coty to Samara. Mina had lifted her bow and notched another arrow. Coty stepped back against Samara. Samara shook her head in disbelief, but kept to Coty's shadow. That arrow trained on her.
"Mina," the wild-haired man growled, "what are you waiting for?"
Coty shook his head. "Mina, no."
But the arrow flew. It struck the bigger bead threaded into the hair on the side of Samara's face, breaking it off, but she and the knight standing before her were otherwise unscathed.
"Oops," the archer cooed, "I missed."
Mina spun on her heel, and headed in the direction of the northern gate into the city. The woman still carried half a quiver of arrows and easily could have shot a third. Sawyer's jaw dropped. His hands balled into fists as he stalked after her.
"You okay?" Coty asked.
Samara's eyes flicked to his, not realizing he had looked her way. She nodded, so he took off after the other humans, and she turned back to the fort.
The return trek could not be quick enough. Samara ran all the way. Lady Faunus had been inside the fort. No doubt Lord Nogueira's second-in-command would have heard the commotion outside, no doubt she would have put an end to things and made every effort to restore the damages wrought by the elf lord's younger brother. At least for Valko. Samara spent every step wondering what the light elves would do to Lucian, assuming the captain still lived.
When she approached the fort, she found Zane standing guard out front with his arms crossed before his chest, but an otherwise neutral expression. There was a smaller light elf beside him, the one who had exchanged blows with Coty, whom Samara was sure she had seen long before heckling Valko for shirking sentry duty. She was mending Zane's wounds. Samara slowed almost to a stop, pausing to catch her breath before approaching the guard.
"Zane?" she breathed.
The light elf's lips twitched as if he would scowl, but instead he stared coolly at her before skimming the land around her. He was looking for a trap. He wasn't preventing her approach, however, so she made her way to the door by which he stood.
"Where is he?" she demanded. "Where's Lucian?"
She flinched at the look he shot her, and even the smaller light elf in his company seemed to shrink back from him. Maybe she shouldn't have asked. Even so, Zane said nothing. She reached tentatively for the door, as if he would reprimand her for attempting to get inside as well, but he made no effort to stop her. She slipped into the fort, and took a quick look around.
Lady Faunus stood at the table that the builders had assigned as a dinner table beside a small light elf with squinty eyes who examined a collection of things before her. Faunus stared at the tabletop between her hands. The weight of her body sagged on her arms, and her face was drawn. Samara approached cautiously.
"Lady Faunus?" she murmured.
The four-winged light elf glanced in Samara's direction, her hands grasping at the tabletop. Her gaze only briefly met Samara's before returning to the floor.
"He's in one of the beds in the back."
Samara nodded, and made her way around the debris on the floor. She continued into one of the side halls, to a room along the side-center of the fort. There were a couple injured light elves at the back of the room being mended by their peers. Lucian lay in one of the nearer beds, ashen, but breathing. Samara crept into the room, afraid to break the silence blanketing them all, and knelt by his bedside. She folded her arms on the cot, and laid her head upon them, and her fingers curled around loose strands of his hair.
She knelt there, staring without seeing, for a long while before it occurred to her that she hadn't seen Valko. There were other light elves besides Faunus and the small squinty-eyed girl in the foyer, and there were other light elves resting here, but where was the sentry? She stood up and took a look around, but besides her and her bedridden captain, she could identify no one else in the room.
Samara's fingers traced the veins on the back of Lucian's hand before she made her way back into the foyer.
"Lady Faunus," she called, when she was sure she was distant enough not to disturb Lucian and the elves at rest. "Where's Valko?"
Faunus stared at Samara as she approached. But when the dark elf drew near, the four-winged light elf slumped onto the stool beneath her. The small light elf behind her frowned and left her collection to place a hand on Faunus' shoulder. The older, four-winged elf sighed before she looked to Samara and confirmed what the dark elf already feared. "He's dead."
Author's Note
Why yes, I am a heartless bastard. There will be down time and humor to come (though my sense of humor is likely not to anyone else's taste), but really, things are only going to get worse from here. Zane has too much attack variety, but everything is from the game. His volty blast, in serious context, would have the potential to hit everyone in the area rather than just a specific target, and it would do massive damage. Please don't hurt me. ;_;
In the next chapter, we have fun with the Fer Lierre brigade until the fire dragon crashes the party.