No Longer Alone
I'm back! And we're getting more good games than ever. Finding writing time is getting a bit difficult, sometimes. Oh well. I hope what I've written here is to your liking.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Franz wasn't sure exactly when Lord Ephraim had found a dragon willing to join their party, but there was definitely now one looming in front of the Castle Gates, golden scales flashing brightly with each small movement of its powerful muscles, jaws open wide as it released a blast of energy from its gaping maw. He took a half-step back from the creature, and he noted out of the corner of his eye that he wasn't the only one. By contrast, Ephraim and Eirika stood unmoving beside the massive creature, gripping their weapons tightly.
Once, twice, and with the third strike the heavy gates gave way, crumbling to darkened ash as the creature seemingly vanished in a flash of light. He saw the prince give the slightest of approving nods from out of the corner of his eye.
Instantly, General Seth, leading the main bulk of the army forces, charged forward, his weapon gleaming silver in the sun. Sweeping across the (badly overgrown) courtyard, they cut through the surprised defenders of the castle almost before they could raise their weapons to fight back, and Franz felt a pang inside him as he was reminded of just how far he had to go before he could reach his mentor.
However, despite the General's and his retinue's best efforts, the sturdy doors to the palace itself were shut and barred before he could gain entrance to the interior of the castle. Acting quickly on prearranged battle plans, the forces spread out, acting in concert to provide cover for the siege units that now scrambled to force open the castle doors as quickly as possible.
So caught up was he in watching the well-rehearsed manoeuvres of the army that he almost missed his cue. But in the end a small voice at the back of his head reminded him that he had elsewhere to be, and he turned to regard the small band behind him.
"Let's go."
"Franz?" The voice was gentle. Hesitant. The young knight looked up.
"Yes, milady?" He questioned as he snapped off a quick salute, which she quietly returned.
"I heard about your recent promotion from the General." She managed a smile that almost succeeded in driving the bags under her eyes. "You've really grown from the quiet knight I first set out with."
He shook his head. "It's an honour I don't deserve, my lady."
"Oh?" There was a hint of the melancholic to her smile now, before she nodded. "Be that as it may. I – we've decided to assign you a task befitting your new rank."
Franz could only think back to the words General Seth had reassured him with back when he'd received his new rank insignia and he suppressed an urge to sigh. "I'll gladly help in whatever way I can, my lady."
"Yes, I thought you might say that." She paused, ran a hand through her hair. "The assault on Castle Renais begins tomorrow."
"Yes…"
"And, well, you're one of the few people in the army who know their way around the castle very well. We've precious few knights of Renais left in the army. Most of them are prisoners or... Well, most of them are prisoners." She turned away. "The plan tomorrow calls for a focused frontal assault on the Castle itself."
"I know. Prince Ephraim briefed us earlier this morning."
"Right. What he didn't tell the populace at large is that he wants a smaller strike team to assault from the side."
"The… side? Wait, hold on." A frown creased Franz's forehead. "The supply-run door-"
"Exactly." Her smile turned encouraging. "As the main force stages an all-out assault from the front, it should draw the majority of defenders towards them. It should be pretty easy for a small strike force to flank them and add confusion to their ranks from the supply-run door."
"And… you want me to lead the strike force?"
"That's the long and short of it." She nodded again.
"Uh, wouldn't someone like Forde or Sir Kyle be better suited to this task?"
"Well, Sir Forde and Sir Kyle are a part of Prince Ephraim's personal retinue, which is a fairly prestigious position any way you slice it. Not to mention they've met with Sir Orson before. We don't want to the risk of them wondering why important people who should be at the frontlines aren't."
"Meaning I'm not prominent enough for my absence to be noticed." He let out a brief snort of laughter.
"Well, if we're going to be blunt… yes." She ducked her head, as if acknowledging this fact still went against the gentle, uplifting nature. "You're not a major player in the army – or at least you weren't the last time Sir Orson laid eyes on you, but you're still extremely competent. That's what we need right now."
He glanced away, feeling several conflicting feelings play out. On one hand, he was honoured that they would consider him for such an important position. On the other hand, precisely because it was such an important position…
"Are you sure that such an important task should be given to a greenhorn lieutenant?" He glanced away, towards the ground.
"The same lieutenant that carved his way through an enemy battalion in the middle of a desert to rescue a single soldier he'd promised to protect?" Eirika chuckled.
"It didn't happen like that at all. For one thing, I didn't 'carve my way through', I was just trying to ride through the soldiers as quickly possible while fending off attacks. Also, I-"
The princess nodded, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Regardless, you've been through the very worst this war has to offer thus far, and you've handled it admirably. I've absolutely no doubt in my mind that you'll succeed at this task."
With a weary sigh, Franz nodded his acceptance.
"Let's go."
As Amelia heard Franz speak those words she noted a flash of uncertainty on his face. Well, it was the first time he was taking command of a unit, no matter how small…
Quickly, she glanced over the rest of their party. Ross, Ewan, Colm, Neimi, a magician who identified herself as Lute, her friend Artur, along with a few others she didn't recognize and hadn't introduced themselves. Well, when it came down to it, they should all be able to hold their own against whatever they ran into…
As the only one who had spent any significant amount of time in the castle (as well as being the leader – truth be told, she wasn't entirely used to the idea of her gentle friend being in command, and she suspected that she wasn't alone.) Franz led the way through what appeared to be a solid thicket of trees, slipping through a barely noticeable gap. The others promptly followed, although Amelia noted with some amusement that the more heavily-armoured members of their team had some difficulty in moving quietly.
"You know," Colm began in a grumpy tone as he ducked a low-hanging tree branch. "For a door supposedly used for bringing in supplies, it's kinda hard to reach."
"Oh, there's a road." Franz assured him. "Paved. Nice and wide for the carthorses. With no cover whatsoever. All in all, I felt this was the preferable option."
Colm opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by an arrow suddenly appearing with a 'thwak!' sound in the tree trunk next to him. Beside her, Neimi quickly loosed her own arrow, and was rewarded with the fall of one of the dark shapes that everyone now saw were milling around the edge of the trees.
Not good. Amelia thought as she increased her speed as much as possible, trying to get within striking range of the soldiers. They'd known the way to the side would most likely have been guarded, of course, but the enemy appeared to be stationed here in considerable force.
A soldier charged her, axe slashing down. Pivoting, Amelia swept the ground with the blunt end of her lance, sending the soldier tumbling. Before he could rise, she quickly put a lance through his leg, leaving him to howl in pain and anger as she turned to seek out her next foe.
Most of the soldiers in the vicinity didn't appear to be Grad soldiers – at least, not if their armour and equipment were anything to go by. An overall lack of uniformity, and several of the soldiers being severely underequipped…
A mercenary band of some sort? Amelia continued fighting her way through the crowd. Or have supply issues become so severe?
And then suddenly she was clear of the thicket, and remaining enemy soldiers were either surrendering or fleeing. She watched the deserters with an air of detached interest, wondering where they planned to go.
"This way, guys." Franz called again, and then they were gathered around a small wooden door – enough, Amelia estimated for two people to go through side by side.
"Locked." Colm said as they caught sight of the heavy iron padlock placed over the entrance.
"Which is why you're here." Franz gestured, and Colm set upon the lock with a slight smirk.
"I don't see the need for this." Lute shrugged as the watched, several of the soldiers fanning out to provide a defensive formation.
"Well, I'm guessing Prince Ephraim wants the Castle to be as intact as possible for when he reclaims the place." Ewan shrugged as he flipped idly through his spell tome. "Anyway, Franz's in charge right now. What he says goes."
"Got it." Colm stepped back as the door swung open.
"All right, Ross, Ewan, you're in the rear. Lute, Artur, back the two of them up." Franz paused for a slight moment. "Amelia, you're with me. We'll lead the way. The rest of you, form up behind and follow."
She nodded and hurried over to his side. "Got it."
The journey through the castle was strangely unsettling – they could shouts and cries of battle, but none of the enemy soldiers ever appeared before them. For that matter, no servants or squires or… any of the people she assumed would have business inside a castle.
In fact aside from themselves, they had yet to run into a single living being.
Franz's steps were becoming more hesitant, his sword held at a low angle in front of him.
"We're close to the throne room now." He said softly. "This was the fastest path there."
"And no guards?" Amelia questioned as scouted the next room. Empty, like all the others.
"Yeah. Something's wrong." Franz shook his head. "We need to find Sir Orson as quickly as possible." Turning, Franz signalled the rest of the squad to pick up the pace.
"He should be at the throne room." Amelia said softly as she increased her stride to keep up with Franz. "But, shouldn't we wait for the rest of the army?"
"They're tying down the rest of Orson's own forces." Franz pointed out as he increased his stride. "The longer we take, the more chances we give Sir Orson to escape."
"But…" She glanced back at the rest of them. "Isn't this kind of risky?"
Franz hesitated, turning back to the rest of the soldiers. He heaved a sigh. "I'll bear the responsibility for anything that goes wrong." And then he turned and continued deeper into the castle.
If anything, Franz reflected, the sounds of fighting we getting louder. He didn't know exactly how far away it all was, but given how long it'd been since the start of the battle, he was willing to bet that they'd managed to make significant inroads into the building.
The throne room was located almost dead centre in the middle of the castle, and had been agreed upon as the primary target, and so as Franz jogged hurriedly up the last flight off stairs to the throne he wondered if the main army were anywhere close.
It was at that point that they ran into their first actual resistance since having breached the castle walls. A trio of armoured soldiers stood guard at the doorway to the throne room, holding their axes over the shoulders In a bored fashion.
As he entered their line of sight, they quickly snapped into a battle ready stance. Beside him, he heard Amelia breathe in quickly as she moved forward as well, lance at the ready.
As the axefighters neared they split up, two to deal with Franz, one moving to the side to face off against Amelia. Franz dodged a wide axe swing, and strucked back, his sword biting deep into his opponent's arm, and the enemy fell back with a shriek. He swung around to check the second warrior who had been trying to flank him.
Franz was more manoeuvrable than the enemy and so he dodged under the next strike before kicking at his opponent. His foe hopped back slightly, giving the cavalier the opening he needed to stab his sword forwards, straight through the soldier's belly.
Beside him, a short war cry served to inform him that Amelia had succeeded in finishing off her own opponent as well.
"What took the rest of you so long?" He questioned rhetorically as the rest of the group came into view.
"Apologies." One of the Frelian knights responded. 'We ran into some thieves. It appears they were attempting to loot the place."
"… They've been dealt with?"
The knight nodded wordlessly in reply.
I get the feeling a lot of them don't think much of me as a leader. Franz thought to himself. Well, I'm not particularly interested into continuing to be one, so as long as we can keep it together until after this fight…
"All right, let's move into the throne room. We'll have to take them as hard and fast as possible." He glanced briefly at Amelia. "I'll lead the way, the rest of you follow up and give support."
Quickly, two knights took up positions on either side of the entrance. There was enough to give to it to signify that it hadn't been barred. With a deep breath, they pushed, hard, swinging open the ornately carved doors as Franz charged through –
Into an empty room.
After quickly turning around to ascertain all four corners of the place were indeed empty, he hesitantly detailed several of the knights to spread out and search for more clues as an uncomfortable feeling began to settle into the pit of his stomach.
"Franz!" He turned around as he saw General Seth enter the room, closely followed by Prince Ephraim, both of them holding weapons at the ready. "I didn't expect you to make it here ahead of us."
"Neither did I. But we encountered practically no resistance on our way here." He indicated the rest of the soldier's who'd come with him. "So we weren't slowed down at all."
"Hm. Worrisome." Seth noted. "Truth be told, the defences we had to fight through were underwhelming as well."
"Commander." A young soldier ran up to the General and saluited. "We've secured the area from the front court to the throne room. No more hostile units in the vicinity."
"I see. And Sir Orson."
The squire shook his head. "No sign of him, sir."
Seth let out his breath in a long, slow sigh. "I see. All right, good work. Dismissed."
"He might have escaped already." Ephraim suggested as he surveyed the throne room.
"That appears likely. Regardless, there remains a large area of the castle that we've yet to search – or for that matter, reclaim." The General turned to Forde and Kyle, standing in the entrance to the room. "Gather our forces. We'll be redistributing them into search parties."
"Understood, sir."
"So where are we now?" Amelia questioned as she rounded the corner down yet another corridor.
"Well, this is the residential wing for the higher ups."
"So… bedrooms?"
"Yeah, more or less."
"Sheesh." Amelia muttered. "They're bigger than some of the houses back in Silva." Including mine.
Franz kept silent at that. Further behind them, Colm and Neimi were following up, ostensibly covering franz and Amelia's backs.
Truth be told, they'd once again met absolutely no one ever since they started venturing deeper into the castle. She suspected that it might have been a different story had she been part of the groups assigned to search the dungeons, but she saw no reason for anyone to have decided to make a last stand in the sleeping rooms, and she said as much to her friend.
He shrugged. "Well, it's our job and I'd rather we complete it well."
"Yeah." Amelia sighed. "It's just… it's kinda odd. I mean, we all thought that we'd find some holdouts from the Grado army her, but it turns out that most of those men were just mercenaries, and not very loyal ones at that, based on quickly they gave up. And then this Sir Orson that we're supposed to be hunting vanishes and we're stuck skulking around this empty place. Seriously, it's giving me the creeps."
Franz gave a slight chuckle at that. "We're almost at the master bedroom," he noted, in a voice so low Amelia had to strain to hear him.
"And one more thing," she finished. "What on earth is that rancid smell?"
Franz frowned. "I don't know. You're right, though, that smell's been getting stronger for a while." He glanced up at the doors to the master bedroom. "But why would the bedroom for the king and queen have anything that would smell that bad?"
Amelia sighed. "Only one way to find out, I guess." Reaching out, she grasped the handle of the door and began to pull.
"NO!" The scream of rage was almost incoherent, almost inhuman as a dark shape burst forth from a nearby alcove, already raising a sword above his head. "You will not TAKE HER FROM ME!"
Amelia jumped back by instinct as the sword slashed downwards, cleaving apart the handle she'd been pulling as it had been made of brittlewood and not the solid oak it actually was. Her uncontrolled leap had her hitting the floor hard, but she quickly threw herself into a roll, getting back to her feet as she heard the clanging sound of Franz's own sword meeting Sir Orson's – she assumed it was Sir Orson – and forcing him back.
"Amelia! Franz!" She heard Neimi's cry, heard the pounding of boots as Colm quickened his pace to reach them, and she began to move forward as well.
The two current combatants were locked in a contest of strength, both trrying push each other back. Franz's eyes were narrowed, teeth gritted, muscles straining. His opponent's eyes were alight with a madness and fury she'd never seen before in anyone else's – not even Valter. A slight, sneering grin tugged at the edges of his man's mouth, leading one to draw further conclusions about his sanity. His clothes hung about him in loose rags, and Amelia suspected that his madness was the only thing fuelling his strength.
Abruptly both of the swordfighters broke away before charging at each other again, slashing at each other with seemingly wild abandon. Amelia hesitated, if she could get an opening from the back…
Suddenly she felt the hairs on her neck stand on edge at the same time that Sir Orson's sword began to glow an dark, unpleasant purple. Before Franz could react, a bolt of dark magic slammed into him, sending him sprawling. Even as Amelia watched, tendrils of the arcane magic snaked up towards Sir Orson, sinking into his body and revitalizing him. She saw a cut he'd received on his jaw seal itself over, leaving no indication that it had ever been there.
Franz meanwhile, landed hard on the floor, coughing and spasming. After a moment, he tried to pull himself to his feet, but he was apparently too drained – he collapsed a second time.
"You've come to take her away." Orson said calmly, his fury vanishing abruptly. Too calmly, in fact. "But I won't let you. We belong here. Forever. I and-"
He was cut off as an arrow skipped past him, Neimi having flubbed her shot. As he turned to regard his new assailants, Amelia finally reached him, lance coming up to strike at his breast.
His sword was brought up, knocking the lance away, and with a silent curse Amelia shifted her stance, giving herself better balance. With a quick skip to the left, she had placed herself between the crazed knight and sir Orson.
"You won't harm Franz." She snapped. "I won't let you." I will protect him, no matter what.
"Who are you?" He demanded, eyes wild again. "You're one of them, aren't you! All of you… all of you want to take her from me! But I won't let you! You can't have her!"
Taking a deep breath, Amelia tuned out his ravings. She had to defeat him, no matter what he said. And of course, she had to make sure whatever dark magic his sword was imbued with wasn't turned on her as well.
He charged again, this time bringing his sword upwards in a low underhand swing.
Amelia dodged nimbly, always barely evading the man's wild slashes. It was obvious that he'd become skilled enough to have a fair bit of technique drilled into him by instinct, by he simply wasn't fighting with any tactics behind him.
Stabbing forward with her lance, she actually managed to tear the outside of his tunic before he knocked it away again, turning the defensive manoevere into a quick strike at her stomach in the process.
Falling back again, Amelia shook her head. It was obvious that she couldn't beat him in a contest of strength. But she could outwit him, if only because he appeared to be completely out of his gourd.
Timing herself, she struck again with her lance, and he knocked it away contemptuously again – only for her to release her grip on her lance as he did so. The weapon was sent flying until it thudded into the wall and fell harmlessly to the floor.
Surprised by the sudden lack of resistance, Orson stumbled forward. A combination of two techniques that had happened before over the course of her journey, only now, of course, it was on purpose.
Before he could recover, she'd drawn her dagger again. Her right hand slammed down hard on his sword arm, stunning it for the split-second she needed, and she struck.
Sir Orson, former knight-general of Renais, staggered back, stricken eyes staring at the blossoming stain on his tunic. He took another shaky step forward, eyes staring sightlessly past the lancer, reaching out to grasp something only he could see.
"M… monic…" He mumbled something Amelia couldn't quite catch before slumping to his knees, pitching forward and landing heavily.
"Franz!" Turning, she squatted down by the wounded knight. "Are you all right?"
He drew in a few deep, gasping breaths until Amelia helped him to sit up. A moment later, Neimi joined them, Colm trailing behind.
"Sorry about not helping more." Neimi said apologetically. "But I couldn't keep firing into a melee."
Amelia acknowledged it with a nod as Franz began to recover some of his strength, aided by a vulnerary Colm provided. Finally, he stood, still gasping for breath, but at least able to move under his own volition.
"Sir Orson…" He began.
"Dead." Amelia glanced backwards. "I think he was guarding this room, like he really didn't want anybody to go in."
"So what's inside?" Colm raised an eyebrow. "Treasure?"
"He did keep talking about a 'her' that he didn't want anyone to take away."
Franz shrugged. "Well, like Amelia, said, there's only one way to find out."
Grabbing the handle that was still intact, he slowly pulled open the door.
Several minutes later, Franz delivered his report to General Seth and asked to be excused, citing that he wanted to go to sleep and forget what he had just seen.
Chapter End
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