Revenge
A Shadowed Heart side story
Prelude
It was raining.
Heavy, almost solid sheets of water cascaded from the heavens, bringing visibility down to almost zero. The young man who was running across the open space towards the small, worn-down keep didn't need his eyes, however. He knew the way; all he needed was his heart and the pulsing fear that drove him on.
Keep Sequence was hardly more than a tall tower at the eastern coastal plains of Ivalice. They'd always protected this land, even during the recent disputes with the greedy, land-pinching Gelzak Church claiming that the terrain was theirs. This young man and his family, the Sequence clan, had lived here since before Bervenia's construction, and they wouldn't let anyone else take charge of the place, especially not for selfish reasons.
But it seemed that the Gelzaks were through with asking nicely...
The young man continued to sprint along, letting his ragged, soaking dark brown hair fly behind him. He knew there wasn't much time left.
His little brother's mental cry had alerted him to the danger, and now, he was coming, but was he too late? The Gelzaks were powerful warriors, spellcasters and summoners all, and brutish, seeming not to know that morals existed.
Reaching the keep, the young man couldn't help but sob. Carnage lay all around--the bodies of several Gelzak fighters... bangaa bishops, viera summoners and elementalists, and human illusionists and black mages. There were also several members of the Sequence family and their allies, as well as those who had lived in the small village that the Gelzaks had destroyed.
"Kemal!" the man screamed, dodging bodies. "Mom...? Dad! Are you here? Are you alive? Is anyone... alive! Please answer me!"
There was a weak cough from near the tower's broken wall, and the young man ran towards it, his heart in his throat.
"Oh, God, Kemal..." The fifteen-year-old boy was lying on his back, his torso covered in awful burns, a thin rapier through his gut. His brown hair was strewn around his face, and his chocolate-colored eyes were starting to close.
Kemal smiled painfully. "Big brother..."
"Shhh... don't strain yourself." The seeker knelt, stroking the child's hair. "I'm here. I'm here. It's okay now, everything's okay..."
Kemal moaned in pain, looking up at his brother through tear-blurred eyes. "It was those damn Gelzaks... they showed up out of nowhere, and everyone... everyone... everyone...!"
"Oh, my God..." The gray eyes that had been fixed on Kemal's brown ones widened. "All the townspeople? The lesser clanners? And our parents, too? They killed... they killed everyone!"
Kemal nodded, half-sobbing. "Everybody's gone. They even killed all the animals... nothing's left, and I'm..."
"Don't talk like that! You're gonna be just fine, you hear? It's going to be okay, Kemal!"
Kemal clutched at the wooden cross hung on a chain around his neck. He traced the wire inlays, letting his fingers rest upon the amber stone at its center. "Weaver... it's all up to you now... sorry I... let you... down..."
His brown eyes, always so bright and loving, hazed over and half-closed. With a low moan, the young boy dropped his sodden crucifix, his head lolling back against the ground.
"KEMAL!" Weaver shook the unresponsive body, sobbing. "No! You can't die! You just can't!"
But it was too late. Kemal was already gone.
---
The pubmaster was taken aback upon seeing the half-dead human fighter stagger through the door. The man was breathing heavily and drenched to the bone, his dark brown hair clinging to his shoulders, back, and face. He was leaning heavily against the wall, and looked worked to the point of exhaustion, but his silver eyes were grim and filled with hate and boiling rage.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" the pubmaster asked falteringly.
The young man looked up, still panting a little. "Yeah," he replied at length. "My name's Weaver Sequence. I need you to place a special mission for me. Can you do that?"
The master nodded, still regarding the stranger with a wary stare. The boy had the eyes of a murderer...
:TBC: