Chapter 7 - Curse
Beta'd by A.O. Talmidge
The crowds thinned only slightly as Kaden dashed through the alleyways of the city. It didn't stop the stares, or the annoyance he felt as he pushed past another throng of people. The shimmer - no, invisible soldier, for that's what he convinced himself that it had to be lest he call himself mad - had moved ahead of him what seemed like minutes ago, unhindered by the crowds on the rooftops. In truth, it was probably less than thirty seconds ahead.
Thirty seconds too late, if he didn't get to the library in time.
He had briefly considered shifting to the rooftops as well, but he didn't think that the time he spent figuring out a way up there outweighed any slight advantage of speed it could grant.
Pushing past a street performer's audience, the side street at last opened up to the view of the library. This particular street held blessedly few people to get in his way as he sprinted up the small flight of wooden stairs to the library's door. He slammed the handle of the door down, using his remaining momentum to ram the door open.
And bounced back.
What?
He tried the handle again, slower this time, even throwing his body-weight against the door; yet, it held stubbornly firm.
Too late.
"No!" He growled in frustration, kicking the wood again in a futile gesture. Not like this, not when he was so close! The scent trail definitely led into the library, where it became almost overpowering. Were there more already in there? His sensitive hearing picked up the strangely muted sound of wood cracking inside.
Out here, he was useless.
Anna froze, shocked into the point of stillness as a spear seemed to appear from thin air above the cracked floor. Robin shouted something before it flew straight at her head. Her eyes widened, heart thumping loudly in her ears as time seemed to stretch. Dimly, she recognized the model of the weapon, a throwing spear, similar to ones that she sold in her shop.
Was…
Was that really going to be her last thought before she died?
A harsh tug on her arm, and she was jerked aside. She heard a cry of pain, followed by a burning sensation in her right shoulder. Her hand went up to reflexively clutch it. It was wet.
She looked down, lifted her hand and saw blood on her palm. She glanced behind her and saw the spear sticking out of the wooden frame of the door.
Oh.
She'd been the one to yell.
"Pay attention!"
Her mind was snapped back into the situation and adrenaline shot through her as a sharp twang sounded. She ducked, and an arrow imbedded itself into the shelf beside her. Robin sent out a lance of lightning towards its source in the rafters, before quickly turning back towards the other threat and put his hand up, palm out.
Runes of magic swirled around him as a concentrated whirlwind stirred up in front of him, right as knives that came out of nowhere towards them were haphazardly redirected. Some flew into the nearby shelves and walls, while two pinged off the enemy in front of her. Briefly, she saw the shape of a heavily armored knight hefting an axe before the enemy disappeared.
The runes swirled faster as he stepped forward and the whirlwind surged forward like a wave. With a loud crack it uprooted four of the shelves and sent their contents flying. One of the shelves landed on something unseen, looking for all the world like it was leaning on nothing.
Through it all, she could do nothing as she watched Robin move to cast another spell, shooting it blindly, looking strained. Hadn't he just mentioned that without tomes, mages would drain themselves extraordinarily fast? How long could he keep this up?
There had to be something she could do. Otherwise, right now, she was little more than dead weight.
Her gaze found the spear behind her.
"Oh, it's you, Kaden."
Kaden turned abruptly at the sound of the slightly annoyed tone to see a scrawny human rubbing his back with one hand and adjusting spectacles onto his face with the other. Vaguely, he recognized the human as a member of Spectre, the one who generally took charge of the planning. In his currently frazzled state, Kaden couldn't recall his name.
"Seems like that old codger Anders locked up early tonight." He started picking up a few scattered books and papers on the street. Had Kaden run into him without realizing it? "Shame, really. Could've used him to bounce off some ideas. What's got you so worked up about getting in there, anyways? Didn't figure you for the book type."
Kaden ran down the stairs and grabbed him by his shoulders, inadvertently knocking the objects he'd gathered from his arms again. Kaden looked him directly in the eye. "Is there any other way in there?"
The man squirmed under his gaze, startled at the sudden contact. "Uh, not that I'm aware of."
Kaden shook him slightly, frustration rising. "Are you sure?"
He glanced nervously to the side at the double doors. "I mean, I suppose you could try to convince Teresa or Nina to pick the lock for you if you really can't wait." He chuckled, though to Kaden it seemed forced. "Though, I guess going through the window shutters around back would attract less attention. What's this about?"
Kaden shook his head. "No time for that."
Pushing away from the human, he dashed away, the fragments of an idea forming. It was a stupid one, but it would have to do.
A good distance down the street, he turned, grabbing the beaststone from his pocket and began sprinting. In a flash of light, his senses sharpened and his viewpoint shifted lower. He ignored the shouts of surprise and fear once he was all fours, accelerating his sprint to a furious pace back towards the library.
A moment before he would have crashed into the stone of the building, he jumped, tucking his head down and shifting his shoulder forward to take the brunt of it as he braced for impact.
This was going to hurt.
With a loud crack, the shutters of the window buckled inward as he crashed through, some of the broken wood scratching him on the way past. It was going to be such a pain to get the splinters out of his fur later. He tucked into a roll before coming to a stop into a combat-ready stance on all fours, extending his previously retracted claws.
The enemies' scent practically reeked throughout the room, and his fur prickled as all attention briefly converged on him. His eyes narrowed and he could barely make out five shapes still standing, not including Anna and Robin to his left at the door. The former was pulling at a spear in the doorframe while the later used the distraction of Kaden's entrance to blast a shape that smelled of metal with powerful fire magic. Superheated slag dripped, sizzling, as the shape resolved into an armored form and collapsed.
Four.
Kaden wasted no more time and charged, leaping towards the closest shimmer's back, dropping it to the floor. The enemy flashed into full visibility as he tore into the unprepared enemy's exposed neck. He tossed the body away with his jaws, gagging at the foul taste.
Death, and something else he couldn't place. No blood.
Three.
Instinct took over as a sword aimed at his neck instead sliced through his flank and he howled at the injury. He growled and shot forward, leaping over another swing, before he shredded the unarmored enemy with his claws.
Two.
"Heads up!"
He looked up just in time realize see Robin about to cast another spell. He ducked as a spear of ice whizzed over his head and skewered the enemy right behind him. Kaden looked back to say his thanks.
Just in time to see Robin collapse to one knee, one hand clutching his head. He didn't miss the last enemy, a mage, finish charging a spell, runes shimmering into visibility.
He dashed forward towards Robin and jumped in front of him as lightning arced over his body.
Anna saw the transformed kitsune who had to be Kaden roll into a heap, twitching. She watched as Robin weakly tried to cast another spell, but the runes fizzled out pathetically before they fully formed. He collapsed to the floor panting.
No.
Footsteps approaching.
No, she didn't want to die.
She grunted, finding a surge of strength within her and heaved the spear out of the wall, before throwing it towards the sound of approaching footsteps. Unfamiliar with polearms as she was, the throw was awkward, especially with her injured shoulder. Whether through luck or some semblance of skill, the spear hit its mark.
The enemy flashed into view. On their face, there was no expression. The mage fell back and lie still.
Silence flushed out of the library. Dimly she was aware of the sounds of dismay and shouting from the street outside pouring in through the smashed window, but she didn't care.
She was alive. That was all that mattered at the moment.
Anna stumbled her way over to Robin, who was carefully pushing himself up. She crouched down to help him up.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
Robin groaned as he pushed himself up to his knees, leaning slightly into her for support. "Ugh. I remembered why I don't like to cast without tomes." He clutched his head. "I'm going to be pretty useless if we have to fight again soon. No big offensive spells. How's Kaden? Or at least, I assume that it's you, right?"
Anna turned her head to the kitsune stumble up, shaking himself off in a way that reminded her of a dog. Or, maybe a fox was a better comparison. If the fox was more than triple its usual size.
"I'll live." It was definitely Kaden's voice, but it echoed oddly. She shielded her eyes as a flash of light radiated off of him. She blinked away spots and when she looked again, he was back to his humanoid shape. "Kitsune have an innate resistance to offensive magic. Still hurts though."
The group was silent again as the kitsune made his way over to them.
"So." Anna swallowed, breaking the stillness. "Invisible soldiers."
"Invisible soldiers," Robin agreed, still slightly out of breath. "At least we know I'm not insane."
She chuckled, but it felt hollow to her. "And who did you say was leading them?"
"A dragon." Robin grunted as he stood. Anna supported him for a moment before he waved it off. "Look, we can have a full discussion later. The enemy knows where we are. We can't stay here."
"Not to mention, there's no way people didn't see my little stunt breaking through that window." Kaden nodded to the ruins of the window shutter, before wincing and clutching his side. "I'm sure if they aren't already, guards are going to be here any second now."
"Why don't we tell them what's going on?" Anna asked, gesturing without looking at the dead soldiers. The sight of corpses still made her queasy.
"Remember how you guys reacted when I told you?" Anna winced, and Robin shook his head. "Besides, look."
He pointed to one of the bodies, and she forced herself to look at them. Her eyes widened.
The body of the mage she had killed was glowing with an ethereal blue light before it burst like a soap bubble into motes of blue light like water droplets, spear and all, before they disappeared. She glanced around and saw the remnants of the same process happening to the rest of the bodies.
Her voice struggled to work. "W-what's…?"
Robin replied to her half question. "It's the perfect assassin, all but undetectable. And even if you kill them, they leave no evidence behind. Brilliant." He shook his head. "We'll take the brunt of the blame if we stick around. Especially with Anders dead and the place trashed like it is. They'd throw us in jail at the very least and we can't afford to waste the time to-"
They all tensed as a pounding from the door echoed throughout the place.
"What's going on in there?!"
"This way!" Kaden called in a loud whisper. Anna followed the two as he led the way to a closed window at the back of the library and unlocked it, checking briefly to either side. "Coast is clear."
"Then let's go before it isn't," Robin urged.
Kaden answered by vaulting out the window. Anna hesitated a moment before following suit.
Weaving their way through the side streets, the trio didn't make it very far before they had to slow down to a walk. Robin was still weak, Anna was clutching her shoulder, and the wound on Kaden's side was beginning to throb painfully now that the adrenaline was wearing thin.
He tasted the air. Nothing on either the guards or the strange assassins that he could tell, though the air and gathering clouds hinted at rain. "I think we're good for now. I can't sense anything out of the ordinary."
Robin nodded, panting slightly. "Good. How're you holding up?"
"I'll be fine." He glanced over to Anna, who was leaning on the wall of the building, breathing hard, clutching her shoulder. "But we can't keep running like this. We need somewhere to hole up, at least for the night. Think we could risk a healer?"
Robin shook his head. "No, you're too distinctive; we'd be caught before the night is over."
"I-" Anna stopped as he and Robin both turned their attention to her. "I know a place." She seemed unsure, feet shuffling on the path. "But, you can't tell anyone about it."
"How safe are we talking?" Robin asked.
"It's warded." Anna looked towards the castle to the west in the center of the city, then back to the alleyway. "It shouldn't be too much farther east of here. C'mon, I can lead the way."
One month.
The wind picked up harshly over the rooftops of the capital of Izumo, and below, one of the blooms of the sakura trees in the street below were blown off of a branch.
Four and a half weeks.
The bloom danced in the breeze until it wound its way over a torch lighting the city below.
Thirty-one days.
It danced above the flame a moment before a stray cinder caught the bloom. A moment later, the bloom fell to a burning heap on the ground.
Seven-hundred and forty-four hours.
A knife twirled restlessly in his (not yours) hand. A ways off, a trio of people led by a red-haired woman entered a hidden door.
Forty-four thousand, six hundred and forty minutes.
The man with white hair (his name is Robin, you know) turned and glanced about, missing his (no, not yours) crouched form, before entering like the other two. The door closed behind him.
Two million, six hundred and seventy-eight thousand, four hundred seconds.
Yet, perhaps for his target it had only been a moment. Time stretched, ebbed, flowed, seemingly so…flexible in comparison. Long and short in unequal measures. How else could the man avoid him for such a long time?
At first, he couldn't believe his luck. Present for an operation entirely unrelated, a singular watcher reported that the man was here. In Izumo's capital. He had laughed. (Almost as if you were insane).
He wanted, no, needed to test that his previous encounter wasn't a fluke. He hadn't felt power like that since-
Since…
His vision flashed. A group of four stood at the mouth of a shimmering gateway. Ruins, fresh, stood around them. The surface of a lake glistened above them. The woman's (manakete's) mouth at the head of the group moved, saying something unheard before turning leading the others through. His view stumbled forward, hand (yours?) stretched out, before he was stopped. He turned to face-
The other traitors.
Another shake, another column.
His view resolved back to that of the assassin's. He hadn't seen that immense (familiar?) power again here, but the man had allies this time, and his own resources were thin in the city. The kitsune had intervened and the woman with red hair, who he'd assumed wouldn't be a threat, had made the last move. It was amazing what strength people found when they were cornered.
Admittedly, it had been rash of him to assume that the assassins would be enough to kill a man who had showed enough power to decimate an army surrounding him. Even so, it didn't matter. He didn't need to kill the man (Robin). Outside of his kingdom there was no need. The man need only speak its name.
The curse would do the rest.
He shifted the ninja's gaze towards the city center and began to jump across the rooftops towards the castle.
Anna sunk into a comfortable chair in the safe house and winced, rolling her shoulder as the vulnerary did its work. It wouldn't heal it as wholly or as quickly as a healing staff, but it would do, given the circumstances. She sighed, leaning back into the seat, wishing she could close her eyes, sleep and temporarily forget this ever happened.
"How're you holding up?"
She wearily her eyes to see Kaden leaning against the wall, arms crossed, ears forward, listening. Like her, he had fresh change of clothes and was no longer clutching his side. At her insistence, he had already taken an elixir from the medicine stock, though not before insisting he'd pay her back for it, somehow.
"I-" She took a breath. "I'll be fine. You were hurt worse than I was."
Kaden shook his head. "That's not what I meant. That was the first time you've ever killed someone, wasn't it?"
The fact that she averted her gaze probably said more than any words would. It was also the first real battle she'd ever been in. It was more chaotic than she would've thought. And she'd felt next to useless. She resolved to never go without her sword anywhere again.
He sighed. "Thought so. If it makes you feel any better, it was clearly in self-defense."
"You know, it really doesn't."
"It's not supposed to. But it was either you or them, and you saved our lives by acting as you did. Take what solace you can from that." He stretched, pushing his arms out in front of him until she heard small cricking noises. "Besides, I got a pretty good taste of them while I was fighting."
"Wait, taste?"
He took a purple stone out of his pocket and tossed it in the air before catching it. "Comes with the territory. Normal people don't taste like corpses. I'm not even sure they were really people." He shuddered. "Probably the second worst thing I've ever had the…pleasure of experiencing."
It felt like an opening to get her mind off of the subject, and Anna took it without hesitating. "Only the second worst?"
Kaden nodded. "Right. There was this one time, when I was in Cheve for a bit, just passing through, really. I'd helped some blonde lady with a bandanna - I'm blanking on her name at the moment - gather some glittering stones from a creek after she helped me out of bind. Pretty sure she said she was going to use them to decorate her axe or something."
He began spinning the purple stone around on his palm. "I just needed directions to Cyrkensia, but she insisted on taking me out for a meal as thanks. It seemed normal enough, but I was so naïve."
Anna's brows furrowed in confusion. "What was it?"
"It was spicy."
She paused, waiting for him to continue, but he didn't. "That's it? Come on, spicy food isn't that bad."
"Maybe for you, but I passed out! Couldn't smell or taste anything worth beans for weeks afterword."
She couldn't help herself; she snickered. The tenseness she'd been feeling melted away, if only slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Robin walking into the room, shrugging on his tattered cloak over a fresh change of clothes.
He raised a questioning brow at her mirth. "What'd I miss?"
Kaden pocketed the stone. "Just me recounting weeks of unending misery. Death to spicy foods and all that."
Anna burst out laughing. It wasn't really that funny, but it provided an outlet for her stress. Maybe that was what Kaden was trying to do.
"If you say so." Robin walked over and sat down on the chair across from her and her smile dropped as the atmosphere became tense again. "Kaden, if you could, keep your eyes and ears open, just in case there's another attempt."
An involuntary shudder shot up her spine at the implication. She really didn't think she could handle another life or death situation again so soon.
Kaden looked nervous but his answer was confident. "Got it. We're still good for now."
Robin seemed to sense her unease. "Try not to worry too much, at the moment. You said this place is warded, correct?"
"Yes. It's standard procedure for any Anna safe house." Before now, she had felt that they were frivolous. Merchants had enemies, certainly. But safe houses, especially with how expensive it was to have someone set up wards, seemed a bit extreme. Right now, however, it felt like it was all that was standing between them and the unseen enemy.
"Good. With any luck, we won't see any more. At least not tonight."
"Is that supposed to make us feel safer?"
"No, it's realistic. In hindsight, what we experienced felt more like an enemy testing your defenses."
"That didn't feel like a test to me!" Kaden protested.
"Maybe not to you. But if we were truly wanted dead, I doubt any of us would be here right now."
Anna paused, brows furrowing in confusion. "So then, why aren't we?"
Robin leaned forward in his chair, lacing his fingers together under his chin eyes, not meeting either of their eyes. "To be honest, I don't know. But I…" He rubbed the back of his right hand. Was that a nervous tic? "If you stay around me, then I can't guarantee your safety."
"What are you going on about?" Kaden asked.
"You could die. You remember earlier, right? How close we came to losing? You should just forget that you ever met me and leav-"
"Forget?" Anna interrupted, feeling anger rising from the pit of her stomach. "How could we possibly forget this? You think that after what we witnessed that Kaden and I could just walk away, pretend that everything is okay while we know that invisible assassins are waltzing around? They tried to kill us just as much as you!"
"Neither of you have ever faced something like this before." He stated it as fact. She didn't know about Kaden, but she could not dispute it. "I have, and I know that if you stick with me, I can't promise that either you won't die."
There was a long moment of silence in the room. No, she didn't want to die. A large part of her that sounded suspiciously like her sisters, yelled at her to take Robin's advice, to continue on, and live out her life as a merchant. But deep down, a smaller part yelled louder, that gut feeling that told her she shouldn't leave this alone.
She spoke up, quietly at first. "Maybe so." She looked Robin firmly in the eyes. "But, I'm willing to accept that risk if I can discover the truth. Something big is going on here, and I can't just leave it."
Robin turned to Kaden. "And you?"
"I agree with Anna. It'll be dangerous, but I'm with you."
"Both of you are fools." He closed his eyes a moment, and Anna was about to retort, before he spoke again, grinning. "But then again, so am I."
He quickly stood up and began pacing back and forth. "Of course, saying that we'll do something is well and good, but we need some kind of plan, and knowledge about the enemy." He paused, looking at the both of them. "What do you know about dragons?"
"Just some of the legends of the Dawn and Dusk dragons blessing the Hoshidan and Nohrian royal families," Anna replied. "I thought they were stupid, remember?" The lunch from earlier today when she'd said that felt like days ago at this point.
"Right." Robin nodded. His hand went up to his chin in contemplation. "There were references to those in the histories I was reading. The book I was trying to get from the castle from the archduke supposedly had a more detailed account on them. You pick up anything on them on your travels, Kaden?"
He shook his head. "I'm in the same boat as her, unfortunately."
"Then I'll give you the short version of what I know. Dragons are extraordinarily powerful beings that can live for thousands of years, if not more. But that power comes with a price. Most will go insane unless they assume a humanoid form, referred to as a manakete, by sealing their power into a dragonstone."
"So it's different than beaststones?" Kaden asked?
"Correct. But even then, that process will generally only slow the degradation. I believe what we're facing is the end result. They call themselves Anankos, the Silent Dragon, and are based in someplace called Valla." Robin winced, bringing a hand to his head.
"You alright?" she asked.
"Just a slight headache. Probably left-over pain from overextending my magic earlier. Anyways, I take it neither of you have heard of the place?"
Anna shrugged. She couldn't ever remember seeing it on any maps she'd looked at.
She glanced at Kaden. He shook his head. "Doesn't sound familiar."
"Figures. Something weird is going on. The geography of that place is too distinctive for people to not at least know about it. Floating isles and lakes would stick out to anyone, and you'd think there would at least be legends or myths about it. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good lay of the land. I was on the run from Anankos' invisible soldiers almost immediately after I woke up there. I didn't last lon-"
He stopped mid-sentence, stumbling, clutching his head again.
"Hey, you alright, Robin?" Kaden asked.
Anna leaned forward, worried as well. "Maybe you should sit back dow-"
Robin shushed her. "Can-" He swallowed. "Can either of you hear that?"
Kaden's ears turned forward. "Hear what?"
The change was so sudden that she didn't even have time to react. One moment Robin was standing, the next he was writhing on the floor screaming.
Anna jumped out of her seat towards him, crouching down, intent on helping, even though she didn't really know what it was that she should do. She put her hand on his shoulder, about to say something. Then she noticed his left arm. His cloak's sleeve had slipped down where he was clutching his head.
She could see right through his arm as if it was disappearing. Just like the soldiers from before.
What in the…?
There was a flash of sickly light. Pain coursed through her from where her right hand contacted Robin. She tried to remove it, but it felt like something was stopping her from moving. The world itself seemed to be slowing to a crawl, her vision blurred.
Distantly she heard more screaming. Was that her?
So much pain, as if she was being ripped apart from the inside out.
The world around her shifted.
And Anna knew no more.
A/N: Oops. Someone should've told him about that.
I don't actually mind the Valla curse as an idea, but in game it never really presents any sort of real tangible threat. It's just an underutilized and contrived plot device. Here...well.
Yeah.
