Chapter Three: Snowflakes and Embers
...One Year Earlier...
The winter months were always a peaceful time in the capital of Rune-Midgard. Snow fell slowly and covered the city with a fine powder that gave the city a fine, white hue. Most people loved the snow, performing their daily tasks outside with their heavier clothing on, while others preferred to stay indoors with the warmth of a flame beside them. Apart from the overall cheerfulness of the city during this period, there was one other special event that was always a joy to behold: The Swordsman Promotion Ceremony. Even though they were made swordsmen and swordswomen in the satellite town of Izlude, these trainees became Knights or Crusaders within the walls of Prontera.
Just inside the main square surrounding the beautiful fountain devoted to Odin, who is the god of Rune-Midgard, the swordsmen and swordswomen gathered along with their friends and family. The Knight Commander of Prontera's army, Kael Vastic, and the Crusader Commander of the church's legions of crusaders, Palaes Rainesford, were standing atop a rather large platform that had been erected for the ceremony. From this platform they kept a close watch on all of the graduates; all of whom had worked very hard in order to make it here this fine day. All of them showed extreme prowess in their abilities and the two commanders were grateful that they all continued to show dedication to their profession. Both knew that they would be able to protect this city well if the need arise.
Two swordsmen, Kyson Senarith and Thane Airyath, stood a ways off to the left of the massive crowd and were conversing amongst themselves. Both of them were extremely anxious to get the ceremony underway because the sooner it ended they would no longer just be trainees.
"Why can't he just start this thing already? I want my armor!" Thane impatiently sputtered.
Kyson just stood there and laughed at his friend, before Thane rapped on his head with his knuckles.
"Please just calm down, my friend. Our promotions will both come when it's time. Just let Commanders Vastic and Rainesford do their jobs," Kyson quietly replied.
Almost exactly as soon as Kyson finished speaking, the sounds of horns blowing harmoniously could be heard echoing throughout the entire capital city. The Swordsman Promotion Ceremony had begun. In tandem, all of the swordsmen and swordswomen, including Kyson and Thane, gathered closer to the platform that the commanders were standing on and waited for them to speak.
Commander Kael Vastic stepped forth first and raised his hand. At once the horns and all those who were around were silent, leaving Kael with a small grin. Raising his arms to his sides, he let his voice out in a volume that everyone could hear.
"Greetings, one and all! Thank you all for attending this annual event that we have all made into a wonderful celebration. Today, as you all know, is the day that we congratulate our young swordsmen and woman and grant them passage into a greater profession. I'm sure you've all decided which profession would suit you best, and I know you will not disappoint either Commander Rainesford or myself when you become one of our subordinates. One by one we shall call you forth to come atop the platform and receive your title. Afterwards you can go to the armory to receive a blade that was just recently forged just for you by the blacksmiths of Rune-Midgard, and your new armor. Now, Commander Rainesford, if you would be so kind as to begin calling up our new knights and crusaders."
Though there were many people at this event, there were only one-hundred and fifty swordsmen that were here to graduate. Thane was pretty much just bouncing with anticipation while Kyson stood there with a smile and kept his arms folded behind his back. Today was just wonderful. His hard work had finally paid off.
"Gage Terihe!" Commander Rainesford began. The whole crowd cheered as the young swordsman walked up the platform and was knighted by Commander Vastic.
One by one the swordsmen were either knighted to become knights or ordained to become crusaders for the church. After about an hour or so, all one-hundred and fifty graduates were standing around the fountain all clad in their new armor and carrying their new armament on their side, while the two commanders went back to their busy schedules.
Kyson stood off to the side once again, this time admiring his newly forged claymore. On the hilt was a crest of a blue raven, and that symbol was one he knew as the signature mark of his blacksmith friend Daren Revan.
"Fine work, Daren. I shall not misuse this fine blade," he said quietly to himself before seeing Thane walk over with someone following behind him.
"Kyson! Look at you, you sexy beast! That knight armor makes you look awesome!" Thane burst out as he clapped Kyson on the back with his new gauntlets. Kyson easily sheathed his blade and looked to his friend.
"Wow, Thane, you look like you could stop a horde of oncoming minorous' with that armor," he paused to glance over at the girl who had follow Thane over before looking back to his friend, "and is that how a defender of the church should really talk, especially in front of a lady?"
"A lady? Hah! She's no lady! That's Celina, my sister. She was one of the biggest tomboys I knew while we grew up!"
Celina, a girl with short blue-gray hair, light gray eyes, and who was dressed in the garb of a mage grinned and put her hand on Thane's armor. In an instant, she unleashed a rather substantial jolt of electricity into his oridicon armor which was a good conductor for the element. Thane's hair stood on end and his eyes widened when he felt it, seeing as it made his body jolt around. Not speaking, he was only able to turn around slightly to see her walk off right after his little torture session.
"Haha, now you really deserved that, my friend. She seems like a tough one to have grown up with," Kyson said amidst his laughter.
Thane coughed a few times and smoothed his blond-white hair back down, "Argh, I forgot she could do that... What's even worse is that she came here just before her own graduation ceremony back home in Geffen."
"Wait, how can that be worse?" asked Kyson, puzzled.
Thane sighed as he thought about it, "Wizards learn Jupitel Thunder..."
Once again Kyson laughed before leading his friend away from the crowd in order to go celebrate like the others.
Many hours later it was very late out now and the snow was continuing to fall all around Prontera. Most of newly promoted knights and crusaders had gone to bars in order to celebrate and were most likely plastered right now. Thane and Kyson just decided to wander around the city instead, seeing as they both didn't like alcohol. Nobody was around them, but they had an eerie feeling that they were being watched.
Two pairs of eyes, one of emerald radiance and of shining of bright azure, watched the two from atop a nearby rooftop. The two people grinned and looked at the other roofs around them. On top of each one was a single person, totaling up to be twelve, including themselves.
"Well, Reily... I say it's time we get our little show on the road, don't you agree?" the azure-eyed woman said to her partner.
"Keyla, I'm ready. Whenever you wish," The emerald-eyed woman replied in a low voice.
Keyla made a gesture with her right hand and the other ten shadowy figures vanished from atop their roofs and reappeared in the alleys below.
The area in which Kyson and Thane were walking and talking in was in the small southeast corner of Prontera, and it was the section that Kyson had grown up. Thane had also spent a lot of time over Kyson's house after training sessions and just to hang out. Geffen was too far away so Kyson never met Thane's family; besides, Thane was staying at a relative's house here in Prontera on the northern side.
"Today was wonderful. I mean, look at us! We finally made it, Thane." Kyson said happily.
"Of course we did! Now we just need to do what we've always wanted to do, and that is to defend the people of Rune-Midgard." Thane happily replied.
After that little spec of their conversation, Keyla, who was still atop the roof, gave another gesture with her hand and Reily vanished from the rooftop. Within seconds, one of the houses closest to the two graduates exploded in a burst of flame, sending the two men flying back from it.
"By the nine hells, what was that!" Thane shouted, hopping to his feat and drawing his shield from his back and the new flamberge that was sheathed in the scabbard on his waist.
In the same motion he used to jump to his feet, Kyson also withdrew his claymore and readied for an attack. The only attack that came was the house next to the other one bursting into a fiery inferno as well. The two men wished that there was something that they could do for the people in those houses, but they knew that they were already dead. All they could do now was to defeat those responsible, as was their sworn duty.
The shadowy figures in the alleys burst forward from the shadows and surrounded the two. They were all thieves from Morroc and were armed each with a dagger of their choosing. The sky was now filled with the snow that was continuously falling as well as the embers from the flames of the two burning houses. Kyson and Thane stood back-to-back just as the thieves began their assault.
Two thieves rushed each of them with incredible speed, but having seen many thieves in their swordsmen days the two were easily prepared for this. Kyson was the first to be slashed at: one aimed for his upper torso while the other went for his head. Kyson put his sword adjacent to his face and torso, vertically, and blocked the blades. With a swift and effective counter-attack, the knight connected the hilt of his claymore with one of the thief's face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious, while the other one received a large gash to his torso immediately after. Thane's attackers went down easily as well because a swift bash to the head with a large shield is enough to render a man's skull broken while a swift decapitation leads to death as well. After seeing their comrades fall so quickly, the other thieves backed away like the cowards they really are, but before the men could relax, another house erupted into a blaze.
'Why is this happening! I need to end this before my parents join the others in death!' Kyson thought to himself.
"Well, well, well, Little Brother. That was some very fancy fighting you just did. Kudos to your knight friend as well," echoed a voice.
"Little Brother, eh? WHY NOT JUST SHOW YOURSELF, KEYLA! You know you're just a coward for sending your cronies after us!"
Instantly, Keyla Airyath appeared before the two men. She was clad in the traditional garb of a rogue but she was wearing a long yellow ribbon that was tied around her torso and hung off her body for about 3 feet. It gently trailed in the snow as she walked toward them.
"...I'm kind of glad I've never met your family before, Thane..." Kyson said through grit teeth. The knight was bristling with anger. His dark gray eyes were fixated on the rogue.
Another house burst into flame, making four houses now full of dead civilians.
"Well it seems Reily is doing her job nicely... Those Fire Bombs she got from her sister really seem to be coming in handy, don't you think?"
The rogue spoke with sheer bloodlust in her voice, but the sound was obscurely still tender to the ear. Her eyes were those of a killer and they were full of hate for the world. Her snowy-white hair danced gently in the wind that gusted by, carrying embers and snowflakes by with it. She poised her lithe figure and stopped walking only to make a gesture with her hand yet again. The six remaining thieves came back and stood beside Keyla, just as two more fire bombs went off, sending the two remaining houses in the small block into an abyss of fire and death. The people in the houses would normally have been able to escape after hearing the explosions, but it was very late at night so many were sleeping and even if they did awake it seems that this Reily had prevented anyone from leaving.
Kyson's eyes filled with rage as he looked at his house, now engulfed in flame as his parents lay burned to death within it. There was nothing he could have done to save them. Even if he had tried to do anything Keyla and Reily would have prevented him from succeeding and he knew that they could probably take him out.
"I..." Kyson was lost for words, "By my hands, one day I shall slay you..." his voice was nothing more than a whisper, but the rogue smiled when she heard this.
"Seeing as I didn't feel like attacking my own family, because as they all cast spells that hurt more than Odin sneezing, I figured I'd cause anger and despair to your closest friend. Isn't that sweet of me, Thane? Aren't I the big sister you ALWAYS wanted! You can tell our parents that I am not dead and I am living my life how I damn well please. They can take their magic and eat it for all I care. Even you received a small bit of healing power! What did I get? I got stunning good looks and quick hands that could slay one-hundred knights in less than ten minutes!"
Keyla snapped her fingers and Reily appeared next her from the shadows. The girl was an assassin, and she damn well looked the part. It looks like a few people did try to escape the other houses, because her clothes were stained with their blood. All she did was stare at them as her long violet hair swayed in front of her eyes. In another instant the two vanished, leaving just the two men and the thieves.
One thief ran up quickly toward Thane and threw a ball of sand at his face. Thane was too slow to react and both of his eyes were blinded for the moment by the sand. He fell to his knees because of the pain. His eyes burned and he tried to rub out the sand, though that was an entirely fruitless endeavor. The thief that threw the ball didn't live more than ten seconds afterward because Kyson's claymore descended from above him and cleaved the boy in half. Kyson's eyes were filled with the lust for blood: The blood of the ones who took his family from him. While attacking another thief and taking her out with a horizontal slash that went through her torso, two thieves impaled Kyson through the right side of his armor. He yelled in pain, but that didn't stop him. The two wounds were bleeding profusely but all he did was elbow one of the thieves in the chest, get him in a headlock with his right arm and then effortlessly snapped the boy's neck. The other thief that stabbed him barely dodged the next swing Kyson made with his blade, but because of this the other two thieves were able to deliver a blow to Kyson's back. Yet again he yelled in pain, but at the same time grabbed one of the thieves and hurled the boy into the nearest inferno of a house to be burned alive just like the innocents that were in it.
The two remaining thieves of the six glanced at each other, worry now on their faces. This knight was powerful, and their lives were not worth trying to slay him. They quickly nodded to each other that they should leave, but before they could vanish into the shadows, Kyson appeared in front of them with speed that he did not have previously and proceeded to slash the two horizontally with one swing, severing their torsos.
The snow around them was either melted from the infernos or caked with the blood from the fighting. The fires would put themselves out after a while. Kyson felt extremely weak; he had slain the thieves, but he had still failed to save his parents. Taking a few steps toward Thane, the knight collapsed to his knees and then fell face first into the snow while dropping his claymore. His four dagger wounds had been bleeding profusely; his rage had been the only thing keeping him from losing consciousness during the battle.
Thane had only partially regained sight, but he could see enough to know that the battle was over and his friend needed medical attention badly. The crusader walked over to the knight and heaved him up on his shoulders and he started toward the hospital that was run by the priests at the church. A soft, feminine laugh could be heard along the wind as he went. His top priority right now was to get Kyson help, and his second priority was something he never thought he'd have to do...
"I will avenge your parents, Ky... I promise..."
