Not knowing what the situation would be in town, Amaya had stopped the King's entourage an easy half-hour outside Taelin where they had rested for a while.
Their travel time had been stretched thanks to a cart breaking down on the road.
She had forged ahead with a small detachment of the crown guard, Gren and Corvus to check it out.
The gates were closed.
'Corvus', Amaya signed, 'This looks like a job for you.'
The tracker used his chain to quickly ascend the battlements. It was evening, the night shift wouldn't be on duty just yet. Thus, he had expected a much larger number of soldiers to man the wall.
There were two people in plain clothes milling about the door mechanism who didn't even give him the chance to introduce himself.
They threw themselves at Corvus, forcing him to defend his life. One of his attackers' blades tangled in his chain and got janked from the man's hand. The woman struck at his weapon's head, her blow getting deflected quite easily.
Corvus unfurled the chain and the sword that was tangled whipped through the air, striking his male attacker in the head, pommel first. He dropped to the ground.
His other attacker fared much better, their strikes colliding once more with little effect. As they tussled, Corvus asked, "What are you doing? We're on the same side!"
"You killed him!", the woman shouted, renewing her attack. The sheer brunt of her fury broke through the tracker's guard and her sword sliced at his shoulder, tearing through his light armor.
He did not take long to retaliate, but failed to connect with his nimble opponent.
"You're very good!", he said honestly.
"So was my brother! Before Ezran killed him, pointlessly, threw his life right out! You're a soldier! Why do you stand by him? All he'll do is get you killed!"
She once again swung at him, but he sidestepped her attack and landed a manual blow to her stomach that knocked the air out of her lungs. Her blade skipped off the wall and fell out of reach.
The woman slumped to the ground.
"Why", she wheezed, "Thi-nk abo-ut wh-o you're s-serving!"
"I am. I'm convinced of his mission. What happened at the breach wasn't his fault, more likely than not it was the man whose vitriol you fell for."
"Vitriol?! Viren told us the truth! Ezran did nothing as the dragons attacked! He kept our army holed up to defend his own skin! Kept them huddled up for easy pickings rather than scattering them!"
Corvus bristled. It was true. They should have done this rather than retaliating against the dragons. Hindsight etched a mark of guilt into his heart.
"It's easy to see that now! In the moment, we were busy defending ourselves! If Viren hadn't attacked, none of this would've happened! His magic was killing hundreds if not thousands of elves! The dragons' attack was an answer to his insane provocation!"
"So you're telling me that Viren was the only one with enough sense to kill the soldiers who threaten our borders?!"
"No! He's the one making it so we have to defend it in the first place! Please, the King is here. He wants to talk to you all. Explain himself."
There was a strange expression on her face that Corvus didn't know how to interpret, so he chose one of many possibilities.
"Yes! You heard that right! In person!"
The tracker helped her up, then went to check on the man. He was alive, a shining bruise pulsing on his forehead.
"What's your name?", Corvus asked his conscious assailant.
"Elaine."
"This is important to him, Elaine. He feels the responsibility you assigned him, even though he had no choice in assuming it."
"I'm a lawyer! I understand guilt when I see it proven!", she said, firmly.
Corvus admitted to himself that he might want to have a bit of a conversation with this lady who seemed to be close to his age, once this was over.
"What are you doing up here, then? Aren't there others better suited to play lookout?"
Elaine frowned, closing her lips tightly.
His glance wandering over the empty streets in the background, a flash of hot realization shocked into Corvus' eyes.
Without another word, he leapt over the side of the wall, catching himself using his chain. Then, he took off running to where Amaya's detachment was waiting for him.
"We need to go back!", he yelled from afar, "It's a tr-"
All around them, dark shadows warped into existence, drawing swords of purple fire. One materialized right in Corvus' path. It toppled him with a surprising blow to his chest. Then the shadow's blade came down toward him, but he managed to roll out of the way.
Further ahead, he could see Amaya battling two shadows at once, with little success, seeing as her strikes would not connect with the ghastly bodies, merely smearing and dragging them about.
To his right, Corvus noticed a burly shape in the trees, clad in fur and heavy armor.
Solveig's eyes glowed purple, his face seemed grey and cracked.
Corvus had to play for time, now. He was hoping that the detachment that had remained with Ezran was faring better.
Ezran was scrambling to find a safe spot, ducking under a foldable table while around him, his people were attacking each other. He looked around, between their moving legs, and found nothing to do. He could not let this happen.
"Bait, go hide!", he told his friend, then came back out from under the table.
"Stand down!", he ordered, "I surrender!"
Aghast stares came from both guard and rebel, but the din of battle subsided.
"I can't watch you kill each other. What kind of King would I be if I put my life over yours?"
"A smart one", said Viren, stepping into the circle of fighters, "I can't believe you've taken the lessons of history so poorly, Ezran. Even your father let his soldiers fight for him."
"It's not that I-"
"Silence!", Viren shouted, cutting him off, "You will stand trial for your weakness! Your inability to defend your people."
"If I had my way, they wouldn't have to fi-"
The high mage's silencing spell stole the Kings' voice, it flittled happily into Viren's hand where he caught it and the severed claw that held it in an ornate glass bottle.
"As I said; Shut up", Viren said dangerously, "It is time you listen, boy."
To the bristling honor guard he said, "Put down your weapons or suffer the consequences."
The guards looked at Ezran who nodded, gruffly. Better him than them. Without Amaya or Gren, nobody here would understand his signs.
Reluctantly, the Crownguard dropped their blades and stood aside while Viren's rebels led Ezran outside.
After a moment of walking briskly and quietly into the falling night, the man to Viren's right started talking, visibly uncomfortable.
"High Mage, I really wonder now if we're doing the right thing. He sacrificed himself. He doesn't seem like the selfish king you described."
Viren sighed. The boy's naive pacifism was costing him. His plan had somewhat hinged on the idea that his untrained civilian and under-equipped town guard allies would fall to Ezran's elite force in large numbers, fuelling the rage these people already felt at their losses at the Breach. As it stood, only two of them were even wounded.
"Armand, he knows that making this impression could save his hide. Don't underestimate him just because he is a child. I educated him myself. He's apt at politicking, knows the rules of manipulation. As a monarch, a dictator, he has to", Viren stopped, giving his best reassuring smile, "We voted on this action. We shall vote on all others we take."
Armand seemed mollified and Ezran cursed Viren silently since that was the only course of action he had left.
As the walk continued, the group started splitting up in different directions, confusing and splitting would-be trackers.
"Five days", Viren had told them all, "Then we all meet back at the `place`. Good luck."
Finally, there were only him, Armand and Ezran.
"Armand", Viren said, finally, "I will see you at the meeting."
"Indeed. Nothing but success, Speaker Viren", the man said and jogged off to their right.
After he had vanished from view, Viren walked a few more steps to where the ground turned rocky. There, he cast a spell that consumed the furry foot in his hand and sucked the color from his face.
Impressions of boots appeared in the soft ground ahead, making it look as though they had continued walking in that direction.
After about another half-hour of walking, Viren turned again, confusing Ezran. This was the direction in which he knew Taelin to be.
They marched quickly, Viren hustling him along.
"People love power, Ezran", he started in a tone that Ezran recalled fondly from past lessons, "If you give them a little, they will want more. Give them a justification for the feeling and they will seize it, however small their increase in power may seem", the mage smiled at him, tepidly, "It looks like the most important lesson I was able to draw from elven society is that it doesn't matter who holds the right to make decisions; all that matters is who commands influence over them."
The young King felt anger and frustration. They used to have a fairly good relationship. Viren had been - and still was - a scholar, a great teacher.
Viren scoffed. "Democracy! The unqualified ruling over the uninterested! An overly verbose mode of government, no better or worse for the people than a careless king. In many ways, it's even more convenient for schemers like you and I since one can hide behind a wall of voiceless, brainless nobodies. There's no accountability for a politician's mistakes like there is for a King's."
Ezran believed to see the moonlit spires of the city gleaming in the distance when Viren finally stopped to tie him to a tree.
The mage left for what felt like hours.
When he returned, there was a grim but satisfied expression on his unnaturally gray face.
Between the fingers of one of his hands danced a coin, the other held two jelly tarts.
He untied the king and handed one of them to him.
"I'm sorry. I'm doing this for our survival as a race, Ezran. Please try to understand, you're destroying us."
Ezran shook his head and jabbed a finger at his forehead, repeatedly. Nonetheless, he hungrily ate the pastry. Viren pensively nibbled at his.
"Opeli", the high mage remarked, "I hear through the grapevine that she's had a bit of a… disagreement with you. Do you think it might have `adjusted` her attitude towards me?"
Ezran finished eating, then stuck out his persimmon-colored tongue at his kidnapper.
Viren shrugged. "Ah, well. I'll just have to convince her", he sighed sadly and ate the last bite of this pastry, "I suppose here's our last meal together, finished."
He raised his staff, joylessly pointing it at the boy who eyed it and him with shocked incredulity.
"Forgive me, Ezran."
Moments later and miles away, Zym spasmed in his sleep.