Chapter 12

As Fan-Min watched panicked villagers run by in a rush away from the west side of town she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Huang. We're leaving." She ordered as she stepped unconcerned into the town square. "We need to catch up to Li-Ming."

"What?!" Fan-Huang shouted in disbelief. "These people need us and you plan on just leaving?"

"They don't need us. They need to learn to defend themselves better. They'll never better themselves if we save them from every trouble."

"This isn't just trouble, Min. People are dying!"

"People die all the time." She shrugged. "Just be glad you were born my brother and have the fortune of my protection."

"Min, I don't push very often, but I must insist."

"Insist what?" She turned and stared down her brother.

"That we stay and help these people." He stood firm.

"We?" She laughed. "What we?"

"I can help." He insisted.

"Maybe if they're being attacked by a horde of elderly women." She laughed more. "But I doubt that's the case."

"Please, sister." He resorted to begging.

She stood and pondered for a moment. Then turned on her heel quickly. "No." She said nonchalantly. "We're leaving. Li-Ming's not coming to us."

That sparked an idea in Fan-Huang's mind. "Maybe she would." He said like bait on the hook.

Fan-Min stopped and looked back at her brother. "What do you mean?

"Just think." Fan-Huang lured her in. "You save New Tristram, a location that Li-Ming already tried to save, but didn't finish the job. The word will get out and she'll hear that some other powerful Renegade Wizard saved the day. She'd have to want to meet this mysterious savior that could finish what she couldn't."

"You have a good point..." Min said as she thought out-loud. "But there's no guarantee that she'd come."

"That's true, but there's also no guarantee that we'll be able to catch her. We don't know where she's going."

"Unfortunately, that's also true."

"At least with this scenario you get to show off your powers and possibly draw the attention of the most powerful wizard in this world." Fan-Huang smiled confidently. "Seems like a good plan to me."

"For being such an idiot..." She thought more. "It's not a completely stupid plan."

"It's a great plan!" Fan-Huang urged her. She glared at him. "Okay, okay. It's a not stupid plan. Wanna' try it?"

"I will not try it." Fan-Min said proudly. "I don't try things. I do things. I always succeed."

"Then let's do it."

"We're not doing it." She insisted. "I'm doing it and you're going to watch in wonder."

The two wizards turned and ran toward the commotion. People continued to run from the west side, screaming in a panic as they went. Once Fan-Min and Fan-Huang arrived, the threat was obvious.

Before them was a group of men and women using a variety of tools and instruments to assault and murder the villagers. They looked ordinary except the very blank facial expressions they wore and the strange glow of their eyes.

"What do we do?" Fan-Huang asked.

"Kill them." Fan-Min answered.

"But they look like they're innocent people under a spell or something!" He protested.

"So?" Min asked as she charged up her arcane into a focused ball in her hand. It crackled with hunger. "That's too bad for them. We protect those under attack. Isn't that what you want?"

"I want to save everyone."

"Then you should have studied harder at the Sanctum." She rolled her eyes as she charged into the battle.

"Fan-Min!" Huang shouted as he tried to grab her before she ran too far off. He missed and watched as his sister entered into combat. The poor villagers didn't stand a chance. Unable to stop her, he did what he at least he knew he could. He ran to the villagers that were injured or confused and aided them.

Fan-Min found herself surrounded by mindless villagers all aiming to murder her. She could barely hold back her need to laugh. They all looked so weak and pathetic. They were so easily controlled by whoever was pulling the strings. "You're going to regret this." She taunted them, not that they could hear her, but she wondered if the puppeteer could.

With the crackling orb of arcane energy resting weightlessly in her palm, she began with her other hand, to direct the hungry energy in various directions. This resulted in what looked like purple trails of electricity traveling from her hands to the dominated villagers. As soon as the lightning hit a villager, the body would go limp and fall to the ground motionlessly.

Fan-Huang watched in horror as his sister electrocuted the helpless villagers to death one after another. He knew he couldn't stop her, so he tried to push it out of his mind and aid the wounded at getting away before they were caught up in the battle any more than they already were.

He ran over to a villager that was lying almost motionlessly on the ground with a club in his hand and tried to help him up. "Come on!" He hollered as he used the strength of his small, but well developed body to lift the man off the ground. He slung the man's arm over his shoulders and began helping him away from the battle.

Without warning, the man quickly whipped his arm away from Fan-Huang and walloped him over the back of the head with his club. The wizard fell hard to the ground barely conscious. He rolled over, mud all over him, and watched as Fan-Min continued to shoot electricity at the masses of brainwashed villagers flooding around her. She was totally ignoring the few that had passed by her and were now surrounding him.

Showing no emotion on their faces, a small group of five brainwashed villagers grabbed hold of Fan-Huang and began dragging him off toward the village limits. He had no idea where they were taking him, but it was probably not somewhere he wanted to go. He tried to scream for his sister's help, but he was so disoriented that he couldn't muster up the strength to cry out. Instead, he fell limp and allowed them to slide his small body through the sloshy mud.

He watched as his sister grew father and farther away from him. His clothes were soaking again and mud-covered. Not that it mattered. If his sister never noticed his absence then he'd soon be dead. Wherever they were taking him was probably going to end in his death. He watched his sister as he was dragged away and wondered how someone as proud and powerful as her could let so many villagers by and not notice her brother being dragged to his death. It seemed so sloppy for her.

Just as the villagers dragged him outside the walls of New Tristram, a bright flash exploded around Fan-Huang. He covered his eyes in the blinding light and felt himself get swept up in someone's arms. He opened his eyes to see who was carrying him, but it was no good. His eyes were unable to see anything other than white.

Whoever was carrying him was moving very quickly. His eyes slowly began to regain their sight, but before he could get a good look at his savior, he was dropped carelessly on the ground and the person was running out of sight. All he managed to catch a glimpse of was someone shrouded in dark garments and a hood running away and disappearing behind the structures of the town.

"Get him in here!" Someone shouted. Before Fan-Huang knew exactly what was happening he was vomiting on the ground and then passed out. The only thing he knew was that his head hurt a ton!