The sweat fell from the tip of Jared's nose joining the puddle of dark crimson blood forming around his boots. He had his teeth clenched so tightly that his jaw ached like fire at the least, but nothing compared to the colossal agony he was experiencing in his arm. The full length of the stiletto's blade had disappeared into the flesh, leaving only the hilt protruding from the stub of his arm. Fatigue slowly crept into Jared's mind as the lesion bled profusely. Jared already admitted to himself that he was going to die tonight, at least he had allowed Persha to escape, a small way to try and atone for all his sins towards her, but his life wasn't worth enough-nowhere near enough
The moon had hidden behind the clouds now, and the fountain water had no light to reflect around the park leaving it shrouded in a depressing shadow. Jared tested the grip of the knights holding him by fidgeting his wrists around as much as his weakened state would allow him, but it only resulted with them tightening their grasps around him, making it even more uncomfortable. Jared sighed; this was a time he wished it were possible for you to take your own life by holding your breath. Persha had escaped already, and he had enough faith in her to know that the only person from the Suldam party who posed a threat was Irutalde. By now, Jared couldn't stand properly anymore, his knees were shaking and it took all his strength and concentration to keep from feinting. Though, what was the point? He asked himself; it wasn't like there was anything else left to live for anymore. Jared smirked and decided to stop fighting death.
Irutalde cupped Jared's head in his gauntleted hand. Jared's vision was blurred and his hearing muffled by the blood pounding in his ears but he could recognize Irutalde's malign presence as a second nature. "No, Jared. Not just yet. You'll die after you've seen your dancer girl die." Jared was physically too weak to react, but his anger raged inside overpowering everything, even the pain. It was someone else's pain; it meant nothing to Jared. How he wished to kill Irutalde, how he yearned to make him pay for everything that was done to him. Irutalde released Jared's face. Jared could only make out the blurry image of Irutalde smiling before one of the knights restraining him struck him behind the head with a sword pommel and immediately rendered him unconscious.
Persha's tears welled up in her eyes as she ran through the forest. Her chest felt as heavy as iron; from all the pain that it carried and her thoughts confused her to the point she didn't know what to think of anymore. How could Jared hurt her like that? She knew him; she saw in his eyes the love he had for her and the sadness he felt whenever they got close to each other. It was a sadness that seemed to foreshadow something; it seemed to foreshadow this. Persha pushed the thought aside with a great deal of difficulty for fear of it causing her to stumble and just cry to herself on the forest floor.
As Persha ran she felt a strange tremor traveling below her-underground. She couldn't tell what it was. The tremors began to grow in intensity, as if whatever was moving beneath her was heading for the surface. Suddenly a Flora burst through solid ground like the hard soil was nothing more than parchment paper. Persha skidded to a halt while simultaeneously pulling out her Damascus. The Flora was a hideous creature, shaped like a flowering plant but possessing multiple rows of human-like teeth in the center of its corolla of petals. It snapped viciously at Persha's arm but she managed to dodge it easily and bring her blade down on its stem. The Flora's head fell to the ground with a sickening splat, where it immediatley began to shrivel up.
Tremors erupted from the ground again and almost knocked Persha down if she hadn't caught her balance in time. Half a dozen Floras erupted from the ground in the same manner as the first one did and at the same time a ball of fire shot from behind her. All the Floras tried to strike at her simultaneously and Persha only had a split second to react. She jumped into the air as the fireball that was aimed at her passed below and incinerated all the Floras. She landed on the ash covered ground and turned back to see her assailants.
The black haired wizard still had her hand outstretched from launching the fireball and the alchemist in the scream mask was throwing more plant bottles into the ground. As each bottle shattered, the alchemically enhanced seeds inside immediately began sprouting vines and roots that tunneled into the ground heading for Persha. The Floras erupted from the ground once again, attacking Persha without delay. Reflexively, Persha dodged the plant-like monsters' teeth and hacked-off every stalk she could reach. She fell flat on the ground as another fireball discharged toward her direction, and incinerated the Floras once again.
At this point, her assailants began heatedly arguing with each other. The alchemist was agitatedly waving his hands over his head while raving about his plant bottles not being free. The wizard on the other hand was shouting at the top of her lungs about not being able to maneuver her fireball around the all of the alchemist's summons. Persha saw this as her chance; she hurled her Damascus with deadly accuracy at the alchemist's head. The alchemist only had a second to look towards Persha's direction before the dagger penetrated him through the left eyehole of his scream mask. He collapsed on the ground like a sack of rocks while his blood began trickling from behind the mask with the screaming expression.
The wizard had let out a high-pitched scream when the Damascus impaled the alchemist through the eye. She was petrified for a second at the sight of her fallen comrade. When she regained herself, she faced Persha; Fire began collecting on her palms. She raised her hands over her head, prepared to throw the orbs of fire but Persha's heel slammed between her eyes and knocked her out immediately.
Persha vulgarly pulled the knife out of the alchemist's eye and grasped it in her hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She stared at the unconscious form of the wizard lying on the ground and raised the Damascus over her head. This woman was part of Suldam, the guild that had sent Jared to sabotage Malacca, to break her heart. Tears began streaming down Persha's cheeks as she stayed the blade in her hand; she was in so much pain inside that she couldn't bear it anymore. She thought that she had finally found someone who loved her and she could love back. She thought she and Jared had found each other; she heard his song, felt the truth in his words. She was angry with Suldam for doing this to her, angry with Jared, angry with herself for, even after knowing the truth, being unable to stop loving Jared.
She forced herself to forget him right there, but she couldn't. Everytime she would push the image of his face away from his mind, it would seep back in. She prayed that she would stop loving him, but nothing could make her. Her mind was a torrent of emotions that left her crying with her teeth clenched from a dangerous mix of anger and the deepest of sorrows. The pain was so great that Persha was on the brink of loosing the will to live, if she wasn't already.
Persha let out a sob through her clenched teeth and threw the dagger down. It landed close to but not touching the unconscious wizard's shoulder. Persha burried her face into her hands and cried. She wanted to stand up and run to the guild house but her body wouldn't let her. She continued crying into her hands seemingly oblivious to the world around her because of her sadness.
The female wizard began to slowly open her eyes, her ears were still ringing and she was still dizzy. She noticed that a woman was crying and concluded that it was the dancer girl. She closed her eyes again hoping that the dancer girl didn't notice her. How could she? She was to busy bawling like a witless child to notice anybody around her. If she –Milothippe- were to kill off the dancer now, she would be acclaimed in Suldam, Adelbrand was already dead, with a knife lodged in his eye, that fool; all the glory would go to her. She jumped to her feat and prepared to launch another fireball straight at Persha's face.
Her estimation at Persha's reflex speed was highly misjudged; at the first sign of her standing up Persha had grabbed the dagger and slashed at the female wizard. Persha aimed true at Milothippe's wrist, with a flick of Persha's wrist she made another cut at the armpit then another at the neck. Milothippe stepped back a few steps clutching at her wounds, she slumped on the ground as if her bones had melted. The three cuts at the three vital points killed her in seconds.
Persha stood up and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She turned around and continued running towards the Malacca guild house, refusing to look at the two bodies dead in the forest.
Jared wearily opened his eyes and noticed that he being dragged by the two knights. He noticed that they were still in the forest since bars of silver moonlight escaped between the gaps in the tree leaves. Suddenly orange torch light came into view, they were entering a camp. All around Jared recognized familiar faces from Suldam and they him. Some had bewildred expressions some had pity, still there were others who had smug grins showing that they were happy that one of their competitions for power was being disposed of. This was it, Jared thought to himself- the beginning of the guildwars.