Disclaimer: I do not own Blackbird. Blackbird is copyright of Shilin.
Note: Number #49 of 50 by LilTyphoon's fifty sentences--credit goes to her!
Prompt: #49 Blackbird- She cried with her fists and shed tears with her blood. She was an assassin after all--it was expected to live in such endless suffering
None of Veloce's faction saw the arrow fly, although Weirin, being familiar with archery had picked up the distant 'twang' of the string.
But Blackbird saw it all and cursed herself for being too slow.
Veloce had been standing on the edge of a cliff, chanting a sleep spell to lower the army's moral but one of the King's archers had spotted the sorceress. Against the blizzard wind, the archer strung his bow and released the arrow.
Veloce reeled in shock and plummeted, her hands wrapped around her throat. Digging her heels into the ground, Blackbird sprung from her hiding place. The soldiers spotted the assassin and grappled the woman, and forced her into the ground. Spitting the soil from her mouth, Blackbird could do nothing but to watch the frail woman land on her side, gasping for air as blood poured thickly from her throat.
"VELOCE!!! Veloce, can you hear me?!" Blackbird cried, as she struggled against the soldiers. "Hold on, I'll be right there!! Damn it, answer me, Visrin!"
The King of Kronzel approached her, his boots kicking up the wet ground. "Blackbird I presume." He stated.
It was a simple statement, no remorse, no anger--no empathy.
"You bastards." Blackbird spat, her white eyes flaring. "VELOCE!!"
"Who would have thought... I would be seeking the impudent child-" He frowned as he turned to Veloce. "--and I would capture the killer of magik users and the little group of heretics."
Blackbird turned her head and stomach dropped. Keritzel, Weirin and Meron were detained; Keitzel sported a black eye, Weirin and Meron were disheveled, from retaliation. Blackbird's eyes momentarily glanced to Vocruen, but the sorcerer was out cold, victim to the hilt of a sword.
The assassin grimaced as she felt the soldier's armor cutting into her shoulder. The King turned toward Veloce, "Bring Veloce Visrin to me."
His remaining soldiers dragged the sorceress by her jacket, . He grabbed the young woman's jacket and forced the dying sorceress to stare into the eyes of her king.
His veins on his forehead throbbed fiercely. "How dare you humiliate me, not in front of my men, or my servants but my own country?"
"Un... Una... Un ...vaiolo su di voi ...e la vostra pietà!"* Veloce rasped.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Blackbird cried, as she fought against the soldiers; they held her tightly, fearing their king if they were to release the angered assassin. "You whoreson!" She seethed, as the king drew his sword, the royal jewels sparkling as he did so.
"You had chance to repent, child. I should have killed you when I had the chance." He whispered, shaking his head as he grasps his hilt. "Long before the prohibition, before your servant was exiled..."
Veloce skin appeared paler than before, nearly white as a ghost. She continued to shake, her hands becoming slippery and stained.
"You bastards!" The assassin's cry was swallowed by the wind.
"I should have killed you, the moment you were born." the old king sighed, "My, how noisy you were before… and how quiet you are now? Dead before my blade?"
"Freezing wind, speak of forgotten truths!" Iriel, having safely hidden behind Keritzel and Meron, conjured bolt of lightening; at the command of his Book of Elements, the bolt slaps the ground, thundering it's rage and shaking the morale of the troops.
"NOW! Bright light, shine down on bloody impurity! Holy!" Keritzel chanted, raising his arms in the air. Blinding white magik invaded the land; the soldiers were taken by surprise and released their hold on their victims, shielding their eyes.
"It burns! I can't see!"
"What demon magik is this?!"
"Inscript the dark god into a rotting body! Flare!" Meron brought her hands together forming miniature ball of fire and threw it upon the blinded soldiers.
The warriors screamed with terror as their comrade exploded from within, his armor and flesh splatters across the gravel. Blackbird twisted her side as her right hand touched her jewel. The warrior groaned, Blackbird's sword pierced the leather, the underside of his armor.
"Get out of my way!" With her white eyes flashing, she twisted the blade, and the young man died.
The old king coughed his lungs spasmed with the rise of the dust, his blade stuck fast into the ground near Veloce. Strands of white hair bristled against the royal sword. "Nobody escapes! Kill them all!"
Screams and cries from Meron and Keritzel was unheard to the assassin as she ran toward the king, in her hands were multiple knives.
He was fast, for an old king, grabbing his blade and dodging to the side. The King of Kronzel stumbled and nearly trips over his own boots as he struggled to get away, not ever looking back.
She would have effortlessly gone after the old fool, but a groan from a sorceress reminded the assassin of Veloce's state.
"Vel... Veloce?" Blackbird whispered. The sorceress didn't react, the side of her face pressed against the cobblestone; her blood pooled underneath her as the earth greedily lapped it up.
"Visrin... open your eyes." With gentleness foreign to her, Blackbird turned Veloce on her side, and inspected the injury.
The arrow was embedded into the sorceress's throat. Sickened, the assassin moved her hand the nape of Veloce' neck and felt the tip of the protruded arrow.
Veloce hadn't said a word since the retaliation.
Shaking, the assassin leaned forward, so that her ear was touching the sorceress' lips. After a moment, the assassin pressed her hands near Veloce's sternum.
The wound had been left untended for too long. Her breath and heart long stopped.
It was too late.
The rain continued to pour heavily, as if the gods above were trying to undo what was done. Behind the assassin, she hardly registered the sounds of war.
An agonizing scream rang through the quiet field, one that Blackbird hardly recognized as her own.
There was an usual weight in the assassin's pocket; she remembered the sorceress' pendent.
"Anyone?!" Blackbird yelled as she stumbled, turning around into a warzone clearing, no sign of soldiers or their group. "I have a philosophers' stone! Use it! Use the whole thing!"
The only response the assassin heard were the shallow roar of the continued downpour.
How long was she in shock?
How much time had she wasted?
She trembled, not because of the raining needles but time grew short. "Is there a somebody here who can use alchemy?!"
"This is a country of magik isn't it?" Blackbird cried, the silence tearing into her ears. "Why?! Why...?"
She knew why.
Their faction was dead. Instead of helping their small chanceless group defend against armed soldiers, the assassin protected the sorceress. Never had the images of dead bodies invoke such a reaction; the assassin, fell to her knees, shaking.
Helpless.
She knew this was the exact same feeling Veloce felt, the day Blackbird appeared to her.
"What…"
Too late.
"What am I fighting for?!"
She cried with her fists and shed tears with her blood. She was an assassin after all--it was expected to live in such endless suffering
-FIN-
*Una vaiolo su di voi e la vostra pietà! is a curse; it means somewhere along the liens of "A pox upon your pity!" in Italian.
The spells conjured by Keritzel, Meron and Iriel are spells owned by the white mage, and black mage classes in final fantasy series.