A/N: I AM FREE! YESSSS! In case you're wondering whether I've gone insane or not, the answer is yes, I've gone quite mad. After exams followed by A-level Project Work (the bane of 17-year-olds in Singapore), I'm probably going to be sent to the Institute of Mental Health.
On a more serious and pertinent note, I realise that I have been slacking off this chapter because of one very huge problem. The plot that I thought up when I was 14 really, really pales in comparison with the twists I added when I'm 17. And I would really love to get rid of it, but that leaves the story nowhere. Well, it's going to be pretty obvious in any case, to the point of embarrassment, so I guess I should be prepared to take flames.
Disclaimer: Don't own The Seventh Tower. It's too awesome for me to come up with on my own.
Chapter 13 – Caught
Padding silently along the hallways of the lowest level of the Castle, Milla Talon-Hand shot a surreptitious glance at her companion. Officially, they were both on a search mission for the escaped criminal Kazhua, but then again, official search teams had at least 5 members consisting of a balanced mix of Shield Maidens and Imperial Guards. Milla plus one Shield Maiden would hardly constitute as a search team since they probably weren't carrying enough firepower to actually apprehend Kazhua on their own.
In reality, Milla really just wanted to talk to Miria, who had become uncharacteristically withdrawn and quiet after the Kazhua's flight (which no one managed to figure out how it was managed, anyway). She gave half-answers wherever she could get away with it and slipped out of the room whenever she saw Milla enter. Even to the most oblivious, it was clear that Miria was avoiding anyone who could carry a proper conversation with her, because Ebbitt had complained several times that she hadn't visited him while he was recovering. Milla had unfortunately been the target of his nagging every time she went to see him.
When a couple of weeks had passed, by Castle time, and Miria hadn't gotten over what was bugging her, the War-Chief decided to put her foot down. Dragging Miria away from her assigned search team on the grounds of "needing a partner to do reconnaissance work", she finally managed to corner her. Which was why they were both skulking around the lowest levels with an uneasy silence between them.
"Are you alright?" Milla asked for the fourth time since setting out.
The other Icecarl barely took her eyes off their surroundings as she quietly replied, "I'm fine."
The answer was pretty standard, since that was what Milla got the last three times she asked the question, with the exact same expression and intonation. She wanted to be irritated by the treatment she was getting, but given that they were trying to be as quiet as possible, she restrained herself from giving a snappy retort, instead settling for a small sigh. Not that she was expecting that they'd find anything, because search teams had covered the area about ten times over the last week and they hadn't found anything either, so their silence was pretty much a pointless jab at pretending that they were at work.
Out of the corner of her eye, Milla saw a flicker of movement and whirled about, half-raising her hands into a defensive position. But it was just Miria raising her face to look at the far wall. Milla changed the movement to one that looked like she was turning to face Miria, who had lifted a hand to point at said wall. "Wasn't that supposed to be a dead end?"
Milla turned to look at where the finger was pointing. What she thought was a solid wall actually wasn't. A wall covered half the corridor, and beyond that was a dim-lit hallway. Even as she watched a shadow flicked out of the opening and back in. She started. "Did you see that?"
"Yes." The Shield Maiden stared at the opening, and started towards it, intent on the shadow.
Milla came to a decision. "Miria, go back and report what you have found. And hurry." She went into action without waiting to see if her order was being followed. Heading towards the opening after the shadow, she quickly left the other Icecarl behind, still standing where they stopped.
"But-" The protest died behind Milla as she slipped through the opening easily. If she had thought about it, the Shield Maiden had spoken to her of her own volition in weeks, and it would have been a good opportunity to start being friends again. But the irritation, coupled with the urgency of seeing the shadow, wouldn't let Milla turn back. She headed down the hallway unhesitatingly, noting that the dim lighting came from small Sunstones set into the walls every ten stretches or so. A far cry from the hallway that she had been in previously.
Still moving silently, she followed the narrow hallway, or tunnel, rather, as it turned and snaked. Obviously the creator of this place wasn't very open to the idea of visitors, since by her Icecarl reckoning, she hadn't gone very deep in, but the twists and turns had made her venture seem much longer. It must have taken a great deal of time to carve out the tunnel, she thought. The walls were made of stone, and were perfectly smooth, suggesting that light had been the tool to cut it. The ceiling was low, but that made sense, since it would greatly reduce the amount of stone that was required to be transported out. Saves time and effort, given how much stone they would have needed to dispose of. She couldn't sense any shadows nor humans, and that made her uneasy. Now she was sure she had found Kazhua's hideout.
A small scuffling sound, one emanating from a badly-placed step, from behind her alerted her to the presence of a pursuer. Milla quickly rounded the next turn and pressed herself against the inner wall, her hand slipping inside her furs and closing around the hilt of her golden knife. Not a shadow, she decided. Shadows didn't make noise as they moved. Unless they were as clumsy as Adras.
Her heart beating faster in anticipation, she counted her breaths as she waited. Judging from the sound, whoever it was would be rounding the corner around… Now!
Knife in hand, Milla threw herself forward as a figure turned the corner. Her free hand reached up to cover her opponent's mouth, to silence him even as the hand holding the knife sought to reach his throat. But her opponent was prepared, and even as she attacked, she felt his fingers close around her knife hand.
"Ouch, don't! It's me, Miria!" A hiss came out from somewhere in front of her face. Milla stopped and lowered her knife. Slightly.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded. "You were supposed to report back!"
"And let you get killed walking in here on your own? Not a chance!" Miria hissed back, releasing Milla's hand and stepping back.
"This is insubordination!" Milla was torn. On one hand, she was outraged and worried about how they would end up because someone deliberately chose to disobey her orders. On the other hand, she was sort of glad that Miria was sounding more like herself now. She tucked her knife back into her sleeve.
"If you want to drag me before the Crones for this charge, you should have done so long ago. I'm pretty sure that kidnapping, holding and impersonating you against your will can be counted along with it."
Maybe not so after all. The sarcasm was still there. Milla gave in and continued on, saying, "Well, too late for anything now. Come along. And be quiet." Secretly, she felt slightly better with company, but she wasn't ever going to admit it.
She felt, rather than heard, Miria take a step forward, and at that moment she had the awful feeling that something was off, that something would happen. The next moment, the entire tunnel was flooded with white light. Both Icecarls immediately winced and raised their arms to shield their eyes.
Instantly realising that it was a mistake to leave them vulnerable, Milla forced her arm away from her eyes, only to see a decidedly unpleasant sight. She raised both hands, the Talons flaring into life as they sensed the threat.
Shadows swarmed the tunnel ahead of them, the shapes vivid in the harsh light that filled the place. Milla could distinctly make out several Aenirans that she would rather not see ever again, including a Nanuch and three Dretches.
And in the centre of the tunnel, not 50 stretches away from them, was a man. A human man, not a shadow, holding a Sunstone from which the white light originated.
Milla felt her partner shift behind her so that their backs were against each other, and knew from the subtle tension that more shadows had come from behind as well. She felt, rather than saw, Miria draw her Merwin horn sword and slip into a defensive crouch. She heard a soft hiss as Miria sized up the shadows and figured out that their chances weren't pretty.
In front of her, the man laughed, one that Milla knew well. Amidst all the shadows, he didn't strike her as an impressive figure, probably about thirty circlings old, and neither tall nor strong, yet the sound that echoed around the narrow tunnel made Milla feel as cold as she did out on the Ice.
Because even though that man was clearly not Kazhua in appearance, he sounded every bit like the advisor-turned-traitor.
"Welcome to my domain, Ice savages," he called out, his laughter still echoing around them. "Did you have a pleasant trip?"
Milla said nothing, but her Talons grew longer still and the tips hinted at the light whip's readiness to cut up shadows. Her eyes constantly darted around, sizing up their opponents, but her mind was still fixated on "Kazhua". Behind her, Miria hissed again as she, too, caught on. The two of them didn't take their eyes off the shadows nonetheless, for it would be fatal.
"What, no greeting for me?" mocked the man, and the shadows swirled, almost as if in appreciation of his humour. "Oh dear, I forgot that I haven't introduced myself. My name is Rhin. Or perhaps you would recognise me better like this?"
Milla's eyes flickered to him for a moment, and the slight shift at her back told her that for the moment, neither of them were watching the shadows, instead transfixed by the mystery of the man in front of her.
And they weren't disappointed. The Sunstone the man held ran through several colours, causing the shadows to ripple, before settling back to white. The only change was that before them, the man they saw was indeed Kazhua.
"A illusion," whispered Milla, as much for herself as for the Shield Maiden beside her. Of course. Tal had once told her about encountering a Chosen who used it in Aenir, who had called himself Hazror. The weaver of the illusion had to be a very strong Light Mage, as well as possess an equally strong Sunstone.
The lack of reaction from Miria made Milla suspect that she didn't quite understand what an light illusion was, nor care to understand except that it was Light magic which she had no interest in. But it was clear to even her that he had to have concealed Sunstones on him to help maintain the illusion.
"So that's how he escaped the other time!" Miria blurted, not caring to keep her voice down anymore. "He had more Sunstones on him."
"Bingo, little pest," replied the man – Rhin - mockingly, clearly confident that the Icecarls would not be going anywhere. "After I blew out all the Sunstones in the ceiling, it wasn't difficult to get out. You even left me the way."
It all became clear to Milla. "The water capillary. You left by it. Of course, that would have made perfect sense. Since you were 'Kazhua', no one would have thought you could leave by it."
"My, my, getting smart now are we? Well, there would be no such luck for you two. I do need the two of you to be quiet and out of the way while I go deal with the Emperor, don't I?" Here Rhin looked right at Milla. "Or rather, I only need one of you. The other one is rather redundant for anything except vengeance."
Milla gritted her teeth. "Keep the shadows off me," she said to Miria, lips barely moving. "We'll take him out first." Like any trained warrior, Miria didn't twitch as she took in the order.
"And since you're so outnumbered as it is, it won't be much trou-," he was cut off as Milla shouted a war cry and launched forward at him, the Talons slicing through the shadows that thronged around him. At the same time, Miria dropped her sword and reached for her bow, her other hand latching onto an arrow, its tip treated with luminous moss.
Surprisingly, Kazhua/Rhin dropped the illusion and met her assault with one of his own. The shadows fell back to allow their master to spar freely. Milla was forced back half a stretch, but she was ready to attack again. The whip of light from her right Talon reached to wrap itself around Rhin's neck even as the whip from the left curled around his feet.
Rhin successfully avoided both attacks, even avoiding injury caused by the low ceiling. Clearly, he had been well-trained in combat, unlike his brother Sushin. But Sushin was Kazhua's brother…
"What did you do with the real Kazhua?" demanded Milla as she drew back to avoid the Red Ray of Destruction. The whips of light flung themselves forward again with a slight movement of her hand, extending further to reach their quarry.
The man sent out an Indigo shield with a quick flick of his wrist, deflecting the Talon's assault. He feigned a look of surprise, but his tone had not lost the mocking edge to it. "Oh, he's dead of course. It's no loss. He never was a useful man to begin with. Though he should be touched that you actually care, considering how you've been to your own sister." His tone darkened considerably. Quickly, he changed his Sunstone's light to Yellow, sending a stream of Yellow darts at Milla's legs.
The changes in lighting made it hard for Miria to shoot accurately, but she managed somehow. She was running out of arrows though. Every one she sent pinned the shadow to the wall or ground, but they eventually wormed out of it. And with arrows alone, she just wasn't able to damage their forms badly enough to send them back to Aenir.
They were definitely bound shadows, she decided as she pinned yet another shadow to the wall. They were very similar to those she fought four circling past, and to compel them to obey Rhin, they had to be bound. Dark-accursed human masters were smart in hiding away, she thought. Her right hand automatically reached back for another arrow, only to find her quiver empty. She swore again and reached for the Merwin horn sword still faintly glowing by her feet.
Milla'd better hurry, she thought. There's no way I can keep them off for long now.
Milla stumbled back, narrowly missing the row of darts. They embedded themselves into the ground at her feet before fading. If Milla had paid attention, she might have noticed that the spell was oddly artistic, in the way the darts left their existence. But she didn't, because she was too focused on the spell-caster in front of her.
"What?" she asked, for once not sounding as sure of herself as she had been. What was he talking about?
Rhin didn't hesitate to press his advantage, and Red Rays sprang out of his Sunstone once more. "Oh, of course, silly me, you couldn't have known, could you?" Harsh laughter burst out of him, even as he sent Red Rays that blew chunks out of the tunnel walls. His voice grew louder still, reverberating around the mini-cavern. "You didn't know, did you? How you took the strength from your sister when the two of you were in your mother's body, and made it so that your sister was born weak."
Milla could hardly believe her ears. So Kazh – no, Rhin - wasn't just mad, he was creative too. The whip of light flicked around her to deflect a Red Ray, while the other one flicked forward to attack.
"And you Ice savages don't like weaklings, apparently. Your father tried to kill your sister, after she was born, did you know that?" Rhin easily summoned an Indigo Shield once more, cackling in a way that made Milla's ears hurt. "A pity that someone picked her up. Otherwise she wouldn't have grown up to be such a pest."
Something clicked in Milla's mind then, but she stubbornly pushed it away, refusing to dwell on it until later. Instead, she shot back at him, pressing forward with her attack. "I don't want to hear that from someone who kills 'useless people'."
Rhin smiled patronizingly and shifted the Shield to cover himself from the Talons. He continued on. "Well, this is all for the good of the Chosen." His eyes seemed to focus on something beyond her. "Now, do we have to continue this ridiculous farce, or will you come along quietly?"
Ridiculous farce? Milla could have laughed at the irony, but the notion of that died when the shadows dragged a limp body into her field of vision. On second thought, maybe not limp. Shadowy strips bound Miria's eyes and mouth, hands and feet. She writhed, but she had clearly lost, for the shadows bound her so tightly that she could hardly move.
Milla looked up. "Well?" Rhin pressed.
"Dark take you all," she spat, and the Talons withdrew.
They were taken to a room branching off the main tunnel. Milla was carried there bound by Spiritshadows, her Talons, knives and Sunstone taken from her. Once there, ropes replaced the Spiritshadows, and the two Icecarls were unceremoniously tossed to the back of the room.
Milla managed to right herself in time to see Rhin activate a spell that created a thin film of Violet that went all the way from floor to ceiling, separating them from the door. She noted the row of Sunstones in the ceiling and how they complemented each other in weaving the spell. Tearing her eyes away from the ceiling, she also noted that this was the first time she was seeing the human masters, a few of them at least, of the Spiritshadows. Two Chosen (she called them that for she couldn't find a better word) were standing at the door.
"If I were you, I wouldn't try anything," Rhin said without a trace of humour. He tossed one of Miria's bone arrows at the fragile-looking Violet veil. There was a bright flash of light that forced Milla to lid her eyes. When she next opened them, there was nothing left of the arrow.
Rhin tossed the rest of the arrows, which the Spiritshadows have brought back, into a corner along with the rest of their confiscated weapons. Milla knew that it was his show of confidence, and it smarted. He turned to leave, gesturing to the humans to follow.
"What do you intend to do?" Milla spoke just as he was about to exit the room. She glanced behind her once. Miria was facing the wall, unmoving, unspeaking, and seemingly in no condition to act.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing much. Just going to bargain for the Violet Keystone." A trace of his mad smile had begun to appear on Rhin's face. "And so that you don't get any ideas, they," he pointed at the two Chosen, "will be staying here to look after you. Any questions?"
Milla remained silent. Not the Keystone. Not Tal.
Rhin smirked. "I thought so. See you later." He turned and left with his Spiritshadow entourage. Behind him, the two Chosen left, shutting the door behind them. It slammed shut with a very final-sounding bang, and Milla heard the unmistakable sound of a latch securing the door.
A/N: Ok, I confess that near the end I was multi-tasking as I wrote this. Was watching Sound Horizon's live performances (Epic, I tell you!).
How long has it been since my last update? Er… Actually, please don't answer this question.
On a serious note again, I really, really hate how my 14-year-old ideas pale in comparison with my 17-year-old's. Honestly, at one point I was thinking of dropping this story, but then it feels like such a waste. If it's any consolation (to me as well), I do have another idea for The Seventh Tower, tentatively titled Spirit of Aenir (also considering Child of Aenir, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). Right now it seems a lot less shallow compared to this one, it focuses a lot more on character development and relations rather than action and all that. I'm putting it at around 10 chapters or so.
Won't ask for a review this time round (because I doubt I'll even have readers left after this xD). With any luck, this will be completed by next year. Yeah... Or maybe sooner. I only have about 2 or 3 chapters left.