Crashing open the main doors, Freyjadour stormed into the queen's knights room closely followed by Lym, Miakis and Revan.
"Why wasn't I told?! Who gave the order to keep this from me? Lyon was due home from her mission almost 3 days ago, a report comes in that says she's missing in action and nobody says anything?!"
"It's not just you brother" Lym reasoned gently "I'm the queen and even I wasn't told"
"Revan! Where the heck is Maya right now? I need him brought to me right now!" Freyjadour couldn't remember the last time he had felt so much anger. Not when his parents died, not when Gizel Godwin took the sun-palace and not when he had argued with Lyon. Something was different, a sudden urge to be with her, with Lyon. He needed to see her smiling face. Hear her voice telling him that everything was fine. She was missing in action, possibly caught by the enemy, or hurt, or stranded, or…….. Dead.
The thought chilled him to the bone.
"I'll definitely find him your commandership! And bring him to you immediately." with this Revan left the room.
"I'll look too, Frey. Count on me!" said Miakis quickly following behind him.
"Brother, please calm down……please?! Even if she's been caught, there's no need to worry, Hector is with her and he……"
Freyjadour pounded his fist against the wall, making Lym jump.
"I don't want to hear his name Lym. He can go to hell! all I care about is Lyon! If he gave his life to protect her then good riddance and if he didn't then he's a coward, and the queen's knights have no need of cowards!!! It was your recommendation that brought him into our knights, couldn't you tell when you met him how worthless he was?!! You're suppose to be queen, where's your sense?!……"
Lym fell silent, for a moment she looked as though she would cry. Then, suddenly, she ran towards the prince and with all of her might she hit him as hard as she could.
"……What's happened to you Freyjadour? You're not my brother, you're not the man who marched into the sun palace that day and saved me from Gizel, and you're not someone Lyon would give her life for! Right now, you're just a….. a…. A BIG JERK!!!"
Lym ran out of the guard room leaving Freyjadour standing alone with a bright-red hand mark on his face.
"Hey wait up!" said Miakis, catching up Revan. "You know where Maya is? 'cos I got a good idea where to find him"
"No problem Mia, he already told me where he was going, we'll have him back here in no time and maybe that will put the commander at ease". Revan looked anxious despite sounding rather calm.
"Well I'm all for setting Frey at ease, but if you call me 'Mia' again I'm gonna have to pinch ya real hard! Got it?" Miakis smiled evilly.
"Yes ma'am" Revan nervously replied.
"So, you were here from the beginning right? Tell me what happened between those two, Lyon and the prince" Miakis' smile faded away.
"Not much to tell. They basically grew up together, she was his personal bodyguard during the war, and before it too. They were real close, closer than just good friends, not lovers but nothing less either, it's really hard to explain. Anyway they were like that until a couple months ago, then it all went pear-shaped. You were here during that time Revan, you should know what happened"
"Right, your right, I do but I was just curious about their relationship, after all I've never spoken to Lyon, is she a battleaxe? Or, is she like you?"
Miakis looked confused. "Like me? So I'm the opposite of a battleaxe? Should I take that as a compliment? Anyway, does it have to be one or the other? Battleaxe or like me?
Maybe she's neither, and besides, I like to think I'm one-of-a-kind, heeheeheeh"
"Maybe I'll just let this one go" said Revan "Besides, if the commander goes on a rescue mission then I'll be going with him and then I'll meet her myself right?"
The two knights made their way down to the pier and as they approached the long winding stairs leading to the ships Miakis let out a gasp.
Bodies littered the ground, some had fallen or been thrown into the water and the colour of blood stained the white marbled floor. Unsheathing their weapons the two cautiously made their way down to the boats.
Upon reaching the first dead body, Miakis noticed the man's wounds were no ordinary slash wounds, they weren't made by a simple long sword or an axe, or a spear for that matter, what had made them was something much worse, and the young knight knew exactly what type of weapon had been used.
"Nether Gate!?" she gasped "Nether gate?" said Revan "I've heard of those guys, there's no way! They've been wiped out, after the civil war his highness saw to it that they were fully disbanded, they can't still exist"
"No, nothing's beyond these guys, I can't really believe it either, but there's no other group or force in falena skilled with such weapons". Miakis sounded more than convincingly worried.
"Maya!!! Maya! You here? it's Revan everything's ok, help's here". There was no response, everything was deathly quiet.
Miakis walked slowly down one of the many lanes of ships. Even though it was broad daylight, the bodies and blood made it feel like something out of a horror story.
The smell really caught her off guard, how long had these bodies been laying here in the light of day? And how had nobody seen or reported it?
Miakis heard a shuffling behind her. "Maya?!" she gasped.
"H..h..h….heLL…HELLo….. MiakIS!! Maya seemed out of breath, but Miakis recognised it instantly. "I know what you've taken, and now I see who you really are, why you sent that fake report. So tell me, what have you done with Lyon? What have you done with Hector? Tell me everything you know!"
"Y….yo.. You….really want… to….kn….know? HehEHehehEHEeh"
Miakis let her anger get the better of her and charged at him, lunging her right dagger straight towards Maya's face, however, he effortlessly dodged out of the way and Miakis found herself tumbling due to the force behind her attack having not connected with anything. She quickly regained her footing, and tossed one of her daggers at the assassin, he knocked it away with his blade, but whilst doing so Miakis lunged with her other dagger. Maya saw it just in time, but wasn't quick enough this time. Miakis nicked his cheek. "You may have taken 'Raging nostrum' but luckily, I've faced this before. I know all about how it increases your reaction time and strength to their physical limits! If I can't outmanoeuvre you and take you head on, I'll simply overwhelm you with unexpected attacks from every direction".
"SIlly….. LiTL…liTTle… GIRL!!! You…. BAreLy ScrAtched Meeeeee!"
"Try dodging this!" Revan suddenly appeared behind Maya. With a single swift strike Revan slashed him across the chest, knocking him back several feet.
To the surprise of both knights, Maya seemed uninjured.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeehahahahahahaaaahaa!!!!! DidN't….F…feeL…a th…thing!!!"
"This guys a monster!" exclaimed Revan "That cut felt pretty deep, he should be on the damn floor!"
"It's the Raging Nostrum!" said Miakis "He'll fight until we kill him, or until the drug kills him. It dulls his reception to pain and increases his stamina and strength to near-super human levels! Stand back Revan, I'll end this"
Miakis raised her hand above her head, closed her eyes and whispered an incantation. In a flash flames burst up through the ground around the rogue Maya, engulfing him in a sphere of fire. After several moments, the sphere imploded dropping Maya to the ground in a smouldering ruin. But again, slowly, he rose up onto his feet.
"This guy can't take a hint eh?" Revan smirked "so what now, Mia?"
"I told you to stop calling me that, just a little while ago, it really pisses me off!" Miakis grimaced. She pulled out a small, circular, silver disc from a pouch on her waist.
"Knock him into the water, Revan" she gestured towards the edge of the harbour.
"You got it" Revan charged towards the half-dead former knight. Maya swung his blade, but even with the effect of the Raging Nostrum he was now far too weak to move fast enough. Revan dodged the strike to the left and as his blade clashed with the assassins' he pushed him into the water. Miakis lightly tossed the disc in with him and Maya founded as he was shocked to death by a massive electrical charge.
As his body rose to the surface of the water, his lifeless corpse dissipated into thin air leaving no trace of him behind. The two knights stood silently, not knowing what to do next. Just then Freyjadour made his way down the pier towards them, he had a brooding look on his face upon seeing all the dead bodies.
"I'm sorry" He said as he approached the two "Looks like I'm far too late to be of any help". Miakis noticed the slight redness to his right cheek, a small hand-mark. She didn't need to ask what happened, she knew Lym well enough.
"It's no problem Frey!" she said cheerfully "Me and Revan were more than enough, didn't even break a sweat!"
"As much as I like your positive attitude Miakis, I saw the bodies. Nether Gate huh?" Freyjadour wasn't being fooled.
"Yeah…… Nether Gate. It seems Maya was one of 'em. He made the false report about Lyon and Hector returning, which explains why Lyon didn't come and see you Prince. I mean let's face it, did you really believe Lyon would return and leave it nearly three days without reporting to you? Regardless of any argument you two have, your bond is too strong to be broken by a silly little fight right?" Miakis gave the prince a warm smile.
"Yeah, I know that……now at least. I've been an idiot. Thank god I have a sensible sister and a cute knight who know me better than myself" Freyjadour quietly grinned.
"Awwwww prince, you're a big softy at heart just like Ferid, some things never change do they?"
Walking back to the sun palace, the trio discussed their next move. It was obvious that knights needed to be sent to investigate the last known location of Lyon and Hector, and that location was 5 miles south-east of Yashuna village near a deep forest, where the two missing knights had supposedly set up camp. Freyjadour decided that regardless of jealousy or his personal feelings, he still had to go, he had to see if Lyon was okay and apologise for how he had acted towards her, he had to let her know he was still the same old prince that she seemed to respect so much. He would have liked to take as many knights as possible with him but someone had to stay to guard Lym so Miakis couldn't come and Revan was on patrol duty the next day keeping peace in the streets of Sol-falena despite his insistence on going too so he could meet Lyon and the fact that there was hardly ever trouble in Sol-falena anymore. With Maya dead and Lyon and Hector missing, it left Freyjadour with only one knight with whom to take with him- the queens knight apprentice, Toma.
Toma was still barely a man. Having left lordlake, he had moved to the palace and joined the queen's knights after the war hoping to become as great a man as the prince. His skill in swordsmanship was admirable for his young age and although the prince wasn't entirely onboard about taking Toma with him, he knew any help was better than no help at all.
At the harbour the next morning, he bid a tearful Lym goodbye, having made up with her and apologising for being a 'big jerk'.
"Good luck prince! Wish I come see Lyon with ya, but I gotta protect our precious little Lymmie!" said Miakis cheerful as ever.
"I know. Thank you Miakis" replied Freyjadour, wrapping his arms around her and embracing her tightly. The hug caught Miakis off-guard and she desperately tried to hide her blushing face.
The commander and the apprentice boarded their ship and set sail away from Sol-falena, towards the horizon.
"Hold on Lyon!" thought Freyjadour "I'm finally….. On my way"
Miakis' smile slowly faded as the princes' ship sailed out of view amidst Lym's quiet sobbing.
"There he goes" she thought to herself. "Once again….. Without me….. Come back to me safely, prince, okay?".