by Jack Wright
“Partners.” Eris grinned excitedly.
Caesia was in pieces, embarrassed at letting herself cry, kicking herself for so stupidly agreeing to this and gushing with all kinds of emotion at the thought of all the possibilities that had just opened up to her. If they got out of this, she could finally live a life of her own. She could finally be free.
“I knew you’d come around.” Eris smiled as she shuffled back around the fire.
“Yeah…” Caesia sighed, still snivelling and gathering herself after her outburst.
“You gonna be okay?” Eris asked with a concerned smile. “You need a hug?”
“I’m fine.” Caesia insisted, muffled as she smeared her hands over her face and wiped off any escaping tears. “I just need some sleep, badly.”
“Now you’re talking!” Eris laughed, immediately beginning to unstrap her armour and strip down to the clothes beneath. “I’m going to sleep like a damned log after today.”
“Tell me about it…” Caesia smiled, wiping the last of her tears from her face.
Of course, she knew she’d be up bright and early as always. She could never sleep past seven, she was practically programmed to wake up by then, in time for breakfast.
While Eris lay down on the ground, Caesia sat calculating how she could sleep out here without dirtying her freshly cleaned clothes too much.
‘Forget it’, she thought. If she was going to commit to this adventuring business, she needed to stop worrying about cleanliness. A hard habit to break, but nonetheless necessary. She laid back in the grass and stared silently into the star spattered sky.
“Lots of stars out tonight.” Eris observed with a hopeful grin. “That’s good luck.”
“What is it with you and the stars?” Caesia asked, it had been on her mind for a while.
“It’s a chiefdom thing.” Eris sighed. “When a great warrior dies, they’re risen up into the heavens to watch over us. Together, they drink and sing and tell their epic tales.”
“Hm, that sounds nice. You think it’s true?”
“I don’t know, but it’s just nice to think about - knowing there’s a place to go when it’s all over.” Eris smiled longingly. “Knowing an eternity of merriment awaits me.”
“What happens if you don’t get in?”
“Not my problem.” Eris smirked confidently. “If I’ve not already got a place, I’ll sure as stars get one tomorrow.”
“Think they’ll let me in?” Caesia smirked, not that she believed in such fairy tales.
“Don’t see why not.” Eris smiled. “It’s not a Nord only thing. You think you’d be up for eternal partying?”
Caesia’s smile wilted into an uncertain frown. “Hm. When you put it like that, I think I’ll pass.”
“So, what do you believe happens? You know, after you die?” Eris asked, rolling over intrigued onto her side.
“Ah, I don’t really believe in all that… stuff.” Caesia mumbled.
“Seriously?” Eris gasped. “So you just think that, like, nothing happens? You just die?”
Caesia sighed heavily. “I prefer not to think about it. I’m all for there being a god and an afterlife and all that, but… I just don’t really care.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t see the point.” Caesia sighed. “Why waste time trying to understand worlds beyond ours when we’ve so much left to learn about our own?”
“It’s just nice to have the reassurance, you know?”
“I get that, but it’s… it’s just not for me. I’d rather live in the here and now than base my life around some guy who’s never done a thing for me.”
“That’s fair… I guess.” Eris muttered.
She couldn’t imagine living without any sort of faith. She was by no means a religious person, she wasn’t even sure if her beliefs were true, but she simply enjoyed the clarity it brought with it.
Caesia lay back again exhaustedly, more than ready to get some sleep. Eris rolled back over and stared into the night sky, still attempting to fathom the notion of there being no afterlife.
“Hey, whatever happens tomorrow…” Caesia sighed, shutting her eyes and relaxing her body. “I just want you to know, it’s been a blast… and there isn’t a place in the world I’d rather be.”
Eris grinned timidly as she closed her eyes herself. “Careful, you’ll make me cry.” She chuckled.
Caesia smirked and took a deep breath, letting her thoughts carry her off into the night.
Kharmenia watched intriguedly from the treeline as they drifted off to sleep, glaring with displeasure through the slits of her mask. She certainly wasn’t surprised that Katar failed to obey, but she had little expectation of them to overcome Falion. There was more to these girls than met the eye, that much was certain. With a heavy sigh and a roll of her burning red eyes, she turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Katar slipped into the corridor that led into his quarters, a small room, once a nobleman’s tomb, with makeshift desk and a crude sleeping blanket of sown together hides. Nobody had caught on to Aiduin’s disappearance yet, but it was only a matter of time. He hoped that his brothers and sisters would fall for his tricks, for the good of them all.
He stepped into his quarters and turned to close the slab-like stone door behind him. As he slammed the door shut, the room was consumed in a violent flash of light and his ears rang at the deafening crack of energy behind him. He froze for a moment in fear, his outstretched arm trembling, before turning around again.
“Hello, Katar.” Kharmenia hissed menacingly. “I understand you’ve chosen to disobey your orders.”
She walked slowly towards him, gently tilting the twin tricinium blades of her staff towards him and smiling sinisterly behind her mask.
Katar turned panickedly for the door. Kharmenia flicked her hand to the side and a wall of crackling red flame streaked along the ground before him, blocking the exit. Katar reeled back in terror, stumbling to the ground at her feet.
“N-no, please!” He begged, scrambling erratically to his feet. “You must understand, I-”
“Shhh…” Kharmenia smiled, pressing her gloved finger hard against his lips. “I’m not mad. I’m just very, very disappointed.”
“I-I’m sorry.” Katar stammered pathetically.
“I understand, I do.” Kharmenia consoled, yet with a hint of aggression still in her voice. “I wouldn’t want their blood on my hands either. That’s why I told you to do it.”
“Th-then why are you here?”
“I thought I’d stop by and tell you what a terrible mistake you’ve made.” Kharmenia sighed nonchalantly. “See, you’ve done little more than prolong their lives. You could have killed them painlessly, snuffed the both of them before they even knew what was happening. What do you think is going to happen now?”
Katar looked at his feet shamefully. “The dragon…”
“Xeracrir will kill them. Painfully.” Kharmenia snapped darkly. “He’ll make each of them watch as he melts the flesh from the other’s bones. You don’t want that and neither did I, but what’s done is done.”
“You didn’t seem to mind killing everyone in Jordenholm! Why have you such a problem killing a couple more?” Katar spat, Kharmenia looking away ashamedly. “That’s right, they told me what the dragon did.”
“We didn’t want that.” Kharmenia muttered quietly, shaking her head. “I told Xeracrir to destroy armies, weaken the Kingdom. He burnt Jordenholm and destroyed a third of Verdenheld’s armies with it. When I took him up on it, he laughed. He told me no human deserves mercy.”
“Are you sure you want to prevent this dragon’s death?” Katar asked calmly, yet cautiously given who he was talking to. “Because it sounds to me like you want it dead.”
“I… I don’t want any more innocent deaths on my hands. Our hands.” Kharmenia sighed glumly. “But there’s nothing I can do.”
“Let those girls take the dragon down.” Katar insisted. “You don’t disobey your o
rders and innocent lives will be spared.”
“They could never defeat Xeracrir.”
“I wouldn’t be so quick to underestimate them. There was something about them…”
Kharmenia thought carefully, pacing slowly up and down the tiny room. Should she be implicated in such sabotage, she would face terrible consequences. If she could play it off a ignorance on her behalf, perhaps she could get away with it. She had never disobeyed her orders, but those orders were becoming more and more heart wrenching by the day.
“Fine. You’ll speak nothing of this.” Kharmenia demanded.
“My lips are sealed.” Katar mumbled.
“Good. Best of luck with your current… predicament.” Kharmenia muttered, strolling over to the corner of her room and raising her staff high. “If you’ve ever a change of heart, we’ll be happy to accommodate you.”
Kharmenia disappeared in a violent burst of magical energy, leaving Katar on his own once again. He sighed with satisfaction, relishing the good he had done.
Chapter Nine - Into the Fire
Eris awoke again to the beating light of the sun, already fairly high in the sky. As she groggily shuffled herself upright, she looked across the smouldering fire where Caesia was once again sat reading.
“Do you even sleep?” Eris smirked, becoming convinced that perhaps mages didn’t actually need to sleep.
“Good morning to you to.” Caesia sighed, barely looking up from her book. “Yes, I sleep. You just sleep more. A lot more.”
“And all you do in the mornings is read?” Eris smirked confusedly. She still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, but it just seems a bit… dull.”
Caesia screwed up her face and glared at Eris. “Dull is it? Check this out then.”
Caesia rammed her book into her bag and sprang up. She pushed out her arms to either side, her hands aglow with pale green energy. She pulled in one hand and thrust the other up. A circular barrier of green light appeared above her and gradually expanded, growing around her. As the barrier passed her shoulder height, it flickered violently and vanished.
Caesia stood awkwardly in a shower of green sparks. “Alright, I’m still working on that one, but you get the gist.”
“What was that meant to be?” Eris giggled, not particularly impressed.
“It’s an advanced barrier spell, the focus of my reading as of late. It’s meant to create a bubble over me.”
“Then it looks like you need to do a bit more reading.” Eris laughed mockingly.
“Oh, I’d like to see you try!” Caesia snapped in offence. “There are far more intricacies to magic than simply waving ones arms about.”
“Which is why I stick to the old sword and board.” Eris gestured confidently to her sword. “Same results, less complex.”
“Same results?” Caesia sniggered. “Please, a mage could obliterate you in the flick of a wrist. It’s why you need me.”
Caesia was absolutely right, but Eris didn’t want to give in. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Caesia relented, preferring to be the bigger person. “Let’s hope not. Now get up, we have a far more pressing matter to attend to, don’t you think?”
Eris scrambled up, yanking her waterskin from her bag and swigging the last of it. She picked up one of her leather greaves and knelt down to strap it on.
While she waited for Eris, Caesia turned away and followed with her eyes the routes they could take up the mountain. It was far too steep to follow the ash trail directly, they would have to go around the side.
“Whatcha doing?” Eris inquired, shoving her foot into a boot.
“Figuring out a route.” Caesia replied. “There’s a snowy slope we could head up on the west side of the mountain. It seems to be the only feasible way up.”
“Sounds good.”
Caesia surveyed the snow-capped mountain, trying to think of the last time she’d touched snow. “I believe it snows a lot in Norskar, unless that’s just another stereotype?”
“No, it snows pretty much every day in winter.”
“That must be nice…” Caesia sighed.
“Kind of. Issue is, when it snows too much it just gets annoying. You have all your fun on the first day, then everything’s just cold and wet.”
“Yeah…” Caesia muttered, certainly not able to relate.
Eris stood up straight and strapped her sword around her waist. “Alright, let’s go kill a dragon.”
Eris and Caesia headed downhill, into the basin of the valley, where Eris had refilled her waterskin in the river before they started up the mountainside.
“Yep, this is ash alright.” Eris confirmed, wiping her finger along the leaves of a tree as she walked.
“I hardly think we needed a confirmation.” Caesia muttered.
“It can never hurt to double check.”
As they progressed, the trees were becoming sparser, the grass paler and the air cooler.
“Hey, I don’t suppose you’d mind throwing some of that heat my way?” Eris asked, only half-jokingly.
“It doesn’t work like that. Although come to think of it, I should probably read up on some kind of ‘heat projection’ spell. I’m sure there’ll be one.”
“Y-yeah, that’d be great.” Eris stammered, her breath now becoming vapour from the frigid cold.
Her furs could only do so much for her here. She just had to hope that the cold would wear off once the action started.
Small patches of snow had begun to appear as they forged on, heralding the thick layers ahead. Caesia put her foot down in a patch of snow, causing it to immediately sizzle and melt, leaving behind a steaming puddle as she moved on.
“You know, my parents never let me play in the snow.” Caesia sighed, kicking a clump of snow spitefully.
“Seriously?!” Eris gasped. “Never?”
“No, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why. On the rare occasion that it snowed in Abenfurt, I could do naught but sit and watch the other children play in the streets.”
“Wait, have you ever even touched snow before?”
“Yes, of course. I had gone out in it before, I just wasn’t allowed to play with it. It was considered ‘unladylike’.“
“Well in that case, you have my permission to play in the snow.” Eris smiled.
“Oh come on, I think I’m well past the age for snow angels.”
“You’re never too old for snow!” Eris insisted. “Go on, give it a try.”
Caesia sighed and rolled her eyes, doubting that she would find any enjoyment in it. “Fine.” She muttered. At least she didn’t have to worry about frostbite.
She got down on her knees and lied back in the snow. The snow around her sizzled and melted, submerging her body in a pool of frigid water.
“Well this is a bloody wail of a time.” Caesia groaned, peeling herself off the ground, her clothes now drenched. “You know, I’m beginning to see w-”
As she turned to Eris, a handful of snow exploded against Caesia’s chest, the icey shrapnel melting mid-flight at spattering her face with cold water.
“Do you mind?” Caesia hissed, smearing her hands down her face.
“Lighten up, city girl!” Eris laughed, scooping another handful of snow and moulding it into a ball.
As another snowball exploded against her arm, Caesia glared at Eris in irritation. She drew back the heat from her hand and scooped up some snow of her own. She hurled the snow at Eris, only for it to disperse pathetically into the wind.
“You’ve got to make a ball! Like this!” Eris launched another snowball, soaring over Caesia’s head as she ducked clumsily.
Caesia grabbed more snow and haphazardly screwed it up into a ball. She flung the ball at Eris and it exploded on the ground metres short of its target.
“You know, this hardly seems a fair match.” Caesia moaned.
“It doesn’t have to be fair! It’s just a-”
A snowball nail
ed Eris in the shoulder, staggering her in surprise.
Caesia grinned sharply in satisfaction. “Alright, now I get it.” She grinned, as she scooped up another handful.
Now she could see the allure - committing an act of violence against your annoyingly cocky friend without actually hurting them.
Eris launched a snowball at Caesia, hitting her in the leg as she tried to dodge. Caesia retaliated by throwing one of her own, exploding against a tree as Eris ducked behind it for cover.
“Oh come on, that’s the only cover on this bloody mountainside!” Caesia yelled.
“And now it’s mine!” Eris gloated, peeking out from behind the tree to fling another snowball.
Caesia sidestepped the snowball and pumped one of her arms, charging it with energy. She flung a thunderous crack of lightning into the base of the tree, blasting a massive chunk out of it in a shower of splintered wood. Eris jumped in terror as the tree toppled over and crumpled onto the ground with a massive crash, slowly skidding down the mountainside.
“Hey! That’s cheating!” Eris stammered as she clawed up more snow.
“You cheated first!” Caesia rebuked, launching a snowball at the now vulnerable Eris. Caesia giggled in pleasure as the snow thudded against Eris’ forehead, making her drop her snowball in a daze.
As Caesia readied her next attack, Eris pulled her shield from her back and thrust it in front of her face. The snowball sailed through the air and exploded against the shield.
“That’s also cheating!” Caesia called, a grin plastered on her face.
“So was the lightning!”
Eris advanced towards Caesia with her shield up, picking up more snow as she went.
“So, we’re doing shields then?” Caesia muttered to herself.
As Eris’ next snowball came hurtling through the air, Caesia thrust out her hands. The snowball exploded mid-flight as a barrier of shimmering green light appeared in front of it.
“Oh, come on! That’s-”
“I think we’re long past rules at this point!” Caesia hurled another snowball, which Eris effortlessly smacked away with her shield.
