"We did?" she said as she looked to Rony, "I had not noticed," she continued sarcastically.
The brightly dressed, elderly man looked to Rony, and then back to Dianali, "Indeed," he said, "However, if you wish to mute the repulsive effects of this place, then I would suggest this vial in particular. It was developed by the angels themselves and blessed by the pure, flowing waters of the Spring of Life," he said as he unclipped a small, clear vial of liquid that seemed to shine with an iridescent silver glow.
"Is that so," remarked Dianali, more sarcasm lacing her already sarcastic voice. "I have never heard of this 'Spring of Life'. So, what is this magical elixir supposed to do?"
"Magic? There is not a trace of that rubbish in these bottles. No indeed, there is nothing but purity and blessings contained within!" he said with excitement. "No m'lord and m'lady, you will find no magic indeed."
"You did not tell us who you are," said Rony as he too recovered from his vomiting. "What is your name?" he asked flatly.
"Name? You want to know my name?" said the brightly clothed man. "As if that would tell you anything about me apart from what I am called." He paused looking straight at him. His bright, blue-eyed gaze seemed to peer straight inside him. "Ask another question," he directed.
"We do not have time for this charade," said Dianali with a growing sense of urgency. "Either tell us your name or be on your way!"
"Very well. I meant no offense nor harm. Quite the opposite in fact. Now, if I can interest you in this special elixir, I am sure it will help you in your quest to free your friend," he said as he held out his hand with the vial of liquid loosely held between his index finger and thumb.
Dianali let her hand drop to finger the hilt of one of her daggers, "Alright, I have had enough of this. Who are you and what do you know of our friend?" When the man simply smiled and did not move his eyes from hers, she spoke more forcefully, "You would do well to answer my questions. I will allow nothing to prevent his return."
Looking to Rony and then back to Dianali, the man's smile lessened but his stare did not. He met the steel coldness of the woman with just as much will and fortitude, relenting not one inch as her fingers threateningly tickled her daggers, "To what end?" he asked, "To what end will knowing who I am assist your current endeavor? In truth, it will not. However, I am not sure the city guards will take kindly to a woman threatening an old man with her wicked blade, a man who has offered no threat of his own."
Dianali looked around and saw no less than four groups of the black clad guards within both visual and auditory range. And while she was confident they could emerge from a confrontation to the better, she understood that an overt confrontation with them, on any level and regardless of the outcome, would surely compromise their greater mission. She looked to Rony who had apparently also surveyed the immediate threat of the guards. His eyes bid her to relinquish any animosity she continued to hold.
“Di, he could have alerted the guards to our presence. He clearly knows why we are hear which means he also knows that we plan to rescue a prisoner,” said Ronialdin, hoping it would convince her to ease her tension. She looked to him and then back to the elderly man. Giving him one last steel-eyed look, she crossed her arms and shifted her posture.
"There. Now we can begin our friendship. But I would encourage you to ask another question. One that is actually pertinent to your mission," said the man.
"What is in the vial?" asked Rony.
"Better, but I already told you," said the man. "Ask again."
"How will it help us?" asked Dianali.
"Does that really matter?" asked the man in return.
"Of course it does," she said. "I will not do anything unless I know how it will help."
"Indeed," responded the man. "But answer this: when you first picked up a blade, did you need to know how it was made in order to use it? Or when you," he said as he looked to Rony, "first picked up your bow and arrow, did you need to know how the wood was made to effectively shoot it? Ask again," he said, this time with more authority.
His request did not draw a quick reply. Instead, it explicitly asked them to look deeper, beyond what the obvious questions were, the ones most often asked out of an instinctive ignorance and lack of appreciation for objective truth. The two of them were understandably frustrated because each moment they spent with this man meant they risked breaking the curfew. And any confrontation with the guards, even as small as breaking the curfew, would require them to produce the registrar’s papers, papers they did not have. They knew their allotted time was drawing to a close, but they could not deny he was right. If the effects of the demonic power on them grew, which it showed no signs of relenting, then it would clearly affect their ability to rescue Borinth. Though they were four capable individuals, more so when functioning as a team, not even their skill would be enough to carry their success if they were doubled over by the grip of pain and nausea.
The man, apparently content to wait with them as long as they needed, began to hum a simple song. It was not one Rony remembered right away, but it was one he felt was familiar. He tried to close his eyes and focus on everything they had been told since they met this unique individual, but the song seemed to grow inside him. He had spent the better part of his life developing his ability to focus singularly on his target to the exclusion of all else, but he simply could not block out the song this man was humming. And then it hit him. This was the song his mother had sung to he and Zyndalia while they were children right before they fell asleep.
It was a story about how a young bear cub was lost in the woods and could not find his way home without the help of its parents’ growls and grunts as they repeatedly called out his name. At the end of the song, the bear cub, while all snuggled up into his mother's arms, said that he could not have done it without her. As he further sank into the man’s humming, he began remembering more and more about the story; however, the most poignant part was the end. He had it. With a confidence grown from an innate knowing, he asked, "Can we rescue him without it?"
The man's lips broadened into a great smile. He gave a sign of acknowledgement and approval to Rony and then answered, "No. You cannot. Do you now see why all other questions have no pertinence to your endeavor?"
"How can you know that?" asked a still skeptical Dianali.
Looking at her with empathetic eyes, he addressed her questions, "My dear Dianali, I could spend lifetimes telling you the secrets of this world and its workings, yet you would still not understand them. Take this, each of you," he said as he handed them four small vials, each containing the silvery liquid.
"What are those?" asked a female voice from behind them.
Both Dianali and Rony were startled and spun around quickly only to see Zyndalia and Liani approaching them, not more than ten feet away. They looked down to their hands and saw they each held two vials of the silvery liquid. They turned back to the elderly man, but he was not where he was supposed to be. In fact, as they searched the surrounding area for him, expecting to see him quickly walking away, the found no trace of him at all. Rony, ever the tracker, instinctively looked down to search for his footprints, but saw none. The only concrete evidence they had of his existence at all were the four vials they held.
"Fine then," said Liani drawing both Dianali’s and Rony's attention from their search back to her. "If you do not want to tell us what it is, then at least you can share where you got them."
Rony and Dianali looked at each other, neither of them having any idea of where to begin their tale.
"Well?" asked Zyndalia, "Are you going to tell us?"
It was Rony who retold the details of the encounter with the odd man from their vomiting to right before the two women found them. Under normal circumstances, their story would have sounded quite outlandish, but considering everything they had recently seen, neither Zyn nor Liani dismissed it as unbelievable.
"I will tell you one thing," said Rony's sister when he finished, "Both of us felt whatever it was
you felt too. We did not vomit, but we were definitely shaken at the least."
"What do you think it is?" asked Liani.
"It felt very similar to both Miligos and the other demon, but it was much stronger. If you can imagine the sensation from Miligos as a small river, then this demon felt as though the entire dam had broken to flood whatever was in its path. It was difficult to even breathe. But the intensity is not what worries me," said Rony, allowing his last statement to trail off.
"What could possibly worry you more than the power?" asked Dianali. "Because it sure worries me."
"It did not feel as though its origin was linked here, to Avendia. With Miligos and the other demon, it felt like there was nothing behind it, that their power was their own apart from anything else. They stood alone. But with this time," he paused to search for the correct words, "there was definitely something behind it that did not feel like it was entirely here, with us. If that makes any sense."
"No, it does not," said Dianali, "but I have learned not to doubt you in such matters. Looking to the two women who joined them, she asked, "Did either of you find out any information about Borinth?"
"I am sorry, Di, but neither of us did," answered Zyndalia, "There is an impressive lack of evidence regarding any and all possible prisoners. And these people do not seem entirely," she paused, "right."
“You are right about that,” interjected Rony, “these people do not feel right at all. Though whatever is “wrong” with them has managed to elude me thus far.”
"Di, what are you looking for. You have been looking around since we arrived. What is it?" Zyn asked her.
"There he is!" she said almost shouting. Before the others could follow her finger, she took off running in the direction of a particularly large building. The three, Rony, Zyn, and Liani were left standing in amazement. Rony acted first and took off after her. Liani and Zyndalia were quick to follow. But as Rony rounded the corner of the building he saw Dianali disappear behind, he almost collided with her. She had stopped dead without warning leaving the other three to exercise their considerable dexterity in the successful efforts to prevent their own collisions.
"Di," said a perplexed and exacerbated Zyndalia, "What in all the lands is going on?"
But before Dianali could answer, Zyndalia's protests were halted as quickly as her steps because kneeling not more than fifty feet away from them was Borinth, his hands bound behind him, and his head being pushed down to rest on a chopping block.
"Let it be known," boomed a loud voice, "that this man stands charged, tried, and convicted of the highest crimes against our new Lord Jesolin. Punishment has been determined and will be rendered immediately." When the man finished, obviously a high-ranking official in the new regime, betrayed as such by the very ornate and intricate robes of black and red he was currently wearing, he stepped away from Borinth. Powerfully striding toward the kneeling man came a brute carrying an ax, the largest any of the four had ever seen, with malicious intent. The large man's skin seemed to dull the light around him enveloping him in a shadowy haze. With each step he took, a bubbling nausea built within the stomachs of the hopeful rescuers.
Dianali took two steps toward him, trying to accelerate into a run, but was felled before she even had a chance to begin. As she bent over from an exponentially increasing, stomach heaving sickness, the other three did the same. Within seconds, they were on all fours, retching from the combined assault to their physical senses. Dianali gathered her will and attempted to push up to one foot, but dropped to the ground from the effort. Rony tried to reach for his bow and arrow, but met with the same result as the woman seconds before. Zyn and Liani were, likewise, paralyzed by the profound nausea.
From the corner of her eye, as thick saliva dangled from her lips, and any hope she had in saving Borinth dangled from her mind, she saw a flash of brightly colored clothes. Though she was unable to summon enough strength to turn her head, her mind was clear enough to remember the strange elderly, multi-colored man and his vials of silvery liquid. She laboriously reached into her leather pouch and found all four vials. She was barely able to grasp one and raise it to her mouth. As the silver liquid coursed past her lips, leaving them chilled and refreshed, she felt the effects immediately begin to spread throughout her body. As if a living spring of the purest melted mountain snow began to bubble from the center of her soul, she felt it spread into every tissue.
Her muscles became alive again and her mind reached a level of lucidity she had not previously thought possible. In mere moments, she went from feeling as if she had contracted a world ending plague to being more alive and intensely focused than ever before. She saw the large executioner steady his feet and square his shoulders, preparing to raise his large axe. She had to act quickly. Her three companions were in no condition to drink the liquid on their own so she quickly administered it to them, holding their mouths closed forcing them to swallow. She did not wait for them to feel its effects to take hold, time would not permit it. She knew the official man was continuing to make his remarks, and she prayed silently that he was long winded. But when his voice stopped and she saw the man raise his axe slowly, she broke into a sprint, closing the distance more quickly and desperately than she thought she could. Though the next second passed quickly, she was able to focus on every detail. The guards’ faces grew in expectation, the executioner’s axe was lifted higher, the official’s grin grew into a smile, and the gathered crowd’s collective breath was held in anticipation of the fateful plummet. Time was getting short.
And then it ran out. Time slowed to an indescribable horror as she saw the huge axe, powered by rippling muscles and a collective desire for carnage, begin its descent toward the exposed neck of her leader, her inspiration, and her lover. She reached to grab her dagger, but knew it would not be in time. At almost the exact same moment as she saw the axe of her nightmare being its plummet, she felt a wisp of air pass by her ear flicking a wild lock of her hair. A split second later, she heard a loud clang as an arrow crashed against the metal blade of the axe forcing it off target and causing it to thud deeply into the large block of wood. The contact was forceful enough to topple the wooden block over knocking Borinth to the ground. Still holding her daggers at the ready, she reacted quickly and let them fly toward the official who was still struggling to figure out what had just happened. At the same moment, when the large man had bent over and was about to pull his axe free, Borinth forcefully stood up blasting the large man's chin with the back of his head.
Three more arrows flew before anyone could react. They, as well as Dianali's dagger, hit their marks and four bodies fell to the ground. The force of Borinth's head bash should have sent the large man reeling, ending him in an unconscious heap on the ground, but instead it barely stunned him seemingly only to anger him. He pulled the axe from its embedded home in the block and sliced at Borinth's waist. He was nearly cleaved in twine, but managed to dodge the slash. Yet in doing so, because his hands were bound behind his back, he left himself open to a killing blow aimed at his neck. As Dianali attempted to throw another dagger, hoping to distract the huge man from killing Borinth, she saw Liani streak past her, twin daggers flashing.
The small blonde woman, whom Dianali thought would have died in the first month she was with the mercenaries, leapt high into the air and flew at the executioner with both feet. Because he was in mid strike, the large man did not see her. Her feet connected with the side of his head. As he stumbled backward, two arrows embedded themselves deep within his chest, both in the location of his heart. But the man did not fall. He only stumbled backward, looked down at the arrows, perhaps as surprised as their owners, and grinned as he looked back at them.
From that grin the man imparted nothing of humanity. He should have been knocked unconscious by Borinth and then rendered dead by the dual arrows from Rony and Zyn, but he stood facing them, and smiled. He placed his hand on both arrows and closed his fingers around them. He pulled them slowly out together. He did not grim
ace though, instead his head inclined in raptured enjoyment, as if this moment had overcome him and he could do nothing but relish in its pleasure.
"We should go," said Rony as both he and Zyn rushed to Liani’s, who was standing ready for a fight. Everything happened so quickly that the guards had not responded yet.
"Quickly, before the guards come. We need to be away," added Borinth through his uncharacteristically weak voice as he joined them. Rony, Zyn, Dianali and Borinth made the initial motions to leave; however, Liani was not ready to relent the battle. "Quickly, time is running out!"
Breathing heavily from the excitement of a pending confrontation, Liani did not seem to hear either Rony or Borinth. Instead she was caught by the exhilarating empowerment they had all felt resulting from the strange and mysterious liquid. The man, after he had pulled out both arrows, raised his axe pointing it at the much smaller, blonde haired woman, taunting her to attack. Liani took an instinctive step forward, but was caught by the strong grip of Ronialdin's hand upon her shoulder. She turned, glaring at him, daring him to continue with his efforts preventing her from battle. When he did not withdraw his hand, her gazed softened and her eyes returned to their natural state.
"We must go!" he said to her.
"Now! The guards are coming!" yelled Zyndalia who was keeping watch at the edges of their surroundings.
All five of them darted around the corner of the building and back toward the city proper, hoping their appearance would be dissolved within the hustle and bustle of the city goers, who were all heading to their homes because of the imposed curfew. There was shouting from behind them, however, it did not sound like it was drawing closer. Right before she turned the corner, Dianali chanced a glance behind her to survey the action of the guards. When she did, she heard a large crash and saw a cart full of ale kegs spill onto the ground right as the guards were going to begin their pursuit. She saw a flash of bright colors from behind the cart and thought, though she could not be sure, she saw the ginning face of the same elderly man who had given them the liquid.
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