by Ian Carter
"Do we fight our way out?" Kai asked Josiah as they both moved towards the door. "I'm itching to get some revenge here."
"Now, now, Your Highness," Josiah said. "I need to do something first." Josiah held out his Silver Blade. "Silence." A ghostly white glowed from one of his Stones. "This Stone allows me to silence whomever I cut for ten minutes. I will engage anyone we can't slip past and cut them, rendering them silent. We take them out only after I do this. Remember what I said, if something bad happens, use your invisibility to find one of the City Guard. Are you ready?"
"Just remember that I can hold my own Josiah," Kai confirmed. "Let's go."
Josiah led the way out of the room and moved with Kai to the left, the opposite direction that Wolston had gone moments earlier. They moved at a brisk walk as they hopped from lantern to lantern down the corridors that twisted and turned. The solid rock walls and roofs were natural, as they were probably carved out by winding waterways over thousands of years. It was silly to think of such trivial things, like how the pathways were made, but Kai imagined nonetheless.
The two of them came to an intersection in the hallway, and Josiah quickly stopped Kai with a hand signal. Three sentries stood down the hall underneath one of the sparsely placed lamps about 20 meters from where they stood. As Kai evaluated the group of men, Josiah took Kai's hand and nicked it with his Blade. Kai mouthed the word 'Ow,' but no sound left his lips. Kai looked at his hand and attempted a few more words, but, as before, no sound emanated from him.
Josiah smiled, gave a small wink to Kai, waved his hand towards the men, and began to run towards the intruders, which forced Kai to follow. As Josiah bounded towards the three, he took his Blade in his right hand, rotated it in a full circle, and nicked his ankle. As what had happened to Kai, his body movements fell utterly silent.
In a marvellous bout of swordsmanship, as his Blade lifted from his ankle, Josiah jumped into the air and began to rotate his body. Mid rotation, he released his clasped hand and repositioned it on his Blade's grip. In one complete and clean motion, he sliced the back of the two sentries that faced away from him and pushed them over. As the two cannibals fell to the ground in silence, Josiah stopped the motion of his Blade. He thrust it forward into the chest of the third man, who stood in shock at his attacker's surprise ambush.
As the two silenced men attempted to raise from the ground behind Josiah, Kai took Initiation and severed the heads of both men clean from their necks. Josiah turned around just as their bodies crumpled to the ground, heads rolling off into the darkness. Josiah stared at Kai in a look of near disbelief as Kai's hands trembled underneath his leather gloves,
He surveyed the aftermath of their surprise attack. Three men laid dead in front of him. The stark reality of the world crashed down on Kai. His mission to take down Terrell was not a trip to have fun with friends. It would be a journey of carnage, with real corpses of real people that lived their lives just as he did. The blood from the men slowly seeped towards Kai's boots and caused him to step backward and drop to his knees. The pungent scent that lifted from the blood into his nostrils instantly made Kai nauseous. He questioned whether or not he could take the many lives that the mission needed. To kill people; to kill more people than just what laid before him.
A hand grasped Kai's shoulder, which jolted him back into the moment. Josiah's firm stare matched his grasp, and he stared into Kai's eyes as if to say he understood. That indeed, Kai had murdered a man, but that the situation demanded that they kill or be killed. They had slain criminals. Kai gave a soft nod as he raised to his feet, shook his head, and smacked himself in silence before he jogged after Josiah down the dark tunnels again.
The rest of the journey out of the mountain was uneventful as Josiah managed to lead Kai through the dark twists and turns and eventually reach the entrance. Both Hayleigh and Mason stood guard at the cave's entrance, Blades drawn, ready to cut down any of the cannibals. Kai's face reached the moonlight that filtered through the overcast sky and silently collapsed at Hayleigh's feet. She quickly laid her Blade on the ground and threw her arms around Kai as she cried stress tears. Mason promptly took up a defensive position between his comrades and the cave. A look of relief washed over his face knowing just how big of a situation they overcame. Shortly afterward, the silence effect from Josiah's Blade dissipated, and Kai's heavy breathing became audible to the ears around him.
"I'm glad you made it Your Highness," Mason playfully chimed. "I'm glad a few kidnappers can't tie you down. But, for the rest of this voyage, you will not leave our sides. I hope you will understand."
"I'll agree with you this time Mason," Kai sighed as his breathing steadied. Considering his history with Hayleigh, he would never have imagined him collapsing into her arms. It felt warm and safe being around his companions again. Josiah looked at the two in their embrace for a moment before he cleared his throat.
"My Men will clear the cave system looking for the children," Josiah stated. "We can't take Wolston's word that they're dead, so I'll be going back to help look." He turned his attention to Mason. "Will you two be okay here with the prince?"
"Of course," Mason shot back. "The reason we're in this mess is that he wasn't with us in the first place. I see now that I placed too much faith in the City Guard, and I will not be making that mistake again. Even if it means disobeying the prince."
"Fair enough," Josiah replied. His gaze met with Hayleigh's blurred eyes. "I'll be right back. Don't worry about me too much," Josiah said with a wink.
"Don't you dare get hurt in there!" Hayleigh shouted with gravel in her voice. "I won't forgive you if you do!" Josiah came up to Hayleigh and planted a kiss on her forehead and brushed aside her hair. He slowly raised himself up and then quickly bounded back into the cave's darkness. Mason, Hayleigh, and Kai slowly gathered themselves and took up a position to watch the cave entrance.
◆◆◆
Josiah burst through the wooden door into the room where he rescued Kai in the minutes previous. A dozen city guards flowed into the room around him, expecting a stiff challenge, but there was nothing to be seen. The dark blood-stained ground remained as it was, but all of the kidnappers' equipment had disappeared. Even the table and chairs had vanished into thin air. Only thirty or thirty-five minutes had passed since Josiah had taken Kai out of the room, so the only expression on his face was stunned confusion.
"Everyone spread out into the cave and do your best to find Wolston! He is the leader, and he's dressed up as some kind of weird pirate. He kidnapped our prince, and we cannot let that slight against Erkau stand!" Following a loud cheer, the guards exited the room and ran to the left. Josiah took one last glance around the room with an aggravated sigh before he left the room himself to find Wolston.
He bounded down the dark corridor, torch in hand, as the wall lights had been extinguished by the kidnappers. He could hear the shouts of 'clear' his guards further into the system with the odd torchlight moving in a new direction. As Josiah was running down the corridor, a warm breeze softly brushed against his arm, which caused him to stop.
He moved to the right side of the corridor and felt around until his fingers found a small gap in the wall. Josiah nicked his arm quickly with his Blade to mute his actions before he slid his Blade into the hole. He moved his sword up the gap in search of anything he could find until his Blade came across some resistance. Josiah shone his torch up against the wall and saw that a rope was keeping the door shut. He forced his edge quickly though the rope and the wall instantly gave a little. Josiah ran his torch across the wall until he found the gap on the other side of the door. He quickly sliced up the rope and then stepped back in case the entry was booby-trapped.
The stone door slowly fell backward like a chopped tree until it made a thunderous noise as it landed. The immediate tunnel was black with a staircase leading downwards. A faint light emitted near the bottom of the stairs as a hint to where they may have gone. Josiah stood on guard at the entrance until his silence ended,
and he could hear his breaths again.
"Guards!" Josiah yelled into the tunnels, and shortly after, two city guards from either direction of Josiah rushed to his side. "I'm confident this is where they have escaped. Both of you need to grab as many guards as you can in the next five minutes and get down these stairs and find me." Both guards nodded and sprinted off in their separate directions. Josiah nicked himself with his Blade once more and descended the stairs like a ghost.
The light became bright as the path became lined with torches every five feet, so Josiah discarded his torch and began sprinting down the tunnel. He searched the linings of the walls for hints of another possible secret entrance but found nothing. After turning a corner, he came up behind a man writing on a piece of parchment. Without breaking his stride, the man crumpled to the ground after one quick slice of his Blade. As blood gushed from the man's wound, Josiah continued and came upon the next doorway. He slowed down as an angry growl came from the room.
"Get a move on you dolts. We're going to get caught if you take your sweet time. The prince is already gone, we can't waste any time!"
Josiah rushed up and threw himself against the wall next to the doorway after recognizing Wolston's voice. He readied his Blade, slowly peeked around the door frame to investigate and saw two men and two women moving supplies further down another tunnel. Faint rummaging came from the path leading beyond the room, and it sounded like many different sounds. Josiah pondered if maybe it was a loading dock, and the kidnappers were loading wagons to escape. As the last woman carried away a box out of sight, he took the chance and moved into the room. Josiah approached Wolston's back slowly and about three meters away from his target, the dirt softly crunched under his foot.
"Ah, and whom do we have here?" Wolston threw aside his parchment and whirled around, sword drawn from its scabbard. He looked frantically behind Josiah, but then quickly laughed. "Just you, boy? What is it with me only getting to deal with the men? You couldn't have sent the young red-headed lass?" He quickly threw up his sword to block a slash from Josiah's Blade and retreated backward a few steps.
"I think I hit a nerve with you, boy."
"You should be grateful that it's me and not her," Josiah responded. "She is twice as skilled as me and would have dealt with you in a single strike."
"Oh, I would have liked to see her try. Maybe if I kill you and wait a while, she might come charging through that door, and we may yet be acquainted." Wolston laughed and licked his lips at the thought. Josiah's grip tightened on his Blade as he leaped in for another attack.
The two foes traded slashes back and forth for several seconds. Josiah used his greater strength to push Wolston backward with his attacks. At the same time, Wolston's exceptional technique allowed him to parry many of the strikes and counter with his own. Josiah slowly felt Wolston's deflections getting less sure and more erratic as it became clear he was getting tired from the relentless pacing of the fight. He took advantage by doing a full rotation of his Blade in the air and crushed it against Wolston's sword, sending it flying against the far wall. With a metal tip staring him in the eye, Wolston immediately threw his hands up in defeat.
"Aye, lad. You have one hell of a pair of arms on you."
"I wish I could say the same for you. It would have been more of a challenge than just besting you on strength alone. Alas, it's not the time for fun. Paralysis!" A green glow activated at the base of his Blade as Josiah nicked his opponent's hand. At the moment of the cut, Wolston's body went limp and fell to the ground.
"What the fuck did you do to me, boy?"
"Just some minor paralysis. It'll wear off in about fifteen minutes," replied Josiah. "But by then, my men will have gotten here, and we will then capture everyone beyond that doorway there."
"They had better be here in a few seconds you brat, or you're not going to have a good experience."
"You're going to face your crimes, Wolston. You and your merry band of minions are going to spend the re—"
A bright flash of purple light enveloped the room, which caused Josiah to shield his eyes. As soon as the light faded away, Josiah felt an immense pressure on his body.
"Oh ... you made a friend, Wolston." The voice sent shivers down Josiah's spine. It was the coldest and most stoic voice he had ever heard.
"Sir! He was about to kill me and arrest all of your test subjects!" Wolston stammered from the ground, still unable to move."
"Well, if he didn't plan to, he would be a fool of a Watchman..." The man turned and took a step towards Josiah. His black robe was decorated with many deep red symbols and sigils in a paint that could easily be confused for blood. The man concealed all of his body features with long sleeves and loose robes. The cuffs and bottom of the gown were finished with brilliant red and decorated with many of the same designs elsewhere on the robe except finished with slightly off-black paint. A mist covered the front of the hood, which prevented his face from being seen.
"I am the master here, young man. A proper subject knows when to kneel, so kneel." His right hand emerged from his sleeve, showcasing a dazzling ring on each finger. The ring on his thumb began to emit a deep brown glow.
Josiah felt that same pressure he felt earlier exponentially increase, and it caused him to fall on his knees. The weight of a boulder seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and this weight caused Josiah to yelp out in surprise. After a few seconds struggling with the pressure, he finally collapsed to the ground, unable to move.
"Are you ... controlling gravity?" Josiah managed to meek out his words in between the short breaths he was able to take.
"Oh, correct on your first guess? Impressive. Wolston couldn't comprehend it if his life depended on it."
"Sir, gravity is a somewhat recent concept in Ori..."
"Silence."
Wolston immediately ceased talking and instead looked to the ceiling in fear.
"How long until his paralysis wears off, young man?" The hooded figure asked Josiah.
"I'm no ... not telling ... you any ... thing." Josiah struggled under the incredible pressure he felt on his body to take his defiant stand.
"How annoying," the man dismissed coldly. "I guess I'll have to do things myself ..." With another flash of brown from his hand, everything remaining in the room began to float. With a flick of his wrist, everything in view, including Wolston, was quickly sent out of the room. The invisible force led everything down the corridor towards the area with the ceaseless rustling and murmuring. A few seconds later, the mysterious figure turned to leave the room as well but hesitated. He then altered his attention back to Josiah, who remained on the floor, and faced him.
"How many of you are in these tunnels?" His hand lifted slightly, and Josiah gasped for breath.
"You might as well kill me, I'm not telling you anything," Josiah rebelled. "How are you using Stones without a Blade! Only Blades can use Stones!"
"If you do not answer my questions, I will send a pyroclastic flame of incredible heat through every inch of the tunnels in this mountain. Every single person will die due to your pride," he threatened. "How many of you are in the tunnels?" After a brief moment of hesitation, Josiah folded.
"There should be around fifty of us in the cave system at the moment," Josiah divulged.
"Just fifty? I thought you would take us more seriously. I was expecting at least a hundred—"
"We would never need a hundred of anything to take care of the likes of you." After his answer, a soft pattering of boot steps echoed through the tunnel coming from the mountain. A smile cracked across Josiah's face, which quickly faded after he witnessed the man expose his hand out from the end of his robe.
"I was willing to dismiss your disrespect initially, but you have made me angry," the man stated in his still monotone voice. "I will cleanse your men from this earth for your insolence." An exceptionally brilliant orange light began to emit from his right hand, originating from his pinky finger.
"Wait, you told me you wouldn't hurt them if I
gave you answers!" Josiah pleaded.
"I only told you what I would do if you didn't answer, I never said what would happen if you did." A deep and short laugh echoed out from underneath his hood as he directed his hand upwards that resulted in a blinding light filling the room.
◆◆◆
Kai, Mason, and Hayleigh found themselves fifty meters to the east of the entrance to the cave. Mason stood at attention, hand on his Blade's hilt, as Hayleigh sat beside Kai with her arm around him. About forty-five minutes had passed since Josiah had gone back inside the mountain. No-one had emerged from the entrance yet.
"Are you good, Prince Kai?" Hayleigh asked him.
"I'm fine. I'm sorry I worried all of you. I was just sitting on my bed, and I got hit in my neck. By the time I realized what it was, I passed out. Then I woke up in a cage after Wolston threw a bucket of water on me."
