by B. H. Savage
“Anye, as a knight of Delrich, your sworn duty is to protect the citizens of your country,” King Edward began to say. “Launching a pre-emptive attack would be wise. We will ready our defenses regardless until you return.”
Anye looked between the two men as she held the weapon of her ancestor in her hand, unsure of what she should do. Could she defeat the Stragus alone? Hundreds, if not thousands, of people lost their lives fighting against him in the past, and even the combined strength of the heroes of legend couldn’t defeat him. Stragus was at full strength then though, as opposed to being able to access only a sliver of his power which supposedly weakened him significantly.
“Alistair, what do you think?” Anye asked as he held the blade up to her face.
“I cannot tell you how to use me,” Alistair answered. “The dark mage is weakened, of that I am certain, but he is still quite dangerous even while trapped in Del’Mond. The hold on time will not be broken until all three of the keys are returned or he gathers enough power to break the seal himself, in which the chances are growing ever more in his favor. Still, if there are any individuals who have fallen to the influence of the dark one and found their way to him, it would be wise to eliminate them before attempting to fight Stragus himself. His followers proved to be cunning in the past, and I would not doubt he has garnered new support since then beyond those of whom you are already aware.”
Anye thought silently for a minute. Neither of the people who stood with her said anything, but she already knew they thought it would be best if she departed and met her comrades there instead of waiting in Belrun. Both Eisenzahn and Glenn had said that every second they wasted gave Stragus more time to regain his strength. The choice, when put into that kind of light, seemed obvious.
“What do you need to do?” she asked the blade.
“Simply touch me to the stone and the seal will be broken,” Alistair told her.
“And the gateway will open?”
“Indeed it will.”
Anye took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. Her life had changed dramatically in an incredibly short time, from serving as a knight to being a fugitive, then traveling across the world and back, and now she was about to travel to a kingdom forgotten by history and turned into myth. She was amazed at herself for remaining sane in light of it all.
“Good luck, My Lady,” King Edward told her. He bowed his head and placed a hand over his heart. Lord Taggart did the same, and they both stepped away from Anye and the stone.
Anye raised the sword in front of her face one more time, looking at herself in the blue reflection of the blade before slowly lowering it to the top of the glowing rock.
They touched, and the soft light grew intense. A high pitched ping echoed within the room as the light engulfed Anye. She felt herself being pulled rapidly through something like a tunnel. She could hear noise, but none of it made any sense. The light was so bright she could barely keep her eyes open, but it only lasted a second. When the brightness faded and her eyes adjusted, Anye found that she was in a chamber that looked nearly identical to the one she was just in.
A telltale sign that the room was indeed a different location was that there were several stones, not just one. Strangely there was no color anywhere. Everything she could see was a shade of grey. She wasn’t sure if it was her eyes having been affected by the sudden teleportation or not. There was also no sound except for her breathing, and there was no soft glow from the rocks like in Belrun. It was a strange feeling, as if she truly didn’t belong, or even mean to exist there. She started to walk towards the corridor that looked like it would lead her out of the chamber, but nausea struck her swiftly and she fell to the ground retching.
“Oh yes, I forgot about that…magical teleportation can have that effect,” Alistair joked as she spit up what was in her stomach.
Anye was in no mood or position to deal with the sword’s spirit and tossed it to the side while she dealt with her stomach’s unpleasantness. She hated the way nausea felt; thought it made her helpless. The feeling passed quickly enough, and she eventually got back on her feet.
“Please…give me some warning next time,” Anye asked as she walked over to where the weapon landed. She gripped the sword’s handle tightly before sheathing it.
“If it keeps you from throwing me away like common garbage then I’ll comply,” Alistair commented in huffy offended tone.
The quietness of everything around her was unsettling. When she reached the end of the walkway, she found a door that was surprisingly not made of stone, but wood, which indicated that this room, unlike the counterpart in Belrun, was not a secret. She opened the wooden door, expecting to find herself in some other grand castle or hall, or anything other than what she found.
The door opened to reveal a fountain, surrounded by trees and paths. The buildings all around her had been damaged by some sort of battle, but the eerie thing about it all was that, like inside the room, there was absolutely no color anywhere, even in the sky.
Bits of stone from the buildings that had been fragmented off during the apparent battle hung in the air, unmoving. She couldn’t tell what time of day it was, there was no wind, no birds chirping, no anything.
Stills of people clad in armor clashing with creatures that looked like the ones she fought at the tower where she received Alistair stood all around her. It took a minute of looking around, but Anye eventually realized that the curse placed on Del’Mond, freezing it in time was not figurative. The location wasn’t simply hidden away, left to decay in the annals of time. It was a literal effect, and that the statues she remembered from the tower at the desert mountain were the same as the statues around her, people and monsters that had been caught in the curse all those centuries ago.
______
As Anye explored the frozen kingdom, she marveled at how beautiful it was even in its present state. She wondered what it must have been like before the battle. Magnificent gardens and fountains were everywhere, and in what Alistair told her was the center of the city was a giant structure that rivaled the largest castles she’d ever seen. The sword told her that it was called the Temple of the Gods, built in tribute to the divine beings that gave shape and life to the world, where the high priests would pray and where Stragus made his last stand. There was no sign of anything not frozen in time anywhere, and Anye wasn’t sure if she should be relieved by that or worried.
“Who’s there?” an elderly voice echoed around her suddenly.
Anye drew Alistair and looked around quickly, but saw that there was nobody around. “Who are you!?” she yelled. “Show yourself!”
Surprisingly wind started to blow around her, but nothing in the environment moved to it. It was a strange and chilling feeling to say the least.
“Ah, the second of the keys has returned…” the elderly voice whispered through the wind. “And you…a child of Armonde, I see…”
“Steel yourself, Anye,” Alistair said. “You’re speaking with Stragus Markal.”
“What!?” she exclaimed.
“Does it surprise you, child?” Stragus’ voice whispered around her.
“You’re supposed to be frozen here, along with everyone else!” Anye yelled around her. Stragus wasn’t making himself seen, but that was probably intentional to make her nervous and throw her off guard. “How are you free?”
“Oh, I am far from free, child…” he replied through the dreadful wind. “But the magic of your ancestors was never strong enough to truly contain me, though I admit they did succeed in keeping me trapped here…until now.”
“What do you mean!?” Anye shouted. “What do you mean ‘until now!?’”
“I grow tired of speaking with you…” Stragus replied. “Kiya…kill her, and bring the sword to me.”
“Kiya…?” Anye questioned, but as the wind ceased she felt a surge of magic from behind her and spun in time to raise her shield and block a ball of fire that had been thrown at her. “Kiya!”
Across the way
in front of a collapsed building stood Kiya Sturmwind. Her long blonde hair rested over her shoulders like it did when Anye last saw her. She wore the same black robes as before, except this time the hood was down, exposing her features even more. For as twisted as she was, she was a physically beautiful woman.
“Well, if it isn’t Glenn’s little robin, flown so far from her nest,” Kiya taunted. Her hands were empty, which was unusual, for most mages usually held staves, like Amadi, to help focus their energy. Either she was very foolish, or she had been granted extraordinary power, and remembering that she had bested Amadi once it was likely to be the latter.
“Kiya, why are you doing this!?” Anye yelled at her. “Why did you betray Delrich? Why did you betray Glenn?”
Kiya laughed at the girl’s questions. “Delrich? I never served Delrich, or its foolhardy king and prince. And Glenn…well, he was a little fun. I’m sure you agree. Why, you’re practically glowing!”
Anye was outraged at the woman and charged at her. Kiya grinned and prepared for the assault, floating away with her powers to avoid being sliced by the armed woman’s sword. “Careful now, little bird, lest you hurt yourself,” she taunted.
“Foul woman!” Anye blurted out. “What reason could you possibly have to justify all of this!?”
“My reasons?” Kiya asked as she flung shards of conjured ice at Anye’s shield. “For power!” As she yelled she channeled a bolt of lightning through her hands towards Anye.
Anye saw the attack coming and knew that her shield alone was useless against something like that without a protective charm of some sort, so she did what her only option was and jumped away to avoid it. She used her own powers to place a protective barrier in front of the shield just in case the mage decided to try something like that again. Kiya was much more powerful than Anye expected her to be, and wished she had more time to fight her before. With nothing to compare her to, she was essentially fighting blind. Not knowing what the limits of her opponent were was one of her biggest pet-peeves.
“You’re quick, I’ll give you that,” Kiya commented as she landed on the ground. “You may even hold out against me for a while…but I wonder how my dear husband is faring?”
“What? What do you mean?” Anye yelled.
“Take a look,” Kiya answered. She waved her hands around before her, charging magic in her hands. A second later she shot the gathered energy outward towards Anye, guiding it to land just at her feet. The spell didn’t appear to have any offensive properties, rather giving her a view of another part of Del’Mond like a window. It showed Glenn dueling with Amador, and Eisenzahn battling in the sky with Oscar. “How is my husband faring?”
“Glenn!” Anye shouted, but he couldn’t hear her through the projection. He looked to be holding his own, but Amador was fast and hitting hard, using his own magic to turn the tide in his favor.
Kiya used the distraction to her advantage and flew up to Anye quickly without her noticing until the last second, and moved to kick her in the head. Unfortunately for Kiya, Anye’s reflexes were well honed, and she managed to lower her head beneath her shield and push the mage away from her.
“Damn you, Kiya!” Anye shouted. “You and Amador will pay for this!”
“If it weren’t us it would merely have been someone else, Anye,” Kiya told her. “The dark one’s influence is quite strong. There are those who don’t even realize they were having their strings pulled…like your friend in Belrun. What was his name? Micah?”
“What?”
"Well you didn't believe he really thought it would be wise for you to come here by yourself, did you?" Kiya taunted. "You're more foolish than we thought."
"And yet here I still stand," Anye replied. "I suppose it's too bad for you I'm not as dim-witted as you."
Kiya's attitude changed in response to the taunt thrown her way. Her smile and cocky gesture faded and were replaced with aggression and annoyance. "So you got lucky," she snorted. "Everyone's luck runs out."
"Yes, it does!"
Anye acted on instinct and reinforced the enchantment on her shield as she sprinted towards her opponent. The magic boost she had tapped into before felt more natural as she summoned its energy, and she felt herself feeling what Kiya was planning on doing as the spells materialized.
She blocked away a few small bolts of magic with her shield as she approached the blonde mage and readied her sword to strike. Anye was a skilled fighter, but Kiya was an adept mage who wasn't wearing any armor, and thus was more agile than Anye. When Anye swung her arm, she released some magic she had charged into the blade, which appeared to cut the very air where Kiya was standing, leaving behind an after-image of the weapon swinging.
The women danced around each other, each trying as hard as they could to kill the other. Kiya was too fast for Anye to follow completely while casting her own spells continuously, but whatever defensive and enhancing charms she could conjure she did due to the nature of her enemy. Safety and survival were paramount; she’d reminded herself enough in the recent days that brash thinking and acting without forethought could be fatal. Still, whatever she did manage to land on Kiya didn't seem to be enough. Each second that passed made it feel more evident that she would need to fully enter the enlightened state.
"You can't defeat me with your amateur level abilities, girl," Kiya teased as she created some distance between Anye and herself. "Just give up. It'll be easier!"
Kiya launched another fireball at Anye which she easily cut through with her sword. "And why would I want to do that?"
Both women ran at each other again, each flinging insults at one another and simply pissing the other one off even more. Neither really gained any ground on the other, a small cut or a burn here and there but nothing particularly threatening to them aside from each woman's growing fatigue.
"Master, you need to stop holding back!" Alistair yelled at her. "You can't beat her as you are. You will lose!"
"What if I become too weak to fight against Stragus?" Anye asked.
"You can't help your friends fight him if you're dead!"
"Starting to go delirious?" Kiya teased. "Allow me to put you out of your misery!"
Kiya lit her hand on fire and swiped at Anye with her hand like a blade. Anye avoided the attacks but doing so was draining. Anye knew that she should tap in to the powers that lay dormant, but her pride didn't let her. She wanted to beat Glenn's traitorous wife, needed to, without them.
"Master, listen to me!" Alistair pleaded with her.
The sword's incessant begging was making Anye even angrier and agitated, but she noticed that in her building rage she was becoming more focused than before. Her attacks were getting more accurate, and her shield strikes more powerful. She had focused, and started turning the tide of the battle in her favor.
Kiya seemed to become annoyed at her inability to easily dispatch the red-haired knight, and was getting sloppy with her spell casting. Each fireball, blast of wind, lightning bolt, and shard of ice she conjured grew weaker and weaker. "Why won't you die!?" she yelled as she floated herself away from Anye to get some distance and hopefully regain some of her strength.
Anye wasn't having it and made a gamble based on her instincts. Alistair knew what she was planning and shouted in protest, but she ignored him. Using all of the strength she could muster, she flung the weapon point-first at her foe.
Kiya saw the weapon flying towards her and swatted it away easily, placing a grin on her face as she expected to be able to throw some quick witted remark about what a fool Anye was, but the moment she opened her mouth to speak Anye's shield came upward and slammed in to her chin. Her head jerked back as the cold metal hit her jaw.
Anye, in a moment of tactical genius, had used the thrown blade as a distraction to cast a speed enchantment on herself and sprint up next to Kiya so she could land the blow with her shield. While Kiya was stunned from the impact, Anye reached her hand outward and summoned the sword back to her. When the weapon reached her fingertips,
she gripped the handle tightly and quickly shoved the tip of the blade through the witch's gut, forcing it through her body until it was exposed through her back and dripped with her blood.
Kiya's eyes opened widely, shocked at what had happened, and lowered her head slowly to see the blade that stuck through her. Anye was holding her up with her shield arm, but the cold, stern look of determination in her eyes spoke volumes. Kiya had been defeated, and Anye was damn proud of it. The blonde mage tried to speak, but the words wouldn't form. Anye pushed the blade further through her body, prompting her to cough up some blood in place of what she was trying to say while increasing her already obvious pain.
Anye remained silent as she stared into Kiya’s dying eyes. The woman had essentially stood in her way for many years, and had betrayed the man she loved. There was no room for mercy, only disdain and pity for the sorry state Kiya had placed herself in.
Anye pulled her sword from her dying opponent's chest, but held her up for a second to say something before she let her fall and die. Her honor as a knight compelled her to, no matter how much she hated the woman. "Find peace in the afterlife, for there is none for you here," she told her, and gently let the woman go.
Kiya fell on her back. The blood from her mortal wound stained the black robes she wore, and spilled into a large red puddle that contrasted the gray timeless landscape. Her eyes looked around painfully, filled with panic as she coughed her last breaths of air, still apparently in disbelief that she had been beaten. She tried to raise a hand towards Anye, but whether it was out of anger and a vain attempt to cast one last spell, or a final gesture of pleading, Anye didn't know. When she gave her last breath, the hand fell to the ground and the woman remained motionless.
Anye remained standing over her fallen opponent for a few minutes while catching her breath and calming her nerves. Each fight she found herself in had been increasingly more difficult than the last, but she always survived. And just like the battles she fought in during the war, she always would.
