by Beaux Riley
"Sargent, bring in the witness." Stratus ordered his guard and no sooner did Stratus finish his sentence, did a hooded being walk into the bar, pointed by the Sargent towards Stratus and the prince.
The being sat beside them, seemingly in a hurry. Quickly the two noticed it was a woman, an elf in fact.
"My lords, I am honored you took the chance to meet with me." The woman's voice was soothing and a change of pace. She was short and wore glasses, an uncommon sight in Saebel. She removed her hood to reveal that her hair was all white and extremely wild; her ears were not as long as many elves they'd come across from Ela'syn Forest.
"Welcome, Madam Adestrin. I am sorry to keep you from your archivist duties." Stratus seemed to know this woman, or young girl in fact. Elves aged much differently than humans, and she seemed different from her counterpart elves.
"Please, everyone knows me as Lizoke. You've visited my library enough to call me that, Lord Omni." Lizoke smiled. Her smile disappeared when she met eyes with Teravin, clearly smelling the alcohol on him. "My King." She said simply and bowed her head. Teravin nodded his head awkwardly.
"What do you know, Miss...Lizoke, about my father's death and to add, why haven't you reported it?" Teravin asked calmly, as he eyed her unusual appearance.
"Who is there to report to anymore, my King?" The words stung as Teravin realized that with no supporters to Secorim existing, that Lizoke's life could be put into jeopardy.
"It took a moment to truly understand that." Teravin most likely meant that her report would fall on deaf ears or have her dealt with.
A knock came at the door. The Sargent opened it and made eye to eye contact with another woman of silver-hair. She was beautiful to say at the least. She stopped for a moment, looking at the Sargent’s eyes and then regained her composure and spoke softly.
"I am Lady Adestrin's personal guard, Kilo Dans Thou." Her voice was calm. She was still looking at the Sargent as he nodded. "I have my orders to accompany her, regardless of situation, do you mind?" The woman stood as tall as the Sargent, he smiled at her and stood to the side as she looked warily at Lizoke.
"Not at all, ma'am. I'm Asa Koen Omni. It's a pleasure to meet you." Asa offered a hand and Kilo shook his. Stratus looked over angrily and spoke out to Asa and Kilo.
"If you two are done flirting." The two blushed and returned to either side of the door, waiting for their counterparts to finish the interaction.
Lizoke tried her best to keep her composure and didn't look at Kilo as she spoke.
"Kilo, you need not keep watch over me like a puppy. The Zirris have done fine." Kilo, feeling insulted, said nothing. Lizoke continued. "My King, there is a conspiracy going on. The men following Lord Keth have been taking archives of the late King Secorim and burning them. This is strictly forbidden and defeats my damn job's purpose!" Lizoke slammed her fist on the table. "I saw them...it was during my travel to Saebel to drop off scrolls and pick up records from the city's main Archivum. They dumped a body in the river."
Everyone in the room went silent. Teravin was emotionless, listening intently. He first wondered how she wasn't seen.
"They didn't see you as they committed this crime?" Teravin asked softly. Lizoke with tears building up, shook her head.
"Did you...recover the body?" Stratus asked plainly.
"It was someone else. He is not with us right now, He's guarding the body until we could reach you. I understand the severity of the situation." Lizoke had a hard time saying this, having a dead body in her possession, and not just any body, but that of Grand Secorim. She was obviously scared.
"We need to go recover it, now." Stratus rose and motioned to Asa, who stood at attention. Lizoke quickly arose, knowing they'd need to be escorted to 'his' location. Teravin arose last, his mind racing. He'd not seen his father in years. To see his lifeless body, was far too much.
He began to feel sick. Images of his father's body was flooding every thought he had as he walked slowly behind the fast-moving Stratus. Teravin was not paying attention at this point.
The five eventually came to a house situated in the outskirts of Maiden's Point. Lizoke was sure to keep her hood on and when she unlocked the door, she was met with a large man, much taller than others. He was blonde, a feature not common in Saebel, but abundant in the eastern country of Averia.
The tall figure stood aside for the five as they entered. A single burning candle illuminated the room. A white blanket was covering the shape of a large body and had a single hand laying revealed. Teravin scrambled passed the new stranger and his group and dropped to his knees by the right hand.
"Father. This should have never happened." Stratus placed a hand on Teravin's shoulder.
"Are we ready?" The stranger, yet to introduce himself, reached for the blanket and slowly removed it.
The face of Grand Secorim was unveiled, waterlogged and pale. He still wore some form of royalty attire, a long white sleeve shirt that had been torn up in a struggle, and some dark pants. His legs were cut badly. The body had long since stopped bleeding. Stratus had regretfully began to inspect his former King's body. Under his left breast, a cut the length of a blade had pierced his flesh and left a green gooey substance in its wake. Stratus assumed this was poison.
"It's clear. We cannot prove that the King was killed." Stratus' words were met with silent responses.
"What...how?" Lizoke was facing away from Grand's corpse as she questioned Stratus.
"We have a dead body, not a suspect. Whomever did this, managed to get away with it." Stratus was right. Even with Lizoke's testimonial, she didn't know who did this or why.
"Stratus." Teravin turned to the Zirris leader, who returned the same stare back to him.
"Yes, my King?"
"Ready your men. Rally ever soldier you can muster. We are taking back Saebel."
***
Teravin stood quietly, his head staring at the floor beneath him. He recalled the days leading up to this. The Zirris had invaded Saebel. Lord Keth had begun executing sympathizers to Grand Secorim, with the generals supporting him initiating the executions. Teravin allowed anarchy, or caused it, he didn't know which. Keth had been slowly turning Saebel into a dictatorship.
Stratus and other officials who had been thrown out of office had stationed themselves within some ruined buildings to cover from attacks as archers had been employed to protect the castle.
Saebel had been naturally designed to have a lower area that populated the working class of the country. The upper tier had been separated by a wall that rose nearly thirty feet, preventing any kind of sieges. Stratus also mentioned several times how its design prevented Saebel from retreating half of its population in a crisis and was a major flaw. It was, however, beneficial for the Zirris as they were able to evacuate the majority of the non-combatants during the invasion. The Zirris was only a fourth of the size of the Royal Army that the King once commanded, but were considered much more efficient at thwarting any threats that came their way.
The Zirris Commander found himself cut off from his other soldiers. Stratus was surrounded by men and women he'd formerly worked beside under Grand's leadership. At least sixteen soldiers had enclosed Stratus in one of the alleyways between two houses, with eight on either side of him.
Stratus was tired from endless days of staying awake moving his soldiers from one place to another. He held a single sword and felt his armor was at its limit. Tattered and broken, he stood defiant against Keth's soldiers.
"Surrender, Omni." A voice called out, echoing through the alley.
Stratus recognized the voice of the soldier to be Aya Cromwell. Aya was a brown haired woman with freckles. She had always been a politician and not a soldier. Among the soldiers she stood with, she was clearly shorter. Stranger still, he noticed that she was unarmed. She might be a commander and this gave Stratus an idea.
"Aya, I don't expect you to trust me, but if you want this war to end, duck." Stratus yelled out as the other soldiers closed in to
arrest or kill him. He didn't wait to see and raised both his arms to face each end of the alley. The same Light that the paladins were known to produce emerged from his hands, but in a different feel. The power was much more violent and explosive. It had no warmth, only a shocking sensation to those nearby. The power launched from the palms of his hands and burst through the soldiers without discrimination as though cutting through butter with a hot knife.
The soldiers fell to the ground. A single large hole was left for whomever was directly in the blast. Not a moment after the soldiers fell, Stratus approached each of them, removing their helmets and placing a hand over the gaping hole he'd left. One by one, right after placing his hand on their chest, they stopped moving. His hand seemed to be taking back that same energy he exerted into their bodies.
Stratus stood and appeared to no longer be tired. He stretched and then bowed his head for the fallen soldiers.
Aya was not among them. She did as Stratus instructed and was thankful he warned her. At the same moment she was appreciating her life, she looked at the soldiers she was forced to command and how their lives had ended.
"You didn't have to kill them." Aya told Stratus shaking with grief. "What was that magic?"
"I didn't want to. I couldn’t save the two of us and stop them." Stratus words came at the reasoning that he valued her life more than theirs. She noticed that he didn't answer her question. Maybe it was for good reason that he avoided it. "Come with me. The Zirris will protect you while we make our last push at the castle."
Aya had little choice. She didn't want to follow Keth's reign any more than be a part of this war.
***
Hours passed as the archers kept Stratus' men away from the walls. A rain of arrows on occasion kept them aware that the threat of being struck was still present. Stratus began to realize their efforts were at a stalemate.
"The gates are too well guarded. Keth doesn't want us getting in." Asa said looking over the maps and layout of Saebel. "It'd take too long to bring in any kind of heavier artillery than what we currently have, father."
Stratus stood across from his son in a rounded table, alongside Aya, Teravin and the man who had saved Grand's corpse, Archen Crowlis. Archen was an Averian. He had hair that had long since become showered with white through his youthful blonde color. His height seemed to set him apart from many others, usually standing a foot taller.
Crowlis looked down at Asa and pointed to a sewage outlet into the city's wall.
"Here." He said slowly. "If we had any kind of explosives, we could at least bottleneck our forces in."
"We'd have to find a way to stay out of sight of the archers, I've lost five good Zirris to those bastards; which will not happen again, my friend." Asa considered their options, which began to dwindle.
Stratus began to struggle with his opinion. His power that he demonstrated to Aya could potentially break the sewer gates. It'd knock him out, he thought to himself.
"I have a way to break it open-" Stratus stopped as he felt a quake from beneath the ground. All of Saebel began to shake violently. He called for everyone to leave the building and saw a great white light coming from the north, what seemed to be Stoneholt Mountain.
Immediately memories began to flood of living in Lossetta, losing his wife and the paladins of Zahn. Stratus cursed and denied that they could be here.
"Get...." The Light pierced through the lower half of Saebel as he spoke. "...DOWN!"
It was too late. The resistance had been enveloped by this glowing Light and they feared they'd be dead. All around Stratus, his soldiers fell into a deep sleep.
Stratus, however, did not.
He felt the energies in his body begin to shift, weights being lifted from him.
An idea came to him quickly. He reached down for the table and broke the legs of it to carry the massive circle of wood above his head. He turned his head towards Asa, who was on his side, deep asleep.
"I'll be back, son. I promise."
Stratus left the others to sleep and made his way towards the sewage gate.
Above him on the wall, the archers did not strike. They'd been blinded by the wave of light that covered the lower half of Saebel. He saw that no arrows were striking his makeshift shield. After moments, he reached the sewage gate and with slight cover he was able to throw down the table, which then was carted off by the knee-deep water than the sewers spewed out.
Stratus placed his hands on the metal bars and tried to invoke the energies in his body. Nothing happened. He tried again and again until he felt an aura surrounding him. It was the same color as the Light that the paladins controlled. The bars melted away from its warmth as his hands turned the metal into putty. The gate eventually broke away, allowing him a path into the upper tiers of the city.
Stratus contemplated this advantage as he rushed back to his allies. They still remained unconscious, and he suspected that most of the forces would be. He knelt down to his son and slightly shook him. Asa was unresponsive for several moments until he coughed and raised up quickly. Disoriented, Asa was told to awaken anyone he could. Stratus went to get Teravin, but found the prince now standing, dusting himself off.
"My King, we need to get our forces up and into that tunnel, now." Stratus exclaimed.
"How, isn’t it still blocked off?” Teravin asked.
"I found a method to open it, faulty metal from years of neglect." Stratus lied. Teravin's eyes widened. The way was clear.
"How long will it take to get everyone on their feet?" Teravin asked as he was already mustering all the Zirris and other soldiers that began to awaken. Their forces had not suffered any casualties from the strange glow that came from Stoneholt. Teravin made a note to find the source of that magic and speak to Kaydren directly.
Those Dwarves....they've been in that mine too long. God knows what they've been up to since the treaty was signed. Teravin thought to himself.
"The soldiers are all slowly recovering, give it about five minutes and we'll be flooding the tunnel. Their archers are nowhere to be seen, so I imagine they're having their fair share of effects from that blast to Saebel." Stratus was still puzzled as to why the archers were not on the wall keeping watch. Strange magic was about.
Teravin pat Stratus on the shoulder and for once the prince and the Zirris commander had an understanding. Stratus no longer saw the irresponsible drunkard in Teravin's eyes. The prince and soon-to-be King was going to restore Saebel to its former glory.
***
"They're reached the inner sanctum, my Lord!" One of the commanders shouted as Lord Keth paced back and forth in the throne room. The tall older man was slender. He wore red and black robes over his normal attire. His jet-black hair had invasions of gray and white through it. Keth stopped, staring hard at Grand's throne. The former King was beloved, something Keth could never achieve as advisor.
"Sarcess, reinforce the castle. I will hold you responsible if a single Zirris gets into my sight. Do you understand?" Sarcess, Keth's highest commander feared him. Sarcess quickly bowed and shut the doors behind the large, now empty, throne room.
Keth's mind began to wander as he paced back and forth again. He envisioned the dark room once lively with Grand holding meetings with trade commerce, welcoming the dirty races of the dwarves and the upstart elves. Keth hated the Ela'syn. Ever since Illoke Dawnsent showed his smug ass in these halls, he hated that elf. The Ela'syn were rumored to be immortal spell casters, and that rumor was set aflame when Illoke presented Grand the gift of an oak tree right outside the entrance of the main hall. It blossomed from a single seed into a great tree in moments. That sorcery had to be stopped.
Minutes passed. Keth could hear the struggling of his men being pushed back further and further. The sounds of metal clanging and the familiar sound of flesh being torn, filled his ears.
Then there was a silence. Keth stopped his pacing and faced the two giant doors waiting for Sarcess to return and give him a report. The commander was late. Keth waited
and waited, and then went for his sword, behind the throne. It was emblazoned with gold and jewels and was more a show-piece than an actual blade.
Keth called out to his guards to check on the situation. They stood at attention on both sides of the entrance.
"Find Sarcess and give me an update on the Zirris. I want this invasion ended." The two soldiers were out of the room the moment Lord Keth finished speaking.
Keth returned to being alone, until the door opened again.
"Sarcess, I will have your head..." He stuttered his words as he saw a familiar face emerge within the door. Teravin Secorim walked slowly into his father's throne room. He said nothing.
"Welcome home, young prince. You are a bit late to claim this throne."
Teravin saw red. Keth had ruined Saebel and took pleasure in it. He wanted to make the former steward pay for all he had done. Teravin palmed his blade in his right hand, gripping the hilt tightly. As he walked closer and closer to Keth, his footsteps echoed in the quiet hall.
Keth waited for a response from the prince. Teravin's silence and constant approach made the Lord of Saebel, uneasy. He raised his hand and gripped his own sword.
"That'll be far enough, Secorim." Keth yelled as Teravin stopped nearly ten feet from Keth's reach.
"Why did you kill him?" Teravin asked plainly. His voice was calm, his mind racing with images of his father.
"A King like your father served the people. They didn't serve him. He insulted the name of royalty." Keth grinned as his gloved finger ran down his golden blade. "...And what of you? Do you think this will be some kind of avenging for his legacy? Killing me solves nothing."
"I just want you dead," Teravin's words were cold. Teravin rushed to Keth with the tip of his blade pointed at Keth's chest.
Teravin's thrust was parried quite easily, for a man Keth's age. Keth kicked Teravin aside. Teravin's anger made him sloppy. His stamina was beyond spent making his way to Keth as well. Cutting through a plethora of people didn't help either. Teravin had taken such care, not to kill any of the army that once served his father.
