Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

  "I'm getting us allies," Fangs replied pompously. "As we should have done in the first place."

  Panicked, James shot a glance back at Flameboyant, but it was already too late. Ar'Bati was walking straight toward a squad of eight Royal Knights, the same patrol they'd dodged earlier. As the tall warrior hailed them, the startled squad of knights scrambled to draw their blades. The youngest one even still had his glowing yellow sword out, which he immediately pointed at the jubatus warrior.

  "Halt!" he cried, brandishing his enchanted blade. "The city is under martial law by decree of the king! Declare yourself!"

  Ar'Bati strode forward fearlessly. "I am Fangs in the Grass, the Ar'Bati of Windy Lake, Son of Lord Rends Iron Hides, and Heir to the Claw Born clan of the Four Clans of the Savanna. I was charged by our elders to bring important news to the king, and I request your aid."

  James held his breath, waiting for the violence, but Ar'Bati's approach seemed to be working.

  "He's okay, sir," the young elven knight said as he lowered his glowing sword. "I think he's a quest-giver from the savanna zone. Lots of new players talk about him when they first visit the king."

  "He's better than that," the officer said with a grin. "I remember you crazy cats from before the Nightmare. We used to have a Claw Born emissary before the game took her away." His look grew suspicious as he tapped his graying beard. "You'd know her, I'm sure. Her name was Emissary Thistle, right?"

  "The emissary was Acacia Claw Born, and my mother is at Windy Lake," Ar'Bati said, turning up his nose in scorn at the knight's obvious trap.

  "Ha!" the old knight laughed. "Good answer, Fangs! By the Sun, you aren't some little brat anymore, are you? Last time I saw you, you were a kitten. You wouldn't remember me, though. I'm Sir Roal. I've worked the Diplomatic Quarter for years." He put out his hand. "So glad to see you made it out alive."

  Everyone was friendly after that. Swords were put up, shields lowered, and handshakes exchanged. But the good mood ground to a halt when James and Flameboyant stepped out from around the corner.

  The other knights redrew their blades at once, but Sir Roal put up his hand. "So, Fangs of Claw Born," he said, his voice dangerously casual. "Mind explaining why you're running around with players? And why does one of them bear the mark of your clan?"

  James could hear the disgust in the old knight's voice, but he held out his hand to Sir Roal, anyway. "I am James of Claw Born," he said, hoping that would explain everything. They'd been walking for a while now, and the shadows were getting longer. Standing out in the open like this, not to mention talking to Royal Knights, was enough to make James's back prickle with a thousand imagined daggers. They needed to get into the castle quickly, but Sir Roal was staring at his hand as though James had offered him a snake.

  "Boy, how stupid do you think I am?" he asked, giving James a sneer. "I don't speak much of Wind and Grass, but I know 'James' isn't a clan name. If you think you can just name your character 'Whatever Claw Born' and expect to get a free pass--"

  "Sir," Ar'Bati cut in, his voice as stuffy as it came. "James is my brother, rightfully adopted by Lord Rends Iron Hides. He might have started a player, but he is now one of us. You will treat him with respect."

  Sir Roal's lantern jaw dropped open in shock. "You gotta be kidding me. How did that happen?"

  Normally, James would have relished the chance to tell the story of how he and Ar'Bati had overcome prejudice and saved Windy Lake, but they were seriously running out of time. "I'll be happy to tell you everything once we're in the castle," he said quickly. "If you could just--"

  "Absolutely not," Sir Roal said firmly. "I don't care who adopted you. We're under strict orders that no players are to be allowed in the castle for any reason."

  "But this is an emergency," James pleaded, digging out his letters. "We have proof that the Once King is about to storm Bastion with the help of a corrupt portal keeper. You've been betrayed from the inside, and if we don't warn the king tonight, it could be too late. Please, you have to take us through!"

  Sir Roal was a wall of disbelief, but the younger knight behind him went pale. "Sir," he whispered. "What he speaks of does match the plot from the latest expansion. It might behoove us to look over his proof at least."

  "Ugh," Sir Roal groaned, tugging on his mustache. "You cats are always trouble, aren't you? Well, fine. This is officially too much crazy for the middle of the street. You can come with us, but I'm locking you up at the Diplomatic Quarter until we get this sorted out."

  Going to jail sounded like a horrible plan to James, but if it would get them inside the castle wall--and more importantly, behind shadow wards--it was worth a shot. They did have an entire bag of proof. Surely someone there would be willing to listen. "I understand," he said, holding out his empty hands to be bound. "But can we go now, please?"

  Sir Roal chuckled. "Never seen someone so eager to be arrested," he said, reaching for the well-worn coil of rope attached to his belt. "Just give me a second to get you secure, and we'll--"

  There was a flash of silver in the dark, followed by gurgling screams as two of the knights fell to the ground, clutching their throats. James swore and grabbed a stream of floating magic, but he didn't even get the chance to start his healing spell before two more knights dropped, falling to their knees with a wet gasp as blood gushed from their necks. He kept gathering the magic, anyway, on the off chance they could be saved when something stepped into his shadow, and then a pair of gloved hands shot out to shove him to the ground, shattering his heal and sending him sprawling on the street.

  "Son of a whore!" Sir Roal shouted, drawing his blade.

  His remaining men did the same while Ar'Bati yanked James back to his feet.

  "It's an Assassin! They've gotta come out of the Lightless Realm to attack. When he pops up again, grab him!"

  James put his back to the knights and grabbed up fresh healing magics only to drop them again. The knights on the ground were already dead, and SB would never let him finish the long Raise Ally cast. Their only hope was to seize him the next time he came out of the shadows to attack. James was trying to look everywhere at once when a pair of throwing daggers came sailing down from the balcony above their heads, pegging two more knights right between the eyes.

  "Fangs, back to back!" James yelled.

  "What's the plan?" Ar'Bati demanded as his back slammed into James's.

  "I don't know!" James said frantically, grabbing the still-bound Eclipsed Steel Staff off his back. "I've never beaten an Assassin as a healer before!"

  "Light up the shadows!" Flameboyant yelled, his hands already burning bright with a fire spell as he dove for cover between them. "No shadows, no--"

  The Sorcerer cut off with a gasp as the flickering form of SilentBlayde appeared just long enough to knee him in the stomach. James supposed he should have been grateful it was only a knee and not a knife, but Flameboyant still dropped like a stone, gasping and retching as he sprawled on the cobbles. When Ar'Bati moved forward to cover the downed Sorcerer, James heard a powdery poof sound, and the warrior yowled, dropping his sword to paw at his face as a cloud of dark-purple powder enveloped his head.

  "He's only got one of those blinds!" Sir Roal yelled.

  "Get your backs to a wall!" James cried, dragging the struggling Ar'Bati and the still-gagging Flameboyant to the edge of the street. "Don't give him an opening!"

  Sir Roal and the youngest knight obeyed at once, slamming their backs beside James's against the cracked masonry wall of an abandoned wood working shop.

  "Swords up!" Sir Roal ordered, holding his blade steady.

  The younger knight obeyed, lifting his glowing sword in his shaking hands. "We're going to die!"

  "Yes," replied a cold whisper. "You are."

  "No!" James shouted, but it was too late. The young knight was already sliding down the wall, his rapidly glazing over eyes still wide in shock at the dagger sticking out of his heart. As he hit the ground, the Assassin emerged from the s
hadows at the mouth of the alley they'd come from, bloody silver swords gleaming darkly in his hands.

  James had seen SilentBlayde step out of the shadows countless times, but he'd never realized how terrifying it could be until right now. The Assassin's black-and-red-runed set of armor shifted around him like living darkness as he stood at the edge of the Lightless Realm, and his face was completely hidden by his mask, leaving only his blue eyes to gleam like knives in the dark.

  "'Blayde," James said, putting up his hand. "Just stop for a--"

  "For the king!" Sir Roal bellowed as he charged.

  "Wait!" James cried, but it was already too late. Given how he'd killed all the others, James expected SB to Shadow Step behind the knight the moment his back was exposed, but it turned out SilentBlayde didn't need stealth. All it took was a flick of his sword, and Sir Roal's throat split open, sending him to the ground in a waterfall of his own blood.

  "There's nothing royal about knights who murder innocents," SB told him as he fell. "Die for your sins, and know that you deserve it."

  Sir Roal gurgled and lay still, grasping SB's boot with the last of his strength. As the Assassin kicked the dead man out of his way, James dropped down beside Ar'Bati.

  "Fangs," he whispered in the language of Wind and Grass. "Can you see yet?"

  "The powder is starting to clear," Ar'Bati replied in kind, his voice no louder than a breeze in the grass. "What's the plan?"

  "Pretend you're still blind and wait for your chance," James said, sliding back up the wall to his feet. "We're only going to get one chance."

  Even as he said it, James knew he was being wildly optimistic as SilentBlayde slung the blood off his silver swords and started walking toward him.

  "SB, buddy," James said, dropping his bound staff on the street so he could hold up his empty hands. "You need to turn down, because you're looking really scary right now." He glanced pointedly at the corpses the Assassin was stepping over. "I don't think you realize yet that you just murdered eight people."

  "They're not people, James," SilentBlayde said angrily. "They're monsters. You saw what they did in the square." He kicked one of the dead knights with his boot. "This wasn't murder. It was justice."

  "I don't know. Those guys seemed reasonable to me," James said, raising his empty hands higher. "One of them was a friend of my family, even. Not that you asked about that. You just assumed they were evil and slaughtered them, which is a problem, because from what I heard from them earlier, I don't think they'd done anything wrong."

  "The NPCs never gave us the benefit of the doubt," SilentBlayde said, stalking closer. "Blaming us for the Nightmare. Summary executions without investigation or trial. Beatings and torture. They never asked if we were guilty. Why should I treat them any different?"

  "But that's not what these guys were doing," James argued. "If you'd just listen--"

  "Why should I listen to their excuses?" the Assassin demanded. "The knights have already shown us repeatedly who they are." He lifted his chin. "I know a monster when I see one, James, and I will not show mercy."

  "Can't you hear that you're using their words?" James shouted, slamming his hands down in frustration. "Goddammit, Haruto! If you'd just stop for five seconds and think--"

  "Don't call me Haruto!" SB roared, launching at him to pin his blade against James's neck. "I have power in this world that I never had back home, and I refuse to flatter beasts ever again."

  James's hands flew back up the moment the sword edge touched his neck, but his scowl stayed put.

  "Are you even listening to yourself?" he yelled in his friend's face. "Look at the blood on the street! Those men are really dead, and you're the one who killed them! But you're not actually an Assassin. You just played one in a game! You'd never do something like this in real life. Why can't you see that?"

  "And why can't you see that everything in this world hates us?" SilentBlayde yelled back. "This place has done nothing but try to kill us from the moment we arrived. I have every right to fight back! But I don't care about the NPCs. I'm here because you betrayed me."

  The ice in his voice at the end made James wince. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't want to hurt you, but I didn't have a choice. I had to do the right thing, and I knew that asking for your help was pointless because you never go against Tina. Not even when it's in your own best interest."

  "I had to tell her I let you get away!" SB cried, eyes flashing in fury above his mask. "How could you do that to me? I thought we were friends!"

  "We are friends!" James yelled furiously. "But you're being an idiot right now! You love FFO even more than I do, so why are you helping Tina destroy it? Don't you see? This could be a miracle for you. You're in FFO! You have magic and power and money and freedom and everything else you played the game to get! Everything you've ever claimed you wanted is right here in front of you, and you're shitting all over it! You're behaving just as badly as the knights in the camp, and while we're killing each other in alleys, the Once King is about to walk right in and take the greatest fortress in this world without a fight! You're dooming your own future, and you're too obsessed to see it!"

  "You're the one who's obsessed," SB growled, finally removing his blade from James's neck so he could grab him by the collar. "I'm taking you back to Tina."

  "Come on, dude. Don't do this!" James said, digging in his heels as the Assassin tried to drag him away. "You know Tina doesn't want to actually deal with me as her prisoner. She just wants me to be safe. Look, I'll make you a deal. Help me get to the castle, and then you can go back and tell her I'm safe with the king. I'll get where I'm trying to go, and you won't have to worry about me anymore. Everybody wins."

  SilentBlayde shot him a chilling look. "How about I make you a deal? Stop making my life difficult, and I won't kill your pretend brother."

  That was the final straw. Wrapping his hands in lightning as he'd seen NekoBaby do, James grabbed for SB's arm. The Assassin had been manhandling him because he'd assumed James couldn't fight back, but coming out of the shadows had been a bad move, because so long as SilentBlayde was holding on to him, he couldn't vanish back into the Lightless Realm. If they could just keep him visible, they had a chance. But James underestimated SB's speed. He'd barely managed to brush the Assassin's armor before the elf released his hold on James's collar and melted back into the shadows. He'd almost vanished completely when Flameboyant suddenly sat up, hands glowing with flames as he pulled back to launch a fireball straight at SB's stomach.

  It wasn't going to work. Even as he saw it building, James knew there was no way a level forty-five could land a hit on someone like SilentBlayde. But Flameboyant's valiant effort never even got to finish. Almost as soon as he sat up, the Assassin put him back down, stabbing him with daggers through both legs. The nascent fire spell shattered as Flameboyant went back down with a scream, and James whirled on the place where SB had been with new fury.

  "You're gonna feel guilty when this is over, you know!"

  "Why should I feel guilty?" floated the answer, the words jumping around him as the Assassin moved between the shadows. "You're the one who brought them out here. The lowbie will live, but your pet cat won't if you don't stop fighting and come quietly."

  "Why are you acting this way?" James yelled at him, so angry he was having trouble being properly afraid. "I don't understand you at all! You're normally such a good guy, but you lose your damn mind every time Tina asks you to do something. Do you think she wants you to be like this? Murdering and threatening people like a villain?"

  "Don't try to turn this back on me," SilentBlayde said with chilling viciousness. "This situation is your fault! You're the one who ran. All Tina wanted to do was keep you safe. Why won't you let her?"

  "Because I'm not hers to protect!" James shouted at the top of his lungs. "I'm my own damn person, and I came here on a mission! If we don't warn King Gregory that the undead are coming, this whole world is toast! I'm willing to die to stop that from happening and that is my
choice to make! Not Tina's, and not yours."

  He was panting by the time he finished, but his only answer was silence. Gathering lightning around his hand again, James put his back toward Ar'Bati's, taking care to leave a good three feet of open room between them. As the head warrior leaned "blindly" on the alley wall behind him, James heard the soft scrape of his brother's claws against the brick as he readied to pounce. He held his breath and stepped forward again, leaving a bit more space, the perfect opening for an Assassin.

  Sure enough, a heartbeat later, the smell of the open sky blossomed right behind him. James whirled the moment his jubatus nose caught the warning, lashing out with his lightning-covered hand. But even when he was falling for a trap, SilentBlayde was still too fast. James hadn't even gotten his hand halfway up before the pommel of a sword smashed into his temple, sending the whole world spinning. His lightning spell went haywire, blasting into the wall and sending a shower of bricks and dust flying. SB's hand was already closing around his throat when James heard Ar'Bati roar, and then two bodies crashed into him.

  James, SilentBlayde, and Ar'Bati all went down together as the head warrior tackled the Assassin with all of his considerable might. True to his name, SilentBlayde didn't shout. James saw a foot sink back into shadows, but Ar'Bati grabbed the elf's cape and hauled him right back out. In response, SB flipped his blades back around in his hands and stabbed both of them into Ar'Bati's sides.

  The sound of his brother's pained gasp knocked James back to his senses. Using the ground as leverage, James wrenched his body around and grabbed one of SilentBlayde's arms just as Ar'Bati's grip gave out. Years of martial arts practice took over from there, and he somehow managed to wrap his legs across the Assassin's chest and neck. SB immediately began to struggle, hammering on James's hold with his superior strength, but James just gritted his teeth and held on. If he let go, there was nothing stopping SilentBlayde from vanishing again.

  When he realized he wouldn't be able to beat his way free, SB went to yank his swords out of Ar'Bati to turn them on James. When he tried to pull his blades out, though, the jubatus was already there.