by E. P. Wyck
Razed Violent
A Black Star Chronicles Prequel Short Story
E.P. Wyck
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Also By E.P. Wyck
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
The bright midday sun glinted off Kali’s sword. Sweat threatened to drip into her eyes. She parried, casting off an incoming blow. She squeezed her eyes closed with the salty sting of sweat, the cost of avoiding the previous strike.
Before she opened her eyes, her attacker knocked her off her feet. Kali felt her legs fly forward and her hand dropped her sword to reach for the ground behind her. She blinked several times and turned her head just in time to see her sword get kicked away.
Kali rolled to her right and swung her shield. The man who kicked her sword away dodged her blow before kicking the shield to the ground. He stomped one foot down on the shield.
Her pinned left arm kept her pressed against the ground. She felt the cool metal of his sword press into her neck, and he said, “Never blink. It only takes a second, but that is a second your opponent will use against you.”
“Yes, Father,” Kali said.
He removed his foot from her shield and helped her to her feet before saying, “I think that’s enough for this morning. We should head inside and get ready for lunch.” Kali nodded and started walking across the courtyard of their estate. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” He said pointing to her sword laying on the ground.
She turned around and followed his outstretched hand with her eyes to her sword. “Thanks,” she said walking over and picking it up before heading inside. As she went to clean up for lunch, she reflected on the sparring lesson with her father. A smile spread across her face.
“Based on that smile, I’d think you won,” her mother said.
“Actually, no. I lost. I am smiling because it is such a beautiful day. I get to spar with and learn from the greatest Razian known to empyreankind. Life is good,” Kali said.
Her mother held her hand out as Kali passed by. Kali brushed against it, and her mother said, “I am glad you are enjoying your lessons. Make sure you wash up before lunch.”
Kali rolled her eyes and said, “What do you think I am going to do?”
“Just reminding you,” she said retracting her arm.
Kali walked down a long hallway before skipping up a flight of stairs to her suite. She dropped her sword and shield just inside the doorway and headed to her washroom. She turned on the hot water then unbraided her hair while she waited for it to get warm.
She bent at the waist and let her hair dangle. She rustled her hands through it from the base of her neck all the way to the floor. She shook her head making sure to get out all the grass. She stood up and flipped her hair back.
“Ouch, too hot,” Kali said sticking her hand in the water. She adjusted it then washed her hands. After cleaning her hands, she splashed some water on her face.
When she finished drying her face and hands with a towel, she headed to the dining room. Not the formal dining room, but the one attached to the kitchen which overlooked their courtyard from the upper level.
As she walked down the hallway, she heard several loud, rapid-fire explosions. She froze. ‘Gunfire?’ Kali thought to herself. Her eyes widened as she realized they came for her father.
She ran down the hall and entered the dining room. She saw her mother standing at the window. She heard her father yell, “Enough! You will not kill another in attempt to find me. I am here. Throw down your guns and let us settle this the ancient way.”
A long burst of gunfire echoed through the estate. Kali sprinted to her room. She tripped over the practice sword and shield she had left by the door.
She scrambled to her feet and swung open her weapons locker. She grabbed her combat shield and sword and ran back to the dining room.
Her mother stood at the window, and Kali pushed past her and jumped as hard as she could. At the apex of her jump, she forced her wings out to control her descent. She dove fast toward the attackers as they approached her father who laid motionless.
In her rage, she didn’t notice the grisly sight of pooling blood and scattered feathers. She rotated her wings for a quick change in position then landed on her feet amidst the attackers.
She brought her blade down the middle of the murderer in front of her. She rotated her sword then retracted it before she spun around and decapitated the one behind her. They began to flee.
Kali bashed a woman in her face. She tumbled to the ground from the force of the blow. Kali stood on her wing just as her father had done to her shield earlier that day. Kali slid her sword under the wings of the woman and ripped upward cutting them from her body.
“I will be back for you,” Kali said before she ran several steps and spread her wings to take flight. Weighing only 46 kilograms her light weight allowed her to catch up with them faster than she expected.
Kali watched as they turned and hovered. They brought up their guns and fired at her. She used her shield to block the incoming bullets and kept flying as fast as she could toward them.
She lowered her shield as she ascended to continue blocking their attacks. After darting upwards, she went into a free fall and slashed one of the attackers across the face, down the chest, and through the abdomen. They fell out of flight.
After watching their comrade fall to her death, the other two attackers turned and flew away. Kali threw her sword at the one on the right. She didn’t watch as the sword landed in her back killing the woman instantly.
Instead, Kali gave chase to the last of the fleeing attackers. She flapped her wings with all her might. She pressed her legs together, pointed her toes, and tucked in her arms.
Kali reached out and took hold of her leg. The woman’s leg reared back and struck Kali in the nose. Her vision blurred as blood poured out her nose. ‘Don’t blink,’ Kali thought to herself remembering the last lesson her father taught her.
Kali pulled closer and maneuvered the woman’s foot into an ankle lock. She twisted, and the ankle snapped. The woman screamed.
“Mercy, I am only following orders!” she said.
Kali tugged on the broken ankle moving up the body of the woman. She grabbed at her fast beating wings. She made a fist around a clump of feathers and pulled. The feathers tore free. Kali swung her arm further this time and managed to grip wing itself.
Kali felt the woman twist trying to free herself. Kali tightened her grip slowing the woman’s flight. As Kali began to overtake her, she used her momentum to flip the woman around.
Kali looked her in the eyes and took hold of her other wing. With both of her wings in Kali’s hands, they began to fall to the ground.
“Whose orders?” Kali asked.
“She’ll kill me!” said the woman.
“What do you think I am going to do to you?”
“Kyneska, it was Triumvir Kyneska!”
Hearing the name of her mother’s fellow Triumvir, Kali pushed her legs forward and pulled her arms back. She twisted the woman’s wings as they begun to rip free. Exerting all her might, she stood up in midair, and the wings came free.
Kali didn’t watch as the woman fell towards the ground. She resumed flying again and headed toward her family estate.
One of the assailants, the one whose wings Kali had cut off, ran away from the estate. When Kali noticed her, she descended toward her. On her way down she used the wing still in her hand to hit the woman as hard as she could.
The blow knocked her off her feet, and Kali landed in front of her. Before Kali could approach, the crying woman waved her hands up in defea
t and said, “I’ll tell you everything! Just let me live!”
“I already know everything,” Kali said.
Kali dropped the wings and stepped toward the woman who scrambled backward. Kali managed to grab the woman by the head with both hands. She flung her hands in opposite directions breaking the woman’s neck.
Kali didn’t hear the pop of the woman’s neck breaking. She finally saw her father. She saw the large pool of blood. She saw the scattered feathers. She started running.
She screamed as loud as she could, “Noooooooooo!!!” Her face contorted in the pain of losing her father. Tears poured from her eyes. Her wings drooped, and she sobbed kneeling next to his body.
Kali hadn’t noticed her mother had descended from the window above until she attempted to hug her.
“He didn’t want this for you.” Kali’s mother said, “He wanted peace. He sacrificed himself so you wouldn’t die fighting for him.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?” Kali yelled at her mother brushing off the hug.
“I tried.”
“Not hard enough!” Kali screamed, “You could have saved him!”
Kali pushed away another hug from her mother and took flight.
Chapter Two
Images of her father laying lifeless on the ground looped through Kali’s mind. For four days, she remained in her room mourning Egil.
Kali heard a subtle knock at the door, but didn’t acknowledge it. She knew the only person who would knock, and she didn’t want to talk to her.
“Kali, are you dressed? It is almost time.” Her mother, Eve, said from the other side of the door.
Kali didn’t respond. She didn’t want to attend her father’s memorial service. To her, nothing that anyone would say could do her father’s memory justice.
Kali listened as her mother’s footsteps trailed off down the hall.
“Finally,” Kali said to herself.
After a few minutes, a loud knock at the door echoed through the room. “Kali, I am not asking, get up and come to the door,” Eve said.
Kali didn’t move.
“Don’t make me ask again!” Eve said.
“I thought you weren’t asking,” Kali said.
“So, you were listening to me,” Eve said after she opened the door. Eve walked over to Kali’s bed and sat beside her daughter.
Kali rolled over and pulled the blankets over her head. “I am not going. You can’t make me.”
“I don’t want to make you. I think your father would appreciate it if you came and represented the family.”
“I don’t even share his name.”
“True you have my name because laws at the time did not allow you to take his name at birth. Altus is a great name.”
“It isn’t his name,” Kali said.
“I am going to go finish getting ready. When I come back, I expect that you are ready. Do not fight me on this. I lost a husband as much as you lost a father.”
Kali flung the blanket off and sat up. She glowered at her mother and said, “I didn’t lose him. You let him go out there. You knew they came to kill him and did nothing. I didn’t lose him, you did!”
Eve’s expression hardened, and she blinked several times before a tear cascaded down her cheek and landed on the back of her hand. Eve unfolded her hands and wiped the tear off her hand.
“I know you may feel that way, but I also know how Egil felt. Those who lost their lives protecting him weighed heavily on him. He couldn’t stand the thought of another person dying.” Eve said.
“He died. He was a person.” Kali said.
“I know. I miss him. Please don’t make today harder than it has to be.” Eve said. She raised her arm and placed her hand on Kali’s shoulder. “I need you there. Please.”
Kali sighed and brushed her mother’s arm off. She turned away from her mother and stood up off her bed. She walked to the bathroom and stood at the sink. She looked at herself in the mirror for the first time since she washed up for a lunch that never happened.
Kali expected to look bad, but she didn’t expect to look haggard. She needed to fix her bloodshot blue eyes, the dark circles under her eyes, red nose, and matted brown hair before they could leave. This felt impossible.
“How much time do we have?” Kali asked.
“About half an hour.”
“That’s impossible!” Kali said.
✯ ✯ ✯
After all Egil’s Razian comrades had eulogized him, Eve stood up and faced the crowd. She looked the crowd over from left to right before she spoke.
“It is an impossible thing, to talk about someone who less than a week ago lived in your house, slept in your bed, shared your life,” Eve said and paused.
She sighed, an obvious attempt to hold her emotions back. “Now, this person must live on in our memories. I still remember how much he loved commanding. During our privy meetings, he would relish telling me about how someone overcame a setback in training.
“During war, he enjoyed telling stories about how clashing personalities bonded in the shared hardship. How, despite all odds, they managed to be a strong team and defeat their enemy. Even when this enemy may have been my people.” A few people in the crowd gasped.
“Yes, I know, even now, over a hundred years after the peace treaty it is still alarming to many that we had such a relationship. A relationship that transcended our different cultures. Perhaps that is what made Egil so appealing. The appeal of that which you cannot have.”
Eve scanned the crowd while she paused. Her voice had become strong, and no longer wavered with emotion, “I am proud to have loved such a man. A man who served his people and did more than they asked. A man who cared for those under his charge. A man who stood by me, even in the face of certain death. A man who brought a child into this world with me. A child who will never have his name.
“I am proud to have him as my husband. My mate. No other Seraphim will ever live up to his legacy. A loving father who taught Kali the ways of the Razians and pushed her to learn the ways of the Ascendant from me, while also insisting she take part in the emerging United culture. I could not have asked any more of him.”
Applause began to erupt from the crowd. Kali listened, but she didn’t clap her hands. The moment didn’t feel celebratory. Somberness still clutched her.
She listened to the people around her as she waited for the memorial’s crowd to dwindle enough to warrant her departure. With most of the chatter from the crowd reduced to a low murmur, Kali turned around to see if she could sneak out.
When she turned around, she saw her mother talking with Triumvir Kyneska. Kali jumped up and stomped toward the two. “I can’t believe you have the nerve to show your face here!”
Her words silenced the room. Everybody turned and watched Kali barreling toward the two Triumvirs.
“Kali, I am sorry for your loss,” Kyneska said.
After crossing the room, she stopped centimeters from Kyneska and said, “Really? ‘Cause I heard you sent the ordered to have him killed!”
“Where did you hear that, Kali?” Eve asked.
Without looking at her mother, she said, “From the pathetic assassins she sent onto our estate.”
Kyneska backpedaled and said, “Impossible. I know you’re going through a tough time right now but…”
Kali cut her off, “But nothing. You’re going to pay for what you did.” She lunged forward and speared Kyneska in the stomach. The two of them tumbled to the floor.
“Kali, stop!” Eve shouted and she bent down to grab Kali.
“Let it be, Eve,” Triumvir Attor said, “what is a party without even a single fight!”
Kyneska wriggled under Kali. “Attor, get her off me!” she shouted.
“She’s a child, Kyneska, show her who is boss,” Attor said.
Kali had managed to sit on Kyneska and began to throw blows at her face.
Kyneska used her arms to deflect the incoming barrage from Kali and said, “What do you think I am trying t
o do?”
“Right now, it looks like you’re trying to embarrass yourself,” Attor said.
The relentless fury of Kali’s punches had begun to get past Kyneska’s blocking attempts. Kali raised up on her knees and swung harder. She struck Kyneska in the forehead, and the force bounced her head off the floor.
Kyneska grunted and said, “Enough!”
“Eve, maybe it is time you pull that daughter of yours off our colleague,” Attor said.
Eve nodded at Attor and said, “Kali, enough!” Kali continued punching and didn’t respond.
“Control your child before I do, Eve,” Attor said.
“Kali! Stop! You’ve made your point.” Eve said.
Kyneska’s arms went limp, and Kali struck her face unobstructed for the first time during the fight. She alternated, left, right, left, right, left. Kyneska’s head rolled back and forth, and blood began to splatter the floor.
Attor, a meter 95 tall, walked over and scooped up Kali, a meter 52. She pushed at him and squirmed to kick at Kyneska. Kali’s foot landed on her side, and Attor raised her higher, holding her over half a meter off the ground.
He gripped both of her arms in his hands, she dangled from her arms above her head. He turned her around to face him and put both of her arms into one of his hands. He used his other hand to grab her by the chin and force her to face him.
“Hey!” Attor shouted, “You’re done. Enough. Let it go. Whatever you think you heard, think you know, whatever. You’re done. I can assure you Kyneska had no part in your father’s death.”
Kali continued to struggle to get free, but Attor held her firm.
“Just stop, Kali,” Eve said.
“Listen to your mother. You’ll be ok, but you’re not going to do that again.” Attor said still holding Kali. “Do you understand?”
Kali struggled to get free. Eve said, “Kali, calm down. Please.”
