Rogue Light

by Brian Nyaude

The sound of the horses’ hooves digging into the ground drowned the noise of the battle in the sky. We had traveled for merely half an hour after leaving Dien to his fate. My teeth gritted every time I thought of Dien putting his life at risk for us. He was still a stranger to me, but it felt like we had become comrades in a short time. Ties like that need no words to describe them and they last forever among kinsmen. My heart ached baldy. This was just the first sacrifice among the few more to come. But I had to be strong for the sake of the others. They needed me to put on a brave face for them and reassure them that it will be alright. Susanne was crying lightly to herself unable to control her swirled up emotions. She had known Dien and the others since they were young kids so it was pretty hard on her than on the rest of us.

  “He will be alright,” I comforted her patting her on the back. “He is strong and he decided to stay and fight for a reason.”

  Whoa! My petty lie was almost convincing. Truth is, I didn’t have the slightest idea why Dien really did it. He was a mystery to me since I had only met the man. However, to Suzanne those simple words from my lips caused her to stop crying as she smiled at me slowly. I smiled back and turned my gaze away, unable to think of something more amazing to say next.

  “Thanks Rid,” she said hugging me tightly. “I will put my faith into that belief.”

  Her embrace sent great shivers into my chest like a bottle of fine ale. It was then I realized something.

  “This isn’t good,” I thought to myself.

  In the midst of trying to comfort her, I might have said something almost halfheartedly to happen. I mean Dien was strong, but this could end either way, not good. If something bad happened to Dien, I doubted Suzanne would ever talk to me ever again or worse hate me.

  Even from this distance, we could still hear the clashes of the battle still going on. This was clearly a battle for all ages. I dared not to look back in fear that I might turn back and go help him. I was tempted so much to do it as I sensed his energy dwindling. He was clearly being reckless with his mist power. It was not a power any mere human could ever hope to control. If Dien continued to drain his energy, the white water mist would tap into his life force resulting in his demise. I hoped not for his sake.

  But thanks to him, we reached the outskirts great walls of Danyen before sunset. The large walls were dark grey in color and twice the length of those that housed Jura. Outside, there was no one at all except for us. The whole city was quiet and ominous. Nothing except for a lingering wind was heard from inside the city. I felt a large shiver of fear grip me whole coldly. I had never felt such a dark presence coming from one city before. Danyen looked like a deserted city consumed in darkness. The driver stopped the horses a few yards away from one of the walls to the left. On this side, there was a large dented hole inside the upper portion of the wall possibly from a past battle.

  “What happened here?” I asked Suzanne since she had more knowledge of Okaya than any of us.

  “This is the aftermath of the battle between the previous king of Okaya and Katarina Fox,” she replied instantly getting out of the caravan. “It was a battle that took place about fifteen years ago when the Rainku started taking over the world. The king of Okaya was powerful, but even he was weak against Katarina Fox’ trident. She overpowered him and destroyed him along with half this city. Shortly after that, she took over the king’s capital palace and made Danyen her priced fortress. Was once the greatest city in Okaya, and if you look at it now it has become nothing, but a pile of stones and dust.”

  Amazing, it was indeed an unbelievable story to hear. Slowly, I began realizing how much tragic the Rainku were causing around the world. They were not going to stop until the whole world was covered in ash. I looked at Danyen and sighed. The meaning, “only fools go to Danyen” began to make sense. Truly the rumors were not just myths to scare young folks. I moved forward realizing I could not afford to turn back anymore. We were on the enemy’s front door and I doubted they would let us go. I touched the great wall in front of me and began to feel cold unexpectedly. All inside the city, I felt large foul energies of human and non-human creatures alike. The air inside Danyen was intensified and clouded by blood lust. Kaya looked scared as he stood behind me looking at the great and menacing walls. It had been a mistake to bring with us and now I was regretting it.

  “Kaya you must stay behind with the driver,” I urged him pushing him back. “This is no place for children and I can’t protect you and everyone else at the same time.”

  He clutched onto my black coat a little longer not letting go even for one bit. There was mixture of fear and courage in his eyes.

  “My brother is here,” he said with sad eyes. “The metal men didn’t kill him or change him for some unknown reason. He was taken here a two days before you found me to this city. I’m going to find him regardless of what you say.”

  Now it made sense, I had been puzzled why he didn’t stay behind in Saza and looked for his brother there. Who would’ve guessed that his brother would be in Danyen and possibly still alive? I understood him better than anyone among us. I felt the same way when I heard my friends had been captured by Katarina Fox on their way to Okaya. I didn’t know what to do as I was actually considering bringing him along into the city of Danyen.

  “Just bring him with us,” Dashe intervened brushing away dirt from his dark hooded cloak. “We need everyone’s power if we are to come out of this alive.”

  Everyone sort of agreed with him and so did I in the end. I still thought it was a terrible idea, but majority rules.

  “Well let’s get going,” Ogana finally spoke a little bit sober. He straightened up as he placed a gourd of red maze ale behind his back. “The enemy knows we are here so let’s not disappoint them by not showing up.”

  True enough, the enemy knew that we were here and were probably waiting for us. I glimpsed even further into the city and saw a castle in the center. Majority of the terrible energy I felt was coming from that direction. Safe to say, that was Katarina’s castle. The castle was large and encrusted with grey marble metal walls. In the entire city, it was the only building that showed no signs of damage or decay.

  “What now?” Showe asked, moving closer to observe the outer wall in front of us. He touched the large wall slightly while his eyes peered around it for a secret entrance in. “I can’t see a way into the city. I mean there has to be one somewhere right?”

  “Perhaps,” I replied looking around too.

  I saw a glimmer of where a large gate used to be. It was completely covered in large rubble and debris, possibly caused by the fight that took place fifteen years ago. The city looked completely impossible to get into from the outside. But there had to be a secret way in, I just hadn’t found it yet.

  “We might have to destroy our way in,” Masonku finally spoke reaching into his mystery bag slowly. He looked up at everyone as he revealed to us what looked like black ash in a small bag.

  “Are you out of your mind?” Dashe yelled at him and grabbed his neck. “Do you want the enemy to know our exact location?”

  “Well do you have a better idea?” Masonku argued back pushing Dashe away from him roughly. He placed the small bag on black ash into his clothes and sighed slowly.

  Seriously, it seemed Dashe never learned. Always picking up fights and being rude to people, although it was not as bad as when I met him. He seemed to get a little quieter as our journey together progressed.

  “Masonku,” Kaya spoke pulling his shirt to get his attention. “Why don’t you just use your power and dig a tunnel beneath the wall? That way we can sneak in without causing a commotion.”

  You know what, that actually was a great idea. It was brilliant and ingenious at the same time. Honestly sort of embarrassing to say that Kaya outsmarted me. He definitely had a bright future ahead of him provided he lived long enough to grow up into an adult. Out of the blue, the rumbling noise I had been keep track of stopped completely. The battle between Di
en and the water creature was over. All I could see from that direction was grey and white mist in the sky. From this range, I couldn’t tell who had won or lost the battle. I felt an urgent sense to go back, but I fought it off quickly.

  “Can you do it Masonku?” I asked him looking away with my fists clenched. “Can you dig beneath the wall and get us to the other side using you mist power?”

  He was puzzled at my request. I could tell that even he was worried about Dien as much as I was. Masonku knew the risks we all took to get this far and was unlikely to turn and go back. Masonku didn’t reply, instead he walked past me and bent towards the ground. He looked up and gave us a small nod before burying his right hand into the ground. There was a small rumbling quake beneath our feet followed by a large opening in the ground. He removed his hand once he was done and moved out of the way with his head down. None of us moved, battling our pride and feelings against respecting Dien’s wishes. What were we supposed to do now? I never imagined a scenario like this to happen to us at all. A cold howling wind blew from his direction, it carried a slight trace of his energy within. Deep down, I had a feeling he was alive. It was small, but I felt his life force. There was another presence I also felt from that direction. It was the water creature. I was almost sure of it, although, its life force was weak like his. What did this mean? Was this battle over or what? The sense of not knowing was agony indeed.

  “Let’s go right now,” I yelled to them and jumped first into the tunnel. Kaya followed next landing a few feet from me. “Let’s all honor his wishes no matter how much we don’t want to.”

  Ogana and Dashe blitzed in after us and then Masonku, Showe and Glazer. Suzanne stayed next to the entrance barely moving. Her eyes glued in the direction of Dien. She clenched her fist tightly to her chest and sighed in slowly after a few seconds.

  “You guys go on ahead,” Suzanne yelled and turned her back towards us. “I’m going to find Dien and bring him back with me.”

  She vanished into the shadow before I could even stop her. Somewhere deep down, I wanted her to go help him. I was actually glad in the end that I hadn’t stopped her because I too was worried about him. Suzanne was strong, having her go there put less weight on me. In fact, I was glad that she wasn’t coming with us. If anything were to happen to her in Danyen, I wouldn’t forgive myself.

  “Well you heard her guys,” I said confidentially with less guilt on my mind. “Let’s infiltrate Danyen and take down Katarina Fox.”

  I did sound confident, but deep down I was scared in my boots. This was no city for novice warriors like us. The looming sensations of oblivion I felt from this city were downright worrisome. Out of all the life forces I felt in the city, there was one I feared the most. It was by far the biggest and most sinister of them all. I had never felt anything like it before. Most likely, I was finally sensing Katarina Fox’s true power. Fear started to take over as I felt my heart raging with intense fire. I had never felt this way about any of my foes before.

  “Are you alright?” Kaya asked shaking me arm. “You are sweating and look frightened.”

  “It’s alright,” I lied to him trying not worry him. “It’s the air around here it just messes with me.”

  I didn’t want the others to be discouraged or think that I was a coward. In some way I was a coward. I had all this great power and yet I still feared and doubted myself. Maybe James was right, someone like me didn’t deserve the power of Rogue or much less lead anyone. Had I truly changed? What was I even doing here? Why did the gauntlet choose me? Could I truly defeat Katarina Fox?

  I had so many questions and doubt, it all threw me into the deep abyss of my inner turmoil. We moved quickly guided by a torch Masonku had somehow taken out of his clothes. Undeniably, my first impressions of him being a master thief were starting stick. With each step we took, I felt my fear grow even stronger inside me, threatening to completely consume me.

  “Get a hold of yourself!” Dashe slapped me senselessly on the right cheek. “We can all tell that you are scared and so are we. Man up or you won’t be able to rescue your friends in that cowardly state. Fear makes us human, but it doesn’t determine out future.”

  “Okay,” I said nodding out of surprise. I really couldn’t believe Dashe actually slapped me in the face. Wiping away the sweat from my forehead, I sighed and relaxed my mind. “Thank you Dashe.”

  I really needed that pep talk, although I would never have thought it would be from Dashe. I guess people could change once in a while for the better and Dashe was a special case. Iyenkans weren’t known for being nice and helpful towards outsiders. In some way they were almost like Rogueans and that’s why our two countries never got along. We both had powerful militias and our countries had been constantly fighting for more than three hundred years. A feud that was unlikely to end any time soon. Finally, we reached the other side of the tunnel and got out inside Danyen. We found ourselves in an alley between two worn down buildings a few feet from a city used road. Something was terribly wrong with this city. I felt nothing at all, no warmth or coldness in the air.

  “Let’s keep ourselves hidden and mingle with these people,” Ogana moved first, going towards the city road.

  We followed suit and managed to mix ourselves into the new crowd of strangers. I felt no signs of emotions on their faces. They looked so skinny and hopeless. Every exposed part of their body was covered in blisters and sores, almost repulsive. This was no city, it was a torture prison. What sort of monster was Katarina? I felt my anger surge slowly within me every time I looked at them. But how come I had not noticed these people until Ogana pointed them out to me? Maybe, it was because their life force was too weak and was being masked by Katarina’s large energy presence. At closer look, I realized that most of them were not human at all. They were something else, but I hadn’t the faintest clue as to that answer. We walked with them on a paved road crossing buildings without a clear sense of direction.

  “This is cruel,” I said looking away. I couldn’t take it anymore. Katarina Fox was abusing human life and this madness had to stop. These were truly terrible crimes against humanity, for the first time in a long time I was feeling anger with a purpose.

  “What do you guys make of that?” Glazer pointed towards the buildings in front of us. “Something doesn’t look right.”

  I looked towards the direction he was pointing his hand to and noticed that some of the buildings inside the city were odd and strange. They were larger and looked more sophisticated and colorful. I don’t think they were from our era. It seemed there was no limit to the power of Katarina’s trident. She could bring anyone or anything she wanted from the past or the future at moment’s thought. Not to rule out all options, they could still be a mere illusion. A very good one at that considering they were solid and had a few people inside them.

  “Her trident is troublesome indeed,” Ogana said and reached for a sip of his ale. “I once heard she could bring anything from any dimension or timeline into our era with the slightest of ease. Such power should be impossible and yet here it is before our own eyes.”

  Seriously, I wished he would stop drinking. He was much more useful when he was sober than drunk. But Ogana’s words had confirmed my thoughts. The trident was the source of her power. Such a weapon could rip our world apart if she so desired it. If I was to win, I had to destroy it first.

  “Should we wait for Suzanne?” Ogana asked me turning his head back for a second. “She ought to be back soon.”

  That’s right, Suzanne had gone back to retrieve Dien a short while ago. Somehow, I felt that she was a lot safer there than here. After what I bore witness to in this city, I would have rather not wanted any of my comrades to come along with me.

  “No, we keep going,” I replied him. “Let her take care of Dien, she is a lot safer there than we are in this city.”

 

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