Anthony returned the gesture. “Thank you for your help.”
The judges and the courtroom disappeared and Anthony was left standing there.
Those in the square looked at him in a different manner.
“Skalafell will make it through this plague. We will need to work together,” Anthony said.
Anthony saw the looks in their eyes. There was fear and respect and also confusion. They had been taught to hate humans all of this time, but instead of attacking them and being the sort of demon that most humans were, Anthony helped them freely. He didn’t suffer fools and a clan spirit had actually come under his command, becoming his familiar.
“I’ll be watching.” With that, he ran and jumped, grabbing Tysien by the armor. Dave’s wings appeared on his back and he cleared the square, leaving it in just a few wing beats.
He found a rooftop and dropped her on it as he drifted to the ground. Now, seeing the woman, he could feel his anger welling up as he looked over the city.
“Some of my best friends were from the legion. Are they like you? I will not let their history or their legion become tainted.” Anthony looked back at Tysien.
She had a defiant look on her face but it crumbled under his gaze. “You wouldn’t.”
“I once brought an entire dwarven mountain to judgement. Don’t test me, girl,” Anthony said.
“I’m not a girl!”
“Oh, really? I’ve seen nothing to convince me otherwise.”
“I’m probably older than you! Have you ever been in a battle? You don’t even have any scratches on your armor!”
“I am a spritely one hundred and thirteen years old. Do you want to compare ages again?” Anthony asked dryly.
“What?” Tysien choked on her words. “But humans don’t live for that long.”
“Weak ones won’t,” Anthony said.
“Who are you?”
“Guardian Anthony. Now, answer the question. Will I need to clear the legions? Have they become corrupted?”
“I—” Tysien was at a loss for words.
Anthony sighed. His anger fell away, replaced with sadness instead. He looked over at the city. It seemed darker now.
“Things changed while I was gone,” he said to himself. He saw memories of walking up to buildings with the Guardian’s crest. On the outside, everything was orderly and clean but in the back, there would be people wearing armors and gear of all kinds, laughing and joking, competing with one another, from all of the races. Sharing a drink or some food as they caught up or got to know one another.
Seeing them all was like going home.
They fought hard and played harder, placing their lives in one another’s hands as they challenged the forces of chaos together, roamed the front lines and charged toward the gates, leading the united armies of Dena.
Now he looked at a city that was broken.
Their trust in one another is no longer there, but with time I’ll be able to pull them back, be able to bring them together once again. I need to get back my power and my memories. I can only use Guardian’s Judgement because it pulls from the ambient mana and channels it through the formations that are on my armor. For calling out my familiars, I was nearly drained with Bruce taking form for that long. My power is recovering but it is taking too long. I still haven’t been able to wake up Wendy and Penelope.
“There is a power in this city, a power of chaos, agents that come from another world and that want to consume ours to increase their power and numbers. They consume all other forms of power to grow. I believe that they are at work here. They are using this situation to make people stop trusting one another, increase tensions. Their aim is to make us fight in our backlines and attack one another so that when they come across through their gates, then they just clean up the divided pieces. It is going to be our task to search them out and find out just what plague they have created. You will now coordinate supplies, the forces of the city, and the Black Rags to help the people within the city while I will search out these Agents of Chaos and their minions,” Anthony said.
“Okay.” Tysien looked at the city, not wanting to look at Anthony.
Chapter: Chaos Emerges
“Move it! Come on!” Aila yelled as people piled up their foodstuffs along the wall on pallets.
“This load is done.” The quartermaster wore a mask, muffling his voice.
“Move to the second loading area!” she yelled to the carriage drivers.
They moved on toward and down the wall.
The quartermaster and his people moved back from the pallets that were attached to ropes that went up the wall to arms that hung over the side of Skalafell’s battlements. They moved to a sanitary station, washing their hands thoroughly under the watchful eyes of healers and medics.
Aila blew a whistle.
There were a few moments before there was movement on the walls.
People manned the different arms and worked together to pull up the pallets, the much-needed food, masks, soap, and water filtration systems being raised up.
They reached the top of the wall and then turned, disappearing over it.
Aila looked at the next loading area, where another team was unloading the items from the traders’ carriages, then loading them onto waiting pallets.
That’s the first batch of supplies. I hope that there is some kind of cure.
She looked at the train of carriages. Boats were unloading what they could spare on the other side of the river, passing it down to the boats that then shipped it to the shore, where they were piled onto carriages that would carry them off over one of the main bridges and to Skalafell.
Beast kin and traders from the isles and Selenus were working together to try to help out the people of Skalafell, letting them know that they weren’t alone.
There were traders who grumbled and complained, but most traded here all the time; they had friends inside the city as well.
***
Tissis looked at her husband. He was weaker than he had ever been.
She wanted to go and let him rest his head on her lap as she cared for him. Instead, she watched from the side, wearing her own mask, watching the man she loved waste away.
Her thoughts drifted back to that letter as she took one last look at him and then left the room. Since she had gotten the letter, she hadn’t seen Keze. For fear that what it said was true, she hadn’t taken her mask off either.
She went to her office, sitting down as she looked at the mounting reports. Thankfully the Black Rags are actually what they seem to be—just a group of people trying to help out one another. Though they don’t know that there is nothing that they can do for those affected.
She closed her eyes. A few tears fell out of her eyes and she started to cry.
“What did we do to deserve this?” she asked pitifully. Her pain turned to anger as she yelled and threw the books and reports on her desk to the side, tossing things all over the place before she felt the fight go out of her as she fell back into her seat, tired and defeated.
She started coughing from her exertion. There was a knock at the door.
“Everything okay, my lady?” the guard asked.
“Fi-ne,” she fought through the coughing.
“Understood!” the guard said.
She let out the coughing, taking a few minutes before she calmed down.
She was breathing heavy as she remembered the look in the healer’s eyes as he confirmed that none of the concoctions had helped to clear the plague that was killing her husband from the inside.
She was looking down when she noticed something on her arm. She rolled up her sleeve a bit and her hands started to shake. Faint red dots had appeared on her skin. Fear gripped her, her entire body going cold.
What will happen to Keze if we both die?
Shock rolled through her system as she looked at the fireplace. She wanted to order her guards forth and destroy whoever had sent that letter—whoever had given her and her husband the plague.
She wanted
to tear them apart but they were the only people who could possibly help her and her family.
I’ll find a cure. I’ll find some way to reverse this and then I’ll hunt them down and destroy them! Her claws were out, digging into the armrests of her chair.
In her agitation, she started to cough once more, unable to stop it. Her whole body convulsed.
She finally stopped, her body shaking and weak from the effort.
She rubbed her face and fur came away with her hand.
Can I wait?
That thought made her feel so helpless and small. She knew the right thing to do, but did the right thing outweigh what she wanted to do because of her family?
She debated as night fell.
Inside, she was a mess. But she gathered her strength, grabbing a candle and hiding it in a pocket with a fire starter.
She exited her office and walked to the northern wing, her guards following her.
“I’m just going to get some fresh air in the tower,” she said to them both.
“I’ll check it to make sure that it is clear,” one said.
She nodded as they quickly went up the spiral stairs. It took them a few minutes before they returned.
“All clear, my lady,” he said.
She smiled to him and made sure not to get too close as she headed up the stairs. Her mind was resolute, but it didn’t stop the fears or the other thoughts from intruding as she walked step by step, feeling as if she were crossing some unknown barrier that went against everything that she believed in.
Reaching the top, she stood there, looking over Skalafell. People were working on the walls, bringing in supplies that were distributed by the Black Rags. It feels like I’m betraying them, but I have to do this for the city, for Keze. Once we have the cure, then we can make sure that the people who made this plague suffer. A part of her knew that she was lying to herself but she didn’t want to admit that.
She took out the candle and put it into a candle holder. She took a deep breath of the cold air as she took out her fire starter, using it on the candle.
The candle took and she stared at it for a few minutes. She looked away in shame and then descended the stairs, not looking back.
She reached the bottom of the stairs. It felt as if she were lying to everyone as she walked back to her office and slumped down in her chair. She looked at the flames in the fireplace. Even as they burned, she didn’t feel any of their warmth.
***
Tissis didn’t know when she finally got up from her office and went to the room that was attached to it. She didn’t care to remove her dress as she lay down, looking at the moonlight through her curtains.
Even with all of her fears and emotions, it wasn’t enough to keep her from sleep.
Nightmares plagued her mind before her eyes suddenly snapped open, sensing that there was something wrong. She jumped up as she realized that there was now a new shadow in the room. Someone was sitting in a chair next to the window, looking at her.
“It seems that you’ve come to a decision, your ladyship. We saw the candle in the tower.” It was a man’s voice but it held a hint of ridicule.
“How did you get in here?” she demanded, looking around, debating calling her guards.
“Those secret entrances, catacombs and such, they really are incredibly complicated, but if you have the time and patience, or a guide, then they’re not so hard to move through.”
She could feel the man’s smile as a shiver ran up her spine. There were a number of hidden escape routes in the lord’s manor, not only in the lord’s office but in different private quarters of the lord’s family.
There’s a secret entrance in Keze’s room! She started to ball her fists as the man talked.
“There’s no need to get angry, Miss Tissis. I’m merely here as a messenger with an offer.”
“Do you have a cure?” Tissis hissed.
“Of course we do. Do you think that I would be this healthy otherwise?” The man laughed. “Or so close to one of the people with the plague? Though we just need you to do something for us before we can give you it.”
“What?” Tissis had already stepped on the path; she needed to know where it would lead.
“You see, it looks like everything has calmed down here a bit. I like more excitement, more anger, distrust—general chaos.”
A wave of nausea passed over her, making her feel weak and causing her blood to tremble. Is this some kind of bloodline-based attack? She steadied herself and studied her body but there was nothing wrong with her on a physical level.
“Please, take a seat.” The man relaxed, as if he knew that nothing would happen to him.
Tissis moved to the couch opposite, her eyes never leaving the man. “What do you want?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“Oh, right to the point. I do like it.” The man smiled. “This Black Rags thing has been annoying me and my people for some time. I want you to break them apart. You know, kill a few of their members, scatter the rest.” The man shrugged, leaving the rest to her.
“If I was to do that, then the city would turn on me.”
“Oh, well, they do say that health is the most important thing and I trust that the other nobles won’t be around to help you. Seems that the plague affected them more than any other group.”
“How do I know that you’ll uphold your end of the bargain?”
“You don’t,” the man said with a wicked grin. “Isn’t that exciting!”
He laughed at her warping expression.
“Don’t worry, someone has given your daughter the cure tonight so she won’t be affected by it, but your husband will need to get the cure soon if he wants to survive.” The man waved his hand as a spell he’d had prepared shot out and hit Tissis.
She didn’t have time to yell out as the magical power drained her and caused her to collapse, falling into a slumber. She woke some time later, sitting on the couch. There was no sign of the man.
Tissis gritted her teeth, taking a few moments and closing her eyes to calm herself. All she could see behind her closed eyes was her husband’s face as he grew weaker each day.
She moved to the adjacent office, lighting a lamp there, and she pulled out a piece of paper.
I have to do this, for my family.
She took out a brush and started to write down new orders for her guards. She felt sick to her stomach as she wrote out the orders. She couldn’t think what might come from her orders being carried out.
How many families will be affected? How many will be hurt?
***
Anthony roamed the roofs and the streets. Based on the information that Rody had given him, he was looking in the places that the meerkat kin had met up with the Agents of Chaos. The different places didn’t have any traces of chaotic energy left to them. The places where the money had been dropped off were similarly blank.
He marked out the positions of the meeting places and drop points. All of them were randomly placed, giving no true pattern.
Anthony moved across the city, with Solomon appearing from time to time. Based on his reports, Anthony would rush across the city, using his healing ability to only relieve the symptoms of the cursed plague.
It was as if he stood before a fire: he could put out the flames, but he couldn’t put out the embers, no matter what. If he just turned away, then that ember would re-ignite and there was that much less wood to burn.
He wasn’t saving them, just prolonging their remaining time.
Solomon appeared next to Anthony as Bruce’s head appeared.
“He says that there is something strange happening at the castle.”
Anthony looked over at the castle that stood above the city. “Anything more specific? If I break in there, then we might run into some trouble.”
“He says that some of his shadows can feel a disturbance, says that it is like chaotic power,” Bruce said.
“Okay, track it, Solomon, and guide me to it. I’ll stay outside until we can co
nfirm it,” Anthony said.
***
Count Lemar looked to his side as his aide returned.
“Where did you go?” Lemar hissed.
“You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you, Count Lemar?” the aide said.
“Just make sure to keep your side of the deal.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll soon become the city lord of Skalafell and have Tissis in your arms while your adopted brother will have a long and painful death,” the “aide” said.
Lemar’s eyes flashed in anger and his hands bawled into fists. “He was nothing but an adopted runt, but he thought that he could stand on my head, taking the woman I liked from me, taking the position of city lord. I’m just correcting the balance, returning things to the way that they should be.”
“Yes, my city lord,” the aide said.
Lemar didn’t see the playful smile on the aide’s face.
They left the room that they were staying in.
“Did you hear, there were a group of people trying to start a riot. Then there was this human who walked between them and the Black Rags. He used some kind of magic that brought down a clan spirit and all of these judges. They went through the rioters, charged them all with crimes and gave them sentences. It looks like they weren’t rioting for the good of the people, but because they were pissed off and wanted to do something that would impact others and make them feel good in their own way. There is a plague going on and they want to try to use it to hurt others,” one servant said as the other shook their head.
“They were able to summon judges?”
Count Lemar looked back to see that his aide was talking to the servants.
“Yes sir,” one of the servants said. Both of them bobbed their heads nervously, being caught out for gossiping instead of working.
“Was the courtroom purple?”
“I’m not sure, sir.”
“Did someone talk about Guardians, or Guardian’s Judgement?”
“That sounds familiar. I think so, but I’m not sure,” the other said.
“I thought that someone was just trying to use old symbols from the past. I didn’t think that there might be someone related to the Guardians here. I thought we were able to get rid of them all. If there are still any left, I don’t know why they would be advertising their presence so loudly.”
Death Knight Box Set Page 24
