by Rick Scott
“Aiko!”
I scan above to see what attacked us and spot the fat man, Xavier, standing on the edge of the half-destroyed dining room. His robes are aglow with a faint aura, as are his hands, which are still pointed, palm first, toward the ground now littered with crystal rods.
I check the log.
Xavier casts Crystal Spear Shower!
Xavier hits Aiko for 336 damage.
Aiko is rooted!
Xavier hits the Palace Guard for 336 damage.
The Palace Guard is defeated!
Xavier hits the Palace Guard for 336 damage.
The Palace Guard is defeated!
Xavier hits the Palace Guard for 336 damage.
The Palace Guard is defeated!
Holy crap! Did he really just kill his own men to cast that? We can’t take another one of those. I look behind me and see the platoon closing in, moving at a run now. Ahead, I see Ziegfried, still running with Braxus over his shoulder, but just in front of them is another platoon of soldiers and mages, ready to hem us in. I’ve got to get to Aiko and get us both out of here, now!
I run to her side and slash the crystal rod with my blade, freeing her. “Aiko, we’ve got to go!”
She glares at me with pure hate, and for a second, I fear she might attack me again. “You stupid idiot! Why didn’t you aim for his head?”
Her glare shifts toward Braxus, still on Ziegfried’s shoulder, as he disappears into the ranks of the oncoming platoon. I sense another attack, and both Aiko and I leap out of the way as a single rod lands right where we were standing.
Xavier casts Crystal Spear!
The fat man scowls at us from above, his hands ready to cast another spell. At least it wasn’t the AOE attack this time. Maybe he’s running low on TP, or maybe it’s still on cool-down. Either way, I’m not sticking around to find out.
“You can tell me off later!” I say to Aiko as I cast Shadow Wall, making us vanish from sight. “Right now, we’ve got to get the heck out of this city!”
I grab her wrist and drag her with me as I launch into a sprint. The slender elf stumbles after me for a moment before finally throwing off my hand to run under her own power.
“This is not over,” Aiko hisses as we dash between the two charging platoons and flee into the night. “You just made the worst enemy of your life . . .”
Chapter 26: Escape from Stormwall
By the way Aiko said it, I’m not sure if she was referring to herself or Braxus. Although, when it comes to her, I suppose there’s a good chance she could mean both.
We run together, still invisible, through the darkened streets of Stormwall, our footfalls barely making a whisper as we pad across the cobblestone pavement. All around us, the sounds of the alarm are being raised. Bells toll and guards yell, signaling the commoners to clear the streets and remain indoors.
They’re performing a sweep of the city, looking for us.
I just hope the others made it out by now. I try sending a PM to Gilly and get an error message. That’s good. It means she’s out of range and hopefully well away from here by now. And we’ll be soon to follow, I hope.
We head in the direction of the southern wall, but then I notice Aiko’s blurred silhouette cut away toward the east.
“Hey!” I yell to her in party chat. “Where are you going?”
“To get something.”
“What?”
“Just shut up and follow me if you’re coming,” she says as she runs toward a two-story building. She scales up its side with Wall Run. “If not, go run away like the limp noodle you are.”
What did she just call me? I run after her and scale the building, as well. When I land on the red-tiled roof, I find she’s already moving ahead of me. My Shadow Wall spell has worn off now, and I can see she’s running in nothing but her elven underwear. As annoying as she is, a half-naked Aiko is definitely a sight to behold.
Guess I’m tagging along whether I like it or not.
I take off running after her, my tabby boots nimbly navigating the creases and grooves in the tiles. From above, I see the streets filling with more soldiers. More chaos. Their torches light up the night, and I’m glad we decided to make the transition to the rooftops.
“Hey, you could try to be a bit more appreciative, you know?” I say when I finally catch up to her. “I did come back to save you.”
We reach the end of the roof and jump across the gap to the next building in tandem. The frigid air presses cold against my face as we sail through the night sky, and we both land with a roll on the opposite side.
Aiko slides to a halt, standing. She then glares at me with her violet-tinted eyes. “You could have saved a whole lot more people if you would have just killed that guy.”
Again with the killing? “Look, I’m not like you, okay? I’m not killing anyone. That guy’s a real person.”
“Yes. A real terrible person who deserves to die.”
My stomach sours with anger and frustration. I don’t want to think about what she’s saying, probably because history might prove her right. But how was I supposed to do something like that? I even thought about it, and I couldn’t. “You know, some people would say the same about you, Aiko.”
It’s a stupid, childish thing to say, but it’s the only thing I can think of to deflect her comment at the moment.
She responds with a harrumph. “Well, you can try me anytime, pretty boy. Oh, wait, you did already. And failed.”
I brood inwardly at the dig. Val Helena was right. Aiko’s a difficult person to like.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on you, though,” she says, softening a bit as she looks me up and down. “With that body of yours, I keep forgetting that you’re still just a little kid.”
What? A little kid! “Hey, I’m not a little kid!”
“Oh yeah? How old are you, then? Fifteen? Sixteen?”
“I’m seventeen!”
“Exactly.”
“What the heck does that mean?”
“It means that it’s probably a good thing you weren’t able to put that guy down. A kid your age shouldn’t be into killing people. Would be kind of messed up if you were.”
I’m not sure how I feel about that statement. Relieved a bit, I guess. But it makes me feel inadequate, nonetheless. Like me not being able to walk is okay because I’m a cripple. Although, being able to kill another person is not something I wish to aspire to. I don’t think. I’ve got to get off this topic.
“How much do you even remember, Aiko?” I ask her, changing the subject. “From when you were under that spell?”
Her eyes go vacant for a moment, perhaps reliving things she’d rather not.
“Enough . . .” She looks toward the palace in the distance, a grimace tugging at her lips. “Thankfully, it’s not all too clear, but it makes me sick to my stomach to think of what that creep did to me.”
I can honestly empathize with her. It’s the same way I felt about Gilly.
“I’m really sorry you went through that,” I say, but I can’t think of anything else to do to comfort her. Giving her a hug is out of the question. Even patting her on the shoulder would be like petting a shark to me.
“I have half a mind to run back to that palace to take him out.” Her eyes fill with hatred. “But that’d be impossible now. He’s probably healed back to full and surrounded himself with a battalion of troops. After tonight, he won’t take his safety for granted ever again.” She looks at me, then. “And after cutting off his hand, you shouldn’t take yours for granted, either.”
Her words send ice coursing through my stomach. I hope it’s not true.
But something tells me it is.
“I’m not looking forward to that.”
Aiko shrugs. “Actions have consequences, good and bad. I just hope you don’t live to regret yours.”
What is this? Another dig? “What the heck does that mean?”
“It means that, sometimes it’s safer to kill a snake on sight than
to wait to see if it will bite you.”
That was the same logic Braxus used when he decided to throw us in the coliseum—a preemptive strike born of paranoia. I’m beginning to see a pattern here.
“So, is that why you went and attacked him first?” I ask, leveling my eyes at her.
“What?”
“Braxus said you’re the one who set him off from the get-go. He said all he was trying to do was help you, and then you went and attacked him to collect on that quest. Is that true?”
She laughs her cocky cackle-laugh. “Is that what he told you?”
“Lady Diana confirmed it. She said you attacked unprovoked.”
She scoffs. “I attacked him because I knew he was going to trap me with that stupid dress.”
“You knew it was cursed?”
“Not right away.” She folds her arms and shivers a bit. “When he invited me to dinner, I thought he was just trying to woo me or something, but I figured I’d entertain the little troll. It was during dinner when I noticed the hidden effects.”
“How? I couldn’t see anything on my clothes.”
She laughs mockingly. “They’re not called hidden for nothing, pretty boy. You can adjust and hide descriptions, but not the true effects. Check your resistances.”
I do so, and the display registers on my HUD.
Fire 15
Ice 15
Earth 15
Wind 15
Lightning 15
Slashing 20
Blunt 10
Piercing 5
Charm 15
Poison 10
Death 10
“Wow,” I say. “I didn’t even see this stuff before.”
She laughs again. “Such a cute noob, you are. Anyway, I noticed my Charm resistance was sitting at -300. And when I couldn’t take the dress off, I figured out pretty quick what Braxus was planning to do. So I beat him to the punch. Or tried to.”
“So, you weren’t just trying to collect on that quest?”
She scoffs again. “Please . . . like I even want to be back here. You really think I have any interest in playing king of the castle with that idiot?”
That brings me to an even more important question. One Val Helena will surely want the answer to, as well. “Why did you come back, then? Did you come to help us?”
Aiko glares at me. “Come on. We need to get going. I’m freezing out here.”
Guess that one was in a no-fly zone. I let it rest for now. “You still haven’t said where we’re going yet.”
“To the garrison.”
“What!?” I balk at her. “Are you kidding? The whole army is looking for us, and you want to head to their HQ?”
“Best time to do so. No one will be there.”
“What’s there that’s so darn important?”
“My gear, for one. Plus something else I need.”
I do notice that she hasn’t changed out of her lingerie yet. “They took your gear, but not your weapons?”
“These aren’t my weapons,” she says, pulling the blades into her hands. “These are props. Stupid Level 10 weapons they gave me to fight in the arena.”
“Braxus made you fight in the arena?”
“He was going to. Against you guys, I guess.”
“Eesh, I’m glad that didn’t happen.” The fact that Aiko was doing so much damage with a couple of Level 10 weapons is scary. I wonder what her strength must be to do that.
“My real stuff is locked up in the garrison dungeon. Braxus forced me to remove it all when I was charmed.”
Yikes. I don’t even want to think about that scenario. And what it might have led to. Then I remember something else. “Well . . . if you need decent weapons, I suppose you can have these back.”
“What?”
I initiate a trade with her.
You offer to trade with Aiko.
You offer:
A Poison Kunai +5: +30 DEX +30 AGL +50 Poison Damage
A Lightning Kunai +5: +30 DEX +30 AGL +50 Lightning Damage
I shrug. “I can’t use them yet, so . . .”
Her eyes light up with recognition. “How did you get these?”
“We ran into Blacktop. He’s the one who told us you were here.”
She chuckles. “Old goat. Hope you didn’t pay too much for them.”
“Haven’t paid at all, actually. I owe him a flamethrower for them, though.”
She laughs. We make the trade and the new blades materialize in her palms. She studies them with a wicked grin. “Oh yes . . . these should help out nicely.” She turns to me, licking her teeth. “Come on, Reece. Time to give you an education.”
* * *
Aiko takes off again, and I hesitatingly run after her.
An education in what? I’m not sure if I should be gung ho about learning anything from her. We jump across a few more roofs and head in a somewhat easterly direction across the city. Below, I see the fallout of our escape starting to unfold; guards kick down doors and pull people out of their homes. As we pass close to the bazaar, I recognize a woman being dragged across the street by two solders. It’s the old woman from the Magicks shop. She’s yelling as they clutch her under the arms and lift her feet off the ground, but I can’t make out what she’s saying. The look on her face, however, is far easier to read: pure terror.
I swallow involuntarily as guilt rises in my belly.
I’m beginning to understand now what Aiko meant about actions having consequences, good and bad.
We approach the garrison. The place looks somewhat deserted, just like Aiko predicted. It’s a walled-off area, like the barracks we saw earlier, but at the center of it is a two-story stone structure with narrow windows and only one visible means of entrance: a large gate with a portcullis.
Thankfully, it’s open. Guards rush in and out in squads of ten and twenty. But mostly, I see them rushing out.
“Keep Invis on and stick with me,” Aiko says, casting Shadow Cloak. “Use party chat to communicate, and for all that’s holy, don’t mess up your Sneak!”
I follow her blurred outline as she jumps from the roof to the top of the high wall surrounding the garrison’s perimeter. We run along it until we’re adjacent to the main portcullis, and then drop down to the cobblestone courtyard below.
“Wait for an opening,” she says, crouching in stealth.
It takes a good five minutes and a couple of nervous refreshes of Shadow Cloak before Aiko finally moves. She does so in a flash, skirting soundlessly across the courtyard and through the main gate. I stick close behind her, my heart pounding with adrenaline as we cross right under the noses of the two lone spearmen left to guard the entrance.
“We did it!” I say triumphantly in the chat. “Now what?”
“Follow me.”
My Sneak skill starts to skill up like crazy as we make our way deeper into the fortress. The corridors are tight and well lit, and we have to press our backs against shallow doorways to conceal ourselves when soldiers walk past us. I hold my breath, fearing that even that might give us away.
As I cross the opening to a large common room, I hear a voice I recognize.
“That’s the king’s order. Carry it out!”
I peek inside the room and see Sir Ziegfried. He’s conversing with another man clad in banded mail with a red cape flowing off his back. He looks to be in his sixties, with a clean-shaven face and close-cropped silver hair around the sides of his head in typical male pattern baldness fashion. I focus on him to check out who he is.
Name: General Lyons
Level: 85
Class: Soldier (Garrison Commander)
Lyons is studying a piece of parchment in his hand. He looks from it to Ziegfried, who is a good foot-and-a-half taller than him. “Why isn’t Lady Diana bringing this to me?”
“She’s in the infirmary, recovering from the attack,” Ziegfried says. “I’ve taken command of the praetorian guard for now.”
Diana . . . I hope she’ll be okay through all of th
is. I’ve got to make this right somehow. Some way. I’ve got to keep my promise to her. A promise I’ve already failed to keep by botching my attempt to force Braxus into relinquishing his power instead of just killing him. It’s a decision I’m going to have to live with, though. I think back to that moment, try to will myself to kill that stupid kid again, but still I can’t. I haven’t even told Aiko that part yet. She only thinks I erred when I took out his hand instead of his head. If she knew I actually had a chance to Backstab him and didn’t take it, she’d probably freak out all over again.
“Why the hesitation, General?” Ziegfried says. “It bears the king’s seal, does it not?”
Lyons doesn’t respond right away. He sighs, and then folds the parchment. “That it does. The order will be carried out. But please be sure to pass my disapproval of this course of action to the king.”
Ziegfried grunts. “Your objection is noted.”
What the heck are they talking about? What is Braxus going to do now?
“Come on, Reece!” Aiko hisses through the party chat. “We need to move.”
I break away from the conversation and follow Aiko down a couple flights of stairs to what must be the dungeon. My thoughts are still focused on what Braxus is going to do, though. So much so that I don’t notice when Aiko stops. I bump into her from behind.
“Watch it, idiot!”
“Sorry!”
I can’t see her, but I know she gave me another glare.
“Now pay attention, pretty boy,” she says. “There are two guards just around this corner. We need to kill them at the same time.”
Great . . . more killing. “How about we just knock them out?”
“Do whatever you want. Just make sure they don’t make a sound. They’re only Level 50, so they should go down easily.”
I’m not even sure I know how to knock someone out. Before I can even consider it some more Aiko says, “Go!”
Crap!
I scramble after her as she dashes around the corner. Just as she said, two guards in chainmail are posted up on either side of a heavy iron door. She positions herself behind the furthest guard, and instantly I see 90% of his HP disappear in a single Backstab.
