Chapter 38 - Cursed Child.
Grey sky hung over Oсkhaven like a thick canopy without a single break, letting down to the earth only a scattered, colorless light that made the walls of the royal tower look lifeless, casting no shadows by the bars or the bench. Magister Kyle sat on it, his head bowed and fingers laced tightly before him, his hair matted and disheveled, his clothes creased from long hours of sitting motionless, and beside the bench stood an empty tray with the remains of a long-since-cold meal.
The lock clicked dully, the hinges creaked unhurriedly, admitting first Ulrich Thorne, and after him Aris. He slowly raised his head, sweeping his gaze across both who had entered, then rose from the bench without hurry, straightening his back, while Aris exchanged a glance with Thorne, received a barely perceptible nod in return, then turned her gaze back to him, already opening her mouth.
"Don't." Kyle said before she could begin.
Aris froze sharply, her lips pressing together, her gaze fixing for a moment on the magister's face.
Kyle held the pause, then continued in an even voice, devoid of any intonation.
"I know why you came. You will testify against me as a witness, to establish guilt and clear yourself of any consequences, while I bear the full punishment." He said.
Understanding showed in the way she slowly lowered her gaze and drew her shoulders slightly inward, betraying what she would have preferred to keep hidden.
"However, your trial has been postponed until the queen returns from the Great Fo-" Thorne began, but managed only half the word.
He stopped, fixing his gaze on the narrow barred window of the cell. Beyond the bars, above the dark and uneven line of the Great Forest at the very horizon, an enormous cloud of smoke was rising, billowing with such density that it covered the sunless sky in a wide sheet of blackness.
Kyle did not immediately grasp what had caught the Hand's attention, but turned toward the window after him, his eyes going wide.
He walked slowly closer, placing both palms on the cold stone windowsill and not taking his eyes off the horizon. The smoke continued to rise, settling slowly over the forest in a heavy layer.
The cell door struck the wall with a crash that sent a resounding echo rolling through the stone. In the doorway, already bowing in hasty reverence, stood a knight in full armor, still catching his breath.
"My lord! I beg your pardon! I have urgent and terrible news!" He breathed out before he could straighten from his bow.
"What is it?" Thorne asked, turning sharply from the window.
"Sir Aurey!.. The Aisengardians broke through the southern gates, and Sir Aurey tried to stop them... and now he fights alone on the southern plain!" The knight said, his voice betraying poorly concealed fear.
"Why the hell didn't anyone go to help him?!" Ulrich answered, not hiding the alarm on his face.
The knight bowed his head even lower, not lifting his gaze from the stone floor.
"It was Sir Aurey's order. He told us to return to the city and close the southern gates."
Ulrich gritted his teeth and slowly lowered his gaze to the stone floor.
Meanwhile, beyond the closed gates, on a plain bathed in that same grey light, Aurey stood alone against two.
Fray and Schtance no longer held the positions from which they had started.
The removed limiters had changed them without delay, bypassing any intermediate stages.
Through the thick fabric of their military trousers burned the cold light of energy crystals embedded in the mechanical prosthetics of both, and from beneath their high collars, brief bursts of steam hissing broke out periodically, running along their spines in light flashes.
Their eyes burned with an identical blue glow, artificial and devoid of any warmth, having taken over their irises completely.
Aurey kept both in his field of vision, not letting his attention linger on either opponent longer than necessary.
His dark armor carried a ripple of barely visible dents where received blows had left their mark on the plates, reaching only the surface layer of the metal.
The Vector moved first, building speed from a standstill with such swiftness that the grass beneath his soles let out a short sharp whistle from the air thrown back with each step, while the lieutenant simultaneously moved in a wide arc from the opposite side, maintaining an angle at which any shift of the defender toward either attacker automatically exposed him to the other.
Aurey tracked the position of both, preparing for what was to follow.
He gathered energy along the blade into a dense charge in a fraction of a second, then with a single motion released two arcs of magic in opposite directions.
Schtance and Fray parted with sharp leaps in response, evading both arcs simultaneously, then both pushed off from the ground with identical acceleration, the next moment already flying straight at him from the air.
Aurey leaped back, but Schtance brought her full weight down onto the ground, driving her foot into the earth with such force that a dense cloud of dust rose from beneath her sole, blotting out the space between them.
The Vector by that same moment was already at his back, having covered the distance in a burst through the rising cloud. He barely managed to turn when the mechanical fist went straight into his face.
The multilayered plates of the prosthetic registered the way the warrior's jaw and the entire lower portion of his skull fractured and splintered.
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The blow sent him flying sideways, but the lieutenant had already shifted to intercept, catching him by the ankle mid-flight, then put all her momentum into a pull upward, driving a short wave of steam from beneath her soles, and then sharply drove downward, directing his body toward the ground.
Aurey dissolved into dark smoke before reaching the ground, slipping from her grip, but Schtance, upon landing, in that same instant pushed off with a powerful burst of steam from beneath her soles, closing the distance to the point where the smoke was beginning to thicken and take form.
She seized him by the throat at the moment of materialization, not giving him time to regain his balance.
Aurey formed a blade in his hand, raising it for a strike toward Schtance, but in that same instant Fray appeared from the side, swinging his mechanical arm, which had transformed into a blade, severing Aurey's arm together with the sword in a single motion.
A short, pained scream tore from his throat, spreading across the emptied plain.
Schtance released her mechanical fingers, allowing Aurey to get to his feet and step back, pressing the stump with his remaining hand. Then she drew her mechanical fist back, building a charge within it, after which with a shockwave she drove it into his breastplate, pressing a deep dent into the metal, and Aurey's body flew along the ground, carving through the earth in thundering rolls until it came to rest face-down in the mud dozens of meters from the point of impact.
Schtance let out a slow breath, then the glow in her limbs began to fade, and she dropped to one knee, feeling the overload spreading through her body.
Fray straightened beside her, fixing his gaze on where Aurey lay defeated in the mud.
The glow in Fray's limbs faded in alternating flashes, leaving each joint separately, until the cold blue color finally left his irises.
He turned to Schtance, speaking briefly.
"Get up. We need to move."
Schtance rose, holding her gaze for a moment on the warrior lying in the mud, then turned toward the line of the forest at the horizon and walked after him.
A hoarse groan rising behind them stopped them both.
Fray slowly turned, shifting his gaze toward where the sound had come from.
Aurey was pressing his one remaining hand into the waterlogged ground, straining to lift his torso, while his damp hair hung down and touched the earth.
In Aurey's mind the voices of the past were rising, clipped, tumbling one after another.
"Young man… How did you end up here?…" A low, concerned male voice sounded.
"You… spawn of darkness!… you need to be put to the torch like those creatures!" A sharp, elderly woman's voice struck at his mind.
"Are we really going to trust this… cursed child?… He crawled out of the very abyss!… Even a blind man can see he's cursed!"
"You have no place among us. The king should have left you where he found you… or better yet, simply cut your throat, so as not to taint us all." Another voice said.
Aurey slowly raised his bloodied face, holding the gaze of his barely open eyes on the two Aisengardians standing before him.
Then from the depths of memory something else rose, warm, quiet, recognizable down to its last intonation.
"Aurey… that is what you will be called now… Aurey Dane…" It sounded in his mind, and with it a face appeared.
Thick, auburn and wavy hair falling to the shoulders. A full beard the same color. A steady, quiet smile.
In his memory stood Edmund Born, the late king of Waldruhm.
"It is the name of a great warrior from an old legend my grandfather told me. He told me it was a very powerful warrior, who won his victories despite always being alone." The king's voice said.
Memory did not stop on that image. After it came another recollection, heavier, carrying him to a battlefield where thousands of dead creatures lay scattered to the very horizon, and the sharp smell of burning and blood permeated the air completely.
Aurey sat before the king, wounded, with blood on his face and hands, and beside him, equally battered and wounded, sat the young Edith.
Edmund's body lay before them amid the wreckage of his own armor. The breastplates had melted and cracked in several places, exposing charred flesh and bone beneath.
Edith's entire face was streaked with tears, and she pressed her palm to his cheek, while Aurey watched the dying man, unable to tear his gaze away, feeling the burning in his eyes pressing harder and harder for a way out.
Edmund slowly turned his head toward Aurey, speaking in a hoarse and broken voice.
"Au..urey… m..my boy… w..watch over her…" He rasped.
Aurey looked at him, motionless, eyes wide, while Edmund continued, spending the last of his strength on every single word.
"Pro..tect her… and this kingdom…… from now on… you… are the queen's sword… and… Waldruhm… is your home." Edmund breathed.
At that moment, looking at the Aisengardians standing before him, Aurey gathered the last of his strength, then fixed his gaze on the ground at Fray's feet.
Fray felt something wrong in that same instant, catching a barely perceptible impulse, enough to arch sharply backward, pulling his body aside.
From the ground at his feet a blade rose, formed from the last remnants of the warrior's energy, passing within millimeters of his face.
The sword dissolved in the air right before Fray, leaving no trace, and he slowly lowered his head, looking at the spot where the blade had just passed.
"Almost. But wide." He said, not lifting his head from the ground.
Fray transformed his arm into a weapon, building a charge in the barrel, then fired a final shot.
The energy charge flew straight toward Aurey, who had already closed his eyes, accepting the impact, but his body in that same instant sharply shot into the air, lifting off the ground, while Schtance turned sharply, taking the blow of a Waldrumian knight on her mechanical arm, and another blade, guided by magic, swept at Fray, which he deflected instantly.
Both pulled back simultaneously, breaking the distance, then straightened.
Before them, descending smoothly on a controlled current of wind, Aurey came down, held aloft by Aris's magic.
His body settled directly before Magister Kyle, who clenched a concentrated mass of energy in his palm, then drove it sharply into the warrior's chest.
The infused charge forced Aurey to sharply draw air into his lungs, and a dark violet glow spread across his entire body in a flash, after which at the site of the severed arm, from the dark shadow smoke, flesh began to form, gradually taking shape.
Both Aisengardians looked to the side simultaneously, seeing that the knight who had managed to strike at them caught the blade returned to his hand, then removed his helmet and threw it aside.
Sir Rowan Hart stood before them, holding one blade in each hand, and Schtance frowned, recognizing in the revealed face features she had seen before.
"Miss me?" Hart said, holding a cold, resolved gaze on her.
Fray let out a slow breath, shifting his gaze past the shoulders of the new opponents.
On the plain behind them, a dozen or so knights of Waldruhm had gathered, standing in silence.
Aurey slowly got to his feet, breathing heavily, but pain held across his entire body, as Kyle had not had enough strength to restore all the damage before overload took him.
Behind the line of warriors, high in the saddle, stood Ulrich Thorne, his voice carrying across the plain.
"VECTOR FRAY! LIEUTENANT SCHTANCE!… SINCE YOU HAVE VIOLATED OUR LAWS… AND ATTACKED A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CROWN… AND THEREBY POSED A THREAT TO OUR KINGDOM… I ORDER YOU TO SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!" It thundered over the field.
The Aisengardians said nothing, and Thorne exhaled briefly.
"So be it. WARRIORS!" He commanded, straightening in the saddle.
The knights took position simultaneously on a single exhale, leveling their blades toward the Aisengardians.
Schtance dropped into a fighting stance, keeping her gaze on the opponents across from her. Fray stood straight, methodically assessing each one who entered his field of vision, then extended his arm to the side, transforming it into a blade.
"Well… then… let's dance." He muttered under his breath.
In the next instant Ulrich made out above the Great Forest something that had broken through the dense layer of smoke with a bright red light, shot up into the air above the very crowns of the trees, and then drove downward, while from the depths of the forest a massive creature burst upward to meet it, cutting through the air above the treetops, and upon the collision a powerful energy explosion rolled across the entire forest.
A wave of red energy with frequent electrical discharges of the same color rolled along the entire forest edge, dissolving smoothly into the air, after which something crashed in the depths of the forest, causing the canopies in the distance to sway, swallowing the last echoes of the impact.
Beneath that thunder, Fray and Schtance pushed off simultaneously, unleashing the full power of their limbs without limiters once more, ending a shockwave of pressure outward with their very first step, pressing the grass flat against the ground, and the blue glow returned to their irises instantly.
The knights charged forward with a battle cry, breaking from formation as one and rapidly closing the distance.