<u>Chapter 39 - The Fall</u>


    Beautiful even in death. Eildred held his beloved''s head in his arms. Fate''s cruel hands overwhelmed him while battles raged around. Why did she have to love him back? Why did she admit it at the very end? Knowing that made her parting all the more agonizing. Would things be different if he''d hurried to the plateau any faster? Could he have saved her still?


    Why didn''t you come sooner?


    Eildred let out another scream. "I''m sorry," he wailed. It was over. He''d failed as a guard, as a knight, and as a person. He''d failed Lady Coraine. He''d failed his soldiers. And now, he''d failed both his country and his queen. Now, she lay dead before him. He no longer had anything left to fight for. The world was bleak. His sun was gone. At whom did he direct this sword? For what reason did he have to stand again?


    Watch over Emeria. Right. He still had his niece. "But I''m a disgraced knight," he muttered, staring at Dahlia''s closed eyes. "I have nothing…" Eildred tried convincing himself. All the fighting, the chaos, the screaming, it was draining. No rest from any of it. And yet, his fingers twitched with the desire to hold his sword. They sought comfort in the strength that came with. Fleeting embers of honor still lit a path, dim as their light may be. Eildred swallowed and then wiped his face clean of tears. He caressed Dahlia''s cheeks, finding his resolve within her beauty. He kissed her one last time. "I''m sorry," he whispered.


    Eildred had failed his queen in life. But he wouldn''t fail her in death. Funerals and mourning could wait. Dahlia still had a legacy. One that he still had a duty to protect. He could no longer fight for the present, but he could still carry on for the future. Princess Emeria''s time would come. Eildred let Dahlia''s head rest on the ground and slowly stood, turning his attention to the traitorous knights of the Queen''s Guard.


    Sir L''Faleur came running down, out of breath. He let out a gasp upon seeing the queen before Eildred''s feet. "I failed. Sir Aegis, I —forgive me. I—"


    "You did your best, my friend. I too failed. But we''re standing, both you and I. The royal bloodline still exists. We no longer hold our swords for Queen Dahlia, but for Princess Emeria. Come. Let''s put an end to this insanity which stole so much from us."


    "The First Chancellor. We should have killed him all along. If only—"


    "If only," Eildred cut Arus off. "We can take ''if onlys'' back for years. If only we''d better investigated Adrian Rinz''s origins. If only we hadn''t trained all these disloyal noblemen. We''ll be saying a lot more if only if we stand around any longer. I don''t want that." If only I''d admitted my love for you earlier. Might I have held you in my arms for longer?


    Arus nodded. He held out his sword. "Wind''s Eye. Her majesty allowed me to use it. It''s only right you have it now, Sir Aegis."


    Eildred traded his weapon for the Artifact. The heirloom of High House Lakris and a sword his younger brother once held. He glanced down at the First Chancellor''s split corpse. He hadn''t deserved to die so quickly. He''d deserved to suffer. Another ''if only'' to add to the list.


    Eildred turned his attention to the skirmish at the plateau''s edge. The traitorous knights had their backs turned. A strange noise stopped him dead in his tracks. A noise like that of whistling wind. He turned to find a pale blue circle hovering a foot above the ground just next to Dahlia''s body. Strange images of a different setting with moving people could be seen within it. Among them, a man with ashen hair.


    "What in Flames?" Sir L''Faleur murmured.


    Eildred took a stance, instinct screaming danger at him. The ashen haired man stepped out of the blue circle and onto the bloodstained ground, feet hitting the grass with a soft thump. He wore a white coat with golden weavings of vines and Trillium flowers. At his waist was a brilliant sheath with a golden hilt, a half disk like a sun at one end from where the blade should stem.


    "Odain," Eildred said through clenched teeth. His knuckles went white. Odain matched the very description of the Trillian faith''s Vicegerent. How it was he was appearing from thin air and a different place, Eildred did not know. His only guess was that Odain possessed Gatestones, of which there were vague recordings in historical texts. That would explain the strange levels of coordination that the insurrectionists had had.


    Behind Odain, a woman stepped out of the gate. One with bronze skin and many scars. She had long black hair and wore a cropped pelt around her top and a leather skirt that barely reached her knees. Her eyes were dead, red where they should be white and pupils diluted in color.


    "Odain?" Arus questioned, turning to Eildred, who only nodded in return. The milky eyed knight didn''t need another second''s worth of thought. He lunged, sword flashing. The woman stepped before Odain and swatted aside the heavy blade with her hands alone, delivering a swift strike to Arus'' jaw. The knight stumbled back, rubbing his face as he stood beside Eildred.


    "Mm. Quite unexpected," Odain said without urgency, his tone revealing not a hint of fear or shock. He stood over Dahlia''s corpse, feet a mere inch from touching her hair. "Things excelled faster than what I''d planned. The queen wasn''t supposed to die until after I''d arrived. I do have to make accurate historical recordings after all. Ah well, I''ll just have to imagine it."


    Eildred didn''t know why he was standing still. Odain. The man behind Xenaria''s turmoil. The man truly responsible for Dahlia''s death. Eildred''s blood boiled, and yet he saw no openings of attack. "Get away from her. Get away from her you filth!"


    The woman beside Odain bent her knees and hissed, pulling out two knives from a band around her thighs. There was something familiar about her sharp features and tall figure. She bore an uncanny resemblance to Duchess Serene.


    Odain frowned Eildred''s way. "It couldn''t be, could it? Did you perhaps love the queen? I must know, you see. A scholar''s merit comes from accuracy. Did she reciprocate your feelings, or was it one sided? Or is it simply that your loyalty runs very deep? Hmm. Stories will be told of this tragedy, I''m sure. But I do want to be the only one with the firsthand account of the incident."


    "Sir Aegis," Arus muttered.


    "I know," Eildred breathed. The puppeteer was standing before them. A chance to end it all. Eildred bent his knees, positioning his sword forward. He let the Thundersword loose, aiming for the woman first. Iron bit flesh, but it wasn''t a killing stroke. A mere flesh wound remained on the woman''s lean shoulder. She dodged?Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Arus followed up on the attack, but the woman ducked under his swing and kicked out his legs from beneath. She then pounced on him with knives raised. Eildred swung at her neck and she leapt away with the agility of a hare, retaining a nick on her cheek. She lunged back in with a feint, falling to her knees at the last second to avoid Eildred''s vertical swing and sliding on her knees to reach him with her torso bent back. She then jumped up and cut up with one of her knives, tearing at Eildred''s mail shirt as he jumped back.


    Arus had recovered and came at the woman again. Eildred kept a wary eye upon Odain. The weapon at his waist had to be the Thousand Sun Sword. But the Vicegerent showed no signs of interfering.


    The woman again managed to bring Arus to fall and somehow dodged another blitzing thrust, obtaining a cut on her opposite shoulder now. She lunged as fast as Eildred had and kneed him in the gut, hacking at his face with her knives. He brought his arms up, suffering multiple cuts along his thick muscles. The woman opened her mouth, inhaling as if preparing to scream. She gasped instead as Arus'' blade bit into her calf. She leapt back, taking distance from the both of them, bleeding from multiple points now. She couldn''t possibly last much longer and her speed had to have been culled with that leg wound.


    Eildred bent low, preparing to use his Thundersword flash a third time. No one had ever survived it before. It stung his pride to have already missed twice.


    "That''s quite enough, Tavi," Odain said. "Come back here now." The woman obeyed, running over to him. He gripped the hilt of his blade and placed a hand on her chest. All of her wounds closed in an instant, leaving only the trails of a rolled down drop of blood from where each cut had been.


    Eildred grit his teeth. It wasn''t fair. They were severely outmatched in terms of magical power alone. And this woman had skill enough to last in a duel against both him and Sir L''Faleur. She was near matching in height and the outlines of her muscles showed with the slightest of movements, stretching out the scar marks on her skin. What kind of training had she been put through?


    Odain bent down and examined the two corpses before him. "A clean cut," he said, nodding towards Adrian. "Shame. I had more use for him." He then took a closer look at Dahlia, feeling a lock of her hair between his fingers. "Such bright hair. An oft recurring trait within the Lakris family."


    "Don''t touch her!" Eildred bellowed. "Don''t you dare Flaming touch her. I''ll kill you!"


    "As if that wasn''t your intent to begin with," Odain muttered. "I hate redundancy. It really gives us scholars a bad reputation. Reiterating said sentences in different ways to seem intelligent. Yet, it does nothing but make the author look a senile fool who hasn’t read over his work. Scholars these days are shams. Not like the Astari from my time. The truly wise, eager and benevolent. Kill me, was it? Hmm." Odain looked at the sky and let out an elongated sigh. "I doubt that. Not even time can kill me. Tavi, go and deal with those pesky knights. Their screams are getting on my nerves. Swiftly, if you don''t mind. The losing side seem to be our allies, so don''t kill them."


    The woman nodded. She took in a deep breath. Air seemed to spin around her and make her hair flutter. The skin on her scarred back tore open and a pair of mosaic wings sprouted therefrom. And then she disappeared, a gust of wind following. She moved faster than Eildred could see, tearing into the ranks of allied knights skirmishing at the courtyard''s edge. She pulled away and hovered in the air above them, holding out her arms on either side. Yellowed grass was ripped from the ground and then rained down upon the knights like a storm of needles. Men screamed as they were punctured from multiple points. Armor could protect them from only so much. The gaps within the plates were more than enough for them to suffer mortal wounds from the needles.


    "Useful isn''t she?" Odain commented. He had the Thousand Sun Sword in his hands now.


    Eildred turned his attention back to the Vicegerent. Odain was smirking, confident. Arus howled while charging. Eildred followed up on the attack from a different side.


    Odain met Arus'' charge with one of his own. Iron clashed with a blade of gold. For a moment, they stood in a deadlock and Eildred thought he had an opportunity to take Odain''s head. But the Thousand Sun Sword melted through Arus'' iron one in a breath and delivered a mortal wound that sizzled at the touch. Eildred reached his foe a hair''s breadth too late. Odain deflected his attack, and rammed the golden blade''s pommel into Eildred''s gut, sending him reeling. He followed up with a swift strike to the jaw next. Eildred''s vision clouded. He felt himself fall. Felt his sword slip from his hands.


    "Wind''s Eye. Didn’t know it was in Xenaria. It''s been a long time since I last saw this weapon."


    Eildred blinked to clear his sight, feeling around for his weapon. But Odain held Wind''s Eye now. Weaponless, Eildred stood anyway. His gaze flitted towards the others. Arus was down and unmoving. The woman was still slaughtering the knights, moving even trees with her deadly magic. His chest ached in despair. He felt folds of frustration appear on his face. The lack of agency, the feeling of being utterly powerless before a greater force, of being subjugated when he was the last pillar standing, it threatened to consume him.


    If only…


    Liquid fear ran through Eildred''s veins. But he chose to fight anyway. Fight for the future. What a short fight that turned out to be. He curled his fists and roared. "Admirable," Eildred heard Odain say.


    Everything ended.


    ***


    Odain crinkled his nose at the smell of all the blood. The palace grounds were littered with bodies. A familiar sight. Tavi glided over to him, her wings disappearing as she landed on her feet. The traitorous knights, a few dozen of them remaining only, stared at her with revering expressions, some muttering with hands clasped as if praying to her.


    "Good job, Tavi," Odain said. She nodded giving a small smile. She''d learned to cherish compliments since having her mind broken.


    Odain turned to the traitors. "Clean this place up. Throw this one into the dungeons," he said, kicking Eildred over. That despairing expression at the end spoke volumes. Another powerful Heartless candidate. Though I''ve still yet to figure the proper Chronary phrasing.


    There was a lot of work ahead. Bringing the heir to the capital for one. Xenaria had been ruled by a matriarch for centuries. The populous could get skeptical if he just chose to seize the throne now. The only issue remaining was the Tarmian Empire. With them sieging Arcaeus Peak, the princess was trapped there. "To bail them out with my forces or not…" Odain muttered. No. Better to let this play out. It could end with Duke Serene, Xenaria''s final bastion, being severely weakened or even falling.


    Tavi could always be used to break Emeria out. The princess needed to arrive and quell the rebellion herself to be accepted by the people. Quell the rebellion by permitting me to mobilize the Trillian militia. That would cement the religion into Xenaria and allow for a smooth takeover of the nation. All that remained was to convince the princess to wear a Crown of Control Artifact.


    Odain sighed. Xenaria felled at last. Something he''d dreamt of for so long.


    Tavi knelt down next to him, examining Queen Dahlia''s corpse. Odain watched her. She''d never taken interest in corpses before. Never taken interest in anything aside from her orders for that matter. She only spoke if asked to as well. Tavi leaned down as if examining Dahlia''s skin. She then tugged on the black cloak until it pulled away and ran her fingers through the silver fur at its top. A rich cloak suited for winter. An expected luxury for royalty to have. Odain crossed his arms. Was she taking interest in the cloak, stained as it now was? Or was she simply cold?


    Tavi brought the cloak up to her face and took a deep breath of the fur at the top. "Ta… Ra…" she said. She frowned, sniffing again, scratching her hair and then setting the cloak down before standing up.


    Odain watched her with narrowed eyes as she awaited her next orders. Ta and ra. She''d made those sounds once before since returning from her post at Oakwood Forest. She''d been assigned there to kill Eildred, and yet had returned empty handed. That had been a matter of unclear orders after all. There were hundreds of men who could match Eildred''s description. There would have been no way for Tavi to know what he looked like.


    Odain shrugged and turned away, motioning for her to follow. All he had left to do was wait for the results of the siege.