Stone returned to the forest, holding up five fingers to indicate how much time was left. Kyren and Hrig nodded and they made their way back to the rest of the group. Waiting for them were four other adventurers, Saldin The Bold, Krishka the Reaper, Slate the Unconquered, and Phyl. Stone and Krishka approached the main wall and began spinning their grappling hooks, waiting for the signal.

The explosion went off exactly as Stone had timed it, and after the guards at the top of the wall moved to investigate. The team’s grappling hooks went up. It wasn’t difficult for them to find purchase on the citadel’s walls as they were made up of tree roots. Kyren and Hrig were the first up, followed by Saldin and Phyl. Slate and Stone needed to be hauled up in order to keep the team moving quickly.

From the top of the walls they could hear fights breaking out across the fort as other adventurers entered from multiple directions. The fort itself was lightly defended, with most of the kings’ troops engaged in protecting and securing the borders. Hard to approach with an army, but easy with smaller specialized groups of adventurers.

All the entrances were being stormed at once and the ranged fighters of the groups were sending crossbow bolts, arrows, rocks, and bolts of energy over the walls. The group took the nearby staircase down, with Hrig in the lead and Saldin close behind.

They encountered the first group of guards at the bottom of the stairs. Three elves dressed in the living wood armor common to their people, and wielding long elegant swords. Hrig and Saldin rushed them before they could call for help. Hrig’s axe crashed through the armor of the nearest one, sending him flying into the wall in a shower of splinters. Saldin brought his bastard sword down on the head of the second, killing him instantly. The third turned to flee, but a dagger flew into the base of his neck severing his spine before he could take two steps. Krishka twisted her wrist and the dagger flew back into her hand.

The team moved the bodies out of the hallway, Stone taking the time to loot them, and then began moving through the fort. The interior was opulent, but in a distinctly elvish way. There weren’t any grand portraits or works in silver and gold, but there were tremendous and beautiful sculptures of wood, tapestries woven from leaves and moss, and wooden walls in which were carved the intricate histories of the fort and those that had lived there. The team didn’t have a solid idea of the layout so they worked their way from the outside in, sweeping room to room in search of their targets, the Twin Kings.

All throughout their search they heard their compatriots fighting along the outer walls. They’d occasionally stop more elf warriors from heading that way, but they did their best to avoid combat where they could. The plan generally relied on two things. The distraction provided by the teams at the main entrances, and the group on the inside finding the Twin Kings isolated and taking them out.

The team reached a hallway with a series of rooms. They began systematically searching them with Hrig taking point. The first two rooms were food storage, but the third was a kitchen. Hrig entered the room to the surprised gasps of three servants. Two of them went to run, but were cut off by Phyl, and the third lunged at Hrig with a kitchen knife. She grabbed him by the wrist before he could strike and quickly broke his arm.

Phyl corralled them and he and Stone began tying them up.

Kyren approached the one with the broken arm and placed her hands onto it. They glowed gold briefly and his arm began to mend. “Your kings, where are they? Byren and Percy as well.”

The man whose arm she was healing spat at her.

Kyren stood, wiped her face with her sleeve and looked over to Hrig. “Undo the healing I just did please.”

Hrig smiled and grabbed the man by the arm. He just looked up at her defiantly.

“Wait!” said another of the kitchen staff, an older man. “Trayzen and Faden are in the central courtyard and Percy and Byren are confined to their quarters. You can reach the courtyard if you continue down the hallway and the guest rooms are on the other side of the fort, opposite of where we are now.”

“Traitor,” hissed the one with the formerly broken arm.

“Quiet son, you may be willing to be killed for them, but I’m not willing to watch it happen.”

“How long have Percy and Byren been confined to quarters?” asked Stone.

“Since they arrived,” responded the third worker, a middle aged woman.

“Have they been in contact with the kings?” asked Kyren.

“No, they were sent directly there and haven’t had visitors or been let out since. We’re not even supposed to talk to them when we deliver meals.”

“I guess that they’d overestimated how grateful the kings would be,” said Hrig.

“That means they won’t have any useful information,” said Kyren, smiling.

They finished binding and gagging their captives and then started toward the courtyard per their direction. The interesting thing about elvish construction is that it’s actually quite difficult to tell where the inside of a structure begins and ends. With walls made of tree and covered in foliage, it’s hard to recognize when you’ve made it outside.

The team was several steps into the courtyard before Slate looked up and pointed out the stars. The group tensed up and everyone strained their senses looking for the kings. Unfortunately, the kings found them first.

An arrow slammed into Saldin’s back from above knocking him to the ground. The group turned toward the direction it had come from, but before they could react fully a man landed in their midst and lashed out with two thin blades slashing Slate across the face and Kyren across the arm.

The king in front of them was dressed in ironwood armor painted gold etched with images of fallen leaves. He wore a helmet in the shape of a hawk’s head and the thin blades he wielded were ringing from the impacts they made, making the same sound the elyrium bars in the Wyrwind basement had. The bowman was nowhere to be found.

The group scattered, readying their weapons. Saldin managed to push himself up and behind a small bench just before a second arrow buried itself in the ground behind him.

The attackers didn’t give anyone time to regroup. Arrows began to rain down on everyone forcing the more lightly armored combatants to take cover, and the dual wielder began striking at the front-liners, keeping them unbalanced.

Rather than take cover from the arrows, Hrig moved to position herself in front of the swordsman so that he was between her and the arrows and attacked him with her axe. The man danced delicately around the strike and followed up with two strikes of his own, but Hrig managed to deflect those easily, following up with a kick that the swordsman only barely managed to dodge around.

Kyren stepped out from her cover behind a tree and released a spell with a flourish of her hand. As she did so an arrow broke in front of her as if stopped by an invisible force. “I’ve shielded you all from arrows!”

The rest of the party emerged from the trees and started throwing attacks at the golden-armored swordsman. Saldin’s bastard sword swung, but hit nothing but air as the figure danced backward, slashing across Phyl’s leg as he moved. Krishka’s daggers were batted aside or ignored as the figure moved between everyone, leaving cuts with every flick of his wrist.

The arrows had ceased and a figure in black armor landed behind Saldin and kicked at the arrow in his back, sending the point through his gut. Saldin screamed and the figure danced back wielding a hammer and a curved sword, a quiver half full at his back. His armor was the shadow of his twins looking like rotting wood with a raven helmet.

Stone leapt forward, his boots letting him launch himself quickly at the black-armored figure and he managed to land a blow with his sledgehammer right on the figure's helmet. He went for a follow up, but the figure danced away moving as fluidly as his golden ally had.

“Are the Twin Kings known to be expert fighters?” asked Phyl as he attempted to swing his massive two-handed club at the golden fighter, and missing.

“I’d thought they were just spoiled nobles,” replied Slate, wiping blood from his face before raising his shield to block two swift cuts.

The black-armored figure's helmet had cracked from Stone’s blow and from that crack Kyren saw a single golden eye peeking through. “They’re sons of Aurum!” She sent a flurry of what looked like birds made of golden light that exploded across the black-armored twin and threw him away.

“Hrig, Kyren, we’ll focus on goldie. The rest of you on the other one!” yelled Stone and the group neatly divided and started their assaults on their respective targets.

Hrig slashed and Stone swung, but the golden twin dodged neatly around them.

“You really think it’ll only take you three to stop me? I’m hurt,” he said in a faux pouting voice.

“You don’t know hurt yet, but you will,” said Hrig, starting a flurry of blows.

He dodged two strikes and deflected the others. His swords managing to withstand the full weight of Hrig’s blows despite their thinness.

Stone joined in with Hrig, aiming his hammer at his legs as Hrig aimed most of her strikes at his head. They weren’t able to break his defense, but he wasn’t able to launch a counterattack either.

“Did Caedus send you?” he asked, deflecting a particularly heavy blow from Hrig’s axe before jumping just out of the reach of Stone’s hammer.

“The king sends his regards,” lied Stone, using the conversation to back away and take a breath.

His eyes went blank for a moment. “Liar.”

Stone shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

Kyren released the spell she’d been building and golden chains wrapped themselves around their foe and brought him to his knees.

Hrig brought her axe down at his shoulder, but instead of a rain of blood there were only sparks.

He laughed. “Feels familiar doesn’t it?” he asked, his voice full of mirth.

Hrig smiled. “It does.” She raised her axe back up and symbols began to light up against her skin. One on the back of her neck, one on her right arm, one on her left, and one on her lower back. She brought her axe down in an impossibly fast strike in the same spot as before. There were still sparks, but there was plenty of blood this time as well as the axe embedded itself halfway through his chest.

“Traizen!” yelled the black-armored warrior. He moved with incredible speed, slashing across Slate’s neck leaving him clutching his throat. Krishka tried to block him, but he smashed his hammer across her face, sending her to the ground. He leapt up at Hrig, but before he could bring his weapons down on her she sidestepped him with incredible speed, her runes still glowing.

He looked surprised when he hit nothing but air and he was even more surprised when Phyl slammed his massived club straight down on his head, knocking him prone. Faden rolled and threw himself back up onto his feet.

Hrig’s runes faded and for a moment she wavered on her feet. Kyren was already working to heal Krishka leaving only Stone and Phyl in the proper shape to keep fighting.

Faden roared and the split in his helmet widened and broke as his elf-like features twisted into a dragon-like shape, the rest of his body growing larger. “I’ll kill you for what you’ve done!” he said, before opening his mouth in Stone and Phyl’s direction.

Heat started to build and Phyl launched himself at Stone, pushing him out of the way just in time for him to avoid being barbecued by Faden’s fiery breath. Phyl himself was not so lucky and lay clutching his side in pain.

Faden turned toward Stone, his mouth opening for another blast, heat building around his mouth. Just before he released his breath, Stone grabbed one of the black orbs from his chest and threw it, landing it straight in Faden’s mouth as he released his breath. His eyes widened for just a moment before his head exploded, sending viscera all throughout the courtyard.

Hrig moved to Stone’s side, using the grass of the courtyard to clean off her axe. “What was that you threw?”

Stone smiled. “It’s called a bomb.”

…

After Kyren had healed the injured, all except for Slate were in good enough shape to get moving. Hrig carried him on her back and they worked their way through to where they’d been told Byren and Percy were being held. At this point it was probable that a message had gotten out to the former kings' soldiers in the field and the adventurers would all need to scatter and head back for the border. Stone broke off from the group with Krishka to look for any documentation regarding the kings' activities.

It only took a little bit of searching before the rest of the group found Percy and Byren locked in a suite. They were sitting at a table eating dinner. They looked tired, but had clearly been kept in luxury.

“Sister?” asked Byren as Kyren entered the room.

She nodded at him. “Byren, Percy, you’re looking distinctly unwell.”

Percy backed away. “What are you here for? Are you taking us back to Caedun? I refuse to be hauled back in chains.”

“I don’t think that will be an issue,” said Kyren, a small smile on her face.

“Of course not. Obviously Kyren intends for us to be a source of information. We’ll cooperate in any way we can,” said Byren, a wormy smile on his face.

“I’m afraid that the only thing we need from you two is your heads,” said Hrig, placing Slate down gently and hefting her axe.

Byren smirked and turned his attention to Kyren. “Come now? Would your goddess really approve of that?”

Kyren’s small smile stayed on her face. “I’m certain that Sidi and I agree,” she said, a halo of light appearing around her. “Leaving you two alive, wouldn’t be very wise.”