Jace and Verna strode into the courtyard, what was left of the courtyard. Prior to venturing deeper into the keep, they actually took a few minutes to make themselves appear clean and untouched. Removing armor, cleaning it, making sure clothing was properly dust free and straight. They were out in the open while doing this. However, Jace wasn't concerned, there wasn't a living soul within eye sight of them. The dust and smoke made sure of that. Their clean and unruffled appearances would intimidate the survivors more, he figured. Much like how his brother liked to show off in Lacrosse. From swinging around his stick like a weapon to the crazy long hair, how he would get involved in some of the most brutal collisions and no matter how hurt he was he never admitted it, and made everyone believe that he was fine. It scared the heck of out the other team. Right now, he was hoping they appeared terrifying. He no longer was in the mood to give these people a second chance. It was funny, he often thought about his father or girlfriend when thinking about home, but he never really was worried about his younger brother. His brother and him had a terrible relationship. He had to admit as an older brother he was a terrible one. Being far less reliable then his younger brother. Bullying his younger brother when they were little. The situation grew so bad that by the time he realized what a piece of shit he had been to his brother, the wounds were too deep to fix. No amount of apologizing would ever repair that relationship. He felt a great deal of guilt over that. What was a true shame is his brother was the type of brother everyone with a sibling would be happy to have. Smart, talented, generally good natured. The whole situation left a shadow of regret on his heart.

They swept through the keep like two angels of death to reap the living. Every person he saw with a weapon in hand looking at him simply exploded in a rain of entrails and blood. He closed off his worry about killing slaves. He knew Verna was doing much the same as she vanished from time to time only to return with blood on her sword. They posed little real risk, however Jace was no longer in the mood to give these people a chance. He had intentionally held back in their earlier fighting to avoid excessive casualties, and just as Verna predicted the enemy chose to assume that he was at his limits and so pressed all that much harder. He should have hit them far harder right from the start. It probably would have resulted in less death overall.

They made their way around the scorched earth and house sized boulders from the wall that were strewn about. Heading toward the palace, or whatever it was that remained of it. It looked like the whole south wing was crushed under one of those house sized boulders. He didn’t expect that burst/explosion circle would cause this huge of a blast. The blast threw rocks this huge this far gave him a deeper respect for the power of that circle he used.

Eventually the pair made it to the palace. The palace looked like a wreck. There were fires burning in the west wing. The south wing/entrance hall was shattered. The huge dome likely over the throne room was shattered. They simply slaughtered any guard who approached them with a weapon in hand. And continued to march toward the throne room. Jace was still limping from the new limb but had gotten more and more used to walking on it as time passed. The aching pain in his knee was troublesome, but he could restrain that with a spell if he needed to. Right now, it was far from his mind.

Picking their way through the rubble, they found their way into the throne room. It was not an easy walk and the devastation was impressive. A huge bolder from the wall was laying right in the middle of the reception hall, causing the ceiling to collapse in what was left of the throne room. The room was filled with staff, and freemen, some slaves, both male and female in separate groups, strangely there was a sizable group of rather attractive nude girls huddled in groups by the side of the throne, probably the king’s harem Jace figured, though many of the girls were huddled in groups with older women, it was a strange sight. There was an older human, pale skinned, fat, his hair white, giving him the appearance of advanced age. In reality he probably wasn’t much older than 40, but given the way the people lived in this world he supposed this made this man the king, at least Jace assumed it was the king was seated on the throne. His pants looked damp, and he looked terrified. To his side stood a black shadowy figure he instantly knew was a Fairy, given the surreal way the clothing drifted about. He had never seen a fairy in all black, even the head was fully covered. He figured this was the character who tried to have him killed. He knew Fairies would kill human mages out of a sense of duty. He wasn’t surprised they were here to kill him after his mutilation of that prince.

He was scrying constantly right now. Looking for threats. When his scrys touched the Fairy he nearly burnt it to a cinder where it stood.

Easol really was dreading what was to come next but it seemed like the only way out of this mess. The King listened to her advice and followed it exactly showing his desperation that he trusted her word to this extent, there were no weapons allowed in this throne room. That was the most important part. He had summoned the whole family and even the royal harem, plus whatever slaves were left alive in the palace. It made for a really poor reception overall. The fear was thick in the air. Even the king’s sister looked like she had wet herself.

Easol once again debated if she wanted to live through this or not. She did want to live. She just wasn’t sure if she wanted to do what was required of her by fate to do it. Was it worth it? The thought danced around in her head. Ultimately she feared there was no other way, so worth it or not she would have to try it.

This Jace and Verna entered the room, climbing past some debris. Jace didn’t look human. She actually had a hard time accepting he was of the same people as the people around her. If he had those yellow eyes she’d have no issues believing, he was sired by a dragon. He simply towered over all the humans around her. She wasn’t short for a woman of the People of the World, yet he still stood about as tall as the tallest male of the People she had ever seen. He was also thick. His arms were muscular, his chest broad, wide shoulders, thin waist, conversely he walked with a limp, and his aura was a mess. The contrast between his aura and physical appearance was strange and fascinating in its own way. She had seen him from a distance but it wasn’t until now she realized why all those slaves were so intimidated.

The kindred woman was striking in a different way. Red and orange hair that had an almost illusionary appearance looking like living fire. The fire dragon tribe of kindred were famous for their pride. How he had tamed one and made it follow him was impossible to imagine. Her hair was in stark contrast to her silver scaled armor, if he looked like he had transcended humanity, she looked like she should be by his side. Easol always favored women over men, and she had to admit this Verna was a gorgeous woman.

Clenching her teeth, she acted.

Jace was just about to kill the Fairy, figuring of everyone here, that one was the only one he was weary of. The humans clearly weren’t impressive, there were two channeler level mages hiding in back, but they looked properly terrified. No, the fairy was a different matter. (S)He had enough magical defenses up, varied ones he was having difficulty telling anything about him/her. He wasn’t even sure how to attack him/her through those defenses.

Just as he was about to try to brute force it, the Fairy lowered her hood. She, he was very certain it was a she, was heartbreakingly beautiful, with delicate graceful eyebrows, and hair that was a sparkling surreal blue, almost sapphire blue, matching similar colored eyes. The only thing marring her beauty was a large angry and bloody wound on her forehead. It painted half her face red. The contrast only made her more striking. She was pretty enough he hesitated for a brief moment. In that moment, she spoke.

“Breaker of Chains, I, Easol, daughter of Easolin of the Kingdom of Ghanarai, would like to ask your leave to read your future and fate, free of charge of course, for ‘He who Shatters Walls and Captures Cities,’ it would be my honor.”

He wasn’t the only one shocked by Easol’s speech, or her kneeling before him, and pressing her face to the floor. The king next to her looked apoplectic; for some reason, he was mouthing the words “free?” Jace decided to stop the slaughter here for a moment, he glanced at Verna, she smirked then strode forward.

“ALL WHO VALUE YOUR LIVES, KNEEL BEFORE THE GRAND WIZARD JACE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELVES.” Her voice was explosively loud leaving his ears ringing, of course she had used a spell to make it this loud, but the effect was apparent. Every noble, freeman and slave fell to their knees.

The king found his voice and spoke from his knees “Grand Wizard Jace, I am King Herath of Lotsorn; I do not know why those men attacked you and had nothing to do with it.” The older man was trembling in fear.

It was a preposterous lie. Who else could order those soldiers to attack him? Jace was frowning. He knew someone here had to have hired that Fairy mercenary company, obviously, he was the target of it. Yet here the Fairy girl was acting unrelated and subservient, subservient! Every fairy he had seen prior looked down on humans as if they were animals. Seeing one kneeling like this Easol was strange. More so the King even was kowtowing to him and trembling in fear. ‘Perhaps it was someone else?’

While Jace was indecisive, Verna was not. “DO NOT LIE TO ME. THE BLACK EYES ARE TOO EXPENSIVE AND PROUD FOR ANY BUT THE RICHEST OF HUMANS TO HIRE. UNDERSTAND HUMAN WORMS. I AM ASKING OUT OF A SENSE OF BOREDOM. GIVE ME THE PARTY RESPONCIBLE AND MOST OF YOU WILL LIVE. STALL LONGER AND ALL WILL DIE.”

To Jace’s surprise several of the nude male slaves stood up at this point and pointed straight at a rather frumpy looking middle aged woman. She was kneeling and judging by her position in the crowd rather high ranked, as she was close to the king. She also didn’t see the slaves point at her. Jace glanced at Verna, and noticed she had seen it. Jace motioned subtly for the slaves to stand down. He knew some of the free humans had seen it, both his gesture and that of the slaves. Meaning of course he now had a responsibility to them.

Verna meanwhile moved closer to the noble woman. Stopped in front of her and spoke in a slightly less domineering tone. “PISS WOMAN YOU’VE BEEN ACCUSED, SPEAK.”

The woman trembled visibly, then spoke slowly “I am Kindra, the sister of king Herath. I have no idea what vengeful braggart thinks to take advantage of this situation and have me killed by your hands. But I did not hire… the Black Eyes, was it? Nor did I order the troops to attack you. However much reason I might have. You killed my son you know. I would like to kill you but I cannot.”

Verna crouched down next to this Kindra and had a large grin on her face. “Kindra you do know my people can tell when human trash lie to them. You are ruined, how about you simple confess every evil deed you’ve done.”

The woman glared at Verna then said in a loud voice, “NOW!”

At that time, several things happened at once. The two channelers blacked out all light in the room. And Jace heard several “twang” noises. A sharp pain crashed into Jace’s arm, causing him to lose his concentration for a moment. The pain in his arm was grotesque. Still it was child splay to destroy the channelers. He was already acting in that direction when he noted them start to channel.

The light returned almost immediately as both channelers exploded in a shower of guts and blood. Verna was holding the woman Kindra up as a shield, three crossbow bolts piercing her back and passing through the poor shield striking Verna’s silver scaled armor. One bolt punched through the armor and was sticking out of her hip; Verna’s face was already showing signs of rage and bloodlust.

Jace’s own arm was pierced with a crossbow bolt, having passed straight through the shield caused by the armbands. Jace took in the scene and nearly struck out at the fairy when he noticed she was just feet from him. How she got there he wasn’t sure. But what he was sure is she had two crossbow bolts sticking out of her back. And judging by her position, she had chosen to take those bolts for Jace.

His eyes found the assassins quickly, and all of them exploded in a shower of guts. He acted decisively, healing his arm first, he strode over to Verna as the Fairy girl collapsed to the floor behind him. There was dead silence in the throne room except for the sound of hit boots striking the stone floor. He stopped in front of Verna then placed a hand on Verna’s head and yanked the bolt out of her hip, then healed the wound. Then he ripped the bolts stuck in this Kindra out and healed her as well. After a pause to make sure she was alive and awake, he cast that special spell, tearing her skin off like he had done with her son.

He didn’t even spare her a second glance and quickly put the wailing ‘thing’ out of his mind. He turned around to the fairy girl and knelt down. He yanked the bolts out of her, ignoring her shouts of pain, and healed the wounds. Then Jace stood up, the “thing” that was Kindra was screaming in a horrible tone. On reflection Jace decided to let the king enjoy her fate, and skinned the king in the same manner. Then dangled them in the air, as they screamed and bleed out their lives and regrets.

The throne room echoing with the screams of the dying king and his sister as they dangled over the heads of the human nobles dripping blood on them. It was a long day between Verna in the inn and the battle, then the walk he was a little tired. Jace strode past the silent nobles and slaves and sat down on the throne. The throne was the closest chair after all.

Easol stared at Jace on the throne. She had seen this result of course. She knew her actions would lead to this end. But it was the only path to life she could find. She couldn't even look at the king and his sister. Their screams were horrible. Trembling she could feel the strands of the curse invading her body. She knew this would be the price she'd have to pay for surviving this. Though why saving Jace's life from that crossbow bolt would be enough to get the curse? Somehow she knew this would be a day she would long regret.