Chapter 19.

(Fatina)

Two weeks ago, Gabrielle saved me when my life was heartbeats from coming to an end.

At the time, I was a Khan Wilder wandering between the villages and towns of Reinwald, stealing what I needed to survive, and learning to wield Gehanna a little at a time, aided by the Seal and the Dream of Ragnarok.

I had slaughtered my village, and I had fled from my sister, abandoning her despite the pleas she cried hoarsely into the night air.

I had to get away from the remains of the village, from our mother, and from her.

If the soldiers of Reinwald were to come, they could not find me near my sister.

It wouldn’t be safe for her.

That was what I told myself, and I convinced myself to run.

But the truth was I was terrified of facing her. I had committed a mortal sin, the gravest of crimes.

I had killed not one person, but hundreds.

I had killed them all, the men, the women, and the children.

It wasn’t just my hands that were stained in blood, but my heart and soul too.

And when I slept, I relived that night, hearing their screams over and over in my mind, driving me awake and robbing me of rest.

Then the Sharkhan from the Orden found me, and I willingly joined her in battle.

I threw myself into the fight, believing this was what I wanted – an end to the nightmare my life had become.

I wanted to stop hearing the screams of the dead.

I wanted an end to everything, but I was too much of a coward to end my own life.

So I chose to have the Sharkhan do it for me.

I fought her in rocky, uneven woodlands, drawing upon everything I had learnt from my experiences within the Dream of Ragnarok.

She had experience and training on her side. Time had acclimated her body to the Seal of Arcala within her, but I had power.

Gehanna was stronger than Akasha.

As we fought, at times felling trees with a single swipe of our bladed weapons, I realized something important.

Knowing Gabrielle as I know her now, she would have described it as…profound.

As I fought, I realized I didn’t want to die.

I wanted to live.

I had thrown myself into battle with the Sharkhan not because I wanted to die, but because I wanted to know if I deserved to live even after everything I had done – even after all the lives I had taken.

I was giving it my all in the hope of finding a glimmer of hope that my life was still worth something more than an endless cycle of despair.

But I was defeated, and it was Gabrielle who saved me, appearing at the last moment and wounding Iris Dirac with her sword-spear, before stealing me away from Sharkhan.

I believed I should have died, and I raged against Gabrielle.

But she gave me a reason to live, and that reason was my sister.

Deena was alive, branded with a Seal, and gifted with a Warlord.

She was alive and on the run.

Gabrielle wanted to save her, and she needed my help.

Saving and protecting my sister became my reason to live.

She would be my means of atonement.

However, a new nightmare awaited me. The Hell of constant training.

From morning to night, Gabrielle drilled me continuously in the art of warfare.

Knife fighting. Sword fighting. Defending against a spear. I began learning how to use the physical strength I gained from the Seal of Arcala inside my body, a strength that made me far stronger than a large man. When I wasn’t sleeping or eating, I was running through woods and forests, splashing across streams, and at times outrunning the wild beasts that saw me as food.

I learnt early on not to complain. Gabrielle would point out that if I had the strength to complain, I should be using it to run faster or swim better.

But it wasn’t just my body she wanted to strengthen but my ability to exert my will over Gehanna, and so I trained for hours against Gabrielle’s Celestial.

I trained for my inevitable confrontation with Iris Dirac.

I say inevitable because I believed she would not allow me to escape her. She would pursue me as relentlessly as the Reinwald army pursued my sister. As my Seal healed me from my injuries, the Seal of Arcala within Iris Dirac would heal her too from the near mortal wound she suffered at the end of Gabrielle’s sword-spear.

We would face each other once again, and this time there would be no running away.

Our fight would end when one of us fell and did not rise again.

At least, that is what I believed.

But even though I had trained for this moment, it was not how I imagined my reunion with my sister and with Iris Dirac Korvinus.

Maintaining Gehanna in a defensive stance, I narrowed my eyes at the young woman.

What is going on here?

My gaze and my Awareness searched her, the latter hampered by the interference Akasha was creating. Just as I had disrupted her Awareness-field, Akasha was now disrupting mine.

I can’t believe she’s this strong. After all the punishment she’s taken at the hands of my sister, she’s still standing. Despite the strain on her body, she was able to summon and maintain her Warlord’s Rhokhan form with its seven Impulse Wings.

I swallowed tightly and forced my breathing to remain even and steady.

And here I was hoping to end her quickly. Damn. Now what do I do?

I took a chance, and directed part of my Awareness-field behind me.

I could just sense Gabrielle leaning over my sister, who remained merged with her Warlord. I didn’t understand how that was possible. If my sister’s heart had stopped, her Warlord should have withdrawn back into its Sarcophagus, so why was it still here in this realm?

And what was Gabrielle doing?

I trusted her to save my sister, but why I couldn’t I feel my sister’s heart beating again?

Why was she still dead?

Iris Dirac wiped at her lips yet again. “So, the slaughterer of men, women, and children returns.”

For a moment, the swords trembled in Gehanna’s hands, and my throat and chest grew tight. Yet I dredged up a response, my voice amplified by Gehanna.

“…yes…I slaughtered them….”

“Including your mother?”

A pang of shock stabbed my chest. “How do you know…?” My eyes widened as I realized the truth. “Deena…she told you.”

Iris ran her fingers across her bloodied lips. “Yes, your sister told me what you did.”

To my surprise, I relaxed a little. “I see. I guess she must hate me for what I did.”

“It’s unfortunate you’ll never have the opportunity to ask her yourself.”

I blinked, then half smiled at her. “Is that what you think?”

Dirac snorted in contempt. “Your sister is gone. She succumbed to the Darkness within the Seal, and her body was unable to cope.”

I smiled fully at her. “Don’t be so sure.”

Dirac’s eyes flickered to the scene behind me. “I see you brought that monster along with you.”

Is she stalling for time? Is she giving her body a chance to recover? No, it doesn’t work that way. The longer we remain merged, the more the strain on our minds and bodies.

I swallowed quickly and replied, “I didn’t bring her. She brought me along.”

Dirac’s gaze centered on me. “Do you even know what that thing is?”

“Do you?” I raised my chin at her. “How much do you really know about the Warlords, about the Khans, about the Seals inside our bodies? How much does the Quorum and the Orden know and tell its Khans?”

“I know all I need to know.”

“And that’s why you lost in Kapernia. And that’s why you’ll lose against me. Because you don’t know enough.” Slowly, I shook my head at her. “Do you even know why the Warlords exist?”

“Enlighten me.”

I shook my head. “No. First you vow to stop pursuing my sister and I. Only then will I consider telling you.”

Dirac remained quiet for a long moment, and I have to admit it made my anxiety grow a little. But then she shook her head slowly, and reached into her armored bustier.

She pulled out a pendant hanging from a slender necklace around her neck, and held it up for me to see.

My body tensed for several heartbeats as I recognized it as my pendant, but I refused to allow this to distract my stance.

Dirac regarded the pendant as she wiped at her lips again.

Then she turned her eyes on me, and smiled thinly. “Do you want this back?”

I replied without nodding. “Of course. It belongs to me.”

“Does it now?”

“Yes. It was a gift I received from our mother, bought from a merchant that passed through our village.”

“Is that the honest truth?”

“Of course it is….”

“Then you’re saying you have no connection to the family this crest belongs to.”

Family crest?

I frowned a little. “Is…is that what it is…?”

What is she trying to say?

Dirac studied the pendant for a short while. “How interesting that this would happen to fall into the hands of a ‘passing’ merchant.”

“Why is that?”

“Because this pendant bears the crest a noble house. A fallen house.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “A fallen…house?”

“House Vremonde.” She cocked her head at me. “The former rulers of the Kingdom of Verlance.”

I shook my head faintly. “Sorry, but I have no idea what kingdom that is. I’m just a simple village girl—”

“—who slaughtered the people of her village.”

My breath caught, and it took me a moment to regain my composure. “Are we back to that again?”

Dirac eyed the pendant she dangled before her. “The Kingdom of Verlance was annexed by the Anderas Empire…fifteen years ago.”

I took a quiet, slow breath. “That means nothing to me…but I still want my pendant back.”

I felt her gaze meet mine. “Then take it from me.”

I willed Gehanna to raise its swords a little higher. “I won’t be gentle.”

Dirac dropped the pendant – my pendant – back into her bustier and between her ample breasts. “Truthfully, all I wanted was to save you and your sister from the Seals.”

“Well, you have a funny way of showing it. And I never asked you to save me. And I doubt my sister asked you either.”

Akasha pulled the spear out of the ground.

Gabrielle said that burying your weapon into the ground was to abuse it as it dulled the tip. Even if a Warlord’s weapon never lost its edge, she warned me not to pick up the bad habit.

Akasha twirled the spear, then promptly grasped it in a two handed grip. Smoothly shifting its feet on the ground, the Warlord angled its body toward me.

Dirac proclaimed, “My duties as a Khan prohibit me from allowing you and your sister retaining the Seals of Arcala. No matter the cost to me, I will have them removed from your bodies.”

It was just as Gabrielle had said – the Khan Orden was no longer adding Wilders to its ranks.

Wiping her mouth brusquely, Dirac shifted Akasha’s stance to one preparing to leap into battle, spreading its feet slightly wider and crouching lower, while fanning out its seven Impulse Wings.

The spear’s tip was aimed straight and steady at my chest.

And yet while Dirac’s intention was clear, her final declaration confused me.

“Good bye, you remnant.”

I had no time to ponder the meaning.

Instead, I slapped both of Gehanna’s long, curved swords together, locking them together in parallel to form one thick weapon.

Switching to a two-handed grip, I turned a bitter laugh into a challenge.

“As Gabrielle likes to say, ‘bring it on’.”

#

(Alleyne)

I listened to Ravinia Eldridge, and made little effort to hide my disbelief.

In contrast, Lisanna regarded Eldridge with outright incredulity.

Yet, despite the expression she wore, Lisanna voiced her thoughts in a surprisingly calm voice.

“That’s ludicrous,” she intoned almost casually. “You could dress her in the fineries of the world and she would still be a country trollop.”

Eldridge regarded her dryly. “Your hatred runs deep.”

“I don’t hate her. Well, yes I do. However, that has nothing to do with my opinion of her.” Lisanna tossed her dark brunette hair while keeping her hands on Eldridge’s chest as she continued to cleanse the Ether. “It is impossible to even consider her as noble born. Why would you even suggest such a thing? For that matter, your Sharkhan is a few pearls short of a full necklace.”

Eldridge visibly winced, then hesitated before asking, “Just how many pearls would that be?”

Lisanna rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You understand what I mean.”

I watched the Secretary of the Quorum hold her tongue while in thought. Eventually the woman sighed and said, “Yes, yes. I understand.”

“Then you agree that it’s ludicrous to consider that bumpkin is noble born. If she’s a noble’s daughter, then I’m first in line to be the next Empress.”

I held back a snide remark, and instead chose to address Eldridge. “Why does Iris believe this of Fallon?”

“It’s because of the necklace.”

I shook my head a little. “What necklace?”

“Two weeks ago, Iris and I encountered a young girl, a Khan Wilder, and Iris and the girl fought. At that time, Iris took a pendant from the girl who succeeded in fleeing from us. However, the pendant was designed in the shape of a crest—a family crest.”

Lisanna tipped her head to a side. “What family?”

“House Vremonde of the Kingdom of Verlance.”

I knew the name and the land that was no more.

A vast, sprawling region known for its fertile lands and deep Etherite mines.

A land envied for its riches.

Fifteen years ago it was annexed into what is now the Anderas Empire during a time of conflict with its neighbor, the Kingdom of Auren. While both kingdoms were entangled with each other, the Anderas army invaded their borders without warning, and annihilated their armies. In less than a week, the Anderas Kingdom had become the Anderas Empire, and two years later, the Empress ordered the invasion and subjugation of one more sovereign territory, the Kingdom of Kai Liam, to the north of Anderas.

Having witnessed the Anderas Empire expand its territory through military might, other lands that had been on the brink of conflict with their neighbors quickly reconsidered their positions. Divided they were easy prey to the Empire, but united they stood a chance. It was better to make piece and form alliances than to wage war amongst themselves. What followed was a period of hasty negotiations and political marriages between rival territories and royal families that had once bared their fangs at each other.

Even I could see that the alliance between Reinvald and Caldera was influenced by the emergence of the Anderas Empire far to the west.

However, while the emergence of the Anderas Empire had altered the political picture of the Northern Continent, it had also enforced peace across the many lands since none of them could afford outright war with their neighbor and risk weakening themselves before the Empire.

Surprisingly, during this time of chaos and consolidation, the Archons chose solely to observe and not interfere. It wasn’t until all the dust had settled that they re-established an embassy in the Anderas Empire’s capital city of Dal Anderas, and distributed newly drawn up maps of the Northern Continent.

I regarded Eldridge for a moment before asking, “Surely there’s more to substantiate the suspicion? A pendant in the shape of a family crest is hardly sufficient to warrant the belief that Fallon is noble born. Besides, you said the pendant belongs to this other girl. I’ve never seen Fallon wearing a necklace with a pendant on it.”

Ravinia took a couple of deep breaths then said, “That may be true. What convinced Iris more so than I is the fact that Fallon and her sister are identical twins. And the girl that Iris fought and from whom she took the pendant was identical to Fallon. In fact, when we arrived last evening and encountered Fallon Kassius, we believed she was the girl who’d escaped us two weeks ago. However, her reaction toward us wasn’t what we’d expected, and we realized she was not the same girl we’d encountered before.”

Lisanna’s expression grew increasingly sour with each word Eldridge spoke. “Are you saying there’s another country trollop out there, and she happens to look the same as this one here?”

Eldridge gazed at Lisanna with an unreadable expression, yet I had a fair idea of what she was thinking.

Swallowing to clear her throat, Eldridge replied, “Fallon Kassius has a sister, and her name is Fatina. And like Fallon, she is a Khan Wilder gifted with a Warlord, a very powerful Seerkhan named Gehanna.”

A look of dismay settled on Lisanna’s face. “Another Khan Wilder?”

Eldridge nodded once. “Indeed.”

Confusion furrowed my brow as I asked, “How is that important? I mean, how does that imply that Fallon and her sister are noble born?”

Eldridge took a deep breath. “Historical records state that a year before it fell, the House of Vremonde was blessed with the birth of two baby girls. Two daughter-heirs to the Kingdom of Verlance, and these girls were twins. When the kingdom fell, the House of Vremonde disappeared practically overnight, and by that I mean all family members.”

I swallowed discreetly. “Disappeared?”

Eldridge gave me a shallow nod. “Most likely they were executed and their bodies disposed of.”

I took a deep shuddering breath, and Lisanna drew back a little.

After a moment of heavy silence, Lisanna cautiously asked, “The twin baby girls—what were their names?”

Eldridge’s lips pressed together for a long uncomfortable moment before she answered, “Fallon Deena Vremonde and Fatina Deidre Vremonde.”

Upon hearing those names, I inhaled deeply until my lungs hurt and expelled it loudly. “But Fallon said her name was given to her by the Seal of Arcala.”

Ravinia shook her head. “No. The Seal of Arcala does not give you a name. It gives you a Clan name, what we call a gens. However, it does give you the option to choose a new name for yourself, one which it will use to recognize you.”

I felt my face contort in confusion. “I don’t understand. Are you saying the Seal did not give Fallon her name?”

Ravinia nodded on this occasion. “That is true. The Seal ‘restored’ her name. It returned to her the name she was blessed with by her parents. I suspect the same of her sister, Fatina. It restored their respective names. In other words, it reinstated their heritage, their ancestry, and their ties to the noble house they were born into.”

Lisanna breathed out loudly. “The Kingdom of Verlance. House Vremonde.” She looked up and to the west with a distant look in her eyes. “And Queen Faylan.”

Ravinia swallowed again, and her chest rose and fell deeply under Lisanna’s palms. “The daughters of Vremonde, the heirs to the Kingdom that is now a province of the Anderas Empire, have both been gifted with Sharkhan Warlords, Andraste and Gehanna, named after ancient goddesses of war.” Eldridge looked at me, her gaze grabbing a hold of me. “Lady Alleyne, do you see the danger in that?”

A few moments went by during which I gave Eldridge’s question serious thought. The answer at which I arrived was far from pleasant.

As I had come to understand the danger, so too had Lisanna.

The young woman straightened sharply where she knelt, yet kept her hands lightly on Eldridge’s chest.

“Vengeance,” she declared softly, yet the breeze carried her voice. “Vengeance against the Anderas Empire that invaded their homeland and robbed them of their birthright.”

Ravinia nodded, and studied Lisanna and I in turn. “This is why Iris wishes to remove the Seal of Arcala from their bodies.”

It made sense to me now, why Iris Dirac would risk her life and that of her bonded partner, Ravinia Eldridge.

I spoke more forcefully than Lisanna. “She wishes to protect the Anderas Empire from the threat of the Khan Wilders—to protect it from the daughters of a sovereign kingdom conquered by the Empire. By doing so, she ensures the Empire’s presence continues to be a stabilizing force across much of the Northern Continent. Lands that once would have considered war with their neighbors now have no choice but to ally with each other against the threat of conflict from the Anderas Empire.”

“So in her eyes,” Lisanna concluded, “she’s doing all this for the greater good of maintaining the peace.”

“Yes,” Ravinia concurred. “She’s doing it to fulfill one of the oaths of the Khan Orden, and that is to uphold the peace across the lands.”

I laughed under my breath. “How deplorably noble of her….”

As I turned away, my gaze fell upon Kaden standing silently a few meters away, wearing a conflicted expression after having listened to every word spoken between Eldridge, Lisanna, and I.

I watched him clench his jaw, and direct his gaze to the northwest.

The urge to stay with us warred with his desire to ride off and support Falken.

Then I saw the question of ‘what could he do’ run across his face.

A heartbeat later, Kaden crossed his arms tightly across his chest, and resumed watching over us.

For now, he had chosen to stay.

#

(Fatina)

Iris Dirac’s spear had a longer reach than my swords.

In that respect I was at a disadvantage, and with her two handed grip, she was able to move the spear tip about with considerable speed.

But Gehanna’s swords weren’t that short, and had a seven foot reach of their own, and this gave me options.

The first was to keep my locked swords outstretched before me.

When I locked the weapons together, the hilts reconfigured into one, allowing Gehanna to wield the twin-swords in a two-handed grip.

Gabrielle called the stance I had assumed a stable guard, a short position with the hilt of the weapon tucked in toward Gehanna, the blade upright and pointed at an angle at Akasha. In the theory, and in practice, I found that from this stance I could defend and attack equally well. It protected both my inside and outside regions, while allowing me to move into an attacking thrust with minimal movement.

But my opponent wasn’t wielding a sword. She had a spear, and to defend against a spear, I needed to make my swords as long as possible to keep the bladed weapon away from me.

With this in mind, Gabrielle had instructed me to extend my guard from a stable form to just shy of an instable one. So I willed Gehanna to move its arms forward such that the twin-sword was no longer tucked in toward me. It would be difficult to attack from this stance, but what mattered to me was defense.

In short, with Iris bearing the spear at Akasha’s waist height, I needed to counter it with the least amount of movement. My twin-swords needed to travel the shortest distance to deflect the oncoming weapon.

Gabrielle had told me I needed a year’s training to make a competent swordswoman out of me. Then she praised me, and called me one of her finest students.

That surprised me. Gabrielle looked only a few years older than Deena and I, yet for her to have taught students the art of swordsmanship meant she was something of a…prodigy?

Then again, she was blessed with a Celestial, so maybe there was much more to her than I could see.

In any event, I was moments away from putting these last two weeks of training into practice.

Time slowed around me as I fell into an overclocked state.

My Awareness-field narrowed into a half-circle or quarter sphere that was focused forward, sharpening my perception of the world in that region beyond anything a child of nature could experience.

I felt my field brush against Akasha’s field.

The instant my senses blurred for half a heartbeat, Iris Dirac chose to attack.

To my utter surprise, she came at me head on.

There was no feint, no attempted deception. Nothing of the sort.

It was a simple, powerful charge in my direction with enough speed to make my overclocking feel like it wasn’t even working.

She moved so fast, she almost vanished from my eyesight. But while it was surprising, it was something I was prepared for.

It was something Gabrielle believed Iris would throw at me – an honest move that lacked any deceit and was founded on the principle of overwhelming speed and power.

It was a move meant to cut the opponent down with utmost purity.

As Akasha came toward me, the terrace and buildings behind it vanished as its seven Impulse Wings projected an incredible force against them, demolishing them in a heartbeat. A storm of dust, dirt, and debris swirled violently behind the Warlord as it charged at me.

I made no effort to look at Iris Dirac’s face, but I glimpsed it.

The woman’s eyes burned, and her lips were pulled back in a bloody snarl.

But her roar was almost lost in the violent crash of noise as Akasha tore its surroundings apart.

My Awareness-field sensed the piercer-field wrapped around the spear’s blade. The field made it longer and more lethal by several feet.

As Akasha drew within a few feet of Gehanna’s outstretched swords, I willed my Warlord to sidestep to the right, while swinging the swords in a half circle to the left.

Wrapped in a barrier-field, the twin-swords came up and under the spear, knocking it upwards and clear of Gehanna’s left shoulder.

Had I been a heartbeat too late, the blade and its piercer-field would have ripped through Gehanna’s skeletal body, and undoubtedly taken my flesh-and-blood left arm.

As it was, my deflection was a little late and it cost Gehanna several of its barrier-fields.

They shattered, making the air shimmer and sparkle in green. I was aware of them breaking apart, but I was committed to the counter and paid them no mind.

Before Akasha could crash into me, I yielded to the now deflected spear, and swung the twin-swords in an arc that brought them down upon the Warlord and Iris Dirac.

It was a downward slash that would have cleaved the woman in half from head to crotch, but at the last possible moment, Akasha spun the spear in reverse and parried the twin-swords.

Still flying toward me, Akasha crashed into Gehanna and the air flashed bright emerald as our barrier-fields collided with one another.

Akasha was moving too quickly for me to push back, and our Warlords became entangled.

With a loud cry and halos of blue light surrounding Gehanna’s feet and Impulse Wings, I willed my Warlord to move aside, forcibly break free of Akasha’s tangle of spear and limbs. This reversed our positions, and I quickly pushed against Akasha, my twin-swords pressed hard against her blocking spear.

Together we flew across the open space of the terrace, until Akasha’s back and Impulse Wings crashed into deserted buildings, crushing them into ruin.

The impact and subsequent rebound separated us.

With my twin-swords free of the spear and no longer pushing against Akasha, I drew them back and quickly swung it down before Iris could recover.

This time, I chose not to aim for the Khan, but for the Warlord.

The piercer-field around the twin-swords sliced through Akasha’s armored right shoulder, separating the arm from the rest of the skeletal body.

I heard Iris Dirac scream as the Warlord’s limb fell to the ground beside it.

But it wasn’t a scream of pain since Akasha’s Core had chosen to protect its Khan’s mind from the psychosomatic pain of the injury. So even if it felt pain, Akasha would not allow that pain to flow into Iris.

So the scream I heard wasn’t in anguish but in rage.

Ignoring it, I raised the twin-swords high, then brought them down on Akasha’s left shoulder.

Iris screamed again as I amputated Akasha’s arms, then she suddenly fell silent.

Gabrielle would give me Hell for this later, but I tossed aside the twin-swords, drew back my Warlord’s right hand into a fist, and punched Akasha’s remaining barrier-fields protecting Iris Dirac.

The clawed fist was wrapped in layers of small panes of protective barriers, overlapping like scales of hardened, glazed air. It punched through Akasha’s barriers, and struck Iris with enough force to break her ribs and knock her unconscious.

Then I directed my attack on Akasha, and began tearing the Warlord apart.

As Gabrielle had told me, once a Warlord sensed it was in danger of being destroyed it would flee back into a realm called Limbo, so I wasn’t surprised to see the white mist of an emerging Sarcophagus billow out all around us.

Now!

Willing Gehanna to summon the strongest effect-fields it could, I used those fields to reach out and grab Akasha’s Sarcophagus.

I wasn’t going to allow it to collect the Warlord, and then flee with it.

The effect-fields scrambled to hold onto the Sarcophagus, and I quickly realized it was like holding onto a bar of wet soap.

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t grab the Sarcophagus.

My effect-fields kept slipping over it.

The large, twelve meter tall rounded coffin opened its doors, and I felt it pull Akasha into its innards. At the same time, the unconscious Iris Dirac was separated from her Warlord and she floated down to the ground between Akasha and Gehanna. I quickly sidestepped around the young woman’s body or Gehanna would have crushed her underfoot.

I changed my objective.

If I couldn’t prevent the Sarcophagus from leaving, then I would damage Akasha as much as possible and delay its recovery.

I began tearing into it in earnest, ripping apart the chevron chains that connected its limbs to the multiple chassis that formed its back and spine. But the tearing the chains was harder than I’d expected, and I realized that tossing aside Gehanna’s twin-swords was a mistake.

Reaching out to the joined swords, I willed an effect-field to latch onto the weapon’s hilt.

A few seconds later the swords flew into Gehanna’s open and waiting right hand. Summoning a piercer-field around the blade, I slashed and hacked at Akasha.

And that’s when the situation took an odd turn that Gabrielle hadn’t warned me about.

A loud noise began blaring inside my ears.

It sounded like bells but the timbre was unnatural and it made shivers run down my back while the hairs on my body stood up on end like just before a lightning strike.

Then the bells began ringing so loudly I thought my eyes would burst from my skull.

Somehow I heard Gehanna’s warning in my mind, urging me to retreat.

The bells were a warning to me, telling me to back away from Akasha and its Sarcophagus.

They were telling me not to interfere with the damaged Warlord’s recovery.

When I jumped back a dozen meters away from Akasha, the latter now floating into the open Sarcophagus, the warning bells grew softer and my head no longer felt like it would burst apart. But even though the warning bells had grown quieter, I still held my head in my hands as I watched the Sarcophagus swallow Akasha into its innards. The doors on the immense container closed smoothly, and when shut there was no sign that they existed.

While this happened, the white mist continued to flow out of the breach between Limbo and this reality. It only stopped when the Sarcophagus disappeared from view.

With the breach sealed, the cold mist faded away into the surrounding air.

I lowered my hands from my head.

The warning bells no longer rang in my ears or inside my skull, and the shivers that wracked my body had stopped as well.

I stared long and hard at the space once occupied by Akasha and the Sarcophagus, thinking I would need to speak to Gabrielle about what had happened.

Thinking of Gabrielle made me remember my sister.

With my Awareness-field spread out as far as I could manage, Gehanna and I spun around searching for them.

I sensed them a few moments later, and looked toward a corner of this terrace where a few hundred feet away Gabrielle stood over my fallen sister.

She had landed on Deena’s motionless Warlord that was lying on its back. Deena remained merged with her Warlord, and lay awkwardly on top of it.

Gabrielle had swapped the sword-spear she usually carried for something resembling a fork with only two tines. But this fork was as long as a spear, with the tines making up half its overall length. The tips of those tines bloodlessly pierced my sister’s chest between her breasts.

Gabrielle leaned down a few inches, and the fork glowed with a faint blue-white light.

For a short while, I watched Gabrielle work her magic on my sister.

Oddly, I felt no fear that she would fail. Instead, I had absolute faith that she would resurrect my sister, and save her from the depths of her Seal. What happened to us afterwards would depend on whether the Archduke of this land upheld his end of the agreement. Making our future less certain was the fact that Gabrielle’s plan was only a rough idea at best. Behind her optimism, I could tell she was worried.

My Awareness-field sensed faint movement on the ground some seven meters to my right.

Gehanna and I turned around, and I looked down at Iris.

The young woman was gradually regaining consciousness.

I willed Gehanna to walk over to her.

The Warlord Akasha had escaped me, but it had left its Khan behind.

True, I’d promised Gabrielle I wouldn’t kill the young woman.

But I had a score to settle with Iris Dirac Korvinus and that included taking back my pendant.

#

(Falken)

The snapped chain made a mess of the Etheric drive.

A length of it caught between two adjacent spinning fan blades and ripped away pieces of them.

I sensed this through the Ether that was my medium through which I could reach out to the Etherite in the engine.

Through the Ether I could visualize parts of the engine being torn away.

The grinding and buffeting from within the barrel shaped engine bay grew worse, then quickly fell to a rattle.

There was nothing connecting the crank wheel to the drive shaft.

In moments, the Etheric engine and its remaining fan blades would spin to a stop as friction slowed it down. At that point it would cease drawing in the Ether that I needed to operate the five tonne machine.

As the construction Jotunn toppled over, I managed to toss away underarm the piece of permacrete in its oversized hands. I heard the large chunk of rubble hit the terrace ground somewhere behind me, but my focus was on regaining the Jotunn’s balance. Then the chain snapped and its remains tore away at the engine fan blades essential for drawing in the Ether.

I cried out in effort as I willed the twelve-foot tall machine to catch its fall by stepping forward and then bracing itself with its long arms against what was once a mountain of rubble. The men nearby scrambled away in a panic, and those people still trapped that saw me fall screamed in terror.

However, I didn’t fall.

As I’d intended the Jotunn supported itself on its hands and feet, its long arms bending to cushion the impact. The large, wide pile of rubble trembled and pieces of broken permacrete and stone were loosened by the bone-jarring landing. However, no one was injured, and I was not crushed under the weight of the old construction Jotunn.

I had avoided a bad ending, but now faced a new problem.

The Etheric drive was damaged and slowing down.

I swallowed down the coppery taste in my mouth, and concentrated on reaching out to the Etherite blended into the drive. Grabbing onto it with my Ether Kinetic talent, I began forcing the shaft and fan blades to spin faster. If I couldn’t use the crank wheel to spin up the assembly, then I would use my Kinetic talent on it directly.

Despite the damage it had sustained the engine hadn’t seized up, probably due to its outdated design. Where a War Jotunn had a complex gearbox and incorporated a small Etheric engine to help power a larger one, this construction Jotunn made do with a simpler drive and less moving parts.

Careful to use my Ether Kinetic talent on the drive shaft and not on the fan blades, I kept the assembly turning over and the Ether flowing into the engine and the Jotunn.

I opened my eyes, and concentrated on willing the construction machine to stand upright.

The Jotunn felt like an old man, battered and beaten, with every joint in his body aching, yet driven by an indomitable will to stand and move.

I willed it to its feet, carefully using the pile of rubble for support, then staggered back a few meters. Keeping it upright and standing steady grew easier as I learnt to divide my concentration and Kinetic will between the spinning drive shaft and the construction Jotunn’s body.

I watched the large, burly individual who’d been directing me and the other men hurry over.

He came to a stop a safe distance away.

Now that he was close, I realized just how big he was. He was oversized in every respect and that included his voice.

“What’s your name, lad?” he boomed at me.

“Falken,” I replied loudly, needing to be heard over the scraping noise emanating from the Etheric engine bay. “What’s yours?”

“Roan,” he boomed back, then pointed at me. “You’re the first man I’ve seen in these parts to get that thing on its feet and moving. And I’ve seen a lot of men try—a lot of men.” He shook his head as he stared up at me. “That’s one Hell of a talent you have, lad. Are you a soldier? A Jotunn-Knight?”

To my surprise I hesitated, then quickly shook my head. “Not anymore.”

I noticed a trace of bitterness in my reply.

Roan regarded me for a long silent moment. “Well, it was a good thing you came along.” He jutted his chin at the construction Jotunn. “Still got something left in there?”

I gave him a troubled smile. “Well, the crank wheel chain snapped”—I tapped my head—“so I’m turning the engine over with this.”

His expression grew blank. “What was that?”

“Chain snapped. I’m turning the engine over with this.” Again, I tapped my head.

A complicated look settled upon his face, and he was silent for a long while. When he spoke again, his voice was noticeably quieter. “You said your name was Falken.”

I gave him a faint nod. “That it is.”

His complicated look now turned stony. “I see.”

I was certain he recognized who I was, but I was somewhat taken aback by his reaction.

Roan raised his chin at me, and though he was standing below me, I felt as though I was looking up at him.

“Lad…I think you’ve done enough for one day.”

I shook my head. “No. There’s still more to be done.”

I had a better grip on the engine now, and the construction Jotunn could still move.

There was rubble to clear, and people to save.

Besides, the truth was that I felt helpless.

Operating the construction Jotunn and helping to save their lives was a small step toward atoning for my actions and decisions that brought ruin to the people of Calmonad. However, I would need to do more, and as the Archduke, I was confident that I could and would help the inhabitants of the terraced fortress.

Abruptly I cocked my head and listened to the air.

The sounds of fighting had stopped.

Half turning to look around the Jotunn’s left shoulder, my gaze searched Calmonad’s terraces below us.

A cloud of powdered rubble drifted over a large section of the lowest terrace, but there was no sign of continued battle between Warlords.

Had Fatina and Gabrielle subdued Fallon? What of Iris Dirac?

Indecision rooted me, and I was torn between my desire to head down there, and the urge to help the people here.

Roan called out to me. “Like I said, lad, you’ve done enough. More than enough.”

I faced him in a hurry, feeling a cold pang in my chest.

Something in his voice, in his tone, made me feel slightly unwelcome.

Roan regarded me with a stony look. “Leave the people here to us.”

He crossed his arms over his massive chest as though challenging me to argue against him. However, to my confusion and surprise he turned around and walked back to where the men of Calmonad continued to free the survivors trapped under the rubble, the task easier now that I’d removed all the large pieces of fallen debris.

I clenched my jaw, feeling conflicted as I watched him walk away to join the men in the rescue effort.

I doubt he heard me.

“If that’s the way you want it.”

I wasn’t here to argue with the man, and whatever his reasons for not wanting me around, Roan’s choice to walk away had forced me to make a decision of my own.

I needed to get down there to the lowest terrace.

I had chased after Fallon and along the way I’d come to an agreement with Gabrielle and Fatina, hoping they could save her from the Seal of Arcala, and from Iris Dirac of the Khan Orden.

Now it was time for me to see this through to the end.

Apologies. Draft 1.1.

For the novel's release, it will be thoroughly edited and rewritten until I'm satisfied it doesn't read like web fiction anymore.

One more chapter to go in this volume.

To the handful of you sticking with it, my many thanks.

_______________

Simkin452

Sydney, Australia