Chapter Ten: Rebel to the rescue

As I pulled Ada through the front door of the large house, the sun had already risen and sent it's rays, once again, on the city I had once loved, illuminating the incredible architecture of the noble district.

While the merchants district had all been function over style, the noble district was anything but. Large marble walled houses lined the wide cobbled streets and each home had it's own small garden, something I couldn't appreciate in the moonlight of the night before.

However, while it had once been a beautiful, almost ethereal, sight when I had still been alive. It was incredibly different now. The plants and grass outside the houses had withered and died a long time ago and the houses themselves were falling into disrepair as I noticed large cracks crawling up the walls.

I found it strange that no plant life had grown here over the years, but I pushed it to the back of my mind, a question for another day.

As we made our way back to the alchemy shop I released my grip on Ada's arm and gestured for her to follow along behind me.

I walked at a steady pace and the small archer struggled to keep with my gait but she didn't complain once. I have to say I admired her quiet dignity.

“So, where are you from Ada?” I asked, genuinely interested and wanting to put the girl at ease.

While she had said that she felt like she could trust me, I know that she didn't entirely trust the reason she felt that way. For all she knew, I was using mind control on her and she wouldn't even know it.

While regularly you can feel when someone tries to tamper with your mind, I didn't feel it till the last second with Vitriss and I didn't want Ada to believe that I was trying to tamper with her. That was something I would have never done.

The black garbed archer hesitated as she raised her down cast eyes and stared at me side on.

“I'm from a place in Faroth, a small village in the middle of nowhere. I left to go to the big city when I was still young, so I have very few memories of that place” She finished with a slightly sad sigh.

It seems that she missed her home, despite the fact that she had very little memory of it. Whatever she did remember was something she clearly valued highly. I wouldn't pry further, her business was hers and hers alone.

I gave her a smile and a nod and continued to walk.

“So, where are you from? And what's your name by the way, I never asked?” She inquired, curiously.

“Well, I'm from all over, but it would be a safe bet to say I was from Callai, and my name isn't really important, people called me many things over the years and I would rather not tell you even one of them. You might not like what you hear, you might call me a liar or you might just try to run away.” I gave a her a glance and a smile “All you really need to know about me is I'm not really a bad guy, I just want to get what I'm here for and then hit the road.”

Ada kept looking at me for a second and then nodded before fixing the ground with her gaze yet again.

We walked like that for several minutes until we came to the large gate that led into the merchants district.

The city was divided up into four districts that were the civilian district, the merchants district, the noble district and finally the tower district. The tower district was so named because of my large, silver tower. It was where the First Minister and the city government met as well as all other facets of the cities political structure.

It was regularly crowded with people and was called the heart of the city, despite it being in the far east. In truth, it was the large marketplace that was built at the cities heart, between the civilian district and the merchants district.

“If you don't mind me asking, what race are you?” Ada was looking at me again as we passed under the gate “I know you said you were a human, but you don't really look like one. Are you a half-elf?”

“No, I'm human all right, I've just had a few... upgrades. What about the rest of your group? Are you all human?”

Ada gave me a strange look when I said I was an upgraded human, but soon she just rolled her eyes and looked away. Must have come to the conclusion that she wasn't going to get a straight answer out of me, which was good.

It wasn't that I didn't like the girl. She was nice in her own way, she had a good degree of magical ability and she was beautiful. Honestly, I'm surprised that a girl like her didn't joined the human military. A mage with her skill set could make quite a few waves in that field. I wouldn't be surprised if she made general in ten years, such was the value that humans placed on their mages.

But the truth of the matter is that, as much as I hate lying to others, I would have to at least twist the truth to a certain degree.

I mean, if I told her that I was the resurrected King of the Rebel Court, the most famous man in the history of Vita, she would probably just laugh at me.

But if she didn't, if she became distressed, scared or even in awe of me. I wouldn't know what I could do change her attitude at that point. People had a habit of treating me as something special and I didn't enjoy that feeling.

“Well, Bell's a vampire, Ursula is wolf kind and Leigh is an elf.” She said with a shrug, realising even if she didn't tell me it would make no difference if they tried to attack me.

So it was a group made up of females. Interesting.

“Why no men in your band?” I asked.

She shrugged again “No reason, really, we just kind of got together as we were roaming looking for work and decided to start Black Tusk. It works really well, our teamwork has always been great and I can talk to them without them annoying me. Something I couldn't do in some of the mercenary bands I've worked with before.”

I smiled at that. I had met my fair share of mercenaries and most of them were fiercely loyal to their own. It was good to see that kind of camaraderie, but one must always be wary. A mercenaries loyalty to their client could change with enough gold. I had experienced that before as well, when I had worked with a particular group out of the city of Kayra, the capital of Mytos.

We walked the rest of the distance between the gate and the shop without much trouble, although I continued to listen out for anyone that might possibly be a member of Ada's group.

“Wait here” I said as I walked into the now destroyed alchemist's store-front.

The floor was nothing more than pulverised dirt and rock. All that remained of the many shelves were splinters sticking out of the earth and that sickly sweet scent that stuck to everything. The scent of potions and poisons of all kinds.

I never noticed it before, but whenever I had gone to a shop like this to gather supplies it had always had that smell. It also clung to your clothes for days. It seems that it was so persistent that it had lasted four hundred years. I love the fact that everything else has fallen to pieces but that disgusting smell still lingered, just another showing of my incredible luck, I suppose.

With a sigh I went to the back of the shop and, hidden behind a particularly large pile of splinters, was my mask, untouched by the explosive exit I had made during my last time here.

I quickly picked it up and wiped dirt from it's surface, staring into the dark eyes.

I never had a crown as The Rebel King, but this was the closest thing I had. A memento of better days.

I left the shop to find Ada leaning against the wall beside the door, a current of wind flowing through her fingers as she manipulated the air itself. When she noticed me, she stopped and looked at the mask in my hands.

It took her a moment before comprehension overtook her features and her face went slightly pale. She shakily raised a hand and pointed a finger at the silver mask in the crook of my arm.

“Is-is that what I think it is?” She asked, her voice shaking almost as much as her body.

I raised an eyebrow at her and brought the mask up to eye level.

“Yeah, this is the mask of The Rebel King, the one that, until recently, adorned the statue in the marketplace. Why?” I replied, curious as to why she was so upset upon seeing the ancient piece.

She took a couple of deep breaths and calmed herself down.

“We were looking for the person who took the mask. Bell thought that there was a chance that they would go after the sword so we split up at the marketplace. I went east and the others went to take the longer route to the tower district, to the north. We were supposed to meet up at the tower but, then I ran into you so...” She finished, her eyes never leaving the seemingly glowing surface of my mask.

“Why did you take it? Or should I say how? It's said that only a Knight or The King himself could take the mask, and that only the King can use it.” She said with awe in her voice.

That's very interesting. As far as I knew the mask had no powers to speak of, other than hiding my eyes when I looked through it. But that was about it.

It had been four hundred years. Perhaps the legends of the King and his Knight's had grown to such a point that even my mask gained some special power. The war was won after all, against almost impossible odds, if I am to believe Bartu. Perhaps our status has increased as well. When we were fighting the church we were feared by some, loved by others. Now we appeared to have gained the status of legends. This was solid information, perhaps it would help me in the long run.

I shook my head “No, nothing like that, the mask was protected by an enchantment and that's about it. Easy enough for me to circumnavigate. As to why I took it, let's just say I also have a client interested in artefacts pertaining to The Rebel Court and I was asked to retrieve this mask and the sword in the tower.”

The awe in Ada's expression died down a bit, but she still looked at me a bit breathlessly. After a moment of simply staring at me, she gave me a smile.

“Ok, I don't believe a word you just said. But in any case, we should find the others before they go into the tower.”

I gave a grunt of approval at both her realising that I was not telling the whole truth and about what we should do next.

“I agree, the sword is not something to be trifled with and even entering the tower with no intention of taking it does not guarantee their safety. The sword wants to be found, wants to be wielded. It will try everything in it's power to ensure that it gets what it wants.” I said ominously as I began to walk passed her and make my way towards the tower district.

“Hold on just a second!” Ada yelled before turning and running in the opposite direction and disappearing around a narrow corner on the far side of the street.

I was only waiting a couple of minutes before she came sprinting back, holding her familiar bow in her hands and gasping for air.

“Sorry, couldn't leave it behind, it's my baby” she said, swinging the bow above her head as she leaned forward, trying to catch her breath.

Now that I got a better look at the bow, it was definitely impressive. Made of some kind of dark metal I had never seen before, it was almost in a kind of 'W' shape with sigils all over it's black surface. Now that I was closer I recognised the sigils for strengthening and durability, as well as those that I can only assume increased the speed of the arrows that were fired from it.

It was a master-work, much like the armour. Whoever Black Tusk were they were certainly well funded. That or one of the women among them was a master crafter and enchanter.

As Ada caught up with me and we began to walk backwards towards the exit of the merchants district, a distinct buzzing sound entered the air. I stopped and looked at the source of the buzzing sound, which seemed to be emanating from Ada's trousers.

“Oh!” She cried as she reached into a hidden pocket on her left leg and pulled out what appeared to be some kind of smooth rock.

The rock in question wasn't really something that was that impressive. But the symbol that was glowing on it's top was something else entirely.

It was 'E' shaped but the middle line was backwards and was emanating a pulsing blue light.

“I totally forgot I had this.” said Ada with a look of concentration on her face as she drew in mana and poured some of it into the sigil, activating it.

Immediately the sounds of battle filled the air. I could hear crashing rocks and the sound of magic being used, fire and air from what I could hear, as well as battle roars and horrible gut wrenching screams, that didn't seem entirely human or any other race for that matter.

The screams I recognised all too well.

“Hello!? Ada is that you?” A rough female voice erupted from within the stone.

Whoever this voice was, she was clearly distressed as it sounded like she was out of breath and running from something. There was another scream, followed swiftly by a howl, like that of a wolf.

“Bell!? It's Ada, what's going on?”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“Thank the gods, Ada, we thought you were dead. Yes, I found her. Calm down Ursula, we need to stick to the plan, retreat!” came the voice, now identified as Bell, the commander of Black Tusk.

“Bell?” Ada's voice sounded slightly desperate now.

“Ada, we're in front of the tower, but something happened. These... thing's started appearing and attacking us. Their so strong. you have to get out of this city, we're not going to last much longer. Their following us.” Bell shouted as the sounds of battle increased again.

Ada wrapped a hand around her mouth as tears began to form in her eyes.

I had seen enough.

I walked over and grabbed the sigil out of Ada's hand, she cried out in surprise.

“Where are you exactly?” I said, my voice remaining calm despite the situation.

“Who the fuck is this? Where is Ada-”

“Never mind that, where are you exactly in the tower district?” I say again urgently.

There was a brief moment of silence before the voice replied.

“We're standing outside of city hall, about a mile from the tower itself. Who are you-”

“It doesn't matter who I am, hold on and we'll be there in a few minutes.”

“Didn't you hear me!? These thing's can't be stopped, they are too powerful. We agreed that Ada would be kept safe! Whoever you are, you have to keep Ada away from here, it's too-”

“Calm yourself, Bell of Black Tusk. I have no intention of getting Ada hurt, but right now there is only one thing that can save you from what you are facing.”

I heard a snort from the sigil “And what exactly is that smart-ass!?”

“Me” I said before passing the sigil back to Ada. Then I began to draw in mana at a rate I had not yet attempted in this new body.

It swirled around me like a hurricane before funnelling into my body at an incredible speed. It was a raging storm that could, at moments notice, destroy everything around me should I lose control.

But I didn't lose control.

“Ada, jump on my back and hold on as tight as you can!” I snapped at the still weeping archer as she clutched the sigil stone desperately.

My command seemed to bring her back to her senses as she gave me a determined look and immediately did as I asked, her legs wrapping firmly around my torso as her left arm did likewise, while her bow was resolutely held in her right hand.

“Hold on tight!” I roared as I immediately activated aspect of air and took off at the speed of sound.

Ada's screams were lost as I focused completely on the task at hand.

I had decided to throw caution out the window and instead rely on my impossible speed, that had only been magnified by the incredible attributes of my new body.

Normally my human eyes would never be able to keep up at the speed I was moving at, but my senses were the best of all races and I could take the pressure of such a speed due to my mage strength.

Ada wouldn't be so lucky but she had ducked her head behind my back, so that would at least protect her from whiplash.

I knew the things that Bell had been talking about and, if they were what I thought they were, it would mean that Xolumbrandir's influence had merely grown these pass four hundred years.

With a fiercely determined roar, I increased my pace further and ripped up the cobbles as I dashed through the streets of Ellai.

Time to let my sword know I was home.