Elizabeth stared at her hand-mirror, frozen where she sat. From outside of Erisdale City, Martin and Ginger watched her. The red-haired woman was clasping her hands together tightly, whilst her fiance seemed to be trying to steady himself against the table he was sitting at.
“They…they…” Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. “They want to break us apart. They’re planning something. We might need to start the final assault early. How goes your preparations?”
Martin forced out a long exhale. “We’ve scouted our routes and we’re ready to move but we are going to need Janize’s troops to switch sides at the right moment to let us in or it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
“I’ll work on Janize.”
“And are you going to tell, Ayax?” Ginger asked.
Elizabeth bowed her head. “I can’t not tell her. I just hope I’ll be able to convince her to not jeopardise this. Contact Ophelia and tell her to be ready for anything.” Closing her mirror, the Otherworlder wiped her eyes. She was already in her maid’s disguise so she quietly exited her room, making her way to the castle’s rooftop. On the way, she quietly thought through or wondered how she could make what she was going to say any less painful.
Before she knew it, she was where her beloved was, pacing nervously by the battlements of the central keep. So late at night, the great keep that formed the centre of the citadel was empty. There were better towers to keep watch at. Thus, Ayax had found that it was a perfect place to walk around for a bit. Given how she either was sneaking around or confined to Elizabeth’s room at all times, she spent every moment she could here.
“Hey Liz, you look troubled,” said the troll.
Elizabeth swallowed. “Ayax sweetie, how did you know it was me?”
“I can hear you mutter under your breath as you walked up the stairs,” said Ayax. She gently touched Elizabeth’s arms. “Talk to me, what’s going on?”
“Nothing good. I think Darius suspects what we and Queen Janize are up to, that or someone in his camp knows. This morning, a courier was sent to our lines with a message saying that he’s willing to negotiate. He wasn’t actually there to negotiate, he was just there to give us a report that Darius knows will strain our agreement with Janize.”
Walking over the entryway, Ayax quickly locked the door to the roof. “The queen is plotting something behind our backs?”
“Not that we know of, but that wasn’t what the report was about.” Knowing her gaze was dropping to the floor, Elizabeth tried to tilt her head up so she can meet her love’s gaze. As she did so, slender fingers gently took her hands. Long thumbs caressed Elizabeth’s calloused palms.
Ayax pursed her lips. “Does this have to do with me, Liz?”
“That’s…how did you guess?”
Brushing a hand by Elizabeth’s cheek, the troll smiled. “If you were worried, you usually just tell me. Don’t worry, with you by my side, I’ll be able to withstand it.”
“That’s not the problem, Ayax. I know this revelation will hurt you, but it won’t break you. What I’m worried is that it’ll make you do something that I will need to prevent you from doing.”
Something in Elizabeth’s tone must have alerted Ayax because her lips formed an ‘o’ before bunching up. “Oh. Well, um, maybe I can promise?”
“You shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t, Ayax. I don’t know if you could keep this one.”
“That bad, huh.” The troll scratched behind her ear. “Well, you might just have to lay it on me then, Liz. I…I’ll try to restrain myself, but I think it’s safer that I know rather than find out later.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes and nodded once. “Alright. Um, you might want to cast a few silencing spells.”
When Ayax was ready, Elizabeth, holding onto Ayax’s hands, took a deep breath.
“The report strongly suggested that Leila was likely involved in the death of your mother.”
Ayax’s eyes widened. The color drained from her face as her hands went loose in Elizabeth’s grip. “What.”
“Scarlet and Darius had her assigned to the mercenaries sent to your village. She was one of two survivors from that raid.
The troll shook her head. She shivered, even though it was summer. “But that’s…my father and I killed them all. And I was thirteen—she was thirteen, that can’t be possible.”
“I know. I can’t believe it myself—"
“But?” Ayax whispered, studying her girlfriend’s anguished expression.
“I remember Leila being away from Jessica for some time really early on. We didn’t know for what reason. Rumor was she was sent on a mission but we were so young we didn’t believe it.”
Her fingers curled tighter around her staff. The muscles in her arms and shoulders contracted. Through gritted teeth, Ayax hissed, “So you think it’s true?”
Elizabeth swallowed. “I think we need to ask Leila.”
“Ask her? We should be—”
“Ayax, we don’t know for sure. We don’t know if they just made this up. And more importantly, if we hurt Leila, do you think Janize will really continue to ally with us?”
To Elizabeth’s relief, her troll’s black eyes widened and she grimaced. Shaking her head, Ayax massaged her forehead with one hand. “Fuck. You’re right. Dammit, now I wish you hadn’t told me.”
“Honestly, I think it’s better that you know now, rather than being surprised later.” Gently, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Ayax, pulling her tight into an embrace. “Sweetie, take your time. We don’t have to confront her now.”
Ayax nodded, resting her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder and lacing her arms around Elizabeth’s waist. “And what do we do if it’s true, Liz? I…we can’t just kill her.”
“Do you really want to kill her?” Elizabeth asked.
“I want something from her. If she killed my mother that is.” Ayax closed her eyes. “At the very least, I want to know why she thought it was okay.”
Elizabeth kissed her girlfriend beside her ear, rocking her slowly. “I would want to know as well. Let’s figure out if she had anything to do with it first and then we’ll decide.”
“Okay. I…please restrain me. I don’t know. I really don’t know how I’m going to act.”
“I’ll try.”
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“This is strange. Where is Leila?” Elizabeth mused, still disguised as a palace maid.
Locking their room’s door, Ayax put up a deafening spell on the door. “She’s missing, which is odd. I think—Oh.”
Elizabeth and Ayax pulled out their hand mirrors at the same time. Glancing at one another, they opened them.
Janize’s face appeared in the glass of both mirrors, her grey eyes affixing the pair with a glower.
“Did you have anything to do with, Lela’s disappearance. Yes or no.”
Elizabeth frowned. “No. So she has disappeared?”
“Yes, and someone wants to tell me that you had something to do with it.” Janize pulled out a stack of papers. “Someone quite clumsily dropped this on my desk at the same time she disappeared.”
“Is it the report on my father’s assassination?” Ayax demanded.
“A copy of it, yes. I take it you got given a copy conveniently?”
“We did—Ah, Darius is on to us isn’t he?” Elizabeth asked, grimacing.
Janize crossed her arms and dipped her head once. “If you didn’t kidnap Leila, then he must be. But I don’t think this is his plan. It reeks of Scarlet’s conniving. She thinks she’s so subtle, but I know her better and I would like to think you aren’t so stupid.”
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Then our agreement still stands?”
The queen’s expression darkened. “Not necessarily,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
Ayax couldn’t disguise her scowl. “So you do think we have something to do with Leila’s disappearance?” she growled.
“You certainly have motive, but that’s not the only problem. I can’t let your forces into the castle without Leila to help me coordinate. Not only that, but she knows things about my supporters and allies that will endanger the entire operation.”
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Elizabeth blinked. “Surely you have others—”
“Leila is the only woman I trust to carry out my plans. We cannot let her stay in enemy hands for even a brief moment.” The queen closed her eyes. “She’s not the monster you think she is—”
“She helped kill my mother!” Ayax slammed her mirror shut, even as Elizabeth quickly wrapped an arm over her shoulder.
“Ayax, I got you. Your Majesty, don’t just don’t.” Elizabeth’s brown eyes hardened. “Leila has tried to kill us numerous times.”
“So can you really blame me? How can I trust that she doens’t ‘perish due to wounds sustained during the rescue’ or ‘was found already dead?”
Elizabeth blinked. “We wouldn’t—” She gritted her teeth. “Look, we’re not in the business of killing people we rescue, especially if you are telling the truth and are upholding your end of the bargain.”
“You have my word but you better bring Leila back. She’s probably in the actual citadel, just somewhere we don’t know. Try to follow Scarlet, Darius or his daughter Vulpina. They likely want to interrogate her personally.”
“Good suggestions. Thank you.” Elizabeth closed her mirror and turned her attention to Ayax. “My love—”
“This is fucking shit.” Her arms crossed, Ayax’s hands were clenched so tightly her fingers were digging into the cloth of her shirt. “We have to rescue her?”
“We need to, if we are to keep our alliance—”
“I fucking know that Liz! You don’t need to remind me!” The troll shook her head. “Shit. I’m sorry. I…”
“Hey, hey, Ayax—” Liz reached out to her girlfriend but froze. A glowing black smog seemed to leak out from behind Ayax. It shimmered even in the dimly lit room. “Ayax, you’re doing it again. The black—”
“I know. I fucking know. Just…”
“What do you need? How can I—”
“I need to be alone. I’ll be careful.” Ayax grabbed her staff and peaked out from behind the door. The black still following her, she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Elizabeth stared at the door for a moment. Sitting down on the bed they shared, she buried her face in her hands.
“Guess…guess I need to get started on this on my own then,” she muttered to herself. She shook her head, wiping the tears forming with the back of her hand. “Of all the times you had to leave me.”
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Panting, Ayax ran through the night, dodging out of the sight lines of the sentries that she’d memorised at this point. She swung into shadows. She leapt off battlements onto catwalks. Her tail whipping behind her, she clambered up to the rooftop of the palace.
Finding a seat at the corner of the battlements, she sat down, letting the cool stonework press against her shoulders.
Mom… her name had been Kinea and Ayax still could remember her warm smile. Her dark, nearly black hair had been so soft. She still remembered the sensation of her hand running through her mother’s hair as she’d combed it.
Yet she couldn’t separate that softness from how wet it had felt, soaked in her mother’s blood.
She couldn’t forget her father’s smile, or the hopeless look on his face as he’d set off to do battle.
Sightless eyes stared from the past. Her parents' corpses lay in front of her and then in the graves she’d dug for them. The fury and grief burned down her throat, bringing fresh stinging tears to her eyes. The black smoke, the magic that had given her her moniker floated around her, seemingly seeping out of her skin. It wrapped around her like a blanket.
Ayax was scared. She never could control whatever this was. All she knew was that it came out whenever she was angriest. When she felt like she had to tear the world down.
She needed to talk, but Elizabeth…she didn’t want her love to see this side of her. To get hit with the weight of all of her emotions. As she buried her head in her arms, Ayax knew she had to talk to someone she trusted. That meant…
She blinked. That meant family, but her fathers were safe in Erlenberg. Frances was deep in enemy territory. However…
Ayax took a breath and pulled out her mirror. There was one person. Thinking past the pain, she held that woman’s image in her mind and slowly, the image of an elderly woman appeared.
“Who—Ayax?” Eleanor Windwhistler’s eyes widened. “Oh dear. What happened? Are you safe?”
“I’m safe, but I…Eleanor, I know we aren’t that well, close, but…I just…” Ayax wiped her eyes. “I need to talk to family. I don’t know who else would understand.”
Eleanor appeared to be in the living room of their suite in Athelda-Aoun and with a wave of her hand, the Windwhistler matriarch called Paul, her husband over.
“Ayax, oh my lass. What happened?” the ex-sailor asked in his gravelly voice.
“I think I found out who killed my mom. They’re alive, but…I can’t kill them. If I do, I’ll doom us all but I don’t know if I can stop myself. Please…how do I…” Ayax wasn’t sure how else to say it and found the words spluttering out.
Only for Eleanor to sigh, brush her whitening hair behind her pointed ears and smile wryly. “Stop feeling like you need to tear open that person and hang their entrails out to dry?”
Ayax nodded. “You know?”
Eleanor nodded, “After the Windstorm family poisoned me and later caused my father’s death, I felt like I could burn them to death, and all the children too. I hated them that much.”
“Do you still see his face?” Ayax stammered.
“No, but…I did.” Eleanor blinked, her eyes wide. “Oh dear, Ayax, how long have you been carrying this?”
“As long as I can remember. I…it usually isn’t so bad.”
Paul groaned, one hand stroking his now full white beard. “But ever since you found out about Darius and now this, you cannot stop thinking about it can’t you?”
The troll shook her head. “I want to stop. I really do. For Liz’s sake. For my sake. I just don’t know how. I feel like I owe them.” Ayax shook her head. “No, my father didn’t ask me to take revenge. I just feel like I should.”
“Then stop yourself, kid.” The troll blinked and looked up at Paul, who beamed so brightly that Ayax couldn’t help but smile a little. Grandfather’s smiles were pretty epic. “You know what’s right and wrong. You know what you have to do. You can choose what to do.”
Ayax swallowed. “Is it that simple?”
“Yes, and you may lose control, but that’s why you have your family, and your darling Elizabeth.” Paul coughed. “Speaking of which, are you going to—”
“Paulie dear, she will tell us in good time,” said Eleanor gently squeezing her husband’s bicep. “But he’s right, Ayax. You may not be able to control what you feel, but you have a choice. You need to remember that.”
“And you can make the right choice. The selfless one and not the selfish one.”
The troll nodded to herself and stumbled to her feet. Looking around, she saw that the black magic that had surrounded her was vanishing, like wisps of smoke scattered by the wind.
“Grandma, Grandfather, thanks. I…I think I need to work on it, but…but I feel a lot better.”
“You’re welcome, Ayax. Take care,” said Eleanor.
“Go kick some ass!” Paul cheered.
Managing a watery smile, Ayax waved her adoptive grandparents away and closed her mirror. Wiping her eyes, she took a deep breath. She needed to see Liz.
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Elizabeth knew this was a risk, but they needed more information.
She was in full war gear, warhammer on her back and her helmet on her head. To try to blend in, she’d stolen a red Traditionalist hauberk. As both sides used similar equipment, she was far less conspicuous for where she was heading.
Earl Darius’s personal guards were quartered in the Citadel of Erisdale city, but from the gossip she’d heard and the chatter around the castle, he kept a mansion in the city. Janize could be right about Leila being hidden in the castle, but she wanted to scout the mansion out first.
Her mirror started to vibrate. Wondering who could be calling her at this time. Elizabeth ducked into an alley.
“Ayax?” she gasped.
The troll nodded, her eyes slightly reddened. “Liz. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left—”
Elizabeth raised her visor, unable to stop herself from smiling. “Oh. Apology accepted, but I’m a bit busy. Trying to infiltrate Darius’s mansion.”
“Ah. Wait for me?” Ayax asked.
“Sure. I’m about two blocks away to the west.” She looked up to see an anvil sign. “In an alley by a blacksmith’s shop.”
“On my way.”
It didn’t take long for Ayax to join her. Landing in the alley, she ran over and embraced Elizabeth.
“I’m sorry. I will—”
“I know. I’m glad you came back.” Elizabeth whispered, burying her nose in her love’s hair. “I’m proud of you actually. You seem much better.”
“I had a talk with Eleanor and Paul. They helped a lot.” Ayax took a deep breath and released Elizabeth. “So, what’s the plan?”
The Otherworlder squeezed her troll’s hands. “Well I was going to sneak in, but now that you’re here…Recon in force?”
Ayax blinked. She waited for a moment, expecting more detail, but Elizabeth just continued to smile sheepishly at her. “Wait, like just two of us raiding them?”
“We get in, we get out before the Otherworlders get called,” said Elizabeth.
The mage pursed her lips, tail flicking slowly side to side. “That’s risky but it could work. What if Leila’s actually there?”
Elizabeth pressed a finger to her lips. “We get her out, or at the very least we can deliver that news to Janize and that will prompt her to move in.”
“Alright, have you alerted Martin and Ginger?” Ayax asked. She leant in closer to Elizabeth, an intent longing look in her eyes.
Grinning, Elizabeth leaned in and brushed her lips against her love’s. “Yes. They’re on standby. Ginger also informed me they might have another way in, but they need to check on it.”
Ayax smiled, looking very pleased. “I guess let’s go then. Um, Liz, I’m sorry.”
Elizabeth caressed Ayax’s cheek. “I forgive you. I know you’re trying. Just try to give me some warning before you just leave?”
Pressing the human’s hand to her, Ayax nodded. “I will.”
----------------------------------------
Martin hadn’t smelled something this foul in well, ever. This was why was pinching his nose so hard it felt like it was going to fall off. At the same time, his eyes were transfixed on the river of brown, soupy mess that snaked through the tunnel that had been opened up below him.
Ginger, only a rag wrapped around her face, was standing in that river of well, sewage, ankle deep in it. The sight of which made the knight want to throw up.
“You know, if you do really want to let go, you could totally do it,” said Ginger, looking up at her fiance. She flashed him a wink.
Noting to himself to thoroughly scrub his wife’s feet before he got into bed with her, Martin croaked, “Honey, this is your bright idea?”
“Are you being sarcastic or confused?” Ginger asked. He could tell that she had a…perhaps far closer to literal shit-eating grin behind her mask.
“I’m more incredulous. I didn’t realize the sewage system was so large,” said Martin. The stone arches that held up the tunnel was tall enough that even the hulking General Antigoes could squeeze underneath.
“King Oliver upgraded it, but the thing is it’s not all linked and because well it’s a sewer system their are some bad smells and humors that will knock people out.” Trudging up toward the ladder, Ginger grabbed the rungs and hauled herself up. “It’s why I had a couple of people with me just in case.” At the very top, Ginger reached her gloved hand out.
Without hesitation, Martin let go of is nose and grabbed his wife, helping her onto the street. That meant the foul scent hit him in the head and he shuddered as the city’s fumes almost made him see white.
“I—I believe Frances and Elizabeth call them gases. Apparently crap lets of gasses and managing it is what we’re trying to plan in the system we’re planning for Athelda-Aoun,” Martin stammered. He reached for his nose, before noting the wince on Ginger’s expression and thought better of it. “How did you—
Ginger undid her mask, revealing two cork nose plugs she’d stuffed into her nostrils. “That. I still smell it, but what’s more important is that my team and I found it.”
Martin’s eyes widened. “You did? Nobody’s guarding it?” he asked as the rest of the Lightning Battalion helped their masked comrades out of the sewer.
“No. It’s barred and grated, but the sewer travels through the city, underneath their defenses and right to the Water Tower. Better yet, their is a route that goes right to the Citadel.”
“Seriously? That means—”
Ginger nodded, grinning hungrily, and not for food. “Yes. We can assault the Citadel directly. We’ll still have to breach their ring of defenses and have to rely on Janize getting her soldiers to open the outer gate, but we can at least sneak a strike team in there.”
Martin, guiding his wife toward the camp washing area, mused for a moment. “How about Jessica and her friends?”
“She’s going to fucking kill us, Martin!”
“Say she’s going to rescue Leila? She is missing after all,” said the knight, flashing his wife a smile.
“That would make her feel better.” Ginger leaned in and Martin kissed her lightly, making sure not to get too close to her filthy boots. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need a wash. We’ll need another day to plan this, but I think we can do this soon.”
“And end this civil war with one fell swoop. If Elizabeth and Ayax can find Leila that is,” said Martin.
“We can only hope.”