Ahri Arete

Ash fell from the sky, a suffocating, acrid rain, obscuring my view of the quivering pirates on the other side of the square. I didn’t blame them. Even though they were an impressive sight, a colourful, ragtag band of cutthroats and seasoned veterans, armed with cutlasses and daggers, crossbows and axes, they were facing a nightmare, come to life. An angel, a golden dragoness, a winged undead and a small army of vampires, mercenaries and dwarfs, all of them staring them down with hatred in their eyes, waiting for an opportunity to close the distance and rip them to shreds. Only the small, unprotected bodies in their midst and the blades, they pressed against their necks, kept them alive. No wonder they were scared. All of them, except for one.

A girl, judging from the branded sigil on her chest, a former slave, stood at the front, a vacant expression on her dark, broad face. Only her eyes were moving. Never standing still, they roamed over our lines, bearing down on us with an intensity no human girl in her 20s could muster.

“Oh my,” she said laconically, “what an exuberant reception. Have you come to greet me as your master? No? A true pity… then we’ll have to continue, won’t we? Now, who of you can guess, what’s happening here?” She… or rather the creature behind her eyes, smiled sardonically, when we didn’t react, our gazes shackled to Erya, Morgan, Reia, Layla and her friends. They hadn’t been hurt, just yet, but one wrong move and their heads would topple to the ground.

“No takers? I expected a bit more, to be honest. Well then, allow me to enlighten you. You might have already seen the crude formation, my soldiers have so painstakingly prepared. I’m sure, you’ve wondered, why nothing has happened. Simple. A ritual on that scale needs something special to get started… and that’s why I’m here. Once again, I’m willing to offer a trade. One of you, whether it’s the angel, the dragoness or the returned, ageless vampire queen, I don’t really care, for the life of those, I’ve taken. I guess even the silver vixen, who’s trying to sneak around us, would do. Unfortunately, I can only return their protectors to you in pieces, but it should be enough for a proper burial. The thought counts, am I right?” I hissed involuntarily and took a step forward, my blood boiling with a barely restrained fury. Mordred’s hand on my shoulder luckily brought me back to my senses, otherwise I might have done something stupid, I would probably have regretted for the rest of a very long life.

“Lo and behold, emotions running high,” she chuckled. “Here are the terms.” She nodded towards one of her cronies, who lit a torch. A second later, one of the ships above descended, until it wasn’t more than 20 metres above us. A black box was lowered on a contraption of ropes. When it came to rest near her feet, she continued:

“Speak without my permission and a child will die. Use magic and two children will die. Attack us and I’ll behead the whole bunch of them. Now, what I want is for one of you to enter here.” Her slim hand thumped against the cold metal. “It won’t take long, a couple of minutes, at most. Once I’m satisfied, I’ll release my hostages and you can try to extract a pound of flesh. As you can imagine, it won’t be that easy, though. Unfortunately, I can’t allow you much time to contemplate, strong as my troupes might be, Free Land is stirring and I won’t be in control for much longer. They don’t care about innocents. If one of you is willing, step forward. Otherwise… I’m going to slaughter your precious younglings and then, you can kill us all. Even though I’m not entirely convinced what kind of victory that’d be…” she closed her eyes, seemingly deep in thought.

“Anyways, my priests are almost in place and… Ah, there he is.” A hunched over, lonely figure appeared on one of the streets, clutching a wooden chest to its body. It took me a moment to recognise him, but when he came closer and raised his head, peeking owlishly from left to right, a strong smell of chemicals wafted around my nose. It was the alchemist, who had caught Morgan and Erya, in the first place. Seemingly without a care in the world, he made his way towards the waiting girl and placed the box in her hand. “It’s finished,” he whispered. “Don’t know, how much power it can handle, but the extraction process should work, whomever you decide to use it on.”

Aware of the keen senses, most of possessed, the girl cut him off with a short gesture and opened the lid. Something sparkled in the dimming light, before she closed it again with a satisfied expression.

“Now, we’re all set. Where were we? Right. Volunteers. So, what’s it going to be? Death and carnage or a wiling sacrifice. Your choice, but make haste. The longer we dally, the greater the chance, the remaining Captains find their courage and act. Before I’m relinquishing my advantage, I’m going to start killing people. So… what’s it going to be?”

I swallowed dryly, my thoughts racing. My flames weren’t fast enough to reach them, before they could harm the kids and if I even appeared like I was channeling my power, they’d die, anyways.

We were so screwed and there weren’t many paths left. For the fraction of a second, I toyed with the idea of simply shouting a command, but… before I’d have finished the first word, heads would roll. There wasn’t much I could do, I was simply too slow, as were the others. Now I knew, why he had cursed Cassy. It wasn’t her strength, that, we could have compensated for. It was her speed. If she had been here, she would by now be standing at Reia’s side, chopped off limbs falling to the ground around her. But she wasn’t… and there was only one thing I could do. I wouldn’t stand by, I wouldn’t watch, while they were slaughtered. I couldn’t. It wasn’t me.

I took a step forward, but I wasn’t the only one. Viyara and Aurelia hadn’t hesitated and neither had Helena. All of us were prepared to bargain our life for theirs and I felt a sad smile appear on my face. It would have been heartwarming, if our circumstances hadn’t been so dire.

We looked at each other, determination, anger, frustration and fear reflected in our eyes. Our connection allowed the feelings to flow freely between us. There was no need to talk. We all had our reasons to go, but I was the only one who had a chance at survival, however slim it might be. Grudgingly, the others retreated, while their thoughts enveloped my mind caressingly, providing comfort and strength. A moment later, I was alone, my steps loud on the cobbled stones, as I made my way towards a grinning puppet. Sparks ignited in my eyes, but I squashed them, the very second they formed. Like a condemned prisoner, I put one foot in front of the other, shivers running down my spine, willing it to be over, but yet afraid of what was still in store for me.

I held my head up high, stubbornly ignoring the rising jeers from the assembled crowd I faced. They were ecstatic, mocking me with every laugh, every whispered comment, eager to cover their own panic. To them, it was just another day, another cruel extortion and I was just another girl who had no choice, but to obey their leader, a creature who had once again proven, that there was nothing to fear, as long as they followed his orders and their courage stirred. I struggled to block out the disgusting proposals they hurled at me, convinced, that they had won. I could only pity the lot. I wasn’t sure what magics the Emperor was planning to unleash, but I’d have wagered, that his loyal subjects wouldn’t live to see another day. My energy might start the fire, but the ravenous flames were sure to consume everyone within the pentagram.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Rallying my courage, I conveyed my assumptions as precisely as I could, urging my friends to act, as soon as they had a chance. Those, who weren’t needed to protect the children, had to leave and once I was taken, the rest would have to grab Reia and her friends and fly, ensuring they’d be far beyond the influence of the spell, before the magic could ignite.

“Not without you,” Viyara snarled, Cassy’s magic thrumming in her veins. “I won’t go anywhere, unless I’ve got you in my claws, the consequences be demanded. Once they can’t hide behind their breathing shields anymore, it’s time for the reckoning. The vampires can take care of the kids, they’re fast enough, but I’m not going to leave you behind. Whatever. Happens.”

I couldn’t even argue, the approval of everyone I was in contact with as palpable as the ground beneath my boots. Everyone, except Helena. She had been on Boseiju, she knew what to expect. I took a deep breath, taking in the scent of burning straw, unwashed bodies, blood and fear. Having a family was the most precious thing in the world, but sometimes, it was a pain in the ass.

“Don’t,” I whispered, holding back unwanted tears. If I had allowed myself to confess how scared I was, I wouldn’t have been able to go on. “You’ve never… just get out of here. There’s no point… that magic will be different from anything, you’ve ever seen. Don’t repeat our mistakes. Leave me and run.”

“No,” the dragoness hissed. “Why would you…”

“Because there’s no other way, unless you’re willing to sacrifice, what she’s risking her life to protect.” The emotions behind her thoughts put the lie to her words, but suddenly, a spark of hope rose from the grey, murky depths. “Besides, it’s been almost a day, now. Ahri, Viyara, Focus. Can’t you feel it?” I didn’t understand, what she was getting at, but I still did as she asked. Shoving aside my own, twisted emotions, I tried to dig deeper but there was nothing, just the echo of my friends, their minds in uproar and… I gasped.

Deep down, near the very core of my existence, I felt something move. For what seemed like an eternity, every time I had focused on Cassy, there had been nothing but a dull, mute pain. She had been alive but so far away, hermetically sealed off, that it hadn’t mattered. Now… she wasn’t awake, nor could I call out to her, but something was changing. Tendrils of white hot fire seemed to radiate outwards from where we were bound together and while her agony made me wish, there had been something for me to do, it also gave me hope. If she was hurting more, she was fighting and that usually meant, she was winning. I didn’t know how long it’d take, but sooner or later, she’d be with us again and once that happened… may the gods have mercy on those poor souls because I knew what their future held. Everything they had done to us, to our friends, everything they were going to do to me, would be paid back, tenfold.

“She’ll come for me,” I stated. There was no question in my mind. “As soon as she’s awake, I’ll be free. I can hold on for that long, I’m sure of it. And you’ll make sure, that we won’t lose anybody else, between now and then, am I clear? We all have a role to play and we can’t afford to make a mistake. None of us will die today and tomorrow, we’ll try to undo, whatever the Emperor is planning. This won’t be the victory he’s envisioning, either, he won’t succeed.” Truth be told, I was reassuring myself, just a much as I was taking to them.

I sounded self assured and confident, but I couldn’t shake the images, bubbling up at the back of my mind. Tortured and maimed friends, a burning paradise and the inevitable realisation, that the best we could hope to achieve was survival. We had faced the wrath of the Emperor twice before, each time escaping with singed tails and, however I looked at it, I couldn’t convince myself to believe, that we’d fare much better, this time around. We wouldn’t understand his plans, until I’d be caged and by then, it might already be too late.

Another step brought me even closer to the waiting girl. By now, I could smell and see the magic circling around her, a vile miasma of deep, green colours, and the stench of decay, as if something long dead had been clinging to her back, like a disgusting parasite. My fingers trembled and I had to curl them into fists to hide how terrified I actually was. If it had been me, orchestrating the whole ordeal, I’d have made sure, only a corpse would escape that box and there was no way in hell, Amon was in any way less thorough than I’d have been.

A small pebble moved beneath my boot, the sound overly loud in my ears. Another step, and I was much closer to the waiting, leering crowd than to my friends. Their thoughts were with me, though, quite literally, a warming blanket, which gave me the strength to take yet another step. My eyes darted to the black, metal coffin, its side covered with runes, painstakingly etched into the dark material to ensure their sturdiness. It was a crude contraption, the hinges closing with more than a finger wide gap between the individual sheets. What I saw on the inside made my stomach churn, row upon row of hooked, polished barbs shimmered in its depth. In essence, it was an enchanted iron maiden and I had volunteered to enter.

Swallowing dryly, I forcefully pushed away the imagines, my imagination came up with. Darkness and pain, a never ending repetition of torture and false hope, while my own powers prevented me from escaping the prison, even death an unattainable mercy. Distracted, I didn’t see the dagger, one of the pirates had thrown and with a sickening crunch, it pierced my shoulder. I gasped, more from surprise than the cruel pain, my hand covering the stream of hot, crimson blood.

Behind me, I could hear my family mutter but none of them dared to act, afraid to seal the children’s fate. It was a devastating moment, their minds filled with anger and despair, but yet, they couldn’t move, couldn’t help and it tore them apart. Gritting my teeth, I allowed the searing agony to turn into hatred and anger. If I had to walk myself to the gallows, I’d prefer angry over scared, any day of the week. Sparks ignited in my eyes again, but this time I didn’t extinguish them. My gaze fell upon the culprit but before I could act, I heard the girl sigh.

“Useless idiots,” she mumbled and traced the outlines of a rune with her finger. The head of the zealot exploded in a shower of scarlet, that sprinkled me with warm, sticky drops. “Come on, Ahri,” the girl continued. “We don’t have all day.” As if to emphasise her words, my ears twitched and I picked up different voices, still far away but closing in. Even though their attack had destroyed most of the infrastructure, someone had managed to quickly assemble a considerable force and their heavy steps were constantly approaching.

By now, I could even hear their voices, spewing out an intangible litany of words, almost like a prayer. Exactly like a prayer. A flash of light diverted my attention, as the western horizon was suddenly illuminated by golden and red flames. The setting sun had erupted, growing to unbelievable proportions and the sad spectacle around us was drenched in light. Fearful muttering rose again and the invaders shuffled on their feet insecurely.

Rolling her eyes, the girl was apparently done waiting and quickly strode towards me. She didn’t dare touch me, but when she was close enough, she whispered urgently: “I’d have loved to give you enough time to stoically approach and maybe even say a few memorable lines, but apparently, I’m the only one who’s so considerate. In five seconds I’m gong to order my men to decapitate our hostages, unless you’re already in that box.” Right at that moment I felt a tide of hatred surge, so strong, that I forgot my injury and almost reached out to burn the despicable creature to ashes. I didn’t care that he was safe, somewhere else, I didn’t care that it would accomplish nothing, I simply wanted to hurt the man who had subjected us to more misery than anyone could hope to cope with. But I goddamned couldn’t.

I blinked a tear away, my eyes locking onto Reia’s. I smiled, trying to reassure her that she’d be fine, that her ordeal was nearly over, but the terrified child could only stare blankly, her gaze empty. A few seconds later, cold metal closed around me and the torture began.