Inheritors are the name we decided to call the people of Arikar, who wield Bloodlines, for they inherit their power from their ancestors.
Excerpt: A List of Magical Nomenclature – Vagn Konstantin
Sammath watched as the guards dragged his friend away, unable to do anything to stop them. With a warning glance at the rest of the people in his hut, the guards took their leave from the slaves and Sammath glanced at the girl who kept sneaking away in the night. Her fear of the guards seemed so genuine that he almost believed she was who she claimed to be. Almost. With the girl’s forays into the camp, Sammath knew that she was something more than just a terrified slave girl.
When the guards had completely gone, Sammath looked over to the girl but there were another two people in their hut and he didn’t want to talk with them there. After all, you never know who might be listening. With that in mind, Sammath sat on his bed while he waited for breakfast.
After consuming the slop that constituted as food, Sammath and the rest of the slaves were herded to the mines by the guards. As they were toiling away, Sammath made sure to keep moving towards the girl until, finally, he was moving next to her. Hand over hand, he helped her move rocks, clearing the area for others to swing at the stone.
In order to talk to the girl, Sammath had to wait for the right moment, when no other prisoners were around, and no guards were watching. When that moment came along, he didn’t hesitate to strike. Sidling up next to the girl, he put his head down as he pretended to focus on moving rocks when, in actuality, he was focussing on his Motion Sight. After detecting no guards nearby, Sammath spoke out of the side of his mouth, “So, where do you go on your late-night forays into the camp?”
While Sammath asked the question, he directed his Motion Sight towards the girl. To her credit, she didn’t flinch, her breathing didn’t quicken, and not even her heartrate increased, her head turned towards Sammath and her brows furrowed, “What do you mean forays into the camp?” She sounded genuinely confused and, had Sammath not noticed her with his Motion Sight, he likely would have started to seriously doubt himself. As it was, though, he knew the girl was lying.
“Come, now. You can’t play coy with me. I know you’ve been leaving the hut in the middle of the night. I don’t know what’s keeping you in the camp, but I think we both know it isn’t the guards, the Runes, or the wall. Now I have absolutely no clue about what’s out there, whether you are going to perform some demonic ritual in the forest, whether you like stripping naked and dancing around in the moonlight, whether you have a secret lover in the guards,” Sammath wiggled his eyebrows at the girl, who was still frowning in confusion, “Or if you’re collecting information about the camp for the Arikaran government but, frankly, I don’t care. I also don’t think the guards would care either. Why you’re leaving the hut doesn’t really matter to them; they’d kill you either way.”
Maintaining what both Sammath and the girl knew as a façade, the girl shivered fearfully, her voice frantic and hurried. She spoke in a false whisper, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop making up lies, please. I don’t want to die.”
Sammath internally shrugged; the bait was set and, if he was right about the girl, she would likely approach him later. Raising his hands, he backed off slightly, “Alright, alright. But you know where to find me when you want to talk later.” With everything that needed to be said now out in the open, Sammath stood up and began strolling down the tunnel, dodging half-hearted strikes from the guards as he passed. Sammath grinned slightly; they all knew they couldn’t touch him, perhaps only the camp leader could, yet it was fun to tease them anyway.
Erin cursed in her head; she knew she’d played her part perfectly and, had she been in a play, would have probably won awards for her performance. Acting was a skill she’d mastered so well that even the kingdom’s spy master hadn’t been able to tell her apart from any normal commoner going about their tasks, after all. Despite that, however, it was blatant that her performance hadn’t been believed. Once again, Erin cursed in her head and wondered how the boy – Sammath, she’d gleaned from his conversations with the other boy, Ashe – knew that she’d been wandering the camp in the night.
Every time Erin had left the tent, she’d been certain that everyone, including Sammath, had been sleeping. His breathing had been regular, his eyes had been closed, he’d been relaxed, and he’d maintained at least another three of his personal sleeping habits every time Erin had left the tent. Yet, despite all of Erin’s precautions, the boy still knew somehow. As she cleared stones, little chunks of dirt and rock lodging themselves beneath her nails, Erin pondered how. Her best guess was that it had something to do with Sammath’s power. Erin had taken a detailed look at the Runes on the wall during one of her trips around the camp and none of them would suppress a Volkarian. Other than that, though, she had no idea how the boy could have known.
Following that line of thinking, Erin began brainstorming possibilities for what Concept Sammath had understood. All she knew was that it somehow made him more evasive and harder for the guards to hit, leading her to conclude that it was likely air related.
Eventually, the day ended and the guards came to collect all of the slaves. Erin grimaced internally; now, it was time to go fix her mistake before it cost her the whole mission and so that she wasn’t punished upon returning home.
After returning to the camp, Erin made sure to follow her normal routine, bathing and then eating dinner, before she returned to the hut. Noticing that Sammath wasn’t there, she left the hut and took up a position where she could observe everyone coming and going from the hut. It wasn’t long until Sammath turned up. Sighing to herself, Erin prepared for what would likely be an unpleasant conversation and one, she hoped, that wouldn’t end up in anyone getting hurt.
Erin approached Sammath from behind, making sure to place her footsteps silently and remain out of his sight. Despite her precautions, though, Sammath somehow knew that she was coming and, with only a metre to go before she reached him, he spoke up, “Hey, there.”
Before anything else, Erin wanted to get one thing clear in her mind, “How’d you know it was me?”
“I could feel you coming,” Sammath said, speaking Shinian back to Erin as he turned around, his hands casually tucked into the waist of his pants, “Everyone has a unique way that they walk and breathe, among other things so, once I know which way belongs to which person, I can tell who they are.”
“How’d you know I was here, then?”
Sammath grinned at Erin, showing off his gleaming teeth, “That one’s a trade secret, I’m afraid. After all, you don’t just bare yourself to someone you barely know.”
Erin shrugged, “It was worth a try. Now follow me.”
Turning around, Erin couldn’t see what she knew would be a grin on Sammath’s face as he teased her, “Ooh, bossy, aren’t we? I prefer a more equal relationship, myself, but you might make a meeker man – or woman – quite happy someday.”
When Erin didn’t reply, choosing to ignore Sammath and focus on where she was going, the teen quietened down, which Erin was thankful for. Unfortunately, however, that only lasted for a few minutes, until Erin brought him to a small clump of bushes that she’d found on her explorations of the camp.
“Brought me here to kill me, have you? Not the best place to dump a body but we all work with what we’ve got.”
Erin sighed, “No I haven’t brought you here to kill you. I probably could but it would take a while and you’d probably escape before I could finish you off.” Turning around as she sat by the bushes, Erin looked up at Sammath. Erin leant back on her hands, palming a small blade from inside her sleeve, “What do you want, Sammath?”
Grinning, the tan, bald boy sat down in front of her, simply folding his legs beneath him. Stroking his chin, Sammath’s smile hardened slightly, “Seems like I was right, you are a little bit more than just a meek slave girl. After all, I only gave my name to Ashe and, well, no slave girl would be holding a blade in her hand like you are. As for what I want, well, that depends on what you can give me,” Sammath looked at Erin, who met his gaze unflinchingly, “Firstly, I’d like your name. You know mine, so it’s only fair. Plus, while I could go around calling you girl, creeper - based on how you creep around the camp, or nightstalker – actually I wouldn’t mind that one, it has a nice ring to it – it’s probably easier to call you by your name. Definitely more polite”
Erin’s eye twitched slightly in annoyance as she deliberated what name she should give Sammath. How Ashe managed to put up with the joker for weeks was beyond her. Finally, Erin settled on a name, “Call me Ellis.”
“Well then, Ellis,” Sammath stressed the name, grinning predatorily “What I want is for you to help me rescue Ashe.”
Erin considered the request, weighing up the pros and cons but, in reality, it wasn’t as bad as she had feared. Slipping the knife back inside her sleeve she began slowly nodding, “I can do that but, in return, I’ll need you to help me with something.”
“That’s fair enough,” Sammath said, “What did you have in mind?”
This time, it was Erin’s turn to grin predatorily as she began to outline her plan.
“This is stupid,” Sammath muttered to himself, “Why are we out here in the middle of the night, crawling around the camp?”
“Because I need evidence,” the girl, Ellis she said her name was but Sammath didn’t believe that, shot back.
“And why do you need evidence? I thought Arikar was a monarchy. Doesn’t that mean its rulers can just do whatever they want?”
Ellis sighed, “Yes and no. It’s… complicated. Everything and everyone has their proper place. If the queen just went around condemning nobility for crimes without any evidence, there would be a coup. With evidence that the nobles were doing something wrong, the people will support the queen and help her against the nobles, should the nobles try anything.”
“But…” Sammath cocked his head at Ellis, confused, “Doesn’t that imply that the people might be unhappy with the system they are living in? If they are unhappy, why would you wait until they’re so unhappy they take action before changing the system. This is why I don’t like governments. They’re just so confusing. Who’s in charge of what?”
“Just shut up and watch for anyone coming,” Ellis said, getting annoyed at Sammath’s constant questioning of her government. Sammath mentally sighed but did what he was told. If all went according to plan, he’d have plenty of time to have in-depth debates with Ellis over the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of governance but, if the plan went to crap, then it was quite likely they’d never have the conversation again, rendering it pointless. In Sammath’s mind, the pointlessness of the argument only further inclined him to debate his points – what’s the point in living if you don’t do small, pointless things every once in a while, and enjoy yourself while doing them – but Ellis seemed determined to shut the conversation down for the time being. As such, Sammath let it go.
Casting out his Motion Sight, Sammath watched for any incoming guards or slaves. As Ellis moved, he felt her in his sense and allowed himself to be impressed at how swiftly, smoothly, and quietly she moved. Even as someone inherently connected to the Concept of Motion, not even Sammath could move that well without substantial help from his Concept.
Even as Sammath watched, a lockpick slid into Ellis’ hand from… somewhere. Sammath was taken aback; he hadn’t actually seen where the girl had been hiding the pick; and he allowed himself a moment to admire the girl’s skills. Whoever had trained her had done a damn good job if even Sammath couldn’t detect the Motion of the lockpick as it slid into her hands. Risking notice, Sammath focussed entirely on Ellis’ hands as the pick moved smoothly in the lock to the camp leader’s office.
In quick succession, all of the tumblers clicked open and Ellis smoothly opened the door before gently closing it behind her. What came next, Ellis sliding the pick into the cuff of her long sleeves, was what Sammath wanted to see and, even with his Motion Sight, he could barely tell what the girl was doing. Seeing where the pick had been put away, Sammath refocussed his attention on his surroundings, monitoring for any movement from guards or prisoners alike as he felt Ellis begin looking around in the office.
Sammath felt as she began searching through the files in the desk, pulling out drawers and picking the locks of the locked draws. Ellis rifled through papers that Sammath could feel but not read as the words were flush with the page. Sammath could feel as Ellis put everything back in its place, not having found what she needed. Ellis began running her hands over the desk, looking for secret compartments but she found nothing.
Ellis walked over to the book case and began scanning all of the books and scrolls, seeming to read far quicker than what Sammath believed any human had the right to. As she did this, a guard came into range of Sammath’s Motion Sight. Although he didn’t think that the guard would look into the office, he still realised that he needed to do something. Sammath needed to warn Ellis somehow. Briefly considering the idea of moving a book, Sammath discarded it as it might make too much noise. Instead, Sammath reached out with his mind, feeling the flow of air in the room and tried to gather a small amount with his mind.
Trying to contain enough air that Ellis would even feel the motion had Sammath breaking out into a sweat after a few seconds but, despite the exertion, Sammath pushed with his concept, moving Ellis’ hair lightly. Ellis seemed to get the hint and quickly slid the scroll she was reading back into place. Swiftly scaling up the bookcase, Sammath barely had any time to admire how smoothly she moved before she pulled herself up on top of the bookcase and lay between it and the roof. Sammath took slow, quiet breaths as the guard made his way past where Sammath was lying next to the office.
With the flickering torch in his hand, the guard’s night vision was ruined and he stood no chance of seeing Sammath, hiding in the shadows of the small, freestanding office building. Half a minute after the light of the guard’s torch had passed by the office window, Ellis slid down from her perch on top of the shelves and methodically began knocking lightly on the floorboards and the walls, starting in one corner and moving to the other. When she found nothing, Sammath could practically feel Ellis’ confusion. The only things left in the office were the chairs and a couple of decorative pieces on the walls and on the desk.
Ellis moved first towards the chair behind the desk, the camp leader’s chair, and began knocking on the wood of the simple chair and patting its lightly cushioned seat. Sammath could tell she found something when she began twisting at the chair’s legs and it was blatantly obvious that something was there when one of the chair legs twisted and the cushion of the seat swung open on a spring hinge.
Quickly grabbing the papers inside the chair, Ellis scanned them and then tightly rolled them up, holding them in her fist. Ellis made sure the seat cushion was fully back down before leaving the office through the door, locking it back up after her with her pick. As Sammath observed the room with his Motion Sight, mostly registering everything through the air swirling idly in the room, he saw that everything was almost exactly, if not exactly, where it had been when Ellis had entered.
As the girl sidled up to Sammath in the grass, he nodded at her. Now, it was time to set up their escape.
Erin triumphantly cried out in her mind as she found the hidden compartment in the chair. With a small click, the leg in her hand twisted and the seat cushion popped open. Quickly grabbing the papers inside, Erin skimmed over them and allowed herself a small grin as she found exactly what she was looking for; written missives to and from Dolan Akantha, describing the operations of the camp in detail, with figures and estimates about potential profit.
Erin rolled up the scrolls and quickly left the office, locking the door behind her. Finding Sammath where she left him, she smoothly slid next to him and he nodded at her. Erin tapped him on the shoulder and gestured for him to follow her, rising up into a crouch and quickly moving on from where they’d been lying in the grass. A couple of minutes had them pressed against the bottom of the wooden wall, listening to the guards patrol above them.
With a quick glance at Sammath, Erin met the boy’s eyes and nodded, handing over the papers. Sammath closed his eyes, focussing on whatever sense he had, and held a hand up. After about a minute of holding his hand aloft, he dropped it and Erin immediately crouched, lacing her fingers together and forming a step for the boy. Sammath took two steps out from the wall and, stepping into Erin’s hands as she heaved upwards, launched himself up onto the wall. Erin waited with bated breath for the guards to shout that they’d found him, after all he had nowhere near the experience that she had in covertness.
Erin briefly wondered why the hell she had agreed to Sammath being the one to go over the wall, though she knew that she’d had no choice. Sammath had insisted that he be the one to hide the documents outside the wall, saying that he couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t just leave him in the camp. While she didn’t like it, Erin could concede that she would’ve done the same if she’d been in his position.
When no shout was forthcoming, Erin relaxed slightly against the wall, slowly letting out the breath that she’d been holding in. What came next was a few minutes of tense waiting for someone to catch Sammath so, when the boy silently slipped down the wall beside her, she let out a small, relieved breath.
Without having to communicate, both of them slipped away from the wall like shadows in the night and made their way back to their hut. Along the way, Erin took stock of the way Sammath moved and categorised him as a hunter. She wasn’t surprised that he’d had some training in moving silently, considering the fact that she’d barely heard any steps from him that night. As they reached their hut, both of them relaxed slightly, slipping back into the deep shadows of the hut and into their cots. Now, all they had to do was wait until the morning.
Erin woke up after another four hours of sleep, just before the sunrise. Clearly feeling her moving around with whatever weird ability to sense the world that he had, Sammath was up just after her. Erin methodically made her way to each place she’d stashed weapons, grabbing no less than four daggers, her stiletto knives, her garotte, needles, a sling, some brass knuckles, throwing knives, a sling and shot, shurikens from the Shinian kingdom, a wrist-mounted crossbow, and more besides. Sammath stared at her with wide eyes, “How the hell did you get so much shit in here?”
“You have your secrets,” Erin began, “And I have mine.”
Sammath still remained shocked by how much stuff Erin had and his eyes kept widening as she seemed to continue pulling out more weapons, until she was loaded with enough stuff to outfit a small mercenary group, so long as they were willing to wield small weapons. “Can I at least have a knife?” Sammath asked of the girl. From within her spatial storage that looked like a rope in her hair, Erin pulled out a dagger and threw it at the ground beneath Sammath, lodging the blade in the dirt between his feet. Stepping back reflexively, Sammath nodded his thanks at the girl, wondering how the girl had managed to hide an entire blade in her hair. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.” Sammath commented idly.
“If I’m that scary, I don’t think I need to.” Erin replied, smiling lightly at what she felt was a compliment from Sammath.
“You’ve got a point there,” Sammath snorted lightly, and Erin felt a warm glow at the small bit of camaraderie between them. Maybe Sammath wasn’t so annoying after all. All of that was ruined when Sammath grinned again, “A lot of very good points. But maybe I’d like that.” Erin’s smile immediately flattened.
After equipping herself completely, Erin nodded to Sammath, “Let’s go.”
Before the sun rose, Erin and Sammath stole across the camp, to where the guards had made the slaves set up a pile of wood the night before
Entering the nearest unoccupied hut, Erin and Sammath crouched in the shadows, yet where they were still able to see the entrance to the hut. What came next was nearly an hour of waiting as the susurration of people in the distance slowly grew until, eventually, it nearly stopped. Erin looked towards Sammath and he nodded. It was go time.
Erin and Sammath ran out of the hut, heading in different directions. Sammath headed directly for the crowd of people, while Erin ran around to the side, aiming to circle around the crowd. Five minutes later, Erin was in position and watching as the guard tied Ashe to the post. As soon as the guard disappeared from her sight, Erin began moving forwards, making sure none of the guards or people could see her apart from brief flickers in the shadows that they would chalk up to mind tricks. As Erin was just about at the crowd, a loud shouting rose up from the other side of the crowd.
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Metal clashing with metal resounded through the air and the crowd began running towards Erin as the guards ran toward the commotion. Erin pushed against the crowd and quickly came up behind the large pile of wood, ready to burn. Clambering up the pile, Erin pushed herself flat against the loose wood and tried not to knock anything down so that it would be harder for the guards to detect her in the chaos.
Erin scaled the wood quickly, reaching the post behind Ashe. Acting as fast as she could, Erin leaned in and spoke quietly to Ashe, “Don’t struggle, I’m going to get you out of here.” Ashe relaxed in his restraints and Erin swiftly cut through the ropes that bound his hands and legs. Ashe nearly fell as he landed on the unstable wood of the pile but Erin quickly stabilised him, “We need to move before we’re spotted.”
Ashe nodded and they quickly began slipping down the pile. Unfortunately, though, the victim of the execution was too important a target to remain completely unnoticed and a small group of guards started shouting and rushing towards them. Erin quickly analysed the guards as they pulled out their weapons and began shoving through the fleeing crowd of slaves.
In the group, there were three guards who wielded spears and two with swords. Coming off the pile, Erin began charging straight at them, holding a dagger in her left hand in a backhand grip and with brass knuckles on her right. The two sword-wielding guards reached her first, not having to try and drag large weapons through a very tight crowd. Despite reaching her first, however, the guards didn’t have much room to swing their blades without someone getting in the way, so Erin had the distinct advantage. As the first guard tried to kick her instead of swinging his sword, Erin slipped to the side and grabbed the guards left with her right hand, pushing the guard’s leg up and forcing them to slip over. Erin’s knife slipped in and out of their throat with barely a whisper.
Learning from the other guard’s mistakes, the second guard took a more neutral stance, holding their sword in a defensive position. In the end, though, it didn’t matter as Erin simply smashed the back of her brass knuckles into the flat of the blade. Unable to hold her sword still, the guard’s wrists twisted together and the blade hit someone in the crowd. Switching to a forehand grip with her knife, the blade slipped in and out of the woman’s throat, leaving a thin red line that blood slowly gurgled out of.
Slipping out of Erin’s sleeve, Erin’s right hand appeared with a throwing knife and, with a smooth flick of her wrist, Erin sent the blade tumbling through the air, between two people running for their lives, and into the eye of one of the oncoming guards. In the same motion, Erin released the bolt from the crossbow on her right wrist and it missed the helmet of the falling guard by millimetres before taking the fourth guard in their open mouth. As she ran past, Erin dove and rolled over the third guard, grabbing the throwing knife from their eye and flicking it at the knee of the final guard. From Erin’s left hand, the dagger slipped into the top of the fourth guard’s mouth to pierce their brain and, as she yanked it out, her fingers grasped the small crossbow bolt and yanked it from the back of their throat. As the dagger came out with a spray of blood, Erin’s throwing knife took the final guard in the knee, through a tiny gap in the boiled leather, and, as he grunted in pain, his knee collapsed underneath his weight. Erin grabbed the spear from the fourth guard with her right hand and smashed its butt into the fifth guard’s head.
As he grunted in pain, the fifth guard’s head was sent smashing into the ground from the force of the impact and a split-second later, the head of the spear punched through his neck, severing his spine and leaking blood into the ground. Erin slipped her knife out of the body’s knee as she ran past and the crowd parted before her after seeing the carnage she had wreaked in seconds.
Behind her, Ashe stumbled over the bodies, nearly slipping on the blood but managing to get by. Erin grabbed Ashe’s hand and pulled him after her, running with the crowd to get away from the camp. Luckily for both Ashe and Erin, no more guards saw them running away from the pile and they made it to the wall of the camp quickly. Grabbing, Ashe by the shoulders, Erin looked Ashe in the eyes.
“I’m going to give you a boost up the wall, got it? I’ll be up right after you. If you see any guards, ignore them and just go down the other side. I’ll take care of them.”
Ashe nodded, his eyes wide and frantic. Erin crouched downwards, lacing her hands together and she was reminded of how she’d done this for Sammath only a few hours before. Luckily, even though he didn’t have the same ability to boost his jump as Sammath did, Ashe was far lighter than the older boy so it wasn’t hard for Erin to heave him over the three metre tall wall.
As soon as the younger boy had cleared the wall, Erin slipped off brass knuckles and grabbed a second knife from around her waist. Flipping the knives so the blades faced upwards, Erin took a few steps back then ran at the wall, leaping off the ground and then pushing off the wall. One step. Two steps. Then Erin began to feel gravity reassert its hold over her and she stabbed the knives in her hands into the wood, pulling upwards and boosting herself up. As her elbows passed her knives, Erin wrenched them straight out and the friction pulled her towards the wall, just enough that her soles brushed the top of the wall as she cleared it.
Erin landed in a crouch, head whipping back and forth to see if any guards were nearby. She caught a glimpse of Ashe’s hands dangling from the other side of the wooden wall before he fell to the ground, rolling to avoid getting hurt. His technique wasn’t very good, but it was functional.
Erin locked eyes with the nearest guard, who was still about thirty metres away, and smiled at him as she ran and leapt of the wall. A very tiny burst of flame emanated from Erin’s palms, pushing her body backwards so she would land on her feet. Erin smiled, relishing the feeling of her Bloodline powers once again flowing through her veins. Coming out of the suppressive field of the Runes, it felt as though a very heavy weight had been lifted off of her entire body.
Erin’s feet hit the ground and she rolled immediately before surging straight back up into a run, “Come on,” She shouted at Ashe, “Sammath will be meeting us in the forest.”
Ashe, who’d been looking at Erin in a small amount of shock, was jolted into action and he started running, pushing his smaller legs to try and catch up to Erin. Erin, who’d already been through most of puberty, was trained to run well, and whose body was enhanced by the power of her Bloodline flowing through her veins, had to cut back on her speed to allow the smaller boy, whom she guessed was actually about eleven or twelve, to catch up.
Ashe overtook Erin and the older girl looked back briefly, trying to see if anyone was following them yet. Luckily, it seemed that they were getting away without anyone chasing them. Yet. Erin knew that it was only a matter of time because the camp leader needed to set an example and show that no one could escape. In addition to that, he needed to prove to his own boss, because he was almost definitely someone’s subordinate, that he was completely capable of handling the camp.
After only five minutes of running, Erin decided to call Ashe to a stop. Ashe’s chest was heaving with the exertion of running and all the adrenaline and they also needed to wait for Sammath to find them. If any guards came, Erin would deal with them. Powers and all.
Sammath ran pretty much straight towards the group of people as Erin veered to the left, aiming to go around the back of the group and rescue Ashe. Sammath’s job, however, was a little bit more dangerous. Sammath closed his eyes, feeling the world through his Motion Sight, and nearly ran into a hut as he did so. Only at the last second did Sammath notice the building as the air flowed around it. That was the downside to his Motion Sight. The less an object was moving, the darker it appeared in his Motion Sight – which admittedly did make it easy for Sammath to see extremely far as he could see any moving object or being through any stationary object and the muted glow of moving air. On the other hand, what that meant was that, if something wasn’t moving, then often Sammath could only see it as dark patches in the glow of the air. Sammath opened his eyes, layering his Motion Sight over his vision and lamenting his inability to use his powers like many of the adults.
Sammath was only able to use his Motion Sight to see like he would through his eyes, but he knew that others, normally elders, were able to use their various senses to concurrently see everything that was happening within a certain radius. Sammath ran through everything he could do at his stage, named the Essence stage, so it would be fresh in his mind during the battle. Volkar, among all of the powers, was unique in their stages. In Volkar, there were no Lock, Key, Dawn, or Dusk stages like there were with all of the powers. Every Volkarian that comprehended a concept, which was every Volkarian from what Sammath knew, immediately went to the first stage of power, which the Volkarians called the Essence stage and the Arikarans called the Baron stage.
At the Essence stage, Volkarians gained an understanding of what their Concept was and gained their Essence Sight. With their Essence Sight, Volkarians could see their Concept through their eyes. Sammath knew that everyone’s Essence Sight manifested differently but his was like viewing the world in faded blue lights, with things being brighter depending on how much Motion they had. When Sammath layered this on top of his normal vision, as well, he was able to see the Motion of the object – its future position based on its velocity, acceleration, the Motion of other objects, and a few other factors. Finally, Sammath was able to control the Motion of objects around him, reaching out with his mind to change the magnitude or direction of its Motion. The further away from Sammath, the less tangible the object was, and the amount of change he was inflicting determined how much energy it would take to affect an object’s motion.
Confident that he would remember everything in the moment, Sammath stopped short behind one of the huts right before the group. In his head, Sammath counted the five minutes that he and Ellis had determined before the raid. As soon as he hit the count, Sammath was strolling casually towards the group, rubbing his eyes.
A male guard with a sword dangling from a belt loop noticed him first, “Oi, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I thought was just coming to watch the execution. Is this not it?” Sammath feigned confusion.
“I meant where the hell were you and why are you so late?” The guard growled, clarifying himself.
“Oooohhh, that.” Sammath pretended like it had just dawned on him, “So as it turns out I was just sleeping in. I had a reaalllyyy late night last night. Your mum and I were just going at it, right, just really taking it down to pound town. Then your dad walked into the house. So, in our heads, we were just sorta going, ‘Shit, shit, shit. Oh, fuck, fuck, what do we do?’ Anyway, he walks into the room, only to find me ten centimetres deep in your mum. But then the craziest thing happens. Instead of getting pissed off and shouting, like we expected, your dad joins us. By the end of it, I’m pretty sure your mum was getting jealous of my chemistry with your dad.”
Staring in open-mouthed shock at the slave who had the gall to casually stroll up to him while saying that, the guard’s face clouded over in anger, “Are you calling my mum a whore?”
“No,” Sammath replied quickly, “But since your mind went there, you just did.”
“That’s it. Come here, you bastard.” Reaching for his sword with his right hand, the guard went to grab Sammath with his left but found his fingers closing on empty air. Sammath had ever-so-slightly adjusted the Motion of the guard’s hand as he dodged, letting the guard’s fingers close around nothing.
“I thought we just established that, if anyone’s the bastard, it’s you. Your mum’s a whore, remember?” Sammath asked the guard, prodding him on. Face red with embarrassment and anger, the guard drew his sword and the blade swished through the air, aiming to bisect Sammath at the waist. Sammath stuck his hands in his waistband and jumped up, boosting his own Motion. Foot touching on the blade, exactly where Sammath had seen the sword’s Motion taking it, Sammath pushed down and sent the tip of the sword into the dirt, pushing the guard off balance as he did so.
By then, other guards had begun to take notice of the commotion and Sammath grinned internally. While he generally disdained killing, preferring instead to confound his enemies and make them hurt themselves, Sammath didn’t mind killing the guard and thought it would be a good way to attract some more attention. As Sammath fell down, he grabbed the guard’s head with his bare feet and twisted, breaking the guard’s neck. Sammath tucked into a roll just before he hit the dirt, having used the force from snapping the guard’s neck to move his shoulder into position.
Sammath grinned cheekily at the guards, removing his right hand from his waistband to wave at them and, drawing their weapons, they approached him. Sammath dodged left as a spear thrust in, slipping to the side and knocking it into the ground with his hand. Sammath jumped up, taking one step on the shaft of the spear and jumping over the guard, letting himself get surrounded by the others that rushed in within a couple of seconds, “Is there any chance we can just talk this out?” Sammath asked the circle of guards who kept their weapons pointed at him warily. Sammath kept turning, keeping his Motion Sight active and layering it over his normal vision. In the corner of his eyes, he saw a flicker of movement and he immediately reacted, ducking underneath the swipe of the sword as he changed its Motion to carry it just over him.
As if that one guard had opened a set of floodgates, the rest of the guards began attacking at random. Those with spears thrust them in, towards Sammath. Some of those with swords swung them in an overhand blow, while others thrust in, and the one person with an axe swept it up in an underhanded blow, aiming to bisect Sammath from the crotch to his brain. Sammath jumped up and spun, altering the Motion of the weapons so that, as he spun, they missed him by millimetres. As the axe swept up and swords swept downwards, Sammath altered his Motion to flip him vertically, performing a backwards somersault through the weapons. As for those that stabbed in, Sammath pulled and pushed at their Motion so that the guards tangled themselves up with each other.
When Sammath landed back on the ground, the axe was still cutting through the air and the tangled guards had begun pushing at each other to try and extricate themselves from their messes. Sammath pulled a face as he thought to himself how close that had been, quickly glancing at the few tears in his clothing that the weapons had cut. If Sammath had had any hair at all, he was sure that there would be some lying on the ground after what would have been a decidedly uncomfortable haircut.
“You know what, fellas,” Sammath attracted the attention of the guards, “I’m not particularly keen on doing that again. Instead,” Sammath grunted slightly as he pushed off the ground and boosted his Motion, “So how about you come at me again but this time in groups of two or three rather than… two… four… eight… ten, eleven. Yeah. Two or three sounds much better than eleven.”
Angrily, three guards darted in; two spear wielders and a sword-wielding guard. Sammath stepped back to avoid a slash from the sword, strengthening its momentum so that the guard swing it into their companion. Barely flinching back in time, the spear-wielding guard cursed and jumped back, “Watch where you’re swinging that thing,” They shouted.
Sammath wasn’t given any reprieve, however, as the other guard brought their spear down towards his head. Instead of slipping to the back or side like they probably expected him too, Sammath stepped in and caught the wooden shaft of the spear on his angled forearm, easily shunting it off to the side with a push to its Motion.
Sammath struck forward with his open palm, hitting the guard away with a boost to their Motion. As the guard stumbled back and flailed their arms, it was easy for Sammath to grab and then wrench their spear out of their hands. Sammath spun around and jabbed the butt of their spear into their solar plexus, increasing the momentum of the spear enough that the guard was sent flying back, tangling up with the other guards.
Sammath quickly jabbed the head of the spear into the ground and stamped on it, breaking the steel off from the wooden body of the spear. Spinning it around, Sammath got a quick feel for his new staff before he quickly used it to push away a spear thrust and send the spear towards the sword-wielder. In Sammath’s Motion Sight, he saw a sudden spike of Motion through one of the guards, who ducked out of the way, and the battle axe came hurtling through the air towards Sammath. Having seen it coming, Sammath easily side-stepped the axe and it went spinning into the crowd somewhere.
For a second, Sammath felt bad for whoever got in the way of the axe but he pushed it away; he couldn’t afford to worry about them now. Sammath continued retreating backwards, fending off strikes, thrusts, and slashes with his staff and his ability to manipulate Motion. Each move the guards made was glaringly obvious and Sammath’s Motion Sight, combined with his normal vision, gave him plenty of warning as he was able to see the Motion of each strike; where it was and where it was going to go.
What few feints the guards tried to make were glaringly obvious, even without Sammath’s Motion Sight telling him that there wasn’t nearly enough power in there for a blow. Thirty seconds later, with five guards coming at him at a time, Sammath saw the guards’ eyes widen and he knew that Ashe had escaped.
Sammath smiled; it was time to finish things. Sammath quickly pushed on the offensive, the first time he actually tried since the start of the fight. Desperate, the sword-wielding guard in front of him struck out as they fell back. Sammath saw exactly where the sword would be and caught the flat of the blade with the jagged end of his staff, pushing it with his physical strength and altering its Motion to send the flailing blade into the next guard over.
Sammath ducked as the head of a spear jabbed forward to where he’d been standing. Sammath brought his staff up behind him and smacked the spear forward, using it to hammer the sword further into the guards’ ribs. A spray of blood dusted Sammath’s face as the sword dug deeper into the torso of the guard in front of Sammath and he kicked them down, spinning his staff around as he did so.
Using the momentum from his staff spinning, without even altering its Motion, Sammath smashed an incoming spear upwards. Leaning back, Sammath kicked a guard’s sword hand and sent their sword spinning through the air towards the staff. Pulling on the Motion of the spinning sword, Sammath made sure that the blade bisected the spear. Sammath pulled at the head of the spear, making it turn in the air and, with Sammath still pulling, the spear came hurtling down to the ground and pierced a guard through the top of their leather skull cap .
Sammath dodged a spear thrust and used his hand to redirect the weapon, stabbing it into the third guard. Sammath whipped his staff around and took out the guard gripping the spear with a massive strike to her head, caving in the side of her skull and shattering Sammath’s makeshift shaft into pieces. Sammath gripped the spear embedded in his enemy’s body and pulled it out, letting blood pump from the wound and into the soil. Sammath spun the spear around, keeping his enemies at a distance, before he hurled the spear with all of his strength. Pushing on the spear’s Motion with his mind, Sammath accelerated the spear to an insane speed as it left his hand.
Streaking across the sky, faster than the naked eye could keep track of, the spear embedded itself through the chestplate of the guard Sammath had aimed for. It didn’t stop there, however, erupting from the back of their armour in a spray of blood and bone shards, travelling into the body of another guard and finally slowing down as it dug into the body of a third guard, sticking out of their ribs. With two guards on the head of the spear, one corpse and one about to die if they hadn’t already, the first corpse on the spear was raised into the sky like a gruesome flag as the head of the spear tipped towards the ground.
As soon as it did that, however, the body of the guard immediately began slipping down its makeshift flagpole until all three bodies were clutched in death’s embrace together.
Six down, Sammath thought, five to go. For the first time, the guards had fear in their eyes as they looked towards Sammath. Before Sammath had thrown the spear, they could pretend that he was just a mortal. Perhaps he was a very skilled warrior, but he didn’t have anything that truly set him apart. After the spear was thrown, though, and pierced through three people and their hardened leather armour, a feat that none of the guards would be able to mimic even without their powers suppressed in the camp, Sammath looked positively terrifying.
Pushing down their fear, or perhaps remembering that their fear of their boss was even greater than their fear of Sammath, the remaining guards approached cautiously. Sammath internally grimaced; he needed to get their fight over quickly, before he was bogged down by too many guards and forced into the same position that Ashe had been in. Taking the initiative and going against how he’d been taught to fight – redirecting his opponents’ attacks against them – Sammath jumped forward and sent a kick at the open face of the nearest guard. Instinctively flinching, the guard brought their hands up to their face and it was easy for Sammath to kick off their hands and send their sword clattering to the ground. Sammath flipped through the air and grabbed the head of a different guard as he sailed over top of them, snapping their neck with a quick movement of his hands, the motion backed by the strength his concept.
Four. Sammath thought to himself. With a vengeance, the axe-wielder came towards Sammath and hacked at him with a sword. Sammath could easily see that the man was unfamiliar with the weapon but his brute strength was too much for Sammath could handle. In his Motion Sight, the sword positively shone with how much force was being put into each blow and Sammath knew he’d never be able to stand up against that. Instead, Sammath slowly hopped back, letting the sword swing past him by fractions of a hair. Sammath waited patiently for the right time to strike and, as soon as he saw it, he took the opportunity.
In his Motion Sight, the sword lit up once again but, this time, it shone slightly too brightly. Having gotten frustrated, the man went to bisect Sammath and stomped forward, putting too much strength into the blow. Overcommitted, the man was slightly unbalanced as Sammath suddenly lunged forward, pushing against the Motion of the sword as his hand turned the blade inwards by pushing on its simple cross guard. Sammath’s physical strength, the aid of his Concept, and the guard’s own blow all combined to slide the sword deep into the axe-wielder’s ribs and Sammath brought a knee up to smash into the guard’s nose for good measure as the guard fell forward in pain.
Sammath felt the crunch as the cartilage of the guard’s nose gave way to the harder bone of his knee and a spray of blood. Rivulets of crimson ran down Sammath’s legs and droplets flecked his clothes as the guard’s body slumped off of Sammath’s knee. Sammath pulled the sword out of the guard’s body with a grunt and dropped it on the ground, letting his blood pool on the ground.
Three. Sammath counted one more guard down as he was forced to dodge a spear thrust from the second to last spear-wielding guard. Tiring quickly of the fight, Sammath swayed to the fight and grabbed onto the shaft of the spear as it stabbed into the air beside him. Pulling just before the guard withdrew the spear, Sammath ensured they were yanked off-balance by their hold on the spear and he then reversed the blow, smashing the butt of the spear into their chest and knocking them to the ground. Sammath stabbed the spear through the open face of the guard’s helmet and then smashed the wooden shaft of the spear with a foot, breaking the spear’s head off.
Two. Sammath ducked forward, rolling underneath a sword thrust and tucking his make-shift staff into his ball. As he rolled, the staff that stuck out from his ball took out the legs of the guard Sammath pushed at their Motion and pulled at the Motion of the sword, making the guard fall onto their own blade.
One. Sammath counted. Only one more guard remained and Sammath, not wanting to waste any more time, uncurled from a ball and rose to his feet. In the same movement, Sammath thrust his staff forward, into the stomach of the guard. Even though it was protected by hardened leather, the increased force to Sammath’s blow that his Concept provided was enough to make its way through the protection. Bending over in pain, the guard ended up moving right into Sammath’s follow up blow as the bald boy retracted his staff thrust then whipped the bottom of the staff around in a circle, whipping upwards with extreme force and caving the front of the guard’s face in.
Zero. Sammath recounted with satisfaction in his mind. Sammath whipped his head around, spotting as some guards tried to push their way through the crowd but they didn’t stand any chance at actually catching him. Sammath turned towards the wall and immediately began running, altering his Motion as he ran so that he made long, loping steps. Digging the end of his makeshift staff into the ground, Sammath used it as a lever to launch himself over the wall, as though he were pole-vaulting. Sammath sailed through the air and over the wall, using his control over his Motion to keep himself balanced. As he fell, Sammath pulled his own Motion upwards so that he would land with far less force.
Landing on the ground with a soft thump, Sammath rolled and immediately bounded back to his feet. Flashing his Motion Sight and closing his eyes, Sammath looked into the forest and immediately found both Ashe and Ellis moving away from the camp. Remembering their position relative to him, he directed himself to where he’d hidden the documents for Ellis. Quickly sticking his hand into the tree trunk and pulling them out, he began running to where he’d last seen the escaping duo.
Sammath flickered his Motion Sight on and off as he blinked. Each time he did so, he got a clearer view of the two’s position until they stopped running about three minutes later. Sammath then headed directly to where he’d seen the pair stop, finding Ashe panting on the ground in the forest as Ellis stood vigil.
Sammath wasn’t surprised to find Ellis’ head turned to face him as he came into view of the clearing. He did seem to surprise Ashe, though, which was an indication of how little attention the younger boy was playing, considering Sammath wasn’t even trying to be quiet.
“You have the papers?” Ellis asked of Sammath and Sammath nodded, “Good. Then let’s go.”
Turning around, Ellis grabbed Ashe and slung him over her shoulder like he weighed nothing. Sammath raised and eyebrow as she began jogging off as Ashe complained. After a quick readjustment of Ashe’s position, though, and the girl asking if he thought he could run for another few hours, Ashe shut up.
Sammath glanced back as the last glimpses of the walls of the camp completely faded out of view, replaced by the forest of the mountains. Somehow, he knew they’d be coming back and, when they did, they’d be bringing back their vengeance.