Eletheria and Antonio arrived at the Praestes estate. The gates were closed. To the side of the gates was a little guardhouse, with a guard on the outside and another visible through a window on the inside. A fence ran along the property with rows of bushes about ten feet in the neighbor’s yard. Ele angled her horse towards the guard standing outside the gatehouse.

“My name is Eletheria Zephyr, and I wish to see my Aunt Ventus Praestes,” Ele said as she got close enough to the gatehouse for them to hear her without her having to shout. Although Ele did not recognize either of the guards, that was to be expected. Ever since Sal had finished his training for Windmaster, Ele had little reason to visit Ve’s house.

“Sorry, ma’am, Ms. Praestes is not here and wishes for no one to enter her estates,” a guard replied, possibly the higher-ranking guard or at least the most senior as he had a bit of white in his beard. The other guard in the window did not have a beard and looked much younger. Ele looked around and saw there were two guards on the roof holding crossbows. Whatever was going on, the estate appeared to be locked down for some reason.

“Is my aunt here?” Ele asked the guards.

“I cannot say, ma’am,” The bearded guard replied.

“Will she be back soon?” Ele asked the same guard.

“I cannot say about that either, ma’am,”

“Then what can you say?”

“That Ms. Praestes wishes for no one to enter her estates,” the bearded guard repeated. Ele sensed this wouldn’t get anywhere, so she motioned to Tony for them to ride away from the guardhouse. They got to the other side of the street and then led Tony around a corner to be out of the guards’ sight. Ele then beckoned Tony as close as they could on their horses so they could talk in private.

“Something is going on,” Ele told Tony.

“Aye, I see the Zephyr carriage near the front of the building,” Tony replied.

“I got to get in there somehow.”

“The guards won’t let ye.”

“I could jump the fence.”

“Ya think they would shoot a crossbow at ye?”

“I doubt they would shoot family.”

“How would they know ye was family?”

“Oh, they will know. Could you make a distraction?”

“Aye,” Tony replied. Then they devised a plan for Tony to distract the guards while Ele snuck into the house. Ele admitted it wasn’t the best plan, but it was all they had for the time being. The pressure of being charged with murder gave her a sense of urgency. Ve would know what to do; Ele just needed to explain everything to her. Then Ve would fix everything because she was good at solving problems.

In this neighborhood, each house had a large plot of land surrounding it. Her aunt’s place was surrounded by a tall fence to keep out thieves and to keep in various animals. Some affluent families kept some livestock to ensure they received fresh milk or eggs. Many had a groundskeeper who dabbled in maintaining a small farm simultaneously. Ve didn’t have a lot of livestock, but she did have a few milk cows and some chickens.

The neighbors had patrolling guards, making Ele’s attempt to sneak into her aunt’s place even more difficult. She had two different sets of eyes to avoid. The only way to hide herself from both simultaneously involved crawling through a line of bushes. The neighbor used the bushes as a fence between where the horses ran and where they would host outdoor parties.

Since it was close to midday, it was too hot to run the horses, so there wasn’t anyone outside looking towards the makeshift fence. Ele kept moving until she was in a place with no guard along the wall of her aunt’s estate. Once she was in place, she sat down, back against some bush, got comfortable, and waited, acting as if she was busy getting her outfit straightened out.

While she waited, she undid the little cloth strips with wire embeeded in them that she had tied at her waist. Her plan with Tony was for him to make a bunch of noise after giving her adequate time to get into position. They were in a hurry, so there was no discussion of how Tony would make a ruckus, so Ele hoped she would be able to hear it.

Right about when her legs were starting to fall asleep, she heard some noises by the street: a person shouting and then some glass breaking. The noise was coming from across the street from the gate, though. It was still pretty loud, and from what Ele could hear, it sounded like Tony had decided to pick a fight with someone. It appeared to be enough as the guards she could see along the wall started drifting towards the front, and their attention was on the street. Seeing her chance, Ele acted.

Ele got to her feet and started running towards the fence. Once she was at full speed, she grabbed a cloth strip in each hand and gripped it firmly. She channeled her quan into the strips, which had wire running through them. This cloth and wire was connected to a metal bar wrapped in wire in her corset. This pushed her up from the ground. Ele channeled everything she could through the strip, and it turned her running start into a flying jump into the air. Since she didn’t have any way to guide her or glide to the ground, she got to a height a little above the fence.

Stolen story; please report.

Ele had lifted off the ground too soon, and her momentum forced her to channel more power to keep her up. Instead of gently floating over the wall, she wobbled up and down as she applied more power, then reduced it, and then had to repeat the actions to avoid getting caught on the fence. Once she was over the fence she reduced power to try and drop herself carefully to the ground. She hit the grass with a thud, and a sharp pain went up her right leg.

“Faex!” Ele exclaimed, probably louder than she needed to. She wanted to look to see if anyone noticed or heard her, but she didn’t have time. She got back to her feet and tried running towards the house. Her leg was giving her incredible pain when she applied weight to it, so she reduced to limping. It wasn’t going very fast, so she used some quan to help her do little one-legged hops.

She got to the door without anyone stopping her, she knocked on it using the built-in knocker, then stopped to look around to see how badly she was seen in her attempt. From the front door, she could see several guards from both above the gate and from one of the corners near where she had hopped over the fence. They had obviously seen her, but since they saw she could channel Quan, they did not attempt to stop her. Ele silently cursed at herself for thinking there was any danger. She could have avoided injury and still gotten to the door. Before she could berate herself further, the door opened.

Standing at the door, holding it open, was the young man Ele saw in the park. They were both surprised and taken aback at the sight of each other. Upon seeing her, the young man closed the door, and Ele could hear footsteps running deeper into the mansion. She quickly pushed the door open and followed the sounds of running footsteps into the great hall. There sitting at a table was Ve, her mother, some ruffians from the dock area, and the young man from the tree.

“Firs’ Blaze ‘urns up dead from some bug zapping ‘em. Now the lass who was sniffing around shows up while we here.” The young man pulled a dagger from inside his shirt and pointed it at Ve. “I will not be crossed, if ye are trying to avoid paying me then know I’ll gut ye.” There was a slightly shocked look upon Ve’s face, but more so from the appearance of Ele. The look disappeared as Ve regained control and gently tapped Ele’s mother on the arm. Taking the cue, Ms. Zephyr walked roundabout way towards Ele. The fact that she made the effort to avoid being near the ruffians made Ele wonder if their threats and words were true.

“Ele, come with me outside so we can discuss this,” Ms. Zephyr said as she reached for Ele’s arm.

“No, we can talk here. Why are they here? Did you…” Ele started to ask, but realization dawned upon her. She started to back away from her mother and everyone else in the room. She almost tripped over the step leading to the hallway back towards the entrance.

“Now, Ele, let me explain. We just wanted no distractions for you, so you could marry a nice Q’Aeris man,” Ms. Zephyr said, still walking towards Ele.

“I can’t believe you hired these thugs to kill Acanthio! I would not be here if it weren’t for him saving my life!” Ele yelled as she backed up further. With one hand reaching behind her to feel for the door, she felt it, and grabbed it, opened it, and ran right into Sal. Surprised by someone being there, Ele tried to move him out of the way, but Sal held her firmly.

“What is going on? I heard shouting?” Sal asked, suddenly conscious of the crowd of people moving towards them.

“They killed Acanthio,” Ele said into Sal’s chest. Ele felt Sal move to stand between her and everyone else. Soon she looked at Sal’s back as he faced the thugs, Ele’s mother, and Sal’s mother.

“Mother, you didn’t?” Sal said while looking at his mother. Sal stood with both of his arms out, and his palms faced the crowd.

“Everything I have done is to ensure our people never be slaves again. Acanthio was a distraction; Ele will find a nice G’Aeris man to marry, and our line will remain strong,” Ve said, her voice escalating as she continued. “We are the chosen, we have the power, and we will not suffer under another’s rule.” Peering around Sal’s back, Ele saw the ruffians hesitantly move forward. Ele could feel the hairs on her arm raise.

“Would you kill your son?” Sal asked, and Ele realized he must have felt the hairs on his arm raising, too. Sal took a step forward and appeared to decide that he would make his stand in the doorway.

“Sal, my dear and only child. I would give your life, my own, and anyone else’s within my reach if it meant our people would be free forever,” Ve said coldly, her tone now controlled and not near the shouting level it was previously. Her words, however, made the men of Blaze’s gang stumble a step as they must have been realizing that they were fodder between two powers greater than themselves.

The hair on Ele’s arm raised even more. Everyone could tell someone was gathering power, and since Ele knew it wasn’t herself or Sal, she had to act quickly. She stepped to the side, pulled Sal back through the doorway, and slammed the door to the house shut. The wooden door had securing metal bands reinforcing it and its frame was also built of metal, as Ve always went for the most expensive of anything when she did something. With the door closed, Ele shouted at Sal, “Quick, you start at the top, and I’ll work on the bottom.” Ele channeled quan and used her boot knife as the weld. A few seconds later, Ele looked at Sal’s handiwork and at her handiwork. A thin weld secured the bottom metal band with the door frame. Up above she saw that Sal must have just melted the door frame into the door.

“Good job!” Ele said as she started to stand then she turned, looking towards the gates.

“Best I could do without goggles, welding without looking is…” Sal said, then a loud crack interrupted him. A glowing red spot appeared in the middle of the door. Some screams of pain could be heard through the door. “We got to go.”

“The guards,” Ele said as she pondered a plan to get around them. Before she knew it, an arm was around her waist, and Sal pulled her close. Soon they were being lifted into the air as Sal propelled them over the yard and gate. They landed gently on the other side of the street from the gate. All the guards were moving around, trying to decide if they should attack or try to bring Sal back. Even across the street, Ele could see conflict within each of them. She doubted any of the guards could channel quan and Sal was one of the most powerful in the city.

As great as Sal’s power was, it was still not near what his mother could channel. An explosion from the manor lit up the daytime sky. Ele was glad there was a gate between her and the explosion, as the glow of light that she could see was extremely bright. Why didn’t she bring her goggles? The crackle of lightning could be heard, and the guards who stayed on the wall appeared to hunker down so they would not get a stray bolt.

“She will knock us out of the air,” Sal stated, a grim look on his face. “You run, I’ll stop her.” The screams of people from within the wall and calls of orders from the guards filled the air. It was loud enough to cover up the noise of the city streets, people still talking and moving from shop to shop, the clopping of hooves, and town criers calling out the day’s news. The clopping of hooves got louder. Soon Ele saw Tony riding towards them with Ele’s horse in tow. Tony slowed down and hopped off his horse. He then handed the reins to Sal and Ele, both horses.

“Here, take these and go,” Tony said quietly, then he yelled. “No! Don’t take my horses. Please. STOP!” as he backed away. Ele and Sal mounted the horses and rode off through the city streets trying to take a direct path to Ele’s house, but they kept near the buildings so the air did not easily spot them. As they rode, Ele and Sal kept looking behind them. Occasionally they would take a turn down a side street to evade possible pursuit.

“Would she hurt us?” Ele yelled to Sal, trying to be heard over the horses’ and city’s noises.

“Do you know why I joined the strike force?” Sal yelled back.

“I thought ‘cause you were the best.”

“I am,” Sal replied, and even without looking at him, Ele could tell he was smiling the silly grin he did when he was complimented. “But I joined…” Sal had slowed down to talk a little, and his conversation was interrupted by a lightning bolt descending from the sky. Both Ele and Sal turned to look and saw Ve hovering in place above all the buildings, surrounded by crackling energy. Another bolt flew down from the sky towards them and struck close to Sal’s horse. The horse reared and threw Sal. Ele watched as Sal flew in the air and hovered there momentarily. Then he landed on his feet. “RUN!” Sal exclaimed as he turned down a side street where the narrow buildings would hide them from the sky. Ele urged the horse to follow him down the side street.

Ele turned down the side street and lost sight of Sal. As her horse continued forward, she was surprised when she felt someone gently grab her from behind. “Keep riding,” Sal said in her ear. Ele hurried the horse along the side street.

“I think she will expect us to go to my home” Ele yelled to Sal.

“Is there anyone that you trust?” Sal replied as Ele felt him shift his body as if to look behind them.

“Lex, he will help us,” Ele shouted back. When they reached a major street, Ele turned the horse toward Lex’s family estates.