The air was humid, or maybe her blood was still running hot. Leah had just completed her morning duel against Nett, and was heading to the dormitories when she heard something familiar coupled with something else decidedly not. The most annoying [sky.elf] she had ever met, and she knew Daru, doing his normal bullying routine, and a son of two of the three most powerful people in the realm, refusing to acquiesce. Leah thought about leaving, about the one hour bath headed her way after her unsatisfactory bouts with her angry friend. She could slow down, for a moment, think on the best way forward with the friend she didn’t deserve, a way to save their relationship. All she had to do was leave Johann to his devices. After all, not even he was foolish enough to hurt someone significantly higher on the totem pole than him.
The following scream disabused her of the notion.
Leah sped across the courtyard, spotting a certain [Geomancer] rival training one of her students at its center. One was good at acting nonplussed while the screaming ripped through the mountain air, even going so far as to wink at her as she passed by, and the other visibly jumped when the pleading screams turned throaty. She thought of asking the former for her help, but knew even thinking about it was wasting precious time.
Despite her exhaustion, she managed to sprint through a narrow opening along her dormitory building’s right wall and the fence a few meters from it, the loud voices of the [sky.elf] and his prey leading her along through the park behind it, till at last she saw a crowd of seven, who were most likely Johann’s cronies, standing below a bridge, throwing out occasional jeers when their Winged leader demanded it. Watching from her higher vantage point behind a red-bark tree, Leah assessed the situation. A dead [Merman] on top of the bridge: Tolemvaria’s Pocket System. Johann, laughing indignantly above the kneeling [ocean.prince]. One hand holding a bloody broken arrow while the other gripped at his blue-skinned victim’s long, black hair. The wounds she could see, a shallow cut across a soaked Tolemvaria’s neck, and a half-torn ear, so much so that it was close to a complete severance. And the ones she couldn’t, a hand resting on his lower left ribs. Arrow wound. A blue haired, [Geomancer] crony spotted a limp, no bloodstains along his trousers.
“I thought you fishmen were supposed to like water? Isn’t it like... your thing?” Johann asked.
Not fresh-water, you dolt, I thought. The half-human prince merely stared at his captor with heavy, tired breaths.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Don’t be like that, Tol,” Johann said. “Can I call you Tol?”
“Can I call you the bastard son of a rap—” Johann ripped off the loose ear, eliciting a broken scream.
His grip on the younger man’s hair tightened. “Never known the man, you can call him what you like,” his wings began to unfurl. “But I’m no Oshvepertha-damned bastard. I am a Sky-Elf, you”—he twisted—“are a goldfish. And I’ve had enough of you, my prince.” Johann took his head and threw it into the water. A [Merman] could drown in fresh-water but it took five minutes to kill one. Five minutes to rid herself of Johann and his cronies. Leah figured she could do it in three.
The first to notice her walking toward them was the limping blue hair. She watched him point at her as he warned the others. The other six noticed the Red Pebble, voicing their shock with murmurs, until one recognized her: a female [sky.elf] with crimson, white-spotted, wings. Her murmurs turned to yells, directed to someone in particular. Their leader, who hadn’t yet registered his fellows’ unease behind him, turned his head, ready to bellow out a rebuke. The words died on his lips. The Prince continued to drown.
“Human,” he said.
“Council Member Cheretesha to you, good sir,” she said.
Leah could see it, the moment he realized that despite her status, despite what he’d heard about the top ranker, she was alone while he had his merry companions covering his back. “No, honorifics are for the Chosen, I think. Not for the dirty,” he said, and Leah, all of a sudden, looked forward to punching the smug look off his face, and judging by the frown one of his ‘friends’ wore, the only human in the group as it turned out, she wasn’t the only one.
Tolemvaria started thrashing. Guess half-humans had shorter endurance than full [mermen]; who knew. He didn’t have much time left. She could have gone for the diplomatic approach. Explain in detail how drowning the [ocean.queen]’s first born was the worst move to make, especially after everything the [world.king] had done in an effort to end the long held barrier between their two peoples, going so far as to ensure Tolemvaria’s survival if he came to study at the heart of the Communion; how bad it would look, for not just him, if the one person assigned to be the Prince’s mentor became his killer. She could, but despite the Gray Wings, and the poor eyesight, Johann didn’t really share anything else concrete with his older brother. Daru would understand without needing a chastisement, Johann; he needed bloodshed. “Do let the Prince up, Skyborne,” she said. Skyborne, only the illegitimate among the Sky-Elven attained the surname upon their birth.
“Stop her, buy me time, let me show them all, the worth of a Skyborne,” he said, and his personal army hesitated for a moment, a hopeful moment, before blue-hair led the charge, and all else followed.
Wing-spot and a couple others, a [sky-elf] with green, white-striped wings and a humanoid black-feathered eagle leapt into the air, while the human man and two orcs, both female, charged behind the blue-haired [Geomancer] pebble.