Chapter 35 — A Fateful Encounter

Xyn's thoughts were interrupted by a voice cheerily at odds with their surroundings.

“Oooh! Tail-standing meditation!"  Jessi enthused.

And she promptly hopped onto her own tail, curling the tip just enough to provide a stable base and 'sitting' crosslegged in the air beside him. Her scent tickled his nose and quickened his heart, but he had become used to it enough now that it no longer affected his state of mind.

That said, he was self-aware enough to admit that he did the tail-standing meditation mainly to show-off in front of the cat-kin girl. That she could also do it made his efforts… a bit embarrassing. Though he was stuck now, even if the maintaining the posture forced him to slightly split his attention. Whether that inefficiency for the sake of pride was something he could afford…

After what Ayla reported about the justicars, he was worried. First, he needed to deal with his wounds and get in physical shape for the possible fight to come. Yillian and the monks were busy doing what they could for the rescued humans, so resolving the remaining poison and dressing the cuts had required use of the limited salves from his sister. The magic-enhanced salves weren’t an immediate cure but together with healing meditation would have him close to fully healed within a few hours. The slower process was also an opportunity for him to safely practice combating poison with aura.

Just being at full health wouldn’t be enough to deal with skilled enemies making use of predictive techniques—at least if the training Grandma Kaylie had given him was any indication. An enemy that could accurately know an opponent’s future location could easily strike an undodgeable and fatal blow if the attack had enough strength to pierce the target’s aura.

The advice from Ayla’s master was welcome. Xyn wasn’t unaware that his illusions had gained a sharpness since his visit with the Shadow Raven. Initially, the change could’ve been due to his Element becoming stronger. Improving his Mist Element had indeed improved his attunement with Air as well, but that wasn't the real reason for the change. How Ayla had described what he needed to do had helped him with a realization.

The idea of sharpness. That was the reason. His understanding of sharpness had gained a truth that was imparted even with his illusions. He had gained a claw-hold into one of the divine truths. But there was more he could do with it. One of the intermediate techniques of the Path of Dancing Petals that he had yet to master involved treating the world around him as if it was air: passing his blade through all as if passing his blade through air.

It was a technique that required the practitioner to fight blind—the eyes would anticipate the impact with a solid object and prevent the mind from achieving the proper state. In the past, Xyn had thought his weak Air attunement was why he was unable to progress at learning the technique.

Now, Xyn suspected that it was his lack of understanding of both Air and sharpness. There wasn't time for him to improve his understanding of Air, but his newly gained knowledge of the boundary of the world and Void meant that he no longer needed things to accept his blade as if they were air. He could send his blade to the boundary of the world and cut things with the idea of its passing—an edge with no thickness representing sharpness itself. The Phantom Blade.

Xyn felt a surge of pride. Not only had he thought up a great new technique for his personal Path that he was developing, but he had also come up with a great name!

It was a technique that would pass through the enemy's sword and could only be blocked by an opposing divine truth. Whether it was a true illusion or not, Xyn wasn't sure, but he suspected that the justicars wouldn't be able to tell the difference either the first time he used it on them. He would have to make his first strike count. And he had an idea for that.

By the time Denathen and the duke's men had seen to the transport of the surviving non-vampire cultists and by the time the kidnapped humans were capable of travel, the new technique became reality, and Xyn successfully tested it on the still-present spider webs.

“Wow! Is that a Void technique?” Jessi enthused as the webbing split apart in the wake of his blade’s (non-)passing.

“Partly,” Xyn admitted. “It was originally an Air technique, but I had an idea to make it better fit my Path.”

Jessi’s eyes grew round. “You mean, you created that on your own?! Just now?!”

Xyn nodded.

“Are you some kind of hidden genius?! Teach me!” Jessi demanded, her eyes gleaming. “If I could pass my blade through something and leave poison behind no matter what kind of armor they were wearing, that’d be awesome!”

He opened his mouth to deny it as impossible, but with her drinking Yillian’s concoction to stabilize her condition… maybe Void techniques might be possible for her after all. “Okay. But only briefly for now.”

“Yay!”

“Watch carefully as I create the weave,” Xyn instructed, slowly building up the layers, and lazily passed his void-shifted blade through another web, the upper half now swaying in the air and the lower half falling away and tangling.

There were still improvements to be made, and the technique would require an aura-capable weapon that the user had excellent familiarity with, but the proof of concept still brought a toothy grin to Xyn's face. How the technique would fare against a target with aura to resist it, he didn’t know. Testing The Phantom Blade against his companions would be far too dangerous, particularly at a time when they all needed to be at full strength.

A glance over at Jessi showed her in deep contemplation.

"Xyn! We're ready over here,” Yillian called over.

To Xyn's mild surprise, Yillian had gathered only a portion of the humans—and the ones gathered and now wearing cloaks to hide their changed features were near the ramp leading up, rather than the tunnels that would lead back to the sewers.

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Leaving Jessi to her thoughts, Xyn petal-stepped over to Yillian and gave him a curious raised eyebrow. “Why only this many?”

“Considering the way things are, it would be best if we can get the ones wanting to travel to Ravenhill back to the inn before dawn,” Yillian explained.

Xyn looked back over the group. There were a few on stretchers, still unable to walk on their own. Moving them wouldn't be a quick task and they probably didn't have long before the city began to stir from its sleep. Xyn would have preferred more time, but Yillian was likely right. Transporting people that looked like monsters would be much more risky during the day. Hopefully, they still had enough time to escape the city before these dangerous-sounding justicars arrived.

Nodding to Yillian, he put more confidence into his words than he felt. “I'm ready. Let's go then.”

The monks led them up the spiraling ramp into the temple proper and let Yillian use a hidden back exit to more discreetly take advantage of the city's alleyways.

Another surprise was that Alennil arranged payment to the monks for the treatment of those going to Ravenhill. Though an honorless scoundrel when it came to females, the diviner was oddly commendable in other areas. Humans were difficult to understand at times.

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Marleyne Arden never expected to be traveling with a lovestruck baron to the regional capital in the dead of night, but here she was. And she wasn’t even the one the baron was pining for…

Of course, she would have never expected her brother or her Ravenhill friend to have been involved with cultists either.

“Turn right,” the baron’s diviner instructed the carriage driver. “We’re getting close.”

Beside her, Keith slipped the restraint from his sword’s hilt. Wearing a sword while sitting in a carriage was always a challenge, and the sheathed sword was lying in his lap unhooked from its belt.

Their father had insisted that Marleyne couldn’t travel with the Baron alone. Luckily, Keith was home, and she was able to convince him to come along.

Not long after they turned did the road ahead seem to become oddly foggy, and as they passed a still-raucous inn, Diviner Ephrem abruptly called them to a stop.

“Is my Ayla here, Ephrem?” the baron queried and eagerly looked around. “I don't see her…”

Marleyne also didn't see the reason for their stopping, but colorful movement caught the light from the carriage's lanterns and drew her eyes. Casually walking down the empty street ahead were two armored men wearing cloaks in royal colors—justicars! The insignia-emblazoned mantles were unmistakable… but what were they doing here?

“This is the place fate requires us to be at this time,” Diviner Ephrem answered.

The hair on the back of Marleyne's neck rose at hearing such words from a diviner, and as she watched with a growing sense of horror, one of the justicars drew his thin sword-like weapon and swept it in an arc, causing a rush of wind to buffet the street. As the fog blew away, cloaked figures that should have been previously visible were revealed. And not just one or two! But a line of figures hurrying past their carriage and into an alley next to the inn they had just passed!

The hood of one of the figures standing in the road and silently giving orders to the others blew down to reveal an older girl with long black hair… no not black. Red roots were peeking through like fiery magma! Ayla!

Should she call out? Ellie's hand grabbed her arm to caution her as she stood.

The decision was taken from her as the baron cried out, “My wayward Ayla!”

Marleyne was sure she saw Ayla cringe and felt a bit sorry for her friend at the partner chosen by Ayla's parents.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?” The justicar with his weapon out spoke and continued to draw closer, his companion not far behind. “You've led us on quite the chase, Lady Ayla. You are wanted for questioning in regard to a series of assaults and murders of members of the Tower, including an incident within the Tower itself. Now do us all a favor and surrender yourself into custody.”

Baron Fredrick gasped. “Is-is this true?!”

The justicar's words made Marleyne's dread a certainty. What had Lady Ayla involved herself in?!

“Fredrick, as unfortunate as it is that you have put yourself in danger by following me here, I am not above asking for your aid in helping me subdue and capture these men,” Ayla shockingly said as her sword whispered from its sheath and ignited with fire while she moved to stand boldly alone to face the justicars. Behind Ayla, the remaining cloaked figures rushed toward the alley.

“W-what?!” the baron stuttered out.

“I would advise against that, Baron Fredrick of Hamlin. To act against the King's justicars is to act against the crown itself,” the justicar warned with a bored tone.

“These men are not acting with the King's authority. They have betrayed their oaths and are in league with the cultists!” Ayla spat out with venom in her voice.

Instead of replying the justicar turned and stabbed his blade into a cat-kin that appeared behind him in a fluttering of petals and mist. Wind flooded outward from the impact of the stab sending the cat-kin flying away only to land and flee into an alleyway.

“And another of our targets shows himself,” the justicar chuckled. “I'll handle the cat. Take care of Lady Ayla and any who interfere. Try to capture her alive. Judging by the group she just helped escape, she likely knows the locations of quite a few surviving test-subjects.”

Once the leader of the two justicars disappeared into the alleyway, Alya dashed forward in a blur of fire and motion, likely hoping to land a strike on the remaining justicar before he could ready his weapon, but in a single fluid motion, the armored man unlatched the strap securing his large warhammer, dodged the flaming arc of Ayla's sword, and swung his weapon around to crash into Ayla.

A squeek of pain only lasted a moment before Ayla crashed through the solid wall of a shopfront. Marleyne was too shocked by the brutal display to even scream. Was Ayla dead?

“You brute!!” the baron fumed in dismay.

“My lord, if you allow Lady Ayla to be captured here, she will die, the kingdom will fall, and a calamity costing untold lives will spread across the land,” Diviner Ephrem whispered.

The stakes were THAT high?!

“S-she's not dead?” was all the baron could stutter out in shock as the baron's men on horseback protectively surrounded the open carriage.

Could they even do anything against an opponent of such strength?

Marleyne shook her head. No, the diviner wouldn't have brought them here if Ayla's capture was inevitable.

“Keith, can you delay the justicar?” Marleyne asked, barely believing such bold words were coming out of her mouth. “Lady Ayla also had an Elf mage with her when we met last. Maybe the cat-kin separated the justicars on purpose?”

“Milady! You mustn't!” Ellie objected.

“Are you sure our house should get further involved, Marleyne?” Keith asked with worried eyes, but he was already stepping down from the carriage.

“No. But what if Ayla and the diviner are right and we just stood by?” Marleyne voiced, barely more than whisper.

“Alright. I'll see what I can do to save your friend.” He unsheathed his sword while walking forward from the protective line Sir Dyne had formed. “Sir Justicar, is that any way to treat a lady?”

The justicar looked over with disdain from where he was considering how to enter the collapsed shopfront. “You would do well, to mind your own business, scion of House Arden.”

“Ah, I wish I could,” Keith said with resignation. “But you see, that Lady Knight there is one of my father's important vassals, and it would be troublesome if harm came to her. Is there some way we could resolve this matter? Perhaps we could pay a fine and make an apology on her behalf, or such?”

The justicar looked at her brother with such incredulity that Marleyne would have laughed if the situation weren't so desperate.

While her brother was playing the part of a foolish and arrogant noble, the baron seemed to have come to his senses and was discreetly conferencing with his knight.

It was a terrible risk they were taking, and hopefully Ayla's aid would arrive before her brother was required to risk acting directly against the King's justicars and possibly dooming her entire family.