The backwater town of Ahvaratsu wasn’t listed on most maps. Only Kitsune loyalists and Irine integration officers had detailed maps of every settlement in the recently conquered Queendom. The reason for that was right before my eyes. The city itself was more like one big bandit camp than an establishment. When the Queendom fell to Irine, thousands of criminals and wanted men ran from Irine authorities, escaping into the newly attained lands of the Kitsune, where authority had all but broken down.
This town must’ve been beautiful only a decade prior. Some remnants of the old regime still remained here and there, but mostly the city was plastered over with a coat of human paint.
Perched on the cliff face overlooking the city, was my apprentice team. The city shone in the night brightly with yellow. Any respectable farming community would rise and fall with the sun, but this town seemed nocturnal, evidence of its thriving night-life and criminal underground.
“I’m telling you…” I repeated, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Shut up already Celis. Didn’t you hear me the first two times?” Yttri barked, staring through a spyglass.
“The walls are too high to see anything inside…” I persisted. “We don’t even know what’s inside, much less if it’s even the right place.”
“Shut. Up. You’re insufferable.”
Yttri growled.
Gwilyn, the other member of the team, shot an ugly glance at me, also perturbed by my constant doubts. “Celis, if we screw up here, it’s over. We’ll be disbanded, kicked out of the academy, and probably shoved into the infantry if we’re lucky. The civil sector if we’re not .”
“I understand that but-“
My meek voice was cut off by Yttri, who again growled angrily,
“My dad would kill me if he found out our team was on the bottom rungs! To think that an Isonale wouldn’t serve in the special ops arm of the military! Don’t even try explaining it to her Gwilyn, she doesn’t have to meet her family’s expectations. You know why that is?” She brought a sly grin to Gwilyn. “Because she doesn’t have one!”
They both chuckled.
I darkly stared at the both of them.
…
Entering the city as three unsuspecting girls would be idiotic. It wasn’t exactly filled with upstanding people. We split up, donning our cloaks and reconnoitering the area. Despite our best attempts, there was no seeing over the walls of the compound. Every angle proved fruitless, and to this, Yttri and Gwilyn merely said that it was even more guaranteed that this was indeed our objective. I desperately wanted abandon the exercise, and to retreat to the trainer that was supposedly shadowing us. I haven’t seen our trainer, not even a glance. They must’ve been very good at stealth.
Eventually, the three of us reconvened at a less occupied part of the compound’s walls. This is where we would make our insertion. As soon as we were sure that were weren’t being watched, we scrambled up the stone walls.
If this truly was the training compound, then the Sidonian infiltrators here must be in good standing to have an entire stone wall surrounding a compound, despite it being on the outskirts of town.
I still could only vaguely wrap my head around the circumstances. What was our team of apprentices doing all the way out here, away from the homeland? We were rushed off and practically smuggled here. It’s like our trainers wanted an excuse to get rid of our failure of a team. Orders are orders; But they just didn’t make any sense.
We vaulted the walls, using some spare rope, we were up and over in no time.
We landed on the other side, I brought my two stilettos up, Gwilyn her sabre, and Yttri her lucerne. The compound was dark,
For a split second. There were a few looming structures behind the walls. One of them was a watch tower. In the next second, our fate was sealed.
A red flare was shot high up into the sky from the watch tower. It acted as a brighter moon, bathing the whole area in red as a loud bell sounded from the tower.
“Well I guess that’s one way to start the exercise!”
Yttri tightened the grip on her lucerne.
“This…this isn’t right…” I said, staring with wide eyes, trembling. Yttri scoffed at me.
In the next second, we were surrounded. Emerging from the darkness of the rest of the compound, a dozen large men surrounded us. They weren’t clad in tattered, greasy clothing like the rest of the city’s thugs were. They were cleanly, and looked upon us with extreme prejudice. There was something wrong about their glances. It was the stare of an enemy on the battlefield to an opponent they were fully ready to kill.
“Never thought Sidonians would show up here!”
“Stand firm! Do not let them pass!”
With that, they all drew swords, and charged at us.
It was then when Gwilyn and Yttri realized it. We had no clue as to where we’d just broken into, and these men, had the full intention of killing us. They knew we were Sidonians. They knew we were Nekomata. That’s why they were charging, armed, at kids, because they knew full well that we may very well be above their caliber despite our appearances. They intended to rush us, and use their strength and stature advantage to overwhelm us and corner us against the wall that we’d just vaulted.
My training kicked in, and I surged outward, as did my teammates, to try and form a defensive perimeter and maintain cohesion, as we were taught. Running into the fray, even I had my doubts. The second I tried to thrust at one of the men, they simply parried me, and I just barely managed to stumble out of the way before another man slashed at me. This I tried to block, but they simply disengaged. These were trained fighters.
I had the benefit of dual wielding, I could block two attacks at once, and for that, I managed to hold my ground, getting off some wounds on my opponents. Eventually I managed to slip behind one and impale their backside, to find that they were unarmored, to my relief. He cursed out, turning around with a slash that cut through my front side. Thanks to my armor, I got off with a scrape on my shoulder. But it was still the most painful wound I’d ever had up until that point in my life.
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At first it was going well. We were holding our ground, and we were making them recoil with our speed and ferocity. The three of us withdrew for a moment, our opponents doing the same. No one had been killed, but all of us had wounds. The men were in bad shape as well, breathing heavily. It looked like none of us had the strength to actually kill decisively a full grown human yet.
For a moment we thought that we could win, that we could escape, and put it behind us. But then, another wave of humans flooded into the courtyard. The wounded first wave of men withdrew, and a fresh, undamaged group took their place. Without another second, they charged at us. We only had one option, to fight back. I picked a few of the men, and charged at them back. I diced through them, my body in overdrive, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I managed to kill one of them. I impaled his sword arm and then repeatedly impaled their stomach with my other blade, and eventually he went limp.
Remembering it now, it was so stupid. I was so stupid. Even without magic, even without a stronger body, if I’d’ve been more well versed, I wouldn’t have had a problem cutting down every single person there. It was pain to watch it all happen again, being helpless to stop it.
Then, it happened. In the distance, I saw Yttri being grappled. Multiple men were restraining her, and she was kicking and screaming, her weapon, ill suited to multiple surrounding enemies, lay discarded at her feet. She was dragged out of view as one of the men rose his sword, and sliced down.
I heard her scream, and then, I never heard her voice again.
I pushed my back up against the Gwilyn. We’d managed to fight into the compound a good ways, and were no longer at risk of being pushed against the wall. The problem now was, were completely surrounded. Ten men surrounded us. We hadn’t even killed any of them, we’d only wounded a couple, forcing them to pull back.
“I’m going to use my magic.”
“I’ll cover you.”
Gwilyn replied quickly.
I was proud of the fact that I was one of the only apprentices in our cohort to have unlocked a sizable mana pool. I could launch off up to six spells before draining myself. And right now, I needed every single one of them. I interlocked my hands, my fingers glowing yellow.
“Don’t let them cast!”
The men, not understanding Sidonian, only realized the threat when they saw my posture. Gwilyn stepped out before me, slicing at a couple of them with her sabre while they were distracted, causing them to curse and pull back with bleeding wounds. Gwilyn turned to strike again when a man came up behind her. She was too slow, and she was caught mid turn, her sword hand restrained above her head, struggling to move.
“You scum!”
Another man approached and swiftly brought his sword to her throat. Without another second, before Gwilyn could even cry out, the sword sliced across her neck, leaving but a single tear falling to the stone floor.
My magic barrage was ready. Shaking with fear, I aimed it at the three men in close vicinity of one another who’d just killed Gwilyn; to both exact revenge and to capitalize on their spacing.
Their eyes widened as they noticed I fired. A few men were behind me, just about to grab hold of me and stop me, but it was too late. The Pict spells flew through the air, and crashed into the three men. They crumpled to the ground in the next instant, some with holes in their bodies.
Truth be told, if I wasn’t so wrapped up in avenging my teammates, I probably could’ve punched through a weaker side of the encircling men, and made a break for it.
In the next moment, I was grabbed.
I knew that was it. It was over. But at least I’d brought down a few of them with me. I closed my eyes, awaiting the man behind me to skewer me with his sword.
But, it never came.
I didn’t know how much time passed, but the next time I opened my eyes, the courtyard was littered with corpses. The men who’d previously surrounded me now lay unmoving in pools of their own blood. The red flare above still burned brightly, but the compound was eerily quiet, and still, like I was the only soul inside.
A hand was laid on my shoulder, and I jumped. I tried to turn and bring my blades to bear, but the hand held me tightly. It took a moment of squinting to recognize what face was under the dark embrace of the dark blue cloak behind me.
“I’m glad to see you are still alive and well, sister.”
My eyes widened.
“B-brother-? But, but you, you died I saw it-!”
He shook his head. “It is hard to see the truth with Sidonia clouding your vision. Look here.” He motioned to the bloodied compound. “The good Lady took the bait.”
I had a bad feeling. Like the person grabbing my shoulder and holding me firmly was more dangerous to my well being than the dozens of armed men from before.
“This used to be our base of operations not a few months ago. Good thing we packed up shop, or else we’d have to deal with a mass suicide of apprentices.”
“W-what, what do you mean?” I trembled. Rickard only shook his head.
“She used you like fodder. Like how she does any other.”
“M-my trainer, he’ll be here, y-you have to-“
“He has been dealt with.” Rickard sharply interjected.
My eyes widened. The reason nobody came to stop us…
I tried to back away from my brother but he held me tightly with a hand.
“Let me ask you this, my dear sister…The destruction of our family…Who do you think is responsible, all those years ago?”
“Andestine.” I answered cautiously. Rickard frowned.
“Sidonia’s lies have found you as well.” He sighed. “It was partly my fault. I was too careless…Sidonia caught wind of our operations…that night, she just so happened to forget about warning us of an attack. She opened the naval corridor, let assassins through, and let our House be ransacked with impunity. Do you see?”
I shook with terror, and tried desperately to withdraw from Rickard, but he still held me with a single hand.
“She wants you dead. She wants me dead. She ordered your trainer to not interfere. You’re just a loose end that needs to be tied up, and so here you are, obeying her orders, walking straight into an Andestine supply depot none the wiser. She’s quite the strategist, killing two birds with one stone, both probing for our base of operations and disposing of unwanted servants in the same mission…”
We sat in silence for a moment.
“You have a choice, sister. I respect freewill, unlike our Lady. I will let you decide. You can either join me, or return to Sidonia, where the Lady will most certainly plot to kill you. The rebellion is growing. And there’s nothing Sidonia can do to stop it.”
I trembled.
In my mind, all I saw was someone who was supposed to be dead, telling me to abandon my comrades, my nation, to step away from my life. Looking back on it, there wasn’t any reason for me to say no to my brother. My nation, my leader, hadn’t done me any good. In fact, that leader, had tried to get rid of me twice, simply because I was kin to a heretic.
I was scared, I was young, I was naïve, but most of all, I barely knew where my allegiances laid. Stepping out of line was scary. They didn’t teach us that. I backed away from my brother, his hand finally loosening.
He sighed. “I see then. If that is your choice, then it is also yours to reap the consequences of it.”
He dug around in his cloak for a moment, withdrawing a syringe. “…I thought this may happen. I can’t let you return to Sidonia knowing of my existence.”
My eyes widened. I turned and made a break for it, tears in my eyes. Rickard was on me in second, pinning against the stone floor. I tried to scream out, but his hand was already blocking my mouth.
“There there…I’m not going to kill you…This concoction will simply obfuscate and tangle your memory of tonight. Really, it’s no different than serving under Sidonia, so you shouldn’t be worried.” His deep tone resonated through me as I shook, trying to struggle.
His oddly emotionless voice terrified me. My own brother, treating me like a piece of filth, calling me his sister only in name. He stuck the syringe into me and immediately I felt weak. My eyelids felt heavy, and my vision blurred. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was my brother leaning down by my face with a blank expression.
“Know that from here on out, you are no sibling of mine.”
His eyes sharpened. “If we meet in battle…I will not show you any mercy.”
***