Cassius opened his eyes and looked around his dark room. He sat up in his bed, brushed his straight black hair out of his face, and then yawned and stretched before getting up. He saw a sliver of light from his curtains before opening them, revealing the technicolored houses of the city. The sudden eruption of light in the room caused him to squint until his dark black eyes had adjusted. He looked around his mostly empty room, which had a bed, a dresser, and a wooden dummy where his armor was kept. He stretched for a few minutes, then put a shirt over his muscular chest and opened his door. He habitually looked down to the floor and noticed he had mail again, so he picked it up and opened it to see it was just the weekly news.
As he walked to a washroom he spoke to himself, “Blah, blah, blah... another fugitive...?” His attention had been piqued by the fugitive, so he continued reading. “A teen girl named Kiara Luminaire... brunette hair with red streaks, thin and pale, and... she’s breaking a law? ...summoning of a rogue Dualaratie... how? Well... I’ll ask Maya; she should know. Hm? And she’s from Bristol...? Rare...”
One of Cassius’ friends overheard the last word. “What’s rare?”
Cassius looked up to see a boy the same age as him, with dark blue hair that had grey streaks running through it. The boy was a little shorter than Cassius, who was average height, but he told everyone his growth spurt was just going to be late. He liked pushing the rules, but he made sure to never go too far, though he generally had a problem with maturity. Cassius gave a tired smile as he glanced at his friend. “Oh, hey Lucius. I’m just reading the news. Did you see the—”
“The news about that girl and the rogue Dualaratie? Yeah. It’ll cause some sort of uproar, but I doubt we’ll be taken off missions for it. She’s just ranked C for now, so she’ll be easy to catch.”
Cassius thought for a moment. “Yeah, but that rogue Dualaratie is... something else. Isn’t that not supposed to happen?”
“Dude. That’s why she’s a fugitive,” Lucius responded with a confused smile.
“I meant in relation to the Church.”
“Oh, right. The news has already been released to the general public, so the remnants of the Church are already on our asses about it, and the worst part is that I’m stuck here.”
“Geez. At least she should be easy to handle. I have a mission to get ready for though, so see you later.”
“Good luck. See you later, Cassius. Oh, and happy birthday! Let me know if you get a Dualaratie!”
“I will. Bye, Lucius,” Cassius said with a nod before continuing down the hall.
The knights all lived in a large rectangular dorm building that was built halfway into the ground so that it wouldn’t take any grandeur away from the castle adjacent to it. Cassius lived on the top floor, so he had to descend two floors to get to the ground floor, which was where the dining hall was. Below the dining hall were more dorms, mostly for new recruits, so Cassius rarely went down there. On his way to the dining hall, he said hello to a few more friends, but he didn’t see any of his close friends other than Lucius.
He entered the dining hall and filled his plate with salad and a couple of sunny-side-up eggs before sitting down. Cassius was the only knight who kept his pajamas on when he came down to eat, but he didn’t mind his being out of place. While everyone else wore their red and orange double-breasted coats over a white shirt and tan trousers, Cassius only wore his thin white shirt and pants. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and looked at it again. To the unassuming eye, it only had a crude drawing of a snowflake on it that looked more like a star a child would draw, but to Cassius, it stood for a lot.
He studied it and put it away as one of his friends came by and spoke to him with an upbeat voice. “Hey, Cassius!”
“Morning, Lilian.”
Lilian was a couple of years older than Cassius. She had blonde hair with brown streaks running through it that matched her tan skin. She was good-looking, dressed in distinctive blue clothes rather than the knights’ uniform, and wore her hair in a ponytail. She raised her already loud voice to ask Cassius a question. “Have you seen Magnus anywhere? I thought he said he’d eat with us.”
“I saw Lucius earlier but that’s all.”
Lilian sighed and sat down next to Cassius. “Hey, did you see that news about the girl?”
“Yeah, but I think it’s pretty dumb to just hunt her down. If the news makes a ruckus, then that creates grounds for the Church to come back. Otherwise, they should just study her.”
Lilian laughed as she bit into her food, “Maya has really rubbed off on you, hasn’t she? ...c’mon, no response? Not even a smile?”
“No. I was hoping to eat my food in peace this morning. I have somewhere to be soon.”
“Somewhere to be, hmm...” Lilian looked off thoughtfully, completely ignoring the annoyance in Cassius’ tone. “It’s a little weird how well we all trust each other. And the king. He just gives us orders and we follow them. I wonder what he’s doing with all the info we bring him.”
“No idea... there’s Magnus, by the way.”
“Ah, thanks. Hey, Magnus! Come sit with me and Cassius!”
The tall, brawny teenager looked over at the pair. He had short black hair which had purple streaks in it. He smiled and walked over. “Happy birthday, Cassius!”
Cassius nodded and thanked him, while Lilian’s mouth dropped in surprise, confusion, and a little anger. “That’s what today is?! Cassius, you could’ve told me! You might get a Dualaratie today!”
Cassius shrugged. “It’s not that important. I’ll just be doing harder missions if I do.”
“You’re so tough to deal with! You’re barely sixteen but you act like you’re already done with life.”
In a sense, that was true for the orphaned Cassius, and it had created one reason why he fought so hard: his little brother. “Thirty-year olds can’t summon a Dualaratie.”
Lilian sighed as a sign of giving up. “You know what I mean... anyway, happy birthday Cassius!”
“Thanks.”
“Are you gonna do anything today, or...?”
Cassius shook his head, “Probably not... but Maya—”
Suddenly, a commanding voice cut through the mess hall’s din. “Is Cassius in here?!”
Cassius wasted no time in standing up. “I’m here, Otto.”
“Come with me,” Otto sounded a little strained and worried. He had short grey hair with black streaks, and he wore heavy armor even off-duty. He was one of the knight commanders, and most considered him to be the smartest of them all. He was slightly heavyset which was odd for a knight like him, but that didn’t seem to hinder him at all.
“You guys can have my food,” Cassius told Lilian and Magnus, who looked at him in confusion and curiosity. He walked over to Commander Otto and nodded curtly. “Morning.”
He seemed a little caught off guard to see Cassius not in uniform, “Ah- um... find me outside when you’re dressed. Silhouette, please. I’ll be in the alleyway.”
“Yes, sir,” Cassius responded before jogging off. What random mission needs my Silhouette uniform? Cassius wondered as he climbed up the stairs.
As soon as he reached his room, he pulled off his clothes and quickly changed into his uniform. The coat was black and had no golden trim on it like the normal uniform, and the undershirt was grey. On the breast, the symbol of the Silhouette Knights was sewn: a silvery crescent moon with the Solumian Numeral Three placed in the center. The trousers were dark grey, and the boots were dyed black to match the coat. After putting on his uniform, he grabbed his sword and shield and considered putting armor on, but decided only to take his helmet.
Cassius opened his window, climbed onto the windowsill, and glanced to his left. A rope hung beside his window that he used to descend into the alleyway beneath him. Otto was waiting at the bottom, and he now saluted to Cassius as he stood. Every time a knight commander saluted Cassius, he felt like he was truly in his element.
“At ease,” Cassius said. “Explain the briefing.”
“It concerns Maya Mystere,” Otto began, “Who was last seen yesterday at her dance practice. Her instructor, Beatrice, reported that Maya was going off to do research.”
“Beatrice didn’t tell anyone?”
“No.”
Cassius thought about that for a moment. Why would Maya tell Beatrice about her research? And why did Beatrice never speak up about it before?
Otto cleared his throat, realizing Cassius was lost in thought. “The King ordered that you, Silhouette Knight III, be put on this mission due to your personal connection with her, as well as the fact that he’s worried about any possible involvement with the Contradictors. That is all.”
Cassius froze at the second reasoning. “The Contradictors?”
“Yes. The King hated to be forced to share this information, but he believes that some of the Contradictors lie in Soleil. If you find any, do not engage unless you must.”
“All right. Thank you,” Cassius said before turning abruptly to leave.
“Good luck, Three,” Otto said with a salute.
Cassius only nodded, lost in thought. He already knew the Contradictors would be involved after he had been told to put on his Silhouette uniform, but he hadn’t expected Maya to be a part of it. He had a lead already, and he wasted no time in running toward his destination at the edge of the city. But if his lead was wrong, and Maya was in danger, he wasn’t sure what he’d do next. For now, all that mattered to him was that the Contradictors didn’t lay their twisted hands on her.
The people in the bustling Market Area annoyed him as he pushed through them, offering a few apologies. One of the shortcuts he’d found a while back wasn’t far from here, and it would lead him all the way to the edge of the city. It was a simple but thin alleyway that nobody seemed to ever go in, not even smugglers. Once he reached the passage, he ran toward the towering wall at the edge of the city while making sure to conserve his stamina for a possible battle.
How in the world does my girlfriend get into the weirdest situations? Cassius wondered as he reached the wall and finally gave himself time to properly think. He wasted no time in following the perimeter until he reached a house so close to the wall that nobody could walk through it. Another house lay adjacent to that one, leaving room for a small slit between the two that he slipped through.
At least Maya has brought me here before... Cassius thought as he reached down and lifted up a trapdoor embedded in the ground. A plain stone hallway was revealed to him after he hopped into the hole and closed the door. The walls glowed a very faint blue, but it wasn’t enough for him to actually see anything... except for the peculiar depth of the room ahead.
“Maya?” he said. No response.
He continued forward and his foot knocked over the torch Maya always used to light up the room. The reminder kicked his brain into motion as he reached into a pouch on his belt for a red rock, called a Flame Catalyst. As he held the torch in front of him, his other hand crushed the small rock, and the flame it produced lit up the torch as well. The flame was soon passed onto a brazier on the wall, and soon the whole room lit up.
“So it was a hole...” Cassius said as he stepped up to the edge. “But how...?”
His mind wasted no time in putting together another plan, but as he turned to go, a rumble came from the hole. A now-lit platform began rising from the abyss, except it moved painfully slow. A sigh escaped his lips as he sat down to wait and double-check his uniform.
----------------------------------------
The elevator had arrived and taken him all the way back down to the bottom. He unsheathed his sword and slowly began walking forward toward the giant doors in front of him. On either side of him, giant pillars rose to the ceiling in front of him, as if to guide him forward. The number of pillars intrigued him, not because of its association with luck, but because it was the same number of knights in the secret organization he was a part of. The Silhouette Knights had thirteen members, and this grand pocket had thirteen pillars.
The King needs to know about this... Cassius thought as he pressed another button on a terminal. The two giant doors in front of him began to open slowly, revealing a long hallway that he began walking down. The floor was covered in an intricate pattern with the same style as the symbol on the door, though these patterns didn’t seem to have any purpose. As he walked, the walls on either side of him seemed to close in on him until they reached a doorway at the other end.
If that elevator was already at the bottom, then Maya must be down here, Cassius hoped. He reached the regular-sized door and heard a creak behind him. The door at the other end of the hallway began closing, and he was much too far to reach it now. He hesitated and turned around, only to have a horn crash into him from behind as the wall shattered. The shield on his back barely protected him, and his sword was almost thrown out of his hand as he careened forward.
Not wasting a second, he rolled and hopped up to see a Minotaur in front of him. The giant could barely fit into the fifteen-foot hallway, but it walked toward Cassius nonetheless. But what was a rogue doing here during the daytime, after a New Moon? There was no time for questions though as the Minotaur roared and charged toward Cassius on all fours, its horns pointed at his heart. At the last second, he leaped out of the way, toward one side of the hallway where he was safe.
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“Why are you here?!” Cassius asked. “What’d you do to Maya?!”
It snorted, unable to talk, and took an axe from its side. Cassius responded by brandishing his sword and pushing down his emotions for now. That was always hard to do for him when Maya or his little brother was involved, but it was what he’d been taught. As the Minotaur roared and ran toward Cassius with its axe ready for an attack, he took his shield off his back and braced for the next attack.
The only time Cassius had fought a Minotaur before this, he had a full squad, and they were nearly wiped out. That, however, was a few years ago, serving as one of Cassius’ first missions. Today, Cassius was sure he could easily take down a Minotaur on his own, especially if he fought for Maya. And when it charged again, he waited for the last second and sidestepped to get a quick strike at its leg. The Dualaratie’s axe was stuck in the wall, but it was able to kick at Cassius.
His shield caught the blow, causing him to tumble toward the smaller door. The Minotaur ripped its axe free from the wall and huffed. A small amount of purple blood trickled down its leg, though the rogue seemed completely unbothered by the injury as it walked toward Cassius. He watched carefully for it to throw its axe or begin a sudden charge, and after placing its axe in its mouth, it leaned down and began to charge. Cassius knew he couldn’t simply dodge at the last second this time, so he ran to the side where the blade of the axe was not.
Spinning around so as to not leave himself open, he watched as the Minotaur’s axe came free of its mouth and flew toward Cassius with an alarming speed. His eyes widened at the unorthodox tactic as the axe slammed into his shield and pulled Cassius into the air. His entire body was carried into a spin as his arm was pulled backward by the axe’s momentum. The wind was knocked from his lungs as he hit the wall, followed by the axe.
The pain from his arm told him it wasn’t broken, but he assumed it must’ve been overextended or dislocated. As he turned his attention back to the Minotaur, he saw it charging toward him once again, while he was trapped on the wall. The axe refused to come free off the wall as the Minotaur approached, and Cassius began to feel a rare panic rise in him.
No. No. Maya needs me, Cassius thought as he struggled to rip the axe or shield off the wall.
He leaned to the side in hopes that the horn would miss him, and he soon found himself on the ground. The Minotaur smashed into the wall and roared in pain and anger as it realized Cassius hadn’t been killed. Instead, Cassius’ arm had managed to slip out of his shield’s strap, letting him fall, and now, he was in the perfect position to counterattack. Purple blood squirted onto his face as he plunged his sword into the Minotaur’s chest, causing it to leap away, huffing and roaring.
Cassius stood, sword held in front of him, as the Minotaur held its chest where he had stabbed it. The heart hadn’t been injured, but the wound was still incredibly deep and in a dangerous spot. Letting his injured arm rest at his side, Cassius made his way to the center of the hallway. The smaller door was past the Minotaur now, but by the end of this fight, Cassius was sure he’d reach the door. A smile crept onto his face as the Minotaur leaned down and put its arms on the ground, ready to charge.
Perfect. Cassius thought to himself as he watched the Dualaratie begin to charge straight toward him. Three... two... one! He dropped onto the floor and shoved his sword into his armpit, where it was sure to stay. The Minotaur charged over him and was left with a giant gash along its chest that bled purple blood. A final roar echoed through the hallway as it turned to Cassius while he stood up. At last, it crashed to the floor and began disintegrating into dust.
From beside him, the sound of his shield clattering to the floor reached his ears, and he walked over to pick it up. Now, he could make his way to Maya, wherever she was. Thoughts of Maya facing down this Minotaur and being killed raced in his mind as he tried to push them away. Those thoughts terrified him right now as he ran through the broken doorway, sword in hand, and into the next room.
Blue torches, like the ones before, raced around the sides of the room, changing the room from darkness to an eerie blue. Once they had stretched around the whole room, another path of embedded torches lit the way before him, revealing a tiered dais with a single human figure suspended at the top. Their feet touched the ground, but their arms were raised by thin, almost imperceptible strings, forcing the person to stand and slump their head.
“Maya...” Cassius whispered as he raced up the stairs. “Maya!”
The girl raised her head and gave him a pained smile. Dried blood covered her forehead and had at one point run down her face and dripped off her chin. Ragged, bloody clothes barely covered her, as they were all cut up or torn off. And worst of all, there was a large, gaping wound just between her chest and neck, as if a chunk of her flesh had been ripped out, yet not a single drop of blood flowed from it.
“Sorry,” Maya said.
“What...what happened...?” Cassius mumbled. “Who?”
Maya watched him raise his sword to cut the threads holding her up. “Don’t!” she screamed. “If you cut those, then my wound will be free to bleed. The threads are what’s keeping me alive right now.”
Cassius listened and stepped back, trying and failing to clear his mind.
“Look,” Maya said, “I’m okay. Just go get someone to help. Please.”
“Maya, who did that?” Cassius asked.
“The Minotaur,” Maya said.
To Cassius, it was obvious that she was hiding something. “Tell me the whole thing... please.”
“I—no. Not until you get help,” Maya said sternly.
Holding back a frustrated sigh, he knelt before her and tidied her up. Red appeared on Maya’s cheeks as Cassius gently adjusted her shirt to cover the gash and her chest, and her blush only deepened as he reached down and retied her pants. After that, he pulled a blue string from his pocket and used it to tie her hair into a ponytail. Having finished his work, he stood back up and double-checked that everything was properly covered.
“You know I don’t like normal ponytails...” Maya muttered.
“I do,” Cassius said. “I’ll go get help now.”
“All right. Thank you. I’ll be safe.”
“Wait, where’s Alette?” Cassius asked.
Maya hesitated. “Alette... she’s healing. She got hit worse than me...”
“Don’t feel bad about that,” Cassius said. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
A questioning glare was directed at Cassius. “Care for her too.”
“I—sorry... I’ll see you later,” Cassius said as he sheathed his sword and took one last look at Maya.
“Okay. Lo—that’s the wrong way.”
“It’s not,” Cassius said as he walked past Maya.
“Cassius,” Maya warned as he stepped down one step.
“I’ll be fine. Love you.”
“Cassius! No! No, you won’t!” Maya screamed. “Come back here! I order you as a noble!”
“I’m a Silhouette right now. My briefing is my only guideline.”
“Cassius! Please!” Maya pleaded. “Please don’t...!”
Climbing down the stairs felt almost impossible. He hated hearing Maya so sad. Just by her tone of voice, he could tell she was crying, and if he happened to take one look back, he’d listen to her. But there was certainly something that mattered to him more than just protecting the last two people he loved. The last ‘gift’ his parents had given him was through a message from a friend of theirs. To “hate the monsters that killed your parents.”
“Cassius! Pinky promise... you’ll come back alive,” Maya said.
He broke and faltered. “I pinky promise,” he said before stepping down to the ground floor.
Even though they had secured a deal through a pinky promise, Maya continued pleading for him to come back. But he ignored that and continued forward to open a door that led to a flight of stairs down. As the door shut, Maya’s pleading was cut off, and blue torches on either side of him began to light up as he descended. Step by step, the stairway became brighter as he kept his sword in front of him. His sore arm reached for his punctured shield as he walked to the bottom of the staircase.
The echoes of his footsteps stopped as he reached the bottom and cautiously grabbed the handle of another door. Opening it revealed a large, rectangular room with a single pedestal in the center. It was rectangular like the room, and there was nothing on top of it, though there could have been something beside it. As he slowly stepped into the room, a woman who wasn’t there before stood behind the pedestal, and the lack of torches made it hard to tell who she was or what she was wearing.
“Who are you?” Cassius asked.
She giggled mischievously. “Hello, Crescent Shadow”
“Who?”
“You, of course. Cassius Arikt, was it?” she said. “The sole shadow without a Dualaratie.”
He kept quiet, not sure why she had called him a “Crescent Knight” or how she knew that he was the only Silhouette without a Dualaratie yet.
“Oh,” she said, disappointed. “Not willing to amuse me at all?”
“No. I want you to free the girl you trapped, and I’d consider not telling the knights that I ran into a Contradictor.”
“Ahh, that sounds like a great deal. However, I am not the one who trapped her, nor am I able to safely undo that trap.”
She didn’t deny that she’s a Contradictor? Cassius noted. “So you have a colleague?”
“I never said that.”
“Then I’ll ask something else. What is this place, and why are you here?”
“Mmm... all I’ll say is that this is a gathering place similar to what your little troupe has.”
Cassius tensed. “How do you know about that?”
“Can’t say.”
“Don’t talk in that amused voice. You’ll be dead soon.”
“Oho, good luck with that then. Come forth, my ray of hope.”
She turned toward Cassius and stretched her hand out. A bright white light lit the room up, and a Cherubim appeared between Cassius and the woman. One large eye floated among four wings, each with their own set of eyes. The largest eye bolted around, as if restlessly searching for something, before settling on Cassius. Nothing was new about the backward feeling he got from the Cherubim, and had gotten from them before.
“Good luck?” Cassius mocked. “I’d be better off without it. And tell your master we don’t like having our noblewomen strung up for display... and that I’ll be sure to kill him for it.”
The Cherubim responded with the exact same tone as the lady. “Bold. After we kill you, we’ll be sure to send that message.”
“I’m sure you can,” Cassius said before charging straight toward the Cherubim.
“Someone without a Dualaratie is like a knight without armor. And you’re lucky I dislike sharp objects.”
A pillar of light slammed into Cassius’ side, sending him flying across the room. He rolled into the wall, feeling jarred but not at all immobile. The Cherubim faced him as he crouched against the wall, and once it blinked, Cassius pushed off the wall and ran. Behind him, a pillar of light struck that would have rammed Cassius’ face into the ground. Something tripped him—he realized it was a pillar of light—but he managed to tuck into a roll and hop up once again.
Another hit. He stumbled from the pain in his leg, knowing he would have to make a plan before he was battered to a pulp. Except he knew nothing about the enemy. The lady just stood and watched as Cassius was faced with impossible-to-dodge attacks. The dodge from before had been a fluke, he’d realized, and now he had no leg up on the enemy. Nonetheless, his path toward the lady became shorter and shorter even as he was beaten up along the way.
A pillar hit his bad arm. His thigh. His forehead. The back of his knee. His hand—he almost dropped his sword. But he kept moving, and once he was close enough, he reached into his pocket, only to be tripped one more time. The lady stepped up to him and stepped on his arm. She scoffed as her Cherubim moved to a spot beside her.
“You know,” she said, “I really expected more from the third of the Silhouette Knights. I guess your number was inflated from all those wins against rogues.”
Cassius craned his neck to look up at her. “I’m not done—” A pillar smacked his face. “yet.”
“Let’s see then,” she said as she bent down and picked him up with surprising ease. She tossed him away, only for a long, wide board of white to smack him back toward the lady. She sidestepped as he flew her way and hit the ground. “You know... I’m not patient at all once I find that something bores me. I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this short.”
Cassius watched her step up to him and he flipped himself over. “I said I wasn’t done yet.”
“Oh really?” she asked as she took a pillar of light that her Dualaratie summoned. Cassius swung his sword at her but she easily redirected it to the ground. “It doesn’t look that way.”
Taking his chance, he let go of his sword to grab the woman’s weapon and yank her forward. She toppled toward him with a yelp and he slammed his fist into her stomach. Electricity exploded from his hand, courtesy of a Lightning Catalyst, and the lady slumped to the ground. Cassius stood, ignoring the Dualaratie a few feet away from him.
“So,” he said, “should I kill you or bring you in for interrogation?”
The lady grunted and turned herself over. “Interrogation? That’s... a nice word... I think—that I’ll use it to my advantage.”
In that moment, Cassius was thrown across the room by the Cherubim’s light pillar, and another pillar suddenly cut short his flight. He coughed and began standing up, only for another pillar to hit his eyebrow. Golden light appeared above him as blood trickled down the side of his face, and then, he was trapped.
“He’s trapped in a cage,” the Cherubim said.
“Good,” the lady responded. “Now, we’ll go to that ‘noble’ he was so concerned about, and we’ll kill her. In front of his eyes. I’m not leaving here without some reaction.”
Filled with rage, Cassius sat up. “NO!” he roared.
The lady ignored him and left the room, while the Cherubim and Cassius followed. They ascended the staircase as Cassius shook with hatred and a hint of fear. Pulling and pushing the bars did him no good, and his sword had been left behind in the room, though he doubted that would work either. As the top of the stairs approached, he felt an impending doom set in.
“What do you want from me?!” Cassius screamed.
“I’m just here,” the woman said as she opened the door, “to do my job. Killing you was never actually a part of that, so I’ll have to kill the girl instead, since you wanted so badly to make this personal.”
“Cassius!” Maya yelled. “Who is that?!”
“He’s my guest,” the woman teased. A following gesture from her elicited a smack to one of Maya’s arms from the Cherubim.
“Get off her!” Cassius yelled.
“Oh, I’m not touching.”
“You know exactly what I mean, damn it!” he screamed.
“Oh, I do. Keep attacking her,” the woman ordered.
The Cherubim did as told, without any hints of remorse. Pillars of golden light smacked Maya over and over, each in different spots. A yelp of pain escaped her every time a pillar hit her, building the anger and pain in Cassius. The cage holding him was led around the dais to face Maya from the front.
“I’ll kill you!” Cassius screamed at the woman.
“I gave you your chance. Maybe try not to be so arrogant.”
“Just shut u—” his words were cut off as a pillar of light knocked the wind out of him. Tears filled his eyes as he crumpled and watched Maya get beaten over and over. The bruises became so bad that she started to bleed from new places, making Cassius feel even worse. Never in his life did he think that he’d be unable to protect Maya or his little brother. And he hated the fact that Maya, if she survived this, would never exact revenge on this woman. It utterly destroyed him, and in turn, those pieces he broke into lit into flames of hatred for the woman.
“You demon! She didn’t do anything wrong! You’re just beating her for no reason!” Cassius roared helplessly.
Another pit of light hit him in the stomach once again, hard enough that he passed out. He slumped down and through the cage, his shadow seeming to melt it. His limp body fell to the floor, and the woman turned to see a shadow standing protectively over Cassius. Horror filled her face as she stepped back and watched it reach a hand out. A sword pooled from the ground and rose into his hand. A sword that was meant to scourge the light.
“Kill it!” she screamed as she backed away.
The Cherubim attacked, yet every pillar of light it threw at the shadow was absorbed into it. The sword it held grew even larger as it moved forward like a harbinger of doom. Helplessness and dread were etched into the woman as the shadow moved forward. Instead of simply taking the attacks, it began blocking every single one. Not even attacks from opposite sides would hit it, as if it were some prodigy of a knight that had practiced these moves a million times over.
It reached out a hand to Maya and shattered the pillars of light surrounding her without so much as a glance. Maya was forced to watch in awe, confusion, and fear as the shadow moved toward the Contradictors. Finally, its sword stopped growing, and now it was nearly the same height as the shadow. However, it suddenly disappeared when Cassius’ eyes fluttered, only for it to reappear behind the Cherubim, its sword positioned at the end of a strike. The Cherubim shattered.
“A single attack?!” the woman shrieked. “What is that thing?!”
“It’s his Dualaratie!” Maya said. “It’s his sixteenth birthday—of course!”
“No!” the woman denied it. “No, no, no! You’re wrong! That’s no Dualaratie! This—”
“Stop your blabbering,” a woman’s voice said from the shadows.
“Seamstress?!”
The woman from above gently floated down to the floor, her arms and legs attached to thin threads. She wore white and black clothing, some of it in a checkered pattern. A black and white blindfold covered her eyes, somehow adding to her gracefulness. It was pulled up, revealing a solid black eye, and an unsettling smile followed. “This young lady walked into my territory so I strung her up like prey, yet... I didn’t expect even more pray to be drawn here. Especially not prey that might mess with my plans. Such as you, deary.”
“A—and? So what? I’m just here for a job.”
“One that interferes with my own. And one that you aren’t completing very well,” the Seamstress responded as she gestured to Cassius, who’s shadow stood over him. It moved to kill the Contradictor, but found itself stuck. “Ah-ah. Not yet.”
The lady scoffed. “This... was clearly unplanned.”
“I bet it was. However, I don’t give a damn. Get out of my territory before I kill you.”
The lady hesitated and scowled. “Fine. Fine, you win,” she said as she reluctantly left, making sure to keep an eye on Cassius’ shadow.
“Maya, deary,” the Seamstress said as she turned. “You’re in luck. Seeing as I can’t defeat that boy’s Dualaratie, I’ll send a message for the knights to pick you up.”
At that, the Contradictor ran even faster, not wanting to be caught by the knights.
“And Cassius?”
“Of course,” she smiled gently. “Ah, it truly warms my heart to see people as young as you so in love. I wouldn’t have been disappointed if that boy never came back, but I am glad he kept his pinky promise. Those are sacred, you know?”
“I know,” Maya said. It was hard to keep the elation from her voice, even after such a traumatizing event. But she’d deal with that later. For now, she wanted Cassius to be safe.