Part 1

“After today, I’ll never steal again.” Luna Stone whispered the same tired promise as she looked out at her rag-tag gang. It was a little white lie. The kind that usually made her feel a bit better in the moments right before she did something she would probably regret, only this time it felt like it might actually be true. The biting winds roared around Luna, it was as if the mountains themselves screamed in defiance of her scheme. Beneath her alabaster mask she chewed on her lip and sighed.

Her gang shifted nervously in the mountain pass. Weeks of planning had all led to this moment. Mouse, tall and thin like a scarecrow stepped up beside her. Her eyes traced the winding dirt road.

Luna focused intently on the horizon as her mind raced over every detail of her plan. In an attempt to stop overthinking her scheme she shifted her attention to her good friend. “How’s your brother holding up?”

“Well, he’s still bedridden but the medicine you made for him has kept him mostly comfortable. Physician says he won’t make it through the winter without another surgery,” Mouse sniffled, as much from the cold as from the icy bite of the inevitable. ”Worst part is mum spends all her time in that damn Church of Embers. As if that’ll help. He never should’ve gone off to Deadwood. Bloody mines might as well be a death sentence.”

Luna removed her white mask and turned to look him in the eyes, “After this raid, we’ll finally have enough amethite. Once we make the exchange with the elves, we’ll have enough coin to solve all of our problems. You have my word that your brother will be taken care of. Our luck’s about to change. Better believe the Blind Alchemists are going to improve life for the whole Undercity.”

“Sometimes, hearing you speak, I forget you're only eighteen. You’re wise beyond your years.” He grinned and looked down at his worn boots then kicked a mound of fresh snow, “I don’t know if I ever told you, but before I joined up with you lot, I worked the graveyard shift in the brass mill. It was a nightmare. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing it, but I guess I just wanted to tell you I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”

“Someone’s got to take care of you lot, eh?” Luna laughed and hit him in the arm playfully, pulling the mask back over her face. Running her gloved fingers over the different sized glass vials dangling from her worn leather belt reminded Luna why she was in charge. With a few quick glances back and forth between her rusty copper pocket watch and the swiftly setting sun, she nodded.

“It’s time.” Luna flashed a series of hand signals to her men hiding on the other side of the road. The gang of masked men rubbed their hands together in anticipation, readying blades and crossbows.

Moments later, the silhouettes of four large and thundering horse drawn wagons revealed themselves in the frigid twilight of the setting sun. Luna held her breath as the wagons moved towards her position. Before long, the sound of her rhythmically thumping heartbeat was entirely drowned out by the chaotic symphony of crashing hooves and roaring winds.

The click of the tripwire being triggered by the first wagon was inaudible over the cacophony of noise. Without warning a deafening explosion of emerald hued flames erupted from beneath the caravan sending debris and horses in every direction. The wagons tumbled end over end before sliding to a stop in the snow. The smell of alchemical smoke filled the air.

“Now!” Luna roared, raising her rapier towards the sky.

Disoriented caravan guards climbed out quickly from the wrecked wagons drawing their weapons. The Blind Alchemists spilled out from their hiding places and washed over the wreckage like a tsunami. The clash of steel echoed through the mountain pass. Luna smirked, everything seemed to be going according to plan. The intel she received from the informant looked accurate, the caravan was lightly guarded. Time to jump in and show the gang how it’s done. She seemed to always get butterflies in her stomach before a fight, and this time was no different.

Shaking off the nerves, Luna leaped forward, sliding down the snow-covered hill with the elegance of a Halifaxian dancer. She reached the road with her rapier drawn and somersaulted. With a wink, Luna landed right in the middle of three surprised guards. The first was a bear of a man, he swung his heavy mace at her with a speed rarely possessed by such a giant fellow. No matter, Luna was quicker. She ducked gracefully and the blunt weapon cracked the guard opposite in the skull, he dropped with a sickening grunt.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Mouse struggling to fend off two dagger wielding women. Why does it feel like I’m always trying to save everyone? Who am I kidding, I guess I just love to feel needed? And also, I am always trying to save everyone. She rolled to the side trying to make her way across the melee in an effort to help her hopelessly outmatched friend.

The distraction stole her focus for just a split second, and she was rewarded with a blunt pommel strike to the mouth. The force of it knocked her off balance and she stumbled face first into the snow. She thought she was already cold, but the cruel winter kiss reminded her that in the Enthamerean peaks it could always be colder. Luna shivered, spitting warm blood onto the slush, and scrambled to her feet just in time to narrowly avoid a steel-toed boot that crashed into the snow where she had just been. Bloody stars! Kick a girl while she's down, why don’t you!

The caravan guards were starting to get the better of her gang. The Blind Alchemists had grit and will, but the guards had one thing they lacked, formal military training. Luna tasted the warm blood in her mouth. With a quick and vigorous nod, she did her best to shake the cobwebs loose. She spun awkwardly twice, dodging narrowly out of the path of a lunging spear. Her legs finally started to feel steady again. After a quick step to the side, she lunged forward and drove her rapier straight through a guard's thigh. The man dropped his spear to the ground, all the color gone from his face.

When she pulled her sword free blood sprayed from the wound and he collapsed. From the ground he clutched his ruined leg with both hands. Steam rose from the snow around him as it turned red. Luna felt the inconvenient touch of guilt brush against her conscience and she wished she didn’t need to do things like killing and crippling men. The sight of Mouse with his back to a steep cliff and two dagger wielding guards pressing him broke her away from her pity party. Like a baby rodent caught in a serpent’s den, he was running out of time. Mouse was a good man, but a terrible fighter. She knew she couldn’t reach him quickly enough.

Bulky silhouette appearing through the smoke, a guard wielding a hefty battle-axe in two hands charged at Luna from across the battlefield. “You don’t wanna do that!” In her head it sounded cool, but amidst the clamor of battle, it came out as an incoherent mumble. If the axe wielding maniac heard her warning, he showed no sign of acknowledging it.

Shrugging, she pulled a corked glass vial from her cloak and threw it hard at a boulder protruding from the snow next to Mouse. The glass shattered as it smashed against the stone. Bullseye! Dark green smoke billowed up from the shattered glass surrounding Mouse and making it nearly impossible to see. That should buy him at least a few moments. Someone really ought to have taught this kid how to use a sword.

Luna kept her eyes glued deceptively on the green smoke. She pretended she hadn’t noticed that the roaring man who wanted nothing more than to chop her down like a tree was almost within striking distance. Sure—I didn’t notice the man screaming his lungs out? Sometimes these oafs make it too easy for a girl. When the deadly notched blade came swinging down at her, she rolled to the side. A grunt of disbelief fell from the guard’s mouth. Planting her open hand in the snow, Luna kicked the man in the knee. All the force of the man’s forward momentum converged into the point of impact and his leg hyperextended brutally. The crack was a sound that sent shivers down Luna’s spine. His fractured bone ripped through his trousers, and he collapsed backwards. Looks like there's a two for one special on crippling overly confident guards today. If growing up poor has taught me anything, it’s how to sniff out a good deal.

Leaping over the crying man she dashed into the green smoke. She could barely see amidst the emerald plumes, but she heard Mouse cry out in alarm, and she instinctively moved towards the sound. Two female silhouettes stood over the top of a downed man who reached his hand out desperately. Luna kicked one of the women as hard as she could, and the silhouette disappeared. It was replaced by a shriek that fell away into the dark until it could no longer be heard. Luna made a mental note that one step in the wrong direction could send her falling to a very unpleasant end. Her cloak had feathered wings sewn onto it but they were purely decorative, they wouldn’t help in the slightest if she fell off the mountain.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The smell of the green chemical fog drudged up memories that Luna preferred to keep buried. With a grunt she did her best to lock them back up deep inside. The silhouette of the remaining guard launched a flurry of dagger strikes that Luna parried expertly before piercing the women through the shoulder with her rapier. “Mouse it’s me. Grab my hand!” Luna held out her hand and pulled Mouse to his feet. They emerged from the alchemical clouds.

As she scanned the battle it was obvious that her gang would make short work of the remaining guards. Just then, a gaunt dark-haired man wearing a golden tabard over banded plate mail stepped out of a carriage. He brushed his long hair out of his face, taking in the battle around him with an eerie calm. The man emptied the contents of a pouch into his hand and began motioning his other hand over it.

Luna’s face turned pale as her mask, “amethite...” She gasped.

Three small crystals in the man's hand glowed to life. The illuminated crystals shone like stars in his palm for a long moment. The man’s eyes shifted to an unnatural, overly saturated purple as he dropped the spent amethite and drew two viciously curved hand axes. A disturbing grin stretched across his face as he jumped into the melee and began cutting down Blind Alchemists with ease. The way he moved was graceful like an eagle, but he struck out with his axes with the strength of an auroch. It was entirely inhuman.

“No!” Luna cried seeing her friends fall one by one before her. She drew an alchemical vial out from her cloak. The oily liquid sloshed around inside the container as she rolled it between her gloved fingers. The shardblood swung an axe out parallel to the horizon, effortlessly separating a Blind Alchemist's torso from his legs. With eyes like a violet furnace, a terrifying laughter erupted from him as he threw his other axe with an unbelievable force that saw it cut right through two masked girls before burying itself easily into the granite mountainside. The man whose eyes glowed lavender grinned, pivoting and running towards Luna’s best friend Mariska. Her pink haired friend was trapped beneath a dead body in heavy plate mail—she was helpless.

Her breath caught in her throat, Luna threw the vial of tar colored liquid at the feet of the axe wielding man. The vial exploded and green flames erupted beneath him. Within seconds he was fully engulfed in flames. He turned menacingly towards Luna and dashed towards her with an unbelievable quickness. The sight of the shardblood ablaze but still charging headlong towards her combined with the smell of his burning flesh gave her the impulse to spew her stomach's contents all over the snow but her survival instincts kicked in. She jumped away from the charging madman while attempting to draw another vial, but the man was much too fast. It was the kind of speed only a shardblood possessed.

He looped his weapon around roaring and the viciously sharp steel grazed her bicep, sending the vial tumbling from her hand. She cried out as searing hot pain guided shockwaves up her arm. The man paused a second to leer at her, flames still dancing horrifyingly all over his body. His dark hair had mostly burned away leaving a scarred and chewed up mess of flesh. He didn’t seem to care at all. It was a scene befitting a nightmare.

Luna pushed herself off a large snow-covered boulder into a surprisingly graceful roll, especially given that her body felt like it would soon shut down from blood loss. She scooped up the vial from the snow as she tumbled, chucking it at the feet of her enemy with every ounce of her remaining energy. It shattered causing an incredible alchemical reaction. A tangle of roots erupted from the icy ground beneath the man. He roared and flailed as the vines wrapped around him immobilizing him despite his thrashing. Dark smoke touched the sky. Eventually his writhing subsided, and his eyes faded from a magically illuminated purple to a lifeless white.

Luna approached the burning body. The smell of charred flesh struck her like a pommel to the mouth and she gagged. Wrapping her cloak around her face in a mostly futile attempt to lessen the offensive odor, she stepped closer to the body. He sure looked dead, but she had to be sure. Luna pushed her rapier through a seam in the blackened plate armor and out through his back. As she did so he gasped and convulsed. Luna jumped back cautiously. After a few seconds the seizure ended, and he slumped over. She poked a few more holes in him with her rapier just to be sure.

When she was sure he was dead, she used her blade to take the chainmail pouch off his waist. With a flick of her wrist, it flew high up into the air then landed in the snow. The red-hot chainmail bag melted down into the slush and steam rose from the hole. She waited for the metal to cool down and applied pressure to her throbbing bicep. When it reached a temperature it could be handled safely, she emptied the bag’s contents into her palm. With a single fluid motion, she sheathed her rapier and picked up one of the purple crystals. Rolling it between her thumb and pointer finger she watched the light from the fire glimmer over the sharply cut facets of the shard.

She dumped the amethite back into the pouch and tucked it into her cloak. After ripping a strip of her cloak off and wrapping her wounded arm poorly with it, Luna instructed her gang between heavy breaths. “Gather up all the amethite from the carriages. Pile the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters. Burn them and gather their ashes so we can offer them to their families. Their sacrifice won’t be for nothing.”

The battered gang looked up at their leader for a moment, struggling to believe what she had just done. A human killing a shardblood was nearly unheard of. Luna had one advantage though, she had learned the secret art of alchemy from one of the most skilled alchemists in all the land.

Still in awe, the gang set themselves to task. With the help of Mouse, Luna pulled the dead body from her best friend. Mariska gasped. “Thank the heavens, that heavy bugger was making it hard for me to breathe. I stabbed him through the neck, and he fell right on top of me. First time that’s ever happened to me!”

For a split-second Luna smiled before her face went solemn again.

Mariska flashed a big grin at her best friend, the leader of the Blind Alchemists. “You’d have been panicking too if you were pinned down with a bloody shardblood charging towards you!” She dropped her mask and brushed her short pink hair from her face.

Luna shook loose the snow from her dirty cloak. “Truthfully, I thought we might’ve been done for when that shardblood poked out from the carriage. Looks like the guild is getting sick of us robbing them. Finally beefing up their security."

Mouse walked over still very much out of breath. “Well…lucky for us…this was our last job…I don’t want to brush up…against shardbloods…anymore…if it can be helped.” He looked at Luna and her unreadable face as blood trickled from her split lip. “This was…our last job, right?”

The blank expression on Luna’s heart shaped face shifted into a soft grin. Mariska rolled her eyes while Mouse threw his hands in the air and groaned. Walking over to a knapsack Luna kneeled and opened it. She put both her hands into the heavy bag and pulled out two handfuls of amethite. “Well, well, well, it looks like this might in fact have been our last job, boys and girls!” Luna held her hands out and twirled smiling.

As the raging snowstorm passed, the alchemical smoke cleared up and in its absence a sky painted with countless twinkling stars revealed itself. Nightfall had taken hold of the mountain pass and the once chaotic scene became calm. The aftermath of the battle was illuminated only by the still burning body of the shardblood.

Luna spun slowly in the light of the fire looking up at the stars. It looks like I may actually be able to keep my promise.