Chapter 15: Ahead on our Way
There was a rather surprising calm and warmth Atma felt as he opened his eyes to find himself someplace familiar, yet new. He was seated at a rather well used table, with a warm cup of tea placed before him, with a soothing aroma, and a hint of lemon wafting to his nose. He raised the cup to his lips, finding it at a perfect temperature. He took a sip, closed his eyes, and took in the gentle fragrance of his drink. There was silence, but not in an uneasy manner, rather, a serenity, as if falling into a soft bed.
“It’s difficult, I know. Take this time while you can.”
Atma opened his eyes, to meet the gaze of a tall woman sitting opposite of him. She had simply appeared, sitting before him, smiling at him with a warmth that, like this place, felt both familiar and new. It was a mother’s smile she gave him, though she did not resemble his mother. He’d been limited to paintings of her, but he and his mother both had blue eyes and blonde hair. The woman before him, however, was wholly unique. Her eyes shone two different colors, one gold, and the other silvery, and they truly did shine, ever so slightly. Her hair was a deep black, like staring into the night itself, but as she shifted slightly, it seemed to sparkle, as though there were stars among her black locks. “Have we met before?”
“You and I? Never. But also yes, many times.” She took a sip of her own cup of tea. “What you face is your most daunting trial to date, Atma, but I have no doubts in you, little one.”
Her words were oddly comforting, despite his unfamiliarity with her, the warmth she spoke with nothing short of true sincerity. It was odd, hearing her call him little one, he thought, seeing as she was shorter than he was, but it bore an odd comfort as well. “I don’t suppose you have any advice for me, whoever you are?”
“Perhaps,” she answered. “But you’re a bird freed from your nest, if you don’t fly, how can you survive? What comes next is up to you, Prince of Birds. You’re free to fly however you wish, for the first time in your life. I know you and your heart to know well enough you don’t need my guidance.” She paused. “Guidance or not, to you, I grant my love and blessing.” She reached out and held his hand, gently tracing the back of it with the tip of her finger.
Atma watched as a mark similar to Balthazar’s was inscribed upon the back of his hand. “21? No, that’s… Jupiter.” He met her eyes once more. “You were the one who gave Balthazar his mark, weren’t you?”
She nodded. “Those who should bear one will always find one another. You might call it fate.”
“Then you must be-”
“No one important, not anymore, little one.” The woman smiled sadly, but she still looked at Atma with an invigorating spark in her eyes. “What will you do now, I wonder? Now that you have been forced along the path?”
Atma smiled, his confidence returning somewhat. “The only thing I can do. I’m going to find the others, Balthazar, Alice, and Locke. I want to clear my name. I want to get them home safely. To have my home back.”
She nodded. “Then spread your wings, Atma, and find your flock.”
A wave of exhaustion hit Atma once more, as if he had never gone to bed. As Atma felt his eyes grow heavier he tried asking one more thing. “What do I call you?”
Her eyes seemed to sparkle, as she answered. “Lilia, you can call me Lilia.”
***
Atma awoke peacefully, finding it still before dawn, though the light of the stun started to creep over the horizon. He wrapped right hand around his left, instinctually cradling it, though not out of any pain he felt. All the same, looking out to the stars, still hanging above, he felt something inside him flutter, tracing the back of his hand. It was real, the mark upon his hand. He clenched his fist, and glanced over to find Sienna awake as well. “Didn’t expect you to be up so early.”
“I’m a bit too used to swaying in my sleep on the water. I’ve been real off and on. You?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” He showed her the back of his palm. “I’m not just seeing this, right?”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s real, and that’s new.”
“Not just me then. I can’t say I understand it, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we find our way back to the others. And I know we will.”
“Not that I don’t like it, but where’s this confidence coming from?” She grinned a bit.
Atma drifted back to Lilia’s words. “Not entirely sure, but, call it fate, I suppose.” He realized how serious his expression had grown as he was speaking, and chuckled a bit. “We should get going then. Even if it’s the only thing we can do, it’s a step in the right direction to not just be stuck in this rut.”
Sienna sighed. “Alright then, let’s go.”
Leaving the town was a quiet affair, nothing in the way of applause or fanfare, or so much as a note. They were headed north long before the sun broke the horizon, with little more than the clothes they wore, and miniscule supplies from their bags. Atma let her lead the way, as he had little in the way of knowing where exactly they were going. “We don’t have to dive back in the water, do we?”
“Not unless you see a ship headed our way. With the mist creeping in, it should be much harder for them to track us too. There’s a town called Zanch up ahead, that’s our next stop.” The cold mist was not especially thick low to the ground, but got thicker just a bit higher up in the air. Visibility wasn’t excellent, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly obstructive. Really, in the quiet early morning hours, it was something akin to a rather comforting blanket. Even as the day went on, and they were approaching, the mist embraced the landscape, sunlight only slightly breaking through.
“Anything I should know about this place before we get there?”
She shrugged. “It’s been a few years since I last visited, but it’s a mining town. Nice folks, we smuggle a few goods for them here and there, and they pass us a few shiny things they dig up.”
“Why? They aren’t mining anything illegal, are they?”
“Relax, I’m sure you know how much they tax mythril, especially the stuff as pure as they get here. So, just a bit of tax evasion, I guess.” She grinned smugly, nearly ear to ear as she noticed him glare slightly.
“I really can’t tell if you’re a hardened criminal or a rogue with a heart of gold sometimes.” Atma sighed as he looked back out to the city, as they neared its outskirts. The city was nearly entirely stone, save for some of the homes, with cobble streets, forges, and several layers of stone walls that lined the streets, for the sake of a conical, layered defense against monster attacks. Newer homes were made of wood, though the oldest were stone. The people of Zanch, before the mine had brought them their share of wealth, were forced to use whatever they could for their homes while they dug. What else could have been more plentiful than their stone? With the town nearly being built into a mountain, the widest segment of the town’s cone shape was faced outward, to allow time for people to fall back to the mines in the event of an emergency. Granted, the upkeep on the walls was rather lacking, having become overgrown with ivy and moss. With how silent the world around them felt in the mist, it took him a while to realize just how relatively quiet the town was. He didn’t see any guards posted at any of the entrances, which he figured would have been standard practice. “This doesn’t feel right.”
“It’s definitely not right.”
Atma had never been to a mining town before, but certainly, he’d read enough financial reports concerning them to know that not enough was going on. Just because the mine was the centerpoint didn’t mean it was the only thing in town. There should have been shops dealing in goods to support the families, active pubs for workers to visit in their off time, smithies for maintenance, and all the like. It wasn’t as if there were no people. As Atma looked around, he caught brief glimpses of a few stray people, scavenging around the town, never sharing more than a glance, before retreating back into alleyways or their homes. Mist that had once seemed like a comforting blanket took on a different feel to Atma, now an ominous shadow looming over them. “What happened here? Everything looks intact, but this place is dead.”
“Nothing good. We need to find the foreman, he’ll be able to give us a clue as to what’s going on. His place was near here, when I last came to town.” She patted her thigh under her coat, where she hid a dagger sheathed in a leg strap. It was all they had for weapons between the two of them in case things went south. Sienna made for the alleyways, rather than the main roads, Atma trailing her as they were mostly obscured by the buildings around them. She stopped him as they neared a corner, gesturing for him to be quiet as she peeked around. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” She turned back to face Atma. “We’ve got problems. Again.”
“I’m starting to think I really am bad luck. What is it?”
“Town’s been taken over, old gang of rogues that splintered off from the Tempests a few years back.” She gestured for him to take a look. They didn’t have much in the way of uniform, the group of five bandits that Atma could see. Ragged clothes on some, while one, who he assumed to be the leader, wore a clean suit. The only unifying marker was a crimson emblem on their back, a humanoid face stylized with large fangs, and horns. “They call themselves the Red Oni, seeing as their boss comes from Diamant. I thought they had gone and scattered. My brother fought their boss Douji a few years back, cut off his arm, and we assumed that he’d died of his injuries.”
“We can take them.”
“I’m not worried about them, I’m worried about how many more goons and mercs they’ve got stashed away. That guy in the suit’s nothing more than an enforcer, taking him out wouldn’t do a thing.”
“I don’t plan on just standing by, Sienna. If we can help these people-”
“Save the white knighting, blondie, I know you’re all honor and being a hero, but we’re seriously outnumbered, and in case you didn’t notice, more than a little unprepared. I’m not saying we don’t try and help. If my folks messed up, I need to clean up the mess. It’s that simple. But you don’t need to get involved. We can come back with more people, and more gear, and maybe we can handle this.”
It was strange, hearing her talk about it as her own duty. It was a sentiment he could understand, having known duty to the throne, to his people all his life. Still, seeing the town as it was, he knew very well he couldn’t just let it be. This was their home. “I don’t want to see them lose their homes too. I’m helping you, and I’m helping these people, Sienna.”
She scowled a bit before turning back to the thugs, standing outside one of the nearby homes. “Then use that brain of yours, you’re supposed to be the smart one here, right? We need a plan here, and we need weapons if we’re going to do so much as put a dent in this operation.”
Atma peeked over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of what exactly was stirring with the enforcers. The lead in the suit carried some sort of vial, which had a warm orange glow to it. The thug yelled loud enough that hearing him was easy enough, which Atma figured was the point, for everyone in the area to hear.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“I could have sworn we were perfectly clear. I’m dragging someone back to the mines, and I really don’t care who!”
“There’s no one left here for you to work to death.” The woman’s voice was weak, but resolute for the situation. If she was trembling, it was clear it wasn’t out of fear, but exhaustion. Her face was somewhat sunken and gaunt, her eyes dark, as though she hadn’t slept in days. “You took my brother, and left him to die in an alleyway. You took my husband, and haven’t even told me if he’s still alive. You give us so little to live off of, I can hardly feed my daughter, let alone myself.”
“You expect me to know the names of every worker we’ve got? Now you listen here. Our boss has got a nice little deal lined up with some friends he's got back in Diamant. Real nice job, but we’re not exactly meeting our quota. And if we’re not meeting it, it’s only going to get worse for me, and you can be damn sure I’ll be making it worse for you. Especially you. So you can come along, or I can take the kid. I’m taking someone, like it or not. There’s always option C, but I promise you won’t like that one.”
“I know you and your heart to know well enough you don’t need my guidance.” His heart, huh? Atma’s rational mind was certainly telling him that the best thing he could do was sit and wait. It was the practical choice, one Sienna called for, one years of education and military training called for. His heart told him something different, and he felt his muscles tense, fearing where the situation may be going.
“Go die in a fire.”
“And that’s option C!” The enforcer wagged the vial in his fingers, pulling back his arm to throw it.
Atma started running before he’d fully processed that he’d started running. He shot forward, just like with his normal Dragon Knight technique, making a fist right as he closed the distance, and slammed it into the thug’s side, just under the ribs.
The enforcer failed his throw, the vial splattering onto the cobble streets, and its contents erupting to a massive flame. The man staggered back, away from the flames, his goons thoroughly dumbfounded. “Who the hell do you think you are?!” He coughed, obviously winded.
“You idiot!” Sienna stood next to Atma, ready to back him up. She pulled her dagger from its sheath, a medium length swordbreaker.
“My guess was insane, but that works too.” The enforcer’s eyes widened once he took a second look at Sienna. “Dammit, that’s one of the Tempests!” He pointed to two of his cronies. “You, grab the woman and get her back to the mines. And you, go get backup, now. Between the Tempest, the idiot, and that one in black, I’m not taking any chances.”
The woman tried shutting out the Crimson Oni, but was far too exhausted to put up more than a meager resistance. She was kicking and screaming, but it was to little more effect than a show. Atma made a move to try and sprint for her, cut off as one of the thugs drew a cutlass and slashed at him wildly. Any armor he had left was light, his bracers, his chestplate, a bit on his legs and boots, he wouldn’t have tried taking a hit with more armor regardless of whether or not he’d had it, but he felt far more pressured to back off, vulnerable.
“So, blondie, how’s your hand to hand?” Sienna called out to Atma, as he eyed the enforcer and his thugs. Between the leader and the two goons still with him, it was cutlasses and daggers. Weapons Atma could use, certainly, but not his preference.
“Like I said, we can take them.” It wasn’t his forte, but his instructors had made sure to drill him in hand-to-hand combat, in the event he was disarmed. He put up his fists, as the three moved to surround them. Sienna had her back to his, eyeing the gangsters, scouting for an opening. The one with a cutlass made his swing too obvious, raising his blade above his head to slash. Atma caught him with a swift strike just below the bandit’s sternum, followed up with a smashing blow to his stomach, staggering him, and finished with a swing from Atma’s dominant left hand to his jaw, just under the cheek. The man toppled, just as another facing Sienna tried catching her off guard when she glanced back at Atma.
She caught him all the same, using the back of her swordbreaker to catch the blade mid-swing, and with a twist of her wrist, forced it from his grip. She immediately cut him down, with a slash of her blade, and put him down with a brutal stab, right between his ribs. Sienna ducked as the enforcer swung at her with a dagger of his own, and ripped her swordbreaker back out to better face him.
He was clearly a fair bit more skilled than his thugs had been, but the situation was very clearly reversed, Atma on one side of him, Sienna on the other. The enforcer knew his best chance was to try and run, he’d find a weak point, and use it to break through. Sienna still had a knife, and he knew all too well she was going to be a threat, but Atma was unknown to him. Still, given her reputation, Atma felt like a much safer option to try and break through. The enforcer made a stab to Atma’s face, not so much out of intention to kill him, so much as force him to move out of the way. It went well enough, Atma moving out of the way, as the enforcer tried running out of his lunge. What he didn’t expect, however, was Atma grabbing his wrist after he dodged.
Atma pulled him in closer, slamming his knee into his stomach, and hammering him into the ground with his fists to his back. The enforcer groaned, trying to get his breath back once again. “Like I was saying, easy enough.” Atma picked up the cutlass from the thug he’d knocked out. He stared a bit uncomfortably at Sienna’s dagger, red with blood. Certainly, these had been criminals, threatening to kill innocent people, but the sight unnerved him still. It was the first time in clear memory that he’d seen someone killed in a fight.
Sienna took notice, putting the blade back in its sheath after wiping it clean on the fallen man’s clothes. A morbid sight to Atma, but not of any particular note to the pirate. “You alright?”
“Yeah, you?”
“A little pissed, but that’s nothing new. We should get out of here before…” Her words trailed off. Atma turned to see what it was she was looking at. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” The thug who’d run off to get help had returned, with a few more goons, and a large beast in tow. It was malformed, almost akin to a normal animal, but distinctly unnatural. It was almost like a bull, but bigger still, nearly eight feet tall just at the shoulder. Its jaws were malformed, crooked, overly open, almost like how a child might draw an animal’s mouth, and lined with fangs that didn’t match, some like a wolf’s, other’s like a shark. Its limbs didn’t match, improper lengths, out of proportion, or facing the wrong way. Its eyes were blood-red, swiveling around at random. Its breath was like a guttural groan, something that had Atma’s skin crawling. It was an abomination, whatever it was, something that simply should not be, as if it were only trying to mimic the shape of something rather than truly being as it appeared.
“What is that thing?!”
An Oni holding onto the chains holding the creature laughed. “The boss told us to bring it out once he heard we had a Tempest involved! It’s called an Echidna, a little import from up north, and lucky for you, it’s feeding ti-” The man was cut off, as he stepped too far forward, far too cocky in his belief he could rein in the abomination. The beast sloppily lashed out with its jaws, getting ahold of its handler, shredding him with its malformed fangs, and swallowing him nearly whole, stray bits of gore and clothing stuck in its imperfect teeth. It had been so sudden, silence filled the streets in the place of what should have been screams. Once again, the beast’s eyes darted about, looking for something to try and devour. A pair of its handlers turned tail and ran, leaving only one grunt left, paralyzed in fear as one eyes made direct eye contact with him.
Atma shook himself back to his senses. “That thing is-” He winced, the mark on his hand almost seeming to burn as he stared in horror at the monster. “Any clue on our chances of fighting it?”
“Kind of thinking we should run instead.” Sienna grumbled, reaching for her swordbreaker once again.
Trying to limp away, however, was the enforcer, attempting to make a getaway into an alleyway. One of the Echidna’s eyes darted around and found him, and the beast made an unnaturally fast run after the man for its malformed body, trampling over the thug Atma had previously knocked out, and just crushed the enforcer as it threw its full body weight into attacking him.
“That thing saw him a hell of a lot easier when he ran…” Atma readied the cutlass he’d picked off of the ground. “I guess the decision’s been made for us.” He tried thinking of a plan to take it down, but they only had so much to work with. “I saw you crack a boulder, surely you can do some damage to that thing, right?”
“If you’re trying to get me to stop that thing mid-charge, why not try it yourself, tell me how easy it’d be without that thing goring you.”
Right, not his best idea. “Leave defense to me then, and you just get ready to attack.” Atma whistled, catching the Echidna’s attention, as it sumbled haphazardly back to its feet, its neck seeming to snap into place to face him. “You are so much uglier when you’re looking right at me…” He moved closer to Sienna as it began its charge, his muscles tensed, and magic built up in his body. Fast as it was, the lumbering beast couldn’t hope to keep up as Atma grabbed Sienna by her waist, and leapt into the air, kicking off a gust of wind as they went. It was less height than he was used to making, not used to carrying someone in a jump, but still more than high enough to evade, the two just about level with the rooftops of the two story homes. Still, with how large the Echidna was they could feel the air go past as it charged under them, Atma landed a bit more roughly than he would have liked, but they were still alive all the same.
“Please don’t do that aga-” Sienna started, cut off as Atma launched the two of them off to the side, his boots skidding as the Echidna, with frightening agility, turned to charge again. “I think I’m going to be sick…” The monster turned after some distance, but it was enough, gauge just how fast the thing could react and turn. They’d stopped just where he’d wanted to though, near the alleyway where they had come in, and one of the thick stone walls that made up part of the town’s defensive barriers.
Atma didn’t jump or launch with other people, it was harder for him, but people who weren’t trained for the rapid acceleration and stops could get thrown off if they went through the motions with him. Certainly, Sienna wasn’t the type to get motion or seasickness, but she hadn’t been thrown around like that before. “Sorry, but one more, one more and we make our counter. It’s going to be the worst one though. Careful on this one, don’t want you biting your tongue off.” He wasn’t sure how long he could keep himself and Sienna moving all the same. Sure, on his own, he would be perfectly fine to evade for as long as he needed, but he had to move both of them, and try to keep a similar speed despite what was essentially moving two of himself in weight.
“Just… do it.” Her voice was a bit gloomy, but she seemed to get what he was going for.
“Hold…” He watched carefully as the Echidna readied once last charge, a new furiosity filling its eyes, now hyper focused on them. “Hold…” The monster started charging, and Atma waited. If he didn’t time it right, depending on how smart the creature was, it could catch him mit motion, not unlike how Balthazar had in their sparring sessions. Too late, he’d get splattered, too soon, and while he might recover, he could just as easily leave himself open to a different splattering from the Echidna. As it bounded closer and closer, time seemed to slow down, as Atma stepped towards the left, watching as the beast corrected ever so slightly to follow his projected direction. “Now!” With a bit of fancy footwork, and the fact that he could use Sienna as a counterbalance to his weight and momentum, he switched directions once more, and launched off to the right, and behind the Echidna. The beast slammed into the wall the sound of cracking, crunching, and one of its asymmetrical horns snapping. He didn’t skid to a halt, shifting into a few smaller turns, made up a few steps, akin to a sprinter making a tight turn. Atma nearly lost his footing along the way, as he turned back and launched the both of them towards the monster. His feet forward, and dominant hand on his blade, he let gravity and his momentum deliver the heavy impact of his strike. He aimed for a spot just behind the shoulder blade, where he could hopefully cripple the beast and its ability to charge. Sienna, despite being bucked around by him, had enough in her to draw her dagger out again, and slash into its side as she went by, slowing herself suddenly as her dagger was stuck in the beast’s flesh. Had she not been as strong as she was, she might had had her arm dislocated, but forced a swing of the blade, feeling it crack on bone in the beast’s chest, but still cutting through, and leaving relatively intact.
The Echidna’s blood, as it dripped from its wounds, was more like sap or tar in its consistency, thick, sticky, and caking their weapons, to an almost absurd extent. Whether it was a natural defense or not, their blades being covered in the blood made them that much less effective. The creature tried escaping, but, Atma had managed to sever the tendons in its shoulder. Between that, the impact into the wall, and a horn being stuck into the stone, it was stuck, though they couldn’t say for how long. Sienna mounted the abomination, as it tried bucking her free. She didn’t open her mouth, since the thing was just as likely to make her bite her tongue off as Atma, but pointed to its broken horn, on the ground near Atma. Thinking fast, he tossed it to her, and she caught the horn just as the Echidna broke free of the wall. With one last, defiant battle cry, Sienna, with both hands on the broken horn, drove it into the monster’s skull, holding on for dear life as it gave one last attempt to lose her. She let go and jumped, Atma catching her and rolling as the beast finally toppled to the ground.
“Like I was saying earlier,” she panted, “You’re an idiot, and a bad luck charm.” She let out a deep breath. “Let’s not do that ever again, please.”
“Yeah, yeah I’ll give you that.” Atma sprawled out, utterly exhausted from their journey and the fight. “Sorry.”
“Shut up, you,” she began laughing, sprawled out next to him.
A little rumbling. Atma felt his mark burn once more. “Back on your feet!” A voice, somewhat distorted, as it yelled through a helmet. Atma saw the Echidna rise one last time. He rolled to try getting back to his feet, grabbing Sienna, trying to evade again, but they were too close.
A dark figure leapt from the rooftops, standing between them and the monster. He was clad in black armor, from head to toe, sleek, angular, like looking at a shadowy demon. The twin swords he wielded were blood-red. The man in knight’s armor let out a war cry, and his blades ignited with a black aura that almost seemed to flow like flames. He lunged forward as the monster struggled to its feet, and swung both blades wide in an arc, leaping back, to land right next to Atma and Sienna. The monster’s head rolled to the ground, and its body was cut far cleaner and deeper than his blades alone should have been able to accomplish. The man shook his blades, to remove the miniscule amount of blood that had gotten on them, and sheathed them at his back.
Atma had only seen a technique like the man had used once before, when he’d seen Agravain duel, and nearly brutalize another knight. But this clearly wasn’t him, Agravain was a much larger man, large, with muscles his armor could hardly contain. Comparatively, this Dark Knight was lanky. The man took off his helmet, revealing dusty blonde hair, and brown eyes. He was older than either Atma or Sienna, roughly twenty-seven. He smiled, with what could only be described as a debonair’s confidence, as he turned to face them. Whoever he was, there was no denying that this man was dangerous, despite his charming demeanor.
“Thank you for saving us back there.” Atma extended his hand to greet the stranger.
“Thank you for fighting to try and help these people. You- you…” The man was puzzled for a moment as he reached out with a gauntleted hand to return Atma's gesture, then locked eyes with Atma, a seriousness returning to his expression. “You have a mark too?”