Chapter 4 - A Gathering of Friends

Yells and furious accusations echoed through the luxurious hallway of Caine’s house. As one, the four Penduli that had walked in with Caine drew their weapons and formed a defensive row in front of Caine and Adam’s family.

“—you traitors!” Oliver roared.

“Big words for someone so miserably outnumbered,” a young, handsome Pendulum said with a posh accent. He casually waved his shortsword to emphasize.

“And you… ‘Talon of Aves,’ ” Oliver yelled at Caine. “Did the Penduli bribe you, or do you just enjoy shitting on all your vows? You swine! For how long have you been doing this behind our backs?”

Caine smiled sadly at Oliver. “Hello, old friend.” He sighed. “I knew a day would come that you would find out. And I truly hoped I could convince you to join the good cause before it would come to a confrontation. However…” Caine’s yellow eyes bored into Adam’s with rage, even interlaced with a hint of confusion and pain. “Both of you have sadly become too much of a threat.” He laid a protective hand on Eric’s shoulder.

“Get your filthy paw off my son,” Adam said with a cold, dead voice. Trembling in pure hatred, he glared at Caine. “How dare you…” He took a step forward. “You had to Taint my wife? You had to steal my family?!”

Caine squinted and huffed indignantly, but kept his hand on Eric’s shoulder. “What are—”

“Oh, you play your part well!” Adam roared. “But how many times did I save your sorry ass back in the War of the Prophet? How many cold nights did I support you after your mother turned to the Pure?” Adam laughed incredulously. “I actually was… happy, to know I’d see you again! Can you believe that? And now, my own family doesn’t even recognize me anymore, you FILTH!”

The room was silent. The four Penduli turned towards him, eyeing him warily, with weapons ready to strike.

“Daddy… I’m scared…” Eric breathed as his tiny hands grabbed Caine’s. Caine embraced Eric even tighter as he scrunched his face up at Adam in a peculiar mixture of rage, confusion, and disgust.

“By the night,” Catherine sighed, shaking her head. “I knew you used to hang out with some strange folk, Caine. But this madman is something else.”

Adam clenched his jaws together, ignoring a small spasm at the side of his mouth. The off-hand remark cut him like a knife into a fresh wound. Seeing the way Eric and Cath looked at Caine broke something inside of Adam. A foundation of trust in his life, knowing that he was welcomed and loved, crumbled and left a gaping void. Oliver’s voice echoed in his mind: rumour has it that Caine stole a new lover from some poor bloke.

The Penduli chuckled softly. A dark company of grins and drawn steel in the palace of Adam’s childhood, one of the few places where he always used to be safe. He exhaled as his heart sent fresh waves of heat and blind rage through him, warming his muscles.

Caine glared at Adam, his face like a blank mask. “I used to know him, but that was long before he turned into the deranged, unstable pawn we see here.”

Catherine gently let go of Eric, without looking away from Adam and Oliver. “Ismael, Beor, take Eric to safety. Taris, my glaive.”

One of the Penduli threw her the large, two-handed weapon. Vague blue shapes of feathers shimmered along its edge, betraying that the blade had been Instilled with Novaseering. Two of the Penduli left their formation and gently picked up Eric. He cried and reached out for his mother as they took him further down the hallway. Catherine squeezed her eyes shut and tensed her jaw.

Adam groaned internally to see Eric taken away by Penduli. Daddy’s coming, buddy. Don’t you worry. But maybe it’s better if you don’t witness what’s to come. He threw his broad hat and travelling cloak aside, revealing his trusty long leather coat. “We’ll see who is unstable after I’ve had my hands on you.” He cracked his knuckles and glared at Caine.

With a grim frown, Caine made the warrior’s greeting before combat by raising his right hand in a vertical outstretched gesture before his chest. Catherine and the two remaining Penduli did the same.

Along with Oliver, Adam returned the gesture. For a moment, he vaguely remembered how they had made the same gesture before sparring together, in happier, simpler times. As all of them stood still, Adam quietly wondered how it could have come to this. The air near Caine blurred and shimmered, as he gathered the invisible Oquira around him.

Ready to peel me away from my family, eh? He cracked his neck to the side as red-hot rage flowed through him. Go ahead and try.

Adam bolted forward at full speed. Oliver raised both hands in the Marrow gesture, forming six bright white and feather-shaped daggers out of his own Oquira. With a flick of his wrists, he flung the Marrow weapons.

Caine’s reaction was fast as lightning. Adam could barely follow the speed at which the Novaseering prodigy stretched his thumbs and middle fingers and conjured a wide octagonal screen. With shrill shrieks, three of Oliver’s feathers bounced off Caine’s Ironglass Invocation.

Catherine twirled her halberd and deflected the three Marrow daggers that flew at her. With a howling battle cry, she vaulted towards Oliver, who barely dodged the downward slash of her glaive.

Feeling the hot blood coursing through his veins, Adam charged Caine as fast as possible.

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“Out of my way!” Caine yelled at two Penduli who had moved to cut Adam off but hastily jumped aside.

Adam knew his former friend, and from the way he curled three fingers and a thumb, Adam knew he’d fire a broad Shrike Invocation. As it would be tricky to dodge from this distance, Adam skidded to a stop, crossed his forearms before his face and set his feet right for the impact. With a high-pitched rushing sound, vaguely resembling the wind, Caine’s Invocation surged towards Adam. It was only visible by the dust on the floor being blown away by sheer force.

The savage cold bit into Adam’s arms right before the impact of the Invocation hit them like a charging bull. Grinding his teeth in the gruelling effort to stay upright, Adam trembled under the relentless pressure.

However, Adam hadn’t practised fighting Novaseers for nothing. He knew their tricks, and after countless hours of training, his flesh had become well accustomed to the feel of Invocations.

“Stay alive,” his left heart whispered, sending waves of heat towards his arms.

Adam bared his teeth and pushed back against the Shrike. With a burst of force, he spread his arms outwards to the sides. Caine’s Invocation was split in two and ravaged the ancient colourful carpet and floor alike, leaving gaping grooves. As the soothing heat from his heart gathered in his aching arms, Adam charged at Caine again.

Oliver formed a Marrow boomerang and hurled the pale, razor-sharp weapon at Caine.

“You two haven’t trained much these years, huh?” Caine scoffed as he conjured a long chain of Ironglass links. The end of his chain shot out and wrapped itself around Oliver’s boomerang. With a seemingly effortless wave of his arm, Caine swung his chain and hurled Oliver’s Invocation at Adam.

Adam jumped, twisting his body in mid-air to soar over the boomerang. With a grunt, he drove his fist into the flat, brittle Marrow surface and shattered the weapon.

As Caine switched his attention to Oliver, the two sword-wielding Penduli charged Adam. A burly, blonde woman with a zweihänder sword came at him from the right, while the posh Mr. Handsome with his shortsword and shield ran from the left. Quick as a snake, Adam dashed to the right side of the woman and ducked beneath a sideways slash of her zweihänder. Mr. Handsome hissed in frustration; Adam kept stepping around her, dodging her attacks and making sure she stood between them.

The woman bellowed and heaved the zweihänder high above her head.

Oh wow, so subtle, I sure wonder how this genius is going to attack.

With ease, Adam stepped to the left to dodge her downward swing. He grabbed her wrist and hit her temple with his left elbow. Twisting her wrist, he relieved her of her zweihänder and raised it just in time to parry a sideways cut from Mr. Handsome.

As they crossed blades, the lad gave a cocky smirk and swung his shield sideways. Adam stepped back to dodge it. Surprisingly experienced, probably trained in a castle, but with sloppy footwork.

Adam pretended to place his back foot wrong and made a fake wince, lowering his guard just a bit. Mr. Handsome grinned fiercely. He lunged forward for a mighty thrust with his blade.

Just before Mr. Handsome’s front foot hit the ground, Adam’s boot swept it sideways. The lad’s eyes widened. He awkwardly stumbled to the side, waving his arms to keep balance. Not so cocky any more, eh? Adam swung his head towards the lad’s face. With a crunch, his nose flattened on Adam’s forehead.

The sound of running footsteps neared him from behind. Adam rolled away and barely dodged Catherine’s glaive. With a cold shiver, he realized she would have taken his head clean off.

“DAMN YOU!” Catherine yelled as she gave a sideways kick. Adam used both arms to block the attack, powerful enough to topple a wall.

Catherine’s face, the same face that used to smile when he had tickled her, or sing songs for him when he was sick, was red with blind rage. This can’t be real! How can I fight her?! As his own battle fury fizzled out, hers burned like an inferno. Her glaive made her even more dangerous; even though she wasn’t a sorcerer herself, the weapon had been Instilled with Novaseering to become lighter without sacrificing durability. Therefore, she could swing the glaive even faster than normal ones.

Adam evaded her attacks out of reflex. Although he saw the errors in her combat style, like her exposed side, he couldn’t bring himself to use the opportunities to hurt his beloved.

He stepped aside to dodge a kick but was too distracted, allowing her to sock him in the jaw. With her other hand, she stabbed with her glaive.

“Stay alive,” Adam’s heart hissed.

Adam’s eyes widened as survival instinct kicked in. He ducked beneath her thrust, twisted her wrist to disarm her and threw away her weapon. “Cath! Snap out of it, please!”

A blue vein pulsed on Catherine’s reddened forehead. “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” She jumped up and raised her right foot high. Adam stepped back to dodge her downward axe kick, which broke a wide hole in the floor and sent splinters flying.

From the left, Oliver hurled an Ironglass bola, made from round weights and linked chains. Catherine gasped and tried to evade the bola, but Oliver’s Invocation wrapped itself around her and dragged her to the wall.

Veins in Oliver’s neck bulged in the effort of his Invocation. “I won’t harm her! But we need to leave, their reinforcements are coming!”

Even though he believed Oliver, all of Adam’s mind was fixated on Caine. The bastard stood farther in the hallway and blasted one of Oliver’s bolas apart with a Shrike Invocation.

Adam felt his face redden as he charged. “You fell-handed freak! RELEASE MY FAMILY!”

Caine raised one hand in the Ironglass gesture and the other in the Marrow gesture. “Your family?” he sneered while forming three harpoons in the air. Each had a solid Ironglass shaft, covered in holy symbols, and a serrated head of Marrow. “So that’s why they’re in MY house, calling for ME when your insane ass breaks in here!” With a flick of his wrists, he fired the first harpoon.

Adam’s thoughts stopped and he bent backwards. When the harpoon passed over him, he grabbed the terribly cold surface of the Ironglass shaft. “I can imagine brainwashing was your only option to interest a lady,” Adam growled through gritted teeth. Sprinting forward, he threw the weapon back at Caine with all his might. “When you’ve got a mug like yours!”

Caine nimbly stepped aside to dodge. With both hands in the Ironglass gesture, he waved them from the sides in Adam’s direction. “They’re my family, you piece of filth!” Caine hissed.

Adam’s breath stopped. Caine had reshaped the two other harpoons into Ironglass chains, which flew at Adam from the sides. He jumped up and soared through the air towards Caine, causing the chains to miss him and entangle each other with a metallic rattle.

However, Caine had switched both hands to the Shrike gesture. The air around them shimmered with the intense amount of Oquira.

Adam roared like a beast and raised his fist. Just the moment before Caine would have been within his arm’s reach, Caine fired his Invocation from point-blank range.

NO!

With a rushing sound like an intense gust of wind, the barely visible Shrike hit Adam dead-on in the chest. Biting cold and pain surged through his body. The relentless power of the Invocation sent him flying backwards and blasted him right through the ceiling, forcing the air out of his lungs. With a wheeze, he tried to breathe in again but he crashed through the roof as well. Tumbling through the evening air amidst the shattered roof tiles, Adam growled in agony.

He landed on the slanted roof, his jaw hitting one of its ridges. Like a broken puppet, he slid over the roof tiles and fell to the ground. Out of reflex, he awkwardly tried to roll but only caused his shoulder to hit the ground first with a painful crunch.