Vath’s sleep was restless that night. That might have been the only reason he woke up. Or maybe it was the enhanced senses he assumed came from his advancement. He certainly heard better and saw better in the dark when his eyes opened. Maybe it was both, but it didn’t matter. What did matter is that he was wide awake the instant his door opened. He didn’t move, and kept his breathing even, straining his senses. It might be nothing, but his gut was screaming that something was wrong. Kaser had never needed anything from him in the middle of the night before, and he would’ve knocked anyway.
When he heard two sets of footsteps enter and the door close, his stomach sank. There was no doubt now that whoever was in his room had no good reason for being here. There was a quiet shuffling to the side of his bed. He had long since pushed his bed to one side of the room to have the headboard and one side of the bed flush with the wall. It reminded him of sleeping in the cave, and felt more comfortable that way. This meant the two in his room could only approach from one direction instead of surrounding him, a direction he happened to be facing. His half lidded eyes tracked their occluded shapes as they moved closer. He waited until he saw the slightest of gleams, and realized it was the tiny amount of light in the room hitting the metal of the blades in their hands. Then he surged upwards. It became readily apparent that his assailants were untrained and weak almost immediately, as he managed to grab the man’s arm, twist it back, and slam the dagger straight into his throat with no notable resistance. He let go to turn towards the other, and there was nothing more than a slight gurgle as the first crumpled to the floor. The second man froze in shock, and was just opening his mouth to shout something when Vath’s hand closed around his neck and squeezed. His hand flashed red, there was a sickening pop, and the man went limp. He lowered the man onto his bed, trying not to make a sound, and then checked that both were dead.
He used the sheets of his bed to wipe himself down; turns out, stabbing a man in the throat is messy if you’re right in front of him. He could clean himself and his sheets later, but dripping might give him away. Next, he palmed the infusion on the wall that should alert the guards that something was wrong. Then, as quietly as he could, he stole to the door, listened at it, and then eased it open just a few inches to look across the hall. Before he could go any further, he heard breathing and more footsteps in their front room. The door to Kaser’s room opened, and thankfully, his brother was the one who opened it, looking unharmed, although he had even more blood on him than Vath did. Emara was crouched behind him.
Kaser opened his mouth to speak, but Vath held up a hand frantically for him to stop and gestured with his head towards the front room. His brother looked confused until a voice called out, “Guys? You get ‘em?”, and then his eyes widened. Vath opened his door wide, held up five fingers, and then put one down. Kaser and Emara nodded, and the countdown continued. When it reached zero, both brothers bolted from their rooms and charged forward, Emara right behind his brother. “Shit. Boys, kill ‘em.” was all they heard before they registered what they were facing.
There were six people in the front room. One was out the front door with his blade out, presumably watching for guards or other interruptions; the other five were rushing them. Emara let loose a bolt of lightning at one of the guards who screamed and went down. The others stumbled and shouted in panic. This was clearly more resistance than they had expected. The brothers moved into the chaos and struck. Kaser hit opponents and dodged back out of range of their blades so quickly that he was in no danger, and Vath’s every glowing blow broke something in the unlucky enemies. Emara even gutted one of them with a blade she pulled from somewhere; she had electrified the blade, and the corpse continued spasming on the floor.
The last had clearly trusted his compatriots to finish the job, as he didn’t even turn to check until moments before the last fell, but it was too late for him to intervene. The man looked more angry than shocked. There was something different about him when Vath looked more closely. For one thing, he had more blades strapped across the front of his torso and looked like he knew how to use them far better than the ones so far; for another, he moved much more gracefully and quickly. This man was definitely more dangerous. There was a moment of hesitation from both parties, and then there was a dagger flying towards Vath, and worse, it was glowing green. He had a technique, likely poison based considering the color.
Vath dodged, barely avoiding it, and Emara returned the favor by launching her technique. The man ducked a bolt of lightning. The three disciples froze, their mouths opening a bit involuntarily. How fast was this guy? Honestly, the man himself looked a bit surprised he managed it at first, and then he grinned wickedly and advanced on them, a glowing green dagger in each hand.
The next minute was frantic. Vath would’ve liked to say that they fought valiantly, working together to match a superior opponent. In reality, he and Emara would have been struck by the poisoned blades a dozen times if it weren’t for Kaser distracting him just enough before retreating with his greater speed. Every time the assassin tried to focus on one of them, the other two hounded him, but Kaser was by far the most prolific at the tactic. This frustrated the man more and more until finally he decided to take Kaser down and accept blows to do so.
That was a fatal mistake. The moment he had the opening, Vath’s entire leg blazed red and crashed into the dagger wielder’s knee with a crunching noise. The man screamed and fell to his remaining knee. Vath and Kaser grabbed one arm each to hold him in place, and Emara lunged forward, burying her knife up through the man’s chin. They left his corpse and moved to the still open front door.
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“Where do we go?” Kaser said with a look to Vath.
He considered for a moment, and asked, “Will they target Dornah?”
Emara shook her head, “I don’t think so. Pretty sure they were just after you two. The two in Kaser’s room seemed surprised I was there. Why don’t we just go to the guards?”
Vath frowned, “I hit the infusion calling them before even opening my door, and our house should not have opened for these men, but some guards have access. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going to just walk to the nearest guard station and hope for the best. We’ll head to Wald’s house. If the guards on the inner quarter gate are there maybe we can check in there, but I’d rather get to Wald’s and have him figure this out.”
The other two nodded, and they set out, checking every which way and sticking to the shadows. They encountered no one until the inner gate, where they found out why no guards had responded to the alarm the infusion had raised. They were dead. They didn’t believe that all the guards on shift could be dead, but the ones at this gate all were. The men in their house could not have done this, the guards would have torn them to shreds. Something was very, very wrong. Lacking any better ideas, they continued towards their destination, taking more care than ever to stay out of sight.
They eventually reached the street the house was on. Vath felt relief. They’d be safe with Wald, he knew. That is, he knew it right up until Wald landed in the street. After crashing backwards through his front wall to get there.
A tall, well-built man dressed similarly to those they’d already fought stepped out through the hole with a bright blue aura. “Damn, I hate fighting voidlings. So damn hard to kill.” he rumbled out. Then he caught sight of them, and, surprised, said, “You’re still alive too?” His eyes narrowed, “What happened to Orden?” When they didn’t reply, he snarled, “You’re gonna pay for that.”
Wald, now on his knees, looked at them frantically and yelled, “Run!”, and then he was embroiled in combat so fast they could barely follow it. Blow after blow rained on Wald, who turned aside those he could and met the rest palm to fist, seeming to nullify the blows, but grimacing each time he did so.
Wald had said to run, but where would they go? The only guards they’d seen were dead, and they had no idea how many more of these people there were, or what their strength would be. But neither could they help in this fight. They’d be slaughtered the instant they tried.
The choice was taken from them after just a moment, when the attacker landed a hit hard enough to stagger Wald and turned to them. “You’re not getting away.” he promised before moving in their direction. They started to turn to run, and he launched a projectile matching his aura color.
There was a loud, “NO!” as Wald leapt in front of them. He attempted to palm the blast like every other attack so far, but he was a hair too slow, and it slammed into his chest. He was flung to the ground at their feet, a large portion of his chest burnt and smoking.
“Not what I was aiming for, but I’ll take it.” the man remarked.
“WALD!” the brothers cried as one. They didn’t need to speak. Kaser dove down to him, thrusting a healing pill he made a habit to keep with him in his mouth and sharply gesturing for Emara to grab his feet while he grabbed his head and shoulders. Vath leapt over him and charged to distract their attacker. It wouldn’t work. He knew it; they both did. The man had taken down Wald with one solid hit; they stood no chance. But they had to try. They owed him that much.
Almost casually, the man grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground. His grip was iron, there was no breaking it. Vath even punched it with a void strike, and the man didn’t even seem to notice. “I have to say, I do admire your bravery and loyalty. It’s not gonna help, at all, but you’ve got guts kid. Shame you have to die. But a contract is a contract. I’d make it painless, but I still owe you for Orden.” he said as he lifted his other arm to aim at the slowly retreating duo and their load.
Vath was staring directly into his face, which is why he saw when Elder Lita just appeared behind him, her face in a snarl. Her hand knifed through his neck like it was made of an illusion. Erasing everything her hand touched like it was never there. Vath fell to the ground as his captor collapsed in two pieces.
Elder Lita vanished and reappeared kneeling next to Wald, whose head was now cradled in Kaser’s lap. Her expression showed worry as she fed him a pill and put a hand on his chest, closing her eyes to concentrate on something. After a moment she released a breath and whispered quietly, “Oh Wald.”, and then her face turned angry. It turned in the direction of the center of the sect, and then her voice sounded out, loud and thrumming with mysterious power, “Yartan! Your Den is threatened!”
For a second time that night, Vath watched a person appear out of thin air. The sect master was dressed in a gold robe with black edges. A severe looking man, even without his current serious expression, his eyes glittered dangerously as he surveyed the scene. Then he lifted his face to the sky and howled, the sound thrumming with the same power Elder Lita had used, but far more potent.
This time, the new arrival did not appear suddenly, but there was a rush of wind as they sped into view almost too fast to see, and quickly knelt in front of Yartan. Vath started when he realized the Quartermaster of all people was responding to a personal and quite strange summons from the sect master.
“You called, Descendent?” the kneeling man asked.
“Vermin in the Den. Root them out while I discover their goal.” the sect master ordered with naked anger in his voice.
“With pleasure, Descendent.” the Quartermaster answered with relish in his voice. He stood, and seemed to erupt into golden flames before he rushed off, a boom sounding in his wake.
“I will handle this, Lita,” Yartan said with compassion in his voice, “See to your son.”
Elder Lita nodded sharply, and then gathered Wald in her arms. “Come, children.” she commanded. They followed.