“We should go back!”, Clair shouted as she ran after Eve, even though the castle’s entrance was already in sight.
“She’ll be fine. Now hurry!”, Eve called back, tugging harder at Clair’s hand, not thinking of the other girl’s inferior condition. She heard her panting behind her, and knew she was doing her best.
They had run all the way with their drawn weapons in their hands, and upon reaching the huge entrance door of the castle, Eve was hardly surprised to see that the knights had readied their swords as well. There were only two of them though, and Eve wondered just how much trouble a skilled assassin would have to break through this frighteningly weak layer of defence.
“Halt!”, one of them shouted in a deep and rough voice. “Who are you?” He eyed them sceptically, distrust evident in his eyes.
“There isn’t much time to explain, but we’ll have to ask you to let us through, for the queen is in grave danger.”, Eve explained as calmly as she could. Surely they wouldn’t let them pass so easily.
“Now that’s a unique one.”, the other knight said and chuckled sarcastically as he pointed his sword towards Eve.
Clair clicked her tongue in annoyance. Honestly, Eve could be so naïve sometimes. She stepped before Eve and held her rod diagonally in front of her, holding it firmly with both of her hands.
“Now guys, step aside or you’ll regret it.”, she said dangerously and heard Eve gasp behind her. Too naïve indeed.
The guard had barely enough time to smirk at that before one end of Clair’s rod met his stomach and pushed him backwards while the other end knocked the sword out of the second guard’s grasp which was soon accompanied by a high kick to the back of his head, which sent him tumbling down the flight of stairs in front of him. By the time he had reached its end, his companion had stood up again, swinging his sword high into the air in an amateurish attempt to strike it down onto her. Clair blocked the sword effortlessly with her rod which she held with both of her hands above her head. She then kicked him into his stomach and pushed him roughly against the wall behind him. The guard’s head met the stone wall with more force than intended, and he passed out immediately.
Upon the sight of him sagging to the ground, Clair clicked her tongue again. He was useless now, so she quickly dashed down the stairs to get to the other guard, who was taller and bulkier than the now unconscious one, but at least he was still awake. Ignoring his grunts and his struggling, she managed to lift him to his feet despite the heavy armor and shoved him up the stairs towards Eve, who looked all but utterly dumbfounded.
“You take him.”, Clair said and pushed the dizzy guard towards Eve, who began to understand the situation well enough to know what she was supposed to do. With her left arm she reached around his neck from behind, squeezing him closely against her, while her right hand held her sword close to his face. She nudged him to walk up the stairs and follow Clair, who had opened the heavy door by herself, stepping inside the castle. Eve and their hostage followed closely, Eve pressing the blade of her sword against the man’s throat to silence him.
As expected, it didn’t take long for them to be surrounded, but Clair simply smiled. At least their defence within the castle was acceptable.
“Who are you? What are you doing?”, an especially brave-looking guard asked them, if only to buy time as the other soldiers drew a circle around the two women and their hostage.
Clair looked around, the smile not leaving her face. There were eight soldiers, and probably a lot more to come.
“Where’s the queen?”, she asked, drawing the looks that had previously been on Eve onto herself.
“Why would that interest you?”, the same soldier asked warily.
“We need to see her, and you guys better not get in our way or your friend here will pay for it.”, Clair answered, taking a look at each of the surrounding soldiers. Some of them looked frightened or concerned for their comrade, others seemed eager to attack, and some of them looked like they didn’t care at all. Clair smirked. They wouldn’t dare to attack.
“Now, where is she?”, Clair repeated, looking at the leading soldier who had proved to be the most talkative one so far. His brows trembled at the question, and his eyes darted involuntarily to a door to his left, then back at their hostage.
“Thanks.”, Clair said just as the soldier opened his mouth, probably to form an excuse or something similar, but was cut short by Clair’s rod which swept him off his feet, just like it did his neighbour. Now with an open passage, Clair ran through it and headed for the door, followed by Eve who by now knew better than to hesitate or ask questions.
Upon reaching it, Clair immediately opened the door, but waited for Eve to go through it first. After Eve had passed, Clair turned to face the soldiers who came storming towards her. There were at least a dozen of them by now. However, instead of following Eve she ran towards them, knocking out the first two attackers with a sideways hit against their heads. She escaped the sword of another by a few inches in going down to her knee, before fending off another by hitting his chin from underneath. She then dealt quickly with the previous one with a high kick that brought down her heel right on the soldier’s collarbone, which brought him down to his knees surprisingly quickly.
Now with four soldiers down in less than a minute, the other soldiers seemed to waver, obviously not knowing what to do. Which served Clair well, for she could already feel sweat forming on her forehead. Fighting was unlike harder for her when she had to be careful not to hurt anyone too heavily. After all, they weren’t terrorists, and crippling her soldiers wouldn’t give them much credibility in front of the queen.
While the remaining soldiers wavered, Clair turned on her heels and dashed for the still open door, which she closed and bolted behind her before facing the flight of stairs in front of her. It seemed to be a pretty high staircase, for she could still hear Eve somewhere above her. She hurried to catch up with her, taking two steps at once as she proceeded upwards. She eventually reached Eve, who shoved the taller soldier the last few steps upwards until they reached another door, the only door there was. Without even bothering to talk to their hostage, Clair opened the door and found herself in a small corridor that lead to another door. She was glad there was only one, for she wouldn’t have had the nerve to make difficult decisions at a time like this.
They walked towards the door and Clair smiled as she saw how the soldier seemed to struggle more the closer they got.
She opened the door and despite not particularly expecting any resistance at this point, held her rod defensively in front of her. Better safe than sorry. However, she chuckled at her unnecessary precautions as she saw a woman sitting on her bed, alone and without any weapons whatsoever. At the sound of her door opening, she turned her head to regard her visitors, and seemed surprised to see a sweating knight in the grasp of a woman foreign to her, and another who accompanied her. She seemed surprised, but nothing more. Still, Clair had dealt with enough strange people lately, she wasn’t concerned with their atypical behaviour anymore.
“Are you Queen Marle?”, Clair asked, trying not to sound dangerous, even though this person in front of her didn’t exactly seem like she would care.
“The same.”, she answered and stood up, and Clair had to marvel at how this woman managed to look dignified even though she was wearing a plain nightgown, which seemed to unsettle their hostage, who tried to turn away regardless of the sword at his throat. “And who might you be?”
“The only people you can trust as of now.”, Clair answered and shot Eve a look upon which Eve quickly released the man from her grasp, but bolted the door behind her nonetheless. She sighed at Clair’s unnecessarily complicated explanation, but as she regarded the queen, who for all the world looked more amused than intimidated, she shrugged and let Clair handle this.
Clair shot a sideways glance to a rather fancy wall clock which resided above the monstrous bed of the queen. Only a little more than three hours until midnight. He would have to strike soon.
“I’ll be blunt about this. Someone is out to kill you, and we have come to prevent this from happening.”, Clair explained calmly, never fully taking her eyes off their hostage, who she deemed to be low enough to exploit their trust and attack them at any moment, even though he had yet to show any sign of anything other than bafflement. “You may not know us, but I ask you to trust us. I believe you are familiar with someone named Kidd?”, she asked, taking her only chance at gaining a modicum of trust from the queen. After all, Kidd was their only connection, she was the reason she and Eve were here in the first place.
“Kidd?”, the queen repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, I do know her.” Clair had the feeling that now that she had mentioned her name, the queen had become even more suspicious.
“She is the one who sent us here. She had other things to deal with, unfortunately.”, Eve said quickly, growing more nervous the longer they talked like this.
The queen sighed at this and sat down on her bed. “She’s in trouble again, isn’t she? Honestly, that girl…”, she said and couldn’t suppress a small laugh.
“She will be fine. But for now, allow us to guard you.”, Eve said earnestly, frowning at how stupid this sounded.
The queen nodded gravely. “Just one thing. If you are here to help me, why did you take a hostage? Not to mention that you probably didn’t get here without having encountered resistance. What did you need a hostage for? If I may ask.”
“You may not.”, Clair answered sharply just as Eve was about to answer, looking sceptically at their hostage. Which was probably better that way, for Eve had no idea what she would have told her. She didn’t know why they had done that herself.
If the queen was surprised at this response, she didn’t show it. “Very well then.”
Clair nodded, satisfied that things were at least going moderately smoothly, even though things would undoubtedly get messy soon. She looked around, inspecting the room. Despite being the Queen’s chamber, it wasn’t exactly large, and Clair knew that fighting off an assassin wouldn’t exactly be easy in here. There was only one window in the room as well, opposite of the door. The fact that there was no clear escape route was unnerving, but at this point they didn’t really have a choice. The queen’s confidence in them seemed to be too thin to rely on in front of countless angry soldiers and Clair had little desire to battle her way down again. They just had to deal with being in a closed room there was little escaping from.
Loud banging at the door startled her out of her thoughts and she looked in direction of the door. The banging got louder, and Clair could hear a lot of voices shouting at each other. Clair knew it wouldn’t take them long to break through the door.
“Tell them to stop.”, Clair said more urgently than intended. She couldn’t allow them to get inside this room, or everything would be over. “They have to leave.”
Eve tried to mask her puzzled expression from the queen as she looked at her, even though she was getting uneasy about this.
The queen didn’t respond to what was obviously an order and walked past her until she stood in front of the door which was still being under attack of the soldiers outside.
“I advise you all not to damage my door or I will have to cut your wages.”, she spoke, her voice loud and clear. Only a few seconds passed until the banging subsided completely. “Please return to your posts and see to it that nobody gets inside the castle.”
“B-but, my majesty!”, one of the soldiers outside stuttered. “Is really everything fine?”
“Yes it is, please don’t be concerned and do as I say.”, the queen answered.
“As you wish. We are sorry to have disturbed you.”, came a disappointed but still alerted response and soon they could hear the steps of retreating soldiers. Clair laid her head onto the door, listening for any sounds, but everything was quiet. As she turned to look at the queen she met an annoyed face.
“I would appreciate if you told me what all this is about, but I guess I won’t get an answer. Am I right?”, she asked and Eve winced at the angry tone of her voice.
Instead of answering directly, Clair stepped closer to the queen, who to her credit didn’t move away. “Please lower your voice.”, she whispered, again looking at their hostage, who was eyeing them with great interest, but appeared to have given up on doing anything to stop them. Still, his constant eyes on her were irritating.
“Why?”, the queen asked, but obeyed and reduced her voice to a whisper.
Clair rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe how easygoing everyone was when the queen’s life was in danger. “Because…”, Clair started to explain, trying to think of a way to say it without revealing too much. Again she looked to her side, and again she found their hostage watching them, a hint of a smile on his face.
“Damn it.”, Clair mumbled as she turned away from the queen and walked towards the knight. Before he had the chance to react, Clair had reached back and punched him directly into his face, producing a sickeningly cracking sound and a river of blood running from his nose as he toppled over and lost his consciousness even before he reached the ground.
“Clair!”, Eve hissed, hardly trusting her eyes. “What are you doing?” She had trouble keeping her voice low.
But Clair just shrugged, too tense and stressed to give her an explanation or excuse. “I’m not taking any chances.”, she said but knew that she was probably just being paranoid.
Eve knew Clair was just trying to be professional and express authority, but the thought of not knowing what was going on in her friend’s mind made her uneasy.
“My, you certainly have a way with people.”, Marle remarked sarcastically and sat down on the bed, acting as if nothing had happened. And besides, there was nothing she could do other than obeying those strange women while preserving as much of her dignity as the circumstances allowed.
“Believe me, you will be thankful for it very soon.”, Clair mumbled, not granting her the joy of being provoked. Instead she scanned the room once more, trying to think like someone who is about to kill the queen. Her eyes spotted a rather old-fashioned bow with matching arrows on one of the walls, and Clair wondered how she could have overseen it the first time.
“That yours?”, she asked silently, but walked towards it and took it off the wall without receiving an answer. She gave it to the queen. “Don’t let anyone take it, whatever happens.”
Marle simply nodded, taking the nostalgic bow into her hands, running her fingers over the still smooth surface of the wood. Such a long time had passed since she had put this bow to use. Such a long time that if she didn’t know better, she would think it had happened in a previous life. Maybe that was because she was the only one left, the only remainder of this adventurous time, aside from the friends she had made in other eras, who she had no hope of ever seeing again. It was impossible, it should have been impossible from the start.
She regarded the woman named Clair as she paced the room, deep in thought, and looked at the other woman who stood silently at the door, being the exact opposite of her friend. And she turned to regard one of her most loyal, if not necessarily most competent knight. The blood had stopped flowing out by now, leaving a drying red trail that ran from his nose across his right cheek until it reached the marble floor.
Clair stopped in the middle of the room, wondering why she was the one being nervous, if it wasn’t even her life that was about to be threatened. She looked at Eve, who seemed worried but still possessed a certain level of calmness. She was too calm for Clair’s comfort.
“Get away from the door.”, Clair whispered, but still loud enough for Eve to hear it clearly. She didn’t say anything in response and walked past her and over to the window.
“Not to the window.”, Clair said, more hesitant that before. She knew she was wearing out Eve’s patience she would have long lost already if she had been in her friend’s place. And as Eve turned to look at her, she knew it was already too late.
“Just what is it, Clair?”, Eve asked as she tried to hide the anger in her voice. Clair sighed, regarding her intently.
“Look, I just…”, she started, but stopped dead as she saw a shadow on the glass pane behind Eve. She moved her mouth to speak, but no tone came out as Clair ran towards Eve, pushing her feet off the ground to cross the distance in midair. Her hands reached her shoulders and she pushed Eve to the side. Even before Eve reached the ground, the window pane shattered into a thousand pieces which pierced into Clair’s arms as she tried to shield her face. The next thing she felt was a hit into her stomach that sent her flying across the room and crashing into the wall at its end. She tasted the metallic tang of blood on her tongue as she reached the ground at last.
She heard someone scream her name, but couldn’t remember who it was the voice belonged to. Her vision was shaking, getting even more blurry when she tried to focus on something. She couldn’t move very well either, as if the punch had paralyzed her entire body. She struggled to keep her eyes open, which became harder with every second. The ground beneath her vibrated, as if something very large and heavy was walking into her direction, but as she managed to move her head enough to look up, she could only make out a shape that resembled a human. How could someone of ordinary height and build be so heavy?
She didn’t have the time to ponder on this, for a large and cold hand enclosed her neck, applying almost unbearable pressure as she was lifted off the ground. She cried out but achieved nothing to lessen the pain and the dreaded feeling of suffocation. The face that appeared before her as she opened her eyes was unfamiliar, and Clair could only make out the most prominent characteristics. She couldn’t see all that much of her attacker’s face, for most of it was covered by what seemed to be a red scarf. She could however see the high blond hair and the pale skin. No, it wasn’t pale. It was blue.
It was getting harder and harder to breathe, and Clair had already given up on struggling, for it only increased the painful lack of air in her lungs. Her eyes darted around but she could make out nothing aside from this one face in front of her. Time seemed to stand still, if it weren’t for the increasing pain in her chest.
This just wasn’t her day. She had been the most careful one of them all, so why her? Because she had tried to protect Eve. But what now? She was powerless, and she wondered if it would have been better had the attacker gotten Eve instead of her. That way she would have at least been able to do something. But now there was nothing she could do. She cursed inwardly. Wasn’t the queen supposed to be the target? So how came she was in this mortifying grasp right now? Clair thought about all this as what seemed like endless minutes trickled by. She hadn’t known she would receive an answer to her questions so soon.
“Are-you-the-queen?”, the attacker asked, his voice mechanical and monotone.
Clair would have laughed if it hadn’t been for her lack of air, but settled for a twisted smile. This was almost too absurd to take seriously. She had no idea if he was making fun of her because she had practically sacrificed herself, or if he really didn’t know. Neither of those options seemed plausible enough to be real. She, the queen? What kind of queen would be wearing a ragged military uniform? But then, she had to admit that the queen dressed in her rather plain nightgown didn’t exactly look like nobility either. Which didn’t make this situation less ridiculous.
It seemed to her that at least ten seconds had passed before she parted her lips to speak. “Yes.”
She heard someone scream as these words left her mouth, and heard the sound of metal being pierced through someone. She couldn’t make out what it was, she couldn’t even tell if she was the one being pierced through at this point.
Everything she could feel was focused on the grip around her neck tightening. Clair felt like drowning again, trying to ignore this cruel feeling of dying from the sheer lack of oxygen. She felt like crying, but uttering even the faintest of sounds was impossible by now. To her, it lasted another two minutes until her vision finally went dark.
“Wait!”, Kidd called for what seemed like the hundredth time. She had stopped on hoping to receive a response and was beginning to think that it would be better if she just shut up.
They were somewhere too deep in the woods for her to have any hope of telling exactly where that was. She had never been so deep inside this forest, only ever taking the relatively short and straight path that lead to the castle. Ever since getting lost in there once, she hadn’t had any desire to venture any further than this one path. She regretted it now.
She had chased after Harle ever since Jack had run away from them, but it was getting harder and harder to keep sight of Harle in this darkness. She didn’t see Jack, but she had given up on that more than ten minutes ago, and was glad that she had at least been able to follow Harle so far.
Still, she wished Harle would stop running like that, it almost made it seem as if she was running from her instead of chasing Jack. And also, she was concerned that Jack hat set up a trap somewhere, which Harle was sure to miss in her agitated state.
She caught a flicker of Harle’s cards as she passed through a moonlit spot, and Kidd forced herself to move her legs even faster to catch up. All of this was going wrong in so many ways. They should be at the castle right in that moment, protecting Marle from an assassin, but instead they chased after Jack, who carried the relic Kidd wouldn’t have expected Luccia to simply hand over to another person, even if this person was under her control.
The relic. Kidd wondered if everything Luccia had told them was true. It seemed hard to believe, even though she didn’t doubt the Blazing Heart to hold special powers. She had seen it glow and flicker, and it had seemed in the same strange way alive as the Frozen Flame had. But how came she had never heard anything of it? She had only ever heard fantastic stories about the Frozen Flame, but never of the Blazing Heart, let alone even a third one, which Luccia had mentioned.
Kidd’s foot met a large root and she stumbled over the ground for a few metres before she could catch herself and continue running. She looked for a trail of Harle when a sudden realization hit her. How did the captain know about the Blazing Heart? And if he had known how dangerous it was, why had he sent them to steal it for him? It was such an unpleasant thought that Kidd immediately banished it, trying to focus on the things right in front of her. Due to her stumbling, she had lost sight of Harle, and had little idea on where to turn now. Her feet continued running straight ahead, but she soon reached a dead end that was so thick with trees and bushes that she couldn’t imagine Jack or Harle having passed through there. She stopped running, feeling her heart pound in her chest as she looked around. She cursed the darkness, there was no way she could see any of the footprints she knew had to be recorded in the wet ground beneath her. It was useless trying to see.
She allowed herself to close her eyes for a few moments, trying to listen for any rustles or pants nearby. She couldn’t hear a thing and was tempted to call out for Harle again when she heard a scream. It was her.
Without a moment’s hesitation she turned in the direction the scream had come from and broke into a run. She ignored the branches that slapped into her face as the forest got thicker, running almost blindly towards the one she had sworn to protect.
As she finally reached a clearing, she let out a breath of relief as she saw Harle standing at its centre. It was a relief to see her still standing, even though she clutched her left shoulder. Kidd walked towards her, but stopped abruptly as a throwing knife reached the ground, missing her right foot by less than an inch.
“Shouldn’t you stay out of this?”, Jack asked in an amused voice, but Kidd couldn’t see where he was. As she looked up from the knife before her feet, she caught Harle staring at her. She hadn’t noticed Kidd before.
“Like hell I will.”, Kidd shouted angrily into the vague direction where Jack’s voice had come from, swiftly pulling the knife out of the ground. She held it in her left hand, the right one already occupied with her dagger.
Again she looked at Harle, tempted to just run over to her. But she realized that Jack didn’t want her near Harle, and as long as she didn’t know where he was, she couldn’t afford not to be cautious. She wouldn’t be any help to Harle if she got killed because of carelessness.
“Just…hold out a little longer.”, she spoke soothingly to Harle, who seemed unreasonably devastated at her arrival, for reasons Kidd didn’t understand.
“How noble.”, Jack spat, and again Kidd turned her head to search for him, in vain.
Kidd tried to ignore the evident hatred in Jack’s voice, and rummaged in one of her pockets, until she found the Heal element she was looking for. She placed it into her left hand and enclosed it tightly, while shielding it with her right hand. No doubt Jack was going to attack the moment he noticed her casting an element on Harle.
She cast it, trying to suppress the light in her hand as much as possible. She watched as the element reached Harle, surrounding her in green light that only lasted a few moments until it vanished. Harle gasped at the unexpected light unwillingly, but calmed as soon as she realized it was a healing element from Kidd. It lessened the pain in her shoulder noticeably, and Harle hoped that she would be able to use her left arm again. Her arms still felt weak, but Harle was grateful that at least her legs worked properly. She was sure that once she had bought herself some time, her arms would be fine.
But now that Kidd was here…it changed everything. She had to be careful, her actions now deciding over the fate of not only her own, but also Kidd’s life. She had hoped that Kidd would use the chance and go to the castle. She should have known better.
From the corner of her eye she saw another of Jack’s knives, again aiming for Kidd. It was unnerving that he didn’t see her as the target anymore, instead dragging Kidd into this, who had hardly anything to do with this. He just wanted her, so why didn’t he leave Kidd alone?
Harle threw one of her cards at the knife, and succeeded in hitting it at its blunt end, which diverted its route and caused it to fly past Kidd, hitting a tree shortly after.
Harle smiled at her achievement. Her cards were useless in defending herself from direct attacks, but they were still useful when hitting the knives from the side. It was a small consolation still.
She needed to get hold of at least one of his knives, to beat him with his own weapons. She knew Kidd had one, but she could hardly ask her to toss it over to her, for Jack was sure to intercept it. There was only one chance.
“Stop aiming for her, Jack. It’z juzt toi et moi, non?”, Harle shouted into the darkness, even though she had the dreaded feeling that Jack would be able to hear her even if she whispered.
As if on cue, a throwing knife flew directly towards her at high speed, threatening to pierce her left eye. It flew parallel to the ground, which could only mean that Jack was standing somewhere right in front of her, not up in the trees as she had previously suspected.
Without thinking Harle pushed her feet off the ground and leapt backwards, her body coming parallel to the ground as well. Her eyes gleamed as she saw the knife pass directly above her face. Her timing was perfect. Her left hand shot upwards to grab the knife as her right hand met the ground and pushed her upwards to complete the backflip with the momentum she had left.
She winced as the knife cut into her hand as if trying to struggle free from her grasp, but upon reaching the ground with her feet, she immediately launched five cards into Jack’s direction. She heard a loud gasp shortly after, and wondered just where she had hit him.
“Not bad, Harle. Not bad at all.”, she heard him say in a voice she knew was forced to sound calm, and thought to see the outlines of his body not too far from her. “But this is still not the right place, I fear.”
Harle frowned. Not the right place? Was he about to run away? Her grip around the throwing knife she had gained tightened.
“Follow me, Harle.”, he said, and Harle could hear quick footsteps in an increasing distance. She shot a glance at Kidd and nodded at her, then dashed after Jack. Kidd followed her, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to do much other than making sure nothing happened to Harle.
Jack didn’t run particularly fast, and both Harle and Kidd had no trouble to follow him. Harle thought about catching up to him, but decided against it. It was too dangerous, and Jack obviously knew this forest better than they did. She didn’t want him to have advantages because of that.
It wasn’t before long that Harle could hear the sound of waves. The ocean. She couldn’t believe they had gone that far. But only a few minutes later when they reached a plateau, she could see it with her own eyes. Harle was startled to see that they were high above the ocean, a hundred metres at least. The cliff had to be quite steep. She didn’t want to think about falling down or being thrown down there.
She could see a lot of other things now, for the full moon lit the whole place, which was almost a perfect circle, quite well. She now clearly saw Jack even though he was wearing black clothes, and also saw that there was no rock or trunk of reasonable size to use or hide behind. As Jack heard them approach, he turned around.
“Very well, Harle. Now that you seem to be fighting seriously, I’m willing to grant you a fair chance to win.”, Jack declared and laughed, and Harle didn’t have to look twice to see the ugly wound across his left eye. It had been a direct hit. Jack probably had to concentrate on keeping it shut to avoid blood running into his eye. It would be a disadvantage, which was probably why he had led them here, for his apparent advantage of superior sight in the dark was gone, so he might as well show it off as generosity in a vain attempt to intimidate them.
“Merci beaucoup.”, Harle responded not without a slight tone of amusement. She didn’t need to be afraid of him. Not anymore. She heard Kidd move behind her, coming to stand right beside her.
“Ya know, ya could also just turn over that relic and we’d leave ya alone.”, Kidd said, a lot calmer now that she could see him clearly and with nowhere to hide.
“You miss the point completely.”, Jack answered and smiled as if pitying her. “As always. You know, I could throw the relic right into the ocean, just like that.”, he added, making a wrist movement as if tossing something away. “I wouldn’t care.”
“Why don’t ya do it, then?”, Kidd asked warily. She wondered just how much of him stood under Luccia’s influence. Surely it wasn’t her goal to lose the relic.
“That wouldn’t be any fun, now would it?”, Jack asked and laughed darkly. They lacked the will to kill him without the Blazing Heart. He had to force them to fight them properly.
“What ‘bout Luccia? Doesn’t she care about what happens ta the relic?”, Kidd asked unnerved, halting her breath as Jack laughed even harder.
“Of course she does. If you mean that small spark of importance in her life that she wouldn’t even call caring rather than need.”, he replied. “But I don’t care, and she’ll regret having given this to me. If she’ll even live to notice its loss.” Jack spat the last few words. He armed both of his hands with five knives each as if to shorten their conversation quickly.
Harle frowned at the sight, forced to revise her opinions about both Jack and Luccia. She asked herself just how much of him was intended to be that way. To make sure, she asked one more question, knowing that upon receiving the answer she would decide to either attack him with full force or simply disarm him. The latter seemed frighteningly unlikely to her.
“Moi assumez you are not on her side, zen?”, she asked, trying to sound as if she wouldn’t care about the answer either way.
As expected, Jack snorted at that. “I’m on no one’s side. Did you think I would willingly let myself be turned into a monster? She made a mistake giving me power, hoping I would be on her side out of gratefulness or because I wanted to be as strong as a dragon or any of her pets. That woman has no sense of people, always thinking they are as crazy as her, not being satisfied until they were superior to every human on earth. As she saw that I wasn’t like that she dulled me with her drugs to obey her, but they don’t last forever. The next time we meet will be the last. I’ll do humanity a favour and get her out of the way.” He smiled at that, as if he truly believed in what he had just said.
“Our goalz are similar, but our méthodes are so very diferente.”, Harle said calmly, arming her own hand with five cards while leaving her left with only the knife.
At the sight of Harle preparing herself, Kidd did the same, but was quickly stopped by the way Harle looked at her.
“Let moi do zis, pleaze.”, Harle whispered and Kidd nodded in grim understanding. She didn’t like the thought, but she had anticipated Harle to say that. And if Harle said she could do it, she would. No doubt about it. This wasn’t just a fight of life and death, this was a fight of pride. And this pride Harle had lost at the manor could only be regained when she beat him on her own. Kidd knew that Harle wouldn’t lose to the same man twice. She wouldn’t allow herself to.
Still, Kidd watched Jack and decided not to let her guard down. His self-proclaimed fair fight could turn out pretty nasty pretty soon.
Jack and Harle both threw their respective weapons at the same time, and the sound that erupted as the knife tore through the card was like a bell tolling to announce the start of the battle.
Harle dodged the knife that hadn’t been disturbed by the card in the least with ease, not even lifting her left hand to block it. It was easy enough with one knife, but she knew that the moment he started to use more, she wouldn’t stand a chance. She couldn’t rely on her defence all the time. Rather, she had to exploit Jack’s weakness in defence, for he was only set out for attacking. It was the only chance she had.
His next attack came sooner than Harle had expected, again just a single knife, which she avoided by sidestepping before she dashed towards Jack. Close combat was the only chance she had. As expected, Jack was startled by her quick approach and unleashed three of his knives into Harle’s direction. Harle smiled. So he still hadn’t learned to use more than three knives at once. Harle blocked the first one with her knife and dove under the following two, approaching Jack until they were hardly two metres apart. She then threw her whole hand of cards in direction of his face, for the thick fabric of his dark coat would surely repel them. His head was his sole weak spot. Just in the second Jack’s eyes turned away from her to face the cards, Harle made a flying dive to the right and for a vital moment escaped Jack’s limited field of vision. She tossed another card right at his left hand before leaping into the air to hit the back of his head in a roundhouse kick which sent him stumbling forward.
Harle reached the ground at the same time Jack turned around, and Harle leapt towards him and punched him into his face with all her might, hitting the already cut area around his left eye. She was about to punch him again when his strong hands gripped hers, keeping them in place without effort, even though his left hand was bleeding profusely where Harle’s card had struck it shortly before. Before Harle got the chance to react she already felt Jack’s foot in her stomach and soon after flew backwards several metres and crashed onto the ground painfully. She managed to stand up again quickly, but saw that she was dangerously close to the edge, and Jack came running towards her. There was hardly time to escape to the sides and she doubted that she would be quick enough anyway, so she decided upon the only action left.
She saw Jack’s arm reach back in an angle that could only mean that he intended to punch her right into her face. Harle anticipated this and stepped to the side while turning her back to him, clutching Jack’s outstretched arm with both of her hands. Jack had enough momentum so Harle simply tugged at his arm and threw him over her shoulder in a clean two arm shoulder throw with the only exception that she didn’t let go of his arm.
Jack flew in a half circle over the edge and his back crashed against the cliff, causing him to cry out in pain. He looked upwards and saw Harle’s face hovering above him. Harle lay on the ground at the edge, her right hand at Jack’s wrist to keep him from falling. To his surprise, Harle smiled.
“You lozt.”, she said and her smile widened. “Do you accept your defeat?”
Jack laughed at that, a dark laugh that was devoid of any genuine mirth. “Is that what you call a defeat, Harle?”
Harle’s smile vanished at this unexpected response. She had hoped Jack would come to his senses, but he was still the same. “Oui, certainement. It’z over, Jack.” Harle was aware that her voice sounded pleading, but she couldn’t help it. If there was still a spark of his old self within this Jack in front of her, then she couldn’t let go.
“Nothing’s over, Harle. I’ll teach you a thing or two about a defeat, the next time we meet.” His words were suddenly calm, and would have sounded almost gentle if it hadn’t been for the smile that suddenly crossed his lips.
Before Harle could realize what was going on she felt a sudden pain in her hand and upon looking at it saw a thick line of blood covering it. With dread in her eyes she saw her own hand loosening its grip on Jack’s wrist against her will, even though she screamed in her mind not to. By the time her other hand rushed forward she could also see Jack’s content face below her, growing smaller and smaller with every second.
“Jack!”, she heard herself scream suddenly. This wasn’t what should have happened. Jack should be up there, with her, but he was falling so quickly, Harle soon couldn’t see him anymore. She stared after him for a second or two more, then moved her head to look away. It wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t. She gasped as she saw a small spark of light from the corner of her eye, but by the time she looked down again, it had vanished. She continued to stare for a few moments longer, but soon gave it up. She slowly stood up, turning to face Kidd who came running towards her.
It wasn’t her fault, for once.
“Bastard.”, Eve panted, wiping the trail of blood from her mouth. The sword in her hand wavered slightly, the colour of the blade changing with the angle. Standing was already getting difficult. She had to get rid of him soon. She didn’t have that many possibilities.
She nervously looked behind her. Clair lay on the ground, and Marle knelt beside her. Clair still didn’t move.
She had pierced her sword right through him, but he hadn’t let go of Clair until Eve had drawn it out and attempted the same again. Eve had wanted to cry at the sight of Clair’s pale and motionless face, had wanted to cry at her own inability to act sooner. In her rage she had fought the assassin with all she had, but he hadn’t gone down. He still stood in front of her even after taking so many attacks from her which he hadn’t even bothered to block most of the time, his face unreadable. He couldn’t be human. The spot in his stomach which she knew had its equal on his back was red and blood streamed from it, but he didn’t seem to recognize this. He stood before her, his right fist lifted to the height of his head, while his left hand flexed strangely beside his body. He was about to attack.
Eve tried to think of the best action to take. There was no way he was getting past her, but the distance of a mere two metres between them didn’t leave much room for excessive attacks. She had to settle for something simple.
“Get-out-of-the-way. You-are-not-the-queen.”, he said in his cold and monotone voice and Eve had to suppress the rush of anger that came over her. She would shut him up for good. He was going to pay for what he had done to Clair.
“Sorry, you’ll have to get past me first.”, Eve spoke through gritted teeth, trying to gain a few more seconds to think, but saw that the assassin wasn’t in for any more talk, for he came walking towards her.
There was no other choice but to use it. She might get herself in danger due to the close proximity, but her sword would be able to deal enough damage. If any at all.
“ElectroBolt!”, she shouted as she clutched the element she had taken out of her pocket only split seconds earlier. It glowed brightly and just as the assassin reached back a lightning bolt seemed to escape from Eve’s hands and hit the man in front of her, hurling him backwards and out of the window behind him. Eve herself was pushed backwards but quickly regained her footing and stormed towards the window, expecting to see him crashing to the ground. However, as she looked down she found nothing. Instead, she saw flakes of what seemed like small wet clumps of dust before her eyes and heard strange sounds above her. As she turned her head to look for their source, she froze. It was the assassin, crawling up the wall above her, his feet pushing him upwards with such force that it caused the stones to crumble slightly. He didn’t look at her, and Eve took the chance to turn around to look at Marle.
“Take care of her!”, was all she managed to say before she swung herself out of the window, gripping the edges of the square stones for support. They were slippery from the rain and she wondered how he could manage to climb up the whole wall without slipping. However, her features brightened slightly as she reached the even roof shortly after the assassin.
“Don’t think you can escape me now!”, Eve shouted, but stopped dead as she spotted another person on the roof, clad in black leather that glittered from the still ongoing rain. It was Viper.
“I see you are rather serious about protecting the dear queen.”, he said in amusement as he watched the assassin coming to stand in front of him, making it impossible for her to attack Viper first.
“I see you are rather serious about killing her.”, Eve responded, mostly because she could hardly think of anything better to say. As if things hadn’t looked bad enough already. There was no way she could take on both of them in a state that hardly allowed her to beat one. “Why is that?”
Viper chuckled at this question as if the answer was obvious. “I always wanted to live in a castle. So spacious.” He laughed again.
“Tell me the real reason.”, Eve said, not in a mood to be joked with. Buying time through talking also seemed to be her forte.
“The real reason you say. Power would be the most direct answer. Directly followed by doing humanity a favour in granting everyone equality.” Viper’s voice was serious and devoid of mockery, but Eve still had trouble to believe him.
“A favour? What kind of equality are you speaking of if it involves killing people such as the queen?”, she shouted angrily. He couldn’t be serious. No one could actually believe something like that.
“It is a sad fact that no changes can be made without sacrifices. But I don’t expect you to know how those things work.”, Viper said condescendingly.
“Power, you say. But it’s really money you want, isn’t it?”, Eve asked, changing the topic. She had trouble thinking of anything to say that wouldn’t make him unnecessarily angry and would just result in her death. However, she didn’t know what kind of help she was expecting in her situation. Surely Clair wasn’t the one who would save her this time. Her heart sank at the thought of her friend. Eve hoped she was alright.
“Money!”, Viper shouted and erupted into laughter, startling Eve out of her thoughts. “I wish you had any idea on how much money I have already invested into this...reformation. I already paid a horrendous sum just to have that woman out of my way. Which obviously hasn’t happened yet.” He shot a glare at the assassin at this last sentence. “There’s not much time left for you, so I advise you to hurry up.”
The man in front of Viper recognized this as an order and started to move out of his lethargy he had been in for the last few minutes. Eve knew there wasn’t much she could do.
It had taken her long enough to reach the castle, probably much longer than she was aware of. She finally saw the long flight of stairs and felt a strange mixture of relief and tension at the sight of it.
She had no idea what she was doing here, walking up to the castle, about to mess with Viper’s business like she had never before, getting herself into more trouble than she had to. She was probably too late anyway, but yet she continued. She didn’t know if she was trying to stop the assassination to keep her father’s hands from getting even more stained, or if she just wanted to do it to make herself feel better. It was pathetic, and she knew it.
Luccia walked up to two men who stood in front of the large and almost pretentious door that led to the interior of the castle. She regarded the guards, trying to make sure. She recognized the faces.
“Lead me to Viper.”, was all she said, and the guards nodded and opened the door for her. It was eerily silent inside the castle, and Luccia suspected that they had already gone through with their plan for the most part, for the few soldiers who were standing in the hall didn’t so much as look at her, knowing that she was with Viper. She had to admit that this time his plan wasn’t full of errors and miscalculations, and she almost doubted that her interference would change anything.
The two soldiers Luccia knew were some of Viper’s most trusted men lead her through a door and up a long staircase that was a little too long for Luccia’s comfort. After another door at the stair’s head, the soldiers brought her to a much better decorated, if strangely damaged door that Luccia knew would lead her to the queen’s room.
“That would be all.”, she said in a tone that bordered on ungratefulness and waited until the soldiers had disappeared through the same door they had just come through. Her fingers ran along the damaged and partly splintered wood of the door, as if people had rammed something against it.
Upon opening the door she heard a gasp and immediately found two eyes staring at her in what Luccia guessed was partly misery and partly anger. She leaned over another woman and Luccia immediately recognized her. She didn’t look good.
“Is she dead?”, she asked simply, trying not to sound too worried. She had nothing to do with this woman after all, even though she knew Riddel had, to some extend.
The woman Luccia knew had to be the queen looked at her as if suddenly remembering the woman on the floor next to her knees. She leaned down above her face and listened for any hints of breathing at all. As she looked up at Luccia again her voice wavered and sounded unsure. “She lives…I think.”
The look on her face was helpless and she looked close to tears, and Luccia had to try hard not to grimace. Such a useless woman after all. She walked closer to them, ignoring the doubtful look the queen gave her. She took Clair’s wrist and felt for pulse. She didn’t expect one, and every attempt to revive her would have been in vain regarding the time that must have passed already. However, the small movement beneath her fingertips told her that she wasn’t dead. At least not yet.
Luccia stood up again, looking at the door. It wasn’t bolted, probably because the queen had run out of the room for help, but upon finding none in close proximity, had retreated to her room. She slid the bolt across the door.
“You shouldn’t leave this room.”, was all Luccia said before her eyes fell on the broken glass lying in front of the now shattered window. She looked at the queen questioningly, but decided not to ask. She then heard voices and the sound of metal clashing against each other. It was an irritable sound.
She walked closer to the window and the sounds intensified. Luccia sighed in annoyance. She could imagine what was happening up there, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take any part in it. But another look at the queen nudged her consciousness towards the more dangerous option. Another sigh escaped her lips as she leaned out of the window, trying to make out the edges of the stones in the darkness. She hated climbing, but at least she would end this. For better or worse.
She made her way up slowly, being fully aware that she was by far no trained fighter, much less a climber. However, she reached the top with moderate effort but as she reached it she also knew that she had underestimated Viper. Vastly.
She had expected an ordinary assassin, someone who knew what he was doing, unlike the amateurs he liked to call his soldiers. Still, she hadn’t expected him to go this far. The woman Luccia knew to be one of Riddel’s acquaintances didn’t fight against just any assassin. Even in this darkness Luccia could see that she fought against Grobyc, and Luccia knew it was safe to say that her chances of winning were slim at best.
As expected she saw Viper standing at a safe distance, watching them fight with obvious satisfaction. As she met his eyes, she knew he had spotted her sooner than she had.
“Why, what a surprise to see you here, Luccia.”, he said and smiled disgustingly. “I was wondering where you were, seeing as how certain people arrived sooner than you did.” It was unbelievable how he could still smile like that, how he could still make fun of everyone like that. Not a single trace of the slightest worry on his face, it was almost remarkable. But maybe he was just too far out to care anymore. Luccia had the feeling that he would rather die than give up at this point.
“My apologies for not having come sooner. For not stopping you sooner.”, she said calmly, taking out her cards. It had been quite some time since she had last used them in a real battle, but she was sure that Viper was just as rusty as she was. It made no difference.
“I see you are finally honest with me, what a pleasant surprise.”, Viper remarked as he saw Luccia’s cards, and unsheathed his sword.
“Do you know the definition of this word?”, Luccia asked darkly, quickly glancing over to where Grobyc was fighting. She should have expected him, but even if she had, it would have been unlikely to find someone who could stand up to him. The girl fighting him seemed about to collapse. She had to hurry with Viper, even she couldn’t take on both of them.
She unleashed three cards at Viper, more to test his reactions than actually trying to hurt him on her first try. As expected, he destroyed all three of them in a single slash. Three cards were still not enough.
“I would think I know it quite well, Luccia.”, Viper answered, speaking her name with surprising disappointment. “After all, haven’t I been honest to you all the time? Don’t you know everything about my plans and schedules even though I have known all along that you were lying to me?” He came towards her, his steps slow and almost hesitant. “Didn’t I tell you anything, hoping that you would finally come to understand my plans to be the best solution?”
Luccia was taken aback by what he was saying, and couldn’t avoid it to show on her face for a second. He was right. She knew a lot about what he had been doing all this time. She had known that his soldiers had been infiltrating the castle for the last few months, under the cover of being one of the queen’s new soldiers. She had also known about the assassination. She knew the very details of his seizure of power, and they hadn’t been lies, for they were happening right in front of her eyes in this moment. He was right after all, in saying that she had ever been the only one to deceive him like this. She almost felt guilty.
“There is no need to talk to me like that, Viper. I have come to stop you, and your words will change nothing.”, Luccia said, her voice not wavering in the least.
“Such resolution. I wonder who did that to you, making you give up everything you worked for. You know that you can’t go on as a scientist without me. There is nobody else but me who would let you do your mad little experiments. Is my death worth that much?”, he asked, smiling wickedly. “You are nothing without me.”
Luccia stared at him. He liked that sentence, repeating it over and over to her, as if she would have ever forgotten it without his constant reminding. There was no way she would ever forget what she had given up today. “That's right. I will lose everything if I kill you. But that is what I want."
“Then I will not hesitate to give you what you seem to long for so much.”, Viper said, and without further words, charged her. Luccia saw the sharp blade of his sword approach, but couldn’t help but tear her eyes from it for a second to regard the other girl again. To her surprise, she still stood, still holding that sword of hers upright. Grobyc seemed unaffected enough, even though Luccia knew that even he couldn’t go on forever with that wound of his. His artificial arms and legs might work without blood, but his heart would still give out sooner or later. Luccia hoped that this would happen before the girl was killed by his enormous strength. Someone who was fighting so bravely didn’t deserve to die.
Her eyes returned to Viper just in time to sidestep his attack and throw another triple of cards at him, which, even without resistance on his part, did hardly damage to his thick black coat. She had known he didn’t wear something like this for nothing.
“That’ll teach ya.”, Kidd spat, kicking the motionless body in front of her once again for good measure. “Ya okay, Harle?”, she asked, looking over her shoulder to see Harle, standing above two other bodies with the same fate as the one before.
“Oui.”, she answered and stepped carefully over the bodies as if they were contagious.
“But really, there are so many of ‘em, we can’t really take ‘em all on by ourselves.”, Kidd said, looking around the corner of the corridor they were in, seeing another group of suspicious soldiers approach. “Honestly, what did they do with Marle’s soldiers?”, she mumbled, readying her dagger.
“Zey might be down in ze prison. Zere iz hardly any blood around here, so moi doezn’t t’ink zey are dead.”, Harle answered, voicing her suspicions. Viper had done a fairly good job to simply switch the queen’s soldiers with his own without it causing a ruckus. He seemed to be utterly serious this time.
“We’d better get ‘em, we could use a little help.” Kidd’s voice didn’t exactly sound worried, but Harle could feel that she could hardly stand not knowing what had happened to the queen. It was getting worse with every second.
As expected, the soldiers turning around the corner were surprised and thus soon beaten by both Harle’s and Kidd’s swift attacks. Still, they had no time to get every body out of the way, and sooner or later, someone would find them for sure.
They made their way to the prison as quickly as possible, but the resistance was thick and upon finally reaching it, Kidd had the feeling as if she had just fought against a hundred soldiers.
Kidd leaned down over one of the beaten soldiers on the ground, fumbling with the keys at his belt. Just like she remembered, the prison was even darker than the rest of the castle, and Kidd could only make out a few of the faces that were hidden behind the iron bars. They didn’t look good, much less like they understood the situation they were in.
Harle went closer to the bars, squinting to make out the shapes in the darkness.
“Iz everyone bien?”, she asked a bit hesitantly, and received a harsh cough for an answer. Eventually a shape shuffled among the others, and upon stepping in the dim light of the torches along the walls, Harle could see it was indeed a soldier, but his face was so beaten she had trouble to look at it and keep a blank expression.
“Who are you?”, the man asked, his voice straightforward but demanding as if to save the last shred of dignity he possessed. The various cuts on his face weren’t bleeding anymore, but Harle saw that the skin was still raw. His eyes were almost glassy.
“Here ta help ya.”, Kidd stepped in as she finally took the keys off the belt and tried them on the lock in front of her.
“It’s better to leave us here. It’s safer than outside. They would just put us in here again, anyways. If not worse.”, they heard a voice from behind the soldier in front of them. It sounded battered and weak, but Kidd couldn’t help but snort scornfully.
“Would ya listen ta ya? Can’t believe Marle’s been hiring guys like-“, she complained, but was silenced by the glare Harle was giving her. Harle shook her head in direction where the voice had come from, and as Kidd took a closer look, she saw a woman and a child behind a rather old man, the fear evident in their eyes. The woman looked like a servant, the child probably being her own.
“W…well.”, Kidd stuttered, embarrassed. She averted her eyes and instead looked at the man directly in front of her.
“What’s yer name?”, she asked. To her surprise the man seemed to think for a moment.
“You can call me Vanel.”, he then answered, his serious expression unchanging.
“Right, Vanel.”, Kidd confirmed, trying to show a gentle expression despite the stress. “How’s yer condition? Can ya fight?”, she asked, not about to lose any more time.
“Given a sword, I’m sure I can.”, he answered not without a hint of pride which had suffered a severe blow not long ago. “As do some of the other soldiers in here.”
Kidd nodded approvingly, then unlocked the door and saw Vanel step out of the cell, soon followed by a few more. Left were mostly women, along with two men who seemed to be cooks. Kidd turned around and picked up the sword that was lying beside her feet. She walked inside the cell and gave it to a woman who seemed to be of moderately good health.
“Just for safety.”, Kidd explained and smirked slightly at the baffled expression of the woman before her. She took it with trembling hands, but nodded. Kidd then went out of the cell and locked it. She felt uneasy about doing it, but knew that they were probably safest if the Viper soldiers couldn’t reach them in case they were to awaken sooner than expected. And in case they even noticed that five people were missing from the cell, which Kidd doubted.
“Go get the others.”, Kidd said to Vanel, tossing him the keys. She probably shouldn’t trust him like this, but there was little choice. “This time around ya should know who’s on yer side and who’s not. Do yer best in keepin’ them down. Don’t let ‘em get the upper hand just yet.”
Vanel nodded gravely and took the keys, then along with the men behind him picked up the swords that lay among the scattered bodies on the floor before proceeding on to the next cell.
Kidd and Harle watched him for a few moments before heading for the stairs that led upwards. However, before they reached it Vanel’s voice stopped them.
“You will…save the queen, won’t you?” His voice sounded unsure and was the direct opposite to the earlier sound of his voice. Kidd could tell he was serious. She turned around and faced him with a broad and self-confident smile.
“Sure thing!”, she shouted but didn’t wait for a response and instead grabbed Harle’s hand and dashed up the stairs. She hoped Vanel and the others would be able to stop Viper’s men at least long enough for them get to the queen. They reached a fortunately empty hall and immediately took the route Kidd knew led to the queen’s room.
The wind had picked up and her blonde strands whirled in front of her face. It was distracting. The even ground on the roof was also slippery with rain, and as she looked into the assassin’s face, she knew that she was the only one having trouble with this.
The assassin in front of her stood firmly, still hardly bearing any sign of fatigue or pain. It was impossible.
Her own legs were trembling with the effort of keeping her standing, the pain in her muscles increasing with every second. She was glad she was standing, she was sure she would fall right down to her knees if she just attempted to walk. But she knew that there was no way to win if she couldn’t move.
Her left hand trailed the side of her bruised jaw tentatively. He had gotten quite some blows at her, while she had only been able to plant a few cuts along his arms and legs that didn’t even seem to bleed.
“Why…why are you doing this?”, she asked between ragged breaths. She could as well try to buy even more time, even though she knew that his patience with her was growing thin. He had let her live long enough, he could have finished her countless times before. But even though his blows had almost punched her into unconsciousness, she had a feeling that he could get a lot worse if he was serious.
She saw him staring at her, just like he had for the last couple of minutes. For a moment she thought that he hadn’t heard her, but then his mouth moved to talk.
“Grobyc-does-what-is-expected-of-him.”, came the answer, and Eve almost laughed.
“And what do you expect of yourself? Do you expect you can be proud of yourself when you look back on all this in ten years?”, she asked, shaking her head.
“Such-things-do-not-matter.”, he replied, completely unfazed. Eve gritted her teeth.
“Damn you.” Did he tell her that he didn’t even have a reason of his own to do such things? That he did it just for money? That he hurt Clair, for money?
“What does matter, then?”, she snapped, for a moment forgetting about her wounds and bruises as she took a step forward, the sword’s tip which had rested on the surface of the roof now lifted again.
Grobyc didn’t say anything at first, but responded to Eve’s action by also taking a step forward. “Only-those-who-are-stronger-than-Grobyc.”
The answer caught Eve off guard, and she had trouble to hide her initial surprise. People who were stronger than him. How came that he listened to Viper’s orders, then? Was Viper really stronger than this assassin? Or didn’t that have anything to do with it, and he did it for the money after all? Or maybe he worked for someone else entirely? She had no