HT Chapter 7

Farah had taken the main road east, in the complete opposite direction that Aneurin had gone. She wandered through the streets silently, wanting to take to the roof but not being able to since the roofs were burned and falling down. She drew her bow as a precaution, walking slowly and prepared to dance in case she encountered any enemies, which weren’t always Ray’as. She kept her head up and her eyes on the look-out for anything out of the ordinary.

The first thing Farah noticed was how thoroughly the fire had burned the huts and everything else. It must have been a pretty strong fire in order to do this, nothing that ever really happens naturally. Considering how large the fire was and the initial reason why they were here, Farah immediately concluded that the fire was, in fact, Ray’as made. It was not far from the center of town when Farah also began to notice the bodies, and notice how neatly they were staked. Farah frowned.

The silence after the flames was thick. As Farah moved, the silence began to bother her. It consumed her, like a sickness, and the worst was knowing there was nothing that could be done about it. As Farah moved deeper east, more bodies appeared. The homes on this end of town weren’t as poor and cheaply made as the ones up north, but this was still not a rich area by any means. From what remained of the houses, Farah could tell that the fire was quick and relentless.

As she walked one house in particular sparked her interest, one whose walls had not been entirely destroyed. A pot sat in front of the doorway that she recognized; Farah walked over to it and picked it up. It was a brown pot, with a symbol on the front that Farah had seen plenty of times before. It was the diamond-like shape of the Assassin’s League, the symbol used for the pretend Euphasian Trading Co, and Farah hoped that this was the house of Sadia, Father Arin’s Carian contact who had reported the lead in the first place. Farah had known Sadia a little, having both seen her around and met up with her in this town on a few occasions back when Gideon was on the team in order to carry out a few smaller missions that weren’t actually directly related to the cause, but typical missions that teams often carried out anyway. They came to Carius on a few occasions, helping spark trade in the town with foodstuffs and other supplies and once even helping to build a school that Farah could see in the far off distance, now burned to the ground. Farah both hoped and dreaded the thought of seeing Sadia in the burned hut, knowing that if she was in there then she was as good as dead. Farah hoped that she had made it out, and as Farah looked at the inside of the burned and empty pot she hoped that she would find no essence of Sadia in the old hut. Farah put the pot back in the place she had found it.

When Farah entered through the doorway, still holding her bow, she saw that the back of the hut had been burned down. All the house’s contents had been destroyed, and nothing remained except the concrete foundation, just like the other houses in the village. So far, there was no sign of Sadia but Farah wouldn’t get her hopes up just yet. Farah decided she would continue to look some before coming to the conclusion that Sadia had gotten away. Farah walked through the empty back of the hut and landed outside in what used to be the backyard, where the last half of the roof had tumbled down upon. From the rubble, Farah could see a small hand sticking up out of the straw and stone. The hand was obviously a woman’s, and Farah’s heart sank. She sheathed her bow and pushed the rubble away with her foot, and uncovered the face of a blonde-haired woman completely burned and bleeding on the right side. That half of the face was burned far beyond recognition, however Farah could distinguish certain facial features from the other side. The woman had a slightly rounded face, with full lips that seemed better fit for smiling and small creases besides her eyes that indicated that the woman had spent most of her life laughing and smiling.

This was Sadia, and Farah closed her eyes. She bent down on the rubble so she could grab hold of Sadia’s hand.

“My Sister, may your soul be carried on the wings of Eternity, to the place where all our Brothers and Sisters make peace and merriment.” Farah spoke the blessing of the Assassin’s League softly, her voice pained. “Your job on this world is done, and your journey to Eternity has just begun.”

Farah stood sighed as if trying to push the image from her mind, and coughed slightly before drawing her bow once more and wiping her forehead of sweat and standing up. Farah did not cry, because she couldn’t. As a trained assassin, she was prepared and used to situations like this. Of course it depressed her, but she couldn’t allow herself to get sucked into the emotions. Farah turned away from Sadia, as if turning away from the memory of her with Farah, Aneurin, and Gideon building the school and carrying out other missions. She left the hut with her head up high as if the body was just another anonymous victim, and as if she had not even seen it. Farah resumed her stealth walk, her bow drawn, and reader to dance. It was obvious just by the way she carried the bow that she had been training with it for most of her life, and was indeed extremely comfortable with it. Farah looked as if she enjoyed a good fight, and of course enjoyed a good fight, however felt as though this village had enough blood and bodies on its land.

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Rune heard the noise and came running downstairs, dropping what he had been looking at, to meet Tempest faced with a rather large Ray’as. He was surprised to see the beast, yet, before Rune could get a word in the Ray’as, still facing Tempest, opened its mouth and screamed.

The scream was so loud that Tempest and Rune were nearly blown back by the sheer amount of power in the Ray’as’ voice. Instinctively, Tempest and Rune both went to cover their ears, but could not reach their ears in time before they were paralyzed. Was this fear that prevented them from moving? No, it was not. Adrenaline pumped through Tempest’s veins so quickly that it pained him being unable to swing a sword, to meet the Ray’as’ skin with metal. Rune felt nothing but pain as well, wanting more than anything to move and to fight. So this was not fear. This was something else. A force, that of which they had never felt before.

The Ray’as was laughing. He raised his free hand and pushed Tempest to the ground, and laughed some more. Once on the ground, Tempest realized he was able to move once again. Just as the Ray’as raised his greatsword to swing at him, Tempest raised his scimitars in an ‘x’ formation and attempted to catch the Ray’as’ blade.

Rune, still unable to move, was forced to watch. The Ray’as had not seen him yet, and was too caught up in fighting Tempest to notice him. Rune knew of the Ray’as’ short line of sight, but did not realize it was that bad. If only Rune could move, he would fight with every fiber of his being. But Rune could not move, and was thus stuck to watching it all happen without even being able to speak.

Tempest caught the Ray’as blade with his scimitars, but the force with which the Ray’as pushed down his sword was so great that Tempest was afraid the Ray’as would push past his defence. So just before Tempest lost hold of his scimitars he rolled out of the way, just missing the great blade as it swung down and hit the floor, cutting through the cement foundation of the church.

Rune was amazed to bear witness to this. What kind of metal was it made of that made it possible to cut through cement? The Assassin’s League had been battling the Ray’as for the past hundred years, but no one had seen a weapon such as this. If the Ray’as was able to cut through that cement with such ease, it was easy to imagine what kind of damage that sword could to do Tempest.

Suddenly, as though freed from a trap, Rune’s arms dropped to his sides and he fell to his knees. He took the opportunity to draw his weapon, a sickle attached at the end of a long chain. A Ray’as’ skin was tougher than steel, and they didn’t have any weak points except for one; the back of the neck where their skin was soft. This made it easy to decapitate them, and it was often decapitation that was the killing method of choice when dealing with Ray’as.

Tempest saw Rune moving out of the corner of his eyes, and when seeing the young assassin draw his weapon he knew what Rune intended on doing. Without making it obvious that he had seen Rune, Tempest made an effort to turn the Ray’as in a way that Rune would have easy access to the back of its neck. This meant not attacking the Ray’as directly, but playing with it and in the meantime, focusing on building his own defense. Revitalized, Tempest stood back up with a quickness, spread his feet apart, and raised his scimitars.

“Is that all? I’ve seen humans with more power in their little finger.” Tempest taunted the Ray’as.

“Whelp!” The Ray’as growled, falling for the taunt, and just as the Ray’as began to sprint towards Tempest with its greatsword raised, but just before it swung down Tempest jumped to the side, safely out of the way, and watched as the greatsword came down on the cement foundation again, cutting through it cleanly.

Rune knew what Tempest was doing, and with the Ray’as bent down like it was with its sword in the ground Rune knew he had a perfect shot. The trained assassin raised his sickle and swung it. The teen’s aim spot on like always, the sickle landed itself on the beast’s neck. The Ray’as shot up, surprised, but before it could turn around to meet its second attacker the child pulled the chain so that the sickle cut cleanly through the Ray’as’ neck. Its head rolled onto the floor, and its body fell to the concrete with a resounding thud.

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Aneurin was in the heart of the flames. He was hot and drenched in his own sweat, and his boots soiled by soot and the blood of the dead ones. He had discovered nothing of any use, no traces of Sadia nor of any survivors who could potentially shed some light on the strange occurrence of events that led up to the fire happening. All Aneurin found was burning bodies and crumbling houses, all caked in a thick coat of red.

As Aneurin walked, it got harder to breath as smoke and soot penetrated his lungs despite wearing his hood in a fashion that it covered his mouth and nose. He was beginning to cough more frequently, but continued to push on in hopes that the flames would die down soon. However, as he traveled deeper west it seemed as though the stubborn flames would not quench themselves any time soon.

After exploring as much of the west as he could handle, Aneurin decided to turn to the south. He could tell he was in the middle of the shopping district, as he was not encountering many homes so much as he was buildings with a purpose made obvious in its design and architecture. He searched through every shop he came across, only to find the charred remains of shop owners and their families.

Aneurin had been exploring what seemed to be an inn when he heard a sound behind him. He raised his metal claws, prepared to fight, and turned facing the direction the noise came in order to face the danger.

A Ray’as plowed through the wall, its sword drawn, and yelling. It said something Aneurin could not comprehend as it raised its sword, ready to strike down.

Aneurin was prepared to swing his claws when the Ray’as stopped in front of him and screamed. Aneurin was surprised and tried to ignore it, but the sheer force of the scream pushed him back and paralyzed him. Aneurin tried to raise his claws once more, but found that he could not move any part of his body. Confused, he watched almost helplessly as the Ray’as swung its sword to meet Aneurin’s flesh.

Though, Aneurin was not helpless. Just before the sword met the top of his head, Aneurin broke free of the strange trap the scream had laid on Aneurin’s body and he managed to move out of the way. The sword fell to the ground, cutting through the dirt and getting itself caught in the ground. As the Ray’as struggled to retrieve its sword, Aneurin drew his claws and swung them at the beast. They wrapped themselves around the beast’s neck, and Aneurin pulled forward so that the beast fell onto the hilt of its own sword. Temporarily knocked out, the beast laid there motionless. Aneurin took this opportunity to draw his sword and charge forward at the Ray’as. He cut through the beast’s neck, watched as the head rolled onto the ground, and its body fell limp in front of its sword.

Aneurin reached over and untangled the claws, retracted them and placed them back on the knuckles of his hands. He then looked over at the Ray’as’ sword. Aneurin had never seen the Ray’as use a weapon like it. And to have cut through the ground so easily, it must have been a powerful sword. Aneurin took the sword and the sheath, attached it to the other side of his hips, with the intention of bringing it back with him to the Assassin’s League and handing it over to Father Arin to be studied and observed.

The encounter over, Aneurin continued on his way with hopes of encountering Farah soon. It was now extremely difficult for him to breathe, and he wanted very much to meet up with the rest of the group and get out.

It wasn’t too long, however, before Aneurin encountered yet another Ray’as. It came at him from inside a burning store, and when he engaged in battle with it another Ray’as came from a different direction. And then another, until Aneurin was surrounded by five Ray’as.

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Farah had moved on from Sadia, and had continued on her way. The mission now done, Farah immediately moved south to meet with Aneurin. She wanted more than anything to leave this desolate, burning village of death behind her and never return to either the village nor the memories it held within its walls.

She moved quickly, her only objective to find Aneurin. Farah traveled the southern end of the village until she heard noises that sounded like steel clashing with steel. Farah broke out in a run, moving quickly towards the noises until the scene became clear to her. Before her eyes, in front of a small strip of shops, she found Aneurin in heated battle with two Ray’as, with three decapitated Ray’as strewn around him. It was obvious to Farah, however, that Aneurin was starting to struggle. Fighting three Ray’as was starting to take a toll on his body, on top of the pain he must have been feeling inside from having been exposed to the flames for so long. Farah immediately grew worried.

From a slight distance behind a building, Farah drew her bow and waited. When a Ray’as was turned in the right position, she let go of the arrow and watched it fly, striking the Ray’as in the back of its neck. Green blood flowed from the wound, and the Ray’as turned to search for the source of the arrow. Aneurin knew what had happened immediately, and took the opportunity to decapitate the Ray’as with his sword. Farah turned to look at the second Ray’as, who was behind Aneurin and was about to swing its sword, to take advantage of Aneurin in his tires and unguarded state. Farah immediately got to work on that Ray’as. She dipped her arrow in a small pouch full of poison attached on the belt at her hip, drew the arrow, and let go.

The poison had an immediate effect on the Ray’as, draining all of its energy and strength from its body. As soon as the poison entered its body the Ray’as fell to the ground. Aneurin took this opportunity to decapitate the beast.

“It’s safe to come, Farah.” Aneurin shouted for his companion to reveal herself. He coughed again and watched as Farah revealed herself from behind a burned building. She approached him, immediately checking him for wounds.

“Are you alright?” Farah searched him frantically, finding that his hood had been torn from his body and there were open gashes on his arms and on his abdomen, which was now exposed.

“They’re just scratches. I’m fine. Are you okay?” Aneurin tried to step away from her. She took the hint and straightened herself.

“I’m fine. Where did they come from?” Farah pressed. Aneurin shook his head, revealing that he did not know. There was a moment of silence, until Farah remembered something important. “I... have some bad news.” Farah frowned.

“It’s about Sadia, isn’t it?” Aneurin’s voice grew grim, and Farah nodded.

“She’s in Eternity now.” Farah said, a saying that revealed in itself that she performed the League’s blessing. Aneurin bowed his head in respectful silence. After the silence, Aneurin raised his head.

“We have to find Tempest and Rune and get out of here. There’s no use in wasting time here anymore.” Aneurin turned, and both he and Farah made their way north towards the center of town.

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“Let’s get out of here already before any more show up!” Rune made his way out the church. Tempest let him go, but made his time to look around a little more before deciding to move on. Satisfied there was nothing more to see, Tempest left the church behind him.

Now standing outside the church, Tempest and Rune stood wondering where to go next.

“We should start heading back. There’s nothing more to see here.”  Tempest sighed and began to walk in the direction in which they came. They had seen nothing except a Ray’as, and Tempest couldn’t help but feel as though they’d accomplished nothing. Rune, tired of the village anyway, followed surprisingly without a word.