The fallen's lament

Eventually, Rose tilted her head towards the Everseer. “Why have you here Everseer?”

Sighing as he replied, the Everseer looked at the ground, avoiding Rose’s gaze.

“The council received a letter from the palace today, you and your…” – turning to David and Sophia as he continued his sentence – “students, are to come to them at once.”

Nodding, Rose picked David up off the ground, ushering them both along to the village centre, where the masked council head was reading from a guilded bit of parchment.

“Attention villagers, I am lord Chris Phillips, and my scouts have reported seeing my daughter in your custody, release her or I will be forced to take drastic action which will end in your village being burned to the ground, the heretic servant boy I couldn’t give to rats about but I demand my daughter back unharmed or there will be blood.”

Rolling up the parchment as he finished, the council head simply sighed and said

“Well he seems very unhappy doesn’t he? Oh well.” And with that, he tossed the parchment to the dirt.

Turning his head towards Sophia, the councilman seemed to be slightly concerned as he addressed her.

“Sophia, I think it’s time you and David learnt the truth about this village, and its connection to the palace, but, I will let Rose do it, as you seem to be more trustworthy of her, then of I.”

Sophia, David and Rose all nodded, Rose had already turned sharply on the spot, grabbing Sophia’s and David’s wrists tightly, leading them back to the field, sitting them down, taking a few steps forward and turning to face them, she finally spoke.

“So, what would you like to know?”

Sophia almost immediately began her question.

“How does my father know about this village? Why does he hate you? How does he know we are here? How…” As though she knew what Sophia’s next question was going to be, Rose put her hand up to silence Sophia as she answered the questions.

“In order, your father tried to pull us into this village when he first discovered us, tried to make us servants of his, he hates us because we rebelled and killed his first family and crippled him, he’s the king, he’s got scouts and spies everywhere, oh, and yes, those hooded ones are the people that joined him, the captain was probably a palace guard of high status, anything else?”

After a few minutes, David spoke up.

“So, the hooded ones, they… betrayed the village for the palace?”

Rose simply nodded her head before she gave them the command to stand.

Over the weeks Rose trained them, even the Everseer stopped by to help Rose in teaching them teamwork, which only grew Sophia’s interest in their relationship with each other, the days were long and relentless, with Sophia juggling her training and Autumn’s stall, with David juggling his own stall and his training, with Rose teaching them face to face combat by day, the Everseer teaching them scouting by the nights, how to hunt, to track, to trap and ambush their targets, and how to identify weak spots in a pressured situation.

After what felt like a year, David and Sophia were preparing for their first battle; their emerald green armour reflecting the bright sunlight, David was holding his broadsword in both his hands, Sophia gripping her stiletto and sickle sword in both her hands, Howard stood beside them, as he pointed with one hand, which they both noticed her was only holding one blade, which seemed to be twice as thick as his usual ones, David questioned him about this, but Howard simply winked as he pointed to the horizon,, where the hooded ones began to march out of the woods, their weapons raised high in the air, with their black leather armour barely showing under their robes, as they reached the edge of the field, the hooded stopped, just before a tall muscled figure who had a tabard draped over his chest and armour, bellowed to the villagers.

“This is the new captain of the exiled ones, I would like to request one of your number to meet me halfway along this field, let us at least try to solve this like civilised people with minimum bloodshed, you may come armed if you choose to, I will not refuse you, as a sign of faith I will carry only my armour! What say you?”

Rose unbuckled her blade, passing it to the Everseer as she strolled forward, stopping a few paces before the captain

But, fate had decreed that they fight, which was made clear as Rose delivered a sharp uppercut to the captains jaw, turning abruptly and strolling back to the Everseer, who passed her weapon back to her, Rose turned back to the now recovering captain, who strutted his way back to his men, one of whom passed him a heavy looking war hammer, holding it in both his hands, the captain turned to glare at Rose, who was smiling sweetly at him as she donned her warrior crown as the Everseer began to spin his war staff in front of him.

Unaware to everyone except Rose, who had glanced up as what appeared to be dark clouds which were massing above the battlefield, pouring heavy rain down upon both sides, As David and Sophia heard the almighty war cry from the captain, there came a loud bellow of thunder, a bolt of lightning stuck down somewhere in the now un see able enemy, the rain however, seemed to end once the lightning had struck, the clouds dispersed as quickly as they came, leaving the plain sight of the captain lying in a charred heap on the floor, his hammer itself had melted onto his hand, the thick gooey bubbling metal beginning to solidify on his hand and wrist.

The Villagers had turned in unison, David and Sophia turned themselves to see what the new interest was, David could just see a long slender red haired woman, her robes and elegant shade of Red with a trim of pink, her head was hung low as her arms lowered, from what he could see of her face she had runic symbols adorned along her face and body, two symbols were visible on her hands, a small necklace with strange wooden sticks attached to them, each being carved with a different picture and rune.

The villagers bowed low and separated to let this new mysterious woman through, David and Sophia did the same as some sort of instinct, as she almost glided forward her eyes became apparent, her eyes a deep black, which seemed to cause fear into most of the villagers, which they held a small moon in the centre, which inspired hope into them, which made Sophia’s mind wander into thought, the strange figure stopped next to Rose, who bowed her own warrior’s bow, the woman nodded her head low in return, speaking in a mysterious tone.

“Now is the time for these holy fields to once again be tainted by the blood of the corrupt dear Rose?”

Rose let out a laugh as the hooded figures seemed to be backing off.

“My dear Chloe, you know the price of war, although I must say it’s nice to see you as part of the village once again, it’s been to long.”

Chloe almost seemed to smile as she returned.

“It looked like you needed my help with this one, and we have new comers, it would be rude not to introduce myself.”

Rose now looked insulted as she almost shouted back.

“What do you mean I needed your help… ”

However, Chloe quickly cut her off.

“Hot headed as always Rose” Rose growled, her weapon brandished – “That captain had the same art as me, he would have used them to his advantage and would have killed everyone here, so stay your tongue until you think first Rose, there is a reason... to everything that I do”

For once, Rose was silent, a look of shock on her face.

Chloe tilted her head towards the hooded army, chuckling to herself before turning to the Everseer.

“Do I have your permission to use my talent? To show those who are lost in the dark the way to the divine gods of fate?”

The Everseer nodded slowly, Chloe turned her attention back towards the hooded figures, who were marching forward, Chloe raised her arms high in the air, bringing them together above her head, and her voice chanting what appeared to be a spell to the air, her hands began to separate, a mass of flame had erupted from her hands, the flames dancing across her hands harmlessly, continuing to chant as she whipped her arms down, bringing them up in a swiping motion, sending a wall of flame in to their ranks, setting those in front alight while the rest threw themselves to the floor, the screams of those caught in the fire could be heard a mile off, their face burnt and singed ion the flame, their clothes crumbling away as their weapons melting into a metal glob on the floor next to them, as though she was filled with rage, Chloe held her arms out in front of her, her hands spread apart, her chanting becoming more rushed as one of her necklace pieces began to glow, another ball of flame formed in-between her hands.

The hooded ones began to charge, directly for her, Rose, Howard and the Everseer leapt forward, along with the rest of the villagers, clashing and re directing their charge away from Chloe, David and Sophia ran into the fray, using their training to avoid the hits and dish out enough of their own, ducking, swiping and stabbing, Chloe however had disappeared, at least.