The Forsaken Hero

The courtyard froze as Aerion’s words landed like a thunderclap. All eyes stared at him, but slowly, with the tentativeness of the quiet before a storm, heads began to turn. They looked to their commanding officers, to the walls, to the guards posted on the tree branches of the grove. The echo of Aerion’s voice faded, plunging the grove into silence.

Then, a single swordsman raised his sword, a soldier in the midst of the Ellenwinter guard. In a voice that suffocated in the tension, yet rang in every ear, he cried, ”For the Crimson Dawn!”

Disbelieving eyes fastened on him, his own companions retreating as they saw, for the first time, the red thread tied around the cuff of his uniform. An Ellenwinter uniform.

But he wasn’t alone. One by one, and two by two, swords rose, baring their crimson threads in allegiance. The Lords and inquisitors looked on, growing unease, the damn holding their anger weakening with every cry.

Lord Ellenwinter’s knuckles went white as he ripped his sword from its sheath. The leather groaned in protest as the steel emerged, its tip trembling with the force of his fury. His voice, sharp and cracking with rage, cut through the silence. ”You worthless bastard,” he roared at Aerion, ”If a mewling child like yourself thinks himself equal to the purest blood noble in Sylvarus, come and prove it. I’ll strike you down myself!”

”Try it if you can, old man,” Aerion sneered. He raised his sword again, letting his power manifest across the blade in wisps of light that seemed to cut the air itself. ”For Sylvarus!”

With the cry ringing from his lips, he dropped from the sky, streaking toward Lord Ellenwinter. The aged elf lunged to meet him, their swords meeting in a clash that rang so loudly it shook our skyship. A shockwave swept out, sending nobles and soldiers alike tumbling back across the trembling earth.

As the two locked blades, the courtyards were in chaos. Crimson threads flashed as soldiers finally took to violence, throwing themselves at their former comrades. The elves of the Whitemarsh guard, far outnumbered by the garrisons assembled by the Splitbarks and Ellenwinters, cut through their confused, broken ranks, securing their noble charges an escape. Spells of every color flashed across the courtyard, and arrows darkened the air. Blood splattered across the cobblestones, pooling in the cracks as the grove was washed in blood.

”It’s started!” Korra’s voice found me, unaware I was witnessing the lawless horror myself. ”Things went as poorly as we expected. We’re about to engage the inquisitors.”

I quickly found her through the chaos, fighting beside Gayron as they charged through a battalion of Ellenwinter soldiers. The deep blue of her water dragons rose and fell, working in serendipitous harmony with Gayron’s fiery clones, leaving dozens dead in their wake.

A sudden gale rocked our ship, sending me back against Victor. he stabilized me and quickly let go again, and I pressed against Fyren, holding his arm as more shockwaves reached our position.

”Get us some altitude! We’ve got to get the Azure Wing clear of the battle!” Captain Melvet shouted, his face grim.

Azure Wing? It took me a few seconds longer than I cared to admit to figure out he was referring to our ship. Somehow, I’d never actually gotten its name, despite the fact that I was certain someone must have mentioned it.

The soldiers worked frantically, and within seconds, my stomach landed in my feet, the ship abruptly climbing.

And not a moment too soon. A blast of emerald green emerged from the chaos, soaring into the air. It was R’lissea, riding on wings of magic, with Borealis and Fable beside her. She cast a spell, and seven magic circles appeared, summoning a life dragon to her side. Fortunately, they targeted one of the other skyships above the grove, letting us slip away unnoticed. The last thing I wanted to do was reveal ourselves and force her to worry about us.

The Azure Wing rose, climbing high into the clouds, out of sight and range of the spells being flung below. But even as we gained altitude, my heart sank as I watched the battle through the Nexus.

Aerion’s duel with Lord Ellenwinter was surprisingly even matched. They sparred cautiously, trying to gauge their opponent, much as Fyren and Arantius had. Lord Evlon and his party of inquisitors had engaged Korra and Gayron. The water hero fought the high inquisitor herself, while Gayron battled the rest with an army of clones. I wished I could watch a little longer to be sure they were safe, but Borealis suddenly rose toward us, gathering mana.

He released a blast of pure ice mana in our direction. The ship banked sharply, narrowly avoiding the beam, but thick frost patterns scrawled across the hull. My breath clouded as a wave of frigid air swept over the deck, and I soul cast a temperature spell, adding it to the Nexus.

”Korra,” I said, contacting her through our bond.

”Xiv? What are you–” she started, cutting off as the brief distraction very nearly caused her to soak one of the inquisitor’s attacks.

”Korra, listen. Don’t worry about the skyships over the rest of the city. I’ll make sure they don’t interfere at the grove. Let me do this much,” I pleaded.

She was silent for a split second, which to her battle-accelerated mind might as well have been an hour.

”Fine,” she relented, ducking another wind blade. ”But you stay out of danger, hear me?”

I nodded, and blushed when I remembered she couldn’t see it. ”R-Right. And would tell everyone else, too?”

”On it.”

I broke our link and watched as Borealis veered away. It would have been simple to communicate with him and R’lissea myself, but then I’d risk drawing their focus, and they’d surely realize how close I was through the nexus. At this point, I wasn’t sure how important keeping our presence a secret was, but until the archon arrived, it would be best to lie low lest we inadvertently attract its attention.

After gaining a little more distance from the fight, I sent a soul stream of instructions to Zephyriss, giving her permission to take her demons and hunt the skyships hovering over the city. It wouldn’t be long before they found dense enough targets amongst the Crimson Dawn and opened fire.

”Are you certain you don’t wish to destroy them?” FYren asked when I opened my eyes again.

I nodded. ”They’re too important to the elves. As long as she just grounds them, they won’t be able to intervene.

As the minutes passed, the demons scattered through the city at my command began filtering information. I’d practiced long and hard with the primordial mark, but the sheer scale was overwhelming, leaving me nauseous and overwhelmed.

”Allow me,” Fyren said, gently inserting himself between me and the demons.

I breathed easy as the tide slowed. Fyren, trusting me enough, still let raw soul speak through, but he filtered it for relevance. Slowly, a scene took shape, a fragmented view of the city from a hundred different angles. I saw squads of crimson dawn soldiers on the move, mustering in small armies that roved the streets, searching for anyone wearing the crests of Splitbark and Ellenwinter. The loyalists, for thus I decided to call them, were swift in retaliation, marching in force on garrison locations within the manors, often killing and burning their way through the rest of the grounds to reach them. Hundreds, maybe thousands, died in the first few minutes alone, the bloodshed slowly spreading until it engulfed the entire city.

”Fyren,” I said, as a demon notified me of a skyship setting course for the Sunsinger Estate. ”Please, could you direct a few Devoted to protect them? It looks like Aerion deployed most of its garrison to strategic centers in the city, so it’s kind of exposed. There are a lot of inquisitive people with them, so they must be looking for me.”

He looked over the soulspeak, gathering the details for himself. ”Send Zephyriss,” he returned.

”What? But isn’t she a little...much?”

”Exactly. It will mislead them into thinking there’s a reason for it. And what other reason could there be than you?”

”I, well...the Sunsingers?”

”The ones who just began an open revolt in the square? As far as I know, no one remaining in the mansion is of any consequence to the church.”

I was quiet for a long time. ”They’ve been very kind to us, and I don’t want anything to happen to them,” I said, shuddering as I thought of what I saw playing out around the city, happening to the servants and elves who had taken care of me all these months.

If he thought my reason trivial, he withheld from me, relenting with a nod and sending a stream of soulspeak to Zephyriss. A moment later, I felt the Storm Demon streak away from the ship she’d been toying with, leaving it to her minions to force it to the ground.

But as that worry left, more arrived. Thick plumes of smoke rose from the city centers as the scattered soldiers of the Crimson Dawn began to organize in forces large enough to contest the loyalists’ strongholds.

As I looked around, searching for something to do, a wave of light swept over the city, filled with pure, unadulterated divine mana. I turned toward its origin, seeing a cathedral through the eyes of an aerial storm demon.

Fyren’s aura tightened, his hand rising to grip the hilt of his sword. ”It’s here.”