Chapter 14: A Costly Mistake Pt.2 (Revised)

"Where?" Ira opened his eyes and was met with a small room, the only source of light was a candle that constantly flickered.

The only objects in the room were a table, which held the candle, two empty chairs next to the candlelight, and the bed which Ira occupied. He scanned the room but his senses didn't seem to work properly.

"Over here." The voice of a young boy echoed throughout the room.

Ira turned to look but couldn't find the exact source of the voice. "Over where?"

He looked around the room, but nothing could be seen outside the radius of the candlelight.

"Here." The voice responded, sounding much closer.

Ira turned his head to see an adolescent boy sitting in the chair next to the candlelight. The boy had pitch black hair which seemed to blend in with the darkness, much like Ira, but his eyes alternated between red and yellow. The colors changed in a rhythmic flow, slowly switching between yellow and red. His clothes were completely black and very similar to Ira's own.

"You're..." Ira stared at the boy. If anyone else was present they would've guessed Ira and the boy were siblings.

"Ha! It's you! Your voice is different but it's you. " Ira clapped his hands together and had a look of realization on his face. He slowly stood up from the bed, patting his clothes. The boy silently watched.

"So am I dead or something?" Ira scratched his head and asked curiously.

"No." The boy responded.

"Good. It would be too early if I did die." Ira walked to the table and sat in the remaining empty chair.

"Ha. 'Did die', see its kinda like dead die." Ira sported a clever smile, but seeing the boy maintain his indifference he cleared his throat and continued.

"Ahem. So...uh...are you gonna..."

"At this rate you'll be dead soon. It's really not looking so good..." The boy said before he smiled and pointed upwards. "...Out there."

"Uh..." Ira was at a loss for words. "Listen I just want to get back so can you-"

"Your bloodline." The boy interrupted with a small grin on his childish face.

"Is the exit that way?" Ira stood up and walked towards the darkness, but was met with an invisible wall, it seemed as if the boundary of the candlelight was as far as he could go.

"Well that's...weird." Ira tapped the boundary with his finger repeatedly.

"Hey, do you know why it's like this?" Ira turned around to see the boy standing right behind him, causing him to jump in surprise.

"Woah! Don't just stand there, at least say something. I couldn't even hear you move." Ira chuckled and clutched his chest exaggeratedly.

"Well? Gonna say something?" Ira asked casually as if the occurrence was normal.

The boy looked at Ira before slowly raising his hand.

"Your experiences so far have been... A little hard on your body. That last one even more so. I've decided to help you... Grow." He raised a single finger.

"What are you talking about?" Ira asked.

"I should at least let you know." The boy smiled as his finger slowly went towards Ira's heart. "This might hurt."

As soon as the boy finished speaking his finger touched Ira's chest. An indescribable pain ran through his body, it felt as if every single cell was set on fire. The pain spread from his heart to the rest of his body quickly. The boy stepped back with a grin before sitting at the table.

"Aaaaah!" Ira fell to the floor while clutching his chest.

"What...did...you..." Ira spoke through clenched teeth.

Instead of responding the boy ate a pastry that he appeared to pull out of thin air. It was almost like he was repaying Ira for ignoring him earlier.

"Better...not...be...mine..." Ira said incredibly slowly, groaning loudly after each word.

The boy paid Ira no mind as he finished the pastry and dusted his hands. "If I were you, I'd be worried about other things right now." He spoke leisurely as he raised his hand over the candle.

"Well, you staying here and screaming is a little... Annoying. So I'll send you on your way."

"Wait...you...fu-"

As the candle was snuffed out Ira disappeared from sight.

"You truly failed to remain intact, it’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising.” The voice of the boy echoed throughout the darkness as he spoke to no one in particular.

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"A few weeks ago, your squad was assigned to escort a group villagers to the Capital, is that correct?" Lieutenant General Ross inquired.

The conference room was now silent, only Lt. General Ross and Captain Avery were the ones speaking.

"It is." Captain Avery responded plainly.

Lt. General Ross' face slightly twitched at her response. Although she was lower in rank she didn't call anyone "Sir", not even General Holchester. In addition to the fact that one got the faint sense of disregard when speaking to her.

"So why is it you've only come back with eight, including your Vice Captain, who seems to be missing his legs?" Lt. General Ross asked.

"Well I killed seven, and cut Vice Captain’s Lieutenant Robert's legs off." Captain Avery responded with a bit of added sarcasm.

"Insolence! General Holchester, we must imprison her, she committed a crime against the kingdom with no regard for the consequences!" An old Lt. General shouted abruptly.

Captain Avery grinned faintly and slightly readjusted her posture. Her whole temperament made it seem as if she was dealing with children.

"That's enough. We will continue with our inquiry before taking action." General Holchester spoke, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Captain Avery then at Lt. General Ross and nodded. Inwardly he was dissatisfied with Avery who at the moment showed complete disregard for any potential punishment.

"You've previously stated you were attacked by your own knights who were working with assassins. Is that correct?" Lt. General Ross asked.

"It is." Captain Avery responded plainly once again.

"Captain Avery..." Lt. General Ross paused. "...The seven Knights who were incapacitated didn't witness the situation personally, the kids you escorted didn't see any of the fighting but heard it, and the boy who you claimed helped you is nowhere to be found currently. We've interrogated Robert but he has said, you hired that boy to help you kill off the Knights and pin it on one of your enemies, paid off the village kids corroborate your story, and in addition the bodies of the so called assassins were nowhere to be found when we sent a team to check... Is it true this is just a plot to incriminate another noble family?" Lt. General Ross said slowly. He was inclined to see his own conjecture as the truth.

He believed the Thynne Family was failing and this was just a trick to try to hold on a bit longer. Wesley Fairfax held a taunting smile while Glenn Marbot kept a plain expression, the military men and nobles of the room had grim expressions, showing they also believed Robert's story to be true.

"Lt. General, if I may speak frankly, and I will. That is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard, and if you actually believe that poorly constructed lie, then you aren't any smarter than that crippled Knight." Captain Avery paid no attention to the angered expression of most of the people in the room and continued.

"The biggest hole in that terrible lie is that I've yet to accuse anyone of anything. Also, why would I keep him alive if he would speak against me? You probably assumed that he would only tell the truth because he has nothing left to lose, seeing as he is missing his legs and his career is over at this point. I call that idiotic and naive. I have already found those who are the most likely to have planned this already, no thanks to your incompetence." Captain Avery finished talking and reclined in her chair, her eyes slowly hovering over each noble in the room as if she was a predator, the only one she didn't spare a glance at was Wesley Fairfax.

"Insubordination." Lt. General Ross' face turned slightly red with anger as he put his hand on the hilt of his sword. The other lower ranked military men in the room also followed his actions.

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"You are under military arrest until your official trial." General Holchester spoke solemnly. He couldn't allow the military to be made a fool of, even if the Thynne family was rumored to have a hidden strength.

"Haah. I think all of you misunderstood something. There will be no arrest, no trial, and certainly no consequences." Captain Avery sighed lightly as she leaned forward.

"There'd be no inquiry if I didn't need to find the one who made the mistake of taking action against my family, that's the only reason why I'm here. I don't think you realize why my family is never around, why we don't entertain these silly political games, why we aren't vying for control, why we show no interest in anything pertaining to the Kingdom's power balance. I didn't enlist in the military to gain influence nor garner support, neither did my mother, aunts, or cousins, before me. This was all to gain experience. We see your entire military as nothing more than a learning experience." Captain Avery's voice became louder.

"It seems all of you have forgotten, you assume my family to be in shambles, that we've fallen beyond repair. Unfortunately for you that is the furthest thing from the truth. Apparently a reminder is needed, if that's the case so be it." Captain Avery finished speaking before standing up and pulling a pendant from under her military jacket.

By now everyone in the room wished to see her in chains, such an arrogant display and open disdain for the Kingdom was nothing short of treachery.

"You're insane."

"Delusional."

"The mad ravings of a fallen noble."

"Insolent wench!"

"Traitor to the Kingdom."

Insults and criticisms filled the room, but Captain Avery remained unbothered.

"You should know that the price of treason is an immediate death. No matter how strong your family is, you also have included them in your treasonous statements." General Holchester spoke as he raised his hand.

"Avery Thynne, I strip you of your military rank and sentence you to death immediately." General Holchester waved his hand and the men in the room drew their weapons.

Dozens of swords were unsheathed as the men slowly walked closer to Avery. Although many swords were pointed at her she didn't show any change. She raised the small pendant to her lips, upon closer inspection it was an intricately carved whistle made from bone. It held the shape of two wings on each side with the word 'Thynne' carved in between them.

Avery gently blew the whistle, and even though no sound was produced she continued.

Everyone went silent upon seeing her. Maybe she was truly crazy, another fallen noble dead because of her arrogance and delusions.

Avery tucked the pendant back into her shirt and showed a small grin.

"What was that going to do? You don't seem to recognize the situation."Wesley Fairfax started to taunt.

He grew tired of the Thynne Family being called the number one family. Although they raised strong daughters, they had no influence over anything in the kingdom, other than a long history most have forgotten about they had nothing to brag about, or so he thought.

"I'll be glad to see-"

Before Wesley could finish.

A loud rumbling moved closer and closer.

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A few moments before.

A loud rumbling, akin to thunder, could be heard throughout the Kingdom alarming everyone. Buildings lightly shook and some people even lost balance and fell to the ground. A lot of citizens were confused and panicked, some thought it was an enemy attack, others thought it was a sign from the Gods and began to pray.

"W-What's that!" Someone pointed to the sky.

A dark silhouette, too small to be a dragon but too big to be a bird, moved at a speed that was incredibly hard to keep track of. It cut through the clouds and headed towards the military building in an instant, leaving a continuous rumble behind it. The dark figure made an abrupt stop in front of the the top floor of the Military center. The sudden stop caused the air to explode and blow open the entire wall.

"Oh Gods!"

Ordinary people fell to their knees and vowed. While Mercenaries, Adventurers, Knights, and anyone else experienced with combat all tensed up, a thin layer of sweat covering their foreheads and palms. Even a dragon couldn't abruptly stop in the middle of its flight, in fact there weren't many things that could.

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"What the hell..." A man holding a sword spoke. A couple seconds after the loud rumbling noise ceased it was strangely quiet. Everyone looked at each other then at Avery who looked upon them as if they were worthless. It was clear she was looking down on everyone in the room.

All of a sudden a loud explosion blew the walls of the top floor away.

The tables and chairs flew sending the occupants flying with them. Only General Holchester stayed upright, but still was pushed towards other side of the room. He drew his sword and stuck it in the floor to slow himself. With the sound of wood being continuously being split sword cut into the floor leaving a large scar through the floorboards, and only after twenty feet was General Holchester able to stop himself although he had to use a considerable amount of power to do it.

Avery remained in the same exact spot, her hair was slightly disheveled but she was perfectly fine. A hand was on her shoulder and the owner of the hand was a beautiful woman with dark purple raven-like wings and bright silver eyes in comparison to Avery's duller shade of silver eyes, the woman's appeared to be glowing.

The woman looked exactly the same as Avery, her dark purple hair was loose and hung down to her back. She wore a bright silver armor and a sword in a simple brown leather scabbard also hung on her hip. Steam slowly emerged from the armor, futher enhancing the woman’s image.

Avery remainder silent, crossing her arms and watching the occupants in the room. The woman sent looked around the room leisurely. Her eyes paused on General Holchester.

"Ah, Major General Holchester wasn't it?... Well, maybe it's General now." The woman spoke in a plain tone, neither anger nor happiness could be found in it. She looked at General Holchester's emblems and noted his rank. Her voice was youthful but seemed to convey experience.

"Do...Do I know you?" The General gathered his nerve and gripped his sword tightly.

"My sister, Judith, turned down the promotion to Major General, and recommended you instead. I still remember when she spoke of you, 'A man with talents in swordsmanship and a sharp mind' I believe those were the exact words." The woman said non-hurriedly as she rested her hand on the pommel of her sword.

"I think she wanted to stay in the military, if it wasn't for family circumstances I'm sure she would've. Though she was still young." The woman reminisced.

"...Who are you?"

The unsteady voice of Wesley Fairfax rung out while he struggled to his feet. His clothes were torn and he suffered some bruises on his body from the impact.

"Hmm. I could ask you the same thing. Nonetheless, my name is Casey Thynne, I'm sure you know of my daughter, Avery Thynne." Casey introduced herself before she turned to General Holchester.

"General. My niece admired you, even though you are a human, she said you were wise and possessed great strength..." Casey Thynne concentrated her gaze.

"I'm honored she would say that much about me. " General Holchester responded as he began to feel tense and tightened his grip on his sword.

"But I think she was wrong about one thing." Casey Thynne said grimly. The temperature in the room seemed to cool immediately.

"...And what is that?" General Holchester stood up and took a defensive stance.

"General, if I'm here..." Casey Thynne drew her sword.

It made no sound as it was pulled from the scabbard but it carried an imposing force that caused the air to be still. The sword was very simple, a plain long sword with no blemishes, but it seemed to carry a history with it, an experience that could be perceived by the naked eye, just one look at it and anyone would instinctively feel that it was used in hundreds or maybe even thousands of battles. Everyone felt the change in the room and began to feel nervous.

"...that means you aren't very wise at all."

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