Chapter 16: 16 – Fools

Ruianne and High Mountain ran past the arena’s destroyed north gate, into a gathering spot right outside. There they met both vanguard squads' commander, princess Ilili’na.

“Your Highness!” High Mountain saluted royalty.

“It’s about damn high time! We were bored out of our minds waiting in the bushes... for a whole month! Do you know the logistics of that!?”

“Ilili’na... This is a delicate matter, it’s not simply to charge forward. And you shouldn’t have come yourself! It’s too much risk!” Ruianne spoke to her as one would towards a younger sibling.

“You came here all alone, in the first place, to liberate everyone and what a mess you’ve made. And then you pontificate me about my decisions!? What a graceful non-princess you are.”

High Mountain interrupted their usual quarrels “Highnesses, this is not the time. We have businesses to attend.”

“Bullseye, High Mountain. How does our fellow kinn’hayas evacuation fare?

“Most are well on their way to freedom, several stragglers remain though.”

“Good, the other vanguard team will meet them right ahead.”

Princess Ilili’na turned to her squad. “Our team will cover their backs and help any stragglers we encounter. Suppressors are our trump cards, protect them before anything else. We don’t need mindless bloodshed, just to buy enough time for everyone to escape! I hope you can help too Ruianne, this being your plan and all!”

“It wasn’t only mine...” She remembered. What happen to X? Dead? Alive? Her mind returned to the task at hand. “High Mountain will join your team moving after our kinn’hayas brothers and sisters. I’ll stay behind and help anyone hurt or lost.”

“If anyone stayed behind their collars must likely-”

“I’ll try... and look for anyone still with their human subjugators,” she interrupted High Mountain.

“I’ll leave Ireile with you.” Ilili’na pointed towards a female elf who took one step forward. “Do what you can but don’t be late. And good work everyone. Our standing army is waiting fo-” Before princess Ilili’na could finish speaking the elves detected a change in elements, then a delicate, almost imperceptible sound and next came visual confirmation. The barrier was going up.

“What the-? Didn’t you hit the gatekeepers?!”

“We got them all! We always do our jobs!”

“Then why the hell is it going up!?”

“I don’t know! They shouldn't be able to do it this fast.”

“Damn it!”

“We’re fucked...”

In this moment they realized their mission went from an already risky extraction to a fight for survival, losing morale along with the element of surprise.

The slaves and their saviors raced against time, trapped inside Saint Jaulea they’d perish, not without a fight, without bloodshed, but perish nonetheless. Desperate kinn’haya faces kept fighting, running, yelling, and trying to come up with a sound plan amongst their steadily decreasing options.

Alarms went off in every road they stepped in, human commoners locked themselves inside their homes, while those more combat oriented or bold enough took arms and joined the fray. News traveled fast and all orders of knights, adventurers and mercenaries descended upon them.

In the thick of battle while swords swung, arrows flew by and magik flowed non-stop, Ruianne and Ilili’na concluded their only fighting chance resided on blowing a gateway to kingdom come, defended as they would be. But not the one both vanguard squads came through, but the one south. They knew barriers’ weak point laid in attacks from the inside, problem for them remained the same; rivers of humans keeping them from doing so. And their plan didn’t account protecting their fellow kinn’hayas. Trying to keep everyone or mostly everyone alive while taking down a gate would prove a colossal undertaking but one they had to take. They had one element going on for them, their races innate abilities. While less in numbers, elves’ magik and feralis’ agility and strength, which made up most of their combatants, imposed a temporary stalemate.

Under debris and smoke a dreadful sight loomed, slain bodies littered the arena, which had turned into a a slaughter zone. Screams broke through an unnatural calm. After kinn’hayas retreated south, humans took it and, in a rage, gutted, maimed and killed whatever slaves didn’t manage to flee. The battle took a turn for the worst, Ilili’na’s vanguard got ambushed and pinned down while Ruiannes’ whereabouts became a mystery. Fighting for survival and with dwindling numbers they held on for one last miracle.

*

And what of our elf? In the confusion he crawled away best he could, his survival instincts kicked in and lead him towards the burning debris, in search for a place to hide under the heavy smoke. With his working hand he tied a piece of clothe, from some dead human, around his head. He concealed his most notorious features, his ears and hair, and continued crawling east.

X knew the fight would either go south or north and wanted none of it. Humans and kinn’hayas ran past him, no one payed him any attention, everyone ran for their lives. After a while he only saw humans, and several minutes later, no one walked down those streets. His head spun, his eyes lost focus too often and his arm doubled its original size. He stopped and stood still best he could, trying to balance himself against a nearby tree, and looked around. With people holed up in the relative safety of their homes, he had those deserted streets all for himself and his shaky legs.

The far and few in between human souls he did pass by yelled at him to find shelter. In the commotion, without his slave collar and hidden ears, people mistook him for a commoner. X kept limping east, the sounds of battle and screams of terror lost their impetus and barely reached him anymore. At that moment he saw a miracle, thousands of colorful branches spread throughout the firmament, a beautiful sight engraved in his mind, a wonder of this new world. A translucent membrane, a soft crystal, enveloped Saint Jaulea. He felt humbled and yearned to learn everything about it.

Not much later he turned southeast, a checkpoint dissuaded him from continuing straight ahead. It didn’t matter in the end. A bubbling taste invaded his tongue, ambient pressure dropped, storm clouds crashed the horizon. He savored freedom within his grasp.

*

He enjoyed himself cutting down any putrajado unlucky enough to cross his path, but his mind focused on searching one of those undesirables. And sooner rather than later he hit jackpot. Lord Derreick had found her. The female elf his family rescued from a certain life of violence and abuse, the one he payed a fortune for and made enemies in the process, the one he opened his House’s door to and took under his family’s name in an act of compassion and mercifulness. The one who disfigured his wife with a lightning discharge. And she wasn’t alone.

“We welcomed you into our House, you putrajada!”

“Welcomed?!” Ruianne laughed aloud. “Your own hubris will be your undoing. We are slaves no more!”

“Slaves no more!” the kinn’hayas behind rallied around her.

“Continue without me! Go to the south gate. This is my fight!”

“But Delia’ilu-”

“Go!”

Lord derrick didn’t care for those putrajados fleeing from him, they’d be apprehended later.

“A slave showing off values as sacrifice and honor? Or just dumb? After opening your head and taking a look at your brain, maybe I’ll get to know the answer!”

Ruianne didn’t reply. She stood in defiance between him and her escaping companions.

“So be it.” Lord Derreick sprinted with a martial art.

*

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The road before him as the one behind him seemed longer than reality should allow. His head calmed down, but his legs still wobbled and his arm pulsed with pain every now and then. Along those empty roads he came across two more checkpoints but found them deserted. He had seen knights stationed on them before, but battle, glory, fame and even slaves to capture for themselves called for many. Word spread of a young elven princess fighting on the frontlines and every able-bodied man wanted a piece of her. X didn’t know a thing about this, nor it would concern him if he did.

From his vantage point, over a small hill, he had seen an opening in the city’s wall. On a second closer inspection, a big chunk of it had been blown off, the barrier laid intact behind it. Inside him an explosive mix spread caused by the final goal of a well carried out plan in sight, between luck and skill, where boundless potential laid dormant. Here, mere steps from freedom, the barrier stood between civilization and a vast wilderness.

X heard two individuals shouting near him, he recognized them. On a scaffolding nearby he saw Lord Derreick and Ruianne fighting. The Lord’s right arm burned and Ruianne limped while bleeding from her left shoulder. He observed their choreographed battle like a kid would any show in an amusement park, filled with joy. She casted magik after magik while Lord Derreick used superhuman movements to evade them and counter her. X needed to learn everything he could about this world and fast.

Can everyone do what they’re doing? Can I? This and other questions assailed his thoughts.

Ruianne casted a fire-based spell and Lord Derreick evaded it by mere inches, but it hit the scaffolding, breaking it before being engulfed in flames. Both managed to land uninjured over the fallen structure.

“You can’t escape putrajada. Come quietly and I guarantee your death will be quick.”

“You’re at your limit... Lord. My next spell will burn you whole.”

A private conversation X got nothing to do with took place. While they argued like angry children their favorite toy had been taken from them he walked towards the barrier and touched it.

After fixing her torn dress, Ruianne turned her gaze towards Lord Derreick, their final clash couldn’t come soon enough. If she died there, it would have been for the best of causes, the freedom of all slaved kinn’hayas.

It was then she saw him, the elf behind Lord Derreick, next to the barrier.

“You!” she shouted with deep rage in her voice. At first the Lord thought it a ruse, but her voice spew true emotion.

“No my children, don’t fight. Make peace and shake hands. Smiling.”

The Lord recognized his voice and turned halfway, not leaving Ruianne out of his sight.

“You... traitor!” it was Lord Derreick’s turn to yell at him.

Both of them had their own complains towards X.

“What did I do?”

“The only way the barrier went up is because someone told them! Someone told them our plans! Of course they prepared countermeasure! It was you!” Ruianne shouted.

All the puzzle pieces came together. Lord Derreick’s semblance went from pale and somber to laughing out loud. “He made a deal with you?” he asked Ruianne.

“Yes...”

“He made a deal with me too. Well played slave.” Lord Derreick confirmed her worst fears.

“Many will die! From all races, ages...!”

“But not me.”

“You devil! You sold us out?!”

“I can give you the whole world. But I’ll keep myself to myself. I sold you out as I sold the Lord and his family. And now... I’m free.”

“Oh, you did us good and we’ll have a special hell for you. But free, you certainly are not.” Lord Derreick knew he had no way out, not with the barrier up.

“Then watch the devil’s last trick.” He extended his arms as he walked backwards and traversed the barrier.

Their shocked faces spoke for them, one filled with rage, the other one with despair.

“How did you?!”

“How... Why?”

“You slave, come back here!”

Lord Derreick wanted to give chase but the moment he turned from Ruianne she would burn him crispy.

“I’m free to walk, to do, to kill, to f- f-, to be... to exist!” X yelled looking at a clouded sky. He turned his gaze down towards the dirty, mortal beings before him. “It’s life expressing itself. Don’t be sad because I’m gone. Be happy that you had me for a while.”

He turned around, inhaled deep and limped into the wilderness before him as a free creature. A weak one, but free. He disappeared on the bushes ahead and left on the grass a memento, the relic stone he had used to pass through the barrier. The noises of battle, screams of terror and insults hurled against him faded with every step. Saint Jaulea laid on fire behind him and, as everything else did, soon vanished from his consciousness.

*

[Life expressing itself? You’re only reaffirming the futileness of your existence.]

“Hush you party breaker.”

[Did you have to do it like this?]

“To secure my freedom? Or to have fun?”

No answer from the voice following his every step.

“No... and yes. Why do you care anyway? Their plan was crap to begin with. They have their chance... if they can fight it out. Ultimately, I don’t give a sh-” He stopped before any curse could interrupt his celebration.

[Might as well join the merciful Gods that put you here.]

X laughed as only a crazy being could.

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