Heiress vs Usurper (story)

How do adults do this? Hannah thought as she stretched as high as she could to the ribbon in the tree. It wouldn’t stay there if she didn’t tie it down, and she wasn’t content to let it fly away. Hannah closed her eyes and breathed a bit. What did Mom teach her again? Picture yourself floating. That’s right. She only needed a little bit, less than half a meter. Picture yourself standing on air so solid that you could run on it. Hannah wasn’t good at this spell. She wasn’t good at many spells yet. The practice of channeling magic for spells was new to her. Only one stayed firmly in her grasp, and it was one she hoped to never have to use.

There! Hannah caught the branch for just a moment to tie the knot before falling back to her feet on the ground. Perfect.

Hannah stepped back towards the lake into the clearing. A small shelter, made with some combination of leaves, sticks, and a tent, was shoved under the tree’s branches wherever it would fit. Various books, towels, and clothes for Hannah and someone slightly smaller took a place on the aethersteel shelves, tucked just far enough under the cover that rain wouldn’t hit them, but still off to the side. A bright pink ribbon tied a couple trees together, following the rope that was holding up a lot of the structure. A blue ribbon wound around it from start to finish.

Karina’s going to be so proud of me, Hannah thought with a smile. It was starting to look like a real house, or at least as real of a house as two kids could make. Hannah checked her transceiver’s time. Only six hours until she came back, when they were supposed to meet in Entela for dinner. That was more than enough time for a little bit of cleanup work.

A light tingle brushed past Hannah’s mind. What was that? That feeling felt familiar, somehow, but she couldn’t put together what it was. In a few more seconds, she realized exactly what it was, moments too late. A spell. Hannah felt a rush of exhaustion more than she had ever felt before, and collapsed into sleep.

The Shaidostan assassin looked over the girl's crumpled body. Alive. Unconscious, possibly so for multiple days. Exactly as requested.

Sara paced in circles in a hallway in Entela as she stared at her transceiver, receiving information and sending instructions to every enforcer in Entela. She was vaguely aware of Arina’s presence; after all, her footsteps echoed across the aethersteel hallways, but it really didn’t make much of a difference if she was there or not. The woman’s blond hair was swept behind her, and she constantly wore the darkest outfit possible. She stood at almost one and a half times Sara’s height. Some people actually aged sometime past their eleventh birthday. Why was she thinking of these things? Sara welcomed the brief moment of distraction from the problem at hand.

“What is wrong?” Arina asked her, as though she knew Sara would hear her. Sara stopped pacing and turned to look at her, waving her arms as she spoke.

“Two border patrols wiped out. All enforcers are on high alert looking for someone that, as far as we know, crossed our border, did nothing but kill our patrols, then left. This doesn’t make any sense and there’s so much nothing I can do about it.” With a swipe of her hand across the transceiver on her arm, a map of Entela materializes between her and Arina, with two large red marks indicating the fallen patrols.

“And you say that there is no sign they entered the city? Almost as though they knew what they came for and exited without being seen?”

“Yeah, basically exactly like that. I don’t even…” Sara paused and looked past Arina. Following her cue, Arina turned around to follow her gaze.

A young girl with brown hair, somehow slightly shorter than Sara, approached the two while looking at her transceiver. Sara noted that Karina had something she needed to say, only moments before she looked up from her transceiver and started to say it. “Oh, good, Miss Nisita! Have you seen Hannah today? We were supposed to meet, but she wasn’t there…” Her voice picked up pace and urgency as she continued. “Or at the grove, or in her room, or anywhere I know where to look and she’s not answering and I’m getting worried and…” Karina whimpered.

Arina and Sara exchanged silent glances, with a mutual understanding of the entire situation. Arina’s eyes widened in some combination of curiosity and fear. Sara’s remained flat. <span style= “I guess we know what they wanted,” Sara said aloud for Karina.

Arina stood still for a moment louder, before commanding into her transceiver, “Contact, Hannah.”

Beep.

Beep.

Click. “Hannah, where are you?”

An obviously faked voice returned. “Hi Mom, I’m in Shaidosta.”

“Who are you? Where is my daughter?” Laughter.

“Who do you think?” That voice was far too familiar. That was the voice of a woman who cared about nothing but power and the suffering of others, however she came about that. The voice of a fallen ally from years ago, the Master of Shaidosta. The person who should not be the Master of Shaidosta. “We’re a bit north of you right now. You’re welcome to come follow us, but you’re not going to catch up before we’re back in Shaidosta.”

There was a pause from the woman, but as Arina was about to speak, she continued. “Though, if you wish for me to take your life there, that would also suffice.”

“Sylvares.” Arina’s voice echoed across the hallway. “You have one opportunity to return my daughter, or I will come kill you myself.”

“By all means. She’ll be right here with me until you do.” A light chuckle emanated from the transceiver again, and the voice returned. “She needs an adult to watch her, after all, and all of hers are too busy to do so. It would be a shame if she got hurt because of it, possibly lost something permanently.”

“How dare you—” Arina was cut off as Sylvares finished herself.

“Anyways, I need to get back to walking.” The jeering voice of Sylvares pulled at every muscle in Arina’s body. It took every bit of her strength to finish the conversation, to get any useful information out of it. “See you soon!”

Karina’s eyes darted from Sara to Arina. Arina was feeling around her body, as though checking if she’s carrying something. “What’s going on? Who’s that? Why’s she taking her to Shaidosta?” The word “no” was whispered under Karina’s breath over and over again.

Arina took one step away before Sara spoke up. “Arina, wait. I might have to send a 7CI agent with you.” Arina tensed up, but stopped and leaned against a wall. Sara hadn’t seen anyone this unable to stand still since the last time Arina’s final partner was here. “Hannah’s been kidnapped by the Master of Shaidosta.” Her eyes flick up to Arina, then back to level with the youth. “It looks like she’s trying to draw Arina, which makes me wary of sending her alone.”

“Sara, I will be significantly more capable on my own once I retrieve Mindmelder,” Arina argued. This was a side of Arina that Sara did not interact with frequently.

Karina gasped. “There’s no way I’m staying behind. I’m going. I’m going to help save her.” A small grin appeared on Sara’s face.

“Karina, this is not something for a child to be involved in. I am trained for this. I am going to be attacking a city that is likely heavily guarded at the entrance by assassins.”

Karina took a step towards Arina and clenched her fists. "All the more reason for someone to watch your back! And I'm not just some child. You know that."

Sara took a deep breath and connected her eyes with Arina’s. Her eyes shifted from their usual blue to a brilliant gold. “Arina, I need more than one Entelan involved in this so we can interfere without throwing more of our Enforcers into this problem.”

Arina stared back at Karina for a minute, then sighed. Sara and Arina both felt the gathering magic in Karina’s hand. She lifted her hand out and up, and a light blue glow followed it. She slammed her hand down, and within it was now a radiant spear that was much too large for her. The butt of the spear slammed against the ground.

“I’m going to go save my girlfriend, and there’s nothing you can say to stop me.”

Arina looked up at Sara. Sara could predict exactly what Arina was about to say, and she clapped her hands together as she began speaking to Karina. The gold in her eyes faded back to their usual blue. “I figured so. I’ll be keeping contact with you so you can both act as an augmentation anchor. You don’t really need to know what that is, but just be aware I’ll need to talk to you.”

Arina sighed. “Alright. Get ready to go. We leave in half of an hour.”

“Alright, I’ll get everything I need.” Arina departed to prepare for travel, her steps light as she carefully weaved her way to her room. Karina turned back to Sara and surprised herself. The same spell happened again, and the spear vanished. “Sorry about that, Master Sara…” Had Karina forgotten that she had permission to have a weapon? Normally children didn’t, but as she helpfully described, she was not an ordinary child.

“That, that’s fine.” Sara exaggerated a shrug. “Someone needed to do something to make her understand, and you seemed to do a pretty good job of that. She’s not normally this stubborn, but sometimes…” Sara took a deep breath. “So, the trip to Shaidosta is three days. You should have some kind of trail food for the trip, and some water to last you until Mirora. You’ve clearly got a weapon figured out already. Once you’ve got that, come back to me, I’ve got a few things to get you.”

Karina looked at Sara with a moment of confusion. “Miss Nisita and I are both planeswalkers, though. Can’t we just planeswalk close to the city?” She muttered her next sentence, mostly to herself. “Or is that for when we’re bringing Hannah back?”

Sara looked at Karina for a moment. “Oh! You are, right. Excellent, talk to Arina and do that, then. I… have my doubts that Arina wants to leave a functioning government in Shaidosta. The one that’s there shouldn’t be there.” Sara starts to walk down a hallway in the general direction of the main places in underground Entela. “When you’re ready, come meet me in front of your room, okay? I still need to gather stuff for you.”

Arina appeared in the snow, where she knew she would be within ten minutes of Shaidosta proper. Its tall quartz buildings stood in the night, although instead of being illuminated by the lights of the people within it, the city was as dark as the night sky, lit only by starlight and the snow that reflected it. Arina could feel the presence of guards in the watchtowers; a surprise to no one, naturally, but especially not to her.

Karina planeswalked behind her. This was no place for a child, even a trained one. This was no place for someone who lacked proper stealth training, who could alert guards to her existence at any moment. To someone who would only accomplish being captured, possibly killed, when Arina could do this job herself.

“We are multiple days ahead of Sylvares. I would prefer to engage her within the city.” Arina was already starting to move towards the city, gliding across the snow in a way that Karina had never seen from her before. Her stride was clean, without wasted movements, as she made her way to the stone wall and stayed safely out of the way of the watchtowers’ vision. Karina followed suit, doing her best to copy the spell Arina was using.

Arina slowed, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, letting the aether and energy in the world present itself to her. There was no powerful magic here, nothing stronger than the rapier at her waist. The guards were probably not magical, though she couldn’t be certain unless she felt a stronger flux of energy. As she edged closer, she carefully prepared to cast a spell.

As Karina tried to come to a stop, she slipped on the snow and fell to the ground, letting out a softened thump. Despite the snow, the noise was still loud enough to make it to the guards.

“Who’s that?” A male guard shouted down. He seemed like he must have been old enough to have grandchildren. Arina took a deep breath and created two sharp darts of ice. She pushed against the wall into the clear space in front of the towers. They could see her, but only for a moment. In a single arc of her arm, both of her darts had pierced vital parts of the guards, and they collapsed to the floor. Out of the corner of Arina’s eye, she noticed Karina wince, but neither of them said anything.

Arina looked into the open space between the two towers and motioned to it. “Into the city. Carefully, and quietly.” Arina knew where to find the resistance. Few people in Shaidosta knew as much as she did about the underground. Fewer outside of Shaidosta even knew it existed.

Within the walls, the city was collapsed. Large apartment complexes that were shattered from attempted coups against Sylvares. City lights were destroyed, street shops were ravaged. Very few people were in the streets, and those that were moved quickly, avoiding attracting the attention of the enforcers. The merchants that would come and go when she was a child were no longer there.

Arina carefully walked down narrow alleys and side roads that Shaidostan enforcers never traveled as part of their routes, wiping their footprints away once they reached a particularly confusing intersection. The sounds of enforcers moving could be heard all around as more and more of them learned that the gate guards had been killed, and Arina had no interest in being caught.

Finally, after what Arina noticed was about ten minutes and what Karina felt like was much longer, she reached a door of importance, one labeled faintly with the emblems of the ten factions, arranged on the points of a ten-pointed star. “That symbol used to be used by a network of thieves across the entire plane,” Arina whispered to the young girl. “Though, that network fell apart shortly before I fled Shaidosta. They took it from the alliance of factions in Ancient Volaria, where it stood for the unity of the factions and the duties of their masters. Now, the Rebellion uses it as a symbol against Sylvares, who stands against everything that the First Masters, my ancestors, stood for.” Arina could not help instruct Karina about her history.

Arina lightly and rhythmically tapped on the door. This door likely lead into an apartment complex, where Rebellion members would stay out of the sights of Shaidostan enforcers. A soft whisper came from the other side of the door. “Who’s that?”

“Nisita.” Arina’s response was quick and sharp.

“Don’t believe you. What’ve you got?” Arina’s only response was a whistle, of three specific notes. The whisper replied a moment later. “What business you got here?” “I am looking for allies in an attempt to strike down Sylvares.”

“Enter.” The door opened slowly, and to one side of it, a white-haired elf stared at her, waiting for her and the child to listen to his instructions. Arina could feel his magic. Like her, he must have used it a lot.

The interior hallway was covered in a black carpet, leading into wood-supported quartz walls. Occasional spheres of magical light were stuck to the walls. The built-in electrical lights were off. Doors stood on either side, presumably leading into various residences. The place they would be led, as the elf was definitely leading them to, would be in the highest remaining floor of the complex. With how collapsed the buildings were in the city, that could be only a few storeys, or many of them.

The elf led the two into an elevator. Arina looked at it for a few seconds, wondering how it still worked when there was no electricity here. She did not know enough about electricity or its use to guess.

As the elevator rose, Karina looked up at Arina. “Why are we waiting? Why don’t we meet them on the road?”

“Because I do not wish to die.” Karina seemed confused at Arina’s response. Arina looked down to Karina. “We would be at a heavy disadvantage attempting to engage her. The journey from Entela to Shaidosta is very safe. Exiting Mirora, there is a forest that can serve as cover, and climbing the mountain path leaves more strategic positions for being lower on the mountain. The snowfield we arrived in tends to have less visibility, which benefits the person with more assassins.”

Karina looked down. “Okay, if the city is safer then… I just want her to be okay.”

“This is our best opportunity for that.” Arina took a moment to consider her next words. “I want Sylvares to be separate from Hannah before I engage her. However we make that happen.”

The elevator opened about halfway up a normal-sized complex into a large well-furnished room, with a walkway parting two lowered areas that had tables and chairs, leading from the elevator to a main section. The walls of the room and the lowered sections were made of quartz, and the floor was carpeted in blue. Polished dark wooden railings blocked off the lowered areas from the walkway, except for a carpet staircase in each stemming from the main room. Various aetheric displays, ones that looked like Entelan design, were set up on consoles, with a person manning each one.

“Teri,” the elf called out. That name seemed familiar, as did the person that turned around when he spoke, but Arina could not pin down why. She looked almost Litaran in the way she was dressed and carried herself. A bright white and blue dress with longer sleeves for the colder weather. She did not look natively like a Shaidostan. “This is—”

“Arina Nisita,” the woman cut him off. “I thought you died ages ago.”

“I thought I died as well.” Arina locked eyes with the woman. “You seem to recognize me. Why?”

“I met you in Litara a month or so before Oscura attacked you. While you were looking for info.”

Arina’s eyebrows raised. “Oh? If that is the case, then the information you gave me saved Volaria. I hope you are proud of yourself.” The woman smirked as Arina closed the distance between the two. “This is quite the operation you have. If I did not know I came through Shaidosta, I would have attributed this to another world, or maybe possibly Entela.”

“Expensive, but virtually untraceable without several years of studying aetherics,” Teri replied proudly. “We’ve got a pretty large collection of friends who’re more than willing to die if it’ll lead to Shaidosta’s reclamation. Not all of them are originally Shaidostan.” Teri lightly slid her sleeve on her left arm up to show a transceiver, similar to the one Arina was wearing.

“So I assume you aren’t here for no reason,” Teri continued. “Why now?”

“Sylvares is returning from Entela with possession of my daughter. We were able to get here faster and hope to engage her once they are separated.” Arina quickly did some math in her head. “They should be here in the morning two days from now.”

Arina and Teri watched Karina set a device down on a table. Where did it come from? Teri shrugged and continued. “We can set up for that, then.”

Miss Nisita developed a plan to help us work together. Over the next two days, while we waited for Hannah, she came up with this:

“We begin with surveillance. Once Sylvares returns with Hannah, she will send an evanescier to imprison her. Once that has happened, Karina leaves to retrieve Hannah.

“As Karina departs, we send large attack forces to each of seven locations in Shaidosta: the southern gate, the armory, these two towers, these two junctions, and the citadel. The evanesciers will be forced to separate and combat these points. If they fail, we capture a vital strategic position and can leverage it to take the rest of the city. Entela holds complete control of all functioning aether technology until tomorrow morning, so consider those as tactical options.

“… Once the evanesciers have separated off, I will hunt down and duel Sylvares myself. I am familiar with this city, far more than she is. I have the advantage here. When she falls, the evanesciers and whatever remaining forces are in their control will surrender. No harm should come to them once they surrender.” 

Karina lightly crawled through the city. People were running around. Combatants from both sides moved to fight the battles around the city. Noncombatants scrambled to get inside whatever remained of their homes. Karina checked Hannah’s location on her transceiver, then sent it to the place where her spear was. Now all she had was her dagger, in case things went wrong.

Sometime between leaving the rebellion place and here, the light had disappeared from the sky. Shaidosta was a really large city, wasn’t it? Even crossing Entela didn’t take this long. Karina shuddered at the thought of anything happening to Hannah while she traveled, but Karina couldn’t planeswalk to her side, as much as she wished she could.

The streets were nothing but a grid of ruined street after ruined street.. How did anyone find their way around in this place? It was way different than in Festenya. Things looked different from street to street, and there was always some kind of landmark to know where she was. Now she needed to go somewhere specific, and could only do that because she could keep checking where Hannah was.

A cluster of enforcers ran by Karina, probably to whatever fight they were supposed to be at. Steadfast, Karina kept running the best she could towards Hannah’s location. The fallen buildings weren’t breaking more over here, but sometimes it sounded like they were finding a way to break the already-broken where she came from.

Two guards, one male and one female, stood outside the building that Karina’s transceiver said Hannah was in. The roof seemed to have gone away at some point, but the four speckled stone walls still stood. Karina took a deep breath. She needed to get in there, somehow. The best way was through the front door.

Karina walked up to the guards calmly, despite the chaos. ''Act like you belong. Catch them off-guard.'' “Hi, I’m here to see my girlfriend.”

The man looked at his partner, then crouched down to look at Karina. “Hi, shouldn’t you be hiding from all the fighting? You’re just a kid.”

Karina shrugged. “This seems like a good place to hide to me.”

The man stood back up and looked back at his partner with a hand motion that Karina didn’t understand. The woman shrugged back at him. They exchanged a few whispers, the last few of which Karina could hear. The man’s speech was the first one she could make out. “The Master would kill us.” “They’re just kids.” “Could we just capture her?” “I guess?”

The man sighed and lightly placed a hand on top of Karina’s head while he took her dagger. “Well, looks like you’re under arrest for rebel association.” He looked back to his partner. “It’s your turn to do the changing stuff, though.”

The woman rolled her eyes as she led Karina into the building. The first room seemed like a small connecting room, with doors leading to rooms on every other side. Karina was lead into one of the side rooms, where the guard “helped” her change into a very simple set of white clothes. Karina put in the effort to not smile.

After a few minutes, the woman led Karina into the room opposite the entrance. There were two large cells blocked off by rippling magical energy. Blood stains covered the floor, both in the cells and the main room. Otherwise, the cells lacked anything that would even indicate they were intended to hold people. There was a desk in the outside space, upon which was Hannah’s transceiver.

Karina’s eyes caught Hannah’s body, leaned against the wall, struggling to breathe but doing it anyways. Karina ran to the wall of the cell, calling Hannah’s name, wishing for her to be alright. For a few moments, the magical wall dissipated, letting Karina run into the cell and throw her arms around Hannah before the wall returned. Hannah didn’t respond to the hug beyond lightly letting her arms surround Karina.

Karina recognized what Hannah’s breathing meant. It had the same shallowness as the time she went into aether exhaustion. Less severe, but very similar. Karina took a deep breath and used her spell to pull a vial of glowing yellow liquid out of its dimension. Hannah had to drink this. Karina helped make sure that happened.

Hannah coughed and took some deeper breaths. She looked up at Karina and smiled weakly at her. She mouthed the word “hi” but the word only barely left her mouth. Karina took a deep breath. If Hannah couldn’t talk, Karina had a spell that might let her. If it worked. She lightly reached out to Hannah’s mind, like she had seen others do before.

'' “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” ''

Hannah’s thoughts back were disordered, but still enough to figure out what she was trying to say. '' “I… I’ll be okay, when I’m not here. Anti-spell field and stuff…” ''

 “Can you walk?” 

 “... Yeah, when I’m out of here… Can explain better later…” 

'' “Your mom’s attacking the city. I’m here to break you out.” ''

Hannah looked up at Karina’s eyes and gave her a light smile.  “It doesn’t look like that worked.” 

Karina laughed and looked around. The guard was nowhere to be seen.  “Do you remember when you rescued me from that dragon?”  Karina focused for a few seconds to carefully pull a small metallic sphere through the aether. Hannah’s eyes widened as she recognized it.

 “That’s a breaching detonator.” 

 “You saved me when we met,”  Karina declared to Hannah and Hannah alone, setting the detonator to the wall and spinning the shell of it, before she crouched down with her girlfriend.  “Now I’m here to save you.” 

''As Karina traveled to find Hannah, I had my own work to do. We needed distractions for the evanesciers, and I was going to give them a damn good one.''

Teri was certain the highest of Shaidosta’s assassins knew where she was. The trail she left behind her as she ran, rippling with shifting aether, certainly would lead them to her. She was ready to get their attention, and so were her friends. Teri glanced up to the top of a collapsed building, where two ice elementals awaited the Shaidostan enforcers. The target was the tallest structure in this area of the city, the top of which would let the rebellion start assisting their other allies.

Far away in the city, the sounds of battle echoed along the otherwise silent streets. Others were already fighting, or cowering in their homes hoping not to fight. Teri turned to look behind her. Where were they? There should be enforcers on her by now. She tapped her transceiver to get a quick understanding of where her allies were. The child was well on her way to the prison. Arina was moving quickly; it seemed that she was attacked while looking for Sylvares. The others were definitely fighting around their objectives.

A bright flash of blue light crossed the sky as the aethermancer on the roof took aim and fired, followed moments later by the sizzle of the aether dispersing into the atmosphere. It sounded like they found a target, and that was welcome news. Teri pushed herself against a wall and stared up in the direction of the shot, ready for when anything came from it. Sure enough, moments later, a swarm of white-cloaked assassins jumped across the rooftops towards the elementals, blending into the snow as they neared. Teri could hear the sounds of people nearing on the ground, and she was ready.

In answer to the approaching enemy, the hundreds of rebels in this sector rushed out of shops and homes to engage the assassins. Teri watched, listened, and felt around the air for a good place to maneuver herself to. Before she could finish, one of the assassins jumped down from the roof, knife in hand, and rushed Teri.

Teri jumped aside, feeling the blade move the air around her. The blade danced and made large arcs back and forth, coming closer to Teri as she moved farther away. Finally, Teri felt a strong motion in the wind, and she directed it to shove the assassin away. She took a few steps backwards and gathered a spell into her hands, feeling the tingle of aether as she controlled it. The assassin eyed her warily as she backed away, and she looked around to make sure she was still only fighting one enemy.

Eventually, the enemy rushed forward, only to be struck down by the blade of one of Teri’s allies, dressed in all black and constantly watching around him. Teri left her spell go, shoving it into the wall across the street and shattering it. Teri nodded her head in the direction of the fallen wall. “That way to the objective.”

The interior of the building must have been evacuated. Dishes were scattered across tables, shattered glass coated the ground. A staircase lead up to the roof, which happened to be where Teri wanted to go. She lightly motioned to it, letting her ally travel up first. He could make better use of the vision than she could anyways. She looked back around. No one was coming up behind her… yet.

As Teri crawled up onto the roof, she saw exactly what she expected below. Bodies were starting to litter the streets, with both sides moving to kill their enemies so they could continue to live. The sharp clashes of metal and the scent of blood were starting to gather together. So much death, in only the amount of time it took her to get upstairs. Maybe this attack was a mistake… Teri shook her head. Master Sylvares destroyed Shaidosta. These deaths were nothing if it meant she would fall.

Teri inhaled deeply as a chain of cold magic connected her and her friend. He staggered, toppling over the side of the building into the fray below. Teri grabbed the edge and thrust a jet of air off in any direction it could go. A woman in official Shaidostan dress stood at the edge of the roof with raised eyebrows.

“Stand back!” As Teri gathered magic, another woman rushed up the staircase and stood against the first. She wore bright red, which was an indication to Teri and other rebels that they packed some heavy firepower. “More coming in.”

Teri looked off to the surrounding streets and the objective. How hard could it be to take that structure? Not difficult, if Teri could get a path to it. All that needed to happen was that someone needed to disable the evanescier. Wherever it was. Somewhere in the air near the top of the turret, one of Sylvares’s agents observed the battlefield, shouting occasional commands.

True to her clothes, the ally woman gathered a bright flame in her hands, and a large explosion followed immediately after, shaking the rooftop and sending cracks across the quartz.

A moment of clarity came through the wind. The swift motion of someone trained to move silently. The type of movement Teri expected from the best of Sylvares’s assassins. That was the evanescier she was looking for. He was near the base of the tower. She could engage him. But not without help. She ran off the roof and felt the air solidify beneath her as she took her steps, bridging the two roofs. A bolt of magic shot by her head as she jumped down, prompting her to take a sharp breath.

Teri gathered magic into her hand. “Evanescier, bottom of the tower,” she called out to anyone that could hear her. “If you can get there, we need to get after it.” In answer to her call, Teri noticed a general shift in the direction of the rebel forces. A few of them were finding a way to get around the fight, whereas some found a way on top of a building and ready to help.

The evanescier’s approach was quick and silent. Teri ducked out of the way only because of her magic. As it stopped, it became very clear to her. A dark-cloaked… human? With a face covered in shadow and silvery marks on its outfit. It swiped for Teri, who ducked out of the way. When it jumped at her, it vanished, but she could feel it was still around. She was ready for it.

Another blinding spell of aether shot through the space between Teri and the evanescier. Its caster clearly couldn’t see the enemy as well as she could. Despite the evanescier’s constant motion, even magically, Teri could track where it was at all moments.

When the evanescier next leapt for her, Teri pushed back against it with her magic, condensing the air on all sides of it until it was completely surrounded, locking it in place. That wouldn’t be permanent. That was only temporary. All she needed was time. If they could get the tower, they could sway the whole battle, and there were already rebels taking it. All Teri had to do was dispatch the evanescier…

Teri took a few deep breaths while the evanescier shrugged off her spell. She didn’t want to kill it. She didn’t want anyone to die. Maybe that was naive, but if she could save any lives that were only fighting because they weren’t given a choice…

The spell fizzled away as blue magic left the evanescier’s hand. What should she do? The evanescier jumped at her, cloak fluttering in the wind and dagger ready to strike with a white glow along its blade. Teri felt the wind, felt the air move around her, reading for where to move. There. Teri pushed out against the air with a spell and shoved herself out of the way, collapsing clumsily onto the roof.

Teri could feel the movement up the tower. She could feel her allies taking control. She could see that the evanescier noticed the same, as it turned away from her and dashed to attack them. Teri took another deep breath and reached out with a spell. As the evanescier flicked away from view, Teri latched onto its leg, and it collapsed into the ground.

The evanescier was motionless. Teri cautiously walked over to check over it. Still alive. Definitely no longer a threat.

This tower was theirs. Teri only wished Arina would have as good luck.

Karina held Hannah tightly as the detonator discharged, blasting a hole through the wall into the outside world. Doing what she could, she pulled Hannah through the hole, letting her breaths help her.

 “I didn’t know those work in anti-spell fields,”  Hannah thought while her voice wouldn’t work. She took many deep breaths, and Karina could notice the change from her slow weakened movements to the attentive flickering of her eyes. Hannah coughed when she tried to speak, but kept trying.

“Are you okay?” Karina asked. Hannah nodded, hearing the approach of the guards inside the prison.

“Yeah,” she said, jumping to her feet. “Just… needed a bit of time to get my energy back. Come on, we’ve gotta find Mom.”

“Uh… close your eyes for a moment.” Karina grabbed a breath, focused and drew a glass sphere of light into her hands. The guards came into view inside the cell, weapons drawn. Karina clenched her eyes and shattered the sphere, feeling the warmth of its light released into the air.

The guards screeched, yelling, “Can’t see! What happened?” Karina took Hannah’s hand and pulled her along as they ran off in search of her mother.

Arina closed her eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the flow of elemental energy around her. Large clouds of energy generated and dissipated at the sites of combat, all around Arina at various points in the city. She stood nearly in the center of the city, with no sense of direction where she should be headed. Anyone that would have been here had since left or hidden.

There were no footsteps but her own. The snow crunched beneath her feet, illuminated by the flying spells overhead but otherwise completely dark. Arina did not feel alone. She knew these streets well, and knew every place that an assassin, particularly one as skilled as Sylvares, could be hiding in wait. That was what she was counting on.

The empty streets were never reassuring. As a child, it meant people were avoiding her. As an adult, it now meant that anyone could be anywhere. A spell was ready in her hands, and she could grab her rapier, Mindmelder, at any time. All she needed was to find her target in the vast expanse.

“Good.” Sylvares’s voice echoed around off the walls of the street, rendering her position impossible to discern. “I was worried you might have left your daughter somewhere that she might be getting hurt. But, if you’re here, that means you must’ve freed your daughter first, right?” Arina clenched the fist that held her spell. Where was she?

“You wished for me to come here,” Arina called out. “Show yourself so I can kill you.”

Sylvares appeared in front of Arina in as grand an entrance as she could manage. Wind gathered itself in a cyclone, and a bright flash of light heralded Sylvares’s appearance. She had aged significantly since Arina last saw her. Her dark hair was braided behind her, and she had a cruel grin on her face. Her cloak had a golden trim along its edges, indicative of the Master of Shaidosta. “Imagine, if you never left to Entela, maybe you could’ve prevented all this. Maybe I would’ve let you take over as Master, and we’d never have gotten here.”

Arina let her spell go, shooting a thin ice crystal towards Sylvares. She deftly ducked underneath it and kept looking at Arina, her smile growing as she spoke. “But here we are. I have the power now, and those that can’t keep power have no business having it in the first place. You will die, your daughter will die, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Arina cursed. “If you have hurt my daughter—” Sylvares began to disappear, and Arina noticed the flow of her cloak, indicating which direction she was about to go. Arina thrust another ice shard in that direction, and threw another one further. Neither of them managed to connect.

Sylvares jumped out from a shadow with a dagger drawn. Arina reached a spell to draw Mindmelder and parry Sylvares’s attack. The Master tumbled onto the ground and rolled to her feet. “What was that? Sorry, I didn’t hear you,” she taunted as she jumped again.

Arina gripped her blade tighter, and darkness coated the blade. She could feel the energy inside her, and it wanted out. She would happily let it out.  “Severi aritae.”  Arina forcefully cut in front of her in Sylvares’s general direction, releasing a shadow through the air. Sylvares only smiled and jumped aside, leaving a cloud of mist in her wake, watching the shadow harmlessly dissipate into the side of a shop.

“Ooh, that was a bold move there, Nisita.” Sylvares put her hand on her chin and tilted her head with a smile. “How will you fight me without your power script? Do you really think you can save your daughter that way?”

“This is for Shaidosta’s reclamation, too,” Arina spat. “We were friends. We agreed to work for Shaidosta’s betterment. Is that what you call this?”

“We sure were,” Sylvares agreed. “Then one of us decided she no longer wanted to be Shaidostan. Well, someone had to take over after Icilica bit the dust, and you sure weren’t going to.” Arina rushed up to Sylvares. Her strike deflected off Sylvares’s dagger, and she ducked out of the way of Sylvares’s next attack.

Arina gritted her teeth. “If you will not surrender, you will die.”

Sylvares smiled. “Bring it on, then.” Sylvares ran up to Arina, and Arina glided along the snow to get out of the way. Arina gathered a spell and used it to push Sylvares off her feet. As she slid up to strike, Sylvares caught Arina’s rapier with her dagger.

Arina flicked her hand, and four of her ice shards generated around her, floating slightly above her. She slid back and to Sylvares’s side and threw two of them, both of which were perfectly dodged. Sylvares ran towards her, and Arina glided backwards, pushing the other two shards into Sylvares. As Sylvares ducked aside, she ran up and closed the distance.

Sylvares slashed upwards against Arina. When Arina blocked the dagger with her rapier, Sylvares twisted her grip and sent Mindmelder out of Arina’s hand. The dagger came back down, slashing Arina’s upper arm and chest. Arina collapsed, the searing pain in her chest spreading blood out to the snow.

Hannah and Karina ran, hearing the shouts of the Shaidostan Master. She was this way. Hannah knew where she was. She felt like she could tell where everything in the city was, even though she knew that wasn’t true. This was the only certainty she had.

The two girls arrived to see Hannah’s mother collapsing to the ground. Hannah’s eyes caught Arina’s for just a moment, and gasped and started to run behind the Master. Sylvares dropped her dagger and walked calmly over to the rapier, picking it up and standing over Arina with a grin on her face.

“Your lineage is over, Arina,” the Master declared. “Shaidosta belongs to me.”

Time seemed to slow for Hannah as she ran. As her mom fell, it felt like she fell in slow-motion. Or, more accurately, didn't fall. Karina kept close to her.

Hannah felt the spell inside her as she channeled it instinctively. She hated these spells. These spells were only used for killing others. But maybe, just maybe, she could use her power scripts for good. Maybe, sometimes, people deserved to die.

 “Areto soveri!”  Hannah shouted, louder than any words she had ever said before. Sylvares’s eyes widened, and then she stopped moving. She stopped speaking. She stopped breathing. Not even her robe flapped in the wind. Nothing moved.

Hannah desperately grabbed the dagger from the ground and plunged it into Sylvares’s chest. Tears formed in her eyes as she withdrew the dagger and did it again, just to make sure. She fell to the ground beside her mother. She rolled Arina over, and Arina looked up into her eyes.

“Mom?” Hannah asked, her voice shaking. Arina smiled. She could feel enough to channel magic in her hand, just once more before she would be too exhausted to do so. And she had one more spell she had to cast, so that Shaidosta could be free from the fighting. She lifted her arm, pointed her hand into the sky past Hannah, and released a jet of blue light that released a thunderous rumble as it flew up. When the light was high enough in the air, it detonated with a loud enough sound and a bright enough flash that people on the other side of the world could see it.

Karina fell to Hannah’s side. “I can stop the bleeding, but that’s about it.” Hannah nodded desperately. This feeling seemed strangely familiar to Hannah. She had felt this type of urgency before. Before she knew what was actually happening, Karina was helping Arina drink one of the yellow healing vials.

Hannah did know that the vial wouldn’t save her without help. “Mom…” She breathed in sharply and shouted at the top of her lungs, “HELP!” As the blue flare lit up the sky, the fighting around Teri ceased. The last voice quieted when its detonation sounded off. The last sound of aethersteel against aethersteel was snuffed out by the snow. That flare meant only one thing: the war was over. Teri and the nearby evanescier looked at each other. The shadow on the evanescier’s face vanished, and they locked eyes. The evanescier motioned for Teri to join her, and Teri agreed, lightly gliding from the top of her building to the snowy ground.

“Was that yours or ours?” the evanescier questioned. “Do you have a way to confirm? Both of them are Shaiostan.”

“I…” Teri paused. She paused briefly. Of course, Arina was from here too, wasn’t she? Teri lifted her transceiver to her chest. “I do. Contact Rebellion.”

As the call connected to the other leaders, the only sound that could be heard were the frantic screams of “help” and sobbing. “Arina, Arina,” Teri called. The screams stopped, and shaky breathing replaced it.

“Hannah… Mom’s injured, she needs help,” a voice replied, wavering.

“Can you confirm whose flare that was?”

“M-mom’s. Master Sylvares is dead. I— I killed her...”

Teri looked up to the evanescier. “Kera, you were the closest. Get medics over there, now.”

“Kera is dead,” came a different voice. “We’ll do what we can.”

“The war is over,” Teri said with a deep breath. “Shaidosta will recover. But it’s going to take time.” 

Hannah kept Karina’s hand in her as she watched over her mother. The injuries were healing. Miss Teri said that these kinds of wounds usually heal quickly if they were immediately caught. Now Hannah only waited for a sign that it was true.

“Hey, Hannah?” Karina started.

“Hm?” Hannah looked up at Karina.

“How are you feeling? After… you know.”

“I… I don’t want to do it again.” Hannah looked down at her hands, and then lightly tightened her grip on Karina’s. “I don’t like doing that.”

“So what’s going to happen now? Is your mom taking over now?” Karina asked.

“Miss Teri thinks that Mom’ll be the Master, but I don’t really want her too… It sounds like bad things happen to Shaidostan Masters.”

“If she does stay here, what will you do? Would you stay in Entela? Or are you thinking about being a Shaidostan princess after all?” Karina laughed with a small smile.

Hannah turned to hug Karina. “I think I still belong in Entela. I don’t really want to stay here, or be a Master eventually. Shaidosta’s still… different. But I guess it’s not the worst anymore. Not now that she’s gone.”

Karina connected her gaze to Hannah’s. “Well, wherever you end up, I’ll be right there with you.” Hannah lightly squeezed Karina’s hand and gave her the best smile she could. Arina woke up in a soft bed in a dark room. The smell of mint soup was on the air. The scent was calming. Arina could still feel the sting of her injuries. She had problems remembering exactly what happened. The rebellion happened. She engaged Sylvares. She failed. She remembered sending the flare into the air, looking up into Hannah’s eyes… What happened after that?

A collection of emptied vials was spread across a night table. Two chairs were set up beside the bed. Where was she? This looked vaguely like an apartment, so maybe that was right. Arina tried to stand up and caught herself on the side of the bed. Her chest seared and screamed at her to stop, but she refused. Arina stumbled to the door and pushed it open.

The door opened into a kitchen. A pot of soup sat on the stove, being lightly heated but no longer boiled. Teri, Hannah, and Karina sat around a square table, with a bowl in front of each of them. Teri glanced up at her and smiled. Hannah got up from the table and threw her arms around Arina.

“You’re awake, great,” Teri said as she stood and turned to fill another bowl with the soup. “You feeling alright?”

“I have felt better,” Arina admitted. “I typically avoid being injured.” Hannah returned to her chair and let Arina and Teri talk to each other.

“Yeah, I was told your body sucks at healing,” Teri agreed. She placed the bowl down at the empty place on a table, then retrieved a glowing yellow vial from a pocket and placed it next to the bowl. “You’re going to need more of those.” Arina nodded and collapsed into the chair.

“I am astonished you even have any. Theria and Shaidosta have not been allies for many years.”

Teri winked at Arina. “I’ve got my ways. So anyways, Sylvares is dead, and she didn’t have a First Advisor.”

“Really.” Arina sipped her soup and looked at Teri out of the top of her eyes.

“Yeah, she tried once and he didn’t last a week. So someone needs to step up as Master, and I’d like to… suggest, that you take the role. When you’re not dying.”

Arina said nothing as she sipped the soup. It warmed her inside. “I have a family in Entela. My family has also already destroyed this city. I have my doubts that the citizens would be interested in my leadership.”

“I don’t. You’re pretty well-known for traveling, I’m sure you could manage that, and you’re also pretty well-known for being very… different from your mother. The people need someone that knows what they’re doing. Who’s better trained than you, who studied to be Master for thirteen years?”

Arina looked up at her, looked at Hannah, and sighed. “Alright. When I am not injured, I will take over. I need to be certain I will be accepted, though.”

“No problem, I’ll get on it immediately.” Teri drank the rest of her soup and stood to set her bowl in the sink. “Shaidosta will rise. Shaidosta will be reclaimed.”  “Arina, daughter of the spirit Severa and the Nisita bloodline. Do you intend to take up the role of Shaidosta’s Elemental Master, to protect it as your family was given the obligation to do, even at the cost of your own life?”

“I do.”

“As Shaidosta’s Master, will you promise to reinforce the virtues of unity and acceptance in Shaidosta, to act for the betterment of Shaidosta and for Volaria, and to show the strength of decision that you were taught as a child?”

“I will.”

“Do you promise to take a First Advisor when the opportunity arises, and to stand down if you are ever in breach of this oath?”

“I do.”

“Then, with the Spirits’ guidance and as the current oathbearer of Eastern Volaria, I declare you as Master Arina of Shaidosta.” 

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Sylvares Valerna Teri