A: Ch. 1.5

Kya clapped a hand over her mouth and clenched her eyes shut as she leaned against a cool stone wall in a dark alley. Lorant… She had only assumed he was dead. It had been so long. If she had known… what? What could she have done? A rescue mission would be impossible—they weren’t even close enough to Beinn to discover he was still being held!

She held back a thick bolus that had been fighting at her stomach. The crowd was beyond words. How could they celebrate torture and pain so freely? And how could they adore a man they feared so dearly? Kya swallowed hard and finally trusted herself to pull her hand back. Her breathing was becoming more even and her hands more steady.

General ‘Hilt’. She knew it had to be demonic to rank so quickly and to become so infamous, but she never anticipated this. This war was nothing more than a game, and the people were little chess pieces.

The woman waited in the alley longer still; too afraid to leave her spot despite the roads being mostly deserted and the shadows blanketed much of the city. Every time she blinked those eyes burned as bright as day as if right before her. The General wasn’t angry, or even surprised. He looked… thrilled, as if her presence was the most wonderful gift he had ever been given.

She could run. Spirits, how she wanted to. Every cell in her body was begging for her to flee from this smelly capitol filled with such… inhuman people. Lorant was even begging her. She could see it in those pale gray eyes that matched hers, he wanted nothing more than to see her safe.

It was stupid of her to come anyway. What was she thinking, taking on the General? King Yaro would be happy. He’d been looking for a good way to wipe her from the slate. Perhaps it was the morbid curiosity of the General, or the extreme desire to leave The Capitol and get away from the tedious daily life of a woman in Elivagar. But to face this…

Kya slunk down to sit on the dusty cobbled floor. Without the persistent sun, Beinn cooled off quickly and the altitude finally trickled in. It was a relief, but her heart was still hammering in her chest.

She had to move, she knew that. She had fled through the crowd after she saw Lorant, but in retrospect in was a poor move. Staying with the crowd would have made more sense than for a single female soldier to be streaming through empty streets. Fortunately, she was mostly certain that the General had not seen her. Everyone was focused on the execution, and he also had the girl to tend to.

A stream of soft footsteps managed to pierce through her clouded state. Panicked, she quickly leapt to her feet and began climbing up a vine covered wall which led to a balcony above. How anyone grew any plant life in this desert was beyond her, but she was grateful for it now.

Stumbling, she fell onto the balcony, making significantly more noise than she ever thought possible. Why did she run away in the first place? She was in military garb! She had every right to be in the open, but hiding away behind some silk drapes wasn’t conspicuous at all!

Kicking herself, Kya peeked over the rail to see a lone figure striding down the otherwise baron street. No helm, but still wore light armor, making him a high ranking shoulder. The moonlight was too poor to see the color of his cape, but she didn’t need it. The stocky silhouette was all she needed to immediately identify the Third General.

Well, Lylari the Belligerent was obviously mocking her at this point. Praying that the Spirits didn’t have any more tricks, she hunkered down in her hiding spot, hoping that he would keep walking by.

General Noden breathed in the sweet scent of ragweed, hummingbirds, and sap from an Elm tree. An interesting combination, he had to admit. Unfortunately it was masked by the stink of people who worked all day in the sun or surfaced from the depths of the mountain. It was overwhelming, enough to make someone sick. And yet here he was, day in and out, suffering through the filth of these people.

At least he had a goal this time. It was always more fun when they ran away. Every once and a while there would be some ‘courageous’ fellow who felt the need to rush in and attack, but those were so dull. The fun was always in the game, when they would scurry away after their first trap failed.

This one didn’t seem to have much of a trap, or any logical plan. It’s almost like she was begging for him to come after her, and General Noden was not one to deny a young girl’s summons like that.

The General began to whistle cheerily as he walked down one of the many maze like roads in the city. It was so much nicer to walk about at night, past the curfew of the commoners and just before the idiot grunts began to make their ‘rounds’—which happened to be from one brothel to the next.

He paused as he heard a slight scuffle to his right. Oh, well this was no fun. He was hoping for at least a slight challenge. This was too easy. Yawning, he turned on his heel and calmly approached the blackened shadows of the alley. For people who were so concerned about the sparkling granite face of their house and marble statues, they were complete slobs when they weren’t seen. Filth piled up against the walls and stray cats and dogs were pawing through them.

But no sign of the girl.

Damn.

Slightly perplexed he played with the large gold ring on his right index finger. Where, oh where, had his little dove gone? Oh where, oh where could she be? He was about to turn around and leave when the ring slipped off his finger and bounced away.

“Seven hells,” the General grumbled, bending over to try and see the glint of gold. As he did so, something whirred just above his ear. He instinctively dropped and rolled out of the way, just as two small daggers, no larger than his finger and as thin as parchment, clanged against the stone wall behind him.

Grinning, he leaped back to his feet and grasped the thin arm of the girl who had managed to leap from a balcony with surprising speed. Shame he was faster.

“Well, well,” he mused, “what have we here?”

The girl tried to attack with her other hand, but he grabbed that one just as easily. She squirmed and pulled down, trying to twist away; but he only grasped her harder.

“You were much better from afar. You should have used that to your advantage,” he tsked. She swung a violent kick upwards, barely missing his groins. Growling, he took both of her wrists and tossed her against the stone wall.

“That wasn’t very lady like,” he hissed, now rightfully angry.

The girl smacked her head, but quickly recovered. She struggled with another dagger, this one much thicker and longer than the others. But her hands appeared to be slick with sweat and she couldn’t grasp it properly.

Amused, the General swept forward and quickly knocked it from her grasp, sending it spinning into the shadows. He grasped her by her neck and pulled her to her feet. She struggled and beat as his hand, but he simply squeezed harder.

“Has Elivagar run out of strapping young lads willing to sacrifice themselves?” General Noden asked loudly. “They have to resort to feeble little girls who don’t even have the strength to pick up a proper sword?” he taunted.

She squeaked, but did not respond otherwise, save for another feeble attempt at kneeing him in the loins.

“Touchy,” General Hilt scolded. He increased the pressure on her throat. “I could kill you now,” he mused, watching her fair skin flush beneath the thick oils. “That would be no fun though. I just lost my toy, as you saw today. He was weak and pathetic. He lasted longer than most of the others, though. The others would scream for mercy, beg for their lives, but my last pet was silent and accepting. I thought I could break him, but he simply wasted away. What a shame.”

“Sir?!” called a worried voice from the opening of the alley. “General!?”

“Oh look, the grunts are actually doing their job,” Hilt whispered before finally releasing the girl and tossing her to the feet of the group of soldiers. She gasped for air, sputtering.

“Sir?! What happened?” They all looked so confused. They were either too drunk or too dumb to see through her obvious disguise. Perhaps both.

“She’s a northerner,” he explained, rolling his eyes. They looked stunned, one audibly gasped.

“Sh-Shall we take her to the dungeons? Sir?” asked the bravest of the lot. The General noticed that they were keeping their distance from her still crumpled, gasping form.

“No, take her to my quarters. I have a few things I’d like to ask her first, then I’ll take her there myself. Oh, and boys?” the General asked. They paused. “I’d like to meet you all at the Stormy Bay Inn. You came at an opportune time and I’d like to congratulate you all.”

The guards beamed and quickly gathered up the girl and dragged her off, but not before the General gave her a teasing little finger wave. She spat at his feet.

The General’s face dropped as soon as the troupe was out of sight. He walked back down the alley and retrieved his ring along with the dagger. The stone was surprisingly cold, colder than it should have been. Intrigued, he tucked it in his cloak, slipped his ring back on, and made his way to the lifts.

He had a long night ahead of him, he had to get prepared. 

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