The Inheritor of Light

A Fateful Reunion (Part One)

She jumped back and rushed toward the door. Johnathan chased after her so that she wouldn't escape and call the guards. However, instead of running to the door, she ran to the suit of armor, which Johnathan had thought was just for show, and pulled a claymore from its scabbard. She swung the blade around, missing Johnathan by a hair's length. Her next attack was a heavy downward swing, which, if Johnathan hadn't been armed, might have cleaved him in two. Thankfully, he managed to deflect the blade into the floor beside him.

"Fiend. You think that you can break into my room? Well, we'll see how you feel once I've taken your head!" she cried in tandem with another stroke.

Johnathan jumped back and landed on the bed. He rolled over the other side in time to dodge a lunge from the woman's sword. He quickly got to his feet and deflected another blow into a nightstand by the bed. The wooden stand crumpled under the blow, falling to pieces as the blade cut through the intricately carved wood.

The battle continued for some time after that. Both of them had worked up a sweat in the meantime, though it seemed that neither could draw blood. Drawing blood was not Johnathan's goal, though; unlike his bloodthirsty opponent, he simply wanted a hostage to interrogate. It all became worse when Johnathan tripped over a piece of the mattress and fell to the floor. In slow motion, he watched the woman, blade in hand, come up to him and position herself for the final blow.

What neither of them had expected was for someone to come barging in the door, which they had both assumed had been locked but that had been unlocked accidentally in the struggle. That's why both were shocked when the door opened with a loud noise—though that was due to it hitting some debris rather than it being thrown open.

"What in the blessed name of the Exalted is going on here!" the newcomer cried out.

Johnathan looked over and saw that it was the last person in the world he wanted to see: Sãra. Her mouth was completely agape at the sight of the room and the people present in it.

"Milady," the woman said meekly.

Johnathan used the moment of confusion to roll under the bed and out on the other side. As he stood up, Sãra shut the door and walked farther into the room.

"Talia, for the sake of the Eternal Throne, put on some clothes. And you." She thrust a finger out at Johnathan. "What are you doing here in Talia's room—let alone when she is dressed as such? I worried over you, I attempted to intercede for you, and now I see that you only wanted to let yourself out so that you could lecherously assault my vassals."

Johnathan put up his hands defensively. "I was only hoping to find someone who could show me the way out. It's not my fault that I accidentally came in on a mad woman after her bath."

"Mad woman?" Talia, who had now put on a pair of trousers, objected. "I am the princess's most loyal knight and vassal. It is you who is at fault here."

"Enough! The whole palace could hear you battle, and undoubtedly Varas's soldiers will have been alerted. The question now is whether or not to turn you in." She finished her sentence by casting a rather menacing look towards Johnathan.

"Oh yeah, hand over the person who saved your life to be executed. That's really kind of you."

Sãra put her hand to her forehead for a minute to think. She looked at the room, at Talia, and then back to Johnathan.

"Fine, go. I want nothing more to do with you. Go down this hallway until it splits, then go left until you see a flight of stairs. Go down there, and then you should be able to find your way out."

While Sãra was speaking, the door behind her had slowly opened. Johnathan hadn't noticed it until he saw the glint of a sword. In a single motion, he pulled out a throwing knife and threw it past Sãra's head and into the chest of the intruder. The man let out a cry of pain and the door swung open further revealing two, Trivaran soldiers. The one that Johnathan had injured was writhing on the floor, while the other one darted away quickly.

"Damn," Johnathan swore, hopping over the bed and stabbed the fallen soldier before he could cry for help. "Both of you get dressed. We're leaving." He dragged the lifeless body into the room.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"They now know that you were about to let me leave. Like it or not, we're both in this together."

"Milady, take this." Talia handed Sãra a cloak.

They all rushed out of the room, Sãra taking the cloak that had been handed to her, and Talia taking only her claymore and another cloak. Their exodus led them through corridors and down flights of stairs. Staff hurried out of their way as the three cloaked individuals dashed by. Before they knew it, they had made it out of the palace and were now almost to the gates.

It was here that they slowed their pace to a walk as to appear as though nothing was wrong. Varas had kept the escape a secret, so as not to appear like a fool, and had, therefore, left the Milzocian soldiers without reason to suspect anything was amiss.

"Ho there, gatekeepers! Open the gate for her majesty, the Princess," Talia called as the came closer to the gate.

The men, recognizing Talia, quickly moved to unbar and then open the gate. The party was almost to it when a cry sounded out from behind them.

"Bar the gate! They have an escaped murderer among them!"

Varas's soldiers had caught up with them. Four of them were running down the steps of the palace, crying out to the guards to shut the gates.

Johnathan struck the first guard he came to on the head. The man crumpled under the blow. It took Talia two hits to knock out the other guard, but they were now free for the moment.

"Through the gate. Hurry!" Talia cried out to Johnathan and Sãra, who were already making their way past the opened gate.

Both of them ducked through quickly. Johnathan turned back to ensure Talia had made it through. Instead, what he saw was her pushing the gate shut behind him.

"Make sure the princess makes it out alive." She waited only for a nod before shutting the gate and barring it.

Sãra and Johnathan were now locked out of the palace grounds. Without further delay, Johnathan grabbed Sãra's hand and pulled her along, away from that place.

With the gate secured for the moment, Talia turned around to face her opponents, who had just arrived behind her. The four men seemed unsure how to proceed; either they were not told what to do upon the capture of their quarry, or they had never expected to fight a woman. It didn't matter for Talia why they had stopped, since it was all to her advantage.

Talia leveled her sword at her opponents. "Come at me, you swine. I will show you how a Royal Knight of Milzoc fights!"

Her command left them even more confused than before. However, one of steeled himself and came at her. Talia deflected his strike off to the left and then swept her blade up and through the man's chest. He fell to the ground with a groan.

The soldier's death seemed to awaken his compatriots from their stupor. All of them straightened their backs and brandished their blades. Talia didn't wait for them to move before starting her attack. She rushed the first of the three and knocked his blade up. Before he could react, she stabbed into his gut and cut upwards before pulling her blade out—allowing the man to fall.

She moved to duck the swing of the next soldier, for Trivaran fighting styles use swings and slashes without stabbing, cutting his thigh as she moved. The man fell to a knee but was saved from Talia's killing blow by his ally's counterattack. Talia was forced to take several steps back as her new opponent struck constantly with short swings.

Talia mustered her strength and swung heavily into the man's barrage of small strikes. Her force overwhelmed his blade, forcing him to yield the blow. Talia pulled in close and struck him across the face with her hilt before slashing through his chest.

The soldier whose thigh she'd sliced had managed to stand again—using his blade to prop himself up. Talia made quick work of ending him by cutting him across the throat. With that, all her opponents now lay dead around her. She had just reached for the gate when a new voice called out to her.

"Talia, hold."