Amendments (31 page)

Chapter 30

Wings of Light

              Ratt was startled by the sudden continuation of destruction.  Nidhoggr's attacks had stopped for a while and Ratt hoped it was finally over.  Ratt was now several streets away, so he couldn't see what was happening in the plaza.  After he'd laid the deceased king at the feet of the people of Tier, he had simply walked away.

              Ratt replaced the circlet of his armor back onto his head and peered up at the dark-colored dragon as it sent down din attacks with renewed rage.

              “He's going to kill everyone!” Ratt said incredulously to himself.  Ratt knew all of his, Murik's, and Finn's efforts would be for nothing if the kingdom they strove to liberate was destroyed.  Ratt activated the strength enhancing enchant aspect of his armor with the intent of jumping onto a building.  However, the tiny amount of chakra that had regenerated after his attack on Fort Estelar quickly drained.  He almost instantly felt unconsciousness creeping in on him.

              Ratt stumbled and grabbed the remains of a brick wall to steady him.  He stood for a long moment regaining his senses and trying to ignore the renewed destruction that erupted in the city around him.  Finally able to see clearly and stand on his own feet, Ratt looked up at the attacking dragon with regret.  He'd wasted his only useful gift on killing a man who barely mattered.  Ratt knew he should have reserved his strength to help Noir and defend the innocent people of Tier, but those voices had pushed him on relentlessly.  He tried to resist their compulsions, but eventually, his resolve gave out and he followed what they wanted him to do.

              Ratt knew he would regain his strength with extended rest, but the city and all of Tier could be obliterated by then.

              Ratt lamented softly to himself, “Well, I can't help with this one.  I wonder if anyone can.”

              Ratt turned his back on the rampaging dragon and walked sadly toward the northern gate of the outer wall.

              After a few steps, Ratt was startled by a tremendous white light that illuminated the buildings, street, and a few onlookers' faces.  Ratt's shadow stretched in front of him, but slowly shrunk toward his feet as if the light source behind him was rising into the sky.

              Ratt turned in hazy, tired curiosity and saw something that he thought he would never see again.  A figure with wings of blinding light rose into the sky above the buildings.  The figure was hard to make out, but Ratt could see it held a sword in one hand and wore a simple traveling cloak that he thought he remembered from somewhere.

              “No!” Ratt said with sudden recognition.  The figure had the lanky, young-adult body of his friend Noir.  The wings of light flapped repeatedly.  Each time they moved, Noir rose higher into the sky.

              Nidhoggr turned in the sky toward Noir's blinding visage and stopped his rain of din attacks.  He flapped his wings to hover in mid-air and stared at the winged figure.

              With new-found energy and resolve, Ratt found himself running toward his friend.  Even if his armor was useless, he had to be by his friend's side.  He also knew whatever was about to take place would be an event for the history books.

              Ratt could barely mak out Noir's words as he neared.  “You have to stop, Nidhoggr!”

              Nidhoggr slowly flew closer to Noir.  His voice boomed and echoed across the half-destroyed capital city of Tier.  “I will not, Luxin!  You humans are a plague to this world!  I will eradicate all of you for what you have done to me and my sister!”

              Noir called in response, “We did not make you kill Fafnir; you did that on your own!  You did that because of your own flaws!  You have given into rage, Nidhoggr, and your sister paid the price for it!”

              “No!!!” Nidhoggr bellowed, and then shot a massive ball of fire at Noir's glowing figure.  Noir created a cup-shaped shield of lux, caught the din attack, and thrust it back at Nidhoggr.  The flames slammed into Nidhoggr's body and, for a moment, his massive body tumbled wildly away from Noir and downward.  Then, with a few quick flaps of his massive wings, Nidhoggr righted himself and flew at Noir.

              Nidhoggr's advance was abruptly stopped as he slammed headfirst into a huge light barrier.

              “I'll kill you!!!” the dragon boomed.

              “Leave this place!”  Noir called back.  “Enough lives have been destroyed today.”

              “Never!” answered Nidhoggr.  “I will see the end of the humans in this wo--”

              Nidhoggr was silenced as Noir suddenly streaked across the distance between them.  Nidhoggr did not have time to react as Noir's enchant sword sliced through one of the creature's massive forearms.  Noir followed through his attack and came out behind the dragon.  Nidhoggr bellowed out in sudden pain and anger and grabbed at his injured arm.  He turned to face his attacker, but Noir again said, “Leave, Nidhoggr!  In Fafnir's memory, stop this destruction!”

              Nidhoggr flapped in place and stared at the glowing-winged figure before him.  He held his arm where the lower half of his other arm had once been.  Then, without a word, he turned and flew away over the city, past the walls, and into the distance.

              Ratt sprinted through the plaza toward the spot over which Noir hovered.  Somehow he instinctively knew what would happen next.  Noir's light wings winked out, and his body plummeted limply toward the ground.  Ratt activated his strength armor and leapt straight up.  Ratt caught Noir in the air.  They fell together toward the destroyed plaza below.  With the last tiny amount of chakra left within Ratt, he activated the strength enchant and thrust down with his enhanced legs as he hit the ground.

              Darkness crept in the sides of Ratt's vision and he dropped his friend into the scorched grass and dirt.  Ratt then immediately collapsed next to his friend.  As Ratt passed out, he heard his friend's weak and dreamy voice.  “Thanks, but you're late, buddy.”

              Ratt squeaked a response as he drifted toward unavoidable unconsciousness.  “No problem, showoff.”

~~~

              Ruith walked down a back alley of the Tierian capital that had been relatively untouched by Nidhoggr's destruction.  He walked slowly with his eyes down.  All of this death and destruction was because of him.  He knew there had to be a new Lumin in order to fix everything, even if it was too late for him.  However, people dying in the process of him trying to achieve his goals was not how he liked to do things.  It was much more in line with the Lady in Rags and how she handled things.

              Ruith looked toward the sky and saw a sliver of it between the buildings.  The explosions and din attacks had ceased for several minutes by then.  Why had Nidhoggr finally stopped?  Did it have something to do with that blinding light that cast shadows between the buildings?

              Ruith pushed aside the dirty cloth that was a poor barrier to the most destructive, evil person he knew of in this world.

              The stench of humans who had long since given up on hygiene hit Ruith's nose and he, for the hundredth time, wondered how the Lady in Rags had gotten this way.  Nothing since he had come to this world had made any sense with her.  Why did she want to destroy everything here with such reckless abandon?

              “You return,” an elderly man's voice crept out of the waste and shadows.  “She is pleased with you.”

              Ruith coughed at the stench, but managed to say, “If she's pleased with me, I know I've lost my way.”  The man said nothing farther, so Ruith continued on.  He pushed aside several more filthy pieces of cloth that hung from strings.  Twice he stepped on peoples' limbs and quickly apologized, but they were so far gone toward despair that they did not even respond.

              Finally Ruith pushed aside the final cloth that led to the horrid living space of the Lady in Rags.  To his surprise, the decrepit, filthy woman was standing and staring toward the small patch of sky above her.

              Ruith looked at her for a long moment.  To Ruith's eyes, the Lady in Rags looked very old.  So much time had passed and so many things had changed her since they'd come to this world.  She did not speak, so Ruith said, “It was pure evil, but I carried out the plan.”

              “No you didn't,” the woman responded quietly.

              “Young Noir can use din now.  I think he now understands the need for him to be able to use all three--”

              “That was not the plan and you know it.”

              Ruith tried to contain his anger.  “My version of the plan will work!  Yours will lead to nothing more than destruction!”

              The Lady in Rags turned from the sky and met Ruith's eyes.  She hissed, “Exactly.”

              Ruith broke away from her gaze and sighed.  “Your plan to kill everyone won't work.”

              “We don't know that.  Nothing that we or the ones who came before us have tried has ever worked.”

              Ruith shook his head again and looked at his feet.  “We weren't able to save the Lumin again.  You know that is what our predecessors said we needed to do.”

              “And that failed.  Now we try another strategy.”

              Ruith looked up and couldn't contain his anger any longer.  “Your strategy is idiotic!  Killing everyone won't solve—”

              “'Try anything and everything' is what you said all those years ago.  You told our predecessors you'd get the next generation home no matter what.”

              Ruith shouted, “Yes, but not by murdering everyone!”

              “What does it matter?” the Lady in Rags asked.  “They aren't real anyway.  None of this is real.  All that matters is getting home to our families.”

              Ruith gritted his teeth.  “They are real.  We've been over this.  We agreed to create a new Lumin.  That's what I'm trying to do.  Kit can never be a new Lumin and you know it.  You just want him to destroy everything.  Noir will become the new Lumin and stop him.”

              “You cannot stop Kit's thirst for power and destruction.  He will become a new Lumin and carry out the prophecies.”

              Ruith spat, “You know our predecessors wrote the prophecies to manipulate us and future generations just as well as I do.”

              The Lady in Rags did not respond for a moment, so Ruith looked up to meet her eyes once again.  She stared right into his eyes and said, “Don't stand in my way, Noir.  I will destroy you just like past versions of myself.”

              “Aimee, you can destroy me if you want.  It won't matter now.  The younger version of me will stand up to you, Kit, and anyone in this world to set things right again.”

              “Then that makes us enemies once again, Noir.”

              Ruith threw up a light barrier just in time to block the spears of ice that were hurled in his direction.  The ice buffeted his shield at the same time the ground beneath his feet thrust diagonally upward, sending him flying away through the alley and out the way he'd come.

              Ruith landed hard against a building on the other side of the alley.  He knew the feeling of broken bones after so many years fighting to get home and knew several ribs and an arm were broken.  He could also tell his other arm was disjointed and his spine had been fractured.  Ruith set to healing his injuries with lux where he lay and resigned to the fact that he'd have to see the younger version of himself once again.  However, he had no idea how to convince Noir that he'd been acting in both their best interests.

Part 4

Chapter 31

Aftermath

              Noir awoke with a start.  He'd been having the dream again.  He'd just witnessed Aimee plunging her sword through Asiada's torso.

              Adrenaline was coursing through Noir's body and he suddenly became aware that someone was standing over him.  He pushed his body away across whatever soft surface he'd been asleep on and threw up a light barrier.

              “Noir!  Hey!  It's okay!” came a familiar, friendly voice.

              Noir fell off the soft surface and landed hard on a wooden floor.  He righted himself and looked over what he now realized was a bed.

              Ratt was smiling broadly, but obviously trying to keep from laughing.  Suddenly Noir felt stupid.

              Ratt joked, “Jumpy much?  Are you alright?  I didn't mean to scare you.”

              Noir released the barrier of light that shimmered between them and stood.  “Yeah.  I'm fine.  Just a bruise I can heal later.”  Noir finally looked around him.  He was in a room with stone walls, a wooden floor, a wooden vaulted ceiling, and well-carved wooden furniture.  It was the nicest room he'd seen since coming to this world other than the rooms inside the Azurite Tower.  “Where the heck are we?”

              Ratt smiled more broadly and walked to sit in a chair.  His pack and axe were propped against the wall next to the chair.  “We're in Fort Estelar.”

              Noir walked around the edge of the bed and sat on the corner.  He realized he was wearing nice, soft sleeping clothes.  “Why are we in the fort?”

              Ratt put one foot on top of his other knee.  “Because the people of Tier brought us here.”

              “They did?  Why?”

              Ratt smiled again.  “Because they think you're the new Lumin.”

              Noir was shocked.  “What?  Why?”

              Ratt laughed and flapped his arms weirdly like a bird.  “You know, the ridiculously over-the-top light wings and all.  No one's ever seen or heard of that before other than with the Lumin.”

              Noir sighed and looked down at the wooden floor.  That was the last thing he wanted anyone to think of him.  “I'm not the Lumin.”

              “Duh.  Asiada was.  They're calling you the new Lumin.”

              “Asiada....” Noir murmured vacantly.

              Ratt sighed and said in a serious tone, “I miss that ridiculous girl.”

              “So do I, Ratt.”

              Ratt lamented, “She could have fixed all of this.”

              After a long moment of silence, Noir questioned, “So what happened?  Where's Nidhoggr?  How did you liberate Fort Estelar?”

              Ratt replied, “Nidhoggr flew off toward the south.  No one has seen him since you battled him.”

              “That's good.”

              Ratt chuckled.  “Also, chopping off his arm like that... you're a bad ass, Noir.  Bad... ass....”

              Noir looked at his feet.  “That wasn't the idea.  I just had to stop him from killing anyone else.”

              “Well, it worked.  As for the fort...” Ratt ran a nervous hand through his light blond hair, “I might have killed the king.”

              Noir furrowed his brow and studied his friend to try to tell if he was joking or not.  “You what?”

              “Yeah... right before you started being a ridiculous glowing bird.  I fought my way into the fort and... killed him.”

              Noir was baffled.  “Why?”

              Ratt looked around the room and took a long deep breath before responding.  “Because I wanted to.”

              “You wanted to?!” Noir said incredulously.

              Ratt looked at his hands bashfully as he spoke.  “I warned you way back when we were in the Azurite Tower that I was afraid of what I would do with the armor.  I knew I wanted to free Tier from its oppressors and from the king.  I also knew I wouldn't have the restraint to do it peacefully with the power the enchant armor gave me.”

              “That still doesn't sound like you, Ratt.  I followed you through Tier and constantly tried to figure out why you'd leave me and go on this bizarre crusade.”

              “Heh,” Ratt laughed nervously.  “Also... I think I'm going crazy.”

              “What are you talking about?”

              “Whenever I wear the enchant armor...” Ratt met Noir's eyes and Noir saw fear, “I hear voices in my head.”

              Noir was trying to think of a response when Ratt added, “I found out some information, though.  They're making the straghs, and I know where!  There's a mine in Vosul'ett where they grow them!  The king said so before....”

              Noir started to say something when the wooden door to their room burst open.  A Tierian guard stood in the doorway and breathed heavily.  “Sirs,” he started, and paused to catch his breath.  “A man came from Garmak.  They say an army approaches their walls.  They request your aid.”

              Noir and Ratt exchanged glances.  Noir was confused why the Tierian guard was reporting to them, but dismissed the thought.  “How far were they away from the city?” Noir inquired.

              “They were a little more than a day away.”

              Ratt asked, “How old is the report?”

              “About twelve hours.  If you hurry, you may be able to reach Garmak around the same time as the army.  We can lend you horses if it will help.”

              Noir looked at Ratt.  “I don't think we will need horses.  Ratt, would you mind donning your enchant armor once more?”

              Ratt looked sad, but said, “I will do what has to be done.”

              Noir turned back to the Tierian guard.  “We will leave immediately.  Don't bother with the horses.  We have... other means of travel.”

~~~

              “I
just
led them here,” Finn growled, “and now you're telling me they're in danger again?!”

              Murik gritted his teeth.  The young man had been invaluable to the resistance, but now Finn was getting on his nerves.  He'd brought many more mouths that needed to be fed to Garmak and offered no solutions to the looming threat of the Tierian army.  “Finn, I cannot control the fate of Tier.  An army approaches from the west.  What do you want me to do, ask them to leave until it's more convenient for us?!”

              Finn frowned deeply.  “You're right, Murik,” he said after a pause.  “It's just that these people have suffered enough already.”

              “And we will do our best to protect them and make sure nothing else happens to them.  But in order to do that, Finn, we have to prepare to defend Garmak.”

              “Fine,” Finn said with resignation.  “Any response yet from the Savior of Tier in the capital?”

              “None, but we only sent the messenger twelve hours ago.  They most likely have not even received the message yet.”

              A brown haired girl stepped from behind Finn and stared into Murik's eyes with intelligent inquisitiveness.  “If I know my cousin, he'll be here.”

              Murik looked the young woman over.  “You are Aimee, the Din Mage?”

              “Yes,” she replied with a hint of impatience.

              “Will you help defend Garmak, or are you a Tierian loyalist?”

              Aimee scoffed.  “I don't care about Tier and honestly I don't care about you... but I do care about my cousin.  If Noir thinks this city is worth fighting for, then I guess I will do what I can.”

              “Good,” Murik replied.

              “Did you capture any Din Mages?” Aimee asked.

              “Yes... we did,” answered Murik hesitantly.  “Why do you ask?”

              “Let me talk to them.  Perhaps I can convince them to fight as well.”

              Murik nodded slowly.  “If you think you can convince them, I will have someone escort you to where they're being held.  They still have their collars, though.”

              Finn said, “I can pick the locks on them if given enough time.”

              “I will have someone show you the w--”

              A former Tierian soldier burst into the room where the three were meeting.  “A scout just returned.  The army is less than an hour away.”

              Murik nodded gravely.  “As we expected.”

              “There is new information, though,” the soldier added with obvious trepidation.  “There's an army of straghs with them as well.  Also, there are several large... beasts with them.”

              Murik looked at the ground and closed his eyes.  “Aimee... Finn... you'd better see what you can do to convince those Din Mages to help right away.  If you can't convince them... I fear we will not survive the night.”

~~~

              Kit stood atop another pillar of earth and scowled at Garmak's city walls in the distance.  “Grandel had better come,” he avowed to himself.  Then Kit turned and surveyed the two armies that he commanded.  The Tierian soldiers were separate from the straghs, obviously disturbed by their presence.  Kit laughed to himself.  He didn't care about these beings' lives or the outcome of the battle ahead.  He only cared about drawing the attention of one man.  If Grandel did not come to the aid of Garmak, then all of this was a waste.

              The forces stood at attention awaiting Kit's orders.  Kit sighed.  He figured he was supposed to make a speech, but he didn't care about them or the battle.  “Some fools have taken over Garmak.  Start firing the catapults as soon as we're in range.  Let the straghs go in first because they are expendable.  Once they're all dead, then the rest of you go in.  Make it take as long as possible.  Got it?”

              No one responded.  No one cheered.  Kit didn't care.  He began to lower his pillar of earth back down when he noticed one of the remaining officers approaching on horseback.  Kit let his pillar remain so he stood above the officer.  “A word, General Kit,” the officer said curtly.  Kit knew where this was going.

              “What is it?”

              “This is madness.  You are talking to the men like you don't care about their lives.  You talk about--”

              “But I don't care about their lives.  I don't care about yours, the traitors in Garmak, or any one.  What I do care about is revenge against one man.  The only purpose you serve, sir, is drawing him out.”

              Shock and hatred raged on the officer's face.  It was obvious he was just barely controlling his anger as he said, “Sir, the lives of these men are not for you to throw away for your personal vendetta!  They serve Tier, not you!”

              Kit put his back to the officer and made a series of stone steps to walk down from his pillar.  As he did this, he said coolly, “You and these men are tools, soldier.  You are in the service of Tier, and I have been given you and your men to do with as I please by the one who rules Tier.”

              Kit stepped down onto the lower pillars as the officer spat, “My men will not follow you on this path of madness and destruction.”

              Kit reached the ground and rounded on the officer on horseback.  He decided not to kill the man even though he wanted to.  He needed the man to lead the others.  Only two officers remained.  “Let me be very clear, soldier.  I could kill all of you on my own.  If you do not fight, that is exactly what will happen.”