KGWrites

Alyx

Aethril Palace Throne Room, Fallham, Barony of Fallham

A starless sky surrounded Alyx, reflected around her in a calm sea of darkness. She floated, weightless, on the surface of the water. No sounds or sensations reached her, she was alone, left only with memories.

Running through the halls of her home in Aldiron as the door opened. Tripping and stumbling over little legs as she rushed to meet her mother as she came home. Rose Cobalt looking down at her, a loving smile splitting a face that Alyx couldn’t quite place the features of. But she remembered the warmth. The love.

She remembered her mother lifting her and carrying her in one arm. Remembered the cold, smooth feel of the armour that Alyx now wore as the younger Alyx laid her head on her mother’s shoulder.

She remembered the rumbling voice of her father, deep and throaty, as he greeted his girls and kissed them both. She remembered the feeling of being laid in her bed, distantly listening to her mother read a bedtime story to James before he slept as she drifted off into dreams.

As the sleep took her memories with her, Alyx slipped beneath the calm surface of the dark sea, sinking down. Still pulled by the warm embrace of her parents.

Another embrace joined theirs. Hands calloused and rough gripped her shoulders firmly, a gentle scratchy sensation spreading across her cheek as a rough, bearded face was hugged up against her.

“It’s alright to let go, Alyxandra. The Gravekeeper always catches up. Winning The Chase is to be ready to welcome Them.” A hard voice said, as harsh as the rough feeling on her cheek. But Alyx knew it only as a source of warmth. A smile spread across her face as she turned.

“Sigmund?”

Sigmund Portsland floated in the ocean next to her, his deep brown eyes staring into hers with a welcoming smile. He nodded his head gently.

“Hello, Little Cobalt.” He greeted her. Alyx wrapped her hands around him instantly, a tight hug. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, how it was her fault that he had been killed, after all he’d done to protect her and James. But it didn’t seem to matter much now.

“Guess I lost The Chase.” She told him softly. He cupped her cheek, pinching it slightly and making her giggle girlishly.

“We all do eventually. It’s alright.” He reassured her. She turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand, holding it to her cheek. Closing her eyes and leaning into his touch, she nodded.

Alyx sank deeper.

A new sensation reached her. A pressure on her chest as thin arms wrapped around her waist. She opened her eyes and found herself looking at the wide blue eyes of Lillian Cobalt, staring up at her.

The girl was dressed in the beautiful silk nightgown the palace had given both her and Alyx the first night they had stayed there. Her long black hair was glossy and clean, her face devoid of the muck of the Winter District.

Alyx slowly reached down and ran her hand through Lillian’s hair. Alyx remembered this night, when she’d been able to look at Lillian and know she was clean, warm, safe. Here, in this place, she always would be.

Alyx sank deeper.

Lips gently met hers, a taste of orange gently reaching her. She opened her eyes again.

Iona Ravellan hovered above her in the water, her blazing hair spilling around her head like a mane of fire. Her golden-flecked green eyes shone down at Alyx. Her dimples showed as she smiled.

“The rest of us will sort ourselves out, and we’ll be here for you. Whatever you choose.” Iona told her softly, placing her hand on Alyx’s heart with a feathering touch. Alyx held her hand there a little longer, lifting her head to kiss Iona again.

Alyx sank deeper.

A hand with three fingers slipped into hers and squeezed. Once. Twice. Three times. I love you.

Alyx turned her head to the side, looking away from Iona above her.

James held her hand in his, smiling at her, like he did when they were children. His other hand was reached out behind him, holding Meghan close.

“We love you, Alyx.” Her brother told her. “It’s okay. We’re okay. I’m happy. You can rest now.”

Alyx felt the darkness closing in, the shadows growing long as she sank to the deepest depths of that dark sea. But she smiled, her chest warm with love and contentment. She was ready.

And then she caught sight of Meghan behind James.

Unlike everyone else that had greeted her in this place, Meghan was not smiling. In fact, her head was lowered, her jaw set into a tight clench as sweat pooled on her face.

“This is wrong.” Meghan said. The white glow of her magic began to build in the darkness around her.

As the light reached each of them, the visions changed. James was no longer smiling and safe but fighting and struggling. His bow drawn tight as he looked around himself, fighting off some unseen foe.

Iona too was battling, her armour rent and broken as she struggled. Red blood flowed from her veins in streams, drawn off to some unseen shadow.

Lillian was not clean and safe in a comfortable silken nightgown but tumbling and running from monsters in filth-stained clothes. She cried as the sounds of the beasts pursuing her got closer and closer.

The rough scratching of Sigmund’s beard was gone, replaced by cold hard bone. No longer did he hug to Alyx in contentment, but his skeleton screamed into the void, still impaled on a trident.

Her mother and father released her shoulders, slashed away into nothingness with an echoing, horrible laugh that Alyx had heard in nightmare since she’d been nine years old.

A cold dread settled in Alyx’s chest as she looked about the void now and saw it for what it really was.

Wrong.

She looked back to Meghan, to the source of the white glow that had banished the visions from her. The woman was gone, replaced by the glowing white tree that was tattooed across her back. But from within that glow, came her voice. And it spoke a simple command.

“Wake up Alyx! Fight!”

Alyx didn’t need to think.

She surged forwards with every ounce of strength she could muster, darting through the dark water towards the tree. She reached the branches and kicked off them, hauling herself upwards towards the distant surface.

Mother and Father, Sigmund, I failed you. Monsters took you. But James, Lillian, Iona, Meghan, they’re not safe yet. There’s still monsters there, coming for my family.

Her lungs burned, gasping for air against the crushing weight of the water. Her muscles screamed as she drove them ever forwards through the shining ivory branches, never relenting.

But I’m not done yet. I’m not fucking dying yet! And I will always be there to protect them!

With one last push, she kicked off the branches of the white tree and shot upwards towards the shining surface of the water. She burst through it, air rushing into her lungs as she gasped and spluttered and opened her eyes.

With a painful rush, Alyx Cobalt rolled over on the floor of the Aethril Palace throne room. Air burned as she sucked into her lungs between long hacking coughs. Pain ached across her body, her vision still swam with falling white stars and her hearing was dull and muffled, but all that amounted to one irrefutable fact.

Alyx was alive.

“Alyx! Get up! Fight!” Meghan’s frantic cries cut through the haze of her mind, and she finally focused enough to look around.

The throne room was a chaotic mess around her. The lit braziers had been thrown around as if by some great gale tearing through the space, spilling their coals and starting small fires that Zaygor’s servants now hurried to contain. Darkness filled most of the space, casting deep shadows. Moving within those shadows, Alyx could barely make out the lightly armoured forms of Fallham soldiers, rushing into the room with their weapons drawn.

Light flashed in the centre of the room, bright as daylight and Alyx drew her head back, squinting against it.

Zaygor stood, surrounded by the deep indigo glow of his magical tattoos, his arms spread wide as he focused on what was before him.

And what was before him stole the breath from Alyx all over again.

Meghan Whiteoak stood tall at the centre of a blaze of white light. The branches of her tree tattoo down her arms blazed bright as fire across her skin, shining through from beneath her clothing. Air rushed around her in a whirlwind, whipping at the long violet tails of her outfit and throwing her hair about her head. Her eyes were fixed on Zaygor before her, the usual brown replaced by flaring white as she snarled and whipped her hand out in a quick arc towards Zaygor.

White light flared. A marble bust of the baron tore across the room, hurtling directly for his head. At the very last second, Zaygor reached out his own hand. An indigo burst met the statue, deflecting it aside and sending it crashing into the floor where it splintered the wooden floorboards and jammed in, headfirst.

Alyx stared at it. The bust was a solid chunk of stone, it must have weighed at the very least as much as Lillian would, if not Alyx herself. And both Meghan and Zaygor had thrown it around like it was nothing.

Alyx was so out of her depth with this fight. Her sword may as well be a butterknife for all the good it would do against this.

Zaygor cackled with glee within the flashing, whirling storm of magic.

“Oh finally! I’ve always wondered what facing you at your fullest would be like Lady Whiteoak! And you do not disappoint, I can assure you of that.” He spoke quickly, his voice a wheezing sound of delighted evil.

“Take a hint Baron!” Meghan replied, yelling over the howling gale. “You won’t survive me at my fullest power.”

Zaygor cackled again, saying nothing in response as he threw his  hands downwards. A shockwave rippled outwards from him, rending the floor between him and Meghan and cracking the wood, sending splinters rocketing up towards Meghan. She reacted quickly, leaping upwards and throwing her hands down, an explosion of air throwing her high into the air, clear of the debris. Meghan tilted and flipped in the air, coming back down closer to Zaygor, extending her magic to create a cushion of air to land on.

As she landed, she briefly caught Alyx’s eye and breathed a clear sigh of relief at seeing her alive and functioning. Alyx simply stared at her in bewilderment. She’d seen Meghan use magic before, even seen her resist Draconeus. But this was on an entirely different level against that. Meghan was otherworldly, not just in her beauty, but her speed, her ferocity, her power. She was superhuman, closer to a goddess than a noblewoman of Aldiron.

It was terrifying and amazing to behold.

Meghan nodded slightly to the side and Alyx turned to follow her gaze. She found herself looking at the blue glowing crystal that Zaygor maintained the barrier in the vaults from. The metal rings still shifted around it, glowing with runes as the spell still carried on, regardless of the amount of energy Zaygor spent holding off Meghan.

Alyx understood instantly.

Meghan needed her power focused on the baron, whatever he’d done to enhance his own power required her entire attention to battle. So, their true objective, destroying the barrier, was now in Alyx’s hands.

A task which would be made far more difficult by how heavy and sluggish her limbs felt as she continued to adjust to being alive. And the fact that four of Zaygor’s soldiers now encircled her, weapons drawn.

A grim smile crossed Alyx’s lips. She’d beaten worse odds before.

The soldiers started forwards. Alyx closed her grip around her sword and came to one knee, balancing on the ball of her foot, waiting.

Five paces away.

Four.

Three.

In the same instant that Zaygor threw another magical blast towards Meghan, cracking one of the wooden pillars as she redirected it, Alyx leapt forwards.

As the darkness flashed with indigo and white, lighting the room like an otherworldly storm, Alyx struck outwards with her sword, batting aside the scimitar of the soldier in front of her and pulling back in a quick slice that cut into his armour and left a bleeding cut along his chest. Not enough to kill, but it caused him to step backwards, allowing Alyx to take his place and escape the circle surrounding her.

In the next lightning flash of Meghan’s magic, Alyx had moved to the next man. She kicked out at his knee as she reached him, causing him to drop with a grunt. Not wasting a second, Alyx twisted her sword and cut outwards.

It caught the falling man on the inside of his elbow and carried on forwards like cutting paper. Before he had even registered what had happened, his lower left arm was on the ground and a pool of blood was already forming around him. Still though, it wasn’t enough to entirely take him down.

So, Alyx punched him in the face with her steel gauntlet.

His head rocked back, and he tumbled over backwards, slamming to the floor.

He didn’t get up again.

Indigo flashed from Zaygor as the next man dashed at Alyx, swinging his scimitar in a vicious downwards slice intended to split the top of her skull. Unable to make out detail in the dark room, lit only by the flashing lights of magic, Alyx backpedalled, hard.

The whoosh of the scimitar through the air passed barely an inch from her nose and she spun her sword in her hand, gritting her teeth.

As Alyx prepared to counterattack though, the soldier opposite swung again with his blade. Alyx barely had time to jump backwards, the tip of his blade sparking off the metal plates over her midriff.

She quickly backed up, giving herself distance. Clearly up close, the shorter bladed scimitars held the advantage as they were light enough to be quickly adjusted. Her heavier, long-bladed sword took much longer to attack with in comparison.

What she did have as an advantage though, was reach.

Placing both hands on the hilt of her sword, Alyx held the blade up, keeping it between her and her opponents, fending them off.

The other two soldiers stepped up alongside their comrade, stepping over the body of the fallen guard.

Alyx took a deep breath, her lungs already feeling like they were on fire. Clearly the damage Zaygor had done to her would need longer to heal. A prolonged fight was out of the question, she needed a way to even the odds.

As her back hit the uneven surface of a bookshelf, which rocked from the impact, she smiled, knowing she’d just found it.

Waiting until the next white flash of Meghan’s magic lit up the room, Alyx lifted her hand from her sword and curled her fingers in a taunting invitation.

Come have a go you stupid bastards.

The wounded one, that she’d cut across the chest, took the bait.

Lowering his head and raising the scimitar, he charged forwards.

Alyx waited until he was close enough and then rolled along the bookshelf away from him, causing him to almost run straight into it. Reaching the side, Alyx quickly hooked her hand and foot behind it and heaved it forwards.

The bookshelf rocked once and then, with a steady groan, fell forwards. The guard beneath it was pummelled by tumbling books and then he disappeared beneath the wooden monolith with a scream that was cut off by a resounding thud as the shelf rattled off the ground.

If he was still alive, he was inescapably pinned beneath the shelf, no more threat to Alyx.

Which left her two.

As their friend had disappeared beneath the shelf, the remaining two guards began to steadily advance as one. Clearly better trained than the first had been, or at least better disciplined. Holding them both off together was going to be very difficult.

Behind them Meghan’s white magic glow flared once again and the three throwing spears held in the sling across the dead guard’s back lifted into the air. As one they twisted and pointed directly at Zaygor. Then they shot forwards in a blur.

The guards charged at Alyx. Twisting, she parried away the blade of one, pulling in close to him while she used the bracer of her gauntlet to push away the other. The punch hit his hands and caused him to stumble aside while Alyx locked her blade with the first guard’s.

But the disappearance of the second guard also gave Alyx a view of Zaygor behind him.

Her blood went cold.

Zaygor was holding out his hand, the three spears that Meghan had thrown hovering just in front of it. He’d clearly caught them with magic before they reached him. And then, terrifyingly, he’d turned them all to face Alyx.

As she watched, Zaygor twisted his fingers and all three spears began to spin, turning over and over rapidly until they became a tumbling blur behind their wicked points.

Looking past them, Alyx locked eyes with Zaygor, who gave her an amused smirk. And then he flicked his fingers outwards, and the spears rocketed forwards.

Fuck!

With nowhere to go, Alyx stepped in close to the guard she was fighting and gripped his wrist. With a primal scream, she lifted and turned him, catching him off guard and moving him around.

Which caused three spears to pierce deep into his back.

The first tore through his hip, piercing so deep that its still spinning tip sliced into Alyx’s leg, causing a shooting flame of pain that made her scream out, nearly buckling beneath it.

The second spear drove through his chest and only avoided piercing into Alyx’s because it glanced off the plates of her armour.

The third spear hit Alyx’s unfortunate human shield in the back of the head. His skull barely even seemed to slow it down as it tore through him and out his mouth, showering Alyx in blood, bone and brain. It passed close to Alyx’s face, leaving a thin nick just below her eye in her cheek that cried tears of blood. The spear carried on behind her, embedding its entire tip in the wooden wall of the throne room.

His attempt foiled, Zaygor growled in rage before having to redirect his attention to Meghan once more, fending off another blast of magic.

Alyx dropped the ruined body of the soldier to the side, turning with a stab of pain from her leg to face the last guard standing.

And not a moment too soon as he charged her with a frenzied cry.

He swung his scimitar in a series of rapid swings that Alyx could barely move quick enough to parry. There was no room, nor time, to counterattack him as he drove forwards, swinging blow after blow at her. Each connection of their blades rang out in a ringing clash that threw sparks between them.

Alyx felt her muscles burning as she struggled to keep up with the relentless assault. He was quicker than her, especially with the advantage of his blade and her oxygen starved body. And eventually, inevitably, he was going to break through.

Unless she changed the terms of their fight.

As he struck for her side, rather than parrying Alyx spun, rolling down his arm and colliding with him as she closed the distance. Lifting her knee, she drove it up into his gut, driving her wind from him and causing him to falter.

Still though, he surprised her with a counterattack, pulling his arm back in a slice across her shoulder that bit into her upper left arm just below her armoured pauldron. Alyx grunted in pain and struck out on instinct.

She slammed the back of her armoured gauntlet into his jaw, sending him spinning away with a spray of spit and broken teeth. Pain shot up her arm.

Okay, hitting him with the arm he just cut, not the smartest move.

But he was away from her now, and Alyx could make use of that. As the guard tumbled to his knees, clutching his broken jaw, Alyx stepped up behind him and stabbed her sword downwards.

It bit deep into his chest, puncturing through his light armour and into his vitals within. He screamed, a sound Alyx cut short by twisting her blade with an angry smile before kicking his corpse off her blade.

With all the guards around her dead, Alyx half limped, half ran over to the glowing magical mechanism. Iona had told her that it was the gem at the centre that held the magic, but breaking any part of it would disrupt the spell within.

Somewhere behind her, she heard Meghan call out, though with pain or rage, she couldn’t tell.

No time for precision.

Swinging her sword in both hands, Alyx swung for the crystal.

And hit the spinning gilded rings that twisted around it, seemingly shifting their position to shield the crystal from the approaching blow.

The kickback from the blow was heavy enough that it tore the sword from Alyx’s hands and sent it spinning away over the floor. Alyx sprawled on the floor, crying out in surprise.

Rolling over she stared at the magical mechanism as the rings shifted back into their constantly spinning positions. None of them showed even the slightest hint of damage.

Alright. Magic gem can’t be hit with a sword. Good.

Groaning, Alyx picked herself up and glared at the little crystal. It flickered with blue light rapidly. If Alyx didn’t know better, she’d have thought it was laughing at her.

She kicked it. The barriers shifted to block her.

She tried kicking and hitting it with one of her throwing axes at the same time. The rings moved to block both blows. Alyx nodded to herself.

It’s not number of attacks. It’s speed. I need to be faster than it can adjust to.

Easier said than done.

Her muscles were aching and exhausted, not to mention the wounds causing burning pain on her left side. She shifted her weight, bending down to lift her sword again. Her leg flared in pain.

Groaning, she glanced down at the bleeding cut across her thigh. And then narrowed her eyes as a thought came to her. She turned her head to look at the ruined corpse of the guard, pierced with spears. Then to the spear that was sunk deep into the throne room wall and finally to the broken bust of Zaygor, still embedded in the floor.

I can’t be fast enough. Magic can.

Taking a steadying breath and sheathing her sword, Alyx drew a throwing axe from her belt and aimed it carefully.

Better time this right. Get it wrong and I’m fucked.

“Hey, Fuckface!” She yelled out, then she released the axe, sending it spinning through the air in a perfect arc bound for the back of Zaygor’s head.

It was only a single spin away from embedding itself in his skull when Zaygor held up a hand and the axe stopped in midair. He didn’t even turn his head to look at Alyx.

“Now now dog, the grown ups are busy.” He taunted smugly. “Play fetch with your own toys.”

He flexed his fingers, and the axe turned in the air before spinning back towards Alyx in a horizontal blur, so fast she could barely see it.

She held for a second, staring straight at the oncoming axe.

Time it right, so the crystal can’t adjust early.

Another second passed.

The axe was right in front of Alyx now. She could feel the rush of air from its spinning.

She threw her left shoulder backwards, cleanly sidestepping and allowing the axe to shoot through the air past her.

The rings spun in a blur, shifting to block the axe. But with so little time against such enhanced speed, they could only close together half a second after the axe passed between them.

A second later, the axe smacked into the crystal and shattered straight through it. A blast of blue light flared outwards, and the air rushed by Alyx in a gale. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.

And then it stopped, everything stopped.

Silence descended on the room as everyone stared at the rings as they dropped uselessly to the ground inert around the fragmented crystal. The blue glow faded into darkness and the buzzing of the magic faded into nothingness.

It all held for a moment.

And then Zaygor began to laugh. A menacing sound, one of hysterical, disbelieving joy.

“Not here to kill me after all! Here for the Brightblade in the vaults. I should have known. And I assume that’s where our dear Iona has gone, to achieve her destiny?”

“You weren’t worth the effort for her.” Alyx growled back, spinning her sword in her hand. For me though…

But Zaygor kept laughing. “I even tried to tell her! And she didn’t listen.” He turned to look at them both, grinning maniacally. Goosebumps rose on Alyx’s arms, something was wrong.

“You were both here too! And you didn’t understand either.” He continued.

“Understand what Zaygor? Speak plainly!” Meghan demanded, the white glow in her eyes intensifying. The Baron looked at her and cackled.

“You truly thought that if I had access to a piece of the Brightblade, that I would choose to keep it behind magical barriers and out of my own hands?” He asked before gesturing to the destroyed machine behind Alyx.

“That barrier has been here since before I became ruler of Fallham. It was a last-ditch effort from the Evellien. Sealing their own people, and many of their treasures beneath the city, including the Brightblade.”

“Why the fuck would they do that?” Alyx demanded, tightening her grip on her sword and circling behind Zaygor. She glanced to Meghan.

End it. He’s playing for time. Recovering strength.

But Meghan was watching Zaygor, waiting for him to answer Alyx. Though her tattoos still glowed, ready to react should he try anything.

“Because if they didn’t, the Dwarves of Birn Tharum would have killed them all.” Zaygor replied evenly.

“Horseshit!” Meghan spat. “The Dwarves were driven underground by a curse of greed from Draconeus. They died out in the dark.”

Zaygor looked at her with a look of disappointed scorn. “Come now Lady Whiteoak, you know how magic works. Curses of entire species? They don’t exist. That’s not what Draconeus does. He’s the most skilled alchemist in the known world, and a powerful sorcerer. He doesn’t curse, he infects. With the power he wields, changing the Dwarves over a few generations of careful mutation was a simple matter.”

“Meghan? The fuck’s this prick talking about?” Alyx growled, looking at Meghan. The only thing holding her back from leaping at Zaygor to shut him up was the horrified look on Meghan’s face. “What I mean, you lameminded fool, is that there are monsters below this palace.” Zaygor replied, turning to face her with a sneering grin. “And by lowering that barrier, you just sounded the dinner bell and opened the cage. And put your lovely princess right into their feeding trough!”