Miraric

14| Death in a Foreign Body.

The white hallway was blood-painted right now.

And Edric tried his ultimate best — to not look at the familiar soldiers who were laying dead, soldiers with whom he trained archery with once, soldiers who never had a chance of winning shooting arrows with Edric being their opponent, soldiers who vowed to serve the country until their last breaths now lay dead and all Edric could do, was walk past them and walk above their dead bodies.

Everything happened so fast.

Though it'd been an hour, but Edric had already realised something about the Ezèrian after observing them surreptitiously: the Ezèrian were like wolves. They never attacked alone — they were always in groups and the reason was quite obvious as well.

They have limitations of their magic.

When one Ezèrian was attacking and using their Elemental powers, they got tired after using their powers for merely ten minutes and right then, they would walk behind their group and would let another one handle rest and just like that, the cycle continued.

Edric was continuously blending in and out of places of the palace, making sure he was always hidden from the eyes of the Ezèrian, never once making the mistake of being caught or make the tiniest of sound. And just like that, he had reached his father's bedchamber and thankfully, there were no Ezèrian in there, making Edric heave a sigh so big, he wondered if the Ezèrian heard him.

The Ezèrian stood in front of his father's bedchamber, the door closed while Edric was standing behind the curtain, breathing heavily and wondering what might his father be doing there, all alone and sick.

"Where is our lord?" One of the Ezèrian asked.

There were more than twenty Ezèrian now, surrounding the outside of his father's bedchamber. "He is taking care of the soldiers at the front," another Ezèrian said, but Edric couldn't make out his face, for he was in the crowd.

"Should we leave the king be?"

"Our lord said he is going to take his life. He is the king, after all,"

"That is right, but this is a chance—"

The Ezèrian who was talking, stopped abruptly, his eyes now wide opened, almost bulging out of their sockets, his face getting pale while his body went limp.

The other Ezèrian looked at him incredulously, not being able to get what was going on, including Edric as well.

The Ezèrian looked down, his body still while the other Ezèrian shook his shoulders, not getting any response from him.

"What is wrong with Thèi—"

Just then, the Ezèrian — whose name was Thèi — looked up, grinning wide, his eyes darkening as he spread his arms and pushed them against the Ezèrian, blowing away all the Ezèrian in one go as they all flew away and collided with the walls harshly, some of them immediately losing their consciousness.

Edric pushed his body against the wall more hard, the curtains hiding his body while sweat crinkled down from his forehead, from his temples to his bloody cheeks and now that he noticed, his body was all wet due to the sweating.

I have no idea what is going on but is this my cue to attack? He thought, trying to slow his breath.

"What in the name of gods—" one of the Ezèrian, whose cheek was split opened due to the collision, yelled as he tried to stand up, blood still drawing from his cheeks, but only failed to do so when Thèi brought out his hand, making a swift movement and hitting the Ezèrian against the wall, again, almost cracking the wall.