Katerin watched in horror as Juen'tal's sword was in his hands in an instant. He drove it down, then forward. Through Fykes. He lifted him up, slamming him into the opposite wall of the hallway before Fykes could even react.
Katerin screamed as she charged Juen'tal. Everything felt slow, her own voice echoing in her ears. The warmth of Fykes' blood on her face turned her stomach. Her staff struck Juen'tal in the stomach, and he grunted as she collided with him in the narrow, ornate hall.
Fykes fell from Juen'tal's blade and slumped onto the floor. His blades were in his hands but useless.
Juen'tal kneed Katerin hard in the stomach, pushing her away.
"Brazen!" Katerin coughed, not waiting for the air to find its way back to her lungs. Lilly grabbed her by the hair, pulling her down the hall, away from Fykes. A dagger plunged for her back, but found her disguised armor instead, twisting sideways and only nicking into her arm. She wrenched free of Lilly's grasp, losing some hair in the process, and called flames to her hand as she grabbed behind her for the woman's face.
*
Brazen appeared next to her, axe already in hand, and swung at Lilly. She took a bone-crushing blow in one greave and turned her attention to the new threat, with a confounded expression.
Juen'tal advanced on Fykes, who sat shaking and trying to breathe. Blood was seeping from his armor, covering his hands.
*
Arjiah's bolt of ice stabbed through Juen'tal's arm, leaving droplets of blood to freeze on the rug in this narrow hall. He only looked at her a moment, eyes glowing a soft muted red color that mixed with the green and made him even more terrifying to behold. He made no move to attack her. She dove forward, holding her hands over Fykes' wounds. Healing all she could. It slowed the flow of blood, but she did not know if it was enough. There was no way it could be enough.
*
Juen'tal scoffed and reached for her, and Katerin collided with him once again.
"Leave them!" she said, anger and terror sparking in her blue eyes.
Juen'tal pushed her away again with another knee, this one to the ribs, and a glancing blow from his fist caught her cheek. He stared at her for a moment, as if surprised, before his blade flashed just beside her. She struck out with her staff, bringing it down across his elbow.
He barely flinched, paying her little heed.
*
Fykes gasped on the floor, reveling in his ability to breathe and spitting blood, as Arjiah ducked away. Righting his grip on Ahlindrion, he blocked the blow that arced for him, struggling to get to his feet. He managed to stand, if only halfway, supported by the wall at his back.
*
Lilly's blades flashed back and forth towards Brazen. One left a nick on his shoulder as he drove the axe into the side of her armor, staggering her and denting metal. She screamed at him and drove her blades low, and he battered her again with the axe, leaving a cut across her arm. One of her blades clashed with his shield and the other stabbed him in the thigh. As big as she was, she fought like a whirlwind, with quick and precise strikes.
*
Fykes' vision was clearing now. He slid along the wall, dodging another blow from Juen'tal. He did not know how he was even conscious, so instead he attributed it to adrenaline and Arjiah's near-constant stream of healing magic. Another swing caught his shoulder, dropping him again to his knees, leaving a smear of his blood on the wall behind him. His vision danced with black and white speckles.
*
Arjiah shot another ice bolt, cutting across Juen'tal's leg, staining the carpet behind him with blood. She reached out a hand and gave more healing magic to Fykes. He was struggling and it seemed it was all she could do to keep him upright, despite the fact she was channeling the healing as fast as she could and never letting it slip from her focus. She moved to stand in front of him protectively, her mace held defensively in her hands.
*
Katerin swung her staff into the back of Juen'tal's knees, and both he and his sword moved with incredible speed to block her next blow. He turned to face her, annoyance written across his face. Stop interfering, his eyes seemed to say.
She swung again, and this time he let it hit, but she could not block his blow. She caught him across the jaw, he grunted and drove his blade across her hip, carving a deep cut just above her thigh. Blood coated his blade as he pulled it back and he circled her, leaving her with her back to Lilly. "Just let him die," he told her, before turning his gaze back to Fykes.
Lilly's swords drove towards Katerin and she ducked one, falling forward onto the rug, as she tried to put too much weight on her leg. The other caught the top of her shoulder, tearing down her back.
She spun around to face the woman, panic rising and threatening her grasp on her consciousness. Ignoring someone's blades was surely an easy way to die. Any more of this and she would be dead. She had been fighting for a while now and never had she felt so outmatched. These were not dead or simple creatures—they were trained killers, not afraid of her. She had no advantages over them, no skills sharper than theirs in this fight.
*
Brazen moved towards Lilly's side, and his axe cut deep into her sword arm, rendering it useless. She screamed in pain, before dropping one blade and stepping forward. Using her other weapon to parry another slash from Brazen, their skirmish echoing down the hallways as he pushed her further from the group of people in the narrow hall.
*
Arjiah moved away from the wall, watching Fykes out of the corner of her eye. She hurled ice towards Lilly, cutting her with arcane cold. Lilly grimaced, holding both her hands out. Light erupted in a terrible flash, blinding her, and she felt the bite of a blade on her calf.
*
Katerin's staff struck Lilly in the back, and she aimed her second blow for the back of the woman's head. Lilly fell forward with a heavy thump and a curse on her lips.
*
Juen'tal did not even glance at Lilly as she fell. Fykes was barely standing, barely moving—an easy kill. He was surrounded and outnumbered, but Juen'tal knew himself to be the better swordsman, so this was just proving the point. He slashed down and across, but Fykes grimaced and dropped back to the floor to avoid it. Juen'tal smiled at him.
It was not arrogant, it was not predatory. It was just a smile. His blade flashed again.
Katerin spun around to watch Juen'tal's blade flash down and forward. The same move he had done as he drew his blades only moments before. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched. She brought her staff up in an arc to bash in his skull, but she knew she would be too late.
*
Fykes swallowed the lump in his throat. If he was going to die he would not go alone. He felt the blade pierce through him, again, an agony akin to nothing he had ever experienced, and he felt resistance against his own blade. Juen'tal had left himself wide open in his moment of victory, and Fykes drove Ahlindrion into Juen'tal's side.
*
For a moment, both swordsmen were trapped in the same stance, held up by blades stained with blood.
Katerin changed the angle of her strike, and her staff impacted with so much force that Fykes lost his grip on his sword as Juen'tal was slammed away from him.
Juen'tal hit the opposite side of the hall, gasping for air, blood trickling from his mouth.
Katerin stumbled, almost falling to her knees, her arms numb from her blow. She wrenched the sword free of the red-eyed figure before her and dropped to the ground, staring at him a moment.
He coughed up blood, giving her an intense yet somehow still amused look. "Just kill me..." his lips pulled back in a gruesome snarl. "Don't be weak."
Katerin could only shake her head, as she turned to judge the state of her companions, a few feet away.
*
Arjiah knelt next to Fykes, focusing her healing on him alone. His color had improved, but he was still shaking. After a few more moments, and another empty bottle of water, Arjiah had peeled away his armor and was hastily wrapping his wounds. The wounds were bad enough that instead of healing completely upon Arjiah's touch, only scabs formed. "There," Arjiah said, hovering in front of his face. "You're going to be alright, just stay still."
*
Fykes picked up Ahlindrion in one hand and pushed himself to his feet. Shaky and dizzy, as he approached Juen'tal. He looked down at the elf with a mixture of sadness and anger in his eyes.
He did not enjoy killing. Did not enjoy fighting.
Juen'tal was still conscious, somehow, and stared at him with still red tinted, angry eyes and Katerin still sat in front of him, staring with wide eyes.
Fykes took a deep breath and raised his sword.
*
Katerin stood between them with a pronounced limp, placing a hand on Fykes' chest.
"Katerin," he coughed. "Move."
"No," she stared at him. "You already beat him. Let it go."
He looked at her with a hard expression, as Juen'tal grinned up at him from the floor, blood covering his teeth.
"Just let it go," Katerin said, her eyes pleading. "He's not in your way, anymore."
"My way? Katerin he's..." Fykes studied her face, he shook his head, sadness in his eyes.
"He's... this is a mistake." He turned and stumbled away, holding onto the wall.
Arjiah gave Katerin a look she could not decipher before turning on her heel and moving to Fykes' side.
Katerin waited a moment, before she turned to Juen'tal and crouched. Leaning over him, she laid a hand on his chest and the bleeding slowed, though it was not perfect and not fully healed. "This should at least keep you alive," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper.
"He's right. And you know it." Juen'tal watched her with a strange expression, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand. "So why stop him? Why heal me?" His voice still held that same, uncaring arrogance.
"You helped me before," she said, biting her lip. "I owed you."
He gave the expression that one might wear when they were sure they were being lied to, and she sighed.
That was not the only reason. But she could not put anything else into words. Killing him just seemed wrong. Wrong enough to disagree with the people who had watched her back for months now. "You should leave, before we come back," she said, standing with a grunt of pain.
She brushed off her legs and turned away, clamping a hand over her bleeding hip.
The wound hurt immensely, but it was shallow. He had not meant it to be a life threatening injury she realized, as she walked down the hall to find the door to Holter's chambers. And that thought left a cold fear in the bottom of her heart. What would be the outcome if he truly meant to kill me?
Fykes glanced at her, then turned his face away. She reached for his shoulder, and he did not pull away, but his face was an expressionless mask. "Are you—"
"Not now," he told her. "The doors unlocked. We were just waiting for you." He swayed as he held onto the door frame.
She turned her face away to hide her expression and looked down the hall. The entry hall to Holter's chambers was as gaudy as the rest of his manor. Rich rugs lined the floors, tapestries the walls. As she stepped through the door, she could see dim candle light flickering in the room beyond. She cast a spell and passed a hand across her face to search for any magic in the area. Near the end of the hall, an arcane rune glowed in bright blue colors. She approached and studied it for a moment, thinking furiously, before scoring a line across one part of the rune's outer lines, disabling it.
"Should be safe now," she whispered, and peered into the rooms beyond. One chair was pulled out from a dining table, the candle upon it burning so low it could flicker out at any minute. A cold cup of tea was the only thing upon it. The room was empty and looked relatively untouched.
They searched the rooms, looking for any sign of either Holter or Byron and found none. A plush couch and two chairs sat in front of a hearth. The smell of smoke lingered, but the coals were dark.
"This is a little too quiet," Arjiah mused.
Katerin nodded in agreement as she examined the space. There was no more magic in the room. Everything lay dark, cold and dormant.
"Why would they guard an empty room?" Fykes asked, feeling a chill along his spine.
Whatever was going on here isn't right. It's eerie, like a tomb. "I don't know. Nothing is locked, either," Katerin said, pressing on the door to the bedroom. She peered into the darkness in the room, letting her eyes adjust. Someone lay in the bed, the covers pulled over their head. She approached the bed and laid a hand on the form. Her fingers met something sticky, cold. Blood had seeped through the blankets.
She steadied her hands, and pulled the blankets away. A pudgy man lay in an ornate vest, his eyes staring at the ceiling. Blood was everywhere, soaked into the sheets and the wood of the bed frame. His throat was open completely, and a large, dark hole adorned his chest. Ruining the once fine clothing he wore. "I...I found Holter," she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the man.
Fykes cursed as he saw the man, and his entire body tensed. "We need to find Byron."
Katerin still stared at the body. "If he was here recently, I can try to track him with magic... but I think I know where he is, anyway," she said.
Arjiah gave her a quizzical look.
Katerin gulped, shaking herself, forcing her focus away from the man. "The letters... they closed the upper mines, but they lied about the reason." She took a deep breath, ignoring the now almost familiar scent of blood and death. "They knew something about it. Something is in there."
Fykes nodded. "We need to get food for the dwarves... talk to Beymor and let him handle this."
Arjiah frowned. "Beymor?"
"It's that or Anteal, and I believe Beymor will handle it better," Fykes said, already leaving the room and the disturbing sight behind him.
"Fykes, you need to rest. There has to be another healer—"
"No one needs to know what happened, yet. We're only getting food for the dwarves."
"She's right," Arjiah said. "You need to sleep and let that heal. I can do more later, but if I try now, you'll be too exhausted to move. We'll take care of the food and see if Byron shows back up."
Fykes looked between them, an angry set to his features. "Alright. I'll rest."
As Katerin broke the locks away from the shed tucked in one corner of the manor grounds, Arjiah placed a hand on Beymor's shoulder. Looking at him with concern. She gestured her head and the dwarf moved with her, away from the other dwarves and the now unconscious guards.
"What?" Beymor asked gruffly as she led him aside.
She sighed, taking a deep breath. "Holter is dead, Vorn is gone, and Byron is missing," she said, in a tense tone.
Beymor's eyes widened, as she held a finger to her lips, "What?" he hissed, "What the blazes did you do?"
"It wasn't us!" Arjiah hissed, doing her best to whisper. "We don't know what happened... yet."
His jaw dropped open as he stared at her, looking to the bandage on her arm. "That's no good..." he said, trying to tug on a beard that wasn't there. He straightened his shoulders. "I'll keep the people fed and calm..." He stared at her sternly. "You'd better tell me when you know more!"
"I will," she promised. "But I need your help. I need a map of the mines."
He looked at her quizzically for a moment before shaking his head, as if deciding he did not want to know any more, and holding out his hands. She handed him charcoal and a piece of parchment and he turned away. After a moment, he handed her the parchment back.
"I ain't no artist. But that'll map the tunnels well enough. Unless you go beyond. We tapped into some natural tunnels," he said.
She squeezed his shoulder, hearing the grunts of dwarves as they moved sacks of grains and crates of food out of the still very full storehouse. "Thank you," she told him, kissing him on the cheek.