The day broke quietly over the kingdom of Anavrin, this beautiful morning giving no hint to the horrible battle waged just night before. Only two brave souls dared to ride through this area, having nothing to fear for they had emerged the victors of the battle. They had almost obliterated their enemies with the powers they both controlled as if they were second nature. The battle had been long and hard won. Barbaric tribes on the outskirts of Anavrin were acting up, and had enlisted the help of the great archers of Sace, a magical kingdom somewhat smaller than Anavrin. To feed their growing force of warriors they had taken to robbing small caravans and the poor people of Anavrin with weaker powers who could not properly defend themselves. The battle had finally culminated in a valley between the two kingdoms, with every major fighting force from both sides in attendance.
The great leader and trainer of mages, Draconus, was there to help lead the great armies of Anavrin to victory with all the mages he had trained in attendance. One of the great mages he had trained, Zavier, was fighting ruthlessly on the battlefield surrounded by barbarians but slaying them with ease. Another of the mages he had trained, Ember, was across the battlefield fighting her way out of a circle of the archers. Ember looked toward the center of the battlefield and saw a barbarian attempting to steal her horse, who was skittering away, and was instantly filled with anger. She looked to the star filled night and began to say a spell to herself calling on the power of the sun. Within seconds a large ball of fire was cast down upon the barbarian preoccupied with stealing her horse. Zavier saw the horse and the barbarian attempting to mount it, and knowing it would provide an advantage in battle, began to move toward it intending to claim ownership. As he moved toward the horse he felt an extreme heat flash and looked into the sky to see a ball of fire flying straight for the barbarian. Deciding that a horse was not worth being burned alive, he changed course to come around the other side of the horse and avoid both the barbarian and the ball of fire. The ball of fire struck the barbarian who collapsed in pain and began to roll around on the ground attempting to extinguish the flames. Ember ran to the side of the stricken barbarian and stabbed him straight through the heart, as she removed it and wiped it clean she looked down at him and said:
"You tried to steal my horse, and now I will burn you until your skin caramelizes in your own blood,"
She watched the barbarian burn and after he had died she waved her hand and the fire disappeared as soon as it had come. Without another word she sheathed her sword and swung onto her horse's back with ease. Angered by the fact that the horse had been stolen from under his nose by a different mage, Zavier decided he would trick them into handing over the horse with his original plan of claiming ownership. He stopped in front of the horse and grabbed the reins from the rider only to find they were snatched savagely from his grip.
"That is my horse!" Zavier yelled above the ever strengthening battle.
"The hell it is!" the rider yelled swinging off the horse and pressing a dagger to his throat. The rider slowly lifted their face to meet his and when Zavier looked into the rider’s face he was shocked. Before him stood Ember, a fire mage that had fought and trained with him when he was younger and was known for the great armies she led and her ferocity on the battlefield. She recognized him instantly and withdrew the dagger from his throat, her blood red eyes that often began to glow when she was angered, dulled slightly.
"What are you doing here, Zavier?"
"The same thing that you are, but I don't think that this is the opportune time to begin reminiscing."
"Nor do I, but if we fight together we will have a better chance of survival," Ember replied swinging onto her horse and calling one of her men to her.
"Get this man a horse," she ordered.
"Right away," he replied snapping his fingers and making a horse appear from nowhere.
Zavier mounted and looked at Ember who seemed anxious to be off.
"Are you ready?"
"Always," she replied drawing her sword and charging her horse into the battle.
The pair fought side by side throughout the night, stopping only to give orders, and midnight found them fighting the last of the Sace archers away from a group of wounded Anavrin warriors. Suddenly a group of barbarians burst from the surrounding trees and sprang upon the pair from behind. Water began to pour from the heavens as Zavier created a flood that came barreling across the valley, avoiding the warriors from Anavrin, and taking the barbarians with it leaving them only the archers to deal with as it disappeared into nothingness. After dealing with the archers they sent the leaders of both the archers and barbarians to Draconus to do with as he wished, knowing that their bodies would never be found. They found the mages who had fought under them, commended them for their efforts, and instructing them to return to their homes, knowing that their families were waiting anxiously for their safe return. As they headed away from the battlefield their horses picked their way slowly through the bodies of their newly vanquished foes, both weary from the long fight, yet ready to react at the slightest hint of an attack. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts, turning again and again to how amazing it had been that they had found each other the night before after ten long years without communication. Ember had grown to be a powerful mage, respected for her mastery of both Fire and Darkness and for her skill in battle. Zavier had grown into a powerful mage whose mastery of Water and Light was known across Anavrin as was his ability as a spellbinder. Each was equally as powerful as the other but in exact opposite ways, very much like the Fire and Ice they could so easily control.
"How do you feel?" Zavier asked Ember as he straighted up surveying the area around them.
"Fine, I could use a good night's rest without being interrupted by an attack" she replied stretching in the saddle.
"I think that we should find a place to camp for now, and continue toward your mother’s village tonight," Zavier said reigning his horse to a stop.
"How do you know that‘s where I‘m headed?," asked Ember turning her horse to face his.
“Its been ten years, but I am sure you still worry too much about her wellbeing and are anxious to check in on her. After we rest we will head there directly.” he replied
“No.” she said stiffly.
"Why?" he replied looking confused. Was she really anxious to spend another day in the saddle?
"I’m really damn tired of sleeping on the ground or on a horse with a sword in my hand. If we continue now we should be able to make it there in time to sleep in a real bed tonight. We can set wards on the cottage so we can sleep without interruption or fear of attack" she said.
"Well, a real bed and good night of sleep definitely sounds better than a nap in the dirt, especially in the heat of the day," Zavier said as he nudged his horse into a gallop.
“It’s settled then.” Ember said urging her horse to match Zavier’s pace.
They rode at this pace until mid-day when they stopped to water the horses and themselves. It had been a decade since they had seen each other, yet last night fighting side by side had felt like old times and stirred up memories of battles long passed. Battles during their first years out of training, before they had learned so much and become truly great, where each had survived only because of the actions of the other.
Ember jumped off her large black mare, a good seven foot drop, and threw her cloak across the saddle. She was a beautiful woman, about five foot seven with nice subtle curves that helped her remain feminine despite the fact that she was obviously a warrior. Watching her drink from the stream, her senses alert, and sleek muscles ready to respond at any sign of danger Zavier was reminded of a panther. Sleek, wary, and lethal seemed to describe Ember perfectly.
As Ember drank she could feel Zavier's eyes on her, it made her uneasy so she looked at him and asked:
"Why are you staring at me?”
"You have changed so much, I almost feel as if you are another person," Zavier replied.
"That’s what life does to you Zavier. It forces you to grow and it changes you into who you need to be to survive." she said as she stood and took the time to really looked at her old friend.
Zavier knelt to drink as he thought of what Ember had said. His body was well muscled but not bulky, the kind of muscles made in battle fighting for your life, not while conditioning in a gym. Faded scars showed on his arms from battles long past, most of them from times she had simply not been fast enough to block a blow. She regretted that her friend was required to carry the marks caused by her mistakes in battle. He had grown his midnight hair out to his shoulders providing an astounding contrast to his crystal blue eyes, but the one thing Ember noticed most was that he wore no visible weapons. He was deadly, this she knew for certain, but she could also see how his demeanor and appearance would be misleading.
"We should get going so that we can make the village at or before nightfall. Visitors after dark are not often warmly welcomes, as you know.” she said walking to where her horse grazed not far away.
"You‘re right. Let me get my horse and we can be on our way," Zavier replied.
As Ember mounted her horse Zavier looked over and laughingly said:
"I don't see how you get on that big horse of yours without some help. The top of your head barely reaches her shoulders. She truly is a giant beast, you should get something more suiting to your size, a pony perhaps?”
"Shut your fool mouth. I do just fine with her. Can you imagine riding into battle on a pony? I wouldn‘t have to fight, the opposing forces would simply laugh themselves to death," she said knowing that her giant of a horse often made her look like a child.
Laughing to themselves they rode on until dark when they reached the outskirts of Ember's village, a small tavern run by locals but a known watering hole of traveling outlaws. Ember couldn’t really blame them, money was money, and with half the country at war most of the time people sometimes had to bend the rules to make a living.
"Let's go inside and see if news has spread of our victory. We should be able to find out if there have been any recent raids or if anyone is hell bent on finding me. I can't go home if my mother’s life will be forfeit" said Ember as she slid off her horse and walked toward the doors. As they entered the tavern all noise ceased and the patrons turned toward the two warriors that seemed to have come from nowhere.
"You made it home! Come get a drink, whatever you‘ll have is on the house!" said the bartender.
Everyone was instantly on the pair offering drinks, ignoring the fact the proprietor had just given them free reign to drink at his cost, and asking of their recent adventures and of other mages who had yet to return home. They patiently answered questions until the last of the patrons became disinterested with them and left them to their drinks. They settled into a corner booth and watched what was going on around them, waiting for drunken lips to let slip things that would otherwise be kept quiet.
"You should go home, Ember's mother will just die when she see's her daughter home safe," said a strange man that was struggling to exit the tavern because his large bow was catching on the swinging door. The pair brushed it off as drunken rambling and waited a while before leaving so that no one would notice that they were rushing off to Ember's mother's home. Spies were everywhere and even the smallest mistake could cost someone you loved their life. When they reached Ember's home they slid off their horses and ran to the door to meet Ember's mother, but instead of being enveloped in a bear hug until they couldn’t breath they approached to find the door locked and all lights extinguished. Ember opened the door and snapped her fingers, causing all the lights to ignite at once, but no sooner had she done that then she wished the cottage could have remained dark forever.
On the floor by the fire lay Ember's mother with an arrow protruding from her chest. Ember ran to her mother's side and dropped to her knees to feel for a pulse where she knew she would find none. The lights flickered out, and as Zavier tried to make his way across the uneven floor all he could see was Ember's eyes shining from the darkness like rubies in coal.
"Ember, I know you’re upset and that nothing will change what has happened or how you feel right now, but I know you want to get revenge and we have to act quickly before the trail of her attacker gets too old to follow," Zavier said. Anger, and sorrow raged within them as he knelt beside the body of the woman who was his friend’s, and for all purposes his own, mother. He suppressed his emotions knowing that he needed to remain in control and be prepared for how Ember would react.
"I know who did this. I would have thought that someone of my stature would warrant a skilled assassin for my mother" Ember said rising and walking from the house clutching the arrow that was used to kill her mother.
"Who? There can‘t be archers left from Sace and those are the only ones I would think fool enough to come after your mother." Zavier asked.
"Lucidius' archers did this. They are the only ones who have arrows of this quality and the fletching is made from a material that is supposed to disintegrate once blood touches it. Whoever killed my mother did a haphazard job of it. The arrow killed her instantly and didn’t create the amount of blood required to destroy the evidence. They usually cover their tracks better than this," Ember said looking at the arrow slightly puzzled.
"How would they even know we were coming here? I told everyone that we would be staying at the inn when they asked at the bar." asked Zavier.
"The man from the bar! Remember how he had told us that my mother would “just die“ to see me? He also had trouble leaving, and I remember thinking that he must be a newly apprenticed archer because his bow kept catching on the door. He didn‘t have it slung across his back like any skilled archer would have been taught to carry it!" exclaimed Ember as she jumped onto her horse and spurred her toward the tavern.
When she reached the tavern she didn't bother with getting off her horse, instead she jumped her straight through the large window that stretched the length of the front. As she hit the window fire and glass erupted into the small tavern covering the patrons in debris and causing tables to overturn and chairs to unseat their occupants. The lights extinguished upon impact and as she rode her horse to the bar where the elderly bartender crouched in fear the only light came a single sliver of moonlight coming in through the space where the window had once stood.
"Who was the apprentice archer that was here today?" she asked the bartender in a voice as cold as steel and just as deadly.
"I....I don't know, I think he is a passerby," stammered the bartender as he stared up at her into the darkness of her hood where all he could see was her hellish eyes.
Ember saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye and whirled her horse to find that the shadow was Zavier. He was motioning for her to come to him, and knowing that he had found something she walked her horse slowly to the window glaring at the taverns patrons, who had all huddled together in a small group, until she jumped her horse back out the window and rode to where Zavier was crouching on the ground.
"Here are his tracks," said Zavier pointing to footprints in the soft topsoil with a small line trailing behind them.
"He trailed his bow?" Ember asked looking at Zavier as if she could not believe what she was seeing.
"This trail is too easy to follow for one of Lucidius's archers to have made it, apprentice or not" said Zavier looking directly into Ember's eyes.
"He must have put this trail here for us to follow thinking that we would be so blinded by rage that we would follow the most apparent trail. So that means…” Ember began.
"That we turn the opposite way and hunt him down. We need to be where he least expects us.” Zavier said as he mounted his horse and turned around.
“Even if he expected us to be coming it will not change the outcome. He has to know that we will not simply let this go.” Ember said mounting her horse.
The pair followed the trail into the rising daybreak, neither one knowing if tomorrow would be as trying as today or if they would even be around to see it.