Curseborn Saga - Fade to Black (13 page)

“Yosha!” yelled Caim, raising his fist.

With a huge smile on his face, he took in the entirety of the lake Senyria. Its crystal clear water reflecting the stars lit up Caim’s eyes, and there, standing dead in the center of it, was the greatest tree of their world, the Nocturnis Aqua. Caim’s eyes followed the trunk of the colossal tree upwards until his head was completely tilted back. It reached so high that the top could not be seen in the darkness. The branches spread out like the massive reaching fingers of a towering giant. And as he squinted he could see something else, high above, hundreds of tiny sparkling orbs, floating amongst its branches – Tree Spirits that all seemed to be cheering him on from the distance.

“Too bad, Storm,” he said. “Looks like I win this game.”

A sudden flicker of movement caught his eye from below. “Storm?”

Caim felt a darkness ascending toward him. It was a primeval presence he had felt only once before, long ago. A flash of crimson gleaming eyes came unto his mind. A shiver ran down his spine and he felt more than ever the cold of the wind. Everything seemed to slow down as Caim focused on the growing terror. And so it rose out of the shadowed depths.

“The Master of the Forest,” he whispered, his eyes widening.

XII – Lady Sakura

T
he voice of the young girl split the silence of the room like two swords clashing in the night. Remi looked up, along with her two sisters and the rest of the Force Corps. Even Lady Theresa, who had given the impression of being ultimately powerful, fell silent. Remi gulped . . . the figure approaching was, undoubtedly, Lady Scylla. She could feel her anxiety reach an all-time high.

“Oh?” said Lady Enies, raising her eyes in the direction of the voice. Remi felt a tang of confusion. Lady Enies had not reacted as if the Captain of the Force had come upon them, but rather, as if the one who spoke were defying her empire. Who was this strange girl? And if she really wasn’t Lady Scylla, why would she dare to defy Lady Enies?

The footsteps grew increasingly louder the girl came to a stop at the tip of the gathering. Remi stared in disbelief at the young girl standing before them. Unlike the rest of the Force Corps, this one looked to be Remi’s age if not slightly younger. She had twisting silver locks that wound past her ears and stopped just at the base of her shoulders; meticulously placed just above her right ear was a vibrant flower of four petals, glowing a shade of dark pink. A jagged white cloak hung over her shoulders and came together in the middle by three black buttons.

“Lady Sakura . . .” whispered Baelie, her face in awe. “You know of her?” asked Remi. Baelie nodded, “Of course, she’s the last champion of the Soldier Games. The newest member of the Force.”

Remi suddenly remembered the soldier in white with the bow she had seen sitting in solitude on the floating rock outside the Valyti. This was she. In sharp contrast to the other Force Corps soldiers, the girl’s legs were bare, with the exception of a short skirt, undoubtedly made of black mythril links. A tiny dagger, no longer than Remi’s palm, was strapped to her side. Cast over one shoulder was a giant white bow that reached high above the top of her head and came down nearly to the ground. Upon her feet she wore low black boots with white laces. And then the girl spoke, a calm whisper that seemed to dance and twist through the air with grim, daunting independence.

“You have grown quite confident in your cycles, Lady Enies,” said Sakura. “I’m sure Lady Scylla would be more than interested to hear what has just transpired.” Her eyes were calm as she spoke and did well in hiding her apparent aggravation at Lady Enies’s words. Staring closely at the girl’s face, Remi observed that she was the most beautiful of the soldiers – perhaps even more so than Lady Theresa – with high-ridged cheekbones and a perfectly smooth face adorned by warm, full lips and a bright flush to her cheeks. Single strands of hair fell across her brow as if the wind had blown them into a more perfect state.

Lady Enies snickered and turned to face the girl. For a second she didn’t speak, as if weighing the cautionary words of the soldier confronting her. Her answer was not what Remi expected.

“Sakura, what a surprise it is to have you here speaking on behalf of Lady Scylla,” Lady Enies said. “As if you were of any importance to her at all. You, of Rank
9
and the weakest of the Force . . . you dare think you have a place speaking openly to me? Could this be the arrogance of a young child, fresh with the confidence of winning the last Soldier Games? Don’t forget Sakura, that all of us in the Force are champions of the games.”

“Any who bear a Rank in the Force has a place speaking openly with you, Lady Enies,” Sakura replied. “Especially when the subject at hand entails you disobeying a direct order from our Captain, for were she here at this very moment, you would be quivering under the wrath of her eye.”

“Do not chastise me, Sakura . . . you, who have been a member of the Force for merely four cycles, clearly do not yet understand how things work around here.”

“My apologies . . . I was under the impression that the number
1
outranks that of
2
. But according to your leadership, you openly disobey when you see fit. As if you were standing above the very essence of the Force yourself. I cannot allow your judgment to go uncontested, for it is honesty and trust that binds our souls ready for
Eiendrahk
at any time. You have become a weakness of the Force, Lady Enies.”

A shiver spread throughout the group as her last words traced across the air. Remi could feel the tension growing exponentially.
Honorable, but stupid
. Remi thought.

“A weakness you say? I’m intrigued. You speak as if you intended to do more than lecture me,” said Lady Enies, a twisting grin curving across her face.

“I cannot allow you to disobey the Captain, that I cannot,” said Sakura. “So I implore you, Lady Enies, will you re-evaluate your current order and allow these three sisters, children as they may be, to guard the Relic Room door during the 250
th
Soldier Games?”

Why did you have to go and put us in the middle!?
Remi’s thoughts raced.

Lady Enies burst into a fit of laughter so jagged that Remi thought she might just snap at any moment and kill Sakura where she stood. How Sakura could speak so bravely to such a terrifying woman was beyond her. Fragmented images of Sakura’s bloody and mangled body kept reaching forth from the farthest pits of her mind.

“No, I will not,” said Lady Enies. “You do not know your place, Sakura, and for that, you shall be punished.” She took a long drag from her pipe and blew forth a thick smoke that twisted into the form of a dragon. The dragon slithered forth and twisted around Sakura’s body.

Sakura’s eyes were like blades piercing across the emptiness between the two. She slashed her arm through the dragon, dissipating it into but wisps of smoke. Remi began to feel a change in the air and it grew warmer as if the season of winter had just ended and the warmth of spring had settled upon them. Then Sakura spoke, in a voice clear and determined.

“Then I declare use of the code, as the Ninth Seat of the Force Corps, to the Right of Challenge.”

Murmuring broke out amongst the Force Corps soldiers. Lady Enies stood in the center, surprised by Lady Sakura’s open challenge. She stared into Sakura’s eyes, weighing the resolution of her words.

“What’s happening?” asked Remi in a whisper to Lady Arya, who stood beside them.

“Within the Force Corps are
9
Seats of Power,” she whispered. “The highest are filled by the Captain and the Vice Captain and all beneath are numbered up until 9. We are a unit consisting of the most powerful women of Soria. We are survival of the fittest at its finest. Upon joining the Force Corps, you become Rank 9 and must fight your way up to improve your rank. I did not become the Number
4
Seat by sitting around, I earned it.”

“Who is the Number 3?” asked Remi.

Arya was quiet for a moment. “Lady Lylise. But she is not here with us today.”

“When you say you earned it,” began Remi, “do you mean that you fought Theresa?”

“Yes,” said Arya with a grin.

Remi remembered Arya’s attitude towards Theresa when she had blocked her fist. She had spoken down to her as if she had no fear of her, and an image of Theresa’s etched Number
5
appeared in her mind.
Oh how I wish I could have seen Arya smacking her around!
An image of Arya standing with her foot over Theresa’s face came to her. Remi grinned slightly.

Arya continued whispering. “There is but one way to increase your Rank—you must earn it by fighting. That is why, many cycles ago, the first Captain of the Force, the Great Lady Islair, created the Right of Challenge. Initially, it was named after our world’s 4
th
Great Law, the Law of Challenge, but was changed to Right when it became apparent that this was more of a choice made of free will. A decision placing your life on the line. Fighting is our lives. We live and die by the weapons we wield.”

“So this is what Lady Sakura is doing?” Remi whispered. “She’s challenging Lady Enies!? She’s crazy! As the 9
th
rank isn’t she the weakest of everyone?”

Lady Arya took a deep breath. “Yes, that is what her rank denotes. But according to the rules regarding the Right of Challenge, you must challenge the seat directly before yours—for Sakura, Seat
8
—and progressively make your way to the top.
Or,
only when one is the Rank
9
, can they circumvent the ranks and challenge the Vice Captain. But there is a price to pay for the latter if one should lose.”

“Has anyone ever done it before?” asked Remi weakly.

“Not once in all the cycles of the Force Corps.”

Remi’s imagination ran wild with terror.
Then why is she doing this?

Cracking her knuckles violently, Lady Enies strode to within a few feet of Sakura. “As Vice Captain of the Force, I hereby accept your challenge.”

“What price?” whispered Remi.

Arya flinched and spoke one last time to Remi. “A dire one. To openly challenge the Vice Captain is considered an act of pure arrogance. If the challenger, the Rank
9
soldier loses, they are discarded from the Force Corps forever . . . and banished to the land of the
Curseborn.
”

Remi’s eyes grew wide with disbelief. “Is she out of her mind? Why don’t you stop her?!”

Arya didn’t move. “It is not my place to stop the foolhardy from making bad decisions. She must learn from her mistakes on her own. Despite her honorable intentions, she may not live to see the rest of her days. Watch and learn, for you are truly lucky to be able to see with your own eyes the power of the Force’s second strongest. There is a reason we are silent before the Vice Captain.”

“But you know what Lady Enies is doing is wrong!” exclaimed Remi, remembering how relieved she was when the Vice Captain had actually rejected them for the Captain’s order.

“Right or wrong, our Captain needs no other to fight her battles,” Arya said. “Lady Enies understands the severity of her decision and knows that she would confront Lady Scylla eventually . . . considering her confidence and her fighting words towards the Captain, I can only imagine that Lady Enies is planning on challenging Lady Scylla for the seat of Captain herself.”

“No,” said Remi, feeling her legs weaken. She had a dreadful feeling that she was about to witness the death of a young and naïve girl, who only felt she was doing what was right.
Is this the true nature of the Force Corps? Are they all so heartless?

“Let’s not waste any time then,” said Lady Enies.

The next few minutes were a blur for the three sisters. Lady Sakura and Lady Enies had walked to the center of the massive white room, surrounding themselves with a vast open space for their battle. The other soldiers of the Force had spread out around them from afar, creating a ring around the two fighters. Feeling a sudden sense that something palpable yet invisible was wrapping around her, Remi turned around to see that Lady Aquas was speaking quickly under her breath. A few seconds later, she heard what sounded like the ring of a bell and saw traces of emerald green energy rising from around the bodies of her sisters and herself. The chill of the room seemed to fade and a sense of comfort overcame her mind.

“I encased you within a Ward of Shield,” Aquas said, “so that none of the energy from their fight may harm you in any way. Without a Ward, this place would no longer be safe for you.”

Remi nodded once, thanking her even though she couldn’t bring herself to speak. Then she turned to face the center of the grounds where the two stood opposite each other. A cold wind blew past.

Lady Enies stood with her back to Remi, her white half cloak billowing out behind her. Remi could see bright drops of blood falling from her knuckles to the white marbled ground. Standing before her was Lady Sakura, who held her lengthy white bow in her right hand. It had no string binding together its ends. A second later, a brilliant blue glow illuminated from each tip of the bow, and a streaking string of sapphire aura connected the ends, creating a humming sound that resonated through the air. Reaching up over her shoulder, she grasped one of the long black arrows from her leather quiver and with a graceful motion, slipped it into place on her bow.

“I’m ready,” said Sakura.

Then without warning, it happened. Like two shooting stars colliding, Lady Enies and Sakura shot forth from where they stood and clashed together, sending across the room an initial wave of energy so strong Remi felt it would have killed her on the spot had Lady Aquas not initially protected them. The sounds from their blows were like thunder, and each of the sisters covered their ears. Ardent arrows of dizzying speed ripped across the room and one even crashed straight into little Maile’s ward. Remi was stunned that they had not been injured at all.
Magic?
She thought. Maile was screaming and crying at their sides, but Remi could not hear her at all. They were completely muted by the battle before them. Remi felt as if she were in a vivid dream, watching the two powerful auras crash together. They appeared in one place for half a second and then at a completely different place in the room. If she didn’t know this was a battle to the death, Remi would’ve thought she was watching some elaborate, complex dance. It was a battle unlike any she had ever seen, or heard of in any story. They moved faster than anything she ever imagined possible. It was as if they were Gods.