Valor and Violence

Ferez had maintained his confident stride all the way to the subterranean entrance, shoulders squared and head held high as the sounds of battle ebbed away behind him. His poise had held as he stood at the head of the stairs, staring through the dark at his feet to guttering torchlight at the bottom. It had been reflected in the self-assured smirk that graced his lips as he took his first step.

And then it had evaporated as his legs buckled. He swore as he flipped and bounced down the stairs, the hard earthen edges adding to his aches, pains, and suspected fractures until he came to a stop at the bottom. He sat up with a whimpering groan, rubbing a lump on the back of his head as Leo cautiously made his way down, using the handrail to support himself.

“Well done, Ferez. Very dignified entrance,” he said as he reached the foot of the stairs, keeping one hand on the rail as he extended the other to help his friend up. Ferez accepted the hand and together they got the fire mage back on his feet.

“I’m starting to think we should have brought Ingrid or Asim with us,” Ferez said.

Leo shook his head. “We need Ingrid above. She’s our army’s only hope for victory now, and Asim’s halberd is too cumbersome for this tunnel. Sorry, but we’re that little girl’s best chance.”

Ferez grimaced. The poor thing didn’t even know how dire her straits were at this moment.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.”

They limped down the hallway, passing the fearful slaves in their cells. Every so often, a boom would reverberate through the structure from the battle above, and the cowed people would huddle closer together. Ferez gave a weak smile whenever he caught their eye and he tried to reassure them with calming words; that everything would be alright and was well in hand. But he couldn’t bring himself to lie. He had every confidence Ingrid would carry the day back above ground, but if he and Leo failed down here, then these poor people would be stuck with Nezir. The bastard was liable to kill them out of spite rather than let his conquerors free them, and if they died, then all of it, the siege, their dead, their blood, sweat and tears, would have been for nothing.

Weariness gripped his limbs, and he reached a shaking hand to the cell bars beside him to steady himself. After a few moments, he felt Leo’s hand on his shoulder.

“How are you tracking there, old friend?” he asked softly.

“Last time we were here, Nezir roundly thrashed us. And we’re in worse shape now than before. If we fail, these people…”

He snapped his mouth shut, biting off the end of his sentence as he looked up and locked eyes with a young boy, probably no more than four or five years of age. The child was grubby and thin, an unruly mop of brown hair tumbling down over his forehead and partially covering his blue eyes. He whimpered and the woman beside him wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close as she stared warily back at Ferez. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black.

The mage looked at the other occupants in the cell, a man with similarly deep brown eyes, a young girl and another young boy. It was a family, probably from Ris, given the tone of their skin and wavy black hair. Ferez looked back at the odd one out, the boy with the brown hair and the blue eyes. This wasn’t his family. No, his parents were probably already dead or sold, but the people in there with him were closing ranks around the boy, protecting him as if he were their own flesh and blood. On unsteady legs, the man rose and stalked forward, setting himself between Ferez and the woman and children. His eyes were wide with fear and his body shook from the exertion, but his jaw was set, his fists clenched. Ferez met his gaze, his own expression changing to mirror the weary resolve of the nameless prisoner. He pushed himself away from the bars.

“That just means we can’t fail,” Leo said.

Ferez nodded and set off again. His legs shook and his head swam, but through strength of will he kept himself moving, advancing down the curving hallway to where he knew Nezir would be. As expected, he found the pirate waiting for them outside the red-headed slave girl’s cell, gripping the child by the scruff of the neck with a stone knife held to her throat. His suit of armour was gone, at least for now. He had probably abandoned it to preserve what Talent he had left for the coming battle.

“I should have known it was too much to hope that you two would die in the ambush,” the pirate sighed. “Although I notice the ice queen isn’t with you, is she?”

“Tearing apart your second-rate battlemages upstairs,” Ferez replied, with no small measure of pride and satisfaction.

Nezir deflated, letting out a long sigh. “Those fools weren’t able to kill a one of you, I see. That puts us in an awkward position, doesn’t it?”

“How so?”

Nezir lifted the knife from the girl’s neck and waved it toward the battle upstairs.

“Way I see it, the fight could go either way. But we won’t know until the survivors make their way down here. Now, neither of us can afford to wait. If my boys win, you’ll be trapped down here. But the same is true for me. Of course, you can attack me, but if you do, I’ll slit this whelp’s throat quicker than a cobra’s strike, and your whole reason for coming here becomes moot. For my money, I could kill her and attack you anyway, I think I have enough power left to deal with you two, but then I won’t be able to fight my way through the chaos upstairs, especially if my useless minions are losing.”

“Are you suggesting we’re at an impasse? Because I don’t see it that way at all,” Ferez said. “By your own admission, the chances of you making it out alive are slim to none.”

Nezir chuckled and pressed the blade against the girl’s neck again. To her credit, she didn’t cry out or whimper. No, she snarled and hurled a string of obscenities at the pirate that, quite frankly, shocked Ferez. A girl her age should not have such a developed and vulgar vocabulary.

“That’s enough, runt,” Nezir snarled, pressing harder with the blade until a ribbon of red appeared along the knife’s edge, finally silencing the girl, though her eyes still blazed with hatred. “And you’re correct, Sir High Mage. Which is why I propose a deal.”

“Negotiating from behind a child shield?” Leo growled, finally joining the discussion. “Is this who the feared Crimson Blade really is when you strip away the suit and the henchmen?”

“I’m a survivor, Patriarch. And survivors do what we must. So, let me walk out of here with this little piece of cargo. I get on a boat and sail off into the sunset, you do what you will with the rest of my men and the Wail. You don’t get what you came here for, but you get the rest of the cargo and the fortress. Given I lose my army, my base and my goods, I would say the trade is more than fair.”

Ferez opened his mouth to tell Nezir to go to the Pit, but the memory of the blue-eyed boy in the cell stopped him. As much as he hated to admit it, the pirate was right. As long as he had a blade to the girl’s neck, it was more or less impossible to save her. But maybe they could still save the others?

The thought turned his stomach, and he shook his head, dispelling the notion. Trading the life of a child, even for the greater good? It was unconscionable. He would save the girl, and the boy, and everyone else, and raze this cursed fortress to the ground! His lips curled, baring his teeth at Nezir as his mind raced. It was well and good for his resolve to be set, but it didn’t do much for the logistical problem of getting the girl away from the dagger at her throat.

“How about you surrender?” he said, stalling for time. “I give you my word as a high mage that no harm will come to you from me or mine.”

Nezir shook his head, frustration showing on his face.

“I make it a point to never take someone’s word with any more weight than they should take mine. Which is to say, none at all.”

“You aren’t leaving here with that girl, or anyone, Nezir. Give up.”

“You’re being unreasonable, Ferez. I won’t even kill her, just sell her and use the money to retire, I promise. One meaningless slave for the lives of your soldiers and every other gormless body down here.” He paused, sucking his teeth for a moment. “Or, to put it another way, accept my terms, or the little bitch dies.”

Ferez tensed, his palms splayed by his side. Maybe, if he was lucky and fast enough, he could launch into the Crimson Blade, tackle him to the ground before he could cut? Grappling with an earth mage underground in his condition was less than ideal, but it was the best chance he had to rescue the little girl. Leo shifted his feet beside him, the sandy covering on the floor crunching slightly as he planned something similar. Nezir’s eyes narrowed.

“So, that’s your choice? I want you to know, for what’s left of your miserable lives, that the whore’s death is on your hands!”

“Enough!” the girl shouted, startling the three men into inaction. “I have a name, and it’s not whore or slave or little girl.” She wrapped her tiny hands around the pirate’s wrist. “My name. Is. Jasmine!”

She dropped her weight and tugged, pulling the knife away from her throat by a few scant inches. Before Nezir could plunge it back into her neck, though, she ducked her head, opened her mouth, and latched onto his thumb. He screamed and dropped the knife as he flailed. With a spray of red and a ripping sound, Jasmine flew away, slamming into the wall, a strip of flesh still between her teeth. The pirate whirled on her as his rock armour flowed up over his body, raising his hands to strike with magic, and Ferez ran forward, powerful jets of flame bursting to life and propelling him forward, but before either could attack, Jasmine thrust her hands towards Nezir with a scream that carried the weight of all the rage and betrayal and fear she had endured in her short life.

And the tunnel exploded. A furious wall of fire rushed out from the girl, launching Nezir into the cell bars before washing over and engulfing him completely. Unable to arrest his charge, Ferez slammed headlong into the expanding fireball, his body contorting and screaming in protest as it was caught between the propulsive force of his own jets and the overwhelming fury of Jasmine’s instinctive attack. After an excruciating moment suspended in midair, Jasmine’s magic won out and tossed him down the hallway, bouncing head over end as though swept up in a raging white-water river. Except, instead of soothing cool water, he was bathed in red hot flame of an intensity he could scarcely believe. What was left of his clothing disintegrated and his skin blistered as his innate Talent buckled under the onslaught. And then, as quickly as it started, the heat disappeared.

He kept bouncing and tumbling until his momentum was spent and he slid to a halt in the sand. His skin screamed, already raw and abused from the assault above, it was now an almost complete wound covering his body. Just about every inch felt covered in strips of flayed meat, frostbite, or hideous burns. He didn’t even groan as he pushed himself to his feet, his body was too deep in shock to get a sound out.

The tunnel was dark. Jasmine’s outburst had knocked the torches from the walls and incinerating most of them, though one remained a few feet away, sputtering in the dirt. Ferez limped over and picked it up, making his way down the tunnel back towards the girl. There was no sign of anyone as he shuffled down the curving walkway, not Jasmine or Leo or Nezir, just a strange glow emanating from deeper in. After a few dozen metres, he discovered the source.

The tunnel was transformed. The walls were blackened and cracked from the violent conflagration, and a deep groaning came from the roof. It wouldn’t be long before the entire thing caved in. He needed to find Jasmine and Nezir quickly, the girl to rescue, and the pirate to recover the cell keys so he could release the rest of the captives on the way out. Unfortunately, he couldn’t advance any further because of the carpet of molten glass stretching out before him.

It was mind-boggling. Untrained mages had been known to tap into their powers during periods of heightened emotion, but the Talent they could draw on was a mere fraction of what they possessed and lacked sufficient control to achieve their full destructive potential. The fact she had cracked stone and turned sand to glass like this was… terrifying. Tentatively, he reached out with a foot, his big toe inching closer and closer to the red surface. He needed to reach her, and if this was the only way forward? Well, who needs feet anyway? The heat grew as his foot approached the viscous mass, reaching unbearable even before making contact. And still he kept pushing. Closer. And closer.

And closer.

“Nope, not happening,” he said, snapping his foot back away. He hadn’t a clue how far he was from the epicentre of the explosion. If he tried dashing through molten glass he was liable to scour his feet away and crash headfirst into the boiling mess long before reaching Jasmine. There had to be another way. He was a fire mage, damnit! One of, if not the most powerful in existence, if he said so himself. He would not be held at bay by heat! Maybe he could blast a sort of furrow through the mess? If he kept up the stream’s intensity and moved quickly enough, he might make it. Though what he was charging toward was uncertain, but at least it would keep him moving forward.

He braced himself, pooling what pitiful traces of Talent were left in his body in his hands, when something twinkled a little further down the tunnel. It disappeared almost immediately, but he strained his eyes, shifting his head from side to side, trying to spot whatever it was again. His vision was fuzzy, and he didn’t know how much was due to the state of his body, or the heat from the glass warping the air above it, but even so, after a few long seconds, he saw it again. There was something dangling from the roof just before the hall curved out of sight, barely distinguishable from the walls because of the black char covering it. As Ferez watched, it wiggled slightly, and some of the ash fell away, revealing patches of brilliant white ice underneath.

Leo!

The water mage’s hand punched through the side of the cocoon, sweeping left and right, the ice melting into water and flowing with the motion to create a tiny window. His face popped through the gap a moment later, surveying the carnage. His eyes lit up when he saw Ferez.

“Ah! Hello there, old boy! Glad to see you survived!” he called, squeezing an arm out and waving enthusiastically.

“How in Val’s tits did you manage that?” Ferez asked, mouth agape.

“This part of the tunnel must sit under the pit in the middle of the fortress. Young Jasmine’s attack cracked the bedrock above us and let the water filter down. I was able to reach out, grab it, and draw it through to make myself a tidy little nest to ride out the assault in.”

“I have to admit, that’s incredible,” Ferez said, a little embarrassed his friend had borne out the wave of fire so much better than himself. “While you’re there anyway, can you do anything about this river of glass?”

“Absolutely. Wait one,” Leo said, withdrawing his head back inside the shell. A second later, water gushed out of the opening, spraying onto the glass. Steam hissed and billowed, obscuring the cocoon as loud cracks echoed up and down the tunnel’s length, the glass cooling and hardening into obsidian. Gradually, the cloud dissipated, and Leo strode out of its remnants towards Ferez. Seeing the water mage casually walking on what had until a second ago been molten sand gave Ferez the confidence to step onto the shiny black surface himself. It was warm under his feet, but not unpleasantly so, and with a relieved sigh, he walked forward to meet Leo.

“Thank the gods you survived. I didn’t like my chances of making it deeper into the tunnel by myself,” Ferez said as Leo wrapped him in a bear hug. He bit off his shriek of pain out of gratitude to his friend. He knew Leo was a hugger and probably needed this.

“Of course I survived. I think we’ve both showed we’re effectively immortal. Otherwise, we would have kicked the bucket decades ago!” Leo replied with a hearty laugh as he pulled out of the embrace, holding Ferez by the shoulders. He glanced down and after a second cocked an eyebrow. “Oh. So that’s why Ingrid is so fond of you.”

Ferez blushed when he remembered he was now as naked as the day he was born. Seeing the look on his face, Leo laughed.

“Nothing to be ashamed of there, my friend. I’m envious!”

“Thank you for saying as such, but I can’t rescue Jasmine without finding some pants first.”

“Fair point. Tell you what, I’ll go on ahead. With some luck, maybe the Crimson Blade’s pants survived.”

“You’re going to loot a man’s freshly slain corpse for his pants, then make me wear them?”

“Unless you’re secretly a mage from the hereto unknown school of magical pants, I don’t see what other options you have.”

Ferez sighed, defeated. “Alright, I’ll remain here until you come back. Hopefully with pants. Ones that aren’t too blood stained.”

“I’d be more worried about them being too tight, eh? Eh?” Leo said, nudging Ferez in his aching ribs, his eyes glancing meaningfully downwards.

“Can you show a modicum of civility for even a moment?” Ferez asked, rolling his eyes and resisting the urge to cover himself with his hands.

“Of course not! What a ridiculous suggestion!” Leo replied. Before he could say or do anything else, though, the tunnel rumbled. Ferez’s eyes snapped to the roof.

“Shit. It’s about to come down!”

Leo held a hand up to forestall his friend. “I don’t think so, the water up there isn’t moving. The rumbling has to be something else.”

They looked at each other, eyes going wide as they realised. The glass at Leo’s feet exploded in a shower of dancing lights as two tendrils of earth burst through, wrapping around Leo’s hands and dragging him to his knees. Over his shoulder, from deeper within the tunnel, Nezir limped into view, his armoured form shuffling painfully with his arms outstretched.

Ferez cried out and hurled a ball of fire at the earth mage. It was everything he could manage, but in his state, it wasn’t much. It splashed against Nezir’s armour and faded away into nothing as the pirate laughed and flipped his hand towards the ceiling. Ferez met Leo’s horrified eyes with the sinking realisation these were his last moments.

“Friend, I-”

Before he could finish the sentence, the ground beneath his knees boiled and a guillotine of earth burst through the surface.