The Eternal Blade Saga Book 2, Chapter 29: Contention

Unconscious asura were much heavier than I had ever realized. Where they hid all that extra weight, I didn’t know. By the time I had finished dragging the asura guard’s body into an alcove near the door and leaned him against his buddy, I was convinced his little legs were filled with rocks. Stretching my sore back, I wiped heavy beads of sweat from my brow with my sleeve. Thankfully the other guard was a short-statured and slender human man. I doubted I would have been able to move a norn on my own.

Having no rope or ties, I resorted to binding their wrists with their own belts and gagged them with material from their own attire. I then set to searching their pockets for a key to the door. I ventured a guess that the guards would have a key to the room they were guarding, just in case there was an emergency and they needed to get in. I was in luck. I fished out a plain silver key from the asura’s pocket.

However, upon examining the door, I frowned. The metal lock plate looked like a jumble of lines and etchings and there appeared to be no key hole. What in Tyria was I supposed to do with the key? As I stood there, studying the plate, I mentally ran through a list of options to get in. There was no visible lock to pick and I didn’t have any explosives handy. There were also no hinges on the door to exploit. Anxiously tapping the key against the palm of my hand, I mused on a thought. The poem from my training with the Order of Whispers had gotten me this far. Surely it could help me get through this door.

Being in the right place, at the right time, left you a lucky fish.

I reached for one of the shapes on the lock plate and tried to turn it. It reluctantly moved at first, but after I applied more pressure, the piece locked in place and there was a little flash of purple light. A wave of triumph washed over me and I grinned, and I quickly moved on to another section. After moving and rotating some of the other pieces, I started to recognize the overall design they made. I moved as quickly as I could until each clicked into place, revealing the etched image of a fish jumping out of the water. There was a final flash of light in its open mouth, revealing a hole for the key. I stuck the silver key in and turned it. The lock clicked and the door opened.

***

One would assume a professional organization would have all their paperwork and artifacts in order. I was surprised to find this wasn’t the case with the Order of Whispers. As I entered the dimly lit artifact storage room, I was overwhelmed with random stacks of tomes, parchment, and crates. I had no idea where to begin and there didn’t seem to be a filing system that I could determine, but I had to start somewhere, and fast. I didn’t know how long the guards would be unconscious or when my disappearance would be noticed.

I set my metal bar down on a crate next to me, grabbed a lantern from the adjacent wall and set it down next to a large brown tome. Flipping through the pages, I skimmed them for any information on divine weapons or their energies. Not finding anything useful, I set the tome aside and moved on to another. I followed that with a stack of scrolls and then another tome. One source material after another, I lost count. I’m not sure exactly how much time had passed when I finally slammed shut a worn blue tome with faded silver filigree, my mouth set in a deep frown. There had been nothing useful here. I had just spent too much time in this damned room for nothing.

Out of frustration, I kicked a rectangular crate on the floor next to my foot and the old nails buried in the wood dislodged. The front panel fell open and a large dual-bladed axe slid out. Its elegantly curved blades each came to a sharp point and were adorned with red filigree that illuminated without any apparent light source. Ensorcelled by the weapon, I bent down and picked it up. The handle was long and ended in a sharp point that was mirrored with an identical point at the top, nestled between the two blades. It felt perfectly balanced and there was a familiarity in its weight that I couldn’t explain. It just felt right. By the decaying state of the crate, it appeared the weapon had been stored here for a long time. Sitting here unused, I assumed the Order wouldn’t miss it.

“Find anything good to read in here?” A nasally voice asked, cutting through the silence in the room.

Startled, I instinctively grabbed the axe and the metal bar and crouched down low behind a stack of crates, falling out of view. I must have been so engrossed in reading and discovering the axe that I didn’t hear anyone come through the door. As I carefully peered around my cover, I readied my weapons to defend myself if needed. I had a feeling it would be needed. A quick observation revealed a small shadow looming in the doorway, but no one else. That didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone there.

“Depends on the subject matter,” I replied, engaging the stranger while slowly edging toward another stack of crates on my right. There was something familiar in that voice, but there was more of a rough edge to it than I remembered. “There’s a lot of light reading here. Nothing really worth your time.”

“Pity,” the voice replied, heavy with mocking disappointment. “I was hoping for some informational literature on divine weaponry and their energies.”

I frowned as Torx stepped into a sliver of light from a nearby lamp. The loss of his arm had not slowed him down any. Small metal fingers from a replacement hand curled around a pistol pointed in my direction. Its barrel glowed with the same shade of dark red as the asura’s Inquest attire. As I wrung my hand on the metal grip of my newly acquired axe, I mentally mused at the difficulty he would have recovering from a beheading.

“No matter,” the asura continued. Similarly-shaped shadows filed into the room and took their places around Torx. I counted at least a dozen, that I could see. “I’m confident we can find a way to break the enchantment and reverse engineer the weapon itself once we have it secured. Shouldn’t be too long now.”

I swallowed hard and bit back a curse. The confidence in Torx’s voice worried me greatly. How could he be so sure? The blade was hidden and secure behind magic of my own making. Only a few of the others knew of its existence, but none of them knew where it was. They would be ill prepared to defend it. My jaw tightened. Damn Danae and Quint for bringing me here. I should be at the hall. Damn them both.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, trying to keep him talking.

Torx sneered and uttered a sinister little chuckle that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “It means your little quest is over. The Byrnes’ and some of my krewe will be descending upon that pile of wood you call a hall. We will finally have access to all that divine energy you have been hoarding!”

“You mean the Byrnes’ will have it,” I said moving as silently as I could to another stack of crates nearby. There was a wide gap between a few of the shadows on the right side. If I could distract them, there was a chance I could get through without having to fight all of them. “I had the pleasure of meeting them already, and it seemed to me that they were the ones in charge and handing out the spending money.”

Through a crack between two stacks of crates, I saw Torx’s eyes narrow so sharply it made his face squish. “That’s what they think,” he grumbled.

Contention in the ranks. Interesting.

Out of nowhere came a thunderous roar followed by violent tremors that shook the ground beneath us all. I steadied myself but recognized a moment of opportunity falling into my lap as confusion consumed Torx and his krewe. With as much energy as I could muster, I shoved my shoulder into the stack of crates. They toppled over into a splintered mess in front of the asura and I ran through, knocking over everything in my path and creating a storm of confusion as I ran through swinging both my weapons. I emerged out into the passageway I came from and didn’t stop running until I nearly collided with a tall figure running towards me.

Quint and I froze at first, neither of us knowing exactly what to do in that moment. For years, he had been someone I felt I could trust. Someone I felt I could confide in—well, as much as I could anyway. I valued his advice when he gave it to me, even if I didn’t agree. But now when I looked at him, all I saw was a stranger. A stranger who imprisoned me and would take me out at the drop of an order. Despite the history between us, I couldn’t risk my mission as the blade’s warden. I dug down deep and found my resolve.

“Wait!” Quint cried out as I swung the old axe at him. He jumped back just enough to get out of the way and instead of slicing into his chest, I sliced through air. I swung again, but he drew his bow from its holster on his back and blocked my strike with its fortified wood limb. “Nienna, stop, please! I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Do you think I’m a fool? You lied to me. You imprisoned me. The Order sent you to kill me!”

My vision began to blur from the tears forming in my eyes, but driven by my anger and pain, I swung again. This time I led with the metal bar, which drew his attention as I had intended. But as I followed up with my axe, I felt Quint’s leg connect with mine and I fell hard onto my back. My weapons clattered to the ground next to me. The force of the fall knocked the wind out of my lungs and I struggled to fill them again as Quint put most of his weight against my shoulders and arms, pinning me down. I thrashed and fought against him, but his height gave him the advantage. But something caught his eye and he looked aside at the old axe I had found. “Where did you get that?”

Somewhere behind us, the passageway roared and the ground shook. The sound of falling rock echoed all around us. I feared the whole place would come tumbling down and bury us in this place.

I was angry. I was scared. I had to fight someone who I had once called a friend, just to keep myself safe. It didn’t sit right with me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make sense of it. In a fit of rage, I let out a rough growl, the sound full of pain and anguish and somewhere deep in my chest I felt bitter cold take hold and spread. I recognized that feeling and panicking, I immediately tried to get a look at my hands. They felt cold, so cold.

“I’m not trying to kill you,” he said. Strands of his silvery-threaded hair fell in front of his face as he held me down. “Look at me. Look me in the eye!”

My muscles ached with fatigue as I continued to fight against his hold, but he had me pinned well. Not able to go anywhere, I ceased struggling and looked him in the eye as he requested. As our gazes locked, his features softened and he let up slightly on his hold. There was a heavy desperation in his steely-grey eyes, “You know me. I’m not trying to kill you,” he repeated, his tone softer and reassuring.

My heart raced as I tried to process what was happening, but my thoughts were all jumbled from the surge of adrenaline. But like a sharp blade, anger fueled by betrayal cut through. “I don’t know you anymore,” I said, and in a final attempt to free myself, I strained my arms and wrists until I grabbed onto Quint’s arms. With as much force as I could muster, I rammed my forehead toward the bridge of his nose. It stunned him just enough for me to ram my knee into his side. He let out a pained groan and recoiled, giving me the opportunity to slip out from under him and retrieve my weapons.

“Wait,” he called out to me as he scrambled to his feet. His nose bloodied, he clutched his side where I had driven my knee into him. Ice crystals clung to the arms of his jacket.

“I—I don’t want to see you again.” I felt myself choke on my own words.

Quint’s eyes went wide, but I turned and left before he could utter a word to try to stop me.