The Eternal Blade Saga Book 2, Chapter 40: A Sister's Choice

As I lay there, my arms pinned against my sides and struggling beneath the heavy harness, Lady Eira slithered closer. The silken panels of her violet dress trailed in the dirt and ash, yet she didn’t seem to care about the soiled material. The noble lady approached my side and bent down, her eyes focused on the curved edge of the blade that peeked out from under my restraints. Her pupils were dilated and her eyes filled with lust. I could feel her unsettling desire for the blade wash over me. Having been around it for so long, it was easy to forget how enticing it was to those who desired such things.

“Hello again, Nienna. I hope you don’t mindthe fanfare,” she said, gracefully motioning to the courtyard. “I find I getthe results I want when applying just the rightamount of pressure.”

There was another flash of light from theportal, and a small form pushed his way through Lady Eira’s silks. Torx sneeredwhen he saw me, baring his small sharp teeth.

“Look what we have here, a nice little packageall ready to go,” Torx said. “Almost as easy as it was to dispatch your friend.What was his name—ah yes, Fendall I believe. Flattened him with a spectaculardisplay of explosives.”

I struggled to free my arm, wanting nothingmore than to send him straight to oblivion. “You long-eared son of a-.”

Torx produced a device from his belt and eagerlyslammed his robotic prosthetic hand down on one of the buttons. My entire bodywas barraged with an overwhelming amount of energy. Every muscle locked up andtightened until they couldn’t anymore. Breathing became an issue. I struggledto fill my lungs, and I could think of nothing other than the constant streamof pain consuming my body. It was like a thousand hot needles stabbing me overand over again.  I desperately wanted itto stop, but I also wasn’t about to give Torx the satisfaction of watching mebreak down. Picking a point in the sky to focus on, I held on until the asurahit the button again and the assault ceased. I greedily filled my lungs while Icould.

Cries broke out somewhere nearby, and I turnedmy head to find Clarkus and Dee rushing toward me with their weapons drawn. Somethingthunderous rang out above, but there were no storm clouds in the sky. A flashof red struck the ground in front of the two, showering soil and ash allaround. I turned my head from the blast to protect my face, but another shot collidedwith the ground on the other side, and more debris rained down all around me.The Byrnes’ airship continued to fire mercilessly upon the courtyard, creatinga deadly barrier between myself and my friends.

I sought out the blade’s power to help get mefree, but instead of feeling the weapon’s dark energy consume me, I was insteaddevoured by the same electrical charge as before. It severed our connection,and I could hear its screams mixed with my own. My thoughts scrambled intononsense. I could think of nothing but the pain. It became hard to breatheagain.

Lady Eira raised a delicate eyebrow as shelooked down at Torx. “We don’t want to kill her.”

The Inquest asura grumbled under his breath and turned the dial slightly. Teetering on the edge of consciousness, I had nearly passed out until the pain subsided, and I was able to bring myself back to awareness.

“Her tolerance is much higher thanks to herabilities and the presence of the blade’s power. She’ll be fine,” he tried toassure her.

Another shot from the airship drowned out LadyEira’s reply. Even though I couldn’t hear it, by the scrunched look on Torx’sface, I could tell he didn’t like what she had to say.

“Take her up,” Lady Eira commanded with asharp gesture toward the sky.

She turned to leave, the panels of violet silkbillowing out behind her, wafting in Torx’s face. The annoyed asura batted thematerial away and watched her go, his large green eyes narrowed, but he did as thelady commanded and flipped a switch on the side of the controller. The winch upon the airship began to turn, jerking me up before moving into a slow andsteady upward motion.  

I craned my head toward my friends who werebusy dodging the airship’s blasts as they tried to find a way to me. Strugglingto free myself once again, I looked over at the others, this time catchingTuborg’s gaze. He was already moving my way, sheathing his greatsword on hisback before picking up a discarded shield. He called to the others to form upon him. They grouped together with their backs to one another, dodging the airship’sattacks as best they could. Securing the shield to his arm, Tuborg channeledhis thoughts and his will, calling forth a divine barrier to protect them fromthe airship’s attacks. The first couple shots ricocheted off, and crashed intoa cluster of rocks jutting out from the hillside. The third created a crack inthe smooth surface of light-blue energy. Tuborg was strong, but he wouldn’t beable to hold out against the ship’s attacks indefinitely. By the strained lookon the sylvari’s face, he knew it too.

“We need to move!” Tuborg ordered.

Seren tapped this shoulder and said something to the sylvari that I couldn’t hear over the blast of another shot from the airship. He nodded and motioned toward me, and they all moved as far as they could until the shield began to fail under the barrage of shots from the Byrnes’ airship cannon. The young guardian sheathed her sword, and with a determined scowl, sprinted toward me through what was left of the protective barrier and leaped up onto the thick, metal harness that enveloped most of my body.

“What are you-,” I started to scold her, but Torxpressed the button on the controller, and I cried out as stabbing pain overcamemy body once again.

Thankfully, Seren was protected by the outershell of the harness and was safe from contact with the electrical componentsinside. She grabbed onto the cable as we ascended and drew her sword with herfree hand. “Stop it! You’re hurting her!” She swung her blade in the spacebefore her, the force of her will arcing wide, but ending just in front of theInquest asura.

Amused by the shortfall of her strike, Torxlaughed. “A smart scientist knows the importance of keeping a wild subjectunder control. If that means a little pain, so be it. As long as it’s not mine,”he said while adjusting the dial, and I could feel the fluctuation in the intensityas he did this.

Behind him, Lady Eira disappeared in a flashof pale violet light in the portal. Torx slowly followed, stepping back intothe constant swirling light with a contented grin, his eyes never leaving me. Aflash of light swallowed him up, and the portal vanished.

The pain evened out to a more manageablelevel, but still kept me barely on the edge of function. My thoughts centeredon the physical pain and nothing else. I couldn’t reach out to the blade’spower for help, I couldn’t reach out to anyone. I was helpless. But as I laylooking upward, a dark beacon of salvation came into my view. The Raven’s Reachemerged from the rising smoke billowing up south of Lion’s Arch. Danae and hercrew had come for us.

“What in Dwayna’s name…” Seren’s voice trailedoff.

I thought she was speaking about the ship, butshe was looking off in the opposite direction. I followed her gaze and spied afigure scaling the far side of our hall that had not been consumed entirely bythe fire. Salara came into view as she crested the top, balancing on the narrowedge as she waited for us to come into range. The sylvari broke into a sprintand pushed off of the edge of the beam, landing on the large harness and jostlingus all.

“Are you crazy?” Seren scolded as Salarascrambled to her knees.

“Possibly. I just scaled a charred wall andleapt out here,” she replied. The rush of motion as they swung back and forth madeher dizzy, and she held onto the thick cable as tightly as she could. “Oh-I’mbeginning to regret this.”

“You should have stayed on the ground,” Imanaged to get out. “Both of you.”

Salara’s celadon barked skin paled as sheglanced down. We were above the hall now. She shut her eyes tight and let out adeep breath. “Oh, I probably should have, but I couldn’t leave Seren. Upon mydiscovery, I made a promise to myself and to my dear friend Rhys, that I wouldwatch over your last remaining relative. I intend to see that through.”

“But it could be all wrong,” Seren argued. “Wecan’t know for sure if we’re related.”

“We are,” I revealed between pained gasps ofbreath. “I saw. You held it—with your bare hands.”

The young guardian looked down at her hands,perplexed by the idea that a weapon could determine whether or not we were tiedby blood. I wanted to comfort her, to be there for her and assure her of what Isaw, but my current situation left me unable to do so. As I lay there,struggling to keep my thoughts on escaping, shots rang out in the sky from theRaven’s Reach. I could hear the rush of the cannon balls as they sailed by. Itrailed their path, anticipating their strike on the other ship’s hull, butthey broke against shields of red energy protecting the side of the ship. Fromour position in the air, I could see the Byrnes’ airship’s guns turn toward theRaven’s Reach. They returned fire, the laser cannon tearing right into the hull.Smoke billowed from the hole left behind, and the engine sputtered. What hope Ihad in our rescue was lost as the airship’s bow pointed downward and theairship began to lose altitude.

“By the pale tree,” Salara murmured as we allwatched the Raven’s Reach fall out of the sky and toward the southern hills. Shecrouched and clung to the cable, nearly wrapping her whole body around it.

But I knew Danae to be a fighter, and she provedme right by managing to get off one last shot. The final canon sailed throughthe air, striking near the stern between two shield panels. The metal gave wayunder the explosion. The Byrnes’ ship slowly turned to make their way out of thecity, leaving behind a trail of smoke and oil.

Seren drew her sword and swung it at the thickmaterial above Salara’s head, eliciting a yelp from the sylvari. “We need toget this thing off of her. Can you melt it Salara?”

“Well,” she began, her tone carrying a healthydose of uncertainty, “I think I can, but not without the risk of setting one ofboth of you on fire. I’m not great with precision.”

We were getting closer to the Byrne’s airship andwould be within their grasp soon. “There’s no time,” I said. “Please, just go.”

“W-we’re too high up now,” Salara said.

Seren swung her sword at the cable again,making a dent in the thick material. “We’re not leaving you behind.” She lookeddown at Salara who was still crouched low with her eyes shut tight, trying toignore the swaying motion as we were dragged along by the ship. “C’mon Salara,I need you to fry the cable. Now!”

The sylvari hesitantly opened her eyes and nodded.Finding her resolve, she brought forth a small orange flame that flickeredwildly in her quivering palm. She turned it toward the cable. As she focused,the flame grew and lapped hungrily at the oil-based material, and it started tomelt under the weight of the intense heat.

My lungs spasmed, and I inhaled sharply to tryto satisfy their need for air. “Both of you, go. While you can.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” Seren replied asshe swung again, this time cutting through the outer coating of thecontraption’s electrical center, revealing the wiring inside. “It’s not anoption.”

“It has to be.”

She stopped and looked me square in the eyewith a confidence that I wish I had in that moment. “Then I’m not choosing it.I wasn’t able to save my brother during Scarlet’s siege, but I have a chance tosave you.”

“We’re over the bay now. We could all landsafely in the water,” Salara suggested as she moved her hand around the side ofthe cable. The dark material melted and dripped down toward the harness andhardened once again in the cool night. As she worked, sparks flew out fromunder her control as she struggled to keep the flame focused where she wantedit.

Ignoring the embers sparking off in herdirection, Seren looked up and uttered a curse. A set of bay doors in the sideof the hull opened, and darkly clad figures stepped into view. “We’re almost upthere. Hurry!” She swung again, her blade cutting into the wiring inside. Theyoung guardian cried out and recoiled, involuntarily flinging her weapon outinto the bay. Wrapping her arm around the cable, she cradled her injured handagainst her chest.

“I’m nearly done,” Salara replied, paniccharging her tone.

We were almost to the doors, and I could seetwo of the figures each aim a large firearm. Moonlight glinted off of somethingcurved at the end of each barrel. I tried to warn the other two, but Seren hadalready seen what was coming and was ordering Salara to push through witheverything she had. Two shots were fired, and Seren and Salara cried out asthey fought to stay holding on to the cable. One of the grappling hooks flungaround Seren’s torso, the claws lodging into her back. The other had found itsway into Salara’s shoulder.

I wrestled with my prison until I was neartears. As Salara’s fire finally seared the wiring, the harness failed, and Iwas able to slip my arm free. With as far of a reach as I could muster, I swungthe blade upward in an attempt to sever the ropes entangling the two. My swingmissed as they were both pulled upward out of reach as gravity pulled medownward. The last thing I saw was both their frightened faces as they were pulledinto the Byrnes’ airship before I fell away and hit the water below.