Bernar saw well over twenty men wrapped in beige linen and tanned leather appear from behind the pillars nearby. Without any sort of hesitation, he quickly dashed out towards the first on his left, severing his body with a diagonal cut. Stepping on the lower half of the torso, he used an Inar spell to raise himself up to the height of the second attacker, who was hiding atop a platform built into one of the massive pillars.
He used mana to pull out a part of the pillar at the height of the man's head in a mixture of lightning and earth, transforming the head into nothing but pink mist. Pushing an Exar spell out from the ball of his left foot, he dashed to his newly created platform and then again towards the next enemy who was at a lower height than the previous one.
Infusing his entire body with lightning, he vanished from his original platform and passed through the body of his next target with his sword in front of him, coating him in blood and entrails. He found the next target in a heartbeat as he traced the origin of the arrow he'd caught aimed at his head.
Still infused with lightning, he bounced from pillar to pillar, leaving a small trail of mana wherever he went, and severed the next ten bowmen in half while sending bolts of Kyr across the way to the ones a little further out of reach. Sensing a rope dart being aimed from below, he curled his body and leaned backward, pushing into the pillar to gain extra speed for his next attack.
He infused his left hand with a Pyrus spell so dense that it glowed as brightly as the midday sun. He dashed downward, forcing the sphere to melt his attacker from crown to groin, splitting the charred corpse like a log in winter as he made a crater in the stone floor beneath him.
Shit, there are more of them? How many of these bastards do I have to kill? He thought, glancing around momentarily.
As more and more of the linen-clad hashishin began to pour out of seemingly nowhere, Bernar did his best to quickly assess the situation.
Gwili had killed two on his own but was distracted by the sheer volume of attacks, while Thorsen killed another three who dared to get too close. Neko and Marte had scratches and bruises from defending themselves and Leona, but many of Gwili's men had fallen in the initial assault.
Looks like I'll need to let loose for a little bit, he thought with a wolfish grin.
Pulling a large amount of mana, he pushed off his leading leg, leaving a decently sized crater and dust cloud in his wake before slicing into the newcomers. Each cut had a purpose and a strength married to accuracy that the hashishin had never seen before. However, what really caught them off guard was his method of infusing each strike with a different spell to explode his targets' innards, leaving them in puddles of their own bodies.
And oh, was it working.
The enemy, since the start of the battle, was confused, since none of the bodies afflicted with these surprise bursts ever saw Bernar in the first place. From his perspective, however, they all appeared to be standing still as their arrows, knives, bolts, and rope darts seemed to float in the air.
His body crackled with flame, lightning, and air circulating around him as he pushed some of them out of the way of their original targets or simply disconnected their owners from their planes of existence with a single mana-infused strike or overloaded Kyr spell.
Regardless of the method, the outcome was the same.
The world lurched back into regular speed as he expelled much of the excess mana into his last earth-infused strike, creating a small cloud of misty blood in the air before him.
Fuck, I might have gone a little too far away from the group. Is everyone alrigh-... His thoughts trailed off as his heart sank, realizing his mistake.
"Leona!" he called out, seeing the blade at her throat. "A-tut-tut-tut, I wouldn't come any closer if I were you. Even with your speed and ability, I'd still kill her before you could stop me. I promise," a cowled man said. He was dressed similarly to the others but had piercing, golden eyes and thick, dark eyebrows contrasted by pale, sickly skin.
We were standing right next to her, and he still got in? How the fuck are we supposed to deal with something like that? Marte thought, trying desperately not to make any sudden movements.
The man glanced over at Neko and Marte for a brief moment. "I knew you two wouldn't amount to much, but I had to bide my time for the large one to get out of the way for me to move in and for the outlier to be… otherwise occupied. How did I do for my first performance, Death Mother?" the sickly man asked, never once taking his eyes off Bernar, who was seething with rage.
Leona's expression, however, didn't change at all.
"You've exceeded my expectations, to say the least, Berut," Zari replied, getting up from her throne and walking up to the two of them.
Zari put her face close to Leona's, so much so that it forced her to blink when she felt the heavy sigh leaving Zari's mouth. "It's a shame I don't have the time to sit and watch you wither away for all eternity, but I can find enough joy in watching you and your people suffering in the dungeons of this palace," she said, giving Bernar a self-satisfied grin.
Bernar looked into Leona's eyes, expecting to find fear or resentment, but there was nothing to be found.
Is this a part of her plan? Bernar thought, recalling Gorm's advice.
With a swift flick, he rid his blade of the remaining blood and put it back into its scabbard. Zari looked at him curiously and scoffed with a mild chuckle. "What's this? You're giving up already? I'll admit that was quite the show you put on. I could hardly follow along with any of your movements, but now you're surrendering without so much as a verbal threat? That's a little anticlimactic, don't you think?" she asked sardonically.
"Hmm, What's that on your cheek, then?" Bernar asked coldly.
For the first time in her life, the icy grip of fear ripped at her insides as she felt the blood begin to drip down the side of her face just below her eye. She glared at him with wide eyes as her olive skin began to turn as pale as a cloud.
He returned the bug-eyed stare with a wink and a click of his tongue.
"F-f-f-find the deepest and darkest dungeon you can put them in and let them rot in there! I never want their eyes to see the light of day again! Do you hear me?" she cried out, backing away from Leona as she began to put pressure on the wound. "Do as she says! She might burst into tears if you don't," he chimed in.
I hope you know what you're doing, my love, he thought as he allowed himself to be placed in shackles.
The others were also put in shackles, but Berut put the ones on Leona himself. "I see why he likes you," he said in an almost whisper of a voice. "And if you're not careful, you'll find out why I love him," she replied without flinching or breaking eye contact with Bernar. Her response, eliciting a sneer from Berut and a wry grin from Bernar, got surprised looks from both Neko and Marte.
Thorsen, of course, was wildly unaffected by the sentence.
After a few moments of rounding the survivors up, Bernar and Leona were placed at the head of the line and shoved down one of the corridors on the right side of the palace. As they proceeded down the well-ventilated hallway towards the entrance of the dungeon, Bernar risked a glance over his shoulder and chuckled to himself when he realized Gwili was nowhere to be found.
"What is it?" Leona asked quietly. "Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it," he said dismissively. "You read me like a book just now, didn't you?" she asked. "I might have an idea for an additional chapter or two," he replied with a wry smile. She nodded her head in acknowledgment and looked down the ever-darkening hallway.
Gwili, you're an absolute shit-ass, he thought, trying his best not to draw any more suspicion to himself.
Meanwhile, in Codrean, Meliss found herself standing in front of the door that led to Taegin's study. She raised her hand to knock but paused momentarily. After a moment's consideration, she turned to descend the steps but stopped when she heard his voice coming from beyond the door.
"You can come in, Meliss," Taegin said, keeping a warm tone. Hesitantly, she opened the door to his study only to find him reading a book under the light of a large mana-flame lamp. "Hello there," he said, closing the book and gesturing to the carved wooden chair in front of him. She shyly went over to it and sat down without a word, fidgeting with her own, restless fingers.
"How can I help you, Meliss?" he asked, clearly noticing whatever it was she was about to ask meant a lot to her. "Master, I wanted to start this off by saying thank you," she began nervously. "Gods above and below, I don't even know if I can thank ye properly for everything you've done for me," she said, fidgeting even more.
"You have nothing to thank me for, Meliss," Taegin began warmly. "But I do!" she interrupted. "I… I do, Master. You and everyone else here have given me a chance to be a much better version of myself, and I can't thank you enough for that, but…" she trailed off.
"You have something else to figure out, don't you?" Taegin asked warmly. She could only nod her head in response. "Well, if that's the case," he began, getting up from his seat and moving to the nearby bookshelf. He grabbed a red leather-bound book with charred edges from the shelf at eye level and handed it to her.
"What's this?" she asked. "That book is one of the last of its kind. I saved it from a burning library during a trip to Harut, though I never thought I'd need it until now," he began, returning to his seat. "That book might not tell you everything about the Gramm Isles, but it should definitely help you get started on your journey there," he said, catching her off-guard.
"You knew? But how could you have known? I haven't told anyone anything about it, so how did you figure it out?" she asked, absolutely dumbfounded by his level of understanding. "I'm no stranger to journeys of self-discovery. Not to mention you have little tying you down here anymore," he began with a non-committed shrug.
"Thoma…" she said, feeling a portion of the weight of her decision. "I wasn't going to say his name, but yes. It was also a part of the reason I knew this conversation was coming," Taegin replied, darting his eyes off to the side. "I do feel bad for the way things ended, but I think it was the best decision for his sake," Meliss said, her tone growing a little heavier. "For his sake, or your own?" Taegin asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head.
Meliss, however, only responded with a shake of her head.
"I'm not accusing you of anything, Meliss. I'm just saying that you can't always know what's best for the other person," he said, lifting his hands placatingly. "I know," she said, catching a tear before it raced down her cheek.
"But, regardless of how things happened, they happened for a reason, even if we can't see it yet. I sense there's much we'll be able to learn from each other if you find whatever it is you're looking for," he said warmly. "Thank you, Master," she said, bowing her head from her seat.
"There is, however, a caveat to this," he began, interlocking his fingers as he rested his forearms on the desk. "You must take one person who's more experienced with you. That way, if you find yourself in a bad situation, they can help get you out of it. But I suspect you already have someone, don't you?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow.
After a moment's consideration, she finally nodded her head, turning to look Taegin dead in the eye. "I do, Master," she said with a determined look in her eye.