The
mountainous walls of Bastok came into view while Werei, Nico, and Myskah shared
small talk, but something in the other direction caught Nico’s attention; a hume trying to pull himself up off the ground using a boulder. Nico ran up to the hume as he
crumpled back down on the dirt. “Hey! Are you okay? What happened?” Nico asked,
afraid for the man’s life. The man wore a miner’s tunic covered in blood. His
head also covered in blood from a gash on his forehead.
“Altana!”
Myskah gasped as she and Werei caught up. Werei nudged Nico out of the way and ripped
the injured man’s tunic, finding a large wound in the man’s stomach.
Werei
used the tunic and put pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding. “Can
you heal this, Myskah?”
Myskah
placed both hands on the man’s chest and closed her eyes in concentration. The
light blue aura surrounded her hands and spread across his body. Myskah frowned
and repeated the same actions, but her frown only deepened after the second
time. She shook her head. “I can’t do it. He’s in too bad a shape.” She
sniffled. “I- I’m not good enough…”
Nico
put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Mys-“ Nico cut off as the man
coughed up blood and opened his eyes.
“Palborough…
The mine’s being attacked…” The man’s weak voice trailed off and he coughed up
more blood. He took a slow, deep breath. “Quadav killing everyone…”
Nico’s
eyes widened in horror. His father was in Palborough right now. Panic and fear
controlled his body, but it didn’t keep him from moving, it forced him right
into action. Nico bolted upright and ran full speed right in the direction of
Palborough Mines.
Werei
cursed. “Nico! Get back here! Stop!” He cursed again as Nico ignored him.
“Myskah!” Werei growled. “Run to Bastok as fast as you can. Tell the guards at
the gate what’s happening!”
Myskah
nodded. “But what about him?” Her voice was shaking.
“Leave
him. More lives are at risk!” Werei shouted as he started to chase after Nico.
With his bulky body, he had no hope of catching up to Nico before he got to the
mine, he just hoped he could get to him before he was killed.
Nico
hadn’t even reached the mine before he saw the first bodies. Three dead
soldiers laid sprawled out on the ground, weapons still sheathed. They had
apparently been taken in a surprise attack. A few more dead miners and a guard lay
scattered at the entrance of the mine. A single turtle-like humanoid creature
laid shell up on the ground. The dead quadav had a pickaxe sticking out of its
neck.
Nico
ran into the poorly lit, brown tinted mine. He had never been inside this mine
and the long winding tunnels made certain he wouldn’t even know what direction
he was heading, so he let his instincts choose where he was going. He had to
find his father. Had to make sure he was okay.
Every
few feet was another bloodied hume, galka, or quadav corpse, the quadav being
the rarer of the three. Nico skidded to a halt as he came upon the first
crossroad. He only stalled for a moment before hearing screams echoing down the
tunnel in front of him. He ran towards the screams and reached for his weapon,
only to remember he had lost it to the ram. Nico cursed himself. If he had
realized he didn’t have his weapon sooner, he could have grabbed one from one
of the several dead guards he had passed, but now he’d have to backtrack to
find one as he was uncertain if there’d be another weapon available to him up
ahead.
As
Nico turned to go back, he heard a familiar voice. “I’ll not let you get
through!” It was Nico’s father’s voice. Nico forgot about getting a weapon and
ran straight ahead towards the sound of his father’s voice. As he ran, he could
hear the clanging of swords clashing together and the occasional scream of a
quadav.
The
tunnel suddenly came to a dead stop. A cave in had left rocks blocking off the
tunnel. The sounds of battle rang on the other side of the cave-in. Nico found
a small hole in the wall that was barely big enough for his head to fit
through, but he was able to see through it to the large room on the other side.
Nico’s father Derrik stood in the middle of the room, sword in hand as he
battled a quadav. Four more quadav lay dead on the ground around him and five
more live quadav stood by waiting patiently in a V formation.
It
only took a few seconds for Derrik to kill the quadav he was fighting. The
quadav in the front of the V formation motioned to the two on the edge and they
both rushed in on Derrik with their weapons drawn. The left quadav closed in
first and swung its sword at Derrik’s head, an attack he easily ducked under.
The second quadav swung his sword down at Derrik, but he parried that attack
and followed up by stabbing it in the thigh before jumping back to put distance
between himself and the two quadav.
The
first quadav slowly closed the gap between itself and Derrik as the second
quadav got over its wound and began to approach as well. Derrik kicked dirt and
rock from the mine floor at the closest quadav, but it picks up its shield and
blocks its face from getting hit with the debris- something that Derrik had
planned on. With its shield in its face, the quadav saw nothing as Derrik
closed in on the quadav and stuck it in the neck. It gave out a blood muddled
cry as it fell to the ground. The second quadav gave up any pretense of caution
as it yelled out a war cry and charged furiously at Derrik. Derrik struck it
down easily.
Derrik
quickly scanned the room to watch for any hidden dangers, but careful not to
turn his back to the three remaining quadav. Derrik’s eyes widened as he saw
Nico watching him from a hole in the collapsed tunnel. Distracted, Derrik
barely had time to react to the lead quadav as it swung down its great sword
with both hands. Derrik stepped back just in time as the great sword smashed
into the ground. The quadav followed up its attack by thrusting forward at
Derrik’s chest. Derrik managed to parry the attack, but the overwhelming
strength behind the attack caused him to stagger back a step. The quadav took a
few steps forward and swung its great sword horizontally with a single hand,
but Derrik evaded the swing.
The
quadav said something in its own language and laughed. The other two quadav
joined in the laughter. “De’Vyu,” The lead quadav said as it pointed at itself.
It waited for a response from Derrik, but when it got none, it continued. “Hume
custom to give name in duel, yes? Where is honor?” It asked in the common
tongue. “My name De’Vyu. What is yours?”
“You
sneak in and slaughter innocent, helpless miners and now speak of duels and
honor?” Derrik growled.
De’Vyu
shrugged. “No honor fine, too.” De’Vyu dropped the tip of its blade into the
ground then swung its blade up at Derrik as it took a step forward, bringing up
dust and dirt with it. Derrik rolled out of the way, but De’Vyu had anticipated
that. As its great sword hung in the air, De’Vyu switched back to its
two-handed form and swung down fast and hard at Derrik mid roll. The great
sword crashed down, but Derrik sprung forward in time to dodge the attack which
left De’Vyu wide open.
Derrik
thrust his sword at the quadav’s eyes. De’Vyu let go of his sword and used its
free left hand to smack away the blade headed towards is face. Blood sprayed
from De’Vyu’s hand, but it paid no mind as its right hand had already begun
reaching for Derrik’s neck. Derrik pulled back in time to avoid the quadav’s hand
on his throat, but not fast enough to avoid De’Vyu from finding its grip on the
collar of Nico’s armor. De’Vyu pulled Derrik closer to it at the same time it
sent down a vicious head butt.
Nico
tried to hide a shriek as his father staggered back, blood pouring out of the
gash in his forehead. De’Vyu grabs onto Derrik’s sword arm with its left hand
and delivers a devastating right hook to Derrik’s chin that sent him to the ground.
With a single arm, De’Vyu lifted Derrik off the ground by the collar. “Shame,”
De’Vyu said, as it unsheathed a dagger from its belt with its free hand. “If
this was duel, I would give you clean death.” De’Vyu drove the dagger into
Derrik’s gut repeatedly before letting him fall to the ground, blood quickly
pooling around him.
“NO!”
Nico screamed, bringing the full attention of the quadav onto himself.
De’Vyu
motioned to the other two quadav who went running down a tunnel that Nico
assumed would lead them to him. De’Vyu picked up its great sword and headed
down another tunnel. Nico ran back down the tunnel until he found a dead guard
with a sword still clutched in his hands. Nico took the sword and ran back down
to meet the incoming quadav as fast as he could, not even stopping when he saw
the shadows of the quadav around the corner of the tunnel casted on the wall by
the lantern behind them.
Nico
leapt into the air as the first quadav turned the corner. The quadav took a
sword in the neck and fell backwards into the quadav behind it, bringing it
down to the ground with it. Nico pulled his sword out of the first quadav and
quickly killed the other before it could even reach for its weapon. Without a
moment’s hesitation, Nico was back running full speed down the tunnel towards
his father.
Nico
made it into the room where he had seen his father fight. Derrik lay in the
middle of the room motionless. “Dad! Dad!” Nico screamed as he slid on his
knees down to his father. “It’s okay! You’ll be okay!”
“Nico…”
Derrik’s voice was weak and barely audible. “It’s not safe here… Get out of
here…”
“I’ll
get you out of here Dad,” Nico fought back tears, but was failing at it.
“You’ll be okay, Dad. I’ll help you out!”
“GO!”
Derrik’s voice erupted in anger and filled the mine with echoes. “Please…
leave. Go…” His body went still, a blank stare on his face.
“Dad?
Dad! No, no, no, no, no…” Nico began to cry, his tears falling onto his
father’s face.
Screams
echoed from deeper in the mine. Hate and rage replaced his sadness. Nico wiped
the tears from his face. I’ll make them
all pay, Nico promised as he grabbed his father’s sword and ran deeper into
the mine.
Nico
passed corpse after corpse as he chased after De’Vyu, one dead quadav for every
ten hume and galka. De’Vyu and three other quadav were in sight of Nico. A
fifth quadav joined them from a diverging tunnel. As noisy as the quadav were
being, they didn’t hear Nico rushing towards them.
Nico
jumped onto the back of the trailing quadav. Pulling himself up by the top of
its shell, he drove the sword into the back of its neck. The quadav fell face
first onto the ground with Nico still holding on. Nico then launched himself
towards the next quadav in line just as it turned to see what the noise was
behind it. The only thing it saw was the point of a sword flashing in front of
its face before it died with the sword stuck in its skull. Nico had to pull
with a considerable amount of weight to dislodge the sword and stumbled
backwards after freeing it. The remaining three quadav were now aware of Nico
and the two nameless quadav stepped in front of De’Vyu, swords ready and
shields up. De’Vyu only laughed. Nico charged ahead without a single thought in
his head except for revenge. The quadav put no effort into blocking Nico’s attack,
pushing him back. As Nico readied his sword for another attack, De’Vyu said a
word in its own language and the two other quadav stepped aside, leaving De’Vyu
right in front of Nico.
Nico’s
grip tensed and he charged straight at De’Vyu. With a single one-handed swing,
De’Vyu easily knocked Nico’s sword from his hands. “I don’t like to kill
children,” spoke De’Vyu in the common tongue. “But your people changed things.
They slaughter ours, we slaughter theirs.” De’Vyu grabbed Nico by the collar of
his shirt and raised him up to eye level. Nico kicked and swung at De’Vyu, growling
and screaming, but it didn’t bother the quadav.
De’Vyu
raised his sword up, readying to skewer Nico. Nico found that he didn’t fear
for his own life. He couldn’t feel anything but burning hatred for De’Vyu. Nico
focused all his rage, all his hatred, into his empty sword hand. Nico felt that
if only he had a sword right now, he could kill De’Vyu right this instant. Nico
could imagine the sword in his hand. He could feel the sword in his hand and
the power he felt in it. He wanted nothing more than to stab De’Vyu in his
ugly, smiling, quadav face. Nico screamed in rage and thrust his hand forward.
Flame exploded in De’Vyu’s face.
De’Vyu
dropped Nico and screamed in pain. Nico scrambled to grab his father’s sword
from the ground and charged at De’Vyu, hoping to strike its neck, but barely
raised his sword up in time to block a one-handed, horizontal swing from
De’Vyu. The impact from the blow sent Nico flying backwards and crashing into
the rock wall behind him. Nico’s vision became blurry. His eyes felt heavy and
everything around him went dark.
De’Vyu
let out a scream of pure rage before managing to compose himself. He dropped
his hand away from his face, revealing horrible burns one the left side of his
face. “You dare, boy? I’ll make you suffer.” De’Vyu sheathed his great sword
and pulled out his dagger as he took a few steps towards the motionless child.
De’Vyu
stopped in his tracks and turned when he heard the horrible screeches coming
from the other quadav behind him. He turned in time to witness a galka in a
black mask and a giant scythe slice through the two quadav. The scythe took the
first quadav’s head clean off and cut half way through the second’s shell.
The
black mask gave the galka a demonic appearance. De’Vyu took an offensive stance
as there would be no blocking an attack from that weapon with just his sword,
not when it was wielded by the Republic’s Dark Knight Zeid.
His
instincts told him to run. De’Vyu thought he might stand a chance against Zeid,
but there were too many variables that could quickly turn the fight against
him; the boy behind him, for one. De’Vyu took a step back towards the boy. Zeid
stood unmoving, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off him. “This is all your
fault, Dark Knight. This is retribution.” De’Vyu awaited a response, but when
none came, he took another step back. “Will you accept the consequences of your
actions? Surrender and the boy will live.” His burned eye twitched as he lied.
De’Vyu heard the sound of slight movement behind him and assumed the boy had
regained consciousness and was trying to get up. A mistake.
A
massive fist that felt like a stone smashed into the back of De’Vyu’s head, knocking
off his helmet and causing him to stumble forward, right into reach of Zeid’s
scythe. De’Vyu got his sword up in time to block the full force of the scythe’s
attack, but the curved blade still managed to cut into his arm. De’Vyu turned
and twisted to escape- It would do more damage to his arm, but he would live.
As he twirled out of harm’s way, he saw a second galka standing by the boy,
presumably the one who hit him in the back. De’vyu escaped from the scythe and
rolled down a decline that led to a lower part of the mine. It hurt his pride
to run, but he would live and that was more important.
Werei
looked down at the badly hurt but living Nico. “I heard what it said.” Werei
told Zeid as he looked Nico over. ”Is it true? They’re here because of
something you did?”
“Yes.”
“Was it worth it?”
Zeid
shook his head. “Nothing was worth the price these people paid.”
Werei
let the subject drop. “Thanks for saving the boy. Are there any more
survivors?”
“Too
few. There are twelve waiting at the barge right now. You should take the boy
there. I cleared the way.”
“Okay.”
Werei picked the unconscious Nico up and began walking past Zeid.
“The
boy…” Zeid’s words stopped Werei. “He needs proper training. He’s a lot like I
used to be. Did you know he has magical talent?”
Werei
shook his head. “He’s never shown a hint of it his entire life.”
“He
did today.”
“How?”
“Anger,
rage, hate, want for destruction, carelessness for one’s own life. Such are the
catalyst of a Dark Knights.”
Werei
looked down at Nico’s calm, sleeping face and frowned. “I saw his father here.
Dead.”
Zeid
grunted. “I’d train him myself, but I’m leaving Bastok.” Werei began to speak
but Zeid cut him off. “There are answers I need to find for myself. Make sure
you train him well, both in body and mind. Otherwise his story will end just as
every other Dark Knight’s has; drowned in despair, overwhelmed by his rage, and
killed by his own quest for vengeance.” Werei watched silently as Zeid
disappeared into the shadows. “I must ask you a favor, Werei,” the disembodied
voice called out from the darkness. “Tell the President that both sides have
suffered enough. If this leads to war, all his secrets will come out. The
people of Bastok will know why they are fighting the war.”
Werei
took Nico and disappeared deeper into the mine.
When
Nico regained consciousness, the small barge that connected Palborough Mines to
the Zeruhn Mines was already traveling through the waterway. He looked around and
counted fifteen others on board.
“How
are you feeling?” Werei asked.
“I’m
fine.” Nico swallowed hard. “Well, my head hurts.” Pain shot up Nico’s arm as
he tried to move it. “And I think my arm is broken.” Tears rolled down Nico’s
face. “What’s going to happen now? Mom’s gone and now Dad is too…”
“I’ll
be looking after you. It’s what your father would have wanted.”
Nico
felt something sharp in his pocket poking against him. He reached in with his
unbroken arm and pulled out a shattered fragment of the grey synthesis crystal.
He closed his hand tight around it and looked around at the survivors again.
There were no mithra. “Is this all the survivors?”
“I
think so.”
“Myskah
said her mom worked there. Is… Is she dead too?”
“Maybe.”
“She’s
alone now too… What will happen with her?”
“If
she has no family or friends to look after her, she’ll be put in an orphanage
until she’s old enough to live on her own.”
“Could-“
Nico hesitated. “Could you look after her too?”
“I’m
not a…” Werei sighed as he looked at Nico. “We’ll see.”
A
platoon of soldiers were waiting as the barge docked. The soldiers helped the
survivors and escorted them to nearby healers. “Go get yourself taken care of.”
Werei told Nico, motioning to the healers. Nico nodded and walked towards them.
Iron
Eater called out Werei’s name. Werei saw him in the crowd and made his way to
him. “Werei! What in the name of Altana happened? We were told quadav were
attacking Palborough.”
Werei
nodded. “That’s about the gist of it. These people are probably the only
survivors.”
“That’s
it? Out of nearly two hundred miners? Outrageous. How did they manage such an
attack? And why?”
Werei
brought his voice down to a whisper. “According to Zeid, they were very well
motivated.”
“Zeid
was there?”
Werei
nodded. “He said he had done something to anger the quadav enough for them to
want to retaliate as such.”
“Volkier
and a whole battalion of soldiers went through Gustaberg to the mine. Hopefully
they’ll find Zeid and we can learn more.”
“They won’t find him.” Werei hesitated to say
what was on his mind, but spoke up. “I think whatever it was he was doing was
under President Karst’s orders. And whatever it was, it must have been bad. He
asked me to help him blackmail him.”
Iron
Eater glanced around before speaking. “President Karst has been pushing to
uproot the quadav populace by any means necessary. Says that even Passhow Marshlands isn’t far
enough and if they wont move on their own, we should force them out. I don’t
like this. We could end up in another war with the quadav. And if they decide to reform an
alliance with the other Beastmen tribes, we could end up in another Crystal
War.”
“And
that’s why I have to blackmail the President.”
The
sun shown bright as the memorial service for those killed in the Palborough
Mines incident took place on the grassy Zegham Hill. Werei had an arm around
both Nico and Myskah’s shoulder as they listened to the speech given by
President Karst honoring those that were killed. A short time after, the truce
between Bastok and the quadav was solidified, extending the hard-earned
peacetime that came out of the Crystal War. Palborough Mines would remain
closed indefinitely, and true to his word, Zeid had disappeared from Bastok, no
one knowing where he had gone or why. Werei watched over Nico and Myskah,
training Nico especially hard in hopes of keeping him from turning down the path
of a Dark Knight. Werei sometimes wondered if Zeid was wrong about his assertion
of Nico. Werei didn’t see a boy filled with hate, but a boy with a dream that
he strived hard to accomplish- a boy hoping to be as great as his father.
The
world of Vana’diel would continue to enjoy its peace for another three years.
But soon, a dark shadow would begin to loom over Vana’diel and threaten
everything and everyone.
