Blade Of The Capital

The last of the dark air faded, sinking into the depths of Caelum below. I turned to Fesha, her face seemingly in awe at the sight before us, like she had found something she was missing for quite some time. I whispered to her.

"Hey, maybe we can go around." I said.

"Wait, we mustn't." She said very seriously.

Right on queue, the knight slowly got up from sitting, using the weapon as an aid to get up. It was a beautiful woman, roughly near the same age as Fesha. She was tall, over my height by half her head. Her long, silvery gray hair draped back behind her ears with a long thin braid hanging to the side of her face, held in place with a small ornament. Her ears were decorated with various dangling earrings and jewels. A thin crown of silver and bronze strands twisted around her head. She wore a set of bronze armor with a dull golden trim along its edges, covering her shoulders, chest, and legs. The armor boasted a simple looking pattern that looked like branches engraved across its surface, but her chest plate showed a depiction of a tall tree, its trunk outlined in silver and its leaves in gold. The armor's overall shape was rounded elegantly with subtle bends, but her bronze leggings boasted more defined edges that were somewhat chipped. The armor around her was held close to her body while several bronze plates dangled loosely around the side of her hips. She wore a long, loose grayish tunic with dark red stains splattered under the armor. Part of the loose fabric past under her chest plate, draping down close to her knees, almost like a skirt. The tunic's sleeves reach her wrists, the cloth getting looser with frills on the way down. There were also bits of brown leather patches and dark silver chain mail between the armor and her tunic.

I turned to face her, her features soft and her nose and mouth small. Her eyelashes were long and as silver as her hair. I noticed a grayish splotch of veins and what looked like freckles concentrated around the top corner of one of her eyelids. She lifted her head, revealing the stained eye to be filmy and colored out, while the other eye was a pale orange. Her face looked like that of one you would only find in a painting. Suddenly she spoke in a soft, yet threatening tone.

"Does yet another one of thee wishest pilgrimage unto the new world?" She asked as she pointed her blade towards us.

I began to worry, realizing that Fesha and I may be in over our heads. Just from her appearance alone I could tell she would have no trouble wasting us. Then Fesha spoke, her words reminding me of how little I knew of her.

"Fesha?" Her voice quivered.

Fesha's eyes widened. "Magde----, my dearest friend is that thee?" She asked softly.

Magde---- was speechless, unable to utter even a sound. I looked at her waiting to say something, until I decided to speak.

"Hey Mag." I said, realizing now that if I were to call her Fesha it would only stir more confusion.

Fesha directed the point of her shallow crescent bladed glaive at me. "And thee..." Fesha looked at me with sorrowful eyes. She was about to continue before Mag interrupted her.

"Fesha." Mag finally spoke. There was a long pause as Mag thought about what words to say next. "I had thought thee met thine end." She said as subtle streams flowed over her cheek.

"Well, I had thought thee forgotten about me, but it seemeth some memories have remained unspoiled." She retorted as a sudden expression of sadness formed across her face. "If only it weren't so." She paused. "Tell me, hast thee beckoned the unseen?"

Mag and I looked at each other, unable to figure out what that meant. Then Mag's face showed a sense of realization.

"Does thou talkest of the man in the dark." Mag asked.

"Ah, so it seems thee knowest too much." She said in regret. 

She pulled her blade back, tapping the shaft on the shoulder pad of her armor. The metal clanked, and suddenly the dragon lifted its head from the ground, a black haze sinking out of its mouth. Then, a stream of the black gas came hurling at us. Mag and I jumped in opposite directions, narrowly avoiding its putrid touch.

Mag got up, her face showing that she had almost forgotten about the dragon. "Fesha! What is this? Why does thee sidest with the dragons?" She yelled.

"So thou knows not of why. The memories taken are truly fortuitous. Perhaps I can still save thee. If thou seekest answers up above, I can assure thee there is nothing worth pillaging." Fesha spoke.

"Fesha!" A thin yellow bolt entered the side of my vision.

Fesha positioned the shaft of her glaive behind her back, wrapping her one arm around the base, and holding the glaive near the blade with the other. She pointed the crescent blade downward at a diagonal. As the bolt neared her, Fesha spun, allowing the bolt to ricochet off her blade and into the darkness. Her defensive smoothly flowed back into a position of ease.

"Thou knowest the sins of the dragon worshipers. The things they've taken from me! So why?" Mag asked saddened.

Fesha stayed silent while Mag stood there furious, still awaiting her answer. Fesha ignored her and turned to me instead.

"Does thee seekest knowledge to the likes of Magde---- as well." Fesha asked me.

"We're just trying to get to the archives." I told her.

Fesha expressed defeat, realizing she would not be able to stop us with words.

"Explain!" Mag yelled louder than before, like a mother furious at her child. "Thou speakest as if we could understand thine purpose, yet thee seals thy lips and leaves us ignorant to thy cause!"

Fesha exhaled. "I apologize. I wish I could speak further, but the Mother of Eyes is always watching."

With those words, Fesha readied her weapon knowing there was no compromise for either side. Mag's fury and my persistence were far too strong to allow Fesha to keep us from our goal.

Fesha spoke one last time before battle. "May thee adorn my garden in full bloom."