A New Beginning

⭑ · · ᯓ 𐃈 ᯓ · · ⭑

“Are you sure you want to leave things like that?”

Felix and Kite walked through one of Aberdeen’s empty cobbled roads. It had grown quite late, so only lamplight and the hearths glowing from open windows lit the streets.

“Like what?”

“Refusing your brother’s offer to house us for the night,” Kite replied. “Tonight, or tomorrow, it doesn’t make that much of a difference when we get on the road, does it?”

The temperature was pleasantly warm with a light breeze blowing Kite’s short hair around. It caught the winglets on her head, making it seem like she’d pick up and fly away at any moment. Felix thought the sight was a little funny.

“I suppose it doesn’t, but…” Felix thought ahead to his eventual reunion with his family. “I just couldn’t help myself; I’m excited to see them again.”

“…Yeah.” Kite nodded, crossing her hands behind the back of her head in her usual fashion. “I was just saying, it’ll be a long ride out there. I get it though.”

“That it will.” Felix agreed. “It was nice enough of my brother to get us a stagecoach this late that can take us to the western frontier. I’d hate to impose any further than that.”

He remembered the smile his brother wore as he watched them leave from his throne, his gaze never breaking from them until the massive doors had slammed shut.

“Somehow, I knew you were gonna say that.” Kite sighed deeply. “But it’s alright. We can sleep a bit on the way, if it’s not too rough.”

Kite walked out slightly ahead. Curfew had almost fallen on the city, and people were returning to their homes. A mother carried her sleeping child in her arms, and warm laughter came from the window of a home.

Her footsteps slowed until Felix passed her by. Noticing she’d stopped, he turned to look back without saying anything.

“Can I ask you something, Felix?”

“Sure.” He turned to face her fully. “What is it?”

“Do you resent him?” Kite looked down.

“Who, my brother?” When Kite nodded, Felix stopped to think. “No.”

“Even though you haven’t remembered anything?” Kite crossed her arms. “What if he was lying to you?”

“About what?”

“Anything, I guess...” She didn’t know what she wanted to say, exactly. It had just come tumbling out. “Don’t you want your memories back?”

“Would you?” Felix asked as Kite silently shook her head. “That man is gone, Kite. The titles, the glory, and every sacrifice that came with it. There’s nothing for me back there, and the world has no more need for heroes. They made that perfectly clear.”

That was an answer Kite could accept, but she suspected there was more to it than he let on. There was also the matter of national security. Though Dante hadn’t asked him directly, Felix could safely assume drawing unwanted attention would be bad for everyone involved.

“So… what happens now?” Kite asked casually.

“I suppose I become a farmer again.” Felix laughed at his own expense. “Farmer Felix…”

“Wearing overalls and the whole deal?” Kite scoffed. “And a bad tan?”

“Maybe.” He smiled. “My mother always worried about me being in the capital, so she’ll be happy to see me back safe.”

“…”

“And my sister might need help with the baby. The old windmill needed repairing, not to mention the fence…”

“Hey, Felix…”

Kite’s voice was almost frail. She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. This repeated several times until Felix finally tilted his head.

“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble…”

“Hm?”

“…could I—”

As Kite grappled with her next question, a glint caught her eye from a nearby rooftop, and a look of terror flashed across her face.

Kite reacted as quickly as she could. A blast of wind slammed into Felix’s chest, throwing him out of the arrow’s path as it whizzed by. It tore straight through the next gust she conjured to stop it.

Less than a moment later, the arrow buried itself deep into her left arm above the wrist wraps she wore as Kite yelped in pain. Felix watched it happen in slow motion while he tumbled backward onto the ground, bewildered. That’s when he saw it protruding from her flesh.

“Kite!!”

“Hrk—!” Eyes watering, Kite ripped the steel arrow out, cursing in pain as the blood streamed down her arm. “Damn it!”

Concentrating a ball of wind in her hand, she pushed it into the open wound, sucking out a spatter of blood and black ooze. The thought immediately occurred to her.

“…poisoned.” She winced hard. “RUN! Now, Felix!”

Felix didn’t move at first, still dazed. Kite seized his wrist with her free hand and yanked him upright.

“Move!”

Kite dragged Felix the first few steps until he found his footing, letting him set the pace once she was sure he wouldn’t stumble.

If she’d wanted to, she could have disappeared into the darkness on the wind alone, but Felix wasn’t quite as swift. But that wasn’t to say that he was slow.

“Around this corner!”

Even burdened by the weight of his axe and a year of malnutrition, Felix ran far faster than any ordinary man. However, it wasn’t enough.

“—!”

A pair of shadows dropped soundlessly into the alley ahead. Two figures clad in black gambesons stepped into their path, faces hidden beneath their cowls.

Kite skidded to a halt, as did Felix behind her.

“Back!”

They turned, but two more enemies landed behind them from the rooftops, sealing off their retreat and narrowing their options.

“Who are these guys, bounty hunters?!” Felix drew his axe, wearing a tense expression.

“No, these are professionals, not adventurers,” Kite growled. “Contract killers from the Black Court.”

Assassins.

Felix stiffened up.

“What do they want?!”

A throwing knife ripped through the air, which Felix reacted to, blocking with the flat of his axe. One of the assassins clicked his tongue as the four of them fanned out in a circle around Kite and Felix.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Kite nursed her bleeding wound, getting into a fighting stance of her own.

They all charged at once. One assassin went low with a dagger in an attempt to cut Felix’s Achilles tendon, while another went high with a flail on a long chain.

Combat still felt unfamiliar for Felix, but the same muscle memory that activated in his fight against the Warden carried his movements. The sharp end of his axe’s pommel pinned one man to the ground with enough force to crack the stone beneath him.

Meanwhile, his head dodged the end of the flail, locking the chain in place with his chin. He grunted, using his unusual neck strength to fling the assassin into a wooden crate leaning against the wall.

“That’s the stuff, pal!” Kite, watching the assassin fly by her, unleashed her speed.

Kite cloaked herself in wind, accelerating with her outstretched hand to slam an assassin headfirst into the alley wall.

Blood gushed from his cowl; the wounded assassin slashed desperately at Kite with a knife, trying to get his pound of flesh from the exchange. Instead, she kicked effortlessly off his chest with her talons, vaulting over the spearman charging in behind him.

The latter ran his own man through without a moment’s hesitation. The sight made even Kite flinch as she returned to Felix’s side.

In just a moment of time, four enemies had become one. The spearman ripped his dripping polearm from the gut of his comrade and charged at Felix next in a single swift motion. Sparks flew as Felix used his blade to redirect the spear into the ground while Kite followed with a devastating kick to the man’s jaw, knocking him out cold.

Kite had her back turned to the assassin Felix had thrown into the barrel. He looked convincingly dead, in a heap on a pile of splintered wood. One lunge with a dagger is all it took for Felix to charge into action.

“Most High, forgive me…”

Felix’s axe rose.

The assassin’s upper torso separated from the rest of him as his arm hovered mere inches from Kite’s neck. His body split cleanly, the two halves collapsing on either side with heavy thuds. Felix, meanwhile, maintained his follow-through and a neutral expression from start to finish.

“…”

“Playing dead… Crafty bastard.” Kite gulped, panning between Felix and the blood-soaked alley. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it...” Felix exhaled at last. “Was that the last of them, you think?”

“I hope, but we’d better keep moving if we don’t want to find out.”

At Kite’s lead, Felix followed her down several alleys as they tried not to get themselves boxed in. They had proven they could handle close-quarters combat, and putting themselves out in the open to face more arrows seemed the riskier play.

The time came, however, when they had to travel via the main road. Their goal was any number of stables around town to borrow a horse, or the transportation depot on the western edge of the city. They came to rest under a shallow stone arch as Kite was doubled over, wincing in pain.​

“Kite?” Felix looked worried. “We should slow down for a bit. You don’t look too good.”​

“It’s no use; they’ll just follow the blood.” Kite gestured to the trail left behind them. “Man, they really got me good…”

Despite her best efforts to contain it, the blood continued to drip from her upper arm. Felix noticed something even more troubling, however. Black tendrils spread out from the wound like a web traveling through her veins.

“I recognize this pattern; it’s venom from a pit viper.” Felix studied her arm, gently holding it up in the light. “I’ve treated folks in the hamlet before for injuries like this. Let me heal you.“

“What class magic can you use?” Kite asked, her brow covered in sweat. She looked feverish.

“I’m an Intermediate Class holy mage. I don’t have any formal training yet. At least, not that I can remember…”

“That’ll take too long. And you ought to save your mana for when we’re out of the woods.” Kite refused the help. Suddenly, she sported a conflicted look. “Say, Felix?”

Felix glanced back the way they’d come, tightening his grip on his axe. However, he was listening.

“If I were to tell you to leave me behind and get yourself out of here, what would you say?”

“I’d get mad,” Felix replied instantly.

Kite’s lips curled into a faint smile.

“I thought you’d say that… dummy.”

And if that’s really the case, she thought.

She began to dig through her satchel for something until her slender fingers closed around a rubber sphere with a string hanging off the end.

“Got it,” Kite muttered.

Then I refuse to become dead weight.

“Hey, what are you…”

As Felix began to voice his concern, Kite pulled out the round object, unscrewing the cap. She forced a smile as grey powder poured into her uninjured palm.

“You know, I never thought you’d be the type to finish them off, guys like that.” Kite shifted the conversation back to Felix. “This isn’t the first time, is it?”

“…No.”

“Was it before you became the Hero?”

“Yeah… It was before.” Felix was surprised she could tell. Still curious about what she was doing, he continued. “It never gets any easier. Especially when they don’t give you a choice.”

Kite’s fingers trembled as she looked at the powder in her palm.

“…Damn it.”

“Kite?”

“You did what you had to do, Felix.”

Kite clenched her teeth, forcing the powder into her open wound.

“And, well… since you’re too stubborn to leave me behind…” She finally pulled out a match and lit it. “Then I don’t get to quit either.”

“Wait, you’re not seriously thinking about—!“

“—You’re gonna wanna cover your nose, pal.”

The gunpowder ignited with a deafening bang. The muffled scream came after as Kite forced it behind her teeth, white smoke billowing beneath the stone arch. It carried with it the scent of burnt flesh, enough to overwhelm the senses.

“Kite, you…”

She tried to wave him off, but Felix caught and held her upright, looking horrified at her cauterized arm. She’d have fallen unconscious from the pain otherwise.

Felix knew nothing he could have said would’ve changed her mind. Even so, watching her endure it made him wish he’d have tried anyway. He hated to admit it, but the bleeding stopped much faster than if he’d tried to heal her out in the open.

“Right...” Kite swallowed hard as her hand lingered on Felix’s forearm. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Going so soon?”

Felix and Kite had almost crossed the threshold back into the moonlight when a mellifluous voice echoed through the archway, sending a chill down their spines.

It was only a little farther to the depot, but one after another, black-clad figures dropped from the arch into their direct path forward. A dozen, maybe more, as they lost count. Felix clutched his axe with both hands, watching their opponents grow in number with wide eyes.

We’re surrounded.

Kite was looking in the opposite direction, however, her teeth chattering.

“…Kite?!” Felix whispered.

She was staring into the darkness they had emerged from, her eyes following the trail of blood she had left to a distant silhouette. The closer it came, the heavier the air became, and the colder she felt. Felix followed Kite’s gaze at last.

“Four wasn’t enough.”

The figure spoke again with an unsettling tone, not quite masculine but not feminine either. He looked human enough that Felix could call him a man. His posture was slightly hunched, almost lazy. Only when he stepped closer did Felix realize each hand held a curved scythe low by his knees.

“I wasn’t told to expect much of a fight though.”

The stranger was unnaturally tall and thin, with pale skin and jet-black hair slicked so close to his scalp that it almost looked painted on. Black lips curled into a smile that exposed sharpened teeth filed to points.

“Who are you?!” Felix asked.

Unlike the gambeson-wearing assassins, this one had a leather halter top adorned with buckles and pockets for vials of liquids Felix didn’t recognize. Black pants and heavy-soled black boots finished the look.

“My name is Crow.”

Only then did Felix notice the enormous black sword resting across Crow’s back as he came to stand just a few paces away from him and Kite, whose eyes wavered.

“And what do you want…?” Felix asked hesitantly.

“Me? I want for nothing. I simply go where I’m told.”

“…”

“And I was told to come here and kill you, Hero.”