How a Handgun Works

I rubbed my finger along the trigger, and closed one eye. The guard didn't even flinch. In fact, he looked at me as if I was the odd one for seeming so calm in the situation.

"You see, Cordelia, there's a small lever where my finger is. When I pull it, there's a small explosion in the gun, which sends a small ball inside flying. It's a pretty large ball, too. Enough to pierce armour."

The guard's expression turned to rage, and he roared. "Surrender now, or I'll skewer you right here, criminal!"

Cordelia shrieked. The guardsman elegantly thrusted his spear towards me, rushing forwards to lunge at my throat. My finger clicked the trigger slightly, and there was a loud bang, and a flash of smoke.

Crumpling to the ground in pain, the guardsman dropped his spear, and cried cry out. Cordelia’s expression was one of utter shock.

“What the hell did you do to him? Are… Are you a mage?”

I began reloading my gun as I walked, turning to face her. “No time to explain that now. When the others hear him screaming, it’ll be all over for us.”

Having filled the gun with fresh bullets, I grabbed the princess’s hand again, and began running out of the dungeon tower. Unfortunately, it was contained within the walls of a small fort. Now I was surrounded on all sides by giant walls, and the gate out of the fort was teeming with guards.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

“CAPTAIN! THEY’RE RUNNING AWAY FROM THE PRISON!”, cried a voice on the walls. I desperately looked all around me, as a circle of troops began rushing in towards us. One of them was clad in blue robes, the colour of the mage nobility. An arrogant smirk was carved into his face.

“Did you really think you’d be able to escape from this prison so easily? It’s surrounded by a fortress! Nobody can get in or out without being stopped!”

I casually reached for my gun, which made the noble scoff.

“Are you the one who tried to play hero in the Colosseum when a mage self-destructed? How pathetic.”

Cordelia looked at me with confusion on her face, which made sense, because I also had a lot of confusion on my face.

“Self destructed?”

“Are you a fool? There’s no way a mage could be hurt by a mere commoner, much less a vile foreigner. Our magic shields us from swords and arrows of all kinds, there’s no way we could be killed in a fair fight!”

Cordelia turned to face me as the nobleman continued his rant.

“That’s why common filth like you sneak up on us, trick us, and attack us when we’re not looking!”

“First of all,” I said, “The lady here is a princess, not a commoner. Second of all, if you feel so confident you can take me in a fight, why don’t we have one right now?”

“PAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The mage noble burst into fits of laughter, and his spearmen soon followed suit. Of course, I couldn’t blame them. The mages of Great Leyth had practically been untouchable in combat by their own people for centuries. It was why they hunted commoners for sport. It was why they lived in palaces whilst the commoners languished in the fields.

It was not a laughing matter… My heart ached for the people of the Colosseum, and I replied with a yell so loud that Cordelia trembled.

“How dare you laugh at me! Are you a coward? Are you an idiot! Fight me right here, right now, one on one! I’ll crush you where you stand!”

“Silence, foreigner!”, the noble snarled. “If you wish to die, then be my guest!”

The mage began moving his hands in incomprehensible positions. He muttered a spell, and a large magical barrier appeared in front of him. He began conjuring a fireball, but seconds before he could even speak, I pulled the trigger of the gun.

It hit the magical barrier…

…and pierced it with ease.

The mage gripped his chest as a cloud of smoke rose from my gun. Blood gushed from his wound, and he fell to his knees. The guards around him were silent, and Cordelia gripped onto my arm.

“What… what… what sort of…”

The nobleman slumped to the ground, as the guards around him panicked and crouched around him. Their eyes were full of sheer dread. A mage was supposed to be untouchable by any weapon!

“Listen up,” I yelled to the captain. “I shot you non-lethally in the shoulder. But with the flick of a finger, I could kill you on the spot. I could kill any one of your guards. Do you understand? I can do this an unlimited amount of times, on all of you, in a second!”

It was a bluff, but it was a convincing one. There was no way anybody in the fort understood what ammunition my weapon had. The noble was horrified, and I could even see beads of tears in his eyes.

“I… I… don’t kill me…”

“Then let us both out of here, and don’t pursue us! Tell your guards to open the gate,” I replied.

One of the guards turned to his captain. “But sir! If the princess escapes, it threatens a civil war! A revolution! Please, if we give our lives here, we could save the nation…”

“I don’t want to die! I shouldn’t be risking my life over a commoner! Just… let her go… and get me a healer!”

The guards looked at each other briefly, before one ran deeper into the fortress. Some of the others approached me and Cordelia.

“Very well. We’ll let you out. But don’t think you’re getting away with this.”

I reloaded the gun, preparing to use it at a moment's notice if one of the guards attacked us. But they seemed far too scared to. One thing that was patently clear to me is that whilst the mages could control most of the elements, I had hit them with the element of surprise, which seemed far more lethal.

I would need to come up with a plan once I was out of here.

The gates were opened for us, and we walked out. I looked behind me anxiously.

Were they going to follow us?

I had no doubt they were going to eventually send out riders to all the nearby towns with the news, but I imagine no horsemen would be brave enough to approach us whilst I was near.

That gave us a bit of time on the road, at least.

I turned to Cordelia. “We’re going to need to stop at the closest town we can. I figure they’re going to send out messengers once we’re out of their sight, so we’ll need to find a place to settle ourselves. I’m not sure how wanted we’ll be, but-”

“Just stop it!” Cordelia yelled at me, and I was somewhat taken aback.

“What? Why?”

“You took eleven years to get me! You took all this time to break me out… And then you hardly even address me with respect! I’m your princess! I-”

Cordelia began to cry softly, as tears dripped from her eyes. I placed my arms around her in a hug, squeezing her softly.

“I’m not from around here, and I wasn’t sent to save you… But I want to help you anyway. Please, don’t cry. We’ll be alright when we get to town.”

I felt incredibly awkward trying to make people feel better when they were crying. Still, my heart ached upon seeing her tears, so I patted her back as I hugged her.

She sniffled. “But if you’re not from here, why did you save me? I thought you must have been paid to break me out… Why else would you do all that for me?”

I smiled at her. “ Because you didn’t deserve to be in there, that’s all. In fact, most people in this country don’t deserve to be treated the way they are. And that’s why I need to help them.”

“You want to restore my rightful throne?”

I bit my tongue. I came from a distant republic called Caluzza, and I wasn’t fond of royalty at all… But I didn’t want to make her cry. More importantly, the people of Leyth needed a figure they could rally behind if they were to revolt.

“We don’t need to worry about that now,” I explained. Once we’re in town, we can start planning things out.”

She nodded and smiled. “Alright. Let’s make our way over then.”

The road to the town of Kassora was relatively empty, although every time we bumped into a traveller, I couldn’t help but panic a little. It was hard to tell when the nobility would spread the news to us.

We picked up our pace, and finally arrived at the town. The guards at the entrance fortunately didn’t seem to mind us. I suppose we hadn’t seen any messengers on the trail, and if there were any, we clearly got a headstart.

“We need to find a place to stay,” I explained. “It’s going to get dark soon, and I’m not sure how safe it is here.”

In the corner of my eyes, there was a small commotion at the front of the town. A man on a large, black horse was talking to the guard at the gate. I remembered seeing similar horsemen at the fortress, and realised that life was going to become far more difficult for us.

“Follow me,” I said, walking behind one of the houses near the gate so that we could inspect the ongoings without being seen. Finally, I was able to hear the discussion between the guards. The horseman spoke with a booming voice.

“There’s two fugitives who broke out from the prison… One of them is believed to be the crown princess, and the other…”

“The other?”

“A purple-haired Magekiller. We’ve never seen it before, but… She was able to kill two nobles, just like that! We need to find her. Whoever finds her will be granted a fortune beyond their wildest dreams, and a magical education!”

With these words, the eyes of the guards grew large. “Is that true?”

“It came from the fortress itself. Spread the word!”

The guard on the gate smiled. “Well then. With a reward like that, I’m sure everybody will want to take part!”

The guards dispersed, yelling the news down the street. As they got closer and closer, I took a brief glance at Cordelia.

She looked up at me with anxious eyes. “Are we going to be okay?”

I couldn’t bring myself to respond.