Rain

The next few days, we were all hard at work. Jovik rode off after the meeting, and Cassel and I had been busy in the forges and workshops. Xiulan wanted to get the shipment over to Zelle as fast as possible, and was constantly pressuring us to finish quickly.

When the cannons were finally completed, the crews attached them to draft horses, and Xiulan prepared multiple wagons for the transport of muskets and supplies. The wagon and cannons were protected on all sides by the horsemen who fought with me in the Battle of Kassora.

As we loaded on the last of the supplies, we waved off Xiulan.

“I’m exhausted!”, sighed Cassel. “We’ve been working non-stop! I’m going to get some early rest.”

I nodded. “You do that. I think I’ll go to the palace.”

As I walked back, I noticed that there was a slight drizzle.

“Hmm,” I thought. “I suppose the summer rains are here.”

Zeya and Cordelia were supposedly having a meeting, and Cassel was heading to bed. Remembering what Xiulan had said about investigating the traitor and questioning the Black Knights, I walked into the palace, and headed towards the dungeon. I knew I needed to do it when nobody else was around, as I still didn’t know who to trust, other than Xiulan.

The guard opened the door to the dungeon, and I walked inside. The Black Knights looked at me as I came in, and I turned to face the captain who had surrendered in the battle.

“You’re the captain of the Black Knights, aren’t you? What’s your name?”

“You killed the Prince, and with that, you killed our futures,” he grumbled.

I raised an eyebrow.

“My name is Damien,” he continued.

“I’m Seraphine, and I just have a few questions about Archmage Audra and Archmage Sylvanus.

Damien shook his head, and laughed. “Seraphine, Seraphine Clay, are you? Yes, Audra talked all about you. I suppose you’re asking about your boss, and you’re under the delusion that we’re going to help you?”

He spat, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me, what? You think I’m betraying the revolution?”

Damien smiled. “She was the one who arrested you, and she told us all she was going to release you from prison in exchange for a favour. I imagine this was it?”

I frowned. “What?! I escaped from prison myself! Nobody released me! I used gunpowder to blow the lock open!”

Damien squinted his eyes, and looked at me. “You actually look like you’re telling the truth… But in that case, what’s going on?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Your guess is as good as mine. Why do you think she was trying to support a revolution?”

Damien laughed. “Oh, don’t be naive. We replaced the King with the Archmages in the hopes that dividing the power of the king would prevent an issue like before, but of course everyone was always trying to outplay each other. She obviously wanted to support the Magekiller just enough so that you’d be able to kill all her opposition.”

My eyes widened. “Wait… You mean the reason she didn’t join the battle…”

Damien smiled. “Of course. She must have been hedging her bets, waiting to see if we won or lost. And now with Treysel and Alessandro dead, there’s barely anyone in the way of her claiming power.”

“Damn it!” I yelled. “That’s exactly what happened! She declared herself Queen, and offered peace with us to unite and crush Sylvanus.”

“Haha! And you turned her down, right?”

“We haven’t replied yet,” I replied. “Our ambassador is over.”

“I guess you really are screwed, then. Leyth was once in a careful balance of power, and your little rebellion came and ruined everything. Audra is going to come here and kill you all..”

“Is there any way to beat her? You must want her dead more than anything! There was a way to defeat Treysel and Alessandro, so maybe-”

“Hahaha! You’re too late, you’ve already killed all the people who can stop her! This is what you get for killing my master, you wench!”

I clenched my fist. “Damn you! Damn this!”

A small drop of water dripped from the upper floor, a sign of the rain outside. Damien smiled.

“Rain… The Hydromancer is coming.”

Irritated by the cocky Black Knight, and realising we had all played into Audra’s hands, I decided that it was probably time to call it a day. My hands were exhausted from the efforts in the workshop, and I was thinking about what Damien had said as I began to lay on my bed.

If Audra wanted to free me from prison if I hadn’t escaped… Did she find someone else to complete her plan instead?

I fell asleep, resting to the sound of the rain.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

I could barely hear the knocking over the sounds of the gushing rain outside. The rain was so heavy that water was dripping through the roof, creating a small puddle on the floor. I rubbed my eyes.

“I didn’t oversleep, did I?”

“It’s an emergency,” said Zeya from the other side of the door. “Get dressed and come to the dining room.”

I sighed, grabbing my clothes, and opening the door. Zeya’s face was surprisingly pale. She walked me over to the dining room, letter in hand. Cassel and Cordelia were already sitting down, although it didn’t seem like they were as stressed as Zeya was. I imagine they hadn’t heard what the supposed emergency was.

“I was given a message this morning,” Zeya trembled, opening a letter with the seal of the Hydromancer on it.”

She began to read.

“Dear Kassoran rebels,”

“Your demands are a ridiculous insult upon my honour. You seem to forget that I am Queen of Great Leyth. I have beheaded your little errand boy Jovik as a lesson so that you do not make such idiotic comments towards me in future.”

“I am on my way to your pathetic town, and I will kill every last one of you for daring to insult your Queen.”

“Signed, Queen Audra the First.”

“W-what?!” cried Cassel. “They killed Jovik? No, no, he was a true Kassoran! He grew up here! He suffered as a commoner in a way that none of you would understand! He suffered and toiled every day, and risked his life as a hero!”

Cassel shook his head repeatedly.

“No! He said he’d see me on the other side… But not like this! How could she kill a messenger? Zeya, you said nobles don’t do that! You don’t know anything! You’re just a hypocrite! What kind of noble fights to destroy the nobility? You must be a traitor!”

“Cassel,” replied Zeya.

“You looked down on him. But he was a hero! He taught us so much, he always had the right words for me… He was my comrade… And they killed him…”

“Cassel!” Zeya repeated. “There’s no time to cry! There’s an enemy army on its way!”

Cassel rose from his chair, and stomped towards Zeya, grabbing her collar. “What did you say?! You don’t even care, do you?! You’re just a greedy scheming noble who wanted to take as much as possible from everyone! And you’ll switch sides as soon as it’s convenient!”

“You don’t know anything about what it’s like to be common scum your whole life! To fall in love with a woman who starved over the winter because the baron taxed her family too harshly! A baron you supported, Zeya! You’re not even a human being! You know nothing of friendship, of love!”

“Cassel, that’s quite enough!” Cordelia yelled. “We’re all shocked, all of us…”

I frowned in silence. The roaring patter of the rain became the only thing we could hear.

“The rain… it just never seems to stop,” mumbled Cassel.

Cassel stormed out of the room, clearly struggling to contain his emotions. When he shut the door, we all looked at each other with worried faces.

“It’s such terrible timing that Xiulan left the town just before we got that letter,” I said. “She would have helped us defend it.”

“We have enough arquebuses to defend the city,” said Cordelia. “You’ll be perfectly able to manage by yourself.”

I frowned. “No, no I won’t.”

“What do you mean, Seraphine? We’re the magekillers! We’ve defeated two archmages, and almost all of their soldiers! We fought the impossible, and we won!

I shook my head. “Cordelia, we won’t be able to fire a single bullet.”

“Why not?” she asked with a deep concern in her voice.

I slowly walked towards the window, staring at the droplets crashing down the pane.

“Because it’s raining.”