I Have No Son

Panic broke out in the ballroom and people began running outside. Some armed soldiers came running inside.

“This is a royal investigation!” Valeria yelled from somewhere.” Do not get involved!”

“What is going on here?” the cat mask wondered and looked at Kieran’s blade.

Three more owl masked individuals came to the cat faced side.

“You’re going to pay for your crimes, Nora.” Kieran growled and pulled his sword back.

The one with Kieran’s face did the same.

“Will I now? Interesting… you broke the chains somehow, I take it?”, the cat mask asked.

“I did,” Kieran replied.

“Interesting… but that doesn’t matter to me anymore… I don’t need you anymore…”

The cat mask turned towards the owl masked individuals.

“Deal with him and any that came here tonight to attack me… I’ll be leaving for my castle… I’ve grown tired of this… party…”

The owl masked individuals nodded. The cat mask took a step backwards.

“You’re not getting anywhere!” Kieran bellowed and swung his sword again.

Clank

It was again blocked the one looking like him.

“Would you play with me for a bit, Father? I was so looking forward to this!” he said.

The cat masked gestured with her hands and a oval portal appeared next to her.

“I have no son! Get out of the way!” Kieran yelled and tried to go past his adversary to catch the cat mask before she went through the portal.

“Rude…” his supposed son said and swung his sword at his distracted father.

Clink

Sophia has lunged forward and blocked the attack on Kieran with her own sword. The cat mask had in the meantime stepped through the portal and vanished.

“Shit, she got away.” Kieran said

“We’ll deal with that later, first the problem in front of us.” Sophia said and swung at Kieran’s son.

Clink Clink

“Woah, pretty lady, you know how to handle a sword… maybe I’ll play with you too… would you mind telling me who you are, beautiful?” he said arrogantly.

Sophia pulled her mask off.

“That’s not a way to talk to your stepmother you brat.” Sophia reprimanded him.

The Kieran lookalike was thrown off by that comment so much, that he nearly failed dodging the real Kieran’s swing from the side.

“I’ll take that one. You take one of the others.” Kieran said to Sophia.

She nodded and engaged one of the other ones with a owl’s mask. Bastian had come out of nowhere and already fought a third one. Three crows kept the fourth one busy, while Aduin danced elegantly around the fifth one, slashing at him with a small knife. One of Valeria’s arrows flew past Sophia and targeted the one she was engaging. Her adversary dodged it but got slashed instead by Sophia’s blade.

Kieran circled around his supposed son.

“Finally, we can have a father-son heart-to-heart. I was looking forward to this. Mother has told me a lot about you… and I’m anxious to find out who of us both is better than the other.”

“Don’t get your hopes up… I’m not in the mood for lengthy discussions… so I’m gonna make this quick.” Kieran said menacingly.

“Try me.”

Kieran lunged forward with a quick slash. It was parried and countered. They went into a frenzy of blows, cuts and slashes. Kieran had to admit that his adversary was physically close to his level, but he lacked experience. Kieran could easily read his moves. His adversary activated his teleportation inscription and vanished through a portal, only to pop back up behind him for an attack. Kieran knew this trick, since he used it for forever and it was easy for him to sense the magical energy. It even felt much easier since all that went with Sophia and this new bond between them happened. He had the feeling that some of his abilities got even stronger because of it. Kieran quickly turned around and slashed where the portal would appear and he was right on the spot. His sword cut through the collar bone of his adversary, and he plummeted out of his portal, screaming in pain. Kieran saw the wound slowly beginning to heal.

“So, you can do that as well… huh…” Kieran said.

“I’m like you father.” His adversary countered.

Luckly Kieran knew a kind of wound that the regeneration ability could not handle. He swung at the half-downed target. Who tried to parry with his sword, but Kieran changed the course of his weapon slightly and cut through the hand. Blade and attached body part dropped to the ground, but Kieran had already swung his next attack before they hit the ground. His next attack target was the neck. It was a bizarre view to see a head with a face that nearly looked exactly like oneself, slowly slip the side and separate itself from the body.

“I have no son…” Kieran uttered as the body of his adversary fell to the ground.

He looked around and found that the others had slain their opponents as well.

“Kieran! Come here look at this!” Sophia yelled.

Kieran rushed to her side, and she pointed at the face of her opponent that was lying on the floor, dead. He too had a very similar face to him, only with slight differences.

“OI, Kieran, this one looks exactly like you!” Valeria yelled after pulling the mask of another dead opponent.

It turned out every one under the owl masks looked more or less like Kieran, only with slight differences.

“What does that mean?” Bastian wondered.

“I have no idea… and frankly… I don’t really want to know the answer to that I think…” Kieran answered.

“Well, we don’t get any answers here… what do we do now? Our target slipped away, Any one a clue to where?” Valeria asked.

“Her castle…”

“Do you know how to get there?”

“Yes… but it will take us three days from here…”

“That’s not going to work… Any better ideas anyone?”

“Maybe…” Sophia spoke up. “But it’s risky.”

“I think we all shown that we like to take a bit of risk sometimes.” Bastian said.

Sophia came closer to Kieran.

“Can you teleport to her castle?” she asked.

“Yeah… but only myself,” Kieran answered.

“That’s good enough, do it when I tell you. Everybody else gather around!”

“What are you planning?”

“Just trust me.”

“Okay.”

Everyone gathered around her and Kieran. Sophia began chanting a spell. Kieran could feel how some of his magic energy got sucked away from him.

“Now!” Sophia said.

Kieran activated the teleportation inscription and all of them vanished into thin air.