Chronicles of Metal: Chapter 13 – Inhuman

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Beard was at a loss. She couldn't have just said what he thought she said, could she? Destroy her country? Seriously? Had he not been trying to compose himself and withhold a reaction, his jaw might've hit the floor. What the hell had he stepped into here?

"You seem confused." Astra giggled to herself, but leaned back and clasped her hands behind her back. "I must sound like some sort of lunatic to you, don't I?"

The way see seemed to be ahead of everything was a little off-putting. But at the same time it made her easy to talk to. "Hey, if you think anarchy will work. All the power to ya." Trying to be as reserved as he could, Beard nodded towards the main door. "Your dearly devoted husband sure as hell makes a good case for it."

Astra chuckled again. "Devoted, is not the word I'd use." Beard felt himself smirk involuntarily. Despite keeping his guard up, this chick was starting to grow on him. "Ours was a political marriage. The Durns Family wanted a closer tie to the Lazuli Royal family. And I, being one of the king's daughters, was offered to them."

This chick was a princess? A princess to the royal family? That certainly changed things. "Well, your highness..." Astra narrowed her eyes as he gave a slight bow. "Is it revenge or something? They stuck you with that guy, so you want to burn it all down?"

Her smile grew, but Astra shook her head. "My wish far predates him."

What she did next caught Beard completely off guard. She began undoing the buttons of her gown, starting at the stomach. "Whoa... Slow down there, chef..." Beard looked away, not sure exactly what she was doing. After a few seconds of her not saying anything, he looked back. Just her stomach was exposed, but that's not what caught his eye.

Emblazoned across her midsection was a red rune. It sort-of looked like an upside-down arrowhead, but accompanied by more lines and details that made that description fall short. "This curse mark was put on me seconds after my birth by my father; the King of the Lazuli kingdom." She explained. "When I die, my soul goes back to him, and he will use it to prolong his lifespan."

Beard found that strikingly familiar. There was an item like that in YGGDRASIL. A very powerful item. It'd put a curse mark on some thing, and when that something died, you absorbed its health and experience points. More worryingly, while he couldn't remember its name, he knew it was a World Item. Like the Ebony Astrodial from the Church of Metal. One of a kind. That description was way to similar to be just a coincidence, and the thought that such items where in this world as well brought a whole new flood of concerns.

"But... I don't want to die." Astra speaking up again broke his train of thought. She began buttoning up, her small smile ever persisting. "The king has had hundreds of sons and daughters over his four-hundred-year reign. And I refuse to be just another child he had to step over along the way."

This was all becoming too much to take in. An hour ago, he was at his guild debating what to do about the burning city in the distance. Now... Things were moving along way too fast for his liking. "So, what do you need from me?" He asked, the cold night air blowing through the broken bay window as he spoke.

He expected this question to throw her off, but by the time he said it he couldn't fathom why. True to form however, Astra just tilted her head as she spoke. "I was hoping we could form an alliance." Again, Beard didn't know what he was expecting, but that wasn't it. "But first, I need to look after my people. Tyr?"

So fixated on Astra and her out-of-left-field proposal was he, that Beard didn't even notice someone else was present. He made her out the moment she moved, bounding through the main door to land crouched at Astra's side. The new arrival kept her eyes on Beard, her hand gripped around a short sword belted to the flat of her back. It was nice to see that at lease she was weary of him.

"Yes, my lady?" She spoke through gritted teeth.

"Were you able to locate the women my husband tried to have abducted?" Astra asked, finally breaking eye contact with Beard.

The woman, Tyr, slowly shook her head. "No, my lady. I couldn't find them in time. But three carnages exited the east gate just as the fires began to spread."

"They set the fires to escape..." Astra muttered to herself, her smile shrinking ever so slightly. "How very irritating." Beard doubted she knew what that word meant. With that smile she wore, it looked like nothing could faze her. "And there still horses in the stables? Could we pursue them?"

Again, Tyr spoke through gritted teeth. "All dead, Lady Astra... They butchered them before they left. But even if they weren't, a majority of the town guard is either dead or was working with the Viscount. We have no standing force to mount a rescue."

In that moment, Beard felt a buzz in the air. "Master...?"

Beard stood to attention, looking around the room for the familiar voice. "Isab-?" He stopped himself, realising this was a message spell when the women gave him a confused look. "Where have you been?"

There was a slight pause before an answer came. "I found them."

"Found them?" Beard repeated, clueless as to what she was talking about.

"Is everything alright, Sir?" Astra asked, tilting her head again.

"Y-yeah, just... Give me a second." He said, half turning away from her. Message spells worked like a phone call, they could only year his half of the conversation. "What do you mean you found them?"

"Exactly as it sounds." Said Isabella, standing atop a small bridge in the center of a forest. She had two fingers touched to her temples, watching as a small caravan approached her. "I found them... Master."

She dismissed the spell with a wave of her hand, waiting for the carts to approach. They stopped a good hundred feet away, the guards driving them where obviously rattled by something. And by the looks of it, it wasn't her. A collection of soft sobs emanated from their carts, and a confident smile grew across the maid's face.

A handful of men gathered between the bridge and the carts; weapons already drawn. The one who'd been driving the first cart approached first. "I don't know what the hell you're doing here. But get the hell out of the way, servant." Isabella's brow twitched, but she remained composed. She also remained in place, drawing the guard's ire. "I'm warning you. I'm not in the mood for this."

"Oh?" She said, gently tilting her head. "And what are you in the mood for?"

Her jab was the last straw. The man lifted his sword over his head and charged. Before as he could so much as step food on the bridge, Isabella reached behind her apron faster than lightning and tossed a small knife. It hit him square in the chest, puncturing straight through his armor, and he burst into flames. He stumbled screaming onto the bridge, where Isabella plucked the knife from his chest as she walked past. A second later, a charred skeleton clad in glowing hot armor fell into the shallow stream below with an abrupt hiss.

"Not that, I suppose." She mused, tossing her knife to her other hand, where the blade extended to the length of a sword. "Anyone else?"

Just as she expected, the next guard charged her. She stepped back, avoiding a decapitating axe swing, and delivered two quick slashes of her own. One at his stomach just below the chest plate, the other at his throat. Both times, ice erupted from the wound as blade passed, and when he fell, he shattered into pieces. Another guard stepped around one of the carriages, and she flung another knife at him. He caught it with a small buckler, but the instant he did a vicious wind blew up, sending him crashing through the trees at lethal speed.

Isabella picked the knife out of the grass, and it too extended to the length of a sword. She turned, looking for her next challenger, only for an arrow hit her square in the stomach. Instantly, everything slowed to a crawl. The tips of her swords dipped to touch the ground and she slowly doubled over. She looked up to see a very surprised archer with a bow in hand, and two more nocking another arrow. These two hit her as well, one skewering her right shoulder and the other striking her square in the chest.

"I got her!" One of them shouted, drawing another arrow. "Finish her off!"

"Hey!" Beard urged, trying ot get a response out of her. "Isa... Damn it... Bella, talk ot me! What are you doing out there?"

He thought about it a moment, realising there was likely only one thing she could be referring too. Had she really tracked down the missing girls all on her own? That'd take some almost scary foresight on her part. Then again, he'd done a fairly poor job of judging her character so far. Maybe this was just completely normal for her and he wasn't expecting it.

"So..." He muttered, looking at the two women eyeing him. "A companion of mine just tracked down your missing girls." Even as he said it, he found it hard to believe. All the same, he pressed on. "They'll probably be back by sunrise."

Astra and Tyr exchanged a glance, but Tyr was hardly convinced. "You can't be serious." She hissed, raising to her feet. "I saw over a dozen guards riding out. All of them fully armed. A single person can't overcome odds like that."

Beard wanted to answer, but he couldn't exactly blame her for thinking that. Even back in YGGDRASIL, she'd be absolutely right. Twelve-to-one where hard odds to beat. There was one thing about Isabella that made her stand out though, that made her the acceptation to that rule. "Look... I know how it sounds, but they can't kill her. No chance."

Tyr looked like she was going to argue, but Astra silenced her with a hand on her shoulder. "How can you be so sure?" She tilter her head slightly, stepping in front of Tyr to keep her from interjecting. "Is she the same as you?" Shit, that's right. She'd seen his monster form. That only made it all the more confusing though, that she was keeping it a secret from her bodyguard. "She is..." She glanced off and twirled her hands, looking for the right words. "More than she appears?"

It took everything Beard had not to laugh. Not because she was wrong, but because she right on the money. "You could say that." He said with a small shrug. Off all the people and NCP's from the Church of Metal, none where human. Despite how they looked, none where truly human. There was something about playing a game as a human that was just plane boring. Isabella may have looked the part, but she was just as inhuman as the rest of them. As Astra and Tyr waited for answer, he finally let out a quick chuckle. "They can't kill her, because she's an immortal."

The moment she'd been dragged away from her restaurant, Aki wrists had been placed in wooden stocks and she'd been pulled inside one of the guard's carriages. Inside, a chain was clipped to her cuffs, linking her to the woman next to her. A minute later another woman was thrown into the cart, similarly locked onto her other side. Twenty minutes later, she and the others where sitting elbow to elbow, and they where being carted out of the city. Some cried for help, others tucked into a ball and quietly sobbed. Aki tested her restraints, trying to twist her wrists in way that'd let her slip the cuffs or pull the chain free from it's anchor, but both actions proved useless. As the smell of the burning gatehouse faded and they set out into the night, the overwhelming dread of her situation began to settle in.

The guards had called them merchandise on more than one occasion, and the word hung over them all like a storm cloud. Where they actually being enslaved? Carted off to be sold to whomever for... Aki stopped herself from finishing that thought, but the fact that they where all women gave her little doubt as to what their roll would be. None of them talked at all, but Aki was sure the thought was on everyone else's mind as well.

Almost an hour into their trip, the carriage came to an abrupt halt and the men outside began to disembark. That couldn't be right. It took at least three hours to get to the next town over, and it was just a small fishing village. The next thing she knew, she heard metal clanging on metal, screaming and yelling. The sounds of something shattering and the roars of fire. She couldn't make sense of it, but not even a minute had passed before everything stopped abruptly.

"I got her!" Shouted one of the guards. "Finish her off!" The carriage didn't have any windows, only a small barred slit near the roof. Aki tried to stand up to see what was going on outside, but the chain drew taught before she could.

Before she sat down though, the sounds resumed, this time one hundred ties more intense. Clashing metal. Screaming. Yelling. It sounded like there was a full-on war going on outside. Something hit the side of the carriage a few seconds in, causing them all to yelp in fright. Aki saw a splatter of blood through the tiny gap in the roof, and just as quickly as it had started, everything fell silent again.

Aki's heart was thumping in her chest, but none of them so much as dared to move. Suddenly the carriage door at the back began to jostle, and they all crowded by the opposite end. Nobody knew what to expect, so when the door slowly cracked open and a heavy keyring was tossed inside, nobody knew what to do. They spent almost a full minute staring at them before one of the women siting closest to the door dared to reach out and take them.

From there, they began to unlock their restraints and cautiously ventured outside. There where two other carriages just like the one they'd been locked in, all with a row of relieved but very confused women making their escape as well. A few of them looked ahead of the caravan, finding the bodies of their captors littered about the ground. The perpetrator was nowhere in sight, but nobody wanted to stick around to wait for them. Nobody wanted to use the carriages either. No-one said it, but it was clearly on all their minds. Soon enough, they all began walking back down the path towards Hashigin.

The dawning sun met them when they made it to the edge of the forest, and Aki took a quick look around. Though she didn't know most of their names, she knew who they where. The blacksmith’' apprentice, the farmer from out of town, two of the tailer's three daughters. Even that maid that'd visited their restaurant a few days ago. The only ones she didn't see where Aoi or Hazel. That may have been a good thing, but the thought of not knowing where they where made her stomach turn.

They returned to the city as the gatehouse was still smoldering. A crowd of people was waiting for them, and one by one the woman ran crying back to their loved owns. "Aki!" Her attention flew to the crowd, seeing Aoi and Hazel, as they practically tackled her to the ground in a big hug. Both where already crying, and it wasn't long before Aki joined them.

"I thought I lost you..." Aoi muttered, pulling her head to rest on her shoulder. Hazel looked up and blubbered something incoherent, but it was clear she was glad to see her too.

"Y-yeah… Me too." Aki hugged the two back, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "I hope I didn't worry ya too much."

Aoi leaned back, wiping her eyes dry. Strangely though, she wore her usual big smile. "Nope. I knew you'd be ok." Aki furrowed her brow, but Aoi glanced off downriver and pulled her in for a big hug once more. "Just shut up and let me have this one, would you?"

If she was joking, it was hard to tell. At the same time though, it warmed her heart just to see her family again. "Yeah..." She nodded, resting her chin on her sister's shoulder once more. "I can do that..." She wasn't in the mood to argue. She was back with her family. After everything that had happened tonight, she couldn't ask for more.

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