Winds of War
Beyond the tree gates of Ran’asha, Arrazanal sat on a navy and black elk beside Kaitajinal’s violet and lavender elk. The two of them were adorned with Noszarel maroon leather armour with a variety of Nalashi daggers and shivs strapped to their belts and leggings. Kaitajinal fumbled around with his father’s whip, unsure if he could fit it comfortably on his belt.
“You should’ve gotten Noszarel plate armour; the leather is too thin,” Arr said watching him struggle.
“Absolutely not, I can barely move in this thing! How in the spirits can they fight in it?” he said finally buckling his whip on his hip.
“Don’t be jealous of their talent, Kai, it’s unattractive,” she said with a smirk.
“Why are we waiting? We should’ve arrived by now,” he said with a frown.
“Zjel said she has something for us before we go,” she said. Her ears picked up the clapping of hooves on the soil. Her little sister appeared before them on a ghostly horse, outfitted with similar armour, but she had far fewer weapons.
“Thanks for waiting, let’s go,” she said with the voice strained with excitement and hesitation.
“What in the spirits do you think you’re doing?” Arr said, furrowing her brow.
Zjel rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Absolutely not, a battlefield is not a place for a child!” Arr said, reaching into her consciousness to exaggerate her worries into fears, hoping it would compel her to stay.
“I am coming with you because you will need my help – and get out of my head, Arr, it’s not going to work!” Zjel snapped.
“We don’t have time for this, let’s just go,” Kai said before trotting down the lumpy terrain.
If you die, I’ll be furious with you. Arr transmitted as she followed Kai through the woods.
Zjelazanal scoffed and sped up on her elk, even overtaking Kaitajinal’s lead. The sun had already set on that day; it would have been a perfect night to welcome the stars. The heavens were filled with thick grey clouds that covered the skies. Upon reaching the river separating the lands, a narrow stepping-stone bridge appeared before them that lay across the body of water. Their elk struggled to find bearing on the loose rocks. The hoof of Arrazanal’s elk almost slipped into the cold water; it loudly called before she tried calming the creature into silence.
“Keep her quiet!” Kai whispered.
“I’m trying,” Arr said caressing her elk’s horns. In spite her endeavour to calm it, her elk continued to become more unnerved as they approached the muddy shore, even affecting the other elk.
“What’s wrong with them?” Zjel queried.
“It wasn’t the water that scared them,” Arr said, gripping onto her reins.
A low growl echoed through the dark trees followed by two orange eyes materialising before the three. Sheek’zeer stalked out of the branches with Larizinal on her strong back. “Can you feel that? The spirits are with us tonight,” she said.
“How did you get out here, Archdruid? I thought you’d be with your people,” Kai said.
“And leave you to fend off the hidden warriors and the Battlelord? Besides, Ran’leu people are left in good care,” she said, giving Kai a sneaky wink.
“Have you heard from any of your birds on how many hidden warriors there are?” Arr said.
“They say that there were two dozen in the meadow, including your brother and Doshsinal. The Noszarel are completely scattered, they are yet unaware of their presence. But my fears were made true when I heard the Temple is filled with injured and grieving warriors,” she said.
“Not a breath to waste then. Archdruid, Arr and I will meet with Doshsinal and his band in the meadow,” Kai said.
“And what shall I do?” Zjel said, still attempting to calm her elk from the tiger’s presence.
“I’ll need you to compel the Noszarel to evacuate the temple. Stay out of sight and as far away from there as possible, if we fail, then you might be caught in the blast.” he said.
“May the Wild Ones be with us all.” Arr said under her breath.
~
All Ezoni of Perishi Peninsula agree on the old say: ‘If the Nalashi don’t desire to be found, they won’t be; if you desire to find the Nalashi, they will find you.’ The tribe spent centuries perfecting the arts of stealth and ambush so much so that many would say that they are part panthers– and who could hope to match such expertise?
The cold winds lifted the hairs on Arrazanal’s skin as she, Larizinal and Kaitajinal rode through the meadow. Even with Larizinal’s superior psychic senses, they hadn’t sensed a single hidden warrior in miles. Doubt of their success crept in like a slow-killing disease.
The old female halted the tiger, forcing Arrazanal and Kai to do the same.
Dismount. She commanded.
Without hesitation, they immediately complied. Arrazanal held her breath. She opened her senses to the surroundings as she listened to the leaves clapping and the branches creaking in the wind. A low growl came from Sheek’zeer’s throat as Larizinal slid from her back. The tiger’s focus was transfixed on the darkest shadow before them. Arrazanal searched for Ezoni auras or emotional spikes but was met with a void that seemed to suck her psychic senses. The hidden warriors were certainly here.
Larizinal’s hands burst with a fluorescent green as did her eyes. “We’re not your enemy, it doesn’t have to end like this,” she called to the enclosing darkness.
Arrazanal’s ears picked a faint twang of a string to her side. In blinding speed, she spun around to see an arrow flying directly at her heart. Her energy burst forth from her chest and a thick green barrier enveloped her torso before the arrowhead snapped against it. The elk screamed before they galloped back to the river as more arrows flew at the group from every angle in the meadow, barely missing Sheek’zeer’s snout.
The great tiger roared louder than a hundred drums before charging into two warriors. Their reflexes were too slow for the feline. Larizinal released a beam of energy to the shadows. The darkness was lifted as a Nalashi warrior dropped to the soil with a satisfying thud.
Kaitajinal spun his whip in the air. The thick strap spun around an ankle of another warrior as his powerful arms pulled him close enough for him to put a dagger to his throat.
“Wait, don’t kill him! We need to know where the others are,” Arr said rushing over.
“Where’s everyone?” Kai hissed as he pressed into his former comrade’s neck.
“Look at you, dressed in their garb. You might as well paint your skins lavender!” the warrior snarled.
“Enough! Tell us where they are, and we’ll leave you unharmed,” Arr said leaning over him.
“I’ll speak to no traitors – the Battlelord was right about you all,” he said as he glanced towards Larizinal.
“We ate and trained together; we are of the same discipline. It’s the Battlelord who betrayed us years ago. Uphold our honour,” Kai said.
“I will.” the warrior said as he lifted a tiny vial to his lips, ready to swallow its poison.
“Nai!” Arr called. In a flash, she slapped away his hand, as she covered the warrior’s eyes with her other hand. He struggled under their hold as she wormed her psionic power into his consciousness. Images flooded her mind as the panicked warrior trembled in her grasp; she sensed his fear, his hate and his memories.
She saw a sphere of stitched thick leather rolling down the meadow by Dathazanal’s hand, while Doshsinal pointed to the high rooves of the temple beyond the trees. He commanded his loyal warriors into four parties, one each for the south, east and north to snipe for remaining Noszarel and the last one to get into the lower gardens, beside the Temple of Eternity. As Arrazanal plucked his memories, she sensed the warrior was losing consciousness. His mind was almost depleted under her interference. He stopped struggling, his limbs fell back onto the soil, and his eyes rolled in his head.
“Did you…?” Kai said as he shot a glance at her.
“Nai, he’s asleep, but I have what I need,” Arr said as she rose to her feet.
“Do you know where the rest are?” Lari said.
“Yes, and where Dath is too,” she said.
~
The Temple had appeared undisturbed when they arrived at to the forest fringe. Larizinal and Sheek’zeer were on the hunt for the remaining hidden warriors and Doshsinal, while Arrazanal and Kaitajinal were tasked with retrieving the blasting powder. Worry struck them when no patients, healers or warriors were departing the Temple gardens. On top of this, they sensed the added fear as they couldn’t sense the hidden warriors or Dathazanal.
“Zjel should’ve made them leave by now,” Kai whispered as he crouched behind a neglected green hedge beside Arr.
“Give her a little more time, she can do it,” she replied in the same tone. She sucked her breath in as a young Noszarel guard strolled by the path. She sensed his hesitation and uncertainty.
When he was at a greater distance, Kai leaned into her ear. “Can’t you compel one of the guards to begin evacuations?”
“I could, but if Dosh sees any mass evacuations, then he might detonate the powder sooner,” Arr said.
“Subtlety is a key,” he said as he poked his head out from the bushes, “guards have cleared, let's move.”
They masked before springing from the bushes. Their feet skittered soundlessly across the stone path to the nook in the Temple’s mezzanine. The building’s white walls cast a short shadow over the nook, the last place where she had seen her brother push the leather boulder. Arrazanal’s senses desperately searched for Nalashi warriors, her eyes even scanned for particularly dark shadows roaming close to the temple.
“I don’t like this; we should’ve encountered a hidden warrior by now. Unless they’re in another part of town?” she said.
“Trust me, they’re around. Come, help me search for the powder boulder,” he replied.
Arrazanal’s eyes strained across the dark nook. Her hand searched across the ground hoping to feel for a smooth, round surface. Even her third eye struggled to detect an object barren of an aura. To her dismay, the leather boulder was nowhere to be found.
Here. Kai whispered in her mind. She turned to see his muscled arm pointing to a long indentation in the grass.
“A trail?” she said looking up to him.
Kaitajinal nodded. “It was here.”
As they followed the indented land around the temple, the trail vanished before they came to the edge of the guarded entrance. They slipped behind the wall. Arrazanal noticed one of the guards lift his armoured glove to his helmet as if his head was paining.
“What’s wrong with you now?” the other warrior called.
“Like I’ve been telling you: I just have a bad feeling about this Temple, there’s a bad omen from the gods,” he replied.
“You weren’t scared yesterday,” said the other guard.
“Nai, but there’s something coming this night. I’m going to speak with the head healer,” he said before disappearing into the doorway.
“She did it,” Kai whispered.
A smile stretched across Arrazanal’s face. Zjelazanal had succeeded.
As they turned to search for the trail, Arrazanal’s foot drooped into tilled soil beside the entrance causing her to lose balance. Her cloaked self almost dropped as her head struck Kaitajinal’s chest. She sensed the remaining guard’s suspicion was roused. They jumped inside the dark mezzanine as the guard stomped around the edge. His eyes snapped to the deep footprint.
Arrazanal gripped Kaitajinal’s arm as she watched the guard kick away at the dirt until a spherical, purple and brown object was uncovered. The guard cocked his head to the side. Arrazanal’s heart sank as his foot clocked back ready to strike the leather boulder.
“Stop!” she screamed, throwing her arms out and dropping her cloak.
The warrior jumped back, but before his eyes could adjust to the darkness, a tip of an arrow burst from his neck, sending a spray of blood on the white walls. His body went limp as he dropped to the grass. Beside the garden hedge, she saw a twinkle of another arrow being pulled back. Kaitajinal yanked her out from the shadowed nook moments before the next arrow snapped against the walls.
They sprinted along the mezzanine, dodging a spray of arrows hitting the Temple. As they bound around another building edge, the ruckus caught the attention of the young guard whose face dropped in shock at the sight of them. His hand fell to the hilt of his sword, ready to unsheathe it and cut them down.
“We’re not your enemy!” Kaitajinal shouted.
Arrazanal’s ears picked up a faint crack of a whip and the whistle in the wind. She pushed her friend from the whip’s path; unfortunately, it struck the Noszarel's helm instead and sent him to the ground. A squad of three hidden warriors sprang from the gardens with their whips flying. Arrazanal threw out her hands, and a bright beam of green light burst forth from her palms, turning the whips into ash. Kaitajinal cracked his whip across the warrior’s shoulder and neck. A deep red gash appeared in their muscles as the other two continued their charge.
Arrazanal closed her palms into green fists, and with her feet firmly planted in the soil, she sent her knuckles into the nearest warrior’s jaw. However, the other leapt into her torso. Her stance collapsed under his weight before her back struck the grass. The warrior’s closed fist struck her nose with enough force to hear and feel the bone break. Blood rolled down to her lips as she tried to suck air into her lungs. The pain made her want to scream, but her opponent’s long fingers wrapped around her throat, pushing the scream down.
Arrazanal threw her hands wildly at his eyes. She channelled her energy into her fingertips and released rays of burning light into his eye sockets. A pained shout escaped from the warrior’s mouth, he immediately threw himself back and covered his destroyed eyes. Kaitajinal impaled a silver sword, taken from the unconscious Noszarel guard, into the warrior’s chest.
“Call the tiger, the leather boulder needs to be moved,” Kai said as he pulled Arr to her feet.
She wiped the stream of blood from her nose. Her thoughts were scattered as she searched for Sheek’zeer and was met with failure. Her mind’s eye flashed visualising Larizinal’s face twisted in shock and pain as a serrated whip slashed across her cheek.
“Lari!” she called as she shot past Kai and across the gardens.
“Arrazanal, stop!” Kai shouted. He lunged at her arms, but her smooth tunic made it easier for her to slip through his grasp. She sensed eyes on her; the Noszarel guards had spotted her. Even at their commands to halt – she still ran. She didn’t know where she was going, but she trusted her feet to take her to Larizinal. She ran on the roads south of the hearth of the village. Her eyes locked into several dark humanoid shapes off the path. Their movements encircled around a female whose white hair hung over her face. Several cracks of whips echoed from the tree trunks and the female wailed in agony.
Balls of green light burst from her palms. She aimed for the shadowed warriors and struck them down, instantly uplifting their cloaked forms. Larizinal sat on her shins as she lifted her head. Arrazanal saw blood dripping from her mouth.
“Get out of here, they’ll kill you,” the old female whispered.
Arrazanal rushed over to the druid. “I brought some company,” she said glancing over to the half a dozen Noszarel warriors. Their silver swords unsheathed and pointed to her throat. “Identify!” they shouted.
“We’re not your enemy! Get your people out-.” before Arr could finish, a swarm of shadows encircled the Noszarel, three hidden warriors cut through them with daggers and whips in such haste that there was no struggle.
Arrazanal rose to her feet with her arms outstretched, ready to strike, until a serrated whip slashed across both of her palms. She instantly dropped to her knees. The pain was so excruciating she was unable to scream. The blood poured from her wounds, extinguishing her power. She looked up to see a young man stride over. His face was covered by a dark violet leather helm, but it couldn’t hide her brother’s eyes.
As he raised the deadly whip in the air, Arrazanal felt no fear at the thought of her life moments away from ending. “Monster,” she spat.
Dathazanal’s eyes wavered; his whip stopped spinning in the air as he looked to Arrazanal.
“Execute them!” Dosh cried as he pulled a long, curved sword from his back. His hairless scalp and beard drifted in the wind from the shadowed trees with over a dozen hidden warriors at his back. Dathazanal ripped the helm from his head and tossed it to the grass. He looked back at the Battlelord.
“I-,” he stammered as beads of sweat swelled on his forehead.
“They’re a threat to getting our home back; your sister betrayed you and the Nalashi tribe!” Dosh said.
“We have betrayed no one, it’s you that betrayed our way of life ‘Battlelord’,” Arr said, cupping her wounds to stop the bleeding and looking around to the faces of the hidden warriors.
“Coming from someone armoured in Noszarel garb and that pendant around your neck. I wonder how long you have been conspiring with them,” Dosh said. His piercing eyes wandered to the silver on her skin.
“I’ve seen the truth, we’re the boogeymen the Noszarel see us as thanks to Doshihnal’s lust for war,” Arr said, sensing her words had struck them, including Dath, “hidden warriors took oaths to protect the balance of life, he has shown us nothing but destruction. Show him that the Archdruid and I don’t stand alone!”
Doshsinal scoffed. He pulled a thick leather strap from his chest with a large satchel hanging from the bottom, it was stained in a dark substance that seemed to ooze from the material.
“You are alone,” he said, tossing it to Arrazanal. Her heart sank in despair when she saw Sheek’zeer’s bloodied head protruding from the opening.
“They began the war, now we will finish it. The Noszarel will no longer be a threat to Perishi Peninsula once their town is razed,” he said. glancing to Dath while giving him a small nod.
Her brother’s eyes were black as if he were enchanted by some evil spell Doshsinal had placed over him, but there was no spell – it was just an old revenge. Time froze as she watched Dathazanal raise the glass whip. She would’ve imagined her life flashing past in her mind, but instead, she thought of Kaitajinal. She smiled at his memory, but at the same time she realised that he was trying to reach her.
Stay low. He whispered to her consciousness. Barely a second passed to sense there were at least three dozen Noszarel warriors chasing after him. Before Dathazanal dropped his arm, Arrazanal grabbed the scruff of Larizinal’s hair and pulled her down to the grass. The rumble of armour and war cries made her skin stiffen. She glanced up to the panicked hidden warriors, as their attention was now directed to the oncoming army. Whips cracked and swords rang all around her dazed head.
Arrazanal felt Kaitajinal’s hands slip underneath and pull her to her feet.
“You brought an army?” she said, looking into his bloodshot eyes.
Kaitajinal smirked. “It was easy once I got their attention.”
“Archers, get to the Temple!” Doshsinal shouted over the battle. Dathazanal slipped from the strife and bolted to the white building with a bow and arrow in hand. Arrazanal pulled Larizinal up, readying her to chase after him, but the old female pushed her back.
“Go,” she whispered. The druid’s eyes transformed into shining emeralds and turned to Doshsinal. Her wrinkled hands burst with energy and struck with all her fury across the Battlelord’s face, making him drop his whip. However, the warrior-leader slid his hand behind his back and pulled out a small dagger, plunging it through Larizinal’s belly.
Arrazanal didn’t get the chance to see the druid fall, but she felt the pain of death and pain release eradiate from her. This was no time to grieve, she thought. She sprinted after her brother. She watched Dathazanal skip over the Temple’s gardens, readying his bow to strike the leather boulder so close to the entrance. Energy shot through her legs, as if gifted by the spirits and combined with unnatural fury, Arrazanal dived into her brother, sending him nose-first into the soil.
She spun him over and with her closed fist she cracked against Dathazanal’s lip – splitting it in half. The next strike, equally as vicious, landed into his eye socket. Again, and again, she kept pounding into him until her knuckles turned red. Almost forgetting about the world, she kept hitting him, until a faint murmuring of voices eradiated behind her. Arrazanal’s head snapped back to see Doshsinal holding a dagger to Kaitajinal’s throat.
“Get off!” Dosh hissed.
She didn’t move. Her failed compliance drove the dagger further into his neck.
“I won’t ask a second time,” he said, making a drop of blood slide down Kai’s skin.
As she turned to Dathazanal, the bottom of his palm flashed past her eyes and struck her broken nose. Arrazanal jumped back, covering her face as her brother slithered to his feet. His hands scooped up the bow and arrow, pointing it directly to the tilled soil where the boulder was.
“Do it!” Dosh screamed.
Arrazanal called out to her brother, desperately searching through his mind trying to compel him to stop, but Dathazanal slammed the doors to his mind from her forever. “Dath…” she whispered as he released the arrow from his string, sending it flying into the leather boulder.
A bright peach light illuminated the gardens and the silver clouds. An ear-splitting boom followed by a tremble so powerful, it tore the ancient marble walls into all directions. Arrazanal’s feet left the ground before she tumbled back to the floor like a sack of stone. Her skin felt like it had melted from the unnatural flames engulfing the ruins. A hundred souls screamed as they died inside the blazing building. Her eyes squinted to the burning pit of ash and black stone where the Temple’s ageless white tree once stood. The Temple of Eternity was no more.
Her heart pounded furiously in her chest as Arrazanal tried forcing herself to stand but her attention was stolen by the sound of Kaitajinal calling her name.
“Kai!” she called, clumsily rushing to him. The dagger wound in his neck was little more than a scrape. She took his hands into hers and pulled the exhausted Nalashi warrior to his trembling feet.
His black hair clung around his sweaty forehead as his eyes tried focusing on the bright fires in the centre of the charred garden.
“Did anyone…?” he said, stretching his eyes open.
Arrazanal glanced back, her tears evaporated from the heat of the inferno as she shook her head. “We failed,” she said helplessly.
“Look,” Kai said, his eyes directed to Doshihnal’s body. He kicked him over revealing a piece of burnt marble protruding from the side of his forehead. The Battlelord’s eyes were wide, black and vacant. A piece of Arrazanal was relieved to see that image.
“I think we saved many more lives in the future,” he said.
Arrazanal carefully placed her sore hand on Kaitajinal’s shoulder. “I know he was your mentor and guardian…”
He shook his head violently as a glimmer of a tear appeared in his eye. “Nai, I knew what he was, I was just too foolish to believe-,”
A dry cough escaped from a mouth that they did not expect. Arrazanal turned to her brother’s face. His neck and chest were covered in grey ash; beside him laid their father’s serrated whip. Its glass edges had been freed from the woven leather and sat scattered around Dathazanal’s body. Rage rose inside Arrazanal’s centre as she watched her brother stagger to his feet. He stormed over with her pained fists clenched and prepared to put him back into the ground.
“Arrazanal,” he croaked, lifting his arms up trying to defend himself.
“Don’t you dare speak my name – don’t you ever speak my name, again!” she shrieked, slapping his arms out of the way.
Dathazanal lazily shoved her back. “I had to,” he whispered.
“Why, Dath? Why did you ‘have’ to?” she said as she edged toward him with her tears stinging her eyes. She wanted to push him into the hellish pit, she wanted to strike him in the head with his bow, and she wanted to do to a thousand more things to make him suffer. “Why are you like this?”
“So, they can understand what I’ve lost!” he screeched, his arm outstretched pointing behind him.
Dathazanal spun around to fiery grounds and dropped to his knees. “So, they know what I lost,” he sobbed into his hands.
A glimmer of a glass shard caught Arrazanal’s eye, without a thought, she scooped the sharp piece in her hand and stood over her brother’s hunched body. She lifted the piece over the back of his neck, it wouldn’t take much effort to plunge it in, she wanted to do it – she wanted to end his life.
Do the right thing. She heard Yasenanos’ voice whisper in her mind.
This is the right thing! Arr thought. It wouldn’t take much to push the glass through his back, he’s exhausted and weak. He has always been weak. Weak to his hatred of the Noszarel, weak to the war, weak to the Battlelord and weak to his desire for revenge. Giving mercy to that life was punishment enough.
Her chest felt as if it had sunken in, her stomach ached with sickness and her mind screamed for her to do it, but she couldn’t. Arrazanal tossed the glass shard aside and turned back to Kaitajinal. His illuminated face held a slight smile to his lips. She sensed a wave of pride and honour wash against her, cleansing her of rage and hatred.
“That was true strength, druid,” he said, gripping her shoulder.
“Arr!” A shrill voice screamed from the forest edge. Zjelazanal came bounding in, charging past the bushes and almost tripping over the roots.
Arrazanal opened her arms before her sister flew into them.
“I’m sorry, this is my fault. I tried to get them out!” she said as she glanced to Dath, “I saw the whole thing.”
“We all played a part in this tragedy, Zjel,” Arr looked back to Dathazanal’s small weeping body before returning her gaze to Kai, “it’s our time to make better choices.”
A clambering sound of metal came rushing in. The trio turned to see over a dozen Noszarel forces remaining, but they did not circle around them or had their weapons drawn.
“Our people…” said one of the silver helmed guards as he turned his glare to Arrazanal. “Arrest them!”
“Nai! We tried to get everyone out and stop them," Arr said pointing to the Battlelord’s corpse.
“Why should we believe you? This could be a Nalashi trick!” said another warrior, inching closer.
“We risked everything to save you!” Zjel shrieked through her tears.
“Look at our garbs; look at Nal’asha. You commander and our Battlelord are dead. The war is over,” Kai said.
“Our people are still missing. We demand to know where they are,” said a female warrior.
“They walked away from the Noszarel, willingly. If you doubt our words; see into our minds,” Kai said.
“Tell your leaders what happened here tonight and the Nalashi are no longer a threat – because you aren’t to us anymore,” Arr said.
The female guard shook her head as she pulled off her helmet. “It’s not going to be easy for them to understand,”
“Nothing important is ever easy,” Arr said, looking to her brother’s unmoving body for the last time before turning her gaze to Zjel and Kai, “send a hawk to Haven. Let’s go home.”
Not a single Noszarel warrior moved to stop them as they wandered back into the dark and tranquil forests of Perishi Peninsula, never to relive another war ever again.
Life has a way of repeating itself. Like a grand test to see if you can stay true to yourself and making better choices even when the odds are stacked against you. When Arrazanal’s time had come to an end, her body was battered by age, and her mind equally waned over the years. For many, it would have been a painful thought to know one’s life was ending, but I was relieved. It had been the first life that I had lived for so long and have those years to find true happiness along with my dearest friends and family. That was my reward. It was a taste of the beauty one can find in life if they are willing to search for it even in the darkest times.
As I lay there, waiting for my body to die, my Soul Guides appeared before me. Their shimmering blue forms hung around me like lanterns, ready to embrace me.
“What have you done?” one said.
“Found peace,” I said.
“What have you learned?” said the other.
“I could find it within, even when the conflict was outside,” I replied.
“Who are you now?”
“Someone who has found their place,” I said.
“Where are you going?”
“Ready to go to a new home.” I whispered.
Bellemin I’aer