Private Tales Those Fallen

[Anastasia]

"Saul!" Ana's screech betraying her location, but she didn't care.

She surged forward into the crowd, but ten feet was too far away when a mass of bodies was between you. A woman stepped forward, a familiar face pinched hard as she blocked Ana's path and let their bodies slam, breaking her momentum.

Edwin turned on a dim, shoving back bodies to draw a sword and attempt to halt the attack with a parry of his own.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul saw Edwin move before he could even turn, the bulky man shifting as his sword flickered from the scabbard at his hip and slashed across the wrist of the man who'd gone for his friend.

A brief scream echoed, but Saul barely had time to hear it.

Arrawaith and the man beside him roared, the sound of a sword being drawn ringing out just as the horse let out a loud whiny. The Commander turned on his heel, drawing the sword which he had been gripping tightly just in time to catch Arrawaith's blade. Spark's flew, holy weapon meeting it's cousin.

"Stop this!" Saul called out, but by then it was too late.

A dozen of Arrawaith's Templar sprang through the crowd, all of them with swords drawn.

Their intent was clear; hang the traitors.

 

[Anastasia]

The woman shoved Ana back, the glint of silver in her hand withdrawing bloody from Ana's mid drift. Ana looked down in no small amount of shock, her leather hide pierced by a dagger oh so similar to hers. Her mouth worked in unspoken pain, reaching for hard to grasp breaths as her eyes pulled up to the woman's with understanding.

Felecia. The woman had always been a match for her on the training field. Of course they wouldn't pit her against a long sword. She had been so focused on Saul being snuck up on she missed the obvious.

This had all been planned.

Ana keeled forward, into the woman's form, who was jostled enough by the situation to not refuse catching her as bodies pushed around them in panic. She began to lower her former comrade to the ground, then stiffened, Ana's push dagger slipping like butter through her leather and between her ribs.

The woman dropped dead under her, Ana's aim lethal. Ana went falling with her.

 

[Saul Talith]

His blade bounced once, twice, and the mounted man struck out towards him.

Fighting anyone on a horse was difficult, fighting someone like Arrawaith? Nearly impossible. The man was more than a match for Saul when it came to the blade. He had no skill in anti-magic, but he'd passed the testing for blademaster many years before Saul had even been taken in by the Templar.

His strikes were relentless, and Saul knew that if he tried to fight him the match would see him dead on the floor. Vaguely he was aware of an arrow striking someone just to the side of him, he saw Edwin clash with Arrawaith's second, but his concentration lay on the fight ahead of him.

Lips thinned, one hand slipped from his hilt. A thought rang through his mind Sorry.

The apology seemed silly, but as Saul reached out with his other hand he knew why he gave it. Magic was a thing that almost everyone had a connection to, even if you could not wield it, even if you had no nature towards, magic was still there. That was the very core of Arethil.

He knew that, Ana had taught it to him, and thus when he touched the horse...he felt a surge of energy. Not from himself, not from the creature, not really, but instead a steady pulse from the ambient magic of the world.

There was a pulse, and then suddenly something within the great beast broke.

A bestial scream reached from the steed, it shifted, bucked, and then very suddenly every vein in it's head and neck exploded. With a great cry it fell to the side, taking Arrawaith with it.

At the same moment Saul heard Edwin call, his voice bellowing to him.

"SAUL! Ana!"
​

The Commander whipped around, eyes darting through the parting and screaming crowd as he spotted her fallen upon somebody else. He cursed, and then broke into a spring.

 

[Anastasia]

Edwin covered his back, glancing around at their overwhelming numbers. A simple yell was all it took to instigate a retreat in the others, everyone understanding there was no winning this here.

Efforts were made by all parts to back each other up and dispatch of the men that pursued them. Ana herself managed to get herself too her knees, covered in blood that wasn't just her own as she reached a bloody hand out for Saul's help. Her stomach was bleeding profusely, but adrenaline kept her up, her fingers clasping his tightly as she heaved her way to her feet.

"A-a-are you okay?"

 

[Saul Talith]

"I'm fine." Saul said as he came upon her, hand wrapping around hers, sword still cradled in his palm. He glanced back for just a second, spotting Edwin taking off another man's head.

An arrow sunk into the chest of another man just ahead of him, lips thinning as he quickly flicked his sword to the side and sheathed it on his hip. He knew that they wouldn't be winning any fights here, and if they stayed the Templars that Arrawaith had brought would see them dead before the City Watch could even get there.

No, it was time to run. "Come on."

He told Ana as he slipped his other arm around her and swept her into his grasp.

"We need to go." He glanced back, seeing Arrawaith desperately try to crawl out from beneath his mount. The man was far from dead, and very likely would come back at them hard. "Edwin! Cover my back."

 

[Anastasia]

She leaned heavily on him, one hand pressed to her side and the other clutching her dagger, ready to defend them.

Edwin roared, turning on them and closing in. Several parries were made from him, attacks prevented as their leader shoved forward unarmed and vulnerable. Anastasia almost cursed herself for it, but there was little time to think outside of survival as their retreat had them spilling out into the streets and alleyways.

Some of their own fell in besides them, but others remained unaccounted for, dispersing off on safer roots as everyone attempted to reach their rendezvous of the ship without first giving away where they were going. Ana grew heavier in his arms, beginning to shake from shock.

"S-saul," she pleaded, not daring to ask for a reprieve but needing one all the same.

 

[Saul Talith]

"It's alright." Saul told her quietly, lips thinning, eyes darting about in panic as he searched for something...anything that he could use.

He could hear the thundering of his heart, could sense the adrenaline pumping in his veins. He'd never felt this way before, this panic, this flight. It was all together new, and it rankled hard in his head. Fingers tightened on Ana as she pleaded with him, his gaze cast around.

"Edwin!" He called out. "That building!"

The Commander pointed, just barely, with one hand towards a small thatched roof house.

In an instant the other Templar cut down another foe, then turned and practically sprinted towards the house. One solid kick saw the door fly open, and Saul disappeared inside of it just a second later.

As soon as they passed through the archway Edwin slammed the wooden door shut.

 

[Anastasia]

She slipped like liquid through his fingers, seeking out the ground and gasping against it.

They- their own kind- comrades-

It itself was a shock to her system, despite the months she had to prepare herself for it. She groaned as she turned herself over, pulling a shaking hand off her stomach to view the damage. "The others?" She asked first, pressing her hand back down quickly before much could be seen.

"Did we leave anyone behind?" Came the demand.

 

[Saul Talith]

"They'll be alright." Saul said as he put Ana down on a nearby table, sweeping his armored hand across it to throw a collection of plates, platters, and whatever else onto the floor. "Lay down."

He'd not seen any of their own fall, but then again there had only been five of them to begin with.

It had been foolish to bring so little, but he'd never expected Arrawaith to...he'd never...it was so foolish. The City Guard would come for them now, would come for Arrawaith and the Broken Sword because of what the man had done. Civilians had died, men and women who had no cause in this.

The fool. "Let me see your wound."

Saul was far from the best medic among them, but he had enough training to stop the bleeding at the very least.

"Edwin get something in the fire." He pointed towards one of the metal pokers standing besides the smoldering fireplace. "We'll need it."

How else would they seal the wound?

 

[Anastasia]

She cried out and fell onto her back unwillingly, abdominal muscles not engaging properly. "I'm fine," she insisted, resisting more cries of pain. "We need to find the others!"

Still, he would be able to remove her shaking hand and find no blood came squinting out, the major arteries near her navel spared by half an inch. Regardless, it was a deep wound, low enough to risk her reproduction organs but spare the vital ones. Nothing inherently fatal, if taken care of now.

She clutched at him, a sheen developing across her skin. "Saul, please, go protect the others." Genuine fear over their fates ruled her cloudy mind.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul grimaced at the wounds, trying to see just how bad it was as he clutched her hand and gently pushed her back down onto the table to make sure she didn't move. Concern crossed his face, but he tried to halt any panic that might well up in his chest from seeing her like this.

"Shh." He told her. "They'll be fine. They're better than any of Arrawaith's men and we had a plan for what to do if this happened."

That plan of course had simply been to run and get back to the ship, something that he imagined most of them would be able to pull off. He and Edwin had been the only ones wearing their full armor, even Ana had only her leathers before this started. They would be able to slip through the crowd.

He was sure of that. "Take a breath. Concentrate on yourself."

Edwin poked a heated metal rod into the fire, glancing at Saul with concern in his eyes. "I promise you they'll be okay."

His hand cupped her cheek, thumb brushing over her skin.

 

[Anastasia]

His reassurances soothed her, the woman falling back into the table and shuddering against the creeping coldness of shock.

"I should have seen that coming," she told him, squirming in attempts to keep her breath even. She knew what was coming. She tried not to think on it, rambling instead to him. "I should have expected- I was foolish, I ran right into it." She groaned, back arching. "So many dead."

 

[Saul Talith]

"It'll be alright." He told her quietly, though in truth he wasn't entirely sure that was true.

Arrawaith had been bold, more bold than Saul had ever thought he would be. The man had never really been about killing or outright combat. He was a snake, a spider that crawled around in the dark and waited to strike only when it best suited him. This was...out of character.

Saul didn't know what to make of it.

"Here."​

Edwin said as he carefully walked over to Saul holding a hot iron rod, his fingers lacing around it's cooled end as he offered it to Saul. They both knew that he was the one who needed to do this. "Deep breaths."

He told Ana quietly, taking the heated metal and folding away the pieces of her armor.

"This is going to hurt." A lot.

 

[Anastasia]

Her breath quickened, attempts made to sit up, all of which her stomach did not support. The primal panic set in then. "N-no. No!" The cries turned into a scream as her flesh melted and blood steamed.

It did not matter how many lives she had taken, how fierce a warrior the Templars had molded her into being. Ana had remained soft. In a way that only empathy and a gentle disposition could assure. The pain broke her. She fell unconscious, only to stir back awake five minutes after the trauma had passed.

 

[Saul Talith]

The wound was sealed, that much at least he was sure of. He had never really much liked doing this sort of thing, even less so when it was someone he was so close with. A part of him had wanted Edwin to do it, but he'd known that Ana would be more...well she'd rather have him.

His fingers tightened as she stirred back into consciousness, his lips thinning as he looked down at her for just a few seconds. His thumb stroked over her cheek once more, Edwin standing just behind him watching the door. "We need to get back to the ship."

Saul spoke quietly.

"They'll be waiting for us." He didn't even want to think about what the others could stir a Templar army into doing if they thought the three of them had been killed...or worse, captured.

 

[Anastasia]

Edwin grunted in acknowledgement, glancing back at them. "I've not seen anyone pass this way. Just the guards, but I doubt they'll be heading back soon." So many bodies...

"Can you walk, Ana?" He asked, his tone a touch softer with her.

"Yes," she grimaced. "I have to." They didn't want to catch attention, though the blood on their templar armor might undo that anyway. She held Saul's gaze for a moment, fear in her eyes. Not for her, but for him. She couldn't protect him from himself, never mind the whole world.

And soon, it would come down to just that.

"Help me up." She grunted, using her arm strength to try and bring her torso up.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul wrapped an arm beneath Ana's, pulling her up off the table.

His gaze dropped to the wound on her side, watching it carefully to make sure the cauterized skin didn't come apart as they moved her. He felt her weight lean against him, and slowly he tugged her onto his feet. For a brief second he considered carrying her, but he knew she'd likely reject that notion.

Lips thinning he glanced over at Edwin. "We'll need to take the back alleys to the docks."

If they knew who lived in this house he might have suggested waiting, but there was no telling when anyone would come back here and bring the City Guard with them. Better to leave and get back to the others.

"Avoid as many eyes as we can." Saul said quietly, moving himself slightly away from Ana to test if she could even stand on her own.

 

[Anastasia]

Edwin nodded again, eyes tight on them both as Ana was brought to her feet. "Follow my lead. I'll scope out ahead." He gave Saul a look that said 'carry her if you need to', more concerned over both them pulling through alive than maintaining Ana's pride. He too was eager to be sure the other three made it back okay, but like Saul he kept this concealed.

He stepped out, steps surprisingly quiet for all the armor he had on him.

Ana leaned heavily on Saul, biting back all noises of discomfort with a grimace as they pushed after Edwin.

They made their way through the city with little issue, Edwin efficient at his task of leading them through unmolested. He stopped them as they approached the docks, sticking to the shadows of a small alleyway as he scanned the open expanse of wood and fishing nets.

A familiar set of Templar, man and woman, walked slowly across the clearing, their faces pinched and searching. Someone had led them this far, though to what, they didn't seem to know.

Ana was turning dead weight in Saul's arms, a pale pallor to her skin as her eyes keep.... drooping... head jolting. She needed to lie down. But Templar stood in the way.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul frowned as the spotted the two Templar. He knew them by name, Alice and Liam. They were lackey's of Arrawaith. A few years older than Saul and his company, they were known for their staunch allegiance to the other Commander.

Liam had a habit of cruelty towards newer recruits, apparently thinking that everyone was weak. Alice...Alice was a Lieutenant, stoic in nature, but with a kind streak that she rarely showed. The woman had never been particularly evil, but her ideals were narrow, and her loyalties even more so.

She'd hated the Old Man, seeing him as stagnant. Saul had more than one argument with her over the years, but never enough to...his fingers tightened on Ana's form for a moment, then he breathed. "Edwin, take Ana."

The other man turned back to face him for half a second, opening his mouth to protest.

"Get her back to the ship. We both know you can't deal with both of them." The man's lips thinned, his eyes darting to the other two Templar for just a moment before he slowly nodded and stepped over to the pair, taking Ana into his arms.

Liam and Alice were both warriors, good ones. No skill in anti-magic, but practiced enough with a blade that they would cut down Edwin in just a few moments.

Saul? Saul had a chance. Even if it was small.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana gained clarity at the new set of arms, her head lifting to stare at Saul in confusion. Edwin wasted no time, sensing her incoming protests, and soon had swept her around a corner as her hand reached out for Saul. The fear in her eyes, the fear for him, would be the last thing he'd see as Edwin obeyed his orders.

And boy was he about to get a mouth full from her.

The two stood tensely among the main entry way to the docks, their shoulders pulled back and hands on their swords. If the traitors were stationed somewhere around here, which the two suspected they were, they intended to catch any stragglers. If just to draw from them where the others were hiding, then deal with their crimes as the law saw fit.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Alice, Liam." His voice bellowed out into the crowd loud enough to make a sleeping cat jump. There was no real emotion to it, no anger, just a simple calling of two names. The two Templar turned almost immediately towards him, Liam reaching for his Sword, Alice almost smiling.

His own hand swept to the hilt of his blade, his free palm surging slightly.

There was still blood splattered on his armor from the horse he'd killed earlier, though he was sure that some of it had come from Ana instead of the beast. Fingers twitched for a moment, but he did not move to draw his weapon. "Go back to the compound."

Liam pulled his sword from his scabbard, Alice laid a hand on her hilt.

"Go back to Arrawaith and tell him of his mi-" Saul didn't have time to finish his words, Liam letting out a road and charging at him.

Saul cursed, but he knew what he had to do. Just buy time enough for Ana and Edwin to make it through.

 

[Anastasia]

Edwin emerged from the street over, carrying Ana in his arms now as he moved with what stealth a fully armored Templar Knight could manage. A look of determination was carved into a grimace across his features, one goal in mind-- secure Ana, back up Saul.

As Saul clashed first with Liam, Edwin would be seen sliding onto the docks. In the distance, Valerie's head could be seen popping up over the deck of their newly acquired ship, sharp eyes falling right to the battle. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if a better objective would be to maintain cover, or acquire backup and kill the two on the street before they could report back.

She lowered the plank for Edwin regardless, Owinn and Leone (sp?) appearing on the deck besides her.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul was fast, he'd always been fast, but he was hardly the fastest. Ana might have been able to do this, she might have been able to do it quickly, but for Saul it was a struggle.

The two other Templar felt like a mountain weighing against him.

Their swords came again and again, their blades sliding high, then low, and then towards his middle. More than once he felt sword meet flesh where the gaps in his armor allowed it, more than once he felt his blade nearly swept from his grasp as he tried desperately to keep up his defense.

A roar echoed out from Liam, and then finally Saul saw his opening.

The man overreached, desperately trying to finish the fight with one final swing. The fool slashed towards Saul, his hand slipping slightly and giving the Commander the opening he needed.

Saul took a step back, then suddenly grasped the edge of Liam's sword. Armored hand wrapped around the steel blade, holding it, and dragging Liam forward as Saul rammed his own sword straight through the mans stomach.

 

[Anastasia]

Behind him, the squelching noise of a head leaving its body and hitting the ground rang out. Leane stood there, full shield and sword in hand as the body of Alice crumbled at her feet. She huffed a touch out of breath, sheathing her sword and going right to Saul, expecting injuries.

"We're setting sail," she murmured to him, her arm going around him to try and bringing him briskly forward. They had given up their anonymity in exchange for Saul's life, and it was an exchange they'd make time and time again. But people talked and word would get out fast. It was time to depart and set a new rendezvous with the others.