YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY I got a chapter done. : P Credit goes to Thari for helping me with the battle, not by telling me what to write, but by telling me what to think about in regards to what happens in battles. : )

New cameos! Kaisten, (c) Kaist, and Kip, (c) Wren!

Not much to say? Having the best break ever, except that means I’m running out of news. Also apparently we DO have Skyward Sword, although I’m still tempted to buy it for the soundtrack CD, because otherwise I will have to wait several months before I hear it.

Also melted chocolate is just as delicious as unmelted chocolate. Particularly if it’s Belgian.

Also we have a foot of snow! Yay!

(Chapter 11)

Chapter 12

“How do you do it?” were the bitter words she was greeted with when she came back to her apartment. She still felt a little shaken by the afternoon, but composed, and very overwhelmed: Jaye had tried to go slowly, and she grasped the basics of locations, but everything else was all over her head.
“How do I do what?” she asked the glowering shapeshifter seated in the armchair by the window. He was in a different elven appearance, now, but she recognized the voice. “Why are you-“ she was going to ask why he was angry, but then she realized he had many things to be angry about.
“You look the same as ever. Has four months really affected you so little? No, I see the haunted look in your eyes. You carry the emotional scars. But how can you hide it so easily? How can you recover so quickly?”
“I’m a simple person,” she said, smiling a little, “as well you know. As well you’ve taunted me for it. It’s all right. Here, I feel safe. I can expand back into myself again. It’s all right.”
“No! It’s not all right!” He swung himself out of his chair and came to tower over her. She stood her ground, looking up at him. He couldn’t hurt her here. Even if they were alone, she was still in control, this time. Perhaps that was one thing he was angry about.
“It’s not all right,” he said more softly. “How many times will you give me second chances? How many times will you trust me not to kill you? Not to mention everyone here?”
She shivered a little. “I don’t know. I will always trust you with myself. I still have a point to prove, and you failed to prove yours.”
He stopped and looked at her. “You’re unusually direct today.”
She looked confused. “I… yes? I’m… Oh, Michael, even if I survived Harken Keep, even if I can retain my optimism and innocence, I’m in over my head… and they won’t let me out.”
“What can they do to stop you?”
She went and sat in the other chair by the window, curled up with her arms around her knees. The flared sleeves of her robe were pushed up to her elbows, revealing some of her scars. “They are good people. That’s all they have to do to stop me. I want to help them. Even if I have no idea how to.”
He snorted, taking the other chair again. “That’s stupid. After all that talk you gave me about free will that one time, and you’re completely blocked because they’re ‘good’. And them forcing you into something you aren’t.”
She gave him a little smile. “But it’s different. We have… unwritten rules here, too, and naive idiots like me will follow them to the letter. It’s like how Lusiel took us both. He didn’t have to take you. But he wanted to help me, and since I didn’t want you hurt…”
Michael grunted noncommittally.
“So what is your problem?” he asked after a while. “Since I’m your prisoner as you were mine, I should probably know.”
“They’ve put me in charge of the castle. They think I’m their heroine, their saviour. Jaye is teaching me strategy, but I… I just don’t understand. I can’t imagine armies fighting…”
“Heh. I can imagine armies fighting easily. Part of my education.”
“Ah. Maybe you can help me?”
He frowned at her. “You’re not afraid I’ll mislead you?”
“Not after you just warned me,” she said, smiling sweetly. “Maybe you’re only biding your time until you can do the most damage here. But maybe… you do want me to live.”
He stared at her with unreadable eyes.

So she took him with her the next day to the commander’s office. Marcus had not been found, and no one knew where he had gone, so Lusiel had appropriated the office and all its contents and was sorting through everything for Illinia.
He looked up as they came in. “Oh, hi, Illinia! Is that Michael? He looks different today.”
Michael shrugged, completely different than the day before. “Have to do something to keep myself amused.”
“You here to help out?”
“Yes, he says he understand strategy, and I really don’t… so…” Illinia shrugged helplessly. “I trust him. He keeps telling me not to, but… you understand, don’t you?”
“I do,” Lusiel said seriously. “And I will tell you one reason why, later. But for now, let’s get started, shall we?”
“You still don’t have any news of Marcus?” Illinia asked.
“No… Don’t worry, he won’t touch you again. But… I just don’t understand… I never knew him to be capable of what Jaye described. I am sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry… I’m sorry that you are hurt over his… ah… betrayal?”
“Can we get to the point,” Michael grumbled. “Here. A map of where we are?”
“Yes, I understood this much, at least,” Illinia said. She gave a clear accounting of armies and forces and terrain.
Michael nodded in approval. “Assuming your information is correct, I would say you are right.”
“But I don’t know what to do with that knowledge!” she wailed. “I-I… My husband would know, probably… I would just say let’s attack this place! Except that I really don’t like saying that…”
“Get over it,” Michael told her. “Just because you don’t want blood on your hands doesn’t mean your enemies care. You…” He trailed off, readjusting what he was going to say, and when he spoke again, his voice was more gentle. “…Sometimes you have to destroy your enemies before they destroy you. You can’t save them.”
“I know,” she said softly. “Orcs hate us with an undying hatred. But somehow I don’t even hate them anymore.”
“Illinia,” said Lusiel, who had been watching the entire exchange with great interest, “is it not because, having died, you recognize how precious life is, even to the most hate-filled of creatures?”
“Yes!” she said eagerly. “That is exactly it. And Michael is not filled with hate.”
“Want to bet on that?” the man in question asked, with that inhuman leer.
“Certainly,” she said cheerfully. “I always have been. But we will debate that later.”
“So what were you saying about attacking this place? Here?” Lusiel asked.
“Ah… well, I don’t know! It just looks close.”
“Well,” said Lusiel, and began to explain what kind of forces they had, and what kind the enemy had, and his thoughts on attacking the place. After a while, Michael, who seemed to be able to understand much better than she did, joined in trying to help her understand. After uncertainly considering that stronghold for a long time, she asked about others, and Lusiel patiently began to explain all over again about others.
She wanted to just ask again why she had to be the one to lead them strategically, but she had pledged her help and she didn’t want to complain any more.
Someone knocked urgently on the door, and Lusiel looked up from the map. “Come in!”
The door was hesitantly pushed open, and Illinia caught sight of frightened wide eyes and… feathers?
“Lord Lusiel! W-we are about to be attacked!” A rather small man with large black wings poked his head in cautiously.
“Where? From who, Kaisten?”
“Drow, from the south-east! About two thousand! Heavily armoured, with cruel swords and spears. They made a long detour to the north, but they will be here in an hour. I saw them while on patrol.”
“Not too many bows?” asked Lusiel. “Oh, I should introduce you. Illinia, this is Kaisten, one of our best scouts and resident bird-man. Kai, this is Illinia, our new leader! She’s replaced Marcus.”
“Oooh,” Kaisten said, wings shifting nervously. “I am very pleased to meet you, Lady Illinia.”
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” she answered shyly.
“Right! Well, let’s get ready for them!” Lusiel cried. “Illinia, Michael, if you would assist me… Michael, will you be fighting with us?”
Michael shrugged. “I suppose it would be amusing.” But his eyes drifted to Illinia with… concern, perhaps?
“Would you fight beside me?” she invited him, and he seemed to relax a little.
“Yes, I’d rather fight beside you than anyone else here,” he grumbled, and she smiled.
“What weapons do you need?” Lusiel asked, poised to run.
“Bow for me, and-“
“Halberd,” grunted Michael.
“Gotcha,” Lusiel called, already half out of the room. “Meet me in the main hall! Kaisten, with me!”
“Ah, I remember where that is…” Illinia said to herself, happy for her explorings the day before.
“I do not, so I will follow you.”
By the time they got to the hall, Lusiel had also just arrived, still breathing easily, from the other side. A new man was hurrying to meet him, an elf, with strange hair that was black at the roots and white at the tips, wearing an eyepatch, and dressed in black leather with a purple sash. They began talking very quickly about troop locations and strategy… Illinia tried to make sense of what she heard, but it was very hard, even with all the information she had been given. It was too abstract for her!
She hurried up to Lusiel, who handed her a longbow with a dip of his head, and a rather large halberd to Michael. The shapeshifter seemed to stand a little taller with the weapon in his hands, dark eyes glinting in the misty light of the hall.
“Oh, one moment,” Lusiel interrupted the man’s anxious report. “Illinia, Michael, this is Kipkina Tu, one of our best mages. Kip, this is Illinia, our leader, and Michael, her bodyguard. That’s what you are, effectively, yes? Yes.”
“Enchanted, my lady,” Kip said, with a low bow. Suddenly the eyepatch didn’t seem as threatening as before.
“Now, you’re both new here, so you can’t be expected to know the layout or the defensibility very well, so if it’s all right with you, we’re going to station you over the main gate.”
“L-Lusiel,” Illinia whispered, voice shaking, “I don’t want to let you down, but I…”
“It’s all right. You won’t let us down,” Lusiel said, which left Illinia feeling less reassured than before. “I’ll show you the way!”
As Lusiel led them up some dark stairs, Illinia turned to Michael in desperation. “I don’t know what I’m going to do! What if I can’t do anything?”
He shrugged. “Why are you asking me? I can’t do anything about it.”
Illinia turned away from him with exasperation as they came out into the clouded daylight over the gate.
She peered over the wall, and drew back in fear. The plain before the fortress was bare now, but in the distance there were plenty of warriors to fill it and more.
“Fantastic,” Lusiel mumbled. “Rams… ladders… they’re serious about taking this place in one day, I think.”
“Can I start shooting as soon as they are in range?”
“You can, but they might have something to say?”
“You can’t worry about that,” Michael said grimly. “You have to kill them as soon as possible.” When Illinia looked at him, curious as to why he would say such a thing, he glared at her. “Hello! My life is on this line too! They’re not going to ‘rescue’ me! They don’t even care a fig for me!”
“Then it’s a good thing that I do,” she said stoutly, and turned back to the approaching horde, twiddling nervously with her bow. She missed the long serious look he gave her.
Kip came bounding up the stairs. “Hello! Thought I’d come watch the spectacle from here.”
Lusiel shot him a look. “You’re going to fight, too, I hope?”
“Of course. But I really do very little.”
And after him came Siasara. “Lusiel! What are you doing hiding up here?”
“I’m not hiding!” Lusiel said indignantly. “I’m in plain view!”
Michael glared at them, and it was plain to see why: the enemy forces had reached the plain, and a small group had detached and was coming forward.
“You should shoot them,” he said to Illinia. “That’s probably their best fighters and their leaders.”
“We can’t do that!” Illinia protested softly. “They’re coming to talk!”
“The only talking they’ll do is to demand our surrender,” he told her with a faint mirthless smile. “Do the smart thing, would you?”
“No, no,” she said. “I’ll do the right thing.”
He sighed and leaned his forehead against the parapet. “They count on that, you know.”
The little group reached the midpoint of the plain. “Commander Lusiel! Mistress Illinia! We know you’re there!”
“Who’s asking?” Lusiel called back.
“Your doom,” they answered. “Surrender now, and your deaths will be quick! Like this one!”
And they hoisted up Marcus’s body on a long staff.
Illinia gasped and recoiled in horror, and felt Michael’s hand at her back, steadying her.
Lusiel’s face didn’t change. “And… that is supposed to convince us… how?”
“He sold you out. Gave us everything we needed to know. In return for his extremely useful services, we did not let him suffer.” They laughed among themselves.
“See, Illinia?” Michael said. “You cannot redeem your enemies.”
“Circumstances,” she blurted with a shaking voice.
“Go home,” Lusiel snorted. “Your army will break on this fortress like ocean waves. We won’t be destroyed here. You will.”
“You may trust in your untested heroine to save you, but we will slaughter you anyway. We gave you a chance!”
“Okay, kill them now,” Michael urged Illinia. “Come on. You can do it.”
But her hands were shaking.
The enemy began to advance as a whole, and the siege weapons were in front.
“Kippy-kun,” Lusiel began, “would it be possible for you to remove a few of those sheltered rams from play?”
“Certainly,” said the elf with the two-toned hair, and sent what seemed like a gentle purple mist down towards the closest ones. The animals drawing the heavy gear shifted, snorted, and panicked. Some of them broke free and began to stampede, seeming to choose the most heavily packed areas of the enemy force. The mage chuckled to himself.
“Are… are you controlling those?” Illinia asked.
“Yep! Also, duck!”
Arrows zinged and skipped over the wall, and Michael dropped into a crouch beside her. She set an arrow on the string and let it fly, but it was but one shot in all the return volley. Siasara came to stand next to her, shoulder to shoulder, confident and fiery.
Kip could not hit all the rams, however, and one large one made it to the door, where the enemy killed their own animals so the mage could not drive them mad. Soon after, they heard a dull boom as the Drow under the shelter of their ram swung it into the gate.
Michael fretted and frowned on Illinia’s other side. “Permission to go down to the gate.”
“I think Illinia needs you here,” Siasara said. “So, no. Don’t worry.” She fired off another arrow and grimaced. “They’ll come for us soon enough.”
Kip considered his options and resorted to plain old purple lightening, coinciding with the archers’ arrows into a deadly storm. But still the plain seethed with soldiers.
“Oh!” Siasara cried. “Look at that nitwit! In the fancy armour!” She leaned out over the edge of the wall, further, further, aiming…
Illinia could see the one she spoke of, close under the gate, ready to charge through the moment it fell – which would not be long from how the whole mountain was vibrating. She was barely clothed, even as far as the impractical Drow armour went; silver vines curved and caressed their way around her form, blossoming into graceful jewelled lilies around her shoulders and hips. Her black cloak followed her form like a waterfall down her back, and her flowing white hair was bound high and tight with silver coils. She clenched a bright, jagged longsword in her hand, and magic power flickered around her eyes.
As Siasara exclaimed, she looked up and met their eyes – but it was too late. Siasara’s arrow had sprung from the string. It caught the leader in the bare midriff, followed shortly by two more in the belly and chest as she tumbled backwards.
And Siasara tumbled with a squeak off the wall…
A huge gust of wind caught the falling elf-maiden and swept her back up into Lusiel’s arms.
“Don’t do that, please,” the commander chided his wife.
“Sorry, dear,” she replied.
“But I think that will help our poor soldiers a lot,” he went on. “Looked like she had some major combat expertise, even if her reflexes were poor.”
“They’re not stopping, Commander,” Kip said with some concern. “I think that just made them mad.”
And just as Kip spoke, the gates splintered with a resounding crack. Screams and cries from below signalled the enemy’s entry into the castle.
“All right,” Lusiel said, turning away from the wall. “Let’s go. Kip, continue to cause confusion until I call from the central chamber.”
“Th-the central chamber?” Illinia asked Siasara quietly as they clattered down the stairs after the teal-haired elf.
“The source of our power in this fortress,” Siasara told her. “You’ll see! It’s a perfect place, though tricky to defend.”
They rushed through hallways, hearing more and more screaming and clashing. Illinia shivered.
Lusiel burst through a carved double door, and Illinia had to slow and gasp at the chamber ahead. It was tall and domed like a chapel; white light poured through an aperture in the roof. Raw pillars of stone supported the ceiling around it, and in the center of the floor was an impossibly blue pool, aquamarine fading to royal blue. Around the edge in gravel sprouted green ferns and very small pine trees. The magic in the air was almost suffocating in its intensity.
Lusiel leaned over the pool. “Kip, how’s it looking?”
The voice of the mage came back, vague and ghostly. “Not good. If I stay up here much longer they’ll come for me and I’ll be cut off. Yow! That arrow was close…”
“Come down and do some real damage,” Lusiel said to the pool, but as he spoke there was a thudding on the main set of doors, larger than the ones they had entered through.
“We’re trapped?” Illinia quavered. A few other soldiers began to dash into the room from the side doors.
“No,” Siasara told her, grinning. “We’re trapping.”
The doors were torn from their hinges by a dramatic burst of black magic, and dark-skinned warriors charged into the room. Illinia cried out in surprise and fear even as grim-faced elves formed a line. Lusiel grinned wolfishly in the centre, brandishing his twin blades, crackling with energy. Jaye had appeared suddenly from seemingly out of nowhere, long lance gripped firmly, to stand at Lusiel’s side.
A shout from one side, and an arc of purple lightening played over the group, halting several soldiers in their tracks. A symmetrical yell from the other side, and Siasara sent three arrows almost point-blank into the massed group. Lusiel countercharged, swords a blur in the air. Illinia even saw Kaisten the scout, shouting a warcry as he waved a sword in the air, wings held tightly against his back.
The countercharge was briefly successful, but the enemy was just as strong and skilled, and far outnumbered them. They were slowly driven back to surround the pool, and many were falling slain to the long spears of the enemy. Some stumbled into the pool, breaking its tranquil surface, and the energy in the chamber was disturbed. She could feel it. The bodies sank until they could be seen no more.
Her bow was now steady in her hand, and she was sending careful arrows into the melee. Suddenly she caught sight of black and purple movement in her peripheral vision, and she dodged a spear aimed at her head more out of luck than anything else. She twisted to avoid another one, shooting one in the head, and then a hand came and shoved her down, and a tall figure with a halberd sprang in front of her, making great sweeps with the heavy weapon that felled two of her attackers and forced the others to withdraw.
She scrambled to her feet to support her bodyguard, her breath coming in little gasps. He grunted as his shoulders flexed, hefting the halberd in preparation for the next wave.
“Keep it up!” Lusiel called over the roar of noise.
Someone cried out and stumbled to the floor right beside Illinia; it was Kaisten, clutching a wound in his arm. Cloaked figures pressed in on them, not stopping to threaten but clearly poised to kill.
“Don’t!” Illinia cried out, flinging a hand out in defence of the fallen birdman, a hand unconsciously channelling the immense energy of the room.
White light from the sky above swirled around her, paused for the briefest of seconds, and then blasted the dark elf soldiers off their feet.

Chapter 13