STAGE FIFTEEN: ASSASSINATION
Kirin's caressed the sleeping girl's cheek. It has been months since they defeated Ahrin. Since then, they haven't encountered enemies. It was peaceful and life has been almost picture perfect. There is barely any aura emanating from Freyja's body, unlike before. Kirin smiled, gently planting a kiss on her forehead. He traced her sleeping form with his finger, before slowly climbing out of their shared bed.
"I'll be waiting, Freyja…. I always will." He whispered.
Kirin stood up, and headed for the door. He stopped for a while, but did not look back. He headed out, where Alaric was waiting. "Let's go. Alaric."
~ o 0 o ~
Freyja had a dream. It was a dream about Kinju Alfiore. In her dream, they were walking outside the palace, surrounded by thick green bushes and flowers in their full bloom. She was smiling, and so was he. All of a sudden, a black blade pierced right through his heart! Freyja shrieked in horror, calling his name. "Alfiore! Alfiore!" She shook him, but he just dropped lifeless on the ground. Behind him, was Kirin. "Freyja, I'm sorry." He apologized, before stabbing her with the same blade he killed the Alfiore with.
Freyja woke up, covered in sweat, breathing heavily. "What a horrible nightmare…" She thought. But just as she was about to get up, she couldn't move her feet. "What the—" Freyja struggled, but a thick dark aura is tying her down to the bed. "Kirin! Where are you!?" She shouted, looking for him. But he was nowhere in sight. The dark aura started creeping up her legs, and coiling around her torso, tightening, feeling her blood flow constrained with its grip. "Kirin!!!" She shouted, struggling. But the dark aura reached her chest, squeezing her tightly. Freyja felt like her lungs are being crushed. She could barely breathe. She winced, hoping that this is another nightmare. But it isn't. It's real. "Astrid!" She called, but the celestial medallion has long been gone. She called the white aura, but it didn't respond like before. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes as the dark aura coiled around her neck, wringing it. Freyja could no longer breathe. Her vision getting dim. "Al…fi" She couldn't even call her father anymore.
"Lenfiare!" The door slammed open. Alyon, the phreinian prince, drew his sword, cutting off some of the deadly aura coils around Freyja. He was able to cut off some, but it was far too strong than he expected. Kirin might have wanted to restrain her, but he would never do something that would kill Freyja. Or would he?
"Hold on a bit, Lenfiare!" Alyon called forth a stronger blade, and a stronger aura. With all of his might, he slashed off the aura coils, and dragged Freyja away before it could regenerate. "Lenfiare, we have to run!" He shouted, carrying the nearly fainted girl over his shoulder. They escaped, but he accidentally wounded Freyja on the arm and a bit on the left shoulder because of the attack. "Sorry, I had to do that." He apologized, and put her down once they're far away from the house. Freyja, was still in shock.
"I'm glad I made it in time." Alyon sighed, sitting on the grass, beside her. "I couldn't bring myself to leave yesterday. Something just doesn't feel right, so I stayed for a while. Good thing I did." He sighed, trying to get a few words out of her. But she remained silent.
"Lenfiare. You may not believe this but it was definitely Kirin's aura. Where are your guardians? My sword has phreinian aura, we have to heal your wounds." He suggested, his voice raising. "Freyja!" Alyon lost it.
"No way! It can't be Kirin! It must be a mistake. He won't hurt me." She finally said, unable to believe what just happened.
"It was clearly meant to kill you, Lenfiare. Don't be stupid. You don't have your guardians, and your aura is suppressed. Did you seal your aura yourself?" Alyon asked, forcing her to look at him straight in the eye. Freyja shook her head. "I did throw away the medallion, but my aura…"
"There's only one person who can do that kind of sealing on the white aura and you know that!"
Freyja fell in silence. Alyon sighed yet again. He can understand her reaction, and knew its best to let her calm down for a while. He sat quietly beside her, hoping for the Lenfiare of Celestia to calm her mind soon, and get into terms with the truth.
Alyon and Freyja sat there, in the middle of the forest, in silence. Alyon occasionally checked up on her while she just sat there, dazed, as if her soul left her body. For hours, Alyon waited for the Lenfiare to come back. The sun rose, and still, she didn't respond.
"Mister Alyon! I finally found you!" A familiar face hysterically ran to where they are. It was Alaric's confidante and trusted secretary in Runerich. He was pale as a ghost, when he approached them. "Master Alaric! Help! Master Alaric he…" The runemaster fell down the ground, crying.
"What happened?" Alyon stood up, feeling greatly anxious of the incoming news. Freyja too, snapped out of her daze. "Master Alaric! Help him! He's going to die!"
"WHAT!?" Alyon pulled the runemaster up, demanding for an explanation. "What happened? He was just with me yesterday! I told him to go ahead of me! What happened!?" The normally calm prince was starting to get hysterical, desperately hoping that his hunch is wrong.
"The silver haired man. The Aethelmaer…" He runemaster shouted, trembling in anger. "He tried to kill him in Hawsdark! Please! Save him! Dispell his aura! Please!"
Alyon roared in frustration. He glared at Freyja, who's frozen in shock. "Let's go." Alyon demanded, dragging the runemaster with him. "I'll see what I can do."
The hysterical runemaster hurriedly led Alyon back to their chartered airship, in a desperate attempt to save his dying lord. Alyon looked over his shoulder, looking at Freyja for one last time, hoping she would change her mind although he wasn't expecting much.
But then, Alyon was stopped on his tracks, when he felt a familiar aura fill the air.
"ASTRID!" Freyja stood there, her left hand raised up in the sky. "ASTRID! ARIA! AVICE!" She cried out their names, "AFRA! AMOS!"
Alyon was confused. There is no way she can summon them. Kirin sealed her white aura, and she had thrown the medallion deep into the sea. Alyon feared that Freyja has lost her mind.
"Keon, Alaric." She whispered, tears rolling down her cheek as he called her friends' names. "Van, Skar, Aya." She clenched her fists, so tight, her palms started bleeding. Then, she smirked. She wiped off the tears in her eyes, the last tears she swore she will shed.
"I COMMAND YOU! COME TO ME!" Freyja shouted, so loud, like the roar of a dragon, it was inhumanely possible. The winds started blowing hard, creating a vortex around them. The ground shook, the trees violently swayed, and the skies turned dark, all as if responding to Freyja's call. Alyon stood in front of the runemaster, shielding him from the rocks and tree branches hurled around by the wind. "Stand back!" He said, holding his ground. The clouds clumped together, dimming the sky. And, right before their eyes, they saw the Celestial medallion, the symbol of the monarch of Celestia, floating up above the sky. Alyon could not believe what he was seeing. It was as if the heavens plucked the medallion from the depths of the sea, and handed it over to its owner. The white aura around her started leaking, as she grabbed the medallion and shoved it into her chest.
"The medallion went inside her!?" The runemaster gasped. Alyon has seen it before, but never at this magnitude. Her golden eyes glowed radiantly as the white aura continued to leak and coil around her. "Alaric" she asked, turning to the trembling runemaster. "Where is he?"
"Master Alaric is being transported to Runerich as we speak."
"I see." Freyja closed her eyes, and concentrated her aura into her back. A pair of translucent white wings sprung out. It wasn't Avice' wings. It was hers. "I'll head to him first. I promise, I won't let him die." Freyja said before surging up into the sky. The moment she left, the winds and the sky calmed down. "We should be going too. Come on, I'll escort you." Alyon nudged the runemaster to head to the airship, to follow Freyja.
~ o 0 o ~
"Alaric!" She headed straight to the tower's hospital floor, crashing into the room though the window from the fifty-seventh floor. The Runerich guards could not even dare stop her when she rushed to Alaric's side. "Alaric, wake up!" She held his cold cheek, his breathing very shallow and weak. He had three deep wounds in his body, two of them hitting his vital organs.
"Where is the doctor!?" She demanded.
"It's me." The runemaster's chief doctor stepped forward.
"What exactly are his injuries, tell me, as detailed as you could." She commanded. The doctor did as told. He explained in detail what hurt Alaric, every detail made Freyja's hear wrench. "But don't worry, we've cleared all blockages and removed foreign materials and debris." The doctor said, explaining the procedures they did for the past few hours.
"Thank you." She said, before summoning the celestial guardians Afra and Aria. Afra summoned a barrier around Freyja and Alaric, making sure that no one interferes. Then, the healing guardian appeared in his beast form, coiling around the body of Alaric. "Aria. Do it."
One command, and the beast vanished into thin air, forming a thick mist inside the barrier. As Aria started healing Alaric's injuries, injecting aura to speed up the regeneration of his cells, Freyja continued trembling. The image of Keon's lifeless body in her mind, the day she found him dead and could no longer do anything to save him. The memories of how her father was assassinated right before her eyes surfaced, adding up to her frustration and anxiety. "I won't let you die, Alaric." She promised, ordering Aria to heal him thoroughly.
"Master Arphad! There's this woman who—" The guards alerted the head of the tower, who was just as astonished with what he is seeing. But Arphad immediately recognized who it was. He ordered the guards to stand back, and the doctors to prepare to assist Freyja should she need anything.
"Alaric… you have to live. Please." She winced, praying hard. "Please live."
Then, she felt someone touch her hand. The healing mist disappeared, and so did Afra's barrier. How long has it been? Freyja couldn't track the time. But it didn't matter. What mattered was Alaric's eyes were open, and he's weakly touching her hand. "Alaric!" She knelt beside him, holding his hand tight, rubbing it against her cheek. "Thank goodness. Thank goodness you're alive. Thank goodness I made it." She couldn't stop expressing relief.
The Runerich guards, sorcerers, were speechless. It was the legendary white aura they just saw, and it healed their young lord from certain death. Arphad sighed in relief. He headed straight to his son, and held his shoulder. "You have to rest still." He said.
"Yes, father." Alaric smiled.
"Lenfiare, Kirin Aethelmaer attacked Alaric. Tell me, what happened?" He stared at her, demanding for an explanation. "Father, please don't blame Freyja."
"No Alaric, you have every right to blame me. I wasn't there to stop him." She said, finally looking straight into Alaric and Arphad's eyes. "But I need you to tell me Alaric, what did Kirin do, and where did he go? Can you do that for me?"
"Lord Alaric!" Alaric and Alyon's secretary finally arrived at the tower, still hysterical. Alyon rushed straight to Freyja, and was relieved to see Alaric awake. "That was close." He whispered.
"Very close." Freyja corrected, not letting go of Alaric's hand.
"Kirin…" Alaric recalled, "Before I left your cottage, he asked me for a favor. He wanted to see the Aethelmaer manor for one last time, so I gave him a ride in our airship."
"And then?" Alyon urged him to keep going.
"We headed straight to the tower, where we fought Ahrin. Kirin was being his usual self, so I didn't think any of it. Until, he suddenly went inside the room, in the middle of that silver bowl, and he started summoning his dark aura— lots and lots of it. I've never seen that much aura on him before."
"He… he opened the gates, didn't he!?" Freyja felt a chill run through her spine.
Alaric nodded. "I didn't know he could do it by himself. But he was very powerful, Freyja… just like you when you call your guardians. No… even more powerful." Alaric trembled just by recalling what happened that night. It was a different Kirin. It was a Kirin he didn't know. "It was Leriouge."
"Did Leriouge take over Kirin's memories!?" Freyja's voice unintentionally rose. "No." Alaric countered. "It was definitely Kirin. Kirin AND Leriouge."
Freyja felt her knees weaken, wobble. But she forced herself to stand firm, especially after hearing what Alaric just said.
"Kirin, he apologized before he stabbed me with an aura blade I've never seen before. He stabbed me thrice, just to make sure I…I was dead." Alaric stuttered, recalling the pain. "Kirin said it was for the best. He said I should be happy to be sacrificed for the peace of the universe."
Alyon was furious, hearing that. He glared at Freyja, who's keeping a straight face after all that Alaric just said. "What are you going to do, Lenfiare?" He asked, venom in his voice.
"Alyon," She said, facing him with a resolute look. Her golden eyes piercing and unwavering. "Let's head to Celestia, and do what we should."
Alyon felt a sigh of relief. "Yes. You can count on me!"
"Alaric," She faced him once more, letting go of his hand. "I'm sorry to impose, but once you recover, we need your help."
"Lenfiare, my son is still…" Arphad was about to refuse, when Alaric stopped him.
"Absolutely. Help me recover, Freyja. And I will help with everything I can." Alaric declared proudly, his sapphire eyes full of resolution.
Freyja nodded. "Alright. Let's make preparations, then. We will head to Celestia."
~ o 0 o ~