Six months later.
An eerie calm befell the kingdom of shadows, the streets of the capital were deserted, occupied only by armed soldiers who made their rounds, enforcing the new curfew. All the residents confined to their houses knew that this was simply the calm before the storm.
The Marquess had long since declared war on the royal family, she took the initiative and caught the royal army off guard, resulting in the success of the first few skirmishes. However, the element of surprise was soon lost, ending in the current stalemate that had lasted months.
Both sides had showed their hands and the final clash was imminent, in the face of the biggest civil war the kingdom had ever faced, the citizens could only pray that they weren't caught up in the conflict.
In the outskirts of the kingdom was an abandoned castle, that had been heavily fortified to the point where it no longer fit that label, after one look at the high walls, reinforced gates and numerous armed soldiers, the word fortress would spring to mind.
At the heart of this fortress was a resplendent golden throne, occupied by a beautiful woman dressed in black. The delicate features of that women could be said to topple a nation, while the cruel look in her eyes would topple a man's heart. This woman was the Marquess and through her ruthless tactics in war, she had earned the title of Night Queen.
"You may enter."
The Night Queen spoke in a sweet charming voice that would make any normal man give up his life for her. Fortunately, the man she was talking to was no ordinary one. A moment later the dark brown doors opened, revealing the handsome and lonely figure of William. He wore a thick black cloak that covered his entire upper body. William confidently walked up to the golden throne before kneeling in front of the Night Queen.
These past few months had not been kind to him, he had developed a few wrinkles that aged his face by a couple years, his jet-black hair was now peppered with streaks of grey and his red eyes that were once filled with tenderness had turned cold and lost all emotion.
"My dear brother-in-law, how have you been keeping? My informants have been showering you with praises, telling me how you complete every mission given to you flawlessly."
The night queen asked alluringly, cutely resting her head on her hand. William looked up at her blankly, not remotely affected by her charms.
"Greetings, your Majesty, may I know the reason I've been summoned."
After hearing Williams somewhat lacklustre response, the night queen sighed and pouted her lips seductively.
"Now, now. It's not every day I get to see you, why don't we have a catch up, we can get to the boring stuff later."
"As you wish."
William replied with a significant lack of enthusiasm, making his disinterest clear. Seeing this, the Night Queen smirked.
"Tell me, does it feel good to take revenge for your wife."
"I think you should ask yourself that question, Irene was your sister as well."
"Although that may be true, I was asking you specifically."
"Revenge is pointless and only leads to more tragedy, so if your asking about that, then I have no answer to give you."
William replied, his voice lacking any emotion behind it. His response prompted the night queen to ask another question.
"So, William. What does a man like you fight for?"
"A better future."
***
The next day came quickly, the chilling wind of the coming winter bit deeply into the skin of the resident of the capital, as they rushed to complete their tasks before the curfew started.
As expected, the Night queen had summoned William to give him a mission. After beating around the bush for a while, she finally gave him the details. Williams mission seemed simple enough, he was meant to assassinate the commander of the royal army, a peak Rank 3 breaker.
Funnily enough, anyone who knew Williams current power would laugh it off as a unofficial death sentence. The strength gap between them was something William would have no chance at bridging and he understood this well, still he had to see this mission through to the end no matter what. Failure was not permitted.
William was currently masquerading as a wealthy merchant, he was dressed in a light blue shirt with gold buttons, black trousers and a navy-blue cloak draped on his shoulders, he leisurely strolled through the streets heading in the direction of the royal army fortress.
As he got closer to the fortress, the presence of soldiers increased significantly. William maintained a safe distance from the fortress and intently observed the soldiers on patrol. It took a while but finally an opportunity presented itself, one of the soldiers strayed from his position and headed into a dark alley way nearby.
The soldier continued down the alleyway, and abruptly stopped, turning to faced the wall and removed his trousers.
Before the soldier had the chance to drain his snake or even react, he felt a cold sensation on his neck as he lost strength in his legs.
The soldier clutched his neck squirming on the ground, before dying. William stood over the corpse and wiped his dagger clean, he quickly stripped the man of his clothing and armour, wearing it himself. After taking one last look at the man's face, William waved his hand causing the soldiers corpse to be devoured by tendrils of shadow, without leaving a trace.
William sighed and placed both of his palms on his face, a dim white light began to spill out of the cracks in his fingers, a moment later William removed his palms revealing a face that looked extremely similar to the soldier he had just killed. He used the reflection of a nearby puddle to inspect his new appearance.
"I'm out of practice, it's not too obvious but anyone who knows the soldier, would probably be able to see through the disguise."
William thought to himself as he returned to the soldiers posting, while he waited for the shift to end, he took the opportunity do some reconnaissance on the fortress.
The royal fort was surrounded by huge stone walls, the top of the main building barely poked out over the top of the walls, giving him no useful intel. William would not be able to climb in without being spotted and blinking in was out of the question, he could already feel the presence of a strong special interference array. That is why he opted for a more subtle approach, the main entrance.
After around half an hour later, William's patience was finally rewarded, he was approached by a burly soldier with heavy armour and a red plume on his helmet signifying his status as a squad captain, standing behind him was another scrawnier soldier, who was wearing the same armour as William.
"Good work Ollie, you're shift ends now, you can report any suspicious activity then head back and get some food."
The captain spoke to William patting him on the shoulder. William saluted, taking the chance to adjust his helmet so it obscured his face.
"Yes sir, I observed no suspicious activity during my shift, there was no movement towards the fortress other than wildlife."
William spoke, lowering his voice to hide any irregularities. The captain seemed taken aback by what he said and raised an eyebrow, making William wonder if he had messed up somewhere.
"What's wrong with your voice, its sound like you've hit puberty for the second time."
The captain laughed heartily, when William heard the reason for the captain's surprise, thoughts raced around in his head as he tried to come up with an excuse.
"I woke up with a sore throat and a bit of a headache this morning sir, I'll be fine after I eat."
William replied in the same deep voice, the captain seemed to believe his lie and didn't question him further.
"Alright you may go now, make sure to take it easy for now and stop by the medical centre, the latest intel indicates that we might face a full-scale attack from the rebels in the next few weeks, so I want all my men to be in perfect health."
The captain dismissed him, William saluted once more, before turning on his heel and heading into the fortress.
An hour later William was standing over the corpse of his intended target, although William should have been happy, there was a complicated expression on his face. It was too easy, far too easy… William couldn't help but feel a rising suspicion that he was in a huge amount of danger.
As if on cue, he heard a series of slow claps that affirmed his doubts. William wasted no time in jumping away and putting his back against the far wall, looking up he saw an elderly man in white robes, slowly clapping. The man had the exact same face as the person William had killed just moments ago.
"Congratulations on making it this far, you must be the assassin behind my colleagues' disappearances, since you've been so active lately, I decided to make some preparations, who knew they would pay off."
"Fuck."
William cursed in his mind, this sly old fox had used a body double. He observed the enemy commander closely, he knew that in a fair fight he was probably no match for the man in front of him. Even so, he wanted to look for any possible advantage he could find, He did have a last resort but it would be a bit tricky to pull off now, since it would quite possibly kill him as well.
"You don't have to be that afraid, I'm not planning on killing you right now, so just let yourself be captured quietly and I won't have to hurt you, then we can have a long chat."
The commander spoke to him in a friendly tone. William could guess that the long chat he mentioned was probably an interrogation, additionally the prison was located outside the main building which made it easier for him to delay until his backup plan activated. Getting captured was actually more favourable to the success off his mission.
"I surrender"
William said dropping his dagger and putting his hands up in the air. The commander seemed surprised, that the assassin had heeded his advice. He tossed a pair of handcuffs to William.
"Well I'll be damned, not very loyal are you… but your cooperation is much appreciated. Put these on, they will stop you from being able to use Aether so I won't have to worry about you pulling any funny business, I'll take you to a holding cell downstairs."
William was happy with how things were going up until the commanders last words. He wouldn't be going to the prison but be held captive in the main building, this put a wrench in his plans.
Prior to assassinating the commanders body double, William had made his way to the room where the spatial interference array was being operated, after killing the guards he placed a capacitor array on top of it, this array would store part of the Aether being supplied to the spatial array and send it out all at once, overloading it. One could guess the consequences of such a thing, an explosion and a massive one at that.
This was only possible because William was an extremely talented array master and was well versed in spatial arrays.
William had made up his mind, the capacitor array wouldn't have had time to store enough energy to destroy the whole fortress, but it would be enough to blow up most of it, this meant he had to escape as far away as possible while keeping the commander in the building, and hoped he himself didn't die in the ensuing blast.
William shot of a strong wave of shadows towards the commander, who was surprised by Williams inconsistent actions. He was caught off guard but still managed to put up a light defence in the last second as a small white bubble surrounded him , William who had put almost all his strength in to that attack wouldn't be denied, the shadows were just strong enough to breach the commanders defence, shutting down his senses and heavily disorientating him.
William didn't waste this opportunity and immediately jumped through the glass window which was on the five stories up, William hurtled towards the ground accompanied by bits of shattered glass. At this point the commander had recovered and saw what had happened he stuck his head through the window only to see William's cold eyes staring back at him.
As William was falling, he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a thin wooden bracelet with a purple crystal embedded in it. William placed his finger on the crystal sending a surge of Aether into it, the crystal lit up with a dim purple light, before sending a signal that activated the capacitor array.
What William didn't know was the capacitor array had not collected a small amount of Aether like he had expected but instead stored huge amounts. Coincidentally the royal army were preparing for the imminent rebel attack and had decided to feed the array with enough Aether to cover the whole city, What William believed be a small explosion, turned out to be powerful enough to destroy the whole fortress and then some.
A massive crack in space time occurred around the array, fracturing reality all around him, William felt all the aether in the surroundings rush inwards, converging on the fracture in the air, before violently exploding outwards.
A huge orange fireball engulfed the building, the commander included, William was better prepared he had enough time to throw up a layer of condensed shadows to guard himself, but all his defences would be futile in the face of that immense explosion.
His only saving grace was that the shock wave of super compressed air reached him before the fireball sending him flying out of the massive ball of flames, this turned out to be a double edged sword, his defences managed to hold up for a brief moment, before completely shattering under the shockwave letting the force of the impact ravaged him, turning his body into a mangled mess, making him cough up a copious amount of dark red blood.
William flew through the air for quite some time before finally crashing into the ground. Out of instinct he managed to cushion his landing by using some wind magic, but the impact still caused him to lose consciousness.
***
A few days passed buy and the Battle had been won. The Night Queen was severely injured in the fight against the king and had secluded herself to recover. The battle went extremely smoothly due to one of the enemy fortresses being completely destroyed, reducing the enemy's fighting force roughly by a third. One of the remaining commanders had also defected to the rebel's side letting them take over the throne with minimum casualties, after the Night Queen killed the king, the remaining forces surrendered and where taken as prisoners of war.
William woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling, his body was covered in bandages, after he got up he noticed he was in a private medical bay and a pretty fancy one at that, the entire room was spotless and everything was white, after looking around he noticed a woman dressed in cream coloured robes who seemed to be the nurse in charge of him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living Mr Linheart, please wait a moment while I fetch the doctor."
She spoke softly, she didn't wait around for Williams reply and promptly exited the room, giving William some time to inspect his surroundings. He noticed a large window, that gave him the view of the outside. He could gather he was still in the shadow capital, the few buildings he could see told him that much. From the position of the black river he could also say that he was in the centre.
"I'm in the palace, looks like the rebellion succeeded."
William sighed as a rare sense of relief washed over him, the royal family had been an oppressive force in the kingdom, with them finally out the way, he was that much closer to achieving his goals.
Now if the Night Queen kept her promise, he could finally go back to Emily and Ren and make up for all the time he missed, a single tear rolled down his cheek as his gaze finally warmed up, just a little bit.
The door opened interrupting Williams thoughts. A short stout man dressed in a white overcoat walked in followed by the nurse from before.
"Mr. Linheart, glad to see you awake. I'll start with the good news, the rebellion was a success and the Night Queen has taken over the throne, I have heard that the you played a pretty large role in the war, as such you were granted the honour of recovering in the palaces infirmary."
The doctor paused, William let out a deep sigh, he could already guess that they had won the war but hearing it from someone else somehow made it feel more real. The doctor looked at William with a bit of pity before continuing to speak.
"Now for the bad news, you were found unconscious and heavily injured on the river banks by a squad of the Night Queens army shortly after the war was won, when they realised your identity, you were rushed to a medical facility nearby, where you underwent treatment. Unfortunately, you were already on the brink of death when they found you and your vitality was exhausted. As you know healing spells are under the life attribute and work by stimulating your vitality to heal your wounds faster, but since your vitality was already depleted, healing you permanently damaged it, I'd say you only have around ten more years to live."
William was shocked by this, how could he protect the kingdom if he was going to die in ten years. William felt the emotions that he had finally gotten back in touch with after all this time went into turmoil, and he started to panic, the doctor saw the pained look on his face, and wanted to leave William alone so he could deal with it, but unfortunately there was some more left to say.
"I'm afraid it gets worse, The Night Queen was injured during her fight with the king, the coward had laced his sword with poison that directly affects her heart, as of right now there is no antidote. However, there is a way to cure her. A heart transplant is our only option, we need a heart with a high compatibility to the Night Queen, A blood relative would be the best."
William took a while to understand what he was saying, when he finally got it, the realisation made what was left of his heart, break.
"You mean you want to dig up my wife's corpse and take out her heart to cure the Night Queen."
William said with venom in his voice, a fierce killing intent filled the room, the doctor who was startled by this hurriedly replied.
"In short yes, I understand your wife was put in a coffin that had an array that would preserve her body and keep it from rotting, with your wife's heart we can save the Night Queen, which would bring stability to the kingdom, I know it's tough decision but it's what is best for Umbra."
William looked at the ground as tears began to well up in his eyes, the doctor was right, William had promised to protect the kingdom no matter the cost.
"Doctor, do you mind leaving me alone for a minute"
William asked in a choked-up voice, the doctor noticed his pale expression and nodded, leaving the room. As soon as William heard the door close, all the emotions he had suppressed these past few months boiled over and he burst into tears, it took him a long time to pull himself together, but when he did, that ruthless look returned to his eyes, colder than ever.
"Emily, Ren. Sorry I couldn't have been a better father but I'm sure that in time you will realise how beneficial our sacrifices will be. Its time we made your mother proud."