Not much to report. I worked on the glossary yesterday (and actually made it kind of funny), and I wrote an extremely difficult scene tonight. Brain’s kind of mush. I split the files into three for ease of reading, too.
Title: Exodus
Series: Final Fantasy XI
Characters: Adelheid, Nicolaus, Erlene
Rated: T, rating subject to change
Word Count: 6,770/50,000
Permalinks:
Adelheid navigated through the encampment, her men following close behind her. The tension in the air was heightened by the complete silence in the area, and that was only broken by the sounds of movement coming from her unit.
The encampment was, for lack of a better word, deserted. While there were signs that it had been previously occupied – there were broken weapons and tools scattered throughout the camp, as well as some half- destroyed fortifications and siege weaponry – there wasn’t a sign of any living thing in the area, whether it was beastman or otherwise.
“Being a pessimist is generally the last thing on my mind, Commander…” Wilhelm frowned as he fell into step next to Adelheid. “But this is incredibly suspicious. Did the Jeunoan official say when he’d acquired his intelligence?”
“He did not…” Adelheid shook her head and sighed resignedly. “I’m beginning to think that he might have been mistaken about their location… or perhaps they simply aren’t here…”
“That could be.” Wilhelm nodded as he stepped forward. “In any case, if I could suggest that we explore the encampment one more time befor-…”
Adelheid screamed as she saw a sudden gush of blood, and as her eyes met the source, she watched in horror as Wilhelm, with a crossbow bolt through his head, fell mutely to the ground. It was then that she realized that she and her men were surrounded by a platoon of Quadav, and judging from how organized they seemed, it was apparent that they had been expecting them.
“Heh heh…”
Adelheid quickly turned towards the throaty chuckle coming from one of the Quadav — presumably the platoon’s leader, as it looked bigger and more assertive than the others around it — and she narrowed her eyes as it loaded another bolt into its crossbow.
“Poor little girly…” he said mockingly — she assumed it was male from the tone of its voice. “Missed you. Hit man instead.” He pointed his crossbow at Wilhelm’s body, and Adelheid jumped back despite herself when the Quadav shot another bolt at his prone body, this time hitting him in the back. Adelheid knew at that moment that Wilhelm truly was dead, as he didn’t utter a sound as the bolt struck him and blood pooled around him. “Too bad. leader die first, rest are easy to kill after.”
The other Quadav laughed at that, and several members of Adelheid’s unit quickly surrounded their commander, their backs to her as living shields.
“Hume no better than animals!” The Quadav spat at Adelheid and made some semblance of a grin through the sharp edges of his maw. “Did you know? Hume ask Quadav to kill unit that come. Paid with meat and gold.” He laughed again. “Own people throw you away like trash! How you feel about that?”
“What…?” Adelheid stared at the Quadav leader as the rest of its soldiers jeered at her and her men… Had she really heard correctly what it’d just said? But the shocked expressions on her men’s faces confirmed that what she’d heard was true, and the sinking feeling she’d had earlier suddenly increased a hundredfold as she realized the gravity of the situation she was in.
“Is that so?…” Adelheid said quietly as she gripped Seveneyes. The wand pulsated with arcane energy as its owner focused on its power even as the Quadav reached for their weapons. “Well, if you believe that we’ll simply roll over and die for your benefit… then you all are sorely mistaken.” She pointed her wand at the Quadav leader, and as she summoned her Grimoire, a column of pure electrical energy suddenly formed around the leader; bolts of purple- white lightning shooting out from its outer edges and striking the Quadav.
“ATTACK!”
Adelheid’s battle cry was superfluous as her troops had already begun to mobilize at the sight of her helix, though it did serve to rally them as they followed through with a roar of their own. The Second Division Scouts were no strangers to combat, but as Adelheid watched as her men fought the multitude of Quadav, she quickly realized that they were vastly outnumbered that they first appeared to be.
Adelheid’s strategizing was suddenly interrupted by a glint of metal seen out of the corner of her eye, and she narrowly avoided being cut down by a Quadav’s greataxe that was swung straight down at her. She sighed in annoyance — not at the Quadav itself, but rather at the fact that her thoughts had been interrupted — and she drew a small metal tube from her pocket that she quickly threw at the beastman.
“Now now, you shouldn’t interrupt someone when they’re thinking!” Adelheid giggled despite herself as the tube expanded length- wise before exploding in a shower of light which magically rooted the Quadav to the ground. Satisfied at the performance of her binding tube, she then narrowed her eyes at her assailant as she summoned her Grimoire with a quick gesature; bright light surrounded her, and for an instant, time seemed to speed up around her. The bewildered beastman didn’t even have a chance to wonder what was happening as a massive bolt of purple lightning came bearing down on it far more quickly than any mage should have been able to cast it. A quick follow- up of a lesser spell quickly dispatched it, and Adelheid nodded as it finally stopped twitching from the electricity surging through its being.
With the distraction out of the way, Adelheid returned her attention to the fighting around her. She noticed with dismay that her men were quickly becoming overwhelmed, and as her eyes scanned the battlefield, she turned just in time to see one of her men get cut down by a Quadav’s blade.
This can’t be happening… Adelheid thought as she mentally evaluated all the elements of the predicament they were in. Why would Bastok try to eliminate her unit? It made absolutely no sense to her, and her mind raced as she felt an uncharacteristic surge of panic well up inside her.
As she tried to keep track of the positions of her men, Adelheid winced and covered her eyes as a sudden dust storm surged around her. With its intensity and sudden appearance, she wondered for a moment if the Quadav somehow had acquired the capability to cast storms, a talent only taught by the Schultz School of Martial Theory; however, the sight of one of her men coming towards her in the blinding sand brought her attention to him instead, along with the jagged gash in his right side that he was making vain attempts to cover up with his hand.
“Gregor, are you alright?!” Adelheid ran towards him, white healing magic already gathering in her hands before she even reached the blond- haired soldier. Adelheid’s eyes were met with an expression of relief and gratitude that, much to her confusion, quickly turned to regret and sadness.
“Gregor?…”
“Commander, I know that you keep telling us not to lose hope…” He sighed and glanced behind him; though the storm around them prevented anyone from seeing outside it, it didn’t stop the sounds of battle from reaching their ears. “… but I think we’re in over our heads.”
Adelheid bit her lip as she considered for a moment the consequences of her actions, and she nodded, her decision coming swiftly. “I’ll give the order to retrea-…”
“No.” Adelheid frowned at Gregor’s response and opened her mouth to retort, but she found that her words made no sound, as if her vocal chords simply didn’t exist.
“I’m sorry, Commander…” Gregor’s White Grimoire disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and the after effects of the casting of his Silence spell dissipated in green motes of light. “You heard those shellbacks… we were tricked. I don’t know why, but they mean to get rid of us somehow… you need to find out why, for everyone’s sakes.”
Adelheid stared at Gregor in shock and tried to shout words of protest, and she flailed in frustration at her inability to make herself heard.
“I’m sorry…” Gregor said again as he shook his head and placed his hand on her shoulder. “But we need to do this… Find out what the hell they’re planning and give them what for.” He smiled at her sadly. “Good luck, Commander. You’re the best leader we’ve ever had.”
Adelheid widened her eyes at the sight of Gregor’s Black Grimoire appearing over his other hand, and as his Sleep spell settled upon her, she fought to resist the effects of the sudden unnatural fatigue that was quickly overwhelming her. Her last sight before her eyes closed of their own volition was of Gregor quickly summoning his White Grimoire, and feeling another spell, one that was very familiar to her, being cast on her…
Invis-…?
A large, dried leaf flew across Adelheid’s face, and she moaned as it managed to rouse her from her sleep. She grabbed it as it caught in her hair, and she slowly sat up in the hopes that the action would clear the haze in her mind.
The memories of her last moments of consciousness suddenly came rushing back to her, and she quickly got to her feet as panic once again welled up inside her. The sun was beginning to set from her vantage point in the encampment, but the soft orange light did nothing to lessen the despair she felt as she saw the scene around her.
Bodies – both Hume and Quadav – littered the battlefield. Judging from the uneasy silence around her, the battle had ended long ago, and there was no sign of activity within the encampment. Adelheid looked in horror as her eyes met with the bodies of each of her men, the closest to her being Gregor, who had been felled by a Quadav’s axe.
At the realization that her men had sacrificed themselves so she could live, Adelheid sank down to her knees, grief and confusion overwhelming her. It was only through the effects of Gregor’s Silence spell that her cries weren’t heard, and she sobbed openly, not caring if the Quadav saw her grieving for her men.
Comments