Pony's Fury

-Chapter Roman Numeral Five-

Although she was no longer a pegasus, Rainbow Dash knew weather. She knew the smell of coming rain, the feel of each different wind, and the tingle that told her where lightning was going to fly a second before it struck. It was that, and the magic of her aerial partner that allowed her to lash out in defense and catch the lightning bolt before she pulled the energy down into her body, through its center, and out her other hand to strike the ceiling before it could hit Max. The rest of the humans in the room, the ones that had been humans all their lives, weren’t so lucky. The lighting coming from the elemental spirit hit them all, and they fell into unconsciousness after a few seconds of shaking in their boots.

The non-humanoid elemental spirits reacted at the same time. The ground underneath Twilight shifted and pulled her back while an a giant alicorn version of Sunset Shimmer’s old body came into being alongside Twilight’s wind and earth elementals that could have doubled for Rainbow and Pinkie if they had been of a different, pony tribe, coloration, and much smaller.

Dash’s own wind spirit formed right next to her, and she saw Celestia take shape while Applejack’s Mac rose up from the ground to let out a growl that sounded like rumbling rocks coming down a hillside.

“Easy children, I did not come here to fight,” the elemental woman who called herself Alera said as she held up her hands in a placating gesture.

“Coulda fooled me!” Rainbow shouted as she jumped on top of the desk Max had and glared at her. “Cause all these people-”

“Are merely unconscious,” Alera cut in. “They will awaken in a few hours with no memory of this meeting ever taking place. Now step out of the way and allow me to deal with the last of the humans, then we may…speak.”

Wonder stepped in front of her ‘mother’ with a growl as she crouched in readiness to attack. With the extra size the water pegasus had gained since the human elemental had appeared and her solid aquatic coloring, Dash guessed her little girl had been gathering moisture from the air and removing the booze from her body. “Try it hag! There’s twelve of us, and only one of you!”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Twilight’s voice boomed throughout the room. She took a second to look around, then took in the sight of the door, the strange elemental, and Max before turning her attention over to Sunset. “Just what in the name of…the great furies is all this about?”

Sunset crossed her arms over her chest and let out a satisfied sniff. “That thing appeared when you called Fluttershy from the nearest body of water. They had a little argument and Fluttershy knocked her back into the main hallway. I got between them before their fight could escalate, and decided to take care of things.”

“You attacked me under an agreement of truce,” Alera spoke.

“Like I said, take care of things.”

Twilight stomped her foot down, the action left cracks in the fury crafted ground. “That doesn’t explain anything!”

“Child, you are about to tell these little boys and girls something that should never be known,” Alera said.

The girl with the purple hair gave the elemental woman a curious frown. “What? That elemental spirits can talk? That they have just as much intelligence as you or me?”

“Certain ones, yes,” Alera replied cautiously. “And it is something that they must never know. Why do you think Gaius holds these debates? To listen to fools prattle on about something they know nothing about? Or to find someone that has a small inkling of the way things truly work, and make sure they can do no harm?”

Twilight’s fists clenched. “What?” she demanded. “You mean the First Lord knows what’s going on with the…wait a minute.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked around at the ponies. “You…you’re what’s at the bottom of the Citadel. You’re the reason why all my girls get on edge when they come in here.”

“Yes,” Alera replied. “You can tell from your own experiences that we don’t like it when others encroach upon our domain, or try to take what is ours.” She looked over the assembled spirits for a moment and sighed. “And you children do not know the dangerous game you play with…your...children.”

From his place behind the desk, Max raised his hand to speak. “Um…would someone mind telling me what’s going on?”

“This woman,” Twilight said in a steely voice before she addressed Max for a moment. “She’s the First Lord’s Fury,” Twilight explained before turning back to Alera. “Judging by your face, he must have educated you some time ago, or…was it some kind of crafting process? You hold elements of all six um…elements. There’s no way you can be natural.”

Alera responded with a shake of her head. “You misunderstand, I was created by the House of Gaius many centuries ago and made a covenant with them.”

“Is that why you’re still…you?” Twilight asked. “I mean, you aren’t broken down like the other elemental spirits we’ve seen that have spent a long time around humans, and-”

For a moment, Alera paused to look through the remaining door in the room, and then sighed. “It would seem that we are out of time. I will speak with you again at a later date Twilight Sparkle,” she said before turning to the only real human in the room that was still conscious. “You.”

As the Aleran spirit looked at Max, Rainbow gathered her magic. “You ain’t doing nothing to him you old-”

“Tell the guards that are coming there was an attempt on the First Lord’s life. Tell the them someone poisoned the drinks, but you managed to save everyone in the room when the real assassins attacked and knocked the guards unconscious from the blast that melted the wall.” On the ground, the bodies of the guards were moved around by crafting, and laid out in front of the destroyed door. “Now get your clothes, and GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

It was almost midnight as Max walked out of the Citadel, back in his normal appearance and glad for it. Dealing with the guards had been easy enough after he got Captain Miles. Talking furies, he told himself. Well…that’s new.

For a second he wondered if his lion could actually speak but…if by already deciding to make his water manifestation a lion, Max considered the possibility that he had made it so that it would never talk. Then came the question of just how smart a fury would have to be to hold a conversation.

But on the other hand, that fury…Alera she had called herself, said there was more to it than that.

Hadn't she?

“Hello Maximus,” the familiar female voice spoke, making the young man jump. He hadn’t even noticed Twilight standing beside him he had been so lost in thought. It was one of the reasons he didn’t do it too often, made Max miss the pretty girls.

But Max recovered fast enough and used his metal and fire crafting to cut down on the nervousness he felt. “Ahem. Twilight…um, where are the others?”

Twilight sighed. “Rainbow wanted to wait on your too, but I had Applejack take her back to the house. They’re both so tired. Sunset needed to go check on Gaius, so…I was the only one left to make sure you were alright. You are alright, aren’t you?”

“Fine,” Max said a little too nervously for his taste while the girl with the tanned skin and purple hair stared at him.

Twilight sighed in relief. “Good, I was worried that elemental spirit might have done something.”

A thought occurred to Max. “Why do you call furies that?”

“Why do you call elemental spirits, furies?”

Max paused with his mouth half opened. “Well…” He was going to say ‘because that’s what everyone else calls them’ but Max knew Twilight would just follow that up with another question as to why, so… “I have no idea really, it’s just what everyone calls them.”

Twilight shrugged. “Well, it’s good to see you safe at any rate,” she said before looking towards the street at the end of the Citadel’s courtyard. “I should be getting home before-Tavi?”

The shift in conversation made him blink, and Max found himself unable to stop his mouth from opening and words from forming. “You mean he’s the guy you girls picked for you four woman orgy? Come on Twilight, I’m much better than-”

“WHAT?” the girl shouted as she spun to face the boy, then kicked him in the shin. “No you idiot! He’s on the street and headed over here! I thought you said he was asleep.”

Max frowned, and looked as Twilight pointed in the direction he had been heading before the young woman showed up. The boy without furies really was in the middle of the empty street, coming at them as fast as he could with a piece of paper in his hand.

When he reached them, Max saw the letter wasn’t something pertaining to government matters. There was no seal, and it wouldn't have been opened by the boy if it had been important. Tavi gasped for breath several times, choking down air as he did. “Max…there…you are…trouble…letter…need…legionnaire…fake…message.”

Both Max and Twilight shared a pair of confused looks. “Huh?” the crafter asked before Tavi handed him the letter.

“Tavi it’s the middle of the night? How are you even awake?” Twilight asked.

The boy stared at her for a second and took in a deep breath. “With everything that’s going on, do you honestly think I have a good sleep schedule? I found this note shoved under my door.”

“Dear Tavi, this is your aunt Isana….bla bla bla…in the city, staying with Nedus on Garden lane…oh, I didn’t know you had a little sister,” Max said as he read the letter.

“I don’t,” Tavi said as he finished getting his breath back.

Twilight frowned. “Come again?”

“The letter is from my aunt, but she mentions things that don’t exist, like me having a sister, and she got my uncle’s name wrong,” Tavi told them. “I thought something was wrong, so I-”

Max’s expression turned to a mirror of Twilight’s. “Are you sure the letter is genuine? I can think of a few people who wouldn't mind catching up with you in a dark alley somewhere late at night. Brencis and his cronies being at the top of the list.”

“It's her handwriting," Tavi replied. “I'm sure of it.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side in that weird way she did whenever she got confused. “Okay so…what does that have to do with why you came and got us? I mean, if it says where she’s staying-”

“I already checked the house, my aunt isn’t there,” Tavi cut in. “The man at the door said she left to attend a party.”

“Good for her,” Max said. “You said she never married right, and her element is water? So she still probably looks real young. Let her find a rich Citizen to buy her some nice things and-”

Tavi’s face darkened. “The party is at Lord Kalare’s estate.”

Max quickly shut up, and Twilight’s brows furrowed in thought. “Wait a minute Tavi, isn’t your aunt the woman who was given a steadhold last year?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“The woman who was put on equal status as male Citizens of the Realm without a duel or military service?”

“Yes.”

“And isn’t she this prominent female figure that the Dianic League would probably want as their spokesperson? I mean, I knew where are plenty of female Citizens, but…most of them kind of cheated their way to the title with hiding their gender during military service and bribery. If they weren’t born into it I mean.”

“Yes.”

“And she’s in the house of the most sexist, slave supporting High Lord in Alera? The man who, if rumors are to be believed, not only turns a blind eye to illegal slavery, but supports it? The father of the boy that would kill you given half the chance?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. “And you want to sneak into his party?”

“Yes.”

Max turned back and looked at the Citadel for a few seconds, the memories of everything that he had just seen ran through his mind. Then he turned and faced Tavi again. “Eh, why not? Far from the craziest thing I’ve been involved with tonight. So what’s the plan?”

“This plan is stupid.”

Tavi ignored Max’s words as the trio paused outside Lord Kalare's manor on Garden Lane and studied it for a long moment, frowning. The town house of Lord Kalare was larger than the whole of his old homestead, and rose seven stories into the air. Balconies and stairs wound all over the outside of the building, thickly planted with broad-leafed plants, flowers, and small trees, all laid out in miniature gardens, complete with several beautifully lit fountains. A coachman could have driven through the house's front doors without ducking his head or being particularly careful about the position of the carriage's wheels. Wintersend streamers and bunting in the green and grey of the city of Kalare festooned every balcony railing, window, and pillar, and had been wound round twin rows of statuary that led up to the front doors.

If he had not spent so much time in the First Lord's palace in the Citadel, Kalare’s manor would have impressed him. The place was ridiculously large. The place was richly appointed, lit, gardened, landscaped, and decorated, and Tavi could not help but be uncomfortably reminded of the harlots down near the river, with painted faces, gaudy clothes, and false smiles that never reached jaded eyes.

He took a deep breath and started toward the house down its double lines of statuary. Four men in plain, common clothing walked by him. They had hard faces, wary eyes, and Tavi saw the hilt of a sword beneath the cloak of the third man. He kept an eye on them as he approached the manor, and saw a harried-looking servant come running to meet them at the street, drawing four saddled horses with him.

“You see that?” Max murmured.

Tavi nodded. “They don't look much like visiting dignitaries, do they?”

“They look like hired help,” Max said.

“But there's a valet rushing to bring them horses,” Tavi murmured.

“Cutters?”

“Probably.”

As the men mounted up, Twilight involved herself in the conversation. “What’s a cutter?”

Both boys paused and looked back on her with confusion expressions. “Are you kidding me?” Max asked. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Tavi cleared his throat. “Cutters are… a um, layman term for cheap…assassins.”

Twilight blanched and followed the group of men with her eyes. “Sorry I asked,” she mumbled before becoming hesitant. “Uh, shouldn’t we…do something about them?”

“You mean assault them in the middle of the street?” Tavi asked dryly. “Or follow them and wait for them to actually do something while my aunt is in the middle of a lion’s den?”

The girl looked back and forth between the manor and the departing group of men before she finally grit her teeth and let out a long sigh. “Okay fine, just…hurry and get back here with your aunt as soon as you can. Then we can tell the Civic Legion about what we saw. Hopefully it’ll be in time to deal with them.”

Tavi didn’t see how that was possible, but Twilight did have an odd naiveté about her, despite the girl’s intelligence. It was probably why Sunset was the group’s obvious second. One was morality, the other, practicality.

They left her waiting in the street while she looked towards the departing horsemen.

Dressed as a guard in light armor, Max was able to bluff his way in with Tavi, who held the dispatch pouch he normally carried documents in, a fine piece of blue-and-scarlet leather bearing the golden image of the royal eagle. When asked by the guards what his business was, he simply showed them the bag and said he was carrying dispatches for the First Lord and that they had to be delivered in person, under guard.

The doorman led them through more of the same lavish decadence to the gardens at the center of the manor. Tavi walked along behind the man, trying to look bored. Max's boots hit the floor with the steady, disciplined cadence of a marching legionare.

The doorman, or rather, the majordomo paused at the entrance to the garden and turned to Tavi. Shifting colored lights flickered and flashed behind the man, and the garden buzzed with conversation and music. The aroma of food, wine, and perfume drifted through Tavi's breath. “If you will tell me the name of your party, sir, I will invite them to come receive your letter.”

“Certainly,” Tavi said. “If you would invite Steadholder Isana here, I would be most grateful.”

The majordomo hesitated, and Tavi saw something shift in his eyes. “The Steadholder is no longer here, young sir,” the man said. “She departed not a quarter hour ago.”

Tavi frowned and exchanged a glance with Max. “Indeed? For what reason?”

“I'm sure I could not say, young sir,” the man replied.

Max gave Tavi the slightest nod, then rumbled, “The second missive is for High Lady Placida. Bring her.”

The majordomo eyed Max suspiciously and glanced at Tavi. Tavi gave the man a between-us-servants roll of his eyes, and said, “Please invite her, sir.”

The man pursed his lips in thought and shrugged. “As you wish, young sir. A moment.” He vanished into the garden.

“Lady Placida?” Tavi muttered to Max.

“I know her,” Max replied. “She'll know what is going on.”

“We'll need some privacy,” Tavi said.

Max nodded, then frowned in concentration and waved a hand vaguely at the air. Tavi felt a sudden pressure on his ears, sharp at first, but it subsided. “Done,” Max said.

“Thank you,” Tavi said. In only a moment, a tall woman with severe, distant features approached, wearing simple, elegant jewelry and a rich gown of a deep, compelling green, the majordomo at her elbow. She paused, studying them, and Tavi felt the weight of her gaze as palpably as the touch of a gentle hand. She frowned at him, and then frowned more deeply upon seeing Max. She dismissed the majordomo with a word and a curt flick of her wrist, and approached them.

She stepped into the area Max had protected from eavesdropping via wind furies and arched her eyebrow. Then she walked forward to stand over Tavi and murmur, “This isn't a missive from the First Lord, is it?”

Tavi opened the pouch and passed her a folded piece of paper. There was nothing written on it, but Tavi went through the motions for the benefit of those watching. “No, Your Grace. I'm afraid not.”

She accepted the paper and opened it, glancing at it as if to read. “Oh how I love Wintersend in the capital. Good evening, Maximus.”

“Good evening, my lady. Your gown is very lovely.”

One corner of her mouth quirked into a tiny smile. “It's nice to see you took my advice about offering compliments to ladies.”

“I have found it to be a most effective tactic, my lady,” Max replied.

Lady Placida arched an eyebrow, and said, “I've created a monster.”

“Ladies sometimes scream,” Max said loftily. “But other than that, I would hardly say that I was a monster.”

Her eyes hardened. “Which is something of a miracle. I know your father is on the Wall, but I expected to see your stepmother here.”

“She was forbidden,” Max said. “Or that's what I hear on the grapevine.”

“They don't write,” Lady Placida said, more than asked. “I suppose they wouldn't, though.” She folded up the letter, and offered Max a brief smile. “It's nice to see you, Maximus. But would you very much mind telling me why you've very publicly associated me with the First Lord in front of half of the Lords Council and members of the Senate?”

“Your Grace,” Tavi said. “I came here to speak to my aunt Isana. I think she's in some kind of trouble, and I want to help her.”

“So you are the boy,” Lady Placida mumbled as she narrowed her eyes in thought.

“Tavi of the Calderon Valley, Your Grace,” Max said.

“Please, lady,” Tavi said. “Can you tell us anything you know of her.”

“I would take it as a favor, lady,” Max added, and put a solid hand on Tavi's shoulder.

Lady Placida's eyebrows rose sharply at the gesture. Then she studied Tavi again, and more intently. “She was here, along with the Amaranth Courtesan, Serai. They spoke to several different people.”

“Who?” Tavi asked.

“Myself, Lady Aquitaine, any number of nobles and dignitaries. And Lord Kalare.”

“Kalare?” Tavi said, frowning.

A strident male voice boomed in the garden, and was followed by a polite round of cheering and applause.

“Well,” Lady Placida said. “It would seem that Brencis has won his duel to claim real Citizenship. What a surprise.”

“Brencis couldn't duel his way through a herd of sheep,” Max snorted. “I hate show duels.”

“Lady, please,” Tavi said. “Do you know why she left early?”

Lady Placida shook her head. “Not for certain. But they had a less than pleasant discussion with Lord Kalare immediately prior to their departure.”

Tavi glanced aside in the passageway as he felt a sudden attention on him. Two young men stood not ten feet from him, and Tavi recognized them both. They were dressed in their nicest clothes, but the bland and watery-eyed Varien and the hulking Renzo could not be mistaken for anyone else.

Varien blinked at Tavi for a second, then at Max. Then he muttered something to Renzo, and the two of them hurried away into the garden. Tavi's heart pounded. There was about to be trouble.

“How unpleasant a discussion?” Max asked.

“He struck Serai, openly.” Lady Placida's lips pressed into a firm line. “I've little use for a man who strikes a woman simply because he knows he can.”

“I can think of one or two things,” Max growled.

“Be careful, Maximus,” Lady Placida said in instant warning. “Guard your words.”

“Crows,” Tavi spat.

Both of them stopped to stare at Tavi.

“You say they left in a rush, Your Grace?” he asked.

“Very much so,” Lady Placida answered.

“Max,” Tavi said, his heart pounding, “those cutters we saw on the way in. They're going after my aunt.”

“Bloody crows,” Max said. “Aria, please excuse us?”

Lady Placida nodded once, and said, “Be careful, Maximus. I owe you my son's life, and I would hate to miss the chance to repay the debt.”

“You know me, Your Grace.”

“Yes, and that’s the problem,” Lady Placida said. She inclined her head to Tavi, smiled again at Max, then turned back to the garden, dismissing them with the same flick of her hand she'd used for the majordomo.

“Come on,” Tavi said, his voice tense, and started trotting back through the house. “We have to hurry. Can you get us there any faster?”

Max hesitated for a second, then said, “Not in quarters this close. If I tried to wind craft us both there, I'd fly us into a building for sure.” His face flushed with color. “It, uh, isn't my strong suit.”

“Crows,” Tavi spat. “But you could take yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Go. Warn them. I'll have Twilight take me.”

“Tavi, we don't know that those cutters were after her,” Max pointed out.

“We don't know that they weren't. She's my family. If I'm wrong, and she's safe, you can make fun of me for a year,” he grumbled while wanting to kick himself. Cutters, they had known those men were cutters, and yet they did nothing because they thought his aunt was in danger at a public party, surrounded by dozens of witnesses.

Max nodded sharply as they emerged from the front door. “What does she look like?”

“Long hair, dark with some grey, very thin, looks early twenties in the face.”

With the description given, Max and Tavi exited the house and looked around the empty street. The completely. Empty. Street. That didn’t have the girl with the purple hair Tavi had been expecting.

“Do you think she…” Max baited.

“I really, really hope so,” Tavi mumbled.

“Please don’t drop me, please don’t drop me, please don’t drop me,” Twilight begged Dashie as she sailed through the sky at speeds that usually ended with her crashing when she had been an alicorn. With wings. Now she had none, and it made seeing the world from up above all the more terrifying.

It didn’t help her mood that she was currently wrapped in an invisible, air alicorn version of Rainbow Dash right after she had abandoned her friends. But...Max could take care of Tavi, and...well… Okay there really is no excuse but still. I can’t just do nothing when other people are in danger! Twilight told her conscience.

Even if they weren’t ponies and did things to the spirits of the land that seemed a little too akin to what her people did back in Equestria, Twilight wasn’t about to let any of them be murdered! Especially when the one telling the killers what to do was High Lord Kalarus. The biggest monster action-wise she had met since Tirek.

“Ah you’re alone. Now I suppose would be as good a time as any to talk.”

The female voice made Twilight nearly lose her grip on Dashie, or mental grip since she really wasn’t holding anything, and she looked over to see the woman of stone, grass, and everything else floating along beside her. “You know there’s easier ways to do that,” Alera told the former alicorn. "Flying, I mean."

“Ugh! I swear your timing is as bad as Discord’s!” Twilight grumbled to herself. “Go away! I have murderers to chase!” She looked down to he ground. "Okay, find and chase."

Alera studied the girl for a moment. “I know where they’re going. If you want, I could guide you to their destination. We would get there in plenty of time, and be able to talk on the way.”

The offer was a tempting one, but…Twilight had run into such things before from beings who could just pop out of nowhere. “What’s the catch?” she asked hesitantly.

“None. There are certain...rules to the forces you are playing around with little girl. Rules you must know, or the consequences could be dire.”

For an instant, Twilight thought about just telling her to buck off, but then she looked at the empty streets below. The hired killers had disappeared long before the girl had made her choice to chase them down and...so far her efforts to find them weren’t bearing any fruit.

“Okay...start talking.”

Isana sat back in the couch as they pulled up to Nedus’s estate. Attending Kalarus’s party had been...foolish, and trying on her patience.

She had come to the capital city against her will because Gaius had wanted to show the woman off during Wintersend as his newest prize to win back the support of the League from political rivals. At least, that was what everyone was thinking. In truth, she didn’t give a rat’s ass about Gaius and would have refused the invitation just to slight him.

But that had been before the people of her home valley had been attacked by the creatures the Marat called the Vord. Isana still shuddered at the memory of the things that could take over a human host and use him like a puppet. Dogra, the leader of the biggest Marat tribe along with several others had taken heavy losses wiping out a Vord nest in the valley before enlisting the steadholders to help them locate and exterminate the second that had sprang up when three groups of the creatures had separated from the place of their hibernation.

While they were doing that, Isana had been convinced to go to the capital and inform the First Lord about what was going on. It helped that there was strong evidence that the third force of Vord was also heading to Alera Imperia to establish its own nest there. The city where Tavi currently resided.

For that, she went with the Cursor who came bearing Gaius's summons, only to find the First Lord wasn’t taking visitors for any reason, even when he was the one who summoned them. So they had to try and approach him through other channels, such as running into the man at social events he just might appear at.

So far, as she had done was meet the scariest woman in existence, and saw her Cursor guard stuck in the face so hard she was laid out on the ground by Kalarus himself because the older man just wanted to show that he could do it. After all, no one officially knew of Serai's position as one of the crown’s personal aides. All they saw was the sex slave she was supposed to be. Serai apparently preferred it that way, and played the part of the seductress so well Isana had to wonder how much of what she did was actually an act.

As Serai stepped out of the coach, the assassins came without sound or warning.

Isana heard a sudden, harsh exhalation from the driver. Serai froze in place on the stair leading out into the open air, and a frozen gale of sudden fear swept over Isana's senses. Nedus shouted, and she heard the steely rasp of a sword being drawn. There were shuffling footsteps, and the ring of steel on steel.

“Stay back!” Serai cried. Isana saw a dark figure, a man with a sword, step up close to the coach. His blade thrust at Serai. The courtesan batted the blade aside with her left hand, and the flesh of her forearm parted, sending blood sprinkling down. The courtesan's other hand flew to her hair, to what Isana had taken as the handle of a jeweled comb. Instead, Serai drew forth a slender, needle-sharp blade and thrust it into the assassin's eye. The man screamed and fell away.

Serai leaned out to catch the handle of the coach's door and began to close it.

There was a hissing sound, a thump of impact, and the bloodied, barbed steel head of an arrow burst from Serai's back. Blood flooded over the rippled silk of her amber gown.

“Oh,” Serai said, her voice breathless, startled.

“Serai!” Isana screamed.

The courtesan toppled slowly forward and out of the coach.

Isana rushed out of the coach to go to the woman's aid. She seized Serai’s arm and hauled on it, trying to draw the Cursor back into the coach. Isana slipped in Serai’s blood and stumbled. A second arrow sped past her shoulder as she did, driving itself to the feathers in the heavy oak wall of the coach.

She heard another scream to her right, and saw the old weapon instructor Nedus standing with his back to the wall of the coach, facing a pair of armed assassins, hard-looking men in drab clothing. A third attacker lay bleeding on the cobblestones, and even as Isana looked, the old metal crafter's sword whipped up into a high parry and dealt back a slash that split open the throat of his opponet.

But the blow had left the old Knight open, and the other assassin lunged forward. However, he was distracted for a second when there was a loud scream of a girl yelling at the top of her lungs before an odd blur of purple and something shiney crashed into him in a mass that sounded of broken bones.

“Well, that’s one way to land I guess. Thanks Rarity,” a girl’s voice sounded before a strange girl with oddly colored purple hair and a tunic of the same color picked herself up and looked down at the corpse of the man she had crash landed on. “Oh...that’s...not good.”

With the distraction, Nedus whirled on the last man, and seized his sword arm wrist in one hand. Instead of pushing the man away, though, Nedus simply clamped down an iron grip, and with grim determination, rammed his sword into the assassin's mouth.

Terrified, Isana pulled at Serai, struggling to get the Cursor back into the coach, before the situation could worsen. There was still an archer around somewhere, and they were out in the open.

“You!” Nedus called out at the newcomer. “Who are you girl?”

For a moment, Isana paused and looked up. She got the stranger in her sights just in time to see the arrow shoot out of the sky and...stop in midair an inch from the side of her head. “Oh I’m...gah!” she girl shouted when she noticed the air just...hovering there.

“What in the name of-”

“YOU KNOW,” the girl shouted as she looked in the direction the arrow had come from. “IF PEOPLE CAN MOVE WOOD AND METAL AROUND WITH CRAFTING, DON’T YOU THINK WE CAN STOP IT TOO?” she shouted into the air before plucking the object out of where it floated and tossing it back like a dark with the flick of her wrist. It disappeared into the night a second later, faster than a normal person’s strength should have been able to throw.

A second later, a scream of pain resounded, and a figure toppled from the rooftops.

She took a deep breath and looked around for a second before her eyes fell on the woman in Isana’s arms and gasped. “Oh my gosh! Is she…”

Isana flinched at the unasked question and looked down. Serai rolled limply to one side, her eyes open and staring. The arrow had taken her through the heart. “She’s...gone.”

“I...I’m so sorry, I didn’t-” the girl took in a deep breath and put her hand to her chest, then let it out. When she was done, she looked much more together. “I’m sorry. I need to get back to the manor before...I’m so sorry!”

Without waiting another second, she turn and ran, then bounded up into the night quickly, if a tad unsteady, leaving Isana and her apparent bodyguard Nedus behind.

Max realized the feeling the back of his head that said to come back and check on Tavi proved to be a good one when he found the boy in an alleyway that was filled with thick mist that just screamed something was going on inside. If not for that, he probably wouldn't have found the boy at all.

Tavi was pinned up against the wall by the Kalarus brat with some earth crafting that held him to the side of the building via crafted restraints, while Brencis’s two goons lay sprawled out on the ground. However, from the looks of things, whatever stroke of luck had managed to see the boy without any furies through a fight with two crafters had run out and managed to whip the last of them into a rage.

Brencis drove his fist into Tavi's belly, and though the boy managed to tighten his abdomen and let out a harsh breath in time with the blow, lessening its impact, it still drove the breath from him though from the sheer force of an earth crafter.

“You don't tell me what I must do!” Brencis shrieked, his face white with fury. “You do as I will it. You die as I will it.” He licked his lips and tightened his grip on the sword in his hand. “You have no idea for how long I've been looking forward to this.”

Well if that’s not an entrance cue, I don’t know what is, Max told himself as there was the rasp of steel when sword was drawn from scabbard. “Funny,” he said said as he came forward from the mist, legionare blade in hand. “I was just thinking that very thing.”

Brencis went rigid, and though he did not take the sword's tip from Tavi's cheek, he looked over his shoulder.

“Get away from him, Brencis,” Max ordered.

Brencis's lip twisted up into a sneer. “The bastard. No, Antillar. You get away. Walk away now, or I'll kill your little paganus friend.”

“You just said that you intend to kill him anyway,” Max said with a frown. “How stupid do I look to you?”

“BACK OFF!” Brencis screamed. “I'll kill him! Right now!”

“I'm sure you would,” Max said as he steeled himself and his expression became empty. “But then I would kill you. You know it. I know it. Be smart, Brencis. Leave.”

Brencis's body started to quiver, and he looked swiftly back and forth between Tavi and Max. His eyes were too wide, too bloodshot, and they burned with desperate, alien fire. Then they abruptly narrowed.

“Max!” Tavi shouted, struggling to warn his friend.

At the same instant, Brencis turned from Tavi, his hand extended, and fire filled the narrow alley in a sudden and deadly storm that came from nowhere and howled down upon Max.

For a second, flame consumed his world, but Max brought up his sword to absorb some of the heat and countered by spreading it out and away. The flame abruptly vanished, and left Max crouched on one knee, his left forearm up to shield his eyes, his blade still in hand. The tip of the sword glowed cherry red, and Max's clothing had been blackened and burned away in places, but he came to his feet again. Unharmed, and started walking toward Brencis. “You'll have to do better than that,” Max said quietly.

Brencis turned his back on Tavi and faced Max with a snarl. He gestured, and cobblestones before his feet tore themselves free of the ground and flew at Max in a heavy, deadly cloud.

Max lifted his left hand and clenched it into a fist, his expression grim as he countered earth with earth. One of the stone walls of the alley abruptly flowed like water, stretching out between Max and the oncoming stones. They slammed into the sheet of stone before Max, shattering into gravel as they struck. A second later, the wall snapped back into its original position. Max lowered his arm and kept walking forward.

Brencis snarled again, and a larger patch of stones began to rip their way from the ground, but Max gestured sharply at an almost-depleted pile of firewood stacked neatly against one wall, and a dozen logs, each the size of a man’s thigh, suddenly flexed and bounded toward Brencis.

Brencis released the stones he had begun to raise, and his sword blurred into a web of steel that intercepted each log and cleanly severed it, sending the pieces spinning harmlessly away. Max charged forward, sword in hand, and with a cry of frustrated anger and fear, Brencis advanced to meet him. Blades rang harshly in the alley, steel chiming, sparks flowering into drizzling clouds of fiery rain where blade met blade. The two clashed and flowed past one another, then turned to do it again and again, their movements as graceful and smooth as any pair of dancers.

He lunged, parried, stabbed and flowed through the forms he had been taught. Attacks were met with defensive parries, and counterattacks had to be blocked as the met in each pass.

Max's face twisted into confused anger after their third pass. He was a skilled fencer, taught by the best instructor in the Realm at one point in his life, but for some reason beyond his comprehension, Kalare Brencis had yet to die after three clashes. The other boy was his match, and another pair of passes resulted in more ringing steel and no blood.

Then Brencis, facing toward Tavi, gave Max an ugly smile, lifted a hand, and cast it at the boy. Fire lanced from his fingertips and screamed toward the helpless boy.

“No!” Max cried. He turned with a flick of his hand, and a wave of raw wind rose up before Tavi, holding the flames at bay, shielding Tavi from the fire.

“Max!” Tavi screamed.

There was a sharp pain in Max's back, and he looked down to see the tip of a sword emerge from his belly.

Max's face went white, his eyes wide in shock.

The blade twisted once...twice...and then it was pulled clear.

Max exhaled slowly, and crumpled to his hands and knees, fighting to stay conscious as he concentrated on the water in his own body. Sudden silence filled the alley.

“Yes,” Brencis said, panting, his eyes bright. “Yes. FINALLY!” A vicious lash of wind landed across Max's back in a line so fine that it sliced through his shirt and opened a long, bloody furrow in his skin. “Bastard!” Lash. “So smug!” Lash! “So sure of yourself!” LASH! Brencis flicked his wrist again and again, opening the horrible scars on Max's back into fresh agonies and blood.

Max let out a groan, each blow driving him farther down. But when he looked up at Tavi, he managed to keep his determined mask on. With Brencis focused on Max, the boy concentrated on the the bonds that held Tavi to the wall.

Brencis paid Tavi no attention at all, utterly focused upon continuing to lash at Max, snarling and cursing at him the entire while. Max let out a harsh groan and sagged almost completely to the ground when the last of the earth crafting was undone and Tavi was abruptly free of the stone.

The boy set his feet, flicked his knife's handle, caught the flat of its blade between his fingers, and with a practiced, instinctive motion, threw the knife at Brencis's throat. It spun end over end through the air, and Brencis didn't know it was coming until the last instant. He flinched from the knife, and its blade struck home hard, drawing blood from one of Brencis's cheeks and sinking entirely through the boy's ear. Brencis screamed in sudden pain.

Then he launched himself forward, leaping over Max and driving his shoulder into Brencis's chest. They both went down. Brencis reached for his dagger, but Tavi drove his thumb into the other boy's eye with vicious desperation, and Brencis screamed.

There was no time for thought, for technique, for complex tactics. The struggle was too ugly, elemental, brutal. Brencis got his free hand on Tavi's throat and started to squeeze, trying to crush Tavi's windpipe, but Tavi countered by getting his teeth into Brencis's forearm and biting down until blood showed. Brencis screamed. Tavi started hitting the other boy, pounding his fists down like clumsy sledgehammers while Brencis tried uselessly to bring his sword to bear in the close quarters of their grapple.

Tavi screamed and did not relent. Brencis tried to crawl away, but Tavi seized him by his braid and started slamming the other boy's face down onto the stones. Again and again he drove Brencis's face into the cobblestones, his weight on the other boy's back, until the body underneath him suddenly went limp.

And then Max sensed a new crafting, and a hammer of wind slammed into the top of Tavi’s head and threw him back, away from Brencis.

Tavi landed in a heap while Max fought to stay conscious and looked up, his head pounding with nauseating throbs while his body threatened to continue bleeding out from just the slight motion. The pain on his back was familiar and manageable, but the stab had been deep. Max saw a man emerge from the mist, dressed in green and grey.

It was the High Lord Kalare.

The man stared contemptuously at Tavi, then walked over to Brencis. He prodded his son with the tip of his boot.

“Get up,” said the lord of Kalarus, his voice seething with bitter anger. Behind him were the pathetic, hunched forms of Varien and Renzo, leaning on one another to keep from falling.

Brencis stirred, then slowly lifted his head. He sat up, his face a mass of cuts, blood, and bruises. His bloodied mouth hung open, and Max could see broken teeth.

“You are pathetic,” Kalare said. There was neither compassion nor concern for his son in his voice. “You had them. And you allowed this... freakish little nothing to overcome you.”

Brencis tried to say something, but it came out as a mush of sounds and sobs that meant nothing.

“There is no excuse,” Kalare said. “None!” He looked up at the two boys at the back of the alley. “No one can ever know that you, my son, were bested by this paganus. Never. We cannot allow word of this humiliation to leave this alley.”

His heartbeat fought to increase, but Max kept it down and steady to keep his wounds from opening up again. Self healing was hard, but it kept him from bleeding out. Still, Max knew there was no way he was going to be moving anytime soon.

Tavi tried to gain his feet, but fell a second later from his own injuries.

It was with a strangely calm resolve that Max knew High Lord Kalare was about to kill them. He watched helplessly as Kalare raised one hand and the earth began to shake around him. You know...I never did get to find out what was with those talking furies.

It was an odd thought to have before he died but...it was there.

Or maybe, it wasn’t the mystery of the furies that was what weighed on his mind, but...

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!”

A burst of harsh wind filled the alleyway and blew away the fog as it forced the High Lord to cover his eyes and made the others drop from their injuries when they tried to shield themselves. The pool of Max’s blood moved on its own, and crept up his body to cover the larger wound before the familiar tingling of a water crafter entered his body, and he felt himself pulled along the ground by an earth crafting until he was laying next to Tavi.

A second later, Twilight dropped from the sky between the boys and the High Lord, a mask of pure rage on her face.

“Well now, what have we here?” Kalare grumbled. “A little whore come to join the fun? So many of you out tonight. No matter, one more is-”

“BE QUIET!” Twilight roared with a voice so loud Max felt his intestines shake. “You...you… How dare you...you...monster!”

Kalare let out a cry of anger that Max could barely hear over the ringing in his ear and threw out his hand before the entire alleyway was consumed in fire. Max grit his teeth and tried to ready a defense, knowing it was too late.

Only...as the seconds ticked by, Max noticed that he had been alive for far too many of them. He opened his eyes, and they went wide at the giant wall of flame that abruptly stopped less than a foot from where Twilight was standing.

A second later, the flames died down, and Max caught sight of a look of surprise on the High Lord’s face before he scowled at the girl in front of him before Twilight spoke. “Is that really all you can do?”

Kalare’s face twisted into one of rage, and he pointed a finger at the young girl. The action made Max tense from what he knew was coming.

Large conflagrations were not the mark of an expert fire crafter, just a sloppy one. The true masters of the craft could create flames so hot they turned white, and send them out in contained bursts or streams that could blow and cut through anything. Against something of that level, there was no defense.

Max’s mind raced as he tried to think of something, anything, to do in order to get out of the situation but...nothing came to mind. All Twilight had done was buy them a few more moments, and it was about to cost the girl her life.

For some reason, Max found himself wondering if she had managed to track down those cutters...or just which High Lord had fathered her. Once again, it was a strange way to spend the last moment of his life, but...he found it a little bit more fitting than the last one of five seconds ago. He was thinking about a girl after all.

But then light flooded the alley, a searing, golden light that lit everything up as though the sun itself had come to Alera Imperia. The light stabbed at Max’s eyes, and he lifted his hand to shield them against it while looking to see what was going on.

Placida Aria, High Lady of Placida, stood at the other end of the alley with half a century of the civic Legion behind her. One slender arm was lifted, wrist parallel to the ground, and upon it perched the form of a hunting falcon made of pure, golden fire. That light fell onto the alley, illuminating everything there.

“Your Grace,” Lady Placida said, her voice ringing with the clarity of a silver trumpet, calm and unmistakably strong. “What passes here?”

The heat Max could feel building in the alleyway ceased. Kalare stared at Tavi for a moment with empty eyes, and then turned to face Lady Placida and the legionnaires. “An assault, Your Grace. Antillar Maximus and this...rouge have attacked and badly injured my son and his companions from the Academy.”

Lady Placida narrowed her eyes. “Indeed?” She looked from Kalare to the boys on the ground, to Brencis, Renzo, and Varien. “And you observed this assault?”

“The last of it,” Kalare said. “Swords were drawn. Antillar was trying to murder my son with his whore after badly beating these other boys. My son and his friends can all testify to the facts.”

Twilight stomped her foot into the ground. “YOU LIAR!”

“Girl,” Kalare snapped, fury in his voice. “This is Citizens' business. Hold your tongue.”

“No! I wil not-” The air suddenly wavered, and Twilight stopped for a moment, choking her for a second before the air waved again and there was a snapping sensation. “I will not allow you to stand here after you tried to murder my friends and sent killers to another man’s house tonight!”

“Girl,” Lady Placida said in a cold voice. “You will hold your tongue. The High Lord is quite correct. This is Citizens' business.”

Twilight seethed at the other woman, and turned back to Kalare. “In that case, I call you a liar and an attempted murder! A piece of trash that needs to be burned away! You, and your siv of a son! I spit on your name, and everything you stand for, and I hereby take my right as a powerful fury crafter of Alera, and challenge you to juris macto for the title of Citizen!”

Silence filled the the alleyway for a good ten seconds, and Kalare’s expression turned to a frown. “What?” he asked in a soft, yet gruff voice.

“You heard me you piece of cow feces,” Twilight went on in an even tone. “You can turn me down of course, but then everyone will know that the High Lord of Kalarus ran away from a little girl. I bet they’ll even be plays and songs about it. Think of it…

Twilight’s rather...melodious voice filled the alleyway for a few seconds, and despite the beauty of it all, there was also a mocking tone to it as well.

Brave brave Kalarus
He wanted to make her pay
But brave brave Kalarus
Instead he ran away

“You’ll be famous,” she teased darkly. “Your whole pathetic family line will remember the man that ran away from a little girl.”

Kalare seethed at the girls wods, and for a moment, Max thought he was going to try and strike her down right then and there. Lady Placida tensed and raised her blazing sword. The guards backed away.

Then, Kalare’s trembling stopped, and he took in a deep breath, obvious using metal and fire crafting to keep himself under control. “Very well then little girl, I judge you worthy of the attempt, and accept your challenge,” he said as a smile crossed his face. “We will have the duel at my estate in the next ten minutes.

“Now take that trash away,” he said while pointing to Max.

Twilight’s face twisted into one of shock, and she looked back at Lady Placida. “What? No, you can’t! He’s lying about the assault! I challenged him to a duel! You can’t accept his accusations! They’re lies!”

“I know that girl,” Placida told Twilight sadly. “But until that can be proven, one way or another, Max must be taken into custody.” Her hardened features became those of a normal woman in the throes of sadness. “You stupid little girl, why? You’ve just thrown your life away!”

Confusion covered Twilight’s face. “What’re you talking about?”

Lady Placida stood still for a moment in shock. “Don’t you even know what you’ve done? That man is going to kill you! Crows! He’s going to do it in front of his friends, and make it a spectacle!”

“No he’s not,” Twilight replied, still oblivious.

“What in the name of the great furies makes you say that you-you stupid child?” the woman demanded.

“Because he’s the one who’s going to die. I’m going to be the one to murder him, and I'll do it in front of all his stupid, slaver friends."