Pony's Fury

-Chapter Roman Numeral Six-

Twilight stared at the campfire as the flames danced outside of the cave that had been their home/base camp for the past several days. The air was biting at the uncoated parts of her human body and she longed for her turn to sleep inside with the others but…someone had to be on lookout for the wolves they had heard the night before. Part of the girl whined that she was a princess, and thus deserved a full night’s sleep while the others could have stood guard, but Twilight’s mind quickly reminded her that it was her fault they were in this precarious position in the first place and princesses took responsibility for their actions. They protected their friends. And did everything in their power to make the ponies under them as happy as possible.

After forcing down another pang of guilt about her decision to go to this world that ended up trapping her them all in alien forms without magic, avoiding the temptation to spend every waking moment to just try figuring out just why the mirror she had transported through the interdimensional tunnel didn’t work, and blinking back tears that threatened to come pouring out when she thought of the look Rainbow and Applejack had on their faces, Twilight focused on the task at hand. They couldn’t simply stay in a cave for the duration of their stay here, she needed to think of something to do.

She knew magic was an operable force on Alera. She had seen it work herself in the human town. It wasn’t much compared to what she was used to, but Twilight had seen people move water without touching it, she felt the tingle of magic at the local blacksmith’s shop, saw another man light fires with his fingers, and several examples of ‘crafted’ stone houses that were all just one big piece of impossibly shaped rock. But any attempts to use her kind of magic had left Twilight with nothing more than a migraine and a strained set of muscles.

The books she brought in town on the subject of crafting, which insisted that it was not magic but a phenomenon that had even less of an explanation that anything Celestia had ever given her, weren’t all that helpful in understanding how to tap into her new type of mystical energy. In fact, the little explanations they did give were horrifying! Apparently, humans took years to just gain the basics of their abilities, a timeframe that could be anywhere from five to fifteen!

It was something she and Sunset had decided to not share with Rainbow or Applejack until they found a way to get them out of their depression.

Twilight let out another sigh. As much as she hated to say it… “I’m just thankful Sunset’s here,” she told the empty air. Without her, they would have actually tried eating flowers and would never have been pushed into eating meat. She might have said how human’s ate cow as a joke to Applejack before being stranded, but now that they were…Twilight had to admit that the only way they were going to get a proper amount of human nutrition was to ingest the parts of cows, pigs, birds and…well, eating fish wasn’t all that bad.

“You say something Princess?”

Sunset’s voice coming from behind her made Twilight jump a little, and she turned back to look at the other girl. “Oh…Sunset. Um…what’re you doing out here? Couldn’t sleep?”

“Wasn’t really tired,” she said. “It’s weird. Ever since we got here, I’ve kind of been…I dunno…I’m not really full of energy, but I haven’t felt tired when I needed to be alert.”

Twilight blinked at the description. It was…eerily similar to how she had felt for the past two days, actually. “Only when we do lay down to get some sleep, it hits you like a ton of bricks and you’re out like a light?”

Sunset frowned back at her. “You too?”

The coincidence was odd, but… “Rainbow and Applejack seem to be having the opposite happen to them.”

“I noticed,” she mumbled while looking down at the ground. “They’re not sick though. No fevers, and plenty of what we brought in that little lab of yours can double to test for disease. They’re just…depressed.”

Twilight lowered her head in shame. “Can you blame them?” she asked her advisor. “Rainbow can’t fly and Applejack…buck Sunset, they’re both missing family just being here! And you-”

Sunset snorted and looked over to the former mare with a steady gaze before she spoke in an even tone. “I’ve got all the family I need right here.”

The statement froze Twilight in mid-sentence, and she let out a sigh. “Sunset…I know you. Your advice usually comes at the top of your lungs, and is delivered two inches from my ears. I know you’re angry. I…I know you blame me, and I-I know it’s my fault.”

The admittance seemed to open a floodgate inside Twilight’s mind, and all of a sudden guilt started to come pouring it. It didn’t start with a trickle. She was hit fullon by the by the fact that she had separated her friends from the ponies they loved, cripples them, ruined their lives! Twilight took in breath after breath as just how uncaring a pony she was became self-evident when the facts were presented in her mind.

“Stop it,” Sunset told her evenly as her fists clenched.

Ignoring her advisor’s advice, the former alicorn just continued on. “I should have checked my readings better. I s-should have investigated more. I should have left with more than a two-hour window. Why? Why did I have to even stay more than a day? We got everything I wanted, all the books, all the samples, all-”

“Oh shut up already!” Sunset shouted as she jumped to her feet and raised her hands halfway in claws like she was going to strangle Twilight. “Stop beating yourself about this! It was an accident! It’s over and done! There’s no changing anything! But we’re still here sitting in a hole in the ground, waiting for you to make a decision when I can hear wild animals howling at our doorstep!

“We sit here for days, and days, and days just waiting on you to give us a direction! “Should we stay here? Should we go into town? Just give up and kill ourselves? You’re the princess. You’re the one with the wings. You’re the one with the crown! You’re the Leader! So lead! Make decisions!

“Just stop sitting here kicking yourself and DECIDE SOMETHING!” Sunset shouted in the other girls face before she threw her hands down in a frustrated yell.

As she did, the fire behind them roared, and became a column of flame, making both girls jump back in surprise and fear. A second later, the roaring tower of fire shrank back down to its normal levels, and Sunset tensed, her hand closed around Twilight’s.

“Um…did I do that?” the redhead asked.

“I’m…not sure,” the purple-haired girl replied.

Twilight cleared her thoughts of the past as she made her way back towards the house of Lord Kalare from Kalarus. Even after seeing crafted stone for so long, it was still a little odd to find a building such as what she saw, just one giant piece of rock done partially in the classic pegasus style. Never did get that connection, she mused while looking at some of the pillars in the gardens that were visible from the outside.

“Girl! Are you even listening to me?”

Twilight turned her head and looked over to High Lady Phacia and blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry, I...got distracted.”

The woman sighed, and shook her head. “I just told you how you’re going to survive this,” she went on as they made their way to the large yard in front of the man’s house that was inclosed within his walls. “Since you apparently have some talent with fire crafting, attempt to draw the power away when Kalare first tries to kill you. You won’t be able to stop him, but it will buy you the second or two you need to surrender.”

The suggestion helped remind Twilight just why she had stopped listening to the woman back in the alleyway. It was moving that this stranger of such a high rank would be concerned about another stranger she had just met, but...the consequences of such an action jumped to the forefront of Twilight’s mind. She hadn’t been as bored in her Aleran Law class like somepony turned person that had red hair and a loud mouth.

“That would invalidate my testimony and get me sent to jail for bearing false witness against a Citizen,” Twilight told her. “Not to mention slander of a High Lord. Oh, and I suppose assault on Brencis too, since I was supposed to have done that as well.”

Placida frowned at her. “You’ll at least be alive.”

Thanks to Rarity, Twilight was able to keep her tone neutral and her body from shivering at the thought the option created. She had a feeling she’d be beeding the embrace of the metal spirit a great deal tonight. “Inside a little box for the rest of my life, cut off from my...furies, and Kalare will walk away from attempted murder along with his son, and his two friends. All because they have money, and a name.”

“That is the way of the world,” Placida told her.

Even steeled as she was, Twilight couldn’t stop her teeth from clenching. That was probably the thing she hated about humans the most. While there were bad ponies in Equestria, nopony just sat around and just accepted what they did with a shrug when they had the power to change things. Nopony, not even the princesses would just be able to just...get away with cold blooded murder like Kalare had been about to do.

But within Alera, even the rules were different. Bad things happened, everyone complained about it, but nothing was done to fix it. Even good people like Tavi and Max, who had seen those murderers walking down the street, just...shrugged and gone on about their business because it didn’t concern them.

Everyone knew how horrible Kalarus was, and even had ways to fix the problem that was his continued cognitive function. A High Lord could challenge him to a duel, the Legions could overwhelm his city with numbers, the First Lord could...do...well, something before he had fallen unconscious! But instead, everyone just let him do as he pleased.

Because it didn’t concern them. Because it was too risky. Because they made money off his cruelty. Because none of them really cared to do anything about it.

Well not me, Twilight told herself as they finished moving through the house and came out into the back yard where the party was still going strong.

People were gathered in small groups, talking about whatever nothing was important to them. There was a long table set out with numerous orderves and the strange drinks that Twilight and the others had sworn off after experimenting with a few nights upon entering Alera Imperia and awakening with skull splitting headaches, little memory of the night before, and disgusting vomit all over their house. Then the crowd noticed the return of the High Lord and his spawn, and the presence of the High Lady, backed by several members of the Imperial Civic Legion that held Max. Tavi was outside the knot of soldiers.

Conversations stopped and people turned to look at the group with confused frowns and murmurs. A few seconds later, High Lord Kalare addressed his guests. “My fair ladies and gentlemen, it seems that tonight, we have yet another duel for one of the people of Alera to claim the title of Citizen! Please, come and watch as this,” he said before getting to Twilight. A second later his expression became dark along with his voice. “Young girl attempts to claim a position meant for her betters.”

There was some confused mumbling in the crowd, but every now and then Twilight caught sight of a dark grin, a hungry lick of the lips, or a dry washing of hands that obviously signified anticipation of some sort.

“He’s going to make a show of this,” Placida told Twilight.

A bit of revulsion ran through Twilight’s mind at the thought. Killing wasn’t something that should have...spectators. It was a dark and dirty thing that still churned Twilight’s stomach when she pushed away the help of her friends and let it. But, as much as she ran the situation through her mind, Twilight could find little to solve the problems that had appeared because of the course of events.

If things had been different, if she had stayed on the street and waited for the boys, the circumstances of the moment she was in right now would undoubtedly be different. Max probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt, and...it was completely possible that Brencis could have been forced into backing down without a fight. Instead, she went to help strangers, and returned just in time to save Max’s life.

That was what had set her on her current path and presented the option to either go to prison under the command of a High Lord, or call him out and fight for the title of Citizen, and more importantly, her continued freedom.

There was an excited murmur in the crowd, and the collection of people in scattered groups began to turn into an audience while Twilight spun to face the group of law enforcement soldiers. “Max, can I borrow your sword? I don’t really have one.” she said before a thought occurred to her. “Wait, do we even need weapons for a duel when we have crafting?”

“Well...it is traditional,” Max joked with a nervous laugh before his face became serious. “But listen, do like Lady Placida says Twilight. Slow him down for a second, and then give up. The First Lord can sort this all out in a few days.”

Twilight sighed and held out her hand. “Just give me the sword.”

The blade was handed to her by a guardsman. The weight was a bit more than the practice weapon she had played with in the back yard with Rainbow a couple of times, heavier, and much more dangerous. Twilight looked back over to Max when he coughed to get her attention. “Do you even know how to use that thing?”

“Sort of, I tried having a practice fight with Rainbow once, but she wouldn’t follow the rules so we had to quit,” Twilight grumbled as she remembered that particular experience.

Max’s face took on a frown and his tone gained an edge of anger. “Rules?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied with an annoyed frown as she remembered the incident. “She wasn’t using any of the forms that I’d seen in a book I got on sword fighting the day before. It was all just her swinging her sword around so fas-”

“Listen to me!” Max cut in harshly. “The only rule in a duel are once it starts is that one person dies and the other person kills him, unless she surrenders before he can. The second it starts, give up.”

Twilight groaned, but a second later she took in in a deep breath and let it out like Cadence had taught her. Max was just concerned for her health, she knew that. It didn’t have to do with a belief in ones friends, it was more of a concern for their wellbeing and mental stability. If she had been in his sandals, Twilight would probably have the same opinion as he did right now.

But she wasn’t.

She had talked with Alera.

And now Twilight knew the rules of the game better than he did.

After taking a moment to try and think of a way to reassure Max and coming up empty, Twilight let out a long sigh, and looked over to the boy outside the ring of guards. “Tavi, make sure Max doesn’t do anything stupid, would you? I don’t want him trying to jump in and getting himself hurt.”

Before the boy could reply, the ground rumbled beneath them, and Twilight turned to look as a whole section of the back yard’s grass was covered by dirt that just bubbled up and formed a square area a foot higher than the area around it. A another crafting quickly turned it into solid stone. It was a showy, yet controlled use of magic, and she found at least some comfort in the fact Kalare was following at least some protocols.

Even if they were the ones for public murder.

As per the rules, as the challenger, Twilight had to appear in the ring first. She simply walked to the center of the back yard were Kalere had set up his arena and stepped up inside. As Kalare made his way to the cleared area, Twilight took a moment to study him.

He was not a particularly imposing figure of a man. Tall, but thin, and his eyes always seemed sunken in shadows, giving his face a gaunt, stark look, his hair hung straight, fine, and limp. He looked...dark, like some kind of thing Twilight expected to leap out of the shadow’s back when she was in Equestria and take little foals who didn’t finish their math homework.

For a moment, Twilight was struck by the oddity of his name. Like his son, the man was also called Kalarus Brencis, and held the title of High Lord of Kalare, which most people simply addressed him as. Although, she never quite understood why. Even though humans passed half their names along family lines, if the family was important enough, Twilight couldn’t fathom why the father would give his son his full name.

But then, human names were weird compared to ponies, who always had a name associated with their looks, or in a rare instance when their parents were hit by a wave of inspiration, their destiny.

The answer could lay in the differences of the species psyche. Like how humans always had half their legs in the past, burdened by the constant reminder of what had been, and ponies moved towards the future by forgiving transgressions...at least the forgivable ones at any rate.

“So little girl, being the challenged party in this duel, I believe I set the terms,” he said before Twilight cut in.

“Then make it to the death already,” she spoke before raising the volume of her voice for anyone that wasn’t listening in with wind magic. “Or do you think this little girl is too much of a threat for the pathetic Kalarus?”

From the corner of her eye, Twilight became aware of the conversations that had still been going on even after Kalare’s display suddenly stopping at her words. Some of the the guests regarded her curiously, while others looked like they were trying to locate a means of escape. At least some of the people had enough morals not to watch a murder as it was done right in front of them.

As for the High Lord himself, if looks could kill, Twilight was pretty certain she could have died right then and there.

“Very well,” he said before turning to the crowd. “Do we have a volunteer to officiate?” he called out to be met by silence from the crowd. “Come now, this is simply another duel for Citizenship! Another show to entertain. You come to my parties, drink my mine, eat my food, insult me with your-”

“Oh very well,” a female’s voice shout out loudly, if almost bored. “I volunteer.”

Twilight saw movement out of the corner of her eye as the crowd parted, and watched as a woman in red walked out of the throng of humans. She was probably in her late twenties, as Fluttershy could tell there wasn’t any water magic holding her to a different form, with long limbs and slightly pale skin. Her hair was naturally black, and done up in pins.

Kalare’s lips became a sneer. “Aquitaine. How good to see you here. I hope you pay special attention.”

“What is this...frivolity about Kalarus?” the stoic woman asked before she glance over at Twilight for a moment before turning her attention back to the older man. “Who is this girl?”

He gave the woman a wolfish smile. “Why, merely a demonstration, Your Grace. I hope you pay close attention.”

For a moment, Twilight found her old habits pulling at her, and she needed to force herself to resist introducing herself to Invidia Aquitaine, the wife of Kalarus’s major political rival and perhaps next First Lord of Alera. Rarity and Sunny helped her keep her cool.

“This piece of trash attempted to murder me not ten minutes ago, along with two other boys, and sent a pack of murderers to kill a pair of women and an old man” Twilight explained. “As such, I challenged him to a duel of honor, with the prize being my Citizenship.”

Invidia raised an eyebrow. “Well, that was very stupid of you little girl.”

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken Your Grace,” Twilight replied evenly as she remembered to use a respectful title for the woman. “I made him mad, and he did exactly what I wanted. That makes him the fool for accepting.”

Kalare, apparently angry at being so ignored, let out a breath between his teeth that launched a little bit of spille in the air. “Be silent, both of you. As the challenged, I declare this duel will be to the death!”

For her part, the woman didn’t even bat an eye. “Very well. Allow me to examine the blades.”

Twilight looked down at the woman standing on the grass. “What for?”

“Poison my dear.”

The response shook Twilight a little, but she complied and a few seconds later, was holding Max’s sword once again and Invidia addressed her. “Take five steps back from the center of the dueling ground.The battle will begin when I count down from ten.”

As Twilight took her position, Kalar licked his lips. “I’m going to make you beg.”

“Ten.”

“Roast you alive.”

“Nine.”

“Beat you to within an inch of your life.”

“Eight.”

“Cut off your arms.”

“Seven.”

“Break your legs.”

“Six.”

“Shatter your teeth.”

“Five.”

“Rip out your eyes.”

“Four.”

“And as you're lying there.”

“Three.”

“Hearing the bastard and the freak.”

“Two.”

“Scream your name.”

“One.”

“I’m going to rape you.”

“Begin!”

The old man threw out his hand in a sweeping motion, and Twilight’s word was consumed in flames.

From his place on the sidelines, Tavi cursed his lack of furies for about the millionth time in his life. Although Brencis’s toadies went down thanks to the two of them underestimating him, the High Lord’s son had disabled Tavi with his earth craft and forced Max to come to his rescue. Once again, he hadn’t been able to do anything because he couldn’t control the elements like every single other person in Alera, and now people were going to die because of it.

Max was destined for jail, and without him to double as Gaius while the old man recovered, the Crown would either lose too much power with the Citizens, or be found out entirely. As for Twilight…

“Stupid girl, I told her to try and slow down his crafting and surender,” High Lady Placida muttered before a beam of white hot fire shot from the man’s hand in an upward slicing motion.

Then, a second before it struck the girl with the purple hair, a conflagration of golden flame enveloped Twilight to intercept the white-hot fire before the world went white. A roaring voice seemed to reverberate in Tavi’s ears, and when he looked again, Tavi saw a large horse-like creature made of flames standing between Twilight and High Lord Kalere.

Like the manifested furies he had seen before from the girls on rare occasions, it was a large horse-like creature that had legs that looked a bit too bulky and short for its size, but with wings and a horn. Obviously a fire fury, the thing’s body was composed of mostly golden flames, but hair was more red in coloration, except for the odd strip or two of yellow that seemed to be even brighter than the fury’s ‘coat’.

As the white hot fire continued to bombard Twilight’s fury, the flaming beast reared its head and its horn shone with a blinding light before there was a bright flash and a stream of equally white hot flame shot forth from the fury’s horn to strike at Lord Kalere.

The older of the two combatants cried out as he dived with winborn speed out of the way of the counterattack, completely cutting off his assault before he rolled to his feet and raised his hand towards Twilight again. “Stupid bitch!”

Twilight stood her ground while the fire fury moved aside, and Tavi held his breath as he waited for the second attack to come.

And waited.

And continued to wait.

In the makeshift arena, the old man’s breath became visible in the late Winter air.

“That’s...not...possible,” High Lady Placida mumbled in shock.

A second later, they were joined by the tall woman that Kalarus had chosen to officiate the duel. She had slowly backed away when the fighting began, and hadn’t stopped until she reached the crowd. “Placida, who is that girl?”

“I’m not really sure, to be honest,” the other woman replied with her usual level of calm restored before the combatants started up again.

Kalere planted his feet, and the ground heaved so much Tavi saw the stone floor shift around enough to be mistaken for water in a pool. Twilight fell and caught the ground with her free hand to steady herself as she put her feet back under her. As soon as she did, the trembling slowly subsided, and another fury rose from the ground.

Like the first, the new fury was equine in shape, with an exaggerated head, oversized eyes, a horn, wings, and...the oddest of manes that looked more akin to a cloud with how puffed up it was; with a tail to match. Like the other fury, as soon as it manifested, it simply stood there.

“That’s two,” Twilight spoke in a neutral tone. “I’ll give you one more chance.”

The judge of the event let out a half-calculating, half-amused hum before speaking. “Oh my, I’m afraid that is going to send poor Kalare over the edge, wouldn’t you say?”

“What?” Tavi asked as he looked over to the woman before remembering himself. “Do you mean by that, if I may ask, Your Grace?”

The tall woman studied him for a moment, and then raised an eyebrow. “Ah yes. I suppose you wouldn’t know much about that, now would you child?” she replied before looking back to the match. “In a battle between fury craters, it is the ultimate insult to your opponent's abilities to completely neutralize your their crafting.”

“Mostly because it requires a great deal of control...and superior strength,” Lady Placida added.

What was left unsaid became clear to Tavi in an instant. “But...Kalarus is a High Lord.”

“Precisely,” both the woman spoke as once.

Back on the battlefield, Kalarus Brencis, High Lord of Kalare, took a look at his gladius that had been covered in frost, and then let out a scream of mixed fury and desperation as he charged the girl with the purple hair. Fury-borne speed let him cover the fifteen feet between them in an instant, and he whipped his sword out from behind him in a powerful overhead smash. The whole action took place in the blink of an eye.

For her part, Twilight let out a scream that sounded more frightened than anything else. What had to be instinctual reaction brought her arm up to block the blow. Her unarmored, unarmed left arm that didn’t even hold her gladius.

The weapon came down on the unprotected girl’s skin, and Tavi could hear several people’s breath suck in when it struck.

Then, the blade shattered at it impacted Twilight’s arm, which had become a piece of metal in the instant steel had touched it.

Lord Kalare stumbled forward as Twilight’s sword became a shining star unto itself, a mass of heat that Tavi could feel even as far back as he was from the battle.

And she jammed it straight into the man’s chest before he could recover.

A hush fell over the crowd as they froze at the sight. Despite having a blade in him, Kalare slumped forward and there was a sizzling sound as he fell to his knees, Max’s lent gladius cutting through his body like a hot knife through butter as he did until it passed his collar and was freed.

The man that had been halfway sliced in two from the chest up remained on his knees for a moment, and Tavi found himself wondering why there was no blood. Did the heat from the sword sear the wound closed?

Then Twilight brought up her free hand of metal that could apparently still move, and grabbed onto the man’s hair to hold him up. Then she swung the searing sword in her other hand again to lop off Kalare’s head.

The dead man’s body fell down to the ground as it were a puppet with its strings cut, and Twilight held his head aloft in her metal arm as she turned to look at the crowd. She took a deep breath, and raised the dead High Lord’s head as high as she could. “Friends...and guests of Kalare, or Kalarus, or...whatever!” she said before turning to face another direction. “Take a good. Long. Look.”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, and THIS!” she shouted while shaking the severed head and turning to face each of the for direction. “Is what happens to ANYONE, THAT THREATENS THE LIVES AND FREEDOM OF MY FRIENDS!”

All around him, the crowd of observers froze.

No one breathed, Tavi included.

They simply stood there, staring at the impossible sight of what was presented to them, and the impossible moments that had been leading up to it. A little oddball of a girl that had her nose in a book more often than not, who advocated non-violence more than any of the other girls Tavi knew had just walked into Kalare’s party, fought him in a duel, completely overpowered him, and chopped off the man’s head.

A High Lord had just died, and Twilight Sparkle was the one responsible.

She had killed a High Lord.

Then the moment passed, and a sea of excited, terrified, confused, and angry murmurs began.

Some people turned and left the party so quickly that they forgot running wasn’t proper decorum. A few managed to applaud, if rather uneasily. Several became pale, and there was some retching from the citizenry that put a little of the fancy food that had been taken from the buffet table back onto the ground. Others outright fainted, with some just acted as if they had seen their own deaths.

Twilight tossed the head aside, and her furies returned from which they came while she turned to face the direction Tavi was standing. “High Lady Aquitaine. If you would do the honors. There are rules to this sort of thing you know.”

Once again, Tavi froze at Twilight’s words.

The tall woman next to Tavi chuckled. “Oh very well,” she said before spreading her arms wide. “Due to Lord Kalarus’s...situation. As officiator, I hereby declare...Twilight Sparkle a Citizen of the realm, with all duties and privileges thereof.”

He slowly turned his attention to the woman with the dark hair standing next to him, shock still keeping him from doing much else. Aquitaine, one of two high nobles that had engineered a barbarian invasion of his home valley a year ago. Although the whole thing had ended in a truce with the Marat, hundreds of people had died, and Tavi had nearly been killed in more than five separate occasions because of rouge furies, a trial against a Marat girl named Kitai, and the battle of Second Calderon where his life had been in constant danger.

And now, she was standing right next to him and...judging by her earlier words, knew exactly who he was.

Tavi found his fingers wrapped around the hilt of his knife, unsure of what to do. The Aquitaine family were monsters that had engineered the deaths of several people he had grown up with, not his friends. In fact, the vast majority of those people were his tormentors more often than not, but they had still been people.

And Invicta Aquitaine was the person responsible for their deaths. Everyone knew it, yet she had...gotten away with it. The same way Kalare would have gotten away with what he had been attempting to do.

“So now what?”

Tavi jumped at the sound of Twilight’s voice, his hand released its grip on his knife, and he found Twilight standing next to him, but addressing High Lady Placida.

“Now I take you into custody for assault on Brencis,” the woman told Twilight, whose face turned to shock.

“WHAT? But I just-that duel was completely legal!”

“Brencis Minor,” Placida stressed. “Although I wouldn’t worry. A competent judge would have thrown the whole case out before this...mess. Now, since your main accuser is…” She looked up, and apparently not even fury craft could keep the unease from her face. “...dead. You’ll be out inside and free within forty-eight hours.”

Twilight frowned, the took in a deep breath and turned to point her gladius at the boy in question and his friends. “In that case, as a Citizen of Alera, I accuse these men of being accomplices to the attempted murder of Antillus Maximus by the former High Lord Kalare!”

The wind whipped through the yard at her words, and Brencis glared at the girl. Despite his lack of teeth from when Tavi had beaten him in the face, he managed to form words between terrified, angry breaths. “No! You bitch! I’ll kill you!” he shouted as the air around the boy and his friends began to waver from the incoming firecrafting.

“Don’t do it you idiot,” Twilight warned as her eyes narrowed.

Tavi stood frozen as Brencis prepared to unleash a barrage of flames on the crowd, and his eyes moved to the severed head of the dead boy’s father while a lesson at the Academy on furycrafting came to mind. When people of extraordinary crafting talents died, they were able to pass on the furies bound to them to someone else, usually a son or daughter, thus passing on their strength.

And Brencis’s father had just been killed.

A second after Twilight spoke, the boy threw out his hands. People screamed and ran as Brencis unleashed a gout of flame, and then screamed as the place he and his friends were standing in became consumed in a comflaguragion that rose into sky, like a tornado that had been set aflame.

Moments after it began, the flames died out, and three charred corpses littered the ground.

“What,” High Lady Aquitaine spoke, confusion entering her voice. “What just happened?” She looked down at Twilight and frowned. “You...that wasn’t a fire crafting, at least not from you.”

Twilight let out a sigh and shook her head. “That fool, I warned him not to.”

From her place besides the Civic Legion, Lady Placida stepped forward. “What did you do?”

“Considering who he was, I thought he might cheat during the duel, so I had my...air fury create a zone of highly oxygenated air around him in case Brencis tried to attack me from behind with fire. He didn’t seem like the subtle type,” Twilight explained.

Tavi frowned. “Highly what?”

The girl with the purple hair looked back at the boy, and looked up in through for a few seconds before answering. “I made the air as flammable as oil. It’s a very subtle crafting, moving only the tiniest pieces of air, so it’s hard to detect.”

As the implications of such a statement sunk in, Twilight turned to Lady Placida. “So...what now?”

“I still need to take you in girl,” she said before looking to the dead High Lord, then to the charred corpses of his son and friends. “But considering all your accusers are now dead, and the only witness left is the boy they were undoubtedly trying to kill. Not even the most corrupt magistrate could manage to judge you guilty and not end up in the cell next to you.”

Twilight’s expression slipped a little, and she looked over to the young man that was currently surrounded by the civic legion. “And Maximus?”

“He as well.”

“But that’s stupid!” Twilight exclaimed, showing more emotion than she had since coming into the High Lord’s mansion.

Placida frowned at her. “It’s the law.”

“It’s outdated, foolish, inane procedure that has no point!” Twilight yelled back. “It...it…” She slowed down as she took deep breaths between each word. “You know what happened, we all know what happened, but…”

Under the High Lady’s gaze, Twilight let out a long breath, and took another look back at Max before returning her attentions to Placida. “One or two days? It will just be one or two days?”

“You have my guarantee,” the woman replied.

Twilight let out a long breath. “Fine,” she relented before turning to face Tavi. “Since Rainbow and A are probably asleep, go back to...go tell Sunset what’s going on, and tell her I said to wait for this mess to sort itself out.”

The order made Tavi need to tighten his fists to keep from becoming too emotional. “Twilight...without Max…”

Before he could continue, the girl with the purple hair silence him with a frown. “There’s nothing we can do about that at the moment. Worrying about it won’t do any good. Concentrate on what we can do. I’ll see you in two days.”

With that, Twilight handed over her borrowed sword, and was eventually placed under arrest by several extremely nervous legionnaires.

Fidelias was a careful man, most of the time, one did not survive as a Cursor for several years as well as more than a year after betraying a group of secret spies and assassins without being cautious.

He opened the door of the room and stepped aside, letting in a haze of smoke and incense, the sound of reed pipes, and the low murmur of human sound that drifted through the halls of the brothel like cheap perfume. The cloaked and hooded figure on the other side slipped into the room and drew back her hood. Invidia Aquitaine looked around the room, her expression remote, and while she felt around her for any intrusive fury craftings as she always did when they met, Fidelias shut and locked the door.

Lady Invidia nodded to herself in satisfaction, and Fidelias felt her own fury craftings rise up to keep their conversation private. Her voice was low, tense, and her eyes looked strained. “What happened? The streets were a madhouse of rumors.”

“Kalare's men followed them back to Sir Nedus's manor,” Fidelias reported. “Four cutters and an archer. They attacked as Isana dismounted from the carriage.”

Invidia looked at the very still form lying on the room's bed. “And?”

“Sir Nedus killed three of them, and a newcomer dealt with the rest,” Fidelias explained.

Invidia’s eyes darkened for a moment. “What do you mean newcomer? A guard from Nedus’s home?”

Fidelias shook his head. “No she was a strong fury crafter that just...well...she fell from the sky and crashed into one of the cutters, killing him,” the man explained. “To be honest, it looked like just a complete oddity of fortune to me, but the archer tried to shoot her and...something strange occurred.”

“Explain,” Invidia ordered.

“The assassin tried to shoot her, but the arrow never reached the girl,” Fidelias went on. “Then she threw it back at him. It stuck him in the chest, in the heart. Most likely he was dead before he hit the ground. It was like...what a Knight Flora, only without the bow."

The High Lady Aquitaine’s face furrowed in thought for a moment. “This girl, did she have an odd hair coloring, with a...bright streak of pink in the middle of it?”

Fidelus found himself surprised. It was not often his employer was the one to give him information. “You...know of her?”

“Apparently, after she foiled Kalarus’s assassination attempt, she challenged him to a duel...for Citizenship of all things,” the woman went on. “She killed him, and his son when Brencis tried to...well, avenge his father I guess.”

The world spun. “She...what?” Fidelus managed as he fell to his chair.

Lady Aquitaine crossed her arms and sighed. “It would appear that Isana has already found some form of protection, so we can no longer offer it to her. Not that she matters anymore. With the death of Kalere... The League will be foaming at the mouth by the time this girl gets out of the Black Tower in two days. I will contact my husband, with Kalare gone...much has changed. There is a power vacuum to fill and...plans to be made.”

Then the woman turned to regard Fidelus. “Find out what you can about this girl. Apparently, Antilles Maximus has allied himself with her, or put himself under her, for some form of protection. That boy from Calderon as well.”

And a moment later, she was gone.

Fidelias locked the door and sank down into the room's only chair. He ached all the way to his bones, and he was more than a little tired, but he didn't dare let his guard down. Those interested in claiming the reward for him offered by the Crown would certainly be looking for him. But bounty hunters were a secondary concern.

There was the question of Kalare's Blood Crows, and what would happen with the dead man’s answer to the Cursors. They were more organized, more formidable, and much more capable trackers. The fact that they had, in fact, seemingly stretched their influence into the Deeps, traditionally the haunt of the Cursors and the criminal underworld of the capital, spoke volumes about how they must have prospered.

If Kalare was dead...they were leaderless. Considering their inroads to the underworld in Alera, they could become quite the headache if they decided to go into business for themselves.

Although, it was equally possible their command would simply pass on to Kalare’s sister. Despite the fact she had been brought into another High Lord’s family as a political marriage. He still maintained close ties with her when he was alive. If the Blood Crows wanted to make her their leader and patron, then Fidelus knew the first action they would be attempting to undertake.

A quick search through his mental list of contacts told the aging man just who he could start talking to at the Academy for information on this new girl and her allies. For a moment, Fidelus felt sleep call to him, and then brushed it off. He only had a few hours of nighttime left, and there was still much work to do.