Price of Power

It was a late night, Lariska was standing on a roof before the massive, multistory building belonging to Eol Fielding. He was a distant descendant of one of the six kingdom founders, so-called 'Hurricane', but rather not from a straight line. Eol himself wasn’t belonging to any district although he was on the list as well. The building itself was centuries-old, yet in very good condition, his family had money for regular renovations.

"Almost a castle, isn’t it." Said Caduka coming to her, despite that Lariska gave her some time to sober out she still was feeling a little unsound. "Do you see this wide, round window at the top? It is his room, he allegedly likes to burn the midnight oil."

"They like to look at everyone from above, I understand that teleporting us inside is not an option."

"Nope, protective spells in the whole building, even if we managed to do it they would know we’re here, but I’ve got something." She waved a bunch of keys. "We will enter through the back door. "

"From where have you got it?"

"I filched, come."

After dealing with the gate they went to the back door, sadly the keys weren’t signed so checking one by one was the only option. The lock finally gave up and then they had to find the stairs, the room was at the very top and they were at the bottom. Within were dominating colors of light blue and white with golden ornaments in the shape of feathers. The rooms were spacious with a high ceiling, furniture was decorated and carpet successfully was drowning their steps. On the ground floor, they didn’t meet anyone, although you still could hear a noise coming out of the kitchen.

The second floor was very different, the spacious rooms were replaced by a narrow hallway with doors on both sides. Also, there appeared various paintings showing the more important members of the family or just ordinary landscapes. Stairs leading to the last floor were on the other side, there were noises coming from behind some doors, but not counting that one time they had to hide behind a corner when someone was passing by they didn’t encounter any obstacles to go through. Lariska already wanted to 'get rid of' the obstacle but he was proposed to just wait instead.

The corridor on the third floor wasn’t too big, actually, it was just one antechamber with three doors. These in the middle were the heaviest and they had before them short stairs. Caduka immediately came to them and gave Lariska a sign for her to be ready. She pressed the handle expecting the doors to be open but they weren’t, she pulled out keys and none of them even fitted to the lock. She groaned with weariness and tried the lockpick. She managed to open the lock noiselessly, then she pressed the handle and when Lariska pulled out her musket she opened the door.

Only that nobody was inside. The room was huge, filled with bookshelves and cabinets by the walls. At the end of it, before the wide window, there was a desk with a leather armchair and next to it one more door leading to the sleeping room. All of this was covered in darkness, they quickly went to the next door, but nobody was there either.

"Of course." Lariska said irritated.

"Come off it, I’m sorry, I thought he wasn’t going anywhere today."

"So?"

"I guess we’re searching for clues, stay here, maybe better if I look somewhere else for something."

If it was the best option she didn’t have much choice. She turned on the flashlight and fast looked through the sleeping room to check if he didn’t leave any letter for family or staff. She checked closet, cabinets, even under the pillows if there was something, unfortunately no. Then she went again to the main room, she didn’t turn on the upper light to don’t draw somebody’s attention. She walked to the desk to check it’s drawers, in the first, there was only some junk. In the second lots of papers without any value to her and in the third ...bottle of champagne. She closed the last drawer and turned on the desk lamp, there was some correspondence on it which was better to check out. After she put down the stack of bills the first thing she saw was already opened a little stale letter from Velvet. That she can only assent a usual bank loan, with an emphasis on 'the loan' since Eol does not belong to any district. 'Even though she understands his motives'? Even more questions and looks like everyone wants to get rid of Sister, great. Under that, there were letters from the cook and charlady, nothing interesting. Then she saw a message from Azure Cloud.

'With all respect. Through force, we can a lot, but we will not unite the nation with this, at most enslave it and that none of us wants. I insist to be patient, otherwise, we alone will have to take care of you.'

'But better for them to die in misery' went through her head. Next, her eye caught a message from the so-called Garbardini, but it wasn’t opened so she left it for then, but she probably saw this name on the Velvet’s list. Suddenly she heard steps, she couldn’t be sure who it was so she fast turned off the lamp and hid in the sleeping room. Through the crack under the door, she noticed that this someone turned on the upper light, so it wasn’t Caduka. She opened them a little and she saw a tall man figure. He was standing back to her and reading something, but his shape and part of the face which she was seeing was telling her that it had to be Eol. He wasn’t seeing her, perfect. She could quietly go behind him and eliminate him.

She did a few steps towards him and was just about to sink the blade in him when a punch in the jaw knocked her down. He immediately kicked the misericord which she dropped, but she in the meantime grabbed the musket and hit his head with the butt. She wanted to strike a second blow, but he blocked it. Then he grabbed the other end of the musket and with two swift moves snatched it from her. After that, he punched her nose, shoved with musket her throat to increase the distance between them. Next, with wide arc, he knocked her legs away and at the end struck her head with musket’s butt. She wanted to shield herself, but she only partially blocked the blow.

"Cleric’s weapon." He stated with a cold tone after investigating the musket when she was trying to get off the floor. 'Who sent you?' He asked, but Lariska couldn’t say a word, even if she wanted to.

She looked at him, it wasn’t Eol, he was much younger although he was looking similar. He asked 'Who' once again almost yelling. Irritated by her silence he took a swing and hit her back like he wanted to split with an ax a piece of wood.

"I was telling this old fool that he should shut up, but no." He was talking more to himself than to her. "Fine." He looked at her. Since she didn’t want to answer he turned the musket and put the barrel to her head. Lariska was expecting a shot, yet when she opened her eyes she saw only her weapon falling down on the floor and her tormentor with mouth open wide and her misericord in his nape.

She massaged her larynx and with difficulty got on her legs. Her sight went from the corpse to lying next to it musket and when she bent down to take it she saw her. She was kneeling, keep holding tightly her misericord, all paralyzed, it didn’t even looked like she was breathing and her eye staring at the dead body was full of fright. She couldn’t believe what she has done a moment ago.

"Caduka?"

There was no response, she came closer and sat next to her, this time she tried her real name.

"Sta..."

"Don’t you say it." She interrupted her almost immediately, after which she looked at her. "Fuck, Lari, your face…"

Lariska touched her head, she still felt stunned and the pain was enormous, but just there she realized that she was almost all covered in blood. The blow was strong enough to crack a large piece of her skin, Caduka couldn’t handle it anymore, she burst into tears and hugged her.

"I am sorry! I’m so sorry."

"But for what?"

"I–I couldn’t, I hesitated, I was standing behind him and watching how he was… but I couldn’t do anything!"

"But you did, you broke through and ...you saved me."

"I know, I know..."

She didn’t respond anything anymore, just let her cry her heart out. They were sitting like this till Caduka felt warm liquid dripping on her.

"Shit, Lari, it’s looking worse and worse, wait I had somewhere…" She pulled out a cloth and put it to her head. "I have to get you out of here, hold it and better lie down ...fuck."

She saw with her mechanical eye approaching silhouettes, they surely were worried by the noise coming out of the room. Although they were just on the stairs, they hadn’t much time.

"Lari, go to the window and uncover it."

"What is happening?"

"Just do it, it will be alright." She assured.

Tottering she walked to the wide window and leaned against it still holding a cloth on her head. She was feeling that it was getting worse with her. She moved the curtain and saw the view of a thousand flickering lights of the night city, but everything hurt her too much for her to feast her eyes with it. When she turned she saw Caduka running straight at her, she didn’t even have time to refuse when she bumped into her and they fell through the shattered window.