Three: Trial and Error, Part Two

Authors note: Part two of the preceeding chapter. As usual, criticism and opinions are encouraged to be voiced. Raisins are discouraged from existing and should be turned back into grapes.



The scythe soared mercilessly toward a horrified Fire... and the scythe went right through him. Seth, still levitating in mid-air, was puzzled, and made the scythe pass through Fire a few more times, then gracefully fell towards earth. When Seth reached terra firma, he was in for a big surprise. Fire disappeared. Then suddenly, a silver blade came out of the earth, hacking at Seth’s legs. Seth managed to get away, but a sharp pain in his lower leg told him he did not escape unscathed.

"What the..." Seth started.

"Astral Projection. A different branch of Soul magic. You draw a few runes, teleport yourself underground" and project part of your soul at your former location. But of course you know all about that, being who you are.", a voice coming from below stated. "Also a nice ventriloquist trick."

By this time, many Requiem members within the castle watched as the two members supposedly trained. However, the training seemed unusually brutal, especially considering who were fighting.

Meanwhile, back in the dueling ground, Seth was still floating in mid-air, while Fire had recently smashed the earth around him and deposited himself back above ground. Both were taking advantage of the ceasefire to analyze the situation and to assess the tactics and assets available to them.

If I jump up, what can I do? Fire thought. I can’t just move around and shoot him with fireballs, that will leave me open to his Cipher magic. Hmm...

In the air, Seth was thinking along the same lines as Fire. I’m sure he sees the only way to go is up. And when he makes his move, Ill be ready... Then Fire made his move. He flung his remaining throwing knives up at Seth, who of course, met them with his scythe blade like the last time.

What’s he getting at? Seth thought. Fire then activated the earth rune he was making in his sleeve while he drew the knives in them. The rune altered Seth’s gravity and increased it hundredfold, making his levitation spell give way and promptly making him land hard onto the grass. The spell was temporary, but the pain will last. Seth shrugged off the pain and his jacket revealing a black steel armor and matching plate legs. He removed most of those to via a small piece of ribbon used to lighten the load of armor. Like the string that activates a parachute, Seth pulled it and his armor was instantly switched to a lighter version of it.

Fires response was to send wave after wave of alternating heat and cold to make the armor brittle, but he saw that was not going to happen anytime soon, so being nearly out of magic, he rushed in with his claymore. Seth immediately parried and jumped back, then counterattacked using both his scythe and short sword.

Fire acted quickly and drew an Ice rune and used it to propel him into the air. This plan has one shot, so it better work, Fire desperately thought, fearing his inevitable plunge to earth.

"This ends here, Fire!", Seth yelled, Throwing his scythe into the air. Fire, activating one of the two runes he drew behind h is back, put his plan into action. A bright light surged forth from Fires palms, blinding Seth and the spectators of Requiem Castle temporarily. After the bright flash, Seth was lying on the ground, unarmed. His short sword was in Fires hand and inches above his throat. His scythe, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

"Concede and withdraw your accusation, Seth. Now I have bested you in the field of honorable combat ", Fire calmly said.

"'Where is my scythe?" Seth questioned, terrified of losing part of his soul. It was splintered enough as it was.

"Back into your soul. I flung it so far away that it had to be absorbed back to you or you had to risk permanent soul damage", Fire answered.

"How?" Seth was relieved.

"When I threw all those throwing knives, they had energy strings on them. Like puppet strings, but not material. Anyway, they transferred onto your scythe when they hit it, so i could have done this."

"Shut up and finish the kill!!" Seth demanded.

"No.". As he said this, Fire stuck the short sword into the ground. "I will not resort to killing a fellow clan member to solve problems."

Seth heard this and lost every trace of calmness in his body. "Oh, so now you think your so high and mighty, do you? As your superior, I DEMAND you to kill me."

"No", Fire repeated and started walking away.

Seeing this, and the humiliation of defying a direct order from one of the captains in this clan started sinking in, Seth snapped completely. "Nobody, NOBODY disrespects ME!" Muttering an incantation that sounded more like song, the air around the ground seemed to get thicker and thicker. Then suddenly, a portal appeared, as if torn from the fabric of reality itself, sucking trees, knives, and grass toward it and its unknown destination. Fire turned around, astounded. He tried to draw a rune, but an incoming oak tree knocked him unconscious and sent him to his inevitable demise.

The drawbridge collapsed onto the ground and Jake and Dye burst on the scene, but could only watch helpless as the portal sucked Fire in. As suddenly as it started, it stopped, leaving only a small crater on the ground, and three captains of Requiem as witness to its terrible power.

Dye, the first to recover from the shock, was also the first to have his hands on Seth. He promptly grabbed Seth’s collar and pushed the leaner captain onto a nearby almost uprooted tree. "Why the HELL did you do that, you total ass?! Have you gone out of your mind?", Dye practically screamed at the passed-out Seth, exhausted from casting such a powerful spell, all the while being shaken by Dye.

Jake, shifting to his assassin personality, said "Dye, give it up. He’s obviously unconscious. Let’s just tie him up and drop him off at the court."

The Chapel of the Azure served as the official court of Clan Requiem. It was a semi-underground Gothic chapel with a distinct chair front and center, obviously to seat the person under scrutiny. The other pews were for the witnesses and clan members. In more traditional prosecutor-defendant trials, it was replaced with two chairs and tables aligned with the pews for the witnesses. It had five doors, positioned in the four corners of the court as well as one in the middle, directly opposite the altar. The chapel was all in white marble, save for the vertically elliptical stained glass windows which were in blue. Some were depicting certain parts of the Bibles book of Revelation, the others holy weapons and tomes, and still a few with just a single, blue eye. The church itself is square shaped, with a flat roof, and shaped like a funnel with straight edges; the smallest part was the entrance, the largest, the altar.

On the altar, instead of seeing a statue of some deity an equally imposing structure was there. A statue, standing eighty feet tall, depicting a knight, without his helmet, his head bowed in mourning. He was holding a huge sword which nearly went up to his bowed nose. He was holding it not at the handle, delicately but at its hilt, one hand on either side of the cross guard. The mourning warrior, the inscription on it said. Under that was a familiar quote: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." It was one and most ominous of the few pieces of art and knowledge that Fire had salvaged before the war against The Order.

The raised platform it stands on contains the tome which has all the laws of Requiem written on it. It also contains the Official Seal of Justice of the Azure, a ring with an intricate seal that is impossible to reproduce. Every legal sanction document had to be sealed in with this ring.

A few minutes later, the court filled up. As tradition dictates, the witnesses have to sit on the first few pews. When everyone has settled in, Blizzard called,

"All rise for the honorable Captains Council." All rose, and sat down. As, once again, tradition dictates, the clan leader, Priest, who was sitting on the higher altar seat,(the other captains sat below the shrine of the altar) had to declare the case.

"Ergent Seth", Priest regally started. "The charges against you are murder of the first degree. Tell us your story."

"Yes," Seth said. "I walked into my room last night and found out the tome containing my Cipher magic had been stolen. A few minutes of examination, I figured out Fire had stolen it." This caused quite a muttering within the court. Seth continued once more. "I found out it was Fire because I found this in my room." Seth once again produced the key tablet and gave it to Jake, who had stepped down from the altar to take it. "He said himself that it unlocks most locks and seals, magical or otherwise.” Seth added.

Priest, the most powerful mage in the clan, took it from Jake and examined it thoroughly.

"Yes, it does exactly that." Priest observed another set of runes on the intricate seal. "It also seems to disarm any minor traps included in the lock. And this sigil”, Priest checked it one more time just to be sure. “This sigil confirms this is indeed the property of Fire. However, I will first confirm if Fire indeed was the one who cast it. To do this spell, I will need an item created or enchanted using Fires magic.”

Jake produced a small throwing knife from his pocket. It was lightweight, sapphire studded, the metal strangely shiny, almost as if a diamond was used it its creation.

Jake gave it to Priest saying, "I found this at the scene of the crime. I heard Fire sharpens his weapons through magic. It kinda explains why he doesn’t own a whetstone or uses the one upstairs."

Priest uttered a small spell, and the two objects started glowing purple, then gold, then red, then white, then it stopped. "This confirms it." "Fire was NOT the culprit. This means you are indeed, guilty due to negligence. Due to your actions, You, Ergent Seth, are exiled from Requiem for a month starting next week and PERMANENTLY demoted from the position of captain."

"Wait!" Jake called.

"What?" It was Blizzard who answered.

"If Fire doesn’t have the tome, who does?"

The question set the chapel ablaze with fear.

A few hours later, in a hotel overlooking Wa-Kia, a hooded man entered his suite. He found his superior waiting for him. "Master!" he said. "Why so soon?"

Master replied. "Nevertheless, is it done?"

The hooded man was beside himself with pleasure. "Yes, my master. Three of them are ours. And the artifact you requested. "The man handed Master the Cipher Tome.

Master stared inquisitively. "And the evidence?"

"Planted, and worked better than planned. Fire is now in the Cipher Dimension."

"Excellent! Have room service get a bottle of wine." Master said, jubilation evident in his voice. "Tonight we feast. Tomorrow Requiem falls."




Fun Facts:

The church of the Azure was slightly modeled from my schools chapel (catholic school), mostly the shape.

The ring of the Azure, I modeled after the Popes Ring, serving nearly the same purpose.

The strategy with the energy strings was slightly borrowed from Naruto, namely the Sasori-Chiyo+Sakura fight, where early in the fight, Chiyo threw a bunch of kunai and attatched pupped strings to them, and when they got deflected by Sasori's puppet/suit's tail, the strings got transfered to the tail and were used by chiyo later to deflect a fatal blow to Sakura

BAD siggy choice, Fire. BAD! :pirat: