No knight nor lord, not even the king of Lanier could protect Ega from The Black Flame even if they wanted to. When one thinks of Lanier, they think of the Imperial Family. They think that they are the ones which hold control over everything in the kingdom, however, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The Black Flame’s control over the underworld often seeped into the dark alleyways and hidden shadows of the kingdom. The syndicate was full of monstrous soul bearers, so strong that they were able to carve out a piece of land in the northern part of Lanier as their own.
The Imperial Family had tried to bring them to justice, but after years of fighting and losing precious resources and manpower, the best they could do was create a treaty. Although many saw it as a horrible compromise, the treaty was for the better.
In a way, the Black Flame kept many of the uncontrollable soul bearers in check. Rather than have them wreak havoc all across the kingdom whenever they wanted, their actions had become much tamer and controlled. Those who lurked and sprouted in the darkness would stay in the darkness.
The Imperial Family turned a blind eye to the more petty crimes committed by the Black Flame. They’d obviously intervene whenever the syndicate would overstep their bounds, but events like those were few and far between.
Just as the Black Flame had boundaries, so did the Imperial Family, and subsequently, the citizens it ruled over. Right now, Ega was walking a line between that boundary, having shaved the line so thinly that he was unsure of where he stood.
Had he already crossed it? Or would killing Illia here push his actions over the edge? It didn’t matter that Ega acted in self defense, the bigger thing here was the fact that Illia was a core leader to the Black Flame, and he was only a vagrant.
“Shit…” Cursing underneath his breath, Ega pointed his sword away from her.
Hearing rustling from behind, he turned his head around only to see Dallen stumbling over, sword still in hand. His tunic was drenched in blood from Ega’s strike, but it seemed like the wound had already closed.
“You bastard… You killed—”
With one stride, Ega reached out and gripped him by the neck. Lifting him up for a second, he threw Dallen onto the ground as hard as he could.
“You’re durable.” Unable to kill the person who had placed Ella on Death’s door, he had to take his anger out elsewhere. Still, he needed to at least hold onto some rationality.
As Dallen was trying to catch his breath after getting the wind knocked out of him, Ega squeezed out any remaining air by pressing his foot down onto his chest. “So, just what in the world are all of you doing out here? Just what are bandits doing working with a Torch of the Black Flame.”
Dallen didn’t answer, or rather, he couldn’t answer with Ega’s foot digging into his chest.
“Come on now, spit it out.” He moved his bloody sword, pressing it against his neck.
“Breathe… I…” He croaked.
Easing the weight on Dallen’s chest, Ega pressed the blade deeper into his skin.
“Wait! Please! I—” Dallen began to choke on his spit as he gasped for air. “I’ll tell you everything!”
Letting him catch his breath for a moment, Ega began to interrogate him. “Just what are you bandits doing working with a Torch of the Black Flame?”
“We were hired by her, that’s all.”
“And she didn’t think to use any of her own men from the syndicate?”
“She couldn’t. She…” Dallen hesitated for a moment, but feeling the blade prick his neck quickly eased up lips. “She was going behind the Flame’s back! She couldn’t use any of their members so she decided to hire us.”
“Going behind the Flame’s back? Just what were you doing?”
“We were just transporting weapons to Purgo, that’s all I know. What she was going to do with it after that, I don’t know.”
“Weapons?” Something about this entire situation was setting Ega off. “What type?”
A Torch of the Black Flame was going behind the organization’s back? Just what was she doing that would warrant such an action?
“Silver, I know it''s strange, but we had boxes full of silver weapons.”
“Silver?” Ega’s eyes grew wide. “Are you stupid! Do you not understand—”
He was about to reprimand Dallen for his stupidity in choosing to work with Illia, but the presence of someone behind him quickly shut his mouth. Whipping his head around, Ega froze, unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
“Oh? Has the situation already been resolved?” A woman had emerged from the forest with two hooded figures by her side.
Her golden hair fell down to her back, glistening under the moonlight. The way that she carried herself, those striking red eyes, one would mistake her for a noble. However, Aurora was no noble, she was the current leader of the Black Flame.
“What is your name?” Her voice was soft, but chilling. “You don’t seem like a member of ours.”
“Ega. I am just a simple vagrant.” He could barely force those words out under the mere presence of Aurora.
She wasn’t bearing her soul realm onto him nor was she pressuring him in some physical way. The simple fact was that one wrong move or word, and Ega’s head would come flying off.
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“Ega? That sounds familiar…” Aurora examined the battlefield that he had created. “Simple vagrant, hm?”
Ega held his breath, unsure of how it would play out. Even if the bandits weren’t important to her, the fact that he had nearly killed a Torch of the Black Flame could be the end of him.
Aurora broke away from the two hooded figures guarding her, slowly approaching Illia. Arriving before her side, she looked down at Illia’s ragged figure for a long second.
“Wake up you bitch.” Sticking her hand out, Illia’s body began to heal at an incredible rate. Her wounds were quickly torn away, replaced by new flesh. Her body began to twist, her broken bones reconstructed and repositioned.
Once she had been healed, Illia lurched forward from the blood stained ground, gasping for air. She recognized that feeling from anywhere, that disgusting feeling of someone playing with your body, moving around and remaking certain parts of it.
Turning her head upward, she met Aurora’s blood red eyes. As she opened her mouth to try and speak, Aurora reached out and grabbed her by the neck. Raising her up into the air, she began to talk.
“I thought you’d learn your place by now, but then you go out and do shit like this behind my back.”
Illia thrashed around in her arms, struggling for even a breath of air. She tried to say something so that Aurora would let her go, but she wasn’t having it. Squeezing down on her neck even harder, she sent a shockwave through Illia’s body, knocking her unconscious.
Ega stood on the sidelines, unsure of what was going to happen. There was something obviously going on between those two, but just how would it spill over to him?
“Let’s investigate their carriages.” As Aurora dragged Illia to her two guards and handed her over to them, she turned to Ega.
She walked toward him, each step making him even more tense than before. She met him face to face, and despite being shorter than him, it seemed like her figure was towering over Ega.
“Let me mend your wounds for all the trouble.” She reached out to him, ready to perform something similar to Illia.
“That’s all right, I will heal from these wounds quite easily.” Ega bowed to show respect. “If you could, please help my daughter instead.”
He gestured toward Ella who was still laying on the ground to which Aurora’s eyes quickly followed.
“Daughter?” Seeing the little girl laying on the ground, she approached her.
“It won’t hurt her… will it?” Ega trailed behind, wanting to make sure that she wasn’t going to do anything bad to Ella.
“I’ll be more careful than I did with that bitch.” Touching Ella’s chest, Aurora began to mend her wounds.
Although the salamander soul and bandages were keeping her alive for now, he couldn’t guarantee that it would heal properly. After a minute or two, she pulled her hand away from the child’s body and rose back up from the ground.
“I apologize for my subordinate’s actions.”
“No, no, there’s no need for that.” Of course, he didn’t really mean that. “But, if I may request for two of their horses. They killed the two leading my carriage, and without them I can’t—”
“Blood Hunter.” Aurora suddenly cut him off. “Ega the Blood Hunter, I remember that name now.”
Her lips curled into a smile, sending a chill down Ega’s spine. Just why did she suddenly bring up his title? Was she interested in all of the blood he had gathered up? Or was there something more behind that smile?
“Sure, I can give you two horses.” Aurora suddenly placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s only fair that I make up for my subordinate’s mistake, no?”
Instead of feeling grateful, Ega was beginning to feel fear. The moment her hand fell onto his shoulder, he couldn’t move. It was like a snake had coiled around Ega’s body, squeezing him with all of its might.
“Thank… you…” He was barely able to choke out those words of gratitude, but the intentions in those words stood in stark contrast to the look in his eyes.
Even with such an overwhelming power coiling around his throat, his eyes were fierce. Aurora noticed the fire burning inside of his eyes, as if he was ready to swing his blade the moment she even loosened her grip on him.
She couldn’t help but feel her smile grow wider at Ega’s resistance. The most interesting thing to her, however, was the fact he wasn’t completely focused on her. Following his gaze, her eyes quickly landed on the child by her feet.
Having her fun, she let go of his shoulder. “Just wait here a bit, I’ll have one of my guards lead the two horses to you. Kal, take that bandit for interrogation and Zel, if you could bring him those two horses.”
Walking back to the two hooded figures, the three of them disappeared off into the darkness with Dallen in hand. Ega dropped to his knees, choking for air as he tried to recover everything that had been squeezed out of his body.
It had taken him everything to resist Aurora’s pressure. He had even ignited his soul to try and hold off that strange hold on his body, but the most he could do was give himself enough air to croak out two words.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem like Ega had made enemies with her, but he wasn’t quite sure what to take away from that interaction. He had heard of her enigmatic personality, but to witness first hand had brought a mix of fear and confusion.
Once Ega had finally recovered, he carefully lifted Ella into his arms and carried her back to the carriage. Careful not to wake her up, he placed her head down onto a pillow and draped a blanket over her body. Seeing her face no longer twisted in pain, he could feel a weight fall off his shoulders.
Moving toward the front of the carriage, he began to pluck off all the arrows which had pierced it. Throwing the arrows to the side, he released the dead horses from their harness. Pushing the carriage away from their bodies, he turned around only to be surprised at the sight of a hooded figure standing right behind him.
Ega had nearly drawn his sword if not for the fact that he recognized him as one of Aurora’s guards.
“Horses.” He handed Ega the reins to the two horses that he had brought over.
The moment he took the reins, the hooded figure walked away, seemingly uncaring about Ega’s existence. Letting out a sigh, he examined the battlefield around him. Too exhausted to gather up and give the bodies a proper ceremony, he left it up to the Black Flame to take care of it.
Putting the harnesses back onto these new horses, Ega began to move the carriage again. Bloodied and battered, the only thing left to do was to move forward.
…
“Do you think it’s a good idea?” One of the guards spoke up as they inspected the crates full of silver weapons.
“Hm?” Turning her gaze away from the weapons, Aurora turned back. “What do you mean?”
“Ega, wouldn’t it have been better just to silence him? For being a former knight, he probably knows—”
“It''s fine. It’s because he knows enough that he’ll stay quiet.”
Even if Ega had told the Imperial Family about this incident, what could they do? The treaty was still being upheld and they were the ones trying to take care of anything, so just what would they have to complain about?
“And besides, he seemed quite interesting. It would be a shame to remove such an interesting person from this world.”
Seeing the smile curl on her lips, the guard looked over to his brother. Even through the hood, he could sense that they were feeling the same thing.
“Understood.” After hearing her answer, he put the conversation aside. Knowing Aurora however, this probably wasn’t the last time they were going to encounter Ega. “Interesting” people to her always seemed to show their faces again, whether or not they even wanted to see Aurora’s face again.