Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ed Gentry" data-source="post: 3314034" data-attributes="member: 41901">Book 1, Chapter 2:Three weeks earlier…    The ground beneath his feet shook and shards of shattered stone bit into the exposed flesh of his face and his ears exploded in pain before everything went silent. Edward groped along the walkway for balance as he stumbled. A ringing grew steadily in his ears as he wiped his eyes clean of dirt and smoke. For the little good it did trying to see through the smoke, his eyes finally came into focus. He coughed and shouted for anyone nearby. He did not hear his own words, the ringing in his ears drowned out any other sound. As he scrabbled along the walkway atop the wall, he recoiled in horror as he crawled near someone’s leg, torn from their body and laying on the stone before him. He lifted his head to look around and saw pandemonium. People were shouting, though no one appeared able to hear their words. People bearing the badge of the City Watch on their arms scrambled through the area carrying the bodies of the unconscious.    “…penetrated the wall,” Edward heard someone say. The ringing was subsiding so he stood, still hunched over, and went through the smoke and dust toward the voice.    “That cannot be,” he heard another say in a lilting, melodic tone.    “Blowing it up seems to have done the trick!” shouted the first.    “The Wardstone* should have prevented…” the second began but was cut out by another crash, this one closer and smaller in size.    Edward coughed, his lungs resisting the dust and debris, as he walked into a clearing. A huge man wielding a long, wide sword with scars looping his forearms was standing near the edge of the high wall, his gaze tracing upward. Beside him a man, a woodsman by his clothing, fired an arrow into the smoke beyond the wall into the sky. Edward craned his neck to follow the shot in time to watch the missile impact into the body of an elf clad in white robes who stood with half a dozen other elves in the carriage of a siege tower that was rapidly approaching the wall.    “Breach! Tower coming in!” shouted the larger of the two men.     A small, lithe woman darted to the side of the woodsman, adding an arrow of her own to the fray. For the first time, Edward noticed an elf wielding a rapier to the left of the large human. Dressed in a rust-colored knee-length jacket and leather armor, the elf shouted some phrase Edward did not know but recognized as arcane and pointed his rapier toward the wooden siege tower. Red magical energy coalesced into a bolt of flame that shot out from the sword into the tower. The long-haired elf seemed unperturbed by the spell’s failure, instead simply moving forward to stand next to the tall man, his weapon at the ready.    “Here!” came another voice. Edward turned to see a female dwarf with long hair crouched behind the enormous basalt bulk of the Wardstone. Built into the wall, the stone usually glowed with energy but now appeared dormant. Edward took her words as an invitation and loped toward her and crouched behind the stone. It was large enough to provide them both cover which was fortunate as arrows began raining down from the elves riding the tower. The dwarf snarled as one of the missiles skittered across the stones at her feet.    “The Wardstone…” Edward said.    “It’s broken,” the dwarf replied. Her eyes scanned the edge of the wall as the planks of the tower clattered their connection with the stone. She drew out a crossbow, though Edward could not have said from where, and shoved him aside to move to the edge of the stone. She took her aim and fired, scoring a hit on a disembarking elf.    “What are Ahashtyns** doing here?” Edward asked.    “What now?” the dwarf asked as she took another shot.    The nimble elf with the rapier tumbled out of the way as a pair of the attackers landed hard on the wall, weapons ready. Their clean, white robes glowed in the day’s light, seeming incongruous with their cropped hair, blank faces and empty eyes. No malice rode their faces, only serenity.    “It is strange, indeed,” said the rapier-wielding elf as his tumble landed him near the Wardstone.    “What’s an Ahas…whatever you said?” the dwarf said.    “Reborn elves,” Edward said. The elf with the rapier rose to his feet and gave a nod before rushing back to the fight.     The dwarf eyed Edward for a moment and then shrugged. “Whatever. Talk less, shoot more!”    The reality of the situation sunk in at that moment shaking him from his ponderings and Edward delicately removed a short bow and quiver from the body of a nearby fallen Watch member. Edward said a prayer, invoking the forgiveness of the Triune and took the bow in hand. The enormous sword-wielder roared a battle-cry as he sliced cleanly through one of the attacking Ahashtyns, severing the serene elf in two. The woodsman and his wild-haired female companion continued to fire their bows while dodging the incoming barrage. Though they sought no cover, neither had been hit. They moved in tandem as though they had fought together many times. Edward fired high into the tower striking his target as the swordsman and the long-haired elf each took down another attacker. The walls beneath his feet began to moan and creak. The dwarf ceased her firing and crawled beyond the safety of the Wardstone as though the walls had cried out to her dwarven sensibilities.     “Get off the edge of the wall, now! It’s going down,” she shouted.         The rapier-wielding elf heard her warning and leapt back from where he fought another of the attackers. The swordsman seemed not to care, instead running toward the siege tower. He leapt from the edge of the wall and grasped the tower, dangling several score feet above the ground below. The tower lurched forward returning the man’s feet to the wall, his weight actually dragging the tower’s plank down fully.         “It’s crumbling!” the dwarf shouted without interrupting another shot at the attackers from her bow.        A great groan emanated from the wall and the swordsman stumbled, falling prone as the stone beneath his feet began to fall away. A young woman dressed in the robes of Tzaluth, an acolyte, who had been bravely tending to the wounded rushed forward clasping wrists with the enormous swordsman. Her tiny frame shook with effort as she heaved, loosing a grunt. Her effort was rewarded when the swordsman managed to scramble up the wall and moved past her to safety. Before the young acolyte could turn and follow him, the wall gave way. She screamed as she fell, a piercing sound that caused a hurt in Edward’s ears that he knew, even in the turmoil, he would not soon forget. The swordsman watched helplessly as his savior disappeared over the edge of the wall, falling to her doom.       The crumbling stone pushed the siege tower back and several of those elves who had been climbing the device were flung out in the air to fall to the ground. Even as they plunged to their deaths, their faces never changed, the serenity still shining through. Shouts of retreat were heard as the attacking forces withdrew, dragging their damaged siege tower with them. The woodsman and his companion continued firing into the fleeing enemies as the swordsman stared blankly down the side of the wall.--------Notes:* The city of Kingsbridge is surrounded by several Wardstone, magical stones that shield the city from attackers. They were thought to be flawless.**In Arva, a certain set of elves discovered that they lived too long and they realized they were going mad with longevity. So, the Ahashtyc rituals came into being ages ago. The ritual strips memory from an elf so that he/she may start life over. It's considered a great sin to mention their previous lives to an elf after the ritual. Any past transgressions are utterly forgiven and the elf is treated as a newborn.</blockquote>

Verification