In the Name of Justice: Chapter XII
I'm actually quite surprised at how many people don't know how to play chess. It's a good game! One I'd love how to play is poker, but no matter how many times I try to teach myself, I really can't get to grips with the rules.
Maybe one day...
Chapter XII
The Pride of a Knight
The man in uniform stared wordlessly across the space in front of him until his eyes met the small cluster of trees standing a short distance away. It seemed peculiar that they would choose to take root in the middle of an open field such as this; but then again, nature always had its ways of intriguing him. Slowly, he raised his eyebrows and turned to the left, where a figure awaited him patiently.
“You’re late,” he snapped.
The figure merely smirked - a black hood had been pulled over his face so as to cover all but his mouth and chin. “But you know that I can't travel in sunlight.”
The man grunted in reply. Indeed, the night was young, with the last of the sun’s rays casting a scarlet glow on the horizon to mark what had been the end of a long day’s travels; if it were not for the current business that he was obliged to attend to, he would most likely already be laying down camp for the night.
Moodily, he raised his hand for the other to shake, though his efforts went ignored, so he took to introducing himself instead.
“Judas,” he murmured.
To no surprise, the hooded man paid little attention, which angered him somewhat; however, he decided not not to make it obvious, and carried on: “So you’re the one I’ve been expecting, I take it?”
“Yes,” came the reply.
Judas nodded, glad that he had gained some sort of answer at last.
“And what about you?” asked the hooded man. “I assume that you can afford my services? You look like a man who knows what he's doing." The tip of his tongue slid across the parting between his lips, slowly, tauntingly, as if to mock the one who stood before him.
A frown fell upon Judas’ face. “Your target’s a man - no, a vampire - named Justice.”
The word 'vampire' seemed to stir a reaction in the cloaked figure. “Is he alone?”
“Regrettably, no. I’ve been following him with several of my men up until this afternoon, but decided to pull back for the time being to avoid suspicion. I know exactly where he'll be, though: he was headed towards Lord Fairslough’s castle in Harkshal to convene with the Guardians. The exact time and date of the proposed meeting has not been made known to me as of yet, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have gained their help by the end of it.”
The figure tilted his head to the side, like a curious animal. “The Guardians? Been a long time since I've heard anything about them-”
“You must not take them lightly,” Judas cut in, frustration and warning heavy in his voice. “Each has an army that holds enough power to crush everything you know; and that’s not to mention the capabilities of the men themselves…”
A small laugh escaped the unknown man's lips. Furiously, the other gritted his teeth.
“Funny, is it?”
“Actually, I was simply musing at how worked up you are about the whole operation.” When met with Judas’ enquiring expression, he continued: “I’ve been doing these kinds of jobs for as long as I can remember - since I was a child, in fact. I’ve killed more people than there are hairs on your head - vampires amongst them. And do you want to know why I’m still here?” He shrugged. “It is simply because... I am the best at what I do!”
It took Judas a moment to work out whether his confidence was genuine or if he was merely trying to ridicule him; though in the end, it hardly mattered. One had to admire his cheek, regardless of how infuriating it was.
“And may I ask how you plan to move around the Guardians without detection? Good or not, there are five of them and one of you - and that's not to mention that the bastards are near invincible.”
“Invincible? Nah…” As he spoke, the hooded man reached down into the folds of his cloak and produced an odd-looking weapon, perhaps an inch or so longer than an average dagger. Two blades protruded from its hilt, spaced an inch apart, with smooth, curved edges that ended in a deadly point. He held it up so that the other was able to run his eyes along its form. “This is one of my favourite little weapons. Her name’s Vaana, and whilst she may look like an ordinary knife, her blade has actually been tainted with poison.”
“Poison?”
“Yes. The formula’s one that I have tried and tested over the years countless times, and never before has it failed me.”
“And what does it do?” Judas asked dryly.
As before, the figure smirked, evidently enjoying the man's forced interest. “In short, it slows down the vampire healing rate down to the same level as humans. A wound inflicted by this would take - I don’t know - two or three days to heal over, depending on the severity. Oh, and it kills as well.”
"Kills?" For the first time, Judas' eyes lit up.
"Yes." The figure slowly ran his ring finger along the edge of the one of the blades, though taking care not to break the skin. “This ‘Justice’ character you speak of? Let’s see how well he makes do without a head upon his shoulders.”
---
The map resting in Kircheis’ lap was worn and yellowing. Maybe once, it would've laid crisp, but countless years of use had left it falling limply either side of his knees. Luckily, though, it was still readable, with the state borders, mountain ranges, rivers, forests, plains, villages, cities and, of course, regions that made up Marthiel marked clearly from corner to corner.
The water vampire placed two fingers against a small black dot in the upper-left quarter. “This is Regden, where we are situated at the moment - if what Rafaga said about the sword is correct, then we are headed…” The tips slid across the page to an area of forest in the opposite corner. “Here.”
“Wait… Surely you’re not going to base the whole journey on a rumour alone,” Rafaga exclaimed. “After all, that’s all it is - a rumour.”
The other twisted his head round to frown at him. “You didn’t seem so doubtful when the topic was brought up earlier.”
“No, but I didn't think we were actually going to follow it then...”
Justice pushed the sound of their squabbling to the back of his mind as he ran his eyes over the map’s various markings. Marthiel was a large, jagged country, landlocked on all sides. It was only a matter of seconds before he was able to identify his home area, a plain of flat land south-east of the origin, enclosed by mountain ranges to create the valley he was so accustomed to.
Just then, however, something caught his attention. It was a small mark in the centre, almost on the converging point between the four regions, and its writing had faded to the point of illegibility.
“What’s that?” He indicated the point with a finger.
“You don’t know?” Carbuncle answered. “It’s the king’s castle.”
Something pulled deep within Justice, but he said nothing.
“It’s no longer inhabited, though,” continued the redhead. “Since the establishment of the states, it has remained empty.”
Slowly, Justice nodded, then raised his hand again to trace a line in the page. “And this is the River Greymarsh, I take it?”
The fire vampire spoke again: “Indeed, it is. In fact, I was going to suggest that we take its path until it converges with the mountain range here.” He pointed. “It is only a suggestion, though, of course.”
With Kircheis sitting, the other four had taken to standing behind him and peering down at the document in his lap. Justice was just regarding the proposition silently, when all of a sudden, he realised a dilemma had arisen: the river ran directly through the mountains, which would no doubt cause a hindrance to their route; however, the range was large enough that moving around them would be a task consuming days of valuable time - time which they did not have.
“I’ve just noticed something.” The man paused to think for a moment. “Would it be possible to travel through the mountains? It would be a great deal quicker, and there should be a route...”
Needless to say, Wilderness was the first to speak out. All this time, he had remained quiet, but the chance to prove Justice wrong was just too tempting to ignore. “There's no route. The mountains are impassable - even the river goes underground at several points. Only a fool would think of getting himself trapped there.”
“Yes, he doesn’t have a point,” said Carbuncle, blinking lazily.
Justice said nothing, instead taking a moment to run the situation through thoroughly in his head. Two of the Guardians seemed adamant that the mountain path was treacherous, though there was no denying that it was the fastest by a long way. What's more, the river would serve as a useful guide along the most part of the journey - there really was no competition between the routes.
Still, a part of him desperately wanted to tell about Judas, and the urgency placed upon him - but how could he? He hated to think what the Guardians would make of him if he did so, what they would deem of a vampire on the run from a simple human. For a while now, he had been considering the outcome, though in the end, he decided to remain silent about the matter - at least for now. As with most things, the time would come, and the situation was already complicated enough as it was without another factor to bend things away from his favour.
“No,” he said finally. “Although I respect Wilderness’ views on the matter, I believe that the mountain route would be the fastest.” He ran his eyes over the map again. “It should be fine if we use the river to guide us, and then follow it closely until we reach the point where the sword is located.”
“The farm was around here,” added Rafaga, circling a small area of land in the far south-east of the Earth Region. “The forests have been marked on the map, as you can see.”
Justice nodded, his eyes constantly darting back and forth over the paper in front of him. Asserting his authority was not something that he had gotten used to, or thought he ever would, though if the Guardians were going to look him for guidance, then the least he could do was offer what he could.
His words were met with a deep silence, which lingered for a moment before it was broken by the sound of Carbuncle stepping away.
“Well, if that is the decided plan of action, then I shall order my subordinate to ready the horses immediately.”
He bowed his head briefly, then began to walk back across the room. There seemed to be a sense of irritation about him, as if the very air were tingling with sparks. When he reached the door, he barked a name - an action which seemed too harsh for someone of such delicate form - and a figure materialised in the space. It was one of the guards from earlier.
The fire vampire seemed determined to make it clear he was in a mood, though what had caused such anger Justice didn't know. Was is that he not used to having his authority challenged? Justice wondered whether he had taken a step too far by speaking out about the mountain route, but there was little he could do about it now, so merely watched as the fire vampire stood and spoke in short, abrupt sentences to the other.
“It shall be done at once, My Lord.” The uniformed man stood almost a head higher than Carbuncle, yet regarded his superior with the utmost of loyalties.
Seeing that the discussion had clearly been brought to its end, Kircheis gathered the edges of the map and rolled it into a tight cylinder. Then he looked at the others.
“So I see that Carbuncle is going to be gracing us with one of his moods again…” He frowned, a look of exasperation which suggested that he was all but accustomed to such things. Slowly, he rose from his chair, bowed to the black-haired man and followed in his companion’s footsteps, still firmly clutching the map by his side.
“Your Majesty.”
Justice barely noticed when Rafaga stood aside and motioned with his hand so that he, too, could head towards the door.
There was one, however, who did not move - and had no intentions of doing so either, it seemed: Wilderness had fixed his gaze straight downwards, mimicking the actions of a scolded child.
“Are you coming or not?”
Gradually, he raised his head and looked at the other. “I suppose I ought to,” he sighed, though made no attempt to break his position.
Rafaga watched through his peripheral vision; thick locks of brown hair fell untidily over his back and front, casting light shadows over his face. “Nobody’s forcing you, brother - you can head straight back-”
“I’ll do what I want.” Wilderness swept past him suddenly, marched across the room and left.
Now alone, Rafaga couldn’t help but allow a smile to pull at his lips. His hand reached behind and picked up the nearest chess piece, one of his own knights that had been played by Justice. It was still warm as he held it at eye level.
“What do you make of him, then? Think he's the one?”
The piece was still, though the wind vampire smirked and nodded as though he had received a reply. He turned his eyes backwards, where the four chairs still stood around the table, the remains of the game like an abandoned battlefield between them.
“God, I hate these meetings.”
Next Chapter →
Maybe one day...
Chapter XII
The Pride of a Knight
The man in uniform stared wordlessly across the space in front of him until his eyes met the small cluster of trees standing a short distance away. It seemed peculiar that they would choose to take root in the middle of an open field such as this; but then again, nature always had its ways of intriguing him. Slowly, he raised his eyebrows and turned to the left, where a figure awaited him patiently.
“You’re late,” he snapped.
The figure merely smirked - a black hood had been pulled over his face so as to cover all but his mouth and chin. “But you know that I can't travel in sunlight.”
The man grunted in reply. Indeed, the night was young, with the last of the sun’s rays casting a scarlet glow on the horizon to mark what had been the end of a long day’s travels; if it were not for the current business that he was obliged to attend to, he would most likely already be laying down camp for the night.
Moodily, he raised his hand for the other to shake, though his efforts went ignored, so he took to introducing himself instead.
“Judas,” he murmured.
To no surprise, the hooded man paid little attention, which angered him somewhat; however, he decided not not to make it obvious, and carried on: “So you’re the one I’ve been expecting, I take it?”
“Yes,” came the reply.
Judas nodded, glad that he had gained some sort of answer at last.
“And what about you?” asked the hooded man. “I assume that you can afford my services? You look like a man who knows what he's doing." The tip of his tongue slid across the parting between his lips, slowly, tauntingly, as if to mock the one who stood before him.
A frown fell upon Judas’ face. “Your target’s a man - no, a vampire - named Justice.”
The word 'vampire' seemed to stir a reaction in the cloaked figure. “Is he alone?”
“Regrettably, no. I’ve been following him with several of my men up until this afternoon, but decided to pull back for the time being to avoid suspicion. I know exactly where he'll be, though: he was headed towards Lord Fairslough’s castle in Harkshal to convene with the Guardians. The exact time and date of the proposed meeting has not been made known to me as of yet, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have gained their help by the end of it.”
The figure tilted his head to the side, like a curious animal. “The Guardians? Been a long time since I've heard anything about them-”
“You must not take them lightly,” Judas cut in, frustration and warning heavy in his voice. “Each has an army that holds enough power to crush everything you know; and that’s not to mention the capabilities of the men themselves…”
A small laugh escaped the unknown man's lips. Furiously, the other gritted his teeth.
“Funny, is it?”
“Actually, I was simply musing at how worked up you are about the whole operation.” When met with Judas’ enquiring expression, he continued: “I’ve been doing these kinds of jobs for as long as I can remember - since I was a child, in fact. I’ve killed more people than there are hairs on your head - vampires amongst them. And do you want to know why I’m still here?” He shrugged. “It is simply because... I am the best at what I do!”
It took Judas a moment to work out whether his confidence was genuine or if he was merely trying to ridicule him; though in the end, it hardly mattered. One had to admire his cheek, regardless of how infuriating it was.
“And may I ask how you plan to move around the Guardians without detection? Good or not, there are five of them and one of you - and that's not to mention that the bastards are near invincible.”
“Invincible? Nah…” As he spoke, the hooded man reached down into the folds of his cloak and produced an odd-looking weapon, perhaps an inch or so longer than an average dagger. Two blades protruded from its hilt, spaced an inch apart, with smooth, curved edges that ended in a deadly point. He held it up so that the other was able to run his eyes along its form. “This is one of my favourite little weapons. Her name’s Vaana, and whilst she may look like an ordinary knife, her blade has actually been tainted with poison.”
“Poison?”
“Yes. The formula’s one that I have tried and tested over the years countless times, and never before has it failed me.”
“And what does it do?” Judas asked dryly.
As before, the figure smirked, evidently enjoying the man's forced interest. “In short, it slows down the vampire healing rate down to the same level as humans. A wound inflicted by this would take - I don’t know - two or three days to heal over, depending on the severity. Oh, and it kills as well.”
"Kills?" For the first time, Judas' eyes lit up.
"Yes." The figure slowly ran his ring finger along the edge of the one of the blades, though taking care not to break the skin. “This ‘Justice’ character you speak of? Let’s see how well he makes do without a head upon his shoulders.”
---
The map resting in Kircheis’ lap was worn and yellowing. Maybe once, it would've laid crisp, but countless years of use had left it falling limply either side of his knees. Luckily, though, it was still readable, with the state borders, mountain ranges, rivers, forests, plains, villages, cities and, of course, regions that made up Marthiel marked clearly from corner to corner.
The water vampire placed two fingers against a small black dot in the upper-left quarter. “This is Regden, where we are situated at the moment - if what Rafaga said about the sword is correct, then we are headed…” The tips slid across the page to an area of forest in the opposite corner. “Here.”
“Wait… Surely you’re not going to base the whole journey on a rumour alone,” Rafaga exclaimed. “After all, that’s all it is - a rumour.”
The other twisted his head round to frown at him. “You didn’t seem so doubtful when the topic was brought up earlier.”
“No, but I didn't think we were actually going to follow it then...”
Justice pushed the sound of their squabbling to the back of his mind as he ran his eyes over the map’s various markings. Marthiel was a large, jagged country, landlocked on all sides. It was only a matter of seconds before he was able to identify his home area, a plain of flat land south-east of the origin, enclosed by mountain ranges to create the valley he was so accustomed to.
Just then, however, something caught his attention. It was a small mark in the centre, almost on the converging point between the four regions, and its writing had faded to the point of illegibility.
“What’s that?” He indicated the point with a finger.
“You don’t know?” Carbuncle answered. “It’s the king’s castle.”
Something pulled deep within Justice, but he said nothing.
“It’s no longer inhabited, though,” continued the redhead. “Since the establishment of the states, it has remained empty.”
Slowly, Justice nodded, then raised his hand again to trace a line in the page. “And this is the River Greymarsh, I take it?”
The fire vampire spoke again: “Indeed, it is. In fact, I was going to suggest that we take its path until it converges with the mountain range here.” He pointed. “It is only a suggestion, though, of course.”
With Kircheis sitting, the other four had taken to standing behind him and peering down at the document in his lap. Justice was just regarding the proposition silently, when all of a sudden, he realised a dilemma had arisen: the river ran directly through the mountains, which would no doubt cause a hindrance to their route; however, the range was large enough that moving around them would be a task consuming days of valuable time - time which they did not have.
“I’ve just noticed something.” The man paused to think for a moment. “Would it be possible to travel through the mountains? It would be a great deal quicker, and there should be a route...”
Needless to say, Wilderness was the first to speak out. All this time, he had remained quiet, but the chance to prove Justice wrong was just too tempting to ignore. “There's no route. The mountains are impassable - even the river goes underground at several points. Only a fool would think of getting himself trapped there.”
“Yes, he doesn’t have a point,” said Carbuncle, blinking lazily.
Justice said nothing, instead taking a moment to run the situation through thoroughly in his head. Two of the Guardians seemed adamant that the mountain path was treacherous, though there was no denying that it was the fastest by a long way. What's more, the river would serve as a useful guide along the most part of the journey - there really was no competition between the routes.
Still, a part of him desperately wanted to tell about Judas, and the urgency placed upon him - but how could he? He hated to think what the Guardians would make of him if he did so, what they would deem of a vampire on the run from a simple human. For a while now, he had been considering the outcome, though in the end, he decided to remain silent about the matter - at least for now. As with most things, the time would come, and the situation was already complicated enough as it was without another factor to bend things away from his favour.
“No,” he said finally. “Although I respect Wilderness’ views on the matter, I believe that the mountain route would be the fastest.” He ran his eyes over the map again. “It should be fine if we use the river to guide us, and then follow it closely until we reach the point where the sword is located.”
“The farm was around here,” added Rafaga, circling a small area of land in the far south-east of the Earth Region. “The forests have been marked on the map, as you can see.”
Justice nodded, his eyes constantly darting back and forth over the paper in front of him. Asserting his authority was not something that he had gotten used to, or thought he ever would, though if the Guardians were going to look him for guidance, then the least he could do was offer what he could.
His words were met with a deep silence, which lingered for a moment before it was broken by the sound of Carbuncle stepping away.
“Well, if that is the decided plan of action, then I shall order my subordinate to ready the horses immediately.”
He bowed his head briefly, then began to walk back across the room. There seemed to be a sense of irritation about him, as if the very air were tingling with sparks. When he reached the door, he barked a name - an action which seemed too harsh for someone of such delicate form - and a figure materialised in the space. It was one of the guards from earlier.
The fire vampire seemed determined to make it clear he was in a mood, though what had caused such anger Justice didn't know. Was is that he not used to having his authority challenged? Justice wondered whether he had taken a step too far by speaking out about the mountain route, but there was little he could do about it now, so merely watched as the fire vampire stood and spoke in short, abrupt sentences to the other.
“It shall be done at once, My Lord.” The uniformed man stood almost a head higher than Carbuncle, yet regarded his superior with the utmost of loyalties.
Seeing that the discussion had clearly been brought to its end, Kircheis gathered the edges of the map and rolled it into a tight cylinder. Then he looked at the others.
“So I see that Carbuncle is going to be gracing us with one of his moods again…” He frowned, a look of exasperation which suggested that he was all but accustomed to such things. Slowly, he rose from his chair, bowed to the black-haired man and followed in his companion’s footsteps, still firmly clutching the map by his side.
“Your Majesty.”
Justice barely noticed when Rafaga stood aside and motioned with his hand so that he, too, could head towards the door.
There was one, however, who did not move - and had no intentions of doing so either, it seemed: Wilderness had fixed his gaze straight downwards, mimicking the actions of a scolded child.
“Are you coming or not?”
Gradually, he raised his head and looked at the other. “I suppose I ought to,” he sighed, though made no attempt to break his position.
Rafaga watched through his peripheral vision; thick locks of brown hair fell untidily over his back and front, casting light shadows over his face. “Nobody’s forcing you, brother - you can head straight back-”
“I’ll do what I want.” Wilderness swept past him suddenly, marched across the room and left.
Now alone, Rafaga couldn’t help but allow a smile to pull at his lips. His hand reached behind and picked up the nearest chess piece, one of his own knights that had been played by Justice. It was still warm as he held it at eye level.
“What do you make of him, then? Think he's the one?”
The piece was still, though the wind vampire smirked and nodded as though he had received a reply. He turned his eyes backwards, where the four chairs still stood around the table, the remains of the game like an abandoned battlefield between them.
“God, I hate these meetings.”
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