Chapter 11: ...for the Fateless

The story the young girl told Thane was a story that I am quite familiar with.  There was a noblewoman by the name of Amara Thales.  Like her mother and grandmother, she was born with the abilities of a fate scryer.  She was amazed by the power and the things that she could see, but her mother told her to never use the power frivolously as it could be dangerous. 

Like many other noble girls she entered high society soon after she became a teenager and like many teenagers she didn't listen to the advice of her parents. Her ability to read the fates of others was something only she could do, so she used it at every opportunity.  Mostly out of curiosity at first, but then out of concern.  

She started to see a pattern, there were a few nobles and several knights that began to show a fate of murder and death.  As she traveled she saw more of these, especially among common soldiers.  She was so concerned that she didn’t even have time to pay attention to the two young knights that were fighting for her affections.

Eventually she got her answer, the tensions between the countries were reaching a boiling point.  There was a war coming, a war that would engulf all of the southlands.  One that would usher in an era of peace and herald the rise of a new emperor that would unite the southlands once again.  But the cost of this peace and unity would be numerous years of suffering and a death toll in the millions.

She knew there was nothing to be done, and kept the knowledge to herself. Until one day everything changed.  She came in contact with something that altered her life forever.  She gained the ability to not only see the fate of others, but forcefully remove it from them. She gathered others that wanted to stop the coming war, cut the ties of fate from them, and they went about trying to bring peace and save the lives of millions.

Alexander and his companions negotiated peace, brokered deals, solved problems, slew monsters and Malkin, and if a certain player was intent on causing trouble regardless of their efforts, he was removed from the board entirely.  During a border dispute between two nobles, Alexander killed a dragon that was threatening one, and asked for the disputed land as payment.  When he presented this land to the second noble both sides praised him as a hero, and his reputation began to spread.  

They traveled to every country and free city in the southlands and solved every problem they could.  Peace had been earned but not everyone was happy.  There were a few individuals in power that knew the truth.  Some of them breathed a sigh of relief that the land wouldn’t be ravaged by war.  Others, such as the church, saw the heroes as meddlers or outright villains that had robbed the south of the peace and unity promised to them by the gods.   

  To them, a million lives or more was an acceptable cost, and they tried, and failed, to stop the heroes.  In the end, once all was settled and every problem was solved the heroes disappeared.  Some said they had gone off to help other lands but the truth was they went into hiding to avoid the machinations and revenge of those who wanted the war.

The part that the young girl didn’t know was that the ones who lost the conflict did not accept defeat that easily.  Even to this day they seek to undermine the peace and reignite the conflict, in hopes that the promised prosperity was still within reach.

*****************************************

Sarah

 

Sara wouldn’t get to hear the story for a few days, right now she was walking next to the cart with a few panicked villagers.  Her resting spot in the wagon was taken up by an injured, unconscious paladin.  She saw several other paladins watching the entrance of the village that approached them when they drew close.  

“Good evening,” her brother greeted the knights.  They had agreed that he would do the talking.  She would play the role of the quiet supportive sister to keep the eyes focused on him.  “I planned on staying the night here and resting my horses, but it looks like you are having a bit of trouble.  I found these men unconscious in the middle of the road.”

“Do not worry about it, traveler.  This town is safe, we will see to that.  Can you tell me what happened to this knight?”

“We all saw it!” said one of the villagers, “It was a giant, over five meters tall with a wicked glare.  He smashed the poor knight hard enough to crack his skull.   It’s a miracle any of us are alive!”  The rest of the villagers nodded in agreement. 

Sarah hid her smile, the man must have been talking about Stone, but she doubted that the Brun had suddenly doubled in size.  “Did you two see a giant?” the paladin asked.

“I’m afraid not sir knight,” replied Mahs.  “I simply stumbled upon these poor men on my travels and roused them from their sleep.” 

The paladin called over a few others, “Take our brother to the healer, he still lives but will not wake due to his injury.”  he turned to Mahs, “There are dark things at play here and the nearest village is still many hours away.  I suggest you stay here tonight under our protection.”

“Thank you sir, we shall accept your offer.”

While her brother was talking to the knights, Sarah was examining the village.  It looked about the size of their old home, a few dozen farmers and their families.  It was also hosting a number of knights that had set up an encampment on the edge of town.  She also took notice that the paladins had begun to set up two pyres in their encampment.  

There were more of these paladins than she expected.  Just now two more came in carrying a man by his shoulders and throwing him in a cage.  There were around eighteen total that she saw, and five of them had the same ornament as Lance.  Those hand sized wing decorations on their shoulders. She remembered Lance saying something about it marking them as elite knights of the church. There was a sixth knight with those decorations as well, although his was a bit different.  There was a gold chain that linked the two shoulder ornaments across his chest and his armor was a bit more decorated than the others.  That must be the leader.

She noticed that he looked exhausted, he was leaning against a fence when he could and when he walked he was having trouble keeping a steady gait.  She snuck in closer to him as a female knight approached and started eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Are you alright captain?  You look tired.”

“Yes, I will be fine.  Activating the relic took a lot more out of me than I expected.  I should be fine once I get a night's rest.  Tell me, I see the man, but what happened to the girl?”

 “She escaped.  According to the villagers they chased her and ran into a five meter tall giant and a pair of Fay creatures.  The giant struck down Quinn and one of the Fay creatures turned the fields against them, causing the crops to lash out and attack them.  They claimed the other turned his arms into lightning and shocked them unconscious with a touch.”

The man sighed, “Something tells me there is more than a bit of exaggeration and misapprehension involved in their stories.  They can’t lie here so I doubt they know the truth themselves.  Send Quinn to me once he recovers so we can find out what actually happened.  Also tell the others to be on guard.  The girl will be back with or without friends.  We have something she won’t leave behind.”  

“Also, a pair came in today about the same time the girl escaped.  They are the ones that brought Brother Quinn to the village.”

“Then I should go thank them myself.  Just in case, however, bring the lens and sceptre.  Keep the sceptre on your person, I will tell you if we need to use it.”

“Yes, captain.”

Sarah quickly returned from her reconnaissance to her brother's side.  He was just finishing up a deal with one of the townspeople to sell the deer that “he” hunted on their trip.  The villager dropped a few coins into her brother’s hand and started unloading the carcass when Sarah approached.

“Seems like things are fairly normal here even with all the excitement.”

“You’re talking about the witches?” the villager replied. “A shame that, who would have thought that a girl so young would be dealing with demons.  She seemed like such a nice girl too.”

“Oh you knew her?”

“Not so much, her and her brother came here yesterday evening looking for a place to stay.  Then those paladin guys arrived in the morning and arrested them both.  Put them on trial in front of the whole village at high sun, and sentenced them a short while ago.”

“Do you think they were guilty?”

“Honestly it doesn’t matter to me much.  We just want to get on with our lives, but those church knights seem to think they are guilty.  That girl used some pretty strong magic when she escaped.  My ma said there's no way for a girl that young to be using magic like that without some dark power involved.”

“We heard some loud explosions from a distance, was that her?  I don’t see any damage.”

“She didn’t damage anything, she made the air explode like thunder.  It felt like being slapped over my entire body and I couldn’t think straight.  Everyone fell down like a child trying to walk for the first time.”

“And then there was that shriek.” interrupted another.  “There was some screaming noise and she pulled the shackles off.”

“Are you sure that's what happened?” asked the first villager.

The two argued over the details of the escape while lifting the deer from the back of the wagon.  The siblings began to untie the horses while whispering to each other.  

“Sound manipulation?” said Mahs, “That doesn’t sound very demonic to me.”

“She knocked out several dozen people with a single spell, including a few elite paladins.  There has to be something behind her strength.  If not a demon or some sort of possession, then what?”

“Hm, you may be right, do you think Thane is in trouble?”

“I doubt it.  You should also know that the leader of the knights wants to thank us for bringing his man back to be healed.  He’ll be investigating us at the same time so don’t do anything suspicious or ask too many questions.”

Just as she said, the man came to ask the siblings to join him.  Sarah excused herself saying she had to take care of the horses and would catch up later.  Once the horses were stabled up, she began to walk around the village again.  The villager she spoke to seemed correct, these people didn’t really seem to care much about the trial that just happened or the occupying knights.  She finally headed towards where her brother was talking with the leader of the knights.

She skirted around the edge of the area where they were talking, situating herself near the woman holding an ornate sceptre.  She assumed it was what the leader had requested, but she had no idea what it did.  All together there were three knights sitting with her brother and three more surrounding the area.  The siblings obviously weren’t clear of suspicion yet.

When they noticed Sarah they motioned for her to join them, “You must be Mahs’ sister Sarah.  I am Tarpin of the Inquisition.”

“I will stand thank you, I do not wish to interrupt you and my brother.”  She tried to sound as meek as possible to avoid joining them.  She had no desire to be surrounded and wanted to stay as close as possible to the sceptre.  She may not be able to discern its actual function, but it was obviously going to be used against them if things came to blows.

“Tarpin here was just showing me one of his tools, he says there are only three of them in existence.”  She looked at the device Taripn was holding, a round brass frame surrounding a circular piece of glass.  “He says that by looking through that lens you can read someone's fate like a fate scryer.”

“Indeed, since fate scryers are so rare, the Church of the Three spent years trying to create a device that could mimic their powers.”

“Why would you need that?” asked Sarah, “Isn’t fate under the jurisdiction of the gods?” 

“You sister is wise, but there has been a taint spreading for the last few decades.  Those with the taint have a very distinctive fate.  This lens allows us to identify those people and bring them under our protection.”

Alarms were ringing in Sarah’s head but her brother seemed to be oblivious.  Something seemed off about that lens, she knew that she couldn’t let him use it.  She couldn’t stop her brother, however, without more suspicion.  The moment he said “I would be interested to find out what great fate awaits me,” she knew things were going to take a bad turn.

***********************************

Thane

 

Thane was lost in thought.  He didn’t know how much of Amara’s story was true, it all seemed a bit too hard to believe. “I do remember Castor saying something about stopping a war, but they really went through all of that?”

“That’s what I was told.” Amara replied.  

 “And you’re basically saying that at will the gods can completely take control of someone's life?” 

“No, not really.  It is a system that runs itself, I doubt that any demon or god other than the three would know every facet of how it works.  The gods just enforce it, and try to keep it from falling apart.”

Kisha let out a nervous laugh, “So our parents and your...who was it?  Your mother?  Grandmother?  They looked at this massive complicated system and decided, ‘Hey, lets just destroy part of it, nothing bad could happen, right?’”   

Thane held up his hand and stopped her, “Kisha, I know what you want to say, but we don’t even know everything yet.”  He looked back to the young girl, “But she does have a point.  There are millions of people alive that should have been killed because of a war.  How does that affect this whole system?  If it’s damaged, what is the worst thing that could happen?”

“I...don’t know”

Thane could tell she was lying, but didn’t press the issue.  Not now anyway.  Kisha seemed upset already and he didn’t want to make things worse, but he would get an answer from her eventually.  He walked over to the stream lost in thought.  He pulled out his longsword, his fathers sword and turned it over in his hands.  It certainly didn’t look like it could kill a dragon, maybe he had some other weapons Thane didn’t know about.  He gave a sigh and thrust the sword into the water.  With a flick of his wrist he sent a fish flying over to the others sitting beneath the overhang.

“That was impressive.” said Amara.

“Not like we can cook it, since we’re hiding here we can't make a fire. I might try to cook it with magic.”

“No, seriously, that’s not normal, how much training have you done?”

“A lot.”  

Thane sat down with the others and began to prepare the fish to go along with their cold rations.  Once it was cleaned he began to cook it on rocks heated with mana. At this point all that they could really do is wait to hear back from Sarah since they couldn’t enter the town.  All because of this girl. It irritated Thane even more that she seemed to know more about his father than he did.

If she knew about his father then it was possible…”Hey, your mother, I’m assuming it was your mother, did she say anything about the others.  About Aille?”

She seemed sad for a moment, “Your mother?  She didn’t say much, she only really talked about Alexander.” she gave a little giggle, “I’m sure Castor would love to hear that.”

They stopped as they heard someone approaching, Thane stood up and put his hand on his weapon.  When Sarah appeared he tightened his grip due to the condition she was in.  

Her left side was stained by a large amount of blood and she looked like she had been exerting herself. “Are you all right?” Thane asked.

“I’m fine, the blood isn’t mine.  Somethings not right though.”

“Why what happened?  Where is your brother”

“He’s alive, he cooperated with them.” She went over to the stream to try to wash off some of the blood, “I didn’t”.

“What do you mean he cooperated with them?” asked Amara.

“Well, the head fanatic took out this glass lens, it looked like an oversized magnifying glass with no handle.  Once he looked at us through it he called us ‘tainted’.  He politely asked us to join him and voluntarily put ourselves in some sort of prison.  I politely stabbed his aide in the neck and left.”

“You killed him?’ said a shocked Kisha.

“I killed her, yes.  She was holding this, it seemed to be important to them.”  She pulled the sceptre from behind her back and tossed it on the ground, “Any idea what it is?”

“I don’t know,” said Amara, “But as soon as he used it on me I couldn’t use magic.  He said it cut off my connection to my patron.”

“You’re a Theurge?” asked Kisha.

She gave a smirk, “Something like that.”

“I think the sceptre drained him when he used it, he looked exhausted and was having trouble standing up straight.”  She kicked the sceptre on the ground, turning it over, “Any idea how it works?  Can we use it to restore your connection?”

“It’s coming back on it’s own, I think it has a limited duration.”

“Good if we are going to fight these guys I want us to be at full strength.”

“Why do we have to fight them?” asked Kisha.

“Are you seriously asking why?  They have my brother and the girl’s friend.  They also have all our supplies and the goods we are supposed to be delivering.  If that is not enough reason for you to fight, they are also trying to kill this little girl here.”

“It’s not just for Gerard, he stole something very important to me as well, so I will help you.”

“You are a child.” said Stone.

“So are all the rest of us according to you,” replied Sarah.  “If someone has a reason to risk themselves in a fight, why should we stop them?  That inquisitor made it clear that he thinks of us all as tainted.  You think he’ll just stop…wait, why did nobody follow me?”

“Because he doesn’t need to.” said Amara, “Tarpin can be excessively cautious at times and doesn’t want to risk a trap or ambush.  He knows that we can’t ignore him so he will wait for us.”  

Stone gave out an irritated grunt as he picked at the cooked fish.  

“This isn’t the trip I was expecting.” said Thane.  He looked over to Kisha, “Are you good, will you fight with us?”

“Do we have to fight them?”

“They have our stuff, they have Sarah's brother and they think we are their enemy.  Even if they are…”

“The good guys?” Sarah laughed.  “That condescending zealot wants to lock us up for our entire lives because we are a threat to his precious ‘order’. If he’s one of the good guys I’d rather be a villain.”

“OK, I get it, we just need a plan.”

***********************************

Mahs  

 

Things could have definitely gone better.  He was being treated fairly because he was cooperative, but he didn’t have much of a choice when he was surrounded by a half dozen trained temple knights.  His sister, however, never did care for authority and was a lot less cooperative.  She cut her way out, killing two paladins and slashing the arm of a third.  

Now he had to figure his own way out of here.  He tried talking to the other prisoner but the paladins wouldn’t let him near.  They said he was a dangerous warlock even if his magic was sealed.  He tried to escape using illusion magic, only to find out it was useless here.  He supposed it made sense for inquisitors to have an illusion blocking artifact, but he could see no signs of it anywhere.

He was placed in a guarded tent and allowed to walk around while supervised, so he took advantage of this and once the sun had set he walked around to set up a method to help himself escape once the others arrived.  He knew the others were coming, Thane was too much of a good guy to let him stay imprisoned for no good reason.  His sister would pretend like she wanted to save him, but would more likely be interested in rescuing the goods that were still in the village. 

Although he and his sister didn’t really get along, she did leave behind something helpful to him.  He walked with his guard until he reached where the bodies were being stored to prepare for their burial.  “I, I know it was my sister who killed them, but may I say a prayer for the deceased?”

The paladin seemed uncomfortable answering the question, “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

This was the reason Mahs had waited until after dark.  He didn’t want the paladin to notice what he was actually doing.  Once he took a knee in front of the corpses he began to cast his spell.  He did everything he could to suppress any signs of spellcasting, he muted the light, and skipped the incantation to create all the constructs mentally.  Even with his shadow focus it was far more strenuous than he thought.  He was barely able to cast a fourth circle spell and now he was trying to cast one and mask it at the same time.  It took three times as long to cast as normal and nearly broke him mentally to pull it off.  When he was done he touched each of the corpses and gave a single command.  “Don’t move a single millimeter until I call for you.”

He stood up and staggered a bit before regaining his balance.  This was risky.  A paladin might be able to sense that the corpses were animated if they looked.  Even if they went undetected, as soon as they started moving any paladin with the most basic training could destroy them easily.  That wasn’t the point, he didn’t need them to fight the paladins, he needed to distract them.

He walked back towards his tent and took notice of the two execution pyres.  “If you don’t mind me asking, who is the second pyre for?”

The paladin laughed, “Don’t worry, it’s not for you, at least as long as you stay cooperative. One pyre is for the warlock in the cage over there, the second is for a witch and high heretic whom we will catch tomorrow morning.”

“I see.”  They were confident which might be advantageous for Mahs when it is time to escape.  He only hoped that their confidence was based on their numbers alone, and they didn’t have something else hidden.  He sighed in frustration, there was nothing more he could do, he just had to wait for his friends to arrive.

So he slept.  

When dawn came he was roused by the sounds of the Paladins preparing for their execution, and the inevitable intervention by “the witch and her minions”.  He had to prepare himself for escape, hopefully his friends would arrive before these fanatics started burning people.

When his rescue did finally come, Mahs was shocked.  He was expecting something a little more planned out.  A distraction, an ambush followed by a daring escape, something like that.  Instead what he saw was Thane, walking with that little girl he met on the road, fully armed and armored, right up to the middle of the paladin’s encampment.  The others were several meters behind him and they seemed battle ready, but there was no way they could take on this many people.  It was different with the thugs that attacked their village, their equipment wasn’t great and they were barely trained.  These were heavily equipped and trained temple knights, and several of them were the elites of the church. 

He noticed Thane was nervous, glancing down at the girl who accompanied him who seemed fairly confident for some reason.  The first words out of Thane’s mouth shocked him. 

“Inquisitor Tarpin, adherent of Pathos, the Hammer of Justice.  In accordance with the scripture of Law, chapter 32, I hereby request the trial of Amara Thales and Gerard of Sonehewers Point to be decided by trial of combat.”

Mahs watched as the lead inquisitor stood up and walked to the middle of the camp, standing across from Thane.  He was carrying a massive warhammer in both hands and sneered at Thane.  “You have no right to request a duel.  I already know you are a Sorscare, no god would side with you in a duel.  Even if you could get a god's blessing on your own, there is no god that would take the defense of that...thing.”  he pointed at the little girl with unmasked disgust in his voice.  “In order for trial by combat to be valid in an inquisitorial trial, you must have the backing of a god.”

To emphasize his point, he held the shaft of his hammer vertically and slammed the head of the hammer into the dirt.  Runes began to glow with holy energy around the hammer and the ground it was touching.  Mahs felt the hum of energy in the air, and immediately knew this man was much more powerful than he first suspected.

He couldn’t hear what Thane was saying to the girl but he could tell enough by his expression and the movement of his lips.  “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“No” replied the girl.

“Great, we’re all going to die.” was all that Mahs could say as he watched Thane mimic Tarpin’s actions and stab his greatsword into the ground.

***************************************

Thane

 

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Thane asked.

“No,” said Amara, “but you’re doing perfect so far.  You remember the rest of the ritual right?”

“Of course, you’re ready to start fighting when this fails right?”

“A little more confidence from you would be nice.  It won’t fail...I think.”

Thane hoped the plan they made last night would actually work.

----------------------

The Plan

“We need to take advantage of the division in the temple knights,” said Amara.

“What division?” asked Sarah.

“Tarpin and his inquisitors were shorthanded.  So they picked up some reinforcements from some local temples.  The heraldry a temple knight wears also includes a sigil of the god they follow.  All inquisitors follow Pathos, but there was heraldry for multiple gods among the knights.”

“Usually Inquisitors operate alone, and there is a reason for that.  They are given special dispensation to ignore some of the rules of the temple when dealing with Sorscare and other heretics.  The other temple knights are unaware of this and will protest and may even side with you if he tries to break these rules, so we need to trap him in the laws of the temple.”

Thane noticed she was staring directly at him as she spoke and asked, “How?”

“You’re going to challenge him to a holy duel.”

---------------------------

Thane pulled out his greatsword.  He didn’t know what the girl was thinking.  He had never really prayed before in his life yet she seemed confident he could get a god to bless him for the duel.  

He followed the girls instructions as he raised his greatsword and stabbed it in the ground, mimicking the Inquisitor.  “I, Thane, son of Alexander and Aille request advocacy in this sacred duel.”  He expected the light to shine the moment his sword hit the ground like it did for Tarpin, and in that brief moment he was convinced that this wouldn’t work.  However, just like when the Inquisitor planted his weapon, his sword began to glow with runes as well as the ground around him.  He felt a warm light surge through his body.

The duel had been accepted.  When Tarpin slammed his hammer down and released holy energy it was meant to intimidate the boy and display strength.  But it was also the action taken to accept the duel.  Since it was done in front of so many people, he couldn’t back out now.

His face twitched in anger.  “How?  Who would dare?” He tried to compose himself, “Fine, then choose your terms.”

“One weapon of your choice, you may only use magic or artifacts that affect yourself or your weapon.  What are your terms?”

“This fight will be to the death.  No quarter or mercy will be allowed.  Do you accept these terms?”

This was his last effort to evade the duel.  Amara told him that the Inquisitor would make a condition that would likely make Thane reconsider the duel and give up there.  This seemed like a bit of an extreme way to do things.  If Thane accepted, he would be putting his life on the line for some girl he just met and her friend.  He shook the thoughts out of his head.  This was also for freedom, that inquisitor was going to confine Mahs for life and would do the same to him and Kisha.  Sarah had killed two knights earlier today, confinement was not going to be in her future if he quit here.  

“This is your last chance to quit, boy.”

“I accept these terms.”

The Inquisitor left his hammer on the ground and walked over to another knight.  He took off an amulet he was wearing, as well as a ring and handed them both over to the knight before returning.  He picked up his hammer and hoisted it up to rest on his shoulder.  “I don’t know which god decided to side with you in this duel, but by doing it they just turned a young man into a corpse.”  

“So much for the result of the duel not being important.”

-----------------------

“The result of the duel won’t be important,” Amara said.  “It’s a distraction.  We can do what we need to while the others are watching the duel.  Maybe set your brother and Gerard free and get our items back.”

“It would help if I could use more magic,” said Sarah, “Something prevented illusions from working in that area, some sort of artifact.”

“That would be a lodestone amulet. It is an amulet that links a leader and his followers together, combining their mana to create a powerful effect.  Mostly they are used to protect squadrons of troops from being wiped out by magic, this particular one will prevent illusion magic and make it so questions cannot be answered with a lie.”

“So how do we get rid of it?”

“When Tarpin accepts the challenge, it should be easy enough to get him to remove it as terms of the duel.  Even though I said the result won’t be important, you really do need to win that duel.”

“I didn’t plan on losing, but why?”

“Partially because of the justification it will give us, the temple knights will be a witness to our innocence. But mostly it’s because of the chaos it will cause.  Like I said before, Tarpin and his men have permission to break the rules when dealing with threats to the church and gods, so there is no way they will honor the result of a lost duel.  For the rest of the knights, that would be unacceptable.  It would likely cause infighting giving us even more leeway to escape.”

----------------------------------

Thane raised his sword and took a defensive stance and began to strengthen himself with mana.  He needed to stretch this fight out if he wanted his friends to get everything done, he also needed to put on enough of a show to keep people's attention. 

Tarpin started by slamming his hammer on the ground and then charging forward.  Thane had become used to this little mana trick by now, Stone had used it often enough and he could do it by just stomping his feet.  The ground shook but Than kept his balance and lowered his stance, channeling mana into his sword like he had been practicing. As the inquisitor brought his enhanced hammer down, Thane brought his enhanced sword up to meet it and the two powers clashed.  The air shook and the shockwave blew away all the dust past the gathering crowd.  Even those standing far away felt like a gust of wind slapped them across the face.

The exchange was fierce, each man was swinging around his heavy weapon as effortlessly as a boy would swing around a stick.  Impossibly fast swings were sending wind gusts from the battlefield and each time the weapons clashed, there was a shockwave.  With each dodge, block and parry, it became obvious who had the advantage.  The younger man was getting pushed back.  Anyone could tell that Thane was losing.  The first telling blow came when Tarpin thrust his hammer forward like a spear.  The head of the hammer crashed into Thane’s stomach sending him flying backwards.  

Thane rushed back in to attack but to saw Tarpin holding the hammer as high as he could channeling energy into it.  This felt exactly like what Lance did in their sparring match, the “holy smite” that left a crater in the training yard.  Only this was much more powerful.  He reversed his momentum as quickly as he could before the hammer came down.

When it did come down there was a bright white light and loud explosion.  Thane’s ears were ringing and he was knocked back on one knee.  Just like with Lance, there was a crater, but this one was much larger and seemed to crackle with holy energy.  Thane felt the impact from the explosion and was having trouble standing.  

“I take no pleasure in killing you boy.”  He paused for a moment to laugh.  “That was a lie, I forgot that I can lie again now that the lodestone is removed.  In truth, there is nothing that sickens me more than the order that the Sorscare are to be allowed to live out their lives as long as they stay confined.  I will take great pleasure in killing you and all your heretic friends.”

Thane staggered to his feet, he had one last thing he could try, it was a bit dishonorable but it didn’t really matter at this point.  He lifted his sword over his head and threw it with all his might.  Tarpin was shocked, but managed to step aside before getting hit.

“Now you don’t have a weapon, what-..”

He twisted his body and tried to lunge out of the way.  The sword that had landed in the dirt was now spinning back into Thane’s hand.  He didn’t think he would get to use the technique Mersine had given him so soon.  He managed to keep his mana in the sword and used it to pull it back towards himself.  Tarpin’s experience and sense had kept him alive.  Had he dodged a split second later, the sword would have run through his back and out his chest.

Instead he took a blow to the shoulder that sent a couple armor plates and fragments of chain mixed with blood scattering across the destroyed dueling grounds.  He started to laugh, “You...you make a good point.  Why should I wait?  Why don’t we just kill them all now?  It was fun prolonging your suffering but it’s time for me to take this seriously now, and” he raised his voice and shouted to the knights surrounding them.  “Inquisitors! The time for humoring heretics is over, kill the Sorscare and the Witches!”

----------------------

Once the planning was finished and everyone had a task Thane asked a question to the girl.  “What if I can’t beat the Inquisitor in a duel?”

“You can.”

“What makes you so confident?”

“You are your father’s son, which means you should be able to use that special technique of his right?”

Thane frowned, “How much more did you learn about my father that you aren’t telling me?”

“I may know a few things you don’t, but if it is something he never told you, I have no right to tell you in his place.  If he kept any secrets, you should trust that it was for a reason.”

“I can use that technique but not like he could.  If I use it, I might not be able to stay conscious and I definitely won’t be able to run or fight afterwards.”

“I heard it was the same for him.  The backlash I mean, you just need someone to take care of the damage the technique inflicts on you. I’m going to be honest, once Tarpin starts fighting you seriously, using that technique is the only thing that will keep you alive.”

------------------------

It’s time to give them something they can’t ignore, they won’t attack if they are focused on the duel.

Thane began to focus, he had to stay calm.  Then he let the swirling mass of chaotic mana enter his body.  His mind had always been faster than his body in the past, making it seem like his body was moving too slowly, but with all the training it was starting to level off now.  It still felt like he was moving through water rather than air, but he could deal with that.

He charged his opponent as fast as he could, and Tarpin was visibly shocked.  He couldn’t blame him, all of a sudden his opponent’s speed strength and reflexes had doubled, perhaps even tripled.  Even then, since Tarpin was no longer holding back, he managed to keep up with Thane...somewhat.  He was being overwhelmed and he knew it.  In a flash their positions had reversed.  

He somehow managed to barely block or deflect every blow from Thane but was struggling.  Finally a powerful slash knocked the hammer away exposing the inquisitor.  Thane aimed for the damaged point in his armor, the shoulder plate that had been torn off.  He brought a magically infused greatsword down on the man's shoulder.

The fight was over.  Tarpin’s left arm was lying on the ground, still tightly clutching the hammer.  Tarpin himself was on one knee holding his wound and trying to stop the blood flow with whatever mana he had left.  He sneered at Thane, “To the death remember?  Does a soft kid like you have what it takes to kill someo-...”

His speech was cut off by a thrust.  Thane stabbed his greatsword through the man’s open mouth until it burst through the other side.  “Shut up already.”

He looked around and saw that the inquisitors had yet to take action on Tarpin’s orders.  According to Amara, this victory would have won over most of the paladins to his side.  His relief was cut short as he coughed up specks of blood.  “Crap, forgot to purge.”

He sent a pulse of mana clearing out his body but the damage had already been done and he fell to his knees.  Amara was the first to run up to him and she had already prepared a cloth that she used to wipe the blood from his mouth and nose. “Time to get up Thane, there is still more work to be done.”

He coughed, “Not sure I can stand, that took a bit longer than I expected.”

He was cut off by a palm hitting him in the chest, the tail end of a spell that Amara had cast.  He immediately felt...better.  It was almost like he never exposed himself to raw mana.  He didn’t know what she did, but it looks like it wore her out. “I’d rank that  six by the way.”

“A six?” 

“Yeah, your enhancement is about the same as that of a sixth circle augmentor.  Which is impressive, but if you were up against Toth instead of Tarpin, you would have lost.  Now chaos, just like we planned.”

She was right about the chaos.  The inquisitors were attempting to follow the last orders of their dead commander, the rest of the temple knights were arguing with them about the sanctity of the duel blessed by the gods, things were looking like they might come to blows.

“Hey, everything is ready to go, it’s time for us to get out of here.” Sarah grabbed Thane’s shoulder and pulled him to his feet.

“You don’t need to support me, I’m fine this time.  How is your brother?”

“He’s fine, they treated him well since he cooperated.  He said to run for the horses once you hear the screams.”

“Screams?”

A loud shriek came from a few villagers causing even more chaos and the three of them ran to catch up with the others. When they reached their cart and horses, everyone was there, everyone was safe. 

“Their horses have been taken care of and are out grazing in the fields.” said Kisha, “Even if they decide to chase after us, they won’t be able to do it for quite some time.”

“Good job, let's get out of here.”

Together they rode out of the town as fast as they could.