Chapter 2: Hey! Don't Flip my Script! (02)
I blink. That… that is not in the script. My mouth falls open, and I look unfortunately flummoxed. I know, because we're talking through the mirror. I can hear my sister in my head, 'Close your mouth, you look like a big daft boulder."
I do my best to rally. Snap my jaw shut like some oafish turtle. Pull the sneer onto my face, but it doesn't look quite right. Doesn't quite match-up with the look I've got going now that's trending toward a giant question mark.
"I'm here to kidnap you." I tell her flatly.
"Are you taking me outside?" She asks me.
"Leaving is generally a part of kidnapping." I've lost the sneer. This is just too confusing.
"Excellent!" She jumps-up with a little laugh. "Let's go!"
She leads the way out. And it takes me a full 5-seconds before I snap out of it, and lengthen my stride to catch-up.
"Would you like to know my name?" She asks me. "I'd like to know yours."
"Cardeaninian Septimus Vashrashade Aegentilius." What the hell? Why'd I just roll out my full title like that - I never do that! "The third," even slips out past my clenched teeth.
"Well, that is a mouthful. You can just call me Verity."
"Shade." I grit out through abject mortification. "My sister calls me Shade."
"Well, Shade. Certainly better than the 16-odd syllables you first mentioned, I'd say."
I stalk after her without rebuttal.
She's waltzing through my body count like they're flowers, I notice her stop at a bloke whose arm I was forced to break. I'm about to apologize, but… She laughs.
She laughs and kicks him swiftly in the stomach with her dainty slippered foot. Once, twice, thrice and then she moves on, saying over her shoulder to me, "I hate that guy. He would be the one to pin me down whenever they clipped my wings every quarter year."
I deliberately hold back a half-step in case she's capable of following through with her viciousness in actual combat.
It appears I went out to pick up a flower and ended up with a thorn.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." I don't know what to do with that information. Don't know what to say about it. Really, I hadn't expected to need to have a conversation with her at all - I expected to have to knock her out and throw her over my shoulder unconscious after she screamed or flailed or cried - or some other combination. I should have known better. My own sister is a shining example of shucking stereotypes…
… And then making me pay for them.
I shouldn't have agreed to this mission. It overcomes me all at once that my life is going to be far more complicated after this encounter. This is going to be a problem that hangs over my head for ages.
"You are, aren't you? Sorry. How interesting." She steps on the leg of another fallen soldier. Hard. "Didn't like him either. Used to make me eat food off of the floor when he'd drop my tray on purpose."
I have no response to that. Why were the Nephilim abusing her? They had even hired a Vanto to guard her. She's incredibly rare - a savior if she chooses your side.
"You're wondering why they would do that?" She pauses right before the doors that lead outside.
"Yes, the thought did cross my mind." I admit it readily.
"Because while I tell the truth, I also pull the truth. You're going to figure it out eventually, so might as well be blunt about it. I don't do it on purpose, but it is what it is."
"Didn't realize the lizard heads were that testy." She smiles at me broadly.
"Yes, well. They do try to come off as all holier-than-thou. In reality, the Nephilim want to jump start the Century war, and seize an advantage without being caught, but they couldn't quite hide from me all the horrible things they were planning on doing to the people who live in those lands." A hard look crosses her face, and I imagine she has lived through quite a lot in her short life. "I refused to cooperate, and the only leverage they had was myself."
"Would you mind telling me who their targets are?" The Century War is still a year off, and I'm not looking forward to it, since I'll be forced to kill just bucket-loads of commoners and the odd lord. I won't sleep for weeks. There will be so many hauntings, I won't be able to sleep through the pure din of it. I sigh in disgruntlement just thinking about it, and she looks at me askance.
Small conflicts do break-out occasionally, and Dad tends to throw me into weak spots where I can terrorize farmer's sons and merchant boys to break the lines. We're not allowed to all-out war against each other, but skirmishes are common. I have no choice though, it's too important to Dad and Pru. We need to establish a more stable border zone for the upcoming era of peace.
A long time ago, the world wars were pretty much constant and a lot of species were driven to the edge of extinction. There was a universal agreement that every 100 years there would be a 90-day war to try to expand or defend our territories; otherwise, we'd destroy each other and this world.
I just had the poor fortune to grow up into my age of majority right before this horrible nightmare takes place. To keep me alive, my dad's been throwing me into the skirmishes and tournaments since I was 7-years-old. I was the spare anyway. My sister, thank the gods, is the crown princess.
Not that my poor sister doesn't have her own problems.
Pru has been under pressure to get married and produce little heirs for the last 3-years. Dad wants another spare I think just in case we both bite it in the war. He doesn't have it in him to get married again at his age. Our mother's death really wrecked him, anyway. Not sure if he could go through it all again - even for the Kingdom.
"What will you do with this information?" She asks me.
"I'll tell my Dad and sister." I answer directly. I blink at her a bit. I don't know what else she would expect for me to do with it.
She smiles at me, "You're the straightforward sort, aren't you?"
"Apparently, just with you." I grit out. "My sister says I'm the silent type that looks superiorly all-knowing, but really I'm just a sword-happy, daft little Duke."
I close my eyes involuntarily and think about punching myself in the throat. If I damage my vocal chords, she can't use them against me.
"This is horrible for you, isn't it?" She laughs at me. Laughs! I'm supposed to be her kidnapper.
"Utterly abysmal." I say instead with a sigh. "Come, it's not safe here. You can decide for yourself what you are willing to tell my Father the King and Crown Princess Sister."
She steps out into the light and turns her face to the sun.
"Are you sure you can't just let me go? I promise I'll run as far as I can."
"With those wings, you won't get far." I can see her wings are bound together over her back and it stirs a faint feeling of anger in me. "Would you like those bonds removed?"
"Wouldn't you be afraid I'd fly away?"
"You just told me your wings are trimmed not even 5-minutes ago. I'm not that daft." I pause. "Plus, I may be your kidnapper, but you will be our guest. And we do not mistreat our guests, regardless of what rumors you may have heard about my family." I think that's all, but nope. Her little truth pheromone strikes again.
"You do not have to be our permanent guest if you do not choose to be."
Hottest. Hells. Pru is going to skin me alive for saying that.
"Okay, then." She saids quietly. "But let's do it away from here."
"Gladly," I sigh with relief. "Come, my airship is just over here." I whisper the incantation for revelation under my breath and my little two seater pride and joy is revealed in the field across from the drawbridge.
She's silent for the remainder of the short walk (merciful saints and thank the gods). I don't know what I would have done if she pulled any more humiliation from me.
"We're really flying?" She whispers to me as I lift her into the back seat and help her strap in. She's very little, I realize. Or maybe it's that my people are so oversized. I want to ask how old she is, but I'm afraid to talk at this point.
"Yep."
Don't say another word. Don't give her any more ammunition. I jump into my seat and start the engine, so the noise will make her too hard to hear. I go through my pre-flight checks, whisper the words to call the wind, and angle us down the road that I used as a landing strip.
I'm tense until we're above the first cloud layer.
It's cold up here, so I mutter a warming spell over both cockpits and try to focus on flying. I've got unfortunately good hearing though, and I can hear her laughing and whooping with joy behind me like a child.
I guess she technically is still a child.
I'm angry, I realize. Her treatment has made me very angry.
I don't get angry very often.
"Hold on!" I shout over my shoulder.
"What?!" She screams back at me.
"Hold on to something!!" I yell, and then I barrel roll us across the sky. At first I hear her scream in surprise, but it turns into laughter almost immediately.
I feel for her. The Nephilim must have gone mad to clip her wings. It's such a monstrous, unforgivable violation. I can feel the steering joist crackle ominously under my fingers, so I lighten my touch through physical will.
And although it's not the same thing, I can't imagine going without my swords. They're a part of me. It must have been even worse to lose her wings and the sky. Flight is a part of who she is even more than the visions. Everyone knows that, it's the legacy of her race. Why they were given the sight to begin with.
They were the ones that used to ferry the children of the dying races out from under the flames of war, and so legend says a Kismera God who sees the strands of time gave her people a gift of clairvoyance to better help in their preservation efforts.
And it ruined them. Scattered them. Turned them into prey for every other race in our world. From the beasts to the shadows everyone desires the power of an Ascerian.
Particularly now, as we head into the Century war.
We fly for a few hours. Occasionally, I'll pull a few maneuvers when I hear her scream "It's getting boring back here!" at me. I'm surprised I don't encounter any enemies. My theft should have been discovered by now.
I feel the moment we cross into my territory, and I sigh in relief. If anything has been tracking me, I'm safe here on my own land. I can feel it welcome me home.
I take us in for a landing.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LaDiDah
LaDiDah Thanks for reading!
Feedback is valued and appreciated!
First time attempting a WPC... might have no idea what I'm doing. Sorry about that! Wanted to play around and write some swashbuckling battle royals.
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