Category : Stories

Sub Category : Fantasy

The Mansion stood before him, as strong as a fortress, and nearly as intimidating as a dragon. He thought of his brother, strengthened his resolve, pulled up the hood of his worn down cloak, and stepped past the gates. They were open on this particular occasion for another extravagant celebration about nothing, opened to the lower classes just to remind them what they couldn’t have. Blending in with the other raggedly clothed commoners, he flowed quietly through the throng towards an entrance to dungeons farthest from view. As he turned a corner, he encountered two patrolling guards. Before either could react, he pulled his spear from his back and slit one man's throat , his hood flying off as he did so. When he went for the other, the man pulled his sword, clashing against the spear, and in shock and disbelief, exclaimed, “Rowan?!” Rowan stepped back, and after looking more closely under the helmet partially covering his face, realized it was a friend. 

“Cedric? Thank the Gods you’re still alive. H-” 

He was cut short when Cedric grabbed the fresh corpse. “I’d love to talk, but now's not the time. Someone probably heard that, and we need to get out of here. Help me with the other end, and follow me”
After they rushed inside the nearest room, Rowan quickly barricaded the room with a his spear. He looked at the corpse somewhat guiltily, then asked, “He wasn’t one of the good ones, was he? And how are you still alive?”

“First, no he wasn’t, luckily you got one of the ones under the Lords thumb. As to the other question, essentially a lot of people died, except for me.”
Rowan sighed in relief, then returned his focus to the body. “I think I’ll need a better disguise than the one I have now, might as well use that.”

Cedric chuckled lightly. “Even if you did, a lot of people would still instantly pick you out.”
Rowan gave a puzzled and pained look on his scarred. “How could that be? I’d have thought I’d be unrecognisable after…” He drifted off, seeming to remember something terrible.

“I wasn’t talking about that, I meant that fire spear, it’s very distinguishable. You have got to replace it or hide it.”

“You know I can’t, how else will my brother recognise me? The only other thing I have that me might know is his flute, which I keep around my neck, but that is burned nearly as badly as my face. Even if he does recognise it as his, he might hate me for it.”
Cedric nodded compassionately, and sat to ponder what to do. Rowan looked around the room, finally taking it in. It wasn’t very large at all, and in the center was the body, slowly bleeding out, with the chair Cedric was sat in near it. On the table in front of him was a number of flaks with varying contents and sizes, and in one corner was a bucket that could be a chamber pot. Rowan decided to move the body towards the corner away from the door, near the bucket. As he neared it, he realized it didn’t smell, and so took a cautious glance at it. It contained a shining silvery liquid.

“Cedric, what’s this liquid metal?”

“Oh, I should’ve thought of that sooner, it is something the court wizard concocted recently and told us to dip all of our weapons in. It turns them all the same color it has, so it might be able to remove that distinct red for the spearhead. Then you could keep it with you and it probably wouldn’t be recognized.”
Rowan walked back towards the bucket, and upon closer inspection he could sense a faint magic emanating from it. Deciding it was probably harmless, he took the tip of his spear and moved it close to the liquid. However, before it actually touched, the metal started to spark, and then it suddenly bulged upwards onto the spearhead, covering it, and crawling over the wooden shaft. Just before the metal touched his hands he let go, but the spear stood still. Once the bucket was empty, the spear hung there in the air for a moment, the tip still in the bucket, but not touching, covered in the substance that was clearly more magical than Rowan had predicted. Then the liquid seeped into the spear, and it clattered to the ground. When he picked it up, it seemed warm to the touch, and a flame burst forth from the tip.

“Rowan stop whatever you’re doing, I don’t want to get burned to death today!”, Cedric cried out.
Rowan focused for a moment, and the flame receded and died out. “Well its usual red color is gone, so hopefully no one will recognise it. Once I put of the guard outfit I doubt anyone will recognise me either.”
As Rowan did that, Cedric said, “I should warn you Rowan, of the guards in the dungeon, I only know a couple that still support you, so we need to be careful in there. And of those, only one definitely knows that Gavin is your brother.”

“We should think more about getting to him than who will help us get out, for now at least. Before I realized you were alive, my plan was initially just kill everyone in my way, but now I have a disguise and an inside man. Have any ideas?”

“...Yes, actually, I think I do. If we treat you like a new guard, then we can get you in by saying it’s a tour of the dungeons since you’ve never been. That should work.”
With a new plan of attack, the two set off towards the dungeons. As they approached, the guard outside commanded them to stop harshly. Cedric stepped forward, laughing. “Please, don’t scare the new guy like that, we want him to stay don’t we?” The other guard laughed in response, and waved them through. The two walked down the main hall of the dungeon, with multiple offshoots, and a wide variety of criminals, of which very few seemed to deserve to be there.
Rowan tried to scrutinize the face of everyone he passed, until he realized that alone would take forever. “Do you know where Gavin would be?”

“I do, it was actually the right branch two branches back, but there are two guards outside his cell at all times, so-” As Cedric turned to face Rowan, he realized that he was already long gone, running at top speed towards where his brother is. Cedric sighed an exasperated sigh, and turned to follow. 
Rowan turned the corner, and after another moment of running, could faintly hear a song being whistled, one he recognized as his brothers favorite. With his goal so close, he shouted out, “Gavin! I’ve come!”
Before he was even done talking, he heard someone ahead cry out, “Who goes there?”, followed by a quiter, “That’s Gavin’s brother right, it’s gotta be Rowan, call for reinforcements. Now!” Realizing his mistake, he shut up, grabbed his spear, and rushed the two guards rapidly approaching. He sidestepped the first ones paltry attack, and slashed his jugular open. The second one was more skilled, and managed to nick Rowans cheek. As the guard went for another strike, Rowan pulled back and slashed at his arms, but only managed to cut the one not holding the sword. The guard swung once more, but was intercepted by Cedric, who knocked his sword from his hand and pierced his heart. 
Cedric stopped, then said, “We can’t win this with just ourselves, I’ll go get some allies, and try to stall anyone I can.”
Rowan, in a trance, nodded but didn’t turn around or stop running. When he reached the cell, he couldn't see anything. He turned around, bewildered, but when he heard a gentle tapping of stone on stone, almost musically, he turned to face this new sound, and instantly saw Gavin sitting in the back, rock in hand. Then, as he turned his attention to the bars, looking for some kind of lock, Gavin spoke up.
“Don’t bother. There’s no lock. Even if you do open this, even if you sound like my brother, he is dead, so I won’t go with you.”
Rowan stopped, took off his helmet, and cast a small fire from the tip of his spear. “I might look a little different, but I’ve still got the spear, even if that also looks a little different right now.”

“You could’ve taken that from his cold dead corpse, and fire magic isn’t that rare.”

“Dammit Gavin, stop being so stubborn!” He put down his spear, this time moving the flute around his neck into view. “Is this proof enough little brother? I know you recognise it. Just look at me.”
	Gavin looked up, and Rowan saw an emaciated face, with dead eyes. However, once they recognised Rowans face, they flared to life with anger. 
As Gavin opened his mouth to speak, Rowan spoke first. "Please, before you condemn me to whatever you wish to condemn me to, listen to me. I know I've done terrible things to you indirectly or not, and even if you don't think I can ever make up for them, I'm going to try." 
Gavin stood, seething, he different seemed to calm down. Then he spoke, with a cold resentment in his voice. "In the name of protecting what you loved, you burned the two things I loved the most, my music, and our home. Then, to top it off, you got me locked up for years." 
Rowan exploded with an equal amount of regret and anger. "You think I wanted it to turn out to way? My choices were watch everyone I loved die, and then die myself, or save who I could by burning what I couldn't!" 
He paused for a moment, then continued. "You don't think I wish every day that I'd done it differently? That if only I'd been better at fooling the Lord, it would've worked out? Because I sure as hell do! So just let me do what I can, for your sake and mine. Please." As his anger faded, all that was left was regret as he pleaded his brother.
Gavin sat back down, this time facing away. "Even if I did believe you, that you didn't betray me, it doesn't change what you did."
As Rowan stood there silently, knowing that there was nothing he could say in response, he heard the clash of metal in the distance, and footsteps. When he turned around, he saw three guards fighting, and losing, against two mages and four other guards, with Cedric running towards Rowan. The three guards Cedric had taken with him were quickly stuck down by the superior forces, but they took a mage and guard with them, even cutting one of the surviving guards arm deeply. As Rowan approached the mage, by far the trickiest opponent, he told to Cedric, "You take care of the injured one, and the one next to him. I'll take these guys on the right." 
Trusting in each other, Cedric nodded and went towards his opponents, while Rowan gripped his spear more tightly, until it erupted into flame. As the mage retreated, chanting for a more powerful spell, the guard in front of Rowan tried to ram him with a shield. Rowan countered this by swinging his spear under the shield towards the enemies ankles, with the heat of the flame enough to make the guard jump. Rowan pressed his advantage, twirling around the shield on order to hit the guard, and hitting him in the side. It wasn't enough to put the guard down yet, and the mage had just finished chanting. As the mage readied to throw a giant fireball, Rowan stepped back away from the guard, and pushed all of his magic into his spear, causing the flame around it to swell. Eventually it couldn't hang onto the spear anymore, and launched forward, towards the fireball now moving towards Rowan. They collided mid-air, causing a massive explosion and collapsing the roof. When Rowan regained his senses after the shock, he realized Cedric was on the other side of rubble from the ceiling. In his panic he forgot about the nearby guard, who sneaked up on him, stabbing him in his side. 
Rowan cried out in agony, flailing his spear around him, a small amount of fire trailing from it. In his random swinging, he hit the guard, who he had already been weakened, killing him. He then collapsed, with a small pool of blood starting to form around him. 
He started crawling towards the cell, calling out to Gavin. “I know this is the last thing you want to do for me right now, but I need your magic. If I can heat up the flat of my spear, then I can burn the wound shut, but I don’t have enough magic left to do that.” He was met by silence. Once he got close enough to throw the flute with his remaining strength, he removing it from his neck, and tossed it haphazardly towards the cell. It landed just inside. 

“Gavin please, you’re all I have left.” He implored desperately.
 As Gavin reached for the flute, he said, in a voice cracking with anger confusion and sadness, “As much as I hate you because I thought you killed our family without remorse, I hate the idea of having absolutely no one left even more. I haven’t forgiven you, but I don’t want you to die.” Following these words was a  slow and sombre song, with a stormy feeling just underneath. As Rowan felt his brothers emotions and magic flow through him with his music, he grabbed his spear. He held it for a moment, sparking, flowing magic into it, until it was hot enough. Then he pushed the metal to his wound, burning it shut and stopping the bleeding, accompanied by his muffled cry through his teeth.
Rowan barely managed to stand up shakily, holding himself up with his spear as a crutch. He looked towards Gavin, who still wouldn’t meet his eyes, and said, “Time to get us out of here somehow, but first thing to do is to get you out of that cage.” Gavin made no comment, but backed away from the bars.
He attempted to hold up his spear, but nearly toppled without it's support. He tried again, this time managing to both hold himself up and point the spear at the metal bars. He tightened his grip once more, and a bright flame started to emerge from the spearhead. As it onto touched the metal, there was no visible difference. He tried to straighten himself, and with the effort the flame became slightly brighter. After a moment the metal seemed to glow dully, and Gavin realized he needed more magic to melt the metal. He grabbed the burnt flute from the floor, dusted it off, put to his lips and blew. It started as a single note so quiet it was nearly inaudible, but as Gavin's magic poured into Rowan, the single note turned into an exquisite song, flowing gracefully through the air. When the song increased in volume and tempo, the flame became even brighter, until the song was as loud and wild as a pack of lions, and the flame much too bright to look at. Rowan, feeling his and his brothers magic intertwining in his spear, stood up straighter, though so with visible effort, and began to move the spear in a box on the bars. As he passed onto new bars, the ones he had just passed over dripped slowly down themselves, now molten. Once he finished, he released the flame, and collapsed with exhaustion. 
Rowan tried sitting up, but as how abdomin failed to bend, he chuckled with pain. He said, "Sorry. I don't think even your magic can get us out of this one, since you seem pretty drained too."
Gavin stood, then expressed his regret in return. "This is my fault, I shouldn't even be here anymore." Rowan looked at him, puzzled, so he went on. "A while back I learned I can hide things by making a percussive song, which I used to hide a tunnel." With a few taps on the remaining bars, a chime like melody floated in the air for a moment, and suddenly a hole appeared in the back of the cell on the loose cobble wall.

"I could never leave because I didn't think I'd survive, or that I'd find you. Or even what I'd do once I did. Now I know, so let's get out of here."
Rowan tried and failed once again, and so he said, "I think I'm a lost cause, get out of here on your own, make people happy with your music again. Please."
Gavin started to remove the heavier pieces of Rowan armor. "Were you not listening at all? I'd still have the same questions as before that kept me here. I'm not leaving without you. So shut up, and try to crawl so it's not quite so hard to drag you."
At that, Rowan laughed, which caused him to cough up a substantial amount of blood. However, he managed to remove the rest of the armor, and they got into the tunnel. After an arduously long amount of crawling and dragging combined, they reached the outside, a little earthen alcove that could be very easy to miss. Gavin found some rocks, and after clacking them together gently and melodically, the tunnel seemed to disappear, from beginning to end. Though the discord of the castle could be heard in the distance, for now, they were alive and free.