3-63. War’s Turn

Kir looked at Rua, who was being repaired by the Fleshcrafter. Even with the bleeding stopped, Rua’s abdomen looked… wrong. Deflated and uneven, with no trace of the musculature which was normally evident. 

Rua tried to stand, and flopped back down, her legs useless. Vex made a panicked sound. Rua likely didn’t even know that part of her spine had been taken out in that attack. Old Grey’s bladed fist had gone right through her. 

“Stay down,” Kir said. “You’re still mending. You can’t rejoin the fight.”

Rua had a frustrated look on her face, and laid down. 

“I renamed you, you know,” Old Grey said.

“Oh? Called me a traitor in front of everyone?” Kir said. “I don’t care.”

“No. You don’t get it, kid. I’m talking Korna Zabaht.”

Kir paused a moment. Her anger didn’t flicker, but it did something odd. It grew.

Korna Zabaht was a great honour among her people. It was a renaming ceremony. Only someone from the royal family or someone who’d been renamed by one such was allowed to bestow a new title. And those who’d received such a name could only perform one such ceremony in their life.

Those who were renamed were legends. Written about in the Sanctioned Tales, their stories remembered. Songs were written in their name. They were also informally members of the royal family. Not in the line of succession, but treated with similar deference and authority. 

“You’re joking,” Kir said. “I… I haven’t done anything of note. Nothing to be remembered for. I’m just a soldier.”

“Just a soldier, she says,” Old Grey said, chuckling to himself and shaking his head. “Word’s been sent to Erathawk. He doesn’t like it. He agrees. Thinks you haven’t done a fabled thing to earn it. But it’s my right.”

“And what’s my new name?”

“Kirhaela Defier-of-Dreams Maravok.”

The Herald had mentioned that she’d spoken to Old Grey. He already knew what she’d done, freeing herself from her own Pact. And he was proud. 

“You kept ‘Kirhaela,’” she accused. It was tradition for the given name to be replaced entirely. ‘Old Grey’, after all, hadn’t been named such when he’d been born. He’d earned that title, when he’d done the impossible.

“Why not? It’s a pretty name.”

The whole while they spoke, Sami slowly circled Old Grey, and he tracked her movements, all while keeping a friendly facade. Siddic, the sole surviving member of her ‘Ice Watch’, circled around the other side, his stance cocky. He was down to a pair of throwing axes, everything else on his person long since used up. He’d be down to picking up and throwing rocks soon enough.

“Why now? Why pretend like you care about me now, of all times?”

“Always cared about you. Just had to make sure you were strong enough for when the day came.”

“What day?”

Rua answered for him, her voice laced with pain, “He wants you to kill him. Thinks you’re the only one who can. Suicide-by-daughter, if you ask me.”

Kir felt her heart stutter for a second. And then the anger returned.

“Is this true?”

“You’re the fight I was promised, Kir.” Old Grey tested his broken arm, grimaced, and then let it fall limply to his side. 

“I’m not going to kill you.”

“Why not? You already killed your mother. Might as well go two for two.”

Kir fell into a combat stance. Old Grey smiled. 

“That’s my girl.”

“I’m…” She struggled to control herself. “I won’t do it.”

“You’re going to. Because if you don’t, I’m going to kill everyone here. The question is, which one first.” He paused, assessing. “I know. The Crib.”

Kir had seen Old Grey in action many times. She knew how fast he was. What she didn’t know was that he’d always been holding back.

Old Grey surged forward in a blur, covering the distance of twenty paces in little more than a second, and then reared back and kicked Vex as hard as he could. 

Normally, when Old Grey did strikes like these, he put his fists or feet directly through people. Vex must’ve done something, reinforced her body somehow, because she took the blow, staying in one piece, but was sent flying. She arced up into the air and went back into the treeline, crashing somewhere in the distance.

“Sunny!” Rua cried, and tried to get back to her feet. She stumbled, barely managing to get back up. She gave a sluggish slash with her hatchet at Old Grey, but it bounced off his steel skin ineffectually. 

Old Grey ignored her and grinned. “Who’s next?” 

Sami surged at Old Grey, and suddenly there were two copies of her at her side, also attacking. That would be Everett’s illusion, meant to confuse Old Grey’s sight, a rough plan they’d come up with on the way there.

He ignored the copies and went right for Sami, apparently unimpressed with the effort. She sang a note as she struck. He brought up a forearm to block, and as he did, the steel on it slid away, revealing bare skin. Sami’s sword drove into the flesh of his arm, and he made a grunt, followed by a low rumble of throat singing, and the sword was forced away. He held up his injured arm, and his smile widened.

“A Steelsinger! It’s been a while since I’ve fought one of my own kind! Kir, you always had an eye for talent.”

His steel skin reformed, the metal staunching his wound. 

Sami moved in, both her swords swinging, and as she did, Siddic threw one of his axes. Old Grey took two slashes across his chest, the steel skin retreating once more as Sami sang, but even as it did, spikes formed from the metal that had been pushed away by Sami’s efforts, turning into long, stabbing tendrils, jabbing at Sami’s Tenacity. Siddic’s axe took Old Grey in the side of the head, the momentum staggering him. He shook his head in annoyance, and turned to Siddic, and as he did, Kir activated Foebeacon, one of her new Pact abilities. 

Old Grey stopped, turning to Kir, and charged right for her. Sami had called this skill ‘taunting,’ or ‘pulling aggro’, something a good tank was able to do. Kir wasn’t so sure about that. Her only defensive ability, Sheltering Light, was still on cooldown from using them against the Stormcallers earlier, and it felt foolish to be focusing his attention on her without it.

But it was all part of the plan that she and Sami had come up with on the way here. They needed to stick with it. 

Old Grey lumbered at her, and as he did, Everett jumped on his back, and grabbed at his long hair, yanking it back and hacking at Old Grey’s exposed neck. As he did, Kir used Dawn Aura. 

Light exploded out of her body and encompassed everyone present, a white luminescence that looked sacred. 

Getting through Old Grey’s steel skin would be difficult, especially with him adapting to their tactics quickly. Even as Sami tried to part the steel encasing his neck, her last use of her ability, he growled out a note of his own, and the area was solidly encased, Everett’s strikes bouncing off ineffectually. Another note, and spikes, only a few centimeters in length each, erupted from Old Grey’s body, and then he threw himself backwards, Everett still on him, and landed solidly on the ground. 

Everett let out a startled cry of pain as he was crushed under Old Grey’s weight, the spikes breaking his Tenacity and going into him. 

But Everett kept hacking, working through the pain and injury. Kir’s Dawn Aura bolstered him, letting him ignore anything and keep fighting. Chips of steel began to flake off, and Old Grey looked conflicted between attacking Everett or Kir, finally throwing a half-hearted elbow at the large black-scaled lizard man and shrugging him off, standing once more. 

“Do it!” Sami said, striking at Old Grey. “Do it now!”

He took the hits, and then made a gesture of closing his fist as he sang a note, and the shorter of her two swords crumpled like scrap metal. The other quivered, but remained whole.

Kir didn’t question Sami’s order. She didn’t know what Promised Dawn did, but she knew she had to activate Longest Night to have access to it, a skill she didn’t want to touch. But both she and Sami had agreed that Promised Dawn had to be worth it, a ‘ringer’ as Sami had called it. 

But the price was great.

Seeing Rua struggling to stay on her feet, taking painful step after painful step to try to get back into the fight, made Kir abandon all caution. How could she not?

She activated Longest Night.

And as she did,’ Rua shouted, panic in her eyes, “My Defamed Hero just ran out!”

Kir didn’t know what the skill did. She’d never ordered Rua to divulge the full details of her Pact. It would’ve been a breach of trust. Such an odd thing to worry about, considering what she’d already done to her. 

Siddic threw his last remaining axe directly at Kir, laughing the entire time. Rua heaved, letting out a shout of pain, and jumped in front of it.

The axe arced around her and slammed into Kir’s Tenacity.

She hadn’t invested in it at all, but even her baseline ability should’ve been enough to stand up to one thrown weapon. But with Longest Night up, she was vulnerable.

Just as with five other of her skills, she instinctively knew what it did in full. The benefit was amazing. But the downside… the downside was that all damage dealt to her would deal increased damage for the duration. She was exposed for three minutes.

And both Siddic and Old Grey were now coming for her.