‘The stranger’s star rises Ezzy, The hunt is on’
Her brother Caleb’s words were just as clear in Ezmer’s mind as the first time he had said it, several years ago.
They were also his last words to her before rushing into a fight with the imperial guards and their sentinels.
He had bought them enough time to escape and regroup at their headquarters, but even after days and weeks having passed, her brother had not returned.
The rebellion had held a funeral for Caleb at their base, he had been one of their first leaders after all; and they had then moved on to deal with more urgent matters. Unlike Ezmer.
One of the the biggest threats to the rebellion were the imperial sentinels, humans turned monsters, controlled by the Imperium’s blood priests or ‘crimson guides’ as they called them.
After the sentinels had already destroyed several of the rebellion’s bases and killed many of their best fighters, the leaders of the rebellion had decided to acquire some sentinels of their own.
Having managed to kill a crimson guide and acquire a Sentinel-medallion from their corpse, Ezmer’s plan was to sneak into one of the imperial barracks, seize control of as many sentinels as they could and escape with them before the entire army bore down on them.
The leader’s had approved of her plan, though she suspected they knew of her real motivation behind it; only allowing her to proceed with the mission out of fear that she might have gone ahead with it anyway. Better with their approval than without.
Ezmer and 5 other members of the rebellion had snuck in through the old underground sewers and had tunnelled into one of the basements of the barracks near the southern gates of the city. The sewers and the adjacent ancient catacombs had yet to be fully manned or mapped by the imperium, this was the only reason the rebellion had managed to survive so far.
Once inside, they carefully made their way through its halls, using a shadow artefact one of them possessed, to suppress their presence against the more keen of senses.
They passed a hall bearing a massive mural on its walls, representing the god kings and their conquest over the lands of the elder titans, Ezmer’s home.
At the top of the mural, near the left corner was a depiction of what she knew to be the stranger’s star, even the crude mural of which seemed to move ever so slightly when not directly looked at.
The crazed blood priests of the imperium were not really known for their rational mental faculties, but even they were wise enough to not ignore the star’s presence within their grandiose depictions of time and history.
Just as they were about to exit that hall, a group of 6 soldiers in half-donned armour walked in from the door they had just entered from and froze as they locked eyes with their group.
All hell broke loose as two of the soldiers ran to what she assumed to be the nearest alarm and the rest hurried to draw their weapons.
With their exit towards the sewers blocked, they had no choice but to run further up into the barracks with one of them using his shadow artefact to conjure a dark cloud among the soldiers to cause confusion.
The alarms were ringing all through the barracks as their small group tried to stay out of the main halls. They had to find a way out before they got cornered by the guards or worse, an army of sentinels.
This was too early, Ezmer didn’t want to give up but even she could see that the mission was a bust, now all they could do was make their way back alive while making sure they weren’t followed.
Every warrior with some familiarity with the arcane arts, knew how to read for attributes within the spirit, for it was only then that one could further learn to pull those attributes out into reality in the form of spirit sorcery.
For Caleb and her, who followed the ways of the elder folk, reading the spirit was almost instinctual.
So it was that when their band rounded a corner, Ezmer’s instincts screamed at her and she ducked down onto the floor taking one of her companions down with her, just as a massive black metal axe sailed over their head, taking the one with the shadow artefact right in his chest, cleaving through his upper body entirely.
They all looked up in horror as at the end of the corridor stood a massive 10 ft tall humanoid form in black armour with faint white light visible behind the eye holes of its helmet.
‘A sentinel… RUN!!’ Ezmer bolted towards the other end of the corridor, only looking back briefly to see that the sentinel didn’t seem to be giving chase, just staring at them from its spot. Nevertheless they ran through a door into what looked like the interior of a cathedral with a 30 ft tall wall of stained glass, lighting the large space within through the moonlight shining through it.
As they rushed towards the remaining exit, its large doors slammed open and a second sentinel walked in, this one also in black armour but bearing glowing yellow eyes visible through its helmet.
Not seeing a better option, she raised her sentinel medallion and focused on it. The medallion began to glow a bright silver but it subdued soon after, with there being no visible change in the sentinel that was slowly advancing towards them, she tried again, but again there was no effect on it.
‘Oh my!’ a voice said, as she saw a red robed figure enter the hall followed by the axe wielding sentinel they had run into.
The figure removed his hood to reveal a silver medallion implanted onto his forehead.
He smiled widely with genuine humour behind his eyes as he looked at them.
‘My my… I had wondered why prey would decide to barge into a predator’s den, though I see it now… thievery!!’
The revealed crimson guide chuckled.
‘Did you really expect a mere stolen medallion to be able to command these fine sentinel?’
He raised his arms to indicate the two sentinels that flanked him
‘I made these Sentinels, You fools! They recognise me as their creator! The spirits of the arcane arts recognise me as their creator! Their true guide in their path of glorious revalation!’
He had raised his voice in his passion, but then dropped it to a near whisper once more as he looked at them with a wry smile.
‘I suppose that is the only recourse left for the pests that you are, scrounging in the dirt for the morsels that the great god king graciously bestowed on you’
He shook his head with a sigh
‘I am to be blamed to expect gratitude from mere rats’ He looked up at them again, now all humour gone ‘all you care about is to gorge on what is rightfully ours and fatten yourself up’
One of Ezmer’s companions yelled in rage as she threw a glass bottle filled with liquid fire at the guide. It glowed brightly in mid air and blew up right as it reached him.
Ezmer held her arm up in front of her face as her own leathers protected her from the few molten glass shards that had reached them.
As the light from the explosion faded, they saw the crimson guide to be completely unharmed, his smile having returned to his face. In front of him stood the sentinel with the yellow eyes, having moved to take the brunt of the damage, enough so that its helmet had been blasted off its head.
Long black hair framed a dark skinned face, with its glowing yellow eyes still staring right at them, no, at Ezmer.
Her breath caught in her chest as she saw what she had hoped, yet dreaded.
There, standing in front of her, mutated by blood magic to be over 10 ft tall and have glowing yellow beast-like eyes… was Caleb, her brother. Now… a sentinel.
Raising the medallion in shaking hands once again she focused her will on it, it glowed briefly and once again it faded to nothing.
‘It really is quite pathetic to see you flail against your fate till the very end, you know?’
The crimson guide looked at the axe wielding sentinel; it stepped forward and with near blinding speed threw its axe, right through her arm that held the medallion.
Ezmer could barely process the pain as her severed arm fell to the ground still holding the medallion. The axe flew back into the hand of the sentinel and it stood still, at guard once again.
Whimpering in pain as gouts of blood sprayed from the stump that remained, she slowly reached down to pick up the medallion once again, not once breaking eye contact with her brother, who stared at her unblinkingly.
She had seen it…When the axe had hit her, her brother’s hand had twitched ever so slightly and he had taken a step forward.
Trying to remember every lesson in spirits and connections she had been taught by the witch-mother, she focused. She focused on the one who had taken care of her since she was born, one who had protected her since her father’s death, one who had founded the rebellion with his allies, one who had fought the imperium with the passion of a near crazed demon, one who had promised to stay by her side to the very end.
She focused on the one who she knew followed the ways of the elder folk, one who she knew would die before being a slave to another, one who walked under the light of the stranger’s star… one who had taught her to do the same.
Focusing on that one remaining spirit thread between them, she poured as much of her power into it as she could and raised her medallion.
Looking him dead in the eyes, she spoke
‘The stranger’s star rises brother, The hunt is on’
The crimson guide looked at her in confusion ‘What…’, before he could say another word, a black scimitar fell towards his shoulder and cleaved off his arm.
The guide screamed as he fell to the floor, blood spraying everywhere as he flailed, looking in horror at Caleb who held out a bloody black scimitar and was now drawing a second one from its scabbard.
‘Kill them, Kill them all!’ the crimson guide screamed as the axe wielding sentinel advanced towards Caleb, raising its axe.
With inhuman speed Caleb closed the distance, swinging both blades upward, one catching the axe’s handle and shearing right through and the other catching the other sentinel in its side.
Before the axe-wielding sentinel could regain its bearings, Caleb rose and kicked it in its chest, sending it crashing into the doors it and the priest had come from, crushing several guards that had apparently been gathering on the other side of the door.
Before Ezmer could say anything else, Caleb jumped into the air and landed with one foot onto the face of the screaming priest, his voice cutting off as his brains splattered onto the now bloody tiles of the hall.
Ezmer rushed forward and reached into the gore that remained of the priest’s head and pulled out a silver medallion, the one that had been affixed to his forehead.
Her companions were still stunned silent by what had happened, but unfortunately she couldn’t help them right now, they would have to process everything once they got back to safety.
‘Caleb!’ The massive sentinel form of Caleb looked at her.
‘Let’s go home’
They all had pretty much run out through a straight passage that Calab had created for them by simply crashing through the stained glass windows, the inner barack walls and the even thick outer walls of the whole compound.
Caleb had, in the last stretches, at Ezmer’s command, carried them all on his back and arms and run into the woods, faster than even a horse at full gallop could possibly follow.
The other sentinels within the barracks had seemingly been put out of commision at the death of the priest, buying them some time to get to safety. Though it was only a matter of time before a different priest came in to take control of the sentinels there.
Throughout the entire journey, Caleb had not uttered a single word and only acted on her commands. But with the way he acted and interpreted her words, she could tell that Caleb was still in there, buried deep within.
She just had to bring him out, no matter how long it took, she would keep at it, so that in time her brother could once more stand by her side, at the helm of the rebellion and smile at her as he fought for their freedom. No… hunted for their freedom.
Because as of that day
The stranger’s star had risen, and for the two of them,
The hunt was on.
