All dejected and disappointed Kaelen ordered his comrades to go back and look for the other spread out memebers before working something out. She had barely turned to descend the gangplank when the air pressure shifted.
A blur of movement erupted from the mist. and then came a Crack.
Zephyr's fist connected with Kaelen's jaw, the force of his aerokinetic speed sending a shockwave through her skull. Kaelen staggered, her boots skidding on the wet wood, but she didn't fall. With a snarl of primal fury, she lunged forward, her own fist whistling through the air to catch Zephyr in mid-stride and square in the nose with twice the force. The sound of breaking cartilage was sickeningly loud.
In an instant, they were a tangle of limbs and rage, each clutching the other's collar.
"Why did you let Sakina go?!" Zephyr screamed, tears carving tracks through the blood and soot on his face. "How could you! We trusted you to hold the line!"
"Do you think I wanted to let her go?!" Kaelen roared back, her face inches from his, her fingers tightening around his throat until his face went purple, "With how stubborn she is, do you really think she would have listened to the gibberish I was barking at her? She is a force of nature like I have to tell you! She was gone before the words left my tongue!"
"You dog!" Zephyr's voice broke into a sob of pure desperation. "If you were barking, then you should have stuck to your traits! Instead of barking, you should have bitten her! Held her until we came back! Are we dead to you? Is that it?"
He shook her violently, his eyes wild with grief and dark suspicion. "That's why you sent us away, isn't it? So after losing the Queen, you could remove her most loyal shadow as well! Tell me you are not from our enemies. Give me one proof you are not against us, and I will let you live. Otherwise, it will be your neck and my sword!"
Kaelen stood tall, her eyes cold as the deep trench and her silhouette sharp against the harbor lights. She spat to the side, a thick glob of crimson hit the deck. "I only respond to my master," she hissed, "or to dogs of the same breed as mine. You? (chuckle while wiping her bleeding lips) stray."
Zephyr was on fire. He shoved her back, the wind erupting from his palms as he drew his blade. The steel sang a deadly note. Seeing this Kaelen's own sword cleared its scabbard in a blur of silver.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Petra shouted, stepping between them, her hands glowing with the amber light of the earth.
But the blades didn't lower. Both Kaelen and Zephyr swung their points toward Petra's throat simultaneously. Petra froze, her breath hitching, the sheer killing intent in their eyes forced the terramancer back. She raised her hands, retreating into the shadows of the mast.
Maris, meanwhile, was leaned against a crate, casually cleaning his nails with a small silver dagger. He looked bored, though his eyes remained unnervingly sharp.
"They will listen to you, Maris! Do something!" Petra hissed.
Maris let out a soft, melodic chuckle. "Hah... listen to me? That would have been nice, wouldn't it? You see logic is a poor meal for starving wolves."
He turned his attention away from the duel, sliding over to the two royal guards who stood paralyzed by the docks, watching the chaos. Maris draped an arm around their shoulders, a gesture so intimate it made the men jump.
"What are you looking at, my boys?" Maris asked. His voice was a velvet trap, a seductive, melodic, and impossibly beautiful. In his mid-twenties, Maris was widely considered one of the most powerful hydromancers in the Royal Army, but his face was his deadliest weapon. He looked more like a delicate maiden than a killer, and that mask of beauty was exactly how he broke people.
The guards, mesmerized by his radiant smile, found their tongues loosened. "I... I think that over there... it looks like the Queen," one stuttered, pointing toward the dark alleyway near the granaries.
Maris's smile flickered. He hated wasting his time on low inklings. "yes… now everything will look like her", he rolled his eyes in frustration, withdrawing his arm with a swirl of his body, to walk away, until his gaze caught a flash of movement in the distance.
A black cape. Golden embroidery. The Sahirran emblem, really small and only visible to keen eyes, shimmering like a dying star at the hem.
Maris stopped mid-twirl. His breath hitched.
Behind him, the ring of steel against steel had drawn a crowd of scared and entertained dockworkers and sailors. Zephyr and Kaelen were a whirlwind of blades, the air screaming and the deck splintering under their feet.
"Stop it," a voice called out from the mist.
It wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that should have stopped their hearts. Yet, trapped in their blood-lust, neither Kaelen nor Zephyr slowed.
Maris snapped into action. "Allow me," he murmured, bowing respectfully toward the darkness. Then he brought his palms together and slammed them in a deafening clap.
Huge columns of seawater erupted from both sides of the pier, surging over the deck in a massive, freezing wave, dousing the combatants and knocking the breath from their lungs.
The crowd was washed aside like driftwood. Kaelen was instantly chilled to the bone, her combat stance broken by the deluge. Zephyr, caught mid-lunge, went tumbling across the slick boards, screaming foul language as the salt water burned his eyes, his air-shield shattered.
The crowd dispersed instantly. They didn't care where the water had come from; they saw a soaking wet, half-maniacal Zephyr swinging a sword and swearing profanities, and they wanted no part of the massacre.
"You ass..." Zephyr started, wiping water from his eyes. "I'll kill you for…"
"My... My... YOUR HIGHNESS!" Zephyr's voice died in his throat. He went pale, his sword dropping from his nerveless fingers and clattering onto the deck.
The entire team froze. Kaelen spun around, her heart jumping into her throat.
Aeryn stood there, her presence expanding to fill the entire port.
"You want to create a spectacle?" Aeryn said slowly "You want the Hegemony to be invited to our internal squabbles like common vultures at a carcass?"
She stepped forward slowly captain and Rissa by her side. She looked at the blood on Kaelen's face, then at Zephyr's broken nose.
"I left this vessel in the hands of officers. Since when does the Royal Guard settle disputes like common drunks in a tavern gutter, Commander Zephyr? And since when is my deck a stage for your emotional fragility, Commander Kaelen?"
It seems I have been gone long enough for you all to forget what discipline looks like."
"Your highness…" kaelen desperately moved toward her. Aeryn stopped her with gesture of her hand, "You… and you all…" she pointed at all of them with her finger, "are better suited for the gallows than my protection. Go back!"
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