The Endless Solvent

Nilda stared over the soldier’s soldier at the mess of splintered logs and tree trunks piled at the foot of the path to the castle. A swath of forest was missing its tall standing pines and splintered trunks remained like stubble.

“There’s something happening at the castle,” she said, her voice rising in a panic. “They’re stopping the soldiers from - ”

An arrow whistled down, and then more came raining down. The horses screamed and a few reared, throwing soldiers off their backs. Nilda watched in horror as an arrow buried itself in the neck of a neighboring soldier, killing him instantly. Ripping a sheet of rock from the ground underneath, she managed to form a haphazard shield for herself, the soldier in front of her and the horse.

“Everyone needs to leave,” Nilda hollered. “You’ll be massacred here!”

She ungracefully jumped off the horse and shielded her face and head with flattened rock at her arm and she ran towards the decimated forest. “Where are you going?” a soldier cried out in horror.

“Find a way back to the castle, I’m going to go on foot!”

She ignored anything else the soldiers had to say and pelted towards the trees where a group of archers lurked. She spotted one wearing a brown, camouflaging tunic, just visible between the trees. The glint of metal tipped arrows trained on her and she blocked it with a thick layer of stone as it whisted right at her head. The metal tip cracked the stone and she could feel the painful thump of impact in her arm.

She cursed and sought to find rocks around the archer, but the material was few and far between at this portion of the forest. Nilda lunged at the man - a young man, perhaps younger than her, and crushed a stone fist into his head before he could draw another arrow. A few paces behind the archer was a sharp boulder jutting out. She ran towards it, crashing through bush and foliage to add more stone to her protective layer.

Within the trees, less arrows managed to fly towards her, but the dense trees made it difficult for anyone to shoot her. Rocks covered vital parts of her body making sure she at least wouldn’t get a fatal wound. She could hear the shouts of men as she seemed to have broken through their archer line and she set a desperate pace towards the castle.

Nilda scented the smoke before she saw it; plumes of it, black and thick, poured out from above the castle. She felt her heart drop to her stomach and she realized she was chanting the same thing over and over again:

“No… no, no, no, nononono.”

Running with the heavy burden of stone on her body reminded her of Vartu. The days running laps on the beach, the scent and sounds of the Blood Ocean filling her senses. She thought they would live like that forever. When she finally reached the front entrance of Caelis Castle, sweat soaked through her clothes and her limbs ached. She could almost hear Vartu clucking in disapproval.

“Growing lazy and weak when you mingle with the nobles,” he would say. “May I remind you, kid, that you’re not a noble? No matter how many pretty dresses your mistress gives you.”

She could hear the fighting beyond the castle walls, but the front gates were firmly closed. When she got closer, she spotted the crumpled corpses of guards stashed into nearby bushes. Cursing again, Nilda gathered a column of stone under the heavy metal gate and forced it up to create enough space for her to duck inside.

A hand went to her mouth as she saw the bodies littered in the front courtyards. Guards that she knew, serving staff that she knew, the maids that dressed and cleaned the twins - they all lay dead on the stone floor. Even a few midnight hounds left behind were not spared.

Scattered shouts sounded and she whirled around to see a group of men dressed in Caelisian blue uniforms approaching her. At first she relaxed a little and started towards them, but then realized they weren’t rejoicing to see her. Their mouths were set at a grim line and they clutched their swords as they ran towards her. Then Nilda realized she’s never seen these men before.

Assassins. Murderers. They used the uniforms to hide in the castle, waiting until the soldiers left to strike. Nilda showed no mercy and skewered the lot of them. A few of them looked to be expecting the spears of stone rising from the ground and danced around, two of them lunging to her, weapons ready. She blocked the swing of a sword and a large spike of rock killed the man swinging it. She then took the handle of the faltering sword and hurled it at the second man, who staggered back to avoid it. Nilda closed in on him and backhanded him with a rock covered hand, stunning and disarming him.

She killed the three slower men in Caelisian disguises with twenty three spikes on the ground they failed to dodge. Then she took the sword and ran it through the stunned man on the ground.

She ran into a building and lodged herself into a hiding place to think and catch her breath, the feeling of murder running her breath ragged. Her mind jogged to figure out what to do. Where would Taurin and the children be? Where would the safest place be for them? The twins must be so frightened.

Taking a steadying breath, Nilda crept along the back hallways to make her way to the dining hall of the castle. It was eerily empty. On a regular day, it would be bustling with activity with servants setting up for the next meal and guards flitting through. She could hear the clang of fighting at a distance, muffled by the stone walls. Carefully, she tried to feel through the stones to sense the movement of people.

She wandered close to the back hallway leading up to the Solaris’s office, then felt the slight movement of people on the upper floor. Her heart lurched when she thought she could feel out two sets of small feet. She ran up the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could.

“Taurin,” she hissed through the heavy wooden door. “Taurin!”

There was a muffled sob and the door cracked open. Instead of Taurin, an unfamiliar man’s face peered out, frowning at her.

“For Part’s sake, it’s Nilda,” Taurin’s voice came out exasperatedly. The man withdrew and Nilda was pulled into the office.