The Endless Solvent

The first thought Nilda had was the area where the twins played and the little cave the prince found years ago. She recalled Rask saying it was the start of a tunnel system through the mountain, except his men didn’t dare explore it too deeply in case they ran into bears or frost giants. The Solaris had her seal it up in case the twins tried to explore it themselves.

She headed north, keeping to the wall and shadowy corners. The princess kept them shrouded and they remained undetected. Once a surviving servant ran by, his arm bloodied and eyes wide and wild - he did not notice them hidden. The assassin setting the dining hall on fire didn’t reappear.

The Northern gate was closed. More importantly, she heard the clash of fighting and the shout of men in the courtyard in front of it. Nilda held the children back around a corner while she considered her options.

Opening a hole right by where they were, just to the right of the gate and around the bend was the safest option, except that would put them in the north-western garden still within castle walls. If she made a hole where she knew would lead to the patch of forest that led to the foot of the mountainside, enemies in the courtyard would definitely see them.

But if there was fighting going on, perhaps a few loyal Caelisians were still alive. Nilda was completely uncertain about who the trust at this point, but -

“It’s Rask!” the prince whispered. He had managed to pull away from her and peered around the corner. “He’s… he’s fighting!”

Rask was alive. Blood rushed to her ears at the sheer relief but simultaneously at the dread of seeing him surrounded by men brandishing swords. A few of them had Caelisian colors on. His metal tipped staff whipped around, its ends morphing into sharp blades and slicing at the men around him before he swung it hard down at an attacker right before him. Someone landed a kick that threw him off balance and sent him staggering to the left, but he quickly recovered and defended against two, three slashing swords.

She had to help him. She bundled the twins close against the wall. “Hide yourself here,” she hissed down at the princess. The children started protesting but she ignored them and ran towards the captain.

A blow landed and blood spewed out from his arm. Four assailants lunged at once and Rask quickly moved to break their formation to dodge the worst of it, but Nilda could see that one of them would land a devastating blow. Snarling, she stretched out her hand and let a circle of spikes quickly surround Rask, knocking all of them back and killing two of them.

The spikes receded and Rask turned, stared at her wide-eyed, then hurled his bladed staff at her like a javelin. It whizzed past her shoulder and right into the face of an assailant she had failed to notice. She grabbed the staff, wrenched it out of the dying man’s skull and tossed it back to Rask who was quickly being overwhelmed by more men.

Most of them were disposed of quickly in a storm of sharp rocks and well timed strikes of the staff. A few had manus abilities sufficient to dodge her attacks and spar with Rask. However the combination of Rask’s martial prowess and her stone manipulation was formidable. One could not get good footing from the ground that constantly stabbed at you and good footing was needed for sparring.

The last of the enemies in that courtyard died with a spear of rock to his chest. Nilda watched coldly as life drained from his eyes, then she sagged against the wall, exhausted. Rask immediately went to her and collected her with his uninjured arm. They stood there, his arm curled around her tightly and her face buried at his neck for several long seconds.

“Thank the moon you’re alive,” Rask murmured in her hair.

“The twins are too,” she said. Her hands balled at her sides as she felt her throat swell with emotion, the emotion she stopped herself from feeling for the past few minutes. “But Taurin’s dead. And the Solaris. Rask, your king and queen are dead.”

He stilled, his body like a statue around her.

“They pushed her off the mountain,” Nilda heard her voice crack. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t save her.”

His arm tightened around her waist, holding her closer. “It’s not your fault.”

“We need to take the twins away,” she whispered. “We must keep them alive.”

“Of course,” Rask said. “We will think of a plan.”

They parted and turned in time to see the twins unshrouded and bounding towards them, the prince’s face crumpled into a silent sob. Rask gave the children a hug while Nilda ripped a strip of cloth from her dress to wrap his arm.

While the twins helped Rask dress his wound, Nilda strode to the gate to inspect it, then lifted a column of rock again to force the gate open enough for them to slip through. Normally two guardsmen were needed to work the mechanism to slowly open it - there was no time for that right now. She ushered them through without much explanation. Then she carefully set it back down again without making too much noise. Out back in the familiar patch of forest, Nilda carefully sought out a path that wouldn’t leave clear footprints.

“Remember that cave you two found a few years ago?” Nilda asked quietly.

The princess eagerly nodded. “I still know where it is,” she said.

“Captain, you said that there’s a cave system attached to it, right?”

“I sent a few men to scout it out but they didn't go too far,” Rask said. “It seems like it would tunnel through the mountain but they were unsure where. Were you thinking of using it to escape?”

Nilda nodded. “Little moon, can you show us where it is?”

Admittedly, she had sealed up the spot and promptly forgot about it until now. The princess, on the other hand, must have thought to re-open it somehow and so noted the area, but years of erosion and plant growth made it all look the same.

“Right here,” the princess poked at a rock.

Nilda softened the rock and made it move aside, like slime climbing over itself out of the way. Sure enough, a dark cave waited for them.

“This is child sized,” Rask muttered as he struggled to fit in sideways.

“Do you remember how to make light runes?” Nilda collected a few thick and short branches and handed them to the prince, who nodded and took out his pen knife. Rask also helped, using his sharpened staff and they etched a few crude runes that glowed softly in the dark when willed to.

Satisfied that they won’t be completely blind, Nilda turned and closed up the cave entrance again, plunging them into darkness except for four little glowing sticks. The last thing she saw beyond the cave was the pine trees of the patch of forest and the smoke drifting above Caelis Castle like a sick reminder that all she cared about was now burned and destroyed.