The Sword and The Shadow

Eirinn, Real and Fake

"If you say anything else like that I'll have your head cut off to feed the dogs with!" Leguna threatened with a furious glare.

"Well, you'd have to be capable of doing so first," Sala said confidently. "Do you really think I would go against you without making any preparations first?"

"Looks like you targeted the wrong person, though." Leguna turned to Sala. "Don't forget who I am. Do you think trying to poison an assassin would really work?"

"What?" Sala fell into a panic immediately. She felt that Leguna was about to act.

However, she immediately put up a defensive barrier with her divine miracles, having suffered once from Leguna's shadow blink before.

Leguna appeared behind Sala and swung Lighteater with Spatial Cut activated towards her barrier. The sword crashed against the barrier and sparked with magic.

Sala swiftly rolled away. As a dark elf, she had far better agility than normal humans.

The moment Leguna prepared to pursue, two spiders suddenly appeared in front of him. They were Sala's divine miracles which had deadly poison.

That wasn't enough to stop Leguna in his tracks, though. He swung his hand at a speed even the naked eye had trouble picking up and cut the two spiders into half.

Sala backed away with great difficulty and a look of terror. Archers, magi and priestesses hated being closed in on the most. As a shadow dancer, he had plenty of tricks with which to approach an opponent. How should Sala fight facing someone like that?

Two of her guards charged in. They were her personal guard and by regulation, they would die if Sala ended up captured or dead.

Leguna didn't care much about the dark elf swordsmen. He moved past them as if he was taking a stroll in the park. After they crossed each other's path, the elite high-order swordsmen slowed down before their premium armor shattered. Lines of blood flowed down from their heads.

Brani couldn't help but narrow her eyelids at the sight of that. She had never seen Leguna fight at his fullest before, so she had always looked down on him considerably. But now, she acknowledged that the swordsmanship he put on display was truly terrifying. While she didn't know much about impetus herself, she could obviously feel the rise in Leguna's strength. What was going on?

Leguna formed two shadow blades and threw them. The blades struck the corners of Sala's clothes. Being made of good material, they were incredibly tough and hard to tear, so she was nailed down just like that.

Sala cried all she could but the black sword against her throat soon shut her trap.

"You shouldn't have tried going after Eirinn again," Leguna said with a look of regret, "If it wasn't for this, you might've been able to live."

"Don't go too far, you lowly human!" Sala cried venomously, "Don't forget where you are! You definitely won't dare to oppose me! Even if you can escape, Eirinn won't be able to!"

"No, Mother." Brani finally stood up from her spot and smiled. "Eirinn's my sister, so I'll make sure she lives!"

"Brani!?" Sala looked at her second daughter with a look of shock. She only just occurred that during the two minutes since Legua had attacked her, not a single dark elf participating in the banquet stepped out to help her. Even the Elvin warriors outside didn't react.

In an instant, Sala's face paled even further. She looked at Brani in disbelief. "You allied with this human to betray me?"

"Oh, no, Mother. This isn't betrayal," Brani said with a shake of her head, "this is what you told me about long ago. Tell me, since when can a house declare war on another on a whim? If you didn't bother to break any laws, you wouldn't even have anything. At least, I tried fighting during the great battle, unlike someone who only knows how to bed men for favours."

"It's naked betrayal, I tell you! Pure betrayal!" Sala began struggling again and sweeping her gaze around. "Your matriarch orders you to get rid of this filthy swine! Those who kill her will be greatly rewarded!"

However, nobody so much as moved. Gassos put his hand on his sword hilt and stared coldly at the others, warning them not to act carelessly. Wesley nearby made it even more obvious and glowed with magical lights. He smiled and bowed to Brani to show his submission.

Dark elves roughly on Sol's level began to understand what was going on. They all took a step back to distance themselves from Sala.

"You…" Sala despaired at the sight and came to understand that she had been too drunk in the power and glory being matriarch had brought her. She didn't know how Brani managed to get her two sons' cooperation and didn't know when Leguna had struck up a relationship with her.

But now, the truth surfaced before her. She didn't even have time to wallow in regret.

"You traitors!" I'm the matriarch! How dare you disobey me?!"

"Because you'll soon cease being matriarch," Brani responded in a practised manner and took control of the sacrificial ceremony.

"May we step out of the following proceedings?" Leguna asked with a shrug, "This isn't something we humans can stand."

"Feel free. I appreciate working with you on this." Brani bowed with a smile. "But I have to remind you to be careful in the castle. It's pretty chaotic out there and you might run into some trouble. I don't mean this as a threat. Just be careful."

"Alright, I understand." Leguna looked at the helpless Sala and left with the stunned Eirinn.

When they were on the corridor, Leguna felt Eirinn slow down more and more. In the end, she couldn't resist and asked, "Are we really going to do this?"

Since the two spoke using the human tongue, Leguna wasn't worried about being overheard. He also knew that it would be really hard for them to even attempt eavesdropping with him.

Leguna stopped and scratched his hear in frustration. "What should we do otherwise? With her alive, you'll be in grave danger."

"But no matter what, Sala is Eirinn's mother." She seemed really hesitant and spoke as if it was someone else's problem.

"Mother…" Leguna muttered. That word meant so much in the human language and was often associated with love and concern. However, those things didn't exist in the world of dark elves. They only knew of betrayal, slaughter and profit.

"She was the one who gave Eirinn her life."

"But she didn't mean to do it, as she admitted!" Leguna growled all of a sudden, "This woman… this woman wanted to dig your heart out and sacrifice to that cursed Ross! Darn it! Damn it all! To hell with all of that! What kind of crazy world is this? I was actually the one who sent Eirinn's mother to her doom! How did it turn out like this?! I only wanted… I only wanted to protect her…"

Eirinn kept silent. She had known about how troubled he felt over the past few days.

It was rather obvious. Eirinn was the girl he loved deeply, yet he had no choice but to kill her mother off for her own sake. Even if it was done for her good, Leguna was still quite troubled. He didn't know how he should face her from now on.

Even Eirinn had begun to have her own thoughts on the matter, but she couldn't follow it to her logical conclusion. That was why all she could do was sympathize with him.

She looked at him, the youth who was almost driven insane by the events in the past few days. After hesitating, she said, "I'm your accomplice."

"What?"

"You weren't the sole arbitrator of all this. I was part of it too, and I participated in this," Eirinn said in a soft, but serious voice. "That's why I'll bear any burden alongside you. We'll face Eirinn together. You're not the only one at fault, so don't take all the blame. I… I will bear some of it for you…"

"You.." Leguna looked at her in disbelief. The familiar expression and tone of voice… It could only be one person.

"Annie…"

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