"What's the plan?" I asked, because I was still very unclear of the fine details of the XaMayCa's plan.
Oaxaca kept working at making the rope, but she was able to talk at the same time. I slowly was able to soak it in. We were to scale the side wall of the manor, slowly climbing down with the help of the rope Oaxaca was making. At the bottom, we would be hidden in shadow, so the crowd would be unable to see us. A coach would be waiting to take us out safely. I asked her why she was going too. She commented that if she was also an outsider, but gained some toleration due to her sister relationship to XaMayCa. She was afraid of the situation now though, and chose to better safe than sorry.
I paced around nervously, waiting for Oaxaca to finish it. I didn't bother her, I figured she had enough pressure. The only thing breaking the silence was the mad shouts from the crowd outside.
Oaxaca broke my nervous walk. "Okay, i'm done. Let's go!" Oaxaca ran towards the side window with the rope. She opened the window and let the rope fly down. I reached the window and looked down.
It was quite a bit down. The rope unraveled to the bottom. Oaxaca tied the rope around a nearby pole. She tested it a few times, making sure it was secure. She jumped out the window without hesistation, and grabbed the rope. She was already scaling the wall skillfully, slowly sliding down the rope. I grabbed hold of the rope and began sliding down the rope. I carefully did it, so I wouldn't hit Oaxaca from above. My hands started to burn a bit, but I held on.
I heard an audible landing from below. I guessed Oaxaca had reached the bottom, but I looked down to double check. She did. I slid faster down now, so I wouldn't get seen.
I reached the ground as well. I looked around, but I didn't see any coaches nearby. Oaxaca began casting a minor spell, as fire appeared from nowhere. It slowly burned the rope, until it burned all the way to the top. I was going to ask her if I would cause a fire in XaMayCa's room, but as soon as I looked at Oaxaca, she shook her head no. Good prediction on her part.
"Where is it?" I said, referring to the coach.
"I don't know," said Oaxaca, "but we better hide until it comes. I don't think this shadow is providing as much protection as I hoped."
"Good idea." I said. I began looking around. All I could find to hide behind was a pile of barrels packed near the wall. "Over there," I said, pointing at the barrels.
Oaxaca let out a quiet cheer and quietly made her way over. She slid behind the barrels, and I followed after her.
It was a tight fit. The space between the barrels and the wall was small. It was made even smaller with Oaxaca scrunched up next to me. Every second that past was another second the mob could find us. My heart was pounding, I could even hear Oaxaca's going at an incredible rate.
I realized that I was backed up against a window. It led into one of the manor's rooms. Seeing nothing else to do, I looked in the window.
I saw two Eldar. They seemed to be talking to each other. Then a door in the room opened, and another Eldar member entered. They all sat at the table together. The conversation got louder and more active. I pressed my ear against the window to hear.
"...is a big idiot." That was all I could get from one Eldar. He was the one holding a book.
"Yeah, I just realized that." Said another Eldar.
She was wearing some sort of medal.
The conversation stopped there for awhile. The book holding Eldar began reading the book. He looked amazed and shocked as he read it.
"Wow, this guy is a delusional, obsessive mofo." the book holding Eldar remarked.
The other two Eldar looked in the book. "My god...he wrote 8 parts for it?" said the third Eldar.
"You should really look at this." the book holding Eldar said to the medal wearing one.
"No! I'm not going to bring myself down after someone calls me a goddess!"
The book holding Eldar kept reading the book. He sometimes showed the book to the other two Eldar. They laughed quite a lot, and made remarks about the author. I wonder who it was.
Then, the book holding Eldar suddenly shouted, "Hey Knightrc, obsess much?" The three Eldar started laughing and giving each other high fives.
Oaxaca acted like she didn't hear it. She probably didn't, she was still somewhere else. But I did. Those Eldar were making a mockery of my experiences. The book they were holding. It was a record of my feelings I went through when Kushana disappeared. I wrote them up, and gave one copy to the library in Tantallon. He must have found one and read it. And they started laughing at my expense.
I felt great anger come about because of it. I couldn't speak out loud, I would be caught. But I still felt very angry at their remarks. They thought I was just an obsessive fool. I envy them. They don't know how hard my life was. They don't know the hell I went through. It was probably an easy life for them. Espcially that medal wearing Eldar, she probably was praised wherever she went.
I couldn't go on much longer, with all this anger. I let out a stupid remark. "Just enough to go on!" I shouted. This made the 3 Eldar look around in amazement. I wasn't able to see anymore from those three.
"There! There's the Outsider!" a voice screamed from my left. I turned and saw Kushana again. This time she was backed up by a mob of angry villagers.
Oaxaca just looked on in awe. I clenched my fists and channeled more of my anger. The demon that looked like Kushana was going to get me killed.
I gave a telepathic tell to Oaxaca. "Any ideas?"
She told back, "I'm lost. What are we going do?"
"I don't think they know about the coach. I gotta buy it some more time. You tell the coach guy to have his door open when he comes."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to face a demon." With that tell, I left the shadow of the corner, and apporoached the demon Kushana.
I stood right up next to her. Face to face. There was hardly an inch of space between us. I looked right at her. She looked back, with an evil stare.
"Give up now Knight." she quietly whispered. "There is no way you can win."
"No way in hell. Which is where you seem to have come from." I said back. It was basically me and her now. The angry mob and Oaxaca slowly faded from view.
"You wish. You just can't handle that your beloved Kushana is so different." Kushana gave me another evil grin. "Just take it for face value. If you go with me now...maybe we can relive the past?"
"The past is just that. The past. I don't want to go anywhere with you. Your not Kushana." I was fully convinced of it. The Kushana I knew was kind. Well, at least kind outside of battles. And this was no battle. Not yet.
"You are a stubborn boy, aren't you? You do not know when to quit." Kushana placed her finger on her lip and thought for a moment. "Yes, well I did admire that about you." she said, waving her finger at me.
"Don't pretend you are her. You aren't."
"You want proof? I show you proof. Then you can't deny it. You'll kill yourself, finding out the woman you loved was and is me." Kushana turned to her right side. "You see this?" Kushana was pointing at her right arm. "A scar." I saw a scar through the battle armor. And it was true, I remembered she had a scar on her right arm.
Kushana removed her left hand gauntlet. She placed the hand palm up, and pointed at another scar. "And this one? Another scar." Again, another scar I remembered.
"And the Crown Jewel of it. Literally." She pulled up her armor just enough to show me a tattoo on her hip. A tattoo of the Crown Jewel of Torumekia.
Either this was a very precise impostor, or the demon that stood in front of me was really Kushana.
"You believe me now? I am Kushana." she said. "There's no denying it." I stood silent. I just could not comprehend how someone so sweet, someone I had fallen for, was now so evil and wanted to kill me.
"Enough of this. You've wasted enough of my time. Die like the fool you are." Kushana turned around, her back towards me. Then she went back to the angry crowd.
"The Outsider! Death to the Outsider!" Kushana screamed at the crowd. The mob cheered in agreement. Their rage and anger towards me was growing.
"Yes." I shouted. "I am an Outsider. But these words coming from an Outsider as well?" I had to defend myself in some way. Even with the demon Kushana facing me down, I had to protect Oaxaca as well.
The mob was shocked at my remark. "Lies!" Kushana said. "The Outsider always speaks lies! Remember the legends!"
I was a bit puzzled by that. Why was Kushana quoting local legends? "What did she mean by that?" I told Oaxaca.
Oaxaca told back, "Most of the local legends that talk about outsiders always say they speak lies."
"I never lie." Wait a minute. "Well much."
"That's why it's a legend."
The mob looked even angrier. Kushana's words spoke to them. It was a matter of time before they attacked me. Wasn't XaMayCa supposed to be calming the crowd down? Where was she?
The mob slowly advanced on me. I searched around for another hiding spot. Oaxaca was okay by herself, behind the barrels, but I was out in the open. I looked around.
My eyes happened across another window. One that led into the entrance hall. I saw something different in the window.
A body. Someone's body. I ran up to the window.
I peered closer towards the body. I could slowly get some details.
I saw it. XaMayCa, lying unconscious on the floor, right behind the main doors.
"What the hell?" I said. I knew who had done the deed. That vile demon, Kushana. No, I told myself, something that looked like her. I pointed at the window and shouted to Kushana, "Did you do that?"
Kushana smirked. "Perhaps, but don't worry. She'll recover. Eventually."
"How long?" I asked.
"A hour, a day, a year. I don't know. I don't care. I just know she's going to be a statue for awhile."
The mob got closer towards me. Kushana was leading them on. She had no weapon out, but I know she had one somewhere. I sent another tell to Oaxaca. "You know a cure wounds spell?"
Oaxaca told back, "Yeah, it's one of the most basic spells a cleric knows. I think you might need one if you stay there any longer. Just run!"
"I'm not running. You better pray to the gods for XaMayCa then."
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
"Fine, i'll try. But it's a lot harder, if not impossible, if I don't see the person."
I looked back at Oaxaca, hiding in the shadows. Her holy symbol was glowing, but nothing was happening with XaMayCa. "Come on Oaxaca." I told her. "You have to come through this time."
Oaxaca's symbol started glowing with more strength. It bordered on blinding. A beam of light appeared from above XaMayCa's body, and then hit her. The beam slowly grew, until it enveloped all of her. Just as quick as it had appeared, the light disappeared. But XaMayCa started showing some movement.
There was no time to see if XaMayCa recovered enough. Kushana was again in front of me. With the mob right behind her. She produced a rapier from within her armor and pointed at me. "I'll take out the Outsider with one stroke." Kushana said to the crowd. They roared back.
It was too late to run for it. Even if I tried, Kushana could still hit me. And she could have hit me too. If luck didn't come through for me.
"Friends!" a voice shouted from the manor steps. XaMayCa's voice. "The one you are attacking is not the enemy." XaMayCa shouted with renewed strength. The mob looked shocked. They would listen to their patron saint. "No, it is the person who led you here in the first place. She is the true Outsider."
"But the one we see is one of the Knights!" a person in the crowd said.
"That is true," XaMayCa replied, "But your leader is also a Knight as well. A disgraced Knight, not one who upholds the code of chivalry."
"No!" Kushana screamed. She faced the crowd. "I'm just the same as you!"
"Yes, we are all the same. It doesn't matter where we come from. But it is your heart which defines you. And you have a evil heart. You should be punished for your deeds." XaMayCa turned back to the crowd. "While your eyes were diverted, she attacked me! I was about to meet you, when she knocked me out from inside the manor." As XaMayCa said that, the crowd got even more angry. Not at me though, at Kushana instead.
Kushana began backing away from the crowd. "I'll get you yet Knight. Wherever you are, I will always be one step ahead." Kushana said to me. Then, she ran away, into the dark alleys of the town.
While the crowd stood in amazement, I saw the coach finally coming. Its door hung wide open, the horses were blazing toward us. Oaxaca came from the shadows and into the light.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I told him. He's going to keep moving, so you better get ready to jump." Oaxaca said.
"What? We have to jump into a moving coach?" It seemed impossible.
"Nothing is impossible Knight." She said. Like she read my mind.
While XaMayCa took the crowd's attention away from me, the coach came closer and closer. And then, it was about to pass by us. I jumped into the air, and Oaxaca followed right behind me.
I was flying through the air. I feared the worst. I'd miss the coach, and be subject to the crowd's rage. Sure, they didn't have a leader anymore, but I bet there were some extremists who still wanted my blood. Or maybe I even would hit the coach's side and bounce off, in a lot of pain. I sailed through the air. I barely got through the open door. I jumped a bit too early, and my right side paid the price. I collapsed against the other side of the coach. Oaxaca seemed to be clear for making it, but at my expense. She landed on top of me. The force of the landing increased my pain. I groaned. Oaxaca quickly got off me and closed the coach door. She helped me up. I looked out the coach window. A few of the mob people tried to chase after us, but they were too slow.
I had escaped from the village of Duender. The question wasn't if I could escape alive anymore. Now, it was if I could live with myself with what Kushana turned into. It was a hard question.
