The Broken Treatise, Chapter 2

Lucas frowns a he watches the guads sitting at the tunnels entrance, looking to Tara he nods his head back to the others. The young woman slid away from her friends hiding spot and back to the others. Cela sat awake with Enialis, the others taking a much needed rest. Cela looked up from her ornate sabre as Tara sat next to Enialis.

"Looks like the Sariseans have already blocked of the caverns," Tara said as she poked at teh ground with a small stick.

"Figaro couldn't have fallen yet," Cela responded softly yet confidently.

"She's right," Saturos said as he sat up, "Edgar has alot of wards against invasion. Well Sabin has set up alot of wards against invasion."

"Yes Sabin was always prudent like that," Cela agreed.

"So how many o' them are there lass?" Durgan piped in as he sat down with an oomph and flipped open his spell book.

"Looks like they're at least fifty foot, another twenty a horse, a pair of casters and one Dragoon" Lucas said as he sat down next to Cela, "at least by my count."

"Sounds like a fair fight," Saturos remarked as he stood up and hefted his axe and shield and banged them together.

Durgan stood shortly after and the rest of the group followed suit, "so what's the plan?"

"I figure you and Cela can rain a couple fireballs down on them," Lucas responded as he stretched, "than we can take out whatever's left quicer than you can spit."

"Seems like the easiest way," Tara said as Enialis helped her to stand.

"What if there are more posst further into the cave system?" Saturos asked, "any untoward noise or light could alert them to our presence."

Lucas frowned, "guess we're getting out hands dirty eh?"

"Sorry Lucas, me boy," Durgan said as he clapped his friend on the shoulder as he passed.

The group gathered around Saturos as he outlined the plan, "Durgan, you and Enialis sit back, don't want you two getting into anything to bad. Cela, you and Lucas will flank off to the right and Tara and I will go around the left. Durgan you'll make a wall of force to block off the entrance of the camp and a wall of ice to seal off the cave. Than hit them with one of those ice storms. Tara, Lucas, You need to hit the casters as fast and hard as possible. After the storm subsides We'll wage in there and deal with whatever's left."

"I can help," Enialis said but only received a shake of Saturos' head in response.

"Nay lad, we be needin' you to get your uncle on our side," Durgan responded, "Don't ye worry lad Tara'll be in good hands."

"What happens after we get through the cavern?" Tara asked.

"We head to Narshe, where Durgan will rally the Dwarves, while Enialis and I head up to the Monastary." Saturos said. Cela, and Lucas will try to get word to Doma and Kohilingin, and what's left of the Bloody Brothers."

There in that clearing a dangerous sense of calm seemed to radiate the silence that followed. Each eye met and each glimmered with a determined resolve. They're home was being invaded they were left with no choice.

"Everyone know's what they need to do?"

Saturos needed no answer and his question was met only with silence. The half-elf hefted his axe over his shoulder, "good, we're at war and this is the rallying point. We have no course of action but to fight. This is our home."

The Broken Treatise, Chapter 1

"How did we let this happen?!" Lucas shouted as he sent a vase crashing into a wall, "We had a treaty with the Sariseans!"

Lady Cela sat in a chair, her eyes downcast as Saturos and the others had finished their tale. After the fight with the pirates they had the Falcon heading west has hard and fast as the ship could sail. As they crested the last bit of distance the group saw a horrific sight.

The entirety of the Sarisean fleet had been mobilized and it was sailing due north for Figaro.

"Edgar signed a treaty with the Emperor," Lucas raged and this time a half empty bottle of wine shattered against a wall, leaving a dark red liquid slidng down the wall staining the wall paper and carpet.

"Well lad," Durgan finally spoke, "I'm thinkin' that tha emperor didn't think ta keep ta tha treaty."

Cela nodded striding over to her fuming husband, "it would seem so. We need to contact Brenya and Cemyr. We need to contact Doma and Kohilngin and ask for them to honor their pacts with Figaro. The king will be troubled with defending his city, so we must gather his allies to him. I have sent Solas to Figaro with a message, and Sharess is on her way to Brenya."

The golden haired elf turned to Saturos who sat, bare chested on the couch. His wounds tightly bound leaving most of his skin a pale white with many red stains. His bulk heaved with each painful breath he took.

"Saturos," she asked, "is there anyone left you can call to arms? Any favors not yet paid?"

"Durgan and I have many friends we can call upon, how many of them will answer our call is unknown to me. There is one that I know for sure would heed our call."

Saturos looked to Durgan who shook his head in dismay, "nay lad we cannot."

"It seems we have no other choice my friend," Saturos sighed, "I have dealt with a few shadier men in my past and I had only spoke to Durgan about this..."

Enialis watched this exchange fear in his amber eyes, his hand gripping Tara's own tightly. The sandy blonde haired woman had not left his side since the battle. Saturos paused before with a nod from Durgan he began his story.

"Before I met Durgan, after all my family were murdered save from Feldair, I had dealt with many men. Most of them of ill repute. some taught me to fight and to harness my anger into a furious strength. One betrayed me and sold me to slavers, who lost me in a bet to a lone man from Jidoor who had an unhealthy taste for the battle pits in teh Colleseum. I was his champion there and in my tenure there I reigned undefeated save for one man. His armor was darked than the night and his blades quicker and far more deadly than any could believe. I think perhaps you two may know of whom I speak."

Lucas' eyes widened as the realisation dawned on him, "surely you can't mean."

"I do," Saturos responded, "he and I fought to many a stand still. Me with my axe he with his black gauntlets, their fingertips deadly curved talons. During our battles we began to grow a healthy respect between the two of us. The colleseum didn't even care that there was never a victor. They found the ticket to the success of the colleseum. That is until he and I plotted our escape."

Saturos allowed himself a grim chuckle, a most unnerving sound as he recounted the event, "A more grisly swath of death one couldn't imagine. Truth be told we rivaled an entire horde of Lizaradfolk in our fighting that day. I am not proud to say but we did not leave any who stood in our path alive. When we were finally free he and I travelled together for a bit until we were attacked by... Some thing. I still know not what it is."

"He was nearly killed and I was left to drive our foe off. We parted ways after he was healthier myself heading back to Figaro and he went south to Zozo."

Lucas shook his head, "I heard he was dead."

"You would be wise to disregard any rumors you hear of him," Durgan advised, "Saturos and I had one more run in with him a month before we met Edgar and Sabin. This man decided he owed Saturos his life for both his aid in their escape and his rescue from the creature."

"A life for a life warrior," Saturos grew quiet as he recalled the words spoken to him, "if you need me you need only ask. I will lay waste to cities for the one who freed me and nearly died driving off a creature I was ill prepared to fight."

Lucas frowned, "now we only need to find a man that all of the gods in all their infinite powers could not find."

"This man in the black armor, he wouldn't by chance answer to the name of Baustaum would he?" five pairs of eyes turned to Enialis as the elf spoke his first words since they arrived at South Figaro.

Saturos nodded, "how does a preist who spent his entire life in a monastary know of the Butcher of Barren Falls?"

Enialis let go of Tara's hand and stood, his small frame dwarfed by both Lucas and Saturos, who stood over him. The small elf turned and stepped away from the others. Callingback as he headed out of the room the others fell in step behind the elf, "Lord Lucas? Lady Cela we will need a pass to pass through the Figaro caves."

"What are you getting at boy?" Durgan voiced the question that was on everyone's minds.

"Luna is fit to move in mysterious waves," Enialis said as he smiled at Tara, "I believe our finding each other is no coincidince."

Saturos growled, "get on with it Enialis."

Enialis nodded, "My apologies, I got a little excited, for you see I wasn't born in the monastary, I was taken there. The last wish of my dying parents to the only man they trusted. I know this man, though I do not know him as Baustaum the Butcher of Barren Falls. He is my uncle and he lives at the very place I have called home my entire life."

Eesh

After a four month hiatus I'm back in the saddle. Bringing you more of what you love....

Or don't love...

Whichever.

Safeguard: Black #2

"There ya go boys!" Sabre shouts as he slams his hands onto both Dead-eye's and Karsten's backs, "just like I promised ya, safe and sound on solid ground."

"You did do that," Dead-eye intoned emotionless.

"Jah," Karsten said as he turned to look at the battered jet, the group stole from the Zeppelin's hanger, "but you have left us with no means of transport."

Sabre turned and scratched the back of his head, "yeah well, I never said I was a pilot mate."

"You could have allowed me to fly it," Dead-eye interjected as he inspected the wreckage.

"Well you could have bloody well said something before!" Sabre shouted at his friend, "Balls, we better get walkin'. Don't even know where we bloody are. Dead-eye which way should we go."

"There's people in that direction," Dead-eye responds as he points to the south.

"Guess we're walkin," Sabre said with a shrug.

~~~

"No damn sense in this," Sabre complained after three hours of walking, "thought you said there were people this way."

"Perhaps he was mistaken?" Karsten asked.

"There is no possibility that I mistook the life that I sensed. There is a small community this way," Dead-eye said, "It may be further than I expected but it is there."

"Yeah whatever,"Sabre said as he pushed on, "Bloody guy's like a freakin' robot."

"He is curious," Karsten said, "Herr Blatt would like inspect him."

Sabre grunted, and flexed his right hand, the lack of his magic ring made him nervous, and Dead-eye's detached manner was always unnerving even after they'd been working together for what was it two years now. The secret team of Safeguard, no one knew about them and no one ever would, Director Takkula mentioned someone else being drafted into the team, but so far nothing. Sabre, who was better know as the mysterious British hero L'escrimeur Mysterieux, or Randy Domelen, was tall, lean, and graceful. His dark green eyes, held an almost malicious intelligence.

In school he practiced the art of fencing and later on in life he won multiple Gold medals in the Olympics. His teachers and coaches bandied about the word gifted. Randy would always shrug and just keep up one of the only things he enjoyed doing. After he felt he had gone everywhere he could go with the art of sword play, he started training in Savate, the art of French Boxing.

Randy smiled as he remembered getting his ring, not more than five years ago he received the ring from a strange old man. The man had mentioned he should use the ring for good. He almost laughed as the old man watched in horror as the coin Randy flipped to decide what he'd do with the ring spun in the air.

Turns out being the good guy was fun, but not as much fun as this. Good guys pretending to be bad guys. It was the greatest challenge he'd ever faced and he loved it.

Five feet ahead of Sabre strode Dead-eye, or the otherworldly archer known only as Arrow. No one was fully sure of what kind of powers Arrow had control over, but he was an amazing shot with his trick arrows, and he knew a lot. A frightening amount of knowledge seemed to be locked in his mind, but not even he could grasp it. One of the Safeguard psychologists said Arrow's personality was a result of that. Randy just thought he was off in the head.

Than there was Dieter Karsten, or Schulterriemen, the second in command to the genocidal Rottes Blatt, the last remaining vestige of Hitler's Nazi regime. The explosive energy ball throwing Aryan. Arrow and himself were sent to break Karsten out and infiltrate Blatt's organisation. So off they went hiking through the woods to the abandoned farm house that held the car they were supposed to get to their safe house in Prague. Hopefully Randy got the piloting part right and landed where they were supposed to.

Bleh

Taking the week off will post more next week!

Next Stop... Part 2

The huge wooden doors stood before them, one was near rotted away the other barely hanging by it's hinges. The dark wood faded from time and the salty air. Above a crumbled gargoyle stood silent sentry, it's wings eroded away and it's head a near perfect featureless orb. Only it's eyes remained dead and unblinking. As Henry pushed at the door it swung open easily with a hideous whine.

Henry looked back at the others, the girl's eyes were wide, and Terrance showed no emotion, aside from a sly smirk. Terrence waved a hand towards the opening, "after you Henry."

Henry grunted in annoyance but stepped into the darkness. Standing in the entrance hall he flicked on his flashlight, "come on in guys this place is really something!"

Nicole and Alica entered first both with there own flashlights and Terrence followed holding aloft a small electric lamp. As the group stood in the circle staring around, the massive room. Terrence whistled, "this place is massive! You could fit the entire cabin in this place!"

As the others stared around, Terrence's words echoed through the building.

Next Stop... Part 1

"Damn," Henry cursed as he gazed up at the castle, "didn't think it'd be so bloody huge."

"What's the matter Henry?" Alicia asked as she hugged his arm, "scared?"

"Yeah Henry, you scared?" Terrence snickered as he shoved his taller friend.

"Screw off Terry," Henry said as he shoved back.

Nicole and Alica giggled, as Henry and Terrence stared at each other, the shorter blonde haired man grinned, prompting his red headed friend to smile back. Henry turned to look at the castle, it's dark grey stones standing, monolithic and oppressing over the horizon. The waves crashing over fifty feet below.

"Are you sure this is safe Terry?" Nicole asked.

"It'll be fine Nic," Terrence called back as he moved forward, "it's just a castle!"

"It doesn't look safe," Nicole trailed off as she followed the others, towards the castle's gaping entrance.