What the Arrow Sees
Prologue
“Do NOT release that arrow.”
The bowstring was tight with more than just the tension of a drawn arrow.
“It’s my choice. Quiet now.”
“ don’t silene me. You weren’t given that arrow just to get even on a debt.”
“I was given this arrow to do with as I please. And this isn’t about getting even. It’s about doing my job.”
“Your job is to keep people safe. Releasing that arrow directly violates that mandate.”
“It won’t hurt anyone, not even my target. We just won’t have to worry about a bloody mess after this.”
“You won’t have to worry about any but you’re job after this. And you’re arrows are never messy, what are you talking about? You’re a better archer than that.”
“He’ll live. Even if I were to put an arrow through his temple, he would survive. If he lives after an attempt on his life, many people will pay.”
“I’m not saying we should kill him. But we do need to watch him. This isn’t the time to use that arrow. The situation isn’t dire enough to waste that kind of power.”
“he has killed innocent people. He has swayed many of the nobles’ favour. He has the ear of the king, yet he seeks the kings life. If he lives, he continues to damage the kingdom. And he can’t die. this is the only other option.”
Hushed tones were abandoned long ago. The archer’s arm never waivered. The glossy tip of his arrow steadfast on it’s target slightly above young man’s head. The target was sitting reading some offical looking documents. The archer knew them to be legislature for the king to sign that would slowly sap him of his power as the monarch.
The middle aged woman pleading the target’s case gently strode towards the archer, hoping proximity would distract him enough to listen more to her words. She knew the archer’s determination and was hoping she would find a fault in it this day, or he would waste an extremely valuable resource. for it wasn’t the target’s case she was pleading, but for the unique arrow the archer had knotched to his bowstring.
the arrow was silver, but it was not metal. The tip was a small gem, sharp as diamond. But it was much less common than diamond. The gem was woven into place by platinum strands. The the platinum had a pale shimmer compared to the silver shaft. The weave worked it’s way back to the fletching. The weave, the shaft, and the feathers all came together at an onyx knot. the black stone completed the arrow. the fletching was from skinny, thigh feathers that had a dull rainbow hue. The Bow string fit into a subtle knotch in the onyx.
And before the woman could get much closer, the arrow was out of sight.
this arrow did now wobble, it did not bend or flex. It wasn’t the tension of the bowstring that freed the arrow, but the intent of the archer. Nothing could fly faster than magic with the power of desperation behind it.
boring through the air, the gem of at the tip of the arrow lit up up bright purple with power. The only visible trace of the arrow were flashes of purple rings, like barriers being broken in the air as the arrow travelled.
The target should not have had time to react, however, his hand was raised the the arrow floated in mid air, humming with power. The target looked directly towards the archer, even though his naked eye would not have been able to distinguish features, the archer felt extremely uncomfortable with the glance. Then the target looke quizzically at the arrow. Just as realization struck his face, the arrow erupted in purple light.
But it wasn’t an explosion. Rings of purple magic radiated from the arrow in rapid succestion. The target found hiself consumed in a tunnel of purple light. As he moved to make an escape, the arrow fully dissintegrated, pushing the tunnel of purple light to it’s brightest. The blinding haze of purple lasted in the vision of eveyone nearby for many hours.
Half a table that looked like it had been cutin a wide arc fell to the ground. That was all that was left of the target’s presence. no chair, no papers, no clothes, no ash. Just a table perfectly cut, clattering to the ground.
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Chapter 1
The republic guard gave chase.
Five men and three women, running through the forest, wreklessly crashing through bush. Swords, bows, spears, and staves drawn and flailing as the would-be heroes made a mad dash over roots and rocks.
All the pretense of an ambush gone. The prey running for the thick of the forest, where they could hide in territory that they were much more familiar with than the republic guard was.
Marek knotched an arrow without slowing a pace. If these creeps got away again, there would be hell to pay. Marek was sick of chasing and if they kept this up, the theives would disappear into the forrest again.
the advantage of thick forest was the ammount of options for obstacles. Marek at wistled a strange note. The tune carried only far enough for the rest of team to hear. A quick glance to the archer showed them a man swiftly breaking pursuit, sprinting hard at a thick red pine, leap at the tree, rebound and redirect. The tree was leverage to get hieght. The Archer found his spot amid a large boulder grouping.
Three more steps and Market was on top of the massive rocks. The moment he made footfall, the arrow was gone. The rest of the group knew exactly what was going on the moment the wathed Market make for the tree. They knew each other. They trained together. They knew Marek was going for leverage. And if he wanted height, he was making a long shot.
The reason why wasn’t hard to figure out. The branches of great pines were becoming much harder to dodge and the frustration of hte pursuit was weighing on all of them.
A man and a woman, the woman heavy built, the man stocky, but uncharacteristically strong took a powerful swing at the first tower red wood they found. An axe and a sword blew splinters all over as the steel exploded through the ancient wood. The tree didn’t react right away, but it didn’t need to.
The trunk lit up with bright yellow energy. Trembling pine needles shimmered in the mystic light. finally the tree fell. Forward towards the bandits, crashing through the canopy, tearing a whole through the forest ceiling, giving the dying evening light access to the forest floor. Sudden noise and new light garnered a few reactions from the fleeing bandits; a few backward glances, one even stumbled slightly.
The tree came down hard, but stopped before hitting the ground. For the briefest of instances it hovered mid-air, then shot off like a torpedo. An older woman wielding a glowing yellow staff, gestured in dismissal, coming up behind the would-be lumberjacks. The man and woman wielding axe and sword took up chase again, running after the tree.
One really young looking man brought his crossbow up to his shoulder. Holding down the trigger for a second let three bolts fly. Subtling adjusting his shoulder and support and with each bolt gave them each a unique trajectory.
A woman, looking to be nearly as young as the cross-bowman, running next to him, swept and ornate staff in front of her. The various gems planted seemingly randomly along the staff dimly pulsed white light. The three cross bow bolts seemed to radiate like stars in the night sky, like a comet through space. Each left a trail of magical particles as they soared.
Twins brandishing plain looking spears sprinted, lept, bounded, and skipped nimbly through the underbrush. They were quite possibly the only ones enjoying the chase. The roots, rocks and rubble had little effect on them. BUt they both understood the necessity for a swift end to this fun. The only recognizable quality to help anyone distinguish between the twins was the brutal difference in hair colour. One man was black haried, the other was blond.
Blondy found a good, smooth faced rock to launch off of, performing a tight cartwheel in the air. Blacky poised mid stride to through his spear. Just as he trust forward, his brother landing lightly on the spear. The man and weapon surfed through forest air on waves of unearthly light. Blacky spear fell in place above Blondy’s head. Blondy adeptly grabed the spear out of the air as his stride completed and kept racing through the forest after his brother.
The three crossbow bolts made a short flight then burst into brilliant light. Loud pops of cracking air and bright displays of glittering light. Marek’s arrow cleared through three hefty tree limbs before falling to the ground. The limbs toppled lesser branches as they fell and started to creat a barrier of fallen wood.
Just as the sky lit up and the tree limbs blocked the bandits escape, the massive red pine rotated mid-flight with unnatural quickness. It slowed and pursued the bandits like rolling wall of wood, lining them all up and giving them no where to run. Between the barrier of fallen brush and the pursuing tree, the bandits were trapped. They just didn’t know it yet.
They would soon as carved through the air on the spear as if it were water. He hopped off, picked the spear out of its magical flight and made two great arcs with it. Three bandits were within reach of the cold stone spear head and crumpled to the ground as pain tore through their backs.
The other three bandits saw that they were running into a heap of fallen wood. The sky was brilliant blue, yellow, and white. Their vision danced with bright spots as they tried to find ways out of the light. There were no shadows to disappear into when everything was lit up. But their horror was completed when the looming red wood tree came into view. Spining, its branches lashing around, scaring the forest floor, sending pine needles spraying behind it.
The bandit split up. One double back to find out what happened to the other two compatriots, only to find Blondy’s spear and feel it’s bite through her shoulder. The biggest of the bandits, but not necessarily the slowest, decided to runn out of the path of the tree, running parrallel with it. The ancient tree was tall, it’s whirling limbs had immense reach. Yet the big man nimbly weaved each branch attack.
It looked as iff the effort might be rewarded as he neared the tip of the pine, but some how, the archer was waiting for him. Marek, had release that first arrow in line with his position. The fallen limbs had mad a barrier in advance of the thieves but directly lining up with his line of pursuit. The red wood tree essentially funnlled any would-be escapees towards him. One quick and ordinary arrow released and pinned the big bandit’s foot to the dirt. The sudden stop of forward momentum hyper extended the bandits leg and pulled him to the ground in a volume of loud pain.
The last thief Kept straight, which was the best choice any of them could have made. He saw the fallen wood ahead. The adrenaline of the chase and now of impending death from flying tree allowed the thief to deny physical limitations more readily. The barrier before him was a hurdle that he cleared in two swift leaps. The light display was fading, and tree was loosing momentum. He rewarded himself with a wuick glance back. A blur caught his attention.
the thief looked up. Blondy was mid flip, sailing clear over the theif and landing directly in front of him. The thief didn’t have time to react. The but end of a spear cut through dimming light and connected just above his left ear. the force of the swing completely dislodged the theif from his path and sent him tumbling to the right, ending in a unconscious heap.
The rolling tree stopp just short of the last bandit’s body, but didint’ rest on the ground just yet.
The Republic guard slowly gathered before the floating tree, counting bodies. The axe and sword wielding man and woman had one band it each. The older woman helped the thief with his foot steaked to the ground, but rendered him paralyzed and bound with magical ropes. the force of her magic dragged the big man along behind her as she met up with the rest of the group.
The other bandit who took a spear to the shoulder floated along helplessly in front of the young magician. Blondy and blacky traded spears, and all of the bandits were placed in a group together and bound properly with real rope.
The older woman looked to Marek and nodded, “Good thinking.”
Marek nodded back. The red wood tree floating behind the small crowd fell to the rocks and dirt, and the last of the mystical light display burned out.