Crackle

  I flinched as I heard the now hauntingly familiar sound, only to realise it was from the thunder outside.

  Apart from the rumble of thunder, it was near silent in the room. I was left alone with just the sound of the flickering sconce behind me, and my own shaky breath. I could practically hear my own heartbeat.

  I was still shaking slightly as I was recovering from the events that had happened in that basement. I needed to get out of the distillery before anyone came to investigate the monstrously loud crackle from before. It was clearly loud enough to be heard from the other side of town.

  I peered back into the storage room for a moment, then looked around the room I stood in—you would have thought nothing was awry, the myriad of bottles on the shelves lay still and silent.

  The thunder rumbled once again, jolting my eyes back to the door, before I pushed forwards towards it. I picked my coat up and slung it over my shoulders, before I scanned the alley through the window in the door, then pulled it open and walked out.

  The cold rain battered me as soon as I stepped out and the wind pierced my coat. I pushed my arms through the sleeves and attempted to put my hood up, but it failed to stay in place in the wind.

  I left the door open behind me—no reason to bother with closing it. I walked back up the alleyway and back into the street, once again entering the light of the gas lamps above.

  The occasional worker and business person ran by, covering themselves from the rain with whatever they had on their person, scattering from their late shifts at whatever small or large business they worked at. Where I was at the time, these people were smartly dressed, their clearly expensive clothes soaked to the skin as they covered their heads with their coats.

  Just the fact that I had seen a deity rattled my mind. I had heard freak stories of people seeing deities far to the south, around Helia and Azerine, but I thought they were all made up. After all, facts don’t travel well.

  The fires in the gas lamps flickered as the piercing wind slipped through the cracks in their casings. Rain continued to fall heavily from the sky, my soaked hair swaying with each heavy step I took.

  I turned the familiar corner and was presented with the last street before my house. The building I’d known all my life stared me down from the end of the street as I walked towards it. Something felt off; I felt I was being watched. Despite this off-putting sensation, I continued marching forwards. My feet scraped along the floor with every step, the sound masked only by the rain.

  A flash of lightning from behind me, followed by the roar of thunder.

  I arrived at the foot of the steps that led up to the front door. I cautiously walked up the steps and stood on the small deck before the door. The wood of the door was soaked as I rested my hand against it, for I grabbed the handle and turned it.

  The door opened with a slow and painfully drawn-out creak as I pushed forward into the house.

  The first thing I saw as the room was revealed to me was Maya sitting on a chair at the end of the table, her eyes impossible to read at that moment, as she looked down in front of her. As I pushed further, the door opened more and let out a loud creak. I heard shuffling, as if attention had been drawn, but Maya hadn’t moved.

  My heart sank as I saw the huge, heavily armoured man sitting also at the table. In a panic, I flung open the door and it slammed against the wall with such impact I felt the air shake and saw dust fall from above. As I did that, three more people were revealed. One was a young woman, clad in the same dull armour as the first man. The next was a man I couldn’t properly recognise, but he felt familiar—he was old and looked quite shaken. The last was…

  The man I stole the insignia from.

  “Maya!?” I demanded an answer.

  “Elise La-” the guard began before I cut him off.

  “What in all of the gods is this?” I shouted.

  “Hold on,” the ex-insignia holder stood, raising his hand towards the guard that began to utter my name, before turning back towards me. “I think you’ll have remembered what I told you during our earlier meeting.”

  “Please, do remind me.” I forced the words out through clenched teeth as I kept my eyes on everyone in the room, especially on Maya.

  “I said that I would burn your eyes out if I didn’t get back my insignia.” the man stated bluntly.

  “I don’t have it”

  “And why is that?” he asked.

  I looked back, both behind me, and through my memory, at the events that had occurred today.

  “You wouldn’t even believe me anyway. All that matters is that I don’t have it, and I can’t get it back.”

  “Even if that is true,” an ugly smile appeared on his lips, and his voice grew quieter. “stealing my insignia is not the only thing you’ve done wrong today, is it?”

  I knew immediately what he was referring to and looked down to my still blood-stained sleeves, then back up at him. Then I looked at the man beside him and knew why I recognised him—he was the witness that saw me before I ran away.

  “This fella, my lovely guard friends there, myself—Callian—and importantly, your dear little sister over there, all know exactly what you did.”

  I felt a pressure in my head, like the weight of everyone’s stares was assaulting me and trying to push me somewhere I didn’t want to go.

  I looked towards Maya, she still looked down at the table, a tear silently gliding down her face. I still, after knowing her for her entire life, couldn’t read her.

  I slowly started moving towards her, taking delicate steps across the floorboards.

  “Maya?” I called.

  She looked up towards me.

  “I can hear her…” she said in a shaky voice.

  I felt everyone’s attention shift over to her.

  “I can feel her watching me…” she continued. “Elise, why is she watching me?”

  “Who is? Who’s watching you?” I asked

  “I don’t know.” she uttered, before looking back down at the table.

  The room was silent, still filled with that pressure, crushing me and making me want to run away, but I had to stay. For Maya. That was until…

  “Leave now…” she said, her voice somehow different now. Her eyes seemed almost glossed over, like she wasn’t really seeing.

  “What?” I asked.

  She responded with silence.

  I took one step back, looking around the room at the eyes that burned holes through me. With each slow step I took away, the male guard took one step closer, his hand resting in the pommel of the sheathed sword that clung to his hip. The pressure had reached its peak, I felt truly pushed out, but at the same time trapped. I had to make my next move quickly.

  I took one more step back, before rushing for the exit. I made it another three steps before I felt a tugging at my ankle and tripped, falling directly to the floor. I looked to my feet—a chain wrapped around my left leg, thrown swiftly by the female guard, still sat in the chair. Thankfully it wasn’t wrapped too tightly, so I slipped my foot free and shot back up. The male guard was now practically on top of me and about to give me a beating, getting in a stance as if he was about to shove me into the wall. I took advantage of this and used his weight against him. I ducked, pirouetted around him, and pushed him into the wall. The whole house shook as the full weight of his armour clattered into the old wall.

  I didn’t waste a moment, storming towards the exit. I could hear the sound of chairs scraping against the floor behind me, Callian and the female guard moving to stop me no doubt, but as soon as I got close enough to the open door to smell the rain, I was stopped. The dark skinned man that had accompanied Callian in our first meeting was there, wielding a large wooden pole. He swiftly jabbed me perfectly in the head, sending my flying to the floor and dazing me.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  I couldn’t get my bearings in time to evade anything, so before I was able to get up, the female guard was already handling me, gripping my wrists in order to bind them together behind my back. I struggled, attempting to overpower her, but it was useless. By the time I had regained enough strength to properly fight back, I had already lost the use of my hands—cuffed and stuck in place behind me.

  The guard dragged me up onto my feet. I struggled some more against her strength, but it was useless. Looking around at the room again, the witness had remained in his seat, Callian was standing ready to intervene if the guards couldn’t stop me, the man with the pole stood silent at the door, a sentinel of sorts, and Maya…

  She sat there, her eyes buried in the table, and dark, almost holding no emotion. I was still unable to read her. The fact that I had lost the money, the fact that I had killed someone, the fact that I was potentially about to be locked away forever or killed, none of that mattered at this moment. It felt as if I had, in that moment, lost my sister.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” the guard holding me said. “Nowhere except the darkness of Ucryk.”

  That had confirmed my suspicions of my fate: I was to be killed.

  The male guard exited through the open door and the female guard dragged me along. I could not do anything at this point, nothing except just follow them and try to figure something out along the way.

  They dragged me through the door, ripping me from my home and away from the one thing I loved: Maya.

  The rain battered me as the lightning whirled above, the thunder hammering that haunting crackle into my head.

  Once we had travelled a good way down the street, I heard the one sound I didn’t want to hear.

  “Elise!”

  Maya screamed in the distance, a cry for help.

  “Maya!” I screamed back, struggling against the guard to no avail. I couldn’t see anything in the house. There was no response, and no noise after that. Wherever I was being taken, from that point on, I was alone.

  - - -

  The ropes that bound my wrists grew tighter as the guard pushed me through the street. As much as I struggled, I had no way of getting loose from either the bonds or the guards grip.

  “What about my sister?” I pleaded to both of my captors, shouting over the battering thunder and rain.

  “What about her?” the male guard carelessly replied.

  “You left her there, with that… man!” I shouted.

  “So?”

  I was dumbfounded, shocked at how careless they were.

  “Did you not hear her scream for help?” I shouted louder.

  “Not our problem right now.” the woman added.

  I could feel tears trying to rear themselves, but the rain quickly hid any trace of them. I needed to see my sister. I needed to help her, to make sure she was alright.

  As we passed by a barrel of fire that sheltered under a canopy, several homeless folk gathered around it for warmth, the male guard was silhouetted. He was silhouetted, but I swear I could see it clear as day—a smirk. A satisfied grin.

  I was lucky enough to have never been on the guards’ bad side before now, but… was this what they were really like? Did they actually not have a single concern for Maya? Perhaps Callian had paid these guards off to let him go about his business, whatever business he’d had with my sister.

  My jaw clenched and my teeth chattered. My fists balled and squeezed in their bindings. I decided, with not much else to lose right now, to ask.

  “Did he pay you?”

  With his smug smile disappearing slightly, the male guard stopped and turned towards me. “Huh?”

  “You heard me.” I said with anger before the female guard squeezed my wrist again.

  The armour-cladded man had no immediate response, only looking at me with a look of annoyance after being disrespected. “Yeah.” he finally responded with a shrug.

  My heart sank. I was right.

  “You—” I started to shout out before I put my effort into lunging at the man, but I was kept in place, before…

  The man took his sword and raised it into the air, the scabbard still over the blade shining in the light of the barrel of fire. He swung it horizontally, aiming to hit me in the side of the head. I switched my focus from lunging to dodging. I tilted as far forward as I could while still restricted and felt the scabbard just barely glide over my head, before clattering into the helmet of the woman holding me, who now loosened her grip on me for just a moment, but it was long enough for me to push forward and sprint down the street and away from the guards.

  My intention was to head to the even more dodgy part of town, the guards would be less likely to chase me around there and I could get to a place I could hide before finding Maya.

  I ran and ran, as fast as I could. I could hear the guards running after me, their huge boots thumping against the wet floor, but I didn’t dare to look back, lest it slowed me down. As fast as I ran though, they were gaining on me, I needed to take a difficult route, but…

  Before I could make any more progress, I heard the sound of steel flying through the air, before a sharp pain hit the back of my head. I fell to the floor and looked back. The man had thrown his sheathed sword at me. It lay at my feet, unguarded but, thanks to my tied hands, I could not grab it. I shifted myself onto my knees in hopes I could get back up before they reached me, but it was too late.

  The heavy boot thumped into my lower back as I was kicked back onto the ground, my face planting straight into the wet cobblestones. I looked up to my side to try and see behind me and was greeted by the legs of the male guard, followed quickly by his scabbard as it swung towards me.

  It collided hard with my forehead, a cold and sharp pain before everything went dark.

  I came into consciousness again, appearing to be strung over someone’s shoulder. Cold, hard metal jutted into my stomach with each step.

  I shook and wriggled to try to get free from the discomfort, before I was thrown down back onto the cold cobblestone.

  We appeared to be next to the main town wall, though I couldn’t tell which part. The wall stretched about 8 metres into the air, constructed of flush stone bricks and completely solid, no-one had ever even climbed over it (in recent history), let alone got through it.

  “Get up.” the woman commanded with a weak kick.

  Before I had the chance to process any more of where we were, the woman gripped my collar and dragged me up onto my feet, turned me around, and we quickly started walking again.

  “Nihil!”

  A distant shout could be heard. I didn’t know what it meant, but both of the guards looked towards each other and started walking faster.

  We approached a large square, a disused fountain planted rather out of place in the middle of it. Various branching streets lined three sides of the square. On the remaining side lay the huge stone walls of the west gate. Two turrets on either side with two massive slabs of stone to act as gates.

  Before I could take more information in, things started to happen very quickly.

  First, a sickly green glow appeared, coming from the left gate tower, illuminating the rainfall around it. Then the gates were opened slightly as two armoured soldiers, wearing different armour to that of the guards holding me, were sent outside, before the gates closed once again. After that, the guards holding me seemed startled, or worried, and began to continue walking me in the same direction, only much faster this time.

  We were stopped in our tracks by the deafening sound of a bell. Alarm bells.

  DONG

  I wished I could cover my ears, but the binding stopped me.

  Soldiers, wearing the same armour as the pair that went outside the gates, gathered around the square. They were scattered and confused, clearly not expecting whatever this was.

  There were countless whispers and worried stares aimed at the gates.

  DONG

  Another deafening ring of the alarm bell.

  Metallic screeching, followed by two impacts against the wall could be heard. If it wasn’t clear that something was wrong before, that made sure it was. Any guard that wasn't already facing the gates snapped their heads towards it with a jolt.

  The two guards were now trying to rush me to the other side of the square. As we were approaching the fountain, the green glow disappeared, and an impact was heard outside of the gates.

  Only the sound of the rain remained. The bells had stopped, and the guards had slowly come to a halt, eagerly looking over to the gates. I was also curious, staring at the gates like a deer that had just heard the snap of a branch.

  The silence continued. Until…

  A guttural buzz sounded from beyond the wall, seeming to be coming from quite a distance.

  What came next could not be put into words. It clearly sounded like a language, but one that couldn’t be recreated by the human voice. It boomed out from the darkness behind the wall, assumedly audible from the opposite side of the wall. Whatever language it was could be described succinctly: Guttural, and ugly.

  “What’s it saying?” I shout against the bellowing noise.

  “It’s a warning!” one of the nearby soldiers answered, visibly shaking. “A Nihil warning!”

  ‘Nihil?’

  The noise stopped, and it felt like not even the rain was making a noise any more.

  “Guards!” a man near the gates shouted. “We are faced with an imminent Nihil invasion.

  What was happening? Why, after all of the other events that had taken place in the day, was there now talk of an invasion? This had come out of nowhere, completely out of my control.

  I couldn’t understand why everything was completely crumbling around me, even after everything I had done to make things right.

  The female guard was no longer paying attention to me and had let go of my wrist. I quickly thought about running, using the distraction to my advantage, and so I slowly turned around and scanned the area to find the best exit point, but as I was turned around…

  “We may die here, at these gates… but—”

  Bang.

  I whipped my head around in an instant. A huge white light came from where the gate once was, followed quickly by the sound of both the gates, and the air itself, cracking into thousands of pieces.

  Hundreds of shards of stone flew through the air, escaping the pale explosion that ravaged not only the gate, but part of the wall too.

  In an instant, the ball of light dissipated and left only the pure white fire that clung to almost every piece of debris behind it.

  I wasted no time in running to the nearest street to avoid the falling debris. I heard hundreds of impacts on the ground as stone shards, big and small, fell to the ground. When I turned around, I witnessed the male guard that had been bribed by Callian be crushed by a large stone slab, with the woman trying in vain to free him.

  Soldiers ran in all directions, including a few towards me, so I wasted no more time watching, and dashed down the street.

  Chaos sounded behind me but I dared not look back.

  ‘I have no idea what’s happening, but I only care about one thing right now.’

  ‘Finding Maya.’