The Foolhardies 23 Agents of Shield

It was an impressive-looking tower that had been shaped out of the naturally forming stalagmite cropping out of the ground. The tower soared up to the sky reaching nearly as high as the surrounding cliff's hundred-foot peak, making it one of the largest structures in the city and second only to that of the city lord's spire. The tower's surface, painted ivory white from top to bottom, was covered in leaf-like geometric patterns indicative of elven design. Two life-like stone trees chiseled at intervals appeared on each floor, their branches bowed like arches over entryways or windows.

"Did you make that up yourself?" I asked Aura after she'd finished her rhyme.

Aura shook her head. "No... it's the sacred pledge made by every shieldmaiden during their joining."

"Huh," I glanced sideways at her and saw the half-longing stare she sent the tower. "How do you know the shieldmaidens pledge?"

"I trained as one," Aura dropped that bomb in such a casual way that I almost missed the implication in it.

"Y-you we're a shieldmaiden?" I asked, surprised.

She shook her head again. "I trained as a shieldmaiden but I was never able to pledge... my brother and Great General Darah took me back before I could."

There was obviously more to this, but I'd been very reluctant to ask Aura about her back story. I preferred she told me bits and pieces as our trust with one another got stronger or when she was in a sharing mood like now. Therefore, I stayed silent and waited for more details to arrive but no more details were forthcoming as she'd gone quiet in her contemplation.

I followed her gaze back to the tower in front of us which in my eyes was an inspired piece of architecture that seemed to brighten up the surrounding area of the district we'd arrived in.

Yes, we were now in another part of the city, and the trip it took to get here was a short but sad journey.

Earlier, after he'd packed his merchandise and closed his stall down for the rest of the night, Zarz led our band of Foolhardies out of the marketplace and back onto the main cobbled street of Broken Sellsword's Canyon. From there, he led us further into the city and into a very busy district west of the central way which is how we'd arrived at the Slave Quarter.

Except for its central square where the shieldmaiden's tower stood, the entire quarter was nothing but filth and rot and decadence. Steel cages of all sizes were piled high on top of one another in ordered rows all around us. It was the complete opposite of the marketplace's ordered disorder.

Everywhere you looked, you would find rows upon rows of cages filled to capacity with occupants whose dead eyes stared back at you in glazed hopelessness. From humans to dwarves to elves to trolls and elementals, it seemed every race of the fay and humanity were accounted for. They were all naked too, even the females. And although they had no shackles keeping them tied we all assumed they had the same slave mark that Luca had which was only visible in daylight.

As there was only one road from the slave quarter's entrance to the central square where the shieldmaiden's tower stood, it became difficult for us not to pay attention to the depravity displayed before us while we walked onward. It was especially hard for Luca who kept his eyes glued front and center to avoid being reminded of his own misfortune.

He was whispering under his breath, "It's not you. You're not in the cages anymore..."

It was admirable how he held himself together like that despite the obvious itch to do something crazy like freeing the slaves and starting a revolt. Honestly, it was even hard for me to keep quiet at the sight of the misery before me, and a quick glance at the rest of my gang told me I wasn't alone in feeling agitated. Edo, in particular, had a murderous glare wherever he cast his eyes. This helped to keep the sleazy slave traders from walking up to us and invading our personal space to hawk their wares in our faces.

It wasn't until we'd reached the central square and stood before the shieldmaiden's tower that we relaxed and Aura got contemplative about her memories as one of their trainees.

"Are we just going to stand here and gawk at the front door or do you guys want to try knocking on it?" Luca asked.

"I vote we knock," Varda raised her hand. "I'm getting the chills just standing out here with all that misfortune happening behind us."

"Me too," Zarz agreed. "Muddamit, I hate coming by here... if it wasn't for the prospect of finally seeing my master's inventions finally finding a purpose... well, I don't like it here at all..."

"Sorry," Aura glanced back at Varda and Zarz with an apologetic smile. "Yes, we should enter as soon as possible."

We walked up the stone stairs and once we reached the top step, the stone door slid up by itself like an automatic garage door that had been expecting visitors. Waiting for us on the other side of the door was a female with skin a lighter shade of brown than her short-cropped hair.

The shieldmaiden had a painted face of spiral leaves on one side of her face. Her eyes and lips shared the same green shade. She wore a silver breastplate over a sleeveless white robe that ended just above her knee. Her sandals were covered in metal around the shins. The bangles on her forearms were the same. There was a coiled green vine wrapped around her hips like a thick belt. Behind her was a round shield roughly the size of a car tire.

"Greetings, travelers," the shield maiden's deep green eyes scanned each of our faces. "Have you come to seek enlightenment?"

Aura bowed her head slightly before she responded with, "We have come for a blessing, sister."

The shieldmaiden returned Aura's bow. "Then you have come to the right place... a blessing can be given, provided you have sufficient offering."

The shieldmaiden glanced at the hilt of my falchion as well as the glaive on Edo's back.

"You are armed... that is good. It seems your offering will be mighty." That said, she turned around and walked into the corridor beyond.

"Can we go in now?" A drop of sweat slid down Luca's cheek. His face was tense.

Aura patted him gently on the arm. "Why don't you lead the way."

She was amazing with how well she handled Luca's nervousness as you could visibly see the calm return to his face when he nodded to her.

Luca walked into the tower with the rest of us following close behind.

The door behind me slid close and blocked our escape path.

"Um, guys," I called to their retreating backs.

"It's alright, Dean," Aura insisted. She waited for me while the others went further in to follow the shieldmaiden. "There are no enemies here. Only knowledge."

The hallway was long and narrow. It was all white stone on one side and an intricate stone sculpture on the other depicting a story I'd seen once before, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it. Whoever carved it separated the wall sculptures into panels showing a different scene in each like a comic book read from right to left.

"What is this about?" I asked, curious.

"This is the 'Tale of the Lost Monarch' which tells the story of the last and greatest of the fairy kings," Aura pointed to the first panel in the line. "This speaks of his birth, when the great high-priestess, Mab, brought him to life by mixing the blood of a fallen human king into the body of one of her fairy followers."

It was a pretty graphic scene that I wasn't sure I could do justice describing. There was a fairy with twin horns on her head standing over a seated fairy with her legs parted apart like she was about to give birth. A pool of what I assumed was blood flowed out of her and mixed with the pool of blood underneath the corpse of the dead man beside her. And from his open chest, a babe with long ears sprung forth.

The writing underneath the sculpture was in primordial script but in a language I didn't understand.

"Is this a different dialect?" I asked Aura. "I don't recognize it."

"You only speak common," Aura explained. "This is Elvish... the oldest of the fairy languages."

"What does it say?" I asked while thinking I needed to learn the other fairy languages at some point.

"The passage of great strife gives birth to a blessed life," Aura translated.

The panels after the first one were similar depictions of blood and gore, from decapitations of his enemies to the impaling of his wives, it was certifiably disturbing to look at. And I wondered if this great king wasn't just a tyrant with a bloated ego and a very bloody reign.

The last panel on the wall before we reached the entryway to the hall beyond was empty, and I had to ask why it was left like this.

"The successor hasn't been chosen yet," Aura answered with a glint of something akin to hope clinging to her eyes as she stared at the wall. "Shall we?"

The wide, round hall we walked into was no place of worship like I'd ever seen. Unless you counted a sports stadium a place to commune with the heavens which some people do. Don't get me wrong, the high ceiling and wide windows on the walls certainly gave it a cathedral-type kind of vibe. Only, there was no altar at the end or wooden pews for people to sit and pray in. In their place were several rectangular training mats at intervals along both sides of the hall, and it looked like a martial arts tournament was taking place in this huge space. That was clear from the many shieldmaidens trouncing the supplicants who'd come seeking knowledge or blessing.

It was Luca who asked the question that was also on my mind, "What is going on here?"

The shieldmaiden who guided us to this place responded with, "This is the hall of prayers where supplicants come to show they are worthy of the priestess' gifts through a test of strength."

"So~~o, everyone in the Fayne is a battle freak," I sighed.

"Why are we here again?" Luca asked this question while racing an eyebrow at me. It was a promise of another lecture later.

"To get my master's iron-forged arcane focus blessed of impurities, why else would you want to subject yourself to this tor— uh... I mean bountiful experience," Zarz explained quickly.

I was pretty sure he was about to say torture.

"Tell me, which of you seeks our blessing?" the green-eyed shieldmaiden asked us.

Everyone turned their heads at me. Even Aura, who looked at me encouragingly like an older sister taking her kid brother to daycare. Edo had a smile playing on his lips while Varda was giving me the thumbs up. Raz was shaking his head apologetically. Luca just looked exasperated.

I sighed before I raised my hand. "I'm your guy…"

"Is this your first time to seek aid from the righteous path?" the shieldmaiden asked.

I nodded as I found it difficult to speak while there was a lump of regret lodged in my throat.

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"Very well..." the shieldmaiden looked dejected like it saddened her to hear I was a noob to all of this worshipping. "As you are a novice, it is only appropriate that you spar with one of our novice sisters as well on your path to true enlightenment."

I didn't complain. I was all for the easy setting to enlightenment. Then I saw the new shieldmaiden the green-eyed one called for.

She'd been standing at attention by one of the other mats playing referee to another supplicant and shieldmaiden sparring when our guide called her.

She was a human girl in the same white robe and silver armor as our guide. But there was no chord of vines on her waist. Instead, she wore a thick brown leather belt with a sword scabbard attached to its side. There was a round wooden shield strapped on her back as well.

As she approached us, this brown-haired girl with fair skin and segreen eyes looked at me with a hint of recognition showing on her face. I was the same way. I'd recognized her too. It was the girl who disappeared on her fourteenth birthday two years before Luca. It was Ty's crush, Ashley Johnson.

Chapter end