2017-05-19: The First Blade
- Cutscene: The First Blade
- Cast: Tethelle Cirdian
- Where: Adlehyde Besieged
- Date: 19 May 2017
- Summary: Tethelle Cirdian faces disaster head-on.
I think that I might have finally gotten in over my head, Tethelle Cirdian thinks to herself.
It's an unfamiliar thought. Tethelle never worries about a challenge before she deals with it; she pushes on no matter what. She's known for it, in fact, at least in her home village. She did the right thing without even thinking about it, regardless of the risk to herself. Her patron was Equites, Guardian of the Sword, and that meant something to the people of her village it did not mean to the people of Adlehyde, as far as she could tell.
It meant being a strong arm on behalf of others. It meant acting with power and determination to do what needed to be done - what was right.
It meant taking a stand.
And because she'd been armed and able to fight, and many other people weren't and couldn't, when the invasion started she threw herself into battle without thinking about the consequences. It wasn't just the right thing to do, to protect people; it was the only thing to do. It didn't occur to her to flee and save herself.
That's why she was currently fighting a trio of monstrous beings that looked like nothing to her so much as metallic skeletons, with an entire family behind her - a travelling merchant and his wife and daughter, selling items out of a wagon that had been pulled into the fairgrounds. She was armed, at least - she'd flat-out refused to leave her sword in her inn room when Adlehyde's guards had asked her, yesterday and the day before and the day before that, every day all the way back to her first entry into the city. The sword came with her. She didn't think it would be a problem for them ever again, provided she and they both survived today.
This isn't the first time she's fought today, either. Tethelle had stopped three times just to get this far, saving four people (that she knew of) and avenging two more. It's just the biggest group with the best weapons. Nothing to it, she tells herself. She can handle them. She must handle them. If she didn't, nobody would, and this family would die. She wouldn't let that happen.
Tethelle breathes in, then out, then in again, steadying herself and banishing her doubts. She achieves her focus, slipping into that mental state where she was one with the blade, and moves in. She holds the sword steady at first but then rises, an upward slash at the underside of the skeleton's - Metal Demon's! - shoulder. There's no flesh there, but the sheer weight and momentum of the rising blade strikes true, carving into metallic bone with a screeching noise as she pries the arm away from the shoulder.
Tethelle twists. She shifts stances, inspired by the solid strength of stone and the unmovable nature of Grudiev; she plants her feet as she pulls the blade away, bracing against the cobblestone road. One of her hands slides from the hilt, pressing her palm against the flat of the blade as she catches an overhand stroke from the Metal Demon on it. It kicks up sparks and that's her cue, changing stances again, almost leaping across as she repositions, dropping Grudiev's position to drive lightning-fast strokes at the third Metal Demon that's trying to sneak up to her side -
Battle comes naturally to her, and always has, but Tethelle has never fought this well before in her life. She realized, from her first blow against a Metal Demon, that this is what some of the maneuvers were made for, developed long ago to fight the Metal Demons by her village's legendary founder. Today they are being used as they were intended to be for the first time in a millenium. To an onlooker, it's beautiful in its deadly way; a dance between her and the trio of Metal Demons.
It isn't long before they've fallen, and she hasn't, but there's more Metal Demons everywhere. Only the fact that the merchant family had backed mostly down an alley is saving them from being ambushed right this instant. "It isn't safe," she says to the merchant, as she lowers the blade. There is no blood on it, precisely, but a metallically oily fluid. "Run. There is a church around the corner - they will take you in. I don't see any monsters between here and there, so I will take you there, but then I must go."
"But - "
"I have something else I need to do," Tethelle says, gently. "I am sorry. It's important. You will be protected. The Guardians will watch you."
And it is. Tethelle feels, deep in her heart, that this is why she was sent to Ignas. There are other people who need her help in Adlehyde, but more than that, she has an idea of what is happening, now - and that means she has to find another, cutting her way through the Metal Demons between here and there and protecting as many people as she can. She might be able to do what she needs to... if she can find Cecilia in time.
She only has to hope she's not too late.