Zilo and Ai arrived at the Umie residence to see that the grand throne room had been decorated with all forms of eastern style decor that had not been present when Zilo last visited. The decorating must have taken weeks to make perfect. As he walked in the doorway he looked about for his friends, but was dragged away by Ai who seemed to have a fair amount of strength for a girl her size.
Ai dragged him over to Prince Krannoc Deneval and Umie Xunchu who seemed to be chatting up a number of local lords. As the bard and lady approached the royal couple, Xunchu turned to see her old friend and immediately threw out her royal face, turning into a giggling schoolgirl.
"Ai, thank the Gods you came. These nobles won't stop badgering us with question after question."
Xunchu begins to count off on her hand, "When is the real wedding? How many heirs do you plan to have? Are you truly leaving Lidan for Deneval? It's getting tiring."
While Ai comforts her friend over the matter, the Prince glances over to Zilo then back at Ai before he says, "I must say Zilo, you do have a way with finding powerful women."
Zilo turns confused to the Prince and the Prince continues, "A heiress to one of the richest family of a nation, a Draconic Elven knight, and that little vixen from your tavern."
Zilo's face lights up and he says, "Well Tess is just a friend, Aria is the one I needed that favor for. She's the one for me."
"Who?" Comes a soft voice from the two woman as Ai looks to the two men with a confused look. Zilo's face contorts to panic as the Prince sips on his sake and says, "Our bard friend here has a woman in Deneval he plans to marry she's-" Zilo clamps his hand over the Prince's mouth, but the damage was done.
Ai looks on the verge of tears as she stares at Zilo. The Prince, taking advantage of Zilo's distraction removes the hand from his mouth and threatens, "Remember what happen last time you laid a hand on me bard?!"
Zilo, refusing to let the oppurtunity go to waste returns back with, "I beat you in almost every single challenge you placed, now I must see to... where did Ai go?" The bard turns back to see Ai has gone missing and the Prince turns to see that his own date is crossing her arms.
Xunchu berates the two, "Well done you both drove her off in less than five minute of her arrival." Xunchu turns and leaves the two of them to contemplate their choices. In a bathroom off to the side of the throne room Ai is crying. After a few moments Xunchu opens the door and calls out, "Ai! Are you alright?!"
"In here." Says Ai's voices from behind a privacy screen. Xunchu approaches and begins to speak, "I'm so very sorry about Zilo. If I had known I would have warned you. I met him back when Krannoc had that duel I wrote to you about when... Ai?"
As Xunchu spoke Ai charged out from behind the screen and grabbed Xunchu's neck lifting her clear off the ground and beginning to choke her with one hand. Xunchu looked at her best friend in shock as the small noble girl's face began to warp and shift into a grey form. She grew a few inches and her hair reformed to match Xunchu's followed by the kimono and face also reforming to match Xunchu's outfit and face.
The being that was Ai spoke in Ai's voice, but mid sentence her voice warped to mimic Xunchu's, "So sorry my lady, but your friend has been dead for at least a week now. The Black Daimyo sends his regards." The being pulled back it's arm to form it into a menacing sharp claw, but as it came forward it was stopped just before impact by a silver arrow that streaked by and pinned the arm to a wall.
Zilo stood in the entryway to the bathroom and notched another arrow before shouting, "Ai, I think we should see other people! I don't have a thing for Dopplegangers" The shape changing assailant hopped back, reforming it's arm to escape the arrow holding it on the wall. It ran and took cover behind the protective screen as two more arrows flew and pierced the paper barrier. Zilo unsheathed his blade and ran to the barrier as he shouted to Xunchu, "Stay down, I'll handle this!"
As Zilo rounded the edge of the screen he was stunned still as there behind the barrier was Aria. In his moment of hesitation The doppelganger leaped out in the form of Zilo's fiancé, slashing at his torso. As he stumbled back from the wound, the doppelganger tried to press it's advantage with another attack, but Zilo flicked up his sword and intercepted the lunge and in a clean swing cut the arm off in an instant.
The beast slammed Zilo's unprotected side to the ground into the cowering Xunchu as it made a break for the exit. By the time the two had regained their footing the enemy was gone, a few moments later the Prince came running in and said, "Zilo! Ai just ran out of here crying again! What did you do!?"
Zilo marches to the door and says, "It's not Ai, it was a doppleganger that was after Xunchu."
"What!? Well go get it! I'll guard Xunchu." The Prince puts out a hand to shake, Zilo does so and makes for the door, but at the last moment he notices a bit of black liquid on the cuff of his sleeve. After a quick recalling of his knowledge of nature. Zilo turns back and asks,
"Krannoc back when you came to our bar, which of my friends held back your two men?"
The Prince turned back to Zilo and said, "Well that was Leo of course."
Zilo turns back and smiles, "You're right, good memory."
The Prince smugly shuts his eyes and says, "I could never forget a moment from that ni-"
The Prince's gloating is cut short as a sword pierces his heart and Zilo says to the dying creature, "Too bad Krannoc was drunk as Cayden Cailean that night." Zilo pokes his own temple and says, "But the mind you've been reading this whole fight was sober as a Paladin.
The Prince reverts to the true doppelganger form of lithe and grey features with his blood flowing red but changing to black shortly after it left the body, same as the blood on Zilo's sleeve. Zilo flecks the blood from his blade and says to Xunchu, "Find Maldrek and the others. Seems the Black Daimyo had one last Ace up his sleeve."
No comments:
Post a Comment