Elemental Blitz

7

Rexx eats an apple as he rides down the quiet stretch of country road. He is three days out from Redpole and is allowing Ebon to decide their pace. His new horse has moods when he wants to trout and others when he wants to break into a full-out sprint. Rexx is fine with either. He just makes sure that they are still going in the direction Kotos is pulling him in. He has felt its bloodlust many times before. Every time they have faced Devils or their Faithful, but never has it been this high. It is like a wolf desperate for prey. Rexx is always ready for a fight; this one, though, has him wandering into the deep waters of his past. He knows Kotos understands this and thus, while annoyed by his slow progress, is understanding of it.

Around midday, they stop for a break. Rexx steers Ebon off the road down a side path toward a stream. The horse grazes by and drinks from the stream while Rexx refills his canteens. Another strange side effect of his decision to rejoin the world is that he doesn’t have the urge to drink. He dumped all the whiskey he bought before leaving Redpole yesterday and melted the glass bottles down into marble-sized glass bullets that now ride in a poach on his hip. That is more like the old him. He was rarely one for conventional arms. When the world is your weapon, why limit yourself to a sword? Not to say he can’t use one. Rexx is deadly in any situation and with any weapon or tool. His most lethal aspect, however, is his ability to turn off all his emotions. He can and has done terrible things that while he later regretted it, in the moment, he felt little to nothing. He knew the Empress was evil and maybe even insane, but he swore his oath to her, and to him, her word was law. If she wanted a family dead, so be it. A town burned, no problem. A rebel force slaughtered; it will be done. He was like a machine: methodical, precise, and cold.

All the world saw was Bloody Rexx the Executioner. Very few saw Rexx Thorne, the man who enjoyed playing with children. Or Rexx cried himself to sleep in Eshoni’s arms after drinking a liquor cabinet. That was not for them to see. He was the Captain of the Sapphire Knights and the symbol of the Throne’s authority. Those who knew him best knew how much those titles weighed on him in the quiet nights. Those who stood against him only ever knew the consequences, and few were ready to face them when the time came.

As he looked at his reflection in the water, he decided to take another step into his past and pulled out the shaving kit that he bought. Within ten minutes, he has cut and groomed his unkempt beard and mustache. Both are still full but much shorter. When he looks into the water again, a face he had not seen in nearly a decade looks back. He considers chopping off his dreadlocks, but he is not a knight anymore. There is no proper length for his hair. He realizes now that the people of Redpole could have known what he looked like and just didn’t recognize him because of how his hair had grown. When he was dumped there, they had wrapped him in bandages and paid the innkeeper they left him with not to be too inquisitive. When he got better and learned about what happened, he left the town and proceeded on his quest to kill himself. When that did not work, he simply retreated into the Red Forest, rarely coming out those first couple of years unless it was to break into stores and bars to take whiskey and leave the coin on the counter. He earned his coin by killing the bandits and poachers who infested the Red Forest. By the time he started going by Mr. Gate and walking into town, he looked nothing like the regal paintings of him.

“You have been following me for three days now,” says Rexx without looking up from the water, his volume and tone conversational, “If you want something, just come out and ask me. If not, just tell whoever you are reporting my movements to that I am going to Westspire. It is likely the site of the next major Devil attack, so they may want to send a warning or something.”

These words are aimed at the man and woman who have been following him since Redpole and who he has sensed watching him for the last two years. For two years before them, it was another pair and a pair before them. It is a lazy rotation, but he was sure they thought he was not aware of them. Few know the extent of the capabilities of a Bearer. He has a deeper connection with Pyro that only two other beings in the world can understand. Kotos is Pyro, Pyro is Kotos. The spirit chooses who it wants to bear it and then shapes itself to them. He doesn’t know the names of the spirits that his counterparts bear but he knows they are Pyro. Kotos told him that he was being followed on the first day, and he was content to sit and wait for them to reveal themselves. Now, he is bored.

The two of them step out with their hands up. Both are dressed in black cloaks with the hoods up and faces wrapped. Both are armed, the man with a long sword of Imperial make, and the woman has a repeating crossbow slung over her back.

“Greetings, Sir Rexx,” says the woman with a bow of her head, “My name is Carmella Zhang, and this is my husband Vern Zhang. We are-”

“Funny,” interrupts Rexx as he picks up his kit, “You sound like the forest ranger that amazingly always finds herself prowling around my cabin.”

“You knew we were there,” asks Vern.

“Yes, Vern, I did,” says Rexx as he puts the kit away in his saddle bag, “Don’t feel bad; I always knew when your predecessors were watching me, too. You have never bothered or annoyed me, so I saw no reason to bother you. Who are you with, the Inquisition or whatever passes for it in your new Empire?”

“It is not a new Empire,” says Carmella, obviously trying to keep the anger from her voice and failing, “It is the same Empire, but now the people have a voice instead of being crushed by a tyrant and her dogs.”

“Carmella,” hisses Vern, “Not now.”

Rexx has no reaction to the tirade. He remains silent and takes a drink from his canteen as he waits for one of them to say something that actually interests him. Kotos’s vibrations are growing in intensity as their not moving annoys it more and more by the second.

“To answer your question of who we are,” begins Vern, slowly lowering his hands, “We are Searchers, officers of the Searcher Corp. Our mission is to hunt down and bring criminals of the Reign of the Devil Empress. We are a part of a secret group within that order completely dedicated to tracking your movements. As far as anyone outside of us knew, you had disappeared without a trace. Well, that is until three days ago.”

“Searchers, huh,” says Rexx testing the name, “Yeah, that name f*****g sucks. Why couldn’t you just keep Inquisition and go on some mission to change the name’s reputation or some s**t? Searcher Corp? You sound like intrepid treasure hunters. I hope all of these new group names aren’t so lame. Anyway, like I said, you should get word to Westspire. They are about to get hit.”

He turns to remount Ebon.

“How do you know that?” asks Carmella, “The last we heard, the Devil army was rampaging in the south. Even if they made it up to the Central Spire Ring, the first one they would hit would be Southspire.”

The Central Spire Ring is the name given to the group of cities made up of Notrhspire, Southspire, Eastspire, and Westspire. They form a ring around Sapphirespire, acting as an unofficial border between it and the rest of the Empire. The High Dukes of these four spires oversee the Dukes who run the spires within their territory. These four cities are fortresses. Anyone who wants to reach Sapphirespire has to pass through them. They are surrounded by white stone walls topped with sun cannons, magical weapons that use the energy from the sun gathered in crystals to fire searing beams of focused heat. These are the deadliest of the defenses but nowhere near the only ones. Each city had a standing garrison of over ten thousand knights and soldiers when Rexx still served the Empire. Each is also home to a sect of the Magi Order with at least a thousand mages in residence. Then there are the Devil- Monster Hunter guilds that populate every major city. And more on top of that. They are not easy nuts to crack, but then again, they are facing an entirely new threat in this Devil Army.

“Let me guess,” says Rexx with a smirk, “Someone has started moving the bulk of the Imperial Army south. Yeah, if you have any questions way to tell someone, you might want to send a message. That is where I am headed if they are interested.”

He turns Ebon back toward the road.

“Senators Eshoni TyVon, Zelma Mercer, and Wyatt Neal are requesting a face-to-face meeting,” says Carmella, stopping him dead in his tracks, “They left Sapphirespire yesterday. With a military escort. We have been reporting your movements, and they were going to match your course to meet you.”

Rexx is silent for a moment, not looking at the Searchers. He knows that Westspire is going to be playing host to an army of Devils very soon. On one hand, he doesn't want her in that kind of danger. On the other, he would pay to watch a Devil tear her traitorous head from her shoulders and drink the blood from her neck stomp. At that dark thought, Kotos shocks him.

“Ouch, son of a b***h,” says Rexx shaking his hand lightly as he looks back at the two Searchers, “Then I suppose we will have that chat in Westspire. If it is still standing and they are alive when I get there.”

He clicks his tongue, and Ebon starts walking, leaving the two Searchers to follow if they wish. While Rexx’s mind settles and remains on one point: Eshoni.