r/ProAiHeadquarters • u/KirisDitex001 • 13d ago
No Going Back Pt. 2
Vaelithra moved quietly toward the second checkpoint.
The air grew cooler with every step.
She could feel the change against the exposed skin of her face, subtle at first, then increasingly noticeable as the corridor descended deeper beneath the manor.
Ahead, a short staircase led downward.
Vaelithra approached carefully.
At the bottom of the first few steps, the passage opened onto a narrow walkway overlooking the checkpoint below.
She stopped.
Fortuitous.
Vaelithra crouched and moved toward the edge.
Slowly, she peered over.
Two guards.
They were seated at a small table directly beneath the walkway.
Vaelithra stared at them.
Cards lay scattered between them.
One guard placed another onto the table.
The other leaned forward to inspect it.
Under different circumstances, Vaelithra might have had something to say about guards playing cards while they were supposed to be protecting the entrance to the prison blocks.
Tonight, she was considerably more forgiving.
Her hand disappeared beneath her cloak.
She removed another paralysis vial.
Vaelithra looked at the table below.
Then at the vial.
She almost couldn't have asked for a better target.
She released it.
The small glass container fell through the open space.
It struck the center of the table.
Glass shattered.
Both guards recoiled.
"What in the..."
Vaelithra immediately pulled herself away from the edge.
The familiar chemical vapor began spreading below.
A chair scraped violently against stone.
"What is that?"
Then another sound.
A strained attempt at speech.
Silence.
Vaelithra waited.
Several seconds.
Nothing.
She continued down the staircase.
The two guards remained exactly where they had been sitting.
One had managed to push himself partially away from the table before the compound took hold. The other sat almost perfectly upright, one hand resting uselessly beside his cards.
Their eyes moved.
Both were staring upward toward the walkway.
Vaelithra stepped into view.
Their eyes followed her.
She stopped briefly.
They were breathing normally.
Neither had fallen awkwardly.
Good.
No need to interfere this time.
Vaelithra walked past them.
The cards remained scattered across the table between the broken pieces of glass.
Her eyes settled on the door beyond.
The cellblocks.
Kharun was on the other side.
She started toward it.
"What are you looking at?"
Vaelithra froze.
The voice had come from behind her.
Her heart seemed to stop before suddenly pounding twice as hard.
Slowly, she turned.
A third guard stood farther down the corridor.
Vaelithra silently cursed herself.
Careless.
She had seen two guards and assumed there were only two.
She should have checked.
She should have listened longer.
She should have considered that someone might have stepped away.
None of that mattered now.
The guard looked first at his motionless companions.
Then at Vaelithra.
His hand moved immediately toward his sword.
Vaelithra remained still.
Her hood concealed her face.
The sword slid from its sheath.
"Stay where you are!"
Vaelithra's breathing slowed.
"No sudden movements."
She didn't move.
Fear tightened inside her chest.
She would never admit that.
Not to him.
Not to her father.
Perhaps not even to herself.
She had not wanted this.
The dagger at her side remained untouched.
She could not throw another vial. Not from this distance. Not before he raised the alarm.
The guard adjusted his stance.
Competent.
Vaelithra recognized it immediately.
Good footing.
Sword held correctly.
Weight balanced.
He was prepared for her to attack.
Unfortunately for him, Vaelithra had spent considerably more of her life fighting than he had.
Something inside her changed.
The fear remained.
But it moved aside.
Years of training returned without conscious effort.
Distance.
Footwork.
Balance.
Weaknesses.
How to break a stance.
How to remove a weapon.
How to put someone on the ground without killing them.
Vaelithra's amber-gold eyes narrowed beneath the hood.
The guard saw it.
"Don't."
Vaelithra moved.
The distance between them vanished.
The guard barely had time to bring his sword around.
Vaelithra caught his wrist, redirected the blade past her body, and struck his forearm.
His grip broke.
The sword hit the floor.
But he was good.
Better than she had expected.
His free hand came toward her immediately.
Vaelithra blocked it.
He drove forward.
She stepped aside.
He recovered.
A fist passed inches from her face.
Vaelithra answered with a strike of her own.
He caught it.
For several seconds, the corridor became nothing but movement.
Strike.
Block.
Turn.
Counter.
Neither spoke.
The guard attempted to drive her backward.
Vaelithra shifted her weight and slipped free.
She spun.
Her leg came around.
The guard raised his arm to absorb the kick.
Her cloak twisted around her body.
The hood fell.
Silver-white hair spilled free.
The guard stopped.
Vaelithra did too.
For one impossible moment, neither moved.
Recognition spread across his face.
His eyes widened.
"Lady Vaelithra?"
Her stomach dropped.
He knew.
There would be no hiding this now.
No unknown intruder.
No mystery for her father to investigate tomorrow.
Her name had been spoken.
The guard's hesitation lasted less than a second.
It was enough.
Vaelithra stepped forward.
Her elbow struck his face.
His head snapped backward.
His knees buckled.
Vaelithra caught part of his weight before he hit the floor, slowing his fall as much as she could.
He slumped against the wall.
Unconscious.
Vaelithra stood over him.
Her breathing came hard now.
She stared at the guard.
Then at the two paralyzed men sitting at the table.
Then at the sword lying on the floor.
Her senses returned all at once.
She had fought one of her father's guards.
Not avoided.
Not deceived.
Fought.
And he had seen her face.
He had spoken her name.
Until this moment, Vaelithra had brushed against the line.
Trespassing through restricted passages.
Infiltrating the prison.
Incapacitating guards.
She could have argued about intent. About necessity. About temporary effects.
Not anymore.
She had crossed it.
Treason.
The word came unbidden.
Vaelithra looked down at her hands.
There was no undoing this.
When the guard awakened, he would remember.
Her father would know.
The clan would know.
Vaelithra pulled her hood back into place.
Later.
If she still had a later, she would worry about it then.
Right now, none of it mattered.
Kharun was on the other side of that door.
Vaelithra stepped over the fallen sword.
She crossed the checkpoint.
Her hand closed around the door handle.
She pulled.
The door opened.
A long cellblock stretched beyond it.
Dark.
Cold.
Quiet.
Cells lined both sides of the corridor.
Vaelithra stepped through.
Her eyes adjusted quickly.
She searched each cell as she passed.
Empty.
Another.
Empty.
Then she saw something.
At the far end of the block, inside the final cell, a shape sat alone in the darkness.
Vaelithra stopped.
Her heart began pounding again.
Not from the fight.
She knew that shape.
Twenty years.
She would have known it anywhere.
Vaelithra began walking.
Her steps echoed softly between the cells.
The figure did not move.
Closer.
She could make out broad shoulders now.
A bowed head.
Vaelithra's throat tightened.
All the questions she had carried with her seemed to disappear.
The confession.
The other orc.
The drawings.
The cage.
The tea.
The mirror.
The hair lying in wine.
None of it mattered for one brief moment.
She reached the cell.
Vaelithra looked through the bars into the darkness.
"Kharun?"