Nocturna League (Episode 2: The Mist Hour) (6 page)

Boris’ shell closes, and the bar
suddenly smells much more like a bar, and less like the inside of a
giant crustacean. “THAT IS OF THE SENSIBLE, I AM OF THE SUPPOSING.
SLEEP WELL, COLETTE FOOD, FOR TOMORROW YOU WILL BE OF THE
TESTING.”

Colette nods, walks away, and cringes
at the concept of a situation in which she would have to take Boris
up on his offer.

Back at the Ganastere Estate, The
Captain smiles ever so slightly.

Chapter 6: A Most
Unpleasant Realization

The two moons bend around whatever
planet they’re on, and this land’s sun peeks over the horizon.
People wake up with a knowing fire in their hearts- they understand
the intensity today will hold. Colette is poked awake by the
bartender, “Hey, guy’s calling for you… I think.”

Colette wipes the sleep from her eyes
with a full motion of the hand. “Got it, thanks,” she says,
listening to Boris say: “COLETTE FOOD, COLETTE FOOD!” over and over
in the bar.

“
Yeah,” the bartender says,
going back to his corner to curl up. Colette exits the room and
gives a prompt, half-hearted salute to Boris. “That
time?”

Boris nods. “IT IS OF THE TIME OF THE
SOON. YOU MUST BE OF THE READYING.”

Colette nods back, stretches, steals
some pub food, and exits the bar. Around her, people are wary.
Shifting glances inspect one another as Colette steps through the
streets nearing noon. She strolls up to the Ganastere Estate and
ducks into an alley. There’s already eight other people in
it.

“
Hell’re you?” one of the
cloaked men asks.

“
Who want’s to
kn-”

“
Guys, I know this girl.
Hi, Colette,” one of the other men says, leaning up from his place
at the wall and gesturing toward her.

Colette smirks, seeing someone she
recognizes from last night pull off his hood. “Itrim- So these are
the Kalamests?”

She’s met with affirmations all around
her.

“
Excellent. They don’t
stand a chance,” she says.

Itrim hums. “Not quite sure on that
one, actually. Did you take care of your captain?” He asks, a
sea-breeze blowing past their alley.

Colette smirks. “I have him handled.
He won’t join us, but he won’t be in our way.”

The Kalamests exchange nods and
impressed looks about themselves. Itrim turns back to Colette.
“Okay, Colette. Here’s the deal. There’s a magic barrier that
prevents our entry.”

She squints an eye. “I could get in
just fine.”

“
I know, because you’re not
a Kalamest,” Itrim says.

Colette shakes her head in confusion.
“Wait, what? So I can go in, but Kalamests can’t? How will you help
me during the fight?”

Itrim holds his hand up, as if to calm
her. “We’ll need you to draw them out of their mansion. Only the
mansion itself is protected by the barrier, so you raise a ruckus
inside, and pull them out for us.”

Hearing his plan, she strokes her chin
a moment, and slowly, a look of devious certainty beguiles her
features. “You know, I have a better idea.”

Itrim raises a brow. “All ears,
captain,” he says.

She retrieves from her
pockets the Gauntlets of Mist, and a gasp blows over the entire
group. “Oh,
Vuru
.
Those can’t really be-”

She grins from ear to ear as the men
gawk at her success. “They absolutely are.”

The group stares on in some form of
absolute awe- that this girl completed in a single night, something
that has taken them their lives up to this point. “I can’t…” Itrim
has difficulty speaking the rest, instead he leans in and embraces
Colette.

“
Wh-what the hell, dude! I
know it’s nice I got the gauntlets, but it’s not
that
nice!”

“
It’s done! We’ve done it!”
Itrim exclaims as he takes up the gauntlets and shows it to the
others. Cheering, hugging, and tears can be seen among the crowd,
and Colette sighs.

“
Great, you got
both
gauntlets, now can we
go and
kick their asses?
”

Uneasy glances are exchanged in the
crowd. “Eh, well, to be honest, Colette, we got what we
need.”

Everyone listens to the
breeze and Colette’s features curl in disgust.
“…
What?
”

“
Um, thought we’d have you
steal the gauntlets for us while we distracted the Ganasteres
outside.”

She shakes her head
dismissively as a few of the men chuckle at her animated display.
“B-but what about the people? You know, the ones they
kidnapped?
”

Itrim tames his smile into a serious
look. “We can’t really help you. We just wanted our birthright
back.” There’s a row of snickers and nudges between the men, as if
they’re in on some supreme joke- Colette has a terrible sense of
humor.

“
I can’t
believe you
! I thought you
cared about the people you ruled over!”

Itrim nods. “We do, it’s just that
this birthright is much more important. People come and go, but the
gauntlets have lasted for generations.”

Colette slaps the middle of
her face. “
Really?
”

“
Really. Sorry,
Colette.”

She takes a deep breath. “Fine! I’ll
do it myself! The Captain was right!” Colette turns to
leave.

“
Right about wh-… Oh, and
there she goes,” Itrim says as she disappears down the alley in
front of him. He turns to the others and shrugs. “Well, it’s
finally time. This midnight will be one not a soul will forget,” he
says, grinning with his Kalamest brothers.

Colette remembered the Captain’s
words. “If something is broken, you are the only one who can fix
it.” The phrase rings in her mind as she struts up to the Ganastere
mansion, draws her revolver and shoots into the lock. With a deep
breath she slams her entirety into the door, forcing it open. She
spots a man adjacent to her frantically scrambling for a crossbow
at the side of the room. “Freeze, bitch!” is all she needs to say
before the man stops cold. With a decisive smack she pistol whips
the door guard and sends him to the ground out cold. Several people
gather around the inside foyer and guards pour in with weapons
poised at the young lady.

“
That’s far enough! One
more step and we’ll shoot!” A front-most man says with a trained
aim.

Colette laxly points the gun at the
unconscious man at her feet. “Give me a reason,” she says, training
her scope right at the man’s head.

Gasps are exchanged between the
waitstaff, and the guards tense in fear.

“
Go on,” she adds, “give me
a single damn reason not to shoot him.”

A spry lad scoffs at Colette’s
declaration. “Yeah, as if you would! If you shoot that guy, you’re
dead!”

Colette’s expression is mixed a
moment, but falls to a relaxed smile. “Alright, then I’ll shoot as
many of you as I can before I die from bolt injuries. I bet I can
get at least five of you… who will it be?”

The guards, only seven in number,
nervously exchange glances. The spry lad, holding down his tremors,
grins as widely as he can. “Y-yeah! But you’d still die! No one
would be so crazy as t-” The guard stops once Colette draws a
sharp, deep breath, and points the gun at her own
person.

*BANG*

Colette shot herself in the
hand. With a smooth, perfectly composed look on her face, she
raises her brows. “Of course. No one could be
that
crazy.” Every guard drops their
weapon, and the red-handed Colette meets the action with a smile.
“Excellent. I’m proud of you all. Now take me to the prisoners,”
she says as she takes out The Captain’s bandages and spools it
about her wounded hand.

Everyone draws back and exchanges
looks of uncertainty. There’s an awkward, palpable feeling of worry
flowing through the crowd. The guard captain sighs. “We actually
can’t do that for you, Miss.”

“
Eh? And why’s
that?”

“
There’s a force field, and
we can’t really get in.”

Colette looks up after finishing her
bandaging. “Explain.”

The guard captain clears his throat.
“There’s a Kalamest field that prevents entry.”

Colette squints. “Wait, but how could
a Kalamest get through the mansion’s Ganastere field?”

He sighs again, looking aside in
embarrassment. “Well, that’s just it. One couldn’t have. It had to
be a person who was not a Kalamest, given the magic by a Kalamest.
It’s probably someone who works here.”

Colette stares blankly. “So, you’re
telling me that the Kalamests did the kidnapping, and had someone
who worked for the Ganasteres plant all the prisoners in a room
that he set the force field on?”

The guard captain nods.

“
So, just find the people
who aren’t Ganasteres, right?”

“
Not quite that simple,
Miss. So many generations have passed, no one really knows how much
Kalamest or Ganastere blood they have in them.”

“
Then let’s find out now!
Gather everyone who works at the mansion, and have them try to
enter the field!”

There are winces and cringes of
discomfort displayed clearly in the crowd. The guard captain shakes
his head. “You need to understand, Miss. A force field won’t just
bar entry, but it will kill someone if they’re not allowed in. It’s
vicious magic, and frankly everyone’s afraid that they have a
little in them, most people know for sure that they do.”

Colette sighs. “Then why didn’t you
get a person on the outside to do it for you?”

“
As I said, Miss, almost
everyone on this island probably has at least a little bit of each.
The only people that could travel through our Ganastere field, and
the Kalamest field containing the prisoners, would have to be
someone who has
neither
Kalamest
nor
Ganastere blood, and my employer requested we keep the
information that we were holding prisoners a secret. The public
would go nuts.”

Colette laxes and puts away the
pistol. “Well, I’m neither. I’m not from this island.”

The guard captain smirks. “Yeah, I
could tell that one, Miss. So, will you help us deactivate the
field?”

She smiles.

The crowd is dispersed, and Colette
goes down with the guard captain and a few others. In the basement
level, there’s a room with a glowing, script-bound sphere breathing
out of it. Colette takes a deep breath, and sticks her hand in.
Nothing. There’s a smiles and patting exchanged in the group as
they watch Colette open the door. Inside the room are several weeks
worth of preserved foods, rows of tied up captives, and an
unconscious man with a crossbow and a note on his face. Her good
friend, Grancis, is nowhere to be seen. She takes up the note, and
reads:

My Dearest Cornmuffin, “Captain”
Colette,

I took the liberty of acquiring
Grancis for you, so that you might have the proper motivation to
continue. The man you took this note from is a criminal the
Kalamests paid incredibly well to pose as a Ganastere and ferry the
captured people in. To release the prisoners, simply tear the
spell-slip asunder. It should be located on the criminal’s person.
Once you’ve saved them all and are dubbed the hero, come follow the
main road to the highest point of the island. It is there where you
and I will have our match.

Love,
The
Captain

(P.S. Please bring some crackers and
cheese. I’m feeling a tad peckish. It’s the least you can do for
putting me through all the bother of manipulating you.)

Colette looks up from the letter with
a bland, disappointed expression. “Dammit, Salt.” She proceeds now
to undo the spell and untie the prisoners, who are incredibly
thankful for being released. There is wide-spread celebration as
the people march out of their holdings, some there for days upon
days. Once they burst out onto the street, people watching question
why they were in the Ganastere estate, rather than the expected
Kalamest. The guard captain is kept busy explaining to everyone the
situation, but they only believe him once he brings out the
criminal, the perpetrator of the crime. Casks are burst open, the
fine foods are brought out, and the town ascends in celebration-
Colette is the only one left uncertain. She taps the guard captain.
“Hey.”

“
Ahh, hello,
Miss.”

“
Something’s confusing
me.”

The guard captain, sipping at some
wine, raises an aged, grandfatherly brow. “Yes?”

“
So… You guys had
nothing
to do with
stealing the Kalamest’s gauntlet?”

He looks at her strangely.
“
Gauntlet
? Miss, we
did nothing of the sort, and you’re mistaken also, that we only
have one. You see, both families have
two
gauntlets- four in
all.”