Whirlwind Chapter 7
Fires of Justice
By Danny Asencio
Kalia arrived at Riovanes a day late, but that didn't bother her. The arrogant Duke could wait. She rode her chocobo up to the castle gates, dismounted and entered without any trouble. The guards had been informed of her arrival. She met the Duke in a huge conference room. He was wearing the cape and armor of a holy knight, even though she knew he hadn't truly attained that rank.
"Are all the arrangements in order?"
"Yes, I have the money and twenty crack archers ready. Might I inquire as to how you plan to utilize these resources?"
"I plan to kick Delita in the balls…hard"
With that Kalia took the money and headed down to the training field to meet with her new troops. She quickly assessed that the Duke hadn't lied to her, and that the archers really were crack troops. The only problem was that she recognized one of the archers, but from where? Then it hit her. He was the kid that had defended the Duke the night she was going to assassinate him. Why would the Duke send him with her? As a spy, or to kill her quietly? Either way, Kalia decided, she would deal with him when the time came.
"Ok, troops move out!"
Two weeks later, the troops were in position. Kalia smiled inwardly. She would hit Delita were it hurt. This was only a small attack for now, but she needed to test these troops and how well they would obey her. After all, she was a woman, and an old one at that, and men have serious problems taking their orders from women. Kalia walked right up to the perimeter guard. The guard stared at this old woman in a black power sleeve, and wondered what the heck she wanted. So he smiled politely and asked. Before he finished his sentence a ninja blade protruded out of the other side of his armor. The other guards took immediate notice, but didn't get a chance to sound the alarm before. Arrows shot out from some nearby shrubs, killing them. Kalia nodded at the three archers that hid in the bushes and they revealed themselves. Kalia was glad that they had performed well so far. Now that the perimeter guard was taken care of, she just needed to get in closer to the castle. Her target wasn't Zeltennia Castle itself, but the barracks that held the trainees about two hundred yards away.
Five minutes later she, and all the archers were in place. Then she gave the signal, or more accurately she threw it. The fire ball hit the first building and blew up in a spectacular simulation of a basic fire magic spell. The archers opened fire directly afterwards with flaming arrows. Within a matter of seconds, all the barracks were on fire and the trainees were running around in panic trying to find the enemy who did this to them. Some of the trainees tried to attack the archers who were standing in plain sight. However, they were felled either by an arrow or Kalia's ninja sword. After a minute of this Kalia threw a second fire ball that signaled the archers to retreat, split up, and meet back in the slums of Dorter. As Kalia ran away toward were her chocobo was waiting, she noted with smug satisfaction that she could still hear the screams of wounded or burning recruits.