Chapter Text
“Somehow, I think I liked it better from the air.”
Teela couldn’t help but privately share Ileena’s sentiment. They were walking down one of the main “roads” of Arcadia’s new housing areas. In reality, said road was a little more than a dirt track. As they had departed the limits of the old city, they passed the haze and smoke of blacksmiths working their forges and the loud hustle of merchant’s stalls. Men and women did business and socialised like any other city on Eternia. Some were already couples, and expecting children. The picture of an egalitarian society that both Teela and Adam had expected to flourish after they left Arcadia in the Attack Trak years ago.
But now the two women were further out, amidst what were frankly slums: hastily built stone dwellings lining the dirt road. No other women could be seen, especially not patrols by Sumana’s warriors. The men they did pass on the street kept a wide berth and wouldn’t look them in the eye. Others shut their wooden windows or ducked behind doors and alleyways as the two women approached. Above all, there was a palpable sense of fear hanging in the air. It was not only the men feeling that fear either.
Ileena leaned in and quietly spoke to Teela. “Have you seen enough yet? I want to get out of here.”
Teela tried to be reassuring. “Just a little longer, then we’ll go. We need to find out what’s going on around here. It seems like the men of Arcadia have traded the mines for the gutter.”
All of a sudden, they heard a voice hissing at them. “Psst, you with the red ‘air. Over ‘ere.”
They turned to find an old man, bald with a long, white beard, dressed in ragged robes, beckoning to them from the open window of his squat, stone house.
Uneasy, but hoping to get some answers, Teela and Ileena cautiously approached him. “Umm, can we help you?”
He eyed the strangers, while also darting his head back and forth like a cornered animal, expecting an ambush at any moment. “I remember you, the foreign woman and ‘er Prince. Helped get us out of the mines and let this old man have his last years in the sun.”
Teela was unsure of his motive for speaking to them, but played along. “That’s right.”
He took another look down both ends of the street before continuing. “You did me a favour, so I’ll do you one and give you a warning. You come from the old city? Get back there now, run if you have to. Women aren’t safe ‘ere, not even foreigners.”
The two outsiders looked at each other, apprehension growing. Still, Teela put a brave face on. “Not safe? I am the Captain of King Randor’s Royal Guard. Facing down danger is my business.”
He sniffed derisively. “Royal Guard, eh? Unless you got a regiment of ‘em ready to march down the road, then you still got no chance if the lads catch ye. If they do, death won’t be the worst thing that’ll happen to ye, just the last. And ain’t no-one gonna help ye out ‘ere, no matter ‘ow much ye scream. Just like all the others.”
Ileena was on the verge of a full-blown panic. “Teela, let’s go. Now.”
“We will, but we’ll go back with the full story.” Teela turned back to the old man. “You say women have been attacked and killed?”
“And worse before the killin’ ‘appens.”
“Who by?”
“The lads…the gangs, I mean.”
Teela felt the anger rising every time she heard his euphemisms. “‘Lads’? Bunch of vicious thugs, you mean. And all the other men around here turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, is that what you’re saying?”
The jaded, cynical old man just shrugged in the face of these horrors happening on his doorstep. Whatever righteous fury he might have had in youth burned out long ago. “A blind eye means not bein’ found carved up in an alley like the girls. You think the lads’ll go easy on any of their brothers who try to stop ‘em?”
The situation in Arcadia was turning out worse than Teela had feared. She adopted a more conciliatory tone. “How did this happen? When I left this city before, I thought the men and women of Arcadia were supposed to be equal.”
The old man scoffed and spat into the dirt, narrowly missing Ileena’s boot. “Equal? Ye really think them fancy ladies in their frilly dresses would give up any of what they had to help all of us? Ye really think the soldiers who kept us underground would dirty their shiny uniforms on our behalf? Some of the young, ‘andsome boys who catch a girl’s eye, like our dear old dead King? They can have some coin and a piece of what they helped build, but only if the girls want to give it to ‘em. The rest of us…?” He spread his arms out to indicate the squalid surroundings. “The lads didn’t like women telling ‘em what they could and couldn’t have, so they gang up and any woman they find, they take everything. ‘Er money, ‘er jewels… ‘er virtue. Then they make sure she don’t go back to the old city telling no tales. Couple days later, they find what’s left of ‘er in one of the alleys, or dumped in the river, lookin’ like somethin’ out of a butcher’s shop.”
Both women felt sick to their stomachs. Ileena’s head was on a swivel, checking every door and alley. Teela tried to press the old man for more information. “Has no-one tried to get word back to the authorities about what’s going on here? Not even to Queen Sumana?”
“Sumana? Feh.” He spat again. “She’s too busy crying over ‘er King to notice, just like she didn’t notice when the city was about to come down on our ‘eads. Up ‘er own arse back then, up ‘er own arse now. Besides, the men in these parts fear the gangs as much as the girls do and word spreads quick. The lads will sniff out a grasser and make an example of him. Besides, what do you think will ‘appen if Sumana does get off ‘er throne to do somethin’ about it? ‘Er warriors will come with the sword. You’ll ‘ave a bloody war on these streets.”
Teela took all of this in. “So they do this to any woman who comes down here? No-one is exempt?”
“Only one that I know of: the white-haired woman of magic. Comes and goes through ‘ere on ‘er way to do tricks for the villages. The lads leave ‘er be ever since…” He beckoned them closer and lowered his voice. “One of ‘em tried to ‘ave a go with ‘er. Word is she used ‘er spells to turn ‘im into a slug and then stepped on ‘im. The lads are too scared of ‘er to try anything.”
Ileena was practically shaking. “I wish this magic woman was here now.”
“So do I” Teela responded, having a pretty good idea who the white-haired mage was. Realising that nothing more could be gained from the old man, she looked at her worried friend and nodded. Both backed away from the dwelling as they urgently scanned their surroundings for potential attackers. “Ileena, we’re getting out of here, double-time.”
The old man put his arms out to reach for the handles of his wooden windows. “Now you got the idea, just get back safe. Oh, and you didn’t ‘ear any of this from me, right?” Without waiting for an answer, he swung the windows closed and disappeared from view.
Teela and Ileena both walked quickly back in the direction they came, towards the relative safety of the old city. Eyes darting to and fro, anxiously keeping a look out for anyone in the shadows. They had barely gotten a few blocks from the old man’s dwelling when they heard a woman’s voice scream “No! Noooo!” and came to a dead stop. From an alleyway up ahead, a young lady with long, auburn hair took off running with a look of pure animal terror. Fleeing towards the old city, holding up her long blue dress that was torn at the shoulder. Seconds later, six men in the ragged vests and tunics that marked them as former miners burst out of the alley in pursuit. One of them was heard to yell “Get the bitch back before she finds a patrol!”
Teela suddenly snapped into action. This wasn’t going to happen on her watch. “Ileena, come on, after them!”. Officer and trainee started running after the gang, trying to keep them in sight as they rounded a bend in the road.
Ileena spoke her fears aloud. “This is it...my first real fight…”
Teela kept her student focused. “Remember your training…and stay together…we’ll get through this…and we’ll save her.”
“Hope so…” Internally, leena’s mind was racing just as fast as the rest of her.
Up ahead, the Arcadian woman’s breath practically seared her lungs as she willed her legs to move faster. The only coherent thought in her mind was to make it to some of the Queen’s soldiers. She looked back to see her attackers still on her tail and closing fast. She looked forward and barely stopped herself as she almost collided with a woman with a bob of white hair, wearing a green dress with a high collar and cape, carrying some kind of staff.
The stranger caught the woman in her arms, concerned. “What is it, girl? What’s wrong?”
The terrified and breathless Arcadian could only get out. “Th…they’re coming!”
The white-haired woman was confused. “Who? Who is coming?” Then she looked up and saw the mob of vicious-looking men approaching.
“I see.” Her eyes suddenly blazed with purple energy and she spoke to the Arcadian with a firm voice. “Get behind me…and don’t look.”
Not knowing if she should be more afraid of the woman in front of her than the men she was trying to escape, the Arcadian complied and hid behind the sorceress’ cape. Equally frightened and awestruck by this display of power, she could not tear her eyes away from the conflagration about to unfold.
The mage raised her wand staff and three bolts of lightning struck the ground. From pools of magical energy, a trio of Serpintaurs rose and took shape. Miniature compared to the real things, the natural enemies of dragons, but still larger than most humans. They hissed and spat menacingly at the men, who stumbled to a halt. The ones at the back turned to make a run for it, only to be confronted by Teela and Ileena, who had caught up.
The nearest two charged at the women, while one ducked into an alley, unseen by the melee.
Teela dodged punches so clumsy and telegraphed, her opponent made Adam look like a prize boxer in comparison. While Ileena dropped low and hit a leg sweep that took her attacker off his feet and sent him crashing on to his back. In doing so, she had left herself open as the largest of the men was now standing above her, wielding a wooden club.
He reared back, intending to smash her skull in.
Out of desperation, Ileena reached up, grabbed him by the crotch and twisted… hard . He instantly dropped the club and let out a short, strangled cry of pain. Doubling over with his hands grabbing at the source of his agony.
With his head now in range, Ileena lashed out with a palm strike to the side of his face, which put him down for the count. She grabbed the discarded club and cautiously rose to her feet, as the swarthy, skinny man at the head of the mob looked left and right between her and the magical serpents, deciding which was the easier opponent.
He turned to Ileena and an evil smile spread across his scarred face, as he pulled out a miner’s knife.
She jumped back just in time and his wild slash found nothing but air. Before he could close the distance, two of the Serpintaurs bit down into his shoulders and lifted him off the ground.
He screamed in pain and fear as the mage conducted the symphony of destruction with her wand staff. The magical snake creatures reared back and flung the man towards a nearby hay cart, its side panel smashed to smithereens as he crashed through it and landed unconscious in the hay pile.
Teela had already put her first opponent down and now finished off the second with a knee to the gut, then an elbow to the back as he doubled over. She didn’t know that the remaining man was still hiding in the alley behind her, his hatred overriding the rational instinct to escape the carnage visited upon his brethren.
He charged into her back with his shoulder, catching the warrior by surprise and sending her tumbling to the ground. Dazed, she rolled over and when she looked up, she saw death: the man had pulled a laser pistol from his vest and was aiming it at her.
“Lights out, foreign slut!”
Ileena’s eyes widened in horror and with a burst of adrenaline, she threw the wooden club like a javelin. It struck the man’s arm, causing him to drop the pistol, which discharged into the nearby stone wall, leaving a scorch mark.
He clutched at his limp arm. His face contorted in pain, though not quite out of the fight. But as he took a step towards the prone Teela, a magical energy blast hit him square in the chest, sending him flying halfway down the street.
All heads turned to the white-haired mage, who had dispersed her magical beasts and was now levitating above the ground towards the mob, arms outstretched, crackling energy blazing in both of her hands and arcing over her head. Her face contorted into a vicious snarl of hatred and her voice sounding almost demonic, she spoke to those men still conscious, some of whom were starting to rise again. “Begone and trouble these women no more! Or I will skin you alive and feed your so-called manhood to the rats!”
Thoroughly beaten and afraid, those men who had their legs under them ran back the way they came, while others limped or crawled.
Ileena draped Teela’s arm over her shoulders and lifted her friend back to her feet, the two of them cautiously maneuvering themselves behind their unexpected ally. The mage floated back to the ground and dispersed her magic.
The trembling Arcadian woman ran into her saviour’s arms, who was caught off-guard and seemingly didn’t know how to provide comfort to someone in distress. Eventually settling for putting an arm around the woman and gently saying. “It’s alright, it’s over. They won’t hurt you anymore, I swear it.”
Ileena, still supporting Teela and getting her breath back, asked. “You saved us all...thank you. Who are you?”
The white-haired woman spoke up. “I am called Majestra. Captain Teela here knows me.”
“You do?”
“We’ve met.” Now that she had recovered her wits enough to get a good look at the mage, Teela knew exactly who this woman really was. But though she had questions, the Captain decided to table them for now and just be grateful for the timely assistance.
Majestra turned and pointed her wand staff at the air. A purple, swirling portal appeared. “This will take us all back to the centre of the city, I suggest we depart.”
Ileena was sceptical, having been snared by the promises of sorcerers before, asking Teela. “Do you think we should?”
The mage gestured to the knife wielder in the hay cart, and the one-armed gunman, both of whom were beginning to stir. “Would you rather take your chances with these scum?”
Teela nodded to Ileena. “Go, get the girl through. I’ll cover you.”
Ileena did as she was told and guided the Arcadian woman through the portal, as Majestra trained her wand staff at the men, in case they hadn’t had enough.
Just as Teela went to walk through, she stopped and addressed the woman she knew was lurking under a false image. Softly and sincerely, she said “Thank you…Evelyn.”
“Majestra” was unsurprised that the clever Captain had seen right through her. Without averting her eyes from the potential enemies still on the street, she responded, “You can thank me by getting a move on. I'm sure you would rather have me for company than these worms.”
Taking the hint, Teela stepped through the portal and disappeared from sight.
The sorceress known to the rest of Eternia as Evil-lyn backed up into it and the portal disappeared, leaving the wreckage of battle behind.