Blades of The Fallen Realm

CHPT 4

The old master inspector stood frozen on the dusty wooden stage, his eyes wide as he stared directly at the quiet young man before him. "Who... who are you?" the old inspector asked in a low whisper, his hands shaking with sudden deep shock as he looked at the shattered blade on the floor. Leo did not say a single word back to the old man, choosing instead to pick up Clara’s heavy fur cloak from the ground, wipe his bleeding palm on his torn sleeve, and turn his back on the entire assembly arena without looking at the crowd once.

He walked away with quick, heavy steps, leaving behind the stunned nobles, the wide-eyed smiths, and all the loud shouting from the rich spectators in the arena. He did not care about their praise, their confusion, or their sudden shock, because his heart was back in the cold wooden shed with his blind, sick father. As Leo walked out through the big iron gates of the courtyard, heavy dark grey clouds rolled rapidly across the wide sky, turning the afternoon light into a bitter shadow. Cold water began to drop from above, falling faster and faster until a heavy downpour covered the whole town in dark rivers of cold brown mud.

Leo held the expensive fur cloak tightly under his arm and ran through the empty, muddy streets as fast as his tired legs could carry him. His bare, sore feet hurt with every single step he took against the sharp stones, but he only wanted to reach his blind father and give him his warm medicine. When Leo turned the corner into the back alley of the Sterling house estate, his heart dropped like a heavy stone into a deep dark well. A loud bang rang out through the noise of the pouring rain, followed immediately by a cruel, mean laugh that made Leo's blood turn completely to ice.

Four big men in heavy black leather vests stood outside the small wooden shed, kicking the weak door until the wooden frame cracked completely. They were rough guards from the local medicine guild, and their heavy leather boots were covered in dark, sticky mud from the alley. "Get out here, you old useless pest!" the lead guard shouted at the dark doorway, kicking the wooden frame once again with all his power until it splintered into small pieces. "You cannot stay on this land without paying your weekly medical fees to the town guild boss!"

"Stop! What are you doing to my father?!" Leo screamed at the top of his lungs, running into the alley and throwing his body forward without hesitation. He pushed past two of the big guards with all his strength, landing right in front of the broken wooden door to shield the dark entrance. "Get out of my way, you pathetic boy!" the lead guard barked, his face turning ugly with sudden anger as he glared down at Leo. "This old blind fool owes a massive amount of money to the medicine guild, and we are kicking him out right now!"

"That is a lie!" Leo yelled back into the rain, his voice shaking with pure hatred and desperate grief as the cold water ran directly into his mouth. "My father does not owe anyone a single copper coin! We paid for every small leaf of medicine we ever took from your shop!" "Lord Julian Vance signed the debt order himself," the lead guard sneered, holding up a crumpled, wet piece of paper in front of Leo's pale face. "He informed the guild boss that your family has massive unpaid debts, so no doctor in this town is allowed to treat him!"

Leo froze in the freezing cold water, his breath catching painfully in his chest as his dark eyes widened in total horror. A deep chill ran down his spine as he realized the horrible truth: Julian was using his family's massive power to make sure his father died without any medical help. "Julian... he did this on purpose," Leo whispered to himself, his fists shaking violently at his sides as his fingernails cut deep into his skin. "He wants to kill my father slowly in the cold because I ruined his proud broadsword on the testing stage today!"

"Move out of the way, you poor worm!" the lead guard shouted, shoving Leo hard against the wet wooden wall of the shed. "We are throwing this old bag of bones onto the main street where all the filthy beggars belong!" "Do not touch him!" Leo screamed, jumping back up immediately and grabbing the guard's leather sleeve with all his strength. "If you lay a single hand on my father, I swear I will make you pay for it with your life!"

"Who do you think you are talking to, beggar?" the guard roared, pulling a thick leather whip out from his heavy belt with a wicked grin. "I will beat you until you cannot stand on your feet, you worthless live-in dog!" Before the guard's heavy whip could fall through the cold air, a soft, sharp voice called out from the main manor path across the wet yard. "What is all this ugly noise near my mother's private garden?" Clara asked, walking over while holding her fine silk dress high above the dark mud.

"Lady Clara!" the lead guard said quickly, lowering his heavy whip and bowing his head low with deep respect. "We are only following the strict order from Lord Julian Vance to throw this lying debtor off the property grounds." "Clara!" Leo cried out, turning to his wife with wet eyes as he took a quick step forward through the splashing rainwater. "Please tell these men to leave right now! Julian lied to the guild! He is trying to stop all the local doctors from coming here!"

Clara looked at the four rough guards, then looked down at Leo’s muddy face and bleeding hand with absolute disgust. Her beautiful face was as cold as ice, completely empty of any care, warmth, or human feeling. "Julian does not lie, Leo," Clara said coldly, her voice sharp and mean as she looked away from his tear-soaked eyes. "If Lord Julian says your family owes money to the town medicine guild, then you owe money to the guild."

"He is trying to murder my sick father!" Leo wept, his shaking hands reaching out toward her in total desperation. "Please, Clara! I am begging you! Just order the Sterling family doctor to come and check my father for five short minutes!" "Order our family doctor for a blind beggar?" Clara laughed bitterly, shaking her head like she was listening to a foolish joke. "Why should my noble family spend our good gold and precious medicine on a useless, dying old man?"

"He is my father!" Leo screamed out, his throat burning with terrible emotional pain as his tears mixed with the heavy rain. "He is dying in that cold room right now! Do you have no heart at all left inside your body?!" "If you were a real man, your father would not be dying on a cold dirt floor!" Clara snapped right back into his face, her sharp words cutting into his broken heart like a poisoned dagger.

"You are just a useless, weak loser, Leo!" Clara continued shouting, pointing her finger right at his nose while the guards laughed softly behind her. "You cannot bring home money, you have no noble name, and you bring shame and embarrassment to my family every single day!" "I gave up my whole life to serve your house!" Leo yelled back, hot tears running down his bruised face as he shook with anger. "I cleaned your dirty floors! I carried your heavy bags! I took all your mother's nasty insults for two whole years!"

"And you were lucky we let you sleep in a small shed!" Clara sneered, stepping back quickly so his wet clothes would not stain her hem. "Stop crying like a weak baby and blaming Lord Julian for your own pathetic failures in life!" "Your father is dying because you are too weak and useless to buy him a real house!" Clara declared with a cruel laugh. "Everything bad that happens to your family is completely your own fault, and no one else's!"

"Clara... please," Leo choked out, falling hard onto his knees in the dark mud right before her clean white shoes. "I am your husband... I served you faithfully... Please do not do this to my helpless family..." "Husband?" Clara spat on the dirty ground right next to his bleeding hand, her eyes flashing with pure contempt. "You are just a bad stain in my life! You are nothing to me, and you will never be anything in this world!"

"Lord Julian is a real noble ruler who knows how to keep order in our town," Clara said proudly, her chest rising with arrogance. "If he banned the doctors from your house, it is because your dirty family deserves to suffer!" "He is doing it to torture me!" Leo sobbed out, his head hanging low in the cold water as the mud soaked through trouser. "He is using his money and power to kill an innocent, helpless old man!"

"Then go die somewhere else, far away from my sight!" Clara shouted back without a single second of hesitation. "Guards, clear this trash out of my courtyard right now! Do not let them ruin my fine mood today!" "No! Wait!" Leo screamed, trying frantically to stand up, but two big guards grabbed his sore arms from behind and pinned him down into the wet mud.

"Hold him tight!" the lead guard laughed, slapping Leo hard across the cheek with his heavy leather glove. "Let the poor dog watch his blind father get tossed out into the street like old trash!" Just as Leo tried to fight back with all his remaining power, a small, high voice came crying through the dark alleyway. "Brother! Brother! Help me! Please help!" a small girl screamed through the howling wind.

Leo pulled his head up wildly, his heart stopping completely in his chest as his blood ran cold. Running through the heavy, splashing rain was his eight-year-old little sister, Lily, her small bare feet covered in dark mud and sharp red cuts. "Lily?!" Leo gasped out, his eyes wide with total terror as he struggled against the guards' heavy iron grip. "Lily! Why are you out here in this freezing storm?!"

"Brother!" Lily wailed hysterically, throwing her little, freezing body against Leo's wet legs as she sobbed. "They... they came to our room! They are taking Father away right now!" "What did they do to him?!" Leo roared, his eyes turning completely wild with panic as he pulled against the guards holding his shoulders down.

"More mean guards came with big wooden sticks!" Lily cried out, her small chest heaving up and down violently as she shivered. "They threw our warm blankets into the mud and dragged Father out of his bed by his arms!" "He cannot see where he is going, Brother!" Lily screamed through her heavy tears, her small voice breaking Leo's heart into tiny pieces. "They pulled him down the stone steps, and he hit his face! He is bleeding on the cold street!"

Leo looked down at his little sister, whose frail body was shaking violently from the freezing water, then looked up at Clara, who stood under her servant's umbrella with a mean, mocking smile. "Lady Clara! Please!" Lily wept bitterly, "Please save my father! He did not do anything wrong to you! Please have mercy!"

"Get this filthy brat away from me right now!" Clara yelled in deep disgust, pulling her fine dress back so Lily’s wet hands would not touch her expensive silk. "She is just a little girl, Clara!" Leo screamed, his voice cracking with pure, unstoppable rage as he pulled against the two guards pinning him down. "Are you even a human being inside?!"

"She is the child of a dirty beggar, just like you!" Clara said coldly, without a single bit of pity in her dark eyes. "Take your trash family and get out of my town forever!" "Julian Vance!" Leo roared up at the dark storm clouds above, his eyes turning blood-red with absolute rage. "I swear to you, I will tear your whole life to pieces for what you did today!"

"Shut your big mouth, dog!" the lead guard laughed loudly, shoving Leo hard into the deep puddle beside his weeping little sister. "Go find your blind father in the gutter where he belongs!" the guard mocked, spitting on the muddy ground right next to Leo’s face before turning away. Clara turned around without looking back even once, her silk dress rustling as she walked back into the warm, bright manor while the heavy wooden doors slammed shut behind her.

Leo scrambled up from the cold water, taking Lily’s small, freezing hand into his own as the dark rain poured down on them like an endless sea of cold tears. "Come on, Lily!" Leo choked out through his sobs, pulling her along as fast as her small, cut legs could move. "We have to reach Father before it is too late!"

"Is Father going to die, Brother?" Lily cried out softly, her bare feet slipping in the brown mud as they ran down the dark alleyway together. "No! I will not let him die!" Leo shouted into the loud wind, holding her small hand as tightly as he could. "I swear to you, Lily! I will save Father no matter what I have to do!"

They ran through the wet, dark alleys as fast as they could go, the cold wind blowing hard against their thin, ragged clothes. Every step was full of deep physical pain, but Leo refused to slow down or rest for a single second. When they turned the corner into their old neighborhood street, a large group of local townsfolk stood in a circle, watching in absolute silence under the pouring rain.

None of the neighbors stepped forward to help, because they utterly despised Leo and his family simply for being poor. They stood around the wet alley with ugly sneers and cold eyes, chuckling under their breath as they watched a blind old man get tossed into the dirt like trash. Sitting right in the middle of rainwater was Old Thomas, his frail body shaking wildly from the bitter cold as the hateful crowd looked on without a shred of human pity.

His thin grey hair was plastered wet against his pale forehead, and his old clothes were completely covered in thick mud. A steady line of dark red blood was running down from a small cut on the old man's temple where he had hit the stone steps when pushed by the guards. Two heavy guards from Julian's personal squad stood directly over the blind old man, holding his worn wooden walking stick in their hands.

One guard bent the wooden stick across his knee and snapped it in two with a loud, sharp crack that echoed down the quiet, rainy street. "Look at this old trash sitting in the dirt!" the guard laughed loudly, throwing the broken wooden pieces right into Thomas's wet lap. "This is what happens when you do not pay your proper dues to Lord Vance!"

"Get away from my father!" Leo screamed, throwing his body forward like a cannonball through the silent, watching crowd. He slammed right into the heavy guard, sending the big man flying into the deep mud with a massive splash! "Leo... is that you, my good son?" Old Thomas rasped weakly, his blind, milky eyes turning toward the sound of Leo's angry voice as his old body shivered uncontrollably.

"I am here, Father! I am right here with you!" Leo cried out, dropping to his knees in the puddle and wrapping his arms tightly around his father's weak, freezing body. Lily threw herself onto her father's lap, sobbing wildly as she tried to use her small hands to cover his face from the heavy falling rain. "Father, I am so sorry! I am so sorry I was not there to protect you from these bad men!" Leo wept, using his torn sleeve to wipe the dark blood from his father's pale forehead.

"It is... it is not your fault, my good boy," Old Thomas whispered softly, his teeth chattering hard from the frost-fever as he reached for Leo's muddy hand. "Do not cry for me... and do not bow your head to these mean, evil men..." "Look at these three dirty rats hiding in the mud!" the other guard sneered, pulling his muddy friend back up to his feet and holding a thick leather whip high in the air.

"Lord Julian Vance gave a strict command to the entire city!" the guard yelled out at the watching crowd in a loud voice. "No one in this town is allowed to give this old blind beggar a bed or a roof to sleep under tonight!" "If you do not drag him out of the main city gates right now, I will whip all three of you until your skin tears off!" the guard barked, stepping closer with his raised weapon.

"We have nowhere to go in this freezing storm!" Leo shouted back, using his own aching back to cover his blind father and little sister from the guard. "Have you no mercy at all in your hearts?!" "Mercy is only for rich, noble people!" the guard roared, bringing the heavy leather whip down through the cold air with all his strength, aiming straight for Old Thomas's head!

Leo's dark eyes flashed with a cold, terrifying light that froze the very air around him. He did not move away, and he did not flinch in front of the incoming weapon. Instead, Leo reached his bare hand straight up into the air and caught the heavy leather whip mid-strike, locking his blood-soaked fingers around it like a clamp of solid iron!

The sharp leather bit deep into his open palm, making his old hand wound bleed again, but Leo did not make a single sound of pain. The big guard gasped in total shock, pulling back with both hands as hard as he could, but Leo’s arm did not move even a tiny fraction of an inch! It was as if the leather whip had been chained directly to the base of a massive stone mountain!

"What... what are you doing, you filthy worm?!" the guard shouted, pulling until his face turned bright red, but Leo stood completely still in the muddy water. Leo raised his head very slowly, his wet black hair falling over his pale forehead as his dark eyes locked onto the guard's face. A deep, terrifying force burst out from Leo’s still body, filling the whole rainy street with a heavy, dangerous air that made every single person stop breathing.

"If you lay one more finger on my family," Leo said, his voice dropping to an icy, quiet whisper that made the guard's blood turn to solid frost, "I will end your life right here in this street." The big guard took a quick step back in sudden, wild fear, a cold sweat breaking out across his back despite the freezing rain as he stared into Leo's deadly eyes. "You... you crazy beggar!" the guard stammered out, his hands shaking violently as he let go of the whip and reached for his long sword hilt. "I will call the whole squad! You will all die in this alley tonight!"

Just as the guard pulled his heavy sword halfway out of its metal sheath, a huge, dark luxury carriage with golden dragon carvings pulled up to the edge of the street. The massive carriage stopped right next to the dirty puddle, its dark wooden frame blocking the wind and the freezing rain like a giant shield. The two guards froze in place, the crowd went dead silent, and everyone looked at the golden dragon marks on the carriage door with wide, frightened eyes.

The thick silk curtain of the luxury carriage window was slowly pulled back by a long, thin finger. An old man with pure white hair and high imperial robes looked out through the dark glass, his sharp eyes scanning the muddy street until they landed directly on Leo's wet face. The moment the high-ranking elder caught a clear glimpse of Leo’s face, his eyes opened wide with absolute terror and deep, overwhelming reverence!