Nocturna League (Episode 2: The Mist Hour) by Kell Inkston Read Free Book Online Page B

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.”
    Her heart skips a beat and her eyes
slowly widen. “…What?”
    He nods casually as he takes a few
seconds to appreciate the music playing nearby. “Yes. You see,
there was this warlock, and a captain from across the waves killed
him and forged his soul into two pairs of gauntlets to keep the
power balance in check. Kalam, who was the first of the warlock’s
two sons, loved him and aided him in his evil plans. The second,
Ganas, helped the captain in finding him, because he knew he was
evil. So once the warlock was dead, the captain split the two pairs
between the sons, certain that if one had all the power, he would
oppress the children of the other. It’s good, then, that no one’s
ever gotten their hands on both pairs.”
    Colette’s stomach clenches
as she breaks into a sweat. “W-wait, so if someone were to
get both pairs of
gauntlets, what would happen?”
    The guard captain shrugs. “Can’t say
for sure, Miss. But I would guess that, because both pairs have a
part of the warlock’s soul, they could be re-merged and he could be
resurrected. That would be terrible! I could only imagine how bad
that would be. But of course, that’ll never happen.”
    She takes a sharp, painful breath
hearing this. “So you mean to say… you mean to say that you have
two