Written By: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

“By the Fennec’s snow,” Edward could hear them cry out. “The Blizzard protect my children,” calling to him as they suffered. “Edward!” Then as soon as the pleas for help began they were silenced and Edward’s eyes opened slowly and almost thought it was Zesrial standing over him.

“He’s waking up, guys,” she even sounded like her. “Easy now, don’t try to get up just yet.” Edward found himself lying on a bed, bandaged and bound, with an IV in his arm. Her hand touched his forehead and he let himself sink back into the pillow as his eyes adjusted. Three other figures came. A rugged Feline, a well dressed Canine, and a Horror with a toothy grin. An Elven woman who looked exactly like Zesrial only with short cut hair and pointy ears replaced the shadow he thought was his love.

“Finally,” said the Feline. “He doesn’t look so tough. He’s nearly died already.”

“Compose yourself, Scoundrel,” barked the Canine. “We are in the presence of God.”

“Some God,” the Feline rolled his eyes.

“He survived hitting nearly every hard surface while being pulled through rugged terrain by Arachnid,” said the Horror in too unified voices. One decrepit and dark, the other like a little girl’s.

“Shut up, Wizard!” Arachnid snapped.

“So what,” interrupted Scoundrel. “I’ve been dragged through rougher terrain by ten horses driving a carriage while half a dozen men shot at me.”

“Yes, yes. And you climbed up that rope and kicked all their respective asses,” the Canine finished the story for him. “We’ve all heard this story.”

“He certainly is powerful,” the Horror slowly moved long bony fingers to feel Edward’s fur. “So much potential. How his body doesn’t burst or his mind doesn’t collapse into madness, I cannot fathom.”

“Keep your robes to yourself!” Arachnid smacked Wizard’s sleeve away.

“He’s not wearing robes,” Edward interrupted.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the voice of God,” Scoundrel joked sarcastically.

“Wait, you can see him?” Arachnid looked at Edward, then at Wizard, and then at Edward again. “That thing is a set of robes with a creepy grin to us.”

Wizard removed his grin, turned it upside down, and put it back, “oh, now I’m sad.”

“See what I mean?” Arachnid said to Edward, gesturing wildly at Wizard as the frown slowly returned to a grin without rotating. Edward’s bindings broke as he sat up and pulled the IV and wires from his body. “Wait, don’t get up yet. You are still healing,” Arachnid urged him.

“Off,” Edward growled as he gently pushed her away. 

“At least allow me to give you something to help you heal on the go,” Arachnid shoved his paw-like hand away and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear liquid. Before Edward could react Arachnid was removing the needle from his body, the liquid already in his bloodstream. “There, how do you feel?”

“Who are you?” Edward was still growling.

“Ooh, let me try,” Scoundrel jumped in. “His name is Bob, he’s Bobby, she’s Bobbet, and I’m Bill.”

“How did so many Leon Aventisses end up in the same place at the same time?” Edward still would not dropped his guard. 

“No way,” Scoundrel gasped. “Did you hear that, Gentleman?” 

“Bloody brilliant,” Gentleman replied.

“So, it is true,” Wizard remarked. “He cannot be lied to.”

“We were sent to save you,” Arachnid answered Edward’s question.

“And what of the people of the city you pulled me out of?” Edward snapped.

“Our mission was to get you to safety, my Lord,” replied Arachnid. “We did not have time to…”

Edward glared at Arachnid and she stopped talking, shrinking back. “I tell you the truth,” Edward said unto her, “I do not know who you are.” Arachnid’s eyes became wet. She broke a necklace off her neck  and threw it to the ground before walking off.

“Hey, asshole! She just saved your life!” Scoundrel scolded.

“Such rubbish behavior,” Gentleman agreed. “You should apologize to the young lady immediately.

“You’ve saved no one, but me,” Edward growled. “An entire civilization erased at the cost of my life? You’ve saved nothing.”

“His power surges under his anger,” Wizard observed with inquiry. “I wonder for how long he can control himself.” 

“A lawless Cat, an upper class Hound, a worthless bug, and a hideous Horror,” Edward scoffed. “My brother sure knows how to pick them.”

“We were brought together to save your ungrateful life by a Warpriest of Sarah Iron,” the masculine voice of an experienced middle aged man rebutted in kind. “If you hadn’t been so busy being unconscious, you could have snapped your fingers and saved everyone like you had in New Valhalla.”

Edward looked over to find a bald man with a full black beard standing up. He was well fitter than the others with a chiseled body to rival even his own, “another Leon Aventis. Where is this Warpriest?”

“You and I both know that I can no longer answer that until tradition has been fulfilled,” the Leon Aventis’s teal eyes glared into Edwards.

“Ranger is about to fight Edward fucking Dimir,” Scoundrel exclaimed just before being smacked in the back of the head by Gentleman. “What the Hell was that for?”

“Watch your language,” Gentleman replied. “For God’s sake, Cat, show some class.”

Edward and Ranger started at each other, but were interrupted by a dual-bladed quarterstaff struck, blade first, into the ground between them. “I know that weapon,” Edward could not believe it was that quarterstaff until a Fennec Fox of the Northlands clad in heavily armored robes under a hood baring Sarah Iron’s House Crest landed next to it. The Fennec tossed a greatsword to Edward. Edward let it hit is chest and drop to the ground and then stepped over it, “I will not wield anything, but her.” He had no other weapons on him. Even his short-sword and gauntlet he had given to Sarah at their last meeting. His armor manifested upon his body from the chainmail scarf which had never left him.

“Best watch yourself, House,” said Ranger. “He does not look happy to see you.”

House through his quarterstaff into a wall and stepped toward Edward before gesturing for the others to leave the room. Edward came at him, “you let them all die! They prayed for my help and they all died,” but was flipped and thrown down to the ground. House cocked his head to the side as Edward tripped him and got back to his feet. House was already standing again and tossed him a wooden mug filled with Northlandish Fennec mead before taking a swig from his own. “Still mute, I see,” Edward remarked and House shrugged his shoulders in reply. Edward slammed the mug, then blocked and countered House’s attack. He looked down and his mug was filled again, then he dodged House’s next attack which turned out to be a fake into a gut punch followed by House’s mug smacking across Edward’s face. Edward shook himself off and slammed his mug again, “You could have saved them too!” He heard his own words as lies, but continued to fight and drink as House drank and fought him. Again and again House put Edward on his ass with seemingly choreographed movements. The more Edward drank the more heightened his reflexes became. He became smarter, faster, and more brutal as his liver absorbed the alcohol. His morality decreased as his combat prowess increased. No matter how much smarter faster or more brutal he became, however, House continued to put him on his ass again and again. On his hands and knees, Edward punched the ground in anger shaking the entire vessel they were in as he growled at the overwhelming realization that this was not their fault. It was his. “I could not save them. I cannot save her. I cannot even defeat you. What can I do against Searl?” He fought his own tears, “I promised her I would never let anything happen to her. I promised her I would protect her Multiverse, her peoples. Again and again I fail. Aleister was right. I am not worthy.” He looked up and saw a paw-like hand reaching out to him. 

He allowed House to help him up and heard Sarah’s voice, “have you shut your ears? Listen and you will hear her words on the matter.”

Then Zesrial’s voice came to him, “Edward… I don’t know if you can hear me, but do not worry for me. I have faith in you and know you will be here soon, but do not rush. There are so many calling for you. Our Multiverse needs you. Do not come for me until you have saved them all. You can do this. I believe in you, my Knight, my God, my Fennec Fox, my Love.”

“She has not lost faith in you, even though she can feel you have lost faith in yourself,” Sarah said unto him.

Edward hung his head low, ashamed of himself, and saw Arachnid’s necklace. It was a golden Fennec Fox surrounded by sparkling teal gemstones in the form of a blizzard. On its back the words, “The Blizzard knows you, of this I have no doubt,” were crudely engraved.

“Arachnid’s father gave this to her,” Edward realized as House’s paw-like hand grasped his shoulder. House gestured for Edward to go and find Arachnid to give the necklace back to her.

Doors opened automatically as Edward approached and closed behind him after he stepped through into a large room with many tables and a bar where Gentleman, Scoundrel, Wizard, and Ranger sat. “Look who finally stopped whining,” Scoundrel took a shot of whiskey, slammed the glass on the counter upside down, and gestured for another. “Finally realized this was all your fault to begin with, huh?”

“Compose yourself,” Gentleman barked. “Allow me to apologize for Scoundrel’s rude behavior. I am Gentleman, a world infamous pugilist where I am from.”

“You kill with your bare hands for money,” Edward replied.

“And I shoot people for the fun of it,” Scoundrel took another shot. “We are Leon Aventisses. Assassins. Did you expect us to be righteous?”

Ranger slammed his drink, slammed the mug on the bar, and walked out of the room. “What’s his story?” Edward asked. 

“We know nothing of that Leon Aventis,” Gentleman replied.

“He could have been chosen among his people, savior of his land, archmage of a wizard’s college, leader of a guild of thieves, master of a brotherhood of assassins, vampire hunter, military hero, thane of every city in his home land, or a slayer of dragons,” Scoundrel joked unable to keep his face straight.

“Or perhaps he was meant to be all of those things and more, but instead wasted his days performing miscellaneous tasks for random people he met on the roads he traveled,” Wizard joined in on Scoundrel’s jestings. 

“Your guess is honestly as good as theirs,” said Gentleman. “He never talks about his past”

Edward knew which of them was right. He sat down at the bar and asked the well dressed man behind the counter for some Northlandish Fennec mead. “A gunslinger, a pugilist, and a survivor,” he said as the bar keep passed him his drink. “What of you, Horror? Why do you hide yourself from the rest?”

“I am from a dimension of purest dark, dismal, and shadow,” Wizard began. “For these mortals to look upon my true form would be their end. Their flesh would melt while everything they’ve ever known would become impossible to grasp. Consider my shrouds a courtesy.”

Edward smiled and took a swig of his mead, “Where is the Leon Aventis you call Arachnid?”

“Probably in her room, that way” Scoundrel answered, pointing to a door. “Be careful though, her tangled webbings are everywhere and you’ll never know when the floor beneath your feet will suddenly not be.”

Finishing his drink, “thanks for the tip.” Then he tossed a coin worth much to Victor Wares at the bar keep, “and here is yours.” He walked through the doors into a corridor with seven rooms. Each room was labeled as one of the six Leon Aventisses; Gentleman, Scoundrel, Wizard, Ranger, House, and Arachnid. The final room bared his own name. 

As Edward approached Arachnid’s room he was pulled into Ranger’s and held to a wall, “All she ever talked about was you. How excited she was to meet you, God. The Blizzard himself. She worshiped you and you chose not to know her, because of your own failures.”

“No Leon Aventis goes to Heaven,” Edward replied honestly. “I could never have even heard her if I tried.”

Ranger let him go and turned his back to him, “that isn’t fair. She did not choose to be Leon Aventis. None of us did.”

“No one does,” Edward replied. “You may not see it, but you are all blessed beyond measure. No one, not even the Fates, have control over the destiny of a Leon Aventis. There is one born into every Realm, random and unchosen. Each decides their own fate…”

“All become assassins,” Ranger rebutted. “How is that not chosen for us.”

“A Leon Aventis is born with the skills of an assassin to best all others, but that does not make you an assassin,” Edward answered. “How you choose to use those skills makes you an Assassin or something more. You were more, weren’t you?”

“Do not pretend to know me,” Ranger snapped.

“I do not have to,” Edward smiled. “Your friends made their guess and revealed the truth to me.”

“Get out of my room,” Ranger demanded and Edward left.

Opening Arachnid’s door, “I knew Scoundrel wasn’t lying, but this is a lot more than I had expected.” Of rope and wire, webs stretched across vast structures that seemed to never end either up or forward. Various spiders scurried everywhere as he stepped further in he found the ground beneath his feet ended leading to a bottomless pit of webs and darkness. He looked around until he found her, sitting on the ledge of a tall building. Turning around he closed his eyes let himself fall into the ever darkening abyss.

Suddenly he felt himself caught and swung to the safety of a rooftop. “You idiot, we worked hard to keep you alive. Why would you jump?”

“I believed in you,” Edward replied. Arachnid scoffed in reply looking away from him. Putting her necklace back around her neck, Edward turned her around, “I know your father. This was his, he gave it to you.”

“He wrote a lie upon it,” Arachnid rebutted.

“He didn’t know,” Edward replied.

“Where is he,” Arachnid asked.

“Heaven,” Edward looked up in dismay as he said her name.

“Doesn’t mean a whole lot now, does it?” replied Arachnid.

“Not unless I do something about it,” Edward was worried, but determined.

“We,” said Arachnid. “We will save her.”

“You sound just like her,” Edward chuckled, “but, we can not save her yet. Not until we have saved her Multiverse,” Edward replied. “Her peoples cry out to me, and I could never be her’s if I turned a deaf ear to their prayers.”

“From assassin to hero,” Arachnid couldn’t help, but giggle at the irony. “If we succeed, tell my father I love him.”

“He knows, Arachnid” Edward stood up and started toward the door. “And we will succeed.” 

“Call me Nid,” Arachnid watched as the door closed behind Edward and then held her necklace up to look at it. “I will not fail you, father.”