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They aren’t coming to invade.
They are here to take heads.
The grim words hang around Rodney as he swings at the dragoon. But the dragoon doesn’t seem to care much about him, moving as fast as he can despite the wound in his side, given to him by a blazing hot blade.
It’s when he’s out of sight that Rodney stops pursuing, dropping down instead to the Lord Marquess. The…
He blinks back hot tears at the sight. He’d seen Clive grow up, from when he was just a small child, eyes gazing up with awe and wonder. He’d watched as Clive clung to his father, watched as his mother scorned him and all but spat in his face. He’d listened as Hanna taught Clive and Lady Jill how to weave flowers into each other, something the Duchess would never dare do.
He can see the blood pooling underneath the Lord Marquess’s body. His skin is cooling beneath Rodney’s touch and there is no pulse beneath his fingers.
To see such a young life taken…
He needs to get to the archduke, to his highness. Before that dragoon does. He surges forward, taking one last glance at the young lord. Once this is all over he’ll take Elwin back to this place, gather his small body, and bury him properly. Mourn him properly.
Joshua is going to be shattered by this.
Rodney strides through the castle with firm intent. He needs to get back to the archduke.
A blazing blast of heat crashes into the building, followed by the sharp screeches of the Phoenix. Joshua… something must have happened. Despite the tremendous heat, he surges forward. He needs to know. Know what the archduke's fate is. What set Joshua off.
He gets out just as Phoenix shrieks, fireballs raining from the sky. He spots the dragoon burning alive as several fireballs appear to hone in on him, aggressive in their assault.
Standing amidst it all is the archduke, calling out fruitlessly to his younger son. Rodney hasn't seen his friend cry that much but the streaks of tears down his face are hard to miss.
The dragoon talked.
The traitorous snakes. Elwin keeps his eyes forward as he hears Joshua scramble to his hands and knees just beside him. He watches in slow motion as Sir Wade swings his ax at those dressed just like him, wolves hiding amidst them.
It's as one is winding up to strike towards Elwin, Elwin going for his own blade despite knowing he won't be able to draw in time, that a voice calls out.
"Sergeant!" Stumbling out of the building is what looks to be a dragoon, heavily injured and bleeding from a charred and deep wound to the side. For a second he feels pride swell inside him, knowing it was his son that dealt the blow.
But if the dragoon is here, then where is Clive?
"Where’s their Lord Commander?" The man in front of him asks with a sharp tone while another goes to the dragoon's aid.
"He won't be a problem," the dragoon tells him. Which means he may be alive.
"What about the Lord Marquess?" One of the traitors questions the dragoon as Elwin pulls Joshua to his feet.
"Dead, sir," the dragoon responds, a vile sort of smugness in his tone.
Elwin’s thoughts grind to a stop even as Phoenix flames bloom across Joshua’s skin, eyes alight with orange as he loses control.
All Elwin can think of is four words.
My son is dead.
He's left, gazing up at the Phoenix as Joshua cries out in anger and mourning, fire blazing in the sky and striking down at the traitors. Sir Wade has stumbled over to Sir Tyler, pulling him back towards the building so they're sheltered from the flames.
None of them get close to Elwin but he can still feel the blazing heat.
"Joshua!" He yells. "You have to control it!" He knows it's a large ask, the orange eyes not even glancing his way. His own heart aches deeply for his son, a part of him unable to comprehend his passing, but unless Joshua gets control, the Phoenix’s rampage will destroy more than just the castle. "Joshua!"
"Your grace!" Comes the call behind him. Limping, his longtime friend Rodney Murdoch stumbles out of the castle, breathing heavily and clearly feeling the heat.
Elwin rushes to his side, keeping him propped up while his gaze doesn't leave Joshua’s massive form. He looks every bit like the avenging beast that Elwin was told about.
"Rodney," he starts, not wasting time on titles or formality. "Is what the dragoon said true?" He needs to know.
Rodney looks away. "It is, your grace. The young lord has passed."
Elwin’s hands ball up into fists. Rodney must have left Clive’s body where they fought, which means there's even more reason to cease the Phoenix’s rampage. If he can't quell the rage, Clive’s body may just get buried under the resulting rubble or reduced to ash by burning wood and debris.
"Joshua!"
The ground shakes beneath them as something, a giant beast, rises from the far side of the castle. At first, Elwin thinks it's a behemoth but its form blazes red, eyes the same golden as those of the Phoenix.
"A second Eikon of Fire?" Rodney gasps beside him just as the Phoenix seems to spot the monster.
"Who… who are you?" Faint but there it is, Joshua’s voice as the Phoenix focuses its attention on the monster. A deafening roar follows and then Joshua launches up into the sky, crying out. "Leave… me… alone!"
Both Elwin and Rodney remain stationary as the Phoenix plunges down, striking right into the beast and dragging them both underground as his eyes flash from yellow to a vibrant blue, Joshua wrestling control. They're stuck there as faint shrieks and roars rumble the earth beneath their feet.
Despite not being able to hear him, Elwin still calls out. "Joshua!"
Suddenly the pair of Eikons break out of the ground, tumbling through the air and crashing into the ground, the Phoenix is coming out on top, blasting the beast with a stream of fire. The monster shakes it off and surges to its feet. Stumbling back, Rodney drags Elwin away from the fight that grows closer.
"Your grace!" Rodney pleads. "We need to go!"
Elwin shakes his head, eyes strictly on his son’s form. As the monster winds up for an attack, the Phoenix dives down and strikes, clamping his beak into the beast's neck and pulling, dragging blood and gore with it.
The beast crashes to the ground with a roar of pain. As its form crumbles, the Phoenix falters and falls, soon transforming into Joshua.
Elwin runs forward and catches his youngest son, knees hitting the dirt with a distant pain that he'll have to just walk off, Joshua cradled in his arms. He's covered in surface bruises and cuts that appear to heal even as he clings tight to Elwin, sobbing loudly.
Elwin hadn't even noticed how fast his heart had been beating but he breathes out shakily, as he looks over at where the second Eikon of fire has fallen, only the dominant remaining.
It's a small figure, coughing and choking, just barely propped up on their knees and elbows and blood pours out of the deep wound in their neck.
"My lord!" Rodney shouts and Elwin struggles to his feet as his oldest friend races over to the dominant. And, carrying Joshua, he gets close enough to make out more detail. Dark hair and white clothes with minimal leather armour. Red gloves.
Rodney makes it there first, both from the head start and the weight Elwin is carrying. He wraps his arm around the dominant's back and pulls him up, hand on the dominant's chest.
Elwin can see his face now. The sight makes him sick.
Clive’s eyes are glazed over as he continues to choke on the blood that is still pouring out of the wound in his neck.
Elwin is a second too late to shield Joshua’s eyes from the sight. As soon as the boy sees his brother, the reality of what he's done sinks in and he screams in horror, scrambling out of Elwin’s arms and rolling across the stone for a few moments before getting on his hands and knees and crawling to his brother’s side, crying all over again.
"Clive," Joshua whines, repeating the name over and over again as Phoenix flames gather in his hands, red but also green and blue and purple. They hit Clive in a single instant, leaving Clive coughing and choking, pale from blood loss, but without the gaping wound to continue losing blood. The teen eventually slumps into Rodney but tear tracks split the crimson, making clear lines on his face.
Joshua clings to his arm, still crying as Elwin crouches beside his two sons, almost too shocked to speak. Reaching forward, he runs a hand gently through Clive’s hair before using his other hand to pull Joshua to his chest, keeping him close even as he sobs. Eventually, they peeter off into sniffles as he appears to go into a state of shock, grip tightening on Clive’s arm. Clive himself stays unconscious, blood staining his white shirt, trailing down his neck and also from a large tear just above his hip.
“What happened?” He quietly asks Rodney.
“I am certain, Your Grace,” Rodney replies just as quietly. “There was no pulse, his body was already cooling. He was dead.”
Yet, Clive breathes, shallow and weak but there, audible in the silence that the fall of the two mighty Eikons brought about. There’s no doubt about it. Clive lives, but whatever that was…
“A second Eikon of fire,” Elwin whispers, barely able to comprehend it. After the chaos, after everything, Elwin isn’t certain what he should do. Not for the first time, he’s lost for answers, but this time he can’t even fake his confidence. “That’s impossible…”
Rodney gazes down at his charge, breathing slowly. “And yet…”