A shudder ran through Iridian as Flynn tried talking to him. A whisper that chilled him to his core. A realization that he had tried to ignore from the second he saw the Garian eagle soaring around the village from the front doors of the abbey.
The battle was lost before it even began.
"Our numbers are limited, so if we are to engage them directly, we must take advantage of any form of chokepoint so that we may not be surrounded. You know the village better than I, so I will follow your lead. If our first objective is to get the villagers to safety, we must be swift."
""Sir Guardsman, where is the safest place I may leave Melissa? I will gladly offer my services to help defend the village, but absolutely no harm must come to her!"
"Mr. Ichabod, the central chambers are by far the most fortified portions of this abbey but...I'm afraid that this abbey was not built for war."
"Flynn, Iridian! I've found a tunnel in the abbey that might well lead out of the village! By the looks of it, it's our best bet for reducing casualties, if we can get the villagers out through it."
"Iridian, round up everyone you can, and get as much help as you can in doing so. You two can help him. While you're doing that, I'll buy everyone some time."
"Ley is under attack..."
The voices around him mixed together, a vortex in his mind stained red by the blood seeping out of the soldier he'd defeated. The words clashed against each other in confusion, unsure of where to go to be understood. Others just stood there, becoming bigger and more hideous. They flashed. They jumbled. They pleaded. They ordered. They melded together and formed an alloy, a shiny block of words that was too big to fit through his understanding. Imprinted on the block though, he saw words that had appeared amongst the people's but had not been spoken.
You broke your vow to protect Ley, no matter the cost.
Once he realized it, Iridian's senses came back to the battle, to the village that was quite quickly evolving into a wreckage.
"No matter the cost" meant to not give up even if all seemed lost.
"Sir Ichabod, Miss Mortimer is right. Take your protegee into the tunnel in the abbey. I do not know where it may lead but it can't be worse than here. And stay with her. As a foreigner you have no reason to fight this battle, but if you were to lead the villagers down that tunnel, the sacrifices of our guard might well be worth it." If Ichabod could truly fight, it would be nice for the survivors to have someone who could take care of them. Yet a small bell rang in his mind. What kind of merchant knew how to fight, let alone be confident enough to offer his assistance in a battle? Iridian ignored the stray thought, there were more important matters at hand.
He nodded his understanding at his captain, and turned to Flynn and Kai to signal for them to follow him... except when he turned to the farmhand, he realized the boy was halfway to his house. Good lad. The Silverwood home wasn't on the way to more populated areas of Ley, however, and Iridian wished the boy luck under his breath. The soldier turned to Flynn, "This way, come!" He jumped over the dead Garian soldier and made for the alley he'd come from, grimly noting the direction his captain was headed towards. As with Kai, he hoped the best for the captain, he was a good man.
Irid ran down the alley, constantly looking back to make sure the stranger was following him. He was pleasantly surprised by the man's ability to keep up. As the alley intersected with a larger road, he stopped, looked both ways and said, "We're going to the marketplace which is nearly at the heart of the city so it's likely no enemy has reached it yet. But at this time of the morning no guard has a shift there and most of my colleagues ar - were at the barracks. It's a busy place since early on and we need to make sure as many villagers as possible get out of this alive...we need to..." His words trailed off and the end was hard to hear over the hiss of arrows as they flew over their heads. While no Garian's might've reached the market yet, some of their fire arrows surely had.
Making sure the larger street was clear for a second time, Irid crossed the road as fast as he could. He didn't want to risk any enemies following them. Once they were in a second alley, the soldier ran once more. The urgency with which he moved was evident. His lance hand twitched. His eyes flickered all over.
Quickly enough their alley intersected another but as they reached the crossing point, Flynn and Irid ran into an archer with a golden eagle emblazoned on his chest. As in training drills, the squire's lance point was faster than his thoughts, but his shaken state of mind impaired his precision. Instead of a fast death, his lance delivered a non-immediate deadly blow to the man's sternum. The enemy collapsed in agony, but still very much alive for the moment. Irid chose to leave him, there was no time to deliver a fast death anymore.
They came upon the end of their alley and beyond stood a beige, square building. Not large by city standards but clearly almost as big as the abbey in Ley. Crouched behind a crate, Irid looked at Flynn right in the eye and spoke, "Inside the building, there is almost nothing but an open, square courtyard populated by several merchant tent-stands. As you can see, there are several on the outside as well. Maybe if we could lure the Garian forces inside, we could use it as a chokepoint? I'm sorry Flynn but this is all I can offer you here." There might have been one or two other possible chokepoints in the village but neither was close to the market, and the market held the most people.
Sweat formed on his brow. Some tents were already on fire thanks to the archers and somehow, some enemy soldiers had made it to that area of town already. Time was ticking. If Flynn had a plan, he'd follow his orders but if he didn't, well... "No matter the cost" meant to not give up even if all seemed lost.