Snippet #2144305

"You are lying to me!"
Joseph didn't calm down until Edward gave him solid proof that he was what he said he was. The flames seemed to dissipate as quickly as they came, leaving behind a cloud of smoke that floated up to the ceiling and lingered there, slowly seeping out of the small gaps in the roof.
"My name's Edward Blackhall." Edward told him, "As I told you, I'm Earl Kadoh's son. However, the Church already knows what I am now, so the hunt's already on. I didn't tell you who I was because I thought you would be a normal child, one who would go and alert the Church of my location."

Clink, squelch, clink, squelch. The soldiers' heavy greaves pressed into the mud of the churned up dirt path as they trekked down it. The scouting party should have returned over an hour ago, where were they? That question was quickly answered as one soldier shouted to alert the rest of his party of his discovery. Lying in a mixture of blood and dirt were three corpses, one separated from its head. That head appeared to have decayed away from the body, the neck was nowhere to be found. Another corpse lay with a small, sharp, black object stuck through his throat and the last corpse had shards of bone sticking out of his face. Whatever had killed these men was not a force to be messed with, that was for certain. It was almost certainly their prey, the heir to Earl Kadoh. However, he had only been faced with three soldiers, not a company of 80 men. That 80 was now 77. There was a trail of blood and footprints leading away from the corpses and down the path, undoubtedly, the noble's trail. The company pressed on.

The trail stopped in a small copse where the plants had tangled themselves into strange, unnatural shapes. This boy could control plants as well, they would have to be careful. The trail of blood stopped, but the footprints did not. However, they were smaller and came from different shoes. Perhaps it was an illusion cast by the boy to throw them off his scent. It wasn't going to work, the company pressed on.

The small footprints were still present, but the bigger ones had reappeared. Perhaps the owner of the larger ones had been carried this far, and the owner of the smaller footprints had left. The company chose to follow the larger ones into the village, and towards a light coming from a barn. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the light was that of fire, and was coming from a small boy who seemed to control it. He certainly wasn't their target, but he was a heretic just like that noble. Perhaps they would be rewarded for bringing back more heretics than expected.

Edward could hear the ominous clink of greaves once again, slowly drawing towards the barn. Edward allowed the lance to dissipate and quickly helped the young lady to her feet.
"I think we have far more to worry about than a bit of dirt..." Edward warned, just before the barn doors were flung open and a group of armoured soldiers walked inside.
From the crowd a particularly well armoured soldier stepped forward. A candid, gold trimmed cape trailed behind him, a cape that bore the symbol of the Church on it, a golden irised eye on a silver cross.
"Edward Blackhall," he began, "You have been charged with heresy on two accounts, forging a pact with Thanatos, and assaulting a member of the clergy, and 3 accounts of murder. Surrender now and you will have the blessing of a trial. Resist arrest and you will die here. No matter which option you choose, your friends will join you as well."
"Cease this nonsense!" Edward ordered, "You have no proof of any of these claims. Bishop Arachel is senile and has been involved in multiple scandals regarding recreational drugs in the past, he is quite clearly untrustworthy. As the son of Earl Kadoh, I order you to leave and arrest Bishop Arachel immediately."
"You can hide no secrets from the Divine One." the heavily armoured soldier retorted, "We saw the bodies, and your wound does nothing but strengthen that evidence."
"I suppose I have no choice then." Edward sighed, feigning a surrender.
Once he could tell their leader had lowered his guard, Edward summoned the spear back into his hand, and hurled it at the soldier. It drove itself right through a weak spot in the man's left pauldron, piercing both his armour and his flesh. While the soldiers were in shock, he released a blast of dark energy that smashed through the wall of the barn, creating a hole big enough to flee out of. He fled from the barn, calling to his newly made acquaintances to follow him, otherwise the soldiers would capture them since they had been seen alongside him.
"Burn the barn!" Edward ordered Joseph, "It will buy us some time. They have to look after their wounded commander, and burning the barn will cause some confusion and possibly injure some of them."

Edward kept running, getting slower and slower as he progress, he was tired, and pain and exhausted. To make matters worse, he suddenly felt the ominous feeling of doom he had experienced earlier, but far stronger this time around. He could see the source coming nearer, it was a girl his age dressed in black robes and carrying a staff. Mustering up the last of his strength, Edward summoned another spear at brandished it at the girl as menacingly as he could, which wasn't very.
"Stay, stay back!" Edward commanded feebly, "You, I won't let you..."
Edward nearly toppled backwards, and had to lean on his spear for support. He took in deep breaths as he watched the girl carefully, making sure he would be ready to spring away at a moment's notice. As he watched her, he wondered about what the others were thinking. Joseph probably hated him for dragging him into this, and the strange girl who had rolled around in the dirt was likely confused and upset. If only he had just kept on walking, he could have stopped these to from getting dragged into such affairs and he could have avoided meeting this source of ominous energy and the group of soldiers. If only...