Lora Kadar
At the back of the crowd Lora leaned down, straightening the boy's jacket and giving him a quick smile in the hopes it would lift his own. "Stay right here, okay? I have to talk to someone, and then I'll come right back. Alright?"
He nodded, his lips still tugged into a frown as she patted his cheek.
She turned and reached out to the nearest villager, inclining her head to the boy and asking them to watch him until she returned. Distracted and confused they nodded and moved to him, and she began her push through the people.
They were all crowded in the street between the houses in the middle of town, where they had gathered first in surprise, then in fear, and now in shocked confusion. The events from the previous day were still far too present in everyone’s mind. The houses around them were untouched, and all of them were alive and uninjured. The blood that was caked in with the mud below their feet was not theirs—they had been spared, and it was surely the work of an angel. Specifically, two angels, in the way of a man and a woman with spearing bones and curved slices. Odd and a little disturbing angels, but gracious and heroic nonetheless.
She slid between the last few people in the crowd, who barely noticed her in their state of confusion over the Prince's appearance and their recent salvation. She stepped forward before his steed and entered a deep bow, her eyes creeping back to him although the she remained facing the ground. She had never known more than hazy memories of blurry glimpses of the Serio family, and the sight of the grown prince in blue and white spurred an unexpected feeling of nostalgia that she desperately grasped at.
She swallowed, searching behind memories that were more like dreams for her voice. "Your majesty."
Since the Prince's question, the crowd had fallen silent, and at her greeting there was a stirring behind her. She could hear people shuffling and pressing closer to listen to whatever explanation she gave, any insight that would make heads or tails of why they were all still breathing. Her confusion was as strong as theirs, but no one else seemed of any mind to describe what had happened.
She straightened, eyes focused as her mouth tried out different words to find where to start. “If—If I may…There were two people—Well, there were H’kelans—" She broke off, taking a deep breath and collecting herself. “There was an attack, and two people—two angels rose up to save the village. And then they disappeared.”
---
She hadn’t been there when it started. She had been riding past the smoldering villages, one after the next, when she had found the one still standing. She could see it was intact before she could hear the struggles, and she galloped down the road into town. The closer she got the clearer the people became, screaming and fleeing from the center of town. H’kelan soldiers, dressed in ochre and armor and a desperation for destruction were targeting something. They gathered in a large group, surrounding and attacking, but whatever or whoever was in the middle was putting up a hell of a fight.
Lora had just gotten close enough to spot a strange blade flying in the fight when her horse reared and the world tilted. She gripped Pax tightly with her thighs and pushed him off to the side, regaining her balance and spotting the little boy that had run out in front of them. Pax returned to the ground and the boy stood frozen, dark eyes wide on her. She dismounted in a quick motion and knelt, reaching out for him. “I’m so sorry, are you alright?”
He melted with her touch, gulping down air and nodding.
Her eyes skirted over him, in a dirty shirt and worse for wear shoes, and there was no way he was older than seven or eight. She could see the fight still in full swing barely an acre away over his shoulder, and her grip on his arm tightened. “You shouldn’t be out here—where’s your family?”
His eyes moved past her and the teary panic painting them was clear. His head began to shake, eyes darting around the street. “My mom—I don’t know.” He looked back at her; something inside her constricted. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” he cried.
“It’s okay, it’s okay—“ she said, fighting to be heard over his cries. “It’s okay!” She grabbed his face, her thumb wiping at a tear as he quieted. “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” she reassured, to a soundtrack of screams and clashing swords. But evidence to the contrary became all too evident in the next second, when fear filled his eyes again and Pax shrieked and she whirled to find a soldier bearing down on her. His sword was raised and there wasn’t time to run or move or scream, only a brief second to wonder when she had gotten so good at lying.
Or maybe, she hadn’t. The sword disappeared from his arm as he swung down, and surprise filled his expression before someone grabbed him and whirled him around. He yelled and went to attack, but they were quicker and Lora caught a flash of white before he cried out and fell to the side.
Lora was met with a short but not slight woman, young and muscled and extremely disgruntled. Black pigtails whipped around as she cut a glare at Lora, an unnerving crimson searing right through her. Lora wavered under her stare, curling in and pulling back slightly. A groan sounded from the soldier, and the stare was broken. The woman turned to the attacker and raised what looked like a whip fashioned after a spinal cord, bringing it down with a crack. Lora spun to the boy, grabbing his hand and climbing off the ground to drag him with her as she fled. Her other hand still clutched her reins and Pax whinnied his worry as he followed after them. She ran down an alley between the buildings, startling a group of villagers who huddled there in frightened curiosity. They calmed when no H’kelan followed her down the way, and she stopped close to them to sit the boy down and hand Pax to him: telling him to hold still and stay put, and she would be right back and it was going to be okay.
The sounds of fear and panic were quieting and so were the sounds of the fight—as Lora approached the outlet something ran past on the street, far too quick for her eyes to follow. She hesitated, and then continued moving forward, reaching the corner of the alley and peering out of it.
The scene on the street was unexpected, if not almost unfeasible.
H’kelans were grabbing each other, pulling each other off the ground and leaning on shoulders and leaving bloodstains in their wake as they retreated. A mass the same size as the one she had seen when she first rode in was running from the town, tripping and bleeding but no one left behind. No bodies on the ground, no one more than sufficiently injured. And the point they were running from—the woman who had saved her and a man of the same height in the middle of town. Their backs were to her as they watched the retreat and spoke quietly. Lora watched the woman tuck her disturbingly creative whip somewhere on her front and the man follow suit with his own curved blade.
Lora turned back to the alley and ran down it, a grin splitting over her face. “They’re retreating, they’re leaving!” she called. The boy stood up and the villagers started, disbelief stirring through them. She smiled and reached him, bending down to his height and smiling. “They’re going, we’re okay. You’re okay, and I’m sure your mom is too. Do you want to go find her?”
He nodded, and she took the reins and his hand back, following the rest of the crowd cautiously out of the alley. The fresh silence in the village was deafening, and most of the town had spilled out onto the street at the awareness that their attackers were gone. But the villagers were now the only ones on the street—their saviors were gone. Lora turned and searched down the whole street as far as she could see, but they had simply disappeared.
For the rest of the day she had helped the boy search for his mother, and when no clues turned up she had promised to stay with him in his house and wait for her to come back. It had taken a while but she soon heard a woman calling for her child, and at the sound the boy perked up and ran to the door. The two reunited and gratitude was shown to Lora in the way of dinner and a soft spread to sleep on, which Lora politely declined until the boy pulled some Class A puppy eyes and asked her to stay. The next morning had found them all well and the town returned to normal. The mother set off to work with Lora’s promise to entertain her son while she was out. And that was what she had been doing, until the prince had rode into town and called their attention.
---
“I don’t know where they went, Sir,” she added after the story of what she had seen. “They just vanished, they didn’t stick around at all. As soon as they knew the H’kelans wouldn’t come back…I think they were just passing through, in the right place at the right time—at least for this village. I don’t think anyone knows who they were, and I’m not sure it really matters. They were here, and they saved all of us. The chance of that…angels or not, someone was looking out for this village.”
