Blade(Part 1): Dawn

Chapter 11: Dameon

Dameon slept through the night after assassinating General Fallah and helping Shala free the villagers he had enslaved. He then woke up from sleeping in the seat of his buggy, while Shala slept on the limb of a palm tree above him. It was noon, and it would take the whole day to reach Midnight's Embrace from where they were now. A long drive was ahead of Dameon. He'd wait for Shala to wake up before he went on his way, though. She had a longer night than he did, which included a long talk about each other's pasts. Shala had told Dameon that a Guardian's aura blade signified whatever place the Guardian that wielded it saw as their home. She had Yeiwynese hook swords for her aura blade, so she was from Esmijan, but she's actually of Aze descent. As it turned out, her tribe was attacked and butchered by a rival tribe of Aze when she was three, and soon after, a family from Esmijan adopted her into their home. When she turned five, and the Skaolans came from across the sea to the south, that family was also killed. A Guardian Knight arrived just as those same soldiers were about to kill her, but it was too late for Shala's adopted family. It almost reminded Dameon of his own past. He hated the Empire of Skaola, and so did Shala, and their reasons were the same. Dameon was glad to fight against them, but something about killing General Fallah troubled him. When he crept past his bodyguards, then drew his lightning cutlass and ran it through the General's chest, he enjoyed it. He enjoyed killing the General, and he enjoyed feeling his blood splash onto his face as his body dropped to the ground. Fallah deserved to die, but Dameon had absolutely no second thought about killing another person. It kept him up for much of the night, but what managed to put him to sleep was the thought of the villagers he helped liberate finally having a taste of freedom. If only he could free everyone in the colonies by himself.

"You can't save everyone, Dameon," Shala suddenly said. She must have sensed the conflict in him.

"I know," Dameon sighed. "But I can save a few more people, can't I?"

"Certainly," Shala answered, warping down from the tree limb. "Either on the battlefield or from the shadows."

"My place definitely isn't on the battlefield," Dameon jested, and they both laughed.

"What are you going to do, now?" Dameon wondered.

"I don't know, honestly," Shala admitted. "There's too much evil in the colonies for me to deal with it all alone, but also too much of it for me to do nothing."

"I see," Dameon understood, standing and approaching her. Even though he met her just last night, fighting alongside her, and knowing that she had just as much of a reason to fight against Skaola had earned her his trust.

"You should come with me," Dameon offered. "To Midnight's Embrace."

"But I thought you couldn't tell me anything," said Shala.

"Well, I trust you," Dameon promised. "I'm a Blade of Midnight, and we fight for the freedom of these colonies, but not on the battlefield."

"Blade of Midnight," Shala whispered. "So, you're assassins who fight for other people?"

"Right," said Dameon. "I'm sure the Blade Master will let you stay in the Embrace."

"But if I go there, won't that completely destroy the idea that you don't exist?" asked Shala.

"Well, as far as everyone knows, you're dead," Dameon hoped. "They probably think you were killed when Lord Nouzari captured your Captain and Lieutenant. You don't exist, either."

"I suppose it could work," said Shala. "How far away is the Embrace?"

"We'll be there by midnight if we go now," Dameon answered. "So, we should probably go now." They both climbed into the unarmored buggy, with Dameon driving and Shala sitting in the seat of the machine gun turret, which was the only place on the vehicle she could sit.