The Guardians

Chapter 11

Aiden overheard the excited talk between several of his fellow Guardians. Faeren had gathered six new recruits at the last minute. He had just arrived with them. He joined the group gathered to watch their Trial. Aiden looked them over. Two were women. One, a teenaged boy, didn't look like he knew the pommel from the pointy end. Another looked like he'd just escaped a convent. Judging by his robes it was one dedicated to Arun, the sun god. Aiden sighed. He only saw maybe two that even looked like they could remotely pass the Trial; a large man with arms like tree trunks and the woman with the leather armor. Her red-brown hair was pulled back and gathered and bound at the base of her skull. She looked like she knew how to use that sword at her hip. Something drew his eye to her. He just couldn't place why. The other Guardians were making bets on who would pass the Trials.

He pulled out three gold pieces and held them up. "Three on the redhead."

"She and the human mountain are pretty popular."

He was curious about how they would handle Kara's illusions and the three former Shadeaux Rouge assassins Faeren used to test his recruits. Assassins and recruits were given strict orders not to kill each other.

"And I mean it," Faeren leveled a look at the green-clad woman.

She gave an amused smile and nodded, almost as if they were sharing a private joke. The recruits were positioned. Now all they had to do was watch and see what would happen.

Faeren took his place and signaled for Kara and the assassins, Saren, Jean, and Neve, to begin the Trial. Kara was a talented Illusionist, the ability to make others see what she wished them to see. Faeren never knew what illusion she'd use but she almost always was able to find their fear and use it against them, making the assassins seem like the thing they feared. Caleb, the Arun initiate, seemed to go into a panic and was tagged quickly with the small bag of black powder the assassins used. Kara lifted his illusion and one of the senior Guardians pulled him out of the way and to the side. The brothel guard, Alondo, put up a fight before he was tagged. He'd nearly tagged Saren in the process. Alondo joined Caleb. Erin, the barmaid, slammed Jean to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. Judging by the look of terror on her face, she was using pure instinct to fight. While she was focused on Jean, Saren came to his rescue and tagged her. The street urchin, Duncan, avoided everyone and Faeren was having a hard time keeping track of him. Orin, the highwayman that had tried to rob Faeren and Lyra, was knocking the three assassins away like they were nothing and preventing them from reaching him. Lyra must have sensed Neve coming at her back and had ducked at the last minute. She spun around and, to everyone's surprise, tagged Neve with the bag of white powder the recruits were given. Neve looked shocked as did the senior Guardian monitoring the Trial. Faeren looked over at Kara, who shook her head.

"She's blocking me from finding her fear. I'm having to improvise with a memory I managed to glean."

Neve joined Caleb, Alondo, and Erin just as Jean finally caught Duncan. Duncan flipped over him and escaped from his grasp before he could be tagged, which brought some laughs from the gathered Guardians. Lyra tagged Jean as Duncan was escaping and the assassin was looking around for him, leaving Saren alone to face the highwayman and the Paladin.

Once the Trial started, all six had been plunged into darkness so Kara could single out their fears. Caleb's world had stayed that way and he panicked, his fear of the dark taking over. He felt something hit his side and he flailed before the darkness lifted and he saw he was still in the Guardians' camp with a senior Guardian trying to pull him out of the way of the others, black powder staining his robes. He was beyond relieved to see the darkness had been an illusion.