Adventure of Betram Steelstream 1

Betram reaches the pass with the captured false dragoons marching behind him, spear in hand. Below, Sanbreque knights and Caspian’s Veldemarke escorts are locked in a desperate melee against a raiding force twice their number.

Ser Jorren directs the assault from the front, while an armored foreign knight, a young adult man with a broad build, his face hidden behind a closed helm crowned by a blue plume in blue-gray plate sweeps one gauntlet outward. Ribbons of water surge across the pass, battering shields and severing the captives from the travel chest holding the proof.

A wave crashes between Betram and the proof, scattering soldiers and hurling spray against the black crags. Near the chest, Caspian shields Veyra and restrained Maelor as steel closes around them.

The false dragoons halt behind Betram, staring at the chaos they were meant to create. Blue-white water coils toward the chest again, while Jorren turns his blade toward the pass and sees Betram at last.

Caspian breaks from the chest and raises his blade toward the armored foreign knight, drawing a fresh surge of water across the pass. Betram cuts low through the spray toward the scattered travel chest.

A curling wall of water slams behind Betram as he dives beneath its crest. The impact hurls him hard onto one shoulder, scraping through his armor, but his outstretched hand closes around the travel chest.

Betram drags the chest clear of the racing flood and braces it against his knees. The lid remains shut, but the orders and sealed proof are in his possession as the melee surges around him.

Betram hauls the travel chest beyond the racing flood, boots grinding into wet stone. He thrusts it toward the nearest Sanbreque knight as the foreign knight’s armor splits with blue-white light.

A serpent’s shape coils over the foreign knight in blue-gray armor’s right arm, its living crest rising above his blue-gray plate. A scaled tail lashes through the spray as water gathers around his gauntlet.

The knight locks the chest against his breast and retreats behind the Sanbreque line. Betram turns toward Caspian, chestless but unburdened, while water coils higher around the foreign Dominant.

Caspian advances through the broken spray, blade raised but not striking. The foreign knight answers with a roaring column of water, and the pass shudders beneath the gathering power.

Betram thrusts his hand toward Caspian as the water column breaks over the pass. A radiant shield rises between them, its curved surface turning the torrent aside.

Blue-white water divides around the barrier in roaring sheets. The force drives Betram’s boots across the stone, but the shield holds Caspian safely within its light.

The curse mark darkens across Betram’s casting hand as he sustains the ward. Behind it, Caspian draws shadow inward, and dark silver armor forms over his young frame.

Odin’s blade of darkness appears in Caspian’s grasp, its edge swallowing the reflected radiance. He steps into the shield’s shelter without breaking Betram’s protection.

The armored foreign knight drives another surge toward them, but the shield splits it cleanly around Caspian’s armored silhouette. Light and water thunder together as the prince finishes his transformation.

Caspian stands beneath the steadfast ward, dark blade lowered but ready. Betram’s shield remains between him and Leviathan’s assault, preserving a narrow path toward peace.

Caspian answers without hesitation. He lifts Odin’s dark blade into the roaring torrent, its edge swallowing the radiance around it as the water splits before him.

Caspian cuts upward. Darkness cleaves the water column from crown to stone, opening a dry corridor through the pass while twin walls crash harmlessly aside.

The broken torrent pours away from Caspian and Betram, exposing Neris beyond the divided waters. The attack is ended, and the pass lies open between them.

Betram hurls himself through the dry corridor, shoulder lowered. He catches Neris squarely, driving the water Dominant backward toward the ravine’s broken ledge.

Neris twists at the last instant. Betram’s tackle tears away the blue-gray knight’s balance, but the armored Dominant catches the ledge with one gauntlet, leaving Betram sprawled above the drop.

The impact fractures Neris’s blue-gray helm, exposing one furious eye. His serpent-crested arm clings to the stone while Leviathan’s water coils below, no longer shielding the pass.

Betram’s shoulder screams as he grips a jutting root and stops himself from sliding after Neris. The failed tackle has separated the Dominant from the battle and exposed his grasping arm.

Below, the ravine churns beneath Neris’s dangling boots. Above, Caspian advances through the opened corridor, offering Betram a path to restrain the Dominant without sending either of them over the edge.

Betram braces against the jutting root and raises his casting hand. A compact orb of white-gold light forms above his palm, its radiance cutting through the spray and shadow.

The grave Curse mark crawls darker across Betram’s knuckles as magic answers. He sends the orb snapping toward the serpent crest on Neris’s arm.

The orb strikes the serpentine limb in a burst of searing light. Water detonates outward, and Neris’s gauntlet jerks from the ledge as the serpent recoils.

A second orb circles Betram’s shoulder, holding the first in a bright orbit around Neris’s exposed arm. Each pass forces the serpent’s mouth shut before it can fire again.

Caspian reaches the ledge beneath the circling orbs. Neris remains pinned by their relentless radiance, unable to turn Leviathan’s mouth toward either of them before the prince climbs within striking distance.

Caspian reaches the ledge and seizes Neris’s exposed arm. Odin’s dark gauntlet clamps over the serpent crest, pinning it against the stone before Leviathan can fire.

Caspian strikes the fractured helm with the pommel of Odin’s blade, controlled and precise. Neris’s head snaps sideways, and his grip loosens from the ledge.

The serpent crest spasms once, then collapses into blue-white water. Neris goes limp beneath Caspian’s grasp, unconscious but alive, while the remaining current drains harmlessly into the ravine.