The Winnowing Fork

Han skal skille agnene fra kornet. Hveten skal han samle i låven, men agnene skal han brenne opp med ild som aldri slokner

---- quote from an ancient text of Brithwyr as written in the old tongue

The doors closed behind them and the four found themselves in a large atrium-like room, the ceiling a full four stories above them. Wooden bookcases stretched from floor to ceiling, countless volumes filling them, most without any labels. There was no one there, no sign of movement or life. Perhaps they were being watched, being judged already. There was only one way to go: a large spiraling metal staircase with marble handrails sat at the opposite side of the room past several carpeted steps.

Ascending the stairs, they found themselves deposited at the beginning of a very long hallway. Looking out one of the numerous stained-glass windows that sat at equal distance apart from each other along the hallway, they saw they were in the center of the building, the long hallway that led to the Winnowing Chamber itself. They silently began making their way down the long hallway; it seemed much longer than it had looked from the outside. Each step was another heavy beat of Alexandra's heart, her eyes focused in on the wooden doors at the end of the corridor.

The truth lay behind those doors, hopefully the answers to her childhood, the identity of her absent father. Her footfalls on the carpeted floor faded away as her heartbeat was all she heard. Even the corridor faded away until all she saw was the doors: drawing closer and closer. She reached out, her hand gripped the door handle. Her eyes blinked. Everything came rushing back. She shook her head and paused for a moment. Turning to look at her friends, they were all determined to see this through with her. She pushed the door handle and the doors swung open.

They entered a large circular chamber. In the center was the strangest fixture any of them had ever seen, a seamless machine of some kind of twisting pylons of metals, rings and orbs dotting it's protuberances. Across the room there were some men people gathered. Several of the men were wearing the ornate white and gold robes that Alexandra had seen through the open window.

"They must be some of the Watchers, the ones who pronounce the verification," a chill ran down Alexandra's spine as she thought this: her fate was ultimately in the hands of the men she was standing across from. Standing next to the Watchers was a man with black as black hair, adorned in black and red robes. Alexandra knew that this was a noble from House Cornelius, probably a named one at that, at his side was his pageboy. Stationed sporadically around the round chamber were soldiers from several Houses.

"I must protest this," the man from House Cornelius turned to the Watchers, "this is absurd and insulting to the nobility."

"I wonder," the oldest of the Watchers said to him without turning to face him, "whether you really are concerned with the dignity of the nobility, or just angry at this young one here before us"

"She is an Oonskat!" railed the man, "she has no place here! She is desecrating the whole process by being here! It makes a mockery of centuries of tradition..."

"Every citizen of the nation has the right to be here," the Watcher contradicted him, "anyone who claims to possess a name relic must be here, everything is built on it, even all of your Houses' power."

"She assaulted a member of our House!"

"We have heard of this," another one of the Watchers said, his voice a slow and even pace, "it has no bearing on this matter."

"But I'm not really here to be verified," Alexandra tried to explain, "I have this pendant and, well, it reacted to a name relic..."

"House Cornelius objects to this entire matter."

"Objection noted," the older Watcher responded with a firm tone, "it has no bearing on this matter."

"The others cannot be here!" the representative of House Cornelius pointed at Zooey, Luca, and Sophia, "only the nobility and the person of interest to the Watchers may be present! If we are not to turn them out at once, let us at least abide by some customs."

"We're not leaving her!" Zooey proclaimed, finally finding the courage to speak in the presence of the Watchers.

"Yeah," Luca followed her lead, "exactly what she said!"

"Sirs," the man from Cornelius was almost breathing fire it seemed, "all these are exiles! Filthy rodents that should be fed to the dogs! I urge you again: cast them out!"

"It is true that only the nobility, candidate, and the soldiers selected to guard here may be present," the Watcher turned to the Zooey, Luca, and Sophia, "you must wait outside the doors in the corridor. Until then, no further dialogue may continue. Failure to follow these rules will result in the soldiers being asked to forcibly remove you. We would abhor that to occur to anyone, despite their social standing."

"She's not going to be alone!" Zooey was reaching for her blade again when she caught Alexandra's look.

"Please," the words were silent, mouthed only.

Zooey removed her hand from her sword, she knew this was the only way Alexandra would be able to proceed. She reluctantly began stepping backwards to the corridor. She waited to be joined by Luca and Sophia before closing the doors.

"My pageboy is a named member of my House."

"Very well Ulfarr Cornelius," the Watcher acknowledged the Representative from House Cornelius before turning his attention back to Alexandra, "now that the others have gone, we are most interested in why you have come. It is rare one from your social caste here before us Watchers. You are standing at quite the other end of the spectrum from where you normal travels would take you."

The noble in the room however was no placated.

"This Oonskat...this rodent under foot can have no relic, she is an exiled disgrace!" Ulfarr was protesting yet again.

"Is that an accurate judgment? Do you have a relic with a family name born upon it? We are concerned with no other issues," one of the Watchers inquired.

"I...I do not..."

Alexandra felt the answers she sought, the ones she had traveled so far to discover slipping away before her, "just this pendant that..."

"I must protest to this entire farcical exchange! This pig does not have a relic to present...it would have been stolen even if she did. Since no relic, she has no right to be here and nothing which we must look at. Cast her out!"

"But when it was near a relic, it reacted and glowed..." Alexandra' voice was starting to waiver.

"Nothing but lies," Ulfarr Cornelius waived his hand, "she just wanted an excuse to come here and steal things...or to dirty these hallowed halls with her footsteps, spiteful little whore."

"What can you hear?" Sophia asked, the worry in her voice evident.

Zooey had her hear pressed tightly against the large doors that separated them from the Winnowing Chamber, keeping them out in the long hall.

"Are they looking at it yet?" Luca was almost bouncing off the walls with anxiety.

"There's yelling or something," Zooey pressed her ear even harder against the door, the pressure already hurting. "These doors are too thick, I can't really make out any specific words."

"Oh no there's yelling?" Sophia did not like the sound of that. "Are they yelling at her?"

All three fidgeted with nervousness, feeling helpless out in the hall and cut off by the thick doors from the activity within.

"Maybe she needs us," Luca's hand was in his pocket, his fingers brushing his concealed knife.

"No, it's a man's voice," Zooey squinted, trying to concentrate on the muffled sounds coming through the door, "he sounds pretty angry."

"I do hope she's okay," Sophia nervously had her hand at her mouth.

"She's always okay," Zooey feebly attempted to reassure her friends, "she's always just talking and figuring her way out of stuff."

Zooey could only hope her friend's famous ability to talk herself out of problems would be of use here, but a sinking feeling inside betrayed her inner feelings.

"But then she has us if things go wrong, she doesn't have us right now," Luca pointed out.

"And she knows she doesn't have us...there's no way we can get through these doors; she's alone and she knows it."

Zooey did not like her friend being outside of her protection, she hated it even more that Alexandra knew that she couldn't count on her in this particular moment.

Even though Alexandra was usually the one to take care of everyone, Zooey saw herself as the fighter and took pride in the fact that she was there to protect Alexandra.

"But, the Watchers are there, and, this is normal, there's nothing to worry about," Sophia did not sound convinced, "nothing bad will happen if the Watchers are here...nothing ever bad happens where they are."

"They just allow things like us to happen," Zooey shot her a glance over her shoulder.

Sophia did not have a response.

"They're still yelling though," Zooey went back to concentrating on the door, "it's getting worse...the man sounds really upset."

"Who cares what they say," Luca decided enough was enough, "let's get in there! We can't leave her all alone."

"But what if they..."

"It's not worth wondering Sophia," Zooey stepped back, "she could need us. Luca, Help me."

Zooey grabbed the top of one of the door handles, Luca gripped the lower portion. On the count of three they yanked and began pulling with all their might. The door creaked, protesting any attempt at movement. For a moment it seemed to be budging, the hairline crack where the doors met seemed to widen as the door they were pulling on began to swing outwards. Suddenly they felt a counter pressure and the door settled back into its place as it was before.

They re-positioned their hands and began the process again. For a second time the same events repeated, the door started to move for just an inch, then on its own reversed and settled completely again. Luca stood back, puzzled, his hands burning. Zooey spat on her hands and lunged at the door once more. She braced a foot against the door-frame and groaned as her muscles strained against the dead weight of the immovable wood.

She kept at it, shutting her eyes, blood rushing to her face. It was futile, the door would move no more, and Zooey collapsed on her knees panting, sweat falling freely from her face as all of her energy was used up.

"Watch your place," the elder Watcher interrupted Ulfarr Cornelius' newest tirade against Alexandra, who was now in tears at the insults being hurled without a pause at her. "You protest greatly and too loudly. We acknowledge your case, please remain civil here...we would be remorseful if we had to eject one such as yourself: the heir to House Cornelius."

"Eject me...?" Ulfarr began but stopped himself, forcing a calm over his demeanor. "I do apologize for my outbursts. I am just so rattled at having an Oonskat shame these chambers, shame the nobility."

He did not sound entirely sincere.

"We have heard whispers of an Oonskat female with a name relic, this one in fact, are we correct? Have those words not been borne on the wind? Have they not reached most ears that hear within the city?"

"Trash gossip!" Ulfarr retorted, "meat for the vultures with loose tongues, nothing more. This swine has been attempting to incite unrest against House Corn...I mean the Landskyp. My House demands she be turned over to us in fact!"

"What is the reasoning behind the unusual and irregular request?" Here in the Winnowing Chamber, the Watcher's word was law.

"This vermin assaulted my brother, probably attempting to steal valuables or hold him hostage. She is nothing but a criminal and as the party wronged, a wrong done to a Name family member, House Cornelius orders her delivery to ourselves."

The elder Watcher raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"You order? Despite your Houses' advances these last sixteen years or so after... after House Archdeacon's fall," Alexandra noticed Ulfarr become noticeably uncomfortable with the mention of that name but she quickly turned her attention back to the Watcher that was speaking.

"Despite the sway and, shall we say persuasive sway that your House holds over all others, keep your place, the Watchers do not answer to you."

"Perhaps you should be more civil to me, the heir to House Cornelius," Ulfarr was growing tired of this meeting, his patience was ebbing away and his decorum slipping away with it.

"You are in the domain of the Watchers," he was corrected, "keep your place, we must have balance in Prydain, a fact we sometimes wonder if you are forgetting."

"It is best to not anger us. You do remember what happened to the others who decided to slander our name. Such as what happened to House Ben..." Ulfarr stopped himself mid-sentence again.

"What House? What happened?" Alexandra could take no more and finally spoke up, Ulfarr giving her a nasty stare.

The eldest Watcher too seemed to be losing his patience, his serene exterior showing some signs of annoyance at the noble.

"Enough of this. I have many words for your House during the next Landskyp. Many irregular and unapproved actions have been taking place from this to the new taxes your House has seemingly levied as well as many other incidents that warrant examination."

Ulfarr leaned over and whispered something in the ear of his attendant. His pageboy nodded, quickly crossed the room and stood near leading out. The soldiers in the room were uncomfortable: it was never that anyone actually argued with the Watchers.

"Despite whatever, hmm, things we must discuss in the political realm, we still insist that this Oonskat here be sent away. She is a hateful little thing, a thief..."

Alexandra's eyes were welling up again, she brushed away the tears, staring defiantly at the man verbally abusing her.

"...and a criminal. She set upon a Named family member, a member of my House! She set upon him with her band of hooligans and attempted to take money from him! They attacked him while he was minding his own business and doing no ill towards anyone!"

"That's not true! He was about to lay his hands on an innocent girl! Lerrick..." Alexandra began to shout back before the elder Watcher held his hand up, motioning for her silence.

Though her heart was roiling at what the other Cornelius had done to Sophia, she thought it best to obey and engender no ill-will of the Watchers. They were her only hope for any peace regarding her father. Her immediate fate, and that of her friends most likely, was entirely in their hands.

"The representative of House Cornelius here has, among many other oaths and statements, has said that you in fact do not possess a name relic as the gossip would have the entire city believe. Is there no name relic then? What is the truth of this matter? We would hear it from your lips instead of the thousands that know not what they speak. Idle chatter does not concern us, we have no time for it nor will to be swayed by it. The process and the naming has been the cornerstone of our society for centuries and we will not have it be a child's plaything. Do you indeed have a name relic to present for judgment?" the elder addressed Alexandra.

"My pendant bears no name, but when it was brought close to Lerrick's name relic, it..." she tried, taking a another step towards the group assembled before her before being cut off again.

The noble tried once more to put an end to the proceedings.

"No name relic, then there can be no verification and no reason for her continued presence here! Sers, I applaud you taking the time to see even an Oonskat, it is very noble and kind of the Watchers to entertain the lost such as this, a testament to your fairness and generosity above all others. However it has been proven by her own mouth that she arrived here under false pretenses. She is a fake and with no name relic in hand, she must depart this chamber."

"I never started any of the gossip! I don't know why everyone is so interested"" Alexandra tried to defend herself, realizing that the tide in the argument was now against her and hope was fading fast.

"My dear," the Watcher turned away from the Cornelius man and back to Alexandra, his eyes seemed to burrow through her. "Ulfarr Cornelius is correct in his assessment. Without a name on whatever item you may possess, you cannot claim it as a name relic in any sense. Without a name relic to be verified, we have no business here. We shall remove ourselves from this chamber and ask that you do the same without further incident."

"No!" Alexandra blurted out, tears streaming down her cheeks unable to be held back. "I need to know who my father was. Please. Please look at it,!"

She took several abrupt steps forward across the floor towards them.

The soldiers tightened their grips on their lances, ready to stop the dirty little Oonskat from reaching the assembled group of nobility. They hoped she stopped as violnce in this venerated chamber was unthinkable.

As she crossed the floor she stepped onto a raised portion of the floor, a deep rumbling instantly filled the room.

Alexandra stopped in her tracks, trying to figure out what was going on. The rumbling got louder and louder, she noticed the floor beneath her on the raised portion was changing texture. The solid marble of the floor seemed to be turning to clear glass! Beneath the glass were swirling gray sparkling clouds, a small tempest underneath her feet. She almost lost her footing, it looked like she was standing on nothing but clouds!

The floor beneath her, but only the raised portion she was standing on in the center of the room, had become clear, the rumbling still growing louder. A green glow caught her eye and she turned to face the great machine in the center of the room. A glow was emanating from it, from no specific spot but seemingly from from all over.

Glancing around, she saw the soldiers were equally surprised, bracing against the walls of the chamber.

"Get her out of here! Kill her if she won't leave! Quickly!" Ulfarr pointed at her and looked at the soldiers stationed in the room, his last utterance almost a scream.

"Hold," the voice of the elder Watcher boomed over the rumbling, filling the room momentarily with his voice, "once the Winnowing Fork is active it must finish."

"Outrage! This is an affront!"

"This is sacrosanct, you will hold your tongue! You soldiers, stay your weapons!" The Watcher snapped, beyond fed up at the demands being made of them. "She has stepped onto the Threshing Floor. There has been a reaction and we cannot interrupt until the Fork has made it's judgment; that is the unchangeable way of things."

"This is pointless!"

Alexandra could barely hear what Ulfarr Cornelius was saying to the Watcher, the deep rumbling filling her years and vibrating down to her bones. She turned back to face the strange machine before her: the Fork.

The glow grew brighter and brighter, it was almost blinding now. She nearly fell down because the platform she was on was shaking so much, the rest of the room rumbling as well. The Watchers, Alexandra could see them out of the corner of her eye, alone remained standing perfectly still as the room shook.

The machine started to move! The seamless piece of metal with no visible joints or function began to move!

The metal spires which shot from the ground and twisted around one another began to spin and turn it's fellows in a beautiful yet strange dance. The small orbs that dotted the surface of the otherwise smooth machine began to lit up even brighter, arcs of what looked like green lightening would jump from one to another when they passed by close to each other as the pieces of the machine moved around themselves.

Outside the Winnowing Chamber, Zooey, Sophia, and Luca also felt the rumbling. It surprised them when it started, Sophia falling back and Luca crashing into the wall. Zooey had only remained standing by grabbing onto the large door handle and bracing herself against it. She could tell the rumbling was coming from the room, but the door was still stubborn and would not open for her.

"What's going on in there!" Luca yelled to her, "can you hear anything?"

She could not over the deep rumbling that was shaking the corridor. "not over this noise!"

"Can we get inside?" Sophia was making a futile effort to stand back up, falling back down again on her back.

Zooey made another try at the door, pulling with all her might.

"Still won't budge!"

"Maybe this is what is supposed to happen? Maybe this is what Alexandra needed to happen," Sophia was thinking. "It might be a good thing; maybe it's her pendant?"

Zooey was not such an optimist. "Maybe she's dead already, we have no way to know what's going past these doors!"

"Don't say that!" Luca rebuked her. "Alexandra's tough! She'll be okay."

"We're out of our league here," Zooey was quick to remind him, "the people here have the power of life and death and we're nothing to them!"

Inside the chamber behind the large doors, Alexandra was still very much alive, but very scared.

The glow from the machine was almost blinding now, the arcs of green whirled around the outside of the machine. Gusts of steam shot up from the floor around the machine, coming from unseen chambers far below beneath the ground. She gripped her locket through her shirt and glanced down to see if it was glowing like it had when it was near Lerrick's sword: it was not.

Heartbreak. A moment of anguish.

She had been hoping that the machine, the Fork as the Watcher had called it, was behaving this way because of the proximity of her pendant, but apparently it was not the case. Her dreams of her pedant being something special, something they could identify were smashed away leaving nothing but a void in their place. She stood alone before the machine, she stood all alone.

Pain!

Suddenly she felt an uncomfortable twinge on her back. Her first instinct was that one of the soldiers now had a blade to her, but giving a quick glance behind her she could see all the soldiers staying safely away from the Fork, far back against the walls.

No, there was a definite pain, she told herself she did not imagine it.

Again!

Her hand flew to where it hurt on its own before she had a chance to think about it. Her hand came to rest on her shoulder blade where her tattoo was: where it was definitely hurting. Straining her eyes to see as much of her back as possible, she could see a glow coming from her skin!

"No, not my skin," she thought quickly, "my tattoo!"

The tattoo of the name 'Benham' was glowing the same colour as the machine! It felt as if someone was taking hot irons to her back, she cried out in pain. She tried to hold her hand to her back but the pain would not stop. The light grew even brighter, she could see it now shining past her from behind her.

Everyone around, from the soldiers to the Watchers to even Ulfarr Cornelius, stood still and watched. She tried to move, to get out of the raised portion of the floor, but she found her feet rooted to the spot. She could see no physical restraints keeping her there but her legs just refused to move! She grabbed her right leg and pulled on it, trying to get it to lose contact with the floor but was no use.

She was stuck to the spot and standing alone before the Fork.

"That was a scream! I think it was Alex!" Zooey pulled her ear back from the door, still holding onto the handle for balance.

"We have to help her!" Sophia knew there was probably nothing they could realistically do to aid Alexandra if she was in trouble, but she knew she had to be there for her friend no matter what was going on.

Luca hurled himself off the wall at the door. "Come on! Pull!"

"What do you think I've been doing!?" Zooey grunted, exerting all of her strength on the door again.

"Pull harder!"

"I can't numskull!"

"Sophia!" Luca reached a hand behind him, "you can do it, get up here and help us!"

She reached up and gripped his hand. Using the door as the counterweight, Luca pulled with what strength he still had and got Sophia standing and with them at the door. She took hold of the same door handle as her two friends.

She nodded, her hands intertwining with Zooey's and Luca's on the handle. "Okay, I'm ready."

Zooey stared at the door handle: her enemy.

"On the count of three!" she yelled over the loud rumbling, "one! two! three!"

The three began pulling as hard as they could.

For a moment there was nothing, then it seemed to slowly be giving way! Only centimeters at a time but there was movement! There was an audible creaking above the nose coming from inside the room, the door's resistance began to give way.

"We're coming Alexandra," Sophia murmured as sweat ran down her face. "Hang in there, we're coming!"

Alexandra could not hear her friends yelling from outside, she could hear nothing else but the noise of the machine. Her hair was blowing back with the wind being generated by the Fork. Sparks shot out of the machine, some kind of energy arcing off it onto the walls and dancing around the ceiling.

She was still stuck on the spot, on the Threshing Floor, helpless in the center of the room. Suddenly, a slab of the floor in front of her seemed to fall away and a new stone began slowly raising up from unseen depths to replace it. The pain began to subsided, the glow begin disappearing. The machine began to slow, the wind dying down. She could see there was writing on the stone tablet that was raising up to fill the void in the floor. Her eyes opened, blurred by the tears, she saw the word on the stone was a name: Benham.

"This must be the verification!" she realized, she was too young to remember her verification as an infant, immediately preceding her exile.

"House Benham confirmed," the elder Watcher announced in a rote manner, his years of training and protocol of the verification process taking over.

"Yes we already know that!" Ulfarr was very short with his words, "we already know she's an exile from that House! This whole thing has been a waste of time! It is telling us something we already knew!"

"Indeed," the Watcher nodded, "this verification has already been performed and recorded. This person was named to House Benham and has since been exiled according to our records."

"Good, can we now be on our way?!" sighed Ulfarr, wiping nervous sweat from his brow with a folded kerchief.

"You never were required to be here," the elder Watcher's eyebrow was raised as he reminded the noble, "it is curious you chose to be here for this matter, considering you found it such a waste of time."

Ulfarr was quick with his answer. "As I have already stated, this Oonskat is wanted for assaulting a member of my House. We want to make sure no harm comes to her before, well, before we can 'speak' with her."

Alexandra did not like the sound of that and tried to plead her case though she knew the ears around her were now deaf.

"Please, I haven't hurt anyone! I just need someone to tell me where this pendant comes from! It's from a Noble House, it will tell me who my father..."

"Silence whelp!" Ulfarr cut her off, "you have had your fun and had your moment of fame. We will not tolerate your mockery of our traditions and nobility any longer. You are an exile, the filthiest thing that one could find under a rock. I suggest you crawl back under it."

"Did you not want to 'speak' with her?" one of the other Watchers put forth.

"Ah yes," Ulfarr cleared his throat, quickly composing himself. "We will not deal with such distasteful matters here within the hallowed halls of the Watchers. We will conduct the unhappy affair of investigating crimes away from here."

"If that is all, then we shall adjourn," the elder Watcher turned away.

"Please look at me!" Alexandra screamed, her voice hoarse, her eyes soaked.

She pulled the pendant out from her blouse and held it in the air in a shaking hand.

"Please just look at it! It won't kill you! Just a second, please! Just look at it!"

A deep rumbling instantly filled the room.

The head Watcher turned back, genuine surprise breaking his serene expression, "what is this?"

"It...it is nothing!" Ulfarr sounded panicked, "please let us remove her!"

"The Fork!" another Watcher pointed at the machine, "it activates again!"

Alexandra turned back as the great machine indeed was once again beginning to move.

Steam shot out, the pieces began their dance once more as before, a green glow growing from the metal itself.

Unseen by everyone who had their surprised eyes on the Fork and Alexandra, Ulfarr nodded energetically at his pageboy who was still standing next to the doors leading back out into the hallway. The pageboy tilted his head ever so slightly in reply and quickly pushed the doors opened and ran out of the Winnowing Hall.

On the outside, Zooey, Luca, and Sophia were still straining against the slowly-opening door. Without warning it suddenly flung open as the pageboy made his hurried exit. The three of them toppled back and onto the floor.

Zooey blinked as she fell on the floor. As the doors began to close again she caught a glimpse of Alexandra standing in the center of the room, a green glow coming from somewhere in front of her, it was beginning to envelop her body.

"Alex!" Zooey yelled as the door was almost closed again.

Launching herself off of the ground, she gripped the door handle and pulled back once more, trying to prevent it from closing all the way. She managed to get her foot in the ever-shrinking gap and threw all of her weight against the resistance of the door.

The pageboy ran a little ways down the hallway, covered his fist with his sleeve and punched out one of the stained-glass windows that lined the corridor. Luca cocked his head to the side, confused, as the pageboy then waved out the window and then ran away down the hallway further until he was out of sight.

"I've almost got it!" he heard Zooey yell, "get back up here and help me!"

The door was opening more quickly now, still not enough to get through, but now they had it open a little it was getting easier. Zooey wedged her leg into the gap now to get some more leverage.

The noise from inside was deafening again. Sophia and Luca reached the door once more and joined their friend in her struggle. Inches now at a time, the door was opening further and further, revealing the chaos unfolding within.

The glow from the machine was almost blinding now, the arcs of green whirled around the outside of the machine. The floor too was shaking once more. Gusts of steam shot up furiously from around the machine, the clouds obscuring the view of the Fork. The wind was picking up again, Alexandra's hair whipping angrily at her neck. She squinted, trying to see what was going on again.

No pain this time.

Her tattoo was not hurting now, a quick glance over her shoulder confirmed it was not glowing either.

That is when she then looked up at the pendant she was holding above her. The green glow from it was unmistakable and it was growing fast.

Her mouth slowly opened...was it true? Was she about to find out what this was, who her father is?

A noise of swords being drawn behind them drew Zooey's attention.

Throwing a look down the opposite end of the corridor she saw a great many soldiers barreling towards them as fast as they could run, weapons at the ready. The red and black colours on their tunics marked them as members of House Cornelius. Freshly spilled blood dripped from their swords and lances.

"Hurry!" she strained harder against the door, slipping more of her body into the opening.

"Why are they here?!" Luca had seen them to.

"They don't look friendly!" Zooey groaned as her muscles protested the extended effort. "We have to get Alex and get out of here...something bad is happening!"

Sophia also now looked behind them. She jumped at the unexpected sight of soldiers bearing down on them at an alarming rate. She closed her eyes and put all of her strength into pulling on the door.

A loud creak and the door swung open!

Zooey drew her dagger and entered the chamber followed by Luca and Sophia.

"There are soldiers coming!" Luca yelled at the top of his lungs as they burst into the Winnowing Chamber.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?! Soldiers, remove them!" one of the Watchers tried to be heard over the noise.

"There are soldiers coming! From outside!" Sophia tried to be heard.

"Don't mind these rodents," Ulfarr smiled smugly, "they're just more Oonskat here to cause problems."

The noise was so much more this time, the shaking many times greater.

The soldiers already stationed in the room had no chance of reaching the newcomers; if they left their holds against the wall then they would surely fallen over in a moment. Even the Watchers seemed a little taken aback, the glow from the Fork was unbearable to look at. The pendant was heating up as Alexandra held it, despite the searing brightness she could not take her eyes off of it.

"This is it." she told herself. "Father, I'm going to know you... I want to know you."

The doors flew open and a unit of Cornelius soldiers boldly entered the room, weapons drawn ready to fight.

"Ulfarr, what is this?!" the elder Watcher was not pleased, his patience at the absolute limit, "what is the meaning of this?!"

"We have asked you to listen to reason, Watcher," Ulfarr was smiling now, "you have so far refused. Now, I ask you again, dispose of this girl. Send her away from here. Stop this."

"No," the Watcher denied the order, "something special is happening. Once the machine activates it cannot be stopped until it renders judgment, that is the old law handed down since the times of the founder Willem Arkland! Everything is built upon it, this process must not be interrupted!"

"I was afraid you would be so old-fashioned in your views," Ulfarr shook his head, "the Watchers have held the power over naming for far too long. You're a relic, stuck in your ways, bound by process! Time to let House Cornelius take responsibility for this. We will not allow this to continue."

"What!?" the Watcher had to yell to be heard over the deep rumbling still growing louder from the Fork against all odds. "No House can control this machine, it is what keeps the system in balance! If one House had it would effectively rule Prydain and that must never happen!"

"We already have quite a persuasive sway over the Landskyp," he bragged, "time for us to assume control over the naming as well. That in hand we will be able to direct Prydain in a direction more suited for our vision."

"Never! This is not how it is supposed to be!" the Watcher could not believe what he was hearing, this was going in the face of centuries of tradition and law. "No one will tolerate you taking control!"

"We already have our way at the Landskyp, our edicts become law."

"The Watchers will denounce your actions! Even you cannot overcome our word!"

"Soldiers!" Ulfarr commanded, "secure the room! Kill everyone not loyal to my House!"

The soldiers from House Cornelius instantly set upon their vile work. The few soldiers stationed inside the chamber that were from other Houses attempted to regain their footing and fight off this invasion.

A lancer lunged at Zooey, who deflected the lance-tip with her dagger and kicked him to the ground. Luca jumped on the back of a passing soldier, dragging him backwards.

All around Alexandra the fight was raging, but she could still not move! She tried once more to step away from the Threshing Floor but it was no use, her feet would not leave contact with the floor, which once again looked to be glass.

Zooey parried and stabbed the arm of a soldier she was now fighting with. He reached with his other hand and grabbed her hair, yanking her suddenly to the ground. Hitting the shaking floor hard, Zooey swung around and caught one his legs with both of hers and bent his knee so he came toppling over. He tried to stab Zooey as they both were on the floor but she scooted sideways and the blow missed her.

Luca meanwhile had been shaken off by the soldier he had jumped and was now dodging sword thrusts. The soldiers around them were losing the fight to the superior numbers of the Cornelius soldiers. A dead body of one of those guards came falling between Luca and the soldier attacking him. Using the moment that soldier was paused, Luca plunged his pocketknife into the sword-wielding hand of the soldier. The man yelled in pain and dropped his sword.

Luca moved fast and picked up the fearsome implement. Another attacker came suddenly from the side but Luca was able to deflect the thrust with his newly-found weapon. He could see the situation was getting worse, the Cornelius soldiers would soon overpower all of them. He tried to begin working his way back closer to Zooey but he was having to step over the bodies on the floor and keep himself from not getting stabbed or run through in the process.

"Alex!" Zooey screamed.

Alexandra turned to see a Cornelius soldier with a particularly nasty grin on his face advancing to the center of the room towards her. Blood ran down the blade of his sword, having it just removed it from a guard he had killed the moment before. She tried to run but still she was stuck to the spot by the mysterious force. She could do nothing but look as the guard came upon her, his sword raised in his hand.

She closed her eyes. She could hear the steam shoot out of the soldier's sword, that meant he was in the middle of swinging. Her eyes clenched tighter.

Alexandra felt arms embracing her.

She was suddenly being knocked backwards away from the soldier. Her feet finally lost contact with the floor as she was pushed backwards and the pressure holding her relented. Falling away from the Threshing Floor, she realized Sophia had dove and tackled her away just as the soldier's strike came. Alexandra hit the floor, Sophia landing on top of her.

The light from the Fork had stopped, the machine had ceased all of its movement the moment her feet left the Threshing Floor.

"Sophia," was all Alexandra could say, opening her eyes once more, looking into the eyes of her friend, "thank you."

"You're very welcome," she smiled in return. She reached to the side and dragged a sword close, "and here, a present"

"It's not even my birthday."

"Emergency gift," Sophia rolled off Alexandra as she stood, sword in hand.

The soldier was still advancing.

Alexandra brought her sword in front of her, ready for him. She did not like fighting, but had learned quickly from the slums that sometimes you had to, and she had become quite good at it to survive. The soldier swung wide, Alexandra jumped backwards, avoiding the slash. She thrust in low but the soldier managed to get his blade around and knock her attack off of its course.

She regained her foot and thrust again, this time a side swing. The soldier had to give up his footing to deflect the blow, causing him to wobble off balance. Alexandra swung hard, knocking his sword out of his hand. As he desperately tried regain balance, Alexandra connected her foot square on his chest, sending the soldier crumbling backwards.

She spun around just in time to see Ulfarr Cornelius remove his dagger from the bleeding chest of the elder Watcher. The other Watchers were also dead, killed by the hands of the attacking Cornelius soldiers.

Ulfarr paused, wiping the blood from his dagger on the robes of the dead Watcher. Alexandra took her chance as he was momentarily distracted; with a bounding leap she was over to him, her sword touching his throat. He let go of his dagger.

"Everyone stop!" she yelled.

Turning back to the room she saw that only her friends were left, and they were quickly retreating towards her. The Watchers and all their guards had been killed, only soldiers from House Cornelius now surrounded them.

"There's no way out girl," Ulfarr hissed.

"Quiet you," she inched the blade closer to his throat, "you guys okay?"

"I'm here," Sophia was near her, to the left.

"I'm ready for more, come on dogs!" Zooey's sword was in hand and she was still spoiling to fight.

"All good," Luca was out of breath but still defiantly holding a sword in front of him, daring any of the attackers to come close.

"Just give up and it will be fast," Ulfarr offered a quick death.

"I don't think so," she quickly glanced around the room, "in fact, you'll probably want the same when people find out what you did here."

"They killed the Watchers!" Sophia could not believe her eyes, the reality of the situation sinking in as she finally had a pause to catch her breath.

This was the unthinkable: a House had brought force against the Watchers, going against the Base Law that society operated on and centuries of tradition and order. This was a drastic and desperate move; no one would stand for it. As soon as news of what had happened here spread, it was likely that the doors of the Cornelius estate would be pushed down by the commoners and everyone inside killed.

Sophia cried, such a beautiful place had been marred by death. Even the most sacred of traditions had been swept away in a terrible instant of violence.

"Got any ideas Alex?" Zooey panted, "I think I could only take ten or so."

The Cornelius soldiers laughed at the brash and confident girl they had outnumbered.

"Maybe five for me," Luca tried to smile and overestimate a bit, the humor not really helping his fear.

"Okay, okay," Alexandra was thinking fast, "we're leaving."

Ulfarr laughed. "Oh no you're not. Can't you see that you're not welcome here? We'll escort you from this life as quickly as possible. There's no one coming to help."

He looked directly at Alexandra, "can't you see you're alone?"

"So how about that plan?" Zooey stared at each of the soldiers in turn as they crept closer.

"We're going out the way we came in, the heir to House Cornelius here is going to be our free passage out, a no death fare."

She pushed her sword to the noble's throat, touching it with just the edge to emphasize her point. Ulfarr nodded and the soldiers began stepping backwards, giving them a clear way towards the door.

"Okay," Alexandra was trying to hide her fear from her friends just as much as the soldiers, "let's just get moving and everyone will be fine."

"How far do you think you'll get?" Ulfarr was still smiling somehow despite being a captive, "how long can an Oonskat who slaughtered a group of Watchers last?"

"That was you!" Luca yelled over his shoulder.

"I think we'll tell a different story."

"Keep quiet or I'll kill you now," Zooey threatened.

"No one's going to kill anyone," Alexandra began moving Ulfarr towards the door, "we're just going to be on our way and no one else has to get hurt."

"Hold there you lot!" a Cornelius soldier standing in the middle of the door commanded, hands behind his back.

"Just please move and your leige here will be fine," Alexandra glanced at the blade she held to man's throat.

"No one touches the heir to House Cornelius. Slime like you should show respect to your betters!" the soldier pulled out from behind a device that Alexandra had never seen before.

It was a thick rod of metal two feet long that the soldier held out lengthwise in front of him. In the middle were five metal rings that sat upright, and in the middle of them was a piece of dark metal. A funnel sat on the front of the rod, several pipes and switches running down the length of the metal piece. The soldier flipped a switch and the rings in the center began spinning, each in an opposite direction from the one above it.

Alexandra's sword began to feel heavy, it started to shake in her hand. Glancing at her friends she could see the same phenomena was happening to them. The Cornelius soldiers in the room had for some reason dropped their swords and daggers to the floor and were just standing there watching, malicious grins on their faces. Alexandra now put her other hand on the hilt of her sword, it becoming increasingly difficult to hold steady. The soldiers all around them were now pulling out daggers made of sharpened glass from their belts.

A twinge of pain came from the skin on her back.

"Huh?" an expression of visible worry passed over her face.

"Is that getting hard to hold?" Ulfarr turned to her, "I told you that there was no way to go."

She heard a clank as Zooey's sword fell from her hand, falling at a direction away from her, halfway to the door. She stared at it, unable to see what had caused her to drop the weapon. Luca tried to hang on but also could not hold on to his sword, it fell a few moment after Zooey's, ripped from his hands by some invisible force.

Alexandra struggled to hold on but she felt her own sword being tugged away from her, but she could not see anything! The pain on her back was getting worse with every second as well, it was burning and felt like fire. The pain was spreading, her toes hurt, her stomach, she was starting to feel sore all over.

"It's called magnetics my dear," Ulfarr's voice was as sweet as a bite of lemon, "a whole new kind of weaponry developed exclusively for House Cornelius. I'm so glad to see it works so well. A proper field test."

The soldier holding the magnetic weapon at the door flipped a second switch next to the first. As the magnetic force doubled, the pull was too much and Alexandra finally lost the grip on her sword and it went flying towards the door until it fell abruptly to the ground in front of the soldier holding the strange weapon.

Alexandra gritted her teeth, the pain she was feeling all over becoming too much. She staggered backwards for a step, trying to hold herself but nothing helped the pain.

"Interesting," Ulfarr mused as he felt her stumble away from him, he then turned to the soldier with the magnetic weapon. "Bring it up to three"

The soldier reset his grip on the weapon and flipped a third switch in the row of five. The spinning rings went even faster as he brought the device up to its third setting. Alexandra felt a pulling on her body... no, from inside her body. It felt as if her body was ripping itself apart while on fire. She screamed and fell down to her knees. She wrapped her arms around herself but nothing helped. Blood began streaming out of her nose as she hit the floor.

There was a ringing in her ears, she could not hear anything else. Things were starting to become hazy. She thought she heard a commotion: it sounded like swords striking against each other. Someone was yelling, there were suddenly a lot of voices in the air, none she could make out clearly.

"Alex?! Alex!"

She thought she heard her name being shouted. Darkness closed in on her failing vision.

A hand was on her trembling shoulder, then the muffled voice again. "Alex! Come on, people are here... we're leaving... Alex!"

The words ran together, barely a low hum over the ringing. She tried to say something, she wasn't sure what she was trying to say. She thought she saw Zooey trying to tell her something.

"They're here to help... get us out of here.... escape before more soldiers..."

The voice faded away as her vision did. Her eyelids fell shut, there was nothing but blackness. A sweet respite, an abyss of unfeeling.

Movement.

Alexandra could feel that her position was changing, she was being carried.

The pain was lessening but her body was in so much shock that she was going in and out of consciousness. She thought she felt hands around her, holding her legs and arms, holding her head in place.

She thought she caught a glimpse of Zooey, a sword in her hand, then nothing again.

Darkness.

Another flash of vision: Sophia's worry-filled eyes looking down at her, the ceiling above them moving; or were they moving?

Alexandra could not really tell, her grip on what was going on disappearing fast. There was a brightness, was that the sun? She tried to open her eyes but they were closed and she had not the strength to open them. Her thoughts were disjointed and everything was like a broken puzzle in her memories. She remembered the fight, she remembered something about a new weapon, then everything got fuzzy.

She was still sore all over but the pain was fading away as her body went into shock. It was a welcome relief actually, the pain was replaced by a cold numbness.

In her hand was still her locket, she had never let go of it through everything that had just happened. Her grip was loosening, she tried to close her fingers again but she had lost muscle control.

Suddenly she felt another hand in hers, keeping the locket just where it was, then she went numb and felt nothing.