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The chanting of the burning cultists echoes through the hall, smoke filling the air making it difficult to breathe and Violet watches everything from the balcony. She now stands before one difficult decision.

„Should I continue to observe and get more information or do I need to go back and tell the others?“

While thinking about her choice she hears the cultist leader talk again.

„Yes, my brothers and sisters, embrace the flame! Embrace the Chaos and get the illness known as Order purged from yourself! Burn and get reborn as the messengers of our lord, as the knights of his crusade, as the guardian of his followers, as the sheperd of his lost lamps! Let us spread the word of his arrival! Let us welcome our lord to a world trenched in chaos!“

The cheering of the cultists becomes deafening and Violet watches in horror as she realised something. Not a single one of them is burning to the death! Burning alive, yes, branding themselves with their chains, yes, incuring burn wounds that liquify everything down to the bone in the worst cases, yes, but no one died. She can see no corpse lying around and every single cultist still seems capable of movement, jumping around and chanting their hymn. Some are even throwing more of those bottles into the air and some others try to increase the strength of the flames.

A cold shiver runs down Violet’s back as she slowly sneaks back into the hallway. Having made enough distance to the hall she turns and starts sprinting with all her strength back to the mine and away from this cult. Violet is no hero who sacrifices himself to save erveryone, she also is not some overpowered adventurer which you find in stories for children. No, she was just a young woman searching for her parents.

That’s why she knows that this isn’t something she can solve alone, something she should solve alone. This is bigger than her, more problematic than her other adventures and something she will need help with.

That’s why she runs at full speed through the corridor. She needs to inform the ones who know how to solve problems like this,people who have more experience than her. She needs to inform the people that truly want to preserve their peace.

Gone are all thoughts about scouting out the mines, thoughts about finding strange monster activities, thoughts about releasing some of her frustratrion by fighting monsters. The only thing swirling through her mind was:

„I need help to stop them so that I can continue searching for my parents.“

So, filled with desperation she sprints down the corridor, jumping down the stairs and ignoring all doors with only one goal in mind : to reach the city and warn them. She makes quite a distance before she sees a lightsource up ahead, informing her of the presence of another cultist standing in her path. Not wanting to stop she readies her sword and upon encountering the cultist she swings it to behead him. The cultist being caught by the element of surprise fails to react and falls to the ground, his head flying through the air and splattering blood on the walls before hitting the ground a few steps away from his body.

„[Freeze]“

Hidden behind the first cultist stands another one that can react and uses a magic spell. Holding his hand up the mana starts to gathers around his hand forming a light blue and white colored circle filled with runes in front of his hand. The temperature starts to drop as cold air blasts from the magic circle and covers the walls, floor and ceiling in a think layer of ice, freezing every little insect underneath. The ice encroaching on her position forces Violet to react fast. Changing the way she holds her sword she jumps against the wall and uses it as a foothold before jumping towards the cultist and to avoid the ice which already starts to cover the corpse. The cultist startled by her approaching him readies another spell with his other hand to blast her from close range but is stopped as Violet swung her sword and cut off his arm.

Landing on the ground next to the cultist she kicks him into the side and smashes him into the wall before she continues her sprint. As she steps into the cave again leaving behind the corridor and the cultists Violet sheats her sword and uncovers her lamp to make navigating the tunnels easier. Following the marks she left behind while exploring she finds the way to the entrance really quick.

Upon exiting the mines Violet stops to catch her breath a little before she runs towards the city. Suddenly a drop of water falls on her and as she looks into the sky she witnesses the moon hiding behind storm clouds that gather overhead. Lightning strikes flash though the clouds and heavy rain falls upon the ground.

„Great, really great. A storm? Right now? You have to be joking.“

Putting the flames of her lamp out before throwing it into her bag she gets ready to run to the city. Mana gathers around her and forms light green fog that enshrouds her legs while a screen of light green colored light shimmers around the rest of her body, covering it partly with runes formed from mana. Her running speed having now increased she starts another sprint but this time accompanied by thunder and rain.

Running at night and through the storm Violet dives into her thoughts, questioning how she got here and into this situation. She was just a young girl, an orphan, who started as an adventurer to make use of her ability to fight, to use 'Hidden casting' how she came to call it. Using her ability to use magic by instinct instead of the complex method others needed allowed her to climb the ranks of adventurers and even gain the nickname of ‚Arcane blade‘.

While other children enjoyed the warmth of their home and learned from their parents about life, she had to fight blood thursting monsters and experience the unforgiving nature of life. Not really what you would call a fullfilling childhood. A childhood that left much to be desired.

And then came the search for her parents. Ten years of hard work, lucky encounters and fateful meetings helped her finding absolutely nothing. And all the people asking her why she even bothers trying to find them or trying to be „helpful“ by giving her obvious hints like „why not go to the orphanage you grew up in? Surely they might have something?“.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

They start to get on her nerves.

Of course, something everybody would think about, wondering why she does all of that. Surely, dear observer, you are also wondering about that, about this backstory of hers? And don’t you dare lie about it! You are curious, even if only to a small degree.

And that’s the fun part of it, don’t you think so? To wonder and theorize about the intricacies of the story you follow. To find the small hidden details stuck inbetween the depictions and decriptions of the chapters in the life of the character. To become emotionally attached to their story, being happy the moment they meet a new friend or slay an enemy that everybody hated and being sad if they got betrayed or their lovers stolen or even killed as they tried to protect them.

Especially nice is the feeling you have after their journey came to an end and you, dear observer, who always cheered for them from the sidelines or cried with them, wanting to mourn with them the loss they experience, now you will have to let go of their story. To close the book and let the story become a fond memory to remember.

But enough of that. I got lost in rambling about the joy of being an observer but we were about to learn more about Violet so let us return to her, to hopefully satisfy your curiosity.

So, where was I? Ah, yes, the people trying to be helpful getting on her nerves.

Getting on her nerves is maybe not the correct term to be used. Violet started to hate it and is exhausted because of them. People not knowing her enough, people trying to help with suggestions that led to another dead end and people trying to get her stop her fruitless journey. Many people told her it was pointless to continue, that she should create a family of her own to fill the emptiness she experiences.

Oh, how she hated it. People thinking they know better than her while knowing nothing at all.

Violet has a feeling of emptiness inside her as if something is missing. A part that’s not necessarly important to be functional but important enough to her so she can feel complete, to stop feeling so negative about many things. It does appear mostly as envy as she observes children spending time with their parents and everyone showing clear signs of happiness. Her search is for the answers that may help filling this hole.

Violet gets brought out of her thoughts as she spots the city gate coming closer. As she closes in on it Violet decides to slow down and cancel her magic. The green fog and light surrounding her disappear as she steps through the gate, the guards recognicing and ignoring her as it is the first time anybody saw her like this.

Splatters of blood clinging to her arm, mud sticking to her legs and drenched in sweat and water from the rain all while breathing fast to catch her breath again. Whatever it is the guards do not want to keep her occupied while she looks exhausted and might have important news to deliver.

At this time of the day the city still sleeps. The streets are empty, silence filling the air and darkness covering the alleys. The only signs of life are the patrolling guards in the streets and the guards protecting the gate.

With the sound of her footsteps drowned by the rain Violet walks straight to the guild. Even though it’s still night the adventurer guild has always at least one person behind the reception working. It’s a rule implemented because of the danger the dark forest poses but also something the people learned after the fall of Aringrad. A city that once was known for its prosperity and trade of rare resources. The exact details aren’t known but from the survivors the people learned that apparently a scout was unable to report at night and the city got overrun in the early morning. Since then the rule exist that at least one person of sufficient authority has to be always available at the guild and it helped prevent a repeat of Aringrad.

The city of Elderwoods takes this rule even further. Regardless of the time you will always be able to report to the guards, the guild or even the city council. This doesn’t mean that the guildmaster, the chief commander of the guards or the members of the council are always awake. The rule or rather law of the city states that the person working the night shift not only has to be of a certain rank with enough authority like the chief receptionist or the gate guardian but is also given a magical tool that connects to the people with high enough authority to decide what to do. It’s designed in a special way to make sure that the person who is called is always available.

…Yes, it wakes them up and in quite an unpleasant way if I can say so.

It was supposed to be a night like every other for Selfiya. She always enjoys the nightshift by sitting down with a book and a warm beverage while having a candle shine enough light to read. It is a time where she can relax and doesn’t have to worry about another adventurer asking her out. Sitting behind the reception desk, a blanket wrapped around her and reading her book while listening to the sounds of the storm outside the building. Just a peaceful and companiable silence filling the guild.

Everybody who likes reading books without being disturbed can surely imagine her surprise as the door flew open and Violet enters and leaving a mess everywhere as walks through the hall.

„Holy honeycake! What happened to you, Violet?“

„A mudfight with children. What do you think happened? The stupid mines were empty except for a secret hideout of a strange cult.“

Putting her book aside Selfiya took a piece of paper and starts making notes.

„How about you begin at the start instead of skipping everything? And no imaginary mudfights!“

„Alright, no mudfights.“

Violet walks over to the bar area to take herself a chair to sit on and what follows is her making a report on everything she found after leaving the city for the scouting mission while Selfiya like the professional she is meticulously takes notes about everything.

„…and then I sprinted through the rain back to the city which caused all the mud to cling to me. So, no mudfights and no children. I think.“

Selfiya rubs her forehead while a sighs escapes her.

„What do you mean ‚you think‘? Where there children or Not?“

„Are you sleep-deprived or did you spike your drink with one of Martha’s mixtures that you forgot? I couldn’t identify all of them neither do I know which age they were. Just because something appears to be a human adult doesn’t mean they aren’t something else. Especially you, an elf, should know that.“

After taking a sip of her drink Selfiya sighs again before looking over her notes.

„You are right. I should probably take a few more hours of sleep or just a small vacation but you know how busy this place is because of the forest and now with the strange monster behavior it’s only getting worse. Especially if your instincts are right and this cult will cause problems. But I never heard of anything about such a cult.“

„What do you mean?“ asks Violet.

„Exactly what I just said. Nothing that could show us who they are like their outfit or their symbol that you were smart enough to copy on a piece of paper is something I remember. And I would remember seeing them in the book that each guild has to identify suspicious groups. Especially that ominous chant about the rule of chaos.“

Tapping her finger in the desk Violet leans her head back to stare at the ceiling.

„So, an entire cult we have nothing about suddenly appearing in a hidden cave around the town and strange monster behavior? Doesn’t sound like a coincidence for me. And the chant wasn’t about the rule of chaos but Chaos. I think there is a difference we aren’t aware of yet.“

Violet stands Up and walks to the door.

„My report is finished and I will come back later for a reward if there is any. I need to go and catch up on the missed sleep. So, see you later after I took care of myself!“

„Have a pleasant dream, Good Adventurer!“

She grins and waves goodbye towards Selfiya before Violet steps through the door.