Lord Gracious
Throne Room
“I want the full report” I stated, my voice laced with a deep undertone, indicating my displeasure of the current situation. Sitting on my throne gave me a good view of the entire chamber, and combined with the setting sun behind me casting a shadow. It obscured my face from the servants at the steps leading to the throne, overall, I had a nice menacing tone to my entire figure. The guard, just a few feet from the steps to my throne pressed his forehead almost entirely into the rock of the floor. He seemed to be eating up the entirety of the situation currently he found himself in.
“I-Immediately your majesty. A few hours ago, me and my brother took custody of the creature from Vanhaven Ad Hoverfield. We attempted to interrogate the creature, but all we got out of it was a name, Eleanor, before it started resisting the mind control spell.” I saw some sweat dribble off of the matted fur on his forehead to the floor he was so desperately cowering on. “I tried to get more out of it with some ‘advanced interrogation techniques’ but it was almost impossible to even scratch the things skin. Anything we tried to use just got damaged without any repercussion delt to the creature at all, at the very least it didn’t seem to feel any pain as well as no visible wounds. Eventually we decided to just chain it up in a cell.” I leaned my head on my arm, and unbeknownst to the guard, angeling my gaze to stare more more intently at him.
“So what you’re telling me is that you took the lazy route? Did you even think about opening a portal to the Atherworld?” I’m not generally one for torturing, but that thing has knowledge about magic that surpasses our understanding of what’s possible. Whatever black magic that thing uses to create those objects is something that even our best scholars couldn’t dream of replicating. And now, this creature has escaped, all because you wanted to take the easy way out.” I swear, the second the words left my mouth his forehead started to bleed from how hard he was pressing it against the floor.
“N-No your majesty, I didn’t think it to be necessary at the time. We underestimated the creatures strength and resilience. B-But how was I supposed to know?! How was I supposed to know how powerful the thing was?! Sense it broke out of he chains so easily than that means that it could easily break a sword with one hand easily, right?! I would have no chance of winning if the thing decided to rampage throughout the castle!” I cut off his rave with a wave of my hand, he had taken his forehead off of the floor in defiance and gave me a stare that rivaled the one I had earlier.
Though…I think have heard enough. “THAT IS WHY YOU PUT THEM IN THE ATHERWORLD. In there, the creature would be weakened from the sheer amount of pure magic alone, not to even mention the atherworld creatures that would eat away at it’s life force. You failed at enacting a SIMPLE procedure.” I saw tears slowly start to well up in his eyes.
“Buy your majesty, it wasn’t even me who said to put it in the cell, it was kel-”
“IT DOESN’T MATTER. Now, I have bigger things to deal with. That creature is somewhere out there, and we need to capture it. It could harm hundreds of souls now that its free. Who knows what it is up to.” I sighed, “I have decided, it pains me to say this but… you and Kelmethious shall both be exiled, effective immediately.”
The look on the guard’s face soured. “THATS NOT FAIR.” He screamed out as other guards behind him started dragging him out of the room, stripping off his armor along the way. “Get your hands off of me! Please sire give me a second chance!” Armor bits were strewn about the hall, only for maids to come running out from unseen corridors and clean the mess before disappearing from whence they came. I watched as the guard was slowly becoming nothing more than a peasant, wearing nothing but the dirtying rags he once wore under his armor. Right before he disappeared through the door to the grand hallway, he looked back at me, still sitting upon my throne. His eyes were red, the fur on his face was soaked and matted down with all the tears.
“YOU WILL REGRET THIS! I’LL SHOW YOU HOW USEFUL I A-” he got cut off by the guards closing the door behind them. And once more, the throne room was drowned in silence. Now, even a mouse could be heard scurrying across the floor.
That wasn’t the only reason I banished him. I had also gotten reports of those two slacking off during important dungeon raids. Him and his brother were always a bad example for the new recruits. It is sad to say but I am glad they are finally out of the service, I was hoping to exile them both at some time.
Kelmmethious apparently attempted to follow the creature through the hole it burrowed out of the dungeon, and a rock fell on his head, knocking him out cold on the spot so he couldn’t be here butI would assume he would have the same reaction when he awakens.
“Lets just hope we can find this thing before it does something stupid. Or else I might have to personally get involved.” I got up, and walked around to the back side of my throne, glancing at my sword in its pedestal and laughed at how long it has been sense I had to wield the blade. Eventually, I walked back into my study room.
…
Narrator
Ratatosk Market
Stripped of all their possessions, all they called their own. The brothers were now being paraded through the streets of the capital, a sign to all who witness to never go against the throne. For all who do so shall be stripped bare and thrown into the desert to the south, for being cast out meant to forfeit your life. One still had the chance to live, but within the desert, their chances were slim.
The guards that escorted the duo were once their friends, close ones that the two considered family, but the two were now nothing more than common street rats, destined to die in some alleyway, or, for them, to die in the sand dunes of a vast desert. To starve and eventually die of malnutrition, thirst, or heatstroke. There have been a rare few cases where someone found a wandering trader, or a slave dealer and survived but their chances would be bleak after that as well, for they have no money and no social status. They would either become a slave, or die in some alleyway as a homeless street rat, the same fate to which they were destined to do in the desert in the first place.
As they thought about what their fate might full entail, the anger only boiling more and more as time went on, one of the brothers looked off into the crowd. There were a lot of familiar faces there, some friends, some even horrified family members. But out of all of them, one face stood out, one that he vowed to never forget. An Elf with a black sheet covering most of their face, but he knew better. It was her, the one that started all of this, the one that the king so desperately feared and the one that took his life away.
He felt as if he was staring the killer in the eyes as she pulled her bloodied knife out of his chest. He wanted to kill her, he wanted her to suffer, he wanted… revenge.
…
Eleanor Usaldo (AN: I’m not going to write out her whole title anymore, deal with it.)
Ratatosk Market
30 minutes earlier
“Ugh,” I grunted as I pulled myself out of the hole I dug. It wasn’t the most ideal escape route, due to the dirt, but it did the job. At such low expense of time nonetheless.
I fully pulled myself out of the hole and looked back into it only to see the dirt collapsing in on itself already. It wasn’t my intent for that to happen but it certainly does help. Now that I was finally out of that dirty, stinky, and old dungeon, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. And relax, even if it was simply for a second.
A quick look around revealed a massive stone wall to my right, likely the wall to the castle, and several wooden and stone houses to my left. The backs of which were facing me. It appears I have come up in some sort of alleyway.
Out of nowhere, I heard something akin to wood smacking into the dirt just a few feet behind me. I turned around sharply in alarm, creating and concealing a small throwing dagger to quickly defend myself if necessary.
At my quick movement, whatever it was made a small high pitched yelp. It honestly didn’t take much searching to find the source of the noises, a few feet behind me was a small squirrel standing on its hind-legs well small compared to the other squirrels I have seen here. It was wearing nothing but rags and was very obviously not one of high standing in whatever society this is. Looking to the ground right in front of the squirrel, I noticed a small wooden horse with wheels instead of legs.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The child had a look of interest, as well as intent. She… or he was definitely bound and determined to do something.
Notice: This specimen is likely to be of the female variant, due to the difference in it’s genet-
‘YES, yes, I get it.’ I quickly interjected the VI, I wasn’t about ot have it explain the details about this squirrel’s private parts.
The child took a few tentative steps towards me, completely forgetting about the toy that she had left behind. I wasn’t about to get baited into something, so I kept my guard up, I was currently sitting on the ground and completely unaware of this new area so this could very well be a trap.
As the child got closer, it seemed to be refining its attention from my figure in its entirety to specifically my face.
When, in the softest and honestly prettiest voice I have ever heard, she finally said something.
“So pretty.” The comment took me by surprise at first, only making me tense up more in anticipation for a dagger or gun to come out of the child’s hand, I have seen worse things.
“Dark as an abyss.” She slowly said in her same soft voice.
“Excuse me?” I was attempting to project an air of caution, as well as one of awkwardness, if this was just a child and nothing more, something like awkwardness will make her disinterested faster than you can say ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’.
“I was talking about your eyes, their… beautiful.” I honestly didn’t know what to say, I wasn’t expecting to get a compliment like that here. The last person to say something so kind to me was probably… my mother.
“Th-thank you?” I said, uncertain of exactly how to respond to such a compliment. Ugh, enough, your stronger than this Eleanor. I shook off the feeling in my head.
“Anyway, is there something you want?” Exasperation absolutely oozed through my voice.
“No, no, I’m sorry, I just thought…” She held up her hands while saying that, to emphasize her point. It was at this moment that I decided to stand up, showing my full hight to the tiny creature.
“Well, I’m a little busy at the moment, perhaps we can talk later.” I created a black sheet sheet that came out of my hand with nanites and wore it to conceal my figure. Looking back at the child, her eyes only lit up with more curiosity with the sudden appearance of the object.
“Woah, how did you do that?”
I smiled, looking down at the child, before reaching my hand over to rub her head. “Magic.” I said simply.
I got up, turning my attention from the girl, I looked through the alleyways between the houses. Through them, I could see several other taller squirrels of varying shapes and colors walking past. Some were going in their own respective directions but for some reason most seemed to be going in a certain direction, towards where ATLAS calculated the town center to be. Then, I realized something, I hadn’t thought about it before, but there was no way for me to get back to the forest in time if I can’t open and operate the portal that the guard activated while I was under that spell. I know it uses magic to operate, to which I can’t use quite yet, and I can’t exactly walk back to the forest. Who knows how long that’ll take.
Notice: the teleportation gate coordinates have been locked onto, description on how the gate works is still not available but it appears to be connected to a web of other gates all over the world. The forest, deemed simply as the forest for now, has been determined to be located about 500 relative miles from the current location.
Yeah, that only solidifies my current predicament. Until I had an idea,
“Say, little girl, you wouldn’t happen to know anyone who can use the teleportation gates do you?” She tilted her head at my query.
“You mean the teleportation circles? Only knights and guards of the palace can use those, the rest of us are left in the dark about that… In fact, the royal family barely even acknowledge the circles existence, let alone allow us to use em.”
“Ah, so I need to get a guard…” I said under my breath, I think she heard me, but said nothing for some reason. “Alright,” I raised my voice back to talking level, “Thanks for the information, it seems I still got a lot of things to do.”
She chuckled under her breath, “Where you goin? Somewhere pretty important I’d imagine.” I started walking away from the conversation, mostly to emphasize my point of being in a rush. Something else I noticed though, this kid is a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. At first, I thought she would barely even be able to speak, let alone read my emotions. However rudimentary her skill currently could be.
“It’s none of your business, now please leave me alone.” My slow waltz away from the conversation turned into a full on mall walk, the direction I was going was the same as most of the other residents of this strange city, I wanted to see what the commotion at the city center was. As I went, I partially covered my face with the cloth I created. Hopefully no one will know who I am, but you can’t be too careful.
As I went, I glanced behind me every once in a while to see the little girl tailing me. She kept on darting from hiding spot to hiding spot, always keeping an eye on me. I don’t think she knew, but ATLAS already marked her as a possible spy, and thus has been and will be keeping tabs on her location around me at all times.
THe crowd continued to get denser and denser the closer I got to the town center. Until eventually I rounded a corner and laid my eyes apon the town center, it seemed to simply be a large path that lead from the outer gate to the gates to the castle, though in one spot in particular I saw a massive statue depicting a warrior dawned in an intricate armor set, it appeared as if gold was embedded into the statue itself, with the gold trimmings of the armor standing out in contrast to the regular marble white of the statue. The warrior was also brandishing a sword that seemed to actually be made of steel, or whatever their swords are made of here. Overall it was a very showy statue probably built in the honor of some past war hero.
Around the statue where guards forming an orderly line holding the crowd back, they formed a path, one that was formed from the castle gate to the walls leading outside.
Bingo, If I can just get one of those guards knocked out and escape with them, then I can use the teleportation circle to get back to the forest.
I started contemplating exactly how I would take out one of those guards without anyone noticing, when I felt a small tug on the bottom of my cloak. Looking down, I saw the same small girl. She was beckoning me with her hand, as if she wanted to whisper into my ear even though it wouldn’t really be necessary, as I could hear her whisper from this distance anyways. But to concede to social customs, and to not give too much of an idea of my power away, I decided to bend to her will. Watching me lean down, she decided to stretch up to meet me half-ways.
“You can’t just take any guard to open the circle, you have to get one of the royal guards or knights.” What? How does this girl know so much? She asked it in a way, and with such perfect timing that she knew exactly what I was planning, thats not something a normal child should know. I nodded anyway, deciding against showing my utter confusion.
I looked up to see who might be a better replacement for the one that I was originally thinking of taking. After some time, I noticed the gates to the castle open up revealing a small convoy consisting of six horses at the front each mounted by a brown fur colored squirrel with as ornately designed armor as the giant statue they were about to go around as well as a single strange carriage. Each of the squirrel riders had a sword at their hip as well as a spear held parallel to the ground and in a little leather loop connected to the side of their horses.
Those are the knights the little girl was talking about, no doubt about it. I watched as they passed through the opening the lower city guards made for them. Behind the first three knights was a carriage drawn by two more horses, this one was less decorative, and was being handled by a less than showy coachman. The back of the cart, where the cargo usually would go was instead nothing but a platform, the middle of which was elevated to create a giant slant that could fit an entire person on it. And there was a person on it, at least one on this side ATLAS confirmed that out of view was another squirrel that was chained to the other side of the slanted carriage. I looked harder at the prisoners, to which they were obviously. They looked literally the same as the other squirrels to me but thankfully ATLAS was able to identify them.
Confirmed, these prisoners were once the guards that attempted an interrogation in the ‘dungeon’ just a few hours ago.
So they decided to punish the guards that allowed my escape, huh? Well, it really wasn’t their fault, there are not very many forces in the world that can stand up to the power and sturdiness of the ATLAS nanites. So it was honestly to be expected that they wouldn’t be able to break through the wall I created.
I watched as they were escorted through the parted crowed, then, I noticed something, one of the prisoners locked eyes with me. I wasn’t completely sure about it, but I think he recognised me, even through my lazily created disguise.
I continued the intense eye contact with the man until I couldn’t see him anymore. Something else I noticed was further down, when they passed me, some people threw old and moldy fruit at the men. None of the knights said anything, it seemed that they wanted the public to just think of the ex-guards simply as prisoners or even worse.
I simply couldn’t help but to wonder, what would become of those two. Would they die? Or would they become something… much greater.