Xen bobbed up and down as his horse trotted slowly in the line. He picked his head up, staring at the long row of dark armored men, there were at least thirty who got to go on this trip and for some reason he was invited. He found himself bored. They had all been traveling for at least five days. He could feel the breeze get stronger as they marched forward, the sun was now up and shining over the vast grassland. The only sounds that reached him besides the horses trotting, were that of the tree leaves shaking gently. He had never known a breeze this strong, not even in winter.
“Oi Santi, how long do you think it’ll be ‘till we get there?” asked Dange, his impatience clear in his tone.
“Soon, now shut up.” Santiago responded coldly.
“Pfft, this is so boring, how come everyone has to be so quiet!” The foolish man shouted, earning an elbow to the belly from Santiago.
“I like to hear the sound of the wind, and I can’t do that while your dumb ass is blabbering like a child. Now shut up.” he said without looking back at the now quiet man.
“It appears we’ve arrived..” Fitz stated as all of them parked their horses atop a hill overlooking their destination.
Xen got off and looked down at the massive city below. There seemed to be hundreds of buildings and castles overlooking the ocean. His eyes sparkled, the sight was alien and magical to him. He had never known there could be so much water in one place. While he had heard stories of the ocean, there was no way anyone could describe this view. The sun shone off the top of the water, reflecting back into his widened pupils.
His eyes then fell upon the main castle. It was a giant tower, bigger than anything Xen could’ve imagined. The top of its rounded gray walls and roof being concluded with a waving purple flag. For the breeze had been much stronger now, causing it to flatten out as a proud symbol of the nation.
“Before anyone gets too crazy, I’m setting up some ground rules.” Santiago started, each of the men looked to him. They were eager to go run wild in the city.
“Jarak is our main sponsor, I don’t want any of you tarnishing our good name with them understood? No crime here.” He seemed to be very stern on this, Xen could tell he was not in a good mood nor happy to be here.
A few of the men were vocally upset with these rules but agreed in order to not piss off the already agitated man. They did need a sponsor in order to keep up their raids on Emissuss.
“Be back here at sundown, anyone who isn’t is left behind. That’s all.” Santiago started walking down to the city with Fitz in tow.
“Hey kiddo!” Dange called out to Xen. “You've never been to Jarak, right? Dontcha worry, I’ll show ya around!” he said to the boy with a grin while putting his massive hand on Xen’s shoulder.
Xen followed Dange down the hillside to a path that led into Jarak.
“Halt, you men must be rid of your weapons if you wish to enter the city."
A fully armored dark skinned man clutched his sheathed sword as he spoke his command.
"Outta our way you shit stain." Dange replied, aggressively annoyed
"We're with Black Horn, we practically own your sad ass excuse for a city."
Xen looked curiously at the man, he had never seen someone who didn't look like him besides Fitz. He had several questions he wanted to ask but remained wary of the increasing level of danger.
"Tch, I still can't believe our queen allows filth like you to run free. You should be killed for your actions like the subhuman animal you are." The man started with hatred in his dark eyes.
Dange grabbed the man by his armor and pulled his face close to his own. The stench of his breath filled the guard's lungs as he spat out his words.
"Then maybe you should try to kill me."
He shoved the man out of the way and continued while laughing.
"I can't believe it! The real subhuman animal actually said that to me! ahahaha! He's lucky Santi said to not cause trouble otherwise I would've taken his balls!"
Dange brandished a knife to Xen and his fellow men as they all chuckled and continued down the road.
Xen clung tightly behind Dange as the group of men moved through the crowded streets of the slums. His ears were telling him he was in the middle of a battle with how much noise was echoing around him. His heart rate was accelerating and he could barely focus on any of his surroundings despite how curious about this new place he was.
The few things he did see left him with only more questions. The smells of the different food wagons mixed in the air and melted his stomach from the inside. He saw women walking down the streets just as men were, he wondered why they were clothed and why they had no weapons.
He saw all kinds of people too, young, old, happy, sad, and poor. One old man in particular reached out to 'graze his white skin' The encounter left Xen feeling dirty and scared but he wasn't sure of what or why.
"Oh shit." Dange dug through his pockets.
"Fuck! guys, check for your pouches!" Dange turned to them with a worried expression on his hairy face.
The men one by one started to panic as they grabbed all over their dark clothing and armor trying to find something that wasn't there.
"Damn it!" Dange shouted as he kicked some dirt into the eyes of passerby.
"We gotta find those bastards! I need a decent drink for once, Dange!"
"Yeah, I did not come all this way just to get robbed by these filthy Jarakies."
"Fuck it, I say we steal the drinks!"
"or we could just rob someone else.."
Dange shouted over his men.
"Relax! Santi said to not cause problems.. we can still find some money, legally." He looked down right at Xen and smiled wide.
Dange dragged the group to a purple tent in a back alley of a row of makeshift huts. It looked strangely out of place, as if someone was trying to hide something that’s obtuseness prevented any concealment. Xen was fixated on the color, he had seen it for the first time today and it was everywhere in this city. He was so excited and yet cautious, the volume of the crowds causing him to feel as if it was impossible to be in a non vulnerable state.
Dange held open the tent curtain as a few men stepped inside. Xen hung back, his hands shaking slightly, not wanting to go into the seemingly endless abyss of the new purple monster.
“The hell are you doing kid? Get in there!” Dange grabbed Xen by one of his armor straps and threw him into the tent.
Xen’s body slammed onto the floor earning him a new scrape on the arm and clothes full of sand and dirt. He struggled to his feet as Dange cursed him again.
“Now look at what you did! You got the merchandise all dirty!” Dange huffed.
Xen looked around the tent, when he spotted two individuals without the distinct Black Horn armor on. One was a young lady wearing all black, her face was full of metal piercings that made her look alien to Xen but her skin was even whiter than his own. Her straight long black hair flowed from behind her bird-like mask that was also pitch black. The much darker man next to her wasn’t wearing much aside from his stained underwear. He seemed to be an older man with a long tangled black beard and almost no hair on his head but plenty all over his body. He greeted Xen with what could only be described as a disturbing toothless grin.
“Dange~” The lady cooed as she put her hand on her hip.
“You’re interrupting my mid day fun right now~ it better be for a good reason..”
Dange’s eyebrows furrowed in disgust.
“It is if you’ve got the coin, bitch.” He snapped, stepping out of the way for Xen to meet her gaze.
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“Ahhhh~! A white one~! He’s so young too~!” She moaned in delight as Xen stared coldly, a sinking feeling resting itself deep in his gut.
“How much~!?” She cried in excitement.
“Look he’s not mine so he’s not for sale, but his time is. Twenty corks for an hour, and he better still be alive.” Dange snarled.
The woman looked sad for a moment but quickly replied.
“Done!” She handed Dange twenty golden coins and licked her red lips.
Xen froze in anticipation for a moment, he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but he knew this didn’t feel right. He glanced over his shoulder to see two Black Horn men behind him, blocking the exit. He subconsciously reached for his swords while glaring at the woman just as the men behind him stripped them from his back. As he turned around the older man grabbed his hands and shackled them together before he could react.
Dange smiled and led the men out of the tent. The dirty old man gave Xen another disturbed toothless smile as he picked him up on his shoulder and carried him to the back. Xen kicked and screamed before seeing where he was being carried..
The other room was full of other old and dirty men, each one of them were naked and sitting idle as if they were awaiting something. When their soulless eyes laid upon Xen they got up and all grabbed him, tearing off his clothes as he kicked, screamed and cried out to no one.
“Only one of you can go at a time sadly~ So you’ll just have to take turns~” The lady in black groaned whilst reaching one hand down to pleasure herself at the sight.
The men pinned Xen to the sandy ground and held down his arms and legs while the one who carried him stripped off the little clothing he had on and climbed on top of him. Xen struggled and struggled the whole time, screaming and crying. Biting his lips till they bled in anger and fear, often inhaling large globs of sand and coughing them up along with his blood. The world in that moment didn’t feel real, it was dark and cold, inescapable. He was helpless to his own torment, his own hell. He pleaded and cried out to nothing. His swollen and soggy eyes falling upon his empty sheath thrown against the curtain of the tent.
It wasn’t fair.
Screams of a little girl echoed from atop the Tower of Jarak. Inside, she sat on her bed with an exquisite purple dress lying crumpled beside her.
“Princess! You can’t attend the celebration without clothes! You must wear the purple dress of your house!” The maid said trying her best to straighten out the wrinkles the little girl had caused in her anger.
“Why!? Why does it have to be purple?!” she screamed adamantly, wanting nothing to do with the beautiful thing.
“Because-!”
“Because, purple is the color of our kingdom, Jule.” The Queen stated, entering the room of her daughter with a loving frown.
“But if I’m going to have to wear a silly dress, why can’t it be pink?! This is abhorrent!” Jule cried in protest.
“Well then, when you’re the queen of our kingdom you can change the color to pink all you like, but since I’m the queen, and more importantly your mother..” The queen helped her daughter into the dress and tied the strings on the back.
“...You’ll have to wear purple tonight.” she said with a loving but devious grin.
“Abhorrent! Abhorrent! Abhorrent!” The Princess cried as she crossed her arms in disgust.
All of a sudden there was a knock on the door.
“Queen Bella!” One of the guardsmen shouted.
“There’s two men here to see you, they said they were part of some hired mercenary group! Do you want us to throw them out?”
Bella’s face fell flat, her eyes stared at the ground before she sighed.
“Tell them I’ll meet them in the throne room, don’t let anyone else in, not even guards.”
“Yes Ma’am!” The Guard replied as the sounds of him hurrying down the hallway grew distant.
“Ahhh Bella! Or should I say, your highness? It’s been such a long time!” Santiago sneered, holding out his arms.
“Yes Santi, around nine years..” Bella’s face remained still, much unlike Sanitago’s wide smile.
“Yeah it sure has been a while since you managed to pay our renewal fee huh?” He teased leaning one elbow on a support pillar in the throne room.
Bella glanced past him at the white haired Fitz, she hadn’t seen a northerner for a long time and while she was no stranger to white skinned people, his hair made him seem alien to her.
“Sooo.. Since we’re kinda defending your whole kingdom from the damn Emissians, and it's not cheap to be keeping an army afloat I’m gonna need quite the payout..” Santiago’s voice trailed off as he noticed Bella’s scowl.
“An army? An army of what Santi? Bandits, rapists and murderers? I’m not the same woman I used to be, I have a daughter now and I can’t keep hearing these horrific reports of the aftermath of your battles..” Bella spoke assertively but also with a pain in her heart.
“What the hell are you trying to say Bella?” Santiago mumbled, his cheery demeanor falling away within an instant.
“I’m done hiring Black Horn.. I’ve started paying and using the services of the Westriders..” Bella told him, not breaking eye contact.
Santiago slammed his fist into the pillar and looked away from her.
“We’ve pushed Emissuss back all the way to Halfhar! You should’ve seen the look in Locus’ eyes when I reminded that traitor what his ‘beloved country’ did to Sara! What is with you!? It’s like I’m the only one who cares anymore! Like I’m the only one who remembers-!”
“I remember perfectly well, Santi!” The room went silent as Bella shouted for the first time, her voice filling the castle like that had never happened before.
“I can’t do it anymore.. It’s been almost twenty years..” Bella wiped a tear from her left eye.
“Sara is gone.. I have my kingdom, my family to worry about now.. Maybe you should just let her go-”
Santiago walked away from her and out of the castle, leaving her in that gaping empty room alone, their words echoing off the walls in history.
Xen awoke, sore and alone in the alley. He tried to hide his ripped clothes behind his dark armor sobbing quietly to himself, still coughing up sand, blood and other fluids. He sat there all alone with his back to a wall, looking up and around himself every few seconds. Then he caught a glimpse of a man staring at him before whispering something to another man, never breaking eye contact. He froze in place, his eyes fixed, unmoving from the man’s gaze.
Then something snapped in his mind, he got up and bolted down the alleyway knowing that the men were in pursuit and that there were possibly more than just the two of them. Xen scurried up a tall tree near the Tower of Jarak, He didn’t look down to see the four men tailing him up the tree, he just kept going as the branches became thinner and thinner. He could hear the men shouting something as he just kept climbing.
Xen could now notice the problem he was stumbling into, as one branch snapped as he leapt off of it. He finally turned back, shaking with fear and tears in his eyes, at the assailant who was hellbent on getting to him. The last man was two branches below the one he had sought refuge on. The branches he had just snapped with each jump.
Another snap rang out as Xen could feel the branch he was on about to give. As it finally broke he, by some miracle, latched onto an irregular patch of stone on the Tower of Jarak. He hung there for a moment with his legs dangling over a vast Jarak skyline. He struggled against gravity and pulled himself up slowly climbing the side of the tower. He still wanted to get away from the men as they were far more frightening than the possibility of a deadly fall.
He quickly found himself at a window and pulled himself up into the Tower itself. The inside was empty and expansive, it was bigger and more isolating than anything Xen had experienced, but still he found a wall and kept his back to it while taking a second to be in awe.
“Why hello there young one..” Xen jumped at the sound of a womanly voice from the other side of the room.
“Are you here to steal something? Or take my life?” Bella wondered as she watched the boy from a corner that led into a hallway.
Xen froze in terror and shock unsure of what to say so he shook his head.
“Ah I see.. Well then, would you care for a game of chess?” Bella asked as she sat down at the table in the center of the empty room.
She began to set up the pieces as she hummed to herself.
“My husband loved this game so much he devoted an entire room to it..” She smiled to herself while holding a rook in her hands, rubbing her fingers over the smooth carving.
“Do you not know how to play? It’s okay little one, I can teach you!” Bella gestured to the seat across from her.
Xen slowly sat down, still mute. His tired eyes scanned the pieces on the board as Bella’s eyes scanned him, she noticed his ripped clothes and tired state, the bruises and cuts on his fragile skin.
It hurt her heart.
Xen spotted a piece that looked like a horse on the table and showed it to her with delight.
“Horse!” He shouted with a slight smile at the one thing he could recognize.
“Ah! That piece is a fan favorite! It’s called the knight.” Bella responded, picking up a knight of her own.
“They are the most unpredictable piece in the game. At the surface they look quite simple, moving in this pattern..” Bella demonstrated the knight’s L shape on the board.
“..but in reality the knight is used frequently to gain an upper hand by setting up different traps and plans to..” Bella moved the knight in the pattern again.
“..take out big pieces!” She shouted in delight as she took Xen’s queen.
“C-can y-” Xen mumbled.
Bella smiled gently at him, waiting patiently for him to finish speaking.
“Teach me?”
“Gladly!”
They played chess over and over and over again. Xen lost every game but as they played Bella noticed him growing more and more comfortable with talking. Mostly about their favorite animals or stories they heard before.
They finally got to the last game, the sun was starting to set so it would have to be quick. Xen struck fast with his rooks first, followed by his queen and bishops. The queen was trying her best to counter his surprisingly good offense but her mind was nagging her with a question she just had to ask..
“So.. boy.. Where is your moth-”
Xen, before she could ask, checkmated her with both knights and a queen.
“Checkmate!” he shouted in satisfaction, the young boy’s smile as large as it had ever been.
Bella didn’t finish her question and instead smiled at the boy, patting his head.
“Good job!”
She hugged him tightly at the tower exit, and as she did she finally noticed the armor he had been wearing the entire time. Her heart sank and face lost color as she could fully see each defining trait of Black Horn armor.
Xen spotted Fitz’s silver hair in the evening glow of the sunset and slowly walked his way toward the man as Bella watched with a single tear flowing down her face.