Chapter 19
An origin level individual has no place on the battlefield in regards to Plathara’s land. It warrants too much destruction and can severely impact the progressiveness of the continent. Any individual origin level in strength will be placed onto the restriction list disallowing them permission to fight in all battles and wars, no exceptions. If said law is to be broken, we, the Triforge College, will execute a severe punishment.
-Excerpt from the Origin Accords
Nivra was sitting in the chest feeling the carriage as it moved. The carriage would stop then move frequently. Nivra figured that the caravan was at the gates and was slowly making its way into the city. The carriage he was hiding in came to a stop once again. This time he heard the door open, and the carriage slightly shook as people entered.
“Is this all there is?” a voice asked.
“Yes, it matches with the paperwork doesn't it?” another voice said in a slightly annoyed tone.
“It checks out I suppose,” the first voice responded disgruntled by the other person.
“Why do you Artisan guards give us so many problems when no other city does?” the merchant began to rant.
“Sir we are just doing our job. You Verkarion merchants always expect everyone to bend the rules for you,” The guard retorted his tone filled with frustration.
“We try to do honest business, and your city treated us like we're smugglers! Is it really necessary to check every carriage and waste our precious time?” the merchant continued to complain. The merchant and guard were still arguing as they finally left the carriage. Nivra heart was pounding at the close encounter. If the guard had opened the chest, I would have been done for! Well, the most dangerous part is still ahead, Nivra pondered as the carriage once more began to move. Nivra could tell that he had entered the city due to hearing the busy bustle of the streets. After a while, the noise level dropped followed by the carriage coming to a stop. The carriage lightly shook as if someone was getting off. Nivra quickly did a soul pulse to get a read on the situation. He saw a person who he assumes to be the driver walking away from the carriage. There were quite a few people in the surrounding area but none too close to the carriage.
I need to get out of this chest before I can make my next move, he thought. A wisp of black nimora snaked out of the chest and into the lock. After a moment the lock was undone, freeing Nivra. He slowly stood up opening the chest trying to be as quiet as possible. He stepped out of the chest and hid to the side of the door. Nivra was frequently emitting soul pulses so he could find an opportunity to escape. He was patiently observing when he noticed someone walking towards the carriage. His heart clenched as the person got increasingly closer. Luckily it only seems to be one person and not a group he thought. The door to the carriage opened revealing a Verkarion merchant. The merchant walked into the carriage his eyes locked onto the chest. As the merchant walked towards the chest Nivra sprung forward grabbing the merchant. Startled the merchant attempted to scream only to have Nivra clamp his hand over the merchant's mouth.
“If you don't stop trying to make a fuss. I'll just kill you,” Nivra hissed out as his grip tightened. The merchant froze not daring to make a peep. “Now I'm going to let go, and if you make any noise, you're dead. Do you understand?” The merchant nodded his head. Nivra removed his hand from the merchant's mouth.
“What do you want? Please don't kill me I'll do anything you want,” The merchant whispered as his entire body began shaking in fear.
“Take off your clothes,” Nivra commanded. The merchant's eyes widened in surprise.
“Y-You're into that kind of stuff?” The merchant said trembling. Nivra’s face darkened as he realized the merchant had misunderstood his intention.
“Hurry up and do as I say and make sure to keep your undergarments on,” Nivra growled in anger. The merchant began stripping as tears started to run down his face. After stripping down, Nivra gagged and tied the merchant up, placing him in the chest. Nivra quickly put on the merchant's clothes and exited the carriage. As he exited the carriage, he looked around seeing that he was in a large storage warehouse. I just need to get out of this warehouse, and I'll be free and clear, he thought as he began to walk towards the exit casually. He was almost to the exit when another merchant called out to him.
“Hey have you finished checking the cargo and taking inventory?” another merchant asked as he walked towards Nivra. Feeling panicked Nivra’s mind raced with different ideas to escape the situation.
“Yeah it's all good, I'm about to report to the boss,” Nivra responded trying his best to imitate the merchant. The approaching merchant narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he stared at Nivra.
“I don't recognize you. Who are you?” The merchant demanded. Nivra felt sweat run down his face hearing the suspicion in the merchant's voice.
“I'm a new recruit they hired to help with the caravan,” Nivra said trying to lie his way out. The merchant narrowed his eyes upon hearing Nivra’s story.
“I don't recall hiring anyone and considering I'm in charge of this operation I would know about it,” the merchant remarked. Nivra seeing that he had been found out began looking around for an escape route. To his dismay, multiple guards were already quickly surrounding the area.
“You knew right from the get-go yet talked to buy time for the guards to show up. Impressive you have really driven me into a corner,” Nivra snidely remarked. The merchant chuckled before responding.
“Just give up and surrender quietly I promise we will not be harsh,” He said trying to persuade Nivra.
“Alright, I surrender. I know when I've lost,” Nivra said holding out his hands. Before the guards could even move a phantom of Sura appeared behind Nivra. With a loud hiss, Sura opened his mouth and sprayed out a dense cloud of mist covering the warehouse. The warehouse was thrown into chaos as the guards rushed towards Nivra. In the brief moment when the guards were stunned, Nivra was already on the move. He bolted towards the large warehouse doors seeking to escape. As he was fleeing, he heard a loud voice fill the surroundings.
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“A thief has infiltrated the compound and was last seen in warehouse “C."" Damn, they sure do work fast, Nivra thought as he made his way out of the warehouse. As he exited the warehouse, he scanned the area and what he found caused his face too pale. He saw a multitude of guards running in his direction. Suddenly Nivra had an ingenious idea.
“Help! There's a thief in there,” Nivra ran while yelling. The guards just seeing Nivra as a scared merchant rushed right past him. He continued to run madly trying to put distance between him and the warehouse. Before he could get too far, he saw a merchant run out of the warehouse cursing at the guards.
“That's the thief you fools! Hurry up and catch him,” he screamed at the guards. The guards enraged began to chase Nivra with vigor. Pushing himself Nivra ran with all his might attempting to enter the city proper where he would have a better chance to escape. The guards were slowly gaining on him due to the fact they seemed to be body tappers, allowing them to have increased speed and stamina compared to a soul tapper like Nivra. He finally reached a small wall that appeared to be the boundary between the merchant's estate and the city. Nivra rushed to the wall and quickly jumped over the wall landing on a busy paved road. The people stopped and looked surprised to see someone jump into the middle of the street. Nivra looked around for a direction to run when an Artisan guard approached.
“Sir, you are not allowed to cause a commotion with your tapping,” The guard said unhappily.
“My apologies, I'm new so I don't understand all the rules,” Nivra hastily said.
“Alright just try and stay out of-,” before the guard could finish the gate to the merchants compound opened. A stream of guards rushed out with weapons drawn. Nivra seeing the mass of guards turned and fled surprising the Artisan guard.
“Get him! He's a thief!,” A merchant guard yelled at the Artisan guard. The Artisan guards face turned ugly as he drew out a silver longsword. With a shout, he swung the longsword causing a silver bolt of nimora to fly out towards Nivra. Turning to face the nimora bolt he struck out with his palm as black and blue nimora covered his hand. The silver bolt struck Nivra’s palm causing a loud grinding sound. Nivra then swung his palm to the side deflecting the silver bolt. As the bolt smashed into a wall, it exploded creating a cloud of debris. Without looking back, Nivra used the cloud of debris as cover to escape. He ran along the broad road attempting to blend in with the crowd. As he tried to disappear into the crowd, he heard someone shout.
“There he is! The one with the colorful hat,” someone yelled. The crowd around Nivra quickly kept their distance leaving Nivra out in the open. Nivra ripped his hat off throwing it to the ground. Before he could start running his eyes widened as he dived to the side narrowly missing a barrage of silver bolts.
Damn! Why do the city guards here have artifacts! He thought as rolled to his feet. He took off in a random direction in an attempt to shake the guards off his trail. After taking multiple turns and slipping through many alleyways, the guards still kept showing up. How are they finding me even after I have lost them? They must have a tapper or artifact specialized in tracking! As he continued to maneuver throughout the city more and more guards seemed to be chasing him. He was stumped as to how they were tracking him leaving him with little options. The entire city was in an uproar due to the chase. Nivra began to run into roadblocks set by the guard's forcing him to change direction. Eventually, Nivra realized that they were attempting to corner him. As he was beginning to get desperate, he heard a familiar voice call out.
“Niv over here,” Sutek’s voice came from an alley. Nivra was filled with relief as he rushed into the alley. He entered the seemingly empty alley when Cang, Sutek, and Tuin seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“They are somehow tracking me. We need to figure out how before you guys get pulled into this,” Nivra urgently explained.
“Not a problem! I am the best at hiding and escaping, so I should be able to resolve the tracking problem shortly,” Cang responded confidently. Cang held up his hand as a stream of nimora sprung forth covering Nivra. Cang retracted the nimora with a grin.
“Did you find how they were tracking me?” Nivra asked still concerned.
“Yeah looks like they hit you with a tracer mark from a mind tapper,” Cang explained as he held out his opened hand. In his hand was a translucent pulsing mark the size of a fingernail.
“Why are you holding onto it shouldn't you destroy it?” Nivra asked confused. Cang chuckled before answering.
“I am going to use it to leave a little surprise for the guards to find.”
“Cang, I think we could get along,” Sutek interjected with a mischievous laugh. Nivra’s eyes blazed at the thought as it would bring a little bit of satisfaction after being chased all over the city.
“Alright, I'll leave it to you,” Nivra said grinning. With Cang’s ability to hide they swiftly moved to another alleyway. Once there they began to set up a simple trap. Sutek took a large metal waste bin and caused it to float above the ally. He also added a nimora tripwire that when crossed would drop the waste bin. Cang added on by hiding the bin and tripwire. While Nivra’s contribution was when the garbage falls it would be encapsulated in ice, trapping the guards with the trash.
“That should be enough. Let's get out of here before the guards show up,” Cang said as he finished disguising the scene. The group departed the area and were able to even sneak past a roadblock. Now that they were out of the search area Nivra was finally able to calm down.
“So do you guys know what exactly went wrong with us entering the city?” Nivra asked.
“All we know is that they somehow knew one of our men. They caught him and had him point out all of our members,” Sutek answered.
“Let's go to our hideout. Toalf is currently holding down the fort,” Cang said.
“It's not like he doesn't enjoy terrifying the others,” Tuin muttered under his breath. Cang and Sutek slightly smiled while looking at each other.
“What's that all about?” Nivra asked narrowing his eyes.
“Toalf has taken it upon himself to be the group's enforcer. He seems to like it almost too much,” Cang responded. Nivra just shook his head. After walking for a while, they finally came to a stop outside of a rundown tavern.
“We have been renting this dump since we couldn't find anything better,” Sutek grumbled.
“He hasn't shut up about how rundown it is,” Cang sighed rubbing his temples. Sutek snorted as he walked into the decrepit building. As Nivra entered the tavern, he was met by dim lighting and the smell of dust.
“This is pretty pitiful. We couldn't afford anything else?” Nivra asked unhappily as he looked at the lodging.
“We are low on funds since we are not able to sell most of the loot from that big job, as word has already reached the city that the caravan was robbed,” Cang explained the situation. Nivra frowned upon hearing that they were nearly broke.
“Tuin, go get Toalf we need to have a meeting and come up with our next course of action,” Nivra commanded. Tuin nodded and went to go find Toalf. Cang led Nivra into a much cleaner room that had a large table and comfortable looking chairs. Nivra took a seat at the head of the table. A few minutes later Tuin arrived with Toalf.
“Alright, now that we have everyone here we need to discuss what our next job is going to be,” Nivra announced.
“Our most pressing concern is our lack of novals. We need to start making money, or we will not even be able to feed everyone,” Cang said outlining their finances.
“I say we play to what we are good at and just take what we want,” Sutek said giving his opinion. Tuin kept quite not having any ideas of his own.
“Toalf do you have any ideas?” Nivra asked seeing Toalf in deep thought.
“Yes, we are newcomers to this city, so I say we should first take some time to establish ourselves before doing anything too eye-catching,” Toalf gave his thoughts.
“I agree we should start small and work our way up. So we will begin doing small operations in the less guarded parts of the city until we are stable enough to take risks,” Nivra stated outlining his plans. The others agreed to the plan. Standing up they left the room to enact the plan they had just made.