City of Hun, Nation of Latelle

Azure

We set out early in the morning, the cold air brushing against my hands. The shadows are long and tall, hiding us better.

We jog throughout the city, as the commander orders his soldiers to split up and investigate. I split up with a team of three other people, one of them being Dan. Surprisingly, this city has a lot of people up early in the morning, most of them already starting to get ready to set up shop, even at six am. I really admire the tenacity of the people here in this busy city.

Before I could continue glancing around, we arrive at one of the places where most of the missing peoples are. According to the reports, the people missing are mostly teenagers. Looking at the report cases, it's clear to me that the abductor only goes for weaker, less fortunate people, people who wouldn't have any strong backers.

According to the commander, this mission is pretty unimportant, even with the sheer scale of the thing, as the royalty and nobles don't place much priority in the well-being of average citizens. It's unfortunate, but's that's just reality. Tsk.

The place we arrive at is a large busy alley, usually used as a shortcut from the industrial area to the commercial area, but also where many people shop for incredibly cheap prices. Someplace I would probably shop at, if it didn't look so sketchy.

Our squad of soldiers calmly walk through, trying to see if we find anything. But we find nothing. Nothing yet at least. We see some poor children chasing each other, fathers bargaining with shopkeepers, and some stealing and pickpocketing too. Although we should technically do something about the pickpocketing, it just isn't worth it, since it occurs so often, at least in Virene.

After a few conversations with no leads, we do find some help from a middle aged store owner.

"I think I saw an abduction last week, although I'm not entirely sure. It was pretty dark outside, and I remember seeing a small glimpse of movement and a scream." The man says. "Hope this helps a bit."

"Which direction did the abductor go?" Dan asks.

"I think it was down the alley." The man replies.

"Alright, should we investigate?" A soldier says.

"Let's first ask around a tiny bit more and see if there's a consensus." I remind him. And so we do, and two other people also point us in the same general direction, in this smaller alley. One of the store owners even thanked us, and offered us a bit of bread, but we declined. He said his daughter was captured, probably by the same abductor who was taking all the other citizens, and was hoping we'd rescue her. We gave him some reassurance that we'll definitely solve the case, but I knew we were lying. There was just no guarantee she'd be alive, even if we did find the people who were abducted.

So, after confirming a bit, we decided to ready our selves and explore further.

City of Hun, Nation of Latelle

Dan Rovier

The sound of cheap metal armor clanks on each step. Even with light leather additions on the soldier armor, it still isn't very flexible.

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The alley is very dark, with the walls and hunching roofs blocking sunlight from all direction. One of the soldiers in my squad uses very weak fire magic to roughly light the way. It reminds me of a darker time in my past, where I used to be locked in inside my room by my parents. They had some abnormal obsession with keeping me away from the public. It desensitized me from being scared of the darkness, a common fear that most children have. And I learnt to be happy, no matter the situation. Similar to the small flame flickering in the dark, lit by weak magic from a soldier.

Azure is scanning the place, looking for any signs of life, but gives up after a while.

We make some twists and turns, most times the turn ends in a dead end, and we'd have to go back and go the different way. We make sure to map out where we went to we don't get lost. Luckily, there isn't any open areas, so we only need keep going in one direction.

After a while, our eyes adjust to the darkness, and we don't really need the fire anymore, but the soldier keeps it on just for added visibility. It's better to careful after all.

"Wow, this is getting way easier, now that we can actually kind of see!" I say with a smile. "I guess we'll be done soo-"

"Wait, do you hear that?" Azure says, interrupting me. The other soldiers murmur to each other, and we sprint forward, trying to listen for any noises.

Out in the distance, I start to hear something. Screams, muffles, and impacts. We all dash to the sound. In the distance, there's a hooded man, running off with a person on his shoulders, mouth stuffed with rolled up cloth, freaking out. It's a teenage girl. Suddenly, lights emit from his hands as magic circles surround the girl, and she completely stops struggling. Paralysis magic?

"It's him! Go!" One of the soldiers say. We all give chase.

That's the abductor. It has to be.

He runs off quick, even though he's carrying a teenage girl. He jumps off walls, into balconies, onto dumpsters, and swings off poles, like an acrobat. We find it difficult to follow him, but we manage. The sound of footsteps thump throughout the alley. Wind pushing against my chest as I breathe heavy, forcing air through my lungs, panting. How far is this punk going to go?

Right before I give up, he stops, points his head up, and whistles loudly. Before I can realize what's he's doing, I can see a glimpse of other hooded people above, jumping down on us. They're above us, about to land beside the person we were chasing, but one of them is not jumping on the ground—no, he's trying to jump on us—jump on Azure.

"Azure, quick!" I quickly dive, pushing Azure out the way, and the hooded man that was trying to jump on Azure is now focused on me. I can see the knife in his hands, glinting. Move, move, move! I put all my power in my legs, and launch myself out, but I'm too slow. The hooded man manages to slash the side of my arm.

"Aughh!" I scream. Azure looks at me with wide eyes. Before I can take in the pain of the attack, the attacker launches towards me. I look around for help, but the soldiers are missing? Where are they? Did they run off in fear? Damn it! Those motherf***ers! Is this how I die?

I close my eyes in fear, waiting for the blade to soon send me to my death, but nothing of the sort happens.

The sound of bones cracking makes me open my eyes, it's Azure, slide tackling the person attacking me. How did she recover so fast?

I look at Azure, and she looks back at me. I can see the glimmer of fear in her eyes, and I wonder if she can also see the fear in mine. Damn... It's two against like six skilled people, one of which who can use magic? What can we do? Before I can ask another question, Azure takes out a sword from his belt, and charges at the attackers, recklessly attacking them. It takes six of them to pin him down, and they set their targets on me next.

"Run!" Azure says, not even turning her head around to face me. Damn it. I'm sorry. So so sorry.

I can feel my eyes watering in sorrow, and I sprint away, refusing to look back. I swallow hard.

Then I hear the sound of a magic circle activating behind me.

City of Hun, Nation of Latelle

Azure

These guys are tough. All six of them pin me down, hard. Hopefully Dan and the others manage to make it back safely, and can rescue me.

Maybe these guys will kill me. Maybe they'll abduct me like they did to the other teenagers. I don't know.

Suddenly, a deep glow of purple flashes my eyes, and a magic circle appears around me. In only a heartbeat, my world turns black.

The silence rips me apart.