Books.
Fire.
Screams.
Stone.
Smoke.
I know where I am. My eyes open in surprise, and I’m greeted with the smell of fire, and the sounds of fighting and collapsing rooms. Smoke wafts through my room, hinting that fire would be turning it into a crisp in the coming minutes. Heavy raindrops pound against the windows of my room.
My hands reach for my stilettos, but instead, I feel the knives that Alisson lent me. I draw them. Hmph, pretty intimidating right; A little girl in her pajamas holding knives?
On that thought, I take a look at myself, and notice something that is far different from all previous times that I’ve had this dream. I’m wearing my armor, and my body is as grown as I am presently, I can feel the strength in my muscles. I clench my knives tighter, eyeing the door to my room. I don’t bother to peek through it, I know what’s coming, and I steel myself.
The door breaks down, and a wraith-like warrior enters in a blur, charging me. The ripped cloak masking his armor is seared and burned. The wraith-like assassin closes the gap quickly, soon in range. I hold my ground. He swings, and I, fully anticipating the attack, easily bob under his sword and stab the assassin directly in his stomach with both my knives. The blades tear through his armor, and he’s effectively disemboweled, his limp body slides off of me and hits the ground with a heavy thud.
I stare for a moment at the warrior’s corpse, still unable to make out anything under that ragged cloak of his, even though I have an unobstructed view. Almost immediately afterward, I hear and feel loud footsteps all around me.
One is rushing down the hallway, he’ll enter in the same the door the other one did.
Above me, two are preparing to crash in through the window. I can hear the jingle of their chain that they’ve affixed to the sill so that they can swing in.
I’ve been told many times by my master. This second a warrior feels before a battle plays out, it is singlehandedly the most important time period for achieving victory. My adrenaline pulses, and yet my body is still and calm, my heart beats madly, and yet by breathing is serene and prepared; Alisson has trained my body and mind well.
I’ll deal with the ones coming in through the windows first; they’ll be here sooner, and their numbers will be a risk if they get their bearing and cooperate after entering the room. By the time I deal with them, the assassin coming down the hall will be right on top of me – I need to keep an ear on my back.
With the engagement planned in my head, I lean forward and sprint to execute it. I reach the windows to my room within the blink of an eye, and I can see clearly, against the light of the moon on the other side of the window, is a figure less than a second away from crashing through the glass.
I prepare a Pict spell, and raise my foot in a kick, preparing to meet the assailant’s body. My boot crashes through the window, the moon’s beams of light illuminating the shards of glass whilst they fly through the air.
As my boot meets the assassin’s chest, I fire my prepared Pict spell at the chain he was using to rappel into the room. My spell severs the chain, and my kick does its job; The assassin is sent flying from the keep’s window, never to even enter the room.
I shift my attention to the second assassin planning to crash through my windows. He’d already broken through, and was shifting into a combat stance in slow motion beside me. I bolt for the cloaked warrior. I throw a distractionary swipe at him with one of my knives, hoping he’ll take the bait. He raises his sword toward my knife, leaving his abdomen wide open. Now point blank, I easily shove my remaining knife into his gut, and he shrieked in pain. I swipe a foot at his ankles, making him lose his balance.
And then, I push, up and over the windowsill. The assassin goes out from whence he came, and is engulfed into the black of the outside. I can see his panicked flailing as the assassin falls out of my view. My room is quite high up. The both of them will most certainly be but red stains on the ground; given that they don’t know about the secondary balcony below this floor and that they won’t be quick enough to grab hold of it.
Before my mind can rest, I hear ear-piercingly loud footsteps behind me. I turn in a blur, to see the last assassin rushing me, already swinging.
I raise my remaining knife – For the other one had been stuck into the assassin I’d just shoved out the window – and threw it at the rushing assassin. My knife twirls through the air, and hits its mark, directly on the assassin’s neck. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the assassin promptly lost all signs of muscle tension and became limp, he collapsed to the ground, sliding toward me across the stone floor thanks to his previous momentum.
I narrow my eyes and search the area, my fists clenched and my body ready to spring into action. But, contrary to my pumping adrenaline, no enemies appear, and I sit in silence for a solid minute, as rooms collapse just down the hallway from me. The loud groans of cracking and straining wood snap me back into thought. My room would, or at least the hallway very near, would collapse in the following few seconds, that much was for sure. Minding the glass, I vault the window into the night. I don’t plan on killing myself, so I stick close to the wall in my descent, using the loose stones of the upper keep in my advantage to slow myself every few meters. Soon I fall onto the secondary balcony, and it’s not large like a real balcony but rather a window with a shutter that extrudes from the keep slightly. I cling to it, and peer down.
…I’m unable to see the ground beneath, and I audibly gulp because of it. The stones by the base of the keep are not loose and jutting out here and there, they have to be a stable foundation; as such…there’s not a lot between me and the ground.
My veil of doubt is shattered almost as quickly as it descends however, when I hear the shouts of men, coming around the keep walls, as if they know exactly where I am. Urged on by not wanting to be seen, I let go of the shutter, and my stomach tightens as the feeling of weightlessness overtakes me. I cringe in anticipation. When I land, I hit the ground, hard.
My body compress down like a spring, and I’m leaning on my arms and feet, but a fall like that was life threatening…I’m surprised I’m still conscious. My legs and most chiefly my ankles throb sorely, and a wave of nauseous tire washes over my body; the sudden stop in motion having screwed with my circulation temporarily.
I don’t have a moment to rest; I hear those, assassins, near, homing in on me. The only thing between me and them are the dark bushes that lay against the wall of the keep. With all my might, I try to stand, and for a moment my body doesn’t budge, despite the urging of my mind.
Finally, I shakily stand to my feet, and not tarrying, I make a break away from the keep, delving into the darkness; the further away I got the less the fires of the keep illuminated the ground. The rain had done little good; the ground was all but reduced to mud.
It soon felt like I was running through a mire plain, the moonlight shimmering off of the surrounding sludge as my boots created large splashes with my desperate sprinting. I ran, and soon, it felt as though the moonlight was pointed only at me, like some sort of spotlight, I couldn’t see a thing, I could only hear the mud underfoot.
Before I knew it, there was a large body of water in front of me. It was endless, and the more I stared, the smaller the land at my back became. It was Lake Aleeze, as my family’s keep was on an island in the middle of the Lake.
Suddenly remembering this fact, as if I’d forgotten it, my mind races with the realization that I’m dreaming. I quickly recall the previous times I’ve had this dream…Compared to the others, this time has been radically different. I feel like something is missing, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It might be that I myself was so different this time; however, I’m still at the end, where this dream always ends, me waiting for rescue from Sidonia, looking out over the moonlit Lake. Before I can unpack the previous events any further however…
…
My eyes open in a panic, and I heave heavy breaths. My mind races with thoughts and remembrance, grasping at the dream I’d awoken from. Though like with all dreams, the more and more I grasped at it, the more faded away from my mind, and I soon forgot all about it except that it was one of those dreams again.
I squeeze my hands tighter instinctively, without realizing what I was actually grabbing. I quickly remember the happenings of the last night, and I recognize the warm body that my arms are clutching. Alisson faces me, his eyes gently closed and his lips ever so slightly parted, a few inches from my own face. The warmth of both the sheets and of Alisson’s body only exacerbated my heavy limbs and eyes; the enthralling comfort made me want to stay like that for eternity, and fall back asleep. With the crack of dawn peeking through the window though, and shining a single shaft of sunlight on Alisson’s face before me, I bittersweetly realize that it’s time for a new day, and that’d I’d have to part ways with the immeasurable comfort.
Feeling a little melancholic from realizing that, I push forward closer to Alisson snugly, nuzzling his shoulder and tightening my grip. I feel his soft hair, which is even softer thanks to the previous night’s bath, across my cheek.
“Alisson…”
I let a soft murmur out amidst my parting cuddle.
Lo and behold, Alisson’s eyes open almost comically, and he stares at me; a moment of awkward wide-eyed silence overtakes the two of us.
The way he opened his eyes so quickly without fatigue…he, he was already awake…
He blushes crimson and looks away with a frown. I yelp, in a mixture of guiltiness and shame, and withdraw from Alisson. I sift so far under the covers away from Alisson that I end up falling off the bed, with a loud crash.
“Ow…”
I sit, rubbing my eyes. I see Alisson peek his head at me from the bed, on all fours, looking with concern at me. After a second, a loud sound breaks our silence.
“Hah!” Tsuhara promptly shrieks, waking up in a panic. She sits up clutching her heart and breathing heavily. She then looks over to me and Alisson, highly irate,
“What’re you trying to kill me or something!? You scared me half to death sou!”
…Is her reaction time that slow?
Me and Alisson both stare at her for a second, before she crosses her arms and looks away with a pout. I can only stare at Alisson with a blush.
He was, he was awake and, and...
…
We’re leaving Daigoro this morning, and as such we need to make sure everything is in order before we set off while we have the luxury of our own room to look over everything we have. Alisson left early to go get the horses and bring them to the inn. Tsuhara said that she had some business of hers that she needed to attend to, some sort of shakedown was in order for some poor soul in Daigoro; She said she’d meet us by the front gate after me and Alisson grabbed our order from the blacksmith from yesterday.
Even though I haven’t needed Alisson’s blades, I feel like I’ve used them, for whatever reason, and I’m sort of eager to get back my shiny refurbished weapons and armor. Despite all this happening, there was nothing for me to do for a brief lapse in time. When Alisson had left, he told me it’d be nice to help Tsuhara since she was so courteous in giving us a place to stay the night. Which means…
…I’m stuck folding laundry. At least it’s all clean thanks to Alisson. I have to say, I feel a lot like a spoiled brat – I can barely do this. We always had a cleaner at the Academy for this sort of thing, and back when I was a kid in my keep, I had plenty of servants under me to do this menial task. Now though, thanks to my lack of experience, I’ve had a, rough, time…
It’s times like this where I look up to maids and butlers. Seriously! They’re always so efficient with this stuff! Not only can they fold quickly and perfectly, they know exactly how to place the clothes in drawers to conserve as much space as possible.
I can only imagine their shining auras of perfection and humbleness as I myself am essentially throwing clothes into a blender to fold them and then stacking them like rocks atop one another.
But, I’ve come to a particular article of clothing…
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“She really is bigger than me…”
I mutter, holding it before my eyes with both my hands. I look down at my own chest and suddenly wonder if I’m going to need a larger size. I can only imagine now how embarrassing and uncomfortable it would be if-
“Hey. Celis. The horses are out front, I’ve-”
The door opened with Alisson’s words. He was cut short when he saw me, holding a bra up high into the morning light, like it was some sort of holy object. We stood both in silence for a moment. He slowly closed the door with a dark expression. It creaked, as if to audibilize the shame growing on my body.
…
Certainly he kept on finding his apprentice in the oddest circumstances. Alisson thought about all the other, antics, his apprentice had pulled, and he realized that he felt relieved from all the breaks in her seemingly endless impassivity. She’d fell over herself swearing that it wasn’t what it had looked like, all the while Alisson simply stood smiling at her unluckiness. While he stood, listening to her panic, he felt the urge once more to pat her head; but he remembered that self-oath he’d made in Menton Forest, in Sylph’s grotto, where he’d sworn not to ever be so intrusive.
Compared to what a brazen thing he’d done the night prior, bathing with his own apprentice, it certainly seemed like a laughably small thing to be worried about: a small pat on the head. Alisson still couldn’t fully believe the events of the last night. He looked back on it as a surreal and almost dreamlike experience, and he wholeheartedly believed he had been under some sort of spell; for Alisson would never be so bold as to do such a thing.
Barring the, interesting morning, after Celis and him had done a triple check on their gear and supplies – It never hurt to be overly cautious – They’d set off for the blacksmith’s shop from yesterday, towing their horses close behind. After about a quarter of an hour, they reached the overhanging and cave-like smithy. Leaving their horses tied up outside, Celis and him were once more engulfed in darkness as they entered the shop; the only lighting once more being the blazingly hot fiery orange of molten metal from the forge.
“Ah, wondering when you two would show up. I just finished up on the finer details and sanding, they’re all good to go. It’s the finest damned metal I’ve worked with in a long time, those there are some special pieces.”
The blacksmith said, gesturing to the shining plates of steel and holstered blades that lay on the countertop.
“Now normally I’d ask for payment now but, you already payed in advance. So go ahead, try it on, make sure I didn’t make dents in anywhere uncomfortable.”
The blacksmith winked.
As Celis hoisted the plates of armor and pauldrons and armor away to the backroom to put them on, the blacksmith turned to Alisson with a grin. His teeth were bright white, despite his skin color.
“Are you sure you didn’t want any engravings in that? I was thinking the whole time that I could make it look better…”
Alisson shook his head with a little gesticulation of his hand.
“No that’s not needed. The plain armor is fine for us.”
The blacksmith rose an eyebrow.
“Really now? You adventurers usually love all the fancy engravings, especially the higher-ranking ones. Hell, your armor is probably some of the best in the city and yet it looks pretty boring. The engraver down the street would probably break into a fit of happiness if she could work with such fine metal.”
“Well, that’s exactly it you see. Those adventurers have such large egos. They’d look at us and scoff, wearing unengraved armor under these cloaks of ours, they’d underestimate us to the harshest degree.”
The blacksmith grinned again.
“Sounds like you could kick their asses. Well, good, it’s time some new faces put those cocky bastards in their place, especially would youngsters like you just eat away their pride.”
With the blacksmith’s words, Celis came out of the shadows and into view. Tepidly, she parted her cloak for Alisson and the blacksmith to see the newly refurbished armor. It was shining, like it was brand new. Compared to it’s previous, battle-scarred wear and tear, Celis’s armor was spotless.
Alisson was shamed to admit that he felt the urge to also have such shiny and visually pleasing armor, whether it be cleaned as Celis’s was or engraved as the blacksmith had been eluding to. It brought a certain sense of childish pride and want. Though Alisson knew very well that such a thing was of no use to him, it could even be considered a detriment. So, he stuffed his childish urges down, as much as his mind displayed a perfect and idealized version of himself, he knew that that was a trap not worth falling into.
“Looks good. Thank you for the work, sir.”
Alisson bobbed his head at the blacksmith appreciatively. The blacksmith waved off Alisson’s formality with a smile.
“Eh, don’t mention it. Just come back if you ever need another pick-me-up.”
“If our path leads us here again, I’ll be sure to.”
Alisson smiled.
Surely, he was not lying. Now that he had found a blacksmith who was both unknowing of Alisson’s origin and at the same time was skilled, Alisson had no need to frequent any other smithy were he to be in Daigoro again. Of course, the next time Alisson set foot Daigoro could be centuries from now, and the blacksmith would surely be dead by then.
So, saying their goodbyes, him and Celis strode through the city back to the main gate, where Tsuhara said she’d meet them before they left. As the streets finally started to crowd with the hustle and bustle of a new day, they reached gate from whence they’d entered Daigoro the day prior. Tsuhara was standing of to the side, or at least, a brown cloaked figure whom Alisson assumed was Tsuhara.
Alisson approached and tapped her on the shoulder. Tsuhara promptly jumped, startled. She stared at Alisson for a moment, a hand on her heart, breathing a large sigh.
“Jeez! Did anyone ever teach you it’s bad manners to sneak up on people!?”
Despite her irate tone, she shrugged with a smile a moment later.
Alisson pulled her aside. He wished to ask her about something, something that he’d only remembered recently.
“Before we leave, I wanted to ask. You spend a lot of time in bars and inns yes? Well, have you heard of them; Sequiturs?”
When Alisson had initially brought Tsuhara aside, her face had turned to a stony seriousness, now however, she broke into an amused smirk.
“Why’re you asking about some stupid tavern tale?”
She said jokingly. Alisson flicked his eyes at Celis, who was off a ways with the horses. He need not say more, Tsuhara’s face darkened and steeled immediately.
“…If that’s true…I don’t know what I can say…You probably know just as much as me about them. All the drunkards and maniacs say the same things whenever the topic comes up, and it’s rare one at that.”
She shrugged with a frown, evidently disappointed to not be of any help. Alisson sighed. The two them walked back over to Celis, and Tsuhara shifted attitudes again – She loudly spoke out with a stretch; Alisson could tell she was putting on a mask of leisure,
“Well, you’re really heading out then?”
Alisson nodded. She let out a resigned sigh, her body slumping from its stretch.
“Eh…Sucks I can’t tag along, I can only imagine what kind of things the two of you get up to.”
Tsuhara then silently closed the distance between both himself and Celis.
“Well…” She hugged the two of them briefly. “Stay safe, comrades.”
With that, she briskly melted away into Daigoro, Alisson lost sight of her immediately in the forming crowds of activity. Alisson stared for a moment at where he last saw her, before silently turning with a flare of his cloak toward the gate.
…
Having slipped the gate guard a few coins, him and Celis left the city unhindered. They mounted up, and continued north along a stone road that cut through a slightly wooded area. A large river rushed on one side. The chirping of birds, and the rushing river, as well as the talk of the city and passing travelers left the atmosphere peacefully lively. Being so close to the city, the road he and Celis travelled on was populated with many passing wagons, parties of travelers and adventurers, and a few people who walked alone.
The landscape here was breathtaking, Alisson could see why this was the old territory of the elves. It was not the flora and fauna that made it beautiful as it was in the Menton Forest, but rather the topology. For instance, the river Alisson could see was in a ravine. The walls of stone that built up the ravine were spotless, and could be mistaken for being white. One side of the ravine was elevated more so than the other, and from this elevation a few waterfalls ran down into the river rushing below, creating rainbows with the ample mist.
It was times like this that Alisson found all his prior memories to be surreal, and fake. The unexplainable fog and shades of the Ipithid Plain, the emptiness and stillness of the forest near Curlessi, and all the horrors that lay within human territory, in plain sight…Alisson could scarcely believe any of it when he was met with a sight such as this.
They had been on the road for all of about fifteen minutes when a majestic sight showed itself. Over the ravine they’d been travelling along, was a large stone bridge looking construction. It managed to cross the ravine through the air with a brilliant display of struts and supports and arches, it was all so perfect that Alisson knew immediately who built it, the elves. It was Daigoro’s aqueduct. It was known far and wide as one of the only aqueducts in the world barring Sidonia and Andestine. It towered above the trees and ran right into Daigoro above the walls from the mountain where that ravine was at the base of. At the end of this aqueduct, in the mountain, was an expansionary settlement to Daigoro, A’râylareen. Alisson could see A’râylareen only slightly, it was an eighth the size of Daigoro and he could only make out the outlines of its wall against the sky thanks to its elevation.
After that fantastical sight of ingenuity and architecture, the road became less and less traversed. It was then when Alisson realized that him and Celis were and had been the only people travelling north, every other person on the road had been travelling down south, past them. It was this realization that snapped Alisson out of the trance of calm, and his mind raced to make up for its prior slack. He quickly formulated a list of worries in his mind as he always did to handle problems, and held on to it, for he wanted to share it with Celis, it was important that she too kept these things in mind for the coming trek of their mission.
So, when night fell, and they’d halted to the give the horses a small break, Alisson decided then to espouse to Celis their course of action that he’d been thinking about through the day.
The night was dark, but the moon was bright and the night critters were well-heard, so Alisson didn’t worry about danger. The two of them sat on the edge of the ravine, the river rushing hundreds of meters beneath their feet. They had a great view of the moon and of the dark blue sky that hosted hundreds of stars. Behind them, the mare and stallion were heaving breaths, drinking from a stream and eating the wheat that they’d been given.
“Celis.” Alisson started, breaking the hours long period of silence that had befallen them since they’d left Daigoro. “We’ll be entering Evering’s state in the coming day.”
He said, and another period of silence dragged before he spoke up again.
“The cultists there, we should be able to handle them if they give us any trouble. Make no mistake, they are not the humans we know, they will most likely attack us on sight, fanatics like them can’t be reasoned with. You know what to do.”
Alisson looked to Celis briefly, and she nodded sternly.
“After we’re about halfway north into the Evering territory, we’ll take a sharp westward turn, that should be enough of a large maneuver to circumvent Salva’kar. Then, we’ll keep heading west until we reach the Kingdom of Tarakia, in the center of Tarakia, is Freigat. The largest city next to Freigat is a large adventurer hub, as they send many expeditions into the Freigat jungle. We should be able to pass for adventurers, and travel with one of the expeditions. Sidonia only told me about a certain structure we’re looking for, it will have a distinct symbol that she told me of and it may also be underground.”
Alisson said, finally laying out his thoughts on the coming actions that he’d been pondering over as far back as Curlessi.
“But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Alisson started once more, “We will be in the north soon. The climate is much harsher, and the beasts are stronger, and humanity is almost always going to be a threat.”
After a moment of silence, he added,
“After coming so far, we can’t fail here.”
After a stint of silence, Celis spoke out to him tepidly,
“What do you think we’ll find?”
Alisson looked at Celis quizzically.
“I mean,” She hastened to elaborate, “What is it Sidonia wants us to find?”
Alisson looked away.
“I don’t know. If we knew, then we might endanger Sidonia should we be captured. We’re only supposed to find this, structure’s, location, danger, and any other details. What Sidonia knows to do with whatever we find, is probably something only she knows.”
Another moment of silence passed.
“Well, since your my apprentice, I’ll say it now…You should get used to doing things without reason. Usually Sidonia keeps the fruits of those mystery errands hidden until the very moment they come into use. That usually means that she doesn’t only surprise our enemy, but us as well.”
Alisson smirked.
“But,” Alisson stood, and Celis did the same, “Just remember, we need to be extra careful up here in the north. And…”
The two of them mounted up.
“…Get used to the colder weather while it’s not snowing.”
…
A usual at Daigoro’s Applebrew inn sat still on the bar, clad in their usual brown cloak.
Now that those two Nekomata had left earlier in the day, it was back to business as usual for Tsuhara. She sat, looking bored at the wall before her, sipping on a small glass of orange juice through a straw. She was obviously not there to drink, but rather her mind was away, and in tune to the hum of the inn, listening in on multiple conversations at once. It would have been odd to see the same person over and over again at a bar, but the man behind the bar didn’t pay any mind to Tsuhara; the two of them had arrangements. She was on the brink of calling for a Nekomata infiltrator to come and work their magic into turning the barkeep into a Sidonian…that kind of loyalty would make her life far easier.
Same old same old…at least now people are on edge due to the war with Sidonia, the cultist country and that plague in Salva’kar…it’s only a little more interesting though…
What really was the highlight of her week, were those Nekomata whom she’d hosted. The two of them really had been just an endless source of entertainment and intrigue. She almost laughed about it thinking about them now, their innocent and adorable love. It was something that Tsuhara could’ve bet her life savings on that they weren’t aware of, and that thought only widened her smug smirk.
Ah…Those two are helpless…
It was comical to think that she had such an opinion of someone who was the third best fighter in Sidonia, that Alisson Vi Nuam; Tsuhara hadn’t thought anything of him, but now? He was by far the most intriguing person of notice Tsuhara could think of.
Tsuhara only sighed to herself, the only person that could ever hope to unwrap that boy was probably his apprentice.
Interrupting her thoughts, a man that looked like a courier entered the inn. Thanks to the liveliness of the floor, he was sparsely heard and noticed, but Tsuhara of course, kept an eye on him, as she did with every other person in the room. The courier came to the front bar, and withdrawing something from within his coat, made small talk with the barkeep.
“How’s it going Kyril? Got some a delivery for a resident in your place, something just came in from Salva’kar’s port, across the sea.”
Taking out the package, the courier lifted an eyebrow jokingly,
“Be careful, ya might get the plague from that little box.”
He handed the small box to the barkeep, and the barkeep nodded.
“Thanks Seric.”
The barkeep said, and the courier turned round with a small wave of his hand, leaving the inn. After a moment, the barkeep looked at the box. His eyes narrowed in scrutiny.
“It says it’s for you.”
The barkeep said suddenly, looking over to Tsuhara, who was sitting right next to him.
Tsuhara’s brow piqued, and she stopped sipping from her straw immediately. She took the box from the barkeep, who then went to the other end of the bar and away from Tsuhara to refill a drink. Tsuhara peered at the box lazily, and indeed her alias was written on its label. She opened the plain looking box without much thought, to find inside it a letter placed over some sort of medallion. Tsuhara lifted the letter up, into the light where she could read it, and stared for a moment.
When she finished reading it, her eyes were twitching with anger and her spare hand was tightened into a fist. She quickly hopped off the stool she was on and took one last sip of her orange juice before slamming the glass on the bar.
“Tch! This could’ve came a day earlier! Damnit!”
With that exclamation, she rushed up to her room to gather her things to set out.
***