Dawn broke and the rays from the sun hit the unnaturally black stone of the Stygian castle, gone forever as they were absorbed. The gargoyles at the gate started to stir as it was time to change shifts and the replacement arrived.
One of the gargoyles with the head of a rooster stood at the top of the wall and began to perform some breathing exercises. Clearing its throat it put a large horn to its lip and took a deep breath. The instant that sunlight crept over the wall, it blew into the horn with all its might.
A booming sound exploded and spread out all over the castle. It even reached the Nyx Forest and woke up the goblins. It was this sound that brought Amaya out of the dream world. This was the third time that the blasted gargoyle had sounded that damming horn and still nearly jumping out of bed in fright. But she knew that without it, she wouldn't get up from her comfortable bed.
Amaya sat up and looked around in panic, but calmed down when she realised where she was. The disciple's quarters of the castle in most empty. For some reason, the person who designed the castle vastly overestimated the number of disciples for each generation. Since there were only 3 disciples in this generation before she came, Amaya ended up looking at more than a dozen rooms.
To call them rooms would have been a gross injustice as they were essentially apartments. Amaya marvelled at the chambers that had a living room, bathroom with bathtubs, a spare room, a kitchen and a bedroom.
The size of the quarters was bigger than the floors at her family's home, and Amaya couldn't imagine that all that would be for her. She eventually chose the dorm next to Seline and tried to settle in.
It was awkward having a maid waiting for her in case she needed help or was in trouble but Emile assured her once she was fully fit and felt at home, the maid would return to her previous duties.
Now fully awake Amaya went to get ready and freshen up. After the previous 2 mornings, she didn’t clean up too much and just brushed her teeth. The reason she didn’t shower or brush her too much was that before breakfast every disciple had to do morning exercises. So it was better to clean up afterwards.
Wearing the training outfit Amaya went to the courtyard in the disciple quarter. There waiting for her was Lizenna dressed in her black attire. That confused Amaya as usually, it was Master Emile who waited for them, but then Amaya remembered that her master had left yesterday for a mission.
She greeted Lizenna as she walked up to her. “Good morning, Lady Lizenna how are you?”
Lizenna who was twirling a dagger between her fingers nodded as Amaya, “Good morning Amaya, I’m well but could you please not call me Lady? Since I’m a sister disciple of your master, you should call me Senior Lizenna or Lizenna if you are more comfortable.”
Amaya nodded and said, “Okay, I will do that Senior Lizenna.”
Lizenna smiled at her and took off her hood revealing her short purple, “How are settling in Amaya, it can take some time to get used to the castle?”
Amaya started the stretching routine that her master taught her a few days ago, “It's been fine but the castle is a lot bigger than I realised. I’ve barely finished exploring the quarter quarters and I haven’t even gone to the other floors. How can it possibly be so big?”
“The castle actually has subtle space magic, so it is much bigger than what it seems. Here on the lower floors, the effect isn’t great. It’s probably twice the natural size but in upper and underground floors the space is up to 100 times the true space.”
Seeing Amya's shock she smiled “Haven’t you wondered where the rest of the people who are working for or are a part of the House of Erebus are? Most lived on either the lowest underground floors or the highest upper floors. They prefer to keep to themselves when they are here.”
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Before Amaya could ask more questions, a commotion occurred at the entrance of the courtyard. Looking over there she saw Seline and Toma wrestling. It seems that they were fighting to not be last, before there could be a victor two shadow tendrils picked them up and brought them over.
Lizenna gave them a sinister smile “Well it seems we have two people who are late and you know what we do with people for a late.”
She laughed as Seline and Toma cried in outrage.
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When the Empire of Arcadia fell, its territory became split into 4 parts. The mages and craftsmen settled in the westernmost region of the continent to establish Avalyn under the leadership of Esmeralda Altalia. The knights and guilds settled down in the centre of the continent and founded the kingdom of Raustria with their first ruler being William Ceasar.
The merchants and other influential people took over the capital but instead of creating another monarchy, they created a republic to ensure that a single person could never cause so much harm. The easternmost region of the continent however fell into anarchy as the most powerful factions had already picked their lands. This left the region to the east of the capital up for grabs.
Lesser nobles and military leaders fought for control but no single force was able to emerge victorious. After centuries of fighting, the situation settled into an uneasy stalemate. Instead of sovereign nations, many city-states emerged. These city-states were ruled by former nobles, generals, warlords or groups of power practitioners. To mock the last emperor of Arcadia, that region was named The Tharren Free Lands after Emperor Tharren Arcadia.
A small groups of those cities were ruled by a remnant of a massive bandit group. The Black Plain Bandits are a rising force that recently have come to power. No one truly knows how they came to power, but one day 7 cities displayed the same banner and the leadership of those cities pledged allegiance to the Bandits.
The territory under the control of the Bandits is particularly chaotic with rampant abuse of powers by the official members of the bandits. Political observers have noted that those cities are the only places on the continent that have worse living conditions than Arcadia before its fall.
And the worst of these cities was Bastion Hill. An almost lawless city where the weak were bullied or abused by either the guards, the gangs or the nobles. It was also the hotspot for the nefarious dealings on the continent. Many illegal auctions and markets occurred in Bastion Hill, whether it was illegal substances, endangered animals or even slavery.
But worst of all was the mayor of this city, Harold Hanthra. A high-ranking member of the Black Plain Bandits and an important subordinate of the Fist, Harold came to power in Bastion Hill through deceit and tricky.
He ousted the previous ruler through a scandal and has had the city under his iron rule. A sadistic man who enjoys hurting those weaker than him, and a racist who treats any other race as below humans. The beast folk are known to be his favourite victims, with his bloody treatment being known before the Black Plain Bandits took over Bastion Hill.
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At the gate of Bastion Hill was a long queue that extended for kilometres. Because of the fall of Arcadia and the constant war, the technology level of Tharren Free Lands has regressed. Other than the houses of the wealthy, most of the cities in Tharren were run through archaic systems. The reason for this was that magical runes, formations or seals were constantly destroyed in the fighting.
This meant to get into a large city like Bastion Hill, the most common method of entry was through a manual check at the gate. And because of the vast difference in the people coming, an observer will see a menagerie of vehicles. There were wagons, carriages, mounts and magic-motor vehicles.
In one of those wagons, a young female wrapped in robes was the reigns of a donkey and was very bored. In this moment the lady was regretting every major discussion in her life. But what she was really regretting was being tricked by her companions.
“I can’t you two would cheat in a game of rock-paper-scissors. Don’t you have any honour?”
One of the companions looked up from the card he was playing and smirked at her “Come on Lady Mia, don’t be a sore loser. We didn’t cheat because there are no rules against using magic.” The voice came from a young cat-born beast-man. He had matching black hair and black ears and his tail was gently swishing around.
Mia pouted and shot back “I think using magic to blind me does count as cheating.” She glared at the person opposite the beast-man in the hope of burning him.
The beast-man smirked and looked back at his card game opponent, “I guess she does have a point, Lord Emile. Interfering with a player is considered cheating in most games.”
Emile shrugged and placed a card down. “You see it as cheating Astar, but I see it as an opportunity to learn. Now you will be more vigilant in the future, wouldn’t you Mia?”
Mia refused to answer the jab and looked ahead. She sighed as she saw that they were still a few hours away from the gate.