She sat in the back of the carriage, hidden from view. Large wooden crates by her side, she quietly watched the wheels kick up dust and obscure the forest from her vision. Despite the debris clouds, she managed to properly observe the passing trees. They were mostly tall, well-defined, thick deciduous trees. All of them healthy, roots deeply ingrained into the nearby soils and their leaves in full mast. Contrary to the grey and green leaves from home, these trees sported a blue colour. This was often a sign of leylines. These areas held/carried large amounts of mana and were viewed as prime building locations by early man. They enhanced physical and mental strength, gathered rare magical beasts and strengthened magic.
Despite the odd colour of the trees, she wasn’t surprised in the slightest. The first reason was because of her destination. Magiyar, the city of magic. The earliest settlement recorded in history, Magiyar is the largest conglomeration of leylines and was often regarded by religion as the centre of the world. The forests around here were all coloured blue, and to anyone that understood how mana worked, that would come as no surprise. The second reason was that she came here before, albeit on much lighter circumstances. Today, however, she has a mission.
It was only one day ago when she was in Redpool, a vastly different city with a well-known crime-rate. She came to the city because she heard whispers of missing women. Being the young vigilante she is, she investigated the area. Using herself as bait, she quickly caught three unfortunate grunts who had done some unsightly things in their past. She had found out that they worked for a slaver organization and that said organization was moving to Magiyar next. She quickly disposed of the three, though, she now regrets doing as much because she didn’t ask all the questions she should have.
So here she is, stowing away on a simple trade wagon. She found a merchant too tired to realise if there was someone else getting a free ride, and sneaked on board. Now, she sits in the back of the carriage, hidden from view with large wooden crates by her side. It wasn’t the most comfortable seat in the world, but it was free and no one knew that she was even here.
She was carrying nothing but the usual. A hidden scabbard remained under her black robes. Her blank mask hanging slightly to the side of her neck and the small, grey, intricate box that rested in her lap. It sported different patterns with varying degrees of shades and tints. Every so often, the lid would shift a little, before readjusting itself and the lid would close.
With a long road ahead of her and an annoying headache due to mana over-expenditure, it was in her best interests to try and get some sleep before the city. She rested her head against one of the crates, her short, black, wavy hair acting as pillow and her mask as support. She had difficulty sleeping, the unfamiliar environment and bright light from outside had interrupted her plans for sleeping, but she managed to ignore these factors and managed to fall asleep.
Six hours passed like this and she was still asleep. It wasn’t until the carriage hit a rock in the road before she woke up, her body being knocked up into he air. She quickly drew her dagger from her belt, the blade pointed outward but when she realised there was no danger, she sheathed the blade and sat back down, hoping that no one saw her.
Thankfully, no one did. However, the little grey box started to laugh. It was quiet but it carried a mocking tone, one she tried to ignore. She covered the now open lid and the laughter immediately disappeared. Thinking now was a good time to check where she was, she peered from her hiding spot and looked through the front of the wagon.
There she saw was her destination. Tall stone walls, reinforced with a metal mesh used to conduct and absorb magic. Wide, squat towers, just barely taller than the battlements, Lined the walls. Arrow slits ran underneath each. All of them displaying their own guard, mana wrapped around their fingers and a large crossbow attached to their back.
She saw the gate ahead. Compared to the wall, it was comparatively simple, however, if one could sense magic, like she could, it would be obvious that his was no simple gate. It was stuffed with mana and would release it in a violent, contained thrust should its trigger be activated.
She couldn’t find the trigger but she didn’t need to worry about it yet. The gate was up high, allowing anything to pass underneath.
Despite her headache, she turned invisible. She knew the guards would come around and check the cargo. If they saw a black-robed, masked girl there, they would probably figure out that, there was a stowaway. The reasoning was on point as the wagon rolled up to the front. A guard came around and checked the inside, not bothering to give it anything more than a glance, before returning to the post and giving the signal to go ahead.
Despite maintaining her invisibility for only a few seconds, her headache intensified greatly and her head started to ache. Mana was never a problem for her, she always had too much. However, using she had never needed to use anywhere near her limit. This was a problem because she never knew if she could reach the bottom of the ocean that was her manapool. So she tested herself. She started to expend as much mana as she could in the shortest amount of time for extended periods of time. The result? Still no where close to her maximum, however, it gave her an awful headache that just wouldn’t go away.
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The headache combined with her strained back and uncomfortable bum, lead her to the decision that she should find a room to rest in temporarily. She planned to explore the city at night and the sun was still high in the sky.
The wagon rolled into the city and as soon as she saw an alleyway, she teleported inside. Her body disappearing then reappearing from space in less than a second. The magic was so rare that people would actively hunt her if they ever found out. She took pride in the fact that she was the only one she knew who had this ability. When she felt darkness fall on her self, she used another spell to transform her clothes entirely. The black robes shifted into tight leather armour with metal plates that covered her vital areas and a black cloak to help conceal her identity.
She figured the armour would help hide the fact that she was a girl. Her disguise was that of an adventurer, and female adventurers were often targets for the most crimes. Unbeknownst to her, the armour did little to cover her female features, it further wrapped around her curves. The tightness she felt on her chest, and the difficulty breathing was all for naught. The cloak did an excellent job concealing her gender, however!
Using so much mana in such a short amount of time, further amplified her headache and she was sure to collapse. Time was running out for her to find a room. She had always been an excellent fighter, training from a young age onward, however, she never dealt with pain well. She never got hit in the first place to experience what pain felt like, so headaches like these were dire situations that needed to be taken care of.
She stumbled out into the streets before regaining her composure. She then looked around for adventurers. If she found an adventurer and followed them around, eventually she would find an Inn where adventurers rent rooms. After spotting a group of these adventurers, she followed them. They walked around the city for a bit, going to various locations like a magic shop, a quest board and a weaponsmith before finally walking into an Inn. She saw various other people walk into the inn, all equipped with very different equipment, but still adventurer-like nevertheless. She walked into the Inn.
It was loud and rowdy. Various dishes lay scattered around the tables, all accompanied by large flagons filled to the brim with a homebrew. The smell of alcohol invaded her nose, she quickly covered her face with parts of her cloak, attempting to stop the smell from reaching her. The tables were all full with all types of races filling them. It was here were she saw an elf, a dwarf and goblin all sitting at the same table. She had heard of other races but this was her first time seeing them. They usually remained in their sides of the world. Adventuring was the only place where other races actively conferred with those outside their own race. That and war, however, the world hasn’t seen war since the collapse of the human empire.
She made her way to the front of the Inn, her head pounding and her mind buzzing. The smell was getting to her. At the front was a short lady, probably a gnome, that waddled around the area, the top of her head barely rising over the counter. When our protagonist approached, she stepped on a stool in order to actually meet her face.
Gnome: “Hi there, looking for a room?”
Her: “Y-yes… that would be good.”
Gnome: “Alright, that’ll be 27 bronze. You seem a little young so I’m giving you a discount.” The Gnome winked at her.
Begrudgingly, she reached for the handle of her dagger under her cloak. She pulled at the end before it came off, almost like a jar. She stuck one finger inside the handle pulling out a silver coin. She then returned the end back onto the dagger, firmly pushed it on and slid the silver coin onto the counter.
The gnome happily took it and presented her with a key and around seventy bronze coins. She was too tired to count the specifics. She took the key raised her hand to the Gnome and told her to keep it.
Gnome: “Oh… okay then! Just go down the hall to your left, up the stairs and onto the last floor. Your room number is 49.” The Gnome smiled as she pointed down one of two halls that lead out of the room.
Without a word, our protagonist walked down the hall and up the stairs, her composure slowly degrading as she did. She went down the hall, up the stairs and approached her room. She fumbled around with the key before opening up the door and practically falling into her room. Closing the door behind her, she spotted the bed and went inside. Her eyes closed as she tried to ignore the pain.
She shot back up again when she realised that she had forgotten her box, the small, grey intricate one. Then she relaxed as she remembered that she the box. Her dagger, clothes of mask. That was something to worry about, the box…
It was already in the room, sitting on one of the nearby desks. A little grey doll with a mask bobbed from inside the box. It was silently laughing. The lid hung from the hinges.
Her: “Wake me up when it’s night. I don’t want to be awake right now and make sure no one comes inside my room.”
Jester: “Hehehe, of course. I enjoy watching your face scrunched up in pain just as much as I enjoy watching others cry for mercy.”
Ignoring the Jester’s statement, she hesitantly disrobed, removing the cloak and the armour, opting to sleep naked rather than have to go through the pain of casting magic again. Doing this in this unfamiliar city, in this Inn which is open to anyone is usually dangerous, but the place itself didn’t seem so bad and despite the mocking behaviour it gave off, she felt safe knowing that the Jester was watching over her, despite it being more evil than even a demon.
Though it wasn’t like home, the bed was good enough and a huge upgrade from the hard wood. Exhaustion due to pain overtook her and she quickly fell asleep.