General Art The Dreamscape
- Thread starter Myriadviper42
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Raindrop14
Soldier for Christ!
I'm loving this! 
Myriadviper42
Fulcrum Agent
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
- Location
- Control
Chapter 4: Training Wheels
The gray-cloaked man strode through the dim-lit halls, making it obvious that there was somewhere important he had to be, and couldn't mingle with the men like he usually did. Michael was generally a very laid-back guy, so when the soldiers saw him moving through like a hurricane, they though it best not to try to stop him. Michael was another of Rauil's inner council, and he couldn't afford to be late to the meeting-not as if Rauil would kill him. He was certain that that would never happen, but a reprimand could still be a possibility. Michael wished, not for the first time, that he'd perfected the teleportation spell and resolved to begin working on it immediately after the meeting.
He burst open the double-doors to find Rauil in the middle of talking. Rauil's eyes reached up and met his, and Michael gritted his teeth. "I see you're late, Michael."
"I was busy. I only recently found out about the meeting."
Michael's eyes flitted about to the other three gray-cloaked figures in the room. Castor easily and placidly lounged in his chair, and that made Michael feel uneasy. Castor's callousness always put him on edge, even more so after the death of his best friend Treon by the hand of a mere mercenary. His eyes went to the gruff, gray haired and bearded man known as Balthen. He was closer with Balthen then the other council members, but still felt slightly uneasy around him, as he seemed a formidable presence.
The only person he did not meet eyes with was the cold woman with the dark red hair and a small sadistic smile on her face, Gabriella. Michael actively avoided her ever since she'd cut open the throat of an Awakened and had used her powers to turn the blood that sprayed from his throat into fire that scorched another soldier. He was scared of her because she seemed to view killing as art, and her Awakened abilities a way of expressing her "creativity." Gabriella was staring at him, and he tried to look away from her cold eyes.
"No matter, Michael," Castor drawled, "you're here now." Rauil motioned for Michael to take his place next to Balthen, and he sat down, raptly paying attention.
Rauil cleared his throat. "As I was saying before Michael here interrupted us, the obliteration of Fort Sacron has spread fear throughout the entire population. Castor, your suggestion was a good one." He raised his glass of wine to acknowledge him. "As a result, the reputations of my apparently limitless magical prowess have become warped to suit our advantage. Why, Balthen here overheard the story one day in a tavern, apparently, one swipe of my hand and all of them were blowing their brains out!" He laughed, which Balthen followed suit. Gabriella smirked, and Castor showed his normal lack of...well, anything.
Gabriella cleared her throat. "Permission to speak, sir." Rauil nodded. "As it is, despite our growing numbers, we still do not have enough to take Aeriam head on. Therefore, it is my suggestion that we make an alliance with Miria, currently Exeria's rival nation. Their troops, in exchange for control over Exeria-second to you of course." Rauil contemplated it, and nodded.
"Yes...yes, that would work. If they try to backstab us we could easily kill their king-Gabriella, if the opportunity arises, I give that right to you. Once we take Miria for our own, we shall arrange a little, ah, burglary of the inevitable war plans Aeriam will make when he hears of this.....dismissed. All of you." Everyone rose, and left without saying a word. Michael closed his eyes and then felt something, a presence, someone close. He looked around the area and found nothing. Thinking he must have imagined it, he left the area.
Outside, on the windowsill crouched a shadowed figure. He'd overheard every word, and now stood to contemplate what he had to gain from all this. He was in need of money, and concluded that, indeed, when the inevitable war plans were created, they would have to be stolen. But not by some thief the Insurrection hired. The black-haired, silver-eyed man would take it first. And then, he'd sell it to the Insurrection for triple what he assumed the Insurrection would pay. It was a good plan.
*****
The five of us mill around. I'm just following Henry and Lia, and it's obvious that Luke is trying really hard not to get lost. His eyes are open wide and staring at the back of Henry's neck no matter where it moves. What an interesting person. I decide to talk with Jeyne. She seems like a nice person.
"So where are we going?"
"Weapon training. We divide into pairs and spar for a while. Pretty simple, except that Awakened fighting can be...unorthodox."
"How so?"
"We can warp reality. So there's a lot of parkour involved. You'll learn it eventually, but it takes some getting used to. So just expect the unexpected. Hell, I'm not even that good, but a 'not good' Awakened can still beat an 'average' human."
I nod, and we head out double doors. We're outside, and there's a beach, with the surf washing it away. So we are on an island. Very interesting. The whole "class" moves onto the beach, where there's a rack of wooden practice swords. Henry and Lia reach the racks first and choose their swords. Luke takes one and holds it behind his back. I take mine and examine the balance of it to find that it is surprisingly good. Morias appears on the beach, and gives us all a small smile. "Per usual, divide yourself into pairs. However, today, as we have one more person, one person will be sparring with me."
It's probably going to be me, I'm the new guy, after all. Morias clears his throat. "Hmmhmmmn....and the person who has the honor of fighting me is....Lia." She nods and smiles, and heads over to Morias. Henry looks over at me. "Hey, Reinhart, how about this? You choose who you fight, okay?" I nod, and look at my friends. Henry would probably be too tough of a fight for me at the moment, and Jeyne seems like she knows what she's doing. So that leaves..."I'll take Luke."
I swear I see a smirk pass between Jeyne and Henry, but it's quickly gone. Luke grins widely. "Really? I thought you didn't like me! Hey, don't take it easy on me, okay?" I nod, and raise my sword, ready for combat. He fumbles around with his training sword and accidentally whacks himself in the head with it. This shouldn't take long. We both stand there, not wanting to make a move. Luke's grin fades. "I told you not to take it easy on me."
"I haven't moved yet."
"Yeah, that's what I mean. I'll just have to make you move."
"Huh?"
"You're mean...and ugly!"
"I'm sorry?"
"You're fat!"
"Excuse me?"
"You are the most vile fly to ever walk the earth!"
"Okay now you're irritating-"
"YOU ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC BUFFOON WHO EVER-"
I cut him off and charge him, yelling at the top of my lungs. I swing an overhand cut at him, and he dodges, and I nearly fall to the ground, steadying myself at the last minute. He kicks me in the butt, sending me sprawling to the ground. Fuming, I spring to my feet, going into an elaborate frenzy of attacks, backhand left, up handed, stab, and he blocks or dodges every one. What the freaking hell? I aim for his chest but he twists my blade aside, sending me stumbling forward. I'm breathing heavily, and I calm myself. Things are about to get serious.
I aim for his crotch, which seems like an underhanded thing to do but I don't really care by this point. However, he backtracks, and flips backward onto his hands, kicking me in the face before returning to his feet with his sword aimed at my throat. He swings for it, but I duck and now he is the one to stumble, and I knee him in the crotch. He stumbles, and I regain the offensive, driving him back, but then my body can't catch up with my mind's commands, and I'm breathing really heavily, and he jumps up, slashing and stabbing. He brings the practice sword to my cheek with a huge WHACK and I cry out.
He advances and nearly twists my sword out of my hand like nobles do while they do that refined, useless form of swordplay known as fencing. However, I hold onto it at the last minute, and my sword aims for his stomach. However, he whacks the blade, the momentum keeping it going and it hits me in the stomach. I cringe, and stumble. His blade drops beneath mine and delivers an upward cut, sending my blade flying into the air. When it comes down, he chops madly, slicing it in half. I'm speechless. I am truly speechless.
I gape at this...this doofus who just singlehandedly humiliated me. Jeyne and Henry are already done with their fight, and I can see that both of them are just barely managing to keep a straight face. "Well now you see why we keep him around," Jeyne states brightly, and my cheeks flush in indignation. Luke just stands there, not saying a word or doing anything. Henry doesn't say anything to me, but his small smile wobbles, and his shoulders start shaking. Eventually, his mask breaks and he laughs hysterically, and Jeyne joins in. "You should've seen the look on your face!" Henry laughs, doubling over even.
"Yes yes, very funny. I can see why you were smirking when I chose to fight him. Umm, guys, was it really that funny? ....please stop. You're irritating me now. Guys? ......guys?"
Luke walks over to me. "Um, sorry about breaking your weapon. I do that a lot, don't worry about it. We always have to buy new ones, and the dude who sells them recognizes us and think's we're bizarre."
"Like I told you before, I can't imagine why."
The class is over, thank God (or maybe thank the Overseer? Man, this is confusing). Now it's time to move on. Henry and Luke leave for a separate class, and Lia, Jeyne, and I walk together. Lia is also barely containing a grin. There's silence for a while, until I finally can't stand it anymore.
"All right, Lia, I know what you're grinning about, you can tell me now." She bursts into laughter.
"Oh, we all knew he was an excellent fighter. Why do you think we keep him around, to humor us? What would I have given to have seen your reaction firsthand...dammit Morias."
Jeyne laughs, and Lia continues. "Well, this is where I get off. See you guys around sometime. Reinhart, your next class is in basic magic. It's one person sessions, so it'll just be you and the instructor."
I smile. "Maybe that's for the best," and Lia laughs again, and waves goodbye. Jeyne and I walk towards the magic room. She starts talking. "You see? We're all nice people."
I nod. "You really are. It's a very odd but fun group, I must say."
She grins. "I know. Anyway, anything you want to know, just ask me and most likely I'll know." We stop at the entrance to the "classroom," or whatever it is. I decide to ask this question.
"Umm, Jeyne, I have one question."
"Yes?"
"You know how during a dream you're aware of what's going on, and are often involved in the dream?"
"Yeah?"
"Is the same true of the Overseer?"
Her face darkens. "We...we don't honestly know. There have been several who've claimed they were the subconscious of the Overseer. Of course, if you killed them, you'd wake the Overseer's real body. So after all the quacks died, we knew they weren't really."
"But is it out of the question?"
"...No. We're not sure if the Overseer just watches the events in the dream or if he takes human form and is a part of the dream." I nod.
"Thank you." She smiles. "No problem." She leaves, and I enter the room. Sitting in a chair across from me is a slightly pudgy man of average height with long brown hair and a slight beard. If he were to trim a couple of pounds he'd be considered good-looking. He glances at me, just a glance, and motions for me to sit down across from him. He doesn't appear to be altogether too impressive, but I try not to underestimate him. I don't want to have another Luke.
"Good day, Reinhart. My name's Prain, and I will be one of your instructors in mastering your control over the dream. My main area is in offensive spells, so for all of your typical attacking whatever will come from my training." He smiles, and it seems genuine enough.
"Thanks. I'm looking forward to learning."
His smiles widens. "Ooooh, polite. It's been a while since I've had a really polite student. So anyway, tell me if this rings a bell. You were angry, hurt, desparate, any of these things either physically, mentally, or both. Then, you manage to conjure up fire, well, at least it's generally fire. This is generally the case for most Awakened, is it for you?"
I flash back to the Insurrectionist rally. "Yes."
"In that case, it was purely out of adrenaline. This class will help you invoke those powers out of choice. Understand?" I nod.
We start with him attempting to recreate the situation in which I was able to summon fire. I tell him the specific emotions I was feeling when I summoned fire, and he tells me to try to recreate that specific feeling. He says that once I am able to generate fire, we will slowly and subtly change my mood, slowly changing it until it becomes only natural, and I don't have to call upon that specific emotion.
"Good! Very good! You're lying on the ground! You're dying! You don't know what's going on, you want to kill Insurrectionists but you have not the strength, and you want strength to come to you." I grit my teeth, conjuring that feeling I'd had at that time, and finally, after half an hour of trying, a stream of flame erupts from my palm, scorching a curtain on the wall. He grabs a bucket of water most likely placed there for that very occasion and douses it. He turns towards me and smiles. "Very good! Now, we only have to slowly shift that feeling until it becomes an instinct for you, and we won't have to go through all this trouble. But don't worry. It actually usually takes three classes for most students to summon fire in the first place."
I'm exhausted and breathing heavily, but unlike the end of the last class, it's mixed with a sense of satisfaction. I managed to conjure fire, and soon I'll be able to do so at will. Classes are over for now, and I'm glad. These classes are quite taxing. I exit the room and realize that I now feel this is indeed home to me. I'm no longer thinking of this as a strange and bizarre place, and the rest of these people as strangers. I smile contentedly, and think for the second time today one thing. This is my home now.
The gray-cloaked man strode through the dim-lit halls, making it obvious that there was somewhere important he had to be, and couldn't mingle with the men like he usually did. Michael was generally a very laid-back guy, so when the soldiers saw him moving through like a hurricane, they though it best not to try to stop him. Michael was another of Rauil's inner council, and he couldn't afford to be late to the meeting-not as if Rauil would kill him. He was certain that that would never happen, but a reprimand could still be a possibility. Michael wished, not for the first time, that he'd perfected the teleportation spell and resolved to begin working on it immediately after the meeting.
He burst open the double-doors to find Rauil in the middle of talking. Rauil's eyes reached up and met his, and Michael gritted his teeth. "I see you're late, Michael."
"I was busy. I only recently found out about the meeting."
Michael's eyes flitted about to the other three gray-cloaked figures in the room. Castor easily and placidly lounged in his chair, and that made Michael feel uneasy. Castor's callousness always put him on edge, even more so after the death of his best friend Treon by the hand of a mere mercenary. His eyes went to the gruff, gray haired and bearded man known as Balthen. He was closer with Balthen then the other council members, but still felt slightly uneasy around him, as he seemed a formidable presence.
The only person he did not meet eyes with was the cold woman with the dark red hair and a small sadistic smile on her face, Gabriella. Michael actively avoided her ever since she'd cut open the throat of an Awakened and had used her powers to turn the blood that sprayed from his throat into fire that scorched another soldier. He was scared of her because she seemed to view killing as art, and her Awakened abilities a way of expressing her "creativity." Gabriella was staring at him, and he tried to look away from her cold eyes.
"No matter, Michael," Castor drawled, "you're here now." Rauil motioned for Michael to take his place next to Balthen, and he sat down, raptly paying attention.
Rauil cleared his throat. "As I was saying before Michael here interrupted us, the obliteration of Fort Sacron has spread fear throughout the entire population. Castor, your suggestion was a good one." He raised his glass of wine to acknowledge him. "As a result, the reputations of my apparently limitless magical prowess have become warped to suit our advantage. Why, Balthen here overheard the story one day in a tavern, apparently, one swipe of my hand and all of them were blowing their brains out!" He laughed, which Balthen followed suit. Gabriella smirked, and Castor showed his normal lack of...well, anything.
Gabriella cleared her throat. "Permission to speak, sir." Rauil nodded. "As it is, despite our growing numbers, we still do not have enough to take Aeriam head on. Therefore, it is my suggestion that we make an alliance with Miria, currently Exeria's rival nation. Their troops, in exchange for control over Exeria-second to you of course." Rauil contemplated it, and nodded.
"Yes...yes, that would work. If they try to backstab us we could easily kill their king-Gabriella, if the opportunity arises, I give that right to you. Once we take Miria for our own, we shall arrange a little, ah, burglary of the inevitable war plans Aeriam will make when he hears of this.....dismissed. All of you." Everyone rose, and left without saying a word. Michael closed his eyes and then felt something, a presence, someone close. He looked around the area and found nothing. Thinking he must have imagined it, he left the area.
Outside, on the windowsill crouched a shadowed figure. He'd overheard every word, and now stood to contemplate what he had to gain from all this. He was in need of money, and concluded that, indeed, when the inevitable war plans were created, they would have to be stolen. But not by some thief the Insurrection hired. The black-haired, silver-eyed man would take it first. And then, he'd sell it to the Insurrection for triple what he assumed the Insurrection would pay. It was a good plan.
*****
The five of us mill around. I'm just following Henry and Lia, and it's obvious that Luke is trying really hard not to get lost. His eyes are open wide and staring at the back of Henry's neck no matter where it moves. What an interesting person. I decide to talk with Jeyne. She seems like a nice person.
"So where are we going?"
"Weapon training. We divide into pairs and spar for a while. Pretty simple, except that Awakened fighting can be...unorthodox."
"How so?"
"We can warp reality. So there's a lot of parkour involved. You'll learn it eventually, but it takes some getting used to. So just expect the unexpected. Hell, I'm not even that good, but a 'not good' Awakened can still beat an 'average' human."
I nod, and we head out double doors. We're outside, and there's a beach, with the surf washing it away. So we are on an island. Very interesting. The whole "class" moves onto the beach, where there's a rack of wooden practice swords. Henry and Lia reach the racks first and choose their swords. Luke takes one and holds it behind his back. I take mine and examine the balance of it to find that it is surprisingly good. Morias appears on the beach, and gives us all a small smile. "Per usual, divide yourself into pairs. However, today, as we have one more person, one person will be sparring with me."
It's probably going to be me, I'm the new guy, after all. Morias clears his throat. "Hmmhmmmn....and the person who has the honor of fighting me is....Lia." She nods and smiles, and heads over to Morias. Henry looks over at me. "Hey, Reinhart, how about this? You choose who you fight, okay?" I nod, and look at my friends. Henry would probably be too tough of a fight for me at the moment, and Jeyne seems like she knows what she's doing. So that leaves..."I'll take Luke."
I swear I see a smirk pass between Jeyne and Henry, but it's quickly gone. Luke grins widely. "Really? I thought you didn't like me! Hey, don't take it easy on me, okay?" I nod, and raise my sword, ready for combat. He fumbles around with his training sword and accidentally whacks himself in the head with it. This shouldn't take long. We both stand there, not wanting to make a move. Luke's grin fades. "I told you not to take it easy on me."
"I haven't moved yet."
"Yeah, that's what I mean. I'll just have to make you move."
"Huh?"
"You're mean...and ugly!"
"I'm sorry?"
"You're fat!"
"Excuse me?"
"You are the most vile fly to ever walk the earth!"
"Okay now you're irritating-"
"YOU ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC BUFFOON WHO EVER-"
I cut him off and charge him, yelling at the top of my lungs. I swing an overhand cut at him, and he dodges, and I nearly fall to the ground, steadying myself at the last minute. He kicks me in the butt, sending me sprawling to the ground. Fuming, I spring to my feet, going into an elaborate frenzy of attacks, backhand left, up handed, stab, and he blocks or dodges every one. What the freaking hell? I aim for his chest but he twists my blade aside, sending me stumbling forward. I'm breathing heavily, and I calm myself. Things are about to get serious.
I aim for his crotch, which seems like an underhanded thing to do but I don't really care by this point. However, he backtracks, and flips backward onto his hands, kicking me in the face before returning to his feet with his sword aimed at my throat. He swings for it, but I duck and now he is the one to stumble, and I knee him in the crotch. He stumbles, and I regain the offensive, driving him back, but then my body can't catch up with my mind's commands, and I'm breathing really heavily, and he jumps up, slashing and stabbing. He brings the practice sword to my cheek with a huge WHACK and I cry out.
He advances and nearly twists my sword out of my hand like nobles do while they do that refined, useless form of swordplay known as fencing. However, I hold onto it at the last minute, and my sword aims for his stomach. However, he whacks the blade, the momentum keeping it going and it hits me in the stomach. I cringe, and stumble. His blade drops beneath mine and delivers an upward cut, sending my blade flying into the air. When it comes down, he chops madly, slicing it in half. I'm speechless. I am truly speechless.
I gape at this...this doofus who just singlehandedly humiliated me. Jeyne and Henry are already done with their fight, and I can see that both of them are just barely managing to keep a straight face. "Well now you see why we keep him around," Jeyne states brightly, and my cheeks flush in indignation. Luke just stands there, not saying a word or doing anything. Henry doesn't say anything to me, but his small smile wobbles, and his shoulders start shaking. Eventually, his mask breaks and he laughs hysterically, and Jeyne joins in. "You should've seen the look on your face!" Henry laughs, doubling over even.
"Yes yes, very funny. I can see why you were smirking when I chose to fight him. Umm, guys, was it really that funny? ....please stop. You're irritating me now. Guys? ......guys?"
Luke walks over to me. "Um, sorry about breaking your weapon. I do that a lot, don't worry about it. We always have to buy new ones, and the dude who sells them recognizes us and think's we're bizarre."
"Like I told you before, I can't imagine why."
The class is over, thank God (or maybe thank the Overseer? Man, this is confusing). Now it's time to move on. Henry and Luke leave for a separate class, and Lia, Jeyne, and I walk together. Lia is also barely containing a grin. There's silence for a while, until I finally can't stand it anymore.
"All right, Lia, I know what you're grinning about, you can tell me now." She bursts into laughter.
"Oh, we all knew he was an excellent fighter. Why do you think we keep him around, to humor us? What would I have given to have seen your reaction firsthand...dammit Morias."
Jeyne laughs, and Lia continues. "Well, this is where I get off. See you guys around sometime. Reinhart, your next class is in basic magic. It's one person sessions, so it'll just be you and the instructor."
I smile. "Maybe that's for the best," and Lia laughs again, and waves goodbye. Jeyne and I walk towards the magic room. She starts talking. "You see? We're all nice people."
I nod. "You really are. It's a very odd but fun group, I must say."
She grins. "I know. Anyway, anything you want to know, just ask me and most likely I'll know." We stop at the entrance to the "classroom," or whatever it is. I decide to ask this question.
"Umm, Jeyne, I have one question."
"Yes?"
"You know how during a dream you're aware of what's going on, and are often involved in the dream?"
"Yeah?"
"Is the same true of the Overseer?"
Her face darkens. "We...we don't honestly know. There have been several who've claimed they were the subconscious of the Overseer. Of course, if you killed them, you'd wake the Overseer's real body. So after all the quacks died, we knew they weren't really."
"But is it out of the question?"
"...No. We're not sure if the Overseer just watches the events in the dream or if he takes human form and is a part of the dream." I nod.
"Thank you." She smiles. "No problem." She leaves, and I enter the room. Sitting in a chair across from me is a slightly pudgy man of average height with long brown hair and a slight beard. If he were to trim a couple of pounds he'd be considered good-looking. He glances at me, just a glance, and motions for me to sit down across from him. He doesn't appear to be altogether too impressive, but I try not to underestimate him. I don't want to have another Luke.
"Good day, Reinhart. My name's Prain, and I will be one of your instructors in mastering your control over the dream. My main area is in offensive spells, so for all of your typical attacking whatever will come from my training." He smiles, and it seems genuine enough.
"Thanks. I'm looking forward to learning."
His smiles widens. "Ooooh, polite. It's been a while since I've had a really polite student. So anyway, tell me if this rings a bell. You were angry, hurt, desparate, any of these things either physically, mentally, or both. Then, you manage to conjure up fire, well, at least it's generally fire. This is generally the case for most Awakened, is it for you?"
I flash back to the Insurrectionist rally. "Yes."
"In that case, it was purely out of adrenaline. This class will help you invoke those powers out of choice. Understand?" I nod.
We start with him attempting to recreate the situation in which I was able to summon fire. I tell him the specific emotions I was feeling when I summoned fire, and he tells me to try to recreate that specific feeling. He says that once I am able to generate fire, we will slowly and subtly change my mood, slowly changing it until it becomes only natural, and I don't have to call upon that specific emotion.
"Good! Very good! You're lying on the ground! You're dying! You don't know what's going on, you want to kill Insurrectionists but you have not the strength, and you want strength to come to you." I grit my teeth, conjuring that feeling I'd had at that time, and finally, after half an hour of trying, a stream of flame erupts from my palm, scorching a curtain on the wall. He grabs a bucket of water most likely placed there for that very occasion and douses it. He turns towards me and smiles. "Very good! Now, we only have to slowly shift that feeling until it becomes an instinct for you, and we won't have to go through all this trouble. But don't worry. It actually usually takes three classes for most students to summon fire in the first place."
I'm exhausted and breathing heavily, but unlike the end of the last class, it's mixed with a sense of satisfaction. I managed to conjure fire, and soon I'll be able to do so at will. Classes are over for now, and I'm glad. These classes are quite taxing. I exit the room and realize that I now feel this is indeed home to me. I'm no longer thinking of this as a strange and bizarre place, and the rest of these people as strangers. I smile contentedly, and think for the second time today one thing. This is my home now.
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Raindrop14
Soldier for Christ!
I love Wendy. :>
Howly. Freeking. Crag. AH LAHVED ET! You played Luke's badassassinry quite differently than I would have. It was quite interesting. And badassassin.
And the Overseer... It's not too hard to guess which character he's gonna end up turning out to be, but it sure is fun to try.
And the Overseer... It's not too hard to guess which character he's gonna end up turning out to be, but it sure is fun to try.
*M i d n a*
Æsir Scribe
Haha, that was embarrassing for Reinhart, lolz. (getting pwned)
Good update, Myriad.
Good update, Myriad.
Myriadviper42
Fulcrum Agent
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
- Location
- Control
Chapter 5: Safe
Breakfast is served at 8:00 in the morning, which means after weeks of sleeping in 'til noon, I'm going to have to break that habit. It's my third day here, and I must say, I am the happiest I've been in a long time. Luke amuses me, Henry is nice to me-I guess as compensation for drugging me, and Jeyne and Lia are very nice people in general. To think that several days ago...my thoughts are interrupted by the wake-up call. Interesting that I'd woken up a minute before the call.
I yawn and stretch my arms. I'd actually not gotten much sleep last night. Luke is quite the loud snorer. But I'm sure I'll get used to it. My roommates are Luke, Henry, and two guys named Harien and Waide. They're not the friendliest types, but they're decent people. I get dressed and grab my scabbard. Rules dictate that all Awakened must carry a weapon at all times-just in case. I personally don't see reason for it, we can scorch people if trouble arises, so why carry a weapon? Nevertheless, I don't voice my complaints. No one will listen, and they're pointless anyway.
I scoop my breakfast onto my plate. It looks amazing, which after a while of subpar food is a real treat for me. Lia waves me over to their table, and I sit down next to Jeyne. Sitting at the table across from me is a boy no older than 8, who holds his knife and fork in the same way I do. I stab my food, and he does the same. I smile. Kids. He starts smiling too, and I bring my fork to my mouth, chewing slowly to see what he'll do. He chews slowly, his eyes alight with a playful nature, and I swallow. I lift up my plate, and he does the same.
"Umm, Rainheart, what are you doing?"
Oops. Kinda forgot that I was sitting with other people somehow. Luke looks at me, apparently interested in what I was doing. "I was messing around with that kid at the table behind you."
"Oh. I know that guy. He was a bit knocked in the head. He said I was a puppy, and he tried to pet me."
Lia snorts into her pudding, and he looks at her, a bit bewildered. "How am I anything like a puppy?" he asks, a bit dejectedly.
I smile. "Well, you've got the 'floppy' part down. If you want the furry part down, I guess you should stop shaving."
We all start laughing, and I continue to eat my food. Eventually, breakfast is over, and we all head to our respective training. Me? I'm going to begin work on Awakened parkour, which when I perfect it will render me inhumanly agile. Apparently. I move along to the obstacle course where our instructor awaits. I stop in my tracks when I reach the obstacle course. Henry is the instructor. He catches my eye and smiles. "Yes, yes, I know Reinhart. You didn't expect me to be an instructor. However, I'm the best at this on the entire island, so naturally I'm the instructor."
I shake my head. Things are pretty strange, but I must say I do enjoy it, or get a kick out of it, I think wryly, remembering Luke kicking me in the ***. I don't hold anything against him for that, and I have a tendency to look back and laugh at things. I don't resent him, or any of them. In fact, I've never held a grudge against anyone...except Castor. The class groups around Henry, and none of them seem to think it odd that he be teaching them when he is the same age as most of them.
The class is interesting, but there really isn't much to it. A lot of jumping between walls and over them. He demonstrates going through the obstacle course, showing remarkable skills. I'm very intrigued by it, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before, it seems almost superhuman. I chuckle to myself. Awakened are superhuman, so of course it would appear that way.
We get into a line, now it is our turn to go through the obstacle course. I'm rather nervous, I don't know whether or not I'll be able to do it. Morias said that this was one of the more instinctive parts of an Awakened's powers, but I'm still worried. Will I be able to make it? The obstacle course actually slightly scares me. I'm not afraid to admit that. Eventually, it comes my turn to head in. I prepare myself, and sprint into the course. Arrows fire from the walls, and I instinctively duck and swerve. Are these real arrows? I conclude that they aren't but they're pretty good fakes. I reach a solid wall and I do the only thing I can think of-I run up it of course. Wow, this is really cool. I reach the top of the wall to have fire spurt out at me, and I nearly piss myself. REAL fire? I think again that these people are insane. But no more insane than me, so I decide to keep going.
There are many pillars between me in the finish line, with these sort of fire pits in the way. I jump from pillar to pillar, running up them, and in one case knocking it over to cross a fire pit. I reach the finish line, out of breath, and I look at Henry. "How...how did I do?"
"Not bad. You're in about the 75th percentile for your first try. Oh, just so you know, the fire isn't real."
I exhale. "I thought so. But I wasn't sure."
He laughs. "Do you think we'd let you get burnt to a crisp? Really? Do you really think we'd do that?"
I let my silence speak for itself.
"Ah, erm, yeah. Never mind. Anyway, Morias wants to talk with you. Don't worry, you're not in trouble, he just wants to arrange a few things with you." I open my mouth to speak, but he shushes me. "Come on now, follow me."
I follow him. What could he mean by that, arranging a few things with me? Did I do something wrong? Did I do something right? I honestly have no idea whatsoever. It seems I'll just have to find out. I haven't really seen much of Morias, so I'll be interested to see what happens. We reach the meeting room, and I flash back to two days ago when I first came here. It seems strange to think about, but I don't dwell much on it. We enter the room.
Morias is seated, and motions for me to sit down across from him. "Henry, return to your class. I just want to talk with Reinhart here for a few moments." Henry nods and then leaves. Morias looks me in the eye, and smiles. "So how are you enjoying your time here, Reinhart?"
"I'm enjoying it a lot. You all really are good people, and I'm glad I came. But why did you wish to see me? I assume it wasn't about checking in on me."
"No. It was more about your progress. You are performing as well as we had hoped, and more. You're in the top 50% of everything you've done so far, which is curious. If we take the Prominence Theory-the theory that Awakened are those who are more prominent in the Overseer's sight-into consideration, you are on the upper scale, which means that he's paying attention to you. As a result, I would like to ask you something. Soon, would you like to go out on your first mission against the Insurrection? It won't be anything too big, of course."
"Obviously. I've been wanting to get back at them, you know. They beat me up, you know."
He smiles wryly. "They won't be able to the next time. Your mission will be with Jeyne and Luke, as you all seem to get along with each other quite well. It will deal with an Insurrectionist who's taken over a key strategic point in the north. It won't be until after the end of this week, though, after capture the flag."
"Capture the flag?"
"Yes, yes, we have that every week. Kind of assesses the progress you've made, and provides a little fun. So I assume you accept?"
I smirk. "Of course."
*****
The streets were crowded, dusty, and unsanitary, and were not the best place to be roaming around in the evening, with the scum just starting to come out, the pickpockets and thieves and the lot. However, this did not concern most of the town's citizens, who carried on their daily lives, avoiding all scoundrels with an almost instinctive nature. Visitors were often not as lucky, and that was why the young man with the long red hair and a noble bearing was concerned, as his attire marked him as wealthy and as a result a target.
That and the fact that he had the sneaking suspicion that he was being watched was more than enough to encourage him to find the nearest inn to stay the night. He had several secrets that he knew were best kept that way, and that they would make him a target for much more than the usual rabble. He walked around, and felt a hand in his pocket. He spun to look at the culprit, who looked like he wanted to run away, but placed his coin bag back inside his pocket for him. The noble punched him in the face and continued walking. Influence was useful in that way.
He finally managed to find an inn, and he hurried to head inside before the night settled in. He turned to look down the road and saw a gray-cloaked figure standing some ways down. He shivered, despite the warm weather, and quickly hurried inside. "Tab for Reviel Tyron, please. One night." The man nodded, and wrote him down. Reviel turned towards the door. Something was calling him outside, something was beckoning him. And he didn't like the sound of it one bit.
He cautiously walked outside, sword in hand. A gray-cloaked figure stood before him, and lowered its hood. It was a woman with long dark red hair and a sadistic look in her eye, and Reviel started back. "Who...who are you?"
"Reviel Tyron, I presume. I'd like to spill your guts right here and now, but we need you. Call me Gabriella."
Reviel raised his sword. "What do you want from me, woman? 'Cause, I assure you, I will be of little use to the Insurrection."
She laughed, a cold and cruel sound. "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Now don't die on me now...or do. I honestly don't care."
With that, she lunged for his throat, he barely having enough time to block. He cried out, slashing and hacking at her in an attempt to defend himself. He aimed a horizontal cut but she backflipped out of the way, throwing a knife at him and impaling him through the wrist, causing him to scream in pain as it held his hand to the wall, blood pouring down it. She used her other knife to make a cut across his face, and then knocked him out by punching him in the face. He was out. She removed her knife and neglected to bandage his wrist.
"Rauil won't be happy about this."
The voice came from behind her, but she wasn't surprised to hear it. "To hell with Rauil. Honestly, I'm just in it to kill."
"You should show a little more respect."
She raised her eyebrows. Everything Castor said was deadpan, so it was difficult to tell when he was joking, and his face usually never gave anything away. "This one can die for all I care. Since when did you care, Castor?"
"Never. I'm simply following orders."
Gabriella adopted a smile. "Of course you are. But who says he needs to know about this...it's only one Awakened, after all...."
Castor stepped closer towards her, a little closer than friends. "Do what you want with him. Just do not forget our directive, understood?"
She winked at him, and smiled thinly. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the lips.
"Of course."
Breakfast is served at 8:00 in the morning, which means after weeks of sleeping in 'til noon, I'm going to have to break that habit. It's my third day here, and I must say, I am the happiest I've been in a long time. Luke amuses me, Henry is nice to me-I guess as compensation for drugging me, and Jeyne and Lia are very nice people in general. To think that several days ago...my thoughts are interrupted by the wake-up call. Interesting that I'd woken up a minute before the call.
I yawn and stretch my arms. I'd actually not gotten much sleep last night. Luke is quite the loud snorer. But I'm sure I'll get used to it. My roommates are Luke, Henry, and two guys named Harien and Waide. They're not the friendliest types, but they're decent people. I get dressed and grab my scabbard. Rules dictate that all Awakened must carry a weapon at all times-just in case. I personally don't see reason for it, we can scorch people if trouble arises, so why carry a weapon? Nevertheless, I don't voice my complaints. No one will listen, and they're pointless anyway.
I scoop my breakfast onto my plate. It looks amazing, which after a while of subpar food is a real treat for me. Lia waves me over to their table, and I sit down next to Jeyne. Sitting at the table across from me is a boy no older than 8, who holds his knife and fork in the same way I do. I stab my food, and he does the same. I smile. Kids. He starts smiling too, and I bring my fork to my mouth, chewing slowly to see what he'll do. He chews slowly, his eyes alight with a playful nature, and I swallow. I lift up my plate, and he does the same.
"Umm, Rainheart, what are you doing?"
Oops. Kinda forgot that I was sitting with other people somehow. Luke looks at me, apparently interested in what I was doing. "I was messing around with that kid at the table behind you."
"Oh. I know that guy. He was a bit knocked in the head. He said I was a puppy, and he tried to pet me."
Lia snorts into her pudding, and he looks at her, a bit bewildered. "How am I anything like a puppy?" he asks, a bit dejectedly.
I smile. "Well, you've got the 'floppy' part down. If you want the furry part down, I guess you should stop shaving."
We all start laughing, and I continue to eat my food. Eventually, breakfast is over, and we all head to our respective training. Me? I'm going to begin work on Awakened parkour, which when I perfect it will render me inhumanly agile. Apparently. I move along to the obstacle course where our instructor awaits. I stop in my tracks when I reach the obstacle course. Henry is the instructor. He catches my eye and smiles. "Yes, yes, I know Reinhart. You didn't expect me to be an instructor. However, I'm the best at this on the entire island, so naturally I'm the instructor."
I shake my head. Things are pretty strange, but I must say I do enjoy it, or get a kick out of it, I think wryly, remembering Luke kicking me in the ***. I don't hold anything against him for that, and I have a tendency to look back and laugh at things. I don't resent him, or any of them. In fact, I've never held a grudge against anyone...except Castor. The class groups around Henry, and none of them seem to think it odd that he be teaching them when he is the same age as most of them.
The class is interesting, but there really isn't much to it. A lot of jumping between walls and over them. He demonstrates going through the obstacle course, showing remarkable skills. I'm very intrigued by it, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before, it seems almost superhuman. I chuckle to myself. Awakened are superhuman, so of course it would appear that way.
We get into a line, now it is our turn to go through the obstacle course. I'm rather nervous, I don't know whether or not I'll be able to do it. Morias said that this was one of the more instinctive parts of an Awakened's powers, but I'm still worried. Will I be able to make it? The obstacle course actually slightly scares me. I'm not afraid to admit that. Eventually, it comes my turn to head in. I prepare myself, and sprint into the course. Arrows fire from the walls, and I instinctively duck and swerve. Are these real arrows? I conclude that they aren't but they're pretty good fakes. I reach a solid wall and I do the only thing I can think of-I run up it of course. Wow, this is really cool. I reach the top of the wall to have fire spurt out at me, and I nearly piss myself. REAL fire? I think again that these people are insane. But no more insane than me, so I decide to keep going.
There are many pillars between me in the finish line, with these sort of fire pits in the way. I jump from pillar to pillar, running up them, and in one case knocking it over to cross a fire pit. I reach the finish line, out of breath, and I look at Henry. "How...how did I do?"
"Not bad. You're in about the 75th percentile for your first try. Oh, just so you know, the fire isn't real."
I exhale. "I thought so. But I wasn't sure."
He laughs. "Do you think we'd let you get burnt to a crisp? Really? Do you really think we'd do that?"
I let my silence speak for itself.
"Ah, erm, yeah. Never mind. Anyway, Morias wants to talk with you. Don't worry, you're not in trouble, he just wants to arrange a few things with you." I open my mouth to speak, but he shushes me. "Come on now, follow me."
I follow him. What could he mean by that, arranging a few things with me? Did I do something wrong? Did I do something right? I honestly have no idea whatsoever. It seems I'll just have to find out. I haven't really seen much of Morias, so I'll be interested to see what happens. We reach the meeting room, and I flash back to two days ago when I first came here. It seems strange to think about, but I don't dwell much on it. We enter the room.
Morias is seated, and motions for me to sit down across from him. "Henry, return to your class. I just want to talk with Reinhart here for a few moments." Henry nods and then leaves. Morias looks me in the eye, and smiles. "So how are you enjoying your time here, Reinhart?"
"I'm enjoying it a lot. You all really are good people, and I'm glad I came. But why did you wish to see me? I assume it wasn't about checking in on me."
"No. It was more about your progress. You are performing as well as we had hoped, and more. You're in the top 50% of everything you've done so far, which is curious. If we take the Prominence Theory-the theory that Awakened are those who are more prominent in the Overseer's sight-into consideration, you are on the upper scale, which means that he's paying attention to you. As a result, I would like to ask you something. Soon, would you like to go out on your first mission against the Insurrection? It won't be anything too big, of course."
"Obviously. I've been wanting to get back at them, you know. They beat me up, you know."
He smiles wryly. "They won't be able to the next time. Your mission will be with Jeyne and Luke, as you all seem to get along with each other quite well. It will deal with an Insurrectionist who's taken over a key strategic point in the north. It won't be until after the end of this week, though, after capture the flag."
"Capture the flag?"
"Yes, yes, we have that every week. Kind of assesses the progress you've made, and provides a little fun. So I assume you accept?"
I smirk. "Of course."
*****
The streets were crowded, dusty, and unsanitary, and were not the best place to be roaming around in the evening, with the scum just starting to come out, the pickpockets and thieves and the lot. However, this did not concern most of the town's citizens, who carried on their daily lives, avoiding all scoundrels with an almost instinctive nature. Visitors were often not as lucky, and that was why the young man with the long red hair and a noble bearing was concerned, as his attire marked him as wealthy and as a result a target.
That and the fact that he had the sneaking suspicion that he was being watched was more than enough to encourage him to find the nearest inn to stay the night. He had several secrets that he knew were best kept that way, and that they would make him a target for much more than the usual rabble. He walked around, and felt a hand in his pocket. He spun to look at the culprit, who looked like he wanted to run away, but placed his coin bag back inside his pocket for him. The noble punched him in the face and continued walking. Influence was useful in that way.
He finally managed to find an inn, and he hurried to head inside before the night settled in. He turned to look down the road and saw a gray-cloaked figure standing some ways down. He shivered, despite the warm weather, and quickly hurried inside. "Tab for Reviel Tyron, please. One night." The man nodded, and wrote him down. Reviel turned towards the door. Something was calling him outside, something was beckoning him. And he didn't like the sound of it one bit.
He cautiously walked outside, sword in hand. A gray-cloaked figure stood before him, and lowered its hood. It was a woman with long dark red hair and a sadistic look in her eye, and Reviel started back. "Who...who are you?"
"Reviel Tyron, I presume. I'd like to spill your guts right here and now, but we need you. Call me Gabriella."
Reviel raised his sword. "What do you want from me, woman? 'Cause, I assure you, I will be of little use to the Insurrection."
She laughed, a cold and cruel sound. "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Now don't die on me now...or do. I honestly don't care."
With that, she lunged for his throat, he barely having enough time to block. He cried out, slashing and hacking at her in an attempt to defend himself. He aimed a horizontal cut but she backflipped out of the way, throwing a knife at him and impaling him through the wrist, causing him to scream in pain as it held his hand to the wall, blood pouring down it. She used her other knife to make a cut across his face, and then knocked him out by punching him in the face. He was out. She removed her knife and neglected to bandage his wrist.
"Rauil won't be happy about this."
The voice came from behind her, but she wasn't surprised to hear it. "To hell with Rauil. Honestly, I'm just in it to kill."
"You should show a little more respect."
She raised her eyebrows. Everything Castor said was deadpan, so it was difficult to tell when he was joking, and his face usually never gave anything away. "This one can die for all I care. Since when did you care, Castor?"
"Never. I'm simply following orders."
Gabriella adopted a smile. "Of course you are. But who says he needs to know about this...it's only one Awakened, after all...."
Castor stepped closer towards her, a little closer than friends. "Do what you want with him. Just do not forget our directive, understood?"
She winked at him, and smiled thinly. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the lips.
"Of course."
Raindrop14
Soldier for Christ!
Yay! =D
Myriadviper42
Fulcrum Agent
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
- Location
- Control
Chapter 6: Capture The Flag
The gray-cloaked, gray-bearded man known as Balthen walked confidently through the halls of the fort. He couldn't afford to be late, he knew, as the men he was supposed to be advising would not tolerate lateness. He obviously wasn't worried about them hurting or killing him-he was far too powerful for that. He was more concerned that they would moan, gripe, and complain like a lot of Rauil's men did. He smiled dryly to himself, mulling over the directive. It seemed as though that everything was on schedule.
The halls weren't the nicest, but Balthen was never one for "nice." He preferred "effective," and the fort certainly was such. The men on the other hand were not as effective as Balthen would have liked, but they were enough. Of course, he smirked, there was the elite force that he had so kindly suggested to Rauil. Now that was a good idea. Balthen held mixed opinions on the other council members, he only hung around them because they were the followers of the same cause, he noted, tapping the six-fingered hand on his back. Michael was the only one he could trust, in his opinion. The other two he wasn't so sure about...
He reached the meeting room where he would be instructing the men on their objective-the first objective in the plan to form an alliance with Miria. The men looked up when he entered the room, and raptly payed attention, for Balthen was one to discipline those who did not pay attention, and the men knew it. "Who is in charge of this assault?" Balthen asked softly, and a muscular man with short brown hair stepped forwards, slightly nervously.
"That...would be me sir."
"And you are?"
"Cecil. Cecil, sir."
"Well then, Cecil..." Balthen slapped him in the face, and he reeled. "Always keep your guard up. You won't survive this battle if you let your guard down just because someone asked you something. Now sit down." Humiliated, Cecil sat.
"Anyway, here is your mission today, my, erm, friends. As you well know, it is within the Insurrection's interest to make an alliance with Miria." He paused. "However, the fact is...that the lot of you are nincompoops and can't breach a castle to save your life, which you might end up doing. Therefore, Rauil has put together a force of Awakened to take King Erum's castle and parley. However, Erum is aware of the existence of Awakened, and has recruited some of his own to create a barrier around Miria, preventing any Awakened from entering. Your task, take the forts in which they are projecting the barrier, then we can teleport to Erum's castle and turn him to our side. Is your goal clear?"
A lovely chorus of nods. "I said, is your goal CLEAR?!" Now it was a lovely chorus of panicked yells. Balthen mock-saluted them, and spun on his heels and walked out. Michael slipped in next to him, smiling playfully, and punching him in the shoulder. "You sure do have a way with them..."
"I don't really care. You know that. We are just following orders."
"But why do we have to?"
"Because."
It was a typically vague answer from Balthen. Michael was the youngest and probably the most normal of the council, which meant that his head could be messed with more easily than Castor or Gabriella, so Balthen took every opportunity he could get. It was in his nature, after all. Balthen cleared his throat and continued.
"So what's he assigned you now, Michael? Some boring old recon assignment? Spouting some elitist drivel about our government?"
"I'm going to be guarding a fort to the north."
"So I see...far away from anyone's reach. Ah ha, I see what's going on here..."
"What? I don't know what you're...you're just messing with me again, aren't you."
"Absolutely."
Michael looked around, as if he were afraid someone were watching. "I...I don't know the teleportation spell, and this is going to be my first attempt. So could you monitor me? I'm too important to die...just yet anyway."
"Someone's got a big ego. But all right, I'll make sure you arrive in one piece." He winked, and Michael steadied himself. He closed his eyes, concentrating, and in an instant he was gone. Balthen shrugged and walked away. Things were interesting now, but he knew that it would certainly only be uphill from there...
*****
In the week that I've been here, I have done more than I could possibly imagine. I have learned to instinctively conjure fire, parkour at a superhuman level, and a lot more. And soon I will be going on my first mission, after tonight's game of capture the flag. Apparently, it's only for the young adults and the few kids around, not the older ones. Morias is always a team captain, and the other captain is chosen from the more elite Awakened. We're not sure who it is yet, but all of us are gathered now in the meeting room, discussing. I turn towards Jeyne.
"Do you know who the other captain is yet?"
"No, not yet."
"What are we doing here?"
"Once Morias arrives, we all are teleported to a remote forest where we divide into teams."
"Isn't that dangerous? What if someone found us?"
"If someone gets too close, we plant a doubt in their head, make them leave."
Morias enters the room, and everyone slowly quiets, except for Luke, who is laughing hysterically like an idiot. Everyone else is quiet except for him, who appears to be dying of laughter. Once he's aware of everyone else's eyes on him, he stops, and yawns, cheeks red. Morias clears his throat noisily, and now all attention is on him. "If we are done here, then we shall be getting started now. You all know the rules. No going outside the boundaries-not like you could, it keeps you in, but you know what I mean."
"There will be no use of offensive magic, but all parkour is allowed. No blood, no killing, obviously. Puppyguarding is allowed-"
A little voice breaks from the rest. "Does that mean I get to guard Luke?" Everyone busts out in laughter, and Morias regards the kid, smiling. "No. Puppyguarding is guarding the flag. Luke's not the flag, is he?"
"No..."
I smile. That kid amuses me. Morias continues. "Anyway, the elders will transport us all to the forest soon. Prepare yourselves accordingly." I grasp the sword at my side. No armor. Awakened don't need armor. After a few minutes of gettingi ready, everyone sits back down. Five older men appear, and move around all sides of the room. They raise their hands, and I feel a tremor in my body and I'm yanked away. Within a few seconds we are in the woods. Morias walks towards us. "And the opposing team captain this time is...Henry."
Henry steps up across from Morias, and smirks. "About time I got to be captain again after that crushing defeat you gave me last time."
"Oh you're on." Looks like even Morias has a competitive streak. Henry bows. "I'll do the gallant thing and let you choose first."
Morias snorts, but accepts the offer. "Lia," he promptly says, at which Henry looks slightly disappointed.
"Luke." Luke flops on over to Henry's side and now I'm rather scared.
Morias looks around and his eyes settle on me. "Reinhart." I walk over to his side. Why was I his first pick. Henry looks up and down and eventually his eyes settle on one individual.
"Waide." Oh no. Waide is one of my roommates and he's been rather a jerk to me (but not to Luke, which I guess means he's made the mistake of underestimating him too), but he's huge. His sidekicks Harien and Theso (not in my dorm) do whatever he says. First couple of days they were fine to me but then showed their true colors as jerks. Morias looks around. "Jeyne." She walks up next to me.
Henry chooses Harien and Theso next, while Morias chooses people I don't know the names of, the only one I can remember is a rather big guy named Alden. Eventually, the teams are settled and Morias takes a blue flag while Henry takes a red. We run in one direction while they run in the other. Morias leads the way with our team of about 25 following behind. We reach a rocky outcrop overlooking a muddy pond, and Morias hangs from underneath it, pressing the flag underneath it. An interesting strategy, enemies will have to either hang from the outcrop or run up the rock wall in a muddy pond. Very interesting...
"All right, everyone, listen up!" Morias gathers us all together. "Our strategy is this. We send out two huge lumbering forces to clumsily try to find their flag. A couple of you will stay back to guard. However, there will be a third force, led by Lia here." Lia nods, understanding. "They will track down the flag while our other two huge buffoon forces lure them away. Clear enough?" It's clear. But why is Lia in charge? "Then let's go!"
He assigns Jeyne, Alden, and I to go with Lia, winking as he does so. He assigns the rest of the group into their roles, and I turn towards Lia. "Why are you in charge? I don't want to sound rude, I'm just wondering."
She smiles wryly. "There's a couple of reasons Henry always wants me on his team. You see, I have this sort of...unique ability among Awakened. It allows me to see what's happened in a spot in the past. It's like tracking, but at an extreme. While some tap into the Overseer's mind to see the present, I manage to tap into it to see the past."
I realize now. "Ohhhhh, I see now. You can easily find out where their flag is." She nods, and Alden clears his throat. His voice sounds raspy, as if he doesn't use it all that much. "Shall we get going now?"
We all nod, and we hear the forces Morias so politely labeled as "lumbering" moving off in two separate directions. Lia examines the area, retracing our steps almost perfectly, and I take the opportunity to talk with Alden.
"So how did you end up joining?"
He takes a while to respond, and when he does respond, his words are slow and deep, with a rasp. "I joined a couple of years ago. I sought them out."
"...they didn't drug you?"
He raises an eyebrow. "No." Lia stops. We're at the starting point where we had divided into teams. Jeyne looks around. "No one's here. Let's push on." We hear clanging in the distance, and we know that they have engaged. "Come on, Lia, let's go," I say encouragingly, and she nods, and closes her eyes, bending down low.
"They moved this way..." We follow her as she uses her abilities to find where their flag is, and surprisingly don't run into any enemies. She zigzags and curves a lot, and Jeyne and Alden act like this is unusual.
Jeyne speaks up. "What's wrong?"
"They keep changing direction. They know my powers, so they obviously are trying to confuse us." She continues moving, and I try to talk with Alden some more. "So what do you like to do?"
"I don't do much. Just train."
"Don't you rest some?"
"I get bored when I rest." I decide that this is getting nowhere, and am about to try talking to Jeyne some more instead when Lia stops in her tracks. "Come out now," she says, and three figures emerge from the shadows. I thought so. Waide and his two friends. He grins. "Nice to see you drop by. But honestly. They put us on defense, for crying out loud. It was an outrage! How could they expect us to-"
"I'm not surprised they wanted to keep you here," Jeyne drawls, eyes bright, "because that stench of yours could keep anyone away." He stops in his tracks and unsheathes his sword. "You asked for it, *****." Out of rage, I fling myself at him, sword drawn, and he blocks easily. I duel him, and his friends come after me. Nonono. I will not be ganged up on again. I backflip and Alden swings his sword at Waide, and they slice and hack at each other without drawing blood. Lia engages Harien while Jeyne punches Theso in the face, leading him away from the others.
Lia turns to look at me. "Go! Their flag's close! We'll hold them off!" I try to run past them but Waide gets in my way, slicing at me from all directions, and I easily block all his blows before kicking him in the face and jumping ten feet away. I run, hoping that they'll be able to hold them off. I see their flag. It's hanging from a branch of a tree, in plain sight. I run towards it and someone steps out of the shadows and stops my approach. Luke.
He smiles. "Hey Rainheart." Oh ****. Nononononononononononononononononono. No. "Um, hi Luke." He holds up a katana. "I'm puppyguarding, right?"
I smile. "Yes, you're puppyguarding. Now stop." He steps forward and lunges for me. I am not having a repeat performance. I jump sideways and he charges past. I slash at him, and he turns around, and slashes at me. I block his strike, and he goes into a random sequence of attacks, stab, upwards slash, diagonal slash, stab, but now I'm the one to block all of them. I kick him in the face and run up a tree. I backflip behind him, and he turns quickly to block my stroke.
He spins his blade around, and I back up. I run towards the flag, but he tackles me to the ground. He starts punching me in the face, chest, and wherever. I roll over and now I'm on top and punching. I hear yells from my left, and Morias and his team running through. They grab the flag and quickly run, and Luke tries to head after them but I whack him in the butt with my sword. I hear whooping and cheering, and I run to join them. They've crossed the boundary line, and we've won.
We all get back together at the starting point and Henry shakes his head in disbelief. "You've done it again, my friend." Morias grins. "So I see. Your girlfriend is quite the tracker." Henry rolls his eyes, and punches him in the shoulder. Waide gives me the evil eye, but I don't really care. Morias calls for our attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen, heh, that was a great game, was it not? Well, now it's time to go. I trust you all had a good time here, especially those of you who had the honor of being on my team. Now, time to go." He claps his hands, and we're yanked back to the meeting room. I smile. That was really a lot of fun. And soon...I'll be going on a mission against the Insurrection. We all leave, and Morias calls me over.
"Hey, Reinhart, can I talk to you?"
I nod, and walk over to him. "Yeah, what is it?"
"It's about your mission."
Oh no. "...yeah?"
"We found out that a member of Rauil's inner council is going to be there. I thought you might reconsider, but whatever you want."
"Are you kidding? Of course! I want to go now more than I did before!"
"Ok. Just making sure." He winks and leaves. I smile. Things are going to get interesting.
The gray-cloaked, gray-bearded man known as Balthen walked confidently through the halls of the fort. He couldn't afford to be late, he knew, as the men he was supposed to be advising would not tolerate lateness. He obviously wasn't worried about them hurting or killing him-he was far too powerful for that. He was more concerned that they would moan, gripe, and complain like a lot of Rauil's men did. He smiled dryly to himself, mulling over the directive. It seemed as though that everything was on schedule.
The halls weren't the nicest, but Balthen was never one for "nice." He preferred "effective," and the fort certainly was such. The men on the other hand were not as effective as Balthen would have liked, but they were enough. Of course, he smirked, there was the elite force that he had so kindly suggested to Rauil. Now that was a good idea. Balthen held mixed opinions on the other council members, he only hung around them because they were the followers of the same cause, he noted, tapping the six-fingered hand on his back. Michael was the only one he could trust, in his opinion. The other two he wasn't so sure about...
He reached the meeting room where he would be instructing the men on their objective-the first objective in the plan to form an alliance with Miria. The men looked up when he entered the room, and raptly payed attention, for Balthen was one to discipline those who did not pay attention, and the men knew it. "Who is in charge of this assault?" Balthen asked softly, and a muscular man with short brown hair stepped forwards, slightly nervously.
"That...would be me sir."
"And you are?"
"Cecil. Cecil, sir."
"Well then, Cecil..." Balthen slapped him in the face, and he reeled. "Always keep your guard up. You won't survive this battle if you let your guard down just because someone asked you something. Now sit down." Humiliated, Cecil sat.
"Anyway, here is your mission today, my, erm, friends. As you well know, it is within the Insurrection's interest to make an alliance with Miria." He paused. "However, the fact is...that the lot of you are nincompoops and can't breach a castle to save your life, which you might end up doing. Therefore, Rauil has put together a force of Awakened to take King Erum's castle and parley. However, Erum is aware of the existence of Awakened, and has recruited some of his own to create a barrier around Miria, preventing any Awakened from entering. Your task, take the forts in which they are projecting the barrier, then we can teleport to Erum's castle and turn him to our side. Is your goal clear?"
A lovely chorus of nods. "I said, is your goal CLEAR?!" Now it was a lovely chorus of panicked yells. Balthen mock-saluted them, and spun on his heels and walked out. Michael slipped in next to him, smiling playfully, and punching him in the shoulder. "You sure do have a way with them..."
"I don't really care. You know that. We are just following orders."
"But why do we have to?"
"Because."
It was a typically vague answer from Balthen. Michael was the youngest and probably the most normal of the council, which meant that his head could be messed with more easily than Castor or Gabriella, so Balthen took every opportunity he could get. It was in his nature, after all. Balthen cleared his throat and continued.
"So what's he assigned you now, Michael? Some boring old recon assignment? Spouting some elitist drivel about our government?"
"I'm going to be guarding a fort to the north."
"So I see...far away from anyone's reach. Ah ha, I see what's going on here..."
"What? I don't know what you're...you're just messing with me again, aren't you."
"Absolutely."
Michael looked around, as if he were afraid someone were watching. "I...I don't know the teleportation spell, and this is going to be my first attempt. So could you monitor me? I'm too important to die...just yet anyway."
"Someone's got a big ego. But all right, I'll make sure you arrive in one piece." He winked, and Michael steadied himself. He closed his eyes, concentrating, and in an instant he was gone. Balthen shrugged and walked away. Things were interesting now, but he knew that it would certainly only be uphill from there...
*****
In the week that I've been here, I have done more than I could possibly imagine. I have learned to instinctively conjure fire, parkour at a superhuman level, and a lot more. And soon I will be going on my first mission, after tonight's game of capture the flag. Apparently, it's only for the young adults and the few kids around, not the older ones. Morias is always a team captain, and the other captain is chosen from the more elite Awakened. We're not sure who it is yet, but all of us are gathered now in the meeting room, discussing. I turn towards Jeyne.
"Do you know who the other captain is yet?"
"No, not yet."
"What are we doing here?"
"Once Morias arrives, we all are teleported to a remote forest where we divide into teams."
"Isn't that dangerous? What if someone found us?"
"If someone gets too close, we plant a doubt in their head, make them leave."
Morias enters the room, and everyone slowly quiets, except for Luke, who is laughing hysterically like an idiot. Everyone else is quiet except for him, who appears to be dying of laughter. Once he's aware of everyone else's eyes on him, he stops, and yawns, cheeks red. Morias clears his throat noisily, and now all attention is on him. "If we are done here, then we shall be getting started now. You all know the rules. No going outside the boundaries-not like you could, it keeps you in, but you know what I mean."
"There will be no use of offensive magic, but all parkour is allowed. No blood, no killing, obviously. Puppyguarding is allowed-"
A little voice breaks from the rest. "Does that mean I get to guard Luke?" Everyone busts out in laughter, and Morias regards the kid, smiling. "No. Puppyguarding is guarding the flag. Luke's not the flag, is he?"
"No..."
I smile. That kid amuses me. Morias continues. "Anyway, the elders will transport us all to the forest soon. Prepare yourselves accordingly." I grasp the sword at my side. No armor. Awakened don't need armor. After a few minutes of gettingi ready, everyone sits back down. Five older men appear, and move around all sides of the room. They raise their hands, and I feel a tremor in my body and I'm yanked away. Within a few seconds we are in the woods. Morias walks towards us. "And the opposing team captain this time is...Henry."
Henry steps up across from Morias, and smirks. "About time I got to be captain again after that crushing defeat you gave me last time."
"Oh you're on." Looks like even Morias has a competitive streak. Henry bows. "I'll do the gallant thing and let you choose first."
Morias snorts, but accepts the offer. "Lia," he promptly says, at which Henry looks slightly disappointed.
"Luke." Luke flops on over to Henry's side and now I'm rather scared.
Morias looks around and his eyes settle on me. "Reinhart." I walk over to his side. Why was I his first pick. Henry looks up and down and eventually his eyes settle on one individual.
"Waide." Oh no. Waide is one of my roommates and he's been rather a jerk to me (but not to Luke, which I guess means he's made the mistake of underestimating him too), but he's huge. His sidekicks Harien and Theso (not in my dorm) do whatever he says. First couple of days they were fine to me but then showed their true colors as jerks. Morias looks around. "Jeyne." She walks up next to me.
Henry chooses Harien and Theso next, while Morias chooses people I don't know the names of, the only one I can remember is a rather big guy named Alden. Eventually, the teams are settled and Morias takes a blue flag while Henry takes a red. We run in one direction while they run in the other. Morias leads the way with our team of about 25 following behind. We reach a rocky outcrop overlooking a muddy pond, and Morias hangs from underneath it, pressing the flag underneath it. An interesting strategy, enemies will have to either hang from the outcrop or run up the rock wall in a muddy pond. Very interesting...
"All right, everyone, listen up!" Morias gathers us all together. "Our strategy is this. We send out two huge lumbering forces to clumsily try to find their flag. A couple of you will stay back to guard. However, there will be a third force, led by Lia here." Lia nods, understanding. "They will track down the flag while our other two huge buffoon forces lure them away. Clear enough?" It's clear. But why is Lia in charge? "Then let's go!"
He assigns Jeyne, Alden, and I to go with Lia, winking as he does so. He assigns the rest of the group into their roles, and I turn towards Lia. "Why are you in charge? I don't want to sound rude, I'm just wondering."
She smiles wryly. "There's a couple of reasons Henry always wants me on his team. You see, I have this sort of...unique ability among Awakened. It allows me to see what's happened in a spot in the past. It's like tracking, but at an extreme. While some tap into the Overseer's mind to see the present, I manage to tap into it to see the past."
I realize now. "Ohhhhh, I see now. You can easily find out where their flag is." She nods, and Alden clears his throat. His voice sounds raspy, as if he doesn't use it all that much. "Shall we get going now?"
We all nod, and we hear the forces Morias so politely labeled as "lumbering" moving off in two separate directions. Lia examines the area, retracing our steps almost perfectly, and I take the opportunity to talk with Alden.
"So how did you end up joining?"
He takes a while to respond, and when he does respond, his words are slow and deep, with a rasp. "I joined a couple of years ago. I sought them out."
"...they didn't drug you?"
He raises an eyebrow. "No." Lia stops. We're at the starting point where we had divided into teams. Jeyne looks around. "No one's here. Let's push on." We hear clanging in the distance, and we know that they have engaged. "Come on, Lia, let's go," I say encouragingly, and she nods, and closes her eyes, bending down low.
"They moved this way..." We follow her as she uses her abilities to find where their flag is, and surprisingly don't run into any enemies. She zigzags and curves a lot, and Jeyne and Alden act like this is unusual.
Jeyne speaks up. "What's wrong?"
"They keep changing direction. They know my powers, so they obviously are trying to confuse us." She continues moving, and I try to talk with Alden some more. "So what do you like to do?"
"I don't do much. Just train."
"Don't you rest some?"
"I get bored when I rest." I decide that this is getting nowhere, and am about to try talking to Jeyne some more instead when Lia stops in her tracks. "Come out now," she says, and three figures emerge from the shadows. I thought so. Waide and his two friends. He grins. "Nice to see you drop by. But honestly. They put us on defense, for crying out loud. It was an outrage! How could they expect us to-"
"I'm not surprised they wanted to keep you here," Jeyne drawls, eyes bright, "because that stench of yours could keep anyone away." He stops in his tracks and unsheathes his sword. "You asked for it, *****." Out of rage, I fling myself at him, sword drawn, and he blocks easily. I duel him, and his friends come after me. Nonono. I will not be ganged up on again. I backflip and Alden swings his sword at Waide, and they slice and hack at each other without drawing blood. Lia engages Harien while Jeyne punches Theso in the face, leading him away from the others.
Lia turns to look at me. "Go! Their flag's close! We'll hold them off!" I try to run past them but Waide gets in my way, slicing at me from all directions, and I easily block all his blows before kicking him in the face and jumping ten feet away. I run, hoping that they'll be able to hold them off. I see their flag. It's hanging from a branch of a tree, in plain sight. I run towards it and someone steps out of the shadows and stops my approach. Luke.
He smiles. "Hey Rainheart." Oh ****. Nononononononononononononononononono. No. "Um, hi Luke." He holds up a katana. "I'm puppyguarding, right?"
I smile. "Yes, you're puppyguarding. Now stop." He steps forward and lunges for me. I am not having a repeat performance. I jump sideways and he charges past. I slash at him, and he turns around, and slashes at me. I block his strike, and he goes into a random sequence of attacks, stab, upwards slash, diagonal slash, stab, but now I'm the one to block all of them. I kick him in the face and run up a tree. I backflip behind him, and he turns quickly to block my stroke.
He spins his blade around, and I back up. I run towards the flag, but he tackles me to the ground. He starts punching me in the face, chest, and wherever. I roll over and now I'm on top and punching. I hear yells from my left, and Morias and his team running through. They grab the flag and quickly run, and Luke tries to head after them but I whack him in the butt with my sword. I hear whooping and cheering, and I run to join them. They've crossed the boundary line, and we've won.
We all get back together at the starting point and Henry shakes his head in disbelief. "You've done it again, my friend." Morias grins. "So I see. Your girlfriend is quite the tracker." Henry rolls his eyes, and punches him in the shoulder. Waide gives me the evil eye, but I don't really care. Morias calls for our attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen, heh, that was a great game, was it not? Well, now it's time to go. I trust you all had a good time here, especially those of you who had the honor of being on my team. Now, time to go." He claps his hands, and we're yanked back to the meeting room. I smile. That was really a lot of fun. And soon...I'll be going on a mission against the Insurrection. We all leave, and Morias calls me over.
"Hey, Reinhart, can I talk to you?"
I nod, and walk over to him. "Yeah, what is it?"
"It's about your mission."
Oh no. "...yeah?"
"We found out that a member of Rauil's inner council is going to be there. I thought you might reconsider, but whatever you want."
"Are you kidding? Of course! I want to go now more than I did before!"
"Ok. Just making sure." He winks and leaves. I smile. Things are going to get interesting.
*M i d n a*
Æsir Scribe
Good as always, Vipee. This One likes it. XD I wonder how the mission will play out. Keep up the good work. Sorry for not reading sooner, I was busy doing some things. :yes:
Myriadviper42
Fulcrum Agent
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2010
- Location
- Control
Chapter 7: Fort Raelus
The border to Miria was in the distance, and Cecil didn't know what the hell Balthen was talking about. Barrier? There was no barrier, just clear skies. Which just goes to show how simple Cecil was. He cared about the cause more than even Rauil's own council members, but he frankly was a bit thick in the head. He followed orders usually but he honestly couldn't see anything.
What he was scared about though was that Rauil's entire operation depended on him now. He didn't think he was ready for that kind of responsibility, and frankly, he wasn't. He had a moderately muscular frame, short brown hair, but had a thin, weak-looking face that made him appear weaker than he was. Thinking wasn't his strong suit, nor was true leadership, but he had brawn, which made him good enough for Rauil. That and the fact that he was easily Influenced made him a nice enough addition to the Insurrection. That was, until Rauil would utilize his eventual plan to phase out non-Awakened soldiers entirely.
Of course, Cecil didn't know about that. He just knew that he had to take this fort or otherwise Balthen would subject him to the same sort of humiliation he'd done yesterday night. He was still being ridiculed for letting an "old-timer" slap him. If they had been the ones to be slapped, they wouldn't be laughing, now would they? He imagined what would happen once he succeeded...gold, a nice place to settle down...
He snapped out of his thoughts, however simple they might be. There was work to be done, and Cecil knew he had to do it. The men had been moving all day, and it was nearly dark. Surely the attack could wait until tomorrow. He then tried to envision what would happen if he held off the attack until tomorrow. Balthen might get angry at him, for one thing. The Mirians could discover their presence. They could be attacked by bandits or by wild animals. All right, he concluded, they would just have to attack during the night. A few hours rest first, though.
He held his hand up, signaling the rest of his men to stop. However, it wasn't a very effective form of communication, and took a while for all the men to get the message to stop. Cecil turned to address all of them, not accustomed to raising his voice and making his voice sound hoarse instead of threatening. "Now listen up! We are approaching the fort in which they are creating the barrier. I know you all are tired, and we'll rest for a couple hours before headin' in. These men will be like nothing you all have never seen. But they are not invincible." He started coughing.
The men disbanded, resting, playing games, the like. Cecil sighed. Things could only get better from here, right? He fell asleep against a tree. His dreams were just dreams, as opposed to those of Awakened, which sometimes are connected with that of the Overseer's. The benefits and the detriments of a normal life. A shadow crept up close to him, knife raised, but he awakened and kicked it in the face, sending it scampering away. Most likely one of his men, trying to usurp the oh so valuable position of corporal.
He rose, and called together all the men, saying that it was time to fight. The men didn't like it, but they had to, and they knew it. Cecil was not all that intimidating figure, and could be easily usurped by pretty much anyone, but in the shadow of Balthen, Cecil was a critical part of the plan, even though all the men, including Cecil, didn't like it. The men readied themselves for combat, preparing armor and weapons, and Cecil led them in the march to the border fort.
They heard the sound of clanging, an alarm, men getting ready, and within seconds the whistling of arrows rang hollow in the men's ears. Instantly, several men were struck down and Cecil ordered a full out charge. Men rushed out from the fort to meet them and the harsh sound of metal on metal rang throughout the area. Cecil ducked as an arrow nearly split his skull open, and what a pity that would have been. He unsheathed his sword, engaging the man closest to the fort. "Find the sorcerer! Once he's dead, Balthen can take care of this!"
The men charged, yelling. Cecil slipped inside the fort, taking out enemies as he pleased. Despite his weaknesses, he was actually a capable fighter. He dispatched the first man with little effort, but was snapped back to his senses after the second man nearly decapitated him. Several of his men came in behind him, protecting him as he weaved his way through the fort, hacking and slashing as he pleased. He wasn't invincible or near-invincible like the Awakened were, though, so once he finally reached the meditating Awakened, he was covered in blood.
The Awakened meditated, and even Cecil could feel a sort of energy in the room. He advanced cautiously, sure that the Awakened would...well...awaken, but he did not. With every step his heartbeat accelerated, and he found himself terrified, and the Awakened was right within sword reach. He yelled, swinging wildly and the Awakened's head toppled to the floor. He turned to see Balthen standing before him.
"Good work."
A crash and Cecil was flung to the ceiling, screaming. Balthen looked up at him in contempt, snorting at his terror. He walked away and the man was flung down into the ground with a crack, and lay still, body broken.
*****
Luke, Jeyne and I walk in silence down the hall. My first mission, and for the first time I'm glad Luke's coming along with us. He'll be useful, as long as he's not in dope mode. I grasp my sword handle, squeezing it. My first mission. My first strike against the Insurrection. I turn to look at Jeyne. Her posture looks calm enough, but her eyes seem bright and nervous. Luke on the other hand is picking his nose, but other then that he seems the usual. He doesn't hold a grudge against me for beating him last night, nor would I expect him to. He's not that kind of person.
We reach the locked room that Luke had mistakenly tried to open on my first visit here. Now, Jeyne has the key, and we open the door. Inside is one of the older men who had transported us to the forest last night for capture the flag.
"You three going on a mission?" he asks gruffly.
Jeyne steps forward. "Yes. To Fort Raelus, to get rid of the Insurrection's presence there."
He nods. "Noble goal. Good luck to you three." He raises his hands and closes his eyes, and I for the second time feel a jerk in my body, and am pulled away, and land with a thud inside stone walls. Fort Raelus, most likely and hopefully. Luke grabs me by the neck and drags me along.
"Move, move, move!" he whispers, and I realize he's pulling Jeyne by the scruff of her neck as well.
"What the hell are you doing, Luke?" I whisper.
"Trying to keep moving."
"We aren't moving, you're dragging us along!"
"...is there a difference?"
"Well we can move faster on our own, you know!"
"Guys!" Jeyne interrupts, and a guard comes around the corner. Luke flicks his hand and the guard is slammed into a wall, unconscious. I'm jealous. But...not for long, as he doubles over. "Ow...ow...ow...cramp...cramp...wasn't...ready....to do...that...."
More guards are coming, we can hear the yells. We have to move, and not the Luke style of moving. "Run!" I yell, and we all sprint. One thing I'm grateful for in the week that I've been here is that I can now sprint for an insane amount of time without collapsing. It's an interesting feature, I know.
I shoot a stream of flame at one of them, scorching their face, and I slice their throat. Jeyne stabs one in the back of the head with her knife, and Luke kicks one in the face back into another person, stabs another in the foot before knocking his teeth out, and runs up a wall, dragging some poor soldier with him. With all the guards in the area dead, we move through the fort, taking enemies out as we go.
"This way should lead to the commander of the fort," Jeyne says confidently, "I know the schematics." She leads the way, and several more men charge at us. I jump several feet towards one, decapitating him before wrapping flame around my sword to dispatch the others. Luke smiles at me. "Nice work Rainheart. Does medal melt?"
"Not this metal." We run through the fort, and reach a fork in the road, not literally, of course. "What now?" I ask Jeyne, and she hmmmns. "We split up, I guess." We should of had four people on this mission, not three. But no matter. "I'll go alone," I say, and the other two look at me worriedly?"
"You sure?" Jeyne asks, and I nod. She turns and takes Luke down the left corridor. I walk down the right corridor, sword out. Something is off here. Something feels...colder. If that's the sign of an Awakened in the area, looks like I'm getting close. I reach an ornate room that is completely empty. Somehow the sight sets me on edge, but I can't figure out why? Could I be being Influenced right now? I didn't think that Awakened could be, but perhaps if it were powerful enough...
"Could you tell me something please?"
I turn, startled to see a figure standing behind me. Chills make their way down my spine as I get a good look at this newcomer. He has longish dark brown hair, wide-set golden eyes, and angular features. He wears a simple black cloak and it fits. He seems like a shade of something else.
"Who the hell are you?"
He chuckles, and it sounds more menacing then a laugh would. "Now now, I was the one asking you a question." He vanishes, and reappears behind me. "...but you can call me Lucien."
"So what do you want me to tell you?" I keep my sword drawn, just in case.
He chuckles again. "Tell me...what do you know...and what do you think you know."
He vanishes again, reappearing in the doorway. "What the hell do you mean by that?" I demand. He smirks.
"Reality is what keeps us anchored to ourselves. It binds us, makes us sure of what we are and who we are, our place in life. Someone who is unsure of their reality could be unstable. Which is interesting, actually. Because the entirety of what we consider to be 'reality' isn’t. So are we all unstable? No. We perceive that what we see is indeed real-and it is, but not in the way that we think that it is. Namely, reality is a dream. But you already knew that...or at least you think you do."
I'm getting tired of this. I charge him, and I'm flung back into a wall. He laughs. I was wrong. The laugh sounds more menacing. "You'll have to do better then that to defeat Rauil. But that doesn't really concern me. All I'm willing to tell you now is...things are not what they seem to be." I get up growling, and he bows. He's gone. The hell just happened? What did he mean, things are not what they seem? If his goal was to confuse me, he succeeded. But I honestly don't care. I look around, making sure he's gone, and then move out of the room. I'm back to a corridor. I move cautiously through it, ready to splice open any guards at a moments notice.
I enter the next room. Sitting in a chair, staring right at me is a gray-cloaked man. He's not Castor, unfortunately. He has a younger, fuller face, with a small beard, long dark hair and a roguish look to him. He doesn't look like the adviser to the most infamous criminal in Exeria at the current time. If he hadn't been wearing that gray cloak I would probably picture him as a charming knight. With the light gray cloak around his shoulders though, he looks out of his element somehow. He smiles as I enter, and suddenly my muscles weaken, as if some force is drawing my power away from me. My knees bend, and I use my sword to prevent me from falling to the ground.
He laughs heartily. If I were on his side I would probably find it jolly. "My name is Michael, and thank you for your respect, but it is not me with which you should kneel before," he says jokingly, and some of my strength returns, which I use to stand up.
"How...how did you..."
"Drain your energy? It's not perfect, and it certainly can't drain your powers entirely or forever. It's a temporary fix, or should I say break?" He looks at me and his eyes narrow. "Wait. I know you."
I snort. "How could you know me? I'm just a mercenary." But now that I think about it, he looks kind of familiar as well...
"Yes...YES. I know you...you....YOU!" He unsheathes his sword and heads towards me, my power draining once more. He easily knocks me to the ground. "YOU KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!"
Oh no...I was right. That high-ranking Insurrectionist official was this guy's best friend. And now he's pissed. I try to draw power into myself, to try to fight back, but I am too weak. His power is too strong, too bizarre, and I can't do anything about it. I hear screams from the hallway behind us, and I grin. Luke and Jeyne burst in, and Luke shoots a stream of fire at Michael, and it hits him dead in the face. The sound of his screams fills the room while my power returns to me, and I stab an Insurrectionist guard while Luke and Jeyne do the same.
Michael vanishes, still screaming, and we kill the rest of the men in the room. We stand in silence, not sure what to say. Jeyne looks guilty at not being able to rescue me anytime sooner. We stand there...awkwardly, and then, finally, Luke nervously says...
"Did we win?"
The border to Miria was in the distance, and Cecil didn't know what the hell Balthen was talking about. Barrier? There was no barrier, just clear skies. Which just goes to show how simple Cecil was. He cared about the cause more than even Rauil's own council members, but he frankly was a bit thick in the head. He followed orders usually but he honestly couldn't see anything.
What he was scared about though was that Rauil's entire operation depended on him now. He didn't think he was ready for that kind of responsibility, and frankly, he wasn't. He had a moderately muscular frame, short brown hair, but had a thin, weak-looking face that made him appear weaker than he was. Thinking wasn't his strong suit, nor was true leadership, but he had brawn, which made him good enough for Rauil. That and the fact that he was easily Influenced made him a nice enough addition to the Insurrection. That was, until Rauil would utilize his eventual plan to phase out non-Awakened soldiers entirely.
Of course, Cecil didn't know about that. He just knew that he had to take this fort or otherwise Balthen would subject him to the same sort of humiliation he'd done yesterday night. He was still being ridiculed for letting an "old-timer" slap him. If they had been the ones to be slapped, they wouldn't be laughing, now would they? He imagined what would happen once he succeeded...gold, a nice place to settle down...
He snapped out of his thoughts, however simple they might be. There was work to be done, and Cecil knew he had to do it. The men had been moving all day, and it was nearly dark. Surely the attack could wait until tomorrow. He then tried to envision what would happen if he held off the attack until tomorrow. Balthen might get angry at him, for one thing. The Mirians could discover their presence. They could be attacked by bandits or by wild animals. All right, he concluded, they would just have to attack during the night. A few hours rest first, though.
He held his hand up, signaling the rest of his men to stop. However, it wasn't a very effective form of communication, and took a while for all the men to get the message to stop. Cecil turned to address all of them, not accustomed to raising his voice and making his voice sound hoarse instead of threatening. "Now listen up! We are approaching the fort in which they are creating the barrier. I know you all are tired, and we'll rest for a couple hours before headin' in. These men will be like nothing you all have never seen. But they are not invincible." He started coughing.
The men disbanded, resting, playing games, the like. Cecil sighed. Things could only get better from here, right? He fell asleep against a tree. His dreams were just dreams, as opposed to those of Awakened, which sometimes are connected with that of the Overseer's. The benefits and the detriments of a normal life. A shadow crept up close to him, knife raised, but he awakened and kicked it in the face, sending it scampering away. Most likely one of his men, trying to usurp the oh so valuable position of corporal.
He rose, and called together all the men, saying that it was time to fight. The men didn't like it, but they had to, and they knew it. Cecil was not all that intimidating figure, and could be easily usurped by pretty much anyone, but in the shadow of Balthen, Cecil was a critical part of the plan, even though all the men, including Cecil, didn't like it. The men readied themselves for combat, preparing armor and weapons, and Cecil led them in the march to the border fort.
They heard the sound of clanging, an alarm, men getting ready, and within seconds the whistling of arrows rang hollow in the men's ears. Instantly, several men were struck down and Cecil ordered a full out charge. Men rushed out from the fort to meet them and the harsh sound of metal on metal rang throughout the area. Cecil ducked as an arrow nearly split his skull open, and what a pity that would have been. He unsheathed his sword, engaging the man closest to the fort. "Find the sorcerer! Once he's dead, Balthen can take care of this!"
The men charged, yelling. Cecil slipped inside the fort, taking out enemies as he pleased. Despite his weaknesses, he was actually a capable fighter. He dispatched the first man with little effort, but was snapped back to his senses after the second man nearly decapitated him. Several of his men came in behind him, protecting him as he weaved his way through the fort, hacking and slashing as he pleased. He wasn't invincible or near-invincible like the Awakened were, though, so once he finally reached the meditating Awakened, he was covered in blood.
The Awakened meditated, and even Cecil could feel a sort of energy in the room. He advanced cautiously, sure that the Awakened would...well...awaken, but he did not. With every step his heartbeat accelerated, and he found himself terrified, and the Awakened was right within sword reach. He yelled, swinging wildly and the Awakened's head toppled to the floor. He turned to see Balthen standing before him.
"Good work."
A crash and Cecil was flung to the ceiling, screaming. Balthen looked up at him in contempt, snorting at his terror. He walked away and the man was flung down into the ground with a crack, and lay still, body broken.
*****
Luke, Jeyne and I walk in silence down the hall. My first mission, and for the first time I'm glad Luke's coming along with us. He'll be useful, as long as he's not in dope mode. I grasp my sword handle, squeezing it. My first mission. My first strike against the Insurrection. I turn to look at Jeyne. Her posture looks calm enough, but her eyes seem bright and nervous. Luke on the other hand is picking his nose, but other then that he seems the usual. He doesn't hold a grudge against me for beating him last night, nor would I expect him to. He's not that kind of person.
We reach the locked room that Luke had mistakenly tried to open on my first visit here. Now, Jeyne has the key, and we open the door. Inside is one of the older men who had transported us to the forest last night for capture the flag.
"You three going on a mission?" he asks gruffly.
Jeyne steps forward. "Yes. To Fort Raelus, to get rid of the Insurrection's presence there."
He nods. "Noble goal. Good luck to you three." He raises his hands and closes his eyes, and I for the second time feel a jerk in my body, and am pulled away, and land with a thud inside stone walls. Fort Raelus, most likely and hopefully. Luke grabs me by the neck and drags me along.
"Move, move, move!" he whispers, and I realize he's pulling Jeyne by the scruff of her neck as well.
"What the hell are you doing, Luke?" I whisper.
"Trying to keep moving."
"We aren't moving, you're dragging us along!"
"...is there a difference?"
"Well we can move faster on our own, you know!"
"Guys!" Jeyne interrupts, and a guard comes around the corner. Luke flicks his hand and the guard is slammed into a wall, unconscious. I'm jealous. But...not for long, as he doubles over. "Ow...ow...ow...cramp...cramp...wasn't...ready....to do...that...."
More guards are coming, we can hear the yells. We have to move, and not the Luke style of moving. "Run!" I yell, and we all sprint. One thing I'm grateful for in the week that I've been here is that I can now sprint for an insane amount of time without collapsing. It's an interesting feature, I know.
I shoot a stream of flame at one of them, scorching their face, and I slice their throat. Jeyne stabs one in the back of the head with her knife, and Luke kicks one in the face back into another person, stabs another in the foot before knocking his teeth out, and runs up a wall, dragging some poor soldier with him. With all the guards in the area dead, we move through the fort, taking enemies out as we go.
"This way should lead to the commander of the fort," Jeyne says confidently, "I know the schematics." She leads the way, and several more men charge at us. I jump several feet towards one, decapitating him before wrapping flame around my sword to dispatch the others. Luke smiles at me. "Nice work Rainheart. Does medal melt?"
"Not this metal." We run through the fort, and reach a fork in the road, not literally, of course. "What now?" I ask Jeyne, and she hmmmns. "We split up, I guess." We should of had four people on this mission, not three. But no matter. "I'll go alone," I say, and the other two look at me worriedly?"
"You sure?" Jeyne asks, and I nod. She turns and takes Luke down the left corridor. I walk down the right corridor, sword out. Something is off here. Something feels...colder. If that's the sign of an Awakened in the area, looks like I'm getting close. I reach an ornate room that is completely empty. Somehow the sight sets me on edge, but I can't figure out why? Could I be being Influenced right now? I didn't think that Awakened could be, but perhaps if it were powerful enough...
"Could you tell me something please?"
I turn, startled to see a figure standing behind me. Chills make their way down my spine as I get a good look at this newcomer. He has longish dark brown hair, wide-set golden eyes, and angular features. He wears a simple black cloak and it fits. He seems like a shade of something else.
"Who the hell are you?"
He chuckles, and it sounds more menacing then a laugh would. "Now now, I was the one asking you a question." He vanishes, and reappears behind me. "...but you can call me Lucien."
"So what do you want me to tell you?" I keep my sword drawn, just in case.
He chuckles again. "Tell me...what do you know...and what do you think you know."
He vanishes again, reappearing in the doorway. "What the hell do you mean by that?" I demand. He smirks.
"Reality is what keeps us anchored to ourselves. It binds us, makes us sure of what we are and who we are, our place in life. Someone who is unsure of their reality could be unstable. Which is interesting, actually. Because the entirety of what we consider to be 'reality' isn’t. So are we all unstable? No. We perceive that what we see is indeed real-and it is, but not in the way that we think that it is. Namely, reality is a dream. But you already knew that...or at least you think you do."
I'm getting tired of this. I charge him, and I'm flung back into a wall. He laughs. I was wrong. The laugh sounds more menacing. "You'll have to do better then that to defeat Rauil. But that doesn't really concern me. All I'm willing to tell you now is...things are not what they seem to be." I get up growling, and he bows. He's gone. The hell just happened? What did he mean, things are not what they seem? If his goal was to confuse me, he succeeded. But I honestly don't care. I look around, making sure he's gone, and then move out of the room. I'm back to a corridor. I move cautiously through it, ready to splice open any guards at a moments notice.
I enter the next room. Sitting in a chair, staring right at me is a gray-cloaked man. He's not Castor, unfortunately. He has a younger, fuller face, with a small beard, long dark hair and a roguish look to him. He doesn't look like the adviser to the most infamous criminal in Exeria at the current time. If he hadn't been wearing that gray cloak I would probably picture him as a charming knight. With the light gray cloak around his shoulders though, he looks out of his element somehow. He smiles as I enter, and suddenly my muscles weaken, as if some force is drawing my power away from me. My knees bend, and I use my sword to prevent me from falling to the ground.
He laughs heartily. If I were on his side I would probably find it jolly. "My name is Michael, and thank you for your respect, but it is not me with which you should kneel before," he says jokingly, and some of my strength returns, which I use to stand up.
"How...how did you..."
"Drain your energy? It's not perfect, and it certainly can't drain your powers entirely or forever. It's a temporary fix, or should I say break?" He looks at me and his eyes narrow. "Wait. I know you."
I snort. "How could you know me? I'm just a mercenary." But now that I think about it, he looks kind of familiar as well...
"Yes...YES. I know you...you....YOU!" He unsheathes his sword and heads towards me, my power draining once more. He easily knocks me to the ground. "YOU KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!"
Oh no...I was right. That high-ranking Insurrectionist official was this guy's best friend. And now he's pissed. I try to draw power into myself, to try to fight back, but I am too weak. His power is too strong, too bizarre, and I can't do anything about it. I hear screams from the hallway behind us, and I grin. Luke and Jeyne burst in, and Luke shoots a stream of fire at Michael, and it hits him dead in the face. The sound of his screams fills the room while my power returns to me, and I stab an Insurrectionist guard while Luke and Jeyne do the same.
Michael vanishes, still screaming, and we kill the rest of the men in the room. We stand in silence, not sure what to say. Jeyne looks guilty at not being able to rescue me anytime sooner. We stand there...awkwardly, and then, finally, Luke nervously says...
"Did we win?"