[Agree to work with Saerya] I'm not a big fan of Sherryl and I feel like she will become a bigger problem in the future rather than Harris. Like Saerya said: Jenna doesn't have many powerful allies so this would be a chance to win House Targaryan's favor. If it all works out, then great! If not... then may the Seven have mercy on Jenna.
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
Huh, that is something I haven't even known before. Thanks for pointing it out! So far I thought that in the pre-Conquest era, Waters was already used as the surname for bastards from the islands that were sworn to House Targaryen and that it was later used for all of the Crownlands after they got established, but I could very well be wrong about it. Though considering that the Waters surname has already been used for two characters in the story, I'm going to stick with it. I haven't found anything about Elaena's children being the first bastards with that surname though, are you sure about that one?
[Try to escape] I just don't trust her.
I've actually noticed one serious mistake - there was no "Waters" surname back in those day. It's… more a surname of all bastards born in Kinglands and there were no Kinglands before Targaryens conquered Westeros. Plus, as I remember, the surname Waters was firstly given by Elaena Targaryen to her bastards Jon and Jeyne, in sake of their father, Alyn Velaryon.
I have some minor constructive criticism. There seems to be a lot more grammar mistakes than usual.
Yep, rereading it I think I've spotted some of them. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I guess I really shouldn't write with a headache XD But I'm glad that you enjoyed the part in general. I was actually concerned that the confrontation could be a bit dull to read, so I am relieved to hear that my worries have been unfounded.
[Agree to work with Saerya] I like Jenna involved in schemes. I love the idea of Jenna and Saerya going up against Sherryl. And above all el… morese, I really like Saerya. Another thing to think about is that Jenna could learn from Saerya. Saerya is a cunning woman and a gifted liar, coming up with new lies without any tells and she was improvising. Jenna is still a novice when it comes to lying and scheming, but with Saerya's help she could become a master.
I have some minor constructive criticism. There seems to be a lot more grammar mistakes than usual.
I really enjoyed this. Definitely one of my favourite chapters and confrontations in the whole story.
Only the second time we've seen her but I already love Saerya's character.
If it's worth noting, (I noticed this too but I guess I forgot), the Crownlands was considered an extension of the Stormlands so I guess they would be properly "Storm". It is kind of weird since the Crownlands pre-Conquest are just the northern Stormlands.
Huh, that is something I haven't even known before. Thanks for pointing it out! So far I thought that in the pre-Conquest era, Waters was al… moreready used as the surname for bastards from the islands that were sworn to House Targaryen and that it was later used for all of the Crownlands after they got established, but I could very well be wrong about it. Though considering that the Waters surname has already been used for two characters in the story, I'm going to stick with it. I haven't found anything about Elaena's children being the first bastards with that surname though, are you sure about that one?
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
Huh, that is something I haven't even known before. Thanks for pointing it out! So far I thought that in the pre-Conquest era, Waters was al… moreready used as the surname for bastards from the islands that were sworn to House Targaryen and that it was later used for all of the Crownlands after they got established, but I could very well be wrong about it. Though considering that the Waters surname has already been used for two characters in the story, I'm going to stick with it. I haven't found anything about Elaena's children being the first bastards with that surname though, are you sure about that one?
I read only now the new PoV..let's talk about the new choice:Agree to work with Saerya mean Jenna will side with the dragons obtaining the help from Saerya and Daghan but her choice,if she accept,can probaly bring her more misfortune since from that moment Jenna can be not only the target of a crazy assassin but even of entire nations;Try to escape mean that we will probably have a catfight jokes aside I think that in this way Harris and Sherryl will probably be pleased and Jenna will not make the people close to her risk their life,the only minus is that the dragons side will probably remember that
At the end my choise is to quote a famous Telltale catchphrase and don't make,for this time, a real choice: Silence is a valid option
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Just to add to the difficulty. Why must you do this!
This is a hard choice... I'm tempted to work with Saerya, but knowing that this is a major choice, and the whole scheme of it, I just feel like it has a huge possibility of backfiring, badly... however, if we escape, Sherryl will most likely continue to do her bad acts...
Okay, I choose [Agree to work with Saerya]. I feel like it's a risk we need to take. If we try to escape and fail, that will cause a lot more problems I am assuming. If there's any time to take down Sherryl it would be now I guess.
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
My apologies for not releasing this part yesterday. A portion of it needed an extensive rewrite and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it… more. Still, I hope you enjoy it. I should also really stop taking back my earlier statements, but I'm afraid I have to do it once again. This part will only include one PoV, despite the fact that I previously announced two. Once again, the reason for this is that I realized that this PoV will work better with more room. Think wisely about the choice, it is going to be very important, not only for Jenna, but for many other characters as well, for the better or the worse.
Jenna
Jenna slowly narrowed her eyes as she saw Saerya closing the door to the ravenry behind her. Where did she get the key? And more importantly, what was she doing there? Jenna took a deep breath, as she glanced to the gates. In the distance, she saw dozens of people rushing up the path that lead to the castle. The smallfolk of Ray… [view original content]
While I was planning Jenna's next part, I realized that I cannot even say if this was an unambigously wise or unwise choice. There will be consequences with both possible options, good consequences for some characters and bad consequences for others. Depending on where your sympathies in this story are, you may have your very own opinion on wether or not this was the right choice. It was an interesting choice for sure and the consequences are going to be fun to write. Jenna will have one more part in this chapter, but first the other storylines deserve some spotlight.
The next part is going to be out today. Roughly 2/3rd of it are written and I'm making good progress, so the wait shouldn't be that long, a few hours at most. It is going to include the start of Ilish's storyline in this chapter and it is also going to include a Marak part. While Marak already appeared in this chapter, he hasn't been seen for weeks. Ilish on the other hand simply won't have a very long storyline in this chapter, so I purposely pushed her parts into the second half of it. Her storyline had the same one-week timeskip as the other storylines between Chapter 5 and 6. There have been a few developments for her after she survived Wolfius' attempt to murder her, developments which I hope to reveal in the coming parts. Also, while I doubt it is going to confuse anyone, remember that it was previously mentioned that Raylansfair is currently having a literal fair to celebrate the arrival of Lord Tyrell. This fair is where Ilish's part is going to start. Meanwhile, Marak and Noelle travelled to Oldtown during the timeskip. In his last part, the two entered the Citadel, where Noelle met an old acquaintance of hers, who turned out to be Wulvren, the Archmaester of magic. While Wulvren seemed resentful of Noelle for something that happened in their past, Noelle apparently needed his help for her plan. In order to appease him, she offered him to take a sample of Marak's blood for his studies. Even though Marak was sceptical about this, he agreed to the procedure.
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages of the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performance, even if it wasn't real magic. Judging by the look on his face, Lawsen was happy as well, which, after all, had been the main reason for her to take him to the fair.
It was still hard for Ilish to cope with what happened. Alexander Botwerys... she had barely known him and still he had been willing to fight for her, a fight that ultimately claimed his life. She remained alive, but in her stead, someone else had to die. The thought alone was horrifying. None of his comrades from the Second Sons had shown up for the funeral. In fact, Ilish hadn't seen any of his comrades in days, not even Ser Rodrik, which was something she was rather happy about. Aside from the little he told her, it was unlikely that she would ever learn more about Alexander. She did not know him very well, but she would surely never forget him.
As hard as it was for her, she could only imagine how much harder it had to be for Lawsen. For the first few days, Ilish had suffered from nightmares, about a wolf that hunted her through the streets of Raylansfair. Even now, she regularly had to take a nervous glimpse over her shoulder, to make sure that no one was following her. However, all of it was nothing compared to the shape Lawsen was in. At least her scars were mental, something she knew she could recover from, if given enough time. Lawsen on the other hand had it a lot worse
After Kersea and Clayton had taken Wolfius away, Ilish had been left with one dead body and one heavily bleeding and unconscious young man. While she succeeded with dragging Lawsen to the healer, he had lost a lot of blood. His neck, where Kreep had bitten him, was still heavily bandaged, although Mathea had succeeded with preventing an infection. Aside from the bandages, it was obvious that Lawsen was in no good shape. He had gotten even thinner than before and deathly pale, his eyes sunken deeply in their sockets. Even though he was over a year younger than Ilish, right now he looked like a man almost twice her age. But he was smiling. At least he was smiling.
“Have you seen that?”, he asked with a grin. “A dragon! I've always wanted to see a dragon” His smile was contagious and Ilish had to give him a nod. “Same here”, she admitted. She knew that a real dragon likely looked a lot different than the illusion she was seeing right now, but she suppressed the urge to comment on it. Instead, she grinned as she looked back at the illusionist.
The man on top of the wooden stage called himself Magnus Silverstone, but his foreign looks clued her in that the name was likely as fake as his powers. The robe on the other hand was very real and obviously expensive, consisting entirely out of golden and violet fabric. Magnus was a short man and a bit on the heavy side, with the tanned skin of an Essosi. His mane of black hair and the massive, twirled moustache made him look older than he probably was. Despite his likely foreign heritage, he spoke without an accent.
“My friends! Wonderful citizens of Raylansfair!”, he said with a loud, booming and pleasant voice. “Before I show you my next spell, I have to warn you...” He lowered his voice as he took a step closer towards the edge of the stage, towards his audience. “During my travels I have learned from the shadowbinders of Asshai, from the warlocks of Qarth, even from the mysterious bloodmages of Yi Ti. But nothing came close to the power I mastered during my travels through the ruins of Valyria, the power I was taught by the demon kings themselves!”
With these words, he quickly moved his hand and only Ilish was able to see that he threw some kind of powder into the brazier to his left. A loud bang sounded, loud enough for the crowd to take a step back. Some even screamed in surprise as the thick smoke that came out of the brazier took the shape of a large humanoid thing with two curved horns on its top. Even Lawsen stumbled backwards, while he was laughing brightly, and Ilish had to grab his shoulder to help him remain on his shaky feet. She was grinning as well, even though she was reasonably sure that demon kings did not exist. And if they would exist, they certainly wouldn't share their powers with a street illusionist.
“The demons were reluctant to share their knowledge, but eventually I convinced them of my worth”, Magnus explained and Ilish had to admit that he was a gifted storyteller. The crowd was hanging on his every words and she had no doubt that some of them even believed his mind-boggling tales.
“Behold.... THE SPARK!”, he yelled at the top of his lungs as he pulled a small vial filled with something that looked like slightly glimmering powder out of his robe. The crowd made impressed noise, although Ilish was sure that at this point, they would have even been impressed if he would have pulled a dead rat out of his robe.
“The Spark! One of the greatest secrets of the dragonlords, taught to them by the dark and powerful beings from beyond the world of the living!”, Magnus explained. “Pure sunlight pressed into powder through the power of dark and ancient rites! Take a closer look, it is harmless right now...”
He moved the flask around and Ilish saw tiny sparks forming in it. This was no illusion, the flask and its contents were real. Of course, the story around it was the tallest of tales, but she was nonetheless impressed. Ilish's understanding of these things was barely above rudimentary, but she still understood that this, while no real magic, was some sort of alchemy.
“What does it do?”, a woman asked and a wide grin formed on Magnus' face. “Do you wish a demonstration, mylady?”, he asked and Ilish saw the woman blushing. She was in her forties, big-boned and plain-faced, with the hints of hair on her upper lip, the kind of person that has never been called 'mylady' before. “Yes”, she breathed. “Oh yes, this would be wonderful!”
“Very well!”, Magnus said with a sly grin. “I have to warn you though... As soon as I open this vial, a beam of pure sunlight will appear, bright enough to illuminate even the darkest of nights. I have to use all of my powers to keep this sunlight under control, but still, it is possible that you won't be able to see anything for a moment. Please, remain calm if this happens and I can assure you, everything will be alright and no harm will come upon you! Do you trust me?”
The crowd, including Lawsen, nodded in unison, but Ilish subtly shook her head. As much as she was enjoying his show, she definitely wasn't trusting him. And what he just suggested sounded dangerous... For the first time since the show started, she actually wished that she would have stopped at the tent with the tame shadowcats instead. She had the slight feeling that she wouldn't like what was going to follow.
Magnus started to speak in a hushed, fast-paced voice, the words sounding guttural and foreign as he moved his free hand above the vial. His movements caught the attention of the crowd even more than before and as Ilish looked around, down the improvised trails of the fairground and towards the colourful tents and stages that had been built there over the past week, she saw that Magnus' performance attracted quite a lot of attention.
Her gaze fell upon a young man, more a boy, whose dark brown skin set him apart from the fair-skinned citizens of Raylansfair. He was casually walking through the crowd, but she knew what he was doing. Small-time thievery was something she was experienced in and she recognized a fellow pickpocket when she saw him. Unaware of her watchful eye, the boy casually removed the purse from a bystander's belt. Ilish narrowed her eyes and started to move her hand down to her own purse...
With a hammy roar, Magnus threw the vial onto the ground. The last thing she saw was that both, the illusionist and the young pickpocket turned away from it before it hit the ground. She wasn't fast enough, as the alchemistic substance produced the bright flash of light that Magnus had promised. Her world exploded into white light and instinctively, Ilish tried to shield her eyes by moving her hands up.
For a moment, she was unable to see anything. However, she was able to hear the surprised screams of the crowd, some of them panicked, though a majority seemed strangely amused by the experience. She heard Lawsen laughing brightly as she looked around, opening and closing her eyes again and again.
Then, she felt someone touching her belt. Her hand moved down and to her surprise, she indeed managed to grab a thin wrist that did not belong there. Someone let out a surprised gasp, before breaking free of her grip.
Her sight came back as quick as it was gone. For a moment, everything seemed blurry and out of focus, the world seemed to spin as Ilish looked around. She saw Magnus, who was taking a bow in front of his audience. She saw Lawsen, who had an astonished look on his face. She did not saw the young pickpocket and more importantly, she noticed that her purse was missing as well.
“Seven Hells!”, she cursed as she looked around through the crowd. There were two ways down the improvised trails, past the colourful tents of other showmen. To her left was the long tent she had been previously, where a dark-skinned Ghiscari had presented a couple of exotic wild beasts. To her right, she saw several smaller tents and stages, where acrobats, strongmen, illusionists and dancers performed. The boy had without a doubt taken one of these ways if he was trying to escape. Ilish was sure that he couldn't have gotten far. With a bit of luck, she might still be able to catch him.
[Run to the right][Run to the left]
Marak
Marak let out a pained groan before the oversized needle even touched him. They had to strap his left arm down onto the wooden table to allow Wulvren to safely take a sample of his blood. The Archmaester had repeatedly assured him that there was nothing to be afraid of, that it wouldn't even hurt. Despite his calming words, Marak was still afraid. While fear wasn't an entirely new emotion for him, it was as unusual as it was irritating.
“Oh, don't make such a fuss”, Noelle said, while she held his free hand with both of hers. As unnatural and uncomfortable as it usually was to him, in this moment her warmth was strangely soothing. “It's only a tiny needle”
“It's a fucking longsword!”, Marak protested, as his gaze was fixed on the tip of the needle. Wulvren held the syringe with disturbing ease and slowly prepared to take the blood sample Noelle had promised to him. By the Drowned God, hells, by every god that was willing to listen, be it one of the Seven Pansies or Noelle's rollmop, why did he had to agree to this?
“And are you afraid of longswords?”, Noelle asked and Marak shook his head, disgruntled at the mere suggestion. “What? No!”, he protested. “It's just... well...” Even he realized how whiny he must sound right now. But he wasn't whiny! Swords, axes, spears, arrows, any kind of weapon was harmless to him. But needles? Marak had never trusted needles. Something about them was shifty.
“Well?”, Noelle asked and Marak let out a frustrated groan. She answered with a smirk. “Don't be chicken, it won't hurt” Marak narrowed his eyes. “I'm not chicken!”, he growled, loud enough to make Archmaester Wulvren throw a concerned look towards Noelle. “Taunting the patient is usually not the best approach”, he warned her. “Or so I've heard. I'm not the type to deal with patients”
“Well, but you have a patient right now, so please pay attention!”, Marak exclaimed. “I don't want to loose my arm” Wulvren pressed his lips together, while Noelle visibly suppressed a grin. “Look, you won't loose your arm”, the Archmaester explained in a slow tone, as if he was talking to a child. “I know what I'm doing. Besides, it is a clean needle. I've even disinfected it”
“I don't even know what that means!”, Marak yelled in despair. Wulvren let out a sigh as he moved the needle closer to the arm. A shrill scream of agony forced its way out of Marak's throat and the Archmaester immediately raised the syringe again. “I haven't even touched him!”, he protested and gave Noelle an angry glare. “Noelle, I'm not sure if I can work with this!”
Noelle let out a sigh as her warm hands softly moved up Marak's forearm. “Marak...”, she purred. “Marak, please, be a good boy. Nothing will happen to you. Do you trust me?” Marak wanted to shake his head, but only managed to give her a weak nod, his gaze now locked with hers, as cold sweat ran down his head. “Good”, Noelle said with a pleased smile and glanced at his arm. “See, it didn't hurt, did it?”
Marak gasped as he immediately moved his head to look at his left arm. The needle was embedded deeply into it, slowly filling the syringe with his dark red blood. “What...”, he stuttered. “But...” Noelle and Wulvren exchanged a pleased look, before the Archmaester removed the needle again. Marak let out a whimpering sound, even though he had to admit that he was barely feeling it.
“That should be enough for my studies”, Wulvren proclaimed, before he looked back at Noelle, considerably more friendly than in the beginning. “Alright Noelle, this is going to help a lot. You've proven yourself and I am willing to work with you”
“Pleasure to hear it”, Noelle answered. “I need a number of rare ingredients and I hoped you could help me” Immediately, Wulvren's smile faded. “What are we talking about exactly?”, he asked. Marak glanced from the Archmaester to the priestess and then back to his arm.
“The tongue of a lizard-lion, a bottle of leviathan's blood, the heart of a basilisk and a...”, Noelle started, but Wulvren cut her off. “A Hand of Glory”, he remarked. “I know what you're trying to do and... you know that's not going to work, do you?”
Noelle shook her head. “It does not work because you're not a believer”, she stated coldly. “Now, can you help me, or not?” Wulvren let out a sigh and gave her a nod. “I can”, he confirmed and started to walk to one of the cubpoards. “But I hope you achieve results, because I'd hate to waste all of these things” He opened the cubpoard and to Marak's horror, he pulled out something that looked like a severed human hand. The flesh was pale and shrivelled and the fingers were clutching a crude-looking candle.
“It's my last Hand of Glory and I'm running low on Leviathan's blood as well. It's hard to come by in the winter”, Wulvren explained as he put the hand and a bottle that was filled with some sort of black liquid next to Marak onto the table. “The tongue is not a problem and somewhere around here... ah, there we have it!” The Archmaester put his hand deeply into the cupboard and pulled out two small boxes. “Would you like to start the fire?”
Noelle gave him a nod, as she moved towards the large brazier that was standing in the centre of the room. Marak looked at the severed hand and then to Wulvren. “Uh... am I the only one who has no idea what's going on here?”, he asked.
“Yes, you are”, Noelle remarked without even looking at him, as she started to put small logs of wood into the brazier. “We're trying to cast a spell, to find a very specific person”, Wulvren explained and threw a glance towards Noelle. “Uh... who are we trying to find exactly?”
“I guess it's about that girl you're going to kill, right?”, Marak remarked, which caused a cold glare from Noelle and a surprised one from Wulvren. “Wait... what?”, Wulvren asked, but Noelle had quickly crossed the room as she walked towards him. She put a hand onto his shoulder. “A misunderstanding, you know how he is”, she explained sternly. “It will all make sense in time. For now, I can only reveal that it has to be done”
Wulvren's looks was suspicious and full of mistrust, but as he glanced from the brazier to the ingredients on the table, he simply let out a sigh. “Fine. But I swear to the Seven, don't make me regret that”, he snarled.
With these words, he grabbed the severed hand and gave it to her, followed by the bottle with the black liquid. Noelle took the hand, placing it in the centre of the brazier, before she started to pour the liquid over it. Marak didn't saw her doing anything, but all of a sudden, a tiny, bright flame appeared in it, soon growing into a large fire that filled out the whole brazier.
“In the days before the Doom, mages could cast this spell using any kind of fire, without all of these ingredients”, Wulvren explained, speaking more to himself than to Marak. “Nowadays, we have to boost the magic a little bit. All of these things have a certain arcane spark inside of them”
“The hand as well?”, Marak asked, just as a bright flame started to burn in the brazier. “Is it some kind of warlock's hand?” Wulvren shook his head. “It belonged to Byron Three-Daggers, perhaps the least magical man I can think of”, he explained. “He was a murderer, they hanged him six months ago. I acquired his severed hand, after it was pickled and dried, holding a candle made from his own body fat” A sheepish grin formed on the Archmaester's face as he noticed Marak's disgusted facial expression. “Commonly known as a Hand of Glory, but mother have mercy, don't ask me why”, he continued. “Such an artifact is said to hold magical power, but my experiments have proven this to be nothing but superstition”
“I need the heart and the tongue”, Noelle proclaimed, which thankfully was enough to interrupt Wulvren. He quickly grabbed the two boxes and walked over towards the priestess. “Here's the tongue”, he said, as Noelle quickly grabbed the box and opened it, pulling out a shrivelled tongue in a bright yellow colour. She glanced at it, before she threw it into the fire.
“The heart of the Basilisk”, she said as she opened the last box. A nervous look appeared on Wulvren's eyes and Marak saw him taking a step away from Noelle. “For the love of the Seven, be careful with that... Don't touch...!”, he exclaimed as Noelle simply grabbed a round, leathery object from inside the box. Wulvren's eyes were widely opened as she threw the heart into the fire. “How can you still be alive?”, he asked.
“The Lord of Light looks after his servants”, Noelle answered, before she extended her hand, the one that hasn't touched the heart. “Wulvren, would you like to join me while I cast the spell? It will be easier with your support, old friend”
The astonished look on Wulvren's face faded, replaced by one of genuine excitement as he grabbed her hand. “I was hoping you'd say that”, he exclaimed, before he looked into the fire, which seemed to be unusually bright in Marak's eyes. “Fascinating...”
Noelle looked at her other hand, opening and closing it for a moment, before a smile formed on her face. “Marak”, she said and extended her hand. Immediately, Marak had to gulp. “Would you like to join us as well?”, she asked. “It will be easier with your help. Of course only if you want to, my brave, little champion"
“Have you seen that?”, he asked with a grin. “A dragon! I've always wanted to see a dragon” His smile was contagious and Ilish had to give him a nod. “Same here”, she admitted. She knew that a real dragon likely looked a lot different than the illusion she was seeing right now, but she suppressed the urge to comment on it. Instead, she grinned as she looked back at the illusionist.
Foreshadow.
For the first time since the show started, she actually wished that she would have stopped at the tent with the tame shadowcats instead. She had the slight feeling that she wouldn't like what was going to follow.
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
[Run to the right] This is pretty much just guessing obviously, but I'd say that a pickpocket would go somewhere where there is more people, and I'd guess there are more people where there are more things to look at.
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
That irritates me so much! I always accidently unfollow when I post a comment because the 'follow discussion box' is so close to 'post coment/reply' XD
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages o… moref the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performa… [view original content]
Well... both choices looked quite minor, didn't they? Some choices are indeed minor, even if they all have some sort of consequence. Though, stay tuned, perhaps you'll be surprised. I can reveal that I am glad about Ilish's choice, because it gives me the opportunity to introduce more characters. Wether or not she actually catches the thief is going to be seen in her next part. Since we're firmly in the second half of the chapter, the wait for her next part won't be very long.
The next part is going to be out later today. I am closing the voting a day earlier than usual, because I currently want to try to finish the chapter as quick as possible. This is not because I don't enjoy writing it, but mostly because I can't wait to write the chapter finale. After a number of rewrites, I finally (hehe) have a finale that I am deeply satisfied with and a hopefully worthy finish for Act 2. Be prepared, my friends. First, however, there are a couple of developments that have to happen. One of them is Richard's storyline. Similarly to Ilish, I decided to push his parts into the second half of the chapter. The next part is going to be the first of two with Richard as the PoV. Like Ilish, we haven't seen him in a long time. There have also been some developments for him in the one-week timeskip and at least from his perspective, they have been quite dramatic. Also, this part will mark the point where the often-teased beast storyline is finally gaining some importance.
On another note, I can't believe we still haven't reached page 100. It should happen any time now.
Actually, this particular fire wasn't intended to be a reference, but it is an interesting thought. Act 3's title will make more sense soon, probably around the time Chapter 7 starts.
The Voting is closed!
Ilish is going to run to the right
Marak is not going to join Noelle and Wulvren
Well... both choices looked … morequite minor, didn't they? Some choices are indeed minor, even if they all have some sort of consequence. Though, stay tuned, perhaps you'll be surprised. I can reveal that I am glad about Ilish's choice, because it gives me the opportunity to introduce more characters. Wether or not she actually catches the thief is going to be seen in her next part. Since we're firmly in the second half of the chapter, the wait for her next part won't be very long.
The next part is going to be out later today. I am closing the voting a day earlier than usual, because I currently want to try to finish the chapter as quick as possible. This is not because I don't enjoy writing it, but mostly because I can't wait to write the chapter finale. After a number of rewrites, I finally (hehe) have a finale that I am deeply sati… [view original content]
Can't wait for ending parts of this chapter, looks like lot of things will happen, encounter with princess in Raylansfair and wrap up of the party Jaron attends are some things I'm looking forward to
Can't wait for ending parts of this chapter, looks like lot of things will happen, encounter with princess in Raylansfair and wrap up of the party Jaron attends are some things I'm looking forward to
P.S. #PushToAHundred
The roar of the old, white lion was audible even from outside of the tent. Richard was waiting outside of it, a disgruntled look on his face. The fair brought up a lot of memories and while he had enjoyed it in his past, it felt strange to be here all on his own. In his childhood, he had regularly come here, together with his parents and Alan. On this very ground, he had his first kiss with Erna Tanner, who later became his wife, the mother of his children. His sons loved the fair, even after their mother was long gone. Even Jenna always had a spark in her eyes whenever she saw these colourful tents.
The memories were pleasant, but it was the realization that they were gone forever that made them all the more painful. Back then, his life had been easy. Now, his wife was dead, his sons were fighting in a war at the other end of the kingdom and his only daughter was fighting her own battles. Richard felt guilty to even be here. However, he had important business to attend.
The past week hadn't been kind. Of course, his wounds were healing nicely, but that was basically the only good thing that happened. Urid was still in a horrible condition though and it would take months, perhaps even years for him to fully recover. Meanwhile, Philip had his own problems, problems he refused to let anyone help him with.
However, while the problems of his friends would usually come first for him, Richard had his own problems to deal with. The news about Wolfius capture had only temporarily eased his worries. As much as he would love to help Urid or Philip, he had to face the threat of financial ruin.
A few days ago, all had been well. Then, it came, in the middle of the night. Something large, something hungry. It destroyed his stable, completely and seemingly effortlessly tearing out the large door that was supposed to keep the building locked at night. Then, it started to feast. It took his only cow and both of his sheep before vanishing into the night. Richard hadn't gotten a clear view on it, but after he had seen the tracks it left, he was rather glad about it. He would have stormed out of his house to confront the beast, but Alan held him back. At least a part of the constantly scowling mood he had been in during the past days was a result of the uncomfortable feeling of being indebted to his brother.
For a few days, Richard had been desperately fearing the prospect of another attack. Then, he had gotten the message. Under normal circumstances, he would have never even considered meeting the person who sent it. However, the circumstances he found himself in were anything but usual. And so he was here, listening to the loud commands of the beast tamer, waiting for his contact to arrive.
He didn't have to wait long until he saw a familiar face walking out of the tent. It was a very young man, not older than Jenna. In fact, he was only a few weeks older than her. Richard knew it because he knew the young man's parents. He was tall, but lanky, barely anything more than skin and bones. The lack of facial hair only underlined his youthfulness, as did the innocent smile on his face.
“Hey, Richard!”, he greeted him. “I'm glad you came! Roman will be overjoyed to see you” A joyless smirk flashed across Richard's face, as he subtly shook his head. “I doubt it”, he answered before he shook the young man's hand. “But it's good to see you, Than”
As young as he was, Than had experience when it came to managing a small farm. Five years ago, his parents had died during the summer fever, leaving him as their only heir. His farm was located south of Raylansfair, between the farms of Hal Recton and Roman. The closeness to Roman's farm was what kept Richard from visiting him as often as he would like to, but he was nonetheless genuinely glad to see the young man.
“Same here, Richard”, Than said with a wide grin, before he turned around. “Come on, Roman is waiting. The show is also pretty good, so perhaps you're going to enjoy it” Richard let out a sigh, before he followed the boy into the tent.
The beastmaster's tent was the largest in the whole fair, holding not only a large amount of wooden seats for the audience, but also a ring in its centre, surrounded by a tall, iron fence. Inside of the ring, three shadowcats were sitting on a podium. Next to them, two lizard-lions were located in an open cage. And finally, an old, white lion was sitting on the ground, next to the beastmaster himself.
Judging by the words that stood on the side of the tent, his name was Irnas mo Akk and that was enough for Richard to know that he was a pure-blooded Ghiscari. He was in Richard's age, perhaps a little bit older, with dark bronze skin and a short, black beard. In contrast, the rest of his head was shaven completely bald. It was the first time Richard saw him and his animals at the fair and he deeply hoped that it wouldn't be the last time either. Jenna would have loved such a show.
While Richard and Than shouldered their way through the crowd, Irnas' whip cracked loudly. “Azalea, Etoile, Dago!”, he yelled with a hoarsy voice. The three shadowcats raised their heads and followed the whip with their gaze. Richard held his breath as he fully realized how tall they were. He had never seen a shadowcat in his life and the sight was intimidating. They were larger than the largest wolf he had ever seen, more close to a horse in size, and their fur was as black as soot. Each of them had a pair of glowing, amber eyes and as one of them opened its mouth, he saw that their teeth were long and sharp, perfect to kill their prey with.
The shadowcats raised their fore paws into the air and one of them let out a mixture of a roar and a hissing sound, unlike anything Richard had ever heard. Then, they jumped down the podium into the ring, slowly circling the beastmaster under the applause of the audience.
One of the cats even let out a hissing sound as it slowly began to approach Irnas, its head was lowered in a threatening stance. The man cracked his whip once more, which caused the white lion to look up. The old animal let out a deep, spine-chilling roar and the shadowcat immediately jumped back, which caused even more applause from the audience.
“Hey, Roman!”, Than yelled over the applause and Richard finally spotted a group of three men sitting around a small table. One of them was indeed his neighbour Roman, a man in Richard's age, an ordinary looking guy with brown hair and a long beard. Unusually deep circles were visible around his eyes and in general, his appearance looked shockingly unhealthy. As he spotted Richard approaching, his mouth formed a thin line.
A few weeks ago, he was the closest thing Richard had to an enemy, but after all that happened, their rivalry seemed trivial and petty at best. It had all started in the first spring after Erna died, when Roman had ignored the borders of his land and instead started to plant his seeds on a part of Richard's ground. What started as a small argument ended up as a heated debate between and Richard wasn't proud about some of the things he said. Still, after all that was said between them, he was similarly sure that they couldn't just go back to the neighbourly relationship they had in the years before Erna's death.
As expected, Roman did not raise from his chair to greet him. Instead, the other two men stood up, both of them with a smile on their face. The first to approach Richard was Edefilec Magabaz, a farmer from the other side of the city, whom Richard was acquainted with. He was young, with light brown hair and eyes of the same colour. While he wasn't particularly handsome, there was something exotic about him. His light olive skin hinted at his dornish roots and contrasted well with his bright smile. “Richard, it's good to see you!”, he greeted him.
“Same here, Ed”, Richard answered as he shook his head. He turned to the other man and for a moment, he had to think about his name. The man was probably as old as Than, with sandy blonde hair and light brown eyes. While he was generally a lanky and slender guy, he had the thick arms of a farmer. But there was something about his face that seemed familiar...
“Hal Recton!”, Richard finally deduced, as he remembered the young man's sister. While he and Nora had few in common in terms of looks, the general shape of their face was similar enough to draw the comparison. Hal's smile proved to him that he guessed correctly. “It's nice to meet you in person, Richard”, he greeted him. “My sister told me about you”
“Nora helped to save my daughter”, Richard said, as he glanced at Roman. “I'll be forever in her debt” For a moment, Roman looked away from the ring and gave Richard a cold nod. “Richard”, he mumbled. Richard reciprocated the nod with an equal lack of warmth. “Roman”, he answered.
With these words, Roman moved his head again and stared sullenly at the shadowcats. One of them, the largest of the three, was now standing on its hind legs, while the other two jumped through a ring. “Fascinating creatures, aren't they?”, he growled. “Fierce, swift and wild, their claws like daggers, their jaws strong enough to rip a grown man's arm cleanly off”
“They look rather dangerous”, Hal remarked, which caused Than to nod in agreement. “They are”, Roman answered. “And this is precisely why I have called you here today” Finally he turned away from the ring, after the shadowcats followed Irnas' loud order and retreated to their nearby cages. Instead, the two lizard-lions sluggishly dragged themselves out of the cages. The sight of the exotic, scaled beasts drew an astonished sound from the audience, especially as one of them opened its immense mouth.
“Unlike the city guard, all of you know what's at stake”, Roman explained. “You are farmers, not protected by the walls of our city. All of you know about the beast that is stalking our forest. Some of you have even lost part of their property”
Than gave him a nod, which caused Richard to give him a questioning look. “My horse”, he revealed. “The beast came in the middle of the night, while I was fast asleep. It did not make a sound itself, but it I heard the pained neighing of my horse” He gulped audibly before he continued. “I was too afraid to check on it. Only found its remains the next day. The beast had enough power to destroy the door of my stable”, he mumbled. “I'm glad I didn't go out there”
“So are we”, Ed remarked. “I haven't had any encounters with this beast so far, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until it decides to pay me a visit. I'd like to take things into my own hands” Hal gave him a nod. “Same here. The farm is all me and Nora have left from our parents. I won't loose it to some monster from the woods”
“And what about you, Ro...”, Richard started to ask, before he finally noticed the dark, sullen look on Roman's face. And then he remembered something he had almost forgotten until now. Despite the things that had been between them, he gave him a look of heartfelt pity. “Oh shit...”, he mumbled. “Roman, I... am sorry about your mother”
The look on Roman's face gained a bitter streak as he glared at the shadowcats again. “She wasn't the first victim and she won't be the last”, he answered without looking up. “A week before her, two travelling merchants from Oldtown were found dead on the forest road between Raylansfair and Lindenhill. A week before that, the beast got a vagrant” He let out a sigh. “The city guard in Lindenhill investigated the merchants, no one bothered with the vagrant. But I did some research. There were three confirmed kills in Lindenhill and before that, reported casualties in Goldengrove. I'm sure before that, it was looking for prey in the Riverlands”, he explained. “Whatever it is, be it a shadowcat or something else entirely, it's coming from the north and it is not a starving animal, but something much worse. I've overheard the guardsmen talking when they... investigated the death of my mother. They say the beast does not kill for food”
“So why does it kill?”, Hal asked. Roman shrugged. “Why do humans kill?”, he asked in return. “The guardsmen said that it kills for fun. What kind of animal kills for fun?” Once again, he glared at the shadowcats, who were now simultaneously jumping onto the podium at Irnas' command. “Something large and evil stalks our forest. Christian does what he can, but he's our only ranger and the largest he ever hunted was a wolf”, he explained. “Now look at them. Any single one of them would be good enough to kill Christian, especially with the level of intelligence the beast probably has”
“They actually don't look large enough to tear through the door of my barn”, Than remarked. Roman gave him a glare, before he shook his head once more. “No, they don't”, he agreed. “However, these here live in captivity. I bet wild shadowcats can get even larger”
“And what are you suggesting we should do?”, Richard finally asked, before he sat down on the chair next to Roman. “I mean, I doubt you just called me here to talk about shadowcats. You're not enjoying my presence and neither am I enjoying yours, so why don't we make this quick?”
Roman narrowed his eyes, but at the same time he gave him a nod. “You have a point”, he admitted. “I suggest that we should go and hunt that beast down” For a moment, the other men around the table were silent.
“And now, behold the most terrible of beasts!”, Irnas yelled loudly. “Karr the lion!” His whip cracked through the air and the white lion raised from the ground. He walked around Irnas, surprisingly tame, before the whip cracked again. “Show them your teeth, Karr!”, the tamer ordered. This time, the lion let out a loud and fearsome roar, revealing his long, pointy teeth.
Richard glanced at Roman, unsure if the man made some kind of bad joke. No hint of humour was visible on the other man's face. Finally, Edefilec broke the silence. “Us five?”, he asked. “I mean, we probably outnumber the beast, but we're just farmers”
“Farmers who can fight for their city, for their lives”, Roman replied. “Besides, we won't do it alone. We'll outnumber the beast, but we also need someone who can go toe to toe with it. Luckily, I have arranged for us to meet just the man we need”
“A monster hunter?”, Hal asked. For the first time since their talk began, Roman's expression changed. The sudden, bitter look was replaced by a grim, determined and vengeful smile. “The best”, he revealed. “His name is Vaasrand of Lys”
Again, silence followed, interrupted by the lion's loud roar and Irnas' whip. “An applause for Sabbia and Zulpo!”, he yelled and the audience indeed answered with thundering applause, as the lion trotted back to the other end of the ring, where he lay down. Instead, the lizard-lions slowly approached the beastmaster. While Richard didn't know much about the long, scaly beasts, he knew that their natural habitat was in the swampy regions north of the Riverlands. Without any kind of water below their feet, they looked a bit out of place and almost passive, until one of it opened its massive mouth again, which caused amazed noised from the crowd. Quick as an arrow, the mouth closed again as Irnas threw a small piece of red meat into it.
“So... am I the only one who has never heard about that guy before?”, Hal remarked with a grin, although his face gained a more serious expression as soon as he noticed that no one was smiling. “Neither have I”, Than admitted and Ed gave him a nod. Roman just sighed. “Of course you've never heard about him, you're no monster hunters”, he explained. “I've never heard about him either, but I met him a few days ago and he looks like business. One of them dragonlords, white blonde hair and everything, tall, muscular, scarred. Two swords on his back, though I don't know why anyone needs two swords”
“Sounds like a fraud”, Ed remarked and Roman shot him a glare. “Trust me, once you'll see him, you'll think differently”, he answered. “He's going to meet us at the city gates today. I've called all of you here today because you know why it is necessary to get rid of the beast” He sighed. “To make things short, this Vasraad is a professional. He's expensive, too expensive for me”
“So you need money”, Hal deduced with a sceptic tone in his voice. Roman pressed his lips together, before he gave him a nod. “As much as possible. I'm willing to give him everything I have if it means that he kills the beast that murdered my mother, but I don't have even nearly enough. Have you all brought your money with you?”
“As much as I dared to bring here”, Richard answered and put a hand onto his purse. “The whole place is littered with pickpockets. He raised the purse and was shocked by how small it looked. After the death of his wife, he did his best to save money, so that at least his remaining family would never have to starve. Seeing it all gone in a single day, just to get rid of the beast seemed like a horrible thought, even though he knew that Roman had a point. They needed to kill it before it would get a chance to kill them.
“I got something as well”, Than remarked. Ed gave him a nod. “Investing in this man should be worth it, if he can really free us from this beast”, he stated. Only Hal shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I can't spare any money. Winter is coming and I'm sure it's going to be a hard one”, he explained. “But if this monster hunter is impressive enough, maybe I can help in some other way”
His words caused Richard to listen up. “Would that be possible?”, he asked. He wasn't a greedy man. In fact, he was quite the contrary. But the prospect of loosing all of his saving gone at once was scaring him. Hal was right. Winter was indeed coming. The last winter took his wife because they were too poor to buy food. Without money, the next winter might take him, or perhaps Jenna. Richard knew, he wouldn't survive loosing another family member.
“It would”, Roman answered with a displeased nod. “Seven Hells, it would. In fact, I need your help in another way as well. Do you still have your sword? And Hal, your father's armour?” Hal shook his head. “Nora got it”, he answered. Richard in turn gave him a nod. “I have my sword”, he explained.
This time, the determined look on Roman's face returned. “Good”, he answered. “I will accompany the hunter once he goes out and hunts for that beast and I need as many of you as possible with me. There is strength in numbers and even a man like Vaasrand could need someone to watch his back”
Immediately, Ed saluted in front of him. “You can count on me!”, he swore. “If we take this beast down, we will be heroes” The last word caused Than and Hal to look up. “Heroes you say?”, Than asked. “In that case, I'll help out as well. I'm doing my part to hire the hunter and I will help in killing the beast as well” Hal put a hand onto the tabled and Richard saw that he was slightly shivering. “I don't like this idea, but I'm willing to give it a try”, he said. “Let us meet this hunter”
“One moment”, Roman remarked, before he glared at Richard. “What's with you? I know we're no friends, but perhaps we can work together for the good of this city. I need you and your sword out there, but I can also need your money to pay for the hunter”
Richard only needed a moment to decide that not joining Roman and the others on their hunt was out of question. The beast was a danger for him, his family and his entire city and he wouldn't just stand there while others did the hard work for him. No, he would do his best to help out. However, at the same time he was still sceptical about helping to pay the hunter. His material wealth was sparse and with Alan around he wasn't sure how much he was actually able to spare.
[Agree to pay for the hunter][Decline to pay for the hunter]
The minion in the middle is literally me right now
We have reached the first 100 pages and this is awesome! I'd like to thank all of you, for every single comment you ever made. When I started this story, I never thought I would ever come close to such a large number of pages and now it looks like a lot more will follow. Here's to the past 100 pages, for the joy I had while writing the parts in them and reading your comments. And here's to the next 100, may they be even better than the ones before!
Comments
[Agree to work with Saerya] I'm not a big fan of Sherryl and I feel like she will become a bigger problem in the future rather than Harris. Like Saerya said: Jenna doesn't have many powerful allies so this would be a chance to win House Targaryan's favor. If it all works out, then great! If not... then may the Seven have mercy on Jenna.
Huh, that is something I haven't even known before. Thanks for pointing it out! So far I thought that in the pre-Conquest era, Waters was already used as the surname for bastards from the islands that were sworn to House Targaryen and that it was later used for all of the Crownlands after they got established, but I could very well be wrong about it. Though considering that the Waters surname has already been used for two characters in the story, I'm going to stick with it. I haven't found anything about Elaena's children being the first bastards with that surname though, are you sure about that one?
Yep, rereading it I think I've spotted some of them. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I guess I really shouldn't write with a headache XD But I'm glad that you enjoyed the part in general. I was actually concerned that the confrontation could be a bit dull to read, so I am relieved to hear that my worries have been unfounded.
If it's worth noting, (I noticed this too but I guess I forgot), the Crownlands was considered an extension of the Stormlands so I guess they would be properly "Storm". It is kind of weird since the Crownlands pre-Conquest are just the northern Stormlands.
[Agree to work with Saerya] Saerya seems to be great at deceiving people but she slipped at some points
(Try to escape)
Ok, for some reason, the Russian ASOIAF wiki says that Elaena Targaryen gave her children that surname. Weird.
I read only now the new PoV..let's talk about the new choice:Agree to work with Saerya mean Jenna will side with the dragons obtaining the help from Saerya and Daghan but her choice,if she accept,can probaly bring her more misfortune since from that moment Jenna can be not only the target of a crazy assassin but even of entire nations;Try to escape mean that we will probably have a catfight
jokes aside I think that in this way Harris and Sherryl will probably be pleased and Jenna will not make the people close to her risk their life,the only minus is that the dragons side will probably remember that
At the end my choise is to quote a famous Telltale catchphrase and don't make,for this time, a real choice: Silence is a valid option
Just to add to the difficulty. Why must you do this!
This is a hard choice... I'm tempted to work with Saerya, but knowing that this is a major choice, and the whole scheme of it, I just feel like it has a huge possibility of backfiring, badly... however, if we escape, Sherryl will most likely continue to do her bad acts...
Okay, I choose [Agree to work with Saerya]. I feel like it's a risk we need to take. If we try to escape and fail, that will cause a lot more problems I am assuming. If there's any time to take down Sherryl it would be now I guess.
[Agree to work with Saerya]
[Agree to work with Saerya] Let's do this!
[Agree to work with Sareya]
The Voting is closed!
Jenna is going to work with Saerya
While I was planning Jenna's next part, I realized that I cannot even say if this was an unambigously wise or unwise choice. There will be consequences with both possible options, good consequences for some characters and bad consequences for others. Depending on where your sympathies in this story are, you may have your very own opinion on wether or not this was the right choice. It was an interesting choice for sure and the consequences are going to be fun to write. Jenna will have one more part in this chapter, but first the other storylines deserve some spotlight.
The next part is going to be out today. Roughly 2/3rd of it are written and I'm making good progress, so the wait shouldn't be that long, a few hours at most. It is going to include the start of Ilish's storyline in this chapter and it is also going to include a Marak part. While Marak already appeared in this chapter, he hasn't been seen for weeks. Ilish on the other hand simply won't have a very long storyline in this chapter, so I purposely pushed her parts into the second half of it. Her storyline had the same one-week timeskip as the other storylines between Chapter 5 and 6. There have been a few developments for her after she survived Wolfius' attempt to murder her, developments which I hope to reveal in the coming parts. Also, while I doubt it is going to confuse anyone, remember that it was previously mentioned that Raylansfair is currently having a literal fair to celebrate the arrival of Lord Tyrell. This fair is where Ilish's part is going to start. Meanwhile, Marak and Noelle travelled to Oldtown during the timeskip. In his last part, the two entered the Citadel, where Noelle met an old acquaintance of hers, who turned out to be Wulvren, the Archmaester of magic. While Wulvren seemed resentful of Noelle for something that happened in their past, Noelle apparently needed his help for her plan. In order to appease him, she offered him to take a sample of Marak's blood for his studies. Even though Marak was sceptical about this, he agreed to the procedure.
Ilish
A surprised, loud murmur went through the crowd, loud enough to even drown the noise that came from the adjacent tents and stages of the fair, as the smoke formed the head of a dragon with a widely opened mouth. Even Ilish, who adamantly refused to believe in such nonsense, had to admit that the illusion was impressive. Of course, she believed in the existence of magic. Only a fool would deny its existence. However, she failed to see why a real magician had to earn his money at a town fair. She was sure, this right now was nothing more than a well-made illusion
However, as Ilish looked around, seeing the astounded and amazed faces in the crowd, she realized that it did not matter to them. Neither did it matter to her. In a whole week, this was the first day where she had something to preoccupy her mind with, to dispel her dark thoughts about the events that had happened. Ilish had to admit, a part of her was enjoying this performance, even if it wasn't real magic. Judging by the look on his face, Lawsen was happy as well, which, after all, had been the main reason for her to take him to the fair.
It was still hard for Ilish to cope with what happened. Alexander Botwerys... she had barely known him and still he had been willing to fight for her, a fight that ultimately claimed his life. She remained alive, but in her stead, someone else had to die. The thought alone was horrifying. None of his comrades from the Second Sons had shown up for the funeral. In fact, Ilish hadn't seen any of his comrades in days, not even Ser Rodrik, which was something she was rather happy about. Aside from the little he told her, it was unlikely that she would ever learn more about Alexander. She did not know him very well, but she would surely never forget him.
As hard as it was for her, she could only imagine how much harder it had to be for Lawsen. For the first few days, Ilish had suffered from nightmares, about a wolf that hunted her through the streets of Raylansfair. Even now, she regularly had to take a nervous glimpse over her shoulder, to make sure that no one was following her. However, all of it was nothing compared to the shape Lawsen was in. At least her scars were mental, something she knew she could recover from, if given enough time. Lawsen on the other hand had it a lot worse
After Kersea and Clayton had taken Wolfius away, Ilish had been left with one dead body and one heavily bleeding and unconscious young man. While she succeeded with dragging Lawsen to the healer, he had lost a lot of blood. His neck, where Kreep had bitten him, was still heavily bandaged, although Mathea had succeeded with preventing an infection. Aside from the bandages, it was obvious that Lawsen was in no good shape. He had gotten even thinner than before and deathly pale, his eyes sunken deeply in their sockets. Even though he was over a year younger than Ilish, right now he looked like a man almost twice her age. But he was smiling. At least he was smiling.
“Have you seen that?”, he asked with a grin. “A dragon! I've always wanted to see a dragon” His smile was contagious and Ilish had to give him a nod. “Same here”, she admitted. She knew that a real dragon likely looked a lot different than the illusion she was seeing right now, but she suppressed the urge to comment on it. Instead, she grinned as she looked back at the illusionist.
The man on top of the wooden stage called himself Magnus Silverstone, but his foreign looks clued her in that the name was likely as fake as his powers. The robe on the other hand was very real and obviously expensive, consisting entirely out of golden and violet fabric. Magnus was a short man and a bit on the heavy side, with the tanned skin of an Essosi. His mane of black hair and the massive, twirled moustache made him look older than he probably was. Despite his likely foreign heritage, he spoke without an accent.
“My friends! Wonderful citizens of Raylansfair!”, he said with a loud, booming and pleasant voice. “Before I show you my next spell, I have to warn you...” He lowered his voice as he took a step closer towards the edge of the stage, towards his audience. “During my travels I have learned from the shadowbinders of Asshai, from the warlocks of Qarth, even from the mysterious bloodmages of Yi Ti. But nothing came close to the power I mastered during my travels through the ruins of Valyria, the power I was taught by the demon kings themselves!”
With these words, he quickly moved his hand and only Ilish was able to see that he threw some kind of powder into the brazier to his left. A loud bang sounded, loud enough for the crowd to take a step back. Some even screamed in surprise as the thick smoke that came out of the brazier took the shape of a large humanoid thing with two curved horns on its top. Even Lawsen stumbled backwards, while he was laughing brightly, and Ilish had to grab his shoulder to help him remain on his shaky feet. She was grinning as well, even though she was reasonably sure that demon kings did not exist. And if they would exist, they certainly wouldn't share their powers with a street illusionist.
“The demons were reluctant to share their knowledge, but eventually I convinced them of my worth”, Magnus explained and Ilish had to admit that he was a gifted storyteller. The crowd was hanging on his every words and she had no doubt that some of them even believed his mind-boggling tales.
“Behold.... THE SPARK!”, he yelled at the top of his lungs as he pulled a small vial filled with something that looked like slightly glimmering powder out of his robe. The crowd made impressed noise, although Ilish was sure that at this point, they would have even been impressed if he would have pulled a dead rat out of his robe.
“The Spark! One of the greatest secrets of the dragonlords, taught to them by the dark and powerful beings from beyond the world of the living!”, Magnus explained. “Pure sunlight pressed into powder through the power of dark and ancient rites! Take a closer look, it is harmless right now...”
He moved the flask around and Ilish saw tiny sparks forming in it. This was no illusion, the flask and its contents were real. Of course, the story around it was the tallest of tales, but she was nonetheless impressed. Ilish's understanding of these things was barely above rudimentary, but she still understood that this, while no real magic, was some sort of alchemy.
“What does it do?”, a woman asked and a wide grin formed on Magnus' face. “Do you wish a demonstration, mylady?”, he asked and Ilish saw the woman blushing. She was in her forties, big-boned and plain-faced, with the hints of hair on her upper lip, the kind of person that has never been called 'mylady' before. “Yes”, she breathed. “Oh yes, this would be wonderful!”
“Very well!”, Magnus said with a sly grin. “I have to warn you though... As soon as I open this vial, a beam of pure sunlight will appear, bright enough to illuminate even the darkest of nights. I have to use all of my powers to keep this sunlight under control, but still, it is possible that you won't be able to see anything for a moment. Please, remain calm if this happens and I can assure you, everything will be alright and no harm will come upon you! Do you trust me?”
The crowd, including Lawsen, nodded in unison, but Ilish subtly shook her head. As much as she was enjoying his show, she definitely wasn't trusting him. And what he just suggested sounded dangerous... For the first time since the show started, she actually wished that she would have stopped at the tent with the tame shadowcats instead. She had the slight feeling that she wouldn't like what was going to follow.
Magnus started to speak in a hushed, fast-paced voice, the words sounding guttural and foreign as he moved his free hand above the vial. His movements caught the attention of the crowd even more than before and as Ilish looked around, down the improvised trails of the fairground and towards the colourful tents and stages that had been built there over the past week, she saw that Magnus' performance attracted quite a lot of attention.
Her gaze fell upon a young man, more a boy, whose dark brown skin set him apart from the fair-skinned citizens of Raylansfair. He was casually walking through the crowd, but she knew what he was doing. Small-time thievery was something she was experienced in and she recognized a fellow pickpocket when she saw him. Unaware of her watchful eye, the boy casually removed the purse from a bystander's belt. Ilish narrowed her eyes and started to move her hand down to her own purse...
With a hammy roar, Magnus threw the vial onto the ground. The last thing she saw was that both, the illusionist and the young pickpocket turned away from it before it hit the ground. She wasn't fast enough, as the alchemistic substance produced the bright flash of light that Magnus had promised. Her world exploded into white light and instinctively, Ilish tried to shield her eyes by moving her hands up.
For a moment, she was unable to see anything. However, she was able to hear the surprised screams of the crowd, some of them panicked, though a majority seemed strangely amused by the experience. She heard Lawsen laughing brightly as she looked around, opening and closing her eyes again and again.
Then, she felt someone touching her belt. Her hand moved down and to her surprise, she indeed managed to grab a thin wrist that did not belong there. Someone let out a surprised gasp, before breaking free of her grip.
Her sight came back as quick as it was gone. For a moment, everything seemed blurry and out of focus, the world seemed to spin as Ilish looked around. She saw Magnus, who was taking a bow in front of his audience. She saw Lawsen, who had an astonished look on his face. She did not saw the young pickpocket and more importantly, she noticed that her purse was missing as well.
“Seven Hells!”, she cursed as she looked around through the crowd. There were two ways down the improvised trails, past the colourful tents of other showmen. To her left was the long tent she had been previously, where a dark-skinned Ghiscari had presented a couple of exotic wild beasts. To her right, she saw several smaller tents and stages, where acrobats, strongmen, illusionists and dancers performed. The boy had without a doubt taken one of these ways if he was trying to escape. Ilish was sure that he couldn't have gotten far. With a bit of luck, she might still be able to catch him.
[Run to the right] [Run to the left]
Marak
Marak let out a pained groan before the oversized needle even touched him. They had to strap his left arm down onto the wooden table to allow Wulvren to safely take a sample of his blood. The Archmaester had repeatedly assured him that there was nothing to be afraid of, that it wouldn't even hurt. Despite his calming words, Marak was still afraid. While fear wasn't an entirely new emotion for him, it was as unusual as it was irritating.
“Oh, don't make such a fuss”, Noelle said, while she held his free hand with both of hers. As unnatural and uncomfortable as it usually was to him, in this moment her warmth was strangely soothing. “It's only a tiny needle”
“It's a fucking longsword!”, Marak protested, as his gaze was fixed on the tip of the needle. Wulvren held the syringe with disturbing ease and slowly prepared to take the blood sample Noelle had promised to him. By the Drowned God, hells, by every god that was willing to listen, be it one of the Seven Pansies or Noelle's rollmop, why did he had to agree to this?
“And are you afraid of longswords?”, Noelle asked and Marak shook his head, disgruntled at the mere suggestion. “What? No!”, he protested. “It's just... well...” Even he realized how whiny he must sound right now. But he wasn't whiny! Swords, axes, spears, arrows, any kind of weapon was harmless to him. But needles? Marak had never trusted needles. Something about them was shifty.
“Well?”, Noelle asked and Marak let out a frustrated groan. She answered with a smirk. “Don't be chicken, it won't hurt” Marak narrowed his eyes. “I'm not chicken!”, he growled, loud enough to make Archmaester Wulvren throw a concerned look towards Noelle. “Taunting the patient is usually not the best approach”, he warned her. “Or so I've heard. I'm not the type to deal with patients”
“Well, but you have a patient right now, so please pay attention!”, Marak exclaimed. “I don't want to loose my arm” Wulvren pressed his lips together, while Noelle visibly suppressed a grin. “Look, you won't loose your arm”, the Archmaester explained in a slow tone, as if he was talking to a child. “I know what I'm doing. Besides, it is a clean needle. I've even disinfected it”
“I don't even know what that means!”, Marak yelled in despair. Wulvren let out a sigh as he moved the needle closer to the arm. A shrill scream of agony forced its way out of Marak's throat and the Archmaester immediately raised the syringe again. “I haven't even touched him!”, he protested and gave Noelle an angry glare. “Noelle, I'm not sure if I can work with this!”
Noelle let out a sigh as her warm hands softly moved up Marak's forearm. “Marak...”, she purred. “Marak, please, be a good boy. Nothing will happen to you. Do you trust me?” Marak wanted to shake his head, but only managed to give her a weak nod, his gaze now locked with hers, as cold sweat ran down his head. “Good”, Noelle said with a pleased smile and glanced at his arm. “See, it didn't hurt, did it?”
Marak gasped as he immediately moved his head to look at his left arm. The needle was embedded deeply into it, slowly filling the syringe with his dark red blood. “What...”, he stuttered. “But...” Noelle and Wulvren exchanged a pleased look, before the Archmaester removed the needle again. Marak let out a whimpering sound, even though he had to admit that he was barely feeling it.
“That should be enough for my studies”, Wulvren proclaimed, before he looked back at Noelle, considerably more friendly than in the beginning. “Alright Noelle, this is going to help a lot. You've proven yourself and I am willing to work with you”
“Pleasure to hear it”, Noelle answered. “I need a number of rare ingredients and I hoped you could help me” Immediately, Wulvren's smile faded. “What are we talking about exactly?”, he asked. Marak glanced from the Archmaester to the priestess and then back to his arm.
“The tongue of a lizard-lion, a bottle of leviathan's blood, the heart of a basilisk and a...”, Noelle started, but Wulvren cut her off. “A Hand of Glory”, he remarked. “I know what you're trying to do and... you know that's not going to work, do you?”
Noelle shook her head. “It does not work because you're not a believer”, she stated coldly. “Now, can you help me, or not?” Wulvren let out a sigh and gave her a nod. “I can”, he confirmed and started to walk to one of the cubpoards. “But I hope you achieve results, because I'd hate to waste all of these things” He opened the cubpoard and to Marak's horror, he pulled out something that looked like a severed human hand. The flesh was pale and shrivelled and the fingers were clutching a crude-looking candle.
“It's my last Hand of Glory and I'm running low on Leviathan's blood as well. It's hard to come by in the winter”, Wulvren explained as he put the hand and a bottle that was filled with some sort of black liquid next to Marak onto the table. “The tongue is not a problem and somewhere around here... ah, there we have it!” The Archmaester put his hand deeply into the cupboard and pulled out two small boxes. “Would you like to start the fire?”
Noelle gave him a nod, as she moved towards the large brazier that was standing in the centre of the room. Marak looked at the severed hand and then to Wulvren. “Uh... am I the only one who has no idea what's going on here?”, he asked.
“Yes, you are”, Noelle remarked without even looking at him, as she started to put small logs of wood into the brazier. “We're trying to cast a spell, to find a very specific person”, Wulvren explained and threw a glance towards Noelle. “Uh... who are we trying to find exactly?”
“I guess it's about that girl you're going to kill, right?”, Marak remarked, which caused a cold glare from Noelle and a surprised one from Wulvren. “Wait... what?”, Wulvren asked, but Noelle had quickly crossed the room as she walked towards him. She put a hand onto his shoulder. “A misunderstanding, you know how he is”, she explained sternly. “It will all make sense in time. For now, I can only reveal that it has to be done”
Wulvren's looks was suspicious and full of mistrust, but as he glanced from the brazier to the ingredients on the table, he simply let out a sigh. “Fine. But I swear to the Seven, don't make me regret that”, he snarled.
With these words, he grabbed the severed hand and gave it to her, followed by the bottle with the black liquid. Noelle took the hand, placing it in the centre of the brazier, before she started to pour the liquid over it. Marak didn't saw her doing anything, but all of a sudden, a tiny, bright flame appeared in it, soon growing into a large fire that filled out the whole brazier.
“In the days before the Doom, mages could cast this spell using any kind of fire, without all of these ingredients”, Wulvren explained, speaking more to himself than to Marak. “Nowadays, we have to boost the magic a little bit. All of these things have a certain arcane spark inside of them”
“The hand as well?”, Marak asked, just as a bright flame started to burn in the brazier. “Is it some kind of warlock's hand?” Wulvren shook his head. “It belonged to Byron Three-Daggers, perhaps the least magical man I can think of”, he explained. “He was a murderer, they hanged him six months ago. I acquired his severed hand, after it was pickled and dried, holding a candle made from his own body fat” A sheepish grin formed on the Archmaester's face as he noticed Marak's disgusted facial expression. “Commonly known as a Hand of Glory, but mother have mercy, don't ask me why”, he continued. “Such an artifact is said to hold magical power, but my experiments have proven this to be nothing but superstition”
“I need the heart and the tongue”, Noelle proclaimed, which thankfully was enough to interrupt Wulvren. He quickly grabbed the two boxes and walked over towards the priestess. “Here's the tongue”, he said, as Noelle quickly grabbed the box and opened it, pulling out a shrivelled tongue in a bright yellow colour. She glanced at it, before she threw it into the fire.
“The heart of the Basilisk”, she said as she opened the last box. A nervous look appeared on Wulvren's eyes and Marak saw him taking a step away from Noelle. “For the love of the Seven, be careful with that... Don't touch...!”, he exclaimed as Noelle simply grabbed a round, leathery object from inside the box. Wulvren's eyes were widely opened as she threw the heart into the fire. “How can you still be alive?”, he asked.
“The Lord of Light looks after his servants”, Noelle answered, before she extended her hand, the one that hasn't touched the heart. “Wulvren, would you like to join me while I cast the spell? It will be easier with your support, old friend”
The astonished look on Wulvren's face faded, replaced by one of genuine excitement as he grabbed her hand. “I was hoping you'd say that”, he exclaimed, before he looked into the fire, which seemed to be unusually bright in Marak's eyes. “Fascinating...”
Noelle looked at her other hand, opening and closing it for a moment, before a smile formed on her face. “Marak”, she said and extended her hand. Immediately, Marak had to gulp. “Would you like to join us as well?”, she asked. “It will be easier with your help. Of course only if you want to, my brave, little champion"
[Join them] [Decline]
[Run to the right] Why not?
[Decline] No.
Foreshadow.
Shadowcats? Hm. The beast...
[Run to the left]
[Join them]
[Run to the right] I dunno.
[Decline] I don't imagine Marak is fond of this. Plus I love their dynamic of Marak seeing her as this crazy chick.
(Run to the left)
(Join them)
[Run to the right] Dancers, eh? If this thief wants to tango, we'll tango.
[Decline] She's already got the blood and all the other ingredients. As long as she has the information she needs I think Marak will pass.
[Run to the right]
[Decline]
[Run to the left] Seems like there is more crowd there, nice place for pickpocket.
[Join them] I hope that Marak will screw up.
[Run to the left]
[Decline]
[Run to the left]
[Join them]
[Run to the right]
[Join them]
Wow, almost 100 pages.
[Join them] Party Hard!
About Ilish I will not decide
Indeed, it's going to hit the 100 very soon, probably with one of the next comments
[Run to the right]
[Decline]
well, sorry for not voting for a while. I unfollowed this story... Again... Somehow.
[Run to the right] This is pretty much just guessing obviously, but I'd say that a pickpocket would go somewhere where there is more people, and I'd guess there are more people where there are more things to look at.
[Join them] Fuck it, I'm just too interested!
That irritates me so much! I always accidently unfollow when I post a comment because the 'follow discussion box' is so close to 'post coment/reply' XD
[Run to the left]
[Decline]
[Run to the right] Eh, I'll just vote with the majority here lol. Pretty much a guess.
[Decline] Although I am pretty intrigued, I don't think this will be very good for Marak in the long run...
And dammit, my comment didn't get it to 100 pages ._.
[Run to the right] I hope is the right answer :P [Decline] the fire is the beginning of a start making a refereed to Act 3 Wildfire ?
The Voting is closed!
Ilish is going to run to the right
Marak is not going to join Noelle and Wulvren
Well... both choices looked quite minor, didn't they? Some choices are indeed minor, even if they all have some sort of consequence. Though, stay tuned, perhaps you'll be surprised. I can reveal that I am glad about Ilish's choice, because it gives me the opportunity to introduce more characters. Wether or not she actually catches the thief is going to be seen in her next part. Since we're firmly in the second half of the chapter, the wait for her next part won't be very long.
The next part is going to be out later today. I am closing the voting a day earlier than usual, because I currently want to try to finish the chapter as quick as possible. This is not because I don't enjoy writing it, but mostly because I can't wait to write the chapter finale. After a number of rewrites, I finally (hehe) have a finale that I am deeply satisfied with and a hopefully worthy finish for Act 2. Be prepared, my friends. First, however, there are a couple of developments that have to happen. One of them is Richard's storyline. Similarly to Ilish, I decided to push his parts into the second half of the chapter. The next part is going to be the first of two with Richard as the PoV. Like Ilish, we haven't seen him in a long time. There have also been some developments for him in the one-week timeskip and at least from his perspective, they have been quite dramatic. Also, this part will mark the point where the often-teased beast storyline is finally gaining some importance.
On another note, I can't believe we still haven't reached page 100. It should happen any time now.
Actually, this particular fire wasn't intended to be a reference, but it is an interesting thought. Act 3's title will make more sense soon, probably around the time Chapter 7 starts.
Wow hey i missed somethng! o.o
Can't wait for ending parts of this chapter, looks like lot of things will happen, encounter with princess in Raylansfair and wrap up of the party Jaron attends are some things I'm looking forward to
P.S. #PushToAHundred
I did it, 100 pages hype!
Richard
The roar of the old, white lion was audible even from outside of the tent. Richard was waiting outside of it, a disgruntled look on his face. The fair brought up a lot of memories and while he had enjoyed it in his past, it felt strange to be here all on his own. In his childhood, he had regularly come here, together with his parents and Alan. On this very ground, he had his first kiss with Erna Tanner, who later became his wife, the mother of his children. His sons loved the fair, even after their mother was long gone. Even Jenna always had a spark in her eyes whenever she saw these colourful tents.
The memories were pleasant, but it was the realization that they were gone forever that made them all the more painful. Back then, his life had been easy. Now, his wife was dead, his sons were fighting in a war at the other end of the kingdom and his only daughter was fighting her own battles. Richard felt guilty to even be here. However, he had important business to attend.
The past week hadn't been kind. Of course, his wounds were healing nicely, but that was basically the only good thing that happened. Urid was still in a horrible condition though and it would take months, perhaps even years for him to fully recover. Meanwhile, Philip had his own problems, problems he refused to let anyone help him with.
However, while the problems of his friends would usually come first for him, Richard had his own problems to deal with. The news about Wolfius capture had only temporarily eased his worries. As much as he would love to help Urid or Philip, he had to face the threat of financial ruin.
A few days ago, all had been well. Then, it came, in the middle of the night. Something large, something hungry. It destroyed his stable, completely and seemingly effortlessly tearing out the large door that was supposed to keep the building locked at night. Then, it started to feast. It took his only cow and both of his sheep before vanishing into the night. Richard hadn't gotten a clear view on it, but after he had seen the tracks it left, he was rather glad about it. He would have stormed out of his house to confront the beast, but Alan held him back. At least a part of the constantly scowling mood he had been in during the past days was a result of the uncomfortable feeling of being indebted to his brother.
For a few days, Richard had been desperately fearing the prospect of another attack. Then, he had gotten the message. Under normal circumstances, he would have never even considered meeting the person who sent it. However, the circumstances he found himself in were anything but usual. And so he was here, listening to the loud commands of the beast tamer, waiting for his contact to arrive.
He didn't have to wait long until he saw a familiar face walking out of the tent. It was a very young man, not older than Jenna. In fact, he was only a few weeks older than her. Richard knew it because he knew the young man's parents. He was tall, but lanky, barely anything more than skin and bones. The lack of facial hair only underlined his youthfulness, as did the innocent smile on his face.
“Hey, Richard!”, he greeted him. “I'm glad you came! Roman will be overjoyed to see you” A joyless smirk flashed across Richard's face, as he subtly shook his head. “I doubt it”, he answered before he shook the young man's hand. “But it's good to see you, Than”
As young as he was, Than had experience when it came to managing a small farm. Five years ago, his parents had died during the summer fever, leaving him as their only heir. His farm was located south of Raylansfair, between the farms of Hal Recton and Roman. The closeness to Roman's farm was what kept Richard from visiting him as often as he would like to, but he was nonetheless genuinely glad to see the young man.
“Same here, Richard”, Than said with a wide grin, before he turned around. “Come on, Roman is waiting. The show is also pretty good, so perhaps you're going to enjoy it” Richard let out a sigh, before he followed the boy into the tent.
The beastmaster's tent was the largest in the whole fair, holding not only a large amount of wooden seats for the audience, but also a ring in its centre, surrounded by a tall, iron fence. Inside of the ring, three shadowcats were sitting on a podium. Next to them, two lizard-lions were located in an open cage. And finally, an old, white lion was sitting on the ground, next to the beastmaster himself.
Judging by the words that stood on the side of the tent, his name was Irnas mo Akk and that was enough for Richard to know that he was a pure-blooded Ghiscari. He was in Richard's age, perhaps a little bit older, with dark bronze skin and a short, black beard. In contrast, the rest of his head was shaven completely bald. It was the first time Richard saw him and his animals at the fair and he deeply hoped that it wouldn't be the last time either. Jenna would have loved such a show.
While Richard and Than shouldered their way through the crowd, Irnas' whip cracked loudly. “Azalea, Etoile, Dago!”, he yelled with a hoarsy voice. The three shadowcats raised their heads and followed the whip with their gaze. Richard held his breath as he fully realized how tall they were. He had never seen a shadowcat in his life and the sight was intimidating. They were larger than the largest wolf he had ever seen, more close to a horse in size, and their fur was as black as soot. Each of them had a pair of glowing, amber eyes and as one of them opened its mouth, he saw that their teeth were long and sharp, perfect to kill their prey with.
The shadowcats raised their fore paws into the air and one of them let out a mixture of a roar and a hissing sound, unlike anything Richard had ever heard. Then, they jumped down the podium into the ring, slowly circling the beastmaster under the applause of the audience.
One of the cats even let out a hissing sound as it slowly began to approach Irnas, its head was lowered in a threatening stance. The man cracked his whip once more, which caused the white lion to look up. The old animal let out a deep, spine-chilling roar and the shadowcat immediately jumped back, which caused even more applause from the audience.
“Hey, Roman!”, Than yelled over the applause and Richard finally spotted a group of three men sitting around a small table. One of them was indeed his neighbour Roman, a man in Richard's age, an ordinary looking guy with brown hair and a long beard. Unusually deep circles were visible around his eyes and in general, his appearance looked shockingly unhealthy. As he spotted Richard approaching, his mouth formed a thin line.
A few weeks ago, he was the closest thing Richard had to an enemy, but after all that happened, their rivalry seemed trivial and petty at best. It had all started in the first spring after Erna died, when Roman had ignored the borders of his land and instead started to plant his seeds on a part of Richard's ground. What started as a small argument ended up as a heated debate between and Richard wasn't proud about some of the things he said. Still, after all that was said between them, he was similarly sure that they couldn't just go back to the neighbourly relationship they had in the years before Erna's death.
As expected, Roman did not raise from his chair to greet him. Instead, the other two men stood up, both of them with a smile on their face. The first to approach Richard was Edefilec Magabaz, a farmer from the other side of the city, whom Richard was acquainted with. He was young, with light brown hair and eyes of the same colour. While he wasn't particularly handsome, there was something exotic about him. His light olive skin hinted at his dornish roots and contrasted well with his bright smile. “Richard, it's good to see you!”, he greeted him.
“Same here, Ed”, Richard answered as he shook his head. He turned to the other man and for a moment, he had to think about his name. The man was probably as old as Than, with sandy blonde hair and light brown eyes. While he was generally a lanky and slender guy, he had the thick arms of a farmer. But there was something about his face that seemed familiar...
“Hal Recton!”, Richard finally deduced, as he remembered the young man's sister. While he and Nora had few in common in terms of looks, the general shape of their face was similar enough to draw the comparison. Hal's smile proved to him that he guessed correctly. “It's nice to meet you in person, Richard”, he greeted him. “My sister told me about you”
“Nora helped to save my daughter”, Richard said, as he glanced at Roman. “I'll be forever in her debt” For a moment, Roman looked away from the ring and gave Richard a cold nod. “Richard”, he mumbled. Richard reciprocated the nod with an equal lack of warmth. “Roman”, he answered.
With these words, Roman moved his head again and stared sullenly at the shadowcats. One of them, the largest of the three, was now standing on its hind legs, while the other two jumped through a ring. “Fascinating creatures, aren't they?”, he growled. “Fierce, swift and wild, their claws like daggers, their jaws strong enough to rip a grown man's arm cleanly off”
“They look rather dangerous”, Hal remarked, which caused Than to nod in agreement. “They are”, Roman answered. “And this is precisely why I have called you here today” Finally he turned away from the ring, after the shadowcats followed Irnas' loud order and retreated to their nearby cages. Instead, the two lizard-lions sluggishly dragged themselves out of the cages. The sight of the exotic, scaled beasts drew an astonished sound from the audience, especially as one of them opened its immense mouth.
“Unlike the city guard, all of you know what's at stake”, Roman explained. “You are farmers, not protected by the walls of our city. All of you know about the beast that is stalking our forest. Some of you have even lost part of their property”
Than gave him a nod, which caused Richard to give him a questioning look. “My horse”, he revealed. “The beast came in the middle of the night, while I was fast asleep. It did not make a sound itself, but it I heard the pained neighing of my horse” He gulped audibly before he continued. “I was too afraid to check on it. Only found its remains the next day. The beast had enough power to destroy the door of my stable”, he mumbled. “I'm glad I didn't go out there”
“So are we”, Ed remarked. “I haven't had any encounters with this beast so far, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until it decides to pay me a visit. I'd like to take things into my own hands” Hal gave him a nod. “Same here. The farm is all me and Nora have left from our parents. I won't loose it to some monster from the woods”
“And what about you, Ro...”, Richard started to ask, before he finally noticed the dark, sullen look on Roman's face. And then he remembered something he had almost forgotten until now. Despite the things that had been between them, he gave him a look of heartfelt pity. “Oh shit...”, he mumbled. “Roman, I... am sorry about your mother”
The look on Roman's face gained a bitter streak as he glared at the shadowcats again. “She wasn't the first victim and she won't be the last”, he answered without looking up. “A week before her, two travelling merchants from Oldtown were found dead on the forest road between Raylansfair and Lindenhill. A week before that, the beast got a vagrant” He let out a sigh. “The city guard in Lindenhill investigated the merchants, no one bothered with the vagrant. But I did some research. There were three confirmed kills in Lindenhill and before that, reported casualties in Goldengrove. I'm sure before that, it was looking for prey in the Riverlands”, he explained. “Whatever it is, be it a shadowcat or something else entirely, it's coming from the north and it is not a starving animal, but something much worse. I've overheard the guardsmen talking when they... investigated the death of my mother. They say the beast does not kill for food”
“So why does it kill?”, Hal asked. Roman shrugged. “Why do humans kill?”, he asked in return. “The guardsmen said that it kills for fun. What kind of animal kills for fun?” Once again, he glared at the shadowcats, who were now simultaneously jumping onto the podium at Irnas' command. “Something large and evil stalks our forest. Christian does what he can, but he's our only ranger and the largest he ever hunted was a wolf”, he explained. “Now look at them. Any single one of them would be good enough to kill Christian, especially with the level of intelligence the beast probably has”
“They actually don't look large enough to tear through the door of my barn”, Than remarked. Roman gave him a glare, before he shook his head once more. “No, they don't”, he agreed. “However, these here live in captivity. I bet wild shadowcats can get even larger”
“And what are you suggesting we should do?”, Richard finally asked, before he sat down on the chair next to Roman. “I mean, I doubt you just called me here to talk about shadowcats. You're not enjoying my presence and neither am I enjoying yours, so why don't we make this quick?”
Roman narrowed his eyes, but at the same time he gave him a nod. “You have a point”, he admitted. “I suggest that we should go and hunt that beast down” For a moment, the other men around the table were silent.
“And now, behold the most terrible of beasts!”, Irnas yelled loudly. “Karr the lion!” His whip cracked through the air and the white lion raised from the ground. He walked around Irnas, surprisingly tame, before the whip cracked again. “Show them your teeth, Karr!”, the tamer ordered. This time, the lion let out a loud and fearsome roar, revealing his long, pointy teeth.
Richard glanced at Roman, unsure if the man made some kind of bad joke. No hint of humour was visible on the other man's face. Finally, Edefilec broke the silence. “Us five?”, he asked. “I mean, we probably outnumber the beast, but we're just farmers”
“Farmers who can fight for their city, for their lives”, Roman replied. “Besides, we won't do it alone. We'll outnumber the beast, but we also need someone who can go toe to toe with it. Luckily, I have arranged for us to meet just the man we need”
“A monster hunter?”, Hal asked. For the first time since their talk began, Roman's expression changed. The sudden, bitter look was replaced by a grim, determined and vengeful smile. “The best”, he revealed. “His name is Vaasrand of Lys”
Again, silence followed, interrupted by the lion's loud roar and Irnas' whip. “An applause for Sabbia and Zulpo!”, he yelled and the audience indeed answered with thundering applause, as the lion trotted back to the other end of the ring, where he lay down. Instead, the lizard-lions slowly approached the beastmaster. While Richard didn't know much about the long, scaly beasts, he knew that their natural habitat was in the swampy regions north of the Riverlands. Without any kind of water below their feet, they looked a bit out of place and almost passive, until one of it opened its massive mouth again, which caused amazed noised from the crowd. Quick as an arrow, the mouth closed again as Irnas threw a small piece of red meat into it.
“So... am I the only one who has never heard about that guy before?”, Hal remarked with a grin, although his face gained a more serious expression as soon as he noticed that no one was smiling. “Neither have I”, Than admitted and Ed gave him a nod. Roman just sighed. “Of course you've never heard about him, you're no monster hunters”, he explained. “I've never heard about him either, but I met him a few days ago and he looks like business. One of them dragonlords, white blonde hair and everything, tall, muscular, scarred. Two swords on his back, though I don't know why anyone needs two swords”
“Sounds like a fraud”, Ed remarked and Roman shot him a glare. “Trust me, once you'll see him, you'll think differently”, he answered. “He's going to meet us at the city gates today. I've called all of you here today because you know why it is necessary to get rid of the beast” He sighed. “To make things short, this Vasraad is a professional. He's expensive, too expensive for me”
“So you need money”, Hal deduced with a sceptic tone in his voice. Roman pressed his lips together, before he gave him a nod. “As much as possible. I'm willing to give him everything I have if it means that he kills the beast that murdered my mother, but I don't have even nearly enough. Have you all brought your money with you?”
“As much as I dared to bring here”, Richard answered and put a hand onto his purse. “The whole place is littered with pickpockets. He raised the purse and was shocked by how small it looked. After the death of his wife, he did his best to save money, so that at least his remaining family would never have to starve. Seeing it all gone in a single day, just to get rid of the beast seemed like a horrible thought, even though he knew that Roman had a point. They needed to kill it before it would get a chance to kill them.
“I got something as well”, Than remarked. Ed gave him a nod. “Investing in this man should be worth it, if he can really free us from this beast”, he stated. Only Hal shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I can't spare any money. Winter is coming and I'm sure it's going to be a hard one”, he explained. “But if this monster hunter is impressive enough, maybe I can help in some other way”
His words caused Richard to listen up. “Would that be possible?”, he asked. He wasn't a greedy man. In fact, he was quite the contrary. But the prospect of loosing all of his saving gone at once was scaring him. Hal was right. Winter was indeed coming. The last winter took his wife because they were too poor to buy food. Without money, the next winter might take him, or perhaps Jenna. Richard knew, he wouldn't survive loosing another family member.
“It would”, Roman answered with a displeased nod. “Seven Hells, it would. In fact, I need your help in another way as well. Do you still have your sword? And Hal, your father's armour?” Hal shook his head. “Nora got it”, he answered. Richard in turn gave him a nod. “I have my sword”, he explained.
This time, the determined look on Roman's face returned. “Good”, he answered. “I will accompany the hunter once he goes out and hunts for that beast and I need as many of you as possible with me. There is strength in numbers and even a man like Vaasrand could need someone to watch his back”
Immediately, Ed saluted in front of him. “You can count on me!”, he swore. “If we take this beast down, we will be heroes” The last word caused Than and Hal to look up. “Heroes you say?”, Than asked. “In that case, I'll help out as well. I'm doing my part to hire the hunter and I will help in killing the beast as well” Hal put a hand onto the tabled and Richard saw that he was slightly shivering. “I don't like this idea, but I'm willing to give it a try”, he said. “Let us meet this hunter”
“One moment”, Roman remarked, before he glared at Richard. “What's with you? I know we're no friends, but perhaps we can work together for the good of this city. I need you and your sword out there, but I can also need your money to pay for the hunter”
Richard only needed a moment to decide that not joining Roman and the others on their hunt was out of question. The beast was a danger for him, his family and his entire city and he wouldn't just stand there while others did the hard work for him. No, he would do his best to help out. However, at the same time he was still sceptical about helping to pay the hunter. His material wealth was sparse and with Alan around he wasn't sure how much he was actually able to spare.
[Agree to pay for the hunter] [Decline to pay for the hunter]
The minion in the middle is literally me right now
We have reached the first 100 pages and this is awesome! I'd like to thank all of you, for every single comment you ever made. When I started this story, I never thought I would ever come close to such a large number of pages and now it looks like a lot more will follow. Here's to the past 100 pages, for the joy I had while writing the parts in them and reading your comments. And here's to the next 100, may they be even better than the ones before!