Okay, so I'm back. I know I said that I was going to focus more on my playthrough, but that didn't go over as well with my job as I wanted it to.
Kaiser followed Velani as she led him away from the site of their encounter. She walked in silence, which seemed unusual to Kaiser. He couldn't help but think that she may have been shaken more than she would have cared to admit. She led him through the long, narrow streets, passing a number of large, glass domes as they walked farther away from the tall tower in the city's center. They soon found themselves staring at the large wall that had enclosed the city, and Velani suddenly stopped, causing Kaiser to stop as well.
A heavy sigh escaped from her lips as she slowly turned back toward him. She paused for a long moment, staring intently at Kaiser's face before she finally opened her mouth again. "Right, so...how should I put this?" she asked with a serious look on her face. She soon started again, saying "Not long ago, I was a citizen of Ryllas, as you're probably already aware. I lived in the ratways with the rest of the normal people who could not cast spells. To the local government, we don't really matter much, because we haven't dedicated our lives to studying energies or, well, anything. To them, the only thing that we're good for is manual labor, and they hate that they can't use us for anything else, so they just threw us down into the dirt and gave us jobs as farmers or street cleaners. Even so, it wasn't so bad. We still had our families, and the work allowed us to get along with almost everyone, so we just made the best of things and made ourselves happy."
She stopped and let out another sigh, then continued, saying "That changed very quickly, however. Almost ten years ago, some big shot from another town came around and put together a gang from some of the young men in the city. They're a nasty bunch who've killed so many innocent people and terrorized the ratways. One day, they came for someone who I cared about very much, and in exchange for her freedom, I gave my own. I was terrified of them, but I was more terrified for her than for myself. They took me in and threw me into one of their makeshift prisons, and they threw her out of the city. I no longer knew where she was, but she was safe from them, and that was all that I cared about."
Kaiser listened to her story intently, though a feeling of unease began to settle into him. It was a similar feeling to how he had felt when his sister had yelled at him in Bellepoint. The young woman before him was opening herself up to him, and as he heard her story, he felt guilty for his previous treatment of her. "I spent the next few years being thoroughly tortured by them," Velani said. She looked away with tears forming in her eyes as she added "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you this. You're probably uncomfortable enough around me as it is. I won't say anything more about this, I promise."
Kaiser shook his head and said "There's no reason to hold it in. You obviously want your story to be heard by someone, just as Starlen had wanted ours to be heard. You should let it go around people you can trust." "Can I trust you?" Velani asked him, her voice trembling. Kaiser paused for a moment, then shrugged and said "That is up to you. If you feel that you can trust me, then I am willing to listen. If not, then I understand." Velani wiped the tears away from her eyes as she stared at him silently. Kaiser's torn face looked upon her without the usual sternness. She closed her eyes and whispered "I can't. I'm sorry." Kaiser simply shook his head and said "I understand."
"What in the hells was that?" Miria asked as she stood with the others in front of the tower. Emerin looked at Brian, who grinned and said "Just a little bundle of justice!" He then walked toward the door of the tower and opened it, signaling for the others to enter. Emerin walked in, and he was immediately floored by the sight that awaited him.
The tower's interior seemed much grander than its outer appearance. Tall, white pillars with glowing lines of blue and green carved into them stretched upward past the limits of his vision, and walls of brightly colored curtains fell from what seemed to be an impossible height. A long, wide spiral of stairs lined the tower's circular wall as they ascended toward the top, chasing after the pillars.
After a long while, Emerin finally recovered from the initial shock enough to survey the room itself. Large, bulky constructs made of some kind of metal were patrolling the outer rim of the large central chamber, with cracks of glowing lights carved into them in a similar pattern to the cracks in the pillars. Further inside the chamber, people dressed in a variety of robes and loose-fitting shirts and trousers milled about, never looking away from what they were doing.
"How do they see where they're going with their heads in books all the time?" he heard Miria ask beside him. "I imagine that they're used to randomly bumping into each other," Ronan replied with a smirk. Emerin simply tuned them both out as he searched for a familiar face, and he soon found it. He saw Starlen standing with an unfamiliar silver-haired woman near the back end of the tower, looking around in awe at her surroundings while her companion watched her with a grin. He quickly started to make his way over to her, and Miria stopped glaring at Ronan to watch him leave. Ronan took the opportunity to lean in closer to her and whisper "Sorry, Miria, but the prince is in another castle." Her head snapped back toward him with such force that she had to rub the back of her neck to massage the pain. Ronan smirked and shrugged, then added "If you know what I mean." Miria's face turned red, and she nearly screamed for him to shut up, but she stopped when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brian walk back outside and close the door behind him.
"Uh," she moaned as she tilted her head to the side. Ronan suddenly became curious, and he followed her gaze to the door. Miria scratched her head and asked "Where is Brian going?" Ronan frowned and replied "Who cares? Let him wander for a bit. He probably needs it." "What do you mean?" Miria asked him. Ronan shrugged and said "The only thing that any of us really know about Brian is that he hates mages. He said it himself in that hideout. Maybe all of the mages here make him a little queasy." Miria wondered if that was it, but she quickly shook her head and said "Argh, he's so weird!"
Emerin smiled as he approached Starlen and waved at her to get her attention. Starlen soon noticed him, and her own expression brightened considerably. She ran over to him, barely avoiding a collision with several other people, and said "You made it out of the forest!" Emerin shrugged as though it was no big deal and asked "Was there really any doubt?" "Pfft," Starlen exhaled as she rolled her eyes. "You're just lucky that Jem came after us instead." "Probably," Emerin replied with another shrug. Starlen's eyes turned toward Miria and Ronan, who were approaching them from the entrance, and her smile faded. She frowned as she turned back toward Emerin and said "He's still with you, I see."
Emerin sighed and nodded as Ronan and Miria joined them. "Well, if it isn't my favorite redhead," Ronan said with a smirk. "I knew you'd manage to bounce your way back to me." His smirk widened as his eyes drifted downward toward her chest, and he added "Yep, bouncing along quite nicely." His smirk quickly became a grimace of agony as Starlen's boot drove into his groin. "OW!" he shouted, drawing the attention of several mages. "Jackass!" Starlen yelled, drawing a laugh from Emerin and Miria. "It's almost as if no time has passed since we started, huh?" Miria asked Emerin, who grinned and replied "It somehow feels so good to see Ronan getting his stones kicked. Makes me think that there's justice in the world, after all.
Jett walked up beside Starlen and asked "Are these friends of yours?" "Most of them, yes," Starlen replied, still glaring coldly at Ronan, who was now nursing his latest injury. "She doesn't like to admit it," said Ronan, who stood back up with a wince. "But we make a great couple-OW!" Starlen's hand connected with his cheek just as he finished speaking, resulting in a loud crack that even made Emerin wince in imagined pain. Ronan rubbed his cheek as he continued, saying "She has a funny way of expressing her love, but I understand." "I'm going to strangle you one of these days," Starlen said with an exasperated sigh. Ronan smirked again and retorted "I would love for you to use your legs, if you wouldn't mind." Starlen balled up her fists and looked as though she was going to beat him to death with her bare hands, but Jett spoke first, saying "That's great and all, but who are you people?" Emerin sighed and replied "My name is Emerin, the creep is Ronan, the girl is Miria, and the crazy blond man is Brian." "Brian?" Jett asked as she looked around in surprise. Starlen raised an eyebrow and said "Emerin, Brian isn't here." "What?" Emerin asked as he glanced over at Ronan and Miria, who both shrugged. "I caught sight of him leaving," Miria said. "I don't know where he went, though."
"Brian..." Jett muttered to herself quietly. Emerin looked at her quizzically and asked "Do you know him?" Jett shrugged and said "If he's who I think you are talking about, then yes, I know him a little too well."
"We should probably go back, don't you think?" Kaiser asked Velani as the two made their way across the city's surface. Velani sighed and said "Yeah...," though her tone was noncommittal. Kaiser stopped to look at her as he said "You don't like the mages much, do you?" Velani shrugged and said "It's not that I don't like them, it's just...I don't know. There are some who help, and some who don't. And then there are some who pretend to help, but they're really only doing it for recognition by their superiors." She sighed again, then said "Alright, let's go back. I'm getting sick of just wandering around aimlessly, anyway."
They turned around and started back down the way they came from, but Kaiser stopped as he caught sight of several men staring at them from inside one of the glass domes. The men immediately turned away, but they weren't quick enough, and Kaiser suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. "What is it?" Velani asked him softly as she reached for her bow instinctively. Kaiser didn't respond, and she thought of asking again when her eyes fell upon where he was looking. It took all that she had just to keep herself from visibly shaking. "Of course they wouldn't just leave us alone," she muttered under her breath, though Kaiser must have heard it, since he shook his head and said "They are not here for you this time." Velani turned her frightened stare toward him, and he tilted his chin back toward the road in front of them.
In the distance, Velani saw what seemed to be a horned man striding slowly toward them, gripping two long spears with jagged tips in his hands. She shuddered as she asked in a shaking voice "What in the hells is that?" Kaiser knew who it was. He turned his head slightly and whispered to Velani "We need to get out of here, now." He wanted to fight, to finally defeat the man who was in front of them, but he couldn't let Velani get caught in the fight as well. There was simply no way that she would survive such an encounter, not without more assistance from the others. Before he turned to run, however, Velani said something that he did not want to hear. "We're surrounded," she said as she turned to see more men coming from every other direction. Kaiser gritted his teeth in desperation and snarled. "Dammit!" he growled in frustration.
Ronan whistled a sharp tune as the group proceeded up the stairs to the higher floors, led on by an obviously distracted Jett, who did not speak once through their climb. Starlen, on the other hand, became more and more agitated by Ronan's whistling. When they had finally reached the fourth florr, she suddenly spun around and snapped at him, saying "Stop doing that!" Ronan responded by dipping into a low bow and replying "Of course, fair maiden. Your wish is my command."
Emerin sighed for what seemed to be the millionth time since he had met the others. "You wouldn't be so ceaselessly frustrating if you would just learn when to keep your mouth shut," he said. Ronan looked at him with an offended expression and said "But sir, my voice is my life! It has saved not only myself, but also the lot of you, on many occasions." "Yes, and we are grateful for that," Emerin replied with another sigh. "But it's a double-edged sword, coming from you." "I'll take that as a compliment," Ronan said with a smirk. Miria shook her head in disgust as she turned toward Starlen. "Where are Kaiser and Velani?" she asked, and Starlen's eyes widened in realization. "I...don't know," she answered, concern beginning to form on her face. "They should have been here ahead of us, but they weren't." Her voice grew softer with each word, and she turned away from the others, her mind drifting to thoughts of her brother.
Emerin struggled to think of something to say, but Ronan beat him to it, saying "Your brother wouldn't want to keep you worried, right? He'll be here in no time, I'm sure." Starlen stared at him for a moment, and Emerin thought that she was going to hit him again, but she didn't. Instead, she nodded and said "Yeah, I'm sure he will be." Without a second thought, she smiled at him, and both Emerin and Miria looked on in surprise. Ronan responded with a grin as he said "Ah, could this be? Could the lovely, passionate redhead finally be casting away her hatred and embracing her true feelings for me?" Starlen's smile turned into a scowl, and she slapped him across the face with enough force to send his head into the wall beside him. "OW!" he shouted. "Jackass!" Starlen replied furiously as she spun away and stormed off after Jett, who was so distracted by her own thoughts that she never stopped walking.
Emerin snickered as he passed by Ronan, who said "At least she isn't worrying anymore." "You did all of that for her, didn't you?" Miria asked him. Ronan shrugged and replied "What can I say? I hate seeing her worried like that." He casually walked after the others, and Miria followed him at a distance as she stared at him with curiosity.
The fourth floor was almost entirely made up of a long, circular hallway that wrapped around the walls. The group followed the ring until it opened up into a large central chamber with five doors set into the wall directly in front of them. The pulsing lines of magical energy within the walls wrapped around the arched doorways in serpentine patterns, and the group was dazzled by the light that flooded the chamber as a result. Jett quickly approached the rightmost door as she pulled a small, circular object from within one of the many pockets of her trousers. "Okay," she said with a heavy sigh. She turned around to address her entourage and said "What you see beyond this door, you should never speak of to anyone. I'm serious." She threw a hard glare at Ronan, who gave her his best innocent expression in return. She then turned back to the door and set the object that she was holding into a small, round indentation set within its center and turned it until a soft click sounded from beyond the door. She pushed the door open slightly, then immediately turned her head toward the others and said "Hurry up and get inside before someone else comes along."
Ronan frowned as he glanced at Emerin, who noticed his apparent concern and nodded slightly in respinse. Jett was surely hiding something from someone, he thought as he led the group inside cautiously.
A bit of an apology for those following: I have gone through pretty much everything that was already pre-written in my head concerning this story, so determining what to write next has been slow. However, I have no intention of stopping this anytime soon, and I will update regularly once more, starting now.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions concerning the story or any changes that they feel needs to be made, then please voice them. I would be more than happy to read such constructive feedback.
Velani stared in awe and terror at the horned giant as he approached. He stood a head taller than Kaiser, and was twice as wide, with large, powerful arms and tense muscles. She instinctively moved farther away from him, putting more distance between herself and Kaiser, who stood silently as he glared at the massive demon. The demon slowly shifted his gaze from Kaiser to Velani, then back to Kaiser. "Welcome to Ryllas, my son," the demon said to Kaiser with a deep, booming voice that seemed to echo around them. He stared at Kaiser without expression, revealing no emotion at all as his eyes studied the man that his son had become. "I see you haven't been eating very well. You're as scrawny as a toothpick."
Kaiser said nothing as he glared at his father, trying his best to keep his rage from boiling over. Garinbold saw his anger and sighed deeply. "It's good to see that you're making friends," he said calmly as he nodded toward Velani, who froze when she saw him glance at her. Kaiser's good eye narrowed as his anger swelled. He didn't want to risk a fight, not with all of the other men surrounding them, poised to strike. He had to remain calm enough to maintain some presence of mind. Otherwise, he and Velani might not walk away from this encounter alive. "What do you want?" he asked simply. Garinbold dipped his head into a short bow and replied "I wanted to see you again, if only for a short moment. I wished to see for myself the man you've become-" "Don't talk to me as though you and I are still on good terms!" Kaiser interjected with a snarl. Garinbold sighed and said "I know you came here to kill me. You're face alone can tell me that much. However, attacking me now would almost certainly end badly for you." He stretched his left arm outward, gesturing to the men who surrounded them.
Kaiser shook his head slowly and said "This won't be enough to keep me from you." "Perhaps not," Garinbold responded. "But I have never needed their assistance to slay my enemies." He gestured toward the men once more, and they took several steps back. Garinbold looked back at Kaiser and said "Now you have your chance for revenge, boy. Will you take it, or will you opt for a chance to escape?" Kaiser stared at him for a long moment, causing Garinbold to continue, saying "Your sister needs to know that I am here, and that I want to say hello. You will deliver the message to her yourself, or you can get your friend to do it." He shifted his gaze toward Velani once again, and Velani took another step back. He turned back toward Kaiser and added "Naturally, one of you will stay with me as collateral, in case she doesn't respond. I'm not too picky about who stays."
"You won't lay a hand on her!" Kaiser shouted, his anger finally bursting forth. With every ounce of his strength, he swung his halberd toward Garinbold's head. Garinbold leaped backward and leveled his two large spears, then lunged forward and thrust them toward Kaiser's chest. Kaiser brought his halberd up to block, and the two spears collided with its metal shaft...and nearly cleaved straight through it, bending the metal into an unusable shape. The spears continued forward past the misshapen weapon to plant themselves firmly into Kaiser's chest. Kaiser grunted from the force as the pointed tips dug their way through his enchanted coat and skin, stopping just before reaching his heart. Garinbold's face took on an expression of surprise for a brief moment. He hadn't expected the coat to be so sturdy. Still, the damage was done, and Kaiser groaned as he slumped to the ground in a heap.
Velani stared at his body as it fell limply upon the ground. She could barely understand what she had just seen with her own eyes. Kaiser was far stronger than any normal man, but the horned giant simply overpowered him without any effort. Garinbold sighed heavily as he turned his attention toward her. "I'm still in need of a messenger," he said to her calmly, not at all disturbed over what he had done. "Agree to deliver it if you care for his life." He held his right spear downward against Kaiser's chin as the fallen warrior grimaced in pain. "Nothing but her power will save him now," Garinbold added. "You should hurry." Velani still couldn't move for a second or two before finally snapping out of her shock. She nodded nervously, then broke into a full sprint toward the tower in the distance.
Garinbold nodded to one of his underlings, who quickly rushed to his side. "Make certain that they know where to find me," Garinbold ordered him, and the man rushed off after Velani. Garinbold looked back down at his son and shook his head "Was it worth the attempt, boy?" he asked, though Kaiser was in no condition to respond.
"I'm home!" Jett called out as she entered the small, dimly lit chamber. Emerin stepped inside cautiously, followed by the others, and what he saw was chaos. The chamber seemed small at first, but it became clear to them that it was much larger at one point. Large mounds comprised of assorted strange devices both big and small nearly filled the chamber, and neither of the adventurers could see the walls behind them. Ronan and Miria both whistled in astonishment at the sight.
"Well," Jet said as she turned to regard them. "What do you think?" "It's kinda..." Starlen started to respond, but she quickly stopped herself, afraid of saying rude. Of course, Ronan had no such fears. "It's a really big mess," he said. "How do you find anything in this dump?" Starlen glared at him, but Jett simply snickered and answered "It takes a while, to be sure. Most of this stuff isn't mine, however." She looked around at the clutter with a frown before suddenly shouting "Scar!"
Just as her guests had started throwing confused looks to each other, they heard a soft moan coming from somewhere beyond the piles of strange oobjects. "Well, look who finally showed up," spoke a woman's voice. From behind the pile directly in front of them stepped out a young woman with short red hair dressed in a wrinkled and stained green mage robe. "Did you build all of these?" Jett asked the strange young woman with a hint of disbelief in her voice. "No!" the woman replied emphatically. "You did! I was just clearing out the closet! We've been attracting rats! Big frikking rats, and it's your fault!" Jett scowled at her for a moment before realization finally hit her. She turned back toward the others and gave them a sheepish grin. "Oops," she said. "Maybe it was my work after all."
Starlen stared at Jett dumbfounded while Emerin shook his head and asked himself "Why do I always end up surrounding myself with such characters as these?" Ronan and Miria both beamed at him, and he sighed. The red-haired woman turned and stared at them curiously, and Jet said "Oh yeah, these are our guests." She pointed toward Starlen and continued "That's Starlen, and these other people are her friends." She finished with a dismissive wave of her hand, and Emerin shook his head again. Starlen hesitantly said "Um, hello. Sorry for barging in like this." The young woman sighed and said "Scar. That's my name, and if you mention how it's short for Scarlet, I'll have you thrown out." "You have no authority here, Scarlet!" Jett snapped at her. "You are my apprentice, remember? This is my home, first and foremost." "As if you even stick around long enough for it to matter!" Scar snapped back at her. "Also, you don't want me giving away YOUR name, do you?"
Jett straightened and immediately closed her mouth, and Scar grinned. "That's better," she said as she turned her attention back toward the adventurers. "Sorry for the mess," she said politely. "I try to make this place look more presentable, but SOMEONE keeps experimenting on new things to animate, and she never cleans up after herself." "I do too!" Jett exclaimed, but Scar shook her head and retorted "Throwing them in the closet is not cleaning, seriously!" "How big is the closet?" Miria asked as she once again examined the piles. "You really have no idea," Scar replied as she let out a deep sigh. "Anyway!" Jet shouted, trying to steer the conversation away from her personal habits. "You wanted to know about Brian, right? Well, it's a long story, so grab a seat and I'll tell you." The group looked around and found no visible chairs. "I suppose we could sit on one of these piles," Starlen muttered. Ronan shook his head and said "Oh no, my dear. Let me find you a seat." "I don't need a-" Starlen started to say, but Ronan had already begun shoving his way through one of the closest piles, effortlessly sweeping aside the numerous gadgets until he finally disappeared from view. When he finally reappeared, he was carrying a short wooden stool.
"Here you are, my lady," he said dramatically as he plopped the stool down next to her with a flourish. Starlen looked at him in surprise for a moment before she said "Um, thank you." She looked over at Emerin, who shrugged. Feeling a little awkward, she turned toward Jett and asked "Do you want this seat?" Jett shook her head, somewhat amused by the scene playing out before her. After a long moment of silence, Miria rolled her eyes and said "I'll take it." She walked over to the stool and tried to sit down, but Ronan quickly hooked his foot around one of its legs and pulled it away just as she was about to sit on it. "AUGH!" Miria screamed as she plummeted to the floor and landed on her rump. She staggered to her feet and sent a harsh scowl toward Ronan, who said "This seat's not for you." After laughing for a short moment, Scar said "I've set aside all of the chairs. We could just sit over there." "Oh, thank the gods," Starlen breathed, desperate to end the awkward moment as swiftly as possible. The group followed Scar through the room, weaving around the piles of discarded parts.
Velani ran toward the tower as quickly as she could. She was obviously in a hurry, and Jemeniah could hazard a guess as to what-or who-she was running from. He sighed as he looked on from atop a glass dome situated only a short distance from the tower itself. So Garinbold has made his move at last, he thought. His gaze turned from Velani to regard the man following her at a distance. Jemeniah easily recognized him as one of Garinbold's men.
He leaped from the greenhouse and broke into a sprint upon landing on the ground, determined to reach them both before they entered the tower. He needed to kill them both in order to disrupt Garinbold's plan. He had to stop suddenly, however, as he was intercepted by a familiar face. "You again," he said to the stranger, who smiled calmly at him but remained silent. Jemeniah shook his head and continued, saying "You do understand that you are forbidden from interfering with our battle, correct?" "What's wrong with me getting involved?" the stranger asked in response. "After all, you have targeted someone very dear to me." Jemeniah stared at him for a moment before conceding the point. "So, are you here to stop us both?" he asked with a hint of incredulity. The stranger laughed and replied "That will not be necessary." "Why not?" Jemeniah asked, somewhat intrigued by his answer. The stranger's smile widened as he said "They will deal with Garinbold on their own."
Jemeniah immediately burst into laughter. "By they, I assume you mean those humans and half-breeds?" He snorted derisively. "He will slaughter them, one by one, even your precious daughter. Truly, a death at my hands would have almost been merciful." He grinned wickedly at the stranger, then added "Almost." The stranger simply sighed in response. "Such bravado coming from one so easily distracted from his goal," he said with his usual smile. Jemeniah's grin quickly turned sour, but before he could respond, he heard a loud voice behind him. "Well, if it isn't Chimichanga the Goateed Seagull!" called Brian as he ran toward them. "You have a lot to answer for!" He charged at Jemeniah ferociously, lifting his hammer high over his head. Jemeniah sighed and said "I suppose I could settle for you." He drew his swords and met Brian's charge with a quick flurry of thrusts and short cuts, seeking to test the warrior's defenses. Brian's guard proved to be surprisingly sound, and he deflected all of Jemeniah's strikes with a series of quick and subtle defensive maneuvers. He was no stranger to fighting a faster opponent, and Jemeniah was quickly forced to heighten the speed of his attacks just to keep the blond man on the defensive. Brian growled as his rage slowly began to build, but Jemeniah sensed the change in his demeanor, and he disengaged and retreated several steps out of the reach of Brian's hammer.
Brian let out a short laugh as his rage started to boil over. The skin of his face and neck was already turning red, and several veins had begun to show beneath the surface. "Oh no," he snarled, his voice sounding like a monster's growl. "You don't get to run. Not this time." He threw himself forward, crashing into Jemeniah's waiting swords and swatting them aside with an animalistic roar. Jemeniah could not retreat, but he could still fight, and his swords flashed ahead of him with unbelievable speed, cutting into Brian's armor at the joints with such precision that any man foolish enough to cross him would be dismembered in less than a second. Brian merely laughed in his face as he slammed into the harbinger, who staggered from the force. His hammer followed his quarry, but Jemeniah ducked instantly, and the heavy metal head soared over him completely. He jumped back into the fray, unleashing several horizontal slashes upon Brian, who growled as his left hand let go of his hammer to slam into Jemeniah's chest. The harbinger fell backward, but recovered an instant before Brian's hammer could swing again. He took advantage of his time by thrusting his swords toward Brian's face.
The swords flew like lightning, but Brian was already moving as he ducked to his left and swung his hammer back to the left as well, spinning in a circle with the momentum. Jemeniah immediately found himself lying on his back, with the wind knocked out him. Brian roared triumphantly as her rushed forward to finish him off, but Jemeniah had other ideas. With a deep sigh, he pulled himself up, and his eyes took on a yellow glow. Watching the fight, the stranger tensed up, reaching instinctively for the silver hilt on his belt.
I think I've apologized for not regularly updating this thread more than anything else by now. I guess I should just take the Beamdog stance: I will update when I am finished.
I will TRY to remain focused on my story, but I can offer no guarantees at this point. Also, I have noticed something peculiar: it seems that I have lost my descriptive ability. I'll also try to fix that as I go.
If anyone is still invested in this story, I applaud you.
Ryllas was always a strange city to Kain. As he slowly proceeded down a softly descending path carved into the earth, he thought about the stark contrast between the city and the several smaller towns that he had done business in. The main town being underground had always sounded ridiculous to him. He never could understand what the humans who built the place were thinking.
Across the city's surface, there were a number of such declining paths, all of them well-guarded. As Kain passed by the two men guarding the entrance, he frowned slightly, a different expression from his usual scowl. It was filled not with anger, but with sadness and disappointment. "When you can't even trust your own people..." he murmured to himself.
Almost like a father who couldn't love his son. The thought came to him without warning, causing his scowl to return. It was a pathetic and childish thing to think about, and he hated it. He had already proven to himself that he didn't need anyone else to survive in this world. He forced the thought out of his mind with a snarl, reminding himself that he had a job to do. He wasn't there for business, but rather, for a more personal reason, and he wasn't about to let the past ruin his opportunity. He knew that his father was here, somewhere, and he was determined to kill him. That is what he had trained for, after all. Nothing else mattered to him but the thought of revenge.
He passed between the second pair of guards at the path's exit to find himself in a large cavern filled with towers that reached from the ground to the high ceiling above. The towers were made up of four small, round houses sitting atop one another, with balconies stretched outward from where the floor of one home connected to the ceiling of another. Each of the pillars was wrapped in a long, spiraling staircase wound tightly against the edges of the balconies. The sight had made Kain's head spin when he had first entered Ryllas in his childhood, and the feeling continued this time as well. He shook his head with an accompanying sigh. "Humans make some of the strangest architecture," he murmured to himself.
As he was pondering the curious sight, Kain suddenly heard a familiar deep voice, and he remembered why he was here. Doing his best to remain hidden, he quickly scuttled over to the nearest pillar and positioned himself on the opposite side from the source of the voice. "Have a little faith,boy!" the booming voice echoed through the cavern. "Your sister will come for you in short order, and when she does, you will no longer concern me. You should be grateful that I am allowing you to live."
"And what of her?" asked a second voice that was softer, weaker than the first. "Will you let her go as well?" The response to that question was laughter, loud and boisterous. Kain could tell the situation from what he had heard, and he swore under his breath. The only 'sister' who could interest the source of that loud voice was clear enough. If that was the case...
Kain let out a deep breath and stepped out from behind the pillar, ascertaining the situation with his own eyes. There was his father, Garinbold, conversing with his captive, an injured Kaiser. They were surrounded by a group of black leather-clad men who spotted him immediately, even in the darkness of the cavern. "Sir!" one of them spoke to alert Garinbold, who turned to face Kain. His laughing quickly subsided when he saw his other son standing before him with murder in his eyes.
"You're here, too?" Garinbold asked with a disinterested tone, though Kain knew from the focused look in his eyes that he was fully attentive. Kain took a step forward, and a knife suddenly flew out from the crowd in front of him, sailing through the air toward his heart. To any human, the knife would have been too fast to see and react to, but Kain drew his left sword with equal speed, slashing it across just as the knife came into range and sending it flying off into the darkness. He smirked when he heard a satisfying clang as the small blade impacted with the wall of the cavern and asked smugly "You need these wimps to fight your battles for you, monster? If so, then all that training I went through was for nothing."
The group sat down in the chairs arrayed in a circle on the far side of the room. Jett took the seat facing the door, looking over occasionally at the entrance as she told her story. "I'm not going to beat around the bush here," she said with a frown. "Brian was one of our associates, a mercenary we hired for protection while we worked in the field. He was always professional; not once did he ever say more than two words to any of us as he performed his job. We let him keep to himself, since we was a great help in the wilderness." She paused and looked around at the group surrounding her. "You all probably know him as someone different. The experiment did that to him."
Emerin considered her last sentence for a short moment. It seemed to him that she was hesitant to mention it, since she had lowered her voice to nearly a whisper as she spoke. "You mean to say that he was changed by one of your experiments?" he asked her tentatively, hesitant to interrupt her. She didn't seem to mind, however, as she nodded in affirmation. "It was my fault, for certain. I should have listened to my instincts and stopped when I noticed something was wrong, but I didn't, and that young man was severely damaged because of it."
Starlen spoke up then, saying "Forgive me for asking, but what were you trying to do? You work with animation, don't you?" Jett sighed and turned to look at her, revealing a sorrowful expression. "My partner and I were involved in much more than just animating constructs. We were tasked with finding different methods for applying animate cores in order to augment human lives. It required some...questionable experiments and tests. I hated it. It was my invention, and yet the college demanded that I twist its intended purpose for the sake of their own greed. I suppose it isn't really as simple as that, though." She looked over at Scar, who sighed profoundly, drawing everyone's attention toward her. She met their gazes and shrugged, saying "The college is close to becoming bankrupt. My father, the chairman, has assigned me to personally see to it that Jett keeps working on her experiment. I have replaced her old partner as a result, and he was kicked from the project. When he found out, he was furious, and he left the tower. Nobody knows where he went, but..." She threw a short glance at Jett before continuing. "Jett is still in contact with him. They've been discussing the project regularly behind my father's back." Ronan raised an eyebrow and asked "And you're okay with that?" Scar shrugged and replied "I suppose, but only because I never liked my father much. I almost didn't come to this college to study because he's the chairman."
She sighed again as Jett spoke next, finishing the explanation. "I've been leaving the tower more and more often, and for longer periods in these past few months. The last thing my partner told me was that he was working on a new method to create a stronger animate core, one that could possibly restore the dead to life."
Starlen gasped. She could not believe what she had just heard. Throughout recent history, healers all over the world were constantly seeking a way to resurrect the dead, but none have managed it, as far as she knew. That power was supposedly beyond mortal means, and yet, if what Jett said was true, then it could be achieved through an entirely different field of study altogether. "That can't be..." she muttered under her breath. Jett noted her skepticism and nodded, saying "I honestly can't say that I believe it either, but I trust my partner enough to at least give him the benefit of doubt. If he says that he can, then I will support his decision, regardless of whether or not I believe in it. Still, it sounds exciting, doesn't it? The idea that we could bring back those who had been killed unjustly?"
"I hate to interrupt this fascinating story," said Ronan, his lack of interest obvious. "But what does this have to do with Brian? Em is just dying to know." He looked over at Emerin, who frowned. "Isn't that right, buddy?" For his part, Emerin couldn't deny it, although he didn't like that Ronan spoke for him. Without a word, he shrugged, and Jett took that motion as confirmation. "I suppose I did go off on a tangent," she admitted. "Well, Brian was the first and last human subject for our experiment. In order to augment his natural abilities, we implanted him with an animate core. It was smaller than the other cores; small enough to fit inside of a person's body without causing too many problems. For a while, it seemed to work. His test results were amazing. His physical strength and endurance were over ten times stronger than before the experiment, far beyond the capacity for normal humans."
She looked at Emerin sadly as she continued "However, after running a few more tests, we made another, unfortunate discovery. Every time he utilized the core's power, Brian became less capable of controlling his own emotions. Without any prior warning, he ultimately destroyed the lab, as well as anything or anyone that got in his way, and fled the tower. We never saw him again after that."
Emerin sighed as he took in the information. Brian certainly came across as a bit of a loon, but it seemed to him that the blond warrior's shifting personality was a result of the experiment. He couldn't help but wonder if the Brian he saw in the cultists' hideout, the Brian who lashed out at everything within reach with reckless abandon, screaming at the top of his lungs, was his true self.
"Would you be able to restore him to the way he was if he was here?" Emerin asked Jett. She shook her head and lowered it, saying "Not without his consent, no. If we tried to force him into it, he would just go on another rampage. I COULD do it, in theory, but I'm sure he doesn't even want to see me again, let alone allow me anywhere near his head so that I could remove the core." "Would that be enough?" Miria asked her. Starlen answered the question instead, saying "With his brain so addled already, I don't think so. Maybe healing magic could cure it after the core was removed, but that isn't guaranteed. He seems to have a strong will that prevents most magic from affecting his mind. I felt it before when I was treating him in the pavilion."
Emerin remembered Azzar's spell, then, and how Brian had resisted it while both he and Miria could not. That had also seemed to trigger his rage. "He becomes enraged whenever someone casts a spell on him," he told everyone. "I assume that's also because of you?" "Perhaps," answered Jett as she brought her hand to her chin. She seemed lost in thought for a few moments. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when a loud knock at the door resonated through the room. Scar immediately stood up and ran to the door. The group heard it open, and a familiar, yet frantic voice harassed their ears. "Where is Starlen?! I must speak to her?!" "Velani?" Starlen asked aloud as she rushed for the door. There, she saw Velani standing in the doorway without her brother. "Where is Kaiser?" she asked, growing worried. Velani soon confirmed her fears. "He's been kidnapped. Some huge man with horns appeared and took him down!"
Starlen stood there in utter silence, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull. Her jaw hung open and trembled as she tried to process what she had just heard. Her brother, her protector, the strongest man she had ever known was beaten. And the one responsible...she knew who he was before Velani even told her. "He claimed to be your father," Velani muttered as the rest of the group surrounded them.
Starlen's entire body shook where she stood. Emerin swore user his breath. Ronan sighed deeply and placed his hand on Starlen's shoulder, saying "We're going to save him, right? Well, I've been working on a plan for dealing with the bad guy already. I'm going to call in a favor from a friend, and we'll see if we can turn this around." Starlen could barely hear what he was saying, her own thoughts turned inward. Doubt and regret threatened to creep into her mind, keeping her focused upon the thought of her brother left helpless in the hands of their father.
"You have friends?" Miria asked Ronan incredulously. "Who in their right mind would take on a demon, anyway?" Ronan looked at her and smirked. "I never said he was in his right mind," he said. "But you met him before. Ragged clothes, oversized hat, glowing blue eyes. Any of that ring a bell?" Emerin definitely remember the stranger. His appearance was distinct enough to remember quite clearly. "You think he will agree to help us?" he asked doubtfully. Ronan shrugged and said "He should, since he has a personal stake in the outcome of this fight." He looked back at Starlen, and Emerin tilted his head curiously.
As they considered the situation, a loud boom interrupted their thoughts. "That sounded like it came from downstairs," said Jett as she immediately dashed from the room. "Wait!" Emerin called out to her, but she was already gone. A second, louder boom followed by a savage roar filled the air, and Emerin, Miria, and Ronan looked at each other in recognition. "Let's go!" Emerin shouted, and the group followed him out of the room and down to the tower's base, where a fierce battle was raging.
So, I've decided to at least temporarily give up on this story for a few reasons:
1. My data usage is being severely limited, so I can't spend nearly as much time on these forums as I need to write up a new segment. 2. I'm currently working on a new story that has some potential to be something great. 3. The noticeable lack of interest in this has caused me to stop caring about it.
As much as I would love to finish this, it will likely remain unfinished for the foreseeable future. To anyone who might wish to see it done, I apologize, but I have moved on.
It's very sad but understandable. I hope the experience you got from writing your story in this thread will help in your new story. Be free to share anything you wish with us!
Comments
Kaiser followed Velani as she led him away from the site of their encounter. She walked in silence, which seemed unusual to Kaiser. He couldn't help but think that she may have been shaken more than she would have cared to admit. She led him through the long, narrow streets, passing a number of large, glass domes as they walked farther away from the tall tower in the city's center. They soon found themselves staring at the large wall that had enclosed the city, and Velani suddenly stopped, causing Kaiser to stop as well.
A heavy sigh escaped from her lips as she slowly turned back toward him. She paused for a long moment, staring intently at Kaiser's face before she finally opened her mouth again. "Right, so...how should I put this?" she asked with a serious look on her face. She soon started again, saying "Not long ago, I was a citizen of Ryllas, as you're probably already aware. I lived in the ratways with the rest of the normal people who could not cast spells. To the local government, we don't really matter much, because we haven't dedicated our lives to studying energies or, well, anything. To them, the only thing that we're good for is manual labor, and they hate that they can't use us for anything else, so they just threw us down into the dirt and gave us jobs as farmers or street cleaners. Even so, it wasn't so bad. We still had our families, and the work allowed us to get along with almost everyone, so we just made the best of things and made ourselves happy."
She stopped and let out another sigh, then continued, saying "That changed very quickly, however. Almost ten years ago, some big shot from another town came around and put together a gang from some of the young men in the city. They're a nasty bunch who've killed so many innocent people and terrorized the ratways. One day, they came for someone who I cared about very much, and in exchange for her freedom, I gave my own. I was terrified of them, but I was more terrified for her than for myself. They took me in and threw me into one of their makeshift prisons, and they threw her out of the city. I no longer knew where she was, but she was safe from them, and that was all that I cared about."
Kaiser listened to her story intently, though a feeling of unease began to settle into him. It was a similar feeling to how he had felt when his sister had yelled at him in Bellepoint. The young woman before him was opening herself up to him, and as he heard her story, he felt guilty for his previous treatment of her. "I spent the next few years being thoroughly tortured by them," Velani said. She looked away with tears forming in her eyes as she added "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you this. You're probably uncomfortable enough around me as it is. I won't say anything more about this, I promise."
Kaiser shook his head and said "There's no reason to hold it in. You obviously want your story to be heard by someone, just as Starlen had wanted ours to be heard. You should let it go around people you can trust." "Can I trust you?" Velani asked him, her voice trembling. Kaiser paused for a moment, then shrugged and said "That is up to you. If you feel that you can trust me, then I am willing to listen. If not, then I understand." Velani wiped the tears away from her eyes as she stared at him silently. Kaiser's torn face looked upon her without the usual sternness. She closed her eyes and whispered "I can't. I'm sorry." Kaiser simply shook his head and said "I understand."
The tower's interior seemed much grander than its outer appearance. Tall, white pillars with glowing lines of blue and green carved into them stretched upward past the limits of his vision, and walls of brightly colored curtains fell from what seemed to be an impossible height. A long, wide spiral of stairs lined the tower's circular wall as they ascended toward the top, chasing after the pillars.
After a long while, Emerin finally recovered from the initial shock enough to survey the room itself. Large, bulky constructs made of some kind of metal were patrolling the outer rim of the large central chamber, with cracks of glowing lights carved into them in a similar pattern to the cracks in the pillars. Further inside the chamber, people dressed in a variety of robes and loose-fitting shirts and trousers milled about, never looking away from what they were doing.
"How do they see where they're going with their heads in books all the time?" he heard Miria ask beside him. "I imagine that they're used to randomly bumping into each other," Ronan replied with a smirk. Emerin simply tuned them both out as he searched for a familiar face, and he soon found it. He saw Starlen standing with an unfamiliar silver-haired woman near the back end of the tower, looking around in awe at her surroundings while her companion watched her with a grin. He quickly started to make his way over to her, and Miria stopped glaring at Ronan to watch him leave. Ronan took the opportunity to lean in closer to her and whisper "Sorry, Miria, but the prince is in another castle." Her head snapped back toward him with such force that she had to rub the back of her neck to massage the pain. Ronan smirked and shrugged, then added "If you know what I mean." Miria's face turned red, and she nearly screamed for him to shut up, but she stopped when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brian walk back outside and close the door behind him.
"Uh," she moaned as she tilted her head to the side. Ronan suddenly became curious, and he followed her gaze to the door. Miria scratched her head and asked "Where is Brian going?" Ronan frowned and replied "Who cares? Let him wander for a bit. He probably needs it." "What do you mean?" Miria asked him. Ronan shrugged and said "The only thing that any of us really know about Brian is that he hates mages. He said it himself in that hideout. Maybe all of the mages here make him a little queasy." Miria wondered if that was it, but she quickly shook her head and said "Argh, he's so weird!"
Emerin smiled as he approached Starlen and waved at her to get her attention. Starlen soon noticed him, and her own expression brightened considerably. She ran over to him, barely avoiding a collision with several other people, and said "You made it out of the forest!" Emerin shrugged as though it was no big deal and asked "Was there really any doubt?" "Pfft," Starlen exhaled as she rolled her eyes. "You're just lucky that Jem came after us instead." "Probably," Emerin replied with another shrug. Starlen's eyes turned toward Miria and Ronan, who were approaching them from the entrance, and her smile faded. She frowned as she turned back toward Emerin and said "He's still with you, I see."
Emerin sighed and nodded as Ronan and Miria joined them. "Well, if it isn't my favorite redhead," Ronan said with a smirk. "I knew you'd manage to bounce your way back to me." His smirk widened as his eyes drifted downward toward her chest, and he added "Yep, bouncing along quite nicely." His smirk quickly became a grimace of agony as Starlen's boot drove into his groin. "OW!" he shouted, drawing the attention of several mages. "Jackass!" Starlen yelled, drawing a laugh from Emerin and Miria. "It's almost as if no time has passed since we started, huh?" Miria asked Emerin, who grinned and replied "It somehow feels so good to see Ronan getting his stones kicked. Makes me think that there's justice in the world, after all.
Jett walked up beside Starlen and asked "Are these friends of yours?" "Most of them, yes," Starlen replied, still glaring coldly at Ronan, who was now nursing his latest injury. "She doesn't like to admit it," said Ronan, who stood back up with a wince. "But we make a great couple-OW!" Starlen's hand connected with his cheek just as he finished speaking, resulting in a loud crack that even made Emerin wince in imagined pain. Ronan rubbed his cheek as he continued, saying "She has a funny way of expressing her love, but I understand." "I'm going to strangle you one of these days," Starlen said with an exasperated sigh. Ronan smirked again and retorted "I would love for you to use your legs, if you wouldn't mind." Starlen balled up her fists and looked as though she was going to beat him to death with her bare hands, but Jett spoke first, saying "That's great and all, but who are you people?" Emerin sighed and replied "My name is Emerin, the creep is Ronan, the girl is Miria, and the crazy blond man is Brian." "Brian?" Jett asked as she looked around in surprise. Starlen raised an eyebrow and said "Emerin, Brian isn't here." "What?" Emerin asked as he glanced over at Ronan and Miria, who both shrugged. "I caught sight of him leaving," Miria said. "I don't know where he went, though."
"Brian..." Jett muttered to herself quietly. Emerin looked at her quizzically and asked "Do you know him?" Jett shrugged and said "If he's who I think you are talking about, then yes, I know him a little too well."
They turned around and started back down the way they came from, but Kaiser stopped as he caught sight of several men staring at them from inside one of the glass domes. The men immediately turned away, but they weren't quick enough, and Kaiser suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. "What is it?" Velani asked him softly as she reached for her bow instinctively. Kaiser didn't respond, and she thought of asking again when her eyes fell upon where he was looking. It took all that she had just to keep herself from visibly shaking. "Of course they wouldn't just leave us alone," she muttered under her breath, though Kaiser must have heard it, since he shook his head and said "They are not here for you this time." Velani turned her frightened stare toward him, and he tilted his chin back toward the road in front of them.
In the distance, Velani saw what seemed to be a horned man striding slowly toward them, gripping two long spears with jagged tips in his hands. She shuddered as she asked in a shaking voice "What in the hells is that?" Kaiser knew who it was. He turned his head slightly and whispered to Velani "We need to get out of here, now." He wanted to fight, to finally defeat the man who was in front of them, but he couldn't let Velani get caught in the fight as well. There was simply no way that she would survive such an encounter, not without more assistance from the others. Before he turned to run, however, Velani said something that he did not want to hear. "We're surrounded," she said as she turned to see more men coming from every other direction. Kaiser gritted his teeth in desperation and snarled. "Dammit!" he growled in frustration.
Emerin sighed for what seemed to be the millionth time since he had met the others. "You wouldn't be so ceaselessly frustrating if you would just learn when to keep your mouth shut," he said. Ronan looked at him with an offended expression and said "But sir, my voice is my life! It has saved not only myself, but also the lot of you, on many occasions." "Yes, and we are grateful for that," Emerin replied with another sigh. "But it's a double-edged sword, coming from you." "I'll take that as a compliment," Ronan said with a smirk. Miria shook her head in disgust as she turned toward Starlen. "Where are Kaiser and Velani?" she asked, and Starlen's eyes widened in realization. "I...don't know," she answered, concern beginning to form on her face. "They should have been here ahead of us, but they weren't." Her voice grew softer with each word, and she turned away from the others, her mind drifting to thoughts of her brother.
Emerin struggled to think of something to say, but Ronan beat him to it, saying "Your brother wouldn't want to keep you worried, right? He'll be here in no time, I'm sure." Starlen stared at him for a moment, and Emerin thought that she was going to hit him again, but she didn't. Instead, she nodded and said "Yeah, I'm sure he will be." Without a second thought, she smiled at him, and both Emerin and Miria looked on in surprise. Ronan responded with a grin as he said "Ah, could this be? Could the lovely, passionate redhead finally be casting away her hatred and embracing her true feelings for me?" Starlen's smile turned into a scowl, and she slapped him across the face with enough force to send his head into the wall beside him. "OW!" he shouted. "Jackass!" Starlen replied furiously as she spun away and stormed off after Jett, who was so distracted by her own thoughts that she never stopped walking.
Emerin snickered as he passed by Ronan, who said "At least she isn't worrying anymore." "You did all of that for her, didn't you?" Miria asked him. Ronan shrugged and replied "What can I say? I hate seeing her worried like that." He casually walked after the others, and Miria followed him at a distance as she stared at him with curiosity.
The fourth floor was almost entirely made up of a long, circular hallway that wrapped around the walls. The group followed the ring until it opened up into a large central chamber with five doors set into the wall directly in front of them. The pulsing lines of magical energy within the walls wrapped around the arched doorways in serpentine patterns, and the group was dazzled by the light that flooded the chamber as a result. Jett quickly approached the rightmost door as she pulled a small, circular object from within one of the many pockets of her trousers. "Okay," she said with a heavy sigh. She turned around to address her entourage and said "What you see beyond this door, you should never speak of to anyone. I'm serious." She threw a hard glare at Ronan, who gave her his best innocent expression in return. She then turned back to the door and set the object that she was holding into a small, round indentation set within its center and turned it until a soft click sounded from beyond the door. She pushed the door open slightly, then immediately turned her head toward the others and said "Hurry up and get inside before someone else comes along."
Ronan frowned as he glanced at Emerin, who noticed his apparent concern and nodded slightly in respinse. Jett was surely hiding something from someone, he thought as he led the group inside cautiously.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions concerning the story or any changes that they feel needs to be made, then please voice them. I would be more than happy to read such constructive feedback.
Kaiser said nothing as he glared at his father, trying his best to keep his rage from boiling over. Garinbold saw his anger and sighed deeply. "It's good to see that you're making friends," he said calmly as he nodded toward Velani, who froze when she saw him glance at her. Kaiser's good eye narrowed as his anger swelled. He didn't want to risk a fight, not with all of the other men surrounding them, poised to strike. He had to remain calm enough to maintain some presence of mind. Otherwise, he and Velani might not walk away from this encounter alive. "What do you want?" he asked simply. Garinbold dipped his head into a short bow and replied "I wanted to see you again, if only for a short moment. I wished to see for myself the man you've become-" "Don't talk to me as though you and I are still on good terms!" Kaiser interjected with a snarl. Garinbold sighed and said "I know you came here to kill me. You're face alone can tell me that much. However, attacking me now would almost certainly end badly for you." He stretched his left arm outward, gesturing to the men who surrounded them.
Kaiser shook his head slowly and said "This won't be enough to keep me from you." "Perhaps not," Garinbold responded. "But I have never needed their assistance to slay my enemies." He gestured toward the men once more, and they took several steps back. Garinbold looked back at Kaiser and said "Now you have your chance for revenge, boy. Will you take it, or will you opt for a chance to escape?" Kaiser stared at him for a long moment, causing Garinbold to continue, saying "Your sister needs to know that I am here, and that I want to say hello. You will deliver the message to her yourself, or you can get your friend to do it." He shifted his gaze toward Velani once again, and Velani took another step back. He turned back toward Kaiser and added "Naturally, one of you will stay with me as collateral, in case she doesn't respond. I'm not too picky about who stays."
"You won't lay a hand on her!" Kaiser shouted, his anger finally bursting forth. With every ounce of his strength, he swung his halberd toward Garinbold's head. Garinbold leaped backward and leveled his two large spears, then lunged forward and thrust them toward Kaiser's chest. Kaiser brought his halberd up to block, and the two spears collided with its metal shaft...and nearly cleaved straight through it, bending the metal into an unusable shape. The spears continued forward past the misshapen weapon to plant themselves firmly into Kaiser's chest. Kaiser grunted from the force as the pointed tips dug their way through his enchanted coat and skin, stopping just before reaching his heart. Garinbold's face took on an expression of surprise for a brief moment. He hadn't expected the coat to be so sturdy. Still, the damage was done, and Kaiser groaned as he slumped to the ground in a heap.
Velani stared at his body as it fell limply upon the ground. She could barely understand what she had just seen with her own eyes. Kaiser was far stronger than any normal man, but the horned giant simply overpowered him without any effort. Garinbold sighed heavily as he turned his attention toward her. "I'm still in need of a messenger," he said to her calmly, not at all disturbed over what he had done. "Agree to deliver it if you care for his life." He held his right spear downward against Kaiser's chin as the fallen warrior grimaced in pain. "Nothing but her power will save him now," Garinbold added. "You should hurry." Velani still couldn't move for a second or two before finally snapping out of her shock. She nodded nervously, then broke into a full sprint toward the tower in the distance.
Garinbold nodded to one of his underlings, who quickly rushed to his side. "Make certain that they know where to find me," Garinbold ordered him, and the man rushed off after Velani. Garinbold looked back down at his son and shook his head "Was it worth the attempt, boy?" he asked, though Kaiser was in no condition to respond.
"Well," Jet said as she turned to regard them. "What do you think?" "It's kinda..." Starlen started to respond, but she quickly stopped herself, afraid of saying rude. Of course, Ronan had no such fears. "It's a really big mess," he said. "How do you find anything in this dump?" Starlen glared at him, but Jett simply snickered and answered "It takes a while, to be sure. Most of this stuff isn't mine, however." She looked around at the clutter with a frown before suddenly shouting "Scar!"
Just as her guests had started throwing confused looks to each other, they heard a soft moan coming from somewhere beyond the piles of strange oobjects. "Well, look who finally showed up," spoke a woman's voice. From behind the pile directly in front of them stepped out a young woman with short red hair dressed in a wrinkled and stained green mage robe. "Did you build all of these?" Jett asked the strange young woman with a hint of disbelief in her voice. "No!" the woman replied emphatically. "You did! I was just clearing out the closet! We've been attracting rats! Big frikking rats, and it's your fault!" Jett scowled at her for a moment before realization finally hit her. She turned back toward the others and gave them a sheepish grin. "Oops," she said. "Maybe it was my work after all."
Starlen stared at Jett dumbfounded while Emerin shook his head and asked himself "Why do I always end up surrounding myself with such characters as these?" Ronan and Miria both beamed at him, and he sighed. The red-haired woman turned and stared at them curiously, and Jet said "Oh yeah, these are our guests." She pointed toward Starlen and continued "That's Starlen, and these other people are her friends." She finished with a dismissive wave of her hand, and Emerin shook his head again. Starlen hesitantly said "Um, hello. Sorry for barging in like this." The young woman sighed and said "Scar. That's my name, and if you mention how it's short for Scarlet, I'll have you thrown out." "You have no authority here, Scarlet!" Jett snapped at her. "You are my apprentice, remember? This is my home, first and foremost." "As if you even stick around long enough for it to matter!" Scar snapped back at her. "Also, you don't want me giving away YOUR name, do you?"
Jett straightened and immediately closed her mouth, and Scar grinned. "That's better," she said as she turned her attention back toward the adventurers. "Sorry for the mess," she said politely. "I try to make this place look more presentable, but SOMEONE keeps experimenting on new things to animate, and she never cleans up after herself." "I do too!" Jett exclaimed, but Scar shook her head and retorted "Throwing them in the closet is not cleaning, seriously!" "How big is the closet?" Miria asked as she once again examined the piles. "You really have no idea," Scar replied as she let out a deep sigh. "Anyway!" Jet shouted, trying to steer the conversation away from her personal habits. "You wanted to know about Brian, right? Well, it's a long story, so grab a seat and I'll tell you." The group looked around and found no visible chairs. "I suppose we could sit on one of these piles," Starlen muttered. Ronan shook his head and said "Oh no, my dear. Let me find you a seat." "I don't need a-" Starlen started to say, but Ronan had already begun shoving his way through one of the closest piles, effortlessly sweeping aside the numerous gadgets until he finally disappeared from view. When he finally reappeared, he was carrying a short wooden stool.
"Here you are, my lady," he said dramatically as he plopped the stool down next to her with a flourish. Starlen looked at him in surprise for a moment before she said "Um, thank you." She looked over at Emerin, who shrugged. Feeling a little awkward, she turned toward Jett and asked "Do you want this seat?" Jett shook her head, somewhat amused by the scene playing out before her. After a long moment of silence, Miria rolled her eyes and said "I'll take it." She walked over to the stool and tried to sit down, but Ronan quickly hooked his foot around one of its legs and pulled it away just as she was about to sit on it. "AUGH!" Miria screamed as she plummeted to the floor and landed on her rump. She staggered to her feet and sent a harsh scowl toward Ronan, who said "This seat's not for you." After laughing for a short moment, Scar said "I've set aside all of the chairs. We could just sit over there." "Oh, thank the gods," Starlen breathed, desperate to end the awkward moment as swiftly as possible. The group followed Scar through the room, weaving around the piles of discarded parts.
He leaped from the greenhouse and broke into a sprint upon landing on the ground, determined to reach them both before they entered the tower. He needed to kill them both in order to disrupt Garinbold's plan. He had to stop suddenly, however, as he was intercepted by a familiar face. "You again," he said to the stranger, who smiled calmly at him but remained silent. Jemeniah shook his head and continued, saying "You do understand that you are forbidden from interfering with our battle, correct?" "What's wrong with me getting involved?" the stranger asked in response. "After all, you have targeted someone very dear to me." Jemeniah stared at him for a moment before conceding the point. "So, are you here to stop us both?" he asked with a hint of incredulity. The stranger laughed and replied "That will not be necessary." "Why not?" Jemeniah asked, somewhat intrigued by his answer. The stranger's smile widened as he said "They will deal with Garinbold on their own."
Jemeniah immediately burst into laughter. "By they, I assume you mean those humans and half-breeds?" He snorted derisively. "He will slaughter them, one by one, even your precious daughter. Truly, a death at my hands would have almost been merciful." He grinned wickedly at the stranger, then added "Almost." The stranger simply sighed in response. "Such bravado coming from one so easily distracted from his goal," he said with his usual smile. Jemeniah's grin quickly turned sour, but before he could respond, he heard a loud voice behind him. "Well, if it isn't Chimichanga the Goateed Seagull!" called Brian as he ran toward them. "You have a lot to answer for!" He charged at Jemeniah ferociously, lifting his hammer high over his head. Jemeniah sighed and said "I suppose I could settle for you." He drew his swords and met Brian's charge with a quick flurry of thrusts and short cuts, seeking to test the warrior's defenses. Brian's guard proved to be surprisingly sound, and he deflected all of Jemeniah's strikes with a series of quick and subtle defensive maneuvers. He was no stranger to fighting a faster opponent, and Jemeniah was quickly forced to heighten the speed of his attacks just to keep the blond man on the defensive. Brian growled as his rage slowly began to build, but Jemeniah sensed the change in his demeanor, and he disengaged and retreated several steps out of the reach of Brian's hammer.
Brian let out a short laugh as his rage started to boil over. The skin of his face and neck was already turning red, and several veins had begun to show beneath the surface. "Oh no," he snarled, his voice sounding like a monster's growl. "You don't get to run. Not this time." He threw himself forward, crashing into Jemeniah's waiting swords and swatting them aside with an animalistic roar. Jemeniah could not retreat, but he could still fight, and his swords flashed ahead of him with unbelievable speed, cutting into Brian's armor at the joints with such precision that any man foolish enough to cross him would be dismembered in less than a second. Brian merely laughed in his face as he slammed into the harbinger, who staggered from the force. His hammer followed his quarry, but Jemeniah ducked instantly, and the heavy metal head soared over him completely. He jumped back into the fray, unleashing several horizontal slashes upon Brian, who growled as his left hand let go of his hammer to slam into Jemeniah's chest. The harbinger fell backward, but recovered an instant before Brian's hammer could swing again. He took advantage of his time by thrusting his swords toward Brian's face.
The swords flew like lightning, but Brian was already moving as he ducked to his left and swung his hammer back to the left as well, spinning in a circle with the momentum. Jemeniah immediately found himself lying on his back, with the wind knocked out him. Brian roared triumphantly as her rushed forward to finish him off, but Jemeniah had other ideas. With a deep sigh, he pulled himself up, and his eyes took on a yellow glow. Watching the fight, the stranger tensed up, reaching instinctively for the silver hilt on his belt.
I will TRY to remain focused on my story, but I can offer no guarantees at this point. Also, I have noticed something peculiar: it seems that I have lost my descriptive ability.
If anyone is still invested in this story, I applaud you.
Across the city's surface, there were a number of such declining paths, all of them well-guarded. As Kain passed by the two men guarding the entrance, he frowned slightly, a different expression from his usual scowl. It was filled not with anger, but with sadness and disappointment. "When you can't even trust your own people..." he murmured to himself.
Almost like a father who couldn't love his son. The thought came to him without warning, causing his scowl to return. It was a pathetic and childish thing to think about, and he hated it. He had already proven to himself that he didn't need anyone else to survive in this world. He forced the thought out of his mind with a snarl, reminding himself that he had a job to do. He wasn't there for business, but rather, for a more personal reason, and he wasn't about to let the past ruin his opportunity. He knew that his father was here, somewhere, and he was determined to kill him. That is what he had trained for, after all. Nothing else mattered to him but the thought of revenge.
He passed between the second pair of guards at the path's exit to find himself in a large cavern filled with towers that reached from the ground to the high ceiling above. The towers were made up of four small, round houses sitting atop one another, with balconies stretched outward from where the floor of one home connected to the ceiling of another. Each of the pillars was wrapped in a long, spiraling staircase wound tightly against the edges of the balconies. The sight had made Kain's head spin when he had first entered Ryllas in his childhood, and the feeling continued this time as well. He shook his head with an accompanying sigh. "Humans make some of the strangest architecture," he murmured to himself.
As he was pondering the curious sight, Kain suddenly heard a familiar deep voice, and he remembered why he was here. Doing his best to remain hidden, he quickly scuttled over to the nearest pillar and positioned himself on the opposite side from the source of the voice. "Have a little faith,boy!" the booming voice echoed through the cavern. "Your sister will come for you in short order, and when she does, you will no longer concern me. You should be grateful that I am allowing you to live."
"And what of her?" asked a second voice that was softer, weaker than the first. "Will you let her go as well?" The response to that question was laughter, loud and boisterous. Kain could tell the situation from what he had heard, and he swore under his breath. The only 'sister' who could interest the source of that loud voice was clear enough. If that was the case...
Kain let out a deep breath and stepped out from behind the pillar, ascertaining the situation with his own eyes. There was his father, Garinbold, conversing with his captive, an injured Kaiser. They were surrounded by a group of black leather-clad men who spotted him immediately, even in the darkness of the cavern. "Sir!" one of them spoke to alert Garinbold, who turned to face Kain. His laughing quickly subsided when he saw his other son standing before him with murder in his eyes.
"You're here, too?" Garinbold asked with a disinterested tone, though Kain knew from the focused look in his eyes that he was fully attentive. Kain took a step forward, and a knife suddenly flew out from the crowd in front of him, sailing through the air toward his heart. To any human, the knife would have been too fast to see and react to, but Kain drew his left sword with equal speed, slashing it across just as the knife came into range and sending it flying off into the darkness. He smirked when he heard a satisfying clang as the small blade impacted with the wall of the cavern and asked smugly "You need these wimps to fight your battles for you, monster? If so, then all that training I went through was for nothing."
Emerin considered her last sentence for a short moment. It seemed to him that she was hesitant to mention it, since she had lowered her voice to nearly a whisper as she spoke. "You mean to say that he was changed by one of your experiments?" he asked her tentatively, hesitant to interrupt her. She didn't seem to mind, however, as she nodded in affirmation. "It was my fault, for certain. I should have listened to my instincts and stopped when I noticed something was wrong, but I didn't, and that young man was severely damaged because of it."
Starlen spoke up then, saying "Forgive me for asking, but what were you trying to do? You work with animation, don't you?" Jett sighed and turned to look at her, revealing a sorrowful expression. "My partner and I were involved in much more than just animating constructs. We were tasked with finding different methods for applying animate cores in order to augment human lives. It required some...questionable experiments and tests. I hated it. It was my invention, and yet the college demanded that I twist its intended purpose for the sake of their own greed. I suppose it isn't really as simple as that, though." She looked over at Scar, who sighed profoundly, drawing everyone's attention toward her. She met their gazes and shrugged, saying "The college is close to becoming bankrupt. My father, the chairman, has assigned me to personally see to it that Jett keeps working on her experiment. I have replaced her old partner as a result, and he was kicked from the project. When he found out, he was furious, and he left the tower. Nobody knows where he went, but..." She threw a short glance at Jett before continuing. "Jett is still in contact with him. They've been discussing the project regularly behind my father's back." Ronan raised an eyebrow and asked "And you're okay with that?" Scar shrugged and replied "I suppose, but only because I never liked my father much. I almost didn't come to this college to study because he's the chairman."
She sighed again as Jett spoke next, finishing the explanation. "I've been leaving the tower more and more often, and for longer periods in these past few months. The last thing my partner told me was that he was working on a new method to create a stronger animate core, one that could possibly restore the dead to life."
Starlen gasped. She could not believe what she had just heard. Throughout recent history, healers all over the world were constantly seeking a way to resurrect the dead, but none have managed it, as far as she knew. That power was supposedly beyond mortal means, and yet, if what Jett said was true, then it could be achieved through an entirely different field of study altogether. "That can't be..." she muttered under her breath. Jett noted her skepticism and nodded, saying "I honestly can't say that I believe it either, but I trust my partner enough to at least give him the benefit of doubt. If he says that he can, then I will support his decision, regardless of whether or not I believe in it. Still, it sounds exciting, doesn't it? The idea that we could bring back those who had been killed unjustly?"
"I hate to interrupt this fascinating story," said Ronan, his lack of interest obvious. "But what does this have to do with Brian? Em is just dying to know." He looked over at Emerin, who frowned. "Isn't that right, buddy?" For his part, Emerin couldn't deny it, although he didn't like that Ronan spoke for him. Without a word, he shrugged, and Jett took that motion as confirmation. "I suppose I did go off on a tangent," she admitted. "Well, Brian was the first and last human subject for our experiment. In order to augment his natural abilities, we implanted him with an animate core. It was smaller than the other cores; small enough to fit inside of a person's body without causing too many problems. For a while, it seemed to work. His test results were amazing. His physical strength and endurance were over ten times stronger than before the experiment, far beyond the capacity for normal humans."
She looked at Emerin sadly as she continued "However, after running a few more tests, we made another, unfortunate discovery. Every time he utilized the core's power, Brian became less capable of controlling his own emotions. Without any prior warning, he ultimately destroyed the lab, as well as anything or anyone that got in his way, and fled the tower. We never saw him again after that."
Emerin sighed as he took in the information. Brian certainly came across as a bit of a loon, but it seemed to him that the blond warrior's shifting personality was a result of the experiment. He couldn't help but wonder if the Brian he saw in the cultists' hideout, the Brian who lashed out at everything within reach with reckless abandon, screaming at the top of his lungs, was his true self.
"Would you be able to restore him to the way he was if he was here?" Emerin asked Jett. She shook her head and lowered it, saying "Not without his consent, no. If we tried to force him into it, he would just go on another rampage. I COULD do it, in theory, but I'm sure he doesn't even want to see me again, let alone allow me anywhere near his head so that I could remove the core." "Would that be enough?" Miria asked her. Starlen answered the question instead, saying "With his brain so addled already, I don't think so. Maybe healing magic could cure it after the core was removed, but that isn't guaranteed. He seems to have a strong will that prevents most magic from affecting his mind. I felt it before when I was treating him in the pavilion."
Emerin remembered Azzar's spell, then, and how Brian had resisted it while both he and Miria could not. That had also seemed to trigger his rage. "He becomes enraged whenever someone casts a spell on him," he told everyone. "I assume that's also because of you?" "Perhaps," answered Jett as she brought her hand to her chin. She seemed lost in thought for a few moments. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when a loud knock at the door resonated through the room. Scar immediately stood up and ran to the door. The group heard it open, and a familiar, yet frantic voice harassed their ears. "Where is Starlen?! I must speak to her?!" "Velani?" Starlen asked aloud as she rushed for the door. There, she saw Velani standing in the doorway without her brother. "Where is Kaiser?" she asked, growing worried. Velani soon confirmed her fears. "He's been kidnapped. Some huge man with horns appeared and took him down!"
Starlen stood there in utter silence, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull. Her jaw hung open and trembled as she tried to process what she had just heard. Her brother, her protector, the strongest man she had ever known was beaten. And the one responsible...she knew who he was before Velani even told her. "He claimed to be your father," Velani muttered as the rest of the group surrounded them.
Starlen's entire body shook where she stood. Emerin swore user his breath. Ronan sighed deeply and placed his hand on Starlen's shoulder, saying "We're going to save him, right? Well, I've been working on a plan for dealing with the bad guy already. I'm going to call in a favor from a friend, and we'll see if we can turn this around." Starlen could barely hear what he was saying, her own thoughts turned inward. Doubt and regret threatened to creep into her mind, keeping her focused upon the thought of her brother left helpless in the hands of their father.
"You have friends?" Miria asked Ronan incredulously. "Who in their right mind would take on a demon, anyway?" Ronan looked at her and smirked. "I never said he was in his right mind," he said. "But you met him before. Ragged clothes, oversized hat, glowing blue eyes. Any of that ring a bell?" Emerin definitely remember the stranger. His appearance was distinct enough to remember quite clearly. "You think he will agree to help us?" he asked doubtfully. Ronan shrugged and said "He should, since he has a personal stake in the outcome of this fight." He looked back at Starlen, and Emerin tilted his head curiously.
As they considered the situation, a loud boom interrupted their thoughts. "That sounded like it came from downstairs," said Jett as she immediately dashed from the room. "Wait!" Emerin called out to her, but she was already gone. A second, louder boom followed by a savage roar filled the air, and Emerin, Miria, and Ronan looked at each other in recognition. "Let's go!" Emerin shouted, and the group followed him out of the room and down to the tower's base, where a fierce battle was raging.
1. My data usage is being severely limited, so I can't spend nearly as much time on these forums as I need to write up a new segment.
2. I'm currently working on a new story that has some potential to be something great.
3. The noticeable lack of interest in this has caused me to stop caring about it.
As much as I would love to finish this, it will likely remain unfinished for the foreseeable future. To anyone who might wish to see it done, I apologize, but I have moved on.