Chapter 12: The Steel Suns

-10 MONTHS REMAIN-

The next stop on the party’s journey was Elysios, the second capital. If they were to gather any sort of valuable information for their quest, it would be there. While Solstya, the capital city, was the economic center for the country, Elysios was the cultural. It was on the complete opposite side of Solstya, situated closer to the eastern border. Even though they had been walking for weeks since their encounter at Aetherwind, it would still take a few months to reach the city. The thought of that made Aurora and Miryam frown. It was clear they weren’t used to this sort of thing. Ulric, as a soldier, was fairly comfortable with walking for long stretches of time. It almost came as easy to him as breathing. Aurora the apothecary and Miryam the cleric could barely get up in the morning to endure another full day of walking. Though their previous lives were not ideal, they started to miss their more sedentary lifestyles. The morning heat didn’t make things better. Their bodies were achey and sweaty and the occasional cool breeze was not enough to ease their suffering.

Their efforts would soon be rewarded as the Astral Verdant was in sight. It was the main forest inside of Solstya. Cutting through it and its respective towns would be the quickest way to Elysios. The quicker route, however, wasn’t the thing Aurora and Miryam looked forward too. No they looked forward to the dense forest’s ample shade. Their pace quickened and they managed to catch up and keep up with Ulric. Trees slowly became more common around the path and soon the three of them stood at the forest’s edge. But before they could officially step foot inside the Astral Verdant, a voice called out to them.

“Identify yourselves!” It commanded. Aurora, Ulric, and Miryam all stopped in their tracks and turned to meet the voice’s source. It came from a tall, built man. He was covered head to toe in pristine white armor that looked to be more for intimidation than function, with its large spikes and horns. The man used an absurdly large greatsword as a walking stick. Despite it clearly being a two-handed weapon, the man only ever used one hand to control it.

“A steel sun…” Aurora whispered, both in awe and disappointment.

“Identify yourselves!” He repeated.

“Ulric Ursine.” Ulric answered. The soldier knew better than to keep a steel sun waiting. Whatever business he had with them couldn’t be good, and it was best not to make him made early on in their interaction.

“Aurora Vale.” Aurora followed suit. She too grasped the severity of their situation. The steel suns were the top brass of the Solstyan military. On top of being incredible warriors with awesome powers, they were also arrogant and quick to anger. “And this is Miryam Rosa.” Aurora answered for the frightened girl. She correctly assumed that Miryam would’ve been too nervous to answer herself.

“State your business!” The man barked again.

“We’re just passing through to Elysios.” Ulric said. His words were nothing but the truth, and yet they still sounded suspicious. Such a simple excuse would never get by a member of the steel suns. The man grumbled. Their supposed business wasn’t technically a crime, and he didn’t have anything he could pin on them. Nothing yet.

“Due to recent events, the Steel Suns are exercising our authority to keep the peace in Solstya. There have been rumors of a nocturnal parasite lurking in the Great Astral Verdant. We are stationed here to deal with this creature, and anything else that may aid it.” Aurora was stunned. The Lamia Lullaby? They’re chasing after a myth? Aurora was so taken aback by the apparent insanity of their mission that she didn’t register the man’s casual use of a vampiric slur. “I’m going to need to see some identification.” The man demanded. He then took out a small mirror from a satchel. It was a scrying mirror, adorned with a small crystal orb on its crest. He held it in the palm of his hand and brought it up close to his mouth. “I’ve got three suspicious individuals. One male, two female. The male has dark enough skin to pass but I’ll need to check both females.” He spoke into the mirror’s orb.

“Listen, I can assure you that my companions and I are neither vampires nor undead nor any other nocturnal person.” Ulric began to explain. But his words fell on deaf and uncaring ears. The man swiftly approached Aurora and grabbed her by the face.

“H-Hey!” She shouted, her words muffled slightly as the man squeezed her cheeks.

“Teeth! Now!” He demanded. Aurora opened her mouth, the simple task made difficult by the man’s aggressive hand. He inspected her before shoving her back slightly. “You’re clean.” He said, seemingly disappointed. The man then moved towards Miryam.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on her!” Ulric shouted.

“Or what, cyclops? You’re gonna attack a member of the Steel Suns?”

“Ulric, it’s ok.” Aurora placed her hands on Miryam’s shoulders. Partly to calm her, but partly also to pull her away if things got out of hand. “Go ahead Miryam, honey. Open your mouth.” She did exactly as she was told. The man crouched down and looked at Miryam’s teeth. He sighed.

“I still want some identification from you two.” He grumbled. Thankfully with Miryam being a child, she didn’t have a proper identification card, that meant less paperwork to deal with. Aurora and Ulric fished around for their cards. Ulric begrudgingly handed his over to the Steel Sun while Aurora still searched. “You know, you three look familiar.” He said analyzing the card.

“What do you mean?” Ulric said slowly.

“We got a tip that two individuals brutalized the entire town of Aetherwind. Left no one alive except for a small girl they took with them.” The three of them froze.

“Who gave you that tip?” Ulric said cautiously.

“Some guy in a jester’s outfit. We obviously didn’t take him seriously at first. But when some of our members stopped by the little town and witnessed the scene for themselves, well we started to look into it some more.”

“Oh whoops!” Aurora loudly exclaimed, dropping to the ground. “I seemed to have dropped my identification card! I will now be looking for it, down here, where I dropped it.” Her acting was terrible, but the man didn’t seemed to care.

“Miss Vale.” Miryam whispered while the man continued to talk. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t react. Don’t respond. Be ready to run.” She whispered back. Miryam, again, did as she was told and looked back straight ahead. Aurora took out some pebbles from her pocket, slipped them into an already made potion, and began to shake as discreetly as she could. “Ah! Found it! Here you go, sir!” She popped back up and handed the man her card, being careful to hide the potion behind her back.

“That man gave us descriptions of the three individuals of interest. An older, one eyed gentleman in green armor. A short and stout woman wearing a chemical stained apron. And a young woman with long blonde hair, a flowy golden dress, and prismatic jewelry.” The man glared at the group. Even though they couldn’t see his eyes, they could still feel his fiery gaze. He tightened his grip on his greatsword and stood a little straighter. “You may not be parasites, but you are still a scourge on our country.”

“Don’t let go of me!” Aurora shouted. She quickly threw the potion on the ground and grabbed Ulric and Miryam. A lilac haze erupted from the shattered bottle. Aurora pulled the others down into the cloud, nearly avoiding the massive swing of the greatsword. Just as before, the man opted to attack with the weapon only using one hand. The blade shrieked as it soared over their heads and for a brief moment the clear blue sky flashed a crimson red. Aurora kicked off the ground, pulling what looked like air back and avoiding another slash that pierced the ground right where they sat. Still in an adrenaline fueled panic, Aurora picked herself up and hopefully ran around the Steel Sun member into the forest. She still held nothing at her sides. Once she felt that she was sufficiently far enough into the forest, she stopped running and let go of the air. “Don’t wander off. Just stay put.” She patted down her pockets until she located a small glass vial. “Oh and cover yourself, just in case the effect doesn’t wear off your clothes.” She cracked the vial in her hand and swirled around the area. She blinked rapidly, her vision restored, Ulric and Miryam standing close by.

“What was that?” Miryam asked.

“Invisibility potion. Though I had to quickly aerate it and make it gaseous. If we just drank it our clothes would still be visible and he would track us down.”

“I thought I went blind! Or died!” Ulric gasped.

“One of the biggest downsides to invisibility is that you can’t see. Honestly we got pretty lucky. I guessed throughout most of that escape. I’m surprised we didn’t run into a tree or something.”

“A warning would be nice next time.”

“Sorry. I tried to act quickly.” Everyone took a moment to catch their breath. They had managed to complete their goal of getting into the Astral Verdant. But unfortunately it was at the cost of becoming wanted criminals.