Chapter 1:

Not-So Smooth Criminal

Ethereal: the Thief and the Knight in the Shadow of Tyranny


The stone-cold floor of the bell almost felt comfortable by now- Ethrial had slept on it so many times he had gotten used to it and grown attached to it. The morning sun peeked through the barred window of the room as Eth heard the usual noises of the jail begin to swell. This was what he didn’t like so much about prison- everyone was always in too much of a rush to wake up. We’re in prison, for the meteor’s sake! It’s not like we have anywhere to go. Just let me sleep in peace.

A loud bang on his cell door aroused Eth from his mental whining. His eyes trailed up the iron frame of the door to make contact with his favorite 2-meter tall warden.

“Hey, how’s it going, Nik? Get a good sleep?”

“Quite contrary, actually. Inmates in the east wing were rowdy all of the night. Big brawl that I broke up. Not fun.” The warden’s strong Raiid accent afflicted his speech like a disease, but Eth didn’t mind. Nikola Krutsky was like a big brother to him, always caring for him and making sure he was alright while he was in prison. He was always very happy that Eth was so nice to him, but he constantly acknowledged that their friendship, in and of itself, was a problem, because that meant Eth was in prison way too much.

To be fair, he was.

Eth was a thief. That was his entire line of work, and all that he really knew how to do. He had never been to school, learned a single spell, or even learned to write. But he did know how to swipe a purse- and that’s what kept him alive. That, Nik said, and being in prison so often that he gets most of his meals from there.

For the past four days Eth had lounged around lazily in his cell, doing everything from making up battles between two different colors of pebble on the floor and doing push-ups until he could barely breathe. There wasn’t much else to do, so why not? It’s not like it was a long stay- he would get out today if Nik had ruled in favor of his good behavior, which he had. Eth was only in here (this time) in the first place because some other thief had thrown a satchel of money into his arms and ran off. (Which, in all fairness, he had started to run away with, too.)

“Eth, your stay is up. Come with me.” Nik opened the cell door, and Eth stood up, making his way out of the room. He began to follow Nik as he took him through the many winding halls of the prison.

“Why is this place so big, anyway? It’s not like you’re ever gonna catch all the criminals in this city.”

“I… do not know. It’s larger than the Krux penitentiary. It should not be. Maybe the King simply did not like Kruost?”

“Likely. Apparently he wants to burn us down, but it’s too cold here to do that. Fire spreads like cold butter.” A home had burned down recently, but that was an attack by the Estarian army on a prostitute’s business. The flame was barely able to consume that house, much less the rest of the city.

“I do not see why he would want to do that. Our city provides the stone that makes up all of Ester.” Being the capital of the entire nation, Ester certainly would not want to lose its main source of building material. Kruost’s incredible marble-filled mountains were too valuable to Ester to be wasted. “Well, enough of that. We’re coming up on the exit.”

“Let’s make a deal, Nik. If I’m not back in here by tomorrow, you owe me twenty bronze coins. And if I’m caught, I owe you twenty.” Nik wore a thoughtful expression, before turning to me with his mammoth grin.

“I will make that deal with you. Remember, I can tell the city guard that you’re around!”

“H-Hold on, can this be a fair bet? I don’t want to be followed around by people seeing my every move.”

“That is a good point. I will play the game fair. See you tomorrow!” Nik laughed heartily at his own taunt, to which Eth could not prevent a smirk from cracking open on his own face. Nik is a good guy. He might be part of the prison system, but he’s a really, really good guy.

Eth walked out of the gates and onto the street, where he nearly slipped on a frozen puddle before regaining his balance with a nearby lantern pole. This was normal for Kruost- it was still in the late summer months and already the city had had its first snowstorm. A finger’s length of snow had piled up everywhere the eye could see two days prior, and people were working to clean it up even though the temperature remained below freezing.

Eth’s clothes weren’t nearly equipped to deal with this weather- a torn beige tunic and white shorts would not prevent any weather-based ailment. He would have to buy some new clothes, if he could steal some money. But for now, more pressing matters were at hand than Eth’s risk for frostbite. His stomach roared with the intensity of a lion, and he swore he saw a few people glance his way. No one held their gaze in Kruost for long, though. It was the Kruic way- “Eye contact, death contract” was a very common phrase in these parts.

He eyed a cart rolling by in the street, full of frozen fruits waiting to be eaten. Unfortunately, as a Kruite without Kruic heritage, he didn’t have access to the ancestral magic many people had in the city, and as such couldn’t easily warm the fruit with electricity as many others often did. He could, however, smash it and eat it like candy, though, a trick he’d gotten used to over his years of nabbing foodstuffs. He glanced around, looking for the city guard before putting his plan into action. There was one guardsman, clad with white and sky-blue armor, but he was preoccupied with relighting a lantern that was a bit too high up for his electric tendrils to reach.

Eth pounced on the opportunity, sprinting across the street and avoiding any patches of ice on the ground. He reached his hand into a wooden box on the cart and pulled out a reddish-orange fruit, laden with frost and a bit of dust. He bolted away from the cart just as quickly and hid behind a wall, hoping no one had seen him.

“Hey! Guard! Thief, thief!”

Well, this prey isn’t going down so easily.

Eth leapt into the shadows of the alley he was nestled inside, running from the glint of white and blue he had seen on his tail.

“You there! Drop the item and I’ll let you go! I’ve not got time for this!”

“And I’ve ‘not got time’ for being damn hungry! Piss off!” Ugh, meteor’s grace, that dude seems like a good guy. A shame I have to escape his clutches, and so rudely at that. Eth ran into a sprawling wide market near the entrance of the city and slid under a passing cart. The ice allowed him to glide like a swan under the spruce chassis of the cart with ease. Something tumbled from the top of the cart as he came out from underneath, falling perfectly into his free hand. Another fruit! When does my luck run out? He pushed himself off the frozen cobble and got back to his main goal- escaping the guardsman.

“Get back here, fiend!” The guardsman let out some sort of guttural growl, and purple tendrils ran out from his fingertips like miniature lightning, making a musical buzzing sound in the process. The ends of the tendrils barely grazed the back of Eth’s knee, temporarily locking his leg and tripping him. Eth rolled out of the way as the man tried to tackle him, still trying to get his leg to move. He hit his kneecap with the frozen solid fruit in his hand and immediately jumped back to his feet, running off into another alley.

“Oh, what a shame! If you hadn’t chased me, maybe I would’ve only taken one!” Eth flashed the second fruit in his hand at the guardsman, who still lay on the ground after attempting to take him out. The armor he was wearing was seemingly too heavy to let him get up. He sneered, and tried to reach Eth with his tendrils, but he couldn’t reach far enough.

“Damn it, you scoundrel! Pray Krus’s mighty meteor smashes your skull in!”

“Nah, I don’t think I will. Thanks!” Eth sunk into the darkness of the passage, looking for a door or window to sneak into. After a little bit of time, he found one- a rusty old iron door, freezing to the touch. He tried the handle, and it surprisingly gave way, allowing Eth access to the room. He swiftly snuck inside and locked the door, giving himself a temporary place of shelter to eat his plunder. Whoever lives here is a dumbass. Not locking your door in the city of thieves? Thanks, though.

Eth threw his first fruit at the old wooden floor, and it exploded, sending tiny crumbs flying everywhere. The meat of the fruit split into five even chunks, cracked as a rock by way of hammer. He picked up a piece and tentatively gnawed at it until the nectar-sweet flavor diffused into his tongue. He could barely resist consuming the rest within three seconds.

“When I get rich, remind me to buy these fruit specifically,” he said to himself aloud. Before cracking open his other fruit, he decided to venture around the room he was in. It seemed to be a cozy old clothing stone, with dim little lanterns still burning off of Reman oil. It perplexed Eth why they didn’t use Reman oil for city street lanterns too- it lasted for months even in small quantities, so it could last the city years if they actually invested in it. Maybe it didn’t burn as bright as the magic the guardsmen used to light them? Eth couldn’t say.

He found himself staring at a small circular clothing hanger. He couldn’t resist the urge to step inside and hide in the tent of clothing- he, despite being a thief, was still a teen, and it wasn’t like anyone was around to see him. He pushed the clothes aside and jumped back in terror- a skeleton was nestled where he intended to sit.

After a few seconds of deep breathing, Eth checked the clothes that the skeleton wore- apparently it was the shop’s owner- the badge on its vest said as much. Oddly, the badge also had a name on it- “Eth”, just like his own name. There was, creepily enough, no last name, either. Eth (the living one) also had no surname.

Eth, which was a nickname for Ethrial, was not a common name by any means- in fact, Eth had made it up for himself when he was nine. He had no surname because he had no parents, though he sometimes liked to imagine he would marry someone and invent a surname to give to his children, starting a bloodline of his own. He didn’t want this theoretical bloodline to be ended by this skeleton, though, so he slid the clothes back into place and tried to not think about the eerie corpse.

Though it was a small shop, it had all sorts of different styles and types of clothing available. Eth was tempted to grab some lingerie as a joke, but his moral code won the battle and he decided against it. What he did grab was a puffy parka with a grey leather surface and an alpaca-fur lining. It was worth 400 bronze coins, which thankfully he didn’t have to pay, since the owner was dead. He slipped it on over his dingy tunic and felt sweaty, due to being inside the warm building, but knew that to be a sign of protection against the subzero gales of Kruost.

He tied the sleeves around his waist and instinctively went to the main counter of the store, searching for where the profits were held. After all, it wasn’t like the owner was going to use them. He found a basket full of bronze, silver and even gold coins, but felt a shiver down his spine as he reached for them. Sufficiently paranoid, Eth went to check on the owner’s body again. To his relief, it was still very much dead, and to a degree he didn’t even notice last time- in its skull was a huge indent, placed as if the man’s head had been crushed by a falling steel beam. He wondered if someone had killed this man and hidden his body in the clothing rack. If so, he applauded the move.

Back to the counter he went, putting coin after precious coin into his parka’s luscious pockets. After the basket was empty he decided to try on a few pairs of pants, as all he wore at the moment were a pair of ripped greaves. A dark green pair of snowpants fit him perfectly, and he stuck with them. Content with his findings, Eth began to walk out of the building. Before he made it to the exit, though, something grabbed his boot.

He screeched like a maiden and leapt in fear, only to discover he hadn’t been grabbed- he had simply tripped on a board on the floor. He bent over at the waist and held his right hand over his chest, panting from the amount of adrenaline in his blood. In his stooped position he noticed something peculiar about the board- from underneath it came a faint, warm glow. With hesitation he gripped the board and ripped it off of the floor, revealing a dimly lit stone tunnel lurking below. Curious, he tore more and more boards up until a stairway down came into vision.

Not wanting to go down into something potentially dangerous with any regrets, Eth popped the now-thawed second fruit into his mouth- it wasn’t quite as sweet as the first, but the bitterness mixed with a strong tart scent was enticing. Ready to embark on what was probably just a journey into an old cellar, Eth stepped down the staircase and squinted as he descended, his eyes searching for light.