Life in the Shadows

The Black Aviary, Arial City, Dutchy of Arial , Kingdom of Tier:

Arial City is a city that is unique among the cities on Twalling Cade. The avian races of Beastkin were of the most Geno-centric of the Beastkin. They only interacted with other races when they had to.

From the outside, Arial City look clean, colorful, and welcoming. But as one got closer to the outskirts of the city one would see that there are very few walkways. Plenty of places for a flyer to land. Each building appears to be blocks stacked upon block. No stairs to be seen. The architecture seemed a little random at first glance but there appeared to be a flow to the colors and building design that would only make sense to the avian races.

On the very top of one of these stacks of buildings was one of said blocks that appeared black as midnight. This is where the black crow harpies made their home.

A flyer streaked across the sky towards this black and unwelcoming looking structure. She was flying with a purpose as her black wings stroked her way across the sky.

She landed on the main perch way that sat out in front of the black edifice. She was met by six guards wearing black helmets and bearing black sky lances.

One of the six guards said, “Sister, what brings you here?!”

“I must see the Dalia!”

The Black Crow Harpy that greeted the flyer nodded then turned and nodded to two of the other guards.

She turned back to the newcomer and said, “Very well, these two sisters will conduct you.”

The two guards, grim faced, conducted the newcomer down a long corridor to a black door. Standing on either side of this black door were two more black crow harpies. They recognized the newcomer and bowed to her as they let her pass.

Instead of a throne room she entered a large amphitheater like room with several perches arrayed in a semicircle around a large perch.

Perched on the large perch, with her back to the door was an old looking harpy that appeared to be examining a black crystal orb of some kind.

The newcomer flew from the door towards the perch sitting in front of the large perch. She landed bowed her head and swept her wings back saying, “Mother, I checked, and your fears are confirmed. I found five of our sisters laying out dead near Dragon’s Jaw Ridge. I found a grave some five miles from the others where I dug and found Diedre’s remains.”

The Dalia turned her head at the last and sadly shook her head then asked, “Any sign of the quarry?”

“No Mother! I examined the surroundings and saw remnants of many tracks but the life residue showed that only a few had passed that way. One of which residue was draconic, Mother.”

The Dalia shook her head again and said, “I am right, I should never have taken the contract. Dedra was our best. How was she killed?”

“That is the strange part. She was bound and decapitated.”

“She was then executed after being captured?!”

“Apparently, Mother.”

The Dalia turned her had a full 180 degrees to face the newcomer directly and said, “Thank you, daughter. I’ll see to it that you get to spend some time with one of our males tonight.”

The newcomer bowed a little deeper then, understanding the dismissal, turned and flew to the door.

The Dalia turned her head to look back into the black orb. She then in a fit of anger smashed the orb on the ground and yelled, “Dalilah!!!”

A dark shape just seemed to ooze out of the shadows and the shape bowed saying, “Yes Mother, I heard. What do you wish of me?”

“Find out who ended my daughter’s life and end them.”

“Yes, mother. And the original quarry?”

“Duchess Kitarra and Princess Danara are to be left alone for now. They are protected by something that I haven’t quite yet fathomed. But once I have divined what it is, I’ll send you to end them.”

“Yes Mother!”

Stiarra Nor:

Rowen sat on Baldy about a mile away from the front gates of the city. He looked to his watch and saw that it was three am.

After hearing that there was treachery that led to the fall of Stiarra Nor, Kit was beside herself. She had turned to Rowen and asked that he press their advantage to free the city.

He had decided to acquiesce to his wife’s request. Jade had signaled that she was in place for Phase Two of her mission, so Rowen didn’t think that it would be a problem.

So, Rowen sat on Baldy, his entire battle force, minus the Freedom Volunteers and his First Infantry Company, which remained on Griever’s Down, guarding his protectorate.

Every fifth golem held up a burning highway flare that lent an eerie orange light to the planes.

Rowen knew that the people on the walls of the city could see him and is forces clearly and he had paused his actions purposefully in order to allow them to draw their own conclusions.

He looked to his left and right and said to himself, “You can’t get any more other worldly than this.”

The cannon and Gatling Guns were still hitched to their caissons, ready to be moved into range of the city if needed. But Rowen thought, “If my plan works, they won’t be needed.”

He looked at his watch again and saw that it was now three oh three and he held up his right hand and a green ball began to form. This ball grew to be the size of a softball. Once it was at the size he wanted, he launched it towards the city, having it explode in the air about five hundred yards in front of the main gate.

The front gate buckled inward towards the city to fall in pieces on the ground, and every legionnaire standing on the walls looking out for about two hundred yards on either side of the gate were swept from the wall to land on the ground or nearby building stunned or killed by the explosive burst.

Further into the city, were a line of legionnaires waiting in formation for the possibility of the gate being breached.

The Centurion in command blinked as he saw the gates and wall guard be swept away by the mighty explosion.

He thought to himself, “How can we stand against such as this.”

He said out loud to his adjutant, “Go, report to the Lieutenant General that the wall has been breached!”

The Subaltern shook his head, his ears ringing and asked, “Sir?!”

The Centurion shook his head, his ears were ringing as well so he reached into his satchel and took out a pencil and paper and jotted down a message, handed it to the subaltern and motioned towards the palace.

The subaltern nodded and ran towards the palace.

In the Palace

Jade was startled. She realized an unknown amount of time had passed. When she searched her memory of that timeframe, she came up blank. She felt an unusual fog of mana in the room as well. The room didn’t match her previous mental memory of it when she hid. Now it was in serious disarray; furniture destroyed, windows smashed, and in general seemed to be thoroughly ransacked.

One of the more disturbing sights she found was on herself. She looked at her own hands. On the back of her left hand, in the meat between the thumb and forefinger was what looked like an inked rune or symbol? Looking closer, it was an ancient combination rune, combining two emblems: the wing and the sword.

This worried her. Someone or something was close enough to touch her, place a rune on her person, and she didn’t even remember any of it happening. What was going on?!

With all of this happening, why didn’t she have any memory of it? She had to speak to Xyarra about this! Before she could leave her hiding place, voices in the hall revealed more calamity.

Soon, the doors burst open. The first one into the room was Lady Rissa.

“They are inside the city, brother. You MUST do something!” She looked at the chaos, the mess, the circle of Red Guards heads in their helms surrounding a strange emblem drawn in blood on the floor.

In that moment, Lady Rissa knew she had to take over. Her brother was gone.

She ordered the Subaltern to her right, “You! Come with me!”

“Yes, Lady Rissa!”

She then made her way to the front doors of the palace. She saw that there were horses waiting for messengers to go out and she selected one and grabbed its main and swung herself up onto the saddle.

She then handed the reigns to the subaltern and said, “Conduct me to the north gate!”

“Yes, Lady Rissa!” he had a puzzled look in his eyes, but he looked to obey without questions.

Lady Rissa steeled herself for what she must do. She only hoped that she could convince whoever was invading to have a gentle hand to her and what was left of the legion.

They made their way down the north concourse towards the Century of legionnaires waiting. She was surprised to see that, even though breached, no enemy were storming the northern gates.

Just three riders rode in through the gates. One man and one woman dressed in black and one obvious looking soldier wearing a dark color, could be black, holding an orange torch of some kind in one hand and a staff of some kind in his other.

She, being the only other second tier magic user in the city could tell that the woman had an aura of mana far greater than any she saw before.

The men both seemed devoid of mana.

She instructed the subaltern to hand her a white piece of cloth. He reached into his satchel and pulled out some white bandaging material but in the orange light from the torch nearby was just as orange.

She shrugged and held the flag aloft, hoping that the meaning will be understood.

She instructed the subaltern to conduct her to the trio of riders.

She was puzzled, the woman rode to the left of the men, this meant that the place of honor was the one man in black leather clothes. But he had no apparent power.

How can a mage of such high power, possibly draconic, serve someone without any mana aura whatsoever?

She then thought about it and went on the assumption that they didn’t know the proper placement of honor so when she was within ten feet of the trio of riders, she turned her head to the woman and said, “My name is Lady Rissa Tallough III…” she paused when she saw the draconic golden eyes flash back at her. Confirming reports that a dragon had indeed played a part in decimating the legion, but she shook herself and continued, “My lady I submit myself to you for terms.”

The woman answered, “My name is Duchess Xyarra Swarden. I’m not the one to whom you should be discussing terms.” She motioned to the man next to her and said, “This is my lord and husband, Lord Rowen. He is the one to whom you are to speak about terms. I am shocked that you are not aware of the proper place of honor, Lady Rissa.”

“Pardon me…” she took a moment to curb her irritation. She sensed more than knew that the last was a deliberate barb towards her. She refused to let it get her off kilter. She needed to negotiate the best possible outcome here. In order to do that she had to keep her wits about her.

She continued, “I wasn’t sure. I only assumed that a grand dragoness such as yourself would be the one in charge here.”

The Duchess waved her hand dismissively and said, “I can’t fault you for your ignorance. The assumption that I would be in charge here is a normal one. However, I have chosen to follow this man and make him my husband. So, please direct your future discussion to my lord and husband.”

Rowen watched the exchange with amusement. He then said, “Lady Rissa, I am aware of who you are and I know that you are now in charge of what’s left of the legion.”

“My brother is still commander here. I am speaking on his beh…”

“Bullshit! You and I both know that your brother is no longer in the picture.”

She glared at him for a moment and then looked down to the subaltern and said, “Leave us now.”

The subaltern saluted and handed the reigns back to her and marched smartly back to his century.

She then looked back at Rowen and said, “So, those were your creatures that were killing my men?”

Rowen was puzzled. He then said, “No, only your brother was to be taken out of the picture by my…creature. She was instructed to be as concise about it as possible. So, if any other men were killed, it was not on my behalf. In truth, any reprisals against your men are due to your fault because of the heavy-handed way you handled yourselves after taking the city.” His irritation grew as he talked.

Lady Rissa thought to herself, “Yes, so I told my brother.”

She said out loud, “So, Lord Rowen, what are your terms?”

“Unconditional surrender of your remaining troops.”

“Can I expect then that you will be taking reprisals against me and my men?”

“Reprisals? No, there will be trials for war crimes and only the guilty will be convicted and punished accordingly. But I have it under good authority that you yourself are not guilty of any such war crimes.”

“War crimes? What the hell are those?!”

“A soldier’s duty is to fight for their nation. They are to conduct themselves with human decency while doing so. Those that do not, will be punished.”

“That is a strange concept you have there, my Lord. If you look at it that way, war is a crime in itself. Justice should be in the hands of the Guardians themselves. Not to be presumed by us mere mortals.”

“You madam are in no position to dicker or debate the issue. You either surrender now or you will force me to enter the city in force and take it. Then, any mercies will be up to the Fates.”

She turned her head and asked one more question. Only she tried to be as meek as possible, knowing that she truly didn’t have any standing to do otherwise., “ My lord, what is to become of me?”

“Like I said, as far as I know now, you are not guilty of such crimes. You weren’t even in charge of anything until this morning. I will give you my protection until I am convinced otherwise. I will also not allow you to be used as a scapegoat by the civilian populace here within the city.

She looked at him for a long moment, hoping that he was telling the truth.

She thought, “What choice to I have?”

She nodded her head and said, “Very well my lord. I will order my soldiers to surrender. Please give me an hour to make the necessary arrangements.”

Rowen said, “You have thirty minutes. In the meantime, I will be conducting my soldiers into the front gate.”

“So, I am to assume that you will be assuming control of this city under your own authority?”

“No, I am operating under the authority of two of the princesses of Tier. Princess Danara Eilon and Princess Kitarra Foxia.”

Lady Rissa wondered, “He doesn’t know about what happened in Foxia?”

She said out loud, “My lord, are you not aware that Duchess Camila Foxia was assassinated two months ago?”

He looked stunned and said, “No, I am not aware.”

“Yes, there were several assassinations among the duchies two months ago. That means that Princess Kitarra would now be Duchess Kitarra, my Lord.”