Fantasy {Closed} Into the Light || Fight for your freedom!

[PhreakedOut]

Out of the Darkness, Into the Light

At the beginning of Time itself, four gods were created by an unknown force: Aerith, Goddess of the Lands, Rishkar, God of Fire and Flame, Yvanna, Goddess of the Seas, and Julda, God of the Sky. These four came together as brothers and sisters, creating the world we know as Andalin. After that, they started populating the world, creating life in many forms. The four gods divided Andalin into four kingdoms, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and provided the new inhabitants of Andalin with everything they would need to expand their kingdom and make use of its resources. The kingdoms were in harmony with the gods, and the gods listened to their creations. Then suddenly, the gods vanished. The people were left to their own, crying out to the sky where their gods went. A godless age began.

For a long time, the different kingdoms cooperated with each other. Then slowly but surely they started competing, building armies and starting wars. One kingdom, the kingdom of Ishgard in the North, started taking over slowly and defeating every kingdom one by one, led by one man: Halvar the Ruthless. He crowned himself Emperor of Andalin and slaughtered anyone who stood in his way. A group of elite guards was formed to enforce his ruling, called the Black Hand. Slowly and steadily the land of Andalin started being corrupt, the magicks of the gods dissipating over time. Only a few still remember how to tap into the power of Magick.

The people of Andalin have lived under oppression for long enough. For two centuries now has the tyrant Lord Halvar taken over the lands and turned it into his own playground to rule over. However, a new generation rises up to confront the tyrant and liberate the lands. A small group sets out, rejecting the oppression of Lord Halvar, taking on the Black Hand and bringing the fight to the tyrant himself. Will you join this fight? Take up arms and resist! Help Andalin be restored. Out of the Darkness, Into the Light.

 

[PhreakedOut]

Shenra looked at how Lyra, the owner of the Romantic Dragon, was polishing some glasses and cups. It had been a while since she had left home. The day her father had died had crushed her. After some time trying to pick up where she left off before her father was murdered, she had enough. Everything in the smithy reminded her of him. Shenra couldn't take it anymore and ran. After getting a small satchel of supplies ready and saying goodbye to her mother, she left. And now she had arrived in Halvar's Stand. Hearing the name disgusted her. Halvar himself was responsible for her father's death. If he could contain his Black Hand better, nothing would've gone wrong and he still would've....

"Careful, girl. You'll crush that tankard in your hand if you keep squeezing that hard." Shenra looked up surprised. Lyra looked at her and smiled. She was in her late thirties, short brown hair and fierce brown eyes. Her stature was slender, but her tongue was as sharp as a knife. "Ah, yes. Sorry about that," Shenra replied. Lyra looked her up and down. "Anything bothering you? You don't look like the type to hold grudges." Shenra shook her head and smiled heartily. "Everything's alright. Thank you for asking. I was thinking back to a situation I was in before, and it made me feel a little frustrated again." Lyra nodded. "Alright, just keep in mind that anything you break you have to pay for!"

Shenra took another sip of her ale. The door suddenly slammed open and guards of the Black Hand entered. "Lyra, have you seen a girl get in here in a hurry? Light brown hair, about your height, wearing the clothes of a noble?" Lyra shouted: "No can do! Now get out of my inn! I've made a deal with you people that you wouldn't interfere with my business, so leave!" The guards took a step back, taken aback by her response. Then they left the inn in a hurry, slamming the door shut again. "Those damn Hands. Getting into my business again without permission. I'm getting tired of this..." Lyra grumbled.

Shenra had listened well to their description of the 'runaway girl.' A noble, they said. Interesting. She'd never met a noble before. Probably too stuck-up to ever look upon a commoner like her. It was intriguing however that this girl was being sought. As far as Shenra knew, every noble was heavily influenced by Lord Halvar, if not completely engulfed by him. What did this girl do to be sought by the Black Hand? She took another sip of her ale, wondering who this noble was.

 

[CatlikeCreature]

Luminita watched the Black Hand leave the tavern from behind a cart and cursed quietly to herself. "Ptiu! What has gotten them so riled up?" She crept out from behind the cart and hurried across the street towards the tavern. She clasped her hands together as if in prayer as she stood outside of the Romantic Dragon. "May those fools find whatever it is they're hunting for and stay out of my way."

The tavern's doors swung open and the black clad woman slipped in quickly. Her eyes were hidden by an ornate headdress, but her permanent scowl made sure everyone knew exactly how she was feeling, provided her albino skin didn't distract them from it. She knew that some cultures saw such features as bad omens but she had been lucky, so far people have only been slightly unnerved by it. Luminita took a seat near Shenra at the bar and started digging through a pouch hanging from her waist. "Barmaid, what can this get me?" She placed a silver coin on the bar and slid it towards Lyra. "Nothing too strong though, I still need to arrange for travel out of the city today. Perhaps you know someone reliable for such a thing?"

Realizing that her question might raise suspicion, especially since the Black Hand were searching for something or someone, she decided to offer an explanation for why it was important. "My mother sent me word that my grandmother is unwell, but I have not been able to find transportation to take me the entire distance... So many heartless people unwilling to help me in my time of need."

 

[Solarem]

It took all of Elodie's will to keep from flinching and trying to run when the Black Hand burst into the tavern of the Romantic Dragon. Instead, she kept her head down in the book she had been reading, as if they were of no concern to her. She didn't relax until the door had closed behind them, and the normal chatter of the tavern had started back up. Slowly, she lifted her head from the book and surveyed the remaining patrons. Several of them were somewhat familiar to her, as they'd frequented the place in the few days she'd been here, but someone at the bar by Lyra stood out, having bright pink hair.

Her attention was drawn to the door again with the entrance of another individual who stood out from the typical patrons of the inn. Elodie tucked her book away and approached the bar, catching Lyra's attention and beckoning her away from the two newcomers. "Thank you for sending them off," Elodie murmured quietly. "I promise I'll be out of here in a few more days. I just have to figure out where to go." She reached into her pockets and fished out a couple of extra coins and passed them to Lyra. "As a thank you." After speaking to Lyra, she glanced over at the two newcomers again, hoping no one had overheard. The last thing she needed was someone else to give a tip to the Black Hand.

 

[PhreakedOut]

Shenra looked at the very pale woman sitting next to her. "I'm sorry to hear your grandmother is unwell. I've been looking to travel further into Ishgard from here. Where do you need to go? Perhaps we could travel together." She smiled kindly at the woman, not sure what to expect. "I'm Shenra, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

Then a different woman approached, trying to whisper things to Lyra. A hood was hiding her face for a moment. Lyra nodded towards the woman and said: "Of course, anything to stop the Black Hand from getting to you." Then the woman turned her face towards Shenra. It was the face of the noble the Black Hand had described before, though a little smudged. Something clicked inside Shenra's head. "Wait a minute, you're the girl the Black Hand's after!" Immediately she raised her hands in a gesture of goodwill and said: "Don't worry, I won't tell. I got my own problems with the Black Hand. Don't want them to get anything." She leaned closer towards the noble and whispered: "Perhaps I can help you get out of this city. I just told this lady over here" -pointing at the pale woman- "that I'm on my way further into Ishgard. I don't know where you want to go or how far away you need to go, but I need to go to the Ishgardian capital, Harvanen. Is that far enough for you?"

 

[CatlikeCreature]

Lyra poured the pale woman a mug of ale and smiled. "Well depending on where you need to go, you might be able to pay a merchant caravan to let them take you. But there's no real set price for that." Luminita nodded her head as she listened to the people around her and took a sip of the drink, the taste of which made her body tense up and what little could be seen of her face made it clear she hated it. "Huo!" She pushed the mug to the side and tried to downplay her disgust by leaning against the bar. "I am... Luminita Albescu. As for where I need to go, well I can't expect you to help me the entire way, so as far as you can take me into Ishgard would be good."

She glanced at the newcomer as she considered her options. Traveling in a small group could help her avoid detection, but if word about the noble gets out it would make it impossible for her to avoid attention. But if she sold out the noble girl, then maybe they wouldn't think to ask too many questions about her and she could slip out with little issue. But then after that she'd likely find herself in the same situation again. "Blajina, you should join us." She slid the mug over to Elodie with a smile. "We are all travelers, are we not? There is no harm in traveling together, nor is there anything strange about it. The roads can be dangerous so it is only natural for us to do so."

A new idea had came to Luminita's mind, surely a noblewoman would have enough money to afford a horse and wagon.

"Maybe we could put our money together and buy a cart, it would make things much easier on all of us."

 

[Solarem]

Elodie froze, fear flooding her entire body as the pink haired lady exclaimed, "Wait a minute, you're the girl the Black Hand's after!" The immediate gesture of backing off didn't do much to ease her nerves. "Not so loud!" she replied in a hushed voice. Her eyes darted around to see if anyone had overheard, but it seemed that no one was paying any attention to their conversation.

Elodie regarded the two of them, strangers who were offering to travel with her, trying to figure out if she should trust them or not. She drew her cloak a bit tighter around herself. "It is kind of you to offer companionship, but are you not worried that it would endanger you? As you just said, I am being searched for by the Black Hand. And I know they called me a noble, but I have nothing anymore. I can give you some coin for a cart, but there isn't much. I also... am not sure where I need to go next, I just can't stay here, that much is certain."

 

[PhreakedOut]

Shenra shook her head. "No, a cart's too expensive. Besides, I don't know how to treat a horse properly. Don't worry too much about us, or me rather, being endangered. I can fight my way out if needed!" She tapped the sword on her side. "An enemy of the Black Hand's my friend." She then offered the not-so-noble-anymore a hand. "I'm Shenra. Pleased to meet you! As I said, I'm headed towards Harvanen. I've... some business to attend to there. You're welcome to join!"

Shenra then turned to Luminita and looked her up and down again. "Say, you're not from around here, are you? I've never seen anyone in this town like you before. Or in Lindon. Or anywhere, for that matter. Where do you hail from?"

 

[CatlikeCreature]

"Please, you do not have to lie about not having money, we are not going to rob you." Hearing Shenra shoot down the cart plan she raised a finger and was about to criticize her until she heard that she didn't know how to handle a horse. "What? But everything is so far apart here, do you really walk everywhere?" She struggled to grasp such an idea and wondered how people from this land could have ever been so dangerous.

Shenra didn't give her much time to ruminate on this and her questions snapped her back. "Where I am from? Oh, well I was born in Ishgard, after all my family is here." She nodded along with her words, hoping that the others wouldn't ask too many more questions. "But I had things to attend to in the east which took much longer than anticipated. Things have changed so drastically since I've last been here. Anyway, I do think a cart would make it much easier to get her out of here safely. We could put her in a large sack of flour, surely they wouldn't check that."

 

[Solarem]

"Respectfully, you robbing me is not my biggest concern. I have no reason to lie to you about money. I truly do not have anything anymore, I couldn't grab anything before I left," Elodie replied, frowning slightly at the pale woman, who she thought she had heard say her name was Luminita. She turned to the pink haired woman, Shenra, and accepted the offered hand. "I am Elodie Winterlow." She didn't elaborate on it any further, she assumed they would both know her family was essentially second only to the Emperor. She listened as Luminita continued to insist on obtaining a cart somehow, wondering why she was set on that particular matter.

"I appreciate that you are trying to consider my safety, but really I think a cart would draw more attention. We'd have to go through the main gates, and they will certainly be watching anyone coming and going through there. There must be other ways to sneak out of the city."

 

[PhreakedOut]

"I agree with Elodie here. A cart's just not an option. We can look at the walls if there's a crack we can get through, but I think those chances are slim..." Lyra interjected and said: "There's the smuggler's route. It goes under this inn and further down into the ground, and ends at the other side of the walls. There's... a small problem though. It's being used a lot by not so nice people. There's a chance you need to pay or fight your way out."

Shenra thought for a moment, then said: "I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of money to pay for anything, and I'm not sure if I can defend the both of you with my sword." She shook her head. "Perhaps we could talk our way through the main gate or the side gate, perhaps give them a favour that they can use later. There's a chance we can blend in with a bigger group as well." She looked at Elodie and Luminita. "While I'm thinking about it, is there even a safe way to exit this city without being spotted? Besides, I'm a little surprised that the Black Hand is so burnt on finding a Winterlow. Don't you people have great connections with Lord Halvar?"

 

[CatlikeCreature]

Seeing that she was outvoted, Luminita sighed. "Fine, I see you people enjoy walking far more than I do, but I refuse to do any 'favors' for the guards. Let's take this secret tunnel you mentioned." She stood up, leaving her nearly full mug of ale on the bar, and stretched. "Surely some vagrants lurking in a dark tunnel would be easier to deal with than the guards."

She eyed the young noblewoman, trying to see if she showed even the faintest of signs that she was capable of anything useful. Unfortunately, she couldn't. At least Shenra had the hands of a laborer and with that comes strength. "Come on now, we have to do something. It's not like magical fairies are waiting around for lazy boys and girls who want things they refuse to work for to grant wishes for." Her tone clearly showed her annoyance at the prospect of walking to the next town and she really wanted to get it over with. "I can watch myself down there, so you should look out for our friend with the soft hands."

 

[Solarem]

"Yes, my family does have good relations with the Emperor," Elodie replied, looking back to Shenra. "I don't think I owe you my secrets yet, I have only just met you. You can rest assured that I am no longer a friend of the Emperor, if that's your concern." She didn't feel that she should tell her story just yet, for one they were in a crowded location and anyone could overhear them. Not only that, but saying she had a connection to the long lost goddess Yvanna was hardly a typical court scandal. The two women in front of her could easily label her as mad if she were to tell them that, let alone her abilities.

Her attention slid to Luminita, mentioning looking after her. She couldn't tell if the woman meant to get a reaction out of her, but countless courtly interactions had rendered her able to endure comments without revealing her true feelings. Let them think Elodie was useless, that was fine with her. "Give me one moment, I have a pack upstairs in my room that I'll need to grab before we depart," she said, and she disappeared further into the inn.

 

[PhreakedOut]

Shenra watched Elodie disappear further into the inn. Hearing her say she had no connection to the Emperor any longer was strange. From what Shenra recalled, the Winterlow family was as close as could be. It was the biggest and one of the few surviving noble families besides Halvar's own family. She started to wonder what happened that made her an enemy of Halvar instead of a friend. It made her wary of Elodie, not entirely trusting her just yet. How could she? They met just 5 minutes ago, and already Elodie had said she was formerly aligned with Halvar. Shenra decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now, though she knew there was more to this noble than meets the eye at first glance.

Without looking back at Luminita, she said: "You know, Luminita, you have a funny way of using words when you speak. You create sentences and use descriptive language like I've never heard before." She turned her head around and looked over her shoulder at Luminita. "I've never heard an Ishgardian speak like that before. Where are you really from?" She turned her head back around. "What am I saying. I know little of the world anyway, let alone all the Ishgardians. Forget I asked." She then stood up and stretched her back. "Alright then. We should head out when Elodie returns. I want to leave the city before dark, and it's getting closer to dusk already." She looked at Luminita. "Are you ready?"

 

[CatlikeCreature]

The noblewoman's former alleged connection to the emperor was interesting to the pale woman, perhaps she could be helpful in getting close to him. But of course the hope she felt couldn't last when outsiders were involved, and her next words brought her back down. "Wonderful, she has a pack." Luminita groaned as she imagined what sort of things a noblewoman might consider important on a journey.

And now the worker girl was asking too many questions. "Well, I'm an author and I travel a lot, so it only makes sense that I have a way with words. Tell me, can you read?" Luckily for Luminita, Shenra quickly dropped her line of questioning. "I have been ready since I first set foot in this town. But... Could you tell me more about this route you brought up? What should we expect down there?" Feigning nervousness, she gingerly touched her fingertips together as she asked.

She had no real reason to fear any encounters there, but she was hoping to not reveal what she could do just yet and if there's not too many people, a simple curse of fear carefully timed with a threat from Shenra would resolve any threats with no one being the wiser.

 

[PhreakedOut]

Shenra looked at Luminita with surprise. "Did you just assume I can't read?" Lyra quickly intervened and said: "The tunnel, yes. Let me tell you some more. Besides the Black Hand there is a small group at work here in Halvar's Stand that has more connections to any other crime syndicate in the four kingdoms than any other. The are called the Traders, and they supply every criminal organization with their supplies. Since they operate from Halvar's Stand, they have little to worry about having problems with crossing borders. They had asked me if they could dig a tunnel below my inn so they had a safe haven above their tunnels, and at the time I agreed. I was very opposed to the Black Hand and wanted to support everything and everyone who had beef with Lord Halvar. I do regret my decision though, since I got dragged into some criminal activities I wanted no part of. But that's some years ago now. The tunnel under my inn is used a lot less these days since they dug a shorter tunnel not too long ago, so there's only a small chance you'll encounter anyone down there. You just have to be wary when you get to the exit of the tunnels at the side of the Ishgardian border. There are probably some thugs guarding the exit. Either talk your way out, sneak past them or knock them out is what I recommend. And don't do anything stupid!"

Shenra shook her head and smiled at Lyra. "I'm not planning to go in blazing anyway. If we can handle it peacefully, then that'll be my preferred way of handling things." She then stepped further into the inn and shouted towards the way Elodie went: "Are you ready to go now? We don't have much time left before dark!"

 

[Solarem]

Elodie hurried into the room she had been staying in, quickly gathering the few things she had been able to grab before she fled. She carefully tucked the book she had been reading beside the small, precious book Faith of the Ancients. She still wasn't sure how she had managed to find such a book in the library, all knowledge of the gods had been destroyed, or locked away. At least she had thought that to be the case, before finding this book. That had been the day that changed everything.

Elodie shook the thoughts away from her mind and tucked her other few essentials into her pack and closed it up. She heard Shenra's voice echo down the hallway and winced. The woman was hardly subtle, it seemed. She put the strap of her bag over her shoulder and returned to the pair waiting for her.

"There was no need to rush me, I was only gone for a few minutes," Elodie said calmly, regarding the pink haired woman. "But I am ready to go now, if you are in such a hurry."

 

[CatlikeCreature]

What little of Luminita's face that could be seen showed no emotion as she tried to respond to Shenra's question. "But can y-"

Luckily Lyra cut her off before she could further offend her soon to be traveling companion. She even nodded politely as she listened to her explanation of the hidden crime syndicate, however things like this were far beyond her understanding. "I don't see the big deal here, if they were in any way skilled at... Well, anything, they would not be petty criminals hiding in underground tunnels." She shrugged and turned to Shenra. "But if you would rather do things peacefully, I don't see any issues. Just as long as we're not giving them charity. Lazy boys and girls get nothing but scorn from me."

When Elodie returned, Luminita let out a sigh of relief when she saw the size of her pack. "A few minutes is too long to remain in this town. I wish to leave and you should too, or have you forgotten your status with those men outside?" She approached Elodie and put an arm around her as she hurried her along. "Please show us the way now, Barmaid."

 

[PhreakedOut]

"Hey! Treat people with respect, Luminita! She's not just a barmaid, she's the owner of this establishment!" Shenra then turned to Lyra, smiling softly. "Lyra, could you please escort us to the underground tunnel?" Lyra laughed. "You three are a great combination of personalities. I wonder how long you'll last! Alright, follow me." She led the three of them towards a cellar and opened a hatch hidden under a giant but empty barrel. "In here! Turn right when you can and then just straight ahead until you see the exit. Can't really go anything wrong. Good luck with your escape and travels and perhaps until we next meet!"

Shenra lowered herself down first through the hatch to scout ahead. She blinked a couple of times to let her eyes adjust to the darkness ahead. A torch was hanging next to the hatch, so she took that and lit it with a tinderbox. The light of the torch spread further ahead, showing the tunnel to be empty. Shenra walked a little further ahead to inspect the tunnel, but saw no one just yet. "I think it's safe for everyone to come down. Careful when you lower yourself down, there are some loose rocks that you can trip on."