Cherri Rosaria
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Chapter One A Crimson Night “The wheel was turning, the moon was missing, but light shone through…” Eliza stumbled through the alley managing only to balance by running her palms against the walls. At many points during her escape Eliza could have sworn she had just come around the same corner or passed a familiar crack in the wall. Suffice to say she wasn’t familiar with this part of the city, and as much as she hated to admit it she was lost. It didn’t help that her mind was rattled in a state of panic k. The sounds of terror and agony were echoing all around her creating terrible symphony which drowned out her sobs of exhaustion and frustration. The noise wasn’t the only thing unnerving her, all around she saw buildings being burnt to their foundations, and the streets were littered with the scorched remains of those who had failed to escape. Eliza did her best not to look. She tried to pretend they were like wicker effigies, and to her credit it helped to avoid seeing their faces. “What is this? Why is this happening!?” Eliza sobbed as she stopped to catch her breath. Some time had passed since she escaped into the backstreets, her legs hurt from running and she was having trouble breathing in the increasingly smoke-filled air. She looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see nothing had followed her. Relaxing her tense muscles she dropped her head and leaned against a wall. Looking around for a place to sit or perhaps hide for a bit she couldn’t help but notice the shabbiness of her surroundings. The pavement was scattered with loose cobble stones atop of which rested a rich carpeting of trash carelessly tossed on the ground, not to mention the – She stopped for a moment, then without realizing why found herself laughing. Perhaps it was the fact that moments ago she was running blindly for dear life only to stop and complain about the rustic look of her surroundings. Or perhaps it was the fact that on any given day a girl of her background wouldn’t be caught dead in this neighborhood much less allow herself to be found in its seedy backyard. Regardless of which, the irony of her behavior tickled her. Despite the momentary humor with served to liven up her spirits she didn’t allow herself to forget where she was. As she stopped to catch her breath, and wipe the tears from her eyes she look ahead to see where this alley would take her. Eliza inched over to the next corner and peek out into the next alley. To her relief she saw an empty street relatively untouched by the flames. “Please let there be a gate leading outside the city…” She murmured as she surveyed the area. There were many shops lined across this road, and judging from the crates and barrels of everything from apples to armor, this was a busy street. Perhaps it was even a main street of the city. The thought consoled Eliza, where there is a main street there must be gates on either end leading outside the city. Eliza ran across the street and hid behind a crate, from there tried her best to make out what lied on either end of the street despite the smoke filled air. “Curses, I can’t see anything beyond ten buildings ahead of me… It’s this weird fire, but the magi should have been able to put it out by now… What is this fire?! Then again what were those creatures? ” Eliza was starting to become lost in her thoughts, and panic was starting to take hold again. But her confusion did raise a good question, exactly what was going on? The city council had put out multiple stories on the subject to offer their reasoning behind the wildfire. At first the official announcement was that a rogue fire was on the loose due to experimental magic by a group of magi. Then that was recounted and replaced with the story that a dragon had crossed the skies and began bombarding the city with a firestorm. It was only moments later when they announced that an evacuation was to take place, this time with no further reasoning. Could a dragon be responsible for this? It would surely explain the fire, but since when did dragons block out the skies with an eerie red glow? Eliza looked up and saw neither stars nor moons, but instead dark clouds laminated by red light. As frightening and unnatural as it was, the light was also strangely beautiful, and she found it hard to stop staring. It was almost as if though the light was calling to her, asking her to join it in its brilliance… Eliza using every ounce of willpower she had, managed to slowly tear her eyes from the alluring scene and fixated them back to the street. “What- !” She gasped as she noticed her view of the street had changed. A couple buildings ahead of her she saw a fiery figure hulking through the smoke. It was another one of those creatures. She could make out its hunched back body and the long arms which ended in three razor claws. Retreating back behind her crate she looked around for something she could use to defend herself with. Not having an intimate knowledge about swordplay or magic, she knew she was helpless regardless but a weapon would at the very least make her feel better. At least it would give her a chance. Looking over at the adjacent shops she found one with a barrel of swords marked, “Military Surplus Sale”. Though she knew from experience anything that was on sale and left outside the shop unguarded was normally trash. Still it was better than nothing. Hugging the shop walls, Eliza managed to move towards the barrel and began surveying her choices. Of the ten swords about five of them had rust clinging to them, another four had flimsy hilts, and one of them was missing the front half of its blade entirely. Just as she was about to give up hope and settled for a rusty weapon she noticed that the front door had been left open. Perhaps the owner had decided the city wasn’t worth returning to as he fled. Perhaps she could hide inside the shop while the beast passed. She had seen those creatures rip through the armor of trained soldiers earlier today and knew without formal training she wasn’t in a position to expect anything difference. Still instinct told her to arm herself, and after she entered the shop and closed the door behind her she went about searching for her weapon. The shop must have specialized to selling swords for she had never seen such a wide selection even on the ministry guards. She passed some promising looking swords but they proved too heavy for her to wield. Finally she came to the end of the shop and found an empty money box resting on top of a glass display case. Within the display case was a weapon of remarkable craftsmanship. The sword had a gilded black hilt; the handle was ornate with gold vines and leaves which extended on top of an elegant blue gray blade. The center of the blade had some runes etched in it which seemed to throw off its own glow. Like with the red light she couldn’t pull her eyes away from it, she didn’t believe she could wield such a weapon but all the same she found herself wanting to try. Using a nearby short sword she smashed the case open and found herself wrapping her fingers around the handle. Then using all her strength she lurched backwards trying to lift the weapon. To her surprise it felt almost weightless to her as she stumbled backwards against the wall. “You’re mine” she heard a voice say, unsure of whether it was hers or if she simply imagined it. Just as she got up the door to the shop was ripped from its hinges and there stood the beast in all its horrible glory. Its molten body threw off flames which cracked in the air. “How did…” she found herself asking until she found her shoe crunch against something. She looked down for a bit and saw bits of the glass case lying all around her. “Curses…” As she returned her head back to the door she found the beast advancing to her. It seemed neither rushed nor hesitant, it merely marched. Its footsteps singed the wooden floorboards below it. Eliza began to worry if the shop would catch on fire before the beast would reach her. Then without warning the beast lunged at Eliza leaving a trail of dark smoke behind it which obscured her vision of the beast. But she saw the claw that was poised to kill her. In mere seconds it would all be over. Unable to move Eliza froze in place and closed her eyes as the claw came about to impale her. But that never happened. Eliza opened her eyes and saw that the sword had pierced the torso of the beast. Her hands were still on the weapon but, hand she done it or did the sword move for her? Unable to react, she withdrew the sword from the creature’s midsection. Molten liquid poured from the wound and the beast jumped backwards. It was injured, but it wasn’t dead. Worse it seemed angry now, as the fires protruding from its joints began to dance wildly and the crackling noise began to sped up and intensify. Eliza instinctively brought the weapon close to her body and held it with renewed focus. Here she was, a wealthy girl of noble lineage about to engage in her first fight, where the only prize was the victor got to keep its life. “Fear not the night for dawn’s light will guide you, Fear not the sword for the shield will protect you, Fear not the end for Death will spare you, But Fear the Primordials for they have come to consume you…” ~Whispers
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