Aldermoor a quiet shore city nested between the rolling hills, the city is a popular destination for travelers that look to travel to further cities, serving as a small connection between villages and cities large than itself.
At noon, the small streets of the city are bustling with carts, contrasting its peaceful look. They traverse the market district, which extends from the city’s core to the harbor and is populated by a diverse array of shops.
To those that pay attention, Aldermoor hare more than a few tales to tell, nested between its secrets that predate the young city up to its foundation.
The brave and desperate, Ego hunters, adventurers gathered by the wooden venues of the market; preparing themselves to confront the unnatural and rarely natural dangers of the world.
But while the marked district was the hearth of the city, the young city had attracted the attention of the Order of the Shard, broken in many branches. Few people understand its purpose, but their halls are known as the prime destination for Ego Hunters to find a job.
With the sun still at its peak, a small crowd gathered outside the Order’s hall closed doors. Ego hunters waited, similar to mercenaries, their livelihood mostly depended on contracts.
Each with their reasons, the awkwardness, and silence between peers and competition that shared their need for a contract made the air thickness almost palpable, to all but one person.
A warm brown-skinned woman, with messy pitch-black hair adorned with different kinds of leaves and a green feather behind her ear, and carrying a few things besides sticks and pouches. She walked confidently, towering most, she pushed her way through the people waiting. She seemed completely unaware of the nature of the hunters, but she wasn’t bothered about being improper.
“This should be it? They said it’d be open…” Exclaimed the woman, She tilted her head curiously, hearing the soft tap-tap of a figure beside her, their blue sapphire eyes the only thing visible beneath the hood, glowing staring at her.
Compelled to approach it, she leans forward before pressing her hand on her collarbone, greeting the mysterious figure. Her radiant green eyes looked at the figure with welcoming innocence.
“Do you think we will wait for long? I hope, for their sake, this is not an attempt to test our patience…” The woman says, smirking and letting out a pair of light chuckles.
“Maybe” Answers in the voice of a young man, the sign in his eyes disappears, then he looks away.
Kaelen’s smiles turned sheepish, but still introduces herself, “Don’t tell me I’m being too friendly? Let me try again. I am Kaelen Greenforge. Yes, daughter of Forge.”
“Who?” The cloaked figure remarks in a dark tone as his head pointed two towards the horizon, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, Well, I haven’t made a name for myself… but I will!” Kaelen’s eyes looked the other way, wondering if she had chosen the wrong person to approach, she was not certain why she was drawn to approach them in the first place.
“So you’re a nobody then? Right, just say, what do you want?” The sapphire eyed man said he looks at again in her direction from the corner of his eye.
“You not knowing someone doesn’t mean they are nobodies, I am somebody…” Kaelen asserts, staring back at him.
“I see, so what you want is to annoy me” The man jests, his eyes go purple with a tint of red and then a Light giggles escape the figure’s voice, as they seem to taunt Kaelen.
“For the wilds, you sure are a rude fella, don’t have many friends, do you?” Kaelen shot the hooded figure a look of annoyance, but forced a smile, trying not to let his snarky response get under her skin – she added, “Not that I have many either. Anyway, I’m just looking for a group – I’m new to this whole thing”.
He stopped giggling and completely, “New?”. He stared for more than a moment, silent, but giving no space to reply, tapping his foot again. The man then broke the silence with a monotonous tone, “I find it unlikely, but sure, let me amuse you. Tell me about yourself and I may consider it”.
“Unlikely?!… you arrogant little…” Kaelen exclaims, before letting out along breath, now unable to hide the annoyance in her voice, ”alright, big shot, you win, whatever game you are playing, I am not.”
“I see now, you can;’t deal with struggle, you give up and run” The man replies, eyes now deep and red, more than a few had caught bits and pieces of the conversation.
Kaelen stopped, cheeks going darker, leering at the man as soon as he finished speaking, no longer collected her voice would run full of spite, “I swear, one more word, and we’ll have a bloody corpse in the street”.
“Maybe, but the corpse would be yours” The figure replied as the amusement faded into something colder, his posture stiffened, and his tone gradually had darkened.
“You really believe that? An apathetic small man like you?” Kaelen shot back, scowling at the figure. Around them, the other people barely reacted as the conflict escalated.
The air froze for a moment. The only thing visible under the man’s hood, his eyes flickered and then went dark, slowly, as if the light in them was being swallowed.
“Apathetic?” The figure repeated, their tone laced with venom, and they clicked their tongue. His voice dropped, quieter but far more dangerous. “You dare to call me apathetic?”
Without a second’s pause, his hand moved in a fluid, almost imperceptible motion. A silver dagger, the blade twisted like a pillar of stone, gleamed in his hands, taking a step to confront Kaelen.
“I think it’s easier for everyone if you return to wherever you came from,” Lirael continued, his tone low and cold. “You’re not ready for this world. That naive hope of yours? People will take advantage of it and it will break you. And not just you. It will destroy the people you care about.”
“Mr. knife, put that back, I’m not giving a second warning” Kaelen’s pulse began to rise, not expecting a weapon to be dragged out, but she swiftly reacted to the rising tension, pacing her breathing, staring at the figure. Her hands grasped at the twisting vines of a polished pole on her side. Kaelen did not look deterred by the blade presence, if anything, the woman looked battle ready, what rose her awareness, was the unnatural feeling coming from his unseen stare, and how his words resonated.
“At least you are not running away now, but you shouldn’t have left home, did you perhaps abandon your parents? Father? No, Mother…” The figure stood there unmoving, but his knife slowly shifting in place. The man’s voice slowly gnawing each word echos in her head, and taking over Kaelen’s self-doubts “I see, you are selfish like humans, you abandoned her”
“I already gave my warning”, Kaelen justified herself and filled her lungs with air, She began to be weary of her thoughts, unable to understand how his words came to be. But she soon saw the knife as a distraction. She found herself in a losing conversation. With nothing substantial to fight back, she could see it as an unlikely fight with no true purpose.
The hooded figure snarled, stepping forward again, his dagger glinting in his hand as its twisted blade flashed under the direct sunlight, ready to strike at any instance.
But just as he was about to take a third step, a blur of motion cut through the air, and in a blink the dagger disappeared from his hand, and left the hooded figure then staring at his empty hand.
“Your timing couldn’t be worse.” his voice stammered, his voice carried a difficult to perceive glint of relief, the robed figure then let out a sigh, eyes blue not dark or bright, his eyes had returned, showing its uncanny sapphire like color piercing through the dark veil of his hood. Then his tone turned monotone, “Fine, just give it back”.
Kaelen’s eyes darted looking for the new location of the weapon, she lowered her stance, her feet sliding on the ground raising the dirt from the floor, creating a small cloud of dust.
“Hey now, no need for knives, friend” a cheerful voice cut through the tension. All attention shifted to the voice.
“She doesn’t even have a weapon, this is not very manly, is it?” A man with the head of a goat man stepped into view, his snout lifted full of pride, almost regal, his horns spiraling in almost perfect circles, his square pupils eerie in the sunlight.“It’s hard enough to find work these days without starting a fight”, he jested, now in possession of the knife, his golden eyes locking on Kaelen. He turned his back on her, facing the hooded figure with a casual confidence, almost mocking the tension.
Kaelen stood frozen, her face still as her eyes darted between the two of them. The surreal appearance of the goat-faced man, Kaelen became more weary of the goat man, unsure of what the man’s intentions were, and didn’t help Kaelen look positively at him. Her grip around the rod became tighter, even if her beat slowed down, but she wouldn’t move, waiting for the situation to be clearer for her.
“There you are” The hooded figure reaches out his arms and hands completely covered by a dark silk-like material, the hooded figure takes back his knife to sheet it back under his robe, as he sulks “Whatever just don’t bother me, I need peace, and for all we know she is competition here”.
“Don’t listen to Lirael, they are just a bit nervous and doomed with eternal angst, I’m Dornak warrior of The Dawnblades, you don’t seem from here either” The goat-faced man turns around to look back at Kaelen who is still processing the situation.
“Wait, horns? Are you… perhaps one of those devils?” Kaelen replies distraught, taking a step back once Dornak decides to address her.
“Unless you mean devilish good-looking, I need you to take that back, I’m a goat folk… born and raised in the highlands! So this is your first time traveling, then?” Dornak raises an eyebrow, surprised by Kaelen’s words, as if he had not heard them in a while.
“I… sorry, I… I mean, ye… yeah? Left The Brightroots – I think people call it The Silverlight Forest not long ago… but I don’t have plans to return, sorry” Kaelen’s face goes red in embarrassment, as she stumbles her words.
“Calm down, it’s not the first time it happened. Silverlight Forest? You don’t look like a sylvarian” Dornak ears flop as he crosses his arms, he looks to the side, signaling a petite pale blond-haired woman to approach.
Kaelen could only follow Dornak’s remark with silence, her intentions to explain looks were nonexistent, and even if she had a desire to make companions, she was currently keen on explaining herself to someone she just met.
The awkward silence stretched until the woman Dornak beacon a few moments ago finally made her presence. The woman was the shortest of the group, her hair covering one of her bloodshot, serpentine red eyes. Though petite, her carefully applied makeup gave her a striking, womanly charm, contrasting sharply with the masculine cut of her fitted vest, and slim figure. The woman had a wide, welcoming smile.
“Hey so you are searching for friends then?, you are interesting enough, I wouldn’t mind boss told me we would need a fifth and I could use another gal in the group, I’m Elise Justlise”, the petite woman broke the silence, and gave a tint of tranquility to Kaelen, she motions both of her hands towards Lirael, giving him a sign that Kaelen would only see as her telling Lirael to ask forgiveness.
“Really, Lis… just after this? — Well, if Roland says so” Lirael complained, exhaling his lungs empty, caressing where his eyebrows were supposed to be.
“So? Going to apologize? Now really? After pulling a knife on me?” Kaelen remarked, in discomfort, that she did want an apology, but the whole situation became confusingly tense for her.
“Sorry, but I do have to ask you to tell us about you, if you are to accompany us,” Lirael sighed, his voice softening in regret, the eyes of Lirael changed, its irises went from sapphire to a mellow honey color.
“I am…” Kaelen attempting to refuse, she went quiet, tilted her head confused after hearing the sudden empathic voice of Lirael, she stared at him, but the moment her eyes met Lirael’s emitted a golden glow. As Kaelen’s pulse steadied, a soothing warmth spread through her chest, melting away her tension as though it had never been there. “I need you to make it up to me,”
She blinked. It was strange. She couldn’t understand how she could feel so calm now. But somehow the calm just felt right for her. The shifting tension that she felt moments ago had completely vanished and turned to quiet until the only feeling remaining in Kaelen was that of absolute comfort. Her eyes glazed over, a crooked smile forming on her lips, as if she were watching the last sparks of a dying fire.
Kaelen was overwhelmed by the warm calmness filling her chest, as all other emotions and tension slipped away. She let out a small breath, the corners of her lips curling into a spontaneous smile. Any frustration she’d had moments ago seemed irrelevant now. Her gaze softened, her thoughts hazy but comfortable, and when she spoke, words came free out of her mouth, willing to trust them, she went deep in to her mind as memories began to swirl.