Cleanup Crew

Two thralls dressed head to toe in magenta swept their brooms along the cobbled streets. Most of the wreckage had been cleared away and the strange words that had taunted the citizens of of the city had not long been paved over. "Did you hear that something was found out of all this?" One of the thralls said to the other who shook his head. "Yeah some guy named Vorcet managed to pull something out of this clusterfuck. A few of the local legends went at it as well." The second thrall shrugged and continued his sweeping. "So was it anything decent?"  The first thrall kicked aside a broken chunk of sidewalk and shook his head. "Time will tell, time will tell." 

Smitten

Foot traffic had been extremely slow in Festival Square today. In part Tony supposed due to the purple armored goons than ran loose in his city. In part probably due to the fact that Westbridge housed only tightwads and rejects these days. He called out in frustration at a passing family, "Youa All Worthless Pansy Bit-". Thunder rumbled not far above cutting  his sales pitch short. Great, he thought, now I get to stand out here like a moron in the rain. Within the square necks craned up in unison as dark clouds coalesced directly above them. The thunder continued to rumble, growing louder and louder as red flashes appeared from within the soupy mass. The dim flashes from above grew to blinding flashes of scarlet raining down upon the small square below. Again and again they struck without prejudice. Tony leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being struck. The family he had called out to wasn't as lucky as one of the bolts blew them in opposing directions. As quickly as it had begun the carnage ended, leaving only wreckage, the sounds of sobbing, and burning words written in an ancient dialect that had been burned into the very streets of the city.

Redheaded Stepchildren

The rocky expanse upon which the trio sat provided little in the way of shelter. It seemed though that the sorcerers had elected not to follow them to this side of the mountain. For at least that much, the young man of ivory skin and ebon hair was glad about as he looked upon his wounded friend with concern. Mystrus hadn't regained consciousness yet. They were close enough to the lifestream to where Nespian had thought he might be able to heal her within it. Second thoughts crossed the back of his mind for reasons he himself was unable or unwilling to explain. He looked down at the blade he had looted from the boy in the skirmish above. True to his word he had not looted it from a corpse. The boy was young enough to realize the error of his ways and turn from his life of crime, so Nespian had let him live. His primary concern at the time had been trying to stop the vagabond and red ribboned woman from hurting Mystrus any further. Nespian continued to stare down at his battle prize unsure of what the words etched upon the blade meant, but sure only that going forward its use would be for far nobler pursuits. He sighed as he set the large blade aside and looked down at the pale form of Mystrus as her companion Visha continued to swirl vigilantly about whispering words to which Nespian had no way of understanding. There was something about the creature he didn't trust. Hell, he wasn't even sure that he trusted Mystrus nor himself these days. 

'How are you today?' Nespian muttered under his breath, placing two fingers to the side of Mystrus' temple. If she were unable to communicate outside of her mind, perhaps she might be able to from within. He didn't even realizing that this time there was no burning sensation upon contact as he set his mind to work finding hers. 

A little bird told me

It was happening just like that as the old man had said the clans would get together and unite.  Pheniox couldn't believe it he seen with his own eyes Dryden of the hoard clan had been siding with Crovax of the Radiant Heart.  Could it be!  Would they be teaming up to take us out?  Pheniox thought.  No way.  We are not strong enough, there is still much to learn about the art of death and the black church has not made the final deliverance.  Which Pheniox knew it would never happen, but if the mad wizard Sensui thought he could then maybe it was possible joked Pheniox to himself  'hmmph never possible.'

[The Contract] Investigations

She sat there, in the hard backed chair, staring out the window in a daze. Clutching her robe around her naked shoulders, she barely noticed all of the soldiers wandering around her. 

'Hey! Whore! I asked you a fucking question!' She winced when the wooden plate hit her in the back of the head, breaking her trance. She turned slowly and looked at the soldiers that was yelling at her.

'What?' She muttered softly.

'I said who the fuck did this? It clearly wasn't your pathetic ass,' he was practically screaming at her. The body of their dead compatriot was stiffening in the bed next to her, the blood seeping into the very mattress. 

'I... don't know. I didn't see them,' she shrugged slightly, looking at the floor. 'They shushed me and then jumped out the window.'

A low growl escaped one of the soldiers throats.

'Which is it, you dumb bitch? Did you see the murderer or did you not?'

'Oh... um... well, I didn't see who it was. They were hidden. But they were in the window. And they jumped,' she nodded slowly to herself, motioning towards the open window.

'Jumped? JUMPED?! We are on the fifth fucking floor! You mean to tell me that some pathetic coward scaled five stories, slunk through a window, killed a veteran soldier and then jumped back out safely? What kind of a moron do you take me for?' He was getting angrier and angrier.

'This whole damn city is starting to go crazy. What the hell is going on?' One of the other guards muttered.

'The city is alive again. Alive and angry. And the streets have a hideous way of dealing with problems,' she said in a hoarse whisper, smiling slightly as she looked out the window.

Thing were changing. She could feel it. Hope was on the way.

[The Contract] Beginings Pt II

She woke up suddenly, disturbed. Something was different. The room was darker, the moon having drifted behind a wall of heavy clouds. It took her a minute to adapt to being awake before she realized what it was. There was no snoring. She still felt the weight of the Vectorian in the bed, but his normal heavy snoring was missing. She also felt something wet on her arm, the one she held defensively between herself and her captor. Trying not to move much, she slowly moved her other hand over and rubbed at her arm. Lifting her hand, she saw it was smeared in some dark liquid.

Slowly sitting up, she propped herself against the headboard and examined her hand. Blood. She realized that it was blood. But not hers. Looking over at the slumbering Vectorian soldier, she noticed that his throat bore a new wound from ear to ear. The bed was soaked in his life blood  And covering his eyes were two platinum coins: one showing a grinning skull, the other a ticking hourglass. Startled, she jumped slightly and tried to push herself away from hit body.
   
She sucked in her breath and was about to scream...

'Shhhhhhhhhhh'

The noise caught her off guard and she swallowed her scream. Turning towards the window, for the first time she noticed a figure perched on the window sill. Clad in dark leathers and a heavy cloak, the figure's face was almost completelyshrouded in darkness. However, one leather gloved hand was held up near the face, one finger extended over the mouth in the universal sign for silence. 

For some reason, she felt a need for modesty and she quickly pulled her robes up over her naked body. The figure in the window only chuckled softly, smiled, and jumped. Just as quickly as she had seen him or her, the figure was gone out the open window...

It was right about then that she remembered to scream.

[The Contract] Beginnings Pt I

The moon was cold and beautiful in the night sky, illuminating the streets of Westbridge on the other side of the window that acted as her only portal to the outside world. She had been here for so long she had lost Days? Weeks? Months? It was hard to tell anymore. The days blurred into nights and back into days. He wouldn't let her leave. Not that she was really living in squalor or anything like that. The accommodations were clean, and there were always meals provided. But nevertheless, she was a prisoner. A slave. His play thing. Ever since they had come, it had been like this. 

Standing before the window, she stared longingly at the city which was beyond her grasps. So engrossed in thoughts of freedom, she didn't even hear him approaching. When he touched her shoulder, she shuddered involuntarily. He leaned in uncomfortably close and kissed her neck. 

His rancid breath invaded her nostrils as he whispered in her ear, 'Don't fret precious, I'm here. Step away from the window. Let's go back to bed.' He ran his hand down her spine and lightly spanked her butt before walking back to the filthy bed against the far wall.

He threw himself into the bed and leaned backwards, presenting his naked body as if it held some sort of sex appeal. Swallowing the bile that creptup into her mouth, she lowered her head submissively and slowly walked towards him. Shrugging off her robe, she slipped into the bed beside him. Without even the slightest hint of tenderness, he flung his leg over her and prepared to mount her like a wild animal. All she could do was close her eyes and send her mind to a far away place, isolated from this room that had become her prison.

Within moments, he was done. He unceremoniously rolled off of her and quickly began snoring. Like every other night since she was taken, she wrapped the blanket tight around her body and quietly cried herself to sleep.