Overcast skies sat low over the derelict city of Potluck. As humid air carried in the breeze it brought with it the acrid smell of urine and decay. The grey mottled walls of the city, torn down and repaired so many times that it was as though the city itself was a scar upon the swampy landscape.

Silvia sat by the pink shimmering water of the lake district, gently gazing at the bloodstring bow laid in her lap. She traced a fingertip along its ornamental carvings with wistful eyes as memories swirled back to the surface of her mind.

The dark clouds sat over the stinking city, attracted to its misery it refused to drift by on the winds as they swirled above. Flecks of light shone through the sky as rain kicked light from places unseen across the city. Silvia squinted up at the manor up on the hill, its exquisitely carved stonework a marvel amidst the mess.

*Where else would he go?*

She hadn’t known Yuta all that long, but she knew his ambition was what drove him. She admired it about him, his willingness to strive and to struggle to become stronger.

*If only he wasn’t equally such an idiot*

“Damn it, of course you went to try your hand at her raffle”

Silvia walked briskly through the streets, unsure as to whether she should run or take it slow. She didn’t even know if he would need her, or if it might be a matter of life and death, so she chose to keep a steady pace to play it on the safer side of reaching him sooner.

Warm specks of water broke off of her leather armour and left little ash colored spots where they had fallen.

“Even the rain is dirty here?”

Silvia pulled up her hood to cover her hair and darted up a side street past the mills, tip toeing past hovels filled with the desperate and deranged.

With a leap she scaled the outer gates of the manor and leaped down into the yard. As she stood to her feet she could already see the mistress and her imp inside leading Yuta from the waiting room with something in her hands.

“The raffle?”

She watched on curiously as Yuta sniffed each vial and responded with a cocky smirk.

“Maybe I’m worried for nothing?”

CLICK CLACK

The mistress came apart at the seams, parts of her previously human form separated to be revealed as the limbs of a mantis.

Silvia’s eyes shot open as she watched on too horrified to move. Yuta however seemed barely phased.

“Did he already know? No he’s too dense for that… He’s just too cocky to care”

“Wait, why is he following her?”

Silvia dove towards the window with an arrow in hand and pried it open a crack before slipping through into the main hall. She quickly darted up behind them and watched on as Yuta smiled back at the creature. She darted to the other side of the hall to get a better look and as she did a flash of blue light blasted from where Yuta had once stood.

FWET FWET FWET

The mantis turned towards her with a motion so sharp it seemed to cut the air like a whip. Each of her arrows scattered to either side of the mantis.

“Ahhh! You monster! What did you do to him!”

FWET FWET FWET

Each arrow was loosed with deepening emotion as denial was replaced with rage and horror.

“You killed him!”

SNAP

The mantis snapped its forelimb in a crack and cast the arrows aside.

FWET FWET

“Foolish girl” Mistress Dermon spat back at her.

“Monster!”

“Cease her!” the insectid said as glancing to her imp.

“Yesh mistress” it replied as it cast a sigil in the air.

Silvia’s eyes shot open and she dived into a side room as a wall of fire erupted where she was standing.

“Argh, what am I doing… If he’s dead… Then there is no point fighting, I just need to get out of here” she said as pinned up against the wall with an arrow drawn.

*Don’t run*

A voice whispered from the back of her mind.

“No, I have to make sure”

She stepped back a couple of steps from the wall and looked at the flames as they licked up the sides of the doorway leading back into the main hall. She paused for a moment, waiting for the timing of the flames to be at their thinnest.

“Ahhhhh!” she said as she dived through the flames and rolled back up onto her feet. She spun on her toes as she saw the imp direct another sigil towards her, and shot directly toward the room where she last saw Yuta.

FWET FWET FWET

Each arrow loosed in a perfectly timed rhythm with her footsteps, forcing the mantis to whip her forelimbs to defend.

Silvia charged right for her with rage brimming within her eyes. The mantis crouched low and prepared one of its forelimbs behind its back ready to strike. Silvia’s eyes darted around the room as she rushed forward.

FWIP FWET

She spun off to the right, just dodging the swipe of the mistress and tilting her bow to the ceiling. Her arrow sliced clean through the top of the chandelier at the heart of the room.

CRASH!!!

REEEEEEEEEEIK

The mistress screeched in pain as the jagged mass of glowing green crystals pinned her down. Silvia leapt towards her and drew her shortsword, driving its tip tight up against the monster’s gilled neck.

The imp screeched, with flames enveloping its entire body.

“Don’t try it, or I’ll slice her head clear off” Silvia snapped at the imp.

“Now tell me! What did you do to him!?”

“I didn’t do anything” the mistress chuckled under her gargled breath.

“I swear to god I’ll slice you in two”

“And which god is that? They are weaklings, all of them” the mantis spluttered.

“Fine!” Silvia shot back as she drove the sword into the mistresses neck gills.

“Arrrgh!” the creature screamed back, “To the tower, I sent him to the tower!”

Silvia drew her sword out of the creature’s gill holes and stared into its compound eyes, “What tower?”

“A place guarded by magic, a place one such as yourself could never reach”

“There has to be a way, tell me it!”

“The waters around the tower are a maze, you must know the answer to the mage’s riddle to enter, it is the test of all who dare tread on its shores”

“What is the answer!”

“That, I cannot tell you, for it is different for each person who goes. The answer must be your own”

“Bullshit!”

“The path of the mage starts with compass unbound, and in this world we wander, lost to chance in the maze we find what changes under. If the stars lie to you, who will you trust when you face the threat of death and it’s smile of thunder”

“Huh?”

FWOOM

A blinding light filled the room as the ground beneath Silvia shook violently. She blinked once, twice, and as her vision returned the mansion was gone, along with the city of Potluck, all that remained around her was the endless bog, and the smell of sulfur creeping up her nostrils.

“Ugh!” she choked as she scrambled for a rag in her side satchel.

“Fuck! Not this damn swamp”

She cast her eyes up to the morning sun as it shone behind dark and gloomy clouds and set it to her right so that she knew her way south and travelled back through the bog back towards the Vale.

Silvia looked up at the shimmering lake before her, its pristine water clear and soothing to her soul and she pulled herself back out of her memories.

“Pfff… I blame him infecting me with his idiocy”

She stood to her feet and tossed her hair over her neck and allowed the cool breeze to slip through the locks of her hair.

“Mirio is right, this world needs people who will chase a result, otherwise all we will ever be is lost to the chaos of it all… Even Yuta chases a result… But the path he follows, just must be corrupted”

…

Yuta darted between the trees, leaping between rocky crags as he made his way north.

“Huh? What is this” he said as he slowed to a stop.

Bending down on one knee he brushed his fingertips over a pool of blood and brought it to his nose.

“Goblins”

Without any hesitation he drew his sword and scoured the woods with his eyes.

“Not nearby though” he said as he relaxed his grip, “the blood is cold and almost dry”

He got up off one knee and followed the trail of blood to the body, a single arrow sticking out from under its jaw, sprawled over in a mound of dirt and cobblestone.

“These are Silvia’s arrows. She came north”

He glanced down for a moment and paused in deep thought.

“Maybe I should go east instead. I mean if she’s going to the red mountain”

He looked north for a moment and turned left.

“I need time before I can face her again after what I did”

His complexion was pallid and cold as a chill rushed through his veins to his heart.

He trekked day and night through the woods until he reached a small mound in the earth topped with golden grass which attracted butterflies from all around.

“Glitter grass!”

He rushed up to the mount and grasped a lock of it in his hand and got to work harvesting it with his dagger.

“Hmph” a grizzled voice sounded out from behind him.

“Huh?” Yuta said as he turned toward the voice, “Oh I’m sorry is this patch your crop?”

“No”

“So it is okay if I take some then?” Yuta continued without barely looking at the short statured man.

“It isn’t yours either” the man said as he gently placed his hand on Yuta’s shoulder.

Yuta turned over his shoulder and looked into the man’s eyes.

His eyes were amber colored, and his skin a mossy green. The creature’s pointy ears extended far beyond that of an elf or a gnome.

“You’re a goblin?”

“No, I am Gid”

“What is a Gid?”

“Gid is me”

“Wait, is that the name of what you are or who?”

“Neither matters” the creature said as it tenderly took the glitter grass from Yuta’s hand and planted it back in the soil, “It needs the soil to grow, take it away and no more future does it have. Sad things like this do not make the Gid within grow”

The creature tapped Yuta on the chest with a soft palm and urged him to stand back up.

“You are a tall one. And a strange color you have”

“You mean because I’m not green?”

“No. Deeper within. Your color is like that of the sap of the willow”

“Right… Isn’t sap of the willow brown, red, and yellow?”

“Mmph, you know plant well?”

“Not really, I was just forced to brew potions for a while”

“Powerful potions, yes?”

“Yeah, look, it was nice to meet you and all Gid but do you mind if I just grab some of this grass and go?”

“It is no matter to Gid”

Yuta smiled and reached for the glitter grass he had plucked from the earth.

“But it will be a matter to you, god soul”

Yuta’s fingers unwrapped from around the grass.

“How do you know about that?”

“I know it because I am sent”

“Sent by who?”

“By myself!” Gid said with a proud slap to his chest.

“Bah, whatever, you are just some crazy old goblin. Bet the other goblins pushed you out of the cave because they couldn’t make sense of you either”

Gid stared at Yuta silently as he shoved glitter grass into his backpack in big wadded handfuls.

“You hurt yourself often like this?”

“Huh? Hurt myself? Haha, what are you babbling about”

“Make words that break the soul of meaning between who you talk and what they mean to say”

“Speaking of broken meanings, your broken english is pretty bad too”

“Ah, so you do. I can help! Gid knows much!”

“Sure sure, I’d love to stay and talk, but I’ve gotta go” Yuta said as he dusted off his hands and pushed through the brush off towards the east.

“Your god soul will save you from much, but not even it can save you from who you choose to become, this warning I give”

Yuta glanced over his shoulder for a moment with a scowl at the odd goblin, “Yeah… I figured out that much already”.

…

Ezee trotted merrily through the brush, the scents and sounds of the forest around him echoing a soothing melody as he made his way back home to Mirio and the long faced one that likes the grass.

His memories flickered back for a moment, to when he was only a knee joint high, looking on at the long face one as it chewed the grass.

*Is that how one gets so tall?*

Nip Nip

The grass snapped off between his lips and tongue.

*Blah! Its bitter!*

Ezee’s jaw dropped open with a happy pant as he wound around a large tree.

*I grew anyway without the grass*

He looked up at the tree and took in a sniff before turning on his haunches and lifting his leg.

*Ahhhh, feels good, its the little things that matter to make a day bright*

He lowered his leg and trotted off again through the trees. He stopped sharply and turned his ears off to a sound in the distance.

*More humans*

He lifted his chest and took in a big gulp of air.

*Two ahead, and three more behind, hunting… Humans good at hunting, but not good at running*

He swiftly moved up closer to the men trailing the two up ahead and observed the sound of their movements as he remained hidden behind the trees.

*These ones smell of poisons and old blood on them. They have hunted before*

He turned to the two ahead and sniffed the air.

*A little one with many pots of different grasses already chewed, he must be like the long faced one, fooled into thinking it helps them grow. In fact I think it does the opposite. Poor little one.*

He trotted up further ahead and sniffed again through the trees.

*And a woman, who smells of soft things, but carries hopes of steel in her worn hands. She fights, but not like Mirio. The other three will take these two down easily*

“Princess! We’ve run out of time, you must run ahead to the city, I will hold them off” Gladly said as a hurried whisper.

“No, I can’t just leave you, I can fight!”

“There isn’t time, get to the city and the Duke’s men will protect you, go!”

Alyssa looked at the noble gaze of Gladly for a moment before deciding to trust him and run for the city.

“They’ve spotted us!” an assassin in brown mottled garb said from behind the trunk of a tree.

Gladly stamped his feet into the ground and wound both of his arms around himself, causing a shockwave to draw a circle in the dirt a couple of paces out around him. He drew in his elbows and flicked the tips of his fingers in multiple directions, etching lines in the magic circle that now surrounded him.

“I call upon the power of the mind, to draw from their senses, and cause them to lose touch with what grants them grace. Enfeeblement”

The lines in the soil lit up with purple fire, and a wave of compressed air blasted in all directions as he spun his fingertips towards two of the assassins.

“Ack!” one of them yelled as he tripped over the roots of the tree he was stood behind.

“Get him now, before he gets off another spell!” another snapped.

The third rushed forwards, and unsheathed his dagger.

FWET FWET

The daggers shot through the air with blinding speed, but shot past Gladly’s ear.

CLUNK

The second assassin’s feet tangled up underneath each other and he tumbled to the ground.

The third assassin that had avoided the initial spell and who had a tattoo of a dragon’s jaws over one eye leapt out and shot towards Gladly.

Gladly rummaged around the back of his belt and gripped tight to a flask, and tossed it quickly to the ground in front of him.

As the glass broke, the forest filled with grey.

Gladly quickly swung his arms in a circle and then twisted his fingers in several directions.

“I cast the light of madness, that resides deep within every soul, into the mind’s eye of the one who intends to kill”

A purple glow shone out from within the smoke, and a bolt of purple magic shot towards the assassin like a bee.

“Gah!”

The assassin spun in the air as he dived off behind a tree to lose the track of the magical bolt.

“I fucking hate illusionists”

He rustled his hand in his back pouch and pulled out a glowing orb and tossed it to the closest of the enfeebled assassins.

PSHH

The orb broke on contact with the magic surrounding the grounded assassin, allowing him to leap up through the shadows with thinblade drawn.

SHHHAAA

The slice was clean and without sound.

Gladly clutched at his neck as it gushed with his warm blood.

“No… The princess… I can’t let it end like this…”

*But do I even have a choice…*

Gladly’s vision faded to black, and all that remained around him was the shuffle of footsteps as the assassins gathered up their third compatriot and took up chase of the Princess.

“No…”

Gladly reached out his hand into the darkness and gathered up the last of his mana he could still feel and pooled them into one last spell.

Ezee trotted up to the edge of the smoke cloud and watched on as the little man lifted his arm to the sky, and let out a stream of magical colours into the sky.

Help

The assassins shot through the woods at incredible speed as Alyssa sprinted for the city.

REEEEEK

A wyvern rider flying over the city turned towards the signal in the sky and blew past the tops of the trees at terrifying speed. The impact of the wind shaking the tree tops.

“I just have to get out of the trees!” Alyssa said to herself as she turned to a thin patch of trees.

The assassins slowed for a moment and pointed up at the rider and nodded to each other, before splitting off in different directions.

Ezee trotted along behind them watching them as they ran in all different directions. He then gazed up with one eye at the sky as the Wyvern made another pass.

*Hrmm, I wonder if I can end this by just moving her elsewhere*

Ezee shot towards the soft smelling woman and her hard worn hands.

His footsteps pattered as he shot straight towards her at astounding speed. Alyssa’s eyes opened wide as she saw a great beast rocket up behind her.

*Don’t try to hit me lady!*

Alyssa dived to the side and drew her blade, slicing it across Ezee’s fur.

Tufts of hair hung in the air a moment as Ezee shot past.

*Damn humans*

He thought as he fell to one side, as pain shot up his side.

*It is hard to tell what they will do*

Blood poured from a gash in his side about a foot long. He pulled himself up onto his feet and trotted off on three legs back towards home.

The wyvern rider gazed down from up high, and stared at Ezee as he limped out of the woodlands onto the road.

The wyvern’s wings tucked in tight as the beast shot down towards him.

Ezee looked up with one eye.

*Ah… Damn*

He spotted a place between houses and hobbled as fast as he could towards the gap.

The wyvern’s wings rippled in the wind as it shot them open and curved up from its intercept path, swinging back around to look for another target.

Ezee sat down in the shade between the houses and licked his wound.

Alyssa darted out of the trees with her sword drawn in a panic and turned towards the gates of the city.

“I’m here!” she shouted, “Come help me!”

The guards at the gate jogged over towards her, with sword and shield drawn.

“What is going on here?”

“I am princess Alyssa of the southern kingdoms, the Duke has sent me here, please I must get inside right away!”

The guards looked at each other and nodded in agreement as they huddled her behind themselves.

“Get behind us, and we’ll get you to the gates”

The men backed slowly towards the gates, searching the tree line for movement at each step.

REEEEEEK

The wyvern screeched as it thudded down beside them.

“Princess? We’ve been looking for you, I’m glad you made it, climb on. I will take you to the Palace”

“Thankyou!” she said as she clambered up toward the rider and grasped his hand.

FWOCK FWOCK FWOCK

The wyvern shot into the sky and then peeled out over the city toward the palace.

The guards let down their swords with a relieved smile, “Ha, she got here after all”

“Yeah, its a spot of good luck in amidst the shit”

“Hey! You two, what are you doing away from your posts!”

“Uh sorry sir!”

…

FWOCK FWOCK FWOCK

The wyvern glided over the city in a moon shaped arc, sweeping its way towards the palace tower, nestled in the side of the red mountain. With several hard flaps of its wings it hovered in the air for a moment before landing at the top of the tower. Alyssa stepped off the back of the beast and hopped down onto the stone.

She peered across the way to a silver haired mage who stood there appraising her, while his hair fluttered in the wind. Her golden eyes darted around for a moment before she turned over her shoulder to gaze down at the city below.

“The Duke will be with you in a moment” the wizard whispered over her shoulder as his eyes followed her gaze to the city below.

“Master magician, would you be so kind as to save the one that brought me here…”

The wizard looked up from the city to the faded signal written in the sky.

“I have seen to it already”

“Good”

The Duke’s heavy footsteps punched against the stone as he stepped out of the stairwell. His golden hair flowed in the wind like a lion standing upon a mountain top. He gazed at Alyssa with a warm smile.

“My apologies for the rough journey, I sent elite troops to escort you, but now I see that they weren’t good enough. You have my word that if should something happen again, I will spare my best”

“No apology needed. I am surprised to be saved at all truth be told. Tell me, why save a member of the kingdom that brings war to your doorstep after a thousand years of peace”

The Duke nodded at the wizard who stepped back and flicked his fingers in sharp snapping motions before flicking up a spell. The city scape fell away as a dark veil closed around them, the tower’s stone floor was now the only reminder left of what was real.

“Forgive my theatrics, but there is no telling what scrying eyes search this roof top. I saved you for a selfish reason. In order to win this war, you must take the throne from your brother”

“I would like to help you with that, I really would, but I am no queen… Just some silly girl who grew up in a castle”

“If I was in your position I would say the same, better to show yourself as weak and lower people’s expectations, than to show yourself as strong and be called to act on it”

“I’m not just saying I am weak, I am weak. I have only ever had opportunity given to me, I know nothing of how to take it for myself. Even now, I only stand here because you, and your spy network made it possible. My life isn’t even my own, that is how pathetic I am”

“Maybe you are pathetic then, but, your position as a princess is a powerful tool. With enough support, we can establish you as the ruler of the southern kingdom again, and strip the throne from Rainal”

“Ha!” she said with a flick of one of her locks of hair, “Good luck stripping anything away from Rainal once he has a hold of it. He has been planning his war since he was a child”

“I stole you away from him didn’t I?”

“... True”

“Your brother may have been planning this war for the past twenty years, but I have been planning for war for over a century”

Alyssa gazed at him with a curious look, “But you are a human are you not?”

“Come on, we all know how it works as one of royal blood”

“So you cooperate with the black hand? In exchange for their elixirs…”

“I used to. Now I have my own alchemists”

“Smart, but I can only guess what horrors they had you commit while you served their whims”

“Come on, you make it sound like they can tell royalty what to do, it was never as grandiose as all that. Just favours here and there, maybe looking the other way when they had business to do”

“Did they not ask you to kill for them… Or am I mistaken that it is part of the price of membership”

“To kill means nothing to a leader of millions. No matter what I do when making decisions around governing the city, people will die as a result”

“When did you do it? As a boy, when you didn’t know better, with your parents watching over? Or as a man?”

“Let us just say I had more than a few grey hairs at the time. It was my cousin’s idea”

“The King”

“Mhm”

“How can we ever call ourselves leaders if we are too scared to even die like everyone else?”

“It is precisely because we are leaders that we must choose to endure”

“Awfully convenient how circumstance conspires to keep us in our positions though isn’t it?”

The Duke paused for a moment before letting out a smirk, “I knew you had aspirations for the throne”

“No, I hate the idea of it”

“But you already know it is where you are headed”

Alyssa shot a spiteful gaze at the duke, her golden eyes tinged with a hint of red.

…

Rainal tossed off his steel capped boots and slammed his feet up on the war table as he leaned back in his chair. The spymaster lingered in the shadows at the far end of the room and peered out at Rainal tentatively.

“So?” Rainal asked.

“She has entered the city and met with the Duke”

A vein pulsed along the side of Rainal’s temple, “It is going to plan then”

“The trackers were spotted and your sister whisked away to the palace on the back of a wyvern”

Rainal swirled a bit of liquor at the bottom of his cup and placed it down before nodding to the spymaster.

“Good”