Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Imythess, the border between dreams and reality. We hope you enjoy your visit.

Imythess is a creative writing board where you narrate the story of a character in the medieval land of Imythess, on the planet Chaon. Each topic is an opportunity for your character to interact with the world and its peoples by cooperatively writing pieces of a story with other members, one post at a time. We call this role-playing, because you assume the identity of your character as if it were your own.

In order to play, you must register an account for each character you would like to write about, and begin their tale by filling out their basic profile information: Race (human, elf, demon, etc.), class (warrior, mage, etc.), physical appearance, and any other personal details you would like to describe. You are also encouraged to come up with some background history information for what your character's life has been like up to the point at which their story in Imythess begins.

There is no approval process or application required to join, so long as you follow the rules then you are free to write whatever character details you choose. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Create a character now!


If you're already a member, you can log into your account below:


Username:   Password:
Reply
Cairns on the Wine River [FIN]; [ST05][Signups Closed]
Topic Started: Sat Sep 17, 2016 1:22 pm (8,254 Views)
Tanya
Member Avatar


The Marquise brushed off Madame Tanya's first attempt at contacting her, but after assuring herself that the ancient wolf wasn't on the verge of killing them all, she approached a second time to negotiate on behalf of her staff. "Marquise Karstoff? My name is Madame Tanya. I'd like to ask a favour of you. Two of my staff were with me during our disastrous attempt to break into the Wine River Transport Company. They now share my zakona status. If you will pardon them, I am willing to take full responsibility for their crimes. Please, Marquise, add the amount offered for their capture to my own bounty and allow them to go free. I would not have their loyalty punished."

She had considered bargaining for her own pardon as well, but decided against it. Her reputation among the high and mighty of Balefire was beyond repair, and the new market she'd found among the criminals and outcasts would hardly be impressed to learn that she'd sold out to the Marquise. But if Tatiana agreed to this proposal, Tanya would be able to send her staff on missions in Balefire, cement her reputation among her staff as worth sticking by, and, perhaps most importantly, get a significant boost in her bounty - and hence notoriety - in Balefire.

"Mm..." Tatiana looked at Tanya with purpose. "That's quite a commitment to your followers. I like it. Since they were just going by your orders, I'll take that deal. You'll wear the bounty for all their crimes, and they'll be protected under the law again." The old wolf kept staring. "I have to say, though, you look familiar. Have we met before? Or maybe I've just seen you around."

Tanya nodded appreciatively. "Thank you. Maybe it'll be enough to lure some zakona hunters after me back home. It'd be good to keep in practice." She frowned slightly, narrowing her brows. "I don't think we've met. I've seen you giving speeches, but never made as much of a show of myself as today. Do you have any idea where you remember me from?"

Aufdein Korso had said over the metamana he intended to meet her, but she hadn't seen him since he gave her a lift onto the scorchliner at the beginning of the attack. Now that there was a lull in the hostilities, Tanya set out to track him down. "Mr. Korso?" she called out when she saw a figure that might be him. "Ah, good. I was looking for you. You said you were going to try to meet me on board the scorchliner. Did you have anything important to tell me?"

Before Tanya was even done speaking, Aufdein practically tackled her with a hug from all three insectoid arms. He lifted her off the ground, spinning her once before setting her back down. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Suddenly ashamed of his lack of politeness, the motylek stepped back and wrung his hands together in a jumble of chitinous joints. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't thank you quite yet, since you haven't done it yet, but I just was so delighted you would offer me such a kind thing. I was once ridiculed by people who knew my species -- they never thought I was an inventor -- but I also never felt like I fit in with the other motylek. My particular band was still in the process of developing advanced stone tools. But humans! Humans are so... so--!" He sighed wistfully. "Thank you. I'll finally feel comfortable around some sort of group of people."

Tanya laughed, catching her balance from his sudden turns. "No problem, Mr. Korso. Humanity would be proud to accept such a distinguished inventor as yourself. Now, would you prefer your wings to be -" She cut herself off, grinning. "No, we can talk logistics later. We've got a long ride back to Cascadia, after all."

Her smile faded, and she grew more serious. "Oh, and Korso? Thank you for coming back to help us. This could have gone a lot worse if you hadn't been there."

Leaving the ethereal behind for the last time, she again drew out the piece of paper with the communiquill rune. It was crinkled and marked with dozens of notes, some in her hands, some in those of the other Pariahs, but for all its mistreatment it remained her only way of contacting her company back in Cascadia.

Done here. Coming back soon, she wrote. Caedis and Caelum are no longer zakona. Send Nazareth and Lumin in airship ASAP. Arranged for a new branch of Life Eternal run by local apothecary in Nine Angels.

There was no response. Presumably, Greenhorn was off attending to the company's business - or perhaps sound asleep. Tanya had given up on keeping track of Balefire's inscrutable time.

Caedis and Caelum ran up to her, both speaking over top of each other in their haste to find out what had happened. She waved them off. "I'll explain later. Right now, I just need some sleep."

She spoke true, but though she doubtless needed to sleep, it wasn't what occupied her last hours in Balefire. Instead, exhausted but still restless, she wandered through the squatter's camp that had risen around the Castle, proudly looking at the work she and the other Pariahs had done.

Among her last stops before leaving was in Nine Angels, where she wandered into the apothecary for the last time to meet Farethi. "Hello!" she called to the vampiric shopkeeper. "I thought I'd stop by one last time before heading home to Cascadia." She looked around the improved shop, looking at the fully-stocked shelves. "Looks like we got you thriving after all. What's your plan, Farethi? Are you going to stand by the Pariahs who stick around in Balefire? Keep running this shop independently for as long as it holds up? Or..." Tanya paused dramatically before offering her third option. "How would you feel about becoming the very first subsidiary branch of Life Eternal? I could offer you a great deal more security, and any additional staff you might want. You could continue running the shop and making alchemicals, and I'd have a resident surgeon brought in to perform any operations like the ones I did on that middleman and Neriah. What do you say?"

The Main Street Apothecary has been rebuilt, thanks to the Pariahs' generous expenditure in the past. It was even larger than it was before, and bustling with patrons Tanya didn't recognize.

"T-T-Tanya! So glad you s-sssurvived," Farethi said, bowing shallowly a few times. She was dressed better than before, looking more middle-class than her old robes and rags. "W-wow, this is all-ll so much ex-xc-citement at once. I-I... to be honest I d-don't think I c-could get by annnywhere but here. I'd l-like to stay. And... yes, I-I'd be willing to add grafts. W-we can be part of y-your company. As l-long as I stay in full control of my business."

"I'm glad I survived too," Tanya smiled. "Leaving you in control won't be a problem. I won't be able to return to Balefire without being hunted down by bounty hunters, so I need a capable employee to run the store. You've certainly proven yourself that."

The airship touched down some time later. She waved it down, sought out Korso, Caelum, and Caedis, and climbed aboard. Nazareth raised an eyebrow at her. "So? What's the plan?"

Tanya cracked her neck and looked at her passengers. "We're turning this good fellow human. I'll fix whatever problems Scrubknot's got herself into. And then we start pouring resources back into Balefire."

Some of the creatures she'd met here were as close to immortals as she'd ever seen, and now she had some friends close to the ethereal. For the right price, Balefire might be able to give her what she'd spent so long searching for.

But survival before immortality. Her priority, now as always, had to be surviving. And with the bounties of three Wine River Pariahs on her head, that meant getting out of Balefire before her luck ran out and got her hunted down.

OOC
Offline Profile Quote To Top
 
Storyteller[ST]
Member Avatar


Everyone

On the ride back to Nine Angels, there's one last argument brought before Karstoff -- two, actually. Pardoning Ithuen Bearkiller and Cinzia Zuraw. The Old Wolf takes all of your arguments into consideration, or at least you think she is based on how quiet she's being.

"I know I let Tanya barter her employees' zakona status, but that was a unique situation. Those two weren't in any way here of their own accord. They only had two choices: perform criminal acts as ordered by their employer, or be noteless and stranded in Balefire. Even more importantly, their employer is willing to shoulder all the danger of the extra bounty." Karstoff gazes at Zuraw, exhaling sharply through her nose, giving her words a kind of pitiable edge. "It's not enough to have a bad life or a bad situation. Zakona can't clear their names by killing other zakona. However... miss Zuraw?"

The black knight straightens like a soldier, wolf-ears standing on end.

"I can't pardon you. Sorry. But I've had this problem lately. Zakona have been escaping across the border. We've got one hell of a cordon, but there are some that are too sneaky -- they slip through. My proscriptions aren't recognized by any other nation, those bastards. Isn't that horrible?"

She nods, too fervently.

"And you, Ithuen Bearkiller... I looked you up before my visit. Early in your career, you were transferred because you had a psychotic break and almost murdered the entire Distant County Dispatch Office during a snowstorm. You're a drug dealer pushing widzac and even a bit of Bunny through Nine Angels like it's made of candy or something. You turned the Nine Angels Outpost into a gambling pit that hosts regular fistfights using unsafe regulations and downright illegal money collection practices."

"I confess to absolutely none of these things. Even if these allegations were true, it pales in comparison to launching a [removed]ing coup, Your Majesty," Ithuen retorts, borrowing Lorica's earlier terminology.

"Don't call me that. And you have a point, but you might have lucked out. You just so happened to be fighting Roman Hatiri shortly after his betrayal. On the other hand, you've acted as the only federal law enforcement officer in all of Marble County for years. You've diligently carried out orders from HQ, secured a surprising number of arrests, and survived clashes with people bearing all kinds of colorful backswampish nicknames. You also carried out the Taming of Balefire protocols ethically, all while managing the horde of bounty hunters..."

"I humbly request you get to the damn point. If it's loneliness that's making you talk so much, I know of a really good brothel in downtown Balefire." It's hard to tell if the wood elf is joking or being dead serious, or maybe a combination of both.

"I'm going to reinstate your position and rescind your suggested zakona status, but I hope the sheer number of times you get audited for corruption from this point forward will make your eyes bleed."

"Fine. Even if I was corrupt, which you don't have proof for, I would've only been corrupt because I had no goddamn funding or staff. But it sounds like I'll be getting that, so whatever. Thanks, Pariahs, for vouching for me."

***

Lorica, Ithuen carries you to Farethi for some much-needed medical treatment. You tell Farethi you hope that she'll be free of her legal nonsense. Ithuen, sitting nearby trying not to look too concerned about you, chimes in. "Don't worry about her. I'll make sure she's not hassled by anyone."

Neriah is here, too, though she's politely keeping to the background. You wave her over for a final heart-to-heart, telling her to get out of here. Ithuen translates her Bridgetongue for you. "<Thanks. I hope I can be half as strong as you. Heard rumors the government's not just gonna seize the liner stations, but also the big road systems. So that means, err...>" she trails off, looking at Ithuen. "<Nevermind.>" The wood elf cracks up, using her knuckles to polish her brand-new tin badge and draw attention to it.

"Both of you need to get the hell outta my city," Ithuen says. "They'll ream my ass if they know I cavort with criminals on a regular basis. I'm supposed to be the by-the-book administrator now. ...But please visit from time to time, if you can. I'll miss you."

***
Anci, you visit many people.


***

Alexandra, you receive a response letter from Cinzia Zuraw.

Dear Alex,

Thank you for writing to me. It made me so happy that my behavior startled my coworkers. I've been happy in the League. It took me a while to get used to day and night, and how bright the daytime is. I also got to see the ocean for the first time, and I was stunned by how large it was. The amount of fish-out-of-water experiences I had those first couple months was embarrassing but necessary.

I quickly got a security job, which I worked for a few months before attracting the attention of the Prime Minister. Her name is Letty Amara, and she gives off a different feeling than Karstoff did. She recruited me into a unit of the military that I'm not at liberty to share details about, but it's very enjoyable and productive work. I feel like I'm really making a difference. My work matches up with what I think is right.

I made a couple friends, too. One of them is teaching me a language called "signing." It allows me to communicate by making shapes with my hands. It's normally used by people who can't hear, but for me it will help me speak without having to write so much, at least to people who can understand sign.

You were amazing back in Nine Angels. I hope that saving Ithuen Bearkiller isn't taking too much of a toll on you. The Ethereal Plane can be very cruel, but I know from experience that there is light at the end of the tunnel and you can still create an environment that makes you happy. Please don't ever lose hope.

Best wishes,
Cinzia






Epilogue:
Moving On Down


Balefiren swampland drifted past the scorchline windows. At the speed they were going, bioluminescence looked like nothing more than constellations moving across an endless void. Though she'd seen it many times before, the Balefire Clerk couldn't help but stare for a little while, wringing the brim of her bowl-shaped hat in her hands.

"Pretty, ain't it?"

The Clerk turned her head to see a man leaning on her set of seats. "Ah, yes. Agreed," she said. "Would you like to sit, sir? Plenty of room. Since, er... people don't much trust Clerks these days."

The man nodded with a nervous chuckle and slipped into one of the spots across from her. Like most of the passengers here, he was dressed nicer than most, but obviously was well-traveled and not one of the Balefire elite. He was handsome in a bit of a non-traditional way. At a glance he looked like a human -- bright almond-shaped eyes, angular features -- but on closer inspection he had some indicators otherwise. Thin seams around his mouth suggested he'd had some surgery to remove extra mouthparts, though the pieces had been connected in such a skillful way that they looked more like thin tattoos. Suspecting his true nature, the Clerk glanced at his hands, noticing that one extra finger had been added to both.

"It's not safe, though," the Clerk added to her earlier comment. "It's pretty, but the wilderness can't be completely tamed no matter what the transport companies do to it. Just like the people can't be tamed, I suppose."

"Hah! Can't agree with you more, ma'am!" The strange human peeked at the news brimming in mana-ink in front of her. There was a new marketorium on the margins:

Slaski, Kijek & Co.
General Express Forwarders, & Carriers of the Overland Mail.


Nightly Stages to & from the Terminus of the Grand Station, in the Balefire Dominion, & the Laketown Station, in the Cascadian Nation, & the Broken Coast Station, in the Kingdom of Striberg.

Stages leave NINE ANGELS nightly to the above points, & on alternate nights for Blackriver Source (in the Cascadian Nation) & Dafinberg (Kingdom of Striberg).

THE COMPANY RUNS AN
OVERLAND EXPRESS

In connection with their Stage line, & are prepared to carry PARCELS, BANK NOTES, BULLION, GOLD and SILVER COIN, and EXPRESS FREIGHT to all parts of the world at greatly reduced rates. Collections and Commissions promptly attended to. Particular attention paid to the delivery of EXPRESS LETTERS at all points on our routes.

For particulars apply at the office, on West Main Street, Nine Angels City, Balefire Dominion.

"Through thick and thin, the COUSINS COYOTE deliver!"


"We've really come a long way as a country. Things like this wouldn't have been possible if the roads were still privatized. I remember having to pay tolls every time I crossed property lines. And the inspections..." The man shivered.

"It was for the best, but the transition was a lot messier than it even looked. I still have nightmares about the mountain of paperwork on my desk. The Lady Marquise gets all these crazy ideas, but it's us who have to make it all fit together." They both chuckled politely. "You seem like an astute businessman." The Clerk put her hat down on the table in front of her, crossing her legs and gazing outside. "Have you traveled a lot?"

"Why, yes! I've seen every part of these swamps plus most of the continent. And I've met tons of humans, especially recently."

"Sounds nice. Any good stories?"

"Oh, plenty. How long's the rest of this trip again? Been in Cascadia too long I guess." Another set of polite laughter. "Here, I'll tell you the story of my time in Nine Angels. That one's always entertaining."

"Wait. You were in Nine Angels? That backswamp city a bunch of ex-gangsters fixed up?"

"Hey, it used to be leagues worse. It used to be like the wilderness wars before the wilderness wars were a thing. Back when the Wine River Transport Company was still around, and the Taming of Balefire was still at its peak."

"Don't tell me you actually knew the Pariahs." The Clerk's eyes were fixed on the man across from her.

"I did!" He beamed, tugging at his shirt collar with both hands. "I helped them stop a plot to kill the Marquise!"

"I'm--" she sputtered, "--I'm so sorry, sir, I forgot to ask your name."

"No worries. I did the same. My name is--"

Their bodies both jerked toward the front of the scorchliner in unison as the entire floating vehicle juddered, giving off angry metallic screeches. The thick metal plates of the walls tightened, flaring with mana as the vehicle reversed its levitation speed and came to a stop. People next to her flinched, a couple screamed, and the man sitting across the aisle from her even spit out his big cigar. The Clerk was quick enough that she was able to stop her coffee from spilling all over her reading materials.

After the liner came to a stop, an oppressive quiet spread across the group. It only lasted for a few moments before the murmuring started. The Clerk overheard all kinds of wild theories about what was going on, why the vehicle wasn't moving.

"No station outside," she said softly.

The man stood from his seat, leaning over to fiddle with the window. He got it open with a surprising lack of struggle, unlatching it and then pushing the panel outward. The chill of the backswamps flooded into their part of the scorchliner, but it at least gave the Clerk a chance to poke her head outside. They were close enough to the front that it was worth checking.

"Dead gods alive..."

"What is it?" the pseudo-human said.

"There's a man. He was standing right on the ditch as we were coming! Was he suicidal?"

"Let me see."

"Too late. He's boarding."

The man's eyes hardened. It was such a sudden transformation -- from borderline bubbly to the classic 'backswamp eyes' -- that the Clerk found herself sitting back down without realizing. "Stay here, ma'am. Sorry I never caught your name."

"What's going on?!"

The door connecting their section of the liner to the rostrum rooms flung open, and a man covered in snow and mud stepped in. He wore the heavy gear of a backswamp native, fur-lined and durable, with a flatbrim pulled low over his eyes. In one hand he carried a bow, but the other was dragging the corpse of what appeared to be the last of the rostral sentries. He dropped it, punctuating his arrival.

"Have you gone crazy enough to stop scorchline trains by standing in their way?!" the strange man roared across the length of the aisle.

He took an arrow to the chest as a result. The Clerk screamed and rushed to help him, but her sudden movement was rewarded by an arrow embedded deep in the joint of her shoulder. The pseudo-human's eyes widened. "Hide! Hide. Don't worry about me, I have redundant organs just for this kind of thing."

Bleeding heavily, she crawled behind the cover of the seats, hearing the footsteps of the legendary zakona Viktor Dalca approaching.

"Do I know you?" he said in his low, backswamp drawl. "The voice is kinda familiar."

"Th-that's not important. What are you doing?!"

Viktor answered with a shout to the whole group. "Listen up! As of right now, we're not going to Grand Station anymore. We're blowing right past and heading straight to Nine Angels. Anyone who don't agree with this is gonna need to jump off, because I'm not stopping for anything. If you resist, you die. I may be alone, but my name is Viktor [removed]ing Dalca and I got nothing in this world left to lose. I've ridden with Torsten's Operators, the Wine River Pariahs, and the Quiet Road, and I won't go down easy. So don't try it."

Over the next six hours, three passengers were killed.

The Clerk was crumpled in her bloodsoaked chair, holding pressure around her arrow wound for what felt like an eternity. Every so often, Viktor patrolled back and forth. Sometimes he came back to their section with another dead sentry in tow.

He stopped at her seat, where the strange humanoid man was trying to help her stay conscious. The blaspheme slammed his boot against the side of the cushioned chair, creating a loud noise that made the Clerk flinch.

"Hey, grey-hat. Thank your agency for starting all this wilderness shit," Viktor growled. "The invasion of Norwood, the competing companies building the line to Striberg, all the hellhole towns on the way. The zakona gangs running wild, the robberies... It all started with Kir Lantos, didn't it? What kind of idiot organization hires a guy like him, anyway?"

"Sir, it wasn't that simple," the man protested, struggling to breathe because of the arrow obstructing his insides. He bled a clear liquid rather than human blood. "For one, not all Clerks are responsible for hiring. Also, there were many other things that started the wilderness wars. The Wine River Pariahs, for example. They tore down the Wine River Transport Company and persuaded the Marquise to spare Nine Angels while giving her ideas--"

Viktor stared at him for a long moment. "Where the hell've I met you before? My wondering's the only reason I kept you alive."

"Then I've no reason to enlighten you," the humanoid muttered. "But let me tell you this: all these people you've killed, all the liners and coaches and barges you've robbed, hijacking this one... no matter how much you vent, you'll never feel better because your brother's never coming back. The time when your gang ruled Marble County is long gone!"

Especially in this moment the zakona seemed, for lack of a better word, old. His youth in life was still apparent in his square jaw and muscular build, but his skin was covered in bone-lined rips, like he'd been torn apart and put back together a million times. The look on his face was just angry and miserable and done on some level that the Clerk hadn't suffered enough to understand.

She was certain he'd kill him then. But he just deflated. This whole time, Viktor Dalca had been like some kind of wraith of anger, his fury barely controllable. But now, after this mystery pseudo-human had brought up his brother, he just... walked away.

The scorchliner reached Nine Angels. They had torn strips off their clothing to act as makeshift bandages, wrapping them around the points where the arrows were stuck. The Clerk peered out of the window to see the city she'd hoped never to visit. Nine Angels was where the wilderness wars first started. It was where Marquise Karstoff had obliterated the Wine River Transport Company and crumbled the ominous cliff they called Pureblood Point. It was where she issued the challenge to all present and future transport companies: whoever could complete the scorchline between Balefire and Striberg would gain access to all kinds of government benefits.

That competition, true to Balefire's spirit, had sparked rampant development in the backswamps. New towns were cropping up left and right to support the leading edge of the scorchway. To feed those new towns, new stock stations were being established. Trees were felled, wetlands were drained, and monster hunters were incentivized with price-per-head bounties on bestial threats. But at the same time, the Taming of Balefire had never really ended -- just slowed. No more mass arrests, but the zakona who had managed to survive the initial purge had formed into dangerous gangs pursued by law enforcement and freelance bounty hunters alike.

War between the scorchline builders had turned the entire region even more tumultuous. And it all started here: with Nine Angels, Kir, Karstoff, and the Wine River Pariahs.

But Nine Angels itself looked like it had gotten the much better end of the deal. Though it had sparked the scorchliner wars in the wilderness, it did not play much host to them anymore. Not compared to the hellholes deeper in the region. The Clerk of Balefire saw a town that was shockingly middle-class. Nine Angels had a low skyline featuring a modest airship tower. From this distance she could still tell that the buildings were made of average materials, but with craftsmanship that would allow them to last much, much longer than the typical Balefiren semi-slum. It was also a smaller town than she expected, its well-lit streets built on the shores of the frozen lake left behind when Pureblood Point's collapse dammed up the Wine River. Rumor had it that most of the old city was underwater now, including the Pariahs' first hideout, which they had called the Castle.

Nine Angels Station was a bustling hub of activity. Multiple platforms and line-ditches were carved on the approach, all staffed by different companies vying to stay afloat in this cutthroat building-war. Their scorchliner hissed and crackled as it slowed and, eventually, came to rest in one of the central platforms.

Waiting for them at the gate was a huge contingent of Sheriffs. They surrounded the scorchliner, weapons out. The Clerk even spotted a squad of honest-to-goodness Balefiren soldiers, part of a virtually brand-new military for the Dominion.

Before she had time to think, Viktor snatched her and dragged her to the entrance hatch. Pinning a broad blade to her throat, he used his free hand to slide open the hatch and reveal his hostage to the Sheriffs-of-the-Dispatch.

"You think you can kill me?!" he roared.

"Actually, I do."

The speaker, Ithuen Bearkiller, edged past the cordon of deputies and soldiers, hands in the pockets of her longcoat and her tin-moon badge reflecting the colored lights of the scorchliner. One of her legs clattered with every step; rather than a boot, that foot ended in a series of brass piping supported by gears and other little mechanisms. "Been a while, Viktor. Heard you fell back to old habits in the northern counties. Tsk tsk. Yevhen must be rolling in his grave. He hated when you got 'angry.'"

"Ithuen, I swear. If any of you greybacks so much as look at me funny, I'll paint this platform with a Clerk's blood."

"So why are you here?" the wood elf added, not even skipping a beat despite the dangerous hostage situation.

"It's the anniversary of my brother's death. Just visiting his grave."

She cocked an eyebrow. "And you had to hijack a scorchliner train to do that?"

"I'm out of options!" he shouted. "Not everyone got a happy ending. I had no choice."

"Sure, sure." Ithuen slipped one hand out of her pocket, two fingers lifting. All at once, Viktor took three crossbow quarrels from three separate snipers. The Sheriff of Nine Angels blurred toward him, ripping out axes, and threw the Clerk of Balefire aside while hacking and chopping at the zakona. "Are you out of your mind?! What made you think that was a good idea? These things are full of communication runes! We knew everything short of how many hairs are growing off of your chin, you hoon idiot!"

After a violent struggle, she maneuvered Viktor's hands into fetters and whipped him forward. While Ithuen's deputies and the soldiers secured the train, counted the casualties and tended the wounded, the Sheriff herself tied Viktor up and threw him onto her horse like a sack of potatoes. "I'm taking him to the prison," she shouted to her staff. "Once everyone's okay, you're free to disperse."

"Some big-shot now, aren't you?" Viktor grumbled. "I wish they let you die."

"Some people live a bit longer than they ought to." Ithuen directed a pointed look at Viktor. "You know, you could've been great if you'd've stayed. And done good things, not robbed stagecoaches and murdered people," Ithuen said, directing her mount through the streets of the rebuilt city. "Lots of old gang leaders did that. People who cared about Nine Angels. They really cleaned up their image. Very Balefiren, you know?"

They passed a couple public wells and waterworks on their way through the snowy, cobbled streets. Their progress was slowed at one point by a twiggy old swamp-roamer herding sheep in the opposite direction. Ithuen waved at a couple tussockers lounging with their pet dogs outside the Main Street Apothecary & Life Eternal, smoking some foul-smelling herb in their pipes. She spotted bounty hunters chatting next to their horses just outside the Howling Dogs Saloon. Prentum the Prick sauntered outside to discard a bucket of mopwater. The fallen angel nodded respectfully at Ithuen as she passed.

They moved further south, coming upon a paved courtyard marked by a tall, thin monument made of local marble. "What's that?" Viktor said.

"A memorial. To all the innocent people who died during the purges in town."

"I hate this new city," Viktor said. "It's completely different from the one I grew up in."

"Some people can't handle change. So they skip town and kill people and steal their money," Ithuen retorted. "You know. Weak people."

"You're enjoying this way too much."

After passing another herd, this time a small group of cattle being led on a crossroad toward the slaughterhouse, they came across a group of children playing in the street with ragdolls. They paused to gape at Ithuen. "Sheriff! Sheriff caught a bad guy! Look!" The wood elf gave them a nervous wave, trying to look confident, but her face turned red.

She sniffled.

"Are you crying? Because some shitty rats said hi to you?"

"Shut up, Viktor. I'm not." Ithuen rubbed her eye, attention steeled forward.

"I'm surprised they didn't throw a rock at you."

"Me too," she admitted.

While the question of where he was being taken did come up a few times on Viktor's end, Ithuen's answers were always vague. They passed the jail and rode all the way to the shores of the Wine River -- the lake, to be more precise.

It was a glimmering spectacle. The ice was frozen in such a way that it reflected the lights of the city. On the opposite shore, what remained of Pureblood Point jutted out from the water's edge like teeth and gums. And on that pseudo-hill: cairns. Tons of them, barely visible in the low light. Many were decorated with scrappy flags, pieces of rubble from meaningful old buildings, and mementos. Ithuen tore Viktor off her horse and let him sit on the shore for a while, silent.

"Can't take you further than this, I'm afraid." Ithuen lit a cigar, but didn't offer one to her prisoner. "This is your last chance to say your goodbyes to Yevhen before I cut you into pieces and throw you in the hole. You gave up your freedom when you started rampaging across county lines."

He started sobbing. Apologizing, pleading, bargaining, all mixed into barely discernible words as the Sheriff watched. Slowly, quietly, she pulled an ax from her coat, drawing closer to him from behind.

"You'll be remembered, brother," he said. "They'll talk all about you in the stories. About us, about the Pariahs and everything. We used to be like kings around here." Viktor sucked in a tired laugh. "This place will keep changing, but we'll be part of the mythos. We'll never die that way."

A long pause. Ithuen was surprised he'd even managed to form something that coherent, after everything he'd been through up until now.

"Yeah... I suppose this place will keep changing. This whole region," Ithuen said.

She brought the ax down.



OOC
 
Post-Event Release Schedule

New Current Event: Today, check it out
New Alert in Balefire: Today, check it out
Cairns Reward Claim: By Thursday, January 5
"International Relations in the Continent of Imythess" Update: By Thursday, January 12

Normal administration of the site resumes by next week, as Ozan/ST does not feel burned out enough to take a vacation.



...

Offline Profile Quote To Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Enjoy forums? Start your own community for free.
« Previous Topic · Balefire, the City of Lanterns · Next Topic »
Reply

Top RP SitesVote for Imythess at Top Site List Planet
Top Site Lists
Misty Woods created by Helena & Cory of ZNR