Fable - Ask Weirdos From Another Dimension

[Smiling One]

It's been far too long.....
I have walked underground for thousands of years keeping the spirit of the Dwarves
But time.... it feels that has no beginning, no end, no purpose.
I've transformed myself giving up everything to stop him... stop them, I sacrificed my brethren, my people, my soul
I have come face to face to God and I have deterred on the edge of the Abyss
My time for forgiveness has long passed there is only the Dread and only vengeance
I live only for death and destruction the Dwarf that was once King is gone
There is only the God and the Black Ones who fell from the sky.
The monument of my sins
Age of Wonders is over..... I know it but the culture, technology, intelligence and wisdom lives on through me
The Black Ones: The Shadow Servants stir..... they have found something a way to the back skies above
I gather my people and meet them in one final battle afterwards I will face the Abyss lost in thought, lost in fury
Lost in time...….

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Ever since the death of her husband and disappearance of her eldest son, Gwendolynn Bochanan had spent much of her time alone and in mourning, leaving most of the running of the Estate to her eldest daughter Myrcella. Given that she was betrothed to Richard Henry the Eighth , it was about time that she learned how to run a household. That gave Gwendolynn all the time that she needed to mourn alone.

But of course something had gone wrong. Both Myrcella and Richard had been gone all day and into the night. Everyone knew that those two bickered worse than cats and dogs. No one could imagine their marriage working well for either of them. But they had to make the best of it.

So why were they so late coming home? Were they finally going to put their egos aside and accept the future given to them? Or at best, were they trying to kindle a romance? Whatever the case, they had no right to make her worry.

Gwedolynn stood on the balcony overlooking the fields where the two of them had apparently raced off. She sipped from the wine glass that she held in her hand, squinting her eyes to search for movement in the moonlit night. "Hurry back home Myrcella. Dawn is approaching and I've got a proper scolding waiting for you."

 

[Lazule]

A bright and violent flash in the distance.

Lonely in the night. The shadow of Arethil crawling back over the moon, stealing its fullness.

And the waters of the Cairou River flowed.

* * * * *​

Gaius stumbled into the small abandoned fisherman's shack by the river and fell down and rolled over onto his back. His right leg was missing below the knee. Steam rising from the grievous wound. He was a young man shy of his twentieth year.

Lazule walked after him. The torch in her left hand and its orange light spilling into the shack as she entered.

"Just wait," Gaius said. "Wait, wait, wait!"

"And there are those who speak with corrupted tongues," Lazule said. "Let their words fall unto deaf ears. For they have lost the sanctity of personhood."

"Listen to me!" Gaius held up his hands. "I can't control it. I never asked for it. My mother, she's in Elbion, she's worried about me. Talk to her. Please, I...I need help!"

Lazule stomped her boot down his chest, pinning him. Her eye to the flame writhing atop her torch. The light in the shack warping in strange ways as it was pulled away and it began to coalesce in the palm of her free hand. And she recited, "Know that the poison of cruelty cannot be expunged, and that mercy is a thing most fragile. Here you find the signature of the Wicked, the Corrupted, the Monster, and this delineation is absolute."

Gaius pleaded, "I'm still a human being! I just have a sickness! Please! There must be a cure! There must--"

"Carry with you their names, and deliver unto them their just recompense."

Needles of Light shot forth from her extended palm at a rapid and continuous rate into the head of the young man beneath her. The Needles tore through flesh and bone and all else and she unleashed Needles until his head disappeared into a chaotic spray of red along the ground and the walls. A blood flower, blossoming at the neck.

Small convulsions of his pleading hands. Then all went limp.

She crouched and turned over Gaius' left hand and examined it. There, the described birthmark. She manifested the Shiv of Light in her palm and cut his hand and dismissed the Shiv and deposited the severed hand into her satchel and stood.

And she set fire to the shack and watched it burn and the falling ash and debris buried the body and this became her shrine.

* * * * *​

"Is it done?" The guard captain asked.

Lazule reached into her satchel and withdrew the hand of the werewolf and set it on the captain's desk. He examined the shriveled flesh and spotted the birthmark and motioned to his aide who stepped out of the room and returned shortly with the pouch of docatte.

He set it on the desk and the guard captain pushed it toward Lazule and Lazule pushed it back toward him.

"No, take it," the guard captain said, pushing it back toward her. "Take it this time."

Lazule just looked down at the pouch. Her eye drifting up after a moment to the captain. She said, "Are there any more contracts for monsters?"

"Not at this time, no." He made folded his hands over his stomach and gestured back with his head. "Why aren't you at your Fortress, Monster Hunter? I imagine there should be plenty of contracts there."

Her downward gaze upon him. Held steady. "Those who hunt do not require a fortress."

She gingerly picked up the pouch of coins and fixed it to her belt and looked back at the captain, her expression softening. She said, "I wish you a good d-day, Captain."

She turned.

"Wait."

She glanced back. And the captain reached for a paper and extended it out toward her. "Here. Look this over. The Kingdom of Cintria opened up its borders recently. I suppose it would be worth a look for someone like you. It's a ways east of Elbion, but--" he motioned to the pouch on her belt, "--you've the means for ample provisions."

"Thank you, C-Captain."

He nodded.

* * * * *​

Bochanan.

The surname of she who sent out the contract. The guard captain in Elbion had further explained that the contracts had been sent primarily to the Monster Hunter Fortress, thus his suggestion that it would be noteworthy to Lazule's interests. The eldest daughter of the Bochanans, Myrcella, had gone missing along with her betrothed. In the contract it was not explicitly stated that monsters of some variety were responsible, but such was possible. And if not here, perhaps in Cintria elsewhere lurked her quarry.

Navigation through Cintria proved to be difficult. Here in this Kingdom an open and unrestrained suspicion of those foreign, far more so than in Elbion or Alliria or the like. Her search for the Bochanan estate proved very inefficient, becoming lost in the unfamiliar lands and finding the next castle or settlement to reorient herself only to discover that they did not know and could merely point to the next settlement or castle for perhaps someone who did.

In all Lazule's travels along the roads and paths of Cintria, peace. No monsters or signs thereof. Yet this lack of evidence did not mean that all were slain. And thus her duty bid her forward.

At last.

With the firm assurances from those of the last castle Lazule had visited, she believed she now stood outside the gates of the Bochanan Estate.

And it would be known if her travel served a righteous purpose.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella had held back her tears for most of the time that they had been on the run.

Until now.

After she was tossed up to another level in the cave by some underwater creature, another that looked and smelled like a giant rat picked her up in his mouth and carried her away. Myrcella was certain that she was to be eaten and out of fear she fainted. Only to later wake up in some old cell.

It was here that Myrcella began to cry as she huddled up in one of the corners. Her dress was torn with much of it missing, so by now she was feeling the damp chill of her soaking wet clothes.

Time seemed to drag on. Most of the time she slept to try to ignore the pains of hunger. Little did she know that a couple of days had already passed. The moist air didn't help make things better and as far as she could tell there was no way out. Nor did she even know why she was being held to begin with.

Becareful what you wish for....Isn't that how the saying goes? Myrcella had wished weeks ago to get out of marrying Richard Henry the Eighth , but this isn't how she wanted it to go. Was death the only way out of a betrothal? Well if that was the case, she'd rather be his wife if it meant that she'd be alive, and warm, and safe.

Hopefully that could still happen...

Meanwhile, at the gates to the Bochanan Estate, Lazule was met by one of the guards. Another watched a short distance away. "State your name and your business."

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

The Redcaps patrolled Myrcella's cage for the past two days, every now and then they would stare at Myrcella and snarl and howl with laughter. "Sacrifice!" One Redcap said enthusiastically. "Sacrifice to weird ones!" Another would say. The weathered gnomes would use their Scythes to bang against Myrcella's bars trying to keep her awake and frightened.

"Almost there!" One Redcap would say to another. "Weird ones at war with the great bomb." The other Redcap nodded stroking his scraggly dark blond beard. "They need to clear a path," he said. "Before we take the girl to the weird ones."

"Yes!" The Redcap said. "But why can't we cut her open now! Her flesh and soft and tender just the way I like it!" The Redcap growled in hunger. "I want to rip legs off! She doesn't need it! Girl will be still alive and I get a taste of blood!"

"Silence!" The other Redcap shouted punching him in the face. "The weird ones demand that we keep the girl intact meaning no harm to her!"

"But just one-"

"NO!" The Redcap bellowed. "She stays unharmed.

Just then a pebble came flying from the left hitting one of the Redcaps in the head. "Ow!" he shouted his blood red eyes darting trying to see who threw it. "Who-"

It was the last words he said before a silver sword plunged through his neck. The other Redcap howled and leapt at the figure only to be bisected halfway through. The man then looted the corpses and found a key on the one he stabbed through the neck. He then opened the cell door and approached Myrcella smiling.

"Sorry to keep you waiting my dear Myrcella," Richard smiled kneeling next to her. "I was a bit delayed."

 

[Lazule]

Lazule stood as still as stone and tracked the guard's approach with her eye. His words were simple and straightforward. Most times they were in conversations of a transactional nature, and this made them appreciably easy for her to understand and follow. Here objectives were known and demands were clear, unlike other social interactions which could prove far more difficult and served only to further underscore her ineptitude outside of her rigid way of being.

State your name and your business. As defined as a mantra.

"My name is Lazule," she said. The lie natural. Necessary.

She reached into her traveling satchel and pulled out the contract the captain had given her. Presented it to the Estate guard. "I am inquiring about a c-contract concerning the Bochanan Estate. Have I come to the right p-place?"

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

And frightened she was. Myrcella kept as far away from the Redcaps as she could from within her cell, huddled in as small of a form as she could make herself to be, just as any prey would while being taunted by predators. And that was what she felt like; prey. Most especially as they tormented her about wanting to feed her to something.

Yet something changed. One of them was startled. Myrcella lifted her head to look, only to watch as the Redcaps were under attack. Blood and startled screams filled the air.

But her tensions eased as Richard Henry the Eighth entered the cell. She very nearly cried out with joy as she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss. "Oh Richard, you came back for me! Did you bring an army? They spoke of sacrificing me to what they called the weird ones. You've got to get me out of here." And of course her ankle was still sprained. Yet still Myrcella got to her feet, using Richard for balance.

Meanwhile at the Bochanan Estate...

The guard eyed Lazule very carefully as she produced the contract. Taking it in hand he looked it over and after a moment of silence, he nodded and handed the contract back to her. "You have. Come, I will take you to Her Ladyship."

Both guards escorted her along the courtyard to enter into the foyer of the Estate while a third guard seemed to come out of nowhere and take position in front of the gate. Lazule wasn't led any further than that while one of the maids went to fetch Gwendolynn.

After a few minutes she could be seen coming down the hall, with ladies in tow. Her blonde hair was pinned up with pearls while her green satin gown complimented the colour of her eyes. She stopped her approach once she was almost within reach. A closed fan was grasped in her left hand while her right remained free. Gwendolynn eyed the woman before her from foot to head before speaking. "I am Lady Bochanan. And who might you be? Where do you hail from?"

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

Richard chuckled as Myrcella gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. The girl looked horrible, half of her dress was ripped off, her ankle was swollen and she looked frightened. "You thought I was going to abandon you Mrycella?" Richard asked as she helped to a stone chair and brushed his thumb against her cheek. "You still look pretty even after all this time," Richard said in attempt to cheer her up.

The Bard Knight spent the last few days following the Redcaps from afar. It seems that for all their fighting prowess, they have low vision. Richard made sure to keep his distance when following them. He didn't know what was going on though. These Redcaps kept talking about "sacrifice" and "weird ones" but why take Myrcella? What was going on in this cave.

"Unfortunately I am the army," Richard said sadly. "I didn't want to lose your trail Myrcella and I know about what these Gnomes are talking about. The weird ones and sacrifice it doesn't make sense but I'm not about figure out what they all mean."

Richard then lifts Mrycella in a bridal carry. "Shall I take you home my lady?" he smirked.

 

[Lazule]

Lazule slipped the contract back into her satchel and nodded to the guard and followed him.

Her eye scanned the profile of the Estate as she and the guard drew nearer to the front door. This manor a sharp contrast to the meager dwellings of many others in Cintria and elsewhere.

Here a quality that Lazule had difficulty understanding, the stark separation between humans, why some should live as this and others should not, all for reasons that to her seemed needlessly arbitrary. The separation fostered a lack of pulling together in times of desperation, and hindered the permanence of such if it so happened. Even the presence and peril of monsters seemed insufficient in achieving a lasting unity and unconditional caring among mankind.

She waited. Observing.

And Lazule's eye centered on Lady Bochanan when she came and when she spoke.

"My n-name is Lazule," she said. "I hail from Alliria."

Neither answer the truth. But the world was imperfect. And it is so that in an imperfect world imperfect means are required to achieve ends which are ultimately beneficial to the continued maintenance of goodness and righteousness. Thus the truth necessarily dispensed with in service to avoiding potential conflict spurred on by fear and thereby irrationality.

Lazule produced the contract again and held it up.

"Lady Bochanan. I wish to accept this c-contract concerning the man and the woman m-missing by unknown causes."

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

In truth she wasn't sure if Richard Henry the Eighth was either killed or just unable to get back into the cave to find her. But she had no idea of how much time had passed.

She leaned into his hand as he held her cheek, for his hand was soft and gentle, a stark contrast to those that held her captive.

And then he picked her up. Myrcella wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Please do take me home, good Sir." She was tired and hungry. And she just wanted to be at home.

At the Bochanan Estate....

Gwendolynn eyed Lazule with a critical eye, most especially as she admitted to being a foreigner. But she took hold of the cintract and looked it over briefly before handing it back to the woman.

"It has been days since my eldest daughter and her betrothed was seen. They had gone out riding, but that is all that we know and all that you have to go on. Do you have any questions?"

 

[Lazule]

"What are their n-names?"

Their names. It would fall upon Lazule to carry them with her should they be dead. It would fall to her to deliver them recompense if the wicked had so claimed them. And it was only right to know the names of those she would dedicate the shrine to, the final resting place of the innocence in their hearts and the severed offerings of that which had so stolen their light from Arethil, whether fallen man or vile monster. This, if they were dead. She should be prepared.

"In what d-direction were they heading?"

A question of practicality. The weather and intervening time would make it difficult to cut for sign, but it was fortunate that they had been riding horses, the trail made by the beasts of a certain ease to detect. She was not as accomplished a tracker as others, but she had gained a significant amount of insight into the practice during her time spent in the wilderness. One did not always hunt for monsters, as was this case now.

Lazule's brow narrowed. The movement slight.

"My final question. Have you seen personally or heard of any monster activity, either here locally or within the Kingdom of Cintria as a whole."

She stared. Intent. And she did not blink.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

Swiftly and silently, Richard carried Myrcella through the dungeons inside the cells were skeletons of what looked like Dwarves some of their skulls appeared smaller than average resembling that of a child. Richard took a glance at Myrcella's ankle again and winced to see her ankle become full of purple and black bruises. It was a surprise that Myrcella managed to run up and hug him, she can barely walk at the moment! Richard guessed it was the adrenaline, days of torment and loneliness can make anyone grow fond to see anyone familiar.

"Even me," Richard though smiling at Myrella. Getting out of here would be tricky, the Redcaps left some of their people behind so they could search for Richard. The Bard Knight had no doubt that they were still keeping a viligent eye for him even if their eyesight is bad. Until he reached Myrcella's cell Richard hadn't killed any of the wild Gnomes for fear it would give away his position. Now with the young girl back with him, it will make this a bit challenging.

As soon as they were far enough from the prison, Richard set Mrycella down near the riverbank placing her ankle in the cool water. "Best to hold my hand," Richard smiled reaching in his pocket. "I'm not going to let you go."

He got out pieces of what looked to be stale bread and gave it to Mrycella. "Elven bread," he said. "It never spoils and it can fill you up for the time being. Not gormet but reliable I'm sure you're famished."

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella hadn't looked at her ankle yet. As far as she was aware, she was just covered in dirt. The pain was something that she was used to by now, and although the time in the cell had her more or less just in one spot, her ankle wasn't elevated like it should have been, nor was she ever really at rest.

As Richard Henry the Eighth set her down, she jumped a little once her foot was set in the cold water. Were the glowing fish about? At the moment she didn't see as he betrothed kept hold of her hand. And with the other he handed her food. "I don't remember when I last ate!" Myrcella took the bread and immediately had a huge bite. She chewed and chewed, glad that it tasted better than it looked. And it certainly helped her appetite. "Where did you find it?" Surely he didn't have it on him the entire time? Wouldn't it of gotten wet while they were in the water?

Meanwhile at the Bochanan Estate....

Lazule seemed to stutter a little as she spoke. Was it nerves or sonething else? Gwendolynn was sure to keep it in the back of her mind. Some people weren't used to being within a noble's Estate.

And now came the questions of which she felt compelled to answer. " My daughter is Myrcella. Her betrothed is Richard Henry the Eighth. Their marriage would ensure the unity of two kingdoms, so it is very important that they be found as soon as possible." A small gesture of her hand, indicating that the lady follow her as Gwendolynn led her to one of the hallway's tall windows. She pointed towards the horizon in the meadow with a slender hand. "The staff saw them ride to the northwest."

As for the final question, she raised a brow ever so slightly. "Monsters?...There are rumours and fairytales of creatures in the woods, but such things are common, I imagine. There had been no mysterious deaths or missing persons around here. Until now..."

 

[Lazule]

Myrcella Bochanan. Richard Henry. Pray for the best, prepare for the worst. Rare were the occasions in which she saved the living instead of honoring the slain. And thus her work traded most often in vengeance, the prevention of further tragedies by means of righteous violence. The collection of the blood and bone debt accrued by the wicked.

Lazule followed Lady Bochanan. Traced her finger and the direction indicated with her eye. Northwest.

Monsters. Rumors and fairytales. And yet Myrcella and Richard had gone missing. Accident or general misfortune could prove to be the cause. Even men, so afflicted with cruelty and having foregone the sanctity of personhood, may prove to be the cause. Or it may yet be that the rumors and fairytales were more truth than oratory fiction.

A last look to Lady Bochanan. "I shall do all I can to find Myrcella and Richard."

She turned. Left through the manor foyer with the escort of the guard. And thus her search began, crossing from the Estate grounds and into the meadow. A hunt of a kind different before her.