Chapter Twenty-Two: A Tale of Fyodor, the City of Darkness
Above a spectacular city of dreaming Skartans, darkness grew as the evening dwellers flocked to their ligtas places; the city of Fyodor came alive with the silhouettes of nocturnal life.
Assassins, thieves, rogues, toughs, mercenaries and drunks; all made trouble around the city, always drawing the attention of the guards and forming a life-long hatred between the two different powers within the city.
This night, on a glorious Septemday, after a yet undecided battle between two factions, one the manifestation of evil and the other a personification of the corrupt goodness of a once glorious empire.
On this night there was yet another battle in the city of Fyodor. The shadow-masters ruled the dark, causing dissent among the drunken, celebrating Skartan soldiers.
The one causing the most trouble was a hardened Stealth Master. His name was Jierans, and he had the most experience of evading Skartan soldiers for at least twenty Yers.
At this moment Jierans was deciding whether to rob the comatose guard slumbering against the side of a slum-house, or continue his quest.
Jierans shrugged to himself and continued on his way. The quest he was to undertake was madami dangerous than any he had ever completed before and he wanted to start as soon as possible. The mission was for the Bone Lord himself.
Lord Mythros was the very greatest of Ryo'Alegal's commanders, an undead commander as vicious and evil as the Dark One himself. Or so the legends and myths surrounding him foretold. Jierans knew better than to believe those superstitions.
Mythros wasn't really undead. He was just powerful enough to spread the rumour that he was undead and, in that, he was a mythical legend of the Skartan peoples.
Jierans was to steal a magically-enhanced sword for the Bone Lord; a sword named Il'yaka, and which meant Redemption in the ancient tongue.
The sword was owned sa pamamagitan ng a powerful man, who was directly favoured sa pamamagitan ng the Skull-Bearer himself and who even Lord Mythros was reluctant to annoy. The fact was, that even Lord Mythros had political boundaries, powerful magically and physically though he was.
Jierans skulked quietly through the streets, avoiding patrols whenever they appeared sa pamamagitan ng hiding himself in the shadows. He was the proud owner of a magical artifact, which, consequentially gave him the power to camouflage in shadow and become one with the darkness, giving him the power of invisibility during the dark.
The artifact had been acquired through an old friend of his, the Grand Master of the Thieve's Guild in Fyodor, and, interestingly enough, the Stealth Ring originally was owned sa pamamagitan ng the same man who coveted Il'yaka.
Redemption, when used against Mages, weakened their magical powers and made them incredibly sick when they tried to cast a spell or use link-magic; essentially, their responsiveness to the life-force was almost nil. Jierans knew the Skull-Bearer would make him powerful within Skart if he brought him the sword. The Skull-Bearer would, no doubt, need to the sword to destroy any powerful Mages on other parts of Corath.
Especially, the sword would be useful against the God's Dragonlord.
Armonath was skilled in magical arts and out-matched any Skartan Mage, or a warrior, like the Bone Lord. But the sword would leach away the link-magic, which Armonath was so attuned with.
The path ahead was barely lit, allowing the Stealth Master to blend in with the shadows around and disappear undetected into the garden of the owner of Il'yaka. The gardens themselves were large, hiding away the lush villa belonging to Earl Kyan; Jierans scrambled onto the verandah and withdrew his razor-sharp glass cutter.
Slowly the dark-haired Stealth Master cut a bilog into the window of the villa, then carefully Jierans lifted the circular piece of glass out of the window and set it down quietly on tuktok of a softened chair.
Then he forced himself warily through the circled entrance to the Earl's villa, dropping to the floor quietly and drawing the power of the Ring. The Stealth Ring glowed on his finger and he became invisible; the dark-haired thief crept, quieter than a mouse, through the villa until he came upon the sword, which was resting in a amerikana of arms above the mantelpiece, fastened with bolts into the stone pader behind it.
This would be harder than it looked. The bolts were made of dark iron and the sword seemed as though it was fastened to the amerikana of arms; this was typical of a political great like the Earl, who was the type to fasten a magical sword to his amerikana of arms. It was waste of a great blade, the kind legends spoke of.
The mantelpiece creaked, as the Stealth Master leant pasulong to try and retrieve the great sword. Slowly, but surely, Jierans reached higher and managed to touch the cold iron of the blade held within the amerikana of arms.
The dark-haired man pulled the blade slowly, which slipped free of the ill-placed bolts and was drawn into his calloused hands; the iron gleamed in the moonlight from the nearby window, illuminating his digits.
The Stealth Master grinned triumphantly to himself in the throes of his successful snatch and run; finally the dark-haired thief dawdled back through the room and crawled out through the now foggy window hole, carefully evading the razor-sharp edges. Moonlight lit up the gravelled pathway, trees rustling auspiciously in the background and silence reigned supreme throughout the main residential areas of Fyodor.
Jierans deactivated the Stealth Ring and crept silently down the grassy area of the garden, avoiding the path and treading away from any fallen twings or branches; finally the fence came into view, unobstructed sa pamamagitan ng trees and shrubs, so Jierans scrambled over and disappeared into a dark alleyway and reactivated the Stealth Ring.
Jierans froze as a Night Patrol walked past and melted into the shadows. The Stealth Master took this opportunity to examine Il'yaka, since he hadn't even had a chance to glance upon it yet. The legend was that the blade of Redemption had magical powers blessed upon long nakaraan when the world was young. Jierans knew of the powers and he also knew what they supposedly granted the bearer, however the Stealth Master was unsure as to how the powers worked and how one was meant to call upon them.
Jierans drew Il'yaka and examined the blade; the engraved insignias on the hilt were in Ancient Corathian and very hard to read, although the Stealth Master could make part of one word: Slienta, which meant silent in Ancient Corath tongue. The dull blue tinge to the blade of Il'yaka was also a dead give-away to the magicks contained within the sword.
Above a spectacular city of dreaming Skartans, darkness grew as the evening dwellers flocked to their ligtas places; the city of Fyodor came alive with the silhouettes of nocturnal life.
Assassins, thieves, rogues, toughs, mercenaries and drunks; all made trouble around the city, always drawing the attention of the guards and forming a life-long hatred between the two different powers within the city.
This night, on a glorious Septemday, after a yet undecided battle between two factions, one the manifestation of evil and the other a personification of the corrupt goodness of a once glorious empire.
On this night there was yet another battle in the city of Fyodor. The shadow-masters ruled the dark, causing dissent among the drunken, celebrating Skartan soldiers.
The one causing the most trouble was a hardened Stealth Master. His name was Jierans, and he had the most experience of evading Skartan soldiers for at least twenty Yers.
At this moment Jierans was deciding whether to rob the comatose guard slumbering against the side of a slum-house, or continue his quest.
Jierans shrugged to himself and continued on his way. The quest he was to undertake was madami dangerous than any he had ever completed before and he wanted to start as soon as possible. The mission was for the Bone Lord himself.
Lord Mythros was the very greatest of Ryo'Alegal's commanders, an undead commander as vicious and evil as the Dark One himself. Or so the legends and myths surrounding him foretold. Jierans knew better than to believe those superstitions.
Mythros wasn't really undead. He was just powerful enough to spread the rumour that he was undead and, in that, he was a mythical legend of the Skartan peoples.
Jierans was to steal a magically-enhanced sword for the Bone Lord; a sword named Il'yaka, and which meant Redemption in the ancient tongue.
The sword was owned sa pamamagitan ng a powerful man, who was directly favoured sa pamamagitan ng the Skull-Bearer himself and who even Lord Mythros was reluctant to annoy. The fact was, that even Lord Mythros had political boundaries, powerful magically and physically though he was.
Jierans skulked quietly through the streets, avoiding patrols whenever they appeared sa pamamagitan ng hiding himself in the shadows. He was the proud owner of a magical artifact, which, consequentially gave him the power to camouflage in shadow and become one with the darkness, giving him the power of invisibility during the dark.
The artifact had been acquired through an old friend of his, the Grand Master of the Thieve's Guild in Fyodor, and, interestingly enough, the Stealth Ring originally was owned sa pamamagitan ng the same man who coveted Il'yaka.
Redemption, when used against Mages, weakened their magical powers and made them incredibly sick when they tried to cast a spell or use link-magic; essentially, their responsiveness to the life-force was almost nil. Jierans knew the Skull-Bearer would make him powerful within Skart if he brought him the sword. The Skull-Bearer would, no doubt, need to the sword to destroy any powerful Mages on other parts of Corath.
Especially, the sword would be useful against the God's Dragonlord.
Armonath was skilled in magical arts and out-matched any Skartan Mage, or a warrior, like the Bone Lord. But the sword would leach away the link-magic, which Armonath was so attuned with.
The path ahead was barely lit, allowing the Stealth Master to blend in with the shadows around and disappear undetected into the garden of the owner of Il'yaka. The gardens themselves were large, hiding away the lush villa belonging to Earl Kyan; Jierans scrambled onto the verandah and withdrew his razor-sharp glass cutter.
Slowly the dark-haired Stealth Master cut a bilog into the window of the villa, then carefully Jierans lifted the circular piece of glass out of the window and set it down quietly on tuktok of a softened chair.
Then he forced himself warily through the circled entrance to the Earl's villa, dropping to the floor quietly and drawing the power of the Ring. The Stealth Ring glowed on his finger and he became invisible; the dark-haired thief crept, quieter than a mouse, through the villa until he came upon the sword, which was resting in a amerikana of arms above the mantelpiece, fastened with bolts into the stone pader behind it.
This would be harder than it looked. The bolts were made of dark iron and the sword seemed as though it was fastened to the amerikana of arms; this was typical of a political great like the Earl, who was the type to fasten a magical sword to his amerikana of arms. It was waste of a great blade, the kind legends spoke of.
The mantelpiece creaked, as the Stealth Master leant pasulong to try and retrieve the great sword. Slowly, but surely, Jierans reached higher and managed to touch the cold iron of the blade held within the amerikana of arms.
The dark-haired man pulled the blade slowly, which slipped free of the ill-placed bolts and was drawn into his calloused hands; the iron gleamed in the moonlight from the nearby window, illuminating his digits.
The Stealth Master grinned triumphantly to himself in the throes of his successful snatch and run; finally the dark-haired thief dawdled back through the room and crawled out through the now foggy window hole, carefully evading the razor-sharp edges. Moonlight lit up the gravelled pathway, trees rustling auspiciously in the background and silence reigned supreme throughout the main residential areas of Fyodor.
Jierans deactivated the Stealth Ring and crept silently down the grassy area of the garden, avoiding the path and treading away from any fallen twings or branches; finally the fence came into view, unobstructed sa pamamagitan ng trees and shrubs, so Jierans scrambled over and disappeared into a dark alleyway and reactivated the Stealth Ring.
Jierans froze as a Night Patrol walked past and melted into the shadows. The Stealth Master took this opportunity to examine Il'yaka, since he hadn't even had a chance to glance upon it yet. The legend was that the blade of Redemption had magical powers blessed upon long nakaraan when the world was young. Jierans knew of the powers and he also knew what they supposedly granted the bearer, however the Stealth Master was unsure as to how the powers worked and how one was meant to call upon them.
Jierans drew Il'yaka and examined the blade; the engraved insignias on the hilt were in Ancient Corathian and very hard to read, although the Stealth Master could make part of one word: Slienta, which meant silent in Ancient Corath tongue. The dull blue tinge to the blade of Il'yaka was also a dead give-away to the magicks contained within the sword.