Title TK - Chapter 2

[Malevolence]

For background, I refer you to the background and prologue thread located here This is Chapter 2.

A General Note: If you see anything wrong with any of my writing, please comment in the OOC Comments Thread. Be these problems plot-wise, character-wise, clarity-wise, or grammar/spelling-wise, PLEASE for the love of all that is holy (or unholy depending on your beliefs) tell me! I hate it when people are afraid to be critical. I'm posting this stuff so you read it and give me feedback. That being said, enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Two

“Aye, the Fire Ruby. ‘S huge. Bigger than any one of you lot could carry I tell ye’ that.” The old man said before taking a large mouthful from his own tankard. “Worth a fair bit too, I should say.” Taere's ears pricked up then. He moved from his corner to where the old man was sitting.

“Can I buy you a drink, friend?” Taere asked.

“I dare say ye’ could.”

“Another tankard of Dragonsmeade for my friend here,” he called to the barkeep. “Now, tell me more about this Fire Ruby.” Taere acted extremely interested, though he knew what the Fire Ruby was already. He was a mercenary, hired and sent to find it by the Ctrelli Mechanics Corporation in Æfer.

“Your name first, friend.” The old man said. “I don’t speak to those I don’t know.”

“Neran.”

“Nice to meet ye’, Neran. I’m Peb.”

“Now that niceties are out of the way,” Taere leaned forward on his elbows expectantly, “tell me about this Fire Ruby.”

Peb quaffed his freshly filled tankard and belched before speaking. “The Ctrelli Mechanics Corporation was looking for a new source of power. So when they were shipped a prototype ‘magnifier’ or somethin’ like that from Shojuno, they thought of micro-engineerin’ somethin’ to generate power. Usin’ some weird magicks I’ve never seen, they did this thing up real nice and made it the size, shape, and shine of a 9-inch emerald-cut ruby. They were transportin’ a prototype to Selûne through Cordïd, but their caravan was attacked by thieves from S’aar. The Cloak found the thing after they caught up with the bandits, but refused to return the Fire Ruby since Ctrelli hadn’t registered their border crossing in S’aar.” He chuckled. “So now, ‘s locked up in that prison tower near Colendd.” He shuddered, “Bloody awful place. The bastards keep kids locked up in there. Y’know that?”

“I’d heard things.” Taere admitted.

“Bastards, the lot of ‘em.” There were nods and murmurs of agreement from around them.

Taere nonchalantly stared out the window so as to drift away from that subject. “Well,” he said, getting up, “I’ve got to be leaving; the Inn I’m staying at refuses to let anyone in after dark.”

“That’d be Shan’s place,” someone said.

Taere nodded and drank the last of his mead. “Well, Peb, thanks for the information.”

“No problem. You’ll be goin’ after it I presume?”

He grinned. “Am I that transparent?”

“Aye, ye’ may be at that. Well be careful, ye’ don’t want to be locked up in that hell hole.”



Taere left the tavern, feeling a bit more than tipsy. The sun was starting to go down and the torches were just starting to be lit. He was a big man, not of flesh, but muscle – a natural warrior. Although large, he was fast; and it was this skill that made him an excellent swordsman.

The streets darkened quickly, and he made it back to the inn just in time.

“I’ve half a mind to kick you out.” Shan told him as he walked past her.
“If you did that, you’d lose out on some circlets, wouldn’t you?”

Shan grunted with disapproval and hustled him inside. He held the woman in high disregard. She was a gossip and loved to be the center of attention. Conveniently for her business, though, the inn was the only clean one outside a mile from the Cloak tower.

After barely managing to get himself up the stairs, he collapsed on his bed and passed out.



Morning broke, and a beam of light shone down on Taere’s face. He awoke up with a start and maneuvered himself into the still remaining darkness. He tried to get back to sleep but as morning crept on the sun followed him around the room until all he was fully bathed in light. He swore and got up grudgingly.

He dressed in his full armor and went into the town to see about buying a horse. It was a long way to Colendd and he wasn’t going to walk.

Taere found a stable on the outskirts of town, and settled for a big roan with an unfriendly look in his eyes. When he first came near the horse, the large animal bared its teeth with the intention of biting him. Laughing to himself, Taere brought his fist down on the roan’s muzzle.

“That’s enough of that,” Taere murmured. He turned to the stable keeper and asked, “How much?”

“Are you sure you want this one? He’s awful bad tempered.”

“Quite sure. We’ll get along well. Now, how much?”

“One hundred circlets.”

“You’re kidding me.” Taere turned to leave.

“Well, I could drop the price down to eighty…”

“Or you could drop it to fifty, and call it a good deal for a sub-par animal.”

“Excuse me?”

“Come look at this.” Taere gestured for the stable keep to come over to the opposite side of the horse. Taere looked down at the horse’s underbelly, which had a very noticeable white growth protruding from the brown fur around the middle of its chest.

“That wasn’t there yesterday…”

“Well, it’s here today,” Taere spat out with the slightest hint of acerbity.

Flabbergasted and bewildered by the mysterious growth, the shopkeeper stood staring at the horse for a few moments before speaking. “I paid good money for this animal when it was a foal…I could let it go for sixty-five, but that’s my final offer.”

“Done.” Taere pulled out a pouch and emptied a handful of silver rings into his left hand. Counting them to himself in clusters of ten, he dropped a jingling handful of rings into the stable keeper’s open palm, and led his newly purchased horse out to the main road.

Chuckling to himself, Taere brushed at the growth on the underbelly of the horse. The surface cracked, and the majority of what had apparently been caked-on mud fell off and mixed in with the gravel on the road. Taere clapped his hands together a few times to get the excess mud out of where it had become caked onto his hands, climbed on the horse, and trotted out of the west gate towards Colendd.



The road was hard, and Taere was driving his horse even harder. He had business to do, and he wasn’t going to get it done by strolling. Taere couldn’t help but talk to himself – and occasionally his horse – as he rode towards Colendd. Riding through the seemingly endless landscape of Belden Forest for over four hours was, as one might imagine, pretty boring. After a few fruitless conversations with his mount, Taere realized his horse didn’t even have a name – or, at least, no name he had been told. For what seemed to be a perfectly good brown horse, that seemed odd.

“So, what’s your name?”

The horse didn’t answer. Then again, Taere hadn’t expected him to.

“You need a name.”

The horse snorted. It continued to clop along at a slow trot.

“What do you feel like? Some clichéd word blend? Sunfire? Windwalker?”

The horse jerked the reins a little, and stopped to feed on the side of the road. Taere tried to pull the disobedient roan’s head up, but it was immovably planted in a patch of trail grass.

“How about Dirtnap?” Taere whispered under his breath. And, of course, the horse paid no attention to its rider. Taere yanked on the reins, but to no avail.
“For the love of the Ether, GET MOVING!”

The horse’s head snapped up, and took off straight into a canter down the path. Taere almost fell off head-over-heels and backwards as the horse quickly accelerated.

“Well, I guess your name is Ether.” He paused. “Fine! Choose a better name than I did. Stupid horse…” Taere muttered further to himself, making oaths on innumerable inanimate objects of no real significance.

As Ether continued quickly down the forest road, the edge of the massive forest clearing that Colendd occupied finally came into Taere’s view. The walls of the city comprised densely planted pyrus trees and filler saplings, carved out in the center to create a hollow palisade wall enclosing the entire city in the impenetrable girth of a pyrus forest. The technique was copied from Cylvari Elves living in the region, and worked well for most defensive purposes. Getting through the wall, however, was easier said than done, even for travelers and merchants. The city had one gate at each of the cardinal points of the compass, each of which was exceedingly difficult to find even at the relatively short distance of 100 yards. A merchant might be less than 50 paces from one of the gates, but end up circling the city for another 15 minutes to find the next gate, simply because they were so well camouflaged with branches and nature-mimicking ironwork. Taere, no more skilled in the art of finding the gates than the average merchant, continued to ride around the city for about another hour until he reached the west gate of Colendd.

The gate was a massive wrought-iron portal curved into a leafy-patterned design interwoven with naturally knotted branches and twisting vines. Every few feet, a large, mirror-finished metal leaf would poke out from the otherwise natural-looking ironwork, denoting the presence of an entrance. On top of the palisade, a magically-manipulated wooden cage was perched at the hinge of the left gate, connected to the palisade by a wrought iron spiral staircase.

Taere called up to the apparently empty cage, “Anyone up there?” He heard some hollow clunks and the clatter of metal from inside the palisade, and the distinct flat sound of leather-soled boots on iron. A man appeared in the crows’ nest, wearing an ornate iron helmet and carrying a halberd.

“Who’s there?”

“Neran of Kwalish. I have business with the Order of the Black Hood here.”

“I’ll just check on that, then,” the guard said with a slight sneer. He descended into the wall again. Taere heard murmuring from inside the hollow trees of the wall, and soon again heard the clank of boots on the metal staircase. The guard reappeared.

“Alright, you’re clear. Go on in.”

The guard pulled a lever next to him in the crows’ nest. A sharp metallic click was followed by the grinding of gears, and the gate swung open outward. Taere pulled Ether back to avoid the gate, and the roan whinnied in dismay at the loud unfamiliar noises. The gate stopped, and Ether calmed himself down. Taere clicked his tongue, and Ether trotted ahead into the gate.