Chapter 1: Prologue: The Count's Castle
"OH, MY GOD! HE'S DEAD!" someone screamed.
"Guards! Catch this murderer!" another hollered.
The count's head falls off neatly as if the straightest slice throughout existence severed the connection that was his neck. Quite fitting, as that same line also severed the remaining time the count had left to live.
The guards in the immediate vicinity rushed their way over to the scene, but they were not quick enough. By the time they can make it over to the scene of the murder, the culprit is long gone. Almost no one saw it. Almost. But alas, someone did see me while my handiwork was in action. Now it's time for me to get the hell outta here.
As I rush out the exit to the lavish, ornate dining hall, all I can think about is who in the hell that woman was. Her face. She was looking right at me. She shouldn't have been able to notice even a shadow from me. I was one within the count's shadow. For all intents and purposes, I was nothing but a shadow. I will never forget that look. It chilled me to my very core. Her amethyst eyes nearly gemstones looked back at me. She saw me in my entirety. She saw right through me.
When I break out of the shadow, my presence becomes known to all. The guards all become more alert and start after me.
I retrace my steps, going left, then right, then left again, hoping to lose the guards following me. I can feel them behind me. I'm quicker, of course, but they're still on my ass. They've had to drop their armour if they're able to catch up to me.
Something is not right… This count - Count Boris Milor - was the second most important noble family within the entirety of the Kingdom of Groz. Second only to the extended Royal families. He MUST have a court mage, but where? I can't let them get the drop on me. The worst thing a shade like myself can deal with is a mage.
A quick glance behind me verifies my other senses: the guards are still behind me. How though? It doesn't make sense! I've been running for ages. My boots are tailor-made to increase my speed. My clothing: light as a feather, but they're still keeping up. They must have some sort of enhancement.
Oh well, it matters not. Once I get to the rooftop, I shall be free. This next staircase should be all that separates me and the window that allowed me to get in.
Skidding to a halt, I peer up the staircase. That woman is here. The one who noticed me in the dining hall. Her amethyst eyes peered back at me like they were in the dining hall. It's only now that I take the time to fully take in her visage as before her eyes pulled me in like a ship to a whirlpool.
She's a stately woman. Clad in a lavish imperial dress. Her features are nothing short of beautiful. Unnaturally beautiful.
What..?
How?
My thoughts start to race. I should be much faster than anyone in this damn castle! How did she get here before me? I was most certainly gunning my way here. Most importantly though, why..? Why is she.. here? She was attending the Count's feast as a noble lady from the Empire. What reason would she have to be here?
Just as I start to ponder, the pursuing guards catch up and set up a circle. They're closing in to cut off my escape! For what though? They're just pressing me up against a lone noblewoman.
The woman starts to laugh. Her laughter booms with the vocal cords of an ogre. As if this was the funniest thing she has seen since her birth.
"You have nowhere to run! Look at you, Jack the Shadow, one of the most revered shades of all of Flupika, caught with his pants down!"
"Now, now Ludaria, if it wasn't for you, he might have nearly ended me!" responded a voice from behind her just out of sight. I know that voice.
Its owner? Count Milor.
He steps into view. His smile was like a radiant sun. Very unfit for his smug and pompous face. But not to worry him, I try to fix his face as soon as possible.
With a slice through the air, a throwing knife is heading nicely on its way to his forehead.
It strikes home as if homing for the cross-section on his forehead. A lone stream of blood starts to trail down his face. Nevertheless, he stands there still smiling. As if the knife, quite obviously sticking out of his forehead, doesn't exist.
"If you want to kill me, you're going to have to try harder than that boy!" He pulls out the knife, dropping it to the ground as he does. His forehead once blemished from the embedded blade, disgustingly starts to regenerate in its entirety.
Count Milor's face contorts into one of annoyance. "Ah, I grow tired of this. Deal with this riffraff!" The count waves his hand and walks back as if done with the interaction.
The guards behind me start shuffling. The guards, on edge, start to sweat. The pressure of this interaction is finally reaching them. If they fail to catch me, it likely means their lives are mine to claim.
After a long pause, one of the five guards surges forward. He simply slashes his sword overhand toward me. If a sword swing could stop me, I would have been dead long ago. His swing is off balance and utterly useless. My padded glove push his sword further down. Simultaneously, my left-hand grabs another knife out of the pouch on my waist and plunges it straight into his throat. They say the early bird gets the worm, and if that worm was dead they would be correct.
I push his inanimate body into the other four guards that have bunched up. They were going to try and play it smart by using group tactics to kill me, but luckily one newbie guard cost them that strategy.
The body knocks into one of them and causes him to stumble and fall on his back. His carelessness awards him a knife sticking from his head. The others are all able to jump back from the scene and survive.
The now three remaining guards all look at each other and nod. They all take their stance and try to rush me; however, when their strikes come down, I'm gone. Seemingly confused about how I could just vaporize into thin air, they look around and find nothing.
"Your shadows, you dimwits!" hurls from the top steps of the stairs. The lady standing there, Ludaria as she was named, swiftly descends the steps with an ornamental knife in hand. She starts making odd gestures with it...
By the time Ludaria reaches the bottom, the gestures she is waving in the air are starting to leave behind a greenish light as if it was an after-image. Her motions reach their climax with a green orb getting sent into the direction of the guard whose shadow I was hiding within.
The guard has no time to evade, nor does he have any time to react as the green light envelopes him. His skin starts rupturing apart as if he was turning into green lava and melting apart. The heat from him starts radiating as if a mobile star was created. The smell of burning flesh fills the hall.
I'm forced out of the shadows. I can't say I was expecting that. She so casually used that green thing on one of her own. It made the other guards regard her with more fear than they looked at me with.
Ludaria doesn't immediately shoot another one at me. That means she has to charge it up so to speak. The guards in between us, most certainly terrified by the both of us, move to the wall of the corridor to leave our view.
Ludaria doesn't make any moves. She just stares at me as I stare at her. I'm fairly certain that she can't fire that orb thing again. At least, if she can she has to move around that knife too and, for the moment, that is still too.
I size her up as she sizes me up. I determine, for now, in unknown, enemy-controlled territory, that it would not be a good idea to go up against an unknown woman of untold strength. I can imagine that she is NOT thinking the same. Ludaria has both the home-field advantage as well as a pin on who I am and what I am capable of. All she has to do is wait for more guards and overwhelm me by observing and directing the battlefield.
Obviously, it's time I get out of here. With a dash, I get the hell out of dodge. As I do, she starts to wave that knife around again. I have to take a detour. The stairs are not an option. The only option left is to attempt to leave through the secondary escape route.
Heat starts to radiate behind me. This heat, as if a star itself was following me, is only increasing. No matter. It should be fine. I take a left.
Nothing happens. Damn, it seems I'm unlucky! It seems hoping that the orb would just keep going forward was in vain.
With the threat of imminent danger skyrocketing, I see guards running toward me from in front of me. I'm able to reach them just as the green orb trailing me nearly catches up to me.
A nice little shin kick, followed by a nape grab forces a guard into the green orb. That deals 2 birds with one stone!
I keep pushing forward. The other guards are too speechless or frightened by what they just witnessed to chase after. By the time I reach the window, it's all clear. No orbs. No guards. Barely any castle staff. I'm able to break the window and keep running.
I make it outside the castle proper. Running alongside the roofs of the various heights of the castle until I can reach the enceinte. I reach it without an issue and keep running. Blending into the night, just as the castle gates slam shut.
Peering back at the castle, I start to observe guards rushing everywhere. The castle is an ant hill and someone just kicked it. I just kicked it... I gotta get out of here.
Taking one last look backward, I see lights heading in all directions. Word must have gotten out that I had escaped. Since I was to stay a free shade, I decided to press onward towards home. I need answers. This was supposed to be a simple job.
I guess "supposed" is being a bit hopeful.
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