Grandlocke Saga

[Lanette]

Right, keeping this simple, it's my own personal series, Grandlocke Saga. I'll be doing a part each weekday then a double parter on Saturdays. But for now you've got 4 parts to sit down and enjoy, if anybody would like to know more about the world of Grandlocke and the characters I produce, feel free to ask and I'll make a profiling topic another time.

But here we go, enjoy!

===========================ERA 1 - Sibling Devotion ========================

The links here lead to information about the land of Grandlocke and the main character, Lanette Relania.
Grandlocke
Lanette Relania's Profile

Introduction P.1: Through Fire and Flames

A lot had changed for Lanette, only recently cooled off from her total destruction of her hometown. Her brothers blood still lay stained on her top but she couldn't care less right now. The fury that had possessed her to kill everything in the town was driving her towards Grandlocke, the City of Civilisation. And to her one target, her former mother. Nothing was clouding her mind right now, only pictures of her garroting her mother to death flashed by on occasion, refueling her adrenaline to push on. Only a few hours ago she was feeling like a normal fine girl, studying the arts of curative magics. But that was thrown out the window. No White Magic lay in her magical lexicon. Only destructive fire magic. Travellers that dared to hail a girl shed in blood were either ignored or shot a fierce glare at, causing them to retreat in a hurry. But physical limitations still had an effect on the silver haired blader. She was growing tired quickly, her haste simply draining her further. Casting Meteor on the castle wasn't the best option she could have made. Meteor was by far a taboo spell in the more civilised kingdoms. They all shared the view of conquering but not destroying, so Meteor was never taught to the Academy Mages for fear too much of their prize would be destroyed in using it. Meteor was also incredibly draining on one's own mana power, and draining mana had an adherse affect on one's stamina. The warriors of Grandlocke never relied on using mana, which is why they were famed for such longevity on the field of battle. Lanette would have to contest with such mighty warriors soon enough. She had enough sense in her to stick to the path though, and these old travelled routes normally had an inn or two alongside them but Lanette was greeted before she could enter The Drunken Steed by a bard.

Bards, musical players and normally the tellers of philosphy and religion. This particular bard was a common race, a high elven one. Slowly strumming upon his lute, he called to Lanette without looking up at her.
"You appear to have had a fight or two..." he said bluntly to her. Lanette simply stared, knowing such fact was obvious to many. "Or, to my own deducation, a very large battle." he said, looking up. Lanette could only think one word for this bard. Typical. He was a long curly haired blonde elven bard, acting like he knew everything you'd been through in life. She disliked the facade these bards pulled, thinking they were like the 3 Seers only much more important.
"You also look distressed."
This caught Lanette's attention. She actually locked her eyes now to the bard and spoke a few words to him.
"Distress is an understatement, bard." and she turned away from him once again, reaching for the door. But a hand touched her shoulder before she could. Drooping her shoulders and huffing, she turned her head again to see the bard with a serious look on his face.
"The mage who cast Meteor upon that poor town... Would you happen to know anything about it?" the bard asked her quietly. Lanette suspected an agent of some sort. Nobody would come out so quickly to find out about it, unless Grandlocke was already aware of the attack. She knew she had to cover up, or else face a garrison of soldiers attacking her while she slept.
"I do not. I was involved in an afterscuffle when it struck." she said, brushing his hand off her, and pushing the door open. The bard did not attempt to stop her again. She was picturing herself stabbing this bard afterwards, simply for knowing about the towns destruction.

Outside, the bard took his place again beside a rotted stump and began to retune his lute.
"Ah, fair silver haired maiden... You have encountered the tradgedies of war, yet your eyes speak that of fear and destruction... We shall meet again someday." he muttered to himself before playing the well known Aria Di Mezzo Carattere...

Lanette was finally able to tidy herself up after purchasing a room for the night. Fortunately Inn's so close to town were very cheap... Though this one wouldn't stay cheap for long. Removing her bloodstained clothes, she moved over to the water sinks, and draped her long hair inside them. Taking the brush from the windowsill, she began to twist the valve for the water to come out, and she drenched her hair in cold water. Blood droplets were now falling into the bowl, her hair slowly returning to it's perfect silver. As she finished, she whipped her hair up to see the mirror, and to check if all was ok. In the mirror however, she saw a pair of images. To her left, her brother. To her right, Ritia. Both were smiling at her, but neither spoke a word to her. Lanette could simply feel what they wanted. The images disappated in her mind as she clenched her fist. A bright light soon emenated from her hand, and she held her palm up to the mirror.
"You seek revenge for those who did not protect us... I will go in your stead Roland... And dear Ritia... The deaths of a thousand governers could not make up for my loss of you..." she said, then slowly stooped to a whisper. The mirror was now melting, this light apparently also emitting incredible heat. It was not long before the mirror was nothing put a puddle on the floor, slowly burning the wooden floor. The last thing she did before turning in was to clean her clothes. A monotonous task to be sure, but she knew her only clothing was now ash along with all the infidels that killed her brother. Her only companion now was her sword. She felt it fitting to give it a name. She recalled the time the blade was given to her. The foreign merchants that she bought it from were peddling extremely exotic wares, including this particular sword. Lanette's mother bought it for her without hesitation, but the merchants uttered one word, and provided a meaning...

"This sword... It is the bringer of Zetsumei... Death...I strongly advise caution..."
Lanette's mother simply nodded her head. "Perfect."
This day was one Lanette never understood clearly until now. Taking the sword and holding it in both her hands, she dubbed the blade Zetsumei. For she would bring death to her mother with it.
The next morning, the Inn was next to abandonned. Only one sleeping drunk remained, but there was much blood strewn across the floor. Perhaps the sleeping man wasn't even a drunk. But Lanette had an urge to make sure this man was dead. Turning him face up, she could see the man was still breathing.
"We can't possibly have this..." she giggled, similar to that heard in her former rage. Taking her blade in hand she twisted it downwards then plunged it into this man's chest. His breathing ceased. Though Lanette seemed dissatisfied. The man died quietly, almost peacefully though. The death bringing sword hadn't exactly wrought much pain with it's new title. She walked out with a lighter note in her head, perhaps to rename the sword to "Stabby Stabby", some childlike psychosis coming out in her as she turned to continue down the road. The bard was also gone from his stump, but Lanette was only happy to see the godforsaken elf was gone. She could continue her journey in harmony now. Harmony being the corpses strewn across the pathway. She simply walked over these like they weren't there, and continued on....

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[Lanette]

Introduction Part 2: Two's Company

It had not taken long before living people had begun springing up again, she knew she was reaching the first set of crossroads in her long journey to the grand city. Most of the people passing her were merchants, general ones at that. They weren't paying attention to any traveller with no money bag jangling on their belts, much to Lanette's thankfulness. She couldn't honestly bare company right now, though even if she did, they no doubt would be dead within 20 minutes of travelling with her. Entering the Erin Thicket, Lanette knew of a less travelled path which ought to give her some space to voice her thoughts. Killing things came to mind again, simply to vent some rage, but she wanted to keep it all for her mother. Her images had turned more graphic now, including incinerating her mother then decapitating her or perhaps a simplistic push off a cliff to impale her onto some rocks below, watching the blood splatter into the ravines below. There was still a way to go though, and Lanette knew the Skyguard would probably be flying overhead on the lookout for her..

The thicket provided a decent level of cover for her though, and barely any creatures existed here due to the violent fauna located outside the pathways. A long rumor that scared off travellers from this path was that the plants could uproot themselves and walk. Lanette huffed at this thought. Any to believe such a hideous decimation of the truth would surely suffer the life of a gullible fool. She could hear the plants shuffling about though. Occasionally a small Woodline Rat would dash into the thicket, detecting the rotting flesh of some foolhardy corpses, only to be dinner for a hungry plant or bush. Lanette halted for a moment. Two bushes stood either side of the path. To normal people this would be seen as quite common, but in the Erin Thicket, you had to think differently about fauna placement. As she expected, these bushes DID move, and perhaps in hostility too. She hadn't a strong understanding of herbology here but she knew if bushes were moving, you were likely the meal they picked from the menu. Much to her bemusement though, these bushes began launching small little flares out that slowly drifted to the ground near her. Her hand moved away from the hilt of her blade down to support herself as she knelt down looking at the flares.

"Magical Flares?..." she mumbled, feeling an essence of mana within it. "Bushes don't launch flares." she said quietly, as though directing the comment to another person. The bushes responded with another shake, but soon a Magic Firework launched out, spirialling about from one of the bushes. As it flicked and darted left and right, it soon went on a collision course for Lanette, who very easily sidestepped the firework. The next question was who the mages were hiding inside the bushes firing flares and fireworks out were? Lanette decided to go for the firework bush first. As she approached it, the bush began to tremble more and more, like it was frightened of Lanette. Moving the initial hedging out of the way, she looked in to see a small boy. His appearence was of Atlamalian, a Lynnian to be exact. She grabbed this boy by the scruff of his neck to see this small child, with black rough hair and a rather cocky look on his face. He didn't look afraid of Lanette, but this could easily be seen as a transparent attempt to keep his pride. Before she knew it though, Lanette was dodging another small child, who let out a cry the moment her brother was siezed.
"No! Don't hurt him! He doesn't know what he's doing!" this second child cried. It was a girl, but she wore the same Lynnian Apprentice robes that this child did. Lanette couldn't help but feel something familiar about this and she put the boy down carefully. The girl ran up to him and socked him across the head, causing him to yelp and rub the back of his head for a little while.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, my brother is a fool and cannot control his powers yet..." this girl spoke in a formal fashion, and bowed when directly talking to Lanette. She had the same black hair as her brother, yet this was tidier and straight. She bore resemblance to a Black Mage of Lynna albiet much more smaller. Her twin brother, as deducted by their similarities, was clearly a White Mage. Lanette was suffering some inner conflict right now. The rage inside her begged to kill these two children, but something in her mind fought off this rage and kept her hand away from her blade. The girl introduced herself, and also her brother who had taken to firing fireworks at some restless Ent's just swaying about nearby.
"My name is Reyna. The foolhardy brother of mine is called Conor."
Her brother followed up quite quickly.
"Conor, the best damn white mage of the Kingdom of Lynna!" he turned, and roared, pushing his chest outwards to seem impressive. This pair of twins seemed to share the personalities Lanette and her brother had in their early life. This thought was resounding in her mind right now. As many children as she killed back in Highwind, she could not bring herself to kill these two. The demons in her mind were pleading her to cut their heads off but a little voice from the back called to her.
"Big sister! The children of Highwind are crying! You just can't send more souls of innocence to the Netherlands..." it faded. She heard the sounds of her battle, the women crying for their children, the husbands roaring for the losses of their wives and children... And then the silence. But these sounds were countered with the images of her brother lain facedown in his blood... Her sister, bloodied and raped at a young age... And the image of her mother, sitting in the regent's chambers, laughing at her for failing to protect her family.

Ritia... I cannot promise you total witholdence of my rage... But I shall spare these children... I promise.

Lanette was snapped out of her flashbacks by Reyna.
"Miss, what's your name?" she said politely. Lanette, who in this situation would not have responded turned to the girl and looked directly at her.
"My name is Lanette. I hail from Highwind." she said calmly. "Why are you here in the Erin Thicket?" she said blandly, possibly trying to feign concern.
"We were on our way from Dyanas, to Grandlocke. We're missives for the King of Lynna to deliver a message to the Regency of Grandlocke!" she said happily. Her brother just huffed at this.
"I was only blackmailed into this because my sister dying would probably make me feel bad." he said arrogantly, protecting his pride and true feelings. Lanette could see genuine concern in his eyes for his sister after he had finished speaking. Much like the relationship Lanette and her older brother had. Reyna spoke up again.
"But we cannot proceed through the forests... A huge plant has overgrown over the pathway..." she said, shuffling her feet on the floor. Lanette knew what an overgrown plant meant. An obstacle in her way that needed to be burnt to the ground.
"Then I'll help." Lanette said. It felt out of character for her but she felt some kind of dedication now. No longer did she feel she had to spare these children but Ritia had impacted her to protect them to Grandlocke even. She recalled her thoughts on company earlier and decided to revoke that. She had pride also and didn't want to think herself a lonely hearttorn fool, like those bards sing songs of constantly.
Reyna and Conor stood next to each other, wide eyed at Lanette. The similarities they shared were highly visible now to Lanette but she wondered why they were surprised.
"Miss Lanette, do you really think you can beat that plant?!" Reyna said, excitedly but also with a hint of worry in her voice. Her brother put his hands on the back of his head and looked very relaxed now.
"Relax sis. Look at the sword she has, she's got to be like the best swordsman in all of Grand'Vale, she could take on an entire army and beat them all!" he said confidently, looking to Lanette with a cocky smile. Lanette could only think what would happen if these twins knew of her recent desctruction. She spoke up afterwards.
"I'm quite sure the plants here haven't developed an immunity to fire yet..." she said, taking her sword in one and and creating a ball of fire in her other. Reyna looked up to this impressive scene and nodded.
"Alright then, follow us. We'll take you to the plant then we can beat this thing and be on our way!" she cheered afterward. Conor laughed at her sister's excitement and chased after her as she dashed off down the path. Lanette shrugged her shoulders. She hadn't run in a while, so it might be good to give her legs a little run about. She dashed off, chasing after her first companions, the Twins Reyna and Conor...

[Lanette]

Introduction Final Part: Grandlocke Plains ~ Crossing Those Hills

The forests had gone quiet as they had delved deeper and deeper into the thicket. Plants appeared to be dying, a lack of water from what it appeared. Despite the plants here having a taste for flesh, they did share traits like their more dociles cousins, the house plants. They required light and water. But this seemed to be lacking from this point on. The grass to the side of the path was becoming dry and crabby and the trees were losing their bright bark colour, now fading into a deep military grey colour. No animals were heard either, despite the lack of plants around. Reyna and Conor were steadily slowing down their pace from run to quick walking. They were no longer happy and energetic but fearful of where this vegetation would strike from. Blade out, Lanette too couldn't help but feel the enormous plant said to block their way was the cause of the degeneration here. She narrowed her eyes, concentrating on her surroundings.
"Be on your guard. It's close." Lanette said, standing battle ready now. Reyna and Conor both braced their magic spells and stood back to back to each other, doing this almost in sync. The twins were likely to have a good coordination in battle, Lanette wondered.

Like a whippet, the long sharp branch lunged forward across the path heading towards the twins and Lanette. In a quick movement, Lanette bounded forward and pushed both the twins away from each other but not before using their heads as a boost to get in the air and above the branch as it launched pat them all. Forced to take a stepforward, both the twins quickly saw the danger was here and now and turned towards the origin of the branch. Coming down now, Lanette swiped at the branch of the tree, slicing it clean off and causing the remainder of it to retreat back to the giant obese looking tree shillouete in the distance. A sudden thudding shocked Lanette and sent both the twins falling to the ground, but the tree creature was coming into better light. It was walking towards them. The creature had only one eye, but a big one at that and it's mouth bore resemblance to the Ent's found in the woods. Jagged bark teeth that could stab through steel plate armour. But from it's mouth, it was spewing a dark cloudy substance. The essence of life of this creature. Lanette could tell now this creature was born of a Demon's Blood. And how handy it would be if a Dark Knight were here right now.

"Conor." Lanette looked down to the fallen boy. He looked up worriedly to Lanette. "You know the spell Holy, right?" she asked. Conor quickly nodded. Holy was a strong combat spell that White Mages learnt. Given the limited offensive pool these mages had, alongside the Aero class spells, Holy was a staple for all great White Mages. It was made by the Academy of Lynna to assist it's mages in combating heavily armoured foes, as Holy consisted of a powerful light energy made to pierce armour and damage a foe. But it was especially useful against demons.
"When I say, use it." Lanette said and nodded. Reyna already heard this. As Lanette turned to her, no words were exchanged but a simple nod. Before they could begin an assault upon the plant, it had already came down upon them with one of it's roots, that which it used to stomp towards them with. Backflipping, Lanette kept out of range of it, as the twins backslid to the side of the attack. The root smashed the floor and left Lanette with an opening to attack. Hopping atop the root, she began to run up the Entir. She made a quick leap towards the end of the root and aimed her slash directly for it's eye. She sliced it for a direct hit, and landed with a roll on the order side of the creature. It began moving back, letting out a hideous roar of pain. It didn't take long for it to recover though, and it plunged it's branchy arms into the ground. A rumbling was soon flet by the trio, and the ground rose up as the branches shot up from the ground, attempting to impale the three. Conor and Reyna managed to move around each other in a graceful fashion in order to avoid the wooden spikes, before Reyna launched a Blizzard spell to freeze the spikes, and Conor firing an Aero spell off to shatter and destroy the plants. Lanette meanwhile had two spikes either side of her ready to turn inwards and impale her either side. She ducked when this attempt was made and followed up by spinning her blade casually around her, coming back to a standing position.

The plant, realising it couldn't win on brute strength alone, began to make the earth shake violently with it's roots. Before they could react though, a huge wall of treebark shot up from behind them both and totally destroyed the ground behind them, making a little cliff for them to drop down if they could be pushed off. Inside these newly created cavern were some subterranean plants snapping up at them like aligators. The Entir was now marching towards them, hoping to use it's own body as some form of wall. The sides were blocked off now with huge thick layers of trees, leaving them with only a thin corridor to move around in. The Entir took no hesitation in trying to smash them with it's roots again, what with the little room they had to move but Conor casted Shield, forcing the plants attack back and making it stumble back slightly. The flinching made Lanette decide to attack again. This time she used the trees to her aid and as she ran up to the Entir, she lept up the branch of one tree and bounded off it to another branch before launching for the eye again. Another direct overhead slice sent the plant falling backwards again. This time it fell over properly and began flailing (or what could be considered flailing for a creature of it's size.), unable to right itself.

"Alright you two. Now's the time, launch your spells!" Lanette called to the twins as she began another charge to the plant. The twins nodded to each other and quickly casted their spells, Reyna casting Thundara and Conor casting Holy. The spells converged with each other as they shot towards their target and followed Lanette upwards on her leap to downwardly plunge her blade into the creature. As she landed, the blade could be heard piercing the creatures eye, the spells blasting right through it's barky exterior, shattering it like it was some little plank of wood. The creature was silenced. The battle, won. But Lanette, as she clung her blade, could only hear one thing now. Laughter. A maniacal laughter. One that told her to destroy more.
"You two..." she aimed her comment at Reyna and Conor. "You go on ahead... I'm going to... eliminate the remenants of the creature...to prevent it's evil influence... from spreading." she said quietly, before letting out a little giggle. The two looked to each other in confusion but Conor shrugged his shoulders and walked on past the fallen creature.
"I told ya so, sis, Lanette could do it." he said cockily. His sister just sighed and followed on soon after.

"Do it."
"Set the forests ablaze."
"None will know of your destruction."
"Wipe it off the map."
"You want to do it, don't you?"
"..."
"Yes. Yes I do."
Lanette's hand englufed in flame suddenly as she snapped into reality. She smirked deviously to herself before pointing downwards at the creature.

10 minutes later, Lanette came running up to the twins with an urgent look on her face.
"The creature had one last surprise for us. Run." she said, soon looking behind her to see a roaring flame lick close by and set another tree ablaze. The twins, frightened, ran for their lives as Lanette followed behind them a little to make sure neither of them were caught in a trap somehow. The flames were much faster than the twins however and Lanette had to speed up to get away, but Conor, who was just ahead, landed up tripping on a snag and fell face down. Getting up slowly, Lanette could see she was going to dash past the child and leave him to the flames. This image crossed her mind, but as she approached, the voice of her sister cried her name once again. Hearing this invoked her sense of responsibility for these two again. She snatched up Conor as he was regaining his stance, and also grabbed Reyna as she stopped to go aid her brother. Placing them both atop her back, Lanette let out a vicious burst of speed, something she was well known for in her hometown. Conor could only sit and gawp at Lanette's feet moving quickly but Reyna's cry bought him out of this amazement.
"LANETTE, HURRY!" she cried, as Lanette turned to see the towering wall of flame crash through the forest now like a tidal wave. Speeding up to her maximum, Lanette grabbed a hold of the twins in case they fell off, and thrust her body forward out of the opening to the forest and down a small slope. Lain face down to avoid the flames, Lanette knew what she had done now. Or what her psychotic other self had done.
"..." a rustle was heard next to Lanette. It was Conor picking himself up now, watching the forest burn to the ground as small embers landed nearby. Lanette soon sat up, as did Reyna. Lanette had constructed a lie to protect herself now. These mages were powerful in battle and the last thing she wanted was to fight them, and kill them. Against Ritia's wish. It was handy as Reyna soon asked the question:
"What on earth did the creature do?"
"The dark essence inside it turned into flames... The body just burnt down, and the rest caught fire with it." Lanette said bluntly, avoiding emotion and henceforth, detection. Reyna sighed.
"I didn't want to see anything get destroyed." she said quietly. She went and picked her brother up and stood him up. Lanette got up herself.
"Destruction is something we all have to see in our life." she said quietly.

They were now at the Grandlocke Plains. A peaceful breeze passed them by, but it was drowned out by the sound of flames burning behind Lanette. Beyond these plainlands lay the Midland Gate and the City of Regala. She knew there could be no more destruction of things lest her position be fully located, and the Skyguard come after her. But for now, her journey begun here. The outside never felt so good.

[Lanette]

1.1: Village of Trelen -

Their first stop would be for supplies. The twins had apparently come empty, but Lanette just knew they'd both already consumed their potions in battles with the creatures of the thicket, given some scarring she noticed on Conor's hand earlier. Lanette had carried little money with her on her journey, thankfully the one thing that kept the haggling merchants from messing about with her on the pathways. But weither this could afford them any battle supplies was another question. Lanette felt down into her pocket to count up the coins. 10...15...20 gold at most. Lanette sighed and prayed the Lady of Ragnarok was merciful with money before slowly making her way down the hill, heading towards the village of Trelen. The twins had already regained some energy from the battle and were chasing each other around and about the hill, though it didn't amuse them so much as get their minds off of the trouble they could have gotten in to. Lanette's eyes were locked upwards though, the open skies were a blessing for her. Easy sight of inbound airships. Her eyes were tracking a small dot way over the horizon. It wasn't fast moving, much to Lan's relief. Fast moving ships would mean a Skyguard ship. And that would mean trouble. It did approach swiftly though. An unarmed ship, it looked like a common wooden transit ship. The propellers attatched to masts of the shift granted it it's floatation and it was all powered by Gen-is. Gen-is, a common airship fuel. No other particular use for it, except some accounts in ancient history of Gen-is being used to fuel battle weapons, but this was primative compared to todays technology. What worried Lan though was that this airship bore the Grandlocke emblem. And was heading directly in the direction of Highwind.

Wishing to make haste, Lanette quickened her pace and ushered the twins onwards with her. As they reached the village gates, Lanette decided a course of decorum would do justice for this venture. Angering the village would simply doom them in later days. The guards acknowledged passage of the three and let them pass into the gates, unable to notice the smoldering ash and embers of the Thicket. The village itself was a quiet pristine one, the pathways made of cobble stone and fountains lurked about every corner. It was a much cleaner version of Highwind. But nobody was to be seen on the paths. Only a distant festive tune and the sound of bells ringing. As they rounded another corner, Reyna pointed out a large group of people standing around the central monument. People were cheering, laughing and roaring. A festival was in town. Lanette moved forwards, and began slipping through the crowds to see what all this festivity was about, but she knew from the moment she saw a tassle of red fly past her face that Din's Troupé was in town. A famous dancing group, their arrivals signified the villages personal holliday, a time to come out and watch the beatuiful redheaded women dance and prance to the sound of famous tunes. Many of the men were entranced. The women were inspired. The children would laugh and dance in their own ways. And all because one woman had the dream to spread her infinite happiness across the world. Din. A Horonian woman, she had a fabulous plume of red hair tied up into a giant ponytail that she whipped across her body and spiralled about her in magnificent patterns. Nobody knew how she could do this, but what Lanette knew was she was famous, alongside her other sister from Lynna. Lanette couldn't help herself but hum the tune but she didn't nearly look as festive as the rest. One tall man beside her patted her on the shoulder.
"C'mon lassie, enjoy yerself! Tis not everyday we see such a fabulous body like hers swing her grand assets about as she does!"
"I don't swing that way, if that's what you're implying." Lanette huffed at this man. The man simply shrugged with a smirk and went back to roaring like a lion, trying to get his voice over the other men.

Reyna and Conor had already run off to the other side, to get a better view of the dancers. But the music got a hold of them when they reached the other children and they were soon dancing about in syncronised motion. But they suffered a lack of control when they were in such a dizzy state and landed up crashing into one man who was overseeing the entire performance from a distance. The man turned about and looked taken aback this his rigid legs had knocked over a pair of children. He picked them both up and apologised.
"Sorry about that, kids. Didn't mean to be a post in the way, heh heh heh." the man chuckled. "Are you enjoying the performance?" he asked with a smile. The twins both nodded at him and he closed his eyes and nodded back. "I'm Ekim, the director of these events. And what're your names?" he knelt down, and the twins got a good look at him. He had a clean shaved face and he looked about 18 years old. His hair was a dark brown, all roughed up. His clothing consisted of a simple waistcoat, left open to expose his tough looking chest. He wore a pair of baggy cloth pants and a generic pair of boots. Reyna nudged her brother as he gawped at the muscles the man had and became slightly jealous.
"He's a Monk from the Shai-Lu Monestary in Horon..." she whispered in Conor's ear. Conor looked shocked and for once, displayed a sense of respect by bowing to Ekim.
"My name is Conor, and this is my sister, sir!" he said hastily. Ekim was once again taken aback by this sudden change of character.
"So, where are your parents then? You seem like nice kids!" Ekim said, looking about the crowd of adults. Reyna spoke up now.
"We came here with a girl called Lanette but she's somewhere over the other side."
A brief moment passed before Lanette's voice could be heard.
"I'm right here." she said, appraoching them. "Who's this man?" she asked Reyna.
"Ekim. He's a monk from Shai-Lu." she said. Ekim nodded in admiration.
"That's very correct, you're quite smart, aren't ya?" he said, chuckling. "Mages of Lynna, full of spirit." Ekim nodded and the twins turned about to go play with the other children again. Lanette now approached Ekim.
"You're Ekim? Then you must be the man that Din holds dearest." Lanette said. Din had written different songs in her life and quite a few spoke of a strong and wise man she held close to her heart and would never let go. "I saw the way she looked at you last time I saw you perform. Your love is no secret to the keen eye." she let out a little sly smile. Ekim chuckled once more.
"You're also smart too, but I don't recognize your attire... Where might you hail from?"
"The late Highwind." she put bluntly. Ekim let out a little "Ah." then looked down. "A bandit raid destroyed my home. The most destructive yet." she said cryptically. Ekim nodded, as the performance was drawing to a close. Din was now talking to the crowds. Ekim decided to offer Lanette something for her loss.
"We're having a feast tonight at the local inn. You are welcome to join us, and I can offer you a night at the inn for free. I can see you're travelling light on pocket so I thought I could save you some money..." he said quietly, obviously listening to the beautiful voice of his love.

As the crowds dispersed, people began to play the tunes on their own instruments. The sun was setting slowly, and the airship from earlier was now returning back to Grandlocke. Lanette was anxious now, whatever that airship would report could be trouble for her. Or trouble for everyone here. Either way, she needed to formulate some plan to get to Grandlocke without causing anymore attention to herself. They no doubt noted the Thicket burning down and if she left anymore paths of destruction...
"Are you coming Lanette?" Reyna snapped Lanette into reality again. Lanette looked down at the girl and nodded and they followed Ekim into the Inn. A graceful trail of red could be seen moving about the tables as Din was rushing about to compliment everyone for being at her performance. She came to the twins and cooed in delight as she stated how cute the two of them were together. Lanette held back her laughter with a sniff as she exclaimed how brilliant the two of them looked together.
"You two are like a pair of kittens! Cute in appearence and innocent in soul! How adorable!" she squeed. Ekim could not help himself but stare lovingly into Din's eyes. Once Din's eyes met his though, they both stared at each other. Lanette simply rolled her eyes and wondered what a fireball either way would do for their love. Before she could finish this thought, the two of them had embraced in a loving kiss. The majority of the inn simply "Aww"-ed at this, including Reyna, but not her brother, who couldn't stand all this lovey dovey stuff and Lanette who just simply couldn't stand it. Once the two broke out of their tounge lock, Din smiled slyly at Ekim and lay her back across his lap. She bout her head up to his ear and whispered something that caused him to get a wide smile. Nodding quietly, Din picked her body up off him gracefully and swiftly moved to the table with her fellow dancing girls. Lanette didn't say anything but plucked herself up a piece of Illian Turkey and began to gnaw away on it.

The feast was soon devoured and Ekim paid a large sum of money for the meal, but this still didn't downtread his mood and he almost launched himself up the staircase, but he grabbed the banister to tell Lan something.
"I've paid for your room too, you're at the end of the hall on the left. You get a nice view of the central city from there so take some time to admire it!" he said quickly, obviously eager to get upstairs. Lanette had already read the signs from earlier, but chose not to think any further into it. Calling the twins over, they all themselves went upstairs and into their room together. The rooms of village inns were of far greater quality than those you'd find along the road. Sinks, toilets, comfortable beds, dressers and even Mana powered lights. A good nights sleep would probably do them all great justice. It didn't take long before the twins fell asleep but Lanette wanted to take a look at the view. The monument's top was clearly visable, even in this dark sky. It was the Mideeval Star. A long lost artifact in time. Unable to focus her eyes anymore due to tiredness, Lanette closed the curtains and fell into bed. Snapping her fingers, she disengaged the mana flow of the lights, and the room was cast into shadow. Sleep was a valued thing in this day and age.

4 hours later....

A knocking on the door woke Lanette and the twins up. Opening the door was Ekim and Din. They had a serious look on their face.
"Lanette, take a look out the window." he said, with a hint of worry in his voice. Lanette rubbed her eyes and moved to the curtains, as did Reyna and Conor, who stood on their tiptoes to see what was happening. As Lanette opened the curtains, the entire room shook violently, sending everyone crashing to the floor. Picking themselves up, Lanette was the first to see the threat at hand.
The Skyguard Airfleet was Mana Bombing the town. They were quite a distance away, as Mana Bombing was a slow process, but it was devestating. Another war development, likely created by her mother, Lanette knew there was nothing they could do to fight airships from a ground level. They had to flee.
Bursting out from the door, all Din could do was watch her fellow dancers be slaughtered by the Skyguard troops that had caught them fleeing. This was no simple hunt, much to Lanette's confusion, but they had to escape either way. Ekim was battle ready, his fists clenched. Lanette knew the battle skill of the monks, and drew her own blade. This was a fight she looked forward to all her life. Ekim grabbed the hands of his darling.
"Din, come with me. I'm going to get you out of here..."
Din was frozen, as a Skyguard pierced through another dancer with his spear. Lanette had moved forward and had begun cutting down a group of Skyguard that had begun pursuing a group of fleeing dancers. She was backed up by a Blizzard spell from Reyna, as Conor started casting Slow on other battalions. Ekim shook Din out of her trance.
"We've got to get to the waterways of the village, we can escape north up to the Heidi Fields!" he said loudly, now dragging her away. "Lanette!" he called to her. "Follow me!"

Lanette repelled a thrown spear with a swipe of her blade then snatched the twins by the hand, who then clambered on her back again, and followed Ekim closely. The darkness would've made it difficult to keep track of Ekim's scarlet waistcoat but with the Mana Bombs flashing so close by, the streets were lit up as if the sun were 30 feet above them. Thankfully the shade was keeping them from being blinded by the light. Ekim dashed down a short corridor before bashing through a wooden door to the side with his foot. Inside this room was a simple set of stairs leading to the waterways of Trelen. These waterways were the main soure of flow for the villages main resevoir, which they would pass on the way, but the tunnels were originally used by foot soldiers to enter towns undetected. Namely the Shadowlite Resistance of old times, when the Losilvos Republic tried to invade from the Great Gate. But now it was their only hope. They quicklly followed the stairwell down and splashed lightly onto the watery floors. Before they could take a moment to breath, Ekim had grabbed everyone and pushed them to the floor, crying out "Look out!". A hurst burst of dust crashed down from above. A dulled thudding could be heard from above as the Mana Bombs were exploding above them. Din was sobbing, Reyna and Conor were clinging to each other for protection and Lanette stared up above. Another town destroyed. And it was still likely by her own doing that caused this destruction. Sighing, she turned to Ekim who was comforting his treasure.
"We have to proceed. Else the waterways may colapse on us." she said quietly, to avoid scaring Reyna and Conor who had come to terms with what had just happened. Ekim looked gauntly to Lanette but nodded. Slowly, they trudged on through the waterways, but not without some hindrances.

En route for the exit, it seems a few Goblins had set up camp on their way to raid the town. But these Goblins weren't your typical easy to kill ones. These Goblins actually had intelligence, and a quick wit to go with it. Fighting a Goblin was a job for Ekim and Lanette, with skills to match. Both of them moved forwards carefully and quietly, the Goblins were sleeping right now. Clearly they were heavy sleppers, having snored their way through an entire bombing raid. But killing one would wake the others, so total stealth was out of the question. But they could pick one or two off without attracting attention. Lanette moved up to her target and edged her blade to rest on it's neck, as Ekim raised his foot to smash on his.
"Now!"
Lanette's blade spliced the goblin's neck wide open, leaving it to spew blood all over the place, but it let out no cry of terror to it's fellows. Ekim however didn't get such a quiet kill. His foot came down on the skull of the creature, creating a loud snap, crack and pop that woke up each and every single one of the goblins. But the battle wasn't to be as tough as originally thought, what with the sudden appearence of the twins, now firing spells at each of the goblins, effectively pacifying them, allowing Ekim and Lanette to dart about the room, slicing and smashing through all the Goblins. Although the goblin raid would've been fruitless, they were saved the expense of dying horribly and slowly by Pure Mana. After this battle, things were quiet once again. Lanette had taken the oppurtunity to steal items that the Goblins had picked up themselves. Since the shops in Trelen were likely destroyed, she had no choice but to steal a few potions and antidodtes. Once they returned to the original route, the sounds above had changed. There was marching above. Lanette recognized this sound, but Din clearly didn't.
"What's that noise Ekim?" she whispered loudly. Ekim didn't respond but Lanette did.
"Footsoldiers of Grandlocke. Likely purging the survivors. We can only pray they don't find.....!"
Lanette moved forward quickly but halted infront of Ekim. A voice echoed down the tunnel.
"...the waterways? Oh, don't worry dear child. We knew some filthy rats would flee through the sewers. It was only a matter of who." the voice said slyly, as the figure came into torchlight. Ekim moved forward to greet this figure with anger.
"General Tokl." he said, rasing his fist to his chest. "Why'd you order the bombing of this innocent town?" he asked, the rage in his voice increasing.
"Basic proceedure, my dear boy. There has been a string of destructions lately, starting with the Air-Lith Castles in the Spire Heights...Then that of Highwind...." he chuckled. Lanette knew this couldn't mean her. The Air-Lith castle was about 40 miles away from Highwind. What could possibly have destroyed...?
"Well the destruction stops with your death!" Ekim yelled, and he rushed forward, despite an appeal from Din to stop, he jumped up, and launched a high kick at Tokl.

He deflected Ekim away with his spear, leaving Ekim to land back with the group. Lanette stood poised with her blade ready now, and this caught the attention of Tokl.
"Ahhh, the Relania girl, last of your bloodline surviving... Your mother speaks highly of you and your...success...." he said seductively. Lanette drew her blade and lashed forward, like Ekim before but this time she clashed blade-to-speak with Tokl. As Tokl strained to keep Lanette from winning this battle of strength, he said one thing.
"You! You are the child of sin and damnation! You will regret what you plan to accomplish!" he yelled at her, as Ekim picked himself up and moved forward slightly to help Lanette but Din halted him, watching Lanette pushing harder against Tokl. Eventually she managed to slash away his spear, embedding it into a wall. Defenseless now, Tokl knew he had to retreat. Pointing forward, he called down the hall.
"Get the survivors! Kill the silver haired fiend!" and he soon vanished into the shadows. A loud marching followed soon after as a squardon of footsoldiers were charging straight for them. Even Lanette knew this was time to flee and she turned and ran back, picking up Reyna and Conor in the process. Ekim and Din were already running ahead.
"Conor, can you slow them down?" Reyna asked her brother urgently.
"I-I think I've got the spell for the occasion! SLOWRA!" he cried as he cast a much longer range variant of Slow from Lanette's back. The spell struck the first soldier, then followed through to the ones behind, slowing down their running speed drastically. Ekim had chose a direction to run down at the crossroad, as the soldiers fell out of sight now.
"Reyna. Put out the torch here, so they can't keep a track on us." Lanette asked, spotting the torch hanging above the crossroad in the waterways. As Ekim cried out "LEFT!", he turned to the right, knowing the guards could still probably hear them. As they rounded down the right, Reyna turned and cast Blizzara on the torch, putting it out for a long time. The soldiers were unlikely to be able to follow them now, but Ekim rounded another turn just to be safe.

But this peace wasn't to last. More footsoldiers were coming from ahead, and going back would simply give themselves away with their footsteps. Ekim noticed a small passageway with heavy flowing water going downwards. A plauqe next to it read:

"Water Duct to Barcelino"

Her turned Din to him and embraced her tightly. He then spoke quietly to her as Lanette, Reyna and Conor took up a defensive position in the way of the guards.
"Din. Bite your lip, please. Like this." he bit his lip after explaining. Din followed suit and bit her lip too. "Don't cry for me. When you reach Barcelino, give Nayru my regards." and before Din could say anything, Ekim had picked her up and placed her on the rushing waterway down to Barcelino. He waved to her as she quickly vanished down the pipe. She didn't make a sound, much to his thankfulness. He then placed his hand on Lanette's shoulder.
"This way. The exit isn't far from here." he said as he now backtracked to the second corner they took. Lanette and the twins followed, they could hear the footsoldiers from earlier recovering from Slowra. It was getting tense for them all and Lanette knew she had to stall the troops somehow. Lowering the twins to the ground and pushing them forward slight to get them running, she skidded and turned towards the troops.
"Get her!"
"Don't let them get away!"
"Ready arms!"
The troops cries were halted by the sudden flame coming from Lanette's hands.
"May you feel the flames that wiped this city clean..." she cackled. "FIRAJA!"
Many of the troops screamed and cried as the intense wave of fire blasted through the waterways. Many were incinerated by this blast, but some survived, and their calls could be heard, as they called their comrades names out. Lanette was tired after this spell, but hearing the disorientation of the surviving troops gave her the cue to start running again. She soon caught sight of the exit, with Ekim standing before it ready to seal it off. As she dashed out, she colapsed to the ground, very tired and staring up at the clear night sky. Ekim quickly enveloped his fist in an eerie light and pounded the ground above the exit hard. The shockwave sent piles of rubble tumbling into the waterway, blocking the path off, before all crumbling around the exit itself, permanently blocking the troops escape through this direction and halting their pursuit of the group. Ekim also flumped to the ground. All of them were tired. The twins had cast high power spells, Ekim had used his Mana Fist skill and Lanette had cast one of her most limited spells, Firaja.
"We can't lie around here for long though." Ekim said, looking up at Lanette. Lanette couldn't gather the energy to talk.
"Mmmm." she hummed. She soon picked up the strength to get up though and she gathered the twins up to sit on her back once again. "Another night in a filthy inn for me again, I guess." she said, looking over a few trees to spot a small funnel of smoke drifting upwards.
"I guess so... I pray Din is ok." Ekim said solemnly. Lanette turned.
"She's the best Dancer around. If she puts her skills to use, getting to Barcelino would be no problem." she reassured Ekim. He nodded and she turned away again and proceeded towards the inn. Ekim could only look up and sigh. The woman of his life was gone for now. He had no choice but accompany these younglings to Grandlocke. There, he could get an Airship to Lynna. And reuinite with his future wife.