Nuflea

Prologue: Point Vampira

Waves licked the side of a cliff trying to climb up the steep face to a mansion. A strange aura of darkness and deceit filled the air, for inside was a secret…an object of great power. Some may call this object an artifact and would worship it, others however, simply call it…death. And who might be more fit to guard than the dead themselves?
Two figures walked through a long and elegant hallway. Torches lit the way down the corridor to various vestibules lit by chandeliers. The one on the left was tall and stocky, his hair was fell forward in front of his head in whisks of black…Vamtise. Vamtise’s partner strode beside him, together they look like a pair of bodies with nothing occupying the depths of them. They were walking corpses, faces pale, eyes white. Two ivory white objects came forth from their mouths, fangs.
Ventise and Vamtise were always the keepers of Point Vampira, for as long as they remembered. Always their lives were filled with the boring task of waiting, watching. They fed on the blood of fish and orcish corsairs that ventured near the island, hardly fresh. As their children were born and demanded nurturing and high quality nourishment to grow, the demand for human flesh grew. Vamtise and Ventise halted the only option that was open to them. Nuflea…Nuflea was the answer.
Nuflea thrived on the Eastern coast of Xreial. Nestled in between the Jeramti mountains and the Nuflean Sea, it was in a strategic position. Nuflea used their advantage by having increased trade by water, which made them one of the more wealthy cities in Xreial, and by keeping a small defense in the mountains incase of attack from their Eastern flank.
The Nuflean Legion was hard as rock. They were exactly what every leader wanted to have protecting their backs at any moment in time. For a lord, every moment was one where you were about to be killed or maimed. Such was the times in Xreial unrest filled the world with the arising of an orcish horde among the strongholds to the North, treachery and deceit filled the minds of every lord in the land.
The Nufleans never did care much about doings outside their port, as long as the trade continued and money poured into their coffers, they didn’t care. But the other cities cared about Nuflea and its central location in Xreial. With Nuflea the Northern Countries could trade with the Southern without risking perilous journeys to their subjects. If Nuflea were destroyed, along with some other key trade cities, the North and South would become completely Alienated from each other.

“We have stalled the need to venture for the better of our children for too long” Ventise hissed, suddenly stopping and glaring at Camtise with her white, soulless eyes. She raised her hand and pushed aside a black hair that had gotten in front of her sight.
“They are not strong Ventise! The city will be the end of our children as we know them. Death is what lies in that place…only death.” Vamtise answered.
“With death also come life!” Ventise responded. “Where one child is sacrificed, two more will grow to become fully developed…don’t you understand?”
Vamtise sighed, “I do not believe we should go to the city, we shall stay here and prey on the fish and orcs.”
Ventise hissed, “Fish and orcs, bah!” she spat on Vamtise’s shoe, “You are of no use, do you really expect our children to prosper off of the blood of fish and orcs! Filthy blood! Filthy! They shall not grow off that, they shall die one by one until none our left.”
“They seem to be living fine by how I see it at the moment”
“Everyday several bodies are cremated and melted to ash!” Ventise shrieked, “Everyday more and more die! I beg of you, just look at them once and tell if they seem alright.”
Vamtise grunted, “I shall see”
The pair continued walking down the hall until they reached a door. Vamtise looked at Ventise madly and shook his head. Preparing for the sight that would face him, he pushed open the door and peered out into a festering ball room filled with his kind, all 300 of them.
All were skinny beyond belief, the only ones that showed any meat on their bones were the strongest. The desperate hunted for rats and other vermin that occupied the mansion. Several were moaning on the ground, dying of malnutrition.
Vamtise looked at all of them in horror, realizing his mistake. His children were dying, and they need food fast.
Ventise embraced Vamtise, “For me…” she whispered into Vamtise’s ear. “For the children.”
“We will attack the city in three days time.” Vamtise said calmly. He turned and stalked off down the hall, heading towards a balcony at the top of the mansion.


The Running Fugitive

Pacing quickly as she walked, almost as if she was running from some thing, a girl almost completely hidden underneath a black, yet weather faded cloak strode down the street her face hidden from the world suspiciously, not even enough features showing to tell she was female. Underneath this cloak was a fairly young person by the name of Arianna, only about seventeen or eighteen, who under no circumstances appeared to be high class. If you could see her hidden cloths you could easily prove this true, however her faded cloak didn't have much of a high class look to it as it was; the plain cloths that covered her thin frame were only of a shirt that could hardly be considered pure white, the way it had started out, and her black men's breaches that were tucked into knee high boots were certainly nothing special. Her shirt was damaged and worn from excessive use, and had every thing from dust to blood of past battles decorating the white material of her sleeves that, like many other peoples shirts, were baggy until they met the cuff at her wrist, which was tight against her skin; her black pants no longer looked black either, but the same faded gray color as her worn cloak, although counting all the mud that had found a way to splash up onto them they were almost 50 % brown, the same dust brown color as her knee high boots that were slightly large for her, but not by much since her feet were larger than any dainty ladies would be.
Taking for granted there was no one in front of her, she looked down at her wrists picking the lock to chains that bound her arms together. Arianna's never been able to go very long without being caught, even with her seven years of experience of thievery, there were just too many guards around here, and here was where she lived. Cursing at the small piece of metal she was using to lock-pick, a thin almost hair pin like scrap of silver, because it was taking her longer than usual to get free which she didn't find some thing to brag about. As she worked on this she winced at the thought of having lost her friend, Dart, who'd apparently turned down the wrong ally when they were escaping from their latest crime of robbery. Arianna never did any thing without Dart by her side, so it was really odd to find her walking around alone, however they had a weird sense where they could almost tell what each other would be doing when they were separated, their minds were so alike, so it most likely wasn't any thing for her to fret over. The way the two acted was extremely similar, the two of them each fought better using duel swords, which you could tell by the way they carried two blades each hanging from their black belts by their hips, no mater how hard it was to get a hold of two of the long knives, they always had two. They also shared likes and dislikes in every thing from drinks to places to rob; it was rare they ever fought over any thing. If you'd met them both, you'd almost have to laugh, they could fill in each others sentences before they were done if they felt like it, and their out fits were almost identical, to the point where it looked like they bought their cloths from the same person. You could almost mistake them for twin souls, since just about there only differences were their looks; Arianna and Dart looked nothing alike each other. Arianna had elbow length brown hair that had over the time she had neglected washing it, had collected so much grease that you could see every strand separate from the other, with hazel eyes to match, while Dart had shoulder length dark brown hair that could very easily be mistaken for black, and leaf green eyes that stood out as his most dominate feature.
However Dart was not here right now, so any one to find her wandering the streets like this would have to wait to find her personalities twin, not a long wait by any chance, but they'd still have to wait.
Paying no attention to what was in front of her, she could faintly hear the sounds of the street and what was happening on it.
* * *
Magestry walked through the streets of Nuflea confident and egotistical. He sighed at the chirping of seagulls and whiffed the smell of the brisk sea air. Oh how he loved the city and what a perfect place it was for him. He was a sturdy man, with a long, black cloak with gold trimmings that hung to the floor. The cloak was very civilized and clean, basic fashion you only saw people who didn’t care what they looked like wore. You could conclude that Magestry was never on the road too much. His rich, black, curly hair puffed around his head in a messy fashion. You could tell he didn’t bathe much, his face was grimy and his hair was greasy. He didn’t care too much, he was always working and never came into much contact with others in the city.
A merchant accosted Magestry. “Apples! Buy some apples!” the merchant called out. Magestry was a petty theft that got what he wanted, here he saw an opportunity to get a free lunch. He raised his fist and punched the merchant. As the merchant fell, an apple conveniently flew into the air so Magestry could easily catch it.
“Thank you” Magestry said calmly as if nothing wrong had occurred. He threw a silver coin into the merchant’s stomach. The sharp edges of the crude coin hit the merchant slanted and embedded itself in the merchant’s stomach.
“Your welcome” The merchant groaned. Magestry had paid, but in a creative way.

Arianna Just barely heard the click of lock-picking victory, but because of her being oblivious of the happenings around her, Arianna had run into some one. Literally.
Letting the shackle hang down off her right wrist, the other unclasped, Arianna looked up at who ever she'd just bumped into, seeing another thief, one who'd just robbed a merchant to get a snack. Pushing as if he'd run into her first, Arianna had a look of disgust on her face as her hood fell off her actually attractive features now visible if you bothered to look under all the dirt and grime.
"And who might you be…running into me like that?” Magestry asked as he took a bite out of the apple. Normally any that ran into him would be punched and engaged in a bloody brawl but the night before he hadn’t got too drunk at the local tavern. Magestry noticed Arianna’s rather attractive features so he brushed his curly hair back so he wouldn't look too rowdy.
Looking up, Arianna said, "Hello!" not in much of a bad mood herself, her bumping into him had gotten one of the cuffs off which lightened her mood quickly.
Magestry smiled at her lightly and then, trying to start some conversation said, “I'd take a chance to tackle that merchant over there" he pointed to the merchant he had just stolen from, "He sells rather scrumptious apples" a trickle of juice ran down his cheek.
"Apples? Nice choice, but who are you? Neverer seen you before." Arianna knew a lot of people, either by some fight she got in, just walking past them, or having stolen from them, but never had she seen Magestry.
"I'm Magestry" he said, "I have a brilliant mind that I don’t use correctly!" The last comment was his favorite quote that the local alchemist, Al, said to him often. "Who are you?" Magestry took another huge chunk out of the apple.
"Arianna." She smirked, hearing the last part and finding it humorous, "The brilliant theif-ess." she continued feeling like she needed some phrase afterwards, walking over to the apple stand and reaching out for one of the apples on the cart, and polishing it slightly on her faded cloak before taking a bite. "Nice stand! I think I’ll be coming over here for lunch more often."
The merchant clearly was annoyed, "you have to pay for that!" he called out angrily. However, he stopped as he saw Magestry looming behind Arianna. With a distressed voice he said, "Actually, take all the apples you want, in fact ill give you a free coupon for all the apples you want!" He took a piece of parchment and scribbled some words on to it. He handed it over. The by standing people near the stand were staring at the three of them. Some teenage kids immediately ran to the merchant and began pestering him to give them apple coupons. The merchant put his head face down on his cart and began to whimper.
Magestry smiled, "Look how nice this Merchant is" he said, "I told you he was good." he casually tossed the apple core in his hand at a by stander and grabbed another apple from the cart. The other people and merchants in the street mostly all had their eyes on Magestry and Arianna. Most were looking at them in disgust.
Laughing at the throwing of the apple core, Arianna asked "So what act of torture did you-?" She was interrupted by a familiar voice, at least to her.
"Hey who be that?" a figure, that looked oddly like Arianna, asked a little defensively, coming up behind them.
"Hey Dart! Lunch?" Arianna said instantly recognizing her friend, mouth full of apple. "Its free day today. And that would be Magestry. Magestry, that would be Dart."
Dart was a bit hurt that she'd lost him and found some one else to talk to, when she had just been waiting for him to find her.
Magestry smiled, "Hello Dart" he greeted, "And what were you saying before we were interrupted? Not saying that’s a bad thing, Dart."
“What act of torture did you do to the merchant?” Arianna said, finishing her question.
Magestry smiled, “I gave that merchant was a quick punch and a sharp coin in the stomach.”
"Ooh, powerful." Dart said sarcastically, looking at Arianna angrily since he still thought she ditched him to talk to this Magestry, whoever he happened to be.
“Why thank you for the compliment” Magestry responded in an equally sarcastic tone. He picked up an apple and tossed it to Dart, "Try an apple."

Dart caught the apple in his right hand. He hadn’t eaten much for a while, so he was happy to sink his teeth into the fruit.
Grabbing another apple Arianna laughed as some one walked past that had obviously actually paid for their food, turned up their nose and glared at the merchant like 'and your not doing any thing about the thieves plundering your supplies?'. The customer gave the three a of disgust as they passed, that made Arianna throw a core at them since she didn't much like dirty looks.
Magestry chuckled at Arianna‘s stunt. He then looked at the two thieves that joined him for this scrumptious apple filled lunch, "Now how are you two related?" he asked.
Smirking, Arianna answered, "I met him in jail one day. Aint these memories fun: being locked up?"
Funny how every thing bad has its good points, had the two never been caught, they would have never met, and it was fun knowing some one who was similar to you. And the two of them had many similarities.
Magestry raised an eyebrow, "So you both our thieves" he smirked, "Welcome to my world as well, though I’m a petty theft and no one really actually tries to catch me."
The next event that happened made it pretty ironic that they were talking about getting caught and being thieves.



“Now We’re Definitely Fugitives”

Five guards rounded a corner and caught sight of Arianna. They were wearing cheap steel armor, typical of a guard, only their captain had any weapon worth using. The others had rusty broadswords with bows slung on their back, but the leader had a glossy claymore that was ready for cleaving anyone in his path.
He pointed at Arianna, "There she is!" he called out, running forward with the other guards close behind him.

Magestry grabbed a dagger from his belt, "Never mentioned you were a fugitive" he commented. He raised the dagger up and prepared to fight the guards, letting his opponent make the first move.
"Yeah, I just…forgot." She said, looking back at Dart with a face as if to tell him to lend her a sword since he'd managed to steal two from the guards when they escaped.
Dart semi-laughed when the guards only noticed Arianna had was in the immediate area since he'd escaped with her too. They had come out of the last mess in different directions so maybe he'd just chosen a better way out. Whatever it was he didn't stop to think about it and handed her one of the stolen swords so she wasn't completely defenseless. It didn't look like she'd had much time to think about weapons any ways, she'd just barely got the shackles off one wrist so they hung loosely on the other, having no purpose but to be annoying by now.
Magestry smiled lightly. The guards approached with lightning speed with their weapons raised. Four guards focused on Dart and Magestry while the leader lunged at Arianna.
A guard threw a high swipe to Darts head, stupidly trying to end the fight before it started instead of worrying about tactics. The other guard that was on Dart appeared to be smarter. He started to flank his prey.
The by standers were watching the fight begin, they thought it was a show.
Dart counter-attacked the aggressive guard by swiping at the man’s wrist, instead of blocking the sword, since if he de-handed the man he would easily be distracted, and Dart would have an extra weapon. Besides Arianna and Dart were cruel to people that attacked first, and it was just plain fun to watch a lifeless hand fall to the floor. However there was still the second person to watch out for, so he stepped back quickly to dodge him, wishing he had an extra sword to fight in the way he did best; one blade per hand.
A mother shrieked at Darts attack and covered her child’s eyes so that the boy would not see the gore that would most likely evolve into more.

The two guards on Magestry went in for a pincer attack. Magestry blocked one blow and was skimmed at the side by the other. He grimaced and turned around for a slash on one of the guards.
The guard definitely had poor training as they made no attempt to dodge the counterattacks from Magestry. The guard’s stomach was sliced from Magestry's sword and he stooped down. The guards companion took him up and threw him away from the fight, "Shoot them with arrows." The dying guard said calmly. He clutched his gut in pain, trying to make it stop. The guards companion fled from the immediate fight and un-slung a bow from his back and aimed at Magestry.


The captain smiled, "I knew we'd find you." he hissed. The guard lunged forward with his sword raised for a slash at Arianna's chest. He was acting without thinking just knowing that he'd get enough money for food on his plate with the capture or death of this thief.
"Yes, you did, but until I'm dead you still haven’t won." Arianna smirked, easily blocking the attack so quickly it was almost by instinct.
The captain growled at Arianna, “You think your so special don’t you?” he hissed at her again, “Ill be glad to see your severed head on display in the streets. Your corpse will serve as a good example to the other dirty thieves around here.”

The guard that had attacked Dart cried out in pain, "Me hand!" He turned and grabbed the captain without thinking and shook his superior quickly. "Me hand!" The leader didn’t want anyone to ruin his chance to get the money he needed by killing Arianna. As far as he was concerned his peer was good as dead with a stump for a hand. He slid his sword into the guard’s chest. He referred to it as 'stopping the man's suffering'. He turned to Arianna and gave another aggressive attack to her chest.
"What now?" Arianna asked blocking the same attack as she'd received the last time, and pushing the man back when her blade hit his.

The guard that flanked Dart whimpered for a mere second for his companion. With a new sense of fury and revenge, he charged, but not at Dart, he charged at the Captain that had killed his fellow guard and friend.
Shrugging Dart laughed at the how the leader was being attacked by some one under his command, and suggested, "We run?" Noticing the guard that had un-slung a bow and was aiming towards Magestry, Dart countered this by throwing his sword at the person who'd un-slung their bow, with good aim that would have been better if the sword had been of better make.
The guard was struck by the sword that had thrown head on. He flipped back, releasing the arrow into the air and watched as it clattered harmlessly on a roof. His head tilted to the side and he breathed his last breath and turned pale as he slipped away into death.

The rebellious guard clashed with his captain sword raised. He stabbed the captain with his blade and smiled maliciously. He gazed into his superior’s eyes and watched intently.
The captain had a look of shock on his face, "Traitor" he whispered. With the last of his strength, he brought his sword back and hewed off the head of the vengeful guard. Both slumped down dead.
The crowd that was watching stood dumbfounded, staring blankly at the scene that had unfolded in front of them.
Magestry sighed, "Now were definitely fugitives," He commented, "What say we ride out the night in a local tavern and head into the forest or board a corsair ship?"
Shrugging, Arianna answered, "Doesn't matter to me. What say you?" asking Dart for his opinion on what to do next.
"Same, it don’t matter, but the tavern part sounds nice." Dart responded as he grabbed a sword nearby the corpse of a guard.
Magestry bent down and picked up the claymore that the captain used in the fight, And I’ll be taking this fine blade, he thought, could use it in the future. He started walking down the street, "Taverns this way." he said. He felt stupid leaving a crowd around a bunch of dead guards, at least he felt safe knowing he would be relatively hard to find around drunkards and evildoers in the tavern