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Finally Jannis arrives at Elethia, the capital and only standing city of the realm of merchants -
apart from a few small outposts, that is. It was an arduous journey and most of his traveling
companions, including his master, died to either the soulless or the heat.
As he enters through the gates he falls to his knees, exhausted from his journey and loses
consciousness in a shady corner between two marble houses. But not for long, because his
more or less involuntary nap is being interrupted by the heavily booted kicks of a
guardsman.
"Get up you scum!"
Above our hero towers a massive being with a pointed helmet and an angry face. Jannis
stands up, even though the man's head does not seem to get any closer, and apologizes.
"Argh shut up and get lost, tiny."
Tired and weak, Jannis walks around town to find someplace safe to regain some energy,
drink some, or a lot of, wine and then sleep. Someplace where he will not be awakened
rudely by some brute. Someplace where he can find a soft bed. Someplace… like the Palm
Blossom Inn.
He walks through the door and is immediately hit by a wall of tobacco smoke and incense as
he realizes that this is not just a standard Inn, but one of those pleasure Palaces he heard so
much about. He thinks about leaving but his knees are too weak to search any longer, and
so he enters and sits down by the bar, trying not to make eye contact with anyone but the
barman.
He nods and the barman makes his way.
"What can I do for you?" He asks.
"Something Cold," Jannis pants. "Hard and bitter." The barman scoffs.
"I don't think you can handle that, little man."
"Don't care."
The barman gives Jannis a look, shrugs, pours a shot of some kind of dark, viscous looking
liquid and puts it right under his nose.
The smell is awful. Sharp, bitter with a hint of rotten citrus, but Jannis doesn't think about
that. He downs the shot in one big gulp and slams the cup back onto the bar. The Barman
seems impressed by Jannis' lack of reaction to the drink, but his face soon changes when he
falls into a coughing fit as his body tries to violently eject the vile liquid he just voluntarily put
into it. But Jannis resists and the pain soon subsides.
"Pretty good for your first Oasis Bloom." The barman returns. "Now, what brings you here?"
"I'm not quite sure myself." Jannis looks up with squinting eyes. He lets out a silent burp.
"Just that I'm supposed to, one, not be alone and, two, meet some lady."
"Do you know that 'ladies' name?"
Jannis nods. "Also not supposed to tell you."
"Me?"
"Anyone."
Jannis pulls up his sleeve and reveals a tattoo of specific symbols running down his forearm
and ending in a straight line on his wrist, perpendicular to the symbols.
"Oh you're one of those guys." The barman's eyes are now wide open and he seems a bit
frightened.
"Don't worry, I still have about 2 weeks."
The barman relaxes a bit.
"But shouldn't there be someone relieving you of that once you've done your task?"
"Yep."
"And?"
"Dead."
"Damn. Sorry, man."
"Don't worry." Jannis taps on his glass to signal that he wants another one. "As i said, I still
have about 2 weeks, give or take. So if I can find this lady, and bring her to where she's
supposed to be and then return home I might still make it."
"What did you do?" The barman asks, pointing at the tattoo.
"Killed a guy."
"And you still got two whole weeks?! Who was he?"
"Unimportant."
"Don't wanna say?"
"Just did."
The barman looks confused.
After a few drinks Jannis pays for the drinks and a room and makes for the bed.
The next morning Jannis wakes up with a massive headache and the determination to find
this woman that can save his life.
By day the city is very alive. Traders in their stalls shouting, almost melodically, what they're
selling. Musicians providing ample entertainment for the bored. Scantily clad women
tempting men to their guest for a night or two. Topless male dancers doing the same to
women. All in the open, all for people to see, hear, smell and… touch. The woman Jannis is
looking for will be hard to find. So first he goes where every good traveler would go who is
trying to find somebody. The most visited tavern. A real tavern this time.
As he enters the ambiance changes drastically. Here he doesn't smell perfume and spices
but smoke and alcohol. No beautiful men or women but lonely travelers, vagabonds and
wanderers. Music, sure, but still not the same.
Jannis makes his way to the bar immediately asking for a drink. He pays extra as he asks for
a young, female student who is supposed to meet a well paid escort.
The barman shrugs and then points to a table beset by a group of young good-for-nothing
rowdies.
"What's wrong pretty lady?"
Another one echoes his pal's advances: "Yeah! Care for a drink?"
The young woman ignores the men, flips the page and keeps writing.
"What?" The biggest of them all chimes in "Think you're better than us? Stupid Speakers."
She keeps scribbling.
"Hey little girl, I'm talking to you!"
Jannis stands up as the big guy grabs the woman's hair and pulls her head back, breathing
down her neck.
"Don't you know who you're messing with, bitch?"
Jannis grabs his weapon as the man grabs the notes, in an attempt to crumple them up. His
hand immediately is set alight and he screams in pain as he falls to the ground writhing and
shouting "You're done for, you bitch!" His pals, first in shock, now in rage, walk towards the
woman, ready to throw punches as she lifts her hand from the papers. The letters fade and
her hand becomes engulfed in a crackling purple light which she suddenly but incredibly
precisely throws onto them.
They all fall to the ground, shaking and unable to speak a coherent word.
Suddenly, there is nothing but silence in the room. She notices Jannis' tattoo and says
"Finally." She lets out a short sigh, "Where are the others?"
They leave the tavern as Jannis explains his journey and how the rest of the girls' escort has
been killed by soulless. Athira, the girl, is an apprentice Speaker and explains "my school
sent me to retrieve some kind of artifact. Supposed to be an orb of probably black color, they
weren't sure of that. Don't know how big it's supposed to be either, but they assured me that,
once I see it, I'll know it's the object I'm looking for."
"So where are we going?" Jannis asks.
"South-East."
"Just south-east? There is nothing there. Well nothing except cacti, soulless and eventually a
steep rocky coast."
"I know," She shrugs "But that's all I have right now."
"Just south-east then." Jannis sighs.
The next morning they pack their things and make their way.
Packed with exorbitant amounts of water and some food they wander seemingly aimlessly
towards the coast. Sometimes veering left sometimes right their goal doesn't seem to show
itself until a chunk of their water supply is used up and the sea can be seen on the horizon.
At this point it has been days, how many, Jannis can't tell anymore, but most of their water is
gone. Luckily there are very few soulless in this desert since nobody ever comes here. No
people means nobody can die. And if nobody dies, they can't rise.
But that suddenly changes as, on their way back, the pair spots a few groups wandering
off… somewhere.
First they shrug it off as some kind of weird coincidence but, as the groups they encounter
get larger and larger and they don't seem to notice the two only living people, Athira insists
on following them, thinking this might be the thing they were looking for.
A few hours of exhausting wandering through the now setting sun later they see the biggest
group of them yet.
Stopped and standing there, as if they were waiting for the carriage to bring them home.
Unfazed by anything.
Athira, now even more agitated, begins making her way through the masses. Jannis, not
wanting to stir up the dead, just looks at her and shakes his head but Athira doesn't seem to
want to let this pass. He sees determination in her eyes. Something he hasn't seen in her at
any moment of this journey. The last few days were boring and disconnected. Athira now
has fire, not only in her pages but in her heart.
He follows her into the eye of the, very unpleasant smelling, storm, weapon always at the
ready.
In the center of the field lies an orb. A massive pitch black orb the size of an orc head.
Smooth and shiny as if it had never been touched by the elements, it is surprisingly light as
Athira touches it and holds it up with one hand. This action however stirs up the undead
masses and they start dragging their bodies towards them. Surrounded by the sound of
gurgling and hissing, getting closer and closer the pair start to panic as they didn't account
for that possibility. But it all stops abruptly. As if the masses were stopped by an invisible
force they drag their feet across the sand, not making any ground.
Suddenly a flash and a screech, like an Eagle but more echoed, like the scream of a spirit.
Athira looks up, stunned the only thing she can utter is "No. This can't be. A-" Jannis is not
able to hear the rest of her sentence. Then a massive ball of flame plummets down into the
undead horde, circling around burning them all to ashes. As the flames clear and the fireball
jets back into the sky the only thing Jannis can make out is the blended remains of golden
sands and gray ashes. Then he hears a scream. Athira once again looking up into the sky.
The fireball now comes right for her, blasting through the air. Jannis tries to jump between
but that thing is just too quick, speeding around him and into the orb, vanishing. The orb now
glowing green with runes not unlike the ones on Jannis' arm.
"What just happened?" Jannis asks, as Athira faints and drops both the orb and herself into
the sand.
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