High Captain Aurien moved carefully through the narrow alleyways of the Central District's artisan quarters; the storehouses were locked and guarded by many sentries. Aurien greeted several he recognized by sight, and went on towards the edge of the district. The capital was protected by walls, and gates, and each of the city's three districts was designed for one particular purpose.

  The north – his intended destination, after he finished his next task – was for the military and the capital guard, and there also was the great arena, with many lifts; these rotated diagonally on tracks along the outside of it, to carry citizens up to each level of seating. The black-stone wall of the arena was another layer of fortification for the protection of the city. Of course, the lifts hadn't been used in decades. Then, there were the training areas in the mock-up of a town surrounding the district, and the largest of the guildhalls. The council was shrewd, easily coming up with a way to curtail the influence the military had been gaining in the days before the War Quests. Aurien knew it was a thinly veiled attempt to stop the brutal skirmishes between the guilds, wherein they would compete for man power, and control of the entire military. Of course, Aurien suspected, the council had only been jealous of the renown and respect the command staff had received then, and wanted to retake the perceived 'undue' glory for themselves.

  The councillors did seem to gain extraordinary wealth following the establishment of the quests.

  The captain passed a line of massive crates, containing surplus items of unknown wares made by artisans. There were many smaller ones even, and several locked chests there. Aurien was curious, but he only waited, and eventually a sentry officer manned the guard post at the end of the alley; the two conversed for a time, nearly an hour, before Aurien felt another presence. His contact had arrived, at last.

  There he was, coming up the lane: a priest, called Rivelas by the captain. The name, Aurien knew, was not a name at all, but a word which meant 'relic' in the ancient tongue of the Raiiya people, composed of three separate glyphs – the first being mountain, or inorin; the second was treasure, or Venda, which in his own dialect was said as Aur instead – meaning 'sunlight' or 'dawn', a component of his own surname; and the third, Aurien remembered, represented the word for an oracle. The latter was Sil – the feminine form of Si, in the common tongue written as 'Shi' – and usually rendered as 'prophetess', 'spirit', or 'healer' in the local language, a blanket word for all who could use so-called 'spell casting' techniques.

  Aurien wondered why it was told to him, and why a person would be called by a term used for finds at archaeological dig sites. The priest never said the reason, but he accepted the word as his name. There was no crown on his head, and no headdress of any kind. He wore only the common attire of healers, a cloak of sable, and a deep hood to cover his clothing. He was a sallow man, in his late fifties; he looked much the same as he had when Aurien first met him, nearly thirty years earlier and right before a bandit gang raided a monastery the captain had been protecting. Aurien failed his mission, but the priest gave warning, and many other lives were saved because Rivelas had come to him, defying orders to stay put. Rivelas strode into his camp in the middle of the night, yelling in a booming voice, asking for aid. Aurien was more than willing. The Raiiya were a fierce lot; Aurien loved his people, but he also detested their behavior. It was one of their own who started the assault.

  Aurien watched his advisor move along a narrower alley ahead of him, close to the guard post. The sentry was whispered to, and he left his station at the priest's request. The priest walked beyond an archway into the courtyard on the other side of the wall. The gate was nearly always unlocked, and the iron gate was opened earlier by the first guard shift. Rivelas moved past the bins and the crates and the tall vessels of oils sealed up with cork. He carefully went past the stacks and passed into the courtyard. There was a tree at the center, and a bench beneath it. The priest waited, with his head bowed and his hands clasped. Aurien followed.

  The oak tree had been there for many decades. The treasury building Aurien visited early in the morning had a back entrance to it in the courtyard, as did the other buildings surrounding them. It was a rather pleasant place to visit, and Aurien had often brought Saiya and Hiro there more than a few times when they were younger, before he took them for a visit to the markets. It was the same as ever. He strode up to the priest, and not without a sense of dread.

  “You have been well, I hope, Master Aurien?”

  Aurien sighed; he'd been expecting the usual niceties. “Yes, but spare the common talk, Master Rivelas. You have the information I requested? I need it quickly. You heard about the rumor? Aurin Peak's monthly report has not arrived.”

  Rivelas removed his hood for a while to reveal his grim face, and looked up; he revealed his crooked, worn teeth as he spoke. There were deep scars in his face, but they also had the look of fresh burns. “It hasn't? Well. Perhaps it is only late. I would not despair, if I were you. I found something worthwhile, maybe.”

  “First, tell me why you were late, Master Rivelas. Trouble?”

  The priest's face went pale. “I was only delayed, Captain; there are more than a few conjurers in the world to harm us; the Silurè are not the only threat in this country. I have perceived a dangerous threat, an ill force. Some calamity, drawing nearer. Perhaps it is only paranoia – but I have come from a terrible land. You know the tales of King's Sanctuary, and the darkness of the deadlands on its southern border.”

  Aurien did, and well; he'd come out of the dead lands a few months earlier. He looked about the courtyard. There was no one else nearby. The windows around them were dark. The treasury had only closed its services off for the mid-day's meal. Yet Aurien, too, felt paranoid. “You yourself are a threat, in your own way. Still, you are here. Have my usual payment, for the last time.”

  The priest caught a bag of local currency Aurien threw to him after bowing. “Your gratitude is payment enough; I will gladly accept this generous donation, however. Very well. It is as you say, the Relics were in the northern range, near the ruin of Baron's Respite. Horrible, horrible place. Nirin hides many things in its depths – including those lords of the King's Guard – the heralds, or harbingers. There is a tomb in those mountains. I encountered casters; they might have been guards, but they turned my illusions against me, and I fled.”

  Aurien wondered about this news; he checked their surroundings again, and found nothing. “Sounds like such an ordeal. There was something else I asked you for – anything worth reporting to me on it?”

  The priest did not respond at first, but his hand went to a leather pouch on his belt. He drew from it a ring of brass with several keys tied to it, by a material locals referred to as 'iron-cord'. After a second's hesitation, the priest passed the ring over to the captain when the man strode up closer to him.

  “These keys are the only thing I recovered. There was also a memorial tablet at the entrance to the tomb, but its guardians were aware of me, then. I stole these keys from the only one I was able to subdue. I did not kill him! As for your other question, I can only say it was beyond my comprehension. I am not a combative man, and spell fire has not been seen in my own lands, not since our last encounter – I will say nothing of the terrible events following our first meeting. No other signs have been revealed to me. If the others have escaped, well – that remains to be seen. Casters and their many – ah, let us say idiosyncrasies – do not interest me in the slightest.”

  Aurien looked over the keys a moment longer and put them in his own belt pouch. He wandered toward the treasury building, but did not pass the gate onto its stone porch. The windows were dark here, too; he started to walk back, thinking there should have been at least one or two lanterns inside with a flame in them. The captain tried to keep his voice steady, as he spoke to Rivelas again. “The keys were made by the Raiiya people. So, perhaps someone up north will know.”

  “Were they indeed, Captain? Curious.”

  Aurien ignored his contact's last remark, and stared up at the overcast sky; the weather was growing worse and a dark fume was gathering overhead out of the northern district. He wondered if he could reach the villa before a torrent started – and he was expected at the villa, for once – but then he recalled what had happened to it and let out a dreadful gasp. The villa was gone. He turned back to the priest then. Beyond the tree and the other half of the yard there was another gate. A shimmering field of energy, and a spark of light, drew his gaze upward. There was something there, concealing itself, on the balcony of a shop's rear wall. Aurien turned his head slowly; on another balcony was what looked to be a pale haze. He moved closer to Rivelas.

  “Get down, Rivelas,” he called out, in a booming voice. The priest did not seem to understand, and was looking around, afraid. He cowered where he sat, and Aurien rushed over to him, lowering the visor of his helmet as he ran.

  “Get down, I said.”

  Rivelas screamed in pain. He moved as though he were trying to flee, but did not react quickly enough; Aurien was fitter and younger. The captain shoved the lithe man, and he landed on the ground on the other side of the tree trunk. Rivelas's hesitation was almost deadly to him. A blade swiped the back of his wrist and another managed to puncture the fabric of his heavy cloak at the shoulder. Blood splattered onto the ground. More thrown knives damaged the tree. Aurien crouched by the priest to shield the man, and he looked around at the exits of the courtyard. There were many enemies watching them, perched over the tops of the walls. Throwing knives were not able to penetrate the captain's armor. They were diversionary. Aurien watched a lumbering, slow, and large enemy. This man closed the heavy gate opposite the way Aurien had entered earlier. Behind them was another alley.

  The captain murmured and his left hand began to emanate warmth. The priest was still cowering behind him. Aurien attempted to seize the man by his cloak but he threw Aurien off. The man of House Vile-heart was prepared for many scenarios. He left the priest there, wondering how he'd survived being such a weak-willed illusionist. There was another gate at the far side of the courtyard. Aurien made a mad dash for it, and rummaged in a belt pouch as he ran; he drew forth a throwing knife of his own and cast a blast spell from the end of it. A streak of red light shot forth and hit the locking mechanism, shattering the metal device. The gate ahead gave way, and he entered the alley; there beyond was a patrolling path for guards to get into the more populous areas faster, but there were none on patrol in this sector. Runners followed after Aurien, leaping from their high perches, and drew their sabers and other melee tools to kill the knight.

  A woman was following along from rooftop to rooftop. She was clad in heavy garments, and with her were several more runners. She had a scepter in her hand and was casting many blast spells at him. The enemy clearly had no idea what she was doing. The larger enemy captain he'd seen was nowhere near them. Aurien was glad for this; he struck one of the runners bearing down on him and fled down a path barely wide enough for a man to get through. The runners followed, and so did many blasting spells – bright, golden projectiles were missing him and hitting the buildings on his flanks.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Aurien escaped onto the road beyond before turning and sending two blasts of his own up toward the roof of the nearest structure. He recalled the laws against this action, suddenly and at the worst time; the enemy's new prey continued on, until only the spellcaster and a few of her protection team were left. Another runner leapt down from a roof and then the building's second-story balcony and Aurien seized it the moment it touched the ground. The captain's large hand grasped the runner's ragged tunic and with the other, he shoved a blade into its torso repeatedly, and let the enemy fall with the throwing knife left in its side. More came then, one with a saber, and it used the old manner of fighting, like the Raiiya's own techniques; but Aurien was swifter than the runners. The captain drew his own saber. There was not much room on these paths but he managed to get around it after parrying the enemy's swipes. The captain slashed its back, and fled, cleaning his blade with a rag as he went, before sheathing it to get through an abandoned shop.

  Aurien drew a second throwing knife. The other Runners, scrambling along rooftops above him, were closing in; Aurien burst a door to pieces with his spells, and entered into a large, abandoned artisan's workshop beyond the threshold. He kept going, and unlatched the next door he came to, but runners were there outside in wait. These were dispatched quickly, and then there was only the spellcaster left. A beam of golden light obliterated much of the cobbled street when Aurien reached the middle of it. His enemy descended a staircase on the other side of the street. The spellcaster kept up, and was still flinging spheres of radiant light toward him, but Aurien deflected them with a barrier cast with the knife in his off-hand. He dropped the knife afterwards – it was becoming too hot to hold any longer.

  When the enemy spellcaster came up close, Aurien drew his saber again and slashed upward in time. His foe swung her weapon in a wide arc – and there was a glow which blinded both momentarily, but her scepter shattered and shrapnel wounded both combatants. Her left hand swiped after this; a knife was in it, but Aurien dodged and cut the enemy down. The enemy never spoke a word, but she wore the local guild colors on her clothing. Aurien wondered if this was a result of a forbidden rite. He'd heard many tales of it. The body stirred on the ground; the victorious captain shoved the end of his saber into the enemy's chest, lifted it and walked away, cleaning it again with one of his two rags as he moved away from the dead caster.

  The capital guards had their moments. A squad was coming up the road; its own leader met an exasperated Aurien at the end of a lane which looped back around. The lane eventually joined another full of shops selling items of dubious quality, and Aurien followed this second road as it wound its way uphill. The sky was growing darker, and the captain was becoming weary from the casting of spells. He made his way back; a crowd had gathered in the street, and there were some of the stragglers among the citizenry, all men; most were of the local guard. There were also a few guildsmen who had been placed in charge of the conscripts and lads who volunteered to do work in exchange for greater provision allowances.

  Aurien could at least see no more enemies. Several knights, and more guildsmen, took up sentry duties at the entrance to the treasury building to occupy it. One yelled for a healer. Aurien's forearm was cut badly; he finally realized a runner had clawed him, and muttered a vulgar phrase. The healer walked into the treasury building with him and attended to the wound, but Aurien dismissed him after a cut in his leg was healed, too. A few bruises would not daunt him. The captain thanked the healer, and gave him a handful of his last remaining gold coins. He waited for the other officers to prepare their charts and dump their crossbow ammunition and food in the main hall of the treasury. He ate quickly after their prep work and approached a recruit. Beyond the hall and past an open doorway was a large row of windows, and Aurien could see the courtyard, and the tree in the middle of it.

  “Did you see a priest here, recruit? He was wounded – he could not have retreated with all of the enemies in this area, even if we secured this sector.”

  The recruit checked a pile of reports on the table in front of him, and found the latest. “Gone,” he said, after skimming the contents of the report. “He was treated and sent on his way. A few other priests fetched him. The log says he was – well now, that is interesting.”

  “What, lad?”

  The recruit checked their surroundings before whispering a response. “It mentions east gate – no one has used east gate for weeks; I was told the sector had flooded. Might have been a mistake, Captain, but – yes, this does say they went eastward. I can send a scout to the nearest checkpoint.”

  Aurien thought about it for some time, but he finally responded and turned down the suggestion. “No. He was a visitor; they are a skittish bunch. You get back to your duties before you are reprimanded.”

  The captain went to a bench in the waiting area, and pondered what he should do. He drank from his canteen and waited; his recovering wounds were still painful. The captain instinctively ducked when he heard a crash above him. Then there was another. The ceiling fell in a few meters from him, and Aurien leapt up from his place. The front doors were blocked when he looked, and so Aurien went to the rear, breaking a window to escape the building. There was smoke everywhere, and he could not see far. Another attack had commenced. The captain waited again, and before long, he realized the annoying truth: he was back in the courtyard he started out in. More explosions hurt his ears – other enemies had planted blasting charges in hidden spots.

  Aurien muttered many obscenities over it, and waited for a sign of what he should do next. A few of the others escaped after him, and fled the area; Aurien had no orders to give them. There were flames on the upper story, consuming the building, and there were other badly damaged shops, and one of the inn's walls had been struck. Aurien was coughing and retching himself. He waited by the familiar tree on its bench. Nightfall finally came before he was relieved; the captain's wounds were still causing him pain – but the healer was likely dead, as the poor man hadn't come out of the building.

  At last, allies came into the courtyard. They were led by another healer Aurien recognized instantly. The woman came into the courtyard after the sky went dark, emerging from the rear of another building at the other end of the yard. She was in the battle wear of the Watchers, an infamous and mysterious organization with a branch working out of the palace. Four other watchers were following her, moving towards the gates in the courtyard wall. Aurien knew their lore and it frightened him. The Watchers could See – they possessed a special ability known as foresight. Aurien had heard the stories: there were men and women who studied the ancient Way, and their younger members could go abroad telling others their future, usually for a steep price of silver – and only silver. The captain rose cautiously from his seat and made his way over toward the treasury building, limping. The other watchers left the woman and went to each of the courtyard's entrances, and each began casting a healing ward as they walked. The smoke coming from the treasury building was held at bay and Aurien groaned in pain when he got closer to the spellcaster standing there before the doors – his wounds healed fully as he went.

  The leader of the Watchers inclined her head when he approached – a formality, for she knew Aurien well. As though urged by her power, the spellcaster beckoned Aurien to follow her and returned to the place where Aurien had entered the courtyard. Aurien went to it with her, still unnerved by the nature of the gift she possessed.

  “You have my gratitude. What news is there from the palace? What does the Elder suggest? My most trusted advisor could not give me more than a few words of guidance.”

  Megia reached the locked gate and Aurien followed alongside her. To others she and Aurien might have seemed to be on a leisurely stroll. She spoke in the same quiet voice he was very familiar with, and had been comforted by whenever they met over the past decade. Megia was a steady presence in his child's education.

  “The L’iiyrohai is missing again, Captain Aurien. My son brought word to me. I am surprised he did not report to you first, considering recent events in his life – well never mind, for now. What have you learned?”

  Aurien tested the gate to check its strength. He could not open it with force and rested against it a moment. He lifted the visor of his helm. There was a smile on his face despite his predicament. The prophetess had long been a friend to him.

  “Then, he has actually told you? Well. Yes, there is something. We are fighting a difficult enemy. So the treasured Book has been found? I thought we buried it? Whatever the case may be, the tome was not the only thing stolen,” he said.

  Megia did not speak at first, but she responded with only one question. The Watchers did not speak often without careful deliberation. “Missing, yes, but not taken. Though we have some idea where the real one is. You know about the duplicates made by enemies, I am sure. So, the 'Relics' are gone too, then?”

  The knight caught her eye. “Cinar Raiya was looking for the other Harbingers. All those years, I thought they truly were dead. Rivelas told me otherwise, but as to how they were even caught, I cannot say. Well, the bandit found them at last: his fellow conspirators, the heralds of the King's Guard.”

  Megia turned away, toward the gate, looking up the top of the wall; Aurien felt as though he knew why, but he did not question it yet. He listened for fighting.

  “I was never made aware of this. We must gather reinforcements while we can. Captain, have you any knowledge of my son’s whereabouts? He was last with you.”

  Aurien drew a serrated knife from his belt and attempted to pry the gate latch open with it. This did not work and he returned the knife to its sheath. “No. I do not even know where my own child is, and she was last with you! This does not bode well, Woman. Reinforcements, you say? Who is there, to aid us?”

  “I understand your worries. The young do not deserve to pay for our. . .ineptitude, and we are inept, aren't we? I sent her away with the last of those going to the forest. I told her you wanted her to leave, and to be safe. There are. . .others, across the sea, who might help us. We were not the only enemy of those terrible men.”

  Aurien at last saw a detail he might have been able to use; there were markings on the edge of the gate. There was another way past this wall – but he did not know how to open the hidden passage in it.

  Not this one, at least.

  In times of war, he'd been taught, spell work was used to lock certain district gates, and there were passages all through the city like the one he'd just found. Aurien looked up, and saw lines of words on the piping used to collect rain water. Each one was glinting in the light of several lamps above them. There were not many; Aurien wondered why all of them had not lit up. The darkness was worsening; it was not only the lack of sunlight.

  The captain looked for a foothold, and climbed up the side of the building, using the pipe after checking its stability. He made his way to the top of the archway and swung a leg over, and looked back down. Megia was there. He did not tell her much, but he disagreed with her plan.

  “There is no aid to seek, Lady. Who would you ask? The pirates? The islanders? Boys at play? – those who gained a bit of fame reenacting war games in the arena? No, Lady Aliin. We are alone in our fight. But if – if you see my child again – keep her safe.”

  Aurien swung his other leg over. There was scaffolding on the other side of the wall; the city was always in need of repairs. 'The team responsible for it must have escaped in the evacuation drill', he thought, or hoped. Aurien was about to drop onto the scaffolding when Megia spoke once more.

  “Find my son, Captain. Beware. I can See nothing farther ahead than this meeting. They are too near and too dangerous, even for our young offspring, despite their courage.”

  “Indeed, that was my intent. Very well. Goodbye, Lady Aliin.”

  The sun had finally set; there was a Fog, too, and Aurien knew exactly where it had come from. It was not pollution out of the northern part of the city. The Fog and the night's darkness had merged to make all his surroundings nearly pitch black. There was a lot of it now. Aurien carefully passed the debris piled up against the opposite side of the gate, using the scaffolding parallel to the wall to reach the road below, tightly gripping the metal railings to aid his descent. The damaged architecture must have needed many repairs, for the engineering teams to leave the scaffolding behind. He touched the ground and looked back, examining the broken section of wall near the levers for operating the gate. He whispered – one of the golden rings on his left hand glowed faintly for a second; he could see the damage to the levers and gears. They were rusting. No one had bothered to replace them after the repair team fixed the building.

  After only few minutes of careful deliberation, the captain began jogging towards the city’s central lake, nearly despairing from the abysmal lack of care the council had given to his home. Aurien recalled Shiden's peculiar attachment to Hiro Faryn, and where the young man would likely be going; he had only to find the villa worker, and he would find the man he sought. Aurien moved further into the darkness, panting from the laborious effort. The lamps were out on both sides of the wall.

  Series Preface

  space ranger sorry, "Relic Hunter", actually DO? What was in the mysterious note that our handsome protagonist Shiden received from his mum at the end of Chapter 2? Why did Cinar Raiya attack our heroes in the first place? Who is the mysterious fire wielder that burned down Hiro's epic starter base? Who was creepily watching the gallant Captain Aurien from the woods around his daughter's house? Where would the civilians of Etirran even go for safety during an attack? Why was the capital so full of smug, black-armored, elitist jerks?! - and what the h*ck are Runners, anyway? Find out next time on...okay, we won't do that reference. I just wanted to avoid spoiling anything, this is only the first chapter. You're gonna stick around, right?

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