Joined: Aug 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 2 Location: Nidea
A Stunning Proposal 2 « Thread Started on Aug 20, 2003, 9:35am »
Amnestre woke up with a sharp pain in his left temple. Headaches were common for him, but lately the pain had become centralized in one area, causing extreme and throbbing pain. No one ever said the life of a magic caster was easy. Spellcasting was not without its consequences, and frequent headaches were one of them. But of all the other mages that Amnestre had spoken to, none seemed to think his excessive pain was anything unusual to worry about.
Idiots. They should know that only high-level casters get pain this bad. And Amnestre was not a high-level caster, like his mother or the other mages on the Sorcerer's Council. No, he wasn't ready for that just yet. One more year of study and maybe he would try and apply for a higher-level version of his Darkness Mark and learn to use it. Of course, he also had his Lightning Mark, but he never liked that one much.
"Are you okay, Master Amnestre?"
Amnestre looks at the figure standing at the door to his room. (He has a huge room) He has to squint to see who it was calling to him from the door.
"Another headache, Master?"
Amnestre recognizes the voice as Palan, one of his maids.
"I'm fine," replies Amnestre, rubbing his eyes.
"Well, don't push yourself too hard," Palan says, "You are supposed to meet your mother in Taellon today."
Amnestre groans.
"Ahh, I completely forgot."
"That's okay, Master Amnestre. I'll get your robes ready."
-------------------------------
Amnestre's mother, Genetra, was always busy with her duties as a member of the Sorcerer's Council, so she never had much time to spend with her son. He has been alone for a majority of his life. Even when his father was alive, Amnestre didn't spend much time with him either. His father wasn't with the Sorcerer's Council, but he was Gunther Callas, the Lord of Caligra. Making sure a city ran smoothly took more of his father's time than his family did.
Amnestre's affinity for the Darkness Mark was inherited through his father. His mother is an ice mage, but Amnestre didn't inherit any of that from her. He acquired Lightning affinity all on his own.
-------------------------------
Palan laid Amnestre's trademark black robes on his bed as he freshened up in his bathroom. His robes had to be neat and unwrinkled, every time. Amnestre is a devout perfectionist.
"I've left the robes on your bed, Master," Palan yells from the room.
"Alright," replies Amnestre, washing his face. He always liked his face. It was so nice and milky smooth. If that wasn't a piece of art, he didn't know what was. Amnestre liked to thank the goddesses that he was born so perfect, unlike 99% of the rest of the world, who had been given the poor end of the bargain.
Amnestre went to his bed after fixing his fine, soft hair in the giant mirror in his private bathroom. He took the black silk robes and put them on carefully, making sure not to rip them. They were very delicate; a special garment made just for him from the tailors in Lethron. Just that one robe cost more than a small apartment in Nidea. But of course, he liked to remind everyone of that. Just so they'd know.
Breakfast was prepared for the young master downstairs by Palan and the rest of the maids. Amnestre could smell the lure of fine grain toast and apples.
"We've made some toast, wheat cakes, and baked apples for your breakfast, Master," said Lena, another one of his maids. She was younger than Palan, who was in her mid-thirties and had known Amnestre ever since he was born. No, Lena was only 17 and was quite taken with Amnestre. Not that he noticed, anyway.
"Thanks," yawns Amnestre, pulling out a fancy wooden chair to sit down. Lena poured him some juice while Palan and another maid opened his napkin for him and placed it on his lap.
"Today your mother is off work, right?" asks Lena, handing Amnestre his cup.
"Yeah. She doesn't get much time off from the Council," Amnestre confesses, drinking the juice and eyeing the sweet wheat cakes on the table.
"What did you have planned for the day?" asks Lena, smiling innocently.
"Not sure," explains Amnestre, "We might go and eat at a restaurant in Taellon, since we have to stay in the city."
"Oh, I see," says Lena, nodding with interest.
Amnestre takes some wheat cakes and places them on his plate. Then, using his fork, he pokes delicately into an apple slice and brings it to his mouth to bite on.
"I've a present for your mother, Master," Palan says, bringing out a small box from the kitchen. It is wrapped in a silver handkerchief. "These are the leftover wheat cakes. I know she'd like something natural to eat for once instead of all that junk-filled Taellon food. Please take this to her when you go to see her today."
"Alright," Amnestre nods, cutting open a wheat cake with his knife. Lena seemed mesmerized by how neatly the young master ate his food and didn't notice the other maids calling her from the kitchen to do the dishes.
Palan placed the box on the table and went back into the kitchen. Amnestre ate until he was semi-full, and then got up and stretched out his arms. It was never good manners to stuff oneself, Amnestre thought. That's why he never ate more than he needed to. He was sure Lena, Palan, and the other maids would finish up whatever he hadn't eaten for him.
Amnestre went back up to his room to get his staff. It was custom made in Caligra, and commissioned by his father as a graduation gift for his son. His father never lived long enough to give it to Amnestre on his day of graduation from the Temple of the Mihaelis. His mother picked it up and took it upon herself to give Amnestre his father's final gift.
The staff was exquisite. Made of pure gold, it was about four feet long and had rubies and other gemstones lining the sides. On the very top of the staff was a circular disc of opal and onyx. Since Darkness was Amnestre's forte, the staff was made to enhance his Darkness casting power. The opal circle at the top was meant to resemble a small moon. The moon was essential to a Dark mage's spell power.
Amnestre looked at himself in the mirror one last time before heading out.
"I'm leaving now!" he shouted, signaling the guards near his front door to open it for him.
Palan and the other maids come running out of the kitchen.
"Oh, alright Master Amnestre. Please take care," says Palan, wiping a plate with a rag.
"Do be careful along the way, Master..." says Lena, bowing.
"No need to worry about me," assures Amnestre, "I'll be fine. It's just a short walk to the teleport station, anyway."
"But it is all the way on the other side of the town," Lena says, "Be careful walking there, Amnestre. Once you get to Taellon, you'll be completely safe. But Nidea has become full of ruffians from Charamal lately. You never know what might happen..."
"I swear, they should put a barrier up on Nidea as well," complains Amnestre bitterly, "Taellon has their anti-magic barrier up, and look how safe that city is."
"Maybe you can bring that issue up with your mother when you go to see her," reminds Palan.
"Maybe I will," replies Amnestre, "It's really getting out of hand."
Amnestre walks out the door and past the two mage guards that stand on opposite sides of it.
"Goodbye!" shouts Lena, waving. Palan and the others come to the door to see him off.
"Goodbye," waves Amnestre.
Amnestre walks down the steps of his estate and out the large ivory gate separating his house from the streets. He continues along his way, walking briskly down the sidewalk and to the other side of town, to the teleport station.
"That boy is really something else," Palan sighs.
"He is," agrees Lena, "But I think he'll be fine walking by himself. Master Amnestre is a very powerful mage."
"No, not that..." says Palan, shaking her head. "He forgot the wheat cakes I packed for his mother. That boy has a one-track mind, I tell you..."
Lena giggles as the watches Amnestre's robes vanish into the crowd of faceless strangers.
Joined: Aug 2003 Gender: Female Posts: 11 Location: Nidea
Re: A Stunning Proposal 2 « Reply #1 on Aug 29, 2003, 8:00am »
After a week of traveling on foot (and by hitchhiking on merchant's wagons) Samee arrives in Nidea, the location of her next victim...err...job.
------------------------
"Name?"
"Samee."
"Last name?"
"None of your business."
The gate guard of Nidea eyes Samee suspiciously. Nidea is a city that lies far into the clouds, so visitors were stopped at the gate below and questioned before entering the city. Every person who does not live in the city (but wishes to visit) receives a stamp on their face telling everyone what their business there is. As a safety precaution, of course.
"And what is your business at Nidea?"
"Sightseeing."
"Sightseeing...?"
"Yeah, got a problem with that?"
"We can't let you into Nidea for that."
"No?" Samee asks, putting her hand on her hip and pouting her lips, "I'm on a mission, ok? I have to see every city in the world before I die, and at the rate we're going, I'm not going to accomplish that."
The gate guard is silent.
"You're making prejudiced sorcerer judgments about me. Yeah, I'm from Charamal, so what? That's unfair. Why, I should go to the Sorcerer's Council and tell them about this treatment. It's not like I was even hostile in the first place...?"
"But..."
"You Suuran mages are ALL THE SAME! And I thought you were trying to learn about the culture of Charamal so we could coexist in peace! I see that nothing has changed, since you're being biased towards an innocent Charamal citizen...?"
"Okay okay!" the guard mutters, waving his hand and giving Samee a magical stamp on her cheek that said "sightseeing" in mage-symbols. "Go in."
"You just saved yourself from a LOT of trouble!" Samee shouts, as she steps onto the raised platform covered in magical inscriptions. The gate guard looks annoyed and quickly waves his hand again. Samee vanishes and is transported to Nidea.
------------------------------
"Ehehehe..." smiles Samee as she walks into the city. Of course she had been to Nidea before, (twice, in fact) but that was for fun. This time she was here on business. She was lucky that the gate guard was new and didn't recognize her from before.
Samee walks over to a bench that sat parallel to a tree sprouting from a square of soil in the stone floor. She removed her wrapped sword (she usually wrapped her sword in cloth to prevent it from weathering) and leant it against the side of the bench while she dug in her pockets for the instructions Thyion gave her. Now where did that paper go...
"Aha!" Samee exclaims to herself as she draws the paper from her pants pocket. Some of the more conservative Nidean citizens hear her talking to herself and stare in disgust. But Samee doesn't care. Nope. She never paid much attention to how others perceived her, just her own well-being. That was how one survived as a wandering freelancer. And also why many people thought she was crazy.
The paper was fancy and Samee could tell it was made of pressed Guerda leaves, a leaf native to Kokoros only. The paper she held in her hand used three leaves to make; she could tell by looking at how the indentations and raised parts of the sheet joined together. This stuff must have been expensive...Samee thought, since she knew Kokoros would never allow the export of leaves from its forest. The leaves must have been stolen and sold on the infamous Suuranian black-market. The more she thought about it, the more this whole mission seemed wrong. Samee sighs and decides that once she finishes this job, she will beat the truth out of Thyion and how he could have possibly known about the events in Pheros...
"In the city of Nidea, you will come across a family that is respected immensely for their contributions to the Republic of Suuran..." Samee reads aloud from the sheet. "The father is dead, the mother is away, and now the son remains alone."
Samee stares at the paper, frowning.
"Goddammit! Stop making riddles already! SHIT!" she shouts, pounding the seat of the bench with her left hand. An elderly Nidean couple gives her a funny look as they walk by.
"Charamal bums..." mutters the old man, "They have no respect for the property of the Republic. They're crazy, they are. Talking to themselves and using foul language."
"We should have just closed our doors to them a long time ago..." sighs the old woman.
Samee looks at the elderly couple walk away with a sarcastic look on her face. When they are out of hearing distance, she continues to read.
"The address is..." Samee reads, but then realizes that she shouldn't be reading this part aloud. She reads to herself the rest of the letter.
Samee pockets the piece of paper and grumbles as she crosses her legs and stretches her arms. She slumps against the bench and hesitates to get up just yet...
------------------------------
Ten minutes later, Samee tells herself that she has to stop relaxing and start working. At least once this job was done, she'd get enough money to last her a long time. (Well, unless she goes on another shopping spree)
Samee gets up off the bench and takes her sword off the ground. She then attaches it to the back of her belt. It hung nicely across her legs. She begins to walk to the residence of the person she had to kidnap and kill for apparently no reason at all. The house was actually a short distance from the center of town, the location where the teleport gate below sent all travelers. The house was humongous, and Samee has to stop to admire the architecture of the building before doing some reconnaissance outside.
She looks around to make sure no one was looking, and then climbs over the outer wall. The outer wall was made of stone and separated the house from the rest of the city. Once Samee jumps down, she stays low to make sure no one would see her snooping around, and slowly makes her way to the window of the living room.
It was empty. Lots of fancy furniture and decorations could be seen, but no people. That was no good; she needed to check which room the person she sought was in. Samee grumbled and was about to peek through the kitchen window when she heard a voice from the other side of the glass.
"Palan!"
Samee lowers her head below the span of the window so she could remain hidden. She crouches below the window so she could continue to hear the conversation.
"Palan! Where are you?" cries some young girl with an annoyingly high-pitched voice.
"Lena, I'm in the kitchen," calls another woman with a deeper voice. She sounded like she was far away.
Samee hears the girl who entered the living room walk into another room, perhaps the kitchen. Samee got on all fours and crawled to the next window. She assumed this must be the kitchen.
"I want to take this box of wheat cakes to Master Amnestre," says Lena, thoughtfully, "He left just moments ago...do you think I can catch up with him?"
Damn, thought Samee. The boy she was commissioned to murder had left the house already. She leans against the wall to hear any other bits of relevant information the women might spew out.
"I think the Master is too far ahead of you now," says Palan, "If you decided this earlier, you might have been able to give the cakes to him."
"I wanted to say something earlier..." sighs Lena, "But I wasn't sure whether or not I should have bothered Master Amnestre by chasing him down and giving him the cakes. He's got a lot on his mind right now, and I'm sure he doesn't need me badgering him about giving cakes to his mother."
Palan chuckles. "Oh, I think there's another reason besides that..."
"Palan!" Lena exclaims, "What are you trying to say...?"
"Oh, nothing," mumbles Palan, fumbling with some sort of kitchenware and putting it away. Samee could hear wooden utensils being dropped into drawers in the kitchen.
"Palan, you're too much! I'm just worried for Master Amnestre, that's all!"
"Yes, yes dear," agrees Palan half-heartedly.
"You don't believe me!" accuses Lena.
"Of course not," admits Palan, "I know you've become quite obsessed with the young Master. Here, take the box and hurry. You might be able to catch up to him before he reaches the teleport station to Taellon if you run."
"Okay," says Lena, obviously surprised. Samee hears hurried footsteps rushing out of the kitchen and heading towards the front door. Seeing this as her chance, Samee jumps back over the wall and hides behind the corner to wait for Lena to come out and lead the way.
Finally, a young girl with a modest blue dress bursts out from the gate and runs down the street. Samee shadows Lena, hoping that she would be able to catch the boy in time. If not, he would be on his way to Taellon now...and there was no way Samee could catch him in there.
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