Antagonist's Anarchy: Desolation in the Daylight - Chapter II (Open)

[DrowArchmage]

Jason wasn't aware of anything after his blackout except that he knew his barriers were knocked down, probably because of his condition. He slipped into blackness and into a dream.

Trees. A valley with tall grass, the smell of herbs in the afternoon and the smell of rain at night. A woman, a child. Who was the child? Was it him? No. A name floated to him but as soon as he tried to grasp it, it fled from him.
He was in a large country home with his sister Adrianna,and his brother Marcus.
He was on a horse.
He was in a lake.
He floated in darkness, complete blackness. He tried to control the images. To get answers to his questions. Why could he remember nothing of his life after the accident? Maybe he had amnesia. No, he had taken something, he was given something. Did he take it on purpose? To start yes, but then someone slipped him more. But who?
At first it was for the nightmares, he let someone die.No, he couldnt save them from a fire. A little girl, his sister. But how was the fire started?
An image of a man floated into his mind, a man in black. Laughing at his feeble attemps to fight. He took him in. Trained him. Who was that man?
Marcus, his brother. Where was he?
His mother and father, dead?
His sister too?
Pain racked his head and he cried out, not knowing if it was for real or only in his head. It was a cry of desperation and sorrow. He felt like weeping, yet he did not have the strength. Too long had he done the wrong thing, yet why escaped him still.
He was back at the academy, his instructor was a bald man, big too. It was said that this man could crush a human skull with his hands. He had never wanted to find out.His first sword, he rememberd the day he was sent out on his first patrol. Bandits camping close to town. It was their job to bbring them in. They were ambushed, so many dead yet they were victorious! His instructor had been proud of his conduct in battle, yet he didnt remember fighting it.
What was wrong with him?
Zakaria.
The name was burned like fire into his mind, why?
A list of names scrolled through his mind.
Adrianna,
Krizz,
Eric,
David,
Lenard,
Luke.....
The names continued, and at the end of the list one name was there, burning like an inferno.
Zakaria.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Night turned to dawn, and dawn found order restored. At noon, there were to be a sting of lynchings and a calling of the town council. The mayor had mysteriously vanished and his manor had been torched.

When Jason awoke, he was within a darkened chamber. On a bed. The air was musty and no light shone through at all.

Somewhere on the next level, Telryn and Nivram shared a room. They had not seen Detheriel since ...whenever it had been, nor had they seen Ydalon. Isokla, however, they had run into. As they had stumbled into the inn - Telryn still carrying Jason - she had emerged, and fixed them with a long look that had promised a harsh lecture the next morning. Today was that morning, but Telryn and Nivram were still in bed - Isokla so far had not banged on the door to wake them.

Oddly enough, she did seem to have another 'convert'; a girl of perhaps fifteen or sixteen? Also strangely enough, she was lacking much of her hair, and eyebrows. How strange. At the very least, she followed Isokla meekly. Did that women collect girls to tutor?

Aikia was exactly where she had been - in a room within an inn. What she had done the day before only she knew. Her, and Suki, of course.

Ydalon was nowhere to be seen - until he made himself known, as no doubt he would. He always did.

And so, the day moved forwards.

[ 07-18-2007, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: Calaethis Dragonsbane ]

[DrowArchmage]

Jason awoke from a nightmare suddenly. The room was dark and he had no idea where he was. He looked around and only found a pain in his head like no other he had ever felt. The pain in his back was still there, yet resr had helped a little. How had he gotten here? This was a strange turn of events for him. From merchant to gaurd to bandit to captive. Wow, things were just gettin worse.

He laid back down and slowed his breathing. Hopefully someone would bring him water or something. He waited on the darkness.

[dplax]

Nivram

Nivram woke not long after sunrise. The sound of him moving about in the room unfortunately also woke Telryn.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," he said apologetically. Nivram's head hurt, not from the torture though, more from the lack of alcohol. Had it already been a week?

Nivram took a few bronze coins from the table. They had found them lying in the streets last night as they made their way to the inn.

"I'll go get some food and then check on the bandit." He turned to leave the room, but paused in the door. "I never actually thanked you for saving me back in the prison. I am in your debt Telryn. I hope one day to be able to repay it."

Nivram descended into the common room, where a red-eyed inkeeper was serving an already almost full capacity. The hoofbeats of heavily laden horses, carrying guards no doubt were ever present outside. Whispers of gallows and execution of the previous day's main perpatrators were prevalent in the rumour mill of the common room. This inn, luckily, had been untouched by the riots. Its two counterparts in other parts of the town had fallen victim to the burning and pillaging and could not serve anyone.

Nivram went to the bar and ordered two breakfasts, then, almost as a second thought ordered a third. He took two steaming hot plates of bacon and eggs, with some local brown bread up to the room he shared with Telryn, along with a pitcher of fresh milk. They ate between the two of them, the rich breakfast helping Nivram's headache somewhat.

Then he descended to the abandoned store room in the cellar with the third breakfast. He turned the key in the lock and the bright light hanging from the ceiling behind Nivram shone into Jason's eyes, not permitting him to see who had opened the door.

Nivram pushed the plate and a pitcher of water inside the store room.

"Eat and drink." He did not say enough for his voice to be able to be recognised. He then turned to close the door.

[Ivelliis]

Telryn and Nivram

Jason did not seem to want to say anything or did not recognise Nivram, so the former alcoholic quickly closed the door and locked it from the outside, pocketing the brass key. He went back upstairs into the room he shared with Telryn.

"He's fed. Any sign of Detheriel?" he asked. Nivram was hoping that their companion might have managed to recover some of their items from the prison before it had been reduced to rubble. Most of his stuff had just been junk that he had picked up during his travels, but two items, his father's sling and the lucky silver coin his mother had given him bore quite a bit of sentimental value

Telryn shook his head. "Haven't seen him. After that storm, and the riots, he could be anyway in the city, if he's in the city at all that is. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Any idea where we should start looking? Or just idly wandering around the streets is the best idea?" Nivram asked with a wry grin.


"Buh..." Telryn started, before shrugging. He felt he'd unknowingly taken on some sort of "decision man" role. How that would fair for the rest of them, he didn't know. He'd always been a "gut instinct" man.

"We could head in the direction of the prison, or what's left of it, and just hope we see him. Or anyone?"

"Let's go then," Nivram said, grabbing hold of the two plates and going down the stairs. He handed the wooden plates to the innkeeper who nodded his thanks. Outside in the streets the greatest of the previous day's debris had been cleared away, but still there were stones, broken wood and even some bodies and body parts littering the streets as men, most of them chained together and supervised by fully armed town guards were continuing the cleaning up work. The prison and especially the close area surrounding it still hadn't been cleaned and Telryn and Nivram had to climb over large chunks of wall to approach the almost totally obliterated building.

"I hope that Detheriel managed to get out in time," Nivram whispered, his voice barely carrying to Telryn.

The thought of that made the large man shiver. The last they had seen of Detheriel was when he ran to find their stuff in the prison, after the battle with the ex-captain and warden had ended.

"We never even thought about it," Telryn said, trance-like, to no one in particular, "He might still be under...there."

They walked across the rubble of the decimated building, searching for anything at all. Every time Telryn saw a body sticking out from underneath the wreckage, his heart pounded before checking if it was Detheriel or not.
"So far, it looks like he got out," He said to Nivram

Nivram's heart sunk to his boots everytime a new body was found, only to be restored to a semblance of calm when the faces turned out to not be Detheriel's. It was while he lifted a support beam from a body that he caught a flash of metal, a small object falling from the support beam into a pile of ash next to him. The body turned out to be that of an old man, much too old to be Detheriel, even though the face had been mangled into an unrecognisable pink mass. Bending down, out of curiosity, Nivram stuck his hand into the pile of ash. After digging around for a few seconds his hand encountered the metallic object. To his surprise and great joy, it turned out to be a silver coin. One that Nivram knew very well. The coin, no longer minted, had been given to him by his mother, shortly before her death. It had probably been the object to which Nivram gave the most sentimental value.

When Telryn gazed towards Nivram he was surprised to see tears in the other man's eyes. Not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy. Nivram held up the coin for Telryn to see.

"My mother gave this to me," he said his voice faltering. "It means much to me."

"Well then, you are one lucky bastard," Telryn said with a grin.

Dread suddenly took his expression over though. "But wait...if Detheriel went to get our equipment and this was in the rubble..." the terrible conclusion to Nivram's sentence was left unspoken.

The grin on Telryn's face faded as the thought washed over him.

"He might still be here." He said grimly moving to the largest pile of rubble. Launching slabs free with his bare hands, he prayed that Detheriel was not at the bottom.

Nivram bent down and helped Telryn lift a particularly heavy slab. No dead eyes peered out from under it. Getting more and more desperate the two of them frantically searched through every piece of rubble that they could move. They even asked an elderly man who walked by whether he had seen Detheriel, but the answer had been negative. Either the poor man was buried under chunks of rubble that they were unable to lift, or, and Nivram hoped that this was the case, he had managed to escape before the worst of the meteor shower.

Their hands cut from the stones, they kept pulling the stones away, until Telryn finally slowed to a stop.

"We're getting no where. We haven't seen a sign of Detheriel, and we've found nothing. Perhaps we should call it here and try somewhere else?"

Nivram gazed desparingly over the rubble then let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Let's."

[Legolas]

This is the greatest and best post in the world... Tribute.

Not long ago me and my other self here,
we was turnin' on our MSN for a change.
All of a sudden, there shined a shiny message... at the bottom... of the screen.
Cousin says:
"can I persuade you to post, or I'll eat your soul." (soul)
Well me and him, we looked at myself,
and we each said... "Okay."
And we posted the first thing that came to our head,
Just so happened to be,
The Best Post in the World, it was The Best Post in the World.

Look into my eyes and it's easy to see
One and one make two, two and one make three,
It was destiny.
Once every hundred-thousand years or so,
When the sun doth shine and the moon doth glow
And the grass doth grow...

Needless to say, old cous was stunned.
Whip-crack went his Whoopy tail,
And Calaethis was done.
He asked me: "(snort) Be you an angel?"
And we said, "Nay. We are but elves."
Rock!
Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh-ah-ah,
Ohhh, whoah, ah-whoah-oh!

This is not The Greatest Post in the World, no.
The forum change ate it.
Couldn't retype The Greatest Post in the World, no, no.
This is a tribute, oh, to The Greatest Post in the World,
All right! It was The Greatest Post in the World,
All right! It was the best verybest post the greatest post in the world.

And the peculiar thing is this my friends:
the post I typed on that fateful night it didn't actually look
anything like this post.

This is just a tribute! You gotta believe it!
And I wish you were there! Just a matter of opinion.
Ah, yes! Good lords, lords lovin',
So surprised to find you can't stop it.

All right! All right!

((As inspired by Tenacious D. ~ Tribute))

[DrowArchmage]

Jason ate and drank slowly and with great caution. He had been taught about herbs, not alot, yet enough to keep him away from obvious poisons.

When he was finished he slid the empty jug back to the door, so it would fall if another opend it.His head hurt so bad by the time he finished that he wanted the chop it off, but quickly recalled his thoughts. Who knows what powers these men had? He knew one thing for sure though, they weren't just going to let him stroll out of there.

[Legolas]

Ydalon

Rubbing smoke or sleep from his eyes, the boy strode through the common room, heading for the stairs. The young wizard with the kiss of the meteor on his brow earned some stares, but none of the bleary-eyed patrons still huddled around their drinks made comment. Those with a mission today had already broken their fast and set out. Here, men and women simply waited, drank and hoped for the madness to go away.
Having a better idea, Ydalon stole initiative.

From the moment he'd left the wizard's tower, he had been pursuing the trails of those remarkable men and women and animals who'd crossed his path. Having located nearly half of them, he'd guided the group to a narrow and disused alley not far from the opening in the town's palisade. It stood in the shadow of tall buildings, and the mouth was cluttered with stacked wooden barrels and straw-packed crates. The boy had left them there, where they were to wait unseen for his return with the rest of their allies. Then, they would go away from the madness.

The stairs were narrow, creaking with disuse as he made his way to the old cellar. He found the door locked, but such a charming lad as himself could open many doors with but a grunt and a smile. He returned the rods to his sling, and pushed it open.
Something heavy fell over.
He peered inside.

"I thought it might be you" he said, recognizing the bandit.
"You found a good hiding place, but best get up. It's time to stroll out of here."

[Legolas]

Ydalon

After a brief inquiry with the innkeeper, Ydalon led the bandit outside. With a gentle raising of his arm, he pointed down the street.

"Head in that direction" he Jason, "then follow the main street until you're an intersection away from the gates. Then take a left and step into the very first alley. After I find some others we'll join you there."

The boy in his new robes whirled around and headed off in the direction of the former prison. Shifted rubble marked the efforts of the men, but he did not pause long before choosing the easternmost road. Something, perhaps the memory of longer legs than his, inspired him to quicken his pace despite the rough night before. From the other side of a building he heard guards growling at locals, inspiring them to work all the harder at cleaning up debris of those buildings which could still be salvaged.
He smirked, knowing that a few blocks distant there would be fires still smouldering unchallenged, creating as much rubble as these men now carted off.

Gently arguing direction at a crossing ahead, the boy at last caught up with the pair. Blood clung to their hands but they seemed oblivious to the fact. Rock dust covered their clothes and skin and hair, and he noticed spirits were low.

"Good morning," he smiled.
"I don't know if you'd plans to resupply, but I'd say it's time we leave. I got most of the others ready to go and Isokla'll show up soon enough no doubt.

He pointed back to where he came from.

"It's this way, in case you wondered."

[dplax]

Nivram

"Morning," Nivram grumbled back halfheartedly. Have you seen Detheriel? he asked. "We can't leave before we find him. Telryn and I have been digging through the rubble here, hoping that we don't find him underneath it. It's the last place that we saw him."