The Land: Anarchy

Chapter 25: The Curse

"Halt, who goes there?" Two guards approached them.

"We are travelling mages, we visit cities and villages to assist the people as best as we can." Grim answered.

The two guards discussed amongst themselves, "you are permitted to enter, our  leader is ill, we have no mage in the city. We could use your expertise." A guard replied. "We will escort you to the city hall. Do anything suspicious, we will execute you."

The guards told the gatekeepers to open the gates. They entered the city. Zuno was shocked that the city was now parshly destroyed. Landships had blown up buildings. Only half the city was habitable, he could see musketeers on top of ruined buildings, watching the citizens of Floran City.

"I can't  belie--" just as Zuno was about to comment the view he saw, Grim interrupted, "Don't say it, keep it to yourself." They were taken to the city hall, which was still intact. "Goodluck, we need a lot of healing." The other guard said.

"Hello travelers, what brings you to this wrethced city?" Their commander asked.

"We are traveling mages, we go to cities and villages and assist them as best as we can. We heard a lot of healing is needed here." Grim replied.

"Ah yes, great! Just what we need. We have a plague amongst the soldiers and myself, they think it is some sort of curse for taking this city. It is not lethal though, but very annoying. Oh right, my name is Commander Jik by the way." Jik explained.

"Greetings sire, I'm Grim, that is Zuno, Zyx, Lyx and Gyx." Grim answered. "Might we look around the city to see how severe the plague is?"

"Sure, definitely. You can place your belongings in the inn not far from here. Zyx, Lyx and Gyx huh. I've never seen your kind before." Jik said.

Grim, Zuno excused themselves and went to investigate the city.  First they went to an Inn, 'Annie's Inn'. "Brings back memories." Zuno said. "Hello welcome to Annie's Inn, would you like to rent a room?" The bartender welcomed.

"Yeah, Commander Jik recommended this Inn." Grim replied.

"In that case, the room is for free, here you go." The bartender tossed two toom keys. The feliones stayed on one and Grim and Zuno on the other room.

The bartender asked Zuno for a quick chat, Zuno came and sat down, "Hey, you were the one who killed the shadows here right?" The bartender whispered.

"Yes, please keep it a secret, I don't want to attract unwanted attention." Zuno responded.

"Don't worry mate, the people here know about you, they will do anything to help you. Why are you back here?" The bartender continued.

"I'll explain later, one thing I can say now, we need men and women capable and willing to fight. We'll have a chat at night." Zuno answered as he went to his room.

Zuno placed his bag and his weapons, for no one was allowed to carry weapons around the city. "Ready?" Grim asked.

"Yeah, let's go.... Grim, I don't know why, but I'm scared." Zuno said in a low tone.

"Scared of dying? It's normal, we'll be fine. We have the feliones and you are pretty much unbeatable right?" Grim motivated.

The five of them went out and explored the city, people were walking and doing their normal activities, but no one was smiling or laughing, they were all straight faced. "My god, what happened?" Lyx asked.

"Long story, I'll tell you back at camp." Grim said.

They came to the infirmary, there. soldiers were being treated. "Pardon us, we heard they could use some mage help?" Grim wondered.

"Oh yes please help us. The soldiers have had fever and bruises all over their body for no reason." A nurse begged.

Grim approached a soldier, she could see blue bruises all over the her body. Grim sat next to her and rolled her sleeves. She then hovered her hand on the soldier's chest. A green aura was seen coming from her hand.

"Can you heal her?" The nurse asked.

"Yes, but only for a while." Grim finished reading the soldier's body, "She and the other soldiers can't remain here. I don't know what it is, but a curse lies upon this city and I can't lift it."

Zuno approached a soldier and touched his right hand, he then gets a vision of a mage placing a curse on the city, he couldn't see who it was but it was familiar to him.

"Zuno, let's go talk to Jik while the feliones heal the soldiers." Grim invited.
"Alright, let's go." He replied.

Feliones don't have mana, but they could do healing magic. What powers their magic is unknown.

The two arrived at the city hall and came to the commander.

"Commander Jik, you must evacuate your people immediately. A curse is all over this city, the locals seems to be unaffected which means outsiders like you and I are the affected ones. It looks like whoever did this, didn't like outsiders." Grim explained.

"We can't just leave this place, the king will have our heads if we leave this place unguarded. But then again, if we don't leave  my men will slowly die." Jik was confused.

"You can set up camp around the city, surrounding it so you can still sort of occupy the city." Zuno suggested. "The men and women should take turn patrolling the city. I think the curse won't affect those who stay for just a while."

"Hmm, great idea young man. We shall do just that. You know, we could use someone like you in our army. If you're interested." Jik agreed and offered a place in the army.

"Thanks Sire, but I'll just stick on accompanying my fellow mates." Zuno declined the offer.

"Shame. Alright, let us leave this city and camp outside. Men, inform the others. We shall leave at once." Jik ordered. "Thank you mages, how can we repay you?" He asked.

"Just seeing the people healthy is good enough for us sire." Grim answered.

The soldiers and Jik left the city, landships were left outside the two gates, blokading the exit. Zuno, Grim and the three feliones returned to Annie's Inn.

Zuno went to the bar and sat down, the bartender offered him a drink, "Thank you for making them go away." The bartender said.

"They are not away yet, they are still surrounding the city and some soldiers are still patrolling it." Zuno said otherwise. "Say, do you know someone who might have placed a curse on this place?" He asked.

"No, no clue who would have wanted to curse this place. You owe me a story explanation from before." Bartender replied.

"Oh yes, so here..." Zuno started to explain everything to the bartender. Grim was upstairs in her room. She was looking outside the window when a figure appeared  on the roof right across where she was.