Violet Eclipse - A time in shadow

Chapter 1 - Eagle's Pride

The Bard Fargal stepped off the stage, in the tavern known as the Eagle's Pride. A posh place in the noble quarter of Daskan's Hold, grandest city in all of Daskan's Fall. In this same tavern sat Kritis, a sword master from the land far to the west known as Trismorn. At his side rested Elenoren, a magic sword believed to be fashioned from the Onyx of Daskan's armor.

A slender but strong man, Kritis stood at about six heads high with a brown complexion. His hair was a rich brown like that of chocolate and fell to his shoulders in thin dreadlocks. His eyes were narrow, colored shades of hazel with flecks of green in them. He had a smallish nose and a broad mouth.

He wore armor made of layered soft leather dyed in shades of dark blues and browns. Hidden beneath the leather he wore a shirt of fine dwarf- made mail. He wore hardened leather bracers backed by steel plates fashioned with the crest of sword pointed up surrounded by a wreath.

A voice from the direction of the sword spoke aloud to Kritis.

"She's not going to show you know. It's too risky." The sword proclaimed from her scabbard.

"She hired me, if she thought it was too dangerous she would have chosen a different place." Kritis replied in a low near whisper.

"I'm telling you Kritis, something is off about this job. Why would someone steal some documents from a noble house and leave the jewels on the dresser."

"I know not the thoughts of a thief, I simply found said thief and recovered the documents."

As those words crossed Kritis's lips, six burly men entered the tavern followed by a tiny, yet quite attractive woman. Her eyes scanned the room briefly, and then locked on Kritis. She motioned her brawny escort toward him.

"Nothing to worry about you said," mocked Elenoren

"This bloody city! Does no one know how to keep a contract?" Kritis grumbled with a curse.

The noble walked with the presence of one of her station haughty, arrogant and snooty. Her eyes were the color of sapphires set above high cheeks. She would have had what were considered luscious lips had they not been pressed in a thin line.

The noble and her entourage strode without deviation directly to Kritis's table. She stopped abruptly a few feet from the table and turned up her nose. Her escort positioned themselves in a semi-circle around the table.

Meilina of house Cordes looked Kritis in his hazel green eyes. At almost five feet tall she barely stood at eye level with Kritis seated. She outstretched her hand before him and demanded with a silky voice.

"I believe you have something that belongs to my family."

"That depends on whether or not you have the agreed upon payment, my lady."

"I assumed you would have figured already that these men are here to recover the documents from you." Meilina gestured toward her escort with a grim smirk.

The other patrons in the tavern took notice of the conversation and rising tension. They began making their way to the door or the far corners of the room. It did not take a scholar to deduce that a fight was about to break out.

The bruisers spread themselves around the table drawing their sheathed broadswords. Meilina's men were built like that of large cargo workers from the air docks. Back alley brawlers the lot of them, each wore thick heavy leather jerkins underneath tunics carrying the seal of house Cordes.

"My Lady, this would have been far easier if you had of paid my fee," Kritis said with a resigned sigh.

While reaching for Elenoren, Kritis kicked the table in front of him, which sent it slamming rather hard into the knees of two of his would be assailants. With the same motion he propelled himself backward and rolled from his chair to his feet with Elenoren drawn.