From Beyond Shadows

Chapter One

The legend of Admiral Jhong is something both the legion and Empire spread throughout the land. After the war of Maven had finally ended, the mages sealed away the remains of the twin snakes, and destroyed any evidence suggesting otherwise. Iris glanced outside the Inn, eyes following the guards, who carried some fairly heavy weaponry.

While living close to the Burnt Steppes itself could be a gamble, what these men were bearing seemed unnecessarily powerful. The Smoke creatures rarely came out of the depths of the steppes, but Iris knew what they could accomplish when they demanded something. Placing down 5 crimson copper, she stood and walked out of the tower, pulling her hood up to conceal her face.

Following the guards, she placed a hand on her concealed blade, her cape hiding the hilt and her arm. As they turned a corner, she stopped and began to scale the side of the shoddy townhouse they had ducked behind. A flash of a few coins and a few words exchanged, the weaponry was handed to a single man. The person had the same symbol as the underground ruins, the tattoo prevalent on his shoulder.

"Hey, you shouldn't be up-" a soldier began from behind her, but she slammed the blade into his chin and through his jaw with one swift motion. Pulling it out, her nose twitches in disgust.

Wiping the blood from her blade, she placed it back into her sheath and climbed down once the guards walked past once again. The Ouroboros was something only the survivors of Vaugban spoke of, and everyone merely dismissed them; they believed trauma to be the source of the rumors.

Sliding into a narrow, dark alleyway, Iris made her way into the Devil's Cavern. Musty and decrepit, the tavern wouldn't be very populated, but instead an ideal meeting place for an old friend, and valuable informant. Sliding into the seat in front of him, she glanced up at the dark elf. "What do you have for me, Scythe?" He grinned, before placing documents onto the table.

"The weapons are sliding into enemy hands, just as you thought. Do you want to be the one to tell the higher ups, or should I?" Adjusting his glasses, an almost condescending tone interlaced to his words. Scoffing, Iris recovered the papers and began to look through them.

"You know damn well I'd cut you before you could even get out the door," she quipped, before her expression turned solemn. The private talk of the other residents filled in the silence, as Scythe waited for an explanation. "They set the whole thing up," She murmured, gripping the papers tighter before he collected them out of her hands as carefully as possible. He swallowed the growing lump in his throat..

"The Legion seized those still living in the city as test subjects and wiped the place off the map out as a way to hide the evidence. Remember the cover-up, and how they'd said there had been an outbreak of some sort of disease?" Her entire body trembled as he continued. "It was only a cover story. They needed more subjects."

Iris slammed her palm onto the table, the drink on top spilling onto the floor as she fumed. "This makes no goddamn sense! They swore themselves to the Empire and studied the arcane arts under absolute secrecy; We are all the proof the Empire needs of their treachery!" She began to stand, but felt the anger and energy drain.

"I get it, I do; But keep your voice down, would ya? We need to figure out if anyone other than us escaped, and where they went. We can't do that if we're dead." Scythe whispered, nodding at the guards who had begun to eye them. He hated how they had eyes everywhere, but he could almost always slip under the radar with little issue.

Iris rubbed her eyes, this time her posture slouched with a much more world-weary stature. "It makes me sick to think they're still doing the same things they did to us, but to a larger degree." Her voice dipped into a growl at the end, and the dark elf in front of her dipped his head in agreement.