Chapter 47 - What a ???

"Another day spent in paradise" At least that was how she described it. No matter how ironic she sounded, it was the truth for her. Tonight she didn't have to worry about food, tonight she didn't have to worry about shelter, and tonight, she didn't have to worry about anything creeping up to her in the dark.

For Elise, it had been years since she had last lived in comfort, she missed the days she spent in her home, chasing around her brothers, especially the older one. He was always afraid of her for some reason, well, given her current circumstances, he was right to be afraid of her. She had become someone feared even among the agents of Chaos, the moment she had a target, that person would almost certainly die.

She did miss her little brother though, no matter what she did or tried to get a scare out of him, she never did succeed. He would always laugh it up and call her cute. Then he'd follow up with a "Nice try sis." and give her examples of how she could have done better. Of course, she'd try that out on her older brother, and that would always get her cracking up. She never expected her little brother to have a more imaginative mind than hers. His ideas for pranks would always cause their big brother grief, and he did like watching her enact his plans.

Right now she lay in a comfortable bed, under a stone roof. After a couple of years running, she was finally able to get to the fortress city of Lanschan, at the beginning of her life as a runaway she'd mostly lived in the mountains or deep in the forests. For some reason her hunter had been very persistent, chasing her to the ends of the earth, each time almost catching her. She counted the times they had crossed blades. 117 times she had crossed blades with him. Most of the time she would be beaten badly, and then he would let her go. But over the years she had gotten to the point where she could stand toe to toe with him.

But one day he just left, in their last battle, he had held the advantage after she was beaten the man just told her this is the end. She had expected to be taken away or killed, but the man just left her while saying. "One day, you'll find me, and when you do, I'll tell you what I did to your brother."

At his words, Elise felt so much rage, after she was separated from her brother all those years ago, she never found any information about him sever since. After he had been taken she had returned home, only to find the estate empty, her home destroyed, and her mother missing,

What was worse that she never found her mother's family to get some help. When she reached their home, the place was just gone, not in a sense that it was abandoned, but that the whole city had vanished. She'd heard rumors of mysterious events taking place in the continent, places vanishing, natural wonders suddenly popping out of the ground, even whole mountains suddenly being replaced by giant pits in the ground.

She had measured the whole of the continent with her feet but she never even saw a glimpse of their shadows. It had almost broken her. But she couldn't just give up hope. They were gone, if she lets herself be absorbed into a black hole of grief, their memories would be lost. She would have to take up that mantle, she'd live her life for them.

As soon as she got to Lanschan she registered as a citizen. Lanschan valued each and every person, they gave jobs suited to each person's ability and gave him or her the corresponding hospitality that they deserve. The continent had suffered a lot, hundreds and thousands of people had died to Chaos, it wasn't the time to play kings and lord over the people. It was the time to unite and stand together to fight against a common enemy.

Elise slowly drifted into sleep, it was her first day in Lanschan, and even though it should still be bright outside, she felt the need to sleep. On the first day in years, she finally had a place to sleep.

~~~

Regrouping with Silva and the others took longer than he expected, as he returned from his hunt, he had encountered a few other hordes of Chaos, he didn't engage them but rather he took a roundabout way to avoid them. These groups should be part of the group that had attacked Dierac, he didn't find any traces of them when he left to hunt the leader so he deduced that these groups had just arrived in the area. They were likely looking for their group.

After observing the groups, Curtis felt excited, Chaos had no idea where they were. They had sent these many scouts to try and find their location because they hadn't found their trace. It had meant that the tactics they had employed to mislead them and erase their scent had worked! The seven who went south didn't die in vain, they had been able to shake of Chaos.

It was too bad that they had all died, if they didn't Curtis would have even promoted them to be on the same level as himself. He would tell the people of Dierac the worth of their lives, he would make sure that they knew what they were able to accomplish, even if it was small in the grand scheme of things, it was praiseworthy. Curtis made a mental note to never forget this detail as he made his way back.

As Curtis made his way to the portal he couldn't help but feel uneasy, he couldn't explain what he was feeling exactly, but he couldn't shake off the uneasiness that had crept up to his spine. He never was good at going with his instinct, and he had a habit of misinterpreting it and so causing more harm than good.

His gut tugged at him as he stayed on the path moving towards the canyon, his gut tugged at him as he proceeded to move to the bottom of the canyon, his gut tugged at him as he assisted his mount into the portal and following after it. His gut tugged at him as he moved towards where Silva and the others should have set up camp.

And his gut tugged at him as he met the familiar group of masked people inside the portal and were moving towards where Silva and the others were gathered.