Heavy chains rattled as a guard moved to uncuff them from the wall. That is to say, why should the man fear a young boy? He only wished for the day to be over so he could return to his home.
The boy himself wished the same.
He too longed to return to his home... albeit his was with a couple of street rats in a run down, nearly collapsed building. Though a home it was.
The longing to get away overrode any fear or anxiety. These 'men' were no goblin lords. He ldidn't feel like there was any true threat...
Except the mage...
Somehow he knew, as if he could sense it, that he was no ordinary person. He was powerful. And what's more, he could not tell what kind of mage he was... this made him all the more dangerous.
Escape...
Get out...
It filled his mind with the possibilities...
Other prisoners yelled at him as he moved by. Some spitting in the direction of the guard to which a quick smack with an iron gauntlet would shut them up. They were working their way down a narrow hallway, towards a set of stone stairs.
He didn't want to find out what was up there... surely nothing good... but looking behind, Alder had no reason to believe it could be any worse than a dungeon.
He thought of pleading, but knew that this would be a fools errand. Powerful men did not speak to peasants, to thieves, and certainly would not reason with a mere kid. That much had been made perfectly clear since the incident in his village.
Quickly they ascended the spiral stair case, only stopping when the guard felt like Alder needed a prod with a blunt end of a spear. "Move it..." he would say, half heartedly. It was probably just to impress the mage ahead, who did not turn or say a word the whole time.
'Sense self' Alder whispered, as quietly as he could. He felt it... and a smile crossed over his face. He had passed the trial. Though it would take a minute to fully analyze what in his body had changed.
All he knew was that he was much stronger than before. It felt like every fiber of his body had doubled in strength or resilience, down to even his eyesight in hearing. This was exemplified in the blinding illumination of the sun as the mage opened a door, and they all at once stepped out into late afternoon.
The noise of guards training here or there filled his senses, along with the smell of mud and steel. All around people were moving and training, in the armor of the city guard.
"We are in the citadel of the guard..." he told himself. Ahead was a large gate that was half closed. There was room enough for someone to get through if they crawled, and beyond, the downtown area of Grey Stone could be seen.
That was the last place he wanted to be.
The mage seemed distracted for a moment as he began to talk with a finely dressed man holding a large book and quill. Alder heard them talking about fees and the state of the guard, small talk for nobles he assumed, so he decided to seize the moment...
Pushing his worn boot down in the dirt he readied himself, and waited for the pressure of the spear in his backside to lessen before he broke into a run. Fast. Fast... he had to move fast...
"Stop!" He heard from behind, though he didn't care to look back. He had bigger problems ahead anyway, for two guards near the gate had moved to block his path. But they were slow... a lot slower than goblin lords...
He easily dodged around there weak attempts at a tackle and reached the gate in seconds. Alder slipped under and only then stopped to look behind for just a moment. He noticed the mage was chanting something and a moment later the air sizzled, and he told himself, "not good..." before leaping backward..
"Boom!" A small lightning bolt crashed into the ground where he had just been standing. It made the hairs on his neck stand up. Magic... real magic... The moment would have excited him if it were not for the fact he was at the receiving end of the spell.
Turning he took off, quicker than any normal man could run, and he knew it too... he was not normal anymore... His training had begun to pay off.
...
A hooded teenager sat in a small house, tapping a small coin on a worn wooden table. "Well... what can we do?..." he asked exhaustedly.
The girl across from him was giving him a pleading, begging stare, with all the charm she could muster with her dirty face and ratty clothes. It didn't help her position that she sat on an old wine barrel with a backdrop of a dilapidated building.
"We have to help him..." she said, repeating herself.
"Right..." the boy said again, getting irritated, "but HOW?!... it's not like we can roll up to the city guards and just ask for him back. Do you think they are just going to give him to us? He also might be dead... didn't you say he was bloody all over and they had to carry him back?"
"Right!" She said, optimistically, "They were taking care with him... he has to be alive. And you know Alder, he is pretty tough. He wouldn't go down that easy..."
"He would if he were attacked by a group of guards, I tell you that... look... let's go scout some more, get some gossip from the tavern and go from there... you know how it is when the guards get you though. I don't think we are going to see him again..." he said, trying to show his optimistic friend just how unrealistic she was being.
"We've lost a lot of people...." she pleaded, "and we are older now! Surely we can sneak in and bust him out?"
Fenian rubbed his eyebrows with his hand, setting the coin down sharply on the table as he moved to stand, "Fine... but listen to me would you? Don't go doing anything stupid..."
"Yes! Alright I won't!" She said, jumping up excitedly. She dashed for the door and stood waiting for him impatiently. "Right right... I'm coming..." he said.
...
A fish salesman stood on a side street of a market. Times were rough, rougher still that he had been bullied out of the main market. That was they way it was... Newcomers and the poorer merchants got trampled on.
He was lucky enough that he hadn't been killed or that his stock wasn't stolen. "Fresh salmon! Fresh trout!" He yelled loudly, trying to tempt the scant few passersby to stop and purchase his fish. He just needed enough to keep his small family afloat.
They weren't doing bad, but times could always be better.. they could do with being able to drink wine more often, or burn an extra candle at night..
He turned then and stepped back out of the street to make way for a young boy who was moving quicker than he had ever seen someone move.
People were either getting out of the way, or yelling at him for being 'rude' or calling him a 'street rat'. In a second the lad had dashed past and turned onto the Main Street. Not far behind the clanking of guards running in armor could be heard, as they yelled profanities and orders at the boy who was long gone.
The fish merchant simply shook his head and went back to his yelling, "Salmon! Trout! Best prices, get it here! Fresh as the day is young!"
...
Alder was far from being in the clear. He knew it. And even if he did get away he hadn't thought about where he would go after...
A merchants cart came careening around a corner and nearly knocked him over but he leapt instinctually, watching as he flew over the horse and cart, to much surprise from himself and everyone else around.
He had learned that his wounds were healing more rapidly than they had before, and it wouldn't be but a day or two more before they were completely healed.
Furthermore, sense self revealed something different... though he couldn't tell what... something to do with the mana in his body.
It would have to wait...
Dodging around peasants and nobles alike while guards in all directions wanted him caught was a much more pressing matter.
He cut the corner to run down the small side road leading to his home, and caught sight of two familiar figures in the distance.
They didn't even see him before he was right next to them, "meet me at the woods to the East of the city... if you can... don't say you know me!"
The two stood stunned, as if a ghost had appeared before them. Fenian was the first to reply with an, "alright" to which Alder nodded and took off again.
He moved swiftly, like the wind, with all the force he could muster with his legs. It was strange... just a week before he would have struggle to evade a couple guards, let alone all the guards in the city...
That was not what he ran from then. He ran from the lightning, from the mage... The image of the raw power had scarred his mind and sent him running like a hare at the sight of a wolf.
"What is with my life?... what do they want from me?..." he thought to himself, dodging around a group of adventurers as he continued along the way.
He passed the fountain and was moving down the Main Street, towards the inn where he had first stayed a year ago, with that bitch Helda.
On his left a curious old man watched with much amusement, from a hidden shop that no one could see unless they wanted him to. Alder never noticed in his sprint.
Minutes passed of painstaking running before he was at the gate. He had intentionally run in circles to try and get them off his tail, and to give his friends time to get out themselves.
He was about to pass under the massive stone arch when a figure in black robes stepped around and into view and he stopped full force...
...
Laelia was quick. Not nearly as quick as Fenian or Alder but for a young girl she moved like no other.
It had shocked her to see Alder, for a number of reasons. He was covered in dry blood but he did not seem injured at all, not strange for Alder... But strange in how quickly he had recovered from severe wounds.
Furthermore his speed was beyond anything she could comprehend, and Fenian felt the same. It was clear he was not normal, and the absurdity of it would have left the two to abandon him if they had known, but he was their friend... they could not leave him then...
Laelia felt like she had grown closer to Alder moreso than Fenian. He was much more talkative and open than the hooded boy, who kept to himself most of the time.
She could talk to him about anything, and he would listen. Behind all the anger and resentment she saw that at his heart, he was still kind. He was not completely broken...
..
"Alder, what do you think of those stars? Doesn't it look like a giant crab?" Laelia asked. She was lying on her back looking up at the spotted dark blanket above. So beautiful. So mysterious..
She turned to look at the boy laying next to her. He seemed confused, and lost in some thought before he replied, "Oh I see it..." pointing with an outstretched hand to the cluster of white dots she had mentioned, "It does..." he said, "I never connected that... Hey, Laelia, do you know what the stars are? One of my neighbor's books said that they were distant worlds, with their own people... and that the most powerful of Mages and warriors could visit them, traversing through mana..."
She had never heard that before. To be fair she had rarely thought about what the stars were. A pint of jealousy filled her then. Alder could read... a fact that surprised her. She longed for that knowledge and had even learned a few things here and there from him but they never had a book to practice with.
A peasant that could read was rare, rarer still a homeless orphan street rat.
She smiled, replying, "I don't know... that's a wonderful thought though... Do you think we could visit them someday then? Together?"
The boy smiled, a hint of rare optimism in his eye as he gave her a warm smile, "Maybe someday Laelia... maybe someday..."
...
Laelia pushed the memory back and returned to the present. They had to move quick. They had to leave. She wasn't sure if they would be returning and as such had brought most of their things with them, everything they could carry.
The thought kind of excited her... leaving Grey Stone... But it also scared her.
The world beyond...
She stared off into the sky, past the large stone walls that seemed to enclose on them like prison walls.
A smile crossed her face as she followed behind Fenian. Whatever happened they would be in it together..
...
Alder's eyes locked with the mage, the man who tried to struck him with lightning. Both of them stood silent, waiting... The air tense as if they were in the midst of a duel, and the other would draw a sword to kill in the blink of an eye...
But the sword never came...
Only the slow stride of the mage as he took a couple steps forward menacingly, and began to speak...