The home of the Valroi sisters had been simple, quaint and nothing lavish, even as they shared housing with the chief of the village. In a place like Bonts, no single house towered over a single floor. There'd been the bath house, warehouse and storehouse and primarily family homes. Guardsmen had been mostly able body adults, most of whom were young, but not many. The hunters, mostly veteran men had been even fewer. Which made both Alessa and Rebecca all the more valuable to them all, since weaponry had either been bought, or made from other members of the village who had backgrounds as blacksmiths.
As Alessa and Rebecca entered their home, their adoptive mother had been sitting alone at the table within the main room. A very particular bottle of liquor was the only companion with her. It was opened but there hadn't been so much as a cup around.
"Whoa... That's the fifty..." Alessa muttered.
The "fifty" in question was the unique bottle of specially made alcohol their mother kept on hand in events of great distress. For reference, only twice had the bottle been reached for. Once had been before the girls started acting as guards and hunters. The second time had been when a massive, hulking mass of a predator that walked around on the knuckles of its over sized forearms tore through the village, destroying several homes and killing a dozen people before Alessa and Rebecca killed it.
"Chief, what happened?" Rebecca spoke up as she approached the table. "We saw imperial soldiers leaving the village, what did they want?"
Their mother gave a heavy sigh before taking the bottle and taking a heavy swig of the liquor inside. As she placed the bottle down, she showed no reaction from the alcohol that burned on the way down her throat. The sisters knew better than to get on her bad side when she drank, for she was far more terrifying than any beast out in the forest.
"The empire has seen our last tribute as 'insufficient,' and demand we make up for it within two months, or our village will be no more." Their mother said with a solemn tone.
The simple, straightforward retelling of what the imperial representative told their mother had been incomprehensible. So much, the years Alessa spent sitting atop the powder keg of emotions regarding the empire had finally lit.
"What a load of crap!" Alessa said outraged.
"Alessa!" Rebecca said trying to reign in her sister's rage.
Their mother raised her hand with a stoic gesture.
"Let her be, Rebecca," she said plainly, but making clear and cut she would allow Alessa's tantrum to continue.
"Those stupid red monkeys think they can just walk around wherever they want and pass judgement like that?! Screw them! I'll shoot them all dead before they ever step foot into Bonts!"
"If only all problems could be solved with a single bullet, Alessa..." The sister's mother said taking another longing look at her bottle. "Fact of the matter is, Bonts' is doomed. There's nothing we can do about the tribute the empire wants from us. And they know it."
"So we're supposed to just roll over and die? Is that it?!" Alessa looks over to Rebecca who turned away, unwilling to make her own voice heard. "Sis? C'mon, say something! Anything! We can't let this slide!"
Rebecca turns to Alessa and places her heavy hand on Alessa's shoulder gently. She didn't need to say a word to convey the emotion her little sister saw in her eyes. Rebecca had practically shared the same understanding their mother had. There was nothing to be done.
"No." Alessa declared through gritted teeth.
"Alessa..." her mother called to her, now trying to subdue her anger.
"Chief, no!" Alessa turned to shout at her. "There's no way I'm letting Bonts get screwed with like this!"
"But, Alessa, you heard from Chief... There's nothing we can do-"
"Nothing she can do!" Alessa shouts while pointing at her mother, striking a very peculiar chord within her as she raises her brow in astonishment.
"I say we go talk to the emperor ourselves, see if we can't make a deal!" Alessa fervently offers.
"Alessa, that's crazy and you know it! More to the point I wont allow that at all! You'd sooner get yourself killed!"
"She may have a point..." Their mother voiced out, rubbing her chin while deep in thought.
"Who? Me or Rebecca?"
"Rebecca, but not in the way she thinks..."
Their mother rises from her seat, abandoning the bottle as she walks over to the sisters and grabs them by their hands. While their mother had been much older than the both of them combined, she was still very much capable of moving around very spryly for a sixty year old woman. After all, she was once a hunter herself before being elected to become village chief after the previous one died. Chief Almah was proud, strong and stubborn in her youth. In her older years, she became more surly, but had enough patience to think out solutions for the village as a whole and well coordinated enough to handle complicated tasks when needed. Some would consider her past her prime, but most of the village consider her in her plateau, never truly declining.
Almah brought the girls to her room, leaving them at the door as she dug into her closet, and pulled out a large item, wrapped in cloth and bound by a series of leather straps. It was oddly shaped, like a case, but nothing more could be gleaned from it beyond the shape.
"What the heck is that?" Alessa asked first.
"This was brought along with you and your sister when you first arrived in Bonts. It belonged to your father."
The mere mention of their father sent shivers through their skin and spines. Not once did they ever wonder where their true parents were, if they'd been alive or dead. They held no ill will, nor any longing for them, since Almah and the village cared for them, they had no reason to ever consider them in any light. But this object was the first time in their life that anything in relation to their parents, even if just their father, was ever revealed.
"And you've never bothered to show us this why?" Rebecca asked, more concerned than ever as her fists, having balled up into fists, had clenched ever tighter.
"To be honest, it was at the behest of your father, through a note he left attached to this." Almah sets down the object and goes to the lamp drawer next to her bed. From within she pulls out a aged envelope, still wrapped closed with string and hands it to Alessa.
"I don't know too much about your father, only that the note I was given, as your adoptive mother, explicitly told me to keep this... thing hidden and out of sight of you two. But when the right moment arises, that I should hand it off to you, Alessa, including that letter."
Alessa looked to the envelope and to the object and back to Almah.
"Why now?"
"It is exactly how Rebecca said it. Your idea of seeing the emperor is crazy. And crazy may be what Bonts needs now to ensure its survival."
Almah looks out her window, the curtains parted to display the full view of the village as the people walk about openly, going about their daily routines as children play amongst one another. All of them, blissfully unaware of the death sentence passed down onto their village.
"You two have done so much for a village that was practically set up to die," Almah says wistfully. "Far more than I could ever accomplish in my youth... I'm not going to say your plan is foolproof, if anything, its a fool's gambit, but if there's one thing I've learned of the empire, there's always something they want to get their hands on."
Almah turns back to the girls, lifting the object and handing it to Alessa and Rebecca.
"I am placing Bonts' fate in your hands, simply because I know no one else who can." Almah declares strongly, glaring into both of the girls faces as she does.
"Chief..."
"What ever that object is, I can only hope it will help you in whatever mess you get yourselves into."
Alessa, accepting the blessing from her mother, puffs up her small chest and gives a swift and proud nod. Rebecca, seeing her sister readily accepting the task, submits to her will, since their mother approves, so had no reason to argue against anymore. Submissive as it may have been. Rebecca cares much about what happens to Bonts as much as Alessa. If they can somehow convince the emperor to spare Bonts miraculously, then she'll ensure Alessa sees it all the way through.
"Now hurry, gather whatever you need, but travel light. The capital is a few days travel on foot." Almah informs the sisters.
"Will you all be fine without us here?" Alessa asks before stepping out.
Almah gives a wry smile.
"Little girl, do you forget who we are already?" Almah playfully taunts Alessa.
Alessa returns the gesture with a giggle as she and Rebecca hurry out of Almah's room to their own, gathering essential supplies for their journey to the capital of Courel. Alessa was far too excited for her own good as she packed her rucksack with all of her tools and bullet components. Being able to leave Bonts was one thing, but to be able to go all the way to the capital to confront the empire head on had been pumping adrenaline throughout her entire system. Even should her plans go sideways, she would love nothing more than to punch a few extra holes in the empire's soldiers.
However, even she had to reign herself in. After all, her goal wasn't to pick a fight, it was to save her home.
The girls, having lived their whole life in Bonts, never once directly interacted with the empire. So it was natural Almah gave them both a crash course in courtesies and honors to avoid unnecessary troubles. As much as Almah could teach the girls, she still had her worries, and begged Rebecca to keep a close eye on Alessa. To which she had pouted, believing her mother to taking little faith in her ability to display the proper respect towards the empire's elite. Rebecca assures Almah she'll take extra care to ensure Alessa doesn't get into too much trouble on their trip to the empire.
Not a single person in Bonts knew why the girls were leaving the village, packed with several days worth of rations and money for room and board along with the large object Alessa had slung over her shoulder alongside the rucksack or even a special hunting assignment. All anyone could assume was it was a trip to a different village to acquire special supply. As dire the news had been about their village, Almah placed her faith in Alessa and Rebecca to make it to the empire and somehow convince the emperor to stay his execution of the entire village. Yet, she knew the consequences should they fail as the sisters head off into the forest, taking the road towards the empire capital.
It was now nightfall and the sisters had been clear of the forest and found a suitable location to set up camp for the night to rest. The nearest town had been half a day's journey away and was the only one between Bonts and Courel. While it was just the two of them, Alessa would take up first watch as her sister would rest as she was more comfortable at night and less so in the morning. While Rebecca slept, Alessa looked over the envelope that came with the object Almah gave to her. She wondered what it was, but before she could think about unraveling it, she decided to unwind the envelop near the small campfire they had set to read whatever was inside.
The the letter within the envelope wasn't all to hard for Alessa to read, but once she started reading it, it was impossible to take her eyes off for even a moment to keep watch over the surrounding area. The letter was supposedly from her father, and the next closest thing she had to a piece of her family beyond her sister and the newly acquired mystery object.
The letter she read had been addressed specifically to her, not her sister, making Alessa feel more entitled than before, but it quickly faded as she read on. The object which she now carried with her was described in the letter from her father as a tool of infamy and strife. And should ever be used in moments of true crisis. Once it was to be used again, she would forever be marked by its own curse.
Alessa had heard tales from passing travelers about certain objects found in lands beyond the empire, some that possessed great powers from the gods themselves, and some cursed by the very same. She now recognized the object as a weapon, but was unsure of its specific type. It was far too oblong to be a mere bludgeoning tool. She was dead certain it was no blade of any sort either. And as far as she knew, firearms had been more of a recent development from beyond the empire, so she was lucky enough to even have had her hands on them to begin with, and they had been crafted solely through machinist hands and not of those who would otherwise seek to bless them with some magical or eldritch power.
As much as her father wrote his own love and adoration for her and her sister in the end of the letter, and his own pleading for her specifically to refrain from using the weapon freely without restraint, Alessa's curiosity got the better of her.
She quickly went to work on undoing all the leather bindings over the weapon's dirty cloth. Once it was free from them, she pulls away the cloth and revealed quite the astonishing marvel before her. It was something that closely resembled her handgun lefty, but much larger and even possessed a butt stock to shoulder. It was a rifle, something Alessa could recognize, but this was much heftier than any rifle she'd seen. More curious was the fact its construction looked like a mass of connected chunks of polygonal metal parts that formed around the barrel. Even more curious as closer inspection of the weapon, it didn't seem to have the functional components of a standard firearm to even be useful. No bolt slide to pull back to see the inside of the bullet chamber, no magazine well for any ammunition to be placed within... In fact there was no port whatsoever to place any ammo in at all.
"What the hell kind of a joke is this?" Alessa muttered under her breath. "This gun isn't even a gun!"
Alessa lifted the rifle, shouldering it like a traditional rifle would, and placed her finger right on the trigger, aiming out to the wilderness.
"What's the point of this thing if I can't even put any rounds in it?" Alessa said as she squeezed the trigger.
Right then and there, Alessa felt a strange pull within her arms that seemed to flow towards the rifle and all at once the rifle fired off a bright violet blast of energy like a bullet but without the associated smell of gunpowder. The kick from the gun was shocking enough that it made Alessa stumble back. Recoil was something she was used to, but she hadn't expected the rifle to somehow fire. As to what it fired was a mystery to her, but that became the least of her concerns.
After firing the rifle, suddenly, she could see an outline of what she could only describe as sights for the rifle along the top of the frame. Even more shocking, her vision, of which she had always found to be fine even under total darkness, was somehow even clearer to the point everything to the horizon looked clear as day to her.
Alessa dropped the rifle to the ground with a thud as she slowly steps away from it, only to walk into the body of her sister, now fully awake. Alessa quickly turns about in a panic, scared that she was being ambushed but gradually relaxed as her sister reaches for her shoulders, relaxing her enough to the point she wouldn't draw Lefty and Righty all at once.
The vision Alessa had before seemingly faded to its normal state as she looked back down at the gun that even Rebecca was eyeing cautiously having been woken up by the sound of the gun. Having expected to be under attack she was close to a point of frustration at her sister for messing around with an unknown weapon, but she saw Alessa trembling with the gun as if it scared her, which made her rise quickly from her bedding to relax her.
The gun itself was now humming with a faint violet glow running along the barrel. And in parts of the gun's body the same violet glow pulsated like lights, almost as if the gun itself was alive.
"Alessa... Wrap up that weapon, and don't unravel it unless you have to," Rebecca ordered.
Alessa silently nodded as she cautiously collected the cloth and the leather bindings and began the slow process of covering up the rifle. She was scared of the weapon because of what the letter said, but she didn't feel comfortable telling her sister. Rebecca worries enough over her already, the last thing she needed to tell her is the gun may be cursed by the gods.
Alessa resigned herself to allow whatever happens next to happen.