Zevah, a city-state bordering the territories of Eil'Drawwt, bustled with commotion and commerce. The cavern city was filled to the brim with towering pieces of architecture, only growing more elaborate as it drew closer to the castle at the highest point of the cave. As the day went on for the citizens of Zevah, their day was not lit by crystals upon the cavern walls or ceiling. Instead, floating lanterns of various colors created a warm soothing light over all of the city.
Within the lower districts, Hela found herself in the crowded marketplace. The demifai knight stood as an outlier to the many serpus and demiserpus that filled the market, but it didn't seem to bother her much at all as she gathered delicacies from each market stall.
"Clair!" Hela called out through a mouthful of food, "You gotta try these. They're sooo good!" She excitedly offered up a kebab of mushrooms and dried meats seasoned with a variety of spices.
"I'll pass," Clair groaned, leaning off to the side uncomfortably at the mouth of an alleyway. "The sooner we move through Zevan territory and get back to the guild, the better," She muttered quietly as she adjusted at her cloak to better conceal the emblem pinned to her shoulder.
"Come on now, Zevah isn't too bad. You're overreacting just a bit." Hela tried to ease Clair's stress as she approached with a smile on her face.
In response, Clair only motioned for Hela to take a look behind her further into the market. Hela turned to find a gathering pick up in the center of the market plaza. A serpus woman with golden scales marked with violet paint stood atop a crate, preaching out to the citizens with her fellow allies rallied around her.
"The Akari movement has been picking up these last few months. As you can probably guess, they probably wouldn't enjoy a noble such as myself lounging around here," Clair explained as she turned her focus away from the rally.
"I guess I can see why you're worried, but I think they're too focused on their goals to deal with foreign nobility," Hela commented as she took in the symbols and signs The Akari carried. They waved purple flags with their viper head symbol at its epicenters. Some of the flags even depicted the viper lashing out at an intricate decorative boot, representative of their disdain and rejection of the noble classes.
Before Clair could properly respond, a golden light pulsed out from the bag she kept at her side. She retrieved the golden gem and activated it with a quick spark of white mana flowing from her fingers.
"Clair?" Wright's voice crackled out from the gem as the connection slowly turned stable. "Are you there with the captain? I need to speak with her."
"Don't call me in two months and you just want to talk to Hela. Yeah, that sounds about right," Clair grumbled to herself in an annoyed tone as she carelessly tossed the gem over to Hela, who narrowly caught the gem after a quick fumble.
"Things have been busy, what can I say?" Wright's exasperated voice flowed out of the gem. "You two have been gone almost six months, I've had a lot of work to handle in both of your places."
"Most of that was travel time, but yeah it has been a while," Hela admitted, "How have things been back at the guild?"
"Pretty slow, not counting the fiasco with that aeriie and fanatic five months back," Wright explained, "Nessa has been progressing very smoothly since then as well. In fact, she's been rising in the ranks here at the guild at quite the pace."
"That's good to hear. Well what was it that you needed to contact us about?" Hela smiled after hearing of Nessa's success.
"Right. There's something not right here at the guild. I thought that I got rid of the last of those that supported Ignus, but as I got digging deeper, I found something—" Wright began to explain, but was cut short as Clair interrupted.
"Hela. We should get out of here." Clair's attention was exclusively drawn to the marketplace. The gathering of Akari was pushed back as a formation of Zevan guards formed a line of shields to keep the activists at bay. Tensions rose further and further with every passing moment that the Akari stood against the heavily armed guards. Civilians and merchants began to evacuate, expecting the altercation to escalate drastically.
"Wright, we're going to have to let you go." Hela calmly dismissed her ally by deactivating the gem.
By the time Hela had put away the golden gem, one of the guards in the formation held his fingers over the side of his helmet as if he were communicating with someone. With his orders received, the guard shouted something in the serpus tongue out to the rest of the formation. The formation shifted, withdrawing their shields to instead ready batons from their side. Scripts activated upon the batons, creating surges of electricity that ran up the weapon.
The guards marched forward, ensuing chaos as the activists attempted to flee. Though some were able to escape arrest, many fell to the ground, shocked and beaten until they had no fight left to resist their arrest. Civilians were caught in the crossfire, without a care from the Zevan guards who indiscriminately lashed out against the populus.
As the horrid situation persisted, the serpus woman who led the Akari found herself seated with her back against the wall of one the buildings around the marketplace. A trio of guards surrounded her, but did not approach with the intent to arrest. Without a word to each other, they unanimously drew loaded crossbows. The guards on either side wrapped the cloak of their armor over their arms, attempting to conceal the execution about to take place from any potential witnesses.
Without hesitation, the guards fired. However they failed to hit their marks. The guards instinctively took a step back as they witnessed a knight standing between them and the activist. Hela stood holding her black and crimson shield with the broken crossbow bolts pooled at her feet. She shot a quick glance out to the serpus behind her, prompting the Akari to flee down an alley without another word. Hela turned her attention back to the guards, drawing her mace from her side to fight back.
Before she could make her counterattack however, a blinding white light flashed the area. Both the guards and Hela were temporarily blinded as Hela got pulled away in some direction. Hela's vision returned to see Clair had dragged them both into hiding.
"I know you weren't just about to attack those guards, Captain," Clair growled as she peeked out from hiding, looking for an opportunity to flee.
"Clair, those citizens haven't done any wrong. I can't just stand around and watch this happen," Hela protested as she attempted to step back out of the alley they hid in, but Clair quickly pulled her back to explain herself.
"Hela! I'm not saying we don't do anything, but if we act out of line now, Zevah may completely bar the guild from acting here ever again. I know it's not what you want to hear, but we need to report this back to Hidden Star," Clair explained, which led Hela to grimace in frustration.
"I suppose you're right," Hela sadly admitted, "Zevah has never been too friendly with the guild. We need executive action." She looked out at the arrests taking place, furious and wanting to take action. Despite her desire to stop it, Hela gave in and retreated with Clair down the other end of the alley.
As Hela and Clair retreated, the altercation spread thin as guards searched for the activists who had escaped arrest. One young demiserpus boy weaved around corners, attempting to escape from the guard that chased after him. He checked behind him every so often, trying to see if the guard was still on his tail at all. As he checked behind him once more, he ran directly into someone and fell back.
The boy looked up to see a young human woman in a white-hooded cloak with an intricate staff on her back. She looked down at the boy with a hand outstretched, the tips of her fiery scarlet hair pouring out at the mouth of her hood. The boy accepted the help up, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything to the mysterious woman standing in front of him. Before he could work up the strength to speak his gratitude, a guard turned the corner into the alley they stood in.
Without any hesitation, the boy ran off, leaving the woman facing the guard alone. The guard drew his baton, sparking with electricity, and began to approach.
"Step aside, citizen." The guard spoke in an aggressive tone, attempting to intimidate the girl out of the way. Though he attempted to move past her, the guard stopped as the woman drew her staff instead of backing down.
The human woman's head tilted up, allowing her ocean blue eyes to pierce right through the guard's fragile confidence. She held no intention of backing down. She had already made her decision.