In the dead of night, a lone figure wearing worn, torn, dirty, and baggy clothes walks through the empty slums of Egwater. A light mist reduces visibility as the figure disappears with every turn around a corner. Only the dim moonlight provides any light for anyone traveling anywhere.
After endlessly walking in random directions, seemingly lost and confused, the figure enters a narrow alleyway. He's repeatedly mumbling and rambling to himself, seemingly crazy in the eyes of a spectator.
The figure reaches the end of the alley, still walking with haste. As he exits, he suddenly bumps into another person who walked out right in front of him. The two people stumble after running into each other, and one of them growls in frustration.
"Watch it, pal!"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry."
The rambling figure continues to mumble apologies and walks off without making eye contact. The man he bumped into just angrily stares as he watches the drifter disappear into the mist that covers the city.
"Bloody drug addicts," the man audibly complains before he continues on his way.
The man casually walks along the sidewalk, still visually bothered about his encounter with the stranger. Upon reaching the front door of a particular building along the street, he calmly enters and shuts the door behind him.
"Solomon, you're back. How was the walk?"
"About as great as it can get in this city. Ran into some bum on the way back."
Solomon, one of the three Raven agents in Efielge, usually strolls around the neighborhood during the nights every once in a while. Occasionally, he'll come across some shady individual with whom he'll briefly cross paths. It's their way of passing along relevant information from one spy to another.
"A bum? Anything else?"
"Yeah, he dropped this." Solomon takes out a small pouch he took from the rambling man he bumped into and throws it at Caleb, his fellow agent.
Caleb catches the pouch and immediately opens it to retrieve a small scrunched-up piece of paper.
"Where's Ross? Sleeping?" Solomon asks.
"No. She's awake. Mind getting her?"
Solomon exits the living room and climbs up the stairs, leaving Caleb to read the note by himself. A moment later, Solomon returns with Eleanor following behind.
"Did something happen?"
"Yeah, this." Caleb holds up the piece of paper for Eleanor to see. "It's from one of the Ravens in Scorrest. They intercepted a message circulating within the STC."
"What's the message?"
"The Tabellarri has been dispatched to help the STC with their 'economic rivalry'."
"So it's about Ross' boyfriend then?" Solomon comments.
"He's 𝘯𝘰𝘵 my boyfriend. He's our ally," Eleanor counters.
"Yeah, whatever."
"Quiet, you two. It says that a few days after the message was intercepted, a suspected Tabellarri agent contacted a local bandit group to ambush a nearby convoy returning from the Heimfara Mountains."
"That's gotta be him," Solomon says before turning to Eleanor. "You said his business trip took him to the Heimfara Mountains, right?"
"Yes. He was supposed to supervise the delivery of mining equipment to the SouthHeim Mining Company."
"Stupid. He could have sent someone else. No reason to risk himself like that."
"I tried pointing it out, but he mentioned there was another reason. He didn't tell me what it was, though."
"It doesn't matter now," Caleb interrupts. "If the Tabellarri is here, the Venesians are not playing around. They are going to assassinate Ken."
"Why do we care exactly?" Solomon asks.
"Because they are an asset," Eleanor says. "The conflict between Ardai and the STC gives us the chance to expose their activities. Don't forget the turmoil that's happening to our people in Ravenia. With Ardai, we can fight the STC and dismantle whatever it is they are doing here."
"Are you sure you just haven't fallen for him?"
"Don't test me."
"All right, I get it." Solomon sighs. "But a secure message from the capital would take days to get here. Whatever ambush the Tabellarrii has in mind might have already happened by now. If so, Ken might already be dead."
"He's trained for combat, is he not?" Caleb asks.
"He's paramilitary," Eleanor responds. "His explanation was complicated and confusing, but I understood that he and his friends are former military."
"Then we can't conclude he died. Talk to his friends tomorrow. They will probably want to go looking for him."
.
.
The following morning, Eleanor goes to work as usual. Hours into her day, she quickly completes what little work she has. As a personal assistant to someone who is away, she has little to do. Instead, her work has recently been assisting the senior engineers or the Entesian spies as she has recently learned them to be.
Speaking about Entesian spies, Eleanor still has trouble accepting Ken as someone from the new world. It's an extraordinary situation in which an unknown power managed to send people here so quickly and quietly.
Pushing away those thoughts for another day, Eleanor goes to one of the drafting rooms where one of the Ringleader members should be.
When she walks inside, the drafting room is a scattered mess. The engineers all seem to be having a bad day. Dozens of scrunched papers have been tossed on the floor as it appears that all their recent designs have been failures. In one corner, Matt and Reed look to be discussing something with some of the engineers. Eleanor approaches the group and catches the attention of Matt.
"Um… Matt. Can I discuss something with you?"
"Not now. I'm busy."
"It's crucial. It's about Ken."
"Fine. Reed, I'll be back."
"Sure thing."
Eleanor leads Matt outside the drafting room, where they can talk in private.
"What's so important?" Matt asks.
"We think Ken might be in trouble. We got a message from Scorrest saying that the STC is going to ambush him."
"There's more of you in Scorrest?"
"A few, yeah. They managed to intercept a few messages that circulated within the STC. The Venesians sent someone from their own intelligence agency, the Tabellarrii, to try and assassinate him."
"Hmm, we should have seen it coming."
"If I may, why let him travel so far on his own? And for what? He said that there was another reason for going other than supervising delivery to SouthHeim."
Matt rubs his short beard from the sudden news.
"As part of a secondary objective from our superiors, he went to investigate the STC in Scorrest. He's supposed to follow a lead about drug smuggling."
"Drugs?" Eleanor repeats. It's the same reason the Ravens are in Scorcia, to investigate suspected drug smuggling by the STC, which is invading the Ravenian Empire's population.
For some time now, the Ravens have already confirmed that the STC knows about opium smuggling. Despite all the intercepted messages, it isn't enough for the Ravenian government as the Venesians can just as easily deny such accusations. What the Ravenians truly need is to capture the Venesians red-handed, which means that the Ravens need to figure out a way to track and capture opium shipments that have so far eluded their attempts.
"How do you know about that?" Eleanor asks, surprised that these foreign spies know about the STC's meddling.
"From the war in the new world. Our military and intelligence agency dug around and found that the STC is capturing elves, importing them to farmlands, and forcing them to produce opium to spread around illegally. So they wanted us to verify it as a possible exploitation opportunity."
Eleanor stands in shock that an unknown country quickly uncovered something that the Ravens took years to find out. She will, of course, have to inform the Security Service, but right now, there is something else that takes priority.
"R-Right. But why did Ken go alone?"
"He brought along guards."
"I meant you guys."
"Because there is not enough manpower, there are too few of us. Jax is constantly working in the Facility, Cayde visits business partners every day, and Reed and I have to oversee the rest of the company's functions."
"Surely you can ask for more people from your agency."
"We tried, but our requests were rejected. I suppose what's happening now might be enough to sway our superiors, so we'll have to ask again. Do you know when Ken is supposed to be ambushed?"
"We think it might have already happened."
Matt scratches his head as he thinks. If Ken is in Scorrest, the only way to help is to go there himself. Ken brought a radio with him on his trip, but the distance makes communication unlikely as it probably doesn't have enough range. It's also incapable of connecting to Satcom; only Reed's manpack can connect to the satellites.
"In that case, we have no choice but to go find him."
Matt turns to return to the drafting room and enters while Eleanor follows.
"Wha—Right now?"
"Yeah. Ardai will, unfortunately, have to suspend some of its activities while we go find Ken."
"Why is it unfortunate? You'll start back up when you come back."
"Because we were nearing the final phase of this." Matt points towards one of the drafting tables.
The drafting table has a blueprint he had been working on. It's a blueprint of a steam locomotive that would be used to transport cargo at a long distance in a short amount of time. It's hoped that introducing the steam locomotive would quicken the industrial revolution in Scorcia, marking a historic leap in the Kingdom's economic state.
For Eleanor, she is continually impressed and shocked. She is already familiar with the steam locomotive drawing because a version of it already exists in Ravenia. Though not the same in mechanical function, they fulfill the same role as that which Ardai envisions. She begins questioning the true extent of Ardai's scientific and engineering knowledge. More importantly, how powerful is the country known as Entesia? She has yet to hear from the Security Service.
.
.
The city of Scorrest is home to half a million residents and is the largest city in the Kingdom of Scorcia. As the capital city, it's also the economic and political center of the Kingdom. Nobles of all ranks reside within the massive city built with the latest trends.
Tudor architecture is still prevalent, and a large amount of timber-framed two-tone buildings are proof of it. They are much like those seen in Efielge, but Scorrest looks to be going through a transition. Georgian architecture and style have sprung up, and some pockets of the city look to have taken full advantage of it. Brick, marble, and stone are increasingly becoming the materials of choice for new construction projects while the timber is slowly fazed out.
All the change results from Venesian influence. Scorcia, like many other nations, is a Kingdom lagging behind in innovation. Buildings built in Tudor architecture are the widespread remains of medieval civilization and lifestyles that have all but become extinct. Most kingdoms have been living in the equivalence of the Early Modern Period. These periods of time, however, are not definitive. The existence of magic created lapses in what is expected. The Great Powers are examples of this as they are seemingly centuries ahead of everyone else.
Despite the size of the Kingdom, the number of large cities spread in its territory is few, but members of the nobility are high. While the most respected and influential nobles are assigned to govern their own territories and cities, most nobles live without such power.
On the north side of the city, in one of the city's many districts, high-class society makes its presence clear. Large estates built with Georgian architecture dominate the open landscape reserved for nobility. Green grass, clean roads, trimmed trees, fancy statues, and fountains are the standard for the residents living in this exclusive district.
One of these estates belongs to the House of Thorne, where Ken has suddenly found himself in. Under Countess Maida Thorne's hospitality, Ken has recovered from his physical injuries but has discovered that there is a gap in his memories. Memories of his time in Adon have disappeared, and he found himself in an impossible situation. One where his current memories believe are impossible. After being overwhelmed by a convoluted situation, he'll have to figure out just what exactly happened and somehow resolve his predicament.
Suspicious of his 'sister', Ken decided to talk with Lady Thorne privately about what truly happened. He knows that he doesn't have a sister, and if he did, she wouldn't be blonde or be with him in a different world. If it's not a fictional supernatural phenomenon that transported him to another world, then his connection to the US Army is likely somehow involved. The most logical theory, therefore, is that whatever is happening is part of some classified program that he's involved in. The only issue is that whatever program that is, it would involve the CIA and not the Army Special Forces. As far as his current memory is concerned, he was never recruited into the Special Activities Division.
In Lady Thorne's study, the two of them meet in private to discuss Ken's situation in further detail. He doesn't trust the woman who claims to be his sister, neither does he trust Lady Thorne, but she's the only person whom he can talk to at the moment.
"I just wanted to ask about how exactly I got here from your point of view," Ken says as he sits into a chair across a table from Lady Thorne.
"Has your sister not yet explained, dear?" Lady Thorne says while pouring wine into a glass for herself.
"She has, but I also wanted to hear it from you, just to be sure."
Ken lies. He hasn't asked his supposed sister because he knows whatever she says is most likely a lie.
"We encountered you two outside the city, darling. You see, I was returning to Scorrest from some matters that needed my attention in a nearby territory. Arierane was carrying you, traveling along the road towards the city when we crossed paths. She asked for help, and I couldn't resist."
Lady Thorne crosses her legs and takes a sip of her wine.
"You couldn't resist? What do you mean by that? Why bother helping strangers alongside the road?"
"Because it reminded me of myself and others, darling. I suppose you wouldn't remember what happened a few years ago. Civil war followed by an invasion ravaged the Kingdom. I won't bore you with details, dear. Encountering desperate people looking for help was a common sight. A sight I'm all too familiar with; thus, I decided to help."
"And what about an ambush? Your steward said something about being involved in an ambush."
"I know not more than you, dear. Your sister, Arierane, told me you were headed home before being ambushed by bandits. I've not seen any bandits or any remains of a battle. Therefore I can not confirm."
All this was decent information. From what Ken can tell, Lady Thorne isn't lying. From her perspective, she seems to be as clueless as him about the whole ordeal. If that's the case, then Arierane is the big question mark.
While he can piece together some form of theory about what happened, Ken still has a few more questions. Mainly about Lady Thorne herself and whatever civil war she was talking about. He still finds it strange that she would help them at all, so he wants to dig deeper.
"I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me, Lady Thorne."
Lady Thorne takes another sip of her wine without response.
"So what of yourself? You said this estate belongs to the House of Thorne, but you are the only person I've seen the staff pay attention to. Do you have a husband? Any kids?"
"Kids? Do my looks inflate my age?"
"No, no! I didn't mean it like that! You're still very beautiful, but I just haven't seen anyone else with the name Thorne."
Lady Thorne smiles at Ken's fumble and takes another sip of her wine before responding.
"No kids, darling. But I did have a husband."
Ken sees Lady Thorne's smile disappear when she mentioned her husband. Maybe it's insensitive to ask further, but he decides to do so anyway.
"Sorry to hear that. What happened, if you don't mind?"
"He was killed. The civil war took him from me, along with everyone else."
"Everyone else?"
Lady Thorne holds up her glass and stares at it. She swirls the wine inside as she thinks back to when she lost everyone she ever loved.
"I'm the last surviving member of the Thorne family. Everyone else was caught in the crossfire of the war. I barely managed to elude the carnage. What's left of the House of Thorne is just me, my loyal knights, Wilfred, and anyone else who decided to remain by my side after our near collapse. The Crown was gracious enough to allow me to claim the title of Countess and keep my noble status."
"Sounds like it must have been hell to live through that war," Ken says.
"It's an understatement, dear. No one was spared. Everyone has lost someone, even the most powerful of us. I'm simply lucky to be here; others were not so lucky. I've seen noble families come and go. Many pre-war noble families are now extinct simply because all members were killed or are missing."
"And the King? What was his role in all that?"
"His Majesty King Laess has since been hated. The Kingdom became a vassal of the Venesian Empire at his hands. He fought to keep the Kingdom from fragmenting, only to offer it to the Venesians. He betrayed many of his supporters and followers, myself included."
"You? But he let you keep your status. Why would he betray you but help preserve the House of Thorne?"
"That's is what I have yet to understand. He has allowed many Houses to keep their status'. Supporters or not. Other's were not so fortunate. The House of Debenhame, the House of Bartone, the House of Aston, and the House of Hatheway. These Houses were some of the most powerful in the kingdom, most of whom were big supporters of the Crown until his betrayal. Their members have since been executed, assassinated, and hunted down."
"So then, none of them survived? His actions seem to contradict each other."
"Yes, they do." Lady Thorne sips on her wine once more as she thinks. She has a lot to say about the current political climate and the various conspiracies and tales she's heard over the years. "Well, not all of them are dead," she mutters as she stares into her wine.
"Hmm?"
"Duke Leofric Hatheway was once one of King Laess' most trusted people. He's since been killed after being suspected of treason, along with the rest of the House of Hatheway. But one of their members wasn't among the dead and is instead considered missing. It's his daughter Athela Hatheway. She miraculously survived the onslaught and went into hiding."
Ken recognizes that name. Upon hearing of Athela Hatheway, Ken's mind tries to remember where he's heard of that name. It's a strange feeling that he knows he's heard of the name but knows he shouldn't recognize it. The only thing that comes to his mind is the images of desperate people he's seen in Mexico. People who have been exploited, tortured and trafficked by the cartels he had been fighting.
"And you know her?" he asks.
"I've met her and her family only a handful of times. Lovely people. After her family's estate was attacked, I helped her escape the city. I never heard of her since. I could only assume she's living a different life far away, or she's succumbed to the harsh world seeking her dead. Poor girl, she was robbed of her life in the worst way imaginable."
Ken stays quiet. He is still trying to figure out where he has heard that name before but continues to fail. In fact, everything Lady Thorne has said sounds familiar, as if he's heard it all before. His frustration rises, but he can't make sense of any of it. Finally, he gives up and decides to end his meeting with Lady Thorne. His questions for her have been answered, and any further questions will need to be asked elsewhere.
"I think I have taken enough of your time, Lady Thorne. Thank you for answering my questions."
"My pleasure, darling. It's been so long since I've been able to talk with someone so extensively. It feels somewhat therapeutic."
Ken leaves the study and is led back to the guest room he's been given by Lady Thorne. It's getting late, and his investigation into his circumstance will need to be resumed tomorrow. His supposed sister, Arierane, has yet to return to the estate. Lately, she has been going into town through most of the day by herself, insisting that Ken needs to rest. She continually claims that she is searching for any way to help Ken regain his memories, but he doubts this. Tomorrow, his next course of action is to visit the ambush scene and investigate what he was doing before he was attacked.
.
.
The following day, Ken is walking through the woods outside the city limits. He's on his way to investigate the area where he was ambushed. With him is the young blonde who claims to be his sister, leading him towards the scene of battle. He doesn't know where the ambush took place and has to rely on Arierane to tell him where it is. She's the only one who would know where he was ambushed.
"Are you sure we should be coming all the way out here?" Arierane says.
"Yes, I'm sure. I want to see it for myself," Ken replies.
"But there's nothing there. Just the remains of our carriage. What if we run into more of those bandits?"
"We'll be fine."
Arierane has been complaining about heading back into the woods despite Ken's insistence. To Ken, her acting has been relatively convincing, and people might actually believe they are siblings. Despite this, Ken has his guard up. No matter how innocent Arierane acts, he's trying to watch her every move and register her every word to try and decipher what her aim is.
Eventually, they come across the ruins of a crumbling stone structure. It's empty, and Ken looks around to try and find the ambush scene but doesn't see anything.
"This is it?"
"No," Arierane says, "this is just a landmark. The place we got ambushed should be somewhere over there." She points in a seemingly random direction.
"Uh-huh. This place looks like a good hideout to wait for unsuspecting passersby. What was this place supposed to be?" Ken points at the ruins.
"Oh, you know, just some ancient ruins from hundreds of years ago."
"No, I don't know," Ken taps his forehead to suggest his lost memories. "Also, that reminds me. Lady Thorne's steward said the current year is 666. Is that true?"
"Yes, that's true. Why?"
"That's stupid. What year is it actually?"
"It's… late 666. Two months from 667," Arierane says, confused by what Ken means.
"Don't bullshit me Arira-Ari—can I just call you Aria? Your name is too hard to pronounce."
"You've never had a problem saying my name, but if you want to, I don't mind."
"Great. Aria, do you not think of anything when you think of the number six-six-six?"
"No, nothing comes to mind. Do you?"
"Yeah, it's supposed to be an evil number. Too much of a coincidence for me."
"I've never heard it be referenced as evil. It's simply been six hundred and sixty-six years since the Glasse Era began."
"And what the hell is the Glasse Era?"
"Well, six hundred and sixty-six years ago, there was a plague that spread throughout the world. As far as I know, it was infamously described as creating lumps of flesh on people's bodies and turning their skin black. It's rumored to have killed hundreds of millions of people. Many ancient civilizations were destroyed, and it was thought to be the end of times. Legend says that a man from the heavens named Ulrich Glasse appeared with the cure to the plague, thus starting the Glasse Era."
"And?" Ken says, expecting more to the story.
"I don't know. I never learned much more than that."
Ken sighs. He wanted to learn more about this world, hoping to find a hint in it all.
"Let's just get to the ambush site," he says.
The two leave the ruins behind and wander back into the forest. Ken follows behind Arierane.
Through the bushes, trees, and other foliage, Ken can see an opening in the distance where a few trees look to be knocked over. As they get closer, it becomes apparent that something crazy happened here.
When they walk into the opening, they can see the scattered remains of multiple carriages. The grass has been burnt and soil overturned. A small crater dents into the ground near the wreckage of the carnage.
"Woah," Ken mutters as he walks towards the destroyed carriage.
The armored coach is destroyed but roughly retains the silhouette of a stagecoach. The frame is bent, and the underside is a maimed mess of steel and iron. The door has been ripped right off as well as a section of the roof, exposing the interior. The whole thing has a layer of dirt covering the carriage as if someone had attempted to bury it.
"An explosion?" Ken questions as he walks around the carriage.
"Yes. The bandits had a mage in their ranks."
Reminded once again that magic exists, Ken carefully examines the wreck, trying to make sense of what he was doing when the ambush happened.
As he walks around the wreck, he spots a blue rose head painted on a wood panel that splintered off. He instantly recognizes the logo as a blue rose. Not of Ardai Industries, but a blue rose a child had given him during his deployment in Mexico. His mother used to dye roses grown in their back yard with blue dye, the kid's favorite color—the same kid he indirectly got killed.
Whatever the carriage came from, Ken is now confident he was involved. As he walks around, he steps on something hard. The soil has been overturned and was very loose but what he just stepped on is something solid. Ken glances at Arierane, who is preoccupied examining other rubble and wreckage. With her eyes briefly off elsewhere, Ken bends down to dig into the ground and uncovers a familiar object buried in the dirt—a Glock 19.
He quickly turns it over to examine its condition. It's dirty and scratched, but it might still be functional. Ken lifts his shirt and secures the gun behind his back on his waist, and takes another glance at Arierane. She's still not looking in his direction, to which Ken is relieved.
With a gun, Ken just needs ammunition. Thinking he's not dumb enough not to bring extra magazines, he peeks his head into the interior of the wreckage and looks around. He quickly finds a small hatch underneath the mangled seat with a small latch. He grabs the latch and forcibly pulls it. A loud clang is heard as something probably broke by forcing the hatch open.
Inside the compartment is a small cardboard box without any label. Ken takes the box, shakes it, and hears multiple objects shake inside. Jackpot. It's probably a box of ammunition. He quickly hides the box inside one of his pockets right before Arierane appears.
"Did you find anything?" she asks.
"No, nothing. It's all destroyed or empty," he says.
"Did seeing any of this help you regain any memories?"
Ken pretends to think before saying, "No, can't remember any of this."
"A shame, at least we tried. We should head back to the city. I don't like being out here for too long."
"Yeah…"
Ken takes one last glance at the wreckage before following Arierane back to Scorrest. Though he may not have regained any memory, he found enough to piece together what could have happened. At the least, he can deduce that he's not in this strange world by accident. The blue rose only he seems to value shows that he was doing something important here, and the gun is further evidence that he's likely here on assignment. If nothing else, the fact that he was attacked suggests that he already has enemies here, which also means he has allies.