The moonlight shined off a puddle in the darkened little street, the path seemed to have cobwebs lining its sides from unuse. It was quiet here. One could hear the distant noises of the bustling market a few blocks away. The puddle on the cobblestone street shivered and bubbles rose up. The puddle that was the size of a small dinner plate grew. Water kept bubbling quietly as the puddle grew to the size of a large floor mat.
Splat!
A crow flew out of the puddle quacking angrily and settled on a small tower of discarded furniture that was hidden in the shadows.
Its feathers were wet and shiny.
The puddled shivered once more.
A hand burst out and grabbed onto the cobblestones.
A woman with a hat hanging low on her face pulled herself out of the puddle and stood on the street. The puddle shivered tiredly a final time before returning to its original size, the water seemingly draining through an unseen hole in the street.
The crow looked at the woman and gave an indignant quack at her. The woman wrung her drenched skirts.
" What? "
The crowed ruffled its feathers trying to drain the water in between its feathers.
" Stars! You're being so sensitive. This was a much faster way " she told the crow.
She sighed and waved her hand in flourishing motion, gold sparks shot from her fingertips. The water seemed to evaporate off the crow and herself.
Leaving both of them dry.
The crow fluttered its wings angrily again before taking off into the sky.
The woman sighed tiredly. She straightened out her skirts and tucked the flyaway bright red strands of her hair under her large black hat.
She was tall by most standards and she walked with exhausted steps. Valerie's head was stinging, and her sunken golden eyes darted around the street observing. All the windows were boarded up. This used to be a factory that had seen better days, but it was closed after plentiful rumours of being haunted by a lady swathed in black.
She started walking at a brisk pace, towards the sounds of the market. Valerie was looking forward to going home and resting her tired feet.
My body was starting to burn, which signalled the beginning of mana sickness, Valerie had overworked herself these last few days
Once she had turned onto a slightly brighter street, her pace slowed down. You could see the market at the end of it, but she turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Her breathing matched the steps of her feet. There was a long shadow on the street.
Her feet came to an abrupt stop.
There was a bleeding man on the street,
He was propped up on the wall of one of the buildings.
The building she was planning on entering.
Her house.
Her face twisted into a scowl.
She waved her hands in front of the wall, the bricks shuddered and moved to reveal a door where moments before there was none.
A small light popped out above the door, shining some light onto the street and on the stranger. His golden hair shone in the light
Blood was pooled under him, he seemed to have an injury on his chest. She approached him slowly and crouched next to him, She prodded him with the end of her bag.
" Hey, you alive ?"
No reaction.
She observed his chest falling up and down faintly.
Well, he was alive alright barely.
I looked at the beeping system notification next to him and opened it.
< Side quest >
Save the Villian
Oh no! Dresden " the knight of the streets " has been poisoned. Remove the poison to save his life.
Reward: healer stats increase by 5%, Gold increases by an unknown amount, a hidden chest?
Penalty: Suspect in Dresden Valoren's Murder
A suspect! She didn't even know this guy why would she be a suspect in his murder?
Ahhhh, but why was he here?
"Villian huh ? ", Valerie wondered aloud.
It was pretty rare to see main characters in her city and a hidden chest as a reward, those were rare too.
But was it worth the effort?
Valerie used the edge of her bag to move his jacket away so she could see the wound underneath.
She frowned. There were black crystals lining his wound and they seemed to be growing.
Corlysn Crystals. That was not good, she thought
She waved her hand to open his character stats
His character profile opened up
*
Name : Dresden Valoren
Age: 28
Character Status: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mana Status : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Level: 10
Strength: 2%
Agility : 0 %
Mana: 5%
Intelligence: 80%
Health: 5%
Ability: Sword-master grade 4, Blade master grade 3, The knight of the streets,*******hidden*******
*
Valerie's eyes widened at the character and mana's status. They were really high. He could turn out to be very useful.
Valoren probably meant he was related to Marquis Valoren, which explained the unknown amount of gold.
Ahhhh, but stars why did he have to show up here? Valerie could hear Citywatch sirens in the distance. Great they could deal with him
She opened the door to the building. She stopped at the entrance. Conflicted.
Corsylyn could only be treated with magic and if he died, Then the watch decided to search around here. That wouldn't be good for her.
Valerie made her decision
She went back and grabbed him.
< Side quest >
Save the Villian
This action will have consequences
Are you sure you want to proceed?
Yes > No >
She chose the affirmative.
Shit
She balanced his large frame by her side and dragged him over the steps.
Why was he so heavy?
She closed the door and it disappeared leaving behind only a clear brick wall.
Valerie dragged him up the flight of stairs to the living room and toppled with him onto the couch.
A pained groan left his lips.
She got up hurriedly and tried to catch her breath.
Blood stained her clothes and the upholstery.
A black-haired man rushed into the room. He glanced back and forth at the bleeding man and Valerie
" I leave you alone for 5 minutes and you've killed someone. Good Stars "
Valerie scowled " I found him on the doorstep ", she informed him.
"And? Surely you are not planning on treating him ?", He asked incredulously, brushing stray black feathers off himself.
She wordlessly arranged him on the settee, and removed his clothes with scissors,
His chest was riddled with deep gashes, with blood still oozing out. This was gonna be complicated she thought to herself,
The black crystals forming on the edges of his gashes grew ever so slowly.
" Val! He's half gone already! You aren't exactly in the position to do this! I'll send a message to Razyn or Grandma Selin ",
" Razyn is travelling in Agaroyn and Selin is visiting her family, they won't be able to make it in time not to mention the poison is spreading quickly. "
" Still, you are too weak right now ", he implored.
" And that's why Rowyn, I need you to grab some strength elixirs from the closet for me and find out everything you can about Dresden Valoran while you're at it "
"Valoren!? The marquis !?"
He sighed annoyed. He nodded once and went to open the window,
A crow jumped in.
Rowyn whispered something to the crow.
The crow nodded once and flew into the sky.
He turned towards her.
"How many elixirs do you need ? ", He asked.
Valerie looked at the dying man in their living room.
"Everything we've got ", she said solemnly, her lips pressed into a tight line.
Gold spirals started to surround her. The yellow gem necklace glowed as she placed her hands above his wound.
*
Dresden was deaming .
He dreamed that he was floating in a storm of gold. He saw a woman with red hair as bright as yaratzhi cherries in winter. She had golden eyes that were similar to the gold sparkles floating around him. She looked beautiful as her brows knitted together, she seemed to be concentrating on something. He felt the need to smoothen out her brows but his arms felt like lead and wouldn't move. There was something familiar about this woman, he thought but he couldn't remember as the fog in his head seemed to grow. The woman's form shook.
The last thing he saw before he drifted into the fog again was her collapsing and someone shouting something. He hoped the strange woman was okay. He would have liked seeing her again.
Dresden woke up. His body was screaming in pain, but it was better than the fire that had been searing in his chest before he had collapsed. He remembered fighting some masked men and then getting stabbed but after that, his memory was all scrambled. He groaned and looked up. Dresden was in an unfamiliar living room and a fire was light in the fireplace, the window showed darkened skies. How long had it been since the fight, he turned to his side wincing the floor was littered with candles that had burnt themselves out. There were books and small gloss vials littered around and next to him were bandages, covered in blood he had a feeling they were his own. He noticed the text on some of the books and froze. magic. It was a grimoire. He noticed a stray pair of scissors and slowly grabbed it and hid it in his sleeve. He could hear the sounds of cooking, and he turned his head a bit to see a kitchen where a tall lanky boy no older than 17 or 18 cooking away. It smelled good. and his stomach grumbled in response. He wondered if he should make his presence known, but he was in a mage's residence, they could have been the ones to stab in the first place. Dresden heard another person come into the room so he quickly pretended to be asleep.
A redhead woman walked into the room in her night robes. settling herself in a chair." You look terrible " said the boy. Dresden closed his eyes and slowed his breathing.
" How is our patient ? " she asked.
" He keeps groaning. but I guess that is an improvement, I'm surprised he's still alive."
He heard the scraping of a chair and footsteps moving closer to him
" We better get paid handsomely for this "
" He is the marquis' son, so we should " She announced.
Dresen stopped breathing. How did these people know who he was?
He could feel someone next to him, the silk of a dress brushed against his fingertips.
Dresden opened his eyes. The woman stood next to him, her face right in front of him. Her eyes widened. Dresden didn't give her a chance to think. He got up quickly and pushed her onto the coffee table. The candles and books fell to the floor.
She pushed him back. normally it wouldn't have stopped him, but the pain in his chest and the lead in his feet made him stumble a bit. He used whatever strength he had in his feet to kick her shin, She fell to the floor, groaning. Dresden paused for a second but steeled himself, she was a witch he couldn't be complacent. He didn't want to lose his chance, so pushing a vase out of the way he sat on top of her, pressing the sharp edge of the scissors to her neck. The vase shattered next to them.
"Who are you? and what do you want with me ?", he growled.
The woman did not look fazed.
"That vase was expensive! , Just know I'm adding that to your treatment bill" said the boy, looking at the both of them exasperatedly and then turning and going back to his cooking
what?
" You heard him. The more damage you cause, the more the cost increases" the woman told him, uncaring about the scissors to her neck.
Why were they so relaxed?
He pressed harder. " Who are you ?"
She winced and then as if he didn't weigh a thing pushed him off her and got up.
Dusting the broken ceramic of herself.
Dresden was confused, He sensed that she was dangerous. He tried to lunge for her again.
whoosh
Golden chains shot out from the floor and wrapped his arms and torso and held him down.
He groaned at the force of the chains.
The pain started in his chest again.
Dresden struggled against the chains to no avail.
His body sagged against them, he could feel wet sticky blood in his chest, his wound must have opened up again. That was all the energy his body could muster.
She crouched down to meet his eyes. The woman dragged a finger down his chin and forced him to look at her.
He glared at her.
The woman smirked.
"You're strong I'll give you that, good it's nice to have a challenge. But you should know you'll want to be a hell lot stronger than that if you want to go up against me."
" I will kill you " He rasped out. His breathing was hard.
" Now now, that isn't the attitude you should use towards your saviors is it ?" She said
Saviors?
"you're a witch !" he accused.
" And so are you " she countered back
Dresden tensed. how did she find out?
" Why would a witch save me ?"
Why would she unless she had some nefarious scheme in place?
She looked him over once. Her long pale finger traced his jaw.
"Hmmm. Because your face is my type " she informed him smiling.
Dresden was at a loss for words
" He's bleeding again! Val!' said the boy, now looking at us.
She looked down at this chest and groaned
" You really are a handful ", huffed the woman before knocking him out.
Dresden fell into darkness once more.