A tapping of a cane can be heard on a wooden floor, as a man cloaked in black walks down the wooden stairs, which creak under his weight, as he hurriedly makes his way down. The place around is antique, stone walls scratched and cracked, framed with old oak wood.
He passes through many floors and hallways, similar in design. Quickly walking down, he nearly bumps into a brown haired maid carrying a lump of linen in her hands, as she gasps and takes a step back. Whilst he hurries down, he looks back at the brown haired maid, quickly yelling, "Sorry!" over his shoulder, yet not slowing his pace as he makes his way down.
Reaching the bottom, the hall below was crowded with people dressed as plainly as he had been, some resting on benches, others carrying crates and linens, few maids mixed into the crowd as sunlight beams in from the windows to its side, illuminating the hallway. He stops running as he walks in a steady yet brisk pace, mindful of not hitting anybody, pulling down his hat.
He walks down, staying mindful of guards stationed around the place. He looks at them, men clad in a red formal outfit and a crimson shawl with gold patterns on their left shoulders, on their heads are caps of the same color palette, however lined with silver, and in their hands, a partisan with a crest on the middle of its blade, a crowned rose. He sees their eyes, scanning everyone who walks past. Not wanting to draw their attention, the man looks away.
He walks forward as he adjusts his long black hair to not obstruct his view, revealing his emerald green eyes. His wooden cane tapped the ground with each step. The man, being quite tall, looks forward, through the crowd, sighting two large dark wooden doors at the end of the hallway, guarded on each side. He lowers his hat and keeps walking.
He reaches the doors as the guards cross their spears in front of him, one of them speaks out, looking down at him, and coldly asks, "Name and Identification?". The man steps back and reaches under his coat, reaching for something, pulling out a crest, a crowned flower, showing it to the guards as he says, "I-I'm Locht Solitas, I...was granted a royal pardon..." One of the guards steps forward and scrutinizes the crest, as he snatches it from his hand, saying, "Well where's the pardon then?" Locht stumbles as he looks to the side, "I- They said showing that crest would be enough...And the letter sent contains confidential information...I'm not lying, you can verify with...whoever you can if you want"
The other guard sighs, looking to the side. He asks his partner to hand the crest over to him, saying to Locht, "Listen, if this crest is fake, you don't want to know what will happen to you." Hearing the words, Locht takes a step back. The guard gives the other Guard the crest, while keeping an eye on Locht. The other guard puts his hand on the crest for a moment as a low whirring emanates from it, and suddenly, the crest begins glowing, a brilliant gold, casting its light, shining for a moment, yet it slowly dims out. The guard, gives him back the crest as they both look at other and withdraw their spears, stepping aside, one of them saying, "Well, well, well, You're in luck, now get going" the other saying, "Pretty rare for a pardon to happen, hah, I didn't think I'd see another in my lifetime", Locht sighs while he pushes open the door.
His eyes widen as he peeks beyond, a well-kept lobby area, marble floor tiles well-polished, an unlit chandelier hanging from above, as two stairwells rise up on each side, one beside him. In the middle of them both, a reception stands, made of stone and wood, piles of papers and other objects placed on it, sitting behind it a young looking lady with blonde hair and pointed ears, blue eyes, wearing white robes, with blue lines running across it, she sorts papers on her hand, in front of the reception, two rows of benches upon which a few people sit, all dressed neatly, coat, suit and some sort of brooch, mostly middle aged folks, and just beyond it, lies open doors, light shining in from them.
The maids handle luggage as guards patrol the area, rooms with locked doors on each side of the place and seemingly another area altogether above the stairs. As Locht stares, he shakes himself, gripping his cane, walking forward to the receptionist, gently bowing his head. The receptionist looks at him, puzzled at first, as he slides the royal crest on the desk, "I'm Locht Solitas... The person that was pardoned, yes, I believe I told a maid to bring my luggage down...? It should be here." The receptionist checks through some papers and replies, "Been a while since a fugitive raised here was pardoned." She calls over a maid, asking her to fetch the luggage and giving her a paper.
Locht observes the area, without making a sound, the people, their behavior and the objects as the receptionist addresses him, he looks back at her, as she says, "Since you've been pardoned you can work as a clerk here, if you want. If you were useful to the royal family to a degree, you could be of use here. Your luggage is there" , Locht clears his throat, replying, "Sorry, I can't. I've always wanted to see the outside world as a child...since my parents too were fugitives and well, they died trying, so I've done whatever...I could to get out... And just see the world...for once. Sure, being raised and kept here, working, reading, wasn't all too bad, but I can't stay, sorry."
The receptionist looks at him and nodding and saying, "Do you have any plans on what you'll do out there?", Locht shakes his head, saying, "No, not yet, I'll...figure it out" , The receptionist looks down, sorting her papers as she writes something on it, saying, "I see...a word of advice then", Locht tilts his head as she continues, "Go as far away from here as you can. Once you get out of here, you'll have no identity, nor will you be accepted among your fellow fugitives. Because you must've done something that betrayed them to get your pardon. The Sarlians are prideful, I suppose you know." Locht looks down as he says, "I know...well I've never really known anyone else here, probably because I was...mostly holed up in that library and...", He looks at the receptionist, " I know the reason the kingdom doesn't execute the fugitives here is because only we can decipher the ancient texts..." , the receptionist looks at him, her eyes more serious, "Indeed. Else the Sarlians would've been long extinct already. Get going now.", as she gestures to him to pick up his luggage and depart.
Locht lowers his hat and nods, picking up his luggage, a simple briefcase. Tipping his hat, he says, "Thank you", before turning and walking towards the door. Leaning on his cane as he raises one of his hands, while walking out the door, to shield himself from the sunlight as he peeks a bit past, towards the open sky
Massive clouds forming and drifting around and about, some carrying landmasses and islands upon them as they drift in the sky, winged beasts gliding through the clouds in the distance as sunlight falls, from high, high above
He peeks at the sun, whilst shielding his eyes, a majestic golden orb, surrounded by three vast, ethereal arcane circles that stretch out from it, which cover the center of the sky high above, the first circle being colored in an azure hue, etched with eight needle-like symbols stretching out from its outer ring to the sun, in the gaps are majestic vine-like patterns that intertwine and mingle around the sun.
The second circle stretches out from the first, donning golden pillar-like patterns, a web of red strings connecting all the sixteen pillars and forming a beautiful pattern on the outer circle. A few glints shine in between the empty spaces of the majestic arcane circles as they spin around the sun.
The third arcane circle can be barely seen, overarching over the sun, and the two others, massive, yet faint, only its color is discernible...a pale glow coming from it, a blurred ghastly behemoth covering the skies.
He looks at the sun, as he thinks to himself, How beautiful...I wonder how the sun seal was made...they say we'll all burn due to the sun's radiance without the protection of the seals, but I wonder, would the sun look even more beautiful without the seals? He shakes his head, breaking out of his thoughts as he looks to the road ahead.
He steps foot on a dirt path, riddled with weeds and vines, briefcase in hand, his hair and cloak fluttering with the wind. Looking onward, he sees the path leading through a forest in the distance, a lush green jungle. He looks upon it with great curiosity, thinking, So that's what a forest looks like. As he treads on, momentarily looking back, a great fortress behind him, the one he left, towers made of brick and stone, vines and moss entangling it, he turns back and keeps walking towards the forest. His cane imprints onto the dry dirt with each step.
Stepping into the forest, he takes a deep breath, breathing out, he places a hand upon his chest, for all the years of reading, the scent of nature was...sharper than he imagined. Looking around at the scenery of nature, the refreshing smell, the chirping of crickets and other things. He sees squirrels skittering past as he takes a step towards them to see them up close, only for them to run away. With a sigh, he keeps walking on, observing the forest around him. For all its serenity, the forest too observed him in silence.
A few petals drift from a nearby tree. Seeing it, he stretches out a hand, the petal gently falling onto his palms, a pair of yellow petals. Looking toward the direction it came from, he goes to the tree, looking up. A tree with round leaves filling its entire canopy, from its tiny offshoots, bunches of small yellow flowers dangle in the wind, under them, a round yellow fruit.
Remembering he has no food, Locht uses his cane to reach out to the canopy, standing upon his toes, he tries to knock a fruit to the ground, with great success as he pokes half a dozen of them to the ground, slowly picking them up and inspecting them and putting them in a pouch on his waist.
He slowly kneels in front of the tree and holds his hands together in prayer. I thank the spirits of the forest for sustenance. Afterward, he stands up and dusts his clothes. From what he knows, most people often anger the nature spirits; he has read many tales of adventurers meeting their demise due to that. Reminiscing about that time, he read that the spirits remember everything taken from them. He touches the tree for a moment and nods, going back to the path and walking on. As a light wind carrying leaves and petals brushes around him.
He takes a fruit out of the pouch and takes a small bite, slowly chewing as he walks, a juicy and sweet taste filling his mouth. Waiting for a moment after chewing to see if the fruit is good to eat, he continues eating.
Whilst eating and walking he notices rustling in the bushes and foliage as he takes a step back, holding his cane, discreetly looking around upon the dense forest around the path, he can see barely anything beyond the immediate vicinity of the path, the dense forest shadowing everything deep within, yet he notices a shadow itself move...on guard he takes another look around, finding nothing. He looks at the bushes, which have since stopped rustling, and from them, a raccoon slowly crawls out, its beady eyes looking at him. Locht smiles, kneeling down and pulling out one of the fruits and rolling it to the raccoon.
The raccoon looks at it and picks it up with its small hands, nibbling away at it. Locht moves close, with his hand raised, in an attempt to pet it, but to his dismay, the raccoon backs away with the fruit and runs off into the forest. Locht sighs as he stands up, adjusting his cane, and taking another good look around his surroundings. Now wary, he continues walking, wondering, How secluded is this place? I haven't seen a single soul aside from animals...how strange...
He continues walking, hearing footsteps rapidly approaching from behind. He turns around, raising his cane, as a deer whirs past him, kicking up dust, and a pack of wolves soon follow after with blazing speed. Locht quickly steps back as the wolves blaze past him, not paying him much heed. They blitz off into the distance, leaving Locht covered in dust while he looks upon them running in the distance. Locht dusts himself while coughing, his eyes fall upon the ground, a trail of blood left behind by the deer, or so he thinks, he crouches down and opens his briefcase, to pull out a small tissue to wipe up the blood, thinking, I could use this to lure beasts perhaps..., speaking the thought half aloud, as he regains his footing.
He walks and walks now, avoiding the path that the wolves went down. Looking at the sky, it's slowly turning night. Looking at the sun, the arcane circles slowly unravel as the sun dims, they unravel and unravel slowly but surely, into a massive blanket covering the sky as the sun is hidden, and its light slowly travels through the unraveled arcane circles...
With it turning night, the sun's own sigils unravelled across the dark, until the heavens wore their runes as stars. Their light fell upon the forest and Locht, his cloak drifting in the winds.
Locht adjusts his hat, awestruck by the beautiful scenery, even if it's not the first time his seen it... It's certainly beautiful. He stops walking for a moment, leaning against a tree by the side of the path, and observing the stars, his hair drifting in the winds...He smiles, looking at the stars, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He stands up and gathers a bunch of dry foliage and twigs from wherever he can find them around the forest and the path, piling them up, using the twigs to make a little fireplace.
He opens his briefcase, pulling out a little bronze lighter and lighting it, letting the embers touch the dry leaves he piled up. As the fire ignites quickly, he closes the lighter and puts it back in his briefcase, putting the briefcase to the side.
He leans against the tree, taking off his hat, and placing it on his lap, enjoying the quietude of the forest, leaves and flower petals dancing in the winds, as he looks upon the starry skies. Shaking his head, he looks around to the side, unable to take his mind off the thing he saw earlier. Discreetly looking around, he grips his cane, the silence still prominent throughout the forest.
He looks down, pretending to close his eyes, yet they are still ajar slightly. The winds blow over him, as in that moment...he spots a glint to his side. The winds blow across the forest, and without any time to waste, Locht rolls to the side immediately as a loud boom cuts through the silence of the forest and the winds, followed by a mechanical sizzling noise. Locht stabs his cane into the ground and adjusts himself to stand up, yet without a break, a blur comes rushing towards him.
Locht immediately steps back, blue static gathers at the handle of his cane, releasing force, he jerks his cane forward as the energy forms into a blue arcane circle which expands and spins in front of him in the blink of an eye, stopping the strike of the figure with immense force, kicking up dust in the process as Locht stumbles back. The figure jumps back and lands on the ground.
Locht's hat flies to the ground, with the wind whilst he steadies his cane, looking at a figure, fully clad in dark, with a large, black straw hat covering the top of their face and black bandages covering their face, in their right hand, a short sword, and on their right, a silver colored revolver, still smoking from the recent shot. Inspecting their sword and looking at Locht, they speak out, in a gruff voice which indicates that they're a man, "You can use magic? Now that's a shocker... Hey."
Locht takes another step back, holding his cane up, eyes focused on the person, saying, "What? Who are you?", The man stumbles forward, saying, "No man can leave this island alive, heh, the Rosen Kingdom doesn't let their secrets leave. Now listen... If you somehow learnt magic in that dingy place, you're really something...", sweat drops from Lochts face as he takes another step back, still pointing his cane at him, saying, "What? You want me to join you?"
For a moment, silent persists, broken by the man snapping his finger, "Exactly. You're quick! The Rosen kingdom hates wasting valuable folks, work for them, and I won't have to kill you, sounds fair, ye-", before the man could finish his sentence flames gathered at the handle of Locht's cane in an instant, forming into an arcane circle, as three bolt of flames shot out, blazing towards the man at the blink of an eye, Locht's hand still shaking. The man dashes back, batting away the bolts of fire with his blade. They disperse on the ground, burning random weeds, as he looks at Locht, saying, "So that's your answer, eh? Die then." With a flash, he charges at Locht at imperceptible speeds.
Magic gathers at the handle of Locht's cane as he looks around, spotting him to the side, his gun drawn, two bangs shoot off, right towards him, as Locht immediately slides down, dodging the two bullets. Not giving Locht any time to breathe, the man flashes above him, his blade raised and plunges it down into Locht. Another blue magic circle manifests right before the blade makes contact, deflecting the strike with similar force. He jumps to the side and shoots two more bullets. Locht immediately raises his hand and summons another shield, blocking the bullets as he pants, thinking, I don't have enough mana to keep defending...I need to run
Locht stands up and jumps back as the man dashes at him once more, this time appearing behind him, ready to plunge the sword right into Locht's heart, just in time, Locht pivots and raises his palm to the mans face while the man commits to the strike, and from his palm a wave of darkness spews out sending the man dashing back as he screams out, rubbing his eyes.
Locht pants, without time to look around, he runs into the forest, at full speed, bolting without no rest into the dense forest, bumping into many large roots and rocks on the way yet he keeps running even when stumbling, not making any waste of the time he borrowed, he knows he'll run after him and catch up to him soon. He keeps running and running through the dense jungle, stepping on mud, leaves and plants, cane in hand, starlight flickers through the canopy of the forest as he runs, birds and other critters running away from him as he runs.
He jumps across bushes and narrowly navigates around the trees, seeing some sort of light in the distance, and from behind he a whirring sound, knowing the man is catching up he keeps running, panting and sweating, even if his legs are on fire, he keeps running, eventually stepping into the light, in front of him lies a vast sea of clouds, beautiful, graced by the starlight as the clouds stretch on endlessly in his view misty and ghastly as they flow like the winds and water combined, yet he looks down and sees that the forest ends here, a cliff dropping down straight into the sea of clouds. He takes a deep breath...
The world is afloat on a sea of endless clouds, and under that is the endless void, darkness manifest, and here he finds himself choosing between the void and death as he hears the whirring draw nearer... his heart making his body tremble, almost beating out of his chest, and with no time to ponder on his choice...The wind rose.... the clouds below beckoned...and he leapt, as the world held its breath.
The whirring abruptly stops as the man comes to a halt upon the cliff, planting his foot at the edge, a rock falling straight down, straight into the misty seas, as he looks quite puzzled, he looks around for a moment, for any traces of Locht, yet his footsteps only lead to the end of this cliff, he mumbles to himself, "There's no way he jumped into the sea..", slowly peeking over the cliff to search for his target, and as soon as he does...
Three bolts of fire rise up like torrents of gale, as they curve and pierce into his face from below. As an ear-piercing screech rings through the entire forest, the wing flaps of the birds emanate into the sky as the birds fly away...below, Locht pants, holding onto his cane, stabbed onto the side of the cliff. The man holds his burning face, rolling around, screaming, his hat falling on the ground, his sword clanging against the ground as well.
Panting and looking weary, the screams of the man drown out any noise, as Locht uses the last of his mana, forming a white magic circle on his palm, and with one swift blast of winds, he ascends up, stumbling upon the ground, coughing up blood from overexertion, cane in his hands. He looks at the man, rolling around screaming as his body freezes up for a moment... Can I...should I...really kill him? He thinks to himself, slowly standing up using his cane. The man gets on his knees, holding his wounds as he finds his blade on the ground, about to leap at Locht, swinging...
Locht's face turns grim as he dashes forward, thrusting his cane straight to his throat, as a pained squelch escapes his mouth, the man falling back on the ground. Locht immediately grabs his revolver from his waist and points it at the man with trembling hands. The man grips his legs as he cries out, "DON'T! DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE! I WON'T CAUSE YOU ANY MORE HARM, S-SEE I'M ALREADY UNABLE TO FIGHT PLEASE! MERCY!"
Locht looks at the man, begging and crying at his feet, his burnt face and upper half ,as he takes a deep breath, as the winds blow over him, his emerald green eyes turning almost darker...he cocks the gun...
The man's eyes widen, immediately trying to reach for the sword on the ground, and yet...before he can, Locht speaks out, looking down at him, "I'm...sorry.", pulling the trigger. The forest is silent, after the bang, blood trickles on the ground. The man slumped over, dead. Locht standing over him, his vision blurs and clears again, a nauseating feeling.
Locht drops the gun on the ground, looking down at his hands with darkened eyes, trembling, breathing heavily. He slowly holds his left wrist with his right hand, tightly, as if this moment would fade away into the skies...his trembling stops as he takes another deep breath.
He slowly picks up the revolver, taking whatever the man had off his body, bullets, some vials and...a scroll, along with some sort of crest depicting a slashed mask with flower patterns. He wipes the blood off his shoes and walks back to the path, his face expressionless, eyes covered with his dark hair.
Arrives back at the path, after moving through the forest, he loads the revolver, and looks around to see if any else is tailing him. Seeing nothing, he crouches down and picks up his hat, dusting it. Looking at the starry sky, golden lines running through the stars, and the winds brushing past him. Exhausted, weary, he leans on his cane, keeping on walking, not looking back, not once.
Eventually he arrives, at a large archway made of stone and wood, covered in moss, leading out to an old dilapidated docks, hanging over the sea of clouds, mostly made of wood, covered in vines amidst other things, few cracked stone huts here and there lit with torches upon archways and by the huts...and people stationed, armed, the same guards, holding their spears, patrolling the area.
He carefully crouches down, sneaking along the bushes, observing the docks, seeing a little caravel docked to the side, large sails furled, on the sides are two turbines made of wood and cloth, to catch the winds, the vessel majestically floating upon the clouds, anchored down. He sees one guard patrolling the area.
Slowly moving through the shadows, from the bushes to the huts and then to behind one of the archways in the inner docks, making sure to bide his time and not cause any noise at all. Eventually arriving at the corner on which the caravel is docked. Waiting for the guard to come by.
The guard comes, unknowing of his fate, as Locht immediately jumps out from the back of an arch, striking him in the nape with his cane, knocking him out cold as he looks around. Seeing the shadows of guards draw closer to his area, he runs, stepping on the creaking docks and onto the Caravel, and then using all of his remaining strength to draw up the anchor as a large thud echoes across the quiet place due to the anchor dropping on the ship's deck.
A loud bell rings from the docks as the guards immediately gather, alerted by that thud, noticing that the anchor of the ship is up, Locht pulls out the revolver and shoots the ropes holding the sails. Two loud bangs cut through the loud bell.
The winds flow, the clouds bellow...the turbines on the sides begin turning, making clicking noises with each turn, growing faster and faster, as the gales torrent through the docks, throwing up the misty clouds, the ship begins moving... The guards yell, though Locht looks forward, the sail blown by the winds. The misty clouds wreathing the hull of the ship, the ship moving forward into the sea of clouds, trailing through it.
A faint smile appears on Locht's face, his eyes still covered by his long black hair. From behind his cloak and hair flutters, the runes of the heavens slowly reforming back in the distance, the heavens shift back to their order, with impunity defied. As the sky slowly turns twilight, the first light of dawn appears ahead. In front of Locht, yet his front cannot be seen.
As the winds flutter, propelling the ship, Locht slowly wears his hat once more, facing the dawn ahead.
I bid farewell to my cage, which I have called home for so long, to soar...high...like a bird