Raven- The Beginning

by David Wadsworth

  I sat down with my knees to my chest, holding my arms around them together and watched Darrius as he performed normal attacks against Coira, her health dropping until it reached 10%. She jumped back and raised her hands in the air.

  “No more, I don’t want to die like these fools,” she exclaimed. Even though she didn’t die, we were both awarded with another 50 experience which gained me another level.

  “Good, get on your knees and put your hands behind your back,” Darrius commanded. I took out the rope and handed it to Darrius when he walked over to me. He gently told me that we needed to talk, and I silently nodded, my tears now dry.

  He tied Coira’s hands behind her back and asked her where her ledger was that would show that Coira was behind the local drug ring which she provided, which she provided. It was actually behind her on a crate, out in the open. Obviously this was meant to be an easy quest since it was an initiation quest, though it was hardly easy for me now that I could feel everything that happened.

  I stood up and followed Darrius and Coira as we made our way to the local guard station outside of the slums. I stood outside and let my mind wander, trying to remind myself of the happier times in the game that would lift the burden of tonight’s painful memories, and the shadow of pain that followed them.

  After he was finished explaining to the guards that Coira was the local mastermind behind the illegal drug ring in Kinderfell, he stepped out of the guard shack and walked up to me.

  “So, what happened back there Raven, are you okay? I’ve never seen anyone react like that.”

  I wanted to tell him the truth, I really did, but all I could give him was a sad smile and a half-truth.

  “Its this new equipment I just got. It’s making the Veil quite a bit more realistic than my old gear. I guess it just got to me.”

  He looked at me, trying to see the truth behind my eyes. Maybe you should head back to the inn, log out, and take a break for awhile. I heard it can be pretty stressful with the new gear that came out since everything is more lifelike. I just need to turn in this quest, then I’m going to head out myself too.”

  “Yea, I think I do need a break. Let’s drop the group and I’ll head out. Thanks for the run Darrius.”

  He smiled at me and nodded, as he dropped from the group, disbanding it. I walked to the inn, even though I couldn’t do as he asked and log out, I could at least relax in the bath before I went to the tavern and talked to the agent from the Order.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Guild of Assassins

  Getting to the inn, I walked inside and was instantly greeted with a snarl from Merzen. I was so tired though that I didn’t even want to trade barbs with him.

  “Do try not to get blood on the carpet. It is so unseemly to the other guests that actually pay the normal rate,” he growled at me as I walked past the counter.

  “Whatever,” I responded, mostly under my breath. I walked up the steps and made my way to my room. Opening the door, I saw a shadow of a man sitting at the table, his back to me. The inn was considered a safe zone, so I knew I wasn’t going to be attacked.

  “You killed Aidelas,” the man said, his voice familiar. It was the agent from the tavern.

  “I did as you wanted, but now I need a bath. Can we talk after,” I asked.

  “Go ahead, I have all night,” he responded smugly.

  I went to the bathroom and shut the door, making sure to lock it. Even if I couldn’t be attacked, doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t decided to “check in” in me. I knew that NPCs wouldn’t do that, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Taking off the belt with my daggers, I then shed the armor I was wearing and inspected it. Instead of it being “Thick Armor”, it was now “Thick Armor (Bloody)”. I would need to clean it before wearing it again, that was certain. I filled the bathtub with hot, steamy water, and laid down in the water. It went from clear to pink almost immediately as the blood washed away from my skin. I submerged my head for a few seconds, and grabbed a cloth rag and started to scrub, and scrub, and scrubbed. I just couldn’t get the blood off of me as I continued to scrub my entire body raw.

  Without knowing, my eyes were wet with tears. I didn’t need this, and I sure in the hell didn’t want this. Screaming in frustration, I threw the rag against the wall and it fell down with a wet plop. I covered my face with my hands and started to sob uncontrollably.

  After an hour of crying to myself, I wiped my face of my tears and got out of the bath, wrapping a towel around myself. Stepping out of the bathroom in just the towel, I went to the large table and sat down across from the agent, who just looked at me, no emotions clouding his eyes.

  “You are to meet with Grandmaster Tarrokh tomorrow evening in regards to your service. He will have further instructions for you at that time.” The agent stood up and left my room, after which, a quest update appeared telling me that I must now meet with the grandmaster in order to become an initiate.

  I swiped away the notification and stood up to go to bathroom where my armor and weapons were. I deposited them in my inventory and then took out my previous equipment. Even though I was operating on somewhat of an autopilot, there was no way I was going to go out on the streets in nothing but a towel.

  Leaving the inn, I first made my way to drop off my equipment at the Armorer and Weaponsmith shop that I visited earlier and requested that my equipment was cleaned. It ended up costing my 5 silver, and now my funds were running dangerously low, 6 silver left, and I knew exactly what I was going to be doing with it.

  Silently I worked my way to the tavern while trying to avoid contact with the people that walked the streets. I felt eyes watching me, but at this point, I just couldn’t give a damn. All I wanted was to drown my pathetic self away in drink.

  Unsure of how long it took me, I found myself looking at the entrance of the tavern and I walked through the doors to my salvation. Entering, I looked across the sparse crowd, giving my thanks that I didn’t see Darrius in the Tavern. He must have already logged out.

  I walked up to the bar, lifting a finger upwards when Ga’arvn looked up at me. He smiled at me and nodded, knowing exactly what it is that I wanted. Less than a minute later, he walked towards me with drink in hand.

  “You bring such a wonderful smell into my bar miss, the first one is on the house,” he told me, sliding my wine towards me.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “Ah, forgive me. I know you should never tell a lady that she smells, but you are wearing the perfume of death, which is such an exquisite smell,” he said while happily smiling at me.

  “Um, thanks, I suppose. I appreciate the free round,” I responded, a little off-kilter at his morbid remark to me. I took the glass and sat down in the same corner that I met with the agent in. He wasn’t in the tavern tonight, and the table was calling my name.

  Lazily drinking my fill, I slowly washed away the terror that I experienced earlier as I watched the crowds come and go. People going about their lives, some drinking happily, some drinking remorsefully. I ended my night a few hours later as sunlight was starting to enter the windows. I had four glasses of my usual Rennor Jhinrae, and now I was down to a measly 5 copper to my name. “Perhaps I can survive here, as long as I have the silver to keep the drink flowing,” I thought to myself, smiling.

  I got up from my corner of the bar and stumbled a bit, obviously the Drunk status affecting my balance. It didn’t matter as it would wear off soon though. I left the tavern and walked erratically back to the inn to sleep it off, not even caring about the look that Merzen gave to me as I walked to my room.

  I woke up as night was falling. Perhaps I had too much to drink, I thought as I checked my equipment and meager funds to ensure that everything was there. I also noticed a flashing icon to the upper left of my vision, indicating that I had leveled up after last night. Getting disemboweled must have done more to my mental state than I thought, as I didn’t even notice it. I quickly brought up my stats and found that I had
indeed gained another level and was now level 14. I added the two points into strength and agility, and added the spare stat point into dexterity. I swiped the character stats window closed and got myself out of bed, anxious to finish this quest for the Order.

  After checking myself out to make sure I had everything I needed, I hurried out of the inn to get my equipment from the Armorer and Blacksmith shop, since I had a meeting to get to and a quest to finish. The blacksmith greeted me at the door, his smile fading a bit as he noticed how rushed I was. I suppose he wanted to have a conversation, but places to be, people to meet and all of that.

  He went to the back of the workshop and retrieved my items which I immediately equipped, the armor sort of morphing from the set that I had on to the one he handed me. The weapon belt though I had to actually remove and replace with my upgraded set. Thanking the blacksmith, I rushed out of the store.

  Giving the mental command to bring up a map, it appeared before me, almost like it was a paper map that I had to look down at. Without playing with a full, workable interface for what seemed like ages, it filled me with glee when I saw that the objective quest marker was on the map of the city.

  The quest marker was in the middle of a fairly large area that almost seemed… walled off, I suppose. At least in my mind that is how it seemed with the roads and river that ran past it. The area was labeled as being, “Li’xenen Del Ver’Alamut.” An interesting place to be for a group of assassins, located in a garden, which is what the Li’xenen referred to if my translation was working correctly. I assumed the last part was either a title or a name of someone, as it didn’t seem to properly translate in my mind.

  I made it to the district shortly after midnight, although the interface didn’t show me what my local time, or even GMT time was. Everything else on the UI was working, so I didn’t pay it much mind. The entire district was walled off, the road outside aligned the wall. From the map, it seemed like it was walled off, and now that I saw it for myself, it truly was walled off. The walls themselves a mirror image of the ones that surrounded the city, although they were much smaller.

  I had the feeling of eyes watching me and my every movement, although no one stopped me from reaching the gates. There was a lone guard to the side, and a lone door behind him. He was standing with his feet apart, his arms relaxed behind him, and even I could see the amount of weapons that he was wearing from here. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had more that were hidden from sight. He was also wearing a very wicked looking set of leather armor that was dyed with shadow black dye, making it look like black clouds flowing through the armor. There was an blood red emblem over his heart which looked like a bird in the center of an outline of a circle with a dagger behind it, pointing down.

  I looked down at my own armor, plain and brown with some scuffing and became immediately jealous. I didn’t even think of trying to kill the guard and taking it from him, as he looked like he could kill me without even looking at me as if I was nothing but a gnat to be crushed. It made me anxious to find out what I would be getting myself into, so I walked towards the guard.

  As I neared the guard, I noticed some details that I had missed at a distance. The guard was noticeably a woman, although she maintained the aura of a very aggressive and dangerous being, even though she was relaxed. Even realizing this, it still didn’t make me feel any safer to be in the same city as her, let alone within arms length.

  “You’re expected,” she said as she slid to the left a bit to allow me to pass her through the door. She made no eye contact with me, and she sounded almost emotionless. It did nothing good of my image of her as a person. This is a person that would kill without any thought. I shuddered at the idea. If I entered this door, would I become like that? An emotionless killing machine, killing whoever and whatever I was told to?

  My soul wavered, and I had a second thought of joining the Order. To her credit, the guard said nothing, but patiently waited. I looked at her again, and saw that she was looking at me, even though I couldn’t make out her expression, it was completely neutral.

  I had no choice but to go through the doors and into the Order, the path that I decided on demanded it of me. I could not falter now, without even seeing what lay inside the rabbit hole. If anything, I could always withdraw myself from the Order, although I’m not sure what the consequences would be, since I never joined a guild before, as I was always alone before.

  I took a deep breath and steeled my nerves and walked forward, the doors opening for me automatically as I got closer to them. I’m not sure if it was some type of magic or if there were people controlling them, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I walked through, at peace with my decision.

  I followed the guard in silence, watching her move with a deadly feline grace as she led me through the doors into an extremely large atrium style hall. In the middle, which was open to the elements, was a large rock garden with some plants that spotted the area, large crescent shaped stones that someone could walk on formed a maze of sorts that lead through it. The floor of the open hall which we now walked were made from dark redwood planks, the pillars and the roof were made from shining obsidian. Every few meters was a sliding door made from some wood and paper like material that went elsewhere, the soft glow of light permeated through them. This area reminded me of the old Japanese-style houses that were featured in some of the classic movies that I’ve seen. However, she was leading me to the rear of the atrium which looked like the entrance to a large mansion.

  Opening the doors, she walked me into the mansion and the butterflies in my stomach starting to flutter even harder. Yet, still I followed her, not knowing what was going to happen next. The foyer of the mansion was elegant with marble flooring and stone statues of the different gods. Two staircases adorned the sides that went to the second level, which my escort led me to.

  “Follow in my footsteps, or you will die here,” she said softly, her words floating through the air.

  No longer feeling nervous, fear started to creep into me to replace it. I never really payed much attention to the NPC guilds, but according to the game’s lore, it was said that they trained their followers both ruthlessly and painfully so that they could perform their mission, and if caught, they wouldn’t talk during their interrogation. I paid attention to her footwork as she led me through the hallway to the right wondering what exactly I was getting myself into. At some places, she would glide her feet out, and in others she would take small half steps. Every so often she would also turn her waist and body as if she was moving through small cracks. I followed her exact movements, not wanting to experience any more pain or death.

  It took us three times as longer than if we walked straight to it, but we finally reached the end of the hallway to another staircase. The entrance to it was a typical stone entrance that you would see in castles, however the stones that formed it were made from the same obsidian stonework that was common throughout the city. At the top of this staircase though was a solid wooden door with the same red emblem that my guard had adorned on her chest, the symbol of the order, however, this one seemed as if it had a dim glow to it. We walked up the steps, and luckily, I still payed attention to how my escort walked up the steps since she was still moving oddly.

  We finally reached the door and as she reached for the handle to push it open, I heard her whisper in the same faint voice, “Good luck.”

  Walking into the room, it was lit by large, metal sconces with candles in them. To the back of the room, in the center, was a large desk and sitting at it was the same elderly dark elf man that I met at the inn on my first day here, Youssef Tarrokh. Behind him stood two more guards dressed in the same uniform that my escort wore, both looking at me impassively. There was a few chairs and a couch off to my right that surrounded an impressive wooden and stone table. It looked elegant enough to me that I presumed it was for various meetings and clients. To the left was another large table, this one square, that had a large map that laid out on the entire thing
with various pins at different locations, though I didn’t pay it too much attention. For now, my attention was centered on the guild-master who was lightly tapping his finger on the desk.

  “At ease Nulliira, thank you for bringing her here and please stand beside the door to escort her out. Raven, it is good to see you again. I’ve received word that you completed your task for us. I apologize that there wasn’t much of a reward with it, however, it did path the way for you to meet me, so tell me, why do you want to join the Order of the Velg’larn? It is most unusual for a Veil-walker such as yourself to want to join one of our guilds.”

  His words about the guilds caught me off guard, however, it did make sense though. Almost all players either joined a player guild or remained guild-less, and I personally never met anyone in an NPC guild. Typically on the forums, NPC guilds were regarded as trash guilds with no benefit which only new players joined briefly.

  “Um, sir? I’m a new assassin and I heard that you might be able to provide me with much needed training, and might be able to offer me quests and missions if I joined,” I replied, not entirely sure what he wanted me to say. I was never really that good at job interviews, such as this was turning into.