Chapter 1: Escape of the Cardinals
Chapter one: Escape of The Cardinals
As Larona opens her eyes to the dark dank light of jail cell twenty-four, the memories of the past seven days come back to her. The horrible trial in the fairy courts back home where she was blamed for a murder she didn't commit. She had little evidence against her and little evidence to prove she didn't do it. Normally in that type of situation the court would have stated there wasn't enough evidence to convict her, and they would have released her, but that's not what happened at all.
She remembers how hard she cried as her sweet mother got to comb her honey red hair and bless her golden yellow butterfly wings a final time before she was taken away. She will never forget the look in her mother's sweet blue eyes as she was taken off to jail in Borithia, thousands of miles away from Fiorna. On top of that she feared she would be soon to be executed. This jail was set up so that whoever was in jail cell twenty-five would be executed, then once they were everyone was moved up a cell number. Like an awful timer counting down to your death.
Larona gets up and lets out a sigh as she sits on the edge of her bed. She quietly reflects on the murders that she was blamed for. It was all because she liked to hike through the denser part of the forest on her island frequently. Something felt off at the trial though, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Was it the fact that some of the judges were Grand elves? Or was it how quickly they sent her to a human jail on the other side of the continent which is well known for executing long term prisoners?
She shakes away the thoughts as she goes and picks up one of the few books she has available. She opens "The Book of Eternal Flame", one of the human religious books. She found the history and structuring of the church rather interesting; the holy king, the Cardinals, the Shields, the sparrows, the priestess and priest, and then the flame. She always found it odd that the people who worshiped the holy Phoenix were referred to as the flame. Larona reads on about the cardinals being the highest priests and priestesses closest to what all followers look for, ascension, but from her understanding almost no one has been able to obtain it, Besides for the Phoenix and a few of the original "holy kings."
Suddenly the light furred Tygerian Masud yells "Ahhhh! I am going to ram this door down today!" as he runs past her ramming his already damaged head into the cell door. Masud ended up in a cell with Larona for nearly the same reason except he was blamed for killing multiple people and stealing a horse.
"Masud, quit it!" Larona yells. "And just sit down already! Give up, we're going to be executed in several days anyways!"
"Mmmm! Ketchup is on my head!" Masud stupidly wipes some of the blood off of his forehead and laps at it.
Larona looks sick to her stomach as she looks away and yells, "You stupid Tygerian! That's blood! Quit licking it up!"
"No! No it's not, its ketchup!" suddenly a little opening in the door slides open and a tray of grey muck gets thrown in, onto the moldy stone floor, by a guard.
"Shut up in there and eat!" the guard slams the opening shut and walks away, Larona and Masud walk over and start weakly eating the horrible substance. Masud takes some of the blood from the cut on his brow and puts it on the muck, claiming that it adds flavor to the food. He offers some to Larona but she happily declines. Larona looks up at the ceiling as she eats, thinking about the few days they have been in this jail cell. A glint catches her eye as a drop of water falls on Masud's head. He jumps from the cold drop of water and shakes his head shaking the water off. Larona smiles a little, finding joy in this strange and psychotic friend of hers. "It's hard to be happy in a place like this," she thinks to herself, "But we must try and keep ourselves strong."
The day from that point on is rather uneventful, until Masud takes his 3 o'clock nap that he takes every day. He always starts fidgeting, and murmuring things. Sometimes he screams, and it always scares Larona. In fact every night he sleeps like that, but significantly quieter.
One day she had asked one of the guards what had caused him to act like that. The guard looked at her sadly and said "before the Tygerian's reformed the tribal council there were many warlords fighting for control. From what records we have we found he was part of a very wealthy family, his father was a tribe leader. Well one day when he was around 16 years old a warlord attacked their tribe... slaughtered his family right in front of him." Larona made a decision that from that day on she would try to treat Masud with more kindness.
Finally Masud woke from the sound of their evening meal getting thrown in. As they silently eat their meal Masud looks to Larona, "why don't you use your magic to get us out of the jail?" Larona sighs, irritated with the immature Masud.
" Well," Larona replies softly, "that is because of one reason. There is a special ward over the prison that stops magic." Masud nods and is about to say something when they hear the guard begin talking outside.
"Go give the scums in cell twenty-five their final meal." A metal tray clinks with the sound of silverware as the female guard walks to cell thirteen. Larona walks up to the barred window to her cell and watches as a meal fit for a king is given to the prisoners in cell thirteen. As they get close to finishing the succulent meal they start choking, and shortly after, green foam pours from their mouth and nose. Their eyes turn to ash black as they fall over puking the putrid smelling foam. Their veins turn to a sickening purple as their skin turns pale as snow on a bright winter day. Larona looks away from the horrific execution and falls to her knees starting to cry when Masud brings his hand covered in blood to her face.
"Do you want some ketchup!?" Larona looks up at the strange Tygerian's brown eyes and she can't help but laugh at the Tygerian's look of pure clueless-ness.
"Alright you two, Prepare to be moved into cell thirteen." Larona jumps at the captain's voice from behind her. Then her heart stops as what he just said dawns on her. The female guard and the captain walk in and handcuff both her and Masud. They drag them into cell thirteen. Larona falls in a corner where she cries, knowing that in a few days she will end up like the last occupants of cell thirteen. Outside of the cell she can hear the captain complaining about how the guards that are supposed to replace them for the day are late. Her crying is cut short as she feels a rumble shake through the ground.
"What the hell was that?" the captain quickly walks outside. Larona watches Masud look out the little bard window and yell something about how the earth just farted and that's why the cell stinks and why the place shook.
"Shut up Masud! The earth didn't fart." Larona sighs irritated. Then just as abruptly as before the ground shakes except this time a loud boom can be heard outside, Followed by screams and shouts. The captain quickly runs back in screaming orders to the other guards, Larona can't really make out what they are saying except for one thing, One little phrase that shakes her to the core. "The Dark ones are coming." At that phrase Larona quickly starts looking around for a place to hide. She grabs Masud, her heart pounding in her ears. The stories she heard of the mysterious race known as the Dark ones back home were enough to make her nervous on a dark night, but to possibly run into a group of them would be like a nightmare come to life. Masud yelps as Larona shoves him under the bed and tells him to stay quiet. She makes her fairy wings appear and she flies up above the door.
Suddenly, the jail cell next to them gets blown away. Most of the guards scream in agony as the rocks and explosion hits most of them, the ones hit fall silent as their armored bodies slam into the stone floor. The ones that are left scream a horrific battle cry as they fight against whatever is coming in through the hole in the wall that was just made. Larona winces as she hears the captain give a loud pain filled scream. Then she hears the thud of the captain's armored body right outside the door followed by silence except for the sounds of the attack outside the jail. The cell door flies open and a tall man-like creature enters the cell. He is dressed from head to toes in dull-black spiky armor covered in dried blood and gore that had dried long ago. Even his face has a slightly blood covered mask over it. He says in a raspy voice to someone behind him.
"The Cardinal will have to come this way. I want you two to wait here and be ready. These Cardinals will pay dearly for not worshiping our goddess. All hail Sicilium!" Larona feels a chill crawl up her spine as two more dark ones walk into the cell. The one that gave the orders quickly walks out. Larona tries to fly a little higher trying to keep as far away as possible from the horrific creatures. The horrible smell from the execution before and now the smell of rotting flesh makes it almost unbearable to breathe. As Larona stares at the darks ones she notices the dried blood on their gauntlets and boots, and the blood splatter across the chest plate. Masud cowering under the bed looks like he is about to release his breakfast on the floor. His powerful cat like nose picking up the horrific smells a thousand times more than Larona's. From outside the cell they hear a furious battle cry ring out and the sudden crashing of swords. The dark ones in the cell seem excited to hear the sounds of battle so close to them, but they should have been more concerned, for they heard their brethren's wicked screams come from outside a few moments later. Larona almost squeals in terror and shock as the two dark ones are suddenly impaled by gleaming steel swords.
"Damn the dark ones, they know the route. Shield sister, get the secret door open and be ready for the Cardinal." The strong man that was talking walks in dressed in shiny steel armor and red robes. Larona immediately recognized the strong warriors as the famous Shields, guardians of the Cardinals and the church. The shield sister walks in quickly and bashes down the brick wall with her shield, which leads into a brightly lit tunnel.
"How did you do that!?" yells an amazed and startled Masud from under the bed. Larona can't help but yell out, "you idiot!" before she realized it would give her away. The Shield sister pulls Masud out from under the bed and looks at Larona.
"Come down from there now! Before I-!" the Shield is cut short by a kindly looking man with white hair and red and white robes.
"Now now there, Shield sister. No reason to be so rough. Besides I can see we are lightly manned, and they would be welcome to come with us."
"But sir they're criminals!" as the two speak Larona flies over to Masud and watches the two speak.
"Well then... you two come here." Larona and Masud walk forward. Larona sighs as Masud idiotically says "hey look! There's ketchup on the ground!" The Cardinal gives Masud a strange look and puts his hands over Masud and Larona's head, his hand is a bit farther away from Masud's head than Larona's.
"Do you promise to help us escape?" Larona answers with a slightly hopeful tone "yes, if it means getting out of here then yes!" Whereas Masud just says in a careless tone "sure! Why not?"
"I, Cardinal Hadvarc, with the power of the phoenix, declare your crimes forgiven!"
"Now that that's done, let's get the hell out of here!" the shield captain quickly runs down into the tunnel. Larona, Masud, Hadvarc, and the other shields quickly run into the tunnel. Never before had Larona ever felt so scared and over joyed in her life. The explosions above them become less and less, till they see a bright light in the distance. They slowly walk out of the cave into a dimly lit forest grove. Larona tears up as she sees the beautiful trees and flowers that fill the grove. It had been so long since she had been outside of that cell. Seeing the plants and hearing the birds chirping filled her with such joy.
"Well hello there Brother Hadvarc!" a lovely females voice rang forth as another female cardinal walks up.
"Greetings, Sister Rosa, I see you made it out safely." The cardinal's clasp hands and bow to each other.
The captain bows and says shortly. "We need to move." The group begins to move quickly towards a nearby city called Aliona. The cardinals are chatting quietly when an arrow flies from the right of Larona and strikes one of the shields down. Larona dives with Masud as arrows seem to fly from everywhere, all of them hitting vital spots on the shields; cardinal Hadvarc's scream is cut short as an arrow flies into his jugular. Rosa pulls out a sword and deflects a few arrows.
"Show yourself, killers!" Cardinal Rosa holds her sword in a defensive position as a silver cloaked man lands in front of her. Rosa looks horrified to see the symbol on the man's hood, an icicle surrounded in light.
"You're an assassin of the-"Rosa's sentence is cut short as the man springs forth and slits her throat in one quick and fluid move.
"Ketchup!" Masud yells as Rosa's blood splatters his cheek. The assassin looks to them.
"I know you two aren't shields, nor are you cardinals. Go on your way." Larona doesn't give the assassin time to think twice as she grabs Masud's hand and runs as fast she can to edge of the tree line. When her eyes adjust to the bright sun their eyes lay upon a massive beautiful city with high grey stone walls and beautiful gardens, and a large white washed stone cathedral in the very center of the city.
"Come on Masud I have a good feeling about this place." Together the friends walk up to the huge gates of Aliona. When they enter the city they are bombarded with the noise of thousands of shop keepers, soldiers, and the idle chit chat of people. Larona slowly walks down the heavily crowded main road. As she smells the air she smells foreign spices and some other unpleasant smells. She catches a whiff of honeysuckles that bring memories of her childhood back to her mind. How her and her friends would walk through the small forests around sunflower grove. They were always teeming with honeysuckles and butterflies. Her favorite was the western sunset butterfly; its wings had a golden trim that glowed at sunset while the rest of the wing went from the gold to yellow, to dark blue. Larona smiles softly and starts to tear up at the wonderful thoughts of home. She looks over to Masud who is distracted by some "magicians" parlor trick.
"Come on Masud we have to keep moving!" he looks over at her and then runs over with a comically absent minded look on his face. As they are walking the crowd around them starts getting pushed back. Larona looks to see what's going and she fines that a group of grand Elven soldiers pushing through the crowd. One of them being a commander is yelling at everyone like they are nothing more than mere infants. Larona rolls her eyes thinking how typical of a grand elf to do that. Suddenly a tall red headed Elven wizard is standing next to her.
"Excuse me. I am sorry about running into you, but you should try paying attention to where you are walking. Are you two lost?"
Larona bows, "I am sorry! Yes we are very lost to be honest! I am Larona. Could you possibly help us?" Masud jumps in yelling "I am MASUD!"
Scia raises her eyebrow "Ookay. Well I suppose you two can come with me to the Mages College."