Prologue: Calm before the Storm.
"With half of her power, the goddess created the land of Manoran, from the deepest caves to the highest mountains. With the rest, she created its inhabitants, the people of Lotis and Orthula. Despite being lost without the goddess, the people of Manoran lived in peace and unity... Until the Black Dragon arose from the sea, heralding a storm of darkness that would wipe the world clean of his mortal enemy..."
An excerpt from “Ragnarok”, written by Angelo de Cavilaire
OOCIt was no surprise that Manoran was experiencing tense times. Once the King and Queen of Lastreodal were dead, talks of a potential war from Cestulon began arising, both due to Cestulon getting more daring with their policies towards Lastreodal, and for the fact that people believed they were a direct part of it, which wasn’t too surprising giving the two kingdom’s rivalry. In addition, there was the Cult, continuously attacking parts the border villages of Lastreodal, especially those near the River Vein.
But despite all of the problems that they monarchy faced, there was one thing those related to royalty could rely on. A comfortable life of luxury, without a worry for the rest of the world.
“And that makes six since we started. Got any more books packed Gun?”
“No, unless you care about romance novels or autobiographies.”
“... Why do you have-”
“I’ll take that as you not caring.”… Unfortunately, the life of luxury back at the castle was not something that was able to be given now. As the Cult attacks grew more numerous and daring, so did Eydis’s annoyance at it, if mostly for the fact that she was expected to figure out how to deal with the problem from the safety of Alovine, as her father had done, and what every other ruler did. Well, she had a different solution that involved dealing with the problem herself. Which was why both she, Gunvald, and their retainers combined were currently trudging along a barren path in a collection of wagons (a large one for the group to travel in, another for Eydis’s Wyvern, and two for general supplies), all heading down to the border of Lastreodal where the Cult was last seen.
While Eydis was the one to act upon the idea, it was Gunvald who had suggested the course of action. It was difficult to track the Cult with military units, so why not send a smaller group to keep their tracks covered and raise less awareness? Granted, at the time he was talking about gathering trusted soldiers and the like to do it for them, but Eydis took it a different way. A way that meant going out with her retainers.
Fersand, on the other hand, was a different case. Unlike normal, where he’d simply shrug at the idea and say “go ahead”, or even argue about the idea, now he was far more active, laying out a route and times they could move at in order to avoid the rest of Lastreodal, and the Cult, realizing that their future leaders were putting themselves in danger. The routes were filled with detours to other villages to put up the act that they were simply a trader caravan, and the assassin himself had gone ahead for most of the trip to make sure the path was safe and without any bandits.
This was the fifth day of travel, and the second day that Fersand was gone.
“Anyways, to business, since it's been a long time coming. We should be reaching Pernrith tomorrow, unless we encounter any extreme delays. Before we left Alovine, I got news that the town had been experiencing some Cult related issues that haven’t seemed to escalate yet. I’m not sure if its rumors or another small time group trying to replicate their actions, but either way, that’s where we’ll start our search. The goal is to find anything related to the Cult, from old hideouts to members. As long as we can learn more about them, that will be enough. I’d like for us to keep a low profile while we’re there, if possible. The less attention we bring to ourselves, the less likely the Cult is to flee the city-”
“Why would they flee?” Eydis interrupted, leaning forward from her position, which was merely just sitting next to one of the wagon’s walls,
“If anything, us being there should push them to act. They already killed Fath… The King and Queen, so they’ll probably see us as easy pickings” sh continued. It took Gunvald a second to react, but when he did, he prefaced it by letting out a sigh,
“We don’t even know if the Cult is connected to Father’s death. It’s entirely possible that Cestulon is responsible to the assassination.”
“Trust me Gun, they’re connected. I know it.”