Runes of Magic US / AU

Yes, this is a Fan Fiction based in the Artemis Realm. Yes, neither Artemis nor anything deemed as "Fan Fiction" are considered RP, but I figure RP Forums is a better place to tell this story than the Beginner's Guide Forum...

Lord Slii walked back to the bench, silencing his son's guffaw
with a sharp slap to the back of the head. “Well that was easy.
And just ta be clear, I won't ask for an alliance via marriage
either. I wouldn't want ta subject your daughter ta...” His eyes
narrowed at his wincing son. “An unwanted life.”

Lady Dubh swung her long legs from the cushion. Her graceful
form dwarfed that of her husband. She pushed away stray black locks
from her face with long thin fingers. Her sun kissed bare feet
padded quietly on the cold stone floor as she seemed to float to her
husband. “Jack, be a dear and fetch the papers please?”

Dan gawked, stunned at her beauty. Lord Slii swallowed
nervously. Even Aang had to turn away, thinking that Lady Dubh's
beauty was a test to his own loyalty to his wife.

With a last disdainful glance to his officers, Lord Dubh stomped
away to the open doorway and shut it quietly behind him.

Lady Dubh sat at the head of the table, her dark eyes measuring
the two older men. Her plump, rouged lips parted in a playful smile.
“Gentlemen, I must ask this question once more. Depending on your
answer will bring Jack back to the battlefield of the siege games and
on to pillaging obscure places across Candara. Would either of you
be willing to carry the standard of the Dark Tower. To lead the
members in Jack's stead?”

“Wha-” Dan's eyes widened. His curiosity was silenced once
more by sharp, chastising discipline.

“Ya know my answer, Lady Dubh,” Lord Slii sighed,
exasperated. “If Lord Dubh doesn't have the stomach to lead us
anymore he should at least have the stomach to dissolve the guild
himself.”

“But we will be all ripe for Kanu's ridicule of the Tower's
fall,” Aang whispered. “I cannot bare the mantle of leader.
That in itself would play into Kanu's hands.”

“Kanu wouldn't be your only problem,” Lord Slii grumbled.
“He'd be your bigger problem but not your only problem. That
manipulative bastard...”

“Is this the reason why you called us?” Aang demanded.

“Over the span of the next few months, houses will need to be
consolidated,” Lady Dubh spread her fingers before her on the
table. “Dalanis is undergoing an investigation and they want to
make sure everyone is accounted for. Why this is happening, I am not
sure. More officers like you will be asked the same question I ask
you. Jack doesn't want to ask because-”

The door opened on quiet hinges, but the clanking of Lord Dubh's
sandals interrupted his wife's discussion. Standing over the seated
Lord Slii, Lord Dubh slapped a pile of five papers onto the table.
“Well, what's your answer?”

“No,” Lord Slii and Aang said in unison.

“Alright,” Lord Dubh grabbed an inked quill from the end of
the table and walked back to Lord Slii's side. “I'll need you to
sign here Aang, agreeing that you are wanting to be merged with the
House of Slii and that you are willing to supply the resources of
copper and iron from your respective mines to the respective forges
of Darr. Darr, I need you to sign here, agreeing that you are
responsible for refining, forging, smelting and recycling the
resources given to you. Once that is done you can go about your
night.”

With a few strokes of the quill, Aang ushered his daughter from
the room, followed by Lord Slii and Dan. Dan rubbed the back of his
head, still wincing from the last disciplinary action against him.

“You seem on edge as well, my friend,” Aang addressed Lord
Slii. “I wonder as well how Dan got that blood on his jerkin?”

“We found an interruption,” Lord Slii answered, easing to a
limping stride. “It's a rogue. A young rogue.”

“And you didn't wish to tell Dubh about the rogue,” Aang
followed Lord Slii down the road to a tavern two buildings away.

“I don't even know who she is but she asked for Slii,” Lord
Slii said. “And that's me...”


Water dripped from the high ceiling and stained the walls with
glistening streaks. Laying down on a makeshift rack was a young man
in tattered clothes stained with ash and blood. His thin fingers
were draped over his grimy face and left eye that was bruised shut.
His knobby knees were drawn up, and his feet played with the gnarled
wood of the rack in boredom.


The main door, lined with iron bars, opened to bathe the room
with a dim light. Grunts and shouts came from the open doorway as
another young man was thrown into the cell.


The newcomer's back slammed against the stone wall with a loud
bang. He crumpled to the ground in a bone-thin mess.


“You two better remember more!” the jailer shouted before
slamming the door shut.


Both young men could hear the faint guffaws and murmurs
peppered with the same derogatory phrases and names that they had
heard the day before and the day before that.


“You tell em yet, Max?” the young man on the rack asked.


The young man on the floor drew a pained, shuddering breath.
His tattered clothes were drenched and his unkempt mane of black
locks were slick against his broken face. Bracing himself against
the floor, the young man sat up and spit out a broken tooth.
“N-n-no, you?”

“Nope,” the young man on the rack sat up.


“L-looks like t-they treated you b-better, Aash,” Max
said, shivering and groaning.


“I drew blood,” Aash smiled impishly. “Told you to do
it too.”


Max coughed and spat out more blood, smiling. “I broke a
set of fingers.”


Aash swung his legs forward and stood from the rack. He
limped to the huddled, shivering Max and held out a helping hand.
“So who wins?”


Max grabbed the hand gratefully, “None of us got out, so no
one.”



Lady Bachaeus fell in and out of consciousness. Her nightmare
began as she felt that she was void of her beloved daggers. Her
strong groping grasp, and a groan from someone in pain (most
likely from her, she mused) made her lapse back into unconsciousness.
She heard faint murmurs of a meek older man in
shock, “What the hell did you do to her?” This followed by the
familiar, grumbling voice of her adversary from earlier: “None of
that was me...”

Panic that would have filled her heart in any other case, that would
have brought her to full consciousness, suddenly vanished. A cooling,
calming peace filled her soul, gently prying her instincts, like her fingers
to release...

Lady Bachaeus's dark green eyes fluttered open. The room was gently
flooded with graying daylight. She lifted the quilts that covered her
reclining form. Her face flushed red at the sight of her entire naked
torso bound tightly in linen. A sharp pain shot through her dominant
arm. Groaning, she grasped her bound arm that began to have a darker
red streak seeping through the bandages. A wave of nausea and dizziness
assailed her and reminded her at how much blood she lost. Her eyes rolled,
but the thought of the two young men waiting for her gave her the
strength to pull through the wave.

“You're just full of surprises aren't you?” a younger masculine voice came from
the open doorway.

Thanks for reading up to Part 3, you readers are awesome