I leaned away from the dispatches and considered that line. Clearly this lore was meant to indicate that the one who both saved her and found the dispatches was this ‘chosen one’ she spoke of. The game seemed to be suggesting some element of prophecy in all this. I noticed the newly minted zombie savant making their way to one of the quest givers, the eyeless zombie with his endlessly interesting tome before returning to the dispatches and my musings.
The Lady of Flame herself was just as much of a mystery as the Heartrose. She dwelled somewhere further down the Spiral standing guard over a gate in a city called Lotz. Only the truly faithful were allowed to stand guard with her there in a fortress tower called Coronus. The way they spoke of the place in the dispatches made me question whether the place was real. It was clear none of them had ever seen it and regarded it as a heavenly reward for their devotion.
Tucking the papers back into my inventory, I pulled up the hood to my cloak before departing the central courtyard. Time to see if my ‘Theodora Radar’ worked. Closing my eyes I thought about the gremlin sized vampire and tried to will my senses toward her location. After several long moments my senses gravitated sharply in one direction deeper into the graveyard.
“How about that,” I thought with no small amount of dread before setting off to seek her out, my only companion the pattering of rain and the distant sound of battle in the Necropolis.
“Necropolis
A sea of endless graves surrounding the remains of the City of the First Crusade. Haithans have been burying their dead here since the original crusading remnants failed in their mission. They have only recently realized that the Fourth Crusade is emerging from the Great Vault.
Questing: Level 1-5”
I trudged through muddy pathways that were far less impressive than the city ruins I had been in earlier. This area was full of the flame shaped headstones I had seen throughout the Necropolis. There were sometimes shapes trudging through the mist but I chose to ignore them as I threaded between mausoleums and fenced off grave plots toward where my avatar’s senses were leading me.
As I paused beneath a twisted and half destroyed gargoyle I heard someone cry out in distress from within the pervasive mist. Wary given my last experience, I ducked low and hurried toward the sound. Emerging onto a terrace I looked down on a stone path where three figures in dark clothing were surrounding another who lay on his back in heavy armor.
The three of them wore masks and cloaks to obscure their appearances but they appeared to have the violaceous hued skin and long ears of the Haithan people. One of the figures chuckled while spinning a slender dagger in his hand and said, “Were we lucky enough to poach a real Cardienne stud out on his own lads?”
The other two laughed and the figure on the ground cleared their throat in obvious pain as they asked, “Are you not High Lady de Lafontaine’s soldiers? What is the meaning of this?”
Another of the attackers spoke in a reedy feminine voice, “Not tonight young Cardienne, tonight we are just a host of Remnants who came upon a foolish consort who dared to break quarantine.”
The young man on the ground was a little more visible now. He was young, perhaps not even twenty, with wispy curly white hair and short but pointed ears laden with silver earrings and chains. He had a lilac colored complexion marred with splatters of blood and what appeared to be swirling circular incised tattoos. He was small and slender and looked like he enjoyed a pampered and genteel lifestyle. Despite his size, the armor he wore was heavy and ornamental, covered with iconography of winged creatures that might be some kind of wolf. He did not appear to have been fitted to the armor and wore it poorly.
Despite his dire circumstances his face was a mask of cold aloof disgust. He cleared his throat as I watched and struggled to stand as he said, “Fools. Do you not know that the Viscount’s daughter Valerie is being held by bandits within this terrible place? Stop this foolishness and aid me in returning her to her mother.”
The three of them burst into laughter at that and the first who had spoken shook his head, “Lady Below, you are a fool. Foolish enough to believe that Ezeth shite and just dumb enough to wander out here by yourself.”
The young man’s expression remained stalwart but he paled as the truth of his situation truly dawned, “Don’t you know who you are dealing with? I am Alphonse of House Cardienne, first born son! Soon to be the consort of the High Lady’s heir!”
One of the men chuckled, “Oh no, we are facing off against prime breeding stock fellas. I think we should back off.”
Sighing, I shook my head. I could continue on and find Theodora but something about the situation piqued my interest. That name, Cardienne, seemed familiar. Wasn’t that this body’s original family name?
Shrugging off my concerns I whispered, “Big damn hero.” The title briefly sparked a memory of Syd’s sly smirk in my mind and I shook it off to return to the situation at hand.
Dropping down from the terrace I moved through the mist toward the three as their leader cleared his throat and muttered a bored, “Let’s get this over with,” as he pulled a dagger from his belt.
Before anything else could happen I jumped forward and drove a dagger up to the hilt in the woman’s back. She let out a pained gasp and the two others, and the boy at their mercies, looked on in terror as I locked an arm around her forehead and drove my fangs into her neck. Lydia announced my new status in my ear:
“You have gained the Blooded buff!”
She let out a moan of semi-pleasure and went slack as her two comrades gained their senses. The third man stuttered, “Re.. re.. remnant!”
Their leader charged at me with his dagger but I kicked his half dead friend at him and caused him to stagger. Rushing in, I brought my new hammer down onto the side of his face reveling in the satisfying crack as he stumbled to one knee.
I flipped my dagger into my hand and tossed it at the third man, impaling his leg and causing him to fall to one knee. He let out a scream that was absorbed by the mist around us.
The man before me slashed upward into my stomach. There was only a slight impact on my midsection and I realized my armor had eaten a lot of the damage.I flipped another dagger from my sheaths and slashed it across his neck as I activated Slice. He clutched at his throat and gasped as he fell forward.
The third man turned and despite the blade in his leg tried to stagger away. Sprinting after him I jumped onto his back as I summoned a second dagger. The man muttered a brief plea, “Please… No…”
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Ignoring him, I drove both blades into his back with a growl before tearing them free with a spurt of arcing blood. With a sharp kick I dislodged my weapons and threw the man to the ground, looting him for good measure.
Stalking back to the other two, I looted them as well as the young man panted and tried to drag himself away from me. The loot was lackluster. All three had three daggers on their person and were outfitted in leather armor of the same quality as mine. Each of them was carrying a small black coin embossed with a flower.
“Icon of a Noble House
Every noble house in L’Chasse gives their agents and soldiers an icon like this. This icon represents House Lafontaine.
Tier: F
Rarity: Uncommon”
Considering the small icon for a moment, I rolled it across my fingers and then turned to look at the pale but still stalwart young man as I smirked, “Getting away would work a lot better if you stood up.”
The young man’s face morphed from fear to anger as he brandished his sword at me and stuttered, “I’m injured, you monster! If I were not you would face Cardienne steel!”
Raising an eyebrow, I inquired, “You guys make nice weapons do you? How much do you figure that thing is worth?”
His lip curled and he clutched the fine sword tighter as he struggled to stand and face me. Sighing, I offered him a bored smile, “I’m feeling generous today. Get out of here kid.”
He blinked in surprise and kept his sword raised as if expecting a trick. Squaring his shoulders and standing his ground he asked, “Is it true that your kind are returning to sweep the living from these lands?”
Leaning against a statue I crossed my arms as I studied him, “Hilarious that you think a bunch of players have a plan. We just want to go down the Spiral. What about you, why are you here, besides the obvious ploy by these three?”
The young man’s brow furrowed and shook his head, “The Immolated Order promises that L’Chasse will come to ruin if we allow you to descend the Spiral…” He gave me an unsteady but pointed look as he trailed off.
After a moment he finally added, “I am here searching for the young lady of House Lafontaine. She has been missing for weeks. The house has become desperate to find her…”
Raising a finger, I gave him a pointed look, “So you figured you would earn some brownie points by conducting a solo rescue?”
Regaining some composure, the young man scoffed and shook his head, his eyes never leaving me as he said, “I’m to be Lady Valerie’s chief consort. Her well being is my reason for living. I would gladly sacrifice my life for her.”
Looking the young man over, noting his ill-fitting armor and the inexpert way he clutched at the blade in his hand I couldn’t help but think, “Damn right you would have. Someone played this kid like a fiddle.”
Considering what the young man had discussed with his attackers before I produced the icon and held it up, “You know this symbol?”
He nodded gravely and sighed, “That is the mark of the de Lafontaine house. The High Lady is heavily allied with the Immolated Order and is Valerie’s mother.”
Why would the house this guy claimed to serve send a bunch of thugs to murder him? That’s an interesting wrinkle. I tucked the icon away as a future concern.
“You should leave here,” I leaned to look behind the young man and nodded toward the mists, “If I can, I will look for Lady Valerie.”
With that, my AI announced yet another quest:
“New Quest
Find Lady Valerie de Lafontaine!
XP Reward: 400
Item Reward Choice: Ring F Tier, Boots F Tier, Helm F Tier
Some weeks ago the heir to the Lefontaine family traveled into the wilds of L’Chasse for unknown reasons. Find her and see her home safe.”
The young haithan turned to look into the mist, growling a response, “I will not leave Lady Valerie to your machinations monster.”
Ignoring him, I used the distraction to sink back into the mists and leave him there.
Only five minutes had passed when I noted my HUD flashing in recognition of some presence. I paused between two collapsing mausoleums when a familiar voice reached my ears, “Do you have to be so rough with all my meals?”
Emerging from between the two stone buildings, I saw my diminutive vampire sire smiling at me from her perch atop a simple tombstone dangling her legs as she watched me. She was still wearing the simple faded funerary robe I had given her the day before.
Sighing, I shook my head, “You snooze, you lose I guess.”
She hopped down from the top of the tombstone and cocked her head, “Never heard that saying before.”
She strode up to me and beamed up with a playful grin, “I told you we would see each other again.”
Rolling my shoulders I assessed the area. An empty graveyard. It appeared the caretaker had planned to work here but left their supplies behind. Unmarred flame shaped gravestones leaned against a low wall and several shovels rested against them. Looking down at her I said, “I am looking for directions.”
She put her black nailed hands to her chest and looked up at me with a surprised expression, “Me? Help you? Why would I ever do that?”
I offered a strained but cheerful response, “Don’t you want your investment in me to pay off?”
She tapped a black nail on her lips and said, “Hmm, I think I might be able to find a stronger one that wouldn’t be rude to me.”
“I’m going to throw out there that I would not have been rude if you had not instigated it. Taunting someone with their personal information is one of the highest social crimes people can commit in my world.”
Her eyes widened and for a moment she seemed genuinely surprised. After a heartbeat her expression dropped back into playful smugness as she waved a dismissive hand, “What do you want, killer?”
I tried to ignore the provoking comment but it stung. Forcing the frown off my face, I answered, “The Remnants want me to find a more acceptable class before I help out with the effort to escape. Who else would offer a more suitable class for my build than you?”
She rolled her eyes and when I blinked she was pressed against me again, scraping her dagger like nails across my avatar’s smooth neck as she whispered, “See,” her voice was breathy and rolled across my ears like silk, “you do need me.”
I quietly hoped that Larry was getting all the information that he needed out of this.
Her head cocked to the side and her eyes narrowed as she asked, “Who is this Larry?”
Wincing, I shook my head, “Just someone from my world who is trying to understand how you know so much about…”
Blinking, I looked down at her with furrowed brows. Before I had assumed that her ability to read my mind was just a clever trick where she was pulling from my personal information to taunt me.
But, how would Larry from Catacomb be part of the information she could draw from? That doesn’t make sense. Maybe the AI is monitoring my net traffic somehow and knows about the call? That could mean my home system was compromised.
Perhaps even more terrifying was that the new RIG software they had put into my system allowed some truly invasive connection to my cognition than seemed possible. That… couldn’t happen could it?
She drummed her sharp claws on my chest with a rattling thump and bared her fangs as she grinned, “That is something to think about, now you need a new profession?”
She jumped away from me and landed on a headstone with one foot and hopped between them as she continued to talk, “Given your skillset I suppose I would have Anaya train you.”
Shaking off my other concerns I asked, “Didn’t you say Anaya was probably dead?”
She hopped from foot to foot and waved a black clawed hand dismissively as she said, “Before missions Heartrose left imprints of themselves to relay their information to the next agent to approach the mission.”
Remembering my discussion with Speers I nodded and asked, “Where would I find this imprint?”
She raised a slender pale arm and pointed in what seemed a random direction, “There is a vineyard a mile east of the graveyard. The family that owns it has a small mausoleum on the grounds. Anaya’s imprint will be there.”
