#romevent

The sun was barely sneaking over the horizon as Efrain trudged across what remained of the docks in Whale Water Port. The wrecked hulls of ships no longer smoldered, but still haunted the water. Sections of the dock were missing entirely and other sections had compacted onto each other into a mess of splintered, broken boards. Behind him the city continued to toil in the aftermath. 

The days of panicked, flurried activity to get to as many survivors as possible had passed. Now it was time to rebuild, to remove bodies and see to them, and to try and move on in the face of Ivana’s taunting. This time, the silent moments where he was no longer needed as acutely, were always the most stifling to Efrain. He could cut down dozens of men a night, and had, but it didn’t change a thing. Homes were still dust, industry destroyed, and children were now parentless. And yet he’d keep doing it because perhaps one fewer child would be sent to the orphanages. Today he hoped there were at least two fewer, but that kind of hope only ever backfired. 

Efrain felt like hell. The clerics could only heal so much and he’d refused treatment for anything non-lethal. Many others had as well. 

Just as he was about to head back into the city, back to the bustle of other soldiers and citizens, he heard a creak of salty wood behind him and he turned to spot the newcomer. “Morning,” he greeted, purposefully leaving off the “good” usually customarily tacked onto the phrase. 

When news had reached her of Arx, Thalra had first assumed the whole thing to be some terrible rumor that had been blown out of proportion. She had hoped, that when she sent a message to Nil that he’d respond that he was already on his way out of the city, that he’d missed the attack entirely and was on his way home. When she was met with silence, it was like a hole had opened up below her suddenly and swallowed her. There was a terrible ringing in her ears and a pounding in her head as the silence stretched on from seconds to minutes and she knew like she had known countless times before that no response was coming.

Her breathing became shallow and fast and the next thing she knew she was sitting on the floor of her home in Myrefall and at least an hour had passed by the position of the sun outside. Minutes afterwards, she had her satchel packed and was out the door, a strange blankness on her face and a whiteness to her knuckles where she gripped her flying broom. It took all day and all night for her to reach Arx, but in the early morning light she saw the columns of smoke spiraling up over the horizon and new she was close.

Now she made her way through the streets quietly and invisibly, exhausted and feeling as if she was all at once heavy in her bones and also absent from the frame of her body and floating just outside it. She was not thinking of Nil, or why he had not responded, only that she had to find him. When she came across the body of one of Ivana’s soldiers on a recently vacated street that was stained with blood and littered with wreckage, Thalra stood over him and reached out her hand, letting the invisibility drip off her so that she was now visible, but standing very still.

Her shadow though, that began to move. The dark mirror of her outstretched arm shook as if awakening from a long slumber and shot out towards the body of the broken soldier. It became a snake, hungry, opening its jaw wide as it reached the body and sunk its fangs into the shadow of the dead man. Within seconds it had swallowed the flickering mass whole and the snake slithered back to rejoin Thalra’s form. With a shudder, and in the blink of an eye, Thalra took the form of the dead man, his last memories overlaid themselves on to her brain like a web. She knew his name, his rank, the captain he followed.

Then, a sound from the other side of the street caught Thalra’s attention and her gaze snapped up from the body of the dead man whose form she’d just stolen. Someone was here with her. Thalra said nothing, hesitated, unsure if they had seen what she’d just done.

Date: February 13, 3509 AT Time: Late evening Location: The Pearl Plaza, Arx, Hegaehend

Open!

When Thea first heard of the conflict, she was taken aback and heartbroken at the news. Kaivras and her queen, Thea’s countrymen, had struck at Arx, the biggest port city in Hegaehend. First Llyn, now this. It made her sick to her stomach, not just for the further suffering of many, but the thought of just how many innocents were caught up in this yet again.

Thea had laid low since she arrived in the city earlier that day, slipping through a broken entrance of the wall by using her small size to her advantage. She knew this was stupid. It was ridiculous, risky, such a mistake on her side. As soon as the twins had heard the news, Ewin had warned her not to do any reckless, but he also knew she couldn’t simply stand by and watch. So, when King Rolland II’s call came for brave people who could assist his soldiers in getting the city ready for the true response, she had been quick to volunteer herself.

A voice reached her ears in the midst of the eerie silence and the background sound of shouts and clashing weapons. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” From her position, she could see a soldier searching a few of the windows nearby. 

No doubt he was looking for civilians.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a group of them on the opposite side of the plaza, shivering in fear and trying to keep quiet. She clutched her holy symbol, took a deep breath and kept an eye on him as he spied the area. Such a close eye, in fact, that she failed to notice that she was leaning on a loose plank, which promptly buckled under her weight and crashed to the ground. She withheld a gasp, but it wasn’t enough.

The soldier, an older human man, turned to look in her direction. “Well, who do we have here?”

“We don’t have to do this,” Thea responded. “You don’t have to do this.”

She glanced back at the alleyway, where the people were staring in confusion and wonder. “J-just go!” she exclaimed.

He grinned, having clearly made up his mind from the get-go. “I don’t think so, little one. You should’ve run with the rest if you were smarter ‘bout it.”

Her eyes flittered back to the alley, and the soldier raised a brow at her. As he turned to look that way, she shouted out loud, “Hey! By the Morninglord, face me!” 

He appeared confused at that for a mere second before his grin increased even further. She could see the way her words compelled him. “It would be my pleasure,” he responded, branishing his longsword.

Thea swallowed loudly, raising her shield and readying her mace. There was no hope for words here. Only violence seemed to reign here. At least she hoped the civilians would get away in time.

He lunged at her, quicker than she expected, and managed to get a solid cut into a soft part between her pauldron and her chainmail, slashing across and slightly into her shoulder. It hurt a lot, and she took a step back instinctively at the sensation. As he switched directions to get a second attack in, she managed to lift her shield in time to block it, feeling the clashing of metal on metal, the sound piercing to her ears.

“Stronger than you look, I see,” he said gleefully.

She said nothing, just gave him a hard, cold stare.

This was getting to be very irritating. It felt like Jax’s hands kept alternating between freezing and being on fire every 20 minutes and she was so done with all of it. She sighed heavily, her head in her hands as she sat on the ground outside of her home. It probably wasn’t the best idea to be outside while chaos reigned over the city, but Jax didn’t much care at the moment. They just needed the air. At first, Jax thought she hadn’t been impacted too much by the earthquake. Other than the occasional effect on the elemental power she had access to, nothing major had happened. Her dog Vera sometimes had bubbles coming out of her mouth when she barked and Elias’s scales had changed color, but Amyru was unchanged. Jax was very okay with that result. But then her mother woke up as a half-orc and that made things a little more stressful. But to Jax’s surprise, she seemed to be taking the change in stride. Or maybe she was just putting on a brave face for Jax. She couldn’t tell.

She sighed and reached down for the cup of coffee that sat on the ground next to her. But as she lifted her hand up she saw that her hand was once again wreathed in flame. “Son of a-” She put the cup down and tried futilely to put the flames out on her hand. The flames didn’t burn her skin, or anything else it touched. It was just very annoying. After a moment, the flames disappeared and she sighed again. Grabbing the coffee once more, she brought the coffee up to her lips. It took her a second to realize that the coffee had frozen the second time she had touched it. With a noise of frustration, she put the cup back down and leaned her head back against the wall she sat against. “I’m so fucking done with this,” she said, not noticing, or caring, if anyone was nearby to hear it.

“I do hope you understand my curiosity. This is absolutely unprecedented! If something were to happen to Sir Crayhorn, would you and your spouse inherit the estate?”

“To be completely honest, I don’t know anything about that,” Avi said, eyes darting between the noblewoman and his parents waltzing behind her. It was certainly a sight to behold; he’d never seen them so dressed up and so poised. But it wasn’t just the spectacle that had him distracted. He’d been receiving attention from the noble crowd since he’d arrived, and he had very little idea of what they were talking about. He was starting to think that his charisma could only carry him so far here. “I’ll tell you this: if something does happen to my brother, and my spouse and I inherit the estate, my boyfriend is going to be very confused as to when I got married.”

Avi laughed then, trying his best to keep his focus on the noblewoman who seemed less impressed by his joke. “Charming,” she said, “I think I heard someone call for me, but it was so very nice to meet you.”

Left alone again, Avi hugged his cloak around himself and settled into the position as he continued to watch his parents blend into the festivities effortlessly. He could get used to this - not the incessant questions, though he understood their curiosity, but his parents in Hegaehend. They were a family now, all four of them, and though it would take some getting used to, he would endure any amount of misdirected attention if it meant everyone knowing who his family was. 

It had been a bit of a long day on top of a long week of travelling to get to the afflicted city. Sitting down heavily at a table, all Jakoby wanted to do was have some ale and relax for a little while. In the city’s current state, it was a bit difficult to do so. But he came here to help. He’d been at the Crossroads when the chaos had started, and after sending word back home, he set out for Myrefall right away. His drink sitting on the table, he sighed and ran his hand through Rae’s fur absently as she sat at his feet. When he’d arrived at this inn the day before, the innkeeper had looked warily at the panther, but the man allowed her to stay in the room with Jakoby with the assurance that he would cover any damages that might come about because of her. He tiredly rubbed his eyes for a moment and was about to reach for his mug of ale, but when he opened his eyes, he suddenly saw that the mug was floating in the air in front of him.

Quickly, he grabbed it and brought it back down to the table. He glanced up, but the person tending bar didn’t seem to notice. Or, if they had, they didn’t bother to say anything. It probably wasn’t the craziest thing to have happened over the past week since this started. But it was enough to bother Jakoby. It was the third time this had happened to him today, and it was making him more and more anxious. He barely used his telekinetic ability as it was, but the wild magic so prevalent in the air was making it hard to keep a good handle on it.

3508 years ago, titans ruled Romera. No one knows for certain what wiped them out and allowed the era of small beings to begin, but in the years after their demise, Romera thrived in chaos. No law existed yet, no order, and no control or restrictions on magic. Spellcasters rose to power and used dangerous magic to maintain that power. Magical warlords rose and fell, power-hungry wizards experimented in the forests and fields with terrible results, and sorcerers with little ability to control their wild magic left scars across Romera. The very soil and rock beneath their feet became imbued and steeped with powerful, unstable magic.

The scars, while not easily visible to the naked eye, have lingered for thousands of years. The plants and animals that grow in the scar territory are sometimes… changed. A squirrel may have sapphires growing from its fur, a bird might be singing in Sylvan, flowers that ought to be blue may grow red, or a river might flow backwards for a period of time. People have attempted to map the scars, to avoid building civilization atop the risky fault lines of magic, but they shift and morph. The strange effects are rare and difficult to spot. For the most part, these scars are dormant. Until they aren’t.

The morning had been a blur. The city of Arx had abruptly awoken to the sound of alarms. Panicked activity filled the streets. News and rumors spread across the populace like a wave, some true, some not so true. It was hard to decide what to believe in all the chaos, but one fact seemed to hold steady in it all - ships were nearly here. Attacks were already being aimed at the port. It was time to find where you needed to be, and find it fast.

Arthenni had immediately rushed to the Institute. They weren’t completely unprepared. Since the war had started, the Institute had established a plan for what to do if the violence reached the city walls. It essentially consisted of: get people in for as long as safely possible, lock down the campus, get important materials to the safety of underground storage. That last part was especially relevant to the library. War was known for destroying places of knowledge, erasing tomes from civilization entirely, and that had to be mitigated as much as possible.

Some of the staff were working on getting the most important books and records out to safety, sending the library into a flurry of organized activity. Arthenni had done her fair share of packing things up and down the stairs earlier, when the ships were farther on the horizon. No doubt she would be sore once the adrenaline faded. For now, as the attacks descended and people became more frantic, she was focusing on getting people inside. These books were important, yes. Like hell the invaders were touching their books. But people were important too. She stood near the library doors, directing people who were looking for refuge. Some went into the library, some were heading to the temple to be closer to the presence of Istus, and some were going elsewhere. Regardless of where they went, they just needed to get somewhere.

“Hurry! Shelter inside! There are doors connected to the main building in the back of the library that will take you further in! People will be there to direct you!” Arthenni called out, just trying to get people behind some walls.