City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Countering The Undercurrent

In a valley not far from the Snow Cliff, a middle-aged man with greying hair was practising his swordsmanship under the morning sun. His skill with the blade wasn’t much to speak of, and without any bloodlust his moves simply looked like stunts, but he was repeating a small set of movements repeatedly to try and perfect them.

“Breakfast is ready,” a barbarian woman with toned musculature walked out from a nearby house, pausing as she saw the man’s face, “Hmm? Something on your mind?”

“Nothing,” the man laughed it off, “Just feel like some old friends will come knocking on our doors soon.”

The woman immediately frowned, bloodlust radiating from her body, “I can kill those annoying cretins this time, right?”

The man smiled and shook his head, “Rash as ever. They might just be planning for that, but… I guess this is why you’re stronger than me, you never worry about these things.”

This couple seemed content with their small house in the valley, but the woman was once known as the ruler of Klandor and the man was a former prince of Norland’s oldest empire. The two looked up in unison as birdcall rang through the sky, a common black hawk fleeing from a number of grey falcons that were hunting it. A few of its feathers fell off amidst its flight, with one being brought into the valley by the wind to land on one of the stone tables in the courtyard.

Greyhawk walked over and started examining the feather while Asa frowned at the side. It looked common to even the epic warrior, but Scholars of Soremburg could extract the information contained within. This enigma was what allowed the Scholars to communicate effectively.

“They’re showing off with their control of destiny again,” Asa scoffed, a formless aura appearing around her. However, her eyes went wide as she saw her husband’s expression hardening as well. The black feather was turned to ash and disappeared into the wind, but his long, grey hair was rustling around as well. However, the grey hair turned into a pure black in mere seconds, his aura radiating the same mysterious colour. She quickly recovered from her shock, but worry filled her face instead, “What happened?”

“They want me to join the Castle again, and take up the position of a council member. They also want me to promise to take over the position of the castle lord in the future.”

“And if you disagree?” her expression turned icy cold, the entire valley freezing over as a result of her wrath.

“They’ll trap our daughter in Faelor forever.”

Asa inhaled sharply, shooting up into the sky while raising a whirlwind around her. Everything within a hundred metres of the house was levelled in an instant, but Greyhawk himself sat calmly in the middle of her rage with not even a hair lifting up. He motioned for her to calm down after a moment, but even as she grunted and returned to her seat, the distant eagle exploded into blood and flesh.

“Demonstrations mean nothing to them, those maniacs still think they control destiny. Richard’s methods are the best way to deal with them.”

“But how are we supposed to kill them when we can’t find them?!”

“That’s fine too. The point is for people to be unwilling to join their side in the future. Soremburg will slowly lose numbers until they aren’t a faction any longer.”

“And what do we do now?” Asa huffed.

Greyhawk chuckled, “Our daughter carries the blood of the Beast God and has a grasp on fate itself. She isn’t someone those maniacs can touch, and she’s with Richard as well. We don’t have to worry.”

Asa nodded, “Mm, he’s strange. I can’t tell the direction of his destiny, even the Grand Shaman can’t.”

“He’s someone out of the grasp of destiny itself. I’m not certain if it’s a good or bad thing for Mountainsea to be with him, but it is what it is.”

“I don’t care as long as he treats her well. Right, how do we deal with the bastards?”

Greyhawk smiled helplessly. His powerful wife was always straightforward, leaving him to think about things while she solved issues with the most direct and violent method possible. The same had occurred during his attempted invasion of Klandor. His preparations had been flawless, but she had taken a hundred totem warriors and charged straight for the core of his troops and captured him.

One had to know that he’d had enough rune knights to kill her with one combined volley, but he had chosen to distribute two-thirds of them to his flanks. His core was indeed weak, but if he could last even a few minutes the wings would have wrapped around her small force and destroyed it. However, the trail of blood she left behind had shocked him beyond words as she appeared right before him in the blink of an eye, knocking him unconscious and capturing him.

The former prince had asked his new wife to explain her reasoning to him moments after he awoke, but her answer was such a simple one that he felt like slamming his head into the wall of his prison. She had charged at him simply because she’d felt like she could capture him, all of his strategy being destroyed at the hands of her intuition.

It was only when Mountainsea was born that Greyhawk understood that this both was and wasn’t something as simple as intuition. While not to as great an extent as Mountainsea, Asa was closely linked to the power of fate itself, being able to passively divine many things.

However, their enemies this time were the mysterious Scholars of Soremburg, a group of maniacs who believed they could control destiny. They weren’t the strongest faction in Norland, but they were certainly the most dangerous. As a former High Scholar himself, Greyhawk knew just how difficult this opponent could be.

After a few minutes where his wife allowed him to ponder, Greyhawk suddenly smiled, “You have a lot of savings, don’t you?”

“The stones and bones and stuff? Yeah, plenty. You want to make some money in Norland?”

“Let’s go to the tribe and pick some of it up. I also need to look for some useful things in the treasury of the Shrine. That’s fine, right?”

“Anything outside of the totems and blood.”

“I actually need the blood. A single drop will do.”

“Ehh… Sure, I guess. We have a tank anyway, but you’ll need to get the Grand Elder or Shaman to approve it. What do you need it for anyway?”

“I heard that Richard has opened up a reward point system that’s pretty interesting. We have nothing to do here anyway, let’s go join in on the fun. I want to exchange a few things, but there’s no rush. Let me make a list; some of these things are scattered around, but we should be able to gather back together in a week if we split the work.”

Greyhawk sat down to write a list, but moments after he was done Asa took it and struck off a number of them. Putting everything that was difficult to acquire under her name, she nodded, “I’ll get all this, you take the rest.”

“I’m stronger now, you know? You don’t need to go this far,” Greyhawk pouted. Barely a quarter of the list was left for him to find.

“Heh, you’re still the same guy that fainted to a single slap!” she smiled with disdain, prompting a look of embarrassment.