Alea
Once the time for the mission started, Cole and I headed out towards the docks. We walked down the beach from the warehouses to an old shack. Opening the door, we see Christa sitting on a work table. When we enter, she begins to annoyingly tap on the table with her long, painted nails.
"I have already placed my incantations for the distraction," Christa says proudly. I roll my eyes at her. I pull out my bag and start to dig through it. I didn't keep much on me, but I always had what I needed for a job. I pull out a small silver ring with a purple gem in the middle.
I hand over the ring to Christa. "This will create any illusion you need," I tell her. Christa puts it on her finger, flipping her hand around to study it. Christa was looking at it as if it were trash. It was one of my great creations, something most witches couldn't do anymore. I had experimented with incantations and imbued them for years. One of the main reasons Hendrik was willing to take me in. I was another mouth to feed, but I was useful and earned my keep.
"I guess this scrap will do," Christa said in a curt tone. I roll my eyes at her.
"Once we split, Cole and I will head up the nearby buildings and enter through the roof. Christa, after five minutes, set everything off. Hopefully, we only have to deal with those inside the warehouse." I lay out the plan. The only difficult part should be undoing the spell locking system. I just hoped Cole was as skilled as Hendrik had said.
Christa gives a nod, and we head out of the old shack. She leaves us in a quick flash.
I turn to Cole, and he holds his hand up above us. "Step closer," is all he says to me. I do as he asks and close the gap between us. He hid his face behind a cloak and long black hair, so I had yet to catch a glimpse of his face. Getting closer, I notice that he isn't as young as I had thought he was.
Before I could get a better look, he started to whisper an incantation. With how low he was speaking, I couldn't catch what he was saying. A shadowy mist forms and shrouds us both.
"The spell is in place, stay close as we move." That's all he says. We then move out towards the buildings.
We scale up the building's wall and slink to the warehouse in the cloaked darkness. As we neared the warehouse, I took in my surroundings. Guards were stationed throughout, but most of them were at our location. Either walking around to patrol or stationed in one area.
Once we jumped from the last roof to our destination, we walked over to the window opening. Looking through the glass, I spot five guards, two at the front entrance and three standing close to several wooden crates. The crates had red and silver magical chains wrapped around them. I could spot the red glowing crystals that the magic chains vine out from.
"We jump down and take them all out quickly. I will go down first." I whisper to Cole. He gives me a nod. I take a deep breath and hit my wrists together, making two silver daggers pop out from under my sleeves. I wasn't the strongest fighter, so I normally stayed away from these kinds of situations.
I focus my energy on the knives for a stronger enhancement as I move through the rafters. I jump to land behind the two guards at the door. Their focus is on the door for anyone trying to enter. I drive one of the daggers into the heart of one of the guards. The second guard turned, his red eyes wide in surprise at the sudden attack. My blade then flies towards his throat, slicing through to almost decapitation. The guard falls to the ground lifeless; even vampires die due to decapitation or a strike to the heart. Some were just more difficult to strike down than most.
Sounds of bodies dropping caught my attention as I swung around to the three guards behind me. When I turn, I see all the guards bleeding from their chests. Cole stood silently in the middle of them, no blood on himself.
I run over to one of the crates and look it over. Everything the documents said was correct. I study the crystal and pull out a small pocket knife from my bag.
"I will keep watch, we have maybe five minutes left if we are lucky," Cole says to me. He then leaves me alone to open the seal.
I take my knife and speak an incantation. The spell I created myself for these types of magic locks. Others have made something similar for themselves, but I know mine works better. Allowing me to mark out symbols or destroy magic crystals. I look at each of the symbols and begin marking them out one by one. I knew I was getting it right when several magic chains vanished from around the crate.
Sweat began to slide from my forehead and down my cheek as I got down to the last two symbols. I wasn't sure what would happen if I got it wrong, but it wouldn't be any good. Some would explode to kill or use a sleeping mist to catch thieves.
I took a deep breath and studied what was before me, then a thought hit me. With time running out, I quickly speak the incantation to a finding spell. It came from an old spell book Mia had among her many books. It was ancient, with pages always falling out I was never sure of the order of its contents. Mia told me she discovered it in the ruins of a manor. It came from a time before the vampire rise and witches were free.
The familiar warmth of magic races through my veins as I speak. I hold my hand over the symbols while I speak the words. A small silver light appears in front of me, then quickly darts to one of the two symbols. It disappears as quickly as it appears, and I give a silent thank you.
With a confident smile, I marked out the one it had chosen, and the rest of the chains vanished. The bright red crystals shone and died out, and I knew I had won. I use my dagger to open the box. Opening the crate, I find many stones set upon some hay. I grab a couple and shove them in my bag.
"Cole, let's go!" I yell as I turn to head back up through the roof window. As I get to the roof, I hear yelling from the guards. They were all running towards the warehouse now. My window was now gone, so I needed to be. I didn't know the destruction Hendrik had in mind. I knew I didn't want to be caught up in it.
Before I escape, I try to locate Cole. I don't see him anywhere in the chaos. I didn't want to leave him, though staying would mean my death or worse. I wait a moment more, but nothing, only the guards closing in on me. I begin my run back over the building roofs.
As I land on the last roof, a yell calls out behind me. I turned to see three guards chasing behind me. I had been found. I cast an incantation, causing two body double illusions. These appeared in my image, making the guards think there was more of me. They jump down first, and the guards split up to chase after them.
The last guard keeps his focus on me as I scale down and burst into a run. I tap my wrist, and a sudden burst of mist bursts in the guard's face. Using the moment, I make my way to the sewers. I knew it wouldn't be the place to hide for long.
As I am making my way to the sewers, a thunderous blast sounds in the distance. Filling the air with a thick smoke. A raging fire began to burn from the warehouse's location, making the air warm and hard to breathe. This was most certainly Hendriks' destruction magic being set off. It was as powerful as a magic bomb being detonated. Nothing would soon be left of the place.
I think I am in the clear when I hear a snarl behind me. I turn to see bright red glowing eyes gaining speed. I turned my head, hoping they hadn't released any dogs on my trail. I kept my eyes focused in front of me.
I stopped at the first sewer hatch to make my escape. Before I could attempt to open the sewer hatch, I was taken to the ground. I am face to face with a feral vampire, it was the guard who was originally chasing me. He seemed out of his mind, snarling and foaming at the mouth. His teeth snapped in my face, trying to get a bite.
He was stronger than I, but I managed to hit my wrist and plunge it into his side. He screams out in pain as I twist the blade. He backed off, trying to regain control, but I used the chance and pushed him to the side with a kick. Jumping onto him, I take the blades and stab furiously into his neck.
The vampire's body twitches before falling silent, dead. I then hear yelling coming closer to my position. I quickly collected myself and lifted the sewer hatch, and started down the ladder, pulling the hatch back in place. I can't relax just yet, with the dead body, they are sure to head down the sewer. As soon as I reach the bottom of the short ladder, I head down through the tunnels. Holding my cloak over my nose to save my senses from the stench.
I ran for as long as my legs would take me, passing over two other hatches. Once I found the third one, I proceeded up the ladder. I stopped to listen out for anyone before I pushed the hatch away. After hearing nothing, I continued to move the hatch and surface.
I look around and get a hold of where I have arrived. I was in an empty alley close to the shops. Cole and I had walked this road to get to the docks. It wasn't far away enough, but I was at least close to the storage house where we all had met up. Instead of walking, I walk to the end of the alley to make a new door, just as I had done before.
I stepped through the door, but to my surprise, no one else had arrived just yet. So I continued with the plan and placed the stones I grabbed in a separate bag and left them on the table. This wasn't unusual, I tended to leave my steals for someone else to come by and pick up.
"Alea run!" I heard Christa's voice shout, but she was nowhere in sight. Even though I couldn't spot where she was, I did as she had said. I swiftly grabbed the bag of crystals, not wanting to leave it behind for them to get back.
I didn't head out the front door; instead, I turned back to the wall where the magical door would appear. Taking out my chalk, I draw a door, but this could take me closer to the wall.
The was built when the vampires had fully taken over and wanted to keep their food source from getting out. Beyond was mostly ruins, the wilderness taking over areas well lived in. Since vampires didn't need normal food anymore, the farming villages were soon abandoned, now overgrown.
Just as I open the door that appeared from my incantation, vampires burst through the door. I slip through just in time, and one vampire manages to get an arm in. As he grabs at me, I make a fire illusion, making him move his hand back. The vampire was not fast enough for the closing door, and as it shut, the arm was caught. The magic door disappears, leaving a severed arm on the ground next to me. A laugh suddenly erupted out of me. I was giggling over a vampire's severed arm.
I shake my head and pull myself together, "We still gotta make it out alive." I say to myself. I turned to see the magic door had let me out a ways from the wall, but there was no shouting, so I was at least clear for now. So I stuff the crystals back into my bag and pull my cloak around me tightly.
I make the turn from one alley to the next, avoiding anyone I come across. It was strange that most vampires still only worked and did things during the day. With the rise of magic crystals, those who were rich had ways to avoid the sun's power.
I kept my pace as I ventured farther into the lower district, where poor vampire families lived but still ruled over the humans that added to the population. If you were one with no powers, you only had a few paths you were pushed down. Some worked as guards who could stand in the sun in place of vampires, though with new magic cloaks, it wasn't as needed as it used to be. Most were only used for their blood; depending on how much money the vampire had, you didn't have to do anything other than breed and give your blood. If you had a very attractive face, you could be pushed into the places that offer more than your blood, your whole body. In the end, no one is safe when you are just considered to be food.
As I get closer to the wall, I whisper an illusion spell to make my eyes glow red if anyone were to catch a glimpse of my face. Those who saw me wouldn't think twice, just as I had while walking around during the day. I still kept my guard up; thieves and gangs would still attack you for no reason other than the thrill.
Thunder started to sound in the distance, and I almost hesitated to go into the forest. The forest had its dangers lurking in the dark, overgrown greenery. But with having the crystals still in my possession, I couldn't risk hiding anywhere within the wall.
When I finally reached it, I followed the stone wall down to where I knew a small hole would be. An old break someone had made many years ago remained. There were patrols, but most management went to the wealthier part of the kingdom; they weren't too worried about people trying to escape into the wilderness.
This wouldn't be my first time going through the hole and scavenging, but staying close so I didn't have to fear anything bigger than a bird. Snakes and insects were as dangerous as they could be. The ruins and farther are where the beasts and tales of feral vampires from the Sangra rise.
So as the thunder roared again, I slipped through to the other side and headed into the thick brush.