Chapter 159: The First Domino

Savika sat in the Rene town hall at the large round table with a small sewing kit laid out in front of her. She was quietly working away on a new craft by herself, with several rolls of variously colored fabrics set about on the table in front of her as well. Her eyebrows were scrunched up as she focused intensely on what she was sewing presently, very carefully threading the needle through the fabric.

Leaning up against the wall behind her stood Celestian, like a statue with his spear at his side. He was now level 90. Guarding the door to the town hall was Farlion, also level 90. And pacing along one of the far walls, peering out of the window was Herilon. He occasionally went from looking inside the room at Savika to see what she was doing before going back to looking out of the window at the passing players and NPCs. He had chosen a window that had a good view up the mountain towards the monastery.

Apart from the muffled sounds of players and NPCs chatting outside, barely audible through the glass, the only sounds made in the room were that of Herilons footsteps. That was until there was a sudden knock on the door.

Farlion at the door quickly turned around, opened it, and stepped outside for a moment while Herilon stopped peering out of the window and instead turned his attention solely to the door and Savika.

A moment later, Farlion returned inside.

“Mayor Savika, one resident by the name of Charles would like to speak with you in regards to his neighbor.” Farlion announced. Savika stopped what she was doing and looked up across the table at Farlion, placing down her sewing tools and taking a deep breath.

“Okay. Send him in.” She nodded, and Farlion nodded back before opening the door once more behind him. An older NPC with [Charles - Level 10] above his head in white text stepped inside through the door and took stock of everyone in the room with quick glances.

“Please, have a seat.” Farlion motioned Charles to sit in the chair nearest the door, and furthest from Savika. Both Celestian and Herilon watched him intently.

“Thank you.” Charles bowed before taking a seat.

“How can I help you today, Charles?” Savika asked him politely.

“It’s my neighbor. He’s an Arallian, like you.” He grumbled. “We’re both living on our own, but he’s got a great big garden around his house, and I don't.”

“Does he use it often?” Savika asked.

“Yes, daily. He rubs it in my face that he’s got it. I’m paying for my housing, while he got his for free. I would like more land so I can have my own garden as well.”

“Do you have any skills in farming or gardening?” Savika asked him.

“No, not exactly…” He replied hesitantly.

“Then why would you need more land to farm and garden?”

“Because it’s only fair.” The old man crossed his arms. “I should have everything an Arallian has. I’m a Kalmoorian and this is Kalmoore.” Savika opened her mouth to reply, but Herilon suddenly stopped her.

“Hang on.” Herilon stepped away from the window and eyed the old man curiously. “That’s quite a strange view of the world, and a strange set of demands to give, considering this guy's not elite.” Herilon stepped towards the old man with squinting eyes. “Did someone put you up to making this request? A player, perhaps, encouraging you to hate Arallians, or demand more things?” Herilon asked curiously.

Charles however didn’t reply. Instead, he went rather quiet, in the oddest way possible. As if his AI had suddenly just glitched out and stopped working, he started staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Hello? Any answer? Or did that same person instruct you not to answer questions like these?” Herilon pushed on as he got closer to the old man. There was still no reaction, though, and both Celestian and Farlion were now staring suspiciously at the situation.

“Please, I think you are frightening him.” Savika politely waved Herilon back. Herilon glanced between Savika and the old man for a moment before reluctantly sighing and backing away.

“Unfortunately, once you’ve been assigned land in Rene, it will not be resized. You are a very skilled woodcutter and are paid as such, while your neighbor is a skilled gardener and sells his spices to the town.” Savika continued. “If you’d like, I could assign you a new plot of land away from the Arallians, but if you want a plot of land with a garden you’ll have to first demonstrate that you are capable of making use of it.” Savika answered cordially.

“Fine. I’ll show you I can garden. Anything an Arallian can do, a Kalmoorian can do better.” The old man huffed before stomping out of the room. Once he’d shut the door behind him, Savika let out a sigh of relief before going back to sewing. Herilon watched her do this and shook his head to himself in disbelief before opening up his interface.

He was about to send a message to Quinn about his suspicions, but out of the corner of his eye he spotted a large group of players leaving the Monastery of the Stars up on the mountain outside of Rene, through the window nearest him.

“Looks like they’ve finally finished their Shattered Healer quests. Will you two be okay here watching her for a moment?” Herilon asked Celestian and Farlion and they both nodded. “Good, I’ll be back in a bit.” Herilon added before leaving the town hall.

Once out in the streets of Rene, he waited patiently on the north side of the town square, staring up the paved road in the direction of Rene’s northern gate, waiting for the large group of players to arrive.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, he saw them pass through the gate and enter the city, walking towards him. There was a group of 3 players bearing the Vindicators tabard from Lanusk, and two players bearing the Sages of Destiny tabard from Savringard. All five of them were all equipped with scepters, shields, and sets of iron armor.

Taking the lead in front of them, though, was a wizard player with [Synopse - Level 175] above his head, with the Sages of Destiny tabard on. He’d immediately spotted Herilon and locked eyes with him as the group approached the town square, stopping a few meters in front of Herilon.

“You’ve been up at the Monastery for a week now, did you all get your quests done?” Herilon asked the group.

“Yes, the last of them has just finished his Shattered Healer quest. All five of them are now capable of casting Aura of Light.” Synopse replied with a nod.

“I see. Interesting how quickly you guys rerolled and leveled up to thirty.” Herilon commented.

“The class seems to directly oppose invasions and the abyss. Not having the Aura of Light would put our guilds at a severe disadvantages against those types of enemies.” Synopse shrugged back at Herilon and Herilon nodded in agreement.

“True. Still…” Herilon looked over the excited faces of the 5 new Shattered Healer players. “Did you guys not watch Aegis complete the Hrath’mir quest?”

“We did.” One of the healers spoke up.

“Then, why’d it take you all so long to complete it? Aegis only took a day and he didn’t know at all what to expect.” Herilon squinted at them curiously. Suddenly the smiles on their faces were wiped away, and Synopse let out a chuckle.

“Riding a gryphon is no joke, I’d like to see you try it.” One of them growled at him.

“Those damn dragons wouldn’t listen to me, it took forever to get them to cooperate.”

“Even when you get the dragons to help, holding off all of those avatars is damn near impossible. Especially when that black mist monster joins the fight.” Another complained.

“Right. I guess it is a pretty difficult quest.” Herilon smirked at them.

“We’ll be heading back to the Skyport now, and taking our leave from Kalmoore. I appreciate the warm hospitality you’ve provided for us here in Rene.” Synopse bowed politely.

“No problem, you’re welcome back any time. Have a safe trip.” Herilon bowed back and stepped aside, allowing Synopse to pass with his group of newly made Shattered Healers. Their smiles did not return to their faces, though. Once they had disappeared into the crowded town square, Herilon opened up his interface to message Quinn once more.

“They’re finished in Rene and on their way back to Kordas. Looks like this visit is coming to an end without incident.” Herilon messaged her.

“You seem disappointed.” Quinn replied.

“I was hoping for at least a little bit of PvP action.”

“Stick with Savika a bit longer until we’ve confirmed they’ve all left.”

“Roger.” Herilon answered before closing out of his interface and making his way back to the town hall.

“So, I suppose this is farewell. Thank you taking care of us.” Feng bowed politely as he stood atop the Skyport tower. Thanks to Quinn and the Kordas guards efforts, the top of the tower had been cleared out of any players not from Lanusk or Savringard.

Feng was speaking to Quinn, Sapphire, Artaphernes, Trexon, and Tullan, with Makaroth standing beside him. All around them the players of Lanusk and Savringard were making their way back onto their respective airships.

“We appreciate you coming here in person to visit our island, it was an honor to host you.” Quinn smiled and bowed back politely.

“Still a shame we couldn’t meet Aegis. He has become quite the rising star.” Feng smiled.

“Maybe next time.” Quinn shrugged.

“I’m sure we'll be meeting him soon enough.” Makaroth replied with a cold stare at Quinn, but Quinn chose to only smile back at him awkwardly.

“Take care.” Trexon waved, which prompted the two high level, highly viewed streamers to bow and turn, making their way to their respective airships.

“Good. Nice, easy, boring.” Sapphire mumbled as they got out of earshot of her and climbed aboard their airships.

“I was expecting more action with those two showing up. Maybe a tussle. They just went sight seein’ and did their quests though.” Tullan sighed. “Aint even bring some fancy materials to trade with us.”

“Most likely, they don’t want to help Kalmoore by providing us with good trade materials. They like that their islands are ahead of ours.” Artaphernes commented, crossing his arms. “It’s all politics with players like that. They didn’t get on top of the streaming world by playing nice and thinking of others.”

“Hm.” Sapphire eyed Artaphernes as she took a bite of a carrot before going back to watching the players boarding the airships.

“They most likely know more about the abyss and invasions than they let on, but want us in the dark.” Trexon added.

“Whatever. We don’t need their help. I’m glad they’re leaving without causing any trouble, we’ve got enough problems around here as it is.” Quinn sighed. “What of the bandit players?” She turned to Artaphernes, who responded by motioning to several that were in the process of boarding the airships.

“They’re all accounted for. Every single one of them made their way back to this tower already. I’ve got my members on standby, surrounding the tower, but, it would seem not a single player is staying behind. Guess they really won’t like it here much.” Artaphernes smiled.

“You’re telling me they all really just came here for sight seein’?” Tullan asked with a raised brow.

“Seems so.” Artaphernes shrugged.

“And, how’d Christoph do?” Quinn asked.

“Him and the Blades performed admirably. Didn’t let the leader out of his sight. Nothing suspicious.”

“Where is Christoph now?” Trexon asked.

“He said he’s taking one final precaution. He’ll be joining us later.” Artaphernes replied. From there, for the next short while the group exchanged small talk as they watched the last of the visiting players board the airships. And with their final waves and farewells, Feng and Makaroth’s airships departed from the Skyport tower.

“That’s that, boring and uneventful.” Artaphernes shrugged.

“I’ll have my birds follow the Lanusk ship out of our airspace. You scry on the Savringard one. Make sure there’s nothing crazy like jumpers.” Quinn instructed Trexon and he nodded back, beginning to cast a scrying spell.

“You’re being very thorough.” Artaphernes commented.

“It’s hard to keep an island peaceful in this game. I have to be thorough.” Quinn replied.

“The Airships are leaving.” Miranda commented as she looked up at the sky. She stood alongside Christoph and several other Blades of Kalmoore players watching the Airships depart from the ground level of Kordas, quite some distance away.

“Don’t let your guard down yet.” Christoph replied. He took his eyes off of the airships and instead turned to look behind him at the Kordas City portal altar. It was built in a small opening in the city streets of Kordas, with a few meters of paved roads surrounding it on all sides. Standing nearby were Christoph and his guildmates, and several Kordas guards.

“Yes sir.” One of the members replied with a nod, but none of them were looking at the altar - instead all staring at the departing airships.

“I wonder what its like to be in one of those guilds.” One Blades member asked.

“I heard it’s super hard to get in. Really competitive. And they don’t let you near the streamers until you prove yourself in their B-tier raiding group.”

“Hm. I bet I could get to their main raiding group though.” Another player commented.

“Guys, come on, fo-” Christoph urged them, but his voice suddenly left him. It wasn’t that he'd stopped mid sentence, but rather his mouth stopped making sound, while simultaneously a debuff appeared over him and all of the players and guards nearby.

[Silence]

No sound can be made by anything or anyone while under the effect of this spell. Communication through guild, party, and friends interfaces are blocked.

Christoph couldn’t hear the sound of his own feet tapping the paved stone streets as he turned and glanced around in panic. He saw his guildmates all looking around confused for a moment as well. Their mouths were moving, but no sound was coming out.

Christoph looked to his Sage guildmate and did a few hand motions, and the Sage player nodded back anxiously, pulling his staff off of his back and preparing to wave it around and cast a spell - but before he could, a crossbow bolt was fired into his shoulder dealing massive damage. Christoph looked across the town square and saw a player wearing a dark yellow cloak with the hood up walking forward, wielding two weapons in his hands and moving 5 floating weapons forward behind him.

It was a battlemaster player attacking them, trying to lock down Christoph’s sage and prevent him from dispelling the silence. So long as the silence spell was active, Christoph couldn’t give out instructions or send messages to Quinn and Artaphernes for help.

Christoph anxiously dashed forward and deflected a second bolt fired at his Sage player by pulling out a large two handed maul from his inventory and swinging it at the projectile, knocking it away. He was trying to buy the Sage time so that he could dispel the silence. But in that moment, Christoph’s mind processed the fact that this attacker was a Battlemaster. Battlemasters cannot cast silence. That meant, there was a second attacker.

Christoph realized this too late, turning to the side to see [Simon - Level 160] approaching from one of the surrounding streets, shooting a plethora of spells out from his fingertips in all directions.

It was like a horrifying lightshow, and red numbers started flying up all over the place. Simon and the Battlemaster player were attacking not only Christoph and his guildmates, but the nearby Kordas guards as well.

Miranda was taken out almost instantly, and shortly after, Christoph’s members began dropping like flies. Christoph held his own, swinging around his great maul and slamming it onto the ground to send up chunks of paved bricks and stone at the battlemaster and Simon, quaking the very earth beneath them. He couldn’t make sound, but he could send out violent vibrations using his earthshaking class skills.

It was a potential way for him to buy time, and possibly alert others outside of the effect of the silence spell, but it was too little too late. He watched as a blue portal opened up atop the portal altar, and from within the belly of the departing airships stepped through the leader of the Black Lion guild and all of the bandit players that had visited on the Lanuskian airship. Shortly after, a portal from the Savringard ship opened as well.

They had only been pretending to leave. They attuned to the portal altar of Kordas, and were now utilizing it to portal from the airships back to Kordas while they were still above Kalmoore and within range of it. And due to the silence spell, Christoph couldn’t tell Quinn to shut off the portal altar. It was too late, and Christoph was very quickly outnumbered, and taken out by Simon, the unknown Battlemaster player, and the numerous bandit players.

Within 60 seconds of the silence spell being cast, every NPC and player around the portal altar was dead, and Simon canceled the silence spell.

“That was easy. Good work, Joltblade.” The Black Lion’s guild leader smirked once he noticed the spell was gone. “Now, where is that piece of shit Princess and that Shattered Healer?”

“Calm down, not yet.” Joltblade, the Battlemaster with the yellow cloak replied after lowering his hood. “We’ve got a plan to get your revenge, but we have to lay low for now.”

“Lay low? Screw that, these Kalmoorians are a bunch of wimps, Look at 'em.” He motioned mockingly to the dead Kordas guards and the dropped loot from Christoph and his guildmates. “Lets fuck this city up.” He grinned and got a few encouraging cheers from the other bandits.

“They’re not all weak. Are you forgetting your encounter with them back in Arallia?” Joltblade raised an eyebrow at him, and the cheering quickly died down. “Don’t worry, my friends have a plan, we’ll get our revenge on not just Arallia, but Kalmoore. But we’ve gotta lay low for now and make sure we don’t get put in jail until the plan is ready.” Joltblade spoke calmly.

“Fine.” The guild leader reluctantly sighed. “But just as long as I’m the one that gets to put the finishing blow on the kingdom of Arallia.”

“Of course.” Joltblade grinned while motioning them all out of the town square and pulling his hood back up. “Thank you for your services.” He gave a nod to Simon.

“Booooring.” Simon rolled his eyes and sighed before teleporting away.