Fates of Grenora: Return of the Night

The night breeze drifted through Aldrin's curly brown hair as he jumped rooftop to rooftop. The magical fumes rising from the vents from the Alchemist below, brewing their potions, obscured his jumping form. Following the tug of whatever called out to him, he stopped, watching as another duo of level 45 High Guards patrolled the empty streets below.

When they turned the corner, he waited until the light from their lantern faded. He had been at this game of hide and seek after waiting for the people to turn in for the night. It was an ominous feeling to see a city so vibrant during the day become a ghost city after a certain time of night. Still, learning new things about his Race, he found he made no noise when he landed on the flat rooftops of the factories.

Ignoring the hissing from other vents dotted along the top of the buildings, he hurried along, getting a running start and leaping across another gap. The tug in his chest grew as he came upon a walled off area of the city with a gated entrance manned by two High Guards. Beyond the gate, from what Aldrin could see, lined the Research District. The pull was the strongest there he felt when he looked for a way in.

His hearing picked up something being dragged on the cobbled road further away headed for the gated entrance. Aldrin waited and soon he met ‌what made the noise to begin with. A group of five heavily armed and armored men each dragged someone in chains. The captives wore silky black sacks covering their heads, but judging from their clothing, they were a mix of rich and poor.

With his eyesight enhanced beyond human limitations, he saw that each of them held an insignia depicting a clawed black hand somewhere on them. Still taking advantage of his eyesight, he used Inspect.

Grimacing, Aldrin watched them walk up to the entrance. "Got another shipment. They should be expecting us," a Slaver said, rattling the chains of his captive.

One of their captives tried to break free, one of the nicely dressed ones to be exact, but was met with a brutal punch to the head, knocking the captive senseless. Now held and carried on the shoulder of their captor, their resistance stopped altogether. The Slaver promptly returned to the stare down with one of the High Guards who starred with equal contempt.

Letting the tension build a little longer, one of the High Guards took out a small silver marble and concentrated on it. Aldrin guessed 10 minutes had gone by and during that time, another of the captives fought back and tried to escape. Their resistance was short-lived when they held him down while one Slaver cleanly chopped off his hand. During that entire ordeal, Aldrin concluded that the silky black sacks over their heads were enchanted to keep them silent no matter what.

The sight of the blood from the severed hand made Aldrin grip the edge of the roof tightly as he tried to control himself. Thankfully, the gate soon opened up, allowing for High Elf to strut through. He was tall and thin with golden skin, blonde, almost white hair, was elegantly done in a topknot to accentuate the trademark features of all High Elves, their high cheekbones. He wore a long, draping purple with black phoenix motifs at his shoulders that seemed to meld into one while his hands were tucked inside his robe. The lower part of the robe held black flames that flickered under the dim light when he came to a stop. His robe fluttered briefly in the wind as he looked down ‌his nose and sneered at the Slavers.

Aldrin used Inspect on the newcomer.

"You're short a couple," His voice was sharp and to the point, his golden eyes observing the group in front of him.

"Something recently destroyed one of our camps in the area, so we had to diverge our resources a bit," a Slaver coolly replied.

The High Elf contorted his face, baring his perfectly white teeth, "You will get half the payment then," he challenged, throwing a pouch of coins at their feet.

Looking at the pouch of coins on the ground then back at the High Elf, the lead Slaver shrugged, "We will have a shipment of fresh ones next week if you're still interested then," he said, turning around to walk back, ignoring the bag of coins on the ground.

That infuriated the High Elf more as his hands glowed and white glowing sigils appeared in the air. Goosebumps flared along Aldrin's body as the magic in the air sucked in towards the glowing sigils. The Slavers barely had a chance to defend themselves before the sigils unleashed beams of light from them that vaporized their intended targets.

"Grab them and bring them to my study," the High Elf demanded and walked off.

The High Guards obeyed and grabbed the captives, who were too fearful to move. Aldrin watched as they all disappeared behind the gate, leaving it unattended. Seizing the opportunity, he jumped from the rooftop, landing gracefully as a feather. Once he got close to the barred entrance, he used Shapechange turning himself into fog, enabling himself to flow in between the railings. He reformed on the other side, gaping in wonder at the mimicry of a university from Earth.

Manicured stone slab paths with magical lampposts dimly lit the way. Trees and artfully designed hedge bushes interceded along the walkways. The buildings themselves were constructed of stone that looked to be white marble, as each was designed to be functional in their shapes, much like the rest of the city. From the gate, down the center path stood an octagonal building with a glass roof, to the right a single floored medium sized square building with one light illuminated the doorway, and to the left an oval-shaped arena of some sorts made its presence known where he saw the guards from the gates leading the prisoners along.

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However, the tug in his chest pulled him toward a lone single-floored building. Deciding he could always follow the tug to lead him back, he however could not lose sight of the prisoners. Using Shapechange for his fog form, he trailed along the ground, keeping his distance. He kept a watchful 360 degree view of his surroundings, which was disorienting at first but, like him no longer needing to breathe, the view felt natural.

The looming doorway of the arena-like building opened automatically once the guards got closer, allowing Aldrin easy passage. Inside the building, doors of different make lined the corridor, creating intersections at every fifth one. Aldrin could sense magical enchantments oozing off the floors and walls of the place. Blending in with the shadows of the dim lighting, he followed along, passing two intersections and then making a left. They got to the end of the corridor and went up the stairs, with the next floor being the same layout.

One guard suddenly stopped, fishing out the silver marble from before. He stood still for a moment before looking at his fellow guard, confusedly. "We have an intruder? One enchantment got triggered?," He said, making Aldrin's lifeless blood chill.

"How? The enchantments at the gate should have alerted us the moment it happened?" The other guard asked.

"Dunno, probably just another issue with this new system being implemented," he shrugged.

Groaning, "Let's just drop these off to Master Tanyth's study and then deal with the alarm," the guard suggested.

Figuring that's all he could learn for now, Aldrin backtracked towards the entrance, flowing underneath the door since it didn't open automatically. Before leaving altogether, he went over to the single-floored building to take a quick peek inside. As he got closer, the tug in his chest became stronger, but so did an uneasy gnawing begin in his stomach. Reforming in front of the door since there weren't any seams to enter through, Aldrin pushed it open, revealing the inside to be a library with rows and rows of bookcases. In the center of it all, there was a staircase leading downward into a second sublevel of the library.

Aldrin followed it, descending three floors while keeping his senses on high alert. Figuring everyone would either be asleep or cooped up with their experiments, he still took no chances. He keenly listened for any heartbeats or sudden movements in the surrounding air.

On the fifth sublevel of the library, there was not another set of stairs to descend. Instead, he met magically locked doors. The tug directed him onwards, away from the staircase to his right, deeper inside. It reminded Aldrin of what his grandfather described how a storage building would look like on the inside. Following the pull through the underground maze, Aldrin quickly heard voices.

"The Queen demands results on your experiments, Tanyth!" a nasally voice threatened.

"I need more time, but I am close. I am just missing one last piece of the puzzle, and I think this new shipment might help." Tanyth's sharp voice answered.

"Need I remind you that the crown cannot keep sweeping these Slaver raids under the rug much longer?" the nasally voice whispered.

Tanyth's perfect eyebrow twitched. "And need I remind you, Councilman Roventa, that should any of these creatures be loose upon the city, we will have a situation worse than Vaultsrand?" he hissed back

"I have taken the necessary precautions, but I still need time to perfect it if we intend to end our Queendom's enemies once and for all," Tanyth huffed.

"I shall convey to the Queen that you are close, she will not be pleased about the matter so I suggest you make haste before she tires of you and wipes any traces of you from existence," Roventa warned before strutting toward Aldrin's hidden form.

Reforming into fog, Aldrin drifted upwards to hide in the shadows of the corner. Watching a short, gaunt looking Dwarf draped in a cloak that hid his features walk by, Aldrin's worst fear had been realized. Lor-Vold had Undead being kept somewhere, and the worst part of it all was that the Queen had a hand in it. Drifting down, Aldrin listened for Tanyth, but quietness greeted him instead. Feeling that was enough for one night, he backtracked again after waiting a few minutes for both culprits to be gone.

Once he arrived back on the surface, the grounds were crawling with High Guards running around looking for the intruder. Given this much action for one intruder, Aldrin concluded that the city of Lor-Vold desperately wanted to hide something sinister. Worried that switching to a swarm of bats would attract too much attention and with the lack of clouds in the night sky, his fog form wouldn't be able to pass for a low hanging cloud because of the lack of other clouds to begin with. It also helped that his fog was like shadowy tendrils, so he would need to do this with care.

Sticking to being a fog, he stuck to the shadows, hoping to use the outskirts of the grounds to get by.

"It got loose!" A High Guard came running from the arena looking building that housed the Alchemist studies.

Aldrin heard the loud crashing before he saw it. Adjusting his vision upwards, the glass shattered from one window on the top floor of the Alchemists study. A humanoid fell through the air, twitching and snarling on the way down. It landed on the pavement on all fours, as if gravity forgot to impose its will at the last second. Its clothes were tattered and ruined, much of how Aldrin assumed he looked after his initial Race change. Its skin was as pale as the full moon, and its fingers ended in blackened, dirty claws. As Aldrin looked at the appearance, it too gazed in his direction, making the pull of his stomach react.

The wispy white hair strands struggled for dear life when the breeze blew, revealing a gaunt face that looked like a bat and a human combined. Large fangs extended out of his mouth, adding another layer of horror to its sunken red eyes. Aldrin instinctively knew what exactly stood yards away, yet he chose to Inspect it anyway since he was dealing with Alchemists.

"Kiinnn. . ." It wheezed out, reaching for Aldrin.

Something deep inside Aldrin resonated with the word it said, shocking him to the core. Before he could resolve the conflict that dwelled inside of him, one of the High Guard pierced it through the brain, killing it instantly. The flicker of familiarity between them faded away as more of the High Guards assembled around the slain Vampire.

Tanyth rushed out of the library, rushing over to the group. "What happened?" he demanded, coming to a stop when he saw the body.

"Master!" A young man with a shaved head and pointed ears came rushing out of the building dressed in a dark purple robe much of the same color as Tanyth.

Tanyth moved his ire filled gaze from the Vampire to the newcomer. "What have I told you, you idiot apprentice!" He grabbed the front of the young man's robe.

"It bit one guard and killed the other!" The apprentice answered quickly, hoping to appease the tightly wound High Elf.

That news immediately improved Tanyth's mood as he let go of the apprentice, gesturing for him to lead the way. "Clean this mess up before someone sees what they aren't supposed to!" Tanyth ordered as he walked away.

The High Guards whipped into action at the order, allowing ‌Aldrin to sneak past. Reforming a few blocks away in an alley, he let himself slide to the ground. Reeling from the fact that this may be worse than a zombie outbreak. A Vampire outbreak would be ten times as worse.