Chapter 1: Chapter 1: A City of Unfamiliar Faces. (Part 1)

"Its Hot."

    That's was my first thought0 but it was the pain that swiftly engulfed my mind and forced me to full alertness, every fiber of my body hurt and I was unable to recall why. Forcing my eyes open and my head to lift my vision was filled with the blaze of the sun and blood stained sand of a desert, slowly lifting myself up I became aware of the bodies encircling me. Confused and disoriented my first priority was myself, slowly and carefully rising into a sitting position I checked myself for any injuries and found only minor cuts and scraps for the most part but cracked helmet and feel of dried blood in my hair suggested I had sustained some head trauma. Assessing that the damage to myself was minimal I began taking inventory of my surroundings, it was clear a fierce battle had taken place here and neither side seemed to have survived the encounter. Half the bodies were clad in black armor made of some kind of leather and chainmail the others were covered only in simple cloth but their armored reptilian hides seemed more than capable of handling the attacks of most weapons. As I surveyed the battlefield my memory began to return, the bodies in armor are my fallen comrades the mercenary group known as the black serpents. The others were a band of lizard men who had been terrorizing several merchant group traveling to Phoenix Empire from our own Gazar Kingdom, we had been enlisted by a coalition of merchants to discover where they had been operating from and wipe them out entirely.

    Still something about this wasn't right my head began throbbing as more of the past came flooding back. The academy, that's were I should be right now not in this godforsaken desert. Why was I here and not performing my research in rune creation or teaching a class on advanced magic theory and its application in modern technology through alchemy. No, that's not right either, I clearly remember Clint pulling me off the streets and training me. My talent for erasing my presence and pickpocketing had caught his eye and he was sure I would make a perfect scout if raised correctly. They may not have been far from perfect and honestly down right abusive but the black serpents were the closest thing to family I had. Ugh the pain returned more intense at that thought, family bah, since when have I ever needed those pathetic rats. All they ever did was try to use my talents in magic for their own personal gain, being treated as merely a pawn to advance them further up the social ladder and get them closer to the old nobility that they sought to impress at every turn. Every achievement or accomplishment a simple step for them to climb on, but in the end it was I who stood above them all with the royalty on one side and the elites on the other. I carved a place for myself that they could never reach and made sure to leave them in ruin, a mere shell that had every last shred of pride ripped away as I watch from my perch on high.

   What was happening to me? It felt as if two people were fighting for dominance in my head and neither cared about breaking me so long as they won. Then the faint sound of a horn reached my ears, most likely reinforcements for the lizard men on their way here after the initial raid party hadn't returned. I didn't have time for this internal struggle, if I didn't get away from this spot soon then death surly awaited me. Pushing down the internal turmoil and willing myself to stand I quickly surveyed the surroundings and located what supplies I could, I knew there wasn't much time but without anything I wouldn't survive in this desert for long. Still there just wasn't time to sort through the carnage and grab what I needed, then the simple answer came to me. If I couldn't sort through it then just take it all, I raised my hand and chanted words I had never hear before and as if it had all been a lie the battlefield was gone only bloody sand showed in sign a battle had happened. The sound of the horn drew closer, not knowing if I could re-summon any of what had disappeared I decided it didn't matter and promptly chose a direction opposite of the sound and began running.

    Run. Faster. Faster. I have to get away but.. Hours had passed since I had started running, the sun had began to set and the heat of the desert had subsided. Still I didn't feel safe I couldn't stop, my every instinct told me to keep running. Not just from the enemy but from myself, if I stopped they would start again and I couldn't deal with that yet.

    "He's going to kill himself at this rate."

    "You mean he's going to kill us, don't forget if he dies so do we."

    "WHAT! When did that happen!?"

    "WE are part of him, did you honestly not realize that? At any rate we need to do something, I can bolster his endurance with magic but that will only last so long."

    "Right, I don't know where we are exactly but since we were near the boarder if we head north it should bring us close to the first town on the trade route the merchants were using. I'll force him in that direction and boost my detection skill to the max, can you increase his speed aswell?"

    "Yes, but using multiple spells with drain his mana faster it was already at half capacity when he awoke."

    "How long do we have?"

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    "Three days at most."

   "Then it's our best course he'll die of exhaustion by then if we don't find a town and get him to rest."

    I continued running focusing on nothing else,  but for some strange reason my body felt lighter and the fatigue began to fade. Not only that but my speed seemed to increase by a factor of three. The strangest thing of is I could suddenly sense everything around me, animals hiding in their burrows, the direction of the wind, the flow of the sands around me. Something began to pull me in certain direction and with no better alternatives I followed the instinct.

    Time passed, how much I didn't know my only focus when running as far as possible. At some point I changed course, there was now a destination that I could just vaguely sense to my endless flight. A place I had to reach above all else, I doubled down and pushed forward certain that salvation lay in wait.

    "Its been almost two day's now, are you certain this is the correct path"

    "Yes, it was just barely but I sensed a caravan on the edge of my detection range. After focusing in that direction and closing everything else off I was able to feel a large mass of people."

   "Of people or something that seemed like people? We could be heading into a death trap for all we know!"

    "Do we have any other options? After all you expened quite a bit of mana to get us through that sand storm didn't you?"

    "*Sigh* your right but in this state can we even make it to the settlement? Wouldn't it be better to try and reach the caravan instead?"

    "The caravan isn't that much closer and I'd rather take my chances with a place that has at least some rule of law than the naive notion that any random Stanger would help you instead of stab you in the back. Besides in the state he's in he'll need immediate medical treatment before anything else and even then.."

   Finally I could see it in the distance, the hazy appearance of some structure. I pushed myself forward by sheer will even as the darkness began to engulf me, every inch I could get closer too it was vital to my survival of this I was certain. I collapsed, my body unwilling to go any further, I could almost touch its wall it was so close but I would never reach it now. My mind faded and my vision waned, the last thing my body could sense was a light pitter-patter and the gasp of someone's breath.

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