Thalys waved goodbye to Kara and Faux at the gate of Tolley. The two adventurers made their way north to their home in Rullenfay while Thalys went south to his homeland of Maeltryst, and his wife-to-be Karis. Within a days time, he could see the familiar fields of his land coming into view. As the sun wane low in the sky, he made his way over the final hill to see the capital of Maeltryst…demolished.
Fear rushed through the nobleman’s mind of all the possibilities that could have happened. With all haste he sped down the hill, running faster and faster by the minute. He ran through the knocked down gates of the northern wall to see the city within. Half of the city was completely destroyed, many burst down while others looking like they were hit with a tornado. By this time Thalys could tell that the damage was done days before, for people were already picking things up and rebuilding. Several familiar faces greeted Thalys while they went on their way working, and yet several more were nowhere to be seen.
Thalys found himself moving in a particular direction without thought: Karis’ home. Half way there he spotted her, helping a few people with picking up torn down bricks and stones. She had a bandage around her head, and another one on her right arm, along with several minor cuts and bruises. Her hair was matted to her face with sweat, and dirt was apparent all over her. Obviously, she had been working almost non-stop for several days now. Karis spotted him and dropped the stone she was carrying instantly. With a renewed spirit she dashed towards him, colliding in his chest and collapsing. Thalys caught her weak body and held her close, nuzzling his cheek in her hair.
“Oh, Thalys! I’m so glad you made it home safe! I was so worried about you!” Karis exclaimed, openly weeping.
“W-What happened here, Karis? What is the meaning of all this destruction?” Thalys asked.
Karis pulled herself away from Thalys and looked him in the eyes, her own not losing their lusting color despite her fatigue. A warm smile filled Thalys’ visage, for despite her battered condition, Karis still looked as beautiful as ever.
“It all happened about two weeks ago. These four strangers showed up out of nowhere and just started attacking everything and everyone in their path. The military stood no chance against them, and soon even they had to retreat to hold guard on the castle. I also fought them…but I couldn’t keep up with the two short ones. They were so…weird! They had these narrow, lifeless eyes…but no other facial features at all. One was all black and white while the other was black and gre-” Karis began to explain, but stopped when she saw Thalys’ shocked expression.
“No way…th-that thing is still alive?! And there are more of them?” he said in disbelief.
“You know of these guys?” Karis asked, surprised as well.
“I ran into one of them, the black and white one, twice on my journey. He nearly killed me the first time…” Thalys said, still unable to comprehend how the faceless had survived Kara’s attack back at Tier Bastion. “What of the other two…what were they like?” he asked.
“Well, one of them was this crazy fire adept with a rapier…every time he swung or jabbed that blade it started blazing with fire. The other one had long black hair and looked really beat up. He didn’t use any weapons at all, he just punched and tore things down…like he was a void adept or something,” Karis continued, her eyes widening when Thalys’ did.
“Draven…how can this be? I saw him…I saw him fall to his doom…” Thalys gasped, putting his face into his hands and shaking. “Th-this is all my fault. If I hadn’t gotten involved in all this…so many people wouldn’t have died I-I’m so sorry, Karis!” he started saying, grabbing a hold of Karis and pulling her close in a tight hug.
“H-Honey it’s alright…despite the damage no one was killed. It’s like they came here for something. As soon as they smashed into the jewelry store they left…” Karis said, starting to get worried.
Thalys let go and looked at Karis, his eyes slowly starting to calm down. “T-Then everyone is alright?” Thalys let out a sigh of relief and smacked himself in the head for getting so worked up.
“Yeah…it was strange because every time the black haired man would try to kill someone, one of the small guys just stared at him and he’d stop. It was as if they didn’t want him to kill anyone,” Karis said, wrapping her arms around Thalys’ neck to comfort him.
“T-That’s good I suppose…but the destruction…It will take us all autumn to fix this up. What of our wedding?” Thalys said, his mind gathering on other things.
“What about our wedding? We’ll finish the repairs in the fall, practice our fighting in the winter, get married in the spring, and then go on an adventure! You do remember your promise, don’t you?” Karis said, staring at Thalys with her emerald green eyes.
“But of course! And I’ve got a special plan for our adventure…something very important, kind of like a mission,” Thalys said, beaming.
“Really? What do you mean?” Karis said, pulling Thalys to sit down and tell her everything.
“Well…along my way, I met a group of adventurers from Rullenfay who were searching for the Adept’s Stone,” Thalys began.
“The Adept’s Stone? I thought that was just some old myth?” Karis said, but she could tell from the grin on Thalys’ face that it was quite real.
“Oh, it’s real alright. I saw it with my own eyes! It turned out that some assassin named Voyse from the southwest had found the stone, but then had it taken from him by Draven Bladenheart, the black haired man that attacked here, I believe. This Draven character built an army at the ancient castle of Tier Bastion. So, I eventually made my way to Tier Bastion, and got involved in a huge battle between Cloud City soldiers and the Bladenheart army. There, I met up with these two bounty hunters who were after Voyse, who happened to be at Tier Bastion in search of the stone. To make a long story short, the adventurers from Rullenfay, the bounty hunters, the assassin, and myself all ended up joining forces to fight Draven. He died, at least I thought he did when he fell down into a very deep crater. Well, Voyse managed to take the Adept’s Stone somehow and got away. So, the adventurers of Rullenfay are going to go search for him, along with the bounty hunters, and we’re also going to help. Come spring, I invited them all to our wedding where we’ll go on our adventure afterwards!” Thalys said excitedly.
