Chapter 0 - At Any Cost

It was a dark morning along the realms today. Clouds hung over every road, city and town, yet no rain fell. However, that meant it wasn't hot or sweaty. Many people, adventurers and otherwise, were grateful, as there had been a hot spell recently.

A lone figure walked along a beaten dirt track. Dust-covered simple shoes and dark-grey trousers led up to a grey tunic and bracers. The figure's left hand shot up to shield a pair of light blue eyes from a beam of sunlight sneaking through a gap in a cloud. A wooden holster holding a wand was fixed to his left bicep. The purple "C.X." on his tunic's left side shone slightly.

"Help! Help me! Please!" A cry sounded from behind him and he turned, reaching for his wand just in case. He quickly noticed that he didn't need it. The woman running towards him had pale skin, bright blonde hair falling onto her shoulders, and wore a black dress that had certainly seen better days. She had small cuts all over her body, too. "Please-please help me!" The woman begged him.

"What's wrong?" Ciaran Xanderson asked.

"I-I'm on the run from a bunch of puritans who killed my husband I thought it was such a good idea to stay the night there at first but now he's dead and I-"

"Slow down." the wizard told her. She was talking too fast for him. "A bunch of assholes killed your husband and you're running away from them. I got that part, and I'm sorry to hear it."

She swallowed and spoke slower. "Thank you... We were heading for his homeland to the East. We stopped for a night in this city called Pureza. It was only when the guards burst into the room that we learned interspecies relationships are punishable by death." The woman explained. "He didn't hesitate-charged into them like the minotaur he was and started swinging fists. I wanted to help him, but he reminded me of our child, so I ran..."

"What makes you so sure he's gone?"

"I felt it... Like a spear through my heart... I knew he was gone... so I just... kept running..." She began to sob.

"What do you need from me?"

"I... just need an escort... while I keep moving East... I can't offer anything in return but my-ah! They're here!" She ducked behind Ciaran.

Ciaran wheeled around, drawing his wand, but placing it behind his back instead of raising it. He'd rather this not degenerate into a fight. 2 dozen guards, all clad in steel armour, were walking towards him.

"Sir, I regret to inform that a fugitive of justice is hiding behind you." One of them told the wizard. He was clearly the leader-he wore a golden strip of cloth on his waist.

Ciaran answered politely "Yes, she just told me that you killed her minotaur husband and she ran to save her child."

"Then you understand why we're here?" The leader sounded hopeful that Ciaran would turn the woman over.

"Not one bit. She's away from your city and outside of your jurisdiction." Ciaran simply said. Behind his back, he fingered the handle of his wand.

"Our laws have no jurisdiction. There can be no sanctuary for women like her."

"'Women like her'?" Ciaran repeated.

"Race traitors. Interbreeders. Only a savage would seek the company of beasts." The leader stated matter-of-factly "Now, step aside so we can bring this woman to justice and-"
Ciaran had heard enough. His wand swished through the air followed by his cry of "Glacies Sagitta!"

The spike of ice shot from his wand and hit the leader's bare forehead, embedding itself inside.The leader toppled backwards and hit the ground with a thud. The other soldiers gasped in shock. One of the men cried "You-you killed him!"

"Good to know your eyes work." Ciaran answered coldly, pointing his wand at the rest of them. "I give the rest of you a single chance to surrender and run. Your city is making the same bigoted, morally depraved mistake that caused the Butchering of Westend."

"What the hell was the Butchering of Westend?" A woman asked, stepping forwards.

"It was a massive civil war between humans and non-humans. Millions were killed." One of the men answered.

"Since the Butchering, every citizen of Westend has had to take an oath once they hit adulthood: Never again." Ciaran added "If I have to kill you all to uphold that oath, so be it. If I have to burn your city until it is nothing but glass to uphold that oath, so be it."

"Are you threatening our city?!" The woman shouted.

"Are YOU continuing to threaten this innocent woman?!" Ciaran spat back. He felt nothing but rage coursing through him.

"You call her innocent?! She lay with a minotaur!"

"Oh, dear Gods! A woman lay with a man that she was in love with!" Ciaran sarcastically shouted "She's clearly unfit to be a mother, or even to exist at all!" Ciaran's tone became a lot darker "Going by that logic, you probably execute homosexual people for absolutely nothing but being homosexual too."

A few of the guards were visibly taken aback by this. One man spoke up "We used to... long before any of our times... But it was described as inhumane and stricken from the laws..."
"Enough of this talk! This wizard just killed a guard of our city! KILL HIM!" The woman ordered. Most of the guards charged at him, but he noticed 6 or so of them stayed put.

Ciaran jumped backwards while pointing his wand forwards, shouting "Fluvius Ignis!" A jet of fire burst from his wand's tip and drove the guards backwards. He quickly followed up with a cry of "Fulgur fluunt" and the stream of lightning connected between 5 of them, but the spell channeled around their armour and into the ground. 

Internally padded armour. So they weren't as stupid as they were bigoted.

The guards kept charging at him, and while he was able to deflect their blows with shorts blasts of force, he had no chance to counterattack. One of them tried to get behind him and was rewarded with another icicle to the head, but this only infuriated the rest of them further. Their blows came faster and harder, and Ciaran had to drive them back from him somehow-

"Fluvius ignis!" Ciaran's second stream of fire pushed them back a fraction, but it was a temporary relief. They recovered quickly.

One of the 6 guards who didn't attack Ciaran charged into the fray with a shout and her one-handed axe met the head of one of the other guards. She wrenched it out of his head with a spin that placed her by Ciaran's side. She looked the other guards in the eyes, placing herself in front of him.

"The wizard's right. Love isn't a crime." she told them simply.

"Treachery is! Kill h-GLRK!" The guardwoman's shout was silenced by a greatsword stabbing through her armour from behind. 

"That's enough out of you!" The male guard behind her snarled before wrenching out his sword and turning to the other 4. "For once, let's fight for something we -know- is right!" With no more hesitation, the 5 of them all jumped into the ensuing battle, assisting Ciaran. They had also removed their helmets so they could tell who was ally and foe in their otherwise identical armour.

With only 5 or so guards attacking him now, Ciaran was able to focus a lot better. He was able to blast one of them backwards with another Repulsa spell and duck another's sword swing. He swished his wand upwards and the sword was flung into the air. 

In the brief opening, the female ex-guard next to him rushed forwards and tackled a burly guard wielding a warhammer. The wizard caught a glimpse of another ex-guard plunge a dagger into the eyeslit of a helmet. The wearer screamed out loud until the other dagger slipped under his helmet and he was silenced.

Ciaran's next ice spike hit a nearby guard in the arm. He recoiled and shouted in pain, giving one of the rouges the chance to run him through the neck from behind. The soldiers were clearly shaken by their loss of momentum; they'd become slightly sloppier. Good. That made this easier.

Ciaran's next spell came with a shout of "Glacies Conlectus" with his wand pointing downwards. The ice spike hit the ground at his feet, and it was frozen as the wizard jumped backwards. One of the guards, who'd lunged forward in an attempt to attack, was stuck in place by the spell. Another ice spike under the helmet finished them off.

The last guard fighting him swung her mace but it was met with a blast of force from Ciaran's wand. The mace flew from her grasp and Ciaran gave her no reprieve-shooting another stream of fire that cooked her alive in her armour as she screamed in agony. A similar agony to the pain she was allowing and enforcing against others, Ciaran hoped. 

He turned around and froze in shock; one burly guard using a warhammer managed to knock two of the rogues off balance at once with a single swing that left a streak of red embers in it's wake. Ciaran recognized the enchantment used; Melting Point. The guard advanced to one of them as they both lay prone, weakened by the attack. The guard raised the warhammer, about to kill the rogue soldier.

"Arcane Iecit!" Ciaran shouted. He flashed purple for a second as he pointed his wand at the guard, who'd turned to him in shock. His purple streak of light pierced through the chestplate and the guard toppled, falling to the side.

Only one guard was left now; he dropped his mace in defeat. The others walked forwards but Ciaran threw his arms wide, stopping them. He walked forwards himself.

"I've spared you to deliver a message." Ciaran warned, his tone as venomous as the deadliest snake. "Tell your city that if even one more person comes for this woman, or her child, I will come to your city and burn it to the ground, lest it's corrupt views spread and infect the rest of the world. Nobody will survive. More importantly, nobody will notice until it's too late."

The guard nodded, grabbed their mace and ran back the way the guards came. There was a definite pause, broken by a sword dropping to the ground. "We just killed our comrades..." One of the male guards was shocked.

"This is what the Butchering was. But it was an entire realm turning on itself." Ciaran told him, sadly. "The humans who took the non-human's side were decried as race-traitors too. All of that happened because a Queen wished it so."

"Is this Pureza's fate?" The pregnant woman asked him.

"It will be, unless they make some very big changes to their corrupt, biased and pointless laws. I won't hold my breath." The wizard replied "Still, we've made sure they won't be coming after you."

"Yeah... Is this the part where I offer myself to you as thanks?" The woman joked, but still sounding serious about it.

"If you do, I'll decline. I'm not into pregnant women." Ciaran politely answered. "I'll still escort you East though. You may attract bandits or worse by yourself."

"What about us? We can't go back." One of the guards asked.

"That's up to you. Personally, I'd throw away the armour and get as far away from your city as possible." Ciaran told them before turning to the woman and gesturing forwards. "By the way, Ciaran Xanderson."

"Oh, um, Nessia Blazhenok. Formerly Taura."

Saving a woman called Nessia? Ciaran got the feeling that fate was taunting him now.

It wasn't much further East. Ciaran expected him and Nessia to be on the go for two or three days, but thanks to a passing horse carriage, they arrived at the village just as night was beginning to fall. Well, Nessia told him it was the village but he couldn't tell due to the huge wall made of logs. It looked more like a fort. 

Two guards, one holding an greataxe and the other a spear and shield, stopped them as they approached. "Identify yourself and state your business here." The greataxe one commanded.

Nessia spoke "I am Harold Blazhenok's pregnant wife. I must speak with the Chief."

The guard was taken aback, but recovered and turned to Ciaran "And you?"

"Ciaran Xanderson." The wizard answered "Nessia asked me to escort her here."

"Very well. Follow me." The spear and shield one told them, opening the gate. "You too, Mr Xanderson-the Chief will want to speak with you."

The village was primarily made of wooden shacks and huts, each as high as two of the wizard. Mere curtains of cloth covered the entrances. There was various words painted over each doorway: "Alchemist", "Blacksmith", "Leatherworker", "Fletcher" and-

Wait, Fletcher? There were people who still used bows and arrows? In most places, it was a dying practice due to the limited supplies of wood and the higher effectiveness of magic. Ciaran supposed that in a land full of trees, the first one wouldn't be so much of a problem as back West.

They were led into a building made of a lighter-coloured wood than the others. The word above the door said "Chief's House". There was a huge table in the centre at which many minotaurs sat.

The chief of the village was a hulking behemoth. At least three heads taller than Ciaran, and a fair share wider. He had light brown skin and a body like a brick house. Just by looking at him, Ciaran understood how he'd become chief. 

Next to his throne sat a female centaur who was obviously heavily pregnant: her lower half was swollen and you could make out spots on her tunic where milk from her breasts was leaking. She smiled at Ciaran and Nessia as they approached.

"Chief William." Nessia stepped forwards "I am Nessia Blazhenok, and I have come bearing Harry Blazhenok's child, as well as news of his fate."

"What news of him?" He voice was gentler than Ciaran expected.

"Gone from this life." She answered stoically. "You know of Pureza?"

"Yes."

"Me and Harold stopped for a night there. The guards tried to execute us, but he charged in and started fighting to give me time to run. I ran until late morning, pursued by guards. However, this wizard-" she gestured to Ciaran "-fought off the guards and saved me, then escorted me here."

"I see. You shall be looked after by a handmaiden until the child is born. We shall honour Harry's memory tomorrow. Now, get yourself cleaned up, fed and rested." Nessia bowed herself out, muttering a last thank you to Ciaran. The chief now addressed him "As thanks for bringing his wife and unborn child safely to us, I offer you a place to rest with wine, women and song." He added with a slight smile "Or wine, man and song."

"I'll just take the wine and song, thank you. It's been too long of a day for a woman." Ciaran replied. "Pink wine, if you have it. Or rum."

"Rum it is." The chief answered, smirking before turning to a female minotaur. "Darla, if you could escort our new friend here to your house and play him something?"

The minotaur nodded and approached Ciaran. "Please follow me, sir."

The chief's next words reached Ciaran's ears as he turned around and followed her out of the building: "Thomas, fetch a bottle of rum and take it to Darla's place. Then check on Nessia and see if she needs anything."

Darla led him through the village to the left side. She hummed a tune as they walked, but Ciaran didn't recognize it. He hadn't expected to; he was a long, long way from either Westend or Asmana, and they were entirely different cultures on their own. He decided to just take in some of the sights, but it didn't seem that different to any other town or village. That said, why should it be?

He followed her into a shack with green vines twisted around the doorframe. "Darla" was painted over the frame. There wasn't much inside-just two straw beds and a small fire pit that was unlit. Once inside, she produced what looked like a wooden egg with holes carved into it. A tube extended from the side. 

Ciaran's eyes went a little wider. "Is that an ocarina?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." Darla told him, smiling "Flutes are too unwieldy for me."

"I haven't seen or heard one of those since I left Westend."

"You're from Westend?"

"Born and raised, but I left and headed to Asmana. Don't ask how I ended up here-I just drift around." Ciaran smirked.

"I understand. I've never been interested in the adventuring life, myself."

"Well, I won't try to convince you otherwise. Settling down is certainly a safer option. And it comes with much less risks." Ciaran's voice broke very slightly on the last three words.

Before Darla could ask, another minotaur came through the curtain, holding a bottle of rum and a wooden cup. "Your rum, sir. Just so you know, it's likely stronger than what you're used to."

"Thank you... Thomas, wasn't it?" Ciaran asked.

The minotaur nodded "Yes, sir. Do you need anything else?"

"No thanks." The wizard answered "But please tell Nessia that she doesn't owe me anything for helping her."

As Thomas bowed himself out, Ciaran poured himself a cup and drank deeply. The rum was sweet as honey, and had more bite behind it than the usual drink. That was okay though. He lay down on the bed and nodded at Darla.

Darla raised the ocarina to her lips and began to play. Her chosen tune was deep, slow and paced. A memory drifted into the forefront of Ciaran's mind: his mother lulling him to sleep with a similar sounding song. He could practically hear the words...

"Oh, dear child of mine,
worry not as you close your eyes.
Hear my song of peace and love,
know it's for you, my sweet little dove.
Fall into sleep, do not be afraid.
Mommy is here, so into dreams fade."

Ciaran felt his eyes slipping closed; his dreams were inviting him in. As he felt himself falling into sleep, he knew that his dreams would not become nightmares. His past would not serve to torment him this night. He smiled and allowed himself to fall into the ether.