blood red smiles and silver tears

A crisp cold night reflected feigned emptiness onto the world in the town of Teneburoh in the territory of Sinistareia. The barrier of avarice stops the inhabitants of Sinistareia from leaving there. And locked them in a perpetual nighttime state; their interaction with the world is limited to brief and uninformative talks with the members of the Amaraian pleurs—Rosalba Church of the Creator God—when they bring items for sale or trade and relay the requests of their higher ups. The biggest town in Sinistareia is a medium-cave dwelling society that is focused on the farming of mosses and plants for medicinal and alchemical use, along with the fur trade.

A boy around 16 years of age walks up to a wooden door. The stone house or room, to be more accurate, that was connected to the door was in complete, and utter shambles the boy opens the door, his mid-length messy white hair swishing slightly to the right as his piercing red eyes surveyed the buildings dark, empty interior. "I guess she's working over again," he whispered to himself as if to confirm. He closed the door, mildly annoyed by her absence, and walked down the narrow dirt and stone path covered in a thin layer of fog as his black robe was complying to the winds every provocation with a dance as he continued to his destination. 

Eventually he reached a strip of small buildings with a meduim one off to the side, as if they were ashamed of it. Lamps were placed on the ground in front of the building; the building was made of wood, which is a rarity in Sinistareia. He pushed the large door open. He was almost immediately greeted by a woman; her name was Anhe Beltis; she was in her mid- to late 30's with a revealing blue dress with a robe hanging below the shoulders with a white fur collar and golden metal leaf-like accessories across her tan skin; her hair was a bobcut with a blue gradient; and she started by leaning against the wooden back wall of the front room, covered in the lamp light that lit all but the room's corners. "Oh, Izu Hona is still busy at the moment, but i can entertain you," he rolled his eyes to her statement clearly made in jest as he responded, "Yikes, you really don't have any sense of shame." Izu says, feigning disgust."it comes with the job, sweetheart," she teases. izu decided it best to ignore her and wait for Hona. 

Hona finally comes out of a hallway lined with doors, shivering slightly. She pushes a clump of brown hair with a single strand of white hair aside, her gentle, pink eyes unfocused as she steps to Anhe. The interaction ended with Homa holding a small bag of coins and some extra things, like a small bit of food and a shirt. Anhe says while observing Hona's disarray, "Aw, you really are so innocent if you're not used to it yet." Hona chose to ignore the statement after she saw Izu in the corner. He had fallen asleep while waiting for her. She woke him up gently. Her smile became more genuine, seemingly, when his gaze landed on her. "Oh, you're finally finished "mother dearest"." Izu said calmly. Hona playfully pouted in response while helping Izu stand up. "Don't call me "mother dearest" it makes me feel so old" she retorted. Izu smiled. "Oh,you aren't, you could've fooled me,old woman," Izu said while picking up Hona's bags and opening the door. "I'm not that old. I'm in my late 20's," she declared defensively, as if proving a dire point. She spent the rest of the walk silently looking at the ground fondly. 

They walked across town into the small roofed room that they called home. Izu lit a lamp and placed a book into Hona's lap, interrupting her sowing."You could've waited if you wanted me to read you a bedtime story," she smiled, both offering and just kidding. "Maybe another time, but I found a book that says we could escape from the great barrierof avarice, " he says happily. Hona looks to the floor thinking about her response, "Don't be silly; life is fine here; we have each other:you have yet to go hungryabd believing a random book from tge library is... and besides, you already know the punishment for even attempting to escape. " His expression is a mix between being disheartened and proud, like he has something else to say. "I stole it from the campsite of the amaraian pleurs-Rosalba." Hona's expression became mad, sad, worried, conflicted, and confused. She chose to simply say, "Go to bed and lets hope that no one notices that their storybook is missing." They retreat to bed. Homa spends awhile thinking about how she could make Izu happy. She'd love nothing more than for his joy, because only then could she be happy. As she stared at a spiderweb in the corner of the room, she fell asleep listening to Izu's breathing. His presence is as reassuring as ever.

As the night moved along, yet his head stayed on the same topic. Izu left and made the nearly five-hour walk to the closest wall of the barrier. He read the book and the list of potential things that can occur if he does anything wrong. The list seemed incohesive, and like they randomly listed whatever negative sounding thing they could think of, he placed his hand against the barrier, thinking about random things like the very few people he's seen actually leave. His hand starts to hurt; it feels like his whole body is being electrocuted, burned, and crushed simultaneously. He nearly passed out as his body went numb. All he could feel was the cold book in his hand. He recited a short passage from the book, the wind making his words inaudible. He pushed his hand onto the barrier before retracting it as a vaguely draconic figure compromised of darkness constantly shifting, reconstructing, and swirling. He still couldn't move; he all but accepted death at that point. As he fell onto the ground, crawling as far away as he could, his breathing ragged, he stared into the mass of darkness and its piercing red eyes and everything dying around it—grass and trees alike—as it walked effortlessly through the barrier. One of the strongest known things known to God or man was ignored. Izu shivered, recalling having read about the sovereign of darkness, the dark abyssal dragon Anurans, and one of the two creations of fates refelction. As this realization hit him, he froze, hoping that his guess was incorrect, but as the amalgamation of darkness came by, a light shined originating from Izu, and the draconic shape began evaporating. Izu then passed out.