- The Parade of a Thousand Colors

The Receptionist gave the strange cloaked figure an odd look, her eyes passing over the well written name on the sheet of paper she held in her hand. She had seen many strange and odd looking people come through here before, but this was a first for her.

"So…you want a guild license and…what was it?"

The cloaked figure took out a small hand from behind the flaps of her cloak and pointed towards the large bulletin board behind the women. It was layered with hundreds of papers, some small, some poorly written and some were even falling apart by the second.

The Receptionist barely spared the bulletin board a glance, and upon hearing nothing from the cloaked figure, she took a deep breath and sighed. She knew this bunch of people and how they would come into her shop, into ear station and ask for a job.

In all honesty she didn't mind the work, nor did she mind the fact that so many people wanted to work in the first palace. In her mind it was better than them rotting on the streets.

But some just had too much ambition.

"So, what, are you desperate for money? If you want money the station can give you a loan until you get settled. There's no need to go straight out there and take on a mission."

The cloaked figure shook their head again, and pointed toward the bulletin board behind her. Suddenly the Receptionist was beginning to wonder if this person before her was in fact mute. But if that was the case, she knew they wouldn't last very long in this line of work.

She took one last glance at the figure before her and sighed, her mind waving between what was right in her head and what was wrong in her heart.

'I should get the Station Master for this. But still…it's not like she's doing anything wrong, it's just…'

There was an odd feeling of power within this figure, and the Receptionist was worried, being in a prominent city, that she would be rejecting some hidden hero. She didn't want that type of heat on her back, so with steady eyes and a wavering mind, she reached back and pulled a C class post from the board.

"Here. You'll start at C rank, and you can work your way up from there."

As the figure slowly reached for the sheet of parchment, the Receptionist quickly drew it back, her eyes steady and her voice stern.

"Now listen here. I'm giving you this on the account that you bring it back to me completed or not. I don't want any blood on my hands."

The figure nodded and with a steady hand the Receptionist handed it along with another small sheet of paper to the cloaked figure as they made their way out of the Station.

The Receptionist watched the figure go and took note of her smooth skin but rough hands, the touch still burning her skin. It was an oddity amongst the oddity the figure already was, as she thought back to the moment when the figure fist came into the Station and asked for a license.

That was testing day, three days ago. And in those three days, the Receptionist had never seen so many Adventurous beaten to the ground.

'That one…let's hope she doesn't burn the city to the ground with her ambition.'

An ambition that, like a fire, was still vivid in the woman's mind as he thought back to that fateful day the Station had tested her. How the room burned in crimson fire like a flower in a meadow of flames.

'She will either fly, or crash to the ground in a sea of fire.'

***

The door of the Station closed noiselessly behind Lia as she held the two sheets of smooth and study paper in her hands. It had been a while since she felt such nice paper, and her mind drifted back to the time in Morden and how rough their parchment was.

It was a warm memory that made her smile, before the deafening sounds of music filled her ears.

She looked up to find a large crowd of people lining the streets as confetti fell from the sky in a brilliance of colors, from red to blue and yellow to green. People cheered and clapped and cheered again as a large marching band made their way through the streets, their music loud and echoing through the air as Lia stuffed the papers in her back pocket.

'It's nice to hear such happiness filling the streets.'

Like a memory and a joyous one, the warm music filled her ears and brought her back to the taverns filled with drums and drunk singing. It made her chuckle as she made her way through the crowded sidewalks.

She missed those times.

'You know those moments will always be with you. Enjoy the change for now, while it lasts.'

And like the fond memories that flooded her head, a voice she knew well echoed in her mind as Lia ducked below a large hanging sign. The marching band was moving on now, and instead the streets were filled with knights in their best suits, their swords raised to their chests as they marched as one, their feet pounding into the stone like a drum beating in rhythm.

'I know they won't leave me. But still, the wound is raw and fresh.'

'It takes time, I know. But life won't always wait for you to heal.'

Lia took a deep breath and sighed, choosing to ignore the large crowds of people clearly interested in the parade rather than herself, and instead she opted for the alleys field with nothing but shadows. It was a silence and a peaceful calm that gave her a chance to breathe.

'So, I have to be ready then?'

She removed her hood as her long black hair fell to her shoulders. It had been getting longer recently and she was thinking about cutting it but seeing how quickly the dark color melded with the shadows, she could hardly see the length anymore.

'But for what?'

'That is a question that lies with the unanswered. Work your way through the city and do what needs to be done. Answers come when you aren't looking.'

Lis shook her head, a feeling of nostalgia coming over her as she remembered how in the past, she and Cain would talk like this for hours on end. He was her only company for a ng time before she met her friends, and a long time after that.

'So, what was this mission you were so keen on having me get, Cain?'

'A mission that will set you off on this chapter in your life. It's simply there to get you started, considering you have nothing right now.'

'...tell me about it.'

Since her arrival in this city five days ago, Lia had no money, no food, and the only thing she had to her name was the sword attached to her waist. That and the experience she brought with her from the lands of Morden.

But even experience couldn't pay for a warm bed.

Lia took a sharp turn down another alleyway, alleyways she was used to traveling since she didn't like large crowds. In this city she knew better than to show her face so openly, that was why she held back in the testing phase the Station Master had given her. If she really did go all out then she would have too many eyes on her back, which was not something she wanted right now.

The sounds of the parade still did not fade as more and more cheers were heard in the echoes of the shadows, Lia's glowing crimson eyes being the only thing that shone from the darkness that enveloped her, making her appear as a ghost.

Then it happened, as she was making her way down the last stretch of an alley, the street just before her dyed in the sun's beautiful light, she found a dark figure standing before her suddenly as he appeared for the shadows.

She came to a stop before the man, whose face was covered in small scars and an ugly grin. He didn't look like an average street person that Lia saw hiding in the alleys, poor people who dug through the trash for food or other things. He was something along the lines of a ruffian.

Someone useless in her eyes.

'It seems he's not the only one here. There are two more behind you.'

'I feel them. They're close…'

The man before her, whose figure was twice the size of Lia's and whose muscles bulged with veins and strength, leaned down with a wide smirk covering his face.

"Well, well, well. I didn't think to see you again…always traveling down these alleys aren't you."

Lia couldn't be bothered to say anything back, so she slowly drifted her eyes over the man's shoulder to see the large floats of the parade passing by the alleyways entrance. She hoped no one saw this mess she was in; it would prove difficult for her to deal with it then.

"Would you please move? I have somewhere to be."

The ruffian laughed and his friends behind Lia followed suit, joining in laughter as Lia's face became covered in his looming shadow.

"What's the matter there, afraid we'll bust open your skull? Of course we won't, if you just hand us a little fare - a fee of sorts."

The tall man held out his hands as if expecting gold, but Lia just looked at his open palm with disinterest.

"A fee?"

She asked, showing her calm and emotionless face, a face that was burning with a passion to turn this ugly man's face into an even uglier sight to see.

"For what, looking at your pathetic face?"

In hindsight, Lia was looking for a fight in these alleys, hoping to find someone she could beat to the ground and someone who deserted every punch she would throw at them. Not many of the ruffians or gangsters who occupied these backstreets had dared to challenge her when she arrived.

She was bored.

So, when the man's punch came, Lia was ready, and she met it with a smile and eyes burning with a passion to kill.

***

The two men dressed in well and fine clothes looked over the odd arrangement of the three figures, their bodies badly broken and bleeding. They were alive, yes, but in their minds, they knew that inside these men would be dead.

Their white cloth suits and steel trimmed swords were an oddity amongst this riff raff and in the backstreets of the alleyways, their figures stood out to the poor and the dirty hearted. But most stayed away from them and shied by their presence; they hid themselves in the darkness of the shadows.

This was what these men preferred. They didn't want some brave street thug deciding he was brave enough to pick a fight with them and then when he would be beaten to the ground, leave his bloody mess for these two men to clean up.

In their minds it would only delay them, and with their shadow leaving the alleys and fading back into the sunlight, they knew time was on a tin stretch now. They had little of it before they had to report back to their superior.

But as they came to a stop before these three men, whose bones were broken and limbs bent in odd ways, they sighed as if all the weight of the world was on their shoulders.

"It seems she's inadvertently going to delay us."

One of the men said as he bent down to run his fingers carefully over a fourth set of footprints, a set that belonged to a body he did not see and whose shadow he knew well beyond sight and feeling.

"We could just leave them here. Have one of their friends deal with it."

The other man, whose frowning gaze followed the shadows that faded back into the allies as the sun shone past the floats and the crowds of people on the edge of the street, shook his head. He was watching for something, or someone. But he was more aware of the situation before him than his companion thought.

"You know as well as I do that no one in these streets cares about one another. They're all selfish. They stick close to the bigger guys hoping for safety and when they fall, they all scatter like rats."

The first man watched his friend with a look of understanding but also disbelief. He knew that what he was saying was true, but unlike himself his friend was much braver with his words, so he held nothing back but the lies and only spoke the truth. No matter how harsh that truth was.

Standing up he took a glance at the shining Winter sunlight that shone past the tall buildings and crowds of people. It was an awning sense of knowing what lies beyond the sun, but at the same time he knew nothing about what that someone was.

"Should we forget going after her then? Or split up?"

It was a while before his friend spoke again, and in that time his eyes never left the exit to the allies, his eyes passing over the many faces that crossed his path in the distance. He was keen and watchful. He knew better than to act rashly, but he also knew that there was nothing he could do.

"No. Let's just get these three to a Medic House or the local Barracks. We know where she's going. She's made the same trip for three days straight."

One looked to the other and nodded, together they lifted the three men on their shoulders, their weights nothing to their strength as they walked back through the darkness of the allies, never to be seen by the light.

***

The forest was quiet, dark and cool with the night and autumn air working together to send bristles of goosebumps up the skin, through the air and into the lungs, chilling the body's tender fire that stoked the heart with its coals.

It took a great effort for this wind to blow through the mountains and make it past the warm air that surrounded the meadows and the woods, leftover ashes and coals from the great fire that tore through its sky. It had been a long time since then, yet the fire and warmth still remained, like a scar across the world.

Amid the ashes that blew in the wind, amidst the warm air that hovered and lingered in the air above the ground, a black scar cut though the land like a deep wound.

And then there stood a man, on the tops of a hill, overlooking the world before him and the Great Black Scar. He knew the meadows and the grass, the flowers and the forests would all regrow under the life of the mountain's protection. He knew it wouldn't last long in this ashen covered world.

His eyes tore across the ground and the land, over the ruined village to afar, and the large and skeletal frame of a monster so pure of power it made the earth shake when it fell.

"So, this is where the Rift first began. Its quite destroyed."

His feet sunk into the ashen ground, the small, burned bits of grass breaking under his weight as they floated through the air. He could already see the green growing form below him; he could already see the sights of life breathing through this scar of death.

"Sir."

A voice came to him suddenly, but he didn't spare a glance. He knew who the figure behind him was, he knew that his dull golden eyes were mirror to his own Amber that shone through the darkness across the land. He was like a lighthouse on top of that hill, and there was no one alive in this meadow to witness it.

The man took a deep breath, his golden and amber eyes closing as he saw the world in its entirety before him. Like a shadow of its former self, the death that plagued this land had left a large and noticeable mark.

"This is where it happened. I can sense it."

"Shall I report this to the other Keepers?"

The figure behind him bowed, ready to leave at a moment's notice if the man before him, his master, would simply give him the word. But that word never came, as the Golden eyed man took a deep breath, his voice like a fire in the figure's ears as his heart leapt from his chest.

"No. No I don't think so."

The figure wasn't confused, he wasn't surprised, nor was he willing to bite back against these orders as he slowly sank back into the night, disappearing in the shadows behind him until his presence from this earth was gone.

The Golden eyed man took one last look over the skeletal remains and wondered to himself how one human could cause such destruction. Then he spoke to the world and the darkness before him, like a warning that would set an army ablaze.

"You evaded me, you run and hide in the darkness of the shadows this world has to offer. I couldn't see you then, but I can see you now."

Before his face became one with the darkness, before his eyes disappeared from this world as the last this land would ever see of him, his eyes passed once more over the Dragon before him.

Then his voice came like a voice amongst the voices this world had to offer, the voice of a god.

"Nothing escapes my sight."