The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  All that was left was the yellow-band of the House of Woodfall, also soaked with sewage and as smelly as could be. Climbing the stairs, I decided to sit underneath the wooden manhole cover as I waited and listened to the scene above. Footsteps could be heard passing by every seventy-five seconds without a stop after nearly ten minutes had passed.

  No other sounds could be heard though as the crunching snow would have given them away. No voices, no discussions, no sounds of animals or other such creatures… only the crunching and squeaking of the passerby on the soft fresh snow.

  As the footsteps grew louder and then fainter, I slowly and quietly lifted the wooden cover enough to take a glance. Nothing could be seen as of yet and as I was about to make a move, a voice could be heard in the distance quickly approaching my position.

  “Ugh making me do the laundry at this time ‘o day that bastard son…” muttered and complained a woman as I quickly lowered the cover, only for her to pull it open and pour the contents of her bucket almost immediately.

  Splashed by relatively clean soapy water as I barely leaned against the wall in-time to avoid being seen, I was now at least somewhat clean from the head down to my chest as most of the sewage was rinsed off. Finished with her task, the woman walked away while mumbling to herself as footsteps of the sentry on patrol passed by once more.

  “Got you workin’ late again?” asked a man.

  “As always, the spoiled brat that he is,” she angrily replied.

  “Keep your head up, the war is almost finished,” said the same man. “I’m sure he’ll calm down once the tension passes.”

  Counting out the seconds as I waited under the manhole cover, the patrol was now fifteen seconds past and the next was sixty seconds away. Lifting the cover and pulling myself up as I scanned the yard, ten guards were visible yet none had turned my way.

  Replacing the cover and immediately turning to face the cobblestone wall, the oddly sized and spaced rocks provided a minimal amount of grip to climb as I began to make my way up. Scaling the short wall proved to be an easy task as the footholds, crevices, and ledges were abundant compared to the mountain near Dragon’s Breach.

  A few seconds had me at the second floor, grasping onto the ledge of the stone wall as I pulled myself up and grabbed at the little bit of log that had protruded from the wall. Swinging to the side as I transitioned from stone to wood, I yanked myself up as I grabbed the next lip of a log. Repeating the process as I moved up the side of the wall, I was now at the third floor and could hear discussions taking place inside.

  Moving up one last floor, I was now hanging on the edge of the fourth floor as I pulled myself up and peered through a window. Lights burning inside showed an empty room as I loosened the window and crawled in.

  Shutting the window behind me as I lowered myself down and crawled along the base of the wall, I moved in the shadows as I made my way to the center of the room.

  As I cautiously crept around the room, a rather expensive sword caught my eye. Sitting on top of a table in the center of the room, the one-handed longsword was adorned with an intricate hilt made of iron and an engraved leather scabbard. Clearly the sword of a nobleman, the craftsmanship as far as I could see looked to be quite spectacular.

  Without weapon in hand, I snuck over to the table and lifted the sword as a slight rattle from the loose buckle made me freeze in place, with fear and anger quickly flashing through my mind as I dropped down behind the table as quietly as possible.

  Controlling my breathing so as not to make any further noises, I glanced over at the old couple asleep on the bed and was relieved that they showed no movements, remaining still and fast asleep. Drawing the sword from its sheath as quietly as I could, the soft rub of leather against metal let out the slightest of squeaks. Slowly taking one step at a time as my weight caused the wooden floor to slightly creak, I made my way over to the bed.

  From a distance I recognized the face of the old man as the previous head of the household, with his distinct curly white hair giving him away. He was on the list of targets that needed to be assassinated in order for my plan to come to fruition. He would need to die and his wife would also share his fate.

  Moving closer and closer to the bed, I started from the man’s side as I moved a hand over his mouth and then ran the blade along his throat, pressing down as hard as I could as I sliced and sawed though inches of flesh until the sword exited the other end.

  Then with hand still covering his mouth as his body jerked and arms and legs flailed, I leaned over and dispatched of the woman in the same manner. Throat slit as my hand darted to cover her mouth. Once the trachea was cut through and the carotid arteries and the jugular vein were severed, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of their gurgling, gasping, and coughing. Beheading them made it all the more silent.

  Though it proved difficult with the sword and required an immense amount of strength to carry out. It was also far too personal, as I averted my eyes from the scene and began to question my sanity. I had yet to hesitate to kill but now… I was beginning to question myself. A fight was one thing, the heat of the moment, in the middle of battle but to come in and murder an inhabitant in their sleep… this was new to me. It would have been easier if it were a gun, but with a sword… a glorified knife, the scene disturbed me.

  But it had to be done, I thought to myself in an attempt to focus.

  It had to be done.

  Walking over to the door, I leaned against the wall and pressed my ear up to the wood. No sounds could be heard but a quick check under the gap of the door and the shadow cast from a guard could be seen. Slowly backing away as I searched the room quickly with my eyes, I decided to open the drawers on the table and found a few pieces of jewelry.

  Scanning again, a small chest was in the corner as I walked over and cracked it open with a noise that froze my heart. The screech of the chest caused the shadow of the guard to move slightly as he appeared to be listening by the door. Completely still in my movements as I stared at the door. The visible shadow cast beneath the gap as the yellow light flooded the floor, I held my breath and watched in silence.

  Heart pounding as perspiration began to drip down my face, my anticipation for a fight was getting the better of me. After ten seconds had passed, the guard turned away and resumed his position as his shadow returned to its previous spot. A shallow sigh escaping my lips, I looked through the contents of the chest and found more jewelry and a document with a broken seal.

  Collecting all of the items but without anything to hold them, I decided to search the closet as I began to quietly shuffle through the clothes. Picking out a pair of clothes that seemed to fit, I took an extra shirt and tied it up into a makeshift bag to hold the items that I had collected while removing and placing the yellow armband inside as well. With the makeshift bag around my shoulder and the sword tucked into my waistband, I cracked the window open and returned to the outside world.

  Hanging from the ledge, I slowly shifted my hands inch by inch until I came to the next window nearly ten feet away. Looking inside, the room was a study room that was largely empty, filled only with books as far as I could see. Ignoring it as only an hour remained before sunrise, I began to slide my hands along the ledge once more until I traveled around the corner of the manor and found myself nearly twenty feet away.

  Hanging by the window, I pulled myself up and peeked inside, only to see a man and woman sitting past a small fire set inside a chimney with a small sleepy child sitting next to them on the floor. The man was the current head of the House… he, they, were next on my list. They were the final targets.

  Cracking the window slightly so I could hear, they were telling a tale, a bedtime story for the child who couldn’t sleep. After the tale had finished a minute later as my hands were starting to go weak, the child spoke up.

  “Will the war be over soon poppa?” asked the child.

  “Yes and when it is, we’ll be known throughout the land,” replied the father pro
udly as he patted the boys head.

  “Will we be powerful?” the child asked.

  “We will be so powerful, no one will be able to stand up to us,” answered the father as he smiled and grinned.

  “Will momma be happy then?”

  “Mommy will be happy,” she said as she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.

  Lurking in the shadows behind the flames as I quietly closed the window, I was waiting for them to be distracted by another question before I made my move. Sword drawn and nearly twenty paces away, in order to close the distance in time I would need to sprint.

  The man and woman would need to be killed and the child… the child would be silenced as well. They were only codes anyways. Programing… computer codes, they weren’t real. None of this was real, if I killed them it didn’t matter, it was only a game. The child would die and so would the rest.

  And then as I stalked closer, inch by inch, my distraction came as the child once again provided cover with his noise.

  “Poppa, what will happen to the House of Woodfall?”

  “They will grow strong, like us my son,” he said as he rubbed his hair. “They are our allies for now and without our support they cannot hope to win the war. They need us. When it’s over… we shall see.”

  And at that moment as he and the wife leaned over to pinch the boy’s cheeks, I rushed in with a quick stride that closed the gap in an instant as the man turned in time to see the flash of a sword behead him and as his head was still sliding off the relaxed body, the wife turned in shock and tried to scream as the sword pierced her chest and she collapsed backwards, voice lost as she panicked from the sight.

  The child frozen in fear, stared at his father and could hardly move as he didn’t utter a sound. Raising the sword as I aimed for the back of the boy’s exposed neck, I retracted my swing as the face of the mother caught my eye.

  She stared at us, clutching her chest while trying to reach for her son, grasping at the air between them as she failed to voice her screams and calls.

  Her eyes fixated on her son.

  “A mother’s love… he is spared,” I muttered as I pulled back and ran to the window. The guards on the other side of the door calling and asking if everything was okay as the thud of a head hitting the floor accentuated the silence that filled the room only moments after the mother had fallen. Then the child regained his senses as his mother lay dying.

  “HELP!” the boy shouted as I broke and jumped through the window.

  Falling down the side of the four-story building, I hit the ground with a hard thud that likely broke my leg as I collapsed and rolled on the floor.

  Letting out a small grunt while doing my best to ignore the pain as time was of the essence, I sprinted towards the wall with sword and jewelry still in my possession as I jumped with one good leg and scaled the perimeter wall in an instant.

  Guards were alerted by my blur as I ran through the yard in the dead of night but heavy snowfall hindered their vision. As I stood on the top of the stone wall, I leaped off and cleared the moat only to land harshly on the ground as my fractured leg snapped in two.

  Shouting in pain on the inside as clenched teeth kept the noise within, I stumbled to my feet and headed towards the east while limping the entire way. Stopping only as I came across the manhole that was hidden under the shadows, I blended in with the crowd as I waited for the right moment to pass.

  Guards were now running down the streets looking for the intruder without a description and with only a single clue that he had traveled in this direction. Quickly asking passerby if they had seen anyone suspicious run by, most were unaware that anything had happened as I used the alleys to disguise my escape. Switching my shirt and putting the yellow armband back on, I used the prior shirt to hold my stolen jewelry in the same way.

  As the guards ran up to a group of players a few feet away from me asking for assistance, they turned their attention to me as my Reputation stat alerted them that I was of more importance, though they wouldn’t know of my deeds as word didn’t travel nearly as far. They only knew that I was important and nothing else.

  “You there, did you see a suspicious man run by?” asked one of the three guards that surrounded me.

  Exiting the shadows and standing on one good leg, my broken leg remained bent as I kept it slightly behind me but not entirely out of sight.

  “Uh, yeah, now that you mention it there was one such man, he had an axe and dull red eyes,” I stated clearly and loudly so they wouldn’t mistake my words. Fiddling with the sword that had been tucked underneath my waistband, I ran my fingers along the hilt so the movements would catch their attention and force their eyes to look.

  “An axe and red eyes?” asked a guard quickly, looking away.

  “But a minute ago he passed by,” I blurted out with urgency as they looked in the direction that I was pointing furiously, distracted by my hand. “I didn’t see an armband, it must have been him. If you hurry I’m sure you will catch him, he had a broken leg!”

  Glancing at me in a hurry, they didn’t bother to check my credentials as a resident or even to get a clear look at my face as they kept glancing at my sword’s hilt, directly above the bent leg that didn’t touch the floor. Shifting my shoulder slightly to get one of the guards to look at my right arm that had the yellow armband, my subterfuge was complete.

  “He’s escaping, go!” I shouted at them as they hesitated for a moment, then ultimately ran off in the direction that I had pointed. Preoccupied with finding the assassin that had killed their leaders, they ran off without properly thinking things through.

  “Did you see someone come that way?” asked one of the players that was nearby as she turned to face the others.

  “We just came from there… no one of that description came by,” mumbled another as he watched the guards run off.

  And then as a third player turned back and looked at the shadow where I had been moments before, he found himself trying to question me as to where I had seen such a man only to realize I was long gone. Having already slipped back into the shadows and now over ten feet away from the crowd, I moved to the next manhole and waited for the right moment to pass while listening to the sounds of the guards.

  Another group of guards ran by as I remained flush against the wall, invisible in the dim lighting of the night. Waiting as players walked by unaware, I finally found a break in the crowd and opened the cover and dropped down. Placing the cover back where it was, I followed the stairs down and began heading to the west.

  Removing the yellow armband and burning it, I disposed of the ashes in the sewer and continued to follow the channel all the way through to the exit drain by the edge of the river. Diving into the sewer water and flash stepping once again without hesitation as an iron gate blocked my path, I stayed in the dirty water and floated down. Covered in raw sewage the smell was rather disgusting as I entered the river in a matter of seconds and swam a ways down as the cleaner, fresher river water washed away a part of the smell.

  Stripping off the clothes that only served to create drag, I tied them around my chest with the sword and jewelry secured in the middle. Beginning to swim with one leg dangling behind, the fast moving current helped carry me down as I alternated from sidestroke to backstroke to eventually no stroke.

  Strength long gone and stamina barely there, the forty mile journey between Cleftside and Wesstown had nearly been completed after eight hours. After the first two hours my strength had waned, by the fourth hour I was nearly exhausted and then by the sixth hour I could barely move. Floating down the river on my back with head facing the sky, the last two hours of the trip were left to the river.

  Due to the melting snow that filled the river and increased the flow, the fast moving water aided me the entire way as I had traversed the distance in an otherwise impossible time. Leg broken for a few days at the least, even the game’s advanced regeneration wouldn’t heal me that quickly. I needed a priest if I were to regain functionality
.

  Though the river did flow freely, it was also incredibly cold as the hours in the water left me with a severe case of hypothermia. As I was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness while nearly at my destination, I was forced to attempt to exit the water less I pass out and drown.

  Wading to the shore, my movements were sloppy and dulled as I slipped and fell, only to feel as if my good leg and arms were no longer working. Hampered by my lack of motor function and an actual broken leg, I crawled up the riverbank while trying to think of my next step.

  “Ah tha shwore,” I slurred as I tried to make my way up the riverbank.

  Finally making it to a dry spot, I immediately lit a fire with a few branches at arm’s reach. Grabbing a few large stones next, I placed them around the edge of the small fire. As the stones began to heat up, I pulled them out and hugged them as they weren’t yet hot enough to burn me but were warm enough to heat my core.

  Warming by the fire proved too slow though as I continued to shiver and struggled to acquire enough firewood to keep me warm. With plenty of mana and no other ideas, I decided to cast a [Lightning Strike] on the nearest tree and crawled underneath.

  As the strike hit, the residual heat of the strike was instantly felt as the tree burst into flames and the scorched earth aided in my recovery. The entire tree now on fire as I fell asleep underneath it, I was at least beginning to warm up.

  Nearly an hour later I woke up and found myself hugging a pair of cold rocks as the smoldering tree behind me had turned black and gray as it continued to pump out small amounts of heat. Rolling closer to the burnt out tree, I stayed there for another hour as my body functions had nearly returned to normal.

  Checking the time as I tried to shake myself awake, the thought of logging out to escape the symptoms crossed my mind but the realization that Wesstown would soon be under siege forced me to stand up and continue my journey. The next stage of the war had been announced hours prior, right before I made my decision to carry out the mission.