Tranquil Territory – 0 – Prelude
"How could- how dare you do this Yasuo!" The gorgeous green-eyed man struggled to get past the six guards in mismatched and poorly fitted armour who barred his way – two had crossed spears to prevent the silvery white enchanted wyvern leather garbed warrior's from approaching their new lord. The armour glistened like the snow which dusted the battlements upon which they stood overlooking the renovation of the outer walls of the recently seized 'Stardust Fortress'.
The black clad samurai, newly inaugurated lord of the fortress continued to watch the progress below with both gratitude and admiration; without turning towards the disruption, he instead waved one gauntleted hand towards the struggling group, indicating to the guards that they might allow the angered swashbuckler to proceed. It was an almost dismissive gesture – had he realised that he may well have avoided using it – yet when the six relented he noticed from the corner of his dark brown eyes that they did so with some slight show of reluctance. Though unexpected it was an encouraging sign - it was early days yet and their loyalty remained uncertain; still perhaps these men had dared to hope – to place their trust in their new Lord.
The irate swashbuckler stalked forwards, his white streaked black spiked hair stirred slightly in the wind - yet as it defied gravity, so too did it defy the wind, resuming position without pause. As he neared the slightly taller but more thinly built Yasuo and grasping him by the ebony plated arm, half turning him. "Damn it have you lost your mind brother?"
"You forget yourself. Here I am not Yasuo but instead Hachiman; just as you are not Yukio but rather Byakko." With his height advantage he looked down towards his elder brother, Hachiman smiled sadly yet in his angular face the intense dark brown eyes were uncompromising beneath wild black eyebrows, "Here lies a festering wound in the land – the weakness of the Ezzo Court and the short-sightedness of Akihabara are no excuse for the madness that has swept south from Susukino." As he gestured with his other arm towards the expanse to the north the wind picked up for a moment, winter had come early this year – though it was still supposedly autumn the chill wind coursed down across the sea and over the plain stirring his long loosely bound black hair, flecked with gold and silver. The gentle smile eased the harshness of his visage yet it could not soften the path he had taken nor how others would see it.
All around them the clean-up of Stardust Fortress was under way, two score Adventurers busied themselves with their assigned tasks while nearly five hundred People of the Land did most of the heavy lifting. Sound echoed from hammers and chisels and saws, raucous workmen and the clamour of morning practice where the newly formed militia clashed in combat under the careful gaze of a retired Imperial drill sergeant and the three adventurers who were assigned to assist him.
Their numbers had swelled faster than any had believed possible; refugees streamed in from the north every day, few made it from as far as Susukino because of the excesses of Brigandia's murderous thugs, instead the surrounding villages had been nearly emptied as the locals scattered in search of refuge. Some had fled to the north or east, seeking the aid of the Ezzo Empire to save them from the Adventurer threat, others had fled to the west and south, which led them down towards the end of the peninsula. As the terrified refugees had travelled south, news of the menace to the north had spread and what had been a trickle of the desperate had become a veritable flood. Yet the Lyport channel was still closed and so they were unable to flee further - milling in fear and growing desperation.
They had at first distrusted Hachiman and his guild, Tranquil Territory – yet their offer had proven too tempting to resist. The very next day the 'Stardust Fort' zone had been assaulted, the undead crushed under foot and a new banner rose in the southern reaches of the Ezzo Empire; a green and blue mitsudomoe - the green three-pronged whirl on a blue background – the symbol of the Feudal Lord Hachiman and the newly formed fiefdom Tranquil Territory.
Reaching out gently, Hachiman placed his black gauntlet atop the white leather glove which gripped his arm, pressing the double ring he wore on his index finger against his brother's hand gently – though firmly enough to make the gesture clear. He spoke softly though the heat in his voice was clear despite the biting cold of that autumn morning. "I will not suffer fools to unleash brutes upon the helpless, brother. I cannot stand aside and allow them to be crushed by an immortal, unrelenting tide of despair. Even if you disagree with my methods and cannot support our cause – we will stem the tide." There was an implacability, a finality in that tone that would brook no resistance and could tolerate no other outcome – they would bring Tranquillity to the land.
Behind them the guards stirred, though quickly fell still when Hachiman looked in their direction, their faces once more unreadable; the six were each People of the Land, the civilian NPCs of Elder Tales, in truth little stronger than the farmers, artisans or merchants that one might find in the streets, they were at least armoured though their equipment was an assortment of the ill-fitting, the rusted and the poorly mended while their weapons crude beyond belief – had Byakko been serious about passing them by, he could have sent the six flying without pause - yet still the six were noteworthy.
Hachiman's small guild could achieve nothing on their own - everything rested on the shoulders of these fine men and the hundreds more who had hastened to his banner, desperate for some sense of security. The blue and green banner stirring fitfully in the sea breeze was drawing new supporters every day - for most, the words of fealty they spoke were nothing but a shift in the yoke they wore, formerly they had laboured under the Ezzo appointed administrator murdered by one of the Adventurers running riot in the north; now instead they would labour under the self-appointed ruler who stood atop the battlement - another Adventurer.
Few among these new subjects truly believed in the cause - even those who had been saved first hand doubted the motivations that drove the Adventurers in their formation of the Tranquil Territory. That would need to change.
Author's Note:
Added more detail to description of Hachiman and Byakko (to avoid discontinuity when readers form an image of the characters in their mind which does not match the description of the characters as described in later chapters). I also added some more description about construction and the militia training, to flesh it out a bit.