Beo, Captain of the Imperial Rangers, looked between his subordinate and the small girl he had brought in with skeptical eyes. He had long been wanting Kragen to take up an apprentice. Kragen was one of his most effective agents, if not the most effective that he had ever worked with, and it only made sense for someone like him to take up an apprentice in the hopes of multiplying on the benefit of his service.
But when he looked at the small girl brought before him by said agent, he wondered, not for the first time, if there was something disturbingly wrong in Kragen's mind.
"You are certain about this?"
"Yes." Kragen said simply, straight to the point as always when dealing with Ranger business.
"Might I ask why?" Beo said, kneeling in front of the girl. She continued to stare straight ahead, as if he wasn't there, her eyes devoid of any emotion or humanity. She seemed, for all intents and purposes, dead to the world around her. A shell. "Unresponsive to emotional stimuli. Anti-social. Untrained. A street urchin that nobody's heard of. What makes you think she has the makings of a ranger?"
"This is who I have selected."
Beo stood up again, "I gave you a list. You did read it, didn't you? Everyone on that list was qualified; from prestigious backgrounds, most of them had prior experience or feats, all of them more than willing to learn under you. Why would you choose a girl straight off the street? Where did you even say you found her?"
"I didn't." He replied. Ever since bringing the emotionless girl in, he had remained strictly closed lipped on her origins. "As for your list, I read it and found it lacking."
"Lacking? They possess all the qualities of a potential ranger."
"Indeed. All of them could be apprentices. But none of them can be my apprentice." Kragen replied, "They have too many connections. Too much history. Too many attachments. Each of them has a past, dreams of their own, loved ones, personal responsibilities, emotional ties. Distractions. I need someone who's commitment to the Empire is absolute, who has no sense of self to be attached to and can devote themselves entirely to their responsibilities. I will accept nothing less."
Beo chewed his lip, "In other words, you want another you. And you think this girl matches that?"
Kragen placed a hand on the girl's head. A gesture that would normally be seen as affectionate, if not for her complete lack of response and the complete detachment with which he treated her, "The girl is broken. Nothing left of the life she used to have. Nobody cares about her, nobody loves her, nobody wants her. She's alone, and dead. She can be built from the ground up to be whatever the Araluen Empire needs her to be. That is a ranger. More specifically, that is my ranger."
"So, you want her specifically because she's broken."
"Basically."
Beo sighed, "...Kragen, there's something wrong with you."
The ranger waved away his concern, "So you've said. So you conveniently forget whenever the empire requires my service."
"Very well. I'll put it in the logs that you have an apprentice. What's her name?"
"The only name she had died with her old life."
"Well we need to call her something. 'Dead girl' won't fit in the logs. What are you going to call her?"
Kragen looked at the girl, "...Shade."
The year if 432 Imperius. After the untimely death of Ranger Madelyn, the kingdom of Araluen was left without an heir. Civil war broke out soon after and lasted decades. In the end, the throne was won by the military factions of the kingdom, establishing a new ruling family. Lead by King Beinfult, a previous general of the Araluen army, and Queen Archana, a previous Ranger, a new age of expansion began for the small, now more militarily minded kingdom. The new ruling family began waging massive conflicts against their neighbors, assimilating large amounts of land and resources to support the weakened state. Their fierce military tactics hardened over decades of civil war allowed them to conquer the island. Once the island was under complete domination of the Araluen nation, the originally small kingdom announced itself to the world as the first true Empire.
Beginning a new calendar, the Araluen Empire continued war efforts across the sea, however found foreign colonization much more difficult than conquest. By the year 107 Imperius, the nation found itself incredibly weakened over periods of failed conquests, and became subject to invasion by foreign powers. The next century would be spent attempting to desperately hold onto the fledgling empire that they had barely begun, losing and regaining land regularly. Eventually, however, their defensive strategies managed to outlast the offensive capabilities of their many enemies, and the state of the nation began looking prosperous.
In the year 212 Imperius, the rule passed into the far more gentle hands of Empress Evangeline, who would go down in history as Evangeline the Rebuilder. Having spent her young adult years as the governess of the Redmont territory, Evangeline understood the necessity of strong infrastructure and a stable government. She dedicated the previously military minded resources towards instead rebuilding what had been destroyed in the decades of conflict, negotiating peace with the also war-weary nations of the east, and built the empire into a stable nation that could be respected. While unpopular with the traditional nobility, the policies of Empress Evangeline gained her the love and support of the citizenry, her willingness to make peace with foreign powers made her popular among the merchant lords, and her dedication to maintaining strong defences earned her the loyalty of the military. Most importantly, she reinstituted the Rangers, who had lost influence over the many centuries due to their reduced numbers and shady reputation, as loyal and effective servants of the crown. The Imperial Rangers worked in the shadows as the Empress' hand, carrying out her will and the will of the Empire from the dark.
Empress Evangeline the Rebuilder would diligently teach her children the requirements of ruling, and long after her passing the Araluen Empire would remain a force to be reckoned with, its will unquestionable all across the continent.
Now, the year is 432 Imperius, under the hand of Emperor Deacon. The Emperor has continued to maintain a strong and sustainable nation state, just as each of his predecessors. Now, however, Emperor Deacon's eyes turn eastward. While the island on which the Araluen Empire stands has remained stable under a single leadership, the nations of the mainland have continued to fight and struggle amongst themselves, and Emperor Deacon sees opportunity to once again extend the empire's will to new lands…
Become nothing. Become dead to the world. Become invisible and erase your breath. See only the goal, reject all distractions. Banish all emotion. Banish all morals. See only the objective, and strike.
Shade repeated her master's teachings in her mind as she slid across the ground through the dense forests. She forced herself to erase any sense of self, any emotion, any ambition.
Not that it ever came difficult for her.
Her frame of mind established, she made her way towards her objective at a snail's pace, never moving faster than a cm/second. Eventually, her target came into view. The hooded man sat on a small stump, sharpening his blade. His cloak blended with the background, but she knew what to look for. Shade had a perfect view of him from her lowered position, and once she had a clear view, she slowly slid her way into a standing position from behind a tree. From behind her tree, Shade silently retrieved her hand crossbow from her bag, loading the sedative into place. With her bow unstrung, the hand crossbow was the best backup for a ranger caught in a tight space. With both arrows and sedatives for non-lethal takedowns, it wouldn't generate enough power to get distance or pierce armor but it was a valid enough backup plan for situations such as this one.
With her weapon ready, Shade peaked around from behind the tree, only to discover her target moved. She scanned the area, looking for any sign of him, before she felt a blow to the back of her head against the tree she had been using for cover. Her vision blurred from the impact to her cranium and she felt herself fall to the ground.
"Mission failed." Her master said coldly to her from his standing position, and turned his back on her, leaving without waiting for a moment. Shade spit out the blood that had formed in her mouth and forced herself to stand and follow him out of the forest.
Those words, 'mission failed,' hurt her to the very core. She held onto that hurt, dedicated it to memory. Next time, when she remembered that hurt, that pure sense of failure and worthlessness, she wouldn't make a mistake. Steeling herself, she followed her master onto the snow covered paths of the Picta province.
After finishing her initial training, as her master had called it, he decided that she would need practical experience before he was willing to continue. He had taken her to the frost covered forests a year ago, home to brigands and barbarians that the empire had never been able to completely ferret out due to their ability to navigate the cold, inhospitable groves that dominated the area. They had built a small home from the ground up in what had seemed like the most savage of the area, and set to work 'civilizing' the natives through guerrilla tactics and ruthless executions.
They had arrived a year ago, and now it was rare for them to go from one edge of the forest to the other and see any action at all. As a test, he had bribed a prostitute a great sum to walk through the forests in her undergarments, ensuring her protection when in reality the two of them would simply wait on the other side of the forest, leaving her alone. The test was to see if anyone dared approach her when nobody was watching, and when she came out the other side unscathed, her master decided that either there were no brigands left or the certainty of retaliation from the empire was enough to scare them into submissiveness. Either way, their work was done.
Now, on their last day in the Picta regions, her master decided an initial test had been in order to gauge how much work would be needed over the next few years.
He had found the results lacking.
"Do you know what it was?" he asked her after they had walked some distance and he had given her time to think about where she messed up
"The hand crossbow," she replied, "The crank was too loud. You stopped sharpening your knife after the first click, I should have noticed then. I should have used a blowdart."
"Why didn't you?"
"I was tired after the crawl and didn't trust my lungs. I'll need to continue my breathing techniques so that I have more confidence in my ability to generate the wind power after periods of physical exertion."
Her master didn't reply. That made her feel better. If he had replied, it would have been to correct her. The fact that he was silent mean she had been completely on the mark.
After a year of living in the wilderness, Shade had been somewhat unprepared for civilization when they finally returned to within the city walls. Mostly she just stayed near her master, keeping an eye on the many people rushing this way and that, paying no mind to the two of them. As far as anyone was concerned, they were simply a hunter and his daughter. There was only three people in the Picta province that knew who they really were. The governor, the local Imperial Ranger, and said Ranger's apprentice.
The latter two were the ones standing in front of them when they approached the governor's building.
"Kragen. I was beginning to think the two of you might have died out there." Ranger Hamelt said lightheartedly. Her master had said everyone wore a mask; if that was true, than Hamelt's mask was one of gleefulness and friendly gestures. There were few moments when he did not appear happy with someone. His apprentice had been more shy the first time she had seen him, but it appeared that over the past year he had begun to pick up on his master's habits.
"We finished doing your job for you. The forests should be clear for the next few months until they realize we're not around anymore." Her own master responded grimly; if everyone wore a mask, then her master wore one of coldness and detachment, though from what she had seen it was either a mask that he rarely, if ever took off, or not a mask. "You'll want to double up on patrols in that area, and crucify a brigand on the trees every couple weeks if you want things to stay peaceful in the forests."
"I'll take it into consideration," said Ranger Hamelt with an almost indulgent tone
Shade's attention was torn from the conversation when Hamelt's apprentice addressed her, "So what was it like living in the forests all that time?" Imshael asked with genuine sincerity
"Cold." She replied
"Oh...did you meet any brigands?"
"Several. Most of them we killed, the others I helped my master crucify as a fear tactic." Imshael's curious smile immediately fell. Having successfully dissuaded him from asking any further irritating questions, she turned her attention back to the conversation between their masters.
Hamelt seemed amused by the event, "I see you've been teaching her well."
"Someone has to teach the next generation," her master replied, "We came to tell you that we'll be leaving the Picta province. We're heading back to Redmont."
"I see. Should I schedule a carriage?"
"No need. We can walk."
"I wish you safe travels, old friend."
Her master nodded and turned. That was her cue to do the same.
"Uhm, Shade?" she heard the young apprentice's voice, "...Safe travels."
"Hmm." She grunted back to him and followed her master
Young Imshael sighed when they were well out of earshot, then felt Hamelt's hand brush his hair, "What's wrong?"
"I just...is there something wrong with Shade?"
Hamelt shrugged, "Probably. She's a mystery, that's for sure. Kragen pulled her out of nowhere and refused to spill a thing about her origin, so she's obviously got some kind of damage. And time with him wouldn't do well for anybody, so she's definitely not had the easiest childhood."
"...That's really sad."
"Yeah, well, I'm sure it will work itself out in the end. She's got her whole life ahead of her. You don't need to worry about her, pal. Be realistic, how bad can things really get for a person like her?"
This is a message from the chief executive of DeathDealer Inc. Ranger's Burden is a story that takes place 500 years after the events of the original series with new protagonists, same world but with some obvious aging. Now, I plan to release chapters as I finish them, which seeing as how I am an incredibly slow worker already, on top of the fact that I'm already working on two other fics and a text-based game, and about to go to college should all probably tell you a little something about what you can expect from the release schedule.
I do hope you will at least consider following the progress of Ranger's Burden to see how the story of Shade and her master Kragen pan out in the new world of the Araluen Empire. Please follow, favorite and review, and obviously try not to die today.