All rights to Characters and Dialogue belong to Arenanet

Chapter 5: Finding the Truth

A few weeks had passed since the near poisoning of the city's water reserve, since that day rumours had been flying everywhere about Saya and her deeds, Saya wasn't use to the attention so she tried avoiding people who wanted to find her.

Many people had come asking for her help in various deeds but mostly she'd attracted idiots who were trying to make a name out for themselves by beating the Hero of Shaemoor, she'd beaten every challenger and helped around the city and outside but it wasn't really something she wanted to do.

"Your done for hero, I'm gonna show everyone that I'm better then you" said a charging man as he ran up behind Saya but before he could land a punch on her she duck and landed a punch in his ribs which sent him flying and leaving him shaking on the ground.

"Anyone else" Saya said sounding bored, most of the others ran away as they realized facing her was a big mistake, Saya moved on as she made her way to plaza that was at the top of the city and the Queens Court rooms.

"I wonder if this guy really has information on my parents" Saya thought as she reached into her pocket and looked at the note.

Sometime yesterday Saya had returned home to find a young messager with a note that was addressed to her; she took the note and read what it said.

My friend,

Congratulations on your recent accolades as the "Hero of Shaemoor." I'm a researcher for the Queen's archives, and I have recently uncovered some information regarding your parents. I thought you might want to see it. I would prefer to discuss the details in person, so if you will meet me at the palace gardens at Divinity's Reach, I'll share them with you.

To prove I am what I say, I have enclosed half of an amulet—something my research led me to uncover. I look forward to meeting you face-to-face.

Sincerely, A Friend.

Saya re-read the note about 5 times before deciding that the note was worth investigating, ever since she had found the sword and letter in her home she always wondered who left it, was this person the same guy.

But in the back of her mind she was sceptical of the note since she remembered what the letter said about those who might be a friend, but she was also interested to find out about her parents, who were they and why did they abandon her.

So she decided to meet this researcher and find out what he knew but she took the sword with her just in case, after making it to the plaza she waited and looked around.

The plaza had always been magnificent with its high bushes, wonderful architecture and the high doors that led to the queen's court where many people went to see her on matters of state, after standing for 5 minutes Saya noticed a well-dressed man approaching her.

At first he seemed harmless but Saya sensed something off about him, he was happy and he seemed to be eyeing her like she was prey, so Saya let him approach but she kept her hand on the sword hilt just in case.

"Are you the one who sent me this?" Saya said as she held up the amulet that she had gotten with the note, "Yes I am" said the Stanger as he stopped a few paces from her looking smug. "Ok, what do you know about my parent, please tell me" Saya said but she kept her voice calm as she noticed the man's eyes move off in a different direction before answering her question.

"I can, Hero of Shaemoor. I thought you might be interested. I'm not just here to talk, though; I aim to reunite you with your parents." Said the man as he slowly approached her.

Saya was surprised but still didn't let her guard down around the man as he approached her, "Reunite us? Where are they? Why haven't they looked for me sooner?" Saya said as her voice sounded happy at the possibility of seeing her parents alive.

As the man got close enough his grin got wider which warned Saya that this man was about to set something up, but before she could react she was grabbed by two stranger and forced to her knees.

"What, what go on?" Saya said but the stranger grabbed her hair and placed a knife against her neck, "Aw, don't be like that. I came a long way to find you, you know. And I'm sure they'll explain everything when you meet them... in the Mists!" the man said as he lifted his knife preparing to slash her throat.

But Saya had been in this type of situation before and quickly head-butt the closes stranger, as the stranger let go and held his bloody nose Saya pulled the other over her shoulder and flipped back away from the three strangers.

"Not bad but that won't save you, Attack!" the man shouted as a group of men and women came out of hiding and charged at Saya, Saya pulled her sword out and defended herself as the group barraged her with attacks.

Saya noticed these people weren't just the average thug but trained professionals since they could defend themselves against Saya's attacks, but Saya had improved a lot and could use skills she'd never knew before and landed good hits on her emery's.

"Come on it just one girl, you should be able to take her out" the man said as he ordered his men to keep attacking, Saya cinched at the statement and charged at the man and managed to send him flying.

"Don't call me girl you piece of dirt" Saya shouted angrily as she stopped as sword slash at her back with her sword, the man was surprised at how fast the sword had moved and Saya grinned as she slashed back with force sending the man flying into several men.

Saya was holding well till more men and women appeared, she was getting tired and knew if she didn't run she'd be killed, "Time to die Hero" as a man Saya hadn't noticed brought his sword down.

But before the sword struck the man was bashed aside by a new stranger clad in armor, Saya quickly noticed the sigil of the Shining blade on the front of the breast plate and knew that she was going to make it out of this fight alive.

"Hold fast, the shining blade is here" said the male solider as he charged at the group of enemies and was dispatching them quickly, "Hah! Now we get to kill three instead of just one!" said an assassin as he charged at the female shining blade.

Saya continued to fight with the two shining blade solider and soon enough they beat enough assassins, as the remaining group noticed their defeat they all ran.

Saya swung her sword clean of the blood and then sheathed it back in it scabbard and turned to face the two solider who saved her behind, "Thank you, I don't know what would have happened if you didn't turn up" Saya said.

"Don't worry about it, Excellent work handling those foul cultists, May they know Grenth's justice. I'm Exemplar Salia of the Shining Blade. This is Exemplar Mehid." Said Salia as she introduced herself and her partner.

"Thank you still, but maybe you could explain who these cultists were and why they wanted to kill me" Saya asked as she looked around her and saw all the bodies on the ground, "Their called the White Mantle, to be exact. Ancient enemies of Kryta. They often target defenders of the kingdom and its queen" said Mehid looking at the bodies in disgust.

"White Mantle! I thought they were just a child's tale told on Mad King's day. Why would they have this amulet from my parents" Saya said as she showed both soldiers the amulet they'd sent her.

"They're quite real, as you've seen. And judging from the symbol on that amulet, I'd say your family has been very loyal to the kingdom" Mehid said as he looked closely at the amulet, "A mark of the king's favor? That's interesting. Probably from Queen Jennah's father, if I had to guess." Salia said as she took the amulet from Mehid and looked at it as well.

Saya was even more confused, her parents had gained the favor of the previous monarch, how was that possible; still if they had once done something in the name of the royal family maybe the shining blade knew who they were but the big question that was on Saya's mind at the moment was how these cultist knew who she was.

"I need to track these cultists and find out what they know" said Saya looking determine, both shining blades smiled as they handed the amulet back to Saya, "Well if it answers you want then you might want to accompany us, we've been informed of a mantle base at a hunting lodge near Bettletun" Salia said as she ginned looking happy.

Saya smiled back as she agreed to meet both shining blades at the hunting lodge and take care of the mantle and find some answers.

After using a waypoint to reach the hunting lodge Saya ended up a few minutes from the lodge and ran quickly to meet up with Salia and Mehid, Saya saw Salia and Mehid outside the lodge and saw them discussing their plan to attack.

"Good to see you, we about ready to go in. You ready to root out these cultists?" Salia asked Saya, Saya grinned as she took out her sword rearing to take these fool out. "Ya lets go" Saya said as both Shining blades smiled back.

As they approached the lodge Saya could see that mantle watching from the windows, soon enough they heard the door guard give the warning, "The blade's here! Get them" he shouted before Mehid bashed the door down.

All three clashed against swords and hammers of the mantle but held fast as they took down each cultist within the lodge, Saya noticed several of them run up the stairs and chased after them, "They must be hiding something or someone up here" She thought as she slammed another against the wall.

Saya watched as the cultist disappeared to the second floor as she and the other took the first, "Hold them off" said one of the cultists as Saya and Mehid bashed against the door. Eventually they pushed through and took out several cultists before seeing one hold a hostage.

"You think you can take me?, Think again" The man said as the woman cried in fear, Saya could tell this man was new and didn't know what he was doing "He must be an initiate, guess the mantle can still persuade people to join their misguided beliefs" Saya thought as watched the man shake in fear with the blade against the woman's throat.

"This is your decision, do what you think is right" Salia said as she and Mehid stood ready, Saya lowered her sword and moved slowly towards the man, "Stay there! Don't...don't come any closer. I swear, if you do...I'll... I'll kill her!" the man said looking more scared as Saya approached him.

"It's ok just relax, I just want to talk, then you can go" Saya said calmly, "Your lying, your with the shining blade, you'll kill me as soon as I turn my back" The man said as he push the blade harder into the girls throat.

"Your wrong, I'm not with the shining blade, I'm just here to get some answer. I promise you if you help me I'll let you go, I know you're not here to join at your own will" Saya said as she watched the man's face turn to surprise.

"How'd you know?" The man asked as he loosened his grip on the girls throat, "If you really believe in the mantle ideals you'd have killed the girl and attacked us, so trust me I won't let these guys hurt you. You can help us and I'll let you go" as Saya took a hold of the man's arm and took his knife the girl pulled away and ran out the door.

The man collapsed to his feet and began to cry, Saya kneeled down and asked him if there were any more members in the lodge, the man answered "The confessors in the basement, their properly waiting till your gone to move out of this place" The man said as he remained knelling on the floor.

Saya pulled herself up and turned to her companions, both had remained quiet but still held their weapons out just in case of an attack, "We know where the rest are, let go deal with them" Saya said as she and the other left the man on the floor.

As they quickly ran down the stairs several mantle attack them but were quickly dealt with as they ran towards the basement, "Should have known the leaders were in the basement with the rest of the rats" Salia said sounding disgusted as they slammed against the basement door and stood before a group of mantle cultists.

"Kill those fools" said one of the cultist as they charged at all three of them, Saya took out a large cultist and then ran towards the confessor.

"You incompetent idiot! Failing's not enough; you have to lead the Shining Blade right to us?" The confessor said as he watched his men fall before him. Saya took out another cultist before clashing her sword against the confessor blade.

The confessor smiled as he recognized Saya, "Well this must be my lucky day, I get to meet the great hero of Shaemoor, and present her head before the harlot of a queen" The confessor said as both push against one another. Saya didn't like the way this man was talking about the queen so she pushed hard with strength she didn't think she had.

"Give up; you're not nearly as strong as those two are. And beside what can the daughter of a filthy bloodline do against the might of the White Mantle" the confessor said as he push back harder, Saya was starting to really get angry at this man and his stupid grin.

"You really want to know what I can do, well I guess you just have to watch and see for yourself" Saya said as she screamed against the man blade and cut thought him by shattering his blade and watched as his blood gushed out and spayed against her face.

As Salia and Mehid come up beside Saya they saw that Saya sword had cut straight through the confessor's blade and that the damage from her sword had cut his main blood flow from his neck and that he was dead as he landed on the floor.

"We should look around, see if there's any useful information we can use" Mehid said as he looked to his friend, "I wonder what he meant by filthy bloodline" Mehid thought as he and the other looked around the room.

Salia looked amongst the bookshelves but only found books on Krytan history, Asuran architecture, Bloodstones and with disgust a book on how to serve the Unseen.

Mehid look amongst the chests but found only clothes and old maps and scrolls which had no useful information, Saya looked around the desk and looked through the documents that littered the desk. She searched through the papers till she came upon a list of names that she recognized. "Hey I found something" Saya said as both Salia and Mehid joined her.

"It a list of name, Captain Thackery, Countess Anise, a few others…" Mehid said as he looked through the names of several people who strongly supported Queen Jennah, Salia looked though the list until she came upon a name in the list that had a page all on its own. "Here's your name, Looks like they really wanted to kill you" Salia said as she passed Saya the page, Saya looked at it, on the page was her name, a description but the page was covered in a strange scripling like whoever wrote on it really had it in for her. She couldn't read most of it except for her name and description.

"Hero of Shaemoor, child of the queen's spies?" Saya looked confused, were her parent spies for the queen, which was impossible the queen was still quite young so her parent must have served the queen's father before her. "Every name on this list is a strong ally to the queen, Grenth's teeth this is a list of target!" Mehid said as he looked at the list again with hate filled eyes'. "They must be planning to kill each of these people to weaken the Queen hold on kryta" Mehid said"

"We won't let that happen. But first, I have to warn Captain Thackeray. I can't let him face this danger alone. He may even be able to help us." Saya said as she realized that the captain was in danger. "You're right. Anise won't like us sharing this information so recklessly, but this is an emergency. We'll meet you at Captain Thackeray's office. Stay safe." Salia said as she a Mehid made their way out.

"Wait, you won't hurt that man upstairs wills you, I gave my word and I doubt he'll be joining the mantle now" Saya said looking serious at both Shining blades.

"Will keep an eye on him for now but I must ask how'd you know he didn't join freely" Salia asked, "I could see in his eye's he didn't want to be there but he must have a family that the mantle must have threaten him with if he didn't, besides he didn't want to kill the girl he didn't have the conviction to do it" Saya replied back Salia kept her face straight as she watched Saya stand firm at her explanation.

Salia smiled "Alright then, will meet you back in Divinity's Reach" Salia said as she and Mehid ascended the stairs and left Saya on her own, Saya eventually ascended the stairs up to the lodge and could see that the innkeeper was sweeping up bits of debris from the fighting. Saya exited the lodge and headed to the closes waypoint to go back to the city.

Along the way she couldn't help but remember what the confessor had said, "What did he mean by filthy bloodline, did my parent come from some family that the mantle hated, is that why they went after them or is it something else" Saya thought as she entered the waypoint.

After arriving back in the city she made her way to the Seraph Offices, as she ran she thought back to the amulet the mantle cultist had sent her the other half she found in the lodge matched the other half showing the insignia of the royal family but it didn't match the other part of the amulet that Anise had given her. So many Question about her past kept coming up, Why did the mantle want her dead, just what was the amulet and many more question, but those would have to wait until she dealt with the mantle and put a stop to their plans.

Sorry for the long wait but I've managed to complete the Parent Segment of this story and hopefully I will move onto the next part of the story, my version is a bit different to the story line in the game, I hope you enjoy the story.