For the first time, Sanden took the boat. He had been previously afraid of
the water. But now, it seemed to be a good day to take the water. He just
felt it, that's all. Even though he knew there were all kinds of creatures
in the water that he didn't want to know. For example, there were slaughter
fish, which could eat away a man bite by bite. He had heard from somewhere
that there are dreugh warriors who protect their homes, but he didn't know
if there were any in Vivec.
Vivec is normally a magnificent place. You can see as far as your eyes can take you until the depths and water in the air blocks the sight. Far over the southern mists is the great church and palace, larger than any building you have ever laid eyes on, and look - above that is the ministry of truth, held in the sky by Lord Vivec himself. To the north are the great houses, Telvanni, Redoran, and Hiaalu.
Suddenly, as you look in amazement, a great heap of fire sprang from one canteen from far away. Shattering the platforms of another canteen into smoldering rock. The small specks of burning flesh dazzles your eye as they drop downwards from the ravaged platform into the waters below; each watery crash making small plops that can barely be heard from this far away. For a moment, you might have thought those were the same sizzling specks coming from Alkaviri fireworks.
Two chancellors have died; House Hiaalu has begun to seek revenge. The fireball slammed itself into the great roof dome of a canteen, the inferno splattered all over. Soon another fireball shot forth, burying its fury onto several walkways. The fire immediately brought great cacophony to the crowd, which slowed to a startling standstill to watch. After that paralyzing moment had passed though, all remnants of order lost itself into a riot. There was at once a mist of scurrying men and women. Then a loud roar broke out from the canteen walls, but silence followed soon after, men armed with steel paced out of the building, baring signs and large flags of loyalty to their great houses. On both sides steel locked with each other. The crowd looked at each side, bedazzled at their fortune to be stuck in the mist of what looked like a soon-to-be battlefield. Then a rapacious hubbub merged from both sides of both canteens, oblivious to the Mer trapped between, then the roar that begun a second time erupted into a full- scale boom of war cries. The armies began to converge together. As bystanders from the crowd, men and women, trampled beneath the storming troops.
Sanden watch all these with indifferent from his small boat, guided by a gondolier. He was happy he had not taken the normal route. This was faster. And this was much less dangerous for the occasion. Sanden didn't care for all those people had died in the initial explosions that had sent forth great waves of heat to the surrounding Cantons. He didn't care at all. What he did care was that he was safe.
"Go on rowing." He said to the shaken gondolier.
The house debates had gone long enough. Contracts were voided in the light of recent assassinations. Any possibility of peace was a thing to doubt.
It's about time for some action! Sanden didn't care who won really, for he was a simple trader of weaponry on a trip to sell. weapons. He didn't care which house would eventually defeat the other and therefore weaken Vivec and the dumner as a whole, weak enough so that another deadly force can inflict much much greater damage. Of course, he didn't know those things. He was Sanden, the Great Merchant Mer. And profit was the only thing that could move his mind.
Now, he heard a thundering sound from somewhere above his head.
Or was it thunder?
It couldn't be. This was too quiet, too constant to be thunder. It was like, like a rumble through the air, like the way fire makes that crackling sound when a breeze passes through.
Sanden felt awkward in the wake of this querulous sound. It seemed. just odd, to hear it. He'd never heard it before. Nor would he ever hear it again. A large shadow began to waver, calling to his attention. He raised his head, up in awe, and for a moment, just a moment when all his attention was focused on purely that small frame; he saw what seemed to be an elevating sun. It was moving too fast up the sky, he could tell, for the distance between it and the floating rock below it, the Ministry of Truth, was expanding by the mere second. Then, he realized his error in judgment. His mind had told him it was the sun in motion, but instead, it was the Ministry of Truth, and it was falling!
Falling!!!
His mind would have rather accepted a sun that moved too fast than a great rock held up in the sky by Vivec's power falling down crashing into the water. And the sound? Now, he understood what the sound meant. It was an infinite sized boulder hurling downwards in the face of wind. It was the sound of mountains tumbling, of eons of permanence mashing downward in the deadliest of all fates. It was the Ministry of Truth, Vivec's own magic, dissipating in the front of all to see.
The citizen's of Vivec witnessed the powerful might of Vivec the God collapse.
And as Sanden watched from his indifferent (not anymore) gaze, he saw its slow awkward fall into the ocean below. It seemed slow, for it was large in comparison to anything he had seen fall. It slowly came down.
Then, when it finally smashed into the oceans, Sanden could see it for sure, but hear it he could not. Until several moments later, when the greatest sounds of ocean waves smashed into his elven ears. WHAASH.
But that was not all.
He saw the tidal waves move away in a ring, like the way a ripple is made by the drop of a rock, and for a infinitely small time - how small will never be known - he entertained the thought that he was safe from all danger. The waves were smaller from that distance, but when it made its approach to Sanden, he was engulfed.
Dreughs and Slaughter fish are nothing compared to the dangers of the water itself. Oh yes, and the splash of falling mountains.
--
A great fire exploded like a ball of sun, quickly eroding eons of construction and history in a moment's flash. The Great House's attention is on each other, brought on by their own primitive dark elven instincts, magnified a thousand fold by the triple eclipse. Fire now reaches every dark elf's soul, and it must come out. As it comes, it is most advantageous for hate to come, too. For once it is unleashed, so does many other things along with it.
However, as attention is centered on each other's throats, something darker and slippery slithers like a snake below, ready to grow a thousand fold. And then, the snake shall pummel upwards from the ground, and bite. This snake of course, is a blood-sucking creature combined with a deadly mutagen ready to spread its death to other men and mer.
Vivec is normally a magnificent place. You can see as far as your eyes can take you until the depths and water in the air blocks the sight. Far over the southern mists is the great church and palace, larger than any building you have ever laid eyes on, and look - above that is the ministry of truth, held in the sky by Lord Vivec himself. To the north are the great houses, Telvanni, Redoran, and Hiaalu.
Suddenly, as you look in amazement, a great heap of fire sprang from one canteen from far away. Shattering the platforms of another canteen into smoldering rock. The small specks of burning flesh dazzles your eye as they drop downwards from the ravaged platform into the waters below; each watery crash making small plops that can barely be heard from this far away. For a moment, you might have thought those were the same sizzling specks coming from Alkaviri fireworks.
Two chancellors have died; House Hiaalu has begun to seek revenge. The fireball slammed itself into the great roof dome of a canteen, the inferno splattered all over. Soon another fireball shot forth, burying its fury onto several walkways. The fire immediately brought great cacophony to the crowd, which slowed to a startling standstill to watch. After that paralyzing moment had passed though, all remnants of order lost itself into a riot. There was at once a mist of scurrying men and women. Then a loud roar broke out from the canteen walls, but silence followed soon after, men armed with steel paced out of the building, baring signs and large flags of loyalty to their great houses. On both sides steel locked with each other. The crowd looked at each side, bedazzled at their fortune to be stuck in the mist of what looked like a soon-to-be battlefield. Then a rapacious hubbub merged from both sides of both canteens, oblivious to the Mer trapped between, then the roar that begun a second time erupted into a full- scale boom of war cries. The armies began to converge together. As bystanders from the crowd, men and women, trampled beneath the storming troops.
Sanden watch all these with indifferent from his small boat, guided by a gondolier. He was happy he had not taken the normal route. This was faster. And this was much less dangerous for the occasion. Sanden didn't care for all those people had died in the initial explosions that had sent forth great waves of heat to the surrounding Cantons. He didn't care at all. What he did care was that he was safe.
"Go on rowing." He said to the shaken gondolier.
The house debates had gone long enough. Contracts were voided in the light of recent assassinations. Any possibility of peace was a thing to doubt.
It's about time for some action! Sanden didn't care who won really, for he was a simple trader of weaponry on a trip to sell. weapons. He didn't care which house would eventually defeat the other and therefore weaken Vivec and the dumner as a whole, weak enough so that another deadly force can inflict much much greater damage. Of course, he didn't know those things. He was Sanden, the Great Merchant Mer. And profit was the only thing that could move his mind.
Now, he heard a thundering sound from somewhere above his head.
Or was it thunder?
It couldn't be. This was too quiet, too constant to be thunder. It was like, like a rumble through the air, like the way fire makes that crackling sound when a breeze passes through.
Sanden felt awkward in the wake of this querulous sound. It seemed. just odd, to hear it. He'd never heard it before. Nor would he ever hear it again. A large shadow began to waver, calling to his attention. He raised his head, up in awe, and for a moment, just a moment when all his attention was focused on purely that small frame; he saw what seemed to be an elevating sun. It was moving too fast up the sky, he could tell, for the distance between it and the floating rock below it, the Ministry of Truth, was expanding by the mere second. Then, he realized his error in judgment. His mind had told him it was the sun in motion, but instead, it was the Ministry of Truth, and it was falling!
Falling!!!
His mind would have rather accepted a sun that moved too fast than a great rock held up in the sky by Vivec's power falling down crashing into the water. And the sound? Now, he understood what the sound meant. It was an infinite sized boulder hurling downwards in the face of wind. It was the sound of mountains tumbling, of eons of permanence mashing downward in the deadliest of all fates. It was the Ministry of Truth, Vivec's own magic, dissipating in the front of all to see.
The citizen's of Vivec witnessed the powerful might of Vivec the God collapse.
And as Sanden watched from his indifferent (not anymore) gaze, he saw its slow awkward fall into the ocean below. It seemed slow, for it was large in comparison to anything he had seen fall. It slowly came down.
Then, when it finally smashed into the oceans, Sanden could see it for sure, but hear it he could not. Until several moments later, when the greatest sounds of ocean waves smashed into his elven ears. WHAASH.
But that was not all.
He saw the tidal waves move away in a ring, like the way a ripple is made by the drop of a rock, and for a infinitely small time - how small will never be known - he entertained the thought that he was safe from all danger. The waves were smaller from that distance, but when it made its approach to Sanden, he was engulfed.
Dreughs and Slaughter fish are nothing compared to the dangers of the water itself. Oh yes, and the splash of falling mountains.
--
A great fire exploded like a ball of sun, quickly eroding eons of construction and history in a moment's flash. The Great House's attention is on each other, brought on by their own primitive dark elven instincts, magnified a thousand fold by the triple eclipse. Fire now reaches every dark elf's soul, and it must come out. As it comes, it is most advantageous for hate to come, too. For once it is unleashed, so does many other things along with it.
However, as attention is centered on each other's throats, something darker and slippery slithers like a snake below, ready to grow a thousand fold. And then, the snake shall pummel upwards from the ground, and bite. This snake of course, is a blood-sucking creature combined with a deadly mutagen ready to spread its death to other men and mer.