Fantasia
Arc4: Seeking the origins
Chapter4: Nebura: The Thieves' guild
Nimmy had magically disappeared because of the bracelet she won in the magic contest, and it appeared that Barth -The thief who saved Juan and Cecilia earlier to these events- wanted mysteriously to help them but the curse on his chest prevented him from saying anything.
Tsuki acted fast and knocked him out with a steel cup asking the two young men to remove his clothes and claiming that she'll sap everything he knows.
"Are you Crazy? How the hell are we supposed to know where Nimmy is now? And what the hell with taking his clothes off? What are we? A bunch of pervs?!" Zolu asked the imp in panic but she slapped him to calm him down.
"Calm down…and do what I asked you" she said coldly.
"We should listen to her, I think I know what she'll do" Juan told his friend while unbuttoning the man's shirt.
"What the…Dude! You are stripping a man you know!" Zolu commented.
"Ugh, this is just painful" the imp complained while using her blood to draw curses on the knocked out thief.
"Oh…you should've said that earlier, I thought you…" the ragon calmed down after understanding what the imp meant.
Soon as Tsuki finished writing her curses on the thief's body, she started series of incantations that made the symbols glow in orange.
"So what are you exactly going to do?" Juan asked.
"We've seen the man at the tent, he uses thought projection (referring to the panels he materializes to present the participants) so I'm thinking of using my puppetry curse and manipulate his subconscious to cast whatever he knew and show us where Nimmy is" she explained.
"Whoa! That's something! Who taught you that?" the ragon expressed his exclamation.
"I used to have a friend, who worked as a tormentor once, she was a nice girl" the imp mentioned creepily.
And then the imp started interrogating Barth's subconscious, my focusing her thoughts in his head, he projected a large map with a glowing red spot at the western part.
"That's Bardens' map, and that must be where Nimmy is" Juan said pointing at the red spot and quickly sketching the image.
Then few letters appeared on the map showing secret passages and caverns that thieves uses to travel, but what's more interesting was the name of the red spot "Nebura's guild of thieves".
"So he works in a guild of thieves" Tsuki said, "let's find out what they wanted from Nimmy" she added.
With this question, the map shifted and a blurry image of a woman appeared titled by "Queen Vivian".
"Queen…Vivian?" Zolu asked.
"She must be their leader, but nothing in his memory about her face or how she looks like, probably the curse she put on him prevents him from this" the imp commented.
And with a little concentration more writings showed up saying that "Vivian" likes to "Collect magic talented girls" which confused the three youngsters even more.
"Collect magic girls? Is it like slavery?" the ragon wondered.
"Or maybe she's setting an army for an invasion" Tsuki theorized.
"An army?" was Zolu's response.
"Seems sane to me, Vivian uses perfected curses to control people, we cannot exclude the idea of preparing an army of fledged mages for an invasion, and the contest was apparently to camouflage the selection phase of this plan" Juan explained.
"So this means, that Nimmy will be safe, so we go to save her…very well, let's hit the road!" Zolu boasted clashing his fists.
"Wait Zolu, we can't just go and break in, according to Barth's memory Nebura is a hidden fortress with hundreds of thieves in it, we should expect many obstacles that'd stand in our way, so we have to prepare for this" the shepherd noted.
"He's right, I found something that might help us, wait I'll project it" the imp said before making the thief materialize few titled pictures of guild members, namely three; a man in his middle twenties with a rectangular face and a well-trimmed goatee, another handsome one who seems a bit older than the latter with a scar that goes from his left lower lid to his upper lip with slick mustache -Shortly recalled by Juan to be the leader of the gang he saw before-, and a bulky curly haired man with a hat.
Upon seeing those men, Juan's expression showed a hint of despise noted by his friends.
"What the matter Juan? Do you know them?" Tsuki asked.
"That man (he pointed at the goateed man) Saimon, if we were forced to fight him, leave that guy to me" he answered with an angry tone remembering how Saimon wanted to rape the princess.
"Well this is what I can sap without detonating the curse, I guess what rests is to prepare for the breakthrough" the imp said disabling her curse and walking toward the wagon hiding her fear of what she just felt from Juan.
…
By dawn, Barth woke up on the sound of wheels rolling over the solid land, and the rocking motion of the van he was imprisoned in, he opened his eyes with dizziness from the hard hit he received the previous night, slowly to find himself surrounded by baggage, seeing the imp sitting on the other side holding her spear and meditating, while Zolu was on the corner half sleepy, then he turned to the front to see Juan driving the horse through the rough land, he took a gasp and started to talk to the shepherd.
"Where…am I?" the man asked rubbing his bloated head bruise.
"Oh you woke up Barth…Here you go, and the jug to your left had some juice if you want to drink" Juan said while tossing him some bread.
He noticed the blue tone under the shepherd's eyes as a sign of spending a sleepless night then he asked about their destination.
"To the Neburan guild of course" Juan answered with a serious voice.
"Are you crazy?! You cannot face our guild with just the three of you! How did you even know where our guild is?" the man asked violently.
"No we are not crazy, we'll just get our friend back avoiding any fight, and yes we somehow read your mind after Tsuki knocked you out" Juan replied with confidence making the man smirk showing impression.
"I don't really get it...I remember that night when we first met on Zellian hills, you looked like some shaky spoiled kid of the countryside who'd simply cannot stand a chance outside his house, but after I saw you escape with the girl and now you are planning to attack my guild, I realized that I really can't judge a book from the cover" the thief complimented.
"Thanks, though I have just one question…why do you help me? Before and now? I don't get it, aren't you a thief?" Juan asked.
"Because you remind me of my nephew, that's why…he was a kid when we lost him, but if he…was meant to continue his life, he'd probably grown up to be like you" the thief answered making the shepherd lose grip over the bridle for a moment.
"He died when Arcadia invaded my village, my deceased sister entrusted me with him, but I was just a pathetic man and failed her, and probably what I am now; a filthy scum, a lowlife, a thief…is just what I deserve…" the man told his sad tale.
Despite he usually would do, this time Juan didn't care about the thief's feelings, he clenched his teeth because he somehow felt that his soft loving heart was slowly turning into a selfish cold stone losing his caring yet coward soul to this new feeling of responsibility and courage.
"So you guys are having a plan?" Barth asked.
"Yes, we know that Vivian imprison girls for some unobvious reason, and we know that you have Saimon, Kruger (the gang's boss), and Zane (the bulky man) as one of the strongest guards or so…we've prepared a plan to enter the fortress and rescue Nimmy" Juan said.
It was suicide by the measures of Barth; he didn't know if these youths learned the full truth about Vivian or not but he simply assumed that they won't stand a chance against his queen, he wanted to warn them, but he realized that their determination cannot be put off with mere warning so he just kept silence waiting for them to arrive at Nebura.
…
At the same time, at the utmost western cliff of the Bardens land, lies the hidden fortress of Nebura; a fortress that was built through the rough stone that composed the walls of the deepest valley down there, the inside was a maze of caverns, routes and pitfalls carved by nature where no hand of a mortal interfered in creating this deadly place of wonders.
At the deepest of the hideout existed the vastest room, or what the queen of thieves liked to call the throne room, she simply turned this creepy dark cave into a glowing chamber of stolen treasures.
The rough floor turned into a red aisle by the best carpets of silk that existed in the western realms, the walls were ornamented by torches of glowing amber rubbed from one of the richest jewel dealers in the eastern parts, from the ceiling hanged crystal chandeliers who were once headed to decorate the royal room of king Heinz in person.
At the farthest point of the room lied a shimmering pile of jewelries; treasure chest, Golden coins, crowns, scepters, necklaces, diamonds, rubies, pearls, topped by another pile of comfortable bedding pillows, or what the queen describes as her throne.
Suddenly a large man, with curly brown locks and green eyes wearing his signature black hat and large coat of leather, bare-chested he wore two thick belts crossing over his muscular abs entered the room, followed by twelve charming young girls wearing nothing but erotic gowns that covered lesser than what they show of their attractive bodies carrying baskets of the sweetest foods and drinks.
They arranged themselves around the "throne" when the man kneeled welcoming the mistress of this manor of rogues.
"A fortune that befitted my luxury…a throne that befits my supremacy…girls whom befitted my desire…and a power that befitted my dominion…that's simply my fate…" her musical toned voice declared the arrival of Vivian the queen of thieves.
The tall slender woman in the middle of her twenties, with such curvaceous body that some mistakes it for a siren's, her knee length flowing blond hair waved with every step from her high heeled black boots, while her tiara of gold and gems lifted the blue lock that played in front of her purple shaded sky blue eyes, and her dark pink puffy lips, she wore a tight dark blue gown of fabric exposing her slim arms and stocky thighs, with series of uncountable bracelets, anklets, and rings of every ore a goldsmith might use covered her, she lifted her right hand showing her splendid charming gauntlet which was made of black and silver metal decorated with many emeralds, covering her fingers giving them the appearance of a clawed hand.
She grabbed her purple thick cape offered by her henchman and mounted to her throne where she sat like any luxurious person, and picked a glass of red wine from one of the baskets her harem carried.
"Zane…show me my prize…" she ordered sipping gently from the pearly grail.
The large man clapped several times summoning the three winners of the magic contest who were led by Jackal the receptionist to the throne room like slaves, cuffed and muted they stood when the queen descended and walked in front of them.
She played with the curls of Mariana the blonde, teased the neck of the red headed Clara, and then she stopped to grab Nimmy from the chin and examined her frightened cute face with an eye full of forbidden lust expressed by her tongue that licked her lips.
"And what so special about my new harems?" the queen asked.
"My queen, this is Mariana, she plays with sand like the scorching winds of the desert…and this is Clara, in another life she'd be a lioness that every beast kneel before…and this, this charming one is the only and one Nimmy, I never seen a human that can control the green until she arrived…and they all are yours my lady offered by the servile Jackal…" the servant presented poetically.
"She is?" Vivian asked then she let her right hand glow in magical green light piercing through the girls bodies like a phantom knocking them down.
"Take them and prepare them" she ordered her men who carried the girls gently to another room.
"Ah isn't my fate beautiful, Zane?" she murmured with coquetry observing her body glow in the magic she absorbed from the abducted girls.
…
And so by the noon of that day, Juan arrived at the valley where Nebura lies, but apparently he was alone, his friends where enigmatically separated, he stopped his horse, and dismounted the wagon leading his steed walking across the barren land sniffing the dust brought by the dry wind, when he felt someone watching him, he turned back to see the game that fate prepared for his journey; he saw a tall man from afar, the man wore a light blue cape that hid a tight green shirt and black leather pants under it, he approached him slowly until his face was as clear as the sun of that hot day…and that man was simply no one but Saimon.
To be continued
Please not that the chapter is only suitable for those who are above 18...oops! too late! but don't blame me Vivian wasn't fully my idea as it was for my classmate (who happened to surpass me in being a perv .) I originally wanted it to be just a spoiled girl who enjoys torturing pretty girls but my firnd was like "c'mon that's so mainstream! try somethin' new, like a woman who likes to play with pretty girls" and that was Vivian's birthday...sorry...