There was smoke in the air. Flames filled his vision. Over the distant screams of his fellow villagers he could hear a thunderous roar.
He was panting, his chest heaving and tightening. Where was his mother? His father?
The ground shuddered and he fell to the floor. A thick, muscular leg was less then ten feet before him and his eyes trailed up the leg to the torso and head of the beast, which glared at him with cruel, glowing red eyes…
He awoke with a lurch. His skin was sweaty and his heart was beating thunderously in his chest. His weapons were gripped in tight, shaking hands.
He resisted the urge to sigh, swinging his legs off his bed and wiping a nearby cloth down his sweaty arms and face before he began dressing himself. Normally he would exercise too, stretching and strengthening his muscles, but the steady rocking of the boat had put off his balance. So instead he dressed, cleaned his weapon then left for the deck of the ship he was on.
The Windrunner was a Valean trade ship. It was transporting nearly two dozen tonnes of barley and wheat to Atlas, Vale's sister Kingdom. The two kingdoms relied on a mutually beneficial relationship to make up for one another's deficits. Vale was large and fertile, but lacked viable deposits of minerals and ores due to the large amounts of monster's that roamed it's wilderness. Atlas was the opposite, small and cold leading to a lack of farmland, but it's martial tradition had led to the Kingdom enjoying the lowest numbers of monster attacks and it's frigid lands were rich in valuable minerals.
Once upon a time, it had been Mistral that had enjoyed a close relationship to Atlas. But that had changed after the Mistrali Civil War deposed the the previous Mistrali royal family that had close ties to Atlas and replaced it with the Nikos, a powerful noble family turned into the King's and Queen's of Mistral. The formal title was different to that, but his mission had nothing to do with the current Maxima Regima, but rather her brother.
Alexander Nikos had reported a suspected use of heretical magic to repel a dragon attack by Jaune Arc... Blonde hair danced before his eyes...a bright smile...innocent eyes...flaming hair... the heir to the powerful Arc family. He had been sent to deduce whether Nikos' findings had been true and if so to purge the heresy before it could spread.
That was his mission. He would complete it.
He waited patiently as the Windrunner finally docked at the port city of Colkirk. The docks were bustling. One of the ships leaving port bore the mark of a minor Valean house. Atop the nearby cliffs, Fort Maxim loomed. It was a formidable fortress indeed, having survived numerous assaults throughout the course of the Great War. It dominated the nearby lands and coasts and had been built by the grandfather of the current Schnee ruler of Atlas, Weiss, if he remembered correctly.
None of that mattered. He had a mission to complete. Scour Nördliche Burg for signs of heresy. Find, detain and interrogate Lord Jaune ...wide eyes...innocent...flaming hair...Nora... of House Arc to determine his innocence. If innocent, report his finding to the High Inquisitor. If guilty, purge the heretic ...wide eyes...innocent...Jaune... and anyone he had come into close contact with for a week or more.
Lie Ren stepped off the Windrunner . He had a mission to complete.