Welcome to Gaia! ::

"do i now, well i am not familiar with you"

the gate shut behind katrea and he stopped to wait for the man to finish talking to him, ikki stood there too.

"i am looking to join the knights here, but it is none of your business, unless i need to see you about it sir"

katrea gave the man a look up and down but he didn't seem like anything great.

After being in town for a few days, Shadow had figured that he'd need more gold to feed his short supply of cash. The normal way for a mercenary to find the best work, the guildmaster had once told him, was to search the local bars and pubs.

The type of work Shadow was looking for was a bit seedy to some, so he had set out for one of the poorer districts of the castle town of Arvadia, finding a grotty little bar that suited him perfectly.
That was about 2 hours ago and since then he'd had his fair share of drinks so didn't notice the nervous young man who had sat down next to him until he'd asked him for a cigarette. Naturally he gave the nervous looking man a cigarette to calm him down a little, asking him what was the matter.

The young man said he needed to talk to a private detective, he needed help finding his girlfriend, Shadow grinned to himself as he naturally took his cue to lie a little about his job description: "It's your lucky day sport, i'm a private detective myself, a damn good one as a matter of fact"

The young man's face flushed with relief as he began to hysterically tell Shadow the details of his missing girlfriend, a librarian in the castle, missing for 3 days and none of the gate guards at the castle would let him in to see if she was there, sending him on his way like he was a raving lunatic.

"Sounds like she's causing you some trouble, what time is it?"
The young man revealed that the hour was quite late, Shadow nodded and replied "For the right amount of cash, I can get into the castle and find her for you".
The young man said a number, clearly distressed as he offered Shadow 450 gold in advance, a big number for someone in this area. Shadow accepted his money and told the man he would set out to do it immiedietly seeing as he paid in advance and would meet him at the bar in the morning with results.

The trip to the castle was uneventful, it was always quiet for this time of night, even in the slums. As he approached the wall Shadow was all business, using his training to scout the area for a likely entry point, instantly noticing the movement patterns of the guard patrols and planning his route of entry. "Too easy, security's lax for this place" he muttered to himself as he broke from the cover of the alley and dashed for the wall surrounding the castle grounds, using his speed and agility to perform an effortless leap from the ground over the wall some 4 meters high.

The landing could have been better, seeing as the guard that was now under his feet had been knocked unconscious, so Shadow quickly stole his wallet and hid his body in the stable under the wall, muttering as he slipped away "Mmmm, stealthy".

After a short 20 minutes of searching, Shadow had made his way into the castle's main building, heading for the lower levels of the east wing where the library was kept, seeing fewer and fewer guards as he approached the deserted area of the castle where the librarian was said to have worked.
Another 20 minutes and he'd found what he was looking for, but he didn't like what he'd found at all.
Seeing the door ajar wasn't the problem, it was the stench of blood in the air that had his skin crawling and made him move a lot quieter. He made his way through the door and found the source of the blood-stink, a once pretty-young woman who now was rotting quite fast, her pale form on the floor, surrounded by a huge puddle of her own drying blood.
Being a mercenary, Shadow had seen a lot of battles so was used to death, it was just part of the job. He looked around the room, his sharp eye picking out two details: A missing book from a glass cabinet and a glass of stale water on the librarians desk.
His talent with water gave him an idea, an old technique that his old man had taught him just before the attack on his villiage. He could use the water and his power over it to scry and see what the water had seen, not a technique he claimed to understand but it had it's uses. He lit a cigarette, wondering if he would like what he would see, also wondering if he could still do the technique as he hadn't used it that much.

He took a drag from his cigarette as he began the scry, running his elemental power into the glass, causing it to bubble and rise into the air, spreading itself into a thin screen in front of him.
The water showed him many things from the glass's perspective, he saw a hooded man enter the library, he saw him ask a question of the young woman, he saw him draw his sword and pin her to the wall with it after a few minutes of conversation. He heard everything as though he was underwater, washed out and slightly fuzzy but he still caught the gist of what was said, something about a book and chains, seeing the man draw his hood back to show his face, a face Shadow recognized instantly!
This young man he saw in the water was the very same Dark Knight that had slaughtered more than half of his mercenary force on his last mission for the guild, protecting a mountain villiage from the king's elite soldiers. "You pale freak! I'll rip out your spine for what you did to us!" Shadow shouted at the vision, his anger rushing to the surface like bubbles in the water, his cigarette flaring angrily as he remembered all the friends he'd lost, the young man who had vanished on the battlefield before he could exact revenge.

Realising that the vision had ended and that his loss of focus had made the water fall to the floor, Shadow decided it was time to leave, stepping over the young woman as he left the library, promising himself he'd at least tell the guards what had happened to her.

Making his way to the outbuildings of the castle again, he perched on the roof of the guardhouse, silent as the grave until he alerted them by bellowing "MURDER IN THE LIBRARY, EAST WING!", scaring the guards inside into instant action as he hopped from roof to roof, vanishing into the night as he made his way to the pub, ready to report back to his client.

As he leaped from what must have been the 30th roof since the castle, his head was full of dark thoughts, how he'd tell the bad news to the nervous young man at the bar, how he'd have to offer his sympathy but could do no more, how he'd find that Dark Knight that had been here not long ago, why he would kill for a simple book that clearly was anything but.
"I'll need some help for this one" he said to himself as he planned on how he would find and kill this Knight with no name, vowing to finish his business with his client and set out on his hunt in the afternoon of the next day.

"Colonol fetch the castles doctor I want any trace of who did this found. I must head to the queens side."

The colonel nodded and walked out towards the western wing of the castle. Avalus stood he felt sorry for this woman he had never been much of a reading person so had not frequented the library yet the loss of any of the castle many employees was still a sad time. Inded the death of anyone freind or foe is a sad time.

Avalus stood and walked out of the room leaving a pair of guards on watch.

He climbed a spiral staircase up to the second floor moving along the hallways to a large open area with a large archway. The guards opened the doorway and the throne could be seen.

Avalus was worried when he could not find the queen in her throne and so he ran to the second floor battlements overhanging the courtyard. That is when the sounds of battle came to his ears and this further increased his worry. He looked down to see the unconscious guards and several others chasing the man from before this man was indeed skilled. The gate dropped behind him as he made his escape. hearing the queen he was releived yet she wanted the man and anything the queen wanted she would get.

Avalus considered how he would reach the man as the gates were down. Just then he saw the autumn leaves falling in the courtyards.

"From above"

he said quickly as he ran up the flight of steps beside him up onto the top battlement pushing black mages out of the way as he ran. He ran to an outsticking piece of the battlement without thinking he lept from it falling at great speed he rolled and braced himself his armour plates on his legs slammed hard against the floor and scraped along the pavement on the pathway from the castle. The young man would have to come this way as it was the only way that lead to the town and that was the obvious choice for destination instead of staying in the castle grounds. He stood and sorted his armour. flicking out a large longsword from his back he swung it stabbing it into the ground before him placeing his hands on the very tip of the hilt.

Ikki caught up to Katrea. He saw the man they saw before.

"Hey Katrea, do you that girl? A lot of people know you and you dont know them...you're really bad with faces."

Ikki noticed the man had drawn a weapon so he drew his guns as precaution taught him but he aimed them down at the ground as a nonprovocative move.

"And who are you?"

Avalus looked as another approached. Neither of these individuals are are arvadians he thought. Neither of them know who I am.

"Who am I you say? I am Avalus Asureia A knight in the service of the queen. I have sworn to protect arvadia and its people from all whou would oppose them. I would say your attack on the castle is an opposition"

Avalus still stood in his stance non moving. He would not make the first move he awaited the reactions of his opponent so he could better judge his opponent.

"Don't interfere Ikki, this is where you and I part ways, something deep inside tells me i need to be here right now and as for you, you must find this man you are after."

katrea moved so that he faced the wall and his sword swung around to rest on the stone floor of the street, with one hand firmly gripping on the handle, he looked up at Avalus and just stood there for a moment as the mood grew tense. a wind blew through the street making his red scarf flap about and as it died down katrea made a shoulder barge action at Avalus. When within a meter of him he stopped and pivoted on one foot bringing his sword around to slash at his side. it was followed by a kick just below the blade in its shadow.

"Show me what you got."