Lirian raced through the city under the last remnants of the mist.
Izlandi hung in the air just an arm's length away, but her earlier enthusiasm at the prospect of flying was long lost.
Her stomach twisted and churned at the nightmarish hell that the city had become.
Bodies lay strewn about all over the streets, she noticed many ordinary bodies that were badly beaten and disfigured, lying in pools of their own blood.
Then she noticed the nobles who bore the emblems and colours of their houses, not that the latter matter much anymore, there was so much blood she wasn't sure if everything had been dyed in red or if her eyes had become unable to see any other colour.
Blood dripped of walls and rolled down the roofs of the houses, and when Izlandi looked for the source of the blood, it was more often than not, a severed limb that had somehow found its way to such a place.
Eventually she found certain differences in the manners of death, for the refugees most of them were brutal and messy, very few got a swift death.
As for the soldiers it was surprisingly the opposite, there were some who were clearly beaten and bashed to death by the refugees as they fought back, but as for the majority.
Their deaths were swift, many a corpse was simply headless, Izlandi thought so because the slices were so clean that it seemed almost natural, like their heads simply decided to up and leave their bodies.
Many such sights filled every street and alley within the city, a few times Izlandi keeled over and emptied out her stomach, so much death was far too much for her mind to bare.
Lirian returned to The Red boar, he discarded the armour he had stollen from the guard, underneath he was still wearing his uniform from the day before.
The white fabric had turned pink from the contact with the crimson mists, and the clothes reeked of the stench of death.
Lirian started to change his form to that of Bell's before Izlandi's very eyes, her expression was priceless as she watched the change occur, also she recognised the uniform, any one with even the slightest bit of influence in the city knew of the Red Boar, and could recognise the uniform.
Lirian didn't do much explaining, and just motioned for her to be silent as he snuck her into Bell's room.
When they got into the room, Izlandi saw the real Bell, and understood, that Lirian was acting like him, but that raised a question, who was Lirian to Bell that he would allow Lirian to use his form to do as he pleased.
It would have been one thing if he was just a random nobody, but Izlandi had actually heard Bell's name come up in a few circles, her male escort services had actually requested that she try to hire him due to his popularity amongst the noble ladies.
To learn that he was actually a follower of Lirian was amazing, she wondered what their relationship was and how many other spies Lirian had planted in the city to gather intel.
Lirian however didn't answer any questions she threw at him, he hurriedly left the room and went out back to chop wood.
When Lirian arrived in the garden the mist was almost gone, and he found that all the guys were sitting together huddled up, even Old Buch was sitting with them and not rushing them to get to work.
When they saw Lirian arrive they stopped their chattering and 'Old Buch' got up.
'Oh man, I'm totally getting an earful for skipping out on work yesterday,' Lirian complained internally.
But he was surprised when Old Buch put a hand on his shoulder with fondness and spoke in a relieved tone, "It's good to see that you back in one piece son, everyone thought that you must have died, when you didn't return," he sighed in relief and pulled Lirian towards the group.
They were sitting around a small fire they made on the ground, and they were passing around a pipe filled with tabac, Tommy instantly put an arm around Bell's neck and pulled him into the group.
"Seriously Bell, you had all of us worried," Tommy complained, "But how did you even manage to survive in that slaughter?" he asked the question that everyone was dying to know.
They all pried their ears open and waited for Lirian's response.
Lirian sighed softly, as it seemed like he had to weave a little tale for the guys.
"Before last night the most severe injury I ever saw was when my dad bashed his hand with a hammer, he broke three of his fingers, that was it," Lirian said pulling on Bell's memories.
"The truth is that yesterday in the plaza, when I saw Lord Stanley cut of that woman's head, I passed out then and there," Lirian said which got everyone to chuckle a little at his expense.
"Yeah. I feinted just like that, but then a few hours later I woke up, it was already dark, and the mists hadn't turned red yet, but I heard the screams coming from every direction in the city, I didn't know where to go," Lirian begun, he twisted and weaved a long tale about his struggles through the mists and the mad nobles that tried to cut him down on every turn.
"What happened next?" Tommy asked greatly intrigued in the story, how much they really believed Lirian didn't know but it seemed that they enjoyed the tale far too much to care.
"I'll tell you what happened next," Lirian said nodding his head, "I jumped from the rooftop and ran to the closest stack of bodies I could find; I didn't have to run too far too find a stack,"
"Them nobles were busy killing people with every step they took,"
"So, I pulled up the bodies and threw myself underneath the pile to hide, but that's when it happened…" Lirian said filling them with suspense.
"What happened?" they practically shouted together.
"As I was stuck underneath all those bodies preying that they couldn't find me, the silver-haired god appeared,"
"I saw him for just a second, not even long enough to get a good look at him, but then he vanished,"
"The nobles were so close to me by then I thought that they were going to find me at any second, but then their heads, just rolled of their bodies,"
"They fell to the ground, and that was the end of it," Lirian said.
"What did you do next?" they asked eager to hear more.
"What would you guys have done?" Lirian asked back, "I swear if it were you guys in my place, who aren't as brave and handsome as myself, you would have shat yourselves in fear," Lirian laughed as he praised himself in a way that Bell often did.
"I stayed where I was and didn't move until the mist started to clear up," Lirian said, "Then came back here," Lirian said ending the tale.
The group continued to chat for a while, when one of the waitresses showed up, "The boss wants to speak with everyone," she said gathering their attention she looked a little downcast and so did the rest.
Lirian trailed behind the group when suddenly he felt a stinging pain on his face, then it happened again, and again.
"What the hell is going on?" Lirian wondered as he rubbed his cheeks where it felt like he had received multiple tight slaps.
Lirian raced through the city under the last remnants of the mist.
Izlandi hung in the air just an arm's length away, but her earlier enthusiasm at the prospect of flying was long lost.
Her stomach twisted and churned at the nightmarish hell that the city had become.
Bodies lay strewn about all over the streets, she noticed many ordinary bodies that were badly beaten and disfigured, lying in pools of their own blood.
Then she noticed the nobles who bore the emblems and colours of their houses, not that the latter matter much anymore, there was so much blood she wasn't sure if everything had been dyed in red or if her eyes had become unable to see any other colour.
Blood dripped of walls and rolled down the roofs of the houses, and when Izlandi looked for the source of the blood, it was more often than not, a severed limb that had somehow found its way to such a place.
Eventually she found certain differences in the manners of death, for the refugees most of them were brutal and messy, very few got a swift death.
As for the soldiers it was surprisingly the opposite, there were some who were clearly beaten and bashed to death by the refugees as they fought back, but as for the majority.
Their deaths were swift, many a corpse was simply headless, Izlandi thought so because the slices were so clean that it seemed almost natural, like their heads simply decided to up and leave their bodies.
Many such sights filled every street and alley within the city, a few times Izlandi keeled over and emptied out her stomach, so much death was far too much for her mind to bare.
Lirian returned to The Red boar, he discarded the armour he had stollen from the guard, underneath he was still wearing his uniform from the day before.
The white fabric had turned pink from the contact with the crimson mists, and the clothes reeked of the stench of death.
Lirian started to change his form to that of Bell's before Izlandi's very eyes, her expression was priceless as she watched the change occur, also she recognised the uniform, any one with even the slightest bit of influence in the city knew of the Red Boar, and could recognise the uniform.
Lirian didn't do much explaining, and just motioned for her to be silent as he snuck her into Bell's room.
When they got into the room, Izlandi saw the real Bell, and understood, that Lirian was acting like him, but that raised a question, who was Lirian to Bell that he would allow Lirian to use his form to do as he pleased.
It would have been one thing if he was just a random nobody, but Izlandi had actually heard Bell's name come up in a few circles, her male escort services had actually requested that she try to hire him due to his popularity amongst the noble ladies.
To learn that he was actually a follower of Lirian was amazing, she wondered what their relationship was and how many other spies Lirian had planted in the city to gather intel.
Lirian however didn't answer any questions she threw at him, he hurriedly left the room and went out back to chop wood.
When Lirian arrived in the garden the mist was almost gone, and he found that all the guys were sitting together huddled up, even Old Buch was sitting with them and not rushing them to get to work.
When they saw Lirian arrive they stopped their chattering and 'Old Buch' got up.
'Oh man, I'm totally getting an earful for skipping out on work yesterday,' Lirian complained internally.
But he was surprised when Old Buch put a hand on his shoulder with fondness and spoke in a relieved tone, "It's good to see that you back in one piece son, everyone thought that you must have died, when you didn't return," he sighed in relief and pulled Lirian towards the group.
They were sitting around a small fire they made on the ground, and they were passing around a pipe filled with tabac, Tommy instantly put an arm around Bell's neck and pulled him into the group.
"Seriously Bell, you had all of us worried," Tommy complained, "But how did you even manage to survive in that slaughter?" he asked the question that everyone was dying to know.
They all pried their ears open and waited for Lirian's response.
Lirian sighed softly, as it seemed like he had to weave a little tale for the guys.
"Before last night the most severe injury I ever saw was when my dad bashed his hand with a hammer, he broke three of his fingers, that was it," Lirian said pulling on Bell's memories.
"The truth is that yesterday in the plaza, when I saw Lord Stanley cut of that woman's head, I passed out then and there," Lirian said which got everyone to chuckle a little at his expense.
"Yeah. I feinted just like that, but then a few hours later I woke up, it was already dark, and the mists hadn't turned red yet, but I heard the screams coming from every direction in the city, I didn't know where to go," Lirian begun, he twisted and weaved a long tale about his struggles through the mists and the mad nobles that tried to cut him down on every turn.
"What happened next?" Tommy asked greatly intrigued in the story, how much they really believed Lirian didn't know but it seemed that they enjoyed the tale far too much to care.
"I'll tell you what happened next," Lirian said nodding his head, "I jumped from the rooftop and ran to the closest stack of bodies I could find; I didn't have to run too far too find a stack,"
"Them nobles were busy killing people with every step they took,"
"So, I pulled up the bodies and threw myself underneath the pile to hide, but that's when it happened…" Lirian said filling them with suspense.
"What happened?" they practically shouted together.
"As I was stuck underneath all those bodies preying that they couldn't find me, the silver-haired god appeared,"
"I saw him for just a second, not even long enough to get a good look at him, but then he vanished,"
"The nobles were so close to me by then I thought that they were going to find me at any second, but then their heads, just rolled of their bodies,"
"They fell to the ground, and that was the end of it," Lirian said.
"What did you do next?" they asked eager to hear more.
"What would you guys have done?" Lirian asked back, "I swear if it were you guys in my place, who aren't as brave and handsome as myself, you would have shat yourselves in fear," Lirian laughed as he praised himself in a way that Bell often did.
"I stayed where I was and didn't move until the mist started to clear up," Lirian said, "Then came back here," Lirian said ending the tale.
The group continued to chat for a while, when one of the waitresses showed up, "The boss wants to speak with everyone," she said gathering their attention she looked a little downcast and so did the rest.
Lirian trailed behind the group when suddenly he felt a stinging pain on his face, then it happened again, and again.
"What the hell is going on?" Lirian wondered as he rubbed his cheeks where it felt like he had received multiple tight slaps.
