The cold, hard stone bit into Kaelen's back as he sat motionless in the shadowy cell, his breaths shallow, the tremor of distant explosions registering only faintly beneath the relentless thud of his heartbeat. Somewhere in his mind, the mission brief replayed like a dirge:
MISSION 001: RECLAIM THE ARTIFACT.
LOCATION: THE DESOLATED KINGDOM — THE FORGOTTEN VAULTS.
TIME LIMIT: 48 HOURS.
No map. No guidance. Only the cold certainty of the countdown.
All around him, the other prisoners began to stir. A mismatched group, each radiating a raw, volatile energy, strangers bound together by unseen threads. Kaelen remained still, quietly absorbing every detail while still trying to make sense of what was going on around him.
To his left, a hulking man shifted, more beast than man, with a physique like chiseled granite, crisscrossed with old, angry scars. Thick leather armor clung to him like a second skin, and his very breath seemed to challenge the silence. His eyes, storm-gray and sharp, darted across the cell before he snarled, "This is a damn joke, to start the mission in a bloody cell!" His voice vibrated through the floor as he slammed a fist against the reinforced metal door, denting it with brute force. "We break out of here, now!", throwing a glance towards kaelen. "And looks like there's a greenie here with us, just our damn luck" kicking a stone to vent his frustration.
'Wouldn't be surprised if he is called Brutus', Kaelen thought. The name suited him a living battering ram aching for release.
"The name is Regan" he turned back after venting his frustration. "We best stick together if we wanna make it out of here in one piece"
Beside Regan, a woman stood unnervingly still. Her arms, from elbow to fingertip, gleamed with polished chrome. Blue energy pulsed beneath the metal, and every breath she took hummed with a synthetic whisper. Her lips, painted a deep crimson, curled into a sneer. "Agreed," she hissed, showing her annoyance. Her voice modulated, unnatural. "They want a game? We'll give them a war." looking mad as well "but why are we starting in a beginner location?"
'That's a total vixen', Kaelen thought. Volatile, beautiful, deadly. Her presence was a coiled spring of violence waiting to snap.
Huddled in the corner of the cell, a young man clutched a battered datapad to his chest, his frame lost in oversized academic robes. His eyes, wide and twitching, flicked from figure to figure, absorbing it all with a blend of terror and fascination. A scholar, perhaps a Librarian. More mind than muscle.
"We did purchase a 3 Star quest, and those are usually a safe, profitable investment " the scholar spoke up
And then there was the last figure a silent presence cloaked in darkness, their form draped in flowing black fabrics that seemed to consume the light. One couldn't tell if they were either male or female, their hooded face remained hidden. A heat shimmer rose subtly from their clasped hands. Shade, Kaelen labeled them. Elusive. Dangerous in ways he didn't yet understand.
Regan stepped forward, marking his position as the leader "the vixen over there is viola" turning and pointing towards viola, " viola is usually in charge of our machinery" he pays her shouldé trying to appease her. "the scholar over there is theo". Pointing towards the scholar in the corner. "Theo usually does all the planning and brainy icky jumbo mumbo" Turning back to Kaelen. "And what's your name kid?"
"Uh..uhmm..it's Kaelen" he stuttered
"Nice to meet you Kaelen, I believe you have been briefed regarding the mission?" Looking towards the door. "48 hours isn't enough time to inspect the whole city. So we gotta go In guns blazing. Make sure you don't fall behind"
Suddenly, Regan charged, shoulder first into the door living up to the image kaelen had given him in his mind
The door groaned in agony beneath his weight, warped by sheer force. Viola stepped in beside him, her cybernetic arms crackling with blue energy as she sent arcs of power into the frame, melting the reinforced alloy. Sparks danced. Smoke hissed. From the corridor beyond, gunfire erupted, followed by panicked shouts and the clang of metal as others made their break.
But Kaelen didn't move. To be more precise, Kaelen couldn't moved.
Something stirred within him, the voice of the Regent, an instinct calling to him, source of the marks etched across his skin. It urged patience, observation, something else. As the chaos intensified outside, Kaelen turned inward. His gaze scanned the walls, unnaturally sharp eyes finding intricate, almost invisible patterns carved into the stone embroidery-like designs buried beneath centuries of dust. Not random. Deliberate. Resonating faintly with the energy pulsing beneath his tattoos. His eyes began to piece everything around him, giving birth to a new sensation he couldn't quite lay a finger on. He stood up and walked around, being marveled by what he saw.
His hand brushed against the symbols, and they answered with a silent hum.
One stone, subtly loose, yielded to his touch. It shifted with a muted scrape and a hidden panel slid open.
A passage.
Narrow. Ancient. Lit only by a faint glow from beyond. The sound of water dripping gave him a sense of joy as water always had an inlet and an outlet.
"Guys I've found a passage way leading to somewhere" Turning back trying to make his discovery known to the rest, but looking at madly chaotic company he decided against doing that.
Kaelen slipped through, away from the screams and shouts, drawn downward into the belly of the vault. The deeper he went the more confused he got. The corridor pressed in around him, thick with webs and the damp scent of forgotten things. His boots crunched on pebbles, each step a whisper against the silence.
At the end, a low antechamber opened before him.
Shelves carved from stone groaned under the weight of stoppered vials glowing with sickly light. Leather-bound books, their titles lost to time, spilled across broken tables. Diagrams—anatomical,depicting humans, others clearly not humans all lay hung from the walls. The air tasted of herbs, metal, and dust. On one cluttered table, surrounded by strange instruments and scattered parchments, sat a single arcane candle, its flickering flame casting shadows that moved too much.
And there, hunched over the parchment in the candlelight, was her.
She was young, no more than twenty, maybe twenty-two at most. She had a pale, almost translucent skin, that gave off an otherworldly ethereal vibe. Long, dark hair tied back to reveal a face both delicate and consumed by focus. Her eyes, scrunched up as she looked lost in trying to comprehend what layed before her. when they lifted at last, they were amethyst and looking into them felt like ones soul was being sucked away. But she was startled, and filled with something Kaelen hadn't expected.
Desperation.