4-8 The Heart of Sephrodia

4-8 The Heart of Sephrodia

Erin and the rest of her companions along with the unforeseen company finally arrived in the heart of Sephrodia Valley. The high walls that encircled the city and the bustling noises that represented the lively presence of city folks brought everyone on the wagon and the horses back to their affable mood. Needless to say, the rest of the journey was ridden out in silence and awkwardness due to a certain three’s unbridled indulgence in their lusts. No one lost any sleep as the certain three at least had the decency to keep their voices as low as possible as the night deepened. However, the sounds of their flesh stroking and smacking against one another were resounding in the background like the cries of the crickets. The three only came back to the camp when it was morning.

Nivia had given them an earful of her scolding of their reckless and imprudent actions. None of the three said anything in their defence as they all knew they were in the wrong. They quickly apologised to Melissa and she was quick to forgive their transgression as Aeria did not hear anything due to the prudence of Lilian, who had cast an illusion magic on her. But even though they were forgiven by the High Lady of Valdrun, Nivia did not and her rambling did not stop even after they got into the city.

Melissa parted ways with Erin from there then. Soldiers and knights of her own houses that were stationed in this city had come to escort her.

“If you ever have the time, you must absolutely come to the Valdrun estate here. We will be serving the finest dishes of your liking,” Melissa had said as they bade their farewells and before parting ways.

Erin accepted the invitation with a vague smile and nod. She didn’t if Melissa got the hint but she was just glad she did not offend a High Lady.

“Thank the Spirits that the High Lady of Valdrun is tolerant and forgiving,” Nivia grumbled as they travelled down the main street of the city on their wagon.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of her having a tolerant and forgiving nature.” Lilian tittered. “I say she fancies our dear Erin here.”

Erin raised an eyebrow but she didn’t give a retort. She was just focusing on handling the wagon. As they were in a city, not the wilderness, the handling of a wagon was a tad different and slightly less easy. And the curious and awed glances from the people on the streets weren’t helping her concentration either. She was used to this kind of attention but due to this being a city, the attention was significantly more and she thought it couldn’t get any worse than it was in Quinteburgh.

“Lilian, High Lady Melissa is married and with a daughter,” Nivia reminded the smirking Dryad. “Need I remind you that if anyone heard you, you would be put on trial regardless if you’re a Fae.”

“Oh, shucks. I’m sure that would never happen. If it did, I just need Erin to use that silver tongue of hers to convince the High Lady.”

Nivia sighed, shaking her head. “Why did I even choose to take you along?”

“You didn’t, Nivia. I chose to follow you by my own accord, remember?”

“And that makes it worse. I should have stopped you.”

“The past is the past, Nivia.”

“It’s the future I’m worried about, Lilian!”

“Lady Nivia…” Aera called out meekly. “I don’t think it’s wise to raise your voice in the middle of the street, considering your status as an Elf.”

“The girl’s brighter than she looks,” Lilian praised, along with a few pats on Aera’s back.

Nivia clicked her tongue and turned away from Lilian, crossing her arms and legs as she sulked with a huff.

“They have gone quiet,” muttered Siv, who was sitting beside Erin on the driver’s seat. “Either they have stopped arguing or they have killed one another.”

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Erin remarked.

“Good mood, definitely. But the same couldn’t be said to my body, mistress.” She groaned as she tried to move in her seat. “You were never this rough, mistress. Even Lyra was exhausted by you and you were still not satisfied. Truly unrivalled, mistress.”

Lyra was sound asleep in the back of the wagon. Every once in a while, she would mutter the words she cried out in pleasure from last night in her sleep. Aera and Nivia would turn red from hearing those words and Lilian, as expected, would chuckle in amusement.

“It’s not all pleasure, Siv. I felt dread too…”

“Why, mistress?”

“What if I couldn’t stop myself and I kept going until I thoroughly exhausted both of you?”

“That doesn’t sound so bad, mistress. I will regret nothing should that ever happen and I’m sure Lyra shares the same sentiment, mistress.”

“Dear me… I have turned the two of you into slaves of my lust.”

“And we are your willing slaves, mistress,” Siv returned the jest with a bow from her seat.

“There is still more than two hours away from noon,” Nivia grumbled loudly from the back. “For the love of the Spirits, can you two please restrain yourselves at least until night?”

“Of course,” Erin said. “Forgive us. It is very heedless of me.”

“Just don’t do it again…” Nivia muttered with a fading voice.

“I’ll try, Nivia.”

“Where are we going anyway?” Nivia asked.

“The Adventurer’s Guild. Where else will we be getting our bearings?”

“And you know where the Guild is?”

Erin shrugged and pointed above them.

Nivia furrowed her brows and stuck her head out of the wagon, looking towards where Erin was pointing. “Ah…” was all the sound she made when she found what Erin was pointing at, the Adventurer’s Guild building. The crest of the Adventurer’s Guild could not be mistaken that was proudly standing atop the spire. The building was taller than all the surrounding buildings and it looked more like a tower than anything. She had heard of the size of the Guild’s building through the other Fae but this was definitely not the size she was expecting to behold.

Suddenly, screams and explosions drew Nivia out of her brief recollection. “Spirits be awed, what was that?” Following that loud and abrupt noise, people were running from the direction those sounds came from. Smoke could be seen trailing off into the sky from that direction too.

“What just happened!?” Lyra asked, upon her wake due to the trembling sound that swept through the street.

“I don’t know,” Erin said. “But it can’t be anything good and it’s in our path.”

“Best we look for another route, mistress,” Siv recommended. “We can’t go against the running crowd and I’m sure we can do without the troubles ahead and leave it all to the city guards.”

“I agree with Siv, Erin,” it was Aera who nodded her head and responded. “Can we not get into a battle for a whole day at least?”

“Hmm…” Lilian murmured. “I think that will be hard seeing as our Erin here tends to attract problems.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Lyra muttered in agreement.

“Thanks for the confidence,” Erin retorted. She was just about to steer the wagon in the other direction when the shouts of the civilians reached her ears.

“God damn it! The thugs have gone crazy!! Where are the city guards!?”

“Holy fucking hell! They summoned a Demon!”

“Oh my god! I don't want to die!! God help us!!”

Thugs, Demons, this combination was very indicative of a certain group’s effort. Erin sighed exasperatedly. She felt like fate was being intentionally fortuitous with her as the Covenant was her aim but she didn’t expect to be diving into it this early on. She had yet to even get her footing firmly planted in the city and she was already being thrown an issue related to her objective.

“Demons…” Nivia was muttering with a grave expression. “We can't let an abomination like that run amok.”

“I suppose we can’t…” Erin agreed reluctantly.

Lilian was tittering. “I don’t claim to be a seer or a prophet but you’re just too attractive to conflicts and troubles. They can’t resist throwing themselves at you.”

“Shut it, Lilian!” Erin snapped at the Dryad. “Not another word from you.”

Lilian nodded but her grin was still on her face.

“What do we do, mistress?” Siv asked.

Erin hung her head in contemplation for a while. “...Nivia, you’re coming with me.”

“Me?” Nivia blurted out.

Erin ignored her astonished response. “The rest of you will stay on the wagon. Keep your wits about you. We don’t know what other surprises there are waiting around the corner.”

Lyra and Siv did not utter a word of complaint and simply nodded to Erin’s orders.

“Wait a minute, Erin. Why me?” Nivia asked with her voice raised. The screams of the running civilians were drowning out all of her grumbling protests.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“I intend to do this swiftly. You’re fast and agile and I’ll also be needing your Wind Magic. Now stop gawking and come on,” Erin took the roofs of the buildings as soon as she was done speaking.

On the roofs, she was immediately greeted by gawking individuals with crossbows who were just watching the streets as if they were frozen in place. Their attires and the sigil patches on their chest told Erin these people were part of the city guards. However, none of them was doing their parts as city guards. They were just gawking.

“Who goes there?!” shouted one of the crossbowmen but every crossbow on the roof was trained on her.

Erin flourished her tails in response to the crossbowman’s question. At the same time, Nivia was just joining Erin by her side with a scowl after scaling the building with her Wind Magic.

“At least wait for me,” Nivia grumbled.

The guards’ reactions were just the kind Erin expected. They gasped in horror and astonishment. They quickly lowered their crossbows and begged the two Fae for forgiveness with jumbled words.

“Cease your apologies. People are running scared and likely dying down there. Why are you all just standing around and gaping like idiots without doing anything?”

“We were ordered not to, Lady Fae!” the guards said. “We were told to just wait for reinforcements and not do anything until they arrive!”

“Are fucking serious about that?! Can you not see what’s happening!”

“We have no choice, Lady Fae! The orders are absolute and this isn’t the only place something like this was happening!”

This definitely smelled like the work of the Covenant but for what reasons, Erin had yet to arrive at a guess. Erin glared at the guards. She wanted to ask for their assistance but seeing their dumbfounded expressions made her change her mind. They didn’t even look capable of taking care of themselves, let alone the well-being of others. This selection of personnel was quite deliberate, Erin surmised. She scoffed at the guards and rushed towards the scene of the chaos’ source without glancing back.

“For guards of a big city, they don’t look extremely bright,” Nivia remarked as she followed Erin closely behind.

“All the easier for the criminals to move around in broad daylight. Bigger city, bigger yield. This is more of a den of criminals and less of a city. But that’s precisely what we’re here for.”

“Damn humans… they just can’t quell their greed,” Nivia groused.

Another explosion ensued and Erin and Nivia could see the smoke erupting from the explosion, throwing debris high into the air.

“Nivia!”

“I know!”

Together, the two used attack spells that they could conjure and threw in split seconds, destroying all the debris before it rained back down on the ground.

“What in hell’s name…” Erin muttered as they arrived at the source of the bedlam.

A corner building that seemed to have been some sort of general goods store was in flames while thug-looking individuals were thrashing the place, inside and outside. There was an indescribable madness in their eyes, bloodshot. They were destroying and attacking everything and everyone that wasn’t as crazed as them. In the middle of those bloodshot thugs, an eight feet tall humanoid Demon was playing with a corpse, tearing out the organs one by one as if it was finding the human anatomy incredibly interesting.

“What’s wrong with them? The Spirits are being suffocated by these thugs,” Nivia observed.

“They are spellbound and that Demon was a human. This is too brazen for a furtive faction.”

“A distraction.”

“Definitely.”

“But for what?”

Erin shrugged. “We’ll figure that out later but first, we’ll have to take care of the garbage in front of us. Are you ready?”

Nivia cracked her neck and flexed her shoulders. “Always am, Erin,” she said and drew her short swords.

“Good. Eliminate the thugs first and we will take on the Demon together after that, got it?” Erin did not wait for an answer and hopped down from the building as a sword manifested into her grip.

Nivia sighed and followed suit.