RICTORIS - 51052 - RAIN
Colonel Brandis Valtarim walks through the streets of the Rictoris Citadel, his adjutant beside him briefing him about the development.
“Adjutant Azrin, please tell me where we stand with this occupation.”
“I can only laud your efforts, Colonel. After we blasted the tower into the sky with our satchels, the troops and populace were quick to surrender, and we now control all quarters of the settlement. At this moment, our soldiers are preparing the civilians for transport, and the soldiers for retraining. Throughout this operation, there have been virtually no losses on our side.”
“This is excellent to hear. Clearly, we have moved much quicker than they even could have dreamt!”, the Colonel adds, “What about the spoils of war?”
Adjutant Azrin remains silent, raising suspicions in Brandis.
“Well… the spoils Azrin? Where are they?”
Azrin coughs, takes a deep breath.
“Colonel, I’m afraid we have discovered…rather little. Fifteen hundred crystals and possibly enough supplies to feed a few hundred men for a week.”
“WHAT?!!”, Brandis responds furiously, “WHERE IS THE REST???!”
Azrin sighs: “I do not know Colonel…. Perhaps they were in the citadel tower that we blew up?”
Brandis thinks deeply…he understands that something peculiar happened with that tower. Surely the satchel charge was hugely powerful, but when the blast occurred he witnessed the tower being blown high into the skies, launched so far that the main part of it went completely out of sight.
“Azrin…. Can you please bring Demeris to me.”
“The satchel expert you mean, Colonel?”, Azrin responds.
Brandis nods: “We did not find the corpse of Valeris either, did we?”
Azrin raises his hands: “Indeed Colonel, unfortunately we have not. Regardless, I will fetch Demeris straight away for you.”
As Azrin departs to fetch Demeris, Colonel Brandis Valtarim begins to realise that his victory may have been slightly too quick this time…
The Marquis Valeris Rictoris wakes up with a heavy shock, as he gets pressed deeply into his own velvet mattress, inside his own sleeping chamber. Immediately he realised something was gravely amiss. Amidst the explosion underneath he exerts his mental fibres to slow his experience of time and stabilise the kinetic energies around his own body. He then notices what appears to be the very start of a large explosion underneath his tower.
“Betrayed!”, he thinks to himself. But he finds himself lacking in time to delve deeper into that aspect.
“A shockwave underneath…I sense from the bottom floor. I must… blend and follow my contingency of first resort.”
He lifts his arms, drawing energy from the late evening sky into his body. He then sharpens his mental fibres, shaping the energy to help preserve the integrity of his tower as it is blasted upwards. Excruciating pain surges through his head, as the very structure of his mental fibre begins to tear from the sudden excessive exertion required.
Seconds later, the impact of the original blast diminishes greatly, and Valeris intensifies his energy collection from the night-time sky. Momentarily the tower appears to slow down in its ascent, but Valeris then channels primal energy through his body to spur the tower further into the sky. The sky above him begins to flicker as he draws more and more energy, and he begins to retch.
Several floors down, several tower guards manage to barely cling on to the stair rails, while others are bounced off the walls and the winding staircases in a quick and fatal succession.
“Southeast is the only way. I must….make it to Blackmill….”
As the tower soars through the evening sky towards the Southeast, Valeris taps more and more into his capacities. Nevertheless, he manages to hold out just long enough to reach the edge of the Granite Mountains. By the time the tower actually approaches Blackmill, Valeris finally passes out. Consequently, the tower ceases to be controlled, and smashes into a rocky plateau, several miles away from the village.
Talo Eldertree dines with Phennon inside the Mayor’s house of Blackmill, when a large tremor, accompanied with a deafening crash, shakes the wallks and cupboards.
“What on earth was that?”