Sorceress of the Second Sphere

3. Nightingale - Chrys

The marketplace in Lionmane used to be one of the greatest sights in the Isovine Empire. Merchants and traders from all corners of the empire and beyond used to set up shop here for the bustling crowds to spend their hard-earned coin on various wares and foods.

Now it seemed at its bare bones.

Winter had made it feel cold and dark, but this was no excuse for the poor showing of merchants who wanted to make some coin and the patrons who wanted to spend it.

Chrysanthemum Sagard had spent a few months here now, disheartened by the number of poor and crippled on the streets that tried to take residence near the merchants. The poor had always been here, that was no illusion, but the number had increased exponentially, and with the merchants and patrons dwindling, their appearance was more apparent than normal.

Walking on the cobbled stones into the main square, Chrys spotted a man sitting on the streets with two stumps for legs. She watched as everyone passed the man as if he never existed, quietly raising his hand for a spare coin, yet no one paid attention to his request.

The moment Chrys hoped that someone would pay him attention was the moment she wished he was ignored.

Two city guards spotted him. Quickly they walked up to him, terrorising him at every opportunity. Treating him less than an animal as they kicked and spat at the poor man whose only fault was his determination to live.

The pure sadness that gripped Chrys' heart was something she wished she could ignore, but this was the reality and familiarity of Lionmane that she had come to expect. The city was extremely poor and the strong were determined to lay siege on the weak. These soldiers could pick on one of a number of the homeless beggars that littered the streets, but this one couldn't fight back, he was an easy target and the city guard enjoyed terrorising him.

Chrys had rarely smiled in Lionmane since she parted from her mistress and dear friend Loldirr Aex-Igh. Watching the true Empress fleeing this city had brought tears to her eyes, but Chrys knew that one day she would return. With that in mind, Chrys would do all she could to make sure the city was ready for the last remaining Aex-Igh to sit on the Isovine throne.

She walked over to a merchant selling bread and almost turned her nose up at the obvious stale loaf that sat lifeless on the stall. Her disgust turned to frustration when the merchant demanded double what one would pay for fresh bread outside Lionmane, yet this was the reality of the city. For sixteen winters, Emperor Arnaud III had bled this city and the empire dry of coin. The last four winters were by far the hardest ever since his new blue-haired concubine, Nimue, slept in his bed and encouraged his wars with Ruvia. The devastation to the empire had been rapid, rebuilding it would be anything but a quick process.

Humming a tune to herself, Chrys moved over to a linen cart to touch the exotic silk from Alzerbaad. Rare items that would have travelled thousands of miles to get here. However, as the fake merchant with his fake smile told fake tales on how he had travelled months to reach here, the coarseness of the linen gave away the secret of its fake origin and incredibly fake price.

This was Lionmane. Corrupt, poor and depressing, enough to even dampen the spirits of the life-loving Chrysanthemum Sagard.

Chrys was drawn to a sheet of paper posted on the side of the merchant's cart. Its words etched enormously in the paper, shouting to the world 'Nightengale, Dead or Alive, 5'000 gold coins'

When corruption abounds, vigilantes appear, and the Nightengale had caused untold mayhem for the city guard and the Emperor of Lionmane. Until a few months ago, no one had heard of the Nightengale, now you couldn't enter a tavern or bathhouse without the Nightengale being on everyone's lips.