Chapter 1 – Ara
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Ara feels an itching sensation make its way around her neck before a sudden grip limits her breathing, and a tug of the rope slightly raises her posture.

The excited buzz of viewers begins building.

No, No, No! Her mind pleads in the darkness of her hood.

A scorpion of handlers cascades down a staircase, slowly fading away from the scene as a single pair of boots steps in front of her. A scroll splits ahead of her, followed by the chatter coming to a complete stop.

Her breath is all she hears.

It's pace grows panicked.

“Before you stand the notorious crime family, The Khu.” A rumble of booing erupts to the soldier’s announcement.

“All five of them have been charged for three counts of murder, the practice of illegal magics, and the defamation of our leader, Emperor Cao.”

The sound of a rock thumps to the ground as another prisoner gasps for air. The intensity of the crowd grows louder as the soldier finally announces –

“The penalty. Is death!”

A barrage of stones crash against the wood as the crowd reaches its loudest. Different voices including Ara’s scream and cry out in pain, as they flinch to the invisible bombardment.

She attempts to evade as best she can but the tension of the rope keeps her in place. Her teeth clench in frustration, clattering as her body vibrates with each impact.

Shaking her head violently, she mumbles under the cover of her hood.

Death is a debt we all must pay.

Death is a debt we all must pay.

Death is a debt we all must pay.

The barrage comes to a sudden halt, but the rumble of excitement continues as people scream in demand for justice.

A heavy pair of footsteps make their way up the stairs of the gallows. The sound of steel clangs in the motion of each step as it halts by the staircase. Ara breathes in once again to the sound of mechanical pieces shifting and breathes out to the distant echo of the sky train approaching.

Death is a debt we all must pa-

Their world is a fallacy, Ara” states a voice from beside her. “Don’t let them reduce you to fear.”

“Ma'ma, I’m sorr-“ her stomach rises and the weight of her body drops straight down before the noose throttles around her neck, briefly squeezing the air out of her body when suddenly she crashes chest first to the ground - Gasping in darkness and stuttering, Ara can't find her breath.

A burning sensation fizzles around her neck where she no longer feels the squeeze of rope and she hears her family members choking as the ropes sway.

The sudden patter of footsteps grows closer until she is heaved to her feet with a grip similar to that of the handlers, and with a wheezing breath, she shakes her entire body in rebellion.

“Ara.” the voice states as she struggles.

“Ara!” White suddenly pierces her eyes, she shudders and nearly stumbles but the hands keep her steady. She slowly opens them to see a bald young man with a scarf covering his nose and mouth. Ara notices a scar crossing one of his eyebrows and his poorly defined features become familiar. The room begins to subtly vibrate as the high pitched shreik of the sky train draws nearer.

“Chaung? But you’re–“ Ara feels a bump on her shoulder and turns to a pair of legs drifting beside her. She feels a tingling sensation swell in her cheeks and tears build in her eyes.

She didn't even notice them all go silent...

The ground itself ocillates aggressively, throwing Ara off balance as the loud screech of the SkyTrain echoes through the entire complex, rattling the ground as it rumbles over the square.

“We need to go,” he says, removing his scarf as he looks at the entrance.

“What boat?” Ara asks, her eyes fixed on the legs.

“Here, put this on.” Ara feels a scarf get placed in her hands. With blurred vision and an aching chest, she watches Chaung as he poses alongside the entrance and grips the pearl white katana by his waist.

The gold lining of the sword catches a ray of the sun, reflecting to Ara as momentary void that zones her focus.

“Mask, Now!” He yells, prompting her to swallow heavily and raise the scarf to cover her face.

An imperial soldier steps into the room, seeing Ara as she is covering her face with the scarf. He grabs the AR Conductor around his waist and raises it at her. "Don't mov-", yells the soldier until a blade from his side pierces through his throat.

The blade slowly exits the soldier’s neck before his body drops to the floor. "We move, now!"

Ara quickly finishes covering her face, then follows Chaung out the doorway as he raises a hood over his head. They step out behind the gallows when Ara looks up to see the executioner with his mechanical arm standing to the back of the stage.

As they reach the far side of the gallows they casually scurry past the guards watching the crowd and make their way into the edge of the buzzing audience.

She holds her breath in the claustrophobia of the energetic audience.

Why? Her mind pries, as she sees the satisfaction on peoples faces.

As the scurry though, she collides into an older gentleman within the swarm of viewers. His navy red robe along with his metallically lined conical and high-grade utility belt glisten in the light. A golden sigil of a screwdriver crossing over a spanner imprinted in the center of his robe parades him as an engineer for the state. However, his most striking feature is his mechanically augmented right eye that dresses his face from the cheekbone up to where his eyebrow would be.

Fucking rat.

She watches the man fall to the floor as she stumbles past, managing to stay on her feet. Without a second look, they continue shoving their way through the last of the crowd and successfully barge their way to an exit at the rear of the town square, making their way into the lively streets of Bada Wan-gug.

They squeeze their way through and around the hasty bodies of civilians as the smell of freshly made vegetable soups with grilled fish scents the air to the sound of Ara's stomach groaning.

Swiftly, her hand is tugged to a nearby alleyway where Chaung removes the scarf-

"Ara, Are you okay?"

Her eyes swell up and a waterfall streams down her cheeks as she plants her head into Chaung's shoulder, draping her arms around him.

"I'm sorry," He says. The tears continue streaming as Chaung snuggles into the hug. A tear falls from his eye prompting him to raise Ara upright and look her in the eyes.

"There's a boat at the dock... It will take us to a place where we'll be safe from this pit of a nation," He adds.

Her lips quiver whilst she tries to restrain herself from crying further, focusing on a newspaper excerpt glued to the wall behind Chaung helps as she scans the image of Emperor Cao and a pale blonde woman in royal blue garments.

He props Ara up and lifts her head but she cannot bring herself to look Chaung in the eyes, "We're going to get out of here, yeah?"

She wipes her forearm across her nose and nods her head. Chaung puts his hand on Ara's shoulder, looks her deeply in the eyes, and then nods back at her in confirmation. "Mask."

He steps away from Ara to approach the sidewalk where he then peers to the left and the right. He takes Ara's hand to guide her as they both enter the lively street.

Ara's struggle to feel the motion of her body.

She's gone numb.

In her daze she glances up to notice the ancient architecture watching over them as they hastily shove and bump through passers. A web of wires sits high above the ground, operating as the Bada delivery system, reaching between each building and all of their visible windows.

It looks like a work of art has been left out to catch dust.

She glances at some of the stores down on the street, and sees the mechanical Areyn bird she recently got for her room, which she realizes she won't ever see again.

"We are only 3 streets away", says Chaung. As the two of them run through the river of civilians, Ara locks eyes with an Imperial Soldier who's observing their seemingly unwarranted running. The soldier taps his partner on the shoulder and points directly at Ara to get another opinion on the matter.

"Don't worry about them. By the time they realize what's going on, we'll be long gone".

Ara's eyes are fixated on the two soldiers as they disappear behind a wave of people.

"Just two streets away!” Chaung yells over the ensuing sound of ship horns and the grinding of colossal machines. Suddenly, he takes a detour away from the main entrance of the docks and down a street nearly a block away from the gates.

"Where are we going?” asks Ara.

Chaung locates a nearby home and makes his way up the front stairs to the front door in a hurry.

"Chaung!" yells Ara. He opens the front door, taking a step behind Ara as he pushes her inside. She stumbles in front of three women and a man seated on the floor and staring directly at her as she enters, each of them is armed with katanas by their sides and varying guns strapped to their backs. Prompting Ara to take a few steps backwards.

"Who the hell is this?” Yells one of the girls with eyes as brown as her hair and a body draped in art.

"My sister," Chaung responds as he walks straight past her with haste. She has a pearl white katana with gold lining around its edges strapped to her waist, as well as two pearl white flintlock pistols strapped to her back, also with gold lining.

The room is littered with random pages of paper and behind the people are four flipped office desks and a bunch of random boxes.

Ara is paralyzed.

Confused, and drifting to the corner of the room.

"We could have missed our boat," she directs to Chaung.

"Yes Matsuko, but I knew we wouldn't," he responds whilst frantically searching through several drawers and boxes.

The large, dark-skinned man seated next to the remaining two girls uses his two mechanical arms to lift himself from the ground. He too has a pearl white katana around his waist and on his back is a sniper rifle with a revolver-like cylinder.

"We need to leave now if we're going to catch it." The large man's voice rumbles throughout the room.

"We'll leave in a moment, Yasuke. I'm just finding our tickets." Chaung responds.

He then opens the bottom drawer of one of the flipped-over desks and pulls out a medium-sized bag that looks filled and quite heavy.

"Got you!" Chaung exclaims as he finds the bag as the last two seated girls stand up.

"Alright. Yasuke, Matusko and Kimi. Take the bag and secure the boat," He orders. "That should be the exact amount."

He tosses the bag over to Kimi. Slender with a scar starting at her forehead and curving from her nose to her cheek. She has a pearl white katana on her waist and her back has an assault rifle of some sort with a scope on the top and three barrels protruding out the front that look as though they would spin in tandem when fired.

"Nina", Chaung says, "I need you to take care of Ara and get her to the boat safely, yes?"

Nina nods in confirmation and looks over to Ara, as she observes from the corner of the room. Strapped to her back is a high-grade bow fitted with a multitude of strings and pulley systems along the back, leading to a large mechanical arrow rest and a small scope of sorts attached to the front. The weapon is made of the same pearl white and gold lining as the other weapons.

The tan of her skin, ocean eyes and deep black hair compliment one another, and her ears look cute as they ever so slightly protrude out of her hai- Wait.

She's Valantian!

"I'll meet you all on the boat before departure. I have something I need to do before we leave.” Chaung says.

"Ah, Chaung. We don't have time for this," Protests Matsuko.

"Exactly." He responds with a calm tone. "That's why you'll be on the ship. If my antics prove to be an issue, you'll go on".

A sudden knock at the door snaps everyone attention.

"This is the Imperial guard. Open up!” Says a voice from behind the front door.

Everyone goes quiet, their eyes fixed on the door as the guard knocks again.

"This is the Imperial Guard. We will break down the door if you do not respond!” yells the same voice.

Chaung looks over to Matsuko and the two lock eyes, passing a nod between one another. She steps towards the door, waving at all of us to step back then slowly removing her weaponry and placing it behind one of the many boxes.

"This is your last chan-" The door swings open and Matsuko, standing at the entrance with a smile, meets the two soldiers.

"Sorry about that, I was getting dressed." She says. The Guards pass a glance to one another and then look back to Matsuko, Who is still poised with a smile.

"We were informed of a young, female prisoner entering this house, are you alone?” asks one of the guards.

"Yes, I'm alone. My husband's not back from work yet." She responds. "But I did hear someone yelling further down the street."

"How long ago was this?"

"About 10 minutes," Matsuko responds. The guards glance down the street and then back at one another.

"She could be headed towards the docks", suggests the second guard.

"Maybe", responds the first guard. "Let's follow up with harbor security. Thank you for your time, madam." He adds as they both walk back down the steps.

Matsuko closes the door and picks her weapons back up.

"Let's hope that isn't a problem later." Says Chaung.

"At least they're gone. We can deal with them at the docks," Adds Nina in her soft Valantian accent. "Don't be too long," She directs to Chaung.

Chaung peaks out the window to see how far the guards have gone before slowly opening the door and looking over to the rest of the group.

"Everybody knows the plan. I'll see you at the boat in one hour." He notes as he steps over to Ara to take back his scarf.

"I'll see you soon." he tells her before covering his face and vanishing out the front door.

Matsuko looks over to Kimi and Yasuke, and gives them a nod before looking over at Nina.

“The two of you, take the South West road to the harbor. It'll take longer but there won't be any guards. We will have the boat ready by the time you arrive." says Matsuko.

Nina returns a nod and the three head out the door with haste.

"Time to go," says Nina as she looks over at Ara. She snaps out of her observant daze, coming to realize she still isn't sure what's going on.

"Where are we going?" she asks.

"What, your big bro didn't tell you?" Nina responds, almost mockingly.

"No..." Ara stutters, her eyes directed to the floor.

Nina opens the door for Ara to walk out ahead of her as she removes the scarf around her neck and tosses it to Ara. "We're going to Dantas."

Ara puts the scarf around her neck and then lifts it to cover her mouth.

Dantas? She wonders

 

"The tides of the deep will rise beyond the sea lines. The disease will infest all those who bare oxygen, and fires of pure white will scorch the lands. It has been repeated throughout history, and will remain so." - Prophet U'tala

 

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