Summoned Forth

The next morning was heralded by a pounding in my skull, the aftereffects of last night’s excesses coming in **** to punish me. I vaguely remembered someone else having taken me to the bedroom that I was lying in but as I looked around, I was on my own, except for the gaudy decorations that seemed to be an attempt to mimic true luxury.

The door to the room opened and a boy’s head poked in through the gap, his nose wrinkling at the sour scent of the room. He cleared his throat and spoke in a squeaky voice, “Excuse me, but the house is closed through the day. You will have to get dressed and leave” he said before disappearing back through the gap and closing the door once more.

I groaned and turned my body onto the side, my brain seeming to collide with my skull from the motion. “Ow” I muttered to myself as I **** my body upright and threw the covers from my body. With great difficulty I swung my legs over the side of the bed and slowly rose to my feet, feeling faint as the blood rushed away from my head. Now on my feet, I walked over to the curtains and parted them, flooding the room with light.

I squinted and looked away from the light as it pierced daggers into my mind, I began to search the room for my clothing, finding my undershorts on the bed post and my pants on the floor. I dressed myself but was unable to find my shirt. I sighed as I looked at my haggard face in the mirror, bags drooping from my eyes and the white laced with red sparks, like flashes of lightning. I brushed back my hair and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway where I saw other clients leaving their own rooms in similar states of self-destruction, men and women of various ages all having had undoubtedly regretful nights.

I was unable to meet the gaze of anyone I passed, not quite remembering what had happened last night, besides the occasional snippet of memory. I exited to the courtyard where the rest of my companions had gathered, with the notable exception of Aladra.

“Mountain’s stones, ya look awful. What in all the hells did ya do last night” Korin’s gruff voice announced as he saw me approaching. I couldn’t say he was wrong; the others did look to be a little tired from the last night but nowhere near as shodden as myself.

I groaned and shook my head, “I don’t know” I said, my voice cracking as I spoke for the first time that morning. “I remember taking a pipe from someone in the gambling hall, after that…” I shook my head, “I don’t know, I woke up in one of the beds”

He let out a raucous laugh at my story, shaking his head as he wiped a tear from his eye, “Ah lad, a shame I missed it. A damn shame” he was still chuckling to himself as I frowned at him.

“And what were you doing last night? It can’t have been much better if you stayed the night too” I retorted

“Well I found myself a nice bar, I drank there for a few hours and passed out. Someone must’ve taken me to a room, least I was able to keep my shirt on” he said, chuckling as he looked at my bare chest, beginning to prickle at the morning breeze.

Sara laughed at that, “yeah, we found ourselves a guy to spend the night with. Unlike you two, we actually know what we got up to last night” she said as her arm sidled around Cleo’s waist. The two girls looking at least somewhat cheerful at the decisions that they had made.

I groaned again, “Whatever, have you seen Aladra anywhere? After dragging us here, the least she could do is let us see whatever became of her”

Korin shook his head, “I ain’t seen her, if she wasn’t still in there when ya came out then she must’ve left already” he said.

“Course she has” I muttered as I wrapped my arms around my body, starting to really feel the bite of the morning air, “Let’s go home, I need a shirt”

We returned to the house and spent the next few days indulging ourselves less than we had following our first contract. Instead we trained some more under the guidance of Aladra, using the unkempt garden behind the house as a training yard. Having seen us in action herself, both against the cyclops and the Shale Island raiders, she pointed out the areas in which she thought we needed to improve. She also seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in taking the opportunities to beat us senseless whilst avoiding our attempts to retaliate.

Over the course of those days, I also spent more of my time vising Henry. I found an echo of normalcy as we roamed the city together, talking like we used to and enjoying the sights of the city. We visited the parks, the canal that flowed through the streets and enjoyed good food together. I also visited Opal and Bella, talking some more of my mother’s time with them and sipping on cups of tea together.

More than a week had passed, and we still had most of the coin from out last contract remaining when we received our next. A messenger from the citadel arrived at our house with a missive requesting our presence. I took it from the young girl who wited until I dropped a silver into her hands before running back off down the streets. I showed the message to the others, and we quickly went about getting ourselves presentable for entry into the Citadel.

We walked down the streets towards the centre where the grand building of the citadel was seated. It seemed that we were expected, and the guards quickly let us on in, into the citadel for the first time since we became adventurers. The building itself hadn’t changed much but I was still struck by the grandeur of the place, the detailed tapestries and the ornamental decorations that littered the building, from the door handles to the armour of the guards.

We were led through to the great hall, the grand chamber where we had been both welcomed to our training and completed it. Inside were other parties of adventurers stood together in their groups. There seemed to be five others in total, ranging in sizes with the largest having nine members and the smallest being the same size as our five. Zarin’s party was one of the ones present, quite large with eight members, including Elsie and Kira. Clen was absent, I didn’t know where, but the rest of his party seemed to be made up of experienced looking men and attractive women.

As I looked on at them, I saw him smirk at me before I quickly averted my gaze, looking around the rest of the great hall. For the first time I was able to see the mosaic pattern that the floor was made up of, it appeared to depict a light descending from where the throne lay in the room and approached a hazy field of battle, centred by an armoured man crowned in gold and silver. It was a strange thing to lie on the floor of the most important room of all of the kingdom; war had never been a staple of the lands, there were on occasion **** battles such as the devils all those centuries ago, the monsters that attacked us and the occasional border skirmish with the dwarves and elves, but war had never been a thing that was revered as much as the pattern on the floor seemed to. Still, it was a beautiful visage, and it caught my gaze, moving across each detail until the doors opened once more.

In full regalia, Queen Celeste entered the great hall with a procession of guards. Unlike the usual Citadel guards that I had seen her with in the past, she was now accompanied by shadow guards, dressed in black cloaks, and seemingly draped in shadows. I sighted Sybil amongst them, though her gaze did not rise to meet me. Whatever this contract was, it must have been important for the queen to forgo her usual guards and parade the shadow guard in sight of those assembled before her.

A silence settled over the room, broken only by the voice of the queen as she addressed those gathered in the great hall, “It is with a heavy heart that I have asked you to gather here today. Under the guidance of my advisors, your six parties have been selected for this contract that I have for you. I am told that you are some of the best adventurers that our lands have to offer, three of the nine are here with us” she said gesturing to Zarin, then to Nallis who had her own party with her, and at last to another woman that I didn’t recognise.

“For months now, I have been aware of a terrible secret that threatens the lives of all in this world” she paused for a moment and let her gaze drift over each of us, “the devils have returned” she said, almost in a whisper. No one had trouble hearing her and gasps went up from the adventurers, though some, including myself, did not react to the news, presumably having already been told before. She nodded her head, “Yes, I’m afraid it is true. The shadow gates have opened and already one devil has escaped from their infernal prison. The monster killed over a dozen adventurers before it was finally put down, I dare not think what would have happened if it came across those that could not defend themselves” she looked down at the floor, the beginnings of tears gleaming in her eyes.

“Never in almost a thousand years has such a threat been posed to us, our kingdoms have been safe from these abominations for that long, but now they return to plague us once more. The gates are opened by but a crack, if they are to fully open all manner of **** will be released. That is why you are all here today” she sighed and looked back up to us, a strength settling in her jaw as she paused. “Your contract is to travel to the shadow gates and pass through them. All attempts to seal the gates on this side have failed, but they were closed once, and they shall be again. You will investigate the inside of the gates and find a way to close them, if that is not possible then you will assess the strength of the devil forces. It has been a thousand years, perhaps many of them have died within the gates” she said, though there did not seem to be much hope for that matter in her voice.

“You are some of the best adventurers that our lands can boast, if anyone can succeed in this mater then it will be one of you. Those of you that return will be rewarded handsomely, and those that do not… will be remembered for all time as the heroes that you are. You will all depart the day after tomorrow and travel by way of Karatir. There, the Lord Commandant of the city will provide you with any aid that you require, he knows of the charge which you carry but to all others this must be kept secret. Should you fail then other preparations will need to be made, preparations that a panic would not assist in.” She sighed and looked to one of her shadow guards, “This contract is not a request. It is an order; you may not decline it. I care not how you get there; you may travel together or alone, you may approach the contract however you see fit, but those gates will be shut. I wish you all the best of luck”

With that she nodded to her guard who escorted her out of the hall before it filled with the clamour of adventurers.