Whispers Of War

Wanting to experience the great views of the city both your High Commanders decide to join you up from with the horses. It made the remaining journey go by extremely quick as the three of you talk and take in the sights of the city over the horizon. Less than half an hour later you were riding through the gates of Nillix. As with all people passing through the neutral city you were greeted with open arms. The city of Nillix itself has people from all over the entire continent that would come to the city whether they are visiting, passing through, escaping from a different kingdom or coming to see battles in the Coliseum.

For being a little later in the day with little pieces of sunshine left the streets themselves were actually rather crowded for the most part. One of the greatest things about being in a neutral city that has people from all over show up is the amount of merchants, vendors as well as information you can get from people.

"This is cooooool." Zoe drones on as she watches merchants try their best to sell whatever goods they could to the random pedestrians.

"We should ask around, see if anybody knows of anything in regards to the potential war or of any Sunrider's that may have shown up." Lexie's head peers at the two of you causing an affirming nod.

"Good idea, let's tie up our horses and take a stroll around the streets, see if we can learn about anything." you mush the horses off to the side before the three of you hop down and begin to securely tie the reins of the horses up, making sure they have no place to go. With a quick nod to a random guard standing off to the side you let them know you're leaving this here and they will gladly keep a watchful eye over your belongings.

"FIIISH!!! GET YOUR FISH HERE!!!" a merchant yells out loud, trying to step forward towards the three of you to sell you some large fresh fish.

"THE FINEST ARMOR FROM THE SYNDICATE?!" Another vendor yells out, holding up some rather well made armor, not quite Rivianne level but still not bad at all. "GET YOUR ARMOR HERE!!!"

"THE FINEST CLOTH IS SOLD HERE!!!" a tailor yelps, "FEEL THE THREAD COUNT, NOTHING BUT THE SOFTEST MATERIAL!"

You continually asked different pedestrians and multiple merchants if they knew of anything in regards to Sicilian Sunriders or potentially injured warriors making their way into the city recently and time and time again you got back nothing that would help you. "Doesn't look like anybody on this side of the city knows much information at all." you tell Lexie, "I wonder if nothing happened or if the intel we got from Shade was faulty?"

"Could be..." Lexie replies, still curious of the entire situation, "Let's go check out the southern side of Nillix, we came in from the Rathkin side which is more on the western side of the city." she informs, "If they were defending outer kingdoms they have been on the southern side of Nillix, see if merchants, guards or people know anything or saw anything."

"Yeah, let's go." you motion to the girls before you make you way through the busy dim streets of Nillix towards the southern entrance to the city.

As you continue your march through the city streets you ask a few more merchants on the way and still get no good information. But that begins to change as you get farther south and words start to whisper from random people regarding warriors and fighting but not having much information when you question them. It's not til you hear two guards walking by, "I wonder what that means then? You think war will break out?"

"Who knows, but that's a lot of dead warriors, from the hearsay I'm surprised anybody was even able to make it out alive."

"Curious what happened because to do..."

"Excuse me." you say, stepping to the guards, "Sorry for interrupting but may I know what are you talking about?"

The two Nillix guards stop and look at you, gazing over your incredibly well built sabre toothed armor, "Appears some type of war or something broke out," he questions, turning to his ally "Just a few hours ago a handful of warriors came in from the south, apparently they got ambushed extremely bad and have been traveling slowly north to seek safety here in Nillix."

"H-How many? How many came in?" you shoot back. "And do you know what warriors they were? Syndicate???"

"Uhh, possibly?" he looks to his friend and gives a shrug, "I'm not too sure as I didn't ask but there was a dozen maybe? Twenty at most?" he informs, "And even many who made it here weren't doing very well. Who knows if all of them will even make it through the night."

Lexie's hands are in her mouth as she can't believe what she's hearing and Zoe is for once actually speechless.

"Where are they?" the horror filling your eyes, "Tell me please!"

"The barracks, down this path, follow the signs." the guard tells you, "They are getting some medical attention there, the doctors and nurses which treat our warriors and sick are doing what they can."

"Thank you, thank you so much." you tell the guards and give a head bow before turning back to Lexie and Zoe who both seem in awe to hear the actual news, "If you two want to go back to the carriage and wait for me, I'll check it out...see what it is."

"No way, you're not going alone!" Lexie steps forward, "No way at all!"

"Plus we want to be there too! To see it with our own eyes." Zoe steps forward.

"Yeah but," you swallow, fearing the worst, "If..."

"Don't even say it..." Lexie shushes you, "We don't even know if these are Sunrider's the guards are talking about, it could easily be a different batch of warriors from some other city."

"Yeah..." you rub your head, "I suppose..."

The three of you hurriedly walk down the stone paths of Nillix making your way closer to the southern side of the city. Now the rumors were starting to course through out the pedestrians as you hear many different merchants, vendors and random villagers all mentioning thoughts of war, rumors of the slaughter and different unknown information flying about. It actually made you worry even more because if only a dozen warriors made it, twenty at most, that terrifies you because hundreds of Sunrider's were sent south to help with Rathkin. It would be a massive loss on the Syndicate side to suddenly lose hundreds of warriors unexpectedly.

"There!" Zoe points to a wooden sign which has an arrow pointing the way to the Guard Barracks, "Let's go!"

You're able to make your way into the guard barracks without any problems and when you get inside you quickly walk up to the first guards you see, "The wounded warriors, where are they?"

"Huh?" he's caught off guard.

"The warriors that apparently came in from the south, they were badly injured, where are they? Please!" the look in your eyes is basically telling the guard you aren't fucking around.

"Uhh," he points down the hall, "down there, through the doors at the end of the hallway."

You barely allow the guard to finish his sentence before you are barreling down the hallway, making your way passed many other random Nillix guards and medical staff as you need to get to the end of this hallway as soon as possible. Another thirty seconds of speed walking through the busy hallway you are a few paces from the actual doors themselves which should have the wounded warriors behind them. You're about to continue to stride forward until Lexie's voice causes you to stop, "Darien!" you halt and look over your shoulder.

"Hey!" she moves up right behind and grips your sides, forcing you turn to her, "Look at me." she says as you turn and stare back into her eyes, "Listen..." her brown eyes looking at you with purpose, "No matter what or who is behind those doors, I don't want you to blame yourself for any of this, okay?" Lexie gives you a stern stare, "If these really are our Sunrider's, if Ashe and Rynlee are really there or worst case, aren't..." she swallows, "This isn't on you, if Rathkin did this, it's on them. It's on Edmin, it's on Rixx and it's on the entire Rathkin Empire, not you, okay?" she holds your sides hard, "And no matter what lies behind these doors, me and her," she nods at Zoe, "We're here for you, always! Okay?"

Your throat was parched and you couldn't even think of anything to say back to the love of your life. She was trying to comfort you, preparing you for the worst. She really was sweet and you wanted to tell her that but your words were stolen from you at the moment. You had to know what was behind this door, to see if these were your Sunriders that were slaughtered and barely hanging on, to see if Rynlee was there to finally get to know and most importantly to see if Ashe was there.

"Take a deep breath, Darien." her voice continues to try to soothe you, "Let's go." she grins as she steps to your side, allowing you to turn around and look at the door before you.

With one final deep breath, you step forward and place your hand on that wooden structure and you freeze briefly, just thinking, praying and hoping everything was going to be okay. Sucking in as much air as you can, stretching your lungs out you release a slow exhale doing your best to calm your body. Once the last bit of air escapes, you take a quick breath in and push the door open, stepping inside the room where the unknown wounded warriors await...