Feather and Water

The splashes of waters woke Cany'aa from his meditation. The disturbed waters clashing against the ship as it gently rocks back and forth, unhindered by the wild waters. Cany'aa found himself meditating by the aft of the mighty combat vessel more often as of late. The rough winds and raging waters lashing at the craft were oddly calming, especially at nights like these where the stars cast their trickles of light through lightly sheeted skies. "It's not often my captain graces me with her presence, let alone on a dark and unruhly night like this..." he says out to the wind. He knew the woman who had snuck up on him was baiting him on purpose, since she could slip past all the armies in the world unseen should she want it, by sea or by land. Cany'aa gets up from the box he had propped himself on and flattens out his wide shorts and fixes his chainmail armor. "Could it be she has grave news?" he asks, without looking back at her.

The woman approaches and rests her arm against a nearby mast. "Would it not, I shant bother you with my troubles, my Lord." whereafter she gives him a short militant bow and rights herself back up. Cany'aa rubs his temples and frowns. "My brother?" he asks, fearing the worst. The woman smirks an unwelcomed smirk. While he can't see, he can definately feel it in the tone of her voice. "Nay, my Lord. He has arrived safe and sound and his troops are clearing out the island and capturing vital points."

For a moment Cany'aa simply stares out into the distance. Watching the mesmerising waves dance across the sea like the talented women of his homeland. He then turns to face his Captain for the first time in many suns. "What are the casulties?" he asks in a brusk manner. "Three of the ships have been sunk in the sky, my Lord. Two more have crashed  into the island itself. The ancients make haste to resist our siege."
Cany'aa feels his stommach churn. He knew it was a bad plan, but his keeper told him otherwise, so his brother was sent ahead of time regardless. "I assumed worse. What does your navigator say, Enne'uu?" he retorts and moves up to her as she straightens her uniform.
Enne'uu, pulls her white hair away from her eyes and stares at him in dissapointment. "Another twenty suns, at least." she answers nervously. "I understand the urgency but we mustn't plague our windmasters any further. We've been casting ever morn for twenty suns. They are exausted, my Lord."

The great ship continues to plunge through the sea, as if it was made of air. Unmoved by its constant assault on the ships metal frame, and ignorant to its desire to pull them all under. It's engines were stressed, and Cany'aa's priests and windmasters held double shifts each to keep the giant ship going, despite the weather. The catalyst was nearly drained, and the regeneratories all used up. Despite that, and no matter the cost, Cany'aa had made up his mind. "Keep a few select priests and windmasters on a nightshift, untill morning. They will have plenty of time to rest while we are in the air. At the first glimpse of sun we take off untill the day is done, and then we rest while the sea carries us." he orders and turns back to view the raging sea left scrambling behind them. Enne'uu bows and turns on the time. "My Lord." She says and departs to relay her orders to her crew.

Twelve suns past, the destroyer class battleship, Wyvern, is soaring through the skies. It's masts, usually out for travel at sea, had been collapsed and used as a wind shield, to cover the passengers from the high winds that tore at the craft. His windmasters were at a constant battle to pull, push, and bend the wind around them as they travelled like an arrow shot from an enchanted crossbow.  He had given in to his Captain's commands and given his crewe more rest than he would like. But he was no tyrant like his brother. He would let them rest whenever it was acceptable, and push them otherwise. Neither woman or man or child was ever at its best unless it was strained and pushed to its full potential. Despite the frequent and long breaks, the travel by air reduced the travel time by a significant amount. "Hail, Enne'uu. How feels the flight?" Cany'aa asks, nodding approvingly at the crewe on the cockpit. Enne'uu holds her hand up, in protest, as she was busy focusing. Her navigator, a young man with large ears poking out of his hat, responds in her stead. "My Lord!" he exclaims and pulls appart the two recievers, to form a digital map in between them. "We have made good time. It is still a few hours till rest but we should arrive in a few suns."
Cany'aa smiles a wide grin. "Good, good. It seems at the progress we've been making, we'll arrive at our destination soon enough. I want you to-"
Cany'aa's smile fades quickly as all the screens in the cockpit flash red and the lights turn dimm. The sirens sounded as quickly as the sudden shake of the ship. Enne'uu whips her head up and brings up a console, beginning to type in commands. "Status." She demands in a harsh tone. "Ma'am. Starboard hit with biomass missiles. They are latching on to the ship." a girl yells up from below.
Enne'uu turns to look at Cany'aa with a worried frown. "Their attack was so sudden. Forgive me my Lord, I can't explain how our sensors did not pick them up."
"Tch. Captain, send the Valkyries up to the main deck. The rest of the mages must defend the walls before they can burrow through. Heat up the outer layers and hope they don't cause too much damage on the way through." Cany'aa retorts and summons his spear and sword to his side before turning and running up the stairs to the main deck.

Following closely in his footsteps is the announcement message going through the PA.
"Wyvern Battlecruiser, Alert. All Valkyries to the main deck. Mage squads and Priests to the outer defenses. We are under attack. Repeat, Valkyries to main deck. Mage squads and Priests to the outer defenses. We are under attack!"


The sight was mildly shocking, though Cany'aa shakes himself out of it before any hesitation can overcome him. Him and his Valkyries stand before the giant black tendrils that held the ship in place. Never before had he seen such advanced mutation, but this is not the time to repeat his brothers mistakes. From inside the tendrils, shadowy black creatures step into the light, casting away their shadows only to reveal twisting and deformed flesh. He ramms the budd of his spear into the ground, as his entire team sprouts wings of shining silver.  "Valkyries!" he exclaims and lunges himself forward. "to battle!!"

Cany'aa sits at the campfire and watches it burn. The flames dance for him and give him their mock congratulations. "Tell me." Neyr'uu demanded in her usual soft tone. Her grimmace was set in stone. A strong mask, glaring at him from behind the flames. But within her eyes he could see she was upset. Upset at him, upset at his failure. "My sister, was she..."
Cany'aa gives off an unpleasant grunt of disgust. Thinking back on his Captain. Her friendship with him since young was what formed him into the man he was today. But it was also that friendship that caused his greatest loss. "We won't talk about this again, tonight. We have people to tend to. The ship must be repaired-" It is then when Cany'aa notices a shdaow writhe behind his eyes as he thinks back on what was.



Cany'aa ramed his spear budd into the ground as his feathery wings sprouted and his armor twisted and unfolded around him. "Valkyries!" he exclaimed from the top of his throat and pushed off the deck. "To battle!!"
Moments later steel clashed against steel. His sword slicing at the shadowy figures as they danced around him in their mad and insane dance. He felt his senses tug and jumped off of his newest victim, spinning around and thrusting his spear. The thing gracefully vaulted over him as he barely caught his footing and dashed away. Too many times had he seen these creatures manouver like that. There was no sense in staying still, he had to move on. Around him his unit was soaring through the sky, fighting demons and shadows alike. The massive shadowy tendril still tethered to the ship. He was stopped by a large group of flying demons who just recently cast their shadows aside. Their boney armor crying tears of blood and muscle as they screeched their terrible screams of agony. "My Lord!" he heard behind him and the four demons in his path collapsed in the sound of gunfire. Looking back, he saw one of his lieutennants with his rifle, alongside some few new recruits.  "My Lord, the Eyes have returned. Well... one of them. He reports the attackers are from a manmade island directly below us. It errupted out of the water before any of us had time to react upon it."
Cany'aa nervously looked about. This was not the time for conversing, and he certainly didn't want a boney spine thrust through his throat. "No matter, we must detatch ourselves from it if we are to get away from these endless assaults of creatures." Cany'aa retorted, but it was then when the recruit got their attention. "Look! They're retreating! We beat them-" he exclaimed happily but was stopped by the horrors they were about to witness.
Sliding up the side of the airship, long winding tentrils, glowing eerily, slithered across the ships metal skin. A rumbling began to echo through the air, parting clouds and filling the air with darkness. "By the Divine, what is this?!" the lieutennand muttered, gazing in horror as the darkness began consuming their fighters bit by bit. Every man touched, pierced, consumed, turned into one of them. They turned and ran.



"Cany'aa! Can'yaa! My Lord..."
Neyr'uu is shaking him, trying to get his attention. "My Lord, are you by your senses?" she asks concerned. "You are right, I apologize. It is wrong for me to fret about things I can not know, and instead I must look to the future. Forgive me."
Cany'aa shakes his head and waves her off. "Don't worry. I'm not enraged. Please, you should head to bed. And I sure need my rest. Tomorrow we will climb the mountain and hope we find what our Eyes are looking for."
He sits at the fire for a little while more, staring into it as Neyr'uu gives him a militant bow and leaves him to his thoughts. Cany'aa looks up behind him at the ginormous ship, now crashed into the ground, broken and dirty. He sighs and gets up, staring at the dark skies.
"Enne..."

Morning has come. Cany'aa awakes from his nightmares, panting and sweating. It was different. Waking up in a makeshift tent, part of which was made of the wreckage of his own ship. The cold metal bed kept him awake and uncomforterable throughout most of the night. Seven days had he been stranded on this island after the crash. Him and his remaining men and women built a small camp from which to gather their strength from and make an escape plan. Looking back on the events, it was the impossible. The small metal construct had lept out of the water, rising steadily as the land beneath it shifted causing massive waves to ferociously waft in every direction. As the ship went down he wasn't sure what to expect, but he certainly didn't expect an entire island to simply rise out of the depth of the water. Much of the camp was still wet and moist. A lot of the ruined and exotic forest was moist and drenched in algea. The forest had a charming feel. Most its trees had adapted to the water, or even grown there. At night they would give off a chilling glow that kept most of the island lit far until morning.

Cany'aa gets up from his makeshift bed with a groan and begins to dress himself. For what little comfort he had, it felt good to be out of armor once in a while. They were traveling the seas and skies for weeks it seemed, close to two months before they even got the word. He sighs as he puts on his boots and lifts the ripped sheets leading to his small area inside the side of the ship that used to be a recreational area, now a trashed mess. He looks around the camp seeing people prepare for the trip ahead. Today they would send a team up the mountain to check out the metal structure at the top. The thought of what may or may not lie there caused his stommach to curn.
Moments later he finds Neyr'uu. She is organizing the group, sending them to pack medical supplies and food and get ready for the hike. She turns as Cany'aa approaches and smiles a tired smile. It is then he realizes he's been tasking his people far to hard.

“You look stressed, Cany'aa.” she says. Of course she would. If it wasn't obvious to begin with, she had a clear insight into people. He had been tasking her with everything imaginable over the past week, and it was starting to show. Not only on her expression or her stature, but his survivors as well.
“Yes, Neyr'uu. How are preperations going along?” he asks, waving off her comment.
“Good, my Lord. We are ready to move within the hour.”
Cany'aa is filled with both dread and excitement. He can't say for sure what they will find, but either way, it will have been worth the trip. He just knows it.




"Papa, papa!" a young girls voice shouts. "Papa, look!"
Cany jumps, startled. He looks at the table, with his half eaten breakfast still remaining on his plate. Eggs and ham, and slices of celeri and corn. More of a lunch than a breakfast, but his favorite non the less. Breakfast for everything, that was how a man should eat. Day in day out. The fizzing of various food cooking in a pan fill the air and the sweet scent of hot meat and vegetables follows it closely. He looks over to the girl. Her bright smile and big eyes warm his heart. "Sorry, I must have fallen asleep." He says and takes the paper from her. She laughs heartily at him and climbs onto his lap and begins eating his breakfast unbeknownst to him. The paper holds a crudely drawn but sweet picture of a man in armor with wings and a woman with flowers in her hair, a house with a big ol something and a lot of grass and flowers and trees surrounding it. "It is beautiful." he says and looks down at the girl. "Ah- H-hey my... breakfast..." he says in mock defeat and then tickles the girl. She laughs and throws her head back against his chest before grabbing the plate and running off into the backyard to their greenhouse. Her favorite place. Cany looks over to the kitchen. His wife is cooking the last of the breakfast. "Good morning, Again, honey." she says and smiles at him, though promptly reminded by the fizzing food that her job was not yet done. "Yesterday must have been rough. You can't seem to keep your eyes open!" she mocks him and flings the contents of the pan up int othe air only to catch them flipside. Cany shoves himself and the chair back and gets up from the table, using a nearby hankerchif to clean his mouth. "Yeah... Business is rough lately. I'm not really used to this quite yet, but... I'm getting there!" He can't help but smile. "I'm going to see Mr. Heikler in town today, so I should prepare my trip." He says and walks across the room to a strange contraption stuck in the wall next to the stairs. He opens a hatch on the side of the metal construct and plugs out a cable, followed by flipping some switches. "I'll leave it off over the course of the day, but you know what to do if you need it."

He leaves through the backdoor before his wife can answer and opens the door to his greenhouse. The plants are doing well and it looks like the pestecide has worked on those lousy bugs that were trashing up his fruits. Cany picks up the watering can and steps outside to pump some water into it. Halfway through he giggles to himself. "Ah, I'm getting a little to used to this!" he says to himself and puts the can down. Focusing for a moment, he breathes in and out slowly. He begins to feel the soft embrace of magic wraping itself around every sense of his body. He takes a step forward and lifts his arms a little, causing the small crystal in his wristband to glow. Within moments the water simply flows out of the pump and into the can, as if directed by a hose. Cany smiles and goes back inside the greenhouse to water his plants. His little daughter is sitting in the corner, drawing on her sheets. What an ordinary girl. Something he was also not quite yet used to. But she was his world. All his happiness came from his wife and daughter. "Sweetie." he says, trying to attract her attention. The girl looks up from her silly drawings and smiles at him. "Yes, Papa?" she asks politely. "I'm going to water these half and half. You have to make sure to water them later again. But this time please lock the glass door on your way out, lest any animals dig in to my fruit for a sweet lunch." he says and points his finger at her, pretending to have an angry expression on his face. He then smiles and walks up to her, picking her up and giving her a kiss on the forehead before hugging her and letting her back down. The girl giggles. "Yes, Papa. Mama and me will watch your plants while youre away."
Cany was proud of his little girl. She was still very young but could speak so many words, and spoke so properly. His wife did a good job raising her during the times he was away. "Good girl. I'll be home before dinner. Keep watch on my dear plants while im gone." He says and winks at her. Cany then takes his leave and goes back inside the house to fetch his hat and his coat, alongside his case and backpack. "I'm off then. I'll bring some groceries back from my trip." he says and exits the house. He makes his way down the road as he suddenly feels an odd presence. He turns to look into the outlying woods, but nothing seems to stirr. He looks back at the house, and yet again nothing. "Mmh. Must be my imagination." he says and continues down the road.

In the evening, Cany returns late at evening. His business took a lot longer than he had expected as they assumed he was going to join them for dinner at a local Inn. He didn't really mind, but it was nigh time to arrive at home and sleep. He looks down at the backpack he is carrying in his hand whilst reflecting on todays meeting. He managed to secure some good deals and within a month or so the profit would surely show. He reaches the house, with the lights bright and clasps the door. "I'm home! Who want's-"

Cany stops dead in his track.

He drops his bag.

He falls to his knees.

Shocked he looks about the house. Most of the furniture is broken. The ground and walls are splattered with blood. From behind the dining table, clad in a bloodsoaked tablecloth he sees the arm of a woman, lying on the ground, severed from the rest of her. His lips quiver, tears begin to well. Cany can't fathom what is happening. He hastily crawls over to the arm and picks it off the ground, paying no attention to the blood that is beginning to soak into his clothings. "No...." he utters and looks up, around, outside the house, and to the stairs. The rest of her lay there, chest open, organs spewn everywhere, her face torn, but leaving just enough for him to recognize his wife. "No.. no... no no no..."

Cany scrambles to get off the ground and leaps over to the nearby wall at the stairs, towering over his wifes corpse. "No this can't be happening..." he says as he sees the small, fat, black worms crawling through her carcass. He drops the arm and it falls to the wet ground, splattering blood over his already messy attire. "No not you... not you again... what have you done... w-what have you done... what HAVE YOU DONE!!!" he cries out and punches a hole through the wall. His eyes flicker, his mind is running numb. All the blood, all the gore. The worms...
Flashbacks of times long past...




Cany'aa stood among the bloody corpses of his fallen squad. Only a few remained, Neyr'uu included. He threw his worthless spear aside as it melted back into its components and formed a semi solid on the ground. "Neyr'uu. We should never have come here." he says, taking in the destruction. When they came the building, which turned out to be a medical complex of sorts, was entirely abandoned. No signs of any creatures. But they had been wrong to enter. Within minutes the shadowy demons that had plagued their lands and attacked their ship had surrounded them. It seemed like an endless wave of one enemy after the next. Each killed leaving two more standing behind it. They had eventually won, but only at a grave cost. "Cany'aa..." she says in a soft tone. None of her once happy masks were present. Her features were cold, and serious. She was scared, likely as much as he was. As much as anyone would be. "Cany'aa I don't want to be the one to point this out but we have to go deeper. If what we found out about this place is correct there is an answer! We can stop all of this if we only get to the core..." Cany'aa blocked her out. He was lost. How could someone chosen for leadership have failed so many people in such a short time. "Cany'aa!!" Neyr'uu exclaimed and shook him. "Cany'aa do you hear me!!"

He snapped back out of his thoughts and pushed her aside. "I know! Stop it." he said and took a moment to think. "We should only be two rooms appart, but this next room is fairly big. Its an ante-chamber of sorts according to the map." he nodds and then points forward, before making his way down the corridor and to the door at the end of it. Neyr'uu and the last surviving Valkyries followed in tow. Though each of them stopped before entering the corridor, turning and bowing to show their respects to the fallen ones. Neyr'uu was the last to enter the cooridor and the ante-chamber ahead was about as brightly lit as the rest of the complex they had wandered through for hours. Which is to say there was none at all save for a faint light in the far distance. She looks over at Cany'aa who for a moment is simply standing still, looking far off past pillars and bits of caved in building. Cany'aa then begins to walk off through the corridor. "My Lord." she whispers. The whisper echoes through the chamber following him as he walks further in. "Cany'aa this isn't safe. We should go along the outside of the wall... Cany'aa. Cany'aa!" Her whispers ment nothing to him. It was like he was suddenly moving without regard for his own safety, only trying to reach the end of the chamber. His light pack carried further and further as the Valkyries carefully tread a great distance behind him. Unsure whether to simply follow him or stay back. But then something curious happened. His light was flashing. "Cany'aa... your light! It's running out of power-" she said but stopped herself as it became more and more frequent. She then realizes they had charged their light packs before entering the previous room, spending a good amount of time doing so, so that ment his light wasn't flashing at all. "Flare!!!" she cried out, and with expert reaction time the only remaining magus threw his hands in the air and grunted as the entire ante-chamber was illuminated by one big ball of fire. They were everywhere. "Cany'aa! Stop!" she yelled but the creatures were already on them. "Valkyries, battlestances!" she barked and thrust her own sword in the air. Sparks lept out of it and she swung it around to recreate the only vision they had had all throughout the complex.


The fight hand't lasted too long. Or at least it didn't feel that way. But out of the six remaining Valkyries now only two were alive, aside herself. "Cany'aa!" she yelled out, waiting for an answer. She panted heavily from the straining combat. "Cany'aa where have you gone!"
She looked over to the mage who now lay dead on the ground, his body mauled and crushed by demons. Black maggots were crawling throughout his body, consuming him at a fast pace and slowly forming to growths on his body. Small black tendrils of flesh wrapped in shadows began to flow from his body, forming infront of Neyr'uu's eyes. "Alright...." she said, trying to sound somewhat calm as she went into a jog. The two others following her closely. They made it to the end of the chamber without any incident and peaked through the open door. The light emitting from the other room was almost blinding compared to what their eyes had adjusted to over the course of the exploration. Cany'aa stood at a pod of sorts, embedded into the wall, with a modest console in front. "My Lord... what were you thinking!" she confronted him, but he didn't stirr. For a long moment there was nothing. Then he scoffed.
She frowned at his reaction. "Cany'aa how could you be so selfish to leave us behind, there were more of those creatures just outside th-"
Before she could speak Cany'aa burst out into laughter.
His laughter filled the air and echoed around them and didn't show any signs of stopping as he gripped his head and leaned against the console.
"Cany'aa... My Lord...." Neyr'uu asked concerned as she approached him and lay her hand on his back, gripping her sword tightly.
He stopped abruptly and just stood there. Now with both hands at the console.
"Escape pod." he said after a while.
"What do you mean?" neyr'uu tried to confirm but she was once again cut off as he pushed her arm aside and turned.
"It's just an escape pod." he said in a grimm tone. "The whole climb, all the people we lost. For an escape pod. It holds... One. Person..." He said and slouched against the console. "It was all for nothing... this won't do us any good..."

Throughout the commotion, none of them heard the clicking and tapping of fine tips crawling across the smooth metal walls and stone floor. Neyr'uu was the first to notice, as she spun around, gasping and screaming at the horror that suddenly appeared from the darkness. Her sisters face and lifeless body, hanging between the doorframe with a twisted smile on her lips. Enne'uu's skeletal body wrapped in shadows made its way through the frame. Her spidery legs pulling and tearing on the walls of the door as two of them whipped forward, piercing both remaining Valkyries skulls. Cany'aa stumbled at the sight. He moved back, pulling Neyr'uu behind him. "Neyr'uu!!" he exlaimed as he watched in horror. The two Valkyries were pulled back by Enne'uu as she merged them with her body, her smile widening to show teeth and her skull splitting at the middle as she grew additional eyes, now having eight in total.

The attack happened entirely too fast. He took Neyr'uu's flame sword and thrust it forward, just in time to deflect the incoming attack as Enne'uu screeched horrible screams of terror. The fire caught on to the tendrils but did nothing more than dance along them, revealing rotting flesh with black worms crawling through her body here and there. "Neyr'uu get in the pod." he said as he jumped forward, lashing at the hideous creature infront of him. He was caught in mid-air as her large newly found talons pierced both his shoulders, sending waves of intense pain through his body. He cried out in agony and then was dropped to the ground.
Enne'uu spoke in a strange and foreign language. Her words twisted and rotten as if she were speaking backwards. She eyed him closely as he sat on his knees, cringing in pain. "Cany'aa!!!" Neyr'uu yelled and picked him up and threw a crystal on the ground. As it exploded to bits, a protective barrier made a small wrappted itself around them, seperating their bodies and the creature that was once Enne'uu. It cried in rebellion and started pounding the barrier, sending Neyr'uu stumbling each time the tendrils and talons lashed at her back, not once puncturing her shield, but working their way through its protraction. She began pulling him further into the room as it filled with more shadows and rotten flesh. The entire exit was blocked. There was only one thing left to do.

Dizzy and near concious, the world went by in blurrs for Cany'aa as Neyr'uu stuffed him in the pod. "Wh-hh.. What are you... doing...?" he asked, barely concious. As the door the pod closed, a jolt of shock brought him further into conciousness. "Neyr'uu..!" he gasped and put his hands up against the glass, seperating him from her. "Neyr'uu what are you doing!!" he yelled in a weak tone, his voice cracking. Enne'uu continued to slash at Neyr'uu. Each hit visibly damaging the shield and pushing her forward. But she simply stood and smiled at Cany'aa. Tears were flowing down her face and she shook her head. Her mouth opened, and she spoke, but he could not hear the words she was saying through the tick glass. She then fully broke down crying and hit various random buttons on the console. The whole island was shaking, but Cany'aa was barely concious. The last thing he saw was her smile as she was impaled from behind by the massive, horrendous creature. Suddenly the world was black. He felt as if he had just been launched miles and miles into the sky, and surely enough the horrors he had just partaken in gave way to the stars and the moon. All he could see were the streaks of light as his vision failed and he gave in to sleep.

The thick and heavy scent of ale and alcohol once again filled Cany's lungs as he stepped into the Tavern. Scuffing his feet he dragged himself to the bar and sat down on one of the stools. It was pretty empty for once. Which was very unusual for a place this busy. Cany coughed, the stink of beer escaping his mouth and greeting the bartender with a foul oversaturated smell. "Ugh... You're here again?" the bartender asks. The man was a tall and relatively gruff looking fellow with a big but neatly maintainted beard and some healthy weight on him. He could be as strict as he was nice. A good man, if it wasn't for the lies men are made of. "Yesh...." Cany sighs, his answer coming out a little more slurred than he had liked. "And you're going to use the rest of this moneys here to give me..... everything! 'you've goft." He pulls out his coinpurse and throws it over the counter. It lands in a few glasses, cracking one of them beyond use. The bartender sighs and takes the broken glass to put it in the trash below the counter. "You owe me another one." he says and turns to pick up his cheapest bottle of whatever the nearest alcohol was. "If it wasn't for the fact that you used to be such a respectable man around here I'd have kicked you out long ago. This is the only bottle you get, and the rest will pay for what you owe me already."
Cany sighs and takes the bottle, pulling out the stopper and taking a swig from it. He mutters something under his breath and growls a little before he yells out and smashes the bottle against the bar top. "D'aww c'mon man... This is why you can't have nice things..." the bartender says and pulls up part of the counter next to him to let himself out. He moves over to Cany and holds his arm. "Alright, you need to leave for tonight. Its past closing time anyway, and I need to send the rest of these people home."
Cany only then looks around the room and notices the other few people staring at him. Some in disgust, some in confusion, and some are just too drunk to understand. He scoffs and gets up, pulling his hand away from the bartender. "Lookkkk..." he says, setting an emphesis on the 'K' as he tries to steady himself. "I know im not welcome here, so... don't give me thishhhshit." he says and walks towards the entrance he had just come in moments ago. The bartender swears under his breath as he watches Cany leave the Tavern and turns to get behind his bar and clean up the mess that was just caused.



The very next day Cany wakes up in some bed. It's not his bed. In fact upon closer inspection its not a bed at all. He passed out in the streets huddled up against some homeless guys. "You people stink." he says to the sleeping men and women lying on the floor around him and gets up, sighing and coughing. He straightens his dirty jacket and wipes off his pants before making his way down the heavy stone street with a ridiculous migraine plaguing him the whole way down. "Have you recovered?" he asks himself in his mind as he makes his way past a diner type deal. "I've never felt better." he answers himself and pulls the inside of his pocket out. "Though it looks like im out of cash..." he stares through the window of the diner and sighs. "Well if you keep buying booze and women instead of food and clothing, of course you'll run out of money faster than you can make it."
He laughs.
Some people walk by him staring at the strange man who is seemingly laughing to himself.
"Alright... I might as well get going. Today was... those guys from the thieves guild, right?" he asks out loud and continues down the road until he gets to a fork. He looks in both directions. Stone buildings one side, stone buildings on the other. There were a few trees here and there, but nothing could really grow inside of the massive cave that was home to a city built into the walls of the huge complex cavern. "Damn scavengers and their love for old things. These people are savages among idiots." he says and frowns a little disgruntled as he decides which path to take.


The bells at the top of the door chime as Cany steps into the room. "Hellooo..." he says and holds his hand up in a casual wave. He sees two men sitting in the corner of the small botanists place and a woman at the desk. She smiles at him. "Hello, how can I help you today, mr...?" she asks. "Name's Key, I'm here for some gold rimmed tulips." he says, casually, as if it were all the same to him. The woman raises an eyebrow at him and nodds at the two men in the corner, who have already stood from their chairs. One of them walks into the back of the place and the other, a young man with short hair and a modest tunic and shorts walks up to him. He smiles welcomingly and shakes Cany's hand. "Welcome to our little shoppe, Key. The tulips are in the back." He stats and points him in the right direction. Cany pushes past the man and slowly walks up to the door in the back, brushing his hand along the various flowers and plants on the way there. "Thank you." he says and knocks at the door, before opening it and stepping inside." No sign of the other man as he looks down the stairs to the basement. He sighs a little, closes the door behind himself, and makes his way downstairs. Just like expected, the basement was a lot bigger than the upstairs, and looked nothing like the botanist shop he had entered just moments ago. There were various tables and shelves decked with many different items and decorated freely in people. Some were discussing, others checking out merchandise in some boxes, and some others were playing cards. He spots the man from earlier and walks up to him, with nobody paying any mind to him at all. The man crosses his arms as 'Key' approaches him. "So you're the new guy? Recruit from Recudor?" he says. Cany smirks a bit and shifts his weight to his other leg, giving the man a bit of a light shrug. "More of a business man, you could say." The man looks at him slightly concerned. "Business man? What business are you here for?" he asks.
Before the man can react, Cany suddenly pulls out his dual daggers from his pockets. They snap out with blades on each side and he cuts the man's throat before any of the other guys even notice. The man sags to his knee's, catching the others attention as they turn and behold the scene. Within seconds the whole place is in disarray. Everyone's single focus the rogue intruder who just murdered one of their comerades in cold blood. A man comes at Cany, pulling a chair behind him and lashes out at him, but he simply jumps aside and kicks the chair out of his hands, and into another's face. The guy gasps in surprise but is quickly cut down by Cany's blades as he jumps past him, stabbing another attacker in the ribs, and pushing him up against the wall. Two guys behind Cany come up to each side of him but he simply drops down to the floor as they lash at him with knives, and pushes himself upward, feet first, knocking the guys out with a powerful kick. He leaps up just as a blade runs past his face, cutting his cheek as he bends back a bit, to avoid any further damage to his body. "You're fighting sloppy." he says to nobody in particular and wipes the blood of his cheek, staring at the room. There are twelve men left standing, armed to the teeth with weapons. "Let me take over then." he says and smiles as he closes his eyes. The men charge him all at once, leaving him no escape route as his eyes open, having changed colour from a healthy brown to a glowing turqoise. He ducks down low, throwing his arms up into the air behind him and dashes into the group of enemies, only to then vault over them with streaks of light glinting back and forth between them. He lands on his knee, staring directly ahead of himself at another man who is standing in the corner of the room with a longsword drawn. "You're last. Lucky you." he says in a tauntive voice unlike his own. The man shudders as his comerades stand still behind Cany. "Th- the last? Of what...?" he asks, but before he can ask the man behind him all collapse to the floor dead. "O-Oh god..." the man says in shock and drops his longsword as Cany stands up and towers over the man, the bright light of the room obscuring his face, only leaving his glowing eyes amidst a reflection of shadow. "The last.... one...." he says growling and leaps.

Seven more minutes.
"It's not a matter of trust. It's about .... Guh...." The rain was heavy. Even with the enhanced scopes it was incredibly hard to see a single thing. "Forget it, I need to concentrate." said Nin. as she called herself now. Her slender armor clad figure was still tightly pressed into the back of the hill as she pointed her rifle towards the village. "Where did you get these from anyway...?" She asked her partner who was lying on his back smoking a cigarette. "Trade secret." he said and chuckled, only to be shut up when Nin slapped him on the chest, sending him into a coughing fit. After he recovered he chuckled again. "I thought you were concentrating." he mocks her again, wiggling tighter into the hole in the mountain and pulling his jacket tight.
Four more minutes.
"After this mission you can bet your ass I won't be signing up for any more jobs with you." Nin said dramatically, only to hear another chuckle retort. How annoying. Such an important mission and this jerk was laughing.
Silence.
Nin continued to spy through her protraction enahnced scope. It was so hard to see through the thick rain. "Say, didn't you mention you were leaving soon..." she asks him after a while.
He turns to her with a little bit of a baffled expression. "Oh yeah... I guess they would inform you of that. Yes I'm planning on leaving for good this time." He sighs and throws the bud of his cigarette into the dirt. "I got a wife and a beautiful baby daughter at home waiting for me. I can't stay and fight like you elites do."
Silence again.
Three more minutes.
"You know..." Nin says, shuddering from the cold, trying to stretch her fingers around the trigger of the rifle and scrunch her toes in her shoes. "Theres nothing keeping you here, right...?"
Again a moment of silence. It was irritating.
Finally he answered. "Yeah. Nothing at all. I could simply walk away from this and nobody would be the wiser." he sighs himself and turns on the spot, wiggling into position to look towards the village himself. "It's not so easy, though." he says and flicks a piece of dirt out of the hole.
Nin answers his sigh with a sigh of her own and relieves her aim, looking him in the face. "You don't have to stay. I want you to leave." she says in a low tone, not intimidating, but caring. "Your family needs you, there isn't any reason you're here. You know what I do, right?"
He nods at her and looks back out to the rainy scene.
One more minute.
"Yeah." he says and pulls and lights another cigarette. The rain nearly ruins it so he protects it with his hand as he finishes lighting it. He breathes the addictive toxins in and breathes out slowly. "Yeah... I know." he says, a bit of sorrow on his face. "But at least you have the heart not to forget about it." he says coldly, staring off to the distance.
"I'm sorry." Nin answers him and pulls out her silenced pistol. "I really am."






Cany stands infront of the abandoned mock-trench-rabbit-hole looking down at the deceased soldier. A shame, he died so young. "Bullet wound to the head, point blank. No guns found." he mutters to himself. "I swear people don't know how to do a good job unless they go with the good old methods. He will be back in a few hours and likely act as the new catalyst to stage that infestation." He sighs, inspecting the body of the deceased male soldier. "You're going to leave him?" he asks no one in particular and shakes his head. "I don't think we can. It's not going to go well if he goes walking into that town. Oh." he exclaims as the supposedly dead mans hand twitches and he looks up at Cany. "You're awake already... it seems I was rather late this time. I figured I had more time." he says and pulls aside his jacket to reveal his twin daggers. "Sorry man... wrong place at the right time." he says and stabs the man in the head. Twisting the dagger and pulling it out again, with parts of broken skull and brain falling off his blade. "What a mess. The next cleaning bill is on you. Which is to say I'm still paying for it..." Cany says and laughs to himself, more out of hystery than anything.

Moments later he arrives at the small town. Or rather... the big town. As it is much bigger than it appeared from the forest. "Time for a drink." he says and makes his way straight for the Inn. "If you're planning on getting drunk today, it's not the best time for that." he says and scoffs. "I'll be fine."
Cany walks up to the door, hearing the laughter and yelling of the people inside. Full, as usual. He opens the door, drawing no attention to himself or being ignored as he walks up to the bar and sits down right in the middle of it. A short and rather wide Innkeeper walks up to the desk. She was plenty on meat, and none of the looks. Cany smirks as she gives him an irritated look. "Give me... Uhh... Everything." he says and reaches behind the bar to pick up two bottles of "everything" and puts them on the bar. The woman who previously looked irritated only looks more irritated. "That'll cost'cha." she says and turns to pick up a glass and put it down infront of him. "Those two are particularly expensive." She says and makes her way to the other side of the bar to deal with another customer. Cany uses that time to open both the bottles and mix the drinks together in the glass. Taking no time at all to gulp down the mess, and refill it again.
A man sits down next to him, and crosses his arms on the bar. "You're a very elusive man." he says and Cany takes the moment to take a look at the guy. He was bald, and pretty old. Probably in his mid fourties. He wore glasses, but they were fake, and had fake lenses in. He also wore a pretty low quality suit and jacket ontop of that. "Are you here to buy me a drink?" Cany asks and chuckles to himself. The man smiles contently and holds his hand up. "Yes, I am actually." he says as the Innkeeper comes back. "Yeah?" she asks, giving him the same annoying look. Somewhere in the back of the room someone falls off of a table, but Cany doesn't care. The man points at a blue bottle with vertical turqoise stripes going across it. "That one."
The Innkeeper raises her eyebrow and reaches up to the bottle, and pours a bit of it in a glass and slides it over to him. "I'll pick up the bill later" he says and nods at her, but she is already back to dealing with her other drunk customer. "Come, my friend." the man says and gets up from his stool. Cany grunts and grabs his arm, trying not to catch anyones attention. "You and your little group need to stay away from me. You know the consequences." Cany says in a growling voice. "I'll not be part of it."
The man simply smiles and puts his drink down, using his empty hand to apply pressure on Cany's hand, forcing it to open. "Don't worry. If you will not come willingly, there are others." he says and walks off, and out of the Inn.
Cany watches the door for a while, and sighs. "Look what trouble you got us into again" he says and looks over to the glass. "Well... this one's on me!" he exclaims and takes the rather deep glass, emptying the whole thing out within seconds and smacking it on the table. He feels the sparkling liquid slide down his throat, satisfyingly. He smiles and gets up from the table and turns. "Well then... shall we?" he says as his vision begins to blurr.
He doesn't recall when exactly he lost conciousness, but it definately happened, as he woke up in the most comforterable bed he's slept in for a while, surrounded by only bars and stone walls.
"Welcome back , Itzel. Or would you perfer I call you by your host? It's all the same to me."





From trade to trade to trade. There really was no rest, was there. What odd thoughts to have, Cany thought as he sliced the throat of yet another victim. Most of his targets for tonight were eliminated. No emotions were shed by Cany as he disposed of the body and dumped it in the well. It wouldn't be found for a while, and by the time it would, he would be long gone. There were only two more. The old man and that brat who got him into this mess in the first place. After this, he'd be free of that filthy organization and could leave the island. It wouldn't take too much longer. Before he even came back to his senses, Cany found himself scaling the massive tower in the southern side of the Tech district. Global was both a beautiful and a filthy city all at once. It was modern, and advanced, and had all the things his former leaders would have liked to see in a new civilization to be discovered and assimilated. But those times were behind him. As were many other lives he led up to this point. He continues to climb up the tower, his black and grey tunic and armor making for a good camoflage at night. He disliked to wear pure black, as it was much to easy to see in the dark. Ironically enough. But different shades of grey and black and blue, in shapes of triangles and lines and ink splotches were much more difficult to see through the diffused night. He arrived at the window he had planned to enter through and did exactly that. Slowly sliding the glass up, making sure to make no noise what so ever. Perfectly enough he ended up in a small office space. A private office it seemed. He left the window open, just incase, and quickly moved up to the door, which was just a tiny bit open. Sure enough, the old man was resting in a chair at the fireplace. Fallen asleep infront of his many schematics he must have been reading. A dirty and easy kill, with no honour what so ever. A few years ago it would have made him wroth, but it was all in the past. Like everything was. It was no different what tool he used, or when he did it. As long as it happened. He opened the door slowly, the small creaks making no move to wake the sleeping man in his chair. This night, he woke no more. After the deed was done he carefully put the knife down on the arm of the chair, as a message for any who would find this body. He jerks around suddenly, and the first thing he sees is a chair being hauled his way. He dodges it swiftly and deflects the sudden knife thrust towards him, slapping it out of the hand of the young girl infront of him. "Nin." he says, in a deep growling, angry and terrifying voice. "Nin, I've come for you..." he says and grabs her by the throat. At first she doesn't recognize him, but then he pulls his black scarf down to reveal his face, with a few new silver scars added to his still handsome frame. Nin gasps and her eyes widen as she scrambles to grab for anything. Cany tightens his hold on her neck, picking her off the ground and lifting her into the air. She grunts and kicks and pulls out one of the knives he had hidden in his sleeve and jamms it into his arm.
With a growling scream he staggers a little, but doesn't loose hold on her and with one fluent motion throws her backwards, sending her crashing through a closed window and out of the building.
He pulls the bloody knife out of his arm and throws it into the ground.
It was done.
He had finally slashed a bloody path through the league of assassins, killing each and everyone one of them. He was free to pursue his life.
"But can you even still call it a life..." he asks and stares at the window, several hundred meters down to the ground.