The Wildlands (working title)

Prologue - A Carriage in the Night

The Wildlands seemed calm and desolate, especially on dark nights like this. A carriage raced through the valleys, followed by two riders in shining armor carrying glaives in their hands. An unusually low amount of protection for a journey such as this. Asyana and Ritha were well aware of this fact, but their current situation called for discretion. They had left the Imperial Wall under the cover of night and had to return before the break of dawn, before anyone could notice their absence. In fact, Ritha had argued that they shouldn't even take the two riders to accompany them, but Asyana wasn't willing to risk it. The nobles of the Empire posed the ultimate threat, but they couldn't afford to disregard the dangers of the Wildlands either. Bandits, barbaric tribesmen, monsters and even nature itself were out to destroy anyone not cautious enough in these savage lands.

In short, the situation was far from optimal. But they simply couldn't risk the nobles realizing that something was wrong with the mine. Some of them were already suspicious, and in the Empire the anger of the powerful could prove to be lethal. Asyana and Ritha didn't build their operation, their business, their life together for so many years to lose it all without doing everything in their power to fix whatever had gone wrong. So, they found themselves sitting in a carriage with two more guards next to them, in the middle of the Wildlands. They didn't know what to expect. They hadn't received a single shipment, not even half of a message for an entire month. The mine could have been attacked, abandoned by workers, destroyed by a natural catastrophe, or even seized by a rival noble for all they knew.

Asyana couldn't help but stare out the window into the darkness. He couldn't make out much. Still, he wanted to keep his eyes and ears open, and search for possible dangers. Suddenly he felt a hand gently grasping his. He looked over at Ritha, who gave him a soft smile of encouragement. Asyana slowly nodded, trying to return the sentiment. He turn toward the window again and stared into the blackness for a few more moments. Then he closed the little curtain and leaned back with a sigh. There was no use. He had to trust the driver and the two riders to keep them safe, and just wait patiently until they reached their destination.

He glanced at Ritha again and opened his mouth to say something, but in this exact moment the carriage shook with immeasurable force. Something hit Asyana's head and at some point he was slammed against the guard sitting in front of him. The world became an everlasting chaos of loud crashes, panicking screams of horses and people alike, and it was impossible to tell which way was up or down. Finally the moment was over and everything stopped. Asyana was lying inside the upturned carriage in an almost painfully uncomfortable position with sudden aches in his body he had no idea where exactly were coming from. His head was ringing and for a few seconds he couldn't make out what any of his senses were telling him.

He struggled to look around and saw Ritha trying to crawl forward. The guard under Asyana shifted and hauled himself toward the carriage door. "Are you alright, my lord," he asked as he tried to push the door open.

"Yes," Asyana replied without thinking. "Just get us out of here." There was a cry of pain in the background that Asyana's mind couldn't afford to pay attention to.

He took Ritha's hand and helped her forward. The door flew open. The guard reached out and pulled Asyana by the arm. Then there was a strained grunt and the guard collapsed with an arrow sticking out of his throat. Asyana's eyes opened wide in terror and he immediately started yelling, "Don't shoot!"

He helped Ritha out from the wreckage and looked for their ambushers. One of the horses was lying in a pit, no doubt the trap that ended up ruining the entire carriage. He saw two bodies on the ground that belonged to their former guards and one of the horses fleeing into the night. But other than the utter destruction, there was no sign of the attackers.

"Are you alright?" he asked Ritha, who just nodded.

"You?" she asked immediately after.

"I'm fine. Stay behind me." He didn't wait for her response and stepped in front of her, scanning the dark landscape.

"Don't move." He suddenly heard a female voice with a typical, strong wildlander accent. She wasn't yelling at them, it sounded more like a fateful instruction than an aggressive command. Somehow this only made it more intimidating.

Asyana still couldn't quite make out the attackers, but soon he noticed movement in front of a large rock. The dark figure was aiming an arrow at them.

"We'll do anything you want, just don't hurt us, please!" he begged the figure.

"Move away from the carriage," the same voice told them. "Walk toward the rocks."

Asyana took Ritha's hand and followed the orders.

"Hands in the air," the figure warned. Both of them complied immediately. Once the bandit told them to stop, they slowly turned around.

"What do you want from us?" Ritha asked cautiously. "I'm certain we can come to an agreement."

"Where's the keys?" the figure demanded.

"What kind of keys do you mean?"

Asyana glanced at Ritha then back at the attacker, "You cannot possibly mean, the keys to the Wall-"

"Stop it," the bandit ordered. "The keys to your mine. Is it not where you were headed?"

"How..." Asyana heard Ritha say, but she just followed up with a tense sigh.

"Alright, alright," he tried to seem submissive to hopefully diffuse the situation. "We'll give you the key. But then you'll let us go." He slowly lowered his right hand, reaching for something. With a quick movement he pulled out a dagger from under his robe and made a motion toward the wildfolk. The dagger's blade glowed with a bright green light and shot its energy forward. For just a moment the agir's light revealed the bandit. She had dark hair, wide cheekbones, and wore a coat similar to wildlander horsemen's who often raided Imperial caravans. As soon as the light was gone, Asyana felt a horrible feeling in his right palm and dropped the dagger immediately. There was an arrow. There was an arrow lodged into his hand.

He dropped to one knee and Ritha reached out to support him, while in her other hand her own dagger began to glow with the same green light. "Wait!" she yelled. "We'll give you the keys, just don't kill us!"

"What are you doing?" Asyana growled through the pain.

"I don't intend to die in the Wildlands of all places. If we can get back to the Empire, we can still figure something out. We always do."

"Alright, that's enough," the archer raised her voice and aimed another arrow at her victims.

"Please, listen," Ritha said. "I have a better offer. We can help you. You want the agir, right? We can get you into the mine or bring out all the agir ores you want. This way you don't have to face Imperial guards."

For a moment, Asyana thought he saw the wildfolk smirk.

"That's a smart offer," she gave an impressed nod. "But sadly for you, I don't need your help."

With that she kicked Asyana away. There was a flash of green, but before he could take in what was happening, he was hit in the head with great force and a black emptiness took over his consciousness.