Stand Alone

Chapter 1

The sun claws its way slowly over the productive province of Seldalen, causing a beautiful glimmer of orange-to-red hues across the sky. With the warmth straining for the darkest depths of any shaded area, it would have originally been a nice, calm day; if there wasn't three break-ins, two murders, and more than a few riots in the city of Nyama, the criminal capital of Seldalen. However, considering the favored pastimes of the all too well known master criminal, Serane Boellan, she fit in quite easily. When one becomes a master thief, they become somewhat known across the guilds, and common criminals as some kind of god. People whisper in awe as she would walk by, as well as weird looks would be dealt from those unsure to her identity. The common criminals call her Cloud, and rumors of her favored "spell," for lack of better word, have given her that identity.

"Hey- Serane! Sis, hey!" Someone calls out her name from within the crowd -- It could only be one of the two people in her life who had recently disappeared. She barely has the time to turn towards the voice before she gets shoved to the ground ruthlessly. There he is. Serane grunts on impact with the ground, and glares at her twin brother, Crowe. "You are too cute when you try to be scary, sis!" He winks. "Come here, I've got something... amazing to show you!" He grabs her arm forcibly, pulling through the thick crowd of bodies rioting through the day about taxes... or something like that. Crowe leads Serane through the open streets of the city, not planning on letting loose any time soon.

"Crowe," she groans struggling to keep up with him; his mood, unusually excited and happy for his usual bored, crazy looking self. Maybe psychoneurotic is the correct term here. "Where are you taking me?" She beckons from behind him, her wrist aching from the pain of his iron grip on her.

"Just follow, you'll see I promise." They get around the corner into a small alley way, to some kind of sewer duct. A secret home, clever, as the guards would never find it. She takes a huge wiff of the air. Something smells good, different. Another step into his home and she covers her nose I take that back, death fills her senses, the smell makes her gag and shiver.

"Crowe, tell me what's happening. The smell.. my head hurts." her insane twin grins and points to a corpse laying on the table. He begins to pour magic into the corpse. It's skin, growing less cold, and dead looking, and the fingers start to twitch growing more alive by each second. The smell gets worse with the more magic he pours into it. He drains his own magic reserve, becoming fatigued, but shrugging it off and continuing. "You are going to hurt yourself if you keep-"

"Shh! Look!" He scolds. The corpses eyes shoot open and its rapid, raspy breathing could be heard. She steps back, chills run down her spine and Crowe turns to her, smiling triumphantly. "I've finally done it, little sister. I am finally finished - I can bring her back! She can forever be alive with us.."

"Crowe," she murmurs shaking her head "you can't bring mom back, she's dead. She's been dead for almost all of our lives.. it's not right!" Her voice, low. It's not right she tries to convince him, shaking with fear.

"Serane!" He slams his fist on the table. Their mother's death haunts him. He didn't know her but Everette had told him so much about her, how could he not miss her? Their father, being a demon, always out and about, killing everyone he comes across wasn't exactly the father figure or parent one would want out of life.

The corpse lays on the table still only its breathing could be heard as they stand in silence. He avoids her kind gaze. "I'm glad for you, brother, but you need to know that we can't bring her back. She was at piece when she died. To bring her back now would only be barbaric and you'd be no better than blood mage scum." She says, still holding her nose.

"Maybe you're right, but what the hell am I to do with mothers corpse?" he frowns, contemplating possible outcomes of this conversation.

"We'll bury her," she murmurs, reaching to touch his shaking hands. He turns and crushes her in a tight hug. "We are not inhumane. She made sure of that." Crowe sobs once, barely audible enough for Serane to hear, then he pulls away, tears streaming down his face. She wipes some away, with her calloused, scarred fingers.