Solace and Nox: A New Light

Chapter 2

"Should I do this?" Cytra Nox asked herself under her breath.

Huddled in the shadows of an alleyway, Cytra watched as the rain dripped off her hood and the surrounding buildings. The thick fabric was keeping her hair dry, but with the brewing storm, she knew it wouldn't last long.

There were shouts coming from the main road, but Cytra didn't care. She knew it didn't concern her, so she went back to her ultimate decision. Was she doing the right thing? Did it even matter anymore?

The shouting grew louder. It continued to interrupt Cytra's thoughts, despite her ability to tune out the world. She stood up and walked toward the streets, keeping to the shadows. She peered out of the alleyway--her black cloak keeping her hidden--and saw a stampede of sprinting soldiers. Off in the distance, towards Shodon's city walls, a faint alarm entered her ears. Something was happening.

Cytra slipped back into the shadows and further into the darkness. She wanted nothing to do with Shodon's problems. They never helped her, so why should she help them?

Cytra zipped through narrow alleyways with immense speed, using the surrounding darkness to fill her being with power. Unsure of why, Cytra always felt stronger in the dark. In the light, she could see her surroundings. She could see the people who she knew would inevitably betray her.

Betrayal. It was the one thing Cytra feared more than anything else in all of Aleudia. She had been betrayed so many times in her past that she couldn't stand to let it happen again.

Why did she let this decision haunt her? The only thing holding her back was the person she used to be. The naive child who believed in happy endings and had hope for a bright future. Well, she changed. She accepted who she was now.

This decision of hers gave her an opportunity to get back at those who had done her wrong. It offered her a way to let out her emotions, and forget everything that happened in the past.

Then why was she so skeptical about it?

Eventually, she jumped, in a single leap, onto the roof of a two story building. The wind was much stronger, and the rain poured much harder up there. She pulled her hood forward a little, so her face wouldn't get wet, but not far enough to block her vision.

Something was missing. Cytra didn't know what it was, but some aspect of her life was missing. She had no family, she had no friends, she had no hope, so one might say she was missing everything. But Cytra thought there was something more... she knew all those things were gone, out of her grasp, but she didn't understand what this feeling was. She felt like something she needed, that hadn't presented an opportunity in her life, was still missing.

She was in a crouched position, overlooking the battle just outside the city. The Shodon guards, well trained and uniformed, were coordinated in everything they did. The Kresallis army was sloppy, and had no formation or coordination to their attack. It seemed random, divided, and they looked like they didn't work together well. The Shodon army knew their partner's strengths, and their weaknesses.

In Cytra's time alone, she observed the ways others lived, hoping she would find that missing piece of her life. Often times, she found the lives of soldiers to be more fascinating than that of a baker, or a merchant. She loved seeing a conman in action, or a poorly trained assassin attempt a mission, but the life of a soldier was the one thing she enjoyed observing more than any other. She knew she could never be one of them, but she could see how their minds operated. She watched as King Lotharius himself partnered soldiers individually. He matched each man perfectly with another. Where one man lacked a skill, the other would make up for it with professional training in that skill. The two became one.