The Seeker

Prologue
A young man, with a money purse in one hand and dagger in the other, scaled a stone fence about a hundred yards away from a watchman. He stumbled away from his jump off the fence and sprinted north through the marketplace, closed for the evening. The thief spotted his chance in a small cart stationed next to a building; he sheathed his dagger, ran at full speed, leapt onto the cart then shimmied up the side of the building using the many imperfections in the structure. Once atop the building, the thief stopped to observe the view overlooking a sizeable river almost perfectly cutting the town in half.
"Beautiful" He murmured under his breath as he turned away from the river to run along the side of it. The thief Leapt from building to building until he came to the front gates of town. Using the side of the building he made his way to the ground and continued out to a small cluster of homes made of cracked and weathered brick for walls and discolored shingles for roofs. Kicking pebbles under his leather boots the thief arrived at his assigned destination. Hanging by just a few rusted nails the door crept open and out came a young woman in gray rags for clothes and leather sandals worn to the sole.
"Here, take this and buy a meal for you and your family." The thief was whispering to keep from drawing attention.
"I have no family; the guard has taken them away from me." The old woman replied with tears in her eyes.
The thief took the young woman by the hand, threw his arm around her back and leaned in close to whisper in her ear. "You're safe now, protected. I cannot tell you who I am, just know that I will be watching over you temporarily until my brothers can find someone to take care of you permanently. By accepting this gift from me you agree to never speak of our encounter this evening. Every day at noon, there will be a satchel left in the crack under your door. Never retrieve this satchel during the day, for if anyone witnesses you in possession of this satchel I will disappear and never come to your aid again. Understood?"
"Yes, but why are you doing this?"
"That is not of your concern; my family will take care of you, but I have to depart from you, for business calls Ma'am. All I ask of you is that you understand the terms of our agreement" The thief turns sharply towards the town gates as if hearing something. "They are coming, quickly, go inside. A few soldiers from the guard are about to knock on your door and ask about me. Don't tell them anything."
"Yes."
The woman watched as the thief turned and disappeared over the town wall. With a loud creak the door slowly closed as the woman waited for the predicted soldiers to knock on the old wooden door. A few moments pass and finally the knocking started. The woman ran her fingers through her hair and patted some of the dirt off of her rags before opening the door.
"Yes?" The young woman said from behind the crack in the door.
"We are looking for a man, hooded, about medium height. He ran by here just a few minutes ago. Have you seen him?"
"No sir, I am cooking right now. I haven't been outside all day."
The soldiers, Satisfied with the lie of the woman, turn to return to the inner city and continue watch. With a thud the door came to a close loosely in its place in the doorway.

Chapter One

"Damien, can you see anything?" Giua questioned from behind the shadows of a jalla tree. "Because I can't see anything"
"Yes, Straight ahead about a hundred yards is a man, about 6'0, probably a rogue member of the brotherhood; I can't make out any colors. Along the west side of his humble abode are some boulders in which he has a lean-to placed. There is a small stump with a crafted table in front of it with plates and silverware but no food. The strangest thing is that there is no fire, nor a pit for a fire."
"Strange, Myster told us to follow him and we did. Now we are around fifty miles from the city and staring at a creep just trying to make it out in the wild." Giua whispers as she lets off a faint exhausting breath while holding a frown of discouragement on her face.
Damien shifts his weight from his left leg to his right as he reaches for a place to pull himself higher into the maze of branches that made up the evergreen serving as his perch. The night was growing old, and the moon was making its first appearance for the night. Poking his head out of the pines he takes a final look at the scene and glances down to the forest floor about 10 yards below.
"You know Myster, Giua, if he says follow this creep then there must be something about him. I am going to get closer; you may follow if you wish." Damien whispers as he lowers himself down from his vantage point and onto the ground. "I am ready to get back to a warm bed and a nice mug of Dwarven mead; let's hurry this up and go ask why he is wearing his uniform without the colors."
"I concur Damien, but be careful, you may be strong in your youth but don't under estimate this one. I can feel something different about him." Giua murmurs on her way down through the vastness of branches and pines of the tree.
"Giua, you follow a few yards back, don't be seen but make sure you have my back alright?"
"Alright, But as I said be careful. We do not know what power this man may hold."
"Now Giua, aren't I always careful?" Damien smirked
Giua had made her way down her pine now. Extending her hand for help by Damien, Giua leapt down off the pine and brushed off her leather breastplate and pants.
Giua put a hand on Damien's shoulder as she spoke. "You're sarcastic in your young age, but I can feel it in my bones, this man is up to something. Your Twenty-Eight years old, still a pup, and not invincible."
"And your too cautious in your old age mother," Damien retorted as he bowed slightly and smiled big. "I'm not invincible, but I'm damn near it." Damien raised his callused hands to her ears, pecked her forehead with a kiss and turned away. Damien was already off to the site of the rogue; hopping fallen trees and dodging standing ones.
"That boy." Giua muttered under her breath while she started up a sprint to follow her son.
Giua fell in line behind Damien making sure not to be seen, she didn't know what was going to happen here but her gut was telling her to be weary of this mysterious man. About half way to the clearing that the man called home Giua found an adequate tree to climb and serve as her vantage point for her now covert operations. If anything went down Giua would have to be there in an instant to cover Damien, but Giua has never needed to be directly in the heat of the fight to be effective. She had trained with her prized Throwing knives for many years of her long life. Giua couldn't feel any wind and could easily hit a target from this range. Reaching down she slid three knives from her right boot and prepared to attack when the time was right.
By now Damien reached the tree line of the clearing and, looking in, could better see the markings but couldn't recognize any of them. The man was still crouched in front of them, seeming to rock back and forth with both of his knees on the ground and sitting on his feet. Damien hadn't been noticed yet, but that was about to change.
The moonlight gleamed off of his metallic dagger as he carefully unsheathed it. Sliding the dagger in between his teeth Damien shimmied up a pine tree to his right and jumped toward the rogue about half way up. In mid-air Damien grabbed the dagger from his mouth with his right hand; landing directly behind the crouched man Damien wrapped his left arm around his neck and threatened his back with the dagger. The rogue answered with two elbows to Damien's midsection. Four ribs broken, Damien retaliates with a thrust and a leapt towards the rogue but Damien's injuries slowed him greatly. Laughing the rogue steps aside and Damien recovers right in the middle of the markings on the forest floor.
"Mother, now!" Damien yells as he attends to his wounds with a spell from his right hand.
"Alright." Giua summersaults from the branch she had been spectating from and executes two actions while in midair. First, she releases three knives at lightning speed aimed for the rogue and second she casts a levitation spell to see her safely to the ground. On a small see through disc Giua floats down to the ground as all three knives find a home in the spine of the rogue; wounded the rogue falls to one knee and yelps in pain. Giua drew her sword from her left hip and was soon greeting the rogue's nose with the sharp metal tip. A drop of blood trickled off the nose of the rogue and onto the forest floor discoloring the pines it touched with bright red.
"Satavorial"The rouge mutters in a foreign language. Soon after the words are mouthed large, jagged pillars grow from the forest floor all around the circle of markings. Damien tries to break free from the prison but the pillars are unusally hot, and they burn anything they touch.
"Hey, Would you mind getting me out of this?" Damien spat towards his mother.
"Who are you?" Giua demands as she waves her hand towards Damien. An unseen force shatters two of the pillars that make up Damien's prison.
"Ah thanks, I'm not one to be held in a cage like a mongul!" Damien shouts as he makes his way through the rubble his mother made with her force.
The man didn't answer but held his head down, not looking up into the eyes of Giua. The wind swished through the tree pines and carried the sweet spicy scent of a jalla forest. The night was at its peak of darkness and the only light out was the moon and stars. In the distance wolves howled and crickets chirped their nightly songs. But something felt different to Damien and he could see it in Giua's face that she felt it too.
"Look at me, show us your face," Giua reached for the rogues chin to pull his face upward. The rogue refused and instead snarled and bit at Giua's hand. Giua drew a knife from her right boot and held it at the throat of the rogue. "Now show me your face"
The rogue looked up, his eyes blood red and his face drained of any life that was once there, and with a smirk stared into Giua's grey eyes. Moments after seeing the man's eyes she knew what the rogue actually was, a seeker, and a blood hound for the cult of Magnier. Luckily the seeker was weak and in its early stages of its new transformation or else it probably would have handled Damien and Giua both with ease. But Giua had only ever heard stories of Seekers; she had never actually seen one.
"A seeker, but how... your kind has not been seen for thousands of years." Giua took a step back from the seeker for safety. Stepping over some roots on the forest floor she made her way to Damien to see what would become of this monster.
"It is not wise to turn you back on one such as I, human, for my new found strength is more than anyone in Crystalhaven could ever fantasize in their week little minds. My master will see to it that I am avenged this day." The seeker whispers in a shriek and cracking voice as he looks up to the heavens and chants a few words. A few moments pass and the chants come to a halt. A light as bright as the morning sun shown from where the seekers hands should have been as the he broke free from his binds and charged at Damien and Giua. Damien saw him first, drew his blade, and cut the monster down with a single slash over the chest. The seeker fell to the forest floor and turned to ash as the wind swept him away.

Chapter Two

Karn was warm with the scent of freshly baked jalla bread as sunlight danced over the golden peaks atop marketplace buildings. There were people all around shopping, socializing, and drinking mead at the local taverns. Small kids kicked multicolored balls across the white, smooth marble streets, they dodged horses pulling linen and vegetables and more mead for the heavy drinkers, when the mid-day would arrive. Damien loved the sounds of flirtatious chatting and horse shoes clinking on marble streets as they walked. Anywhere he looked Damien could catch glimpses of young romance or shop owners trying to sell things to the early birds up for work. The buildings that made up Karn are beautiful with their white stone structure and green, flush gardens hanging from their sides.

But Damien wasn't here for sight-seeing; a meeting had been called by the grandmaster of the Brotherhood. Damien was required to attend and had no other information other than that. He hadn't seen Giua that morning but was sure she'd been informed by one of the runners about the gathering. Presence Hall still held its beauty although Damien had been there hundreds of times; large murals blanketed the 30 foot tall walls; murals of past Brotherhood members in the Turning war, a collection of battles that lasted for four decades and held the record for being the most bloody and deadly of the great wars. The meeting was set to be held in the anteroom of Presence Hall, and as Damien strode through the hall he whistled quietly to himself while counting the giant pillars that ran down each side of the room. Eight he counted, four on each side, until the building seemed to shrink into a smaller doorway and grow again as he entered the anteroom.

The anteroom grew into a resplendent red with walls covered in paintings portraying the glorious days of the Awakening of Tyridon. In the corner of the red room were small stools with statues upon them, black and still as night. Damien walked through the room admiring the paintings and décor, he never thought about how many hours the sculptures and painters must have spent to produce such paintings, then again it didn't matter much to him, all he had on his mind was what he saw in the woods the night before, and how the brotherhood was to handle such a threat.