After riding for ten minutes Ace checked the map. Mumbling to himself, "the river was here and I got the map next to the river and then went straight. About ten minutes after going straight I should have reached a clearing though. What's going on?" Confusion rushed through him. He dismounted ghost and tied the horse to a tree stump. Ace began to study the map. The map had a line to where the camp should have been and ace was following that line very carefully. Yet there seemed to be nothing that lined up with the map. He let out a sigh and rubbed the horse's side. Ace put the map away.
He began to search for sticks to create a fire. After about fifteen minutes of searching he found enough. He also found kindle and a log for when the flames really got going. He returned to where he left the horse and made a small fire. Ace always carried around a cot with him. He set up his cot and laid the blankets neatly on it. A few feet away for safety, but not to far so he would still get the fires warmth, ace began to set up the fire. Once everything was piled neatly he used the flint and steel to create a spark igniting the kindling. The flames spread to the sticks and soon the thicker slab of wood. After the fire was set up he grabbed some food he got from the general goods store and began to cook.
Ace has been living on his owns for many years. He's a 16 year old boy yes, but his family was assassinated. The death of his family made an insane impact on Ace. He was the only survivor over then his sister, but his sister was the Assassin. Watching her kill everyone broke all switches in his mind that made him a boy, much less made him human. He became more automatic almost robot like. Ace could never set up relationships or get a job. He only knew how to kill and live in the streets. Ace even developed this passion for death. He would slay people just to feel alive. He would stalk and only kill the bad at first. Eventually he even killed some good people. When the great wars began though he found an older thief known as Soren.
Soren trained Ace how to use shadow magic and also dark plant magic. He would take Ace on long journeys to build up Aces pain tolerance. Once he even left Ace alone at the mountains of agony to see if the boy would have died. His survival and return home showed to Soren that Ace, was ready. Soon they went on missions together to steal goods. Eventually Soren even sent ace on his own. As Ace got older Soren trusted Ace with more jobs. The whole reason Ace was in Nefram was to take the dark red jewel known as the blood stone. The blood stones were powerful and in the right hands they could bring goods but in the wrong pain. The attack on this city caused the mission to fail.
Finding the hunters would have been a great way for Ace to redeem his failure if he prevented an attack in the already weak city. The failure of being able to follow the map as already been proving to be difficult.
Ace sighed as he took his food out of the fire and began to eat it. Night was already upon him and he has now clear clue where the camp was. Ace decided in the morning it'd be best to just return home and that the mission was a bust.
Once done with his food he began to crawl into his cot and cover himself up his mind took over. His shadow morphed into its own figure, from time to time this happened, Ace has a shadow spirit inside him and this was the spirits way of trying to communicate.
"Ace don't sleep yet, we haven't spoken for weeks" the spirit stood above Ace's head. Ace ignored the spirit. "Ace you know you can't shut me out. I'll make the screams come back. I'll make you feel the pain again. Stay awake Ace!"
"What do you want Salazar." Ace irritated rolled to look the spirit in the spot a face should have been.
"How did you fail? You were to get the blood stone boy." The spirit struck Ace with an open palm. "The blood stone could have given us power, power to kill anyone we wanted boy. We could be stronger than Soren. We could find your sister, and get revenge."
"We spoke about this, Soren is to Strong for us, his strength it's impeccable. His speed is that of a dem..."Ace was cut off with slap.
"The blood stone would still make you stronger. And imagine if we collected all the bloodstones, you'd be a god. You could conquer the world and kill anyone that you would want."
"I want to be hero I killed so many!"
"You smile as you kill"
"No I don't..." Ace was loosing this argument. He knew that he loved killing and the battle made him smile.
"Boy, your someone who is strong, very very strong. But these stones would make you a god." The spirit pated Ace'd head. "You could do whatever you want, even kill your sister."
"My sister is a ghost there is no way to find her. You know this. The more that people look for her the more she hides. For all I know, all we know, she could be dead. Right now our best motive is to get home."
"Go home and run to Soren and cry again like the child you are boy. That's all you ever do, you rely to much on the old man. He's the reason why I can't take over your body. Once he's dead your body is mine I'll consume your soul. I'll become a god with you as my host." The spirit recoded and went back into hiding. Ace let out a deep breathe.
"Damn..." I ace looked around and sighed. The night sky was lit with only the moon. "Looks like I should try to sleep.." Ace shut his eyes and began to doze off.
