Chapter 2 - The Village of Kaviskal

Ashton and the few who journeyed with him had reached Kaviskal. All around them, burning bodies and ashes corrupted the streets, the flames which once burnt the homes down, fading into nothing.

Upon his arrival at the front of the village gates, staring at the sight of the stone-cracked wall, he felt the faintest whisk of the wind, combined by colors of grey and black blowing against his cheek. As he equipped his pocket-watch, aided in his right hand, he stepped forth, the tapping of his black shoes hitting the gravel road ever so lightly. He took in a puff of the air: Burnt flesh. As entirely expected of such a place. One would not be surprised that such a thing had happened. This village, by the name of Kaviskal, had previously been known for their spruce and had been especially pricey, yet wealthy in their exchanges of woods and stones. Supplies were no real issues for this village and they seemed to be doing quite well in their own currency. Yet, it was still small; It was mostly unknown to anyone outside its gates, except for carriage storage units and slave-traders, yet, nothing interesting ever happened here. Why would Ashton come to such a place, knowing that nothing could be self-beneficial to himself? He surely didn't care about the small land he had lost to fires- He surely did not care to figure out who did such a thing, and it seemed as if the only thing he did was inspect the houses. He didn't need money- He was a lot more well off than needing to scavenge in such a burnt down place, and was for-told to be richer than most nobles... So why?

Approaching him from behind two large, burnt structures appeared three men in black, long hoods with black, baggy cloaks which dropped from their shoulders down to their shoes. The tallest and most slender of the three stepped forward and grumbled to himself a chant, which only could be heard as small mumbles to Ashton. From the shadows of his cloak appeared a hand, arising from his stomach. The spark of a red flame started to tingle and warm into his black glove until finally, a blowing force of red flames shot at Ashton's torso. Ashton stepped and dodged it at the last second, smirking deviously at the man. He held the pocket watch close to his chest, the sounds of ticking starting to speed up. It started to glow bright in his hand and sparked a shade of gold before zapping as fast as lightning at the man's body. The bones of his entire structure started to glow lighter and lighter, every inch of his body being covered in a bright gold. No words were uttered as he stared at his victim, falling quickly to the floor. The hooded man yelled out in pain, shouting out at the feeling of his bones shrinking, aching and twisting...

 

"Aaaaah! G-God damnit! N.. no! Aaa- F**k! S**t.. H-Holy cra- Aaa..!"

 

Ashton dashed back and shouted out to the others to come out. In this time, the two other hooded strangers dashed off into the bushes and hid, not wanting to fall victim to the same fate. As the two girls were escorted out of the carriage by the Knight, they stood idly by the walls, watching over Ashton closely. Ashton’s white hair blew around softly in the wind, his face full of lust and desire for the death of such a man, worthy of testing his might. The handle of the pocket-watch seemed to never stop turning, and quickly, the hooded man’s bones had been crushed under the inevitable weight of his magic. Nobody was sure how he had killed him or what magic had even such an ability, but they were sure of one thing: Ashton was not one to trifle with.

After the shrieking pain of his voice had faded into nothing more than dust, the mysterious girl which had been idly sitting by on the adventure stepped forward. As for the little assassin, she was nowhere to be seen. The mysterious girl pressed her hand against Ashton’s back. He felt the cold touch and shivered softly, his eyes squinting sharply. He turned and stared down at the girl. She glared back and nodded her head, and Ashton walked back to the carriage without a word. The girl stared as Ashton walked off and followed soon after. The Knight stood behind the two and guarded, eyeing the area around them for any threats. Nothing could be seen- Or so, they thought.

When they reached the carriage, they noticed something awful... Inside, all the resources had been ransacked. The butler was lying on the side of one of the seats, a knife impaled into the side of his neck, blood streaming down his body into a pool of blood on the floor, and no sounds could be heard coming from his corpse. Ashton stared down at the river of blood and sighed, saying.

“…Everyone, get inside. We’re leaving.” Everyone stared at Ashton, but surely, nobody wanted to argue with him. The Knight immediately stepped forth and grabbed the corpse, throwing him into the boot before escorting the mysterious girl into the carriage. Ashton got down and started to brush away bits of the blood off the vintage seats and sat down, patting the seat next to him as he glanced at the assassin, who had apparently been trying to hunt down one of the hooded men. She turned her head to him and grumbled, stepping close before taking her seat. She did not utter a word towards Ashton. She was dead silent, staring down at her lap, her fist-clenched hands shivering with her lip bit down on. Ashton had a dead-face expression as he looked at her and coughed. She looked up at him and clenched her gloved-hands tighter…

“…Was it you, ma’am…” Ashton said. There was an eerie silence in the room. The mysterious woman had her arms folded over, with her leg crossed over the other, staring at the two with a very suspicious look.

“…No.” She spoke, gulping quickly. Ashton flicked from his sleeve a small dagger. He then started to poke at the assassin’s throat and very softly scraped up and down, saying.

“...Don’t lie to me, ma’am… I do not wish to have to kill you.” Ashton said. He whisked it up and down her neck in silence and thought for a moment, exclaiming.

“Now that I think about it, ma’am… I never gathered your name. Care to tell me?” Ashton now kept the knife in a defensive position, in case she was to do anything to harm him. The girl stared up at Ashton awkwardly and sighed loudly. She knew there really was no way for her to escape this position that she had been put in, and so, she said.

“…My name is Falk.” Falk said, in a rather clear yet quivering voice, shallowed down by her massive amount of fear. She sat still and stared up at the rather tall figure, not speaking a word. Ashton continued staring at her and said softly.

“What a lovely name you have…” Ashton said, with a voice as sweet as honey; But before he could continue to speak, the mysterious woman raised a hand, a spark of blue electricity appearing in the centre of her palm, exclaiming.

“…What did that butler do to you? Why did you have to go and kill an innocent man like that? He did nothing wrong…” She had clearly been upset and stressed over his death and had been holding back her urge to do anything about it, but this had been it: She finally had enough with this girl. She charged up the spark of lightning in her hand and readied it with a full charge- It was now obvious in her distraught face that she wanted an answer when she shouted.

“…Tell me or I’ll f*****g kill you!” Falk sat still, panicking and panting heavier and heavier, feeling an overwhelming amount of threat taking over her mind. She couldn’t hide in the small carriage, and any escaping would result in instant death. She was backed into a corner with no exit. However, before the mysterious woman could do anything to hurt Falk, Ashton stepped in the way and shouted.


“Enough! She doesn’t need this, Evangeline, just accept his death as tribute for our plans!” Ashton guarded Falk by moving a hand in front of Falk with his pocket-watch raised to his chest, thumping against his own heart to the sound of his heartbeat. Evangeline, also known as the mysterious woman, screamed angrily and discharged the attack of lightning by lowering her hand down and firing it at a pool of blood, the blood splattering all over the bodies of the three. She puffed angrily for a few moments with clenched fists, which soon started to shiver. In a quiet yet angry tone, she said.

“…He didn’t deserve this. Why. He was only a butler- He had nothing to do with any of you…” Evangeline stood up and shouted without turning her head to the carriage carrier. “…Sir, stop the carriage. I’m heading off. I can’t deal with this anymore, and sure as hell, I’m not being the next one to die on this forbidden ride.” After the carriage had stopped, she ran off into the forest, approaching what seemed to be an old stone-cracked tower. At the top, a very small, purple light source could be seen. Ashton stared pitifully out the window and waited to see how… just how she would handle herself out here. Much had not been known about Evangeline to most, and the only ones who knew her name were the ones in this very carriage. Not even her mother was aware that this was her name. But before Ashton could stare any longer, the carriage faded into a pile of bush and Evangeline was never heard from again.