[Note: This is the 1st chapter in the collaberotica version that slightly diverges from the writing.com original. There, this one was set as an extra choice in one of the "Reader's choice" chapters due to choices being limited to a max of 5, which is not the case here. Otherwise the content is the same]
You woke up on a grassy plain, it's a nice day, the sun shines brightly on the sky but it's just gently warm, the breeze going around keeping things to a pleasant chill. You knew that you were dreaming about something, but couldn't fully recall the details. Something about a home? The more you try to recall the details, the blurrier the memory gets, it's a frustrating, annoying feeling. You eventually shake your head with a chuckle and give up the fruitless struggle. After all, it has been years since the last time you've had a home proper.
You take a deep breath, feeling how the freshness of the air cools the warmth inside your body, a pretty good feeling. Then, you stand up and stretch your arms. It was a slow day for sure, as you'd taken a nap but you knew that there would be work to do, after all, a true mercenary hardly ever gets proper rest...
Your name is Blaise, to be more specific, Blaise of the Light Mages, a clan believed to have gone extinct so long ago that you've never been able to find any written historical records about them. Though, to be fair, by now many of the renowned Elemental Mage clans of old are largely gone, with just remnants in the form of families or small groups that still maintain their ancient traditions to this day. Perhaps it was just the natural consequence of the relentless march of time for these tribal-esque clans to end up this way as the people of the land eventually consolidated together.
Such is the life in Solvsverd, the Empire of the Silver Sword in the old language. To other races, it was simply called the Human Empire for pure convenience. You were the leader of a small but quite proficient mercenary band that led a semi nomadic lifestyle, traveling around Svolsverd's many towns and villages, avoiding the larger cities for reasons beyond your own comprehension.
Mercenary bands had a mixed reputations, as many operated as paramilitary forces in the service of particular nobles, or as the private armed forces of a village or town, while many others engaged in questionable or downright illegal and immoral affairs, such as assassinations, coups to overthrow a given ruler or steal artifacts. Few were the ones to follow a more honorable path, lending their service to those places neglected by the Emperor's forces.
Such was the path you chose yourself for your group, helping wherever you went to deal with crime, rescuing missing people or slaying dangerous creatures that threatened their safety. As you and all your friends, who were the members of this band were all remarkably young, barely over 18 years old, many people took to calling your band "The Child Soldiers" in an affectionate light, though the moniker annoyed you at times. At least, once you'd shown your work you normally earned the people's respect.
For the last 2 years, you've been serving Duke Richard II the Wise, though you simply took to calling him Rick in private. Not out of disrespect, but because it was sometimes hard to maintain all the formalities that this kind of job entailed, plus, the Duke was apparently someone much more familiar than you first believed, being the first person ever to appear to have known your late father and thus, the two of you became quite familiar over time. He was like the uncle you never had.
His domain was large, even for a duchy, and its capital was one of the first major cities where you'd ever stayed at, let alone gone into. Though, in many ways, it felt more like an oversized village than a true city. But that also was probably the key to its charm. Blessed with a mild climate and plenty of fertile lands together with many natural resources around, life in the Duchy of Varland was fairly pleasant. Compared to many of your previous jobs, this was like "easy mode" in comparison.
You had been napping on the large grassy plains between the forest to the north of Varland, a quite peaceful place where you liked to be by yourself. Though maybe "by yourself" was a bit of a stretch, as you were usually in the company of your closest friend, albeit a nonhuman one.
"Shingetsu!" You called out, and in less than five seconds a large beast emerged before you, having been lightly napping in the tall grass himself. An enormous cat, larger than the largest horses there are. This is perhaps your most trusted partner and a beloved pet, though you view him more as family than a mere possession. With a shiny, full black coat and yellow piercing eyes, he was indeed an intimidating beast to those unfamiliar. His name meant "New Moon" in the old language of the Dark Mages, and it was a good fit as far as you were concerned, given his color.
He came you you calmly, purring happily and giving you a very light, playful headbutt, wanting you to pet his head and scratch behind his ears, with you gladly did with a hand, laughing at how some things never change. 6 years ago, during one of your earliest missions, you had found him abandoned in the wild as a kitten and have raised him ever since, watching him grow from a kitten the size of a medium sized dog to the magnificent, panther-like feline that he is today.
This kind of creatures are called Koteshkikon, meaning "Feline Steed" in the old Fire Mages' language, and are usually only seen serving as the steeds of high nobles and top ranking Imperial officers, so it was extremely rare to have found an abandoned one in the wild as you did. Seeing a young guy that many still in some ways treated as a kid riding one of these beasts was always remarkable to the people who met you, making for quite the first impression. You even caught wind of rumors saying that you were the bastard child of some high noble, abandoned and disgraced, granted that Koteshkikon as your sole inheritance, though you could only laugh, as nothing could be farther from the truth.
You effortlessly hopped onto his back and without a need for any given commands he knew what you intended to do, heading back to the city. The distance was roughly half an hour on horseback, but with Shingetsu running at full speed you could shorten it to half that time. Such a thing was hardly a workout for the powerful feline, Koteshkikon were thought to be the ultimate steed for this very reason, and while their exact origins were a mystery, they had been extensively bred and traded by the Fire Mages when the clan still existed, and many of their descendants still maintain the tradition, being the most knowledgeable about these noble animals.
However, some ancient documents suggest that these animals hail from much farther away than it has ever been conceivable, with legends telling of a harsh, frozen land full of gigantic beasts on which these cats originally preyed. A land across the entirety of the ocean, farther than any known ship has ever dared to venture into.
As expected, you arrived in roughly 15 minutes, hopping off Shingetsu and leading him to a public well so you could give him a drink of fresh, clean water for his efforts. Although he was sometimes seen as rather eccentric, nobody could ever doubt that Duke Richard took good care of his realm, as he made sure that plenty of water was kept clean and available to the public for free, though taxes served to maintain these things working, but such details were unnecessary to know in full to a mere mercenary fighter.
While your trusty cat rehydrated himself, you heard a man scream and when you turned to look in the direction where the ruckus came from, you saw an old man writhing in pain on the ground, having been stabbed in the stomach. In less than the blink of an eye, you appeared right before the wounded man and saw what was most likely some petty thief running with a moderately sized sac, full of coins. You knelt near the wounded man and held your right hand out, hovering it over the wound as it began to glow with a golden light.
"Shine, gentle glow of 10 springs. Halt the bloodshed and heal the flesh with nature's touch" You recited solemnly as a golden circle with many intricate symbols, all made from golden light, appeared and spun before your hand while the glow that your hand emitted healed the man's wound, stopping the bleeding and regenerating the damage until it looked like he'd never been stabbed at all.
"Alright, I'll be back with your stolen money, just rest here" You said and snapped your fingers, immediately grabbing Shingetsu's attention. A single look from your eyes was enough to tell the powerful cat to stand guard over the man while you took care of business.
The thief wore a brown hooded cloak and had taken to climb over a nearby building and make his mad dash jumping across roofs with surprising dexterity. You sighed and with a jump, you also got on top of a roof and began to give chase, catching up to him with relative ease. He threw a few daggers as you as he kept running desperately, but these bounced off harmlessly against your own hooded cape, made of a heavy, black cloth that was fairly tough in itself.
Once you were in range, you threw a punch, a left hook from behind, which connected cleanly and sent the thief tumbling down to the ground. Before he could get up, you put your foot on his back and drew your weapon, a massive sword, roughly as long as you were tall. You stuck the mighty blade on the ground, right before the thief's face.
"You were lucky I didn't feel like using this" You said and took the stolen sac of money from him. Then, with a few quick hand gestures, the thief's wrists and ankles were bound to the ground by rings of golden light that felt too heavy for him to move. Having heard the commotion, two of the Duke's guards arrived but you'd already pretty much taken care of the whole issue.
"Oh, hey Blaise" One of them greeted you with a joyful chuckle "Another one, huh?"
"Hey" You waved back "This one's worse. He stabbed some poor old man to take this money. I'll go give it back, you guys can take care of him, the binding will dispel in exactly 3 minutes" You said as you walked back to where the old man was laying.