Roger let out a sigh and watched as his breath formed a cool white mist in the rigid air. His patience was wearing thin, there were still six or seven people that had to check into the party that had yet to even appear over the hill. As he brought his head into his chest he crossed his arms and began to rub rather violently causing a cacophony of noise from both his rather thick fur jacket and the steel blade that rested on his hip. The noise was so loud, he almost didn't hear the deep voice that spoke to him.
“Eh, excuse me sir.”
Roger looked up from his warm bundle. An elf sporting a comically large top hat stood in front of him. His suit a dark black with with a gold trim around the edges and platinum buttons. A satchel hung at his side with beautiful gems embroidering the strap over his shoulder, while the gloves that gripped it looked almost like it was woven from strands of silver.
Roger quickly sat up and began to search around him for his small leather book. “Yes, just a second m’lord.”
The elf gave a nod and smile. “Take your time. I am in no hurry.”
Roger eventually found the book, having fallen into the snow out of his pocket. He quickly bent over to grab the book, unlatching the string that held it closed and began to flip through it. “What is your name?” He asked, looking back up to the elf.
“Jaeger.” He stated, rubbing his own arms for a bit of warmth. “Oh, with a J.” He iterated, probably having come across this issue before.
Roger quickly flipped through his book, looking for the name. But as he scanned his book, he was unable to find the unusual name. He looked up at the elf, who gave a small shiver. “I… can't find your name.”
The elf frowned and cocked his head. “Perhaps it is spelled with a Y.” He suggested.
Flipping to the near back of the book, Roger began to once again search for the name. But, again, he was unable to find the name. “I'm sorry to tell you this, but you're not on the list.”
The elf looked more surprised than upset at the news. “Can you perhaps show me?” He asked. “It may have changed in translation.”
Roger gave a small nod. He'd been running security for a few years now, it had happened before. Moving over, he held out the book for the elf calling himself “Jaeger” to inspect. Walking over, the elf leaned over the book, his eyes darting all over the page for his name. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gave a small chuckle.
“Oh, my apologies. I must have made a mistake when talking with the planner. You see, Jaeger is my nickname, an alias if you will, that my dwarven friend inside gave me.” The elf began to turn the pages of the book, moving back towards the front of the alphabet. “You see, Jaeger isn't so much a name, as it is a word. It has meaning in the dwarven language.”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “Oh, what does it mean then?” He asked, thinking back to a bar fight a few years ago. He remembered hearing the word “jaeger” tossed around a bit, but never caught its meaning.
But his train of thought was cut off by a strange feeling in his chest. A warm sensation began to overwhelm him as he started to look down. What he saw caught him off guard. The elf’s hand was pressing against his chest, with a bit of silver steel poking out between the red that began to flow.
The elf leaned in, getting next to Roger’s ear. And in a whisper, he stated: “It's dwarven… for hunter.”
Roger began to look up at his killer, to see the face of the elf that had killed him one last time. But as his eyes met with Jaeger’s, fear began to overcome Roger. The elf’s eyes began to change color, and the tone of his skin began to shift. His face shortened and his chin widened as scars began to take place on his face. Before long, Roger might as well have been staring at a mirror.
Jaeger, was now Roger.
____====____
“Emanon, did you really have to do that whole act with the gate guard?” Rae asked, as she ran a clean piece of cloth along her rapier.
Emanon raised his Scimitar in the air, inspecting its sharp edge. “I needed to see his eyes, and the wind was too brutal for me to open my own. I needed another character, and I don't accept anything less than perfection.” With a quick flick of his hand, the scimitar was placed back at Emanon’s hip. “Jaeger was getting boring anyway.”
“Oh, so Jaeger is boring but Lucan is still fine?” Rae asked as she laid her rapier on the circular table in front of her, bringing out her dagger for an inspection and cleaning.
Emanon pointed his finger. “Lucan has a story that intrigued me. A rogue agent from the Black Lantern and hunted by the Emerald Claw, only to fall slave to a vampire and torment Southern Khorvaire? Hell, that's a fairly interesting story. Better than rich boy Jaeger.”
“But you took the persona of a lowly security guard?” Rae questioned, glancing at Emanon with an eyebrow raised as she brought the dagger close to her eye. “What was his name again?”
Emanon was about to respond before quickly shutting his mouth and staring into space. “You know, I don’t think he ever told me his name.” With a shrug, Emanon leaned back in his wooden chair. “I think I’m gonna call him George.”
“George?” Rae asked, with less curiosity than before and more sarcasm. “Let me guess, your next nameless victim will be named Bob, and the one after that John.” Setting her dagger on the table she too leaned back in her stool to stare Emanon down. “You know, I really don’t know why I stick around with you guys.”
Emanon rocked forward using the momentum to stand up. “I don’t either, seeing as we hired you to find traps and we are still using the “raise a shield and walk down the hallway” method.”
Rae was about to argue when the creaking of a door caused her head to jerk to find the source of the noise. A large man began to walk through the door, plate armor attached to his whole body with a greatsword strapped to his back. Looking around the room, he gave a frown before staring at the two grey skinned humanoids at the table. “I thought we told you to to be discreet?”
Emanon raised his shoulders in a shrug. “We were discreet. They didn't know they were dead until I was done talking.” Emanon’s face twisted into a wicked smile, revealing an abnormally large canine, glowing with a strange purple aura.
The armored man gave a nod before pointing to the corner of the room. “And them?”
Rae grabbed her dagger from the table and began to twist it in her fingers. “You know that there's always a handful that live to tell the tale, Defyus.”
Defyus could only close his eyes and take a deep breath. “Look, did you at least manage to intercept the package?”
Emanon reached into his pocket, pulling out a brown envelope. “Did we get it? Is the sky blue?”
“Have you opened it?”
“No.” Emanon placed the envelope back in his pocket. “I tried, it's magically sealed. I was going to have Robin take a shot at it, maybe hand it over to Creed if it's divine.”
Defyus nodded before he turned and began to walk out. “I got a carriage for us, should be able to get us to the lightning rail in time.”
Standing from her chair, Rae began to place her blades in their appropriate places. “What are we expecting to be inside?” Rae asked as he pushed the chair back under the table.
“A design for a new kind of transportation. Apparently able to be an affordable teleport.” He stated, moving back to the door he came from. “Something to do with a… “dark weave” from another plane.”
Emanon began to walk towards the door. Stepping over the dozens of aristocrats that littered the floor, their eyes staring off into nothing. “You know, I really didn't want to waste the shout here. But I guess George was instructed to never enter the building.”
“So there was a complication?” Defyus asked as he opened the door, a gust of snow pouring into the large ballroom.
“I never said there weren't complications. I just said it was done discreetly.” Emanon stated. “Besides, does it matter as long as I get the job done?”
Defyus sighed. “I suppose not.”
____====____
Emanon pulled the envelope from his pocket, placing it on the fold out table in front of him. “This, Robin, is the envelope.”
The human sitting across from Emanon reached out, his royal blue cloak draped over his arms and shoulders. “And you said it was magically sealed, yes?” Robin asked, adjusting the glasses on his face.
“Yes. Well, when I tried to open it, it would seal itself as my blade ran through it.” Emanon said, leaning back in the cushioned seat.
Robin began to twist the envelope in his hands, examining the corners and edges. “So a magically defended object you decide the best course of action would be to run a knife on it?”
“Look, I just wanted to know what was so important that we are getting paid a thousand plat pieces per person.” Emanon leaned forward in his chair. “If they're paying that much for a silly envelope, this is either some super high tech, or some useful dirt.”
“And if it's neither?” Robin asked, his hands and eyes beginning to glow blue as the envelope was suspended in air.
Emanon stared out the window as the forest zoomed by, the occasional bolt of lightning from the rail obstructing his view for a brief moment. “Then our employer needs to get his priorities straight.”
“Regardless, this isn't too difficult of a spell to break.” Robin stated as the envelope slowly began to open. “It's just very precise.”
Emanon stood from his seat, putting his arms above his head and letting out a yawn. “Well, good luck with it. I'm gonna go catch some sleep.”
Robin slightly shook his head. “No, you're going to stay here incase there's some kind of security measures in place.”
Emanon grunted as he plopped back in his seat. “Can I at least grab Creed?”
“No, it's completely arcane. I almost have it anyway.”
Emanon rubbed his chin as he saw the letter slowly open, and a pearl white piece of paper float out. Gently, Robin used his magic to lower both the envelope and the letter onto the table. His eyes changing back to their normal color, and the glow around the objects subsiding.
“I guess it's trap free?” Emanon asked as he reached for the letter.
Robin shook his head. “I did detect traces of magic on the paper, however it was not evocation. You should be able to read it without worrying about a stray lightning bolt coming at your head.”
Emanon gave a nervous laugh as he grabbed the paper and began to read aloud. “Greetings! If you are reading this then you have been selected for a special job.” Emanon frowned, glancing at Robin before continuing. “Within this document is a binding contract, since you have already begun to read this letter… you are bound… to the contract… for life…” Emanon’s face turned a shade of white as he stopped reading aloud to his friend sitting across from him, and instead read for himself.
Within this documents contains a trans-dimensional spell that will you you and your carriage to a very far away land. You will find your target, and kill it with no questions.
Since you are reading this and have been bound, you know who the target is and any niche information that can help you accomplish your mission.
Your payment for this job, is the right to live, Emanon.
PS: Try to be more discreet next time.
Emanon’s eyes grew wide as he looked up at Robin. “It was a setup! They knew!” He screamed as the paper in his hands began to glow a violent shade of red before it raised itself in the air, forcing its way out of Emanon’s grasp. He could feel the train he was on start to shake and shutter as the lightning outside the window became more frequent and more violent. The doors to their room opened, with Defyus and Rae standing in the doorway.
“What's happening?!” She screamed as she looked down at the floating paper. “What did you do?”
Emanon’s mind suddenly cleared, and he knew he had to take action. “We're about to experience a train crash ladies and gentlemen! Hold onto something tight!”
Those in the room complied, grabbing the nearest pole of handrail they could find, and braced for the impact that was sure to come.
____====____
Twilight's mind was lost in thought as she sat on the train station bench. Her hooves tapping on her and Rainbow Dash’s luggage as they waited for their train… which was supposed to arrive almost ten minutes ago. She let out a small sigh as she looked over to her snoring friend, fast asleep from having been woke up almost three hours earlier than normal.
Glancing onto the tracks, a shimmer of hope filled her soul. A small light and slight rumble appearing in the distance. Twilight reached over and poked her tired friend. Only instead of awakening, Rainbow simply rolled over to ignore the intrusion. Rolling her eyes and smiling, Twilight hopped down to the ground and began to prepare their luggage.
“Rainbow Dash, our train is here.” she said as she began their bags towards the edge of the platform. Rainbow slowly opened her eyes, and let out a big yawn.
“Why are we here so early again?” Rainbow asked as she began to stretch her legs and wings.
“Because this train has no stops scheduled, and is going to take us all the way to Canterlot.” Twilight stated, looking back at Rainbow Dash. “And since everyone else left yesterday, we need to catch up.”
Twilight looked back toward the light, the sound of the train very distinct as it chugged it's way towards them. However, something was strange… there was something in the air that was causing Twilight a bit of discomfort. Then, out of nowhere, a small zap of what felt like static electricity hit Twilight. With a yelp, Twilight gave a small laugh. “Very funny, Rainbow.” she said.
“What’s very funny?” A drowsy voice said.
Twilight frowned and looked over at Rainbow,who had almost fallen back asleep. With this realization, Twilight jerk ed her head towards the source of the zap.
Hanging in the air, was a small red ball, seemingly made of lightning bolts rapidly spinning. Twilight’s eyes went wide as she took a step back. The red ball began to grow in size, spinning faster and faster, growing more violent every second. Then, in a very quick motion, the ball expanded to more of a ring with a hole in the center, with trees and grass that Twilight was not familiar with inhabiting the hole.
With the opening, came an ear piercing noise, like the one a normal train would make, but amplified dozens of times over and a much higher pitch. Twilight and Rainbow quickly covered their ears from the noise, before looking at each other with concern in their eyes.
“What is that thing?” Rainbow asked as she began to beat her wings, raising off the ground.
Before Twilight could answer, a new sound entered the air. Quickly turning, she saw what looked like a silver and much more massive train shoot out of the hole and onto the tracks. However, this train had no wheels, and instead began to slide and dig into the dirt with a tremendous amount of force. Without thinking, Twilight closed her eyew, reached out with her horn, grabbed herself and Rainbow, and teleported away.
When she opened her eyes, Twilight and Rainbow were sat in a field quite a ways away from the platform. The two both stood quietly, and watched as the giant train, and the one that was set to take them to Canterlot collided. A large fireball, mainly from the larger of the two trains, erupted into the air as steam from the smaller engine and lightning from the larger began to dance among the chaos. Like a chain reaction, the rest of the larger train began to spark, sending lightning bolts in every direction as the cars began to roll through the grass, terrorizing anything in their path.
Eventually, the chaos from the collision ended, leaving the corpse of two trains intertwined on the railway. The platform that Twilight had once been standing on turned into a pile of splinters and debris. The wreckage giving off a bright orange glow as the flames began to spread from car to car.
Twilight and Rainbow could only stare with disbelief at what they witnessed. Looking over to the red ring, it continued to spurt lightning for only a few seconds before imploding on itself, leaving behind only a slight charge in the air.
“What… was that?” Rainbow asked, looking over to Twilight.
Before she could answer however, a strange voice interjected. “It was a form of dimensional door, designed as a trap for whoever would read an enchanted letter. Unfortunately, it was too strong to dispel so well… here we are.”
Twilight and Rainbow looked to the source of the voice, fear gripping their hearts at what they saw. Five creatures all standing over them on their hind legs, three of them armored and decorated with a multitude of sheathed weapons, another wearing mage robes and carrying a rather large book, and finally a creature seamingly made from metal with gems for eyes, and a large sun painted on its chest.
The one in front gave a smile, revealing his teeth, where one was slightly out of proportion. “Name’s George, pleasure to meet ya.”
