Trinity, the largest city in the world. It’s population stood at nearly one million people, not including visitors. Tall sky scrappers shot into the air, giving the city a mountainous effect while streets overflowing with people were like rivers. Infamous shops like Charlyn’s Chocolate’s and S-Tree’s Sugar shop attracted more than a thousand people each month. Along with these there was the world’s tallest building, the Sky Needle, and the world’s deepest diamond mine; everything you could possibly want to have a good time. The normal push and shove of everyday life was dull for most people, however, with the exception of one boy.
A brown haired boy names Eryn quickly and efficiently maneuvered his way through the crowded streets, slightly annoyed by all the people. Eryn often made it a point to stay out of the bigger cities like Trinity because he hated the crowds, however, his next clients offered him the promise of a fortune and Eryn was never the type of person to pass up an offer like that. So, for now, he decided to put up with it.
The giant clock in the town square began to toll. Eryn paused for a moment to count the bongs, which wasn’t the smartest move. His sudden stop in the sea of people caused three other’s behind him to run into him. Eryn quickly stepped to the side in order to prevent himself from falling when he was knocked off balance; the man who bumped into him, however, wasn’t that lucky. He fell to the ground, spilling papers into the streets and causing an even bigger traffic jam. “Hey, watch where you’re going idiot,” the man shouted from the ground. He glanced up at Eryn who was standing calmly beside him with a scowl on his face.
As soon as the man caught sight of Eryn’s face, his already annoyed mood turned sour. This was due to the fact of what Eryn had wrapped around his eyes. Covering majority of his face, were long white bandages, normally worn by people who were blind. “Oh, so that explains it,” the man fumed, turning away from Eryn and towards the street to gather his things. “Look buddy, why don’t you do us all a favor and stay out of the way. We normal people cant keep putting up with your kind. Some of us have places to go and don’t have time to deal with people like you,” the man spat, shoving his papers back into his briefcase.
Eryn frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. He crossed his arms over his chest and got into a defensive position. “Hey, its not my fault if you cant SEE where you’re going. Maybe next time you’d better WATCH out,” Eryn countered, emphasizing the two words that had to do with your sense of sight.
“Yes, well, stay out of our way,” the man said, obviously not amused by Eryn’s taunting comeback. He stormed away before Eryn had a chance to say anything else, but its not like he would have anyways. The tolls on the clock added up to four, which meant Eryn only had a half hour to make it to some café called the Loryin’s Rose. Pushing his way out of the streets and onto the sidewalk, he turned in all four directions to see if he could find the place.
It was strange to see Eryn work for the simple fact that he indeed could not see. As far as anyone else was concerned, Eryn was blind. Despite this fact, however, Eryn was far from being helpless. Although his sense of sight was gone the other four sense that surround a human body were not and, unlike a normal human, Eryn’s were enhanced. This is because, when a human looses the ability to use one of their five senses, the ones remaining get enhanced in order to compensate for that initial loss. That’s why, when Eryn lost his eyes in a fight seven years ago, he set out to find another way. His efforts lead him to study a martial arts style called Ly Darjin or blind dragon. Through this style Eryn learned to use vibrations in the ground, and air, couples with sound waves to see. So, in all respects, Eryn was able to see everything a normal person could, minus the colors. In fact, Eryn could see more. Because he wasn’t limited to seeing only solid objects, Eryn could sense vibrations around them, giving him the ability to see through walls.
Eryn quickly assessed the vibrations from the shops around him and pinpointed the location of Loryin’s Rose. It’s premises lay two streets down, near the Northern half of the city. Eryn sighed to himself, thought better of braving the crowded streets again and took a side alley to get to the café.
As Eryn entered the alley, two men followed closely after. both had an evil smirk on their face, for they both figured this was going to be an easy target. They were bandits and had a plan to mug Eryn, take his money and leave him for dead. Eryn paused slightly in his step when the two men began to trail after him. He knew what they were after and he suspected this was going to be fun. A slight smirk spread across his face as he continued to walk, allowing the bandits to follow him.
When the two men were safely away from the commotion of the city streets, the one up from motioned to his partner, who got into position. “Hold it right there,” the man commanded. Eryn smiled and turned around, facing the two men. “Well, I was hoping to see a little action today,” Eryn, said. “I actually thought that I might get more of a challenge than just you two, however,” he continued, nodding his head up and down as if sizing them up with his eyes. At this words the two bandits looked at each other. They both shook their heads, than circled Eryn, cutting off all forms of escape. Eryn, however, stayed completely calm.
“It looks like the only action to be seen will be from us,” the bandit standing in front of Eryn called. “Seeing as you’re blind and all. Now give us your money and you won’t get hurt.” The bandit standing in front of Eryn pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it out to Eryn’s throat. Eryn could see and feel the blade at his neck, but all he did was stand there and smirk. “You think it’s to cross me,” Eryn scoffed. “I can tell you right now, back off and you won’t get hurt.”
At his words the bandit trying to distract him from the other one burst out laughing. “Don’t be serious,” he scoffed. “You can’t even see. Now give us your money.” Eryn sighed and shook his head. “Alright, I gave you fair warning,” he mumbled, than spun around. The second man, who was trying to stay as quiet as a mouse, was just about to tackle Eryn to the ground, but Eryn felt him coming. He stepped to the side just before the second bandit reached him, causing the boy to fall into his partner. Both of them tumbled to the ground, landing in a heap at Eryn’s feet.
“See, now what did you learn here,” Eryn said, laughing at the two’s failed attempt. Both bandits looked at Eryn than at each other, shocked that they were so easily outwitted. “Hey, lets get out of here, this guy isn’t normal,” one of the bandits suggested. His partner quickly nodded his head in agreement and they both began to flee.
“Oh come on,” Eryn said, getting up to speed and than bouncing from wall to wall, up the side of the alley. He continued this motion until he landed on the roof of one of the buildings. He smirked and looked down at the bandits fleeing their crimes. “It’s not fun if you run,” he mumbled, finishing his sentence. He took off in the direction the bandits were headed, pulling in front of them, than dropping down into the alley. He clamped his hands together and nailed one of the boys in the head as they ran by. The bandit instantly fell to the ground, unconscious. Eryn than immediately turned towards the other boy who had stopped to see his partner fall. When Eryn turned to face him, the boy froze with fear. Eryn smirked and faked the boy out by flinching forward.
“Ahh,” the boy screamed, jumping back, than taking off in the direction of the streets. Eryn let him go. He want aiming to kill the muggers, just scare them off. Besides, someone would need to come get the unconscious boy because Eryn sure wasn’t going to do anything about it.
Just than a toll sounded from the grandfather clock in the town square. Eryn instantly snapped towards the sound. He knotted his eyebrows and frowned. That toll meant it was already four thirty; Eryn was late. “Damn it,” he mumbled taking his eyes off the direction of the clock. He had to get moving. Leaving the boy in the alley, Eryn took off in the opposite direction. A good thing too, because some spectators were beginning to gather at the street. Eryn quickly made his way down the side alley until he got to the next street over. The café was only two buildings down on his right. The man who he was supposed to meet would be waiting at the furthest table in the outside lot. With that in mind, Eryn made quick time of the street and found the cage without trouble. His next task would be finding the clients he was supposed to be meeting. When Eryn stepped onto the premises of the cage it was pretty east to find the farthest table. At it two men say, mumbling to each other. Eryn walked over to them. “Are you the ones in need of assistance,” Eryn said standing by his table.
It appeared as though Eryn’s words took the men off guard for they sat there for a minute ot two staring. Finally, one of the men regained his composer enough to speak. “E-Eryn,” one of the two men questioned. At his words Eryn took a seat at the table for now he knew that this was the spot to be, although he was preparing himself to get drilled. Eryn was known through the underground as a master thief. He would do jobs such as steal things for people, spy, gather information and occasionally he could be hired to kill. The initial fact that he could be hired to do any one of these things was not what gave Eryn his high reputation, but the fact that he these things with speed, precision and accuracy. That’s why, when someone first meets him, you could guess the doubt that would go through their head.
“So you’re Eryn, the bandit, the one we contacted,” the second man sitting at the table asked again.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Eryn said, ignoring their sudden surprise. “So, what’s this all about? You guys promised me a large amount of money if I come all the way down here and accept your offer, now I’d rather start sooner than later. After his words, the two men just sat there and stared. They didn’t know whether to take Eryn serious or not. Eryn could tell that they were thinking this and sighed hard.
“Oh I get it,” the first man said after a little while. “This is a joke.”
“Jeeze, you think that one’s reputation would be more helpful around these parts,” Eryn said. He pushed the chair outwards so that he would be able to stand up and leave. “I guess I’ll just have to find my fortune with some other people. Oh well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find since so many other people would like my help in their affairs.” He took a step in the opposite direction of the table, as if to walk away.
“No wait,” the second man at the table shouted. Eryn paused, but didn’t turn around. For a moment the man turned towards his partner and gave him a look. He was trying to decide within a certain amount of time whether to trust that Eryn was the real thing. Getting no help from the man sitting next to him, the first man sighed. “lease, sit down, and excuse my partners indefensible humor, he doesn’t know when to shut his mouth sometimes.” Eryn smirked, than turned around towards the men and took his place once more at the table. “So, what’s this all about,” he asked again.
“A few months ago our organization stumbled upon a strange artifact that may help us a little in our cause,” the second man began, making sure he didn’t give Eryn another reason to get up and leave. “I trust you know the protocol, we can’t tell you why, but we’re enlisting you to help us steal it.” He paused for a moment to scramble through some pieces of paper and pulled one out. It was a picture of the artifact they wanted Eryn to steal, but now the man didn’t know what to do. Eryn couldn’t possibly be able to see this, the man thought to himself.
Sensing the hesitation in the man, Eryn smiled a little and held out his hand. “Here, let this be a test of my ability,” Eryn said. Normally he wouldn’t go through this much trouble convincing his clients that he was fully capable, but these people offered him a lot of money and that was something Eryn couldn’t pass up. The man slowly handed the paper over to Eryn, still skeptical of what was going to happen. Eryn took the paper and held it out at arms length. He sucked in his breath and blew out slowly, getting a good look at what the artifact was.
The light stream of air hit the piece of paper and began to bound off the microscopic crystals what were at the surface of the paper. The picture was simply a photo, but how photo’s are made are by tiny crystals gathered together in certain configurations and designs so that it resembled the shape you took a picture of. The wave of air Eryn blew at it, happened to bounce off the crystals, sending a type of airwave back towards him. This, in turn, told Eryn what was on the piece of paper.
“Hm, seems like a strange artifact,” Eryn said, beginning his pick apart of the picture. The design on the handle, flowers and vines wrapping their way around, seems to be about five hundred years old. From the handle the two sides circle around until they almost came together in what seems like a griffin head. On the other side of the handle is a circular part that is inscribed with some ancient text that looks like Abraick, but it isn't. The last thing is that there are five jewels on either side of the handles, ten jewels in all. They’re all in a row. If I’m not mistaken this is called the demon tear,” Eryn said, finishing his prognosis and handing the paper back to two very stunned clients.
The man, who gave Eryn the paper, eventually shook himself out of his daze and took the paper back. “H-how did you, do that,” the man asked, his mouth dropped open. “How can you see?”
“That’s not protocol,” Eryn said smiling a little at their reaction. “Now you’ve given me the thing I have to steal, do you know where it is or do I have to figure everything else on my own?” He waited for the other two to regain their composure and answer his question.
“Ah, yes,” one of the men spoke up. “We’ve gotten all the information you should need on this mission, but I do warn you, this wont be easy.”
“I figured that, since you offered to pay me so much to do it,” Eryn said. “But don’t worry, I can handle anything.”
“Alright,” the man said, continuing on with his briefing. “There’s two halves to this piece, but we only need you to retrieve one of them. The piece that we need you to get for us lies in the city of Lakerin.”
“Wait, hold on, hold on,” Eryn said, interrupting the man in his speaking. “You want me to steal something in Lakerin, the demon city, you guys are crazy. That place is,” Eryn began to say, but was cut off my one of the men.
“Yes we know, that place is the city of the demons. The ones who have been banished to earth and choose to live in our world was given that city thousands of years ago as an appeasement from us so that they wouldn’t harm our kind. It is also the same city that has our artifact, why did you think that we were paying you so much money,” the man asked. Eryn sat there for a moment, thinking about something in his mind. These guys were crazy, traveling to that city would not only be suicide, but it could also trigger a war between the demons and the humans.
“I can understand if you don’t want to take this job,” the other one of the clients said. “It is a lot for any normal person to handle. We’ll just take our business elsewhere,” he said. The two men began to get up but at that moment., Eryn made a split second decision. Passing up as much money as these men offered would be crazy. If he accomplished this job he would be set for life. “Wait, wait, hold on, what demon do you want me to steal it from,” Eryn asked.
“It’s the family Lor,” one of the men answered. Eryn winced a little when he heard this name, although he slightly suspected they would say it. The Lor family was one of the most powerful demon names in the whole world. They held one of the most dominant powers in the world, the underworld and the afterworld, only those in the over world had more power. It was no wonder they would be carrying a coveted artifact like this.
“So what is it going to be,” the men asked together, waiting for Eryn’s answer. They both figured that Eryn was going to turn them down, it really was dangerous for anyone to take on this mission, but the thing was, Eryn was their last hope. No one else would even dare take this on, and if Eryn turned them down the men would have no hope of gaining that artifact. After a long moment of silence between Eryn and his clients, than, Eryn came to a conclusion.
“Fine, you’ve got yourself a thief,” Eryn said. “I’ll contact you when I’ve got your stupid artifact, but I warn you, if you even think about cheating me after I’ve done this, I will destroy you.”
“We will have your money ready,” the men said, smirking a little when Eryn agreed to their terms. They weren’t sure if this little plan of theirs was going to work at first, but when it did, they were beaming. “Now here’s all the information you need,” one of the men said, handing a folder over to Eryn. “It’s all there.”
“Fine,” Eryn said, getting up from the table. “I should only be a couple of weeks, if you don’t hear from me by than, assume the worst.” Eryn turned and walked away from the men and the café, he entered the jam-packed streets once more and soon was lost in the crowd. When he was well out of sight, Eryn looked down at the folder the men had given him and frowned. He paused for a moment, crumpled it up and than threw it in the trash. Nothing these men know would be of use to him, Eryn had his own sources and they were probably better too. With that out of the way, Eryn turned and walked down the street, plotting his next move as he went. The two men watched him go for a moment or two, than, when Eryn was gone, the first man turned to his partner.
“Are you sure this is going to work,” the man asked. “I mean, look at him, he’s completely blind. There’s no ways he’s going to survive in the demon city, not in his condition.”
“Yeah, I’m a little skeptical too, but this is the last hope we have,” the second man said. “No one else would be dumb enough to take on this mission, even for the amount of money we’re offering to pay him. Plus the eclipse is only a month away and we’re running out of time. If we have any hope of completing our plans we have to act fast,” the man explained.
“Right, than what’s our next move,” his partner asked.
“Our next move is getting that stupid boy,” the second man answered. “The military assassin. A few months ago he was on a mission and discovered some secret information applying to the demon wand. The military leaders whipped him memory, but buried deep in his subconscious is that information.”
“The information we need,” the other man finished.
“Exactly,” his partner confirmed. “So lets just let our little thief do his job, because we have a fight on our hands.”

Somewhere else in the city…

Five guards pushed through the crowd of people, armor clanking and weapons drawn. Most of Trinity’s citizen’s scattered when they heard the soldier’s coming, however, because they didn’t want to be trampled as they ran past. Bystander’s stopped what they were doing in order to stare at the soldier’s making their way through town. It wasn’t every day when you saw imperial guards going through the city. The citizen’s didn’t know what was going on, but they knew that it must be bad considering the army was now involved. Mother’s pushed children out of the way and many of them went inside themselves to fear of an unknown danger.
“You check over there, circle around that way and meet back at the square,” the leader of the guard commanded to his men. They instantly listened to their orders, splitting up and moving through the town. As they did this a young girl ran through the crowd of people, trying to get as far away from the soldier’s as she possibly could. She was panting hard and struggling with her cause for this is about as much exercise as she’s ever had in her life. The fact that she was still wearing a corset under her long dress, wasn’t helping either. As the soldier’s got closer the girl realized that she wasn’t going to get much further and decided that she needed to find a place to hide.
“I think that she went down this way,” the muffled voices of two of the guards mumbled. “That’s right, she went down this way.”
The girl groaned a little and bolted down a side street. She had to think of something, anything that could out some distance between her and the soldier’s or she was going to get caught. Pushing herself has much as she could; the girl ducked behind a couple of garbage bins and calmed her breathing as much as possible, without killing herself. A few seconds later the soldiers entered, talking to each other in low voices. The girl guessed that they were talking about her.
“Tasha, come out,” one of the soldiers said, calling to the girl they were after. “Tasha come back with us and everything will be fine.”
The girl called Tasha squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth together. Although her lungs gasped for breath she forced herself to hold it, not wanting to give herself away if she was breathing too loudly. The two soldiers walked past her hiding spot and stopped for a bit. Tasha clasped her hands together so hard they were beginning to turn blue.
“Do you think that she was fast enough to make it down the alley,” one of the soldiers asked.
“I don’t think so, I think that she’s here, somewhere in the alley, hiding from us,” the second soldier said. “We just have to find her.”
Tasha sucked in her breath a little as the guard said this. She was going to get caught, after all her hard work she was going to get caught. There was nothing she could do, she was trapped, the soldier’s knew where she was and she didn’t have a plan of escape. Suddenly, a loud cracking came from further down the alley as something loud tumbled to the ground. To Tasha’s utter relief the two soldiers bolted in the direction of the sound.
For a moment the girl waited as the soldier’s moved further away from her. Than she turned to look at where they had went. They obviously turned down a side alley for they were nowhere in sight. Deciding that this might be her only chance to escape, Tasha got up and turned back towards the street where she was instantly confronted by a creature. A black cat was sitting on a garbage bin staring at her with its big green eyes. “So you’re my rescuer,” Tasha whispered to the cat. The stray must’ve knocked over something, drawing the soldier’s attention away from her. “I thank you very much, but I really must get going,” she said. The cat cocked its head at her as it watched the girl disappear from the alley. Tasha stumbled back into the streets and took a hard right, making her way further into the heart of the city.
“She went this way,” a soldier’s voice called from somewhere in the crowd. “I asked these people and they said they saw her head in that direction.”
Tasha instantly snapped her attention in the direction behind her. Another one of the guards had gotten on her trail and was gaining ground with each second. “Oh no,” Tasha mumbled, turning back and taking off into the crowd. “I’m just not getting a break today.” She quickly made her way through the crowd, ducking around people as she tried to find a better hiding spot. The best thing that was working for Tasha at this point was she was able to move better through the crowd than the soldiers. Maybe if she was lucky she would be able to loose them.
Winding her way through the maze of people, Tasha figured that her best bet to find a place to hide was going down another alley. As the soldier behind her got closer, Tasha picked up as much speed as she could. She needed to get to the alley before the soldier figured out she went down there. As Tasha rounded the corner, however, she was met with a strange surprise. Not paying close attention, Tasha ran into someone who was coming out of the alley. Tasha, taken off guard, was the one who fell to the ground, landing and kicking up dust.
“Hey, what the hell’s your problem,” shouted the person who Tasha ran into. Groaning a little Tasha looked up at the boy who was standing over her, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I-I’m sorry, I just,” Tasha began to say, but something caught her eye, shutting her up instantly. The soldier was almost there and she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Turning back to the boy, Tasha picked herself up off the ground and ducked behind him. “lease, you have to help me,” Tasha begged.
“I don’t think so,” the boy said. “You got yourself into this trouble and I’m not going to get you out, now get out of my way, I have places to go.” Tasha bit her teeth together and groaned apprehensively. The soldier was getting closer and the only person who might be able to help her was walking away.
“lease, I’ll do anything, I’ll give you anything,” Tasha begged, trying to coax the boy into helping her. This statement caused the boy to stop in his tracks and pause a little. He was obviously intrigued by this statement.
“Will you pay me,” the boy asked, jumping at the thought of money.
“Yes, I’ll pay you, just help me,” Tasha exclaimed. These were all the words the boy needed to hear. In an instant he was at her side, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her in the direction of the alley. Tasha went along with it, but she didn’t have that much of a choice, the boy’s grip on her arm was firm, there was no getting out of it. Just as the soldier rounded the corner, the boy helping Tasha shoved her in a little nook and than proceeded to stand over her. He leaned up against the nook shielding Tasha from view with his body and crossed his arms over his chest, making it look like he wasn’t doing anything.
“Hey you,” the soldier said, storming over to the boy. “You haven’t,” he began to question, but cut himself off. “Oh never mind,” he than stormed away. The boy watched him go for a moment, than turned back to Tasha. “There, I helped you,” he said, holding out his hand.
“Wait, you have to help me get out of the city,” Tasha said, climbing back out of the nook she had been in. “That’s what I meant when I asked you to help me.”
“But that’s not what you said,” the boy countered. “Now I helped you escape the first guard, you can pay me for my services and learn from this experience or I can call that guard back over here and tell him where you are, what is it going to be.”
“Wait, I,” Tasha began to say. “I told you that I would pay you. What if I make it worth you wile?”
“To take you out of the city,” the boy clarified. “How much is worth my wile,” he asked, doubting the fact the girl could come up with enough money to convince him he would take her anywhere.
“Forty gold pieces,” Tasha said, coming up with a random number in her head. The boy almost choked when she made her price. “Just to take you out of the city,” he confirmed, making sure that they indeed had an agreement. Tasha nodded her head, telling him that she was serious. “For forty gold pieces I’d take you out of the city, through the woods and over the mountains,” the boy said, joking slightly because of the high price she said.
“Okay,” Tasha answered, taking his statement seriously.
“Wait, what,” the boy said, taken off guard be her statement.
“Okay, take me as far as my price will allow it, I want to get as far away from here as possible,” Tasha clarified. The boy grumbled a little. He probably shouldn’t have said anything to her. “Fine,” the boy said, a little disappointed that he had just gave away the value of what she was paying him. He thought for a little bit about where he was going, than decided on how far he was going to take her. “Alright,” the boy said after awhile. “I’m heading towards the city of Dalneer to gather information there, I’ll take you that far,” the boy said.