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[Loken]

2nd Day of Fall, 515 AV.
4th bell, night.

The moon was out and full over Nyka. It shone down hard, illuminating the edges of shadow in Leth‘s radiance. The winds were still and there was an odd calm to the city as Loken soared above it on the back of a Wind Eagle. It was his first time riding on such a magnificent creature and he clung to it with a deathly grip to avoid any chance of falling. His decision to leave the city of Rhysol had been decided on a very similar night after he looked up to the night skies and felt stagnated. The city of Rhysol had become monotonous to him. And so he left to satisfy his wanderlust. The Wind Eagle who flew him to Nyka landed upon the eastern edge of the city, taking perches on the city docks.

It was the kind of night people found a false safety in. The kind of night men like Loken thrived in. He was no man of falsehoods or darkness, but rather he was a man of stillness and calm. He loved to witness the happenings of shadowy figures. It was a hobby of sorts that he grew quite fond of in Ravok. He even severed as a guard to a few men who needed protection in the night. After dismounting from the eagle, he turned his attention to his horse who seemed noticeably happy to finally be on solid land. A smile tugged at his lips when he stroked a hand down the creatures muzzle. "It is a strange age indeed when horses fly." He thanked the Eagle rider for the free ride, quickly saying a small thanks to her before the Eagle took to the skies.

The distance between docks and the city entrance was not very long, yet due to the late hour of his arrival his every move had been watched by seven monks of Laat patrolling the docks. A guzzled old monk with one milky blind eye blocked his path. From the looks of things, the monk had been through far to many harsh nights. "Who are you and why are you here?" Several other monks circled him, ready for a fight. Loken waited, his right hand lifting in a sign of peace; his left hand holding the reins of his horse.

Loken wore clothing reminiscent of an Ano Cultists all black attire. The only extravagant pieces of equipment he wore consisted of his black leather armor. And tiger hook sword which hung from its harness on his back. He wasn't sure why, but they seemed more like a band of robed thugs who wanted to rob him rather than guards.

"My name is Loken and I have arrived from Ravok. I am here to work and seek the safety of your city. "

The monks scoffed at his answer. It caused him to raise a brow in response. There was clearly some type of joke or some piece of information he was missing to understand their odd reactions. However, before he could think deeper on the matter. The monks moved out of his way.

"Welcome to Nyka, and have nice night."

" And you as well."

He glanced over his shoulder for a moment when he entered the city. That was odd?

[Balderdash]

As they wandered off, Loken thought he saw something akin to a scaly tail swish beneath one of the monk's robes. The horse seemed to think this was out of the ordinary judging from how much it was shaking, though that very well could have just been the flight. Despite not being particularly far from Ravok, now that Loken had time to breathe the air that seemed charged with an unknown energy, walk the thin angular streets that spilled out like veins on a bodybuilder's forearm and take in the richly painted marble houses, he could reasonably come to the conclusion that compared to the city of lies, Nyka was indeed quite odd. Odder still was the fact that the city appeared to be completely deserted. There didn't seem to be a single soul outside as Loken stepped into a wide, tan-colored plaza and his horse's footsteps echoed for what felt like miles. Even Odder than all of these was when he passed a pile of bricks and tar and heard them whisper "Psst! My friend!" Looking back (and more importantly, closer) he saw that what was at first blush a bunch of bricks was in fact a thickly bearded and made up Benshira with one hell of a belly lying in a bunch of bricks. His shining white teeth glinted in the moonlight when he spoke, and his piercing blue eyes stared right at the Cultist. "You would not perhaps see a man with a tail, have you? I see like myself, you are a man of much risk-taking." Even as he said this, a humanoid shadow reared up on the roof directly behind the strange brick-man with a large, slowly wagging tail and softly glowing red eyes. Now, whether or not Loken caught sight of it was another story entirely.

[Loken]

Loken looked back over his shoulder to the gradually darkening street of Nyka as he wandered it. His mind could not quantify what he knew he had seen. And as a scion of Gnora, anything that defied logic was equal to blasphemy. And to remain sane, he brushed the thought of a man with a tail from his mind once turned around to continue on his journey.

Acquainting himself to Nyka had quickly become far more difficult then he originally thought it would be. He had been ready to blend into the overwhelming streams of information which a typical city night had to offer. However, what he experience was the antithesis to what he expected. He did not expect complete and utter silence. Had Nyka become the next Eloba?

This absence of life forced him to draw his tiger hook sword from its harness on his back. He did not know if he needed to protect himself with lethal force. Even his horse appeared to be unnerved by the eerie vibe which hung in the air. He tugged at the reins of his Eyktolian Desertbred, pulling the horse along when it tried to wander on its own.

When a voice called out to him, he pointed the bladed outer curve of his hook sword towards the pile of bricks. What the hai? was his first thought once he realized there was a Benshira laying in a random pile of bricks. Despite his complete lack of evidence, the Ano Cultist seemed to think that this city required his attention... because clearly things were out of balance in this portion of Mizahar.

Once the stranger mentioned a man with a tail, he knew 'A' plus 'B' did equal 'C'. This was the missing variable he needed for the world to make sense again. "Fear stifles ones thoughts and breeds inactions. Risk is apart of the world. I do not seek it without cause, but If it makes itself know I will not ignore it." He lowered his sword from the mans direction. "Your question is, strange. But I do believe I have seen a man with a tail.

Loken would not have noticed the strange creature on the roof behind the brick man if he didn't believe he was in danger. His eyes shifted constantly, never training on one thing for to long. This whole situation was grating on his nerves. If he wanted to feel this way, he would have spent the night in the Wildlands. His eyes instantly grew wide upon seeing it, and he held his sword up close to his body to defend himself. Puling the reins of his horse to guide the creature to stand behind him. "What is going on? Why is the city empty? And what is that? " His voice remained serious as he motioned the tip of his sword towards the red eyed thing.

[Balderdash]

"Oh-ho! I am much agreed." the Benshira chirped. "I too like to... Seize the oyster, I think you say in this tongue?" He frowned in thought for a moment before beaming back at Loken upon hearing his confirmation, though his face quickly blanched in fear when he gestured to the silhouette. His quickly shutting his eyes and resuming imitating rubble would have left the Ano Cultist without any explanations, if the creature hadn't decided to leap down to the street and answer Loken's last question. It was a little taller than Loken, with scaly green skin, a sharply muscled humanoid torso and thighs, hooves and a head that looked like a cross between a horse and a crocodile. Its eyes were buggy and shone with a sinister light. It cocked its head briefly at Loken, then appeared to turn inside out. A tick later... Loken was grinning back at Loken. Admittedly with a powerful looking tail and no weapons, but other than that the likeness was quite uncanny. Its shrill voice when it cried "Surprise, motherpetcher!" and promptly launched itself at his throat was also a notable difference.

[Loken]

As the creature was in the process of dropping down from the roof, a stubborn resilience was what kept Loken standing and eventually caused him of release his horse. Given the circumstances, he knew his horse would fair far better on its own. The horse carried nearly every piece of Loken's worldly possessions within the saddle bags it wore, but Loken didn't care. "We've been together for years, Horse. And yet I still haven't named you... Niether of us can die until the day I finally do." The Horse neighed in panic before taking off in a gallop which ended a short distance away within the plaza.

After watching the creature turn inside out, his heart began to race harder. "What are..." His train of thought paused once he found himself looking upon an imitation himself. Loken's remained stoic, his sword raised high in his right hand. He paused just long enough to ascertain the creatures distance from him once it lunged at him. He waited as it closed the distance, he swung his sword in a quick horizontal hacking-slash, aiming the bladed outer portion of the hook at the creatures head.

[Balderdash]

The cultist felt a slight jar shoot up the bones in his arm as his blade skimmed across the creature's scalp like a stone across a particularly fleshy lake, gashing hair and skin off and staining the hook a dark blue as the shapeshifter ducked its head in a failed attempt to avoid the weapon. The creature slammed into Loken, knocking him off his feet like a ragdoll and quickly falling on top of him, showering his face with flecks of cold blood. Despite being the same size and build, the doppelganger appeared to be both much heavier and much stronger than the original. Not-Loken pushed its torso up as if it were a maiden laying beside a beached sailor and stared at its opposite number in shock. "You maimed me." it said in a hurt voice before adding seriously "and now I must kill you." As it winded its fist back to punch Loken across the jaw, the Ano cultist may have noticed the camoflauged Benshira quietly snaking his fingers around a brick and sitting up. What he chose to do with that information was up to him. What was perhaps more pressing was the fact that if he didn't mount some sort of defence, the creature's next move after slugging him in his handsome mug would be wrapping its fingers around his throat and squeezing.

[Loken]

Loken felt the air race out of his lungs just as his body hit the ground. The rush of battle coursing through his veins had figuratively dampened the pain after having drawn first blood. The false display of surprise the creature feigned while mimicking his own face unnerved him to his core. Its promise of violence acted as the catalyst which instinctively activated his gnosis of severing. The will of Gnora cleared the fog of war from his mind as he found solace in the midst of combat. Loken’s eyes immediately began to search the creatures body the best place to cause damage.

His eyes only glanced towards the ‘Brick-Benshira’ for a moment, but it was enough time to realize what the man was planning to do. His dead eyes, devoid of emotion, returned to the creature. His right hand tightened around the hilt of his hook sword to draw it horizontally across his body, then lashed out with it with a punch. Loken aimed to try and stab the crescent blade of the hook swords guard into the Non-Loken’s abdomen. He held his left arm close to his head like a defending boxer, planning the use the altered dense bones within his left forearm to protect him or strike out.

[Balderdash]

Loken felt a jarring crunch akin to punching a loaf of bread, followed by the sensation of something cool and viscous trickling between his fingers and leaving sticky clinging to his skin. His doppelganger's eyes widened in rage and it let loose with a flurry of punches, both to his arm and to the sides and top of his head, leaving ringing points of pain where its fists connected. If he cared to risk injury to his eyes to look, Loken would notice that the previously hidden Benshira had risen to his feet and raised the brick with bug-eyes. A tick later Loken heard a wet crack! and felt his face spattered by something moist and spongey that turned out to be dark blue brain matter. The reptilian beast slumped over onto him, tongue lolling out and drooling on his collar, eyes half-lidded and vacant, staring into nothing. The Benshira meanwhile dropped the bloody brick with a clatter and got to scooping the rest of the brain into a jar with his hands and a wide grin on his face. "I thank you for your bravery, friend!" he said amicably as he finished his harvest and sealed the jar. "If it were not for you and your distracting, job would be much harder! The brains of the face-eater is worth twice its weight in gold, you know! Well, when processed." he added casually. If Loken hadn't already crawled out from beneath the cadaver, the Benshira would kick it off him. Either way, he would offer him his hand. "Allow me to introduce each other. I am Azim!" he beamed, "And you are a very clever fellow! I like you. I like your swords. You and your swords come visit me in morning, yes? Now you go to Hostel, they make you safe. Tomorrow, you go to me, I maybe make you rich, eh? Come!" Azim said with an authoritarian snap of his fingers and a quick beckoning gesture, "I show you!" Apparently, Loken just made someone a great deal of money and was now being taken to what was presumably an inn. So far so good, considering he'd only been in Nyka for a bell tops.

[Loken]

As the monster assaulted him with punches, he kept pressing the crescent blade of his swords guard forward into the monster's abdomen. Twisting, raking, and churning the blade deeper into its body to disembowel it. Loken kept his left arm up protect his face, the focus in his eyes did not show surrender, nor was his arm raised to be something to cower behind. He laid in wait using his left forearm to protect his face, holding it inches above his nose in a way that he could glance beyond it to see where the creature aimed to strike. He shifted his arm to take the brunt of the monsters fists to protect vital areas like his eyes, nose, or neck when he saw a fist fall.

Loken grimaced slightly as he felt the dull sting of a fist bashed against his head, but didn't stop defending. When the creatures was finally slain, he watched as the man harvested the Face-Eater's brain. "Face-Eater? Given what I have just experienced, the name seem appropriate." He spoke with a chivalrous tongue, but caution still dwelt in his tone.

As the Benshira kicked the monster from atop him, he pressed his sword's guard deeper into the monsters belly to aid in tossing the cadaver aside. Loken took the Benshira's hand to stand up. His eyes glancing down to the blue blood stained across his body and face, quickly lifting the back of his sleeve to wipe some of it from getting into his eyes.

"It was my prerogative to see that creature dealt with, Azim. Since you made the killing blow, you are welcome to my help should you need it in the future. My name is Loken." He gestured towards the creatures bashed in skull. "I am supremely curious about how and why you plan to 'process' its brain. So you can expect me to visit you in the morning. Just tell me where to find you... or should I look for piles of rubble around the city?" He quirked a brow before turning to go collect his horse.

"Calm yourself, Beast." He held his hands up as he walked calmly towards the bucking horse. He reached out to run a hand down its muzzle, gently directing it to look into his own eyes. Their gazes locked so it knew that its owner was there and the danger had passed. It was at that point when his divine connection with Gnora faded. The severing from pain dwindling away as he began to feel the full pain from the strikes against his head and arm. A hardy grunt sounded from the cultist as he gripped the reins of his horse, pulling it along as he followed after Azim; he stopped only for a long moment to cast his gaze back to the slain monster.

He let of the reins to return to the face-eater, and with his hook sword in hand used the dagger like tip of its hilt to gouge out several of its teeth to keep as mementos. Placing them into the pouch on his belt that held his Shuriken before following retrieving his horse again and following Azim.

[fin]

Continues here...

[Elysium]

Hello Loken. I have a brief concern that needs to be addressed before this can be graded..

You have paid living expenses for Spring 516 at the squalor level during your stay in Nyka. I do not believe this is appropriate within the theme of the city as it indicates homelessness. Please amend this to poor living or higher.

Thank you!

Elysium

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