Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"Yes, yes… I know. You want to peruse the markets before the tournament starts?"

"Yes! Oh, there are so many people in town I hear! Elves and beastmen as well! Come on! Let\'s go!"

Rena quickly donned the standard gear that made her look like a rough-and-tumble adventurer rather than the daughter of a noble and joined her friends on their trip to the marketplace.

Lyrah was not lying one bit about the sheer amount of people. Normally the markets were packed with people, but right now there were easily three times the amount of people. With the increased traffic there was also an increase in the amount of guards walking around on patrol.

For the first time in some time, Rena observed the presence of beastmen in the kingdom of Arcadios, before now, she had only really seen them in Lelvern many years ago. It seemed for every three or four humans present, there was an elf and a beastman as well. Thanks to the number of guards on patrol, it seemed the different races were getting along decently at least.

"Was there anything in particular you wanted to look for?" Rena asked her friend who was skipping down the path.

"Nothing in particular! I simply wanted to enjoy the sights. Oh, look there! What is that they are setting up?" Lyrah pointed to a group of elves that were wearing some sort of worker uniform. They all had belts around their waists that held all sorts of tools. And they appeared to be putting up some strange metallic post in the middle of the market.

Looking around, Rena saw that there were quite a number of these posts already standing around the market and several more being carried by more elves. "What are these things?"

They looked like street lamps, but they instead of a place for a candle or light crystal, there was a strange orb sitting atop them. Hearing Rena ask the question, one of the older-looking elves with the tool belt came up and answered. "These are projection towers."

"Projection towers?" she asked as the man also gave her a pamphlet.

"Yes, by order of our queen, we are installing these around the palace, temporarily as our donation to the running of this tournament. A magical device will transmit the sights and sounds of the tournament to these towers which will show them on magical displays in the air."

"So people not in the stadium will be able to see the tournament fights?!" Lyrah nearly screeched with excitement.

"Why yes young lady! You are correct. What a smart girl, here I have a caramel somewhere…" The older elf patted his pockets for a moment before handing the excitable girl a small, wrapped candy.

"What a sweet girl…" The man said with a smile as he returned to supervising the installation of more of those projection towers he had talked about.

"Rena, if I may have you do me a favor?" Lyrah asked, turning back to the redhead.

"What is it?"

"I have something I need to buy, however, it is a surprise, so I need you to wait here if you could?"

Rena smiled because announcing she was buying a surprise for her was antithetical to the idea of a surprise. Still, it tracked for Lyrah and all Rena could do was smile at her adorable friend. "Of course. I shall wait here for you."

"Thank you so much. Natali! Let\'s go."

"Is it the…"

"Nope! I\'m not telling you either, but you have to come since you\'re my bodyguard. I\'ll just make you wait outside the door."

Rena shook her head at her friends as they disappeared into the crowd. She continued to people-watch for a while. The different races interacting and moving about the markets reminded her even more of Lelvern.

"I should go back sometime." She whispered to herself. "I wonder how Miss Molly from Ironvein is doing now?"

While reminiscing she found herself distracted. She did not notice that someone was approaching her from behind before she suddenly felt a knife pressed against her throat and felt the hot breath of some person tickling her ear.

Someone in the crowd pointed at them and screamed causing people to begin to scatter in all directions. The man who had Rena held hostage was laughing maniacally and muttering something completely unintelligible, despite it being right in her ears.

Rena slowly started to reach for a weapon on her belt, thinking the man was too out of his mind to realize what she was doing, but unfortunately, he was grounded enough to notice and pressed the knife even tighter.

"Don\'t move girl, or you will be ascending to the realm of the gods!" somehow his inane chatter became clear enough to issue that threat.

Rena relaxed her hands and swallowed, thinking of any possible ways out of this. Several guards surrounded them and pointed their swords at them both. "Let the girl go and you might get out of this alive you cretin!"

"Haha! Alive? Dead? It doesn\'t matter… the throne lies empty you knaves! Nothing matters until the seat is filled!" the man shouted.

"Gods, it\'s another one of them…" one of the guards shouted out. .net

"Gods cannot help you! They are powerless! When have the gods done anything? Nothing, they occupy a place never meant for them and pretend to possess a power beyond their understanding. No.. no, no, no, no, no!

There are no gods! You lie!"

Rena gulped subconsciously. Every second she stayed here, she could tell the man was getting more agitated. He was more lucid than he was a moment ago, but it was fading quickly.

The dagger pressed even tighter against her neck and a little bit of blood began to trickle over its edge. Rena looked to the sky and breathed trying to calm herself. When she glanced back down at the guards, right in front of her face was a strange being.

Their head was covered in a hood and they wore a plain, black facemask devoid of any features. She tried to look into the eye slits to discern anything more, but she seemed unable to focus on it and started suffering a headache.

Her captor began to say something, but the masked figure seemed to blur even more and suddenly the sensation of metal against her throat vanished. She looked behind her and found that the criminal was lying several feet behind them and his dagger was shattered to pieces, only the hilt remaining intact.

Rena slowly turned back to the figure. "Thank you… wait, what?"

Before she could thank the person, they had already turned around and began walking away. One of the guards tried to stop him for an explanation, but the figure simply said, "If you need me, ask for Titan at the Eroan embassy."

That shut the guard up for a moment. As the figure walked away, a female beastman with blond hair and wolf-like ears bounded out of the crowd before latching onto the figure\'s arm. Rena watched in confusion as the figure shoved the girl off before they disappeared into the crowd of people.

Lyrah came rushing towards her and jumped into her arms. "Rena! By the gods are you okay?" Lyrah\'s face was soaked in tears.

Natali also rushed forward and had a look of genuine concern in her eyes as well. "Rena?" she whispered.

"I\'m fine. Thanks to that person from Eroa… he said his name was… Titan?"