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Races
The world of Lianite consists of five main races all with different essence sensitivities: Humans with 100℅, Demons and Beasts with 90℅, Elves with 75℅ and Angels with 0,5℅. Only two races (which are Elves and Angels) are able to use another power system called Magic.
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Tons of rumors had started circulating among the nobles by now. Where has the older lady of Enidia gone? She was not showing up to any tea parties or social events for a while now. Most minor illnesses would have vanished by now. It either had to be somelife threatening illness or there was something else they were not being told about. The letters addressed to the lady were piling up inside the manor of Enidia but she was not a returning any letters back. All of these rumors caused Zenith significant problems as the Duchess was waiting for the rumors to die out before announcing Evelyn as her new heir. It was highly unlikely to vanish this easily though, this was a topic that could possibly go on for years if not brought into light as soon as possible. And as one could guess, the nobles liked to gossip. They had no meaningful past time activities so what they collectively chose to do was gather up from time to time to talk badly behind other people's backs. And Cyeen was no expection, she'd pay hundreds of golds to see a drama in between nobles. She had always spread fake rumors at the tea parties she attended with the intention of spicing up the interactions between other dukedoms. All that girl wanted was to see fights break out among people. But now all she wanted right now was to find some food.
She had been walking for half a day now, the mostly raw steak she ate yesterday was not helping her much about the hunger situation. In fact it was making her stomach scream out for help. She couldn't guess she would feel this miserable just from eating bad meals being hungry. The feeling of freedom she had yesterday was mostly gone by now. While her stomach was growling as if to mock her, she tripped on a small rock rendering her parallel to the ground. She got back up on her butt and smacked the ground repeatedly with the bottom of her fist. She had small tears of frustration forming on her eyes. Why was it this hard? She was merely going on an adventure and adventures didn't have major inconveniences like these. She wanted her money back for all the fake adventure books she had read. Maybe it was because she was missing party members that these were happening. Yes, yes that was it! It wasn't because she was dogshit at surviving out in the wild but it was because of the lack of manpower. She proudly broadened her shoulders before getting up from the ground and getting back to road she was following right before falling down. A little bit of dirt wouldn't matter when she had gathered a party now would it!
The noble ladies were getting a bit anxious at their seats now. Their invite had gotten accepted by Duchess Zenith instead of her daughter Cyeen. The Duchess elegantly sipped the tea she was offered before glaring into the eyes of each lady. She put down her tea cup onto the table directly before speaking.
"Would you young ladies please refrain from sending my daughter any more invites? She needs any rest she can get and I can't have you making her worry over missing tea parties."
Alysion spoke up,
"We were just trying to be mindful of Cyeen and cheer her up your grace. I can say with confidence that we had no ill intentions."
Zenith looked her up and down. She had been that age before too, her lies fell weak.
"And I am requesting you stop bothering her. Heed my words while I'm still only requesting, young lady Alysion."
With those words she got up from her seat and slowly walked towards her carriage. Cyeen, that brat was causing her problems even while she was absent. According to what a guard found yesterday it was likely that Cyeen had been injured or worse passed away. Either way that would cause her big headaches. Did this girl even know when to stop pouting like a child and behave like an adult? Zenith walked towards her carriage while in deep thought. It was not about Cyeen's wellfare though, she was thinking of how she'd pull off the change in heirship. She thought that Evelyn was better at everything Cyeen could do. Zenith had realized that from a young age all Cyeen wanted to do was cause commotions and fight others. She made her take the bare minimum of fighting lessons for this exact reason. She didn't want her declaring war on others the moment she got her hands on Enidia. Even now, the territory wasn't doing that good, it would be razed to the ground if it was handed to her. The food suppliers have been getting attacked by bandits in the nearby forests for a while and the fishers near the coasts have decreased a lot because of the season. The sea didn't contain that many fish to catch on spring in Enidia so it struggled mostly on springs but it was worse this year around. She had assigned guards on nearby trade routes for bandit control and to maybe find her missing daughter. She stared out of the carriage and took a good look at the surrounding place. She would be back at Enidia in about six hours.
Still walking she was, it had been a while now. Cyeen looked at the trees nearby. They all looked the same. Couldn't trees be planted with better indications? She sighed at the commoners for not planing out the forest properly beforehand. They all looked planted randomly. She went up to one of the trees to carve a 'C' so she could find her way back home if she ever got lost. Cyeen had also been practicing new things on her walk. Since she hadn't even reached the first stage of using her essence, control, she had to throw or activate her skills by touching them. But at least using her knives would be easier now as she learned how to tie them to her strings allowing a little bit more of a ranged option. "Hopefully I don't have to use it" she thought to herself. Even though that technic wouldn't help her much currently, it would lay down the foundation for understanding how to combine her moves. Her stomach growled, still hungry, anything would suffice now. She went to carve another 'C' onto a nearby tree before seeing an already carved 'C' on it. Her face sunk even further, she had just done a full circle. She kicked the tree in anger. With a final growl from her stomach she decided on abandoning her idea of moving inside the forest.
Cyeen took in her surroundings. She had finally left the forest and found a dirt path. It was most likely leading to a nearby village. Just what Cyeen was searching for. She took a step, and another, and another, and another... Still a dirt path, with trees on each side.
"God damn it!" She shouted, trying to display her unsatisfaction to the entire forest. Who the hell made these villages, a god damn toddler? Why were they so scarce? She should have passed a dozen of them by now! She raised her right hand up to her mouth and starting biting the nail of her index finger. This was a habit she just couldn't get over. It always happened whenever she was stressed. Along with it most likely being something childhood related she just couldn't stop herself upon realizing that she was doing it. It somehow brought her comfort. She kept walking with her fingernail in between her teeth. After another thirty minutes had passed walking she saw two silhouettes in the distance. That was the first sign of human life she had seen in days. She lowered her hand with some blood oozing out of her index finger. She wanted to run but her legs didn't have the same desire as her. She slowly walked towards the two shadowy silhouettes. Their backs were turned against Cyeen and it looked like they were in the middle of a heated argument. Cyeen opened her mouth, her throat felt dry but she tried ignoring the slight pain it was causing her.
"Hello, would you mind informing me about the whereabouts of the closest village?"
The first silhouette turned around, it was a green haired woman, there were tons of scars on her face, possibly in her thirties and most importantly, she didn't look friendly at all. She opened her mouth, speaking in a monotone tone.
"Just follow this path for about a hour and you'll-"
Her words were interrupted by the second person stepping on her toe. This time it was a short guy with black hair, he looked about eight centimeters shorter than the girl and again, looked like he was in his thirties. He got up on his toes to whisper something into the ear of the woman.
"Are you stupid? Look at what this girl is wearing. She must be a noble or something." He made the woman take a look at Cyeen. "Don't you get it? She must be loaded. Which means free money."
The woman grinned after his words. Cyeen had realized by now that, that was no friendly conversation they were having. She took two steps back, summoned a purple knife in each hand and tried remembering the fighting stances she was taught. The voice she thought left her alone whispered in her ear once again,
Fight.