The International
11-04-09, 12:00 AM
“My word! ‘Tis as if his whole being has changed. This is no illusionary magic. Touch his person.” Vespasian felt pressure on his cheek prompting him to turn his head in rejection. He could only assume he was in one of the Citadel’s recovery rooms, and the men speaking were the resident monks. Before the young spy fell he was in deep pain due to injuries in his last battle with a pink headed archer. Now, as he was roused back to consciousness he felt no such pain, but he didn’t want to rise. He felt like he often did on Saturday mornings at sea with his family, when he would happily allow the hours to pass as he slept in.
“Ouvrez vos yeux, cher frère. Je veux voir votre sourire.” A familiar voice massaged his ear in a broken code language of the Villeneuve family. His eyes cracked open and he turned his head towards the voice. It was that of his sister, Ludivine Villeneuve. She spoke in Common now, it was only necessary to hide the fact that they were siblings, but since the monks already witnessed Vespasian transform (and were about to witness Ludivine transform as well) there was no point in trying to hide it. “It worked. In order to heal combatants of fatal wounds in a timely manor, the monks must put them in a deep sleep.”
Deep sleep was a critical ingredient in the Villeneuves’ ability to transform. When Vespasian chose to become a covert operative, his mother presented him with a sketchbook with three of her drawings in it. One was of an Aleraran Elf of olive complexion, dark eyes, and black hair. The other was of a Raiaeran Elf of pale complexion, bright blue eyes, and golden hair. The third was a drawing of him. Before falling asleep Vespasian could look upon one of these drawings, and when he woke he will have transformed into that respective race, but he needed to enter a state of deep sleep at least once for it to happen. Such a thing usually took two to six hours, but the Citadel monks sedated, healed, and awoke their combatants in a much shorter time, which meant his transformation took a much shorter time. Vespasian was now an Aleraran Elf.
Vespasian finally turned to look at his sister. “Was this your first time like me?”
“Yes.” She said as they lay side by side in adjacent recovery beds. She kept a completely straight face as she spoke in jest. “Before today we were Citadel virgins.”
Instead of laughing Vespasian kept the joke going, for the monks scurrying about them found humor in the statement. “Was yours as awkward as mine?”
“Much more awkward. There were six of us.” Ludivine said, with a straight face still. The statement warranted an outburst of laughter from the monks working around the two of them. She looked at Vespasian and sent him a scowl. When that signature scowl, where Ludivine poked her chin up, scrunched the left side of her mouth, and raised one eyebrow, was sent to anyone else it was almost like a death sentence. But for her baby brother it was a silent declaration of love, and it comforted him. He wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.
Ludivine had a deceptively innocent image to her name. Even though she was two years older than Vespasian, she looked much younger than him. Her face was a smooth crème with perfectly placed beauty marks, her nose was like a button fit for an infant, and her orchard hair fell straight to her lithe frame like flowing silk. Her eyes were the only indication, if any, of her true nature. The jade irises were dark hooks for one’s soul, and no one could deny their predatory gaze. Vespasian didn’t believe in good and evil as such a belief was counterproductive in his profession, but if he did, there would be no one capable of greater evil than Ludivine. She’d killed and used sex as a weapon of espionage more than the other Villeneuve family members combined, and their parents had a twenty year head start. For those she kept alive, she would destroy their livelihood until they wish she had killed them. Some of them killed themselves. If she had a high profile assignment she would almost always leave scandal befitting a stage tragedy in her wake. And she did this all with pleasure. The only thing she liked more was doing it all on her favorite family member’s behalf. However, Vespasian decided to keep her tame for this mission.
The two siblings lying mortally wounded here in the Citadel recovery room was no accident. This was all a part of an elaborate operation in which Vespasian and Ludivine teamed up to perform. A pack of Rangers from the Concordia forest had sent a proposal of alliance directly to the Lady of Akashima. Since the founding of the Coronian Empire, the Ranger Resistance movement had sent several proposals to the semi independent kingdom, but this one seemed to be important enough for the new Empire to intercept. Perhaps it made an offer the Viceroy’s thought the Lady couldn’t refuse, so they intercepted the message in Radasanth. Vespasian and Ludivine were assigned to retrieve the message and make sure it was sent to Akashima by way of secret envoy. The two did so with ease, but for amusement they decided to frame the Empire goons who intercepted the message by planting evidence of treason and luring them into a trap at the Citadel. Once there the local city guard would apprehend them, but it was procedure to apprehend all parties involved, so the Villeneuve siblings hid in separate arenas and took to battle, which they did.
Now they were together again, but the city guard was still traversing the halls looking for them so they resorted to another measure. They would use the Villeneuve Transformation, enter one more battle, then leave as Dark Elves while the city guard continued their search for two Humans who called each other by several different names.
“I’ll see you at the rendezvous point.” Ludivine said as she pulled a small sketchbook out of her pouch. She turned several pages aside until she came across the image of an Aleraran Elf. She glanced at it, closed her eyes, and held it to her chest. “Go ahead of me. I’ll be fine.”
Vespasian stood up and watched as a stab wound in Ludivine’s lower abdomen became nothing more than a crimson scab. It was as if days were condensed into seconds as the clotted blood cells and dead skin hardened, and the monks only need peel it away like a banana. All the while her crème skin slowly changed hue to an ashen black. The transformation was beginning. One of the monks escorted Vespasian to his next arena.
A moment of awkward silence passed before the monk finally spoke up. “I have seen some of the strongest warriors scream in pain because of a wound similar to that young woman’s. Yet she seemed to feel nothing but glee. You must have noticed this? No faces of pain, no jumbled words.”
Vespasian nodded his head and flipped his long black hair. “I noticed as much.”
“What kind of love do the two of you possess? ‘Tis not romantic. I would have sensed as much.”
The two of them stopped in front of a dark archway, and Vespasian stared away in contemplation. He didn’t want to say that it was kindred love, love of one’s family, because that would be letting off too much information. He didn’t know what to tell the monk. “I don’t know what to tell you, honestly.”
The young spy walked under the dark archway and his senses tuned in to the arena one at a time. His body told him that the air here was cooler than that of the Citadel walls, which were made humid by the sweat, blood, and the breath of thousands of warriors by the day. His boots were no longer making contact with smooth marble, but with hollow wood. A breeze brought his attention to his white shirt and black pant. He hadn’t noticed that they too were once again in tact. The familiar chorus of busy city life came with an even more familiar accompaniment of ocean waves, and his sight confirmed that he was in a busy harbor.
An arena with spectators again? As a spy, Vespasian knew it wasn’t good to be seen this much. These people paid little attention to him for now, but once the fight started he would be the star of the show. At the moment all he could do was wait at the end of the pier where an open crate of pears sat and teased his nose. He picked one up and bit into it, allowing its juices to squeeze out and drip down his chin. Looking across to another pier Vespasian noticed a woman almost mirroring his actions, only with what looked to be an apple. He attempted to make eye contact by waving calmly.
Translations
Ludivine: Open your eyes, dear brother. I want to see your smile.”
“Ouvrez vos yeux, cher frère. Je veux voir votre sourire.” A familiar voice massaged his ear in a broken code language of the Villeneuve family. His eyes cracked open and he turned his head towards the voice. It was that of his sister, Ludivine Villeneuve. She spoke in Common now, it was only necessary to hide the fact that they were siblings, but since the monks already witnessed Vespasian transform (and were about to witness Ludivine transform as well) there was no point in trying to hide it. “It worked. In order to heal combatants of fatal wounds in a timely manor, the monks must put them in a deep sleep.”
Deep sleep was a critical ingredient in the Villeneuves’ ability to transform. When Vespasian chose to become a covert operative, his mother presented him with a sketchbook with three of her drawings in it. One was of an Aleraran Elf of olive complexion, dark eyes, and black hair. The other was of a Raiaeran Elf of pale complexion, bright blue eyes, and golden hair. The third was a drawing of him. Before falling asleep Vespasian could look upon one of these drawings, and when he woke he will have transformed into that respective race, but he needed to enter a state of deep sleep at least once for it to happen. Such a thing usually took two to six hours, but the Citadel monks sedated, healed, and awoke their combatants in a much shorter time, which meant his transformation took a much shorter time. Vespasian was now an Aleraran Elf.
Vespasian finally turned to look at his sister. “Was this your first time like me?”
“Yes.” She said as they lay side by side in adjacent recovery beds. She kept a completely straight face as she spoke in jest. “Before today we were Citadel virgins.”
Instead of laughing Vespasian kept the joke going, for the monks scurrying about them found humor in the statement. “Was yours as awkward as mine?”
“Much more awkward. There were six of us.” Ludivine said, with a straight face still. The statement warranted an outburst of laughter from the monks working around the two of them. She looked at Vespasian and sent him a scowl. When that signature scowl, where Ludivine poked her chin up, scrunched the left side of her mouth, and raised one eyebrow, was sent to anyone else it was almost like a death sentence. But for her baby brother it was a silent declaration of love, and it comforted him. He wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.
Ludivine had a deceptively innocent image to her name. Even though she was two years older than Vespasian, she looked much younger than him. Her face was a smooth crème with perfectly placed beauty marks, her nose was like a button fit for an infant, and her orchard hair fell straight to her lithe frame like flowing silk. Her eyes were the only indication, if any, of her true nature. The jade irises were dark hooks for one’s soul, and no one could deny their predatory gaze. Vespasian didn’t believe in good and evil as such a belief was counterproductive in his profession, but if he did, there would be no one capable of greater evil than Ludivine. She’d killed and used sex as a weapon of espionage more than the other Villeneuve family members combined, and their parents had a twenty year head start. For those she kept alive, she would destroy their livelihood until they wish she had killed them. Some of them killed themselves. If she had a high profile assignment she would almost always leave scandal befitting a stage tragedy in her wake. And she did this all with pleasure. The only thing she liked more was doing it all on her favorite family member’s behalf. However, Vespasian decided to keep her tame for this mission.
The two siblings lying mortally wounded here in the Citadel recovery room was no accident. This was all a part of an elaborate operation in which Vespasian and Ludivine teamed up to perform. A pack of Rangers from the Concordia forest had sent a proposal of alliance directly to the Lady of Akashima. Since the founding of the Coronian Empire, the Ranger Resistance movement had sent several proposals to the semi independent kingdom, but this one seemed to be important enough for the new Empire to intercept. Perhaps it made an offer the Viceroy’s thought the Lady couldn’t refuse, so they intercepted the message in Radasanth. Vespasian and Ludivine were assigned to retrieve the message and make sure it was sent to Akashima by way of secret envoy. The two did so with ease, but for amusement they decided to frame the Empire goons who intercepted the message by planting evidence of treason and luring them into a trap at the Citadel. Once there the local city guard would apprehend them, but it was procedure to apprehend all parties involved, so the Villeneuve siblings hid in separate arenas and took to battle, which they did.
Now they were together again, but the city guard was still traversing the halls looking for them so they resorted to another measure. They would use the Villeneuve Transformation, enter one more battle, then leave as Dark Elves while the city guard continued their search for two Humans who called each other by several different names.
“I’ll see you at the rendezvous point.” Ludivine said as she pulled a small sketchbook out of her pouch. She turned several pages aside until she came across the image of an Aleraran Elf. She glanced at it, closed her eyes, and held it to her chest. “Go ahead of me. I’ll be fine.”
Vespasian stood up and watched as a stab wound in Ludivine’s lower abdomen became nothing more than a crimson scab. It was as if days were condensed into seconds as the clotted blood cells and dead skin hardened, and the monks only need peel it away like a banana. All the while her crème skin slowly changed hue to an ashen black. The transformation was beginning. One of the monks escorted Vespasian to his next arena.
A moment of awkward silence passed before the monk finally spoke up. “I have seen some of the strongest warriors scream in pain because of a wound similar to that young woman’s. Yet she seemed to feel nothing but glee. You must have noticed this? No faces of pain, no jumbled words.”
Vespasian nodded his head and flipped his long black hair. “I noticed as much.”
“What kind of love do the two of you possess? ‘Tis not romantic. I would have sensed as much.”
The two of them stopped in front of a dark archway, and Vespasian stared away in contemplation. He didn’t want to say that it was kindred love, love of one’s family, because that would be letting off too much information. He didn’t know what to tell the monk. “I don’t know what to tell you, honestly.”
The young spy walked under the dark archway and his senses tuned in to the arena one at a time. His body told him that the air here was cooler than that of the Citadel walls, which were made humid by the sweat, blood, and the breath of thousands of warriors by the day. His boots were no longer making contact with smooth marble, but with hollow wood. A breeze brought his attention to his white shirt and black pant. He hadn’t noticed that they too were once again in tact. The familiar chorus of busy city life came with an even more familiar accompaniment of ocean waves, and his sight confirmed that he was in a busy harbor.
An arena with spectators again? As a spy, Vespasian knew it wasn’t good to be seen this much. These people paid little attention to him for now, but once the fight started he would be the star of the show. At the moment all he could do was wait at the end of the pier where an open crate of pears sat and teased his nose. He picked one up and bit into it, allowing its juices to squeeze out and drip down his chin. Looking across to another pier Vespasian noticed a woman almost mirroring his actions, only with what looked to be an apple. He attempted to make eye contact by waving calmly.
Translations
Ludivine: Open your eyes, dear brother. I want to see your smile.”