OOC: This thread is open by request. If interested, please PM me. Thanks!
Thaedes was a city she could get used to. It was much bigger than her last home, which was not much more than a lean too in the woods. She hadn't really preferred living in the wilderness, feeling lonely to be surrounded by so many trees and so little buildings.. and well, people. People always intrigued her, the way they spoke, how they spoke, what they spoke of, what they were doing, how they were doing it...
And the stories. She could listen to other people's conversations for hours. Their voices were a humbling thing, and though consequentially, the recently decimated city of Thaedes lacked in the human population, it still held an abundance of opportunities- or so she kept telling herself, night after night, into the silence.
It seemed not many squatters or scavengers dared to take refuge here, even with so many prime targets to steal from. It was the idea this place was cursed, or on some sort of a 'watch' from the Grand Duke, or his General, or whatever it was people did in the army with this war and had some sort of power. She wasn't familiar with how this all quite worked. She could only assume the Grand Duke was this enormous person who had a lot of money and had to be charismatic and loved by a lot of people to have so many fight in his name.
But this only added on to her naivety. Sure, she heard the right story about the Grand Duke, and other nobles and other war conquests, but because of just who she was...
Vels took the seed of knowledge and made her own tree of it. Had anyone actually heard her side of the history of Connlaoth or its politics or why the war was even happening, they'd probably lock her away- for her theories weren't exactly realistic, and her visions of Ansgar? Let's say she had never quite grasped who he was and what he did. She just knew you could pray to him and hope your wishes were granted.
It seemed people with money, in her opinion, had better luck with this, so every time she came upon money, she used it to 'wish' and 'pray' for things like she had seen others do. Though her wishes and prayers had never entirely came true, she had heard enough from others to know that 'faith takes time'.
It was that exact mantra she repeated to herself while wondering through the deserted city. She had been here several months and had already began to see a new population of people take homage here. She knew well enough who were the good and bad people, but it was the shades of gray that had her the most wary. She didn't like not knowing things (and there was still a lot she truly didn't know!), so when she climbed over the collapsed wall by the Eastern Gate and landed in what she had presumed to be an empty allyway, she was a bit startled when a pack of gruff looking men turned her way.
From their appearance she could only deduce they were either war veterans, or just your typical set of rough collared men she'd rather not stick around to learn more about. But before she could consider a means to escape, one of the men called out to her.
"Hey, girl, what do you think you're doing here?"
And though uncertain if they were a harmful bunch or not (as again, these were men she hadn't known nor had time to study), she found herself mute from hesitation, but when the man asked her again,
"What, you deaf or something, girl?"
She felt anger rise up from her belly as the words just came out, "I'm just walking through!"
And from such a haughty reply for something so minuscule, the men laughed.
"Girl, how long have you been here? You should know better than to walk the streets alone in a cursed city."
At such a claim, she squared off her shoulders and continued to glare, cheeks turning pink.
"I know how to handle myself! Do you? Cursed cities don't scare me!"
The men laughed again.
"Maybe you've got a point there. Curses don't have anything on thugs. Do you know what thugs are?" the man asked, giving a more devious grin as his men began to fan around him. Their shadows, though shallow, were deep and dark in collar.
Vels narrowed her eyes.
"I heard they're real ugly and mean."
At her reply, the men were still laughing.
"You got that right, though I think we're quite pretty, don't you agree?" the leader asked back to one of his men. "Perhaps we should teach this little street rat some manners." And as they began to approach, Vels could see the shine of metal knives and other blades slip out from their pockets. Not having much on her but the pole she had used to vault up onto the crumbling wall, she held it up infront of herself defensively.
"Stay back, I'm warning you."
"What? You aiming to do something with that stick of yours, little girl?"
And it was about this time she wished she had looked both ways before jumping from her perch on the wall. She had been careful with every decision and action she ever made up to this point- and now she had to wonder just how she'd get out of this mess. There were six men to one.
Odds hardly seemed in her favor.
However, six men fell to the floor, some with less teeth, and a few other with nice plump, black eyes. Though not all men had been taken out when Vels went about,s winging her long pole with blind violence, it was enough to get her hte break she needed. Without another thought, she sprinted down the alley away from those men and hoped to whatever Gods existed they didn't follow.
