The voice was deep and Vivian felt chills run down her spine as she raised her hands up in surrender. So much effort — only for death to embrace her in the darkest corner of the world.
It made sense, Vivian thought, no one escaped the Demiseland alive. It owned its name for a reason. Even if finally being on the ground felt comfortable, Vivian had better things to do. Like: avenge her father's untimely death, or well, murder.
"I bring no harm— I, um, I just want to cross Demiseland and reach Veronia. I, I am lost. My mother wanted to sell me. I ran away. I am nobody of concern," Vivian whispered as she felt the cold presence crouch to her height and lean into the side of her face.
"I thank you for making an opening for us," he said, voice deep yet velvety enough to get Vivian's heart racing despite the fear crawling up her limbs. Her eyes momentarily flickered to meet his, but all she caught was a deep gaze and utter handsomeness before she looked back on the ground.
He raised a hand and suddenly men appeared out of nowhere and started rolling inside the once protected land.
With an open mouth, Vivian stared as armed men stood up on the other side, stealthily jogging into positions. "What the fuck have I done...?" Vivian mumbled as she witnessed a woman climb a tree with the expertise of a monkey and locked target on something distant.
"You don't need to know," the man said, "If you're smart enough to disable their defences then you'll be smart enough to know that there's a tunnel on the west-end, inside this territory. If you can find it, you will be able to land into the waters of Veronia."
Woah, Vivian jerked her head back, she did not know that. Her father's journals never mentioned it. But, before she could utter a word of gratitude to him, he rolled inside the territory and disappeared into the night like the rest of his men.
Goosebumps rose all over Vivian's body as the thought occured to her: how long had they been in the shadows, following her?They could have killed her at any moment. Ifshe hadn't witnessed the intrusion, she would have never guessed that anyone entered the territory. It looked perfectly, normally, haunting, still and as silent as it could be with insects chirping in every corner.
Vivian gulped and crawled under the lasers and without waiting, she headed westward. She had observed a pattern of the moss grown on trees for as far as she had walked. Vivian knew that moss grew northward in the northern hemisphere, against direct sunlight and in areas which were inherently more moist. Knowing one direction was enough to guess the rest accurately.
With blind frenzy, Vivian ran as gun shots suddenly echoed behind her. Shouts of "Eastern Parameters Breached, Eastern Parameters Breached," bellowed in lieu. She ran forward, trying to be as stealthy as possible, suddenly grateful to the denseness of the forest.
That was, until, her luck ran out and bullets started hitting a bit too close to her head. Her eyes widened in realisation when a bullet made a narrow escape from her skull and lodged itself in a tree-trunk. A sniper had their sights on her.
Well, fuck.
She could either crouch and crawl all the way to the west-end but that would leave her vulnerable to snakes, insects, twigs and sharp stones that could hurt her. Instead, Vivian sped up, running in ambiguous twirls without giving them thought.
After a minute or two, the shots stopped and Vivian deduced that the sniper must have been taken down. She slowered her pace to a jog and kept a look-out for the moss.
After an hour or so of gruelling navigation, Vivian spotted the red lasers still blinking brightly. She smiled to herself as she clutched her stomach and breathed in relief. "I've still got it," she rasped, hinting at the incapability of this turf's members at fixing her malware bug.
Vivian looked around and easily spotted the moss laden exit. It was often used, Vivian observed from the abnormally crushed grass and broken twigs around the area. She crouched in front of yet another tree and brushed off the moss and felt for a hairline seam. It was a bit harder to feel because the seam was circular and Vivian's hands were vertically feeling up the surface.
Though in a few minutes, Vivian had the circular disk pried open and honest to his word, there was a tunnel in front of her. Vivian was about to head in head-first when she remembered the stranger's words, "...the waters of Veronia."
She knew the Vermilion Estate was atop Hill Clanvier and Demiseland was quite closely attached to it. If this turf's people had somehow dug a tunnel into the waters of Veronia, it would be a downhill crawl. So, Vivian crouched and entered foot-first into the tunnel. She made sure to cover the entryway behind her and after a good thirty minutes of suffocating butt-shuffling on flat ground and regretting the decision, she felt the gentle slope and let herself slide with gravity.
The morning sun basked the sparkling waters of Veronia and Vivian interrupted their tryst by rambunctiously landing into it, creating uninterrupted ripples as she momentarily drowned. Though, she was quick to flap her hands and swim up to the surface. The cold water felt like heaven against her burning, sweaty, murky, skin and Vivian took her sweet time in swimming to the shore.
"I cannot believe my princess training actually came in handy," Vivian murmured as her mind reeled back to all the manner lectures and skill classes she had been tortured in for being the Crown Prince's fiancée.
The man who left her to die at her lowest.
Rage glazed her eyes as she crawled up the sandy shores of Veronia and sprawled herself on the beach. The morning sun was gentle on her and Vivian couldn't appreciate it more.
Her stomach grumbled for attention and Vivian sighed as she looked around. The beach was deserted if not for a couple sleeping on the sand, their heads and upper-torsos were laid on the man's coat and their lower halves were laid on the girl's scarf. They were cuddled together and Vivian felt almost bad interrupting their post-date morning.
"Ahem, excuse me, um, hi, good morning! You're both very romantic but I am in desperate need of help, please, can I have your phone for a moment? Really, that's all I need. I hope you rest well." Vivian grabbed the phone from the girl's hand and curtsied with graciousness. "Thank you so much, may the Emperor's favour always be one you," she smiled and walked a few steps back.
Vivan turned her back to them and took a moment to check the model and interface of the phone given to her. Then, she inserted her pendrive into the phone and accessed her files. In one of the many .txt files, there was a number which she typed and dialed.
The call went through and the receiver picked up on the fourth ring.
"Amaris Veronia? This is Lady Vermilion, I'm calling for the favour you owed Lord Vermilion. Meet me at the Veronian beach, as soon as possible," she ordered and hung up. Vivian deleted all traces of her presence in the phone and returned it back to its owner.
"Thank you, you may continue," she said and then sat in between them, just a few steps back, but still very much in the centre. It took the couple a mere minute to get up and walk away.
Vivian scoffed and fell back onto the beach. Soon, sleep embraced her and memories from her childhood littered her vision. The kind face of her father greeted her, his shining warm body hugged her and his mouth seemed to be moving but Vivian couldn't hear or comprehend what he wanted to say.
In her dream, Vivian called out his name, over and over, to make him repeat his words so she would understand but he seemed to be fading away, swiftly. She ran after him, hoping to grab at the fading shimmer when the sensation of falling off a cliff shook her mind. Vivian jerked awake and found herself in a lavish room, owner to four pairs of eyes staring down on her.