Magic and Mayhem

Trickery

Ayden was suddenly awoken as a black burlap sack was forced over his head, muffling his yells of protest. He was rushed out of the tent and in a direction, he could not decipher, and pushed up onto a cart. “What’s going on?” he heard to his right. “I don’t know, man, I was asleep!” another voice, this time to his left, whispered.

“Everyone be quiet!” Ayden recognized Nikodemus’s voice, and everyone hushed. “You want to be here? You must prove yourselves to us. We have a…fun mission planned.” He announced, a lilt of humor tingeing his voice. “You want to stay in our camp, here’s your first task; we’re going to the Capital Headquarters near Olkmont, where all the big wigs stay when they come for the Autumn Festival. There is a meeting planned there for a week from today; they are meeting with Paris to discuss his always epic finale to the festival. There is going to be a lot of publicity, and as such we are going to make sure there is something for them to talk about. All of you are going to be the reason there’s a bit of an embarrassment for everyone involved, do you understand?” Silence over the riders in the back of the cart. “Excellent.” Nik chuckled, urging the cart forward.

They traveled for what seemed like hours but could have been minutes as they had no way to judge how far they were traveling. Finally, the cart lurched to a halt, and the passengers were ushered out, their head coverings removed. The building in front of them resembled the buildings of the Council Capital in the center of Ceokia; grand, made of glass, eccentric. Nikodemus handed each of them a variety of different objects, paint, streamers, confetti. Ayden looked between the objects in his hands, Nikodemus, and the others who traveled with him. Only two had spoken, but there was a third; a female who Ayden noticed was also a vampire. “If anyone has any objections to this, leave now. You do not know where our camp is, and there is no way you could ever find us. Anyone want to take me up on that?” They all stood, staring at one another, in silence for several minutes. “Great!” Nik smiled. “Let’s get to work, then.” He announced joyfully.

As the others began vandalizing the sides of the building, Nikodemus took it upon himself to paint, in the largest print he could manage and the most obnoxious color he could find ‘you can’t control love’ over the large, glass doors. By the time the first sun was barely rising behind the mountains in the distance, their masterpiece was done; it was every color imaginable, with confetti and streamers falling from every possible place, even some of the nearby trees sported streamers. “It’s beautiful!” Nik mock cried. “But we better skedaddle. Masks back on please recruits.” They all obliged after climbing back into the back of the cart.

Without allowing them any sleep, Nikodemus provided them with the practice weapons Cartias had whipped together for them and lead them to a makeshift practice arena in the center of the camp. They were paired off; Ayden with one of the men, and the female vampire with the other man. They were told to spar, and soon had quite the crowd surrounding them, watching their every move. All four of them were tired, that much was obvious, but none were willing to admit defeat against the other. It was midday by the time Nik dismissed them, telling them to get some food and some rest; there would be more to come in the next few hours.

The next week was much the same; Lenox would get Ayden in the morning, they would see more of the camp, and then they would go to the arena to practice combat. His fellow recruits were all clumsy, but getting better, with their respective weapons crafted by Cartias. A full week after their vandalization, Nikodemus interrupted their practice with a gleeful smile, waving a newspaper. “They’re calling it ‘the embarrassment of the year’! Just wait until they see what we have planned for the Autumn Festival. Keep up the good work, and you’re on your way to initiation,” he sauntered back to his tent, followed by Lenox, and for the first time, the recruits were alone.

One of the other male recruits spoke up. “Well, at least we did something instead of sitting in those damned tents all day,” he complained. “We might as well get to know each other,” the female vampire among them scoffed, and went back to sparing with the other male amongst them. The one who spoke rolled his eyes and turned to Ayden instead. “The names Milo, I’m a warlock from outside the Capital. I can already tell you’re a vampire, and I think I’ve heard Lenox call you Ayden?” The vampire nodded to his companion. “The old werewolf seems to like you more than any of the rest of us.” Ayden shrugged. “You’re not much for conversation, huh, Ayden?” The warlock questioned, to which Ayden responded by walking off towards the edge of the practice ring, which was at the center of camp, to drink from a cup of half cooled blood that another, older vampire was offering to him and the girl.

* *

The next morning, Lenox retrieved the recruits from their tents early. “It’s foggy, we want to make sure you can perform in any kind of weather situation we could encounter.” He explained as he walked the small group of four towards the training circle. “I’ll be right back, I have to go make sure Nikodemus is awake so that he can observe you,” Lenox explained before disappearing into the fog. Ayden and Milo paired off, as usual, as did the other two recruits, for sparing practice. After several minutes, a crowd started gathering around the training circle.

“This must be the end of our training! They wouldn’t be gathering around like this if we weren’t being initiated,” Milo said excitedly, lowering his practice sword. He started to wave at the onlookers, but they all had their arms crossed, and looks of disdain, distrust, and anger peppered the crowd. “Wait…why don’t they seem excited? Don’t they need help? Isn’t that why they’re training us?” As the final words crossed his lips, Nikodemus could be seen entering the training arena, his black broad sword over his shoulder. A wave of horrified realization washed over Milo’s face, and he raised his own sword in defense. A barely trained warlock with a practice sword was no match for the vampire who had been training for years with his custom sword. Before anyone could react, Nik swung his sword and relieved Milo of his head.

Shock fell over the recruits, but the crowd let out one unanimous cheer. “This is what the Council thinks will stop us!” Nikodemus yelled, holding up the now severed head by its hair. “They send spies in here, who think they can outsmart us! If anyone else dares cross my family, I swear here on this day that the same fate will befall them!” Another cheer from the crowd, and Ayden felt his stomach turn. “Do not cross the Rogues!” Nik boomed, his voice echoing and the crowd chanting with him. “Don’t cross us,” he growled menacingly to the remaining three recruits. Giving the now headless body a swift kick, he set off back towards his tent.

“Well…that was unexpected,” the female vampire among them mused thoughtfully. Ayden nodded in agreement, and the third recruit promptly threw up and then fainted. The female vampire rolled her eyes. “Look, we need to practice. I, for one, am not a spy and would like to prove my worth. You seem like a more trained sparring partner, anyway. Shall we?” Ayden shrugged, not wanting to seem too disturbed by what had just transpired. They continued their training, silently working harder and harder until all three suns were high in the sky.