The Lone Merchant

On an island far away from the comfort of this realm's Gods. A self proclaimed merchant, yet widely known thief, Máni admires the colours of space that paint the night sky. Every star twinkling with its own light, the full moon stands proudly in the centre of this portrait. It’s been night for months now, and the sun won’t touch this frozen land for many more to come.

Máni’s eyes follow a shooting star across the sky, with it a cold chill down his spine. He shivers in his navy blue snowsuit. The person beside him notices he’s distracted.

“Are you ready?” Máni’s client is nervous, shaking inside their snowsuit. It’s their first time standing over a ravine.

Máni brings his focus back to the reason he’s here. “Yes, let’s get started.”

“You have done this before?”

“I’ve broken into a few strongholds.” As Máni speaks he walks over to a small Mammoth, his trusted and only friend Poe.

Poe is attached to Máni’s sled, built to be a portable home and to be used to trade all his collected goods from.

He reaches into a bag on Poe and pulls out a stake and pike. “First time scaling a Ravine” Máni finds this humorous, it only makes his client more worried.

CRACK Máni hammers the stake into the side of the ice. He then connects his rope before jumping backwards down the ravine. He slows his descent with his pike.

The client looks down holding their rope tightly, they slowly crawl down the side.

When Máni reaches the bottom, he unhooks himself from the rope and examines the area. The bottom of the ravine follows a steady slope down, into a cave. The ice is polished as if it had been melted this way.

When the client eventually reaches the bottom, Máni has to help them unhook themself from the rope they’re entangled in. 

As the two head deeper into the cave, the ice sparkles with small red light, they only stop once they run into a door of stone. The stone is melted with the Ice, as if molded from it there is no place where stone begins and ice stops. In the centre of the doorframe is a handprint.

Máni reaches into his pocket and pulls out a collection of dark blue flower petals.

“What are you doing?” The Client peaks over his shoulder

“The doors can only be opened by Champions, but doors aren’t smart. So you can trick them with enough light.” Máni crushes the flowers in his hand, taking a deep breath in before placing his hand against the door. 

The door shakes and blue light flickers through the cracks. As it slowly starts to open, Máni and the client are hit by a wave of heat coming from inside.

“Oh and watch out, usually these things have some sort of guardian,” Máni warns humorously.  

The two of them step into the Stronghold, another world from the realm they entered from. It’s an endless pool of steaming water, littered with large stone slabs to walk across. They lead to a spear, presented proudly on a pedestal. The Spear steams, red light pours out of it running down the pedestal and across the water. Its light feeds this world. 

Máni takes a moment to enjoy the warmth of the steam. His Client pushes past him, leaping across the stones. His eager to get the spear and just as he’s about to grab it

“Don’t touch it! You don’t know what it does.” Máni throws his hands out in front of the client. 

“Do you know what it does?” The Client slowly pulls their hand away.

“Nope. But I have seen a magic item blow someone's arm off.” Máni pulls out some white leather, with some simple concealing runes on it to prevent any effect the spear might place on him. He carefully wraps it around the spear, making sure to cover every inch of it before taking it off the pedestal and placing it on his back.

Once the spear is off the pedestal the edges of the world start to fade away. Máni and the client skip across the stones out of the stronghold. Once outside the doors close behind them, the stone starts to fade turning into just a wall of ice.

Máni reaches his hand over the cliffside, grabbing the clients hand and pulling him up. Poe rushes over to Máni and using his fat tongue, he licks up and down Máni’s face.

“Stop Poe!” Máni laughs, clears his throat, and makes a serious face. He hands the client the spear. “Alright, now about payment.”

The Client rubs the back of their head and chuckles a bit. “About that, I couldn’t actually get any coins.”

“You promised you had some.”

“I thought I could find some, but only foreigners use coins. But, listen, I heard a ship from Brightstar was going to Leviathans Edge. They only use coins.”

Máni reaches his hand out. “Ugh, then give me the spear back-” He’s words are cut off as the two of them fall to the ground. The ground beneath them trembles as steam cracks through the ice. Burrowing out of the cracks comes a Giant Wyrm, the body of a snake, it has claw bearing arms and holes down its back that spew out steam.

“Oh, there’s the guardian.” Máni chuckles to himself nervously. 

The guardian, made from the light of the Spear. Its only duty is to protect it. It slithers towards Máni and the Client, only to be stopped by a large grey spectral spike in front of it. A figure flips over the guardian, landing in front of Máni. She’s a merfolk, the mortals of the sea, her scales are a deep blue, she’s covered in scars and seems to have ripped the sleeves off her snow suit to show off her muscles.

On her right bicep is a glowing grey symbol, the mark of her god. Two sharks danced around each other. 

Sigrid Champion of Karkrudan, Shark God of The Ocean

Máni’s more scared seeing her then the Guardian, he tries to scramble to his Sled.

“You aren’t going anywhere!” She barks, as the Guardian swings its tail at her. It sends her sliding across the ground. She summons spikes out of the palm of her hands and scrapes them across the ice until she runs out of momentum. She grins, raising her hand and her mark starts to glow brighter. Spikes appear across the landscape and rush towards the Guardian.

The Guardian weaves around them, moving towards Sigrid with its mouth wide open. Suddenly, it is in the jaws of a large spectral shark. Sigrid grips the air with her hand as if she’s holding something. Once she finally snaps it closed, the shark bites right through the guardian, killing it.

The body of the guardian falls to the ground, it starts to break apart into speaks of red light that float up into the sky. 

Máni quickly scampers to the top of his sled. “Poe, let’s get out of here.”

Poe starts moving before the mouth of a shark blocks his Path.

“Máni!” Sigrid yells, stomping towards him. 

“Sigrid, how are you?”

She punches the air, a small spectral shark pushes Máni off the sled and face first into the snow.

“Didn’t I warn you about breaking into Strongholds? I’m going to have  to take you to the chieftain.”

“Whoa, isn’t that a bit drastic. This stronghold didn’t even have a godly artifact.”

“Then give it back.”

Máni looks around and the client is gone. “About that, it seems like my client has gone off with it.:

“WHAT!”

“I’m just as mad as you are! I mean they didn’t even give me my payment.” 

Sigrid tightens her fists and exclaims in frustration.

“Does this mean I get to go?”

Sigrid grabs his arm, pulling him out of the snow. He weighs nothing to her. “Who was your client?” 

“Just a local, I never got the name.” Máni notices a look in Sigrid's eye, one she’s never had before. One of worry and fear.

“You can go, but you need to stop this. Some... things are happening. So just keep your head in the snow and away from anything important.” She demands of him. 

Máni rolls his eyes at her comment. Sigrid drops him on his ass, summons her spectral shark, climbs on top of it, and rides off. 

Poe goes up and nudges Máni.