Heleion Archives

25th of December, 124th of NDE. Pancheng Fortress City, East of Yudao Penninsula. 67th District.

            Pancheng. The largest industrial fortress city in the eastern occupied prefecture of the Yudao Pen-ninsula. Pancheng itself lies a few hundred kilometers into the Wei-Guang Jungle famous for its trees that blossom emerald leaves through all seasons. Besides the carnivorous plants, fauna that stalk the jungle, mak-ing traversal a challenge itself. And of course various cells of the Golden Dawn separatist movement dot the jungle too.

Pancheng itself is a labyrinthine marvel of a city built in the heart of the jungle a century ago by the Hoshi-gawans. One of the myriad leylines of the far-east ran through the jungle, with the city itself built on top of a nexus point, making it ideal to set up an industrial area where magicraft golem factories produce the war-vessels of the Hoshigawan army and the Black Lotus – who maintain control over the city. The city itself emerges in the sea of emerald as a refined gray mass of concrete. The buildings themselves were built tightly knit together, and while from the outside it is quite a sore sight, the streets were lit up in a myriad of warm shades.

Numbered narrow passageways wind between the interconnected structures, where the need for arcane pro-duced light became a necessity as light barely reached down to the lower levels of the city. Here lights var-ied during the cycles of the day. During the early morning, luminous lights bathed the narrow streets. While the day itself lasted, warm white light filled the streets, and the people with energy for the day. Lastly, on the nights, shades of red, mauve and green danced together as the workers went to bars to relieve the stress of the day before they returned to their small homes.

Dilapidated balconies, adorned with drying laundry, overlook crowded alleyways where the cacophony of daily life unfolds. Or in some cases, the Black Lotus patrols usually set up a vantage point from which they surveilled the bustling streets before they started scouring the streets when the folks went home. Or at least the crowd lost its thick density.

“Do you think they’re planning anything?” Song Chun asked as she leaned onto the thick, brownish red rail of the balcony. She wore the Keisatsuath uniform – the military police force of the Black Lotus – which sin-gle breasted coat part resembled a shorter cheongram dress. The light gracefully made the dragonid leather piece shine, while the round neck area with snow silvery liquid palladium frames were zipped down, the tips slightly bent.

Between the spacious interior of the coat’s neck, the newly redesigned aetherna satin blouse’s triangular col-lar stood around her frail fair neck buttoned down. For them, the blouse itself was dyed into a berry blue shade. Besides the shape of the collar – that now also had softer edges – the thick straps on the blouse were replaced with flatter epaulettes.

Song Chun herself appeared no more than twenty-eight, with long raven black hair parted over to the right, covering the coat’s strap itself that laid on the smooth scaled shoulder. Eyes whose outer corners gracefully turned upwards, in their center dark pearls watched the bustling crowd of mixed kin trading for food and beverage, or in the good spouses’ cases, for clothes and other goods. And small lips covered in a mauve lip-stick that nicely enhanced their luster.

“From what I heard – we just staked out one of their hideouts in the western, lower district.” The answer came from a stygian Sister of hers – blessed with a strong pepper toned skin that had a smooth, gleaming surface. Short, pristine white horns akin to certain yokais. Menacing eyes of infernal orange in a circular frame. Her wide red lips contorted into a smile as she finished solving the rubikrion cube – a recent toy in-vention hailing from the immediate northern neighbor of Grauburg.

“Then this will be a boring day, isn’t it?” Song Chen said as fixed her hair on the right after it tickled her slightly elven ear beset with a single pearl piercing of a mauve shade.

A knock came from the door that directly faced the balcony. “Finally, the newbie arrived.” Pan An, the styg-ian Sister of hers said as she leapt up from tattered sofa that took up most of the small apartment’s space.

She swiftly rushed to the door, as if enchanted by the spirits of the wind and opened it up. “Huh?”

**

120th District.

Pancheng was built in a long rectangular shape with a deep mote surrounding it. On the far eastern and bot-tom side were the tallest structures built with flat tops for each. The reason for this was simple – as the city itself was issued by the General-Princess herself, she wanted to build two large Hoshigawan style palaces on both sides that served as her living quarters.

While the lower levels of the city had quite the depressing architectural styles with very little floral life striv-ing down there. Opposite to that, the General-Princess ordered her palaces to not be imposing too much as she liked to spend time in garden’s musing on the arts of war. Or just strolling there with her beloved royal consort or her children.

“So Her Highness truly came!” Katsuraena – a high ranking Heishiath of the Black Lotus Division – said as the large Tengu-Class Flottirion’s dark back got closer and closer to the landing pad. Katsuraena was a dark elf who already reached her mature looks by the time she attended the Eastern Black Rose Academy in North-Western Hoshigawa. She had short rouge pink bob style hair parted onto the left side of her blue skinned head. Her deep mauve eyes gleamed intensely even in the lit garden, each placed in a perfect al-mond shaped frame, and full dark lips that had an ethereal luster to them.

“She did.” Bukanyn Hanakoro said with a deep sigh as she maintained her disciplined stance. Hanakoro was a lunar elf who even by elven standards was divinely beautiful as many of her admirers – and even enemies – often described her. Her dense, perfectly white hair with a glow itself was long and usually bundled into a low bun with only a few loose strands allowed to frame her mesmerizing face.

A face that possessed a moon kissed silver tone, perfectly almond shaped elven eyes of a cherry red shade inherited from her mother. She also bore snow silvery scales inherited from her father that seamlessly adorned her sharp cheeks and the corners of her flawlessly lined jaw.

Atop all that, her Kimonoro Type-III, crafted from dragonid leather, hugged her slender, sinewy elven form flawlessly. The coat accentuated her well-endowed chest, adding a touch of allure to her appearance. The single breasted coat itself followed a militarized, thickly layered kimono design – mostly the added shoulder straps, a hidden zipper line and the chin high, triangular shaped neck from which a cloak extended over the shoulders and back.

And between her coat’s neck – the triangular pure white collars of her aetherna satin blouse peeked and rus-tled as the wind blew them – while her equally white beret remained seated atop her crown of hair. This time around she also wore the drauclar plates fashioned after the lamellar armor of the revered samurai. 

The two stood at the end of the straight pavement with evergreen grass on both sides – on which six gor-geous Heishiths lined up on both sides, two servants girls in front of each Heishiath. Said heishiath uniform followed the same design, except like kimonos – the coat lacked a prominent neck that encircled the collars. And her beret and blouse were saturated in a rich cherry red, adding a vibrant burst of color to the dark and snow silvery ensemble.

With a loud clang the Tengu-Class Flottirion – a larger metallic specimen from the others – landed on the pad. “Servants! Stand in line!” Hanakoro’s deep, serene voice echoed through the whole area as she issued her orders. The servants without uttering a word and calm expressions stood up after kneeling on the harsh ground and faced the Flottirion’s slowly opening ramp door.

The Tengu-Class Flottirion essentially followed the same box design of the rest, except the front where the navigation pit was placed inside resembled a wide and long beak with a slight down curve. Similarly to the Black Roses’ flottirions, the color scheme is the same raven black bottom and snow silvery top while the side was decorated by the crest of the Black Lotus itself.

“Everyone, bow to the General-Princess!” At those words all the Heishiaths and Hanakoro bowed deeply with their fists on their hearts, the servants with crossed arms. A tall lunar elf – as she had to gracefully hunch down to walk out – appeared. Her beauty amongst them all only rivalled by Hanakoro’s. “I told you Hana, I don’t require these welcoming ceremonies. I’m fine with just a welcoming hug from my dearest daughter!”

**

“Of course I get lost.” Briahell said to herself as she towered over the crowd like a slender, refined tree with her long hair the shade of red that Northern trees tend to fade into during the seasons of autumn and winter. Her skin, smooth and refined with gracious shade of grayish brown with her neck not just surrounded by the round collar of her Cheongsaeth-Type III coat, or the aetherna satin blouses that matched the hue of her be-ret – but by the oaken shells that formed a shawl around her frail neck while extended down to her chest and firm shoulders.

“Holy-Mistress of Bahamuth, Our Dear Mother praise be thou name, guide my way to the apartment.” As she was sent out precisely two hours ago for late-lunch – she decided to offer a prayer to her Goddess to guide her way back.  Briahell was a recently joined the Black Lotus Division for the very simple reason of wanting to visit the forests of the Far-East of Heleion on which she heard a lot from travelers. Not just the emerald jungle that surrounded Pancheng, but the Jade Forest a bit closer to the Thieyan border to the south west.

As she continued following the warm sensation, she believed to be her Goddess’ guiding her, the crowd started to lose its density and she spotted familiar sights she passed while going to the restaurant recom-mended by Pan An who served in this century as a police officer since the very first building was raised. In her right hand, she held the three packages of dumplings with saucy meat inside them while the left re-mained on her waist belt that held up her dragonid leather trousers. The first thing they drilled into her was that always channel your mana and keep one hand on your weapon when walking through the streets as the agents of the Golden Dawn were prone to kidnap lone Black Lotuses – or anyone that sympathized with them. And those who disappeared never showed up ever again. She wasn’t sure though how true the last part was, as it was said to her quite dramatically.

“Thank the Gods!” Briahell said as she noticed the piss yellow door that belonged to the apartment where they set up camp. “And Myelia.” She added in a soft whisper before she entered through the door not notic-ing in the moment of joy how easily it opened. Realization came with the ragged, wet cloth that pushed against her cheeks. In a moment of foolishness, she ignored what they study at the academy in situations like these, and reflexively inhaled a deep one that fastened the spread of the cold numbness that spread within her limbs.

“See I told you its best to wait.” A high pitched male voice reached her dagger-sharp ears that reached even beyond her head while she was dragged further inside. The last thing she saw before everything faded to black – was her two partners sitting back to back, tightly bound with enchanted rope and orange gold sealing tape over their lips and cheeks.

**

45th District

“Check the streets.” The aging soratanese separatist said as she finished knotting the ropes looped numerous times around the chest of the merfolk Keisatsuath with azure skin tone and warm, amber hued fish scales that some were covered by the orange golden tape that was wrapped around her mouth.

“Clear.” Came the answer not long after the stygian partner of hers touched the door with her left set of fin-ger tips pushed against the course surface of the yellow door. She could sense no presence besides a few that belonged to their fellow outside so she rushed back to the mature partner of hers and grabbed the tightly bound together ankles of the merfolk who head slumped to the right while a soft moan escaped her sealed lips.

“Grab the rest.” By the time the two stepped out with the trussed up unconscious merfolk the other members – all too dressed in woolen light blue Zhonshan Suits with orange golden armbands embroidered with the symbol of a rising sun. Those two were nodded their heads and the two women – a orii elf with dark, short hair and another soratanese rushed in to grab the remaining two Keisatsuaths tightly bound and sealing tape gagged the same way.

The two entered a small empty shop set up just front right to the surveillance spot of the Black Lotuses where the two carrying the merfolk disappeared over a teleportation circle, followed by the other two carry-ing the dark aelvian and the lunar elf over their shoulders.