6. Flight

Norma, my maid, runs a brush gently through my hair. "I heard it was quite a show last night. Chef says that you impressed our guest very much."

I sit still as she begins braiding my hair. "Mermaids don't even use magic; of course he was impressed." At the thought of his red eyes on me, a chill runs down my spine, and I feel indecent in my night gown.



"No dear," Norma's voice is hardly above a whisper. She leans in as she continues braiding. "There was another guest. One of our guests."


I turn my head quickly to look her in the eyes. Could it be? A true human rebel here in the castle? Norma has told me stories of the human resistance through out the kingdoms fighting for the freedom of all humans. But I could never fully imagine someone who would do such a thing. What kind of person would be so brave as to risk their lives for the impossible?

"Come. She will help you escape." Norma takes me by the hands and has me stand up and she takes off my night gown and replaces it with a course dress that smells of the scullery. "You must leave. You are powerful." She smooths my hair with one hand. "This dress will confuse his sense of smell long enough for you to get away."

There is a knock on the door. On the other side is the one who must be the "guest." She holds a tray of food which she quickly puts down. Her eyes have a glint in them that a normal maid would never have. She glances at me, taking in the sight of me in my course maid's dress with an unreadable expression.


There isn't much time. Norma packs the food the guest brought in for lunch and ushers us to a secret passage way with brisk instructions which she aims at The Guest who I assume will know enough about the outside to know where we are going.

My chest constricts as we run from everything I have known my entire life into a world I have only seen through windows.

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5. The Show of Your Life

The chef enters the large dining hall and gives me an encouraging smile. Earlier, he had said, "Just make sure to stay put, my dear." I was to be his "assistant." "You will see the most amazing show you have ever seen in your life. If only your father could have seen..."



The chef bows to the lord of the manner and the two guests nearest him. The face of the ruler of this land remains hard edged and stoic. I get the feeling he simply wants the show to start already and could do without the formality.


The chef sits down at the piano and begins to play a soft melody as the candle lights go out and we are left bathed in the partial moonlight filtering in through the large windows. My heart thumps as I stand in the dark, a strange crawling feeling rolls up my back. I do my best to stay as still as possible. Being trapped in the dark with a bunch of vampires and a mermaid requires a special ability to remain as un-prey-like as possible.

The music swirls around the large room as it begins to crescendo. As if on cue, a blue light beings to gently glow.


I suck in a breath when I notice the girl standing in the middle of the room. A small ball of blue light floats at her fingertips as if it were an animal she were gently coaxing back to the stable after the freedom of a pasture field.


The ball moves with her as she dances, twirling around her torso then her arms as she stretches out her perfect limbs in time with the music. She raises her hand into the air and the ball twirls up her arm and to her fingertips where it shatters shatters into small sparkles which appear to fall from her graceful fingertips to the ground.

Ever so delicately, her bare feet daintily prance across the floor as her arms gracefully arc away from her body. There is a light that comes down from the ceiling and falls down upon her and around her.


As she stretches out her arm, the light turns blue and envelopes her. It surrounds her as the music reaches its finale and, as suddenly as she appeared, she is gone. The room is in the dark once again, and my life suddenly feels dark as well. I have just seen the sun for the first time and I realize now that I have only been living in a dark cave this entire time with nothing but a campfire for light.

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So I fixed up some of the storyline side bars. I'm horrible with names, but I like to keep things organized. So this current storyline is called "Connections." All the past Amberle and Henry stories are now all filed under "Embarrassing Amberle."

Oh and new background images. ^_^

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3. Found

Last time we saw Joan


Just my luck.

We hadn't been sure where the gift was going, but our intelligence suggested it would most likely be an offering to a near by lord. Of course, that would mean that I could be facing a werewolf as well, and I don't want that either; it's just that none of us had been expecting that the gift would be carted to one of the higher vampire lords as well. I recognized his name when I heard it spoken by one of the guards.

Lord Henry's name had been carried to our little resistance group by a person who had managed to make it out of the Vampire Empire. Apparently, he is known to be rather eccentric (even for a vampire). He enjoys collecting art and throwing parties where the humans aren't the meal but the entertainment.


I saw the vampire lord with my own eyes in the courtyard. There was an angry scowl on his face as he commanded the gaurds to drop us into the cells. "Be sure to check their eyes," he added. A young girl stood behind him with her hands neatly folded behind her back. She looked young-- about 18 or so-- and yet she stood securely near him as if she knew that she was in no danger. Her exposed neck showed no wounds, and none of the guards so much as glanced at her.

It seemed clear to me that she was a kept human. Protected and cared for while the rest of us suffered. If I did manage to find a way to escape, I would be sure to steer clear of her. She would be the first person to turn in a human rebel-- of that I am sure.





I could hear boots scuffling on the stone steps. It was more than one pair, but I couldn't tell how many more. My heart raced. Were they already here to pick out one of us to go upstairs?

Two men stand before the cages looking us over. I do my best to huddle down and appear as unplesant as possible, but I can't help looking around at the young girls in various states of distress. I know they wouldn't do the same for me. If I were in trouble, they would not help me. They'd all just be glad it wasn't them.


I stand up and stare at the two men catching the eye of the one with the hat. He nods and points at me. Crap. What the hell was I thinking? I want to sit back down, but they're already unlocking the cage door and motioning for me to come out.


We end up in the kitchen. The guard takes his leave.

The cook smiles at me and says in a low voice, "Don't worry. You're safe. I knew your father."

I'm not sure what to say or do. Luck? Chance? Or was this planned?

"Come, I'll show you how to chop vegetables." He sets me up with a cutting board and sets me to work, explaining how to cut the veggies. Inbetween instructions, he explains more in a lower yet clear voice.


"Someone followed to be sure you arrived, and when it was noticed that you were coming here, they sent word to me to save you."


We work to make stew and gruel for the guards and the prisoners. All the while, he softly explains the vampire kingdom to me.



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So I was looking over last week's entries, and I feel like I wasn't clear enough. Part of my problem is that when I write, I just start writing, usually from the middle of a story. So sometimes, there are details that I might not mention because it's something that's clear to me. (I do this a lot IRL too.)

Basically what's going on here is that Supernatural creatures once ruled this land. To my sims (excluding Amberle), this is a new land. They came over from the old land, so they know none of the history. (Heck, how much Amberle and the other elves actually know is questionable too.)

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1. Joan

A long long time ago...



The other members of our small secret group watch me expectantly. The second in command (now the leader) has just read my father's last testament.

"Well, will you, Joan? It won't be easy, and we will do our best to prepare you for your journey."

I don't see that I have a choice. It would be impossible for me to say, "No. The human race can rot, I'll take my chances living with the mermaids."

So I nod like an idiot.




I had seen magic. My father preformed it for us and had us practicing in the basement under his pub after hours. We had to be sneaky. If other humans saw us, there was always the possibility that we could be turned in and severely punished.

We live in the Kingdom of the Mermaids. For the most part, the mermaids are very hands off. They could be as cruel lords and masters as the Vampires and Werewolves, but often they don't care to be so. It is only when they want something that we are called to do something for our masters.

To the mermaids, we are nothing more than a commodity. They use us as they please. More than once, whole cities of humans have been lost to attacks from the neighboring kingdoms. The Mermaids simply forget to check on their humans.


Our own mermaid lord recently died. We are only aware of this because the new lord (we assume it is the son of our old lord) has been seen wandering the land, checking production. The last sighting was the small community next to us. One of the merchants traveling back and forth trading goods heard this and passed on the news to us. It is now or never.

We are all certain he will want a place to stay. During the night, he is fine thanks to the cold moisture in the air and the water he carries with him. But after sunrise, it will be too warm for him to continue his tour. He will want to stay at the inn above my father's pub. The one I now run since his passing away.

The new lord has been seen gathering a small group of women who go with his human guards when they were picked. A gathering of women means most likely one thing. He is planning a gift for one of the neighboring kingdoms' lords. We are guessing that it is most likely for the Werewolf King who could properly appreciate the maidens.

The new lord would be here tomorrow night. Somehow, I am to get myself included in his gift. My mission: gather magic users to help fight for the freedom that we are rightfully due.




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So, here's where I get weird. This storyline is something that came out of a playful free write.

I don't want it to be confusing, so I am trying to make sure everything you need to know will somehow be mentioned in the posts. (Because you really won't need to know everything yet.) Feel free to ask what you want, but I reserve the right to not answer. ;) At some point, I will put up a detailed post that explains what I've got worked out so far, but for now, to hopefully cut out the confusion, I will let the story carry what info you absolutely need.

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