Faith and Prosperity (Flashback 0.1)

[Kain Angelo]

(Saints only.)

Unda.
The city of Faith and Prosperity, 'Fides'.
Over 1000 years ago,

The grand city of Fides was a cultural masterpiece in the midst of Unda's great Empire; it compared to no other in the world, their wealth was incredible and health outdid most as well. It was the pride of the Empire, everyone dreamed of one day being able to live in its walls.

As further conquest of the world began the city only grew more and more powerful, with luxury goods from all over the world flooded in at slave-labor prices and the rich flourished in the investments that they spent in Unda's newly gained land. In a city of such wealth the only thing that defined how rich a family was by how many household workers they kept, or elf slaves to put it bluntly.

And in the center of this fine city was a nightlife so rich that the Emperor would frequently travel to enjoy the various plays and operas. The giants among those were held at the Emperor's Marble Palace, this large building was a opera house that could hold thousands of people. Only the richest of the rich had the pleasure enjoying the luxuries that this building provided.

So as thousands of people entered the building for the showing of the Empire's most renowned plays it might be slightly out of place to see a carriage pull up and a pretty large group step out... especially considering one of them was the King of the Empire who was now a traitor along with about fourteen other people with him.

As Kain glanced around the area he was thankful that there were more pictures of his brother hanging around than himself. With any luck he'd go unrecognized among the crowd...

He knew the proper etiquette; how to speak, bow, eat, sit there was even a proper way how to spit. But his allies on the other hand, that was a completely other story; Kain didn't think any one of them had ever tasted culture like this before.

"Just remember what I taught you." Kain's words echoed in their heads as Kain approached the entrance. The first part of his plan would be getting into the place and that was no easy task.

[Everto Ferox]

"Milord." Everto Ferox opened the carriage door for him, dressed to seem more like an attendant than a personal guard. His black hair neatly combed back and tucked under his hat, small knives and daggers hidden carefully in the confines of his disguise.

[genericvillain]

"Oooooh..." Nia whispered softly looking up at the great opera house. Her parents had told her about how luxurious an experience like this was, but she'd never actually been able to go herself before. It was like a wonderful fantasy and it took everything in her to keep from giggling like a little girl over it.

Because as Kain said, they knew better. He had taught them. Chin up, no slouching, no squinting, and no no no no loud blurting. She'd trained hard for this like she had been training to be a great doctor--a good, fancy, cultured lady.

She stole a moment to glance at her navy blue dress and beamed. She'd rarely worn anything this nice before.

That's why it was important she didn't screw it up with her stupid...things she did! Nia felt a fidgeting coming on and wanted to hammer out random, yelled words but bit on her lip and tried to make it look like a smile--ladies smiled. They smiled, they didn't talk, they were supposed to look nice. All she had to do was not talk and ruin everything!

[Alessia]

This was astonishing for Alessia. The biggest event they had in her village was a dance at the end of the year and that couldn't even compare to this. As the carriage approached the building she began to feel nervous with the thoughts of failure swimming through her head.

She took a deep breath as the carriage came to a stop and tried to remember everything Kain had told her. Alessia took one step out of the carriage and smiled; she may have been out of her element but she did a great job pretending.

Alessia was beautiful, but the air of a higher class only seemed to make her seem so much more. Even the properest of men couldn't help but steal a glance at her. Alessia took Kain's hand and leaned close to him. Her role was to be Kain's wife and people seemed to be buying it.

As they began to walk Alessia whispered over to Nia, "This place is amazing. Have you ever seen something like this?"

Okay, apparently Nia was better at the 'no speaking' thing.

[King Roxa Hiaten]

Ironically, given his future, Roxa used to hate wearing armour. He really despised the clunkyness of it, and how ungainly it made him. But, for the sake of this little fiasco, Roxa was having to play the role of a loyal bodyguard and Hedge Knight, meaning that he was wearing a full suit of armour including a helm that covered his face. He'd carefully thought through his role, it was the only way that he could hide his face away from Alessia, who still hadn't noticed he was a Saint, plus the helmet muffled his voice enough to talk. On top of that, it meant he could carry a weapon and not have to worry about the repercussions.

His silver blade hung at his waist in its sheath, and he carefully stalked behind Kain and Alessia. He looked around and above, playing the role of a dutiful bodyguard. Whenever somebody garnered themselves too close to the pair, his armoured hand was suddenly in between the stranger and the pair, forcing them to take a step back. As he gave another cautious glance around he made sure that he had caught up to the others.

"All clear, my Lord." He said, his voice tinny within his helmet.

[Grey Highlander]

"What a place!" Grey exclaimed as he stepped out of the carriage. Everything Kain said must have gone over his head, he winked at every woman he passed and gave a thumbs up to every man who was walking with more than one woman (it wasn't unheard of for a Lord to attend a event with both his wife and mistress.).

Grey was supposed to be playing the role of Kain's drunk and disorderly brother, something he seemed to be doing a great job at. It took a moment for Grey to notice that it was Roxa in the armor but as soon as he did he rushed over and grabbed the 'knight'.

"Look at this place, man!" Grey laughed as he nudged Roxa, "Isn't this awesome!?"

[King Roxa Hiaten]

"Indeed, my Lord..." Roxa replied with an answer coated in the thinnest layer of servitude. If Grey ruined this, Roxa swore he'd smack him upside the head himself. Still, he was playing the drunkard to a tee, so he really couldn't complain...

"It is my duty however, to remind you that this is a formal event, my Lord, and we are here at the behest of your brother..." He let out a sigh, the advantage of playing a hedge knight, he could be more... 'Lenient' with his hosts. "So perhaps, we should be on our best behavior!" He gave Grey the tiniest of nudges, most likely gone unnoticed by those around them.

[Grey Highlander]

"Oh you're too into your role, Mr. Knight..." Grey sighed before giving a shrug, "I was going to say this might be the perfect time to reveal yourself to her but I suppose you're going to shrug away from it, huh? Ahhh, doesn't really matter I suppose. At this rate I think Kain has a better chance with her than you!" Grey said in a harsh whisper, "Now if you excuse me, I see a pretty lady."

Grey slipped away like a snake and came up behind Nia, wrapping one arm around her, "Hello my dear sister! You look simply ravishing tonight!"

Suddenly Grey felt a stinging in his head which he knew that this was Kain's way of saying 'tone it down' he decided to oblige to his request, "I mean... you know, you look cool."

[Bartholomew]

Bart walked into the hall. His crimson hat hid his eyes, as his mouth showed no emotions. He looked at the rich and how they acted, so high and mighty while most of them have no real power. Remembered how his family were treated like garbage by the Roccian royals. Bart walked up to Kain, and nodded. "Kain." He simply said, as he glanced around the hall.

[Sonorc Optimus]

"Hey, where is my ring!?", "My necklace is gone!" Some of the people in the palace were shouting as their jewelery were missing.
In unrelated news, Sonocr Optimus was sporting new jewelery, having more gold and gems than a mine. Even his cane seem to be dipped in gold. He walked up to the saints with a big grin, revealing a gold tooth (Don't ask... just don't)
"How is everyone doing? It is quite a palace here." He said, as he took off his silver opera mask, "I could go for some fancy food."

[genericvillain]

Nia smiled at Alessia, working on being silent she nodded, completely astounded by how beautiful the other woman looked.
Grey's arm slipping around her then suddenly made Nia jump with a sharp gasp, nearly causing her to scream.

"G-G-Grey! You're b-b-being out of character..." she tried to keep it short, desperately trying to hide her tomato red face behind her long locks of curling hair.

[Grey Highlander]

"You're being too proper, Nia," Grey said in a near whisper, "Everyone you see here are just a bunch of seething lumps of wealth and lust. They're really just wondering primates desperate for something interesting."

"So once you see it like that I'm playing my role with incredible accuracy!"

[Kain Angelo]

"Bartholomew," Kain nodded to his fellow Saint before stepping up to the entrance. The man standing at the entrance examined the group of people.

"Your name, Lord...?" The man had an uptight Eastren Undian accent.

"I am Lord Enjeru of Central Unda," Kain spoke in a equal proper wording.

"Funny... I don't see you on the list, Lord Enjeru," the man said while raising his chin to Kain like he was some sort of trash.

"Look again," Kain demanded. The man sighed and looked back, to his surprise, the name was there. Nathan was making him see a name that wasn't really there, he was also covering Kain's demonic eyes from sight.

"My deepest apologies Lord Enjeru," the man quickly bowed his head. It was Kain's turn to look down on the man, "I didn't see your name at first and I've never seen you around here-"

"I just returned from a six month campaign in Roccia and all I want is to take my family for a nice night and instead I am faced with this! I assure you your Lord will hear of this displeasure," if Kain would go any further he was sure he'd put the man in tears. The man stepped aside and didn't dare look Kain in his eyes.

"M-My Lord, I didn't mean to offend-"

"Enough of this. Let us move on," Kain stepped right past the quivering man and into the building, "Come along everyone, I do hope that we will not be bothered again!"

The entrance was crowded with people socializing before the event. Yet even now you could hear music playing from inside the grand theater room.

Kain found it was difficult to recognize anyone in this crowd but Kain managed to pick a couple people; a soldier who had been honored for killing twenty Ignian soldiers before setting the village he had been fighting in ablaze, a Lord who ran slave trade from Wild Unda to the ice cold regions of Ghiaccio.

Yet among some of the most vial people there were good people as well, Kain recognized a man who spent half of his fortune in investments on education for the now occupied Chaybles. As well as a woman who spent three months in Ignis investing in proper homes for the vastly poor population.

None of these people was who Kain was looking for and he didn't expect to spot him in these crowds. "We'll take our seats before we make any move. We need to know for sure he's here or else this entire mission is useless. "

[Everto Ferox]

Everto had already slipped himself inside and moved through the crowd, as if he was in a hurry. He gently brushed passed people and slipped small green tags in their pockets, a signal used to identify people who needed to live and could not be targets.

Everto had hoped he would be able to mark their targets for them before they entered, but he unfortunately was not able to do so...

As he made his way to Kain, he hoped their leader would have better luck.

"Milord Enjeru, I have saved you and your majesty seats..." as he got in close he whispered. "Have you found the target?"

[Kain Angelo]

"Negative..." Kain responded as people began to walk to their seats, "We'll locate him from our seats. Somehow I doubt a man of his importance would be out lingering in the crowd."

They would be seated on the top level overlooking the play. "Everto, you won't be joining us for this. Go take position by the hall over at the left, it's the passage to the VIP room and take our knight with you." He motioned over to Roxa before glancing back.

"Be ready to move when I tell you to."

Kain moved away from the crowd and got into his chair, from here he could view the entire area. As people began to be seated he glanced up at the VIP boxes with still no sign of the target he couldn't help but linger on the thought that he had faulty information.

'Relax Kain,' he assured himself, 'He'll be here.'