Sancha was miraculously able to stay conscious for the rest of the ride to the stranger's safe house, although by no means did this mean she was lucid. Thoughts arose in her head unbidden before quickly being forgotten. She was leaned against a bale of hay for support and it occasionally stuck through her clothing and poked her bruised skin. Her head pounded with every jolt along the pocketed rocky road. Occasionally she would look over to the stranger and was struck with the feeling that they reminded her of someone she missed very badly, but she had trouble following the thought through to the end. She kept getting throne by the stranger's unfamiliar blonde braid that swung as the carriage rolled onward.
At some point in the dead of night, far from the commotion of the main roads, they arrived at their destination. They had rode southwest of Olfyield into the marshy forest that followed along the lakes that eventually gathered into the bay south of Intmont. It was a quiet and desolate place with few villages marking the map for miles, but there was a kind of safety in that solitude.
They unloaded the cart under the cover of darkness. Sancha didn't remember most of what happened after that, she had been incoherent for the past hour or so, delirious from the head injury. She wasn't aware that the cabin was ancient and blanketed in cobwebs. The gas lamps the stranger and Asa scavenged up from the rotting wooden cabinets were covered in flaking metal and the glass was browned with a thick coat of dust. They had to take the blankets outside and shake the dust from their worn folds but they were at least in acceptable condition.
The stranger used his magic to light some of the aged lanterns and torch sconces alongside the walls of the cabin. Asa immediately went to work on treating Sancha's injuries all through the night into the early hours of the morning. Asa hadn't let her finally sleep until the stranger came back from the woods with a mixture of herbs that would create a poultice Asa found agreeable. It was only thanks to the strangers' bright magic flames that they were able to forage for herbs in the darkened forest.
At some point Sancha had finally been allowed to close her eyes. Asa fell exhausted into the creaky cot beside her. The stranger left for the forest and didn't return until long after dawn.
Sancha was knocked out solid well into the afternoon. Finally she came to, worse for the wear but feeling significantly less nauseous than she remembered last night. It all came back to her in a blur: challenging the Warbound officials, the accidental summoning of the terror in the market square, the city in flame, and the few memories she had in bits and pieces of their escape into the night. She had come to decide most of the things were a mixture of hallucinatory fantasies and her paranoia being projected onto the real world.
She took in her surroundings in the old dusty cabin. It was rather bare bones, no decorations on the walls or signs of food stores or provisions. It had the structure akin to a barracks outpost, with a few small cots lying intermittently against the wall and tall open closets for storing armor and outfits ready at the door, but it was all empty. The homiest fixture in the place was a large hearth that had been left cold. No one had thought to light it in the night.
She looked around for Asa and finally caught their eye. "You look...cold." Sancha said.
Asa looked tired, and for lack of a better word, haunted. "I don't think our new companion noticed the cold." Asa replied.
Sancha wracked her memories and only dimly recalled the stranger from the previous night's events. She could only remember that he had worn a strange uniform cloaked in black. She wanted to ask more about who they were and where they were but Sancha was stopped by the look on Asa's face. They looked deeply troubled with an intensity Sancha didn't think she had aver seen on their face. She struggled for words of comfort, but felt that anything she could say would bring any solace to her friend. Asa must have been blaming themself for the cretaures summoning. They had accidentally tapped in to the connection that should have lead to The Saint, but it was intercepted by the terror instead.
"Last night..." She started, but Asa had turned away towards a makeshift mortar and pestle they had created from an old wood bowl and a river stone.
"I'd rather we not talk about it." They said shortly.
Sancha wondered if Asa was blaming themself, but in truth she felt the guilty party. If she had stayed in the crowd and let the execution take place, maybe more lives would have been spared. She decided to say as much.
"I am angry at what you did, but not for that reason." Asa sighed, then continued "It's selfish but I'm just mostly upset that you put yourself in such danger. And I'm angry that my foolish mistake may have made things worse tenfold."
Sancha was propped up in bed as Asa had been making her drink more herbal concoctions and she hugged her knees to her chest, which ached but markedly less than it should.
"I almost wish I hadn't stopped the execution, but I also don't feel like I would have been able to react in any other way." Sancha confessed.
They both sat in a long heavy period of silence.
"If anything we know now more than ever that whatever is responsible for The Saint's disappearance..." Sancha started.
"Is a danger to pretty much everyone across the board." Asa finished.
"Which brings me back to our mystery stranger." Sancha inquired.
Asa gave a great heave of a sigh. "I have no idea where he went but I'd imagine it would be appropriate to go looking for him. It's been a few hours."
"Yes, but who are they?" Sancha asked.
"I saw them atop the city's walls as we were escaping. They were leaning far over the edge using some sort of looking glass aimed towards the heart of the city where the... thing came from. It was just a wild hunch...but I thought they could be one of The Reaper's followers. They never completely confirmed it but they'd have to be. You don't remember any of their magic from last night?"
Sancha furrowed her brow. She felt like she had seen strange magic but could only recall the story carved into the gate's archway, retelling itself like the whisper of an overheard song. Now in the light of the next day she distinctly remembered the art relief had not been there when they first entered the city. Asa and Sancha had walked along the outer walls and thoroughly explored the city for signs of The Saint before finding the old temple in the market, and even then they had only found that by Ilya's direction. When they had first come across the city and looked upon its worn and bare ancient walls Sancha had turned to Asa and said with great disappointment, "I guess this is it." The impact of the initial impression that they might not have been able to find anything at all had stuck with her, the story had to have been nothing more than a strange illusion. The illusion regardless of its immateriality stayed in her mind as the only clear memory of the night.
She swung her legs over the bed and Asa burst out in protest. "What are you doing? Get back down!" They fumbled after her as she set off for the door.
"Well you were about to go out looking for them, so I'm coming too."
Asa wrestled with rising frustration over their unruly patient. "I have no idea how you're even standing!" they sputtered.
Sancha did a slow circle with her arms stretched out to make a show of it. "I'm sore, but not as much as you would think." she said with finality.
Asa threw up their hands in defeat and started out of the door. "Sometimes I wonder about you!" They shot back at Sancha who trotted up behind them as they exited the cabin.
The old wooden cabin sagged quietly in the marshy forest clearing. It was a cool kind of humid outside, and the ground squelched underfoot. If they went deep enough into the forest the wood would eventually give way to mangroves, they must have just been at the edge of where the forest changed to swamp.
"What is that supposed to mean." Sancha questioned.
"You've always healed quickly. It's just that in the beginning, I assumed it was because you were a Warbound soldier since they have-" Asa made a rolling motion with their hand.
"Magically improved strength, agility, healing, and so forth -- all thanks to The Warmaiden's patronage." Sancha finished with a grimace.
"I'm just saying the benefits should have worn off by now." Asa said.
"Well if I escaped with some extra magic maybe the trauma was worth it," Sancha said sarcastically ,"but anyways, look."
Sancha pointed to a small plume of smoke nearby just visible over the treeline. Her and Asa followed a small dirt path worn into the forests underbrush to a clearing not too far from the cabin. Ancient overgrown cobblestone formed a small dais circled by a wall of dead trees. All that remained of the trees were their thick and wide bases, they disappeared into crumbling charcoal right above the stump and what was left were blackened husks that looked like they had been repeatedly set fire to over and over again.
The stranger, who Sancha vaguely recognized from last night's events, was standing nonchalantly in the circle and gave them a short wave as they broke through the clearing. His hands were stained black with soot and he had drawn what Sancha and Asa both instantly recognized as the framework for a summoning spell. He was just squatting down and drawing the finishing touches when they had stumbled into the clearing.
Sancha blanched immediately at the sight of the circle, and the stranger misread her reaction. He looked down at the summoning circle and then back to her, "Well if you're unprepared to see what The Reaper looks like you should go back inside, I don't have time to deal with the tender-heartedness of one of The Saint's followers right now." he said in a businesslike tone.
The chill of fear she had felt when seeing the summoning circle was pushed out by annoyance. She shot a look at Asa who just muttered, "We didn't actually talk very much. He has no idea."
Keeping her gaze level to avoid looking down at the circle she stepped over the threshold of the dais which earned a stern look from the stranger, but Sancha wanted to make a formal introduction.
"Thank you for helping us escape last night, my name's Sancha and this is my companion Asa." She said holding her hand out ignoring the strangers look.
She received a stiff handshake and was shocked by the odd and cool texture of the stranger's hand, as if it wasn't quite skin she had touched. "Yes I know, you were out of it for most of your first formal introduction." The stranger said.
"My name is Lutfi, I am a follower of The Reaper and thus my life is spent in Their service. Thankfully I'm spared from having to explain what that means to you as you have your own patron? Or had. Which brings me back to what I'm doing if you'll excuse me..." He glared down at her feet and she reluctantly backed away from the summoning circle.
"Right..." Sancha said.
Sancha threw yet another glance at Asa who shot back a look that said you can try all I want but I already know I can't handle his personality.
"I don't know what my companion told you but I don't remember much from last night. I want to know what you think you saw?" Sancha pushed.
Lutfi produced a handful of gold coins that matched the glittering chains draped across his chest and carefully began to kneel and set them at key points along the summoning circle's edge. The look he gave Sancha now was almost mixed with pity. She couldn't decide if that was better or worse than his annoyance.
"I fortunately was not close to the initial disaster. Which is good because -" he seemed to catch himself and didn't finish that thought but said instead, "I was watching from afar, I had already been sent to the city on an errand and was waiting for something to happen but I didn't expect it to be a complete calamity of that proportion." Asa flinched beside Sancha.
"Your friend was escaping with you in tow. I'll be honest I was a bit shocked to see someone in The Saint's colors climbing the stairs towards me. They completely guessed that I was a mage under The reaper and luckily you were right." Lutfi said towards Asa.
He had finished placing the gold and with a flourish of his hands a crackling began at the trees surrounding the clearing. A dull glowing began between the grooves in the bark, and they lit up slowly until the hollow pits of their trunks were alight with fire.
"I didn't think The Saint still kept followers, and by no means did I think they would happen to be in the city nor that they would run into me."
Sancha looked at Lutfi who was regarding them carefully, the growing light from the tree fires began to cast warm shadows on them even with the afternoon sun. It dawned on Sancha that it wasn't Lufti wasn't just lightly annoyed, but scrutinizing them with a suspicious gaze.
"She went silent a few months ago, we tracked the city down from some old manuscripts and were trying to find out what happened to Her!" Sancha said in their defense.
"Wait, are you saying you think we had something to do with it?" Asa said now catching on.
"I guess The Reaper can interrogate you Themself. Now that you're here you might as well give Them your side of the story, it can't hurt to have some extra witnesses."
And with that Lutfi backed up to the outer edge of the dark summoning circle. The deep crevices between the cobblestone, Sancha realized, were full of coals themselves. The coals took on a warm glow which crescendoed into a bright orange flare snaking through the earth like it had split open to reveal the molten rock far underneath. The columns of fire surrounding them spit out a flurry of embers that spun forth to snake around their ankles in the clearing.
Comments (1)
See all