War of the Races - The Verdant Realm

The Shadows In The Mist, cont. 1

Staring down at the dead assassin, she brought her attention back to the matters at hand and growled, “Now, let’s see who we have here.”

She poked the dead body one more time to make sure it was indeed dead, and then Sinaan flipped it over. Clutched in both hands were daggers, but that wasn’t what caught their attention. Within the cloak was a beautiful Svartalf priestess. Her hair was strawberry blonde and fell in loose wavy locks down her back. Her skin was as black as onyx, and she had hazel eyes that were red with flitting swirls of green and yellow that stared up from a face forever locked in an eternal expression of horror.

Sinaan ran a finger down her cheek and across her beautiful bee-stung mouth before he stood up straight and whispered, “Well, I guess we found Thurdain’s missing Initiate.”

“I guess we did,” Aalyn agreed with a nod as she watched Sinaan carefully.

With a heavy sigh, he mused as he shook his head, “I’m a trained assassin. So how did a lowly Initiate priestess fight on par with me?”

“That’s a good question,” Aalyn answered thoughtfully, “I don’t know, but we will find out.”

He looked a bit crestfallen, so she asked, “This isn’t your first time killing, so are you finding it harder this time because she’s a woman?”

He took a deep breath and then let it out real slow as he answered, “Yeah, I guess so. I don’t much like killing women, but I would have done the same thing nevertheless because I will kill anyone that tries to hurt my beloved sister.”

She found herself smiling despite herself, and leaned over and shouldered him affectionately before she purred, “Good boy, by the way, thank you for saving my life.”

“You know I would do anything for you, Aalyn,” He retorted with a smile.

“Good,” She commanded him with a proud grin, then waved him off with a command, “Then go find your sisters and tell them to come here at once.”

“Yes, ma’am,” He answered with a brisk salute before leaving.

Once he was gone, Aalyn went back to her stump and finished her relief, cleaned herself up, and donned her breastplate, tassets, poleyns, and schynbalds. Afterward, she didn’t have to wait long before Thurdain and Illglan appeared. When she saw only them, she asked, “Where is Sinaan?”

“I sent him to fetch your lieutenant colonels,” Thurdain answered.

She nodded, then pointed to the dead Initiate on the ground, “Have a look and tell me if this is your girl, and Delve her to see if you can find anything that might explain her behavior.”

“Yes, of course,” Thurdain agreed with a nod, followed quickly by moving to the body and putting a hand first on her head as she uttered a prayer and her hand began to glow. As soon as she began delving into the corpse, she hissed, then moved quickly to her chest above her heart and gasped before moving her hand down her belly until it was resting between her navel and her pelvis. Thurdain motioned for Illglan to join her, and they whispered, after which Illglan said a prayer and performed the same Delving. When she concluded her inspection, they whispered amongst themselves once again before standing up and turning to Aalyn.

“This is indeed our Initiate,” Thurdain reported with a sad shake of her head while Illglan nodded grimly, “And at the same time she is not.”

Aalyn found herself giving Thurdain a questioning look just as Hayden, Grunngrul, and Rweble walked up, with Sinaan following a few feet behind. As they approached, Thurdain continued her analysis, “This girl is nothing more than a husk. She’s been completely hollowed out.”

“What do you mean by hollowed out?” She asked.

“Exactly what I said,” Thurdain answered with a shake of her head. “I’ve never seen this before, but it is taught at the Academy. This poor girl’s brain, and with it the Well of the Divine, as well as all her internal organs and with them her Well of Motivation and the Well of Power, are all gone. This body is nothing but a doll that someone else was pulling the strings of.”

“What or who could do this sort of thing?” Aalyn asked, her voice weak as she herself felt like she had just had her breath taken away.

“There are only two things that can do this,” Thurdain answered, “A Demon or a Necromancer. Both practice forbidden magic based on soul bindings and contracts. They literally bind a person, body, and soul through a contract, to Soulstones, leaving a husk of a body that is under their direct control, or they can bind another soul to it for a specific purpose.”

“That would certainly explain why an Initiate priestess had the skills of a veteran assassin,” Sinaan commented wryly.

“Who is this whelp?” Hayden asked, his tone betraying his annoyance at being summoned, or that Sinaan deigned to speak in the presence of his betters.

“He is our little brother, and my Page,” Aalyn answered curtly, but also directed a meaningful glare at Sinaan to keep quiet. He was her secret weapon, and he was to play the part of a diminutive Page. “If he hadn’t heard the rustling of pine needles and sounded the alarm, I would be dead right now.”

Hayden still looked contemptuous, but also was smart enough to appear chastised as Aalyn continued, “However, Hayden is also right. Sinaan, you are no longer needed here, so go resume your duties.”

Sinaan was smart as a whip and knew exactly what she was telling him to do. With a curt salute, he left and trotted back towards the army. As soon as he was concealed by the mist and the dark of the forest, he activated the skill Stealth and disappeared before circling to shadow his Lady,

“So, we have a Demon or a Necromancer on our hands,” Grunngrul commented rhetorically.

“It would seem so,” Aalyn answered as she examined her lieutenant colonel's face, “But an even greater question is: why me?”

“Pardon,” Hayden asked, implying he didn’t understand.

“The assassin targeted me,” Aalyn answered pointedly, “Not any of you, me. The General of this army, and the heir of House Abendroth.”

“I would hazard a guess that you have fallen in disfavor with someone,” Hayden answered sarcastically, “If indeed this assassin was only targeting you.”

“There is no way to prove or disprove motives at this time,” Thurdain added since she knew Aalyn the best and knew the underlying accusations she was inferring, “I will continue examining the corpse and see if we can divine more clues, and Illglan is going to make sure that no other priestesses have fallen prey to whoever did this.”

“Good,” Aalyn responded with a nod as she watched the Faline brothers. She suspected them, but without proof, she had to play this game of cat and mouse until either she or they made a mistake. “Well, resume your duties, continue getting a count of the soldiers so that we know if this was the only assassin or if there will be more.”

“As you command,” Hayden, Grunngrul, and Rweble chorused with snap salutes that didn’t hide their sneers.

“When you are done,” Aalyn whispered to Thurdain, “Incinerate the corpse.” Thurdain looked up, and their eyes met before she nodded as Aalyn finished, “The last thing we need is a Necromancer reanimating it.”

“Agreed,” Thurdain mumbled.

Though Aalyn wanted to leave, she found herself staying close to Thurdain. She didn’t have a strong desire to be alone, and she felt a deep foreboding for her sisters being alone as well. Just because she was the target this time didn’t mean that they weren’t targets as well,

——(!)——

An hour later, Hayden led the march down into the next valley after their reports were made. No soldiers were missing. Once her lieutenant colonels left, Thurdain made her report.

“We are missing two Initiates besides the one we disposed of,” She whispered, “Someone is preying on my girls. When we find the culprit, I want to kill him or her personally.”

“Given the opportunity,” Aalyn answered with a nod, “This person is all yours; however, if you are not available, we are not taking it prisoner. We are killing it outright.”

“I understand,” Thurdain agreed with a nod, “Then I request to remain at your side at all times.”

“Yes,” Aalyn whispered and nodded, “Find Illglan as well. This thing kidnapped and killed, for all intents and purposes, three priestesses. We have to assume that means they are all cloaked assassins. There are also three of us, so we should assume that I was not the only target.”

“So this is an assault on House Abendroth,” Thurdain mused, “Someone is trying to assassinate us in the field, and that means Mother is in danger as well.”

“Most likely,” Aalyn agreed with a nod, “This is either the work of House Faline or the Governor, trying to rid herself of one of our feuding houses.”

“No,” Thurdain disagreed with a shake of her head, “It makes no sense for her to get involved. The house's constant feuding is what makes her position so stable. If she were to try to end the feuding, then it wouldn’t be long before someone started plotting against her.”

“True,” Aalyn mumbled, “Then it must be House Faline.”

“Most likely,” Thurdain answered, “But there is a slight chance there is a third party further down the political food chain that is looking to remove two obstacles at once.”

“So we can’t act rashly,” Aalyn surmised, “We still need proof.”

“Yes,” Thurdain agreed, “It will take time, but we have the perfect man for the job.”

“Hmm, yes, but I'd rather not put Sinaan in too much trouble,” Aalyn whispered, “If he were to die, then mother would kill me herself.”

“Then make sure he knows not to engage anything or anyone he finds,” Thurdain offered as a solution, “He should only investigate.”

“Maybe,” Aalyn replied, “Let me think about it.”