“Who can tell me about Patrex’ weapons?”

Two hands rose. One was high and straight, the other barely dared going above the shoulder.

“Mhhh, Veridienne?”

A little blonde girl rose, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Patrex’ weapons are swords enchanted by writtingers, the Touched that enchant. They are the most valuable blades in the Empire, because as long as the power of miracles go through them, they shall never shatter and will pierce all armours.” She explained almost in a whisper.

“Very good. But know that there aren’t only swords that are enchanted, and to say that it can pierce everything is overexaggerating a bit. For example, enchanted armours exist but, do you know why they are so rare?”

The little girl had a panicked expression.

“No worries if you do not know, I have never taught it to you, you may sit back down…Yes Trinne?”

“Because even if the armour could block the sword, it would not protect you from a war hammer strike, or a well-placed arrow, or any kind of blunt weaponry. To use ma…the power of the Gods for something so easily circumvented isn’t worth it.”

Sage-Brother Berth showed a sliver of surprise in his expression. “That…that is correct. Well done. Did you father teach you that?”

For only answer, the redhaired girl grimaced.

Lesson of Sage-Brother Berth.

After waiting a dozen minutes in front of the wooden fence surrounding the village without anyone coming to meet them, Nay and Trinne decided to enter the premises of Blueanchor village on their own. In and of itself, the village was nothing special. First they passed through a field of fardoises. In this season the little yellow flowers growing on the long green stems were starting to give place to the acidic yellow fruits that Nay often used in pastries. Then, they arrived on a simple stone road infested by nettles. The first house they crossed was in wood, basic, one story high, but also empty and abandoned, the door hanging on only one of its hinges. The more they advanced, the closer the houses were from each other, all were relatively similar in shape and form, and all seemed abandoned. It wasn’t until they reached the centre of the village that the first signs of ‘life’ appeared. A moat cat was hunting down a mouse in front of the Canna well. And there were also six or so ‘people’ in this little plaza. Nay wasn’t sure if you could qualify them as people, as they just stood there, looking at nothing. Some of the individuals prostrated there weren’t even wearing any clothes, showing the newcomers how thin and frail they were. All looked young, men or women, and they lacked the most essential of things: No one had any life rhythm. At least none that the master Legio could sense. The only thing she could feel from them was an abomination of a rhythm that she had learnt to associate with the forsaken box she used to train her miracles. It was here all-encompassing. There was also something else inside those shells of humans. A Rreico perhaps, but describing it as such would have been close to absurd, how little it felt like that. It was the same inside all of those dead still walking.

Nay felt Trinne’s Rreico next to her fill with terror. This village was terribly silent, if they had come here during night-time, Nay would have missed half the people here, that was how still they were standing and how little their presence was.

Two armed men, very tall, were standing in front of the biggest building of the plaza, two stories high and large of thirty meters or so. The brown wood constituting it was starting to rot at some places.

The woman they had seen before entering the village exited the building, and walked right passed them. She almost rushed into Trinne, seemingly not seeing her. The woman was whispering something Nay didn’t manage to hear.

“What did…” She began.

“To bring them in graciously. She was repeating that.” Trinne answered before she could finish her question.

Nay had kept her hands on the pommel of her blades since they put a foot inside the village, and now, she squeezed them tighter.

She arrived in front of what had to have been the mayor’s house. The door was wide open, but the two guards were blocking the passage with their lances.

“No weapons.” Said one of them. His eyes looked almost grey because of how empty of life they looked, he was staring at nothing. They had to have been green, in the past.

Trinne gave a glance to the Legio. “We’re not going to go in without our weapons, do comfort me about that please.”

“No.” Nay shook her head. Of course the Devourer wouldn’t let them enter his house armed. She hadn’t even thought about that, the Legio wanted to insult herself, but she didn’t have the time for that. She had a short burst of admiration towards Trinne, who very rarely forgot those little details that were so very important when she planned things.

“No weapons.” The guard repeated.

“Do we force passage?” Nay proposed.

“Mhhh.” The red-haired woman thought about it for a moment. Despite the very obvious threat that the two woman posed; the two guards did not move. The one with almost grey eyes only repeated once more: “No weapons.”

“Maybe just touch one? Your power should break whatever this trance they are in is, no?”

“Touch them?” Nay had no desire to get close to those half-living shells. But it didn’t cost her anything to try. She moved towards the guard with almost grey eyes, and without waiting for him to react, she put a hand on his wrist.

The Legio trembled in disgust. The sensation under her fingers was not natural. She felt the malevolent Rreico be extinguished under her own dark mountain of power. As a puppet who’s string had been cut, the guard crashed on the ground.

“Biach! What the…” Trinne exclaimed, jumping back.

This time, the remaining guard reacted, raising his lance to strike Nay with it. She was too close to him for that to happen though, she took a step forward and touched him. His body plummeted.

There was a short time of nothingness, Trinne and Nay looking around ready for anything. But the villagers didn’t do anything, as if unaware of what had happened in broad daylight. They stayed prostrated without moving.

Trinne turned her eyes back on the two men on the ground. She knelt and inspected them. After a brief check, she exclaimed in a whisper: “They… they are dead.”

“Yes. It has been a long time since their death too, I gather.” Trinne had confirmed what Nay had felt with her sixth sense.

The red-haired woman gave an anxious glance to her friend. “You don’t have to, Nay. I can do it.”

The Legio perfectly understood what she was saying. She stared at Trinne with an almost ferocious expression. “Actually, what I’d like is for you to get away from here.”

“That won’t happen.” Trinne smile was unbreakable.

Nay closed her eyes. She knew that her sudden desire to see Trinne go as far as possible from here would never be.

“Stay close to me then. And do not get closer to whoever is responsible for this.”

The duchess acquiesced slowly. “I just need to touch you to be completely safe from any kind of magic, Nay. The danger is minimal.”

“I know that, we tested it together. But you’re not sensing what I’m sensing…how wrong this is. I cannot let this happen to you, I won’t take any risks.”

A tacit agreement passed between the two women.

“Got it. And I do have an idea of what you’re sensing. It feels like the air is rotten, even though the only smell here is the one of the sea.”

Nay nodded.

In touching those two men, she had found how to describe the malevolent Rreico infesting the unfortunate villagers. It was like the concrete form of greed. A corruption of the rhythm of life such that it lost all of its beauty.

She entered the building, followed closely by her friend.

Everything was dirty. The first room was a reception area, not big, but behind a counter stood a naked woman. Nay looked away, there were traces on the poor soul that didn’t leave much doubt about what had happened to her.

“No weapons.” Said the lifeless woman, not doing anything when Nay got closer to her.

She dropped with a soft thump when Nay put a hand on her shoulder.

The body under the Legio’s feet seemed so very small.

“Nay….” Trinne was just behind her, as promised. The Legio was glancing to her every few seconds or so.

She could feel a hundred Rreicos further down inside the building, and she walked straight to them. It was hard for her to step towards that, because the Rreicos were shouting and screaming in agony, not making a sound. It was just like what happened when Vestigio died, and that his Rreicos got stuck inside his body. They only wanted one thing, to be freed, and Nay had to put a conscient effort to focus on her surroundings. Every corridor they went through was filled with filth or a horrible sight. She did stop in front of a teenager, more like a child, put like a broken puppet on the ground next to a wall. There was a plate dropped next to her, the food on it partly spilled on the ground and almost all of it rotten completely.

There was a tragic story behind this scene, that Nay understood all too well.

She unsheathed her blades. Trinne did the same with her sword and she pulled her shield from behind her back.

The Rreicos’ screams were coming from behind this door. Two Touched were guarding the door, but Nay didn’t pause. One chanted the psalm of Ja’s sun, but he didn’t reach the second verse that Nay had touched his shoulder with the tip of two of her fingers. The other didn't suffer much longer.

She entered the room as the both of them crashed on the ground. Everything was well illuminated, two big windows were opened and let the sound of waves inside, and the dark corners weren’t dark, as torches had been lit up there. Still, the air was so dry and stale that the room seemed plunged into darkness.

Inside, there was a man that had reached a level of obesity that Nay didn’t think was possible. He was standing, or more like half laying, on a gigantic canopy bed, but still taking the entire space of the luxurious furniture piece. Him and his food, that he was gulping down without really chewing. There were a few naked woman and men in the corners, but closer to him Nay counted eight God-Touched. They didn’t turn to face the intrusion of the two Imperatrix’ jewels.

The Devourer burped loudly before giving a sinister look at the two intruders.

“I was asking myself when that old whore would send me her assassins! But what beautiful Jewels you are!”

His smile was more than perverted, and Nay felt a chill rise up her back. The Rreicos screaming were inside that man. He had swallowed them like the raisin cupcakes he had to have eaten recently, seeing all the crumbs over his fat belly and uncleaned sheathes.

Nay could not even feel the real Rreico of the man in front of her, obfuscated by all the suffering rhythms.

There was a red reflection in front of his bed, indicative of a Vanni wall miracle put there to protect him. Nay also felt a dark wave emanating from the Devourer to the Touched surrounding him. Finally, they turned all to face Trinne and Nay, but they moved like haunted wax mannequins.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” The Devourer taunted them with a porcine expression.

“Are you the Devourer?” Nay asked.

“Pierre, son of the farmer Jarvis?” Trinne added.

When she spoke, the Devourer’s stare stopped to ogle down her body.

“You…you are quite the magnificent one. Much better than everything I could find around here! You’re a noble, evidently! I never tasted nobles before…I thought the old whore would have been smarter than that. To avoid me was much better, did the war change her mind? No need to tell me, you’ll give me everything I want very soon.”

“…Are you Pierre?” Nay was holding herself back like she had never done before.

“Ha!” The giant mass of fat laughed in a sound so guttural it sounded like someone vomiting. “Pierre! I am not Pierre. I am the Devourer, most powerful God-Touched in history! No one can stop me, I am a God! They said my power was from Jormun but…”

Nay had had enough. “You are guilty of murder, slavery…” The creature looking like some sort of horrible rendition of a man stopped talking, his expression clearly offended. “…and abusive use of the powers that have been gifted to you by the gods. You have two options. Either you come to Leïn to be judged for your crimes, or you will die, here and now.”

“Oh?” His eyes opened in surprise. “Oh!? Ohohohohohoho! No my dear, you’ll be my appetizer, and she’ll be my main course. That is what is going to happen. I am the god of emotions, master of people, do my bidding and come to me!”

Nay let him sing his psalm without doing anything. She may not feel his Rreico, but she did feel the intent behind his spell. A powerful wave crashed on her, that she could only see through her sixth sense, but she was the mountain. Trinne was touching her back surreptitiously, just to be safe, but Nay knew that the spell hadn’t been aimed at her friend.

This time, the smile of the Devourer vanished a bit. “Ah? Did she find a way to stop my power!? Impossible, I am a God! Touched three and four!”

Two of the God-Touched started to whisper their psalm. Nay didn’t wait this time, she rushed them, closely followed by Trinne. No words had been needed between them.

Vanni’s wall exploded when Nay touched it, and she freed the bodies of the two Touched before they had finished their miracles.

“You…you are a Touched hunter! I heard the stories, but I thought they had been disbanded! But I am no Touched, I am a God!” The Devourer hit his mattress with both of his fists. Nay was only two meters away from him now, and she could smell the pestilent odour exuding from him.

“I will not repeat myself.” She announced.

He looked at the Legio, but she could see that he was not listening to her. Then his eyes fell once more on the red-haired woman. “Why is she behind you? Isn’t she protected? Well then…I am the God of…HGRggjgkhh.” His sentence was cut short because of Bubble sticking out of his neck. The shock on the Devourer’s face was similar to the one passing through the Legio.

She had just thrown her dagger at him without thinking.

The Devourer turned to one of the remaining God-Touched. “Hhhrrrhrhreeeeaaaaalllmm eeee.” He pulled the dagger out of his neck, and blood spilled everywhere, on the fat of his chin, the fat on his belly, and the oily layer on his bed.

The Touched who came closer was naked, and didn’t look a day over sixteen. “Oh Lebe, Goddess of life…” She began.

The well-lit room was suddenly not so well lit anymore. The Touched stopped speaking. Something dark was blocking her mouth.

The Devourer tried to get up, but only the upper part of his torso and his arms moved, more like squirmed helplessly. “Hheeelll mee…” The blood continued spilling, the Devourer wasn’t dying yet.

The room became even darker.

Trinne squeezed Nay’s shoulder. “Hani. Calm down. Angels. Breathe.”

Nay focused on the feeling on her shoulder, and not on the last moments of the monster in front of her.

After two excruciatingly long minutes, the gurgling noises ceased.

Nay felt hundred of Rreicos go free. Then the villagers and Touched around them slipped down, dropping softly, almost silently.

The Devourer was scrunched up, blood all around him, his arms hanging there, his head down.

Trinne went to inspect him without a word. Then she picked up Bubble, thrown on the ground, and washed the blade with a napkin. She went back to Nay and held out the dagger.

“I am sorry Nay. I was useless.”

The room had gone back to being bright now. The Legio could hear the singing of birds and the cawing of seagulls, beyond the windows, outside.

“I am still standing.” Nay answered, almost surprised about it.

Trinne smiled weakly. “Well, come, let’s leave. If we go now, we’ll be able to see Liz tonight.”

“What…what about the bodies?”

“Nephrite will handle it. Not much we can do with only the two of us.”

Nay finally nodded, and the two women left.

When they reached the outskirts of the village, Nay spoke softly. “Let’s go to the coast.”

“Nay…you don’t have to. Don’t you want to go back?”

Go back where? She thought. Home? Nay’s house was not in Leïn.

“No. I want to see the sea.” She finally answered.

She had a memory of the waves. Those high and unending in Gite. The ones she had had to vanquish so many times to satisfy her father. The water had been cold, the training harsh. But now, Nay knew how to swim.

Why was she thinking about that?

Trinne gave her a big smile.

“I miss the sea too.” She said, uncovering something that the Legio hadn’t even realized about herself.