Rana sat silently against a boulder and gazed at the city walls in the distance in silence. The flickering torchlight wandered and their carrier hid beneath the shadows, but she could smell all of them. She already grasped the patrol route of the soldiers, and it wouldn’t be long until an opening would present itself.

With her zombie senses, she had no need to pay attention to the movement of the light to know of the movement of soldiers in the darkness. The small flames were a distraction, something to steady her mind and not let it wander into depressing thoughts. She would eventually need to kill her sister, and even though Mara betrayed her, her heart still ached at the thought. The bond of blood and familial love was fleeting and untrustworthy, so why did it hurt her so much for having lost them? She chuckled. To think that one of the few pains she felt in this body was for her sister’s betrayal.

She sighed and stood up. The time for pointless mulling was over. She stalked forward and her steps steadily closed the distance between her and the city walls. The city guards were vigilant and every patrol was commanded by a marked one. The City of Nye was the center of power in the area. The city was close to the main road and had easy access to it. This meant that even if other areas were under attack, as long as this city stood they could reinforce the other places. There was one weakness in their patrol, however, and that it did not plan for an existence like Rana.

It was expected for a capital city as important and powerful as Nye to face threats of infiltration by enemies, marked ones or not. That was why they had their guards and patrol at the border, roaming the fields, and on the city walls, all cooperate with the other and filling the gaps of their defenses. Their patrol route was structured and scheduled in a way that there was no opening for a human, fiend, or marked one to take advantage of.

Rana was different. She had the sense of a zombie, the mind of a human, and the capability of a marked one. She knew of where the hidden scouts were, the range of their detection Skills, which ones were safe and which ones weren’t, and when their shifts were over. It was usually something that could not be taken advantage of and was a secret unknown to outsiders. She didn’t need to know, she could smell them. Even then, it was normally not enough. However, her sense of smell also allowed her to weave through the patrolling guards undetected.

Humans knew of zombies and their ability to sense life. However, that only triggered when the monster had aggro, and they were never as potent as what Rana had. They were wrong, but it was not born out of ignorance. Zombies always had superior senses when it came to detecting life, but they could not utilize their abilities due to them being monsters. Their brains were rotten and functionally dead and could not comprehend the information loaded into their mind. Even Rana, whose mind was better than most, also had issues when her senses were overloaded. Zombies were only able to recognize the smell of life when their aggro locked onto their target. When they did, it was also not like they could do much. Zombies were slow and do not last long. Their only advantage as a monster was their unique existence of a reanimated dead body meant many detection Skills could not detect them. They were, after all, just corpses. The only way to discover one was by sight and the sound of their shuffling and gurgling.

What if a zombie was only one in name? Zombies that were capable of all that they could do without the limitation of a decaying body was not something the guards were ready for. To them, even if one were to shuffle towards the city, they were too slow and dimwitted to elude their net.

Rana made it to the city walls undetected. The gates were closed but it was not like she couldn’t get it. The thing about cities with a long history was that they were built when the Church still commanded the kingdom. She knew that there were dealings that happened under the table, ones that must be kept a secret, even the very notion of traveling into the city. There were also times when an inquisitor needed the secrecy, less they alert their prey. That was why in a city as old and important as Nye there was a secret entrance. It was one only known by the top brass of the Church and they were only shared among them. That was why she did not expect to smell guards beyond the door.

She had to know why. She did not make the hasty assumption that there was a traitor that needed hunting or even a decision to hunt them if there were. The important aspect of this situation was that it might explain or shed light on the current affairs of the Church. That was one of the few key pieces of information she lacked. The Chapel contained some missives, but the official and important ones were incinerated with the rite. She wondered if she had made the right decision, but regret was not something she had time to wallow in. She knew of the general state of the Church, that it was fractured and lost its influence, but none of the specifics. With the information she acquired in the Chapel, she might be able to discern what exactly was going on with Nye and parts of the Church. Information was the key part of any plan, after all.

How was Rana going to go about it? Simple. She would ask those involved and those who knew.

She placed her hand on the hidden gate. She gathered her mana and sent them into the ward buried deep within the stones. It was an torrent of runic patterns and maze-like paths, however, she knew of the correct runes that needed to be activated. The hum was low and consumed the sound in the vicinity. The guards within were startled into attention before giving way to disbelief. They most likely were only told to guard this place and never expected the door to actually open. It seemed like some secrets were still kept to only those who needed to know, and guards did not.

Rana stepped into the dimly lit corridor and faced the guards who raised their swords. Should she kill them? No. They would take her to those she needed to talk to.

“I am an inquisitor of the Sapphire Order. Inform that to the one in charge and bring me to them. If you dally, I will be sure to judge you accordingly.”

The guards looked at the other, hesitant but realization slowly dawned on their faces. She wondered what they were told, but she knew that someone guarding this place would at least know of the basic purpose of such a secret entrance. Fortunately, it did not turn into a fight.

“Yes, mam. We will inform the duke of your arrival, please be patient,” one of the guards said and the other left their post.

It was interesting. So it was the duke who they went to, not anyone from the Church, or was there some hidden ploys at play? They were many interesting questions that needed answers, and Rana would be the one to discover.

It was time to meet the duke of Nye.