17/6/337

Vasuki

Silence...that was something new. The past month had been a bustle of noise, people on vacation, repairs, celebrations, training, and having to deal with a very tired Audra. Now, however, there was silence. Complete and utter silence. The town was being rebuilt from the rubble, with most of the homes finished and the businesses in the area are open as stalls instead of buildings, that were still sitting as rubble.

Vasuki lay in bed, tired but content. His mind wasn’t wandering and he didn’t feel the cold aura that normally surrounded him when he was alone, he was happy, at least for a little bit. He was at peace until the feline scent started getting closer to him.

Vasuki sat up and looked around him, ready to try and pinpoint where she was coming from. The bedroom window? The door? The living room window? They were the only three places Cabana could possibly appear. He knew she was good at hiding but her scent would have to give her away, there was no way she could avert that. The scent was getting closer, and closer to the living room window. He formed a small cube of ice out at the window just before she would have been dropping through it. The cube of ice shot outwards and landed with a nearly inaudible thud against the dirt on the ground. He felt a slim hand wrap gently around his neck.

“I’m over here, lizard boy.” Cabana claimed.

“How, in Kalano’s name do you do that?” Vasuki asked as she let him out of her terrifying, yet gentle, hold.

“I have a lot of enemies, if I gave my secrets away someone might hear it and use it against me. Of course I have other weaknesses. Let’s go, I have some work for you and Bluey.”

Vasuki left his room, still tightening his sword around his waist. Making his way down the stairs he noticed that Cabana was slowly drinking a glass of alcohol and swinging her right leg back and forth, along with rolling her right shoulder. He approached her, with an icy hand, he grabbed her right shoulder. She tensed up and grit her teeth. Despite the cold, sweat dripped from her forehead.

“You’re out of medicine, or did you forget to apply it this morning?” Vasuki said removing his hand. She gave him a thankful smile.

“I forgot it, maybe I should stop drinking that whiskey.” Cabana suggested.

“I’m surprised you haven’t dropped dead from that stuff yet.”

“I’m more than meets the eye, you know that better than almost anyone.” Cabana claimed, scooting a stool out for him to sit.

Vasuki sat down and Cabana passed him a small journal from out of the bag hanging from her hip, it was old but definitely well taken care of. He picked it up and examined it. It was made of golden leather, definitely not from cattle, something much more durable. It was a little bigger than his hand and, other than the unusual leather, unremarkable.

“It’s my logbook, consider it an early birthday present. I supplied the dragon skin myself, and wrote down my adventures in the Royal Knights. It includes a lot of different Ascensions, people, places, magic, animals, demons. The lessons I learned, and the things I miss about the old me. The me that died when I ascended.” Cabana said sadly.

“Did you say...dragon skin? Where did you get it?” Vasuki asked.

“A town pissed off the wrong creature and my squad was in the area, it almost destroyed the entire town even with us there. It took us a long time to kill it, so you bet your ass I took a souvenir.”

“And the old you?” Vasuki asked. Cabana smiled before putting her hand on his shoulder.

“A story for another time. Bluey’s waiting for us, at the construction site, let’s save her from another few hours of labor shall we?” Cabana smiled before standing up and laying a gold coin on the counter.

Audra, or Bluey, was in the middle of moving stones from the rubble to a construction site, any undamaged stones were being reused in raising buildings. She was soaking in sweat and the sun that was beating down on her didn’t make the job any easier. She gave a wide smile when she noticed Vasuki and Cabana making their way towards her. She gave the site three more stones before making her way towards them.

“I don’t think I’ve been any happier to see someone so unstable, where’s that cold air I need right now?” Audra joked.

“I’m happy to see you too, Audra. I don’t think that’s going to happen right now, Vistrata has been quiet lately.” Vasuki teased as he let out cold air towards Audra.

“So what do you need from us?” Audra asked. They both looked towards Cabana.

“Come with me, we’ll talk while we walk.” The pair followed her towards the lake as she spoke.

“Daosr aren’t known for coming this far south, they prefer the mountains between Tristal and Ssirm’s Tundra, none have ever been sighted here. Me and the other Royal Knights all thought the event was weird. Anyone have any guesses as to what might be going on?” She asked.

“It was led here and let loose on the town by people with corript intentions?” Audra asked. It wasn’t too far from impossible, Cro’ak’s had been let loose in Kiaveen, why not a Daosr in Nevenal.

“It got confused?” Vasuki asked. “Maybe it was hunting for different prey?” He suggested.

“Wrong. I noticed something was off while in battle, it seemed to know how people worked. Like it was used to hunting people, or it was used to being near people. Daosr’s aren’t known for being as predictive as this one. So I decided to investigate into it myself. So I have something to show you two, I’ve already went over this with the others and they all agreed to look out for the signs.”

Cabana opened the door to her home and led them inside. She walked over to the far corner inside her cabin and pulled the rug over the floor away, revealing a hidden door. She put her hand out and the rushing of wind could be heard, along with the sound of a lock being opened. She pulled the door open and gestured for them to come down.

Vasuki carefully walked down the steps, it was abnormally dark down here. His vision couldn’t pierce through the darkness of the room. Strangely enough the it didn’t captivate the stairs like the rest of the room. Suddenly the darkness began to surge to Cabana, swirling around her then completely vanishing. She shot a flame out of her fingers and it circled the room to light the torches that hung on the walls.

The room was made entirely out of stone, and the walls were adorned with weapons that made the ones upstairs look like children’s toys. They were sharper and more fierce, they were visibly more deadly and each one sent a nearly unnatural chill down his spine.

“How long has this been down here?” Vasuki asked.

“I began to make it with the others as soon as I moved here. Thankfully they all knew me and agreed it was to be held here. They all know how to unlock it in their own way.”

In the middle of the room was a rectangular stone table with an unlit lantern in the middle of it, along with eight stone chairs, two on each side, surrounding it. A map of Tristal hung on the wall it was covered with notes and pins attached to it with some kind of adhesive. There were shelves with a bunch of rolls of paper that seemed to be labeled in a language he couldn’t understand.

“Please take a seat.” Cabana suggested.

Cabana walked to the stone table and looked at four rolled up scrolls laying on it. She grabbed a wooden figurine of a dragon on a pedestal, Vasuki hadn’t noticed, off of a shelf and placed it on a scroll after unraveling it. She pointed at the drawing in the middle of the scroll. It was of a circle surrounded by a square and a triangle that surrounded that one. The triangle had a bunch of different glyphs tracing along the outer edge of it that Vasuki didn’t recognize, it definitely wasn’t Nashatalian though.

“This is a ritualistic circle used for transformations. Drawing one out and using it can transform gold coins into it’s raw form. It’s normal for people to use it, it’s usually written with glyphs in Nashatalian around it. Other times it’s written with a different language to get a more effective ritual, the language is known as Zerian. We don’t know what kind of Ancient he is, just his name, so don’t ask.” She unraveled another scroll and took the head off of the dragon figure, placing it on the new scroll.

“I backtracked the Daosr, it wasn’t hard their tracks are huge. This thing’s tracks begin at the northern side of the lake, where a human’s tracks end. There I found torn clothes and a lot of dried blood. So I did what I did best and followed those tracks where I found these drawings.” She pointed at the insignia on the scroll.

The insignia was that of a diamond with an arrow coming out of each point, each arrow had four branches coming out of it, each going away from the arrow then up with the same direction of the arrow.

“Any idea what this is?” Cabana asked.

“I’ve never seen it before.” Vasuki claimed. Audra eyed it a little closer.

“I’ve seen the bottom of it before. It looks really similar to the clothing stores shopkeeper’s tattoo. I only got a glimpse of it so I might be wrong.” Audra commented.

“He’s been missing since the event, his body was never found.” Cabana mentioned. “He was a Vera-Daosr variant. This insignia is the symbol of the Children of the Rift. There are two kinds of people with this mark, one that is part of a cult or a branch of the cult. Or one that has been physically marked by a Rift Caller. Don’t worry about what that is neither of you will have to worry about it.” She cut out any questions the duo had about the subject before they could get any of it out.

“The Children of the Rift are everywhere, this branch seems extremely knowledgeable, and that’s the last thing we need. After following the human tracks I found a terribly hidden cave door, and in it I found a lot of sacrificial shit, bloody pedestals, gallows, guillotines, spike pits, you name it. At the base of it was a transformation circle surrounded by Zerian markings. My theory is that the Children of the Rift used it to create the Daosr by using one of their own, the man that ran the clothing store. And I need you both to look out for this marking, you got that?” She asked.

Vasuki almost burst out laughing, if the event had been closer in date he would have been writhing in anger but everything was going well so he let out a chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Audra asked.

“Funny joke Cabana. There’s a small problem with your story, how would a Daosr Variant turn into a Daosr used by that.” Cabana looked at him blandly.

“Because a variant’s base form is the creature they’re named after. We came from Ancients, Vasuki. You from Ssirm, her from Nuul, and me from Senelia.” His soft chuckle stopped, he hadn’t known about that.

“So in theory, the Children of the Rift used a very powerful ritual to turn a variant into a monster, and that’s why it was so much more skilled than normal.” Cabana finished.

“Why would they do that though, what is their goal?” Audra asked.

“To generate enough chaos in a poor attempt to return everything back to the rift.” Cabana answered. “If stories are true that’s what Zaurah, the Ancient of Chaos, wants. He’s the only one that has any control over the Rift anymore, supposedly.” Vasuki leaned forward before speaking.

“There’s still one problem, if the ritual took place in a cave, why did it only take effect when he was north of the lake?”

“There might be something in the language that mentions a time delay of the transformation, but no one would have any idea. It’s easy to see what language it is, but no one I know personally can speak, read, or write Zerian. We can only identify it.” She exhaled a long breath, as if it had been held. “Just promise me to keep an eye out for any markings for this, I’m not saying to go out of your way to find them, but to keep an eye out.”

“What does all of this mean?” Vasuki asked. “The Children of the Rift being here in Nevenal?”

“Or is there more going on here than just an attack on a single town?” Audra added.

“All of these are questions that the Royal Knights have asked ourselves. We’ve come up with our own questions, and very few answers.” She stood up straight and put her hands behind her back.

“The Children of the Rift being here and doing this means they’re still a threat to humanity as a whole. If they have the numbers to simply just off a member like this then there is no way this is an isolated incident, and they’re more than likely knowledgeable enough to know that they’d be found out, if they had used a variant of a monster in the area no one would have known for much longer. Our goal is to take them out, entirely. The way you can help is just to keep your eyes peeled for any signs of a member. If you find anything please report the details back to me. Out of all of the Royal Knights here, I am the most level-headed and discrete.”

After obtaining the news of a group of cultists preforming rituals near the town they made their way out of Cabana’s home and began to make their way back to the Dragon’s Dinn.

“So we have to keep this hidden between us? No words aloud?” Audra asked.

“Not even in your rooms at the Dragon’s Dinn.” Cabana claimed.

“Speaking of which, Audra, you have a payment due.” Vasuki mentioned.

“You bring that up now?” She asked.

“Hey, I can’t cover for you like I did at the beginning.” Vasuki replied.

“I have the money for it. I’ll pay for it in the morning okay, I’m really tired.”

“We can wait, as long as it’s paid for before the next payment.”

“You two remind me of someone.” Cabana mentioned. She had a smile on her face but her eyes told a miserable story.

“Who would that be?” Vasuki asked.

“Don’t worry about it, just get home and study up on Varulv in the demonology book I gave you two weeks ago.” Cabana was good at hiding, better than anyone Vasuki knew, but even she couldn’t hide the fear that clawed at her expression. Something was wrong, but he knew that he may never get the answer from her.