Chapter 27 — Hidden Vampires, Chaotic Priests, and Plotting Mages, Oh My!

Kaylie sheathed her sword with a smooth motion while Brendon, the cultist mage she was putting to good use, watched in dismay as another of his fellow Tower mages' just-decapitated body shriveled in the tell-tale signs of having been a vampire.

The reason Kaylie was a legendary spy, a hero of the people, and feared by powerful men wasn't because of her illusions and charm. It was because of her Karma Severing technique. A good spy never killed. Murders would invariably be traced back to the murderer and result in the spy being discovered. Kaylie didn't have that problem.

Developing the technique had taken a decade of effort, culminating in the intentional cultivation of her legend as a hero of the people so she could act as a vehicle for the wronged, gathering their grudges such that her sword found cosmic purpose in balancing the karmic debt incurred by the wicked.

The balancing was achieved by using the grudge energy to brand the guilt of the perpetrator's crimes into his spirit and thus cursing the person’s afterlife and delaying their reincarnation. As such, the technique was useless against a righteous man.

“Search him and the room for clues but be careful not to get blood on you,” Kaylie told her less-than-thrilled assistant. “I need to meditate for a few passings of the sand. Do not disturb me unless it is important.”

Xyn had done an excellent job using Thanle's memory dispersal technique on young Brendon. The poor human youth thought she had single-handedly routed the cultist meeting and was deathly afraid of offending her. Of course, she could have done Thanle's technique herself, but she wanted to see her grandson's progress. Kreel's boy really was talented.

Wrapping herself in a dense bubble of air, Kaylie sat down to attempt contacting Arienos.

“You elves always look down on us! Threatening us, taking our land!” the lizardman chief was complaining.

“Open your clogged earholes,” Arienos addressed the chief and the gathered villagers. “The great evil of the swamp has been revived and is consuming the villages it finds-”

“Our great god has finally come for us!” a bone-covered shaman hissed out in the Lizardmans’ language. “Rejoice! Our ascendence to immortality has come!”

“Praise to the swamp god!”

“Praise to the Xogg!”

Other lizardmen gave out hissing cheers of jubilation, banging spears against wood and bone shields, shaking bone-rattle talismans. Some of the womenfolk hugged their children tight and made fearful sounds.

Arienos let out an exasperated breath and formed a spell under the shaman. The surprised tribal spellcaster’s hissing became shrieking as flames erupted upward and rapidly turned the fool to ash.

“This is not a negotiation,” Arienos announced into the disbelieving hush that followed. “I don't care if you'd rather stay and become plant food. You will gather your things and flee to the north or all of you will meet his fate.”

Around Arienos, the rangers tensed in anticipation of battle, but other than outraged hissing and posturing, the reaction was fearful and muted, most slowly backing away from the gathering.

“The gods will not look kindly on this injustice!” the chief spat out then turned and hissed tasks to his warriors to prepare the departure.

Arienos didn't have time to worry about the gods' opinions of his actions. The continuing changes in the ley-lines suggested that the Xogg had split off a portion of its body to finish collecting the Remnants and consume these Lizardman villages while the main body was establishing its divine domain. Syrlieh was fighting the spawned avatar alone, harassing and annoying it in a risky delaying action to buy time for the evacuation of these villages.

Defeating and sealing or killing a land god was a daunting task from the start, but defeating a land god in its divine domain was degrees more perilous. The longer the Xogg had to gather and consolidate its power, the more difficult the task would become.

“Wouldn’t it be safer and faster to just kill them?” Leilyi suggested. “Their worshiping the Xogg is giving it power and some of them will just pretend to go north and later sneak south to 'join with' it.”

“Even if the lizardmen tribes are the cause of the great evil that we elves have been fighting for centuries, not all of them worship the Xogg,” Illenari chided her fellow ranger. “The goddess would not approve of such indiscriminate taking of life.”

Rhealie nodded her agreement with Illenari but, like Telryn, warily kept her attention focused on watching for threats from the disgruntled villagers as they rushed about gathering their worldly possessions rather than putting forth an opinion.

Arienos. I have an update on the current situation in the Tower.

“Keep watch. I need to receive a report,” Arienos alerted the rangers as he sat and surrounded himself with a barrier before projecting his consciousness into the communication gem.

Arienos rolled his eyes when he saw the projection of his feline peer in a black evening dress, smiling to show her fangs as she lounged provocatively on a blood-colored couch, lazily holding a crystal goblet filled with blood, no doubt. “You seem to be enjoying yourself, Kaylie, after having been so resistant to participating in this mission when I initially contacted you.”

“What did you expect leading with swamps and such? Now, secret mage cabals infiltrated by vampires and plotting evil from within their lofty towers—that’s more to my taste.” Kaylie swirled the blood-wine in the goblet and chuckled.

“Yillian had mentioned the vampire you encountered previously in his report, as well as the disturbing planned experiments,” Arienos noted with a serious expression. “But I’m still unclear why vampires would be interested in a suicidal land god cult. I thought we were mainly dealing with priests of Malor and Tower-backed opportunists?”

“Oh, there's that too. Which of the factions is in charge and the extent to which each faction is aware of the other's true nature isn't entirely clear. From what I've discovered thus far, it looks like cooperation based on mutual interests rather than something directed by a single villain.”

“Sounds like cleaning this up is going to be messy. So, what have you discovered about their mutual interest?”

“The Chaos essence is the primary goal,” Kaylie asserted and paused for emphasis before continuing, “Whether for its ability to create bloodlines and special medicines or to enable the vampires to overcome their weakness to light and such, there’s something desirable for each faction. Though the vampires apparently also have some independent interest in cultivating the swamp horrors as a possible source of renewable sustenance.

“And, based on the number of vampires I've already hunted down within the Tower over the last few days, discreet sources of blood might have started becoming a problem for them of late. One thing is clear: this particular Vampire Lord is rather ambitious.”

“You think he’s spread his vampires out into the city itself?” Arienos asked.

Kaylie nodded. “Seems likely. I’m still investigating. My hunch is that they’ve infiltrated the local criminal organizations and taken over the sewers. We already know that the sewers of Haverin City are one of the places where the mages are keeping kidnapped people for bloodline experimentation. It’s probable the vampire infestation has spread to that city as well.”

“I’ll leave the vampires to you, Kaylie.” Arienos rubbed his forehead to relieve some of his building stress then belatedly reminded himself that his current body was a projection of energy and will. “Any signs that the mages had a plan for how to deal with the Xogg?”

“They do, something ice magic related, but I’m still tracking that down. Also, I’m sure Yillian has already reported about the proposed idea of feeding a vampire to the Xogg’ to see if it would poison the Xogg or…” Kaylie trailed off meaningfully.

Arienos nodded grimly. “Or if the Chaos essence would allow an unholy fusion of undeath and vampiric regeneration with virulent growth and assimilation through consumption… though it would be useful to know if death energy was an effective counter, let’s hope that experiment doesn’t come to pass.”

“Oh, looks like he’s already coming around. Impressive.”

Recognizing the voice, Xyn felt his fuzzy thoughts rapidly clarifying. He didn’t open his eyes, instead listening to his surroundings to get a sense of the situation. Suspecting that they were captured, he didn’t dare project his aura for a more accurate assessment just yet.

“Is that unusual, Master Rethan?” Yillian asked.

“Quite so,” the cat-kin master replied, his deep voice almost purring with amusement. “Normally, my poison would knock-out a youth Xyn’s size for most of a day. Gotta say, it sure is convenient timing for me that you three have shown up when you have and that your friend here won’t be out of commission for as long as expected. Finally, we’ll be able to do something about those evil Tower bastards and their vampire allies.”

“The vampires are here too?” Alennil asked, sounding surprised.

“Indeed, they are,” Master Rethan grumbled. “I’m guessing you’ve run into them elsewhere?”

“Just at the Tower,” Alennil confirmed.

In the background of his companions casually chatting with the cat-kin who had so easily taken them down, muffled sounds of rowdy music and rough men carousing muddled its way into the room as if through a wall.

Not sensing any tension, Xyn opened his eyes to confirm what he suspected. They were alone with the cat-kin in a back room of what was probably a tavern. The room looked a lot like a storeroom but much of the supplies seemed tailored to Explorers and the desk he was seated in front of had a detailed map of the city and surroundings tacked to the wall behind it.

Relaxing in a chair behind the desk, Master Rethan grinned a predatory grin at him. “Welcome to the Haverin City branch of the Cartographer’s Society. Now that you’re finished pretending to be asleep, I’ve got a job offer for you, Xyn. Something I can only entrust to a fellow cat-kin.”