Sighting the village of Murtis in the distance, I was reminded of Lycidae. The resemblance only served to heighten my resolve; I wouldn’t allow this place to fall to ruin as Lycidae had. Vorisen proceeded us, and was already questioning villagers by the time we arrived. Elmidath paused beyond the collection of simple houses, along with the rest of her retinue. “We’ll wait here while you go and help Vorisen.”

“You’re not coming into the village?”

“There’s no need, the two of you should be able to handle things fine.”

I wasn’t sure things would go easily as that, but she and the others probably wouldn’t be much help anyway. Vorsen was hardly someone I wanted to spend time with, but he was probably the best choice for this. He’d probably be fine without me, though I doubted Elmidath would agree to that and it made sense to keep an eye on him.

I caught up with Vorisen just as he finished talking to one of the villagers and turned away from them with a disgusted look on his face. Wondering what could have upset him so, I nodded at him in greeting. “How’s it going?”

“Like drawing blood from a stone. No one will tell me a damn thing.”

“Why not?” Had he already managed to piss off the villagers enough that they didn’t want to talk to him? It was an amusing thought, but it seemed unlikely his presence could be quite that offensive.

“They must be hiding something; probably in league with the bandits we’re after.”

“What makes you think that?” It seemed like quite a leap.

He shrugged. “Why else would they be protecting them?”

“Maybe they really don’t know anything.”

Shaking his head, Vorisen walked off. Fine, if he was going to be that way then I’d just have to question the villagers on my own. Surely I couldn’t do any worse a job than he had.

Walking among the houses, most of the people were either away or staying inside but eventually I found someone. Form hidden by their robes; they carried a small sack over one shoulder as they went about their business. I called out to them and they stopped. I gave them what I hoped was a friendly smile. “Hello there, I was wondering if you could answer a few questions.”

“Who’re you?” Their clothes made it difficult to tell, but by their voice they seemed to be a man.

“I’m here on Lord Biustarn’s behalf, to find the bandits in this region.”

The man lowered his hooded head. “Nothing to do with me.”

“Okay, well, do you know anyone who might?”

Shaking his head, the villager started to walk away but I followed after him. “Please, you must know something.”

“I don’t want to get involved.”

He walked faster and I let him go, not wanting to press the issue any further. They clearly had no interest in talking and there wasn’t much I could do to force their cooperation without resorting to drastic measures. Instead, I decided to try my luck with someone else. Surely they couldn’t all be so reluctant to speak with us.

Predictably the next few people I spoke to stonewalled me too and before long I decided it was time for a break. Frustrated, I went back to Elmidath and told her about how things were going.

Frowning she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “I didn’t think even this part would be difficult, no wonder Biustarn wanted someone else to handle this.”

“What do you think we should do now?”

“I’m not sure. We might just have to search the area on our own, though I’m not sure how far that will get us. For now, I think we should just keep investigating and see if we can’t turn up any information. They must be willing to tell us something useful, even if it’s not directly related to the bandits.”

“Like what?” There didn’t seem to be much room to dance around the subject. Besides, the villagers surely knew why we were here by now.

“Give me some time to think about that. I’ll come up with something by tomorrow and we can get to work then. It’s getting late anyway.”

“Speaking of which, where are we going to sleep anyway?”

“Oh, Vorisen already handled that. They set aside a couple of houses for us to stay in.”

Having a place to sleep wasn’t our most pressing concern right now, but it was nice to know it was dealt with. We probably wouldn’t be able to get much done with what daylight remained, so turning in early made sense.

Elmidath led all of us, except for Vorisen who was still busy somewhere, to our accommodation. The two houses made of a fibrous pale substance would be far from my first choice, but they looked sturdy enough. Miusin and Elmidath took one house, leaving the other to me in Vorisen’s absence.

Fortunately the ogres were content to stay outside, munching on the food the villagers had brought us. Unwilling as they were to provide information, they didn’t seem to have any problem giving us food or shelter. If they were willing to cooperate to that extent, maybe they really didn’t know anything about the bandits.

With nothing much to do, I quickly turned in for the night. Sleeping in the crude bedding wasn’t all that comfortable, but I fell asleep eventually only to be rudely awoken by someone tapping on the window shutters.

I dragged myself up and felt my way through the dark room. Pausing only to get dressed, I pulled the shutters open. I’d been expecting Vorisen or Miusin, but instead I found myself face-to-face with one of the villagers. They recoiled slightly at my sudden appearance, then leant in. “Are you alone?”

I glanced back in the room to confirm that Vorisen was still out. “Why? What’s this about?”

They looked furtively around, staying close to the building. “I have information, let me in.”

I recognized the voice of the first villager I’d spoken to, though I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.

“I asked you for help earlier and you refused. Why would it be any different now?”

“I wanted to talk, but I couldn’t when we might’ve been overheard. It’s too dangerous, I’m taking a huge risk talking to you even now. Please, just let me in for both our sake.”

He sounded desperate, and I really did need information, Besides, how bad could it be? ”Fine, come in.”

Though he probably wasn’t dangerous, I moved over toward where Shotensho rested just in case. The demon clambered through the window in a flurry of cloth, then closed the shutters behind him, returning the room to darkness.

Eyes straining to make him out in the dark, I kept my distance. “I guess we should introduce ourselves. I’m Cathal, servant of Lady Sarinknell.”

“My name is Gorus.”

“Alright. So Gorus, what exactly was so dangerous about us being overheard? Are the villagers passing information to the bandits or something?”

“You and the people you came with have no idea what’s going on here, do you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Gee, what gave you that idea? Do you have any information to give us or not?”

“I do, but I won’t give it to you for free. There’s a lot at risk here; if you want to know anything about what’s happening then I need compensation.”

Well that was a relief. Greed was something I could easily deal with; assuming we could actually meet his demands. “What sort of compensation did you have in mind?”

“I want enough Yomence to support myself and my family. But more importantly, you need to get us out of here. I can’t help you unless you can agree to that.”

There was desperation in his voice; whatever was happening here he wanted out as soon as possible. “Fine, deal.”

Elmidath wouldn’t be happy about me making the arrangement without even consulting her, but it felt like the right thing to do. We needed information and on top of that, this was an opportunity to do some good for a change. Hopefully she’d be able to see that.

It took the villager a few moments to reply, he probably hadn’t expected me to agree so quickly. “You’re sure?”

“Yep. I’m not sure how easily I’ll be able to get your payment, but I’ll make sure it comes through eventually. That’s probably about the best deal you can get, given the circumstances.”

He grunted. “Guess you’re right.”

“So you accept?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then do you mind waiting a bit? I know Lady Sarinknell will want to hear this.”

“Fine, but make it quick. I need to get out of here.”

I called out to Elmidath through our link, though it took a few attempts before she replied.

“What?” I assumed she must’ve been sleeping, as she sounded completely unamused.

“There’s someone here you need to meet, can you come over to where I’m staying?”

She groaned. “Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

“Sorry to wake you, but this is urgent.”

“Fine, I’ll be over there in a little while.”

I waited with the villager in tense silence, wishing Elmidath would get here already. Fortunately, she was true to her word and arrived soon after, much to my relief. After a quick introduction, I asked the villager to share what he knew.

“You came here hunting bandits, right?”

“That’s right. Where can we find them?”

The villager’s eyes hardened while a grim smile crept across his features. “You’ve already met them, they’re—”

Inky blackness spilled from his mouth, cutting off his words. I stood there stunned as he fell to the floor, writhing in agony. Frantic, I looked to Elmidath. “Do something.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Her eyes were wide and her voice was numb with shock. “It’s coming from inside him.”

“I don’t know, just do something.” Despite my plea, Elmidath didn’t move and I took matters into my own hands. Kneeling down, I tried to pull the dark mass free from his mouth. Its jagged edges cut into my palms, but I pulled with all my strength until it finally tore free in a spray of blood and its victim lay still.

Breathing heavily, I looked down at the villager’s lifeless body. The skin around his head was turning black and I noticed the same thing was happening to my hands. After seeing what it’d done to him, I didn’t want any of the darkness on me.

I scrubbed my hands against the coarse fabric of my bedding until they were raw. Inspecting them, I was relieved to see they were free of the dark taint. I went to stand by Elmidath, who still hadn’t moved. “What the hell was that?”

“It must be something to do with the same being that was controlling my father, but beyond that I have no idea. How could its influence have already spread this far?”

Seeing that Elmidath didn’t know much more than I did, I decided to leave off the questions for now. This was the time for action, even if I didn’t really know what we were supposed to be doing. “We’ll have to figure that out later. Whatever’s going on here, it’s definitely dangerous. We should regroup with the others.”

“Right.”

Leaving poor Gorus’s body behind, we hurried out.