ARC 3 - HALLOWED

CHAPTER 13 - STAKEOUT

Tera climbed atop the stack of crates, careful to keep her balance and not shift her partially-stable platform. The shop she perched on was empty and probably had been for several hours, but strange noises were no way to keep hidden.

“Kai,” Tera whispered. The islander gave no indication he’d heard her. “Kaikoa,” she tried again, a little louder. Kai perked up a bit like a dog waking from a nap and took a quick look over his shoulder, then nodded his head sideways for her to come closer. Tera slowly walked across the roof in a low crouch, mindful not to silhouette herself at the peak, and joined the islander at the edge behind a small parapet.

“Are they still there?” she asked.

“Yes,” Kai answered in a hushed tone. “They’re just talking, though. I’m starting to think they’re not what we’re looking for.”

Tera frowned. “All the missing people—the women, children, even the men were from the Slants,” she said as she took a seat on the cold stone of the storefront’s roof and suppressed a shiver. “These four have been waiting outside a tavern in the cold far longer than what I’d consider normal.” Kai shrugged in passive agreement and kept his eyes on the group across the street below. Tera chewed her lip as she considered how best to bring up the favor she wanted to ask. “Kai…”

The islander turned to give her a pensive stare. “What do you need me to do?” he asked begrudgingly and Tera recoiled a bit at the bluntness. How had he known? Kai sighed at her movement and was quick to reveal his source of knowledge. “The only time you can’t keep eye contact is when you want to ask me something.”

Maybe that’s how Nora always knows what I’m thinking, she thought. That was beside the point for now, though. She made an effort to look right at Kai while making a note to try to be more aware of her tells. “Listen, if it turns out they’re part of a Void Cult—” she started.

“Which is unlikely, despite their suspicious nature,” Kai added and turning back to look at the group.

“I want you to help keep an eye on Raegn,” Tera finished.

Kai stiffened, then fully turned from his sentry position to face her. “You think he’ll just kill them?”

“What? No,” Tera whispered with a glance at a rooftop some distance away. Raegn would be watching the group from a different angle, but she couldn’t make him out amongst the shadows. “I’m afraid he’ll…I don’t know, freeze?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Kai said with a wave of his hand. “Raegn’s fought the Void far more than any of us. We’ve never even seen it. We’re much more likely to be a burden to him.”

“He’s fought it, sure, but it took his home and nearly killed him, too,” she pointed out. “You haven’t spent time with him like I have, Kai.”

Tera clasped her hands together and squeezed at the memory. They’d gone to sleep like any other night, but she’d woken some time later from a motion next to her. The look on his face was…awful; distorted and scrunched like he was in so much pain. “He hardly sleeps,” she said softly. “He thrashes and sweats and sometimes cries out. I think he has nightmares every night.”

Kai opened his mouth in a smile like he was about to make a joke, probably about how often they spent the night in each other’s beds, but must have thought better of it. His jaw clacked shut and he gave his lips a nervous lick. “Alright. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Thank you,” Tera whispered and silently made her way to the back of the roof where she could descend to the street out of sight.

The night was bitter and though she wrapped herself tightly in her cloak the wind still cut through the fabric. Tera blinked the water from her eyes that the cold had summoned and glanced to her left. Raegn’s face was partially obscured by his hood and shrouded in shadow, but she could see a faint glow in his eyes. He must be holding the Light. How long has he been doing that? she pondered. The Sentinels were legendary for their endurance, so she imagined enhancing his vision like that for hours came as second nature. She also imagined him running for days on end— straight into the same darkness that had almost ended all of humanity.

“Why did you fight the Void?” she asked faintly. She hadn’t even realized she said the words out loud until his voice, unnaturally gravelly, slipped out into the night.

“It was Bastion’s duty.”

The answer was unexpected, not in content, but that he replied at all. She couldn’t pinpoint why she felt that way, though. Probably because every time she asked something it always felt like she was prying. Each time she brought up some topic of his home he’d never denied her a response, but he was never the first to volunteer the information. Still, she’d already opened the door - might as well see where it led.

“So you only did it because it was expected of you?”

Raegn sniffed and wiped his nose on a gloved hand. He turned toward her and blinked several times while the glow faded from his eyes. “Well yes, but there was more to it than that. I thought I could…I don’t know. Win?” he said, unsure of himself. “I thought I could make enough of a difference that it would somehow free Bastion from its charge and save the Realm.”

Tera smiled at that. Everyone liked to think themselves a hero until they were faced with reality. He’d done far more than most in comparison, though.

“Do you still?” she asked. “Believe that, I mean.”

“I suppose a small part of me still does.” Raegn took a pouch off his belt and dumped a handful of dried berries into his palm. He held it out toward her in an offering, but Tera shook her head. He shrugged and tossed the small fruits into his mouth in one go. “I wouldn’t have joined the Order otherwise,” he said after swallowing the mouthful.

“I think it’s very noble of you,” Tera said coyly. She’d meant for it to be more of a flirty jest, but she cursed herself for sounding meek, like some sort of servant-girl.

Raegn chuckled. “Arrogant is more accurate. There are very few who made such a difference. You would think by now I would have learned that stories rarely reflect reality.”

“It’s good to have a belief like that, though,” she blurted out. She’d felt the same about becoming a Justicar, after all. Plus, his ardent nature nature was one of the things she’d come to admire about him. Passion begets passion, she supposed.

“Oh? And you believe the same, right? Raegn asked. “You told me in the library you joined to protect the Realm.”

“That was…partially true,” Tera said under her breath and hugged her knees a bit tighter. “I wanted to surpass my sister and prove my worth to my family name. To become the greatest Justicar in the Order’s history.”

“How come you never talk about her?” Raegn shifted into a more comfortable position, as though he were anticipating a long anecdote. “Kai told me you had a sister seasons ago but I’ve never even heard you say her name.”

“It’s…not that complicated, really,” she admitted. “It’s just not a fun topic.”

“And why’s that?”

Tera sighed and resigned herself to telling him the story. She knew she probably should’ve done it earlier in their relationship. He’d been open enough to talk about his past even though it had been taken from him - it was only fair that she discuss hers as well.

“We’re only half-sisters,” she said and let her head fall back against the half-wall at the edge of the roof. “We share the same mother, but Nora is the daughter of Lucas Caloman, one of the greatest Justicar the Order has ever known. I’ve never met my father, but I know he’s some merchant from the Kheeralid territories. Lucas gave me the Caloman name even after returning home from a long assignment to discover me, an infant child held in an unfaithful woman’s arms.”

Raegn grunted in soft acknowledgment. “I can understand some resentment towards your mother then, but Nora?”

Tera nodded in shame. “She represents everything I want to be. She looks like a true Elysian. She’s tall, athletic, has beautiful blonde hair, and she doesn’t have any…issues, with the Light,” she finished with a woeful wave of her hand.

“Well, whatever your mental block is with the Light, your ability with barriers is still impressive,” Raegn said and shuffled his way along the roof to a spot next to her. “The first time Merced mentioned it I remember thinking, ‘She would have been the center point of Bastion’s planning if she were in the ranks.’ Plus,” Raegn added with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, “your hair suits me just fine.”

Tera turned her head away and mumbled a soft thanks. Her cheeks were already pink from the bitter wind, but she felt a different heat rising in them now.

In a not-so-unexpected turn of fate, the night had managed to get even colder. It couldn’t possibly have been any darker, though the alleyways were noticeably less visible than the man streets that were partially lit by lanterns. The group huddled in the shadow of a street corner, watching their quandary head away.

“We should go after them,” Tera said.

“What for?” Nalani asked incredulously. “They stood around and talked and now they’re walking. They’ve hardly done anything suspicious. Maybe the tavern was noisy or they wanted to have a private conversation. We’ve had plenty of those, haven’t we?” She finished her thought with a bit of heat targeted at Tera.

“But they—”

“Haven’t done anything wrong, Tera,” Nalani finished for her.

There was a long silence filled by the muffled sounds from inside the tavern and its sign that creaked in the faint wind. Tera looked to Raegn, but he didn’t know what else to say. He shrugged, but all that earned him was a sharp scowl.

Nalani was right, though, technically. There wasn’t much of a motive for this group to have been cultists. Raegn had imagined flowing robes, secret emblems, or faces hidden by hoods, yet these men wore simple pants and shirts under cloaks—all perfectly normal for the time of year. Still, Tera continued to glare at him, then turned away in a huff.

“I say we follow them,” Kai said abruptly. Nalani frowned at the other islander and Tera seemed a bit surprised by the suggestion as well. “What?” Kai asked defensively. “We said we were looking for cultists. People have gone missing at night and this is a group out at the right time in the right area. Following doesn’t do any harm, so I say we follow.”

The frown on Nalani’s face grew into a deep glower, but she gave a shallow nod. Kai turned to head down the street in the same direction the group had gone and Nalani strode up beside him. She leaned in to whisper something, but Kai shrugged and kept his pace. Raegn tried to walk next to Tera, but each time he got next to her she hastened her stride to get away from him. The little game continued until she was leading the group and Raegn was left to walk next to Nalani and Kai.

They followed the men for several blocks, making sure to pause at intersections and sending only one person ahead to not lose sight of their quarry. Tera was normally the one leading the chase as they wound their way through the narrow dirt streets of the Slants. In his first few days in Elysium, Raegn thought the name for this part of the city to be an exaggeration, but this deep into the labyrinth of leaning and rotting wooden buildings there could be little doubt - the night sky was hardly visible with how far some of the structures had contorted out over the streets. It played a trick on the mind and made it feel as though they were walking on an incline despite the ground being perfectly flat.

To make matters worse, Tera still refused to allow him near her. It seemed only minutes ago that she’d damn near snuggled against him when he’d embraced her and now her shoulder was colder than the night. Raegn knew he put off a similar air when he was focused, but this seemed more…directed. At him, specifically. Did all women have to be so fickle?

Their pursuit paused for a moment as one of the men ducked into an alley to relieve himself and the other’s stood about waiting for him. Kai crouched behind a stack of barrels, peering through the gap between two of the large casks with Nalani at his side. Raegn used the opportunity to give Tera a slight tug on the arm and motion a few steps back. She rolled her eyes and sighed, but followed. When they were far enough away that they could still see the two islanders but not be heard, Raegn opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Tera turned her back on him to keep Nalani and Kai in sight. The blatant disregard was enough to make his blood boil, but he forced in a deep breath and prayed for the strength not to yell at her.

“Listen,” he whispered, “I don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but I don’t think you’re being entirely fair. If something’s wrong I feel like you should tell me.”

For a long moment it seemed like she was content to just keep ignoring him, but then Tera let out a long sigh and turned to face him. “I don’t have much experience either, you know. You’re my first, actually,” Tera said while wriggling the toe of her boot against the ground. Raegn had all but known as much, but hearing her confirm it did bring a bit of selfish joy. “But why is Kai the one defending me? Shouldn’t that be you?”

Her eyes were fierce, her tone accusatory, and she was right. Raegn stared at her in mild shock, then gave a slow nod. He’d only played his part so far as what she’d told him to say. Everything else he’d done only because he was already committed, not because he felt any real desire for it.

“It’s just…” Tera kept her eyes on the ground as if she couldn’t find the words to say. “I thought you’d be more supportive,” she murmured. “But when I realized you hadn’t actually helped much with the planning and Nalani said I had my hooks in you… it just…when you looked like you were just going along with everything it made me feel like I was using you,” she finished hurriedly.

Raegn remembered the feeling. Days spent planning a route to the Ridge that afforded them the best pace while still giving ample opportunity to scout the paths the Void frequented. All that work only to be met with scorn by his mentor and doubt from those he led. He had been bitter, too.

This was important to her. Raegn clenched his fists and forced his own resolve to grow. If it was important to her, it was important to him.

“Tera, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t support your plan,” he assured her.

“I know,” she said with her head hung. “It just didn’t feel like it.”

A soft whistle from Kai had both of them scurrying to rejoin their friends who had kept watch. The suspicious men were on the move again.

They resumed their cautious pursuit, though this time it wasn’t long until the group entered a small, single-story shack tucked along a muddy street. Tera led the way around the block to reach the far side of the building without having to trudge through the slop leading to its front side. Raegn was thankful as the mud had to have been comprised of more than just dirt and water given the smell. Nalani seemed hesitant to approach the exterior wall, but Tera left her little time to voice any complaints. Raegn cursed himself when Kai was the first to follow, but made sure he at least beat Nalani to the position Tera had taken up beneath a small rectangular opening nestled just beneath the roof.

“Help me up,” Tera said.

Raegn was halfway to her when he realized she’d been talking to Kai. The islander shook his head in a silent laugh.

“What?” Tera asked, noticing the activity. A look of guilt spread across her face as her eyes moved between the two of them. “Oh, sorry,” she mumbled. “He’s just bigger and stronger.”

Bigger and stronger, Kai mouthed through a wide smile.

Raegn rolled his eyes and stepped back with his arms crossed. Either of us could lift her up, he told himself. She only asked Kai because they’ve known each longer and she was just mad at you. Still, it stung more than it had a right to. Maybe he could get payback and hoist Nalani…he shook his head. It’s not like they were going to fit through that tiny hole in the wall.

Kai laced his fingers to give Tera a foothold, then lifted her above his head so that she could grab hold of the ledge beneath the opening.

“Well?” Nalani asked. “Anything up there?”

“Just wait,” Tera whispered. She continued softly talking to herself, describing what she saw inside as though saying it would better commit it to memory. “Alright, let me down,” she ordered quietly. Kai complied and Tera landed softly on the street, avoiding a nearby puddle far darker than normal water.

“So?”

Nalani seemed awfully persistent, but Raegn reminded himself it was her right as the one responsible for this little excursion. It may have been Tera’s plan, but it was Nalani’s authority that would protect them from any reprisal the Order might issue.

“All five were inside. There’s a door hidden under a rug in the back left of the room. They all went in save for one,” Tera recounted.

“Okay,” Nalani said with a slow shake of her head. “And where do you think you’re going?” she snapped at Raegn.

He’d made it several steps away from the group, but turned back at the question. “To the door?” he said with a thumb over his shoulder.

“Just like that?” the islander asked incredulously.

He looked at the rest of the group huddled in the side alley. Tera watched him cautiously. Was this not what she would want? They’d come this far, why stop now?

“There’s only one of them,” he said matter-of-factly.

“And what if he alerts the others?” Nalani shot back.

Raegn pondered it for a time, then simply shrugged. They were three Templar and a Crusader. Each had a small sword hung from their belt and he doubted they’d be finding anyone in heavy armor. They ought to be able to fight two or three times their number.

“It’d still be an even fight,” he answered.

“On unfamiliar ground,” Nalani insisted. “I don’t like this. We should head back to report what we’ve found.”

“Come on, Nal,” Kai interjected. “You don’t think we can take a few street urchins?”

“Who knows what’s down there, you oaf,” she answered, then turned towards Tera. “We’ve learned something, you should be proud of that. You’ve followed a lead no one else in the Order thought to and it seems like it’s going somewhere, but a larger team can come back and check out the rest.”

“They’ll get all the credit!” Tera complained.

“It shouldn’t be about credit, Tera,” Nalani scolded.

Tera gave a huff, but apparently knew better than to argue. Had she not just finished telling him how she’d felt, Raegn might have let this be the end of their mission. As things were, though, he couldn’t bear to see the look of defeat on her face. It didn’t suit her. He liked the sternness of her eyes and the determination she normally held in her cheeks. Now seemed like as good a time as any to prove he would back her.

Raegn’s knock on the door brought an end to any debate. The group whirled on him and Nalani’s eyes seethed enough hatred that it looked as though she might be seriously considering stabbing him. He did his best to maintain his composure under the deathly glare and waved Kai to come join him. The islander took up a hasty position at the side of the door and they waited for the approaching footsteps.

The moment the door opened Raegn lunged forward, gripping the man’s head with one hand at the back to prevent a retreat and the other over the mouth to prevent a cry of alert. Kai was only a moment behind. The islander delivered a fist deep into the man’s gut. Their victim wretched, all the air forced from his lungs, and collapsed to the floor.

“What are you doing?!” Nalani hissed.

“Subduing a suspicious citizen,” Raegn informed her. He slipped the rope they’d brought to help climb atop roofs from his belt and bound the man’s hands and ankles before gagging him with a large square of cloth.

It wouldn’t have been possible for Nalani’s eyes to bulge any further without popping out of her head. “And now what?! We haul him back to the Order?” she chided.

“I figured we’d go down,” Raegn said with a point at the rug in the corner of the room.

The building looked to be little more than a storehouse, full of half-broken crates and barrels with the metal bands rusting and failing to keep the boards tightly bound. The rug was an odd touch of decor, especially when one considered the large square lump at its center that it did a miserable job of concealing. Raegn hadn’t even needed Tera to point it out despite her being the only one who had seen it prior to their entry.

“And what about him?” Nalani asked with a point at the bound man who still struggled for air.

Raegn didn’t really have a plan for that, but he made one up as fast as the words left his mouth. “We’ll leave him here and either arrest him or release him based on what we find below,” he said with his hands raised in defense. All he had wanted was to show Tera he would support her, but now that Nalani’s anger was solely focused on him he was beginning to regret it.

Nalani bit her lip and glared at him. She gave a curt nod of her head Tera took a guarded walk over and to the rug and pulled it away to reveal a cellar door.

“It’s unlocked,” Tera said.

There wasn’t much need for her statement in reality. The satisfying clunk of the handle and groan of the hinges as the door swung upward and fell back onto the floor might as well have been deafening while Raegn held Nalani’s disapproving scowl.

“We go down, we look around quickly, and then we come up,” Nalani growled. “And in those short moments one of you three will come up with a way to justify detaining this man.”

The Crusader let her icy gaze linger on each of them for an uncomfortable period of time. Raegn hazarded quick glances toward Tera and Kai. Both of them gave cautious nods in response. He took a slow step towards the cellar door and when Nalani didn’t reach for her sword or try to kill him he took another. Halfway across the room he began to string his steps together to look like normal walking, but the air remained stiff and he hoped Kai might make a lunge to restrain his beloved if Nalani suddenly changed her mind.

Tera was the first to descend the rickety stairs. It turned out not to be a cellar that lay below the storehouse, but an underground passageway. Even from the foot of the stairs and with a single torch to provide light Raegn could see that the tunnel intersected several others before it disappeared into blackness.

“Now what?” Kai asked.

“We follow the mud,” Tera said with a point at the ground.

Several sets of footprints headed away from the stairs and took a left at the first intersection. They tracked the prints for several turns before the traces of wet earth became so faint that they were no longer visible.

“And now we’ve no trail to follow,” Nalani noted sarcastically. “We’re liable to get lost if we go any further.”

“Not exactly,” Raegn and Tera said at the same time. He looked at her quizzically and she returned the expression.

“You first,” Tera said.

Raegn shrugged. “Not much to it for me. There are symbols carved into the wall at every intersection. Look.”

Raegn guided Kai’s hand and the torch it held towards the corner where two walls met. Small carvings, little more than a few parallel lines with others intersecting, were on either wall just to the side of the seam.

“We used a similar method when we scouted the Scarred Lands,” he explained. “Some symbols reveal paths, others where a vanguard currently is. I’m willing to bet each of these symbols leads somewhere, but which one we’ve been following has changed a few times while we were tracking the footprints.”

“And you?” Nalani redirected her attention to Tera.

“I just memorized our turns,” she answered sheepishly. “To get back we make a right, two lefts, each with an intersection between where we go straight, and then another right.”

Nalani rolled her eyes. “Well that’s all well and good, but we still don’t have anything to follow.”

“Then let’s try this,” Raegn said and took the torch from Kai. He ignored the cries of surprise and anger of his friends while he smothered the flame against the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Nalani hissed.

“We can relight it,” he reminded her. “Now that it’s dark we just need our eyes to adjust…” he waited some time, slowing turning in a circle to look down the three different routes they had to choose between. “There!” he pointed down one where the faintest of lights stood out from the blackness.

“Let’s go!” Tera urged and took off down the passage.

Raegn didn’t have trouble keeping up. He could’ve passed Tera easily, in fact, but he grinned wildly as he tailed her through the corridor. They came upon the source of the light quite quickly. A simple door, little more than a few planks of wood held together by roughly pounded nails, failed to seal away the flickering of a torch held within its room. Tera flung the door open without any hesitation. A wise move, Raegn reasoned, considering how tentative Nalani had been.

The moment they gained access to the room another door on the far side swung shut. This time it was Raegn who took the first step to give chase, but he found arms wrap themselves under his.

“No you don’t!” Nalani grunted as Raegn struggled to free himself. “We’re not pursuing any further!”

“It’s fine, Raegn,” Tera said and raised a hand. “Look.”

She pointed at a table in the center of the room with several pieces of parchment scattered about. Some were sloppily laid about the nearby chair and others still were strewn across the floor. The sign of a hasty exit. Raegn stopped pulling against Nalani and the islander set him free, though kept him under a watchful eye.

Kai approached the table and picked up one of the documents. “What do you reckon they were doing?” he asked, flipping the paper over.

“It doesn’t matter. Gather them and let’s go,” Nalani ordered.

Kai helped Tera roll the bits of parchment and stuff them into the satchel she kept slung over her shoulders. Once the group double-checked to make sure they’d found all the evidence they could, they turned to leave. Raegn re-lit the torch using the one mounted on the wall of the room and led the way back through the passageways, mentally recalling the symbols they’d followed on their way in. Tera stayed at his side, using the light of the flames to scan several of the documents. She’d read probably four or five by the time Raegn had them back at the base of the stairs beneath the storehouse.

“Any idea what they say?” he asked.

“No,” Tera answered idly. She still scanned the page she held, but her face was contorted in frustration. “These characters are the common tongue, but they’re all jumbled. It’s like it’s some sort of code. I think maybe—” she didn’t get to finish before Kai called out from above.

“We’ve got a problem!”

Raegn took the stairs three at a time with Tera on his heels. He found Kai crouched down near a stack of crates and holding a piece of rope.

“You searched him, didn’t you?!” Nalani asked, though the tone of it made the words more of an accusation.

“Of course,” Kai said. “He didn’t have a knife on him. I swear.”

“Well unless I’ve gone blind the ropes certainly look cut!” Nalani huffed.

Kai pursed his lips and looked to Raegn and Tera. “Someone came and freed him.”

“By the Seven, if that man was innocent and the Order hears of this…” Nalani didn’t finish the thought. The implication alone carried more than enough weight. Raegn tried not to think about it too much. He might enjoy more time in the kitchens, but he doubted the others would have the same opinion. Especially not Nalani. A Crusader put on menial chores? She’d be the laughing stock of her newfound brethren. Or perhaps demoted.

“They weren’t innocent,” Tera said. “They wouldn’t have fled from us or use coded language if they were.”

Nalani chewed her cheek, but nodded.

The night they walked through on their way back to the Citadel wasn’t any colder than when they’d hidden from it’s grip beneath Elysium’s streets, but it certainly seemed deeper. No one spoke save for quiet statements of parting upon reaching the point of division between the Templar and Crusader Wings. Raegn waited for an offer from Tera to join her, but no such invitation came. She’ll probably stay up all night trying to decipher those pages, he convinced himself and headed towards his own room. Tera was nothing if not determined once she had her mind set about something. He’d learned that the first night he met her, even if it was several seasons later that he’d realized it.

It hadn’t exactly been a glorious mission, but they’d been marginally successful. If the evidence turned out to be damning they might even get some recognition, though Raegn told himself he’d give it all to Tera. It was her idea, after all, and this would be the first time outside of Merced’s assignment that he’d been part of something worthwhile since joining the Order. There was satisfaction to be had in that thought and Raegn fell asleep in a state of pleasant contentment.

Dreams of Camael choking him to death and slaughtering Bastion’s populace with that glowing sword, however, stole the feeling.