Chapter VI

Forest Veil

Elynne II

Breath after breath came as she raised and lowered her torso. Sweat dripped down her brow, making her muscles gleam in the morning air. Muscles tightened and flexed. There was no noticeable pain or soreness. She had gotten used to it through the years.

Elynne flipped herself around, holding herself up on her arms and toes. She pushed down, and up, down, and up. The cicadas did not distract her. The rustling of leaves did not distract her. She stared only at the hard dirt floor as it came closer and then farther again. Someone moved right of her. No danger.

A yawn. The sound of nails scratching hair. A sleepy hmm. “Nice, uh, muscles,” Dannar said as he just woke up.

She ignored him. She would keep ignoring him until she counted one hundred. A few more times. Two more. One more. She flung herself backwards into a sitting position. “Good morning,” she said with a lightly burdened breath. “Sleep well?”

“I regret not taking a bedroll with me, but all in all… Aye, had worse sleeps. You?”

“Same,” she jumped up, grabbed her robes and slipped them on. “We should be on our way soon. Frondfall isn’t too far off.”

“Aye, aye, high time we were on our way,” he rose up and cracked his neck. “You sure you don’t want to rest a bit before we go?”

“No need,” she turned south and started walking. “Let’s go.”

The earldom of Fynwood was, as the name might indicate, a sprawling forest some twenty miles east of Dammrias and the largest of the three forests of the Dammrian kingdom. It was the largest earldom, bordering the bannate of Konned to the east, the earldom of Grain Weald and Valoryan princedom to the south, and the earldom of Aelle to the north.

Plenty of trees were here. Shrubberies, fungi, flowers, and other flora resided within as well. Elynne had read a lot about this region since most ingredients used for ancient magicks and modern medicine and alchemy came from here. From animal insides and outsides to specifically bred poppies and amanitas, everything could be found here. And if not here, then in the arboretum and gardens of Fyngate, the earldom capital. Also the only city. Everyone lived either there or in one of the minor villages, such as Frondfall.

All in all, it was a mostly quiet and peaceful place, the only sounds came from various forest critters and the occasional ranger or licensed hunter. One might get the bright idea of hiding within the forest and performing illicit activities. A person like that would be smart. No one would bother to scour the thick forest for some person that might have killed a man or three, or a person that decided it was a fine day to start a ritual of witchcraft and abominable eldritch evil.

No person would also bother to walk through all the trees and bushes and potentially step on some slithery fellow or run into a hungry bear, but the only road that ran north through Fynwood was overgrown as it was far easier to just avoid the forest altogether. Unless someone wanted to pass vertically. People like that were out of luck. People just like Dannar and Elynne. At least they would be left alone in serene silence, no?

No. In the depths of the forest, the quietness shattered. From the village in the south came sounds of cheery laughter and merriment. Many things were yelled, unintelligible due to thick and varied accents. Lyres and tambourines were played, guitars and tambouras followed. Sounds uncommon to a forest in Dammrias. Instruments that were more common in the southern parts of the continent.

They moved through the leafed branches and arrived near the village. Large buildings surrounded a monumental stone in the middle. Huts, houses, a shop, a tavern, perhaps a storage building, and a hall of sorts. All were in a circle around the flower-decorated stone. A small pedestal alike an altar made from wood and sticks stood afore the stone. Shiny stones and gems, as well as flowers and fruits, were placed within a basket and around it on top the pedestal.

And then there were also those who sang and played on their instruments. A large group pranced about the place, dancing and enjoying themselves. All had regular clothing. No traditional garbs or the like. If they were celebrating, should they not be dressed for the occasion? And what was more, there was a large abundance of men here, far more than there were women. Strange. A war was raging in the east, yet all these men were here. Deserters?

Dannar and Elynne came closer. She had a better view now. The men had bronzen skin, both bright and dark hair, and some had tunics and robes made from white and teal fabrics with designs rarely found here. Combined with the music and the words they spat out, Elynne concluded that these people were not from the Fatherlands.

She looked around, checking if anyone had noticed them. No eyes peered at them. Good, for now. Elynne noticed some carts at the far end of the village. Large boxes and barrels, unmarked. No symbols to indicate whose it was, no writing to show what was inside. Nothing. She did notice, however, that the women here had lighter complexions and layered clothing, just as the children did, and just like any person from Fynwood and Aelle would. Judging by the way they all entertained themselves, the people were not harmful. All that remained was to check what they knew about the homunculus, and possibly also learn who these people were.

“Let’s greet them, shall we?” Elynne stepped forward. “And keep your guard up.”

Dannar followed after her. “Hope they’ll share a drink,” he said, placing a hand on his sheathed sword.

They approached the carousers. Out of the fifty-something people here, only one stopped carousing upon their arrival. On him were teal robes and a white sash across his torso. His hair was short, neatly cut, and brown with a tinge of red, and one of his eyes was covered by a patch. He approached the two, a head taller than Elynne and a head shorter than Dannar. Then he smiled and waved with his hand. “Welcome! A pleasure to meet a couple of travellers here in our village. We are celebrating currently, so come and join us,” he moved aside and gestured with his hand towards a table with both food and drink. “I am Hansel. Welcome, once more.”

The man, Hansel, had some sort of accent that Elynne could not pinpoint. But it was not an accent a Hansel would have, that was a certainty. “What is the occasion?” she asked. A feeling of being stared at overcame her. No one in the village paid any attention to them, though.

“Why, the birth of a healthy boy. It’s always a celebration when someone joins our… little community here.” He gave a pleasant grin. “Forgive me, but I didn’t catch your names.”

“Elynne,” she said. “And this is my guard, Dannar.” She pointed towards him.

“Ah, a pleasure, a pleasure. Now, would you care for a drink or snack?”

Dannar was moments away from speaking. “We were actually looking for someone,” until Elynne spoke for him. “Have you seen anything or anyone unusual?”

“Hrmm, no, no. All’s quiet in the village.” He scratched his chin. “Hmm. No, actually. There were some strange noises last night. Like a bug, but a big one.”

“A bug, you say?” Elynne made a tiny sigh. Not a homunculus, obviously. Still, a possible lead. Just like the vampire.

“Didn’t see what it was? Can you imitate the sound?” Dannar asked.

“I, um, didn’t see it. No one else did, either. But, uhh… the sound, you say? You want me to imitate it?” He made a slightly bewildered look.

“Would be great.”

“Right, well, it went something like… krr krr khk krk krr krr krr KRKR KRKRKRKRKRKRKR krr krr.” He cleared his throat. “Lots of leaves crunching. Branches, too. Did that help?”

“Uh.” Dannar made a large smile. “Yes, yes it did.”

“Where did it come from?” Elynne asked.

“That way, I think.” He pointed to the west. “But you aren’t going there now, are you? You’ve yet to eat and drink with us.”

“We will make sure to come back and join you after we investigate,” she spoke. “But before we leave, I was wondering one thing.” Her eyes strayed off towards the east upon noticing a rustle. Something was there. She cleared her throat. “How come you people aren’t at the eastern front?”

The man crossed his arms. “Frondfall is exempt from army service, and most taxes.”

Army service? The Fatherlands had no standing army. “You mean exempt from being levied?”

“That… Yes, that was what I meant.”

“Alright then. We’ll be going now.” She spun west on her heel and walked off.

“We’ll make sure to take you up on your hospitality, aye?” Dannar said and followed after her.

Some distance away from the village, near a clearing, they stopped. “Know who has a standing army, Dannar?”

“Hmm… No.”

“Kyrione. I assume they hid weapons in those crates. I wonder where they’re headed, though,” she made that assumption under the belief that the people of Kyrione looked like the men in the village, as Kyrione was in the south.

Dannar held his chin. “Think they might go towards Dammrias? Hiding in a forest, waiting for something. A siege?” He looked back towards the village. “Wherever they’re going, they’re up to no good. I guess the villagers know they’re enemies and are harbouring them willingly. As an Inquisitor, I should ignore it, we’re not supposed to meddle in politics in war. But as a man of justice, we have to make sure they don’t do what they’re planning to do.”

Elynne shrugged her shoulders. “Two of us, fifty of them. I can use fire, sure, but then I would burn the forest down alongside them. However…” Whatever or whoever stared at her came from the east. She felt a presence there, a very strong one. The presence might be a helpful one, at least to Elynne. “First, we go further west, check what we can. Once we return… we might stay with them until night. Then, when they fall asleep, get rid of them. After that, straight for Dammrias. We have to tell the king.”

Dannar nodded. “Back to the monster. Judging by the sound the man imitated, I’d say we’re dealing with an overgrown bug of some sort.”

“Very helpful. As long as it isn’t an overgrown hornet, I’d say we’re fine.”

“Hornets buzz, as far as I know. Big hornets do too, I guess.” Dannar turned his head towards the west. “We’re both under the assumption that it’s a magical bug, right? Why do these creatures get created, anyhow? I know little about it.”

“Might have been random, might have been on purpose. Just like in humans, there’s a very low chance someone is born with the predisposition to… well, use magic. Animals cannot expel the extra energy they’re born with, though, so they never stop growing.”

“But it can also be on purpose?”

“A person that knows the finer details can give and take the energy. Well, I call it energy, but it might be more precise to call it a life force, or even the soul. In any case, someone can force an excess of their own… soul force? Life energy?”

“Energy is fine, I think.”

“Right. They force excess energy into a body, living or dead, and it grows over the following weeks and months under the influence of the person who gave the energy. Or, depending on the person that gave the energy, it doesn’t grow. It’s a process called Binding and there are other, more elaborate details and factors that I will not go through. But that’s the gist of it.”

“You mentioned dead bodies? As in, walking corpses? The undead?”

“Mhm. But also other bodies that were never alive to begin with. Like rocks.”

“Hope I don’t have to kill a rock anytime soon. Hard to stab through.” He crossed his arms. “Honestly makes me think that magi are more bad than good.”

“There are definitely those power-hungry types who’d stop at nothing to become stronger. And magic is a great power. Power corrupts and people turn foul.”

“Would you want more power?” Dan asked.

“Would you?”

Dannar smirked. “Let’s go after that bug.”

“Sure, let’s,” she said, and they walked off west.

But it was only a moment later that Dannar crouched down on their path. “Look at this,” he said. “Imprints in the ground.”

Footprints belonging to a barefoot man or woman. Heavy enough to make a mark in the firm ground. “I did not even notice.” She leaned over the clue. Beside the footprints were two small troves as if made by blades dragging alongside the feet. Just barely, she could see something else in there. “Dried blood in the drag marks. It might be that we aren’t dealing with a hornet.”

“Maybe it has swords? Maybe it isn’t even a bug.” Dannar stood up. “Guess we should follow it.”

“I can see a cave beyond the trees,” Elynne said, looking westwards. If there was any place a monster would hide, it was in a cave. That was the norm, was it not?

The trail did indeed lead them towards the cave. Surrounded by grey debris and trees that were half without bark stood the entrance. It was not deep, it was not high, nor did it stretch too wide. There were deep cut marks in the stone accompanied by a stale and odourless reddish ooze. It seemed like any cave that might have had a monster inside.

They then peeked into the very cave. No sound came from it, so they had deemed it safe enough. No living thing, except for a few crawly bugs, was inside. But there were bones. Femurs, skulls, ribs, and every other bone both large and small, both animal and human. Around a hundred bones bundled near large nets that hung from the cavern. Silky nets and cocoons, like that of a spider. A small platform was on one side of the cavern, splashes of old and dry blood surrounded it. A number of kitchen utensils were neatly organized in a corner. An avid collector?

“Don’t think hornets create webs,” Dannar poked one of the hanging cocoons with his finger. He quickly recoiled and shook his hand once a bit of web got stuck. “Large spider? The feet don’t make sense, though.”

Elynne raised her hand and flicked her fingers. A quick wind came between three of her fingers, which she now held up, and a fire burnt brightly between them. She looked around the now illuminated cave, searching for any other details. “Huh?” she exclaimed upon noticing a drawing of sorts by the wall. A circle an average person could stand on comfortably. Scribbles and words around the circle, as well as four pointers on each side of the circle. Red, but far too dim for blood. In the middle was a symbol alike an H. On it was ash, and on the ash was a fragment of a very small gem. “This creature was purposely created,” she dragged a finger across the circle. A small bite and zap, not enough to make her move or make a sound.

“Homunculus, you think?”

“Or an astray magus. Though judging by the bones, I doubt this happened in the past few days. We are missing something here,” she stood up and turned off her flame.

“Might be unrelated.”

“No. I don’t think it is. There is more to it, at least I feel like there is,” she sighed and look towards the village. “We should go back. Creature might have attacked them, or it’s hunting something.”

“Mostly drunk guards can’t hold it off,” Dannar stepped eastwards.

Elynne grabbed his arm. “Let’s proceed slowly, then. If the creature is there, they will tire it out. If not, no harm done.”

“And the villagers?”

“You said that they might be hosting the soldiers willingly. Should you really be concerned about their wellbeing?”

“I said I guess, doesn’t mean that they are. Let’s just go, aye?”

“Fine. We should still formulate a plan as to how we’ll kill it,” she said and followed Dannar with a quick step.

“I’ll just stab it,” he giggled with a small anxiousness. “If I fail, burn it with fire. But I won’t fail, aye? But if I actually do fail, fire. But just it, nothing else. Don’t wait it to spread. Or we just run with the wind, that’s a third option. We’ll see, we’ll be fine.” He smiled a reassuring smile. It did not reassure her. But then again, she was never really worried to begin with.

They approached the village outskirts once more. There was no expected revelry. No singing or stomping or yelling. Utter silence. The two observed the now desolate village from the bushels. An empty place, a lifeless place. They saw no one, not even bodies. But they did see blood, and the occasional sword. The blood was there in… much larger quantities. And it was fresh. Glinting due to the Sun above. Still spilling and spreading on the village ground, hut walls, and across the middle stone.

To break the silence, a sound of dragging came about. Cloth against grass, skin against dirt. From the centre, from behind a small house, a desiccated body was dragged out. There were no limbs, one side of the face was caved in, ribs poked out of the torso, and blood drizzled out. It should have stopped flowing by now. Why was there so much of it coming out?

In view came the creature that did this. It was… human? Partly. No, no human could have done this. A monster inside and outside. A monster with human legs, human arms, human body, and human head. But it had a hundred eyes, fighting and squishing each other to maintain domination. It had long black appendages coming out of its back. Six, like swords, and two were being dragged as it walked. It was covered in wounds stitched together by silky webbing. And on second glance, forearms and calves that were black and hairy like some sort of spider.

It snapped its neck. Snapped it. Snapped it again. The cracks were loud, unnerving, disgusting. It snapped a fourth time. Of the hundred eyes, at least forty stared at them. The thing stood straight, a sort of pride in its stature. Of the hundred eyes, all one hundred stared at them. It dropped the corpse and opened its mouth. Red juices spilled down its chin. Two fangs like mandibles grew larger. Krr khk, the sound that it made. It approached. Slowly. The head swayed left and right. The sound did not stop.

“Hope it isn’t a leaping spider,” Dan joked. He sounded worried, but at least he joked. He stepped out of the bushes, moonlight manifesting in his hand as his greatsword appeared. The creature shook its appendages vigorously. A loud hiss, an attempt at a roar, horrific and guttural. It rushed forward.

Dannar swung his sword. Just barely did he miss the torso. Two black spiky tips fell down from the appendages as the creature backed off. It howled. It charged back in. One more swing. It grazed. The creature is far too strong. The blade was all that was between it and Dannar as it pushed the flat of the blade towards him. It bit the air. The appendages flailed around Dannar.

Elynne sought for a time to strike. They rotated about as they pushed and shoved. She could not come behind it. But she was ready. Her hand trained towards it. Wait. She does not have to shoot fire at it. The magus raised her hand. A wind came from the sky into her palm and connected with the top of the creature’s head. “Push it off!” she shouted.

“I’m try-“ he groaned loudly as one of the appendages stabbed him through his upper right arm. But it threw him off of the monster. Elynne’s veins glowed a golden red. Her eyes shone bright. One instant. One second. Lightning came from the skies and into her palm. From her palm, unto the creature. It trembled fiercely. It burnt ablaze. In mere moments, it fell on its back and curled up, blackened by fire.

Elynne walked up towards Dannar. His sword disappeared in a thousand sparks. He bled from the hole in his arm, but it was not too deep. “This will hurt you,” she said, crouching beside him and putting her hand on the wound. He screeched from pain, but at least she stopped the bleeding by searing it. “That’s what we call cauterisation.”

“Why… didn’t you… throw thunder at it earlier?” he asked through his pain.

“I would have hit you, as well. Or would you rather be dead than in mild pain?”

“Mild pain? Mild!?” He held his closed wound and sat up. Dannar made an angry grunt. “At least we killed it, aye? What about… you think there are any survivors?”

“Catch your breath and we’ll check.” She stood up, massaging her right forearm. That strained her. A dull and sharp pain at the same time came from within. But nothing major. It was just one strike of lightning, after all. If she had needed a second one, might be that her arm would have broken. Or maybe she could make a third one possible. Maybe a fourth one, as well. In any case, she did not need to push her luck this time.

“Think you can fix the hole in my damn shirt?” Dannar asked.

She crouched down. The wind gathered between her fingers slowly moving near the ruined part of the shirt. “Your shirt is made out of linen, right?” Elynne asked, he confirmed with a nod. She understood enough about fabrics and the way they were woven. Enough to mend the shirt and make it almost anew. Her fingers were placed around the hole and she gradually started forming a fist. As the fist formed, so did new linens weave into the old linens. They appeared as if they were always there and that became the truth. No one could tell otherwise anymore. “All done.”

“Great. I’ll wash out the blood later.” He raised himself up from the floor. Elynne stood up, as well.

“It’s awfully quiet.” For a moment did she stand there, listening to the wind. There was the beat of her heart, the beat of Dannar’s heart, but nothing else. No, there was a dripping sound, as well. Droplets of rain falling onto a lake. “I don’t think anyone is left.”

“Good. As is just for criminals.” Dannar looked towards the village.

“Just? Even if innocent children died?”

“Aye, well, I obviously didn’t mean them.” He shook his head. “Not all were guilty, didn’t mean that.”

“Whatever, I am not here to question anyone’s guilt. But, you know, if there were any survivors left, they probably bled out by now due to us talking here.”

Dannar scratched the back of his head. “Not necessarily.” He walked off towards the village. “Come now, let’s find some…” He stopped right where he could see the centre. “Oh.”

Elynne dashed towards him. “Who did you… what the hell…?”

Behind the large pillar stone were corpses. Rent, torn, desecrated. Women, children, men. All were placed in an organized pile that, if one watched more closely, formed a circle. Their bodies were dry, mummified almost. Blood stained the dirt and grass. Limbs and heads and insides were all scattered about. They simply had not noticed how many parts were actually all around them. And there were more bodies strew about. Some had acquired weapons. Others had never seen the monster coming. They could count fifty-something, including the body parts that missed their body.

“We should…” A want to vomit came to her once she noticed the horrible stench left behind by the remains. She held it in as best she could.

“You al-“

“We should check the carts,” she interrupted him, her hand placed over her stomach. “And tell the king what happened here and who was here.”

And as they walked over to the carts carrying large crates, they found one more body. A familiar face, and a live one at that. But not for long, judging by the lack of his leg. “You’ve… you’ve killed it?” Hansel asked.

“We did,” Elynne said. “Now, speak the truth. What were you doing here?”

The man, half of his life already faded, stared at her without moving a muscle. “Waiting,” he said. “For the message.”

“What kind of message? And from whom?”

He eyed the village, though he could barely see it. Blood trickled down his chin as his lips shook. “From… the High General. If we should… join the siege. Or not.”

“The High General of Kyrione, is that right? But the siege of what, exactly?”

“Dammrias. But it has… already fallen. We are but reinforcements. And those walls… cannot survive cannons.”

“Cannons?” Elynne looked at the large box on the cart. She ripped off a part of the wood, revealing a large black tube on wheels. “What the hell is this thing?”

Hansel gave a hollow chuckle. “Stronger than a trebuchet. It goes…” he raised his hand and tried to snap his fingers, but he could not. “Boom. And… hole in a wall.”

Dannar stood right in front of Hansel. “You lied and snuck about. You planned to assault a city where countless would have died. I thank God for letting you live and allowing you to tell us the truth. And I thank him, for letting me judge you.”

“Judge…? That monster has already… judged us. And we… we were just following orders. Just waiting. Just… enjoying life. Is that so wrong? A soldier kills and is willing to die. Is that so wrong?”

“Being a job doesn’t make it right. You’ve no right to take life, be it a stranger’s or your own.”

One final chuckle from Hansel. “And you do?”

“I’m an Inquisitor. God gave me that right.” He ran him through with his sword, ending the dying man’s misery. Elynne flinched slightly.

“How very… ostentatious,” Elynne sighed watching Dannar sheathe his sword. “At least you shortened his suffering.”

Dannar stared at the body of the killed man. “I did,” he said, still staring with a motionless face. He looked at his right hand. “I’m forgetting something. Can’t remember it for the life of me.”

“Is your guilty conscience getting the better of you?”

“No. This man was evil. He deserved death,” he sighed, and then he gave her a big smile. “Well, lass, we ought to get ourselves to Dammrias, aye?”

She ignored his sudden shift in mood but kept in mind that there was something off with him. “Yes, yes we should,” she looked back at the pile of corpses. “We should leave them here as evidence. Burying them would take too much time and burning them is out of the question.”

“The guard’ll check and see. Can’t wait to sign all those forms.” He straightened himself up. “South till we hit the road and then west, right?”

“Mhm,” Elynne nodded and the two walked off. The massacre was burnt into her eyes. It was a disgusting, horrible sight. If she could, she would never see such a thing again. But, in the very depths of her mind, something clawed at her. The knowledge that this would not be the last time. And she hoped, she prayed to whatever god there was, that she would not be the culprit of one such atrocity.