Sean’s POV, shapeshifted as Captain Zoe of Steelbrew

The sun was just touching the horizon when we turned from the main road onto a worn side road. Luckily for us the road was well maintained and straight as an arrow, as the surrounding trees really cut down on the ambient light. It was nearing an hour later when we came to the castle. One of the turrets had partially collapsed, but there was a temporary scaffolding erected to allow patrols to pass.

“Halt!” The guard ordered.

“Emergency Conrad! Open the gates!” The driver ordered.

“Yes sir!” He saluted, apparently recognizing the driver. “OPEN THE GATES AND SUMMON THE CAPTAIN!” He bellowed, and the beehive came to life. A drawbridge lowered, and though it was only two feet off the ground it would still provide a decent defense. Dual portcullises were winched open, letting us move through the killing zone. There were only a few guards that I noticed with mana sense above us, and from what I could see only six were doing anything in the main courtyard. Something wasn’t right here, and it had my senses tingling.

As soon as we entered the courtyard, I stood to jump off. Sensing movement behind me, I was still just a bit too slow as I felt a burning heat stab into my back and rip out the side as I leapt from the wagon. Slamming into the ground, I half turned just in time for the driver to slam down on me, pinning my arms with his knees.

“Fool!” He hissed, abandoning his sword to draw a dagger. “Did you think you could fake the feel of voidsteel to my senses?”

“RAGING INFERNO!” I roared out before he could bring the dagger to bear, sending jets of intense flames from both of my palms and incinerating his body.

“ALARM! ALARM!” A guard shouted, and I shoved the charred body off of me. Of course, the view was immediately replaced by several sword points.

“Get your captain, we have to secure the queens!” I winced in fake pain, having slowed my regeneration to make the wound more believable. “GO FOOLS!” I roared, knowing that taking control of the situation was paramount. But I had to make sure not to overplay my hand. Groaning, I slowly stood up as they made room for me, and I noticed another of the awakened walking towards our group.

“What’s going on here?” He demanded, looking me up and down. Remembering what the shapeshifting cart driver had said, I used the tiniest bit of void magic to make it seem like my armor truly was voidsteel.

“Captain, urgent news. You have to secure the queens immediately. As you can see, there are infiltrators in unexpectedly high places.” I said, wincing as I felt the wounds finally close.

“And you?” He asked.

“Infirmary first, I don’t want any dirt sealed within my flesh. After, I’ll be on the walls helping in case of attack until you need me for a more in depth explanation.”

He nodded, then turned to one of the guards. “Conrad, escort the captain here to the infirmary, then back to the gate with you. Nobody gets through tonight, we’ll incinerate them in the killing zone. I assume your magic isn’t tapped yet?” He directed the last bit at me.

“Not nearly.” I grinned, getting a nod from him.

“Perfect. Move.” He ordered, and everyone split off to do their thing. While the captain disappeared into the door he had originally left from, I followed Conrad off to our left, where we entered a much smaller out building. There were only a few cots spread around, and over half the area was taken up by a rather extensive alchemy setup.

“Hey Doc, got a patient.” Conrad called.

“Oh? Do come in!” Came a call from what looked like a storage closet. Seconds later, a strange elf emerged. His skin had several pock marks and traces of burns, and he was completely bald. No hair, no eyebrows, no facial hair whatsoever. “Sit down, sit down.” He fluttered his hands at the nearest bed. “Now, you people heal incredibly fast at your stage. What is it you need me for?”

“Deep stab then I landed and rolled on the ground a bit Doc.” I said. “Just wanted to make sure that there isn’t any dirt stuck under my skin.”

He chuckled as he walked around to my back. “Ah, had that happen before, have you?”

“Once is more than enough.” I agreed, and felt him poke and prod a bit. “Conrad, to the left of my bench is a bucket of clean water and a rag. I’ll need both, but hopefully this won’t take too long.” Conrad brought the water over, and I could feel the doctor gently washing the area free of blood and dirt. Once he had it all clean, he started poking and prodding once more.

“Well young lady, I think you are lucky today. Not only did you avoid a crippling blow that could have easily ended you, but you managed to not get it infected while you did it.” The doctor proclaimed after a while. “Anyone else hurt, Conrad?”

“No sir. If you’ll excuse us, we have to return to my post.” He said.

“Of course, of course.” The doc nodded, standing and heading back to his storeroom. I simply remained silent and followed Conrad out and into the area above the murder holes.

“Conrad, are these bars enchanted to resist heat?” I asked as we settled in.

“No idea. Probably be for the best if you assumed not.” He shrugged, then settled in to a resting pose. “Not like we’ll get any visitors. Vincent was the only one to stop by for the last six months. Don’t know what we’re gonna do without his regular supply runs.”

I sighed, shaking my head. “We’ll get someone trustworthy in, don’t worry. Even if it has to be some of the guards from Steelbrew to do it.”

“Hah!” Conrad barked. “No offense, but I grew up there and still got some family around. Those guards won’t go out of their way to do anything. What makes you think you can order them around?”

“Because Captain Zoe is the captain of the Steelbrew guards, Conrad.” I turned to see the base captain entering the room and looking things over. “I see you still haven’t mastered the skill of knowing when not to run your mouth. I apologize for any offense, Captain.” He gave a slight bow that I immediately waved away.

“No need, especially when he speaks the truth.” I said. “Though I have been trying to whip a few into shape. Do you want to talk here, or go someplace more, secure?”

“It’s fine.” He said, waving off my concern. “They’ll find out eventually, damn old castle walls have ears. So what do you have that was so important?”

“Well, first is that the infiltrators we suspected are a lot higher than we feared. Case in point, the driver for your delivery wagons was one, and attacked me before I could warn everyone.”

“I saw that, but why wait until he was in the castle here, where you had reinforcements?”

“It was his first opportunity.” I said, shaking my head and looking down, as if I were pissed at myself. “I let my guard down. Kept mana armor up the whole time, and just dropped it once we were through the gate. If I hadn’t been starting my jump, he would have skewered more than just a kidney.”

“Ooh, that’s a rough wound.” The captain winced in sympathy. “But even that bit of warning could have waited.”

“I know.” I said, sighing. Taking a moment, I let a bit of suspense build before I dropped the bomb. “Kiln is gone.”

“Huh?” The captain asked.

“Gone?” Conrad responded at the same time, perking up in his seat.

“Gone. Completely annihilated from what I can tell.” I said with a grimace. “Poor bastard of a kid. He was out hunting mushrooms when fire fell from the sky and shook the land. He practically ran to Steelbrew before a merchant found him and saved him.”

“So we only have his report?”

“For now. I’ve sent my three best out that way to inspect. The circles are supposed to be separate, but we have always had a bit of communication on the edges. I’ve not heard from Kiln nor any of the other smaller towns since the kid said it would have happened.”

“So you came here and called for extra security?” The captain asked.

“Of course!” I replied, giving him a look. “Losing me or you would hurt, but ultimately we are replaceable. The Queens aren’t. Which brings me to my questions, where are the rest of your men? You should have at least twice as many as what I’ve seen.”

“Did you not get my message? I’ve been begging for reinforcements for weeks now, both from you and Oakhaven.” The captain explained, heat coloring his voice. “We’ve had convoys go missing, and the smaller towns are getting attacked daily. We’ve been losing our low level people, so I spread my men out to cover things. With your news, we have two enemies to worry about. At least.”

“Two?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah. It takes a lot to destroy a city like Kiln with fire. Your pyromancer has to be extremely skilled, likely to the detriment of his ice skills. The one attacking us is using powerful ice magic, as the few bodies we find have signs of frostbite.”

“Damn.” I growled, leaning back. “So we have to protect against extremes. The castle here might stop the majority of the flame guy, letting the Queens escape. What do we know about the ice mage?”

“Area attacks, judging by the devastation. We can’t really tell the range, as most of them are coming from above.”

“Shit.” I growled out, letting a bit of flames spark around my hands. Hopefully they would think it just a nervous gesture from me. “Tell you what. Bring me to the Queen’s chambers. I can ward it to maintain a certain temperature range, protecting them from both mages.”

“You can do that?” Conrad asked, confused.

“It won’t be pretty like a professional, but I’ve seen enough heat wards in my time to have a feel for them. It’ll at least give you protection until a professional from the capital can get here.” I bluffed.

“Fair enough. Follow me. Conrad, you stay here.” Standing, I followed the captain through the door and deep into the castle complex. There was a hallway along the wall that let us move around the courtyard, to a bridge that led to the keep. Inside it was fairly dark, with just enough magic lights to keep people from bumping into things. I was impressed with the defensiveness, as the upper balcony we were on turned the main receiving room into a deathtrap if you had a handful of archers. The ground floor funneled through a small doorway into the next room, but we wouldn’t be seeing that.

Before we crossed into it, we went down a spiral staircase disguised as an armor nook. I guesstimated that we went down at least four levels before we exited the stairs, walking into a miniature armory stuffed with barrels of swords, daggers, and arrows. “Expecting an assault?” I asked as we passed, looking at the swords.

“Not really. This was abandoned from the previous owners, and most likely will be trash.” He said, leading me through a series of hallways. We had to pretty much zig zag back and forth along the bottom floor three times before we came to the next stair down. Except we weren’t taking it, and the captain was facing the blank wall. Looking closer, I saw there was a scuff mark that indicated the torch holder could be turned, likely for a secret door. Instead of that, the captain picked a brick a few levels below that, one that looked like it had been split into three sections.

“Not gonna turn the torch?” I asked.

“It’s a trap. Turn that, and you will hear a grinding stone noise. Instead of a door opening, a platform of crossbows behind us will lower and pepper us in the back with poisoned bolts.” He explained as he pushed in the outer edges of the split brick, grabbing the middle as a handle. This, he pulled out and rotated 180 degrees before pushing it back in. “And those previous stairs just head down a level to the prison.” He said, answering my next question.

“Huh. Whoever designed this was a bastard.” I said, thinking about how hard it would be to detect a trap like that.

“Indeed.” He said as the wall smoothly slid aside, letting us pass through. I followed him down into the darkness, keeping quiet about the strange noises I was hearing. I could easily place the splashing sound of the young leeches, as they waited to grow. What I couldn’t place was the guttural grunts and scrapes of claws on stone. Once we had dropped down two more levels below ground, I found out what it was, and really wished I hadn’t.

The room opened up, and just like before there were vats of leeches slowly growing. Across the way there were two female elves, though they looked nothing like Jeanay. She looked normal, if exhausted. These two were nearly skeletal. Their fingers seemed elongated, and they had vacant looking eyes.

“What the?” I muttered, looking at the bloated leeches inside them. The souls of the two elves looked like swiss cheese, if the cheese were mostly holes.

“First time here?” One of the attendants asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“I see. Well, these two have been equipping our armies, and it seems the leeches took a bit much. Luckily, we managed to find a substitute.” She giggled, walking over to a gated area that was the source of the grunting noises. Grunting noises that quickly morphed into terrified squeals as she reached in with a strange iron spear. The head was two bands that almost formed a complete circle, but just before it completed they spread out in a V shape. I watched as she forced a small goblin out of the area, the spear tip now locked in around the goblin’s neck.

Spoiler: Spoiler

“Feeding time dearies.” The attendant crooned, leading the terrified goblin to the first queen. She smiled, raising her hands to reveal palms with round mouths on them. As the goblin struggled, it was shoved into the queen’s lap, who immediately latched on. As soon as those hands bit in, the goblin was paralyzed. I watched in horror as two extensions wormed their way through the body of the goblin until they got to its soul, where they started consuming it, bite by bite. The second queen already had a new goblin by the time the first one started feeding.

“What? How?” I asked, confused and looking around.

“There’s a nearby goblin town.” The captain explained. “We let them live, and they send us half of their children. Sure, their souls aren’t strong enough to produce armor like ours, but for mass production? They’ll do.”

As he finished, the first goblin’s soul was finished, and the body tumbled to the ground where the attendant dragged it away. “What of the bodies?” I asked, assuming they used them to feed the larvae.

“Well, an army marches on its stomach.” An attendant spoke up. “The queen’s feasting leaves the body pristine, but deprived of the nutrients the larva need to grow. So we grind them up with pork. So long as the pig to goblin ratio is 1:3 or lower, you can’t tell the difference.”

I suppressed a shudder, looking things over. “Huh. Efficient.” I nodded. “We can both feed and supply the army at the same time, and the only cost is in pigs.”

“I’m glad you see things-“ The captain started, slapping me on the back only to freeze as a sword of spirit impaled him through the stomach and upward into his chest.

“Why?” He groaned as I felt the creature within him die.

“Simple. I’m an infiltrator.” I said with a smile as I let him drop to the ground. When I turned, both of the attendants were staring at me with horror in their eyes.

“You! You can’t be an infiltrator! You feel like the void!” One shouted, brandishing their capturing tool at me. I slowly walked toward them, studying them. Both of them were backing away, so I stopped. I was expecting them to have a creature near the size of one of the tattooed guards, but these were oddly different. The creature itself was tiny, but it was sitting in the middle of a web of darkness that was spun around and throughout the attendant’s soul. They probably didn’t give much of a power boost to the host, but left most of the host soul intact so that they could perform duties for their queen.

Not wanting them to run away, I first fired two bullets of compressed air right into their solar plexus. The nearly invisible attack was far too fast for them to react to, and they both doubled over in pain. Within seconds, I had crossed the distance and was holding both women down by the backs of their necks. Using stone shaping, I had cuffs come up from the floor and encase their necks, arms and legs, giving them enough room to breathe but not move. Looking at their souls, I could see that the creature within had moved around to the opposite side, trying to stalemate me with the attendant’s soul in the middle. If I moved, they would both shift. I had no doubts that if I tried to surround the soul, they would burrow in to safety.

I needed a way to attack from their blind spot, and with two of them it was going to be damn near impossible. So instead, I decided on an attack that was so fast they couldn’t react to it. “Alright you little bastards, you wanna play tough?” I growled, creating a separate spirit net around both souls, though I left about two inches of room so they wouldn’t feel too threatened. Wanting to distract them, I jerked my head and shoulders just a bit, knowing they would lock on to the motion for a fraction of a second. As I jerked, my partitioned minds went to work. One was controlling the spirit nets. Two were in each net, and used an intersection to launch a spirit needle into the creature, impaling them with three out of the four spears. The one that missed swiftly repositioned and speared its target, gently pulling them away from the souls.

Of course, their legs were clinging to the soul with everything they had, so I had to go in with my primary mind and slash through their legs with a blade of spirit. Once that was done, it was simple to incinerate the creatures, and slowly burn through the remaining webbing and leg tips. Simple, but time consuming. Especially with the two queens struggling in their bonds, realizing that there was a very tasty soul so very close to them. I hadn’t even finished the first one before they started keening, which in turn drove the goblins in to a terrified frenzy.

Shaking my head, I went through and finished purging the corruption from the first attendant before I stood and walked around to see the queens. They were both straining at their bonds, lips pulled back in agony as they tried to get to me. “I’m sorry, I don’t think there’s enough left of you in there to even give you a modicum of peace.” I said, shaking my head when they didn’t even respond to my words. “I will release you, as I released your friend Jeanay. After what you went through, maybe oblivion is the best answer. Don’t worry, I’ll let Elendria know of your fate, and together we will work to avenge all four of you.” With that, I sent a blast of spirit through each of their chests, obliterating their souls and the creatures that had consumed the majority of them. It might have been my imagination, but there at the end I thought the agonized looks might have shifted to something of a smile just before the body crumbled to ash.

Grisly task completed, I went through and cleared out the corruption in the second attendant, before walking over and inspecting the goblin pen. The sight made me rage. There were four of the miserable creatures left, all huddled together in a group in the back. Covered in filth and without a stitch of clothing, I could see their eyes filled with terror. Someone, somewhere was going to pay dearly for this.

“System, I know on occasion you bend the rules for me, and I appreciate it. I’m asking you to help me, so that together we can right a wrong. There was once a group of goblins that helped me, though they were locked in a dungeon. Would you allow me to open a portal to the level 5 boss room of that dungeon and send these poor things through, so that they could be taken care of by a king that appreciates his people? If possible, send them a system message assuring their safety and calming them.”

I watched, waiting as the goblins slowly stopped their struggling and got the far off look in their eyes that people got when interacting with the system. Slowly they stood up, and faced me with fangs bared. Their apparent leader started speaking in their language, and a system prompt appeared in front of me.

This will be the only time it can be allowed, and you will be soul sworn to complete two tasks as recompense. For their fallen brothers, and the loss of their souls, these four cry out for justice.

Tasks:

1) Slay every soul in this castle and raze it to the ground.

2) Travel to the goblins home, and kill everything.

“I’ll gladly accept those conditions.” I said, giving the goblins a vicious grin. “Will you let them know when vengeance is complete?”

Yes

As I nodded at the final prompt, a portal appeared and the four remaining goblins moved through, but not before each one gave me a nod of approval. With that, I turned around and started on a bloody task.