Chapter 64

“Isaac, I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’ll never get another chance to do this again and I don’t want to regret this moment years later down the line.”

I hand Olin a carving knife from my interrogation kit when he asks for one and he uses it to make a small cut on the sides of the couple’s faces. They flinch away from him and try to wriggle away from him, but it’s useless. Once the cuts are made, Olin reaches his hand into his pocket and takes out two brown seeds the size of the tip of my pinky. He forcefully inserts those seeds into the cuts he made, one seed for each cut. I have no idea what he’s planning on doing but he has my total and rapt attention.

Once both seeds have disappeared into the couple’s faces, Olin takes a step back and begins an incantation. The language he’s reciting is called Iazari though I’m not sure which spell he’s casting specifically. Although a few of the esoteric, guttural words do sound familiar to me since Wraine and I went back to the mages’ guild to purchase and learn a few spells, I memorized the incantations rather than actually spending the time learning the archaic language.

Over the past few days while Olin was taking his test, I sold off the last few goodies I kept from Jerome’s hidden stash to a stolen goods fence Bertrand found for me. In total, I kept 3 gold coins, one uncut sapphire and one uncut emerald which I sold for 5 gold and 7 gold respectively, and finally, one silver sapphire necklace which sold for 8 gold. Adding in our remaining savings of 37 silver and 51 copper, we had 23 gold, 37 silver, and 51 copper coins. It was the largest amount of coins we’ve ever had, which we then immediately used to buy two fledgling spells for Wraine at 10 gold coins per spell and one rankless spell for me for 1 gold coin. In the end, we only had 2 gold, 37 silver, and 51 copper left but we both felt it was money well spent.

When Olin finishes his incantation, the couple both start violently spasming as if we set their bodies on fire. Looking at their faces, brown plant roots are growing out of the cuts Olin put the seeds into. Seeing brown roots digging into human faces is a hideous sight by itself and then seeing those same roots emerge from their eyelids is a mortifying yet intriguing image. The visual sends shivers down my spine but I can’t look away because I’m fascinated by the pure horror.

Very creative Olin, I’m impressed. Olin’s trying his best to watch through the entire process but judging by his shivering and trembling, he’s not meant for this type of work, and that’s fine. Out of the three of us, I have the stronger stomach for these types of things and I don’t mind getting my hands dirty if it means my friend can sleep a little easier at night. “Alright Olin, I’ll take over from here.”

He whips his head around to look at me and says, “But-”

I interrupt him before he can say anything further, “It’s okay, you don’t have to push yourself. Take a look at them right now and remember this image. You’re the one who did this to them and that’s already more than enough. I’ll take it from here.”

Olin somewhat reluctantly turns away from the couple writhing on the bed in pain. But I can see the tension leaving his body as he lets out a sigh of relief. It’s my turn to play. Walking over to the bed, the image of two human faces morphed with brown roots is grotesque, but oddly beautiful in a macabre sort of way. Both the man and the woman are still alive but the agony and torment they’re going through is visible on their faces.

Putting on my best smile, I cheerily exclaim, “What a show I’ve seen tonight! Olin is quite the artist if you don’t mind me saying. I’ll apologize to the both of you on his behalf if he was a bit rough in handling the two of you but he is a novice when it comes to things like this. Forgive him, would you? For me?”

Still giving the couple my prettiest smile, I pull out the cloth gagging the woman’s mouth. She’s surprised by my actions but instantly opens her mouth as wide as she can to scream for help. But it’s pointless. No sounds come out of her open mouth and her eyes widen in fear and shock.

“Oh, it seems you aren’t able to make any sound right now. I might have forgotten to tell you this gag here was soaked in a special liquid mixture I copied from Riane’s journal. Oh, Riane is another member in Candle in the Dark and she’s a botanist with decades of experience under her belt. You see, all I need is a handful of dried Alara flowers. Normally, the flowers are toxic to humans and animals but when they’re dried and then ground into a fine powder, they lose certain aspects of their toxicity. The powder won’t kill anymore but it’ll act as a sort of anesthetic for the mouth and throat. Mix the powder with water and soak two cloths in the mixture overnight and there you have it! Two gagging cloth that will temporarily paralyze the victims’ ability to speak.

“Quite an ingenious method to use Alara powder if I do say so myself. Riane’s journal only stated her experimenting with the powder to create a medicine to combat sore throats but once I took out a few extra steps, I managed to improvise my very first personal concoction. Congratulations to the both of you! You two were my very first test subjects and it seems the experiment went off without a hitch. Allow me to show the two of you my utmost appreciation for your cooperation.”

…

As I walk out of the master bedroom, wiping my bloody hands on a random piece of cloth I found in the room, I softly hum a tune I once heard at The Sleeping Hornet while tossing the cloth on the floor. Wraine and Olin are both waiting for me just outside the bedroom since they couldn’t stomach my torture session after the first eight minutes. Wraine looks at me with revulsion and disgust while Olin can’t look me in the eyes at the moment. With a whisper, Wraine asks me, “Was all of that really necessary?”

Instead of responding verbally, I only slowly nod my head. Wraine looks away in disgust and starts heading down the stairs with Olin right behind him. When Olin first described the condition of his parents’ bodies to us, Bertrand suspected his parents were tortured before they were ultimately killed. This couple, in all likelihood, did unspeakable things to Olin’s father and mother to find out where they hid their valuables.

Even when they found what they were looking for, they likely didn’t believe that was all there was since Olin took most of his family’s wealth that morning to the mages’ guild. Bertrand believes an ordinary couple wouldn’t sink to such barbaric savagery unless they felt like they were being lied to. In the end, we’ll never get the full story and could only go off of Olin’s account of what he saw that day since Paige still hasn’t spoken a word since then. But if half of what Olin described turned out true, then these people were monsters in human flesh, just like me. Bertrand told us before we left the compound to treat these people in the same manner they treated Olin’s parents, and that’s what I did. Even if I’ll get scorned for it, it’s fair retribution, plain and simple.

As I head down the stairs following Olin, I turn my head back to look at the other rooms on the second floor. There’s a total of two more bedrooms besides the master bedroom and their young occupants are still fast asleep, unaware I just murdered their parents. The middle aged couple had three kids, one of them older than 15 winters and the other two are both younger than 10 winters.

I spoke about this with Quinn one night while we were drinking and he described revenge as a cruel cycle of endless hatred. It’s only now, right this moment, that I understand what he meant that night. This couple murdered Olin’s parents and tonight, Olin murdered them in revenge. Well, I murdered them, but it’s the same basic principle. I wonder if these kids will one day grow up to murder Olin? Who knows? I can’t fault them either since they have justification to feel the way they do.

The three of us head out the back door and close it on our way out. A few people look over at us but they quickly turn their heads away as curious eyes often go blind. We quickly make our way out of the back alley and pop out on the dirt road. After we take a few steps away from the house, Quinn shows up before us with another person I don’t recognize next to him and asks, “How’d it go?”

I answer flatly, “Job’s done. Two bodies in the master bedroom and the other occupants in the house are still fast asleep.”

Nodding, Quinn says, “Hand over the valuables you found.”

Wraine takes the wooden lock box out of his pack and hands it to Quinn who in turn hands it to the person standing next to him who looks tiny and frail standing next to Quinn and his giant physique. The person takes the lock box and puts it away underneath his cloak before nodding to Quinn and making his way over to the house we just left. “He’s with Itia’s orphanage and works directly under Emerelda. Since Olin over here said he wouldn’t take the valuables for himself, we’ll be handing them over to Emerelda to act as funds for the three new kids she’ll be receiving tonight. Fair enough trade in my opinion. Let’s go.”

The four of us make our way back to the compound without saying anything. It’s been a long night and we each have thoughts we’ll be keeping to ourselves. When we get to the wooden gate, Quinn knocks rapidly three times, staggers two slow knocks, and then knocks rapidly three times again. A wooden panel at eye level slides to the right, revealing a pair of sharp eyes checking our faces. The panel slides shut immediately after and the gate opens for us. As we head inside, the guards on night duty welcome us back and resume their tasks.

Most of the compound should already be asleep by the time we get back and the girls are definitely asleep since I read them a bedtime story hours ago. It was one of the children’s books that I bought, Mr. Rabbit and his Fantastic Adventures. It has a similar book cover as Mr. Frog and shows a big humanlike rabbit wearing a top hat. They might be by the same author judging by the covers of both books but for some reason, the author isn’t listed in either of the books.

After a quick debrief with Derriv and Bertrand in the pantry, we head off to bed. Olin splits with us when we get to our room and waves us goodnight before heading to his room. He shares a room with Paige but most nights she sleeps over in Ilya and Mary’s room. He doesn’t mind feeling a bit lonely though because Paige doesn’t have as many nightmares when she’s with the other two girls.

After I’ve stripped off my leather armor, I fold it into a neat pile before laying it on the wooden nightstand next to my bed. I grab a wooden mug from the table and pour myself some ale from the hogshead barrel in the back corner of our room. I went ahead and bought a barrel for myself at The Sleeping Hornet for 8 silver because I didn’t want to have to keep walking back to the room dead drunk every night. I’m not sure this is any better but at least it’s more convenient. Normally I need six to eight mugs every night to black out and disrupt my sleep but I’ve been noticing I’ve been needing more ale to get the job done. It’s like I’m slowly building a resistance to the ale and that worries me greatly.

The next morning should have been normal and peaceful like it has been for the past month but it wasn’t. We received news early in the morning that Alira declared war on The Wolves.