Chapter 406: A Terrible Idea

Lysaila opened the tavern’s doors and slithered out into the dark snowstorm without hesitation. Kithina hesitated, reluctant to walk back into the frigid cold, but in the end, she followed, albeit with some grumbling. Callum walked out without a word, smiling from ear to ear. He was too happy about securing passage across Hoarfrost Bay to even care about the cold.

“Lysaila, my dear serpentine companion, we are friends are we not?” Kithina asked with chattering teeth.

“You’re the only friend I have in this damned realm, you know that, Kitty,” Lysaila said offhandedly, without glancing back at her.

“Then why the blazes are we out in this godforsaken storm!?” Kithina yelled.

“Because I don’t want a bunch of loose-lipped sailors to hear us talk about our secret plans moving forward,” Lysaila answered before slithering towards a dark alley behind the tavern and stables.

Kithina stopped in her tracks. “Secret plans? What secret plans? Hey, wait up!”

Lysaila waited for them in the empty alley until they were standing next to each other in darkness.

“So what’s this secret plan about? Because if it has anything to do with Captain Greyson he’ll probably end up charging us more gold,” Callum said.

“No, it’s not that. Listen closely,” Lysaila leaned in and whispered. “The truth is—” Her azure tail suddenly lashed out like a whip into the empty darkness.

A feminine cry rang out behind them and a blot of shadows slammed into the stable’s walls. Lysaila’s tail pulled back and snapped out again for a second blow. The shadowy figure tried staggering to her feet when the hardened scales smacked into her once more and sent her careening into the snow.

“What the fuck!? What is that!?” Callum cried out in alarm.

“This pesky rat has been following us for the last two days.” Lysaila coiled her tail around the dazed figure and pulled her into the light of the nearby stable torches.

The shadows melted away under the firelight, revealing a battered drow woman. Her split lip was scarlet red with blood and her cheeks were already beginning to swell from where Lysaila had first struck.

“A black mage spy? From my family?” Callum muttered worriedly.

“We’ve been being followed for two days and you only tell us now?” Kithina frowned.

Lysaila shrugged, “If I had told you sooner you would have run straight at her and she would have scurried away before any of us could have gotten answers.” Lysaila smiled hungrily like a predator eyeing its prey, “No, to catch a rat like this you have to be patient, let it come close, and then lure it even closer with bait, like the whispers of a secret plan.”

Mary looked up at Lysaila grimly and gritted her teeth, “...Do your worst.”

Lysaila laughed warmly and then her eyes suddenly grew cold, “You couldn’t handle my worst, rat.”

“Did my sister send you?” Callum asked.

“Who else knows we’re here?” Kithina asked.

Mary spat a glob of blood and spit on the snow, “I would rather die than tell you anything.”

Lysaila smirked, “Die?” She pulled Mary close with her tail until they could feel the warmth of each other’s breath. “Your survival was never a matter of debate. You are going to die tonight.” She licked the blood across the drow’s lips with her forked tongue and savored the flavor with a smile. “For a rat, you’re quite— tasty.”

Mary shivered and tried to lean away but the lamia’s tail held her tight.

“Stop trying to scare her,” Kithian said dryly.

“Oh, there’s no need for me to try that,” Lysaila grinned hungrily. “I can hear her heart beating like a drum. She’s already terrified of me.”

Mary swallowed hard, “...I’m not afraid of you, abomination.”

Lysaila cocked her head to the side and cooed softly, “Aw, there’s no need to pretend to be brave. I can hear your fear.”

Mary gasped as the lamia’s tail began to coil more tightly around her, forcing the breath out of her lungs. The drow’s feet shook helplessly off the ground as her bones began to creak.

Callum pitied the drow but he was well aware that there was nothing he could do or say that would stop the lamia’s bloodlust. He knew how dangerous a grandmaster swordsman was, let alone a lamia grandmaster. He looked away and hoped the drow’s death would be swift.

Mary’s face began to turn a darker shade of blue, almost purple. She choked on her blood, helplessly trying to gasp for breath.

“Lysaila, enough!” Kithina called out.

The lamia glanced at Kithina annoyedly, but she loosened her grasp on the drow, just enough to let her breathe. Mary’s head sagged to her chin and her breath came in short gasps.

“Sometimes you go too far,” Kithina sighed. “You’re a lot like Stryg in that matter.”

“Oh, please, I wasn’t going to crush her to death.” Lysaila gripped Mary’s blue cheeks between her fingers and sneered, black venom dripping from her fangs. “I was going to sink my teeth into her flesh and let my poison slowly end her life with sweet agonizing pain.”

Kithina and Callum glanced at each other silently and nodded in perfect understanding. Definitely like Stryg.

“We don’t have to kill her,” Kithina said. “If you could just put your appetite aside for one moment and let me speak to her.”

Lysaila clicked her tongue, “Be my guest.” She carried the drow like a ragdoll with her tail and held Mary in front of the red-headed dwarf.

Kithina smiled weakly, “H-hello. I know this situation isn’t what either of us wanted, it certainly isn’t what I wanted.” She sighed, “Look, this scary snake lady standing behind you will kill you if you don’t tell us anything, but if you tell us why you’re here I’ll make sure she doesn’t eat you. I can only imagine you’d like to live to see another day, so please, help me.”

“And try not to lie. Lamias have incredible hearing. She’ll be able to tell if you’re lying,” Callum added, partly for their own sake, and partly because he didn’t want to see the drow crushed into a bloody mess.

Mary slowly glanced at each one of them between labored breaths. Blood dribbled down her chin and her eyes were red as if she had just been crying. She clenched her eyes tight and whispered reluctantly, “...Alright.”

“Tell us why you’re here,” Kithina said gently.

“After the tourney at Undergrowth, I received a message to keep an eye out for him,” Mary stared pointedly at Callum. “I just didn’t expect to actually find him.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have brought the damn vampire along,” Lysaila hissed.

“Wait, if it was after the tournament then it couldn’t have been Elise who sent her. This isn’t the work of my family,” Callum said.

“Then why are you? Who sent you?” Kithina asked.

Mary chuckled helplessly, “If you want me to tell you that then you better just let your friend eat me now.”

Kithina bit her lip, uncertain of what to say.

Callum looked at the drow thoughtfully, “You said you didn’t expect to find me. Which means you didn’t know I was coming to the Northern Lands. Of course, how could you? That message you received was too broad, which leads me to believe you weren’t the only one that received it. The message must have been given to countless spies or scouts or whatever you are. But why? Why me? And why after the tournament?”

“I suggest you answer quickly before I begin to take a few bites out of that soft neck,” Lysaila whispered into the drow’s ear.

Mary shivered. “...I don’t know who gave the order. All I know is that it came from high up. If I were to find you I was only supposed to observe, not engage. I had no intention of harming any of you.”

Lysaila sighed, “She’s telling the truth. This rat may be less useful than we thought.”

“This doesn't make sense, who would send people to spy on Cal?” Kithina frowned. “Who would even have the power to have spies all the way up in the Northern Lands?”

“A Great House, no doubt. I’d wager House Thorn,” Lysaila guessed.

“...It wasn’t House Thorn,” Callum said contemplatively. “If it had been the drow’s orders it would have been to kill or capture me, or at the very least alert someone who could. No, it wasn’t House Thorn. It had to have been someone with connections who sought me no harm, at least for now…”

“Such as?” Kithina asked curiously.

“Sylvie,” Callum whispered.

Belle, that was her true name, the last gift she had given him before she had left. It was one of the few truths he knew about her and he held it dear. But in the end, Belle had ended things between them, there was no reason for her to send spies to search for him, so perhaps it wasn’t Belle, but someone close to her. Her family, perhaps?

It made sense, if she was somehow related to the Great House of Ashe then it all seemed plausible. The Ashes were one of the Seven Ruling Families of Hollow Shade, they had the resources to embark on such an endeavor, except… House Ashe wasn’t in the business of espionage, that was more of House Helen’s territory.

Callum knew for a fact that House Ashe didn’t manage a spy network, his father had told him as much. House Ashe was a powerful family but they weren’t known to delve into intrigue. They were a House of the people, beloved by the commoners as a very religious family, even borderline holy. Their family head, Calantha, was the high priestess of Hollow Shade. The Ashes were adherent devotees of Bellum, the goddess of war and protector of the realm. The family had devoted everything to serving the goddess ever since Calantha’s parents had been saved by Bellum and the goddess had blessed the infant Calantha many years ago, or so the stories claimed. So why would—?

…Wait.

Callum stiffened.

Bellum and… Belle?

An odd coincidence? Or maybe not. Her family were devout followers of the goddess of war, they probably named her after Bellum. A little strange, maybe even sacrilegious, but nothing more.

It was just a name, it meant nothing else— ‘I’m not like you.’

Belle's words echoed through his mind. When he had last spoken to her she had told him she wasn’t a dire… she wasn’t even a half-human.

It made no sense, of course. Naturally, she was a dire, how else could she have such strength and stature?

Callum hadn’t understood why she had told him those things, but he remembered how difficult it had seemed for her to admit those words. How anxious she had looked…

If she wasn’t lying, then what had she meant that day?

The memory of Sylvie’s voice flashed in his mind, ‘My mother always told me we have an obligation to the Ebon Realm, to keeping the people of this land safe.’

Safe? She had wanted to protect the people? Protect…? Like the goddess of war, the Guardian of the realm.

He supposed it made sense. Her family idolized Bellum, it would only be fitting that they tried to emulate her.

But what if it was more? The mad idea taunted his mind.

No, that was ridiculous, a ludicrous thought to even contemplate.

‘I’m not like you. I’m not a dire… I’m not even half-human.’

Callum felt his blood run cold.

It was mad. Insane. Complete insanity. And yet the more he thought about it, the more the idea began to take hold.

“Cal…? Are you alright?” Kithina asked.

“I swear he only had one cup of ale,” Lysaila shook her head.

Callum slowly looked up at them, a glint of madness in his scarlet eyes. “Lysaila, strip the drow’s clothes.”

The lamia frowned, “You serious?”

Callum ignored her words. “Just do it, please.”

Lysaila noticed the determination in his voice. She shrugged and began to rip off the immobilized drow’s clothes with ease.

“Cal, what’s going on?” Kithina asked worriedly.

He spoke carefully, his eyes glancing all across Mary’s body. “I’m looking for something. If I’m right, she should have some kind of mark on her body, a black symbol of some kind.”

Mary’s eyes widened in shock at his words.

Lysaila finished tearing off all her clothes, save Mary’s underclothes, and was about to rip them in half as well when Callum gasped in quiet surprise.

“It’s there, it’s really right there,” Callum muttered in disbelief.

Mary shivered half-naked in the cold. She tried to move, to run away, but Lysaila’s tail held her still.

The lamia wrinkled her brow, “What is that?”

A thumb-sized black tattoo in the shape of a blade wrapped in flames sat between Mary’s shoulder blades.

“What are we looking at, Cal?” Kithina asked, just as confused.

“It’s the symbol of the Ebon Order. Every member is said to carry the mark somewhere on their body,” Callum said pensively.

“But the Order is just a myth. That’s just some tattoo… right?” Kithina asked uncertainly.

“Her heartbeat says otherwise,” Lysaila noted. “The rat is more scared than ever. Well done.”

“Let her go, Lysaila,” Callum said.

“No,” she replied adamantly.

“Lysaila, we need her!” Callum pleaded. “If you’ve ever trusted me even for a moment, then trust me now, please.”

“I don’t trust you, never have,” Lysaila said matter-of-factly. “...But Kitty does.” She loosened her tail and dropped the drow unceremoniously on the cold snow.

Callum crouched next to Mary and handed her back her clothes. “My companions and I are going to an island in Hoarfrost Bay—”

“—Cal, what are you saying?” Kithina asked, confused.

He pulled out a map and marked their destination, then offered it to Mary. “We are going to the island to prevent a madman from sending monsters of the void into the other realms through a chrome gate. It is in many ways a quest of certain death and we will probably fail, but we can’t stop. These monsters have the potential to destroy not just our realm, but all the Null Realms. Many of them are with the warlord Marek right now.”

“...Why are you telling me this?” Mary asked warily.

“Because your order was founded by our goddess to protect the Realm. Tell your superiors that the realm is in grave danger, the likes of which they may have never seen. Tell your superiors about what is happening. Warn them of what’s coming.”

Mary hesitantly grabbed the map and abruptly scurried off into the darkness.

“Do you really think that was a good idea?” Kithina asked.

“Clearly not,” Lysaila said.

Callum winced, “Gods, I hope so.”