Kalyah fed the twins and while the Wanshi was snoring, finished mending Chiru’s hand. The painkillers alone would probably keep her down for some time, but the healing would keep her sleeping until Kalyah woke her again to feed her. She felt bad, realizing that she had probably over medicated the Wanshi. Trying to outpace her super chemical resistant metabolism had led to the result she didn’t want anyway. Besides the sleeping Chiru, the only one who was happy to see the Crow Clerics was Niae.
It had been a full ten years since Kalyah had worked in a temple and since she had seen one of their kind. A Corpine Trio or only a couple would stay at the bedside of a dying body, if they were dying alone. It was an event to die on the ward, normally people died at home. Early in her tenure the Pixie elf had gone on home visits with a Trio, but before she left she was in the temple. Wherever it was, with family, with only the clergy of Corpine, once that final breath was exhaled, that corpse, so named after the goddess, was no longer their domain. It was not even right for the Corpine faithful to close the eyes of the deceased. Unless a family member so chose, it was the domain of the Crows.
“They came for mom,” Ed said as he stirred his soup. Both of them sat on the bed, seemingly preferring it to the chairs that were offered.
Susan nodded. “Yes, that’s the last time we saw the Crow people,” she said somberly. “They scared us.”
“How old were you poor dears?” Niae wondered.
“Um, six,” Ed said quietly.
“Oh, I am so very sorry. I can see why that would be frightening,” Niae said, nodding.
Kalyah rubbed Susan’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid of them now, they're coming here to help,” she said with a smile.
“I’ve seen a lot worse things since then,” Susan said, still in her somber tone. “That Vampire… I had nightmares about him. I don’t know if I can sleep after seeing him.”
“We can help you sleep, don’t worry sweetie,” Kalyah said, giving her a light squeeze. “Is there anything else you would like to eat?”
“No, not right now. I just wanna know what happened to Genji,” she said, sniffling harshly. “I, I think I loved him and if he died then I’m… I’m going to keep crying and I hate crying.”
“She does, a lot,” Ed added.
“Stop it,” Susan snapped back at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Your girl is alive, your dumb fucking hopeless crush,” she growled at him.
Ed glanced at Chiru, scowling painfully. “I know it’s hopeless,” he whimpered.
“Hey, don’t fight now,” Kalyah said softly.
“We always fight,” Susan replied, almost proudly. She breathed a weary sigh. "We shouldn't now though, you're right." She reached out for her brother, mumbling an apology. Ed clasped her hand back, smiling weakly.
Niae sat up straighter in her stool, then moved to the door. “I have never had a set of siblings that did not row or tussle almost daily,” she commented. “They are here, now do not worry about meeting their eyes children, the veils obscure them too much.”
The twins swallowed, sitting up from their places on the bed, holding hands tighter now. Kalyah took their bowls from them, placing them on a table before they fell out of their hands. The two had gone stiff when the door opened.
As the Arch Priestess held open the door, the Crow Clerics entered. There were three of them total, all the size of standard elves, shorter than the High elf. Anything past their height and thin shapes was difficult to tell as their garb hid everything else. It started with their beak headdresses, which were authentic beaks harvested from giant crows that lived in the lofty trees of the Fae Forests. It was only the top bill though with feathers coursing down their heads and hiding their hair from view. Each feather was over a foot in length and worth their weight in gold. The ravens they came from were more fierce than most creatures that flew the elven skies. They had to be plucked quickly from the animal's corpses, the safest method, as the giant avians ate their dead. It was tradition for a Crow Cleric to pass down their headdress along with the rest of their earthly belongings, for they only owned everything for a short time.
The headdress came with a full face lace veil, enchanted to constantly conceal the wearer, no matter the change in lighting. Like everything else they wore, it was as black as the Raven King’s garments themselves. Their vestments included full aprons like that of Corpine, for they were often asked to find how some souls died. On the battlefields they also darkened with blood and viscera, gathering the pieces and denying the crows their feast. Their gloves went up all the way to their elbow, meeting with their lace clothing. They wore high boots as well as stockings. The only color at all was the silvery censers hanging off their hips, currently they were not lit.
The three women, Kalyah reasoned by shape alone, sat down on the offered chairs. Niae fully explained the situation to them in elvish, gesturing to the children occasionally. The twins sat close together, looking at each other like they were in trouble. The lead Crow was the only one to listen to Niae, her beak moving about from subject to subject. The other two calmly set the small censers on their laps and placed incense within them, working together simultaneously. The incense loaded, they snapped their gloved fingers and lit it with a pitch black flame. The resulting smell was a rich aroma like a candied rose. In the temple back home, Kalyah had always associated a sugary sandalwood with death. The Crows always mixed whatever they had with sweet scents. To them, death was a sweet release from pain and suffering. Kalyah had failed to save too many children to see it in such a way.
As the smoke trailed up from the tinkling censers on their thin chains, Niae finished her explanation. She had included the camp and the condition of the three young ones in the room. Like Corpine faithful, the Raven King considered the Ash Makers to be afflicted. All mortals will die, so all are equal.
Having heard everything, the head Crow brought her censers into her lap and lit them. They swung idly from her hips as she spoke. “Thank you for telling us this, Niae. We wish to see the site, I assure you,” she said in a monotone manner. “I have not seen a living afflicted in many years, to find that you have three is quite the sight. Twenty some more are unaccounted for, yes, we will check the Gates for you.” She rose up, crossed the room to the twins and put out a hand for them. They both leaned back from the faceless void looking down at them.
Kalyah moved around behind the twins, holding their shoulders. “Don’t worry, she just needs your hand to help look for Genji’s soul,” she said soothingly.
Susan turned her face away and Ed focused on the ground.
“Aravas, they seek the dead, but are still among the living,” Niae began, coming up to the Crow Cleric. “Might we consider showing your vanity to them?”
The Crow looked up, then to the two. “I do not often work with the living, and especially not children,” she said, a note of sorrow in her monotone voice. Slowly she removed her headdress and held it back behind her. One of her fellows reached out and took it, holding it tenderly. The head Crow was a plainblood elf, thin and pale, only her painted black lips were full. She blinked at the light, her silver eyes shadowed heavily by makeup. She straightened out her pallid hair and shook out the light dust left by her headwear. For good measure she removed her gloves and slipped them through the loop of her apron. She held out her long hand, the bones and the blue veins showing through the skin. If it was important for the Mother Goddess’s clergy to be full of life and plump like their matron, then it was also important for the Raven King’s faithful to be thin like the bird-boned god.
“Please children, take hold of my hand and think of the departed,” Aravas went on. “This is the best way, besides touching a corpse, to find their souls past the Gates.” Her hand of black nails twitched after a moment. “Do not be afraid, you will not see anything of the world beyond.”
Slowly Susan put her comparatively lively and pink hand into the Crow Cleric’s hand, scowling at what must have been the chill. Kalyah rubbed her back, assuring her all would be well. Aravas closed her fingers around Susan’s hand, raising the other to her mouth. She began her prayer, a more insistent and desperate one than any Corpine invocation. The young girl watched, unable to understand the long whispering sounds from those black lips. Ed also gazed up intently and the both of them gasped as Aravas’s hand erupted in inky flames. As her prayer continued her eyes snapped open, pupiless and gilded by that black fire.
“Think of him, the one you lost and desire to find,” Aravas said, gripping the girl’s hand tightly. Her voice took on a ghostly echo, one that seemed to hiss right behind them as well. Susan’s eyes watering, she closed them and thought with a trembling of her head.
Aravas gazed about the room, but her vision was not on the world of the living anymore. “The one you seek is not here, he has not been sorted or taken. It is safe to say he resides among the living still,” she said, faintly smiling down at the children.
“Hilda, can you find her?” Ed said excitedly, holding up his hand.
“Ow,” Susan said, withdrawing her hand. The skin of it had gone an icy white and she placed it between her legs, but gasped at the sheer chill of it. She whimpered and Kalyah took it, turning her hands into heating pads for the young girl.
“It is dangerous to gaze into the world of the dead too long if one is untrained,” Aravas said, her voice still distant. She offered her hand to Ed, but the young boy hesitated. His sister was barely able to move her fingers again after a moment.
“It’s okay baby, I’ve got you,” Kalyah said, smiling at Ed. “It’s just a toll to the magic, that’s all.”
Niae took a seat beside Ed, placing her arm around him. “Their toll may be higher given their condition,” she said. “Please darling, do not be afraid, I am here for you. This woman you seek, it is important to find her as well.”
“She was really good to us,” Ed commented.
“Then we shall find her,” Niae said cheerfully.
He placed his hand in Aravas’s waiting fingers and watched as they closed around his own. The prayer still active, the Crow Cleric gazed around further. Her brow moved together, and her lips pursed after a moment. She reached out into space with her blazing hand, grabbing at something none of them could see.
“Hmmmm… Curious,” Aravas remarked.
Ed hissed as his hand turned icy. Niae pried Aravas’s hand off of Ed’s before any more damage could be done. Hugging him to her, the High elf brought the heat back to his appendage and kissed the top of his head. “It is alright, sweetie, she did not mean to harm you,” Niae whispered to him.
Aravas was still gazing about, blinking as her eyes started to water. The tears fell down her cheeks and froze there. Her two fellows lifted out of their seats and grabbed at her arms. One had a pocket watch and was shaking her head violently.
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“Ma’am, end it, end it!” the other Crow urged in elvish.
“I cannot find the dead. The soul was counted, but they vanished upon sorting. They have not been counted as drawn out either… The Raven King has misplaced a soul,” Aravas continued in common. Her eyes were still wide open and water kept streaking down from them and freezing on her cheeks. Her skin went from pale to a cold blue.
“It happens, demons draw out souls,” the other Crow said in elvish.
“Ten souls were reaped, including this one the boy was searching for. The same time, the same place. All are missing before they could be sorted,” Aravas went on.
The two beaks of the Crows gazed down, unsure of what to say.
The twins shivered and the two Corpine faithful were stunned into silence. Kalyah turned to Niae, hoping the much older woman knew what to say in this instance. Though she didn’t delve much into the dead, she knew enough to know that this was far too strange for the Crow Clerics to ignore.
The rest of Trio knew they had to get their leader out of the world of the dead before she joined them. From one of their pockets they drew a vial and uncorked it, placing it under Aravas’s nose. The lead Crow inhaled a mighty whiff of the foul smelling liquid produced by the capsule. Her eyes fluttered and her silver pupils returned as the black fire vanished as well. She went limp in the pair’s arms and they laid her down on the end of the bed where she collapsed.
Niae rushed over to Aravas and Kalyah pulled the twins away and joined her. The lead Crow’s hands and nose were in the beginning stages of frostbite. Kalyah was thankful, besides the ice tears, they both knew how to manage something as simple as the body’s reaction to the cold. From her bag Niae brought out proper heating pads, tempering them to slowly warm, and set them on the woman. They removed her boots to find her feet were starting to freeze as well. Gently they laid her fully across the bed and worked heat back into the freezing parts of her.
Almost helpless to treat the living, the two Crows did their best to follow Niae’s instructions and let some of the High elf’s children into the room as they generally stood aside. After about a half an hour Aravas was out of danger and sitting up again. A blanket was thrown around her shoulders and she was drinking warm tea. She hid her bare legs with another blanket and sat quietly sniffling. It was a tenet to hide one’s vanity in their work with the dead and as much skin as she had exposed, she might as well have been stripped naked.
A few of Niae’s children had taken the twins out for a guarded walk in the hall. They returned now, they said they were eager to learn what had happened to their friends. Dressed in day clothes and not their night shirts, they looked much more serious and older. Susan wore a long sleeved blue blouse and a brown flowing skirt. Ed had managed to fit into some dock worker’s trousers and a button up shirt that was many sizes too large for him, so it was stuffed wildly into his pants. The orphans didn’t complain a bit, only happy to have new clothes.
Aravas smiled slightly at the children and their earnestness to learn more. “I know nothing past what I said, I am sorry to say,” she remarked. “Those that died in the camp are not among those to be sorted, they are merely gone.”
“They have vanished through the Gates?” Niae asked.
The Crow Cleric shook her head. “No, like I said they would be counted as taken. Their method of capture would be listed as well. The Raven King keeps His records clean.” She blew on the tea. “The only ones capable of sneaking souls out are demons making deals with the dead.”
There was a silence as the adults considered the situation. The twins looked from each of them for answers. Besides the Crow Clerics in Grunhir, the children probably had little experience with the dead. Their country was much more famous for the Huntsman who led a parade of ghosts called the Wild Hunt. Though it was terrifying to hear the wintery ride of the Huntsman, one supposedly got used to it. It was an honor to join the Hunt, but the Raven King was a far more existential end. A metaphysical holding ground for the dead. One of clear laws that many considered impossible to break.
A demon could never take ten souls without being stopped by the Crow Clerics of the afterlife. The Pixie elf thought about all she had been through in the city. What seemingly impossible things she had witnessed or discovered. A sound that froze leylines, a Grand's alchemy made permanent, and a vanishing camp full of Ash Makers.
“What if it was a machine?” Kalyah asked suddenly.
"A machine that steals souls?" Niae said in terror.
“How would it be possible?” Aravas asked.
“Like our boy Jonah has said before, the Order has made a lot of impossible things,” Kalyah pointed out grimly. "He even thinks a machine teleported the Ash Makers out of their camp."
Aravas's eyes widened to the whites at that.
“Ah yes, I fear I have much more to tell you,” Niae said, quickly continuing her explanation to Aravas.
The whole Trio of Crows reacted in shock over the telling of the various machines. The particulars of the Ash Maker camp and technology had been skipped over for brevity, but Aravas asked for more now. Niae hesitated, recounting her own experience with the freezing sound. Most of this discussion was had in quick elvish, in which the twins could do nothing but listen to the foreign sounds.
“What are they saying?” Susan asked Kalyah with pleading eyes.
The conversation had come to the guns of the Ash Makers. All instruments of death greatly interested the three Crows. Their normally level voices reached higher in their excitement. The two with their headdresses still on were not old enough to have seen the war, but even the Acolytes of the Raven King were taught in the ways of laser and ballistic guns. The change the weapons had brought to the world was too great to ignore. Kalyah had grown up in a time with guns and had seen many wounds and deaths from them. To imagine a world without them was impossible. It was a gun that had left her nearly dead on a street some ten years ago. The new gun the Ash Makers had now burned and melted through solid stone, and a distant house in Alpha bore its scar from the two rounds. It was this house that Crow Clerics wished to find and investigate. One of their many duties was preventing forms of death, not just cleaning up the mess afterwards.
“They are trying to help,” Kalyah explained.
“Do they know anything more about Genji?” Susan asked.
“Genji isn’t their domain, thankfully. He’s out there, alive somewhere,” the healer said with a hopeful smile that was meant to spread to the girl.
Susan looked down at her hands glumly. “How did he get out of the cave? Should I have looked for him? I probably fucking should have, shouldn’t I?” she said, her lip starting to tremble.
Kalyah came behind her, rubbing the girl’s shoulders. “You did your best, sweetie. You’re young, you can’t put any blame on yourself. You did all you could and more to survive. We heard about you in those tunnels. You survived and helped your brother, it was amazing. Goddess willing you’ll find Genji again some day.”
Ed came to Susan’s side and embraced her. They sat there together a while, Kalyah rubbing both of their backs. When she calmed down, tears wetting her brother’s new shirt, she sat for a moment in thought. Then suddenly she shivered. She tore down her sleeve and started clawing at her wrist. Ed looked at her curiously, then his eyes went wide.
The healer held Susan’s wrist, fighting mad determination with all her dwarven strength.
“What are you doing, sweetie, what’s wrong with your wrist?” Kalyah asked, her voice trying to soothe the feverish stare in the girl’s eyes. Her skin was all marked with bright red from her nails.
Niae and the others stopped mid word and turned their attention to the struggle.
“A week ago, before… I don’t remember when. It came during the fog! This weird box came to camp. It had little things in it,” Susan said, trying to redden her wrist more than it already was. The Pixie elf held her back by both wrists, but they were like magnets trying to snap together. “They injected it in our wrist. It was tiny and it hurt. They said it was a tracker for us. Kalyah, miss please, take it out, it’s going to track my soul like the others! Or it might make me vanish like them!”
“Darling girl, we know your bodies well, we have not found something like that,” the Arch Priestess said calmly, coming over to her.
The three Crows, including Aravas who was hastily redressing, all came over to stare down at the girl.
“We only did scans for injuries, not full echo scans,” Kalyah pointed out.
“Nothing was broken, there was no point,” Niae said, praying into her hand. “Hold still, please, this flame will not harm you.” She placed her white flaming hand on Susan’s wrist, now stiff as stone before the High elf. The prayer reverberated through her limb, making her tense, though it was only a reflex on seeing the waves of magic. Normally this was done where the patient couldn’t see. It showed the bones of her wrist in sharp relief, white on the black of the surrounding muscles and tendons. Among the bones shone a little white cylinder that was shorter than a sewing needle and no wider than a grain of rice.
“Why is it there? How was it placed so deep?” Niae pondered. “Darling, anesthetic, scalpel, forceps, please,” she said in elvish to one of her children waiting patiently in the wings.
“Take it out, I can feel it!” Susan cried. “It’s been sore. Please, it’s gonna take my soul!”
Ed stuck out his wrist. “Please, I can feel it too!” he said, shaking his limb.
“You should not be able to feel it,” Niae said as the tools were supplied. “I shall remove it and there will be nothing to fear at all. I will tell you now that we are sure your soul is safe in its place.” She tapped the girl’s chest, the root of said soul.
Aravas watched as the needle went into Susan’s wrist, helped along by Niae’s magic. The Crow was almost angry as she stared at the girl. “No matter the object, it cannot take your soul, I refuse to entertain that idea. The soul is a frequency and the taking of it cannot be done until body and soul are severed. The two are linked by the beating of a heart and will never be parted so long as the heart beats. The Order of Ash has supposedly done great impossible feats, but they cannot break something the gods themselves put in place.”
“You are in no danger and the item will be removed in a moment,” Niae said cheerfully. She signaled to Kalyah, who turned the girl’s face away. The Arch Priestess deftly cut beside the girl’s tendon, fitting her forceps under it as her mouth shushed the crying girl. Within a moment the item was out and Niae shone her flashlight on it. The item was colored green, coated in glass that was cracked. “I have seen trackers for the army, ones that try to mimic conjured animals and spells with radio waves. They are much larger than this and I do not know much about machines, but this one seems broken.”
“Did it leak anything in me?” Susan asked.
Kalyah shook her head as she sealed up the wound. “There’s no toxins in your bloodstream, don’t worry honey,” she said gently. “We’ve checked for that a hundred times, don’t worry…”
“Please, me, please,” Ed said insistently.
“What a frightening device,” Aravas commented as Niae set Susan’s in a tray. “This Order of Ash may be as equally terrifying as the one of the past. I have never seen a machine this small.”
“I don’t know if it's a machine. Jonah would probably know,” Kalyah said with a helpless shrug as she drew Ed close to her. “He’s blessed by the Machinist of old.”
The lead Crow reacted with measured surprise. “Hm, interesting.”
“I wonder if Miss Chiru has one as well,” Niae said as she injected Ed.
“She wants to return to the Order,” Kalyah said in dwarvish, which she knew the High elf spoke. The Crows looked at her strangely, but she knew it was better than what they might have thought if they understood. There was no reason for any of them to know other living languages and they didn’t need a reason to dislike any of the three here. The afflicted may be equal, but an Order member was not someone to support.
Niae only nodded to the comment. They weren’t about to operate on someone without their permission. Healing their broken bones was another matter, Kalyah thought.
“Whatever way the souls have gone missing, it is still a matter of the Crows,” Aravas said, placing her headdress back on. “Since the Psyin temple will not assist you, my people will. We have often suspected the Pirate used the undead, even in the records going back to the war. We keep track of those who die by undead very closely and there were far too many Ash Makers in the war that accidently vanished or were killed by those of the Stillborn goddess.” The three all flicked their hands dismissively at the mention of their god’s opposition. It was common for the Crows to never even use the names of any god, but Nosferia was particularly forbidden. “As soon as possible we will have Clerics here in armor. We are not as formidable as Psyin’s faithful, but we are not as restrained as you who serve the Holy Mother. These Hags and lycanthropes are within our realm to fight as well. Our temple here is small, a Grand has not died within the last three hundred years, but we have some willing and capable of fighting. With your permission Niae, I can speak these secrets abroad and try to convince some Paladins of the Grave to come here.”
“That would be most helpful,” Niae said, setting Ed’s implant into the tray. It bore similar cracks along its surface.
The Trio of Crows bowed. “We will be in contact. I thank you for the healing and the insights into this new war.”
Niae, Kalyah, and the other clergy bowed back, giving them the common blessing of the goddess shared from one faithful to another.
The Crows left and the Corpine faithful were left to deal with the rattled children. Kalyah looked over the devices in the tray again. Was it worth interrupting Jonah and the others with it? No, they were busy for now, and all they knew was fearful speculation. The twins wouldn't be included in the discussion, but they were a priority now. One of their friends was alive and those who died were gone as well. Blodwyn was keeping a much closer eye on her Ash Makers this war. They couldn't even die without her say in it.