Bart, ignoring his sister’s meandering babbling, inched closer to the open room. A shuffling sound from inside almost caused him to drop the dagger in his hand. It was a noise that June must have heard as well because she fell silent almost immediately.
The shuffling of feet was accompanied by the voice of a strange man. His tone indicated he was speaking with someone else.
“Why did you bring this here?” the voice asked. “What do you expect us to do with this?”
Something else in the room responded with a string of eerie hooting sounds. It was the unmistakable, drawn-out sound of an animal. Each utterance ended with a ghostly reverb. There was no doubt that this was the same type of creature they had encountered marching through the streets and entering the building just hours before.
“We don’t need a body for this ceremony.” The man’s tone grew in annoyance. “This is just another waste. What have we told you bird-brains about butchering random tourists?”
The strange monster responded with quick, short hoots.
“Snooping around?” The man scoffed. There was a pause before he spoke again. “Guess the gat got a little too curious. Strange. Most tourists don’t typically care about religious gatherings.”
The creature replied with a disturbing, high-pitched whinnying.
“You think she was trying to sneak inside? Could it be…” The man again paused for a moment. “She’s a Scarlet Sister?”
Scarlet Sister? June shuddered at the words. Those unhinged, homicidal hit squads from back home were too much, even for her. The worst of the worst among the priestesses. She had never met one she had liked. Sure, she may have admired some of their creatively violent methods and no-nonsense work ethic, but their personalities left much to be desired. At least some of the regular priestesses still had a semblance of tact. What was one doing out here? She didn’t expect for any of them to be all the way out here. Had the Church authorized them to come hunt her down?
“That damn nosy Church of theirs again,” the man continued. “Have they finally gotten wind of our activities here? Shit, they’ve really been stepping up their search efforts lately. Those cunts of theirs have already raided and seized a few of our ancillary operations—nothing we can’t rebuild, but if they’re out here then we might be in trouble. We have too many valuable artifacts here that I’d prefer not fall into their pesky hands.
The creature answered with a confused hoot.
“Leave the body here. We’ll get rid of it after the ceremony.” The man’s voice was cutoff by the sound of some heavy objects being moved around. “Damn it all. We’ll probably have to move strongholds after this. Grab that implement and let’s get going.”
Shit! thought Bart. We need to hide! The prince tugged on his sister’s arm, scrambling for a place to hide in the darkness of the open hall.
“Come on, come on.” The man was now visible in the doorway, his back to the outside while he called to the creature. He wore a robe distinctly unlike the ones worn by the cloaked and cowled beings from before. Rather than being all black, his robe was made up of harshly dark reds, blues and yellows. He also seemed to be wearing a strange, bulging headpiece that sat unnaturally atop him. Finally, as he turned around to leave, there could be seen the excessive width of his mouth—an aberrant rictus full of dyspathy. In his hands was a strange ringed artifact surrounded by miniature floating orbs on different levels of rings. Once he started moving toward the nearby corner at the end of the corridor, the distinctive sound of a hoof clacked with every step he took.
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As the man left the doorway of the room, a tall, dark figure in an overly baggy, black coat soon followed—its face hidden behind a leathery, bird-like mask. Its hands grasped at the edges of the doorframe to give itself balance as it ducked under to leave. Peeking outward, it scanned the edges of the shadowed corridor, as if analyzing where it was. It stared down the long hallway, toward the direction of the entrance to the cathedral, searching the walls and windows as if looking for something. Seemingly satisfied, the figure fully exited the room and stepped around the next corner following after the robed man.
As the sounds of their steps faded into the distance, Bart peeked his head over one of the window ledges from outside. June was crouched down, kneeling beside him. She asked him if the coast was clear. He replied in affirmation. When Bart had heard the cult members readying to leave, he pulled his sister over to one of the windows and whispered in her ear to climb over. He quickly followed suit, waiting patiently as he listened for them to leave.
“What a strange little area this is,” mumbled June as she pulled at the blades of grass between her fingers. “I thought we were supposed to be inside of a building inside of a cavern. So what is this? Some kind of secret garden?”
“Yes, it is quite curious,” Bart replied, looking down at his sister as she crawled forward to experience more of the area. “There are actually quite some beautiful bioluminescent fungi growing here. I doubt this area is used for anything, but it does make for a quick hiding spot.”
“Glowing plants? Aww, I wish I could see them. Where are they? Maybe I could collect some to take back home with me.”
“We aren’t returning home, remember? At least not just yet. I doubt they would survive a trip that long.”
“Ugh, I just wish my damn eyes could work again!” June stood up and dusted herself off. “This is so frustrating sometimes. Let’s just go. I’m very curious as to what was in that room and what they were talking about especially.”
“A ceremony. A dark one, I’m sure. These fellows don’t mess around. I can see now how they’ve made enemies of the Scarlet Church.”
“Their number one enemy,” stated June. “And I’m more curious about the woman they killed. He said she could have been a Scarlet Sister.”
“Ah, yes. That gaggle of madly deranged murderesses. You know one of them constantly goes out of her way to refer to me as ‘dopey’? The nerve of that woman.”
“That means she probably likes you.”
“She what—?! You… You really think so? Hmm, well I admit she is a tad cute looking.”
“Oh my Goddess, can we get a move on already??” The princess pushed against her brother’s back.
“Right, right. Let me give you a boost. And watch your footing.”
“If what they said was correct, then that woman’s body should be right in that room.” June stepped onto the support of her brother’s hands and hopped over with ease and afterwards even held a hand out to him, who struggled to climb back over himself. Once he staggered back up, she once again grabbed onto the edge of his coat. “Lead the way, brother.”
Bart carefully entered the room and almost screamed. On a large slab in the middle of the room was the dead woman’s corpse, flayed open with her destroyed organs and disemboweled entrails on full display.
June peeked her head over his shoulder. “Well? Is she in here? Phew, she must be.” The princess waved a hand over her nose. “See? I knew we’d eventually discover what was making that smell.”
“For madness’s sake, June. Just be glad you can’t see the sorry state she’s in. I-I don’t know how we’re going to carry her out of here without… without spilling her contents.”
“Bart. There are a lot of boxes full of things in here, right?”
“Yes.”
“Sounds like a simple solution to me. We find something to close her up!”