This story is being rewritten! The new version, A Price in Memory, can be found here. 

 I highly suggest you read the new version as this one won't be completed. Also, there has been a lot of changes so you won't be able to continue with the other where this one left off.

“How can you be certain he was part of Tale’s Flight?” Rhone asked, holding the black arrowhead and ring in his hands.

“He wore the ring,” Holin said.

“Just the ring? No other runecrafted equipment?”

“None,” Holin said shaking his head. “Though they were probably looted by whoever killed him.”

“Runecrafted equipment is worth a lot, right?” Y’rid asked with a frown. “If someone killed the messenger, would they not take the ring as well?”

Holin shook his head. “Anyone with enough power and wealth to buy items like that would recognise the ring. If word got out that you had one, you would be drawing attention to yourself. The kind you do want. Some very powerful people are behind Tale’s Flight. And they take their reputation very seriously.”

“Then why not dispose of the ring?” Kali asked. “Surely they could easily have just thrown it into the river.”

“Maybe they thought they did,” Holin said. “The beast whose lair that was, was already eating the corpse. If we had found the bones a week later there would have been no sign of human interference. Anyone who stumbled across it would have assumed that the man killed by a beast.”

“Perhaps that is what they wanted?” Y’rid suggested. “Whoever killed him.”

“Could be,” Holin said before turning back to Rhone. “Then there is the problem with that beast litter. They weren’t natural. I think they might be the offspring of an experiment similar to the mutated rish.”

“They could simply have been a failure of a litter,” Rhone said. “One of the parents could have been malformed, carrying the traits down the line.”

“Would a malformed beast survive long enough to breed?” Holin refuted. “And there were no common deformities they shared. If you had seen them, Rhone, you would know for yourself.”

Rhone rubbed the side of his head, he could already feel the headache that was starting to form.

“It can’t be a coincidence that the messenger was found in the den of those beasts,” Holin continued. “If he was placed-“

“Hold on,” Rhone interrupted. He would not let this conversation spiral down into some conspiracy. “There is no evidence pointing to a connection between the dead messenger and that mutated rish you killed. Nor is there any to suggest that this beast litter was the result of another mutated creature. If you hadn’t faced that thing back at Dusk, do you think you would have come to the same conclusion?”

“Perhaps not,” Holin admitted. “But I did face it, and I can tell you, something was off about that litter.”

“Without proof, all we have is suspicions,” Rhone said. “And that simply is not enough.”

“However,” he continued, looking Holin in the eye, “if there are more of those things and if they can bear offspring, then the Order needs to know. What we can do, is to try and find the beast that spawned the litter.”

“What I want to know,” Kali said, “is why that messenger was killed. Tale’s Flight doesn’t come cheap. Whatever message he carried should have been important. Important enough to end his life.”

Rhone sighed. “This isn’t a problem we will solve today. We don’t know where the messenger came from, where he was going, what he was carrying or even if it is connected to these beasts. We need to focus on the things we can do right now.

And that is to try confirming if the beasts were indeed mutated through magic. Holin, you said the den isn’t far from here? Hopefully, the parent we are looking for hasn’t returned yet. If we can get there before it does, maybe we can get to the bottom of this.”

“That might not be necessary,” Holin said drawing the attention of the others. “Y’rid here was the one who killed the pups, and I was inside the building as well. If the beast didn’t return between when he killed them and when I arrived then it would have both our scents, otherwise, it would still have his.”

Rhone frowned and looked at Holin. He was about to ask the man to elaborate when comprehension dawned on him. “You want to use him as bait.”

“Both of us actually. But yes, if this beast is like most, then seeking out the one that killed its young would only be expected, no?”

Rhone turned to Y’rid. “You wanted to join the order. You might not be a part of us yet, but this is too important a chance to pass up.”

He expected the kid to waver or perhaps be a little too eager to prove himself, neither would have surprised him. What did was that Y’rid merely nodded, his eyes filled with determination. Rhone held his gaze for a moment before nodding back.

“It’s settled then,” he said. “Holin, I want you and Y’rid outside in the open. Kali, you get somewhere with a good vantage point. If you spot the beast, check if you can see any of those runes on it. But don’t engage unless you are sure you can take it down. The more proof we have the better. Red you’ll take the building opposite the street, I’ll take this one. Try to keep out of sight, when it goes for Holin and Y’rid, then you and I flank it. The boy can stay here with me.”

The others nodded as they began to make preparations, leaving Rhone alone in front of the fireplace.

Despite what he said about the lack of evidence, he knew the odds were against all this being a coincidence. But he had to lead this team, he couldn’t allow himself to be swayed by assumptions.

His thoughts strayed back to the messenger as he turned the ring over in his hand.

Just what did you know?

Whoever had killed the messenger was certainly not an amateur. Tale’s Flight are no pushovers, and if word got out that you tried to take out one of theirs… the mages behind them wouldn’t let such a slight go.

But then there was the arrowhead. Rhone opened his other hand and gazed down at the arrowhead. The black surface was smooth and polished, the edge thin and razor sharp. He held up the arrowhead to the fire, allowing the light to reveal the semi-transparent nature of the material at the edges where it was thinnest.

Vhiros, or its more common name, Blacksteel. Named after what it resembled rather than what it was. It was not a metal at all, but instead a type of crystal that grew in the Orr caverns.

Holin and the others might not have recognized it, but he did. After all, he had seen them before, a long time ago during the ‘uprisings’ of the Orr beastmen. That was also the last time he had seen runes carved into flesh that didn’t kill the bearer.

The uprisings. It was a stain on both species. Beastmen attacking human settlements and slaughtering innocents. Bounty hunters and mages hunting down Beastmen for their rune-engraved skin.

But those times are over, the cost of the treaties paid for in blood.

Why would they strike out now?

***

Y’rid sat with his back to the small fire they had built in the road. On the other side sat Holin facing in the opposite direction.

He kept his eyes away from the flames. If the beast was to appear, he doubted he’d have the chance to wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

“You think the beast will show up?” Y’rid asked over his shoulder.

“Don’t know,” came Holin’s reply. “But I think it will. Even if it decides not to attack it should still track our scent.”

“What if it never comes into view? Will we try to track it down tomorrow?”

“I doubt it. If it doesn’t, then hopefully Kali will manage to get a look at it. We need to get this information back to Stronghold, even if Rhone says we need more proof. We can’t afford to spend too long here.”

Silence fell on the two as Y’rid stared off at the flickering shadows cast by the fire behind him. The light fell onto the ruined buildings, giving them a haunted look that caused him to the tension in his body to rise. Would Kali really be able to see the beast in this?

From the time he spent with the group, he knew she had exceptional eyesight. A product of the ritual, or so he was told. Yet the main reason she didn’t like the forest was the lack of light, as she pointed out on numerous occasions, and it wouldn’t help that this night was a cloudy one.

If he was being honest, he had had quite enough of this forest as well. In fact, he was looking forward to seeing the glowing hills that would come after this. Apparently, they were named so after the vines, plants that gave off a light of their own in darkness.

It sounded strange, and at first, he had thought Kali was joking when she said so but, after talking to the others, it seemed to be real. Unless they were all trying to make him look like a fool. But they probably could have found easier ways to do that, he figured.

Either way, it had to be better than spending most of your time in darkness. Starlight sounded nice until you had to walk through the woods in it. The number of times he had tripped over a root had long since disillusioned him to its wonder.

Despite his efforts, he found his thoughts straying back to the corpse that had contained the arrowhead and the beast they were waiting for. Just what had he found himself in? Didn’t people have enough trouble surviving as it was?

“So, tell me about Stronghold,” Y’rid said trying to find something else to focus on.

“You’ll have to see it for yourself to understand. I know I did,” Holin said. “It’s old. Older than any city I know of. The settlement surrounding the fort is high up in a mountain with the fort itself being built into its side. Some of the books and scrolls in the library are so ancient that they can no longer be read, the parchment crumbling and the ink faded.”

“It survived so long?”

“It did. It was once the heart of the Order.” – Holin paused for a moment – “But its age shows more than its strength. It also shows the waning thereof. Many of the houses in the settlement are abandoned and many of the rooms in the fort aren’t in use. Now, it is all that’s left of the Order.”

Y’rid turned towards the man. “Why?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Holin said, his back still turned towards him. “If you want to know more, when we get to Stronghold, go over some of the old maps and compare them to the newer ones. At one point there were more than twice the number of cities there are today. From time to time new ones were founded, but they fell even quicker.”

Holin looked over, the firelight reflecting off of his pale red eyes. The intensity in that gaze almost caused Y’rid to break eye contact.

“We are a dying species,” Holin said, pausing for the words to sink in. “It’s happening so slowly that most would never even take notice. It won’t happen in our lifetime, but that doesn’t change the fact.”

“A dying species…” Y’rid repeated.

Holin chuckled. “You had your chance to live in blissful ignorance. You gave that up when you decided to join to Order.”

“Though,” He added, his voice a barely an audible mutter, “there are some that would argue that point.”

He watched as Holin pulled a flask from his belt. He uncorked it and took a sip before stretched out his arm, holding the flask towards Y’rid. Y’rid leaned over and took it.

He looked down at the flask in his hands, his eyes looking past the stained glass and red liquid within. What did this mean to him? The thought had sent a chill down his spine, yet somehow he knew it couldn’t compare to the apprehension that Holin felt.

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Should I be more concerned?

If what Holin said was true, then this was more dire than anything he had faced. Yet, the dread he felt was a far-off thing, seemingly insignificant to the anticipation of the coming beast.

Was that because it wasn’t an immediate threat? Perhaps simply knowing there were other worlds with humans somehow made it more acceptable for the existential threat on this one?

Or maybe he didn’t care as much as he should because part of him wasn’t really from this world? After all, he had already made up his mind. He would try to find a way back. Back to those he left.

His moved towards the wooden house, each step heavy after a long day’s work of training recruits.

As he neared the house he could smell the aroma of roasting meat and sweet berry pastry. A familiar smell, and one that spoke of home. Through the wooden door, he could just make out the laughter of a little girl.

He smiled as he reached for the handle.

It was here that the memory ended. The newest addition that he was able to retrieve from the depths of his mind. Yet he feared it might have been one of the last. Each time he tried to remember an event from his previous life, he felt like he was pulling it from up a web of darkness. A darkness that seemed to infest all of them. The harder he pulled, the tighter it clung.

Usually, that left him with a massive headache and sweat dripping down his forehead, even if the headaches were getting worse. But the last time was different. When he latched onto the memory and pulled… it reached out.

The darkness had seemed to stretch outward. It might have been his imagination, but the feeling it brought was not. The moment that happened he had felt a fear, colder than any far-off threat, spiking through his heart. It had felt alien, yet at the same time, familiar. But most of all, it had felt dangerous. More so than anything he had faced before. It had brought with it a sense of powerlessness he had never experienced before, and one he didn’t want to experience again.

A raindrop fell onto his face, splattering against his forehead and pulling him out of his thoughts.

He brought the flask to his lips and took a swig. The burning sensation ran down his throat, barely dulled by the sweet taste that lingered after. He raised the flask to his nose, smelling the sharp fruity scent of the drink.

“What is this?” He asked looking at the flask.

“Some fruit spirit Red found among the scavengers’ wreckage,” Holin said.

Y’rid took another sip before handing it back. Holin reached over, his hand bumping against the flask, almost knocking it out of Y’rid’s hand. Holin clicked his tongue.

“Fucking rish.”

“Still having trouble with the eye?” Y’rid asked.

Holin sighed. “I’m getting used to it. Still have to concentrate on everything I do though. Things seem nearer or further than they are.”

“Maybe some sparring would help with that.”

Holin grinned. “You still wouldn’t stand a chance.”

***

Red sat cross-legged on the floor of the building, his axe beside him, leaning against a table that held a burning candle. The candle was the only source of light in the dark building, its flame sputtering as the wax melted around it. He listened to the pitter-patter as the rain started beating down on the roof.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a piece of cloth and unwrapped it to reveal the silver necklace he had taken from the scavengers’ loot. It was a thin silver chain onto which hung a silver leaf, etched with swirling patterns. Idly he wondered if Teyra would like it.

She always had a strange sense of beauty when it came to such things, even for a wet-lander. If it was back in Anuneer, he would just have gone out to find the biggest beast he could take down and bring her its heart. In fact, he had done just when he had first taken an interest in the healer.

She had nearly killed him herself when he stumbled through the door, covered in wounds and luging the chest-sized ko-ari organ on his shoulder.

He smiled as he thought of the memory. Back then the fire was still flowing in his veins, barely quenched by the miserable defeat against Loan, Kali’s father. But that was different now. Now he could look back at that youth and shake his head in amusement.

He fingers traced the amulet that hung around his neck. Strange, that he would find his god here, in these rain-soaked lands, so far away from the bright, shifting dunes of his birthplace. It took him the long journey to the opposite end of the world to recognise what had been around him all along.

The balancing hand of Uldar was everywhere, yet only those who looked would ever see. Recognising that balance had allowed it the flourish inside of him as well, something he, up until that point, hadn’t even realised he needed. The ritual had taken all the fire from his veins and bound it together, creating the need for a calm to oppose the storm. After all, balance had to be upheld.

He carefully wrapped up the necklace again and placed it back in his pocket. With calm had come patience. He could wait a while longer.

He looked around the room, his eyes flowing over the old stone walls. It had taken him some time to get used to the structures when he first came north. Here people built up instead of down.

His gaze caught onto something near the opposite wall that made him pause for a moment. A shifting of the light, partially revealing a brown fur covered form before it shifted again, hiding it from view. He forced his gaze to continue scanning the walls while watching the spot out of the corner of his eye.

It shifted again, almost like space itself was realigning to hide whatever was there from sight.

Keeping his movements slow and relaxed he stood up and rolled his shoulders, careful not to give away any sign of tension. He reached over and gripped the handle of his axe, heaving it onto his shoulder, as he pretended to study the stone walls.

He didn’t have to wait long before he saw a slight movement again. A ripple through the low-light revealing a dark brown paw before it seemed to fold away, leaving only the wall behind it.

Red slowly turned his back towards it, his eyes unfocused as he strained his hearing. Unconsciously he tightened the grip on his axe. He would only get a single chance before it realised it had been seen.

Time seemed to stretch as he waited, he could feel the moments between each heartbeat. Then he heard it. A faint clicking as nails tapped onto the wooden flooring.

Three strides.

He judged the distance, waiting for the next step. He didn’t have to wait long before the sound was followed by another.

One more.

The moment the next tap came he spun. He stomped down onto the wooden floor, the plank cracking beneath his boot as he swung the greataxe from his shoulder in an arc in front of him.

He saw the air shimmer as the tiniest bit of resistance came from the blade before it forced its path through. Long hours of training kicked in as he stepped forward without hesitation, swinging the axe over his head to keep the momentum before bringing it down in a vertical slash.

The axe bit into the wood with a thunderous crack and the air twisted as the beast retreated, barely having dodged the attack.

“It’s here!” Red bellowed, yanking the axe out of the floor and charging after the retreating creature. He watched as the air shifted, whatever magic hiding it from sight unable to keep up with its rapid movement. It swirled around the retreating form, revealing parts of it before it covered them up again, leaving only a distortion in place as another part opened up.

Red sprinted through the room after the beast, following it as it turned a corner and dashed into the next room. He entered just in time to see it shoot through the window at the back. His eyes locked onto the door in the far wall. Sprinting towards it he lowered his shoulder and charged into it, the wooden divide holding for half a moment before he burst through it in a shower of wood and splinters.

***

Kali crouched at the edge of the roof, her bow was strung and clutched in her left hand along with two arrows, the rest being in the quiver on her back. She had her hood pulled over her head to keep the rain from her eyes as she kept glancing around at the ground, trying to make out any movement.

This was why she hated Nightwood. The only source of light in the long nights were the moon and stars, and now, the one time when she actually needed to see, it was not only cloudy but also raining. If not for her enhanced sight she would have been blind.

She stood up, walked to the other side of the roof and gazed down at Holin and Y’rid sitting next to the struggling fire in the road. It wouldn’t last much longer even if the rain was little more than a drizzle. It would slowly work its way through the flames to the wood, just as it was working its way through her clothes, seemingly having set its sight on her bones.

Still, the warm glow looked so inviting. She watched for a few moments as the flames started to sputter and dim. Good. Now they will have to share her pain.

She shook her head, berating herself. Of course she didn’t want them to, besides, the fire is giving a bit more light to the surrounding area for which she was grateful. But it looked so warm… and she was stuck up here.

She stood up and walked along the edge of the roof, hoping that movement might help. She reached the end and leapt the two strides to the neighbouring roof. Like most cities, the lack of space forced the buildings to be built right next to each other. Something that, in this case, provided her with a large, if uneven, area to move in. In fact, she could probably reach most of the city without having to touch the ground.

She was about to turn back around, when a loud crack reached her, coming from two buildings away. From the one Red was in, she realised with a start.

“It’s here!”

She heard the familiar voice shout. Without wasting time she ran towards the edge of the roof, nocking one of the arrows as she did so. She reached the end and looked down just in time to see something jump through the window of the building in question. She tried to focus on it but for some reason, she couldn’t get a good look at it.

A loud crash echoed through the area as a door leading to the road splintered and Red stumbled out. He looked around before facing in the direction of the shimmering figure. She drew the arrow in a smooth motion and sighted down the shifting form, realising that the shimmer was the creature they were waiting for. Aiming a little in front of it, she waited for it to pass her before releasing the arrow and letting it cut through the air before ramming into the blurring figure.

A loud cry went up from the creature as it was knocked to the side, but it managed to keep its footing and sprinted forward once more. Knocking and drawing the second arrow, she aimed at the creature again. She lifted the bow a little to correct for the distance when a break in the cloud cover caused the light of the moon to shine through. A glint in the distance caught her eye, some seventy strides away. A chill, colder than the rain, took hold in her when she saw it.

“Get down!” She shouted and threw herself flat on the roof. Instinctively, she reached within, to the part of her mind where her Aspect resided, and called it into being. She felt her sight sharpen and the darkness retreat. She barely registered the raindrops as they seemed slowed down in the air, all of her attention focusing on the cloaked figure holding the bow in its hands.

She heard the thwack of the bowstring and the whistling sound of an arrow as it travelled towards them. her eyes traced the projectile as it headed towards Red. She saw him following her command and duck down just in time as the arrow sailed over him.

A wave of relief washed over her, quickly replaced by anger a moment later. She surged to her feet, her body moving in slow motion as she drew back the nocked arrow and calculated the distance, before releasing it. It soared through the air and hammered into the stone next to the figure’s head, a finger’s width away from ending its life. The figure raised its arms to cover its head and dived into the alleyway to its side, disappearing from sight.

Kali felt time return to its normal speed and her strength drain away as quickly as it had come, taking with it the clarity of her sight and leaving only a pounding in her head in return. She forced her eyes open and scanned the buildings looking for any signs of more archers.

Looking back to Red, she saw him having moved to the side of a building on the opposite end of the road. He made his way in the direction the beast had run while keeping close to the wall. Holin and Y’rid soon joined with Rhone following behind them.

Ignoring the tiredness in her limbs, brought on by the use of her Aspect, she began walking along the edge of the roof as well. She kept an eye out for any other potential threats as she did so. Since she had the highest vantage point it fell to her to point them out should any arise.

They slowly made their way forward until they reached the alleyway the archer had disappeared in. Kali held up a fist for the others to see, stopping them as she crept forward. She reached the edge of the roof next to the alleyway and peered down quickly scanning the area. Near the far end she could barely make out a shimmering form struggling against a wall of a house, but no sign of the archer.

She pulled back from the edge. “The beast’s injured!” She shouted. “No sign of the archer.”

She watched as Rhone said something to Holin, after which the man disappeared into a side street along with Y’rid. Rhone looked up to her and made a circling gesture with his hand. Nodding she set off across the roofs to get a look at the surroundings as Rhone and Red made their way down the alleyway.

Try as she might, she couldn’t find any other figures hiding in the surrounding area. She gave the search a few more minutes before grabbing onto the edge of the roof she was on and dropping down to the ground, some ten feet below.

The impact sent a shock through her legs which she ignored. She looked around once more before making her way back to the alleyway.

She reached the entrance to see the two men standing over the corpse of a beast, the twisting of shimmering effect seeming to have disappeared. She made her way over.

“-never seen anything like it,” Rhone said to Red.

The man grunted in response and looked over to her as she approached. She joined them and looked down at the creature. It had a sleek quadruped figure covered in brown fur that failed to completely hide the markings that had been engraved into its flesh.

Her arrow was still sticking out of its side, probably having pierced a lung. The adrenaline that had no doubt run through its body was perhaps the only thing that had carried it this far. Though, looking at its nearly severed head, that was not the wound that killed it. She glanced at Red’s axe, to see the blade stained in blood that dripped onto the ground as the rain mixed with it.

The beast’s head was long and triangular shaped, ending in a mouth that split into three parts, with a long tongue that hung onto the ground. It reminded her of the description Holin had given them of the beast litter they had found earlier that day.

“No one else here,” she said. “I think that archer might have been alone.”

Rhone nodded. “Red said the beast could hide in plain sight?”

“It was strange,” Kali said, thinking back on the figure she saw as it had sped past her. “It seemed as though parts of it appeared before they disappeared again. Like there was something that covered it up.”

“We saw something similar,” Rhone replied after a moment. “Though a strike to its neck had stopped that effect. The runes seem to have been tied to its life somehow…”

“What is it?” She asked. “Do you know?”

“No,” Rhone said. “Looking at its form, it seems to have the basic shape of a nhilynx, though that is where the resemblance ends.”

He took out a knife and began skinning the beast.

“We are taking that back?” Kali asked.

Rhone nodded. “Perhaps Kale might be able to give some insight into the runes.”

It was true, she doubted any mage had as much knowledge of beasts like the one in Stronghold did. And he might have come across something similar in the records of the library.

She turned her head at the sounds of approaching footsteps to see Holin and Y’rid making their way over.

“Any luck?” Rhone asked as they joined them.

“No,” Holin said. “Could barely make out a track or two in these conditions. We’d never catch up while having to search for the trail. Not to mention, the rain would probably wipe it out before we found our assassin.”

Rhone gave a curt nod. “I suppose it was too much to hope for.” – he turned to Kali – “Did you get a look at him?”

She shook her head. “He was cloaked. To be honest I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.”

Rhone fell silent for a moment before turning to Holin. “Those tracks. What do they look like.”

Holin frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Humour me.”

Holin shrugged. “Average size boot. Solid heel. Maybe favouring the side of his foot a bit... why?”

“Human prints huh?” Rhone muttered under his breath.

“Well hell, I’ve never had a beast shooting arrows at me before,” Holin said. “Is that something we have to watch out for now?”

Rhone snorted and focused on his work as he finished removing the pelt. He stood up and turned to them. “Alright, let’s get back. We can still get a few hours’ sleep before daybreak. Something tells me, the archer wasn’t expecting to find us here. I doubt he’d be back. Especially now that he lost his pet.”

The others nodded and they began making their way back to the house.

“So,” Holin said, breaking the silence. “You still think we lack the evidence to suggest a connection between the beast and messenger?”