A slender man in black rounded the corner of my eye. His snake like features staring at me with the sort of look a starving man might give food. The pale bastard even licked his lips. But when he did, when the muscles in his face contorted I noticed the identical scar on the left side of his face. Emma truly did work them over.

'Allow me to introduce to you my brother, James. They call him the Interrogator. He's very good at what he does. And what he's going to do to you, is hurt you. He's going to make you beg for mercy until you tell us where the Lady is.'

'What Lady?' James's fist connected violently with my jaw snapping my head back. More blood swilled in my mouth. A rough punch. My hand moved to check my jawbone hadn't fractured.

'Gum. Be a dear, tie him up.' James ordered training his sharp eyes on me. 'We want to know where that bitch Katharine is? You're going to tell me.'

Gum forced my hands behind the chair's back knotting them tightly in rope that felt as course as sandpaper. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Don't lie to the man, Slayer.' Lou smiled. 'One of our whores spotted you leaving the warehouse with her. And we found our dead guard. Now we just need to know where you stored her.'

'She's not an object.' The way he spoke of her sounded so distant as if she was a mere toy to him.

'I'll decide what she is. I should have just brought her here immediately. My oversight. One that will be corrected shortly.'

'What's your interest in her?' I asked earning myself another powerful punch from James. I spat blood over my right shoulder. 'Question still stands.'

Lou smiled. 'Strong-willed. A man certain of himself. I suppose you'd have to be. Letting Lady Katharine's father die and all....' The crime lord took upon himself a wicked smile. Though my heart beat fast his smile made it stop. He knew. That meant he knew about Collifer's deal with Ruin. There was no other way.

He must have seen the color drain from my face. 'Oh, I know,' Lou chuckled to himself. 'You think they wouldn't know you killed their pawn?'

'Are you going to explain to me your connection with them now? Thought you said you weren't going to risk the hero foiling your plans?' I grinned hoping to mask the cold worry overcoming my body but James was quick to right my attempt with a violent left hook that jarred my vision and threatened to snap my neck.

'I won't. The problem here, Slayer. Is you're not the hero. You will never be the hero. Now I have business to attend to with my partner. James do what you can to pry information from him. Find out what he knows.'

'With pleasure.' The snake man licked his lips attempting to frighten me.

'Are you sure you want to leave?' I yelled at Big Lou as he left the room.

I could hear his footsteps halt. The common thud of his massive bulk ceasing to drum along the floor. Then he turned and I could feel his eyes on my back.

'Don't you want to stay for the party? I hear we're having a bonfire!' I chuckled to myself.

With a deep voice. 'Hurt him, James.' Big Lou turned and left.

I turned to James just in time to watch his fist turn into a blur. First my head snapped right, then left, then right once more. Blood dripped out of my mouth onto my chest, my jaw numb from his impressive strength.

'I think my grandma punches harder than you.' I spat a swill of blood and spit onto the floor. James smiled flashing his teeth that I swore were nothing more than daggers lining the gums of his mouth. This was a man that for all intents and purposes was born to hurt people, from the sparkle of his eye, he enjoyed it too.

'Such baseless bravado. You Slayers all think you're so tough. Outlaws. Outcasts. Ready to take the world for their own.' His nose scrunched into a snarl. 'You're all pawns to the Crown. Dogs on a leash that can be put down at a moments notice.'

'We're sell-swords - The leash is fucking implied! But just wait until we're off that leash. That's when things get nasty.' I snapped back at him fully aware my words only served to fuel his imagination to hurt me.

The Interrogator smiled once more. A chill shot down my spine as he drew a small knife from his belt. I could already imagine what he might use that for. Take a finger? A hand? Precise cuts across my body? Of course meaning he would have to strip me of my armor first.

'You know. There might have been a time when I would hastily stab you until you stopped twitching. But I was young then. Inexperienced. I thought the more violent the method, the quicker they would talk. It was quicker, at killing them. Then I learned of a different method.' James snapped his fingers at Gum who stood awkwardly by making sure I didn't try anything. 'Break that table leg off.'

Hesitantly the thug looked at his superior. There was a short stare down before James yelled at him to do as asked and the man did. Flipping a nearby table over onto it's face Gum drove his knee into one of the corner legs over and over until the hunk of wood came off.

'Perfect. Give it here Gum.' Quick to the call the thug handed him the makeshift club. Sizing it up in his hands James gave the weapon a few practice swings before setting his sights on me.

'You see Mr. Slayer. I can be brutal but there must be an efficiency to the method. I have to be precise. I have to be careful. Well, ordinarily. You have given me the perfect opportunity to let loose. Normally I have to hold back with my prisoners because they're often naked but you. Wrapped up in that armor, it's almost like a present to me really. Cause that just means-,' There was no warning as the club swung down cleaving into my shoulder. All I could understand was the thump of the wood bouncing off my armor, the pain of my shoulder collapsing under the impact. I grimaced, biting chunks out of my cheek.

Sipping in a sharp breath of air through my clenched teeth I stared at James who smiled back though I could only feel my neck muscles burn as I tried to soothe the pain.

'Huh, that bounced off more than I expected. Resilient armor. I love interrogating prisoners in armor. They withstand so much more punishment as I slowly destroy their bodies. It's wonderful! They're like turtles....really. Hard shells to protect them but hit hard enough they still feel it.' He wound up for another swing and loosed slamming the blunt edge into my left bicep. I reeled in pain feeling my arm break but unfortunately James was right, though I felt the impact my arm would not break. Not easily.

'You're fucking sadistic!' I shouted back at him losing my cool. He hit me again on the shoulder with a top down strike. Every muscle tightened on impact trying to lessen the blow. It helped a little but it still felt like someone had just jumped off a house onto me.

'I may be. But I get results. So tell me, where is Lady Katharine?'

'I don't know a Lady Katharine you-,' Before I could even finish the man clad in black swung with all his strength across my knee. I grit my teeth and breathed deeply trying to reel in the pain. A familiar warmth trickled down my leg. It wasn't broken, at least the bone but he definitely broke skin. Impressive, considering he did so through my armor.

'You're going to ask the same damn question each and every time and I will give you the same damn answer each and every time!' I spat.

'You'll break eventually. They all do.' To mix things up a bit James set down the knife and table leg then flung his fist into my face. Then again. Then again. My head bobbed about relentlessly thrown about, my neck screaming in pain as the lacerations piling on my face built, burning and stinging in the stale air. 'Now. Where is Lady Katharine?'

'What makes you think I would even know that?' I stared up at the Interrogator and for a moment I saw two of him, his flurry of punches throwing my sense for a loop.

'Because you came looking for someone. Lord Sosis, no? The good Lord helped us kidnap her as payment for helping him. Now she's missing. Our guard is dead. No one would cross my brother or I, unless they didn't understand the consequences of who they were messing with.'

'Oh, I understand completely. And I crossed Big Lou. I didn't cross you.'

'You cross him, you cross me!' James snarled.

'That's funny. Cause the way I hear it, it's Big Lou running things. And you're resigned to second fiddle -Umph!-' His fist struck me as quick as lightning and as hard as an avalanche. For a moment I thought he had spun my head around.

'I have no problems killing you here. Telling us what we need to know just makes our lives easier and ends your suffering that much quicker.'

James was not going to kill me if I told him. That sparkle in his eye would drive him to torture me using more and more brutal, obscene methods until either my body or my mind broke. He reveled in that control over a person, breaking them. Watching them die slowly. For all uses of the word he was a monster. And as a Slayer it was my job to put him down, I just needed a little more time until my insurance policy came through if it didn't kill me in the process.

I changed tact. 'You'll never find her if you kill me.'

'So you admit you know her location?' James's eyes lit up believing he was breaking me. Really, I was stalling.

'Even if I did I wouldn't tell you...' I knew this would earn me another punch across the face but I needed him to just keep talking. Sure enough he hit me a few seconds later, really putting his body weight into it.

'Listen you piece of shit. I will make your final moments the most miserable you have ever been if you don't tell us. We want Lady Katharine! Where is she?' In frustration at my attitude James grabbed the table leg and whipped it across my chest forcing all the air from my lungs.

Collecting myself, my chest throbbing with pain I stared him directly in his eyes the scar Emma had given him just edging into the corner of my vision. 'How did you get that scar?' Fixing him with a steely stare James paused.

'I was given this by a coward. When my back was turned he hit me upside the head with a length of timber. Did the same to Big Lou.'

I knew he was lying. His sharp eyes once so commanding and dominating turned away trying to hide his shame. For now I played along. I needed time. Angering him was not in my vested interest.

'That's quite a bit of damage. I imagine your retribution must have been rather, brutal....'

James as if he should feel pride at his actions let a glimmer of arrogance sneak into his eyes. 'Oh, yes. Very much so. Do you want to know what I did to him?' And there it was. In that instant his words were more than enough for me to understand the type of man of he was.

He sought approval, not from his father, but that of his brother, Lou. For it seemed that Lou had taken the role of boss and James was left with little more than the Interrogator. Muscle and sadism rolled into one mentally unstable mind. He didn't attempt to assert himself as second, he didn't even show a hint of ambition to usurp his brother's position as often the case with such situations. Why? Because James adored Lou, to the extent his love was almost unhealthy.

'Yes.' I told him waiting to hear him tell of how he murdered Emma. It wouldn't be long now...

'When I found that bastard again I hung him from the rapports in the square. When the blood rushed to his head I took a saw and slowly cut him from his balls to chin. He passed out around the belly button. Few inches after that he died....'

'What a gruesome way to die....' I could imagine the agony Emma must have gone through. The betrayal she felt when no one came to her aid yet such a method afforded a generous amount of time to save her. The woman must have felt so alone in her final moments. But if Old Man Hagsby was here I know he'd proudly proclaim that she would have looked her murderer in their eyes with fierce determination.

'It's how you will die if you don't give up Lady Katharine, Slayer. Tell me where you're hoarding her and I'll make it as quick as possible.'

'The way you say that gives me no confidence in your word. You dropped the “painless” bit.'

'Well, a man's got to have his fun.' James took the flat of his knife and tapped it on my head. He thought he was frightening me. He thought he needed only push fear a little deeper into my being with his words, his actions. As if a mere man could frighten me. He was wrong. And he was out of time. I grinned.

'Is that why you tried to rape a sister of the One Faith? Just trying to have some fun?' My heart pounded against my chest. The fear of his abrupt retaliation boiling my blood. His eyes shot down at me almost stunned that I knew.

'I don't know what you're talking about.' He snarled. I smiled back at him. He attempted to smash that cocky smile off my face delivering another vicious punch. When his fist cleared my lips the smile had yet to leave.

'You know exactly what I'm talking about. That is after all how you got the scar. A poor, innocent, defenseless Sister. You tried to rape her, Big Lou tried to too. But there was a woman.' I heard Gum shift nervously behind me. 'An old woman. If I being precise.' James threw another quick jab into my jaw. Recovering a locked him with a fierce stare.

'Be precise all you want. I'm going to keep hitting your face until it breaks.' The Interrogator hissed through his teeth, clenched in anger.

'Does this upset you? Did you think you were breaking me? I'm a Slayer. We don't break!' I shouted defiantly earning a flurry of blows hearing my nose snap among the rush of fists. Spitting blood with little force but to land on my chest I trained my hazing vision on the man.

And I told him; 'Her name was Emma...She was someone's wife.'

'It doesn't matter what her name was, who she was. The bitch did this to me,' He pointed to his scar. 'He hurt my brother and she paid.'

I tried to speak but a thick wad of blood building on my tongue stole my words. All I could do was open my mouth and let the crimson saliva spill out through my teeth that were thankfully still in one piece. After a moment enough had drained allowing me the chance to speak.

'You did such a horrible thing to her....yet you can't even acknowledge who she was. Are you so scared of people knowing it was a woman that hurt you?' I asked him and though I braced for another blow none came. Instead I was treated to the big, bad Interrogator paused in his torture, his mind racing with the many things he has to say.

'It's not that. The people couldn't know we were jumped by an old woman. It's bad for a crime lord's reputation.' James breathed deep grabbing his knife. 'Enough of this. I've wasted time. You're not going to break and I'm tired of your talking. I'll just find Lady Katharine some other way.'

He approached with the knife held tightly, readying to plant it in my throat but before he could I gave him one final defiant stare that gave him pause.

'Your time is up Slayer and yet you show such determination despite that I'm going to kill you.'

I smiled at him and said. 'The ingredients used in Pixie Luck are highly volatile and unstable. When two of them are mixed together before being diluted they react violently. One being a liquid, the second a powder. Add in a soluble paper and you have the perfect components of a time delayed explosive that is very powerful.' I grinned. 'So in terms of being out of time, we all are...'

In that moment James understood the meaning of my words but before he could even raise a word in protest the world was devoured in flame. The eastern wall exploded inward revealing a wall of flame spraying us with high velocity shards of wood and glass and anything else caught in the violent torrent. I saw fire bite into James's face, eating away at his scar until the percussive force threw me against the opposite wall with enough force to knock me out.

I can't say I didn't expect it but when I woke only a few moments later the manor had become an inferno beyond my expectations. Sure, the explosive was powerful and I had expected it to react violently with the other ingredients in that production room but nothing could have prepared me for the sight of charred corpses raining from the sky. It appeared the roof had been blown away completely, the sky choked with ash. Fire nipped my feet and though I found my hands free of their bindings my body screamed in pain with every twitch of my muscles.

Scanning the lines of my body I found a giant shard of wood impaling my side. Blood seeping from the wound, armor splintered at the entry point. My armor was strong but I had been struck by the equivalent of a ballista bolt which should have split me in two. The fact that I survived was a miracle unto itself. Except now it seemed I would burn alive if I didn't escape soon.

I tried to pry the shard out but pain reared it's ugly head forcing me to stop and grit my teeth. 'Fuck that was a bad idea.' I grumbled loudly.

Something in the far corner tumbled down, crashing in a puff of ash. A man's groans echoed through the screams of the dying. I knew not the stranger's voices, their screams flying through the air joining the smell of charred flesh caused by my hand. But I recognized the Interrogator's voice through it all.

He had propped himself again the burning wall. The pain of his half-melted face causing him to scream in agony with every faltering step he took towards his escape. I pulled myself up feeling the wooden shard dig deeper and deeper into my side as if punishing me for ever thinking of moving.

James's voice rang clear through the snapping fire, the cracking timber and collapsing stone.

'Brother!' He cried out in pain as if Lou would hear him. 'I'm coming, Brother! Wait for me!'

The Interrogator, once so proud of the pain he inflicted upon others stumbled forward in agony and in tears like a child that had just discovered the inconvenience of a splinter. I couldn't much blame him though, I too might act similarly had half my face melted away. That too was a miracle given my proximity to the blast. He would naturally attempt to find his brother to help him, like the child it's mother, to ease his suffering. I need only follow him.

Gritting my teeth, jaw clenched and muscles tensed I pulled myself up with the aid of a smoldering piece of timber protruding from Gum's punctured chest cavity. Burnt bits of intestine wrapped itself around the wood, charred like bacon on a campfire. The heat burnt my hand and though I should have recoiled, the pain in my hand took my mind off the wood spearing me in the gut. Without the distraction I do not think I could have even stood but stood I did knocking over a pile of burning stone and lumber.

The sound of which carried itself to James's one good ear. He looked back briefly and caught my eyes. His look turned sour and with the vigor and sneer unexpected of such a wounded man he pulled away from the wall that had supported his weight and began to run.

With a deep pained breath I scrambled over the debris feeling the heat lick my back. Encroaching flames tickled my heels all the while I desperately tried to keep up the collapsing manor turned into a maze of fire and corpses.

'Stop! Stop you bastard!' I shouted after his back but I knew he would do no such thing. No, he would run as I grew slower and slower. The wet feeling of blood running down my leg, or was it something else? Piss? Shit? The world was coming down around me in fire and I was already on the road to Vishnurr's Hearth where he would welcome me to the White City, the home of the Rested Dead. I would not be surprise to find I had soiled myself. But I kept going.

James's back disappeared behind a wall of flame but still I kept going, around, through and under and over all the obstacles in my path, even people. Countless addicts, too high to function lay in fire as they burned to death. Too beyond themselves to notice their own deaths. Some sat in silence, others screamed. The blown corpses ceased raining from the sky, most having fallen into the crater that was once the production room for pixie's luck.

I watched their glossy eyes stare at me as I made my escape. They wouldn't follow. Even those that could. I don't think they wanted to. Cravenholm was already a shit hole. Maybe since they thought themselves incapable of taking their own lives the fire would save them from the misery. Maybe they were right.

Once living human beings could not bring themselves to live anymore. They had lost that will to fight on all because of men like Big Lou and James. Peddle their drugs. Induce fear. Control them. They are a product as much as the consumer.....I felt a heat bloom in my chest. I knew it was adrenaline but a part of my mind saw it for something else -hate-.

'James!' I shouted through the fire, feeling the heat dry my throat. I didn't care. Hot anger built in my chest, hotter then the flames. 'James I'm coming for you and your bastard brother! I'm going to rip your fucking heads from your bodies!' I snarled coming upon my final obstacle.

With a final push I charged into the flaming wall, my shoulder bashing hard into it's face and though my bones crunched and the shard proved immeasurably painful the wall would not rebuke me. Sailing through it's weakened state I landed with a plop on the dirt road behind it. Embers and falling ash dropping on me as I clawed at the dirt, it's grainy mix somehow slipping through my teeth creating a salty grit that mixed with my spit.

Picking myself up still I shambled forward. I noticed James slip away through the gathering crowd into a back-alley. Despite the pain I pressed my body to it's pained limits and followed. Deeper and deeper into the waking city suffocated by falling ash. The night sky polluted by falling embers spat into the air. My actions saw all walks of life gather but as was my life I walked the opposite direction of everyone else.

'James!' I shouted, throat parched and tearing. Deeper and deeper. Go. Go! GO! Keep going Agarn! The words were my only strength.

Finally I rounded a corner smeared with James's blood where he must have stumbled and left his mark. It was then as he disappeared behind a large wooden door that my heart sank and I slumped to my knees. I stared at the gatehouse to Collifer Keep, as silent and foreboding as it was earlier.

'You've got to be fucking kidding me!' I screamed. Lou was there. Lou was in the Keep. That meant Lord Sosis was there as well. I couldn't fucking believe it but my sinking heart only helped remind me that I should have known.

'Lotwai's don't just inhabit a place for no reason Agarn....You daft fool....I should have known. It's guarding Lord Sosis. He unleashed that thing.....Master....' I slung my head back staring at the night sky lit by tiny specks of light. I could not tell if the tiny points of light permeating the sky were stars or hanging embers. 'What should I do Master?'

I had no sword. Death cooed in my ear, lulling me to sleep. I was tired. So few years to my name and already I grew tired of the struggle....the life of a slayer had taken it's toll. I'm only eighteen....the thought danced around my mind. My hand traveled to my pocket palming the piece of paper that held Master Holom's final words to me.

Agarn, If you're reading this then what I fear has come to pass.

The woman handing this to you, her name is Isabella, trust her.

I have arranged for her to take you out of Iory.

Knowing you I knew you'd try to find a ship out of the harbor.

I can't go into detail, I trust the woman, but only so far.

I need you to continue my work if I'm truly lost.

In my study, the chipped black petal hides the secret.

Please, use all that I have taught you.

You are the one without Sin among Sinners.

I give this job unto you in the hopes you might stop the coming dark.

Speak openly with the Seventh Master, he knows of what I speak.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Vishnurr watch over you child.

I took a deep breath. 'Fuck it.'

I stood, steeling myself for the coming struggle to kill the Lotwai and subsequently strangle Big Lou and James and Lord Sosis and whoever the fuck else got in my way. Then I smelled it. A strange crisp sensation like a flower filled meadow split by a babbling brook. A peaceful, clean feeling overcame my body. I knew that smell. Every Slayer knew that smell. That feeling.

'Magic?'

An explosion of green light burst forth from the top of the keep's highest tower pouring over Cravenholm, seeping into the soil and knocking me flat on my back. Recovering my sense I stared up at the coiling black clouds above that formed around a screaming tower of green light. The air blew into the vortex sucked away violently lashing everything as it left.

'No....that's....' Wisps of green light fluttered by me and for a moment as the revolving snakes soared past in them I saw the souls of the dead screaming in pain until the light disappeared into the soil. From the very spot it entered a half-rotten hand rose from the earth. Then another and another until the street was filled with the waking corpses.

Necromancy. Perhaps one of the foulest magics in creation had spilled across Cravenholm raising the long dead from where they slumbered. Crypt doors were bashed open by the hordes they contained. Long dead relatives returned to their family home to slaughter their relatives and add more corpses to raise in the growing zombie army.

Weaponless and without sanctuary I did the only thing I could do. I ran for the keep. Hands whipped out from the dirt trying to catch my feet as I fled but they were newly resurrected, too weak to hold on and within moments I flew past the first gate and pushed it shut slotting the wooden lumber into place. Shutting them out. I only hoped now the corpses the Lotwai had mangled were too broken and butchered to see successful resurrection. Of course that still left me with the demon to contend with. I breathed deeply as I walked into the courtyard hoping no further complications would arise, unfortunately for myself and the citizens of Cravenholm, the world was a cruel place. War horns blew over the city walls, and though I knew not who they belonged to, I knew they did not come as friends.

I stared at the corpse slumped against the fountain. The one with it's guts hanging from it's stomach. The poor bastard still had his sword gripped in his hand. What use that did him? The Lotwai had nearly cleaned his guts out in an instant. Chest cavity split open. Unlikely as it seemed that he might be in any condition to resurrect I took no chances.

Unfurling his stiff fingers I took the guard's sword for my own use and with one quick swoop I took his head though not without a great deal of pain from my own nagging wounds.

I looked up to check on the corpse that had been gored by the flag pole. Sure enough the zombie wriggled fruitlessly, pinned to the upper levels of the guard house. He posed no threat and the effort to take care of him far outweighed my capacity to give a damn. Poor fuck would have to wiggle up there until he rot to the bone.

With a deep breath and my ears tuned to the quietest sound, even the beat of my own heart, I entered the first hall. The corpses of the two servants still where I had left them. Approaching closer I spotted the piles of bodies to the right, towards the study and the escape tunnel. None of them had moved nor were they moving.

It seemed my only challenge would be the Lotwai. If anything I bet he was nearer to the person he was meant to protect. And a bad feeling in my gut, aside from the piece of wood, told me he would be at the base of that green pillar rising into the sky. Now I just needed to get there in one piece.

Gripping the sword I knew I had to be ready. Standard steel did little against demons. Goblins, Hoyts, Zombies, Bloaters, if it wasn't demonic a steel sword could hurt, maybe even kill if you were lucky. But a witch's blade, it hurt them. Not just through wounding demons, it was as if the blade's magic denied their very existence. It prevented their ability to recover from almost any wound inflicted by standard weaponry. One of the many reasons we use bewitched steel.

So what is a wounded Slayer such as myself who has lost his sword to do when facing such circumstances? A normal sword could not outright kill a demon. Nor did I have access to more explosives. Simple really, all I had to do was turn normal into not so normal.

With the blade in hand I pressed the tip into the stone and grabbed the nearest, hardest material I could find. As it turned out was an iron rod. Tightly gripping the iron I pressed it's tip as hard as I could into the fuller of the sword. Steel was, unforgiving to say the least. My hand bled from where the rod began to pierce my skin but I kept pressing, slowly etching four faint glyphs into the side of the sword.

The glyphs weren't perfect. They were faint, imperfect things. Though glyphs helped the Voiceless overthrow the Masters eons ago if not done properly they were ineffective but I didn't need them to work fully. The etching wasn't the glyph, I just needed the grooves I scrapped into the blade to retain my blood. With a blood soaked finger I traced each line until the final junction of the fourth glyph closed completing the circuit. I watched as they burned a bright red, enchanting the blade with magic to prevent the demon's ability to heal. I just needed the recesses to insure the glyphs didn't smear.

I also needed the blade to withstand the magic that threatened to escape thus shattering the sword. That was what made bewitched steel so important in the process. Slayer Artificers were skilled beyond imagining but even they can't force normal steel to retain power beyond it's ability. I feared I only had twenty minutes before the sword combusted, thus I made haste to the base of the pillar. As did the horns that came ever closer.

The knight's that had traveled here with Lord Sosis were coming. Whether the magical explosion was their cue or they simply came to investigate, I did not know. I needed to finish what I came to do and vanish before they arrive and find Sister Mary and Lady Katharine. With any luck they shut themselves inside the house, door barred. At least Hagsby lived outside the city, away from harm.

The inner halls were quiet. Mice skittered about searching out the faintest crumbs unafraid of my presence as they raced through my legs. That was a good sign. Rodents tend to find company in the dead but demons, such as Lotwai, with their foul existence scared them away. I followed the tide of furry scavengers deeper into the keep until I could see the pillar's side through a far window.

Approaching the shattered pane of glass I realized with deep disdain that what I stared at was the side of the magical construct. Following it's screaming towards it's base I lost track of the pillar in a hole it had chewed out from the base of the keep.

'It originated in the dungeon then...magic like this...prisoners...must have been human sacrifice involved. So that was your deal Big Lou? A man like you must deal in human trafficking. In exchange for Lady Katharine you supplied him with your stock. Perfect location too. No one would come looking, not in Cravenholm. Few people go missing here, no one bats an eye.'

The scurrying mice squealed fleeing underneath a nearby door. Suddenly Master Holom's words rang clear in my head, a lesson I had ignored long ago but could remember as clear as day now.

If you should ever face an enemy you can't see, smell him. Feel the singe of the air as he nears your skin. Hear his heartbeat assault the air like a drum. If you can't see him close off your sight. Mankind does not operate solely on sight alone.

I closed my eyes. Though I knew a Lotwai's heart did not beat they had this odor about them. Stale blood, at least that's what the books said. Almost down to the letter a waft of dangerously strong blood, like iron, clawed up my nose- it was right next to me.

Lashing out I swung wildly spinning around but the demon's claws proved faster slashing across my back, opening three long gashes over my upper back. Blood sprayed across the wall and I stumbled away feeling the Lotwai's urgency to end my life as it struck forward. Panicking I brought the flat of my blade up in time to catching it's fly claws through sheer luck.

The pressure of it's forward momentum pushed me back against the wall. Stuck where I stood I stared with frightened eyes at the empty void where it lingered knowing that at any moment it could slip past my guard and tear me to shreds.

And then it did. I felt it's cold breath sting against the stake in my side and instinct made me drop the pommel of my sword like a hammer into what I hoped was it's head. I missed but grazed it's shoulder throwing it's claws off course just slicing my arm, cutting clean through my armor.

I backed away watching the wall tear gouges into itself. My blood smearing across the surface of the gray wall. My heart began to race, beating heavily against my chest. I scanned the hall for the demon, eyes darting back and forth but there was nothing. Closing my eyes I couldn't even smell it, only my own fresh blood. Sweat dripped down my face, my breathing quickened.

I was panicking. I never panicked. I wasn't supposed to panic. Slayers did not panic, especially those who were ready for the Trial of Glass. But I was so afraid that even my breath fled my body. My legs shook in fear, my sword grip, slick with my own blood became weak. A nagging sense of dread filled my limbs and it took everything I had to not collapse.

Master Holom had taught me everything I needed for the Trial but there was still more. Still so much more to learn and there I was, caught without the knowledge to survive. So ill prepared I almost laughed. I tried to take a deep breath expecting the final stroke to come any second now when the glow of the glyphs on my sword caught my eye.

Lotwais reveled in the blood of their kills letting it become a part of them and fueled their strength. It was like a drug to them so I was going to give it as much as it wanted.

Digging my fingers into my arm I opened the wound letting it bleed profusely. Carefully spilling the blood across the blade I watched the crimson liquid begin to glow as it connected with the glyphs.

'You want blood? Let me pretty it up for you.' The glowing blood coated the sword's length, dripping off the tip. It's luminescent drops illuminating the hallway.

With a flick of my wrist the blood whipped across the hall, splattering it like paint. I felt like a painter haphazardly flinging his paint brush at his canvas. Illuminating stripes of red painted the hall and the demon alike. It stood before me six feet tall and skeletal, resplendent in rings of crimson, the magic infused blood unable to absorb into it's skin. Lifeless milky white eyes popped out from the darkness staring at me.

The demon snarled and lunged aware of his rather showy attire. Now capable of seeing his claws I slide underneath his rampant, raging swings and swung my sword into his stomach with a counterclockwise spin but the sword, even infused with magic refused to cut through it's leather hide. It turned on me and with a powerful kick propelled me into the wall, my head smashing against the stone.

My sword arm had grown weak. I could see the Lotwai now but I hadn't the strength to pierce it's skin. The steel quivered in my hand, it's integrity failing as the magic created cracks in it's body. With my vision returning the Lotwai pounced spearing my left wrist through with a single claw and pinning it against the wall.

I reared my head back screaming in pain, the demon returned with a shrill cry of it own nearly bursting my eardrums. Fruitlessly I pressed the sword's tip into it's chest hoping it would just slip through and kill the damn thing but such luck didn't exist. Only sometimes, luck had a funny way of playing out.

The demon pressed it's other hand into my chest, fingers slowly gliding through my armor as it reached for my heart. I didn't feel anything until it's dagger like points began to pierce my skin and I screamed. My sword arm limp and unresponsive I felt the blade like fingers pierce deeper and deeper. Blood seeped down my chest and my consciousness waned.

But as was the case with dark magic, it often acted uncontrollably. Without any provocation the pillar erupted in a great explosion destroying the integrity of the surrounding structure. My expression was both one of surprise and pain as the floor caved in, swallowing both of us whole. The Lotwai saw it's own well being as more important then ensuring my death and leapt away finding safety on a jutting edge. As I fell, just another object among the falling stone, I watched it like the striped beacon it was.

Then my body bounced off a slanted rock, smacking hard into it's side leaving a thin trail of blood as I slid to a rest at it's base. My breath came in shallow spurts but I was alive and breathing. Then I heard the demon drop into the darkness of the room I had fallen into.

My hand curled around my sword, then my heart stopped. It was gone. My sword, the only thing that gave me a hint of a chance had disappeared. The glow? Where was the glow from the glyphs? I frantically swiped my hand across the dust caked surface and promptly found the shattered remains of my sword as one of the shards bit across the fingers of my right hand. Gingerly taking the piece of steel into my hand I could just faintly see it and the rest of the sword smashed underneath a pile of fallen stone.

'No.no.no.no.noooo....' I breathed out in a fit of panic. I should have kept my wits, controlled my breathing and thought of a way out of the situation but as the demon sprung itself on me, pinning me to the ground none of that came to mind.

I just stared at the empty air above me, where the Lotwai was hunched over figuring out how to best dice me up. The shard of sharpened steel sat in my limp hand. I waited for my death to come. The demon hissed and cackled over it's victory revealing itself to me as if to accentuate the horror of my loss.

It's flowing white hair drifted in the air, unchallenged by the elements. It's slack jaw from which a blood red tongue hung without strength, lazily whipped about. Stripes of blood ringed it's pale white body. Curtsy of my attempt to make him more visible. And despite my loss of blood, there he was in all his six foot tall emaciated horror.

A blood curdling scream burst through the ruins of the keep's basement. I heard a familiar voice, strained by pain and confusion.

'Brother! Brother why?' Screamed James from somewhere in the substructure. Then he began to scream and scream.....it didn't stop even as he begged for mercy.

Almost annoyed by the interruption the Lotwai craned it's head towards a distant wall. At first it was just a thick slab of black looming in the darkness but then I saw a thin strip of lime light punch through. There was a door, just there. Out of my reach. Beyond it, they were there. The bastards I had come for. The men that had answers. The bastards that helped orchestrat Master Holom's abduction!

The Lotwai reeled for it's final assault to rend me limb from limb but a hot anger built in my lungs and my hand curled tightly around the shard of steel with my fingernails ripped from my fingertips as I scratched the missing pieces of the glyphs into the steel. It glowed red and in a spark of rage I reached out grabbing the Lotwai's white hair pulled his head close and plunged the shard into it's eye.

The demon squealed like a dying pig. With the steel stuck in it's socket the beast flung onto it's back writhing about as the glowing crimson crept underneath it's skin like an infection. I hear it squeal in pain....it wasn't enough. The images of all those dead guards and servants, the sea of blood and limbs. It all popped in my head at once.

Without a second thought I threw myself upon the creature, delivered a stunning punch into it's ugly face and pulled out the shard. Then I stabbed it. Again. Again. Again. It's skull turned to mush. Tongue eviscerated and gored where I had missed my mark. Even once the glyph's power had vanished I kept stabbing even as the steel cut deep into my hand.

Not until the wound began to sting did I even pause. James's screams ever present in the background. I looked down at the demon and felt no remorse, only joy. Happy at the violent end I had afforded it. It deserved nothing less. And I would do worse upon Big Lou and Lord Sosis the moment I got my hands on them.

So I pulled myself up. Blood seeping from my wounds. Could feel it drip down my body, creeping along like an itch that made every muscle it touched want to kick uncomfortably. I fought the urge knowing how precious each movement had become.

Slamming my weak body against the door it refused to budge, jammed by the pressure of a keep having crumbled on the upper layers. If anything I might cause a collapse pushing it open but who cared, I was dead anyway.

It slid open, scraping hard against the stone floor, my fingers bleeding where the nails had been ripped off. Side in pain, my chest bruised, legs shaking and my vision blurry I welcomed the sight beyond it. A bald headed gentleman, muscles thick like a bull's and piercing blue eyes stood in front of me in the joining hall.

Lou delivered a cocky grin. Meanwhile I ungracefully slumped against the wall forcing my hand to tightly grip the shard for fear of losing it in my unbalanced state.

'You're alive?' He spoke almost proudly, peering past me towards the demon that lay dead on the floor.

'Can't say the same for your brother.' I sneered. A lump of blood jumped in my throat giving me a hacking cough and wheeze.

Lou peered over his shoulder towards the glowing green light behind him. It was there at the base of it that he had killed his own brother, that, I was sure of.

'James's wounds were too much. He tried to tell me otherwise but he would have been dead within a few hours without treatment. Besides, he would have just slowed me down.'

I tried to take another step forward but my legs gave over and I fell hard onto my ass. I sat up against the wall barely able to move as Lou approached me.

'So you just murdered your own brother?'

Lou knelt down beside me, my sword in hand. 'I wouldn't expect you to understand how we do things in my world. There was no place for him where I'm going. He's better off dead.'

'Just keep telling yourself that.' I spat at him. Lou grinned.

'Now I know how dangerous you are. You want to kill me, don't you?'

I nodded vigorously. 'I want to rip your head off your shoulders.'

'Fair enough. Can't say I deserve less. But, the way I see it. I need to get out of here before that spell finishes or I'm a dead man and so is everyone else in this city. So you can attempt to kill me and let's be honest, you're in no state to even try, or you can sacrifice what's left of your life to try and stop Lord Sosis and save the miserable people of Cravenholm.' Without hesitation Lou dropped my sword on my legs. 'Your choice Slayer.'

'Why would you just let me stop Lord Sosis? Didn't you have a deal?'

The crime lord stood. 'That deal is finished. What happens to him now is of no concern of mine.'

'But you don't have Lady Katharine. Was she not the deal?'

'She was just a bonus. No, I got my end and Lord Sosis got his.' Lou straightened out his vest then stepped over me beginning to walk away.

'You expect me to let you walk away?' I told him angrily, struggling to my feet.

'If you care about the lives of the people of Cravenholm, yes, yes I do.' He turned and walked and though every fiber of my being told me he was a threat that needed to be eliminated no matter the cost, my conscience made me turn my back as he slipped into darkness.

I shambled away. My legs felt like glass. Chest burned and tightened from bruising making breathing a pointless chore I came up a man of average height, regaled in the dress of a Lord prancing about a ring of runes and incantations that surrounding the base of the pillar. He heard me approach but did not turn.

'Forget something Mr. Lou?' Lord Sosis turned to greet the man he assumed to be his business partner only to stumble back in shock at my rather pathetic, intimidating state.

'Lord Sosis, I presume?' I approached him through the pool of blood coming from James's body laying unceremoniously on the floor.

'It-It's you! The Slayer! Master Holom's apprentice!'

I paused hearing my master's name. I was in the right spot. I smiled.

'So, I finally found you. You must be The Broker.' I reached out grabbing the Lord's collar and threw him down. Resting my knee into his stomach I gripped the older man's salt and pepper hair in my bloody fingers and pulled back to get a good look at him.

Strong eyes with a powerful jaw and amber like eyes, almost like two suns staring at you. Certainly the kind of look that fit the Lord of Solost and his home Solheim, “Home of the Sun”, as it was.

'The-The B-B-Broker?' He stammered like a distraught child ruining the image of power a Lord should invoke. Perhaps he was so astounded at my persistence to find him though death called me.

'I'm beginning to get a really agitated feeling that you're not him.' I snarled. Sosis looked up at me in fear. I thought him weak and though I was right I neglected to remember that weak enough men were worthy of fear for their cowardice enabled them to do meaning things. Including hiding a dagger in their sleeve that I should have guessed at. How else did he kill two of his own knights?

In the instant the knife slipped into his hand I felt it graze my skin as instinct made me jump back brandishing my own makeshift weapon. I felt the shard connect, felt flesh split under it's dull edge as I wildly threw out my arm. Lord Sosis reeled back, whining as he buried his face against the dirty floor.

Flustered and angry, ready to throw out any chance at answers I grabbed his shoulder and turned him over with the shard at his throat ready to slit it but the face I looked at was not Lord Sosis's. But a man with small weak brown eyes and a thin jaw, his face covered in magical tattoos. Some of which had been cut in two by my errant retaliation breaking the spell.

Suddenly the puzzle became a little bit clearer.

'An Identity Spell?' I roared in disbelief. 'Where's the real Lord Sosis?'

'I don't know! I don't know! I swear it!' The stranger screamed. Out of frustration I smacked him with the back of my hand. 'I'm just doing this for money, I swear.'

'Who set you up to this?' I delivered a punch that produced a rather horrible cracking sound. Only problem was, I feared it was my hand that broke.

'Older man. Dark hair. Well dressed like a Lord or Noble. He had money and a very skilled rune-wright who etched the tattoos.'

Rune-wrights...perhaps the most valuable people in the world of magic. Strange then that often times they themselves never wielded it. Magic was, difficult. It was hard to control without channels, catalysts to manipulate various spells or raw elements. Some had Elanor Spheres. Orbs made from various types of magical crystals that sorcerers would channel their power into to summon spells or control the elements. Some had staffs created with enchanted wood, occasionally affixed with a smaller Elanor sphere atop it's head. Others had wands or swords or shields.

But some, some had the characters of the spell or spells or even spellfield written into their body to increase it's power or summoning speed. It couldn't be done with just simple ink however. That's where rune-wrights came in. They would permanently etch the incantation, the magic circle, whatever it needed to be, into your body. Certain spells had to pertain to the body part like an Identity spell to change a person's face. But the more complex the spell, the more skilled the rune-wright. It was said the most skilled rune-wrights could etch all four basic elements onto a person's skin just on their hand. For most just getting one element would require most of the body.

Looking down at the man's face, I could tell the Identity spell was intricate. Complicated. And fragile. It appeared to have mimicked the voice, the skin texture. Tiny discrepancies like freckles and slight wrinkles, hair color and length, earlobe length. Not one inch of his head did not have a rune etched into it with black sage's ink. They made sure anyone that met him thought he was Lord Sosis.

'Where did you meet this man?'

'Outside Solheim. I was a vagrant passing through. He caught me outside. Told me that once I was the Lord to find my way into the convoy here. To come to Cravenholm and set up this-' He pointed to an upturned book nearby. I reached over to grab it and checked the inside. Most of it was empty but for a few pages describing the construction of an magic circle with five outer points to extend it's range. My heart stopped when I realized each outer point was a derelict tower along the city wall.

Glancing over the runes I began to understand what it was.

'He said I would need people to finish it. I thought he meant for menial labor but really-'

'Sacrifices.' I finished for him staring at the green pillar. 'The rising undead outside. The ritual sacrifice.' I glanced at James, another soul to fuel the magic circle. 'It's ruined magic. I know what this is. This spell is to turn Cravenholm into another Dead City. They used Lord Sosis's kindness to sneak in under the guise of aide only to turn around and sacrifice every living thing in the city. More soldiers to fill their ranks.....Is that why they killed Master Holom?'

'I-I-....I don't know.'

'Then what about Collifer? They couldn't have known I'd kill him....unless.... this was also an act to cover up what he'd done. Wipe his family line out. Leave no witnesses. Then what about you?' The stranger's chest began to glow throwing his head back he began to grunt in pain.

'When the spells finishes everyone is dead. Including you.'

'No-no, he promised.....AH!....he pro-promised I'd live!' I tore open his shirt revealing a magic circle that appeared to have been hidden underneath his skin. It's runes matched the ones surrounding the pillar.

'It seems you too have been played. No one bats an eye if a place as desecrated as Cravenholm turns Dead. It's Lordship wiped out. As things were going this land only had a few more years left. I wouldn't be surprised if They are the ones responsible for it's downfall. An orchestrated end. Unfortunately for them I decided to interfere after all.'

I worked my way over to the magic circle, it's runes etched deep into the stone floor. The vagrant had done a good job of making it difficult to tamper with. Though as he lay on the floor writhing in pain, now was not the time to compliment him.

Thankfully my knowledge of runes and magic extended beyond the basics and within a few moments I had added a couple vital runes of my own that canceled out the magic. I watched the green pillar disseminate into the night sky, the vagrant's screaming ended as the magic circle on his chest ceased to glow.

'Any undead that were raised due to that spell will wither and die without a source of fell magic to sustain their unlives. Though I imagine by now the city has evacuated. Perhaps for the better.'

'I- I didn't know this was what he wanted.'

'You had to kill two Knights of Solheim to get here. You should have known!'

The vagrant began to openly cry. 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'

'Why did you accept?' I asked him sitting next to the man I had prepared myself to kill. I lay back on the cold stone floor and stared through the many floors the pillar had punched through at the night sky and it's many bright stars.

'My name is Kal Elvarazzi. I told you I am a vagrant.' His speech began to warp and twist until finally it settled on an accent I knew only to come from the Osorai Empire. A kingdom far, far to the west once long at war with Sinn until a deadly civil war broke it's reign as a powerful nation. Though now reunified it's former glory is a thing of the past.

'You're from the Osorai Empire? Past the Alora Sea. Last I heard you lot were at war with the Navor to your north for almost twenty years now.'

'And those twenty years neither side is winning or losing. We call it the Red Belt. Where both front-lines meet, but neither budge. So much blood has been spilled on those sands. My family and I, our village, Xuta, was in the Red Belt. When the fighting got worse we fled to Sinn.'

'Where are they now?'

'In Trale. My wife is a basket weaver. Though I came further in land to find better work.'

'That's when you met the Broker.' I chuckled recognizing this man to be a pawn. Regardless he had claimed the lives of two Knights and James. He needed to be arrested for his actions.

'Whatever his name be. Yes.'

'You have children?' I asked feeling sleep lull me though it could have just as easily been death.

'A boy. His name is Xavi. Fourteen years. He loves books. I always try to send him some new ones when I get money.'

'Just four years younger than me.'

'That young....' Kal joined my eyes fixed on the stars.

'Kal?'

'Yes, Slayer?'

I turned my head to him. 'I might hunt monsters but I'm still required to uphold the law. I will be forced to arrest you for the murder of three men.'

'I understand. I would not want my son to know me as coward who ran when I did so much wrong. I only hope he knows I did what I needed to for him.'

'I'm sure he will, Kal. So you won't try to run or kill me when I sleep?'

The Osoraian looked at me with a puzzled look. 'Sleep?'

'Yeah, I'm tired. Think I'll rest a bit.'

'Go right ahead Slayer. You're a hero. You deserve it.'

'Thanks.' My eyes snapped shut. Honestly, though it was unwise to leave myself so unguarded next to a criminal who I was to arrest and bring to justice I hadn't the strength anymore to move. No amount of anger or willpower could make my limbs move. So I just closed my eyes and began to fall into the blackness of sleep. No dreams, no thinking. Just rest....

'SLAYER! SLAYER! SLAYER!' Kal screamed and I opened my eyes to see his chest glow brighter than all the skies in the night sky. 'Slayer! What's happ-' Before I could respond Kal disappeared in an explosion of blood and bone. What little of my skin that was untouched by blood had a fresh coat of the crimson liquid. Organs landed on me, bone fragments caked my hair and I stared at the hollow cavity that was Kal's chest with abject disbelief.

'He...he was....uhhhh.....' I couldn't move. I felt hope drain from my limbs. Kal's terrified eyes stared at me but I couldn't meet them, only stare at the hole in his chest. Finally the weight of his arms and head caused his visible spine to buckle and slap into the ground.

I had seen many things, but that was the first. Didn't feel angry or confused. I felt sad at his death. Though I had no strength I left the basement, clambering up the rubble of the keep to spot the banners of Lord Sosis's men flying across the fields outside the city's walls. Throngs of Cravenholm's citizens fled by torchlight illuminating their terrified faces.

'I need to leave. I need to....' The beautiful face of a brunette popped into my mind along with a pragmatic sister and twelve children. 'Lady Katharine. Mary and the children....I need to make sure they're alright.'

Easier said than done. Stumbling through the city streets I left a well tailored trail of blood behind me. Unable to stop the bleeding or mend the many bones I had assuredly broken I knew my death was coming soon. I needed to just hold on until I got to that blue door. Hold on!

And despite all odds I did. I should have died twice over already but I needed to know they were safe. Pounding on their door I awaited an alarmed response.

'Sister Mary! Lady Katharine! It's Agarn!' I shouted as loud as my heaving lungs could muster. No one answered. I tried again, yelling even louder this time. Still no answer. I knew then that they had fled, hopefully to safety. In that I could be content and ready to die. Clutching my sword to my chest I began to walk. No specific destination in mind though in the back of my mind I was heading towards Hagsby little house. I thought it poetic irony to die where my journey here in Cravenholm began.

Except as my life clung long enough to my dying body for me to see it I knew there was something greater at work. Smoke rose from Hagsby's hut, not from a cooking fire but from burning timber.

I quickened my pace into a swift hobble, rushing as fast as I could over the hill to witness a crowd of people gathered around Hagsby's home. Suddenly the old man's tearful retelling of his wife's death replayed in my head.

'No.' I whispered. 'No. Please, tell me something didn't happen. Please, Visnurr. Tell me he's fine. Tell me he's alright. Let me hear his stupid angry voice. Don't take him....Please, don't take him...'

Without hesitation I ran through the crowd of people throwing elbows in every direction assuring they would get out of my way I broke through rushing into the burning house. And there he was.

Strung up by his wrists. Throat slit and feet cut off. Tiny incisions marked his body where they had been made to insure the greatest pain possible. I stood in disgust before I collected my wits enough to cut the poor man down and into my arms.

Looks of despair and horror met me as I emerged with the tortured man, his body still warm as death had only just taken him. The people began to murmur in gossip even when I collapsed still holding the man. A single conversation caught my ear.

'Somebody said they spotted Big Lou running from the house.'

Big fucking Lou! I was going to butcher him and any of his family and anybody that ever thought about doing business with him. I was going to fucking massacre him!

A familiar face burst through the crowd and her look of worry settled the rage in my heart.

'Lady Katharine. He- he was innocent. He only wanted to help, he had his faults but he didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve this!'

A pair of Lord Sosis's knights joined her as did Sister Mary covering her mouth in disgust.

'Agarn. Come here.' Katharine beckoned for me to join her and reluctantly I did until she pressed my head into her chest and held me tight. Stroking my hair.

'It's alright, Slayer. It's alright. Everything's alright.' She cooed into my ear. For the first time in a long while I felt the warmth of human contact. Her attempts to soothe me, well-intentioned as they were, did little to help. I knew things weren't going to be alright. Cause something told me things were only going to get much worse.