The corpse of Darius was full of stab wounds in the chest and the gut, blood pooled on the floor into a large puddle that everyone nearby took a step back to avoid. The cultists for the most part had surrendered upon the arrival of the paladins, the few that did resist were swiftly disabled and pinned to the ground. The others were kneeling in lines and had their hands on their heads.
“A little messy, but it gets the work of Solarius done now doesn’t it.” Aulus looked over the wounds that covered Darius’s chest and stomach before with a flick of his finger a golden flame engulfed it.
“Unfortunately I only have one hand to use. Otherwise I would have stabbed him in the neck just once, or I would have slit his throat and allowed him to bleed out.” Arthur said as he walked over to the large window sill to sit and clean the blood off his sword before he sheathed it.
“Would you like me to heal it for you? It is the least I can do for not arriving here sooner.” Aulus said as his hand glowed a gentle golden hue.
“You know restoration magic?”
“No, this is a gift from Solarius himself for all the work I have done on his behalf. For every trial I have endured he has granted me more blessings and I have been permitted to learn more from the holy scriptures.”
“I'll just do it, and I think that is enough preaching about how wonderful your is god.” Titia walked over to Arthur and cast a series of spells before his broken bones began to heal. “You had several broken bones, to make up for the nutrients used up in the healing you will need to drink a bit of milk.”
“How does drinking milk help with healing bones?” Arthur looked at Titia as he asked while noticing her light grey and almost stone like skin.
“My mother always told me that and she had real strong bones.” While Arthur and Titia were speaking, Aulus called over one of his subordinates to speak with before that subordinate returned and started calling out orders.
“As much as I would love to stay and thank you, I am required to report to the king and his court about our success here in defeating the vampire. If there are any complications, speak to my second in command Mettius, he is the one in the silver armor.
“We should get going as well. Arthur here had classes in the morning and I am tasked with keeping surveillance on him all throughout the day.”
**********
Arthur followed Titia out of the manor and down the path past the illusionary tree line. The whole time Arthur looked at her wondering what exactly she was. Aside from the grey and stone-like skin she looked like an elf, but all the elves he had seen had either brown or fair skin.
“Do I have something on my back?” Titia stopped and turned around to face Arthur. “You have been staring at me for quite a while now. Is there something on your mind?”
Arthur paused for a moment wondering if his question was rude or just exemplified his ignorance. “What are you?”
Titia was taken aback by such a blunt and straightforward question that she almost started laughing. “Have you never seen an elf before?”
“I have but they didn’t look like a statue carved out of stone.”
“That's because I am a stone elf.” ‘I suppose he wouldn’t know a lot about elves if he lived amongst dwarves like his file said.’
“And what does that mean?” Arthur asked not even knowing that there were variants of elves until now.
“I was born here in Antium, and since there are a lot of stone buildings made from limestone I was born a stone elf, with light grey skin like the limestone here.”
“Wait a minute. You are telling me that the appearance of elves is dependent on where they are born.”
“Yes, it is quite simple when you just think about it.” Titia explained all the known variants of elves from high elves to dark elves and how the major civilizations of each treat others. “The major high elf nations are very isolationist and often xenophobic, the wood elven nations are a bit nicer but don’t like it when people cut down trees. Dark elves are either part of dwarven settlements or hide in the deep underground caverns worshipping their mysterious god, and then you have us stone elves who are mostly a part of human nations with cities made with large amounts of stone like the here in the Rathen Kingdom.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
“So if a city were to be made up of a large amount of some sort of pink stone would the stone elves born there be pink as well?”
“Yes they would be. See it wasn’t all that hard.” Titia beamed happy to help Arthur understand the basics of how elves work. “Do you have any other questions for me?”
“Yes I have one more. How did you find me at the vampire's hideout?”
“Oh that.” Titia chuckled. “I've been watching you for the past two weeks. So when you left the barracks early in the morning I followed you to the hidden graveyard and to the illusionary trees and returned directly to Captain Pelagius to report what I found. Then he informed the paladins and we went straight to the manor to save you.”
“So you watched me for two whole weeks. Everything I did after the vampire assassin attack has been watched by you.”
“Technically I was watching you while the attack happened, I was only ordered to intervene if you were in danger. After the vampire started running I left to tell the captain about the situation and he dispatched a few people he trusted to take care of the situation.”
Arthur was a little annoyed by the attitude of Titia but let it go and asked the question he was most anxious about. “Since the threat of the vampires is over I should be able to return to my normal life now, right?”
“Well the royals will probably want to reward you with something for your efforts in taking care of the vampire cult, and we still need to investigate how they figured out your involvement in it. So I would expect things to go back soon but it may take some time.”
*********
The investigation regarding the Red Eye cult was greatly accelerated by the interrogation of several of the key members that were captured at the manor. They gave up other members who were not present at the time and they were swiftly captured as well. They were also able to uncover how they were receiving information about the investigation and who was a part of it, the guild of thieves known as Misery's End.
“Sir what is happening?” Auria asked as she saw her boss Hanno Metilius frantically searching for something in his desk and tossing everything he could find in a dimensional bag he carried.
“The kingdom has decided that we are no longer harmless after they discovered our involvement with the Red Eye cult. They are going to attack our headquarters in about half an hour now. Get your two friends and run, I will be doing the same.” Hanno found a document with a red seal that must have been what he was looking for, he immediately rushed out the door of his office and put on a thick brown cloak with a hood.
“But what about everyone else?” Auria thought about all the lower ranking members that could only survive because of the protection the guild gave them.
“We can’t help them anymore, Auria. They will need to either join one of the other guilds or work on their own.” Hanno stood at the doorway for a moment before he spoke again. “This will likely be the last time we speak, so I wish you luck on whatever journey life takes you on.”
**********
Lady Alkonost sat on her throne reading over a document regarding the events of the Dom Badaher expedition and the subsequent demon extermination. Her face showed she was not happy with what she was reading, when she got to the part detailing the death of her subordinates she was just about ready to light the paper on fire.
“Curse them all!” Lady Alkonost slammed her fist on her throne creating a few cracks that slowly fixed themselves. “I liked Saturio, he was an excellent servant. The only possible upside to this is that I learnt of a rising power before anyone else did.”
Lady Alkonost turned to Caius Quintilius, the younger brother of Saturio Quintilius and a servant to her. “Caius, find me all the information about this Arthur of Dom Badaher.”
“Of course my lady.” Caius gave a deep bow and reached for his communication orb. He called the information department of the cult. Within half an hour the agents there were able to acquire the file regarding Arthur of Dom Badaher from the Rathen Kingdom. The information was forwarded to Lady Alkonost who immediately began scrolling through all of it.
For most of what she read she did not show any reaction, but when she got to the portion that gave his town/city of origin she bit her lip. When she got to his recent exploits Caius thought he could almost see a vein on her forehead popping out. “What in the name of all that is demonic is this?” Her voice was calm but her body language told Caius that she was just about ready to kill someone.
“What is it my lady?”
“Arthur of Dom Badaher, the man who killed your brother-” Caius flitched, he did not know his brother had been killed. “- according to the records of the Kingdom just suddenly appeared in the abandoned city of Dom Badaher and decided to help the expedition force there retake the city and somehow killed Saturio after only training when he met the expedition.”
“How can that be?!”
“I suspect that one of the gods has decided to start meddling with things again and has selected a chosen.” Alkonost started scratching her nails against the arms of her chairs in frustration.
“Which god do you think would do such a thing?” Caius asked not knowing a lot about the gods. This was one of the few opportunities to hear some of the ancient knowledge straight from Alkonost herself.
“Excluding the gods without influence on this continent, those who are too weak to do so, and the ones with no reason to select one that would oppose us, leaves just two that I can think of. Solarius and Xardas, both have a stake in the well being of the human civilizations and both have the power and influence to create a chosen.”