Chapter 31: Compulsion

Vina stormed through the already open doors of the Town Hall, her entrance heralded by the grisly sight of lifeless bodies—both creatures and townsfolk. The once bright and bustling building was now shrouded in darkness, the foul stench of death permeating the air. The only light was the strange red glow emanating from her lantern, casting eerie shadows across the scene. Her eyes scanned the vast room, now a battlefield littered with overturned tables, shattered chairs, and claw marks etched into the floors and walls. Bodies, both paliternian and monstrous, lay scattered, the aftermath of a conflict she had missed while searching for Pawld.

Each step inside felt heavy, her blood sense constantly reminding her of the dire consequences of prioritizing the blacksmith first. She swallowed the lump of guilt that rose in her throat, her eyes darting from face to face, desperately searching for Tressi among the fallen. Relief mingled with her anguish as she realized Tressi wasn't among the dead.

Navigating the gruesome scene, careful not to slip in the blood-soaked mess, Vina reached the secure storeroom where she had hidden Langternem. Inserting her key, she unlocked the cabinet and sighed with relief at the sight of the crystal still safely inside. She beckoned to it with her title, and it floated next to her, ensuring her hands remained free.

Just as she was about to leave, a thought struck her. "I could just leave," she whispered to the crystal. Langternem responded, pressing itself against her side in a rare movement. Experimentally, she reached out to her Refuge Recall boon, clutching Langternem tightly before activating the ability. She waited, expecting a window to appear, allowing her to select a refuge location.

You cannot use this boon while in physical contact with another person.

Disappointment washed over her as she glanced down at the crystal. "Nope. Can’t bring you along, I guess." She started toward the entrance when a flash across her blood sense halted her. "Tressi!" she hissed. Her skill alerted her to the mayor and several dark creatures nearly directly beneath her. "Fuck!" Vina cursed, moving cautiously through the rooms in search of a way down. Her heart pounded, every shadow cast by her lantern making her start. She reminded herself to trust her blood sense more than her eyes. Each time she strayed too far and lost Tressi's vibrance, fear gripped her heart.

At last, she found an iron gate in a back room, left wide open. Narrow stone steps led downward into the pitch-black darkness. For the first time, she could hear the muffled voices and the unsettling sounds of creatures. She rushed down the steps, slipping on a trail of blood. Regaining her balance, she descended more carefully, her heart thundering as the voices grew clearer.

“Stab it!” a man yelled.

"I can’t reach it!" Tressi's desperate voice cried out.

Vina reached the landing, sword in hand. She found herself in a small, grim jail. The cells were dank and cramped, six in total—three on each side of a narrow central corridor. The cells were little more than stone hollows, with crude iron bars separating the prisoners from the outside world.

A bloodied town guard lay dead in the middle of the corridor. Four creatures, grotesquely distorted with numerous limbs, chittered and clawed at the prisoners inside the cells. Their bulbous bodies couldn't pass through the bars, but their spindly limbs reached disturbingly far into the cells.

Summoning several throwing knives, Vina dispatched the creatures swiftly, their bodies collapsing before they even realized she was there. Moments later, their backs cracked open, releasing black shadows that fled the light of her lantern.

You have earned 2600 experience points from killing six eyed Viscoculins of various levels.

Vina rushed to the last cell on the left. "Tressi!" she called out to the disheveled, bloodied woman inside.

"Vina, what happened? How are there creatures inside the walls?" Tressi asked, her voice trembling as she pulled a key from her leather pants and tried to unlock the cell gate herself. Her hands were bleeding, and she struggled to grip the key.

"I don’t know how Stine did it!" Vina answered quickly. "Blobs were launched into the town, and these creatures climbed out of them."

"Trina protect us!" a man cried out from one of the other cells. Vina looked around wildly for another threat but saw and sensed nothing.

She turned her head toward him. "What? Where?"

The man pointed at her hip with a shaking hand. Vina's heart hitched, her gaze falling upon the other cell's occupants. It wasn't just the bandit leader, but another man too—both of whom she recognized. They were the bandits she had captured months ago. The bandit was pointing at the lantern with a trembling hand, his eyes wide with fear. He looked as though he had aged ten years.

"You," the man breathed, taking a step back from the bars. "You're the one who... our friend..."

She swallowed, the taste of guilt bitter in her mouth. She had meant to immobilize them, to scare them, not... "I didn't know," she said softly, meeting the man's gaze. "I didn't know the lantern actually would... I'm sorry."

Tressi had stopped trying to unlock her cell, looking back and forth between Vina and the two bandits. The fear in the men's eyes was clear to all. "Croft, calm Duscan down. Now’s not the time," Tressi said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Vina turned back to Tressi and reached out, her fingers closing around Tressi's extended hands and key. She took the key while simultaneously activating blood aid on her cut hands. She unlocked Tressi's cell first, helping the woman out. Then, she took a deep breath and moved to the next cell, where the two bandits were locked up. She felt their fearful eyes on her and even more fearful vibrance as she unlocked the door, her gut twisting with anxiety. As she unlocked the cell door, the irony of the situation hit her. The same darkness that had forced Tressi into this dungeon was now forcing her to confront a past she had hoped to leave behind.

"The town is probably overrun," she said, standing back as the cell door swung open. "You can stay, leave, or you can help me fight. But either way..." She looked at them, her gaze steady despite the turmoil inside her. "I refuse to let you die like this."

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Vina formed a knife for the two former bandits from her blood and watched as they hesitatingly took them from her. "If you get wounded, yell. I can actually heal you now," she tried to reassure them.

She turned her eyes back to Tressi and noticed the woman didn’t have a weapon at all. "The town was in full evacuation when I came in here. I don’t know what it’s going to be like when we get up there. You need to be ready to fight as well."

Tressi shook her head, declining the weapon Vina made for her. "Asharaina, I am a mayor. I leave the fighting to the guards."

Vina tsked. "Well, there just might not be any guards left. You’ll need to decide if you want to be able to defend yourself when we get up there. Before we do that though… which one of you has the highest dexterity?"

~~~

Vina took point, exiting the Town Hall with Selenia in hand. A countdown in her vision reminded her that ten minutes remained before the hemovore effect wore off. “It wasn’t as bad as I imagined,” she muttered. “Just like licking a copper coin.” After consuming Tressi's blood, Vina savored the twelve-point boost in her dexterity.

Exiting the hall, she saw the pandemonium hadn't improved much. From her vantage point, the flicker of bonfires illuminated the last batch of people escaping through the western town gate. The remnants of the town guards formed makeshift barricades, combating the creatures at critical intersections, a losing battle. Desperation seeped through the city; residents and soldiers had set ablaze numerous buildings to dispel the encroaching darkness. Countless creatures invaded the city, storming into the unburnt buildings, and dragging out anyone they discovered, executing them brutally in the open streets.

In the distance, Vina spotted a cloaked figure with a sword, strolling unscathed among the creatures. Darkness clung to them as if it emanated from them. They occasionally kicked a corpse to examine its face before moving on, methodically inspecting the slain, although strangely bypassing a few.

"They've breached the town," Tressi gasped. "The eastern gate must've collapsed."

"We need to evacuate too." Vina said, lowering her voice. "But the main road isn't an option. Is there another way over or under the walls?"

Tressi nodded, "There's one on the north side."

“Okay. Activate your stealth skill and follow Tressi,” Vina instructed. She paused, reluctant to turn off her lantern, knowing the shadows above would soon start their slow attack on her skin. The only reassurance was that they were less concentrated here than in the gloom.

The ex-bandits obeyed, their vibrances pulsating with fear. Vina was unsure if the fear originated from her or the gruesome scenes they had witnessed. Tressi also crouched down, albeit less nimbly. "I... I don't possess that skill..."

Vina shot her a concerned look. “Now’s the time to learn. Someone once told me we learn skills based on our intentions. Focus on remaining unseen. Move slowly.”

Tressi led them discreetly around the Town Hall, across its back gardens, and through the small residential district nestled behind it. Vina shadowed her, Listen skill activated, and Hemisensory Amplification infused, poised to detect any approaching danger. Croft and Duscan followed in silence, though Duscan lagged more than she liked, nearly exposing the group to a roving cluster of creatures.

Eventually, Tressi halted at a clump of bushes near a house. She slithered up to the door, pulling out another key. Vina moved closer, whispering, "What's this?"

“Cellar path out,” the mayor whispered in turn.

All of Vina’s heightened senses told her there was one other person still in the house. She leaned in and warned her group. “Someone’s inside. We’ll take them with us,” she advised.

Tressi agreed, but her hands trembled so violently it took her several attempts to insert the key.

Tressi agreed, but her hands trembled so violently it took several attempts to insert the key. Vina was about to intervene when the key finally turned, the door creaking open to reveal a modestly furnished home. A solitary candle burned near a wide-open window on the opposite end, casting flickering shadows on the walls. The group slipped inside, fear palpable as they attempted to move quietly.

Inside, they found an elderly woman, her face etched with lines of age and worry. She sat crouched beneath her dinner table just on the other side of the door. Vina watched as her eyes widened and her feeble hands raised in a futile attempt to defend herself. As if in slow motion, she took a deep breath to scream, but Tressi was quick to place her hand over the woman’s mouth, pressing her down to the floor. “Quiet!”

Vina’s blood sense warned her of what happened next. Something made of blood exited Tressi’s hand, disappeared into the woman’s mouth, and exited the back of her neck. Vina cringed as the shriek was cut short. The blood weapon shot back into Tressi’s hand, leaving the woman limp on the ground. Tressi stared at her in shock, while the two men they had saved seemed equally surprised.

Vina recovered first, her realization echoed by the notification that appeared in her vision.

Title Under Threat: Asharaina You have become aware that one of your people is in danger. You have an obligation to help them. Failing to try will risk losing your title.

"She’s died," Vina said abruptly, trying to shift attention from Tressi. “Probably from the stress. Where’s the cellar, Tressi?” she asked, aiming to divert attention from the growing pool of blood. Tressi shifted her body to conceal her reactionary deed.

“Down the hall, second bedroom under the rug.” Tressi answered, her voice barely audible.

As Vina led the way with Croft, she sensed a shift in Duscan's vibrance. "I’ve felt this before..." she thought. She turned to see his vibrance changing, his fear fading into a dull numbness. "Duscan?" she asked warily.

The man stared at the old woman. The pool of blood had grown too large to be hidden. Even Tressi’s hand was bleeding profusely once more. Vina tried to will everything to stop, slowly ushering the blood into a corner. As the blood moved, Duscan snapped out of his trance.

"I..." he started, his voice barely a whisper. "I can't be here. I can't be a part of this." Tears began to stream down his face as he turned toward the wide window. Then he sprinted toward it at full speed.

Vina moved to intercept him, but Croft was in the way. She pushed him aside in an effort to stop Duscan, but she was too late.

Duscan crashed through the window and rolled out onto the street.

“Get to the cellar!” Vina ordered. She stole a glance at Duscan, seeing him greeted by the dark creatures outside. They met him like old friends, already tending to the wounds he had inflicted on himself through the broken glass. Shaking her head in confusion, she moved to follow Tressi and Croft down the hall.

That plan was short-lived, however, when she felt a void presence enter through the broken window. She poked her head back around the hall and saw the cloaked figure that had been wandering the street earlier. It was a woman wielding a thrusting sword.

“Stine…?” Vina whispered, recognizing her from Carda’s battlefield. She had rescued this person, but clearly, Stine had taken her back again. The woman stared back at her coldly. Though her face still carried six eyes, four of them remained closed. Only two black eyes looked back at Vina.

“The Darkness is not with me. It has left so that I may teach you myself,” she said.

“Wait!” Vina said urgently, stepping more fully into the room, recognizing the voice. “I can save you again.”

“The Darkness said that is the lesson you must learn,” she said coldly. “My name is Swordmaster Amaya. My children…”

“Wait! Please, don’t,” Vina begged, holding out a hand as memories of Amaya’s tortured screams at losing her children came back to her once again.

“... were named Nakia, Eiric, and Lorin.”

Vina sighed mournfully, lowering her arm. The names were locked painfully in her mind forever now. “Stine was controlling you. All of you. I didn’t know it enslaved a family to attack me. I am sorry…”

Amaya shook her head. “The Darkness cannot talk to you now, but that will not stop it from teaching you. It is up to me to continue your lessons. Step outside.”

Vina hesitated. Behind her, she could still feel Tressi and Croft moving. A moment later, she sensed their descent and slow creep below the house. “I need to protect them until they can’t be found anymore,” she thought. Nodding slowly, she drew Langternem near herself. She gestured to Amaya and followed her as slowly as she could out of the house, trying to give the mayor as much time as possible to make her escape.