The horn blared for ten seconds before the sound cut off. Ethan’s heart was ready to jump through his throat by then, and his back was covered in a cold sweat. Other humans? Maybe they will help me to get out of here? he thought, looking up the staircase and starting to ascend. But wait, who said it was humans? Maybe some goblins or whatever decided to raid the castle, he considered and quickened his pace.
He rushed toward the far side of the large hall, up the stairs, toward the two floors he had found before. He knew that if anything, he would be able to see who had come to the place from there. He arrived at a series of windows facing the opposite side of the lush forest.
In all the time in the castle, Ethan had spent numerous hours exploring the various corridors and halls, hoping to find something useful. Instead, he saw empty rooms without furniture; sometimes, he found broken chairs, pottery, or some empty crates.
To him, it seemed like the people from the castle had left in a hurry and abandoned whatever was not helpful for them behind, as if they were running away from something. This theory was enforced once Ethan started to find whole sections of corridors caved in, covered in stone and debris, making him unable to proceed with his search.
After all his search of the castle, he could not find another exit from the place, nor did he discover the treasury, throne room, or any other space where precious valuables would be left. Instead, the castle was as huge as he imagined the day he arrived, although the most significant parts were inaccessible.
He arrived on the viewing platform, looked outside, and observed a large clearing below the castle's high walls. It was rapidly filling with figures clad in dark cloaks dragging something behind them. Ethan squinted and saw that the figures were led by others, sitting high in their black horse-looking mounts, shouting orders.
The figures on the mounts were clad in black plate mail that did not allow any light to reflect from it. Instead, it looked like the metal devoured the light, mesmerizing Ethan.
As he hid behind the window sill, Ethan saw that the others dragged metal cages into the clearing and started organizing them around it, occasionally cutting and stabbing at the figures in them. Then came the screams and the begging. His eyes went wide as he recognized what, or rather who was packed in the cages.
People dressed in rags, dirty and disheveled, were crammed together behind the crude iron bars, hands and legs sticking out in a jumbled mess. As far as Ethan could tell, there were both old and young, men and women, and even a few children among the captives.
Then he felt a wave of energy blast from below, vibrating his very bones as a deep thrum resonated through the clearing. The largest figure on the horses raised its hand in the air and cast what Ethan thought was a spell or an ability, triggering a vast magical effect above the gathering.
Ethan’s mouth fell agape as a humongous ritual diagram appeared in the air, clad in golden-black symbols and sigils that reminded him of the ones he saw on the Gloomy’s pole.
The diagram slowly descended into the ground, disintegrating the earth where it touched it until the golden light vanished. Then, shadowy smoke rose from the land, casting the clearing in a murky half-darkness. The people in the cages began wailing and screaming all the more.
The figure who cast the spell bellowed through the clearing, “Initiates! Move your cursed chaos-touched asses and put the cages above the focal points! There is not much time left before the summoning!”
The dark cloaks proceeded to hurriedly push and pull the carts with people onto the diagram, them screaming and cursing loudly. Ethan’s blood went cold as the color drained from his face, observing the scene below.
“Holly shit,” he muttered as the diagram continued to thrum with power, the beat of it increasing. Then, just as he finished cursing, the leader of the whole ordeal snapped his hooded gaze toward where Ethan was hiding.
He immediately plopped on his ass, hiding below the window, his back against the cold stone. He furiously thought about how to proceed. Shit! It looks like the asshat saw me, he thought, looking left and right for an escape route.
Dammit! Just as I thought the cavalry was here to save my sorry ass - I ran into some goddamn cultists killing people. What the hell is up with that? No, scratch that. I do not care; not like I could make a difference against the crowd down there, he concluded, shaking off his hero complex.
Ethan scurried away on all fours, not daring to get up and show himself to the armored people below. As he saw the captives being moved, it dawned on him that his sojourn at the castle was at the end. It was time to grab his stuff and make himself scarce. All this time he spent hiding from monsters, but they found him instead.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
- - -
The local head of the sect of the Void was Crowley Wraith, a towering man in his mid-fifties. He had joined the sect many years ago and had risen quickly through the ranks, being self-serving rather than a true believer in the sect’s values. Nevertheless, the decision to join the lunatics had been the best he had taken after leaving Veer its guard behind.
He knew the decision to depart was rushed, mainly because the retched nobles chose to cut ties with him and stop indulging his needs. So he reacted poorly and decided to repay them tenfold for their hypocrisy.
After all, what would they do if they needed to defend their little nest of vipers from a monster the North had not seen in a millennium? Nothing - if he was not there to bolster the ranks. Even the guilders would not make it in time before the city was burned to the ground, especially as the guild leader was still missing.
In his opinion, the sect had their priorities straight as they always found a way to get a young boy or girl for his needs when the time was right. Which, if he was true to himself, was the main reason he joined them and continued to do their bidding.
All he had to do was play his part, keeping the troops in line, which was hardly an effort given that the initiates had almost no aspect seeds or did not rise higher above apprentice rank, for that matter.
Working with the grandmasters, who designed the summoning ritual, was the hardest part. So many secrets were involved, him not being told anything above his rank. He knew only that a few dirty locals would be sacrificed for the sect’s needs and that there was an artifact in the castle they desperately needed.
If he played his part, he would rise in rank and finally be allowed to move away from this god-forsaken place, closer to the capital. Instead, another of the sect’s cells, hiding in plain sight, would await him.
Suddenly he felt uneasy as if someone was watching him. He knew full well that the troops would not dare. So he gazed over the proceedings and focused on his soul sense, feeling an apprentice rank aura. It was untrained and afraid, trembling somewhere above the castle walls. He raised his head and looked at the castle but could not find anyone.
“Vargas!” Crowley barked at his servant, reminding him of an overfed dog, willing to lick its master’s boots if it served its purposes. After a few seconds, a plump figure clad in a dark cloak appeared, bowing deeply, as was proper, before saying, “Yes, master.”
He continued, “I believe I sensed a rat in the castle observing the proceedings before it ran away. We would not want to be disturbed by the guilders now, would we? After all the effort it took us to find the materials?”
Vargas bowed again and responded, “No, of course not, master. I will gather a small force and ensure no soul is left as a witness.”
Crowley nodded and said, “Yes, do that. And search for the seed. We need it for the summoning. Bring whomever you find there to me. The summoning could always use some more materials.”
The servant bowed and hurried off, gathering others around him before running toward the castle.
- - -
Once back inside, Ethan ran like mad back to the training hall, furiously thinking about what he needed from this place. He had theorized before what he would take if he left and had an approximate list. Finally, he flung the door open and ran to where Gloomy stood impassively.
“The time has come for us to vacate the premises, Gloomy,” Ethan quickly said, running into the training area. “Stop,” he paused the golem before it could attack and went to the pole, switching it off with an application of his mana. As he did so, the golem vanished, the shadow dissipating, and Ethan stored the pole in his inventory.
Next, he quickly ran up to the captain’s table and grabbed the journal and various weapons from the rack behind the table, storing everything. Never know what will come in handy, he thought as he left the training hall, turning the lights off.
He ran upstairs to his bedroom and quickly gathered his sleeping arrangements. Tough chance that the frame will fit in the storage, Ethan paused, dreading leaving the bed.
On the other hand… he thought, looking at the beautiful but worn frame, and shrugged. He touched it and was surprised that the storage power managed to store the bed, taking up two slots.
“Well, I will be damned. Who would have thought?“ Ethan muttered and quickly collected some firewood from next to the fireplace. Then, he ran down and toward the library, where he stored any book and scroll he deemed worthwhile.
He looked at the shelves filled with fiction and thought, I need coins. Some of these may fetch a reasonable price. So he went over the shelves, randomly storing fantasy, adventure, and romance books. Romance always sells, he chuckled.
His storage space quite full, Ethan ran back down toward the kitchen and looked it over, observing that nothing useful remained. “One last thing then,” he said, running to the well to fill his water jugs.
His hands trembled as he handled the chain and the bucket, filling the jugs and spilling half around them in his hurry. Dammit, this is taking too long! It looked like those fucks knew what they were doing, and it was not their first time here.
Done with his last jug, he dropped the bucket and stored the water before running out to the corridor and toward the secret tunnel out of the castle. Just as he turned the corner where he had fought his first rat, he bumped into a cloaked figure, knocking them both off their feet.