Breken was back, while Harlan slept through a class on economics; he was in a carriage with several blades pointed at his vitals, just in case.
“So Dahlia, how have you been? I hope everyone is safe and happy.”
She was personally asked by Rosewell to make sure Breken got back alive, there was no telling what an enemy who wanted to weaken the Redwall house would try.
“Very safe (danger around every corner), very happy (ignorant, keep it that way.) I am sure that Ava will be very proud when she tells you she is now a noble.”
Dahlia was a master at doublespeak and codes, so long as the person she was speaking with understood the game being played, small shifts in posture, the crossing of legs, cracking of knuckles, each of these things could mean something if one looked into it deeper than what seemed rational.
“I am glad to hear it (how much danger are they in?) Harlan made it to the Academy safely I hope?”
“Of course, he only broke the hand of one man on the way. He wasn’t disturbed once along the way by bandits or beasts (every threat against him died before they reached him.)”
Breken only chuckled at the news and leaned back in his seat, he approved of Dahlia.
Dahlia left out that they had no idea what actually killed everything in Harlan’s path before they reached him
They came to the gate of Redwall mansion just after breakfast, Breken’s stomach grumbled slightly, he had been fed well enough in prison, but it was a long trip back here due to them switching carriages and making loops to hide the position of where he was kept even after they gated him out of the place.
His senses were known to be very sharp and it was only barely decided that he should be allowed to live after a great deal of arguments from an ally of Harlan.
The first thing he saw nearly had him in tears laughing, they had convinced Ava to wear a nice dress to greet them and she was barely hiding her contempt for the thing.
She reminded him of a Betta fish with all the frills in black and red and white, it was done in the colors of house Fomorian and commissioned by Autumn.
Still, Breken needed little effort to school his face into a blank slate once more before he got out.
The first thing he did was drop to his knees in front of the baron with his hand across his heart.
“I hope that my own failures to reveal my past have not shattered the trust between us, though if you wish me to leave I shall accept my fate.”
“Rise. You have done every duty which has been asked of you, your past is of little concern in the face of years of honest service to myself and my people. If my father was still here he would have the same words for you. You are welcome back as head of security for my barony and personal trainer to my family and the Fomoria family, there will be no changes to pay, but there is much work that needs to be done due to your absence.”
“I thank you for your kind words and forgiveness.”
Dahlia resisted rolling her eyes, she knew what had just happened was nothing but a show, surely other nobles had spies in the trees, she could see a few of them herself.
Redwall had been asked to take part in the trial of Breken and decided a week ago that Breken would come back in part because his replacement, while competent, didn’t have the charisma or history of Breken, people were undercutting him on taxes and the soldiers in the surrounding towns didn’t fear or respect the other man yet.
“The crown is also glad for a reunion on good terms. My name is Dahlia, head of security for the Fomoria family, I believe we have met before.”
“Yes, you were the one who crept around my home and told young Harlan about the Tytoan spy.
Are you here as an escort for Breken?”
“In part, however, the other part of my work is to assess your home security. The crown is willing to pay, in part, for new wards and other security features should they be required due to the presence of Ava Fomoria and Autumn Redwall. My work as head of security for their family requires that I insure any places they spend sizable amounts of time to be at a safety standard which I believe is right for them based on threats made against them and other information which I will not speak on.”
There was still some annoyance from Redwall about the crown questioning his ability to keep his family safe, but cheap upgrades to his defenses tempered his anger.
“Of course, I will give you a tour before lunch. Will you be staying for dinner?“
“I thank you for the offer but I hope to be at the Fomoria mansion by evening to check their defenses.”
Redwall locked arms with her as a kind gesture, but mostly to stop her from wandering around like she owned the place.
Spite ran deep in the man.
Meanwhile Breken went to his room to make sure everything was in its place and get a change of clothes.
Then it was right to the sparing room, he knew what he would find there.
As he opened the door a sword aimed right under his armpit came from his left, Ava had escaped her cotton prison and gotten ready to make up for lost time.
Breken smacked the blade away with the back of his hand before going in for a hug, spinning Ava until she was sick.
“How have you been kiddo? I hope you didn’t break your promise.”
She was taking deep breaths, trying to not spill her stomach towards the man, after a minute she was alright.
“Bastard, leaving me here while you go do whatever you want.”
She punched him in the arm and he let the blow connect.
“I had business to take care of back there. But I am home now.”
It wasn’t lost on her that he chose to call Reino there, and here home.
“Glad you are back home.”
She wasn’t going to cry, but she was happy he didn’t end up executed as a traitor.
“So am I, oh, and watch your language. Autumn would skin me if she heard you talking like that.”
“She can keep up her appearances but I won’t let her keep up mine too if I can help it.”
“Then what was up with that floofy dress?”
He said with a smirk, receiving a kick to the thigh for it.
“She said I looked pretty in it, did I?”
“I am sure when you go to the maiden festival in a few years that you will have men fighting tooth and nail for you, assuming Harlan doesn’t get too defensive. I’d hate to be the man who does you harm.”
“Well thank you, but I doubt I’ll be going to any of them for a while. I don’t want to get tied up in marriage yet, maybe never.”
It didn’t bother Breken any, he just shrugged his shoulders.
“I never got into any of that either, it is hard for love to bloom on the battlefield, the women are of a… different sort. But, anyway, want to come with me when I go out to do enforcement work? I am sure there will be bandits and illegal merchants to kill or arrest.”
“REALLY?”
She has been asking to come along on his real missions for a long time, fighting goblins was one thing, but they didn’t know tactics or stances, it was like killing children; she thought for a moment about how dark that really sounded.
“Sure, just get Balor to agree that you can go. I hope you learned some magic while I was gone, you need a bigger toolkit.”
Instantly she deflated, she didn’t really talked much with Balor and barely understood him so she wasn’t sure she could get approval.
She also just had a bad feeling about the ring, he never did anything bad really, but something was wrong to her.
“Why do I need to ask?”
“You are a Fomoria now and he is the highest ranked member in the area, I think at least, Harlan will have some paperwork to fill out at some point to assign ranks. Anyway, I am going to be acting as enforcement alongside another noble, so I need his permission to take you with me since you are still a child. Or you could wait another 2 years to come along with me.”
“Fine… I’ll talk to him. How much time do I have to get an answer?”
“All the time in the world, I am sure there are some things I need to do alone so I’ll call on you when there is something safer.”
She gave him another kick on the way out, she needed to tell Autumn she was leaving and taking the Carriage Harlan kept here for this exact reason.
They had a minor spat about her being allowed to work with Breken against people, but technically unless the baron outright forbade her from going there was nothing Autumn could do since she wasn’t legally a Fomoria and her power as a Redwall was limited.
Ava was at Harlan’s home just before lunch, he had only been gone a few days but there was already clear signs of what was changing, worker golems manipulated the ground to make a larger hall of sorts, it was constructed of only 5 room, one for commanders, one for dining, one for cooking, and one for everyone else to sleep, and one for whatever else it needed to be.
Inside the walls however nearly everything was the same other than the start of a garden and a few unsavory characters around.
Ava would’ve thought something was wrong but if the trees didn’t react and there was work happening then it was probably fine.
She made her way inside to find the maids were cooking together.
“Hello Isha, hello Sara, do you know where I can find Balor?”
“Oh, I believe he should be in the basement, no, they call it something different.”
“Bunker, thank you.”
“Yes, and thank you.”
She made her way to the passage and it opened as she touched the hidden door, down she went, the air grew cold and she wasn’t sure if it was just nerves, she wanted to do work and Balor was the barrier to that.
She looked at the doors and saw none of them were open so she tried to remember what door led where and where would Balor be, but she didn’t know what most of the doors did.
As she stood in front of what she was pretty sure was the workshop the door opened and she was face to metal face with Balor.
“Greetings Ava, I noticed you’ve been standing there for a while, can I help you?”
“I want to work with Breken, he said I needed your permission since you are the highest ranking member of the family legally right now.”
“What would the work entail? Knocking on doors or killing things?”
“I won’t know until Breken decides what he wants to do and in which order, but he mentioned bandits and maybe merchants selling illegal items.”
They stood there for a minute, though it felt like much longer.
Balor was trying his best to think, what would Harlan do?
Surely he wanted her to be safe but he knew that Ava wouldn’t get stronger if she stagnated by hunting goblins for her entire life, Harlan didn’t like caging other people even if his instincts wanted him to keep everyone safe.
As much as he wanted to be free from Harlan’s thoughts, he never realized how much they bounced ideas off one another.
“Come with me for a minute.”
He led her into the workshop.
The walls were mostly bare, the only decorations were some plants that Lugh liked, tools and blades and gems laid out on the floor and tables in what she thought was chaos but was actually how they sorted everything.
She hoped she could convince him to give her some magical items.
“Why? What drives you towards fighting?”
She didn’t expect this kind of question.
“I… I just like fighting? The rush of a spar or knowing that when I am out there fighting goblins or wargs that I am saving someone's field, or their animals, maybe somebody's life.”
“Hmm… Breken will be with you, but who else?”
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“I don’t know, depends on the work, probably local guards or soldiers from Redwall.”
“Harlan trusts Breken, Harlan trusts you, and Harlan trusts me. I don’t want to betray his trust we all share.”
Ava expected a no and was already ready to leave.
“So I will allow it, but I am also going to send Harlan a letter, and if he replies back that he doesn’t want you out there with him, I will retract my approval.”
Ava was so happy she hugged him, though she did find it awkward since he was basically cold steel in a human shape.
“Oh, and who are those shady guys outside?”
“Well… New workers you could say.”
He hesitated when answering and didn’t even deny that they were shady, but Ava ignored it, his little line about shared trust hit a chord with her.
“Oh, and before I forget, Harlan didn’t get the chance to finish it, but I did.”
He unwrapped a blade for her, its edges were a deep black, the center was a pale gray.
“Shadowsteel edges will cut through just about anything if you hit it hard enough, the rest is stonesteel, it is heavier than your current sword but it should be fine. Swing it around a few times and let me know.”
She did as asked, it was a bit heavy, but she figured that it would grow on her.
“When did he get this done?”
“About a week ago, he antagonized about spells and materials for so long that he didn’t get the chance to actually put the spells in it. Now about what is actually in it…”
She made her way back upstairs to find a place set for her at the table.
“I am sure Harlan would be cross with me if I decided to send his little sister away hungry.” Sara said.
“Thank you, Sara.”.
It was a little awkward since the maids acted so friendly and tried to include her in their conversations but Ava was never a socialite and barely knew the girls other than that Harlan liked them.
She felt like she should spend more time here if she could find it.
So with a full stomach she went back to the Redwall mansion and then straight to Breken’s room to see if he was in.
As soon as she was going to knock the door swung open and out he came.
“Good, armor up and let’s go.”
“How did you know I was allowed?”
“Your eyes aren’t red and puffy.”
She was indignant, she hadn’t cried in… Well it wasn’t that long ago but it was for a good reason.
“What are we doing?”
“Bandits, you, me, 5 soldiers from here. The camp is already known and they were getting ready to raid it as soon as I got back but I held off so you could come along. You do know how to ride a horse, right?”
“I can learn.”
Breken chuckled and headed to the stable to pick out the right one for her.
She arrived only a few minutes later, she always kept her armor on since it wasn’t very heavy so she just needed to grab a helmet and a shield.
“Ava, put your hair up. If it sticks out the bottom of your helmet it is just asking to be grabbed. Goblins have short reach and small minds, bandits will grab and fight like I do.”
She tried a ponytail but it was still too long and it made her helmet not fit quite right.
“Stop, let me do it.”
“Don’t cut my hair.”
“I won’t. It’s called a halo braid.”
It took less than a minute for him to move through the practiced motions.
Ava used the water in her flask to make a mirror so she could look at it, she wasn’t able to make a perfect one like Ibery could but it worked well enough.
“Where did you learn this?”
There was a fraction of hesitation so small no one noticed the stutter in his step.
“I knew a few female mercenaries who taught me stuff like this to kill time, now, hop on. Lightly kick her side to get her going forward, pull back on the reins to make her stop. She is well tempered so it should be fine for a first ride, you aren’t going to fight on horseback anyway.”
She was giddy on the ride until about 30 minutes in she noticed a shift in the atmosphere, Breken talked about it, but it was killing intent she was feeling.
She put the faceplate on her helmet and steeled herself, the other soldiers were all men in their early 20s, new recruits who needed experience just like her.
They all rode in silence towards the place they would set their horses while the fighting happened.
Another 20 minutes passed before Breken raised his hand and made a fist, it was time to get off.
They went over the plan on the way in, the 5 soldiers of Redwall and Ava would stall the leader and his right hand, Breken would deal with the other 20 on his own.
Ava was shaking, she was nervous.
Breken joked and carried on when they went against Goblins and culled animals who were getting close to becoming magical creatures, but she never saw him with a full masked helm on in the calm before the storm.
The bandits slept in the afternoon and evenings, leaving the camp to raid merchant carriages in the night and morning.
Breken drew his blades, a broadsword like any other and a dagger to deflect blows.
He pointed to a group of tents which was his target, then to a single larger tent that held the leader and his right hand.
As soon as one side or the other broke stealth it would turn into a full fight, until then Breken would kill as many as he could silently.
But all plans fell apart in the face of the unknown.
The ground, the air, everything felt wrong, as if something scared away the mana and it was hesitant to return.
The clearing where they should’ve found bandits instead looked like a warzone, bodies were strewn about, arms and legs were held in the branches above them, more blood than seemed possible was splattered in every direction from one crater which held only a fanged man's head.
Trees and man and beasts were cut down, it wasn’t like they had been struck by blades, there were no signs of cutting or striking, no sawdust or splinters on the ground, it was like there was once something there, and then there wasn’t.
A bear laid with its rear half completely gone, and yet there was not a vulture to be found, no foxes, raccoons, it was not fresh, the bodies had been baking in the summer heat for hours already, causing Ava to empty her stomach and the other soldiers to go green.
The soldiers could only utter one phrase.
“What the fuck.”
Ava expected Breken to at least glare at the man, but he was too deep in thought to even register what was said.
He spent a lot of time on battlefields, he looked over every detail as he walked around, this wasn’t a force of a dozen mages or magical beasts all coming together to wipe out the bandits, it was closer to what happened when ascended fought an archmage, two overwhelming forces clashed here.
He looked in the surrounding area, seeing some trees were cut down by whatever happened here as far as half a mile, but all he could gather was that they were darkness based, but darkness didn’t have range, it didn’t have speed, it shouldn’t hit this far or this fast, animals were caught in the blast when they should’ve had time to leave, a few wargs were even killed, darkness shouldn’t kill wargs instantly like this.
He walked back to the rest of the group.
“We need to leave, get people out here to investigate what the fuck happened here.”
They mounted their horses and returned without issue, leaving everything exactly as it was and would stay, even the lowest bottom feeders avoided the area like the plague, vultures flying around it and ignoring the bodies.
----------------------------------------
The veils were in place, they would have no interruptions.
The Shadow approached the camp silently and he strode into it like he owned the place, it wasn’t long before the bandits drew their blades against him, though they did not strike.
Then the leader arrived from his own tent.
“What are you, what do you want?”
The man’s blade was a dark red, though it was not firesteel, rather it was alchemically treated bloodiron, perfect for an ancient vampire, or rather the son of one.
“Oh? Don’t you mean who are you?” He made himself look like an almost normal man, black hair, black eyes, his clothes were like a simple farmer.
“No one walks into this camp like you did, and you smell inhuman.”
“Well, who I am doesn’t matter, you and yours need to clear out, in the morning a group will be here to oust you, and I cannot let you come to blows with them.”
Their fangs gleamed in the moonlight as they laughed, what would it matter if some humans tried to kill them?
Moved like a blur, reaching Coronach in half the blink of an eye, their faces were separated by mere inches
“Why the fuck should we leave. WE’RE BANDITS, WE FIGHT AND FUCK AND STEAL BECAUSE WE CAN!”
The men cheered him on.
“I was asked to not fight you, my master would rather this be handled peac-”
The vampire beheaded him, though it affected him little and he simply assumed his true form.
He had 4 arms, each with claws long as greatswords, he stood 10 feet tall, his head was angular, each of his 13 vertical eyes made sure he had no blind spots above, below, or around him.
“That was very unkind. Fine, I am supposed to stop you because someone important will be there with that group of soldiers. Now, scram before I start slaughtering you like the fanged hogs you are.”
His presence scarred the ground around him, death had descended on that forest and only a fool would stand against him.
Yet fools stood all around him.
Those closest to him fell without realizing what happened, they had expected his body to still follow logic, instead he split and stretched his limbs before spinning them around his body, their vampiric regeneration was nothing compared to the man under The Darkness.
The leader however stood strong against his attack, using the blood of the fallen to block the whirlwind of death long enough for him to get out of range.
“This still doesn’t need to end with more bloodshed, but I really hope it does.”
He didn’t actually have a mouth in this form, yet he formed gleaming white teeth as a mockery of his foe.
The vampire called out warnings to the rest of the group telling them to flee, the Shadow would have none of this, either they fought or they bowed, leaving was never an option.
He dulled his own claws to make sure they didn’t just fall to the ground in slivers, he wanted them to litter this place.
The vampire could only do so much to stop the onslaught, he had been alive for over 600 years and killed no small number of Nightwatchers who tried to stop him, but this was the first time he ever saw something like this, a beast that shifted its body to better kill and whistled a slow tune all the while.
“Just tell me when it is enough.”
“BASTARD!”
Rows upon rows of spikes came out from the earth, killing another group that tried to run.
The vampire could barely keep up to him, let alone actually fight.
Then someone new arrived on the scene, she whispered words to him, but he couldn’t hear them, yet he understood, then she handed him a vial, he drank it and felt himself overflow with power.
The Shadow had seen all of this and tried to kill the woman before she could escape, regardless of any other missions she was on the top of everyone’s hitlist.
As he was returning his focus on the vampire he saw him in a different form, bat wings on his back, his face flatted and scrunched up, taller than him, his fangs stretched to past the top and bottom of his head, giving him an almost goofy look to the Shadow.
He would’ve smiled at the new challenge but the thought was interrupted by the thing slamming into him through several trees as if they were twigs, he hadn’t taken a hit like that in decades.
“FINALLY, SOME FUN.”
He sent out powerful scything blades of void to get the last of the stragglers, they cut cleanly through the beast and hit their targets, but the beast wasn’t even slowed down, his healing going far beyond what was normal even if it had been a blood moon.
“Oh, shit.”
It slammed him from above, the Shadow had no idea how it was happening but the beast was forcing him into a physical state.
He coughed and spit out blood he hadn’t had in centuries.
He dug himself deeper into the ground and slipped out of its claws before sending a blast of flame that could be seen for miles and threatened to set everything ablaze, though so deep in the woods and so late at night there was nobody around to see it.
The beast screamed as its flesh was burned continually by the flames that just wouldn’t leave him alone.
It pulled blood from all around it to douse it and drink in the blood until it was bloated, sacs on its throat filled with the excess blood and it let out a deafening shriek.
Coronach was starting to think that he should’ve tried harder to do this peacefully, he took a moment to remake himself into a simpler form that he didn’t need to think about using as much.
His body took a triangular shape not unlike a flowing cape, his arms were reduced down to two, his eyes down to six, each of them took a different space on his head to give him full vision while the 7th was atop his somewhat flat head to catch anything coming from above.
He lacked legs and moved like fabric pulled by some invisible force.
Coronach flew into the sky and cast several rapidly spinning orbs of air.
He knew that void bombardment should kill him, but then he would be stuck without external magic against someone physically stronger than him.
The orbs cut deep across the ground as they moved in an erratic pattern.
The beast replied with a vacuum spell that disrupted the orbs.
Both of them stared at each other, Coronach could see the madness still set heavy upon his mind so he taunted him with a gesture telling him to just try and fight him in the sky.
The beast couldn’t resist, however as they clashed moving near the speed of sound he lost to a rather simple looking punch from his opponent.
Coronach never left home without a handful of weapons hidden in his body, in this case, an enchanted pure silver glove.
It was paper thin and disintegrated after the blow, but it tore the beasts face off and gave Coronach time to cut the wings from the beasts back as he recovered in a crater below.
Yet still he couldn’t deliver a final blow before it gained distance from him, he knew that as long as those sacs of blood on his throat were still there the beast could likely regenerate from anything outside of complete obliteration.
The beast moved towards him again but then stopped, he was regaining his sense of mind, he realized he should be fighting smarter than this.
He called his sword to him, his form became less beastial, his face taking on more of his normal features, though still distorted by what he was.
He looked for a moment at the bodies around him, their little clearing was destroyed, he had done most of this, he lost himself to bloodlust, he would need to rebuil-
Coronach noticed the state of mind he was in and flowed across the ground, attacking from below as the vampire looked up at the moon, his claws wreathed in plasma that cut through him like a firesteel butter knife.
But the vampire was fast, far faster now that he was fully in control of himself again.
He struck him across what might’ve been a jaw and he was sent flying until he dug a deep trench in the ground to slow himself down, it hurt him, but he cut the sacs on the vampires neck, forcing him to use up some of the blood to heal them and boiling some of it away so the vampire couldn't reclaim it.
The vampire and the shadow stared each other down again, it was time to put him down.
He started a longer spell, growing several more arms and mouths to finish before the vampire reached him.
The air screamed as the pressure increased 10 fold in a short second, the body of the vampire tried to fight off the lightheadedness and the swelling of his joints, but it was all for naught as a wave of void canceled the first spell and sent the pressure back down to normal levels.
The vampire’s body exploded with great force as his spine sought to fly with the birds and his ribs found themselves wrapped around a tree, his skin puffed like every part of him had turned into lungs.
Yet the worst part of the grisly sight was that the blood seemed to want to try and form back together.
He found where the blood was congregating, the shards of the vampire’s skull came back together and his skin was regaining its color.
He didn’t want to witness another beheading for at least 48 hours, he didn’t want to be beheaded for at least another week.
Coronach felt drained, his body was normally in a semi-solid state and he had no organs, so the pressure spell didn’t cause him to explode like his opponent, but the void had ripped apart the mana.
When in a neutral state he couldn’t feed on it to recover as he normally would, he would need to confirm his kill and then find a mana stream to heal his body.
He pulled out a piece of the silver that he would mound his weapons out of and placed the head on it.
After a few minutes the blood stopped trying to come back, the vampire had suffered true death.
He left without cleaning up his mess like he should’ve, if something found him as he was there was a real risk of him dying.