Iris was listening to the report about the sudden drop in gang activities in the past few days from Captain Fischer who oversaw the patrols in the slum district.
She had been living in this tent for the past 3 days now. It was inconvenient as her captains had to travel all the way to the mines to submit their daily reports. Nonetheless, it was necessary. Her current duty was to guard this tent and wait for the return of the expedition party. Plus, she would also have to make sure the light rune in front of her was unharmed. If—God forbid—any dangers were to befall the expedition party and they had no hopes of returning, then this rune would save the life of the High Priestess. She hoped things wouldn’t get that far, but better safe than sorry.
“All three major gangs have been dead silent, Commander. It looks like the news of the expedition has them cowering in fear,” Captain Fischer reported.
He was her oldest captain—reaching his mid-50s. He had graying hair and black eyes and looked out of shape. He had reached peak Rank 4 when he was 30 and hit his bottleneck then. He had long given up entering Rank 5 and only worked to keep his family feed now. Iris suspected that he was taking bribes from the gang leaders, but she did not have any concrete evidence.
“Hmmm. That’s odd behavior. I thought they would be rowdier now since the expedition means that their livelihood will soon be over. They should be scrambling to collect as much money as they can before we crack down on their operations,” she said and stared at Fischer with her piercing grey eyes. “Are you sure they aren’t hiding anything? No shady plots?”
“I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary other than the silence, Commander. Most of them haven’t even left their bases,” he replied neutrally.
Iris was about to tell him to investigate what they were doing in their bases when suddenly the light runes in the middle of the tent started to shine intensely. The brightness was blinding. And then it was gone along with the rune. In its place was the High Priestess.
She looked to be on death’s footsteps. Iris was shocked when she saw how injured she was. There was a large hole in her stomach which was still bleeding. Her body was bruised all over and she also had an arrow wound on her left thigh. Her eyes looked glazed over and she collapsed the moment she entered the tent.
Iris went to action immediately.
“Get the healers, Fischer!! RIGHT NOW!!”
“Yes, Commander!” he said before running out of the tent.
Iris ran up to the High Priestess and tried to stop her from losing any more blood. ‘What happened inside there!? How is she so hurt? No! I can think about that later. I must stop the bleeding in her stomach now if I don’t want her to die.’
Iris used her mana to create high-pressure wind on her stomach opening to stop the blood from exiting her body. She also did the same thing on her arrow wound. She then examined her body to see if there were any other wounds.
As she searched her over, the High Priestess suddenly grasped her hand. Iris looked at her face and noticed that she was trying to say something, but only her lips were moving.
“Please don’t move, your excellency! We have to stabilize your wounds,” Iris said.
Yet, the High Priestess stubbornly kept holding her hand and trying to speak. Iris deduced it was very important if she was trying to tell something even when she was dying. So, she moved her ears closer to her mouth to hear what she was saying.
“T-The………..b-bisho……”
“Bisho? You mean Bishop Robert? He is fine, your excellency. I will call him after we’ve taken care of your wounds,” she said.
“T-tell…….tell……b-bish………moo—,” she rasped, but she lost her strength before she could finish. She let go of her hand and lost her consciousness.
The healers also entered the tent then. Two of them were priests who were stationed here by the bishop. The last one was the best doctor in the city who had the nature aspect.
“Quickly! Her wounds are too severe! We will lose her if we don’t stop the bleeding,” she told them.
They ran up to her and sat beside her. All three were using their abilities to heal the High Priestess. The two priests used light mana to stimulate the High Priestess’s internal mana to heal her wounds. While the doctor used her nature mana to create new tissues to seal the wound. But they were all too slow. So slow that it was bizarre.
“What are you doing!?” Iris shouted. “Are you waiting for her to die?”
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“She is not healing,” the doctor said while sweating. “My mana is having a hard time working on her body. It's like trying to push through a wall! She must have ruptured her mana circuits. Most of the mana I try to push into her body is being thrown out. We can only wait for her circuit to heal naturally.”
“She will die before that happens,” one of the priests said in frustration.
“We can’t let that happen! Do something! Anything!” Iris yelled.
“I can try to stimulate her bone marrows to create more blood while you two try to close her wounds,” the doctor told the priests. “That way she won’t die of blood loss, hopefully.”
The priests nodded at her, and they started to work again. Iris also helped them put pressure on the wounds.
“Know this, Commander. While we will save her life, she has already lost too much blood. Her body will soon enter a coma and I am not sure how long it will be before she wakes up again,” the doctor informed her.
Iris nodded and said, “As long as she lives…”
They operated on her for the next few hours. Iris could finally take a break when her wounds were closed, and the bleeding had stopped. She left the rest of the healing to the professionals and went to send messengers to the bishop and Marquis.
…
Bishop Robert was the first to arrive on his personal carriage. He rushed to the tent in worry. Iris had ordered the healers to carry the High Priestess and put her on the bed inside the tent. The bishop entered the tent and asked hurriedly, “I came here as soon as I got the message. What happened? Is she alright?”
“We don’t know for sure, your grace. For the moment, her life is no longer at risk. But her injuries were too severe. The doctor said that she might have entered a coma,” Iris answered in a tired voice.
“Where is she?”
“On the bed over there,” she pointed to the bed. “The priests are taking care of her.”
The bishop moved to the bed to check her condition and talk to his priests. Then he sat down beside the bed and started praying.
After he was done, he spoke to Iris again.
“Is everyone else dead?”
“I don’t know, your grace. But judging from how she was forced to use the return necklace, they must have faced a very dangerous enemy. I will send some of the enforcers to search for them, but I wouldn’t keep my hopes high. The enforcers aren’t strong enough to enter the deep regions of the abyss,” she said.
The bishop sighed and said, “What did they encounter for all of them to die? This was supposed to be an easy expedition. They were fully prepared and armed to handle all sorts of enemies. Even if it got dangerous, they could have turned back. And yet, they did not.”
“Maybe they were caught by surprise,” she guessed.
“Maybe. We will never know until she wakes up,” he said. “Haaaaa, I have to inform Archbishop Nora about this. She will be distressed when she learns that her sister is in a coma.”
The bishop stood up and was about to leave when Iris stopped him.
“I almost forgot, your grace. I am not sure if it’s much, but the High Priestess said something before she lost her consciousness,” she said.
“That’s important information, Commander! You should have informed me the moment I entered the room. What was it?”
“That’s the thing, your grace. It was just one word. ‘Moo.’,” she answered.
“Moo?” he said in confusion. “Just that?”
“Yes. Before that she asked me to call you, but ‘Moo’ was all she said before collapsing.”
“Hmmm. Moo. What’s a Moo?” he frowned.
“A cow?” Iris reckoned. “That might be what killed the knights.”
The bishop looked at Iris like she was an idiot. He then said in exasperation, “Surely you are joking Commander. If she faced a cow, then she would have just said she faced a cow. Why go on a roundabout way to confuse us?”
Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. She had already regretted it the moment the words left her mouth. However, she quickly calmed her mind and managed to keep a cool expression.
“Maybe it was code?” she said trying to forget her previous blunder.
Bishop Robert put his hand on his chin and thought deeply.
“I don’t know any church code that starts with Moo. No. I don’t think it’s something so complicated. Maybe it’s part of a word. Moo. Moor. Moose. Mood. Moon—” he paused all of a sudden as his eyes widened. “MOON!! That must be it!”
“Moon?” she said sounding skeptical. “Why would she talk about the moon? That’s the last thing I would think about when I enter underground.”
“I also hope with all my heart that I am wrong, Commander!” he sounded unsettled. “I have to go now.”
“And please arrange her transfer to the Cathedral. We will take care of her from here,” he yelled on his way out.
Iris tried to stop him to ask what the moon to do with anything, but he was too quick. He boarded his carriage and rushed southwest towards the city without pausing for a second.
‘So impatient,’ she complained and headed back to the tent.
She sat on her chair behind the small desk and guarded the High Priestess. As time passed her thoughts shifted to the young enforcer that went along with the High Priestess and the knights templar as a guide.
‘He must have perished as well. What a waste of talent,’ she sighed in regret. ‘You’re such an idiot, Callahan. Why didn’t you quit when you had the chance? Now you lost everything.’
As she was brooding, the messenger she sent to her brother returned with a letter and handed it to her.
Iris dismissed the man and took out the letter. Judging by the informal tone, the letter must have been written in a hurry.
“Iris, I am currently too busy to rush over there. This is disastrous news. If the people hear about the failure of the expedition, then there will be riots and widespread panic. Make sure the news doesn’t spread until we have everything under control.
At least the High Priestess is still alive. That’s the only relief. Return to the city as fast as possible with the High Priestess. You must increase the patrols in every district to monitor the citizens. There are dark times ahead of us sister. Let’s hope White Flame did not forsake us.”
She finished reading the letter and put it down. She was worried that the news might have already spread. By now the nearby city guards knew almost everything. She had to order them to keep everything under wraps when they entered the city. She just hoped there weren’t any fools from the morning shift that had already opened their mouths after returning to the city.
She wasn’t too worried though, the only people from the morning shift that knew about the High Priestess’s condition were Captain Fischer and a few other senior guards. And they knew when to keep their mouths shut.