It had been a long while since Brandt had participated in an actual skirmish, but how this panned out was no different from ‘usual’. It ended quickly and followed the same routine as it always did: first, gather as many men with as many weapons as possible, then use every advantage you can get, and lastly, don’t be a hero. If done well, the thing would end in a triskol or two, and you and your band would be victorious.
Heroism was, with little in between, either unsung or a product of a particularly talented bard. One who could make mundane, or downright fabricated, into a legend for boys of future generations to both aspire to and get killed for.
His plan worked. They went into the ordo camp like a storm. The templar barely had time to react before the wildmen were at their throats. It was likely that seasoned sorresian mariners were better fighters than his allies. But even they could barely stand a chance when attacked unsuspectingly in the dark. They did put up a good fight though, despite circumstance.
Once the situation was under control, Nord began to look for the most important of the ordos, regardless of whether they were alive, dying, or dead. The seer was certainly wounded by the archers but in the middle of the battle, Brand didn’t bother to search for them. Now, however, was the time.
-"Wêr is de tinne timpelier" - He shouted into the air while searching around with his gaze. To his annoyance, he received no answer, as all who could give him one were either busy looting or taking care of their wounded, or fallen, comrades.
Seer’s corpse was not where they were struck. In the flickering, orange glow Brandt could not resolve whether there was a trail of blood leading somewhere. Then he turned his attention to the sky. He cursed inaudibly, and just before he almost went to examine where the tanai was struck, he noticed a scant sight of them about thirty mers away from him, just at the edge of the roof of the building.
It was a moment to act fast. Brandt scoured the immediate area in search of archers with who he came to the battle. Instead, a pistol on the ground, next to the outstretched hand of a downed templar caught his eye.
He jumped towards it, grabbed it immediately, and pulled the trigger -*Is it even loaded?*- crossed his mind when he was doing so.
It was, by some twist of fate.
A gunshot echoed from the walls of the compound. The immediate area around him filled with the smell of sulfur and the attention of everyone around.
The shot missed.
-” WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” - Anh's shriek from above.
-” TRAWINS! DON’T WASTE TIME! GET THEM!” - he shouted in response, immediately berating himself for not specifying who were those who the Trawins was supposed to ‘get’ – “ THE SEER! GET THE SEER!” - he added. He couldn’t see where his employee was, or whether they heard him. -” GO!” - he he shouted, frustrated. He couldn’t tell if the tanai heard and heeded his commands. During the entire exchange, Trawins was out of sight. This only furthered the frustration.
He looked at what was around, but there wasn’t anything unexpected in this circumstance. The wildmen captured five of the ordos. Three were the wounded mariners, two were the pudgy Maargardians who, certainly, were not combatants. All the captives were being tied under the watch of three of Hanne’s men. Unless someone escaped, which Brandt was almost certain didn’t happen, members of the expedition that had been chasing them for the last several days lay slain between those crumbling grey buildings. With the uncomfortable exception of the seer. Which, obviously meant that the largest threat was still not neutralized.
The wildmen lost two of their numbers, of that Nord was certain. After the battle, he noticed at least two other wounded. To what severity, he could only guess, but judging from the attention their comrades gave them, it was serious.
All in all, it was a well-executed plan, and the wildmen exceeded the expectations he placed on them. He allowed himself to ruminate over this for a few drips, then decided to start a search for the seer, and Trawins—hopefully both. Whatever the tanai was up to the task and whether they succeeded, should have been resolved already.
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Without paying much attention to the goings in the compound, Brandt left. He expected that the seer would want to get as much distance as possible and, thus would follow, roughly, along the direction where Brandt was shooting. He immediately scolded himself for being so optimistic.
-*On the other hand, I don’t have any other leads, do I*- he reminded himself and decided to follow the path he had chosen, having an eye and ear open for anything which could point him to the whereabouts of both tanai, or at least one of them.
In the best of circumstances, he mused as he was venturing deeper into the woods, he would get a few months to scour through the compound and see what it was all about. Provided Hanne was going to cooperate. In the worst case, at least a few weeks. The Ordo Pro Cvrsi would, likely, mount a search party. But what were the chances of actually finding them? Brandt was wondering. The last contact the pursuers had with any office of the Ordo was, most likely, back in Kaar oth’Graev. That was over two weeks and an entire mountain range ago. How hard the task of finding this lost expedition laid solely on how diligent the seer, or the captured officials, were at reporting back. Judging from how remote the area they were going through was, any attempt to message back was probably futile. Nature was already covering any trail any of them, ordos, he and Anh, could have left.
In all truth, it effectively all relied on whether one of the templars escaped unscathed, which reduced down to Trawins disposing of the seer.
Here laid the problem, Brandt wasn’t sure if the tanai had it in him to downright wound or even kill someone, especially a wounded of his own. Nord vividly recalled just how groveling Anh was during the encounter with Ksintsax. That and tanai were known to hold very little, if not even none, suspicion towards their ilk, even if by some twist of fate they ended up on opposite sides of hostilities. From time to time this did happen, and usually ended with the tanai on both sides finding some sort of an uneasy compromise.
He found him, Anh, about a candle later, after wandering through the darkened forest, shouting for him and being certain that he veered long off the direction he initially intended to follow. ‘Finding’ also wasn’t an applicable term. He stumbled on the bookkeeper sitting knurled on the ground, weeping silently and weaving slightly fore and aft, with a bloodied and mangled object on the ground, which Brandt quickly recognized as the ordo the tanai was supposed to catch.
Hoomin knelt beside Anh and slowly tried to turn the seer’s corpse so he could see their face and immediately realized how futile this was. As he pulled by their hand, it seemed it wasn’t even attached to a skeleton. The enlarged cranium was on one side and looked like a crushed hard-boiled egg. Everywhere Brandt tried to pull, it was as if he was handling a piece of soft, boneless meat.
As he tried to recreate what had happened, he looked to the skies, where his employee and ordo seer must have met. Whatever happened, it must have sent the seer tumbling down. After they hit the treetops, they must have tumbled through the branches, breaking every bone imaginable. If they weren’t killed then, having struck the ground at great velocity must have been the final blow. Brandt wasn’t averse to the sight of corpses, even fresh ones. As little as he could recall, it was obvious to him that he killed countless people himself, and judging how ferocious he was not a candle ago, he must have been good at it. This however, this soggy cadaver wrapped in torn robes, was a living, breathing being not that long ago, this was its special kind of macabre.
It also meant that the seer was taken care of, thus it was time to make Trawins use his talents to, hopefully, help Hanne’s wounded.
-” Come. We need to go” – he said softly -” there are people who need your help.” - Anh didn’t react, just kept on rocking slightly -” Hey! Well done. But we’re not done yet.”
The tanai raised his head and looked towards the hoomin.
-” I killed them.” - he said with a shaking voice – “Just like that. Now they are dead. I did that.”
Such distress was to be expected. Brandt hoped a little bit that it wouldn’t, but realistically, there was no other way for the tanai. At the same time, however, at least three men needed help more than the corpse before them.
-” Come.” - Brandt kept the soft voice -” You are needed elsewhere, without your aid others will perish.” - whether it was true didn’t matter, although it probably was. What was important was the promise Brandt gave to Hanne. One of the ‘slanke man’ treated the wounded with the easterner trickery. Besides, the tanai certainly wasn’t in a condition that allowed leaving him alone in the forest after dark.
Trawins didn’t react at once or at all, except he stared at him with a blank expression.
-” I know. I know this is ... hard for you” – continued hoomin – “ but we need to move. Once we’re back at the ‘Dlooa’ place, I’ll return and bury ... them, so they don’t rot here or be eaten by animals.”
Anh blinked slowly a few times.
-” Yes.” - he said laboriously -” we need to fulfill our obligations.” - he straightened himself, shook off his attire, and then turned towards the Brandt, who as well as about done preparing himself to return to the wildmen – “Can you lead us...“ - tanai paused for a drip -”...me back?”
Brandt just nodded slowly.
-” Please.” - added the tanai. Hoomin took a moment to orientate as to where he was, then headed into the woods. Tanai followed.