Frei walked alongside Valen, deep in thought. He had no way to get to Gabri'El and make him talk with his current position and strength. His only option was to improve his power and position while Nitarja waited for him under the twisted angel's protection.

Really, how someone like him could be an angel? Frei did not get it, there seemed to be something odd about his divine identity.

"Valen, can merits in the order get me a good position in the Order of Soloniel?" He asked his companion.

"Sure, defend the capital against an enraged true dragon and you are a knight commander." Valen laughed when Frei made a sour face.

"Ah, that will be alright. I am almost there." He could not help himself but joke, rolling his shoulders.

"See, it is easy." Valen continued to tease him.

"No, seriously there are two types of people in there. People doings politics and people doing actual work. Your only option is the second one and that requires an exceptional level of strength, a long list of significant merits, or a tremendously handy ability. Your chances are not a flat zero, but do not count on it." Valen followed with a serious explanation while kicking a rock at the side, looking like his head was lost in the clouds for the moment.

"Are the angels in the order always superior to humans?" Frei asked and dreaded the answer.

"Most of the times, but there are some exceptions." At this point, Valen clearly considered Frei's question purely theoretical and answered dryly, disinterested in the topic. "We are about to arrive at our destination."

  Judging based on the speed with which Valen changed the topic, Frei guessed he was not alone dreaming of becoming a powerful Knight of Soloniel, but their reasons were surely completely different.

"Behind that hill, there is Bard's Crossing. Most of farmers that are missing or came to us with delusional stories of alien invasion came from there. Those who interrogated the farmers think that the culprit might actually be a group of noblemen that are in the barony for a visit and just happened . . . "

" . . . on his left shoulder." Frei heard a strange husky voice in his head and immediately looked around, spooked completely, but there was no one except of Valen. Instinctively, he lifted a part of his leather armor and looked at his shoulder, but averted his face the moment he could smell his terrible odor.

"Damn, I should wash myself somewhere. I am even starting to hear things because of it." He mumbled while squirming a bit to make the armor better fit his body.

"Ungma, we need to find the curse bearer quickly. Call me back if you manage to find a clue, anything." He heard the voice in his head again and had an idea where it might be coming from, taking the glass orb he had received in the morning out of his inventory, but only after he had deliberately lagged behind Valen to remain unnoticed.

The orb was glowing with faint red light.

"Remember, five claws and four fangs in a concentric circle." He heard the voice again and the orb changed, turning colorless once again.

"Wait!" Frei looked at his shoulder again, horrified by what he saw. There was a tattoo on his shoulder that had certainly not been there a few days before. It had the same shape as the mysterious voice coming from the orb had described. Four red fangs along with five vampire claws arranged into a circle, the deep red tattoo covering the back of his shoulder.

"Why wait? We are almost there!" Valen thought that he was speaking to him and when Frei rearranged his garments and looked at him, he saw that he was glaring at the orb in his hand.

"You have not destroyed the thing yet?!" Valen grabbed the orb, snatching it from his hand before he could react and threw it on the ground. He stomped at it promptly, shattering it into thousand pieces. "You have to destroy it quickly, do not hold a ceremony about it next time."

He turned around and continued forward, ignoring Frei's stupefied expression and his hand that was still frozen in the same position, holding onto air.

"Great. now I am cursed, but I know crap about it because this smartass have destroyed my only lead!" He complained inside of his mind, there was no telling what the curse did to him.

  Frei wanted to wallow in despair for the rest of the day, but after a couple of minutes, he noticed a group of people on the horizon that was running towards them. The more he looked at the diverse group running in their direction, the closer his hand was to Crow's handle and his eyes were opening wider with every passing second.

  Leading the group were four farmers, two of them armed with pitchforks and two with swords that could be called a local militia with some level of imagination. Behind them followed a group of girls with cat-like ears and fox tails with a single male that was bruised all over and wore only leather shorts which seemed to be totally inappropriate for the situation.

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"Knight Valen, it is a blessing to see you!" One of the militiamen shouted as soon as they arrived a little closer, clearly knowing Valen by name.

"Kazim, who are these people? Why have you called for the Order?" Valen seemed to be calm, and so Frei followed his example, his hand leaving the handle of his weapon.

"Sir, we have a situation." The leading militiaman breathed heavily while pointing his finger at the suspicious group. "There are some aliens, but that is not the problem."

"Oh, if you say so." Valen's eyes skimmed over all the pointy ears and tails, his eyebrows risen high. "Than what is the problem?"

"There are numerous farmers missing and we have found two bodies further down by the river. They were drained of blood."

"Is that all?" Valen was startled, the farmers were usually able to deal with a rogue vampire or two, never calling for the knights to assist them.

"Twelve people missing is too much, some of us fear that there might be more to it than just a rogue vampire. We have searched their houses and found this." The man handed Valen an object wrapped in two pieces of paper.

"This is . . ." Valen took the wrapped ball and when he took it out of the wrapping, Frei saw the good old glass orb almost identical to the one they had smashed up the road.

"They will see!" The militiaman panicked and tried to wrap the orb again in his shirt.

"They will see shit." Valen dropped the orb on the ground and quickly stomped at it with his plated boot. Frei could not even lift his hand to try and stop his clearly well practiced movement of destroying glass orbs. While Frei was trying to suppress his anger of losing yet another clue, Valen looked at the two pieces of paper that seemed to be more than a simple paper wrap for the orb.

"What is this?" He looked for same time at the yellow parchment, long enough Frei had time to sneak on him from behind and look over his shoulder. There were all sorts of drawings, but what captured his attention was the depiction of the tattoo that he bore under his shoulder armor on his skin.

"What is this?!" Frei could not hold back and pointed at the piece of paper.

"Witches' scribbles. Lead us to where you have found those!" Valen explained thoroughly and urged the militia to lead them to the place where they had found the orb.

"Right away, Sir!" The farmers turned around and everyone followed them with a quick pace, leaving the elephant in the room, the group of fluffy-eared aliens to silently follow their steps.

It was strange.

  Frei could not help it and stopped for a second. He looked behind him to find out why were they so silent despite their numbers, but when he turned his head, a petite hand lightly gripped his neck and he was suddenly staring into two blue eyes that he knew.

"How?!" Confused, Frei wanted to ask how she had appeared out of nowhere, but she pressed her body closer to his, her white tail entangling his leg like she wanted to prevent him from moving away with it and her lips pressed against his, her tongue boldly passing in between his teeth further into his mouth. After an intense moment, their lips parted and she giggled.

"Isn't it obvious? Come, we can't allow the boring knight to spoil the fun." Nitarja gripped his hand and led him to the side, where they entered a corn field to have more privacy for further discussion.

* * * *

"These are peculiar, I have a feeling that I have seen those somewhere." Valen walked next to the two militiamen next to him while looking at a large parchment in his hand. "This one is really strange. Frei, what do you think?"

The three of them turned around, but there was no one behind them, only an empty dirt road passing through corn fields.

"Where has he gone to?!" Valen frowned and glanced at the militiamen next to him, but they did not seem to see anyone else either,

"Frei! Come on, you can't just piss in the corn fields wherever you want! There are monsters!" Valen shouted and an idea struck him suddenly, forcing him to quickly look back on the parchment,

"You have said farmers are missing. Women or men?" Valen asked with an urgency in his voice that had not been there before.

"One woman, the rest are all men." The farmer said nervously, Valen's mood infecting him instantly.

* * * *

"It was dangerous, they could have seen you Nitarja. By the way you should really apologize for the last time, you have hurt me badly." Frei was led by her hand like he was in an elementary school while Nitarja's tail wandered from time to time to touch his body at odd places.

  It kept disrupting his attention, his eyes searching for where the tail's base was, hidden under the tight leather garments, belt and straps that held all her equipment attached to her body.

"Then I have to sooth the sore spots of my brave knight as an apology." She turned around and looked at him briefly while laughing, a second later she let go of his hand and sprinted on all fours for a couple of steps like a real cat, deliberately presenting her behind to him only to vanish in the corn a second later.

Frei gulped and gave a chase, only to be hugged by her tail and a hand a few dozen meters later from behind.

"You sure love to play with your tail, huh?" He could not tear his eyes away from hers while her tail was unscrupulously wandering in between his legs.

"I like playing with tails, let's have some privacy first, before we . . . talk. " She smirked and wordlessly took out a small dagger that guided by her dexterous hand slowly cut the leather of her garment in a way to exactly follow the vertical gap in between her buttocks, exposing what every decent lady should have kept hidden at all costs. Immediately after, she repeated the teasing cat-like sprint with Frei panting even before he made a single step to follow her.

"Naughty foxes should be taught a lesson." He ran after her, his eyes glued to her tail and to what it occasionally revealed when the leather of her garment nor the rail were in the way anymore.

  He ran after her and mesmerized by the view, he lost track of time and place completely, only knowing that she slowed down every time he was about to lose her from sight. He felt weak like a moth attracted to a flame, but he liked the weakness, in fact he was looking forward to be burned in Nitarja's flame.

He could not see the smile on her face, wide and unnatural.