“I said, come down now or the dwarf gets it!” the dark human screamed up at Faro and Lena on the wall.

Faro looked down at the grizzly man. He wore a dark green cloak like the rest of them. This particular man had a long, mangy black beard, and appeared to be getting on in years. His skin appeared dark purplish-gray, though Faro wasn’t sure if that was his skin-tone or some odd lighting from the hood of the cloak.

The oddest thing though, was the twitch. The man’s hand remained steady, but his head kept twitching violently to the side as he made strange, guttural noises. Noises as though he was trying to scare away a stray cat that wasn't there. A quick scan of the others told him they all had this weird, similar affliction.

Faro didn’t know what to make of this. He looked sideways at Lena for a second and she nodded down at the rope under his feet. He glanced down, and then nodded back to her as if he understood. At that, he slowly put his hands down and spoke to the crazed man down below.

“Let’s not be nasty here, okay fella? I’m going to grab this rope and use it to come down, okay?” Faro said, gesturing to the rope beneath his foot.

“Yeah, yeah, get on with it then! Tssstk!” The man said, ending his sentence with the weird noise again. The others jerked and jumped at this noise and followed with their own weird noises. Faro slowly squatted back down and grabbed the rope, slowly pulling his weight off of it. He could still feel the weight on the rope, meaning that Mathias was still hanging on the other end, and hoped that the old healer was ready for what was about to happen.

In one swift movement Faro grabbed the rope with both hands and jumped off the wall. Instead of trying to catch his feet on the other side he let all of his weight pull the rope down as fast and as hard as he could. His heavier weight pulled the little healer easy enough, and Mathias came flying over the wall.

To Faro’s delight, Mathias already had his short sword drawn and was ready for action as he came down on the other side. Faro judged his landing place and turned and hunched a bit, giving his friend an easier place to land than the solid ground. Mathias’ feet landed squarely on Faro’s bent over shoulders, and the lion shifted his weight forward towards the crazed man holding Tobi. The momentum from this movement sent Mathias lunging forward at break-neck speed.

The Dark Human that was holding Tobi let out a yelp and took a step back, loosening his grip. Tobi used the moment to slip away. Judging by his poor reaction, Faro could tell that they weren’t aware that Mathias had been hanging on the other side of the wall. The healer took his short sword and stabbed the man right square in the chest. The man gasped in surprise and pain, the air rushing out of his body.

Faro loosened his full-sized warhammer from its holster on his belt and stood up straight just in time to see an arrow sink into the neck of one of the archers in the group of five.

Thora saw her cue and went to work with her mace. Faro just stared in awe, not really sure if he would be of any help in her fight. On her own, she had already taken the spiked mace to one man’s head, and the side of another. The third man that had surrounded her hung back a bit, determined to kill her, but also now weary to come within swinging distance of the wild woman. He could see the red eyes of war in her, and looked as if he were about to run when Tobi ran up behind him and butted him in the back with the handle of his axe. The man stumbled forward towards Thora’s waiting swing and was down in an instant, blood flying from his face where the mace’s spikes made contact.

Faro looked up and saw that Lena had dropped three more in the group that was hanging back from the fight, leaving just one Dark Human left. Faro wasn’t sure what came over him, but he dropped the hammer and lunged forward like an animal, pouncing forward on all fours and grabbing the last one before they could escape.

With a huge, lion-esque roar he wrapped his paw-hands around them and slammed them into the ground. He quickly ripped back the hood and saw that it was an older woman.

With a thump Lena landed behind him and the whole party circled in around Faro and the woman, weapons drawn. Faro could see the woman’s entire face contorting, her left eye twitching, her mouth speaking gibberish. Faro roared again and then spoke.

“Were you sent by Eli?” he roared at her. “Did he send you to kill us?”

The woman’s face calmed down enough for her to talk. “Eli? No, no, no. We don’t… we answer to no one now. No one. Tsst. We can’t… we won’t be answering to anyone else. We just want… tssstk… we are trying to get our lives back!”

Faro didn’t understand what she meant, but Lena apparently did as she sprung into action, shouldering her bow and bending down next to the old woman. The elf held up her hand and began speaking in a tongue that Faro didn’t understand. A tongue that sounded familiar to the Geusto’s song from Osric’s funeral.

White light began to build in Lena’s hand as it had back at the Church of Solana, but this time it seemed calmer, less intense. Faro tried to look at it to see where it was coming from, but all he could see was light and particles swirling in an orb there in her palm. As she kept speaking words she moved her hand closer to the old woman’s face and slowly opened her fingers, as if releasing the light directly into the lady’s face.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The old woman squirmed in Faro’s grasp, let out a shriek as though she were dying, and then a calm came over her face. Faro gasped as he watched the woman’s purple-gray skin turn back to its apparently normal light brown tone. She lay there for a moment, as if completely at peace with the world, almost as if she were sleeping, and then slowly opened her eyes.

“The colors!” she said. Faro thought that was an odd thing to say. Lena told him to let the woman go, so Faro let her sit up. She was blinking really slowly and staring around in amazement.

“The colors of the world are so vibrant now. It was so gray and gloomy in there,” she said, but Faro wasn’t sure where there was.

Lena nodded as if she did. “Yes. The virmorphia no longer has a hold on you. Can you tell us where you were going?”

The woman thought for a second, and then recalled. “We were going to see the new ruler on the mountain.” She saw the looks of concern on the party’s faces, and continued, “Not to join him. We were hoping that we could be freed from the dark magic prison we were kept in. Madness…” she trailed off.

Thora knelt down beside Lena, a strong look of concern on her face. “The magic drives you mad?” she asked the old woman.

The lady nodded, “Yes. Raving mad. The world is dark. You hear voices. Voices making you say and do things you don’t want to. Sometimes you can fight it. Other times… I've done things. Things I can never forget, and probably can’t forgive myself for. I’ve killed…killed children of kings and merchants. Killed people who were bringing supplies to a kingdom that was meant to be under siege for non-payment to Cosimir. Terrible… all terrible…”

Lena grabbed the woman’s hand in her own and patted the top, showing her sympathy. “We’re sorry about the rest of your party. We were under attack.”

“No,” the woman waved her off, but a tear still rolled down her face. She looked around glumly at all the men that were with her. Their skin had turned back to various shades of brown and peach. “I get it, and they are free now, too. Many wanted to kill us over the years. Because we were so unpredictable and violent. I’m just glad they will be able to rest easy.”

“What’s your name, friend?” Thora asked her.

“Maggie,” said the woman. “It used to be Maggie. Back when I lived in the mountains. Back before…” she stopped and shuttered.

“It’s okay,” said Lena, urging her to continue. “Talking about it can often be helpful.”

The woman continued, “Back before Cosimir brought us all up to the top of the mountain for the ritual. I was so young then. We were all drowned. Drowned in the dark pool. Literally held under until we could no longer breath and only saw blackness. When we came back up it was like we were reborn, but only this time in vast darkness.”

Silence followed this grim recollection. After a long pause Maggie finally stood up from the ground and brushed herself off. Looking around at the party her gaze settled on Faro. “And you’re…”

“A lion, yeah,” he said, still not used to the fact himself.

“Beings as you’re a crazy animal man and you’re heading this way, I assume you must be looking for that crazed wolverine man, Jarl?”

Jarl? The name sounded familiar to Faro, but he couldn’t quite place it. They hadn’t picked up on the things name during their fight in Graeton, but it was still good news that he had been seen coming this way.

“Yes,” said Faro. “How long ago did you see him?”

The lady stroked a few white whispy hairs that were growing from her chin. “Yesterday. Other side of those trees,” she said pointing at the grove not too far away. “Him and that girl, and that weird rock man.”

“The girl?” asked Mathias. “Was she still alright?”

“Seemed to be. Just scared out of her wits. I mean, no wonder, given her traveling companions,” Maggie said. “That little wolverine introduced himself and offered to buy our horses. When we refused they killed two of our group and stole the two horses. Had the nerve to ask for directions to Umbra’s Veil after that, too.”

“Horses!” exclaimed Tobi. “How are we going to catch them now? It will take us three times longer to get there than them,” he swung his axe and burried it into the ground in frustration. Faro sensed a pattern in what the dwarf did to quell his temper. “There will be no catching them by surprise now,” Tobi growled.

Thora put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. The dwarf seemed to calm down and take deep breaths as she spoke. “If they get to Umbra’s Veil, it will be harder to save Veronica. No one’s alive that’s went into that place. It’s just a shroud of mystery and death.”

Faro saw everyone nodding, except for Lena who was oddly still. He thought that weird, but then again the elf didn’t often show much emotion, so it could have been that she wasn’t afraid of the dark, gloomy place they were all headed. Still, her demeanor seemed to tense a bit at the mention of Umbra’s Veil. Faro didn’t want to pry now, but thought about asking her what she knew before they got there.

It was Mathias who broke the silence. “So this Jarl and his companion took horses. Maggie, did your group have more horses? We’re on our way to save that little girl that was with that monster. We need to try and catch them before they get to Umbra’s Veil, or our chances of success go down greatly.”

Maggie nodded and pointed to the grove of trees. “We left the horses there when we went out scouting for food this morning. That’s when we saw you. I can get you to the horses if that’s what you need. Just need to leave me one so I can go back to my home in the mountains and see if there’s anything left.” Another tear rolled down the old woman’s cheek. “It will be nice to do something good for once, helping you save that poor girl, I mean.”

Faro felt himself smile at the sentiment. There was some good in the world, even if they had to be the ones to drive the evil out to find it. Finding out that he was a prince had also given him a renewed sense of duty to those in need. Finding Veronica felt much more personal to him now. He wasn’t sure how close Incarta was to Graeton, but people were people, and he was going to do everything he could to set things right. Also, if he could find out a little bit more about himself from this Jarl, that would be a win too.

Thora rummaged through her pack and found a loaf of bread she had rolled up with the food provisions. She handed it to the woman who took it without question and started eating it ravenously, as though she hasn't eaten anything real in years. Faro didn’t want to venture a guess at what Dark Humans ate on a regular basis. The way they had attacked the party without question, he was pretty sure he had some idea.

After scarfing down the entire loaf of bread, Maggie looked around at the five of them and gestured her hand off towards the grove of trees. “Let’s get moving before the horses get picked off by a raiding party, shall we?”

They all adjusted their packs and reslung and holstered their weapons. Maggie took off at a decent pace for an old woman, and the five of them followed her off towards the woods.