Chapter 290 - Trails

“We’d like not to get disturbed again. I’m sure you understand.” The heavy-set man said with a grimace. His wife watched with reddened eyes from the doorway.

“Of course. We’ll do all we can to find your daughter—” Niel stepped back as the courtyard gate slammed in their face, the wooden frame rattling with the impact. His arm rose as if to protest before flopping back down. The couple had vanished into their house and locked the door with four sharp clanks.

“It’s okay.” Kai smoothed his disappointment into a stoic facade. Another team of adventurers had questioned the grieving parents and used up their goodwill before they arrived. “We’ve got all we could.”

“Hmm… That’s how it goes most of the times.” Niel turned to the mist-shrouded street, the shadows lining his face made him look older. “It’s almost noon. We should head back. Maybe Kea and Caeli had better luck.”

“Yeah, they must have.” Kai nodded, eager to get indoors. Shadow and Water mana permeating the air let the cold humidity seep into his bones despite his enchanted coat. He had been the one who insisted on questioning the family personally—as if he could find some crucial clue everyone else missed. The arrogance of that presumption seemed glaring now.

He accompanied me anyway.

There had been no trace left in every other abduction, and this case looked no different. He had scanned every grain of dirt from the crime scene with Mana Observer, and strained Mana Analys to inspect the streams of essence, all to find nothing. Not a suspicious speck of mana or a hair out of place.

Kai hurt to admit it, but when your best strategy was waiting on your enemy‘s misstep, the situation didn’t look good. There was no trail of breadcrumbs or obvious suspects despite what detective dramas taught him. Perhaps Herry had been their only shot to grasp the truth, and he had gone up in flames with the piles of documents at his house.

His best idea was to use himself as bait—exactly one of those reckless plans he had sworn to avoid. With the Fate Fulcrum cracked in his ring, there would be no reshuffling the possibilities if he got cornered.

Among the people gone missing, some had reached Yellow and still left no sign of struggle. The culprits must have a way to incapacitate their targets, and he didn’t yet know how many there were. Superior skills couldn’t save him if he got ambushed by several foes with obscure abilities.

Positive thoughts! I’m sure Kea has found something.

Since opening his eyes in Whiteshore, he had always tackled problems by himself. This time, he wasn’t investigating alone. Kai wrapped the blue woolen scarf tighter around his neck. The fabric provided a pleasant warmth, though it made him itch, each prickle heightened by his Perception.

This cursed mist doesn’t help.

Dense swathes of fog had rolled up from the Lake of Myst to engulf the town. No living soul walked the streets. He could barely make out Niel’s shadow ahead of him, heading into another dirt alley. In the ghostly silence, Hallowed Intuition’s soft thrumming sounded like the beats of a drummer.

Each day spent in this creepy town was one too many, but he couldn’t let discomfort guide his actions. Hasty choices got people killed. The danger breathing down his neck brought back the lessons from the Sanctuary. There were times to be daring and times to be cautious, picking wrong would cost his life.

I’ve been careless.

When he escaped that nightmarish realm, he wanted nothing more than to forget and move on. Snapping at the slightest sound and smashing furniture was hardly useful while living with his family. He had suppressed his instincts and let the archipelago lull him into complacency.

The threat of the cultist was making him more alert than he had been in months.

It doesn’t sound very healthy. But as long as it works…

What kept him alive couldn’t be bad. Clues or no clues, he would find what was going on in Limgrell and carry his friends to safety.

I should tell Valela we're fine. Perhaps she’ll have some ideas.

She probably couldn’t find useful intel from across the Republic, but he’d rest easier if someone knew about their situation—just in case

“Can I ask you a question?” Kai broke the stifling silence and activated the privacy wards of the black pearl he borrowed from Rain.

Niel’s shrouded figure slowed, taking another turn. “Sure. What is it?”

“There is something I’ve been wondering for a while…” He loosened his scarf and regretted it when a freezing gust slipped inside his shirt. “Are you the one who contacted Valela?”

Niel's stilted steps were hard to miss even in the dense fog. He recovered before his boot crunched on the gravel again—still too late. “Rotten ancestors! Do you always blurt things out like that? How did you know? Did Valela tell you?”

Kai offered him a wry smile. Asking questions when people least expected worked wonders, bonus points if they were doing some other activity like walking. “She didn’t mention names. Though it had to be someone from the archipelago, and it couldn’t be Kea. It was a toss coin between you and Mari. I can count on one hand the times she goes outside, that leaves only you.”

“It could have been one of the islanders who already left the team.”

“Hmm… I guess you’re right.” He hadn’t considered them since he had never met them. “I got lucky then.”

Niel rubbed his face, exhaling a long, tired breath. “It’s not what you think.”

“What do I think?”

“I didn't contact her to get something out of it,” Niel said. “Valela helped me settle some stuff back in Higharbor. I knew she wanted to help other islanders.” He jerked to a stop. “We arrived on the mainland with no friends or contacts. It made sense to let someone know what we were up to.”

He must have been feeling guilty.

“I would have never found Limgrell if you didn’t contact her. Thank you for that.”

Niel stared at him blinking in surprise then lowered his gaze. “It’s nothing. I was just trying to keep everyone safe.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, eyes jolting around the fog and breathing heavy. “I failed anyway. We should never have taken this contract. Who offers five gold mesars for a task? It was obvious that something was wrong, and I still agreed to come. I’m such an idiot! I got us stuck in this cursed town…”

Oh boy, he sure loves to take responsibility.

A week in Limgrell already put Kai on edge, he couldn’t imagine what a normal person would feel after a month. “Stop that nonsense.” He channeled his mother’s scolding tone. “You’re not the only person in the team. Are you telling me you could have forced Kea or Caeli if they didn’t agree?”

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“I could have done… more.”

“Yeah, we all could. Everyone made their choices to get here.“ Kai stared straight at him. “We’re going to figure this out.”

Spirits, I’m getting good at this.

Niel slowly nodded. “I’m sorry, I—”

“No apologies. You’re good.” Kai lightly clapped his back, looking for a topic to distract him. “Do you have a way to contact Valela? She said you stopped sending messages.”

“It’s complicated.” A deep furrow formed in his brow. “I usually visited the House of Mirrors of the towns we passed, but Limgrell doesn't have one. The closest branch is three days away, in Dorvell. I asked one of our teammates to deliver a message when they left. Now I don’t have anyone else I’d trust.”

This is going to be a tiny bit more complicated than I imagined.

“What about a paper letter?” It would take weeks to reach Valela through the mailing system—still better late than never.

“I considered that too. But they might intercept the letter.” Niel scowled. “After we got ambushed at the tower, I have no idea how many people are corrupted. We’d be painting a target on our backs.”

Kai chewed his cheek, skimming the possibilities for a line of safety. “You’re right. It’s too risky.”

Not even the mailman is trustworthy. How did we sink so low?

Monitoring the information going out of Limgrell was exactly what a bunch of paranoid criminals would do. He could write the letter with a cipher, though it would create a different set of problems. Too complicated and Valela might not realize it; too simple and the cultist might sniff the trick.

We should have agreed on an emergency code. Foresight is such a bitch. And what would I even write? Mad cultists. Please send help…?

Valela had influence and contacts in the archipelago. On the mainland, she was a stranger amidst scores of patrician families. While Kai didn’t doubt her resourcefulness, he had to be realistic. Who could she sway from her posh academy thousands of miles away? If she reached for the wrong people, it might make things worse.

We’re on our own.

He would have to find a trustworthy courier or sneak to Dorvell himself. And what for? Valela could probably just report the corruption to higher officials. The Republic’s bureaucratic machine might take weeks or months to move.

“Could you not tell the others?” Niel walked into a narrow gravel street. “About Valela, I mean. Kea wouldn’t understand. I don’t know what happened between them, but she’d rather chew off her own arm than take her help.”

That might be my fault…

“We'll discuss it once we’re away from this town,” Kai said.

“I can agree to that.” Niel straightened his sword belt and coat, recomposing himself. “Thank you for… all of it. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m not usually like this.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re all human.”

Well, except Rain.

“Anyway, how far are we from your house?” Kai glanced at the veiled shapes of slanted buildings. “I don’t recognize this area.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen fog this thick aside from the cloud fairies. We should be…” Niel squinted at the street signs of a crossing. “Shit! I must have taken a wrong turn.”

I hate this place.

“It’s okay. Everything looks the same.” He wished he didn’t have to freeze his butt off for much longer. “Do you know where we are?”

I shouldn’t have forced him to accompany me in the first place.

“I… yes. We’ve been circling the outskirts toward the lake.” Niel closed his eyes and mumbled to himself, turning on his heels. “There.” He pointed toward a wall of swirling white. “We should reach the main square if we follow that road. It’s easy to get to our apartment from the center.”

“Sounds good.” Kai strode close to him and spread Mana Observer to keep track of his surroundings. The air was drenched with Water and Shadow motes, dulling his senses.

Investigating would be so much easier if he could see people across Limgrell. The town was just populous enough that a few people going missing hadn’t raise a ruckus while being too small for the House of Mirrors and trade caravans to bother with it.

Where are they holding the missing?

Those taken from the surrounding farms could be anywhere, but many disappeared inside the town walls. The guards would have to be massively incompetent to let people get smuggled over ten meters of stone and gravel. Men could be bribed, but there were powerful wards woven through the fortifications.

Uhm… I might be an idiot too.

A spark of realization lit his jumbled thoughts—he had been looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. The mystery of people vanishing without a trace caught everyone's attention, but he didn’t need to know how the cultists did; all that mattered was the location of the missing individuals.

Dozens had been abducted, humans who would need space and food to survive—boring logistics were the key.

Follow the supplies. Where are they holding them?

The town was too bold. Limgrell wasn’t that large, and half the missing lived out on the farms anyway. The logical location would be outside the walls but relatively near. The question was how did they get them there?

Unless every missing person is dead…

Corpses didn’t need to eat and could be easily buried or destroyed with magic.

No, that doesn’t make sense either.

All the complex maneuvers to maintain secrecy and mislead the Republic. If those assholes wanted to kill off a few people, it would have been way easier to massacre a village. Why go through the trouble of setting up such a complex operation? Their objective must require time and a steady stream of test subjects.

Yatei have mercy… What are they doing with them?

His mouth was dry despite the humid weather. He had often joked about blood rituals and devoured souls. Now, those didn’t sound as funny—

The hairs on his arms suddenly spiked, blood and adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Kai summoned his enchanted blade and readied a spell while his mind caught up to his instinct. Hallowed Intuition’s thrumming had turned into sharp, familiar whispers.

Fuck.

He spread Mana Observer, sifting the dense mana that wafted from the lake. There were no other signatures in his range. He grabbed Niel’s coat before he could move away.

“What are you doin—”

“They’re here.” Body Augmentation enhanced his sight and hearing, his muscles flushing with mana and ready to jolt. The privacy wards from Rain’s pearl still enveloped them, so he didn’t have to worry about being overheard.

“What! Are you sure?” Niel fumbled to unsheathe his sword, voice growing frantic. “There are two of us. They only attack people alone.”

“Guess they didn’t get the memo.” He didn’t move his attention from their surroundings, eyes wide to not blink. The pale fog was almost as thick as when he had fought the cloud fairies. “Get behind me and stay silent.”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He didn’t want a confrontation.

What do I do?

Despite his heightened Perception, he couldn’t spot anyone. If he focused Mana Observer on a spot, he might get better results, but that would leave him vulnerable.

We’re too exposed out here.

They needed to find shelter away from the mist. The closest wooden warehouse was a dozen meters behind him. If they reached—

Hallowed Intuition’s whispers soared and suddenly quietened. Kai didn’t get time to question it. Trusting the skill, he slashed the air to his left and channeled Earth mana into his blade. Only the mana remained stuck in his veins, ignoring the orders.

What—

His sword clashed against a hard metallic obstacle before it could complete its arc. The impact rebounded up in his arms, forcing him to step back.

“Such shit luck,” a muffled voice grunted. The owner shrouded by the mist.

Mana Observer still couldn’t—

The skill turned off as if it had stopped existing. His elemental magic didn’t answer his commands, the motes refusing to leave his veins.

Kai suppressed the shock and swung again to not lose the initiative. His body was slower and weaker than he expected—the boost from Body Augmentation was gone too.

Fuck!

His sword cut wide without meeting any resistance. Digging a boot into the mud to keep his balance, he pivoted on his leg and turned the strike into a wild sweep. The blade whistled through the mist, brushing someone.

No sounds came from the attacker. The sea serpent blade was clean of blood.

Stop hiding!

Kai brandished his sword with both hands and executed a chain of random cuts around him. The vapor from his breaths mixed with the mist. His arms burned with the exertion. He continued swinging at his invisible enemy without relenting, following Hallowed Intuition's soft murmurs. At least one skill hadn’t abandoned him completely.

A gruff scream echoed behind him, quickly hushed.

Kai pivoted to strike the area. Squinting, he spotted a small shadow moving closer.

Die—

“Mrooow,” Hobbes growled and ducked under the blade. Red eyes glared at him. The cat strode closer, fluffy tail swishing in the air, the fur of his paws marred with crimson.

“I’m sorry.” Kai tightened his hands around the hilt, moving his sword away but not lowering his guard. “I…”

Hallowed Intuition fell silent for the first time in days.

Without any build-up, his skills returned to him like limbs he had momentarily forgotten. Elemental motes swirled around his arms in streams of color. Mana Observer stretched to its maximum range around him as if to make up for the lost time.

The attacker was gone—he was alone with Hobbes.

No…

“Niieeel!” Kai screamed, frantically searching for his companion.

Water mana surged in a blue flood. He swatted his hand, pushing back the fog for three blocks of buildings. The dirt street sloped toward the Lake of Myst. Abandoned wooden warehouses and shacks stood around him, not a soul in any of them.

No, no, no.

Two fresh trails of footsteps marked the mud, his own boots had carved heavy grooves where he had fought. Niel’s tracks were lighter, remaining in the spot where he last talked to him, then abruptly ending.

He was gone.