Meera stood before the still surprisingly intact hut of Neel’s friend. It was a small hut. Smaller than the healer’s hut with a half-burnt thatched roof. There was a body lying on the steps leading to the door.
Meera gagged when she saw the condition of the poor man. His right arm was missing, as were his eyes, and his tongue looked like it had been ripped out of his mouth. His guts were hanging out and looked like they had been chewed upon. There was blood everywhere. This was perhaps the only body that was not burned.
Almost as if he was left as an example.
“That was Niryn,” Oril said sadly with downcast eyes. “He was a good lad. Had a bit of a land. Was set to marry Faeli from Belacre. They had a love as fierce as the summer sun. The poor girl will be devastated when she learns of this.”
It somehow brought tears to Meera’s eyes. Not because she had some fiancé waiting for her back on earth but because this could have been her brother.
“Did he ever tell you what Neel was doing here?” Meera asked.
He shook his head. “No, the lad was always mum about the month the Champion stayed with him. Wouldn’t tell anyone—not even Faeli. She is-was good friends with the headman’s daughter, and that girl liked to talk. She couldn’t stomach one little thing. The worse braggart I’ve ever seen. Alas, she will talk no more, and it…”
The poor man sobbed and was about to break down but controlled himself.
“Why did they do this to him?” Meera asked.
“Rothedon and his Voidborn, more commonly known as the Charred Riders,” Oril said.
She didn’t need to know why they were called the Charred Riders after having seen their armor.
Oril went on. “They were not seen in over a hundred years, but then, with the arrival of the Champion, they’ve returned. That is why poor Niryn suffered such a painful death. They had somehow learned that Neel stayed in this village for a time, and so they took apart the villagers one by one until they divulged Niryn’s name. Then what those bastards did to him, I did not have the heart to watch. He screamed at first, then whimpered towards the end.”
Meera placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort the man. “It’s not your fault. In your situation, I would have done the same thing.”
Oril nodded sadly, said nothing, and wiped the budding tears from his eyes.
“Thank you for showing me the way. I’ve got it from here,” Meera said. She didn’t know how long he could control himself, and it was best she did this alone.
“Wait, you still haven’t told me who you are?” Oril eyed her suspiciously.
“I am looking for the Champion, that much is true, but not because I am a bounty hunter. I am his sister.”
Oril’s jaw dropped. “You cannot be serious?”
Meera smiled. “Nope. It’s the truth. Now, I have some investigating to do, and you can return home and prepare to head to…Belacre, I guess. Seeing as how the neighboring villagers should be there still, you can spread the news and tell them to be careful.”
Oril nodded, staring intently at her. In any other situation, she would’ve considered it rude. “Okay, bye now.”
“L-Let me help you look. I might know things that you may overlook.”
She shrugged. “Sure. Two sets of eyes are better than one.”
Meera led the way in, ensuring not to step on the blood slathered all over the steps. The inside of the house was ransacked. All the furniture was turned over. The two chairs had been smashed against the wall. The wooden closet had a missing door, and all the clothes were littered everywhere. Most of them were dirty and stepped on. There was a half-wall which held a kitchen beyond. All the pots and pans were smashed, and his grain spilled to the ground.
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In other words, it took them a total of two minutes to realize there was nothing in here that would point Meera a way to Neel. The Voidborn had destroyed everything she could have used or taken anything useful for themselves. But there is one thing for certain they did not gain anything of use, for Rothedon did not know where to find Neel. That had cost Meera her eyes, but at least she knew they hadn’t gained much from this endeavor.
“Looks like they found nothing,” Oril stated the obvious.
“Hmm.”
Meera was elsewhere. Her thoughts were with her brother. Neel, what sort of a mess have you gotten yourself into? She hoped and prayed that her brother was still alive and had not fallen into the hands of vicious bastards like this Rothedon.
Oril placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be so sad. I’m sure you’ll find your brother. The Champion is not meant to die by the hands of a common man.”
“It’s not a common man that chases my brother. You said so yourself.”
“Yes, but compared to Aetheron, he might as well be.”
“That’s not entirely helping.”
Oril snorted a little. “Yes, I suppose not. But in a situation like this, it should. Besides, the Champion wined and dined with the best of them before coming here, and if he survived that pack of vultures, then I’m sure he’ll survive whatever is coming his way. After all, when things get tough, he can just teleport away. It’s an awesome power. You have to see it to believe it.”
Meera nodded and took a look around. “Well, let me take all this food, which will just go to waste now.”
Oril just shrugged and stepped aside. Meera got to work and packed any fruit that wasn’t stepped on or rotten. Same with any bread. She even took some vegetables as well. Oril helped as well. As she was about to leave the kitchen, something creaked underfoot, and she felt the floorboard shake a little.
She was about to disregard it, but then she remembered the cellar that Oril had. She set her bag down and pulled the rug out of the way. It was heavy but manageable. There it was, a latch of a trap door.
“Oril, I think I found something,” she called.
The healer came running. His eyes widened. “I never knew Niryn had a cellar.”
“Well, let’s check it out.”
Together they opened the door to the cellar, and underneath was a dark basement with a ladder that led the way down. Oril pulled a torch off the wall and quickly lit it. Meera hovered the torch over the cellar, and she couldn’t see anything moving down there nor hear anything with NImble Ears.
Finally, she decided it was safe to go down there. She went down the cellar first, and unlike Oril’s, this one was relatively spacious. It had a bed for a single person, a table, a chair, and a singular thick tome on the table.
She thought of trying something. She walked over to the bed, activated Tracking Scent, and breathed in deep, and there it was. The bed smelled unmistakably like her baby brother. It was hard to describe, but he always smelled of a citrusy smell, though most of it was covered by body odor and pungent clothes. It was funny, but her nose was sharp enough now that she could even ‘see’ where he walked and how he traveled up the ladder. It was good that her eyes were shut, or she would have leaked a tear.
She made the right call to keep this skill and eliminate Night Vision. She shut off her Tracking Scent and went to the tome.
“By the light of Mirithia, I never knew Niryn had anything of this sort in the house,” Oril exclaimed.
“Yes, and it is good for us that neither did the Voidbornes. Come, let’s check out the book.”
The book was more like a diary. Each page had a date and what Niryn did that day. Some pages also held the account of his trades. How many coins were spent and gained? She asked for the date of Neel’s departure from the village. Meera flipped to that page and found it…missing.
Not just that page, but the entirety of the month of Neel’s stay was gone. Niryn or Neel himself had ripped the pages out. It was, of course, to keep Neel’s movement a secret, but this was her best chance to find out where he had gone. Her grip tightened on the book, and she tossed it into the far wall with a frustrated shriek.
“Calm, Meera,” Oril said.
“What is there to be calm about? This was my best chance to find out where he’s gone, and they ripped the fucking pages out.”
Meera fell onto the bed with her head in her hands. Why Neel? Why are you so infuriating sometimes? Every time I think, I’ve found you, you’ve done something to make sure, I’ve been an idiot, chasing my own tail.
Oril set the book on the table again and reviewed the diary. Meera shook her head. It was pointless to check those pages unless he wanted to learn how much grain Niryn had sold or how much cooking oil he had purchased.
“Wait…” Oril reread something. His eyes skimmed through the page. “Oh no…Meera, come here.”
“What? What is it?” She shot up from the bed and was by his side in a heartbeat.
“Here.” He pointed to a line towards the end of the written pages. “Read here.”
I hope my friend finds a Reflectora, but the only two places, he has any chance of finding it is with the Shadowsteel Warlord or the Sorceresses of Akhessai. Though I hope he has more luck elsewhere, but the Warlocks of Winter’s Embrace are not any less dangerous. Wherever you are, please be safe, my friend.… I must remember to burn this page later…
It was the third last entry in the journal. There were no more entries after that. Thanks to Meera’s luck, Niryn never got around to destroying this page.
She looked to the old healer. “I know of the Sorceresses, but who are these other two people or peoples that Niryn mentioned.”
Oril looked like he had seen a ghost. He shook his head lightly. “If he’s going to any of the three people mentioned here. Your brother might already be dead.”