It was one of those rare sunsets that light up the horizon, a bright orange glow pushing skywards over the jagged foreground of trees and mountains. Under any other circumstance, Iskvold would have taken a moment to appreciate it. She stood in the courtyard, alone with her thoughts momentarily after having dragged her fourth corpse from the abbey when she became aware of two points of light, headed towards her from the southwest. Watching their approach she quickly made out the forms of Tsuta and Usha holding staves over their heads to light the path home. Only the two of them…this was bad.
“Hail Tsuta, where are the others?” She called out once they were within earshot, as she moved towards the locked gate.
“Hey Pinky” came the reply. Though she had used the formal greeting that the current circumstances warranted, as usual, the bald elf was oblivious. The clang and whine of aged iron pierced the evening silence as she opened the lock and swung the gate back to let them inside.
“Dead, and both other beacons destroyed. How bad is it here?” Tsuta asked her, and she could do no more than tilt her head back over her right shoulder in response. Raising his staff to increase the range of the magical light that burned from its tip, two rows of bodies in perfect lines stretched into view, each one respectfully positioned on its back, arms crossed across the chest. Seventeen in total. Tsuta exhaled audibly as his shoulders slumped and Iskvold unconsciously leaned into the new arrivals as the three embraced silently for several moments before Usha began to quietly weep, muffled in Iskvold’s shoulder.
“What about the attackers?” Tsuta asked as he pulled back. Iskvold extended a left thumb pointing behind her as she held the acolyte’s sobbing form to her chest.
Tsuta raised his staff again as he stepped past her and a pile of charcoal grey limbs and torsos appeared out of the shrinking darkness. With none of the care and consideration that was evident in the arrangement of their fallen comrades, it was difficult to tell where one of the creatures ended and the other began. Tsuta studied them intently as he circled the remains.
“Anyone know what they are?” he asked after lifting one of the tails to get a better look at the second creature's facial features.
“No idea,” she said. “We’ve been calling them hookheads for lack of a better name”. Usha straightened up and wiped the tears from her cheeks while trying to regain control of her breathing. Iskvold gave her arm a reassuring squeeze while reaching past her to close and lock the gate.
“We should debrief with Sifu. He will want to hear about the other beacons”. She instinctively put her arm around Usha’s shoulder and guided the younger woman back towards the abbey entrance. Tsuta dropped the tail, wiped his hands on the side of his leg, and followed them inside.
“Almost everything was ruined by the fire, but we managed to clear out the mess and are using that as our base of activities for the moment” Iskvold gave the cloakroom door a shove and it groaned on its hinges. Only two of the long tables still stood. The remains of the others were nothing more than a charred pile of wood in the corner. As they were announced by the door, the remaining compliment of the order of monks at the Luminarium all turned their attention to the newcomers. Sifu Haft was seated at the table facing them with Nori to his left. Esmi, How and Jin sat across from them. They all rose, but the initiates stayed in place as Sefu crossed the room towards them.
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“Tsuta, very glad to see you! Where are the others?” Tsuta pursed his lips and shook his head. Sifu retreated to the table as the others parted, allowing room for Tsuta, Usha, and Iskvold to sit.
“Tell me everything.”
Tsuta drew a deep breath and stared down at the table’s surface as he spoke. He recounted his evening’s activities at the other outposts in nearly identical detail - beacons destroyed, shelters burned, and his discovery of the bodies of both pairs of duty monks hundreds of feet below the overlook.
As he finished speaking silence fell over the group for several moments until Tsuta raised his head and looked around at the long faces of his brothers and sisters.
“Where’s Graver?” he asked.
“I sent him to the Crystal Dawn and asked him to activate the Pact, though we may be on our own for a while – he had to go on foot.”
Sifu continued “What I don’t understand is how the hook heads got to the beacons and into the abbey without anyone noticing. They had to pass right by here to get to the outposts, or you would have seen them coming through one of the passes.”
“I may be able to answer that,” Tsuta said. “There was one other thing I noticed…”
Sifu Haft held the monk’s gaze and raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“Well, out with it man! This is no time for dramatics!”
“When I was at the central outpost, I noticed a large swarm of ladybugs at the back of the plateau, next to the beacon. And at the southern outpost – same thing.”
He looked around at the faces of his friends, all showing expressions of confusion.
“So? …I’m not following” Iskvold blurted impatiently.
“Well, I’ve noticed that when spells are cast, they attract ladybugs. I saw it myself once, a while back when I cast a spell, and I just started to pay attention to it after that. It must be something in the residue of casting that’s appealing to them.”
“So, you think, that because you found ladybugs, that magic was used to bring the hook heads to the outposts? That seems a little far-fetched, doesn’t it? I mean they live in these forests naturally” Sifu was unconvinced.
“That’s just it” Tsuta continued “One or two sure, but the first time I noticed it, I had cast a light spell onto a staff tip – like I did tonight – so someone else could see to collect firewood. They left with the staff, and within about ten minutes, I noticed almost twenty ladybugs had gathered directly on the spot where I had cast the spell. Have you ever seen twenty in one place like that before?”
The murmurs of denial around the table conveyed the group’s agreement, so Tsuta continued.
“And here’s the thing. As I paid attention to it, I noticed that the stronger the magic, the more ladybugs it would attract. One of my strongest spells would bring over fifty to the spot where the spell materialized within a few minutes, and they would stay there for hours, writhing around with each other in some kind of frenzy. I did a rough count at each of the outposts, and there were more than four hundred in the same spot at each beacon. That’s eight times more than my most powerful spell.”
He left his conclusion hanging in the air, unspoken for several moments before Sifu Haft said it out loud.
“You’re saying that not only was some kind of spell used to drop the hook heads on top of us, but it was very powerful magic at that…”
“Exactly. Far more powerful than I’ve ever seen.”
Sifu furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before speaking.
“I want to think on this, and tomorrow is going to be a very long and difficult day. We must send off seventeen of our brothers and sisters, and we’ll also have to figure out how to retrieve four more from the rocks below the outposts. I know it’s not the most comfortable, but I want everyone to stay together in here tonight.” Sifu nodded at Tsuta and Usha. “Why don’t you two get something to eat, there’s bread and soup in the kitchen, and I suggest we all try to get some rest”