Chapter 40 - The Old Name of Love
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Two whole weeks had passed since we had left Vilfori and we were now inside a small patch of woods on the road to Dulsalies. While looking from a tree to see if I could spot the monster that had escaped us, a four meters long lizard-like creature that tended to attack livestock during dis, I saw what looked like an enormous, completely black, rock formation far north.
I jumped down the tree, startling the horses a bit, and asked Holiés, “hey, is that black castle we shouldn’t go to supposed to be north of here?”
“Ehm, I think? I don’t know, I’ve never been this far away from the village, why?”
“I wanted to go take a look.”
He closed his eyes, the mark I had imprinted on his forehead had almost disappeared, but it was still faintly visible and made him look a bit like some monk as he sighed, “listen, I get you’re curious, but literally everyone we came across told us to not go there.”
“I know, doesn’t that make you want to go there even more?” I said, grinning.
“What are you, a child?”
“Well, some of my siblings still consider me one,” I said, mounting on my horse which had already calmed down.
“I never knew you had siblings,” he said, mounting on the horse we had bought before leaving Vilfori.
I spurred the horse forwards, going north, “I never told you.”
“What are they like?” he asked, following me.
“Compared to me? They’re workaholics.”
“I see, I see. Like practically everyone else in existence then.”
“Hey!” I shouted, “that’s not true! I just have fun from time to time.”
“Sure, sure. Anyway, I don’t think I ever agreed on going to those ruins.”
I grinned at him and said, “I never asked.”
“I swear, if this ends up like the other day with the vines…” he shivered.
I laughed a bit then said, “oh yeah, that was fun.”
“Fun? I still have nightmares about it.”
I just laughed again and spurred my horse to go even faster.
When we came out of the woods, after almost an hour of riding, we found ourselves in front of a single, wide hill that rose gently, on top of which sat a completely black castle, or what remained of it. The structure at its prime must had been one of the most intimidating sights in the world. The remains of the wall hinted that it had a span of around six-hundred meters at his widest point, and the parts that were still standing showed that the wall itself was around twenty-five meters tall. A few, still standing, watchtowers dotted the perimeter, and, from behind the walls, the remains of a few towers that went well above the wall could be seen. At the top of the hill, just a bit on the left from what would have been the center of the complex, there was a tower that, from where we were observing it, appeared to be well over a hundred meters tall, without counting the broken spire at its top.
I looked at Holiés, who was staring at the castle in front of us with his mouth agape, and said, “so, wasn’t it worth the detour?”
“Ok, it is pretty impressive.”
“Right? Whose castle was it by the way?”
Holiés turned to look at me in disbelief and said, “wait, you don’t know?”
“Ehm, no?”
“It was the castle of Letia, the queen of the dead,” he said, as a matter of fact.
“Wait, Letia? Not Raziel?” I asked.
“Who the hell is Raziel?”
“Nevermind,” I said, going back at looking at the castle. At that moment I noticed that there was a small camp halfway up the hill and that two people on horseback were coming our way.
I made my horse start walking again and went towards them. Holiés, realizing what I was doing, immediately followed me.
When we finally reached them at the foot of the hill, one of the two, a man in his thirties with a stubble who was wearing heavy steel armor, said, “are you Hero Fortuna?”
“Yes, I am Fortuna Tullius, do we perhaps know each other?”
“No, milady, we have never met, but the guild warned us not to attack someone…” he swallowed, “who looks like you.”
“I see, so I have to guess that you’re adventurers.”
He nodded, “yes, currently we are investigating the black castle because of some suspicious occurrences in the surrounding villages.”
“What kind of occurrences?” I asked, curious.
“Kidnappings and deaths by blood loss, milady,” said the other adventurer, who was visibly younger than the first, but just as well armored.
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“Doesn’t that sound like vampires? Especially considering the location,” I looked at Holiés, “it definitely sounds like vampires, right?” but I was met only with a roll of his eyes.
The two adventurers both started laughing vigorously at my question. After quite a few seconds since they started laughing the older one managed to calm enough, “Lady Fortuna, I doubt we’re dealing with vampires here. It’s probably the fault of some direbats who made their nest in one of the buildings here. Though it could also be some idiot who decided to play with necromancy, but if that’s the case we have rope and shackles ready for them,” he grinned.
“It seems like you have everything under control then.”
“Of course, Lady Fortuna, we are strong enough to deal with something like this, you have no need to worry.”
I [looked] at the older of the two.
Name: Joel
Race: Human [Enthralled]
Lvl: 34
Job: Guardian
HP: 3012
MP: 240
SP: 2140
STR: 268
DEF: 259
AGI: 102
INT: 65
WIS: 68
SKILLS
Sword Mastery lvl 6
Hand to Hand Combat lvl 3
Polearm Mastery lvl 2
Shield Mastery lvl 4
TITLES
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“Well then, we will just take a look at the outside of the castle and resume our travels, it’s a pity we will not able to see how the castle is inside.”
The oldest one bowed forward and said, “Lady Fortuna, I am sorry to ask you this, but… could you please delay your visit to another day? We are still not entirely sure what we are dealing with, and I would feel responsible if something were to happen to you.”
I smiled, “oh, I would never want to trouble people who are working, it will be for another time then.”
“Thank you, Lady Fortuna.”
“I wanted to ask you one last thing before I leave.”
He gave another small bow, “I will be glad to answer.”
I took a deep breath and readied my mana, before showering them with holy light. As soon as the light hit them an ear-piercing scream escaped their mouth and they fell from the horses they were riding.
“What the hell are you doing?” Holiés shouted at me as they kept screaming and convulsing on the ground. I just hushed him with a hand, keeping my attention on the two men. When they finally stopped they both stared at me, their breathing rough and heavy.
I leaned towards the two men on the ground, “there are vampires in that castle, aren’t there?”
They slowly nodded, unable to speak as they caught their breath.
I looked at Holiés and grinned, “I knew it.”
He rolled his eyes, “good, now we can get out of here before I regret following you… again.” A battle cry resounded from the hill as seven more people on horseback came galloping down. “Aaand there goes our chance.Great”
I extended my hands towards the oncoming charge and made the earth rise in a crescent-shaped wall in front of them. As soon as the charge met the wall, unable to steer in time, I closed the wall behind the adventurers and, just like before, used holy magic to heal them from the enthralling.
It took a few minutes for the screams to quiet down inside the earth bowl, when they finally did, I lowered the portion of earth wall right in front of us to reveal a group of panting and not mind-controlled adventurers.
“Ok then, Joel,” I said looking at the adventurer still on the ground as I dismounted, “care to explain what happened?”
He looked at me wide-eyed, “How do you know my na-”
“It doesn’t matter now. Answer.”
He frowned at that but started explaining anyway. Apparently they arrived five days before and set camp outside of the castle at their arrival, deciding to go inside the castle only the day after. At night they woke up already enslaved to a vampire, their two lookouts dead, bringing their number down from eleven to nine. His memories after that moment were hazy but not completely gone, they were ordered by the vampire that had enslaved them to remain there at their camp and keep watch during the day and send away any curious traveler who might pass by, while at night dozens of vampires went in and out of the castle grounds, sometimes bringing still living beasts, or people, with them.
His expression had become more and more bitter as he told me what he remembered. I put a hand on his shoulder and said, “there is nothing you could have done, we can only try to fix all this.”
He laughed. “Fix? Fix?! There are dozens of vampires inside that castle! All probably at levels humans can only hope to reach in their lifetimes… and the bodies… they might have raised the bodies of their victims too. How can you think to even stand a chance?”
I smiled, “I just need a priest and an earth mage.”
Joel fell silent at my request and the younger adventurer next to him said, “our only mage was lost during the first night.”
“Oh fuck.”
“Perfect, we can get the fuck out of here now,” Holiés said from his horse.
I extended my open palm towards him and said, “wait, wait, I got this, give me a second.”
“And what would be the brilliant idea this time around?”
“Joel, do you have entrenching tools with you?” I asked to the adventurer who was looking at us with his mouth agape after our exchange.
“Y-yes, Lady Fortuna.”
“Perfect.” I drew two squares on the ground in front of me, one over the other forming an eight-pointed star, centered on a small dot and with a circle inscribed inside the two squares, “I need you all to start digging this symbol on the ground, it should be large enough to fit all of us and your equipment. You can keep it shallow, I will pass over it with earth magic afterwards. I also need you to rebuild your camp inside said symbol. Everything clear?”
He nodded, “crystal.”
“Perfect.” I looked at the other adventurers still getting up inside the half dome, “ok ladies, you have work to do, Joel here will guide you, if you have any questions I will answer them afterwards. Now I have something urgent to do.”
I tore down the remaining part of the earth wall and walked to Holiés.
“Is it one of your ‘bathroom breaks’?” he asked in a voice low enough to not let the others hear.
“Yes, in the meantime I need you to draw the same symbol over and over again around the hill, I don’t care if it’s on a tree, on the ground, on a rock, if it’s the size of your thumb, or as large as your head, just replicate that symbol as many times as you can all around the hill.”
He sighed. “Fine, but I want an explanation after all of this ends.”
I smiled and mounted back on my horse. “If I feel like it,” I said, before spurring my horse towards the forest as I took a communication crystal from my storage.