While I kept tabs on Lukas and Elye from the sky with Karasumany, the four of us walked down the street that ran by the large mansions, in front of which stood sleepy guardsmen. From the look of their equipment, most were tied specifically to the family who owned the building they were guarding, which I figured would make them more alert than normal guards.
“They won’t object to us just passing by,” Renji had said, and though he was right, it was still hard not to feel on edge as their scrutinising glares followed us.
When we passed by the gate to the second manor, one of the guards stopped us and asked, “What business do you have in this part of Helmstatter?”
Meanwhile, the Rogue and Elfin were sneaking around within the walled-off area surrounding the first building, sniffing for clues or a trail.
“We’re just going on a stroll,” Renji replied cheerfully.
“I’d suggest you take your stroll elsewhere. Your kind is not welcome in these parts.”
Renji just nodded. I found it weird that he was being treated like the rest of us despite looking like a Native to Arley, but maybe it was because of his equipment and company.
“We were sent here by orders of the Prince,” I told the man. His comrade remained by the gate to the manor, which looked to be vacant at the moment, but both of their auras visibly reacted to my declaration.
“Another one?” the guard questioned. “What is the Prince up to these days, hiring Otherworlders like this…?”
“What do you mean another one?” Renji asked.
“There was a fella with a strange hound a couple days back,” the guard by the gate answered. The one in front of us immediately turned to glare at him, to which the man just shrugged.
“Did you see where he went?” I asked, my heartrate rising.
“I think he ended up down by the abandoned estate,” answered the man again, to which the first guard told him to “Shut it”.
Karasumany, send one of your clones over to the Elfin and Rogue.
From above, the circling flock of crows sent one of their number off towards the first estate. I was hoping Elye or Lukas would notice the bird and return to us.
“Could you point to where that estate lies? Then we’ll be out of your hair,” Rana said.
“It’s just down by the end of the row,” answered the first guard begrudgingly.
“Place has been without owner for a while, since the last one died.”
“When was that?” I asked.
“Still with the questions!?” the first man complained. “It was twenty years ago, okay? Now get lost!”
Renji nodded his thanks, and then off we went down the row of mansions. Rana was looking back over her shoulders at the guards, as they disappeared around the bend in the cobblestone road that curved around in front of the estates.
“They seemed on edge,” she commented.
“There was no fear in their auras,” I replied, “but yes, I agree.”
“Perhaps they were scolded for speaking with the Tracker already and thus being seen speaking with us would lead to some sort of punishment.”
I paused and thought about that for a moment. “That actually makes a lot of sense,” I replied.
“Guard job security is bad for those serving Aristocrats directly,” Renji added. “Their pay is better, naturally, but they always end up rude and terse as a result of the strict rules they must follow.”
“I hope that’s all it was,” Rana said.
Sera, I’ve been wondering about something, I started, the utterance of the Ifrit’s name making her appear in the air next to me, after she’d been gone for a while. What exactly does the Mark of the Flayed Lord do?
Fire blossomed all over her charred body where she hovered, before she answered with something approaching a wailing screech: “The Flayed Lord marks those it may wish to transform! They become changed and vile! It is a curse I often encountered, as the Elfin are targeted by the Flayed Lord’s machinations thanks to some millennia-old dispute.”
Suddenly Armen’s voice joined in, audible only to mine and Sera’s ears, “Now I remember where I have seen such eyes before. I once aided in cleansing a town held in the grips of an infection of the blood. Crusaders and our purifying powers were the best-suited for cleansing this infection. It turned the people mad and monstrous.”
An image from the Encyclopaedia immediately entered my mind’s eye. It was an image I had never been able to quite shake after first seeing it. You mean to tell me that they might become Flayed Ones!?
“We must burn their blood!”
“In my time they were referred to by the name Flaykin. They are a weak subtype of Jealous Demons.”
I hope that we’re not dealing with something like that here. But how can we prevent them from turning into that? They’re not evil guys… at least I don’t think… just misguided by bad experiences in their pasts. I think we should help them.
“Burn their blood!”
Can’t you break the curse? I asked the Ifrit. After all, she had the Cursebreaker ability.
“You cannot. It is irreversible,” Armen answered for her.
After maybe ten minutes of walking and trying to avoid the judging glares of the guards by the mansions we passed, I realised that I’d lost sight of Elye and Lukas, despite the fact that I’d kept my crow familiars looking over them the entire time. They had simply hopped over a wall to another mansion and then vanished. Worse still, when I dove the clone of my familiar down into the area surrounding the estate, I lost all connection to it.
“Guys, I can’t see them anymore,” I said, an ominous feeling descending upon me.
“Where is all this fog coming from?” Rana wondered out loud.
I looked around and realised that it was blanketing the area, as though having boiled up from the stones underfoot so slowly that it was impossible to notice, until suddenly we could see no further than ten metres ahead.
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“Someone is casting a spell on us,” Armen warned.
I didn’t need to be told the cause as I instinctively dug my hand down into my belt bag and scooped up a bit of Sinner’s Ash, tossing it around us. Immediately it cleared away, as though the ash was burning the fog around us.
Sera, can you see if you can locate Elye and Lukas?
“I will protect the Elfin child!” she screamed and then shot off into the foggy air and vanished moments later. I wasn’t worried that I’d lose her, but I did have a sinking feeling that there was something in the fog obfuscating the communication with my familiars.
Karasumany, go as high into the air as possible!
CAW! answered the flock of crows and I severed my connection to them. My energy was better saved for dealing with whatever was happening around us. The time for prudence had come and gone, because we were in it now.
“The Brawler has disappeared as well,” Armen remarked. Both Rana and I whirled around, sharing a look that said “But he was just here!”
“We should go back to the Guild and get help,” Rana advised.
“I’m not leaving my friends!”
“Don’t be an idiot, Ryūta! We have to be smart about this. We might be way out of our depths here.”
“If we escape and they get hurt as a result, I would never be able to forgive myself,” I told her.
“Then what do we do? I’ve never dealt with something like this before.”
I handed her a handful of Sinner’s Ash. “Keep spreading that around as we walk. We should try and find the source I think. Fumbling around blindly in this fog is not likely to do us much good.”
“If the illusion carries the taint of evil, you may be able to dispel it with your Bell.”
I nodded. It was worth a try, although if an Otherworlder Illusionist was behind the spell, I doubted it would be that simple.
After withdrawing the Blessed Golden Bell from my bag, I gave it a simple shake, producing an echoing ding that spread outwards, sounding quite peculiar as its echoes returned to us one-after-another until dissipating entirely. Unfortunately, it had no effect on the veil of obscuring fog.
“I think we should be near one of the mansion walls,” Rana said and tossed out a bit of the ash in her hands, leading the way. Despite the fact that the fog retreated from the Sinner’s Ash, it seemed to grow denser around us.
I stuffed the Bell back into my bag, then pulled out something I hadn’t really used before: the Box of Gravebloom Incense that Owl had given me. After pulling out a stick and returning the box to my bag, I forced a bit of my essence into my right hand where I normally prevented it from reaching. The moment my energy flowed into the Ifrit Claw, a flame sparked to life in the palm and I used this to light the incense stick.
Rana sniffed the air. “What is that? Vanilla?”
“It’s the same kind of incense that Owl used on the Skinstealer,” I told her.
“Does it repel the fog?” she asked, looking around.
“Perhaps, but it also has a different use.”
As though to underline the use I was referring to, a guttural and wet growl rent the silent foggy air. A second growl answered it. Then a third. Then three more.
“What did you just do!?”
“I just had a hunch,” I told her, then handed the incense stick to Armen. “Toss that as far back the way we came as you can.”
Without questioning, he took the stick and flung it off into the mist with far more strength than I could’ve mustered.
“You’ll need to explain that to me,” she said.
“Before that, let’s go in the direction those growls came from. Quickly now. The creatures should seek out the incense and leave whatever they were guarding. And Armen, stay on guard. Be ready with Repulse or any other type of anti-revenant abilities you have.”
“Understood.” He pulled the dented shield from his back and the mace from his sturdy leather belt. These were the same weapons he had used in the match against Renji, and which had been borrowed from the Guild’s For-Rent Armoury.
Rana picked up speed, continuing to toss out a bit of ash every few steps. “Explain what’s happening!”
“When I first arrived in Helmstatter, Harleigh’s friends didn’t have the curse, right?” I started, trying to describe the image that had formed in my head.
“Correct, I would have noticed.”
“Meanwhile, Charles had been chasing after Myrabelle, whose scent apparently lingered in Noble Quarter for months, even though she wasn’t there. You said she was eaten by wolves when you neared the city, but I think that it must’ve been some kind of illusion or maybe some kind of magic trick. But anyway, as soon as we arrived to the city, he dropped me off with you, Lukas, and Renji, then probably continued with tracking Myrabelle, since we had talked about her when I first met him.
“Charles must then have found some kind of clue or trail, which led to him coming face-to-face with Myrabelle or whoever she’s in league with.”
“Wait a minute, you think she is behind this?” Rana replied sceptically.
“Rana… think about it. There are too many coincidences for her arrival in Helmstatter to be unrelated with Charles going missing, especially since he was on her trail.”
“Okay… I get what you mean. Go on.”
Suddenly a wall emerged in front of us before I could continue, and we stopped for a moment, getting our bearings.
“I think the sound came from the right,” I told her and we began slowly following the wall that way, while she continued to sprinkle Sinner’s Ash around us. As I looked back, I saw that the special ash lingered on the ground and kept the fog at bay, creating a tunnel through the obscuring spell that anyone could follow. Hopefully Lukas, Elye, and Renji would come across it and link back up with us.
In the distance, no doubt where Armen had tossed the incense stick, wet slobbering growls came intermittently, sounding as though several beasts were fighting each other, perhaps wanting to claim the incense for themselves.
I swallowed, then continued my explanation. “After Charles realised he was in over his head, he sent his fox off to warn the Guild. Something hunted it down and killed it, but for some reason left the body behind after draining it of blood.
“Perhaps because of a fear that she had been found out, Myrabelle and her cronies, amongst which seems to be an Illusionist, began whatever scheme they had been working towards to undermine the Royal Family.”
“That’s quite a stretch,” Rana replied.
“Is it really? Why else would someone hunted by the Royal Family go to their literal headquarters instead of leaving the country?”
Rana didn’t reply, which I took as her conceding the point.
“Anyway, whatever plans they have seem to involve turning people into Flayed Ones through some kind of curse. My Encyclopaedia claims that Flayed Ones are a manifested vengeance of someone who was tortured, but both Armen and my Ifrit say that they can be created by the very same curse they saw in the eyes of Gilliam and his Elementalist friend.”
“Do you think Harleigh is cursed as well?” she asked, something like dread in her voice.
“I hope not.”
“All these speculations are good and all, but you still haven’t explained why you lit that incense and threw it?”
“Revenants, which includes Flayed Ones, are attracted to the smell of Gravebloom Incense and I had the uncanny feeling that the fog was a way to not only separate us from each other, but also the staging grounds for setting up an ambush.”
“A spell of this magnitude would cover most of the city if the caster is powerful enough,” Armen remarked.
“You mean that whatever is happening here might be happening all over Helmstatter?”
“Flaykin are ferocious and dangerous, but succumb before an organised attack. If they have spread the curse to create these monstrosities across the populace of the city, they will wish to assault the Guild Quarter first, but it is well-defended and thus such a tactic as this would be necessary.”
“As well as planting ‘sleeper agents’ within the Guilds!” I realised.
Suddenly Seramosa appeared next to me in a flash of fire, startling me. She was still incorporeal, which was good, since I knew that I did not have a lot of spare energy for her to manifest on a whim.
“There are vile creatures in the fog! I could not find the Elfin child!” she exclaimed.
“Ryūta, what’s happening? You suddenly got really warm.”
“My Ifrit just returned from scouting and is saying that there are indeed monsters out there and that she couldn’t find Elye or Lukas.”
I need to know how this curse is happening, I told Sera. You said it had to do with blood, right?
“A Flayed Noble takes its blood and feeds it to the people. It takes its blood and dips it in the wells. It hunts down the people in the dark and force it down their mouths.”
“What the hell is a ‘Flayed Noble’?” I asked out loud. There was no mention of such a thing in my Encyclopaedia. It seemed that whoever had written the entry had been sorely lacking in knowledge of the Flayed Ones, unless it was kept in one of the tomes that Owl was sure to possess.
“In my time we called them Squire-Lords of Betrayal. Their very auras have a way of subverting the human mind.”
“So they’re like Demons?”
“They are Demons, yes.”
“Would we be able to take one down?”
“We would need more fighters.”
A guttural growl came from nearby, much closer than before.
“We’ve gotta go,” Rana said and pulled me by the wrist, while we ran along the length of the wall of some mansion.
Wet footsteps seemed to follow behind us and the sound reverberated through the air, making the hairs stand on the back of my neck.
“Do not fear. I will keep you safe.”
Thanks Armen.