Inside lay four perfectly round, red pills. Almost like candy, they had a subtle smell, pleasant smell and a mere whiff of the box sped up the blood energy in his body. Looking at the number of boxes and considering the time spent..
‘Can you open them on the way?’ Silas’s hand twitched as he tossed the other boxes into his rucksack. Lilith stared at the wall for a moment before nodding, grabbing another box and already getting to work on it as she walked out.
She had opened up four more boxes along the way, each revealing anywhere from four to six pills for a total of 23. Lilith insisted on only taking one per box, but Silas managed to talk her up to taking two from boxes that had six.
The street around the second Apothecary still remained in ruins, splatters of black blood and small chunks of flesh rotting away in between the cobblestones. Any bodies themselves had disappeared, probably taken like all the others.
No pills remained here, Silas was sure of that. The Wolfdog Aberrant had consumed everything of value, leaving only some lesser medicines and herbs. The group took what they could get and continued on, albeit Valmor looked at the Nightweaver strangely at seeing the wreckage.
In a similar state to the First Apothecary, the Third still had plenty of medicine and Blood Cleansing Pills to spare, a grand total of five more lockboxes. Once they finished up there, they headed straight for Blackwall.
This time, Silas smelled the Crime District before he saw it. The bodies had continued to rot out in the sun and even more seemed to lay there, both human and mutant alike. Whatever had hearts had them ripped out and whatever had bloodstones had them cut out. Some of the bodies still looked fresh, barely a day or two since they died.
Many wore similar attire to the Blackwalls and the Rooks. Scouting groups. Probably the patrol. Silas turned to check on Lilith, seeing her as stoic as usual, and then continued to lead them towards the Blackwall hideout.
Somewhere along the way, the stench of decay only got worse and worse. When they reached an intersection between the Blackwalls and the Ariadne, he noticed the stench got worse in the direction of the Hospital. When they moved away, the air got noticeably cleaner. Whatever happened didn’t happen to Lilith’s family, apparently.
‘Check it out?” Without turning, Silas activated the mindlink and questioned the party, his tone stiff as a board. This felt weird.
“Is it along the way?” Valmor questioned.
“Even if it’s not, I’d rather know if there’s a boogeyman over there or if it’s just a fresh graveyard.” Hector spoke in a lighthearted tone, even sending a shiver through his voice as if scared.
“That’s a good point, bell guy. Checking it out.”
The Solari didn’t think a single word, just following along as Silas led them along the way. All four of them covered their faces in a thick cloth, the smell of death especially prominent in their enhanced senses.
It eventually led them to the standalone house just next to the Ariadne, specifically to the open cellar door in the alley next to it. A house like this in this area was strange enough, let alone the cellar that definitely was not open prior.
Being in the air here felt.. Disgusting. As if it had been polluted with everything life wasn’t and it was trying to burrow its way into your flesh and bone. The cloth hardly helped avoid the taste and smell in your nose as you breathed, yet they kept doing it anyway. It would only get worse inside.
Descending through the cellar doors, it opened up into a hallway not too unlike that of the Blackwall hideout. A few corpses lay at the foot of the stairs, two of which showed signs of failed mutation and the other perfectly human. Both were ripped to shreds, deep bite marks in the bone. Human bite marks.
Streaks of blood ran along the walls, ending in a stark red handprint that ended at the floor next to another corpse, one that seemed to have been ripped in half from behind as it ran down the hall towards the exit. Hector closed the cellar door and had his family remain in the hall. Quiet.
The four approached the end of the hall, a pair of iron double doors left slightly ajar, another body preventing it from closing. Stepping over it and through the doors, they were greeted by a large hall on the other side.
Lights flickered up above, filling the room with a soft orange glow. The walls were a muted golden colour, making the hall seem like the epitome of warmth and comfort. A huge boxing ring sat in the middle of the hall, what looked like a small throne on the far end and plenty of rafters on each side. Corpses sat in both the former and latter, as if they still watched the show even in death. If it wasn’t for the rot and the deathly stillness, he wouldn’t know they were dead.
Pieces of a Boxer were strewn about in the ring. Looking up at the ceiling amidst all the lights, obscured in a thin layer of fog and drawn in thick blood were the words “Vyr died here. Vyr was born here.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Some of the corpses exhibited similar symptoms to the ones at the cellar door, grey skin and failed mutations. Most of them seemed to be in relatively good condition even now, as if they resisted the consumption of time. Empyrean corpses. Chunks of flesh all missing. Hearts always gone.
Massive silver flies and similarly coloured critters had burrowed into the bodies that had enough flesh left to do so. Hector summoned a bronze green bell in the middle of the room, easily ten feet tall, and made it ring.
A soft chime echoed throughout the hall and nearly a hundred tiny lives were extinguished, their eardrums rupturing and their hearts exploding. The flies turned into mist directly. There must have been a hundred people in this room, maybe more in the side halls.
“Maybe not fresh, but it is a graveyard.” Hector thought, earning disapproving looks from the rest of the crew. Silas peered over to the throne where the corpse in the best condition lay. The flesh on its head was entirely eaten away, it’s heart dug out with precision, but overall remained untouched otherwise.
Exploring the side halls led to only more bodies and empty rooms. They did find a small storehouse with medicine, bullets and food, but only a fraction of the bullets were the right calibre and they couldn’t carry too much on them.
He hated to admit Hector was right, but this place seemed eerily like a tomb to Silas. Judging by the condition of the mortal bodies, it’s probably been closed since the Darktide. Whoever did this left and shut the door behind them. Why?
Who the fuck was Vyr?
“This is the Cragsmen hideout. No wonder.” Lilith said across the mind link, staring at the corpse on the throne. “That’s Jasper Strudwick. Their head.”
“There’s no way such a figure died right at the start, sitting down, let alone everyone else.” Silas hesitated, taking another look around. Every position these people sat in seemed rigid. Like someone put them there after their muscles went stiff.
“You think someone moved them?” Valmor said with a strange look on his face. “That’s.. Really fucked up.”
Silas still felt really strange hearing these people talk without seeing their lips move, suppressing the shiver down his spine. ‘What killed them?
Valmor’s orange eyes lit up, casually strolling around the hall and examining each body. It was difficult considering how much of them had been eaten, but after a few minutes he came back to the party with a rather strange look. “A few died to different things, but most died to the same pair of claws and same set of teeth.”
“One thing killed most of these people?”
“So it would seem.”
“Vyr?” Silas looked up at the blood writing with a pensive look. Then he turned to the others, fully ready to leave this fucked up burial ground. “Anything of actual note, here? I don’t sense anything alive here, especially after the Bell.”
Lilith responded with just a grunt while no one else offered anything of actual substance, leaving Silas with the choice to just leave. He found a few materials for runes in the storehouse, so he didn’t mind the trip. The whole place still unsettled him.
Silas stepped first back onto the street, helping everyone out before slamming the cellar doors shut. With a deep breath, covered by cloth, he did his best to calm his nerves before turning to look back down the street.
He did a double take as a figure suddenly disappeared from the road, barely having seen it for a second. Silas’ brow furrowed, his hand twitching as he looked at the Lotus Tattoo. ‘Lotus, did I see something just now?’
[You did]
“What?”
[I don’t know]
‘You don’t?’
[I perceive only what you perceive, if not a little more]
‘Good to know’ Silas frowned, not hearing or sensing anything in the surroundings. If it was a tail, he couldn’t tell where they were or when they left. If that’s the case, he should just get somewhere relatively safe. Looking over at Lilith, the Solari nodded and then took the lead towards the Blackwall hideout.
He didn’t see the figure again once, even as they stepped into the Blackwall hideout and into its grand hall. Having something to compare it to now, the Blackwalls truly did seem luxurious, if not plainly arrogant.
The familiar middle aged man sat at the same table in the middle of the hall, a different three piece suit on this time, even holding a different cane. This time he played his game against Sasha, It was much nicer seeing him now as a guest rather than an intruder. He wondered if he had a specific brand of suit he liked.
Silas wouldn’t mind a new suit for when he met Sebastian again.
Richard grinned upon seeing his daughter, exaggerating his crow’s feet as his blue eyes practically shined. Even more so when he saw Silas behind her and froze for a moment. “You feel.. much more dangerous now, Wayfinder Silvanus.”
“Silas is fine, please.” Silas returned the smile with a small playful bow, earning an odd look from Lilith and a chuckle from Hector. “The circumstances forced me to advance.”
“I see.. Well, what returns my daughter home, then?” Richard clapped, a few of his men coming forward, dragging Sasha away with a dazed look on her face before Lilith took her seat and resumed the game in her stead.
‘Have you got this handled?’ Silas looked at Lilith, who turned her head enough to see Silas from the corner of her eye.
‘My father always does what I want.’
… Right. Silas looked at Richard, doing his best not to laugh. This gentleman of a gang leader spoiled his daughter rotten, it seems. As if confusing what the look meant, Richard waved a hand and a middle aged man dressed as a butler walked over with a platter in hand.
“Would today’s guests like anything?”
“You wouldn’t happen to have somewhere we could rest, would you?”