Redmane felt the pieces of himself in motion, drawing nearer as fast as their wings would bear them. Two were close already, the others had to fly over from across the river. While he waited for those, he used the two who were close to begin an aerial patrol of this end of the city, switching back and forth between their eyes to take everything in as quickly as possible.

He remembered that she resembled a beastman in her style of dress and generally disheveled appearance. She actually looked a bit more feral than the average beastman in this town, on account of the patchwork of furs and pelts she wore.

But he didn’t see her. Not by herself, not moving amongst a pack of enthralled beastmen, as she was when he’d first seen her. When his four birds were at last together overhead he closed the noose, beginning at the outer edges of the neighborhood and circling inward, checking everywhere, until all four birds circled directly above the plaza.

Finally he opened his eyes, and shook his head.

“Don’t see her anywhere nearby,” he said.

Redmane could see Radovid considering whether or not to ask him how he was searching the town while crouched right in front of them. He could tell by the look on his face. But then he appeared to decide against it, and shook his head.

“She said she wanted to investigate this ‘Cult of Kraal,’’’ said Irina.

Radovid nodded. “She was also clear that she’d be staying in this area to do so.”

“Well. There’s one place left to check,” said Redmane.

He nodded in the direction of the huge church.

They all turned to look at it. As before, its massive double doors were thrown wide open, but they couldn’t see inside from where they stood, in part because of the darkness, in part because of the bad angle.

The church dwarfed all the buildings around it, even the fortified keep on the opposite side of town. It was a strange thing to think, about a building, but it had a commanding presence. Its size felt like a statement. That whoever built this church intended it to dominate.

Redmane had never seen a building quite like it. All through the night he’d been having vague memories of being here in Barograd before, though the place had grown quite a bit. It seemed the last time he’d been here it was a small village on the river.

Whenever that was.

He said, “I’ll see if I can get a look inside,” and then he closed his eyes again and willed his birds into flight.

Since they were already assembled here, he had multiple views into the church within moments.

One alighted upon the bell tower, peered down into the darkness of the torchlit stairwell below it.

Two perched on the sills of high windows, one looking into the church itself, another in front of what appeared to be dormitories for its clergy.

The latter bird, the one looking at the dormitories, peered through the window into a grisly scene. It would have been a common room with a small library in normal times, but the books had been taken off the shelves and burned in the fireplace. And the half eaten bodies of the priests had been dragged into a corner by said fireplace, leaving broad trails of dried blood on the floor.

The bird looking down into the church itself beheld a full house.

Throngs of beastmen, hundreds perhaps, filled up its pews completely. There were more beastmen than seats, and those without one crowded against the walls of the church and its foyer, but none obstructed the central aisle.

At the head of the congregation stood a tall beastman in the red furs of the Cult of Kraal, antlers adorning his hood. Two acolytes, also robed in red, flanked him at either side, and the three of them droned sonorously at their flock, using what Redmane now recognized was the Dirge of the Devourer.

Pietr, High Priest of Kraal

Monster Type: Corrupted

Level 52

He would be formidable.

Worse, he had quite a large number of allies.

Redmane would have to engage him somewhere else, lure him away.

Or…

Something caught the corner of his avian eye, distracting his train of thought. He looked down into the throng of beastmen more carefully, one face at a time. And then he saw Vella.

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She knelt near the front row, shoulder to shoulder with beastmen densely packed around her, the same look of vacant thralldom on her face as all the others. But Redmane saw the wickedly curved, saw-toothed knife she had sheathed at the small of her back. No doubt she planned to get as close as she could before she tried to use it.

Redmane opened his eyes.

“She’s in there,” he said. “She plans to kill the High Priest of Kraal on her own. She’s close to him now.”

Irina scoffed. “Daft bitch.”

Radovid frowned. “What is she thinking?”

“She could take him in a single attack, and then vanish,” said Redmane. “If she were capable of such a feat. I know not.”

“Perhaps? If everything went perfectly? But it’s such a risk,” said Irina.

“How are you doing this?” Radovid finally blurted out.

Redmane looked at him. “I have birds in the air. They were born of my flesh. I can see through their eyes as if they were my own.”

Two sets of eyebrows rose, one belonging to each of the twins.

Irina snapped her fingers. “Could you use one to get a message to her? Tell her we’re close, not to do anything rash?”

Redmane considered the question. “Hm. I cannot speak through it, only see through it.”

“But we could attach a message to its leg, like a carrier pigeon,” said Radovid.

“Aye, that would work. Presuming I can get a bird close to her without it being observed.”

“It’s worth a try,” said Irina. “If we have but a small chance to save that mad wyldling before she goes and gets herself killed, I say we take it.”

Redmane nodded and called the nearest bird to return to him. It fluttered down and perched on his shoulder, and both the twins leaned in to examine it for a moment.

“It looks like you,” said Irina.

“Odd thing to say about a bird, but she speaks truly,” said Radovid. “Its plumage and eyes are the same as yours.”

Redmane’s eyebrow rose as his hair was compared to plumage, but he shrugged it off.

Irina swept back her cloak, revealing a scroll case belted at her hip. She opened it and drew out a pen and a fine page of parchment, carefully tore off a slender rectangle of it and had Radovid turn around so she could use his back as a writing surface.

Vella,

Do not engage Pietr.

We are very close.

And there is another with us, a Hunter with no Coterie. He is most formidable.

Please wait where you are, we will be by your side presently.

~Irina

While she wrote, Redmane pondered the challenge of delivering this note to Vella without being seen.

If he could give the little bird Stalk, it would be a simple task. If not, he didn’t know how he could best so many sets of eyes.

He took a moment to review the description of Spawn to see what he could do.

—

Spawn

Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

Rank 1

Active - Variable Cost

The Monster can Spawn smaller creatures out of its own flesh, which are commonly used as assistants and spies.

Each Spawn begins its existence with however much Corpus and Gnosis its master chooses to bestow upon it. The master must also give the Spawn its modes of perception and movement, and can utilize any traits gained from use of the Carnivorous Metamorph Skill for this purpose.

The Spawn may also be granted any Skill the master knows, at a cost of 50 additional Corpus per Skill.

The Spawn remains under the Monster’s absolute command at all times, and can be re-absorbed into the master’s body, at which time the master will gain whatever Corpus the Spawn possessed at the time.

—

So he could do it. Splendid.

Since the bird was in contact with his body already, he extended his energy into it, through his shoulder and into its body through the feet.

—

Skill Granted: Stalk

Stalk

Common Class Skill

Rank 2 - Evolution Possible

Sustained - 10 Gnosis per 30 seconds

(Rank 1) Increases the effectiveness of the Stealth Proficiency when it is used to follow or close the distance on a creature marked as Prey.

(Rank 2) While using Stalk against a creature marked as Prey, the Imbued’s first attack made from concealment against this creature will deal double damage.

—

He gave the little bird enough Gnosis for three uses, to be safe. One to get in, one to stand and listen for a moment in case Vella wanted to relay a message back, and then one use to get out. So long as he kept beastmen nominated as Prey, it ought to work fine for this purpose.

Gnosis Granted: 30

Gnosis: 170

Corpus: 8359

Irina rolled her note into a tiny scroll, produced a length of fine string from nowhere, and secured it to the little bird’s leg.

“Where’d you get the string?” asked Radovid.

Irina smirked and shrugged. “Magisters have many tricks.”

Redmane closed his eyes and willed his little bird to flight.

He beat his wings against the night air, gaining speed and height, darting across the plaza at a speed he couldn’t hope to match on two legs, not even legs as swift as his own. Within moments he came to perch atop one of the church’s immense doors, and peered inside to ponder the obstacle before him.

Ahead he faced an army of enthralled beastmen, two senior cultists, and the High Priest of Kraal.

Stalk

Gnosis: 20

Even with such a Skill, flying into a mass of hostile creatures this heavy felt a bit intimidating.

But he did it anyway. Best not to sit and think about such things for too long.

If the priests of Kraal noticed him, they made no indication that they had. The trio continued in its droning chant, its notes long and low, reverberating off the walls of the church. Redmane knew not the faith this place had been built by, but the Cult of Kraal had already removed or desecrated most of its icons and placed effigies of their own deity all around the church instead.

He spotted Vella, fluttered down onto her shoulder. The young woman blinked and stared down at the red bird, her eyes widening when she noticed the note tied to its leg.

She looked about as alarmed as she was confused.

But she snatched the tiny message off of his leg, unfurled it and squinted to read it in the bad lighting.

Redmane saw her eyes relax as she read. She began to smile.

And then the chanting stopped.

Pietr, High Priest of Kraal, was looking right at them.

“And lo, the master doth reveal himself to us at long last.”