The following days after meeting with the villagers were a flurry of activity. The ire of the villagers had been stoked by the revelation that their lives were being threatened by the follower of light. In order to appease their anger somewhat, I allowed them to punish the priest who tried to prevent his partner from telling the villagers the truth. He was beaten bloody but left alive. The two of them now sat tied up in a cellar, being watched in shifts by the villagers.
A movement was started to warn and inform all the other surrounding villages. Those who had a connection with those villages, either personal or business wise, would visit them and share the knowledge. It was far more likely that a friendly face would be believed over some stranger.
What struck me harder than most was the accumulation of tools now turned weapons as well as the posting of guards around the perimeter of the village. The undead volunteers offered their aid in this, taking up the majority of the nightshift due to their lack of bodily needs, primarily that of sleep. Everyone was working in preparation for the future.
I wasn’t resting on my laurels either. My time was spent trying to desperately figure out how I was going to proceed from this point forward. I was once again presented with the problem of how to organize people and supplies. There was a distinct difference between seeing to the needs of the undead and the needs of the living whereas the undead could go without food, water, or rest, the living needed all those things and then some in order to operate effectively. The village could account for some of these needs. Having just begun the harvest season, they would have food available for a while, especially since they now did not plan on selling the excess in favor of keeping it ready for any uses in the upcoming campaign.
Still, we were a small force, not possessing anything remotely equivalent to military training or equipment. Some light drills regarding how to effectively use a tool as a weapon could only take you so far. We needed more of... well, everything, but mostly I needed someone who could help me effectively lead these people who might soon come flocking in the hundreds to me. On another related note, there were still some problems with trust between the those who still lived and those who didn’t. No incidents have sprung up yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they happened in the future.
The stress was beginning to wear on me after nearly a week of attempting to find solutions and make plans. The messengers that went out to the other villages should be returning soon, probably in the next day or two. Whether or not they would bring others with them was still unknown, but we were preparing for that eventuality as well.
All of that didn’t even mention the time I had to set aside for teaching some of the villagers who showed interest about our god and the powers that might be conferred to them. Some of them were slow to accept their existence, but others found comfort in knowing that there was someone supporting them in their corner exclusively. At least we had a few more oath takers who accepted the role of priests for the Lord of Twilight. That had been interesting to witness as they all suddenly gained the ability to see the wisps that were in their village.
I sighed a bit before moving away from the table that held all the maps and information about our supplies. They had allowed me to use the alderman’s house for my planning as it had ample space for such things as well as contained the village ledger. I decided to take a short walk, clear my head and stretch my limbs.
Once I stepped outside into the afternoon light, the active sounds of a village in motion hit my ears. People were still trying to make use of everything they had in preparation for war. The blacksmith who normally turned-out nails, horseshoes, and tacks, now was sharpening axes, twisting metal into dangerous edges, and adjusting scythes among other tools so they would be deadlier.
It had been a while since I had been around so many humans. I had missed the feeling of familiarity, or comradery that came with that. There weren’t any cold stares, those looks that I had grown accustomed to, like I was lesser than everyone around me simply because I didn’t live as long. Maybe a few of them knew the truth about humans, about what we were supposed to be, and were looking for any signs that we were becoming that once again so they could put a stop to it. The only thing that I may have regretted about this situation was the circumstances in which I returned to my own people, bringing war and tragedy with me.
Another forlorn sigh escaped me. Things were spiraling beyond anything that I had ever expected. Never even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be in this position, fighting for the fate of humanity. Reality can sometimes be stranger than anything the mind can conjure up.
My internal ruminations were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a handful of wisps in front of my face. I was stupefied for a moment as I was deep in my own thoughts before this, but I snapped out of it and started to pay attention to the newcomers. They seemed rather frantic, darting around energetically.
Reaching out, I felt the emotions of those wisps as they tried to convey their message. A flood of negative feelings went through me. Anger, fear, worry, and spite to name a few. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that these meant that someone who wasn’t supposed to be here was approaching the village, and I could infer from the anger that it was most likely more followers of light.
I cursed at the thought. What could a second wave of the bastards be doing all the way out here? They couldn’t have possibly found out about their failed mission and what we were doing here. Was this pre-planned? Maybe they had been in constant communication with someone else and the lack of a report tipped them off. Just standing there thinking about all the things that could have resulted in this wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I needed to move and meet up with those who were on guard duty right now so we could prepare to face these intruders.
Running through the village, I exited the area and started to make my way down the main road out into the wild. I was a little frantic, not knowing how many we were dealing with or if this was an organized attack. We were not nearly prepared enough to face a well-armed force in any capacity. I had no idea what we would do if that was the case.
I eventually made it to one of the guards who was watching the road from the relative cover of the brush. The man was one of the villagers, still very much alive and now very much concerned about why I was sprinting up to him.
“Sir Samuel, what is the matter?”
I had also acquired the title of ‘sir’ recently, but that was a subject for another time. “I just received a report from the scouting souls that there are people on the way to the village, most likely more followers of light.”
The man went slightly wide-eyed at the news. “What? Are you sure? How many?”
“I’m not sure how many, but I am certain that there are people on the way. We need to be prepared to either face them or if they number too many, run. Get the other guards over here, fast.”
They ran off as fast as they could in search of the other guards. I waited around the road until they returned together as a group. Twenty people in total arrived, three of them undead. Hardly what one might call a fighting force, but I could work with it, perhaps being able to set up an ambush.
Working with the terrain, I had everyone hide in such a way that we would be able to retreat easily if it came to it. It was better to have the option readily available when we didn’t know the kind of opposition we would be facing. I even had Lilith at the ready in case things took a turn. Her speed and natural power of a canine could be extremely useful. Now that everyone was out of sight, we needed only wait for the trespassers to show up.
From what I could decipher from the wisps, they would soon arrive at our location. Everyone was tense, the air felt thick enough to cut with a knife. What we were dealing with would soon come into view. There was no cacophony to accompany them, no sounds of clanging metal or rattling chain. It was a good sign that they weren’t armed for a battle at the very least.
Then we could see them, and I let out a sigh of relief with what I saw. It was the followers of light, but they were just eight regular priests with travel packs and no visible weaponry. It seemed we didn’t have to worry about suddenly being under siege, but the question now became what these people were doing here?
While I thought about any reasons for their appearance, I did a double take while looking through the members of the group approaching us and realized one of them was familiar to me. Long blonde hair, gentle, smooth features, and familiar robes worn almost exactly the same way they had been the last time I saw her. It took a second, but even her name finally came back to me as well. Liliana, the elf woman that I rode to the capital with.
Many different thoughts and emotions swirled around in my head at that moment. I didn’t know which emotion to sort through first. There was obviously anger, then a bit of confusion, and perhaps even just a little feeling of betrayal. She had convinced me that she just might be a decent person, but then here she was, on her way to a village that was marked for exploitation right alongside those who would abuse it. I could feel my face contorting into many unpleasant shapes and visages. The feeling of betrayal hurt the most, probably because it had killed part of me that held out some manner of hope that they weren’t all bastards.
My absent-minded glowering at the approaching priests was cut short when I finally managed to snap myself out of my haze of thought and focus once more on the situation. They were close now, close enough that we might spring our trap on them. I could have decided to simply take them by surprise, jumping out with everyone else, but something in me wanted to face them, or more specifically, her, head on. Maybe I could learn a little more while I was at it.
I got the attention of the other hiding guards and signaled for them to remain hidden. Once it seemed like the orders were understood well enough, I took a breath to steady myself and stepped out of hiding. It took the new arrivals a moment to spy me emerging from the brush, but when they did all of them slowed to a stop and looked at me questioningly.
The one in the front of the group took a step forward to address me in a somewhat hesitant manner. “Uhm, hello sir. Are you a resident of the nearby village?”
“No. Just traveling through the area on business.”
“I... I see. Well, erm.”
Suddenly a familiar voice spoke up. “Sir? Is that you?” Liliana seemed to have recognized me now, and her friendly demeanor that I had first come to know still shined through as she stepped forward. “It is you!” She beamed a smile at me. “What a small world this is to run into you out here.”
She turned to the man that had been speaking to me previously. “It’s okay, he’s an adventurer with the guild, I hired him some weeks past to take me to capital.” Once more her attention turned to me. “What are you doing out here sir? Are you on a job?”
I kept my response as impassive as I could manage. “Could ask you the same thing really. What brings you so far out here?”
She seemed all too eager to answer my question. “Well, we are here because we received word that a village had taken ill recently and needed assistance.”
“Really?” I replied emotionlessly. “No one sick around here as far as I can tell.” Liliana had a very confused look on her face, but I wasn’t paying much attention to her. I was focusing on the reactions of all those behind her. There was one individual in the group who seemed to be avoiding my gaze, eyes darting around as he tried and failed to look inconspicuous. I committed his face to memory before returning my focus to the conversation.
“No one is sick here? Truly?” She looked back at another person in her group. “We’re in the right place, right? We didn’t come to the wrong village, did we?” There were a few shrugs going around the group as they discussed and even pulled out a map.
While they were doing that, I had a moment to think about this situation. Liliana didn’t really seem like she was hiding anything and appeared to be genuinely confused. Does she really not know what she is doing here?
She could just be hiding it well. My pocket god chimed in.
I don’t know, she doesn’t come off like she’s hiding something, unlike a certain individual who has been sweating up a storm. Indeed, the elvish man was not engaging with the others and seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else but here right now. You said it before, humans are perceptive about this sort of thing.
You sure you just don’t want to believe that?
It seemed like they caught my emotions earlier. Believe me, I'm looking for anything that seems deceitful, but my gut is just telling me she’s ignorant.
There was a small sigh that echoed in my head. Very well, so what are you planning to do?
I think we need to have a conversation, but in private. It’s time we wrapped this up.
I let out a sharp whistle that drew everyone’s attention back to me. With only a simple hand gesture, I summoned the hiding villagers who emerged from the brush and quickly surrounded the group. Panic set in amongst the priests who coalesced into a defensive circle formation.
“Sir! What is the meaning of this?” Her voice was filled with alarm at the sudden change in the situation.
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“Cooperate and nobody will be hurt, I can promise you that at the very least.”
“Sir?!” That seemed to be a very unsatisfactory answer for her, but I wasn’t going to elaborate right now.
The villagers pushed in, weapons ready and threatening. “Take their talismans and packs, then get them back to the village.” All the priests were quickly relieved of their belongings and looking very worried. All, that is, but one. Liliana hadn’t stopped staring at me, even as a villager relieved her of her supplies. I found her stare to be the most difficult part of this whole process as it was filled with a feeling of betrayal. Hopefully she would understand once we had a chance to talk.
They were pushed along the road to the village. I stopped one of the guards and gave them a quick order. “Keep an eye on that one over there.” I said while pointing out the suspicious elf. “And bring the lady to the alderman’s house, I want a word with her.”
I received a nod in acknowledgement before we all carried on. The short trip was conducted in near silence by everyone, yet I still couldn’t ignore the feeling of eyes that were still burrowed into the back of my head. It was really starting to wear on me, but I soldiered on until we were in the village once more.
Everyone we passed eyed the priests with various levels of distaste, much to the general confusion of said priests. Most of them were restrained and then placed in the cellar with the other two, but Liliana was redirected towards the alderman house as I asked. I took a moment to prepare myself for what was probably going to be a very awkward conversation before following her.
She was in the house already when I arrived, seated in a chair and waiting with her back turned to the entrance. I walked around to the other side of her and took the empty seat that was positioned there. There was no reaction from her to my presence, she simply stared off into empty space as she seemed to be purposefully ignoring me.
Off to a great start already. I let out a soft sigh before attempting to converse with her again. “I feel that I should start with an apology as to the manner in which we have met one another again.” She didn’t respond to me with anything, not even a glance. “I’m sure you have many questions, and I'd be willing to answer them for you.” Her statuesque form didn’t budge save for a single blink.
Another, longer sigh escaped me. Fine, if she doesn’t want to say anything, then I'll cut right to the chase. “You probably think that you were doing something good here, but you weren’t.” Now she deigned to spare me a half-lidded glance that was at best contemptuous. “You came here expecting to treat a bunch of sick villagers, but they aren’t sick, and that’s because I saved them from becoming so.” Now her brow twitched a little, and I could see that I had her attention.
I continued. “The reason they aren’t sick is because I stopped the priests of your order from infecting them last week.” She scowled, turning her head to look at me head on. “I think that you have been unwittingly made a part of a twisted plan to experiment on humans using diseases and poisons.”
She sat up straight, clearly looking indignant and finally ready to speak her mind. “I expected many things sitting here, but I did not think that such slanderous lies would be told. Your own experiences do not grant you free reign to spread these falsities.”
A small scoff escaped me. “If only I was lying, that would certainly make things much easier. But no, I got a confession from the perpetrator of this crime, and the whole village was witness to it.”
The look on her face said that she didn’t know what to make of that. “I... I don’t believe you.”
“I know, and I didn’t expect you to, at least not at first. The good news is, you don’t have to believe me, you can hear it directly from the priest himself.”
She looked very uncomfortable about that idea, and I half expected her to refuse in an attempt to protect her worldview. However, while she looked like she wanted to say something to refute me, she couldn’t get anything out, so I proceeded apace.
I moved her outside and sat her down next to a window, adjusting the shutters so that she could see inside with minimal chance of being spotted herself. “Just wait here and don’t say anything. You’ll hear for yourself exactly what these people have been doing.” Again, she looked torn by the idea, and I couldn’t really blame her. Probably a good portion of the last century of her life had been devoted to her god, and I was about to shatter that grand image forever. I wasn’t too worried about her running off, it would be difficult for her to escape the village in broad daylight and easy enough to find her with the help of the wisps.
I asked a guard to bring me the talkative priest so he might answer a few more questions. It was only a few minutes before he was before me once again. The priest had his hands tied behind his back, but other than that was free to move and speak. He looked rather nervous being before me again, and I was glad for that as it would continue to make it easy to get what I wanted from him.
Starting the conversation, I let him know why he was here. “You are here right now because I want to know if you remembered anything else.”
He gulped a little. “You said that you wouldn’t do anything to me anymore.”
“And that deal is entirely dependent on your continued cooperation. Now, have you remembered anything else of note?”
“I already told you everything I know.”
“Then tell me again! Perhaps it might jog your memory.”
There was obvious exasperation at the prospect of having his sins laid out again, but he capitulated. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Your little rebellion is doomed anyway.” I didn’t bother justifying his words with a reaction, regardless of how close to the truth it landed. “We received our orders from the bishop, he handed us the poisons and a map, and instructed us to administer them on a specific day. We don’t get told the specifics, and I don’t care to know them.”
“Fine, then do you know who started this horrid experiment? How long has it been going on?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Again, they don’t share that kind of information. All I know is that it’s been going on for as long as I've been a part of the followers.”
“And how long has that been.”
“Two centuries, at least.”
That struck me a bit harder than I expected. “Two centuries...” My voice trailed off a bit as the implication of that became clearer. “How many hundreds of thousands of lives...” I couldn’t even finish the thought.
Rage not my own started to boil up in my head as well. You have my permission to kill him. I will absolve you for breaking your promise.
It’s tempting... It really was. But no, they will be punished, but we won’t stoop to their level.
I glared at the man, causing him to squirm a little. Eventually I relented and called one of the guards outside to take him away. Once they were gone, I too left the building and went around the side to where Liliana was sitting. I found her, still seated by the window, a blank look on her face but eyes filled with a storm of emotions.
Approaching, I leaned against the side of the building next to her. I didn’t bother to say anything just yet, allowing her a little more time to process. When she did eventually speak, the words were quiet, barely above a whisper.
“They... they really were killing people.” It wasn’t so much a question as just a simple statement.
“Yeah, it seems so.”
“And... and I was going to...” Her hand came up to cover her mouth, she looked quite ill.
I stopped her before she delved too far down that particular pit. “Hey, listen, you didn’t do anything wrong. Even if I hadn’t made it here in time, you still would have been trying to save these people. The only thing you’re guilty of is being ignorant of what they were doing behind everyone’s back.”
“But was I willfully ignorant?” Her voice was muffled slightly from behind her hand as her eyes darted around in a display of rapid-fire thought. “Were there signs that I ignored? Did I just not want to see it? Was I dismissing the idea that they weren’t acting with pure intention? Could I have stopped it? What if...”
“Woah, woah, slow down. They’ve been hiding this for centuries. I doubt that they would let someone like you see anything they weren’t supposed to. It took me breaking into the champion’s quarters in the capital to even find out myself.”
“I... I guess you have a point.” She appeared to be calming down a little, then her brow dropped a little. “You broke into the champion’s quarters?”
“Yeah, but that’s a story for another time. Are you feeling alright? I can see that you believe me now at least.”
“I don’t feel alright, and I don’t know if I ever will again, but yes, I believe you.” A deep sigh was pushed out of her. “What do you want from me?”
“Nothing, I just wanted you to understand why I'm doing this, and that it will undoubtedly get worse before it gets better. This is a war, and there will be blood.”
She looked very squeamish about that but nodded her head. “I understand. Is there anything I can do?”
“Not a lot right now. I need to interrogate the rest of your group, and I’m fairly certain that one of them already knows what is going on and is here to ensure the rest of you stay in line.”
“What? Who?”
“Don’t know their name, but I will soon, along with everything else about them. You can help me inform those who are deemed to be ignorant, so they understand the situation.” She nodded in agreement, and I got to work.
I spared her the process of my interrogation techniques as I dragged the suspicious individual to a private meeting in a cellar all his own. There he was introduced to some of my less lively friends after refusing to answer my questions. I’ll give him credit where it was due, he lasted five rounds before he finally broke and told me exactly why he was there. Apparently, they used these manufactured outbreaks to not only test diseases and cures, but to train new recruits while searching for promising members who might be brought into the fold later down the line.
If what he said was true, that means that the other priests were largely innocent in the matter. The knowledge still did not prevent me from doing my due diligence and having a personal conversation with each of them to gauge their culpability in this. I used gentler methods with them for the most part and concluded that they were indeed ignorant. Still, I wasn’t going to trust them blindly, so they could remain under watch in the cellar. The only reason I gave Liliana any amount of free rein was because I knew that she had only been with the followers for about a month at this point. There was no way she would be involved in any of this being such a new and untested member.
This situation wasn’t ideal, and one thing that I knew for certain was that when this group didn’t report back, they would certainly mobilize to find out why. We would have to move out before that happened. Again, this headache inducing scenario of not prepared and not enough time were wearing on me.
I was in desperate need of a windfall. Maybe some of the villages that the others went to recruit from would be able to help me with some of this. There was no doubt that things would get progressively more complicated as we continued to make progress, and I was not looking forward to that in the slightest.
Near the end of the day, as the sky was beginning to turn an orange color, I received a visit from several energetic wisps. They flashed and fluttered all over my line of sight, and it took a moment for me to calm one of them down enough to feel their emotions. There was excitement, joy, happiness and relief. All in all, very positive emotions. While that was good, it didn’t tell me why they were feeling this way.
As I attempted to puzzle out why these wisps were so happy, something else caught my attention. Someone was yelling outside and getting progressively louder the closer they got. “Sir Samuel! Sir Samuel!” The man’s voice sounded frantic and panicked.
“Damnit all, what now?” I grumbled to myself as I hurried outside to meet the man. I soon as I opened the door, I saw the person who was yelling for me charging towards me before coming to a skidding stop. He panted for a second to catch his breath before launching into his message.
“Sir Samuel, there’s an army approaching the village!”
My eyes went wide. “An army?! Whose army? Were they flying a banner?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t see any banner sir; all I saw was a mass of bodies making their way towards us. I couldn’t even count how many there were before I ran to bring you this news.”
Shit! What are we supposed to do now? We're caught completely flatfooted. My mind raced for any semblance of an answer, but the only thing that came to me was that we needed to run.
“Alright, start packing up supplies and weapons. We can’t possibly face them head on so we must...” I was interrupted when some wisps flew directly into my face again, almost blocking out my view with their bright forms. Slightly annoyed, I reach out to feel them, and only got more positive emotions. They apparently knew something that I didn’t.
Do you have any idea what they are trying to tell me? I asked my pocket god. Soon after I felt... amusement? What? What’s funny?
I shouldn’t say anything.
Oh no, you don’t get to be enigmatic right now! Tell me!
A sigh was heard, but there was still that feeling of amusement. It’s nothing dangerous, at least not to us, that’s all I will say.
Exasperated, my shoulders slumped, and I let out a groan. This made the messenger that I had been talking to look at me with a bit of worry. “Sir, what’s wrong?”
Right, he wasn’t privy to any of that. I could only imagine how that would look from an outside view. “I’m receiving word that this army isn’t dangerous to us, supposedly. Still, have everyone get a pack ready, just in case.” He nodded and went off to tell everyone.
The only thing I could do was sigh before moving to meet this approaching force. There was no reason for them to lie to me about this, but it was still nerve-racking to face what was reported to be a large force under an unknown leadership. I wasn’t completely alone in this though as a few of the volunteer undead that were present decided they would accompany me. It was a little reassuring, but ultimately useless in the grand scheme of things.
We didn’t have to travel all that far before we encountered the first signs of this army, that being the sheer noise that so many people tend to create while marching. A few minutes later, I could see the forms of people moving down the main road in a column formation five wide and long enough that I couldn’t see the end.
As they got closer, my jaw slowly began to drop open as I was able to pick out the details of this force, and only one thing about them mattered above all else. They were all undead, or at least as far as I could see. Many of the walking corpses were wearing old, if not ancient armor and weapons. Some of the equipment was almost entirely rust at this point, but a few others were more preserved. The condition of the bodies that were marching my way was that of advanced decay, as in skeletal levels of decay. Probably the only reason they were able to even move was due to the reinforcement spell that I had used on the volunteers being applied to them as well, which resulted in a ghostly body containing the bones of their former owner. I believe the book called such an undead a wight.
At the front of this army was also the person responsible for its creation. Riding atop a horse, with a very self-satisfied grin on her face, was Malery. She was wearing much more sensible traveling clothes than the bright dress that I had first seen her in. As she got within speaking distance, she lifted a hand and called out to me from afar.
“Hail Samuel, oh great champion.” She was hamming it up quite a bit, making the incredulous look on my face even more prominent. Her horse stopped before me, and the army behind her followed suit with a unified stomp to punctuate the moment.
If the grin on Malery’s face was any bigger, it would have broken the bounds of her features. “So, I hear you’re starting a war? Well, I have come with a humble contribution to the effort.”
My mind was still trying to catch up, but I could manage at least a few words. “How did you manage this?”
“Benefits of having a well-traveled family that documents everything is that you tend to know a lot about history, including ancient battlefields. Combine that with stopping to visit some military graveyards and you end up with quite the selection of soldiers.”
That was both genius and mad at the same time. Raising corpses from a place as public as a city graveyard was not an easy thing to do. Chuckling echoed in my head for a moment, bringing my attention to the apparent mirth of my pocket god regarding this whole situation.
How long have you known?
They stopped laughing long enough to answer me. A few weeks now. She asked that I keep it a secret so she could surprise you, and I must agree, it is quite amusing to see your reaction.
I will find a way to get you back for this. I warned them. I’ve been stressing over our situation for days now.
I look forward to seeing how you plan to do that.
Looking up at the woman, who I thought was more beautiful than anything at this moment, I shot her a large grin. “Malery, you’re amazing.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
I rolled my eyes. “And oh, so humble as well.”
“Try again, I know that one too.”
Now I laughed a very relieved laugh before composing myself once more. “They all volunteered for this right?”
She grew a playful grin before turning to the army behind her. “Our champion wants to know if you all volunteered!” A collective cacophony of fists striking metal chest plates rang out as every soldier saluted with their fists over what would have been their hearts in response. “That enough of an answer for you?” She said while turning back.
I couldn’t help the smile that seemed like it might become a permanent fixture. “It sure is.” This was a game changer, and with their help, we had a real chance of pulling this whole thing off. There was hope.