The cart that I had hired to take me as close to the village as they could was kind enough to take me further down the crossroad path than I had originally planned for. It had taken nearly the whole day to reach this point, but it would have been longer without their help. I thanked the driver for his generosity as I disembarked, and he wished me luck on my travels before turning the cart around and going back down the worn road we had come from. Alone once again, I looked down the path ahead of me and took a quick and deep breath to steady myself before pushing onward.

This road was apparently the main one for travel to and from the village. There were many grooves in the ground from carts and the dirt was well trampled by both footsteps and hoof prints. The trees along the road provided plentiful shade, keeping the temperature at an even balance that would have been perfect for an afternoon nap. It was regrettable then that I would be unable to indulge in such a thing, probably for a long while yet to come.

It was hard to imagine that anything bad could happen out here. Of course, I once thought the same thing about my own home, back when the only worries we had were the occasional monster that wandered too close to town. Of course, the men would all band together and hunt it down, or chase it off when that happened, so it was hardly even a concern. Now, though, I realize just how vulnerable we truly were, under the assumption that we were at peace with the rest of the world.

I knew better now, and I would use that knowledge to protect all the other people who didn’t yet realize it. Even if we could only convince half of the people that they were under attack, I would consider that a win.

It wasn’t until the sun touched upon the horizon that I stopped to set up camp for the night. I dug a fire pit, set out my bedroll, and got comfortable for the night. Normally I would take some measure to improve my defense in this situation, but with the sheer number of wisps that surrounded me, I doubt that anything would be able to sneak up on me without at least one of them seeing it. With my security not being a concern, I watched the fire as I slowly fell asleep before finally losing myself to the relaxing sensation of oblivion.

The next day, I awoke to the crisp morning air kissing my face with a frigid breeze. A shiver ran through me as an updraft hit me like a splash of cold water to the face. I packed up the camp, buried the fire, and kept going, hoping to reach the village before sundown today.

Even though I was going to be stopping the murder of an entire village of people, the world continued to operate just the same as it always had. I don’t know why I expected anything different. I suppose I just thought that there should be some sign of danger, some omen of foreboding to accompany this dark plan that was put into place, but there wasn’t. Birds continued to sing in the early morning, the sun shined through the leaves of the trees, and small critters scattered into the undergrowth whenever I got too close for comfort. A perfectly normal day concealing murderous and exploitative intent.

I walked for a few hours, stopping every now and then to rest and care for my body's needs. The first signs of any kind of civilization out here came in the form of old fences along the road. Soon after that, the trees thinned out and gave way to fields of wheat, all carefully surrounded by newer and much more sturdy looking fences. No farmers were present, and if it wasn’t for the knowledge that I had placed over a dozen sets of eyes in the area, I would have assumed something had happened.

There was a slight hill ahead of me on the path, and once I crested its summit, I was able to see the village down below. The houses numbered about two dozen, small, simple construction, yet sturdy enough to resist the effects of the weather. Worn paths snaked their way between all of them, coalescing into an area of dirt trodden path near the center of them all. From my position I could see some of the residents wandering about their home, talking with each other and doing menial chores while children ran about. It looked peaceful, disconnected, and exactly the type of place that would be targeted by the bastards who were still probably lurking nearby.

I decided against going down there. It would be best to remain out of sight of everyone until the time was right. Also, I didn’t know how well this village was being monitored, so if I intended to sneak up on them, I should make myself scarce. Retreating back down the hill, I moved off the path and into the cover of the wild around the area. The land here wasn’t thick with trees, but there was enough that hiding amongst them would be easy.

Stopping in a very concealed area, I turned to the wisps that were following me with a simple set of orders. “Find our people, and the bastards who are lurking around here.”

That was all that needed to be said as the cloud dispersed in every direction to fulfill the order. I waited, leaning against a tree for the first wisp to return with news. About ten minutes later, several of the little glowing lights came flying back into view. Reaching out, I felt at its surface emotions to find out which group they had encountered. General positive emotions radiated from them, so it must be the friendly group that they found.

Good, need to meet up with them first anyway. I had the wisp lead me back to where the other volunteers were keeping an eye out. It didn’t take long. We simply walked around the edge of the village boundaries for a few minutes before I caught sight of some movement in the bushes. A man whose body was almost half spectral stepped out. We greeted each other with a simple head nod before moving on to the important matter of why I was here.

“So, where are they now?” The man turned and gestured for me to follow, and I obliged. We moved to the edge of the wooded area where we could see a break in the tree line. A few more volunteers were crouched down around here, keeping an eye on things. Everyone was looking out over a bit of unused field that touched upon the outer edge of the village. It looked like the villagers might have recently cut down trees in the area.

My guide lifted a hand and pointed out across to the opposite side of the woods. I couldn’t see anything of the followers of light right now, but my gaze was pulled upwards by motion in the air. It seemed the wisps I had sent out earlier had located the priests, circling in the sky like birds of prey over the general area that was pointed out to me. At least it will be easy to keep track of them.

I turned back to the man. “They haven’t done anything yet, have they?” He shook his head no. “Good, then they must still be scouting out the area, planning their next move. Let’s make our own move against them tonight. How many are we dealing with right now?” I got two fingers held up to me in response. “Alright, as long as they remain where they are, then it should be easy enough to get the drop on them without incident. Keep up your vigilance though. If they try to move before us, we must intercept them before they can do anything to poison the village.”

They moved appropriately to fulfill that order, getting back into position to keep their eyes out for the enemy. I assumed that there were others positioned around the village as there were only a handful in this area that I had seen. I wasn't too concerned about missing them considering the beacon that was the souls I had sent out above them.

Picking a comfortable spot to watch from, I sat down and prepared to wait out the remaining hours of the day. I had reached the village a little over halfway through the day, so there was still some time before nightfall. Sitting still for that long was difficult, so I instead decided to check on each of the observation groups to make sure everything was still going alright and to kill some time.

I could see that their bodies were holding up thanks to my magic, and there was no sign of movement from the priests lurking in the woods. However, that changed once the sun had almost completely disappeared below the horizon. I noticed that the wisps that were keeping an eye on the priests had started to shift. They were on the move, whether it was to continue scouting or something more insidious I didn’t know and resolved myself to never find out.

Everyone gathered at my location before we made our way towards the general area that the wisps were circling. One thing that the undead were most certainly not was stealthy. Even with their bodies being reinforced with magic, they still shambled about more often than I would care for. I was forced to stop everyone once we got close enough that I thought the noise, or smell, might alert them.

Speaking in a low voice, I gave some orders to the volunteers. “You all wait here. I’ll whistle when I have them at sword point and are sure they won’t run.” A series of nods went around to show understanding. My sword slid out of its sheath with only the slightest sound of metal on the leather. With my weapon ready, I slowly crept up on the pair.

Stalking through the brush, I eventually saw two forms on the edge of the forest, staring out over the village while making hushed conversation, probably planning how they would go about administering the poisons they undoubtedly had. I approached from behind, sticking to the softer areas of the earth to muffle my steps.

As I got closer, I was able to pick out more details in the shadowed figures. The two of them were wearing dark brown cloaks over their normally bright robes. Each of them had a pack slung around their shoulders that slightly clinked when they moved, betraying the presence of something glass or metallic inside. They seemed quite preoccupied with their planning, so I was able to get right behind them before making myself known.

I pressed the tip of my blade into the back of one of the priests, causing his spine to shoot straight. Immediately after that, I spoke in a growling kind of voice to better lend to the intimidation factor. “If either of you move, I'll skewer you where you stand.”

His buddy’s head whipped around at the sound of my voice, but I allowed that much movement based on it being a reaction and not an intentional defiance of my orders. Both were obviously elves, ears and fair features being a major hint to that fact. The man who I had at sword point slowly lifted his hands out to the side in a placating gesture. He attempted to worm his way out of the situation with a few words.

“Sir, I assure you this must be some misunderstanding. We are...”

“Shut up.” I interrupted sternly. “I know exactly who you are and what you are doing here.” With that, I gave a short whistle to signal the others to move in. “Me and my friends are going to ask you a few questions. It would be in your best interest to answer them.”

We all heard the sound of many approaching bodies, and the man who I did not have at the end of my sword looked towards their direction. I saw his eyes go wide as he saw the glowing lights of their eyes approaching and his face contorted into primal panic.

“Undead!” He cried out as his hands went to his waist. I saw something small and metallic coming up in the low light of night and reacted to that on instinct. My sword lashed out and intercepted the man’s hand striking the object and taking two of his fingers off as well.

The next sound out of his mouth was a howl of pain that made me wince as that was far too much noise for my liking. He grasped at the missing appendages as copious amounts of blood poured from the severed fingers. The volunteers rushed towards us, and I shot off orders while forcing the priest closest to me to the ground. “Shut him up and restrain him!”

They immediately got to work doing just that, tackling him to the ground while he fought like his life depended on it. As outnumbered as he was though, his struggles didn’t amount to much as he was forced down and had the sash that was normally around his robes removed before being stuffed into his mouth and tied in place. His cries immediately became significantly more muffled with the presence of the cloth blocking them.

The same was done to the priest I was holding down, but he tried to get out one last desperate cry for help right before being muzzled as well. Due to the volume of noise from the two of them I thought it prudent to hastily find our exit from the immediate area. “Let’s move everyone.”

We started to push the pair of priests deeper into the forest. I quickly searched the ground for the metal object the priest had drawn and saw a talisman of their order. He was attempting to cast magic at them before I put a stop to that. It was a good thing I was able to react in time to it. I didn’t want more people to be subjected to that treatment knowing what it did to the mind.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hastily exiting the area, we went deep into the cover of the trees, well past the point that most people would choose to search if they heard anything. If it were morning, we might have had to move farther, but this late at night it would be dangerous for any potential misguided rescuers to travel too far into the woods and risk injuring themselves. We all stopped at a decent enough location and the two priests were roughly deposited against a tree.

The injured one immediately started clutching at his bleeding hand again, face contorting into various pained expressions as he moaned and groaned through the cloth covering his mouth. His buddy was looking at him with concern before turning to me and attempting to talk through the gag. The only thing that came of that effort was some muffled sounds. I rolled my eyes at him and stooped down to remove the blockage in his mouth, but not before warning him.

“Even though we’re far enough away from the village that they couldn’t possibly hear you, I'm still going to caution you against yelling or making any other annoying noises. Failure to keep quiet will result in pain. Do you understand?” I received a nod in acknowledgement. With that out of the way, I removed the sash from his mouth.

He cautiously looked around at the undead surrounding us before finally getting back to me with his apparent request. “Might I heal my partner? If we don’t do anything he could bleed out, or the wound might become infected.”

You’d know all about infections, wouldn’t you. My glare intensified at the man before I glanced over to his friend who was watching the conversation. He was bleeding quite a bit, and though it would be a fairly slow process, he would eventually die from that if left untreated. I decided to let him survive, if for no other reason than wanting a spare confessor should the worst come to pass with them.

I stepped over and grabbed the man by the back of his collar, directing him over to his friend while placing the tip of my sword in his back once more. “Anything more than a basic healing spell and you’ll find a foot of steel in you before you can even blink.” He didn’t say anything in response to that, but I can tell from his body language as he tensed up that he understood.

Slowly, he pulled out his own talisman, holding it out towards his injured partner who responded by lifting the bleeding hand towards him. I caught a side glace from the man I currently had at sword point. He was probably trying to think of any way he could get out of this situation, anything that he could do that would allow them to escape alive. All I needed to do to put those ideas out of his head was press the tip of my blade uncomfortably into his side.

He winced from the slight bit of pain before a quiet sigh escaped him and he turned back to the injured man. A soft glow started to originate from the talisman. Several of the undead volunteers instinctively took a step back from the light. As close as I was, I could feel a bit of warmth coming from the light, and then I noticed it taking effect. The bleeding stumps of the missing fingers slowly stopped leaking the vital fluid that was blood. Flesh started to form around the missing bits, closing off the raw wound and making it look more like it was an old injury.

The moment he was finished, and the light disappeared from the talisman, I snatched it out of his grasp. He seemed surprised by that and looked like he wanted to protest. I didn’t pay him any attention, and instead cocked my arm back and threw the piece of metal as hard as I could into the night. Only a brief glimmer of the metal reflecting the moonlight was seen before it vanished out of sight completely. That was the last option of self-defense they had, so now they were completely at our mercy, and it was frankly in short supply right now.

Just to confirm they didn’t have any more tricks up their sleeve, I searched both of them, removing their packs and checking to make sure they didn’t have hidden weapons. After that, I ordered the pair separated, having some of the volunteers take the formally injured priest off by himself while I and several others took my unfortunate guest to have a private chat.

I sat the man down on a rock and stood in front of him with a stern look on my face. He was surrounded on all sides to prevent any ideas of escape. Before I could even begin to question him, he started to spout off some drivel at me.

“Whatever you do to me, you will face punishment for your wickedness. The Lord of Light will...”

A firm backhand stopped him from continuing that nonsense. “Shut up and listen. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them, or this is going to get rather unpleasant for you. Whom do you answer to? Who’s in charge of this vile operation you're running?”

“We are priests of the Lord of Light, we answer to him and are on pilgrimage to bring his words...”

Another backhand hit him from the opposite direction now. “I know damn well what you’re doing here and it sure as shit isn’t a pilgrimage. Who do you report to!? Who oversees distributing these diseases!? Where do they come from!?”

“You will be punished with divine light. Your evil burned away, and the souls here removed from their thrall as your puppets!”

This time I punched him straight in the nose, causing it to bleed. “They are here for you, because of you. I hold no control over them as they willingly persecute you for the sins of murder and exploitation.” My anger at this man for denying his role here was starting to reach a boiling point. A dark grin spread across my face. “If you don’t want to answer willingly, that’s fine. The dead will judge you now, and I'm certain they will find you wanting.”

I made a quick gesture at the volunteers who deciphered what I wanted them to do easily. The man was seized from all sides and forced to the ground, held in place as he kicked and squirmed against them. The sash was once again forced into his mouth and secured firmly in place. Didn’t need him biting off his tongue during this next part.

With him now firmly secured, I turned to the side and lifted my hand towards all the souls around us. “If anyone has a bone to pick with him, come forth.” Many of them rushed towards me to accept the opportunity, but I only selected one that appeared to have arrived first. Taking the soul in hand, I turned back to the man who was looking up at me with a mixture of confusion and fear. He obviously could not see what I was doing or interacting with, which either meant he thought I was insane, or doing something beyond his understanding. Either way, it would probably inspire equal amounts of terror in him.

This spell that I was preparing I had done before, or at least a variation of it. In fact, it was one of the first spells I had ever used, even though at the time I didn’t know it. The soul I was holding flickered in my grasp. I could see in its form flashes of black as anger and pain sometimes came to the surface. Whatever you might call this spell, it certainly wasn’t anything designed for benevolent purposes.

There was actually a history lesson in the book to accompany it. Apparently, it was once a method through which the worst offenders and criminals would be punished by, generally meaning people like murderers and rapists. It allowed their victims an opportunity to claim revenge.

I stoked the flames of anger in the soul, watching as it grew from a sliver of darkness into a much more pronounced scar. You had to be careful not to push them too far, and it may have seemed a bit cruel to fan the flames of their anger, but with this they now had a strong enough emotion to manifest themselves. Releasing them, they floated down into the ground and disappeared out of sight for a moment. After a few seconds had passed, a black fog started to rise from the spot they fell into.

The fog was visible to everyone, including the priest who tried to push himself further away from it but was being held still by the others. Then, a hand reached up from the ground, translucent and desiccated. This appendage was quickly followed by a second one as both hooked themselves into the ground and dragged the rest of their body out into the open.

Long strands of ghostly hair emerged from the earth, flowing in the air like they were underwater. The face that emerged after that was slender, gaunt, skin hugging what would have been bones if they possessed such things anymore, and eyes that burned with glowing orbs of light. This soul was apparently a woman at one point as the general body shape of this terrifying apparition hinted.

As she crawled towards the priest, he started to make frantic muffled noises of protest, probably pleas, bargains and the usual drivel that those in this kind of situation make to their captors. I walked over until I was standing above his head looking down at him, glancing over to see the progress of the vengeful specter as it crawled ever closer to him. He tried to kick at her, but his foot simply passed right through her body without disrupting anything.

I huffed in amusement at his attempt to fight the ghost. “Don’t worry.” I said to him. “She doesn’t have a physical form anymore, so she can’t do any real damage to your body.” He shot me a quick look of skepticism before once again turning his attention to the specter that was now positioned directly over him. She lifted a hand over his chest and then suddenly thrust the limb deep into his body.

A muffled cry of agony rang out from him as his form contorted and fought against those holding him down. “However, that doesn’t mean that it won’t still feel like she’s trying to rip your heart out.” I let this continue for a few minutes. The sounds of pain, however real it might have been, did not bring me any pleasure. This was simply business, and he needed to understand what the consequences of refusing to answer me were.

After a sufficient amount of time had passed, I called off the specter of the woman, dismissing her to return to a simple blue light once again. Apparently, the experience was cathartic for her, because the wisp she became again looked almost purely blue. The same could not be said of the priest.

His body was wracked with tremors as he took deep gasping breaths of air. I leaned over him to have a face-to-face chat. “Feel like talking now?” Almost immediately his expression soured, shooting me a withering glare of anger. “I’ll take that as a no then.” Standing up straight, I held out my hand again. “Next.” The simple statement immediately made the man pale.

Another round with another soul who wanted a piece of him. The experience of this situation was described in the book by those few who it was used on. It was said to be like a freezing feeling so intense that it almost felt like burning. It was one of those situations that words just did not do justice to, as evidenced by the man currently writhing and screaming against his gag as spectral fingers speared into his body.

Two apparently weren’t enough for him to break, but after I had summoned a third and let them work on him, he fell apart. Random, incoherent blubbering sounds came out of him, and the look in his eyes was that of pleading. I decided to give him an opportunity to speak now, removing the gag from his mouth.

His breaths came heavy and frequent, sweat accumulating on his brow from all the exertion. I looked him in the eyes as I repeated my question again. “Who do you report to?”

Through shuddering gasps, he answered me. “Th- the bishops tell us where to go, what to do. We receive our orders from them.”

“Where do the poisons come from?”

“I-I don’t know.” My hand stretched out to the souls again, sending him into a wild-eyed panic. “No! I'm telling the truth! I don’t know! I don’t know where they come from! They just give them to us whenever we receive an assignment! Please!” I gave the man a skeptical look but lowered my hand again.

This sorry sack of wasted flesh was probably too low in the ranks to provide me with any specific information that I could use, but at least he was able to give me a new target. I was done talking to him for now, so I put his gag back in which made him struggle for a second until he realized that I was leaving. The relief on his face as I walked away was palpable.

Now it was his friend’s turn. I had a much simpler interrogation method planned for him. The group watching him was a few dozen yards away, and judging by the way he looked at me, I guess that he had heard some of the screaming coming from his buddy over there.

I sat down on a rock in front of him, an impassive look on my face. He was already in a cold sweat, I just needed to apply a little pressure to him. “So,” I began, “your friend had some interesting things to say. Bishops giving you poisons and then telling you to go out and murder people. A full confession like that leaves very little to be desired. Which begs the question...” I drew my sword and placed it tip down in the ground between us. “What do I need you for?”

Understanding struck his features like an avalanche. His breathing immediately jumped in frequency as his eyes darted every which way, as if the answer was hidden somewhere in the environment around us. Now was the time to give him his potential out, as well as encourage him to think carefully about anything his friend left out.

“Now, if there is anything you would like to add, feel free to do so now. I’m still rather interested in where these poisons come from exactly, but I suppose I could just ask one of your bishops personally if need be.” I made a small gesture to one of the volunteers standing behind the man to undo his gag, and they complied.

He took a large nervous gulp before attempting to speak. “I d-don't know where they come from exactly.”

“Hmm, unfortunate.” I stood up, hefting my blade a little to make it look like I was going to use it. He immediately shot off with a supplement to his poor answer.

“B-but I saw who gave it to the bishops! They wore apothecary masks, and they had a weird insignia on their robes!”

“What insignia?”

“I think it was a snake? No! It was a fist strangling a snake!”

“Which is it!” I took a threatening step forward.

“The fist! Definitely the fist and the snake! Please, that’s worth something, right?!”

I gave some mock consideration to what he told me before slowly lifting my sword and placing the flat of the blade on his shoulder. “Enough for now. Maybe you should think about what else you might know, may just save your life in the future.”

With that, the gag was reintroduced to him and the interrogation for the night was done. I got some useful information from both of them, but it was just another piece in what was turning out to be a large puzzle. There was work to be done yet, and that wasn’t even counting what I had already planned for tomorrow. I considered what we did tonight to be the easy part. The real challenge would come when I tried to convince the villagers not only that the undead that I would be walking into their village with wouldn’t hurt them, but a major religion of the continent was trying to kill them.

That would be one hell of a conversation, but it would have to wait until morning. For now, I wanted to get some sleep. Tomorrow’s problems could wait their turn, and I needed a fresh mind if I was to convince anyone to join my cause.