Charity rose with the morning sun and the distinctly uncomfortable feeling of having slept on the cold hard ground the night before. She stretched out in the dawn light, somewhat surprised the group had decided to sleep in considering their circumstances. Her thoughts still fuzzy as she opened her eyes to the morning light, she finally looked up and saw someone standing over her.
A strange man of average height and build stood by her feet, clad in thin beige pants, clean leather boots, and a crisp white dress shirt with a purple satin vest worn over it. Hands in his pockets, Charity's eyes were drawn up the body until they settled onto the naked white skull with matching green embers in place of eyes staring down at her.
“Who are you?” Charity asked, groggy but not entirely surprised by the situation.
The man said nothing. She looked up at his burning green eyes that formed nearly horizontal slits in his face as his face turned upward to regard something else behind Charity. She noticed that there was no customary green smirk on the skeleton's face that she had gotten used to seeing from his more mischievous brethren in similar circumstances, but she was drawn from her thoughts as Xei knelt next to her. Without a word, the orange eyed skeleton brought out his slate with a pre-written statement, obviously having expected some question of this nature before she had woken up.
“Tai…he wanted to be different.” the board read.
Charity chuckled lightly, growing more amused with the skeletal figures over time as she stood up. She had to untangle her legs from the tightly wound bedding that had kept her warm last night, kicking back at the blanket like a small monster around her feet, but she eventually got up.
“Nice to meet you Tai.” She extended a hand out in greeting, but the skeleton merely looked down at her hand with thinly lit embers before returning to her face. Was that disdain in his expression, or was she just imagining it? Eventually, the skeleton merely nodded his head slightly to her, and Charity figured that was as much as she was going to get and dropped her arm, only slightly disappointed in the response.
The rest of the group woke up shortly after, resulting in similarly awkward greetings from the rest of them as they got up. Tai ignored John entirely while Matthew got a short nod from the man before Tai and Xei started walking around the perimeter of the formation.
“I wonder what happened last night.” Charity told the group as they ate a bit of food and prepared for the day.
“You mean how we randomly have a new friend acting all high and mighty over there?” John said.
“I suppose that's the obvious part, but did you notice Xei isn't wearing his mask anymore? It's like he doesn't care who sees them for once.”
“They were only wearing it yesterday so no one would see us moving across the countryside.” Matthew said.
“So we're not traveling again today?” Charity asked, but no one had an answer for her until Major Connely came walking back to the formation. Charity noticed there was some new blood splatter on her greaves that hadn't been on the spotless metal the day before, so evidently something big had happened last night. Just not big enough to be worth waking the group up though.
“Where is the Herald?” she asked the Major.
“The girl is still in a cave up that way.” She pointed over her shoulder. “We found a decent camping spot for my detachment last night.”
A couple of squad leaders walked into the center of the formation to form a small semi-circle behind the Major as she talked. She turned around to adress them once everyone was gathered.
“Alright, we're going about half a mile up that way at a slow pace. Once we get there form a perimeter around a large oak tree and we'll start heading below ground in thirds. Don, your group will be exploring the inside of this cave to make sure there's no one hanging around in there that we don't already know about. Travis, you're going to guard the front entrance while we set up shop, and have someone figure out a better way to hide the entrance. Nina, I want your guys to drop their bags and armor inside then push them out in small teams to get a lay of the land. You'll be posing as farmers or something so we don't draw suspicion. Any questions?”
The soldiers shook their heads in response, and the formation started moving again shortly after they returned to the lines. At her side a newly added pair of burning eyes joined the group as they made the short walk.
—
Dei walked quickly down the hallway, following the large strides of the towering man ahead of her. The man named Harrant had given her a quick synopsis of the surrounding lair after Dei had finished meeting her newest personality, Tai. She still wasn't sure what to think of the fact that she was still developing more fractured alter ego's. Something was changing deep within her each time it happened, but she couldn't quite place what that thing was. At first she had thought it was related to her new powers, but the small differences in how she thought about the world were starting to add up over time.
Harrant had distracted her by going into a short summary of their time in the underground catacombs, serving under the Brent house for a short period when they discovered this place around a week ago. Apparently Harrant's crew had been working under Callum Brent's employment for a short job in the area roughing up the nearby farmers for ‘protection money’ while posing as house Jurn forces. In the meantime they had set up shop in the catacombs after realizing that the underground structure was large enough to house a thousand men across the dozens of rooms.
Through open doorways, Dei could see large chambers with deteriorated tables and chairs that looked like they had collapsed in on themselves at least a century ago. Other rooms held strange pipes that Harrant explained could be opened for a steady stream of clean water, while other rooms held large fireplaces next to solid stone tables that seemed perfect for cooking. None of this was their main goal however as the man led Dei to their true destination at the end of the hall.
The end of the hallway loomed ahead of her, slotted so perfectly into the surrounding blocks that the seams in the wall could barely be seen. On the face of the wall a script was engraved into the rock that seemed strangely familiar to Dei despite the fact she couldn't read it. The two of them stopped directly in front of the wall as Harrant started to speak.
“The strange writing that no one can understand is weird enough, but then one of my men went tapping at the wall and found out this thing is hollow, like a door of some type. This whole giant place and there's only a single door we can't get through? Ominous.”
He unhooked his greataxe from behind his back with a single hand and tapped at the wall with the butt of the shaft with a solid push. He recoiled from the blow, ax bouncing back in his hand without leaving even a mark on the door itself. Dei heard a dull thud with the impact, the blow sounding much deeper in pitch than she would expect of an object impacting solid rock.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“And the thing won't even chip away under the best swings my men could muster. I figure there could be treasure left behind in the room, considering it's the only room still locked up after everyone left.”
As Dei looked up at the indecipherable language on the wall, some measure of Harrant's interest in the wall bled into her. With a slight effort of will her hand formed a short but sturdy punch dagger as she wound her fist back for an obvious attempt on the wall. A short step forward and Dei twisted her hips with the blow in a way that would have made Matthew proud. Her fist made contact with the wall and seemed to crumple in upon itself. The sharp edge of the punch dagger bent inward before snapping off entirely with the blow as thin fractures in the fused hand bone splintered off under the force of the attack.
Despite this, the sharp lettering carved into the wall face was untouched. Not even a scratch marred the surface of the rock. Purple light emitted from her hand as Fei repaired the damage to their own body and Dei turned around to start making her way back to the rest of the group. Harrant followed her, his axe still held in one hand as he raised his torch slightly higher so the light would shine over Dei's head revealing the way forward.
While still quite curious about the other side of the door, her spectral sight was enough to tell her that at least nothing with bones was on the other side of it, making the strange thing a puzzle she could work on at a different time. Perhaps if she found someone who could read the ancient script one day? Regardless, Dei decided to focus on the more positive events of the day as she took in the endless stone hallway she was walking down. After all, how often do you run into a massive underground catacomb right when you need a place to stay?
—
The day passed by as Major Connely's troops spread out through the catacomb and the surrounding wilderness in a quick survey of their surroundings. As each scout came back to make their reports, the Major sketched out a rough map with their description of the surrounding area as they relayed information about the roughly twenty-three farms within a couple of miles of them. As further reports came in, Connely confirmed the locations of two small towns roughly five or six miles from the catacombs on either side, and the capital city was confirmed to be around nine miles away to the north east.
The nearby towns helped confirm that they had in fact stopped in the correct bit of woods that Connely had planned on staying in, even before they had found the massive underground hiding place. In the meantime, the Major tried giving orders to the new sell-swords that Dei had just picked up, but the men refused to do anything she said until Harrant echoed her commands with a dry tone. After a couple more awkward situations between the two leaders Dei watched the Major turn away from her table maps to address the man.
“Harrant, I need you to cede command of your forces to me so we can work together more effectively.”
“I don't command my men, I work with them. They do what I say because its the right thing to do, not because I order them to do it.” He narrowed his eyes at the woman, “Unlike how certain other groups handle things.”
“You're a sell-sword Harrant, and you're trying to lecture me about the ethics of military command?”
“I'm not lecturing no one. Aint my place, and aint worth my pay.”
The two titans were face to face now. The only other person in the room that could match them for height was Xei as the two leader's jostled for control. Several of the surrounding soldiers from both groups stopped to watch, either enjoying the small fight their leader was having, or realizing that no one was currently checking whether the nearby men were still working or not.
“So, uh. How are we gonna pay for these mercenaries anyways?” John asked.
Harrant was drawn away from his staring contest to take in the lean soldier for a moment, then looked over at Dei. Dei in turn looked over at Matthew who raised his hands defensively.
“I don't have that type of money left over Dei. I barely had enough to get us to Portsmouth without sleeping on the street.” Matthew said.
Dei then turned to Connely who shook her head, “While I do have a bit of gold for short term expenses, hiring mercenaries is outside my authority even on a mission like this one.”
Dei turned back to Harrant, becoming increasingly entertained by the fact that everyone answered her questions without even having to speak. Harrant meanwhile raised a thick eyebrow at her before he made his own point on the matter.
“The Brent family pre-paid us for another three weeks of work here until the end of the month. But if you want my men to stay loyal to you, their heart goes where the money takes them. Fear can only get you so far on this one, oh ghostly one.”
Charity coughed to the side of them, “Herald”.
Harrant threw her a glance before she continued, “You'll refer to the goddess as Herald.”
After a moment of thought Harrant's voice ground across the floor like it was weighed down with a thousand pounds as he amended his last statement. “Herald.”
John spoke up from the small crate he had started sitting on, “Y'know, the whole money situation brings up a good point. How exactly are we going to do this again?”
This time Dei decided to speak up and brought out her slate to talk with the rest of the group. She first wrote a list of topics, then put a name next to each of them before she showed the group.
“Supplies - Connely
Infiltrate Military - John
Nobility - Dei / Matthew
Cult - Charity
Money - Harrant”
Charity clapped her hands together excitedly, but John spoke up first, “Woah, no way am I going back to the princedom army. I used to be a messenger so somebody is bound to recognize me if I just try walking back in like nothing happened.”
Harrant shrugged nonchalantly, “I've got a couple of contacts in the military if you just need surface level information. But, you want me to make my own money to pay the men? How does that make sense?”
Dei flipped the board and wrote out the word “Banditry” on it before showing it to Harrant. The man seemed unhappy with this answer, but no further objections came from him.
A trio of voices rang in Dei's mind during the lull in the conversation.
‘Somebody needs to train the cultists.’ Xei said.
‘And I think I could help spy a little bit.’ Fei added.
‘Frankly, the girl could do with some more refined backup when it comes to putting together a cult.’ Tai's slightly nasally voice sounded out.
Dei considered this for a moment before re-writing her list and adding several sections including some she had thought of herself just now.
“Supplies - Connely
Guarding Base - Connely's unit
Infiltrate Military - Harrant / Fei
Nobility - Dei / Matthew
Cult Recruitment - Charity / Tai
Cultist Training - Xei / John
Money - Harrant’s crew”
“Fei, Tai, and Xei?” Harrant asked.
The two masculine skeletons walked up from the rear of the group to stand next to their new partners respectively. Likewise, the purple light left Dei's body as a small skeletal mouse climbed up the side of her backpack set nearby the group.
Harrant looked into the glowing purple eyes of the mouse sitting prominently on top of her new perch when the bones around her eyes expanded over the small skull to appear like goggles over the mouse's face, reducing the glow to barely visible pin pricks of purple light.
“Oh shit. They can turn into animals too?” Harrant asked, face paling slightly under the brazier's glow.
“Man, it gets so much worse over time, just you wait.” John said.