General Rubric Makon left Lord Cepher's floater at early dawn, after making sure that the guests and servants at the party had been evacuated. He had remembered every single man he'd fought and had taken special note of Zeron.
He hadn't seen Zeron before but he immediately knew that man was dangerous. He made a mental note to fish him out later. Once the sun started coming up he bid Murik farewell and left.
Segi had been eager to see him and the Aku'andans seemed friendly in general, but he still wanted more time to watch them, so he left them without any way to contact him.
He arrived home in the early morning, when the dew was just beginning to evaporate off. He knocked but the door simply swung open. Then he noticed the lock was broken. He went into defense mode immediately, even though he was starting to feel drowsy from staying awake all night, he shook his head and invoked an armor spell.
He walked slowly into the room, tense, but there was no one there. Roe was gone. His heart sank as he saw the room had been trashed, Someone had snatched her and she'd fought.
He could even trace the fight. She had been sleeping... Then grabbed. She'd flailed and pushed her grabber back, he'd slammed into the stool beside the bed, knocking it over.
Her flailing legs had knocked off the fairy lights she'd installed over bed. She'd been flung the floor and stripped of her blanket. it was on the floor. Then she'd been carried out.
He searched the room and found a letter. On it was scribbled a riddle.
"A white rock, weeping from three eyes."
The person who wrote it obviously thought they were clever. But Makon knew exactly what it was, it was a marble formation with three close springs, located in a village called Saia, in Northwest Navon. The rage boiled up in him, He wasn't distraught, he was angry. furious. Roe was under HIS protection. Who DARED to mess with him like this?
he activated the lowest cushion speed spell he had available, and blasted off to Saia.
By the time Segi had started to search for him, He was no longer in the city.
---
In the high afternoon, While Lakan's group were arguing with the guards at the governor's office in Kanam, he was already in view of Saia, Running at an incredible pace that only Aku'andans could hope to beat.
Saia was a fairly large village with a few hundred inhabitants. On the outskirts of the village, there was a massive marble formation with three water springs on one side of it. It was pretty agreed that the springs were artificial, possibly constructed by a Mage a few centuries earlier.
Makon paid the landmark no mind and entered the village. The people of Saia weren't especially large or burly, he stood out like a sore thumb. Nevertheless he started asking around. Nobody had seen anyone. He entered the village inn and walked around.
The bartender saw him and beckoned.
"I reckon you're General Makon?" The bartender asked in a quaint Rural Navon accent.
"Yes." General Makon replied gruffly.
"Well some fellas came by earlier this morning. They said you'd be here by evening. I reckon you're early by several hours."
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Makon almost chuckled. The fools really thought it would take him that long to solve their stupid riddle. If they weren't expecting him to come this early, he possibly still had the element of surprise. He allowed a small feeling of relief to temper his burning anger.
"What did they say?" he asked the bar man.
"Well they're perched on a barn on top of that hill there." He said, pointing at a hill nearby. "They said for you to come there when you arrive."
"Anything else?"
"No, that's pretty much it." The bartender said.
"Thank you." He said, walking out of the inn. The moment he was on the streets he activated his speed and ran up to the hill. Sure enough, there was a large abandoned barn atop the hill. He was immediately stopped by a group of men who rushed out of the barn to bar his way.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"You're not supposed to be here yet!" they said. "Come back later!"
"Are you stupid?" He asked them, walking slowly towards them as they raised spells towards him. "You kidnapped my tinkerer you bastards. WHERE IS SHE??"
A scream emanated from inside the barn. He couldn't wait anymore. He blasted through the men and the door to the barn and when he got inside, what he saw completely horrified him. So much so that he stopped in his tracks, aghast.
Because in front of him, just a few meters away, Roe had been nailed to a large wooden wall. her palms had been nailed, her forearms had been nailed with two nails per arm, her right foot had already been nailed to the board and they were in the process of nailing her left foot when he entered.
She was hyperventilating and delirious.
Just to the side of her, Lord Cepher held out a small dagger aimed directly at her heart.
"Don't you dare come any closer, you bastard!" He cried. "Or She's gone forever!"
"What the fuck..." He said. tears pooling in his eyes and running down his cheeks. Seeing her in that state awoke something in him he rarely expressed.
Lord Cepher continued to ramble on.
"You weren't supposed to be here yet! No matter! I'll take care of you first and then I'll deal with Murik. He led me to you anyway, Stupid fool, couldn't even cover his own tracks—"
The man was interrupted by an overzealous goon who decided that was the right time to nail the other foot. A clang rang out, followed by a scream.
"Stop that you idiot!" he said, looking down at the man and kicking him. The blade aimed at Roe's chest dropped for a few seconds, but that was all Makon needed.
he closed the distance in a split second and grabbed Lord Cepher by the neck. lifting the man off his feet.
Lord Cepher tried to struggle free, but he was no match for Makon, who simply twisted, breaking the man's neck instantaneously.
The people nailing Roe dropped their tools and fled. He wanted to go after them but Roe's condition was more important.
He lowered the board, cringing at her wails and screams at the pain.
"Roe, I'm here." He said softly, grabbing her hair. She barely noticed him in her pain. She just continued to wail. He couldn't bear to see her in that condition. But he couldn't help her. The nails were plugging her bleeding and if he tried to remove them without proper care she would die.
"Roe..." He wept. "Bear with me. Please. I'll help you."
There was no chance Saia had proper healers. He would have to carry her to Kamado. But at least there had to be some relief for her. He sped off to the village to find a healer.
He barged into the healing center and accosted a random woman wearing the garbs.
"Grab painkillers!" he shouted. "Now!"
"Who are you?" She asked, confused. He abandoned her and rushed into the medicine room. There he located various potions he was familiar with, then he rushed out. leaving the people at the local healing center very confused.
He rushed back to Roe who was having the worst experience of her life, and administered a cocktail of painkillers to her.
A few minutes later she began to relax. Then she smiled at him and uttered a thank you before going unconscious.
He then set about extricating her from the wooden wall. It took him about 20 minutes to get rid of the boards. Several nails remained stuck in her body but he carried her in his arms and headed towards the entrance of the barn when he heard some noise outside.
He quickly laid Roe to one side of the barn, fortified her body with armor and got ready for a fight.
The discussion became more audible as the group came closer.
"Do you think she's going to last that long?" A voice asked.
"Haha definitely. he's going to be so shocked." Another voice replied, strangely familiar.
"What if she's not actually his lover though? Maybe she's just a whore he picked up?" Another voice asked.
"Haha, trust me men, I did my homework. I planned this perfectly..."
They stopped in their tracks when they got to the entrance of the barn and saw Makon standing in the center, Boiling with rage, with smoldering hot fists.
"Zeron." He growled.