9:58 A.M.
February 12
Frostmonth 14
Inquisitor Seraphina de Lys’ Command Tent, Limeroom, Veotera
Gary had to admit he was enjoying the shocked expressions. Remmy hadn’t really asked details and Seraphina looked like he was just slapping her worldview across both cheeks. It felt almost hilarious.
“Oh yes. The lady of the house herself met me in the foyer. A lovely-looking aristocratic woman; long minty green hair, pale eyes, pretty nice-looking black top and cream-hued skirt. Pretty prim looking like our dear Inquisitor here. The thing that drew my attention to the fact that she was linked to the tragedy I found there was the fact that every time she made a movement she flickered out of sight until the movement was completed.”
“A visible Ghost,” Seraphina breathed as she made a clear warding gesture as she sucked in a worried gulp of air afterwards. “How in God’s name are you even alive right now? Ghosts are notoriously hard to kill.”
“Funny thing about that, Inquisitor. While there are malicious ghosts like you speak of in that tone, most are poor souls trapped and unable to go beyond. Usually something chains them to the world of the living; a great regret, sorrow, or desire for revenge against the thing that brought them to death. Taking into account what I had learned thus far and the expression on her face I later learned my assumption of her being one of the tragic ones unwillingly shackled to the mortal coil was correct.”
Gary swirled the tea around in his cup, watching the liquid slow and stop as he set the cup down while finding his words. “She was willing to answer questions once I identified my reason for being there. Going through the lower parts of the manor I found signs of battle and ransacking. The former was a mixture of the Delvers later coming to try and clear the place and the events that presumably led to the curse weapon in the gaol over there. The latter was likely pure scavenger behavior by anyone willing to brave the lower floor of the structure. No one seemingly made it past the foyer, drawing room, or office in the front of the building since we made our way around the home and I found evidence furthering the idea that the home was deliberately attacked.”
Seraphina took a sip of her steaming tea and held the cup in her hands as she stared into the liquid. He could see the gears in her head whirling so fast he was surprised sparks weren’t flying out of her ears at this point. Remmy was quietly drinking the hot beverage as he leaned into the chair he sat in; content to let the story unfold at Gary’s pace.
“Making my way into the servant’s quarters I found them to be smashed to pieces. Got some coin purses out of the rubble and brought it to the kitchen. Found the key to the butler’s pantry there too, and pulled out a nice full set of silverware and good plates. Got them in my room at the church, as you’ll recall Remmy. The dining room showed more signs of people being ambushed and injured but not killed there. Far too little blood. We made our way upstairs, and I noticed that as we ascended the ghost stopped her flickering thing and became solidly visible as she moved. She clearly drew strength from her physical proximity to her point of death.”
“So the Ghost grew stronger and still did not attack you?”
“Respect given freely opens many doors, Inquisitor. Slave or King, we are all equal in Death.” Gary shrugged as he continued. “The big central doorway to the master bedroom was pretty obviously where things went down, and she was visibly nervous about going there. I chose to explore elsewhere and discovered a nursery.” Both of their faces fell at the simple way Gary said it. It was clear he was holding himself back thinking about the anger such a tragic revelation offered. “The lady was very sorrow-stricken at the sight of the room, as it looked almost brand-new if one accounted for the ravages of time. I offered her one of the stuffed toys present in the room to try and mollify her distress. She seemed to draw strength from the gesture and we finally made our way to the master bedroom.”
Seraphina was sat back in her chair as she absentmindedly sipped at her hot tea. The simple tone Gary was using belied what was clearly becoming apparent to be something the woman considered a moderate miracle he escaped with his life. He shrugged and steeled himself for the description of what came next.
“I found the site where the curse weapon was. The master bedroom had been turned into a sea of carnage. The servants had clearly been rounded up and their everything splattered all over the room’s surfaces like gore paint… And that was a mercy compared to how the lady and her infant child were.” For the first time in his recounting, Gary took a deep steeling breath and let out a ragged and angry sigh before he continued. “She was tied to the bed, dress and undergarments ripped off her front. The violation was crystal clear despite the age of the scene, and as a final gesture of disrespect she and the infant were impaled by a spear through the chest together.”
Seraphina nodded at this description and spoke, allowing Gary to cool his growing anger at the recollection. “Heaven watch over their poor souls. You have near-perfectly described a crucible in which curse weapons are forged. A ‘textbook example’, if I remember the phrase correctly. One needs death and violation to give the evil tools their dark consecration. They are usually left for a decade or two to simmer in the suffering of the deceased, drawing more and more strength from the site as the desecration goes unchallenged. The site still stands, I take it?”
Gary shrugged. “The only remains in a condition to be recovered were the lady, the child, and later I found the husband. But yeah. I went to remove the spear and felt the thing be bad-slimy in my grip. The moment I touched it, 「Danger Sense」 went off. The lady’s ghost looked frightened as the Skeletons outside burst their way into the house; having stayed outside the whole time until then. She indicated that she didn’t have the ability to stop them, so I readied myself for battle. The way the manor was built meant I could defend from one direction with my back clear, so I made pretty short work of them. Before they could do something silly like reconstitute or something, I went back to the spear and used 「Plunder」 to get it free of its lodged position. The danger stopped when I pulled it free, and I wrapped up the curse weapon and enshrouded the remains I could.”
“..Then brought them back to Limeroom and the rest of the report unfolded from there. I must admit, Delver Zavon. This recounting has me concerned on several points, and being concerned about curse weapons is a sign that there are problems with the story. Innocent people die with those inconsistencies.”
“Like the fact no one was watching the site?” Gary took a deep sip of tea and gently moved his hand in continuance of his aloud thoughts, pinky extended to further emphasize the point. “It’s been bugging me in the back of my head that no one had really explored the place in force. It does sound like the Luminous Reclaimer’s bailiwick but you guys can’t be everywhere all at once, so I’m not blaming you. If I was leaving a weapon like that to gather strength I’d have at least two people lurking nearby to steer challengers away from the site.”
“Indubitably. Curse weapons take preparation to even get into a state to be infused with their foul magics, and are thus a clear draw on resources. Tracking down the people who know how to make them is another of my responsibilities as an Inquisitor,” Seraphina said with a deep nod at his assessment of the situation. “If you find such individuals in your travels, kill them without remorse or mercy. They will not show you any.” A small sip of her tea wet her throat as she changed topics. “I must say, good Delver. I have heard many tales of encounters with sites like that, but you are the first person to conquer one alone, let alone with such lack of loss. Your strength must be formidable, especially as a Plunderer.”
“Caught that, did you?”
“Of course. It is part of my own Class to be able to accurately recall testimony given to me.” Gary’s gray eyes looked pointedly at the glow in Seraphina’s, and a cheeky little upturn at the corners of her mouth answered the unspoken question. Gary figured her being an Inquisitor at her apparent age meant she had the eponymous Class to back it up. The eye glow was probably some sort of Skill manifesting itself.
“..Clever girl. But yes, I am a Plunderer of unusual power. And I’ll have it noted for the record that I’ve not used my powers for evil and plan to continue that course of action.” Now that he was watching her eyes, he saw each sentence give a tiny flicker to the neon aspect of her azure eyes. Every time he spoke the truth, the light flickered to dim for a split-moment revealing that azure really was her natural eye color. So dim was truth and presumably bright was lie. Good to know for the future, he noted in his file on this woman he’d started. “Despite the nature of the problem, I think that it probably was comparatively weak to anything you’ve faced because of the sheer lack of.. ‘materials’ in whatever this ritual entails. But you’d know better than I, so take that judgment as you will.”
Seraphina graciously bowed her head and he swore she was probably mouthing a small prayer to herself before her head came back up to reveal her face. It was set into a determined look now, and Gary noted that the glow was fully extinguished now. Her eyes moved to regard the silent old priest who had been watching the conversation without comment, calmly drinking his tea the whole time. Remmy gave her a warm smile and set the empty-sounding cup onto the table as he flicked his eyes towards the kettle. The sister obediently filled the man’s cup with more hot water and another dose of tea was left to heat up and infuse the water. Remmy leaned back in his seat and regarded her determined expression with a practiced eye.
“I’ve seen that look on your face, Inquisitor. Gary gets it quite often, but for different reasons. You have seen the truth with your eyes, but your heart and mind are in doubt. It’s perfectly understandable to be skeptical of his words. There is no shame in it. I have learned over the month he’s been under my roof, however; this child does not lie easily. He was raised to value honesty and with an attitude that one’s word is their vow. His strength.. Is beyond question at this point. And I mean both martially and morally. You need to get that fool idea out of your head now, child.”
“I was thinking that was the reason for the look. She wants me to put my money where my mouth is, right?” Remmy smiled ruefully and tilted his head in a way that silently granted Gary the point. “Not sure how her buddies outside would feel about it.”
“They would not dare to interfere.” Her voice was quiet, but full of conviction now that she had his tacit approval. “Duels are sacred all over the continent, any who violate them are considered honorless filth. As Father Wikloss says, I have seen you speak the truth; heard and seen you speak with the ease of a man who knows his voice rings with pure fact and logic that cannot be sanely disputed. But the content of your words distresses my heart. That anyone can walk into such a den and emerge unscathed alone? It is anathema to everything I have read, witnessed, and participated in. As the leader of the Luminous Reclaimers I must see this strength myself to ease my doubts.”
Seraphina stood up out of her chair, walked around the table to the side of Gary not occupied by Remmy and dipped herself into a proper curtsey, and a deep one at that. Gary watched her with a calm expression, though he could almost feel his adrenal glands starting to rev up in gleeful anticipation.
“I, Inquisitor Seraphina de Lys, request a duel with the Delver Gary Zavon.”
“I, Gary Zavon, accept the request.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
----------------------------------------
The trio stepped outside, and Gary was somewhat surprised to find a large improvised ring had been marked out in the dirt a decent distance away from the tent. He could feel every single set of eyes behind those helmets on him as he emerged after Seraphina and was followed by Remmy. Overcoming his initial shock, he thought to himself that they had either anticipated this outcome or she’d more likely given an order with that murmuring earlier. Some flavor of commander ability, or a function of the relqa at her hip that didn’t require physically grasping the rapier? Seemed useful either way.
The sister marched herself to the far side of the ring; really just a fifteen-foot-wide circle dragged out very clearly in the dirt with the use of some mundane tool or the like. Once at her end of the ring, she promptly turned on her heel and waited for him to enter. Not wanting to disappoint, Gary unfastened his cloak and Remmy took it wordlessly. He looked to the two closest of the armored holy warriors and jerked his head towards the old priest.
“Stay close, would you? Don’t need him catching any stray attacks.”
“The Father is safe with us,” the two he’d looked at spoke in near-unison as they understood Gary’s intent with the words. As he moved past the two closed ranks in front of Remmy as they came up to the edge of the ring to observe. Gary felt confident now that if anything happened they’d catch it on their plate-armored bodies or would get him out of the way. With that, Gary stepped into the ring and took the position opposite Seraphina. Wordlessly, they drew weapons: he a pair of his newly-forged tomahawks and she her relqa of a rapier.
“I would assume nothing lethal, right?”
“That would be appreciated,” she said in that purring voice of hers as she assumed a right foot forward stance. The gleaming steel of the rapier’s blade had scrollwork along its thin flats in what Gary assumed from this angle was religious iconography. The guard style of the weapon was a simply set of short quillons and sweepings of metal flowing from underneath them to provide her right hand with protection from getting cut and giving her access to an emergency metal-wrapped punch in close quarters. It looked like a proper weapon of war as much as a work of art, and it was clear this was a pride and joy for her.
Gary nodded, twirling the tomahawks in his fingers once before adopting a comfortable grip. He chose left-side forward and brought the left-hand light ax into a clear defensive position as he held the right back for a quick and short chop if the left caught the opponent for a few seconds. Gary took a deep, calming breath and let it out in a long smooth exhale before he dashed towards the woman in a feint that he brought up well short of her weapon’s range to see how she’d react.
Seraphina saw it for what it was and stood her ground. The angle of the blade changed slightly and Gary could faintly feel 「Danger Sense」 set a prickling feeling onto his chest right where the upper front breastplate failed to cover the leather-filled gap. He came to a halt from the feint and danced back a pair of steps. She followed him with a surge of her own, the ankle-length skirt not getting in her way at all as the blade snaked in for a thrust right where his Skill had told him she was aiming. The left tomahawk came up and batted the weak of the rapier aside, but before he could step in and punish she followed the push with a couple of dancing steps of her own to his side.
The feeling shifted towards Gary’s shoulder and without thinking he triggered 「Leap」. He hurtled backwards four feet and barely escaped the lunge she’d aimed for his left shoulder. Skidding from the momentum in the grass and dirt, he dug in his feet and triggered it again to surge forward and caught her blade in the metal-reinforced crook of both hand axs. As he landed he used the leverage to roughly shove the blade away and down and was rewarded with knocking Seraphina off her stance. The look of surprise at his aggressive action and the speed he’d done it sent her sprawling into the dirt, but she managed to turn it into a passable roll that she continued for a few moments before springing to her feet and quickly scooting more towards the center of the ring.
Gary hadn’t failed to hear the soft sound of metal from her impact with the ground. So her outfit was armored somehow. Probably some bullshit fantasy metal like mithril or the like. So he’d have to hit her harder than he had initially thought to be decisive. Her face was a mask of determined calm but her eyes gave away a bit of her internal anger. As she set herself and began a charge of her own with rapier leading the way, Gary smirked and threw his right hand tomahawk down into the dirt right in her path, just barely clearing the lower hem of her skirt to catch her unseen feet and trigger a stumble that knocked the charge off kilter and Gary easily moved out of the way.
He hadn’t gone in for the obvious attack because he was still concerned about what that rapier could do as a magical tool. Her stumble recovered in a couple of steps anyway and without hesitation the blade came around to level itself at him and ward off the opportunity attack that never came. Gary was content to take his time and let her recover her stance as he moved over to the ground-bound tomahawk and hefted it up into his right hand again after roughly shaking the dirt out of it.
“A foul move, Delver,” she said as she slowly circled in like a shark stalking prey with the blade never wavering from Gary’s center mass.
“Broke the charge, right? Now shut up and fight.” A twitch of her face and she surged in for the attack again. She was easily fast enough to keep up with Gary with maybe a little bit of slowness. Roughly equal on that stat, then. This time he met her charge by batting the rapier’s blade aside and up past his left shoulder, leaving her wide open for the vicious uppercut of the right tomahawk to catch her in the skirt and hook up towards her pelvis and abdomen. The sharpened blade snagged into the fabric with a squeak of metal that told Gary he’d been right about the dress being armored somehow as the leverage actually lifted her a little bit, allowing Gary to spin on his heel and hurl her to the ground a second time with a hard impact.
What he hadn’t counted on was his tomahawk remaining tangled in whatever metal had been in her outfit as well as the cloth. This tore the ax from his hand as he tossed her aside, leaving him bereft of a weapon. He frowned at this revelation and decided to move into the more spacious part of the ring before risking a glance at his other tomahawk. There were already noticeable scratches on the surface but nothing looked like structural damage yet. Seraphina got up from her rough landing, glaring at Gary as she untangled the small ax from her skirt and tossed it out of the ring. The golden decorations seemed to flicker with a pulse of light and the fabric’s single large rent mended itself. Gary noted the glint of metal fibers as the cloth wove itself back into a whole.
Her clothes were a relqa too? That meant he needed to be more decisive with his attacks. Her azure eyes caught the shift in his silvery gaze and narrowed as he triggered 「Stealth」 without a word spoken. His form sundered into ten different fading shadows as the perception-obscuring Skill covered his frame. Without skipping a beat the teenager charged in, sheathing his left hand's ax as he went. This was going to require a far more hand-on approach. As he got into fist range he saw her eyes flash back to that neon backlighting; the glow almost obscuring her entire eye as he felt their gaze shift to him. It was too late to do more than perceive him as he brought down a foot, coiled up, and swung a brutal liver shot into her, aided by his own 「Sneak Attack」.
He could feel and see the sparks screaming off of her top where his fist made a perfect impact and dug heavily into her side. Her torso folded a bit towards the direction of the paralyzing pain as she went properly flying this time. Gary was in for a surprise again however, since this time she managed to catch herself on her feet and lunged right back at him rapier-first. The point scored a sharp slice across the leather under-armor of his half-plate and he felt the stinging hiss of a cold metal blade slide across one of his upper ribs. Without thinking he slapped her with an armored backhand to shove her and her painful tool away from him, and he was rewarded with the unpleasant sensation of the rapier coming out the way it came along with a ripping little twist at the very tip from her being shoved aside.
Seraphina staggered back as Gary flexed his pectoral muscles to test the extent of the pain and seeing if anything felt broken. It stung like a motherfucker but he was seemingly alright for now. The Inquisitor stumbled for a few more steps as she worked to regain distance, her flaring eyes locked onto his form with a clear ferocity now. Her adrenaline was probably in full swing and the fact that even without a display of Pearl magic’s telltale glow to explain it he could see her recovering from the series of blows with an unnatural speed meant she had a high Constitution ranking; at least one notch above his if he had to guess.
She’d clearly decided something, so the rapier dripping with a bit of his blood flashed skywards as she brought it to the engarde position. Her blazing eyes framed the polished steel in his angle as she spoke with a pained and angry hiss. “Gleam unto victory, Luminescent Serenity!” 「Danger Sense」 pulsed a fervent warning and Gary shielded his gaze as the pearl in the pommel flickered with power before the blade became a shining beacon of light on the dueling field. Gary frowned as he felt and heard more than saw the attack coming, not needing his Skill to know the surge in light meant the blade was coming in for the kill.
Gary triggered 「Leap」 again and went up and over the charging blade and Seraphina herself. She was already past him so he didn’t bother to try and give her a kick in the back of the head for her troubles. As he landed and whirled she had already begun another attack as she flicked the rapier’s blade tip at him and a blast of searing light lanced towards him. Gary immediately hit the ground as the attack continued on and several of the Reclaimers had to dive aside as well. Thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near Remmy. He hopped back to his feet and squinted at the blade’s furious glow. Yeah, this had gone off about long enough.
A few more flicks, each met with a dodge now that he had her timing and sense of aiming down. She was smart and went for center mass to maximize her chances of scoring a hit. Through the blade’s blinding glow he felt with his Skill her danger closing in on his position slowly but surely. He knew she was lining up another lunge and was wary of him just jumping over her again. She got to where she clearly thought she’d be able to score another hit and in came the attack. Gary had been waiting for it.
「Rift Maker」 roared to life as he felt the rapier’s ensorcelled blade slip into the wormhole entrance right over his diaphragm that she’d been aiming at. It went up to roughly two-thirds of the blade into the rift, and emerged just behind her to one side. A feminine scream of pain erupted as the blade almost immediately lost the dangerous obfuscating shine to reveal the grip in her hand holding a blade that vanished into thin air about eight inches from his chest mirroring the blade that now lanced through the back of her skirt from more thin air and skewered both buttocks very close to the pelvis, coming out the other side filthy with her own blood now.
Five seconds passed and the violence with which the blade surged back the way it came, out the collapsing invisible portals, and shoved her back onto her wounded ass on the ground at his feet elicited another pained scream before she rolled over onto her side and tried to soothe her wounded posterior. Gary calmly and without a word scooped up her abandoned rapier and simply held it in a loose grip as he squatted where she could look at him with teary non-glowing eyes. He simply looked at her as he loosely held the rapier, which felt kind of small in his grip due to his larger hand.
“..I think we can call this one for me, yes?” She looked like she wanted to fight about it, but relented after a tense few moments. The tension sagged out of her body as she clutched at her bleeding buttcheeks and thumped her head down onto the cold grass with a ragged pained sigh.
“I yield. ..Now someone come heal me, please?” Remmy was moving forward at this time and gave Gary a quizzical look. Gary raised both eyebrows and shrugged visibly as he stood up and took a few steps backwards and turned away from the priest and wounded Inquisitor. He gave the rapier a few testing flourishes and a single vicious lunge at an imaginary opponent as he nodded in satisfaction. This weapon was light but felt sturdy as a mountain, with fantastic balance and now that he could see the blood-covered scrollwork he knew this weapon was as much a work of art as a tool of war.
He reached into himself, touching the core of his body where he housed his System-sourced Mana. It seemed to know exactly what he wanted as a tendril wormed its way into his hand and searched for the opening to this relqa so he could activate it’s powers. The slot for his power was in the hilt roughly where his ring finger was and once it gained a source of energy the blade silently twinkled to glowing life. Gary noted the light’s intensity was nowhere near Seraphina’s; his more of a frosted halogen bulb as opposed to her magnesium flare.
“Affinity and Mana Control count for a lot, huh?” He spoke quietly to himself as everyone looked on in quiet observation. Wiggling the blade just a tiny bit sent wisps of light off the blade tip to dissipate in the air like fading embers. He used his left hand to wave some Reclaimers out of the way as his right brandished the weapon and his gaze focused on the ground before him. They understood the intent and gave his forward arc a wide berth. With a grit of his teeth, Gary swung the blade in a hard and vicious arc towards the ground he was aiming for.
The Inquisitor’s weapon flared in response to a brighter glow as a crescent of that light poured off the rapier’s wake and surged across the distance between him and the point on the ground he’d aimed at. He felt his cheek twitch as he watched the light dig deeper than he thought it would and leave smoldering grass and baked dirt in its wake. A glance at the blade, a sharper glance towards the Inquisitor who was finally able to prop herself up to watch him, and he withdrew his mana from the relqa.
“... I presume the blast is stronger with Pearl and better Control,” he said in an accusatory tone. She refused to meet his gaze as she looked aside and quietly nodded. Gary sat the blade down grip-first in front of her as he squatted to look her in the face. “I assume your heart is less troubled now that you understand what I’m currently capable of.” Another refusal to look at him, another nod. “Good. It wouldn’t do for a woman of the cloth with such an important job to have doubts. Go forth with a clear heart Inquisitor Seraphina de Lys.” Gary reached out and gave her a hearty head pat on her veil, knocking it and her bandeau a little askew before he went to retrieve his tomahawk.