A strange smell lingered in the air inside a small cramped building. It was the smell of death, yet there was something unusual about this scent despite the familiarity. It was indeed not the normal kind of smell that emanated from the recently departed.
The noses of others nearby him were so repulsed, that they ran past him and went outside to get some fresh air.
Yorais crouched down towards the body of an older gray-bearded male whose eyes were entirely missing from their head. Their eye sockets were empty with black markings in and around their sockets. Bloody smears ran across their torso with deep lacerations throughout. They sat in a pool of dried blood with a terrifying expression that remained on their face even after death.
Judging by the dryness and color of the blood they sat on top of, they must’ve been dead for not even half a day. This was relatively recent.
Across from this body on this floor of the building, a dead woman sat with her back to the wall. Kiran approached observing this corpse more closely. Her eye sockets were also burnt out like the other’s corpse. The wall appeared broken a few feet above from where they sat up against. Whoever had done this had sent the back of their skull harshly against the wall causing it to break a bit on impact. But whoever had done this did not stop there with their torment. She too had deep gashes throughout her body, especially along her torso and arms. Judging by her hands, it appeared she had fought for her dear life only to end up inevitably failing.
Her fingertips and nails were bloodied as well with a broken fingernail on her left index finger. I’m sorry this happened to you. None of you have deserved to meet this fate.
From what he had learned so far, these murders weren’t just affecting the human population. The one responsible for all these murders had been targeting a variety of familiars as well. The familiars never did leave behind much after their deaths however unlike the humans. Whenever they went to investigate one of their murders, there were hardly any signs of their existence.
When a familiar dies, their entire body—or being rather— dissipates into the air leaving no sign of themselves thereafter. He recalled seeing a familiar die in this way in one of his memories from his forgotten past.
“How many murders has there been at this point?” Kiran asked as he gazed into the dead older woman’s burnt-out eye sockets.
“A few dozen at least,” Yorais replied.
“Has it been that many?” That’s far too many.
Noreko had been busy while they were gone. The murders were becoming more frequent. At least that was what they had been told. Since returning to Valak, the murders were becoming more frequent and more brazen.
Often times it might take days until they uncover another murder. Now it was becoming daily.
Sometimes it was just one victim. Other times, such as this time, there would be multiple victims with similar conditions as these corpses they currently observed.
Kiran hoped the coalition along with Lucias would’ve caught Noreko before they returned. But they hadn’t so that left them to deal with him now that they were back.
Footsteps motioned up from some stairs nearby that led down into a basement.
“Find anything down there?” Yorais asked as she stood back up from observing the old man’s corpse.
A look of pure horror remained on Silvy’s face as she looked at the two of them in the eyes. “Yes, and I wouldn’t go down there if I were either of you.”
A sick feeling ran through him.
It wasn’t enough to kill just these two. Noreko had to kill a bunch of others who had hidden themselves away in the basement as well.
“Is he just doing this for amusement?” Kiran asked.
“No. There must be much more of a purpose behind these murders.” Yorais ran a hand over her hair to pull it back behind her left ear. She looked at the two of them quite seriously. “Given the state of these bodies, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Noreko has found a way to use magic again. At first, I wasn’t sure, but I think it’s quite likely.”
“What makes you say that?” Kiran asked.
“These bodies have sustained particular damage that suggests the use of the arcane. Take their eyes for example. Unlike the rest of their body which have been maimed by a sharp object, their eyes are burnt out in a way that suggests to me that he used magic.”
“Well that’s just great,” Silvy said. “That means he likely has changed his face again, doesn’t it?”
“We can’t discount the possibility. Remain cautious and pay close attention to everyone you come into contact with.”
Kiran began to try to link with Lar telepathically. “You there?”
“What is it?” Since Lar was out scouting out the city with another group elsewhere, he didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding her and telling her in person so he chose this method of communication instead.
“I’ve got some bad news. Yorais believes it likely that Noreko can use magic again meaning he could be any one of us. Keep a look out and inform everyone you can.”
“Will do. Be careful yourself, alright?”
“I will,” he said.
“What kind of magic burns out their eye sockets of all things?” Silvy asked towards Yorais.
“The kind none of us should learn or do ourselves.” Her eyes met Kiran’s briefly. “Noreko was always one to study spells that few others ever bothered to learn or understand. This must be one of many that he dabbled in.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Was this something he learned at the university?” Kiran asked.
“Possibly. Or maybe he learned it outside of it. It matters not. What matters is that we catch him before he can get away with murdering more.”
I wish we could just snap our fingers and have him in our hands, but he’s quite good at maneuvering against us. It frustrated him beyond belief. Plus they had so many other things to worry about such as resolving the darkness of this domain. Yet they had this utterly worthless person causing more havoc distracting them from other more important issues. Liall’s destruction just couldn’t be enough for him.
“I don’t believe there’s anything more for us to do here,” Yorais stated firmly.
After investigating the scene of the most recent murders, Kiran found himself tired so he headed towards a location given to them to rest at. As he wandered down the cobbled street, he got the sense that someone was watching him.
He stopped and looked around.
An unnerving sensation ran down his spine. He thought at first that it must’ve been his imagination, but it was so visceral, that he thought that his senses truly did pick up on something.
Whether he looked down the alleyway to his left or his right, nothing appeared to linger within the dark shadows. Nor was there someone taking a gander from a sloped tiled rooftop or taking a quick peek out some window. It was just him gripping the hilt of his sheathed sword dangling off his side.
Are you the one watching me Noreko? Is that you I sense? Or is it someone else entirely different?
“Kiran?” Silvy looked at him questioningly as she caught up with him. “Is something the matter?”
“I hope not. I just got the strange sense that someone was watching me.”
“I get that feeling too sometimes when I’m walking out here.” Silvy came to stand more closely to him. “Do you mind if I come along with you? It’ll certainly be safer that way.”
“Sure. I’m just planning to head back and rest these tired eyes of mine for a little while.” A yawn escaped his lips. “It’s been a long day for me.”
Looking for Noreko made him tired. Searching throughout Valak and using his mind to examine anything potentially unusual used lots of physical and mental energy.
At least for now, he felt better having her walk beside him. These streets were much more sinister and dangerous now than when they first came here. It was once so bustling and full of vigor back then despite the relatively small population. Now everyone found themselves sheltering away in fear that they would become the next victims of Noreko’s twisted behavior.
Fundamentally, his motivations did not make sense to him, yet Yorais seemed to believe that he was acting with some kind of purpose.
By the time they made it back to the building where many within the coalition rested including himself, they both parted ways as he headed for a hall with numerous cramped rooms placed next to each other. She walked further down the dimly lit hall while he stopped eventually at his room.
He would like to spend more time out there today trying to hunt down Noreko, but he only had so much energy. I won’t be of any use out there if I don’t finally rest.
When he opened the door, he saw that the window at the back of the room was left open. The cooler outside air blew in through the window. That’s strange.
He entered the dark room and closed the shutters. A subtle sound of footsteps approaching from behind entered his ears.
His body immediately twirled around. A hooded figure wielding a knife lunged towards him eager to spill his blood all over the floor.
He caught their wrist mid-thrust with both hands gripping it tightly.
Due to the darkness inside his room and the hood covering their face, he couldn’t see who was trying to kill him, but he could see some sharp teeth as it appeared their mouth widened in satisfaction.
With few other options, he motioned his body to the right and used the assassin’s forward momentum to force them to thrust the knife into the wall that he was no longer up against.
They yanked the knife out of the wall and sent their arm backward horizontally slicing his arm a bit as he stepped back. He grabbed the hilt of his sheathed sword and yanked the sword free, but due to the small size of the room, he had no real way to use it.
Not good!
Their body came for him once more with ease. A knife in this small room was quite easy to use, unlike a sword. How fortunate for them, he thought as he dropped the sword and quickly grabbed a chair off in the corner and tossed it at them.
The chair hit up against their body buying him another moment. If I can’t use a sword in here, then I’ll use everything else that I can!
He grabbed a book and tossed it at their face as they recovered from the chair being thrown at them. The book managed to hit them directly in the face irritating them even further.
“Why don’t you just die already!” The assassin pulled down their hood back and took up a defensive position as the their black beady eyes widened in fury.
This assassin wasn’t just any other assassin. It was the female lizard-like banespawn that had some real contempt for him. It was indeed the one who had stabbed him in the back not all that long ago.
A deep gash ran along the side of her face through her eye. He had managed to land that strike against her which she most certainly had hated him for. Of course, had she not attacked him back then, he wouldn’t have needed to do it but that was the way of the world. Attack me, and I’ll attack you back.
“How nice of you to come visit me,” he said mockingly as he heard footsteps pounding down the hall. “Couldn’t tolerate staying away from me any longer could ya?”
With eyes of pure hate and fury, she kicked the chair out of the way and prepared to lunge for him once more.
Right before she could fully commit however, the door behind him swung open almost hitting his back judging by the motion of air blowing against his backside.
“What’s going on in here?” Silvy said coming to stand beside him.
The backstabbing banespawn grimaced towards the two of them. She then twisted her ankles around and began to lunge for the window. The shutters tore apart as she worked to escape from them.
Kiran rushed to the window barely able to see her movements down below as she dashed through the alleyway.
“What the heck is she doing here?”
“I don’t know, but if she’s here, there might be more of them in the city.”
They both left this darkened room heading quickly down the hall. Several other coalition members came up to them including Gerard.
“What was all of that commotion we all just heard?” Gerard asked.
“A banespawn just tried to assassinate me,” Kiran said.
“What?” Gerard said. “How’d they get in here?”
“That’s what we need to find out,” Silvy said. “We have to warn—”
A loud bell began to resound throughout the city. It reminded him of the bells that he’d hear in Liall from time to time. It was certainly not a positive sign and given what he just survived, he anticipated that things were just about to get much worse.