Chapter 28: The Adventurers Arrive

The Lady Selene never came in to check on us but I don't think that mattered hugely as she didn't seem to have a problem anymore with Luna and Karl and things didn't progress much beyond handholding anyway. Victoria did show me a spell that I could see some very specific uses for if things did go further though. Crushing up a piece of bark she created a dome of shimmering, translucent energy around us. It was large enough to accommodate both of us and the table we sat at. Instantly the world was silent, outside of the dome had been the sound of torches crackling, bugs and night-birds, the whisper of conversations and the echo of kitchen utensils at work. All those sounds were just gone. "No sound passes in or out, useful for diplomatic missions as a foil to any eavesdroppers. Thats what I told my mentor when I asked him to teach me it anyway." I didn't know what to say so I just kissed her and she kissed back. We were more confident this time and when I pulled her close she pressed herself to me. Then she cut off the dome of silence and whispered in my ear. "Another night, I just wanted to show you how it worked for now." I felt happy and a little lightheaded, probably due to my blood rushing elsewhere. "You really are as bad as her" I jabbed, picking up my little satchel and heading for the door. Victoria stuck out her tongue and laughed as she went for her book.

After that pleasant detour I handed over the augmented cleansing candles to one of the chateau guard and made my way back home. Once more I crashed on nice sheets and sturdy bedframe. My bedroom smelled a bit too much like molten wax but the other scents of candle making were mostly nice enough. The next morning I filled a backpack with spell candles of all different variety. I kept the candles in pouches on the pack's exterior, with defensive in one pouch, offensive in another and my newest curative candles in a third. I considered a pouch just for shadow-infused but I could feel the mana within each when I reached for it so instead I split my last two pouches by AOE and single target.

AOE at the moment was just the Shrapnel/Force and Shadow candles as well as Desiccating Darkness. I wondered if there was any other way of weaving mana into candles, I understood basic candles with no components other than wax took on elemental damage types based on their colour, Red-white-orange=fire, Blue-Purple=lightning Green-Black=Poison. Other elements like earth, air, etc seemed to need a different method than simply changing the colour and I didn't know what it was yet. Adding shadow mana to any coloured candle without another reagent to modify the resultant spell simply created a spell-candle of Darkness.

I spend the next couple days experimenting more, I bought up some more wax and experimented with melting down and recrafting some of my existing candles, trying to find different useful combinations. I was often distracted by time spent with Victoria and later Karl and Luna. We even went down to the Hophouse one night and I made myself proud by refusing to touch any ale. "Not for me I'm afraid, I have an addictive personality." Karl clapped me on the back with his left arm. The multijointed horror was folded over on itself and obscured by a heavy cloak. It was reasonable attire for a cold night but it was mainly to spare the townsfolk from the unnerving sight of his arm weaving and flexing by itself. "Good on you Jack, If more of my guards could admit to that then I know a few fellows who would be twice the fighters they are now."

Karl wasn't really drinking either, If I understood him correctly then he had to constantly resist the call of the demonic taint within him and he didn't want to impair his ability to resist in case it was lulling him into thinking he had control only to strike at a better moment.

Thankfully It didn't seem able to spread while he slept, requiring conscious if not sober consent to increase its influence over him.

As that night had worn on Victoria and I had become more comfortable amidst the raucousness of the tavern, I had my arm around her waist and she was giggling about some story Karl was telling about how he'd accidentally cut Luna during one of their first sparring sessions. "She had a little cut on her shoulder and she wanted to stuff it with horsehair like the city duellists do. To make it scar prominently instead of fading away under ointment and time. I didn't know what to do because I wasn't supposed to be sparring her in the first place so I just ran home and left her to deal with it."

Luna took over, unable to contain her own grin. "I let him go, stomped over to the stables and asked the stable hand for some of Cinnamon's hair, I think it was still Jeremy back then and he brought me the hair but then when he asked me what I wanted to do with It I told him it was for my dolls. Immediately he knew something was up because I hated dolls."

Victoria then finished the recollection. "Dad came to check up on you, you told him everything and then he told you that if you got a scar anywhere Mum would make you wear twice as much makeup and take 3 unguent baths a day until it went away didn't he?"

Luna smiled. "Scariest thing he could have said to me. I nearly had a heart attack just thinking about it."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The locals kept a respectful distance from us, only occasionally coming over to thank us for killing the demon that had caused the recent increase in attacks or to tell the girls how pretty they looked, the latter compliments usually came from older people rather than anyone trying to flirt them out from under Karl and I. I liked Karl and I was glad to hear we'd have a 4th person on our team, especially since he'd be the one getting shot, burnt and stabbed instead of me. He and Luna knew each other's combat style, Victoria and I could pick off flankers, provide support or counter ranged attackers.

Karl himself was level-headed beyond his years, I suspected a high willpower stat that would only be increased with time if the taint remained a core part of his life.

"Well, the adventuring party should be here in the morning. Should probably turn in for the night and we'll see who we're working with tomorrow."

Victoria had told me the adventurers would be around level 15. We'd be learning from the professionals, people who'd been taking contracts, slaying beasts and breaking cults for years now. There was no way things would go wrong.

"They're all dead?"

The wagon bringing the team from the city had turned up but the only living people aboard it were the merchant who'd been liaising with the Delacroft family for the last couple decades and a man in black plate armour who impassively watched our approach. Karl hung back when he saw that and Victoria seemed to freeze up. I however kept walking just that little bit too far. The black helmet turned towards me, the merchant had left the wagon and begun unloading corpses, amongst them I saw a catwoman, she had a pair of cat ears growing through short, sandy blonde hair and wore a trophy necklace of little green ears accompanied by a single 5 inch long tooth. The other 3 bodies were human, two men in filigree patterned half-plate and a woman in grey robes with some kind of holy symbol embroidered into the sleeves.

I felt the eyes behind the helmet fix me with a glare as fiery as Selene's were frigid. "The adventuring party you requested are dead. They attempted to assist me with my quarry and it proved to be an overmatch for them."

The man was a giant, easily 8 feet tall and the wagon seemed to sag beneath his powerful bulk as he rose from the seat. "I felt a debt was owed so I have come to fulfil their final duty. I am Hafbracken of the Umbani Clerics. All hail the White Fire." At his hip was a rondel dagger the size of my longsword and on his back was a longsword like a ship's paddle.

My friends still hadn't come any closer, the merchant had practically run to the Croftop cemetery, probably to fetch a gravedigger. No one said a word as Hafbracken began stomping over towards me, his plate armour glowing softly as it got closer to me and he extended a gauntleted hand for me to shake. I accepted and the giant squeezed with a grip that perfectly matched mine, white flame danced along the back of his hand and then flared, becoming a sigil that meant nothing to me. "A pleasure to meet you Jack Bell of Kroger, were you aware that you had sinned against the Umbani 7 times before your 15th summer, 5 times further before your 18th and 1 solitary time since then?" The sword seemed more like an executioner's guillotine than a combatants blade and every moment we stood clasping hands that fact became more and more apparent. "At this rate we will never meet again when our business is done. Congratulations." The Cleric shifted his gaze to the Sisters and started upslope, hand outstretched. One by one the girls accepted and he made the same silent judgement, exchanged a few words and moved on. This time he went for Karl and I saw true fear war with the guard's rational side as we all tensed up, rationale won out and Karl shook hands with the giant. Once again the man spoke with a tone of unquestionable finality. "You have demonic taint. You have control for now, see that it does not create a problem for us while we are eliminating the enemy of your home."

And then it was done, the cleric sat on his ass and settled in. "I will wait until you are ready to leave. You have time to make any preparations that are required." The gravedigger came and took away the first of the bodies while the four of us went to grab our stuff. "What the fuck was that?" I asked, the very moment we left earshot.

Luna answered, not even bothering with the look of disbelief she used to wear so often when I had questions. "Umbani Cleric, they're weird, every one of their people trains to become a white-fire cleric, those who awaken their spark and claim the class then wander outside of their kingdom on the eternal hunt at the centre of their religion, killing all who they designate the enemy of the faith. Those enemies are few between but the Cleric will stop at nothing when they find one."

Luna let that hang for a moment, watching my face before she continued. "Before you ask, no one knows what their criteria is for a death sentence. There's obvious ways to get on the list though, denigrating their god to their face is a death sentence, refusing to help them can get you a death sentence, refusing their hand can be a death sentence too."

Victoria added an exasperated. "Loose cannons"

Karl nodded his agreement and spat on the dirt as we continued up the hill.

"They're real nutjobs and they know it, indoctrinated from birth to fulfil this calling of theirs but their word is their bond and they make fierce warriors who will sacrifice anything for their colleagues, unless they decide those colleagues have committed a grievous sin of course. Then they stop at nothing to kill them. Not too keen to work with one but we probably need the muscle."

Over in the graveyard the gravedigger threw the first shovelful of dirt into the catwoman's face. No different to any other time, just putting the dead under the dirt, whistling as he worked. The shovel brought another load of dirt over and froze, dirt spilling over the sides as the man looked on in shock. Flecks of dirt had just been spat back out of the grave. The digger leaned over the hole and then his eyes went wide as its occupant sank claws into the soft soil and sprang out. "Where's the Cleric?"