In the morning, Daniel walked down the stairs of the inn to find Caspian sitting alone with a drink. The place would have seemed deserted if not for the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen. Daniel sat down and frowned.
“This place gives me a weird vibe,” he said.
Caspian nodded. “Me too. I think it’s just how empty the place is.”
The young man came out the door holding two steaming bowls of soup.
“Sorry, I don’t have any bread today to go with it,” he said, looking genuinely apologetic. Daniel guessed that his earlier grumpiness when they’d first met was more due to being tired than anything else.
“That’s alright,” said Caspian. “As you said before, times are tough. Say, you wouldn’t happen to know where we can find Torsten, the head of cotton farmer's league, would you?”
The young man folded his arms. “What do you want with him?”
“Just to ask a few questions,” Daniel added. “We want to know more about the monster.”
The young man grunted. “That business is between the church and the mayor. You two best not get involved.”
Caspian was about to say something when the young man continued. “But I’ll tell you this. Whatever it was, it didn’t act like no Corebeast I’ve ever heard of. It came through the door, right over there,” he said, pointing to the front door. “And it tore my father apart before leaving.” His eyes welled up with tears. “His body was almost unrecognizable. It was so bad that they sent my mother and little sister away to stay with her aunt in the next town over. For some reason this thing only attacks the residents of Fordham. I’d go with em if I had any sense, but then who would keep the family business afloat? So I stay here and sleep with a knife on the bedside table and hope for some travelers who haven’t heard about the monster to come through and pay for rooms.”
The young man took a moment to collect himself after all the words just spilled out of him. It was obvious to the pair that he didn’t really have anyone else to talk to and had just been bottling it all up inside until now.
“I’m sorry about your father,” said Daniel. “But we’re here to help. The Lords of Veden and the church sent us and some others down here to put a stop to what’s happening. If there’s anything else you can tell us. Any information that could help us find and kill this thing, we’d be grateful.”
The young man nodded. “I can give you a list of the victims and their surviving family members. Nobody out loud has claimed to have seen this thing, but it could be that one has and is just being tight-lipped about it.”
“Why would someone do that?” asked Caspian.
“Let’s just say the argument for whether it’s a Corebeast or Scourge has been heating up. People are dividing themselves into one camp or the other. Between the church and the cotton league.”
“What about the mayor?” asked Daniel.
“Him? He’s put himself right in the middle, and by trying to appease both sides, both now hate him almost as much as each other. His support could swing things for the other group, but he refuses to declare for either. Anyway, enjoy your soup and I’ll get you that list.”
Caspian waited until the young man had disappeared before shooting Daniel a disapproving look.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” said Caspian.
“What?”
“Tell him that we’d help. You’re giving him false hope.”
“We’re here to stop this thing, and I can’t imagine any of us leaving until the job is done. So what’s the problem?”
“You also made it sound too easy. You’ve been saying it since yesterday. This is something that has entered a crowded village, torn somebody apart and then slipped away unseen. Even if it is a Corebeast, it’s a clever one that won’t be easily found or killed.”
“If? Since when do you start entertaining the notion, it was anything but a Corebeast?”
“Since I started doubting things, I should have doubted a long time ago.”
Daniel grimaced. “How many times do I have to say sorry? It wasn’t how I wanted things to happen.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“I know, but it still doesn’t take away the pain of what happened or stop the nightmares,” he said before getting up, his soup left untouched. Caspian went outside for a walk, and Daniel didn’t try to stop him. Somehow, he knew it would just make things worse.
He finished his meal and went to give the other bowl to the young man who was in the kitchen scrubbing a pot clean.
“My friend wasn’t very hungry, but I figured this shouldn’t go to waste,” Daniel said.
“That’s kind of you, sir… sorry, I forgot your name. I was distracted when I wrote them down last night.”
“It’s just Daniel,” he said. “And you would be?”
“Orvyn.”
They shook hands and sat down at a smaller table in the kitchen. Orvyn ate and talked while Daniel listened. It turns out that the rivalry between the three groups went back a lot further than the monster attacks, but that it had become a lightning rod that galvanized the factions. Orvyn then wrote out the list of victims and explained that he could introduce the pair to one of the nearby survivors, but that he couldn’t leave the inn for long.
Daniel thanked him and took the list, before tipping him another coin for his trouble. He felt bad for the boy. All alone and saddled with the family business. He was almost a prisoner of the place. Never allowed to stray too far lest he miss the opportunity for more customers.
The two of them left the inn together, and the boy put out a sign on the desk saying that he was just stepping out and that he would be back soon. It seemed like overkill for a small remote village, and Daniel had to stop himself from giving the boy more coins out of sympathy.
Daniel had also half hoped to find Caspian standing outside, just taking in some fresh air, but he was nowhere in sight.
Hopefully, it was just a walk to clear his head. The last thing I need is him going after this thing by himself.
Daniel was frustrated. Caspian was clearly still hurting, but everything he said or did seemed to make it worse. He gave him space on the beach, he apologized, and now he tried to get him invested in the monster hunt. All to no avail.
“You need to give it more time,” said Melos, who’d been silently shadowing him since last night. Daniel couldn’t respond with Orvyn so close next to him, but gave a slight nod to say that he was probably right.
He and Orvyn crossed the street and went over to a shop that had a fine wooden sign from it that said ‘Beric’s carpentry’ on it. Orvyn went first and inside Daniel saw a thin, wiry man in his late forties with red hair polishing a small ornate table.
He stopped when he saw what he thought was potential customers coming in. His bright smile vanished when he recognized the young innkeeper.
“Orvyn?” he asked. “Is there a problem at the inn?”
Orvyn shook his head. “No, all the pieces are still in good condition. Thank you again for donating those chairs after what had happened.”
“It was the least that I could do. Now who’s this and how can I help?”
Orvyn spoke before Daniel could respond. “This is a guest of mine. He claims to be a member of the group that’s coming with Alanna to stop the monster.”
“Is that true, lad?” he asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
It took everything Daniel had not to sigh as he summoned and dismissed the gauntlet as proof. He remembered when the shocked gasps were exciting to him, but now it felt like a reminder of how little his word was worth without the Spirit weapon.
Beric nervously swallowed. “And there are more of you coming?”
Daniel nodded. “Me and my companion came here a few days earlier than the rest, but they should arrive in the next few days. Still, we figured we’d get a jump on things and start investigating by asking those who were closest to the thing about what they know.”
Beric resumed polishing and didn’t say anything for a moment.
Orvyn feeling awkward, asked, “is that for the mayor?”
“Aye, another piece to in the salon for his wife,” Beric muttered.
“If it’s too much, we can leave,” said Daniel, eager not to upset more of the locals.
Beric stopped and reached up to grab something off of a high shelf. As he did, his shirt sleeve shifted and for a second, Daniel saw a small black tattoo of a symbol on his inner forearm. It looked familiar, but he couldn’t say where. Was it some carpentry guild symbol he’d seen in Veden? It bugged him, but he didn’t let it show as the man returned with a fresh coat of whatever he was using for polish.
“I can’t say much since I wasn’t there,” said Beric. “All I know is that one evening my wife went out to go to the church to say a prayer and didn’t come back. One of farmers, Bam, found her. Thank the gods. I don’t think I could have handled seeing her like that. They told me it was quick and carried her back here wrapped in a sheet. All the other men formed a group and went out with torches searching, but they never found anything. Does that help?”
Daniel said that it did. This was the second instance of it attacking at night and only a single person when they were alone. That could be a part of its pattern, but he’d need to interview more people to find out.
Daniel thanked him for his time and nearly froze when he remembered where he’d seen the symbol. It was in Percy’s journal as a demonic cultist symbol. This friendly grief ridden man worshipped the Scourge. He threw a glance at Melos, who was just idly browsing the man’s shop. If he sensed anything amiss with the man, then he wasn’t sharing it.
He thanked the man again and left quickly. Orvyn was surprised that the interview had been so brief, but Daniel assured him that it was standard procedure. Of course, he had no idea what standard procedure was. It was just something he made up to comfort the young man, which seemed to work.
Daniel hurried back to the knapsack he’s stored under his bed and pulled out Percy’s journal. He flipped through the pages until he found the symbol and showed it to Melos.
“It’s the symbol of Eigos. One of the Lords of Hell,” said Melos.
“I thought you said that this was impossible!”
“I said it was highly unlikely, and the symbol doesn’t mean much, anyway.”
“Why?” Daniel asked, feeling his hope rising. “Is this another ancient one that’s already dead, like the one that left the message in the cave?”
“Oh no, Eigos is definitely alive. It’s just that he has a big fan club spread across multiple worlds. It’s really unlikely that he’d respond to a plea from a backwater planet like this.”
Daniel started to find that the more Melos said something was unlikely, the less he believed him.