Cid leaned against the mouth of the cave, watching the soft light of the fires around the town slowly dying away. He let out a sigh of relief, this hellish incident finally beginning to become a tragic memory. He grabbed his pipe and took out a match and small pouch of pipeweed. After taking out a pinch of ground leaves into the bowl, he lit the stick and stuck it into the contents and drew a long inhale.
Letting out a slow exhale, he recalled the sieges he had fought during his first years with The Cold Company. The light of the fires illuminating the night sky, muffled screams of civilians mixed with the shouts and calls of warriors committing act of barbarity no respecting bard would consider recalling to a royal court.
He remembered the night the company took the city of Saleno. The rivers of blood covering the streets, damned by bodies of unfortunate souls lost in the wild orgy of war and fury. Watching his fellow mercenaries giving into their darkest natures, the mere thought causing him to shudder. Cid recalled watching the horrific scene unfold from a rooftop of a home freshly ransacked, its family slaughtered, though he knew not if it was the work of one of his own or an ally.
Cid looked up to the fine black night, dotted with stars, and wondered if any of them were the ones who watched the horrid scene years before? Did they hold him responsible for what happened? He wondered if his kin had heard of terrible night and knew he was there when it occurred? Would they have judged him as he had them for their incessant bickering and backstabbing and constant warfare?
These thoughts lingered in his mind as he saw Benkin coming out of the cave and pinching the bridge of his nose tightly. Cid let out a short puff of smoke away from Benkin before turning back, “Is everything all right?” he asked.
Benkin let out a weak groan. “I don’t know right now, if I’m being honest here.”
“You want to talk about it?”
Benkin shook his head. “There isn’t much to talk about.”
“I remember hearing someone talk about the rituals your people would send off loved ones when they had passed on,” Cid said, handing Benkin his flask.
Benkin nodded, slowly gripping the flask and taking a long sip from the container. “The idea is to try and purify something which impurifies the world.”
“Impurify?”
“Aye,” Benkin said, “the whole basis of our faith is everything of the world is created pure, with our actions depending whether how much of that purity remains. Much of our ceremonies are to try preserve as much of that essence for the course of our lives. We even bath our hands and heads before entering a holy place.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Cid said.
“Not something you tend to advertise on the first conversation. And our ways aren’t exactly welcomed by our peers in this part of the world, so we tend to keep that mum, more or less.”
“Fair enough,” Cid said. “I can imagine this wasn’t an easy time for you then.”
“I’ve had better days. A lot of them, if I’m going to be honest.”
“Yeah,” Cid said, letting out a sigh. “That seems to be going around a lot as of late.”
“I just hope we find these bastards before long.”
“You and me both, Ben. You and me both.”
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They turned to see Leonidas walking out to meet them. “The woman seems to be willing to talk now. I figured you’d want to know.”
“Yes,” Cid said, snuffing out his pipe and sticking it back into his satchel. “Thank you doctor, why don’t you stay here and get some air with Benkin?”
“I could use some of that, to be honest,” Leonidas said to Cid as the Felidan moved deeper into the cave and found Jeanne and Kveldulf standing outside one of the goblin residences.
“Hey Cid,” Kveldulf said, as he spotted the Felidan, “Doc find you?”
“He did,” Cid replied, slipping his right thumb behind his belt. “As she said anything yet?”
“Nothing major,” Jeanne replied, “Mostly she’s started eating and drinking water.”
Cid nodded. “I guess we’ll give it a few more minutes before we start asking her.”
“I don’t like interrogating someone like this,” Kveldulf replied.
“We’re not interrogating,” Cid followed. “We’re not. We’re just trying to figure out what happened. This is nothing more than a cordial conversation.”
Both Kveldulf and Jeanne nodded, still looking uncomfortable at the whole situation. “Kel, why don’t you stay out here, and make sure no one decides to interrupt while Jeanne and I head inside?”
“Right,” said Kveldulf. “Don’t want to overcrowd the woman when we’re trying to talk to her.”
Kveldulf leaned against the outer wall of the stone hewed home while Cid gently opened the door, peering inside. There were two rush light holders with a glass orb resting in a wire circle, helping to illuminate where the young halfling woman was eating her food in a trance-like state. As she sat at a table, she slowly stirred a bowl of stew in front of her.
One of the miner goblins sat near a hearth, a small book in hand and occasionally peering up to look at the woman before turning their attention back to the book. Across the room, Maeryn stood, her eyes closed and her back against the wall with one foot resting shortly underneath her.
The elven archer turned and spotted Cid and Jeanne, only gesturing with her head towards the door. Cid confirmed and Maeryn quietly moved to the goblin, tapping their shoulder and whispered in their ear. The goblin nodded, and after placing a slip of paper into their book, left with Maeryn. Cid closed the door as Jeanne grabbed two chairs and placed them by the table near the halfling woman.
Cid took his seat, near Jeanne and after a moment to settle before taking a deep breath. “I won’t insult you by using worn platitudes of condolences to what you went through. I don’t think there are words to express the full sorrow of what I feel for your plight.”
The halfling woman looked at Cid from the corner of her eye, her brows beginning to furrow slowly. “Thank you,” she said weakly. She placed the spoon on her edge of her bowl and turned towards Cid and Jeanne.
“We know there hasn’t been much time,” Cid followed, “but the people responsible, it is without a doubt they will do this again, and more people will be –”
“I’ll tell you as much as I can,” the woman said. “I don’t know how much help I can be, but I’ll tell you what I can.”
“That’s all we ask,” Cid said.
“What is it you want to know?”
“Did you get a look at whoever attacked your village?” Jeanne asked.
“I couldn’t see their faces, at least what they looked like before they began their rampage. But I did get a look when they were in the middle of their … carnage.”
“What did they look like?” Cid asked.
“Their faces were distorted. Their eyes turned to all red and their teeth long and jagged and sticking out of their mouth.”
“Sounds like a fish you find deep in the ocean,” Jeanne said to Cid.
“Hmm,” Cid hummed, “it does. Not used to seeing a vampyre that looks like that.”
“We can run it by Doc and Gab, see what they think,” Jeanne replied.
Cid nodded before turning back to the halfling woman. “Was there anything else about them, anything that made them stick out?”
The halfling woman swallowed hard before speaking again. “Well, there was one thing. Both of them had something on their cloaks. A small shield, with a red cross and a white and cream background.”
Both Cid and Jeanne looked at each other, saying nothing.
“They spoke richly and with greatly pride. Nobles, they seemed. Though they said little about whoever they belonged to.”
“That isn’t surprising,” Jeanne said.
“Is there anything else you can remember about them, anything at all?” Cid asked.
The woman shook her head. “No, I wasn’t able to get much else. Not before they began killing everything … and everyone. Were you able to find any other survivors?”
Both Jeanne and Cid found it difficult to look the woman in the eyes. Cid, after a long moment, said, “As of now it’s you and the Lorthan family. I’m sorry.”
The young woman looked back to the stew. Dropping the spoon onto the table as pain and sorrow came over her. She tried to speak, but no words would come out. Tears flowed down her face and she choked up from the anguish. Jeanne moved over to the woman, placing her arm around her shoulder as the halfling lost herself in grief.