13th day of Zun’s Rest, twelfth month of the year, 983:
“My Lord, the high merchant Hilus has come on urgent business. Should I let her in?” Inquired the new guard of the recently formed Baroness Guard.
Noct didn’t move an inch from his usual, indolent, position on the throne. Not moving his head from the fist that was holding it, his gaze didn’t move from the door.
“Yes.”
The guard nervously saluted and opened the door. Hilus, a beautiful easter woman with blonde hair entered, followed by four of her underlings, merchants as well, and a dozen slaves as per their agreement.
Bowing down with a shining smile, she started to gleefully chat with one of the debtors the merchant association had. Their headquarters in the north were located in the County of Astar, and being part of the direct holdings of his Liege gave her the same confidence as always. “Your generosity knows no bonds, sire, for agreeing to meet me unannounced.”
“Cut the crap, Hilus.” Badly contained fury resided in his eyes.
Not losing her smile, she nodded and went to the important part. “As per our contract, I have come to deliver the slaves you wanted to buy. Skilled bureaucrats that failed their lords, what a traitorous bunch.” Shaking her head, making her beautiful hair dance, she continued to try to bargain a better price with both compliments and by selling her feminine appeal. “You really embody the ideals of Elenia.”
“The real reason for you to be here?”
Losing a bit of her confidence in front of her coldness, she was able to hold her poker face and address the main problem. “As you have been invited to the coming of age of your future liege, I have come to collect our annual payment of the debt of the Ashen ones.”
“I see.” Finally moving, he reached for his shadows, took a platinum coin and tossed it to the ground next to Histul feet. “There you have it.”
“....Excuse me?” Now the tables have turned, as she was the one who almost couldn’t rein her anger in. Taking a breath, she tried to gloss over this disrespectful act. “I never knew you had a fondness for jokes, sire. Pardon for being rude, sire, but it is not a funny joke. It is a serious matter, sire, if you could…”
“This is not a joke, Hildus, I am altering our long, lasting contract. That was the original amount of the ‘debt’ that remained when our past Baroness passed away. Paying you these past seven years for an interest you racked on your own accord was my folly alone. Now, scram.” He returned to his original position, looking bored of this issue.
“Pardon my rudeness, Regent Noct, but you have no power nor real legality to this course of action. Should I take this to the Court of the Countess?”
The very air tensing up, Noct responded calmly. “I do not care, do as you wish. This is my final warning, “His eyes shining with danger, ‘Just kill her and be done with it’, ”take the new contract and get out.”
A vein almost bursting on Hilus head, she elevated her voice. “And I repeat, Regent! You do not have the capabilities to force this issue by just screaming about it! If you won’t comply, then we will take our due, as we are legally obliged to.”
Noct started to laugh, his low tone almost a growl, and answered, “If you can find a single gold coin on my castle I would congratulate you. You know, Hilus, you say I can't not pay, but I can swear upon that very Elenia of yours that I do not have the money to pay. Nor would I do if I had it.”
Now smirking, Hilus mockingly counterattacked, “O, but we wouldn’t dare to disgrace you like that, sire. We will simply take our due from the city, we do have the means available quite near here.”
Now Noct slowly rose up from the throne. A stand off between the two of them started and Hildus, knowing he wouldn’t dare to do anything, kept her mocking smile with a going of bloodthirst. That smile reminded Noct of something it should have not. In the blink of an eye, Noct turned into shadows and reappeared a step away from her and grabbed her from the neck, raising her in the air. Hildus tried to loosen his iron hold and fought to breath but, soon enough, a dry ‘crack’, as if the breaking of a twig, resounded on the throne room. A few screams followed suit, both from Mulia, who had been nervously fidgeting at the right and a bit behind the throne, and from the merchants and slaves.
Discarding the body, that still had a face of incomprehension and fear, he looked towards her entourage.
“Who is the second in command?” Asked Noct, looking like a hunting beast, his eyes screaming murder. ‘Another body on the ground will set up a good example’
A man wise enough, who was but a common merchant, raised his hand, trying to protect his comrades from the fate that one with the reputation of Noct would surely ensure.
“It is I, sire.”
Not speaking a word, Noct raised his hand, which was quickly being covered in magic circles and starting to shine green. But before Noct could start the culling a voice resounded clearly in the throne room. The origin was no one but Andras, who was sweating from running towards there when he heard the screams and who was managing to not let his lack of breath show.
“My Lord, the army requires more funding.” The complete lack of etiquette and the confusion provoked by the High Commanders just blurting that senseless statement caused the situation to de-escalate.
“...it needs what?” Asked Noct, completely confused.
“More funding my lord.”
Slowly coming back to his senses, he realised what Andras was doing. It sure was nostalgic. Everytime he lost control, Andras was there to draw his attention to him, not minding what could befall him. Letting his spells fade, he signed and said.
“Denied.” Turning his now non murderous attention towards the ‘second in command’ he continued their early business.
“Tell your association whatever you want, I consider our contract fulfilled and paid as per it was mandated. Leave.”
The trembling merchants could not bolter quicker from the room. Now casting a different kind of spell, he went to the slaves, the majority of who were of different races, and crushed their slave collars, freeing them.
“If you want to work, head to the guilds with the coat of arms of this barony. Tomorrow, in the main square, the castle will post a recruitment drive for literate people and servants. Head to the kitchen with my Maid,” Mulia jumped but quickly nodded and started to lead them, ”to receive food and clothes. Dismissed.”
When everyone but Andras and Noct left, Soral, who had been stalking the meeting, dispelled her camouflage and cursed his brother.
“You could not hold your bloodlust for a day, huh? I come here to start our journey and what do I see? You, spilling souls on my throne room. What a morning gift.” Sighing, she continued, “They may have been vipers, but you strike at the wrong tree.”
“They had it coming.” Said Noct, looking to the side.
“And now, what?” Asked Andras.
“Well, add breaking trade agreements to my list of sins. I think you will need more paper, it's getting kind of full.” Looking towards the door, Noct ordered. ”Send a contingent of scouts towards the forest. If they were so ballsy they should have known about our predisposition to not pay our dues, maybe all that spending tickled them off. A mercenary army should not be hard to spot.”
“So your answer is to send my men to die?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Yes.”
Andras quietly saluted and went to meet his obligations.
“....you had to start a war the day we were leaving! I wish the Nether would take you already!!” Soral stomped to his room, ‘and when I think he was truly changing, may he be damned!’.
………………..
“I told you it was a good idea to keep spying on Noct.” Boasted Eve.
“...so you have kept saying these past 5 years.” Whispered Kal, the one who maintained the clairvoyance, a complex ritual that made a mirror show the reality that was happening to the object that was being observed. A drop of Noct’s blood was the catalyst for it.
With a predatory smile, Eve ignored Kal, “I will tell Lantraz. We got prey to hunt.” She looked at the other mirror, which showed what her bat familiar, a magical infused pet, was seeing. A contingent of about fifteen hundred men marching respectfully through the forest.
Kal nodded and dispelled the spell. Once warned, Lantraz started to handpick its best five hundred skeletons for the coming massacre. It had not been joking when it had told Noct it would bend its ideals for him. No mercenary would leave that forest with its meat on them, and it would gladly perform that orchestra of dead.
…………………
“Captain.” Informed one of the squadron of mounted scouts. “There’s a woman’s body in the way.”
“A local resident?” A small man asked, with little confidence.
“I think she is dead, maybe she was lost?”
“If she was dead she would already be fertiliser, the forest….Inform the main force, it could be a trap of the forest.” Using the spyglass of the Imperial regiment, hhe looked at the woman 150 meters away, lying on the ground as if she were dead. ”The rest, unmount and follow me.”
With the discipline of men used to war, they quickly safeguarded their mounts and slowly crawled towards her, checking the surrounding forest. It had been way too calm. Their commander had expected they would have to resort to burning the forest to advance upon the barony, but the march had been tranquil, too tranquil for the rumoured ‘man eater forest’.
In a few minutes they reached her. “She is not breathing, but that corpse is giving me the creeps.” Said another scout, while suppressing a shudder. The captain could but agree with his second, he had a good head above his shoulders. What’s more, he had a feeling that he was being watched. Stabbing the body for good measure, and seeing the little force which the blood flowed out of it, he nodded and gave his orders.
They dispersed to investigate the surrounding area. When no eyes were falling on her, Eve rose up and, with the sneakiness only a member of the undead could possess, she stalked towards the captain and, grabbing his throat, it ripped it off with the ease someone would tear a piece of dough, and activated her spell.
The noise alerted the scouts, but when they turned they only saw several icicles of blood impaling them. The last thing they saw was their blood joining those and forming a whirlpool around the vampire. With a predatory smirk, she calmly walked towards the main force of mercenaries, her magic shield now active.
………….
Hearing the report of his scouts, the commander started to command. “Men, ready yourselves!! We are walking into a trap!! I want everyone into their formations, shields and spearmen to the sides, archers on the center!! NOW!”
His army swiftly moved and they reduced their march speed. After half an hour, and no more scouting reports from the six groups they had, he halted the march. While he was in the middle of forming new scouting groups, a laugh resounded all over the forest. With his hair standing up, he and his army looked to the front. There they saw a most bizarre spectacle. A beautiful woman in the midst of a flying and dancing mass of blood. Finding out now where his scouts had disappeared to, he ordered,
“New formation!! Shields and paladins to the front, archers stand by, mages start casting!!! We are fighting a vampire, I repeat, a vampire!!” He feared the massacre his shield bearers would suffer, but the alternative of letting his five paladins, the only way they could kill it, tank the first hits was even worse,
Light panic doing wonders to the forming speed of the formation, they engaged the vampire. The commander’s fears were being proved right soon enough, as blood blades ripped across the common soldiers, cleaving through shields, armour and flesh with ease. The first line of shields were turned into red paste; with the second the spell lost force, and it was only stopped by the shields of the third line together with the paladins.
Cleaning a few dozen men of the way, Eve started to fight the paladins. Their shield glowing with the power of their faith, they held their ground against the currents of blood, hacking at them, their swords slowly burning a little volume of it every strike. But blood was not all they had to worry about, as she lunged at a paladin who had just blocked a blood strike and was wide open. Her hand with claws soon found flesh, penetrating his chest and swiftly grabbing his heart, which she quickly tore out and crushed with a mad laugh, trying to frighten and distract them.
The appearance of a vampire did transform into a beast when they partook in combat. Claws often seen in wolfmen appeared, their cutting power equal to the very steel they often destroyed. Their teeth also grew into fangs and their body exerted all the strength they were capable of. But they were not immortal, being extremely weak to holy energies, fire and silver. This form was but a last resort, when diplomacy and subterfuge failed only force could save them, and consumed a lot of energy. Not that Eve was affected, as her mastery in water magic let her replenish with fresh blood as easily as taking a sip.
Nonetheless, the very arm it had used to stab the paladin was blackened, burned by the faith stored upon the shield it had traversed. The reduced output her body could put under the sun was of no consequence, as it was facing nothing but mortal beings, but the paladins were flour of another lot.
The second paladin, affected by the show it was performing, lunged against her, screaming his pain and hate for the death of his friend, only for his sword to plunge into the blood of his deceased comrade, burning a good portion of it. With his stance broken, Eve didn’t miss the opportunity and ripped another throat, lessening the number of dangerous foes to three.
Learning from their mistakes, they fourmed up, covering the weak spots of each other. Finally, support came for the paladins. The first volley of magic and arrows fell upon Eve, weakening her blood shield as a third evaporated away.
Toying with the paladins, she murdered every soldier who got too close to the ‘arena’ and tanked all the magic her shield could take. At the fourth volley, arrows rained upon the ground, soon consumed by the fireballs that hit her.
“Now!!” Screamed a paladin and rushed her as she laid bare, burning and without her blood shield. She smirked and, turning into smoke, dodged the paladin's stab and retreated to the woods. She had achieved her goal, as the mercenary army had structured itself to fight her, dismissing the protection of its flanks and behind. Quick enough, a skeleton cavalry marched from the direction Eve had come, the direction the army was facing.
The sounds of a cavalry’s charge sent the army into a panic. The commander was able to calm it down and switch the shield bearers for spearmen. The skilled army managed to restructure itself in time and waited for the impact that never came, as the skeletons just passed by them, illusions that quickly smoked themselves out.
In the confusion caused by this fake charge, hundreds of crossbow bolts rained upon the rear of the army, swiftly culling the mages and archers and upping the chaos by a hundred, as they had come from the sides that they had already scouted.
“Find the en…!!!” Tried to order the commander, before a bolt aimed at his head found its aim true, ending his futile struggle against the tide of undead.
Without his commander, having his mages and archers down after the first volley and the complete useless formation, the mercenary force wasted valuable time on restructuring themselves, again. Those valious moments granted their enemy in hiding another two volleys of enchanted bolts. Not even armour could save them from the bite of magic binded steel. Having lost half, about eight hundred soldiers, being completely demoralised and having their structure of command cut off, they broke down to their original mercenary companies, difficulting even more their efforts of staying alive.
When they were starting to charge towards the forest on the left side, a pulse of pure light pierced their formation by the middle, leaving dozens of burning bodies and some humans vaporised in its wake. That pulse of light curved up when it almost reached the other side of the forest, vanishing on the sky.
That was the last reason the men needed to break ranks and run away, trying to return from where they came.
“Do not let one run away.” Whispered Kal, the mage that had convoked that terrible light show. The hundreds of skeletons that had been camouflaged thanks to his magic revealed themselves and pursued the routing men. No man could outrun the undead, so they all meet their maker that day.
Looking at the nearing smoke that was Eve, Kal asked, “What do we do with the bodies?”
Reforming itself, Eve scoffed at the dumb question. “We bring them to our side.”
“Won’t Noct notice?”
“And he will praise us for upping our numbers!”
“....whatever.”
…………..
“Sir, we found a hidden spell circle.”
“What? No mercenary troops?” Asked Andras, both relieved and worried.
“None, sir. The spell circle was In the very center of the forest, high Commander, it was enormous, if I am allowed to comment, and very well hidden.”
“No army? The dryads killed the army but didn’t stop the creation of that spell?” Andras doubted, more to himself than to the scout. Arriving at a conclusion he wasn’t keen on thinking about, he ordered. “Call High Mage Albestus, we will need to investigate the woods.”
“Should I inform our lord?”
“No, let us deal with this in secrecy.”
…………………….
The next day the carriage of Alpin marched on towards their destination, the county of Astar, as they could not wait any longer. Their entourage included Soral, Sorak, Noct, Mulia and 7 baroness guards.
Andras was ordered to watch over the barony as a temporary ruler.
……………