At noon, our group climbed the stairs to the stage in front of the temple once more, to make the announcement regarding Hati. Of course word had traveled through the town already, and many, if not the majority, probably already had an idea of what this was about.
Based on the previous explanations I had given to Zara, Fae, and various passersby, I knew what I had to say to the curious audience of several hundred people. I began by telling them about the attack, and that the beasts had indeed been the new variant, as we had feared. This was both good and bad news for the citizens. On one hand, it meant that the wild beasts still didn’t dare approach the town, thanks to the “gods’ blessings.” On the other hand, we still couldn’t feel completely safe yet. Fortunately, we were here, and we had defended Alarna against this attack, which would have otherwise been devastating for the town. Though I naturally excluded the fact that these beasts had come here because of me and the awakened humans. One could argue that this was morally questionable, because if all of us left, Alarna might not get targeted by the moderators anymore. However, the way I saw it, we also protected the town and those who had to travel outside the walls from wild beasts, and even if we were to get attacked by the moderators again, the citizens could still feel safer overall.
I then transitioned to the main topic for today and started telling the people about the local wildlife. They were aware of forest animals, but many didn’t know a lot about them, and I wanted to provide some context about how they lived. Following this, I explained that beasts are just animals as well, but that something happened to them at some point in history, which turned them into what we now call beasts. Thanks to the “grace of the gods,” we were able to turn a beast back into an animal though, and since it could talk, we were able to learn a lot about beasts and the world.
When I finally called Hati to the stage from inside the temple, the citizens who had gathered here were barely able to contain their curiosity anymore, and everyone tried to steal a glance at him the moment the temple door opened. Their eyes went wide when they saw the large wolf walk up the stairs to join us, and it felt like their jaws collectively dropped when Hati sat down and greeted them with a friendly “Hello!”
Some had definitely seemed apprehensive before they saw his happy mimic and they heard him talk, but afterwards, I didn’t notice a lot of negative expressions anymore.
A few more words about Hati and beasts later, I concluded this portion of the announcement by telling the citizens that he was going to stay in town for a little while, and that I hoped they would welcome him.
“Lastly,” I said, “I’d like to remind you about the special rituals, for which the temple has posted the information on the bulletin board this morning. Please take a look if you or a relative recently came of age and you want to choose between the available Callings. We accept applications until the end of the week, and the rituals will be administered next week! Thank you for coming!”
We left the stage as the people erupted in applause, and we briefly went back into the temple, while we waited for the crowd to disperse a little. Our next destination would be the prison, to see what Halya wanted to talk to us about, but getting there would be easier once there were fewer people in the main square.
“There are so many humans!” Hati exclaimed, as he looked out a window.
“And that wasn’t even half the population of Alarna,” I said.
“Really!? Wow...”
“Uhm... he’s not thinking about eating them or anything... right?” Brie asked with trepidation.
“Of course not!” Hati said, shaking his head. “I had a lot of rabbits this morning!”
Feeding him was a little tricky, because of the sheer amount of meat he could consume, but luckily hunting in the Wildlands had become much simpler and safer recently. Not only were there more animals to hunt without the wild beasts, the specialized Fighters could also go out much more frequently and more freely. As a result, there was an abundance of rabbit, deer, and boar meat. Much to Hati’s delight, since he could eat what he liked and didn’t even have to leave the temple for it. Although the priest we had instructed to bring an extra twenty rabbits from the market this morning had looked a little perplexed.
“Don’t worry, Brie, he doesn’t even like humans,” I said.
“Ah. That’s... good. I guess.”
The Fighters weren’t quite as easily convinced as the citizens that Hati wasn’t a danger, though even the guarded Brie was slowly coming around.
We waited a couple of minutes for the main square to become emptier, and then prepared to go to the prison. Berla wasn’t interested in seeing her family, so she would stay here, and even though showing off Hati to the Rulers might be funny, I figured it would be better to not directly confront them with a beast in town just yet. Instead, he and Riala would go with Berla and practice reading a bit.
“I guess we’ll be off then,” I said with a little wave, which Berla reciprocated.
“Bye!” Hati said.
“Bye!” Riala said, mimicking him.
I grinned, and we left them behind at the temple, for Tomar and I to make our way across the main square to the prison with Bren at our side. I wondered what Hayla might want to talk to us about, but even though Berla had told me that it would have to be something important, I didn’t expect too much. I figured she might want to plead for her freedom, or maybe ask us to bring the king back to them. I could also picture her trying to broker some kind of deal, but there just weren't that many other possibilities for why she needed to talk to us.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
On the way, we saw a large group of people standing around the bulletin board, reading the information about special Calling rituals. The citizens were understandably excited about it, just like those we had administered the ritual to in Cerus.
“Everything is going well,” Tomar said, smiling at the sight.
“Yea,” I said, smiling back. “Without the talking beasts and the attack on Cerus we’d basically have nothing to worry about anymore for the moment.”
“Speaking of Cerus. You want to go there with Hati, right?”
“Heh. You guessed it as well?”
“Well, your questions to him seemed pretty obvious,” Tomar said. “Will that be before or after though?”
“After, I’d say.”
He was referring to me leaving Lilana and going back to him, but he didn’t explicitly say it with Bren nearby. This had been the plan for a while, and it was important to me that Lilana and I didn’t affect each other too much, but there would also be implications about our fighting power going forward.
“With only ‘you’ and Riala here?” he asked.
“I think it will be fine.”
The main problem was that we would essentially be losing a Sourcerer, because Lilana wasn’t quite ready for primetime yet. She was able to use scripts with stones, but she just didn’t seem to be made for fighting. While this was a potential worry though, it had only been a day since the moderators attacked, and I was certain that it would take a little while until their headquarters would start to wonder what happened to them and send another group. After all, there had been weeks between the appearances of the talking beasts so far.
“Hm, alright,” Tomar said.
We arrived at the prison, greeted the guards, and asked them to bring Hayla to an interrogation room. A few minutes and some smalltalk later, we stood in front of a door, and it creaked loudly as I opened it. While Bren took his post outside, Tomar and I stepped into the cell.
In the middle of the room stood a young woman, shackled at hands and feet, but not chained to the floor, as that was a feature not all rooms had. I hadn’t asked Berla about her cousin’s age, but she didn’t look much older than Lilana and Tomar. Maybe sixteen or seventeen. She wasn’t particularly imposing, but she did have a certain dignity to her. We had talked to a few Rulers already, but this was the first one from the “inner circle” around the king, as we didn’t see a need to talk to them. Not only had some of them been aggressive, we had also gotten everything we needed from other people.
With a sharp glint in her eyes she looked between us. “Lilly. And Tomar Remor. I honestly didn’t expect for you to respond to my inquiry this quickly,” she said. “I’m Hayla Varant.”
“We were told it was urgent,” I said, “so here we are.”
“I appreciate it,” she said, followed by a few seconds of silence, while she was gathering her thoughts. “I must tell you something about our town... Something the citizens and even most officials aren’t aware of...”
I don’t like how ominous this sounds...
“Go ahead,” I said, urging her on.
“Do you know about category ten beasts? Or rather... the beasts that don’t even have a category to fit into anymore? The ones that rule the lands outside of Alarna and Cerus?”
“We do.”
“That makes it a bit easier...” she said, and lowered her head a little.
This was apparently a big deal to her, and I had a very bad feeling about it. Nothing good could possibly come from a Ruler asking to meet with us about an urgent topic that turned out to be related to the strongest beasts. I felt like I could hear her gulp, right before she dropped a bombshell on us.
“Everyone believes Alarna to be a safezone... That, for some reason, no strong beasts live in this area... We know why that is though. This town... this entire region... is ruled by a beast as well.”
‘Eh!?’
“What...?” Tomar asked.
I just stared at Hayla, waiting for her to continue. Somehow, I still hoped that there would be a silver lining somewhere. A beast rules over this region... Okay... Maybe it’s not that bad...? After all, the citizens never even noticed it.
“Typically, the beasts terrorize their territories, and they raid them as they please. But... hundreds of years ago, our ancestors made a deal with this particular beast. We gave it whatever it requested ever since, and we’re allowed to live in peace.”
“And what does it request...?” I asked.
“It’s rather random,” she said. “Sometimes it’s everyday utilities... sometimes it’s stones... but there’s also... humans.”
“Humans...” I said under my breath. “You mean...”
“We send our dead people there. As well as those... who can’t fulfill their god given purpose anymore... The ones who are ‘put to rest.’”
I always thought this phrase was a nice way of saying “kill someone,” but it was worse. It was a nice way of saying “feed someone to a beast.” Glancing at Tomar, he looked angry, while I was still processing this information.
“When my mother died...” he said, “you sent her body out there? To be eaten by some beast!?”
“Yes,” Hayla said, her head still lowered slightly. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry!?” he spat.
He seemed ready to punch her straight in the face, so I put my hand on his shoulder to tell him to calm down.
“How is this possible?” I asked. “How did you hide this for hundreds of years? You’re telling me nobody ever realized what was going on and had a problem with it?”
“No, that did happen, but... when it did...”
“You silenced them,” I said, and she nodded.
From her posture and the way she spoke, it was obvious that she felt remorse for this, even though she herself had presumably not put anyone “to rest” yet. As a Ruler in the inner circle, however, and the next queen of Alarna, she had been told about it.
‘B-but... I thought Alarna was protected by the gods!’
Of course that’s the conclusion you would come to after being told about category tens existing everywhere but here...
“Assuming you’re telling the truth, why did you wait almost an entire week to tell us about this? And why are you telling us, and not the king?”
“Because this isn’t the troublesome part yet...” she said.
“What? It gets worse?” I asked, perplexed.
“Very much so... If you don’t do anything about it, Alarna will be razed to the ground.”
“... How?” I asked.
“Arax,” Hayla said.