Within the last two weeks after my foot has healed, things have been getting busy.

First is the influx of soldiers arriving, two thousand in number with 600 of these being mercenaries. Of course, even though the fort is huge, it doesn’t have the capacity without overcrowding rooms. Therefore these soldiers are camped outside the keep in tents, turning the rolling fields into a sea of multi-coloured cloth, with every tent at measured distances from each other.

Well… for the most part at least.

A large section has tents wildly scattered in a clustered area, as if someone got a handful of rocks and threw them, raising a tent where ever each stone fell. This of course was where the mercenaries were tented. Rather than being a larger company like those currently stationed in the fort, this was an assortment of men, sometimes in groups of ten or more, but possibly just a single man or women with an old axe and shield.

In a way this ragtag bunch are similar to the Dancing Swans, with the exception that they aren’t tested for their combat prowess. So your equally as likely to get a beggar with a stolen knife as a hardened veteran.

These guys are likely just going to be put into a formation and thrown at an enemy without much reservation. They are expendable and will probably be treated as such in a combat zone.

I’m glad I’m in a specialist skirmisher company, since I won’t be treated as monster bait. Or at least, I hope that I won’t.

If I remember correctly, all of this is about clearing out a group of witches in the Forgotten Lands, so everyone is waiting for an order for them to march to wherever these ‘abominations’ may be.

I hadn’t thought of it before, but I have never seen anyone as close as Lilith in this ‘dream land’, and she claims to be relatively deep in the Forgotten Lands. Are they really so far in that they’re just another of the small specks on the non-existent horizon? Are they even out there or perhaps they have a method to stay hidden. I’m not sure, but I could ask my crazy pocket witch.

Haha, for all I know, she IS the group of witches they are looking to wipe out.  

Anyway, would this witch, or group of witches, really need thousands of soldiers to kill them? If they are that dangerous, I’m clearly missing out on something.

But for now, all I can do is wait for orders.

The next day around fifty men, with most of them in full plate armour, arrived bearing a strange banner depicting a eagle holding a vicious snake in its talons. These people introduced themselves as the Malleus Maleficarum, commonly known as ‘the witch hunters’.

Though in the barrens I’ve never met them due to their order having little to no influence there. However this is not the case in the more ‘civilised’ lands.

In some parts of the world they are supposedly supported by the whole kingdom, making them the worlds biggest cult, of course they’d object to that label, but they are fanatics all the same.

I have heard lots of stories of supposed witches dragged into the street and burned alive. Purged, as they call it. If they were actually witches is uncertain, though so long as they believe it so, the execution is just.

If I was ever to be publicly uncovered and somehow not killed by those around me, these would be the people who’d hunt me down.

With this in mind, I should probably be careful to hide all magic related object, since that would likely be enough for them to consider me a warlock, or at the very least an associate of one. Both of which end the same way. Not that I believe myself incapable of escaping if I do get discovered.

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*Captain Kadir POV *

Another meeting has been called now the witch hunters have arrived, perhaps I’ll finally get a straight answer on what my men are actually suppose to be scouting for. Obviously witches, but the type and number will change everything.

Currently I’m sat around a table with the other three mercenary leaders, a member of the Malleus Maleficarum and an inquisitor at that, and two generals. One stationed at the fort, the other arrived with the more recent troops.

The former of the two generals, general Comis, speaks up.

“Well, as you might have guessed we are here due to our new arrivals. And the information they bring with them. As of now we know the true nature of the treat we have to exterminate and will be acting accordingly. Inquisitor, if you will…”

“Thank you general.” The voice replies in a quiet hiss, almost having an inhuman sound to it.

To be honest, his experience isn’t much better. In fact I’d say it was worse.

The man had the face of a corpse! Not meaning that he looked pale or that he is too skinny.

His face is literally rotting away, even his eyes are a milky white, making it surprising that he isn’t blind. Not that I’ve actually clarified that he isn’t.

Normally his face is covered by a great helm, but that was taken off as it is difficult to speak in. The two generals seemed less surprised than the rest of us, either they had met him before or somehow encountered this multiple times before. Whatever ‘this’ is suppose to be.

“After gathering information, we have established this to be a coven of hex witches called ‘The Weeping Shadow’. I assume you are all familiar with hex witches?”

Since my company specialises in skirmishes into the Forgotten Lands I know basic information on most types of covens, mostly through personal experience or that of my associates.

But how this inquisitor managed to pull this information out of thin air confuses me, not much what they do sits well with me, which is a very unpopular opinion so I don’t go screaming it from the castle walls. There are even rumours that they use magic, not rampant rumours but ones that lurk in the back alleys of society.

Like me, the Taldarian Juggernaut brotherhood have lots of experience in the Forgotten Lands, even though our groups tactics and roles are completely different. The other two mercenary group however don’t have this experience as they normally are fighting other people, the same with the newer general who speaks up.

“Wait, there are different types of witches? How many ways can someone curse you that you’d need categories!”

Hearing this the inquisitors permanently unhappy face turning into a grotesque scowl.

“How about I give you a detailed description of how dead a fool like you would be if you encounter any manner of witch!”

I never thought someone could become such a vibrant shade of purple, I’d not be surprised if a vein or two just burst within his ignorant skull.

A fool indeed, I know full well a witch doesn’t roam around, throwing curses and causing famine. Not that some can’t do so, but that is besides the point.   

The rotting man makes an attempt at sighing, though it came out more of a wheeze.

“Either way, I shall give a brief description of this manner of monster.”