Spring 4995, 03 Buromoth

The team exited through a magical gate from the Mages Guild in Deim to Sanoloa, the capital of Swailand. Behind them, the gate closed, shrinking down to the size of a small diamond that dissolved into dust. From the gate room they took another -semi-permanent- gate showing a crumbled tower beyond its frame.

Ebonwing flinched when she stepped on the corrupted earth. This land wasn't only drained of its natural minerals, its very life essence, the spirit of Cathbad that dwelled in the material plane, had been twisted and killed.

Before them was the destroyed tower, the top two-thirds fallen in. Laborers worked with sleeves rolled up despite the chill air, warm from their exertion moving the fallen stones into piles and lines. Mages scrambled about, labeling stones with glowing glyphs and rearranging the piles. Were they going to try and reconstruct it?

They'd exited from a mostly whole doorframe in one of the remaining town buildings surrounding the tower. As they made their way closer, Ebonwing saw the scars of recent fires blotting the land around a circular clearing.

"What caused those?" She asked, directing her question to Shon.

He didn't answer, but a newcomer, a Paladin in black armor, helm held under his arm, strode from the tower to explain, "Those are where the bodies of the undead, destroyed by the Fire Sorcerer, fell."

"Sir Ragther, I presume?" Tristen held out a hand to the Paladin, who took it in a shake. Ragther took a moment to nod a greeting to Shon, who lifted his hands to give his Monk-styled bow. Ebonwing didn't know why the Soldier chose to greet people like that. His sword and hair made it clear he wasn't a Monk. She suspected it was just a good excuse not to touch people while still being polite.

Tristen was still talking to Sir Ragther, "I assume you received my letter?"

"I did, Colonel," Ragther answered, though he glanced again at Shon as he did.

"And the unmarked clearing?" Alena asked, pointing to the place in question. A perfect circle about forty feet across surrounded almost wholly in a ring of black.

Once again, Ragther looked to Shon, though when the big man didn't answer, he cleared his throat and said, "A soul lamp, M'lady."

Ranito took a hissing breath between his teeth, and Tristen and Alena paled. Oswall looked about as confused as Ebonwing felt, lifting his brows at their companions then at her as he lit one of his smokes.

"Gods above," Alena breathed.

"I presume it has been destroyed, Sir Ragther. To whom...?" Tristen started but trailed off as Ragther shook his head.

"We have not determined to whose soul it was bound."

Ranito took out his notebook and began scribbling, asking, "How is that possible?"

"It seems," Ragther answered slowly, "that the God to whom the soul had sworn its Oath was not one we recognize..."

Shon and Tristen both scowled, though Shon seemed confused and Tristen angry. "You will give it to the Temple of Saint Giorgos, Sir Ragther. It will no longer be the concern of the Temple of Horsa." Tristen ordered, which just made Shon's scowl deepen and his familiar chitter.

Ragther nodded, "Yes, Colonel." he continued, "I'm afraid there isn't much here for you and your team to see. It seems the Warlocks have cleared all signs of their being here in the time it took us to return to the city. Though the excavation continues."

Tristen nodded but waived for his team, "We will look regardless. Druid Ebonwing, please see if there is anything outside that might be able to tell us anything. Stay with her, Master Sergeant. The rest of us will go inside."

Shon nodded and Ryuuko whistled, while Ebonwing gave the Paladin a lazy wave to show she'd heard him and started walking around the tower. She picked her way carefully around the blackened smudges that were the places the undead had fallen. How powerful was the Firewyrm? To be able to do even half of this without passing out...

Considering the land's corruption, Ebonwing doubted she could find anything to commune with, but took calming breaths anyway. Sending her energy and soul out to search for life outside that of the humans working to clear the tower. She choked on her breath a moment later when she and Shon rounded the back of the tower and found the physical remains of the Warlock's twisted guardians.

The corpses were laid out in straight rows, five of them, each with twenty-five bodies covered in white cloth. Clerics of Lune walked between them, chanting and writing out names on bits of wood to be placed over each corps. Trying to identify the bodies. Shon squatted down before one, reading the name, though he didn't lift the cloth covering it.

"So many..." Ebonwing breathed.

Shon nodded, and Ryuuko crooned sadly. "Some were the Sorcerers that had been taken, but not all," He closed his eyes as if in prayer and stood again, moving to take a position behind her and to the left. The move made Ebonwing feel safe, like she somehow knew that with Shon there, she didn't have anything to fear. It was only then that she realized she'd been afraid. The dead land having made her that uneasy.

She shook herself, like a dog banishing water from its fur, and started walking again, searching. Neg ruffled his feathers, and she reached up to stroke him, closing her eyes to better focus her magic.

There...

Ebonwing opened her eyes and pointed, then followed her own finger to what had once been a shed. The roof was gone, letting the sunlight shine in, and when she crossed the cracked, doorless threshold, she sighed.

Soil, alive, though only about a foot deep, was spread over the shed floor which had been dug out to hold it. In the middle grew snowdrops, one of only a few flowers that would sprout so early in spring.

Neg and Ryuuko perched themselves on the shed's walls and Shon stood by the door, reminding her of a city guard. Perhaps that was what he'd been before being approved to adventure. It was what most Temple enlisted were.

Ebonwing knelt before the flowers, "Thank Cathbad," she whispered. Even here Their life poked through the death. She fell into meditation and started to chant, reaching out to touch the mind -or more accurately the spirit- of the flowers. They whispered to the Druid, though not in human words.

This had been a garden, a small place untouched by the Warlocks' magic. For the children to play... She saw a little boy and watched him grow from about two years old to around four. Then a new little girl started to join him here until he was five and she three. The flowers knew nothing beyond their soil and walls.

Ebonwing sighed, digging her fingers into the earth and infusing it with some of her magic -as thanks for their assistance. The flowers wiggled and grew quickly, their buds sprouting, though she stopped before they would bloom. Would they even be able to seed? Without bees or other insects to spread the pollen?

Someone crouched beside her, and Ebonwing opened her eyes to see Shon staring down at the flowers. His fingers twitched, but he just stood again, nodding down at her and saying, "Life will return. Now that they're gone."

A single tear fell from her cheek to land on the back of her hand, making Ebonwing jump in surprise. She hadn't realized she'd been crying. Wiping her face clean of the tears -smearing it with dirt in the process- Ebonwing managed a smile. "Yes, it will." she declared.

Shon didn't offer to help her up, but Ryuuko flew down to land on his shoulder, then climbed down his arm, digging its claws into the long sleeves of his shirt, making him flinch in pain and offering its tail to her. Ebonwing snickered, reaching up to grab the tail -though not pulling on it- as she stood.

It chittered in disapproval to its human, and Shon rolled his eyes. Still, he waited until Ebonwing let go to dislodge the dragon.

"I'm afraid they weren't much help," Ebonwing said, bracing herself before she stepped out of the little garden. Shon didn't ask for more, and the two returned to the front of the tower where the others were exiting.

"Anything to report?" Tristen asked, while Ranito prepared his pen over his notebook, and Oswall lit another smoke. Alena's ordinarily cheerful face looked despondent.

Ebonwing sighed. "Yes, and no. They kept a garden, but it was closed off from the rest of the tower. They..." she trailed off, biting her lip, then continued, "They had children here," Her eyes looked to the tower but saw past it, to the memory of the bodies lined up and covered in white cloth.

Alena whispered a prayer, but Shon and Ragther nodded. They'd known. Ebonwing watched as Shon met the Horsa Paladin's eyes and gestured with his head toward the others.

The knight sighed, "I swear you're even more close-lipped than before..." But then Ragther addressed the rest of them, "The Warlocks were performing breeding experiments on the Sorcerers here. There were three children, five, three, and one year old. They were all recovered with their parents."

"Breeding?" Oswall choked, his smoke falling from his lips to scatter into sparks at his feet. Ragther studied the Rogue pointedly, and Oswall added a belated "Sir." to the Paladin of his own Temple.

Tristen cleared his throat, "You have prepared the survivors for questioning, Captain?"

Sir Ragther nodded, "They are at your disposal. The men who kidnapped them as well." Shon arched an eyebrow at the Paladin, and the man smirked, clarifying, "Their execution has been stayed until after your questioning."

"Very well. We will start with them." Tristen said, gesturing back towards the gate that would return them to the city in the blink of an eye.

***

The team spent the rest of the first day going over the logs of the questions already asked of the kidnappers. They'd been extensive, though the team managed to come up with a few new ones to clarify answers, then spent the next day doing that. The three men, one young with a bird-like nose, another older with a missing eye, and the last a former soldier, were strapped to a set of hard chairs in the middle of a circle of silver inlaid in the floor. A truth spell. They would all be shocked painfully when any lied, though they didn't. They had already been broken.

Alena hated that part. Much like the Temple of Hengist, the Church of Soleil didn't approve of torture and went so far as to disagree with all three Temples on the use of the death penalty. But it wasn't her place, or even the place of her Church, to try and talk them out of it, so she didn't.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Now, two days after they'd officially started their investigation, the team was questioning the Sorcerer survivors in the Temple of Saint Giorgos. Sir Tristen sat at one end of a long table while the victim sat at the other. There were places at the sides for the team and Sir Ragther to sit. Though Oswall had decided to open a window and sit on its cill, spitting into his flask as he sucked on his tobacco, and Shon had taken up a position beside the door, his legs wide and arms clasped behind his back. Ebonwing leaned back in her chair, resting her feet on the table, and Ranito hunched over his notebook, constantly scribbling. Ragther sat beside Tristen -across from the Archmage- and beside him, Alena was trying her best to smile soothingly to those they questioned.

They started with the last that had been taken, before the Firewyrm. He was a fire Sorcerer himself, but all he could tell them was that the Warlocks were disappointed to find that he was apparently 'red' when they had wanted 'gold.' Whatever that meant. They hadn't pared him with anyone; instead, they would drain his blood every few days without explaining why. He assumed it was to keep him weakened. But as they'd kept his power sealed with a collar made of gold and rubies, that theory didn't make much sense.

Ranito seemed to understand more than Alena did, his brow furrowing in thought as he scribbled. But he didn't explain anything to them. Perhaps once they were finished with the interviews...

Alena watched the fire Sorcerer exit the room and saw that two more victims waited their turn together in the hall. She tried to smile at them too, though Ragther called dispassionately, "Next."

The woman jumped, and the snake wrapped around her neck hissed. The man rested a hand on her arm to hold her back and squared his shoulders, striding in with his head high and eyes focused on the far wall. A duck waddled in behind him, its webbed feet slapping against the stone and undermining the man's seriousness. Alena looked at her notes. The next was supposed to be the woman, a water Sorcerer, "Mr. Josin?" she asked, looking at the next name.

"Yes, M'lady. Miss Nana is still nervous and wanted more time to compose herself." Josin answered.

Tristen and Ragther both scowled, but Alena spoke quickly past them, "The order is not strictly necessary." She shot a glance at the two Paladins, who clearly disagreed but shuffled their papers anyway, digging out the files on past interviews with Josin.

"You were partnered with miss Nana, correct?" Tristen asked the man.

Josin's attempt at calm confidence faltered, and he looked away, down at the floor, nodding in answer. His duck quacked and rubbed its bill against his leg. "They... they threatened our familiars..."

"That was how they kept you compliant in the kidnappings," Tristen spoke without looking up and didn't see the Sorcerer flinch.

Alena closed her eyes and took a calming breath. In his diligence to follow the law, Sir Tristen was utterly oblivious to the emotions of those he was questioning. To the scars he might be opening.

Well, Alena thought to herself, There's a reason they wanted a team built of different people with different perspectives and skills... She braced herself and addressed her superior, "Sir Tristen, perhaps I might direct these interviews?" He finally looked up, and the Vicar met his eyes pointedly, "Soleil's soothing light might be better served here than Saint Giorgos's... dispassion." Ragther managed to mostly hide a scoff, though Ebonwing smiled her agreement, and Shon nodded, while Oswall spit into his flask again, and Ranito didn't look up.

Tristen coughed into his fist but waved a hand, "Very well, Vicar Alena. Thank you."

She smiled, sighing in relief. Sir Tristen really was a good leader. It seemed he respected their skills and would learn to better use them in time.

Alena slid her chair closer to the victim, drawing his attention to her alone. She might not be able to heal him of these wounds of the heart, but she could at least try not to make them worse. "It's alright, Josin," she said casually, "We merely wish to know what happened, to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Please, tell us your story. From the beginning."

He took a deep breath and told them of the kidnapping first. No one interrupted. Alena watched him, nodding encouragement and smiling where appropriate to put him at ease. But when he reached what had actually happened at the tower, he started to falter again.

"They took my blood every few days. I thought that was all they were going to do, but then they brought Nana to my room..." he squeezed his eyes shut.

Alena reached out a hand to brush his knee gently, and he looked into her eyes, his own growing wet, "I didn't want to. I told them I wouldn't do it. I swore I wouldn't touch her. I..."

Someone growled, but Alena didn't pull her eyes from the Sorcerer. "Josin, they are gone now. You and miss Nana are safe."

He took in a shuddering breath, "I had to..."

Behind her, boots hit the ground. Alena didn't turn around, giving the Sorcerer all her attention as his story spilled forth. "They said they would kill our familiars, but that we would survive it, and that if I still refused, they would kill her, kill Nana. That I was more powerful and therefore more useful to them. And that they would do it again and again with different women until I broke. I... I didn't want..."

The door slammed, and Alena finally looked away. Everyone had jumped in shock, and they were all staring at the door, all except Oswall, who was gone.

"Bring him back, Master Sergeant," Tristen ordered Shon.

The Sorcerer cried into his hands, his duck circling between the chair legs in distress, "She said she would do it, that she would protect both of us from them. That it wasn't rape. But... She's so much stronger than they thought, stronger than me..."

Shon left the room, the door clicking closed quietly behind him. Alena pat the Sorcerer's knee as gently as she could until he looked at her again. "You were standing with her in the hall." she reached up to stroke Josin's face, letting the blessing of Soleil make her hand warm and soothing, "She doesn't blame you, Josin. You shouldn't blame yourself."

And now Alena had a group of people she wouldn't mind seeing executed.

***

Oswall cursed as he tried to lite another match and instead cracked it in half. Tossing it to the ground, he took out another. The door to the Temple opened slowly, and he glanced over just enough to see Shon slip out.

Oswall growled. Of course they would send this man to come get him. "I just need some air." He managed to lite the match and leaned against the wall as he lit the smoke. With his peripheral vision, Os saw Shon nod and lean back on the other side of the door, opening it a crack so his familiar could slither back into the hall.

Os huffed, "Tristen didn't send you to get me?"

Shon shrugged, "He didn't say when you needed to be back."

Oswall looked away. He was sure that Tristen had wanted Shon to bring him back now and was equally sure that Shon knew that. Yet the loyal soldier would give Oswall the time he needed to cool his head? Shon didn't say anything as Os smoked, not only the first but two more, using those before to light the next.

Finally, the big man said, "He didn't rape her."

Oswall pushed off the wall in a fury. He would need to learn to better control himself if he was going to keep working on this mission with this team, but for now, he was too agitated, "Of course he didn't! Those fucking Warlocks raped them both. A man doesn't need to be penetrated for it to be rape. This is..." This was worse.

He clenched his fists, crumpling the smoke he'd prepared next. There were so many who didn't understand. Who seemed to think that if a victim of either gender got off in any way, it wasn't still a violation. And the way those Paladins were treating this victim, this man, as if he had done something wrong... Os growled.

On the other side of the door frame, Shon nodded in silent agreement.

Oswall took a calming breath and leaned back again, taking out a new smoke. Ryuuko slithered back out over the door and onto Shon's shoulder, twittering. Shon nodded again, then said, "The way you left could be construed..."

The smoke fell from Oswall's slack lips, his mind running over how he must have looked from the others' perspective. It could've been seen as either anger at the Warlocks or at the Sorcerer. But the Sorcerer, already guilt-wracked, would only see one option. Oswall cursed.

"He's coming," Shon warned, reaching up to pet Ryuuko, who whistled low.

A moment later, the water Sorcerer slinked out the door between them, his head hanging so far down that he didn't notice them. Oswall squeezed his eyes shut. He'd never been good at dealing with the victims themselves, only the perpetrators.

"Josin." He called, using his bag of chewing tobacco as an excuse not to look at the man as he flinched and turned to them, "I will kill them. All of them." Oswall said, shoving a ball of tobacco in his lip and pushing off the wall again, "You're not to blame for anything. No matter what some might say and especially not what you might tell yourself."

Oswall turned his back on the man and reached for the door, but continued, "I know nothing I say will make you feel any less guilty, but know that at least we know none of that guilt is justified." well, he knew it. But as Shon pushed off the wall and nodded in agreement, Oswall was glad at least one other team member made the plural true.

Oswall returned to the hall, Shon silently following behind. Os really would need to better control his emotions. Before, he'd taken this job because it offered a two rank promotion and pay raise. Now, he had a more personal reason to see these Warlocks exterminated.

"Tell me again that they all died," Oswall demanded of the silent soldier without turning around.

"All but one," Shon answered.

Os grunted, reaching the door to their interrogation room but not grabbing the handle, "We'll kill them all."

He finally glanced back to see Shon frown, his lips barely tilting down to show displeasure. Of course the Hengist rep would insist on mercy... The big man looked away, back towards the exit, and muttered, "Unless Lily finds that one first-"

But Oswall was already responding to Shon's frown, "All of them," Oswall snapped, "They are all guilty by association." Shon didn't respond.

Blasted Hengist man. I won't let you or your damn god stop me, Oswall thought, but said, "They deserve worse." before he took a deep calming breath and returned to the interviews.

***

The officer's quarters in the Temple of Saint Giorgos were nearly identical to the Temple of Hengist. The only real difference was that Saint Giorgos's accommodations were larger, with ten private rooms off the common area instead of five.

It had taken them four days to question all the survivors, and now the team gathered in the common area after their showers. Ranito still had his hair wrapped up in a towel, and the ladies and Oswall were dressed in clothes for sleep. Tristen had put on a clean uniform, despite needing to change out of it in only a few hours and Shon had also fully dressed, though not in uniform. He only wore that for official reports to command.

Most of them lounged in the couches set around a low table, and Tristen had pulled up one of the hard chairs from the card table while Shon stayed standing across from him.

"What have we learned?" Tristen asked the team at large, looking around at each of them, then focusing on Ranito.

Shon, also watched the Archmage, though Oswall spoke first, "Warlocks are mad and evil, and all need to die."

Ebonwing rolled her eyes, "We knew that already."

Ranito ignored both of them and took out his notebook. "The Warlocks apparently operate under the theory that Sorcerer magic is, in fact, dragon magic," He waved his pencil at Shon. "If this fringe theory were correct, then our resident Sorcerer would be a descendant from either a White or Silver dragon, as both held ice power."

"Can we use that?" Alena asked, "If we track the Sorcerers in other provinces..."

Ebonwing shook her head, "If they were all kidnapping Sorcerers we would've found them sooner. Supposedly they've been working in the shadows for thousands of years." She chewed on her thumb in thought, "The others must be doing other kinds of experiments."

Shon took in a deep breath, looking at Tristen. The Paladin met his eyes, accurately reading his question in the look. Subtly shaking his head, Tristen turned to Ranito to ask, "What did the Fire-" He glanced at Ryuuko, curled on the table between them. The pseudodragon had looked up and prepared a hiss. Tristen corrected himself, "... woman, say they were doing at her tower?"

"Animal experiments," Ranito answered, providing the information Shon would have given if necessary, "They were trying to breed animals into dragons. I theorize that it was a continuation of the experiments they did in centuries past to create the drakwalves."

"So now animals can be Sorcerers too?" Os asked, waving his hand dismissively.

Ebonwing huffed, "No. But Warlocks are mad. Can we honestly expect to find any sense in what they do?"

"They were infusing the animal bodies and blood with the Firewy..." Ranito started, and Ryuuko hissed. The Mage rolled his eyes, "The Fire-woman's samples. But apparently they couldn't survive long under the strain of the magic."

Lily's treasures, the animal subjects that she'd claimed as her own, her only comfort besides books while in captivity. It was their murder that had caused her to lose control and escape. Killing all the Warlocks holding her in the process. All but one.

Ranito continued, "This might help us in determining some of their methods and motivations, but it won't help us find them. For that, I think we should look at the tower. It was an abandoned tower of the Mages Guild, though they changed the layout. We will need to find another to confirm, but we may be able to use that."

There was only one other Warlock tower that Shon knew of and he held his breath. He did not want to go anywhere near that tower.

"The Fire-Woman's tower," Tristen said, reaching the same conclusion and nodding. "Seven years ago, Clearhelm started an investigation into these Warlocks, not realizing how far they spread."

"So we go there too," Oswall shrugged, "Since we're retracing steps."

Shon smothered his panic and spoke in as calm a tone as he could manage, "The man who did the fieldwork for that isn't in Clearhelm."

Ryuuko whistled happily, but everyone else looked at Shon curiously, everyone except Tristen, who studied him with narrowed eyes, "The General who headed it is..."

Shon's heart thundered, but he managed to remain impassive, except that his sword shifted from a relaxed midnight blue all the way to cloudy white. "We should use our numbers, split up. I know where to find the Monk who..." But Tristen was shaking his head, and Shon's heart fell into his stomach, making him sick.

"We stay together. After we question the Sorcerer in Lenare, we'll go to Clearhelm to investigate the Firewoman's tower."

Shon closed his eyes and didn't even flinch as Ryuuko lept from the table to his chest, clawing its way up his shirt and skin to his shoulder. Ryuuko nuzzled his cheek, and Shon opened his eyes in time to see the others nodding in agreement with their leader. Shon smothered his discomfort under a layer of ice.