The hills of Pondge.
17th of Kusha, the month of Harvest.
2290 Years since the New gods came.
Late Afternoon.
Constables Went and Griegs were standing in the lee of the outhouse sharing a rollup when the esteemed Lady Brianna strolled into the farm. They watched her pass by and shook their heads. “You know Griegs, That is a Lady. You know she is, just from how she walks. A lady like that could launch a thousand ships, she could.”
“That she is, Went, that she is.” Griegs nodded. “I’m thinking the local pub could need some guarding. Constable Went, what do you think?”
“I think it probably could.” Went replied. “Lets go put ourselves on “wandering” duty.” And the pair wandered off into the late afternoon sun.
-
Brianna drew Maxwell away from the gathering of officers with some difficulty, “I have interesting things to report, husband.”
As they stepped away, Bri started talking, “I arrived in the village fairly early, as such things go, and found myself talking to several of the older women. Apparently, the disappearances run back more than a hundred years.”
Max stopped resisting his wife’s pull. “You have my undivided attention.”
“Good.” Bri smiled, and Max smiled in return. “I was able to sweet talk the ladies into bringing me strait to the village hall, and they bullied the mayor into letting us into the deep archives dating back to the founding of the village several hundred years ago; by the way, remind me never to get on the bad side of a group of old ladies who like to gossip. Anyway, we spent several hours down there going over all the ancient records, reigniting some old feuds, and putting others to rest as we read the actual history of the village!
“The important bits we recovered were that the missing persons started around one hundred twenty years ago, much earlier than Mr. McKinney’s arrival in town. In fact, Mr. McKinney was reported dead at one point, before showing up again a day later. That is when I started making the list of who had disappeared, and when, in order to help with corpse identification by approximate time of death.
“The more interesting thing I found was several years ago.” Bri finally stopped and took a long breath. ‘Remember me telling you about the lost shepherdess who disappeared following a missing sheep?”
Max nodded.
“Turns out she was found after all.” Bri frowned, “Dead; and in the company of a dead Mr. McKinney, and an unconscious young miss Betty Johnsson.”
“Was this before, or after, her time nursing young John back to health?” Max asked.
“Well after.” Bri responded. “Mr. McKinney had already “died” and been cremated by that point. At least by the time I uncovered that part the old ladies had departed for lunch. I don’t know who buried that report, but it took most of my skills to find it in the lock box.”
“You opened the village lockbox?” Max asked, incredulity plastered across his face.
Bri smiled as she responded, “It was child’s play compared to my father’s safe, dear husband.” She shook her head to order her thoughts, then continued, “Since that event there haven’t been any disappearances.”
“This has gone from disturbing to downright terrifying, you know that, right?” Max said after a few moments of thought.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“The dead bodies, or the safe?” Bri asked innocently.
“Honestly? Both.” Max said. “But I was mostly thinking of the bodies. I have one more question for you, then I think we need to read Sgt Smith and constable Joe in on what you found out.”
“What is your question, dear husband?” Bri asked.
“After the disappearances, was there any note about someone acting strange, or different afterwards?”
-
Bri and Max sat at a hastily made (by Max’s magic) table next to the barn. Joining them at the table were Sgt. Smith and Joseph “Joe” Alvarez. Smith was there because he was nominally in charge, and good at this sort of thing; Joe was there because he had seen it before.
“Joe, when you saw this in the capital, what did you find out during your investigation?” Max asked.
“We got called in due to the smell emanating from the building. It took a long time for someone to complain because the building was in the …wrong side of town.” Joe said. “When we finally got there, the place was rotted worse that if you mixed the tanners and the butchers refuse, then put it under the sun for a day.” He shuddered at the memory.
“There were only four bodies, but three of them were children under ten.” Joe took a deep breath, “Our mage at the time, Sgt. Withers, said they had set wards to preserve the place, but the wards hadn’t been very good, and had failed within the last half year.”
“The timeline for what we are looking at…looks like this,” Max unfolded a large piece of paper and laid it out on the table. The names and ages of the missing; and assumed deceased; were listed by “gone Missing” date in bright blue ink. The timeline of McKinney’s arrival, the capital mess, and Miss Alice’s death, were inserted written in black ink.
“It would appear that the missing were taken in a six-month period, once every five years or so. The “younger” the group was, the less often people disappeared.” Max said after a few moments of looking at the paper. “Does anyone else see anything?”
The four looked at the timeline, and contemplated the names and numbers.
-
Lady Chelsa stood in the underground abattoir with medics Logan and Case, and thought hard on her life choices. Sure, she was descended from some great hero in the distant past, and sure she had heard the call of the goddess at the age of sixteen and turned towards the clergy. Now she was almost thirty, and had reached 2nd class in the priesthood*, a High Priest, and an exceptionally fast ascension of the ranks. After all that work, it was infuriating that the little pest had insisted she be called by her “class” as opposed to her actual title, but the goddess had warned her of the danger of insulting the wee beast.
And now that she knew who she was working with, she understood Why she was being called by class, The Heretic was here, and her goddess didn’t want the annoyance of dealing with that mess. She looked at the sprawl of bodies, then back to the medics, sighed, and began casting the Holy Rite of Communication on the eldest skull she could find. It would be several long weeks before this assignment was over.
-
Evening had come to the farmstead, and a camp was being erected. Bri, Max, and Priestess Chelsa were being housed in the old farmhouse, and the rest were put into tents. Tents that the newcomers had had to carry.
Bri was in the middle of helping with the dishes as Max and farmer John were discussing the recent innovations in farm equipment that were coming from the province of Coxnia on the continent; when she had a revelation. “Oh, Maxie dearest, I need to go back to the village in the morning. I have an idea, but I need to do more research.”
Max sighed at the nickname, and John tried to stifle a laugh, “Have a good time in town.”
-
* The clergy ranks (I use the Christion ones due to familiarity) for the goddess of Tranquility run (Class number, followed by Title): Arc-Bishop, 1st Bishop, 2nd High Priest, 3rd Priest, 4th Sub-Priest, 5th High-Deacon, 6th Deacon, 7th Sub-Deacon, 8th lector, 9th High Acolyte, 10th acolyte, Initiate. Other gods/goddesses use different names, but the “classes” are mostly the same**.
** Demonia is, of course, different. They use Bishop (1st-3rd class), Priest (1st-3rd class), Deacon (1st-4th class), acolyte (1st-5th class). Demonia also has a “Seeker of Knowledge” designation***.
*** Seekers of Knowledge (aka Seekers) are a strange group of scholars that study the Demonia state religion, and provide technical support as a type of auxiliary to the church****. A “Seeker of Knowledge” designation runs from 1 to 10, with 1 (one) being the highest rank.
**** At some point in the olden days of the church, the seekers split off due to a schism over worshiping of the Heretic. At this point they are re-integrating into the clergy due to pay scale and cross promotions becoming more common. The official reason is to “Bring “tech support” back under the church’s official control”. *****
***** This will cause some problems in the newly developed “International” business world, as a religious institution owning several companies is seen by many as a bad idea.