Shogo watched his first-wife’s gesticulations with a serious faced look of detachment. She writhed and contorted herself for several minutes, before finally the spirit chose to ride her. At once she became very still and fell into a deep trance.

“Ask your questions.” She intoned in a deep octave, far lower than her mortal throat could have made.

“Our animals are sick and this land is poisoned against us. How have we offended against the gods, and how may we appease them again?” He was determined to let no trace of nerves show in his voice

They were alone in the lodge. However, Shogo was keenly aware of just how many eyes watched the two of them from outside the open doorway, and just beyond the light of the fire.

“Black magic.” Leah rasped in response.

“That is not so! I have had no dealings in the dark arts.”

“You have suffered a witch to live.”

“That cannot be. When my own maidservant’s boy was seen making covenants with dark spirits, I threw him down and dashed his head against the rocks with my own hands. Tell me where in my household this corruption nests, and I will go there this instant and kill the one responsible with my spear.” Shogo held his weapon in his lap, ready to make good on his promise with a moment’s notice.

“The witch rests not in your household, but in the city to the north.”

The city was called Patala. Shogo had been there on occasion, when they had an abundance to sell. However, he had never stayed there longer than necessary, and had not seen its walls in several years. He wanted nothing more to do with coastal folk than absolutely necessary.

“Surely master, this can have nothing to do with us. We do not own the city dwellers. We have no even traveled there for many seasons. Do you not see how unjust it is to punish your most faithful-”

The spirit cut him short. “The men of the city are fat and feeble and do nothing. The witch has mightily offended all the gods. She hold a dark relic which must be contained. Now all men here shall suffer until the gods have been satisfied.”

Shogo decided to bring two of his wives with him. His second wife, Ayo, and his ninth wife, Akoko. He had chosen both of them in marriage for their strength as warriors.

He left his sons behind to guard the rest of the household. He didn’t trust city dwellers, and they would be camping near to the walls. His daughters and other wives had gone into seclusion to ritually purify themselves before they forged a vessel to hold the cursed artifact.

Only three against a witch would be a difficult battle, but each of them wielded knives and spears tipped by blessed obsidian. They would all pierce the evil thing like no man-made iron weapon could.

The guards challenged them at the gate, but Shogo brought some cattle from his herd to sell in the market and they were allowed past. They sold the animals for northmen’s silver coins.

He could melt the coins down and have them made into something for one of the women. Perhaps a present, if one of his wives distinguished herself in battle against the witch.

They used some of the coins to buy a private room in a common house. The proprietor tried to offer them food and wine, but Shogo drank no alcohol, and he wouldn’t trust the city dwellers food.

They ate from the supplies they had brought with them. Then, after dark, his wives prayed to the moon to guide them towards the one they had come to kill.

He waited outside the room until they were finished, then they left to begin their hunt.

There were more northmen in the city than Shogo had ever seen before. He heard that they were coming in greater numbers on their great ships, to trade with the coast men. They could have one another, so far as Shogo was concerned. He didn’t trust any of them.

At the market, they had seen the tent of a fortune teller. According to his wives, she was renowned as a true diviner. They decided to begin their search with her.

Inside her tent, was a fortune teller wearing a rainbow of different silks, as the ‘high’ elves did, north of the White Sea. If she was troubled by their golden-brown skin though, she didn’t show it.

“You know why I’ve come.” Shogo spoke plainly. If her powers were genuine, she should already know his purpose and its importance. “I have silver coins to offer you, if you have need of payment.”

“No need for payment, Shogo. The gods have blessed your house, to give you this mission.” She bowed to him.

“It doesn’t feel like a blessing to me. Half my herd is sickly. Tell me where to find the thing I must kill to make them well again.”

“It is the box which has subtlety tainted all living things since the witch fled here with it. I will tell you where to find it, but first you must go to three northmen who will aid you. And that is not all…”

Shogo found the northmen as they disembarked, just as the fortune teller had claimed.

He used the trading dialect of Sylvan to call them. “You three, we have been sent for you!”

The elf among them understood him, the two humans looked confused. “Who are you?” He called back.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“My name is Shogo. I have been told by a fortune teller that you three will assist me killing the witch. She says you wish to find her as well, for the cursed relic she holds.”

The elf nodded, and conferred with the others in one of their northern tongues. “Agreed. I am Gaius, my companion is Vincent, and our ship captain is named Omar.”

“I don’t care. If you fight well, then I will learn your names. If you don’t then you’ll be dead, and it won’t matter.”

“As you wish, Shogo.”

The ship captain gave orders to his men, then the six of them left together for the witch’s home.

“Who was this fortune teller who sent you to us?” the northern elf asked.

“Why are men from the north always questioning things? There is an evil woman, with an evil relic. If we kill her, we can seal away the relic. That’s enough to know.”

“Yes, but surely you must want to learn more about what's happening than just that? There are so many powerful people seeking this box for themselves. Do you even know this mysterious diviner’s name or house?”

“Her future sight is genuine. Our meeting is proof of that. We can only follow our destiny. It’s best not to question these things.”

“But how do we know that we can trust her? What does she want?”

Shogo pondered the question briefly, against his own will. “She sees a bad future beyond us and wishes it set right, as any sensible person would, most likely. If she wishes us ill, then how could we circumvent her when she already knows all that we do? It’s better to just accept that this must be.”

It was a weakness, but he touched Ayo’s cheek with tenderness. She looked away from him in shame at his inappropriate show of affection, but she could not bring herself to chide him for it.

They came to a shack built against the interior wall of the city. Shadowed by overhanging buildings, it would be in darkness all day and all night. An appropriate location.

“I may not be able to enter with you…” the elf began.

“The fortune teller explained your curse to me, blood drinker. It will not be a problem.”

He looked taken aback, but then accepted that matters were beyond his control.

Shogo approached the house and raised his shield.

The entire building exploded outwards.

There was no flame or heat, only tremendous force. Splinters and shrapnel collided with his shield.

The witch stood in the center of the wreckage. She wore nothing, and her face was horribly disfigured. Two broken blades projected form her back. She held a box, but the lid had been wrenched askew, and there were many cracks along it's surface.

Shogo charged with his spear pointed at her heart. As he ran, his position changed around him with no warning. There was a wall immediately in front of him, and the shaft of his spear broke against it.

He drew his knife. The battle was now far to his left. He began to run again.

The vampire threw himself at the witch with abandon. He grabbed her by the neck, spun her like a rag doll, and threw her into the city wall with a strength that fractured solid stone. The box had gone flying from her grasp.

A human’s bones would have been powdered by the impact, but the witch rose again at once with unholy resilience.

The ship captain had a cutlass out to cut her down, but he put his leg through a hole in space and toppled over.

Shogo could not see what happened, but the captain screamed horribly, and his leg was severed by some means. Blood poured from the stump where the limb was cut off, just below the knee. The other human rushed to put a tourniquet on the injury.

Both of Shogo's wives surrounded the witch from either side. Each of them had entered a battle trance, and he prayed to the moon that she would lead them safely through the invisible maze of deadly unreal space around them.

Gaius threw himself at the witch again, but fell upwards into the sky part of the way through his leap.

Ayo pierced the witch’s thigh with her spear. The holy obsidian bit into her, and the flesh around the wound grew red and swollen with infection in seconds.

The witch cried out, and the shaft of the spear burst, sending his second wife flying to the ground.

Shogo reached the box. He cut open his hand and began to trace the signs which the fortune teller had shown to him onto it with his own blood. He felt the flow of vile energy that came from it begin to slow.

The witched sensed it as well. She tried to stop him, but Akoko moved to intercept her.

Then the witch herself vanished.

“There!” Gaius called out as he climbed back over the city wall. “She’s in there!”

From the top of the wall, he lurched into another nearby building through a window.

The witch blinked back into place beside Shogo, but the box’s sealing magic had already been reinforced. He was ready and planted his knife in her belly as she appeared.

A blast of force sent him hurtling backwards and through a door, into one of the local residences. The inhabitants were screaming, but he had no time to concern himself with them.

Shogo could feel that his ankle was twisted and he no longer held a weapon, but he could still crawl. He pulled himself back outside.

Akoko had come to check on him. “Husband?”

Shogo saw the destiny the fortune teller had given them unfolding in front of him. When he looked into his wife’s eyes, he saw the same realization in her face.

As the witch passed by the two humans, the one called Vincent brought her up short by driving his dagger into her calf.

His weapon was plain steel, and didn’t trouble her. She looked down at him like an insect.

Ayo used the distraction to drive her obsidian blade into the base of the witch’s spine. The monster’s legs went weak, but she grabbed onto Ayo and would not let go of her.

Akoko looked to him for instruction, even though in her heart she already must know what was required of her.

“Now! Do it! We knew this would pass!” he ordered.

Akoko charged with her spear. The witch clutched Ayo and held her forward as a shield, but Akoko would not stop.

She impaled them both- to pierce the witch’s heart.

The vile thing froze in place. Omar threw his sword to Gaius, who emerged again from the window he had entered. In a flash, the vampire cut off their foe’s head with a single powerful sweep.

The witch was dead.

Shogo crawled to his dying wife – and although it was a shameful display of emotion – he held her to his chest, and whispered his love to her as she died.

They did not have long before the guards would come. Gaius carried Omar and Ayo’s body over his shoulders with ease. Shogo carried the box with him, and walked with Akoko’s assistance.

He saw tears in her eyes.

Shogo spoke to her firmly, but without harshness. “You did as fate demanded, and no one can say a thing to you about it. But you dishonor her sacrifice now with this shame.”

She nodded, and he saw no emotion from her again. He decided that he would use the remaining silver coins to have something special forged for her when they returned.

They fled to the ship the northmen had sailed on, rather than try to leave by the gate where they could be stopped. Gaius returned with them to where the rest of the household had encamped.

His wives and daughters took the box into the sweat lodge, and there they safely sealed it's evil power away.

Akoko was weak and remained outside with them. In his own camp, Shogo decided to hold her. Even though a stranger was present, he was a northman and uncivilized. Thus he could be considered a non-person.

When Gaius inspected the spirit jar his wives had fashioned to keep the box in, he seemed satisfied. “I’m not an expert in these things. But I can no longer sense the box’s presence beyond your seals, so that must mean something. What do you intend to do with it now?”

“The fortune teller has told us of a place far from here where we must bury it.”

“Are you certain that’s the safest course of action?”

“I have told you before, Gaius. I follow my destiny without question.”

“Even so, perhaps you had better let me accompany you, so I know where it is. Then I can keep an eye on it from time to time. The fortune teller didn’t forbid that, did she?”

She insisted on it, thought Shogo.

But if I tell you that, you will not come.

He smiled at the vampire. “No, she did not forbid it.”