“What in the name of Sampson happened here?” Wade whispered under her breath.
She, along with Alder and a group of other 2-Stars in addition to an entire contingent of other 1-Stars had been sent out to the local farmland following the report from Kya’s excursion. Knowing what to look for, they had easily found several large sheds containing smaller ritual circles, each of which had been scoured by members of the research guild that made up a large part of their numbers.
The real focus, however, and where Wade was now looking out in a stunned revulsion, was the massive chamber underneath an otherwise innocuous farm house.
Wade had stopped at the bent and broken railing of a balcony overlooking the entire area, flanked on either side by twin staircases.
Gazing out, she saw the remnants of a narrowly avoided disaster, researchers scurrying over every inch like the heart of some massive anthill. Enormous glow stones had been placed on poles all throughout the chamber, giving a cold, sterile light to the surroundings that somehow made them look even worse in her eyes. None of this was helped by the conspicuous rectangle of bright white cloth at the bottom of the stairs, the dried pool of deepest maroon poking out along the edges.
However, more than the remnants of a fight, more than the bent railing or the body left behind or even the simple scale of the place, Wade’s eyes were affixed to the carved circle of ritual magic taking up most of the central space. She wasn’t by any remote sense of the word an expert on ritual magic, but she knew enough to know how fiendishly complex the diagram was. The numerous layers and intersecting lines in the diagram and the overall scale of it were simply on another level. As horrible as the intention of its design was, Wade could still feel herself develop a sort of morbid appreciation for its intricacy.
Still leaning on the railing and simply watching, she saw Alder break away from a group of the 1-Star researchers being led by Maggie and climb the stairs to stand next to her.
They stood side by side for an uncounted number of minutes. Neither saying anything, but neither needing to say anything. Though the pair didn’t acknowledge it, they both took solace in the presence of the other.
Finally breaking the retracted reverie, Alder asked “What do you make of all this?”
Taking a moment to consider before answering, Wade collected her thoughts and addressed the least tangled line from the bunch, saying “I’m shocked that Kya managed to uncover this… all of this.” She finished by nodding her head towards the ritual, then added a sweeping gesture to the entire cavern.
Nodding, Alder said “And she was still only part way to the first threshold. Makes me excited to see what she’ll do next. Well, excited and a little worried. If she can stumble across this kind of stuff now, what will her next discoveries be like?” He finished with a smirk, attempting to make it something to scoff at, find humor in. But Wade had always been one to adopt stoicism when tough situations arose, and this place was not where she would start making exceptions.
“What I want to know” she said in response “was how a farmer and his son were able to do all of this. Even with an earth user to dig this place out, you’d need a ritualist, suppliers, help from either the church of life or death, or both realistically. There’s just no way this was as simple as a man trying to resurrect his wife.”
Arms crossed, Alder turned and leaned back against the railing, tilting his head back to look at the shadowed cave ceiling above. “I was just talking with Maggie, she’s helping out with the researchers. They’re all thinking along the same lines as you. The amount of residual mana in the air points an arrow firmly at the church of death, but that raises more questions than anything else. We’ll likely be dealing with the fallout from this for a while yet.”
After a moment more of listening to the echoing murmurs from the dozens of researchers, Wade pushed herself away from the iron bars and walked down the stairs. She was accompanied by the deep sigh and footsteps of Alder a second later.
Stopping at the white sheet, Wade reached down and pulled it back with a slow, almost reverent motion.
Alder stopped and said “Oh Gaius below…”
Though neither of them were strangers to gore, nor death nor wounds, it was different seeing the beginnings of decay on a lifeless body. Alder, shuddered once, then kneeled down next to Wade and asked in a whisper “What in the divines are you doing?”
Wade wasn’t entirely sure herself. She studied the neck, looking almost like a healers model of the body. There was a thin pale layer of yellow around the faded pink muscle and stark white bone, a single depressed hole towards the top. Though she wasn’t sure why, Wade also kept her voice to a whisper as she answered his question with a question.
“You’ve seen Kya fight. She uses those two knives and shoots them through the air.” Nodding to the perfectly severed neck in front of them, she asked “Does this look like the work of knives to you?”
Looking more closely at the wound, Alder whispered back “Her blades are what, a little longer than my hand?” He then scratched at his chin for a moment before shaking his head “No, there’s a chance knives could decapitate someone, but it would have to be an incredibly lucky shot, and I doubt it would have been as clean a cut as this.”
Nodding, Wade said “That’s what I thought as well. Which means one of two things. Either Kya used some other weapon to end this fight, or-”
“Or there was a third party in the mix.” Finished Alder, eyes narrowing.
Gently returning the sheet to its previous position, allowing it to cover the entirety of the corpse, Wade rose and began to walk away with Alder in step beside her.
After walking several paces, not heading in any particular direction except for away from pale cloth, Wade now speaking normally asked “did you actually read the report they managed to get from that dwarf?”
Alder gave her a look of such profound incredulity, that it was almost enough to make her laugh. “Like I don’t have better things to do with my time than read reports. I was making breakfast while you were reading it though, and remember glancing vaguely at it while the eggs fried. Why?”
Shaking her head in what she knew to be futile chastisement, Wade went on “He didn’t reveal much, kept saying his punishment hadn’t been carried out properly. But with some emotional manipulation-”
“They got a rioter powerful enough to manipulate a dwarf?” Alder cut in.
Nodding her head, Wade replied “Yes, apparently, they have someone like that in the city. I’d guess they’re still a 2-Star but managed to get their ability across the next threshold.”
Alder whistled softly in appreciation, and Wade couldn’t help but agree. Emotion and peace were the two most difficult classes to advance, but they traded that with scaling to be much trickier to deal with at the later levels. Even against a similarly trained opponent, Wade knew she’d have a tough time dealing with an effective manipulator.
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“Regardless,” she continued, “after being manipulated, the dwarf finally let out that his master wouldn’t be pleased he was talking to the guild.”
“Wasn’t…” Alder gestured with his thumb over his shoulder.
“I thought the same thing, but no. After explaining that the farmer was dead, and that he needn’t worry about him any longer, the dwarf just shook his head saying his master wouldn’t want him to speak any more.”
“So, you think the dwarfs master is still at large? Someone else who would have more answers to all of this than just what we can find from picking apart at the remnants.”
Wade held off her reply as they passed a group of researchers all carrying small glowing devices in their hands, little metallic boxes with an attuned mana compass suspended at the center.
After they had passed the group and the harsh white light of their glow stone, she continued. “Yes, I do. I think there’s no way this doesn’t have deeper connections, from the chamber itself, to the resources, to the dwarf, to the fight, none of it is adding up. There are several pieces to the picture we’re missing.”
Stopping next to a bare stone wall opposite the twin staircase and in the relative shadow between two glows tones, Wade looked at Alder and said “I think we need to talk to Kya. Convince her to go back and talk with the guild. The Guild Master has held off after what we told him, but his patience won’t last forever, and once he knows how much more to this there is, he won’t ask nicely.”
Alder, his characteristic good-natured air nowhere to be found, nodded. Then, as if trying to regain some of it, said “not to mention we still need to give her the money we got,” then finishing in an airy tone, “for services to her ladyship, madam Evergold.”
Wade gave him a flat stare until he sighed and said “alright, alright. Let’s go talk to Maggie. Between talks of aion’s and mana residue and all that nonsense, we might be able to tell her what we think.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carcello pulled away from the warm embrace he’d given his mother.
Their carriage had been packed for the last hour or so, but she’d been double and triple checking to make sure they had absolutely everything they needed for their deployment.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as she broke off their hug, “I almost forgot the spare resin for my bow!”
“Mother” Carcello half laughed, half groaned “You packed it, along with the entire case of it, along with your extra violin already. I can see them from here, look” and finished pointing to the nearly identical black leather instrument cases leaning against the inside window of the carriage.
“Ah, yes, yes, of course. I remember now.” She turned to him, wearing a myriad of emotions on her sleeve for the world to see. The line of servants standing on either side of the front entrance to the home politely and professionally inspected their shoes, pretending not to notice a thing.
“Mother” Carcello said quietly, “Mother.” She stopped for a moment and looked up at him. He still found it disconcerting to be taller than his mother for some reason.
“The rest of the soldiers will be there. Bynes will be there. Play a song each day, and this will be the smoothest deployment in military history.”
She took a calming breath and gave him her attempt at a smile “I know, dear, I know. Thank you for always being a rock for this family, we rely on you so much.” She drew him in for one more hug, and though he hugged her back, and though he smiled when they broke apart once more, he felt his insides had fallen somewhere on the ground far, far below.
“Come on, Mata, I’ve been waiting in this box for over an hour!” Sayrin called from the carriage.
The servants had helped him into the carriage earlier in the morning, at his mother's insistence. She said it would be easier for her to check the house if he wasn’t hobbling around behind her all the while.
His words sounded like a whip, and immediately, Carcello noticed his mother grow tense and alert. He knew his father was in pain from his injuries. No longer life threatening, they’d given him some lower ranked healing potions for a slower but more thorough recovery as they’d done with Carcello’s own leg barely a handful of weeks before. This was great in the long run, but for a man so accustomed to the power his father was, being not only limited, but also suffering a constant dull ache… well, it left him slightly short on patience.
“He knows that just makes it harder to leave.” She muttered, casting one more look back at the house. “Are we sure the candles are out in the bedroom? And that-”
“Yes mother, you checked them three times already. I’ll be here, the staff will be here, the house will be okay. I promise.”
Pursing her lips, and with a clear force of will, his mother tore her eyes away and began walking towards the carriage. Zita stood one hand holding open the door, the other clasped firmly behind her back. Her surly husband reclined across one of the benches, propped up with a pillow.
“Perhaps” Carcello said in a low tone “You can sing while you travel? That would help a great deal.”
She seemed equal parts mortified and electrified by the suggestion, and said in an equally quiet voice “With all the soldiers around? I couldn’t, not unless we had at least some measure of privacy.”
“Just… think about it, alright?”
She looked as though she’d already given it four times as much thought as he ever had, but still gave a small nod.
“Finally. I know the army’s motto might as well be hurry up and wait, but usually that only applies to the lower ranks, Mata.” Sayrin said gruffly.
Carcello actually thought his father was attempting a joke, but the tone of it gave it a few more barbs than he’d intended, and he saw his mother flush slightly.
“You know it’s hard to leave, but I’m sorry for making you wait.”
Sayrin looked like he was about to retort, but the words died on his lips, and he just gave a long sigh instead. Turning from his wife to Carcello, Sayrin said “Look after the house then, and good luck on your own upcoming deployment. I expect to hear all about it with regular updates and reports.” Leaning forward with some effort, he clapped Carcello on the shoulder, and despite being in a weakened state, still sent him staggering off to one side.
“Yes father, and same to you!” He grunted as he righted himself, then continued “The moment you arrive at the foreign guild, send word back and let us know here. If I’ve already left, I’m sure they’ll forward it along. And father, please don’t push yourself until you’ve fully recovered. It will be a long journey, please take advantage of it. Remember our deal?”
His father actually beamed, all traces of pain or annoyance gone, and said “Oh I remember. My next sparring session will be with you once you’ve gotten your second star.” He tapped the side of his head “That one will be locked up here no matter what happens. I promise.”
They clasped forearms, and then locked eyes, his golden meeting his father's golden with those loathsome amber streaks.
After holding for a moment longer, they broke apart and Carcello stepped back. “Take care of them, Zita.” He said.
Closing the door and storing the detachable step, she turned and bowed her head “I will, master Carcello. You take care of yourself as well.” Then turned and climbed into the driver's bench at the front of the vehicle next to the driver himself.
Through the window, he saw his mother one arm around a violin case, the other waving at him as they began to slowly and smoothly move away.
He waved back, but upon seeing his father turn in his seat to look back as well, snapped to attention and gave a crisp salute, right arm across his chest, fist to shoulder.
Though they were already some distance away, he thought he could just barely see his father smile, and salute back.
Carcello stayed just like that until the carriage was out of sight, having turned down the end of the paved stone street.
Finally, he relaxed, and brought both hands to his temples. “Gaius only knows how this will go.” he muttered, then as the servants one by one filed back into the home, he did the same. But just as he was about to close the door behind him, he heard the scuffling sound of quick footsteps on stone, and peered out to see who it was.
“1-Star Carcello Sayad?” The runner asked as he approached the steps to the house.
Sensing the man's 2-Star aura, and reading the rank of him from his clean but travel worn uniform, Carcello went quickly to parade rest, and said "Yes sergeant, how can I help you?”
Taking out a sealed envelope with a flash from a spatial item, though Carcello couldn’t see what type of item it was, he handed it up to Carcello. “Orders son. Report to guild branch seven within the hour. If you have any questions that aren’t answered there, ask them of the lieutenant you find at the guild, she’ll be able to help you.”
Taking the envelope in his left hand, he nodded and said formally “I acknowledge receipt of the orders and will report. Thank you, sergeant.”
Nodding, the runner turned on his heel and sped quickly back the way he had come. Not wasting a moment, Carcello turned inside and tore open the envelope, reading the contents within.
Gulping, he felt his palms start to sweat and his hand start to shake ever so slightly as he lowered the paper down. He was going to Lyra, which in and of itself wasn’t anything crazy. Wasn’t even a deployment really, just a change in duty station. But with everything that had been happening there recently… Carcello got an uneasy feeling about the place. None of that was helped by the fact that apparently, he’d be going as part of a task force headed by none other than the infamous, blood stained 4-Star, Lord Cain himself.