Over
the next few weeks, rumors of what happened at Harrowstone spread
like wildfire. They reached such a fever pitch that fights over
whose favorite version of events was correct regularly broke out.
Natalya, who had gone to the Laughing Demon for breakfast before her
daily patrol for signs of the Whispering Way’s continued presence
in Ravengro, encountered one such fight as the start of her morning.
The two men actually came to blows, causing Natalya’s plate to fall on the floor. She picked it up and scooped the bacon off of the floor and continued eating it. She’d eaten her share of rotten food before back in the slums, and Zokar kept a clean enough establishment that she wasn’t too worried about a little dirt. Zokar did insist on replacing her eggs.
And, of course, it was still safer to eat than whatever Santino was making, since the strange man had decided it was his turn to cook. The tiefling was glad that her patrols had given her an excuse to leave before breakfast.
After an hour of searching, she decided to head towards the Temple of Pharasma. Once there, she spotted Alvin working in the gardens. She caught his eye and they shared a nod before he went back to work, training the temple’s several new young acolytes, who all looked at the man with admiration.
Natalya continued on, checking the cemetery for signs of the cult’s machinations. She didn’t find anything, but she did spot Santino standing at Petrus’ grave. He had obviously survived breakfast, but it must have been terrible, because he was in an obviously bad mood.
He seemed to be talking to the grave, so Natalya decided not to approach. As she turned to leave, she thought she saw a flash of red light coming from the man as he raged against his deceased father, but decided not to press the matter.
What would she do, anyway?
Natalya left Santino and decided to head back into town. As she traveled, she passed by a house she had passed several times before. Only this time, Heimish was standing upon the doorstep, holding a single flower behind his back as he knocked on the door.
She decided that it was none of her business and continued on, deciding to stop by the town’s monument to look for signs of activity from the Whispering Way. After all, the ghosts had used the power of the significant site, so it made sense that others might as well.
She didn’t find anything at the monument itself, but she spotted movement in a nearby alley – the same alley where she and Heimish had encountered the zombie. Cautiously, she crept over to the alley and took a look.
She found Vrodish standing in the alley, practicing with his weapon. His motions were amateurish in the extreme, like a child playing at fighting. Annoyed, she drew her weapon. “You’ll never accomplish anything that way,” she said.
The deputy jumped at her voice. He spun around, holding the axe before him. “Oh,” he said upon spotting her. “It’s you.”
“Try to block my attack,” she said, indicating his shield. “See if you can counter.”
Vrodish tried to protest, but she was on him immediately, giving him just enough time to raise his shield. She was holding back, so he managed to deflect the blow, but not well enough to throw her off balance. She easily parried his counter and retaliated with her own, flinging his axe from his hand. In a flash, the point of her blade was at his throat.
“You hesitated,” she commented, pulling away the blade. “Your hands are shaking. You will be unable to hold onto your weapon that way. You have to get yourself under control or you will die.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You can’t possibly understand what I’ve been through. I wake up every night screaming, awoken by nightmares of the horrors we encountered. I’m in hell. Don’t you dare try to tell me to ‘get myself under control’.”
Natalya grabbed his collar and slammed him into the wall. “HELL? You think this is hell?” She let him go and sheathed her blade, then turned to leave. She stopped a few feet away and turned back to him. “You don’t know what hell truly is,” she said, her voice dangerously low and her eyes narrow, boring a hole into his very soul. “You have no idea what it’s like to live in a world of true horror.”
She didn’t wait for his response, stalking away angrily as he stared after her, unable to find a way to answer her.
It was almost lunch time, so Natalya decided to go find something to eat. Since getting to the Laughing Demon would require going back the way she came, and passing by Vrodish again, she instead opted to stop by Serianna’s inn.
After lunch, she continued her patrol. As she passed the alchemist’s place, she had to step to the side of the narrow street to allow Gibbs and his wife to pass. The man looked haggard, in even worse shape than Vrodish. She’d heard rumors that he had taken to drinking to try to drown out the pain of what he’d been through.
Natalya didn’t hear the door open next to her, and was startled by the voice coming from within. “Your friend Heimish has been trying to help him,” Jominda said. “But I fear he still has a long road before he comes to terms with what happened to him.”
Unlike Vrodish, who had only fought some monsters, Natalya felt pity for Gibbs. He had lost control of himself to an outside entity, and that was a fear she could understand. But she knew she could do nothing to help him, though she hoped Heimish could. So she answered the alchemist with only a nod.
Jominda spotted something out of the corner of her eye. “Dammit,” she cursed. “I’m going to lock the door and close the shop for the day,” she said, closing the door. Natalya turned to see what had prompted Jominda’s action and spotted Benjan nervously making his way over towards the shop.
She wasn’t sure what his problem with the place was, but she didn’t want to get caught up in it. So she turned the other way and made an escape.
Later in the afternoon, Natalya returned to the manor. As she approached the door, she was stopped by a voice. “Excuse me, miss?” the high pitched voice asked.
She turned and spotted a gnome standing there, holding a parcel. “Yes, what is it?”
“Are you Kendra Lorrimor?”
“No,” Natalya said, turning to go inside.
“This is her house, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Is she home?”
“I do not know. I believe she was going to call on one of her acquaintances today.”
“Oh. Then will you give her this package?”
“Fine,” the tiefling answered, taking the parcel from the gnome, whose name was Sqweek, though Natalya neither knew that nor cared. He held out his hand expectantly. “What?”
“Umm, my tip?”
“Were you not paid to deliver this already?” Natalya asked.
“Well, yes, but…” he never finished the sentence as she shut the door in his face.
“What a woman!” the gnome exclaimed, immediately infatuated, though Natalya did not hear him, having already gone further inside in search of Stein.
She found the butler in the kitchen, tending to a boiling pot. “What do you have there?” he asked upon seeing the package.
Natalya set the package, which was marked with the symbol of the Order of the Palatine Eye, which she recognized from the locked journal, on the counter. “Someone sent this to Kendra. Is there a way you can ensure that it is not booby trapped?”
“I can test it for residues from poison or explosives,” Stein agreed.
“Before she gets home?”
“Sure. It’ll only take about fifteen minutes. The roast will be fine on its own until then.” After his check, he determined that it at least contained no obvious presence of the mentioned substances.
When Kendra returned, Natalya told her of the package and warned of the danger of opening it. To humor her, Kendra agreed to allow the tiefling to open it for her. Natalya did so very carefully, holding her buckler between her and the package as she did so, hoping to block any spring loaded darts that might come out.
But there were no traps. Instead she found only a book. It was marked with the same symbol as the outside of the box, and had a note attached. Finally convinced it was safe, Natalya handed the contents over to Kendra.
“‘Dear Kendra, this belonged to your father. Do not judge him too harshly,’” Kendra read aloud. “‘He allowed monsters to make him into a monster. Just know that you are not his first daughter and that puts you in grave danger. Sincerely, Embreth Daramid.’”
“Embreth Daramid?” Natalya asked.
“That’s the one you’re supposed to deliver the journal to,” Stein noted. “In Lepidstadt.”
“Oh, right, the judge, I think it was?”
“Yes,” Kendra said, opening the journal. Inside was a bestiary and a number of religious symbols. She wasn’t sure what it all meant, but one part, a hastily scrawled note in her father’s handwriting stood out. “‘Dearest Embreth,’” she read aloud. “‘Our daughter is now of the flesh.’” She looked up at the others. “What could that possibly mean?” she asked, handing the journal to Stein.
“I do not know. Perhaps I will be able to discern the meaning from the rest of the journal. I will give it my utmost attention.”
“Good,” Kendra said. She turned to Natalya. “Please do not tell the others of this.”
Natalya nodded. She saw no reason to mention it, anyway.
The rest of the month passed uneventfully and finally the day came that they were to depart. As the group left the house to board the carriage, a woman’s voice called out. “Wait!”
They turned and Loxie ran up. She threw her arms around Heimish’s neck, planting a lingering kiss upon his lips. Santino watched, slack jawed, until Kendra dragged him into the carriage. Natalya followed them. Several minutes later, Heimish finally finished his goodbye and joined them.
Santino gave the preacher a sly look. “You dog!” he said. “Did you get some of that?”
Heimish sat down, pulling out a book. He did not turn to face Santino when he answered, but he had a small smile on the edges of his mouth as he spoke. “Only the Black Butterfly knows what happens in the dark of night,” he said.
Natalya just rolled her eyes.
After a long time traveling, the group reached the halfway point to Lepidstadt, stopping at a small inn they’d been recommended. The proprietor was none other than the younger cousin of Serianna from Ravengro. She was a voluptuous young woman with flaxen hair and dimples.
Santino unconsciously licked his lips upon seeing her, and left the group to finish unloading their things without him. “Greetings,” he said. “You must be Cecilia.”
“Oh! You know my name?” she asked innocently.
“Yes, I know your cousin. I’ve come from Ravengro and she recommended we stay here.”
“Oh! You’re from Ravengro? Do you know the hero, Alvin?”
Santino’s face twitched involuntarily, but he recovered immediately. “Know Alvin? I taught him everything he knows about being a hero!”
“Really?” the girl, who could have been no more than seventeen, asked.
“Yeah. Come on, why don’t we go somewhere private and I’ll tell you all about it?” he said, putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her inside.
The others, unsure at what they had just witnessed, just stood there. “How are we supposed to check in if my brother is bedding the innkeeper?” Kendra asked, finally breaking the silence.
“I do not know,” Stein said. “Let’s finish unloading and I’ll put away the carriage while we wait.”
“You will not have time enough to do that,” Natalya said, her voice completely even.
“Why’s that?”
“He’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“What do you mean?”
“He never took very long when running off with the dwarf,” Natalya said matter-of-factly.
Kendra blinked. “Was… was that a joke?”
Natalya shrugged. “It was not intended as such,” she said, with no indication of mirth in her voice. That only caused the others to laugh even harder than they might have otherwise.
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