Night descended, and the moon’s silvery light bathed the land. Nobody was left in the bathhouse anymore as Roy left, his skin red. Mount Carbon was majestic in the day, but eerie at night. The fortress that provided safety to the dwarves looked like a demon dwelling in the dark, but the valley’s entrance was brightly lit. The bowmen and crossbowmen were standing sentry in the watchtowers that flanked the valley.

Sconces hung on the front doors of every building between the plaza and the main fortress, providing good vision. Heavily armored dwarves were patrolling everywhere, and Roy bumped into the armed patrol twice on his way to the guest room from the bathhouse, much to his surprise. 

“That’s some heavy patrolling.”

Letho had already changed his bloody armor for his pajamas when Roy arrived at the guest room. He was meditating on the bed. “Did you get anything, boy?”

“I made a few acquaintances, my hands got blisters, and I’m almost traumatized.” Roy heaved a sigh and hopped onto the bed. He put his hands behind his neck and crossed his legs. “Try observing naked, hairy dwarves for a whole day and you’ll know what I’m saying.”

Letho actually smiled for once.

“So what did you find in the forest after leaving me here?”

Letho told him about the events that transpired, and when he got to the part where he killed almost a hundred wolves, Roy sighed. I lost a few hundred EXP just like that. But he could imagine how precarious the situation must’ve been. With how weak he was, the wolves would’ve picked him clean before Letho could even do anything.

Even so, he was still dissatisfied and curious. “Why do you want me to find out who’s marked? If the elder just locks everyone up and checks them, the marked one would be caught in no time. There’s no way he would realize what was happening.” Roy looked at Letho, but he was still meditating calmly.

“Remember what I told you yesterday? Some residents in the mountains worship the leshen as god. You can’t be sure there’s nobody else who’s brainwashed aside from the one who’s marked. It’d be impossible to hide a sweep from everyone no matter how secretive Brovar would be. Once the search was launched, the leshen’s followers would just escape, making it harder to kill it.”

Roy kept quiet before asking, “What if it’s the Svanthor villagers who got marked? I can’t just go out there and investigate. It’s too far from the mountain.”

“I’ll look into that tomorrow, but don’t hold your breath. Leshens love to live in mountains and forests, and they won’t stay too far from the people they marked. Svanthor is a bit too far from the mountain.” He picked up a piece of charcoal and drew on the ground. “And there’s something I want you to see. After destroying the totem, I asked Kaerwen about the victims and found out exactly where they died.” He drew a rough sketch of the mountain, and the fortress was located in it. “These are the places where the victims died.” He then made eight black dots on the map. “Notice anything wrong with it?”

Roy looked closely for a while, but he didn’t get anything. The crime scenes were spread throughout the mountain at random and seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it. 

Letho explained. “The spots where the killings happened are a distance away from where the victims lived. In other words, they were shepherded to that particular spot before they were killed, and the leshen didn’t choose the spots at random.”

Then Letho made four lines according to some pattern, linking one dot to the other. Then he pointed at one spot between two dots. “This is where I destroyed the totem today.”

I see. Roy said, “You should probably have guessed where the other totems are, then.” Letho kept linking the dots and lines in a pattern, and eventually, Roy noticed the thing that was starting to take shape. It was an expanding web, and a vague pair of antlers. A terrifyingly eerie mark.

“The leshen is slowly including the mountain base up to the fortress in its totem. Is it trying to put the whole area under its control?”

Letho nodded. “I’ve never seen a more ambitious leshen. In most cases, the most it can do is take over a village. That’s the extent of a leshen’s power, no matter how ancient or formidable it is. This one… This one is trying to control a place that houses thousands of residents.

“Leshens are ancient creatures with great wisdom. It’s quite baffling that they’d make such a foolish move. No matter how powerful it is, it is still only one leshen. Mount Carbon can easily crush it. Unless…” 

Roy guessed, “Unless its believers and the marked one aren’t the leshen’s only weapon.”

Letho dusted his hand off and made an unsure guess. “Or maybe the dwarves aren’t as united as they seem. Maybe there are some other forces aside from the leshen that can cause some trouble for Brovar. And they could be giving the leshen a hand in its plan. They’re hiding in Mount Carbon, working with the leshen to carry out the plan, and that’s why they managed to kill so many dwarves without setting off the alarm.”

“Should we tell Brovar about this?”

“This is pure conjecture. We have no evidence or target. What can we even tell him?” Letho had vetoed it. “Just pay attention to your surroundings and see if there’s anyone suspicious. But remember to find the marked one first, since our primary goal is to take out the leshen here. Everything else comes next. And be careful.”

“I understand.”

Letho went back to meditate after telling Roy what he’d needed to know. The battle earlier had sapped much of his strength, and he needed to rest up as fast as possible.

Roy lay on the bed, sorting out the thoughts that were swirling in his head. He took the dwarf’s crossbow and his hand crossbow out to maintain them. And then he remembered that Reagan cared about the crossbow a lot. Is this crossbow special? He cast Observe on it and actually saw the weapon’s details.

‘Blood Brothers (Reagan Dalba was gifted this crossbow by his brother, Paul Dalba, during Reagan’s coming of age. This is the last gift Paul gave Reagan before he ventured out to be Yarpen’s follower).

Type: Crossbow.

Materials: Pine wood, steel, tendon, hemp.

Details: Weighs fifteen pounds and measures four feet. Has a draw weight of fifty pounds and an effective range of two hundred feet.’

***

‘Gabriel

Type: Hand crossbow

Materials: Mulberry wood, tendon, hemp

Details: Weighs five pounds and measures two feet. Has a draw weight of twenty pounds and an effective range of a hundred feet.’

“So Reagan only cares about this crossbow because of its sentimental value. It’s not that much better than any Mahakaman crossbow.” Roy started rubbing the grease on every inch of the crossbow, just like how Reagan did it. Once he was done doing it to both crossbows, he placed Blood Brothers in his inventory and held on to Gabriel as he started meditating.

“Always keep the crossbow by my side huh? It’s dumb, but I hope it works.”