Chapter 17: Hearthstead

As I grabbed the second screaming guard and simply tossed his flailing body into my waiting mouth I noticed Lily was looking at me not in fear but in awe. I swallowed the guard and turned to face her, this is a curious reaction. I was expecting fear, some kind of fight or flight response, not this awe and fascination.

“You do not seem afraid,” I said as I slithered up to her.

“What is there to be afraid of? I got what I wanted.” Lily replied calmly.

“What you wanted?” I asked curiously

“My family is dead, my village is destroyed, if I get recaptured in Averlon they will hang me for escaping. I ran into the forest because I wanted you to find me, I wanted you to kill me and the guards.” Lily replied calmly, seemingly at peace with what she thinks is her impending death.

“So you have nothing left to lose?” Cecilia asked as she walked over and gazed at Lily curiously. From the look in her eye, I could tell a plan was forming in her head.

“Yes… although I would have preferred to die in my village but… I suppose that’s too much to ask for. A peasant rarely gets what she wants.” Lily replied calmly.

“Friend, may I have a word?” Cecilia asked as she turned around to face me.

I nodded and both of us headed off to a corner of the room. Once we were out of earshot Cecilia beckoned me to lower my head. Once I had leaned down she began whispering.

“I have a plan, we can use her,” Cecilia said.

“Is that wise? She could betray us…” I replied in as low a voice as I could manage.

“There is a way to prevent it but she must be wholeheartedly willing to do it. Those books the old woman gave me… some of them pertain to Dark Magic, or more specifically a [Soul Vow].” Cecilia replied.

“[Soul Vow]?” I asked.

“Yes, it is a highly advanced form of Dark Magic. Technically it is an offshoot of Necromancy, Heaven confiscated all the tomes and scrolls regarding the most powerful forms of Dark Magic. Blood Magic, Necromancy, Maleficium and many others. All that they left us with are rudimentary forms of Elemental and Arcane Magic. As for the more powerful schools that are out of reach for humanoids, those weren’t a problem.

The humans once held the power to contest the rule of Heaven through the use of Dark Magic. The reason why Dark Magic is so powerful is that it isn’t native to Terra. It originates from The Searing Hells…” Cecilia explained.

“The Searing Hells? So the demons you mentioned previously?” I asked.

“Yes, there was this one spell created by the mages of the ancient past. It is similar in construction to a spell known as a [Demonic Vow] which can bind a Demon to another’s service. The Spell is called the [Soul Vow], it essentially allows me to bind someone to my service.

If they betray me, the spell will kill them instantly, reducing them to ash. The catch is that this spell cannot be cast on an unwilling individual. Even if the person agrees, if their heart is still unwilling the spell will kill them. It requires a wholehearted acceptance of the binding.” Cecilia replied.

“You want to use this spell on her. Why?” I asked.

“Because I need someone to act as an intermediary within the city. I can change my appearance through illusions but those illusions can be revealed by another skilled mage. Most secure places in Averlon have mages to check for illusions to prevent impersonation.

Some of the books also reference Blood Magic that can physically change my appearance but it does mention that it would be difficult to return to your original appearance if you choose to do so.

My family has red hair and red eyes. My ruby-like eyes are a rarity in this world, it is so rare that this trait is used to determine if you have royal blood. All descendants of house Averlon have these eyes.

If I change my appearance using blood magic and I don’t change it back correctly I will lose all legitimacy to the throne.” Cecilia explained.

“So you want to use that [Soul Vow] spell on her and make her work on your behalf in the city. I suppose you could change her appearance with Blood Magic, I suppose she won’t mind considering all her family is dead.

The only real question is how do we even get her to agree to this. It’s gonna take some convincing to make another person sign their soul away.” I said as I crossed my arms.

“I have a plan for that, I’ve been thinking of this ever since I detected her running through the forest. You rescued her from those bandits, after all, that might be a useful card for us to play...” Cecilia replied.

“Well rescue is a strong word, I just didn’t kill her,” I said with a small laugh.

“Regardless, it can be useful,” Cecilia replied.

“Alright, I’ll follow your lead,” I said with a nod.

After that, we both returned to the calm waiting Lily.

“So are you going to eat me?” Lily asked calmly.

“No, you have done no wrong Lily. My friend has killed before but he is no mindless beast. He has only been killed in self-defense or because of necessity. My friend here is… not like us humans, he thinks differently from us but he has his reasons.” Cecilia said.

“He? So he is a male?” Lily asked curiously.

“I don’t know, I never met another like me so I have no idea. Cecilia just calls me he because she finds it a bit insulting to refer to me as a ‘it’. She said it was more humanizing, I don’t really care either way since I have no desire to be considered human but if it makes her more comfortable I have no objections.” I replied calmly with a shrug.

“Then what is your name? I hear Cecilia calls you friend but…” Lily asked.

“I have no name, my last friend also just called me friend. I told Cecilia to refer to me as such if she wanted.” I lied nonchalantly.

“Oh I see… I have a few more questions if you don’t mind.” Lily said.

“You can ask more if you wish Lily,” Cecilia said kindly.

“No, I just have a few more questions before the end. Do you recognize me?” Lily asked.

“Of course, I left you at that human encampment,” I replied calmly.

“Yes you rescued me, I heard the other women didn’t make it back. What happened to them?” Lily asked.

“I killed them,” I replied simply, not a hint of remorse in my voice.

“Why kill them and spare me?” Lily asked as she tilted her head, her demeanour one of eerie calm.

“They saw me, you didn’t. You were lying unconscious in that house. I couldn’t let information on me spread lest you humans tried to use that information to hunt me down again. I knew I couldn’t hide forever. My existence would have been discovered eventually but if I could deny you information my chances of survival go up.” I replied and Lily’s gaze flickered as she ran the thoughts through her mind.

“Then why did you attack the camp? Were you hungry?” Lily asked after a small pause.

“Yes, I was hungry. Also, I found a caravan being attacked by those humans in the camp. They were hurting another human. I do not enjoy gratuitous cruelty, I prefer to kill my prey quickly and move on. No meaning in prolonging the suffering.

So I tracked the humans back to the camp. The humans there were obviously killing other humans and mistreating them. I was hungry and I could remove some unsavoury individuals from the world, so why not? It’s not like they had the means to stop me…” I replied with a small chuckle.

“I see… I did not expect you to be… so reasonable…” Lily said her tone of voice clearly showing her confusion.

“I’ve learned to coexist with humans, it is the humans that seem to forget how to coexist with me,” I replied as I leaned in and brought my head close to hers.

“Hmm… I suppose we can be quite foolish…” Lily said as she lowered her head seemingly lost in thought.

“I assume you can’t let me go, so… if you must kill me could you make it quick?” Lily asked.

“We can’t let you go unfortunately and yes we can make it quick, but… I would like to do you one last act of kindness.” Cecilia said gently.

“Kindness?” Lily asked.

“If you like we could visit Hearthstead, let you say your goodbyes, put the ghosts to rest. The village is near the forest, it should be safe.” Cecilia said.

“Really? Why would you offer something like that to one such as I?” Lily asked, eyes widened in surprise.

“Because I know what it’s like to lose everything…” Cecilia said as she gently took Lily’s hand.

I’ve got to hand it to her, she’s really good at this whole manipulation thing. Although judging from her vitals that last bit seemed quite genuine. My best guess is deep down Cecilia does feel bad for her.

After a quiet agreement, I picked up the pair and headed for the entrance. Cecilia casted a quick invisibility spell to obscure the pair of them. Then I engaged my invisibility and headed for that village that I remember that was near the forest. I stumbled across it a few days before I ran into Cecilia. I left it alone because I didn’t want the authorities to come into the forest en masse because I ate the whole village…

It wasn’t that long of a trip, with my new and improved speed thanks to [Gravitic Hover], we were at the village in around twenty minutes or so. The first thing I noticed was that there was no life anywhere. It looks like whoever did this just attacked the place and left.

When I arrived in the centre of the square I put both of them down and Cecilia removed the spell.

“I’ll stay invisible, keep watch for anyone…” I said and I saw Cecilia nod in response.

I watched as Lily wandered around the ruins of the village. Some of the houses were burned to the ground, but most of them were still left standing... As I surveyed the area I detected patches of dried blood that seemed to be clustered together. I looked closely and saw faint footprints with their lingering scent all leading to the centre of the village. The footsteps looked close together as if the ones who left them were walking calmly…

I spotted Lily walk into one of the houses shakily. I head over and I peek in through a window and saw her in one of the bedrooms. She gently picked up an old beat-up teddy bear that was lying on the floor. She hugged the bear as she fell to her knees sobbing. I saw Cecilia bend down and pulled her into her arms muttering comforting words.

I turned away from the room, moments of grief… still bothered me a little… they reminded me too much of the wails of the bereaved back in my past life…

Then I spotted a curious scent trail, I realised that for some reason the scent of blood led away from the central area where the peasants were most likely killed. I noticed no trails in the dirt but I noticed the dirt was extremely even almost like someone intentionally covered any marks left in the dirt.

The scent trail eventually led to a patch of grass… the odd thing here was there was a faint trace of ether surrounding the patch of grass…

Then I noticed there was also a faint scent radiating from the grass…

Could it be?

I dug my hands into the grass and began to dig, dispelling my invisibility. I soon found an arm, I dug further and it revealed a face… a teenage girl’s face…

Seeing this I turned around and headed back to the house just as Cecilia and a sniffling Lily exited.

“Friend, why aren’t you invisible,” Cecilia asked surprised.

“I found something,” I said as I beckoned for the pair to follow me.

Once I led them to the site I reengaged my invisibility and I watched as Cecilia bent down and looked at the buried body.

“That’s Marine…” Lily said shakily.

“Give me a moment,” Cecilia said as her hands glowed and she pointed them at the suspicious patch of grass.

Then the entire piece of land lifted upwards revealing a mass grave. Cecilia dumped the earth on the side as Lily walked shakily over to the pile of bodies.

I looked down and saw there were eight bodies in the mass grave. The bodies were all female, one looked like a girl fresh into her teens, the others ranged from teenagers to young adults. Interestingly four of them were naked but it looks like those four were young adults none of the younger victims were bare…

“This is professional work…” Cecilia said as she gazed at the pile of earth that she pulled out. Her eyes glowed as she examined the pile, most likely analysing that trace of ether I spotted earlier.

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

“Nature Magic, whoever did this buried the bodies and grew grass over it to hide the grave. They probably hide the extra soil somewhere else to hide a mound.” Cecilia said as she stood back up and looked down at the bodies in the grave.

“Why bury these? Where’s the rest of the bodies?” I asked.

“They were being transported to Averlon for burial…” Lily muttered in reply.

“Bandits take young girls to use as toys, this was done to make this attack look convincing…” Cecilia said as she looked down at the bodies.

“Friend, could you take out a few bodies?” Cecilia asked.

I reached down and took out five of the bodies, intentionally taking the four nude ones and one other clothed one. Cecilia bent down and lifted up the clothed girl's skirt revealing that she still had her undergarments on. This was young, probably a teenager. The other nude ones however had something off about them…

I noticed a scent wafting out from between their legs and this odd alchemical scent coming from their lips. Cecilia examined the bodies and saw that there were bruises on their wrists as if they had been tied up. Then she examined their thighs and she paused for a moment…

“What?” I asked.

“There’s a cut there….” Cecilia said as she examined this gash on each of their thighs.

The truth was starting to click together in my head… if my suspicions were right…

“Hang on, lemme have a look around,” I said as I bent down and acquired their scents.

The scents were faint but enough for me to track. I followed the scent to the village and I found exactly what I expected, these scents were found in four different houses…

I stuck my head into one of the houses and I noticed that same scent from between one of the woman’s legs on one of the beds. I examined the bed more closely and saw there was this stain on the sheets as well as blood stains…

I went to the other houses and saw the same thing in every house. The scent was all over the sheets of the bed. Curiously the stains were quite large, as if it was intentionally made to be obvious.

I returned to the pair just as I saw Cecilia tearing open the shirt of one of the bodies. I looked down and saw a strange hole over her heart. Surprisingly there was very little blood around the wound…

“A heart piercer…” Cecilia muttered.

“A what?” I asked in confusion.

“It’s a special dagger with a blade like a spike, that is used to kill someone discreetly. They stab it into the heart of the victim and leave it in to stop the blood from exiting the wound. Once the victim is dead they just remove the blade. It leaves very little blood at the scene of the murder.” Cecilia replied.

“I followed the scent trail of that woman and I think I’m starting to understand what happened.” I said and Cecilia turned to look at me.

“Each of these girls were taken to one of the houses and raped. I smelled this alchemical scent on their lips and I got the same scent in the houses. I also noticed the stains they left on the beds were large and looked to be specifically done to be obvious.

My best guess is that the girls were force fed some kind of potion to make the stains they produced larger and then their thighs were cut to produce blood.

As for why they didn’t go for any of the younger ones I suspect since it’s just a job, they just chose the best ones for the job. Probably they were simply more familiar with adults since they are more common.” I said as Cecilia nodded in understanding.

“Hmm… it made sense, these aren’t lecherous bandits. They are precise professionals, they most probably didn’t even take much pleasure in it. Bandits do like to use beds, as much as they behave like animals they still prefer comfort. The sheets would also leave stains making the evidence easy to find…” Cecilia mused as she cupped her chin.

“So they rounded up the villagers, killed them but used heart piercers on the young women. There were bloodstains in the village so I assumed they just used more conventional means to leave evidence behind.

They then buried the women discreetly to make it look like they were kidnapped to be used as toys like what bandits would typically do.

Then they even leave a few alive to be assaulted in different houses to leave the evidence in all of them. That must be why they didn’t burn all the houses.

They buried the bodies carefully to ensure there was no noticeable mound and then the casted nature magic to cause the grass to grow over the grave…” Cecilia summarised.

Professional, very professional. If the topic wasn’t so morbid I would be impressed, whichever group did this was very good at their job…

“But why burn the houses at all…” Cecilia muttered.

“Those houses… they belonged to the families of the adventurers…” Lily replied softly.

“Ah, so it’s to cover the missing bodies… the owners of those houses were probably kidnapped for interrogation.” Cecilia said as all the pieces started to fit together.

“Why… How could someone do this? How much coin did they spend to do this?” Lily said as she covered her face in grief.

Cecilia once again went to comfort her. I turned around and looked at the destroyed village. Whoever did this really wanted to keep this quiet… I guess Cecilia was right, if news of this got out then there would really be rebellion…

“What do the two of you want? Why are you working together?” Lily asked as she looked wearily at me.

“I want to get my birthright back, my father is a fiend and brute. He is an evil ruler and is unfit to rule Averlon and protect its people. I offered my friend here a place of safety. I know he is reasonable, if he wants food I can just feed him or send him death row prisoners. He gets safety, I get to liberate the people of Averlon from my father’s rule.” Cecilia said.

Lily went quiet for a moment as if contemplating something, then she looked at Cecilia with a new strength in her eyes.

“Princess Cecilia, may I join you. I can be a servant, I can cook, tend to you, a princess should have a servant. If you tire of me you can just dispose of me… I want to be part of your goal. I want to bring justice for my dead friends and family. If I can help put a ruler such as yourself on the throne… then maybe my life has meant something…” Lily said as she fell to her knees in front of Cecilia, her eyes pleading.

Cecilia paused for a moment as she looked down at her in mock hesitation. But I could sense her heart rate rising in excitement…

“Lily, if you were to betray us it would do great damage to our cause… there is a way to ensure your loyalty but…” Cecilia replied as she pretended to be conflicted.

“I will do anything Princess, I am willing to pay any price, be subject to any spell.” Lily begged as she pressed her head into the dirt.

“Lily…” Cecilia said as she bent down and helped Lily back to her feet. Cecilia looked away for a moment pretending to be lost in thought. Cecilia gently took Lily’s hand as she looked her in the eyes.

“There is a spell but it requires a fully willing participant. If you are doing this just to survive or any other reason you will die… painfully… your soul will be torn to pieces by the spell…” Cecilia said.

“Then I have nothing to fear my Princess, I wish to serve you with all my heart. My life, my body, my soul are all yours if you want it… I just wish to help bring justice to this forsaken land…” Lily said as she clasped Cecilia’s hands tightly.

“I have a use for you but it would require a painful transformation, I need to change your appearance if not others will recognize you. Are you willing to do so?” Cecilia asked.

Lily didn’t even hesitate, I could tell she meant her next words with all her heart…

Yes...

Give me purpose Princess Cecilia

And I am yours from this day until my last day…