Valorian’s POV

I looked over the restless crowd, smothering a grim smile with a bit of mental effort. These humans were such an odd dichotomy. Their teeth and mannerisms screamed apex predator, especially considering their group tactics. And yet, they fall so easily into a herd mentality like prey. As usual I had seeded supporters throughout the crowd, but they hadn’t needed to risk exposing themselves for months now. This town was well in hand, and it was time to rile them into action. Stepping forward, I laced my words with subtle magic. A bit to provide a boost, and always a bit to keep the crowd pliant to my will.

“Friends! Family! My fellow humans!” I shouted, the crowd immediately quieting. “It is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today. Initially I thought to spare you, but our goddess has made it clear that this danger is too great to ignore. Too great not to pass on a warning.” Perfect! The crowd was confused, looking to their neighbors for a hint of what was to come.

“I know the most sensitive among you likely had their sleep disturbed as much as mine was last night. Dark things. Unnamed things. They haunted you as they haunt me, and I can tell you finally what has happened. In a moment of clarity, one that had to have been a prophetic dream gifted by our loving goddess, I saw the source of our troubles!”

“There he was, standing upon a hill of green. Upon his brow, the sunburst of Ariana. Only, this was no true sunburst. Instead it was filled in with blacks and purples, and seemed to ripple. As if it were holding back things that were waiting to enter our world. Enter, and defile it! With this traitorous human were others! A frost elf! A gnome! A dwarf! A demon!” The crowd grew angry and restless at this point, and I had to fight a little harder to stay in character. So easy to manipulate!

“Arranged in a pentagram, they turned northward. As I watched, my heart pounding in my chest, I saw and heard. Heard the human, the betrayer, speaking. Too low at first, but then growing louder. Until I could hear the words themselves. Words in a language so foul, that it shook me to my soul! An evil language! Words that no human throat should be able to pronounce! One that physically manifested as globs of ink that dropped to the ground at the betrayer’s feet, defiling and spreading as he spoke! Even now, under the blessed light, my soul quails at the mere memory of them!”

Scared now, they were leaning forward. Hanging on to my every word. “And then the unthinkable. His dark words finished, the betrayer turned to the middle of the pentagram. The pentagram, now lined in black from the evil in his words. Growing thicker as his fellows added their own fell chorus to their deeds. And in the midst of everything? A white blanket. Overlooked at first, but I could see it moving slightly. The betrayer removed the blanket to reveal a small child. Chained, hand and foot, to an altar so evil I couldn’t put my eyes on it. The rest-“ I stopped here, turning my head and biting gently on my index finger. Leave them hanging, filling in the worst with their imaginations. As I pretend to be so bothered by what was to come, that I couldn’t dare repeat it.

“I apologize my friends.” I said, much subdued. “I’ll not burden you with the image that is forever burned within my memory. Let me just say, the child’s suffering is ended now. May he be dealt a better life in the next turn of the wheel. But as for us? We need be wary. For at the end of his suffering, a darkness arose from behind the betrayer. A shadow, long thought destroyed, stirred with renewed life. I saw with growing horror as the muck fell from its sides only to rise again as a horrid imitation of life. How each breath spawned cloudy specters, waiting to steal your souls. Before I was noticed, our goddess pulled my view back, and let me see just where this happened. My friends, beware. For the Bog of Eternal Shadows is awake once again.”

Inwardly I smiled at the panic covering the crowd. The bog was a thing of nightmares for them, nightmares we had been subtly encouraging for the past ten years. I stepped back as planned though, and let the priest speak.

“My brothers and sisters, fear not!” He cried out, holding a hand high. As the crowd settled a bit, he put on a loving smile. “We need only put our faith in our goddess, and thank her for her warning. Already we have sent missives out, warning others of the awakening of the bog. We have also warned them of the rising cult of the dark star.”

“What can we do?” Someone in the crowd shouted.

“A fine question. Indeed, what can any of us do? Remain calm, and trust foremost in our goddess. In doing so, we strengthen her abilities to protect us. We must also keep a level head, and a wary eye out. Should you notice someone with the mark of the dark sunburst upon them, do not react immediately! For if you do, you will open yourself up to grave danger! In this, we must all stand together! And so when you can, alert the church. We have forged a mighty alliance here, and we will subdue and interrogate these people. Between the church, the army Valorian is forging, and the slaver’s guild, there is no way they could hide secrets from us. Fear not, we will overcome this and any other obstacles thrown at us!” He practically shouted the last, getting cheers from the crowd. We both smiled, basking in the adoration thrown at us for the next few minutes.

“Now go forth, and be vigilant.” With some parting words, the group dispersed. His Excellence watched as they went, before turning and gesturing me inside the temple. We entered, making a shallow bow to the altar before heading toward his private office. “Leave us, no visitors.” He ordered the two neophytes guarding his door, striding calmly inside as I followed. Once in, a wave of his hand activated the protections to stop eavesdroppers.

“A fine display as always Valorian. Brandy?” He asked, offering me a cup.

“I’ll pass.” I said, waving off the alcohol. “While it is good, it wouldn’t do to have someone smelling alcohol on the Hero’s breath this early in the afternoon.”

“Fair enough.” He said, plopping down into his seat. “So where do we stand on things?”

“Damien managed to track down one of the freed women, and brought her in for questioning. Worthless bitch didn’t know much, but we made the most of it. They are heading toward the gnome’s home city. The only other thing of note is the hero’s name. Sean O’Carrol.”

“Hmmm.” Fingers steepled, the priest thought for a bit. “I knew those idiots couldn’t be trusted. The next time we manage to send a message home, we need to warn them that the hero was summoned successfully. They will need to make preparations. The girl?”

“Couldn’t talk fast enough once I started questioning her. Once we had what we needed, we sacrificed her to awaken the swamp. We wouldn’t want to be liars now, would we?” I asked with a mocking grin.

“Ha!” He chuckled. “Excellent use of resources, and well done on tying up what loose ends you could. Now, what about this cult?”

“There are a few slaves that Damien has singled out to be imprinted with the mark. Of course, they will swear a binding oath to never reveal secrets about the mark, which will sadly kill them as they are questioned.”

“I see.” He nodded. “Mostly the other races? I understand a few of the more, recalcitrant, humans will need to be purged this way, but we shouldn’t overplay our hand.”

“Right now we only plan on one or two humans, just to avoid suspicion. Damien managed to create a special dagger. If we get five minutes alone with someone, all we have to do is draw a circle on them with the dagger and hold the flat of the blade over the mark. The enchantment will create the black sunburst mark, and blur the person’s memory of the last hour.”

“Most impressive. We will have to use it sparingly at first. Perhaps telling the masses after a while that the dagger takes a while to cut through the illusion used to hide the mark?”

“Oh what a delicious idea.” I chuckled. “Use it a few times in public to gain their trust, then we can do what we want later.”

“My thoughts exactly. Now how goes the invasion plans?”

“Progressing nicely. I’ve sent some agents ahead to Portsmouth to stir up a bit of trouble. The usual, frame the demons and other non-humans. Get them ready for my words and my army.”

“Timeframe?”

“Two months minimum before we can head that way. The buildup needs to be slow. Once we reach the city, we will make a very obvious shipyard. Let the demon’s see slow progress, and base their defenses on a water assault. When in reality we will have already snuck across a small team to set up a gate for us.” I waited a minute, watching his Eminence. The plan wasn’t foolproof, but had a much higher chance of succeeding than others that had been proposed.

“What plans do you have for this hero?” He finally asked. “He has proven adept at slipping through traps.”

“You think he will escape the bog?” I asked incredulously.

“No, I really don’t. But there have been others who have claimed him dead and been proven wrong. He even walked into Damien’s guild and managed to slip through unharmed.”

“Fair point.” I grumbled, looking down. “I don’t have much left in the way of resources. None in my army are particularly magical, so divination is out. Nor do I have any assassins.”

“Very well. I’ll talk with Damien and the leader of the adventurer’s guild. Perhaps we can get a quest going for it.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sean’s POV

This run along the bog was brutal. We had been going for nearly a day, and I had been constantly using magic the entire time. “How long Bribis?” I asked. We hadn’t taken the risk of stopping to change wagons, though we had slowed down to a more sustainable rate for the oxen.

“Hold on for another half hour boy, you’re doing great.” He said, patting my shoulder before turning back to watching in front. He had to be hurting just as much as I was. While the road was in good shape, there were still enough muddy spots that he had gone through three of his mana potions just to keep us moving.

“Kay.” I responded in a slightly sing song voice. It was odd. At first I was worried that I was going to have the splitting headache of mana exhaustion, but then I realized after two hours that my mana level wasn’t dropping. Instead I had a mind fog thing going on. It’s like I had tried to take four high level exams in one day. My brain was feeling fuzzy, and my reaction times were incredibly slow.

Elendria had really stepped up, filling the void left when I couldn’t keep up with the attacking specters. While Carrigan couldn’t really control his fire spells once they were launched, Elendria could and was making the most of it. Two constructs that looked like massive snowflakes made of ice would fly around shredding the specters. While they looked beautiful, the edges were like shurikens. The flashes of color as they danced through the beams of light that occasionally penetrated the clouds, along with the light from the constellation I was conjuring were hypnotizing

“SEAN!”

“Huh? Na whazzit?” I startled awake, to see a very concerned looking Elendria trying to force Bribis’ head out of my field of view.

“My Lord, are you ok?”

“Uh huh. Jussssst fine.” I sighed, leaning back into the headboards.

“He’s spent Bribis, you can’t possibly ask him to keep that buff going!”

“We have no choice if we want to live! The swamps aware of us, and keeps testing us. Even now Carrigan is having a devil of a time keeping them specters at bay.”

“Here my Lord, eat this.” A sticky bar was shoved into my hand, which I ate gratefully. Mmmm, slightly sweet with a bit of salt. Dried fruit and honey? “Look at him! He’s bleeding from his nose for crying out loud!”

“And we still have six hours of travel before we are free of the bog! Minimum!” The gnome cried. “Look lass.” He said, voice getting softer. “We can all see how much you care about him. But we don’t have any good choices here. The oxen won’t make it without the bonus from his spell, even with the small break we are taking here. So we have three choices. Wait it out, and watch as the wards crumble when Carrigan is spent, and we all die. Start out again without his buff. In a few hours the oxen will tire, and our speed will drop. The swamp will swarm us, and we all die. Or we can push him, hoping that he can hold out long enough with that spell that we get clear of the bog and live.”

“Then we need to redo our layout.” Elendria snarled. “I’ll be in the back of the cart with him, keeping an eye on him. Carrigan can move up to the third cart so that we can cover the attacking specters easier.”

“That’s fine. Come on, let’s get going.” He said. “Up you go Sean.”

“WHOOOO! Hehehehee.” I chuckled as they helped me to my feet, leading me towards a cart. They helped settle me in the back, and my view was filled with a concerned Elendria’s face.

“Sean. Can you bring back that constellation again? Drevor’s Spear?”

“Yeaaaaaah.” I slurred, smiling. “One set of stars for the pretty lady.” With a wave of my hand, the constellation was above us once more.

“I’ll be with you the whole time Sean. Can you keep that going for me? I promise I won’t let your hand go.”

“Ohhhhhh. Kaaaaay.” I slumped back, staring at the stars and making sure they stuck around. The only other thing I was aware of for a while was the thumb making slow circles on my hand.