Chapter 8: Playing the Victim

The map indicated I should head up towards Densle which was a city approximately forty miles south of where Carlisle was. It was located in the same province as Carlisle which was Straton. Straton was an empire founded only about two hundred years ago. It was a holy empire and while not that big was a rather powerful province. Nobody messed with the Straton Empire for many reasons. During the original creation there was a holy war between the main city and an occult following called Creosote. Both of them lost the war, but Straton had far fewer casualties. Since then it has developed three powerhouse cities that haven’t lost a battle in over eighty years. The three cities were Carlisle, Straton City, and Cera which was barricaded off from the world.

I started running full speed through the forest in the direction of Densle. As I ran the moon’s light kept healing me and so I never lost pace. I ran for what seemed like ever with trees zooming by me and the wind rushing against my face. Up ahead about four hundred feet I saw a road. I slowed to a stop and pulled the map out to check where I was. The road I was on if followed directly lead straight to Densle. As I put the map away the moon’s light was covered by clouds. I continued running down the road for about three miles until I came upon a house off to the right of the road. It was a large two story black and brown house with a balcony on the second story. I had traveled this road a few times on escort missions and I vaguely remembered this road, but I didn’t recall the house.

I slowly walked towards the house. As I walked up the front steps to the door I heard a creak in the floorboards from inside the house. Before I reached to knock for the door I pulled a dagger from my coat and slid it down my sleeve, still hidden inside the overcoat. I knocked on the door abruptly three times. The door creaked open and there was a blonde haired guy that stood in the doorway looking at me groggily. “Yes?” He asked slowly yawning.

“I’d like to spend the night here. I can pay money if needed.” I said as an offer.

“Sure. How much you paying?” The man said a wide smile crossing his face.

“Thirty.” I replied with disinterest.

“Deal. Is it just for tonight?” He asked looking me over.

“Yeah.”

“Alright follow me upstairs.” He turned around and walked away into the darkness. I followed him trying not to stumble as the room was more than dim. Once I found my way to the stairs behind him, I grabbed onto the railing and carefully walked up the stairs. Once he got upstairs he waited for me to catch up before he showed me to my room. The hall was dark, but at the end of the hallway was a glass window. There were six doors in the hall and mine was the second one on the right side. He opened my door to show me in and then left for downstairs. I walked into the room and looked around.

The bed was fairly large and looked rather comfy. It was covered with a red linen cloth and had large feather pillows. There was a bookshelf to my immediate left with ten or so books on it along with a few antique pottery pieces. Further ahead was a painting of the house during the day time from an far out perspective. Against the bed on the opposing side was a wooden cabinet and next to it sat an unlit porcelain lamp. I walked into the room and put my bag next to the cabinet and jumped directly in bed with all my gear still on which resulted in a loud “clunk” as it hit the wall.

I listened for any noises to see if anyone had gotten up. Outside I heard a light gallop from a horse and following this I heard footsteps in the hallway. This seemed odd as the only time people left the house during night was when one of two thing happened. The first is that there is an intruder and you leave to signal the alarm. The second was a covert operation people aren’t supposed to know about. This already had me on edge, but I didn’t feel now of times I should be so dismissive.

Out in the hall the footsteps moved closer towards my room. The door was still open as well and I wanted privacy so I decided to close it. As I turned away from the door I heard a slight knock on the door and turned around to reach for the knob. My gut told me something was wrong so when I grabbed hold of the handle I made sure to be on the left side of the door. As I grabbed for the door a sword went through it where I would have been standing and then a man kicked the door down. I hopped back away from the door and dived over the bed to grab my bag. The wall to the outside seemed pretty thin so with full strength I tried to run through it. I managed to crack it, but I didn’t actually go through it.

The soldier decided to take this opportunity to give the alert and I heard another four feet come into the room. Once again I rammed the wall this time going through it as they charged me. As I fell out of the house I turned around and grappled quickly up to the roof and then booked it to the backside of the house. I jumped off the backside and then proceeded to head into the forest. I pulled my map out to look at it, but it was too dark to see anything. I put the map away and then from the edge of the forest tried to sneak back onto the main path. The soldiers came outside of the house and then took off to the right side where the barn was and got up on horses. They each had a sword and a torch and all wore masks.

Two of them headed towards the road two of them went off into the forest and the last guy stayed next to the house. He of course would be my first target. The two that entered the forest were about eighty feet away at most. I snuck to the edge of the forest while they rode around to check to see where I might have been. Both of them progressed a little bit further into the forest to try and see if I had ran.

I grappled up to the top of the roof and looked around silently for the one that had remained behind. He was closer towards the road than he was the house which would make for a difficult target. I waited for him to get a little closer to the forestry and then I grappled to the top of a tree nearby him. I shot the grapple through his chest and pulled him up to the top. Since the grapple pierced his lungs he made no noise when he died. I then tied his body with the grapple to the top of the tree. However, his horse let out a whinny and started to run off towards the main road. I grappled back up to the top of the roof and layed down to make myself less visible since the others would probably be coming back.

As expected a few moments later I heard all of them galloping back to where the house was. One of the soldiers from the main road saw the man’s body and started approaching it. He called the rest over to see the body as well. I didn’t much like the idea of rushing them, but it would prove to be a better game plan than wasting time to secretly take them out. I was pressed for time as of right now. As soon as I arrived they probably sent an alert to the other areas. That was probably the horse rider I heard earlier.

I didn’t have much time to waste. On horseback getting to Carlisle or any other town wouldn’t take more than eight minutes or so. I wouldn’t have much time to leave and since I also don’t know which direction to leave in it’s a high probability I would be ambushed either wait. I jumped down from the roof and quickly ran up behind them. I had enough time to land at least one sneak attack before they saw me. With my speed if I was careful I would also be able to take the other three out fairly easy.

I jumped up on the back of the horse and slid my sword through the guys throat. I then lunged for the other guy. He managed to move his horse just enough to evade, but he wasn’t quick enough to dodge my second attack leaving my sword through his gut. The last guy turned his horse around and started to run away. I pulled two daggers and threw both. The first on landed in the horse’s back left hip and the second sunk into the lower back of the rider. The horse bucked him off and tried to continue running, but the dagger’s placement made it hard for the horse to move either. The guy on the ground tried to crawl to the horse, but I made sure he wasn’t going anywhere. I pulled my third dagger out and stabbed him in the throat.

I needed to drink his blood to offset my curse’s timer, but blood looked so disgusting. How could I even drink it? I could at least give it a shot, but the idea did make me rather queasy. I leaned down over him and drained his blood into an empty potion bottle henry made for me. It was about half full with his blood. I stared at the bottle in disbelief for a few more moments and then said “Fuck it, bottoms up.”

I slowly poured it into my mouth. It tasted like metal and after a sip it started to upset my stomach. My stomach didn’t want to accept it. I walked over into the brush to try and puke, but the blood wouldn’t come back up. Instead it felt like it was absorbed into my body. My stomach once again was empty and my stomach was no longer upset. I put the cap on the bottle and put it away. As my hand was about to reach the bag my arm stopped. I felt the urge to consume the rest of it. Suddenly my appetite had reawakened.

My arm pulled upwards towards my mouth and my hunger was clawing at my stomach, almost as if it was in dire need of the blood. I opened the cap and smelled the blood. It was irresistible. It smelled like one of the delicacies MIra always made for me. I wanted just one little taste of it and I would put it back. I could resist drinking all off it I thought to myself. I put my lips up to the container and took a sip. Flavor filled my mouth and I wanted more. I wanted all of it.

I needed to stop drinking it. I tried to pull my hand away from my face, but that only made the urge to drink stronger. Finally I gave in and chugged the rest of it. When it hit my stomach it no longer felt uncomfortable. It made me feel whole again. It seeped into my body and I felt a lot stronger than I did before hand. I capped the potion and put it back into my bag. Once it was out of sight I returned to normal. I still thought blood was disgusting, but my cardinal urges did take over so It couldn’t be helped.

I grappled up to the tree to grab my other gauntlet where the body hung and then I started running down the main path towards Densle. I ran for about thirty minutes longer before I decided to take a break. I should probably sleep for tomorrow I thought to myself. I jumped up and climbed the nearest tree to me all the way to the top and found a perfect place to lay down. I wasn’t particularly exhausted, but I didn’t know the limits of my body quite yet and now wasn’t the best time to test it. I sat up in the tree for about fifteen minutes before I fell asleep.

I awoke at around midday. I pulled the map out to check it. I was about half way to Densle so if I ran for a few hours today I could make it to the castle by nightfall easily. I climbed down the tree and looked around for any immediate sign of danger. There were several tracks from horses passing by. If I continued up the road there was a large chance I’d end up running into the group that had passed me during the night. I would have to cut off into the forest to get to Densle. I couldn’t risk getting caught during that time.

I veered off into the forest about a half mile in and then started heading back in the direction of Densle. As I was walking I started to notice several displaced tree branches. I checked down in the mud for any kind of tracks. If horses had gone through here I couldn’t risk following them under the chance that I might get caught. If even one rider found me I could easily have a squadron on my back.

“Ruthven, it appears I have some urgent matters at hand to take care of.” Ruth said suddenly.

“Did something come up?” I asked him with a hint of worry.

“Nothing you should worry about right now. Get to the castle and make haste. I can’t be your guide forever.”

“Alright then.” I replied compliantly.

As I was walking I heard horses from the main path coming back down the trail. I was far enough Into the forest I wouldn’t be seen, but that didn’t stop me from worrying. As they were passing I kept my head low and crouched down to see where they were going. They continued heading in the direction of the house I had passed earlier. If this really were the case I would be in danger if I didn’t find a hiding place soon. Once again I resumed my mission for the castle. I decided to keep low profile and not alert a lot of birds I would start walking instead of running through the forest.

I must’ve walked in one direction for several hours without finding any kind of civilization except for the occasional log cabin which I avoided. The sky darkened as the day went on and kept covering more and more of the sky in dark grey clouds. If it started raining I’d leave a trail behind me. I needed to find cover soon so so I pulled out my map again. As I looked around the map for wherever the locator might be I discovered there wasn’t one. The map no longer told me where I was.

“Ruth, what the hell is going on?” No answer. “Ruth what’s going on with my map?” Once again no answer. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I asked out loud.

This was bullshit. If I got lost right now I would probably be found by the soldiers due to the tracks left behind by the rain. I needed to head off and hide, but I had no idea where I was. I put the map away and looked around for any nearby shelter. I looked for a few minutes and found no place to hide. As I thought about my next course of action the rain started to fall and once it hit the ground my chest sunk. I would surely get caught if I didn’t find that abandoned castle I thought to myself as I looked up at the sky.