Chapter 800: Market (1/2)
Fania appeared on the platform and teleported aside, nearly buckling as the pain rushed through her. She puked, retching up blood and what felt like bits and pieces of her gut. “Shit gates,” she murmured. Her breathing was fast as she shook off the side effects of the gate and adjusted to the magical light in the underground camp. Dozens of voices spoke and haggled, music coming from a few of the tents. It sounded wrong. Her vision was still slightly blurry.
She watched Kerthin appear next to the control panel before she initiated the self destruction of the gate.
“What are you-” the guard said before the tall woman struck him with a lightning induced slap, throwing him aside.
Kerthin didn’t say a word when the explosion reverberated through the artificial cavern. The tall woman kept her white mask on, still looking towards the now destroyed section of the ground, smoke rising from the rubble. “Kerom, Wayne, reduce the remains to dust.”
Wayne coughed, the sound mage charging his magic before he sent blasts down into the small crater.
Kerom did as he was told, a bit of puke dripping from his chin. His hands moved as the rock was ripped apart, boulders forming above before they smashed downwards.
Most of the merchants, guards, and adventurers in the vicinity looked at the scene with interest, some with fear. Others ignored it entirely.
Fania shook her head and summoned a few rags, cleaning her daggers off the blood. Sentinels. We killed Sentinels. She made sure not a speck of blood remained before she summoned an enchanted device, setting the fabric on fire. No blood magic or necromancy would be able to track her. She moved on to get rid of the puke and blood on the ground. “The girl is still alive,” she said, looking to Kerthin for a moment.
“I killed one of them,” Wayne said, wiping at his mouth with a piece of cloth.
“One. Other one alive,” Kerom informed them, the bald man looking to the ground where he had puked as well.
“It was only a matter of time. I’ll have to go talk to a few people,” Kerthin said. “You should’ve killed all of them.”
“Nobody below one hundred should survive the willow’s root,” Fania said, once again checking her daggers for specks of blood, the ground reasonably clean. And none of this would’ve happened if security hadn’t been so fucking lax in Nara.
“Resistances and healing,” Kerthin said. “Next time, you make sure. Or I’ll consider your employment.” She walked away with decisive steps, people avoiding her as she passed.
Wayne chuckled as he sent another blast of sound magic into the rubble. “Yeah, next time you make sure.”
“Those were Sentinels,” she said.
“Yeah, what of it? Scared of the Accords?” he asked and chuckled.
Fania shook her head, ignoring the man’s comments. She moved to the side of the cavern and leaned against the wall, activating her shadow magic to hide from everyone before she moved again. The Accords are just an alliance. She knew Wayne wouldn’t think the same if they had just killed a few members of the Order of Truth, but then he had never given too much of a shit about anything further away than his immediate vicinity.
She knew it didn’t matter. Kerthin was the one that had hired them, and she knew what this meant. Nobody really gave a shit about a few slaves. Sentinels however. That was different.
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Ilea looked into the massive dark corridor. Something was hiding at the back but she couldn’t quite make anything out. “Shadow magic I think,” she said to her companion.
Kyrian nodded. “Let me prepare a curse, then you lure it out.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ilea murmured, twirling her hammer in one hand.
“Ilea. Sentinels dead in Nara. Require assistance,” the message reached her. From the Meadow.
She squinted her eyes, taking a step back before she opened a gate. “Sentinels dead in Nara. Priority,” she sent to Kyrian and moved. Rushing through the gate with her spreading wings and covered in her mantle, she deactivated her space magic resistance, moved instantly to the teleportation gate in the Meadow’s domain.
“Hey what is-” an adventurer said before he was teleported away.
Kyrian appeared by her side right when the gate activated.
They appeared in Morhill, several Shadowguards glancing their way.
“Closest route to Nara. Now,” she sent to everyone in the vicinity.
“Follow me,” one of them said and moved to the door.
“Don’t walk. Teleport,” Ilea sent, attaching herself and Kyrian to the woman’s spells.
“There is no gate from here to Nara. You’ll have to use the one in Yinnahall,” the woman said, gesturing to the entrance of the large stone building.
“Do you know where it is?” Ilea asked.
She shook her head. “No, you’ll have to ask someone in there, or in Yinnahall itself. There are plans-”
Ilea appeared in the building and saw an Executioner.
“With me,” the machine said.
She followed, the three of them appearing in Yinnahall before they rushed past the adventurers and merchants, the city busy despite the late hour. Six seconds later they stood on the gate to Nara, the spell activating before they appeared in the empty tundra around the city.
“What happened?” Ilea asked as they rushed up and above the walls.
The Executioner moved at its full speed, leading them into the city and past a set of damaged structures. “Sentinels found out about slave trade, tried to retrieve information and were caught. They called for help but I was too late. Two were dead before I arrived. One is dying.”
Ilea grit her teeth, rushing into the building and teleporting down into the cellar. She found two more Executioners present, a crying Mila sitting against the wall, holding Phoebe. Her healing instantly rushed into them, Phoebe stabbed in her gut and hand, her skull and some of her organs damaged as well. Mila had most of her ribs broken but it seemed the girl had already prioritized her teammate, all her healing still flowing into Phoebe.
She saw the corpses on the ground. One had most of her head missing. Ilea took in a deep breath, trying to exert her healing but failing. She was dead.
Mila still held on to Ember, but she too was gone, her entire chest and abdomen crushed.
Phoebe woke up with a start, coughing blood as she looked around, her aura flaring before she saw the Executioners and Ilea.
She screamed.
“They were connected beyond what we assumed possible,” Aki said.
“Anyone still alive?” Ilea asked.
“Please come with me,” one of the Executioners said.
Ilea followed. “Can you check on them?” she sent to Kyrian.
“Of course,” he answered, summoning a blanket to put over Willa’s corpse.
The girl from the Rotten Inn. Ilea’s gut twisted as she thought of the dinner she had with the girl’s family. Willa. And Ember, from Dawntree and the Corinth Order. Was it her fault? Not the time.
Ilea rushed through the facility, finding human remains, bits and pieces of bone, blood covering entire walls. A few dozen enchanted cages stood in the broad stone hall. Most of them contained corpses. Magic still lingered in the air but Ilea couldn’t find a usable trail. Taken out just out of spite? Or as a way to prevent information from leaking out?
“Through here,” Aki said, leading her down a set of stairs. A few traps activated, metal spikes glancing off Aki’s shields. He cut through the entire section of the wall with a quick slash. “Thought I got all of them.” His voice sounded different. Tense.
Another cellar, smoke in the air. Fires raged in the side rooms where the remains of furniture was visible in Ilea’s dominion. She checked everything but found nothing remained, some chests and drawers entirely blown out.
Aki pointed at a section of the floor. “Some runes remain. This was a teleportation gate. Not one of ours. Explosive runes destroyed it near entirely.”
Ilea checked the fabric and found a single thread moving out of the cellar.
“Get what you can to the Meadow’s domain,” Ilea said.
“Prepare everyone you have above two hundred. Send them through my gate once I open it.” she sent to the Meadow and latched on to the recent teleportation spell.
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Fania saw black wings appear above the smoking rubble of the teleportation gate. She rubbed her eyes, the space magic still causing issues. The Black Death. Ever since Virilya she had felt they would meet one day or the other. Nobody really cared back then, but she knew some of the soldiers that had met her. Some others she had killed. Most people she talked to thought the Sentinels different from the older Healing Orders but she knew that Lilith just had her own flavor of morality she imposed upon the world.
The songs and stories had only picked up, the woman by now more myth than anything else. And yet she was real. Everybody claimed as much. It wasn’t the first time now, that she saw hints of black wings, blue eyes in the dark. As if someone was hunting her, for the sins of her past. The choices of her present.