Chapter 56: Its Elementary (1/2)

”What happened to him?” Morris asked gravely. He was trying hard not to be sick, but the scent of charred meat was filling the air.

”That's what we were hoping you could tell us. Far as we know, he got stabbed in the gut during a fight. Nasty injury, but nothing that should have been fatal. Few minutes later, however, the wound burst into flame. The fire continued to spread until he died, and for a while afterwards.” Adrian answered succinctly.

Morris's old curiosity surfaced. He had an idea about the origin of the man's curious death, but wasn't sure as of yet. ”Did anyone try to douse or smother the flames?”

”They did, but no amount of water or dirt was able to halt the spread.”

”Who stabbed him?”

Adrian glance around the room. ”That's the thing, we aren't too sure of their identity.”

”What do you mean?”

”Few months ago, some of the minor gangs started having trouble with a strangers intruding on their territories. At first they seemed to be probing their defenses, but soon they were tearing through the Wyrport underworld like a rat through cheese.”

Adrian walked over to the table and replaced the sheet, evidently sick of looking at the devastated corpse. ”In about a week, they owned half the city, and had the major gangs on the run, The Grey included. There was an alliance of sorts, more out of necessity than anything else, which led to major battle down near the docks. The gangs of Wyrport against the intruders.”

Morris waited patiently for his old mentor to finish.

Adrian looked down at his hands, seeming to age significantly. ”We lost. Badly.”

”Why?”

The old man looked up for a second, then back down at his hands. ”Honestly? We were outmatched. No one wanted to believe it, but the intruders were stronger than us in almost every way possible.”

”So, better organized? Better equipped? Better trained?”

”Oh, that was a part of it too, but the true fact of the matter was those intruders.....well they weren't human, or even really humanoid. At least not anymore.” He shuddered slightly.

”Sure, they looked like people. They stood on two legs, wore clothes, carried weapons, but that was about it. Their foot soldiers fought like demons, with no care for their own lives. They didn't seem to feel pain or remorse. It usually took more than five of us to take down one of them, and even then it was a close thing.”

Lorik broke in. ”We're lucky there weren't too many of them at the time. Like Adrian says, we lost, but we hurt them in the process. Whatever their aim was, they stopped expanding after the fight, and the Dark Guilds were left to lick their wounds and try to rebuild.”

Julia sniffed dismissively, before settling down on a nearby crate. ”Don't call them something like Dark Guilds, they don't deserve the title.”

”Did you try to go to the authorities?” Morris couldn't help but ask.

A derisive sneer emanated from Julia. ”Do you think we didn't try? When the fighting reached the point of involving civilians, we tried to go to the guards for help, but they didn't want any part of it. I don't know if they were being paid off or just cowards, but we've gotten no help from any official corner since the intruders started attacking.”

”I see…” Morris found it hard to believe that people like his father had no idea that something like this was going on. He had a sudden, almost nonsensical thought, that what was happening here was tied to his brothers' deaths, somehow. There was no reason for him to suspect a connection, but for some reason the idea was hard to shake.

Lorik continued. ”We've had something like peace for the last couple months, but that seems to be coming to an end. They're up to something, but we haven't been able to figure out what.”

Adrian took over the conversation again. ”Whatever happened last night has them buzzing with activity. We've been watching them, and it's been nothing but silence for weeks, but all of a sudden they're moving goods and people all over the place. They've also gotten more violent in the defense of their territory.”

”You mean….” Morris gestured meaningfully towards the corpse on the table.

Adrian nodded, ”He was part of a crew of three that were tasked with watching a particular warehouse near the docks. They were jumped right after shift change. He was the only one to survive…..at least at first.”

Morris nodded already lost in thought. The eidetic techniques he had learned at Bardic College were effective, but required a fair amount of concentration to make use of.

”This man was poisoned.”

The other three people in the room looked at him incredulously.

”So, our guy burned alive from the inside because of poison?” Julia asked sarcastically.

”Exactly. I suspect that the blade used to inflict the initial injury was specially designed to deliver a rare kind of poison.”

”Oh?” Adrian asked, intrigued. He had seen Morris acting like this before, and it had always led to new insights. That analytical mind of his had often saved members of the Grey from the law or rival gangs.

”Have you ever heard of the Inferno Wasp?” Morris asked without expecting a real answer. ”They are a nasty species of semi-elemental insects that are known for their deadly poison delivered by sting. Victims are literal roasted from the inside out as the venom ignites the body's tissues while spreading through the bloodstream. The resulting flames are suspected to be supernatural, and cannot be halted by ordinary water.”

”That sounds like the culprit.” Adrian said with a weary smile.