Darkness had fallen over the sky above Beorf a few hours past. The moon's light was denied access by the many clouds overlooking the large city. Slither used that to her advantage like she had done so many times before. Out of all hunters currently alive, she was known among the stealthiest. In the night, she excelled at closing the distance between herself and her targets before they could even notice she had been there. The hunter had been called a master of the shadows, a name that had only become more prevalent when she had started using her ink clouds. Touching her belt with the tip of her fingers, Slither could feel the four round leather balls that were her very own portable cover. It had come in handy many times to save herself or to provide a way to descend upon targets without being spotted. She hoped she wouldn't need to use any tonight, with such a small quantity remaining and no way of restocking them, it was imperative that she only use them when absolutely necessary. The rooftops nearest the castle were mostly one or two stories high and didn't provide much in terms of scouting the enemy but it would have to do. Leaping when a soldier turned his head, Slither landed with a soft thump onto the roof that would offer the best vantage point of the main castle. From here, it was possible to look over its base and see all the men patrolling its outside. "Where are you Kate?"
Slither spent the next hour on the rooftop laying still as a corpse and memorizing what she could. She had counted twelve soldiers, two guards and two executioners stationed at various entrances and patrolling the grounds. She committed their routines to memory, it would be useful later to know when the guards would change and at what intervals. Flexing her legs to get the blood flowing, the hunter silently made her way off the roof and into the street. The oil lamps hung around were keeping the area from collapsing into total darkness. This made her smirk in amusement. Far too many people didn't fully understand how to use light as a scouting tool. When a path was lit up, guards would look to it instinctively for wanderers or intruders and miss the real threat slipping by in the corner of their eyes. A good sentry wouldn't look towards the lamps but rather away from them and towards the shadows all the while relying on their peripheral vision to warn them of any person breaching the lit up space. Slipping into the dark patch around the corner of a store, she moved in obscurity towards the lord's residence. It took the better part of an hour for the hunter to investigate the perimeter and the walls more closely. Most of the underground rooms of the castle had small barred windows near her feet where she could peek in and take a small look inside. Thankfully, she only had to meld with the ground a few times to avoid being spotted by the men on patrol. The search for Kate had been unsuccessful so far and the hunter was feeling the frustration bubble up to her core. "They must be keeping her on the highest floor."
Hearing a small scratching noise, Slither put her back to the wall and slipped the dagger on her right hip free of its sheath in one quiet move. The hunter strained her ears to pick up the odd noise and she held her breath when it happened once again. The scratching didn't have any rhythm to it and she immediately dismissed the thought that it could be an animal. If anything, she thought that it sounded like someone dragging a rock on a hard surface. It went on for a half minute before she felt comfortable enough to breathe out and make her way towards the eerie noise. The hunter closed in on the odd sound by shuffling against the wall for a good ten paces towards her left. Suddenly the tiny commotion stopped and the hunter bent down near a small rectangular hole in the wall at ground level. It was much smaller than the other openings she had come across and was roughly a foot tall and two feet long with four thick bars that connected the top and bottom vertically. "A cell." She smiled to herself. "Kate?" The sound of a thick heavy door creaking open startled the hunter and she lost her balance as she fell to her knees in the soft grass. She heard the sound of a wooden object being slid on the hard floor roughly and then the door closing once again. A few moments passed and she heard the sound of faint footsteps moving away. The silence was broken by the loud sound of an object being thrown hard at the wooden door and bouncing a few times on the floor until it settled. Slither went on her belly and looked with one eye inside the dark cell. It contained a figure dressed in a dirty white dress who stood staring forward towards the spot where her projectile had hit the door. There were bits of meat and vegetables littered on the floor around the door and the bowl she had thrown had cracked in two. Kate looked terrible. The hunter couldn't see her face but her arms and legs were covered by dozens of deep lacerations and large bruises. Dried blood that hadn't been washed away covered her clothing and stained it brown. Her posture was sagging and she was heavily favoring her left side.
"I've warned you that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated." A steady male voice spoke from a bit further down the cell and she spotted the man's eyes in a slit in the door. "Either you eat what is provided or I'll force it down your throat."
"What does it matter if I eat your bloody scraps?" Kate's voice sounded cold… Much colder than the hunter remembered.
"We need you alive. I'll send for another bowl but rest assured that another incident like this will be met with fierce consequences."
"What can you threaten me with that he hasn't done tenfold? Neither of you need me anymore. It's bloody clear that nobody is coming for me and he already knows that I don't have any bloody information on their whereabouts. Just let me join my family." Kate's voice shook with strain.
"I agree that you have nothing to offer and I would love nothing more than to leave and go back to my estates but it's not up to me. He gets to decide when the questioning stop." The man's voice was dismissive, as if talking to a petulant child. "And do not talk to me as if you have say in the matter, you seem to forget that it is your fault that you stand in this cell. YOU chose to help hide a witch from the law. YOU chose to aid her and the hunters to kill the High Lord's men. This is on YOU!" His voice was growing louder with every punctuation.
"THEN WHY MURDER MY FAMILY?! THEY DID NOTHING! HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY JUSTIFY KILLING MY SISTERS, MY MOTHER, MY AUN…" Kate's shouts were cut off when the door opened with force and the man punched her hard on the right side of her face with his left fist. Kate fell to the ground with force and she struggled to her hands and knees before the man kicked her hard in the stomach with his boot. With a groan of pain, Kate stayed curled on the ground for a few moments with a small pool of blood forming next her face where blood was escaping her lips. The hunter could now see Kate fully and she resisted the urge to storm the castle by her lonesome. The woman's face was filled with cuts and fading bruises. Coughing up a bit more blood, Kate slowly got back to her feet and she turned to face the man who was fuming with rage.
"YOU WILL NOT TALK TO ME LIKE THIS. I AM A LORD AND I WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!"
"YOU BETTER HOPE HE KILLS ME BECAUSE IF I EVER ESCAPE I'M GOING TO HUNT YOU ALL DOWN ONE AFTER ANOTHER FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME AND MY FAMILY! PRESCOTT, YOU AND THE WHOLE LOT OF HIS ALLIES! I'LL MAKE YOU ALL BEG FOR DEATH AT MY HAND!" Kate lashed out furiously with her fist and the man shoved her roughly back down to the ground in the corner of the small room. The man spun on his heels and slammed the door shut behind him, the clicking of a lock echoed shorty after.
Victoria was frozen with her eyes widened in shock. She'd never seen Kate so enraged. She'd been the nicest woman the hunter had ever met and she had never seen her so much as lift a single finger to harm any creature. "What have they done to you?" The soft cries of the woman in the corner of the cell made her blood boil. "I'll kill them all for this!" She wanted to reach out and comfort Kate desperately, to tell her that she was here to help and to wait another few days. "I'm so sorry Kate. I can't let you know I'm here yet. If I do, I risk you telling them when under the question." Grimacing and tightening her hands into fists, the hunter stood up quietly and started to sneak past the sentries and back towards path that lead to the inn. "I'll get you out of this city and back to Max if it's the last thing I do."
Kicking the Silver Sword's door open in a loud bang, Victoria made her way past the empty tables and towards the bar. "I need a bloody drink!" The inn was deserted of all patrons with the exception of the drunken man she had seen yesterday. He was passed out at the same table he had been attending the night before with a good half dozen empty mugs obscuring his face from her view. Paying him no mind she slammed her three fingered fist hard onto the wooden bar and shouted for Frank. The innkeeper ran down the stairs and into the main floor holding two short swords with a look of alert. His large dog had jumped onto the top of the bar and was growling with ferocity while staring at her with glowing red eyes. His teeth were bared in a snarl and he looked about to attack.
"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Seeing no urgent situation requiring his help, Frank glared at Victoria. "Explain yourself!" He pointed the short sword's tip towards the hunter before whistling in a high pitch towards the dog. The dog instantly stopped growling and hopped down to make his way towards his master.
"His eyes!" Victoria was still stunned and she pointed to the dog in disbelief with her right hand. "What was that?" She approached the dog and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Probably just saw the reflection of something." Frank scratched at the dog's head and dropped his swords on one of the tables near him. "Now tell me why you rammed my door in with your bloody foot." Victoria shook her head to clear it and looked to the ex-mercenary with anger.
"I found her." The hunter started pacing in a circle while talking, a few tears escaped her eyes. "The things they do to her… I saw the bloody lord beat her senseless and I couldn't do anything to help! I couldn't even tell her I was bloody here!" Victoria needed to smash something, to let some of the anger and frustration out. She kicked at a chair with the sole of her boot and it crashed down a few meters always in a clatter of noise. Squaring up to another, she lifted her foot and felt a strong hand clamp down on her shoulder and spin her around.
"Calm yourself alright?! Tearing my inn apart isn't going to help the situation any!" Frank moved to behind the bar and grabbed at a couple of mugs to fill up. "Now come here and sit down." Victoria went back to the chair she kicked and picked it up gingerly. Her emotions were all over the place right now. The hunter placed the chair back where it had been and made her way to the bar to take a seat. "That's better. Here." Victoria reached out and forced herself to drink the whole of it before putting it down. She slid it back and gestured for another. "Now what did you find out beside how she's doing? Where's the room located? Is it accessible by the outside or does it require entering the castle? Patrols…? Guards…?" Victoria took a couple minutes before responding to finish another two full mugs and collect her thoughts. She wanted to drown the emotions away and she only spoke up when she felt the familiar buzzing feeling creeping up.
"Twelve soldiers, two of Beorf's own guards and two executioners are around the perimeter. The two executioners wander around randomly but the soldiers themselves are posted at the doors and do scripted patrols. They aren't vigilant, I only really had to take care not to be seen around the two in crimson armor. The room's underground but there's a small barred opening that lets you see inside. The door was wooden, maybe maple? It was heavy, that I'm sure of. I don't think it's possible to break in from the outside, we would need a strong battering ram or a tinkerer's device to break a hole through and even then it would cause too much noise. I think sneaking in is the only option I have." Victoria let her forehead drop onto the bar. "I don't know how I'm going to do this Frank. It's a bloody fortress and I have no backup. I can't kill them all by myself, there's just too many and if they get alerted then I'll lose the only advantage I have. If I sneak in undetected then I have the same problem on the way out and I'll have face all the enemies when I progress to the exit while trying to protect Kate at the same time." She slammed her head lightly on the wood and took in a deep breath. "Frank… Do you see anything I don't?" She heard a strong exhale.
"I know someone who's really amazing at figuring out puzzles. We could contact her and explain the situation. She might have a different approach in my mind or even something to help us out. She's no tinkerer but what I've seen, I'd say she's the closest we got."
"Can we trust her?" The hunter felt foolish at the question the moment it left her mouth but she left it to hang anyways.
"Of course. You think I'd mention her otherwise?"
The door to the inn opened in a creak and Victoria lifted her head to look over her shoulder. Her breath caught and she stared in shock at the crimson armored men who crossed its threshold. She felt Frank reach out and touch her arm as a warning. The two tall men wore long swords at their belt and bows on their backs. They moved a few feet in and closed the door behind them. The executioners stood a good ten paces away from the hunter.
"What are you two doing here at this time of night? The inn's closed."
"An inn that's closed at night?" The man on the left chuckled and it sounded a bit muffled through the helmet he wore, she could see his eyes squint through the slits.
"The bar stopped serving drinks a couple hours back and the inn itself is full. We have no rooms available so get out." The two men shifted a bit.
"We spotted someone leaving the reigning lord's castle grounds using the shadows to disguise themselves." The man on the right's eyes shifted to Victoria and she resisted the urge to reach for her weapon. She could feel fur sliding next to her left leg and a very low growl coming from the dog.
"Following the figure was really easy actually. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to their surroundings on the way back to where they came from." The man who was staring at her had a lower voice that reverberated slightly in his helmet.
"What the bloody hell does that have to do with me?" Frank seemed to be getting a bit more defensive and he moved from behind the counter to stand next to Victoria. The eyes of the man on the right flicked quickly to the two short swords on the table nearby and back to her. It happened so quickly that she didn't think she would've noticed if she hadn't been looking for it.
"We tracked her to this inn." The man on the left turned his helmet towards her and his arm moved very slightly towards his sword. The tension in the room was palpable.
"So I'm not allowed to go for a stroll in the dark? Last I checked, even the castle grounds aren't forbidden to anyone." Victoria spoke up and got off the stool to lean her left side on the bar.
"You're right of course. But it turns out we've been awaiting some visitors that were supposed to come by the castle soon. We were told to escort them to the High Lord's advisor if we spotted them."
"What if I refuse? I have better things to do with my time." That sentence made the two armored men step forward a foot.
"Then we would have to use force. If you really have nothing to hide then I suggest coming along with us and you should be free to go in a few hours." The left man nonchalantly moved his hand to rest on the pommel of his sword. Frank whistled sharply and the dog that had been growling next to Victoria's legs came to stand in front of his master. His eyes were once again glowing red and his teeth were bared with ferocity. Victoria pulled her dagger out and held it in her hand.
"She's not going anywhere with you." Frank calmly reached over to the table and grabbed his two short swords. The man on the right let out a loud laugh that redoubled in strength when the other executioner joined him. A moment passed and the two men slid their swords out of the sheathes at their hips and held them with the point digging into the wooden floor.
"Is that dog supposed to scare us?" The loud noise of a chair scraping slowly against the floor made every head in the inn turn to its source. The man who had been passed out in the corner was now standing up and looking over the scene in front of him. He stood with his back straight and passed a hand to brush through his short black hair. He rolled his shoulders and strode towards the door in his hardened gray stained leather armor. Nobody moved to stop him and Victoria once again felt that feeling of danger emanating from the stranger. Reaching the door, the man moved his hand towards the handle and past it. Victoria furrowed her brow as she saw him lift the heavy wooden plank that had been leaning on the wall and gently set it across the door on its holders to effectively lock it.
"What are you doing man? Get out! This is official business on behalf of Lord Kessal." The executioner on the right looked him over with annoyance, emboldened by the stranger's visible lack of weapons. Frank's eyes were moving between everyone quickly. Victoria guessed that he had come to the same conclusion that she had come to the day before. The executioners both lifted their sword towards the man when he stepped forward to within three paces.
"I don't like your kind." His voice was gruff and cold as ice. He moved in closer once again until the point of one the swords was only inches from his face. "You stand behind the lines and let the others do the fighting for you because you're too scared to face men like me."
"Back off!" The stranger didn't react to the command.
"I've been looking for an opportunity like this since I last saw your precious Raven Knight. But this time it's different… I don't see any witches here to even the odds in your favor. Do you?" To everyone in the inn's bewilderment, in a matter of seconds the man's skin had faded into dark green scales. Victoria could hear the somewhat metallic sound of the scales grinding together when the man made a fist. The two armored men reacted quickly, they both swung in tandem both high and low with their swords to connect with his chest and legs. Victoria flinched instinctively but the swords connected with a loud clang and didn't seem to damage the man with scales. Without hesitation, the stranger swung his fist downwards hard at the executioner that had gone low and connected with a deafening crunch to the top of his helmet. The helmet caved in a good four inches where the fist had struck and killed him instantly. The body crashed to the ground and Victoria stared in horror at the steady stream of blood and brain matter that poured from both the eye slits and the bottom of the deformed helmet. The man's head had been split open inside like a melon. The other executioner took the moment to run towards the door and had barely taken off the plank before he was grabbed and pulled away.
"Please…" The absolute terror in the man's voice made the hunter's stomach lurch.
"Coward." The man grabbed both sides of his helmet and Victoria looked away as she heard garbled scream followed by the strangled wet crunch. When she looked back, the executioner's body lay next to his fellow and his helmet had been squeezed in the middle vertically until it only had a few inches of thickness. It had handprints on both sides where the man had pressed and a massive amount of blood and a few chunks of brain surrounded the corpses. When the scaled man turned his steely gaze towards Frank and herself they both brought their weapons up and backed away a few feet, only Frank's dog stood his ground. "Sorry for the mess." He waved his hand towards the bodies and blood spattered on the wall from his grisly hands. He seemed to faze once again and the dark green scales disappeared to make way for white skin. Frank's short swords didn't move down the slightest bit. The man moved forward to a table and sat down on a chair with a grunt. "It looked like you could use some help diffusing the situation and I certainly wanted a piece of them."
"What are you?" The question slipped out the hunter's mouth.
"I'm a first tier Impact of the royal guard." The man grunted and frowned. "Was." He breathed in loudly. "You can call me Madsen."