Chapter Six: Memento Mori
Fireday, Rova 28
I am going to kill Tsuto. He shall suffer tenfold every pain he and his kind have inflicted on my family. I don't know how I will manage to do this without Eyward trying to stop me. But he had better not get in my way when the time comes.
I must start from the beginning.
Before we left to follow Tsuto's tracks, Eyward insisted that we bring the elf's body to the temple so the priests there could begin the rituals to resurrect him. While Eyward was explaining to the priests what had happened – thankfully leaving out that it was I who had killed the elf – we caught the attention of a paladin who had been worshipping at a shrine. I recognized the statue – Sarenrae.
The paladin was concerned by the plight of Ameiko, and offered to help us recover her. So he rode with us as we followed Tsuto's trail, making me incredibly uncomfortable the entire time.
After about three hours of riding, during which I managed to record my previous journal entry, Eyward spotted a group of goblins ahead. He suspected that they were working with Tsuto, and had likely been posted to stop anyone who tried to follow him.
I was reluctant to offer my solution due to the presence of the paladin. But I figured Eyward planned to tell him of my nature sooner or later. And Eyward's past actions seemed to indicate that he would protect me if the paladin decided I was in need of slaying.
We still had Corress's armor. I proposed that I put it on and take his shape, while disguising the party in heavy cloaks so that they might appear to be the bugbears Corress had been leading.
It worked, somehow. Apparently my reproduction of Corress's arrogant persona was good enough that the goblins believed me. Even when they noticed that my companions were clearly not bugbears, my imperiousness managed to convince them to back off. We made it past the goblins and continued to follow the trail. And the paladin did not make a single death threat against me, which was a nice change of pace from the last paladin in my party.
About an hour later, we found them.
Not Tsuto and his men, no. But the pale, lifeless bodies of the other two members of Corress's team. I leapt from my horse and ran to them, hoping and praying for them to still be alive. But they were cold and had been for at least an hour. Thin lines of blood around their throats indicated that they had been garroted.
No one said much. Perhaps they were worried that I was about to go on another murderous rampage. Finally Eyward asked if I'd like help burying the bodies. I refused, and placed them inside the Bag of Holding where they joined Corress. Soon I will find Tsuto. He will pay for this.
I got back on my horse and we carried on, continuing to follow the tracks. Night is beginning to fall, and I expect that Tsuto will make camp soon. And when he does, we will catch up to him.
He will know pain before he dies.
Starday, Rova 29
I have exacted my vengeance, but I do not feel remotely satisfied. I just feel strange and empty.
We found Tsuto's camp about three hours after sunset. A large group of hobgoblin and bugbear soldiers sat around a campfire, warming their hands and chatting to each other. Several tents were set up nearby, and the silhouettes of two humanoid figures could be seen inside one of them.
I once again took on Corress's form, and started to lead the party towards the campsite with the intent of bluffing our way to Tsuto. The soldiers looked up at us as we approached and started reaching for their weapons.
Before I could say anything the gnome pushed his way past me and started yelling. "Hey, listen up! I want to speak to the man in charge here!"
"Fima, shut up..." I muttered, nudging him with my foot, but he ignored me.
A half-elf in leather armor shoved his way out of the tent. "Who is -" He turned, saw us, and scowled. "It's the adventurers! Kill them!" The hobgoblins and bugbears scrambled to their feet, readying their weapons. Tsuto drew two longswords.
Four hobgoblin archers loosed a volley of arrows at Fima, badly wounding the gnome. He staggered backwards and darted behind me to hide.
Izzussan charged in amongst the archers, forcing them to back away from him. The paladin, Daryn, advanced on Tsuto. The half-elf lashed out twice at Daryn with his longswords but the attacks bounced off Daryn's plate armor. However, the attack proved to be enough of a distraction that it allowed a bugbear to sneak up behind Daryn and begin garotting him. A second bugbear melted out of the shadows to slash at Eyward before vanishing again.
Another barrage of arrows came down around Fima and I. The gnome ran off into the bushes and I dodged to the side, but not before one arrow caught me in the leg. Wincing in pain I sprinted over to Daryn, avoiding a swing from Tsuto as I went, and ran both of my swords through the bugbear strangler. The monster let go of the garotte and stumbled backwards, blood gushing from its wounds. Daryn tore the garotte away from his throat and threw it into the bushes, then turned and decapitated the strangler with his longsword.
Eyward sang out a hymn and Daryn and I were both bolstered with energy. I circled around Tsuto, and pretended to leave an opening. When Tsuto went after me I easily dodged the attack. Daryn punished him for trying to hit me with a righteous smite from his sword.
We heard a yell of surprise from behind us. The stealthy bugbear had appeared out of the shadows again and was attacking Gor. Daryn moved to help the drow while I focused on Tsuto. I attacked with a flurry of quick slashes, relishing each drop of blood that spilled from him. Tsuto tried to retaliate but the viciousness of my strikes kept him off balance, and he was forced backwards. He stumbled into the fire pit and sent embers flying, lighting up one of the tents. I heard a yelp of surprise from inside the tent and Fima came tumbling out of it. Tsuto tripped the gnome as he tried to dash past, and Fima fell to the ground. Tsuto quickly thrust his longsword into the gnome's chest before turning to face me once again.
"You should run," he snarled at me. "Run away or we'll kill you all." I heard a cry of pain and saw Gor getting slashed across the neck by the bugbear. "Run away if you want to live." Izzussan finished off another of the archers but the remaining two shot arrows into his stomach. "Run away like the coward you are."
"I'm not going anywhere, human. And you're going to pay for what you did to my family."
I drew a handful of knives from my pouch and threw them at Tsuto's face. He ducked out of the way of most of them, but one cut him across the cheek. I surged forward towards him, and as he tried to step backwards he tripped over the body of the gnome, hitting his head on the ground so hard he fell unconscious.
I pounced on top of Tsuto. The sounds of battle muted and the world shrunk until it was just the half-elf and me. "This is for Davris and Toril," I told Tsuto, even though he could not hear me. "This is for my brothers." I raised my sword above my head.
"Zana, wait!" yelled Eyward. I froze mid-stab, my sword inches away from Tsuto's neck. I looked over and saw that Daryn had felled the stealthy bugbear, and that Izzussan was chasing off the last of the hobgoblin archers. We'd won.
"Zana, we need to question him first," said Eyward, walking over and placing a gentle hand on my wrist. I sighed and sheathed my sword. "Fine," I snapped, and stood.
When we located Ameiko in a tent and untied her, she immediately went with a knife after the unconscious Tsuto. We barely managed to restrain her before she could slit his throat. Once we had her calmed down, we tied up Tsuto and woke him up. Eyward looked like he was about to ask the first question, but I was faster.
I took on my true form and got in Tsuto's face. "You know who I represent, yes?"
Tsuto grinned and nodded.
"Why did you kill my family members?"
"When the leader didn't show up, they wanted to go back and make sure he was okay. I didn't want them to run into you and give away our location, so I had my men kill them."
I punched him in the face. He spat out blood and then continued grinning, his eyes laughing at me.
"Zana, enough," said Eyward. "Tsuto, I need to know where you were planning on taking Ameiko."
"I will tell you nothing," snapped Tsuto.
"Tsuto, if you don't answer my questions, I will let Zana do everything she wants to do to you right now." I blinked in surprise, and I saw a look of shock come across the paladin's face as well. I hadn't expected Eyward to willingly allow me to harm Tsuto. Perhaps it was a bluff?
"Pain doesn't scare me," Tsuto told Eyward. Eyward sighed and then nodded to me. I stepped forward and grabbed Tsuto's left hand. I could scarcely believe Eyward was allowing this. I expected him to pull me away from Tsuto any moment.
I pulled on Tsuto's left thumb so I could clearly see the joint in the bone. This is for the first of my brethren that you killed, I thought, and severed the finger.
The half-elf let out a grunt of pain, but managed to keep from screaming. I tossed the severed thumb out into the bushes.
"Please, Tsuto," said Eyward. "If you help us find Nualia so we can stop her from leading the goblins to attack Sandpoint, the courts may be convinced to show you mercy."
"Nualia…will kill…all of you," muttered Tsuto, his jaw clenched in pain.
I looked over at the paladin again and saw his expression was one of pure horror.
Eyward gave me a slight nod and I grabbed Tsuto's right hand. The second for my second brother, I thought, and cut off the right thumb.
Another grunt of pain from Tsuto. Another severed finger tossed into the bushes. And yet I still felt nothing. No sense of satisfaction, no feeling of justice or that I'd avenged the deaths of the fallen. I just felt…empty.
"That's enough," said Eyward, but I was already done.
We went through Tsuto's belongings and eventually found an encoded journal. It took a few hours to crack the code, but eventually we were able to learn that Nualia was at a place called Thistletop Keep.
Tonight we camp, with Eyward and the paladin Daryn guarding Tsuto to protect him from Ameiko and presumably me. But I want nothing more from him. I don't even feel the need to be the one to kill him.
Hurting him can't bring back my dead family members. So what's the point?
