The old footpaths were more or less as he remembered them from his childhood, although time had eroded them somewhat and Asch had to be extra careful about his footing. Once he'd descended the cliff, he sought the nearest road and set a brisk pace away from Baticul. He almost looked back once, then thought better of it and continued on until the capital city was lost to the darkness.
Well, that was that. His time in Baticul had been strange, sometimes even pleasant, but it was over now. Natalia was well taken care of, and through her so was Kimlasca, especially with people like Luke and Guy at her side. She wouldn't notice him missing right away, as he'd been known to wander whenever he got bored, but after a day or two she'd start to worry and go looking for him. As more days passed, she'd get more desperate, but as days turned into weeks her desperation would gradually fade into acceptance as she realized that her Asch had left her once again. He felt another pang of remorse for the pain it would cause her, especially when this should be the happiest time of her life, and for a moment he wondered if he should have waited until after the wedding. No- he'd made his choice, and he was sticking to it.
He stopped. That was right- he'd chosen to leave this time. He wasn't going to blame it on Van or Luke or the Score or anything else- this had been his decision, and he was responsible for it. He was going to start his life anew, instead of living in the past.
He smiled to himself as he continued. Peony was giving Natalia a rappiglet, so it wouldn't be long before the void left by this departure was also filled. Asch had never had a pet and still didn't get people's fascination with them; an animal was just another thing to put a large investment of time, gald and love into, only to be paid back with heartbreak when it inevitably died. Being one hadn't much changed his opinion on the matter. In any case, he could finally leave his old life behind for good with no regrets.
He followed the road for the rest of the night and rested by day under the roots of an old tree, digging out a temporary den. He planned to keep along the road until he was out of Kimlasca; he didn't quite trust his canine navigational skills yet, although he knew that he'd have to start learning soon. Traveling at night ensured that he wouldn't encounter any people who might recall seeing him once Natalia began searching for leads.
As dusk fell, Asch roused and began to scout for food. He found a bush with edible berries- not particularly satisfying, but enough to keep him going for a bit. He'd have to do something about the food situation quickly, though; he wasn't going to come crawling back to civilization half starved for a second time. He'd have to start training and honing his instincts if he was to become an effective canine hunter and live truly wild, but there didn't seem to be anything small enough to be considered potential prey nearby. Weaker monsters probably avoided the roads, so he might not find much until he started going cross-country...
An odd whiff suddenly caught his attention- a flowery smell, lavender to be exact, but with a sickening, artificial tinge to it. He remembered smelling it somewhere before -no one could forget a stink like that- but it took him a few minutes to place it; it was the perfume worn by one of the nobles that had been present at the castle that day they'd met about Natalia's marriage.
The scent grew stronger as he continued down the road; apparently, that same person had been traveling on it not too long before. As he continued on, something else bothered Asch about the smell, and then it hit him- it was alone. There were no mingled scents of servants or wagons or beasts of burden; the nobleman had been by himself. That was highly unusual; nobles almost always traveled in disproportionately large processions, as it made them feel important. The freshness of this trail also meant that it had been made earlier that night, which was more puzzling.
Asch's military training had long ago taught him to be wary of anything out of the ordinary, as it rarely meant anything good. When the scent suddenly veered off the main road onto a barely discernible side path, he was sufficiently curious to follow it. It probably wouldn't amount to anything that would concern him, but there had to be a pretty good reason for a perfume-soaked nobleman to be traveling alone in the dead of night.
The path that Asch's nose led him down had been abandoned for some time; where ever it had once led to, no one came or went there anymore, and now that it lacked purpose it had been left to the mercy of nature, which had begun to reclaim it. Asch knew that there was an allegory for life in general to be found in the road's sad fate, but he was too intent on tracking his current quarry to chase after it. He had to admit, the canine nose was quite a wonderful thing. He'd always tried to ignore it as much as possible, for it could easily tell him more about a person than a polite human being had any business knowing, but now that he was no longer so worried about being human he felt free to enjoy this powerful tool. It was too bad that he was using it to follow such an obnoxious fake lavender smell.
His nose took him to what looked like an old campsite for travelers, with a place to build a fire and shelter near an old well. It would have been abandoned, just like the road, were it not for the fact that Asch had not been the first to arrive here tonight- in fact, the previous visitors were still there. Asch instinctively ducked out of sight into the brush when he saw the two silhouettes, and proceeded cautiously. It took only a moment to identify the taller of the two men as the noble he'd been trailing, though he was now wearing a traveling cloak and a sword; the other was a stranger who had apparently come from a different direction. They were in the middle of a conversation.
"...venom came from a species of dragon that's now extinct," the stranger was saying. "In fact, this may have been taken from the very last specimen. Even Seventh Fonists can't treat it."
"How is that possible if the healer can neutralize the poison outright?" the perfumed noble asked. "How does it get around that?"
"Ah," the other man replied. "I'm impressed- most don't care how it works. Once it enters the body, it silently begins to damage the organs- by the time it's detected, the internal damage is too great for fonic artes to heal, and the victim will die in agony." The man laughed. "As you can imagine, this makes it one of the most dangerous poisons on Auldrant."
"It had better be, for what I'm paying for it," the noble growled.
Asch could just see the strange man- apparently some sort of apothecary- grin in the gloom. "That does make me a bit curious now, I must admit. There are many lesser poisons to be bought for much less gald- you must really want someone dead if you're willing to pay for the venom of Euchambersia mirabilis. Someone with constant access to a fonic healer."
"That's none of your business."
"Of course it's not. I suspect I'll know soon enough, though."
"What do you mean?" the lord asked warily.
"Oh, come now. Do you think I'm blind? A nobleman comes to me not even a week before a divisive royal celebration asking for poison that'll thwart fonic healing? When the princess is well known for her fonic healing skills?"
"How dare you- I should kill you right now!" The lord's hand moved to the hilt of his sword.
"Like I didn't expect you to off me once the job was done, anyway," the other man continued. "Tie up loose ends and all that. Well, I'll tell you something, you're not being half as clever as you think you're being, if I could figure this out. I'm using this money to disappear after this, and if you're smart, you'll leave it at that."
The nobleman glared angrily at the poison seller, but relaxed the grip on his sword.
His companion smiled smugly. "So," he said, "who is it, exactly? The Malkuthan count, I assume?"
The lord hesitated, but with his plan known there wasn't a point to keeping it secret."No. Were anything to befall Gardios, the Kimlascan nobility would immediately come under suspicion. This poison is meant for the fraud who calls herself Princess Natalia." He had the satisfaction of watching the smug expression of the apothecary's face melt into surprise. He hadn't figured everythingout, after all.
"But... why her?"
"If the Kimlascan 'princess' is murdered, Gardios and Malkuth will become the prime suspects instead. Not only will Kimlasca not suffer the indignity of having Malkuth on its throne, but relations between the countries will deteriorate back to what they should be- enemies."
"Why would you want that?"
The nobleman sighed; it was a surprisingly sad sound. "My oldest son was killed in the Hod War," he said. "Like all men of our line, he served loyally as an officer. Two and a half years ago, my second and youngest son, also an officer, was killed in the brief conflict between Kimlasca and Malkuth. Strange, isn't it? The fighting was so brief that they don't even call it a proper war, yet he's dead all the same." He paused for a moment before continuing. "My oldest was too young to have yet married, and my youngest had no sons. When Malkuth took them from me, it took my name with them." His sorrow suddenly gave way to contempt. "I was willing enough to let that lowborn tramp pretend to be royalty, but I will not let her mock my sons or my name by handing this country over to their murderers!"
Asch, who had been steadily creeping closer through the brush, had heard more than enough. This plot, like its conspirators, wasn't leaving the campsite. His cover ran out a few meters before the spot where the two men were standing, so he'd have to time his assault carefully to maintain the element of surprise when he made a rush at them. His primary target was the nobleman, who was armed with the sword; he didn't intend to let the apothecary live, either, but Natalia wouldn't be endangered further if he escaped. Focused on the nobleman, he didn't notice that the apothecary's shrewd eyes had been focused in his direction for some time, even as the lord had been speaking.
He was about to charge forward when the apothecary suddenly flung something into the air, arcing it so that it landed almost perfectly at Asch's front feet. Asch barely had time to note that it looked like a canister of some sort before white gas started to hiss out of it; immediately his eyes and nose began to burn as it quickly engulfed him. He lunged forward, but he couldn't see anything through the gas now, couldn't even breathe... the two men were shouting, but it sounded distant... his legs were starting to feel numb...couldn't breathe...
Asch came to slowly, at first only dimly aware that he was even alive. For a few minutes he couldn't even feel his body; finally, enough sensation returned that he could sense that he was laying on his side. He opened his eyes wearily and found that one was facing dirt and the other a sky streaked with the first rays of morning. Unsure of where he was, he slowly lifted his head to look around, breathing deeply to try to clear his hazy thoughts. He was beside a road, near a well...
Suddenly, he remembered what had happened. Those two men, plotting to murder Natalia! He bolted to his feet, but that proved to be a mistake; with a curse, he flopped back down as his legs gave out. It didn't matter, anyway- it was clear that those two were long gone. Although they had doubtless seen that their uninvited company was only a dog, the interruption had likely shaken them enough that they had left immediately, leaving him for dead.
He tried to rise again, more carefully, this time staggering forward drunkenly for a few steps before falling over again. Furious, he nonetheless forced himself to lie down for a few minutes, letting sensation fully return to his legs.
This was all his fault. If he hadn't been so stupidly sentimental, the marriage would have never been allowed to happen and Natalia wouldn't be in such danger. He should have trusted his instincts instead of listening to Luke and trying to make people happy by doing foolish things.
More confident about his legs this time, he stood up again, and took a few slow, careful steps. When he didn't fall this time, he began to search the area. Berating himself didn't matter right now- what did matter was finding those two would-be murderers and putting an end to their plan. Unfortunately, the gas had confounded his nose, covering up all other scents; he couldn't even smell the lavender perfume anymore. After several minutes' fruitless sniffing, it became clear that he wouldn't be able to determine which way they had gone.
Luke!He called out mentally several times, but received no response- Luke was apparently out of range of their weakening link. Fighting back panic, Asch turned toward the direction of the main road. It was clear that he couldn't do anything more out here. That left only one choice.
He had to get back to Baticul.