Episode 14: Hear No Evil
1st of Cassus
Aelita sat next to the fire, and she held her head in her hand as she felt something invade her mind. She felt the presence grab hold of her private thoughts, the ones even Jeremie could not reach—her memories and emotions. In turn, she felt the presence's shared isolation and confusion. Aelita shook the presence off, shrugging it off as a demon. The Veil in Ravenbow Canyon was thin, and the spirits were active on that night.
Aelita looked over to the tents where the others slept. Her eyes lingered on Jeremie's tent, her heart heavy for the events that had happened the day before. Surely he knew she had not initiated it… no? It was painful for him to be so close and yet any contact between them would be inappropriate. But as she pondered this, something felt wrong. She stood, looking around before walking closer to Jeremie's tent. Cautiously, she opened it, only to find that he was not inside.
This fact filled Aelita's heart with worry. Jeremie and Odd had gone scouting many hours earlier, and while Odd stayed away from camp during the full moon anyway, Jeremie almost always returned before darkness fell. Sometimes he ran late of course, but it was past midnight now, and dangerous things lurked in the dunes.
She paced around the fire for a while, praying that Jeremie would walk back into camp. She felt the invasion inside her mind again, but the presence didn't probe any further than her fear. The connection between Aelita and the presence shattered like glass, causing her to flinch. But now she felt its lingering effects, inevitability and confusion colliding with her worry and fear.
Aelita fiddled with her fingers nervously, and unable to hold onto her nerve, she rushed over to Ulrich's tent and shook him awake. "Ulrich! Ulrich, wake up! It's almost sunrise and Jeremie hasn't returned!" She said as the Mercenary sat up groggily.
"I… what are you talking about?" Ulrich asked, his voice scratchy.
"Jeremie! He hasn't come back! I'm afraid something terrible has happened to him!" Aelita shouted.
Ulrich rolled his eyes, but he asked her to leave his tent while he dressed. Aelita woke Yumi and Laura, and they too dressed. In the meantime, Aelita paced around the campfire. She gently woke Rorkal, as the Heroes were all leaving camp and it wasn't safe to leave it unattended. They worked together to pack up camp, and headed north, where the two boys had headed.
There was no sign of them for a long time, not that any of them had expected there to be. Many hours had passed since Jeremie and Odd had scouted that way, and the wind had swept away their path. Eventually, however, they came across a fallen statue near a small group of trees and a well. Yumi suggested they investigate the well, as there appeared to be someone standing near it.
As they neared, the person entered a defensive position, obviously unhappy with their presence. His weapon shone in the light given off by the rising sun, and as Yumi and Ulrich drew their weapons while Laura and Aelita prepared their magic, it became obvious that the man was in fact an orc carrying a silver greatsword. Yumi pointed at the group of trees. "Look! There's Odd!"
Yumi and Ulrich charged the orc, who gave a battle cry in his strange tongue, and the battle began. Ulrich deflected the slash with his katanna while Yumi threw kunai at his chest. The orc used his gauntlet to stop most of the kunai, but when he grabbed a throwing knife from his own belt and threw it at Yumi; she put on her mask and vanished into thin air. Aelita pulled a boulder from the earth with her magic, holding onto it while Laura set it ablaze. The Outcast launched it at the orc, striking him. Surprisingly, he survived, but Ulrich pushed him towards the well. Yumi removed her mask and tripped him with her bo staff.
Laura rushed over to Odd's side, examining the binds that kept him tied to the tree. Looking around, she could not see Jeremie and concluded that he wasn't there, but whoever had taken him had obviously been prepared for a fight. Odd had been caught in silver chains. "Maybe whoever took Jeremie was working with the orc. See if you can't get him out of the well."
Laura fiddled with the chains, struggling to find a way to break them. With no obvious and quick solution presenting itself, she sat him up and followed the chain until she found the lock. It looked sturdy and she didn't have the skill to pick it anyway. Sighing, she told Odd she was sorry and had him move so that she could get the lock as far away from his body as possible. Then she summoned a small controlled fire and focused it into an intense jet directed at the lock's loop. Odd began to squirm as the metal went from a dull red glow to a bright cherry red and the heat carried through the chains to his back. "Hold on Odd, just a little longer" Laura soothed as she finished melting the lock. As soon as the loop was melted through she began pulling the chains off of Odd's body, hissing as the hot metal scorched her skin.
The Scout had been beaten pretty badly; scars left by silver had persisted through his werewolf form and marred his arms. It seemed that, by Odd's troubled expression, the fact he was still dressed, and the orange glow in his eyes when they snapped that his assailants had found a way to interrupt his transformation. He pushed against Laura gently, shaking his head. "Ugh, I feel like death." Odd said quietly.
"What happened to you? Where is Jeremie?" Laura asked before she glanced over her shoulder as Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich finished pulling the orc out of the well.
Odd blinked, and the brown returned to his eyes. "Jeremie and I… were arguing. Gods, I can't even remember why. Then there was no sound, not even from the animals. I was struck with a silver arrow and when Jeremie tried to help me, something knocked him out. Then I was ambushed by zombies and that orc over there."
Laura nodded then glanced over to where the other teens were arguing over who was unlucky enough to have to search the waterlogged orc. She turned away when they tried questioning him and started to heal Odd's wounds, though it seemed that the scars left by the silver persisted despite healing. She cursed, but he waved her off, claiming they made him look hardier. The others joined Laura, and Odd repeated his story to them.
Laura looked at the other Heroes. "Did you find anything that could help us locate Jeremie? A map, or a symbol? Maybe the orc said something useful?"
Yumi shook her head. "No, nothing. This person, or people, covered their tracks well." She gestured towards the dead orc, "He didn't have any answers, none that we had any hope of comprehending anyway."
"Please, Odd. You must remember something else." Aelita begged.
Odd closed his eyes and thought hard. In flashes, he remembered the argument with Jeremie—then it hit him like a brick; Jeremie had been angry with him because he'd kissed Aelita—and the attack. The voice of a woman, her accent from centuries before any of the Heroes had been born. He recognized the way her face had been warped, but from where? From three years ago, in the cavern…
"Yes. The woman who kidnapped Jeremie was a vampire." Odd said, and his face twisted into worry. "If she wanted a guardian or blood cattle, she would've taken me or all of you. She must have something else in mind."
Yumi looked to the others. "So now we know what we're up against. A vampire, and a necromancer at that."
Aelita shook her head. "Poor Jeremie!" Her face twisted in anger. "When I get my hands on this vampire, she'll wish she'd never been born!" Her fingers crackled with lightning, and she took a deep breath to regain control. Laura looked at her strangely, but Aelita didn't back down from her stare.
Laura sighed. "Which way did she go, Odd? Do you know?"
The Scout shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. The orc dragged me over here, and I wasn't able to see where she went." He hung his head, ashamed. "This is all my fault. He wouldn't have dragged me away from camp if I hadn't made such a dick out of myself."
"Wait, what did you do?" Laura asked.
"It didn't mean anything to me, but I should've known that…" He stopped his sentence short. With a smirk, he tried to lighten the mood. "Anyway, Aelita, I think we should stop this now before anyone else gets hurt."
Aelita rolled her eyes. "You know, I think I can live with that." She said flatly.
"It's not you; it's me." Odd added.
Ulrich took a step closer to Odd. "Enough of this, Odd." He then folded his arms. "You're our tracker. Can you find out which way they went?"
"Without any idea of where she took him, any clues to their path or a sample of a scent I can use? Not even I'm that good." Odd said flatly.
"Dammit. We're back at square one." Ulrich cursed.
Aelita suddenly lost her balance, and she leaned against a nearby tree. Erahalam's blade pierced her stomach, and the staff flew out of the Outcast's reach and over to the area Odd had identified as the ambush sight. She stood and chased after the staff, and the other Heroes followed her. "Murray, what's gotten into you?" Aelita asked as she grabbed the wooden staff. The eye sockets glowed red, as did the sand beneath the blade. The Outcast dug in it, discovering a place where the sand had been stained red from the Wise Man's blood. "Why are you helping us find Jeremie? You don't even like him!"
Laura leaned over and whispered to Ulrich, "She's talking to the stick. Why is she talking to the stick?"
"I don't know. Maybe you should try it sometime and find out!" Ulrich said sharply.
Nevertheless, Aelita kneeled and scooped some of the bloody sand onto her fingers. She presented it to the skull, and the red glow turned blue. It spun for a moment, and then created a beam of light headed to the northwest. Then the light faded, and the staff fell, lifeless. "Jeremie must've been taken to the northwest." Aelita said, picking up Erahalam.
"We should get moving. There's no telling what she's done to him." Ulrich said.
The sky had returned to its natural blue by the time the Heroes reached the location they believed Jeremie to be held in. It was a quarry that had once held mithril, long since abandoned when the miners mysteriously vanished circa 4:16 East. Part of the area was built into the quarry, though it seemed that some of it carried over onto higher ground. The descent down was marked by rotting corpses on pikes. "This crossed the border of strange and went right on into Freaky Town," Odd said nervously. Sighing, he added, "If Jeremie were anywhere, it would be here. This place reeks of vampire."
Ulrich turned to face the others. "We shouldn't send everyone in. With luck, we can just grab the captain and run back, but if not we don't want us all dying at once."
Yumi frowned but agreed. "Odd and I will stay here with the aravel."
Odd turned to face the Colonist. "What? You mean you don't want me to help with the rescue?" Yumi nodded, and the Scout seemed angry at first. "But it's because of me that Jeremie was kidnapped! I need to set this right!"
"Then set it right when the others have saved him! There's no point in you running in there; you're badly wounded! Don't think I haven't seen you limping!"
"I can still fight! Why not leave Laura here with you?" Odd suggested.
Yumi explained before Laura could voice her disapproval of Odd's comment. "I don't know why the vampire kidnapped Jeremie but I doubt it was for tea and cakes. He'll be badly wounded too, maybe even dead!"
Aelita shook her head. "Don't say that! Jeremie is alive, I know it!"
"Regardless, you shouldn't exert yourself. I'm staying here so I can make sure you get rest and you don't rush in before you need to." Yumi added. Odd began to protest, but the severe look Yumi wore made her feeling on the matter quite clear so he balled his fists and submitted. "How long should we wait before we follow you?"
Laura thought for a moment. "Give us an hour or two. This place is pretty large, but it shouldn't take much longer than that if we play our cards right."
Ulrich nodded to his lifelong friends. "We'll be back soon, with Jeremie." He, Aelita and Laura descended into the quarry, preparing for a fight. Eventually they came to an entrance that went into the rock face of the quarry.
When they entered, the door slammed behind them. The hallway was dark now, and Laura held out her palm, creating a light to show them where they walked. It seemed pretty normal at first, despite its bitter cold atmosphere and the darkness, but as they moved further in, things got stranger.
Ulrich, who walked in front of the magician girls, tripped over a hidden wire, causing a skeletal chest to strike him from shadows. He grunted in pain, and the girls screamed. The bones were red and sticky from blood. Ulrich pushed the skeletal ribcage off of him. "This vampire is seriously messed in the head." He said with a voice flatter than the Western Plains.
The trio continued moving deeper into the gore filled dungeons, Aelita holding onto Ulrich for dear life. "Ulrich? Laura? I'd very much like to leave soon." She whispered. Laura nodded in agreement, and Ulrich couldn't help but agree with them in his thoughts. But they all knew that they had a job to do, and if he turned them around, neither of the magician girls would have forgiven him.
They came to a staircase, and seeing no other way to proceed, they climbed it. Soon they came across a courtyard, in the center of it a vhenadahl tree. "What's a vhenadahl doing here?" Laura asked.
"I don't know-wait." Aelita approached the tree. "Maybe... Maybe this is where Edna's first apprentice died. The elves would have planted a tree in his honor." She answered solemnly. Her eyes traced the tree and she jumped back with a short shout at the sight of the corpse swaying gently in the wind.
Ulrich and Laura converged on Aelita instantly; alert for whatever had startled the girl. The sight of the mutilated corpse led to a gasp from Laura followed quickly by a gasp from Ulrich as he scanned another area. He dashed over to a metal table and fearfully pushed the body of a young woman wearing black over so that he could see the face. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth only a moment before Aelita signaled the group with a quiet "um…" She pointed out the werewolf corpse and all three pondered the set of bodies.
A werewolf, and two female corpses dressed like Laura and Yumi. Physically they didn't resemble the girls, but after a moment of consideration their purpose was clear. Ulrich gave the thought voice, saying "Poor Jeremie. The vampire must've tried to convince him that his friends were dead."
They tried to go down the other path, but the female corpses rose from their rest, wearing ugly rotting faces. They charged the Heroes and Ulrich sliced at the corpse dressed as Laura's neck. Her head slid off, and he kicked her corpse away. The corpse dressed as Yumi charged the magician girl, but Laura set her aflame. Aelita sliced at her neck with the blade on Erahalam. All looked nervously to the werewolf's corpse but it remained still.
Ulrich led the girls down the next path and Laura tried her best to avoid stepping in the guts strewn across the hall. They came across a room that had been trashed, stumbling across the corpses dressed as Aelita and Ulrich. The smell of burning flesh still lingered in the air. Aelita covered her mouth, looking at the elven corpse that had been burned to the point that it was almost unrecognizable as an elf. Then she looked to the corpse dressed as Ulrich, noticing the puddle of cold blood. "I think he had to kill that corpse." Laura pointed to it.
"Well, I don't want to ruin his work." Ulrich said. He stabbed the elven corpse, and then the remaining human one. "This is a dead end. Should we turn around?"
Aelita shook her head, grabbing hold of the blood around her. She focused all her might on the wall, causing the wall to cave in. They were now in a new part of the dungeon, a hall where the walls were decorated with parts of corpses. Laura and Ulrich coughed at the stench of death, but Aelita only flinched.
They followed a dim light, and they discovered Jeremie unconscious inside. "Jeremie!" Aelita shouted, rushing to his side. She tried to rouse him to no avail. She panicked, seeing his pale face and fearing he had perished before they had arrived. Aelita sighed but still worried as she saw his chest rise and fall slowly, knowing that he still breathed. She caught sight of his neck, two holes in the side. "By the blood of the Creation Father! She's trying to turn him into a vampire!"
"What?!" Laura exclaimed. She rushed over to Jeremie's side. "Minerva's mercy, you're right! What do we do? We can't bring him back with us like this!"
Ulrich looked to Aelita. "How far along is he?"
Aelita forced open one of his eyes. About half of his iris was orange, and what little blue remained was dim. "We've got a couple more hours." She looked to the Mercenary with fire in her eyes. "The only way I know to save him is to kill his forebear."
Laura scoffed. "Like we weren't going to do that anyway."
Aelita glared at her, but she closed her eyes. Listening to the world around her, she could feel where the earth twisted. But oddly enough, it was above her. She looked up and gasped as she spotted a blonde vampire hanging from the ceiling. The vampire's eyes were closed, as if she were sleeping. Aelita silenced the others, and she pointed up at her.
Ulrich motioned to Laura, who nodded and conjured a small fire in her hands. The Fair sent the fire at the vampire, waking her and causing her to scream out in pain. She collapsed and tried to run, knocking over an Eluvian in the corner. It fell to the floor kicking up a cloud of dust and scattering small shards of glass as the mirror itself shattered, but nothing bad happened immediately. Ulrich jumped over the iron table Jeremie had been strapped to, and Aelita followed him. The Mercenary stabbed the vampire's throat, and the Outcast pushed off of his shoulders to land on the vampire's. Aelita used the blade on Erahalam to slice off the vampire's head.
Aelita presented the head to Laura, and while at first the princess grimaced, she agreed to the silent motion and set the head aflame. The Heroes then looked to Jeremie.
Slowly, color returned to his cheeks and the bite marks on his neck healed, though he remained unconscious. Aelita held his face gently in her hands, thankful that he had survived. In his unconscious state, the Wise Man uttered a single word. "Aelita?"
The word hit each member of the trio differently. To Aelita, it was like the voice of a benevolent spirit, or perhaps the Creator himself. He was alive, and he would survive. To Ulrich, it caused confusion. He had hated Jeremie for so long because of what he'd done to Aelita, but now his word offered a chance of reconciliation—both to Aelita and to the Mercenary. To Laura, it confirmed a doubt that had plagued her for many weeks, and it killed her to hear him do it.
Aelita placed her cheek to his. "I am here, ma vhenan."
Ulrich undid the binds, and he touched Aelita's shoulder before lifting Jeremie off of the table. Aelita followed him, looking back at Laura for a moment as the Fair stood in the room alone. Laura absently felt the small metal band around her ring finger and it seemed… Different. After another moment she followed after the trio, lost in her own thoughts and doubts.
Ulrich and Yumi placed Jeremie on a cot in the aravel, and Aelita sat on the other whilst Laura began to heal Jeremie's lacerations. It was awkward for a long while, and neither girl said anything. When the Fair had finished, she stopped and looked at the engagement ring on her finger.
It was gold, and Jeremie had bought it for her a few days after he'd sent Aelita away. Laura remembered being thrilled when he presented it to her. Had she known then? She must have, but she had ignored it so she could be happy in that moment.
Laura sighed, and hiding her hands from the Outcast, she removed the ring. She wrapped it in a handkerchief, and then secretly stuffed it into Jeremie's hand, curling his fingers around it. She placed the hand gently by his side then stood, and said simply, "I can't imagine that you'll leave his side until he wakes."
Aelita said nothing to this, not noticing the resigned tone to the Fair's voice. In fact, she didn't even flinch or look at Laura. Instead she stood and immediately took the chair, pulling it as close to the Wise Man as she could. Laura watched her for a moment, and with a final sigh, she exited the aravel. She gave the order for the others to pack up and head back for the road.
