Chapter 4: The Festival of the Sacred Blade
A couple days later of going through the forest and fighting a few hellions once they got outside the domain.
"Hopefully this is a coincidence." Said Dezel.
"That's what you've been saying every damn time we've run into a hellion." Said Rose. "Look we're out of Lafarga's domain heading into a place filled with malevolence, there are bound to be hellions running around!" The two finally arrived at Lady Lake, like Sergei said it was a city that was in the middle of a lake with a bridge connecting that to the rest of the land.
"There we go, done!" Said Rose stringing her prickleboar bone necklace.
"What's done?" Dezel asked.
"Oh just a little project I've been working on for the past few days that we can probably sell so we don't have to use that comb you stole." Said Rose.
"No comment." Said Dezel. At the entrance of the bridge they encountered a group of people surrounding a collapsed wagon with some goods spilled out blocking the entrance to the city.
"Now what could be going on here?" Rose muttered to herself. The two approached a woman and a young man that were helping out with the wagon. The brunette young man with wearing feather earings, black pants, a black shirt and a red vest turned, his green eyes seemingly glancing towards something else before settling onto Rose.
"Oh hi! We're the Light Sparks, a traveling caravan of merchants." He greeted. The woman turned, she had brown hair tied back in a braid, light violet eyes, and a blue and green dress.
"I'm Muse, the head of this guild and this is Sorey." She introduced. "It's nice to meet you."
"I'm Rose, nice to meet you too." Said Rose.
"Oh wow, you have manners!" Said Dezel with his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Shut up." Rose muttered to Dezel before focusing back on the two. "So, where are you two heading?"
"Well right now Lady Lake." Said Sorey.
"We travel all over the continent and if we get access to ways to get off continent we'll travel the world as well." Said Muse.
"Cool." Said Rose.
"We're protected by a free trade treaty which means that we can go almost anywhere we like, provided we have means of getting there." Muse explained.
"Although there are times where we get asked to smuggle stuff but trust is our number one priority." Said Sorey.
"We don't want to engage in illegal trade, our reputation at times is shaky enough as it is with some of our members constantly getting arrested." Muse joked ruffling Sorey's hair.
"B-boss! We absolutely do not have anyone that's gotten arrested nor has gotten arrested for attempting to bail said members!" Sorey exclaimed, sounding a bit stiff.
"He's lying." Said Dezel.
"I…" Sorey started sounding panicked before seemingly catching himself. "We're going to be staying in Ladylake for a few days."
"If you need anything just give us a holler." Said Muse.
"Though they should worry about their cart first." Said Dezel.
"Actually I was wondering about a few things." Said Rose pulling out her prickleboar bone necklace and handing it to them. "I kinda found this somewhere and was wondering how much it would be worth."
"What is it made out of?" Sorey asked taking the necklace.
"Prickleboar bones I think." Said Rose.
"You should know since you made it." Said Dezel.
"While bones were used for things like tools and such but as for jewelry a lot of the time we end up seeing teeth or the whole bone unless its ivory, not carved into beads like these." Said Sorey. "What do you think boss?" He asked giving it to Muse
"Hm … judging by the craftsmanship anywhere between 700 and 900 gald." Said Muse then giving it back to Rose.
"Okay, thanks. Oh and also do you know of someone named Sergei Strelka?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, he's a captain in Hyland's army … or is he a lieutenant?" Said Sorey, "Anyway he's a well known soldier in the area as he's famed for many deeds of heroism and charity but I hear that he's not well liked among some of the higher ups as he seems to be too friendly with the citizenry."
"Also I think he might be overseeing this year's festival … or is it his brother?" Said Muse. "I can never tell the two apart." She muttered.
"Festival?" Rose questioned tilting her head.
"Yeah the sacred blade festival." Said Sorey.
"I'm new here, so I've never heard of it." Said Rose.
"Oh it's a festival that's held once a year or rather it was until thirty something years ago when the shepherd started using it. It got started back up about five years ago so I'm guessing the blade is back. It's a festival celebrating the Lady of the Lake and the sacred blade." Said Sorey. "Legend has it that whoever is able to draw that blade becomes the shepherd, so in light of all the disasters going on I think many people are going to try to pull the blade out of the altar."
"So due to Sergei's involvement with the people someone would put a hit on him even if it risks canceling the festival this year." Dezel theorized.
"What do you think would happen if the overseer of the festival dies like say he gets murdered?" Rose asked. The two give her a shocked look then gave each other a concerned look.
"I-I imagine that depending on the death the festival would either be cancelled or someone would have to replace him in case he dies." Said Muse. "Why would you need to know?"
"I heard a rumor that someone is after Sergei." Rose lied.
"Well it is a rumor …" Said Sorey nervously. "You can't exactly know for sure until you can confirm it."
"So I should basically get into the city and look around." Said Rose.
"Yeah, it is your first time in the city right?" Asked Sorey. "You should talk to the guards about any entry paperwork you need to fill out." Rose went to a soldier asking about paperwork while Dezel hung back with the Sparks and tried to listen in on them. However they didn't have anything that would tip off the normal person as suspicious, or their shenanigans on how they got arrested that one time. Nonetheless he had the wind monitor the merchant's guild as they felt off to him, especially Sorey. From what he listened to there was talk on fixing that damn wheel, and jobs on the festival, nothing out of the ordinary. Unless they were talking in code, but even then all Dezel could try to figure out from any mental cypher was complete gibberish that wouldn't make up any words in any written language. And putting cyphers on other cyphers made things worse. The cart ended up being fixed by the time Rose finished her paper work.
"Ah, perfect timing." Said the guard.
"Sorry, about that." Said Muse. "Good luck in there." She then said to Rose before walking off.
"Oh, just out of curiosity, have you seen Captain Sergei Strelka around?" Rose asked the guard.
"Yeah, he walked into the city about half a day ago." Said the soldier.
"Oh thank god!" Rose sighed, the soldier looked at her. "Yeah he forgot something the last time I saw him and I just wanted to give it to him before he gets too swamped with work."
"Very well, carry on then." Said the soldier.
"Sounds like Sergei made it back safely." Said Dezel on the bridge.
"True but we should try to look for him to make sure that fox guy hasn't gotten to him yet." Rose replied.
"And you just lied." Said Dezel.
"I know. I had practice for like 20 years of convincing you that I didn't tell Lafarga about your pets." Said Rose. Dezel scowled at her. "C'mon once we get into the city let's look around while I ask people about Sergei."
"Yeah you do that." Said Dezel. When they entered the city Dezel moaned and nearly toppled over. Rose looked around at the mass of people that were in the streets doing festival related stuff, shopping, and supervising children making sure they don't fall into the lake, or the town's waterwheel for that matter according to some passing words talking about a thing from a few years back. From what Rose passively hears it was gruesome. She tugged on Dezel's jacket and they rushed into a back alley.
"You all right?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's just I didn't expect malevolence to affect me so much." He said leaning against a wall.
"Why don't you sit down for a while." Rose suggested.
"I'm fine." Said Dezel. "I'm probably more sensitive to malevolence than the average seraph due to my blindness."
"Something about heightened senses right?" Said Rose.
"Something like that." Hand waved Dezel. "However with this much malevolence I don't think I could discern Fox Guy from any other hellion that might be in the city."
"Okay, but if you're not feeling well tell me and we'll rest. If it's really bad we'll leave the city for a bit." Said Rose. Dezel nodded. The two walked through the city with Rose asking around about Sergei claiming things like she's an old friend of his or even going to extremes like his girlfriend, or soon to be girlfriend. She kept getting similar results that he was at the barracks the previous night then he and his brother headed to the sanctuary. "Sounds like we should head to the sanctuary." She muttered to Dezel.
"Hello there miss you interested in buying some silk? They were imported from out the continent generations ago and have been in the family ever since. My old lady might swat me for it but they're yours for 850 gald." Said a street merchant.
"Well …" Rose started when she spotted a gobbling like hellion behind the merchant. "Hey Dezel, can you sense the hellion over there?" She murmured.
"No." Said Dezel bluntly. "There's so much malevolence here that I think the thing next to me is a hellion."
"That's a box next to you." She murmured before turning her attention to the merchant. "Sorry I'm not interested." The two then walked on.
"I'm surprised you didn't try to attack the hellion." Said Dezel.
"I can only kill hellions at this point, besides, you're here to try to keep me out of jail right?" Said Rose.
"Point taken." Said Dezel when the two ran into a crowd cheering and placing bets on two tiger looking hellions beating the crap out of each other. "What's going on here?"
"There's gambling on a street fight going on, something we should stay away from." Said Rose. Then the two passed by another goblin hellion pickpocketing from a bystander. "Well there are basically hellions everywhere we go."
"With this much malevolence, no kidding." Said Dezel when they approached the sanctuary. However there was a long line in front of it.
"Well here we are." Said Rose. "Doesn't look like we can get in from here." Just then they heard a dog nearby barking at something. Dezel ran off to check it out. "Dezel!" Rose shouted then running after him. They found the dog barking at air but a moment later there was a plume of flames revealing the fox man. He hissed then started running. The dog ran after him still barking.
"After it!" Rose shouted running after the dog.
"I know!" Dezel shouted following suit. The dog ended up losing sight of the fox man but maintained his scent and continued to pursue it. Dezel and Rose continued to follow the dog until they were at a section of the city that had a decent view of the lake. The dog ran off in a different direction while Dezel and Rose stopped to make sure that they weren't running around in circles looking for him. Rose then felt a chill down her spine which instinctively caused her to shove Dezel. Doing so had Dezel narrowly escape getting slashed by the Fox man.
"Goddammit!" He shouted.
"Your hunting days are over foxy!" Said Rose drawing her knives while Dezel released his pendulums.
"So you're that eager to die are you? So be it!" Taunted the fox man. Rose ran up to him unleashing a flurry of slashes and stabs while Dezel stayed back and tried to swing at the man however he kept missing and accidentally hit Rose a few times.
"Hey watch it!" She would shout, followed by receiving a flame burst from the fox man a immediately after. Though sometimes he would scratch her as well.
"Suck it up!" He'd snap back. He then stood there not knowing what to do next. "Rose just focus … Concentrate!" Some of Rose's wounds healed and she gained back some energy in addition.
"Thank you!" She said. So Rose focused on attacking the fox man while Dezel focused on healing Rose when she ended up receiving damage. Fox man then turned his attention towards Dezel and ran towards him. "No you don't!" She shouted running after him and tackling him to the ground. He rolled over and blasted her off with a plume of flame that sent her flying to a wall. She quickly got up and ran towards him just as he was getting to Dezel. She then threw one of her knives at his back causing him to yell in pain and turn to her.
"Oh you've gotten more irritating since the last time we met." He said.
"That's the idea!" Said Rose quickly stabbing him in the gut then rushing to his back to remove her knife. She then rushed to Dezel's side. "Goddamn he's a lot stronger than I remember."
"It must've been Lafarga's domain that was keeping him at bay." Said Dezel. "Plus you're the only one doing any damage because right now my aim is shit and my spells are hardly effective."
"It unfortunately makes you a sitting duck though." Said Rose then running up to him again. The fox man then summoned flames in his hands.
"I'll burn you both to ashes!" He shouted. He then unleashed the fire blast on Rose who was sent flying back, right into Dezel. Instead of catching her, he stumbled back, lost his footing and fell into the water.
"Dezel!" She shouted reaching her hand out failing to grab his. The fox man laughed manically.
"Oh I am enjoying this!" He said. "Such a fitting end to mere worms that try to challenge a god!" He summoned his blue flames again but he stopped when a knife landed between them. "B-boss!" He stuttered when a group of masked individuals wearing black clothes similar to the fox man and leather straps tied around their arms and legs appeared. One individual pulled her up and pointed a blade at her throat while two others surrounded the fox man and one stood alone.
"Quiet." She heard a female voice say. The fox man tried to get up but the lone figure threw a knife at his leg. He shrieked in pain while the figures that surrounded him pulled him up. Rose breathed heavily.
"Have you forgotten our code Lunarre?" A different female voice asked. The fox man didn't respond.
"Regardless, you're all out of second chances understood?" A male voice asked. The fox man nodded.
"Go." Said the first female voice. The individuals that were holding the fox man up dragged him away.
"That assassination order was a mistake." Said a male voice coming from the one holding the blade at Rose's throat.
"A-assassination?" Rose managed to get out.
"We're not after you, your friends or Captain Sergei." Said a disembodied voice.
"So what they say about Sergei not being particularly liked among the statesmen is true then." Said Rose. Silence, all the confirmation she needed. "So why did you stop?"
"We have our honor." Said the lone standing female figure before disappearing into the shadows.
"So, I guess I should be thanking you for saving us then?" Rose asked.
"No." Said the one behind her. Just then she heard a deafening screech she and the one behind her shot their heads to the direction of the lake where a blueish green serpentine creature crawled out of the lake with lightning sparks coming out of its mouth as it breathed. The person behind her disappeared without another trace. Rose got up and stumbled backwards away from the creature. It sniffed the air as if it was looking for something.
"A hellion?" She muttered. "How the…? We didn't see anything like it before when we were looking around." She tried to look over the ledge where Dezel fell but the hellion stopped sniffing when she started moving. She then got a good look at the creature's face. "Dezel?"