The Beast Within
Chapter Thirty-Two – The Mask
Leela frowned at the young hathran in totally bewilderment. Nadaj looked genuinely distressed, shaken and terrified. Her knuckles whitened and hands kneaded together tightly. Slightly trembling, she kept flicking her eyes over her shoulders nervously and glancing at Dalenka's house, seeming afraid the door was going to open at any moment with the older witch storming out charging toward her, screeching her liar.
"Those are very serious accusations, young ethran." The druid heard Okku ask in low growling voice: "You'd better had a good reason to say so."
" 'Course I do!" Nadaj raised her head up slightly to meet the telthor bear god's stern gaze. Her voice thickened in desperation: "Or why would they sent me here? My sisters had suspected her for quite some time. It would be less obvious for me to be here, a second hathran looking over the same garrison, then one of them came up here to investigate this matter themselves."
"Then what did you find?" Safiya folded her arms, one side of her tattooed eyebrow arched further up.
"For…for a while I noticed nothing." The young witch hesitated for a moment and then stuttered: "Then…. Then—"
"Then—?" Asked the group in unison.
"Then I started seeing her sneak out in the dead of night, headed straight into the forest." The hathran looked sideways unable to meet the eyes of everybody: " I followed her once, and heard as she was talking to someone, someone male. It was dark and the light was dim. Their voice were low, I couldn't make out what they were saying. But it was just suspicious. Especially a week later the garrison was attacked!"
Crease on the druid's forehead deepen. No, it wasn't suspicious at all. She knew exactly who the old witch went into the woods to meet. It was Derek, the othlor's lover who had deceased long ago, now a telthor spirit dwelled within Ashenwood under the mercy of the Wood Man. Dalenka entered the forest to see him at night. The trouble must have already started and Derek merely expressed his concerns to the senior witch. Because Nadaj's assignment here, the spirit could no longer come to the small town freely.
Was that so hard to remain together, even after death? Was people's prejudice rooted so deep, that every action had to consider so carefully? Why would a simplest pleasure between two lovers be interpreted as an act of treason?
She carefully cast a couple of side-glances at her companions, they all bared the same enlighten expressions on their faces, clearly shared the same thoughts. Especially Gannayev, his brows were in tight knots and his face looked slightly painful even. The blue hagspawn's hands were fist, seemed trying his hardest not to lash out toward the young witch.
"She must have done something to the forest!" The ethran continued to babble, unaware the internal turmoil that went on within the former Knight Captain: "That's why the Wood Man was missing. It must…it must be… He cannot return. She must had done something to him!"
"You got it wrong." Leela suddenly blurted out, interrupted the young witch: "She wasn't in the forest because she was a spy."
A hint of dread and hatred flickered through Nadaj's glittering eyes. She suddenly jerked her head back and looked directly toward the air genasi. Her voice raised a few pitches higher and the pleading tone in her voice was fast disappearing, replaced by some hard, stone cold note: "Oh? Then what was she in the forest for?"
The air genasi hesitated and started to regret letting slip the othlor's secret so easily. She paused for a second before opening her mouth again: "For love."
The hathran chuckled: "Truly? An old hag went into the forest in the dead of night for love? Do you think I am a fool? No, you don't trust me; you don't want to help me, do you not? There is no need to talk in riddle and pretend you are all keen!"
"There is no need to insult several people at once." Gannayev crossed his arms and glared at the young witch, obviously displeased about her reference in the comment: "And for what we know, we've traipsed pretty much the entire Ashenwood to help you. There is no need to get all cranky just because we don't buy your last story!"
"On edge, I see." Safiya sneered and wagged her index finger: "Never attempt to lie in front of a Red Wizard of Thay. Trying to wave a battleaxe in front of a weaponsmith master is not a good idea, ethran!"
"I suddenly suspect your idea about where the Wood Man is is just as vague as ours." Kaelyn folded her arms, tilted her head sideway and arched her eyebrows. Her wings flapped impatiently.
"Tsk-tsk." Nadaj suddenly whispered in completely different voice—one sounded like a stream of many echoes. It was full of anguish, greed and dismay: " You had no idea who you are dealing with, mortals! You are going to pay for this! ALL OF YOU!"
And with that, she was back to her original tone, letting out a blood-curdling screech and with a absolute panic on her face: "BERSERKERS! BEHOLD THE SOURCE OF THE ATTACK! THESE FOREIGNERS HAD BROUGHT BLIGHT AND FIRE TO OUR BELOVED FOREST AND NOW WE HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!"
And with that, every berserker within the garrison suddenly became hostile. Weapon immediately drew out and those muscle-slab warriors began to attack them at once, while young ethran ran toward the back gate and disappeared in the thick snow and blurry trees.
Kaelyn had to caste series of delay spells to slow down their actions, before half turning her head and looking at her companions in puzzlement: "What in the Toril is going on here?"
Behind her, Safiya's hand shot out a series of Magic arrows. The purple lights zigzagged across the field and smashed right onto the unfortunate warrior. The poor fellow's eyes bulged outward, glaring at the Red Wizard and he fell backward. She turned her head around and cast a Fire Wall spell a few steps away from them, stopping two berserkers from advancing any further.
"That witch is a liar, that's what's going on!" Okku growled and waved his paws at the berserkers, sending two of them flying across the square and landing at the furthest house at the other side: "What baffled me though, was how did she managed to manipulate the entire town into believing her?"
"By acting as an innocent hathran." Safiya shrugged. Her hands glowed in red light. Fire Storm burst around her. Two Rashemen fighters were immediately engulfed by the flames. She watched the two screams with slight smirk on her face: "Rashemi never questioned hathran's motives."
"It figures." Leela spurn on her heels and stabbed another berserker with her dagger. The fighter grunted and fell down to one knee. The air genasi hit his temple with her elbow and knocked him off unconscious. Another warrior leaped and tried to ambush her from her back. The druid unsheathed her daggers from her waist belt and scythed them deep into his chest over her shoulders.
"Now the chance of finding this Wood Man is slimmer than me finding my mother." Gannayev summoned an Earth Elemental and smirked. The elemental began to wave its fists and smashed away anything that made any remote attempt against it, tossing them away effortlessly. The dreamwalker leaped and rode on the shoulder of the garrison fighter, his hand held the man's head and twisted. The berserker's neck was broken followed by a loud crack.
"Your mother?" Kaelyn dodged, avoided the berserker's shield bashing: "She's a night hag, isn't she?"
"Yes." The blue hagspawn hopped off the dead warrior while fending off one more berserk's sword with his quarterstaff: "But you do aware she's not the only one out there, my sweet."
"Point taken." The Dove drew out two swords and began fighting with two Rashemen warriors at once: "Now what do we do? That little imposer has fled. How are we going to find the Wood Man."
"Well," Leela sunk her katana deep into a berserker's chest: "Looks like those mindless zombies won't believe a word that we say—"
"—So we have no choice but to kill them all." The Red Wizard finished her friend's sentence. Another fighter nearby froze in the mid-action, promptly turned into a giant icicle. The Thayan extracted her hand and shook, while muttering something about casting an ice spell always make her hand cold as one.
"This task should not take long." Okku the Bear God inspected the battered beyond recognition warrior in front of him: "Then what next?"
"Let's see if Delanka can be reasoned with." The air genasi pushed another berserker hard against a stone pillar, crushing his rib and killing him instantly: "If so, we enter the forest to look for Nadaj."
"Still want to search for her?" Kaelyn stabbed her quarterstaff deep into one of the garrison's warrior's groin, causing him to scream in pain, before withdrawing a dagger and slicing his throat: "What else can she offer us? I seriously doubt she knew anything about the Wood Man."
"She was a cipher." Leela leaned toward her sword and panted: "A cipher of something. That something may know what we are looking for. I suspected she had something to do with what's going on in the Ashenwood."
"Nice notion, little one." The telthor bear grunted. He looked around, and finally found they were in the mist of dead berserkers. Crimson blood splattered all over the square, on the fences and on the walls, looked especially terrifying among the white snow around them. The whole outpost was dead quiet. Other than their own heavy, panting breaths, only the sound of crisp cold wind blowing through the empty town.
A loud gasp interrupted the eerie dreaded silence. Leela turned her head around and saw Dalenka rooted by the door, both hands were on her mouth and the mixture of shock and anger on her face was absolutely heartbreaking sight to see.
"Fiend!" It took her a few second to realize what just happened. The othlor roared toward the group. Her veined hands crackled, ready to fire the first spell at any moment: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
"It wasn't us!" Leela cried out.
"How….. How dare you…. Cursed one! We…we let you in here… I saved you from succumbing to the beast inside you. AND THIS IS….THIS IS HOW TO PAY US IN RETURN? " Betrayal and fury burst out of the old witch's eyes. Voice trembling, she began to charge toward them, firing several spells as she drew near. The air genasi dodged the attack, trying her hardest not to attack back. She did not wish to kill the old hathran, too. Killing the entire garrison was bad enough.
"Dalenka, look—!" Okku tried to intervene and almost hit by the Fire Spell she cast out as well.
"And YOU! " Tears began to well up in the othlor's eyes as she barked at the telthor bear: "We respected you! You were meant to be the protector of the land, and yet you destroyed us!"
"It wasn't us!" Kaelyn blocked a few spell off with her counter spells, still trying to reason with the witch.
"Give, Us, A, Chance, To, Explain, Old woman!" Gannayev yelped in frustration. He pointed his magic staff at Dalenka and within minute the elder hathran was tied up by gnarling vines.
"Why did you spare me, then?" The othlor was still shouting on the top of her head: "KILL ME, TOO! Cursed one! Devour my spirit as well, so I can join my brave soldiers!"
"It really wasn't us, Dalenka! It was—" Leela was about to explain to the fuming witch what just happened when an calm voice interrupted them all.
"It wasn't them, my love." A transparent spirit slowly materialized in front of them: "It was the junior hathran's doing."
"What…Derek?" The air genasi frowned.
"Derek?" The elder witch deflated slightly. She seemed just as bewildered as Leela: "What are you doing here? What are you talking about?"
"The young ethran." Derek looked at his lover patiently: "She had been possessed for some time."
"Possessed?" Said everyone in unison.
"About a week before the trouble started in here. Humph…a few days after our discussion in the woods," The telthor berserker's eyes drifted toward the forest outside the outpost for a brief moment before returning to the audience in front of him again: "the young hathran went into the forest alone, attempting to seek the Wood Man herself, to solve the trouble that's been troubling Ashenwood. Something happened to her, when she returned to the garrison, something on her changed. She looked… different."
"Different?" The druid asked.
The blue hagspawn untied the old witch wordlessly. It seemed like she no longer had the desire to kill them at this point and time. The plants unwrapped themselves from the old woman's body and retreated back to the frozen ground.
"The once clear and intelligent eyes looked blurred and full of hatred." Derek recalled, his hand rested on his chin: "Several other fellow telthors saw her cast spells on blight trees, springing them to treants and ordered them to attack the outpost. She did so the following night, and every night after that. "
"Are you speaking the truth, my beloved?" Dalenka was beyond shocked. She seemed could not believe her fellow hathran could be possessed by something tainted in the forest.
All Derek did was arching an eyebrow and grining lovingly. The old othlor's gaze lingered on him for a little while before turning back to the dead bodies around her.
"Dalenka," Leela opened her mouth again tentatively: "Nadaj told us… you had betrayed the Lake of Tears garrison, after we cleared the troubles within the forest. She tried to manipulate us into killing you."
"To kill me?" The othlor asked numbly.
"Yes." Safiya chimed in: "We did not believe what she said and refused point blank to assist her scheme. Then she summoned the berserkers to attack us, accusing we were the source of all the troubles in the forest!"
"Arh… fools." Dalenka grunted: "So easy to be tricked."
"We still need to seek out the Wood Man." The air genasi looked at the old witch: "Can you tell us where he is?"
"Seek him…" The othlor's gaze finally returned to the druid: "For the curse, I presume?"
"Yes." Replied the druid.
"Then we must enter the forest." Dalenka cocked her head sideway thoughtfully: "To find…wherever Nadaj is now and confront her. I am afraid she might be the source that stopped the Wood Man return to Ashenwood."
"Do you know what she is?" Asked Okku.
"I have some vague idea, but I am not certain." Said the old witch: "We must find her, however. I believe by finding her, we should be able to figure out why the Wood Man was absent from the forest. I should have done this…I should have noticed this long time ago. Those men…they died for nothing. They died for my stubbornness and my negligence. "
"No, my love." Derek smiled: "They died protecting what they believe in, what you believe in. Now we must met this tainted being and have it dealt with before she regroups and returns."
"Yes." Dalenka smiled slightly. Their eyes met and exchanged words in silence.
"May we join you to confront Nadaj…or whatever she is now, in the forest?" Asked Leela.
"Of course, you may." Replied the othlor: "We all need answers, one way or another. Nadaj…she better have them ready when we find her!"