Chapter 2 Insanity of the Lands
The mountain was silent, Mt. Gelmir, a volcano covered in ash and soot lay silent, the only noises coming from a group of soldiers on the mountain side. "Hey kid, get over here." One of the soldiers says, calling out to one who had bright, shining armor. The new knight has yet to see battle. His name was Raynor.
Raynor sighs. He was a soldier of Lyndell. He wore heavy steel armor plated with gold. A symbol of his chest plate showed a snake with a spear through it. A shield on one arm and a sword in a holster on his left side. Raynor had short brown hair and bright green eyes and was a young soldier in the retinue under the Lyndell knights known as the serpent slayers.
A group of Rykard's old soldiers who betrayed him when he committed the blasphemy of joining with a serpent god in unholy union. The group had turned to Lyndale for help in fighting the serpent god. Though soon after they joined the group they had been barred from the fighting on the mountain as the other Lyndell knights thought they might be swayed by the volcano manor because of their connection to its old master or some hogwash like that.
Recently though the mood of the higher ups had changed. The Serpent Slayers had been sent out to meet up with a group of knights in mount Gelmir and help them take out the manor for good. Apparently Rykard's death and a breakdown of the leadership in the manor had led to some gains in the battle though as Raynor and the other Slayers moved up the mountain they found little evidence of any life, let alone success from either side.
"You have some sort of magic sight or something?" The man calling to Raynor adds as he slowly saunters over. Raynor slowly looks over the scene. There was a pair of bodies thrown into a pit. Lyndell knights with parts of their armor torn away and bits missing from their flesh. The smell of decay was strong in the air from the partially decaying bodies. "Do you know what happened here?" The gruff soldier asks in a thick Limgrave accent.
"Cannibals." Raynor says quietly. Taking notes of how the bite marks in places seemed oddly human. A strange sight as they were appearing on other human bodies. A sight that the soldiers had seen all the way up the mountain slope.
The man turns. "Seems on brand for those volcano bastards." He says. The Volcano Manor was obsessed with having tarnished kill each other in order to rebel against the Golden order. It wasn't a stretch to say that they also encouraged cannibalism as well. Though Raynor felt there was something more going on here.
"Not the volcano manor." Raynor adds quickly looking at the bodies intently. His golden eyes turn blue for a moment before he shakes his head blinking. "Lyndell knights." He says having seen a vision. His powers helped him see the experiences of the dead before their death. In these bodies he saw Lyndell Knights tearing other other apart. Feasting on their flesh.
"Why would knights eat other knights?" The man asks weirded out now. Gazing at the bodies with a horrified expression on his face. Afraid of what this meant.
"I don't know but, most of the bodies we found have bite marks on them somewhere. I get the same visions from each." Raynor says, looking at another pile of bodies nearby. It had been his curse from his youth to see such horrible visions and while he had grown accustomed to it the visions still sometimes made him feel unwell or frightened.
Here each body he stared at showed him images of mad soldiers clawing at each other, devouring each other, acting like feral beasts. Whatever happened was not good. Terrifying in fact. Something that left only madness and death in its wake. He was starting to think that the Lyndell knights were already dead. Either from an attack by the Manor or from devouring each other.
Though as they stared at the soldiers a knight from the serpent slayers came to the group and right up to Raynor. "General Haavar wants to see you." He says quickly. The large knight looked a bit on edge as he stared at Raynor.
"Why?" Raynor asks, having an idea as to why, mostly because of his strange ability though wanting to see what the knight would say first.
"We found someone who had a message but they died before we could learn what they wished to share. Maybe you could coax it out of the body." The knight says morbidly. From the sound of it he was just as uncomfortable about the notion as Raynor was. Though he wasn't the one who had to see the vision.
Raynor sighs. "Gods." It was bad enough when he saw visions by accident or out of curiosity. "I'll do my best." He says lacking confidence. Knowing it was rare to actually get anything useful but, if he died shortly after having thought of this message Raynor would be able to retrieve it. Though Raynor also shuddered to think of what else he might find.
Following the knight through the camp which had been set part-way up the mountain Raynor comes to the medical tent. Sure enough there was a man, very much dead, his chest cut badly most likely from some curved blade. Most likely killed by the kind of blade that iron maidens used. His head was bruised and part of his skull was bashed in. "He died of his wounds." The knight says looking over his body. That much was obvious.
Raynor nods. "Ok… Let's see." He stares at the body. Soon Raynor's eyes once again turned from bright gold to blue. He could see. Fighting. Soldiers attacking soldiers. Iron maidens. Then…. Flames. Raynor falls backwards. "FUCK!" He shouts covering his eyes. They burned. "There is something very wrong." Raynor says shaken from what he saw and slowly returning to his feet. The knight turns
"What did you see?" He says helping Raynor steady himself worried that Raynor would pass out from how he reacted to the vision.
Suddenly a man in knight armor steps in. The helmet under his arms. This was general Haavar, the man in charge of the serpents. The man was rough looking with a scruffy beard, broad shoulders and a strong exterior. Haavar looks at the two. "What happened?" He asks, confused.
"Whatever these soldiers did… It wasn't right. This messenger wanted to warn us of something terrible they are doing." Raynor says still feeling extremely shaken up, his eyes still burning from the strange vision
Haavar nods. "I had a feeling something was up. The New Elden Lord kills Rykard then after a few weeks they finally send us up here. If Rykard is dead what sort of resistance could there be besides puppets? If a full battalion fights a group of leaderless puppets and a few vagabonds how long do you think they would last? Would such a force need reinforcements before destroying the lot of them? Let alone two sets."
Raynor sighs "Not very long and no." He says thinking about the situation. If Rykard's group had fallen apart it would be easy for Lyndell knights to just sweep through the last of their defenses.
The knight considers both of them. "So you think there might be more to the situation than we anticipated?" He says stating the obvious.
Haadvar nods "It's almost certain at this point. Though I don't know if they underestimated the gravity of the situation and did not send enough soldiers or if they sent us here to get rid of us." The general says, sounding very serious.
"That will depend, I suppose." The knight says "Why would they want to be rid of us."
Haadvar sighs "For one we aren't loyal to the Golden Order but, to the Carian royal family, for another the new Elden Lord shares our loyalty." He says "Lyndell might not side with our new Elden Lord and hence we might end up on opposite sides of a conflict. Hence why they would send a group of possible traitors away from the capitol on a suicide mission."
"I see." The knight says solemnly. Understanding the gravity of this situation. The room went silent for a moment.
Haadvar folds his arms then looks over to the knight. "Tell everyone to be on guard and treat anyone outside of our own company as a possible threat." He orders getting down to business. They would need to move fast if this was a set up.
Raynor nods. "Yes sir. I'll get the word out." He says, expecting Hadvaar to want his help as well.
The general chuckles looking at the young soldier over. "You could or you could come with me. I have another assignment in mind for you."
Raynor blinks. "Alrighty." He says watching the knight leave to go inform the others. "What do you want me to do General?" He says, a bit antsy. Raynor never having really been alone with the general quite yet.
"Scout. I need someone to find the whereabouts of the troops. Your abilities are the best at getting information about these sorts of situations. So I'm going to need you to go with Captain Collins." Raynor stops for a moment. Who was this Collins? He had never met him before. Though he hadn't been with the Serpents for very long.
Seeing the confusion on his face the General pats Raynor on the back. "Don't worry you'll meet the captain in a second. In fact I think you'll get along swimmingly." The bear of a man says, pulling Raynor out of the tent and guiding him, like a father would a child, to a camp fire just outside of the medical tent facing the rest of the makeshift camp on the side of the mountain.
"What does he look like?" Raynor asks nervously. Looking around the camp for this Captain Collins.
Suddenly a woman in armor walks on towards them and pipes up. "Captain Collins reporting in." She says in a way only a trained soldier could, projecting her voice while pronouncing each syllable as clearly and quickly as possible.
Raynor blinks. "Oh." He says, a bit embarrassed as the general gave him a knowing smile.
"She is right here." Haadvar says, emphasizing the word she. "Captain report in." he says looking back at Captain Collins.
She nods. "My patrol came across a few fortifications further up the mountain. They were mostly destroyed but it seemed to have been controlled by the manor. We found downed puppets and an iron maiden as well as a few downed allies though no signs of life within the past few days."
"Any more signs of cannibalism?" Haadvar asks a bit curious about what she had found further up the mountain.
Collins shakes her head. "No, though I did see glintstone damage on both the soldiers and the puppets. Seems like some sort of mage went through here a while ago."
Hadvaar nods. "Good to know. I need you to go with Raynor here to another hotspot."
Raynor tries his best to look brave, straightening himself up a little. Ava blinks. "Wait a moment, why him?" She asks very confused as to why the General was giving her a new recruit to work with.
"He has a very useful ability to gather information and with his help you might be able to get down to the bottom of this." Hadvaar states very matter of factly. He had known what would be the captain's complaint to begin with so had of course prepared to answer her question.
The Captain looks Raynor over. "Fine. I'll babysit him as long as he actually is useful." She says before turning to Raynor. "So what's your name Greenie?" She says, folding her arms.
Raynor sighs hating that nickname. "Raynor no surname." He says doing his best to hide his annoyance.
"Well Raynor no Surname I'm Ava." Ava says, making fun of his response, holding out her hand for him to shake. Raynor shakes. "Good to meet you." She adds trying to at least be a bit nice to the new soldier. Ava then turns "Let me get a few supplies before we head out." She says authoritatively.
"Take what you wish." The General says waving to both of them starting to walk away.
Raynor looks back at the General but he was already leaving to handle other business. "You'll do good, kid." He says as he walks away trying to reassure Raynor. Raynor watches him then Ava who was also walking away in the other direction and Raynor sighs. He supposed he could grab stuff too but, he definitely had a bad feeling about this. Nothing good could cause a vision like the one he had seen. No good could come from such a strange yellow flame. .
Raynor walks along the mountain path. He had gathered a few supplies and before long he and Ava had headed out. Out towards a spot a few scouts had noticed possible activity. Activity that might have been from their allies though so far they had just seen mostly rocks and desolate landscape. The mountain's peak looming ever above their heads. Even from here they could see volcanic gasses and steam coming from the inside of the mountain.
"So Captain Collens." "Ava." Ava corrects, hiking a few steps in front of Raynor sporting her pack once more, filled with new rations and a brand new water skin.
"Ugh ok… Ava. How… Ugh how long have you been part of the serpents?" Raynor asks rather awkwardly, trying to start up a conversation with her though not exactly a social type.
"Since I was young." Ava says simply. Raynor keeps following her waiting for more but, she doesn't say much else on her own.
"Ok ugh how young." He says pressing her for an answer. Trying to get more than a few words from his guide.
Ava looks back at him. "Just be quiet, we don't want to attract attention ok?" She says, not willing to give a straight answer. At least not right now.
Raynor nods. "Right right." He says realizing it might be better if he was quiet. The two continue to march for a bit longer before Ava stops holding her arm. Raynor blinks. "What is it?" He asks quietly.
Ava looks at him. "I hear something… I think it might be a dog." She says bringing Raynor' attention to the sound of bones and flesh crunching.
"Might be?" He asks a bit more afraid of the implication that it only might be.
"Might you never know." She says getting low to the ground. They were right by a sheer cliff, the road ahead turned into the face and went up some ladders. As the pair neared these ladders Raynor could see a watch tower and a few barricades poking above the edge of the cliff above. Though he could also hear something. It was a beast. Gnawing on bones, chewing tendons. Devouring a corpse.
Raynor freezes. "What if it's not a dog." He says suddenly feeling terrified. Freezing in place. Ava turns to look at him. She looked a bit frightened herself but was good at hiding it.
"Well then that is why we have swords." She whispers and starts towards the ladder tentatively testing it to see if it was still sturdy. Once satisfied she begins to climb. The structure was a lot studier then it looked as it held her weight as she began her ascent. Raynor followed close behind. Trying his best to not think of what might be at the top.
As they creep, the sounds become more distinct. Ava stops at the top. "Marika, have mercy." She says. Raynor couldn't see over the top himself quite yet. Stuck just below Ava. "What is it?" He whispers.
"When you get up, stay as low as you can go." She says continuing her progress. Finally getting to the top and out of the way. Once she is up Raynor follows the rest of the way and looks just over the edge.
"Shit." He swears. A distance away he saw multiple soldiers bent over and devouring corpses. Their eyes were a bright yellowish orange in color. "What the hell are they doing?" Raynor says feeling the hair on his arms stand up as he watched one rip an arm off of a dead scout and begin to gorge on the rotting flesh. Forcing himself to look away he sees Ava crouched behind a rock for cover.
The Captain pointed up. While the road ahead followed the path towards the madmen a large ridge led up and away from where the soldiers were allowing them to try to go over them and observe them from afar. It was risky but, well. Raynor had nothing else besides running away with no information. So with a breath in he climbs the last bit of the ladder and quickly sneaks towards Ava doing his best not to alert the mad soldiers.
Once crouched next to the Captain in cover she sighs in relief. "You're such a clutz I thought you would kick a rock or something." She comments.
Reynor frowns. "That's not funny. Besides, I can sneak when I want to." He snaps back as quietly as he could. "What now?"
"Simple we head up the ridge and watch to gather the info we can and go back when these freaks are done." Ava says looking at the protruding rocks beside her and starts to free climb using the uneven surface and ledge outcroppings to nimbly make her way up with minimal noise. Raynor sighs and does his best to follow but, even with strong gloves and boots, not to mention armor, it was hard to keep up. Though after a bit of scrambling and taking a bit of an easier route up then Ava, Raynor joined her at the top of the ridge overlooking the path down below.
Once they were far above the group they could see further down were 2 more groups of insane soldiers. From here they could see these crazed soldiers were also having a feast of corpses. "You've got to be kidding me. I count 20." She says "2 knights, 18 soldiers. All insane."
Raynor nods. "I can confirm. Especially that last part. I can't imagine what would drive someone to do this." He says sickened by the gruesome display below him.
"To be honest I've seen cannibalism before. If the fighting lasts for too long, not enough rations. Men get desperate especially in a place like this. Though this is different. They all went mad. All of them. Usually it'd be one or two and that's if people are starving to death anyway but, all these troops. Something has gotten into them. It might have something to do with those freaky eyes too."
Raynor nods. "I saw it in a vision. I think whatever that light is, is what drove them mad. I also think it might be infectious. I'm not sure though it was brief and I couldn't get much else from the vision."
Ava looks at him. "What did you see in this vision that you have yet to tell me?"
Raynor blinks and cringes a bit realizing that he hadn't explained much about his visions at all to her. "I ugh… Well nothing much else. I got it from a dead body though."
Ava looks at him "Do you think you could get one from a half eaten corpse or a stabbed one?"
He blinks. "Oh yeah why not."
Ava nods "Then when all but one leaves we shoot him in the back, use your weird magic on him and book it back down the mountain. I don't think there is another way to get information off of someone so off their gourd. If your visions work that is."
Raynor thought that plan could work. "I guarantee I'll get something." He says not promising anything.
Ava nods. "Alright then we wait. The two kept close to the volcanic rock watching the soldier's feast a bit longer. Once they were full some began to move one. Before long the crowd was dispersed, shambling up the hill until two remained munching and crunching. Once the others were far enough Ava stands and pulls out a bow. She aims.
Raynor looks up at her "Wait." He whispers but it was too late. She releases and gets the soldier right between the eyes. "The fuck." Raynor says quickly scrambling to his feet as Ava starts aiming at the second the soldier turning to his fallen comrade and giving a primitive shout of anger looking around for the assailant. Ava then launches the arrow. Raynor watched it once more zip forward and hit the second guard then he looked up the path where the last of the soldiers was moving around the corner. "What the hell Ava, they could have heard that!"
"They are too out of their minds to care." She says "Besides if they did they were too far up the path to catch us before we escaped so now we have two bodies for you to check. Fresh ones too." She says starting back down from the ridge to the path below. Raynor follows a bit more slowly. Coming to the bodies Ava checks their pulses "Yep both dead. Ok so how the hell do your visions work kid?"
Raynor sighs. "I touch the body and think about them. When I see them in my mind's eye the vision begins." Ava nods. "Ok, go ahead." He sighs and touches the first. Suddenly he is hit with a powerful vision. A knight giving the soldier a sigil. Yellow eyes burning all around him then they all suddenly go out and an arrow pierces his head.
Raynor gasps. "I saw it again. It is infectious somehow." He says stepping away.
Ava looks at him. "How infectious? Should we burn the bodies?" She says suddenly a bit freaked out having seen Raynor space out a bit. His eyes now have a slight white glow to them.
Raynor sighs, blinking the glowing effect fading as he fully comes out of the vision. "Not from the bodies of the other soldiers. He was infected by his commanding officer, mind to mind. Something magical they did while the soldier was alive."
Ava looks at Raynor then at the body. "So it is some sort of magic disease?" Raynor nods. "Markia Damnit. So if we engage we could get infected as well?"
Raynor nods again. "It's possible." He says solemnly afraid of what was happening.
"So we are stuck on a hill with deranged lunatics that can make you crazy with magic?" She says mostly to herself. "We are going back. We need to tell the general before the infection spreads to our people." Ava says suddenly very frightened by this. She had seen many crazy things in the Lands Between and from experience it was better to leave deathly magics alone.
Raynor nods. "We need to leave before-"
"Before what?" A new voice says. Regal and yet dark. One of the corpses stirred. The soldier with an arrow in his forehead looks at the two slowly getting up. His eyes are still glowing a bright yellow color. Blood was still oozing from his fatal wound. "Holy shit." Ava says, pulling out her bow. Raynor could feel a presence emanating from the walking corpse. A vile and corrupt magic.
"Run." Raynor says starting to back away. Ava nods, turning and starting to run down the path Raynor quickly follows.
"Where are you going friends?" The corpse says after them. Raynor could feel the corpse's power growing as he was trying to do something. Magic building.
"Down!" Raynor jumps and tackles Ava as he feels the power converge and hears the sound of a spell. Suddenly yellow flames blasted over their heads. Fire rained from where the corpse was burning everything around it in yellow flames. Raynor uses himself and his armor to shield Ava getting hit a bit but low enough to avoid most of the flames.
As soon as the flames ended the corpse began to laugh. "You survived huh?" Raynor gets up and helps Ava up herself and quickly pulls on Raynor's arm running again.
"We need to get out of range!" She is terrified now trying to get as far from the being as possible.
"I know." Raynor repeats, doing his best to run as fast as he could. "I've never felt anything like it. That thing, the thing possessing that corpse, it feels like pure madness."
Ava continues to swear and to cuss. She gets to the ladder first sliding down it quickly. Raynor a lot less dexterous, grabs the rungs and quickly does his best to scamper down, his arms and legs moving quickly but not nearly quick enough. Ava already was at the bottom. "Come on!" She shouts up to him.
"I'm trying!" Raynor shouts back, almost immediately afterwards his foot slips and he quickly has to readjust to avoid losing his balance but he soon reaches the bottom and starts running after Ava again. She had waited for him a bit but still was ahead of him by several paces.
"Keep up!" Ava shouts frustrated but, Raynor could already feel his lungs burning, he began to stumble more. He was getting exhausted but he still tried his best to keep up. Before long the two ran themselves ragged. Slowing down, huffing and puffing both of them were out of breath. Raynor was the first to stop with Ava a step or two ahead.
"Ugh this is bad." Ava says in better shape then Raynor but still out of breath. Raynor simply nods. Not able to speak between heavy gulps of breath. Trying his best to relax and catch his breath. Now that they were out of danger he could think through all of this. He was trying to think of what he just saw. Tried to understand it.
Suddenly Ava stands up straight. "Now more than ever we need to warn others. Whatever that thing was, it isn't good. The quicker the General knows the faster we can get out of here."
"Then what." Raynor says suddenly. Ava looks at him. "We return to the other knights." "They wanted us dead. That's why we are here." Raynor blurts out. "If we head back they might kill us anyway."
"How do you know that?" Ava snaps back. "A damn vision of yours?"
"The General is the one who thought of that." Raynor says annoyed she didn't believe him. "I'm starting to think so too."
Ava studies him for a bit and suddenly she kicks a rock off the path and down the mountain. "FUCK!" She shouts.
"Calm down, you're going to attract his attention." Raynor says.
"Let him come. The guy is going to kill us anyway right? Sense we got sent up here to die and all." Raynor sighs suddenly regretting his outburst.
"We can still survive." He says trying to convince Ava and herself.
"Raynor, a corpse was walking and it wasn't some they who lived in death, it was a spirit with a magic I haven't seen before." She says, annoyed. "Not to mention the hundreds of other mad soldiers looking to tear us apart."
"Fine whatever we still need to warn the General." Raynor says moving along. Ava follows not wanting to be left behind. "It's our best chance of survival and if we die at least we can fight." Raynor says starting to feel brave in spite of his circumstances.
Ava nods, coming to her senses. "You're right. We can still find a way out of this mess." The two continue to walk in silence trying to contemplate what they saw but, before long. They saw the camp and even from here they could see yellow flames dancing on the tents.