6th Day of Early Autumn 768 n.c
I woke, with Karalin hovering over me, an empty potion vial in her hand and a relieved expression on her face.
A quick glance to the side revealed that we were back in our room near the top of the tower, it was still dark outside.
"What happened?" I croaked, the slight movement sending shafts of pain down my side and across my back.
"You almost died, you fool," she exclaimed, relief dampening the anger in her words. "By Mithras! What made you think that fighting that… that thing in hand to hand combat was a good idea? You're a blasted wizard, not a warrior!"
I chuckled and winced, "Couldn't let it get to you."
"Mithras help me!" she sighed, throwing her arms up in the air. "How am I meant to help you get Shard back if you are so determined to get yourself killed?"
"Sorry," I apologised and she huffed a little.
"How did I get back here, what happened before I blacked out?" I asked again.
"I think I killed the last of the plainsfolk demons just as you did," she explained. "You had put up that ball of darkness around you, so I couldn't see your fight, but when that disappeared all I saw was you lying on the ground with a giant spear sticking up out of you and the Commander nearby with your sword stuck in his chest. I ran down to you and made sure he was dead, you were still breathing, but only barely. Just then a group of soldiers came running down, they must have heard the commotion, they didn't know what to do. I don't think that they were aware of what was going on down there, but all they could see were dead demons, dead plainsfolk, dead guards and us. I told them to get the spear out of you and carry you back up here, where I could get some healing potions into you. It was a very close thing, I think you drew your last breath as I poured the first one in," she gestured to an area next to me where I could see three other empty vials. "And I kept going until you woke." She looked over her shoulder at the door, "We're locked in here now, until they can send word to the Commander of Fort Arthguard for instructions.
"Thank you," I told her. "For bringing me back. I suppose that there's nothing to do now but wait?"
She nodded and gave me a pointed look, "And rest."
"Yes," I agreed.
I decided to pull out the rune scheme I had transcribed for the girdle of masculinity / femininity and look over it. It looked almost perfect and I could vaguely understand how everything worked. It should be an easy thing to enchant, although it would require quite a bit of power, the power would be exhausted once activated, allowing me to regain it. I had no idea whether I could just transcribe it onto any old belt, however, and I wondered if I might need some sort of special leather. It would be worth giving it a try, but I had no desire to test it on an unwilling participant.
I looked over to see what Karalin was doing and seeing that she was sleeping soundly, decided that I should do likewise. I drew an alarm rune on the ground inside the door, lest someone try to sneak in while we slept and was very soon after sound asleep myself.
We both woke when the alarm rune activated and I rolled off my bed prepared to deal with whoever was opening the door. Thankfully it was only a few guards carrying food, the light streaming through the windows showing that it must have been some time after Celestines rising. The guards were nervous as they opened the door, the alarm sound must have startled them, but they entered the room slowly and bowed to me.
"My Lady," he greeted me. "We have some breakfast for you and your… uh… maid servant."
Despite the nature of our apparent detention, I was still apparently recognised as a noble and all the respect and deference that came with it. The guards brought in the platters of food and laid them on our bed.
"Do you know when we should expect word back from the Commander of Fort Arthguard?" I asked.
"Should be sometime around Celestine's height, My Lady," he answered. "The ship left at first light once the Tennerwan stopped and they should have arrived by now."
The guards left us alone to eat and returned a little later to collect the platters, now devoid of the berries and pancakes that they once held.
After breakfast, Karalin and I kept ourselves occupied as best we could while we waited for news of our fate. I read through Malkarov's books of rune schemes, while she worked on fixing the feathered flights of her arrows and repairing and sharpening the points. She had a bundle of shafts ready to be fletched and fitted with heads, which she had just begun doing when there was a knock at the door.
I looked at Karalin, wondering if the guards had learned their lesson after setting off the alarm previously, and called out, "Come in."
An older man wearing a red tunic and trousers under a surcoat of scaled armour entered, his hair was white but he looked as strong and healthy as any of the best soldiers in this fort.
"My Lady Askilain," he greeted me. "I am Commander Lessik Kizet of Fort Arthguard. I received some very disturbing news from a soldier who came across the lake so soon after the end of Tennerwan that I thought the plainsfolk must have invaded in the middle of the night. Even worse was the news that he told me. If you would accompany me to the Commander's quarters, I would ask that you illuminate me as to the events of the night."
"Of course, Commander," I agreed, and we put away the things we were working on and followed him down the stairs into the room we had eaten dinner the previous night with Commander Fosse. Commander Kizet pulled out the chair for me to sit, which I did, and noted that he did not do likewise for Karalin; who didn't seem too fussed and happily pulled out her own seat.
"Please," the Commander asked. "Relay to me the events of yesterday, from your arrival."
I related to him our arrival, and the strange feeling that I had upon setting foot through the gates of Fort Plainsguard. I described our meeting with Commander Fosse, with the way he mentioned his concern that something would happen that would force the nobility to act. I next talked to him about the guards bringing plainsmen through the gates after extinguishing the lights in the courtyard and the increase in the strange feeling around the middle of night. I told him how that increase in the feeling prompted us to go and investigate and what we discovered when we opened the basement door. When I detailed the Commander's invocation to Irin and the effects of it on both him and the plainsmen, Commander Kizet took in a sharp breath.
"What sort of god is Irin?" he asked me. "Is that a foreign god?"
"Very foreign," I told him. "Irin is the chaos demon of wrath, pride and anger. It is an outsider, from outside even the plains of existence upon which our gods dwell. It is more powerful and less understood… and understandable than our gods. Commander Fosse was completely beholden to it, he may not have even really been human when we met him."
Commander Kizet's eyes widened as I continued my story, with Karalin taking over and filling in the gaps of my knowledge during the battle. The Commander listened patiently, with a growing horror. Once I had finished, he continued asking questions.
"What is the likelihood that there are still worshippers of this… demon in the Fort?"
"I could not tell you that," I confessed. "The feeling of wrongness is definitely much lower, but I cannot be sure what the soldiers know. Those who were on the walls knew enough to extinguish the lights, but were they just following orders or did they know all? Likely only those soldiers who were killed in the basement were influenced by Irin, but there could be others who are and were just not present."
"Is there some way to recognise them?" Commander Kizet asked.
"I could feel the wrongness when I stepped foot in the Fort, but that was likely just because of the acts that the Commander was performing. I'm not sure that I could recognise the corruption in an individual soldier unless they were well and truly influenced by the demon. You could show individuals a picture of Irin's symbol, the gold talisman in the shape of a closed fist with a ruby set into its wrist and see if they recognise it?" I suggested.
The Commander nodded and sighed, "I'll do that. I shall likely have to write off to the King to request an entire change of guard but in the meantime I will be taking command here and leaving my second in command in charge of Fort Arthguard." He sighed again, "I'm not sure that I will be sleeping easy tonight." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "I'll write you a letter of introduction for Captain… Acting Commander Trithan and I'll put you on the next ship out. I understand that is where your journey was taking you?" He asked and continued when I nodded, "If you feel that sense of wrongness in my fort, I'll authorise you to take whatever action you need to in order to root it out, this I will also write to Acting Commander Trithan. I thank you for your service to Allarth, Sharein Askilian." He paused and after a moment's hesitation, added, "and Karalin."
"It was a danger to the entirety of Mithras, Commander," I said. "Not just Allarth. I could not let it continue. But, you are welcome."
Karalin nodded with a smile.
"Well," the Commander nodded. "If you would like to gather your things, I'll have this letter of introduction finished and we can get you on the next ship out of here. Thank you again."
"Thank you, Commander." I said as we rose out of our chairs.
We quickly packed our things in our room and were escorted down to the docks and the waiting ship by the same guard who brought us breakfast that morning. The Commander met us there to give us the letter and we were soon on a boat crossing Lake Arth and heading towards another altar.
AUTHORS NOTE:
So sorry for the MASSIVE delay in getting this chapter out. I decided to head back and edit the first 75 chapters into it's own book, fixing as many of the spelling and grammatical errors as I could. I've only just finished editing up to chapter 96 and have been working on finishing this chapter, ready for posting, over the past couple of days.
I no longer get email alerts from fictionpress, so I have no idea who is favouriting or following my stories anymore and I haven't checked the reviews lately, so sorry for those I'm missing out on.
