An older woman added, “That’s when they produced their ‘Miracle’. The Brand. Sevrin just stood on that stage and preached as his worshippers walked about using this black iron brand to,” she got choked up and wiped away her tears, “to turn folks.”
With growing concern I asked, “Turn?”
Elmore nodded and tightened his jaw, “The Brand turns anyone it touches into a mindless servant in Sevrin’s service. It mutates them into monstrosities who do as they are told. Those that turn are just soldiers for Sevrin and his cause. After the festival they spread like a plague. Sevrin’s High Inquisitor, Lady Cardienne,” Valerie tensed at that, “roamed the city with the Brand and dragged citizens out of their homes and turned those they could…”
The same sickly young man added, “Most fled toward the gate but fear of what lay outside kept us from fleeing the city entirely. The Branded attacked the gate a score of times but the guards and soldiers who gathered here repelled them. After the fifth failed attack they ignored us. Now they just roam the city. The cult itself has not been seen since the festival.”
Valerie’s already light lilac features were pale and drawn as she asked, “I can not believe my aunt would allow this. What of her?”
Elmore shook his head, “They were not at the festival and none have mentioned seeing them.”
The young man shook his head, “I could not see Lady Lafontaine abiding by this madness.”
Another added, “Most said the same of the High Lady…”
A bitter chatter started to rise amongst the gathered refugees and I spoke up loudly, “How do you have so much detail about the festival?”
Elmore bowed his head and fell to his knees, “Because,” his voice was thick with emotion as he said, “I was a member of the cult. I helped… I…”
A woman with a limp and a wicked scar on her face moved forward and rasped, “Elmore has already proven his repentance for what he did during the festival.”
A tense silence fell over the gathered refugees until one of the older women called out, “We sent soldiers to Lothin weeks ago. We are so glad that they were able to get word to you!”
I gave Mystal a warning look and to her credit the strange Mist creature just nodded and offered a worrying wink.
Giving them my most reassuring smile, I joined the conversation, “We are mercenaries under the command of the Lady and we are here to investigate the nature of this cult and end it if possible.”
There was some excited chatter amongst the Braithans and I shared an affirming glance with Valerie before saying, “We will find a place to set up and then start our investigation.”
Valerie gripped my arm and whispered, “I need to give these people some guidance and organize things here. I will join you once things have settled.”
With that she turned to the gathered people and added in a commanding tone, “Let it be known that we might have to transport your people back to Lothin. Now, let's get this camp organized and in better shape…”
As I trudged my way through the darkened tunnel Lydia updated me on changes to my quest list:
“Quest Evolving
The Resistance!
XP Gained: 500
XP Reward: 1000
You arrived in Braithe but the conquering army you hoped to find is no longer… alive. Find a way to salvage this expedition.
There was concern on most faces as they started to whisper amongst themselves. As Valerie continued to speak with the citizens, one of the older citizens directed a child to show the rest of us into the gate shanty town.
Nomura whispered, “And I thought these Immolated Order assholes were bad. Now we have to deal with extremist extremists.”
Sakurai added, “It does not bode well. However, we can not allow this Sevrin individual to bring this device back to the Immolated Order. These events will no doubt repeat themselves and it will make our quest impossible.”
Nodding, I grimaced as I spoke “Sweep into the city and wipe out as many mutants as we can and level up. Then we find these cult leaders, wipe them out and use what we can scavenge to further our quest.”
Sakurai glanced back over her shoulder and whispered in a sleepy sounding voice, “At the very least Valerie-sama will not leave this city until we have discovered the fate of her family.”
Nodding my assent I turned to Mystal, “Alright, I’m going to get settled in and then you and I are going to start roaming out into the city however,” I held up a finger to the wide-eyed mist creature, “if you ever feel like you are in danger or I say so you are to run back to this camp…”
The strange mist monster in the giant noble lady's body latched onto my arm with a surprise hug and beamed as she said, “Aw, you’re worried about me!”
Giving a chuckling Nomura a warning glance I sighed as Mystal said, “Don’t worry though, I will use my drones to help!”
The little Braithan guide, her eyes a bright silver and her features only slightly drawn and sickly, pointed to a larger shack and said, “Our guards stayed here before they left.”
The shack itself was surprisingly expansive. The guards had gone to an effort to create a place where they could continue their duties and block the entrance into the city and was lit by several guttering white torches. The wooden shack covered the entirety of the end of the tunnel before the city. It had a small training yard, what looked like a smithy along with other crafting stations, and a long low building against the tunnel wall that likely functioned as a bunkhouse.
With a nod I handed the kid a gold coin. Her face bloomed into a bright smile and she ran off back into the shacks and debris.
I nodded to Nomura and Sakurai and said, “You guys should be able to log out now. This will be our base while we deal with this city.”
Nomura nodded and gave a small salute with a grin, “Later bro.”
Sakurai offered a small bow, “Good night, Florin and Mystal.”
With that, the two vanished.
Watching the spot where the two vanished for several long moments I took a steadying breath and turned to make my way into the dark building.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The only real furnishings were a table with the legs hacked down to a shorter length, some threadbare and filthy cushions to sit on, and a number of ceramic cups and a teapot.
There were a few half crafted weapons and a suit of leather armor in the midst of being sewn but little else. With a grimace I made my way out and toward the crafting stations, eager to finally get the process started. Mystal vanished into the bunkhouse just as I arrived at the little circle of crafting stations. There was a smithy, some leather working tools, a woodworking bench and a small cushion with a mortar and pestle in front of it that had to be an alchemy station.
With very little consideration for the other options I settled in at the Alchemy Station and Analyzed it, prompting Lydia to introduce me to the Crafting Tutorial:
“Welcome to the Dark Spiral Crafting Tutorial!
Note: While you may have any number of material gathering skills you may only specialize in one crafting skill!
This station allows specialization in these skills:
Alchemy/Tattooing/Rune Carving”
I grabbed the hovering window with its greeting message from my wrist and threw it out in front of me, increasing its size. Across the yard of the guard shanty I saw Mystal emerge from the barracks and offer me a smile that I swore was full of sharp teeth before she wandered over to inspect the crafting tools in silence.
I activated the highlighted ‘Alchemy’ option to get its description:
“Crafting Skill: Alchemy
The art of turning poultices and powders into helpful potions, detrimental poisons and explosives.
Would you like to make Alchemy your starting skill focus?
Yes/No?”
I closed that window and prompted the remaining two crafting focuses from my AI:
“Crafting Skill: Tattooing
The art of crafting magical inks to create specialized tattoos. You may focus on temporary tattoos capable of casting a single spell before fading or permanent ink that provide buffs to skills, abilities and resistances.
Would you like to make Tattooing your starting skill focus?
Yes/No?
Crafting Skill: Rune Carving
The art of crafting magical inks and tools to create specialized runes. You may focus on runes that permanently buff equipment or create wards and traps .
Would you like to make Rune Carving your starting skill focus?
Yes/No?”
My hands spread open and the various options populated a series of windows side by side. With a flourish, I hit a dropdown button to show all the starting recipes for each crafting focus. I muttered, “It sure seems like the question is long term buffs versus short term and flashy.”
Mystal’s voice shocked me out of my decision, “Being safe is most important.”
The strange mist creature beamed an innocent smile at me. Once again I was struck how unlike the inspiration for her appearance she was. Her hair was still thick and dark but loose and swept over one shoulder and the hard lines of Valerie’s face from a lifetime of scowling were gone.
I turned to see what she was up to and immediately regretted it. Tendrils of mist were sweeping out of her fingers and tearing apart a dead four eyed rat before melting the individual pieces into red tinged mist that swept up her arm and into her skin.
“I see you found some food.”
She nodded once and asked with her ever present smile, “Which option keeps you safest?”
As the carcass continued to vanish she spoke wistfully, “It was what my carer would say most often. They wished only that I was safe. I hope that whatever happened to them they are safe.”
Briefly thinking of my mother and grimacing, I asked, “What happened to them?”
“I am not sure. We were in a land where there was once light and much food and then it became dark and full of hunters like us, who hunted each other. We spread out our mist and only hunted when sure that the beasts would be easily taken.”
Her tone grew saddened as she continued, “We grew so hungry, and food was so sparse that we attempted to hunt a pair of beasts that, like you, were immune to our ability to induce sleep. We were forced to run in different directions.”
She sighed and her smile finally vanished, “Both of them pursued my carer and I stumbled through an arch and into this place.”
Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder out of habit, I gave it a gentle pat as I struggled with a response, “I lost my… carer, as well. She passed on.”
Mystal looked at me wide eyed, “That must be difficult.”
I winced and looked down the tunnel with its hissing white torches and ramshackle huts as I said, “She… tried her best. It was hard losing her. She was… very sick and was not herself at the end.”
I considered whether that was really true. One of the few things that Sydney and I had fought about over the years was her suggestion that my mother was far too overprotective and territorial with those who tried to get close to me. The relationship between Syd and my Mom often devolved into passive aggressive sniping, on my mother’s part, followed by an openly aggressive stance on Sydney’s. I had eventually come to terms with the fact that my girlfriend’s warnings about my mother were not born out of the fact that neither woman liked each other, but on a significant amount of truth.
After my father vanished there had been red flags that I just chose to ignore. Friends she did not approve of left my house after visits and then acted as if I didn’t exist. I later found out that she gave them ultimatums that were borderline threatening about leading me down a ‘bad path’. She had come home early from work during a date with my second girlfriend and yelled at both of us for being irresponsible and foolish.
She called Alice’s parents and made them pick her up and drive her home, but not before demanding that she not see me again. I just assumed that this was how mothers, especially ones who had lost their husbands, acted.
The only person she really trusted to be around me was my Uncle Florin. Reviled by the entire family, including his own mother, as a criminal and black sheep in the old country my mother placed a surprising amount of trust in him.
In the end it had been Florin, who was truly my father after my own had vanished, who concocted the greatest betrayal against my mother’s machinations. She had been vehemently opposed to me leaving home to go to college and as time passed had gotten more and more emotional in her pleas.
In the end Florin told me, “She is going to wail and gnash her teeth, kid. She will beg and plead with you not to do this.”
This stooped over old man with his bald head and impossibly thick eyebrows just smiled at me and gripped my shoulder as he said, “If you let her stop you, you will never be happy.”
It was the first time I had truly stood up to her. She was a wailing mess on the floor, just as he had said. She lay there screaming that I was killing her. She told me that I was disrespecting my father and that I was disrespecting her. She said that I wouldn’t have any idea what to do without her.
I walked away without saying a word.
Her explosion of emotional fury had not lasted long. When it became clear that I was not going to bow to pressure she did the next most logical thing, in her mind. She closed up the very house I was sitting in right now two months later. She moved to Jacksonville, just two miles away from my apartment and continued her intense surveillance of my life eventually becoming the thorn in Sydney’s side. She claimed she just hated being alone and needed to be near her only family. It didn’t hurt that many in the community weren't… friendly with her.
Then she got sick. The reason for all of her overprotectiveness and wild mood swings became all too clear.
“Tumors like this can cause hallucinations and drastic changes in character,” the doctor had said.
I spent every hour that I wasn’t with Sydney or running Myriad, with her. At first I helped around the apartment and then I visited the hospital every day that I could. At the end half her head had been bandaged, covering one eye as her other slate gray orb locked onto me with steady intensity. Almost nothing she had said had made sense.
“Your father is dead. I know it.”
“Behold a black sun swallowing all creation.”
“I feel it moving… my eye is eating my mind.”
Taking a deep breath and steadying myself, I tried to banish that memory of her. After she had passed what had been a terrible year continued when my uncle Florin, who had spoken to me very little since the day I’d walked out on my mother, took his own life by leaping from a bridge just down the road from this house.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself as I muttered, “Protect myself you say?”
Cycling through the options to Rune Carving, I winked at Mystal, and said, “Let’s go with this,” and selected the option.
