V1 C11 - The Gathering in the Shadows

After a month-long deployment on a mission, B-ranked adventurer Connor and his party were on their way back to Stonefall to report their success.

His party consisted of his little sister, Kella, his childhood friend, Alisa, and an adventurer he met seven years ago called Tiergan.

The four of them had defeated a group of bandits in the Rock Lands that had overtaken a small village and saved the villagers.

They were now eager to get home and rest.

“I can see the city walls.”

Connor, their main frontline fighter, wore steel plate armour with a coat of chainmail beneath and wielded a sword and shield in battle.

“Finally. Can’t wait to write home about this.”

Like her brother, Kella had light brown hair and blue eyes, though her hair was much longer and tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a combination of leather armour and chainmail. Unlike her brother however, Kella fought with a spear.

“You really think mum will want to hear about her children almost dying in a cave hundreds of miles from home?” Connor asked with a wry smile.

“She’ll love it, I’m sure, just like last time.”

Connor scratched his cheek and chuckled.

The incident that Kella was talking about happened two years ago.

Their party had agreed to escort a merchant caravan from Stonefall to Black Port and they’d been attacked by bandits.

Connor had been stabbed in the arm, Alisa had taken a bad blow to the back of her head, Kella had an arrow to the shoulder, and Tiergan had been hit by a terrified horse.

When Kella wrote about it to their mother before the siblings returned home to Pilgrim’s Post, the first thing their mum had done when they came home was slap them; then, she lectured them for the next hour on their life choices.

The only thing that had calmed her anger was the large sum of Rhams the siblings had been paid for their services.

“I just hope that the guild doesn’t call us back to duty for a while.”

Tiergan was wearing tattered leather armour, his bow and quiver slung against his back, and he had dull, grey eyes and unkempt for black hair.

“Why did you even sign up to be an adventurer if that’s your attitude?” Alisa asked in disbelief.

“The money.”

“I think you might’ve been able to make more in the army,” Connor said.

“Nah, the army would’ve kicked him out over his attitude. Oh, wait.” Alisa grinned.

Tiergan sighed and increased his pace. As he did, Alisa raised a small mound of dirt in front of him which Tiergan tripped over on. When he got back up, he glared at Alisa who was whistling innocently and staring off into space.

Alisa, the team’s prodigy magician, was an expert in Earth Magic and could use the other magical schools very well, too. She had short blonde hair, emerald eyes and was wearing a stainless white robe adorned with golden patterns along its sleeves and hood.

I wonder if it’s a miracle or sheer luck that we’ve managed to make it this far as adventurers, Connor mused.

No matter the job and no matter how many years passed, his party was always like this.

Connor had once wondered if he was the only one who took their missions seriously, but he soon realised that was the only member of his party that wasn’t very confident in their own abilities, so he always found himself exerting more effort than the others.

Tiergan was an expert sharpshooter and could land almost any shot without breaking a sweat. Alisa’s magical abilities and control were unlike anything Connor had ever seen, and his little sister was very skilled with her spear.

It wasn’t that Connor was weak by any means. After all, he was a B-ranked adventurer and was very strong in his own right, but he still felt the same tension and fear he’d always felt in battles.

He feared his death, he feared that he would fail and he feared that his loved ones would get hurt.

Maybe I should learn to lighten up a little, Connor thought as they approached the gates.

The moment they stepped foot into the city, they could sense that there was something wrong.

***

The air was heavier.

Everyone they saw looked frightened of something and there were more soldiers and guards on patrol.

“People of Stonefall, here me!” A town crier shouted. “Do not let the false promises of the guards fool you! The Great Disaster is far from over! These killings are nothing short of a message from Themis herself, warning us of a great darkness that will befall the Holy Empire. Those words, Death Stalks All, are a divine warning! The Great Disaster will bring death to all in the empire!”

The crowd began to panic and converse with one another just as a handful of city watch members appeared, telling the crier to be silent and forcing the crowd to disperse.

“The Great Disaster?” Connor repeated.

“…Seems like we missed something big this time,” Tiergan grunted.

“Did you hear about the stabbings by the old Tavern House?”

“Another one? Did they have the words there?”

“Some say it did, but others say it didn’t.”

“Why aren’t the guards doing anything about this?”

“What can they do against a disaster that even the Great Goddess is powerless to stop!”

“Did they ever find the people who killed those adventurers in the end?”

“Of course not! Those were the first victims of the Great Disaster. This isn’t something we can do anything about.”

“Yeah. This is just the beginning, I reckon.”

As they walked through the city towards the guild, all that people seemed to speak off was the Great Disaster and a series of deaths across the city.

“Connor,” Alisa whispered.

“We’ll ask once we’re back at the guild.”

The four of them increased their pace towards the branch office. Once inside, they split up to gather information.

Kella went to talk to the receptionist, Alisa and Tiergan went to speak with some other adventurers, and Connor checked the request board.

Then, Connor saw someone that stood out like a sore thumb; a blonde-haired man dressed in clothes Connor had only seen nobility wear, inspecting the jobs available on the wall.

I’ve never seen that man in here before. Is he a new recruit or is he looking to put in a request himself? Connor paused and looked the man up and down, but couldn’t get a good read on him. If he is an adventurer, it doesn’t really show; he doesn’t look that strong.

If he’s new or looking to put in a request, then I guess I should help him out.

Connor put on a friendly smile and walked up to the man.

“Haven’t seen you in here before. If you’re new, I would keep your head down and head home.” Connor smiled, leant towards the man, and whispered, “After everything that’s happening in the city, doesn’t seem like the best time to try and start your career as an adventurer.”

The blonde-haired man laughed and faced Connor. “Thank you for the warning, but I’m actually a retired adventurer, so my name won’t be called, thank Themis.”

“Ah, I see. Sorry for being so presumptuous. It’s just I thought I knew every adventurer’s name and face in Stonefall, so I assumed you were new.”

“With this worn-out mug? I’d have to be a mad man to try and sign up at my age.”

The two men laughed before Connor held out his hand to him. “I’m Connor, a B-ranker. You are?”

After a second’s hesitation, the man confidently took Connor’s hand. “Curtis Forest, a former A-ranker from Glenthum.”

“An A-ranker?! By Themis, I didn’t expect to meet a high ranker here. What in the world made you retire?”

Curtis shrugged. “Old age? A few bad injuries? Met a woman and fell in love? Which do you think?”

“All of the above?”

Curtis grinned. “Well, you aren’t wrong in a way. Still, I just couldn’t sit still after everything that’s been happening in the city lately. Just my luck, isn’t it? I move here with the missis and then the world goes to hell.”

Connor smiled sombrely as he looked around the room and imagined what could happen to the people he cared for most.

He saw Alisa and Tiergan talking with another adventurer group and felt his heart sink.

“…Do you believe the rumours about what’s happening in the empire? Do you think that these killings are just the beginning?”

Curtis looked to Connor, then around them and said, “I don’t know. A dozen or so corpses turn up with vague, ominous words that don’t give any specifics or details one day. Seems like an easy way to get rid of people you don’t like and pretend it’s something divine. Then again.” Curtis paused and then spoke even more softly than before. “If it is someone’s doing, then why are the criers and the church saying it’s a sign of an impending disaster?”

“You don’t think the church would-?”

“I don’t know, but all I can do is trust my gut and consider every possibility. The killings began and then the church validated them, in a way. If it is part of a bigger conspiracy, then I don’t want to get involved. If it isn’t and something worse is coming, then I want to do everything I can to help stop it.”

Connor nodded firmly. “What does your gut say about this coming disaster?”

Curtis looked right into Connor’s eyes and said, “It’s coming. I can feel it.”

“Curtis!” Kella cried, running to him and grabbing his arm. “Sara’s team said that they have a potential lead on the-” She cut herself off when she realised he had been talking to someone. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t worry about it, child. We had just finished our conversation anyway. It was lovely speaking with you, Connor.”

“And you too, Curtis.” They shook hands. “If you do wish to help us out at some point, is there any way for us to contact you? Someone of your strength would be greatly appreciated during these times?”

“Of course. My wife and I run the Hierophant in the Merchant’s District, not too far from the cathedral. Please, feel free to drop by whenever you wish.”

“Thank you.”

***

Once Connor and Kella were gone, Mímir sighed and turned back to the request board.

I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought a B-ranker might have some useful information, but. He frowned. I didn’t get anything out of it and created a link from Connor to our operations. If nothing else, this is one failure I don’t have to report back to his majesty…not yet, at least. Not until Connor and his party become-

Mímir’s eyes stopped over a rather curious request that wasn’t anything like the others.

The reward was three times that of the next highest paying request and it was a monster extermination job that had the word ‘Urgent’ written in big, hastily rushed ink on it.

It was also the only request on the board that specified a town more than thirty miles from Stonefall, meaning that it had to be quite a dangerous mission if the request had made its way to Stonefall.

Curious, Mímir pulled the request off the board and looked over it a few times.

“URGENT - Giant Extermination Request”?

***

In a dimly lit, damp room, Herakles and the other heads of the Sons of Tartarus were gathered around a dusty wooden table.

In total, there were six of them: Yohan, the head of the smuggling division, Gerald, the head of the slavery division, Ewan, the head of the trading division, Sylvan, the head of the intelligence division, Carlson, the head of the whole organisation and, sat beside him, was Herakles, the head of security.

Standing behind each of them were several guards and servants, each loyal to their division head, a distinction that Carlson hated about the Sons of Tartarus.

In order to expand and become the dominant criminal group in the underworld, he had to increase the number of divisions that the Sons had and, as a result, had reduced his own central power by giving most of his responsibilities to the other heads.

The only reason any of them hadn’t tried to take control of the Sons themselves was because of the man sat beside him; his oldest, and most loyal, friend: Herakles.

“Thank you for all taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this meeting. Unless anyone has any urgent and unrelated business, we need to discuss first, shall we get right into it?” No one spoke up, so Carlson continued.

He handed a stack of papers to a guard behind him who then began handing the documents out to each member.

“In the last few weeks, Stonefall has been hit with a series of unfortunate ‘tragedies’ that have resulted in the deaths of many of our subordinates and have been made out to be the work of the Night’s Eye of all people,” Carlson restated with a bitter laugh. “If I didn’t know any better, I would almost think that someone was trying to slander our name.”

A few of the servants and guards laughed quietly to themselves, but those around the table didn’t dare.

“You think someone’s making a play on our territory?” Ewan asked.

“I don’t think it; I know it. It’s far too much of a coincidence that the first wave of victims were Ryan and his men.”

“What about the adventurers? They didn’t have any ties to us, did they?” Yohan questioned, looking to Sylvan.

Sylvan shook her head. “Not even a tiny thread. I triple checked our records and not only have we not had any contact with them, we haven’t even had contact with an extended family member or friend of theirs. There isn’t any obvious connection to us or the Night’s Eye.”

“I imagine that the adventurers weren’t targeted specifically because they were related to us, but because of something much more fundamental,” Carlson said. “What if someone in that party had witnessed the deaths of Ryan’s men and were going to tell someone? Or what if they had made a connection we hadn’t between Ryan’s death and his killers that we haven’t been able to?”

“…If that’s the case, then how the hell do we find out the link?” Gerald asked.

“Herakles, if you would.”

Herakles stood up and picked up his copy of the documents that had been passed around.

“As part of my crew, Ryan’s job was to go and visit the businesses in the merchant’s district to make sure that they were paying their fees and to get us new clients,” Herakles explained. “This document contains a list of every single shop in the merchant’s district that we work with, as well as new businesses and shops under new owners. Specifically, this covers the last three months of operations.”

“You narrowed it down based on the timing of the killings I presume?” Yohan asked.

“Exactly. Chances are that whoever is responsible for killing Ryan and his men must have had a business connection to someone in the merchant’s district and didn’t take too kindly to our offer. As a result, they killed him and the rest, then tried to disguise it as someone else’s doing.”

“The Great Disaster,” Gerald grumbled.

“So it would seem,” Sylvan said. “It’s remarkable just how far the panic has spread in the city because of a few nasty rumours. It’s quite the impressive piece of fiction that the culprits have created and, more than that, they were able to sway the criers to their side. That in of itself would cost a lot of money to do.”

“How much would bribing one cost us roughly??” Carlson asked.

“Two hundred Rhams a week, at least.”

“And yet they have dozens of them preaching the same message?”

“Boss, we’re dealing with someone who’s clearly quite powerful and that’s good at manipulating people’s fears,” Herakles stated. “Ryan and the men with him were experienced mercenaries; they wouldn’t just go down without a fight and yet not a single one got away from their killers. That means our enemy is either numerous, strong, or both.”

“Then, what shall we do about this?” Yohan demanded. “If our men are being targeted, then what’s to stop the culprits from killing even more of them? Herakles, unlike your men, my soldiers aren’t anywhere near as skilled. Doubling the guards as you’ve advised won’t work forever, will it? As it is, I’ve got ten men guarding every single shipment and now we’re only doing about half the business we normally do.

“At this rate, our income’s going to drop and we won’t be able to keep our men paid.”

“I understand your concerns, Yohan, which is why this document exists,” Herakles said with a wide grin. “Did you not notice the eleven names on this that I’ve circled?”

All of the heads looked over the documents again and saw the names Herakles had identified.

“Eight of those shops have opened in Stonefall in the last three months and seven of them are under our protection,” Herakles said. “The one with a cross next to it is a shop whose owner will shortly be changed to someone more agreeable. The other three with the question marks next to them are shops whose owners have changed recently.

“The Stone Spear, the Hierophant Inn and the Alchemist’s Whisper.”

“Are any of those three under our care?” Ewan asked.

“Not yet,” Sylvan answered on behalf of Herakles. “As I understand it though, on the day Ryan was killed, you had sent him to negotiate with their owners, didn’t you?”

Herakles nodded. “I’d heard about three people selling their shops and wanted to wait until they’d all changed hands before sending Ryan in. That way, he could get all three done that day. However, he was killed before he could hand in the contracts. Worse, all of the contracts he had on him had been stolen.”

“Then, that means it is highly likely that the culprit has a connection to one of these shops?” Yohan asked nervously.

“Not necessarily,” Sylvan interjected. “To my eye, this looks like it could be a diversion of sorts from one of the newly opened shops, such as the eighth owner you weren’t able to sway, Herakles. It’s possible that the culprit had people watching Ryan and his men and then saw the perfect chance to kill them all and disguise the crime, no?”

“I’ve considered that, but I doubt it,” Herakles dismissed with a wave of his hand. “It just feels like it’s too difficult for the culprits to pull off.”

“So, these three are our likely candidates then?” Ewan muttered. “Should we just purge them now and be done with it?”

“That’s our last resort,” Carlson answered. “The legion and city watch leave many of our operations alone because we keep our heads underground and primarily target people in the lower districts and not the nobles. If we just suddenly butcher a bunch of merchants and burn their shops down, I think even the city watch would have to act.”

Herakles chuckled. “That’s not bloody likely.”

“Regardless, for now, Sylvan, could you investigate Herakles’s leads with him and his men? We can’t just strike blindly this time.”

“Understood.”

“What about the rest of us?” Yohan bellowed. “We still have the fundamental issues about our operations being disrupted by the culprits. What can we do about that?”

“Nothing, at the moment,” Carlson said. “Until we uncover and destroy our enemies, we must be careful. Now then, unless anyone else has something they’d like to add to this meeting or if there’s anything they’ve noticed that could help us, speak up.”

“…There was one thing, boss,” Gerald whispered.

Carlson raised an eyebrow. “Let’s hear it then.”

“Well, one of my top clients, Lord Anthony Kelsey, hasn’t come to the auctions lately. Usually, he’s pretty consistent about when he shows up and always asks me to put aside our best stock for him to look at first. But he’s missed two auctions now.”

“Two of them?” Ewan asked.

“Sylvan, do you have anything that could add to Gerald’s comments at all?” Carlson demanded.

“Just a whisper from way down south, I’m afraid,” Sylvan replied. “Lord Kelsey was spotted on a trip with his daughter not too long ago, so I’m sure-”

“With his daughter?” Gerald burst out.

“…Is there something wrong with that?”

Gerald looked at Carlson and said, “Lord Kelsey rarely ever spoke about his daughter and, when he did, he was only ever angry or disappointed with her.”

“If that’s the case-”

Herakles grinned. “Then why was he on a nice little trip with her down south?”

“Sylvan, investigate this further with what men you can spare,” Carlson ordered.

“Five or six of them should be enough to get us news by the end of the fortnight,” Sylvan said. “I’ll look into this right away.”

“Good. Then, if that is truly everything this time, then let’s end this meeting here and get back to work. Oh, if you do come across the Night’s Eye or anyone else who’d try to stand against us, feel free to kill them. Just add it onto the story our enemy is weaving.” Carlson smiled. “After all, we too can use this farce to suit our needs.”

***

Before Sylvan’s men had even left the city, they had been killed.

One of Mímir’s Ravens had ambushed them in a back alley that night and cut their throats.

With the spymaster’s agents dead, the Raven nailed them to the wall and left the same bloodied message that Mímir had left in the adventurer’s bedroom.

Death Stalks All.