Chapter 22:

Loose Ends (Part 1)

The Children of Eris


Once the shop had closed for the night, the Ravens locked the doors and dimmed all but two lanterns, to tell their masters about what they’d learned.

“Why didn’t you consult me first?”

“You were busy serving ten guards at the counter! What was I supposed to do? Wait until you were done and they’d left, so we’d learn nothing?”

Mímir sighed. “You are more of an idiot than I thought, Mania. Or perhaps you want to see his majesty to fail.”

A mighty boom echoed through the room.

Before the Ravens could even blink, Mania had drawn and stabbed her dagger through the table before Mímir's arms, less than a millimetre from his skin.

“Say that again and I’ll kill you,” she muttered, a dark aura oozing off her body.

“Calm yourself, Mania.”

She scoffed. “Hey, if you didn’t want this to happen, maybe you should’ve been on the other side of the counter, oh wise and intelligent Mímir.” Mania grinned so that he could see her fangs. “Actually, if your Ravens had done their jobs properly, then wouldn’t we already know about all our potential enemies in Stonefall?

“How many are out right now gathering information for you? Three? Four? And they haven’t learned anything new about the Sons or this Night’s Eye group. At least I’ve learned of their existence, their rough size and what activities they usually involve themselves with.”

“And in doing so have revealed that you are not the normal wife of a retired adventurer!” Mímir roared, leaping up from his chair. “You have learnt nothing of value and potentially compromised our operation, again! Do you understand the gravity of this situation even a little bit?”

“I understand that all we’ve done so far is gain basic little pieces of information and nothing else! Yet you dare yell at me for my failures?! We have gained nothing, Mímir, in weeks! We need to reconsider our strategy and we need to find out how strong our enemies are.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

Mania purred as a cruel smile crept upon her lips. “Simple. We do what we were already intending to do but on an even greater scale. We’re going to drench this city in despair.”

***

Once in their tavern’s room, Jessica, the team’s priest, set up a magical barrier to prevent sound from escaping.

“So, how’d it go with Louis?” Phillip, the vanguard with blonde hair, asked.

“No good,” Roland, the team’s leader, said. “No matter how many times I asked him, he refused to tell me how much he’d got for the Hierophant. What about you, Cain?”

Cain, the bowman, sighed. “Steve wouldn’t tell me either, even when I promised not to tell anyone. He just kept saying ‘More than enough’ and that was it. It was strange, it almost felt like he wasn’t all really there.”

“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.

“You know how people act when they’re incredibly drunk or on something? It was like Steve was and wasn’t there. He talked like him, but didn’t act like him. He seemed too…happy.”

Roland narrowed his eyes. “That’s exactly what I thought about Louis.”

“What?”

“I ended up finding him in a brothel with a girl on either arm, but he still felt like he was too happy.”

“A man’s whose happy about having two beautiful women wanting to sleep with him? Who’d have thought?” Lucy, the swordswoman, joked.

“If he was that happy, why wasn’t he doing anything with them other than hugging and drinking with them? You’ve all heard the stories about what he’s like when he visits a brothel, right?” Everyone nodded uncomfortably. “He should’ve been on those two girls like there was-”

Lucy punched Roland on the top of his head. “There are women present, Roland.”

“Regardless,” Roland continued, ignoring the throbbing pain. “He wasn’t acting exactly like he used to.”

“From the way you’ve described him, it’s almost like he’s in a trance of some kind,” Phillip said. “Do you think he’s under the influence of something?”

“The prostitutes might have slipped Louis something,” Cain said. “But that doesn’t explain why Steve was acting like that.”

“Is it possible that both of them are under the influence of some sort of spell?” Jessica wondered.

“Are there mind-altering spells that can last for that long?”

Jessica shook her head. “Most only last for a few minutes and the longest they can ever last is about an hour. If Olivia and Curtis bought the Hierophant when they said they did, that would mean Steven and Louis couldn’t still be under the influence of a spell.”

“Only a demon could do such a thing,” Lucy said.

“Right,” Roland agreed. “You remember what I said after she left our table, right? That she managed to hear my hushed voice in a crowded tavern? Demons have much, much sharper senses than humans.”

“Demons have been extinct in Aangapea for more than a thousand years,” Jessica argued.

“Conjurers summon demons from other dimensions all the time.”

“Maybe if it was a succubus,” Jessica whispered. “If a conjurer summoned a succubus or incubus, then they would be able to control the opposite sex as much as they wanted. Given that Steve and Louis seem to be under the influence, then-”

“Olivia is the demon and Curtis is the summoner? Surely we would’ve noticed.”

“Not if she’s a high-ranking demon. All demons are said to give off an eerie presence or aura, but she didn’t. If she was a high-ranking succubus, then it’d be possible for her to hide the fact that she’s a demon.”

“And a high-ranking mage would easily be able to reign in their magical power to disguise themselves as a normal human being,” Phillip added. “It fits.”

“Do remember though that this is purely speculation, everyone,” Cain reminded them. “We have no way of proving or knowing that what we’re thinking is even true.”

“Then, should we investigate this?” Roland asked.

“Isn’t that risky?” Jessica asked back.

“It is, but there must be a reason that a powerful mage and demon suddenly wanted to take over the Hierophant. If that’s the case, then they must have tricked Louis and Steve into giving up the Hiero for cheap so that they could use it for some purpose. If that purpose is to put Stonefall in harm’s way, then we must stop them.”

“Seconded,” Lucy said.

“Well, it’s not like we have any other jobs lined up right now,” Phillip added. “Jes? Cain?”

“It’s already a majority, but why not?” Cain replied.

Jessica smiled uncomfortably and nodded. “Very well then. Let us-”

“Damn. Such a shame.”

A dagger pierced Jessica’s back, stabbing all the way through her body and poking out of her ribcage.

At first, the others were too shocked to process what happened, until Jessica vomited blood and collapsed face down onto the floor.