8: Call The Hunt

They carried Sneker through stone tunnels of the village barracks and eventually into a tall, stone room where many stretchers were laid out in rows.

Lyra instructed Vo to carefully place the dead warrior on one. "I'll go get Shara, our doctor. She also examines the dead for cause of death."

"We'll update the commander."

As Zen and Vo were making their way to the commander's building across the market square, they saw a lot of people arguing with each other for petty things. Zen frowned when he passed a couple who were snapping at each other: they stopped and apologized for something they couldn't remember saying.

"Hey, Vo, look." Zen gestured toward a distant hut near the far end and saw Sam's little girl storming out in a huff and crying.

"It's the soul marks taking root." Vo watched the burly guard frantically call out for this daughter.

He approached the men.

"Have you seen..."

"She ran that way." Vo pointed in Kiara's last sighed direction.

Sam nodded his thanks as he ran after his daughter's trail.

Zen grabbed Vo's arm and pulled him to one side. "I'm just going to borrow him for one moment."

"Why?" Lyra asked, not hiding his suspicion.

"Boy talk. Sorry, dear, unless you have an extra piece downstairs, this conversation might be too embarrassing for you." Before Lyra could counter her point, he dragged Vo into a brisk walk.

Vo observed the nervous tension to his body. "What is it?"

"Listen. I don't want to say anything to the others, in case they're infected, but I've come across this Nox Mortre before. Well, kind of..."

Zen told of a time he was passing through the Oasis of Fein, which was another town region in the Central Plains of the Forsaken. Just before he reached the town, he came upon a camp of nomad merchants and shared the campfire with them. One of the nomads said that they were carrying talisman necklaces to protect themselves from evil. He tried to sell Zen one, but the loki declined. Everyone turned in for a good night's sleep. Although, nothing good came from the night.

Zen was sleeping under one of the wagons when he heard howling and smelt bitter scents of Solanero, a necromantic plant concoction. He swiftly covered his nose and mouth and laid still. The screams and wails of people caused a disruption to the atmosphere, making the solanero's scent carry more potently and with dark magic to taint the night.

Black-sliver smoke lazed toward Zen's view, like it was seeking out a victim. All he could do was hold his breath and pray to Anul it didn't find him.

Someone clicked their fingers and gave an order to retract the smoke.

Then a man cried out, "Mother of Night, the Nox Mortre has done your bidding."

Zen dared not move, counting the rapid footsteps moving away from the camp space then receding to silence. He waited in the tense quiet and cold for sometime until he felt it was safe to come out.

What he saw was blood stained ground, pieces of fingers and toes placed around the campfire clearing in a pattern of a five pointed star with a hexagon center.

As Zen approached, he felt his lifeforce being sucked away.

"They left a binding array to gather more energy. All I could do was run. I didn't stop until I came here," Zen carefully whispered, while fretting.

Vo nodded and patted his arm. "Sounds like a dark sorcerer cult. Let's keep this to ourselves for now. Only say enough if pressed. A lot of people here are bound to a soul mark."

The men continued to Leizan's office and saw the old warrior at his desk, pondering over scrolls. Lyra was already there to give him an update.

"We found one of your men at a dead-end not far from your north entrance." Vo stated

"Lyra informed me." Leizan lifted his attention from his papers.

"Sneker was..." Lyra began to explain further but her voice was quivering too much.

Leizan rose, understanding and not hiding his concern. "He was missing for two weeks before your arrival."

"He came back, but in a mess caused by magic." Lyra frowned.

"Is he...?"

"He's dead, Sir, Shara just called it."

"Dead." Leizan closed his eyes then opened them.

"Something's happening to your people from something called a Nox Mortre." Vo plainly dropped a controversial fact.

Leizan betrayed a moment of tension before shaking his head. "Only passing whispers but none of my guards saw any evidence of serious threats."

"Sneker mentioned this name before he died." Lyra blurted. "I'd say it's a serious threat now."

"Then send out a Hunt. Track these bastards to our people then eliminate them. That's an order." Leizan returned to his papers.

Vo frowned, detecting something strange about the man but he couldn't say what, so dismissed his feelings.

The three re-entered the market square.

"I need Sam to ring a call in the barracks for a hunt." Lyra power walked ahead of the men.

"Why Sam? Can't you do it?" Vo asked.

"I'm not ranked high enough to touch the bell. If I try, I'd lose a hand." Lyra frowned.

"That sounds like a valid reason to stop a prank hunt." Zen joked and chuckled at her eye-roll.

"I guess we look for Sam then." Vo sighed.

They searched the village area for Sam but couldn't find him. An hour had passed, when they regrouped near the south gate to discuss their concerns.

"Does your guard partner go missing a lot?" Vo nonchalantly asked Lyra.

"Tsk, no. Something's not right. It's not like him to leave a post or go AWOL like this." She placed her hands on her hips as she frowned with her thoughts.

Vo nodded. "Then we keep looking."

"In the meantime, is there any other higher rank officer than can ring in a hunt?" Zen suggested.

"Cowley can. I'll go tell him. But if you could keep looking for Sam. Let's meet up at the tavern entrance by the hour." Lyra pleaded.

"We'll continue to search the northern areas."

The group dispersed with Zen and Vo continuing their search and questioning for Sam's whereabouts.

They were given a led by the Lodshen's merchant contact.

"You're still here, roshi?" The man saw Vo asking his peers questions.

"I've been asked to search for the missing people from here."

The merchant sighed and gestured for him to draw closer. When they were clear of earshot, he gave more information.

"Listen, this village is marked by the Nox Mortre."

"So we've learned, but not sure who they are or what they want to achieve."

"All I know is that they work for a man from your old home."

The man explained that strangers entered, not so friendly. They had caused a scene at the tavern involving the blacksmith's daughter, then stopped by his stall to examine his spices.

"I saw a bit of one of the women's arms, which she tried to hide beneath her robes. I carried the watermark stain of a swan."

'Swan." Vo felt his heart running a marathon.

"Isn't that the Den Imperial motif?" Zen innocently noted.

"If you want to keep your pretty head, don't spread it." The merchant warned Zen, which zipped the man's lips.

"Look, I don't know the deal is with you and those fairies, but this village is caught up in another political mess."

"Involving missing villagers." Vo sighed and rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Excuse me."

Vo went to find an inconspicuous spot behind the merchant's hut to send a call.

"Vo, what do you know about the Hartland Empire?" Zen asked but was ignored by the roshi warrior.

Vo slapped a heavy hand on a specific spot on Zen's back to make the man drop to the ground, unconscious. "Sorry, Zen, but this call can't be seen."

He did a silent wolf whistle to call down a crow, then pulled out a strip of blank paper and a spool of red thread. He cut off a piece of thread, stowing away the spool, then thought of the words he wanted written on the paper strip. Words wrote themselves on the surface with red ink before vanishing. A crow landed on his shoulder.

He rolled up the paper strip and bound it with fine thread, then used a length of the thread to bind it to one of the crow's legs. "Make sure they know, the tensions are being felt in the Forsaken. Go!"

The crow squawked then lifted off and flew away. Vo went to help Zen back to consciousness and to his feet.

"What'd you do to me?! You handsome beefcake!" Zen growled out his complaints.

"Handsome beefcake?" Vo looked confused by the term.

"Yes, you." Zen huffed.

"Geeze, no need to get touchy. I can't help it if you're too weak to handle my slaps." Vo chuckled.

"Weak? Why you.."

"Need to find Sam, remember?"

Zen huffed with annoyance again and strutted away.

Vo returned to the merchant who was packing up.

"I'm getting out of here. You should too."

The men left the merchant's stall when it was clear there wasn't more they could get out of him.

Zen frowned when he caught sight of the burly bearded guard running down an alley toward the north entrance. "I think he went that way."

They raced down the alley and through the north entrance to find Sam banging on the stone boulder.

"Kiara!"

"Sam?" Vo approached the frantic man.

"Vo, you have to help me get this opened. Kiara raced through it but it closed."

"She raced through the boulder?"

"It was a cave before: god damn it! Kiara!" Sam punched and kicked at the boulder, drawing blood.

"Stop it!" Vo pulled at his arm to stay his punches. "You want to get your daughter back, we have to find out who took her."

"It'd be too late by then!"

"This boulder's laced with magic. One my talisman can't counter." Vo tried to inject reason into him, but the man was frantic.

Sam pulled out his sword and held it before Vo's chest. "You use magic. Open the way."

"I told you. My talisman can't counter this."

"Your sword is special."

"It's not the magic that can counter the dark."

"Besides, this boulder is laced with syn magic." Zen added to the reasons for why they were all hopeless to split open a boulder.

"Syn magic?" Sam frowned.

"The kind only the same type of syn can use. From this swirly magic pattern that resembles air, none of us are its kin."

The sword fell out of Sam's hand as he slumped to the ground, his grief overwhelming him.

Vo knelt to his level. "We'll get her back. But we need to know what we're dealing with first to be prepared for the rescue. It wouldn't do well to bring more harm to the people we're trying to rescue, because of our ignorance toward the enemy."

Sam nodded, feeling calmer that Vo and Zen were still willing to help.

Vo held out his hand and helped Sam stand up. "Grab your sword and let's get her back. All of them." He patted the man's back.

Lyra was sprinting toward them in a fluster. "There you all are. Cowley called the Hunt, it's just as well as more have been reported as missing. It's getting out of hand."

"Is the barkeeper still around?" Vo coolly asked.

"I think so." Lyra answered, panting for breath.

"Time to order a drink and his information."

They headed for the tavern, but not for a social call.