Typical, Karlac was always late, dependably so. Sometimes Aimee suspected Karlac had let being the hotshot mage of the Imperial Guard get to his head. For that matter, she thought, why did she even bother getting to the headquarters on time? Karlac was the one the captain always doled out the assignments to, if Aimee asked she was just told to wait for the captain’s favorite boy to show up.
Sure enough Karlac walked up to her workbench with an official looking piece of paper in one hand. The other hand contained a half-eaten apple that Aimee suspected was his breakfast. How he could skip eating in the morning and still get in late she didn’t know.
“What’s that?” Karlac managed between bites. He pointed to the metal object Aimee was etching runes onto..
If there was one way to get on Aimee’s good side it was to talk about her craft. Everybody, well everybody human anyhow, had at least some spark of magical talent. The vast majority of people were only inclined to have talent in one specific discipline, and most weren’t able to do much with that talent. Aimee’s special magic was crafting, the making and use of magical artifacts. For a human, her talent was exceptional and the source of more than a little bit of pride.
Aimee grinned despite her irritation. “This”, she said dramatically, “is a lightning gun.” He held up the item for Karlac to admire. It was an elegant rune-etched tube of copper attached to a polished wooden handle. She had been commissioned with making it nearly a month ago and many a long night had gone into it’s construction. One of her best pieces of work.
Karlac put down his apple and held the gun by it’s handle. “Cool, so what does it do?”
Aimee rolled her eyes. “It’s a gun that shoots lightning, hence the name.”
“Seriously?” Karlac looked impressed.
“Seriously. Don’t try to activate it in here.” Aimee warned. “It’s got a matrix crystal slotted in the handle and it’s charged to the brim with magical energy.”
Karlac handed the gun back to Aimee. “I don’t know if I have the talent to use something that complex anyhow, that’s your department.” Aimee knew that Karlac was trying to be modest, true he was no match for Aimee when it came to her crafting talent, but he was the equal of most crafters. The thing was, Karlac was talented in elemental magic, spirt magic, enchantment, and projection. Karlac was one of those rare exceptions to the rule that people only had one talent, and he had far more than a spark in talent in each of those areas. About the only talent Karlac didn’t have has divination, but maybe he just claimed that so nobody would bother trying to get him to read their fortune.
“So?” Asked Aimee.
“Huh?” Asked Karlac.
“Our assignment.”
“Oh!” Karlac fumbled the sheet of parchment and accidentally let it drop to the floor. He retrieved it and handed it to Aimee. As he took another bite from his apple.
“Investigation.” He said thickly while chewing. “One of the outlying villages had some sort of attack, probably someone trying to steal livestock or something, you know the drill.” That was the typical assignment in an outlying village, livestock was extremely valuable so a theft was a major crime.
Aimee looked over the parchment. Typically, she and Karlac would go out with one of the guard’s investigators for this sort of thing, but this assignment was different.
“Karlac, this isn’t something ordinary.” Aimee told him.
“Whadda mean?” Karlac asked.
Sometimes Aimee wanted to thump that boy. For a genius at magic, he could be remarkably clueless. “We’re not just going out there with Jarod.” Jarod was one of the investigators they often did assignments with. “This” she waved the parchment at him “says we’re also going with Captain Gallius and Sir Martin Halgard of the Holy Order.”
Even Karlac wasn’t clueless enough to not know what that meant. “Demons.” He said, face turning a little pale.
Aimee read the rest of the parchment and a her face split into a broad grin.
Karlac looked at her like she was crazy. “You’re happy about demons?”
“No.” Replied Aimee. “We’ve been assigned a bird for this.”
Karlac face turned paler still.
* * *
Jarod, the captain, and Sir Halgard were waiting next to the bird. The “bird” was technically called a Flyer, but the pilots all called them birds. The bird looked like a little boat than had grown a couple of massive metal and fabric bat wings. To Aimee, it was a piece of art. The bird was beyond what any human crafter could manage, they were all made by the Dwellers. The Dwellers were a secretive race that lived deep under the mountains where they felt the magic of the earth was strongest. Aimee had only every seen drawings of the Dwellers, always in dark armor and wearing dark cloaks. They gave her the creeps, they gave everybody the creeps for that matter. Nonetheless she would dearly love to see how they worked their magic if they ever allowed a human into their workshops.
Aimee took her attention off the beautiful bird and examined the men before it. Jarod, a darkhaired, rather serious soldier of the guard, was a familiar face as he was often sent to investigate disturbances around the empire. Captain Gallius, she didn’t know personally. He was a powerfully built middle aged man with a bald head and gray beard. Despite a fierce appearance, he was known as a good natured man. Both the guardsmen where armored with Imperial issue chain mail. Karlac wore clothing with the livery of the Guard, but he generally dispensed with armor and honestly if there was going to be a sword fight then he was better off having less weight so he could make a speedy retreat. Aimee was a compromise, she wore a thick elscloth jerkin and armbands. Elscloth wasn’t quite as good as leather, but real leather was too expensive for the Guard. Then there was Sir Halgard looking every bit the Knight in shining armor in his, well, shining armor. His piercing blue eyes and shoulder length blond hair completed the cliché.
Sir Halgard extended a gauntleted hand to Karlac, who shook it distractedly as he eyed the bird with trepidation. Aimee half expected the Knight to lift her hand to his lips, but she received the same brief handshake as her colleague. It was, after all, a professional occasion, not a social one.
Sir Halgard addressed Karlac in a manner as formal as one would expect from a knight. “I understand the guard thinks highly of your abilities, I hope you can be of equal service to the Order as well. I will…”
“That armor is dweller made, it’s beautifully done!” Remarked Aimee excitedly. She had a deep appreciated of the artistry of enchanted items.
The knight looked at her for a second and then turned back to Karlac. “I will inform you of the situation as we travel. I have already explained to the Captain and Jarod.” Meanwhile, Aimee felt her face turn red.
“I’ll do what I can.” Replied Karlac lamely.
The knight then addressed Aimee, though now it was instructions instead of compliments. “We’ll need you to fly us to the town of Lindinis. We need to make haste, too much time as already passed.”
Aimee simply nodded, still a bit embarrassed over her unintentional interruption. She also was a little miffed that Halgard treated her like the hired help instead a valued member of the team. Whether it was because she was a crafter or a woman she couldn’t tell.
Jarod brought her and Karlac two slender swords along with scabbards and belts. “Here,” he said “you’ll need to take these along.”
Aimee took the belt and sword and quickly put it on. She felt a bit silly with two belts, one with her gun clipped to it and one with the sword, but Sir Halgard was already climbing into the bird and she didn’t feel like this was the time to fiddle with the hardware. Karlac took the sword and belt and eyed them apprehensively before putting them on. Now Aimee knew that Karlac with a sword was a greater danger to himself than an enemy, but that wasn’t what was making him apprehensive. If they wanted the support team wearing steel, then they were expecting there would still be danger. The danger was usually long over by the time Karlac and Aimee arrived at a scene.
The rest of the team followed Sir Halgard into the bird, strapping themselves into the passenger seats. Aimee took the pilot’s seat at the bow. Unlike passive crafted items like Sir Halgard’s armor, something that manipulated magic actively needed someone with crafting talent to operate. Something like the bird, required exceptional talent like Aimee’s. Only a handful of people in the entire empire had the talent to work a machine this powerful. Of those, only three had the knowledge to deal with the complexity of actually flying it. This was one of many reasons Aimee was such a valued member of the Guard.
All right Mr. Knight, she thought to herself, time to show you that Karlac isn’t the only talented mage in this bird. She gripped the two control rods of the bird and directed magic pent up in two large matrix crystals to surge though the machine. The wings of the bird fanned out and started to beat, lifting them into the sky a bit faster than was perhaps necessary, but Aimee didn’t care, she was flying. Any vestiges of her bruised ego were instantly sweep away as the air whipped her hair and the bird gained speed. She had almost forgotten just how much she enjoyed piloting these magnificent machines. They shot toward the northeast, toward Lindinis.
The only thing Aimee didn’t like about flying is that it usually meant a lot of exposure to sun, which Aimee thought really brought out her freckles. Freckles were a big deal for Aimee, because she had an uneasy relationship with her freckles. Now a sprinkling of freckles was cute and Aimee could be happy with cute, she was a bit on the small side so cute would work just fine. However, Aimee didn’t have a sprinkling of freckles, not even a rainstorm of freckles, she had torrents of them. With those kind of freckles usually came a mane of fiery red hair, or at least that’s what Aimee thought should come with them, but her hair was brown, a reddish brown if you looked at it in the right light. In any event, Aimee always felt her freckles were entirely unfair.
One of the tricks to flying was staying inside the barrier. Every city and major road in the Empire was protected by barriers generated by massive matrix crystals buried in earth where they could tap the magic flows directory. The barriers protected the human settlements from all manner of unnatural creatures that roamed the wilds these days, and most importantly the dreaded elves. Only humans and some animals could cross the translucent barrier walls, the unnatural creatures and elves couldn’t penetrate the mysterious magical fields. Such crafted magic was beyond human ability, the barriers were a gift from the Dwellers. Flying though the barrier, or even touching it, in a machine as magically delicate as a bird would be a disaster. This meant that Aimee had to fly at low altitude to avoid scraping the barrier overhead. Inside the barrier domes of the cities and towns, this wasn’t a big issue, but it like hurtling down a tunnel on barrier protected roads while not so much as touching a wall.
Down the road they flew, skimming over short trees and weaving by tall ones and eliciting curious looks from travelers. If her passengers were thrilled or terrified, Aimee didn’t know or care. Villages whipped by, their barrier domes like junctions among the tunnels of barrier protected roads. What was a three day trip by wagon to Lindinis was over in three hours, as Aimee guided the bird into the barrier dome of the town. She slowed their speed so she could hear Sir Halgard’s shouted directions leading her to the investigate scene. They turned West and flew toward the farmland furthest from the town center, near the barrier wall.
There was no doubt where the disturbance was as Aimee followed Sir Halgard’s shouted instructions. She could see a manor house among the fields and modest farm homes that covered the land just outside of the town. Surrounding the manor house was what looked like a good portion of the town militia. She hardly needed Sir Halgard telling her this was the spot. If the militia was ringing the manor grounds, that only mean there was still danger present. Not a comforting thought. Aimee lowered the bird down next the largest clump of militia she could find, figuring that the commander was likely to be there. Naturally, she was correct. A well groomed middle aged man wearing a sturdy suit of chain mail, greeted them as Aimee’s passengers extricated themselves from the bird. Karlac looked positively green, the poor guy really didn’t like flying.
Sir Halgard took charge of the situation immediately, addressing the militia commander in brisk tones. “You sent word that a demon attacked here?”
The commander took a look at the manor house. “Yeah, that’s what we told the witch that sent the message.” Witch was the term used by some to denote someone who was unusually talented in magic. It wasn’t a kind term, if not a true insult. Hearing the commander use it didn’t earn him any favor with Aimee. “But…” the commander continued “…we don’t really know for sure. What I do know is that I’ve sent ten men in there and none of them made it out, not to mention the lord, lady and servants of the estate. No more of my men are going in there, couldn’t make them if I wanted to, I would just burn the place down, but we were told to wait for the Guard.”
The commander looked at them, a Knight, two soldiers, a gangly guy who looked as little like a soldier as a man could, and Aimee. “Not exactly an army you sent here, but I guess there’s only so much one of those flying contraptions can carry. Are there more coming?”
The guard captain, interrupted. “Do you have any knowledge of the situation in the building at all? How many there are? What they are for that matter?”
The commander shook his head. “Nobody has come out, and whatever it is hasn’t shown itself. I don’t know of any witches in town who can see through walls, don’t even know if that’s possible. What do you expect?”
“The order has its ways.” Said Sir Halgard, again taking charge. “Commander, I need you to keep the parameter secure. Captain, you and your men will accompany me to assess the situation.”
“Wait.” Said the commander, looking rather unhappy. “I’ll come with you as well as my soldier, but the mage and crafter are not coming along. Not that I find any of my men expendable, but the commander of the guard will have my hide if I lose either of those two.”
Sir Halgard regarded the Captain for a second, then proceeded to pull rank. “The commander consented to put you and your team under my command. On my word as a knight of the holy order, the mage and crafter will not be killed, at the first sign of danger I will order them to leave. There is a reason I requested the team that I did and I require their talents. They will come with us. There is no reason for delay.” The knight started walking toward the manor, not looking back.
“Hell. Okay, you heard him, we’re going in. I don’t want any heroics of any of you. Jarod and I are the soldiers, if there’s fighting to be done I want you two ” he pointed at Karlac and Aimee ” to get the hell out of there.” The captain set off to follow Sir Halgard, leaving Jarod, Karlac, and Aimee to follow. Aimee placed a hand on her gun sensing the power of the magic contained in it’s matrix crystal. It was comforting to have it there. While Aimee could use a sword her training was limited, she was no soldier. She knew Karlac could command the elements to great effect a few times before draining himself, but such manipulation of the elements was best suited to the outdoors, his powerful magic wouldn’t be very useful indoors. Her new toy gave at least a small feeling of security and that was better than feeling practically unarmed.
About thirty feet from the manor’s open front doors, Sir Halgard stopped. He looked back at Aimee and motioned for her to come forward. To Aimee’s great surprise, he withdrew the sword strapped to his back and handed it to her. The runes etched into it’s blades made it obvious that it was enchanted even before Aimee touched it and felt the magic woven into the blade.
“What is your name?” He asked.
Aimee was brought out of her examination of the blade by the question. “Oh. Aimee Fallon.” She replied.
“Aimee, this sword can sense the presence demons, but I do not have the talent to use it. Can you tell me what it senses?”
She probed the magic, felt the enchantments. “Yes. She said, I can feel it.” She concentrated, letting a trickle of her own magic seep into the blade, directing the enchantment to do her bidding. Her faced the manor and saw a demon. Not really seeing, just knowing that a demon was there moving around the manor. Just one, no, two but one of them felt dimmer, colder and she suddenly knew what that sensation must mean. “Two.” She told the knight. “One alive and moving, one still and dead.”
Sir Halgard took his sword back from Aimee. “There are perhaps two people in the Order who could have done that Aimee, the captain assured me that you could as well. I see his trust is well placed. My name is Martin by the way, I prefer it to the title.”
Martin turned to the captain. “Gavin, I want Karlac and Jarod to come with us. Jarod will protect Karlac while we deal with the demon. I want Karlac to be ready to conjure up a bright light to temporarily blind the creature.”
“No problem.” Add Karlac confidently, though Aimee could see him eyeing the shattered doorway nervously.
Aimee couldn’t help notice what was missing, namely her. “What about me?”
“You’ve done your part Aimee, we know what we are dealing with now.” Said Martin. “I want you to return to the perimeter where it is safe.”
No, Aimee had no desire to be coddled because she was a woman. She was a member of the guard, she thought, not some helpless damsel in distress. “I’m a member of the guard, not some helpless damsel in distress”, she said.
The captain gave her a glare. “Yes, you are a member of the guard. As a captain of the guard I’m ordering you to go.”
Aimee answered with a curt nod, orders were orders no matter what she thought of them. Being a crafter in the guard rather than a soldier made her forget that the guard expected military discipline. Resigned to her support row she started to walk backward, keeping an eye on the four men entering the manor through what was left of the splintered main doors. The inside of the manor was in shadow, hiding whatever might be inside. She took in the rest of the manor, gray stone walls, narrow glass windows. There was nothing ornate, just solid and strong, almost like a keep. She wondered about the people who lived, had lived there, and if they had been expecting to be attacked to build such a place. The windows were too narrow to admit a person, more like arrow slits. She fought the urge to walk up to the doors and examine them, where they as solidly constructed as the rest of the manor she wondered. With that, she realized that she had stopped walking backwards caught up in examining the manor house. The men had disappeared now, swallowed by the shadows beyond the door.
A yell brought Aimee back to full attention. It might have been Jarod, she didn’t know for sure. There was more yelling and crashing coming from inside the manor. She briefly saw Karlac’s thin frame appear in the shadowed hall, before he moved off and disappeared again. Aimee acted on instinct, she unclipped her gun and raced toward the manors shattered front doorway. More yelling, more crashing, something that sounded like a small explosion, she ran faster.
Aimee sped through the front doors into a scene of destruction, plaster had been ripped from the walls, furniture had been smashed into splinters, boards popped out of the floor, tapestries in shreds. Far worse were the bodies of three militiamen, two of which had limbs arranged in unnatural angles. To her right the sounds of battle continued, and she charged though the doorway the sounds were coming from. This room was some sort of parlor, but Aimee wasn’t taking the time to take in the decor. More dead militiamen lay on the ground among the shattered furniture. Through the next door, Aimee could see some of the battle, but her sight was blocked by the retreating form of Karlac. Karlac caught sight of Aimee and, startled, he promptly fell over his own feet.
“Get out of here!” He yelled as he hopped back on his feet. “They’re going to try to lure him outside.” He shouted as ran past Aimee.
Aimee’s brain processed the information in an instant. Karlac couldn’t make unleash the full might of his elemental magic inside the manor, he’d bring down the place on top of them if he just let loose. Of course, the plan had a flaw, the other men needed to be able to lure the demon outside and not get killed in the process. A couple more yells and a mighty crunching sound came from the other room as did Jarod, only he came through the wall rather than the door sending plaster and dust everywhere. As the dust started to clear she could see the figure of the demon, both taller and broader than the man fighting it. Even through the dust she recognized the fully armored knight weaving around the demon, trying to strike a decisive blow with his sword. Aimee raised her gun, sighting the demon through the hollow copper tube. Martin continued to weave around the demon avoiding powerful blows from the demons hands.
“Clear out!” Shouted Aimee.
Martin was distracted for only the tiniest fraction of a second, but it was more than enough for the demon as a powerful, clawed hand smashed into his breastplate. The blow sent Martin off his feet and flying back from the creature. It may have not been the way Aimee wanted to get Martin out of the way, but it did the job. The demon turned toward Aimee. Even through the dust, Aimee could see the humanoid creature was powerfully built and had a scaly, golden skin. Two intensely blue eyes stared at her from its bald head.
“Where is it human?” Asked the demon in grating tones.
Aimee ignore the question while making sure the demon’s torso was firmly lined up looking through her guns tube. Then she closed her eyes and willed the magic from the matrix crystal in the handle to flow into the tube. There was no time for the demon to even form the thought of dodging the shot. Instantly, a searing white line simply appeared, connecting the gun to the demon’s chest and making a thunderclap that sent the dust flying around the room again. From the crashing sounds coming from the other room, Aimee thought the demon must have fallen through or been thrown back through another wall. She could see well enough into the other room to view the bulky form of the demon regaining its feet slowly. She took a step back, the one shot had drained the gun’s crystal of all its pent up power. Just having the gun work had been her primary worry, she hadn’t even considered the possibility that the demon wouldn’t be at least knocked out by a direct hit.
The demon regained it’s feet and started to shake its head, still dazed. Now thought Aimee take out your sword and charge while its still stunned. She fumbled for her sword, it seemed quite thin and feeble compared to the demons heavy frame. Her sword clear it’s sheath and she promptly dropped it. The clatter seemed to bring the demon to it’s senses, it looked dead into Aimee’s eyes with those eyes those impossibly bright blue eyes. Suddenly Martin attacked the creature again, seemingly out of nowhere, his sword bit into the side of the demon’s body, leaving a bright red line across the scaly skin. The creature was moving slowly, still not recovered from the lighting blast. The demon lashed out, but only slashed its arm through dust laden air as Martin dropped to a knee, ducking under the powerful arm. Martin threw his weight into an upward sword thrust and it was all over, his blade was buried nearly to the hilt in the creature’s chest. The demon staggered as Martin rolled way, then fell with a mighty thud. Bits of plaster from the ceiling snowed down, shaken loose from the impact.
The knight got slowly to his feet, he flashed a grin at Aimee, then laughed. “Looks like I’m lucky you don’t like to listen to orders.”
Aimee found she was grinning herself. “I guess I’m lucky you don’t get knocked out easily.” Despite the sweat and dust plastered to his face and hair, suddenly Martin stuck her as a lot more handsome than before. The grin made all the difference.
“Jarod?” Said Martin gesturing toward her.
“Huh?” Replied Aimee.
“Is he okay?” Asked Martin gesturing again.
“Oh.” She had lost track of the situation. Jarod was in a crumpled heap just a couple of feet away from her. The sight brought her back into the moment. She bent down to inspect him, nothing looked broken, there were some lacerations on his side and a livid bruise on his face, but all in all didn’t look like he was in immediate danger. “He looks like he’ll be okay.” She said.
Martin had stepped through the hole in the wall and come into the parlor. “The captain looks like he’ll be okay, but I’m a bit concerned about his left arm. I’ll stay here, you go tell the militia commander the manor has been secured and we need to get a couple of men to a healer. I’m sure there’s no danger, but I don’t feel right leaving them.”
It took some time to sort everything out. There was a healer who worked his trade out of the town church and the commander had been smart enough to have already sent for him. Magical healing was powerful to be sure, but it didn’t fix things instantaneously and drained the healer quickly. Once the healer was confident that the guardsman and the captain could be moved safely, the captain needing a splint for his arm, Karlac levitated the two wounded men back to the church. The militiamen were both impressed and frightened by the scene of the two men floating along. Aimee doubted if they had ever seen anyone with a fraction of the power that Karlac could command. There were perhaps a handful of mages in the empire that could match Karlac’s power and of those Aimee knew of only one who had talent in as broad a range of disciplines. As gifted a crafter as Aimee was, she couldn’t so much as levitate a feather. After settling the men into beds in the healing hall, the church’s priest insisted on serving Martin, Aimee, and Karlac some lunch. Knights of the Holy Order didn’t often visit the outlying churches, and the priest wasn’t about to let one enter his church without being shown some hospitality.
By the time Aimee returned to the manor with Karlac and Martin, the shadows were starting to get long. The bodies of the dead militiamen, the lord, lady, and servants were gone. The command had seen to that, but he had left the demon alone. It lay there in the spot where Martin had wrenched his sword out of its chest. Martin looked over the creature. “Why are you here?” he pondered aloud.
“He was looking for something.” Said Aimee. “Before I shot him, he asked me where it was?”
“Where what was?” Interjected Karlac.
Aimee shrugged her shoulders. “No idea. He didn’t say anything else and I didn’t want to take time to play twenty questions.”
“Explains why this place is so torn up.” Said Martin looking around at the ripped up walls and smashed furniture. “He was literally tearing the place apart to find this thing, whatever it is.”
“Karlac, do you have enough strength left to send a message to the Guard and track the demon’s path to the manor?” Asked Martin.
Karlac nodded. “No problem.”
Martin closed his eyes for a moment, thinking, then spoke. “Just tell the Guard that found a demon and eliminated it, wait, two demons but one was already dead. Jarod and Captain Gallius were injured but should recover fully. It is too late to fly back tonight, but that we’ll be back in the morning. I think that should do. Got it?”
“Got it.” Said Karlac. He concentrated for a few seconds and then his eyes went unfocused. Aimee always found seeing him do that a bit creepy. He had told her how it felt, like being in a dreamworld where you could meet and communicate with other people if you knew how to find them. There was a woman back at the Guard’s headquarters that handled this kind of communication and Karlac knew how to find her in the dreamworld. After a few more seconds, his eyes reverted to normal and he visibly relaxed. “Done. I passed the message along.”
“Good. Now I’d like you to try to pick of the trail of the demon in the grounds, see if you can find out where it came from. I was told you had some training for that, is that correct?” Asked Martin.
“Sure, no problem.” Replied Karlac. “I can feel its wake in the earth currents without hardly trying.”
“Have a few militiamen go with you, just to be sure. I don’t expect any trouble, but better to be prepared.” Said Martin.
“Will do.” Said Karlac as he walked toward the manor’s entrance.
“So what first?” Asked Aimee. “Find the other demon or try to find what this one was after?”
Martin looked around the room. “Find the other demon I suppose. Nobody saw its body while they recovered the dead so that narrows it down quite a bit. Do you still have that gun of yours?”
Aimee patted the gun clipped to her belt, she had recovered first thing after the battle. “Right here, but it’s useless until I spike the crystal.”
Martin looked perplexed. “Spike the crystal?”
“Sorry, crafter jargon. The gun is powered by a matrix crystal that stores magical energy. You get one shot, then the crystal needs to draw energy from the earth to recharge. That would take weeks just carrying the crystal around with you. But if you join the crystal to a spike a cold iron and shove the spike in the ground, you can restore the crystal in a few hours.” Aimee explained.
“Clever.” Said Martin.
“It’s a pretty old trick, really.” Said Aimee. “So which way?”
“The other demon’s body is in the kitchen, they found it while recovering the bodies.” Martin said, looking toward the doorway that lead further into the wing. He glanced at Aimee, hesitated, and then said. “There’s a lot of blood evidently.”
“Let’s go.” Said Aimee. “I can deal with blood.”
Martin turned and led the way into the next room. The motif of shredded walls and smashed furniture continued. This room must have been the dining room judging by the remains of a large table, chairs, and a cabinet. Glass and stoneware shards littered the floor, mixed with the splintered wood of the furniture. Aimee stepped carefully, her boots were plenty sturdy, but an upright shard of glass might still be able to punch through them. Martin glanced at her a few times before speaking. “I’m sorry if… that is I didn’t mean to imply you can’t handle the…The Order is a very traditional organization, sometimes…”
Aimee cut him off. “It’s fine, really. Just remember I’m a member of the guard, crafter or not, woman or not.”
Martin opened his mouth to say something, then shut it, evidently changing his mind. He led them through to the kitchen. He hadn’t been wrong about the blood. The floor was soaked in it, it was splattered against the walls, over the bowls and utensils littering the floor, and even the ceiling. Near what was left of a brick oven was the other demon. It looked vaguely like a huge hound with patchy fur on a thick hide of skin studded with tiny bony plates. Massive bloody fangs protruded from it’s snout unlike any dog she’d ever seen. As she examined the scene more closely she saw fragments of Elscloth that must have been from the miltiamen’s armor. The fight in this room must have been horrific.
“So, you’re the demon expert.” Said Aimee. “What do you make of it?”
Martin examined the beast closely. Looking at it’s eyes, the texture of it’s hide, the wound that had felled the beast, and the razer sharp claws. “This is bad.”
“Bad how?” Asked Aimee. The beast on the floor in this room, seemed no less scary that the creature they left in the other. The other was more disturbing to Aimee with it’s humanoid shape.
Martin stood up, done with his examination. “I’ve seem two just like this one.”
“That makes it bad?”
“Yes.” Said Martin gravely. “Demons are almost all unique in appearance, every one with some distinct feature that sets them apart, as if every one of them were from a different species. The theory is that they are created one at a time by the enemy, that they don’t reproduce.”
“The enemy?” Asked Aimee.
“The Lord of Shades, the Devil, the Dark One, he goes my many names but in the Order we refer to him as ‘the enemy’.” Explained Martin.
“Do you believe he is real?” Asked Aimee sincerely.
“I don’t know.” Said Martin, “some in the church think he is a real entity, some think the references are symbolic. To me I guess it doesn’t really matter, I believe in evil no matter where it comes from. I’ve seen evil in this world and I’ve vowed to fight it with every bit of strength I have.”
Aimee decided it was time to bring him back to the matter at hand. “You think this kind of demon may be reproducing.”
Martin nodded. “I’m afraid so. There could be countless numbers outside the barriers for all I know.”
While Martin stared at the beast looking thoughtful and glum, Aimee looked around the kitchen some more. The blood had distracted her from the rest of the room, which was perhaps in even more of a shambles than the rest of the manor. Everything was torn up in the kitchen, every wall, every piece of furniture, even the brick oven was ripped completely apart with bricks broken and intact littering the floor. “I don’t think this is a coincidence.” Aimee muttered to herself.
“What’s a coincidence?” Asked Martin.
“Oh. The other demon, he was looking for something and he has some sort of demonic hound.” She gestured to the dead beast. “Do you think the hound could have been leading him to whatever he was looking for?”
Martin shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems like a reasonable possibility. If that’s the case, then the mystery object is here someplace.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.” Said Aimee. “The battle might have led the beast here from another room, but I think this is the best place to start looking.”
They began searching the room for a hint of something out of the ordinary. Martin examined the litter scattered on the floor. Aimee looked for any sort of container in the room, but there was nothing, the demon had already broken apart everything in the room. She started to examine the walls, looking for pockets un-exposed by the damage the demon had already done. There was nothing to be found. Martin then started examining the brick oven’s remains. Aimee, wanting a quick break from her search, watched Martin start digging through the broken pile of bricks. She sighed and joined in, picking apart the pile brick by brick. One of the bricks felt different to her, it felt crafted. She examined it carefully, using her skills to understand the magic.
“You found something?” Asked Martin, watching her.
Aimee nodded. “This brick has been crafted. I’m trying to figure out how to unravel the magic.” She closed her eyes and probed the brick. Fleeting glimmers of another persons hands appeared in her mind, hands crafting the brick. She mimicked the motions, felt the memory of the magic. “There” she said. The brick was suddenly a tiny chest the size and shape of a brick.
“It would be quite the coincidence if that wasn’t the artifact we are looking for.” Observed Marin, looking curiously at the little chest. “I don’t how it opens. Can you open it?”
The chest popped open. “It was magically sealed, but not really protected. He must have assumed the disguise would be enough.”
They both looked in the chest. Inside was an amulet on a fine silver chain. The amulet itself was square of silver with a red crystal in the middle. Around the crystal, back and front, were etched symbols that neither Martin or Aimee recognized.
“Can you tell if it is magical?” Asked Martin.
Aimee removed the amulet from the chest and dangled it in front of her. She felt nothing, not a trace of crafted magic in any part of the jewelry. She handed the chest to Martin and gently placed the amulet in her open hand, but even direct contact failed to provide a hint. To Aimee if felt like any other piece of jewelry. She shook her head. “It’s not magical.”
Martin took the amulet from Aimee and placed it carefully back into the chest. “I know a scholar that might be able to help with the text. Maybe that will provide a clue.” Martin looked around the kitchen. “We’ll need to go through the rest of manor and make sure nothing else of interest is here.”
They started to go from room to room. With the discovery of the amulet, they did not take a lot of care to examine each room carefully. There wasn’t much to discover, they found blood in a couple of other rooms where the demons had killed someone. That was perhaps the hardest part of the job for Aimee, seeing where somebody had lost their life in violence. It was always tragic, but there was something about people who had been struck down in their own home that got to her. She never let it show or interfere with an investigation though. The opposite wing was intact, no torn up walls or smashed furniture. Apparently the demon’s search for the amulet, if that was the object he sought, had been contained to the North wing.
By the time they finished their inspection of the manor the sun was starting to set, setting the clouds ablaze in pink and orange. The barrier blurred the colors as if seen through a heat haze, Aimee wondered what would look like outside the barrier. “Have you been out there?” She asked Martin.
“Out where?” Replied Martin distractedly as he looked out toward a knot of militiamen. “It looks as though Karlac is back.”
“Outside the barrier, in the wild.” She said.
“Once.” He said. “The army was trying to place a new barrier stone to make room for some more farmland near Pragdin. The magic is fickle, I guess you know about that, but for a moment part of the barrier vanished. The elves were ready, somehow they knew about the operation. Of four hundred soldiers,maybe half survived until the barrier was reestablished. We were lucky, if the soldiers hadn’t held them…well you can imagine. That was the only time I’ve been outside.” He looked up at the sky for a moment, watching the blurred sunset. “Time to see what Karlac has to report.”
As they approached Karlac finished his conversation with the militiamen to talk with Martin. “I was able to track them.” He said. “The humanoid one had a strong unnatural taint. I probably could track him a week from now.”
“So where did they come from?” Asked Martin.
Karlac looked a bit uneasy as he replied. “That’s the thing. The trail just leads to the barrier east of here, I mean it looks like it just walked right through it. That’s not supposed to be possible.”
Martin let out a breath. “No, but it has happened before. There was a storm, the priest at the church told me earlier today. Sometimes when there is a storm, a strong one, the barrier must weaken somehow. This is the fifth incident this year. Last year there were two times.”
“The barrier is weakening?” Asked Aimee.
Martin shrugged. “I don’t know, you’d know more about how the barrier works than I do Aimee. Whatever it is, it seems to be getting worse.”
“The barrier stones are beyond me, only the Dwellers know how they really work.” Said Aimee. “Has anyone in the Order asked one of them?”
“Maybe. I’m a soldier, I don’t know everything the Order does.” Said Martin.
“Well, this is a depressing conversation.” Said Karlac. “Did you guys find anything?”
Martin produced the chest from his pack, to find he couldn’t open it again. He handed it to Aimee who opened it again with a touch. Inside was nestled the square amulet with the red crystal. Karlac lifted it by the silver chain attached to it and let it dangle in front of his eyes.
“So what is this?” Asked Karlac still dangling the amulet for a bit before laying it into the palm of his other hand.
“We don’t know.” Said Aimee. “It’s not magical, it just has those inscriptions that we can’t read.”
Karlac was looking into the palm of his hand with the amulet. “I think you’re wrong about that Aimee.”
Aimee looked at him puzzled. “You can understand the inscriptions?”
Karlac held his hand out flat so Martin and Aimee could see the amulet resting in his palm. The crystal was glowing with a dim inner light. “No, it’s definitely magical.”