“Sorry,” Letási said as I let her go. “I hadn’t actually forgotten about what you said, I was just unsure if I should be so informal with a Sintári.”
“Ow!!” She cried out when I punched her in the arm.
“I told you about myself so you would know what you were getting into,” I said when she looked at me questioningly. “Not so you could treat me like some kind of princess.”
“I am not your Mistress or Lady or anything like that,” I told her. “I am Dreya. Just Dreya. Understood?”
“I’m sorry,” Letási replied, still rubbing her arm. “It’s just a little difficult to get used to.”
“Tell me about it,” I said humorlessly.
With all my secrets now laid bare, we regaled Letási with the tales of the adventures we had been through together, and I was amazed to realize just how much we’d endured in such a short time. When we finished catching her up, the hour had grown late, and everyone began getting ready for bed.
The home we were in was a large, single-room building. Khorim and Broda set up their bedrolls in one empty corner since Venna and Stel had already commandeered the lone bed. I curled up along the far wall, allowing the two couples some measure of privacy. With nowhere left to go, Letási soon turned up next to me.
“Umm,” she stuttered. “Do you mind if I join you? Everywhere else is taken.”
There was enough room for the two of us in the little corner I had found, but just barely. Considering the sleeping arrangements, I had only stripped off my armor and weapons, electing to sleep in my clothes. While I welcomed her company, when I invited her to join me, I repeated my earlier advice.
“Sure, just make sure you don’t accidentally touch me. Trust me, you won’t like it.”
“Is it really that bad?” She whispered as she set up her blankets.
It was a fair question, but not really something I wanted to go into too much detail about. Still, I felt she deserved some kind of answer.
“Venna told me that Sintári means ‘true feeling.’ I don’t know that those words adequately describe what it’s like.”
“Imagine someone touching you and having that sensation magnified a thousand times,” I continued. Her eyes grew wide as she contemplated the meaning of my words. “Now imagine that sensation running through your entire body like lightning, echoing through your every nerve. Then multiply that a thousand times again, and you might begin to have some idea of what it feels like.”
Letási sat on her blankets for a moment, absorbing what I had just revealed to her.
“But only with direct contact? You are safe if there is something between you?”
“Yes, Letási,” I answered, reassuring her. “As long as there is no direct contact, it’s safe for you to be near me.”
There was the issue of my recent connection with Venna, but that would remain strictly between the two of us for now.
She seemed to relax a little and laid down among her blankets. Now that all her questions had been answered, I wrapped myself up in my own blankets and curled up to go to sleep.
“Dreya?”
“Yes, Letási?”
“May I ask a favor of you?”
“Go ahead, ask.”
“Please call me Tási. Only my father and the Abbott ever call me by my full name.”
“Goodnight, Tási.”
I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard a soft sigh of relief come from her just before I drifted off to sleep.
14
I woke up the next morning and found that I was pinned down and unable to move, well… not unless I wanted to disturb Letási, or Tási as I now knew she preferred to be called. The poor thing was curled up next to me, huddled against my body, sleeping soundly. The calm, almost happy expression on her face as she slept was a stark contrast to how distressed she had looked the previous night, and after all she’d experienced the day before, I was reluctant to wake her from her peaceful slumber.
“Seems like you’ve made a friend,” Venna teased, peering over at me as I lay there helplessly.
“I was nice enough to give you some privacy, and this is the thanks I get?” I retorted.
Venna flashed a ‘who me?’ look at me before scampering off, leaving me to figure my own way out of the predicament.
I slipped out from underneath the sleeping halfling slowly and then gently tucked her up in a pile of blankets once I was free. Taking a seat at the table next to Venna, I made myself a plate for breakfast from the previous night’s leftovers.
“Thanks for your help,” I said sarcastically.
“Anytime,” she replied flatly.
The others were already finished eating and took in our conversation with a mixture of curious expressions on their faces, but they had become used to our unique relationship and sometimes odd communication, and simply let the matter pass without asking any questions.
Our lifted spirits were a good sign, but we knew we had a difficult day ahead of us, and time was of the essence. So, we packed up quickly, and Stel left to hitch up the wagon. Then, when it could wait no longer, I woke Tási as gently as I could.
“Tási,” I called, shaking her shoulder slightly, “Wake up.”
The halfling stirred, momentarily confused before bolting upright.
“I’m sorry!” She exclaimed.
“For what?
“I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t fall back to sleep,” she pleaded. “I only meant to lean against you for a little while, until I got tired again. I swear I didn’t mean to fall asleep that way!”
“Tási,” I replied softly. “I’m not upset about that.”
“You’re not?” She replied, clearly relieved. “Wasn’t it dangerous?”
“Perhaps a little,” I answered. “But Tási, think about it differently for a minute. How do you think it feels for me, never being able to touch anyone for fear of what I will do to them?”
“Oh,” she said thoughtfully. “That must get a bit lonely.”
“Yes, it does. More than a just bit.”
“Sorry, I hadn’t considered that,” Tási answered sympathetically.
“It’s okay, Tási,” I replied. “Venna and I often hold hands as we walk around together. Even though I have to wear my gloves, I treasure every little bit of contact I can allow myself to have. Honestly, I’m hoping that I can work my way beyond this someday. I’m sure that if I could only find some way to practice, I might begin to gain some measure of control over it, but that’s far too dangerous for me to even consider attempting at the moment.”
“Now get ready, sleepyhead, you’re already late!” I scolded Tási mockingly as I pulled the blankets out from underneath her. With Tási wide awake, I left the halfling behind to sort out the jumbled mess of blankets I’d left her in and stepped outside to see how our preparations were going.
Stel had already hitched up the wagon, and Venna was in the back of it handing out equipment to the villagers. Although the town had sturdy walls protecting it, the people did not have a large supply of weapons and armor, Venna was distributing a portion of the loot we’d taken from the bandits in an effort to better equip the townsfolk against the constant threats they faced.
The loot only represented a chance to make a few coins to us, but for these villagers, the improved gear might very well mean the difference between life and death. I looked to Venna as she doled out the gear and gave her a nod of approval. The act of generosity was well-founded, and this world would need many more such acts if we were ever going to make it a better place.
Four of the townsfolk, newly equipped in sets of armor and weapons we had given to them, volunteered to escort us to the next town. They made it clear they were only willing to bring us within sight of the walls, however, lest they risk bringing the disease back once again. It was more help than we expected, so we accepted their offer and as soon as Tási rushed out the door to join us, we started on our way.
Venna announced her plan as we walked alongsi
de the wagon. She was pleased with how well things had gone the day before and essentially, wanted to repeat that performance. Venna and Tási, who had already made a point of asking everyone to use her more familiar name, would tend the sick while the others would assist them. I would once again be tasked with making additional potions to cover our anticipated shortfall. Based on what we knew, it was a good plan, and no one objected.
The village was not too far away, and by early that afternoon the dark palisade walls were in sight. Our escorts turned back as we had agreed and wished us well, but as we approached the gate more closely, no one came out to greet us, nor were there any sounds of life coming from within the confines of the walls. We feared for the worst as we swung open the gates, but even expecting the worst left us completely unprepared for the horrors that awaited us inside.
Bodies lay strewn across the entire village. Pools of blood and worse soaked into the ground around the corpses, some of which had already become bloated in the midday sun—the stench of death and decay hung heavily in the air all around us. We all stood still for a while, shocked by the horrific display of death scattered throughout the village in front of us. Venna was the first to recover her senses and ordered us all into action.
“Grab as many vials as you can and look for anyone that’s still alive!”
We each rushed to take as many doses of the antidote as we could carry and then began franticly searching among the bodies for any that were still living. Among the many bodies outside, barely a handful were still breathing—even though we gave them the antidote, their bodies were so badly ravaged by the disease that we feared they might be too far gone for it to save them.
Once we’d checked on all the villagers that were outside, we began searching door by door, entering every building in our desperate search for survivors. Our luck was much better there, as it seemed that those still well enough had managed to crawl indoors to seek shelter. We were soon making many trips back to the wagon to refill our arms with a fresh supply of vials as we administered more and more doses. Still, it became readily apparent that there would be no need for me to create any more of the potent antidote; there simply were not enough people left alive to require it.
When all the remaining villagers had been treated, Venna halted our efforts and had us meet around the wagon.
“Tási and I must tend to the sick,” she began, clearly dismayed by the task ahead of her. “While we see to the living, I must ask you to tend to the dead.”
“There are too many to bury, and the disease is too dangerous for that anyway,” she sighed. “Regrettably, they must be burned immediately.”
“I will see it done,” Stel replied, trying to ease the heavy burden on his wife. “Go now—do not trouble yourself with the dead. Save as many of the living as you can.”
Venna and Tási left us and began tending to the few remaining survivors as the rest of us turned to deal with the overwhelming number of corpses.
It was a daunting challenge—the bodies were scattered throughout the town, lying dead in the streets and inside most of the buildings. Yet despite the enormity of the task, it still had to be done.
Stel commandeered a wagon from the stables and we began piling bodies in its bed. We made our way slowly around the town, carefully placing the corpses in the back of the wagon as respectfully as possible. When it was full, Stel drove it outside the walls, unhitched the horses, and left the wagonload of bodies in a nearby field. Then he returned to the stables, hitched up a second wagon, and we repeated the process once again. When we finally cleared the village, there were five wagons parked in the once-peaceful field, each overflowing with the bodies of the town’s fallen citizens.
The truly somber sight was lent an additional layer of despair by the terrible state of many of the bodies. Having suffered the ravages of the mysterious illness, and even despite our best efforts to handle them with care, many of the corpses had simply come apart in our hands as we attempted to lift them into the wagons; as a result, each wagon seemed to sprout a random assortment of odd limbs and body parts jutting out from amongst the corpses. It was only by the barest of margins that I was able to contain the overwhelming urge to vomit at the macabre display.
Stel came back with one final wagon, this one loaded with firewood scavenged from around the village, and we piled the wood he’d gathered underneath the wagons before dousing the entire area with some oil Stel had also managed to locate.
We backed away a safe distance before I drew a shaft and infused it with Elemental Arrow. Releasing the shot, I watched as the arrow blazed across the distance before it landed amongst the oil-soaked firewood, causing the entire morbid scene to burst into flames, engulfing the bodies and wagons alike. We left the depressing sight behind us without looking back and returned to the town, closing the gates behind us. But even in our absence, the flames of the massive funeral pyre continued to burn throughout the night.
We all changed out of the filthy outfits we’d worn while undertaking our gruesome duties, burning them as well in a small pit. Once we were clean again, we sought out Venna and Tási, to offer them any assistance we could. They had mostly finished tending the sick by then, providing each of them at least some initial aid, and a few of the least ill had even managed to recover enough to tell them what had happened. Tási relayed the story as Venna tended to the last of her remaining patients.
The townsfolk believed the source of the plague to be an old ‘witch’ that had visited the village a few weeks before. The woman had simply strolled into town one afternoon and declared them all vermin and cursed them, threatening to cast a blight upon their village and destroy their livestock. They had chased the woman off, but as she left, she’d declared that she would ‘show them Nature’s true wrath.’
As Tási spoke those last words, I had a sudden flash of insight, and knew exactly what we were up against. I recognized the warped and twisted mind that was capable of such heedless destruction, as only a Defiler—the evil, perverted version of a Warden gone mad—could do such a thing.
I knew that there was no way for me to possess this knowledge, but the time had long since passed when I doubted or even questioned my unusual insights. Wherever those insights came from, they were a part of me, and they never seemed to be wrong.
“We have to find this witch,” Stel uttered softly, trying not to disturb his wife’s efforts or alarm her patients.
The dots suddenly connected themselves in my mind—the mission here, the close proximity of the next token… Could it be any more obvious?
Reaching inside my armor, I took the amulet in my hand. A small dot appeared on my map, it wasn’t very far away, so I watched for a moment, and the dot seemed to move slightly, as if the token was in motion. Satisfied with what I had seen, I let go of the amulet and replied to Stel’s comment.
“I know exactly where to find the bitch.”
Although I’d located the Defiler, we were forced to remain in the village for several days before we could go after her. The people were simply too ill to be left alone in these perilous lands. As they slowly returned to health, Venna once again handed out armor and weapons to the recovering citizens—there were still threats all around us and surviving the plague would not shield them from any of that.
As the days passed, I pulled out my amulet from time to time and checked on the location of the nearby token. Although it never left the general area where I’d first seen it, the tiny dot did move around a great deal within that limited space. It seemed clear that not only had the Defiler been the one to inflict the brutal plague on the small village, but she also possessed the token that I needed so badly—a powerful relic that I could not permit her to keep.
When the villagers finally recovered enough, we set out after the Defiler. Even if she didn’t possess the token, her evil was a threat we simply could not allow to remain unchecked. Since Venna was unwilling to leave her Order’s sacred idol behind, we took the wagon with us as we set off after the twiste
d Warden.
I had noticed that the Defiler didn’t seem to move at night—at least, the dot on my mini map didn’t—so I assumed that was when she slept. We timed our departure to allow us to approach her refuge during the cover of night, and as we closed in on her location, we had to abandon the wagon, lest its noisy approach give us away. Venna was reluctant to leave it behind, but there was nothing else we could do, so to appease her, I cast a trap around the wagon, ensuring that we would at least be aware if anything approached the precious idol. Khorim and I led the way as we crept closer to the Defiler’s lair when a sudden realization caused me to stop him in his tracks.
“What is it?” He whispered.
“When I traveled alone,” I explained my reasoning, “I would always place traps around me as I slept.”
Twisted or not, the Defiler was also a Warden and likely had any number of traps available to her, and potentially magical ones just like I did. Motioning for Tási to join us, I explained our predicament.
She took a moment and concentrated, casting a silent Spell before looking all around us.
“Nothing,” she finally pronounced. “I detect no magic, but that is no guarantee that it isn’t there; it could be beyond my ability to see it.”
“I feel better already,” Khorim lamented. “So very much better.”
Tási, to her credit, didn’t recoil from the jibe. Instead, she stuck her tongue out at the dwarf before falling back in line.
“I might actually be getting to like that one,” he whispered when she left.
“Yeah, she does kind of grow on you after a while,” I replied.
Then, after a pause, I added, “Like a wart.”
“Nah,” Khorim grumbled, “I think of her more as the fungus type myself.”
“Don’t you two have work to do?” Venna whispered from behind, interrupting our debate.
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