As Taegin, Ardrin, Trina, and Wien made their way along the dirt path toward Valdis, Trina anxiously fidgeted with her reins as she rode beside Taegin.
You know she has a lot of questions that you're going to have to answer, right? Ardrin sent his brother with a heavy mental sigh. Of course I do, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to present the information, Taegin sent back immediately, prompting Ardrin to raise an eyebrow. Don't you trust her? Ardrin asked loosely. I do, but whether she's ready for that information is another story entirely, Taegin sighed, glancing at Trina momentarily as she tightened her grip around the leather reins.
"Alright then, out with it, already," Ardrin said tiredly, aiming a tired gaze at Trina, whose eyes widened in surprise. "I-I wasn't going to say anything," she stammered. "No? Then why are you constantly fidgeting? The sound is annoying, and I'd rather not be bothered with the sounds of your gauntlets constantly rattling, so say your piece and be done with it," he groaned, causing Trina's brow to furrow in concentration.
"That was a bit rude, brother," Taegin muttered, prompting Ardrin to shrug. "I just want to move things along so we don't have to have a drawn-out discussion when we reach Valdis," he said with an upturned lip as if he'd done nothing wrong. "It's fine, Taegin. I hate to admit it, but he's right," Trina replied defeatedly.
"Well, go on then. What questions do you have?" Taegin asked, allowing a thin smile to show. "For starters, where in helvete have you been all this time?" she asked, briefly glancing at Ardrin to see whether he was going to make another snide remark. "In Codrean. I've been the Master Synner there for quite some time, now," Taegin replied loosely.
"Were you the Master when you came to help us?" she asked. "I was, yes, but my helping your village was more of a side-quest that I just happened to be involved with," he replied with a shrug. "Then what were you doing here?" she raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I'd received a letter from someone in Caegwen that there were signs of one of the gifts from the gods in Hjalfar, but the trail of information I was following died out before I made any real headway," he replied dejectedly.
"What? One of the artifacts was here? I've only heard stories about them from Trina," Wien chimed in with visible excitement. "Yes, and I had it," Ardrin replied, causing the two of them to widen their eyes in astonishment. "You had it? W-What was it? Better yet, where is it now?" Trina asked, leaning forward in her seat.
"It was taken from me," Ardrin replied loosely. "Ah, that's a shame. I would have loved to see it," Trina said with visible disappointment that Wien mirrored. "I-If you don't mind me asking, sir, but which one was it?" she asked skittishly. "It was the Nethersong Mask," he replied coldly, causing Trina's eyes to widen once more. "That would mean…" she trailed off. "Yes, I was the rumored Masked One," Ardrin replied, maintaining his tone.
This can't be possible. I'd heard he was a cold-blooded murderer, Trina thought idly.
"That was his intention, you know," Taegin chimed in, catching Trina by surprise. "Don't worry, I felt the same way when he did it to me earlier," Wien muttered in support of his commanding officer. "Oh, I-I see," she said, letting the weight of Taegin's response hang for a moment.
"In any case, he played his role well. Almost too well, I might add," Taegin said with a wry grin. "Yes, but even the Undergod kept secrets from me. If it hadn't been for his guidance, we might have never made it as far as we have," Ardrin replied gravely, prompting Trina and Wien to glance at each other in confusion.
"Were these Tyrant and Leech mana types part of those secrets?" Trina asked cautiously. "Yes," Taegin replied with a grave tone, averting his gaze momentarily. "It should also go without saying that the utilization of these two types of mana is still relatively undiscovered by us, so we must proceed with caution once we reach Valdis," he continued, receiving a nod of understanding from Trina and Wien as they spurred their horses onward.
As they moved along the trail that led deep into the mountains, they discovered several more traces of the strange mana, prompting Ardrin and Taegin's concerns to become more solidified. After nearly a week of traveling, the four arrived at the entrance to the valley that would ultimately lead to Valdis.
The snow-capped mountains of the frigid north made it difficult for the trail to be followed, but Ardrin knew his way around the region even better than local hunters. The Rhydian Pass was well known to be perilous, but it was also home to rare species of animals that hunters found great value in using their materials for weapons, armor, or making money off the sales of their hides or scales.
Only the most adventurous of these hunters would ever dare tread foot in the region, and not all of them would make it out alive.
"We're nearly there. Once we round this boulder, I'll lower the protective barrier I put up so we can cross without much issue," Ardrin noted, pointing with a free hand to a massive boulder that nearly blocked the entirety of the Pass. "Thank the gods. I can't feel my fingers. It will be nice to be out of this damned wind for once," Wien muttered to himself.
Brother, up ahead, Taegin sent Ardrin after sensing a trace of Leech mana present in the wind, prompting his brother to enhance his senses even further. "That's…" Ardrin trailed off, urging his horse to break into a gallop toward the boulder. "What's the matter?" Trina asked, urging Wien to spur his horse to follow the twins. "It seems the barrier has been breached," Taegin said over his shoulder, causing Trina and Wien to begin worrying.
As they circumvented the boulder, the dark citadel could be seen just a few kilometers ahead, nestled deep within a valley. Its violet glow seemed dim and wavering, much unlike how Ardrin had initially left it. "That's not a good sign, is it?" Wien noted, seeing the fluctuation of violet light emanating from the highest tower of the citadel. "No, it's not. We need to hurry," Ardrin urged, spurring his horse once more.
As they approached, they noticed there were signs of a battle near the bridge's entrance, with hundreds, if not thousands, of bodies all mangled and torn. The smell was almost enough to make Wien vomit, but Trina could only put a gauntlet up to her nose in a feeble attempt to block out the stench.
"Fy faen i helvete, what happened here?" she spat, struggling to keep what little food she had in her stomach where it belonged. "They were here," Ardrin told Taegin, who nodded in confirmation upon examining a pile of bodies. "It seems many of these creatures were closer to being butchered rather than simply slaughtered," Taegin noted, realizing many of the fallen creatures were primarily missing their legs.
"Wait, you're saying this place was attacked by a creature intelligent enough to do that? What sort of madness is this?" Trina asked with natural disbelief. "Yes, but they're not native to this realm," Ardrin said, standing imperiously near a pile of bodies. Noticing a head that hadn't belonged to his former horde, he severed it from its enlarged body and held it aloft for the others to see.
"These creatures are known as Thran. They're hunters by nature and have a lot of pride in what they can accomplish with just a few traps. They also love eating other creatures they deem weaker than they are," Ardrin explained, though Wien was unable to keep his lunch in any longer when he saw the head's rotten cheek slide off its face.
Ardrin discarded the head back into the pile of corpses and began making his way across the bridge with Taegin. Trina and Wien, not knowing what else to do, followed quickly behind. "Here, clean yourself up," she said, handing her sergeant a small handkerchief. "Thank you," he managed weakly, doing his best to keep up with the others.
While there were more bodies scattered along the bridge of glicks, daemons, trolls, and other such creatures, it was what they saw when the great black doors opened that surprised them the most. At the far end of the hall, Karak lay motionless with a spear far too large for him to wield stuck in his gut, pinning him to the stairs before an empty throne.
"Karak!" Ardrin called out, surprising the others. "I-Is that what I think it is?" Trina asked quietly, as she and the others followed behind Ardrin. "That's a story for another time, but yes," Taegin replied, nearly vanishing from sight with how quickly he moved toward his brother's side.
"M-My lord, you've returned…" Karak managed weakly, coughing up a mouthful of blackened blood that dripped down the sides of his grotesque features. "Hush now, old friend. I'm going to help you, but I need to remove this spear first," Ardrin said, grabbing the haft of the large spear. "I'll help with that; you focus on closing the wound when it's out. Ready?" Taegin said urgently, creating a large, smoky hand that hardly reflected the citadel's violet hue.
He wrapped the fingers of this hand around the haft of the spear and nodded to his brother that he was ready to remove it. Wordlessly, Ardrin replied, and within the time it took to blink, the spear was pulled from Karak's torso and clattered to the ground like the sound of a fallen, young tree. Ardrin immediately poured a vast amount of Vexing mana into the wound, doing his best to seal it shut.
As Trina and Wien watched with unabated curiosity, the wound sewed itself shut, and the life in Karak's dark eyes returned with a deep gasp of air. "T-Thank you, my lord," Karak said, still weak from the ordeal as he tried to sit up. "There's no need to greet me formally, just tell me what happened here," Ardrin said urgently.
If my master brought them here with him, then I suppose I shouldn't be wary of them, Karak thought momentarily as he glanced at the other three.