The journey back was long, and without Kona, I felt lonely, even though I was still travelling with a companion; it simply didn't feel the same. It's not as if I disliked Nigel's company; if anything, I saw him somewhat like a brother that I never had, a strange thing to say about a Noble, but we did life and fight together for a little under a year.
Once we crossed back over the border to the south, Levi left our company and remained three as we continued onward, heading back to Eastwatch. I explained to Nigel the plan that Kona and I had come up with, as suggested by our run-in with the Black Hand Mercenary company.
"Wait, you've met with the Black Hand AND the Ravens already?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I met the Black Hand, more like ran into them and killed a few of them."
"Killed? You didn't make an enemy of them, did you?"
"No, it felt like… their leader was using me to make a point to the younger members. He basically gave them the go-ahead to try to kill me if they wanted, but he just sat there. After I took down two, the rest stopped."
"Probably teaching them not to bite off more than they can chew."
"The Ravens had a similar idea; their leader said he was tempted to try but knew better. We'll be seeing them soon enough, though."
"Right, hunt down this Goran guy, then head back to Ravens Rest, right?"
Upon arriving back in Eastwatch, we booked two rooms and left the next morning. Nigel agreed with the idea of me making a show of strength to ward off would-be assassins, and the best way was to take down someone else everyone feared. Of course, if I whipped out the Black Hand, that would work, but I would rather not be the villain; the only reason I killed them before was because it was them or me.
We left the next morning, as we walked from the inn we were staying at, we heard whispering about Shinya travelling with a tall, muscular woman. Perhaps Kona heading her own way was a blessing in disguise; it was only a matter of time before that rumour spread across the whole of the Black Lands.
We travelled along the main road until we passed Glenumbra, at which point we veered left and into the woods towards a small mountain range that lay north of Ravens Rest, where Goran is known to live. The mountains were visible from Glenumbra and ran in an arched line from the shore to its northeast down to the northern tip of Ravens Rest. On the other side of the mountains was a strangely massive beach, or a small desert, depending on who you asked. Well before the war started, the large sandy area made Ravens Rest a popular tourist destination for nobles and people from Vilta or other large cities. That's why Raven's Rest is so much more advanced than Glenumbra or Eastwatch.
As Nigel spoke about the desert, we came out of the woods and into a clearing. This area of land was mostly grassy plains with small dense woods scattered about in an unnatural way, most likely from logging.
As we edged closer and closer to the mountains, a feeling of dread descended upon us; our lively chats grew quiet. Neither of us knew where Goran's lair was located, and he is apparently a master of traps, so we had to tread with caution, even out here.
"How do we even find where he is? Nobody's seen him in years, right?"
"I asked about him when I first came to Eastwatch while I was waiting for you and Kona. There's a cave somewhere, an old abandoned mine that he lives in. I think I know roughly where it is, but spotting it might be hard."
"Yeah, apparently the Black Hand lost a bunch of men to traps before they even saw the guy."
"Do you know what kind of traps?"
"No."
"Do you… wanna walk in front then?"
I turned and gave Nigel a look, and he just shrugged in response.
"If I get hurt, it'll take weeks to recover, you? Like what? Two minutes?"
He did have a point, though, not that I was a big fan of the idea; it was the best hope we had at both being combat-ready when the time came.
We spent a day and a half walking at the base of the mountain, looking up at it carefully. Scanning for anything even remotely resembling a cave, mineshaft or unnatural structures. Nigel had heard that the cave wasn't too far from Ravens Rest itself, as that is where the victims were usually from. The mine was abandoned some fifty years ago, so its exact location became obscure.
"Hey Nigel, I had the idea that this guy we're after might be like me, a marked child."
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, that priest guy, whatever his name was, said let slip that they usually go insane, and insane is the only thing I've heard about this guy."
"So you think he might be possessed by a sin? What one? Can't be Wrath, what are the others again, Pride, Envy, Gluttony,"
"Not Gluttony"
"Why not?"
"I have a feeling that might be the Black Hollow, like an instinct."
"Okay, Lust, Greed, and Sloth. I've got my money on either Envy or Sloth."
"Oh? Why those two?"
"Stays in one place for Sloth. Envy, maybe he's killing people cuz he's Envious? I don't know, I'm just trying to make conversation here."
"You know what sin I think it could be?"
As I turned around and took a few steps walking backwards as I spoke, I suddenly felt my back foot give way, as if I had just walked off the edge of a cliff. I fell backwards, looking up past the four walls of a pit. Then, as I stopped falling after only a meter, I felt the pain of impact, as if the skin of my whole body was being ripped off. Every centimetre of the backside of my body, from my calves to the back of my neck, I felt this horrid pain as I screamed out in agony.
Nigel stood at the top of the pit, looking down at me. Aside from four walls, all I could see was him, looking blankly at me as if I were already dead. Ah, I yelled out in pain until my voice started to crack and break. He snapped out of it and realised I wasn't dead. He lay on his stomach and reached his hand down to me.
I lay there on the floor, barely able to move as the pain slowly faded. I shut my eyes as I tried to catch my breath, and behind my closed eyelids, I saw red, deep red eyes looking at me from the dark. Did you stop the pain, Wrath? Of course you did, there was no other way the pain would just stop so suddenly and all at once.
I opened my eyes with a clear mind, the memory of the agony I was in moments ago still fresh, but now I could think, what was happening? How did I fall? What was causing this pain? Before, the pain itself was the only thing I could think of.
I looked up at Nigel, who was stretching his arm down to me so I could grab it. With great effort, I lifted my right arm, glancing to the side, I saw a torrent of blood gushing from the side of my arm that was in contact with the ground. If I could only move my head slightly to the side, I could see what had done this. By the time the blood poured off my arm, the wound itself had already closed, so I couldn't see what it was. I repeated the process with my other arm.
"Are you okay? You look like you're not dying anymore." Nigel called from above me.
"Just give me a moment, moving is hard."
"Well, yeah, you're impaled on about a thousand rusty nails."
Nails, that would explain it. A thousand small, sharp points stabbing into every bit of my body would certainly be pure agony. Now that I knew I was impaled by nails, I could try to lift myself without losing too much blood, though, as I lay here, I did start to feel woozy. I lifted my head next and, turning it, I was able to confirm that the floor was indeed nails. Sitting up slightly, I managed to reach Nigel's hand as he pulled me up I felt the warmth of my blood running down my back as the hundreds of little holes closed themselves.
He pulled me from the hole, and I collapsed to the floor, my vision blurry and my body feeling weak.
"Wrath, for the love of fuck keep the pain off."
Nigel crawled over. "Wrath? He made you stop feeling pain? Can you talk to him like a person? Holy shit, can I talk to him?"
"Sure, he says… shut up. He also just said I'm low on blood, and I can't move for a few minutes and that I'll need to eat lots right away? The fuck?"
"Can you ask him to explain why and how?"
"He said, making blood consumes energy, eating restores energy, and I lost a lot of blood… except he said it much angrier."
Nigel stood up and walked over to my travel pack. I hadn't even realised that as I was falling, I somehow had it flung to the side. Otherwise, it would have saved my life if I were a normal person, that is. Nigel took some food and a watersack out of my bag and returned, helping me sit up against the bag as I drank and ate.
"Are you still upset I asked you to go ahead of me?"
"Kind of, that really, really hurt."
"Yes, but I would have died instantly or bled out very fast."
He had a point, and I was able to survive things like that, but even then, if Wrath hadn't intervened, I might have died from blood loss.
"Does this mean we're close?"
Nigel stood up and surveyed the cliffside above us carefully. After about two minutes of looking, he pointed up.
"There, I see a bit of wood hanging over a ledge. We would have missed it if not for the trap being here."
After I had drunk all the water in my sack and scarfed down a whole dinner's worth of food, I was able to stand up slowly. My blood had been replenished, but I doubt I would be able to do that twice in one day. Wrath may be able to work miracles with my body, like healing it and regenerating severed limbs and blood, but he can't speed up how long it takes me to digest food.
We ascended the mountainside and found the cave entrance hidden by an outcropping of rock, making it impossible to see from below. The mouth looked like a natural cave, and there was nothing on the outside to indicate this was once a mine. Though just inside, we saw wooden beams around the walls and roof of the cave, holding it in place. This was it? It was this easy to find? How it sounded in the story was that even the Black Hand didn't make it this far. Did we just get lucky? How many traps did we barely miss setting off?
We noticed that deeper in the cave, there was a faint, flickering, warm light of a fire or candle. It was dim compared to the bright sunlight outside. As I looked back at Nigel to comment on it, he had already taken out two makeshift torches made from a stick he picked from the floor, cloth and oil from his travel pack. He took a striker from his pocket and lit one, handing it to me. With the lit flame, I held it to his so the flame spread to both before we entered the cave. I was glad Nigel was with me, Kona, and I probably wouldn't have thought this far ahead or just improvised something on the spot, but Nigel was always prepared.
Click. I felt a snag against my foot, a wire. I looked ahead, waiting for something to swing towards me or fall from above. But it fell from behind, the rocks above the entrance collapsed and covered over the entrance to the cave entirely, trapping us inside. If not for the torches, we would be in pure darkness. The two of us looked back at the collapsed rock and at each other. There was no going back unless I was able to move it, but if this was here and this was Goran's lair, there must be more than one way out.
As I turned my head again to look forward, a log swung down from the ceiling and collided with my head. Then there was black. Not the kind of blackness when Wrath has taken over my body, the kind of blackness when I sleep a dreamless night. It seemed that the tripwire did more than collapse the cave, and I had been knocked out cold.