On the other end while Loyd was slaughtering a town, Thorn had just arrived at his town, and he had thought out a good plan to get the most out of it, afterall you have to be economical.
He slowly started to approach the town showing the right amount of exhaustion a traveler should have, along with his 7 subjects.
They were all going to be playing fleeing refugees, whose town got destroyed by bandits. So they shortly entered the town and were met with a handful of men who must be the town guard.
Thorn flashed a tired but polite smile but before he could say anything the guard asked "Who are you? And what are you doing here?" the suspicion written across their face.
Thorn kept smiling and said "We are refugees and we are the last of our town" he put on a saddened expression and said "The bandits were so cruel, had we not escaped when we had, we would have been dead aswell."
The guard visibly relaxed. His face showed traces of concern, pity and sympathy.
Just then Thorn said "We would like to ask if we could stay in your town? Temporarily of course."
The guard showed a thoughtful expression and said "You will have to speak to the town chief, but I can lead you to him".
Thorns smile widened and he responded "Thanks, we appreciate the hospitality no matter if we are allowed to stay" but on the inside he was sneering at the easily fooled guards, lets see who will be begging who next time.
The guard turned on his heel and led them down the main road, soon they arrived in front of a house that looked slightly more luxurious than all the others.
Obviously this was the town chiefs house. The guard told tem to wait outside as he went and knocked on the door, it soone opened and a older man stood there.
Thorn and the others couldn't quite make out what they were saying even with their superhuman sense, they were to far away and they where whispering,
Soon the guard turned back around and walked towards Thorn and the others. A slight smile tugging at his lips, hinting at the good news.
"The town chief wants to talk to the leader of your group." The guard said.
Thorn, hearing this, smiled and walked up to the house. He greeted the town chief and then got invited in.
The house was as what you would expect from a luxurious house in the medieval times.
They went inside and sat down at a table, with chairs on either side of the table.
The town chief said "You wanted to live here? Temporarily?"
"Yes, for as long as you can keep us." Thorn said with a polite smile trying to look harmless.
The town chief nodded slightly, "Do you have any skills?" he asked.
Thorn nodded and said "I believe in the hollow lord, and that has given me a burden."
The town chief looked confused but intrigued and motioned for Thorne to keep going.
Thorns face turned serious as he said "I can get glimpses of the future, in dreams, in visions, it has always plagued me to know the horrible things that are going to happen to people."
The town chief's expression changed to suspicion.
But before he could say anything Thorp said. "There will be a bird flying in through your window in about 10 seconds."
And true to his word 10 seconds later a bird flew in at incredible speeds and crashed into the wall on the opposite end of the house from the window.
The town chief was mostly convinced, if the look on his face is anything to go by.
The town chief thought for a few moments before he said "You and you entourage can take the old barn by the age of the town, the family who used to own it was killed by disease." the chief showed a sad expression.
Thorne or the Thorne he was playing, was always sympathetic so he showed a saddened expression as he offered some words of comfort.
He soon exited the house and made his way over to his group and told them about the barn as they made their way over there, no one had complaints, everything for the lord.
As they were walking Thorne couldn't help but laugh, the idiot of the town chief really fell for the "I can predict the future" move.
He didn't actually predict the future, he only used TK on a bird outside and flung it through the window.
Boom, you can predict the future.
They arrived at the barn, and walked inside, no beds, no furniture except a table, that was it. The only thing you could potentially sleep in was the hay in the corner.
Thorne sneered, he was going to avenge this humiliation.
The night went by fast, but they had not been idle, during the night they had made preparations for the following day.
Walking down the main street, Thorn arrived outside a barn and saw a carriage that was about to take off, but he played he had a vision and said "Stop, the carriage is going to break."
The farmer turned his head and glanced at the stranger with a scowl, obviously displeased at his tone and command. His trusted carriage had never failed him, and he checked it yesterday before he went to sleep.
But only a few meters ahead a crack was heard as one of the wheels came off. The axle had broken causing the carriage to tilt to the side and the farmer fell off. The bystanders hurried forward to help him while also eyeing the stranger with more caution now.
The farmer said "How did you know? Did you do something?" the farmer said, which contained anger and suspicion.
But Thorn shook his head and said "How could I have done something? I arrived yesterday and then I met with the town chief and got to stay in the old barn by the edge of town, and have been staying there since this morning."
Then Thorn said "This is the curse of being able to see the future." The bystanders eyed him funny, like he was a lunatic.
But then the town chief came and asked what happened, and then after getting to hear all of it he sighed and said, "He can indeed predict the future, I've seen it with my own eyes."
The crowd gasped; they were shocked, this stranger had spoken the truth.
The way they looked at him took a 180° turn, they seemed intrigued, but some still eyed him with suspicion.
After this incident, Thone kept "predicting" stuff. Even a bandit attack, on one of the hen houses.
But it was all staged by him, with the help of his subordinates.
He predicted sickness, so he had his subordinates pour poison into the well of a family, they got sick just like he had predicted.
And over the days he had spent here, he had preached about the greatness of the hollow lord, how he can give protection.
But mostly the villagers decline politely.
But now that family was sick and they where the first to want to speak to him.
"Can your lord heal us? Can we get the protection, the blessings of the lord?" The man of the house asked.
Thorn replied, "Of course, you will need to establish a connection with the lord, for it to work."
They seemed hopeful and asked "What connection?"
Thorn smiled, "You just need to say a prayer and wear a red string around your wrists, and it will all get better." he said with patience and empathy.
The family seemed relieved and agreed immediately, since what do they have to lose, the town doctor said they were dying.
He took out 4 strings, one for each family member. Then they tied the strings around their wrists and said the prayer.
"May the lord see, you." Thorn said.
The family followed suit and said, "Let him see us."
Thorn was practically giggling on the inside. Few things made him as happy seeing his plans bear fruit… the only thing that can top that feeling is giving souls to the lord.
Shortly after the prayer, the family stopped being sick and started to get healthy.
The townspeople all wondered how that came to be. And the family didn't lie and told them about the red string and prayer.
Thorn was soon overrun with townspeople who wanted the lord's protection. So he started everyday to go through the ritual. And soon every single person had the lord's protection. Even the town chief.
Thorne's plan had come to fruition, the ritual was similar to the one with the bread, in fact it was the same he had just changed how the ritual was viewed, since most of the ritual is left to interpretation anyway.
They had now signed their souls away, all he had to do was to activate the ritual and then their souls would start to be siphoned.
´It was too easy, these desperate fools, I showed them some salvation and they threw everything they had on that bet.' Thorn though, smirking disdainfully.
Now he just needed to activate the ritual and watch the show.
And that's what he did, he took his subordinates and hid then activated the ritual. The effect was immediate: the people around town started to feel tired, lethargic, dizzy, foggy, and overall just not very well.
They thought they had gotten sick or something evil had gotten to them, so they headed to the barn where Thorn had lived with his subordinates, but they couldn't find him and they were getting sicker and sicker.
Then they felt a calling, it was nearly instinct, they knew if they wanted to live they would need souls. So not before long a scream was heard, two of the towns people had attacked each other, and were now brutally gouging eachothers eyes out and choking eachother, anything to kill the other.
And soon others followed suit, the once peaceful and loving townspeople were now killing each other in cold blood. At first they were reluctant, you could see it in the way they moved, they had a lot of hesitation, but finally after they had all tasted souls, they went manic on each other.
In the woods 500 meters from the town a person was moving at blurring speeds. They soon stopped and the person's appearance was clearly visible.
Male, pale skin, red eyes, perfect appearance, he just looked like a marble statue come to life.
He moved his head like he was trying to listen to something, "Weird, is that the sound of fighting? Are they bandits?" the figure spoke to himself.
Following the sound the man came across a town, it was in total chaos, people dressed as villagers were killing each other. But the man noticed something strange, a weird aura around them and the silver mist that came from the corpses, spoke of a more hidden truth.
He observed, never in his long life had he seen this kind of thing. His boredom was always eating at him but now… he had found whatever this is.
He wanted to know what was behind such a… a… a massacre, what was the reason? He wanted to know.
Soon there were only 10 villagers left, and all of a sudden they stopped, they all turned to face a single direction, and a man walked forth. He looked simple, handsome yes, but not inhumanly so. But the man felt the threat the man posed, and the people following him.
Thorn spoke "Congratulations, you made it to the top 10, you get the chance to truly serve the lord, do you want to?"
The 10 people who had previously been in madness suddenly prostrated themselves on the ground and said in unison "Yes, we wish to serve the lord."
CHAPTER END.