"...Excuse me, did I hear this right?" - a man could not contain his incredulity - "Did you just say young lady Gillespie had just, uh... exploded some fellow on behalf of la Vallieres?"
"I know, right? Them noble mages are terrifying people, for certain." - innkeeper retorted jovially - "Not to say I'm not grateful for the roads, of course, my coinpurse had been heavier and days busier than ever lately, but the very thought of... Nay, t'is but empty scaremongering, I'd wager. If she saw it fit to explode that fellow, then surely there must have been a good reason for it."
"There are good reasons for exploding people?" - the same man quipped sardonically - "A fresh pint of ale, while you are at it, if you please? I'm out."
Innkeeper swept the empty mug off the counter absentmindedly, sticking it under the spigot of ale barrel as he continued, lowering his voice conspiratorially - "People have been saying that fellow was quite touched in the head, to be frank here. Tried to lure away young lady Louise, if you can believe the rumors..."
"Ahhh so that's what it's all about." - thirsting man agreed amiably, receiving his fresh pint and promptly halving it - "Hah, that sure hit the spot! Man, I always said them noble maidens are nothing but trouble for us simple folk. Betcha an ecu White Witch wouldn't even notice'em if he didn't try getting involved with'em. Even so, since then Gillespies sell sword? S'not like that house lacks for coin."
As the pair at the counter descended into an extended discussion on whether having cellars full of gold meant peaceful life or not, the person in the corner of the hall grimaced. He was pretty certain White Witch needed no additional reason to kill someone legally aside from the option to kill someone legally. She was, to his consideration, exactly that kind of person, if a monster like her even warranted being considered a person. He lifted his own mug, one he had been slowly nursing for half an hour already, and took a modest sip. He had to be conservative with his alcohol, at least until the person he was awaiting would arrive. She was running late, already, and that worried the person in question a lot.
Just as he started seriously mulling over the plan of action accounting for the absence of his contact, she walked into the door. Maybe? The way she tended to go around wrapped in a hooded cloak was pretty noteworthy, at least. Gathering his will in a fist, he waited for her to get her own drink and sit down at his table. The less attention he pulled to himself, the better his chances would be later.
"Hello there, Leonard." - she ventured finally - "I have what you've asked for."
Wordlessly, he slid a pouch of coins across the table. Each of them earned through his own sweat and tears. It was the majority of his savings. It should be enough. It HAD to be enough. The person across the table was not easy to get in contact with, nor was she cheap to hire, but he considered the matter worth it. The pouch was opened briefly, then disappeared somewhere within the heavy cloak. A moment later, a vial full of murky liquid was slid in opposite direction.
"If this touches your skin in any manner, you are a goner." - the woman warned him quietly - "Find yourself some good leather gloves before opening or use tongs."
"How quickly does it act?" - he inquired quietly, palming the vial off the table casually and slipping it into his satchel, which he stuffed full of hay in preparation. The alchemical poison he just purchased demanded reverent treatment, lest it claimed the wrong victim. And while he would not be opposed to trading his life for success, he refused to succumb to such a base mistake. Not before he could see the light fade out of that monster's eyes, at least.
"Seven heartbeats is all that it leaves you." - the woman shrugged - "I suggest you don't dawdle. In seven days, its potency will wither."
Nodding curtly, he stood up and walked towards the door out of the tavern, neither hurrying nor tarrying. It took a while to find out where SHE would be for sure but now was his time. As he crossed the road, he reviewed all that he knew. SHE was taking one of the maids to her bed, doubtlessly to slake the lusts most unnatural. Without a husband, too. Clearly, SHE was selfish and indulgent to the extreme. Given what he found out about the maid's father and who was responsible for his death, it would not be hard to talk her into assisting his revenge. And then... Then he could probably rest. Doubtlessly, the count... no, the duke now... Anyway, that man definitely would not leave anyone making attempts at his daughter unchallenged. Leonard's uncle met his end at the end of the noose for trying, after all. And that sacrifice was in vain, as the monster in the guise of a girl had burned the village anyway. Leonard's parents fled to the woods, fearing the retribution after it had become known that his uncle was caught redhanded trying to end the little hellion before she caused a disaster, and by the time they got enough courage to come back home, all that greeted them was ashes and coals. So all of that was in vain. The fire still was thrown around and the village was still burned, all for the sake of entertaining a juvenile noble.
Leonard smiled grimly. His parents may have had given up on the cause, but he... He would take revenge for all of them. Even if it killed him.
If I remember correctly everyone survived. Just the wood burned to fulfill the prophecy. So... an idiot. A dangerous, soon to be dead idiot.
The village populace was moved out and came back a while later, while the runaways in question were holed up in the forest and completely unaware of what happened. When they say burned village, they skedaddled and never found out that everyone came back next week with wood and straw to rebuild.
Fools who dedicate their life for a mission nobody asked for because they fail to check what happened...
@Cytotoxin this is almost touching de Brege levels of misconcieved...
Ok, are people EVER going to understand that poison doesn't work on Alyssa? At the most, it'll inconvenience her. Also, yes. Alyssa MAY have been a monster in human form, but Leonard's uncle let paranoia get the better of him, like so many other seers Alyssa's known. Looking at you, Selene. No, your reformation does not include an excuse for us to forget that you kept harassing Alyssa during school prior to becoming friends. Back to the point, though, paranoia may help save lives if you're a Spymaster, but as a common citizen, Leonard's uncle was STUPID BEYOND COMPREHENSION. Attempting to poke the sleeping Shoggoth aside, did he honestly think he was going to get away with killing a Noble's child if he DID succeed? Their only living FEMALE child at that! If Alyssa's father didn't march on the town himself, I'm sure he'd demand the King do something about this.
Oh, uncle was perfectly aware he wouldn`t get away with it. He was expecting to be executed for his attempt to begin with, he just thought he`d be successful and people could just claim he was a lone madman. When he failed to pull it off, he spilled the beans about vision hoping that it would unsettle Girard sufficiently to avert the burning.
guy be like
@Cytotoxin sold fulfilling prophecy lol
Also it cracks me up that this guy didn’t mention how they then supplied the town with supplies to rebuild
more then likely they just saw the burned remains and never returned. then when the villages name was heard, they just thought that a new villages was built upon remains of the old to not half to due the paperwork need for the creation of a new village.
Gah sniped by the author and turns out I was right.
He has no idea because his parents took him and holed up in the forest because they rather expected Girard to just execute the whole family for the assassination attempt. So he grew up assuming Alyssa really burned the f*ck out of the whole village along with all the residents.
Village? I honestly don't remember that at all.
There’s this incident when she was younger when a seer saw his village being burned by her, he tried to kill her but failed and ended up fulling his vision of the village burning. Only the village burned though.
@Kuri_Something Dear god that would have happened a long time ago, then. Like some of the first chapters, most likely.
@Avidya The incident was mentioned in chapter 20, as it so happens. ^_^
@Kuri_Something Specifically, the seer's vision was subverted by intentionally burning the village's houses down. That's the weakness of prophecies, you can subvert them by intentionally misinterpreting it and fulfilling them in ways that benefits you. So long as your method fulfills the prophecy by technicality, the magic behind it dissipates and you no longer have to worry about the intended interpretation coming to pass.
@0xFFF1 In this particular setting, prophesies do not have magical binding power by themselves. It`s simply a vision of probable future. If it is allowed to be widely publicised, then yes, collective belief of people in it can cause some weird causality quirks.
@Cytotoxin Like the prophesie the dwarfs had about the rivers of metal at shores of clay?
@Asatur Sort of? It could have also unfolded as a sort of allegory. Like, dwarves settling in some place that was famous for unusual clay or some such. The thing with prophecies is that they`re never a straightforward prediction - there is always some degree of interpretation. Sometimes the wording turns out to be metaphorical, sometimes it`s a straight-up literal description of what is to come.
Technically speaking, prophecies CAN become unfulfilled. This usually happens when the community who`s egregor spawned the prediction becomes extinct before they can realize the design. Obviously, if THAT happens, the failed prophesy tends to become entirely forgotten due to the extinction of everyone who knew it.