One of the figures was thin and fast. They carried two curved daggers, and danced around Felton like an acrobat, quickly trying to exploit every and any opening. The other figure was big, and from what Taras could tell they were very muscular under their cloak. They were more or less the one trying to create an opening for the other one, carrying a longsword and swinging it around skillfully.
Despite this, Felton was easily moving around them, keeping them away. It looked like village kids trying to tackle a soldier to Taras; Or him trying to fight Minerva with strength. He didn’t feel like he needed to help, but he then yelled as loud as he could at the fighters. They all stopped, staring at him. Taras suddenly felt like he may have done something stupid, and indeed- he done goofed.
The two masked figures then suddenly vanished, leaving Felton staring at Taras in apprehension.
“You usually don’t do things that dumb, did you hit your head on the way back or something? I was about to capture them both, I was just tiring them out first.” Felton said while sheathing his battle-worn sword.
“Ack, I’m sorry. I have no clue why I did that.” Taras felt dumber than the time he had tried to light a beehive on fire. He knew exactly how good at swordsmanship Felton was, as he had trained Taras.
“What happened here?” Father Thomas asked, finally catching up to Taras.
“Aye it was an ambush good Father.” Said the undertaker, stepping out from the cover of a ruined brick wall.
“It was almost like he said, but before they attacked, they wanted to buy the body.” Felton said, “They walked up just as the body burier came to pick up the corpse. They said they would give me five gold if I gave it to them, but then pulled out their swords when I told them to bug off.”
“Wait, you refused a bribe?” Taras asked in disbelief
“Hey, give me more credit than that.” Felton said, “I tried to raise it to ten coins, and then told them to go when they refused.”
“Ugh…” Taras exclaimed, facepalming.
“Your description of him was quite accurate.” Father Thomas whispered in his ear.
“Tell me about it”
“Hello, my name is Father Thomas, I serve at the area church.” The priest said while bowing at Felton.
“I’m guessing he brought you here to perform a Rite of Passage on the body? Isn’t that only for family members to ask for?”
“Yes normally, but from what this young man told me, it would be hard for this person’s family to identify them. So, I will make a special case here.”
“Well it normally costs money, and I don’t have any to spare.”
“I understand, but your son made an impression on me today, and as I have made a vow of frugality, I can afford to work for free once in a while.”
Taras wondered if Father Thomas helping people without wanting donations first was the reason the church was not doing so well. He was unlike many of the priests in the towns they had passed so far. Taras then vowed to himself that if he ever came into money, he would come back and donate to the church there.
“Alright, have at it.” Felton said.
Father Thomas nodded back at him and took an old metal flask out of his pocket, as well as a set of prayer beads.
“Can you please remove the sheet?” He asked Taras.
Taras complied, slowly taking the sheet off of the dead body, gagging as he saw it in the daylight for the first time. As he was looking away, and still removing the sheet, the wind abruptly picked up and blew it out of his hand. Taras reached to catch it but failed, nearly falling on top of the corpse, but catching himself just in time. As he did so, he spied the undertaker, gaping in utter horror at the body, as if he knew something but would not, or could not, tell. Taras became suspicious, and decided to ask the undertaker some questions later.
Father Thomas moved closer, and Taras stepped away. The priest sprinkled water onto to the body, and then held the prayer beads in his right hand. He then started speaking in a language Taras could not understand, most likely the same one that had been written on the plaque back at the church.
Father Thomas then held the beads over the body, chanting louder than before. The beads then lit up into a warm golden hue. Then flakes of the light magic started slowly falling down onto the person, like snow on a calm winter night. Unaffected by the wind, they touched the body, fizzling out.
Taras had never seen this ritual before, only going on what Felton had told him. It was supposed to be finished when the body was covered in the holy magic, but right then he could not see that happening any time soon. There was almost no golden light on the body, except for some lingering on their fingers. It had been more than an hour at this point, Taras wondered what was going wrong, because he had been told that the Rite of Passage never took more than 30 minutes, but it was dragging along at a snail’s pace.
The wind, somewhat quieter before, started gusting. The ruins, full of many places the wind could slip by, started groaning. That groaning eventually got louder and louder, culminating into blood curdling howls. Taras could no longer hear Father Thomas chanting, it was as if something was trying to stop the soul of the dead person from passing on to the next world. The howling became louder, it was as if the wind was vicious beast trying to tear the ruins apart, along with the Taras and the others.
Father Thomas seemed to be having none of it, and his hoarse voice, as if by a miracle, started to become louder. He then gripped the prayer beads with two hands, and where the beads had been emitting a warm glow earlier, they suddenly flashed blinding white. Built up pressure came out of his hands in a sphere, disrupting the scathing wind momentarily, and pellets shot toward the body like arrows instead of snowflakes.
“I am not so decrepit that I cannot hold back a curse such as yours, begone foul beast!” Father Thomas yelled through gritted teeth, finishing his chants. Once again it seemed as though some kind of pressure was released in a sphere around the Priest, this time creating a low booming sound that rattled Taras’ bones. At this point the wind was so powerful that Taras had to cover his eyes from the dirt blowing his way.
The wind gave one final screech, and died back down to normal. When Taras uncovered his eyes, he looked back to where Father Thomas was, and he saw the old man sitting down to rest. The body next to him was completely covered in a warm glow, which was slowly fading away.
“What the hell just happened?” Felton exclaimed.
“I came for a Ritual of Passage, but I ended up performing an exorcism as well. Someone, or more likely something placed a powerful curse on this young woman.” Father Thomas said.
“Wait, why do you call it an exorcism if it was only a curse?” Taras asked.
“It was very odd. It was as if the curse itself had a spirit, and had latched itself onto the spirit of the victim, trying to prevent her from passing on. I have never seen this in all my years in service to this town. Young man, you were right in bringing me here, this is a grave matter of importance. Once I have sufficient rest, I will go make arrangements to call a church council on this matter.” Father Thomas said.
Just then a boy, not much younger than Taras, ran up to them and stopped, panting heavily. It looked like he had sprinted all the way there without stopping, and was about to collapse.
“So…...That’s……. where……. you…. are…. Father.” the boy said, catching his breath. “I asked around and people said they saw you walking this way. Cap’n told me to tell you that a lady sayin’ she’s Sister Clarey from the cathedral is at the town gates.” He continued after some time.
The pieces of information from earlier and just now started arranging themselves in Taras’ head. ‘This is getting very suspicious, to much to be a coincidence’ he thought.
“I have to go; I’ll meet you back at the Tavern later like we promised.” He told Felton. Then he looked toward Father Thomas, and they nodded in silent agreement, both wondering what had just happened. He then immediately sprinted past the boy, on his way to the church. All the while with a very bad feeling in his gut.
