A disaster scene was what Shafir and Eliqinor came upon when they returned to the camp. The tent was in tatters and most of the supplies that had been in the tent were gone or destroyed. Anger bubbled up inside of Shafir and he kicked a log next to him. They hadn't been gone long. Whoever had come and destroyed the camp had been probably watching them for a while. Who knew how long they had eyes on them and neither of the knights noticed? The flare going off when it did was strange, too. Ideally, the flare would have gone off as soon as the intruder stepped into the camp, but I didn't. So whoever fucked with the flare knew what they were doing.
"This isn't just an orc… Someone's got to be helping him," Shafir said as he looked at the ruins of the campsite. Their food supply was scattered and probably not safe to eat anymore. All the medical supplies they brought with them, bandages and herbs, were torn to tatters. They no longer would be of use. "They are trying to drive us off…"
"It seems they think we are a threat." Eliqinor walked over to the tent and opened it. He covered his mouth and nose. Letting go of the tent flap, it slowly flowed back down. Shafir went to look and Eliqinor stopped him from touching it. "It's not something you should see." Shafir slapped Eliqinor's hand away. He wasn't a squire, he had seen dead bodies and a dead animal would've been child's play.
"I can handle a little blo-" Shafir opened the tent flap and slammed it shut. The sight was more gruesome than he had expected. He had assumed it would be an animal from what they had already witnessed today, but what struck his eyes was something else. The body was almost indiscernible, but the pointed ears clued Shafir toward the fact that it was an elf. He could make out the stab wounds in the body that oozed out a black substance. How this body sustained these wounds, he wasn't sure. If the body had been injured here, there would have been blood everywhere. It also smelt like the body had been decaying for weeks before being placed there.
"I noticed it had something stuck under its nails," Eliqinor said and opened the tent again and Shafir turned his head so he wouldn't have to see the body again or smell the rotten stench. There was the sound of Eliqinor rummaging around with something and the sound of bone being hacked through. The tent was closed and only then did Shafir turn his head back. In one of their leftover blankets, Eliqinor held the elf's hand. It was a woman from what Shafir could tell. Her hands were light-colored and dainty. If he had seen her while she was still alive, he would have assumed her a noble, but there had been no nobles missing lately, so he wasn't sure if she was from a different kingdom. Under her long and delicate nails sat the cloth of some of their medical supplies and even a bit of the tent.
"What is this?" Shafir pointed at her hand and Eliqinor looked closer. He pried the material from under the nail and, as Shafir had assumed, it was a piece of their tent. "This makes no sense. She came, destroyed their tent, and got killed and gained a few weeks' worths of rotting." Shafir inspected her hand further, and he saw a mark that caused his breath to hitch. In the same area that Shafir had, was a curse mark. It made his skin crawl and his wrist burn like a flame had been ignited. His eyes searched more and fixated on the wounds that Eliqinor had made to hack off her hand. The black liquid seeped out of her wound and not a single ounce of red leaked out. It was like someone had pumped her body full of liquid coal.
"It makes sense… it's just… not common." Eliqinor wrapped up the hand back into the tent. The older elf's brows furrowed as he was deep in thought, and Shafir tried to figure out what he had meant. As far as he knew, it was impossible to do all this. There was no way one could survive something like this. Only the dead could have wounds like-
"Necromancy?" Shafir could tell he had pinpointed the target that Eliqinor was thinking of. Necromancy while a long-gone art had seen prevalent use by the Holy Order of Chaius, a country of religious zealots that's downfall was caused by a group of heroes. Not long after that, all countries outlawed Necromancy because of its vile nature.
"I think it may have more than necromancy involved… When I was young, I used to study all forms of magic signatures to become a knight. Something about these feels too familiar…" Eliqinor's eyes flicked down to Shafir before looking away again. Shafir felt uncomfortable, and it was suffocating having Eliqinor assume things. Did he think Shafir was the one behind it? If so, why would he do something like this? What would he have to gain?
"I think it's best if we make camp somewhere else. Our location has been revealed…" Shafir looked at the state their camp was in. There wasn't much they could salvage, but maybe a thing or two here could be useful. He went to grab a cloth covered in the black liquid that had been in the elf's body. He could always wash it and- Eliqinor snatched his hand, preventing him from picking it up.
"Don't touch that. It's dirty." Eliqinor said as he held tightly to Shafir's hand. If it wasn't because Shafir knew Eliqinor hated him, he would have thought that the high elf actually cared about his well-being. "We don't know what they used as a blood substitute to keep the body fresh for longer."
"Fair enough…" Shafir pulled his hand out of Eliqinor's grasp and massaged it softly. The grip hadn't been bruising, but it had sent Shafir's skin ablaze. "So about camp-"
"We will stay here. They already know we are here, so we lost the element of surprise." Eliqinor began picking up the mess that their camp had become in their absence, careful to use a cloth to pick up any of the soiled cloth. "Besides, there had to be someone with that body. Dead bodies wouldn't set off flares. That means someone else was here watching us."
"So, what's the plan?" Shafir asked. He tried to scrounge what they had left for food from their saddles bags as Eliqinor had been clear that they do not eat any of the food that the necromanced elf had touched. Something about the disease and the effects of the negative energy would cause.
"It would be better to find the one who is in charge of all of this. The faster we take care of the mission, the quicker we can get back to the city." Eliqinor took a bite out of some of the dried meat he had stored away in his bag. It would take them some time to find the orc and their supplies had dwindled because of the necromancy attack. Shafir could see what the enemy was trying to do. He was trying to get them to retreat so that they could either set a trap or make them leave.
"I never figured an orc could learn necromancy? I always thought it was a difficult thing to learn." Shafir looked around at the damage left by the elf and was still surprised that an orc could learn something so difficult.
"Orcs are warmongers. History says that orcs are one founder of Necromancy. Being a necromancer relies on more than just intelligence. You have to be strong and be able to manipulate magic." Since Shafir knew Eliqinor, the young master had his nose stuck in some kind of book, more so after Shafir's incident.
"I didn't realize necromancy had such a rich history." Shafir wrapped the food into rationed-off portions before placing half in Eliqinor's saddlebag and a half into his own.
"All magic has a very important history, but necromancy is mostly shrouded just like stasis-" Something clicked in Eliqinor's expression and Shafir watched as the high elf scrambled to his feet. "Listen to me. You know how when the flare went off, we came back to camp quickly?"
Shafir nodded as Eliqinor pulled apart the tent to look at the dead body again. A cloth in his hand helped him search through the mess.
"There was no way the necromancer could have gotten past your ears or my ability to sense magic signatures. So that means they had to set off the flare AFTER they left." Eliqinor poked around in the dead body before pulling out a magic catalyst. "So they had to use stasis magic to prevent the flare from going off."
"Stasis magic? Isn't that something only snow elves know how to use?" Shafir knew the history of most elves, and the ones who isolated themselves in the mountains were the oldest. They also knew the most sacred magic. Stasis magic allowed them to live in direr conditions by putting themselves in a state of animated suspension.
"If you have been trained, it's quite simple to use, or so I've heard." Eliqinor looked the catalyst over a few more times before putting it back into the tent with the body. "If one is to make something last longer, then stasis magic is often useful. They can use it on themselves or on an object. Here, it was the catalyst that lent the body some extra time so it didn't decay."
Shafir felt a chill run down his spine as if someone was watching them. "So, we are working with a necromancer orc and an elf who knows stasis magic?"
"Perhaps. We could also be working with something more… sinister," Eliqinor said as he kept a watchful eye on Shafir's wrist.
