I am a liar.

Watching Ollie and Lin flit from shadow to shadow, it is increasingly clear that I am not making the most of my powers. More than that, even, the powers of stealth refuse me just as I refuse them. Even if I am to walk unseen it is not by crawling or crouching in shadows, as much I’ve already accepted.

Yet, while it is true that I do not hide myself from sight overly well, I still do deceive. The lies that I perpetuate are more dangerous than the simple deceptions of a thief.

Pulling open the drawstring on my bag of tricks, I take in the sight of the various powerful ornaments made from the flesh of the dead.

A thousand small trinkets to send shivers down the spine.

A skull with eyes glowing with remembered life, projecting the lies that I forced upon the victim in his slow death.

A shin sharpened and shaped into a simple weapon, infused with a concentration of screams that might burst to life at any moment.

Finally, a mask stolen from a hollow. I wasn’t sure until I was done that it would even be possible to draw terror from that alien creature, but it seems that my creeping frost burned away its resilience. The slugs, or worms, or whatever it is that infest the pale-skinned figure squirmed until the frost consumed them. Their blood, carefully harvested so as to not foul my lips with contact to such terrible slime covered things.

The mask now oozes a sense of terror and cold, yet without any actual changes in temperature. It is a phantasmal chill born within, but because of that, I expect that fire can do nothing to ease the sensation.

Yet, all of this is a deception. Every tool just another twisted representation of something already done and gone.

I am a liar.

Ollie returns from her small quest, Lin by her side, the little goblin cheerfully crouching down with a knife in hand as she grins with her many sharp teeth. Their bags are now much lighter, the thousands of trinkets they had now seeping their twisted energies through the community surrounding the estate we are to break open.

Already the night has darkened for our actions, our powers strengthened as the sleepers fall into nightmares, the waking stare into the darkness with well-justified paranoia, and even the guards, supported by the rare knight, twitch as they pretend not to feel the anxiety that must be choking them by now.

The estate is vast, and there are no ends to the approaches we might use to break it open. Yet, every time I scramble over a wall instead of walking through an open door, it is a moment that I am contradicting my nature, and fighting to act outside of my own interests. It is unproductive.

“Would you like to play the villain, for an evening?” I ask the young rebel lord, smiling as I take in the sight of him from hat to shoes. “Have you ever had interest in acting out a play? Or perhaps you’ve once played make-believe as a child?”

“I… what?”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“They wouldn’t go for us here, would they?” I turn to Jill, standing ready beside me. She’s a good sort of woman, the sort that’ll trade punches with you rather than whining and moaning about shit. The sort you can trust your back to.

I’ve shared shifts with her before watching over the estate, sometimes even had to deal with the rabble that comes by and I know she can use a sword as well as any man. With all that’s going on, I wouldn’t have anyone else by my side.

“I mean…” her voice is uncharacteristically quiet as she focuses on the cold streets outside. She licks her lips. “What’s the chance a few of those monsters made it past those other idiots?”

“Ugh,” I shudder at the thought of the monsters we’ve seen outside recently. “Those idiots. I wouldn’t be surprised if they feinted and let the monsters just step over them.”

“Don’t be a wuss,” she chuckles, and the night seems just a little easier to bear. “Besides, at least the monsters are dealing with the beggars in the streets. Those damn norkit, too. Haven’t seen any of their sort in a while.”

“A speck of gold in the bedpan,” I grumble, shuffling in my armour. I never thought I’d miss the thick press of busy streets, but now that so many people have fled, I sort of miss it. The distant drone of thousands of people all trying to be heard over one another, the sounds of doors and cabinets opening and closing.

Now, the streets are cold and quiet. I’m more likely to hear a scream from someone dying than cross paths with a pickpocket.

A thin mist rises from the streets. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, especially for this time of night, but it’s not even surprising anymore. The city has changed so much these last weeks, what’s a little mist compared to the monsters we’ve seen and fought?

“Have you ever thought of leaving?” Jill asks, still staring away from the nobles at our backs. “We’re not getting younger. We’ll be standing here waiting for the next war, or some monster to come kill us. What for?”

“For the pay,” I shrug. “Man’s gotta eat and if I ever have kids, you know?”

“Never saw you as a family man,” she says, glancing at me. Her eyes linger for a moment longer. “I mean, wouldn’t it be better to go out to these new lands to start a family anyway?”

“Maybe,” I shrug.

It’d mean giving up our place here, but unlike the other idiots running from this city, we have weapons and magic. Not enough to get a proper position as a knight, but we wouldn’t do bad throwing in with a merc company, so long as they’re associated with the guild.

She is right, it wouldn’t be bad out there.

“Might skip out on the next war while we’re at it,” she says with a shrug. “Those northern beasts are going to come back here eventually, and at this point, they can have it.”

A shrill scream splits the air, the mist now thick and clinging warps like a rippling sheet as a young woman bursts through, clutching at her chest as she stumbles awkwardly towards us. She cries for help, rushing in at us.

Jill is faster to react, reaching out for the girl and drawing her sword as she pushes her back protectively. A shadow moves through the mist after the young woman, a man bursts through with a handaxe at the ready, leaving the girl to Jill I intercept him.

I thrust at him with my sword, ready to take a hit with my shield but he retreats before he even gets close to us. The man fades away, another shadow in the mists. Too much of a coward to fight someone that can fight back.

“Jill, how is-”

My chest. A blade is bursting through my chest.

It disappears, sliding back through my insides. I fall to my knees, pressing my hands to the wound, turning to look at her.

Jill stands over me, her face twisted as if she can’t understand.

“What… you were… no… this…”

Each beat of my heart burns, the pain spreads out from it and my head is feeling heavier and heavier as I reach out for my sword.

The girl. The girl is behind her, her eyes aglow with red light. I try to open my mouth, but she presses a finger to her lips and my voice is stolen from me.

I remember being lost in the streets once, when I was a kid. I saw a murder happen right before my eyes and I stood there paralysed. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. I couldn’t do anything.

It’s like I’m that powerless child again.

“I didn’t mean to,” Jill says, stepping closer to me, and dropping her sword.

The girl slides beside her, taking a dagger out and thrusting it into her neck. Blood spurts out of Jill and the girl is feeding off of her before she even knows to react. They fall beside me, the girl suckling at Jill’s neck as my friend grows pale trying to push her away, but failing.

She dies, not understanding.

As darkness flickers over my eyes, the girl rises, her red lips shimmering in the low light as her eyes glow, focusing on me now.

I close my eyes.

A child hiding under a blanket, to keep the monsters away.

Cold hands pry my eyes back open.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

I haven’t much time to work with their bodies, but there are still some things that can be done. This is the first time that my vampiric gaze has let me seize control over a person’s actions, the lady guard didn’t even realize who it was she was attacking, taken by the energy of the moment, she struck blindly. A suggestion that it was a villain behind her was all it took to have her strike before she looked.

I’m certain that as a servant here she’s struck down more than a few undeserving victims, so while I regret her death, I am not bothered by it. In a more perfect world, she would be given a chance to improve herself. To keep from harming others.

No time for such fantasies now.

Threading magic through her bones, I prop her up against the wall. Pressing my hands to her flesh, I flush her full of frost magic. It takes a few moments for the magic to settle fully inside her, but after no more than thirty seconds she’s frozen solid in place.

I offer the same to the other guard and appraise my work.

“What did you do to them?” the rebel lord asks, his axe hanging low as he takes in the sight with horror. I can hear whispers of conversation. Words and phrases unfamiliar to me, in the voices of the two guards that stand frozen and dead. Rippling mists around them react to movements that aren’t real, creating motion out of stillness.

“An illusion born from their flesh,” I say to him. “Conversations that have lingered on their minds for a time. Thoughts that consumed them.”

Unlike my other creations, they do not immediately radiate infective fear. To anyone that passes, they will seem alive and well.

“Let’s continue,” I say. Ollie and Lin linger by the corpses as we pass through the gates. Lin flicks at the man’s side, her mouth open in awe, Ollie however seems thoughtful.

“I love you, Jill.”

I pause, listening closer to the two dead guards standing on watch. Their rambling continues on unaffected by the sudden confession.

After a only a short pause, I move on.

There are yet more guards inside the estate, but the thick mists should hide us and suppress any sound we make. Ollie and Lin scatter to spread more of the cursed trinkets through the estate’s grounds while I move right to the barn where the slaves are held. It is a less well-guarded location, but to my surprise, we still cross a knight as we arrive.

My senses, improved as they are, allow me to understand the goings on inside the barn long before we arrive here. I hurry my steps to intrude before the intrusion becomes something so untasteful that I’d feel wrong to even step inside.

“Excuse me, lady knight, but now is not the time for this,” I burst through the doors and call to the knight now pressing herself against the hulking minotaur that’s been pressed against the wall. “If you could please hold your instincts in check.”

The slaves cower, even the minotaur bows as much as his position will allow. The knight herself rushes for her weapon, glaring at me in my approach. Ignore her, even letting her blade kiss my neck as I step in closer.

“Do you wish for him to be free of that collar?” I ask. “Or do you wish to delay a while longer while making a show of your affections?”

“It’s you?” She shudders, stepping back and lowering her knife.

I do not wait for longer, reaching for the minotaur’s collar and carefully working on the enchantments. Kai has taught me the proper method, and while I’m not nearly so talented as him, my powers do give me the opportunity to manipulate the shadows within the device, giving me an advantage over other amateurs.

In a few moments, the collar comes loose and in the same second the man’s eyes, dull and dim, shine with new life.

Interesting.

I’d taken him to be a broken thing the last I’d seen of him, but now… it’s as if he’s woken from a deep sleep. The vicious grin rising on his bull face only tells of all the passion that’s been suppressed until now.

“Listen carefully,” I say to him, pulling his attention to me. “I will offer you a home and protection, should you wish to follow me. Even should you wish otherwise, you will obey me for this one night. Is this clear?”

He nods, but an energy in his eyes tells of a want for vengeance. This will not be as simple as I’d first supposed.

As I free the others, I find merely a quarter to be like the minotaur, finding their rage now they have a chance to show it. Most are as submissive as they first seemed, but it is something I’d been expecting from the start and not a trouble to my plans.

Interestingly, the freed slave seems to have an honest affection for the knight that used him when he was bound to the walls. I do not wish to know the details of their affair, and even thinking of it I consider slaying them here and now for the sin of being unsightly, but I suppress the passing desire.

“Let us begin the true hunt, then,” I say, sighing as I stare up at the sky.

Today I’m to kill someone I know. Someone I’ve a passing affection for. Pansy may not be a good person, but the past few days have let me know her, and one-half of me doesn’t want to see her harmed.

The other half of me wishes to see exactly her expression as she loses all hope. Will she cry? Scream? Or will she be frozen as I was when confronted by Aldramdore? How will she face her mortality and the horrors I’m to force upon her?

I swallow back my anticipation as I step out into the night, ready to commit to this awful thing.

I’m not wrong to do this. She deserves it. Just as I did.

My future love, my knight I’m yet to meet, she’d support me in this as well, wouldn’t she?

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

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