Private Tales Problems to Solve

[Djana Mahin]

The blank eyed stare turned to Anastasia.

Once bright blue eyes had turned to soft nothingness, an emptiness still clinging to the girls gaze even now. There was something oddly...faded about the girl, as if her soul had been torn from her lips and now she walked around as an echo of herself, a piece always missing.

As Ana prompted her the girl did not speak, she only stared. Her eyes fixed upon the Templar, no expression forthcoming, no answer following it.

Yet she appeared as though she waited.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana smiled in genuine relief.

"A true fighter," she encouraged. She let out a deep breath, looking at the space that surrounded the girl's head. "I hear men came looking for you today. That concerns me, as I'm sure it frightens you. But I just promised you I will not let anyone harm you again I mean it. Whatever happens today, I want to leave my best man here. And he can he can stay outside, on your porch, or even at your bedside if it's what makes you feel safe. I want to help you. Would you like that?"

Next step, communicating. She'd take even a nod.

 

[Djana Mahin]

The girl continued to stare blankly at Ana.

Perhaps she understood, or perhaps she did not. It was difficult to tell, but her eyes did not change, and there was no tip of her head. She simply stared directly at the Templar and waited for whatever else was to come. The hollowness in her eyes seemed to echo.

There was no fear in her gaze, no hint of anger or any other emotion that might have been normal now. She simply stared, empty, waiting for whatever came next.

Bethany's Uncle stood just outside the small room, his fingers tight, his eyes observing the scene as Ana spoke with the girl. He said nothing of course, but only watched. His expression was one of pain, pain mixed with a hurt that could not quite be put into words.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana hide her disappointment, looking backward to the the uncle. "May I try something?" She asked him, leaning forward on one knee.

 

[Djana Mahin]

The old man stared for a moment, then simply nodded his head.

There was little he could do at this point. The situation was beyond his understanding, and the truth of it was he had given up hope the day after the girl had returned.

She was a pupped of herself, an empty shell that was missing something that could not be described.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana turned back to the girl, weighing the risk.

She carefully reached out and took Bethany's hand. Before the shell of a girl could resist, Ana pushed a gentle wave of antimagic through her and watched carefully for any reaction.

 

[Djana Mahin]

There was none.

In fact, there was less than none. Magic purveyed through the world, through anyone and everyone. Most of course found no way to manipulate the tides of magic, only a select few holding the ability to do so. Yet it was carried in everyone innately, a magical trace almost found in ordinary and inordinary.

It could be detected with anti-magic just as any other sort of magic could be.

Yet the pulse that ran through Bethany found nothing, an empty shell. That was what the girl was, what she had become. Whatever potential she may have had, whatever strength had been within her was now gone. She was an empty vessel, an echo of what a normal being should have been.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana frowned, straightening at once.

She took both the girl's hands now and and pushed it harder. And harder.

The intensity grew and the response remained the same. Nothing. Empty. Not even when the level was brought up to a degree that should snap every ethereal veins inside of her.

Ana gasped, yanking her hands back. "There's nothing there," she uttered, goosebumps crawling across her skin.

 

[Djana Mahin]

The girl's expression did not change, her eyes as empty as before, her expression as blank as a facet of white marble. There were no indications that the news upset her, nothing that showed as though she had the least bit of concern about what Ana had just sad to her.

Bethany just stared.

Her Uncle of course shifted uncomfortably, his feet fidgeting beneath him as he looked at the two women with obvious discomfort on his expression.

The Farmer did not know of these things of course. He knew that his niece was sick, that she barely spoke, and that when she did her voice was as hollow as her expression. The words Ana spoke struck him, but they were nothing new to him. He had guessed them days ago.

"Nothing."

Bethany parroted.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana stood, her hand unconsciously going to her dagger as she turned to leave the girl there. "I need to speak with my companion for a moment." She pushed back the uncle, her features grim.

"We'll be right back," she told Djana, gesturing for Leane to follow her out past the porch.

"She's souless," she told the woman, rounding on her once they were out of sight.

 

[Djana Mahin]

Leane's eyebrows shot up in an instant. "That's..."

Her lips thinned, a myriad of troubled thoughts running through the Templar's mind in an instant. Half a dozen different scenarios, multiple ways for it to have happened.

"Concerning." It was an understatement. Leane was not as knowledgeable as some of the others in the lore of magics and undeath. Myrelle might have been able to rattle off half a dozen things at the cusp, but she...she was a warrior. "She won't last long...maybe a month."

The Human body did not do well without a soul. "This...Count must be into some very dark magic indeed. Taking souls?"

A shiver ran down her spine.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana fell into a pained silence.

"But why send those guards if he did that to her? He'd already know she wasn't a threat anymore. This seems like an attempt to verify that. Why? What are we missing?" She mulled, an edge of frustration to her as she wrapped her around around her midriff.

 

[Djana Mahin]

"There's a possibility he doesn't know." Leane pointed out softly, her lips thinning for a few seconds as she pressed her fingers together. "Not many know what we know about magic."

Not the dark magic anyway.

Templar were privileged in that their Order had spent thousands of years collecting and hoarding knowledge of the darkness. Argument could be made that many Templar Archives were beyond even those of Elbion when it came to certain crafts. She knew Myrelle would have said it.

"There's dozens of ways to take a soul...more to use it once it's out. It's possible this Count is dabbling and doesn't have a full understanding of what he's doing." Which of course made him more dangerous than they'd even assumed.

 

[Anastasia]

"That's even worse." She echoed the woman's thoughts.

She paced in place, disturbed that could not save this girl after all. "I'm worried about her body. It will die on its own, surely. But what if whoever did realizes and comes back for it? The things that could be done with it-" she faltered.

It was dangerous. Too dangerous. Like a magical object they had to remove from the playing field. The blood slowly left Ana's face. She looked at Leane, wordlessly asking her to tell her it wasn't so.

 

[Djana Mahin]

A soulless body was not as powerful as the soul, but as a magical object, there was strength here.

Particularly for a necromancer. "The old ways say we have to kill her."

That at least Leane remembered. She knew that Ana remembered the same from the lessons, talks of destroying objects of power. It was difficult to call the girl that, an object, but in terms of magic it was true enough. Her fingers tightened for a moment before she quietly added.

"Then burn the body." Her lips thinned.

She clearly was not too hot on the idea either.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana looked back to the house, brows pinching with stress as she found Bethany's eyes staring emptily at them through the window.

This was why whole villages hated them. This was why they were driven out of city taverns and shops.

This wasn't what she had set out to do, this wasn't what she wanted to be. But here she was. And if she didn't take up this mantel, even more lives would be on her hands.

"I think..." she began, tone almost bitter. "Our duty... was a lot easier to do when we still had the doctrine of a god ordering us to do it."

Owin came back around the bend to them then, nodding an all clear.

And that's when the idea hit her. She stormed back into the home, Djana ignored as she went to uncle.

"Your niece is lost," she told him bluntly, all tact gone. "Her soul striped by dark magic. Her body will follow it out shortly. In the meantime, she's a risk to us all. If she falls into the wrong hands, she could be used to do horrible things. Let me keep my man here in the meantime. He will watch over you both. Give her the peace to let go unmolested."

 

[Djana Mahin]

"If you believe in that sort of thing." Leane said quietly.

Other than that she said nothing though, her expression as neutral as possible. She did not like the old tenants, not in the least in fact. Leane had never been a student of history, but what parts she did remember she found backwards and broken as could possibly be.

When Ana walked away Leane couldn't help but grumble to herself slightly, though she knew her friend would never kill an innocent girl. Not when she didn't have to.

For his own self, the Farmer looked at Ana in disbelief for a few moments, glancing at Bethany a moment later. There was an expression of concern on his face, his eyes narrowing until he finally spoke.

"Who are you people?"

His voice was strong, but desperation clung to it.

 

[Anastasia]

"You already know." Ana was visibly upset. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve, but lately it was hitting a... less rational level.

"Now let us help you, please. I don't want to be your enemy. Let us protect your niece." Or rather, the body and all the people whose feelings would be compromised by her having to put it down.

 

[Djana Mahin]

The old Farmer frowned, clearly not quite ready to believe they were who they said they were. "Investigators". He knew nothing of the world outside, but he knew enough.

"A-alright."

Yet desperation was there.

He did not know what was wrong with his Niece, rather he had no way of knowing whether this woman told the truth or not, but he was desperate. There were few things in this world that he held close to him, and his niece was one of them. His head shook, his options few.

"But the Count's guards...they walked away one time, I don't know if one man will be enough a second."

Their patience had been thing as it was.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana pressed her lips together, unwilling to risk Owin's life on a miscalculation.

"Will you come into our protection then?" She asked carefully. The only other option was also leaving behind Leane, who she knew was more than capable of handling any drove of men with Owin by her side. But that would leave Ana alone.

She had promised Saul otherwise.

 

[Djana Mahin]

The Farmer blinked.

"To where?"

There wasn't anywhere he knew of that was safe from the Count.

"He controls the Militia, not to mention his House Guard. If the Count wants something then he'll have it, unless an army is backing you."

The old man sounded about as dejected as possible. He was in a position of helplessness, learned from dozens of years of toiling at the very bottom of the feudal totem pole.

 

[Anastasia]

"The Lady who brought us here is the reason we knew of your niece at all. She's tasked us to help deal with these evil, she cares just as much as I that vengeance is dealt for your niece. I'll see to it that she'll take you in. You'll be safe inside her household with us there."

 

[Djana Mahin]

The Farmer stared for a few seconds, a frown touching his lips as he slowly looked around the inside of the farmhouse.

For a moment it appeared as though he would deny her, say no. There was something forlone about his appearance, as if the idea of leaving wounded him almost as much as the idea that his niece was going to die. After a moment though he simply nodded his head in affirmation.

"I'll tell my wife."

He said softly.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana nodded, relief flooding her features.

Many would call her foolish for extending themselves like this, the girl was going to die anyways. And soon. She wasn't even present. But that was an innocent human body that had undergone unimaginable horrors.

She had to give her this peace. Even if it was only for Ana's own sake.

"We'll remain in the area. Pack what little you need, we'll come for her in the cover of night," she swore. She cast a glance at Bethany, then turned back for the others.

"Let's go," she ordered briskly.

She'd have to send note to Saul. They'd be ever so slightly delayed. She hoped.

 

[Djana Mahin]

Djana was waiting patiently with the other Templar, her face as impassive as could be.

When Ana reappeared she said nothing, but watched in silence as the girl ordered their departure. Her lips pursed for a few seconds, but she said nothing. Leane instead was the one to speak up. "Where are we going?"

It was not a challenge to Ana's authority, a genuine question.

Owinn for his part seemed more than willing to comply, pulling himself atop his horse and settling the two daggers which rested on his hips.