Chapter 28 - The Bait (Patreon)

I felt significantly less safe without the Bow Brothers and the crazy tomte berserker. We all woke early, scarfed down a little food and water, and set out in the direction the men had gone. It took us the better part of an hour, but we eventually found a rocky wall topped by trees. After following it for a while, we discovered a small cave entrance mostly hidden by overgrown shrubs and trees. After some discussion, we all decided the townspeople could stay and wait in the cave. They’d be unprotected if anything attacked, but it seemed like they would be well-hidden within the cave. It also would mean we’d be able to move more quietly with a small group and the townspeople wouldn’t have to follow us into potential danger.

It was a tradeoff, but everybody agreed it was safer for them in the cave.

Once we were sure the cave was clear, we got them all inside and spent a while gathering fallen branches and shrubs to obscure the cave entrance. When we were finished, it was almost impossible to spot the cave if you didn’t know to look for it.

With them safely stashed away, I set out with Lyria and Minara. 

I was no tracker, but the frequent, sudden rain kept the ground muddy enough that their boots left obvious prints. Sometimes, the vegetation and fallen leaves were too thick to spot the tracks, but we were always able to scout ahead a bit and find the trail again. 

We stopped when the tracks changed. Instead of three pairs of boots heading in a straight line, they all seemed to scatter. The area was a mess of feet, some dragged through the mud. There was blood on the ground—too much blood. 

“What happened?” I whispered.

“A battle,” Lyria said, pointing out the obvious.

A little bit ahead, long trails were dug into the mud leading up a sloped incline covered in shrubs. “What do you think that is?” Minara asked.

“It looks like somebody was dragging bodies away after a fight,” I said.

We all stared quietly for a moment. I couldn’t be sure, but imagined we all had the same thought. 

Are we really going to keep following this trail? 

If those drag marks came from our wayward party members, they’d been strong enough to subdue an Iron and two Woods. We shouldn’t have been a match for anyone like that. And there was the distinct possibility that they were dragging corpses, not unconscious bodies. 

Lyria and Minara watched me as if waiting to see what I would say.

“We could keep quiet and get a little closer, right?” I suggested. “Just to see what we’re dealing with. They won’t be likely to expect us, and we’ll probably catch them off guard.”

Minara’s eyes widened. I turned suddenly, wondering what she saw.

A man with his hood drawn was stalking toward us through the pouring rain. I saw a smile cut through by a thin white scar and brown stubble dusting his chin. The rest of his face was in shadow. “Catch us off guard, eh?” he asked.

[Human, Level 50 (Iron)]

He came closer. There was something deadly in the way he carried himself. He was shorter than me and wrapped in dark brown leather with two long knives at his hips. He cocked his head, eyes fixing on my helmet. “Now why would you three be trying to sneak up on us?”

Us? My throat felt dry. One level 50 Iron was a big enough problem. If he had friends… Damn it. “We’re just looking for our friends,” I said, mind racing and heart pounding. I still tried to hold some semblance of calm. 

Could three Woods take an Iron in a fight? I wasn’t sure. But his presence at the scene of a battle was a bad sign. He’d taken on the three of our friends alone or had his own friends waiting somewhere nearby. “We were following their tracks,” I gestured to the trail of prints. “The rest of our group should be catching up shortly,” I added. “There are about forty of us…”
 The man came closer, lifting his chin to stare up at me. I noticed Lyria and Minara exchanging a look behind his back. Lyria gave a nod and very slowly started to draw her shield. 

I jerkily shook my head, urging her to stop. They didn’t know he was Iron. 

“Mr. Helmet is right,” the man said. “You play nice, and I’ll tie you up until we’re done here. Try anything, and the boss can’t complain if my knives slip out of their holsters a few times. And you…” He pressed his finger to my chest. I saw dried blood caked under his short nail. “I’m gonna keep you separate. Convince you to untether that helmet for me, I think. That’s voidsteel, right?” He tapped the tip of his knife to the metal, smiling. 

I almost told him I didn’t know what he meant, but kept my mouth shut. Even if I couldn’t figure out how to untether my helmet, I should take the opportunity to be held separately. 

“Nobody has to get hurt,” I said.

“Well, that’s rarely true,” the man said.

Lyria drew her shield in a rush, waving one hand over it as sharp yellow light began to form on its surface. She backhanded it toward the man, but her shield passed straight through him, trailing wisps of black smoke.

I blinked, and he was gone.

I was almost relieved until I noticed the shadow darting across the forest floor. It moved to a long shadow cast by a tree, and then the man reformed, smiling. “Ice them, Jai,” he said, producing some kind of fruit and taking a bite as he leaned against a tree.

A gray-haired woman with bags under her eyes spoke. She’d silently gotten behind us. “Apologies. This will sting.” She raised both hands, and I felt like I’d just stepped into ice-cold water up to my ankles. The sensation kept creeping up my body. I tried to run, but my muscles stopped working. With horror, I saw sparkling white frost climbing up Minara and Lyria, passing their chests and climbing up to cover their faces. The ice seemed to stop at my neck.

“Huh,” the man said, moving out of the tree's shadow to come my way. “Did you stop the ice at his neck on purpose?”

I was too cold to shiver. My vision was going black at the edges and I felt like I was barely clinging to consciousness.

“No,” Jai said tightly. “Must be his helmet.”

“I want—”

Darkness crept in.

#

I woke by a fire. The warmth felt impossibly good. It was sinking through my frozen flesh and slowly reaching toward my bones, which felt like rods of ice inside me. I shivered violently. 

The hooded man was crouched in front of me. He smiled when he saw me wake.

“I didn’t properly introduce myself. I’m Rake. Now, I’m prepared to—”

“Don’t tell him your name,” Jai sighed. The gray-haired woman wore a tattered gray robe, but I saw the hint of expensive-looking gold jewelry beneath the sleeves. “Now he knows you’re going to kill him.”

Rake raised his palms, glaring at the woman momentarily before turning back to me with a smile. “She’s kidding. Terrible sense of humor, honestly. I was going to say I won’t kill you if you simply tether your helmet to me. Easy, right?”

I was gaining a little more awareness as I looked around. There was another man I didn’t recognize. He was bald, with red tattoos running up his neck like spiderwebs. He had on a blood-red tunic over chainmail armor. 

Like Rake, the bald man and Jai were both level 50 and Iron rank. No wonder they’d won the skirmish against Bloody Steve, Perch, and Kass.

Then I spotted my party. Minara and Lyria had been propped up against a stone pillar. None were bound or tied, but a red mist slowly churned around them, clinging to their skin and snaking up their nostrils as they seemed to sleep. The bald man watched them so closely that I was certain the mist was his doing. 

There were more pillars around like the one they’d been tied to. It seemed like we were in the center of a ruin in the middle of the forest. It was crumbling, and rock fragments were everywhere, but I guessed it might have been a temple once.

The last thing I noticed was a heavy metal cauldron just behind Rake. It was bubbling and sending up steam. It also smelled like hot garbage.

“Well?” Rake asked. “What do you think of my offer?”

“I think… it’s a good place to start,” I said.

Rake laughed, throwing his head back with his amusement. He casually produced one of those long, winding knives from his belt, spun it neatly in his hand, and then let it rest over one raised knee in my general direction. “You’re funny. I like that.”

To my left, the ice wizard, Jai, was holding a thick book that looked ancient. She was reading something silently, lips moving. Every so often, she glanced our way.

“What’s she doing?” I asked.

“Oh, that?”

“He doesn’t need to know,” Jai said.

“Summoning ritual,” Rake explained casually. “See this?” He half turned to indicate the cauldron. “This is a very special mixture of ingredients. Works kind of like bait for one specific creature. They’re called briarwraiths, and this stuff smells like raw memories to them. Apparently, they’re drawn to strong memories. Anyway, we’re hunting an accomplishment. Rumor is you can get an Iron Ascension Token for taking down a fully fed briarwraith. Seeing as we’re all just itching to advance to Silver, we banded together in a noble effort to rid Eros of one terrible beast. Which we’re currently trying to summon to Eros,” he added with a shrug.

“Idiot,” Jai muttered. She didn’t seem too bothered that he was telling me so much. 

I decided that was a bad thing. She'd be more worried if she thought I stood a chance at making it out of here alive. 

“Fully fed?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s the tricky part,” Rake said. He spoke with the air of somebody proud of his clever ideas and in search of recognition. “But I knew a guy who knows a guy.”

“Don’t you mean you know a guy who knows a guy?” Jai asked.

“Past tense,” Rake said, not looking her way. “I had to kill him.”

“Oh, okay,” Jai said, returning to her book and reading more.

I was trying not to miss any details of the story. If there was something I could use to help us out of this, I wanted to catch it. But I was also frantically scanning the area for any other ideas. It helped that my helmet completely obscured my eyes. To Rake, I probably looked perfectly attentive as he continued speaking. 

“Anyway,” Rake said. “I knew a guy who knows a guy. Actually… I didn’t kill the second guy myself, but I heard he got stabbed the night we left Bree. So I knew a guy who knew a guy. Point is, I, ah… Shit. I was going somewhere with that…”

The bald man let out a long, suffering breath. When he looked our way, I noticed a certain gravity to his face—almost like an air of command. I’d taken him as a lackey, but now I wasn’t so sure. “Perhaps you were going to shut up?” he said.

Rake seemed surprised to hear the man speak. “That’s ‘the Acolyte’.” He leaned closer, smirking as he lowered his voice. “Guy is creepy as hell. He makes us call him that.”

Rake got up, moved to the cauldron, stirred it with a long stick, and then came back to sit with me. “How much longer is that going to take, Jai? The bait shit is ready. That lady said it would lose potency if we cooked it too long.”

“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” Jai said. “The briarwraith will spawn within a mile of the ritual. It will smell the bait, even if it’s not at maximum potency.”

“Alright, alright. We won’t get the accomplishment if it’s not fully fed. I’m just trying to make sure this goes smoothly.” He used his knife to pick some of the dried blood from under his nail, then seemed to remember I was sitting there. “Oh, right. About your helmet. See, here’s the thing. Everything we managed to find said a briarwraith is fully fed after it eats about five people. If one of them has some really good memories, it can supposedly take less.” He half-turned, counting with his finger as he tallied up my sleeping party. “But look at that, we’ve already got five. So I don’t need you to die. But that’s only if you kindly hand over your helmet.”

“You said the tomte doesn’t count as a full person,” Jai said.

“Okay,” Rake sighed. “Truth is, I might need to feed you to the briarwraith either way. But I don’t have to poke a bunch of little holes in you before I do if you play nice. What do you say, hm?”

“Uh,” I said, brain desperately scrabbling for some way out of this. I had just one idea, and it felt like it was very far from a good one.