Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 77 (Patreon)

Lillia stood by the door, her shadows wrapped around herself and the building like a massive cloak. Just like Rodrick had said, the street wasn’t particularly populated. It must have been less than a minute since she’d yanked Tix into the building, but it felt like a century.

After a brief exchange, there had been only silence. If Tix had won, Lillia was pretty sure the woman would have tried to leave by now, so logically, Arwin should have been fine. Unfortunately, logic did nothing for the scenarios that flashed through her mind.

A passerby headed across the street, glancing over his shoulder as he passed the spot of darkness in the already ill-lit street. He shook his head and accelerated, quickly turning a corner. There was something built deep into the human psyche that kept the smart ones from peering too closely into the dark, and it was working in Lillia’s favor.

What is Arwin doing in there? I can’t even hear anything. If he can’t get the information from Tix, we’re never really going to be able to take out everyone that killed Zeke unless we destroy the entirety of the Iron Hounds.

Shit. I should have offered to help interrogate her when she went down. My imps could have scared the shit out of her until she spoke. I’m not sure Arwin is going to be able to do anything –

The door creaked, but it didn’t open all the way. Lillia glanced over her shoulder at the mostly empty street, then back to the building. That was pretty clearly an invitation to enter, and Tix shouldn’t have known that there were two of them, so it had to be from Arwin.

Ah. He probably couldn’t get the information from her after all. That’s fine. I don’t think many humans can stand their ground if I pull out a few Lesser Imps and make some shit up about eating them alive for eternity.

Lillia slipped through the door, intensifying the shadows around her even further to make sure nobody could peer into the building. She then turned, ready to play her, part, and her heart locked in place.

Two charcoal red eyes burned in the dark, gripping her entire body with such intensity that it threatened to knock the breath from her lungs. They illuminated the air around a heavily armored figure, glowing with just enough intensity to cast shadows through the dark.

Before she could stop herself, Lillia took a step back. Blood ran from the figure’s arms and dripped down from their fingers, pattering to the ground and breaking the silence. It took Lillia a moment to realize that the visage of death standing before her was Arwin. But, even with that knowledge, the burning aura pouring off him continued to bind her chest with iron bands.

“Arwin?” Lillia asked. “Are you–”

“Four,” Arwin said. His voice sounded muted and distant from behind the scowling mask that obscured his face.

“Four?”

“There were four of them,” Arwin said, drawing in a deep breath. His hands clenched into fists, causing the flow of blood trickling down his arms to intensify. “Now there are three.”

Lillia looked past Arwin, her eyes decoding the darkness. Evidently, Arwin hadn’t needed any help getting information from Tix. She lay in a crumpled heap in the corner of the building, dead.

“Did you…”

“Torture her?” Arwin asked, his voice taut. “No. I will not become a monster. She died a quick death. It was not a pretty death, but it was a clean one. Cleaner than the one that she gave Zeke.”

Lillia recognized the note in Arwin’s words from the tightness that never seemed to leave her own chest. Another might have mistaken the tightness in his words and the syllables he spat a sign of anger, but they would have been wrong.

It was loss. Bitter, jagged loss. The kind that could only come from seeing the people one cared about fall before them, over and over again. Zeke had been a kind boy, but it wasn’t just his death that rested on their chests.

Lillia pushed through the aura rolling off Arwin. As strong as it was, this wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with this unique flavor of pain. It was the culmination of every single person that had been ripped from their grasp prematurely. A wound that had never gotten the chance to heal over; ripped open once more.

She stepped forward, taking Arwin’s bloodied hands in her own. Blood slicked her palms, but she was so used to it that she barely even noticed. “Let go of that skill, Arwin. We got what we needed.”

Arwin didn’t respond, but his hands tightened around hers.

“One step at a time,” Lillia said softly. “Who were the other three?”

“Erik, Jessen, and Yul.”

“Did you find out more?” Lillia asked. “What their roles were? Why they ordered you killed in the first place?”

The burning coals that were Arwin’s eyes faded into the dark, returning to normal mask holes and revealing his eyes behind them. The questions didn’t truly matter – they were just something for Arwin to focus on and ground himself again. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Jessen is the guild leader. He didn’t directly order the death, but everything that happened was because of his orders. Jessen is at Journeyman 3. Erik is the second in command. He’s not very strong, but Jessen trusts him. Tix doesn’t – didn’t – like him. He’s the one that ordered me killed. Yul is a Journeyman 1 mage. He’s the one that destroyed the smithy.”

More of Arwin’s normal tone returned with every word until he had control of himself once more.

“I don’t think we can go for them today,” Lillia said, looking to Arwin’s arms. “We need to get you to Anna.”

“That may be wise,” Arwin said. “I’ve lost a bit of blood. Tix was stronger than I thought she was.”

Lillia drew a hand up through the air, pulling her fingers in toward her palm. The shadows at her feet expanded as two Lesser Imps rose up from the darkness and hurried over to Tix’s body.

“We don’t need to leave a corpse to notify the others what’s going on,” Lillia said. “It should be some time before anyone figures out what happened to her. That’ll be long enough for us to take the others out.”

“Yeah,” Arwin said. His armor vanished, leaving him in his plain clothes once more. “We might need your shadows to get back home. If anyone sees me like this, I’m going to look pretty suspicious.”

“I can do that,” Lillia said, guiding Arwin toward the door even as muted the crunch of bone echoed in the darkness behind them.

***

“Godspit, what did you do to your arms?” Anna asked, rushing over to Arwin as soon as he entered the tavern. She pressed her hands to his wounds, sending gentle golden light pouring out and into him.

Reya and Rodrick stood to the side, watching with concern and trepidation as they waited to hear the results of the night mission.

Arwin let out a sigh of relief as the wounds shrank, stitching themselves shut before completely vanishing. Anna kept her hands on him for a few seconds longer before letting the power fade.

“There. I can’t replenish all the blood you lost, but you’re a pretty big bastard. You should be fine. Is…”

“Tix is dead,” Arwin said, flexing his fingers and giving Anna a nod. “And I got the names of everyone else involved. It wasn’t as bad as we feared. There are three more people that have to die.”

“The guild leader?” Rodrick guessed.

“That’s one of them,” Arwin said. “How did you know?”

“There were rumors of him being really obsessed with getting stronger quickly. He basically shot up in power overnight,” Rodrick replied. “The Iron Hounds didn’t even exist a month ago, but now he’s somehow a Journeyman and considered one of the better guilds in the city. That kind of meteoric growth and being a nice guy tend to not go hand in hand.”

“We don’t know the extent of his involvement yet,” Arwin said.  “But he was at least partially responsible. The person with the most blame is Erik, the second in command of the guild. He’s the one that ordered the smithy to be destroyed.”

“Then the last one was the one that actually destroyed it?” Anna guessed.

Arwin nodded. “Yes. His name is Yul. Once the three of them are dead, Zeke can rest. Perhaps we’ll do the rest of the city a favor as well and purge it from some of the scum running around in it.”

“I’ll look into them,” Rodrick said. “I already know of Jessen and Erik. I haven’t heard of Yul, but I don’t imagine it should be too difficult to track him down.”

“Just be careful,” Arwin said. “Now that Tix is dead, it won’t be long before people start getting suspicious. We have one, maybe two days to take out the rest of them.”

“On your own?” Reya asked doubtfully. “You barely beat Tix.”

“I had to fight her alone,” Arwin said. “We were focusing on stealth for this kill because we needed information. That’s no longer the case.”

“What, you’re going to barge into their guildhall?” Reya asked. “There’s no way that’ll work again.”

“Probably not,” Arwin agreed. “Jessen will come last. Yul and Erik should be easier. Erik isn’t strong and Yul is a caster. He’s going to be horrible against anyone that can get up close and personal. We can take them both out pretty easily.”

“What about Jessen?” Anna asked. “He’s a Journeyman.”

“Anyone who rises through the ranks quickly is either an idiot or desperate,” Arwin said. “He’s trading his future power for a boost now. The only logical reason to do that is because you don’t have another choice. That’s why he’ll come last. I don’t know what’s got him cornered.”

“So what’s the plan? What are we doing?” Reya asked. “You sound like you’re going to need help this time around.”

“Help… might go a long way,” Arwin admitted reluctantly. “I just want you out of harms way. You don’t have the armor or defenses that I do. But, if we could have people all out gathering information tomorrow, it would go a long way.”

“I’m pretty sneaky. I can do that no problem,” Reya said.

“I am not,” Lillia said. “It’s easy to keep people away from me, but a patch of darkness strolling around is about as subtle as a war drum.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not particularly stealthy myself,” Arwin said. He leaned against the counter and let his gaze pass over everyone in the room. “No risks. Lillia and I will handle the fighting. You all just help with figuring out where everyone is. Is that fine?”

A round of determined nods answered his question and Arwin gave them a grim, tight=-lipped smile.

“By tomorrow night, we’re crossing Yul and Erik off the list.”