Iron Blooded

The tunnel opened out into a large circular chamber.

The ceiling was high and vaulted, and the stone old and worn.

Torchlight bounced off the walls, revealing towering obelisks with more strange writing. As I stepped forward my boot snagged on something and I looked down.

At the center of the chamber was a raised mosaic of red and black tile. The pieces looked as if they had been shattered and formed into some sort of pattern. I squinted at it, trying to make it out.

“What is this?” Kato whispered, his voice echoing across the walls. I had no answer.

Draxus circled the chamber with his torch held high. As he moved, tiles shifted and cracked under his weight.

“It’s almost like a church,” he said. His eyebrows were drawn together with worry.

“But it’s all wrong. There should be an alter here, a covenant to the radiant throne,” He gestured with his blade.

“And the ground would be ordained. Lined with runes of holy power.”

“Something about this isn’t right.”

I could hear the rasp of Hade’s voice through his helmet as he tilted his head, gazing up and around at the chamber. He tapped my shoulder.

“Ser William,” he said “Look.”

He pointed towards the wall at the far end of the room. It took me a moment to realize that what I had mistaken as shadows were actually wooden steps set into the wall at an interval. They were short, and the boards looked worn with decay. But there was no doubt that the steps led to a platform high above.

“A viewing platform?” I muttered. “For viewing what?”

Draxus grimaced.

“It might be worth investigating. This chamber is a dead end, and it’s possible there might be something up there… a doorway perhaps?”

I made my way across the floor, tiles creaking under my boots. When I reached the wooden steps I examined them carefully. After a moment I braced my foot, testing my weight on the wood. It was solid enough and didn’t move under my weight.

Still, with the amount of moisture in the air I’d have to keep a lookout for rotted boards. The steps went at least thirty feet in the air, and a fall would be enough to break bones.

Wood creaked under my boots. I hugged the wall with my body and placed each step with care. The further I ascended the more I began to realize just how old this place was must be.

The stone was aged, cracked, and covered with a light dusting of moss. The steps were dusty, each step sending up a small cloud as I set my foot down. Finally, I reached the last step and hesitated before climbing onto the platform.

I walked to the edge and looked down.

Far below, the two torches danced and sputtered and from their light, I could see what I hadn’t before.

The mosaic tiles were not arranged in a pattern so much as they were depicting a scene.

The outside of the circle was made up of black tile that framed the silhouette of some large being. The being itself was large, its frame taking up half of the mosaic on its own. It was a creature with red skin and long black horns. There were two sets of arms attached to its torso and in its hands were clutched the images of men.

Torn, bloody, and broken men. But that was far from the most disturbing part. What caught my gaze and chilled me to the bone were its eyes. It had four eyes, one set right above the other. But they were no longer eyes, but bloody weeping sockets.

I stepped back from the edge, nearly stumbling as I felt for the wall.

“Ser William?” questioned Hade. I could hear the concern in the soldier's voice.

“It’s a mosaic,” I said. “Depicting some sort of scene. Whatever it is - it isn’t human.”

Draxus turned his face up towards me, his face grim.

“Can you describe this.. Creature?”

I nodded numbly.

“Dark red skin, black horns. It has four arms and four eyes but the eyes are…. They aren’t there.”

There was a weighted silence. Then Kato shifted on his feet.

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“Throne,” he mumbled. “It’s a demon. That’s what the Inquisitor has been hunting all this time, isn’t it? She was looking for this - whatever this is.”

He gestured around at the mosaic.

I descended the steps faster than I had climbed them. By the time I reached the bottom a cold sweat had broken out on my neck, but not from the exertion.

“I need a straight answer,” I said, coming to stand in front of Kato and Draxus. “I know it’s blasphemy to ask what I’m going to ask, and I ask for your discretion. But if we’re in danger of encountering a… an entity then I need to know.”

I sucked in a breath of the stagnant air.

“What is a Herald, and why is the Inquisitor so afraid of it? What are the warnings? What do they mean?”

Draxus opened his mouth but I thrust out a hand.

“Tell me what you know, and omit nothing.”

My friend looked torn. For a moment he bit his lip, glancing back towards the mosaic. The others watched us in silence, expressions neutral.

“A Herald is exactly what it sounds like. They are demonic constructs - harbingers of the rebirth of demonic poltergeists.”

“Demonic poltergeists?”

Draxus swallowed and nodded.

“I wish I knew more but the truth is I’ve only ever heard the stories my father told around the fire on the nights he thought I was asleep. We’ve all heard stories of the God King, and his triumph over the demon lords of the seven circles. But what the scriptures fail to mention is that demons can’t be killed - not really. They can be slain and removed from the mortal earth. But their essence, their blight still remains.”

Hade made the sign of the saint, and I saw several of the men do the same.

“So the Inquisitor could be hunting this… this demonic poltergeist?”

Draxus scrubbed a hand over his face.

“I don’t know. Even as mere entities, demons are powerful. If she truly is hunting a creature then the warnings she was referring to could be related. Will,” he shook his head.

“If this is a church, then it could very well mean that someone has been worshiping here. There are candles around the edge of the circling, and some of them still have soft wax.”

He trailed off but I got his meaning.

I swore under my breath. It hadn’t been what I wanted to hear, but it was what I expected. The mosaic, the candles, even the platform. All items seemed to point towards some sort of ritual.

I shook my head, jaw clenched.

“I see no other option,” I said. “We have to report this to Blackthorne without delay.”

“But Ser William,” Hade hesitated, the shadows under his eyes stark. “What about the beast of the sewers?”

I shook my head.

“This is big,” I said. “Bigger even than us. First, we’ll have to deal with the threat beyond the walls. This information is good to no one if we’re all slaves or corpses. But after, we’ll need to deal with this more internal threat. Cultists in the city are a bad omen.”

Draxus grunted his agreement. Kato sighed heavily.

“Why is everything so fucking complicated?”

He made our way back through the tunnel, pausing now and then to listen for any odd sounds. Occasionally, the sound of scraping and clicking could be heard, but it was hard to tell if it was more than the rats we encountered in the sewer.

Eventually, we reached the body of the dead soldier, and my stomach churned at the sight. Part of me knew it had been necessary - knew that the soldier's mind was long gone. But that knowledge made it no easier to swallow.

“We should remove his body from the sewer,” I said.

Kato frowned and shook his head.

“The corpse mushroom has already claimed him. Moving him now would release spores, and the side effects can be… unpleasant.”

I grimaced, torn for a moment between action and inaction. Then grudgingly I nodded and stepped past Kato.

We reached the fork of the tunnel but something made Draxus pause from several paces ahead. He signaled a halt, and I was instantly on alert. I motioned for Hade to watch our rear and stepped up to where Draxus stood.

The giant nodded his chin towards two lumps lying against the wall. Bodies and each of these was fresh. I could see the pool of crimson spread beneath them. The spores of the tiny white mushroom had already taken up residence. Even as I watched the carpet seemed to slowly move, devouring the body.

The attack came suddenly and without warning.

Had It not been for the Mark of The Wind, I might have died right there and then. As it was, the boost to my speed stats saved me.

There was a flicker of movement from behind. I turned, sword raised in time to see it lunge for me. I jerked sideways and the skin-walker landed on the stone, long claws scraping.

It was a nightmare creature, with long shaggy legs, and the head of a dear skull. Two points of red light burned from the eye sockets, as it cocked its head on one side.

I brought up my shield, intending to absorb the oncoming blow but the creature surprised me by dodging Hade's spear thrust and skittering sideways onto the wall.

It climbed like a spider, head twisting all the way around to watch me.

"Keep it in your sights!" I called. "Don't let it get behind us."

One of my soldiers stepped forward, trying to spear the beast with a few rapid thrusts to the torso. The skinwalker twisted and, in a grotesque movement, it seemed to flow around the spear shaft.

There was no time to react. I had managed to take only a single step forward before the skinwalker snapped the man's neck and turned. It bounded off into the darkness of the tunnel, its head still twisted at an angle to watch us as it went.

I didn't realize I was panting until I spoke.

"Fuck," I said, breath coming in and out in the bitter air.

Hade jerked his visor up, peering into the darkness with his spear raised.

"It was following us," said Kato. Even he seemed shaken. "How the hell didn't we notice it?"

Draxus glanced upwards and I followed his gaze to the ceiling. The crimson slime trail had been disturbed. On the roof of the tunnel were a set of footprints.

"It's been watching us this whole time," I breathed, and even as I said the words they struck me.

"It could have killed us at any time."

"It could have tried."

Even Draxus seemed unconvinced. I adjusted the grip of my snake scale gauntlet as I clutched my sword tighter.

"If it's hunting us, I doubt this is over. It's entirely possible that the Wendigo is buying its time."

"Join the Army they said," muttered Hade. "There will be money and glory in it. I should have known better."

"Oh, I intend to get a share of both." I squinted into the darkness, a muscle in my jaw working.

"Up until now it's been toying with us - biding it's time to strike. We're in its territory on its terms."

I shook my head.

"If we aim to become the hunter and not the hunted, we can't let it get the drop on us again."

I glanced at the body of the soldier now lying in a crumpled heap on the ground.

I would hunt this creature down and I would take its head. And then, I would find out how to deal with the rot within Ceris.

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