The Case of the Murdered Family
Well I felt mighty silly this morning. I woke up, peeled my face off of my journal and laughed, despite my headache, when I noticed my unfinished sentence. I had meant to write ‘a couple of vampires and werewolves.’ Dale went on to say I was mighty lucky to be breathing again. I certainly can’t deny that. The Inn keeper tried encouraging me to go up the stairs to sleep, but despite not feeling good at all, I brushed it off saying I was fine.
The truth, however, was I didn’t want to be alone in the room. So I remained at the bar and journaled while Abu and Cloudbreaker had their fun.
The Goliath and cleric were already awake when I woke. Considering how much they drank, I was somewhat surprised they were up before me. They both had passed out after their seventh pint. I informed Cloudbreaker that I wanted to go get my halberd and new outfit right away. He then told me that we had earned an audience with the Mayor for having killed the vampire last night. He thought we best wait to do our errands until after that meeting and getting healed.
Abu kindly offered his assistance in restoring our health. Cloudbreaker certainly looked far better than he had. Something had withered him while in the crypt, but after Abu’s help, he looked healthy as a horse once more. Bal Vyr came walking in shortly after we were healed. He mentioned it was time for us to go meet with the Mayor.
Before leaving I went and washed my face and hands off of all the blood I had acquired. I braided my hair from my face and made sure I had all of my gear before returning to the men. While I did that, I noticed something strange. Maybe I’m being too clingy, or I’m allowing myself to become paranoid, but in the moments I was alone, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of panic. It was relieving to return to the party even though a half dozen guards stood in front of Bal Vyr, Cloudbreaker, and Abu.
“Now that your friend has returned, let us go,” one of the guards said. I looked at Bal Vyr and Cloudbreaker wondering what was going on.
“Apparently the Guard Captain needs to see us again,” the Drow commented under his breath as we followed the guards. We went politely, and were escorted to the Guard Captain’s office. The Captain paced behind his desk a little, which only added an element of seriousness to what he was about to say.
“I don’t like being lied to!” he seethed. I narrowed my eyes on him as he accused us.
“About?” Bal Vyr questioned.
“You said you killed the vampires.”
“Yeah,” the men simultaneously responded.
“Well it would seem all you did was make it angry!”
“How so?” the Drow asked.
“An entire family was found with their bodies drained of blood!” The Captain snapped. Bal Vyr turned to Cloudbreaker.
“Did we miss a spawn?” he asked the Goliath. I opened my mouth to mention that there were two vampires I had heard last night when I woke after being captured. However I stopped myself from speaking figuring all that would do was get them, well us, in more trouble.
“Because we killed the vampire,” Bal Vyr continued.
“Well, clearly you missed one for there was blood everywhere in the home of this murdered family.”
“Perhaps it was the werewolf we mentioned last night to you,” Cloudbreaker said.
“No,” the Captain responded coolly, “this was something only a vampire could do.”
“Then this vampire problem is bigger than you thought. We killed the head vampire last night and that alone should have solved the problem,” Bal Vyr retorted.
There was a few seconds of silence as the Guard Captain eyed each of us.
“Look, we’re sorry that some people have died, but that’s not our problem-” Cloudbreaker began.
“It is!” the Captain snapped again, “You were to kill the vampires!”
“We did,” the Goliath said distinctly. I watched Cloudbreaker flex his hands and knew he was growing impatient.
“Hey! It was you who said that there was a bounty for each head. Never did you say we had to kill them all!” Bal Vyr jumped in, “we regret that they’re not all ‘dead’, but it was pay by the head, not for completion of the job.”
I stifled a smile as the Captain fumed under his skin. The look he gave Bal Vyr was utmost contempt.
“Besides,” the Drow went on, “Why didn’t your guards prevent something from happening. Why is it they didn’t see anything last night? Hmm?,” the Captain said nothing as he continued to glare at Bal Vyr, “Perhaps we ought to go investigate this scene. You know, just to make sure it really was something a vampire did.”
The Guard Captain scoffed before answering, “and what might your constitution be like for such a scene?” Bal Vyr assured him that he, and the rest of us, were well adept to seeing blood and viscera. The Captain then stated we’d find the house in the Commoner’s section of town, which was nearby.
“But what about our reward for killing the vampire and our meeting with the Mayor?” Cloudbreaker asked.
“That can wait until you’ve finished taking care of this problem,” the Guard Captain simply responded.
“So you’re not giving us the reward for what you said you would reward us for-” the Goliath began to shout
“Cloudbreaker!” Bal Vyr snapped at him, ”Let us deal with this first,” he finished more calmly.
“No!”
“Yes! Innocent people are dead.”
“I didn’t put my life on the line for this man to cheat me!”
“You didn’t put your life on the line to kill the vampire!” Bal Vyr spat out. The room got very silent to which Bal Vyr’s next statement rang loud and clear as he gestured toward me, “You put your life on the line to save Blackwing!”
I felt some heat in my cheeks. Part of me felt like I was the cause of the troubles that were happening then and there, yet the frustration in Bal Vyr’s voice matched my own feelings of insignificance; why was it Cloudbreaker risked his life to save me?
The Goliath muttered under his breath that he killed the vampire, but seemed to give up the fight.
We finally maneuvered out of the Guard Captain’s office and worked our way down stairs. We discussed the need to pick up some items to which Bal Vyr and Abu went their way while Cloudbreaker and I went ours. We were to meet up at the crime scene in an hour.
As the Goliath and I walked toward the Blacksmith’s I thanked him once more for the rescue. He shrugged and didn’t make a big deal about it. I suspected he was still feeling bitter about the whole interaction with the Guard Captain.
“Cloudbreaker, what exactly happened last night?” I said in an attempt to take his mind off the Captain and to get a better idea of what went down, “Is... Grendel finally dead?"
The Goliath let out a short chuckle, “I can only hope that the crusader is buried 6 feet deep. Since Bal Vyr and I didn’t see him after we made our escape from the places we were teleported to, I imagine he too was teleported and never made it out."
"Then why do I recall you saying Bal Vyr died too? Am I just jumbling that with Grendel's death then?”
Cloudbreaker remained quiet for a minute before answering in a grave tone, “Bal Vyr did die." I glanced up at the Goliath. His face was hard and forlorn as he continued, “Hell hounds, that the vampire had, tore him apart... and after I killed the vampire, the tomb was engulfed in darkness that came from Bal Vyr’s body. Within the darkness was some monster. Abu, Armadeus, and I were able to destroy him once outside the crypt. After killing him, he reverted back to his Drow self.”
“Hmm,” I mused as I pondered the gravity of our situation, “Perhaps I should have tried harder to kill the creature Lash became. Maybe then she could have been saved.” I once more glanced at the Goliath and could see him deep in thought.
“This worries me Blackwing,” he said, “What are these marks doing to us?”
I pursed my lips together. To me it was clear what was happening; we were becoming evil. But what confused me most was the mark did two new things I wasn’t aware of. First it was changing in shape. Bal Vyr’s mark was maneuvering up his chest and Cloudbreaker’s was climbing up his arm. Heaven knows what mine must look like...
The second thing was how Lash and Bal Vyr had turned into some other being upon their death. Never had I seen that before. Even when Meryth died-
Besides those newish things taking place, there was the power that the mark had that was overwhelming my agency. I was drinking, something I had sworn never to do. I tried to steal from an old lady. Let alone, I’ve actually been contemplating helping the Druidess assassinate those she had requested of us. Plus, another incident happened today that I’ll get to later. The point is the mark is slowly turning us evil and apparently into some monster upon our death.
“Cloudbreaker,” I finally spoke in a soft, defeated tone, “With how the mark is behaving... it’s making us evil,” I noticed the Goliath eye me in my peripheral, “Two of us have turned into some monster upon death, I can clearly see the mark consuming your arm, and I’ve felt the effect of it on my choices,” I felt my chest tighten as my emotions suddenly ran strong. I bit my tongue before adding, “I don’t want to become evil.”
“You have control Blackwing. You cannot become something you don’t want to be. This mark may consume our bodies, but it cannot touch our heart. Not even the Gods can change them,” Cloudbreaker responded. His optimism was quite inspiring. I gave a nod my head.
“Cloudbreaker, you definitely make it hard to doubt,” I said with a small smile, “Therefore I will try to believe. I will continue to fight what I’m most certain is changing me.”
I suddenly felt a warm hand placed on my left shoulder. I looked at Cloudbreaker to find him smiling at me. I felt my stomach flutter and my heart race as he looked upon me closely.
“Blackwing,” Cloudbreaker began in a warm and firm voice, “I believe in you. You have such inner strength that dwarfs my own. It heartens me to know that we are to fight this doom together.”
The butterflies left as a pit fell in my stomach. I had inner strength!? That dwarfs his own? How could he think I had any strength at all? Why was he lying to me? Those questions rang in my head as I remembered my inferiority to the Goliath. Gently I took his hand from my shoulder and though part of me wanted to keep holding it, I let go and looked at my feet. It was there I realized we had stopped walking.
“What strength?” I muttered. Then I looked the Goliath in the eyes. It really did seem like he was speaking lies to me. Why would he, a Goliath in which only the strong survived, say I have strength when I was most certain I hadn’t any?
I continued on making my point, “I have none! What have I done to contribute to your well being since we’ve been together? You’ve saved me 3 times,” I emphasised by placing three fingers up, “I’m forever grateful of course, but... in or out, I have no strength.”
Cloudbreaker let out a soft sigh and looked away. It was funny how in that moment the clarity of life moving about us was apparent. The Goliath then spoke, in which the world faded and it was just me and him on the busy street.
“Perhaps you don’t see it yet, but I certainly do,” Cloudbreaker said meeting my eyes once more. It was clear he was sincere and he lit up as he continued when he saw my cold eyes staring back, “You single handedly destroyed an abomination back in the bowl. You rowed out to save me on the lake and you stopped me from killing the gravekeeper in cold blood.”
I involuntarily scoffed when he mentioned the gravekeeper. “I was certain you resented me for preventing you from killing that man.”
“No,” Cloudbreaker said with a shake of his head. There was a soft smile on his lips though his eyes looked forlorn, “I can get carried away. When I get angry... I lose sight of things and tend to do stuff I normally wouldn’t do,” he then shrugged and looked me in the eyes once more, “We all have our faults. Mine so happens to be a testament to my weakness,” or the mark, I thought.
He reached out, as though he wanted to grab my shoulders, but stopped himself. Instead he balled his hands into fists before relaxing, stepping closer, and pressing them together to point at me.
“Remember, you have plenty of strength, Blackwing. I believe in you and you should do the same,” Cloudbreaker encouraged. I pursed my lips together. It still felt like lies he was speaking, but he was so genuine... or perhaps it was the closeness. I managed a smile to show my gratitude and placed my hands around his.
“Thank you Hajarikn. That means a lot.” I squeezed his hands a little before letting go and leading the way to the Blacksmith’s. I could feel my heart racing again and I really wanted to clear my head from the euphoria I was feeling. I don’t know what’s going on between me and the Goliath. Part of me doesn’t want Cloudbreaker to like me, yet... that's the very thing I’m hoping for.
✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻
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