Tales of Ruuin - Homecoming

Journeys end...

"Before I unburden my soul, pray tell me why you revealed your identity to master Stefan in the first place?"

Echser glared at his interrogator, who sat in what could only have been the chair of the old inquisitor. How fitting. This was the first time Craven had invited him to his partition of their shared travel wagon. From the looks of it, the former owner obviously had liked his creature comforts. Compact and comfortable were the words: there was a bed accessible over a short ladder with a working desk built into the front, shelves for books, weapons, storage units... There was even a small bar filled with all sorts of bulbous crystal bottles. Very nice indeed – and utterly wasted on a man who could no longer enjoy such things.

Echser leaned back in his own indecently comfortable armchair, frowning for all he was worth, ignoring the drink Craven had placed on the low table between them. "I have nothing to say to you, lich hunter."

Craven smiled and took a sip from his own heavy crystal glass, closing his eyes and holding the amber liquid in his mouth as if enjoying the taste. It was a farce, a charade to put people at ease.

Like a spider mimicking a human...

When Craven opened his eyes – if you could call those two soulless pits eyes – an equally fake smile appeared on his features. "By all means, let us make a game of it then." He swirled the liquor in its glass. "I shall disclose my theories and try to deduce from your body language if I am correct. After all, what people do is always more reliable than what they say."

Echser retorted with the frostiest of glares.

"Ah, I see you are positively smitten by my proposal. Very well, let us begin... So tell me, might that casual revelation of your dark past be a product of guilt? Born from the suffering you have inflicted on the citizen of this fair city that dreadful winter two years past. Could it be that you are still seeking for atonement – or if that fails punishment?"

Echser remained calm, even though deep inside, he was feeling anything but. Mind games – that's all they were. He wouldn't give the bounty killer anything to play with.

"Yes, I think you hoped for redemption. Clemency for the calamity your actions have caused – and who better to exonerate you of your sins than young Stefan, a poor soul who has lost so much and in such wicket a way?"

Echser said nothing, but his heart was hammering in his chest, sweat popping on his brow, even though he was soaked to the bone.

Craven smiled. "Yes, I can see that I am right."

Bastard...

"Be that as it may, old friend, as I have pointed out, there will be no restitution for your deeds, at least not tonight."

Echser ground his teeth, forced to talk at last. "The boy, what did you do to him?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, damn it! Why else would I be sitting here and endure your insufferable presence."

All pretense of emotion fell from Craven's face. "As you wish... I have put your secret and Stefan to rest in the dark below the cemetery and chopped him up as bait for the ghoul traps." He idly swirled the amber liquid in his glass. "They usually prefer their meat spoiled, but he will do the trick just as well and as an added boon, it shall prevent him from returning as one of the undead. A shame, truly, for I had a fondness for the boy..." He let out a sigh. "Alas, I had to protect my interests – I had to protect you. Think of that whenever you feel the need to unburden your soul in the future."

It shouldn't have come as a shock, not after seeing firsthand what the bounty killer was capable of, but it did. Echser just stared at Craven, feeling as if a great abyss had opened up below his feet and he was falling, falling, falling. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe, guilt and shame crushing him, threatening to—