Faerunners

The Devil You Don't

Abandoned houses in the middle of nowhere were plain creepy. Doubly creepy if you were there alone. Tallis flinched as the old home creaked and snapped in the wind. It felt like the house was rolling its shoulders and trying to dislodge the unwelcome visitor inside. It was crazy, sure. On some level he knew it was just an old house and there was nothing out to get him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. Moving helped, so he kept himself busy with chores. He wrapped the body in the bed sheets and drug it outside. There was no hope for the mattress, the straw was soaked through with gore, so he hauled that outdoors too and burned it. A shiver wormed up his spine, something still wasn't right, something still had him feeling on edge. Giving the place a good dusting didn't help. Giving the horses a quick brushing didn't help. Tidying the kitchen didn't help. 

Unwittingly, he found himself back in the bedroom. "Did I miss something?" he asked himself. The scene hadn't changed. It was still a mess. Even with the body removed, the smell of death still hung in the air. Blood was splashed everywhere, most of it in arcing patterns high across the walls and ceiling. What wasn't on the walls was dribbled onto the floor leaving a trail from the bedroom to the hallway. 

Following the blood trail, he shuffled out of the bedroom and into the hallway. There was a dark stain on the wall. He must have missed it in the commotion earlier. Running a hand along the wall, he found a small hole hiding in the center of the stain. 

"Hello," he said. "What are you?" He took a knife off his belt and worked the point into the hole. A squashed bullet fell to the floor with a dull thud. "So, you hit whatever came through the door, but it wasn't enough."

He walked down the hall and out into the front yard. "We're still missing the why of it all. What brought the devil down on you?" 

Stepping into the cramped shed, he bent for a closer look at the magical materials. It was novice level equipment, basic manuals, and a collection of hastily written notes. Tallis breathed a sigh of relief. If there had been anything more complicated tucked away he would have been out of his depth, and magic you didn't understand was the most dangerous magic.

He scanned the notes. The handwriting was bad enough it doubled as encryption, but he was fairly sure the writer was trying to practice a light spell. It was a good one to know, especially so far away from street lights and civilization. If he had to live all the way out here, he'd want a little something extra to beat back the night too. It's too bad they hadn't written down the results of the spell. A magical misfire could have brought any number of monstrous things down on the house. 

When he came out of the shed, he found Allistair crouched in front of the heap of coals where Tallis had burned the mattress. The sergeant arranged a few small branches on the smoldering remains of the fire. He had managed to shoot a rabbit while he was out. It wouldn't be much of a feast but at least it was better than nothing. 

Allistair unsheathed his knife and got to work skinning dinner. “I hope you found a lead while I was out.”

“I turned the place upside down and didn’t manage to come up with much,” said Tallis with a shrug. “Someone was teaching themselves some spell craft in the shed, and there was some kind of blood stain on the wall in the hallway. It wasn’t human blood. I think that someone let off a bungled spell and it pulled in a Pinebarren Devil. They're drawn to magic.” 

Allistair dug his knife into the rabbit's belly, spilling its guts and laughed. There was no joy in the sound, only derision and scorn. “That is rich, boy. That. Now, that is really a good one. Someone cast a spell and a gods damned fairytale creature swooped down and murdered a man.” 

Tallis shifted his weight from foot to foot, and kicked a stray pebble towards the house. “I thought it was a good theory.” 

“What’s the motive then? Don’t tell me, I can guess.” Allistair finished cleaning the rabbit and set it over the coals to roast. “The Devil came through the window to steal three magic beans from the farmer? We'll take that back to the captain right now and put up wanted posters for devil's, hob goblins, and wooly-boogers.”