Always by your side

Chapter 31 - Undoing what's done

Things in Latissa didn't look pretty. When we got there I couldn't believe my eyes. The coven scouts were plundering everything. Destroyed shops, and buildings on fire, basically a definition of despair and misery. What struck me as even weirder was the fact that they were actually doing such a thing. I'm not an expert, but I didn't think their actions would help them reestablish the coven system. It certainly wouldn't motivate anyone to join them.

We landed on the outskirts of the city and headed toward the town hall on foot. I looked with horror and the unfolding situation. Luckily, some of the former rebel forces came here before us and were helping those in need. There was still the matter of fighting off all the attackers, but I think no one lacked the motivation to do so. The closer we got to the city center, the more unsettled I was. All of the side roads have been blocked off, providing us with only one clear path. It smelled like a trap from a mile away, but we had to walk right into it if we wanted to reestablish order.

At last, we reached the main square and the townhall, but found no one there, at least at first. When we got a little deeper, a ton of scouts suddenly dropped from nearby roofs, efficiently surrounding us. Even though there were only three of us against at least 30 of them we didn't consider it an issue. The coven members formed a perimeter around us, but they didn't attack. Both me and Amity wanted to make the first move and attack, but Eda put us on hold. In hindsight she was probably right, they were waiting for us and surely had a plan, so we waited for their move.

As we were waiting, the town hall door opened and a small figure, assisted by two guards emerged. I didn't need a lot of time to recognize who it was, though I didn't expect to see Kikimora here.

"Greetings, as you might have noticed we were waiting for you, especially Ms. Blight. It's good to see you alive, your parents can't wait for a meeting." She said.

"You must be kidding, right? There is no way in this world that I'm going to see my parents, nor will I be intimidated by a small task force." Amity said, clearly enraged.

"We shall see about that." Kikimora said providing her guards with a signal and went back inside.

All the coven scouts attacked at once, and soon enough a few abomatrons joined the party. I think we might have overestimated our advantage since the coven soldiers were able to get a few clear punches on us. The sheer number of them was overwhelming. Ultimately, we were victorious, but it took a strain on us. Eda was out for the night and I was almost out of glyphs. Amity looked the best, since dealing with abomatrons was in her element, though she also was drained.

There was still the matter of dealing with Kikimora but we decided we should postpone it a bit and focus on clearing the city. Fortunately, it didn't take long before Raine and Lilith joined us. Lily took Eda back to the Owl House while Raine helped us clear Latissa from the coven scouts. It took us much longer than we would have wanted. On the contrary to the initial chaos, all the scouts regrouped and fortified themselves in the plundered buildings.

When we were done with everything it was time to reclaim the townhall. Aside from some minor traps, it wasn't a problem. There was no one there. It didn't make sense, we made sure that there was no way to leave the building unnoticed. It took quite a thorough search, but we found the escape route. It was a hidden tunnel, and it meant nothing good. Basically, we had to walk into some kind of a trap, once again. This time, however, luck was on our side, and Raine figured out a spell to find the second entry to this tunnel. Now that we knew where we should head next we finally could use the fact that it was probably a trap to our advantage since there was a huge chance someone was waiting for us there.

Before blindly rushing in I decided to rest and after quite a struggle I managed to convince Amity to also take a break. I knew she wanted to find her parents and give them a piece of her mind but it would be pointless to go there after a whole night of fighting. In the best-case scenario, we could maybe even arrange a strike team to assist us. Sadly, as per usual, the best-case scenario didn't happen. The next day, when we woke up there was a letter waiting for us, right beside our bed.