Ten of Swords (Draft Only)

Chapter 7

The villagers left before the sun set. It would be nightfall before they reached the next town over by foot, but they would rather travel in the dark then sleep with the ghosts of their loved ones so close by. Elise and the others set up in one of the roofless buildings, knowing they wouldn't have to fear the ceiling falling on them. The found a charred but still standing table to gather around once they had seen off the town's former residents and had some time to rest.

"This has something to do with the council," Boss sighed, leaning over the table and staring into the patterns of the scorched wood. "I don't think this was the old man's doing though. I can believe him wanting to cut us out, or sending soldiers to do the burning, but these villagers were innocent, and those arsonists were barely human. I can't imagine him turning people into that or setting them on a place like this. Not only is it evil, it's also a waste of time and resources, something he seemed very concerned about last time I saw him."

The others remained silent. They didn't know Corden as well as Boss did. They had been working together for ten years. While Corden had taken charge of the public-facing operations, all the legal and above-board operations, Elise had been involved with less-legal wealth redistribution, blackmail, information gathering, and sabotage. They had made great progress, up until a few years ago when the crown changed hands. The current king was incredibly resistant to their efforts and undid a lot of the things they had strived for. That was around the time that the former knight, Ser Redrain, and the Lady Marise had come into the picture. Before then, they hadn't been called rebels. That was what the new king had branded them as.

If only Boss still had some of her agents. A few of them were almost as familiar as she was with the operations of their organization, and a couple that weren't had insider knowledge instead which pertained to the royal court. Any of them would have been a great help. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate Pepper and Sniffles, on the contrary, she didn't know if she could ever live without them, but an herbalist and a hunter's apprentice certainly weren't spies or strategists. She just wished she had someone who could give her more ideas. She was surprised that the mage didn't have anything to say. He must have known something, and if he did, he was making the conscious or unconscious decision to keep it to himself.

She looked up to the mage, who was himself looking nowhere in particular. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he didn't seem particularly interested in engaging in the discussion. Still, he stood at the table at least. That meant he should respond if called upon. "Is there anything you can tell me about the thing we fought? You saw when I killed it. There was no way that was human or elf. What was it?"

The mage stopped staring vacantly into the distance and returned Boss's gaze. "Yes, well, I have some idea. It doesn't look like necromancy to me, but certainly some other variation of black magic. Perhaps a curse, of some kind. Re-purposed. Typically, a curse is used to inflict suffering or punishment, but whatever this was, I suspect it was intended to be used as a tool instead. Either to make the affected more capable, or so they could be used beyond the point at which they would otherwise perish."

That sounded even worse than Elise had expected. She knew it wasn't going to be anything good, but it made her think that these people were being turned into tools. It wasn't like she was unfamiliar with people being used as resources to be exploited, but seeing someone being changed to that extent just tickled her nerves in all the wrong ways.

Peper straightened up and looked between Boss and the mage with mounting concern. "You're telling me we're dealing with monsters and black magic now? Aw hel, you know you're my friend, Elie, but if I knew what I was getting myself into I never would have signed up."

Boss had to laugh. "Me too, Pep. Me too. You going to stick around, or is it time to call it quits?"

The big woman dabbed her brow with a handkerchief. Though she was tall and muscular, it was all for show. Pepper wouldn't hurt a fly. "Sticking around. Of course. You're going to need someone to keep stitching you up while you run around playing hero. Especially since magic man over there won't do it." She glared at the mage.