The Ghost of Fiore

A Fatal Countdown

Ghost sure picked one hell of a place to commit a massacre, it was nothing if not thematic... As the man led us through the trees close to Shirotsume it was obvious that something had gone terribly wrong here.

Before we even reached the supposed magical barrier that the man kept going on about we had to sidestep a large pool of blood that smelled off somehow like there was something foreign mixed in with it. When I added in the look on the man's face, I could see a story of what had happened being painted.

It was easy to see that whoever died there was nothing more than a diversion, especially once we crossed the barrier and came face to face with several scared-looking guards, "How have things been here?" The man asked as we approached, completely ignoring the dirty look he was being thrown by Ivan.

Once again, a sign of trauma surfaced as the guards did nothing as we approached... Either they were really comfortable with this man or they had just given up.

"Are these the ones the monster wanted?" One of the guards asked in a hiss, completely ignoring the man's earlier question.

Our guide sighed heavily before nodding, "Yeah, has Vanessa come back?"  

The was met with a sharp 'no' from the guard before he glared at us as though we were the source of all his issues, "That bitch killed half our guards today, she needs to be put down."

Ivan seemed to brush this off, but I couldn't help but feel myself clench at the pure hatred that was in the guard's voice. How dare he speak that way about Ghost after everything they did to provoke her? They certainly had guts.

Surprisingly, it was our guide who spoke up in Ghost's defense, "I believe she made it clear to our leaders that she wouldn't kill anyone else if she was left alone. I assume that you tried to break into that room and she retaliated?"

That sent all of the guards right over the edge, weapons were drawn and they surrounded us within a second, "How dare you!" The guard who had originally spoken said viciously as he stepped forward, "That monster killed all your comrades, has she really whipped you enough to the point where you're her lapdog? Perhaps we should put you down right now like the coward you are!"

The guards all began to step forward- I wasn't too concerned, after all, I could take care of them on my own and an increasingly irate Ivan was also here- but they were stopped as paper dolls began to pop up in front of them, blocking their ways.

"As exciting as this is, I'm afraid I can't let you kill this worm just yet," Ivan said with a vicious snarl, "I don't trust any of you to lead me to the right place without doing something stupid. Now move aside before I finish the job and kill off all of the guards in this pathetic place."

No one was really given a choice as the paper dolls pushed in on the guards until they began to back up. It really was curious that none of them had even tried to use magic on us, normally there would be all forms of magic being summoned, just begging us to fight but there was nothing.

As quickly as that thought came, it was gone and we were inside the base, it was far less important than just about everything else that was happening at the moment. As we were led through the winding tunnels one thing from the previous interaction stuck with me.

"Hey," I said gruffly, walking a little bit faster so there was some space between me and Ivan, "Why did you defend her? It's not like she's been kind to you."

The man looked back at me only slightly with a strangely empty look in his eyes, "I didn't defend her, I simply presented the logic behind the situation. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm connected to her, but it's simple to see that she had no intention of leaving the dragon slayer's side. If they had simply left her alone, as she requested and focused on evacuating the guild rather than trying to kill her, which obviously wasn't going to happen, then no one else needed to die."