Summoned to a Shattered World

Birthright Chapter 48 - The Tides of Fate

I watched as Elmidath finished filling her bag, based on the energy with which she moved it seemed she was more or less recovered. "Are we really going?"

"Of course."

"Why? Just because your father said so? You don't want to know why?"

Sighing, she set the bag aside and glared at me. "We don't need to know why. Don't you trust him?"

"I did, right up until that thing got lodged in his head. Now I'm not sure what to think."

"Don't be ridiculous, he's still the same man."

I rolled my eyes. "How can you know that?'

"Because he's my father. I'd be able to tell if something was different about him."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Is there something different about him?"

She paused. "He just needs time to recover, then he'll be back to normal."

"So, you admit he is acting different then."

"It doesn't matter, okay? Everything's fine."

I wasn't sure if she was trying to convince me or herself but I clearly wasn't getting anywhere. At least they were similar when it came to their stubbornness, I could say that much with confidence. Fine, if this was what they wanted I couldn't be bothered to argue any further. Whatever happened was their problem. I had no idea of what might happen once we got the village, but it was sure to be terrible. All I could hope for was that it wouldn't require too much work on my part.

We rushed through the last of the preparations, and met Elmidath's father outside. He was dressed in fine clothes befitting his station, though he brought neither armour nor weapons with him. I let out a long yawn as we left, which both the demons ignored. Of course. It's not like they care how tired I was. They'd better not be expecting much of me, after all I'd been through, I was practically a walking corpse at this stage. Most of the servants had gathered to watch us leave.

I wondered what they thought of all this, it must be strange for them to have their dead master return so suddenly. Even more so as a shadow of his former self with a piece of solid darkness sticking out of his head. Then again, maybe the people of this world had a higher tolerance for such strangeness. It was hard to say, and right now, I didn't much care either way. I just wanted this all to be over.

We trudged our way to the village. As much as I didn't want to be there, the houses were a pleasantly familiar site after spending so much time beneath the manor. Now that was somewhere I didn't want to return anytime soon. Particularly with Tagath's disappearance. The poor bastard was probably long dead by now. With the former Lord Sarinknell in the lead, we stopped some distance away from the outskirts of the village. I cleared my throat to get the attention of my companions. "Now what?"

Elmidath's father stared right ahead. "Bring me to where they harvest the Carnis."

"Why?"

Elmidath glared at me. "Just do it."

Grumbling under my breath, I led the way. We passed a few villagers along the way, but none of them stopped us. Though one of them did hurry over to me as we reached the tunnel and ask what was going on; Yuvina. I shrugged and followed the others beneath the ground. We walked through the tunnel past the workers, many of whom looked confused or annoyed at our presence, until we reached the great fleshy mass. Paying no mind to anything else around him, Elmidath's father stepped forward. He closed his eyes and set his hands against the Carnis. Elmidath and I, along with several villagers stood and watched. I leant over to Elmidath. "What's he doing?"