In the dead of winter there wasn't a single bird to break the silence. I begged for sound, wind, birds, anything but even our horses went dead quiet. We waited on top of the hill for sign of life within the buildings below. The noiseless town caused panic to rise in my chest but I repressed the fear. To any normal person silence was better than screams. In my line of work screaming meant someone was still alive to save. Silence meant we were too late.
We received our report two days ago about demonic activity. We tried getting here faster but we were a two-day ride away.
The sun set and the Omni star followed closely behind casting a deep red glow over the snow making the scene look like it was covered in blood. Around the village were man made trails leading in and out of the main roads with an infrequent pattern of footprints around the outsides. These footprints lead into the woods in all directions then back into town several times. The snow was too deep to make out anything more than a hole in the ground. We would have to get very close to determine foot size, if they were human prints, and if there were claws.
"Arion!" I yelled to the skies frightening my horse, Seriph. She jumped backwards and reared her head.
Arion flew from the sky and perched on a boulder. Arion was an Avian, a race of Akira that could shift between three forms: A large falcon, a human, and a mix of the two. Arion had a white belly with black spots, his back and wings were gray feathers accented with white around the edges. His feathers were smooth and well groomed, laying neatly against his skin making them appear as a singular velvety pelt instead of individual feathers.
"Scope out those footprints."
"Aye!" He jumped into the sky, wind blew against my cheeks and froze my face. His large wings made a booming noise breaking the silence that I hated.
"Why don't we just go down there?" Landon, one of fifteen demon hunters that accompanied me. He had just graduated from squire, this was his first mission as knight.
"We don't want to trample over footprints. This town looks abandoned, we need them to figure out where the demons went." Xanthius explained for me.
"If this was a demons doing." I corrected him.
"Yes, there are hundreds of hellish creatures that could have done this."
We watched Arion circle the town then gently perch on a straw roof. His head bobbed this way and that as he surveyed the area then took flight and circled back. He perched on his boulder again. "There are odd shaped footprints, but they're too small to be a demon and too pointy to be a humans."
"Where do they lead?" I asked.
"It's hard to tell." Arion looked back at the town with a quizzical look in his peregrine eyes.
"What is it?"
"It's almost like they did this on purpose. The tracks are stomping all over the place. They must have done it to allude us."
"They expect us?" I asked a rhetorical question which was followed by silence.
"Would you be able to identify where they went?" Amy, my Terran Akira comrade asked. She was a panther with sleek black fur. Her human skin was a midnight ebony with sharp yellow eyes.
"It would take a very long time to do this by myself." He said.
I turned around to my group. They waited for direction.
"We're going to split up. Xanthius, you and Felicia take two Akira and go south. Follow those tracks that go further into the mountain. Amy, choose four people and head north into the forest. Elia take the rest. Arion and I will search the town. If anybody runs into anything use your stones to communicate your location."
Only Xanthius, Amy, Elia, Me and Arion had stones. They were smooth rocks that looked as shards of glass but glowed white when someone needed help. It shone so bright you could see them from miles away. When one stone was activated the others glowed in case we couldn't see the flash.
The group separated, and Arion flew to a rooftop and perched, keeping his eyes open for trouble.
I grabbed Seriphs attention by lightly pulling on the reigns. My legs tightened around her belly and I thrust my hips. I clicked my tongue against the side of my mouth and Seriph trotted forward.
Seriph came within a few feet outside the village when she suddenly reared and whinnied out of control. She stomped and began creeping away. I struggled to stay on but held tightly to the reigns.
"What is it?" Arion called from the rooftop.
"She's spooked! I'm going to have to leave her here." I dismounted when we came to a comfortable distance from the town. With a hundred pounds of armor on my body I sank into the snow. I trudged through. The snow had frozen overnight after it rained. It was as hard and sharp as shards of glass. It creeped into my armor and what was once warm and dry was now cold and wet, I felt like I was living in a freezer.
"I hate snow." I muttered to myself but Arion caught it.
"Why don't you do your fire thingy." He said.
"Fire thingy?"
"You know… the bursty sun flame thing."
"The sun fire, flame, thing?"
"You don't have a name for it?" His beak gawked open in shock.
"I never needed a name for it."
"Godius gives you a powerful gift and you never needed a name for it?"
"If I think of a name will you leave me alone?"
His head cocked to the side and his eyes met the sky. He pondered. "Deal, it better be cool. Nothing stupid like Sun Flare or some dumb obvious shit."
"Dammit…" I muttered to myself. I wanted to take the easy route and name it Sun Flare just to shut him up. Arion wasn't going to make this easy on me.
"So what's your excuse?"
Should I tell him? Arion was the type of asshole that would laugh at me.
I finally passed the tall snow and made it to the area where it was stomped down into a thick layer of ice. My leather boots had grip but I still glided across it.
Arion glared at me from the rooftop demanding an answer.
"Because… I hate using fire." I finally admitted.
"You're so ironic." He said while shaking his head at me.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You're the sun gods saint, and you hate fire?"
"It's not ironic, it makes sense."
"Ha! Howso?"
"Godius knows I'll never abuse the flame because I fear it. I only use it in emergencies. Unlike you, I'd never use it to show off."
Arion scoffed. "I never show off."
"That's a load of crap." I rolled my eyes. I slipped but caught myself before my weight crushed my ankle. "It would be nice to have wings right now…"
I was too focused on the ground to see Arions expressions, knowing him he was laughing silently to himself. My plan was to inspect every house in the village, but the town hall gave me a daunting feeling. It was a dark ominous building already constructed with dark wood and gothic accents. But the windows were empty with no light shining through. Something about the shade almost gleamed.
"Something is wrong with this house." I said to Arion.
"What is it?"
"It's a dark feeling." I carefully wiggled my way to the steps and gained my footing on the wood. I looked closer at the door, the gleam was gone. The large double doors loomed over me and I felt small for a woman that towered over everyone else.
I reached for the door to pull it open but I hesitated. My odd feelings have never failed me before. The large door groaned open allowing light to beam into the haunting vision inside.
The main entrance was a large rectangular area with stairs on each side. It had a ceiling twenty feet high. Metal poles were bolted on the sides and ran across the ceiling. Dangling from the poles were chains, dangling from the chains were the villagers.
The bodies that had faces were blue, the arms were pale but the hands and feet were blackened with frost coating their bodies. Each one was mutilated differently. Some had arms, some had their heads, some had their faces, and others had their bowels in a heap below their feet.
Blood was everywhere, smeared into handprints on the walls, soaked into the carpet then froze solid and frozen to the tools that lied haphazardly on the floor. On my left was a hand cranked meat grinder. A heart rested on top of the funnel with bits of pink flesh surrounding it. On the floor was a pile of human meat.
Images rushed to my head. Images of screams but it wasn't of the villagers.
"Stop…" I whispered to myself. My eyes closed and took a deep breath. I focused on something else. Anything else. When I thought I had regained my bearings I opened my eyes. Instead of mutilated corpses hanging on the walls I was surrounded by fire.
A piercing pain from my ear on the right side of my face brought me back to reality. I focused on the morbid scene, doing all in my power to keep the flashbacks from haunting me.
I studied the ground for signs of the hellish creature's whereabouts. A small shimmer caught my attention. As glass would reflect the sun the blood seemed to gleam against the darkness instead.
A thud landed on the porch behind me. Arion transformed into his human form. His feathers receded into his skin leaving a hairline on his scalp and a small soft tuft for his eyebrows. His beak transformed into a gawking human. His eyes remained black with an aqua ringlet.
"How did I not smell this?" He said.
"The cold has a way of masking scents," I said.
"Something isn't right." I examined the blood a bit closer.
"You mean besides all the dead people hanging from the ceiling?" Arion said, his eyes till locked to the bodies.
"Fuck you. I mean… The blood. Look at it."
Everything was frozen and covered in miniscule ice particles.
"Its… frozen?" He said.
"No, you simpleton." I bent closer to a frozen puddle of blood a few inches from my boot. "Just as I thought."
"Are you going to keep me in the dark?"
"There are traces of a spell in this blood."
"Ah… How did you figure that out?"
"Magic is consisted of millions of threads, they all shine different shades, colors and tones. Light magic is consistent of light colors and shades. Dark magic…"
"Dark shades, dark colors… yea yea."
"When we use magic we're threading it together to make our spell a lot like sewing or using a loom. A spell for fire, for example, is weaved with bright red and yellow threads. You can tell something is made from magic, or a spell has been activated by looking for those threads. I wouldn't expect a magically disinclined birdbrain like yourself to know what you're looking for…"
"Hey! I find that offensive." He said as his arms crossed. I ignored him
"But if you get really close," Arion leaned into the blood puddle that I pointed at, "You can see the threads of magic weaved together almost as if you were staring at your own clothes."
Deep in the darkest shades of the frozen blood was a pattern, almost a cross stitching. It took Arion a minute or two to see it but eventually did.
"So, what spell was made from this?"
"I can't tell."
"But I thought you said that weaves of magic make up a spell, so if you know what thread is what, then can't you find out?"
"I also said that there were millions of them. Besides, unless I have the spell book to study how they were weaved, and what threads did what then I could. Only a high level sorcerer would be able to tell without a spell book and even then they can only guess. One thread could determine the difference between a fire spell and a love spell."
"Wow, I never grew up with magic… This is all so new to me." Arion said.
"It takes many years to master, and even though I know a few things I still only know the basics. Which is why I use a giant axe, and not a staff."
"Well, do the… missing pieces have anything to do with the spell." He surveyed the corpses with a painful wince.
"I'm not sure."
The feathers on Arions neck stood up. "This place gives me the heebie jeebies."
"There is definitely something wrong with this place besides it being a sacrificing center. I've been around millions of dead bodies in my lifetime… Nothing gave me a feeling that someone is standing right behind me." I had to glance behind me as a shiver crawled through every muscle in my back.
I studied the blood a bit closer hoping I could identify a thread of magic that would give me all the answers. What I saw had nothing to do with blood but underneath the dense line of feet that dangled in the air was a set of feet still standing. But I could see a faint trace of wood grain behind the transparent legs.
I jumped upward and peered through a gap between the dense curtain of bodies and saw a face in the crevice. It quickly flashed to the side. I bent back down and tried to find the feet but they were gone. I jumped back up and looked at Arion.
"Did you see that?"
"Um, no?"
"Fuck, somebody was there. Behind the bodies." I pointed between two people.
"There was? Want to check it out?"
"Yes… and no." I sighed. Crawling underneath dead bodies and slinking around frozen bowels on the floor made my skin crawl. "Let's get this over with."
I took my helmet off, it clinked when it touched the floor then crouched on my hands and knees and breathed in deep. Thank the goddess of mercy that everything was encased in ice. A few inches away was a stomach intestine with other bits spread across the floor.
"The next person that says our job is exciting get's a saints fist to their face." I said. Arion chuckled but his voice shook.
"Your crazy fans would still find that enjoyable." I wanted to believe Arion was joking, but he wasn't. People scared me more than fighting demons.
My leather gloves protected my hands from the ice, but the cold crept in anyway. My fingers went numb and my lip began to shiver. My titanium knee pads did well to keep the warmth in, but it made it difficult to crawl. My knees slipped and scratched against the bloodied ice and I had to rely on my hands for grip.
"If you just kind of slide your knees forward and pull with your hands it makes it a lot easier. Like a dog wiping his ass against the floor." Arion said.
"Good idea." We wiped our asses across the floor, hunched over until my armor couldn't let me bend anymore. I could feel the victim's toes grazing against the top of my head. I tried to bend more but my chest plate limited my contortions.
We continued forward slowly – there were more people than I thought. A rotten stench wafted into my nostrils, it was so foul it caused me to almost throw up.
"Goddess of mercy, Arion! Brush your damn teeth!" I heard shuffling behind me and assumed it was him.
"It wasn't me." I turned at the sound of his voice, instead of being behind me as I thought, he was on the other side of the room.
"What the fuck are you doing! The feet were over here!"
"I thought I saw something over here." He pointed closer to the staircase.
"Then who breathed into my helmet!"
"It wasn't me!"
I shivered but warmth trickled my neck. Something hot was emanating from the corpses and the shuffling continued but it wasn't behind me… It was above me.
I didn't want to look up, but my neck acted on its own accord. A burly man dangled above me, his toes an inch from my face. At first glance he was not as mutilated as the other corpses but I could see up his large shirt. It was too dark to make out details, but the fabric moved and something white peered through the darkness.
The sound of hooves trampled around outside.
"Shi! The demons are still in the village!" Amy screamed.
Hissing rang throughout the building, the stomachs of people burst open and creatures jumped out from within. The door slammed shut and I was consumed in darkness.
Arion screamed, and a heavy body landed on my chest and thick nails screeched against my breast plate. The stench of hell breathed into my helmet as a red devils large nose stuck in my face.
"You're too late!" He hissed.
The chain that held up the human corpse broke. The devil jumped away in time as it crushed me. One after another, body after body they were being stacked on top of me. I was stuck.