I turned to Stigma, "Sister? Do you know her?"
She tilted her head slightly, "Some of us remember better than others. I recognize her, faintly."
The Eye tittered at her, "Come now, are you so really so hard of memory that you don't recognize your own family? What malicious isolation you must have suffered. To have your mind and spirit snapped in twain by the sensation of feeling nothing. You were the one meant to stay buried, yet here you are."
Stigma sighed, "If you expect me to cry my eyes out at the sight of you, I'm afraid you'll be left wanting. The only thing I can think of when I see you is pure disdain. Your presence is a sour taste settling into the depths of my bowels."
There was a lot of history here that I was missing. One thing was clear, these cursed items and weapons shared one thing in common – the spirits who resided within them. It was easy to see that the two were 'related,' but I had to ask if they were real people. Had they been imprinted into the cursed articles somehow? Dark magic like that would be beyond any living magician.
The Eye didn't seem to mind, "If you don't remember, then I won't waste my time regaling you with the tale. Digging up old history won't save us now. Just as they have forgotten us and our role, perhaps it's fate that we are robbed of our chance to speak."
"I have naught to say to you in return. I bid thee to look forward to the cold embrace of whatever comes after."
"As cruel as ever, some things never change."
I decided to cut in and put a stop to the ghost argument unfolding before me. I wanted to know what Randal was doing, "So what are you getting out of this? Aside from the nice house."
He seemed offended that I'd suggest he was benefitting from it, "Pah! I'm an emissary of a new movement, one that seeks to shake the very foundations of our society. Such things are beneath me!"
"Sure."
"I promised them one thing, and one thing alone. Freedom. The pursuit of all men and women! In their grasp for real, all they had to do was place their trust in me. To fight against an unfair system takes a greater man than I – the beginning and end of all our suffering is our own minds. I didn't need to change the world, I needed to change them."
"A lot of words to say nothing."
"Do we not live lives of oppression? From all sides we are hammered and tempered by other people's expectations and prejudices, prevented from living the way we desire. I have shown these poor, lost souls another way. A way to live without fear of reprisal or judgement or responsibility."
I was getting sick of this. I didn't need to hear the guy's life story to know that he was a nut.
"You brainwashed them. I don't know who you're trying to fool with this cute speech. I got paid to come here and recover two people, and that's what I'm going to do."
But he continued, "You of all people should know the value of what I'm offering! No more poverty, no more struggle. All you have to do is let go of your worldly desires, and allow The Eye to take care of you."
"I don't need someone like to you to do the thinking for me. Let them go."
He sighed, "I hoped it wouldn't come to this," Randal snapped his fingers, "Capture him."
Before I could react, a pair of arms wrapped around me waist and carried me to the ground. Then another, then another. I grunted as the people who were moments ago staring dead ahead, unmoving, descended on me. His command has worked so quickly that I had no time to react. The entire room had turned against me.
"Such a shame. Though I haven't given up on you just yet. I have convinced the sceptical before."
"More like brainwashed them, you crazy fuck!"
It was a bad idea to speak when my lungs were being compressed by several people piling on top of me. The edges of my vision started to fade, and when the fight finally left my body they hoisted me back to my feet and carried me back through the kitchen, down a flight of stairs and into a dark, dank cellar.
I awoke minutes later, too late to fight and escape.
Stigma stood by the only exit with an irritated look on her face, "Why didn't you kill them, master?"
The horde had carried me all the way down to the wine cellar, barring the door shut and locking me inside. Randal didn't want to kill me – he had the perfect opportunity to end me then and there. He even let me keep Stigma by my side.
I didn't need to consider my answer, "I don't murder people for fun."
"These people are the nobles you curse so broadly every waking moment. Would it no fulfil your desire to strike them down?"
"I just said I don't kill people for fun. It might feel good, for a bit, but what does it get me? An extra few offences on my rap sheet?"
I stood up and tried to find another way out but Stigma pushed me back with her hands, "Being seen with me, they'll cut you down regardless of your crimes. When society deems you a monster, is it not to your benefit to act freely? To do as you please?"
"I don't give a shit what society thinks. It's my choice. I'm not too far gone to start cutting down a bunch of people for no good reason."
"There is a good reason. Their life can sustain yours."
I was being paid to rescue two of these people. And if a few of them decided they owed me favour afterwards, that was a bonus. I ignored her and brushed past. The door was locked tight, and the small window allowing light into the basement was too tight for me to fit through. It was cold, way too cold. I quickly retreated back into the corner and wrapped myself up tight. My only hope was that Cali noticed something was up…
---
Cali observed the scramble from outside. Several new watchmen had joined the ones meandering around the garden, and two had been posted on the balcony Ren used to enter the building. The dark-elf warmage sighed and gripped her halberd tight.
"…He got caught."
Adam jolted awake from the windowsill he'd been sitting on for nearly two hours, "Huh? He got caught?"
"It seems this job is more complicated than we first thought."
Cali had kept herself aware the entire time. Though she was in no rush to charge into the manor and rescue Ren. Adam was not calm. He hopped up to his feet and started pacing back and forth, much like Ren did when he was feeling anxious, "Oh no, no no, what about my parents? He said he was going to get them!"
"He will. He isn't going to die that easily."
Cali didn't know where that misplaced confidence was coming from. It was a gut feeling. Ren seemed like the type of person to survive in the strangest of circumstances, like a cockroach. She needed to get into the house and rescue him before his hosts decided they were tired of playing with him.
The question was, how was she going to get inside?
Cali didn't have Ren's gift for stealth and subterfuge. She knew how to make a really big, powerful explosion, but that would just attract the guards from outside and cause all kinds of trouble. She needed to do something subtle, something unexpected.
Cali looked down at her armour and robes, "Adam, do you have any spare clothes in this house?"
"Ah, sure. Some of my mother's old clothes were left behind…"
"I need you to give me them, and tell me how the cult recruits people."
"That's not a problem, but they usually just hand out flyers to people in town. I believe it would be possible to simply walk up to the front door and knock. Explain that you're there to join the cult."
"And they'll let me in?"
"I think so. But they only expect nobles to appear in this district, no one else can get in."
"That will not be an issue. I am a member of the La'Corvan family. Manners and grace are my specialty."
"You are?" Adam squawked - knowing that he was dealing with a daughter of one of the last great Ashmorn houses, "I-I never knew! My apologies!"
Cali frowned, "Don't start treating me like that." This was why Cali avoided revealing her full name around people who knew who the La'Corvan clan were.
"Ah, sorry."
Cali stared Adam dead in the eyes and declared, "Dare I say, I'm the greatest disappointment to ever be born from my dear mother's canal."
Adam blushed, "Ah. That's… interesting."
Adam escorted Cali to his mother's old bedroom, where many of her old clothes had been tossed onto the carpeted floor and left there. Cali picked through the pile until she found something that would fit her properly, she'd built a fair amount of muscle from working as a warmage after all. Adam stepped out of the room and allowed her to change. A mark against the back wall indicated where some type of dresser used to sit. Several bottles of perfume and makeup has also been carelessly tipped out onto the floor. Cali hadn't done her own makeup in years. That kind of convenience was something a woman on the road didn't have.
Though to be honest, she always hated using it.
She was naturally beautiful. Trying to accentuate that with a selection of potentially harmful pastes and colourants wasn't worth her time. If she wanted to put on the façade of an idiotic noble joining a cult though, she needed to do it. There was no mirror in the room, so she had to make do using the reflection in the window. Cali didn't go the whole way, stopping short of the more precise applications.
She looked like a naïve young noble, it was perfect. If the man in charge was… a man – he'd certainly have a rush of blood to his lower regions, strangling the supply of much needed oxygen to his brain. She'd be allowed in and he would quickly try to win her graces. In any other circumstance the idea would excite Cali greatly, but between the potential danger and excitement offered by the cult leader and Ren, Ren would win every time. Cursed weapons were accompanied by many tales of misfortune and suffering and Ren was delivering in spades.
She emerged back out into the corridor where Adam was waiting. The young man blushed anew, "You look great!"
"Naturally."
Cali recovered a small screwdriver from her bag and returned to her catalyst halberd. Adam watched as the dark-elf unscrewed the catalyst launcher from the bottom of the non-bladed side. It looked frankly naked without the spear attached to it, but it would allow Cali to use her magic without hauling the entire weapon with her. She slipped it and several pouches of ammo into her blouse, she also took a small dagger from her travel bag as a backup weapon.
"Are you sure about this? Couldn't we go get some help from the guards?"
"They're already paid off," Cali explained, "This cult has created a deception deep enough to trick them. When faced with the bodies of the effected people and they say nothing is amiss, who are they going to believe?"
"I… guess you're right."
"Do not worry. I will return with your parents and Ren shortly."
"And if you don't?"
"I'd suggest finding a job."