I was tending to the garden when a familiar face reappeared before me, peering over the stone wall that separated my own slice of paradise from the outside world. Ryan. Ryan. Ryan… His face was covered in sweat and he exhaled heavily, as if he'd run all the way here.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked pointedly.
Wasn't it obvious enough just from a glance? "Tending to my garden."
"Your garden? When did you move in? I've only been gone for like… twelve hours."
I couldn't recall when exactly we had moved into our beautiful new home. Though it wasn't of much importance to me. The fact of the matter was that we lived here now, and I wanted to enjoy every day to the fullest while I still could. "Yes. Our garden. I have to make sure it's up to standard before the competition comes due."
The man seemed frustrated with me for some reason. He rounded the wall and opened the small iron gate to get closer to me. "Aw man, snap out of it already! You're dressed like my Dad! What the hell happened to you?"
"Nothing happened to me. I realised what a wonderful town this was. Tahar and Cali and I have moved in together."
Ryan tapped his temples, "You've got some funny stuff in your head, and not the fun kind of funny stuff. They've brainwashed you man!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Seriously man? Look at yourself! Hardened mercenary badass kneeling down and picking weeds like his knees are going to shatter."
"I'm retired."
"You weren't retired yesterday! Don't you remember?"
I heard the faint sound of another voice calling out to me from somewhere. I couldn't place the origin. I'd heard it somewhere before. A woman's voice. A splitting headache came like a bolt of thunder. I clutched my head and fell onto my back. This wasn't right, was it?
"Ah, good. It seems that your new companion has pried open the doors once again." From behind his figure emerged a naked woman with long black hair and red eyes. She had appeared from nothing, but looked so real. "Master – surely you have a strength of will great enough to break these binds?"
I said nothing. I was seeing things, I was sure of it.
The woman stared at me for a moment before realising a heavy sigh, "If you are unwilling to come with me – then I will have to convince you another way." She pointed her sharp fingers at me and the pain only grew worse. It felt like thousands of needles were pushing out from under my skin. I wailed and cried, but no blood emerged from my phantom wounds.
This was… this was Stigma's power – the sway she held over my body and spirit. I became limp and lay spread out on the grass beneath me.
What was I doing?
Stigma hovered over me, to her left was Ryan. "Master, are you finally awake?"
That's right. Stigma. If I didn't use Stigma to consume the souls of others I'd… die. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to spite the misfortune that had been thrust into my hands back then. I looked down at myself, where had these clothes come from? Ryan was right – I was dressed like a middle-aged dad.
I threw the trowel down to the ground and clambered back to my feet in a hurry. Whatever had taken control of me had done the same to Tahar and Cali. It was an unusual feeling, but I was worried about both of them.
"You look pale, are you okay?"
I always looked pale now, unless she was using it metaphorically.
But I wasn't. Whatever had afflicted me had sent me into a paranoid, post traumatic spiral. All the unpleasant memories of my time in and out of the orphanage had bubbled to the surface like bile in my throat. A sinister way to keep a person locked into place. I didn't remember a damn thing that had happened once I blacked out.
It was clear that someone had been watching us the entire time. When they saw their chance, they struck using magic and brainwashed us. I hurried into the bowels of the house once again and searched for them both, finding them sitting in the living room with empty smiles on their faces. Seeing Cali smile was extremely off-putting. Ryan ended up behind me, peering over my shoulder.
"Oh, they got these two?"
"Seems like it. But I don't know if we can snap them out of it. Cali, where's your catalyst?"
She shook her head, "Why would I need it? There's nothing to worry about."
Ryan didn't understand, "Wait – I just woke you up, why can't you free them?"
"Because they don't have…" I stopped myself from spilling the beans again. "It's just different, okay?" They didn't have Stigma inside of them. She'd been using her control over my nervous system to give me a very painful wake up call. If Stigma wasn't around, I'd probably still be doe eyed and enjoying suburban marital bliss. Bleh.
I walked over and tried to shake Cali awake, but she remained submerged in the fantasy. This was bad. "Shit. I'd really like them to be with us."
Ryan cut in and patted my shoulder, "Yeah, yeah. You've got two girlfriends and that's cool and all; but seriously – there's something super weird going on in this town. The inn-keeper just broke into my room and tried to spike me with a jar of herbal medicine."
"Your first thought was to come running down here looking for us?"
He shrugged, "You're the only other normal people here, and you look like you can handle yourself so…"
He followed me deeper into the house, down the corridor and into 'our' bedroom. Stigma had been mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed. Ryan stared at the black and red blade, "Yo! That sword is totally gnarly, where did you find it?" I ignored him and retrieved Stigma's body. Then I turned to the left side of the room. All of our equipment had been dumped into the wardrobe.
I grabbed my armour and clothes, before going through the arduous process of putting my chainmail and plate back on. I slid Stigma back into the leather sheath and hoisted her over my back. They knocked us out, dragged us into a house, and stripped us? Why didn't they steal anything?
"Did you find out anything interesting?" I asked Ryan.
"The guy in the boarding house told me that they try to keep people here using the gardens – something about smelling them."
Now that I think about it, we did collapse after getting too close to a very odourful plant. But making people stay? My mind shot to an evil property developer trying to sell their surplus housing, but I discarded it as too silly. There was a supernatural element to this scheme, the disquiet I had felt before was now justified in full. This town, like the plant that we saw before, was designed to lure people in.
It was the perfect spot too. On the border between the Federation and the Kingdom of Sull. This was a popular road to travel through for both civilians and soldiers. They would be on the lookout for places to stay and resupply. The question remained though, why go to so much effort to occupy these houses?
Ryan looked down at his missing persons flyer, "I hope my missing lady hasn't gotten into any trouble."
"If she's here, she probably has."
I tried to think things through again. A plant-based culprit like a dryad? As far as I knew, Dryads didn't exist in this world. I'd heard rumours about monsters called 'Barkbones' that were along similar lines. They were so rare that most people believed they were nothing more than a myth.
"We need to find whoever's responsible for this and kill them."
"Woah, woah! Jumping straight into the killing?"
"Well, what do you suggest?"
Ryan chewed on his bottom lip and looked away from my withering eyes, "Alright. Maybe you're right, but I don't like killing people without a good reason."
I walked back to the living room door and pointed to my hypnotised friends. "This seems like a good reason to me. They're going to let Cali and Tahar go; or I'm going to cut their fucking head off and mount it above that fireplace."
We spilled back out into the front garden. I wrenched open the iron gate and stomped out onto the main avenue. I was full of blood and thunder, but I didn't know where we could start searching for the person responsible. If Ryan was correct – it was likely that all of the people living here were victims too. I didn't want to go crazy and beat answers out of them. They didn't know anything aside from what they were told to do.
"Let's go back to the main square," Ryan said, "We can ask some of the people there where the town's leader is. For sure they're in on it."
I nodded and allowed him to lead the way, at least until I realised that he had departed in the wrong direction. This guy had an utterly terrible sense of direction. I grabbed him by the collar and twisted him around, "Wrong way."
"Oh! Right, hehe!" We started the lengthy walk back to the middle of the suburb. The silence didn't last very long before Ryan asked me another question. "So, you got a big destiny or quest to complete or something?"
"Why do you think that?"
"You got a Japanese name, you've got the look, and there's no way that's a normal sword. You're like the protagonist of a fantasy novel, you know? It's just a feeling."
"Aren't you American?"
His eyes lit up, "Oh, yeah! Dude, totally. But I knew a few guys who were really into those… light novels."
Was it a compliment to be compared to a copy-pasted young-adult novel stereotype like this?
"I'm not a storybook character. I didn't have anything handed to me, I've done a lot of crazy stuff since I arrived here just to get by."
"I get you. I mean, sometimes I have to remind myself that everybody around me is real too. I got given this sword, it felt like I was being chosen for something. Something bigger than just me or the people around me. But in the end, I just used it to complete odd-jobs and make a wage."
"Everyone wants to think that they're the protagonist of 'life,' don't they? Some people take it way too far. If there's one thing I've learned from being here for two decades, it's that you should never discount the people you meet. They have reasons to do what they do and they won't pull punches just because you have a rare weapon in hand."
"Right, I get it."
"I never had to worry about it. I didn't exactly get reborn with a silver spoon in my mouth, no relic weapon, no nothing. When you grow up in a situation like that you realise that everyone's trying to survive and to cling on to what they have."
"But you don't mind killing?"
I clenched my knuckles a little and looked him in the eye, "Killing someone is hard. I never said it was easy. They're real. Real people with stories and histories that I can't possibly know – but when I kill someone, I usually know that it's for a good reason. They're threatening me or someone I care about, or they're a bandit who's killed, pillaged and raped good people."
Like Bell…
Ryan didn't have a proper response to that, so he just went with: "Damn."
We were at our destination, and the door to the Boarding House was closed tight. The bakery was still open. I ducked under the low hanging doorway and entered onto the shop floor. The same rosy-cheeked woman was waiting for us behind the counter.
"Oh, hello again dear! I heard that you decided to stay with us, I'm so happy to have another nice young family as neighbours."
I cut straight to the point, "Heard from who?"
She tilted her head slightly, "Miss Greene. She's always so excited when someone new arrives."
"Is Miss Greene in charge?"
She spoke with trepidation, "Yes, I suppose she is."
"And where is she now?"
"I… I think she headed down the west street. Her office is there."
An office? Was she some type of elected official?
"What does it look like?"
"Oh, you can't miss it dear. The door is always open. There's a sign that says town hall out front."
"…Thanks."
I swivelled on my heel and left just as quickly as I had arrived. Ryan had decided to take a seat at one of the tables instead of following me. He stood back up and dusted off his hands, "I heard you. So, Miss Greene is in charge huh?"
"Let's go make ourselves known."