Chapter 7
Glaston Township, State: Percival, Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat Year: 2040, Planet: Grimoire
While the watchers hadn't found anything out of the ordinary going on, they were disabused of the notion that their job would be easy fairly quickly. When shouts of dismay were heard from the innermost parts of the clinic, Thompson became aware of complications arising. A sigh escaped him. This was not how he'd envisioned this day going. "What are the odds that those weirdos managed to escape after all?" He'd encountered the children. They weren't so bad, but their mother was a vicious piece of work. Thompson grimaced. "Then again, she had to be." He remembered just what kind of upbringing Davina had endured to live this long and grunted. "I'm beginning to think she had the right mindset after all." It wasn't very often that a woman such as Davina's caliber was born in such a backward place. A sigh escaped him. He admired her ability to face each crisis as they hit her. However, Thompson was willing to bet that she hadn't anticipated this happening the way that it was going. "I should probably go find out what has happened."
Thompson didn't have far to go. It turned out that he and Garic would soon be in huge heaps of trouble.
The band of siblings, their mother, the other three adults, all of the newborns, plus non-living corpses, were gone. How that happened, no one could quite fathom. "Let me in so that I can take a look around," Thompson ordered when everyone dithered around.
As he searched through the building and looked along various walls, Thompson finally figured out how it had been managed and he sighed in frustration. "Just great, there are at least two bonafide mages and hunters that joined the group." No wonder no one could find them. They'd been teleported out of there using magic. Thompson exhaled in frustration. Now he would have to make a report as to how he'd been thoroughly fooled and that wasn't going to be fun at all.
Much to his surprise though, Thompson discovered that Garic wasn't faring much better in his tasks. They actually met right outside the clinic.
Garic looked at Thompson quizzically. "So how are you doing?"
"Not good, the prey escaped," Thompson said flatly.
"Hmm," Garic scratched his head. "I can definitely say that I'm not enthralled with what we're supposed to be doing." He looked around unhappily. "Not to mention how bad off this township is. It is so inbred now that no one can breed true without some kind of birth defect happening."
Thompson grunted. Not being a native resident of Glaston, he wasn't as up-to-date on the politics as Garic was. "I'm debating whether to report in or just vanish." He admitted. "I have standards of what I'll tolerate. However, the longer I remain here, the filthier I feel." Not a sensation that he enjoyed feeling.
Garic grunted. "Good luck escaping this area." He informed Thompson. "Unless you've managed to avoid drinking the water and food, you'll have to detoxify your body of poison that binds us to this place."
Hmm, that was irritating to learn now. However, Thompson merely shrugged. "How is your task going?" He decided to divert the subject and focus on whether Garic managed to conduct anything or not.
*
Of the two tasks assigned, Garic managed to conduct them quite easily. Not only that but he'd found where the troublesome family meant to head to for their picnic.
the Blessing Meadow. He stood on the outskirts of the vast land that only held flowers, and decaying trunks from primeval trees long fallen. It was a beautiful place. However, Garic knew why it was being used as a bastion of sorts.
he didn't set foot on it. It was not a place he could trod recklessly. Not with all the nasty impurities flowing within his body. Garic could vaguely remember the time when he'd been young and innocent. he'd run through the vast grasses and wildflowers just enjoying the serenity of it all. "How did I manage to forget about this place?" He shook his head soberly. "Alas, it is too late for me to return to my innocent youth."
With extreme distaste and reluctance, Garic spread out certain items that would lure monsters to the area. of course, it was one of the Matriarch's demands since he'd accomplished his first task too easily. However, she would learn too late just what he'd actually gathered, and it had nothing to do with the intended targets' lives.
In Garic's viewpoint, she was going too far in meddling with innocent children's lives and turning them into living experiments of desecrated human and monstrous embodiments. He wasn't going to desecrate the meadow just so that the Matriarch could purloin the pure energy that resided within it. Not only that but he wanted to protect the purity of the meadow that much longer even if he could no longer walk through it with impunity. "I'm sorry that I have do to this. I will avoid coming too near the boundaries." He spotted one of the stronger spirits, a female elemental watching him with anger and sadness. "I will not walk within your boundaries," Garic murmured. "I'm not the optimistic youngster I once was."
The spirit shook her head at him. "You can still mend your ways and change your fate. You know that."
Garic shrugged. "Yes, I know. I would have to let my family die in my stead if I did that though." Not something he was willing to do.
*
In the biggest manor of the Glaston township, the matriarch settled in her most comfortable chair with a scrying ball on her lap. She listened to everything that was happening. A frown briefly crossed her features when she glanced off to one side of the office. Darkness would soon fall, and then the monsters would hunt any fools that remained wandering around the various trails. She smirked. "It looks as if the illusions are still running on full power." That was something she'd set up long ago to prevent anyone from escaping the forests once they'd entered them. it was a good way to keep nosy strangers from telling the world at large about Glaston's presence and the secrets it contained.
Her smirk faded when she tried to find Davina's whereabouts. Well, except for the individuals related to Davina. There was an ominous darkness that blocked all her attempts. "Damn, she actually chose death over becoming my vessel." That shameless wench had chosen to go to the Blessing Meadow after all.
What a hassle, the matriarch frowned. A headache throbbed at her temples forewarning of the migraine that would strike soon. "Shall, I summon the other candidate to become my vessel?" She would have to decide soon as to what to do. There wasn't much time left in this current shell she'd possessed over eight decades ago.
A sigh escaped the matriarch. "I shall wait a few more hours and see if I can retrieve one of the corpses." Surely no one thought to take those along. However, if by sheer chance one of them received a blessing and was resuscitated, then the matriarch would have a double shot at reviving Glaston most profoundly.
Her eyes gleamed with excitement. "Hmm, I can pursue my goals of hybridizing humans and monsters to fuse them into a superior being." Then she would make Glaston the capital of a new empire. One that would encompass the entirety of Barat. "I shall enjoy making this happen."
The matriarch chuckled as madness engulfed her with darkness. After all, who would even think about turning Barat into another continent only fit to become a hunter's paradise and a mega-continent at that? She sighed because there was a long way before that particular goal was met.
After all, she had to find a good way to disrupt those four empires that took up the central and northern parts of Barat. Then there were the kingdoms in the western part of Barat. Only the innermost center and southern regions not part of the Shantu Republic remained unexplored.
However, that was where the Glaston matriarch originally came from. Though not in a human form of course, but as an entity that most would consider a terrifying monster. "Hmph, what cowards most humans are." She sneered in disgust.