The Hunter

The fire wasn’t moving.

Blank shook out her hands, twisting to look over her shoulder. The waves in the sparse moonlight were still. The lack of the sea's unending chatter unnerved her. Apart from her own breath, the world around her was dead silent. Guy, Ides, and Eridin were just behind her, chests heaving from exertion, staring past her towards the fire. Rue, who’d been standing nearby, scrambled back, balancing on her toes as if to bolt for the jungle. Blank became aware of a shadow blocking out the orange firelight. She looked up.

Towering over her, between the party and the bound and unmoving pirate, was a white-haired, muscular man who looked past her with unearthly eyes.

“I wouldn’t kill him, Eridin, it seems entirely unnecessary but I suppose if you really wanted to…”

Eridin stood as though frozen himself, but the rapid rise and fall of his chest as he stared back at the giant betrayed his terror.

Behind Eridin, Guy and Ides dropped into low, defensive stances.

Something in the man’s voice shifted.

“Goodness, it’s been far too long, my dear!”

Blank whipped around, a jolt racing through her as she met his eyes. He was undeniably speaking to her. “What?”

“Hm, I guess you wouldn’t remember, would you? You clearly wanted to forget with that memory curse.”

“M- memory curse?” A foreboding feeling crept into her core. Her head began to buzz.

Oda slid into Blank's shadow, hiding behind her legs and drawing a dagger.

The man again addressed Eridin.

“And you? It’s been over a year now since we’ve spoken.” A disapproving grimace crossed quickly over his features. “You seem to have lost all sense of self care since then.”

Eridin ducked his head.

He looked past him to Ides. “A leonin, my my.” His swirling white eyes turned amethyst. “And an oathbreaker? Are you in need of a patron?”

“I think I’m good.” Ides answered with a growl.

The tiniest sound of shifting sand brought his gaze flicking over to Rue.

“Mmm, you’re going to need a mask in town, aren’t you? Wouldn’t want to run into anyone who knows the family history!”

“...okay.”

He tilted his head, an odd gleam in his eye. “No ‘thank you’ for the warning?”

She simply glowered back, suspicion darkening her features.

“I wouldn’t try to run if I were you, little one,” he warned, then his gaze shifted again, landing on Guy. He sized him up for a moment. “Go back to the ship.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.” Guy rebutted dangerously.

“If you go into town, you will die.”

“Is that a threat?” Blank bit out.

“You would know,” he said mildly. “Where are my manners? I am Sheverash, god of the hunt. Now, with that out of the way, what’s your plan for when you get into town?”

“You don’t get to know that.” Ides said, his voice low and stony.

Oda darted out from between Blank’s legs and leapt at the god before them. He waved his hand and she froze mid-air, falling with a plop on the sand, still as a statue.

Ignoring Oda's interruption, Sheverash narrowed his eyes at Ides. “Judging by that response, you don’t have one. Were you going to simply show up and hope for the best?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Rue rejoined.

“Look, I don’t relish death, I like things to survive. What you’re doing is suicide if you don’t get your act together. I couldn’t stand to lose another country, which is what’s going to happen should you fail. Should you choose to accept my help, I can tell you where to go. However-” the god held up a hand, “-I can’t tell you who’s behind it, not yet. I’m bound by the great Old One not to say. He’ll do to Alkenpo what he did to Realtam.”

The Great Old One. Whoever or whatever he was, he didn’t sound like good news.

“Figure it out, or Zandeer will kill you all.”

The long, heavy, silence seemed to frustrate him. “Well? Speak, someone.”

“Look, Chevy… crash,” Blank stumbled over the name. “We don’t know you-”

“But you do.”

Clenching her fists, she ground out, “Stop saying that.” She didn’t, and it was starting to freak her out.

“He is who he says he is.” Eridin said quietly.

“As for you…” Sheverash snapped his fingers, and in a flash of white light, Eridin disappeared.

“What did you do?!” Blank shouted, her heart jumping into her throat.

“Sent him to another plane of existence.” He replied as though commenting on the weather.

Oda struggled to her feet, shaking off the time-freezing magic as if in slow motion. She caught sight of Sheverash and with a hiss, leapt again.

With a snap and a flash, the tabaxi was gone.

“Hey, bring her back!” Rue shouted, brandishing her twin axes in both hands.

“Anyone else…” The question sounded more like a challenge. He glared at Rue as she stood stiff-legged as a dog ready to bolt.

“I didn’t sign up for gods, alright?” She snapped. “This is all a bit much right now.”

He sighed. “Any other questions?”

She was getting visibly madder by the second. Blank braced herself for something stupid. “Yeah, how do we get rid of you?”

“I go where I want.”

Guy didn’t drop his defensive stance. “Where are our friends? How can we be sure you didn’t just kill them?”

With a wave of his hand, a portal wreathed in white sparks opened in the air above the fire. They could see into what appeared to be a castle, where Oda was at the top of a set of curtains, claws buried in the ornate fabric and shredding them with abandon on her way down. Eridin stood in shock some ways farther down a long hall lined with doors and richly colored paintings.

“Not dead.” Sheverash replied. “Any other questions before I send you on your way? No? I’ll be watching.”

With a ground-shaking thunderclap, the god of the hunt vanished.

____________________________________________________

“H- hey, hey, where’d stabby go?!” The bound pirate gasped as time slowly regained momentum, the bonfire crackling and a soft breeze stirring the jungle leaves. The waves resumed their roar as though they’d never been interrupted.

Ignoring him, the remaining three members of the party gathered to Guy. Dragging her feet in the sand, Rue wanted to book it for Gullwing right then and there. However, she couldn’t guarantee that Ides or Blank might outrun her and then she’d be screwed. No, she had to be smart and bide her time as long as she could.

“I’ve heard of Sheverash before,” Guy was saying, “but never as a god. The way I heard was more along the lines of a mythic character, hero or not I can’t remember now. As much as I hate it, we should listen to him." He took a deep breath, clearly bothered. "I’ll go back to the ship.”

Blank folded her arms tightly over her chest, her wide-eyed gaze boring into the sand. “He knew me. How? How did he know me? And he said something about a memory curse??”

“The way he said it sounded like it was self-inflicted.” Ides said in a measured tone.

“I don’t know!” She replied tremulously, near to tears. “I’m really freaked out!”

Rue reached out to put a hand on Blank’s shoulder, then thought better of it, dropping her arm to her side.

“Whatever else he said, he did say he’d be watching,” Guy interrupted. “Moreover we do need an actual plan. I don’t think any of us were prepared to get this far this quickly.”

Blank took a deep breath and sighed heavily, scrubbing her fingertips across her forehead. “You’re right. Now isn’t the time.” Even she didn’t look convinced by her statement.

“Ides-” Guy started, “Oathbreaker? No, nevermind that now,” he corrected himself.

Ides didn’t acknowledge the question. “Plan?”

“Lay low, then what?” Blank asked, “Where do we even start? A bar?”

“Great for if we want our pockets picked.” Rue said. Gullwing wasn’t known for its high society.

“Helpful.” Ides replied sarcastically. “We’re going to need disguises, especially you. We cannot risk getting caught.”

Guy addressed Ides, clearly appointing him the unpoken leader. "I can give you the night, no more. Daylight will be too dangerous for us. Be at the harbor by dawn, I’ll do what I can to get you out.”

“Well, it's half a plan.” Rue allowed, unenthusiastically.

“Only one night to get the knowledge we need,” Ides said, already looking tired.

“It’s all we have.” Guy walked over to the bodies scattered around the fire and picked over the remains to find uncharred pieces of clothing. He handed Rue a cowl with a large hood. She accepted it, wrinkling her nose. It reeked of booze and bonfire. Ides and Blank were given cloaks with Zandeer patches sewn over the heart.

“I wouldn’t keep those if I were you,” Rue said as she pulled on the cowl, fidgeting with the fit, “Especially ones as big as that.”

“It could be an in to better information.” Blank insisted.

She pointed to the patch near the clasp of Ides’s cloak, then at Blank’s. “Captain and midshipman. People would expect to recognize you with that rank, and when they don’t it will raise suspicion. Visible authority is not what we’re going for here.”

Although, she chided herself, it would be that much easier for them to get caught. And if that were the case, she wouldn’t be immediately suspected as a traitor to the party and rest of the Dawn’s crew.

She huffed and adjusted the cowl for the tenth time. Why should she care whether or not they knew of her betrayal anyways? They’d be dead as soon as discovered, it’s not like it mattered. All the same, her stomach was churning. Wiping her sweaty palms on her pants, she reminded herself she’d just met a god. Anyone would feel nauseous after meeting a god.

"Who else would we be besides Zandeer?" Ides argued.

"Bounty hunters, mercenaries, anyone with questionable morals and empty pockets."

He studied the patch and considered what she’d said. Then, he ripped it off and stuffed it in the embroidered pouch Oda had surrendered to him in the tavern.

Blank refused to remove hers. “If we all show up without them, it’ll be just as suspicious.”

“You’d better have a good story then,” Rue said dismissively. Again, why should she care if the others got caught?

Guy helped them haul the bodies into the underbrush. It was doubtful that anyone else would make the trek to the beach after sunset, but it would buy them a little while should the scene around the fire be discovered.

He nodded to them. “Harbor, dawn,” he reminded them, “Good luck, don’t die.”

An two hour’s trek through the underbrush brought them to the outskirts of the city. Rue took the lead, but as they drew closer, she paused. When she’d last been in Gullwing, the buildings on the edge of the city huddled close together, as if hiding from the wilderness of the island. Now they sprawled out farther than she remembered, looking rough and nearly as wild as the jungle itself.

One building in particular caught her eye. It was the old house that she’d once been warned to stay far, far away from. When she was a girl, it had sat beyond the fringes of Gullwing, separated from civilization for reasons no one could explain to her. She’d been dared to explore it, but the grave warnings from her parents and other captains kept her from ever acting upon those dares. She’d never gotten a satisfactory answer as to why she had to stay away, and it was strange to see it now within the city boundaries.

There were more people than she expected, wandering in and out of buildings and conversing loudly, but even the most drunk people in the large, circular plaza were giving the mystery house a wide berth. The general tone in the air was celebratory, her best guess was the Tralco attack. But the attack had been thwarted... She gnawed her lip, mind racing to make sense of it. Most everyone had some marking of Zandeer. There were higher ranking officers patrolling in pairs around the plaza, wearing the same patch as Ides’s from earlier and pointedly sober.

“Keep your heads down and act like you want to be here,” she instructed the others, hoping Ides wouldn’t do something foolish like trying to fight the entire gathered organization. Following the trail of revelers, she spotted another new addition to the city.

A massive, circular temple loomed over the plaza, with four thin towers that rose high into the night sky.

The party stopped some distance away, watching. Everyone going in and out had a Zandeer symbol, and the longer she observed, the more Rue realized their states of drunkenness depended entirely on how high ranking they were. The lackeys were absolutely wasted and officers were much steadier on their feet.

“We’re definitely going in there.” Ides said.

That didn’t surprise her. “Well,” she scratched her nose and pulled the cowl up. “We’re here for information, guess this is the place to look.”

She couldn’t wait for this night to be over.

____________________________________________________

Golden light spilled from the open doors of the temple. Ides was the one leading the way now, muscling through the crowd to get inside, and leaving enough room for the girls to follow. He heard them close behind. Blank had nicked a bottle from some dazed drunk at the door, and was bringing it to her lips. He hoped she wasn’t actually drinking from it, he didn’t want to guess what noxious swill it contained and who’d had their paws on it before. She let out a high pitched giggle, then there was a soft whump as she ran into Rue.

“What are you doing?” Rue hissed.

“Trying to blend in,” Blank retorted in a whisper.

Rue let out a sound of disgust and grabbed Blank’s wrist, hauling her along in Ides’s wake.

The initial crowd thinned some, and Ides got his first good look at the inside of the temple. It was huge, with vast vaulted ceilings and a wide staircase leading up to a second level. Opulence oozed out of every corner, down to the shining rivets in the doorways and the slick, painted tiles. Open arches lined the curved walls, leading to alcoves and antechambers where more people gathered. The main space alone looked as though it could fit an entire town’s population inside, and it was teeming with Zandeer.

In the center of the main chamber rose a statue that nearly scraped the ceiling. He pushed closer, and the crowd thinned dramatically.

In front of them loomed a two-story metal-cast statue of what looked to be a squid, reaching out with a single tentacle towards a man of indeterminate species who was lifting an arm up towards it.

“What in the seven hells is happening here?” He muttered to himself.

Rue and Blank came up beside him. Rue’s brows knitted in confusion, and Blank cocked her head curiously. The few Zandeer members around them were also looking up at the statue, but without the sense of worshipfulness one could expect to see in a temple. It was almost as if it were an art piece rather than an idol.

Two men off to the left leaned against the low wall that separated the statue from the rest of the floor. One had a pouch on his belt similar to the one Ides bore, and the other had no indication of membership.

The second one was talking animatedly, as though they were old friends. “Tell me everything, what is it like here? How’s life?”

“I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” the first man replied with a wide grin, then glanced over his shoulder to the statue, and his expression flickered ever so slightly. “But when Wide-Eye met him, everything changed.”

“How long ago was that?”

He squinted into the middle distance. “Five… seven years ago? I can’t recall now. But think of what just happened in Tralco. That never would have been possible before.”

Ides had heard the name Wide-Eye before, and not just back at the beach. Riffian Wide-Eye was the highest ranking member of Zandeer, and unfortunately clever. It made sense that he’d be heavily involved in the attack.

The men wandered away, their conversation melting into the neverending noise of voices around them.

Ides looked back at his party. Rue had snagged a bottle from a passing tray and was taking a long swing with her cowl down. She scanned the room, bare-faced, before catching his eye. He scowled at her. She shot him a dirty look but lifted the cowl back into place.

Blank was some feet away, inspecting something. She waved him over, gesturing to a plaque affixed to the low wall surrounding the statue.

“He who rides the lightning bolt joins forces with Zandeer.” She read aloud.

That gave them very little knowledge in terms of immediate usefulness. Ides stepped back and took a moment to observe the people around him. Finally, a pattern began to emerge. The highest-ranking officers he’d yet seen wore medallions and were starkly sober. They were all taking the stairs up and to the right. What he wouldn’t give to follow them. If he were anymore reckless, he would. He would burn the whole place to the ground if given the chance. But Zandeer were like roaches. They could survive anything. He had to learn how to destroy them from the roots up.

“We’re not getting anywhere just standing here.” He told the other two.

“Divide and conquer?” Blank asked. Rue perked up.

He nodded. He was not pleased with the notion of letting Rue go off on her own in enemy territory, but he didn’t have the time nor the patience to babysit. She’d said she was done with Zandeer but he wouldn’t trust that for all the gold in Gladis. However, it was a risk he was going to have to take.

“Find out what you can and we’ll meet back up. Just stay aware of the time.”

They agreed and he turned away in search of something promising.

____________________________________________________

Thanks for reading part 10 of my ongoing D&D series! I try to upload every Friday so keep an eye out for #11! Things get pretty wild from here pretty quick.

Get started here -> Part One

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