The Red Glaive

“The children of the village of Sosit have been disappearing in the night. Three children have already vanished. They suspect a Night Devil.” Jago said as they rode in the dark. Jago’s surefooted horse followed the dirt trail without hesitation while Fable, Brute, and River treaded carefully their riders gone quiet as they stared into the darkness of the forest around them for any sign of red. Jago continued undaunted. “Normally devils cannot enter towns, as you well know, the torchlight is enough to keep them at bay. Occasionally, however, a stronger devil comes around that can withstand low light for short periods of time.”

“What kind of devil can withstand light?” Aeria said. There were many kinds of devils, that she knew. She had come across a devil that knew how to cut power to an outpost. They learned about devils during Tarda’s lectures but Tarda’s voice was so monotone no one ever paid attention except Niko.

“Those type are common in Aestus, to see one so far south is very concerning.”

“I’m having a hard time with a night devil that withstands light!?” Isokki exclaimed. “Are you saying that no where is safe? That’s terrifying,”

“Don’t you fret.” Jago said. “The light of the Night Road repels nearly all Night Devils. It is powered by the magic of Storm Lords of Durmenda after all. It’s in these small villages that don’t have that kind of access where we see these things. For whatever reason, devils avoid towns when they get too large. Haven’t you been paying attention to Lector Tarda? I assume he still teaching is he not?” Jago looked back at the nervous adepts who nodded slightly. “Old gaffer, bet he shits dust.”

They arrived at the village of Sosit just as dawn broke. They didn’t have much incident during the night, except once when they heard a growl deep within the forest before hearing the steps of something coming their way. Jago summoned his glaive sword and whatever it was fled.

Sosit was small, there were maybe fifteen families in a small settlement in the middle of the woods. Most of the cabins had been built in the clearing, where a crude barricade had been erected surrounding the clearing. There were still a few more homes hidden away beyond the tree line. A wood barricade had been recently assembled around the clearing and when Jago and his adepts entered the whole of the village stopped to stare.

As they neared the village center, a woman’s shouts became clearer and clearer. “Send out a party, please!” the woman begged the village elder and fell on her knees. “Please!” she cried out before breaking down into stifled sobs.

“What is the meaning of this?” Jago’s voice boomed over the woman’s cries.

“The devil took her child last night.” the elderly man said, but at the sound of Jago’s voice the woman turned to face him and she recognized the black coat immediately. Her face shifted to disbelief, then rage.

“Where have you been!?” the woman said rushing up to Jago’s horse. “It took my only baby!” she cried and pounded weakly at pitch black hide of Jago’s horse. “How dare you show your face now!” One of the village men came and wrapped her in a tight embrace and pulled her away. All the while, the woman shouted angrily at Jago.

A small boy approached the adepts and took the reins of their horses. Aeria, Telfer and Isokki and unmounted and allowed the boy to take their animals to the stable.

“It’s good to see you glaive.” the elder said shaking Jago’s hand as the woman was taken away. “I am elder Veirlo and I thank you for coming, as you can see things are quite dire around here.”

Jago didn’t have to say anything and the elder took them all to his log house where he explained everything.

It had all began a few months ago, a child just four years old went missing during the night. A search party was made as soon as his absence was discovered but nothing was a ever found. They suspected the boy had wandered in the dark and was snatched up by lesser devil. The boy was known to sleepwalk after all. The village took it as an terrible tragedy but such things happened in the middle of the forest at night. Everyone moved on until nearly a month later when a six year old vanished. Another search party, another failure. Then, just a two weeks later, a third child and a plea for help was sent to the capital. After that, no one left their children alone. Mothers slept in the same beds as their children, and the men formed a night watch that patrolled every night while a cry for help was sent to the King. It was all for naught, in the time it took for a glaive to arrive a fourth child had gone missing and the mother’s wails could still be heard somewhere in the distance.

“I need more information that will perhaps help me figure this out.” Jago said as Aeria, Telfer and Isokki sat the table by the fire while Jago and elder Veirlo spoke. A small meal had been prepared for them and Aeria was glad to have a warm stew as the cold of Glacies proved to bite deep penetrating even the furs she had bought.

“I gave you all we know.” the elder said.

“You’ve told what this devil had done,” Jago said. “Not why it’s here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Most night devils are opportunistic, they take travelers near the night road because they know that’s were people are venerable. For one to squat over a village like this there must be something that lured it here in the first place.”

“Something like what?”

“Before the disappearances, has a anyone died before their time? A child maybe?” Jago said determined. There was a gleam in his eyes that reminded Aeria of Reimar.

Veirlo stared, a hint of terror in his black eyes, before looking away with a small shake of his head.

“I need to know.” Jago persisted.

“There was a young woman, Mineti.” The elder started. “She lived with her father in the outskirts of the village. She came down to buy meat from the butcher about once a week, each time she looked more miserable than the last. Her father was a knight, you see, so no one really questioned when she came by with a bruise here or there. Poor girl, she stopped trying to hide them after a while. Eventually, it came to everyone’s attention that Mineti was with child. Who the father was no one really knows, but what matters most was that the child made Mineti happy, it gave her strength. Mineti starting coming round more often, started talking to the other mothers, asking for advice and visited the herbalist to make sure her child was born healthy. More often than naught we found her reading to the children in the garden. Full of life that one. . .” the old man paused. “Must I continue?”

“It’s important that you do.” Jago said. Aeria, Telfer, and Isokki had finished their stew by then and had somehow moved closer to the elderly storyteller. He glanced at them and they found seats on the bench nearby.

“One day Mineti came, bloody and in horrible pain. The baby was coming, two months before its time. When it was born, Mineti tended to her baby boy, nurtured and loved him, for the whole three hours of his brief life. Mineti buried him herself.” The old man had tears in his eyes and his voice broke. “We found her a day later hanging from the old sycamore.”

Aeria felt like an arrow had struck her chest. “And her father?” Aeria said. The elder seemed a little shocked to her speak. “Where was her father in all this?” She repeated.

“Sir Risser was knight to Lord Gretommo Oimni he served for -“

“To hell with his service,” Aeria said her voice getting steadily louder. “He did something to Mineti and you know it!” Aeria had come to know how cruel men could be to young girls. The elder stared at her like the thought had never crossed his mind.

“Enough Ariel.” Jago’s voice cut through her accusations. “We are not here to judge the living nor avenge the dead.” Jago stood. “We deal with devils.”

He was right, Aeria sat down but that did nothing to alleviate the sick feeling in her stomach.

“Take me to her grave.” Jago instructed.

Veirlo didn’t take them far. It was just short of a mile away from the village of Sosit though it wasn’t easy on foot with thick layer of snow on the ground. Out of all them, the old elder somehow managed best in nothing but a wool robe and thick boots. It took them half a an hour before they reached a huge sycamore tree set its roots deep into the earth. Its winter leaves burned like fire in the setting sun. A bed of decaying leaves forming at its base.

“We buried her next to her babe.” Veirlo said pointing to where large stones could be seen poking out of the snow.

Jago walked up to it and examined it before raising his hand and turning his palm upwards slowly. The snow atop the graves began dissolve as Jago slowly changed the snow back to water. He pulled it from the snow to him, it coiled around him like smoke before he tossed it aside. He studied the graves before reaching down and grabbing a handful of the dirt and rubbing it between his fingers.

“Come look.” Jago called the perplexed adepts. They approached and the circle of stones the villagers had built around the grave came into view. “What do you see?” Jago asked. The dirt was dark, darker than the dirt surrounding it but that was common in a freshly dug grave.

“How long ago did you say she was buried?” Aeria asked hesitantly.

“It’s been months.” the elder said.

“The devil’s been feeding on her corpse to gain strength.” Jago said. “Her grief and misery attracted the devil, it must’ve been great to attract such a thing.”

“You know what devil has defiled her body?” Veirlo asked.

“No bile in the soil. It had to be a some kind of hag more than likely.” Jago paused in deep thought. “I want the three of you to escort Elder Veirlo back to the village, there’s something I need from my saddle bag.”

So they went trudging back to the village with the cautious elder in tow. He asked them questions on the way back, but none they knew how to answer.

Fable poked his head out of his stall when he heard Aeria approach and neighed softly calling her attention. Aeria held onto his head against hers and she hoped it was not too cold for him. In his stall, Brute made a strange noise - somewhere between a whinny and a bray - loudly demanding more hay. Telfer begrudgingly gave him hay to get him to be quiet.

“This is it.” Isokki said holding a bundle of herbs Aeria had never seen before.

“How do you know?” Aeria asked as Jago’s green snake coiled around Isokki’s arm.

“Leave the horses.” Jago’s voice said. “And get moving it’s getting dark soon.”

“You go on ahead.” Aeria said and Telfer and Isokki moved on ahead. Aeria stayed behind and stroked Fable’s black mane and his dun coat. In the cold, his body was hot as she run her hand over him. Other than her mother’s medallion, Fable was the only thing she left of home. In that moment, she was reminded of the home she couldn’t go back to. Aeria buried her face into his neck. The smell of the of the earth and the cypress trees still lingered there. “Behave.” Aeria told him before leaving the stable.

Isokki and Telfer could be seen trudging slowly through the snow in the distance. Isokki moved easier on the snow than Telfer who walked like he was wading through thick mud.

“Glaive.” a woman said. Aeria recognized her as the distraught woman from when they arrived.

“I’m not a glaive yet.” Aeria replied.

“But you’re going out there tonight aren't you.” the woman said, her eyes red and cheeks still tear stained. “Please find my son. I know he’s alive, I feel it in my bones, he's out there! Please. I don’t have much. .” the woman shoved a small coin purse into her hands.

“I can’t take this.” Aeria said handing her back the purse. “I’m sorry for your loss.” What else could she say? She doubted anything she said would ever bring any consolation.

“Don’t you dare say that. My boy is alive! Please, I don’t know what else to do.” The woman looked at the floor, her eyes desperately searching for something no one could see. “I, I’ll go out there m,myself if I have to.”

“No.” Aeria said firmly. Aeria sighed in frustration. This woman would no doubt walk into the forest when the devils were out if she thought she could save her son. Last thing Aeria wanted was to have her death on her hands. “I’ll look for you son tonight.” The woman’s eyes immediately lit up. “I can’t say that we’ll find anything-“

“You will, you will! I know you will! His name is Bosa, he has chestnut hair and he’s about this high.” the woman raised her hand to about her chest. The joy slowly returning to her eyes. “he’s only seven but he’s a sharp one. He’s probably hiding somewhere, find him please.”

“I will.” Aeria promised if only to make her feel better.

Isokki and Telfer had already vanished beyond the tree line when Aeria finally left the woman. She had to jog through a mile of snow to get to the massive tree that marked the grave.

“Where have you been?” Jago scolded the second she arrived in the clearing.

“The woman wants us to find her son.” Aeria said.

“Forget about him, he’s as good as dead.” he said standing over Mineti’s grave.

“But. “

“No buts, we go looking for this dead kid and the devil takes another. We kill it and one else needs to suffer the loss of a child. If the boy is alive the village can search for him after we slay the night devil.” Jago said. “Now pay attention.”

Jago had the bundle of herbs in his hands. He closed his hands around them into a tight ball and paused. None of the adepts could see what he was doing, but Aeria sure felt it. He was welling his magic, white magic, before he crushed the herbs in hands. Suddenly, Aeria remembered the house blessing Madame Salver had taught her and her sisters using a herb bundle similar to Jago’s. “This cleansing will ward off bad omens and bring good fortune. It might even help you be more fertile.” Madame Salver had said. It seemed like such a silly thing back then.

Jago crushed the herbs fusing his own magic to them, asking them to do his bidding. He opened his hands and a violet smoke fell from his hands and into the grave. It settled on the surface before sinking deep into the soil. Isokki and Telfer stared wide eyed. “A purification spell will effectively seal the grave and keep the night devil from feeding here.” Jago said. “What herbs did I use?”

“Uh, one with small purple flowers?” Telfer said uncertainly.

“That’s a woman’s magic.” Isokki whined.

“You cannot dismiss any magics as a glaive, any can prove useful to-“

“Lavender, sage, and woodbine, in equal parts.” Aeria said recalling from memory silencing them all. Madame Salver would be proud.

“Very good, Ariel has been paying to Lector Tarda after all.” Jago said.

“So what now?” Telfer said. “Are we going into the forest to kill the thing?”

“Why make our job harder.” Jago said. “The devil will come to feed on the grave and we will be waiting.”

“When will it come?” Aeria asked and looked at the darkened night sky.

“Whenever it decides to show up.” Jago said.

The moon, much closer to the earth this night, looked massive above them. A strange shade of pink coated its milky surface. It was unmistakable, she had seen it fifteen times before. The blood moon was coming tonight.