Chapter 82 - Seventy-Eight

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and sit sideways, more comfortably on Leo's lap, and start to ponder.

This creature, whoever it was, had a lot of information on his hands; very few knew where we had gone, and even less the exact location, furthermore to know that the Terror was here and was responsible for the stolen items … maybe he already knew that I was the one responsible for it right from the start? But how so, it should take them longer than a few days to figure things out, at least from my side since nobody saw us go in nor out of the castle.

That's when it hit me; my brother, his Cerberus form, it should not be difficult to narrow down to us from there if you had enough information about us, which this creature seemly did.

But why us? Such specific attack towards me in particular, all planned so he would conquer… nothing? What could his objective be, kidnapping my brother like this? Not asking for money, not asking for a meeting, simply leaving a vague reply…

It could be just as Leo said; he was playing with us, trying to manipulate us in playing his weird game for even more obscure reasons.

Uhm… There should be more to that… but what?

One thing for sure, few creatures had the power; level and information-wise; to come up with such a feat, so that could work in our favor to eliminate possibilities, until we find the guilty one.

Most humans were out of the list, that black magic was considerate a taboo for them and punished very harshly; which reminds me of the necromancer we fought a long time ago, he had similar control over his puppets, but with some strange differences such as the level of power and the level of consciousness that the creatures had.

Plus his puppets rotted and decayed, not lasting long…

Could this be an advanced type of necromancy?

Then that narrows the search down even more; what kind could have such control over the dead? One that did not penalize its practice most likely…

But that was as far as I went with that kind of thought, so I tried to change my view of the subject by looking the black envelope over, the only interesting thing being the wings symbol… Though I have never seen it before, it was a start, we could inquire about it.

The only problem is… the others.

I finally calmed down enough now to inquire about the health of the others as Leo's calmly answered me, but I could see he was worried.

"Ragnur is fine, he bumped his head right at the start and passed out, but Aeglos and Eyope are still unconscious. Eyope lost one of his arms for good, and will take some time until he recovers from the blood loss, thankfully Isaac closed the wound quickly."

"Isaac?"

"Oh, yeah, is Isa's real name, or full name."

"And went the hell did you learn that?"

"Jealous?" I roll my eyes. "When you were rampaging about."

Of course, should have known.

"Anyway, Seiroe is doing fine… physically, but doesn't leave his brother's side. Isaac is resting now and the Templar is helping out with the food for the sick."

Well, now I feel like a d.i.c.k for not staying and helping out, so much had been done and still even more need to that I could not have afforded the three days lost.

But what is done is done, no point in dwelling with the past now, is there? I click my tongue over my palate before asking:

"And Aeglos? And Shu?"

"…"

His hesitation makes me once more get farther from him so I could look him in the eyes as he takes a deep breath and says:

"Aeglos body took the worse of them all, it seems like he had his lungs pierced and the blood started to overflow and drown him so Isa had to mend him all night long to at least close the surface of the wounds and clean the lungs. But that's not the worst, he… he doesn't respond to anything, something must have affected his mind, or at least Isa says."

"Can't he do something about it?" He nods no.

"Apparently there is some sort of magic interfering with it, is not just a physical condition."

Magic? That's different, did the puppeteer do it?

Did that mean that Aeglos saw the puppeteer in person?

Even more reason to wake him up. But how?

"And what about Shu?" I didn't even know if I wanted to hear the answer anymore at this point.

"…Missing."

Missing? Impossible, I would have seeing him in my frenzy, I have walked back and forth all there was to in this woods.

And that can only mean one thing.

"They took him too? Is he with my brother?" Though the letter did not say anything, I bet it had been made beforehand, so perhaps they had no time to add kidnapping Shu in it; or didn't care enough to do it.

Or perhaps, with luck, they didn't notice him…

When I was wondering that the younger Antshiva twin, Seiroe, walks in, eyes and nose red from all the crying, but looking at his eyes told me that he was done crying.

"I want to help." He says deadpan, clearly having heard part of our talk before walking in, and not carrying about chitchat, going straight to the point.

I look up at him as he holds my stare with one of his own, a lot of him reminding of my brother at that moment; even more that both were young, inexperienced, and naïve.

But he was up to prove me wrong.

"Sorry Seiroe but… What can you do to help?"

He seems a little angry and caught back with my lack of faith in him, but let's be honest, I barely knew him, and up to this point all his actions did not prove his value to me at all.

He clenches his teeth and I can see him tense up, all his three pairs of arms curving as if ready to strike, but he calms down first before talking, knowing that the last thing he wanted to do was to vent his anger on me.

That would be a big mistake, even more now.

"I may… I may not be good at fighting but I'm not useless!"

"Then tell me, what can you do?"

"I… I can… I know! I can go to the city and gather information for us! Nobody is looking for me, they don't know my face, and people are very chatty with bards!"

That truly could be useful, and I was wondering how could I gather such information, but leaving such an important role to him… I wasn't so sure about that.

It didn't hurt to try though.

"Ok, you have two days to go to the closest city and gather as much information as possible. Any ideas in what to ask?"

"I, well, some…"

I internally sigh as I tell him about the basic information I wanted to learn, such as the state of the search for us, the state from the outside and if anyone has ever heard of such strange creatures.

I bet he would not have come here only to attack us, there must be something more to it…

Seiroe, satisfied and excited, goes out to get ready and leave as soon as possible, alone so he wouldn't raise suspicions, a glint of life back to his eyes and a flame burning with rage and revenge.

At least that I could respect…

And even though I wasn't putting a lot of faith in Seiroe at least he brought a few things to my attention; that is, who I could count on and was willing to help out, and who I could bring to my side.

Because there was just so much I could do own my own, and if more people meant a quicker way to retaliate, so be it.

I would hunt this kidnapper down like prey.