Chapter 9: Vermintown

Chapter 9: Vermintown

The rats watched as Vernburgs streets were drenched in blood.

Marianne and Bertrand had tried to make a break out of the cursed hamlet, only for the villagers to intercept them in the graveyard. The noblewoman felt somehow relieved that they still wore human clothes, for that was the only vestige of humanity they had left.

The vagrants near the church had grown white tentacles, the skin was torn apart to reveal the same monstrosity that had impersonated Mona. A sailor had melted into a pile of red goo with human faces screaming beneath the slime. A fisherwomans neck had elongated alongside her arms, her neck growing fanged gills. The rats observed from the roofs, their maddening cacophony droning into Mariannes ears.

And so she danced.

With her rapier in one hand and her pistol in the other, Marianne charged into the fray. The mutated fisherwoman lunged at her, determined to bite her head off. Marianne made the beast eat a fistful of bullets, before gutting her chin to groin with her rapier. The mutant stumbled, and a kick to the chest sent it falling backward. The monster collapsed on the tombstone the dark power behind the hamlet had made for Marianne, shattering it utterly before falling into the open grave.

You wont bury me, Marianne said softly while swinging her blade. But I will bury you if you dont back down.

The monsters showed no fear and charged.

Marianne counted half a dozen, but she could hear the screech of their kindred coming closer. This entire hamlet was a death trap that they had to break out of before getting overwhelmed.

Bertrand covered her flank, slashing one tentacled monster with his longsword while telekinetically slamming another against a gravestone. His movements were a blur but Marianne could still sense him fighting at her side. Their swords slashed everything around them in a deadly dance of steel long rehearsed.

Only old trusted friends who had fought side-by-side for years could achieve this level of natural coordination, where each anticipated the others action without stepping on each other's toes. Whether Marianne shot a target that Bertrand had telekinetically restrained, or the vampire slashed a monster attempting to throttle his mistress, they acted as one.

They had been through worse situations and would escape this one too.

Marianne.

His voice cut through the noise like a sword through butter.

Marianne, please.

Marianne flinched as if she had been struck, almost slipping on the bleeding remains of a tentacled horror.

A red ooze as large as an ox crawled into the graveyard, its surface slowly shifting into a dozen copies of a handsome young mans face. The noblewoman froze at the sight of those accusing blue eyes, that aquiline nose twisted in an expression of bitter contempt.

"Marianne, why?" he asked, blood pouring out of his mouth like it did on that cursed day. "Why did you do this to me? Why?

She felt she felt cold, and numb, and lifeless. As if someone had opened a wound and drunk her blood until she was too tired to fight.

"It was an accident," Marianne muttered, her breath short from the surprise. "Jerme, I swear"

You swear? The voice echoed inside Mariannes head, sharp and condemning. The swordswoman felt her confidence weaken with each word. "You think swearing will let me live again? That it will give me back the life you stole? I wanted you to kiss me with your lips, not your steel."

"I didn't mean it." It was to the first blood only. "I missed"

"You missed my sword because you were playing the man, Marianne. What, you thought carrying that sword would make another grow between your legs?"

Marianne flinched as if she had been struck in the face. It took all of her willpower not to drop her rapier, and even then she simply couldnt move anymore. An invisible force nudged her to surrender, to beg for forgiveness.

Milady! She heard Bertrands voice trying to shake her off out of this trance, but the vampire was too busy stabbing a tentacled horror trying to exploit Mariannes paralysis.

"Would you like it, to bury me again? Jermes voice scolded Marianne as the slime slowly approached her. She took a step back to avoid being smothered by that that thing. You didnt even weep at my funeral, you heartless murderer!

I didnt I couldnt," Marianne said while trying to shake the slime's psychic influence. Youre not him. Jerme would never have said something so vicious. He's dead and he's... he's not coming back."

Because of you.

"How could I know you didn't carry a soulstone?" Marianne blurted out. She raised her pistol at the ooze, her fingers trembling. "Why didn't you?"

"Because I trusted you!"

Marianne pulled the trigger in fury.

The bullet pierced the ooze and blasted a hole in its surface. A telepathic screech echoed in Mariannes mind, the spell that numbed her willpower broken. Or perhaps it was the anger she felt at this cruel monster that gave her the strength to resist.

You will pay for this, Marianne snarled as her heart swelled with anger. That creature had dared to put salt on that wound, to besmirch his memory with its filthy words!

And then the swarm began to speak.

Valde mar the rats croaked as one, their screams somehow sounding like coherent words. The more it spoke, the better the swarm became at articulating words. Valdemar Valdemarne is it alive? Where?

It?

Does it matter? Marianne replied while defiantly raising her blade. Bertrand bit his thumb, shedding calcified blood. You will never get him.

You will speak, the rats spoke as one with perfect clarity, their eyes shining with ghastly red light. Or the good Shelley will crawl under your skin to strip the flesh from your bones! Shelley will eat your eyes and work his way to the brain!

The beetle burst open like an egg, and a verminous army swarmed Marianne and her companion.

The noblewoman managed to leap back to escape the tidal wave of fur, but a few rats managed to jump on her clothes. They sank their teeth into her flesh, but they broke against the bone armor she had manifested over her skin. Marianne skewered them with her rapier, but one rat managed to climb onto her exposed face.

Realizing the danger, Marianne started manifesting a layer of bone over her cheeks and neck, but couldnt protect her eyes nor mouth without blinding herself or suffocating. The rodent managed to bite her lips and ripped out the flesh, before trying to force its way past her clenched teeth and down her throat.

Marianne suppressed a wince of pain as she grabbed the rat with her free hand. She tried to pull it away from her, but stumbled as the swarm climbed on her legs by the hundreds. It didnt matter how many she impaled with her blade, more came.

Marianne thought she would die here, eaten alive by rats, when a red light flash blinded her. The rats let out a maddening screech of pain and they fell off from Marianne, allowing her to shake them off. The one trying to eat her lips, she simply impaled with her sword.

Bertrands bloody hand shone with a crimson light, his body fluids evaporating the moment they poured out of his wounded thumb. The swarm couldnt stand the sight of it and immediately dispersed, leaving the half-devoured beetle and carriage behind.

Marianne noticed that their eyes had lost their unnatural glow and returned to normal. All signs of intelligence had vanished from their gaze, replaced with animalistic cowardice. They were no longer the fearless thralls of an outside force, but scared scavengers facing larger animals.

The vermin fled into the countryside, leaving their dead behind. Marianne took the opportunity to take a good long breath, before removing the six rats impaled on her rapier. Their corpses fell to the ground as the light in Bertrands fist vanished.

That was an exorcism spell, wasnt it? Marianne asked her retainer, her lips bleeding. She used her psychic sight to analyze the damage, and to her horror, immediately confirmed that the rats carried multiple diseases. She called upon the Blood to expel the plagues and close the wounds. I think I saw you cast it once or twice.

I used it to banish unwanted ghosts from the mansion of Miladys mother, Bertrand explained. I assumed the sorcerer needed all his concentration to control a swarm this size, and any disruption would cause his power to falter.

Good call.

So that was an animancer? Marianne asked as she examined the rats. Animancers were sorcerers specialized in manipulating animals, or even plants in some cases.

The warlock behind the swarm had to be a powerful one, to direct such a large amount of rats at once. Even the Institutes animancy specialist could only control a small flock of birds before suffering from heavy headaches.

I assume so, the vampire replied as he glanced at the empty spot where Vernburg stood a few minutes ago. Though I have no explanation for this this place.

I think the two phenomenons are mostly unrelated, Marianne replied, as her wounds closed. She dissipated her bone armor, as maintaining it taxed her magical reserves. The rats were as frightened of being trapped inside as we were.

And the thing she had sensed inside the well its power rivaled that of Lord Och, but she didnt feel any finesse in it. Only raw, naked strength. And the howl at the end

The cause wasnt a ritual or some other artifact, Marianne said. It was a living being. Maybe even a Stranger. The animancer was probably trying to make use of it, though I dont understand how.

The villages disappearance explained why the Knights never noticed it. Perhaps it existed in a pocket dimension of some kind, or it could move from one spot to another. Marianne couldnt be sure, as she lacked the necessary knowledge, but Lord Och would certainly identify this hamlets true nature.

She had to warn the authorities, but the rats had sacked the carriage beyond repair. The wheels were broken, the seats torn apart, the food spoiled or devoured. All documents that Marianne kept in her hidden compartments had vanished, probably stolen including her notes on the Verney investigation.

Whoever caused this, they would learn that Lord Och had caught Valdemar soon enough. Marianne couldnt shake the feeling that she might have endangered the last Verney, and it shamed her.

You said we were three days away from the nearest guard station? she asked Bertrand as he picked up a dead rat on the ground.

Three days ride, the vampire replied while sinking his teeth into the rodents corpse. Bertrand must have exhausted some of his blood casting his exorcism spell, and needed to replenish it. Rats werent as good a sustenance as humans or artificial blood, but beggars couldnt be choosers.

So it might take them a week to reach it on foot. Using the Blood to increase their pace would diminish their strength, and they didnt have any food left. They might be able to reach a coastal village, but moving in the open would make them vulnerable to an attack by the rat swarm. Marianne didnt think for a second that the magician behind everything would let them escape the region alive.

They had seen too much.

The best defense is a good offense, Marianne mused, as she looked up at the Verney castle. Unlike the cursed hamlet, its ruins remained atop a cliff.

The Knights had clearly missed someone during their purge.

And Marianne would finish the job for them.