Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:41 am

Book 2: Chapter 16

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“Tell me about what happened,” Garrett asked as Obe pushed his wheelchair, navigating the rough cobblestone.

“We got word just now, but apparently, there is something wrong with a home that’s just down the block. All I know is that some lady ran in, screaming bloody murder. She said that her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit because of a mysterious artifact and was killing people.”

“Is anyone on the scene?”

“Yes, I sent Maximus and Abbius with the woman to go and see what they could do. They brought ten other members.”

“And have we alerted the exorcists?”

“We haven’t, but things like this tend to spread fast,” Obe said grimly. “Chances are, we’ll have them swarming all over pretty soon.”

Garrett glanced up at the darkening sky, his thoughts whirling. The crimson streaks of the setting sun set a somber tone and Obe’s words caused his heart to sink. He had been running into the exorcists too often recently and he was starting to worry that if they continued to see each other he’d end up on one of their watch lists. Though many didn’t pay much attention to them, Garrett knew from his time in the palace that they couldn’t be ignored. They wielded a tremendous amount of power and had the full support of the nobles in the city, meaning they could make life miserable for anyone who got in their way.

It was easy to see where the problem was from the large crowd that was gathered around the doorway of the building where the woman’s daughter was, and it was with some difficulty that Garrett and Obe pushed their way through. Garrett finally had to resort to commanding people aside with his mental energy, and the result was almost worse. As soon as the command went out, those in the crowd with dream seeds or bloomed dream flowers all backed up abruptly, creating a path all the way to the door, while those without were dragged along with no warning.

Coughing lightly, Garrett pretended that everything was normal as he gestured for Obe to push him up to the door where they were met by Abbius. The thin, stoop-shouldered awakened was holding a crossbow in the crook of his arm, and seemed unsettled, alerting Garrett that something was off. Frowning, Garrett looked at the stairs that led up into the house, hearing the hysterical shouting of a woman’s voice upstairs.

“Sorry, boss. The stairs are the only way up.”

“That’s fine. Just carry me.”

Nodding, Obe scooped Garrett up and carried him up the stairs, making Garrett wish, for the second time, that Viper had been close enough to send out instead. Unfortunately, Viper and the flower ghouls were putting the finishing touches on the tunnel that burrowed under the city wall and led out into the swamp.

I really need to level up. When I do, I can get a second guardian, which will allow me to keep Viper close.

Some people would have found it humiliating to be carried up the stairs by their underlings, but Garrett didn’t even consider it. His main concern was that they figure out what was going on before the exorcists got involved. At the top of the stairs, Obe placed him back in the wheelchair that Abbius had carried up and Garrett pushed himself down the hallway, heading for the room at the end where he could see Maximus and an elderly woman who had slumped down on the floor and was crying.

“Boss!”

Relief flooded Maximus’ face as he caught sight of Garrett coming down the hall. Gesturing to the woman who was puddled at his feet, he looked entirely out of place.

“What is going on?”

“This is Mrs. Esteven,” Maximus said, his tone helpless. “She said her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit, and was killing people, but when I checked the room, well, you better see it for yourself.”

Glancing at the doorway behind Maximus, Garrett nodded and waited for him to open the door. It was hard to maneuver around the collapsed woman, so Garrett gestured to Abbius.

“Take her downstairs. Ma’am. We’re here to help and will make sure that your daughter is okay. Please go with Abbius. He’ll escort you to the sitting room.”

At first, Mrs. Esteven didn’t want to leave, but eventually, Abbius got annoyed and just picked her up, forcefully getting her out of the way. With the path to the door cleared, Garrett gestured for Maximus to enter the room and followed him in. The room was poorly lit, with just two small candles, whose light flickered weakly along the wall. A large window opposite the door was covered with a heavy blanket, but through a gap at the edge of the window, Garrett could see the final bloody sunlight dripping through, lending a macabre air to the room. Not that the room needed any help. On the floor, drawn in crimson blood, was a shaky set of terrifying runes that seemed to be trying to suck Garrett’s mind into them.

“Don’t look at the floor,” Garrett said sharply, as soon as he saw the symbols.

His words helped both Maximus and Obe to tear their eyes away from the symbols, and they quickly looked up, turning their gazes away from the occult markings. Thanks to his impressive mental strength, Garrett didn’t have to be worried that he would accidentally get possessed by whatever monster the markings were attempting to summon, so he took a moment to study them, even going so far as to record them in a notebook he had brought. After he was done, he commanded Obe to cover it up with a cloth and he turned his attention to the desk in the corner of the room. On it, he found some makeup, a few sheets of parchment, and a bottle of spilled ink. A broken quill was laying at the edge of the wall it had been thrown against, and there was an ornate hand mirror laying face down on the table.

Looking over everything Garrett’s eyes narrowed. He could feel a faintly familiar energy, which was unusual, as he rarely encountered mental energy outside of the dream flowers that could be sensed in the waking world. It appeared to be coming from the hand mirror, and as Garrett looked closer, his expression hardened. At first blush, the copper back of the mirror showed a beautiful woman combing her hair, but the longer Garrett looked, the clearer it became that it was an illusion. Instead, what started to be revealed under his gaze was a grinning skull that stared deep into his eyes.

Figuring that the situation had something to do with the mirror, Garrett checked out the letters, picking one up to read it. Filled with mushy language from the opening line to final dash, the first two letters were puppy love at its finest, and a few times, Garrett almost gave up reading. The third letter, however, was different and he read it over again twice after he finished the first time. A slow frown crossed his face, causing both Obe and Maximus to look at him curiously.

“These letters were not written by the same person.”

Garrett’s declaration would have had more of an impact if the other two men had read the letters, but as it was, they just stared at him, causing him to wave the letters gently.

“The first two were written by a young man with a terrible sense of romance and poetry. Honestly, it’s so bad that it’s not even sweet. But in the third letter, the author suddenly achieves a practically professional level of prose. Unfortunately, while the first two are earnest and in love, this third one is cruel beyond belief. Almost as if someone was attempting to poison Ms. Esteven’s mind. Do either of you know anything about her?”

Raising his hand, Maximus nodded.

“Yes. Apparently, she had a betrothal. Her third, in fact. But the man just sent her a letter to break it off, and she went crazy. Her mother came into the room and found the ritual on the ground and ran to find us.”

Garrett’s frown deepened slightly and he glanced down at the cloth covered runes and then at the letter he held. It was a perfect forgery, in that the mental energy shrouding it created the illusion of the perfect copy of the writing used in first two letters. The only reason he had spotted it was that his own mental energy was simply too strong to be fooled. As he was trying to puzzle out what was going on, Garrett felt the sunset and nightfall over the city. It was a practically visceral feeling, one that he was intimately familiar with as it meant that the restrictions on his powers had faded even further.

Closing his eyes, he checked for nearby dream flowers, and for any scenes that he might have seen from earlier in the day around this area. He didn’t find anything, but he wasn’t discouraged. Instead, he spoke softly to Obe, not opening his eyes.

“Check on Abbius. Maximus, by the window.”

Despite being confused by the requests, the two awakened men did as Garrett asked, with Maximus walking over to stand by the window while Obe left the room to go downstairs and check on Abbius. For a moment, Garrett remained silent, and then he opened his eyes and spoke to Maximus.

“Tell me what you see out the window in the alleyway across the street.”

Twitching the heavy sheet aside, Maximus stared down at the dark alleyway, seeing nothing. Just when he was about to turn away, he saw a slight movement and told Garrett as much.

“Okay, thank you. Watch the window, please. And keep your guard up.”

As soon as the sun had dropped, Garrett had felt everything change, and it was because he had felt dusk’s shift so many times that he immediately understood something was wrong. Now it was a matter of finding out what it was. Once more, his eyes swept the desk, checking over everything until they settled on the hand mirror. It was this that had caught his attention initially, but he had resisted the urge to touch it. Now, however, it appeared to be the only thing that could hold a possible clue.

Taking a breath, Garrett slowly stretched his hand out, his slim fingers closing around the handle of the hand mirror. Lifting it, he turned it over, his eyes meeting the horrified eyes of a young woman with blonde hair. Her eyes were wide, and her fingers were splayed out, as if they were pressing against the inside of the glass. Soundlessly she screamed, her mouth a grotesque cavern that appeared to grow bigger and bigger the longer Garrett looked at her.

Completely dispassionate, Garrett tilted his head, as if listening for something. When he heard nothing, he returned his attention to the mirror and the trapped young woman in it. A faint stench of blood began to drift from the mirror as one of her eyes that was pressed up against the glass began to bleed, a trickle of dark blood tracing its way down her fair cheek. The silence grew and swelled, seeming to swallow everything, including Garrett’s thoughts, but he narrowed his eyes and a slight sneer crossed his face.

“It would have been scarier if you had appeared behind me while I was looking in the mirror.”

Garrett’s voice wasn’t loud, but it sounded like thunder in his ears, and it seemed to stun the woman in the mirror, causing her to pause slightly. Though the blood did not stop, her dramatically widened eyes blinked, returning to normal as she stared at Garret. Her hands, with their stretched out fingers, returned to her side, hanging gracefully.

“Strange, most people would be frightened by that,” she said, her cavernous mouth returning to a regular size.

“I’m not most people. What have you done with Ms. Esteven?”

“What do you think I’ve done with her?” the woman in the mirror said, a wicked smile stretching across her blood stained teeth.

“I would guess that you have her and her mother trapped somewhere,” Garrett said, his voice entirely too pragmatic.

A flash of frustration flickered across the woman’s face, but Garrett didn’t care.

“Are those your goons across the street?”

Instead of answering, the woman stared at Garrett, her eyes searching his face.

“Don’t you wish to know who I am? What I am doing, communicating with you through a mirror?”

A faint smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes slipped across Garrett’s face and he shook his head.

“No. In fact, I’d like to have nothing to do with you. Why don’t you tell me where you stashed Mrs. Esteven and her daughter, and then we’ll pretend none of this happened. It will work out better for you if you do that.”

“Better for me?” the woman erupted into wild laughter, taking a full minute before she calmed down enough to talk again. “I am not the one speaking to a cursed mirror, surrounded by my enemy. I am getting paid well for your head, and your two minions are a good bonus.”

“Oh? Now that is interesting,” Garrett said, leaning forward. “Here I thought that you were the necromancer that Chief Exorcist Fellix told me to be cautious of. How else would you explain the sacrificial ritual on the floor, and the undead that are creeping closer to the inn?”

Taken aback, the woman stared at Garrett, her face twisting into a scowl.

“Knowing that will not help you,” she hissed, causing Garrett to chuckle.

“So I’m right? Well, they say that knowing is half the battle, so I guess you’re going to have to come back another time. Actually, this game is fun,” he said. “Let me guess again. Your patron is the one who sent you after me? Are you a member of the Skeletal Hands, or whatever? That serve Levsherk?”

“Do not dishonor Lord Lesrak!”

The scream that burst from the woman’s mouth nearly caused the mirror to break, but it confirmed what Garrett had suspected. The whole situation had seemed off from the beginning, and it was only after arriving here that he had realized what an idiot he had been. Leaving the inn was one of the most dangerous things he could do, especially after dark. Yet here he was, without his flowers to protect him. The awakened dreamers had already begun to enter Dreamer’s Rest and both Viper and Vale were nowhere near his location.

At the same time, he had to admire the ingenuity of the Great Ruler, the Skeletal Hand of Lesrak, in setting this trap. He had used Garrett’s curiosity about mysterious artifacts and his fear of the exorcists poking around to lead him by the nose into a trap. About to respond to the enraged woman in the mirror, Garrett suddenly heard a crash and a bellow down below, and knew that they were out of time. The attack had begun.

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