"Luck?" Liron asked, aghast.
After pushing the broken wall off them, Angin rolled over, leaving bloody prints behind. The Alchemist had protected Liron from the worst of Kasper's rampage. Fragments of the house had dug into his side, burying themselves deep into his flesh. Angin coughed up blood. The debris had penetrated his organs. Any normal man would die, but the Alchemist had his beloved art to save him. But to save him from a condition like this…
"Liron, my boy, I need your help," Angin said, his voice weak. He had lost a lot of blood, his finger shaking as he pointed at his apprentice. "I have gold on me. I can heal this, but we have to hurry. Could you please summon your knife… and… you know… cut me open?"
Liron stared at him, painted red from head to toe. "Have you lost your mind? You will die!"
"Ah, bollocks. You saw what I looked like when we fought Amor. Please… I… I can transmute the smaller pieces into sludge and push it out… but the bigger ones… no, they need to go. I know you can do it."
Angin rolled around. He pressed his hand on his bloody side, transmuting the smallest debris into a liquid. It poured out of his wounds, alongside his blood. Leaving the Alchemist's body like parasites having eaten themselves fat on him, the sludge was out of him, and he closed those wounds. There were two he kept open.
"Those… those are the bad ones, Liron. Please… I don't know for how… for how long I'll stay conscious."
Liron wiped the new blood from his eyes. Some had gotten in his mouth, and he spat it out. He summoned his knife into trembling hands, kneeling next to his master.
"So… you want me to cut you open and…"
"Pull them out. Shouldn't be hard to miss."
Liron gulped. He would have loved to debate the operation, but Angin paled, panting. Pressing his knife against the Alchemist's wound, Liron steadied his breathing, sweat running down his forehead.
His Conduit severed flesh with no resistance. He looked away as he pushed his hand into Angin. The Alchemist groaned. It was warm and sticky. Liron's fingers stroked his guts, and he had to be cautious to not throw up into Angin's open wound. As promised, he found a stone shard in there. It had torn his organs wide open. Which exactly, Liron didn't want to know.
He pulled it out, swallowing down vomit as he saw the pieces of innards sticking to it. With his hands outside, Angin's fingers moved fast, closing the wound. "Good… my boy. Now… one more time…"
"Fuck me," Liron breathed, repeating the same procedure.
This time he had to look for a few seconds longer, shoving his hand into an organ. He removed a porcelain shard. Even soiled in gore, Liron knew this one had been precious. Porcelain was expensive. For a plebeian family, this one had been part of a plate inherited from parent to child for generations. So many memories.
Memories Liron wasn't concerned with. He threw it away, turned around, and threw up. He shook his hand, trying to unfeel the sensations he had gained from rummaging through Angin's guts.
The Alchemist hadn't enjoyed the procedure either, struggling to keep his eyes open. "Li… Liron… my bag… put the gold into the… wounds."
Liron cursed, having forgotten himself. This part required no skill or cutting open anyone. First, they healed the last remaining wound. Angin summoned his last strength and focus. He transmuted the gold into the tissue, muscle, skin, and blood. Once it was closed, his breathing calmed and his eyes cleared up. Beaten dogs had more wit to them than Angin in his condition, but he had slapped away Sister Death's cold fingers.
"Good," Angin said, rubbing his forehead. "I won't die now. Let's do the rest."
Wound by wound, Angin opened them up, and Liron filled them with gold flakes. They emptied the entire bag, but the Alchemist sat up, giving Liron a thumbs-up. They shared a laugh. Unsure at first, it grew. For nothing but a moment, they forget the hell they were surrounded by, bathing in the joy of having survived yet another proud symbol of the empire.
As their laughter died down, and both just lay around, taking in the moment of peace, Angin cleared his throat. "I owe you my life, Liron. That one… that was close. Thank you."
Liron shook his head. The blood on his hands had dried. It cracked as he fiddled with his fingers. "You don't need to thank me for shit. I owe you my life. Would have died a couple o' times without you. We wouldn't be in this pile of shit if I had shut my fuckin' mouth. I need to thank you. And… I owe you an apology."
"You've already apologized."
"Not really. I didn't say it, and even if I had, wouldn't have mattered. Words mean shit. I'll make it up to you. I promise you. Once we're outta here and with the Resistance… I'll prove myself worthy o'... o' all this."
Angin worked his jaw, looking away. "Well… that's something for another time. We're still not safe. The kid is still out there, and he's pissed. I think he'll stay near. He can guess we tricked him. We should move. Find some hiding place to… calm down a bit. Then I think it'd be best if we return to Gabriella's house. They might be there, and I need to get my gear."
Angin chuckled, rubbing his head. "Solia stands with me. We could have gone there from the get-go. The church was a decent idea, but it would have been better for us… for me to have decided to go there. Liron, take note of that. No matter the experience you have earned, the glory you have claimed, or the name you have forged. You can still fuck up. You can fall for the same mistake twice. If you're lucky enough to survive them, learn from them, or you will repeat them yet again. And if I know one thing, repetition isn't always a good teacher."
"And… what have you learned from this?"
"Well… that I'm still quite full of myself. A coward and an asshole all at once. Liron, always take time to think. That's what I have learned now. And if you can't, create an opportunity for it. You said you fucked up by falling for Adenius' trap. Well, so did I. Being exhausted and stressed makes you prone to mess up."
As they were about to stand up, Angin looked at Liron, eyes soft with fear. "Liron… be honest. How do I look?"
Honesty could be a cruel beast. Any lie would have been better than the truth, but only if the Alchemist could have believed in it. "Bad," Liron said. "Really bad."
Angin closed his eyes, accepting this cruel twist of fate. "Alright… let's go."
…
They didn't see Kasper again. The Raven Hunt continued, cooling off. The destruction and death of two dozen Hunters riled up the rest, but they never caught their culprit. The few that weren't affected by the Raven Hunt were dragged outside by the ones who were.
Liron heard their screams. All who didn't participate had to be one with the enemy. So they were treated as such. Torture on the open street, breaking limbs and burning them above a fire, celebrating as their skin was scorched black. The Hunters hung the corpses of their victims for all to see, impaling them on stakes. This was the first time Liron saw a child's corpse. Their cries were the worst, begging for the adults to stop. Angin stopped Liron several times from intervening.
"We can't," he said, his face clenched like a fist. "We don't know whether there are any traps laid for us. We have to stay hidden. There will be justice, Liron. But not now."
Liron saw reason in Angin's explanation, but his heart didn't. When you hear a child scream for the last time, dying to the fanatic laughter of folks lost to something wicked, there is only one good response. But as Liron followed Angin, never pushing back on what he said, a part of him died, abandoned with the innocent hanging high. There was good in him, but he didn't know for how much longer.
As they made their way towards Gabriella's house, Liron came to realize how many children were among the Hunters, sharing the same fever with the rest. The majority of Kupferrang wasn't present during Adenius' speech. The Raven Hunt had spread, ripples stretching throughout the sea after a stone was thrown in it. It had grown, the majority of Kupferrang participating now. Angin and Liron came close to being discovered, with roaming bands of Hunters at every corner. The smaller children who couldn't keep up hid in several abandoned houses, hoping to catch their prey off guard. The smallest, toddlers who could barely crawl, were left behind by their parents. They screamed, demanding to be part of the Raven Hunt. If they had been in the way of the Hunters, they were trampled to death.
"Don't look, Liron, don't look," Angin said, holding a hand in front of his eyes as they came across another dead baby. He guided him forward. "Adenius wanted us to see this. All of this cruelty is a lure, Liron. Just don't look."
Liron nodded, too exhausted to do anything else but follow. They had to stop for a moment, Liron crying. Angin patted him on the back. "I know…" Angin said. "I know…"
By late afternoon, the screams came to an end. All that weren't affected had died by now. The Hunters had given up for the day, dancing around the corpses of their victims. Stained in blood, they howled their love for Harras into the sky. The ones they didn't impale, the Hunters burned in large bonfires scattered through Kupferrang. By the way they laughed and embraced one another, freed from all guilt and blessed with a pure joy, they never felt closer to Harras than before.
Watching them, and what Adenius and the Empire had done to him, Liron promised to himself he would make both burn. But otherwise, he struggled to think or say anything else. Confronted with such a sight, smelling the stench of burned skin and flesh, Liron's senses were overwhelmed. A horror his worst nightmares had never dared to imagine. He had become a blank page, all written before forgotten, and the Raven Hunt filled it with depictions of humanity's abyss.
Angin stood alongside him. He had seen this before. Not on this scale, but the essence was an acquaintance he had hoped to never meet again. But here he was, bearing witness.
Gabriella's house had been raided by several gangs of Hunters. Angin and Liron entered it with no problems. They hadn't spoken for the rest of the journey. They searched for Jean or any of their allies, whispering their names. The windows were bashed in, and they had to fear a potential pursuer being near. While nothing was stolen, the Hunters had searched through all potential hiding spots. They had broken through doors, had smashed in closets, and had left no spot untouched. All of Gabriella's belongings were spread around the floor, trampled over by dozens of feet.
They found no one. But Angin got his hands on his equipment. The Hunter had scattered it around his room but had not destroyed it. A replacement blasting rod, his staff, three blinding bombs, and five normal bombs. He had more, but he needed his best for the day of the execution. The Alchemist refilled his gold flakes, knowing there would be a need for them. Here, Angin mentioned his trump card. A weapon he had yet to see.
"Will be worth it," the Alchemist said. "Requires a shit ton of Nanium to pull off, though."
The Nanium was gone, hopefully taken with Jean wherever he went. But the Homunculus had left none behind. Not even the ones Angin used for his gloves. A trusted weapon, gone.
The house showed no sign of conflict. If Jean had fought here, half the building would have lain in ruin. And with the battle, the Raven Hunt would have known him to be Resistance. A Wizard working on a Machina, unaffected by the religious fever? They would have burnt down the house.
After ensuring they were safe, Angin and Liron sat down on the roof, overlooking Kupferrang. Gabriella's house had a little cabin there, space enough for two people. The Hunters had rummaged through it, emptying it. Pulling two chairs in there, they rested. No one would notice them from further away, the dimming Silverlight helping to hide them.
They watched the remnants of Kupferrang. Seven bonfires scattered throughout the city, smoke rising as the Hunters there celebrated. The Raven Hunt didn't turn the people into complete Sinners. They were still human, so they needed rest. Those celebrations functioned as such, gifting them energy to continue tomorrow.
Neither of them had bothered to clean themselves. Even Angin had lost his insistent need to perfect his appearance. Carnage could do that to anyone seeing it, hollowing out soul and heart alike, leaving behind an echo of a person. It hadn't settled in yet for Liron. The true reach of the Raven Hunt. How much had been lost to it? It would take days, if not weeks, until these pictures would become part of him, solidifying themselves into his very core. What kind of person would he become then? Better or worse?
It wouldn't matter if he didn't survive.
"Say, Angin," Liron said. "Kasper. Is there anything I should know about the ass? Anything we could use when he shows up again?"
"Not really. I think you saw all there is to him. He hasn't achieved anything yet. He's not much older than you, very arrogant, and quite inexperienced. The only thing I've heard about him repeatedly is that he's spoiled. You heard it. The way he screamed if something didn't go his way. Nothing more than a bloody boy. Oh, wait. There's something. We have to worry about his lover."
"Lover?"
Angin nodded. "Her name is Anna Bauer. She's a Wizard. Apparently a Mage, so she should be on the same level as the Farn assassin. She's his shadow, following him everywhere."
Liron sighed. "That means she's with him. Fuck."
"Yeah, but that could be an advantage, too."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, from what I've heard, she's better than him. In fighting, I mean. There isn't much known about the kind of… relationship they have, but it has to be bad. She constantly tries to please him or something like that. So, this is something we can take advantage of. Our little Lordschaft is someone who believes he's owed everything. He never had to work for something. This means that she might not want to outshine him. She will be less dangerous if she's around Kasper. Or so I hope at least."
"A bit o' hope isn't too bad, I guess."
"Hah. That I can agree with."
"Why weren't they together?" Liron asked after a while. "If she's on his ass, why split up?"
"Probably, they wanted to lay traps at two spots at the same time. Was rather obvious that we would go to the church, but we could have also gone to the walls, the bureau, or any place else. So, it's quite lucky we ran into him and not her. Kasper has no real handle on his Gift. A true Lockram would have killed us. A Mage like Anna would have done the same."
Liron grunted. Another enemy. Lovely.
Angin studied the walls. Gabriella's father had a spyglass, the Alchemist taking ownership as they went through the devastated office. He let Liron look through it, as he had never seen or used such a thing.
"And?" Liron asked. "What are they doing?"
"Nothing," Angin said. "Guarding… I guess."
The soldiers positioned on the walls weren't affected by the Raven Hunt. The little the Alchemist could see of them painted a clear picture. They knew the extent of the horror Adenius had unleashed on Kupferrang. They stared down at the crimson streets, at the countless corpses. They lived here. How many of their loved ones had died? What had the Inquisitor promised them to shut their mouths and let him do it? Perhaps he let their loved ones escape the city beforehand. Perhaps he convinced them with lies about Harras's will and such. Or he promised them a golden future, riches awaiting them for their service.
Whatever it was, Liron would not feel guilty bringing justice to them. They had known, yet they did nothing. A crime demanding punishment.
At least they appeared horrified the way Angin described them. Good. If they wouldn't fall to Liron's blade, they should suffer nightmares. He could kill someone again who deserved their fate.
As the Silver Moon climbed down, Angin sat up. He had spied on the walls and city the entire time, never putting the glass down once. "Oh, what do we have here?" he asked.
"Something happened?" Liron asked. He rubbed his eyes, yawning. The day had taken its toll on him. Both mentally and physically. Sleep shouldn't come easy to him after seeing what he had seen, but he longed for nothing but bed.
"Yeah… fuck, it's him. It's Kasper. He's with someone. Can't see much. It's getting too dark, but… yeah, wears the same clothes as Kasper. Has to be Anna. What are they doing?"
"Well… what are they doing?"
"They have climbed the walls, and they talk to the soldiers. The guys there don't seem to like it. Uh, the ass is getting mad. He isn't used to someone talking back. Spoiled child."
Angin frowned, leaning forward. "That is… strange. Kasper jumped off the wall. Anna is holding the guards back. I think she's threatening them. But she…"
A rumble sounded from the walls. Angin stood up, still holding the spyglasses in front of his face. His exhaustion forgotten, Liron followed his master, glancing towards where the Alchemist was looking.
"Did he… break a hole into the walls?" Liron asked. "But why…"
The day had taken its toll on him. He should have known before he heard the wolves' howl why Kasper had done such a thing.
Angin lowered the spyglass, staring wide-eyed at the walls. Harras' chosen had grown tired of searching for Liron. Spoiled as he was, he had found someone to do that for him. This day never appeared to end. Liron bid farewell to any chance to sleep tonight, as there would be no rest for the wicked.