by Skyler Grant
"What squirrelly sort is out there deciding just what is a priority?" Morgan asked.
Alex didn’t wait for Yasmine to reply. He issued the command and his vision flashed.
Priority Quests Unassigned
Destruction of Falkirk
Black quintessence is currently swirling around the city of Falkirk. The cause is currently unknown but such a collection of power suggests the destruction of the city may be imminent.
Blangosh Artificers
The House of Artificers Guildhouse in the city of Blangosh have requested emergency aid because of a number of self-replicating mechanical spiders. While currently contained they fear containment may not hold and release the specimens upon the city populace.
Vanok Village
There has been a strong concentration of green quintessence in the environs of Vanok Village. Levels are growing hazardous and suggest a were-outbreak.
"Only three. For some reason I thought it would be more," Alex said.
"Those are the ones currently unassigned. A priority quest is one that’s suspected might result in a large-scale loss of human life if not addressed. They're actually fairly rare and usually the focus of experienced Glitch Hunters," Yasmine said.
"I wanted to check out the Blangosh taverns anyways. I wouldn’t mind taking that one," Morgan said.
"I'd recommend that, Pike. The Artificers are some of the best smiths and builders out there. You can hit them up for some proper gear as part of dealing with their issue. I was serious though, nobody should go alone."
"If we don't and stay paired up, we leave one of these unattended to," Alex said.
"It isn't our job to fix every problem in the world and if the House of Bats wants someone on these bad enough, it will find a way. Vanok Village is really an issue for the House of the Wild anyways, " Yasmine said.
"You're going to take Falkirk then?" Helen asked Yasmine.
"I am. Falkirk is a small city and if something is threatening it, I can’t ignore that. It also looks like the biggest threat on the board, which means I should be handling it."
Helen gave Alex a long look. "You know what I've said in the past. I was serious, I don't like the feel of this and I know you sense the danger too. We can run for it, just the two of us. Finish what we started on the riverside."
Yasmine quirked a brow at that. "Did piles of Borkai corpses turn you on or something?"
"We didn't actually kill any of them," Alex said.
"I hate illusions," Helen said.
"Anti-magic bombs. You stick with the hunting, you'll figure out how to make them soon enough," Yasmine said.
"What will it be?" Helen asked them all.
"Come on, lass. Taverns and brothels, you'll have a blast," Morgan said.
Alex said, "I'm going to Falkirk too. It sounds like there’s a mystery there and maybe that’s something I'll be able to help sort out."
Yasmine grinned. "Good. I wasn't going to pressure you, but I wanted you along."
"Pissing crap nuggets," Helen said, frowning darkly.
Alex knew what must be going through her head. Helen was a survivor, did she feel her best odds were setting off on her own, or going with Morgan?
"How could I refuse taverns and brothels? Sign me up," Helen said.
Yasmine said, "You'll love Blangosh. It’s wrong in all the right ways. Bracer, Cinquedea and Glaive accept the Falkirk contract."
You have been offered a half-share of a quest
Destruction of Falkirk
Partner: Cinquedea
Requirements: Unravel the mystery threatening the city of Falkirk and prevent the destruction of the city.
Rewards: Lifting of probationary status to full House membership. Black experience. House reputation.
Do you wish to accept?
"I accept," Alex said.
Yasmine said, "Fantastic. Morgan, get over here with a rock or something. We need to get these manacles off me."
13
“When others whine about misfortune it is time to look for opportunity. There is a fortune to be made in any tragedy for the one smart enough to get there first.” Horace Cosis
Yasmine split up the coins and the jewelry from the chest and each group went their own way after making their goodbyes. It was a melancholy experience to split up. They'd only been together a few weeks but effectively that was Alex's whole life. These people were quite literally almost everybody he knew in the world.
"You think they'll be okay?" Alex asked Yasmine.
"Ranseur has a good head on her and Morgan is a lot of brute force looking for a target. They'll be fine. Their quest might have sounded bad, but the Artificers always have a plan. In truth, I made sure they took the easier job."
"What about us?"
" Whatever threatens Falkirk is going to be big and nasty. Any large monster coming to town wouldn't cause the sort of vortex the quest described," Yasmine said.
"Any idea what it might be instead?" Alex asked.
"Wish I did, but we don't have enough information. It means something is drawing in power and killing for a purpose, but what is that purpose? We won't know until we get there."
Yasmine had taken the reins of their horse, her hand was doing better than Alex's leg. They were riding through barren hills only occasionally dotted by trees.
"So, what’s the plan?" Alex asked.
"Right now? We find a village. We have neither food nor supplies for a proper journey, and we could both use a night in a real bed. I'd like to find you a proper armorer. The odds are we won't manage that until Falkirk."
"You weren't that interested in getting our gear fixed before."
"You weren't my partner before. We really are going into the thick of it, Glaive."
"Are mages always as dangerous as the one we met back there?"
"It depends on their training. An unskilled one is as likely to set themselves on fire as their target, and there are various techniques you can use to disrupt magic."
"Those manacles they had you in were designed to dampen magic. I saw you block a spell with them," Alex said.
"You picked up on that? Yeah, for the most part anti-magic steel is overkill on Glitch Hunters, and as you know we can pick up a few spells. That will stop them dead and your dissonance-based abilities will still function."
The hills were giving way to plains, and here and there old fencing. Spotting a worn track in the distance Yasmine moved in that direction.
"So why is Youlash hunting us? Do you know?" Alex asked.
Yasmine shook her head. "I don't. It may be that an individual Glitch Hunter did something. In that case I'd usually have heard the tale. For the most part we try to stay apolitical, it’s safer that way."
"Does that actual work?" Alex asked.
Yasmine let out her familiar, low chuckle. "We're some of the best killers around and royals like to have that sort of thing in their employ. We try to avoid that, but silk sheets and a proper meal can be tempting."
"Have you ever been tempted?"
Yasmine said, "After a few months of hunting down cavelings night and day? Yeah, I gave it a try. Then I discovered that being on the road is less treacherous than spending a day at the royal court."
The road widened and a village came into view, perhaps two dozen huts roughly arranged around a water well.
"Should we hide our bracers?" Alex asked.
"Doesn't look like the sort of place we're going to find an army garrison, and we're short of coin. If they have a Glitch problem, we want to know."
Eyes tracked them as they entered the street and the villagers went silent in passing. Yasmine rode towards what was clearly a tavern and motioned for Alex to dismount, following him to the ground.
A middle-aged woman approached them straight away. "Glitch Hunters?"
Yasmine held up her bracer for a moment . "That's us. You have a problem that needs our help?"
"My boy, Geb. He went missing three nights ago."
"Tell me e
verything. Why do you think it’s a job for a Glitch Hunter?"
The woman said, "We'd been hearing scratching sounds outside for a week, we thought it were rats. Then the night before there were sobbing, like a child crying. We made sure we locked our door, didn't want no part of whatever were happening. Next night, our Geb vanished from his bed in the middle of the night, not a lock disturbed."
Yasmine frowned. "Few things it might be. None of them good, none of them cheap to handle. We can look into it, but your boy might already be dead."
"I know that, Mistress Glitch Hunter, I ain't a fool. But it might be he is still alive and if so I want you to bring him home and kill that which took him.”
"I don't work for free," Yasmine said.
"Hundred marks is all I can do. Times are hard."
"They are. One twenty-five," Yasmine said.
"One fifteen."
"And a word to the tavern-keep we'll helping you," Yasmine said.
"She's as heartless as you are, Miss. Won't make no difference, but I'll talk to her," said the woman with a nod, before shuffling into the inn.
"That was cold," Alex said.
"That was business. It is always someone's loved one, and they'll always try to pay you as little as they can get away with. You'll get used to it.”
"Still could have been nicer," Alex said.
"Could have. When she comes out, have her show you the house, check out the kid’s room and the windows. I'm going to grab some supplies and ask some questions around town. Meet me back here when you're done."
Alex was shown to the house. It was a small, cramped affair that seemed barely large enough to fit a family. Toggling Analysis Mode Alex had a look around.
It was his first time using the ability since the upgrade and visually there were some differences. The lines that sometimes crossed his vision did so more quickly and were thinner.
A bed of straw in Geb's room showed no signs of violence. An inner window latch for the shutters was undone.
Markings on one wall were highlighted. They looked to be measurements of height. There were two sets, one marked Geb and one Rak, and they'd both been kept current until the year before.
Alex checked outside the house. As he suspected there were a child's footsteps outside the window. They only went on for about fifty feet before disappearing.
There was different track where the footsteps vanished, a single one that didn't seem to belong. It was a bit smaller than Geb's, but still suggested a child.
Footstep: Child
Individual
Traces of Gravedust
There is not enough evidence to identify Glitch. Data found does not correlate to any entries currently in your Grimoire.
Alex's bracer wasn't being helpful once again, but he was learning to read between the lines. There were probably multiple matches that could fit what he’d found. The bracer wasn't going to give up any information until things were definite.
Returning to the Inn, Alex found Yasmine settled at one of the tables and nursing a tankard of ale. He took a seat across from her.
"You already get what you need?" Alex asked.
"They're getting it together. They don't have much here and the local blacksmith just shoes horses and won't touch your armor. What about you, any luck?"
"Kid wasn't plucked from his bed. He went on his own out the window and didn't make it very far before something took him. Left the track of a child outlined in Gravedust," Alex said.
"Did you get a look at the scratches?"
"Scratches?" Alex asked.
"The family has been hearing scratching, something would have left marks.” She shrugged. “It’s fine, it just would have helped to confirm things that’s all. Odd question, but did you see any sign of a brother or sister?"
"Brother, looked like a younger one. Something happened to him last year," Alex said.
Yasmine grimaced. "Afraid of that. No sleep for us then, kid might still be alive, but he won't be for long. We're dealing with a Grimmer."
Grimoire Entry Unlocked
Grimmer
Alignment: Black
A Grimmer is the spirit of a dead child who was murdered by their parents in order to save the life of a sibling and not given a proper grave. The Grimmer will often sob and beg to be let in from outside the family's home for several nights and if the door is opened for it, it will kill all inside. If it should be denied entry it will lure out its sibling, rip out its innards and take over the body returning to the home where it will eventually torture and kill the parents who abandoned it. Grimmers are resistant to mundane weapons but vulnerable to harmonized steel and fire.
"That's monstrous," Alex said.
"Unlock the entry? Means our bracers think I'm right. It will take too much time to convince the parents to tell us where they murdered and dumped the body of their other kid. Take me to this track you found," Yasmine said, rising from the table and finishing off the last of her ale in a massive gulp.
Alex showed Yasmine and she knelt down to study it, tracing a finger along the dust.
"What are you doing?" Alex asked.
"Getting a feel for the dissonance. I can't do anything as reliable as tracking it, but I should be able to get us a general direction from here to where the Glitch currently is," Yasmine said, closing her eyes and lowering her head.
Alex waited silently.
"Got it," Yasmine said, setting off at a quick pace, Alex stepped into place alongside her.
"Why do you think they did it?" Alex asked.
"You saw the place, the village. Probably food. They couldn't feed two children, so picked their favorite. Guess she wasn't lying, times are hard."
"Sounds like you've seen it before."
"Only ever hunted one Grimmer before and that was the case then. People get desperate and they get scared. That family I saved, then broke the father's nose."
"Still get paid?"
"Of course. I've got standards."
The trail led them outside of town and after twenty minutes they approached an abandoned settlement. Huts had collapsed and a few had burned down to the foundations.
"This will probably be it. People like to do their killing in places like this, thinking maybe an extra body won't be noticed amongst all the old ones," Yasmine said.
"Help!" came a shout, and a child ran out of the settlement. The boy was dirty and dressed in rags, and looked as if he'd been crying.
"Careful," Yasmine told Alex. She asked, as the child stopped in front of them, “Are you Gleb?”
The boy nodded and sobbed, "Rak took me, but he were all sad. Said he had to go and left me."
"Can't we just look for dissonance?" Alex asked, eyeing Gleb.
Yasmine said, ignoring the boy, "If the Grimmer has already dug its way inside of him, it won't show. We won't hear it, not until it comes out. Go into the ruins and look around, see if you can find the bones of a child that died in the last year. If so, burn them."
"If not?"
"What do you think? If not, we've got a problem. He might have gotten free, or exactly what we feared might have already happened."
"Can you take me to my mum?" Gleb asked.
Yasmine reached into her potion belt and bent down to snap an ampule beneath his nose. The boy wobbled for a moment and fell asleep on his feet.
"Doesn't that mean he's real?" Alex asked.
"Or a Glitch pretending. I'll keep an eye on him. Find me some answers," Yasmine said.
14
“Every family has secrets; every family has monsters in their closets. Leave them too long they become literal.” Soya Ranseur, House of Bats
Alex left Yasmine and the child behind and set off into the abandoned village. There wasn't anything that his natural vision was likely to find that Analysis Mode wouldn’t, so he toggled it right away.
That wouldn't be enough though. While analysis sight helped, Alex still needed to figure out the right things to look at. He had to think like the parents when
they’d come here to kill off one of their children. How and where would they do it.
They weren't professional killers, but the fact that they came here suggested several things. It was premeditated, not an act of desperation done in a moment. Something they'd planned in advance. They'd picked somewhere distant from the village to do the deed, and probably scouted this location beforehand.
Cellars were going to be the most likely option. They would provide someplace underground to hide a body.
The first two collapsed ruins of huts didn't have any sign of a cellar. The third did, and debris had been moved to clear the door.
Alex opened the hatch and climbed down a ladder. He found rickety shelves filled with the remnants of ancient, rotted vegetables, but no corpse. The best use that he got out of Analysis Mode was identifying a small pouch of coins tucked behind a pot.
The rest of the village turned out to have four more cellars. Two were in a state of partial collapse, all had their doors cleared, and none contained any sign of a body or even a hint of one.
Alex had to wonder if these cellars were even worth searching, or had he started out his reasoning wrong? The cleared entryways might have been scavengers.
It wasn't something Alex wanted to commit to without further evidence it was worthwhile. The time wasted could mean the death of an innocent child if he was wrong.
The parents could have buried the body almost anywhere—but if that was their intent, why do it here? That could have been done far closer to home.
Alex was trying to approach the problem as an experienced killer who wanted to hide the evidence properly. They weren't, they were just trying to throw their problem away and leave as quickly as possible. That raised a new possibility and Alex headed towards the village well.
