“What are you doing?” the alchemist asked.
“Let us see which is stronger,” Vladimir said. “Yours or Voivode’s.”
“I would suggest your guards going first to restrain him, just in case,” the alchemist warned.
“Certainly,” Vladimir said, unflinching. He snapped his fingers and gestured for his guard to go ahead of them. The alchemist opened the door to the glass enclosure. The subject charged at them, but the guards grabbed him by the arms and lifted him off the ground. He struggled against them to no avail.
Vladimir raised the nilrof and stabbed it into the subject’s neck. The subject winced at the injection, but as soon as Vladimir withdrew the nilrof needles, he struggled again. They watched him for a long moment, but nothing happened. His fruitless struggle continued, but nothing else changed.
Vladimir stepped back and smiled, his face betraying honest surprise. “Amazing,” he exclaimed. “You have defeated the original serum.”
“Thank you,” the alchemist humbly replied. He had not considered this particular test, but he was grateful that the test met with Vladimir’s satisfaction.
“And now to see how yours will affect us,” Vladimir said as he plunged the nilrof back into the subject and withdrew a cylinder full of blood. He turned back to the guard who was not holding the subject and stabbed the nilrof into his neck. The guard stared in shock as the needles punctured his neck and Vladimir depressed the pump to force the subject’s blood into the guard.
“What are you doing?” the alchemist asked in shock. “He wasn’t a test subject.” Of the two tests, he had hoped for only the first. Like the first test, this less desirable one could go either way, but the guard had not volunteered for this.
“He is now,” Vladimir said, watching. The guard fell to his knees. The other two, still holding the subject, stepped back in surprise as the stabbed guard held his neck, hyperventilating.
“Was that test authorized?” the alchemist asked.
Vladimir grabbed the alchemist’s shirt and held him close to his face. “Everything I do is authorized, boy,” Vladimir said angrily. “Never forget that.”
He pushed the alchemist away. Conflict raged within him. Vladimir had injected that guard with the new serum without the guard’s knowledge. No one knew the full ramifications of this serum yet. It was one thing to attack humans, since humanity would kill them if they could, but to change another Fempiror – especially one who had pledged his allegiance to the Tepish – bordered on treason in the alchemist’s mind. Perhaps Vladimir felt that no one was off limits to him.
He looked back at the guard. The guard stared at them in shock. Sweat poured down his face. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth in a silent scream of pain. His canines elongated as they watched. His face drained of color as his blood dissolved in his veins. Finally, a scream broke free from his mouth before he collapsed on the ground.
The alchemist looked at Obadiah, who shared his look of horror at this new revelation. His gaze passed to Vladimir, whose surprise melted into a wide smile of wonder on his face. The alchemist had never seen him look so happy. “Impressive,” Vladimir said. “Ten days in humans, but ten seconds in Fempiror. Imagine the possibilities. We could capture the Rastem and just change them.”
He laughed at the very idea. “We could force them to turn against their core beliefs. Watch him,” he said seriously, his tone changing instantly. “Let us know if you find anything else worthy to report. Was this subject created using the most recent serum you sent to Erim?”
“Yes, sir,” the alchemist replied shakily, shifting his eyes to Vladimir.
“Excellent,” Vladimir said. “Then we have enough Mutations to not require any further duplication of your synthesized serum.”
Mutations? Is that the Tepish were going to call his creation? He could acknowledge that the name was appropriate enough. He had started his research on the original serum and changed it little by little as he worked. In the end, it was a mutation of the original, and it also served to describe their mental state. Then he realized that Vladimir spoke of more than one Mutation. The alchemist now had two, but was that all?
“Enough Mutations?” the alchemist asked. “How many are there?”
“With your subject and our ex-guard here, about a dozen,” Vladimir told him very matter of factly.
“A dozen?” the alchemist said in shock. He thought they had only wanted to analyze the serum he sent or perhaps use a test subject of their own. He had no idea they were administering it already. Now that they knew it turned a Fempiror almost instantly, he feared the Mutation number would grow exponentially.
“Yes, we wanted to test it on a larger scale, and as yours was one day older, you were able to give us some advanced information to prepare for. Our subjects from the latest batch have all recovered after their 3-day coma just like yours, and stand ready. They also behave like animals, though I can tell you that they have responded well to me, and they have not attacked each other,” Vladimir said. “Your work here is almost done. You’re a credit to the Tepish Order, and you will be rewarded if this goes well.”
“Thank you,” the alchemist said flatly to Vladimir. Vladimir and the alchemist left the sunroom. The guards walked to the doorway, still holding the subject. They tossed him against a far wall and quickly walked through the door, closing it rapidly behind them. The subject leapt quickly across the room and hit the glass. The guards and Obadiah jumped on impact, but neither Vladimir nor the alchemist moved. He knew Vladimir expected it, and the alchemist was too numb at this point to even acknowledge it. Vladimir and his guards along with Obadiah left the alchemist alone with his thoughts.
They had already used his serum without his knowledge. People were being actively changed into animals that required blood in order to survive. Instinct took over to the point where they no longer based their actions on any level of sentient reason. He had reduced his subject to pure animalistic tendencies already, and he knew the guard would be the same way within a few days of his awakening, if it even took days. The mind slowly slipped away.
He had given the Tepish their army of mindless killers, and they did not care that this army might turn on them at any moment. To make matters worse, these killers had blood that would not only change a human in two weeks’ time, but it would change a Fempiror within an hour. He reasoned that the Mutation and Fempiror individual physiologies were similar enough to accelerate the process, though he did not fully understand why. And he suspected he would not have the opportunity to research why or modify the serum to perhaps not change a Fempiror.
It no longer mattered. He glanced back at the fruits of his labor and noticed the subject was sniffing at the guard, but not attacking him in any way. As he watched, the subject turned his gaze to the alchemist, and the alchemist finally saw a shred of emotion. The subject smiled.
The alchemist cursed himself for what he had done. Vladimir was right. His work here was complete, whether he liked it or not. He had done what the Tepish had asked of him, and now he started to regret it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Rastem Outpost
Tiberius paced anxiously in the Rastem Outpost hidden in the cellar of a general goods store in the Northwest quarter of Erim on the morning of the 14th. It had served them well for several months, since the entrance to the cellar was in the back of the store above them, and the cellar’s dirt walls stretched beyond the boundaries of that store creating a large space to house a good number of Rastem. Wooden columns dominated the room along with empty shelves that they had rearranged into room walls to create a little privacy as well as a maze to confuse any intruders. As far as he knew, the place remained undiscovered, but it was one of few that they had kept so stable.
For months, he and Ulrich exchanged messages in different locations around Erim at specific times of the night. This evening, the Rastem messenger he had sent out never returned. He assumed the worst. The Tepish had run across them periodically and always attacked
. Sometimes, they would learn of it, but more often, they would only find out when the Rastem or Elewo failed to return.
If the Rastem presence in Erim were not so essential to keeping the Tepish from spreading, he and his team would have left along with everyone else when the Tepish took over. For years, the Tepish had been content to act in secret, transmutating humans and gathering them to their fold little by little. The reason for their surge to power took little intelligence to decipher. If they are in control, people will more likely flock to them, and they can transmutate humanity without fear of the Rastem Code that commands the death penalty for those who transmutate anyone.
Since defeating the Tepish in the early 15th century, no one had believed that they would ever return, and certainly, the idea that Rastem champions, such as Vladimir and Karian, would ever adopt the Tepish philosophy was completely foreign. People had accused Zechariah of paranoia, but in the end, he turned out to be correct about everything. He was closest to the problem, so it would make sense that he would know, but even then, it seemed the Tepish-controlled council managed to keep him in the dark about their intentions. They had killed or removed everyone from the council who would not accept them, and then replaced them with those they could trust.
But all this was in the past, and now, they were left to deal with the chaos they had allowed to grow. In the early days following the Tepish takeover, the Rastem and Elewo were relatively powerless against the sudden Tepish infusion as they fanned out across Erim to transmutate the local human populace. Following the building of the Tepish Fortress, life had settled for the Fempiror who continued to live in Erim until the Tepish hierarchy began requiring a weekly quota of one new Fempiror. They publicly executed anyone who refused to comply, which effectively emptied Erim of its residents.
It was at this point four years ago that the Rastem and Elewo made their first attack on the Tepish Fortress. Unfortunately, they grossly underestimated the Tepish strength, and took heavy losses before retreating into hiding within Erim. Since then, they maintained a presence in Erim to attempt to subvert the Tepish actions, and after several attacks on isolated Tepish troops and Levi-Carts, the Tepish became considerably more cautious. They kept their forces within the boundaries of the fortress and when they left, the Levi-Carts blasted out of the fortress at speeds the Rastem and Elewo could not match on foot, and they could not keep a Levi-Cart ready for a chase.
Over time, news of transmutations from their groups outside of Erim decreased, and it became clear that their presence in Erim kept the Tepish trapped there in a stalemate that neither side was willing to break. Through all the losses both sides had taken over the past few years, Tiberius suspected that the Tepish were just as careful with losing people as the Rastem and Elewo were. As long as the Rastem and Elewo remained, the Tepish could not pursue their mission of vengeance out of town because they feared potential attacks on their fortress. The Tepish easily repelled any attacks they made, but those minor scuffles served to show the Tepish that they could not let their guard down to leave the Fortress undefended. In fact, Tiberius suspected that if the Tepish losses were similar to the Rastem and Elewo losses, the idea of the Tepish leaving their fortress in any kind of large group was impossible.
Only under the threat of attack and the idea that the Rastem and Elewo remain somewhere in Erim do the Tepish remain trapped. The strength of each side rested in the other side’s lack of knowledge of their numbers.
But knowing that the Rastem and Elewo were hiding in Erim had led the Tepish to seek them out, and lately this seeking had been extremely aggressive. The constant threat of Tepish discovery caused both sides to increase the number of people watching for any sign of incursion on their outposts as well as some outposts moving around town more often. This movement usually occurred during the day under day travel cloaks, which served two purposes. First, it kept the Tepish from attacking them since they knew the Tepish would not want to risk a day attack and losing their own day travel cloaks. Second, and more importantly, it allowed the Tepish to see them from their Fortress and reinforce the Rastem-Elewo presence during a time when the Tepish could only watch.
In recent days, however, the Levi-Cart departures became more frequent, though they never left in a very large group, nor did they stay out for more than an evening. After checking with Fempiror in towns near Erim, they learned of the town of Kelïrum. Some Fempiror who had stayed there for a short time spoke of Levi-Carts coming and going, and that their drivers always wore the red and black Tepish armor.
During their investigation, they had continued observing the convoys and gathering information. They had seen them leave and return with bodies laid out on them on several occasions, which prompted the Elewo to send Beth to the Fortress to find out what the Tepish were doing.
This very evening, they had seen Vladimir himself fly out of the Fortress, and both Tiberius and Ulrich hoped that whatever intelligence David and Beth gathered would include this visit.
He considered the wisdom of sending David and Beth out together. He and Ulrich both recognized the sadness within them. Ulrich noted that Beth was beyond reckless, and while this made her very effective as a fighter, he feared she placed no value on her life. Likewise, David learned his craft well, but always seemed to have a lingering sadness that always worried Tiberius. He knew he could trust David to back him up, but he was never certain to what extent David would protect himself if it came down to the choice.
It was clear that the pair needed to reconcile their past, especially since they had been lovers, and both he and Ulrich accepted the possibility that the pair might become romantically involved. In fact, they expected it. They hoped this reconciliation would lead them to be even more effective at their individual responsibilities since they would have someone to live for.
There was a knock at the shelf that ended at Tiberius’ area of the cellar. He turned to the dirty white cloth covering the entrance to his room.
“Come in.”
Kaltesh held the cloth to one side as he stepped solemnly inside the room. Tiberius looked at his expression and instinctively knew he was right about the fate of their messenger.
“Tiberius, we found him,” Kaltesh said.
“Where?” Tiberius asked.
“He was still at the designated meeting place, but he had been run through,” Kaltesh explained. “Whoever did it to him just left him there to lie in his own blood.” Kaltesh handed Tiberius a small sheet of paper. “We found this message on him.”
Tiberius took the note from Kaltesh and looked it over. The assassin had written the message in Felletterusk: Sufki nar selad sil stäf.
“Your days are numbered,” Tiberius said aloud, translating the message into the common tongue.
“Should we take it seriously?” Kaltesh asked.
“While the threat seems empty, we shall take our brother’s death seriously,” Tiberius said. “Did you make contact with the Elewo?”
“Yes, sir,” Kaltesh replied. “He was watching over the body. He knew we would come for it.”
“Of course,” Tiberius nodded. “What did he say?”
“They’ve been forced to relocate,” Kaltesh explained. “Their outpost was overrun.”
Tiberius stared at Kaltesh in shock. He put it together in an instant.
“Kaltesh, get everyone together,” Tiberius said quickly. “Everyone needs their day travel cloaks on, so we can leave as soon as possible.”
“What is it?” Kaltesh asked.
“Who brought this message back?” Tiberius asked quickly.
Kaltesh straightened all of a sudden. That was enough for an answer. “I ensured that I was not followed, Tiberius,” Kaltesh assured him. “I checked constantly and did not come back by a straight path. No one followed me. I’m sure of it.”
“I believe you, Kaltesh,” Tiberius said, “but remember that a Tepish soldier is motivated under the threat of his own life. With his mortality hanging over him, I suspect you were tracked by s
omeone as intent on staying with you as you were on shaking him. He didn’t want to attack though. He only wanted to know where you went.”
“Forgive me, Tiberius,” Kaltesh said.
“Don’t let it concern you, old friend,” Tiberius assured him. “We have been too long here anyway. It is time we moved on. I have no doubt that at this moment, though, the Tepish are on their way here. We must leave now. Five minutes or less. Go!”
Kaltesh nodded and ran out of the room to prepare the remaining Rastem for a daytime trek across Erim. He knew it was late in the evening, and they might run into Tepish before the sun came up. But if they could get out soon enough, the sun would provide the cover they needed for moving without further Tepish interference. Despite the deadliness of the sun, the Tepish shared this weakness making it the safest time to move out in the open. The coming day would be their best chance of relocating.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Meeting with Obadiah
The trip from Hauginstown back to Kelïrum in the morning hours of the 14th was very pleasant now that David and Beth were on speaking terms again. They talked about their experiences with the Rastem and Elewo from their individual training practices to the fighting styles they had each adapted and developed. Because the Rastem and Elewo were allies, they freely spoke of their missions and of their fellow warriors. Beth mentioned that Ulrich wanted her to find a focal point in her life, but she never could because she felt that she had no reason to live. David said that he just concentrated on himself since there was nothing out there for him anyway. As a result, they both had risen to the top of their ranks, but they each had an emptiness they were desperately trying to fill.
David learned more about the Elewo in that far too short a ride than he had learned from Tiberius in the entire time he had been Tiberius’ pupil. While the Rastem placed a fair amount of emphasis on the sword, it seemed that the Elewo valued self-reflection over the attack. They determined a warrior should place the importance on preservation of self, and only kill if there were no other alternative to one’s own survival. The Rastem did place their emphasis on protection, but they centered their concentration more on the tactics of the enemy as opposed to preservation of self.
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