Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 85 We Need To Go.

“Thank you Samuel.” Isaac told the jeweler. He had gotten the man and his wife’s names while waiting for Lenna. “Tell Samantha thank you as well for me.”

“Of course, my Lord.” Samuel replied. He thought for a moment about the thanks and got the feeling that the thank you was a bit too sincere for doing light business. “May I ask what for?”

Isaac smiled and looked up to meet his eyes. “We have been really lucky recently. People like you, Jessica at the Silverstrand Seamstress, Alice at the Guild Hall, Sera Von Arbencroft, and Celeste at the Celestial Dawn. You have all been surprised but still accepted Lenna as just another resident.” Isaac sighed. “After the first few catastrophes I was afraid that the only way I would be able to bring her into a town was through the threat of violence.”

“I must admit my Lord that I was incredibly surprised to see her.” Samuel took a moment to sort out his next words. “I was also worried at first. Seeing her acting so… normal, put much of my worry at ease.”

Isaac nodded. “She is very earnest and can be quite shy sometimes. I don’t know what most people’s expectations of a drow noblewoman are but I’m glad that she is different enough to fit in.”

Samuel smiled. “Not at all like her.” He replied referencing Isaac’s comment about expectations. “If this isn’t too rude my Lord, might I ask which family she hails from?”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “What if you don’t like the answer?” He asked. He now knew how tense the relationship between Safeharbor and the V’Nova family was. The V’Nova’s intercepted supplies, raided, and even had once launched a full scale assault on Safeharbor.

Samuel thought for a moment on his response. “She’s a V’Nova then?” He asked.

Isaac smiled. “Yes. She ran away from home and now gets dragged into all the trouble I can’t help but find myself in.”

The knowledge of Lenna running away from her family put Samuel’s mind at ease somewhat. He nodded. “Thank you my Lord.”

—

Lenna had just stood there staring at the doorway for a long moment after Isaac had left. ‘Who just dumps that and leaves?’ She screamed internally. ‘He even told me to forget about it.’ She sighed and closed her eyes in thought. ‘Even if I admit that I have feelings for him then what?’ She opened her eyes to see the jeweler’s wife standing in the doorway with a wide grin.

“Sooo???” The woman asked, drawing it out. “What’s your response going to be? He just confessed.”

Lenna sighed again. “I don’t know.” She replied and rubbed her temples, she could feel a headache coming on.

“Why not?” The other woman asked. “I saw your face. It’s clear you have feelings for him too.”

“I… I don’t know if I can go through that…” Lenna replied. Her voice had caught halfway through. She had been thinking about it a lot recently. The more time they had spent together the more he grew on her until eventually she realized her feelings for him. That had gotten her thinking about the future and, honestly, it made her depressed.

The old woman looked slightly concerned. “Through what, dear?”

Lenna swallowed dryly. The more she thought about it, the more she could feel the pain preemptively. “If I marry him, he’ll make me a widow in what? Sixty? Seventy years?” She could feel the water start to collect in her eyes and blinked it away. “I don’t want to be a widow for four centuries.”

The jeweler’s wife walked over and put her hand on Lenna’s arm. “I’m sorry dear.” Was all she could say. Lenna’s elvish perspective was not something she could easily understand.

—

Lenna walked out of the back with the jeweler’s wife in tow. She was back in her full armor with her helmet on and the other woman had the necklace in hand.

“Ready?” Isaac asked Samuel and Lenna.

Lenna nodded. Samuel smiled and motioned towards the door. “After you my Lord.”

—

Isaac and Lenna went back to work after purchasing Lenna’s accessory. Isaac stored it in his Inventory for safekeeping until they returned to their room. After bidding the jeweler and his wife a good day the pair headed to the Guild Hall. Isaac gave Lenna a few glances along the way. He could tell that something was off about her. He understood that he was likely the reason but he still didn’t like not knowing what was wrong.

Isaac decided that she would tell him when she felt like it. They had built up enough trust that they both knew the other would speak their mind to each other when the time came regardless of the topic. Lenna caught Isaac’s glances but couldn’t place their purpose. She wasn’t sure if he could see through her and knew that her head and heart were fighting to the death or not but the concerned glances weren’t helping.

She needed a distraction and Isaac hated sitting still so she was glad when he had said about heading to the Guild Hall to get some more work. Unfortunately the only new job from the city was another caravan escort. They decided on more spiders. Partly because they wanted to bring back a Jumping Spider in hopes of increasing the base pay out of killing spiders and partly because the only other real option was a three day trip to hunt a drider.

Once in the spider infested tunnels Lenna spoke. She hadn’t said very much after they had left the jeweler’s so Isaac was glad she was at least starting to get out of her own head. “Let me go first.” She requested.

“Alright. I’ll cover you like we planned.” He agreed and moved in behind her. He followed behind a few steps so if they came across a Jumping Spider he would be able to cut it down before it got a chance to do anything. Lenna nodded and led the way through tunnel after tunnel.

—

All thoughts of romance aside, their day was getting more and more annoying. The pair had found a dozen dead spiders. All drained of fluids with two puncture marks at the base of their heads. They had been walking through the tunnels for over an hour and hadn’t seen a single living thing. Isaac had cut off the spider’s heads and stored them to bring back but the fact that they had yet to engage anything was getting on Lenna’s nerves.

She had wanted to give into the rush of battle and adrenaline to clear her head, at least for a while, but apparently the spiders had other ideas. The corpse count was worrying. Spiders didn’t eat very much for their size as a general rule and Jumping Spiders were no different. A dozen corpses meant a dozen hunters. If the Jumping Spider population had grown as quickly as it appeared then that meant there was something weird going on.

Usually mutations into known variants happen at a regular pace. Doubling their numbers by the day was the fastest recorded mass natural mutation. If the spiders had somehow managed to grow tenfold in a day then something must have caused it.

“Another freaking corpse. This makes thirteen.” Isaac groaned as they came upon another victim. “Let’s head back.” He said and stopped to cut off its head. He froze as a chill went up his spine. The feeling was odd. It was both frightening and comforting at the same time. He thought on the feeling and its slight familiarity.

“Alright.” Lenna sighed. She then seemed to notice Isaac. “What’s wrong?”

“Something big is out there.” He said ominously. He finished cutting off the spider’s head and quickly threw it in his Inventory. “We need to go.” He told her. The chill had turned into a constant feeling. Something stronger than him, darker than him, was out there and he could feel it. The feeling had been incredibly subtle with both of the chimeras he had fought. Either this was the strongest chimera in the world or something even worse.

Lenna nodded and moved closer to Isaac. “You lead.”

Isaac summoned Kahtesh and gave him the gift of silence courtesy of his shadows. He then put a hand on Lenna’s shoulder and did the same for her. “As long as I’m not doing anything else I can keep this up.” He told her. “I’ll have to keep contact though so let’s go together.”

“Understood.” Lenna acknowledged. Kahtesh moved in behind them and looked over his shoulder towards the direction Isaac felt the presence. He hadn’t told the dragon to do that. A different type of chill went up Isaac’s spine.