Tales of Death´s Daughter

The supply corps camped a few hundred metres away from the normal army. It had its own sentries and was generally quite secluded. Merchants, a few soldiers and naturally the whores lived here, ready to retreat whenever the main army engaged into battle. A bit behind the main army, it was largely safe from any assaults and could get support whenever they needed it.

Cart upon cart stood here around, strangely not secured by anyone as if nobody feared the possibility of thieves. I found that a bit careless, but considering that everyone was checked before they could enter or leave, it wasn’t as bad as I suspected. Markus and I were obviously the exception to this rule as he was quite well known in the army and could basically do whatever he wanted.

“What are we searching for?” asked Markus, looking around everywhere.

“We are searching for the headquarters of an evil organisation. Two stories high, completely black with screaming humans in the cellar.” I chuckled when Markus looked at me as if I had gone insane. “I don’t know either, just keep your eyes open.”

A few minutes later, we stood upon a large field that was apparently used as a marketplace but was no completely empty of any stalls or similar. Still, a few humans stood around and chatted about their profits.

“This doesn’t feel right.” I said as I looked around, but couldn’t find anything suspicious. Wherever I looked, nothing was out of the ordinary.

“What do you mean?” asked Markus, equally looking around and unable to find anything.

“I don’t know … let´s go.” I answered and stomped off in another direction. I may have been so frustrated that I didn’t find anything, that I desperately wanted to find any clue. There just had to be something out of the ordinary here, but even after several hours, we were as clueless as before. Markus was already yawning regularly as I stopped in another open field and kept staring at a group of drunk merchants.

“How are we not finding anything? Where are the thugs, the thieves and most importantly the whores? Shouldn’t this be the place where the common soldiers who share tents spent the night in their lustful adventure? Where is the moaning?” I asked, finally realizing why I couldn’t keep my calm. It wasn’t the things that I saw that agitated me, it was the missing things.

“Hmm … now that you mention it.” Markus concluded and shook the tiredness off him in a matter of seconds.

“And why is nobody pointing at us? We should be quite an anomaly here …” A girl and an officer who could be her father is certainly quite the combo in this supposedly whore infested place. Humans would stare and talk about us and although I noticed some gazing at us from behind, none of them did it openly. It was as if all of them here didn’t want to be suspicious so hard, that they overdid it and became incredibly suspicious in turn. Frustrated, I stomped towards a nearby group of merchants, hand on my sword that dangled in its scabbard from my hip. Only as I was halfway there did they finally turn towards me one by one with surprised expressions.

It was already too late though. I wouldn’t turn around now, but rather stepped incredibly close towards one of them and stared straight into his eyes.

“Can I help you?” I turned my head to look at the next one, but he averted his head completely.

“You! Look in my eyes!” I grabbed his chin and forcefully stared into his eyes, only to let go of him in the next second. I continued like this until I stared into all of their eyes and concluded that it was time to draw my sword.

“How are you lot doing that?” I said as I was unable to see the soul of any one of them. Just like the suicidal soldier, these merchants manage to hide their soul completely from my inquisitive gaze and I couldn’t help but wonder what phenomenon this caused. It must have been an invisible force with a large area of effect, centred around the location of the supply corps.

In addition to the murders and the illness, there was now a third unexplainable issue. I sighed, realizing that these merchants had none of the answers I needed. Frustrated, I seethed my sword again and stomped back towards a curious Markus.

“Don’t ask questions I cannot answer.” I said and stormed past him, ready to shut him up with force if needed. He soon followed behind me and this time, I lead the way. My way was irregular and I didn’t even know where we were in the end, nor if we were there once before, but maybe this was also to our advantage as nobody could predict our movements this way. In silence, we walked between a few tents until I stopped and he bumped into me.

It was already third o´clock in the night and we were probably the only one on the streets at that point, but the west wind still carried quite the distinct smell to my nose. I drew in as much as I could and immediately changed my course. I didn’t care if Markus was able to follow me as I dashed through the white tents, my sword already drawn and full of vigour. I only stopped at a medium-sized field that let my alarm bells ring. Eight sentries stood around a few wagons, all turning towards me as I stepped onto the field. Markus soon followed behind me and stopped by my side, apparently with one of the questions I had in my mind.