Tales of Death´s Daughter

The darkness was a peaceful place. It felt like I was floating in nothingness, free of any threats as my body apparently healed itself over the day. My worries still plagued me though. It was unknown what this illness spreading around the camp actually was, but I already suspected that it had something to do with this worm gaining control over the humans.

At least, I could solve the murder cases as I laid in a coma. There was absolutely no way that a single human being could do it and I was absolutely right to assume a group of fanatics behind the murders. It just turned out that everyone involved in these murders, from the killer to the witnesses was already controlled by this worm. I may have overlooked this detail as I didn’t look into the eyes of any witness, but that was probably according to her plan as well, although it was just a side product of her ploy to make it seem like nothing was out of the ordinary and stop me from questioning anyone. I even had proof for that. I just needed to compare the appearance of the illness to these murder cases.

The issue of the pigs inside the carts was solved with this as well. There weren’t any animals in there, but rather her offspring that thrived inside human corpses and squealed like pigs. It was unknown why she didn’t use animals for this, but I knew the best that nature drives one to eat crazy food sometimes.

I just couldn’t say for sure why she needed so many offspring, but it was only a matter of time until I would find out. My world of nothingness shook from one side to the other. At first, the sound returned as I heard a weeping girl by my side. Then, it all happened very fast.

I opened my eyes and an uneasy feeling spread around my tummy as I saw Luna, holding my hand with a lowered head. Was she already under the control of this monster? Was she still my Luna?

“Silly girl, didn’t I tell you to stay in bed?” I croaked with a dry throat.

“Lu!” She immediately looked upwards towards me with such a happy smile that I will never forget it. We both were overjoyed. She, because I lived, and I, because although she looked incredibly sick, saw a piercing yellow light behind her eyes, proof that she was still herself. Our happy reunion only lasted for a short moment though as Markus, Arthur and Tom barged into the room, all completely healthy. True, this wasn’t over yet and we still had a chance of beating this maggot.

“The mage that was with us …” I spoke up before anyone could start to ask an endless torrent of questions.

“Rebecca?” asked Arthur. So that was the real name of the person that got possessed.

“Yeah, whatever … kill her, she is the enemy.” I said while staring into four pairs of eyes that didn’t exactly know what I was getting at. “She is the reason for this illness and the weird behaviour of the supply corps. While you are at it, burn them down as well … might give us a few more days.” I wasn’t solving the issue like this as I had absolutely no idea where her real body was, but at least we could stop her progress like this for a few days.

“You have to give us a little more than that.” Concluded Arthur, just as I expected. Weakly, I stood up and walked over to the table in the centre of Arthur´s tent.

“Give me two maps of the camp.” Arthur swiftly took two similar-sized ones out of a drawer and laid them down on the table. As I started to draw the points of the murders on one of them and asked Tom to do the same with the spread of the illness, I started to explain.

“It is a monster that is responsible for all of this. It looks like a worm, but her magical abilities must be higher than that of any human mage. Otherwise, she would probably be unable to create a biological weapon that plagues this camp. There is a high probability that the infected must follow her orders, although I´m not entirely sure how that works yet.”

“Fuck.” Said Tom as we laid the maps over each other. The murders were at the exact place where infections did happen, which proved my point. “These murders were perfect because the witnesses were told to keep quiet.” Concluded Tom and convinced me even further that I was getting closer to the truth.

“She needs the bodies for reproduction. There were probably a ton of explosive substances on these carts, but also the corpses these worms need to reproduce.” I concluded and Markus continued.

“We didn’t order any explosives, so she must have gotten them from somewhere else. And the behaviour of the supply corps was certainly strange after the explosion. I had to kill three of them until I could reach Lucinda and she wasn’t doing too well as I arrived. I don’t know why she let us go afterwards though.”

“Her objective was to murder me, not to gain any attention.” I said and realized that she nearly did it, although it wouldn’t matter in the end as I could get resurrected by a few drops of blood rather easily. On a side note, I had to tell Tom about this ability of mine as nobody else knew so far.

“And why is she so fixated on you?” asked Tom curiously. I wasn’t entirely sure how I should respond. I doubted anyone would believe the truth after all.

“There is bad blood between us.” I tried to explain without giving away too much information about me, but that seemed to backfire immediately.

“And you didn’t manage to kill her in the past, which means we are doomed.” Concluded Tom which was exactly not what I wanted to hear.

“I haven´t said that, it is just that we have seen each other in a place that automatically set us against each other.” I once again tried to give away as little about me as possible, but the questions piled up even more after that.

“What place?” asked Arthur.

“I cannot say that.”

“You are making this incredible hard Lucinda. Do you even know how insane this sounds? A worm that controls humans through a biological weapon is out for your death. I´m sorry, but I cannot believe that.” I knew that it sounded insane, but it was the only possible solution I found.

“What about the illness and the murders which were in the same location? You have seen it yourself!” I asked, hoping to convince him.

“That could be pure coincidence.” Said Arthur, not really convinced about my argument. The lack of trust he had in me got on my nerves. Even Markus who disliked me quite a bit seemed to believe me.

“And what about the Mage that told me her name was Reruoved while it was obviously Rebecca?” I asked once more. It was my last hope, otherwise, I had no chance of convincing him before it would be too late.

“Only you heard her say that.”

“I did too.” Luna chimed in weakly.

“Maybe it is her second name?” Arthur argued and made me ball my hands into fists.

“You just don’t want to accept reality! The world is falling apart around us, but this goddamn war is still the only thing on your mind!” Rage exploded in my chest and my hand was already at my hip, just to miss the usual sword dangling around there.

“Then give me proof or anything I can work with! I cannot trust your word and I never will!” Said Arthur just as I wanted to ram my fist into his stomach, but was stopped by Markus´ sword. A blue light suddenly shone from my left as Luna gave her best to use her magic once more. We all stared in shock as blood flowed out of her nose and she collapsed completely. I dashed towards her across the table and barely caught her head before she hit the ground.