Revenant's Resolve Chapter 9

Reznik felt frustrated with his current predicament.

On one hand, he was exceptionally used to hours on hours, on top of days of mindless tedium. Days where his body did nothing but shamble aimlessly through an empty ruin, stare hollow-eyed at a piece of glittering glass on the ground, transfixed by a sparkle, or even fight his own shifting reflection in a puddle of water.

In those times, he often checked himself out of reality and retreated deeper within himself, entertaining what was left of his wandering mind with wild fantasies and ideas. It was the only way for him to hold onto the last vestiges of sanity.

But right now, he couldn’t.

He couldn’t retreat back to the little safe hole within his mind and pass the time. Giving his body full and complete control in the middle of the town wouldn’t end pleasantly for anyone.

Nor could he reasonably listen to anything of note around him like he had in the morning.

As afternoon had fallen, so too had fallen a torrential downpour of rain and thunder. All the people and citizens of the town had returned to their homes, or some form of shelter where they worked. The few people that did leave buildings left in a hurried shuffle, often with cloaks, baskets, or other objects held above their heads to keep them dry.

Reznik would have left by now and waited for the rain to cease, however there were no shadows for him to creep through, and the guard seemed unconcerned with the rain, still marching their patrols around the town.

This left Reznik with a lack of options, other than to wait.

What I wouldn’t give to simply read a book.

At least this is a lovely shower.

Look at all the dirt that’s come off since it started.

Reznik mentally pointed at the reddish-brown puddle of murk that sat beneath him, lazily running off towards a nearby hole in the parapet, just large enough for the water to flow effortlessly through. A thunderous boom that shook the building beneath him following a bright flash mere moments before.

Been a while since I’ve seen a storm this powerful.

It’s almost like the sky is angry at us, just throwing lightning here and there without a care in the world. And here I had hoped that the guard would retreat like the people did.

But no, they just had to keep patrolling.

Why? It’s not like anyone is committing a crime in this weather. There’s literally no one out on the streets to mug or steal from, nor is the mud sure to come a good option for fleeing.

Perhaps they’re on alert for something else…

Me, maybe?

A part of Reznik was happy, proud, even, that he was so much of a local power that it could affect the guards shifts, but he felt like that wasn’t right.

Like he wasn’t the source of the double-shifts alone, and nor were the bandits.

The Baron was surely worried about something else. And judging from the guard’s conversation the night before, they were worried about it before Reznik had found the uniformed men in the camp.

Reznik heard the steady pace of marching feet and the soft rattle of equipment beneath him again.

The guards were making another pass.

Then, they stopped, and Reznik heard the front door of the shop being opened.

“Master Geralt, a word?” a voice half-shouted, half-talked over the sound of pouring rain.

“Of course, Sergeant! What can I do for the guard today?” Geralt offered back in a jovial tone, his voice slowly clearing as he probably approached the door.

It was hard for Reznik to distinguish the voices in this weather, let alone footsteps.

“New orders from the Baron. As of today, we’ve been officially placed on alert and thus, a curfew has been enacted.” The Sergeant, or so Reznik assumed, replied with a firm but polite tone. “From dusk ‘til dawn, all civilians have been ordered to stay in their homes or place of business.

“No one out on the streets after dark. Anyone who is will be arrested by the guard, questioned, and held in the stockade until morning at the earliest. No exceptions.”

“Oh my, well, thank you for letting me know, Amon! I’ll be closing my doors a bit early today, if that’s the case, give myself and my apprentice enough time to be safe in our homes by nightfall.

“If you don’t mind me asking, though…”

Geralt the shopkeep seemed to consider his words, and Reznik internally imagined the portly man making an over-exaggerated thoughtful expression before he continued in a tone that Reznik could just barely hear.

At the edge of his ears, being picked up between the droplets hitting the ground, Reznik listened closely.

“What… what’s the reason for all this? Is it the monster we saw a few days back?”

“You didn’t hear it from me, Geralt but…” Amon, the Sergeant replied in an equally hushed tone, clearly trying to keep what information he was about to give out of prying ears. “This morning, there was a body outside the gates. Badly torn up, I couldn’t make heads or tails of ‘im. But Sir Botezatu thinks he was a Bessarban scout. Said the uniform matches.

“Has the Baron all up in a tizzy, he even sent for aid from the capitol.”

So I was right.

Ha!

I was fucking right!

Tonight, I should go hunt the rest of them down.

Drag them all to the gates and leave them for the guard to see.

I could show them that I’m on their side in all this. Luminita seemed to think I was some type of guardian spirit sent by that idol, maybe I can convince the entire town.

Convince the entire town and be hip-deep in those steaks.

Never have to eat another person again, or even a raw piece of deer!

“Aye, I’ll be out of the streets by the time that dusk rolls around, Amon. Been good seein’ ya’.”

“You as well, Geralt! Stay safe, and keep that apprentice in line, alright?” Amon chuckled and stepped off the wooden deck, landing back in the mud with a wet squelch.

“Ha!” Geralt replied as the door closed behind him.

Reznik heard the man throw the lock back into place and then internally began to debate how to escape as soon as the night grew dark again.

Sneaking out in the same way he snuck in would be made difficult with the amount of rain that had fallen, as the ground was sure to be slick with mud. It would make traversing the town treacherous, not to mention the increased presence of guards.

Though, if the rain kept up, it would offer him a unique opportunity to disguise the sound his footfalls made, providing him more opportunities to simply sprint through the streets to the wall, then over it.

I just wait for a break in the guards, then take the path of least resistance outside.

Reznik heard a thud, followed by what sounded like a lock clattering to the floor from the middle of the building.

Perhaps the roof is leaky, and Luminita or Geralt simply slipped and fell.

No, that’s not right. That sounded like a lock.

I wonder what they’re getting up to in the-

Reznik’s train of thought was severed clean in two as a hatch that he hadn’t seen opened in front of him.

Staying completely stock-still, Reznik would’ve gulped if he had control of his throat.

The back of the hatch was to him, blocking his view of the person who’d opened it.

A metal bucket was placed on the roof, followed by another, and then another.

In total, ten metal buckets were placed in a half circle around the hatch. As Reznik’s thoughts resumed, he imagined they were there to collect the rainwater, probably to drink.

So Reznik waited patiently, silently from his place at the corner of the roof where the facade met the parapet, hoping that the person really didn’t want to get wet today. That they would simply leave the buckets, close the hatch, and leave.

From the hands, it looked like the person placing the buckets was Luminita.

Please don’t turn around.

Please, pretty please don’t turn around.

The hatch closed with a solid-feeling thwump, causing Reznik to breathe an internal sigh of relief. His hiding spot wouldn’t be discovered, and hopefully, he would have more than enough time before Luminita came back to check the buckets to escape into the night.

Likely, she wouldn’t come back to check them until the morning.

Or at least, that’s what Reznik hoped.

A bird hopped out from a gap in the parapet on the opposite side of the roof.

It seemed the crow had built a nest inside of a hollow where several bricks were missing.

In an odd, bouncing gait, it jumped through the pouring rain to one of the buckets. It rolled its head this way and that, clearly staring at Reznik. Then, it pecked at the side of the bucket.

No, nonono, don’t you dare little crow.

Leave that bucket alone until after the sun sets.

It pecked the bucket again. Then it cawed loudly and jumped up to the rim of the bucket, looking back and forth between Reznik and the metal.

Oh fuck, I really don’t want to kill you.

Don’t make me eat you, bird.

Because I swear, if you don’t stop-

The bird squawked, and began to angrily flap its wings, rocking the bucket back and forth before tipping it over.

Reznik didn’t move, hoping that the rather loud clattering sound of the bucket falling over wouldn’t attract Luminita or Geralt’s attention.

The roof hatch slammed back open, and then Luminita let out a disgruntled growl.

“Oh for- Geralt! The blasted crow is back again! Shoo! Go, off with you! These are our buckets!”

The crow seemed not to care all that much, hopping out of reach of Luminita’s shooing motion, landing back on the roof, and squawking angrily at Luminita. It lifted a wing and wiped off its beak before waddling back towards the bucket as Luminita waved her hands angrily again.

Fuck. Fuck this is not good.

You little shit! Stop drawing attention to me!

“Oh for heaven’s sake! What is with you! If you want a birdbath, just stand on the wall! It’s not that hard! Why do you even want my buckets?” Luminita demanded of the bird, seeming for all the world as if she actually expected a response. The bird simply cawed, hopped back at the freshly-righted bucket, and tried to peck it before being shooed away again.

It looked to Reznik, then back to Luminita in a way that felt pointed.

Oh. You’re just a fucking cunt, aren’t you?

You’re actually trying to get me caught! Why?

What did I ever do to you?

Is that bird in the woods your family or something, did I offend your ancestors?

“Oh just leave it alone, Luminita!” Reznik heard Geralt shout from within. “If it wants the shop’s rainwater, it can have it! No use getting yourself soaked over a territorial bird. It’s probably just worried about its eggs, or something like that!”

“Fine.” Luminita huffed back before pointing at the bird and continuing in a hushed, threatening tone; “But if you spill another bucket, so help me, I’m getting the broom.”

The roof hatch closed again behind her.

* * *

Reznik stalked through the woods, trying to remember exactly how he’d gotten to the camp before.

If the guard hadn’t found it yet, Reznik hoped to either kill all the scouts, or better yet, follow them back to who was in charge of them.

Reznik was no soldier, at least not that he could remember, but scouts wouldn’t just wander into an unfriendly country’s borders without orders.

Without someone giving them commands.

Beyond that, they wouldn’t just be scouting for no reason, either.

There had to be a -purpose- to why they were here.

And if they had a goal, that was something that Reznik hoped he could dig up, regardless of how useful it would be in the long run.

Reznik knew that if he just let his body do its thing, he could easily overwhelm a team of seven scouts alone in the dark woods. That was if they were still in the same camp, or left a trail he could follow.

And so he went, mentally pointing his body this way and that like an animal being led around by a carrot on a stick.

Given that it was a moonless night, with heavy clouds still overhead, Reznik was struggling to see even with his inhuman vision. He knew he was in the right section of forest, but what he didn’t know was whether or not he’d made the right turns.

He wasn’t exactly paying attention on his meandering walk the night before.

And the way back to the village looked remarkably different in this different direction, let alone the darkness that enveloped him. What little ambient light there was left him little to see but the dark trees ahead of him.

He imagined this was the kind of night used to scare little children in horror stories.

Cautionary tales about leaving the homestead after dark, being chased by snarling hungry monsters that hunted in the safety of the shadows.

Monsters like him.

He couldn’t actually remember the details of any story like that, but he remembered a feeling. A feeling from long ago, unaccompanied by mental image or even distant, old conversations.

But that feeling pulsed in his mind, of being a scared child fearful of the dark.

It felt alien to him.

But it also felt like it was connected to a memory that he couldn’t actually touch.

Reznik placed his thoughts to the side as he heard voices ahead. Sharp, harsh whispers that carried just far enough for Reznik to pick up.

Slowing his pace just enough to move through the brush near-silently, Reznik bid his body to follow the direction of the voices.

As Reznik drew near, he could clearly make out that these men weren’t speaking his language.

In fact, Reznik remembered the harsh, flowing language from the camp before.

Even before he reached the voices, he was sure he’d found the same group of men, or at least, those who were in league with them.

Navigating his body to a small gap in the trees, Reznik could make out two figures quietly arguing with each other, pointing at things in the camp as they clearly made some kind of point.

Others in the group were positioned in all directions, crouched on their knees with weapons at the ready as they scanned the trees outside the camp.

Reznik would have to be careful in how, even if he decided to approach these men. In the dark, Reznik could hardly tell who was who, but he was sure of the centaur that stood in the middle of camp, arguing with someone that looked human in this darkness.

Whether it was the human, the elf, or even the greened-skin mountain of a man, he wasn’t sure.

The centaur sighed, brought a hand up to his forehead and said a single, disdainful word before nodding.

“Tuvai!” he spat in a razor-sharp tone, waving a hand towards the opposite side of the camp. As he spoke, it seemed it was an order for everyone, as all the men pointing guns into the woods stood and fell back to the inside of the camp.

Then, the centaur began to lead the group away, leaving the camp behind and taking nothing that Reznik could see.

They left the trunks, remnants of the fire, and even the pack of the man Reznik had mauled. It seemed they carried only what they’d brought with them upon returning.

Wonderful.

I’m right on time, it would seem.

Okay you fuckers, lead me to your boss.

Reznik decided that he would leave the men alone, not immediately killing them to drag them back to the gates. His curiosity had been struck.

After years, decades, possibly even centuries of being trapped inside his own head with nothing to do but watch, the prospect of further inserting himself into the middle of what was likely to turn into an armed conflict seemed almost fun by comparison.

Of course, I also am worried about the townspeople.

I need to do this to make sure they’re safe, after all!

The fact that I’m getting to be a part in some actual intrigue after all this time is merely a fringe benefit.

Reznik’s body moved through the underbrush in short, rapid dashes. To a tree there, crossing in a hunch to a short hedgerow, staying just close enough to keep the group of scouts in view. If Reznik could still feel his heart beat, he imagined it would be slamming out a crescendo of a rhythm in his chest.

For hours Reznik spent like this, pursuing the scouts in the dark, downwind and unknown to them.

He hoped they would lead him to their camp, or at least whatever power they reported to.

His worry, however, was that even if they did lead him to their main camp, their leaders, or even their homes, that he wouldn’t be able to do anything with the information beyond simply be a nuisance to them.

Once again, he found himself lamenting the fact that he’d lost the trail of the Elven telepath. The faintest of hopes in his heart that somehow, some way she could break through his mental wall and actually speak with him.

Not to mention that she held with her the real possibility of fixing him.

Refocusing his thoughts, Reznik focused on pursuing the men and keeping the reins tight on his body, lest the scouts be killed and eaten without being able to learn anything.