Revenant's Resolve Chapter 6

“…Teeth as long as my forearm!” Reznik listened from the roof of a home as the victims of the bandits were treated by the town doctor and two military medics. He knew for a fact that the man who was speaking currently had not seen him, instead having been tied up on the opposite side of a large tree during the fight. “Tore through the bandits before they even had a chance to look up.”

‘Mmmn, closer, but still a bit much…’ Reznik was enjoying his stealthy voyeurism from atop the homes of the village.

“Aye, and as tall as two men standing on one another’s shoulders,” another of the rescued added further to the gross exaggeration of Reznik’s appearance.

“Ah, is that all?” Botezatu questioned disbelievingly as Reznik’s body hunched into a shadowy dent in the thatch roof. “Did it also breathe fire, throw up Nullifier magic and praise the Prussinian Empire while it was at it?”

‘The hell is… Nullifier magic?’ Reznik thought absently, his body unmoving despite his desire to purse his lips thoughtfully.

“Well, I mean… It probably would’ve if you didn’t chase it off,” The first man replied noncommittally, a shrug evident in his voice.

“They didn’t chase it off! We waited a full four hours before they got there!” the second man corrected forcefully.

“Bullshit, I heard that thing sniffing around, just waiting to be able to eat us!” the first man argued pointedly, an audible thwack sounding as he clearly slapped the other’s shoulder.

“Mmm, well, that’s all I need from you two,” Botezatu replied in a pleasant tone, clearly hoping to get rid of the pair. “Thank you.”

“Absolutely sir!” the second man replied before footsteps approached, then went past Reznik’s position atop the roof.

Reznik heard the door of the building beside him open, then close with a snap.

“Will the prisoner live?” Botezatu asked sharply to someone who Reznik assumed was the doctor.

“Maybe,” the bright, accented tenor of the doctor answered neutrally. “The truth is, the bayonet pierced his lung and is in the shape of a cross. Those are decently difficult to stitch without magical aid. I believe I have done all I can for him and your two men.”

“How are they?” Botezatu queried a moment later, his tone going from arch to somewhat worried.

“One will live ‘til the morrow. The other, I’m not sure. If he survives the week, he’ll live. If he doesn’t, or gets septic…” the doctor trailed off with a morose sigh, taking several long seconds to pause. “Well. At least one of them has a real chance of survival.”

Botezatu grunted, and that was his only reply. Apparently, with the report delivered, the doctor returned to the inside of his shop with the clatter of a door behind him.

All the soldiers who had been part of the rescue party had long since been ordered to go home by Sir Botezatu, who now waited outside of the doctor’s shop, questioning each of the people who left, as they left.

Reznik was also interested, but found frustratingly little information, save for the exaggerations of those who’d been rescued. Sir Botezatu rightfully seemed to care little for the bandits themselves, as the possibility of a monster who’d swiftly wiped out a dozen men with weapons was far more pressing.

Internally, Reznik was debating leaving his rooftop post and sneaking off into the night. Morning would be coming soon, he predicted, and he didn’t want the light to expose him to the village folk. That would inevitably lead to a fight, dead people at Reznik’s hand, and him being no closer to finding his Elven telepath.

In fact, killing anything other than bandits and their ilk might just hurt his chances of further nudges towards regaining his humanity from her. If she was here and caught Reznik in the middle of a fight with the locals, she would likely join in on their side to kill him.

If that was possible.

If she wasn’t, which seemed far more likely at the moment, and returned to find stories of scores dead by his hand, it would likely just reach the same conclusion.

‘We must be off, then. I doubt there’s any more for us here.’ Reznik made a decision as his body brought the remainder of the spare thumb it clasped in its hand to its mouth and munched quietly. ‘Back to our bandit friend then; we’ll have a good meal and be off, try and find a quiet nook to watch the comings and goings of the town, th-‘

The door to the doctor’s shop opened, then closed.

“Ah, Miss Luminita,” Botezatu noted kindly. “I’m glad to see you’re in good health. Will you be alright getting home?”

“I… Yes, I should be,” Luminita answered in a bright voice that held a slight rasping edge, clearly from the screaming and yelling she’d no doubt been doing earlier. Reznik watched in mild confusion as his body sat up from its indentation in the thatch and crawled to the edge of the roof. Exposing as little of its body as feasible, it spied the front of the doctor’s office with one eye. “After all, it’s just some rope burns and lingering anxiety. I’m sure it will be fine.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Sir Botezatu offered a smile that communicated no small amount of awkwardness, as if he were unsure where to go or what to say from there. The older man’s grey eyes focused briefly on the floor, Luminita, then the door of the shop behind her. “Those bandits… well, I’m glad something chased them off.”

“Me as well… I heard what those louts said earlier.” Luminita’s back straightened slightly, and she glanced up and to the side, almost trailing her orange-hazel eyes across Reznik’s place upon the roof. “They were lying. They didn’t see anything.”

“I’m… well aware, but still wanted to get their statement.” Botezatu’s shoulders relaxed as apparently the conversation of his work was relieving compared to discussing what had happened to Luminita at the bandit’s hand. “As far as I could tell, your master was the only one who actually got a good look at the thing.

“I have my worries about what it could be, due to a report from a post further upriver earlier in the week.”

“You worry that it could be an undead from the southern wastes? I thought they were mindless, given that no necromancers can actually control them.” Luminita mused thoughtfully, rolling her head to the side as a sea of auburn hair spilled over her other shoulder.

“So the legend goes.” Sir Botezatu shrugged absently. He took in a deep inhale through his nose as his brows furrowed deeply. “There’s not really much else I can say, but I’m sure that the King and his inquisition will want to know about the lone monster wandering the area just north of the border.”

“It might be… hmm.” Luminita paused, looked around, and then smacked her lips loudly once. “You know, Sir Botezatu, I believe I might like that escort home after all.”

‘That’s interesting,’ Reznik thought as he continued to watch the odd byplay. Botezatu skeptically eyed the area around them without turning his head, before his grey eyes fell back upon Luminita. The woman gave the smallest fraction of a nod, and Botezatu folded his hands behind his back and took a step forward before Luminita joined him. ‘That’s… that’s not romance I see there, they’re plotting something.’

“Whatever it was, it might have been monstrous, but it… it wasn’t a beast,” Luminita said in a hushed tone as the pair passed through the alley beside Reznik’s building. “Master Geralt got a better view of it than I did, surely, but I saw something he didn’t.”

“And what was that?” Botezatu questioned equally as quietly as footsteps quietly passed underneath Reznik’s roof.

“It was watching us. Watching me, even as you arrived. I’m sure of it!” Luminita revealed as Reznik’s body slunk up to the wooden beam that served as the apex of the roof and quietly moved along it. “I saw its shadow illuminated by the moonlight. It looked… it looked like a pale man. But it was watching over us. As soon as you arrived, it fled.”

“Waiting for a free moment to ambush?” Botezatu asked thoughtfully as Reznik’s body paused, rolling its head to the side as it continued to stare fixedly at the point in the alley where Reznik knew they would exit. “Fled as soon as we arrived, most likely. Some of the more… dangerous things south of the river aren’t entirely mindless. They can strategize… to a degree.”

“Well, Sir river guard, I’m certainly not an expert compared to you, but…” Luminita paused, gulped and sighed as the pair exited the alley. “Perhaps it’s my lack of education, or innate superstition, but the… it… he… tore through the bandits behind me without stopping. It all sounded like a mass of screams, tearing, and violence.

“Then, he drags exactly one man away, and leaves the rest of his kills lying there,” Luminita finished with a deep breath.

“Not uncommon, really. Many of the undead will focus on the last of their kills until finish-“

“He wasn’t,” Luminita interrupted Sir Botezatu with a small shake of her head.

“Pardon?” Sir Botezatu looked over to the woman with a raised brow.

“Look back over your notes, from what Geralt told you.” Luminita pointed to the small, rectangular pouch on Botezatu’s belt. “I believe you’ll find that the man without a jaw was his last kill.”

“Mmm, yes, I do remember his report going as such,” the older man replied with a sigh and pursed lips as they passed directly underneath Reznik.

“The man that was dragged away was…” Luminita paused, inhaled and let out the breath in a shuddering whoosh. “He was the one that was about to make… make use of me.”

The statement hung in the air for several long seconds.

“I can see why that would lead to… Impressions on your part,” Botezatu replied after taking a sharp breath. He nodded slowly once as the pair turned a house down from Reznik.

‘We shoul-‘ Reznik began to instruct his body on where to go next, only to be cut of as it vaulted off the roof, rolled as it hit the ground, and sprinted through the light of a torch to leap onto the apex of another home, this one with actual tile shingles instead of the thatch that made up most of the others in the village. At a hunched-over jog, it ran to the end and squatted low, looking towards where the pair should exit the street.

‘Velis’ house is over there, right?’ Reznik made a connection with the squat, unassuming house across the street from him. ‘Luminita is his daughter, so this is the perfect place to watch from. Did you do that intentionally, friend?’

Reznik’s body offered no reply other than to sink low to the roof on the shady down-angle from the moon.

‘You’re learning… aren’t you?’

“But I assure you, young miss, if it is a monster, it is pure luck that you and the caravan are still alive. No magic, nothing special, just an odd situation to heap upon the other oddities of day-to-day life,” Sir Botezatu seemed to finish as they exited the gap between homes and turned towards Reznik. “Just a lost Re- monster that needs to be put down or pushed back across the river. We’ll deal with it. We always do.”

The front door of Velis’ home opened, and a woman that looked like an older version of Luminita stepped out and turned her head quickly to one side, then the other before her eyes settled on Luminita.

“Lumie!” the woman exclaimed, practically hurling herself off the doorstep and into the street in her hurry to reach her daughter.

“Hello mother!” Luminita responded with a bright smile, opening her arms wide as her mother slammed full-force into her. Slowly spinning in place, her mother clung tight to Luminita, the hands of the older woman clutching tight fistfuls of the green fabric of Luminita’s dress.

“Gods, my daughter,” her mother warbled through tears, refusing to let her daughter push even slightly out of her clutches. “I was so worried! I should never have let you go with Geralt on that caravan; I knew from the beginning that it w-“

“Mother. It was fine.” Luminita smiled sadly as she patted the back of the older woman’s dress. Velis stepped out of the doorway at that moment with a frown set upon a hard-to-read expression.

“Bah, you were attacked by bandits! Bandits, daughter!” The older woman released a handful of dress to gently smack the backside of Luminita’s head, then returned to clutching tightly. “No more out-of-town trips! Your father got you the apprenticeship at the general store so that you wouldn’t be at risk out there on your own!”

Velis’ frown turned up at once corner for a moment before it fell back down.

“And you!” Luminita’s mother looked up for the first time from her daughter’s shoulder, who was close to a head taller than her mother, now that Reznik got a good view. “Velis and I owe you so much for rescuing her.”

“Give all your thanks to the king, Oana,” Botezatu replied with a warm smile and a soft nod. “I am merely his hand in this district.”

“Business, as always, Thomman,” Oana said with a clear hint of sarcasm in her voice as she began to herd her daughter towards the front of her home.

“As always.” Botezatu nodded as the warmth of his smile diminished fractionally. Nothing further was said as Luminita was successfully herded inside by her mother. Velis and Botezatu shared a moment after the women entered the home, eying each other. Velis’ frown was pronounced, even more than before as Botezatu breathed heavily, nodded once and said,“Good evening, Velis.”

“Evening, Sir.” Velis’ reply was sharp and held an edge to it as he turned, entered his home, and slammed the door behind him.

‘I wonder what the friction there is?’ Reznik thought quizzically as Botezatu began to walk down the narrow avenue slowly, with a ponderous expression etched on his face.

Botezatu blew out a breath and shook his head as he walked towards Reznik, then under him. Scratching at his short, well-kept salt-and-pepper beard, the man grumbled something inaudible, then kicked a stone down the street.

“Damnit, Zarah,” Botezatu murmured just loud enough for Reznik to hear as he passed below. “If this is all because of your little excursion and ‘discovery,’ I’m going to fling a rock at your head when you get back…”

‘I’m sorry, what?’ Reznik wanted to hear the rest of Botezatu’s conversation with himself, but the man turned down a lane two houses down, and disappeared. ‘We should go. Morning will be coming soon, and we don’t want to get caught with our pants down.’

* * *

Several hours of cajoling and prodding had managed to get Reznik’s body to finally sit still several trees back from the line that had been cut. Ahead of him was the north gate, and he watched the relatively few comings and goings as the construction crews worked on completing the palisade wall off to his left in the distance.

So far, nothing of note had happened throughout the day. Reznik didn’t want to admit it, but it felt like he’d completely flubbed his opportunity to find his Elf. Not only had he left the area he was sure she’d be returning to, but was now thrown what could easily be leagues off-course and off her trail.

‘What can I do?’ Reznik wondered as his body stared blankly ahead at the gates, having long since given up on trying to hunt the random individuals that left and entered. It almost seemed, now, that it was in an odd hybrid state.

His body was somewhere between its natural idle when there was no food about, no movement to be seen, and no sounds to be heard, and its state when it hunted - quick, dexterous, and predatory.

‘Is this any use? Just staying here?’ Reznik wished desperately for a sign, a clue as to where the woman had gone. Unfortunately for him, as stealthy as he was, his body was mostly useless at gathering information beyond eavesdropping. ‘If only it were so easy. I could sneak into the rooms of the Baron and Botezatu, rifle through their documents. See if they know anything about the Elf, or even the group who came into the undead lands.

‘The uniforms on the soldiers with the Elf looked an awful lot like those worn by the river guard.’ Reznik made the connection he’d made a dozen times already today. ‘If anyone would know about something like that, it would probably be Sir Botezatu.

‘If only I could sneak in and read all his papers,’ Reznik lamented sourly. His body seemed to only comply with his broad stroke desires. To go in a direction, to move to a rooftop, to attack a person. Fine movements and focused actions were still far beyond his ability.

The gates of the city birthed a cloaked figure. The individual in the shapeless brown cloak held a small wicker basket over their arm and a large dagger at their hip.

‘Now who are you?’ Reznik wondered at the unusual person, who looked unlike anyone he’d seen leave the gates thus far today. They walked quickly, not running, but also not exactly walking either. ‘You clearly have somewhere to be… I wonder where that is.’

Reznik decided to follow.

As the figure passed him on the road to his right, Reznik urged his body to turn, follow, and stalk. It turned its head fractionally to look at the figure, crouched, and began to move through the trees at a hurried pace. For close to thirty minutes, Reznik watched as the figure periodically checked behind it, the cowl and shapeless cloak doing a wonderful job of hiding their identity.

The figure paused in the middle of the road, scanning the path ahead. Slowly, they turned around, checking the road behind them. They seemed satisfied and stepped to a tree on the side of the road, seeming to look for something.

Apparently they didn’t find it and moved to the next tree, then the next, and so on. Nearly a dozen trees later, they seemed to find what they were looking for and disappeared into the foliage.

Slowly, quietly, Reznik’s body approached, for all intents and purposes moving as if to strike from stealth. Thankfully, Reznik was now relatively confident in his ability to rein in his body’s instinct to kill.

Ahead of him, he spied a small trail disguised by low bushes on either side.

‘Follow that. It’s probably where our mystery person went,’ Reznik ordered his body, and blessedly, it complied.

A couple hundred meters into the woods, Reznik came upon a clearing.

The cowled figure stood before a tall stone figure of a man. The statue seemed to be stepping forward from the trees behind the pockmarked, weathered man depicted. It looked old, possibly here before the world ripped itself apart, though Reznik remembered precious little of that time.

Reznik’s body crouched lower and began to traverse along the trees at the edge of the nearly-circular field. Commanding his body to stop at the side of the cowled person, Reznik waited.

Slowly, the person reached up to the hood and pulled it back to her shoulders.

Luminita knelt down before the statue, bending her head as she placed the wicker basket on the wildflower-covered ground in front of herself. With her eyes closed, she murmured quietly to herself in a reverent tone as she opened the basket. From it, she pulled three items : A bottle, a paper-wrapped object, and a thin piece of paper.

Continuing to murmur without opening her eyes, she gripped the bottle tight in her right hand, opened it, and dribbled some onto her finger.

Luminita used the oil to draw three spirals - one on each cheek, and one on her forehead. The tails that came off of the spirals all connected over the bridge of her nose.

She stoppered the bottle and set it aside as the task was finished. Luminita lifted her head towards the sky and breathed deeply before blowing it out in a rush.

Then, Luminita opened her eyes and pulled free a small stick of charcoal, and wrote something down on the paper before rolling it up tight and setting it on the foot of the statue. After, she reached for the paper-wrapped object and began unraveling the packaging to reveal a seared hock of meat.

This too, she placed at the base of the statue.

She nodded once, seemingly to herself, and stood to her feet after placing the bottle of liquid into the basket again.

“Thank you for protecting us once again, old ones.” Luminita thanked the statue, running a hand along its shoulder. “I will not forget the shield you sent to me.”

Luminita flipped the large hood back up over her head, turned, and left the clearing as Reznik watched confusedly.

‘Eat the steak.’ Reznik commanded after she’d fully disappeared. ‘It’s ours after all. A statue and silly ritual didn’t save her, we did. Come on, I promise - cooked meat tastes infinitely better than raw, smelly human!’

His body eagerly complied, darting forward and snatching the meat up off the foot of the pedestal and taking a large bite. Even inside his own head, Reznik moaned aloud as the savory spiced juices spilled across his tongue, tasting of rosemary, thyme, and wonderful, joyous salt.

Even his body let out a low rumble of approval as it stuffed its mouth full of the lovely food, the lovely offering. It had been so long since he’d tasted something he actually wanted to.

Too soon, the food was gone, leaving Reznik with the disappointing feeling of longing for more, for the comforts of a normal life once again. He needed to find the Elf, needed to find the one person who could put him back to rights.

‘Or… maybe I could just stay here. Maybe I could just stay here after all. Get the locals to make offerings like this.’ Reznik actually gave the idea some thought. He lifted the left-over bone and casually bit it in half with a near deafening crunch. ‘If they keep feeding me things like this, I could have my own little cult following me around.

‘Just go around killing bandits, saving people. If enough start bringing me steak when I kill someone evil, it could just turn into a regular ritual of sorts.

‘Bring meat to the thing that lives in the woods, and the thing in the woods keeps you safe.’

Reznik felt a prickling sensation run up his spine, as if someone were breathing on the back of his neck. His body whipped around at the sudden feeling of being watched, being sized up, but found nothing.

Slowly, he turned back to the statue.

A strong gust of wind blew the piece of paper Luminita had left up in a twirling motion, unfurling and landing squarely in its outstretched hand. Improbably, it landed in such a way that it was held between the fingers. Reznik hadn't thought it had at first, but it appeared stuck fast. Defying the wind, the statue held onto the paper as if it were a prize.

Reznik left the statue and its prize of nothing more than a scrap of paper.