[Severed Divinity] 36. Blood and Cinders

Over the coming days, Isen mostly busied himself with cultivation and learning Eldrassin from Talis and Druinala, and occasionally even Lumina. For now, they focused on teaching him the language orally, though Isen had mentioned several times his interest in learning elven sigils. It was the first language that he’d ever tried to learn, and while he felt impatient at his progress, the elves seemed satisfied.

Isen condensed both his fifth and sixth rings. As he understood it, most people only formed a handful of rings per year, with the number slowing down as they reached the peak of the hollow ring stage, which on average took fifty years. His advancement was significantly faster, and he could only attribute it to recently escaping the depths and surviving the battle for Shevenar. Ros had always claimed that gaining experience and seeing the world were the best ways to advance naturally.

There were a few monster sightings, but no attacks. Isen reckoned that an army-sized procession of half elves was too intimidating a target for most lone monsters to approach.

When they finally spotted the first settlement on the way to Eldrassin, the spirits of the refugees soared, and their pace naturally quickened. But only a few minutes after they saw the town, the procession was called to a halt. The crowd broke out into nervous mumbling as Allezin gathered up a small subset of the guards and Isen’s group.

Allezin directly addressed Lumina once everyone had gathered. Isen had no idea what the rest of the guards thought about Allezin treating a young girl, seemingly at tier one, as an equal, but they apparently knew better than to question their superior.

The elven queen had translated very little since Isen started learning elvish, but she translated Allezin’s words now. Isen was grateful for it—Allezin spoke rapidly when agitated.

“The town is in ruins,” Allezin stated, turning the atmosphere immediately grave. Talis, Isen, and Druinala shared wide-eyed looks. “We can’t take the people from Shevenar there. The destruction is days old.”

Lumina worked her jaw, her gaze ice cold. “Should we send a party to investigate?”

After a moment of contemplation, Allezin spoke. “I’ll go. You stay here with Druinala in case anything happens. I’ll take five others with me.” He pointed to three guards, then to Isen and Talis. He gave everyone a stern nod, then shot off.

Isen overcame his shock and raced after the core consolidation cultivator. It was another beautiful spring day, the fine weather at odds with the ominously quiet atmosphere around the settlement. The closer they went, the more details Isen could make out. The walls were formed in a similar way to Shevenar, tall fortifications surrounded by sharpened wooden spikes that jutted up at an angle to disembowel any who tried to scale the walls.

The spikes were studded with people, drayavin, and monsters. And the smell… Even with the wind shielding Isen from most of the dreadful odor, a whiff almost made him gag. The other tier twos accompanying Allezin wore a range of unsightly expressions from enraged to disgusted.

As they reached the front gates, which were ajar, Talis held a hand over his eyes and clenched his teeth.

It was so much worse than Shevenar.

The ground was carpeted in bloated half elf corpses, many of them chewed and half eaten. Ropes of intestines and other viscera were strung out over the main corridor like perverse decorations.

The buildings were a mix of scorched and completely collapsed, though Isen didn’t see any active fires. The smell of foul smoke was pervasive and mingled with the rotten stench of bodies.

Maybe the drayavin really are evil, Isen thought, pinching his nose, his eyes watering. How could anyone, or anything, do something like this? If he didn’t have a tempered body, he thought he might have already thrown up.

“Everyone,” Allezin said, speaking in Eldrassin. Isen recognized most of the words, though Talis had to help him understand key details: “Split up. Search for survivors. See if you find anything that might explain why Dray sent a raid party into this specific town. I’ll signal when it’s time to return to the front gates.”

Maybe it wasn’t just this specific town, Isen thought. Maybe the drayavin attacked all of them. Isen didn’t know if Dray had enough drayavin and monsters to pillage all of the Kingdom of Eldrassin before its forces were stopped. He wasn’t the only one ignorant about the power of Dray—even Lumina Eldrassin was in the dark. She’d admitted that Dray’s movements had been “irrelevant to her normal activities” before she’d died.

Isen didn’t know what the normal activities of a tier four mage entailed. Probably not the day-to-day administration of a kingdom. If Isen had to guess, a powerful mage would spend most of their time either enjoying their status or pursuing even greater heights.

He placed Lumina Eldrassin firmly in the second camp.

Allezin was first to leave after his little speech; the other Shevenar guards followed soon after, leaving Isen and Talis by the front gates.

Talis gave Isen an inscrutable look. “I can’t believe Allezin sent you here.”

“Because I’m a minor?”

“You say that like it’s a curse,” the guard said, chuckling softly. He wiped at his eyes. “There are some things so terrible, they can’t be unseen. The general philosophy of most adults is to shield young people from such burdens.”

Isen sighed. “Talis—I hear you. But I still want to help. I’m a tier two. And… well. You know how I tend to be better than most at finding my way through unfamiliar streets.” He paused and took a stuttered breath. “There might be people here that only I can find.”

Talis didn’t argue the point. Instead, he clasped Isen’s hand in his own. He looked as serious as Isen had ever seen him. “Be careful.”

And then he was off.

Never was Isen more thankful for the pilfered leather boots than now, when the cobbled streets were smeared with blood, viscera, and ash. He held Druinala’s sword in his right hand as he started down the opposite path as Talis. The town wasn’t as large as Shevenar, but it was big enough that it would still take time to comb through.

The buildings followed a similar style to those in the other town, with tall, sloping roofs and hanging signs over shops. The town seemed a bit messier than Shevenar, with tighter alleyways and more side streets. Isen ran until he stopped before a collapsed building, its upper half black and charred.

The door was remarkably intact and was unlocked. He pushed it open and crept inside.

***

Allezin had the best vision of everyone in the caravan, but he hadn’t noticed the bodies impaled on the defensive spikes until the town was close enough for even tier ones to see.

The drayavin had clearly continued into Eldrassin rather than retreating into Dray.

What are the tier threes in the capital doing? he wondered bitterly. After the attack on Shevenar, he would have expected them to deploy at least two tier threes to pursue the winged drayavin woman and ensure she either returned to Dray or died in Eldrassin. He wished he’d been able to kill her, but delivering death blows to tier threes was difficult, especially to a slippery flyer like the winged mutant.

Maybe this wasn’t the winged woman’s doing at all, his mind whispered. Maybe this was an entirely different force. It wouldn’t have even needed a tier three leading it—just superior numbers to overwhelm the tier two guards.

Allezin had debated whether to approach the ravaged town at all. Leading the refugees into it was a non-starter—they didn’t need to see what Shevenar’s fate might have been had Lumina Eldrassin’s spirit not returned to slay the tier three monster.

There might be supplies within that could be salvaged, though Allezin wasn’t optimistic. Drayavin had been thorough in destroying settlements in years past, and the elf doubted that had changed. It was central to their nature. They glutted themselves on the corpses of elves, then set buildings to the torch.

When the group of six reached the gates, the town was more intact than Allezin had expected. It was newer than Shevenar, and many of its buildings had bases made of stone, though many upper levels were still wooden and charred beyond recovery.

That was about the only positive thing Allezin could say. The town had been utterly brutalized by the invading force, even though it should have been prepared for an attack after what happened to Shevenar.

It was a terrible sight, but still, unfortunately, within expectations.

He had another purpose in approaching the town, though. So many questions surrounded Lumina Eldrassin’s little enigma, the cultivator boy with the single golden eye. Given the peaceful procession through Eldrassin, Allezin hadn’t had the opportunity to observe the human do more than police the unruly and help hunt game.

For the first time since leaving Shevenar, Allezin would finally get to see Isen act.

A small part of him felt silly for paying such close attention to a lone individual at the bottom of the second tier. But it was a very small part, easily ignored. He had nothing to lose by watching the boy but his patience and time, and he had both in spades.

And so, as Isen set off on his own through the town of blood and cinders, Allezin followed.