Apostles of Doom

Tom nodded. “That would be great, thanks!” It was a bit creepy to look through some long-dead guy’s photo album, but it might have useful information.

Tamarin clapped her hands. “Excellent! I bet seeing these images will help spur the return of your memories.”

“Great,” Tom said without a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe this was not such a good idea.

Day’s March Outside the Citadel of Light: Early Second Period

“So we are sure there is no one behind us on the road?” Jacob asked two rangers who that had caught up to them from the rear.

“As sure as we can be in this darkness,” one of the rangers, an alfar, said. “We have very good night vision and obviously can see mana and animus, and have not been able to spot any.”

“Can you also detect antimus?” Hilda asked.

“Not so easily in the dark.” The alfar shook his head. “In the light of day, it shows up as a much darker shade of the colors you would normally expect. Ghouls are warm-blooded, so if they aren’t tightly wrapped up or hidden, we can detect their heat emanations. “

“Same with dhampyrs, but vampires are very hard to detect, since they tend to be close to ambient temperatures unless they have just fed,” the second ranger told her.

“I’ve heard no word of vampyrs in the advance party. I assume they are simply too blatant and hard to control in a recon situation?” Hilda asked.

“Exactly. They see someone tasty, get distracted and raise a huge ruckus. The vampires find this annoying,” the first ranger said. The Shield members all nodded in agreement.

“Ghouls can sometimes be a problem as well if they get hungry, but they are typically less driven than vampyrs,” the second ranger added.

Hilda was about to ask another question when a dog nearby started barking loudly. She looked over to where the noise was coming from. It was near a bend in the road that the line of refugees had just turned. The dog was barking loudly into the woods.

Even as she watched, the dog took off into the woods.

“Tiber!” A boy about ten years old shouted before launching himself after the dog.

“Rogier!” A woman, presumably the boy’s mother, shouted and started moving after her boy, only to be restrained by her husband.

“It’s not safe off the road,” the man told his wife. “I am not going to lose both you and the boy!”

Hilda hurried towards the place where the boy had disappeared into the woods. “Don’t worry, I will get him.”

“It’s not safe for an unarmed woman to head off into the forest at this hour — not with the Unlife advancing,” the first alfar worried.

“I’ll go with her!” Jacob said, and started off.

~

“That is one fast dog,” Hilda said to herself as she pursued the boy and dog into the forest. Fortunately, the undergrowth was not that bad, so there was nothing impeding her. It was pitch-black under the trees, but her Holy Sight was fine in the dark, as well as allowing her to see the animus of both the boy and the dog. Also, the dog was still barking.

She could hear Jacob hurrying after her, about to catch up.

“Sister!” he called behind her. “This is not wise; you should have allowed me to fetch the boy.”

Hilda waved her hand above her shoulder. “Trust me, Jacob, I’m fine. This is not my first forest sortie in the middle of the night in woods infested with Unlife!” Admittedly, the last time she had actually done this exact thing, she had ended up dead; however, she was much better now.

Even as Jacob reached her, the dog suddenly stopped barking with a loud yelp.

“Tiber!” the boy shouted from about ten feet ahead of them as he entered a clearing.

“That was not a good yelp,” Jacob said gesturing with his sword.

“No, it was not,” Hilda said.

Jacob put his arm up in an effort to restrain Hilda from going forward, so that he could go first.

Such a sweet boy, Hilda thought to herself as she brushed his arm aside and headed for the clearing.

“Rogier?” Hilda called. “Come back here, come to me.”

At this point the boy was in the clearing, standing still and staring at something that Hilda could not see against the black backdrop of the trees beyond the boy. That was not good. She adjusted her Holy Sight. Yep, aura hiding, air temperature vampire. Hilda shook her head and then grinned determinedly.

She hurried into the clearing and up to the boy, Jacob coming up quickly behind her. In the clearing under the night sky, she could now clearly see the vampire. He had been shielding his mana, but this close, she could sense it. She wondered if he could sense her own. She had been purposefully shielding herself from the battle priests.

She put her hands on the boy’s shoulders. She noted the dog was still alive, at the boy’s side. The dog was staring at the vampire intently, but silently. The vampire said nothing as she pulled the boy back and behind her. As Jacob came up to her, she said softly, “Take the boy, keep him safe. Let me handle this.”

“Sister?” Jacob asked, puzzled.

Hilda shoved the boy at him.