Curselock

Chapter 47: Maps

There were no guards defending Shoutwell’s walls. No men to lower or raise the gate. No personnel waiting in line to enter. There was only the outer limits of isolated fog, only the feeling that something was not right, that something was waiting within the city.

Leland stepped past Jude and Boor, activating his Harbinger Halo cursed contract with the Lord of the Moonless. Nothing caught his eye as “art” right away, so the team progressed into the city.

Boor made quick work of the city gate, his rapier silently cutting through the rusty steel bars. He then took the initiative, stepping through and peering through the fog deeper into the streets. It only took a second, but every second was important. Unless they wished to take hours to cross a few streets.

They ran, all the while Leland kept his eyes open and wide. He scanned alleyways and prominent walls, only finding moonlight glowing art from within a few buildings.

“Clear,” he whispered, pushing Jude and Boor into a damp alley.

A moment later the contract ended and the violet halo above his head faltered. Leland caught a strange look from Boor, one he couldn’t quite place but chose to ignore. .

Frankly, both boys were annoyed with the butler for how he had been treating Leland. Looks of disgust, irritation, even defensive curiosity. They both knew it stemmed from something neither of them were really conscious of, but the wound had all but healed. By now they figured Boor would be acting like his usual self.

Looking away from Leland, Boor shifted his bad arm closer to his chest.

Jude scoffed. “Get over it dude.”

“It's okay, Jude. Don’t let it worry you. Let’s just get this done.” Leland quickly said, putting himself between the pair.

Boor raised an eyebrow to the Berserker Legacy, his hand posturing for a quick draw. But, once he found Leland staring back at him, he quickly released his posture.

“We have an hour,” Leland continued. “During which, we are not going to fight.”

The butler held up his hands. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

With a laugh, Jude said, “We both have noticed you stealing glances at Leals. You lost, get over it. Now is not the time to be hesitant around him.”

Boor chewed his lip and said nothing. He sat on a wooden crate, turning away from the two young men.

Leland took Jude a few steps away. “Thanks, but we can’t afford to piss him off. Glenny needs us, remember?”

“I do, it's just… I’ve seen that look too many times. People would look at my mom like that. They were afraid she was going to lose control and go on a rampage.”

“You never told me that.”

Jude shrugged. “Wasn’t that big of a deal. My dad would always say things to challenge whoever was being weird. Oftentimes it ended in a waiter or Royal Concierge leaving in embarrassment. But now? Seeing Boor do it? I can feel the rage building.”

Leland smiled, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Boor can act like whatever he wants around me. Once we get Glenny and get paid, as far as I’m concerned, we are done with House Onryo.”

Jude nodded with the sentiment. “So, what do you wanna do for an hour?”

Shrugging, Leland said, “Not sure. I was thinking of trying to learn some cantrips but I have no idea where to start.”

Jude took a deep breath. “Guess we are just going to sit here in silence then. I’ve got nothing. Wish I had a harmonica right about now.”

The next hour was an oddly stressful time for Leland. It was Jude, he knew. From the way the Berserker Lord sat, from the way he chewed his nails and bounced his leg, the situation was getting to him. Glenny was in danger, lost in a different world as far as they were concerned, and they had to wait for an hour.

As Leland’s internal clock moved the hour hand the final twelfth of a revolution, Jude was reeling to go. So, they did, purple halo and all.

They went faster, dipping through the dark fog-covered streets like hungry ants rushing to get food for their queen. It wasn’t until they arrived at the market square that Leland stopped the group. There were still no signs of moonlight glowing sigils, but something else caught his attention.

Words.

They dropped everything, racing around the broken and abandoned stalls and finding refuge in the shadows of a small hut. As Leland zeroed in on the sound, it was a gentle glow that alerted him to exactly where the talking was coming from.

A sigil, carved into the very ground the speakers stood upon, glowed with powerful white light. It cut through the dense fog, like a lighthouse, signaling him to the danger.

Four cultists, plaid in identical red robes and obscuring hoods. Blood leaked from the shadows within their headwear, dyeing the upper chest of their robes wet red.

“I think…” Leland said to the others. “They are recruiting? I’m not sure, I can’t hear them fully.”

Boor tilted his ear towards the invaders. “They are calling any and all who wish to feel the power of the Sightless King. ‘Lord does not matter. Profession does not matter. Identity does not matter.’”

“Sounds like a fun group,” Jude muttered. “No individualism within their cult. Who’d go for that?”

The group shrugged and quickly discovered the monotony of staring at the inside of a wooden stall. As the hour slowly whittled down, movement caught all of their attention.

From the opposite side of the market, a middle aged man rushed through the fog. He simply walked up to the cults, listening to their deadly tenants along the way.

Upon falling to his knees before them, he yelled, “Please! I can’t take it anymore! If what you say is true, what must I do?!”

A shorter cultist stepped off their stage, reaching for the prospect with a gentle hand. She took the man by the chin, pulling him up to meet her eyes. Red glowed from under her cowl.

“I see!” he boomed. “I understand! Amazing! Absolutely amazing!”

The cultist sent him away a moment later, back into the fog, back into the land of the blind.

“What was that?” Jude asked.

Boor answered. “We just saw the birth of a cultist.”

“That simple? No questionnaire, no interview?”

“Not when the Sightless King has the power to influence thought.”

“Forty three minutes,” Leland said.

When the Moonless contract became available again, the group made it to the sewers entrance and were greeted with two glowing sigils plastered on opposite walls leading in.

“There and there,” Leland quickly said, causing Boor to unleash his sword.

A thick groove cut through the stonework, severing the “art” and rendering them useless. A moment later, the groups’ boots were covered in vile sludge.

“Ugh,” Jude moaned. “Why’d it have to be the sewers? Why not a nice pub at the end of a quiet street?”

“Now is not the time for jokes,” Boor quickly said. “Pay attention. We don’t have the luxury of waiting around an hour.”

“Right,” Leland said. “We keep moving. Eyes down and looking for sigil markings.”

They moved slowly, very slowly. They followed the slight stream of the sewage, following it back towards the source. The fog worsened as they walked to the point that Leland could barely read the words written in his grimoire.

“You know,” he said. “When the fog first appeared, it spilled out from the sewers.”

Jude was way ahead of him. “If we keep following this way, I’ll bet we find the fog-creator.”

“We are looking for Glenny,” Boor said in a hushed yell. “Nothing more.”

Leland and Jude shared a look, although the fog made it difficult. In the end, both boys agreed and quickly fell back into tense silence. At some point, they came to an intersection and decided to wait for the contract to restart. When the purple halo blazed back to life above Leland’s head, he gasped.

“Everywhere. All around us! Close your eyes!”

Boor set his back to a wall and postured his weapon forward. “What? What’s wrong!?”

“The entire tunnel is glowing. We are standing within a giant sigil!”

“What do we do?” Jude asked.

“W-we need to check each other. Jude come here.” Leland grabbed his friend and set him just in front of himself. “On three, we both open our eyes and look for red speckles within our irises.”

“O-okay…”

“Alright ready? One, two, three!”

Their eyes snapped open, Leland’s instantly shrinking with the bright glow encasing the group. He squinted, finding Jude’s eyes as a cautionary solace.

“Annnd, close.” Leland swallowed. “You checked out. Did you see anything?”

Jude responded with a head shake no one could see. “Only purple flames.”

“Good, that’s good. Alright Boor, you’re next.”

A heavy breath left the butler’s mouth. Once in position, he counted it down. “One, two, three—”

Again Leland squinted, the light blinding him. A moment later they both closed their eyes.

“Anything? Jude asked.

“No,” Leland said.

“Must be the fog,” Boor said. “The sigils are covered.”

“I guess we can’t destroy the source of the fog even if we find it,” Jude said.

“W-we need to stick to the denser tunnels,” Leland added. “If one of us looks into a sigil, everything is over. They will know we are here.”

“How are we supposed to locate Glenny then?” Boor asked. “If we are sticking to the fog, then how are we supposed to make use of ‘moon sight?’ Your ability is useless if you can’t see.”

Leland grimaced. “It was always a stretch. But how could we have guessed they’d just covered the entire sewer in sigils?”

Boor rapped his knuckles along his sword hilt. “Maybe it can still be useful. We just got to think about mapping the cultists’ territory inversely.”

Leland’s eyes widened. “We go where there are no sigils. Map the ‘safe’ places for us, thus finding the fortified areas by process of elimination.”

Jude frowned. “That is going to take a long, long time.”

Smiling, Leland said, “Who knows? The spell is still low ranked. Maybe it will rank a few times.”