Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

The vigorous winds of spring blew on a green mountain, full of life in mid-spring the animals and birds could be seen running across the verdant fields.

On this mountain there was a village, faraway from anything, it was like many settlements in Vorian these days, isolated, and liked it that way. This village was simply called Green-mountain.

Strangers would rarely ever pay a visit to Green-mountain, it was small and far removed from any roads or trade routes. However on this day two strangers intruded on the peace of this village.

On one of the farms on Green-mountain, mountain goats lay dead. It seems like the goats fur was set on fire and they all burned to death.

This was akin to the family's living being destroyed but, to the blond woman with the irritated expression, that hardly mattered.

"I'm trying to talk and these distrusting fucking animals were annoying me, does anyone here have a problem with that?"

In front of the farmstead a family consisting of children, women, men and the old, all knelt on the ground in a straight line.

"Y-you bad girl!" Suddenly on of the boys, no older than ten stood up, pointed at the blond woman and scolded with tears in his eyes.

The blond woman was already frustrated but when she heard that she got really triggered. Her eyes glowed like lamps and a scorching ray struck the insolent boy and burned him.

To ordinary onlookers, it might have seemed as if she burned the boy with a look.

Disturbing screams filled the place, the boy was actively burning but it seemed like he couldn't run nor move at all. The other family members freaked out.

"Ah! My boy!"

One young woman screamed at the sight and ran over to hug the burning boy, and started burning with him, a young man ran over to save her but he too became a victim.

The rest were restrained by a tough looking middle-aged man.

"Finally someone sensible." The woman sighed as she sat on a cushioned chair.

"What… Do you… want?" The man asked with difficulty.

"I want to know," the woman pulled out a hardened piece of paper, like the kind used in paintings, "this man here, have you seen him before?"

On the paper was a portrait of an ordinary looking man, that might have been of age with the man being asked.

However the middle-aged man looked confused, as he looked at the portrait.

"I do not know this man, nor have I ever seen him. Please go look somewhere else. We're a simple people, we don't know anything."

"On that we agree." The woman did not look surprised at the answered, but her beautiful features suddenly darkened, "you wouldn't be lying to me, would you?!"

The man shrank back in fear, "no, no, I wouldn't dare to lie to you, lady Crestmaster… I swear on Altunan! I wouldn't even think of doing something like that! Please…"

The woman's expression returned to normal, which to her, was probably a constant frown of frustration.

"Have you heard of someone called Zamer Voy? What about Ruthen? No?" The woman asked again and the man shook his head once again.

After receiving that answer the woman sank into her chair and sighed, defeated, she covered here face with both hands.

At the same time the whole family experienced something similar to spontaneous combustion and died in agony.

"Of course you don't know… how many fake identities did this bastard have? What the hell am I even doing here?"

"Lora, you always lose your temper and give up easily."

A young man walked out, it looks like he came from the direction of the village square. The young man was also blond but he just had a bored expression.

"Let's get out of here I'm done for the day. I don't suppose you found something on your end, Orion?" The woman asked.

The young man, Orion shook his head.

****

In a small villa in Allohis, at night. The master bedroom was enveloped in moans of pleasure and grunts from time to time. After an hour the sounds calmed down.

Orion, took out a cigar and lit it as he looked out of the ceiling-high windows. On the bed, Lara and a another woman recovered.

"This one is pretty good, I like her." Orion said as he took a seat on a nearby chair.

"Ha! I knew you would like her, she wasn't cheap you know." Lara stretched her back and kicked the other woman in the face, "stop spacing out! Get out of here we're done with you."

The slave picked up her clothes and left.

"You want one?" Orion asked as he tried to give Lara a cigar.

"No, I don't want one. I want you to tell me why you volunteered for this fool's errand? The truth this time!"

Orion took another puff of his cigar, "why do you think it's a fool's errand?"

"Why? Because we don't even know what the fuck we're looking for! And the guy who knows killed himself."

"He did, but don't you think it was strange that he did that?"

"What's strange about it? He went crazy as expected of an Oathbreaker."

"But on that night he didn't look all that crazy to me." Orion remarked.

"What makes you say that?" Lara asked in curiously.

"Think about it, he killed all that guards, he could have made a run for it and we wouldn't have caught on until it was already too late."

Lara sat upright, "what are you talking about? He was crazy he could have done anything."

"Then what about the soldier's ration bags? They were all empty… and he didn't have them with him, what happened? Out of the thirteen bags, one was gone and the others had their contents stolen…"

"You're not saying… someone else took them? And Voy was buying time for them to run?" Lara hit the nail on the head.

Orion grinned, "that's right, it's the only explanation that makes sense to me. That night, someone else from Wakefield was there and they made it out."

"Impossible!" Lara exclaimed, "so you think whoever that was must also have Voy's ring, right?… All this time we've been looking for a person?"

"Yes," Orion took a sip of wine and said, "That night, on the bridge during the massacre, I thought I felt someone right under us."

"You mean in the water stream? Master would have noticed…" Lara still felt that it didn't make any sense.

"Nothing is impossible, as for master? I don't know, he may have had his own reasons not to say anything, and why do you think he hinted at me to take this mission?"

"So, where to next?" Lara asked.

"Hmm… Voryhrm, where else? I have a really good feeling about this."

If Aldrich was here he would have recognized the two of them, they were the two followed the silver masked man.