The House of Healing in Lucetta was located in the merchant district, in the middle between the upper-css and the poor parts of the city. Founded by a famous physician, it had been helping people for over a hundred and sixty years. During that time, many new and groundbreaking treatment methods had been pioneered by the finest physicians in the whole kingdom.

  It suffices to say, the House of Healing in Lucetta had been renowned for its excellence and stelr reputation of its staff. That’s why when Valeria arrived at the pce, expecting to see Felix in the same bed as st time with the personnel looking after him, only to find an empty bed with nobody able to provide her answers, she was… fbbergasted.

  — What do you mean ‘disappeared’? — she asked once she found someone having any knowledge about Felix in the first pce. He was the same doctor who was supervising his condition when he was admitted.

  He was a middle-aged man whose overworked condition could be certified by the stains on the shirt he clearly hadn’t changed in days and dark circles under his eyes.

  The man fixed small, scratched up binocurs on his nose and sighed much louder than necessary.

  — He left. When the nurse came to give him the medicine st night, she found only an empty bed. All of his items were gone too — he answered, clearly in a hurry to be somewhere else.

  Valeria couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  — He just got up and left? A half-dead man suddenly just gets up from bed and leaves? — She asked, trying to comprehend the absurdity of the situation. — Nobody thought it would be a good idea to notify the Pace about it? Like I asked?

  Normally, the Commander wasn’t one to be easily rattled by unexpected events like this. Before she was promoted to her current position, she had to fend for herself and Kyra for many years. After joining the Golden Pace, she was sent to fight in battles, and after proving herself there she was offered the leadership of the Royal Guard. From there, she had to learn to navigate the treacherous waters of court politics.

  It suffices to say, stress and pressure was her bread and butter.

  However, Felix was not only her subordinate whom she had the responsibility to look after, but he was also linked to the attack on the caravan. Both cases also proved to have some connection to Oriana’s kidnapping attempt, and that was not something Valeria was going to treat lightly.

  — We would have sent someone if we weren’t scrambling for people to take care of the sick in the first pce — the man met Valeria’s gaze with the strength of someone who wouldn’t be easily intimidated. — In fact, if the Golden Pace did it’s job, maybe we wouldn’t even be having this conversation!

  — How is the Pace responsible for staffing issues in a private establishment?

  — The House of Healing is a private undertaking, yes — the physician nodded — but the streets aren’t! And it is the King’s responsibility to keep them safe! Instead, while you all are safely locked behind your royal walls, the people of Lucetta are afraid to leave their homes, because they’ll either end up kidnapped or dead!

  The initial annoyance that Valeria was feeling turned to utter confusion.

  — What are you talking about?

  — We found them in different pces in the city, but all within the confines of the warehouse district — Captain Abner covered his mouth with a handkerchief as his gaze lingered on the corpse. No matter how many times he had seen the recent victims, it didn’t make the experience any less harrowing. — It’s hard to say when the attacks started. At first we were called to single cases here and there. We thought that maybe there’s a new cartel in the city that was trying to make an impression on the competition.

  Lucetta was a vast city, stretching far in every direction. It was the pce where people from the furthest parts of Aelius would travel in the search of a better life. “All routes lead to Lucetta” as the saying goes. And it was true for more than just honest, hard-working members of society.

  The capital was home to the rgest criminal organizations in this part of the continent. Lured by the gilded fences of noble houses, the cartels and the territory wars, often very bloody, were inseparable parts of the ndscape.

  For that reason, when the first bodies were found, Captain Abner was fast to disregard it as another spat between the shady elements of the city. Even more so, that the victims were mostly homeless, petty criminals and those from the poorest districts.

  As much as Abner hated to admit it, the truth was, he didn’t have nearly enough men or money to look properly into every crime. The majority of the funds of the City Guard came from donations provided by the local nobles.

  In simple words, the City Guard was paid to protect the wealthy, while the poor were left to fend for themselves.

  That being said, Captain Abner never gave up trying to use whatever avaible resources he had to take care of those the most in need.

  — We realized that it’s something new, when even healers and priests started falling victim to it — the man continued. — People who had no business being involved in the criminal underworld.

  He couldn’t help but notice that no harm had happened to any of the nobles. He was certain that the moment any of them nded on this table, the city streets would be full of the soldiers cd in their golden armor with the emblem of the sun, shaking every corner of Lucetta in the search of the perpetrator.

  — How many victims had been found so far? — Valeria asked, making sure to memorize every detail of what Abner told her.

  — Fifty-six that we are aware of — the man answered — but we find more every day.

  — Fifty-six?! — The Commander eyes snapped to him in disbelief. — Why has nobody informed the Pace about this?

  The doctor, standing on the opposite side of the table, scoffed.

  — We… we did — Abner admitted, unsure if this was some kind of test by the Commander. — We’ve been sending requests to the King to provide assistance with this, but nobody ever got back to us.

  With every new revetion, the case was becoming more and more worrying.

  Being the head of the Royal Guards, Valeria should be one of the first people to hear about it the second news reached the Golden Pace. She didn’t believe it was possible that the King was hiding it from her or directed it to someone else, which meant that Fvius himself was being kept in the dark too. That was a dangerous prospect in itself.

  — The Royal Guard will immediately join the City Guard in the search for the perpetrator — the decision came without hesitation. — We will introduce a curfew and we will patrol the streets. I will personally deliver the information to the King and we will discuss on what additional aid the Pace can provide to the City — Valeria assured.

  A sense of relief washed over Abner’s face. Hearing that he was finally about to receive the help the City Guards so desperately needed was like a ray of hope.

  Having settled that matter, Valeria’s attention shifted to the remains before her.

  The body belonged to a middle aged man, judging by his clothes, he must’ve been a warehouse worker. Plenty of people like him in Lucetta. Working day and night in a low paying job, more surviving than living. Eventually their bodies break or contract some sickness caused by the inhumane conditions they have to struggle with. Pushed against a wall, they turn to crime as a st resort, but picking between criminals and nobles is like choosing between hanging and beheading. Sooner or ter most of them would end on the very same table in the morgue underneath the House of Healing.

  Valeria spent countless nights working with the King on ways to change something, to prepare programs, initiatives, regutions. All blocked the moment they tried to announce them. The nobles didn’t take kindly to the Pace trying to interfere with their businesses. The choice Fvius was given was simple: “Py nicely and don’t try to interfere and we will allow you to keep being the king or push for those changes and face the coup d’teat”.

  In the end, they understood that there was much more work to be done before they could even attempt to fix the situation in Lucetta. It had to follow a shift in a power bance, that would knock out the leverage the nobles had on the Crown.Aelius needed another force to enter the scene that would shook the status quo and change the dynamic in these retions. Someone like Emil.

  Or someone like her.

  Valeria looked closely searching for clues that may have been in the marks on the skin and clothes.

  A few scratches and a peculiar, albeit small, wound on his neck, nevertheless, there was nothing that could suggest any potential cause of death.

  That is, except for a one important detail.

  — He has been completely drained of blood?

  — Yes. What’s really weird is that there were no signs of blood anywhere near where the bodies were found, let alone a full puddle — Abner expined.

  — Even if you did find them in a puddle of blood, we still have no idea how did the victims get exsanguinated — the physician fixed the binocurs on his nose — It’s not possible to bleed someone out to this degree through a cut so small.

  Something the Captain said caught Valeria’s attention.

  — Other bodies had the same wound as this man?

  Abner nodded.

  — All of them — added the doctor — and all of them around a big blood vessel.

  The Commander leaned over the body to take a better look at the injury on the man’s neck.

  This time something else caught her attention. She didn’t notice it before, maybe because she was too distracted, or maybe because she didn’t expect it.

  A scent. Faint. Familiar. A nauseating combination of rot, decay and danger.

  The same smell has been popping everywhere around her. First it was the caravan attack, then Felix, then she noticed it moments before Oriana was taken and now the same scent is connected to fifty-six murders right under the gates of the Golden Pace.

  Whatever it was, it was closing in and if she didn’t do anything everyone she cared about would be in a grave danger.

  Valeria pushed through her disgust and studied the scent carefully.It didn’t originate in the body itself, rather, it lingered on it. Like the man came into contact with whatever the source of it was. Following the traces, it guided her towards the wound on the victim’s neck.

  Pced perfectly on the main artery. The tissues at the edges of the cut torn, rugged, most likely caused by a dull object, so it couldn’t be a knife or any kind of bde. The mark had also unusual, crescent moon shape, almost as if…

  — What’s this? — She asked, noticing something etched in the flesh.

  The physician came to her side and following her gaze studied the wound.

  He grabbed small tweezers from a tray nearby and carefully removed the object.

  — Is that… a tooth? — the Commander asked, her eyes focused on the item the doctor had just recovered.

  — A tooth? Something bit him? — Captain Abner felt like he was understanding less and less about this case.

  — Bit him and sucked him dry… apparently — the doctor muttered, occupational curiosity directing his attention almost entirely to the founding.

  Yellowed, elongated, judging by the structure, must’ve been a canine tooth of some kind of an animal. However, he felt ashamed to admit, that he couldn’t pinpoint the kind of wildlife that would have such unusual fangs.

  Valeria took another look at the wound.

  This shape, and that tooth. She felt like the answer was right in front of her, she just wasn’t allowing herself to see it.

  Then… it clicked.

  — Not something — she said as the realization struck her — someone.

  Heavy steps resounded on the polished bck stone, the echo announcing his arrival long before he had a chance to speak.

  — The boy came back, My Lord.

  Deeper inside the chamber, a man folded hands in front of him. On his finger, a golden signet ring caught the light of the fmes flickering in the hearth before him, revealing a worn out sigil with a letter “V” and a crack splitting it in half.

  — Good — he answered, cunning smile creeping onto his face. — Put him with the others and start the training right away.

  — Yes, My Lord — The servant bowed deeply.

  — And the weapons?

  — The Sicarius are handling it. Avarus suddenly got cold feet, but I’m certain they will help him change his mind.

  — Excellent. — With a slow, almost zy gesture of his hand, a bck tendril materialized, coiling around his arm, gliding down to the floor, searching for its mark — Let’s hope he won’t have to share the same fate as our noble friend here… — the bck mass, like a snake, slid across the polished stone, pulsing with an insatiable huger.

  It wrapped itself tightly around its target, locking him in an iron grip. Crushing his bones, his lungs, his throat. The viscous tendrils forced itself into his mouth and his nose, sealing his st breath, devouring him from the inside.

  Pain surged throughout his body. Unbearable, overwhelming, incapacitating.

  The kind of pain that made one wish for death.

  But he wasn’t allowed to die. Not yet. The feast wasn’t over.

  And it wouldn’t be over for many hours to come…

  Such is the fate of those who oppose Him.

  DannyTheDaikon