Day 289 - The Alliance

 The Alliance

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Both groups stared at Sophie. She took her time and lovingly stroked the cat. She would have her say, but only what she wanted them to know.

“My husband and I--”

“Husband?” interrupted Nadia.

“You? A witch? Married to a man of God?” asked Selena. “Impossible.”

“A man, yes, but a servant of another than the god you reference. A being who knows no silly restrictions regarding who should marry whom.”

“Why should we trust you?” asked Nadia. “You’ve done nothing but lie. And now you want us to believe that a witch has our best interest at heart.”

“Lie? I told you of the dangers of the night. I told you about the ghosts at the covered bridge. I knew how you would behave if I explained what I was, so I kept that to myself. But this village has many secrets. Ask any of the servants that arrived with that one,” Sophie pointed at Ariadne and her crew. “The servants always know the gory details of their lords and ladies. Details they keep hidden. Many of the elders have given their souls over to dark and dangerous things. But they aren’t what we have to fear tonight. Tonight, there is another. A warlock. A necromancer. One who would kill us all to get his revenge for what happened in the decade prior.”

“You speak of mystery and deception and spin stories. But words mean little from someone of your ilk.”

“I have the pages to prove it. Tales of evil deeds and summoned demons and crimes against those that owned this land before. Pages of a magical journal, that must be protected at all cost from the necromancer. Pages that must be destroyed lest they fall into the wrong hands.”

“Pages…” whispered Selena.

Sophie turned to her.

“You know of them?”

“Yes. I was tasked with protecting a book. But some of the pages were missing.”

“Perhaps we have a mutual friend.”

“Manning…?”

Sophie nodded.

“You’ll be sad to learn our friend is now one of them.”

Sophie paused; genuine sadness crossed her face. She had Selena shared a moment of quiet reflection.

“He would have hated that.”

“Yes.”

“No matter. We have the book. Together. We can do what must be done. What he would have wanted.”

“I still don’t know why we should trust you,” interrupted Nadia.

“Or why we should trust any of you,” added Adriadne.

For a moment it seemed as if Ariadne and Nadia might come to blows.

“We don’t have time for any of this. My husband is near death. We need to find this necromancer and reverse his spells. If the rest of you want to bicker and battle, Selena and I will take care of things ourselves.”

“We will?”

“Yes. You have a strength inside, a deep importance. Manning never would have trusted you if you hadn’t. Forget these other women. You and I shall save the night.”

Sophie could tell Selena was tempted. Her words were as attractive and complimentary as possible. This poor woman was obviously desperate for her life to matter, and even with Manning dead, she was still dedicated to him and the idea that he cared for her. Sophie wasn’t sure she actually needed the book, but any extra bit could help.

“What do we have to do?”

“Go to the place it all began. The site of the massacre, the abandoned village.”