Chapter 189: The ghoul 1

Tyler was unconscious by the time Rowen retrieved him. The atmosphere by that time had become a total mess.

Rowen carried him to a river side and soaked him in it, while holding him up, lest he sink. The place was covered in mist as the hotness hit the water.

It took a minute for the students to get to them. Quil, Fayera, Davon, Coco and Tiana.

"How is he?" Tiana asked frantically. She got into the water and took him from Rowen’s arm.

"Someone, search for Lady Hinger." Rowen instructed. "She should be able to do something about the melted ground and burning trees.

They exchanged glances.

Rowen took the child from Coco’s grip and teleported away from their sight. They were silent for a moment. They had expected that he’d stick around but he just left them to fend for themselves.

"I’ll take care of Tyler." Tiana said.

Fayera nodded. "Let’s get him up to the empire. I should be able to take him up if we can’t find a gryphon."

"I’ll go search for Lady Hinger." Coco picked her own role.

Quil turned around. "Let’s go then."

The rest of them followed him.

They weren’t sure where they were going, but the cries of war led them.

Five minutes into the run, someone dropped beside them.

"Hello."

They all flinched and moved back, taking immediate fight stances.

"Sorry to startle you guys. I was just searching for Elias." she smiled.

They stared at her. A familiar pale skin. She was holding a sword too long to be real. The same mark they had always seen on Carlel’s forehead.

"Disciple Myai."

She smiled.

"We have no idea where he might be." Quil replied.

She stepped closer to him, hand on her chin and leaned closer.

"Hmmm, you’re an interesting one. Guio’s chosen one."

"Guio?"

"The protector that chose you."

Quil’s eyes widened. "Why did he choose me? It was supposed to be one protector for a world , right?"

"Right." She confirmed.

"I’m from Qud."

"You’re not."

He was startled. "What?"

"You’re from Regicp."

"Re...gicp?" They chorused.

"Unfortunately I can’t tell you anything more since I had never visited it." She shrugged. "Wait for Guio to give you a sign or something."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Hm, disciple Myai," Kael called. "Are you not going to join in the fight? I’m sure it would have been over if you had intervened."

She glanced at him. "The blind bat chosen one. At least you can see."

He frowned.

"The upholders weren’t chosen so we could help them. They were chosen to help us."

They flinched. "What..."

"Some of the disciples chose your people and the rest of us agreed." She struck the sword into the ground and leaned on it. "To be honest, we all are not in our best shape and must stay in our best shape until the last moment."

"What is the last moment?" Quil asked. "What is the end goal?"

"Huh?" She narrowed her eyes and then looked up at the sky. A moment later, she shrugged and laughed. "Telling you guys will only bring anxiety. You all will see it though."

She turned around.

"I really hope you do."

She was gone in a second.

They remained standing, watching the trail that had gone cold.

Davon was the first to speak. "My sector had a thousand people and only two survived. Are we going to pretend that genocide is normal?"

"That’s not what we have to worry about now." Kael replied.

They continued ahead, but instead of following the cries of war, they followed a narrow part where they felt traces of energy. They advanced into the forest until the cries thinned out and stopped.

What replaced them was worse. The silence had a weight to it.

The trees along the path were wrapped in iron. Chains ran from branch to branch and trunk to trunk in a tangled lattice, and at first Quil took it for a nest, like the webs of the great spiders in the southern forests, only built from metal instead of silk.

Then he saw what hung in it.

People. Dozens of them, suspended at odd angles, their limbs bent where limbs shouldn’t bend. Some had been pulled apart. Others had been strangled, the links still biting into their throats, their faces swollen and turned toward the ground as if ashamed. The chains swayed with their weight and made a soft, steady clinking.

The air reeked of blood.

"Stay silent." Quil muttered.

The chains led them to a cave mouth, dark and wet, the stone around it stained to the height of a man’s shoulder. Quil went in first, and the others followed, stepping lightly. Every footfall seemed too loud.

The deeper they went, the more the dead piled up. They lay in heaps along the walls, then in drifts across the floor, until the path was only a narrow gap between bodies. The air was thick and sweet with rot.

Somewhere ahead came a wet, rhythmic sound.

Chewing.

The cave opened into a wide chamber. At its center, the bodies had been stacked into a crude mound, and on top of it, sitting as comfortably as a king, was a little boy. He was hunched over something in its lap, tearing at it with both hands.

"..."

Kael felt the air leaving his lungs.

"Is he eating...someone?"

"That’s a humanoid monster." Davon whispered.

Quil narrowed his eyes. "It’s a ghoul."

"A ghoul?" They chorused. "Another species of monster?"

Quil glanced at them. "You think he’s a monster?"

"He’s eating a human Quil." Kael’s voice hitched as he muttered.

"Just like we eat animals?"

They were left speechless. They just stared at themselves for a moment, then back at the boy.

Kael narrowed his eyes. The slope of his shoulders, the thin wrists, the small build were all painfully familiar. Kael’s stomach dropped before his mind caught up.

"No. That’s... that’s Fin."

"Fin?" They chorused.

"Elias’s younger brother. The chain user with the mark."

"What?!"

At the same time, the chewing stopped.

The chains overhead went silent.

Slowly, the ghoul lifted his head and turned his dark eyes on them.

"You do know I can hear you guys right? All the way from outside."