Forked Tongue and Glued on Wings

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Feray covered her mouth as she yawned, a stack of her own notebooks beside her. Each page filled with notes on the topic of their research since her arrival three days ago. She would be lying were she not to admit that she found the research to be a rather relaxing task, much more so than any other job she'd had or undertaken during her time. Were it not for her coworker then she might even go so far as to call in an enjoyable one. Nonetheless, work was still work and thus she remained focused. Reaching to her side to pick up one of the books, keeping her other hand ready to take notes. However, her eyes looked upward, gazing up at the ceiling high above their heads. *'I should get back up to the surface soon. Things won't be good if I don't...'* She thought to herself before letting herself get back to work, sure she'd figure out something in due time.

The bells of the library rang, but this was an unfamiliar knell to Feray. Alex and the other scholars moved away from their current work and gathered at the center of the sound. There stood Hotoke, clad in his odd robe and a rapier hilt by his hip, together with a satchel on his back. "There has been news of a foreign magic sighted at our northern borders. The town in question have reported strange attacks from an 'army that should not exist'." He finished wiht quotation marks. "I am not certain what we will find, but I know that I will need my best and brightest for the task of study... Mark, Hoy, Alex, Lizzy, Augustus, Seras, Feray! You will follow me on this mission. Together we will come to terms with these attacks, their source, and the magic that is guilty of the damage. Any objections?" He asked out.

Alex reached up with his hand, much to the dismay of just about everyone in the room. "Yes, Alex?" Hotoke spoke with a most neutral look upon his face.

"Forgive me sir, but is it wise to bring her along? She will drain resources and I am not confident in her ability to provide the help that both they and you need."

Hotoke stood silent and looked at Feray, his look softening ever so slightly when their eyes met. He returned his focus to Alex as he spoke: "Then let me ease your doubts. In the mere three days she has worked here she has accomplished more for the Data-Make progress than you have in one and a half week's worth of time. If that is not a sign of a great mind, then I don't know what is. You both have your strengths and skills. Where you can find matters of import in but moments at a glance, she can provide far more detail and substance even if at a slower pace. I believe for these reasons that both of you will be invaluable. Anyone else? For if not, we are heading out."

While her face remained neutral, while inside she was grinning from ear to ear. *'The Gods are truly favoring me this time around. It seemed to be true what they said about devotion and hard work paying off in the long run.'* She thought to herself as everyone began gathering their things and heading out. The warm sun for the first time in a few days felt good on her face, to the point in which she began to wonder if she missed the surface as well as required it to complete her task. Making their way to Unianim, a much easier task when one knew the way, they made use or one of the Toranku's Bifrost, reaching the town of Arakashi in an instant. Following Hotoke's lead, they continued their trek out of the town and into the thicket that surrounded the town, coming out on an unmarked dirt road. Following that until they found the sign to a small village reading 'Daichi Village'.

The journey, however short it may have been, proved tiresome to many of the bookworms in Hotoke's company. Some had gone so far as to ask for a break, to which Hotoke had flatly denied them. 'Time is a resource we are short on', he would say. There then came a moment when Hotoke halted in his tracks looking to the sky above the hills and treetops. A pillar of smoke was rising from it and in the breeze flowed a smell of burnt wood. Some of the scholars started to pick up the pace before Hotoke ordered them to slow down. After a short bit more of walking they now stood before the entrance to the village, and the panicked state of the citizens being were clear as day on their faces. Hurrying off the streets, Hotoke soon came into contact with a chubby old woman who claimed to run the village. She seemed to be trembling, but not from the burnt building but rather... Hotoke?

"Ma'am, I understand that matters are hard right now, but everything will be well soon enough. Go and soothe your people. We'll take over from here." he ordered to which she simply nodded and walked away. He turned around to his subordinates ordering them to scatter around the village and find any clues to their target. "Fey, come with me." He ordered, the two of them walking up to the burnt cottage. He touched the charred wood before pulling his hand away. He looked up at the nearly razed house's second floor. "Can you bring out a raven to inspect the upper floor? Whatever caused all this is up there."

Fey noticed the woman's odd reaction to Hotoke's appearance, beginning to wonder if some new magic was genuinely the only reason they were there but she did not speak her mind nor do anything she wasn't told to do. "Yes, that should be rather easy." She said, letting one of her fingers transform into a raven and fly out to the second floor of the house. Closing one of her eyes, she saw through the raven's. The upper floor was as black and charred as the first, the floor had collapsed in some places. It was difficult to discern what was part of the caved-in roof and what had been furniture. The Raven pecked at ashes, using what little strength it had to dig through the remains of the house. She could tell the fire had started in the upper floor and spread from there just based on which parts of the house suffered the most damage. After a bit of searching a glint of metal shown through the ashes. The raven both instinctively, as well as under her command, flew over to the shiny object and plucked it from its space lodged in a broken support beam. Flying back to her, it returned to form her missing digit and in her hand was an arrowhead with markings on it. "Hotoke, what do you make of this?"

Hotoke accepted the small object and began to do as thorough an inspection as his eyes would allow. He removed his glasses from his face to get a closer, better look. "Runes from a language I haven't seen before, but it is a bit reminiscent of the form of a summoning circle... and it reeks of the Black Arts." He finished. "So... Someone formed a summoning circle above and brought a whole host of that 'army' to attack the village. It eventually led to the village burning down the house in an effort to stop them." he explained. He looked at the arrowhead, contemplating something. "Fey, if you may, could you seek out Alex? I want you to cooperate on how to trace the magic used here. He is not that efficient in combat, but he knows how to track."

Fey was surprised as he listed off what had happened. Whether it was just a theory or something he had evidence for she did not know. But if the latter were the case, being able to gather it all from a simple arrowhead made him a dangerous man indeed. "As you wish, I'll find Alex immediately." She said with a bow before moving to complete the task given to her. Walking through thee village, she contemplated using this moment to do what she needed to do. But she was hesitant, Hotoke's eyes were watchful. So long as he was nearby he would be a thorn in her side, she would have to wait until later. As she thought, she happened upon the very person she was supposed to find, luckily for her. "Hey, Hotoke needs you to trace the magic that was used in this area back to the source. Can you do that?" She asked without much inflection in her tone. Not wanting sound rude or bitchy in a place where sound carried more than well enough for the others to possibly hear even an indoor level of conversation. Though, if Alex's standing proved true to what Hotoke had said, she doubted anyone would give her a hard time for acting coldly toward him.

Alex turned around, seemingly more calm now than when inside the library. "Already on it. It's... strange. Whatever was here were in great numbers. The very air is thick with dead bacteria and the stench of their maledies. One has to wonder how they even got in here unseen." He explained, while scribbling in his notebook. He ripped out a page and handed it over to her. "This is around where the trail of dark magic ends from what I can gather. Either I can't reach farther than that, or it is simply the end of it. Fly there and see if you can find some sort of hint." He requested, confusingly hospitable and helpful."

She took the paper in her hand, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. She wondered if perhaps Hotoke had chewed him out despite her asking him not to. I didn't matter to her, however, so long as it made things easier on her. "Rodger," She said before taking off as a cloud of Ravens and heading in the direction of the coordinates he'd given her. Reaching the destination she landed fully reformed all but a single Raven that once made up her one of her small toes on her left foot. Letting it go, she had it fly into the forest low enough that no one would notice it and it would be too far for anyone to see once it exited the forest and took to the skies. Looking around, she was sure she was at the right place. "That damn, man. He must have messed up..." She hissed as she saw nothing but dirt and trees. She was about to head back when she spotted something that caught her eye, a carelessly discarded bow, and its quiver. Not wanting to touch them if they were indeed evidence, she turned two of her fingers into Ravens sending one to Alex and the other to Hotoke.

The birds flew back to the village with haste, breaking their formation to fly over to the two men separately. "Hey! I've found something at the coordinates. Hotoke, Alex, they may be of interest." The Ravens said before listing off her location to them.

Alex and Hotoke received the message within short, and as soon as it was, they made their way towards Feray. Alex soon arrived by Feray's side, looking over the new evidence she had found. Without taking a moment of hesitation, he knelt down over the quiver and arrows, letting the wooden bow remain where it was. "The dark magic is even heavier on these items. So why would they leave perfectly good equipment lying about when there was no search party...? I will leave Hotoke to inspect the bow. Speaking of, where is he?"

Hotoke continued to walk at a faster pace, until he heard something that made him about to jump out of his own skin. "Hotoke, old friend." Came a feminine voice from behind. He turned around to find none other than his most dear friend standing there, greeting him with her soft smile.

"Carwen? What are you doing here?" He asked with disbelief in his voice. "This mission was supposed to be highly secretive. How did you-?"

She walked up and placed a hand over his upper arm. "Toranku thought that you might need some help with this one. Just in case. The reports described the magic as 'extremely dangerous' correct?"

Hotoke sighed out, feeling distressed and relieved. "You are right. I suppose another set of hands couldn't hurt. I have never seen anything like this. The situation is far worse than I could have imagined. If *they* are involved, this predicament could turn ever more dire." He said, turning around to look up the hill where Fey had supposedly found somthing of note.

"Do not worry friend." She muttered, raising one of her cloaked arms to pull out something heavy and metallic. "We will be more than enough."

"I don't understand. He wouldn't be slacking on a find! He should already have-!"

**BANG!**

Both their attentions were drawn to the village once more by the sound of gunfire. Alex said nothing and didn't hesitate for a second, but rather hurried down the hillside and back to the village.

Once they both arrived to the scene, there was the fourth beast saint, Carwen Vroman, pinned beneath strength of Hotoke, who in turn had his robe and face bloodied and dripping with his life essence that leaked from the healing cavity in the back and forehead of his skull.

Fey looked upon the scene with confusion, the face of the beast saint was one that everyone knew but why was she here and for what purpose were the two fighting? What was that loud bang they'd heard? "Hotoke, you're hurt! What happened?!" She asked with a mix of genuine and played up concerns as she drew her dagger, dripping with a clear substance. "What should we do, Sir?" She asked him, ready to fight if that was his wish.

"Just a gunshot. Don't worry, a bit of brain hemorrhage have never really killed anyone." He joked, the tone and situation not really supporting his want to ease the tension. "I think our culprit is found!" He said as he pulled out his rapier from his hip and thrust it into the shoulder of the beast saint. A pained cry of agony was let out which slowly turned into a case of maddened laughter. The skin of the saint fell from the body like crystalized flakes revealing a whole different person underneath. The intruder now pinned by the rapier, Hotoke proceeded to grab the new woman by the neck and surge his magic into her, causing her to thrash and flail even more, cutting and creating more injuries around the pierced part of her body. "Unless you want to lose that arm of yours, I suggest that you stop flinging your limbs about like a tantruming child!" Hotoke hissed.

The woman seemed to calm down a bit at that. Using his magic to grow multiple white roots from the ground to envelop the woman. Pulling her up to her feet he began to order some of the scholars to immediately contact Toranku to tell them about their development, their assaulter, and ask for a very certain form of permission. He looked up at Fey, his soft but also a level of vengeful fury in his eyes. But it was clear that it was not directed at her. "Fey, I need to ask you to keep a perimeter. I don't want to be ambushed if there are more of them. Once done, report back to me. We won't stay here much longer."

"Yes, sir." She said without hesitation before disappearing in a large sum of Ravens which flew out in every direction. They began to circle the village, keeping an eye of the Forest surrounding the town and the road leading in and out of it. Her eyes were sharp, sharper than Hotoke probably expected. No one would get past her keen eyes, not even were they invisible. When her Ravens had set up a good perimeter around the village, one of them broke rank and flew back down to Hotoke. "The area appears to be clear of hostiles, Sir. Proceed with caution, I'll stay with you in case I spot anything." The Raven said as it stood on his shoulder, looking around from side to side.

"Good. Keep it up." Hotoke replied, pulling his rapier from the criminal's shoulder, causing a yelp of pain from her. Slashing the air as to clean it up hastily, he then proceeded to sheathe his sword. His roots made sure to consistently drain and suppress her magical power as well as heavily restrict her movements. Handing her over to one of his followers, Hotoke went to tell the village leader about the apprehension of the criminal.

Then, he heard a noise. A noise that seemingly no one else caught up on, and he knew exactly why. The cries of a thousand voices in the distance, a hundred lives being snuffed out while corruption and defilement consumed the distant area. Hotoke's eyes grew wide before immediately barking orders. "Alex, Seras! Begin evacuating the people, on the double! Mark, take care of our prisoner, and while you are at it, tell Toranku to send extra reinforcements!" He turned to the raven sitting on his shoulder, lowering his voice so as to not scream in its face. "Fey, look to the north. Can you see anything? Anything at all?" He asked, a panicked tone in his voice.

Feray circled a few of her birds around to fly North, what she saw made the crows' eyes widen with shock before they narrowed in frustration. The very trees themselves seemed to rot and wilt right before her eyes, like the very life was being drained from them rapidly. Along with that was a cloud of some kind of fog quickly rolling in, no doubt the two oddities were somehow connected. Just as she turned her ravens around she caught a whiff of a familiar smell that wafted through the air, the lingering smell of decay.

The Raven on his shoulder looked to Hotoke, "There's a fog rolling in. It appears to be draining the life from the trees themselves...it smells like death." The Raven reported, hopping up and down on his shoulder with a sense of urgency. "I do not recommend engagement of the entity. By anyone, Sir."

Hotoke was about to say something when he began to smell the very stench she had just described to him. Indeed it did smell like death itself. He knew well what was about to happen. The charred wood had detailed similar experiences. The city was now in full alert and panic mode, fleeing as fast as they could from their village and the oncoming slaughter. He nodded. "I agree. No one should engage them. I must ask however if we can fully outrun them? I doubt we can. If not us then it will be someone else... Fall back to our position, Fey. I want two ravens in the sky when you are back. One to fly above me, keep me informed about what comes near, and one towards from where they are coming. See if you can find someone for me." He commanded, not thinking about his choice of words as he drew his rapier. "Once back I want you to run with the rest of them."

Fey said nothing as the Raven lept from his shoulder to circle above him, the others aside from a singular other one moving together and descending before reforming into herself once at ground level. "Tch, like hell I'm just going to run off. If he ends up biting the dust then my job becomes a whole lot harder. I might even have to consider it a lost cause..." She whispered to herself as she moved to remain hidden but close by, her Raven giving her a good idea of where he was at any given time.

Meanwhile, the raven keeping an eye on the approaching fog continued to monitor the situation as it rolled through the trees, grass and foliage dying upon coming into contact with it. *' Damn, I don't think I'm equipped to fight anything like that...'* She thought to herself before noticing a dark figure moving through the fog. Just an outline, but she wondered if that was the thing Hotoke was talking about.

"I see something, or someone, in the fog. They're walking toward the village, they don't appear to be affected by it. Perhaps its the culprit?" The Raven above Hotoke reports before it fell silent. "There are... a lot of things in the fog."

Hotoke was about to reply when a loud, gurgling cry, as if someone was trying to scream while at the same time gurgling their own blood was heard. Moments after he looked to the hillside, seeing a full swarm of small rotting bodies running down towards the village. Skin a putrid yellow, open gashed wounds and blisters, rotting flesh over their whole bodies as they ran down, a thick miasma of insects, gas and decay following their trails. As the army approached him, he noticed how the rear lines kept growing bigger and bigger in size, as with chess when the pawns come first.

Holding his rapier tightly, a firm grip formed from years upon years of experience. Without a second of hesitation he rushed forward to meet the approaching army head on. Sword first, he dashed through the first lines, not simply piercing the first available body, but with a single dashing thrust, he had plowed a way through the initial ranks with the greatest of ease. Slamming his fist into the ground, a sea of roots manifested from the point of impact, grabing, crushing and piercing numerous decaying fiends due to it. As they began to envelop him once more he made quick movements to pierce the beings in a lethal spot, killing them instantly before walking onward. "How much farther is the mage?!" He cried out from the heat of battle, one which seemed decisively in his favor for now. "How many yards away?!"

Feray peeked out, crouched from behind one of the charred houses, "Damn. I'm useless in a fight like this..." She said to herself, closing one of her eyes as she heard Hotoke yell to one of her Ravens.

The raven looked around, trying to spot the mage he spoke of among the crowd. "200 meters Northwest of your current location. At your one O'clock to be exact," The Ravens squawked to him. "Are you sure it is best to engage without awaiting reinforcement, Sir?" The Raven continued, Fey not wanting to see this battle turn against him for both of their sakes.

"There won't be any reinforcements!" Hotoke cried back to her. "If I let them pass, the citizens will be slaughtered. I can handle this. Just keep giving me the mage's location and I can take care of the rest."

He continued to blow through and slaughter anything that even began to dare and approach him. Soon the "pawns" were no more, and all that was left for him to kill was every other piece on the board. The medium sized entities were no match either, but as he cut a swath through their numbers, trees, exploding fruits and piercing sword thrusts in a blue of movements, eventually he would find himself on the final sprint, and all that remained now where the great ones. If what he so far had faced were pawns, rooks and bishops, these were the queens of the board. As he kept fighting and performing evasive maneuvers, the mage was slowly starting to fall back, all while summoning new entities. It was a slow retreat, but a retreat all the same.

Feray watched him fight, she wasn't surprised by his skill. No, she was aware that he was skilled. More than that, she was impressed by his tenacity. To be able to take on so many at a time and still keep going once each wave was through. It was true that she was dealing with a scary man but fortune smiled upon her as equally as misfortune did. As, were he not the man he was, she would not even be here at the moment and frankly, she didn't know which was the fortune and which was the misfortune.

"The mage is retreating, now fifty meters northwest at your twelve o'clock. You're closing in on the target but they're spawning more monsters." The Raven above his head squawked down to him as it circled over head.