A Couple Days From Gendry Town

Grass crunched and shattered under Oathkeeper's hooves while I road past the supply wagon. Gwen and Doppel napped under a well preserved white furred bear skin. The wind blasted down like the breath of some frigid giant. With every step forward the wind grew stronger and colder. Two men froze to death last night.

I rode up to Priest Margos who busily called to Sol to guide their souls. Held over the remains of the campfire were the dead men their bodies hidden by draped cloth. Something black crept from their bodies. It smoldered like dying embers waiting for the right time to come alight.

"Oh, great Sol Invictus they have served you faithfully and have earned their welcome into your halls and the right to proceed with your works. Let them serve well in your armies and work well in your manufactories. Let them learn of your wisdom and grant insight to their descendants from above. Under your wings and in the darkest of night we pray for the dawn." Priest Margos sighed and turned to me.

They had died in the few hours I'd been asleep. Something wasn't right. We were a couple of days from Gendry Town. We were always watched by some creature or another. The air grew colder under the force of a powerful winter aura.

Inquisitor Lewis walked up without his crackpipe this time. He shook a little bit either from the cold or his missing fix. Most of the men were busy packing up the camp.

"It's all gone. Someone in camp took them." Lewis said.

"Get ahold of yourself Lewis, the next town is only a couple days away. Tomorrow get one of the boys to go on ahead to town to get more rocks. Here," Sid tossed Lewis a small white brick.

"Sol bless you." Lewis said and began lightning up immediately. After Lewis got himself under control, he let out a sigh and tossed one of the body coverings aside. "This was an attack, on my credibility, my honor, and my retinue. If we weren't low on rocks, I'd call for three knightly orders to purge Gendry Town now. This isn't just a scandal anymore. Those drainers took two of mine." Lewis looked up at me. "My friend, I'd suggest you find another town to settle."

"Unless you have the ear of a high inquisitor, there won't be a purge. Not while bishop Alexander Cortez calls Gendry Town home." Priest Margos wiped some dirt from his white robes. "The Sabers recruit from Gendry Town they will defend it if you issue a purge. Then Duke Zet will throw his hat in and the whole north will try to succeed." Priest Margos said.

Was that a bad thing? If the north didn't want to be apart of the human empire, then maybe they should succeed. That would give the current empire less land but a large buffer between themselves and the vampire and werewolf lands of the further north. That would also allow inquisitors to concentrate more on nearby locations. It would make everything easier.

Truthfully, I didn't know what type of government the human country used. At the time I was flying by the seat of my pants learning everything I could about the world around me. I was a powerful force, but I didn't know where I stood. Sure, I could kill Lewis and Sid at any time, but they didn't seem like heavy hitters to me. Then there was the clergy. A bishop was higher than a priest. Sid and Lewis seemed to be equals did that mean a high inquisitor was equal to a bishop or was a high inquisitor higher than a bishop in terms of influence.

Then there were the knightly orders that covered the human lands. What were their ranks, how quickly could they employ, and how strong were they? Inquisitor's seemed to work as scouts for an army. Did that make the knights the infantry or perhaps the calvary? How many knights could be fielded, what was the significance of a recruiting town, and who were the Blades among the knightly orders? A secret world had opened among the worlds of inquisitors, bishops, and mages.

"Do you think the blades would take Janus?" I asked.

"Why would you hand the boy off to be indoctrinated into the Blades?" Priest Margos said.

I stared down at one of the bodies. Two fang marks stood prominent on his neck. Some blood oozed from the wound and I suddenly felt uneasy. I lowered my hand and released a small pulse of aura. My own white tented aura met the black embers nestled within the body and they clashed.

"Its for his future. Where will he go from here? He's on his ninth step and doesn't need my help to recharge his aura anymore. A knightly order would give him the discipline he needs to make something of himself." With a bit of coaxing, I could get the boy to send letters back about his experience and gain further knowledge. A friend in a knightly order wasn't a bad thing to have. He'd owe me one if my training gave him the edge he needed to join.

Lewis sucked deeply from his pipe and hummed. "I agree, but not the blades. Janus is a good lad and deserves a better start than the Blades. Don't get me wrong they're fierce warriors but they are a step from becoming vampires themselves. The Impalers would be better than them. Though I question his ability to keep up with half breeds. The Black Crusaders, Purple Cobras, or the Minotaurs would fit him better. I'd recommend him for the White Hawks if he had even distant noble blood."

I felt the pulses from my aura as the black embers imbedded in the body fought back. There was blood left in the corpse's veins. That wasn't all I found; a large green growth gathered black aura in in the head and fed from it.

Intracranial Cordyceps lvl50

Rank: Youngling

Description: A fungus that feeds on black aura. It is injected through the neck into a host's bloodstream to the brain and infects the host with undeath. While the body is reanimated and produces black aura the fungus feeds on the rot.

That wasn't good. It wasn't a threat to me, but it would destroy the retinue. It needed to be disposed of immediately. I should also show them both what's inside.

"Are we sure this is the result of a vampire attack?" I asked. Lewis seemed taken aback by the change in subject.

"That's what it looks like and there aren't any other signs. Drainers don't like other predators in their territory. Most creatures that feed on blood won't come this close to vampire lands. Black aura is wafting off these guys like a fart that won't leave. But you mage types are sensitive to aura more than most. What am I missing?" Lewis asked.

I stared between the two. Their eyes were on me in a more professional sense. I sucked in a breath and collected myself. "I sense another aura feeding off the black." Both men looked gob smacked.

Lewis sucked hard on his pipe then threw it on the ground and stomped it. "I was worried when you brought a Magos back. Those things are known to wipe out whole dispatches of knights. After you killed it, I thought our troubles were over. No, that was only the tip of the glacier. There are a lot of monsters that feed off auras. Most of them hate the cold of the Northern lands. If one is here, then we may have an adaption and ecosystem shift on our hands. Burn the bodies, we are traveling through the night."

At that moment, their eyes snapped open. Lewis pulled twin daggers and stabbed forward. The Inquisitor was a wiry man. The knives penetrated the sinus cavities of the undead and they dropped like puppets with their strings cut. From the wound a green cloud spewed out.

It hit Lewis and the wind blew it towards camp. The green cloud spread through camp too quickly. A crawling sensation spread through my body before my aura shattered it. Red aura spread through my system burning the fungus before it could take hold. Still, I wasn't free. I could feel the fungus physically settle in my lungs even as my red aura burned at it.

The entire camp went into a coughing fit sucking tiny spores into their lungs. As one I knew that they were doomed. The green settled over the white bear hide leaving Doppel and Gwen alone. Star sneezed once in her sleep before I sensed her wintery aura kill the fungus decisively.

I turned to see Janus upwind staring in shock at what just transpired. The entire camp was infected by a random fungus that had adapted to survive in skulls of humans. The green aura of the fungus fought against my red aura while drinking in the black within my aura. Still red burned at the green growing stronger.

"Sid, we have to get to Gendry Town or none of us will make it." Lewis growled.

Priest Margos stared down dumbly at his spore covered robes. He removed them from his body. "We need to burn everything the spores touched." I looked over to the bear skin. The once green spores turned black after touching it. Oathkeepers coat was covered in black flaking spores. It seemed the key to destroying the spores was the Arch Demon Winter's aura.