The Innkeeper's Possession, Dead Priests Hung In A Forest
Solrise Hymn - a morning prayer, typically at dawn before the first light of the day, that all priests perform regardless of their positions. Even when Kael was banished from the temple, as a priest, this invocation had been etched on his character since birth. It was done to call forth the presence of the great sun Solvantar to bless and guide their mornings.
However, Kael hadn't fully opened his eyes in preparation to perform this when loud knocks on the door jolted him awake. He promptly sat upright, his head turned to the person next to the door, who gave him a meaningful look while pressing his fourth finger to his lips.
Eryn was already wide awake. He held the doorknob with heed, while his right hand was holding a sword that Kael did not even know he possessed.
Although brandishing a sword at whoever was behind the door was too much, a person knocking at someone's door before sunlight was not normal. Kael immediately put on his footwear and stood at the opposite side of the door without making a sound.
Just as Eryn slowly pulled the door, the urgent knocking stopped, and it was replaced by a desperate shout.
"Priest! Priest! We need the priest! Help us!"
Hearing the urgency and panic in the woman's voice, Kael jumped out of hiding and showed himself. Eryn opened the door wider and stood by his side.
The moment the woman saw Kael, she fell to her knees and grabbed Kael's robe, begging, "Priest, help my husband! I beg you, please help him! I don't know what to do! Someone said you're a priest! Please, help!"
Kael, who quickly caught the woman in his arms, calmly said, "Madam, please, calm down. Tell me what happened. I will help you with all that I can."
After the woman heard Kael's reassuring voice, she wiped her face and let herself be carried up. With hurried steps, she guided Kael to the kitchen. The morning hadn't come up yet, so they didn't bump into anyone on their way, and the main hall was still closed and empty.
This told Kael that this woman was perhaps one of the staff in this inn, or maybe the owner herself. When they reached the kitchen door, the woman stood frozen. Her shoulders began to tremble, and her eyes looked like they'd seen the most horrendous things.
Kael stepped closer, his hand reaching to tap the woman's shoulder. However, his hand paused mid-air after the scent of blood wafted through the door's small window, permeating his nose. His eyes widened in shock. The stench was so strong that a spill of blood would not create it, but a bucket, or perhaps more than that, would do.
Eryn, who followed him silently from behind, kicked the door with a blast. Seeing the state of the kitchen, he stumbled back and asked, "What…happened here?"
"Ahhhh!" the woman screamed and fell on the floor. She turned her head away from the door and wept agonizingly.
Kael crouched next to her. "Madam, you have to tell us what occurred in your kitchen. What are these…lumps of meat and pools of blood…" he almost choked from the putrid smell. Covering his mouth, he continued, "Are they what I think they are?"
The woman frantically nodded her head. She covered her mouth with both hands and looked at Kael, then she answered in a trembling voice, "I…I woke up…with my husband not beside me. I…t-thought he woke up early to prepare…t-the inn's morning breakfast, so I w-went down but…I saw h-him…him…but…butchering a body!" The hands covering her mouth now covered her whole face.
Eryn glanced at the woman. "So, you called the priest to help your husband, not whoever these body parts belonged to?"
The sarcasm was evident in the young man's voice. Therefore, the woman abruptly looked up and glared at him. She yelled, "What help can you do to the dead? But my husband! My husband is alive!"
Eryn scoffed. "You should have called the authorities. What can a good priest do to catch a criminal?"
Anger crossed the woman's face. This anger pushed her up in a jiffy, and she pointed fingers at Eryn. "My husband is not a criminal! He's a good man! Last night, he acted strangely and scratched his whole body until his skin bled, but after I bathed him in warm water, he slept soundly! I don't know what happened, priest. But I can assure you! The body is my husband, but at the same time, he is not!"
"I understand, madam. Let me look inside," Kael said. He stood and was about to step inside the bloody kitchen when an arm blocked his way. Glancing next to him, he gave Eryn an inquisitive look.
Eryn replied, "The floor will stain your clothes. Let me do it."
Kael wanted to argue. His clothes didn't touch the ground, so why would they be stained? However, Eryn had already entered the kitchen and walked around.
The wooden floor was covered in blood, and the walls were also smeared. Large chunks of meat were scattered on the counters, and a bubbling cauldron, with something black floating inside, was in the corner.
Eryn fished that 'something' by stabbing the tip of his sword in it, and then lifting it for Kael to see. The woman screamed again. It was a severed female's head, with its hair dripping with sauce, and its forehead stabbed by the sword.
Eryn immediately put the decapitated head. He walked some more, tipping over every lid by his sword, like he wasn't looking for a whole man, but bits of it.
Kael turned to the woman. "Where is your husband?"
The woman gulped first, before she shook her head. "He was here when I came to your room!"
Kael pinched the bridge of his nose. Something was not adding up. There was no blood outside the kitchen. Therefore, the woman's husband did not leave the room. His footsteps would have left blood prints on the floor, same goes for the doorknob of the back door. Wouldn't your hands be covered in blood if you butchered a body this aggressively? But both areas were clean!
"Where does this lead to?" Eryn asked. A cupboard was opened before him, and inside there was a small window. The wooden ledge was covered in bloody handprints.
The woman gasped. She stammered, "That…that is a dumbwaiter… It is used to transport food to the rooms…upstairs…"
Hearing that, Kael dashed upstairs. He knocked on every door, and when they didn't open, he yelled 'sorry' before kicking it down. Usually, people whose room door flew away from a loud kick should have been scurrying out of bed, wondering what was happening. But these inn dwellers weren't moving on their beds.
Kael checked if they were still alive by placing his finger close to their nose. Fortunately, they were only asleep. He sighed in relief. He quickly checked every room, until the only room he hadn't been to was their own. A sudden, ominous feeling washed over his whole body.
He hurriedly walked inside. As he expected, the woman's husband was on his bed. This man was drenched entirely in blood. He was holding a scroll in his hand when Kael entered. As soon as he saw the priest, he threw the basket to him and jumped from the window, cackling.
Kael rushed to the window, shouting, "Give it back!"
Of course, that was just a futile act to let out his frustration, but it really wasn't helping. He jumped from the window and followed the man who was clearly possessed by something. No ordinary human would jump out of a 6-meter height and still run faster, but this person was even hopping like it was celebrating its steal.
What was there not to celebrate? That scroll was an ancient relic! Even Kael wanted to cry after losing it. In between his chasing and contemplating whether to cry or not, Kael carefully thought about how—whatever in the man's body was—learned that the scroll was with him, or even the fact that he was a priest.
Could it be that the unknown creature was in the diner when Eryn called him 'good priest', and it followed him to the inn?
The woman's husband ran faster when he found a forest ahead. Not long after, he disappeared in the lines of trees. The dim light of the sky wasn't helping, so Kael had to enter the forest with all his senses on alert.
The rustling of leaves and bushes hid the creature's presence. Kael followed his instincts and went deeper into the forest. By the time the first morning light appeared, he found himself facing a rather gruesome sight.
In his search for that creature, he followed a shadow moving from a distance. This shadow was only one at first, but as he came closer, it doubled, tripled, and continuously multiplied. Until he reached where he stood now, he did not know what it was.
Only when the morning light cast aside the darkness that immersed these shadows did he realize what he was looking at. Corpses hung upright in every branch, and all of them wore the same robes. A robe similar to Kael's.
Without a doubt, these dead bodies were priests.