Gulliver’s eyes turned from the priest to the floor at his right, as his other guard dropped dead, its neck clearly broken. Besides the body, the older man stood expressionless, simply walking past the corpse.

  “Inspect the area, leave no witness!” - Noa commanded, his companions bolting towards the corridor immediately, their bodies moving in unnatural ways.

  “The Ch… The Church of Helios…” - the man blabbered, his eyes bloodshot.

  “Never got your message, and they never will…” - lowering his voice as he approached the man, the priest approached Gulliver’s ears.

  Grabbing his chest, Gulliver tried to speak, the veins around his arms and neck beginning to swell and darken. As he stared at Noa, the priest could almost feel the man’s desire to curse him with his dying breath, his mouth opening but making no sound.

  “Don't worry, my lord…” - Noa said in a mockinly polite accent, grabbing what looked like a small piece of glass from his pocket - “Your punishment has only just begun!”

  ***

  “Well, what did you find?” - Noa walked calmly back into the entry hall, carefully stashing a green gem into his pocket - “Anything upstairs Dahlia?”

  Coming back from the second floor throughout the main staircase, the woman rubbed the palm of her left hand, while shaking her head negatively. As she walked towards Noa, the older man burst into the hall, pulling the old servant by the neck of his shirt.

  “Master…” - the man spoke, throwing the servant in front of the priest as if he was a sack of potatoes.

  “They do say that a butler know’s all of his master’s dirty secrets, don’t they?” - as the old servant shook in fear, his balding head almost shining in the dark, Noa slowly approached - “Why don’t you show us where your master keeps all his ‘toys’?”

  Following the old man further into the house, they watched as he easily pushed away a heavy looking bookshelf, dust gathering on its surface as if the books had never been touched. Behind it, a thick wood door with iron locks blocked the way, the same foul smell from before coming from the other side. As the man’s hands fumbled with the stash of keys on his belt, Dahlia looked at Noa for approval, before kicking the door open in a single blow.

  The stench instantly grew stronger, more livid and intense than it was at the Lord’s dining room. The old servant recoiled as the door was kicked open, crouching in fear as bits of wood went flying wildly.

  “I guess we’re going in the right direction,” - Noa passed by the door, finding a set of stone stairs leading to the cellar of the house - “don’t you think so?”

  Shaking in fear on the ground, the man tried to crawl away from the stairs. As she stood in his way, Dahlia kicked the man’s face, knocking him out cold. Walking over his body, the woman picked up the keys from his waist, before following Noa into the dark passage.

  “Doesn’t this feel just like home?” - the priest said jokingly, as the stairs gave way to a larger room underground.

  Coming out from the stairs, the group found itself in a large rectangular room, with thick stone pillars every few meters. Having a handful of candle holders on the pillars, and a few other candles scattered on the ground, the room was better lit than the rooms upstairs, as if someone had just been there recently. Between the pillars, large iron bars stretched from the floor till the ceiling, a single metal door in the middle separating the area around the stairs from the rest of the room..

  “Cages…” - the words left Noa’s lips as the realization dawned on him. On the opposite ends of the room, scrawny figures moved away from the light off the candles, attempting to hide from the group.

  “P…Please sir,” - a trembling child’s voice called out from the area further from the stairs - “I’m scared…”

  Noa began walking towards the voice, the rotting body of a child clinging to the iron bars on the way, seemingly dead for a few days. The candles stopped halfway, engulfing the end of the path in darkness.

  “I promise I’ll be good,” - the child called out again, sounding more and more desperate - “I’m begging you… I just wanna go home…”

  Reaching the outside wall of the further cage, its interior completely covered in darkness, Noa could hear the child weeping.

  “Master…” - the old man brought a few candles, setting them on the pillars beside the iron bars.

  “Please, don’t hurt me anymore…”

  With the help from the candles, Noa could see the figure of a small child trembling in fear, chains stretching from his arms and legs, its head pressed against the dirty floor. As Dahlia opened the door, the priest slowly walked towards the crying child, carefully watching it.

  “I’m pleased to see you well brother! We had started to worry!” - Noa kneeled before the chained child, bowing his head in reverence. Following his example, the other two followed suit.

  Stopping his cries suddenly, the boy lifted his head to look towards the direction of the voice, a wide grimm smile taking shape. His body stopped trembling, his posture becoming graceful despite his current situation. Had he not been wearing dirty rags, or locked in chains, it would look like a noble’s child being addressed to by a young knight.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Is that young Noa that I see?” - the child’s voice was now clear and mature, almost unbefitting to a body so small. In his face, a mixture of surprise and amusement as he looked at the priest before him - “Get up, let me take a good look at you…”

  “Shouldn’t we remove these restraints first, brother Soreq?” - Noa got up, signaling his companions to unchain the child.

  “Oh yes, these things!” - the boy looked amused as Dahlia shuffled through the keys, looking for the correct one - “I almost forgot about these, I’m not used to these low grade bodies, you see…”

  As the binds came undone, Soreq got up rubbing his arms, his frail body showing no signs of stress even after being put under such harsh conditions. Walking towards Noa, he grabbed the priest by the chin, moving his head to the sides while watching attentively.

  “I see you’ve yet to take your vows,” - letting go of his grasp, the boy began stretching and moving his body around, as if just waking up - “even while displaying so much potential.”

  “My current abilities are more than enough for the time being.” - rubbing his chin uncomfortably, the priest began leaving the cage - “Where's your escort?”

  “Dead, both of them…” - Soreq sighed heavily, remembering the old couple who had been accompanying him during his travel - “Courtesy of the fat fuck upstairs and his friends.”

  “Robbery?”

  “I believe that was the plan at first.” - stretching his back while leaning against one of the stone pillars, a loud cracking sound echoed in the room, similar to the sound of bones breaking - “Until one of the men saw me resting inside our wagon, and decided to bring me to the Lord, an addition to his unsavory collection.”

  “This is why the council insisted for you to have a larger escort…”

  “Which would jeopardize my mission, as I told them repeatedly…” - Soreq interrupted Noa, giving the topic as over, before making his way towards the stairs - “Speaking of which, what about the mission?”

  “It’s being taken care of,” - deciding not to insist on the subject, Noa followed after Soreq, more than happy to leave the stench behind - “I’ve been instructed to make sure you’re safe, before escorting you back to the city.”

  “And the one upstairs?” - the boy stopped at the first step of the stairs, a glimmer of anger in his eyes.

  “It’s already done!” - Noa threw at him the green gem from his pocket, an eerie glow emanating from it - “I guessed you would prefer dealing with him yourself.”

  Grabbing it, Soreq brought the gem closer to his eyes, both changing colour to match its green tone for a moment. Inside it his gaze could see the form of Lord Gulliver, floating inside his emerald cage, a look of despair as he screamed silently.

  “A human soul can be such a fickle thing… With just a small nudge,” - the boy pressed the gem between his index finger and his thumb, watching carefully as its surface cracked before shattering completely, emitting a small shockwave - “it turns into nothingness.”

  “What shall we do about these ones?” - the priest signalled back towards the other cages, a few other sickly figures now carefully approaching the light.

  “Their bodies might be fixed, but their minds are beyond repair.” - with no hesitation, Soreq simply resumed climbing the stairs - “It’s better to end their suffering quickly and send them to God's embrace!”

  ***

  Entering the small private room, the priest began lighting the candles around it, their faint light competing with the first signs of the rising sun. On the small table beside the window, Soreq put down the four bowls and small cups that he was given to carry.

  “Well be resting here for the day,” - Noa announced as he threw his damp coat on the small chair near the window of the room Ethril had arranged for them at the tavern - “I’ll get us a covered wagon at the market later, and we’ll be on our way by nightfall.”

  “Are you sure about leaving the old butler to take care of business on his own?” - Taking off the oversized coat he grabbed from one of the dead bodyguards, Soreq sat on the edge of one of the two double beds that occupied most of the room.

  After making sure that the old servant was the only one working at the Lord’s mansion that night, Noa cast a spell on the old man, giving him a strict set of commands to follow after their departure. Simply nodding along after all was done, the man began cleaning up the mess left behind at the dining room, his eyes glazed.

  “Hypnotism is not my strong suit,” - grabbing a piece of cloth, Noa soaked it in the small bucket of hot water provided by the D’wadir, before throwing it at the child - “but it’ll get the job done.”

  “You better be right, otherwise we’ll have a furious mob of humans hunting the ‘filthy undead’”

  Grabbing the damp towel, Soreq began stripping out of the dirty rags he had been wearing, his body covered in caked blood and dirt. Despite looking like an average ten year old human child, his body showed no wound or signs of torture, even after all the time spent in captivity. Noa couldn’t help but wonder how many days it took for the Lord to realise that, no matter how many wounds he caused, there would be no signs of it by the next morning.

  “You would probably escape unscathed,” - Noa allowed himself to relax in the chair, stretching his legs, now that his job was almost over - “the Citadel did a great job on this one!”

  “This body was crafted to appear as human as possible,” - as he tried his best to clean himself, Dahlia entered the room carrying a small bubbling caldron and a jug, the smell of warm food filling the room - “while on it, not even the strongest detection spells could see anything other than a regular child.”

  “As a downside,” - Noa pointed as he began serving hot soup from the cauldron into two bowls - “you’re as weak and powerless as a regular child.”

  “Everything comes with a price, my boy.” - grabbing one of the bowls from the table, Soreq began eating while still naked, walking around the room - “Where’s your quiet friend?”

  “Domnus will stand guard outside the tavern,” - Noa smelled the inside of the jug, before considering that the content was safe enough to drink, and pouring two cups - “to make sure there’ll be no unexpected visitors.”

  “You seem to place a great deal of trust on him…” - the child began serving himself a second bowl of soup, his stomach rumbling loudly.

  “I do.” - taking a long sip from his cup, the priest stared at it. Despite being lukewarm now, the spiced ale from the tavern helped to stave away the cold and tiredness from the priest’s long journey.

  “Was he someone important to you?” - sitting back at the bed, the child knocked back his cup of ale, before returning his attention to his bowl of soup.

  “He was to be my acolyte,” - helped by the warm food and the alcohol, Noa couldn’t help but reminisce about the past - “from before I had even been chosen as an apprentice.”

  “And? What went wrong?”

  “I killed him.”

  From this point forward, new chapters will be posted according to the schedule, three times a week.