Chapter 13: First mission, Part 6

("Wipe your mouth,") 

Lyanna said, handing me a handkerchief from her pocket. 

"Huh?" 

She pointed to my mouth and I realised I had bitten my lower lip. Wordlessly, I took the handkerchief and wiped the blood. 

"Thank you."

 Lyanna replied with a thumbs up before showing me what looked like a ugly wild rat.

"Where did you find that...thing ?"

I noticed that the rat's eyes were completely white, so I assumed it was under Lyanna's control. There was also blood all over its grey fur, but no sign of injury. 

("I told you there was something strange, didn't I? I found that something, Riri. We have to go.")

"What do you mean? We can't leave." 

I was confused by her sudden request. 

("If we don't go now, we won't be able to stop them.")

"Stop who? What are you talking about ?"

Lyanna's reply was urgent. It was unusual to see her like this. Intuitively, I knew something important was going on. But Orion's order was clear, we shouldn't leave. 

"Hey, wait, wait."

I was thinking about what to do but Lyanna was already on her way, 

("Hurry up.")

"Can you at least tell me what's going on?" 

("Can you just trust me? If we don't move now. We won't be able to stop them. Something really bad is happening in the warehouses, Rinne. ")

'The warehouses? Something bad? Why do I get the feeling we're about to get into deep shit?' 

"Ah, shit.."

("No cursing.")

"Fine fine."

We quickly walked up the path we had taken. Under normal circumstances, movement in the dark would have been difficult. But we sharpened our senses with spiritual energy. After a few minutes, we were a few hundred meters from the warehouses. Strangely, the place seemed almost deserted, the guards were no longer making their rounds. Something was wrong. 'Why would they leave the warehouses unguarded?'  

We walked around, still keeping our distance. Lyanna noticed the fresh tracks of many carriages leaving through the forest on a road hidden behind the warehouses. She freed the wild rat before opening the cage containing the bird Orion had given her. She took control of the bird and hid it in her cloak before covering her head with her hood. She took the dagger from its sheath and began walking slowly toward the third warehouse. 

"What's going on Lyanna ?" I asked, keeping my guard up.

("Do you remember what Thoralf said about how he made his fortune this year?")

"In the livestock business, wasn't it? What's that got to do with this?" 

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I thought about it for a moment and then the answer suddenly came to me. 

' How could I not have noticed that detail? '

I stopped walking and thought even more about the whole problem, and a shiver ran down my spine.

("Looks like you finally figured it out. It took you a while, bro.").

"Shut up...I haven't taken this from the proper angle. I'll give you that, but you could have at least said something in the first place." I replied, annoyed.

("It was just an assumption, so there's no point in talking about it. And it's not my fault that you couldn't understand something so simple.") 

Lyanna responded with her hands, but I could still feel, almost hear, the haughty tone in her words.

("So? Tell me what you've found out .....") She said, tilting her head slightly to one side in provocation. 

"TSS. First, Thoralf's explanation about the origin of his fortune doesn't make sense. This year has been marked by an unprecedented crisis of livestock. The whole kingdom was affected. If even the Novius Estate, the main supplier of 55% of the kingdom's food resources, was badly affected, a simple merchant like Thoralf could not have made a fortune in this business, and certainly not this year. At least not with the Kingdom's livestock."

("All right, keep going .")  

I clenched my teeth and took a deep breath to control my frustration. 

"The possibility of him importing livestock from other kingdoms is nil, if not impossible. The financial resources to transport a large amount of livestock over such a long distance would simply be colossal, as it is not allowed to teleport animals of that size. "

("Moreover?") 

"........"

("Well?")

".... The chances of the contents of the warehouses being livestock are practically nil. Even for bushmeat, the quantity would be too small. This makes it all the more curious that there are so many Vulkores in the area. These monsters are known to be attracted to places where there has been a lot of bloodsheds. The most logical conclusion is that..." 

I became gradually aware of how disgusting the situation was.

("The conclusion is?") 

"The only thing I can think of that is not animal and whose blood is red is ..... a human." 

("Correct. This is the conclusion I came to. My control over animals does not allow me to see through their eyes. I only have blurred images. But if what I saw was right, they are killing heretics in the warehouses.").

There was a silence between us. We both looked at the warehouse, which in our eyes was becoming more and more frightening. It was only an interpretation or speculation of the current situation. We can still be wrong but the probability is low. Things were getting  more complicated. 

"We must warn Orion" 

("Are you sure ?") 

"What do you mean by that ? Orion will..."

It was at that moment a doubt settled in me. Although I didn't understand right away, I was willing to bet that most of the bloodhounds had sensed that something was wrong with Thoralf's story. Although he was a simple man, Orion was far from stupid. There was a good chance that he understood or sensed that something was wrong. But it didn't fit him to do so. He was a good man. Not once did I see him despise heretics. So why did he accept this mission ? The idea that Orion would decide to carry out the mission anyway created a negative feeling in me.  

 Lyanna, standing in front of me, had already been thinking about this for a while and her decision on what to do next was already made.

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