Chapter 15: Chapter 15 – Thrall

Adam’s house was a large, country manor. I could see even from the outside that the interior had been stripped clean. He welcomed us into the lobby, before taking a moment to comprehend his vandalized home. All of the furniture was gone. The chandelier that was supposed to hang from above was missing. It looked like nobody had lived there for years.

Adam was seemingly at peace with the situation, “The Libera demanded that we sell all of our things, they only left the stuff that wasn’t worth as much. I’m sleeping on my old mattress that they left in the attic.” I wandered in a circle and took in the sights. They weren’t gentle about taking all of their belongings, there were marks on the walls and floors where they’d dragged them away.

“Do they make the cult members pay a tithe?”

Adam scoffed, “A tithe? This is a lot more than a tithe. They’ve already bankrupted some of the other families, and when they can’t pay anymore they force them to sell their property to the cult’s leader.”

“What’s their name?”

“Randal. He sells them on or uses them for the cult’s purposes, if he can find a buyer. Most people don’t have the money to buy a mansion on demand. The furniture moves quickly because he discounts them ruthlessly.”

“Wants to move them before anyone catches on. He doesn’t seem smart enough to use a fence.”

“I see.”

“He got his claws into the nobility here somehow, and used their wealth to fund his expansion, or at least his comfort. No doubt he’s living the high life right now.” With that said. I couldn’t care less what happened to your average noble. They were people who exploited others and enjoy luxuries off the back of their hard work. They were a symptom and a cause of the broken world I lived in. I’d have no problem robbing one blind – they had more money than they’d ever care to use.

“I don’t care if you can’t get our things back,” Adam said resolutely, “I just want you to rescue my parents! I’m okay for now, but some of the other younger children are completely lost without them. I have to help take care of them, and the servants have already left...”

I patted him on the shoulder, “I don’t need the sob story kid. You paid me to come here and do the job, and that’s what we’re gonna’ do.”

He nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, “D-Do you want to know where they are?”

We followed Adam up to the second floor and to the end of a long, long hallway. A window at the end looked out into another compound across the way. The lights were on inside and I could see people passing by the windows. I looked down into the expansive garden and saw armed guards mulling about the place.

Adam pointed, “They’ve moved everything into the Cordival estate. All of the cult members are forced to go there when they join.”

“And when they leave, they’ve been brainwashed.”

“Y-Yeah! So, what are you going to do?”

I was already formulating a plan in my head. The guards didn’t look like any trouble - unlike the ones watching the outside wall. Shoddy gear and a terrible patrol route. They weren’t professionals. If I had to guess they were probably the servants that had been indoctrinated to work for the cult. Their pattern was full of gaps that I could easily exploit. At the end of the garden was a large set of stone steps that led onto a back patio. Several huge windows looked out from the ground floor hall onto the stone tiles, but they had been covered by red curtains – making it easier for me to sneak in.

“First thing, I’m going to get into that house and see what’s going on. These guys are running a leaky ship, probably expecting the guards on the outside to do the hard work and keep people out. But they weren’t indoctrinated – so if someone gives a meddler a permit…”

“They’d let you in,” Adam concluded.

“I’m going to sneak through the garden, get up onto that balcony and take a peek inside, try to find an easy way in. Then I’ll run back here and grab Cali.”

There was no argument from my two companions. I returned to the ground floor and exited through the back door. A small white fence at the bottom of the garden separated the two estates. It was easy enough to clamber over. When I dropped down I discovered that the hedges that made up the complex layout of the garden were tall enough to hide me from sight.

I had already memorized where the guards were just from a quick look. Sneaking past them required only an elementary level of focus, aided by the untrimmed bushes and hedges that surrounded me. I quickly ascended the steps and doubled-checked to make sure that nobody was peering through the curtains.

When I was confident that I had a chance, I hopped up onto one of the window ledges and clambered up the side of the building using the stone features. My target was a large balcony that ran across the whole back side of the manor. I hoisted myself over the stone banister and took a moment to catch my breath. There were two sets of tables and chairs laid out across the balcony, presumably used for breakfast gatherings when the weather permitted it. It was clear they hadn’t been used in some time.

I heard voices from inside.

The curtains on the second floor were still open. I hid behind one of the pillars and messed with the latch on the glass door. The security in these places was usually pretty lax. I jiggled the lock using one of my picking tools and easily forced it open. I checked both sides of the hallway to make sure that nobody was looking.

The layout of the building was familiar, this was one of the few homes in the area that wasn’t an old farmhouse, and because of that it followed the same formula that all noble houses did. A large, open lobby area with two winding staircases, long corridors heading down each, and dozens of doors to various rooms sprouting off from them.

Most of the foot traffic was going on downstairs. Looking over the edge, I could see some of the pilfered furniture organized into messy piles on each side of the lobby. There were three or four people discussing something by the door. I couldn’t get close enough to listen in without being seen. I elected to go looking through the various rooms instead.

Several of them had been transformed into spartan barracks. Bunk beds and sleeping bags tightly packed into a small space. I saw a few bodies sleeping inside and decided not to press my luck any further. I was really looking for the estate’s drawing room, the office where the head of the estate would usually do his work.

Soon enough I found it. Inlaid with detailed paintings on each wall and wooden furniture that cost more than my entire life’s earnings up to that point. There were papers everywhere, making it clear that whoever was heading the cult’s operation was using the room for their own purposes. I locked the door behind me and barricaded it with a nearby chair so I could piece things together in my own time.

A lot of the papers were invoices, lists of items that had been taken and sold from the local families to fund the cult. While it was compelling evidence for an imaginary court case, justice in this world tended to be handed out at the pointy end of a weapon rather than the bang of a gavel.

I never did find a piece of paper outlining the cult’s plans, but I did spot one interesting paper amongst the pile. It was a list of notes someone had scribbled down. Observations about the coming and going of people into the district, along with a time. It was well organized. They were keeping a close eye on people who were entering and leaving…

The door rattled.

“Fuck.”

I shoved some of the papers into my jacket for later reading. That door was the only way out, and somebody was trying to get in. I hurried over and removed the chair. Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the door and pulled it open. The man on the other side took a moment to recognize that I wasn’t meant to be there, but that small gap allowed me to deliver a knockout sucker-punch to his face.

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He tumbled to the ground in a heap. I hopped over his unconscious body and rolled him into the office, before closing the door behind me. I retrieved one of my sabotage tools and broke the lock, preventing him from getting out. My heart was racing. How many people were in this damn manor? I needed to move quickly or risk being caught.

I powered back down the way I came and spotted something interesting against the left wall. There was a small elevator for the kitchen to send food to the second floor, which just so happened to be big enough for a single person. I climbed into the small metal chute and used my upper body strength to stop myself from falling. I slowly shimmed down, being careful not the clatter Stigma against the wall in the process.

The kitchen was mercifully empty. I had gotten closer to the commotion that had attracted my attention earlier. I turned left and opened the kitchen door, I nearly had a heart attack as I came to face hundreds of people watching someone speak atop an elevated stage. None of them turned back to face me.

I narrowed the gap and watched what was happening. The man at the front of the congregation was wearing a long red robe and had a bald head. Randal, the man who Adam named as responsible for all this trouble.

“…The eye sees the sorrow that lies within all of us. The chains that bind us. The lies we speak. This life is a challenge that we must face, it is a war that we must fight. The eye promised to relieve you of your burdens and your attachments, to live a life of peace and fulfilment. Has she not done so? Are you not happier now than you ever have been?”

A zombie like murmur of agreement rose from the crowd. Randal marched to the middle of the stage and waved a red tome in the air, “The Eye watches, the eye judges! It is by her divine providence that we stand here united today. I must count myself blessed for being the one chosen to bring this message to you all.”

Stigma materialized in the crowded hall and turned back to me, “That’s a cursed tome.”

“What?”

“A cursed tome. I can smell it. That must be how he is brainwashing these people.”

“If we get that tome away from him and destroy it, it might turn them back to normal.”

“Perhaps. Though a safer option would be to retrieve the book for ourselves and undo his curse.”

There was no way I could sneak through hundreds of people and get to him.

“The Eye welcomes to the wayward, the lost, the malicious. Like our guest, who has joined us today.”

His eyes met mine.

“Come here visitor. The Eye wishes to see you.”

Before I could turn back and run, the other door out of the kitchen was blocked by three armed guards. With nowhere else to run away to, I entered the ballroom and slammed the exit shut behind me. None of the crowd reacted to the unfolding drama, staring dead ahead to the presentation before them.

Randal clapped, “Wonderful! Truly wonderful! To see the sister here, in the flesh!”

“Sister?” I strolled down the middle of the parted crowd, hand on my weapon.

“The Eye… she is interested in that,” he revealed, pointing to my sword hand.

“Stigma?”

“From the moment that my attendant found you in the office, we knew you were here. She sees all through us. She demanded that I bring you here.”

“No point sneaking in then.”

“No, none at all.”

“This ‘eye,’ she wormed her way into your head.”

“I accepted her. She had many gifts to offer us.”

I scoffed, “I’m sure you’re loving the money you’re making from this stupid scam. But someone else paid me to stop you. How about you let all of these assholes go?”

He shook his head, “I’m afraid I can’t do that. That is to say, they all agreed to join me of their own will. We offered them freedom. Liberty. A life that money cannot purchase. Free from the burdens of mortal emotion.”

I turned my head to the left and stared at one of the dead-eyed nobles, “You call this living? You’re just shaking them down for every coin they have.” Stigma appeared by my side, she snapped her fingers and my vision lost it’s focus for a moment. When it returned, another naked woman stood before us. Her long black hair and burning red eyes were familiar, too familiar.

“Who the hell is this?”

“I told you, that book is cursed. Bound with the spirit of another.”

Randal didn’t seem to be on the same page as us. Stigma must have been manipulating my vision to let me see her. A recreation for my benefit.

“Sister,” the Eye spoke, “What a coincidence, that you of all people would meet me here.”