บท 133: - Trails of Savagery and Suspicion
"A soul stone?"
His voice was deep and echoing through the darkly lit room. Lia sat on the edge of her bed, head against her fists as she pondered deep in her own thoughts.
"Yes. That's what the 'experienced' lab men said. They couldn't tell what was scale, skin and flesh apart from its organs."
Lia suddenly felt the urge to rant about those men and their pompous attitudes, making sure that she of all people would know not to get too close to their work while they were in the midst of thinking. The fools that they were.
"Did you know that they nearly cut straight into the basilisk's venom sack? The man could have had his entire arm melted off or worse and instead they blame me?"
"Lia, I have no time for needless banter or your rants. If you want to rant, do so to the Master. For now, tell me what you know about the Soul stone."
She sighed, eyeing Cain who stood with the internet, his eyes watching her every move with careful and meticulous calculations.
"The lab man said the beast had a soul stone inside, which they immediately claimed for more 'scientific research.' Honestly those lab men are getting on my nerves."
"Did they say what the soul stone contained? Did they mention anything about a signature?"
"...signature? Why would a soul stone have a signature?"
Cain pinched his brow, his mind racing as he now had questions he didn't know the answers to rushing through his head. His mind was compounded with different thoughts, different ideas and different assumptions. All of which, of course, led him to doing one thing.
"Lia, I need you to keep Arnold busy for me."
"What? Why?"
"Soul stones contain the souls of monsters, so there should be no reason for a soul stone to be inside of a monster itself, unless…"
He waited for Lia to make the connection and thankfully, much to his relief, he dind' have to wait long.
"...unless the soul stone was powering the monster?"
"Correct. That basilisk has probably been dead for years, decades depending on how old the stone is. That stone was keeping its body moving and filling it with a soul, but it was still an empty husk in the end."
"So you're telling me there's someone out there who is putting soul stones inside of monster corpses?"
"Possibly?"
Lia stood up and began to pace, her own mind now throbbing with all this new information, all of which came at her like a bombshell, all being processed far too quickly.
"So would this explain why there are so many monsters near Kokono?"
"No, but it could possibly lead us to the answer. It was the same issue in the Outpost, monsters coming out of nowhere and filling lands they didn't once inhabit."
Lia took a deep breath, thinking deeply about how she would distract Arnold and give Cain the precious moments he would need to steal the soul stone. At least that was what she thought was going to happen.
"Alright then. What do you need me to do?"
The two were so engaged in their talks about the future, that they didn't realize the door was still slightly ajar, the shadows of the hall dancing around the door frame.
One shadow danced faster and larger than the others, its ears turned towards the door, their eyes intent on watching the figure inside. The figure whose words echoed within their ears like a drip of water rippling in an empty cave.
"I need you to buy me time."
***
The room wasn't too hard to break in, at least that was what Cain thought to himself. The Master had sealed away the soul stone for the laboratory men to do their research on it quietly. He trusted Lia and Arnold, but he also feared the small rivalry the two seemed to have sparking between one another.
Nonetheless however, he made sure to leave the guarding of the soul stone as inconspicuous as possible. Only two guards had been posted, and Cain needed little to pass them by.
To them, the only thing the two guards could see was blank and empty air, while Cain nimbly passed them by, phasing through the wall like a ghost as his body melded within the wood, the back into the empty air.
'Why would a soul stone be here of all places?'
He bobbed and weaved past men carrying trays of the basilisk's flesh, small glass vials of blood and poison, venom and acid all of which he would be better off not seeing.
'Don't tell me those Phantoms are causing more trouble. I thought I dealt with them already?'
He passed the corpse of the monster, its bones now protruding from its body in odd shapes and angles. The men were stripping the flesh from the beast as it had begun to decompose at a much faster and quicker rate than they had expected.
'Idiots. What did they expect when they removed the soul stone? It wasn't like the beasts maker was just going to let you dissect his little toy.'
It was then that Cain's mind began to wander, turn back and forth between different bits of information and thought. For one he didn't know if this creature was man made, perhaps it was just a coincidence, or some small accident.
Or perhaps things were moving faster behind the scenes, things he could not see despite looking so hard for them.
'I thought things were going a bit too slow around here. Normally we would be picking up the corpses of monsters or man by now and fleeing for the hills. Why has everything been so quiet as of late?'
He ducked under a mantle piece, a path he was forced to take to avoid running onto a group of lab men carrying dozens of files in their arms. But this proved to be more of use than he thought, as he passed directly by a small well lit door, the light spilling out from within.
But that wasn't the only thing that came from the cracks in the wood.
Voices. And how interesting of a conversation they were having.
'This ought to be worth my while.'
Placing his ear up to the door, Cain was able to hear clearly what was going on inside despite the two men speaking in hushed whispers, and it made him smile his sinister smile.
"We should tell them."
"Tell them what? Tell them that this beast was man made? That it has the distinct signs of our work on it?"
"It has his markings. We need to tell them that this could be his work."
"No! Are you insane? We'll be ruined, ruined I tell you! We'll never be able to work again."
"Is that not worth the cost of saving potentially dozens of lives?"
"Be quiet! We don't know if he's doing it again. Last time he got expelled, this time he may just be pushing our buttons, testing out his product."
"You call this a test?! He nearly killed people with his latest works and what if he succeeded in the plans he drew up? You don't think they'll make the connection then? What will happen then?"
"By then it won't be our problem?"
"This whale thing is our problem in the first place. We should have reported him long ago!"
Cain could feel the conversation coming to an end, the sounds of thor voices rising as they began to realize that they would be engaged in this talk for hours if they continued.
"Let's not speak of this now. Let us go and find the Lab Master. He may know what to do."
"But what then? You never think past your small actions. What if the Lab Master refuses to tell the lord?"
"Then we respect his decision…gods know there isn't much we could do after that."
Cain laid his back against the wall as the two lab men swiftly opened the door, walking while still speaking in hushed tones. He took the chance to enter the room the moment their backs were to him, feeling the wind rush against his back as the door slammed shut behind him.
A key turned, the sound of a lock fading. He was inside the room, but now he was trapped.
"They wouldn't lock this places unless they had reason to."
Cain turned his eyes to the room, filled with the warmth of the fire as it raged in a small fireplace some distance away. There were three tables lined against either side of the wall, while the last sat in the center of the room.
Papers were strewn everywhere, on the floor, on the desks, even on the mantelpiece as they threatened to fall into the fire and burn away all that knowledge written down.
But none of the interested cian much as he eyed a particular set of papers stacked at odd angles. Where the sheets would once sit flat against the wooden table, they instead had a strange bulge to them rounded in the center.
With one swift motion Cain overturned the papers revealing a small and glowing orb beneath them.
"No doubt Arnold is arguing with the Master over this little thing. Truthfully he probably believes that he could use it, or find the means to destroy it."
Cain turned the crude and rough surface of the stone around in his hands, feeling an odd sort of gaze coming from the stone.
The Basilisk's eyes of Stone.
"Hm…such a large fuss over something so small."
Then he heard it, the sound of a sword leaving its sheath and the unmistakable sound of an arrow being drawn from its quiver.
Slowly, Cain turned to face three men, two other men standing in the door frame and Cain recognized them as the two who had just recently left the room.
'Did they forget something?'
He didn't have the time to ask as the first of the three men, the one who had drawn his sword, sided with two men and their drawn bows, spoke first in a deep and angry tone.
"Drop the stone!"
"I beg your pardon sir, but I have no idea as to what you mean?"
Cain played foolishness, though purely for his own amusement. He liked toying with the minds of humans, trying to convince them that he was something that he was obviously - so obvious that a child could point it out - he was not.
"Drop the stone! Now, on your knees!"
However, he was only left to sigh as he realized that playing this little game of his was foolish and not worth his time.
"Drop the stone, now!"
The man raised his sword above his head when Cain didn't respond, intent on bringing it down on the man's head but he sword was left floating in mid air as the guards eye widened.
"I do apologize for my early leave, but I simply must be going."
And suddenly, much to the amazement of all those present, Cain vanished like a candle light being snuffed out by a finger. He was gone, and with him the soul stone vanished before their eyes.
There would be an uproar tonight.
***
Cain stood on the edge of the Great House's roof, squatting down over the edge, peering past the many lights that dotted the city streets, past the stars that glowed with the moonlight.
It all appeared so tranquil for the people on the ground enjoying the fresh nightly breeze that blew through the town, the lamps and fires burning with bright intensity.
Cain scoffed at the sight, finding the joy of the people dancing about with one another so odd.
"Humans…they think they're safe inside the city, safe from people who would otherwise plague their towns for loot and gold."
He turned his head towards the far side of the city, easily seen from his height on top of the Great House, as the dark and bluish night painted the hills and the plains filled with swaying grass that still shimmered in moon's crescent light.
"You have no walls, no towers of weapons and stone. Yet you believe that no monster will tear through this won and kill all those they find. How little the human mind knows of the world…"
His eyes found the dancing groups of people, baying and swaying with the wind as they danced together, clapping, cheering and singing with the turners of the bards as they strummed against their guitars and their lutes.
His eyes, much to his confusion, found a girl beautiful with swaying hair of golden brown that glowed in the fires light. She danced around the people, cheering for them, singing for them, and laughing all the while.
His eyes lingered there for a moment, his min losing track of what he once was going to say before his eyes met hers. So beautiful…
Her eyes were like a silver sea, even the ocean and its waves could not challenge that gaze. Their eyes met, but Cain knew she couldn't see him. She was most likely looking at the moon that painted against his back the pale light of the sun's reflection.
Then, as his hopes dropped and he realized it, he had been hoping she would smile when she saw him, hoping that she had actually been looking for him. Only then did he find the words to finish his sentence.
"...you know nothing of love and pain. You're too blinded by its stain on your hearts."
His figure disappeared from the edge of the rooftop, his presence leaving the town itself, gone without a trace in the night.
But if he had waited, oh if he had only stayed to look at the girl for a few more seconds, would he have realized that she wasn't as blind as he thought…
…the smile on her face said as much.
***
The wilderness was a strange thing in Cain's eyes, yet he found beauty in the peace. There you could hear the sound of the wind against the trees, against the rock and the mountain face.
There you could feel the cool night air and the silence that settled in around you, the silence that echoed in your head, mind, soul and body. It brought you peace, yet it was this peace that Cain feared.
If you left yourself alone to the silence that surrounded you, enveloping you like a pool of water, then your thoughts would be flushed from your mind.
"Left alone to your thoughts…it's a double edged sword when you look for peace."
He peered up towards the stars, towards their glowing figures dancing in the skies blanket of black and blue. The large and mighty pines that swayed against the wind, how it roared silently in the air, against the ground and the earth below it.
The peace was already settling in, he could feel it making its way like a virus in his blood.
He took a deep breath of the cool air, finding the fire in his chest that once and always raged inside him, dying down while his lungs chilled at the air's cool touch.
Turning his head, he found his eyes resting on a small wooden building, a small building with lights warm and roaring inside as they glowed against the still air.
It was familiar to him in many ways.
"I wonder…which edge of the sword were you looking for?"
The farm.
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