175 Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Five – Ah, Elder Brother...? (1/2)

”Little Feist.” The voice of the hyn was very smooth, rather genderless and hard to describe or remember, while at the same time being quite unforgettable. No one who heard it would fail to recognize it, but trying to describe it was virtually impossible. ”And three Hagchildren? Are these Hazé's sisters?”

All three girls swallowed, eyes wide. ”I think he's the Shadow and the Knife!” Veis stage-whispered. Verd and Amber above her both nodded, eyes dancing.

The hyn noted this very unusual reaction, and pragmatically stepped away from the dead man. ”Drag him around the back so he can decompose out of sight.”

Without the slightest hesitation, the two older girls zipped around the corner, darted up to the dead man, seized an arm each, and hauled him much more quickly around the back as the bemused Void Brother watched.

Master Feist walked up oddly, a strange kind of pattern that would make any hostile moves exaggeratingly clear, hands always in sight. Veis pranced behind him, big pale eyes wide with curiosity. The Shadowknife strolled after the dead man, white mist leaking out from the wound in the back of the corpse's neck.

”You usually don't act so openly, Elder,” Feist said respectfully. He looked over the dead man, and saw nothing out of place. ”What marked this fellow? Dealing with Aberrants?” he asked softly, eyes narrowing.

”He's a pan-dimensional scout from a world under the auspices of The One God,” the Shadowknife told him calmly, not bothering to hide the information. ”They've been sending people here for the past century, looking to gain information about the forces here, and we've been offing them as they come.”

”A spy from another world?” Feist wondered aloud, shaking his head as the girls dumped the corpse behind a storehouse without batting an eye. The Shadowknife went up and began to pat him down, taking off the dead man's cloak and dumping his findings thereon. ”Ah, I thought you dealt with time travelers, and things outside Creation, sir...”

”That is my specialty, and what I am more sensitive to then my Brothers. These folk are also outsiders to the Land, their flesh born of other worlds, the magic they bear wrought of different Lands' energies, the touch of other Gods upon them. We would not bear them much ire if they were but travelers, explorers, or merchants, flitting from realm to realm as others do city to city, save that we questioned the first of them in depth, and employed several Powered to infiltrate and survey their homeworlds.

”They are the vanguards of The One God, seeking to add more worlds to its worship. As such, they are dealt with when we find them immediately.”

His long knife was in his hand in a blur, striking and sheathed in little more then an eyeblink, and the staring, startled head of the man rolled free of his neck, dark energies sizzling and quenching the trace of vivus on the wound, so the head didn't burn.

”Is your big sister going to be returning soon?” he asked the girls calmly.

”She is scheduled to return at dusk, sir,” Verd spoke up promptly. ”She said she had some tasks to address.”

”I will employ her services to question this fellow, then. Wrap the head up in his shirt.” Verd and Amber quickly and professionally cut open his tunic at the seams, tore it off him, and bundled up the head, not blinking an eye at the sight of vivic flame burning on the neck stump, turning flesh to mist slowly swallowed by the land.

”Does he have compatriots?” Feist ventured to ask, and the girls all brightened visibly at the thought of possible fun.

”Only the unwitting. The One God needs cross an entire Pantheonic boundary to reach here. Normally I would remand the head to an Inquisitor of Harse, but with Starsister Hazé available, I will make use of her services.” He bundled up the cloak and the man's belongings with deft movements, and tossed them to Verd. ”See that all are Burned for their magic.”

”Yes, Brother,” she acknowledged promptly. It didn't matter what the items were, they were dangerous and foreign, and for various reasons, from being scry focused to possibly Possessed, they had to be disposed of. Turning them into Investing material for their own magic items was best.

”Is your business in Calespi done? We are just passing through on the way to the Capital...”

The Shadowknife paused. ”The center of the Empire is a dangerous place to stay long,” he said calmly. ”I trust you don't have long-term business there?”

Master Feist pursed his lips thoughtfully. Such warnings were not to be taken lightly. ”We are meeting Veis' brother there, who happens to be a Heavenbound of some ability.”

”Ah, the Gilderalz boy? Mmmm.” His shadowed eyes glanced at Veis, who straightened up proudly. ”Well, two decent things out of that family in the last century, I suppose...” Veis looked a little confused about whether to be offended or delighted at that. ”As for your question... no, I didn't come here for this man. I simply happened on his trail and tracked him down en route to my main reason for being here.”

”Oh!” Amber let slip, not bothering to hide her excitement. ”We've done work for Brothers before!” she blurted out.

”I am aware.” His calm hadn't changed, but certainly damped her excitement down. She flushed despite herself. ”And since I am waiting for your sister, I may as well put the time to good use.”

”Yay!” all three girls cheered, totally okay with doing wetwork for the Brotherhood. The Shadowknife looked on in bemusement.

”What are they going to be dealing with, Elder?” Master Feist asked carefully.

”N'Guthu infiltrators and their hosts,” the Shadowknife said placidly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. ”They've set up a nest in this city, and need to be expunged.”

All four of them had blank looks.

”Ah, right, they aren't one of the mighty, overbearing races, like the brain collectors, cerebrovores, or Elder Races. They're a fringe race of the Void Pact, working through the occasional Warlock or mad Summoner dumb enough to stumble onto their existence. Think of them as large worms that co-exist inside the bodies of their Hosts, with great hatred for Divine entities and the insecurities of thinking themselves opponents of the gods.”

”No affinity with the Heralds?” Feist sighed in relief.