Difficult Tale To Share

The internal vow to not lose herself had worked but, at the same time, Shalia's words were remarkably accurate. All Islana seemed able to do for a moment was nod.

Once Alcuin is removed for good, those words sounded sweeter to the young woman's ears than she cared to admit. Shalia was clearly willing to protect the younger witch. Knowing that made the rest of this easier.

"I will tell you about him but I should probably also tell you Alcuin saw my magik, when I was trying to get myself and my friend, Hunter, away from him. I probably don't need to tell you but it gives him a reason to be more persistent."

With that bit of truth added, it was time to move on to the next inquiry.

"The vengeful man is named Stran. Several months ago I, along with one of the soldiers, was tasked by one of the city guards to go with him to investigate some bodies that had been found in the woods.

There was some evidence found that went with the guard but something kept pulling at me to keep the investigation going, on my own.

I made drawings of what was found and started asking around about the objects. I found a man who was willing to talk to me. He knew about one of the objects. The next day I was able to speak to the Friar about the other object. It turned out that it was related to something called The Creed of Slivikh."

Islana looked down, just long enough to miss any reaction by Shalia. She had a hard enough time telling this story, stopping wasn't a good idea so the young woman kept going.

"The Creed had been involved in human sacrifices. It was believed they had been weeded out but apparently that wasn't exactly accurate.

The Friar told me that the Creed would perform a sacrifice issuing in spring which involved a child. At that point I knew they had to be found and stopped.

I went to speak with the guard and found out he had gone missing. I found the soldier in Drunken Hare and he ended up introducing me to another soldier, a woman who was friends with the guard. She got involved with the investigation, the soldier agreed to continue helping and we went back to speak with the man that had given me the first bit of information. He ended up involved as well.

We investigated and ...."

Islana completely stopped for a moment to draw in a breath. Why didn't she use names? Why was this still so hard to talk about? Did not saying Jiyn's or Hendrick's name make any of this easier?

"The guard was found dead. I was with the solider when he was murdered, a poisoned knife thrown into his back."

As if coming back from a distant place, in her mind, Islana shook her head slightly.

"The female soldier, Alexis. The man that helped me out, Gonyaul and I ended up staying at the Keep. Gonyaul through left after a few days. The investigation continued. There was a raid and the children from that ended up at the Keep.

One evening, I was lured away from the Keep by a soldier telling me Alexis was looking for me.

I went and was knocked unconscious. When I woke up, the Creed had me.

This man, called "The Preacher" was going to sacrifice me. As they couldn't get to the children and he, somehow, knew of my ability.

I was brought to a rock, surrounded by the Creed members and the way preacher was about to kill me...when I had my first surge of energy. I used my mind to call out for anything that would help me. An owl came.

It unfortunately ended up dead but it distracted that man enough that Alexis was able to attack him, and I was able to get out of his grasp.

Alexis fought him, I helped her but could really only throw things at him.

Alexis ended up killing him. When I realized what had happened, most of the Creed members were dead or scattered.

I still don't know how they found me, but somehow, my friends, Alexis, Gonyaul, and Wim, who I had met at the initial investigation, had managed to discover where I was. The Arbiter and Hunter had shown up as well. I think the Arbiter killed most of the Creed members but I don't know for certain.

Stran was a Creed member."

Islana's throat suddenly felt dry, and she felt shaky. The redhead realized she had gotten up from the pillow and began pacing as the story was being shared

This is why, Islana had been glad the attention about The Creed hadn't been focused so much on her, once it was over.