The Ruins of the Village

Lek was having a hard time focusing. His thoughts kept going back to the Keep and Pinja. He knew that there was nothing he could do for her, he could not even be in the same room as her without making her uncomfortable. But he liked to be nearby so he could know how she was doing. He could usually ask Millie at least once a day how Pinja was doing without annoying her. He also liked to be nearby so he could at least feel like he could help her if there was ever anything he could do for her… not that there was ever anything he could do for her besides giving her a lot of space, staying out of the room she shared with his sister, being very quiet when he guarded her room from the hall so she did not know there was a man in the hallway. Lek sighed.

“Hey- what’s that building? I don’t think that was there last time we were here.” Wulfsen’s voice brought Lek to the present reality. He and Wulfsen were both on horseback in the ruins of Lek’s home village.

Over a month ago Lek and Wulfsen had been at the village ruins with some men tearing down the ruined buildings that were unsafe. Lek looked where Wulfsen was pointing, it was a building near the docks. It looked like a place he had been told to never go ever since he was a small child. The Black Raven Tavern. Lek frowned. “It wasn’t there last time we were here… in fact it was burned down long before the Raid.”

“What do you mean?” Wulfsen asked.

“It’s the Black Raven. Bad things have always happened there. I think it’s been destroyed and rebuilt a bunch of times even before I was born. My parents and others in my family burned it down over a year ago because Galina had been using it as a base and they did not want more evil people taking it over again. They wouldn’t let anyone rebuild it after the last time they burned it down.” Lek explained.

“It’s supernatural then?” Wulfsen asked.

“I think so.” Lek said uneasily. It was like Galina, dead and destroyed but still keeps coming back. Nothing else could explain it being built in a month, even without knowing the history of the place.

“Sileas has told me some things about this place… I’ll have some men guard it but not let anyone go inside until we can have Bai check it out. It looks empty.” Wulfsen said.

It did look empty, Lek thought it was a good idea to not let anyone go inside- to keep it empty. He thought burning the Black Raven to the ground again would be an even better idea.

Wulfsen ordered some of his soldiers to guard the empty-seeming tavern, making it clear that they were not to go inside no matter what. The men stood at each corner outside the tavern, two outside the door, looking bored but uneasy.

“That should at least keep anyone from going inside.” Wulfsen said, letting his horse walk into the village towards the only other complete building in the village, the seamstress shop.

Lek’s sister’s shop. She and Pinja had lived in the rooms above the shop. Before the Raid.

“You don’t have to go inside.” Wulfsen told Lek, his eyes sensitive.

“I can handle it. I need to make sure there wasn’t anything important left behind, the only people who know the living space better than me are Millie and Pin- the girls and they shouldn’t come back here.” Lek said determinedly. He wanted to see the place for himself before it was cleaned out. Millie had wanted to have the whole building destroyed after what happened to Pinja, but with how every other building had been destroyed in the village it would be foolish to destroy the only standing building in the village during the rebuilding. The only standing building that was not supernaturally evil, that is.

“Very well.” Wulfsen said.

Lek dismounted and hitched his horse. He went into the seamstress shop. He saw the clumps of Pinja’s beautiful golden hair matted with blood on the floor and the bloodstained table and nearly threw up. He berated himself, he knew it was going to be terrible. He forced himself to analyze the room. The bloodstains would probably never come out of that table, no one would want it, it should be chopped up for firewood. The mirror… thinking about what that mirror saw Lek wanted to smash it but resisted. The mirror would be worth a lot of coin, he could have it sent to Portside, the closest city, and sold for a lot of coin for Millie and she could buy a new mirror. Nothing else in the room seemed worth saving.

Lek headed for the stairs.

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Meanwhile Wulfsen went to talk to a few of his men, he wanted to send a runner back to the Keep to fetch Bai. He wished he brought the magic user along to begin with, but when he set out this morning he thought he would be more useful helping to protect the Keep. It made sense at the time. He had not expected the damned Black Raven Tavern to have sprung up.