The northern wind slashed at their faces as they approached the church door where the sun burned overhead, but the abandoned village remained blanketed in darkness while only the frost-covered surrounding hills dared to absorb the light.
Gabriel staggered out of the church, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his torn sleeve as Tess followed with her limbs still tingling from the strain they had endured. Her breath was uneven and heavy since she had used her last drop of energy helping the former Paladin seal the opening into the temple, and she fell a few steps behind.
"Gabriel..." she muttered, stopping in her tracks.
He turned slightly and glanced over his shoulder.
"What does this all mean?"
"That the church lied to us." His face tightened as the words left his lips, and he turned back to continue walking.
"But why?"
I don't know.
Gabriel heard her question, but he had no answer since he didn't understand why he had been lied to. His hand closed around his medallion and squeezed it tight.
"We have to get back to Blackhaven."
Tess sighed, lowered her head, and stepped forward to follow behind him as they continued towards the path leading up the hill.
"I'll be glad to see the last of this place." Tess turned her head and spat on the ground.
Gabriel began slowing his pace, and Tess almost collided into him.
"Watch where you wa—"
Her eyes flickered down to the ground where they had left their supplies, and a vein began bulging on her forehead. "The bastards really did set us up. They stole our bags."
"I'm going to kill them," she continued.
Gabriel lowered his head and took in a deep breath. "Let's move," his voice hesitant.
The journey back to Blackhaven would take them half a day, and Gabriel wanted to be somewhere less exposed when the moon stole the sun's place since both of them were injured and exhausted, in no condition to fight.
The journey back was slow, and neither of them spoke for the first hour as only the crunch of frozen dirt under their boots broke the silence. Gabriel kept his eyes forward, concentrating on each pained step he took and every breath, while Tess stole glances at him when she could.
His steps were getting slower, and his hand continuously raised to support his arm as he traversed the uneven ground, but he said nothing and just continued forward. Her own legs ached with the burn deep in her muscles, and their stolen supplies meant no food, no water, just the clothes on their backs and the little strength they had that hadn't abandoned them.
The sun was already lowering, slipping through the horizon as Tess muttered, "What are we going to do when we get there?"
"Find out why." Gabriel didn't slow his pace.
She rolled her eyes in frustration. "There are at least 200 villagers, we can't kill them all."
He never answered, and her eyes widened at the thought. Is the freak going to kill them all?
The faint outline of Blackhaven appeared as they reached the peak of the hill they were climbing with small wooden rooftops visible, smoke rising from chimneys, and the dull glow of torches around the outskirts. As they descended, the smell of the ocean thickened with salt and stale fish while villagers moved through the square as they always did at dusk, repairing the nets, carrying crates, and talking amongst themselves. Children could be heard running around, playing and enjoying their evening.
Gabriel and Tess kept their hoods up while avoiding eye contact, but Tess blinked and pulled the cover from her face.
"Gabriel, three people have looked at me," she muttered under her breath. "No one cares we're back."
"Hmm," he replied. "Let's go to the tavern."
If the villagers didn't know about the setup, then the only person who could have betrayed them was the tavern owner, and Gabriel's fist clenched at the thought. A fisherman brushed past them without a word, and a woman carrying firewood didn't even glance at Gabriel's blood-stained tunic.
He stopped and raised his head to look around as Tess rubbed the back of her neck.
"Maybe they didn't," the words left her mouth as Gabriel stepped into the tavern.
The tavern owner was slouched over the bar, talking to the same patron from the previous night while cleaning a wooden cup with a dirty rag. He glanced over at the door to see a tall black silhouette standing there with two red glowing dots where its eyes should be, and the owner straightened up before taking a step backwards and hitting the wall behind him.
Gabriel stepped forward, and the candlelight revealed his face.
"Your— your— supposed." His words failed him.
Tess pushed past Gabriel with rage in her eyes. "Supposed to be what? Dead?"
She continued towards the owner, getting her second wind as she drew her sword from its sheath. The light from the candles hit the blade and showed the dried black stains spread across it, causing the owner to raise his hands and slide down the wall while cowering.
Tess approached and jumped over the bar with assistance from a chair placed at its front before landing in front of the cowering barman with a thud.
The only villager drinking stood up and dropped his drink to the ground in the process. "Get off him!" he shouted.
He attempted to move around the bar to help, glancing towards Gabriel as he did so, but Gabriel's eyes began glowing with streaks of red breaking off from the corners and fading into the air. The villager stopped dead in his tracks as a low voice reverberated through the room.
"Sit!"
The patron obeyed, moving back to his chair and sitting down while Tess turned towards the former Paladin and nodded her head. She turned back to the tavern owner and lifted him to his feet.
"Why did you send us to get killed?"
The man attempted to reply, but the words jumbled into an inaudible mess, and Tess raised her sword with the edge of the blade digging into his neck. His beige trousers began to darken as a puddle flowed from the opening at the bottom of his trouser leg and spread across the wooden floor.
Tess glanced down with a disgusted look across her face. "Talk now, or your head will be rolling in piss when I take it off."
"The chief told me to send adventurers." He spat out through tears.
She clenched the hilt of her blade to create a fist reinforced with metal and thrust it towards the side of the owner's face. He fell as the light left his eyes, and Tess didn't flinch as the tavern owner hit the floor in a heap with his cheek caved in from the impact. His eyes rolled around in the sockets as blood began spilling from his mouth.
"You killed him," the villager at the bar shouted as he began rising before thinking twice and sitting back down.
"He's unconscious." Tess replied, turning towards him. "Now, where's the chief's house?"
"Across the square, the last house on the left."
Tess smiled and nodded as she walked past the man, who had now also collected a puddle on the chair he was sitting on. She walked towards Gabriel and brushed past him. "Come on, let's go see the chief."
He nodded and began following her as the pair marched towards the chief's house with Tess at the front and Gabriel in tow. The villagers had begun gathering around the front of the tavern after hearing the commotion, and as they approached the door, a woman's scream echoed across the village from the crowd.
Tess didn't knock, and her boot met the middle of the door, taking it off its hinges.
The chief was sitting at the table with his wife and son when the door burst open, and they all instinctively covered their heads. The chief looked up to see a silver tip pointed towards his eye while Gabriel stood at the door, watching the crowd outside point and begin approaching.
Tess's sword arm was unyielding without a single tremor visible along her blade. "Why have you been sending adventurers to their deaths! Talk!"