All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 163: The Hero We Deserve

Arthur groaned, rubbing his temples. Calculations for time to the local quarry and estimated gate repair costs swirled around in his head. He had been hoping to leave in a couple days to follow the remainder of the enemies before the trail went cold, but it wasn't looking like that would be possible considering the state of the city. Without proper defenses, he would have to believe behind a large portion of his troops to make sure it was secure.

Pushing that aside for now, he went to find Miss Bee. They had much they needed to talk about, and maybe her God would be there too. If she could interpret, that would be very useful.

It took a little bit of searching, but eventually he found her in a side building. The diminutive girl was busy tinkering away with glass flasks and multicolored liquids. He smiled. In a way, she reminded him of Harold.

Arthur was worried about his friend. The sun was starting to go down, and he hadn't heard from the older mage at all. Even worse, he had discovered a large number of both people and guards had simply gone missing during the fighting, and he feared that Harold was amongst them. The first item on the agenda for tomorrow was to figure out what happened to those people.

Clearing his throat, he got the young lady's attention. "Excuse me, miss, but would you have some time to talk?"

Startled, she looked up from her work. Blinking a few times, he could see how exhausted she still was. Clearly, she needed more rest than she was giving herself. "If you give me a minute."

With that casual dismissal, she went back to her work mixing vials and removing things from a small burner.

It felt a little strange to wait on the girl. For a man of his authority, it was a rarity. The only people who could put him in this position nowadays were some of the highest in the kingdom. That, or politicians making a power play. Still, Arthur was acutely glad for the small break, giving him a chance to just stand there and mull over his next words. It reminded him of before he was an officer.

Almost a full minute passed before Bee put the lid on her flask and looked back up at him. "Sorry about that, I didn't want to waste the ingredients. What did you want to talk about?"

“I came to ask about your plans going forward.”

He could have elaborated, but chose not too. It would be best if she answered her own interpretation of the question, and he could always clarify his question after. She stopped to consider carefully, wiping her hands before rubbing her cheek. "Not entirely sure. It's going to be up to Void honestly. I imagine we will be heading back to our church sooner or later."

Arthur frowned; he was hoping to ask a favor, but it was hard if she wasn't going to make decisions on her own. "Do you know where your master is? I think it'd be best if we all three talked for a little bit."

"No, I haven't seen Void since I woke up a little bit ago. I imagine it’ll be back soon though. What did you want to talk about?" She asked.

After a second of consideration, Arthur decided it was better if he just spilled it. "Essentially, it boils down to the fact that the undead had some sort of leader. That leader moved on with some of its forces before you two got here. I plan to hunt it as soon as we can get this city reasonably secured. I was hoping that I might get some more assistance from you and Void. Certainly, we will be able to get the threat under control much sooner if we work together.

"Of course, if you need to return to your own people in these trying times I won't try to stop you. But any help you could offer would be appreciated.”

Bee mulled it over. “Have you already talked to my master about this?”

"Briefly, but we were in a bit of a rush, and unfortunately I don't seem to be able to understand his words.”

“Right. That makes sense.”

Arthur nodded. “Please let Void know that I stopped by. If the two of you could find me when you have the time to talk, I will be available. Even if I have to make it so."

Seeing that Miss Bee had got his message and seemed to be itching to get back to work, he decided to take his leave. He would come back later and try to catch them both together if they didn’t find him first.

As he stepped back into the ruined city streets, Arthur sighed. He had a few minutes before his aides found him. He might as well start trying to track down Harold.

—-

I watched the foreman talk for a bit longer while I was probing at their souls. Their spirits didn't move much or do anything. In fact, they seemed almost entirely stable. However, I could tell that they must be able to move or change. It just must be on such a time scale that I wasn't able to notice. That, or simply weren’t doing so now.

I supposed that made sense. After all, humans did take years to develop an identity, if the mothers back at the castle were to be believed. And if their souls reflected who they were, it did seem like it would take a while for them to change. Then how come a little bit of effort from me and some delicate touch could flake off bits on the surface? Was it that this wasn't really part of their soul yet? More like debris on their spirit? That would line up with the title of the skill, after all.

As I watched them, I played around a little bit more with my skill. I found that I couldn't add anything to their spirits, not that I really wanted to. It seemed quite against my morals to dirty something. But I could clean them in a special pattern rather than completely. It did feel a little wrong, leaving things dirty intentionally, but it did make it easier for me to pick them out of a crowd.

I carved a little circle in the gunk on top of each dirty soul. I'd probably be able to recognize these people when I saw them for real, but this would help me to be certain.

It took me a while to finish. It was one thing to just scrub gently at a spot or blast everything clean, but this delicate work required a lot more focus than I would have imagined. Just carving a simple circle took me 5 minutes each, and I finished just in time as all four of them got up and dispersed.

I hadn't listened to their entire plan as I was too busy focusing on marking them. Still, the one I had cleaned initially wouldn’t be as easily traceable in a crowd, so I followed him. As they emerged from their basement, I watched from the shadows.

The only unmarked one was a tall yet somehow stocky man with a scruffy beard and scarred hands. Well, his image was quite intimidating. I didn’t feel threatened by him though and doubted even Beatrice would be scared of taking him on.

Looking over his shoulder, he skulked off into an alleyway. I followed behind, occasionally picking up some of the more offending debris in the streets. Through several sidestreets, I tracked my mark until he stood at the edges of the soldiers’ camp. With my spiritual sense, I felt the other three draw near, coming from different directions and taking up their posts.

The big man stood and watched as two of the marked men moved their way through the group of soldiers. At first, I found it hard to match them as I had to switch between my spiritual sense of looking at a world of floating lights and my Advanced Sensors. Eventually, I picked them out. They were two seemingly inconspicuously looking soldiers, and they were walking toward a specific building.

The 4th marked conspirator moved to just the other side of the building the man I followed was leaning against. The two soldiers stopped in front of a pair of guards in front of a door and struck up a conversation. As soon as the guard started responding, the other two moved closer and started doing something to the back of the building. It looked like they were working some boards loose.

I was curious to see what these people were doing that made their souls so dirty. Still, I wouldn't have them dismantle the buildings of the city we just saved. Using some air assistance, I pinned the boards to the walls with enough force that no matter how hard they pried, they couldn't budge them.

I started putting more and more force as they struggled, and eventually, they tried striking at the boards with their pry bars. I had to cushion the edges of the bars with air as well so they wouldn't just break the boards.

The conversation between the two men and the guards out front of this building started to sound a little strained. Voices were being raised, and one of the guards suddenly asked, "Hey what's your unit again? I don't seem to be able to remember."

There was a pause which was just a little bit too long. Even I was able to tell that the answer was not going to necessarily be truthful. Even after skipping a beat, one of the marked men opened his mouth and said, "uh, we're Sir Tom's men," in an unconvincing tone.

"And what Sir Tom is this? There seems to be a few of them in the army and I'm just not sure which one you're talking about." The guard's voice had a mocking quality to it. His partner laughed. "Move on, you're not going to get anything from here and I'd rather not have to file a report tonight."

The two marked men didn't run away like I figured they would. Instead, they shot back and indignant responses; the guards became even angrier, voices were raised, and I heard thumping as more soldiers came to investigate the commotion. Eventually, everything calmed down, and the two men walked away from the camp without ever making it into the building, and no one stopped them.

That had not gone at all like I had figured it would. Once the commotion died down, the two men gave up on fruitlessly trying to pull away the boards of the back of the building. They walked quickly to a point a little way into some darker streets in the city before stopping. Of course, I followed at a distance. A few minutes later, the other two marked souls showed up. "Well, how much did you get?"

I finally got a good look at them. Both were dressed in soldier uniforms though they did look a little bit scruffy. The two men with prybars in their hands looked at each other and grumbled. “Bah, notan did we. Dem boards was fasted tight tay was. How in ‘er name was we supposed to pry tem up?”

“They are just boards you idiots! How weren’t you able to get them off?” An argument ensued. Right before it started to get violent, I rolled out of the shadows. As much as I was enjoying this look into the darker side of humanity, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, that would just be messy.