#damian caenum

Footsteps echoing from outside the cell snapped him out of his thoughts. His head jerked towards the door, startling Damian. “What is it?” The prince asked, eyes darting between Luc and the door.

“Shh!” Luc hissed, “someone’s coming!”

Damian’s eyes widened and he did as ordered, his body tensed up as if ready to run. Luc wanted to do the same, but the chains binding his wrists to the wall were more than capable of keeping him in place.

The footsteps drew closer, and closer, finally pausing outside their cell door. Luc’s heart beat rapidly, thudding in his ears, but he composed his face into a neutral, almost disdainful expression as the key rattled in the lock.

The door opened outward, and a man stood outside. Lavishly dressed in an elegant shirt, black vest, and a blood-red cravat, he had all the appearance of a Zariyan nobleman from the style of his hair to the cut of the vest. Luc knew the fashions of Caenum well enough to determine that while this man appeared to be nobility, he either didn’t ascribe to the city’s current trends or he hadn’t visited in some time. He only recognized the hair because it was similar enough to how Zade Takari, Reese’s father who used to reside in Zariya, wore it.

The nobleman stood in the doorway of the cell and regarded the two prisoners with an expression that could only be described as perplexed. “There were three of them, were there not?”

Luc raised an eyebrow. Did Reese manage to get away? “You talking to me?”

The nobleman waved a hand dismissively. “Ah, well. She’ll be here soon enough. The way the three of them fought together, they seem like a close-knit group.”

“Considering the way your men let her escape,” Luc interrupted, “I’m sure she won’t have any trouble evading them. She’s probably halfway back to Caenum by now.”

The nobleman stared at him, aghast.

“Look,” Luc continued, pretending not to notice, “I apologize if we were trespassing on your property, I really am. We were investigating a lead on a murder, and we truly did not mean to cause any alarm. Now if you could be so kind as to let myself and my apprentice go free, I’m sure my other apprentice would not cause you any trouble. False imprisonment is a serious offense. I should know. I’m a Watcher.”

He kept his eyes fixed on the nobleman, gauging his reaction. The nobleman blinked in surprise at the word ‘murder’, and when Luc casually mentioned that he was a Watcher, his jaw tightened. He glanced to the side, looking at someone out of sight down the hallway.

Luc’s eyes flicked to Damian, who craned his neck trying to peer out the door past the nobleman. “My name is Luc Epsilona,” Luc stated, “I am the resident Watcher of Caenum. You have no right to hold me here.”

If his words phased the nobleman, he didn’t show it. He nodded curtly to the other person in the hallway before turning to his prisoners. “It appears,” he stated, “that your ‘other apprentice’ has yet to depart the premises. Perhaps she has hidden herself somewhere in the house. No, I don’t see reason to let either of you go free, when you will no doubt come back with an army at your disposal.”

“This is unlawful imprisonment,” Luc replied, glossing over the fact that Reese hadn’t done the logical thing and gone for backup. “My colleagues in Caenum and in the nearby town know we were here. When we fail to return from the investigation, questions will be raised.”

“You were warned.”

“So you are the one behind the murders.”

The nobleman smirked. “Partially.”

“So you freely admit involvement? You confess to participating in or freely allowing the killing of several human beings?”

“Call it what you will,” the nobleman stated, stepping back into the hallway. “You call it murder. I call it salvation.”

The door shut, and his footsteps echoed down the hallway. Luc frowned at the door, listening until all he could hear was silence. He sighed. “She thinks too much like a hunter.”

“Reese?” Damian asked.

“Yes. I suspect she intends to either gather evidence before fleeing or attempt to break us out. Perhaps both. He knows it, too.”

“So we’re bait.”

“Yes.”

Luc had received the report a few days before, and, with Reese’s help, realized that the murder was very similar to similar reports he’d seen, bodies he’d inspected. He began preparing to travel to the small river town where the report came from. Reese, of course, wasn’t about to let him go on without her. Damian, who had been with them when the connection was made and who wasn’t even supposed to be in Luc’s office, insisted on accompanying them.

“It’s only an inspection,” he argued when Luc tried to protest. “Besides, I can handle myself.”

Reese was still skeptical about that. Sure, he had a sword, and when sparring he seemed to know how to use it. Her issue came from his lack of experience in any actual battles. Of course, when Luc concluded that the best way to keep the prince safe was to keep an eye on him, there was no getting rid of Damian after that.

Not that Reese didn’t like Damian. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to rescue him again. Unlikely, since few people outside of Caenum knew what the prince looked like. But the last rescue mission, though successful, had counted as one of the worst weeks in Reese’s life.

But she had Luc, and Luc had his crossbow and akinaka, and she had her knife, and Damian had his sword. So she tried to allow herself to relax as they entered the building with the sign of the healers hanging over the door, the silhouette of a butterfly.

The healer, a soft-spoken woman roughly the same age as Reese’s father, showed them to one of the examination rooms, where the body had been kept. Luc entered first, Reese on his heels. The first thing she noticed was the line of runes on the bottom of the doorframe. Closer examination revealed the runes extending across the entirety of the doorframe.

Luc seemed unaffected by the runes, so Reese stepped inside cautiously, joining Luc before the table where the body had been laid, half-covered by a sheet. The victim was male, with long, blonde hair and pale skin. He would have been handsome, if not for the extensive injuries all over his body. Numerous bruises, lacerations, abrasions, et cetera, with a final jagged cut through his throat. A single row of runes had been painted over a mostly untouched area of skin.

“Preservation runes,” Luc said before she could ask. “They keep a body from decomposing too quickly. Also helps with the smell. Most healers know some runes, but not enough to consider themselves magicians.” 

He frowned at the corpse as Damian moved to stand on Luc’s other side. “See how some of the bruising is lighter? And those scabs?”

Reese nodded. “You think he was tortured?”

“Over a period of time,” Luc agreed, “the report said the victim had been identified as someone who had gone missing a week before the body was discovered. I would say he had been beaten and whipped, among other things over and over again, enough time for the earlier injuries to start healing, with the slit throat finally killing him.”

“It matches the other reports almost exactly.”

Luc exhaled slowly. “Indeed.” He turned on his heel and left the room. Reese and Damian glanced at each other before quickly following, catching up to him as he was speaking with the healer. She handed him a letter. “This was clutched in his hand,” she said quietly. “It… well, see for yourself.”

He turned over the paper and frowned at the words written neatly on the front. “‘Watcher’?”

She shrugged before moving over to the room with the body and closing the door. “If you’d like some privacy, you can read it in my office.” She indicated a room close to the front door. Luc nodded and thanked her before leading the way inside, closing the door softly behind Damian. He stared at the letter in his hand for a long moment before crossing the room to the desk and taking the chair behind it, drawing his knife as Reese moved to stand behind him.

The letter had been closed with a pure black wax seal, no coat of arms or signet to indicate the sender. Luc broke the seal with the tip of his akinaka blade and unfolded the letter. Despite the blood spattered on the outside, the text written in uniform, blocky letters was pristine. Reese and Damian peered over his shoulder as he read the note.

Epsilona,

How thrilled I am to learn you have joined the chase. And with your apprentice as well!

If you value your lives and freedom, I suggest you return to Caenum post-haste. Continue to chase after me, and I will make you wish you’d succumbed to that little curse of yours from fifteen years ago.

Yes, I know of the curse.

I know many things.

You know what it feels like to be haunted, don’t you? Haunted by the legacy of your mentor. Haunted by the remnants of that curse. Haunted by the lives you’ve taken.

You’re just as much a killer as I am.

But unlike you, I have nothing to lose. That apprentice of yours will make a fine victim.

And I want you to know what it feels like to be haunted by a life that you were powerless to save.

Best of luck (you’re going to need it),

~ The Blood Moon Specter

Reese scoffed. “A threat?”

“Four threats,” Damian noted, “half threatening Luc, the other Reese.”

Luc’s brow furrowed as he read the note a second time. Then a third. “How do they know?” he muttered, “What else do they know?”

“What do they mean by a curse?” Reese asked softly.

Luc sighed and quietly folded the letter and slipped it into his pocket. “Fifteen years ago, when I was still an apprentice, Hector and I were sent to assist at the elven blockade in the Fells. We weren’t too far from Zariya. One night, when we were tracking some sang who’d made it through, we separated.

“When I found the one I was tracking, I discovered it dead, covered in thousands of tiny cuts. And it wasn’t alone.” He sighed, hands absently rubbing back and forth on his thighs. “I don’t really remember what happened after that. Hector says I was attacked by a magician, who carved runes into my skin. Runes that prevented my body from healing itself. He caught up and scared her off, but the damage was already done. When we realized what had happened, I suggested we seek out a different magician, by the name of Qila Scoria.”

Damian sucked in a breath through his teeth. “I heard she disappeared. Fifteen years ago… sounds about right. Did you have something to do with it?”

“Unintentionally. I’m not sure what happened to everyone involved besides myself, Hector. Or,” he added, glancing at Reese, “I didn’t until more recently. But that’s beside the point. We never made the story public. Very few people knew I even had a curse. So how did “the Blood Moon Specter” find out?”

Reese exhaled slowly, the possibilities racing through her mind. “And what else do they know?”

Luc rose to his feet. “We need to find them before they claim their next victim. Perhaps they already have. Either way, we should find out where the body was found and search for clues.” He gave Damian a long, hard look. “This case just got personal. I suggest you—”

“Do what? Go home?”

“Perhaps. You weren’t even supposed to be here.”

Damian shook his head. “I don’t think so. If they know you’re working on the case now, then they’ve been watching us already. If I leave, what’s to stop them from kidnapping me and using me against you?”

“He has a point,” Reese said.

Luc stared at the two of them for a tense moment. He sighed. “Fine. Reese, when shit hits the fan, get him and yourself back to Caenum as soon as possible. Am I understood?”