The Unseen Road

Chapter Fourteen

Beatrice Hunter was not easily daunted.

The Prince of Agrelind's revelation regarding the very people she had parted with, the ones who had alienated her, however, had actually managed to faze her. How else could she have reacted after learning that her new adversaries had immunity to the most potent of her newfound abilities?

She could not let it continue to loom over her; instead, she simply had to retaliate harder.

Stuck with grunt work again, the General had sent her as a spokesperson to recruit a neutral nearby town for use of her power of persuasion; but she intended the simple visit to be much more than that. She intended it to be a chance to prove her abilities to herself, and to Bion. If Kylie, Celeste, and Mina, were quickly climbing her ladder, then she had every intention of speeding ahead of them.

Maybe even knocking them down on the way.

As she flew over the dappled landscape, she watched her destination draw closer and closer. It was a small township clustered on the other side of a large river; for it seemed that humans, unlike the other, more versatile races, were especially limited in their choices for settlement. It happened to be that this town was also at its most vulnerable, having been sacked not long before- and that was why Beatrice had been sent there.

She prepared herself for landing; soon after, she stepped smoothly onto the wooden surface of a long dock. Smoothing out her dress, the one Bion had given her, she then proceeded towards the town hall, a small, rickety building with a bell tower.

The dockhands, women, and children on the jetty clearly took notice of her, ducking their heads submissively as she passed by. "I hope you can help us," one haggardly woman, holding her child's hand with both of their faces covered in soot, said in a low grunt as she glided by; a second later, a dockhand approached her and asked if she needed directions in return for a small fee. But she kept walking.

She made it to the old wooden building and pushed through the swinging double doors. There, a bare reception room stripped of nearly all furniture awaited her, so she directly went up to the desk in front. She had but to look at the receptionist, for the man, immediately stood and silently led her to a door behind the counter.

Inside the room, which impressed Beatrice to be more from the Wild West than Medieval times, there were three men waiting for her, standing amongst themselves. Save for the man in the center, they all seemed on the verge of poverty, wearing stained, worn-out white shirts- or at least they were once white- and tattered trousers; the middle, however, was wearing a red robe, trimmed with white fur- compared to what Beatrice had seen in the Dryrian castle, though, they were vagabonds' rags.

They pretended not to take notice of her until the man in the middle looked up with unamused eyes. "Have you come at last?" he asked, his voice nasally and just a bit slurred.

"I have," Beatrice replied, surveying the room. Two windows were broken on one side, and there was still shattered glass on the floor, along with a good collection of stones. "What happened here?" She had already known that the town had been sacked, though she hadn't heard the details.
"The skin-changers," the man replied. "They came and stole all that we had."
"Why you didn't do anything?" the Succubus replied, focusing her gaze on him- not that she was concerned with justice.

The man's eyes wrinkled at the edges, and he gave a corrupt grin. "We did. We took their own wares when they were wide open in the forest. You cannot blame us, eh?"

"Not at all." She let her gaze wander again. "... But?"

"But they fought back with force we couldn't have possibly foreseen!" he huffed. "We need your help getting revenge."