The Wordless Mage
Chapter 27: The Unburnt House

Chapter 27: The Unburnt House

"What..."

Rowan could only look on in confusion, standing still without so much as a single word leaving his mouth to reach her ears.

Slowly, he approached the opened door, stepping very carefully so as to not let down his guard.

"Please, sir! Help us, please!"

Her yells were far too direct, a blaring red flag for Rowan.

He stepped back a little bit, turning his head to the right with closed eyes.

While the image before him was convincing, it was a little surreal. How was it that the town--a place fully evacuated in the king’s own words--which was ravaged by the beasts held people both alive and untouched.

Whatever he was told by her, he didn’t wish to step forward to greet her.

"Please, don’t leave! If not me, at least save my child!"

Her yells grew louder, almost turning into a growl as her chest slammed into the ground.

She was crouched in the ground for so long that she seemingly couldn’t gain her balance that well, falling over as soon as she tried to stand up. It was a well-constructed and convincing ploy, although--wait, us? Child?

A young toddler cried out, rolling from her hands to look up at Rowan.

He almost punched himself from his stupidity, the prospect of having left somebody to die gnawing at him.

"I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to leave you--just ask for help. That would be far better than me trying to save you. You see, I’m not all that strong."

Taking his cloak off, he entered the house to stretch his hand out, waiting for her to grab it back.

At the same time, he grabbed onto the toddler on the ground, rocking it back and forth to quell its nerves.

Propping her up, he patted off the dust that covered her dress, her time spent here evidenced in the globs of gray discoloring the pink.

After a moment of silence between the two, he turned to leave, handing her back her child.

"Don’t worry, you’ll get help soon--"

"No, don’t leave!"

She gripped onto the back of his shirt, pulling him with her to almost knock him off balance.

"What...?"

"Don’t go, or else the kingdom will kill me!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that everybody in our village has been persecuted, not terrorized by these beasts! The kingdom deliberately planted them here so that our knowledge of their past would be silenced, allowing them to maintain their control over these lands!"

Rowan stood still, his eyes looking at her with a gentle tremble.

The fear in her face was real, the trill in her step and movements far too hard to replicate on the fly.

He’d hoped that if he were to obtain help, then even if the place were a trap, they could dispel the threat with relative ease. But if what she said were true, then it changed things.

"Alright, back up a bit, what really happened to this place?"

Tears welled in her eyes, her pupils shaking as she looked down with solemnity.

"T-They told you that we were evacuated, huh? If only," she said, looking to her right to reveal a thin skeleton atop a pool of crimson, "my husband found out the truth of these lands, a knowledge that this kingdom has tried to keep hidden for millennia. Such knowledge does not go without penalty."

Rowan covered his nose, the scent of putrid metal and rotting flesh wafting his nostrils and invoking his gag reflex.

"I’m sorry, I know this is a lot, but you just need to know that I truly will die if you get help. Please, I know that this is a lot to ask, but you don’t even need to take me, just take my son!"

Full tears rolled down her face, her pleading turning into a scream while she raised her child forward.

Rowan couldn’t possibly refuse the blue that rose from his chest, urging him to grab her by the shoulders.

"Don’t worry, I’ll protect both you and your child, and I’ll certainly see to it proper justice is served."

He was furious. Not only at the kingdom, but at himself, regret surfacing from his original thoughts of leaving her behind.

If this were all true, then this new world was one far more nefarious than it’d let on. Something that he would need to change.

No matter what, he wouldn’t allow for such injustice to pass, especially to ones so innocent.

Holding onto her hand, he pulled her from the room, the lady looking back one more time at the rotting corpse.

"Hey, what is this secret that your husband found?"

The cries from the woman left unnaturally fast, her grip loosening from Rowan’s hand.

"H-He wouldn’t tell me. He said that my knowledge of it would condemn me as well to a mutual death."

Rowan stopped his gait, understanding creeping into his face, but he hid it well.

"Hm, really? And how exactly did you survive? It doesn’t really look like there’s any places for you to hide in here."

Her pause was telling, her hand fully falling to her side. The grip she held over the child loosened as well, its cries dying down in conjunction with her new shift in mood.

"He convinced the kingdom not to kill me. Since then, I’ve only survived by moving house to house the past week, although I came back to this one just yesterday."

A convincing alibi, but not convincing enough in Rowan’s eyes.

"Hey, why are you asking so many questions? Could you please just allow me passage out of this town?"

"Sorry, just wanted to confirm a couple things. If you’ll allow it, just one more question."

The lady stared at him questioningly, rocking the baby in her arms. The baby began to cry out, even louder than before.

"When I passed by earlier, how did you see me when I was in my invisibility cloak," Rowan stepped back, slowly raising his arms in front of him while eyeing the lady as carefully as he could.

Crrrkkkkk!

Without even a single beat of hesitation or pause, the woman’s jaw unnaturally shot out in front of her, biting off the toddler’s head with a violent crunch.

Her skin dyed black, stretching as her body moved to accommodate her true form.

"Because I’m not a human."