“Okay, that finalizes you as a member of the guild. Here’s your copper guild tag. We don’t get many priests from Bathalburg here in Bristlestock.” Said Camilla with a smile in her fanciful, formal outfit.
Camilla had wavy, short, black and blonde hair with cobalt eyes and beige skin. She handed the priest of light a tag plate that glimmered the priest’s name: Alyiah Edier.
“Thank you!” Alyiah bowed, her jeweled staff glittered and her long, blue hair swayed with her gentle movements. She took her guild tag and wrapped it around her tan-white neck. Alyiah wore a multi-layered, bordered, caped dress with split ends, colored in amber, blue, and alabaster.
“There are plenty of people forming fellowships and adventure parties since the call to Crastmarch, you’re bound to find a group.” Camilla grinned, gesturing to the mass of people populating the very hall they stood in. “A lot of new adventurers and mercenaries wish for power, glory, and wealth by driving away the shadows over the land. I just caution you to be careful, and never underestimate your foe. Best of luck in your endeavors, if you need advice, let me know or perhaps ask a veteran adventurer.”
“Mhm! Thank you.” Alyiah nodded.
Adventurers of all shapes and sizes, mostly humans and half humans of elven and dwarven blood, gathered. Amongst them were at least a goblin, orc, and jactuu, rare in their kingdom. The ruckus of socialites filled the air as they formed their groups. Alyiah didn’t know where to look as the prospect of approaching a group was highly intimidating, but she felt it would be easier to talk to adventurers of her young age.
Without warning, a gathering of three adventurers approached her. They were all young and wearing their copper tags.
“Hey, I hear you’re a priestess! We still need such a healer in our party. My name is Floridus, I’m a warrior.” Floridus pointed to himself while flaunting his indistinctive sword, he wore a linen tunic with a wide, metal plate. Floridus was human but had an overbearing enthusiasm as he smiled brightly with his piercing blue eyes and brown hair. “Are you a new adventurer too? What do you say about going on a quest with us?”
“I…” Alyiah wanted to step away but Floridus was cocky, making up whatever distance she put between him. “Hold on, w—”
“Come on, what could go wrong? We’re just going to slay a bunch of weaklings”
“Floridus, calm down.” Said a half-elven woman with long, olive hair and emerald eyes. She was dressed in plain dark robes and wielded a ringed staff that clacked with every movement. “My name is Thryta, we’re going on a quest to slay some mischievous demonlings, details say they are mostly implings.”
“Yeah, it’s an easy job!” Floridus said.
“Stories tell them to be just a nuisance, we’ll cut them down.” A cloth wrapped, human rogue, with short black hair and green eyes, flaunted their twin knives. “It’s quick money, so be quick about your decision.”
“This is Seva.” Thryta sighed. “The quest seems to lead us to a forest with an abandoned lodge. As they said, we are to only slay implings—”
“Okay! Okay!” Alyiah cracked to the pressure of her peers. “My name is Alyiah and I would like to see you be safe.”
Camilla leaned over trying to catch their attention despite the distance between them. “Don’t take the demonlings lightly and please, please be careful.”
Alyiah was concerned. In the corner of her eye, she saw Camilla trying to intervene but the cacophony of the crowd and the insistent adventurers kept her from hearing her. Yet Alyiah had a strong feeling of wanting to not disappoint her peers and the desire to keep them safe.
***
The party of four followed the trail to their quest as night fell. It led to a dense, dark forest laden with briar and thorns. The area was unusually quiet, not a single insect or animal made a sound. The moon weighed heavily above but barely broke through the treeline. Upon an incline clearing they saw a large, fancily trimmed, wooden lodge that appeared oddly untouched.
“This is the quest location, yes?” Thryta said.
“According to the map, it is.” Floridus said. “Then again, I can’t read.”
“Why and how were you guiding us!?”
“I thought it would be funny for this very moment.” Seva smirked.
Thryta glared at them as Alyiah looked upon them with concern.
“Stop worrying, I was helping the boy.” Seva rolled their eyes and placed a hand on their hip.
“I’m concerned about this lodge… it seems unnatural.” Alyiah said.
“It’s a lodge.” Floridus brushed off her concern.
“An untouched lodge in the middle of the woods as we follow a quest of implings?” Alyiah said.
“We can only just be careful.” Thryta pressed forward as Floridus followed with Seva taking the lead.
Alyiah anxiously gripped her staff.
“I see nothing but a strange light through the windows, let’s check.” Seva said.
The door opened without a noise and the party entered the silent lodge. They were greeted by a dark, wide, open room.
“Oh, that’s pretty!” Floridus said to the single, faint, violet fire illuminating the otherside of the room.
“Follow me.” Seva walked with cat’s feet, scoping the dark room as they approached the fire with the others gently tailing them.
The fire burned from an amethyst crescent with eight prongs extruding from it, standing on an immaculate, wooden staff. Seva quickly scanned one last time around them and approached it.
“It must be worth a lot.” Seva grinned.
I must take it, at any cost… Seva thought.
“I’ve never seen craft like this before.” Thryta said. “Perhaps this will aid us in fighting the implings?”
I can feel it, this power must be mine… I can help others… Thryta thought.
Flordius looked upon the staff and tilted his head, wanting to reach out.
Glowy stick… Floridus thought.
“Stop it!” Alyiah said. “It’s corrupted!”
Thryta and Floridus retracted, shaking their heads from their daze. Seva turned to them and stabbed Thryta’s abdomen. Alyiah watched in terror as Thryta bled, Thryta’s knees crumpled as she trembled, shocked.
“W-why…”
From the shadowy windows and doors emerged blurs of dark magenta, stunted demons. These short demons were blessed with silken skin, shiny twin horns, and glittering, sharp claws. Their long, split tongues screamed a twisted, distorted language the adventurers could not understand.
“Nothing personal, I need the coin.” Seva waved her dagger before waving to the demonlings. “They made quite a convincing argument but I’m sure you wouldn’t understand.”
Seva’s eyes swirled with the glowing light of the staff, smirking at their victim. Floridus swung his sword as an impling jumped at him, only for a crude, slick blade to emerge from his chest. Blood spewed from his heart, an impling had stabbed him from behind. The impling cackled as Floridus’ body twitched and contorted before falling over.
Alyiah gazed in fear and terror as she grasped her holy staff tightly. Seva smiled as they pulled out their blade from Thryta, a pool of blood widened under her. Thyrta desperately gasped for air as the impling yanked and pulled at her in malevolent laughter.
“It’d be more fun if you’d run.” Seva flipped their dagger.
Alyiah turned tail, fleeing in terror as Seva cackled. The implings joined in Seva’s laughing madness, dancing and rejoicing in their chase. Fear overtook Alyiah as she panted and her limbs flailed, all the while cursing her own ineptitude. The implings gave chase, sadistically laughing an etching squeal that buried into her soul. At the edges of the forest, Alyiah stumbled before a strange figure.
“W-who are you!?” Alyiah shouted.
From the dark forest came a horror wrapped in a tight, dark, viridian coat. The figure stood gazing from the round, obsidian eyes embedded in a chemically tarnished, sleek mask. The mask was of rotted gold metallics, sprouting spikes like a mane and bore a very long, curved beak. In each of the figure’s hands were lucent and clear, crimson vials spewing fumes and a bounty of knives along a tight chain and satchel at their waist. Under their bared coat was a stained, shadowy emerald, leather tunic and chainmail with cloth wraps and belts that prevented loose ends and folds.
The priestess screamed as the figure silently walked up and shoved her into the ground. Thoughts of family and home raced into her mind as she was certain she was to face a cruel fate. In a flash, the figure threw the vials and the implings erupted into a fiery conflagration. The implings screeched in agony until they slumped over, burnt to a pyre that illuminated the night.
Alyiah layed stunned, observing the figure that held a long shadow.
Are… are they a plague doctor? Alyiah thought.
It wasn’t like any plague doctor she had ever seen, but their method seemed familiar to stories she read and tales she heard.
Wait… an alchemist… no, more than it… a bombardier…?
The plague doctor pulled out vials from their satchel and tossed them into the dark. The dark grass and bushes ignited, exposing the skulking implings to a purging inferno. As soon they fell, the plague doctor approached the house with a vindictive stride.
“Wait!” Alyiah called out. “What is your name, plague doctor?”
The plague doctor stood still and slightly turned, a cold voice echoed through the mask as she was unused to ever giving out her name.
“Nyxi.”
“Nyxi, please save them…” Alyiah stood up, tightly gripping her staff. “My friend is dying, the other is controlled by… the demons!”
“There is much work to be done.” Nyxi tilted her head. “Flee if you wish, I have purged the outliers. Otherwise, come and cleanse this plague.”
Plague? Alyiah thought. What plague?
Slowly, afraid and yet determined, Alyiah approached the strange plague doctor. Without delay, Nyxi grabbed two shiny, sickly vials that bubbled menacingly as a toxic swamp. Those two vials were tossed into the windows with frightening effect. The wooden structure corroded as her acid enveloped the screaming implings that hid in waiting, melting into puddles of flesh and refuse.
What is she…?
Alyiah’s thoughts were racing in disbelief at Nyxi’s cruelty, she dearly wondered who she truly was. To her, Nyxi’s disposition encouraged no name.
What work am I needed for…?
Nyxi advanced into the house with knives in one hand and a vial in the other. A group of implings held Thryta hostage by a dagger to the throat and, in a flash, Nyxi’s knives were thrown. They impaled the captor’s throat, gushing blood as it fell over with the others beside it. More implings rushed at Nyxi, only to be met with a vial of flames that burned them into but ash, char, and a blaze that illuminated the room.
The light of the demon staff was dwarfed by a dance of shadow and fire that mingled together with the plague doctor’s form in a terrifying display of determination and hatred. The round eyes of her mask radiated a seething silence that gazed deep upon Seva, who watched flabbergasted.
Suddenly, an impling flanked Nyxi in a leaping surprise attack, only to be met with her hand to its neck. Nyxi brutally slammed it to the ground and caved its head in with a stomping splatter. Following it was a swarm of vials that sent the corners of the room ablaze, slowly traveling up the walls. There was nowhere for anything to hide.
“W-who are you!?” Seva shuddered.
Nyxi exhaled an almost unnatural coldness.
“Remain calm.
A plague is upon you.
My cure prevails.
You will be pure again.”
By Zephenius, Arch-Angel of Hope… what cure!? Alyiah thought, shivering at the words that were said without emotion or hesitation.
“Don’t mess with me!” Seva barked, dagger in hand. “I’ll rend your guts!”
“Fallen to ambitions. Desperate. Eager to sacrifice others for your ends.” Nyxi stepped forward as the last implings sought to flee, only for a toss of her vial to consume them. “That staff only makes your desires stronger.”
It was her… not the staff!? Alyiah thought, the idea of her being a traitor was painful. A seed of distrust was sown.
“Seva!” Alyiah said. “Don’t… don’t tell me you did this!”
Seva froze, trembling. “Go to hell! You know nothing of me and what needs to be done!”
“Naive child, you will soon know what truly needs to be done.” Nyxi approached Seva ever closer. “Be not afraid. I will wash the plague of emotions away and enlighten control so you may live again.”
“Not again! Not again! Not again!” Seva screamed. She shook and scratched at her own face with eyes excruciatingly open. “To hell with you, to hell with this! I’m taking the prize I was promised!”
The rogue grabbed the staff and leapt out of the window, running into the night as a shade in the darkness.
“Seva!” Alyiah shouted before running to Thryta. “By the angel’s light, Thyrta has almost faded!”
Blood soaked Thryta’s clothes as she breathed close to death’s door. Anxiety grasped Alyiah but she quickly broke into an incantation.
“Holy touch of the angels, lend me thy…”
“Hold.” Nyxi held out her hand as she elevated Thryta’s stomach by placing a burnt corpse underneath her.
“Wha-what are you—!?”
“Let me look.” Nyxi ripped Thryta’s robe at the stomach. “At your level, a spell such as yours requires more and I will set it up.”
Nyxi quickly examined Thryta’s wound. Soon, she reached into her clothes and unveiled a bottle of liquor, covering her gloves with it.
“Bulgrusian brew aids in cleaning the area.” Nyxi poured the drink onto the wound and rubbed it clean with a cloth, applying pressure. “Now to seal it.”
Nyxi popped open a fire vial from her satchel and poured a few drops. The fiery liquid sizzled Thryta’s bloody flesh, cauterizing it as Nyxi held it closed.
“I have a healing draught but to increase her chances,” Nyxi eyed her as she poured a blood red vial into Thyrta’s mouth, “cast your spell.”
Alyiah nodded. “Holy touch of the angels, lend me thy warm embrace, glow forth to live again amongst our heart, body, and soul.”
A golden holy light emanated from Alyiah’s staff, enveloping Thryta. It removed what bruises, cuts, and marks she had. In the bright light she casted, Alyiah saw a glimmering guild tag adorning the plague doctor’s neck.
“A mithril tag…”
This was an experienced, high ranking adventurer.
Are they really an adventurer…? They don’t seem… adventurous.
Alyiah’s thoughts were muddled with confusion as Nyxi defied her expectations of what an adventurer was or any well meaning person. As the light ended, Nyxi pressed against Thryta’s breast.
“She’s stable.” Nyxi pulled out a cloth, wrapped Thryta, and stood up as she became baggage. “The home of the implings touched by the Dark Tyrant Lord Izkaaltaaz will burn. The rogue will not trouble us either.”
The priestess’ anxieties worsened by Nyxi’s words.
To speak such an evil name with no hesitation… to speak of a horrible Tyrant Lord…
The plague doctor pulled out her daggers from the cured and stashed them before carrying Thryta into the darkness of the forest.
“A plague ended before it began.” Nyxi walked into the night.
Alyiah stood outside the crackling inferno that enveloped the demon’s lodge. A thousand thoughts raced through her mind as the strange entity walked before her. Unsure of what to do as the fresh horrors gnawed at her sanity, she followed the plague doctor. The priestess caught up to the plague doctor on the road to Bristlestock and because of the living nightmare, Alyiah already forgot her name. The plague doctor had a job and it overshadowed any faint whisper of sentiments.
To many, she would only be known as the plague doctor, her actions demanded such. Only a few would relate themselves enough to use her name. The two walked under the bright moons in silence until it was broken by the plague doctor.
“As the forces of hell gather, we cannot underestimate the demonlings that claw at the weakest, away from prying eyes. Rare are those liberated from hell itself but too many fester in chaos.
They would only grow.
It will turn into a plague.
And it will happen again.”
The dark road ahead was long.
***
Camilla fiddled at the desk as the morning rush of adventurer’s had passed. She tapped her pen, her thoughts were plagued with Alyiah and her party since all the paperwork was done, for now. Often there were adventurers that never returned from quests, and the ones that did, she celebrated highly. Camilla felt angry at herself for not speaking up more.
“Hey Camilla, what is up with that plague doctor you like?” Said Trinala, a fellow employee. She had curly brown hair, black skin, and brown eyes. ”Who goes on about plagues all the time?”
“Trinala, do you have to say it like that?” Camilla shook her head. “They do what needs to be done.”
“Hm?” Trinala leaned in with a smile. “What, you don’t have a crush on them?”
Camilla shook it off. “They save who they can, however they can. They take on quests no one else wants: fighting demonlings.”
“I won’t deny that demonlings are creepy, but aren’t they small and weak? Scriptures say many were casted down by their masters, the Dark Tyrant Lords, to live as weak fodder…”
“As punishment, yes.”
“So why worry?”
“That’s the dangerous part, they are ignored when they will do whatever it takes to survive, grow, spread, and destroy. They want to take back what they lost. That’s what the plague doctor takes seriously, they will spread and fester like a plague as the fanatical vanguard of hell.”
“I guess that’s true. For them to survive and exist, they’d have to be cunning and sneaky.”
“Exactly.”
The front door opened wide as the strange Nyxi entered followed by Alyiah, Camilla lit up with a smile.
“Good morning, plague doctor! Alyiah! I’m glad to see your return.” Camilla slightly sighed, a twitch hit her finger. “Alyiah, where is the rest of your party?”
Alyiah peered into Camilla’s eyes with woe. “Floridus didn’t… make it… Thryta is at the temple and Seva”—Alyiah shook her head—“is a thrall to the dark. She fled.”
That lie burned, Alyiah knew Seva did it of her own compelled will.
“I’ll write a report soon.” Nyxi said. “The demonlings are purged along with the corrupted lodge, the plague is no more.”
“I see.” Camilla said. “That is good news at least, if there are no qualms, I’ll split the reward for you, Alyiah, and Thryta.”
“I have none.” Nyxi said before slowly turning her head to Alyiah with a cold gaze.
“Y-yes!” Alyiah nervously said. “That sounds fine.”
“Okay!” Camilla handed them two bags of coins. “I’ll hand Thyrta her share whenever she comes.”
Alyiah overheard nearby adventurers as they whispered about the plague doctor.
“Is… is that demon an adventurer?”
“Isn’t that the weird ‘doctor’ that talks about nothing but plagues?”
“How is a plague doctor mithril ranked only by hunting weak demonlings? What do they do? Can they handle actual monsters or even bandits?”
“That helmet has to be made of gold from scaring people.”
“I’ve heard tales of the nightmares they have wrought…”
“Oh come now, I heard they’ve… helped… people. And they smell really nice!”
“Well, do they smell fruity and flowery, I’ll give you that.”
The last few comments surprised Alyiah, granting her a glimmer of hope. New thoughts crossed her mind. Despite how terrifying the plague doctor was, she helped her and she concluded it wasn’t right to fear her savior.
“Don’t… don’t they bother you, plague doctor?”
“It does not matter. The plagues will be purged and I will save the afflicted. What needs to be done will not change.” Nyxi spoke with a chill. “Now I must acquire ingredients. I will check up on you later to see if any… negative developments occur. Rest, use part of my share.”
“O-okay…” Alyiah meekly said as Nyxi handed her her coins and left the guild hall.
Alyiah was perplexed by what the plague doctor said and wasn’t in a position to protest the gift of coins despite what would have been her objection.
“Do they scare you?” Camilla said.
“To feel so is rude.” Alyiah said.
Camilla chuckled. “It’s natural, Nyxi is vehement.”
“That’s putting it lightly.” Alyiah’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yes, Nyxi is her name… it is only right to call her by her title.”
“Mmm, yes. Only reason I said so is because it seems you’ve formed a bond.” Camilla winked. “The plague doctor saved more lives than you know.”
Alyiah nodded as she lost herself in thought, thinking of Nyxi’s nature. Gathering herself together, a strike of determination hammered her mind.
“Now I see what must be done.”
The young priestess left to follow the plague doctor.
Zelastar 