World of Elestia: Seasons of War

(Summer) Chapter 3: The Memory Maze

Organu had been much farther than they anticipated. It took them almost five entire days before reaching the limits of the small village. Like most settlement from after The Invasion it was surrounded by all sides by a wall.

As expected they were stopped in front of the gate by a middle aged man holding a pistol. Thankfully contrary to the guard of Bajoon he didn't pointed his weapon at the group but still looked at them with a supicious look. ''We don't get much visitors in this corner of the country. State your business strangers.'' He said in a deep gravely voice.

All three of them showed their ID cards to the guard and Xofamai spoke up. ''We're members of the Ding Dong Resistance, someone has asked our service to investigate the mansion that appeared in your village.''

The guard seemed to relax slightly at that. ''Finally, the mayor told me to wait, but I was just about to go rush inside the mansion myself. My daughter disappeared about a week ago. I don't want to be too optimistic but I really hope she's still alive.''

Oliver and Clara shot a worried glance toward each other while Xofamai frowned. ''So I assume the mayor was the one that asked for our service? Would it be possible to talk to him before we enter the mansion?''

The guard putted his pistol back in his holster and nodded. ''I'll guide you to him, come with me.'' He opened the gate and let the three Chosens walk inside of the village.

They found the mayor inside of a small tavern, not many people were inside at this time of day and the few that were there were all old people who did not paid them much attention. The mayor who was a man with graying blond hair and a dark fancy suit turned around and caught side of the new arrivals and tried to give his best welcoming smile.

''Ah hello there! So I assume you three are the three Chosens sent by the Resistance?'' At Xofamai nod he continued. ''Well as my request letter probably arleady mentioned a mansion appeared a few weeks ago and has been a blight on our town ever since. I worry for the safety of my people especially the three girls who have gone missing.'' He said the last part with a frown that showed how truly old the man was.

''Can you tell us more about this mansion? When did it appeared and is it the first time there's a mansion in this village?'' Xofamai asked with a serious tone.

The mayor scratched his chin thoughtfully. ''Well to tell you the truth there was a mansion here and it was at the exact same spot where the new one is. It was owned by a wealthy family that used to live here. But the family all died of Influenza during The Great War and the mansion was eventually destroyed to make way for a public park. I wouldn't know how the mansion looked like since it was before my time, but it might be the same one. But I don't know how an old mansion could suddenly reappeared like that after more than a century.''

''We also heard that people who tried to enter got attacked by apparitions can you tell us what they looked like?'' Xofamai asked in his usual emotionless voice.

''Well that's the strange thing, most people reported something completely different. Some people say they were attacked by demons straight from a horror story, others by wild Elestia and some were attacked by giant spiders. Not Elestia, just giant regular ones.''

Xofamai nodded, ''I think I'm begining to get what we're dealing with. Thanks for the information, we'll be on our way.''

Once they were outside Clara was the first one to talk. ''So what do you think we're dealing with?''

''It could be either a Mind or Death Elestia but I'm leaning more toward Death.'' Xofamai replied.

Clara frowned thoughtfully. ''Why is that?''