Divide

Winter in Hemsberg

A cold chill spread down Elua's spine, and the dark night clouded her sight. The wind was howling an unnatural tune that she had grown used to. she'd been travelling for days, in her now worn out winter boots and coat. She was almost there, in Hemsberg.

and what was waiting for her there? well to be honest not much. It was a shitty town, The whole place smelt like sweat and rotten meat. Not to mention, it was mostly smugglers and hide-aways.

She was after a gang of known criminals, and she heard a tip in the last town she passed through that they might be here, and they were right.

Elua stood on the edge of the town, in the treeline, watching.

And it did not take long for her to spot them in operation.

A young woman was obviously trying to get home, and two men kept harassing her. One of them was tugging on her dress, making comments that she'd look better with it on the ground, while the other blocked her path and kept moving closer.

This was Elua's chance.

She slunk behind the one blocking the girls path and placed her palm on his back between his shoulder blades. For half a second, her hand lit up bright green, and the man collapsed to the floor, his body decaying rapidly.

Elua looked the girl in the eyes. "Go home." She spoke. "Speak nothing of this and we're even."

The girl nodded and sprinted away.

Elua now turned to the remaining man. "Where is your gang's base." she demanded.

"As if I'd tell you." he spat.

"Would you like to end up like your friend?" Elua asked sarcastically.

"You've got to get close enough to me first, bitch." he spoke, as he pulled out a knife, pointing it at her.

But before he could finish his sentence, Elua had already grabbed his wrist, knocked the knife out and twisted his arm up his back in such a way that any movement would be a painful mistake.

"I don't play games." Elua spoke. "And I don't normally leave witnesses either. So you're gonna have to be super helpful to be worth my time."

"it's..In the old abandoned barn on the east side of town." He spoke frantically, obviously out of breath. "Please.. let me live.."

"After your gang stole from innocent people? Raped? Murdered? and after that stunt with the knife? you're dreaming."

and just like that his body collapsed to the ground like the first's, the first now already being dust, Elua's hands once more glowing green.

"To the barn" she muttered to herself.

After trudging through the mud to get there, the barn she found was not what she had expected.

Indeed it was abandoned, and not a sound could be heard. But it was too quiet for any living thing to be there.

Curious, she slunk in.

Not a person in sight.

But suddenly, a pair of voices could be heard. Elua jumped into a pile of hay in the corner and hid to watch.

"Did you hear something?" One of them asked.

"You've had too much brew, my friend. It's just the wind."

Elua breathed a small sigh of relief and continued watching.

The pair wandered into an old animal pen and kicked away some hay to reveal a door leading into an underground shelter.