Lancard stood at the peak of Lothorn's mayoral tower, cradling a near-dead bird in his hands. This was the last carrier crow, the only way the city could communicate with Lethardon. Several hundred years ago, when the cities first grew distant, each were given a few dozen crows, kept alive in an endless sleep for generations. In the event of an emergency, Lothorn could ask for counsel, expecting a response within 24 hours, where the crow would be sent back with a message tied to its leg, then die, the concoction taking its toll. Lancard, against the pleadings of the mayor, used the last crow to ask for advice, there was no protocol for two hunters fighting, and he feared that Lothorn would consume itself if it could not be resolved. He shocked the creature alive and opened the window to let it go, flying off into the darkness. He turned back to the mayor, a gaunt, exhausted woman, who had tried her hardest to stop him from throwing away their last call for help.
"That was it Lancard...We're alone now..."
"I know... I'm sorry," He gazed out the window mirthlessly, his hollowed eyes trailing down the darkened streets, and to the great wall, illuminated only at the very bottom "...I have to go again Dorothy, I've got some questions for Havelock and his dog,"
Good god Lancard was tired. Every time he looked out to the sea of nothingness, his body begged him for rest, the night tricking him into thinking his eyes were closed. Thankfully, the road to Havelock's home was rocky, so with his carriage jostling and bumping, he didn't have the opportunity to fall into blissful unconsciousness. Why did it feel like this night would last forever? It had only been a day, yet he already missed the sun. If the ink refused to recede, Lancard feared that soon, it would devour him. As he approached the fence of Havelock's property, he heard the sound of metal on metal, a hammering, clanging sound, which usually meant he was making something.
Sif and Havelock stood in front of the forge, watching as his special tungsten alloy heated once more. What was previously an ingot, the pair had stretched and curved, beaten and tempered, into the approximate shape of a bow, and now, only the final touches were required. With a set of large, long, pliers, Havelock reached into the fire and pulled out the work in progress, then presented it to Sif as she hammered into it.
"Usually, tungsten is resistant to heat, but my forge uses filth as its main fuel source,"
"So it burns hotter?" Sif assumed, pounding the metal with a hammer far too huge for a normal person
"and the particles infuse with it, creating an even stronger bond,"
"Ooh," Sif looked intrigued, sparing a glance at her hunter whenever she could "I read something in one of your books about those... molecular bonds right?"
"You read fast," he smirked
"You slept in," she smiled back
As Sif stepped back to look at the shape of her bow, she heard the tired footsteps of Lancard, and turned to him cautiously as he approached. There was an accusatory gait to the way he walked, and the halberd in his hand was doing his image no favours.
"I've been to see Caroline... neither of you told me she was a lightning powered corpse," despite what could have almost been a joke, his tone was serious, and his eyes looked tired of playing games.
"What are you here for Lancard?" Havelock began, trying to step past Sif, but she held her hand up to stop him encroaching further
Lancard stopped a few metres away from the two, then planted the back of his weapon into the ground, standing like a monolith all on his own.
"Caroline told me a few things about your dog... I've got some questions..."
"Her name is Sif," Havelock scowled "And she's trying to help,"
Lancard wasn't looking at Havelock, only at Sif, and with an apathetic gaze, it was clear that he expected her to answer him. Sif turned to Havelock with an apologetic look, then to Lancard and took a few steps towards what could have been her imminent doom.
"What do you wish to know?"
"You said you felt called to Lothorn by some inexplicable presence... Caroline tells me that the moon has brought you here to feast on all the beasties... that you're its champion. Are you?"
"I have no desire to do the will of the black moon, in fact, I loathe its presence,"
Lancards nostrils flared "But you do hear it? You can interpret it's will?"
She bit her lip, and her eyes unfocused as she cast her mind back into a realm that burned her skull to think about.
"Not in a way you'd understand... without words, without language. I have... understood it in the past... but that was a long time ago, and it most certainly did not order me to come here,"
"A long time ago? How long have you been killing humans?"
"I- I don't know-"
"Bullshit, count the moons, you're smart,"
Havelock wanted to look at her face, but standing in front of him, all he could see was the back of her head. What was she thinking right now?
"Almost twenty years... I... think..."
She was going to come clean to Lancard, he knew it, but did he really want to know? He only had vague ideas of Sif's past, of some horrible thing she did. Was there something he could not forgive? He struggled to think Sif capable of such a thing.
"...I was young... very young... I lived with a village of thirty, they had raised me since I was four... taught me how to speak and live... even then, I was strong and big,"
She didn't want to relive this, but Lancard didn't care about her feelings, unlike Havelock. She supposed he needed to know too, she couldn't fool him any longer.
"I found a beast at the edge of the village. It looked like me except... wispy... strange... and for a moment, I thought it was family. It stood over a body and filled my nose with..." She looked back at Havelocks forge, ripe with the essence of life, covered in filth "I had never tasted it before in such abundance... the filth in all things, to beasts, is addictive and powerful. It felt... natural to let loose, to give in... and I thought for a moment that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing,"
"That was it then? The moon speaking to you?" he said, his tone hard, unwavering
"More like a shadow of it I suppose... Without words, without speaking, without a voice, it told me to eat... and so I did... I killed the people of that village," Her voice was barely a whimper "thirty faces I will never forget, some of them as young as I was..."
"And how many since then? How many more? Dozens? Hundreds!?" He began to stomp forward, pressuring her into confessing something grave, something he could kill her over
"After the village it was three hunting parties a year, more than enough to keep me going... and when it wasn't in self defence... I was killing because I was hurt, hiding in barns and attics... many, many hunters... and a few innocents... my whole life," she looked down, at her own hands, the tools she had used to gut so many
"And now you're here! You've been drawn in, and the moon has filled my people with your ick! You want to slaughter us too!?'' Before Havelock could intervene, Lancard closed the distance, causing Sif, the great silver hound to fall down and cower from a man who couldn't even scratch her "MY HUSBAND IS SICK! He's marked for DEATH by your hands!" He grabbed her by the collar of her apron, hoisting her to his face "AND YOU! Have thrown Lothorn into CHAOS!" She whimpered like a scolded dog, her eyes wide in shock and terror "SO WHY?! Why have you done this to me? To us? Why can't you just die and let all this end!"
Sif's expression contorted into anguish, and she pulled herself to her feet. Havelock ran forward, trying to pull Lancard off, but to his complete surprise, Sif grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him off the ground, stripped a vial of essence from his coat, and tossed him away like a rag doll.
"KILL ME THEN!" She screamed back, tears running from pained eyes "Do you think I want to live like this?!" She pushed the vial into Lancards hands, then threw him off her, sending him skidding right next to his halberd "I did not ask to be made... born a monster with a craving so heinous. I've lost count of the people I've killed! I used to count them, but the scars I leave in my body to keep track disappear every time I eat! I am a monster! A machine powered by death... and I don't do what that thing in the sky says... I don't know what it wants... I am just its... pet,"
While Havelock tried to intervene, Sif collapsed ragged and bawling, howling to herself and to Lancard.
"I WAS SIX!" She cried, gripping the sides of her head with sharp claws, raking lines down her skull as she wept inconsolably "...I was six years old when I started..." She repeated herself, as if she had never known or cared to count "If my death will save Havelock's life and fix this mess, then I want you to kill me, but you'll need that," she pointed to the vial in his palm, her lip quivering "My skin is too tough otherwise,"
"Sif, what are you doing?" Havelock rushed over to her, trying to hold her back as she got up, but she was far stronger than he was, and without even looking at him, she batted him off.
Lancard shakily held his halberd and pointed it at Sif as she approached him unhindered, like an unstoppable force, she marched onwards, stopping when she got close enough for him to take a swing.
"I know you can do it," She said, the look of an ego-dead soldier in her eyes "You're a good man, Havelock trusts you,"
"Stop!" the hunter shouted, imposing himself between the two, but neither of them seemed to even spare a glance in his direction
"You can't be serious..." Lancard said, his stoic marble facade cracking
"Havelock couldn't... but you can," she replied, and Lancard looked to the vial in his hand with his mouth wide
In a thrashing rave, Havelock batted the halberd out of the way and knocked Lancard down, then turned to Sif.
"YOU WANT TO LIVE!" he shouted, reaching up and grabbing her by the face, letting the tears run over the backs of his hands "You're doing this for me and I won't allow it! Your first words to me... what were they?"
Lancard collapsed on the ground, looking at his own hands in disgust. Was this what a good man did?
"I... I don't know..." she lied, her hands shaking and her jaw trembling
Havelock held her in his arms, then turned his eyes to Lancard, sitting there staring at his hands like an idiot. The hunter stood up, leaving Sif in her pile of misery, and strode over to Lancard, venom dripping from his lips.
"Good job captain... is this what you wanted?" he spat
Lancard's eyes were like a soldiers at war, he was rattled, and his hands wouldn't stop shaking "I... Didn't... I just... I just want things to go back..."
"And you still want to kill her? After everything she's been through?"
Lancard took a second, then turned away, his face softening, the cracks receding "...no... I can't... I know that look. The eyes of someone who's already tortured themselves enough... they're yours..."
Lancard sat down on the grass, staring into the pitch, wishing he wasn't a part of this. What was his role in this fight? Why was he caught between two forces he couldn't control? All he wanted in the whole world was to go home and sleep, to spend time with the people he loved, but the damn sky would rather kill itself than grant him a moment of peace. God he was tired. After a few moments, Havelock sat down next to him, sharing in his misery, if only a little bit.
"I um... I'm sorry," the hunter said
"Yeah... me too,"
"Sorry I've dragged Lothorn into a hunter battle... it's like some kind of war..."
"We've had a war before... we can survive this," his eyes stared forward, into the darkness, recounting dark memories
Havelock turned "You have?"
"Mhm... years ago, before you were assigned here, somebody tried out money again, started thinking big. He used our crows, tried to trade... All he ended up doing was enslaving half the populace... fighting nearly ripped the city apart. Still, we made it through... I was a young man then, I earned my stripes, became captain... I've seen stuff, bad stuff, but the people here are good. I like to think that they could learn to live with you and Sif... it would make my job a lot easier..."
"I think we're going to try kill Caroline..." Havelock said, guilt in his tone
"Only fair, she wants you dead quite a bit,"
"And will you stand with us? If not with your weapon, then in spirit?"
"Who knows... I... I'll check with Caroline, see what she's planning, I don't want Sif dead, but if the people don't want a beast in their city, I can't make them comply,"
A silence lingered between them, creeping in from the dark woods that they couldn't see. Havelock's house really was on the edge of oblivion, it had a way of consuming ones thoughts, leaving them with only feelings.
"What do you think is going to happen?" Havelock asked, hoping to glean some more info on the current stakes
"Caroline's unstable... determined to kill Sif, and I don't think she cares much about any people who get in her way... she called us humans, as if she thought she wasn't one...whatever Sif is, it's something from her past... she's invested... angry... if the Kraken is any indication, I think she's on the cusp of doing something very foolish, something that could hurt a lot of people,"
"So she's angry at me... and taking it out on Lothorn?"
"Perhaps..." Lancard stood up "But maybe she never cared about Lothorn in the first place... always about the hunt... she who kills monsters"
Havelock stood too, following Lancard as they stepped further towards the wall.
"She's old... older than the end of the world, some kind of animate... creation, made out of parts. A walking corpse... and she thinks that Sif is a danger to everyone in Lothorn,"
"Sif would never hurt anyone in Lothorn... she has enough essence, she isn't going to lose it like she did with... Jonah,"
He sighed, nodding his head. His opinion on Sif wasn't cast yet, but he knew the truth when he saw it "she was willing to die there you know? She really wanted me to kill her if it meant that all this could end,"
"Yeah... I was worried you'd do it,"
Lancard shook his head "Too weak... Lord knows I could solve a lot of problems with one clean swing..."
He looked back at Sif, who was still curled in on herself "Go to her... she needs it... and tell her I'm sorry," Lancard said his eyes drifting shut with every second that passed "I'm... tired... cranky... getting old... I thought it was all her fault for a minute,"
Havelock chuckled as they walked to the edge of his home.
"You can't be that old can you?"
"Old enough to start feeling it, you're young, like eighteen or something?"
"Twenty six, a little off,"
"Right... about time you found a decent lady to settle down with," He spared a glance at the silver hound, who seemed to have calmed down a bit "One that isn't uh... oh whatever, I can't judge..."
Havelock blushed slightly, and floundered his way through a farewell as Lancard trudged away, off into the darkness, to see Caroline once more. He turned back to Sif, approaching slowly and carefully. She looked up at him, her face covered in self-inflicted scratches and her eyes still wet.
"Hello hunter," She said softly
"Hello hound," He replied
Havelock sat down next to her and let her lean her body against his as they sat at the edge of the little shack he had built.
"You should have waited..." she whispered
"For what?"
"Until you knew everything... You shouldn't have forgiven me so soon,"
"My opinion hasn't changed... I knew you did some bad things, but I also knew that you were sorry, I know what it's like to be haunted,"
She took his hand in hers, running her thumb over his skin. They sat in comfortable, sorrowful silence.
"I can't stay much longer... only until we deal with Caroline,"
"Yeah..."
"One more day..."
"Yeah..."
"Better get back to work then Havelock,"
"In a minute," He said, content to sit just a little longer