Rayne's anger mounted high. The air itself smelled foul, but he didn't turn his eyes away from the sight in front of him. He couldn't. On his left, Nate handled Kesh, who had fallen on the ground, an unreadable expression on his face while Jason muttered a slew of curses.

  All of them were used to seeing death, but not like this.

  The five bodies were strung up by frayed ropes. Two of them were adults, but the other three— all of them were children, one of them looked no bigger than a five-year-old. They swayed gently in the wind like grotesque pendulums, naked, pale flesh scored with cuts and gouges. Flies droned thick around the corpses, making the scene look like one straight from hell.

  Some of the bodies were missing fingers and thumbs. One of the kids had a gouge around her neck as if someone had taken a bite out of it.

  Rayne forced himself to take a step closer. His stomach twisted, bile rising, but he pressed it down. He had seen goblins bite men to death, trolls crush bones to paste, but this… this felt different.

  He reached under the bodies and took a clear look at them. He noticed several stab marks on them, the adult man had taken a blade straight in his neck while the woman had been stabbed in the stomach. Two of the kids had marks around their neck while the third had a deep gouge in the head.

  “Gods… who did this?” John's voice made him look back. “No monster could do something like this.”

  Rayne looked straight at him, a grim expression on his face. “No, this was probably men. No monster has ropes. They also deliberately tied them up here.”

  “What do you mean deliberately?” Jason took a step forward, rage bubbling in his voice. His eyes darted towards the corpse, staying at the kids.

  Rayne frowned, words stuck in his throat as he tried to make sense of the situation. He hadn't heard of any bandit activity while finding information on Bricksall and the area around it, but this certainly seemed like the work of criminals.

  Finally, he spoke. “They are clearly a family. Let's say they were raided by bandits, but the bandits won't put them here out in the open, all naked. Normally, they would pillage and kill. Maybe take the family as slaves, at least the woman. But this, it looks like—”

  “A warning.” Quinn completed his sentence.

  Rayne nodded, taking steps towards his party. He stopped in front of Jason and put a hand on his shoulder. The man shook it away with a frown, eyes never leaving the hanging corpse.

  “Do you think they are from one of the farms around Bricksall?” Nate spoke finally, pulling Kesh to his feet.

  Jason finally looked back at them. “We should go check it out. If they are from a barn, it should certainly have signs of breaking in. Bandits famously burn the houses they raid too.”

  Quinn shook his head. “And do what? What if they are still there and it's a whole pack. We won't be able to do anything and would just join this family.”

  “So, what should we do? See this and just be on our way!” Jason glared at him. “Do you not feel any anger seeing this? Some bastards killed literal children and put them on a tree.”

  Quinn flinched under his gaze and just lowered his head. Jason kept glaring daggers at him and even if Rayne shared the feeling, he knew they couldn't act rashly. But he also knew that if he let the anger boil, a fight would soon start.

  Although the others hadn't said anything, he could see the same rage in the eyes of John and Nate.

  So, he stepped forward, putting himself in between Jason and Quinn. Everyone looked at him and he felt uncomfortable under the stares, but ignored them and spoke.

  “The first thing we should do isn't to go after the bandits or even ignore the corpses.” Jason opened his mouth, but Rayne continued before he could speak. “We need to first give them proper funerals. If we let them hang on the tree, their souls won't be able to rest. Is that clear?”

  His voice brooked no argument, but he still expected one. A silence stretched between them before Jason turned away from him and moved straight towards the tree.

  “What are you doing?” Welix asked.

  “If we are going to give them a funeral, we need to let them down first.”

  Rayne took a sigh of relief at that and looked at the others. All of them looked on uneasily as Jason climbed up on the tree to drop the corpses down. None of them had expected to come across such a grave scene.

  A part of Rayne didn't even want to deal with it, but he wasn't heartless enough to turn his head away from a tragedy.

  He looked up at the darkening sky and realised that they would have to spend the night around the area. There was a good chance the bandits might still be up ahead, and they would have to reinforce their watch.

  “I believe some of us should go and set up camp,” he said. “Light is fading and a fire will help. I will go help Jason with the bodies. I believe we need to bury them for now.”

  No one complained about his words, maybe because they simply wanted to take their eyes away from the corpses and needed a task to not think about it. Nate, John, Welix, Heins and Quinn moved to a small clearing on the side, away from the tree to work on the camp.

  Surprisingly, Kesh stayed behind.

  When Rayne stared at him, he shrugged. “I know some prayers of Hathras. I don't know if it might help, but I want to do my part.”

  He didn't object to that and both of them moved towards the tree. Kesh looked okay on the surface, but his hands were clenched on his side.

  Jason looked down on them, a knife in his hand. “Hold the body and gently lay them on the ground. I will cut the ropes.”

  Both of them nodded and they silently got to work for the next ten minutes. Jason would cut the ropes, Rayne and Kesh would catch the bodies and lay them on the ground, and then repeat.

  The kids were too small for them to properly hold the legs, so Rayne simply caught the corpse as they fell, lowering it on the ground.

  It was grim and disgusting work pulling the corpses down. Their skin tore under rope-burned necks, their weight heavy, limp, and wrong. They laid each one gently on the earth, covering their faces with spare cloth.

  Once they had all five down, Jason jumped down from the tree. Some of the anger in his eyes had faded, but he still looked sombre.

  “I think we should bury them,” Rayne said, making him raise an eyebrow.

  “We burn in Valeria.”

  “I know,” he replied. “But we can't make a pyre. A lot of smoke at night might attract the bandits if they are close by and even monsters. I know you want to fight them and I feel the same, but we had a trek the whole day and fighting them in the darkness is detrimental. The others need to rest.”

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  Kesh nodded on the side. “We also need a priest for a proper funeral. We can bury them right now and get a priest from Bricksall.”

  “Yes.” Rayne agreed. “And we could also find out if anyone has information on bandits in the area, or if they knew the family. There's no way they won't know about them with the fork being so close to the town. We need information.”

  Jason frowned, but he didn't argue.

  They moved to the side of the road where they began to dig. They had no shovels, but Jason used his axe to crack the earth before using the shaft to take out the dirt. Rayne and Kesh helped out with their shields.

  The ground was hard, but no one complained. Sweat streaked their brows, dirt caked their hands, yet they kept at it until five shallow graves yawned open.

  They laid the bodies gently under the earth and moved to cover them. Kesh muttered a prayer under his breath as they did the work.

  Once the last grave was filled, Rayne simply stared at the ground, hoping that the family would have better lives in their next life.

  Then, he looked at both Jason and Kesh who nodded at him before they moved back to the camp. The others had already set up a small camp and the fire burned low. They wordlessly sat down on the stones the others had gathered.

  No one spoke anything and no one even bothered to talk about food. Their hunger had died seeing the corpses.

  After some hours had passed, Rayne simply told the others to take rest while they could have a night watch of two people. No one argued and they took shifts, getting a few hours of sleep each.

  Throughout the night, he barely slept. Even if he tried, the faces of the corpses kept coming to his mind. He already dealt with nightmares of the warlord and the battlefield where he had seen so much death. But they were all adults. Maybe young, but they were grown up.

  Someone killing the kids and putting them like this was completely different.

  The worst part was that he knew the killers were out there somewhere in the forests. They had put the family there as a warning, probably to chip away at the spirit of anyone who even thought of going after them.

  He kept thinking if they would cross paths with the killers eventually. How many of them would be there? A small group or a whole pack that outnumbered them by dozens.

  By midnight, he realised the only way to take his mind off the whole situation was to practice mana cultivation. Since Casper had taught him the technique, he had been practicing it at every opportunity he got.

  But it wasn't as easy to open up the second pathway.

  Casper had made him a diagram of the different pathways in his body, and even the order he should try to unlock them, and the second pathway went from his core to his left shoulder.

  Apparently, opening it would make it easier to open more pathways in his left arm. But no matter how much he tried, he barely managed to push mana out of his core. Maybe it was just that his focus was unsteady or it was going to be much harder than the first pathway, he had no success till the first ray of light brightened the sky.

  Everyone else had woken up by then, and no one wanted to stay near the fork more than necessary.

  So after packing everything, they moved past the graves they had made and onto the road to Bricksall. Both for their quest and for answers.

  ***

  The road felt heavier with each step. No one spoke as the squad marched towards the town. Eyes always stayed on the trees, but they saw no bandits.

  The forest pressed close on either side, the smell of damp earth and decay lingering in Rayne’s nose no matter how far they walked from that cursed fork.

  By midday, the trees thinned. Sunlight poured down unobstructed, painting the dirt road bright and golden. Ahead, the land dipped, and through the haze of distance, rooftops rose—timber and stone clustered together with smoke curling lazily from chimneys. Bricksall.

  The sight should have lifted spirits, but it didn’t. Even from afar, the town looked muted, its outer wall slouched with age, wooden palisades weathered and patched with uneven repairs. A few guards lingered on top of it and soon pointed at them as they drew closer.

  “Cheerful place,” Nate muttered, trying for his usual grin, though it never reached his eyes.

  Jason snorted but didn’t bite back. Silence settled again as they crossed the last stretch of road to the gate.

  Three guards immediately came down, and Rayne noticed that they wore the basic soldier gear of the army. Two of them already had their swords out, and the man on top of the palisade had his bow drawn, shoulders tense. Members of the garrison.

  “State your identity,” said the man in the front with an edge in his voice.

  Rayne raised a hand and stepped forward. “We are from Fort Algar, here on the orders of Captain Edran to take back the supplies to the frontlines. My orders were to talk to Garrison Captain Baker.”

  As soon as the man heard that, he eased, and the one who spoke before moved forward.

  “Do you have your orders?”

  Rayne nodded and took them out, pushing them towards the man. He checked them for a minute, gave another look at the party, then gestured to his men to open the gates.

  They stayed there a while longer, asking directions to the garrison quarters and where they could find Captain Baker. Surprisingly, the man seemed sheepish at first about giving the location, but soon did so.

  As Rayne and the others entered the city, they noticed that the streets smelled foul even if they were built nicely. The town reeked of sweat and ale, and people ran about here and there.

  He noticed some of them warily looking at them before moving on their way.

  “There’s something wrong with the garrison,” he said, looking at the others.

  Nate nodded. “The guards were far too tense looking at us.”

  “I doubt they get much traffic, and we were just a small party with no weapons drawn. Their reactions were as if they were expecting an army,” John added, eyes wandering to the pedestrians.

  Jason agreed. “Yes, we should be careful.”

  They soon reached the garrison. It loomed near the center of town, a three-storey building with banners hanging limp on top of it. Soldiers loitered outside, some sharpening blades, others gambling with dice, all of them looking like they’d rather be anywhere else.

  Rayne led his squad up the worn steps. Some of the soldiers glanced at them, but no one bothered to ask who they were. They opened the door and headed inside.

  The inside of the garrison resembled a warm, cozy living room. Sofas were lined up on the side with chairs. A hearth warmed the place and weapons lined the walls. Rayne swept his gaze through the room, noticing the stairs on the side, then walked towards a desk.

  An older man sat there with gray hairs and a scar running down his cheek, looking over a map. When his party approached, he looked up at them, confusion evident in his eyes at the unfamiliar faces.

  Rayne spoke as the man got up from his seat. “My name is Rayne Frayser, and this is my party. We are here for the supplies to bring to the frontlines, ordered by Captain Edran. Here are my orders.”

  He handed out the order to the man, who immediately took it from him. If he realized who Rayne was, the man didn’t show. He simply read the orders for a few minutes before putting them down and looking at him with a smile.

  “Jeff, I’m the deputy here. We were expecting a party anytime now, but I thought you all would be here next week. I heard of tensions with the goblin nests and trolls,” he said in a pleasant voice.

  “There was tension, but it’s dealt with. The warband should already have left for the frontlines by now, and we will be tailing them with the supplies. Are they ready?”

  Jeff nodded. “Yes, they are. We can load them up in a wagon by evening once you look over the ledgers and approve it. I can give each of you a nice room and can send the ledger up to yours.”

  Rayne nodded, feeling like the conversation was going much better than he’d imagined. Despite whatever tensions were in the city, Jeff seemed like a pleasant guy. But the supply quest wasn’t the only thing he was here for.

  “Also, there’s one more thing,” he said, looking at Jeff’s expression calmly. “We found some bodies hanging at the fork while we passed by there. It was a family. Do you know anything about it?”

  Once he finished his question, Jeff’s expression twisted in an instant. He frowned, panic clear in his eyes, and looked over each of them.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Just do your quest and go back. Trust me, you don’t want to get into it.”

  Rayne didn’t reply. He simply met eyes with his party, who all seemed to think the same thing.

  The garrison knew of the murder, and had done nothing. But why?

  ***