Chapter 37 - Tainted By Dusk

Things were worse than Frederick had feared.
The vitriol and hatred coming off the young lady had been palpable to a man as close to Dawn as he was, and that made it a matter of great concern. Willow had gone storming off before he could make her reconsider and naturally, he followed–but not with haste. He needed to make sure he had his facts in order.
The Sister was somewhere in town and she was bound to know just what was going on. Why she had failed to prevent Dusk from gathering this deeply, however, was a question Frederick needed answered as immediately as possible.
He left Lightstrider at the stable next to the impressive-looking inn, though the black mare oddly seemed to be objecting to Frederick’s desire to leave his horse in the stall next to hers. He opted for one on the far end of the stable, though, even that left the black mare snorting and moving erratically in its stall.
Lightstrider, bless his heart, behaved like a model horse and ignored the poorly broken creature, which left Frederick able to pursue the issue at hand.
There were a few tents put up next to the inn and more than a few homes being constructed on freshly laid streets. Along the side of the road, a raised structure far out of place in a town this fresh deposited clean water into basins at regular intervals. Frederick may have been impressed if this didn’t speak to a deeper infrastructure being built at the very edge of the crown’s reach.
No wonder Corbin had believed he’d done the right thing. He showed up and a town on the brink of failure became a gold standard for how a settlement could erupt with growth. The Lord of Dusk was a crafty foe indeed.
Frederick briefly wondered if his true nemesis was hiding here but quickly dismissed it. The amount of darkness that would leak from his foe would be impossible to miss, and he wouldn’t have to be standing in front of him to know it.
Several people noticed his march up the street, and though he hadn’t intended it, a crowd began to form, murmurs proving he’d already been identified. He was heading right for the large building Willow had pointed toward, mostly since he wasn’t entirely sure which home Gwendoline was staying in. Truthfully, he knew he wouldn’t need to find her. She would find him.
“My prince!” Gwendoline called out as if to prove his point, emerging from a home just a few doors down from the building with “Danwood Lumber Consortium” plastered across the front. “You’re late, I expected to see you earlier this week and you never sent word.”
“I was addressing some concerns with Mount Auger. The company there seems to be falling victim to sabotage and delay according to the Company Foremen, and the crown refuses to allow our treasuries to run dry during such an important moment in history,” Frederick explained, stopping and looking at the priestess. A woman holding onto a baby stood in the door behind her, watching carefully. “Ah! Blessings to the newborn! You’ve seen your duties completed, Sister. Does that mean you’ll be rejoining me once we’ve brought the Stranger into our fold?”
“Soon, my prince. Miss Darla only just gave birth to Ellie a few days ago. I want to make sure they get through the early weeks without concern,” Gwendoline said, her hands clasped together in front of her as she kept her head slightly bowed.
“Hmm, the younglings are the future of our land… I admire your dedication, Sister, but I do remind you that we are already running behind the Fates’ timeline. The Lord of Dusk has clearly been busy with this distraction, but now I fear it almost seems to have enthralled you as well.”
Gwendoline physically reacted to that, stepping back as her eyes widened.
“Enthralled? My prince, my soul is still untouched by Dusk,” she said, reaching up and touching a crystal-clear Dawngem hanging on a band around her neck.
“Unreliable monitors.” Frederick waved it away. “Can’t you feel the darkness lingering here?”
“Darkness? My prince, what do you mean?” Darla asked, gripping her child just a bit closer.
“Not to worry! I am here now, and I intend to root out the source posthaste,” Frederick insisted, offering what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Oddly, Darla seemed to pull the child closer still.
“My prince, you can’t just be claiming towns are being influenced by… him without proof. It spreads fear and is that not what… that Lord is after?” Gwendoline said, far more forcefully than Frederick had ever heard from her.
“Nonsense! Keeping it quiet is how he’s allowed to fester, Sister. You know that,” Frederick said, turning from her as a large bearded man wearing a flannel shirt exited from the Lumber Consortium accompanied by two men wearing the sigil of Lord Drake. He pointedly looked at them first. “Gentlemen, have you found the answers you were searching for? Do Gryphon De Numont’s claims pass muster?”
“It seems the man Sir De Numont is accusing has fled. That would speak to a certain level of guilt,” one of the men said, stepping forward and bowing his head. “Given the testimony provided by Sir De Numont, I must conclude that he’s correct about some level of magical disguise being used to conceal the criminal and his associate.”
“Criminal!?” a woman’s voice spat from somewhere. Frederick assumed it was Willow, but he decided not to search to see if he was right.
“That is rather unfortunate. Are you entirely sure he has fled? Have you identified where to?” Frederick pressed. Both of the investigators reflexively looked toward the large man between them before the first man spoke again.
“No, my prince. Steward Daniel insisted that the man made no claim as to where he was going, just that he was leaving.”
“Not sure why we had to talk for four hours for you two to finally understand that, but here we are,” the man–Daniel as his tooltip confirmed–said, looking at Frederick with an appraising eye that the prince was far more used to giving than receiving. “You would be Prince Frederick then? I should say, having these two men arrive and claim your sponsorship without official documentation is irregular if I’m not mistaken. Is this the sort of investigation that the crown approves of? They seem to believe I’m purposefully hiding a man who simply decided to leave.”
“I would be careful with your tone, Steward,” Frederick said, his demeanor cracking ever so slightly. “I’m not sure I appreciate the implication that these men would purposefully try to skew the results of any investigation, and I would be showing them a rather large amount of distrust if I believed I had to hover over their shoulder for their conclusions to be correct.”
“All due respect, my prince, but I don’t appreciate the implication that a man like Corbin did anything to Sir De Numont that the man didn’t bring upon himself, especially when his word is the only evidence being presented,” Daniel explained firmly. “I’ve spoken with people that Sir De Numont’s worked with. I even made a point of speaking with the Steward in Gold’s Lodge about him. The man has no shortage of enemies and the existence of a magical disguise is a rather bold accusation to make, especially as, to the best of my knowledge, spells that could accomplish that are far outside of the capabilities of an Alchemist.”
“You’re rather versed in the capabilities of other classes for a Woodwright,” Frederick said, eyes narrowing slightly, then decided that there were too many explanations for why the man could know that for it to really matter and waved it off. “But regardless, Gryphon De Numont’s testimony claims he was targeted by two people. His associate, this girl calling herself Miss Lena could have easily been the source of the magic. For all we know, that was one of the Lord of Dusk’s agents in disguise, his darkness prompting my lost companion to commit such a vicious attack against one of the crown’s noble associates.”
Frederick watched as Daniel grew tense. With his arms crossed, he almost seemed to swell, the knuckles of one hand whitening as he gripped his forearm harder.
“That is a rather… bold theory to jump to, my prince. Are you trying to claim that Danwood is hosting the Lord of Dusk?”
“Not necessarily,” Frederick shook his head. “But your home has been undeniably tainted by Dusk and I’m growing increasingly worried about just how deep it’s been allowed to root. Tell me Steward, where has my companion gone? He surely must have told you.”
Daniel didn’t relax, instead, his eyes just went wide with shock before he shook his head.
“I’m sorry. Again, I don’t mean to offend, but are you deaf? I told the two here I don’t know where he went. I repeated myself for four hours and none of you seem to believe me. Do you really think he’d leave evidence of where he was running for you to find?”
“So he’s hiding here or nearby then? Waiting for us to leave so that he can come back? His home and businesses are still under his name, why would he leave that all behind if he was abandoning the place?” Frederick asked. Daniel took a step forward and Frederick almost instinctively reached for Dawnforger.
“He tried to give it up. I didn’t let him. See, I get that you seem convinced he has to give up everything to go with you, but as I told Sister Gwendoline, no one gets to decide his future except him. If he decides he wants to come back, then Corbin will have a home here. I promised him that.”
The crowd was still watching warily and Frederick turned around to look at them all.
“All of you, I promise, I can see the Dusk tainting your home. I will not stand by and let it linger!” he called out, expecting cheers of gratitude. Instead… someone threw a tomato. The crowd almost seemed to cheer and Frederick felt his jaw set. Another tomato was thrown, but the prince was ready this time, dodging it with ease as he pulled Dawnforger from its sheathe.
Daniel quickly stepped forward, his hands raising into the air defensively.
“Put that away! We don’t carry weapons in this town,” he demanded and Frederick turned on him, a scowl on his face.
“How is the Lord controlling you? Who would assault a beacon of Dawn? Make them show themselves!”
Daniel stared at the prince uncertainly, then shook his head.
“You’re insulting our home, my prince… claiming the joy we have found here is caused by Dusk… you can’t be surprised that someone would be offended enough to react. I’d be a poor leader if I allowed you to judge them for an honest, mostly harmless reaction.”
“You’d allow insults to the crown!?” Frederick snapped. Gwendoline rushed forward, raising her hands.
“My prince! You need to calm down, you’ve been burdened by the prophecy… I think you need to take a step back and try to see clearly.”
“Dawn lights my path, Sister! I can’t believe the Lord of Dusk is so powerful without a single one of his Jewels that he was able to distract you from our destiny,” Frederick said, his sword held up, almost like he was ready to strike. “The only solution may be to cleanse this land… if I allow Dusk to reach Mount Auger, then I’d just be handing the kingdom away.”
“Cleanse?!” Willow had stormed out of nowhere. “Are you out of your mind?! How can you look around this and see darkness!”
“Don’t you worry my lady, the Sister’s prayers will protect those of you with Dawn in your heart. And I’ll ensure you all have new homes found for you, as apology for allowing the Lord of Dusk to reach you in the first place,” Frederick said to the girl who’d confirmed the darkness of this place for him. “Though… I may need to ensure you’re cleansed first. You seem to be the one most touched by the darkness.”
Frederick lifted a hand from his blade, a gleaming light starting to swirl above it as he reached out toward her. She was actively stepping away from him and to his surprise, Lord Drake’s investigators weren’t stepping forward to restrain her escape. That didn’t worry him, he’d make sure this entire place was coated in Dawn by the time he was done, and the citizens would thank him for it.
Daniel was just starting to step forward, only stopping as Frederick pointed Dawnforger at him, when a whistle caught his attention. He turned, looking for the offender, and found a blond-haired man staring him down only half a dozen meters away. There was pure hatred in his eyes and Frederick mentally cursed the Lord of Dusk, even as the tooltip confirmed that this man was in fact, named Corbin.
“You want to cleanse something, Frederick? Well, here I am.”
The man practically growled and Frederick found himself actually coming up short as he felt a sudden spike of darkness fill the open air.
“Now, leave my town out of it.”