SIN EATER

Chapter 14. Hunter! Hunters! Hunted!

A RECAP.

For those with slightly lesser attention spans,

Here is how this fantastical farce is looking so far!

The Sunite Inquisition headed by Lyal Tooker, Little finger of the Sunite Sinister Hand were hunting for the Sin-Eater to keep him alive.

The Sunite Inquisition headed by Lyal Tooker, Little finger of the Sunite Sinister Hand were also hunting for the Rebels to capture and torture them all before eventually killing them, for knowing about the Sin-Eaters powers.

Because they desperately want to keep the Sin-Eaters powers a secret.

The Fox, The Raven and The Owl agents from the Satite Empire were hunting for the Sin-Eater, in order to kill him.

They were not sure why.

Just the fact that the Sunite Empire wanted him alive seemed a good enough reason.

The agents from the Satite Empire, The Fox, The Raven and The Owl were not yet being Hunted by anyone.

They were on a behind line operation and had “Gone Dark”.

Meaning that they had no current contact with their home, The Satite Empire.

The Rebels were hunted by The Sunite Inquisition headed by Lyal Tooker, Little finger of the Sunite Sinister Hand for knowing about the Sin-Eaters powers.

The Rebels were hunting for the Sin Eater but they were not entirely sure why they felt they needed to find him, opinions differed on that point.

The whole of the two vast Satrite and Sunite Empire was searching, hunting for resources in order to prepare for a war with each other over a constructed philosophical difference that did not really matter.

The Trumivite of Evil who had been the cause of all this mess was hunting for methods and tactics to interfere with each other's plans.

Evil Choas was trying to win a bet.

The bet was, that It could make the Sunite and Satite Empires go to war.

To this end, It was secretly controlling both factions through various intermediaries.

But if the Sin-Eater died, without having taken a sentient life on purpose first, then this bet would be surely lost.

Evil Void had taken certain, forbidden, cheating steps to try and avoid losing a bet.

That bet was, that the Sunite and Satite Empires would not go to war, over a constructed philosophical difference that did not really matter.

To this end, it had caused the Sin-Eater to appear on the mortal plane.

If this fact is ever revealed, then It will lose the bet automatically for cheating.

Meanwhile, the being of Evil Order was trying to make existence harder for both Evil Void and Evil Chaos for its own amusement!

Rats Stars, The Sin-Eater, who was still finding his feet in this thoroughly screwed up world, was just hunting for knowledge of himself,

Eight Chickens being looked after by the travelling ‘Best Chicken Soup Company’ were Hunting for worms and bugs as they happily scratched the dirt beneath them.

This may seem irrelevant,

Perhaps you are right.

Perhaps it is.

The Tri-Force of holiness and light were not hunting for anything.

The Tri-Force of holiness and light, for some reason, had not even seemed to notice any of this happening… yet.

Now dear reader,

Pay close attention,

Because things may start to get complicated now!

SUB CHAPTER (A) OF CHAPTER 14.

HOW THE SUNITE INQUISITION HUNTS!

Layl Tooker tired to mentally shut out the arguing of his subordinates.

He and the local “Top Brass” Were all leaning around the campaign table.

The campaign table had a detailed local area map on it.

There were three armies under Layl Tooker’s immediate command plus for elite units from the Sunite Imperial Church Inquisition itself, represented by a Cardinal.

Each was blaming and making excuses at each other and voices were being raised,

They were being slightly less raised at the Cardinal who they were all scared of.

But all of them, to a person, were far more scared of Layl Tooker, who they were all high ranking enough to know, was a member of Sinister Hand.

There was also a scattering of the various specialist.

The various specialists were trying not to be noticed, at least not until they could be certain on whose side they should be on!

The Scouts were balming the magic lot for not being helpful.

The Magicians and scryers were blaming the scouts for not succeeding in finding the Sin-Eater.

The regular army was blaming the religions zealot elites for getting in their way of normal duties.

The Religious zealots were blaming the Regular forces for being stupid and ignorant.

And there was a hundred other side blames and accusations both inferred and direct.

Everyone wanted promotion and almost no one wanted to be executed!

Layl was quickly realising that there were far too many people involved in this problem.

There was far too much ambition, pride and fear in that campaign room.

“…go home..,” he quietly whispered out loud.

Everyone immediately went silent out of terror.

They could hear the tension in Layls whisper.

“One at a time,” Said Layl,

“If anyone other than me interrupts anyone. They get to watch their loved ones die!”

“If anyone speaks before I ask them a question for the rest of this meeting, then they get to watch their loved ones die!”

The unluckiest soldier in the all the three armies then knocked on the door and opened it a c***k,

He had a laden tray in his hands,

“Tea and cake anyone?” the unluckiest soldier said.

He was immediately arrested and later that week got to see his loved ones die.

After the arrest, Layl turned to one of the Magic Specialist,

“Tell me again why you can not find him…”

The terrified specialist tried to explain it simply.

The terrified specialist could not know that Layle himself, was an expert in this sort of field and was mortified when he was corrected on minor technical points and pushed for details.

There then followed a complex ninety minutes discussion on magic, magical detection, runes, scrying and magical hunting that went over most the heads, of the rest of the room.

The short version was that they were using magical means to look for a creature immune to magic in a land saturated with magic.

Even the teapot had a minor spell to keep it warm.

The Sandwich plate had a minor enchantment to stop the cake from going dry.

It was like looking directly ad the sun at full noon and trying to spot a patch of the night time sky.

There was just too much interference for magical detection to work.

They could, however, pinpoint every healing magic-using doctor easily and were using that to find Medical Magic-User, Prof Enow Nil of the rebel forces.

They just had to wait for the regular army to check each Medical magic-user blip on the map.

They had set off in organized teams to do this, that morning.

They should have that rebel within the day.

As for physically looking for the Sin-Eater, as yet, no ten too eleven-year-old children matching that description had been found.

(They did not know that the Sin-eater now looked fourteen!)

“What about physical descriptions of the rebels?” Layle Asked

“Errrr” said the head of the scouting and mapping department.

Layl’s eyes narrowed in became intense.

“I assume you men can circulate and check for more than just one physical description as at time?”

“Well….?” The Scouting Head began to say.

He had no end to that sentence planned. He was expecting to be cut off in the middle of speaking.

Instead, Layl Tooker had not cut him off.

Layle just kept silent eye contact.

After a few minutes, Layl indicated with his hand for the Scouting Head to continue.

“Eeeerrrrrr…” said the Scouting head in dread, looking at the floor.

A few more minutes passed.

Layl kept staring and kept indicating with his hand that he wanted a decent reply.

Two more minutes later and the Scouting head, a large man who had faced the roughest terrains on the planet and survived, was openly weeping quietly in front of everyone.

Everyone had edged away from the terrified survival expert.

“… times up…” Whispered Layl harshly.

Layl waved a red wand and cast a spell.

The poor survival expert, head of the scouting departments head shot back open-mouthed.

His body then floated off the floor a few inches.

Then his anal sphincter was slowly widened and pulled up slowly over his upper body while simultaneously his gaping mouth was slowly pushed down through the neck and down his throat.

The man was slowly turned inside out and gore and blood sprayed everywhere.

The quaking mass of flesh sat reeking in the corner of that room.

Layl turned to the rest of the room, very quietly and gently saying, as if to a room of children.

“Lets us not have any more lapses of common sense, shall we!”

“We can not rely on magic alone,”

“Any man who has ever held a sword and knows how to use it can tell you that!”

“Circulate all the physical descriptions, please. And send the scouts out again!”

“But no ‘wanted posters’ yet.”

“We do not want them to know that they are still being hunted”

“Stay discrete, for now.” Layl continued quietly.

Layl then stared off into the middle distance.

Everyone waited patiently, not daring to move a muscle.

Everyone stayed silent.

Layl was looking at the wall,

Layl was looking at a shadow on the wall.

He noticed how that shadows form betrayed the shape of the object that casts it.

Again he glanced at the magical plate and the magical teapot.

Magic was everywhere.

He then looked at the shadow again.

Twenty minutes of silence had now passed in total.

Layl then spoke.

“Stop looking for magic,”

“Look for no magic instead”

“Use the same scrying and detection spells and send forces where the least magic is showing.”

“I am guessing you will find a large dark blue cold spot, a devoid of any magic.”

“Send elite forces there.”

“But please remember your orders, do not kill the boy, under any circumstances”

“Sacrifice all, even yourselves to protect him”

He looked at the steaming pile that had once been the head of the scouting department.

“I now end your pain and give you permission to die.” He said flatly.

The meat piles constant wobbling subsided.

“Dismissed,” he said to the rest of the room.

Everyone filed out silently.

SUB CHAPTER (B) OF CHAPTER 14.

HOW THE THE FOX THE RAVEN AND THE OWL HUNT!

The Owl raced to the clearing and turned into human form.

The Raven raced to the clearing and turned into human form.

The Fox arrived in the clearing and turned into human form.

They had all been out looking for a certain scent.

They did not know what the smell would smell like.

Only that it would be a brand new smell that they had never smelt ever before.

They had travelled the world and between them had smelt almost everything and every type of thing on the planet.

They had scouted and successfully found a unique humanoid scent.

It was a brand new type of scent that none of them had ever smelt before

That had been exactly the sort of scent they had been hunting for.

Anything that smelt this different and new must be this ‘Abhorant Child’ that their enemy the Sunites wanted to keep alive so badly.

They had located the Sin-Eater.

Now they would try and kill him.

SUB CHAPTER (C) OF CHAPTER 14.

HOW THE SO-CALLED “REBELS” HUNT!

“It is a very different approach, I’ll give you that.” Said Enow Nil

“Well any form of detect magic is, obviously, not going to work, is it?!” Said Sue Gren

“Only an i***t would try that…”

“I would not go as far as to say i***t exactly,” Replied Enow, the Medical Magic-User not wanting to openly admit that was what he had been spending all his time on.

He rallied himself,

“Can this be done though?”

“Witches such as us, or what we once were, used this all the time to escape.”

“Makes sense when you put it that way,” Said Enow.

“Holy men hunting you down, So a detect goodness or detect holyness spell would obviously work,”

“It would help you constantly stay one step ahead of the Inquisition”

“Actually,” said Sues sister, Sally Gren, “Most of the time we never used it for that.”

“Detect goodness spells are ineffective vs the Inquisition,”

“Ah,” said Enow knowingly, because of their proficiency in using counterspells to hunt you down!”

“No” Said Sue,

“Because of their lack of proficiency in being holy or good!”

“We did horrendous things, we did them to children, but non as bad as what they do!” Sue continued.

“And then they sleep better for having done it!” exclaimed Sally, shuddering.

“Then why was such a spell created,” Aske Enow.

Sues Gren’s right eyebrow arched,

“To escape and hunt good witches of course…” She said.

“This is just a simple expansion of the senses, it will not take long” Continued Sue.

Sue closed her eyes and let her mind drift, looking for goodness.

Like the sun itself, the Sin-Eater shone.

Sue now realised that the boy with the third eye that Sally had spoken of had been him.

She collapsed to the floor weeping.

When she finally opened her eyes and wiped her tears, she found that she had become blind.

“Your eyes” Gasped Sally.

“Your eyes are gone!”

“I don’t care,” said Sue sniffling away the tears but with an uncontrollable wide grin.

She has never felt so happy before.

She had seen purest light.

And she now knew where the Sin-Eater was.

The burn etched on her mind and soul was so strong, that from now on, she would always know where he was at all times.

“Do not unpack the wagon”

“We must all rush back to the last town!” Said Sue.

SUBCHAPTER (D) OF CHAPTER 14.

HOW THE SIN EATER IS HUNTED!

Rats Stars was just sweeping.

He had a headscarf on to hide the lump on his forehead that could open as a third eye.

The lumps on his back were still itching but he ignored them.

The master blacksmith had offered him both an apprenticeship and a home last night.

Rats was tempted.

Two, of what he thought were potential customers, walked in on either opposite entrances of the workshop.

One was a little old lady

The other a dark-haired wood elf beauty, that made his teenage throat go dry and gulp.

“Sorry all.” the young lad said

“The master is on lunch, He won't be long but until then, I will help you if I can,”

He reckoned that the old lady had come in just a fraction of a second first,

So, despite the other woman's beauty, he turned to the old lady first.

He walked up to the old lady and repeated,

“The master is on lunch,”

“He won't be long but until then, I will help you if I can,”

The old lady smiled,

“I am old granny Rach Phug, I believe you once met my grandson.”

“Oh, I am sorry for your loss mam,” Said Rats remembering that the village of that boy he once met called Tug had been slaughtered.

“Oh! But he is still alive, young man! Although you are older than I was told you would be,”

“Then how do you know you have the right person?” asked Rats growing suddenly suspicious,

“A blind witch told me!” Rach replied,

“But there is very little time, please come with me!” said the sweet-looking old lady.

“I can't, I have….” He said glancing at the beautiful young woman very briefly.

Then Rats fell the floor unconscious.

The sweet like old lady granny Rach Phug had laid the young man out with one punch and then hoisted him over her shoulder.

“Sorry,” the old lady said,

“There is no time to explain and debate stuff!”

He was much lighter and easier to carry than the water or the woodpile she used to carry for miles each day back on the small farm.

Before the Sunite empire had burnt that farm down.

This suddenly got the beautiful elf woman's attention.

The elf woman was the Raven of the Sinister Satite High Order.

She raised a hand to kill the old lady with a spell but the old lady put a single finger to her own lips and quietly said,

“Shuuuuuussss!” and then indicate to all the voices outside.

Clearly heard, was a large amount of Sunite soldiers who had just turned up.

They were asking everyone to gather and keep order.

“I don’t think you want me to scream, do you dear?” said Granny Phug

“What makes you think you’d get a chance to scream,” said the Raven Agent.

“You are probably right,” said the granny.

Granny Rach Phug was very good at poker!

“But you are not entirely sure are you, or I’d be dead already.” Granny smiled.

Again, but with a more gleeful, spiteful, bile the old lady put a single finger to her own lips and quietly said,

“Shuuuuuussss!” and then again indicated to all the voices outside.

The Raven agent scowled, turned into bird form and flew up to the rafters of the large smithy barn they were in.

The old grammy shrugged and ignored the bird as she wrapped the teenage boy up in layers of nearby old horse blankets.

Among the blankets, she strategically placed long bits of tools or long lumpy bits of scrap iron to hide the unconscious bodies shape

She chose the dirtiest and smelliest blankets that she could.

She came from a long family line of criminals and knew what she was doing.

The strode out confidently and only as the daylight hit her, she buckled the knees and pretended to struggle with the load.

Instead of trying to hide what she was doing she instantly called to some of the local town guards that had spent all morning posted on the square outside the shop.

“Excuse me, young men”

The bord young town guards sauntered, slowly, over.

“What is it, Mam?” Asked one.

“Can you both help me get this back to my house,”

They both looked at the large lumpy smelly wrapped bundle on her shoulder.

It looked very heavy,

It smelled very smelly.

And the guards were lazy and just wanted to silently watch the pretty woman walk by all day.

“I am sorry but we are both on duty mam,” Said the other.

“Oh please officers,” pleaded the Granny.

“I am sorry but the answer will have to be no.” the first one said.

“I tell you what,” Said the Granny,

“My daughter, the raven-haired beauty that crossed the square earlier, I don’t know if you happen to notice her at all,” Said Rach Phug, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

“We might have…” Said the second guard cautiously.

“Well, she mentioned the both of you…” Said, Granny

“She was saying how handsome in your Sunite Guard uniforms you both were,” She said

Above, in a tree, a very angry Raven squawked in rage!

Granny Rach Tug found it hard to stop herself glancing up to give a smug smile and the Satite agents expense!

“I have to agree with her, If only I were sixty years younger,” She continued wistfully.

“Anyway, By the time we get home she is bound to be waiting for me with tea and cake,

“You could have a small break when we get there.”

“Maybe one of you would be kind enough to ask her to a local dance this weekend.”

“I know it is a bit of a further imposition.”

“But she is a bit shy but would love to have a chance to say, yes,”!

“Oh, I suppose we could spare the time,” said the second guard giving a pleading look to his partner.

“Go on then!” sighed the first guard giving in,

They each took one end of the rough bundle and then awkwardly started to carry it.

“This way,” said Granny

“This is heavy!” complained the first Guard.

Silently Granny Phug moaned about what a wimpy wuss these guards are.

But on the outside, she just smiled, all sweetness and light.

The town was filling up quickly with guards.

She was betting that they were all after the Sin-Eater as well.

It seemed obvious to her, that they knew that he was in this town now.

Unlike an amateur, she did not avoid the dense crowds and always tried to walk through the most guards she possibly could.

Large delays and ques were now forming at all the town exits and main streets.

The guards were questioning everyone and were searching for everyone and anything that anyone was carrying.

Unless of course that bundle was already being carried by other guards.

If other guards were already carrying it, then obviously, it was then a bundle that must already be someone else hassle to deal with.

Granny Phug knew that all these guards around her were the only thing keeping her safe from the Raven creature.

The Raven agent kept watching,

The old lady will have to leave the safety of all those guards eventually

Granny Phug kept track with her smuggler trained sharp eyes, where the Raven shape changer was.

The Raven creature was going to be a problem.

She did some unnoticed complex fidgeting with her fingers.

She was not casting a spell.

She could not cast spells.

This was town variation of bandit hand code.

She was signalling to her hidden but watching, big tough, Phug family grandchildren.

“I am being followed by a deadly danger that is hidden in a magical disguise”

Then she signalled the signs for “Bird” “Black” and “Murder of crows”

After a few corners, she spotted the return hand sign from one of her grandchildren, Young Tug, pretending to be ideally playing with some stones, that the message had been received.

Meanwhile, the Inquisitional divinators lead by Layl himself were closing in on the magical super cold spot!

They were all dressed as plain, low ranking, city guardsmen.

Layl reckoned the old lady with the bundle seemed to be the one to follow.

He gave telepathic ordered to various and numerous forces to hold back and remain hidden until told to move in.

If he was right and the Sin-Eater was in the bundle then the eighty-eight-year-old lady might be the rebel called Rach Phug. Although he had not gotten a clear view yet to be sure!

She was obviously headed somewhere.

He might be able to get some rebels and the Sin-Eater in one single swoop!

“If” it was Granny Phug then the five years of living in that village as a civilian meant he knew to ignore the sweat old lady act and not underestimate her.

Until the s*******r of that village, she had been the crime mistress to the entire area,

For over one hundred miles in every direction, every thief guild from hamlet to town and every large bandit leader that prayed on well-armed traders had bent a knee, to her!

A fact that she had hidden well from even all her own grandchildren accept for Mitch Phug, but that was only because he was to become the crime heir apparent.

The Raven telepathically told the Owl and the Fox what was happening and both of them were now also watching Granny Phug!

However, The Satite animal agents did not know that Layl with a mass of elite soldiers ready to pounce, was here and was also following Granny Phug.

By now, All The Rebels including the Gren Witches had gotten the messages,

“I am being followed by a deadly danger that is hidden in a magical disguise”

“Bird” “Black” and “Murder of crows”

All the non-children except for the now blind but still smiling Sue Gren, Rushed out to be prepared to give Granny Phug “back up” for when she finally made her move to “make a break” to leave the town.

However, None of the rebels knew that Layl the killer of their village was also here, Following granny.

And none of The Rebels knew about the Fox and Owl Satite animal agents of The High Order that were now also following Granny Phug.

Granny Phug had, unfortunately, not seen them.

Layl of the Sunite Inquisition did not know that the Raven, Fox, and Owl Satite agents were here.

The Sin-Eater was still unconscious…

…And the poor helpful guards struggling with the smelly, hard, lumpy bundle, containing the Sin-Eater, were both very unlikely to get tea, cake and dancing date with a beautiful woman!