Snippet #2127948

Cornelius was shaken, this did not happen often but today was a day in which he could show his humane side without fearing dishonor indeed to not react to such a sight would be to lie to one self.

The village had not only been destroyed; it had been terrorized and Cornelius recognized the style. The raiders who had struck the village came in and set alight the paths of escape, they then forced the villagers into the center of the village and massacred them.
As Cornelius moved passed the village church he saw rows of bodies spiked to the wall, several of the bodies showed clear signs of burning and other tortures... this was not a massacre; this was an action by specialists carefully designed to spread terror and to mock Avalon. These where certainly no ordinary bandits after gold and women but a raid by an enemy with an alternative motive in hand.

"this is the second village in a week... lord protect us" muttered a soldier

Cornelius remained silent and he proceeded into the village

Even the children had not been spared and had been grouped together and... deformed on mass, the bodies of women where also near by and Cornelius assumed that they had been brought there to witness the death and torture of their children before they where also dealt with. Cornelius had only seen such a thing once before but that was in the barbaric lands of the great plains and not at the heart of civilized society.

Cornelius wanted to kill NOW but he had no one to strike against so instead he yelled for his scout to come forward

"Tark come here!"

the young man made his way smoothly, he was one of those few people Cornelius could call a warrior even if the lad's job was to scout ahead of the main force.

"sir?"

"have we revived any word from the capital regarding this matter?"

Tark seemed afraid of Cornelius but this was only natural, Any soldier who did not fear Cornelius was one whom Cornelius would have to keep an eye on.

"No sir, we have received no reply, Our last messenger was found dead hidden among leaves near a side road so..."

Cornelius nodded and waved signaling for Tark that there was no need to go on with the details.

If the messenger had been killed it was likely that a similar fate had befallen the other two messengers Cornelius had sent last week. But what was the point of this? the raiders where clearly seeking to cause a panic in the area; it would be in their best interests to allow such messengers to pass.

Cornelius stopped... not all enemies where rational after all. This was not a bandit raid since the ratio between looting potential plunder and burning it was unequal to the latter's advantage. Maybe The Duke was sponsoring the violence in preparation for an attack, In the dukes case waylaying the messengers made sense since his interests would be more in line with causing dissent in the region while preventing the king from hearing about it; in this way when he marched into the area he would find an already subdued populace in his newly acquired province.

Cornelius needed more information before he would act... but more then anything he needed the prince back in ghosts pass and thus he would also gain the kings ear.

"I want you to travel back to the fort and tell him that he is to assume active command of the fort, you are to take Denar and Eric with you for added protection " said Cornelius making sure the soldier would know that this was not open to debate.

"Are you going somewhere sir?" Asked Tark with both a hint of concern and relief, Cornelius ignored this preferring to focus on the important matter at hand.

"I will leave with the rest of the company and head to the capitol"

As Tark left Cornelius turned to the rest of the company

"You men will follow me! we leave to the capitol in order to report these attacks to the prince and gather additional men for the garrison, we shall collect food in the Dalavar Estate; i think they owe us a favor"

The men at first confused laughed at the last part of the order, most of them had been present when Cornelius led a force to aid the Lord of Dalvar in his fight against the ambitious lord Harding; before their arrival Dalvar's men where being massacred by Harding however with their intervention that soon changed. This memory was particularly pleasant to the men since they got to enjoy the Harding estate's "hospitality" afterwards...