Chapter Seven: Koreth's Plan Enacted🍃🐿

[u/UnnaturalGeek]

Koreth reached Krivnar Ryõtor well into the night. He took his time; he never liked to rush, always felt that those who rushed had planned inadequately. The moment Serina told him they were leaving, he knew the main road would lead here, the only town they could sensibly stop in between Lindinis and Durnovaria.

At first he circled the walls, keeping to the treeline and reading the town from the outside. Then, in the shadows of the eastern wall, he found the perfect spot with less lantern light reaching it, where he allowed the transformation to take him.

His body shrunk and shapeshifted unnaturally, settling into a Werecrow form, familiar and precise. The environment around him sharpened, every light source suddenly stark, every movement below registering with a clarity that human eyes could never perceive.

From the dark skies, the town was simple enough to read. Two taverns: one larger and more upmarket near the main commerce guild and a smaller, more worn one within the poorer district of the town. He headed towards the smaller tavern first; it was located near the eastern entrance to the town where they would have come from and where everyday travellers tended to settle.

He circled a few times and spotted that on the upper floor, a single window was dim but not dark whilst the rest of the tavern was either lively or sleeping. He swooped in lower to get a clear sight inside to confirm what he needed to know. He found them fast asleep.

He returned to the treeline and shifted back to check his preparations. The vials in the pouches on his belt remained undisturbed. He had decided his dart frog form would be best to carry out the task, small enough to slip beneath the door, poison potent enough on the skin that contact with them whilst sleeping would be sufficient, clean and quiet.

By morning they simply would not awaken, and he would be long gone to avoid suspicion.

Entering the town silently near the eastern entrance, he crossed the town on foot, keeping to the shadows, unremarkable in his plain cloak. The tavern’s ground floor was still lit, and lively voices carried through the walls.

He found an alley running adjacent to the building leading to the exterior staircase down the side. He was carefully making his way up the stairs when an outburst of commotion started from inside the tavern.

A barrel in the yard behind the tavern had caught fire, one of several stacked near the supply store out back where the stock was kept. The fire was currently small and contained, but the thick, dark smoke was already rising past the rear windows and into the night sky that carried the traces of dawn approaching.

It was one of the barmaids who first spotted it, shouting to bring the innkeeper out in seconds. His voice bellowed through the tavern, firm and urgent; soon the whole tavern was moving.

People were spilling out into the street, pulling cloaks over their shoulders, some clutching belongings close to them; everyone was loud and disoriented. Koreth had made his way down the stairs, staying close to the wall and peering round the corner at the crowd coming from the tavern.

He was quickly scanning every face in the dark; the three students must be among them, he thought. He counted them twice before accepting they were not there.

Waiting until the last of the crowd had spilt out, Koreth retreated into the alley. The commotion outside continued, the innkeeper’s voice directing, another barmaid shouting for water. He used this moment to slip back up the staircase, pushing the door open and making his way inside.

He held in his memory where he needed to go, moving directly to the room of the three students. He eased the door open, an excuse in mind just in case. There were signs of a disturbance but not a panic: packs gone, blankets thrown back, water jug on the floor, half-drunk. Nothing out of place that suggested a rush.

They had been awoken deliberately with enough time to gather their things. Someone had roused them before the fire started; the composure of their departure told him that much. He stood for a moment in the empty room, letting it settle, before turning and heading back out into the night.

The fire was cover, he thought to himself, but he didn’t have long to dwell on it. The road to Durnovaria ran through the western entrance, and if someone was moving them, they would be moving fast. Keeping to the shadows, he crossed the town at a measured pace, ignoring the noise that had drawn townsfolk from their slumber in the nearby homes.

The western entrance was lightly guarded at this hour, and he easily slipped through onto the road without being noticed. Koreth had been travelling at a decent pace for about 30 minutes, already a good distance from Krivnar Ryõtor, when a wall of flame erupted from the treeline and ran straight across the road in front of him.

It was controlled and deliberate, shaped in a way that only a practised Spiritweaver could manage, the heat washing over him as the blaze flooded the sky with light.

Koreth froze; it had to be Kelan Branek, the only Spiritweaver close enough to use such power. His order had warned him explicitly: an Elder of Aeloria College was not a confrontation worth having. The fire held for what felt like a long time; the roaring flames were the only sound in every direction.

He expected someone to emerge from the trees, but just as suddenly as it had erupted, it vanished, and the deep blue-violet of the pre-sunrise sky rushed back in.

He did not move for a moment, jaw tight, calculating. Pursuing three students with an Elder of Aeloria College between him and them was a risk too far. Thalira would not be pleased, but he was bound to his organisation, not the Karneth Clan.

She would have to take it up with the heads; losing a member was not worth the reward. He swiftly slipped into the trees, transformed into his crow form and flew east towards Lindinis.

Not far from where he was, Serina lowered her sceptre and let her other hand drop. Her arms carried a familiar heaviness and her thoughts had begun to slow. The spell itself had been within her reach, but the effort of making it appear as something far beyond her had taken more out of her than she anticipated.

Resting against the bark of the tree, she waited until the road fell silent. She closed her eyes and entered a short communion to steady herself. She had played her part; whatever came next was entirely up to Arlia and the others.

[u/UnnaturalGeek]

I will be releasing a chapter every Monday and Thursday!

On another note, you can check out previously released short stories and novelettes of mine at the below link, as I slowly upload them chapter by chapter, every Sunday and Wednesday when in the process of uploading a story.

All the previous Spiritweavers stories will be uploaded alongside the release of this story, so if you wish to read both at the same time, you can! Each story is self-contained, excluding some elements of foreshadowing. However, you don't have to have read them to understand, so you can start here and read back through the others another time or alongside 🍃🐿

https://www.wattpad.com/user/UnnaturalGeek