“Them?” questioned Brisa startled by Thovren’s insistance. “What them? No one saw what happened. We don’t know it was a person or people. All we know is that everyone is gone. They could have been flown away on the backs of giant purple flying frogs for all we know.”

She was really irritated but it did no good. The boy had lectured her then left, leaving her to retort to hang in empty air before she even got to harp on him for bursting into someone else’s house and leveling a crossbow at people. 

Dakin was next out of the house, he was in a hurry too but at least he looked a little more focused. He headed off immediately after Thovren. Brisa caught Dakin’s words as he jogged to catch up with Thovren. 

“Good point” she muttered. Once again to empty air. “I doubt trouble would announce itself.”

She shoulder her bag, which was heavy for her, she had no idea how much heavier it would get over the day, and was going to follow the two boys. The way Thovren had bossed her around didn’t set well with the stubborn girl; Autry was the only person who could boss her around without making her feel resentful. Resentment, and thinking of Autry, changed her mind. 

She would explore the city like she had planned and leave the boys to threaten the unknown person. 

She headed into town and she didn’t know why but the first place she decided to go was Aheric’s house. It was the best house in town, and if anyone survived they would likely have holed up there. Plus it was one of the few buildings with a second story, she could get a good look around the village from inside the house. 

She walked through the silent town shivering. It was far to eerie. As she rounded a corner however she no longer noticed the eeriness. In fact she noticed nothing, almost nothing anyway, around her. All her attention was riveted on the front of Aheric’s house. 

Pinned to his walls, like one might pin a insect specimin to a card, were three people. Autry, Aheric, and Dorn. Autry and Dorn were pinned to either side of the door, Aheric above. It was horrid and Brisa stood silent, still, blinking trying to wrap her mind around it. 

She dropped the bag she had been carrying with an audible thud. Somehow she made herself walk forward, eyes focused on Autry’s face. The woman was dead, Brisa was pretty sure of that. Still she was inexorably drawn forward till she was inches from the woman. Autry was pale, so pale she was almost blue. Brisa knew she had to be dead. 

“Autry?” she whispered, her voice horse. 

Naturally Autry didn’t answer. Brisa reached out a finger and touched the dead woman. Her finger pushed into Autry’s body, it was a very unpleasant tactile sensation, like sticking your fingers in moldy pudding (which Brisa had done more than once). 

She didn’t shriek, she didn’t call out, she didn’t even cry. She did, however, run to the side of the house and vomit. Over and over, small body heaving with each retch. 

“No” she whispered between heaves. “No.”

When her stomach was empty she continued to dry heave for some time, until she was able to calm down. She was shaking from exhaustion, her limbs wobbly as she stood. All she could think however was [i]Who did this? [/i] and more primal thoughts that centered only around making whoever it was pay. 

She wiped her mouth off on the sleeve of her shirt and returned. She saw something she hadn’t seen before. On lintel of the door there was writing in black ink, at least she thought it was ink but it was darker than any of the ink she had ever used. The words were in a language she had never seen and as she struggled to pronounce them they sounded so foreign. She thought it had to be important though, a clue of some sort. She grabbed her bag, pulled out a blank piece of paper and a charcoal stub and carefully began copying the words onto the paper. Maybe she could find someone to translate them. 
 
She was soon absorbed in her work, it wasn’t that the words were difficult to copy, but her paper was small and she wanted to write perfectly and neatly so she could study it later. She didn’t even notice that the dead bodies had little blood, and not even the glimmer of a shadow.