Siren's Reach - Fallen Lands Book 3

Chapter Eighteen

The Haunting of Darkwater Downs

Evelyn

It only took us a few hours to make it to the coast. The map we had was somewhat vague about where the fishing villages were, but it was pretty easy to assume that so long as we followed the coastline, we'd definitely find them. This side of the mountains didn't have the same cliff faces against the ocean like we did in Siren's Reach. The shoreline was very rocky at first, but it soon turned into a sandy beach with a gently rising landscape beyond. It was a very beautiful place to travel, but now that I knew what was lurking out in the sea, I didn't really feel any envy. I'd rather safely live up on the cliffside and only visit places like this for sightseeing. It also felt a little like a waste to have so much empty land out here, and I was curious why it wasn't being used for anything. Like, not anything at all – there weren't any herds of cattle or sheep roaming around or anything, and despite that, there didn't seem to be any wildlife larger than a field mouse. We didn't travel too far down the coast before we stopped for lunch.

Lilith found a nice, flat spot with a pair of trees and a small hill for a windbreak, "This looks like a good spot. I think we should take a bit of an extended break and make some real food. We've traveled pretty far today."

I nodded and did my best not to grin at her authoritative voice coming out of that tiny frame. "Okay! I have a lot of stuff packed. What're you thinking?"

But the words had barely finished leaving my mouth when an oversized firepit suddenly appeared, with wood burning under a large grill and the whole thing set next to an oversized camp kitchen. Sibyl was already at the counter and began butchering what looked like a pre-dressed giant rabbit with a horn on its head. She moved like a master, as she always did, and I was only thankful she had pulled out a grill and not a cauldron.

"I got this!" she cheerfully called to us without looking up.

I grinned, coming to lean on the counter, "You need any help? I'm not useless at cooking, you know."

She paused to look at me skeptically for a moment before making her judgment, "Okay. I need you to take one step back… Yeah. Just like that. Now, sit down and test out that chair. Let me know if it gets less comfortable anytime between now and when I'm done."

I looked behind me and squeaked as a chair was so close that my simple movement bumped it into the back of my knees and almost had me fall into it unwillingly. It was a massively oversized and deep papasan chair, and the moment I noticed that – I let myself fall into it and sprawl out, "Okay! Don't worry! I'm a pro at this! Oh wow. It's like lying down in a cloud! It even smells really nice!"

Lilith stepped over to us with a look of amusement on her face and pressed a hand into the soft pad of the chair, "That is remarkable. May I join you?"

I nodded, moving ever so slightly, "There's enough space for two!"

She looked to Sibylla, who just waved her on. So, she hopped up and fell into the chair beside me, sending up another puff of that lovely scent before making a great show of getting comfortable. "This is lovely. I've never seen a chair quite like this. Or is this a bed? It's certainly large enough."

Sibylla glanced up with a grin, "It's a bit of both, I think."

I grinned, closing my eyes and resting, "Thanks, Sibyl. That perfume was a nice touch. This is very relaxing."

Lilith hummed her agreement, and Sibyl's grin turned a little more mischievous, "Well, yeah. I mean, you didn't want Amélie to have it, so it works out. I bet it's the last time Lilith tells me my love potions don't work, too."

I shot upright and looked at her in horror, "What?!"

Sibylla burst out laughing, "I'm kidding! It's just nightmare silk. It smells like some of the more attractive flowers in the spirit realm. And before you get mad at me, no, it doesn't give you nightmares. That's just the name because of the spirit monster from which you have to get the silk."

I huffed, "That wasn't very nice," and fell back into my comfortable position. "Are you sure you don't want any help?"

"Yeah, I'm sure! I love cooking. I used to want to be a cook for a while growing up, but then I watched a few cooking shows and realized professional cooking would make me hate it, so I gave up on that. Now I can cook magical stuff, too, and I love it even more."

I heard a familiar bubbling and looked up to see a large cauldron had been added to her kitchen, "Uh.. what's that for?"

"It's a secret!" she singsonged out, and I groaned. "Oh, don't be such a downer! …And no peeking!"

I reclined back into the chair with a long sigh, and Lilith asked, "Is she always like this?"

I grinned and shook my head, turning on my side to face her, "Hm, not really. She's usually a little more gloomy and definitely makes sure I have to see whatever she's putting into the cauldron. I think she's having a lot of fun right now."

"I heard that!" Sibylla called back over her shoulder, and I chuckled.

I looked back to Lilith, "I am, too, actually. It's nice not having such a huge amount of people around." Then I blinked, "You've got very pretty eyes, Lily." The surprising revelation had me immediately shooting a suspicious glare back to my sister, "Sibyl! What did you do?"

She burst out laughing and turned back around, leaning on the countertop. "It's my illusion, you dolt. I gave her really nice makeup! It really makes her eyes pop! I also had a phase where I took some classes after I decided to try being a makeup artist! I didn't stick with that, though, but I was good enough that I had a part-time job at the local theater for a while. She looks great, right?"

My paranoia lessened slightly, but upon inspection, I could see she was telling the truth. Then I leaned in and stared, making Lilith blush with an awkward, "Is… everything okay, Evie?"

I nodded and flopped back, "Sorry! I was just surprised. I knew it was good, but this is like, really good. We'll just have to get you a mirror later."

"Later is right! Lunch is almost ready!" Sibyl called back as she moved back to stir her cauldron.

Lilith looked a little concerned, "Didn't you just start cooking that thing? I'm not even sure what it is. This would be a very bad time to get sick."

Sibylla shrugged, "Magic fire, magic meat. It'll be fine. Don't worry so much!"

Her words didn't particularly soothe Lilith, but when Sibylla magic'd up a table and started to put out platters of steaming meat and vegetables, she was just as quick as me to climb out of the chair. Everything she put on the table was amazing, and the food even gave us a temporary bonus to our stamina recovery. She'd served us a white sparkling wine from her cauldron, but it only took a tiny sip to know it was both safe and delicious. I had no idea how she'd carbonated it, and I was sure I didn't want to know. Sibylla made sure to serve Lilith first, who was very impressed with everything. When she continued to do her best to be friendly with Lilith, I wasn't sure if she was trying to make up for shrinking her or if this was just a ploy to lower her guard before another prank ensued. I wasn't too worried, though. Sibylla was mischievous, not malicious, and Lilith had taken her shenanigans pretty well.

Soon enough, we were packed back up and traveling up the coast. Once things had smoothed out some, there were still plenty of rolling hills to keep things interesting. And that is how, about an hour later, we nearly ran into the first town on our list before we realized it was there. Normally, there would be plenty of signs that we were coming up on a town, but with most of the buildings knocked over and the docks burned down to a few posts sticking out of the water, it was surprisingly difficult to see from a distance. Like most towns on the coast, it wasn't directly on the water but back a bit in case of monsters. They had a wooden palisade-style wall, but it was only about six feet high and partly burned down. Not everything in the town was destroyed, but it looked like a fire had spread through most of the place.

"Well, something happened here," Sibylla said as soon as she'd shifted back to her humanoid form.

I followed suit and started carefully walking toward the town, "Some of the houses look fine, but there's no one alive in the town. Let's see if we can figure out what happened."

Lilith hopped off Haunt's back and started walking toward the closest building, "We can probably cover everything more quickly if we spread out. I'll go along the south side. Evie, go through the center. Sibylla, go north, but stay inside the wall."

Sibylla shrugged, and I nodded. Haunt looked to me for direction, and I gestured toward Lilith's diminutive form. I saw my sister Fox as she started walking, and I decided to do the same. It was much easier to investigate things that way. I walked right through the gate, which was mostly standing, and into the town. The place wasn't so big that I'd have trouble seeing all the way across it with my spiritual sight, and I already knew there wasn't a single person in the town. There were plenty of crabs of varying sizes dug into the ground, a few rats, but nothing else worth mentioning. The first building I came to was a small house, and it was in a little better shape than some of the buildings I could see further along. The door was wide open, creaking in the breeze, and the roof was missing, but the interior wasn't actually burned out as badly as some of the other buildings. The place was a little bit of a mess, but it didn't appear to have been looted, and there were no bodies or even an indication of a fight. In fact, there was even a spear mounted on a rack on the wall. I could smell the mildew and mold that were building up, and I shifted back to my humanoid form just to dull that sense – but it didn't do much. The moment I was on two feet again, I could see that it wasn't only the furniture in the damp, but there was still some food on the table and a pot on the stove. As I looked around, it really did look like the people who lived here just up and left. Things weren't knocked over, it was a little bit of a mess, but nothing that made me think they dropped everything and ran. They didn't even take their shoes.

I stepped back outside and continued my search. Many of the buildings looked the same, and though a fire had certainly swept through the town, it didn't look to be caused by an attack so much as everyone seemed to have left their house while cooking or eating dinner, with many of the lamps in the buildings that were still intact being completely burned dry. The place didn't just look abandoned, either. It almost felt cursed. With the food left on the table, mostly uneaten by wildlife and not even so much as a lost pet roaming the town, it was incredibly eerie. The walkways had weeds and grass beginning to grow through them, indicating that there had been no foot traffic in at least a month. When I got to the other side of the town, I saw that Sibylla was also back in her humanoid form, likely for the same reason, but Lilith hadn't made it yet. By unspoken agreement, we both turned and walked together to go find her. We made it to the far south end of the town, and we finally saw an indication of something wrong. The gates of the town facing the water looked like they'd been torn off the wall, and Lilith was standing next to them, inspecting the damage. Haunt was beside her, and I could see from his stance and how he was trying to decide if he wanted to growl at the water or not that he wasn't happy.

"Did you find something?" I asked, and she didn't look away from the damage she was inspecting.

"Yes, but I'm not sure what it means exactly. I can tell that something was pulling on the gates from the outside easily enough, but what is very odd is how it looks like people were pushing the gate from the inside, too. So much, in fact, that they dug a bit of a hole with their steps. It isn't very easy to make out now. It's been more than a month since whatever happened here. I wouldn't have noticed it if my tracking wasn't so high level."

Sibylla bent over to look at the breaks in the gate as well, "Most of the town up north is burned down, but the few buildings still up there are super creepy."

"Super creepy as in they looked like the people just walked out?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah. Exactly, that's kind of super creepy. In one house up there that was in perfect shape, they even had food rotting on the stove and a little doll in one of the perfectly made beds. They just left everything behind." She pulled a hand out from behind her back and held out the most disturbing, ragged doll I'd ever seen. Its glassy, dead eyes just kept staring right into my soul even as I moved side to side, trying to escape its gaze. "See? Who would abandon this gem?"

"Okay, well, now that you found the horror that murdered everyone in town.." I began, and she gasped, hugging the doll close.

"Don't be so mean! She just lost her entire village."

"Girls," Lilith interrupted us, "Let's stay focused. Were there any signs of what might have caused them to flee or what caused the fires?"

I shook my head, "Well, I don't think it was the doll, or it would still be chasing them."

Sibylla let out a huff and grumbled, "Not if she ate the bodies."

I shuddered, and Lilith sighed, "Can we please be serious?"

"Okay, okay." I pointedly moved to look at Lilith in a way that wouldn't let me see the doll anymore, "It didn't look like they fled to me. Every place I checked that wasn't completely burned out, it looked like they just stood up and left. I mean, the houses looked like the people here had been in the middle of their evening routines before just standing up and leaving everything behind. They didn't even grab things easily out in the open, like shoes or a cloak. And I'm no professional, but I think the fires were from unattended stoves and lamps. I think it started somewhere and mostly spread from building to building."

"It was the same for me," Sibylla said, joining us with the doll, now mysteriously absent. "If it wasn't for that and the doors being left open and letting everything get damp, the town would be in pretty good shape."

Lilith nodded, looking out to the few broken pilings that remained of the pier and back to the gate, "Yeah. Something isn't adding up. If everyone left willingly, why did they get stuck against the gate? Why didn't they just unlock it? And why did something tear it down from outside but not attack the rest of the town? Maybe it was from multiple incidents, but that seems like too much of a coincidence."

I nodded my agreement, "Yeah. But there are two villages that we supposedly destroyed. We should keep going and see if there are any more clues at the next one."

Sibyl hummed, causing us to look at her quizzically. Then she brightened, "Well, you know. There is at least one good thing in all of this."

I was afraid to ask, but… "What is that?"

She gestured grandly at the empty village, "You're now winning the war. You just conquered your first village!"

I snorted, relieved that was all she had to say, and took a few steps toward the village. "Ha, yeah, I guess so! This place is mine now. I am the great conqueror!" I grinned at her, "I'm going to rename this place 'Lord Edgar ..Whatever of Blackstone is a Stupid, lazy cow' in honor of my great victory."

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Only then did I see Lilith waving her hands for me to stop with wide eyes, "Evie, no!" … but it was too late.

War Alert: The Village of Wavecrest has been conquered by Lady Evelyn of Siren's Reach!

War Alert: The Village of Wavecrest has been renamed – Lord Edgar Whatever of Blackstone is a Stupid Lazy Cow.

Congratulations! You have conquered the Village Lord Edgar Whatever of Blackstone is a Stupid Lazy Cow. Would you like to [Annex], [Ransom], or [Raze] this village?

Lilith slumped with a groan, made all the worse as Sibylla burst into laughter.

"Oh no. Don't tell me you guys got those alerts, too?"

Sibylla's continued laughter was enough of an answer, but Lilith confirmed it. "Yes, we did. Everyone in Siren's Reach and Blackstone would have received that. We're going to need to move quickly. He knows exactly where we are now. "

Slowly, Sibylla got ahold of herself, waving a hand for us to wait while she caught her breath, "That's great. Oh, I love this world. Okay, so yeah, they know where we are. So what? What are they going to do about it? We don't need to rush. Even if he decides he wants to ride out here and get beat up, he'll have to get all his people ready and then travel to get here. He has no idea how many people you have with you, and I'm pretty sure he'll have to ride past that sexy party on the road to get here, so that'll delay him, too. I mean, we should go to the next town, but first I have an idea. I'll be right back!" And before I could say a word, she was off.

"Are we really going to let her do … whatever she is doing?" Lilith asked.

I gave a helpless shrug as I fell down to sit on the sand. "I guess. I mean. She's right. It will be a while before anyone will be here." I stopped and watched Sibylla for a moment while she was putting up a weird wooden effigy in the sand just outside the town's wall. "Besides. It looks like whatever she's doing is going to cause problems for Lord Edgar or whoever he sends to reclaim the village. Speaking of which... I have an option to Annex, Ransom, or Raze it. I think I should Annex it. I don't need a ransom, and I don't see a point in razing it. Besides, I think Annexing will embarrass that jerk the most."

Lilith nodded. "Yes, I agree. And we shouldn't linger here. Let's at least get away from the beach for now. Haunt has been on edge the entire time we've been down here. I think he's still nervous after that sea monster attack."

I looked at Haunt and nodded. Standing up, I brushed myself off, "Maybe, but he kind of had fun beating up the goblins. Maybe there is something else out there, and he's trying to figure out if it'll come closer. Let's follow Sibylla."

It took Sibylla about another twenty minutes to finish what she was doing. She spent the entire time humming a happy little song, and after she put one of her effigies at the north, west, south, and east points, she finished a small ritual that I didn't quite understand the purpose of before declaring herself finished. She led us past the remains of the pier before tossing a few stones out in the water, aiming to follow the line of piles, before urging us to move on. I was getting really curious by the time she was done, but I also didn't want to be running around out here all night. Lilith mounted up and we both shifted, heading back to the rolling hills and heading further up the coast. After a couple of minutes or so, Sibyl suddenly stopped us, having us both looking around in every direction for trouble, but she chirped to get our attention and then nosed in the direction of the town. That's when I looked back and realized she was stopping to gloat. The town was gone. Or, at least, it looked like it. Not only was it invisible, but my eyes kept skipping past where it was. There was even a feeling of boredom when I tried to focus on the spot. Without mental resistance, I don't think there was any way I'd have even known where to try to look. As I sat there marveling at her work, though, there was a slight movement in the water, dragging my attention away. I stared for a moment before I figured out what it had been when I saw another of the wooden pilings break apart into sawdust.

She chirped at me, "Let's see that walking facepalm reclaim the town now."

I just huffed in amusement and started us moving again. We traveled a little faster this time and it only took a few hours to find the next village. This one we could tell we were coming up on in advance. Not because it was visible or there were any other telltale signs of civilization, but because of the two large half-sunken ships just off the coast. We stopped at the top of the last hill overlooking the town and the ships. It was a very different scene. The town itself, and this was much more of a small town than a village, had a trail of destruction nearly a hundred meters wide from the waterfront up to a destroyed manor house where everything was smashed to kindling. The town had an eight-foot high wall surrounding it, though a section was missing where the path had been carved through the town. Every building either had a door that had been smashed in or was hanging ajar. Many houses had holes torn in the walls or their shutters ripped away, and though it was less of an issue here, there were obvious signs of a fire. The gates on the east and west sides of the town had been thrown open wide, but with how torn up the ground was all around the town, I suspected whatever they were running from had surrounded the entire place. If the town had a pier at all, it was long gone.

The ships in the water looked like their misfortune had been more recent, and their designs were the familiar man-o-war style of the pirates. One looked like it had just snapped in half in the middle, sinking with its bow and stern pointing nearly upright. The other was much more concerning with how it looked like it had been peeled open from the side, layers of wood and tar splitting like a roasted chestnut under pressure. I could only guess that they'd shown up sometime after whatever had destroyed this town, intent on pillaging the ruins and capturing any survivors, only to find that something else was still in the area. The incredible damage to those huge ships made me think of the abyssal star at first, but I couldn't imagine that thing leaving the ships behind uneaten. To be safe, I moved a few steps ahead of my friends and took my time really focusing into my spiritual senses, trying to look for any signs of an aura in or near the ship, but it looked like whatever had torn it apart was long gone. I turned around and shifted in the same motion to discuss our approach, only to be met with an unfamiliar face. He was standing only two feet away, his dead white face staring at me with decayed, empty eye sockets that opened into a skull of stringy rotting flesh. I stumbled back, tripping over my own feet, as a crab skittered out of his open, half-eaten mouth and down into the remains of his shirt.

A shriek escaped my mouth as I pointed up at him with a "Sunray!" and tried to push myself further back. But the blast went clean through the specter, sending him swirling away in a light gust of embers and ash, leaving behind the eerie echo of "Save Me" as it all faded to nothing.

"Freakin' A! Evie! What's wrong?" Sibylla called out, spinning around and looking for the threat.

Lilith had her tiny bow out and was scanning into the distance where my spell had burned into a hill, but soon enough, she turned back, too, "Evelyn, what happened?"

"Did you two not see that thing?! There was a ghost! It was falling apart right next to me!"

Lilith looked around again but then just looked concerned, "No, Evelyn. I didn't see any ghosts, and I was looking right at you. Are you feeling alright?"

Sibylla came to stand beside her, "Oh. I get it. Yeah, I get a little weird when I'm hungry too. Maybe we should eat some dinner before we investigate this place. It looks like a lot more work."

"No, I'm not hallucinating!" I said with some frustration, "It just appeared when I turned back and was like, save me! It blew away in ashes when I hit it with sunray!"

"Wait," Sibylla said while crossing her arms. "It asked you for help, and you murdered the poor thing?!"

"That isn't what happened! It was just right there in front of me with its spooky dead face and no eyes and crabs crawling out of it, and it scared me half to death! I killed it in self-defense – only it didn't really die, because then it said, save me! But then, if this place is haunted, it should have been saying 'save us,' and now I'm completely justified because that ghost was selfish and mean!" I was still panting when I was done, but Sibyl just looked disappointed. "Oh, come on! It's not my fault! I don't do ghosts!"

She just shook her head. "You would have hated my Ouija board collection. I guess we'll have to keep an eye out for ghosts now or whatever."

"You had a Ouija board collection? Why?" I asked, not entirely just to change the subject.

She shrugged, "I think they're neat. Besides, when I was an angsty teenager, sometimes I just needed someone to talk to. I had some really neat ones, too. I found an original Kennard Novelty Ouija board from the eighteen-nineties at a thrift store. It was still in pretty good shape, stored in a little glass case. I wonder what happened to it."

"Uh. Yeah. That sounds.. neat. You guys aren't messing with me? You really didn't see him?"

They both gave a slow shake of the head, and Lilith said, "We didn't see anything."

I sat there, looking at them for a few seconds before I sighed, "Alright. Well, lets eat a quick snack I guess. We're running out of daylight. But I'm not crazy!"

Rather than give Sibyl time to set up her ridiculous travel kitchen again, I began pulling out precooked wraps that would be easy to eat quickly. I wanted to get back to work to figure this town out and to see if there were any clues about why a random ghost just appeared out of nowhere. I sighed a few bites in, annoyed that eating really was making me feel better.

Lilith broke my train of thought, though, "I don't like how churned up the soil and sand is around the town. Something about it looks off."

I looked down at the ground around the town and watched it for a bit while I ate before I noticed what she meant, "It's weird how it only looks like that around the outside of the town. Well, other than that giant strip in the middle, of course. Maybe we should avoid that.. or maybe even avoid this town entirely. It's giving me a bad vibe, and I think it's pretty obvious what happened here."

Sibylla huffed at my words. "Aw, don't be such a spoil sport. We'll find a way in without going in the murder dirt or whatever. We still need more clues on why this place looks like.. that, and the other place is just empty. Besides. I have an idea!"

I looked at her with some concern, "This isn't something we're going to regret, is it?"

She beamed at me, "Absolutely not. It's so brilliant I scare myself. Hurry up and eat so we can go be awesome!"

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out before stuffing the last of my wrap into my mouth and standing up to brush myself off. Lilith joined us a moment later, and carefully, we began making our way down the hill toward the town. The closer we got, the more we felt the same desolation that the other village had. It was as if scavengers wouldn't even come near the place. Haunt became more agitated as well, but I could tell he was only feeling the same thing we were – like the place wasn't nearly as empty as it appeared. But I kept my spiritual senses up the entire time and never once spotted a thing. We finally stopped on the road outside the town about twenty feet back from the encirclement of the disturbed soil. Unlike the path of destruction through the center of town, this path was only about twenty meters wide. With how chaotically the soil was turned, it looked impossible to cross without sinking in somewhere. How the soil stayed so loose with the random rains over the past month and while being so close to the water didn't make sense to me, either. After a minute or so, I motioned Haunt back to the hill.

"Haunt, you stay on that hill and keep an eye out. I can jump the rest of us across."

Sibylla's eyes lit up and she flashed into a fox, but Lilith asked, "Are you sure, Evie?"

I nodded with a grin and knelt down, scooping Sibylla into my arms, "Hop on!"

"… Alright. But don't tell anyone about this part when we get back."

I didn't make any promises. Once she was on my back and had a good grip, I took a few steps forward before using [Heroic Leap] to launch us across the gap. Just to be safe, I activated [Levitation Aura] to carry us high above the churned earth, only gently bringing us down with [Slow Fall] with some space between us and the border of the town. The moment Sibylla's paws touched the ground, she flashed back into her foxgirl form and gave me a quick hug, making putting Lilith down just a little awkward.

"That was great! We should do that all the time!"

I snorted, "You realize we can shapeshift into other things, too, like birds, right?" She gasped, but I raised a hand, "No, no, not right now. We have things to do!"

"Pfft. Yeah, whatever. Okay, let's make our way toward that manor house."

Lilith moved to take the lead, "Alright, but keep an eye out for anything. Any information on what happened is our goal, but I don't like the feel of this place. Something is making me feel like we're being watched and could be ambushed at any moment."

We both nodded our agreement, and she began leading the way. The cobblestones of the town's roads and walkways were a mess, many of them broken or knocked out of place. The buildings were even worse up close. I could see the dark stains on the walls, showing this was nothing like the village we'd passed earlier in the day. The only thing they had in common was the lack of bodies, but the bloodstains and signs of violence covering every inch of this place made it very obvious that the people here had come to a bad end. It had been too long for even Lilith to determine what exactly had killed them, but I had a strong feeling from the way things were smashed apart that it was the same army of monsters that tried to attack Siren's Reach. They wouldn't explain the amount of damage to the walls, though, and I knew we had to be missing something. We ended up walking beside the path of destruction in the center of the town, which somehow felt less eerie than the one surrounding the outer wall until we made it to the destroyed manor house. The moment we stepped onto the grounds, Sibylla spun with a huge smile on her face.

"Perfect! Uh, dear beloved sister, may I speak on your behalf regarding this territory?"

I raised an eyebrow, but at her playful pleading look, I sighed and nodded, "You may."

"In the name of Lady Evelyn, I hereby declare this land conquered and under her control. Henceforth, this town shall be known as The Eternal Monument to the Unending Failures of Sir Lord Edgar Whatshisface of Blackstone."

I froze, and Lilith groaned again, "Why?"

War Alert: The Town of Darkwater Downs has been conquered by Lady Evelyn of Siren's Reach!

War Alert: The Town of Darkwater Downs has been renamed – The Eternal Monument to the Unending Failures of Sir Lord Edgar Whatshisface of Blackstone.

War Alert: The Estate of Darkwater Downs has been conquered by Lady Evelyn of Siren's Reach!

Congratulations! You have conquered The Estate of Darkwater Downs! The Village 'Lord Edgar Whatever of Blackstone is a Stupid Lazy Cow,' and Town 'The Eternal Monument to the Unending Failures of Sir Lord Edgar Whatshisface of Blackstone' have been allocated to this manor for control.

Title Awarded! [Lady of Darkwater Downs]! You may now manage this estate.

I sagged with the anxiety that having a mismanaged estate drove into you, and turned my unimpressed gaze on Sibylla. She only smiled in return.

"Now he'll have no choice but to come here! I'll make this place even harder to find, and then we can cause some real trouble up at Blackstone Keep while he's away!"

Lilith looked around, exasperated, "You know we can't take Blackstone Keep from him if there are still people there, right? This only worked because there was no resistance."

Sibylla rolled her eyes, "Obviously! We can capture it later. I just want to go paw through all his stuff and maybe leave behind some surprises."

I stared at her for a moment, "Don't you think that might be a little much? I mean, we've already done a lot more than we planned for."

"A little much? Evelyn, how many of your people has this guy murdered? You realize he's just going to get away with that, right? We'd be really stupid to let this opportunity pass us by. Even if you manage to end this war without more bloodshed, he needs to pay."

I sighed, "Fine. But why do I feel like there is more to this than you're letting on?"

A shy smile started to spread on her face, but before she could say a word, Lilith called out, "Girls, I think it's time to go."

Our attention shifted to follow her gaze toward the water, but I didn't see anything. "What's wrong?"

"The beach moved."

I blinked at her, "Uh?" but as I watched, I felt barely noticeable tremors under my feet as the entire beach seemed to shift a few inches closer to the town. "Oh. That's not good."

Beside us, the churned-up path of destruction began to shift in a few places, and dozens of palm-sized crabs began to scutter out, giving me a horrible flashback to the one scurrying across the ghost's face. We all began to back off when two black sticks were partly exposed. With a small cry of "Oh!" Sibylla pounced forward, tossing away a four-foot-long strip of the broken earth to reveal two scabbarded swords attached to the tattered remains of a belt and about three hundred more of the crabs that began to swarm in every direction. She didn't hesitate for a moment, leaping in, somehow balancing on top of several of the crustaceans as she snagged the swords and bounced back to us with a completely unnecessary backflip.

She landed with a huge grin, hugging her treasure to her chest, "Ok! I'm ready, let's go!" And in a blink, she was a fox, sprinting toward the north side of town and the nearest exit. I looked around and saw the little crabs were everywhere, but when my eyes landed on the town gate, I saw crabs the size of a super cow beginning to break the surface, and I knew it was time to go. Lilith sprinted after Sibylla, and I turned to follow when one last look at the beach had me spotting a shell beginning to lift the sand. With how much sand was moving, I could tell that whatever this was, it was definitely big enough to be the thing that caused that massive swath of devastation through the center of the town, and I started to get a bad feeling. I hit the bit of its shell I could see with a quick Insight.

[Swarmcaller K'thralis - Dungeon Floor Boss, level 38.]

"What?" I started, but a howl from Haunt in the distance was enough to get my feet moving. With a burst of speed, I swept up Lilith into a princess carry, her tiny form turning out to be incredibly convenient, and as I caught up to Sibylla, she casually jumped into Lilith's arms. I didn't quite make it to the wall before I had to use [Heroic Leap] to escape the crabs swarming toward us from every direction. My levitation aura took hold, and the crabs below began to churn in a chaotic circle where we'd launched from, seemingly unable to figure out where we'd gone. I saw Haunt circling worriedly on the hill I'd told him to stay on, so I sent him a nudge along our bond to let him know where I was. He bolted in our direction, careful not to get too close to the rapidly frenzying swarm of crustaceans, and met up with us not too far from the town when I let us drift to the ground. We kept sprinting for some time, but when I finally looked back, the road behind us was empty.

"Wa..wait!" I breathed out as I began to slow, and Haunt slowed to a trot, turning back to circle us as I carefully put Lilith and Sibyl back down on their feet.

They both looked behind us, watching the road for any pursuit before Sibyl groaned. "Oh man, I didn't get a chance to set up any fun traps for them!"

Lilith shook her head, "I think the moment they walk into that town, they're going to have enough problems."

I took a moment to catch my breath, "That thing on the beach was a dungeon floor boss. How is that even possible?"

Lilith spun on me, "Are you certain?"

I nodded, slowly pacing as my stamina recovered, "I hit it with insight before I ran. It was called Swarmcaller K'thralis. Does that ring any bells?"

"No. I've never heard of a floor boss outside a dungeon before. We'll have to report this to the guild and see what they have to say."

Sibylla finally turned to face us, hands on her hips, "So those were dungeon monsters then? Kind of disappointing they were just crabs. I was expecting Lovecraftian horrors."

I snorted, "Yeah, give it time. I'm sure we'll find some of those just for you. A lot of monsters are similar to real things in the world, only mutated by magic. I'm sure they had some ridiculous twist we didn't get a chance to see."

She shrugged, "Probably better that we didn't. The sun is going to set soon. We'd best keep going."

I took one glance back toward the town filled with monsters, "Yeah, let's go."