Attack of the Reils?

After a long and very tiring journey, the small village of Tissling finally came into Eno's field of vision. But something was wrong because the entire village was surrounded by a five-meter-high stone wall.

Enos frowned,

"The wall is new," he told Gilfred.

"You mean they've been building this wall for the last few months?"

"It seems so," said Enos shrugging his shoulders.

According to his information, there were mages in the village, but the most powerful of them was the mayor at just rank two, so he was a demi.

Otherwise, the village had neither a strong armed force nor any powerful allies. Nor did Enos hear of any enemies that could have taken over this village. Besides, Enos would not understand why they would then take Tissling of all towns.

They continued walking and soon passed an old farmhouse. Staring at them from one of the windows was an old man. Enos did not know him, but something about this person struck him as strange. It was something about his eyes, but Nero couldn't catch it and shook it off as his imagination. They rode on and finally came to the wooden gate of the wall. Enos went over and knocked hard on the gate. A small slit in the gate opened, and a pair of mad-looking eyes peered out,

"Who is it?"

Blaffte a croaky voice full of dislike.

Enos frowned,

"This is Lord Valir Enos, Lord of the City Guard and Administrator of the County of Glorios. I come because of the missing tax payments of the last months and because of the disappeared messengers that should be sent here."

The eyes narrowed slightly and then disappeared. A short time later the gate opened and two people stood there to receive them. One was a young man, slightly taller than Enos, with pitch black hair, and a very tall and scrawny man, with shaggy fiery red hair. Enos could not determine his age, because he looked young and old at the same time, which confused him quite a bit. The eyes of the black-haired man seemed to pierce Enos, but then the young man smiled and bowed slightly,

"Welcome to our small tranquil village of Tissling. I am Nero, the mayor's son, and this is Ester, my father's advisor and deputy."

Enos eyed the young man anew,

"Very well, I would like to speak with your father, Nero. Can you take me to him?"

"But of course, Lord Enos," Nero bowed slightly again, "Please follow me,"

With that, he turned and walked off.

Quickly Enos and his companion followed him into the village.

Enos quickly noticed something strange, for absolutely no one was out in this village. Not a single person was out and about. The person who greeted them so rudely at the gate was also nowhere to be seen. It was a sunny and warm day in the middle of Sunday, but except for the two people who had greeted them, not a single soul was outside. All the windows were drawn with curtains and it was dead quiet. No children could be heard and no grumpy old men sitting in their rocking chairs. But still, Enos felt watched from all sides, as if dozens of eyes were on him, watching his every move.

Nero seemed to be able to read his mind and apologized,

"I'm sorry that the people of this village are so suspicious. We are not used to strange visits and recently had a problem with a group of bandits or some. Actually, they are really nice, but I'm sure my father will tell you more."

With that, they continued walking. They walked a good distance before Enos finally saw the first villagers. It was a large square in the center of the village of Tissling right in front of the town hall. Several children were laughing and screaming playing tag, parents talking to each other, and even the old grumpy grandpas were present.

"What is this?" asked Enos,

"This is our community square," Nero said happily, "Here the kids can play without worrying about getting lost or kidnapped or anything. Everything here is tightly guarded and well secured, we don't want the fiasco of that time again."

"What fiasco?" asked Gilfred curiously.

Nero waved them off, "My father will tell you in a minute. You can leave your horses here," Nero said and pointed to a small stable.

Enos looked over at the stable and nodded slowly,

"Okay well, you four stay with my horses. These animals are sacred to me, if something happens to them, the same fate will befall you. Come Gilfred, let's see the mayor,"

Gilfred once again looked pityingly at the four soldiers. He had trained them all himself and knew Enos' love for horses. But after a short hesitation, he followed with Enos, Nero, and Ester.

They walked towards the town hall and entered. They went up a small staircase to a locked door,

"Father," Nero called out, knocking three times, "we have a visitor."

"Come right in." said a croaking voice from within.

Nero opened the door and indicated with a waving hand, that they could enter. Enos and Gilfred did so immediately.

Nero followed, but Ester remained outside in the hallway without saying a word. The mayor was a short plump man, in his middle years. He had many wrinkles on his face, which actually indicated that he smiled often, but his expression was serious and suspicious as he eyed Enos and Gilfred. Then he looked at the smiling Nero, who seemed to be sending him a silent signal, and the mayor began to smile in a friendly way, although it seemed very forced,

"How can I be of service to you, gentleman?" the mayor asked curtly,

"I am Lord Valir Enos, Lord of the City Guard and Administrator of the County of the City Glorios and this is Lord Gilfred, the head of the academy for soldiers in the service of the army and he is my companion in this case. We come because of the missing tax payments that should have been made over the last few months."

The eyes of the mayor widened slightly,

"Yes, of course, we have already prepared the payments." He said quickly,

"ESTER, WILL YOU BRING US THE TAX MONEY PLEASE." He shouted out, and a short while later the red-haired man stepped through the door with two small sacks full of night and sun thalers. Enos took them and after a quick check, was satisfied to find that the sum was accurate to the exact sun thaler. He nodded in satisfaction,

"Well, may I know what all this is about? With the wall and why you didn't pay the taxes? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were in trouble with somebody."

The mayor sighed and sank deeper into his chair,

"A few months ago, we sent taxpayers to your city, as we do every month, but the courier did not return this time. So we sent another one the next month, but he never returned either. This seemed strange to us and we started to worry, so we sent a small force of a dozen men to investigate. Two weeks later, a single badly wounded man returned with only one sentence to go out: 'They are coming'. After we doctored and nursed him, he finally regained consciousness and, full of panic, told us what had happened. After about a day's march, they were sneak attacked by strange-looking creatures. According to his description, they looked like humans, but only at first glance. Immediately it is noticeable that they are quite different from humans. They have unnatural black skin and are large and muscular. One is even said to have had more than two eyes and another is said to have at least four arms. They massacred our small force with superhuman strength and only one of our men successfully escaped."

Eno's eyes widened slightly,

"That sounds like Reils?"

The mayor nodded,

"Yes, we thought so too. We then panicked so much that we drew a wall around our entire village and trained all the residents in combat. We didn't dare leave the safety of the village anymore, I apologize for that."

Enos remained silent. This was terrible news. If they really were Reils, then they had broken the truce and invaded their territory. Enos could not imagine that they were only after the village's measly tax payments. They definitely had a larger goal, but Enos did not know what it could be. He looked at Gilfred and could see the same doubts in his gaze.

-Now at least we know where our messengers have gone. But why didn't they attack us too? Because we are Ancients and they have none? No, I can't imagine that, the Reils wouldn't send such a weak army if they risked an invasion.-

Many thoughts twitched through Eno's head, but he shook them away and looked at the mayor again. Something about him was not right, but he could not point out what it was,

"May we talk to that man who saw the creatures?"

The mayor shook his head sadly,

"Unfortunately, you're a little late for that. He took his own life shortly after he told us about it. I'm sorry."