Blue light

Freya has been away from the school for almost six months.

She had been travelling west for almost a month with the sun rising at her back and setting in her sights almost each day,

she had journeyed past countless villages some in which she had to Lodge for the night, but her destination was now in sight, no more lodging or stopping to rest.

Freya had been assigned on a clandestine mission by MAC.

There was a village to the far west, rumors had it that the tentacles of the emperor had gotten to the village and under the guise of a normal non mage village, they wreaked havoc on other villages and set demons on rampage.

Freya had to go there on a recon mission and not engage their forces.

After passing Myani, the last village, there had been several reports of injured or missing people who wandered deep into the woods in the dead of the night.

Freya moving at full speed crossed the small forest in three hours, the sun was just staring to set once again.

Perching on a tall tree, she opened her bag and fetched a pair of binoculars.

She scanned the entire area in the red glow of the retreating sun.

There wasn't much to see, it was a moderately large village with roofs which looked almost alike spread out throughout the village.

There were free people moving around the village in contrast to the number of houses which were huddled close to each other in the village, the passes between the house was quite narrow, the main roads were just slightly wider.

There was smoke from a fee houses with chimneys, so surely people were about.

Freya moved the binoculars from her eyes, then she saw a flash race across her binoculars, she quickly returned the binoculars to her eyes and turned to her left.

Two men clad in red and black strap like jackets were pulling someone into a house, she was sure she hadn't seen this men few seconds ago.

'Where did they appear from' she scanned the house and could only see a window close to the corner of the wall where the West end met the north end.

She quickly jumped to the next tree to get a better view, when she still couldn't see, she moved on to the next.

She looked into the small window, she could see a wooden table.

She saw someone's hands on the table, she couldn't see a face but she could also see the person who had been pulled into the building she was so sure because of the black cloth he wore.

Through the window, she could see a part of the brown cloth on a chair.

One of the two in red cloak stood behind the chair, there was movement of hands over the table like there was some sort of argument.

Then a knife from the man in a red cloak flashed in the air before stabbing the hand of the brown clothed guy to the table.

If there were screams, she didn't hear them, but there was a lot of thrashing and she could see the man writhe in pain gripping his bloodied hand on the table.

The sun was already going down and it was getting harder to see.

She had to find a place to stay for the night.

As she was about to jump down from the tree, she saw a sudden blue light from the building, it illuminated the room for a second then dimmed back to a single candle light which didn't do much to illuminate the dark room.

Freya dropped from the tree and walked into the village, she folded her bow by it's hinges and ran a hand over her hair tying it in a knot behind, she was trying to avoid anything that drew attention to her as much as possible.

She walked through an empty street, the houses huddled close to each other on this end of the village as if the cold weather also affected them.

The wide roofs of the houses threw a shadow over her figure as she walked through the houses the houses were made of brown bricks with mostly thatched roof coated with some sort of wax to keep the interior warm.

A number of windows opened out into the street pouring out a slightly orange glow into the almost dark evening, providing little light for Freya who could see in the dark almost as well.

Somewhere between a few houses, far left stood a well in a little open space, Freya surmised it was where the people living around that area went to fetch water.

The area around the well was barely visible, there was a whiff of fog covering the outline the of the well.

The scene gave off an eerie feeling, up ahead she could see lights shining in the distance.

She could make out a free figures under the lights, she decided to turn into another road and continue her journey but as she made her way up to the intersection, the sign post under the light made her rethink her decision, it said 'BRIBOW INN'.

Just what she was looking for, a place to spend the night, better still it was close to the end of the village making it a more suitable spot.

She trod up to the hill in short strides, not minding the cold night air beating against her exposed face and arms, few of the people at the front of the inn began to disperse just as she had wished in her mind.

She grabbed a shawl and splayed it over her neck hiding her red hair and the a better part of her face as she walked into the inn.

The few men who were gathered at the front of the inn had reduced to two.

The two men stared at her as she walked up to the entrance of the inn.

They took a quick glance at her and averted their eyes, dismissing her as a pauper who had come to spend the night at a cheap inn.