The Hunt for Justice

The throne room of Dies Irae was shrouded in a state of semi-gloom in the fading light filtering down through the windows high above. The plethora of candles scattered throughout the hall did their best to chase away the shadows, but in Sayuri’s opinion the deep gray of the granite walls seemed to absorb their futile efforts. Instead, the wavering flames sent the shadows flickering about, as though something was stalking through the guild hall. A slight draft in the hall set the red and gold banners swaying, which only served to amplify the effect. Sayuri glanced around and shuddered for a moment, then straightened slightly, trying to push the unease from her mind.

“Stop being fanciful,” she chided herself under her breath, tugging at the sleeve of her guild uniform to straighten it out, as well as to distract herself. “The hall has never seemed this spooky before. You’re being ridiculous.”

Still, the dim orange glow radiating from the crystals on the headpiece the slim brunette wore revealed that she was still on edge. Perhaps it’s because of the matter at hand, she thought.

She was currently standing in front of Dies Irae’s job board, peering at the job listings in the flickering light. Well, not all the listings- she really only had eyes for one in particular. Mercurius Savel. Sayuri had heard the name tossed around a few times before. Rumor is that he was part of some dark guild at one point, although no one could agree which one. But he’d either left because he hated the few restraints they placed on him, or been kicked out for being too extreme even for them, depending on who you believed.

After that he had mostly faded from view until recently, when it came to light that he had been practicing his curse magic on children, experimenting with new spells, to devastating effects for his victims. And it may have stayed a secret if he hadn’t made a simple mistake. He picked the wrong child to target. Before that he had focused his attention on troubled, abused, and orphaned children. Those that no one would notice had gone missing, or the ones that people would assume had just finally run off for good. But his latest victim had been missed, and a cry had gone up to locate the boy. Unfortunately, by the time he had been found it had been too late to save him, but he’d been able to reveal the identity of his attacker before his tragic death.

Exposed in the town where he’d been living under cover, Mercurius had fled deep into the Cursed Lands. A mage who had gone after him had discovered he was holed up in an old abandoned manor house, but had not been strong enough to take him down. And now, it seemed that Mercurius had even made it to Dies Irae’s job board. The family of the last victim had put up a generous reward for anyone who could bring him to justice. Capture was good, but death was even better, so they say.

Sayuri clenched her hand on the hilt of one of the two swords sheathed at her waist. She had initially come here looking for some easy job she could do to fill some time. She’d had no intention whatsoever of going off after a dangerous dark mage. But… The fact that he had targeted children made her blood boil. She wanted to bring him down more than anything, to make sure that he never got a chance to do that to anyone else.

Still, she couldn’t deny the fact that he was entirely too strong for her to take on by herself, and she was so new to the guild that she didn’t really have anyone she could ask to take on the mission with her. She sighed.

“Oh well, there’s nothing else for it,” she muttered to herself, a bad habit she’d picked up after spending entirely too much time on her own. “You’ll just have to pick something else.”

She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she turned her attention to the rest of the job board. Maybe something else would spark her interest.