Deep Embrace
"Perri, this is a stupid idea," Jan warned.
The raven-haired woman ignored him, adjusting the heavy rucksack slung over her shoulders, the straps pulling down on her deep blue-violet cloak, the yellow trim along the hems dusty from the day spent trudging through the old woods.
"We have a chance to slow the spread of the Creep, and to answer a mystery that's decades old," she told him, her purple eyes, a sign of her magical talent, glinting in the sunlight as it filtered through the dried canopy of the sickly forest.
"I really doubt we can achieve that," Jan added, his own brown hair, short and scruffy, hardly as elegant as her silken strands hanging to her shoulders. His blue eyes were at least bright and vibrant like her own, if more mundane in nature.
He looked down with a start, face tensing in momentary panic as he stepped in something squishy, but fortunately his heavy black leather boots just sank into some mud, a half-dried stream nearby.
He sighed, pulling his foot from the gooey soil and brushing down his thick cloth travelling garb, a light grey cloak, thinner and far less fancy than Perri's, covering his beige shirt and black pants.
He didn't see much of what she wore beneath, just her brown shoes, but it seemed far less suited to trudging through half-dead forests than what he had.
"Always so negative," Perri chastised. "You know my Guild has been doing research. We've already discovered ways to push the Creep back or at least delay it. If we're correct, and we find Weyland Manor, then my own research might have a chance to be vindicated."
"And what if they're alive?" Jan asked pointedly, stopping in his tracks and spreading his arms questioningly.
Perri turned around, her sharp features beautiful but piercing, thin lips tensing as she fixed him with a stern glare. Jan was a little more rounded in his face, but thin stubble helped him look a little older. He did not waver under her withering stare.
"If they're alive, then we deal with them," she said simply, turning around and continuing along the path, her steps agitated.
He shook his head and trailed after her, gripping the hilt of the short sword he had at his side.
"Perri, the Manor may have been connected to your family once, but your connection with it is about as great as mine," he spoke up.
"So what? I told you, we find out answers, or we successfully stall the spread of the Creep into this forest, or even both!"
"Perri, I've known you for a long time, this isn't just about your theory."
"Clearly you don't know me well enough. I mean, look around you," she shot back, turning around and gesturing to the forest. The trees had thinned out, everything had a greyness to it, much of the grass dry and crunchy, yellowed or greyed, even the soil was a pale grey colour. It almost seemed like a fire had gone through the place, though there were no signs of that. The leaves were dry and the canopy was sparse. The sunlight shone through and lit the forest well enough, but it resulted in a strange, grey light, the faintest mist seemingly hanging in the air, even though the weather was on the warmer side.
The place looked ill, if not dead.
"This is undoubtedly the effects of nascent Creep corruption, the early stages at least."
"But I thought the reports from the deeper Creeplands said forests were full of corrupted life and not barren like this place," he retorted.
"Once they've undergone complete subversion, sure, but the early stages, the Creep must strangle or suck the life out of things before corrupting them," she said confidently.
He wasn't so sure, but she was leading, and he followed, shaking his head.
"I hope you're right about this, but it's just the two of us, we can't expect to fight an army of Spawn out here."
"I don't expect to," she assured. "This early on in corruption, there isn't enough Creep around for more than the odd Spawn. They tend to stay where the Creep is more concentrated, only the more adventurous types roam further afield."
"You say that like Spawn aren't tethered to the Creep," he said, suddenly eyeing his surroundings warily.
"Come on, Jan, you should know this; they don't venture from the Creep because it empowers them and lets them escape and heal. Away from the Creep, they're more likely to die, but nothing stops them from going further towards untainted lands, they're just not as strong. Doesn't stop them trying to infiltrate some of the bordering towns on the edge of the Creeplands either."
"Right, right," he answered, shivering when he recalled stories of men and women, human and the rare non-human, being seduced by disguised Spawn and corrupting them, whisking them away into the Creeplands, never to return. Some rumours told of entire villages falling to the Spawn, from just a single one.
It made him less inclined to follow Perri, but he owed her. Besides, they were partners, this was what they were supposed to do. And he knew Spawn could be killed or at least driven away, they were not invincible.
Didn't mean he wanted to encounter one.
They came to a break in the road, the ground torn up and lifted a little. Perri climbed up and helped Jan up after her, not that he needed her assistance, but he nodded his appreciation.
That was when they saw it, in the distance; Weyland Manor.
The three-story house presented an imposing facade, looming over a large but now untended grounds, overgrown with dried grass and bushes, the iron fencing rusted and falling away in places.
The manor itself seemed to be mostly intact, the North and South wings on either side Almost as large as the central structure, the angular roof in the middle topped with a four pointed star, each point sporting a pair of protruding 'barbs'. The Weyland Crest.
On the top floor of the central structure, overlooking the grounds was a circular window, but it was so dusty and dirty, seeing inside was impossible.
It would've been a magnificent building once, but even if intact, Jan could tell it had fallen into decay, its brick walls cracked and many of its windows shattered. Paint was peeling, and wooden panels from the trim and the awnings were hanging down.
It had lost its colour, seemingly as grey as the rest of the forest, only adding to the ominous aura it exuded.
But there was something more unsettling they noticed; wrapped around the South wing to the right, snaking into one of the top windows, was an oily, glossy vein of Creep, the shine seemingly shifting as if it were constantly but ever so slowly moving.
Jan gulped at this, but Perri seemed to harden her features.
"This proves the presence of Creep. And that this place is the source," she said. "We will need to move quickly. Give it time, and it will more directly spread its taint. For all we know, Creep is running beneath our feet this very moment."
"Oh, very reassuring," Jan groaned as he fell in behind her, Perri taking the lead as she pushed one of the iron gates open, squealing on its terribly rusty hinges, the noise making Jan winced. They didn't need to herald their arrival.
They walked along the brick path running through the front garden, wilted flowers and overgrown grasses filling the plots, the bricks beneath them uneven and cracked from overgrowth, though everything still seemed dry and lifeless.
The front steps creaked beneath their feet, and the pair of front doors groaned ominously when Perri pushed them inside.
The smell of musty, stale air hit them both, dust raining off the two doors. It was only after they were opened and the dust shaken off that Jan saw the crest carved into each.
Walking inside, they were met with a crushing gloom, only a few shafts of light piercing through holes in the roof and ceiling offering any illumination deeper into the manor, away from the front door.
Two sets of stairs flanked the main foyer, with large double doors leading into the two wings, as well as directly ahead on the lower floor. The upper floor balcony surrounded the room, looking down onto the wooden floor below.
Old, rotted furniture hugged the walls, the ornate banisters clearly damaged by water and woodlice.
Everything had a sense of old decay. Not utterly destroyed, but the place would've been condemned if it were in any civilised territory. Its only saving grace was, despite the holes in the ceiling and the roof, everything seemed structurally sound otherwise.
Jan coughed, dust irritating his throat, but he cast wary glances to the doors on the right leading to the South Wing.
Perri, meanwhile, seemed to be having a moment. Whether it was melancholy or intrigue or something else, he couldn't tell.
She stopped, and faced him.
"We need to find something that looks like it could be a source for the Creep. A core, or a seed, or something. Anything that looks like Creep is emerging from."
"Looking forward to it," Jan groaned sarcastically.
"Oh quit your whining, we'll be fine," she said, flipping her palm up, and twitching her fingers as she summoned a small, burning sphere of fire. It was rather impressive, magic often requiring an incantation or something like a staff or similar magical implement.
But with the right enchantments, and some other traits, and appropriate skill, a mage could cast simple magic, typically elemental magic, with their thoughts.
He wondered if there was something special about her cloak, perhaps some magical embellishments stitched into the inside.
Whatever, he did feel a little more confident with her around, but she extinguished the ball of flame, difficult to keep ready at all times.
He felt slightly less comfortable with it gone, and less confident when she made for the door to the south wing.
"I guess we're doing this," he said. All the same, he steeled himself; if she was right, and there was a way to stop or slow the Creep's spread here, it'd be a small but important victory against the terrible corruption spreading from the heart of a diseased land. If nothing else, he knew he had to have resolve for that.
Perri carefully pushed one of the doors open, revealing a hallway, eerily lit by the sunlight coming through the dirty windows overlooking the front grounds on the right side. On the left were doors, along with more furniture, and between them, on the walls, were old, rotted paintings.
They were of people and landscapes, but moisture and vermin had rendered them unrecognisable, save for a handful.
One, Perri stopped in front of, looking at it silently.
"What is it?" Jan asked, before taking a look for himself.
It was a portrait of a woman, sitting on a chair, hands in her lap, clothed in a black dress with white shirt and sleeves beneath, looking regal and elegant despite her expressionless visage.
The paint was damaged and the canvas warped from moisture, but he could make out the details well enough, the woman's purple eyes just barely discernible, long, dark hair, straight and silky, hanging down behind her back. She had a soft, beautiful face, a beauty mark just left of her nose, her fringe high above her eyes exposing her forehead.
Soft lips remained flat, betraying no emotion. And yet, there was something oddly melancholic about it.
