#46 Change of Plans
Shrill, ultrasonic screeching assaulted her ears and dark, leathery wings fluttered around her head, occasionally catching her hair. The stench of bat guano would have been enough to overwhelm a mortal’s senses, but not hers. Lady Beauvoir ignored it all as she cast her second sight around the wreckage of the belfry. The cracked bells and smashed timber had once resided hundreds of feet up in the towers of Barfunweltz Cathedral, but all had been brought crashing down to ground level when the False Apostle was defeated by the Gravewalkers.
The bells were riven, but the bats remained. Thousands of them: rat-sized vampire bats which swarmed over their victims to drain their blood in seconds; also massive fell bats larger than a man, even with wings tucked in as they hung upside down from the broken timber frames of the old bell housings.
Eventually, the vampire found what she was searching for: the chiropteran messenger of Queen Neferata. The Queen of Mysteries employed a multitude of different means of communication with her agents, all designed to safeguard the precious intelligence being shared. This time it was bat mail. Beauvoir found herself unusually nervous about reading Neferata’s missive: She was uncomfortably conscious that no matter how she had articulated them, the recent developments in Barfunweltz may have raised her Queen’s ire.
Her grand schemes had fallen considerably short of her expectations. Her plan had been to create a powerful leader of united undead factions; a leader who was indebted to her; one for whom she was an essential partner - and therefore a creature she could manipulate to her own ends. But in reality, the Pontifex Surrexit was impossibly enigmatic, staggeringly arrogant, utterly unrelatable and downright odd. Not only that, but she had discovered that the False Apostle's soul had in fact been split into an as yet unknown number of fragments. When and how this had happened was still a mystery. Her single remaining line of enquiry was an ancient engraving and a few vague references in the False Apostle's old journals. Her only hope was if Neferata's message contained additional intelligence, as requested.
The messenger bat squirmed in her hand as she grasped it and unflinchingly bit off its head. Then she sat down on a broken beam to digest the message from Nulahmia, ignoring the piercing cries and fluttering wings surrounding her.
As she read, a faint smile spread across her face, for Neferata had indeed provided her with a lead: It seemed that the Queen of Mysteries knew of a wight king last seen in the Realm of Ghyran who was known as the 'King of Thorns' and sometimes, 'Gulaab the Fool'. The combination of the phonic similarity to 'Kaphool' and the mention of thorns resonated with the False Apostle's reference to the 'thorn in his side'. If this was indeed linked to the Weirdstone of Barfun Moor, it might also suggest a geographical association with Barfunweltz.
Coincidences? Quite possibly, but she had no other leads to investigate. And a trip to Gyhran would provide a change of scene which might be refreshing. Things in Barfunweltz were far from satisfactory at the moment, but they did appear to be relatively stable and her agents were well placed: Marchioness Weiß was doing well infiltrating the Procession of the Foolish Martyrs while maintaining her cover within the aristocratic circles of the free people of Glymmsforge. She had even recently contributed a small contingent of zombie cavalry to swell the ranks of their deadwalkers.
The ever competent Anya Liedl was in full control of the Revivalist who, along with the Hermit of Barfunweltz, had predictably devoted herself and her Reformed Society to the service of the Pontifex Surrexit. Likewise, the vampire-turned-wight Voltaire the Mortified and his Errant Knights had adopted the Pontifex as their liege lord.
Thus the Foolish Martyrs and Reformed Society were both under close surveillance and control, and were both strong enough to resist any hostilities from the Raptured Court. The flesh-eaters' delusion did in fact seem to have accepted the other factions into a sort of ecumenical interrelationship (although Beauvoir knew better than to rely on the Baby-Eating Bishop and his deranged False Messiah).
Yes, she would leave Barfunweltz behind for a time. She would track down this 'King of Thorns' and maybe she would find the answers she sought. Perhaps, if she was lucky, this puppeteer might yet find herself a Petal of the Rose whom she could properly control.
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