Paladins: Actions, Consequences, and Missed Stakes

Laina was still watching when Raven suddenly reappeared, waving at her from the shadow of the tower. She rose and slipped through the wooden fence, glancing back to see that Damlok was following her. She'd been watching for the last hour, as the shadow of the tower grew shorter but the rocks blocking its doorway became a scattered spill in the shadow. Raven had been doing her work quietly, and as quickly as she could manage. 

She's amazing, Laina thought, as she and Damlok walked confidently through the knee-high grass to the tower. They kept its height between themselves and the manor house as best they could, and though she listened Laina heard no sounds of alarm. 

"It's the best I can do," Raven said, and Laina could see the concern behind her lack of expression. 

Laina looked at the formerly-blocked doorway; the top half of the stones were gone, but so was half of the shadow that offered them any chance at concealment. "This is good. This will work". She met the smaller girl's eyes -- Raven was actually a handful of years older than she was, but something in her petite build and the way she carried herself made her seem younger and more vulnerable. "You did well."

Someone was shouting, back in the direction of the manor house. None of them could make out the words, and nobody seemed to be looking their direction, so maybe they hadn't been discovered yet, but-- "Get inside," Laina said. "I'll cover us." 

"No," said Raven, and slipped the ring back into place. Her voice spoke from the place where she no longer seemed to standing. "You get inside. Let me cover you."

"What should I...?" asked Damlok, as Laina threw herself over the remaining stones that blocked the lower half of the entrance, rolled, and came to her feet. 

"Follow me to see your father," Laina whispered, "or huddle down and see what's going on at the house. Your call."

The boy vaulted over the wall. "This is more important," he said. 

Somewhere in the distance, someone screamed and something roared. 

"Hurry," Raven whispered. There was a faint slithering sound as she pulled herself over the remaining stones, but she didn't reappear. 

The inside of the tower was dark, stone stairs off to the left faintly illuminated by the light from above. Laina started off in that direction, expecting the vampire to have taken an upper room. 

Damlok pulled on her sleeve and pointed, and Laina turned and let the boy lead her to the center of the ground floor... where a human figure lay sleeping on the dirt. Clearly the child could see in the dark. 

The figure was sprawled in an ungainly mess, his head on a silk-covered pillow but his body resting face-down against the dirt. He was fully dressed, in a respectable dark coat with a linen shirt showing the edges of collar and sleeves underneath. Laina considered him for only a brief moment before she pulled the wooden stake out of her coat, and the hammer from its loop on her belt. Facedown he lay, and facedown she staked him into place.

In the darkness, she could only half-see his body shrivel in its place; but Damlok, she was certain, could see everything. "Are you still with me, Damlok?" 

The child put a hand around her wrist. "Yes. He... that... wasn't human. Mother was right."

"You may want to step back outside, or at least go watch at the door with Raven," Laina told him. "This next part is going to be even uglier."

Damlok nodded and departed, leaving her blessedly alone. She pulled the silver bread-knife from her belt, and used it to separate Mileth Tekilan's head from his body. Then she took the holy symbol she'd been given at the temple of Amun, and placed it in his mouth. Finally she rose, carrying the head, and turned her steps back to the half-blocked doorway. 

Damlok would see this too, but maybe he needed to. He'd come of his own accord; she could at least hope that she wasn't doing the boy any more harm than necessary.