Soul Merger

Alissa's heart nearly stopped as she froze. Poor Fili's eyes were flickering around looking for a way out, but the man apparently had experience holding knives to people. Clara let her crossbow fall to point at the ground, while Rosalina lowered her scepter and glared her hate at the man.

Ibaraki just sighed. "So you're the real murderer. Killed your target and dropped him in the lava? Or just figured he was monster shit and decided to make some easy money?"

"I'll be asking the questions thank you," Edward said as he pressed the blade closer on Fili's throat. "Drop that club of yours. And you in the back; get out of the shadows where I can see you. You're a better looking group than most, so if you do what I want without a fuss and I might have Mili memory wipe you instead of slitting your throats."

The archer rolled her eyes, while keeping an arrow pointed at Alissa. "Boss, I swear if I have to sit and watch you get your rocks off-"

"Shut up if you want a paycheck." The man shifted the knife a little to gesture his commands. "Club on the ground. You. Move."

"Of course." Alissa carefully stepped forwards. Meanwhile Ibaraki carelessly let her club fall onto the flame lizard's tail. She hoped the oni knew what was about to happen, but she couldn't give anything away.

"Hands out," the man said.

Alissa nodded again and slowly slipped her hands out of her cloak. "I'm unarmed." She moved up to where the rest of her friends were standing.

Then she shrugged the cloak off. "And you're a fool." Every man in the group went slack jawed and stared at her chest.

She drew her blade and sidestepped the first arrow. The elf woman had been aiming at her eye like an amatuer. As the archer nocked a second arrow Ibaraki leaped from her seat and tackled her. "Cat fight~" the possessed priestess yelled as she did her best to punch into the woman's kidneys.

Alissa continued towards Edward, but Fili didn't wait for a rescue. The mage slipped out of the stunned man's grasp and pressed her staff to his side. "Blood Boil!"

That snapped him out of his fugue with a scream. The orc merge came in to punish the mage, but a crossbow bolt tore through his shield and sent him reeling. Meanwhile Rosalina's lighting smashed into the mage's staff, causing him to cry in despair.

"Heal!" the bunny girl called out, letting the leader regain his composure, just in time for Alissa to try to cut his throat. The man had to half hand his bastard sword to block, and Alissa rewarded his effort by slashing his fingers.

"Fuck!" he roared, falling back, then lifting his blade high. Vertical Slice, trying to use his strength against her. Alissa palmed her dagger and waited.

Then he spit fire at her.

Alissa staggered back to dodge, losing her footing. The man charged after. "Crimson Finish!" The sword burst into flame, then rushed down at her.

She gave up on her Pinpoint Throw and rolled back to get to a crouch, tossing the knife blindly. It bounced off his armor, but the impact made him hesitate.

With a push she lunged forwards. Precise Stab, right at the gap between his greaves and codpiece. There was a moment of resistance from the chain beneath, but then her blade punched through. This time the man gave out a gasping squeak.

"He-" the bunny cleric's spell was cut off by Fili hitting her in the gut.

Alissa twisted her blade and jerked it loose, causing the man to fall to the ground clutching his wound. She wasn't sure if she'd hit the artery, but she settled the matter by planting her next strike in his eye. Her sword shivered as she punched all the way through to the stone beneath his head.

Looking up she saw the rest of the fights were over. The other warrior and the mage had been shot down by Clara's crossbow fire and Rosalina's lightning. The bunny girl was cowering as Fili held her at staff point, and Ibaraki was currently playing cat's cradle with the archer woman's intestines.

"Is that really necessary?" she asked the oni.

Ibaraki smirked at her. "No, but it's fun. And a good reminder about oni."

"Anyone hurt?" Rosalina asked, moving forwards.

"I'm fine," Alissa said.

"I'm okay." "Fine." "Doing great~!" the others added.

And now for the big problem. The brown haired woman currently huddled up against the wall while Fili kept a watchful eye. Alissa moved to Fili's side, while Ibaraki finished surrounding the woman. She felt some sympathy for the cornered woman, but she quickly stuffed it down, knowing what they'd been part of. "So. Want to give us the whole list of crimes so we don't have to sit in lockup while the guild investigates this nonsense?'

The woman blinked at her and tried to push deeper into the wall. "Must not betray the Flam family. Must not betray-" The bunny girl was shivering and repeating the words as a mantra.

"Think this one is broken," Ibaraki said with a shrug. "Be a while before we get sense out of her."

"I wonder why," Alissa said looking at the oni's bloody form. Well there was nothing to do about it now. "Clara, can you get me some rope? Our new friend needs to be properly tied up so we can talk to her without pointing deadly weapons at her."

"Sure thing." Clara pulled a rope from one of her pack's side pouches and tossed it over.

Alissa caught it and went to work tying their prisoner's hands and feet, while removing spare weapons. Not that the girl had more than a couple of knives. What the bunny girl did have was several bruises and scars hidden under her robes. Stuff that should have been healed.

Rosalina picked up the other healer's rod and started idly looking over the spells. "So! We've apparently killed a merchant lord's son and his entourage. And it'll be our word vs hers when we get to the guild."

"Might be the merchant lord himself now that his dad's dead," Clara pointed out. And wasn't that a pleasant thought. Alissa did not want to have to deal with the politics inherent in that mess.

"We could kill her." Ibaraki said.

Fili poked the oni. "You don't actually mean that, so stop."

"Tch, got me." The oni shrugged and walked back to pick up her club.

Alissa finished her rope work, ignoring the woman's shivering. She did a final check to make sure she wasn't cutting off the woman's circulation and stepped up handing the knives over to Rosalina. Then she took a deep breath and did her best to face the woman as a confidant. "My name's Alissa. What's yours?"

The woman blinked a few times before finally deciding it was okay to respond. "Caroline."

"Caroline, I saw the injuries you have. I'm guessing Edward Flam wasn't the kindest boss." The bunny girl looked down at the ground and bit her lip. Alissa pointed at the man's corpse. "He can't hurt you now. If you're willing to work with us we can find a way for all of us to get out of this mess with minimal guild involvement."

"I can't betray the Flam family, or their legacy," Caroline said. "They're all I have." Of course. The abusive loony would make sure his 'totally not a slave' priestess was isolated.

Fili sighed. "We're going to have to deal with a guild inquiry aren't we?"

Rosalina tapped her scepter on her palm. "We could memory wipe her and claim we found her wandering around. Blame the rogue delver or something."

"They'll probably get suspicious about missing memories." Clara said. "Pretty sure the guy they're blaming for all this isn't a trained priest."

Silence fell over the group. There really wasn't an easy way to handle this other than dropping all of their enemies into a lava pit. And Alissa wasn't a fan of killing humans who surrendered. Especially ones who'd obviously been abused into blind submission.

"Well let's get the full story while we're sitting here," Ibaraki said. The catgirl closed her eyes, and her posture shifted before Akari took control again. "Can someone get me some water? I want to clean some of the blood off before doing any rituals." Rosalina tossed Akari the orc man's canteen.

Alissa looked around to make sure no more threats were wandering towards them before turning her attention back to Akari. "What kind of ritual? I'm pretty sure mind reading is still a fantasy outside of certain very rare merges."

"I'm a cait sith merge," Akari said, working to clean her arms. "I'm afraid I'm going to do some necromancy."

A shiver went up Alissa's back. Necromancy wasn't well understood, for obvious reasons. But it wasn't forbidden due to the merges that could manage it. And as Akari had pointed out a while ago, cait sith were one of those merges. Still fiddling with souls was always creepy.

"I'd have thought the blood would help with that," Fili said, notebook already in hand.

"It would just distract me," Akari replied. "Besides, it's much more important that I can stop the ritual if something goes wrong. Not that it will with something this simple."

Akari stood up straight and took a deep breath before starting to pace. Her careful steps matched that of a cat walking about their house. She'd move, pause and look around, then scamper to another place with no rhyme or reason.

Finally the woman crouched, wriggled slightly, and did a graceful pounce right over the corpse of Edward Flam. Alissa could feel the shift in the room immediately. The chill wind that passed over her wasn't just in her mind, and the lights in the room dimmed.

The dragon man's eyes flickered open, but they were cold and dead still. As the corpse stared up its jaw opened and words poured out, formed not by the corpse but something inside. "Why do you bind me?" Behind them Caroline whimpered in fear.

"Answers," Akari replied. "You have been caught by me, and by my will you shall answer our questions truthfully, lest the Court of Fairy take you as their tithe to hell."

"Three questions, three answers," the voice replied.

"No." Akari's harsh tone made Alissa double take. She hadn't heard the woman use that tone in either persona. "You are mine until the moon sets. You will serve as I demand and I demand knowledge and truth. Understand?"

The dead eyes turned towards Akari and blazed with hatred. Alissa reached for her blade, but it wasn't needed. The glare didn't shift, but the corpse seemed to settle. "I obey."

"How many have you and your servants killed?" Akari asked.

"Five score and seventeen more," the corpse replied.

Rosalina shook her head. "Too vague Akari. He's counting everyone he ordered murdered in general I bet. Maybe even people he got killed through incompetence or recklessness, but the numbers are a bit low for that."

"Ask him where he stashed his victims gear," Clara said.

Alissa nodded. "Pricks like that pinch every penny."

"Where have you cached the spoils of your labyrinth victims," asked Akari.

"X marks the spot," the corpse replied.

Akari looked at Clara. "Any markings on his party's maps?"

Clara moved to start searching packs. "I'll check."

"Thank you." The woman turned back to the corpse. "While we wait, have you or your allies killed the fugitive Albert?"

"We tortured him and threw his dying body in the flames," the corpse replied. Alissa pushed down her urge to throw a knife into the body.

Instead she decided to take a gamble. "Ask him if he killed his father."

"Are you responsible for your father's murder?" Akari asked.

The corpse turned its hateful eyes to her, but the open jaws finally rang out, "Yes."

"Eh?" Caroline squeaked behind them. "You had the old master murdered. You did it? But, why?"

"An excellent question," Akari said. "Why did you commit these crimes? Answer well and you will be freed faster."

The corpse shuddered and Alissa drew her blade. "He was going to let a delver peasant marry into my family! To give away a chunk of my birthright just because my sister wanted to slum around! I killed them both, and let my sister waste her time trying to find and prove her lover's innocence. Then I worked to eliminate our rivals and secure my inheritance."

Well, wasn't that interesting. Alissa looked to where Caroline was staring. "Seems like you should be helping this sister he's ranting about fix all the damage that's been done instead of covering for this asshole."

The bunny girl flinched. "But..."

Rosalina gently put a hand on the woman's shoulder. "How about this? We all leave this place, claim you got separated from the group. Then we tell the leader of the Flam family the truth and she'll decide what to do."

Caroline chewed her cheek enough that Alissa started to worry about the woman hurting herself. Then she slumped and nodded. "Okay."

The body moaned and quivered, but Akari clapped her hands and just like that the presence was gone. "Apologies for the display."

"Oh no, it was quite fascinating," Fili said, scribbling down her last notes.

"You know you're not going to be able to duplicate any of that using spellcraft, right?" Clara asked.

Fili shrugged. "It's technically not impossible, even if I don't have the tools to consider it now."

Alissa coughed to cut the debate short. "Let's get everything we need here, put these guys in a corner for later and get out of here fast. Before monsters show up or Rosalina's Main Character system tries to give us another plot point."

"This isn't my fault," the dragon priestess muttered as she collected the IDs and spare change off the corpses. The others started packing and looting as well.

That done, she turned to the bunny girl. "Now let's get you freed, and start working on our story. We're going to have to lie to the guild so let's make it a good one.