Primordial Heir: Nine Stars-Chapter 329: Ghosts Again
Meanwhile, as the trio trained in Oxglen, a storm arrived at the edge of their territory.
Subject #009's transport set down silently in a dense thicket several miles from Oakhaven. She stepped out, the two masked operatives following like shadows. She surveyed the peaceful, sun-dappled forest with her golden, emotionless eyes. Direct confrontation was not the initial objective. Intelligence was.
"Remain here. Monitor communications. Do not engage," she ordered the operatives. Their nods were barely perceptible.
From a small pack, she withdrew simple, coarse-spun village clothing—a dull brown tunic and trousers, worn boots. She changed quickly, then used a subtle, sustained breeze to ruffle her striking crimson hair with dust and leaves, dulling its color. With a final, focused effort of will, she dimmed the unnatural glow in her golden eyes to a mere amber tint. She became unremarkable. A tired traveler. A displaced villager from another hamlet.
She walked into Oakhaven just as the sun began to dip on the second day of peace. She moved with a weary slouch, her head down. The villagers, still wrapped in their own fragile relief, barely glanced at her. She found an abandoned woodcutter's shack on the village fringe and settled in, a ghost observing ghosts.
She watched. She saw the trio's vehicle return once, then leave. She noted the patterns of the villagers, their lingering fear, their slow return to routine. She observed the forest edges, the mountain path. She was a predator studying the habits of her prey's environment.
And on the following day, she observed something else.
It began with a low, distant bleating that cut off abruptly. Then, a woman's cry from the northern pastures, followed by silence. The fear in Oakhaven, which had just begun to soften, snapped back into place, cold and hard. The disappearances had started again.
Subject #009 watched from the shadow of her shack as the trio's vehicle raced back into the village, kicking up dust. She watched Nero, Khione, and Elreth gather with the panicked chief. Their faces were set in grim lines. They had hoped it was over. It wasn't.
From her distance, she saw them investigate. They were good. Thorough. They found the new absence-points—another empty pen, a dropped basket of mushrooms at the tree line. And they found new trails. Not the chaotic animal signs of before, but subtle, unnatural ones: patches of moss that were dead and grey in perfect circles, a faint, oily shimmer on spiderwebs.
They were being taunted. The new ghosts were less careful. They wanted to be found.
The trio prepared for another night watch. Subject #009 watched them take up positions. She felt no sympathy, no anticipation. She was gathering data. Target's behavior under repeated stress. Group coordination. Threat assessment of local entities.
The attack came just after midnight. This time, the ghosts didn't lure them away. They struck at the village's heart. Three of them, more solid-looking than the last, materialized near the animal pens, their forms flickering with that same oily light. With them came a pack of foxes and a large badger, eyes glazed with possession, driving the remaining livestock into a frenzy. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
The trio reacted instantly. Nero's lightning lit up the night, a brilliant fork that speared one ghost, making it shriek and dissipate. Elreth met the possessed badger with a roaring jet of flame, forcing it back. Khione flung ice daggers at the foxes, her spells precise even in the chaos.
But the ghosts were smarter this time. Two of them converged on Nero, trying to overwhelm him. Khione threw up an ice wall to split them, but one ghost phased straight through it. Nero was forced to dive and roll, his lightning blast going wide.
Subject #009 observed it all, a silent statue in the dark. She noted Nero's clear effectiveness against the spectral foes. She noted Khione's supportive control. She noted Elreth's limitation against non-corporeal targets, and her clear frustration because of it.
The fight was shorter but fiercer. The trio prevailed, clearing the ghosts and driving off the possessed animals. But as the last ghost vanished with a crackle of Nero's energy, the feeling was not victory. It was grim exhaustion. This was a grind. A siege.
Back at their vehicle, breathing hard under the cold stars, they made a decision.
"They're not stopping," Nero said, wiping sweat from his brow. "And they're getting bolder. This is a resource. A mine. And someone or something is sending new workers when we clear the old ones."
"We cannot patrol this village forever," Khione stated, her voice colder than the night air.
Elreth nodded, leaning on her spear. "We need to find the source. Not the ghosts. The thing sending them. But it's using the ghosts as scouts and harvesters. We need to watch not just for an attack… but for a trail leading back."
And so, they changed tactics. They wouldn't just defend. They would observe with a new purpose. They settled in for the rest of the night, their eyes scanning not just the village perimeter, but the patterns of the attacks, the direction the ghosts came from, the faint traces they left.
Unseen in her dark shack, Subject #009 noted this shift as well. The target was adapting. Intelligent. Resilient. Valuable.
She had seen enough. The parameters of the mission were clear. The environment was unstable, with an active, unknown third-party entity (the ghost-controller) creating conflict. The target was skilled, coordinated with his team, and currently under stress.
It was not the ideal clean extraction scenario. It was better. It was an opportunity. Chaos was the perfect backdrop for a kidnapping.
As the first grey light of dawn touched the village, Subject #009 finally moved. She slipped out of the shack and melted back into the forest, returning to her operatives. The observation phase was over. The preparation phase had begun. The Storm Mage would now weave the local chaos into her own plan. Like hunter she would patiently push them into her trap before catching him.
