Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Raven found Roland downstairs.

Not in the stables.

Sitting with another beer.

Raven took the chair across from him.

”Coward.”

”Survivor.”

”You knew about the room.”

Roland drank.

”No.”

Raven stared at him.

He lasted three seconds.

”Yes.”

”Since when?”

”Since I met the two of you. Today I confirmed my suspicions when Valeria gave the innkeeper an extra crown.”

Raven closed his eyes.

”She paid to create the administrative mistake.”

”I would say she paid to guarantee a very specific lodging arrangement.”

”That is creating the mistake.”

Roland started laughing.

”I’d call it creating a romantic atmosphere, but fine. Are you going to ask her to give the crown back?”

Raven looked toward the stairs.

”I should.”

”Please do. I want to be there.”

Raven didn’t answer.

Roland laughed harder.

Then the inn door opened.

A boy entered with a leather satchel hanging from one shoulder. He couldn’t have been older than fifteen or sixteen, and a small white insignia on his jacket marked him as a messenger connected to the local temple.

He wasn’t looking for any of the guests.

He went directly to the innkeeper.

Raven watched only because too many years of training had taught him to pay attention whenever someone entered a room carrying documents.

The boy removed a folded sheet, received a signature, and handed over a small wax tablet.

The innkeeper frowned.

”Tomorrow?”

”Before the third bell, according to the notice.”

”How many?”

”Two. Possibly an additional escort, but they aren’t requesting accommodations for soldiers.”

”What category?”

The messenger lowered his voice.

Raven didn’t hear the answer.

He didn’t need to.

The innkeeper instinctively looked around the common room.

Then toward the stairs.

Roland lowered his mug.

”That was interesting.”

Raven stood.

He didn’t approach the counter immediately. He waited until the messenger had left the inn.

The woman placed the tablet beneath the counter.

Raven walked over.

”Problem.”

It wasn’t a question.

The innkeeper looked at him.

Sometime during dinner, she had apparently figured out who he was. Raven could tell from the subtle difference in the way she regarded him now.

”Not necessarily.”

”Then what?”

She hesitated.

”An ecclesiastical transit notice.”

That made considerably more sense than any secret symbol carved onto a doorway.

Inns located along major roads received notices when religious officials required lodging, stable space, or a private room for hearings, inspections, or interrogations.

It wasn’t a threat.

It was logistics.

Which was precisely why Raven found it more concerning.

”Who’s coming?”

The innkeeper didn’t answer immediately.

Roland approached.

”If it’s private information, we can—”

”It isn’t,” she said. ”I was simply hoping to avoid problems between guests.”

Raven held her gaze.

Eventually, she brought the tablet back out.

A white wax seal had been pressed into one corner.

Church of Eternal Light.

Several lines had been written beneath it.

[ECCLESIASTICAL TRANSIT NOTICE]

[Accommodation Requested: 2.]

[Expected Arrival: Tomorrow, Before Third Bell.]

[Purpose: Regional Doctrinal Inquiry.]

Raven read the final entry.

Another line had been added in ink.

[Principal: Saint Elise Veyra.]

Roland went quiet.

Raven read the name again.

Saint.

Not a minor priest.

Not a local examiner.

A Saint.

Valeria appeared on the stairs while Raven was still holding the tablet. She looked at his expression first, then at the notice in his hand.

She came down.

”What happened?”

Raven handed it to her.

She read the name.

Her reaction was immediate.

”Elise Veyra.”

She looked up.

”This is significantly more troublesome.”

Roland glanced at her.

”You know her?”

”By reputation.”

”What kind of reputation?”

Valeria didn’t answer immediately.

That was enough for Raven.

”Talk.”

She returned the tablet to the innkeeper.

”White Saint. Champion. Connected to the central Church, though she has worked through regional offices. She’s the kind of person they send when ordinary priests can’t purify something.”

Roland looked at Raven.

”’Purify’ sounds particularly unpleasant when you’re the anomaly they’re investigating.”

”Yes.”

The innkeeper looked increasingly regretful that she had remained within conversational range.

”The notice doesn’t mention any of you.”

Raven looked at her.

”It doesn’t need to. There’s a fairly high probability she’s only looking for me.”

Valeria glanced at the seal again.

”When was the notice delivered?”

”Just now.”

”When was it issued?”

The innkeeper checked the bottom.

”This afternoon. From the western post.”

Raven calculated.

Elise was behind them.

Close.

Much closer than they had assumed.

Roland spoke first.

”We leave.”

Simple.

Correct.

The answer Raven would have given a few weeks ago.

Horses.

Northern exit.

Darkness.

Change roads before Elise entered Bellcross.

Valeria said nothing.

She only looked at Raven.

That made Roland do the same.

Raven studied the entrance to the inn.

They could be outside Bellcross in twenty minutes. By midnight, they could put fifteen kilometers between themselves and the city. By dawn, they would be far enough ahead to turn the pursuit into another day of travel.

Logical.

Familiar.

Exactly what Raven had done for years whenever an organization began concentrating resources around his location.

Move before the strike.

But there was another variable now.

Elise would arrive.

She would ask questions.

She would discover that Raven Ashford had learned of her arrival and abandoned Bellcross in the middle of the night.

That would be recorded.

Then it would happen again.

And again.

Until they stopped treating him like someone they wanted to question and started treating him like a fugitive.

Worse, Raven still didn’t know what Elise actually wanted.

The document said doctrinal inquiry.

Not arrest.

Not execution.

Not capture.

Running from a question could manufacture an accusation.

”You two leave. I’ll stay.”

Roland needed a second to process that.

”What?”

”Until tomorrow.”

”There is a Champion Saint who specializes in purifying anomalies coming directly to this inn.”

”Yes.”

”And you want us to leave you here.”

”Yes.”

Raven paused.

”I was also planning to have breakfast first, assuming the price is reasonable.”

Roland stared at him as though trying to determine whether one of the recent explosions had caused undiagnosed brain damage.

Valeria didn’t.

She had a different expression.

”You want to meet her.”

”I want to know what she knows.”

”And you’re convinced she’s specifically coming for you.”

”So far, every Church investigation connected to this has centered on me. I don’t see why this would be different.”

Valeria folded her arms.

”Probably because my family maintains formal relations with the Church, we’re major benefactors, and Roland works for me.”

Roland inclined his head slightly.

”For the first time in several days, I like that description of my employment.”

Raven looked at Valeria.

”Rich woman, and somehow I’m still the one paying.”

She smiled.

”You have to earn a lady’s affection somehow.”

Raven decided not to engage.

Valeria continued.

”You also want to know what she actually wants.”

”Yes.”

”You could learn that from another town.”

”Then the first thing she learns about me is that I ran.”

Valeria slowly nodded.

”That is new.”

”It’s practical.”

”Of course.”

”It is.”

”I didn’t say it wasn’t.”

Valeria smiled.

”And that’s why we’re staying.”

Raven looked at her.

”I said I was staying.”

”I heard you.”

”That doesn’t mean you—”

”Raven.”

She interrupted him with perfect calm.

”If a White Saint is coming to investigate something traveling with me, I’m not leaving so you can deal with it alone because you decided that would be tactically convenient.”

Roland raised one hand.

”And I would like it officially recorded that my original proposal was not to sleep beside a future religious execution.”

”Recorded,” Raven said.

Roland blinked.

”Really?”

”No.”

”I knew I shouldn’t have asked.”

Valeria pointed at Roland.

”He stays too.”

Roland sighed.

”I’m starting to miss when I only got paid to follow tracks.”

The innkeeper recovered the tablet.

”So... are you keeping the room?”

Raven looked at Valeria.

She smiled.

”Definitely.”

Then she paused.

”You can remove one of the beds.”

The innkeeper froze.

Roland lowered his head to hide his laughter.

Raven looked at Valeria.

”No.”

”It was only a suggestion.”

”No.”

”Fine.”

The woman put the notice away with the speed of someone desperate to end the conversation before receiving further instructions about the furniture.

Valeria started upstairs.

Raven followed.

Halfway up, she stopped.

”A month ago, you would already be outside the city.”

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

”A month ago, nobody knew my name.”

Valeria looked back over her shoulder.

”Then you started giving it to people on purpose.”

Raven thought about the Mercenary House.

Contracts.

Licenses.

People who could now connect rumors to a real name.

”That’s part of the problem.”

”No.”

Valeria shook her head gently.

”That’s the change.”

Then she continued upstairs.

Raven remained on the staircase for another moment.

Maybe she was right.

Disappearing had worked when he could afford to be a shadow.

Now he left documents behind.

Witnesses.

Stories.

Dead Elites.

A weapon nobody else possessed.

And, increasingly, people who knew exactly who had been responsible for all of it.

Perhaps survival was no longer about preventing the world from seeing him.

Perhaps it was about deciding what to do once being seen became inevitable.

Raven continued upstairs.

---

Much later, after Roland had retired and Bellcross had begun settling into silence, Raven went downstairs again.

He didn’t need water.

He only wanted to read the notice one more time.

The innkeeper allowed him without comment.

Raven held the tablet beneath a lamp.

[Saint Elise Veyra.]

The name still meant little to him.

Valeria had provided enough context that it didn’t matter.

White Saint.

Champion.

Purification specialist.

The kind of person a Church sent when an anomaly needed to be examined and, if necessary, eliminated.

Raven checked the estimated arrival again.

[Before Third Bell.]

Tomorrow morning.

No army.

No ambush.

No encirclement.

One woman.

That should have made him feel better.

It didn’t.

Predator’s Instinct remained silent.

Naturally.

Elise was still hours away.

Raven returned the notice and went upstairs.

Valeria was still awake when he entered.

”Did you go check it again?”

”Yes.”

”Did the name change?”

”No.”

”Shame.”

Raven placed the Mk.I beside the bed.

Valeria watched him.

”Are you going to sleep?”

”Yes.”

”Knowing a White Saint is coming for us.”

”Yes.”

”To investigate a weapon her Church has already called heretical.”

”Yes.”

Valeria settled back against her pillow.

”When you repeat it that many times, staying here starts to sound like a bad decision.”

Raven extinguished one of the lamps.

”It probably is.”

She smiled.

”Good night, Raven.”

”Good night.”

Raven lay down.

For several seconds, he listened only to the distant sounds of Bellcross.

Then he remembered the phrase Valeria had used.

Purification specialist.

In another context, it would have sounded like a priest.

In his, it sounded much closer to executioner.

Raven closed his eyes.

The last time a powerful organization had decided his existence was a problem, Black Hound had sent him into supposed retirement and prepared his execution before he ever had the chance to choose anything.

This time was different.

He knew someone was coming.

He knew when.

He even knew her name.

Tomorrow, he would meet the woman the Church had sent to decide whether Raven Ashford was still a person...

or something that needed to be purified.

And for the first time since his execution on Earth, Raven had received advance notice that his executioner was coming.

This time, he wasn’t going to run before meeting her.