Raziel could not see the expressions on the faces of the men that surrounded him as they all wore full steel helms upon their heads. But he didn’t really need to. Their very stance and posture was dripping with hostility and the weapons in their hands seemed mere confirmation.
He took a wary step backwards but half turned remembering the others behind him. Enclosed on all sides he faced dozens of unfriendly swords and pikes.
.
“Surrounded and outnumbered. Clearly these humans thought they had me trapped.”
.
For any other creature they would. But Raziel had no desire to waste time or energy doing battle with the local militia, especially after the gruelling struggle with the Piper creature. Instead of attempting to dodge them to evade their weapons the blue wraith simply relinquished his grip on his physical manifestation and let himself fade away.
The soldiers around him jumped back in alarm and then they disappeared as he shifted into the Spectral realm, the environment distorting with a loud audible groan.
With nothing baring his way anymore he simply strode out of the chapel leaving the humans behind to make what they would of his seeming ability to disappear.
He was sourly troubled by what he had seen when he had dealt that Piper the final blow. Emerging out of its collapsing corpse had been one of the Archons, spectral hunters enthralled by his former master. What had one of them been doing here and forced into such a hideous corporeal form?
There seemed to be no need for such an act or its new task in luring away human children. One soul was much the same as another to the Elder and he would not care about such things.
He also found it strange they human soldiers would choose to attack him rather then defend their children from the strange luring creature. Something strange was clearly going on here that needed some prompt investigation. With Kain now safe outside the boundaries of Fanum-Divus the blue wraith felt he had a little leeway to indulge himself in this mystery.
A small pack of three Sluagh rummaging around the alleyways of the city provided him with the restorative energy he needed to push himself back up to full strength. He didn’t give them any time to even flee. He fell on them from above, flourishing the Reaver around in a sweeping arch. The wraith blade bit through their spectral flesh with a satisfying wail.
One by one the Sluagh became transparent as their defences were broken. Drawing down his cowl, Raziel devoured them all one after the other and they vanished; converted into his own strength.
After that the blue wraith was fortunate to locate a corpse for a conduit, stuffed down inside a sewer entrance. Probably the body of some homeless vagabond who had frozen to death in the cold and then been dumped into the sewers by the city watch.  Hardly the cleanest vessel in the world but after it transmuted to his normal visage it served well enough.
Hiding out in the shadows of the cities extensive sewer and water drainage system, Raziel listened as the humans overhead were stirred into activity even this late at night. Hardly surprising that the people would be so riled with the visitation of both the Piper and himself to prompt them to it. Many people came out with candles, oil lamps or torches to form into a disorganised mob that combed the slush ridden streets and got into arguments with the patrolling soldiers.
Raziel watched them all from the shadows, judging their behaviour. The humans seemed agitated, fearful but not really very surprised. If anything they seemed to have been expecting trouble only not this bad.  
Morning came all too slowly, a gradual brightening of the snowy gloom that made shadows soft and indistinct. The snow did not let up. If anything it seemed the drifting flakes became even thicker.
Many armed men wearing thick armour plating began to patrol the streets and Raziel noticed some differences. The men who had tried to corner him last night seemed to be militia of some sort for they wore the local Willendorf insignia proudly across their breastplates and shields. These were welcomed without warmth but not outright scorn.
The other types of soldiers seemed to make up the cities mass majority of armed men and the citizenry looked upon them with thinly veiled hostility that died away if they caught the soldier’s eye. They wore grey armour that seemed more practical and utilitarian then that of the Willendorf guard. A prerequisite of this apparent occupying force was the universal shaved head. They even wore a face guard up to the top of the nose. It gave them a strange sort of mechanised appearance in their armour, as if only the top half of their head was flesh and the rest animated metal.
Across capes or loin clothes was a black Ankh symbol that Raziel had never seen before.
It took him a moment to place it in his mind from the various stories Kain had told him. This was the symbol of the second Sarafan Order that rose to power after the fall of the pillars and even came to dominate all of Nosgoth for a time.
With the mighty Willendorf past its prime and collapsing into the dust of history, a stronger power had occupied its territory. The wary relationship between these pseudo Sarafan and the Willendorf guard seemed to suggest that the realm’s leader had surrendered without a fight and signed a capitulating armistice.
The Sarafan patrolled most of the city while leaving various districts to the militia, including the hall walled section that included the chapel where the fight with the Piper had taken place. In fact they seemed not to care at all about last night’s disturbance and were perfectly happy to let their white armoured counterparts take care of the problem.
As he waited out the day, moving from the shadows of alleyways, sewers and rooftops; Raziel began to think about what he knew so far. If the reaction of these humans were any indication this was not the first time something like this had happened in their city. In fact such a thing might even occur quite often. It was his interference that had stirred this hornets’ nest and that troubled him immensely.
Needing answers, the blue wraith returned to the chapel to watch it from the concealed position of a rooftop across the street. It was covered in snow and by now so was he so he wouldn’t be seen.
The shattered stain glass windows had been boarded up and two Willendorf guards stood blocking the door, pikes at attention stance.
As he watched, several figures moved down the snowy street towards the door. Another two were guards but the third was a woman, the swaying gait made that clear even without the effeminate winter coat.
The two guards at the door bowed their heads to the lady and stood aside to let her pass through the door and into the chapel.
The air had been too thick with snow and having only seen her from behind, Raziel found himself growing interested. Clearly something was going on and some part of him felt that he needed to know what.
.
 “My curiosity was peeked finally.”
.
A short timed glide to the roof of the chapel when the guards weren’t looking was easy enough and Raziel padded up the slanting roof to the bell tower. He could smash his way in through another window but he wasn’t looking for a fight or inclined to provoke one. Entry through the bell tower was far safer.
Climbing in he found what he was looking for, the bell ropes descending down into the building. Gripping these he descended quickly and quietly, dropping down into the round back chamber where the bells were pulled and where the priests changed into their robes before each service.
A few more windows here had been smashed and then boarded up but it did little to keep out the winter chill. Shelves across one wall had collapsed, books scattered across the floor with their pages torn.
A side door lead back into the chapel just behind the alter and pushing it open slowly and silently, Raziel advanced inside with feather light steps.
It was unchanged from last night, albeit some of the rubble from the rafters had been cleared away. The bodies of the three priests that the piper had mind controlled were also gone although dark patches told of the blood stains were they had fallen.
Where the Piper had finally collapsed had been swept clean and marked with a symbol drawn in chalk on the floor, a pentagram supposedly used to contain or banish evil. A first Raziel thought it merely the product of fear driven superstition but noticed that the design was very complex.
Standing at the edge of the circle looking down at it was the woman he had seen enter the chapel. Now the he was closer up he could see her medium length chestnut hair and olive complexion under her red winter coat.
She was looking down at the circle just in front of her and seemed oblivious to all else around her; her small face torn with conflicting expressions of fear, anxiety, anger and most bizarrely, a strange sort of hunger. It was an esoteric sort of hunger, the kind of look Raziel had seen on Kain’s face more than once; the hunger for another chance to roll the dice of fate.
The woman’s apparent preoccupation proved to be little more than a facade. When Raziel approached the alter, even as slowly and quietly at he dared, her head came up sharply and she saw him.
The blue wraith froze and remained perfectly still, although he supposed after a sheepish moment that it was far too late to pretend he wasn’t there now. His talons were out in plain view and they seemed to have gotten the woman’s complete attention.
“Foul creature!” The accusation flew from her lips as she staggered back, hands reaching into her robes and coming out with a dagger in a split second.  “You won’t take me!”
Raziel tensed, seeing her on the verge of calling for the guards. He would have to rush her, take her and silence her before she could. He was fast enough for that.
Then the woman froze, her chocolate eyes widening even more as if in recognition. The shout that had been half formed on her lips seemed to catch and falter.
“No…wait.” She said instead and her brow furrowed, the hand with the dagger dropping to her side. “You are not one of the Pipers.”
The change in her demeanour left him feeling uncertain and all she displayed now to him was intense curiosity. Her lips remained pouted as if on the edge of a call for help. Raziel remained perfectly still so as not to provoke her into making that call.
The noblewoman leaned back, eyes narrowing.
“You are the creature the militia encountered last night.” She mused audibly a faint new interest seeming to glimmer in her eyes. For her to know him at least peripherally then she had to have had a description of his appearance from the guards. If they answered to her then she would be in possession of useful information just as he had thought. 
“You appear quite well informed.” The blue wraith said, prompting her to be cooperative with a little preliminary flattery.  His assessment of the woman’s character proved quite apt. She took the compliment warmly even from one as unsavoury looking and unknown as himself.
“To stay alive I have to be.” She said.  “And to make the correct alliances.”
Raziel blinked once in surprise and raised an eyebrow. The nobleman took this pause as an opening and carried on.
“I am Margravine Alicia Ottmar, princess and daughter of his highness King Ottmar the 5th.” She said without the slightest hint of any grandiose tone for which she might have been pardoned.
“If you are the reported blue devil that stood up to a piper then I wish to conserve with you.”