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Chapter 41 - Stalking the Night
🕑 Added 2024-02-18 20:24:45 +0000 UTCAisling sat behind her desk. By the Gods how she disliked being stuck behind a desk. When she’d agreed to this favour for one of the Guild Prefects, she’d expected it to be a six month holiday and then she’d be back in the thick of it. That had been a year ago. What was taking them so long to find a new Guildmaster for a smaller town like this anyway?
With a growl, she signed the latest piece of paperwork and moved it carefully to the pile of completed documents. As much as she’d love to blast them all over the room, that wouldn’t have been fair to Deverell. And he was the only thing making this job tolerable. If she wasn’t stuck as Guildmaster and therefore representing the Guild, she could’ve tossed Torian, the sorry excuse for an Adventurer, out on his ass. It’s what he deserved. Or at least, what she thought he deserved. That little bastard was probably involved in disappearances and she lacked the proof to do something about it. It made her furious! Deverell should be back soon with the final findings and then she’d at least know if she got to have the satisfaction of barring him from the Guild. That was the best she could hope for, because if he hadn’t managed to connect Torian to the disappearances by now, he wasn’t going to any time soon. Not unless more people disappeared.
She huffed. It had bothered her, banning Jorge’s daughter. He was a good man. From what she’d heard, he had been an excellent Ranger, and he’d done her a favour more than once, teaching a few of the new recruits at the Guild a thing or two about scouting. He’d even done it on the cheap. Not for free, of course, but that was fine. When she did jobs, she got paid, and so should he. But she knew he could’ve asked for a lot more given his expertise and level. Those teachings might’ve saved some of those new recruits and maybe, just maybe, one of those new recruits might make it to Gold, or better, Platinum, like her. That strengthened the Guild and she was all for that.
Torian on the other hand, the little bastard, seemed on track to smear shit all over her Guilds name. Always causing trouble, both in the Guild and out of it. She just needed the proof to kick him out for good. Stomping over to the window she fumed. Bloody weather was making it worse. The grey clouds were threatening rain and she was pretty sure, far off in the distance, she felt the rumble of thunder. At least she knew it wasn’t her causing it. She’d woken up happy and it had already been cloudy. Though that last rumble of thunder, was it getting closer? Maybe she wasn’t completely blameless.
Turning at the sound of the door opening she smiled. She’d only heard it because he wanted her to hear. If Deverell had wished to enter without a sound, he would have.
“So, what’s the verdict?” She asked.
Deverell gave a small shake of his head, his straight black hair flicking back and forth with the small movement.
“Nothing new turned up in the rumours, so he is sticking to his story that the kids attacked him and being his usual belligerent self. There is no grounds to throw him out unfortunately, Guildmaster,” said Deverell.
Aisling turned back to the window. Saskia had checked the area the day of the fight and her opinion had been absolutely useless. A fight had happened, but no indications of who had started it. If Torian wasn’t confessing, then she had nothing. The bastard was going to get away with it again. Proof. She needed proof.
Sighing, she moved on to her next topic, “Anything more on Nate from your contacts?”
“Nothing. No one recognises his description or the robe. No one saw him pass through their towns. The boy is a ghost. Though Saskia has got a better idea of what his Class is. The boy and Kiri spent some time training together in the Firth Forest. While her Class assessment might not surprise you, something else will,” replied Deverell.
That got her attention and she turned away from the window, her curiosity piqued. She gave Deverell a nod to continue.
“The boy has a Familiar.”
Her pale eyebrows climbed up on her forehead. Familiar’s were rare, if not unheard of. She’d met a couple of Gold Badge Guild members who had them. They had all gotten them as Dungeon rewards. The ritual to summon and bind one was too expensive for most people. They were a bit more common among the Nobility.
“Are you thinking it was a Dungeon reward?” She asked.
“To be blunt, Guildmaster, I am starting to think all of it was Dungeon rewards. The robe. The familiar. His wealth. I think the reason Saskia didn’t find any evidence of anyone except for the boy leaving that Dungeon is because he was the only one who left it. And since all the rewards seem perfectly suited to him….”
“He completed it alone,” she finished for him. “That’s impressive. And the Class assessment?”
“Some kind of Battle Enchanter. Saskia says it looks like he can store enchantments in his robe but alter them as he activates them. The barriers are just one of the enchantments,” Deverell stated.
“A hybrid crafting class? Really? They rarely get many Stats in the Physical or Magical slots. So, we’re back to him probably being an Epic Classer to make up for that shortcoming. We need to tie him to the Adventurers Guild Deverell. If he lives, he’s a future Platinum. Maybe even Emerald.”
Deverell just nodded in response. He was loyal to the Guild, just like she was. It was their best hope really, the only bastion against the potential tyranny of the Nobility. Because with enough investment, anyone could become a powerhouse, and the Nobility had coin to spare. She turned back to the window, Deverell understanding and heading for the door. She didn’t hear him leave. The grey clouds were growing darker, more turbulent. She felt the rumble of more thunder in the distance, getting closer. They were in for one hell of a storm.
*************
Kiri sat on the roof, smiling to herself. She’d evolved her dual dagger Skill to Uncommon. But the best part was, all the practise of flowing mana into the blades using her shadow affinity had paid off. The skill itself was Shadow-aligned. Frick had assured her that if she could evolve it again to Rare she could likely take a secondary class focused on daggers and shadows at her next evolution. It was everything she had ever wanted. And then Nate had taken it a step further and given her the rune she held in her hand. It didn’t take a lot of mana to maintain and even now, as she sat here on the roof in the dark, she was enveloped in shadow.
He’d called it a Powerful Shadow rune, but that was such a stupid name. He claimed to have a high Creativity stat but that was the kind of name someone boring came up with. No, she knew what this rune was. It was Shadowskin, and it was perfect for her. Sighing happily she watched the storm clouds roll in. They were a bit harder to see in the dark but her Perception and her evolved Archers Gaze Skill were up to the challenge. Scanning the sky and the woods that framed it is the only reason she saw it. Someone was making their way into the forest in the distance. It wasn’t quite late enough to head to bed and Nate was being boring, drawing out ideas for other runes.
With a grin she jumped off the roof and started running towards where the person had vanished into the trees. So what if she wanted to see who was sneaking around late at night? Maybe it was some girl from the town off to have a secret tryst? She wasn’t opposed to knowing a little bit of secret gossip. She’d only tell Nate anyway.
As she ran she marvelled at the Shadowskin runes effects. It was like shadow muted everything about her. She made almost no noise, the second skin absorbing the impacts and even preventing her from breaking small twigs and other detritus along the forest's edge. It only took a few minutes till she had arrived where the person had vanished into the trees, and after giving it a moment's thought, she stepped into the forest, quietly following their trail.
It was clear they weren’t much of a woodsman and even in the dark, with her Skills and Stats she could easily see the trail they left on the damp ground. She didn’t follow too closely, copying what her father had taught her. Stepping in their footprints to try and conceal her presence from anyone who came after. She’d likely have gotten a Skill in tracking if she’d bothered to raise her Secondary Class at all. But being a Ranger wasn’t as interesting as being an Arcane Archer, so she’d held off.
Following the trail was boring and she was starting to wonder if she should turn back. She’d been tailing this person for almost an hour and the footprints had continued to go deeper and deeper into Firth forest. Worse, this was in the direction of the Heart of the Forest. That direction was always more dangerous. But whoever it was she followed, their steps were unerring. They seemed to know exactly where they were headed, and that, more than anything, kept her going. So she kept on, dogged in her pursuit, her mana slowly leeching away with the Shadowskin rune.
She gauged it was almost two hours later when she finally saw something up ahead. A blocked off cave, much like what the goblins had been using. The footsteps led straight up to what looked like a large rock covering most of the cave's entrance. Then they just vanished. She looked around for a moment, not seeing anything. Flying seemed unlikely, but it was worth checking. With a quick jump and two Archer’s Steps, she was among the canopy. From her vantage on the branch, she looked around the area, trying to find any sign of the person she had been pursuing. They couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes ahead of her by the time she got here.
As she looked around she spotted movement below, and her eyes widened as she saw someone walk out of the stone. Walked out of it, like it was mist. The woman, for now she could clearly tell it was a female, began crossing the clearing, heading back the way she had come. The woman paused for a moment below Kiri, looking around a few times and glancing back at the concealed cave, before heading back in the direction of town. Kiri closed her eyes and waited patiently. She had covered her tracks almost perfectly, she thought. What had caused her to pause, and what was in that cave? All she could do was wait. Give her quarry time to get ahead, before she returned home to tell her dad. He’d know what to do.
*************
Jorge listened to Kiri’s story. He’d been both worried and angry when she had vanished and he’d planned to track her down if she wasn’t home before midnight. That was how he found himself walking beside his daughter in the Firth forest as the moon had already passed its zenith for evening. He might have questioned her story, if he hadn’t slipped past the other woman leaving the forest. For a moment he’d worried he had been following the wrong tracks. That would’ve been embarrassing, not to mention unlikely. That had been his speciality, after all, among the Royal Rangers. Tracking. And it was that skillset he was about to put into practise, as soon as he got his daughter home.
Something odd was going on here, and he’d put coin on it being related to the disappearances. A concealed cave was almost never naturally occurring. Someone was hiding something, and he was going to find out what. After escorting Kiri home, he made his way back into the forest, following her directions and the tracks the woman and his daughter had left. But where they walked along the grass and dirt of Firth forest, his path was among the trees, flitting from one to the next, his Forest Stealth engaged.
It didn’t take him anywhere near as long as Kiri to arrive at the location and he instantly spotted things Kiri hadn’t picked up on. There were signs of other foot traffic here. More than just a few people. Many different feet had walked this clearing. Trusting to his Skills, rusty though he might be, he slipped down from the trees and approached the stone. As he got close enough to touch it he activated his Skill, Leave No Trace, before stepping through the illusion.
He found himself standing at the entrance to a cave that led down into the earth. Walking silently, his Forest Stealth skill still engaged, it didn't take him long to descend deep enough to see what was going on. People in cages, some he recognised, some he didn’t. More of them than he had expected, with the stories of people going missing. There must have been almost fifty here now. His first instinct was to start releasing them, but he held back, because a group of four men sat nearby. He recognised them. They were a team of Silver Badge Adventurers. They’d been working out of Helmfirth for almost six months now. If that was all there was, he still might’ve released the prisoners. But that wasn't everything, he could sense something else here. There was a pressure to the air, not unlike his own, when not suppressed. It had been blocked by the earth but down here, he could feel it. If he was going to release these people, then he needed back up.
Royal Rangers were scouts at the end of the day. The best of the best scouts, but still, against a pure Combat Classer that could match his level, there was a real chance of losing. No, better to inform Aisling. With the storm outside she’d still be up. But first he needed more information. What were they doing with these people? Looking over the prisoners, it didn’t take him long to notice the slave brands. Slaving was illegal in the Kingdom of Etrua. That meant they were bound for sale to slave traders, and the only bordering Kingdom in reasonable distance that engaged in slavery was Gashana. The lucky ones would be bound for the merchant houses. The unlucky ones, the mines. Glaring at the traitorous Silver Badges, Jorge spun, sneaking back out, he didn’t drop Leave No Trace till he was well and truly gone from the cave.
His sprint through the trees of the forest barely took anything out of him and within half an hour he was banging on the Adventurer Guilds door. After a minute of banging the door finally opened, revealing Deverell. Jorge wasn’t surprised to see the man just usher him in. Nothing seemed to faze that guy. It was like everything, no matter how unexpected, was par for the course.
Rushing up the stairs he found Aisling in her office, staring calmly out the window at the storm as its rage built. As he began to relay his story, her face slowly morphed from calm till it mirrored the rage of the wind and water outside, battering against the windows. Jorge had never seen Aisling truly lose her temper, but he suspected someone was about to find out what it meant to face down the famed Platinum Badge Adventurer, Aisling the Stormspear.
*************
Garnet sneered as the voices of Aisling and Jorge came through the Ark Receiver. She was surrounded by incompetence. Well, this would let her finish up earlier than planned if it worked out. And if it didn’t? She’d blame it all on Vallis and his incompetence. He wouldn’t be happy still, and she’d likely be sent on another shitty task, just like this one. But she’d survive. Spilling her mana into the yellow communication crystal, it didn’t take long for Vallis to respond.
“It’s late. What do you want?” He asked, his voice coming through the crystal.
“Your insistence on keeping that little strumpet in town with you and sending her out here to do the brandings has revealed our location. Thanks to the Arks you placed in the Guildmasters office, I just got to listen to a detailed accounting of our location and on-site assets given by that ex-Royal Ranger,” she replied, venom in her voice.
She wanted him to know how displeased she was, because if she wasn’t getting out of this alive, then neither was he. The pause dragged on and her eyes narrowed as she wondered if she’d have to prod him to answer for his mistakes.
“What…what do we do, Garnet?” He finally asked. Good, she thought. Be worried. Be very worried. If we survive this, I might kill you yet.
“Gather up your little sycophants and the girl. Bring them out here. We’re not going anywhere.” The smile on her face as she replied would’ve made most people flee in fear for their lives. The smart ones anyway.
“A fight then,” Vallis said, his voice sounding firmer, “Yeah, we can give them a fight. But, why?”
“Because, you moron, if we win, then we don’t need to do this in secret any more, bleeding off enough slaves over the next few years from this region to fill the coffers. We can send much larger shipments, with no one to stop us. The sooner this is over, the sooner you get your reward, Baron Vallis,” she replied, taunting him with his desired title. “And the sooner I can return to greener pastures that don’t smell like mould and shit.”
There was another pause. The coward was considering his options. She had expected more, from a retired Gold Badge Adventurer. It just proved that the lower class were exactly that. Lower.
“We’re on our way,” he said, the crystal shutting off a moment later.
Garnet leaned back in her chair and smiled beneath her mask. It was time to find out if Aisling the Stormspear’s reputation was deserved, or just more twaddle dreamt up by the masses. She’d know for certain within the next day.
Comments
Brandon Lydick
Tfc, it's all coming to a head!
