“Looks like they’re just heading out to look for you.”

Geyser grunted.

“Oh. Sharp senses. They’ve spotted you.”

Him, Kaiz, and Red were perched in a small divot in the sand. They had spent that past forty-five minutes clearing the immediate vicinity of the hollow dune. Geyser had identified the main entrance they should use from the start, but Kaiz circled the dune anyway. He never liked to be less than thorough. Also, he figured it was a good opportunity to show Red how he operated.

The latter part might have been unnecessary. She seemed neither bothered nor surprised by the extra reconnaissance, so she had likely already picked up on his meticulousness. Even so, a good trial run went through all of the motions.

Those motions included them putting on the Nightwatcher cloaks they’d be wearing on the actual run. So even though the group of five noticed their leader, like the tunnelers they he had taken out during their recon, they didn’t detect him or Red. Or they had immediately moved to their flanks.

“Master? Why are you here?”

“You left the three puddles to themselves?”

“They are more than capab—prepare for ambush!”

The lead figure had approached where they left Geyser and the corpse of the first of their members that Kaiz had killed. He didn’t know whether it was the corpse of the fact Geyser was still restrained that set him off.

The five immediately moved into a pentagon formation. Manawater burst forth from each of them and gathered in a small stream encircling the whole group. The stream hastily grew in height and moved to cover them in a dome. Interestingly, they did not include their master in that protection.

It was a fascinating angle on group spell casting. They technically casted five individual spells, but they were identical. The growing rush of water surrounding them was a perfectly synchronized mesh of those five spells. A group spell without group casting.

He knew from their minimum level that they were serious threats, but the sight confirmed that facing all eleven of them would have killed him. Facing just eight would likely still kill him. Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to.

“Drop that nonsense and get over here.”

“Can’t do that. This is clearly a trap.”

“You think I would play along?”

“No, but I’m also not sure you are who you’re pretending to be.”

“Useless fools.”

Even though Geyser himself was still restrained, with Kaiz no longer interfering with his brain’s mana engine, his mana was free. He could cast spells once more. Regaining that ability was neither a simple nor smooth transition however.

The old man seemed to have some experience with the process though. He cast a small spell. Kaiz couldn’t make it out from where he was but he could tell there were very few symbols involved and it was an instant cast. He repeated the spell twice more before moving onto a slightly more complex one.

Not your first time being nulled.

That shouldn’t have come as a surprise really. He must have been a prisoner of war plenty of times before. The fourth spell he cast broke the metal cuffs they’d placed around his wrists. He wrung his hands as they fell to the sand.

“Enough.” He stepped out of the divot, “What’s the point of this boy?”

His words were directed to the open air, he too couldn’t locate Kaiz.

“To hear and see.” That was the code for Red to wait and watch how things proceeded. It was weird working with someone who didn’t know about his eyes. Usually his partner would give him some sort of sign back, but Kaiz had to content himself with noticing the little shuffle she did after he spoke.

He stepped out of the shadows and into the light of their lanterns, “You seemed the type to have long range communication. I’d rather not have to have another fight.”

“A Nightwatcher? Out here?”

“So you thought vengeance was on my mind.” Geyser shook his head as walked toward the base of the dune, “I’ve lost enough children on this mission. Ulfric, go collect Emeric’s body.”

Children? … What a strange thing to lie about.

Kaiz did not follow, “So you say. Yet you don’t walk like a man preparing to withdraw.”

“A man should never walk with defeat in his steps, boy. We’ll be gone within the hour.”

With that he disappeared into the dune. Before he could retreat back to the shadows, the man he assumed was Ulfric walked by with the corpse over his shoulder. He asked plainly what a Nightwatcher was doing so far away from Waldaun. Kaiz just stared at him until he got the message and got moving. Soon, all five had returned into the hideout as well.

While they prepared to leave, or at least he hoped they prepared to leave, Kaiz went over what they knew of the interior with Red. They had already gone over it, but when they did they hadn’t truly accounted for how their plans would have to change if the Eternal Oases didn’t leave. Now was as good a time as any.

According to Geyser, his group and the Count’s nephew were both on the first floor. That information should be good, he had offered it before he had any reason to believe it would be important to them, but if he didn’t leave with the rest of his mercenary group then they would surely move him deeper into the hideout. That meant Kaiz and Red would likely have to sneak past every single occupant in the entire facility to get the Kilian. Which meant… he’d have to fall back to his contingency plan.

He didn’t tell Red that last part though. That stayed an inside thought. In truth, even the thoughts he voiced weren’t truly for her to hear. Tanzer was in earshot. The contingency plan was to have her quietly wipe out the more tricky obstacles before Him and Red made their approach. Kaiz was keeping her updated.

Once the briefing was over they separated again and watched the hidden entrance from multiple angles. He was also in charge of keeping an eye on the other entrance, just in case they tried to sneak up on them from there.

His vigilance proved unnecessary as within thirty minutes a six wheeled motorwagon materialized through the sand. Four chameleons, with their riders, followed behind. None wore the robes he saw last night. Instead, they had orange snakeskin armor. Queen Gudu armor. The type of gear one wears when set to face a melee fighter.

Curious.

He waited to see them head off into the distance, but they stopped about twenty meters from where they had exited the dune. One of the motorwagon’s back two doors flung open. Geyser stepped out.

He looked around, “Where are you?”

Kaiz stayed still.

“Let’s not waste each other's time. Come out here.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Here we go.

Instead of heading down, he decided to yell from his position, “What, old man? I’m sure you have places to be and coin to collect.”

“Since when did you become a frightened child?”

He made sure to change his location, “Efficiency requires stable variables. You call it ‘fright’, I call it ‘ensuring stability’.”

Geyser shrugged, “Suit yourself then.”

Surprisingly, he returned to the motorwagon after that. Even more surprisingly, the entire group immediately headed south once he did.

Kaiz wasn’t foolish enough to let his guard down though. He climbed to the top of the dune and watched as they left. Even after they crossed over the horizon and out of his line of sight, he kept watch. He allowed a further thirty minutes to pass before he felt confident enough to say they were truly gone.

Odd.

With that sorted, for now, he met up with Red and they began their infiltration. It would be for the best if they got this done as soon as possible.

Just before walking through the section of illusionary sand at the base of the hollow dune, he updated Tanzer, “Let’s go.”

Red nodded.

They stepped past the fake wall and into a short hallway. It was completely bare sandstone, except for the steel door at the opposite end. He glanced around for any traps, but found none. There was nothing but sand for the length of the five meters. They hurriedly crossed it.

At the door, there should have been a pressure point somewhere around its handle that would activate a keypad. Typing in the correct code, seven-seven-five-two-eight, would then open the door.

They got that information from Geyser of course so he was prepared for it to be incorrect. He wouldn’t get the chance to find out, however as when he got close to the door, he realized it was already open.

They left it unlocked?

He thought back to Geyser stepping out to speak to him.

He wanted to offer help?

Kaiz didn’t overthink it. Erring on the side of safety sometimes came at a cost. He had long accepted that.

With a bit more confidence that their intel was good, he peered past the door. As expected, the same bare hallway continued for a couple meters before cutting to the left. He glanced around again for any traps, but again came up with nothing.

He quietly moved past the door and snuck up to the edge of the left wall. Once Red had taken her place behind him, he took a peek.

There were people.

Seven by what he could see, maybe nine based on the voices he heard. Of the seven within his view, none had particularly bright glows and only three had any type of weapon on them. The other four didn’t even seem to have armor on. They all congregated in a circle close to the center of the room.

He communicated his findings to Red, “Seven sighted. Three armed. Two unsighted. Unknown.”

Guards accounted for, he took a greater look at the environment. The hallway opened up into a fairly large hall. It was only somewhat well lit. As reported by Geyser, it should be the main storage space and chameleon stable. From what Kaiz could make out, that was true. He spotted various boxes, crates, weapon stands, and the like. He couldn’t see any signs of chameleons at first, then he reexamined the two voices he heard but could not see.

They were likely handlers. At least he hoped they were. The succession of ‘good boy’, ‘lay down for me’, ‘you like that’ would be very strange otherwise.

The voices came from the left, the side of the space he didn’t have an angle on. He did have a good view of where they needed to go, though. On the opposite side of the storage-stable combo, there was a set of steel doors. Beyond them should be a corridor with rooms flanking both sides. At the far end of that corridor is where they’d find Killian.

First they needed to get past the nine.

He stopped peeking and discussed what he saw with Red. In an effort to keep things collaborative, he asked for her opinion on what to do next.

“Let me see.”

He moved out of the way and let her have a look for herself. After about a minute, she turned back.

“How about…”

Five minutes later, she whispered one of her ‘light’ spells, casting herself and the hallway in darkness. They both stepped past the corner before Kaiz quietly rushed out of the shadows and hid behind the closest stack of crates. She didn’t follow behind. She waited for him to finish the next step.

From his more advanced position, Kaiz confirmed that there were only nine people in the storage and that one of the two he heard was a chameleon handler. Unfortunately, only one. The other was another armed guard who seemed to just have a fondness for the animals.

He circled around the right side of the space, away from the duo and their chameleons. In addition to not featuring animals with great detection abilities, the right side also didn’t feature a wide open area. The gate the motorwagon had exited from sat on the left side.

Going right, he managed to weave his way to the backside of the room completely undetected. From there, he found an unstable looking stack of boxes and gave it a nice shove. It crashed to the floor.

“Game’s up.”

“Heeeh.”

“Ahh ahh.”

“No vex me here you goat. You see as I’m about to win.”

“I have two pick threes. You weren’t winning anything. You two, go clean that up.”

“Why me?”

“Why did your mother sleep with a sheep?”

“Your father.”

While the seven insulted each other, Red had advanced into the storage as well. A much better outcome than they had expected, two soon headed for the double doors and left. Of the remaining five, two moved to clean up the boxes he’d knocked over, one went over to the chameleons, and the final two stayed where they had been seated.

Kaiz and Red stayed somewhat separated on the right side as they patiently waited to see how things developed.

After cleaning his mess, one of the two also left while the other sat with the duo who had not moved. Twenty or so minutes later, the chameleon handler left with the one that had walked over to them from the center circle. The guard they had been with joined the now trio in the center.

They started another game of cards.

At that point, Kaiz didn’t think a better opportunity would arise. The four that remained were the four that were armed, but taking them out was never going to be an issue. It was whether they could do so quietly. Kaiz wagered they could. He made his way to Red and told her as much.

Then he got in position.

There were a total of fifteen lanterns scattered across the storage. Twelve adorned various parts of the wall, while three hung over the center. Red darkened the two on the right wall.

“Ah. The lanter’s going out. Here. Pick two and go change the oil.”

“Bastard. Where is the oil sef?”

“Somewhere over there.”

‘There’ was in the direction of some open boxes by the hallway they had come in from.

Good.

The lone guard wandered over to begin their search. They briefly surveyed a few boxes, before finding the vials of what they were looking for. With them in hand, they hurried to ‘fix’ the lantern and return to their game. They wouldn't get the chance.

“What was that?”

“What?”

“It just.. got all dark over there.”

They all turned to where their fourth member most likely laid dead.

“Is it style you want to use to cheat or?”

“I’m serious!”

“Toh.”

“Ace. Nico. Hurry up.”

No response.

“Nico?”

No response again.

“We go skip your turn oh!”

Nothing still.

They eventually wisened up and drew their weapons.

“Which kind game is this one, Nico?”

Even though they had their weapons drawn, they didn't approach where their friend had ‘disappeared’. If anything, one was attempting to discreetly inch closer to the double doors. It seemed the calls for Nico were merely a distraction.

Kaiz was ahead of the curve.

He silently approached the retreating guard from behind. Before they could turn and make a proper run for help, his knife gave their neck a mouth of its own.

“Eeurgh.”

They fell to the floor grasping their throat. The final two should have reacted to the muffled sounds of death behind them, but Red had made her move. She advanced in a cloud of pitch darkness. Kaiz joined her.

Their pincer eliminated the final two instantly.

Once each one of the four was confirmed dead, they hid their bodies. He thought about taking them outside to dump in the sand, but he didn't want to pay the time-cost. He did make time to pickpocket them though. It netted him the equivalent of 12 gold.

That done, they both moved to the steel double doors. For some reason, likely laziness, the code for the single door and the double doors was the same. He clicked in the pressure point and watched as the keypad lit up. It was actually rather hard for him to make out, on account of the fact he also saw the mana that manifested it, but hard wasn't impossible. With a bit of squinting he managed to unlock it.

Before swinging the door open, he turn to Red to tell he—

“What’s this? Nightwatchers?”

There was a man standing behind them. His glow was very bright.