Sylvi was annoyed that there wasn’t more she could do. Fortunately, they still had some time, with the ritual sacrifices to Ulzo being bi-weekly, but that time would be up soon. It also irked her that she hadn’t progressed much in her class or profession. Meanwhile, Ashlyn and Vallo had been much more successful on that front.
Ashlyn was pickpocketing various trinkets on a near-daily basis, and her Thief level had actually surpassed her Duelist. Sylvi still went with her, expecting a disaster to occur at any moment. However, the teenager had improved to the point where she was nearly impossible to spot in the act, even when staring directly at her like she was some sort of Vegas magician. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t any risk; she had pilfered enough items that someone had certainly noticed the missing wares. She forced Ashlyn to spread out her criminal undertakings, making her go further from their safe house each time and spend longer between thefts.
Likewise, Vallo gained significant experience for nearly flawlessly creating forms, similar to how Imri gained several levels from learning new spells. At this point, he could almost perfectly replicate each of the Chixel he spent significant time around. After creating the form, he seemed to be able to recall it later without needing to see his target. In addition, Ettes had given him a pair of higher-level cores, allowing him to absorb them for XP, even beyond the point where it was efficient. He also picked up the Actor profession, helping him further solidify his abilities to impersonate others.
Sylvi's only progress was improving her control over her umbra spells. She spent several hours a day practicing, forming the dark fog and manipulating it to seem like a natural phenomenon rather than an obvious spell. She also practiced using small amounts to hide her features or plunging the room into darkness by interposing it on the light source. Her efforts had eventually been rewarded, ranking both spells up to E.
“What’s this?” Ashlyn asked curiously, staring at Sylvi’s crude sewing work.
At about the same time each day, Ashlyn started to go stir-crazy, unable to sit still for more than a few hours without getting antsy.
“A contingency plan,” Sylvi said simply.
This had been her reason for asking for fabric: a way to escape Trosano. She had sewn the light and durable fabric into an emergency parachute. Ettes had bemoaned the material's cost, but Sylvi wouldn’t settle for anything less reliable. As it was, the makeshift parachute was already of dubious effectiveness, which was something she never wanted to say about an object that could potentially be needed to save her life.
She had taken her time finishing the first one, but the second one was progressing much more steadily and would be done before the end of the day. While she was slightly embarrassed by the time it had taken, it wasn’t like she had much else to do during the day.
Ashlyn had just shrugged and moved on to something else. “And this?” She asked, holding up a small vial of clear liquid.
“A lethal dose of poison,” Sylvi replied, somewhat enjoying the reaction of horror on the teenager's face. Sylvi had told her not to touch anything, and Ashlyn was sure-handed enough not to drop it.
At that moment, another person, closely resembling Sylvi, walked into the room. Sylvi nearly did a double take, completely taken aback. While it wasn’t a perfect facsimile, it certainly would pass a cursory glance. Vallo had also managed to make the imperfections less jarring, making it seem like this person was real, having removed the uncanny valley effect that had been present in his earlier attempts. It would certainly pass as a close relative of Sylvi’s to anyone who didn’t know any better.
“Vallo,” Sylvi said, giving him a glare that told him just how much she approved of his choice of subject.
A moment later, Vallo returned to his normal self, a grin plastered on his face, and Ashlyn gave him two thumbs up.
“Do me next,” Ashlyn said enthusiastically. Vallo flushed at the girl's choice of words, but Ashlyn seemed oblivious to the havoc she was causing.
“While this one is glad your abilities have improved, shouldn’t you focus your effort on mastering the Chixel form,” Ettes admonished.
“I’ve mastered the Chixel here as well as I can. I’m as ready as I ever will be at this level, and creating new forms gives me experience,” Vallo said.
“Then we should proceed with the next phase of the plan,” Ettes said. Sylvi scowled as she mulled it over before reluctantly nodding in agreement.
“I can manage it,” Vallo said, having read Sylvi’s expression.
“There’s no shame in admitting you can’t do something. If it’s too much, we need to know now,” Sylvi said.
“I got this,” he said a bit more confidently.
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The plan was to abduct one of the prison guards shortly after their shift, giving Vallo about a half day to master their form. He also needed to do this while still having enough time to naturally recover his mana, as he would be straining his limits, keeping the guard's form for an extended time.
The guard in question was one Ettes had been shadowing for a while. They were high enough ranked to have more access but not high enough to be too high profile. The target had also been selected for being socially isolated and a bit of a loner, so hopefully, no one would notice their brief disappearance.
Sylvi also learned that Chixel had different biological sexes. The Chixel differed from humans in their concept of gender, or lack thereof. The difference between a biological male and a biological female was almost non-existent, and as a result, they considered a myriad of other identifiers more important. Biological sex was only an important factor when they were trying to find a mate.
Despite the lack of gender, the Chixel still had the same weakness as humans when it came to the desired sex. Mainly, all sense of logic and reasoning went out the window around an attractive member of that sex. Just like humans, this was especially true for those starving for companionship, which was another reason for their choice of target.
At the appointed hour, they put their plan into motion. Ettes’s agent, a supposedly attractive Chixel female, had laid the groundwork for a relationship with the target. They left their safe house and headed towards a frequent haunt of the Chixel sergeant, a seedy dive bar near the prison.
Sylvi and Ashlyn shadowed the agent from a distance. They wore dark, hooded robes that billowed out, hiding their features completely. Whenever they were around another Chixel, they added umbra to the inside of their hood, completely obfuscating any chance they could be recognized as humans while still being able to see without issue. This trick required almost no mana, as the general lack of light and the obscurment of the hood made light a non-issue.
They would be conspicuous in a crowd, appearing like wraiths in the night. Fortunately, there were plenty of less-used walkways, the equivalent of alleys for them to use. Sylvi further enhanced her abilities by absorbing the mana from the gemstones that powered the light runes, plunging the area into near-complete darkness, and regaining some of her expended mana.
The few Chixel they did pass by froze in terror, causing Sylvi to grin wickedly from under her hood. They ignored them and continued onward, not wanting to fall too far behind the agent they were following.
The prison was a fair distance from the district they had been staying in, dozens of levels below, near the center of the underground. Each of the larger underground caverns was connected by a series of tunnels, each open enough to be a city street. Many of them had connecting passageways or dwellings.
The cavern containing the prison was smaller, with the prison itself being unremarkable in terms of size. Prisoners weren’t kept for long, so there were never more than a few hundred at a time. However, unlike most other Chixel facilities, this one was heavily guarded, both from within and without. Here, the general deterrent of capital punishment had lost its effectiveness, and truly desperate Chixel would go to any lengths to save themselves or a loved one from the fate that awaited them if they did nothing. The prison had also been the location of more than one bloody revolt that had been dealt with brutally.
The agent entered a dwelling, presumably the bar, and disappeared from view. Sylvi found a quiet walkway with a good vantage, easily able to watch the prison and the bar. She summoned a bit of umbra, almost completely obscuring them from view. With her improved control, she could more easily blend in with the surrounding darkness, making it appear natural rather than a stark contrast that was readily apparent to everyone.
Sylvi passed the time by studying the various Chixel that patrolled the prison perimeter. Most seemed bored, but they were never overly lax. An occasional tier 2 soldier was interspersed among them, with none of the guards near them showing any signs of slacking.
They waited for what felt like hours, but it was likely only a fraction of that time. Eventually, she spotted their agent leaving with another Chixel, presumably the mark. They were just about to leave their vantage point to begin shadowing the pair when a group of half a dozen Chixel left the bar, headed in the same direction. At first, Sylvi didn’t think anything of it, but as she studied them, she grew more concerned.
Something in the group's countenance made her pause. They seemed too alert and focused for a pack of drunken patrons walking home together. Even more concerning, their group contained one of the tier 2 soldiers, and a quick series of Identifies told her all of the others were soldiers with levels in the mid-to-high teens. While this might have been a coincidence, Sylvi doubted it.
The agent deliberately took a circumspect route back, taking various passageways that didn’t lead anywhere particularly fast. When the group continued to follow, it confirmed they were a tail. When the agent started taking them further from where they had intended to go, it became obvious to Sylvi they were also aware of the situation.
This continued for almost an hour until the group of Chixel lost patience, having figured out they were being led nowhere in particular. They immediately began moving toward their target with incredible speed, especially the tier 2 soldier who sprinted with speed unmatched in human history.
“We have to do something,” Ashlyn hissed, reaching for her short sword.
Sylvi stopped her before she could do anything reckless. “Don’t be an idiot, that’s just suicidal.”
If it hadn’t been for the presence of the tier 2 warrior, she might have tried it. However, it was clear in the way it moved that its stats were far above her own. She also had left her bow back at the safe house, with her unable to conceal the large weapon under her robes.
“Then what do we do?” Ashlyn whispered.
“We need to get back to the safe house, then find a way out of the city ASAP. While this could have been an isolated incident, we need to assume the entire operation is compromised,” Sylvi said as she turned to leave her Chixel comrade to their fate.
They began jogging back at a brisk pace, not caring about the few late-night passersby who gaped at the strange humans. Sylvi just hoped they weren’t too late.