No sooner had he finished saying that than the sound of a couple of floorboards creaking under something heavy cut through the air. They froze and looked towards the hallway where the sound had come from. The rhythmic steps made it clear that a couple of people were walking down the hallway. Eliza turned to look at Demitrus, eyes asking him what she should do.
He mouthed, “hide.”
Obviously, but where? She quickly scanned through the room, looking for potential hiding places. Even in her inexperience, she could tell that every place she saw wouldn’t work. She turned to look back at Demitrus, and her heart skipped a beat when he was gone. Panicked, she looked around the room again but couldn’t find where he had gone.
“That nitwit, how could he-” She thought, looking around the room. Her heart sank when she heard the doorknob begin to turn. She went to lunge towards the desk; maybe she could hide underneath? It wasn’t the best idea, but she was out of better alternatives.
Just then, she felt an arm wrap around her and drag her backward. She gasped in shock, but a hand clamped over her mouth before any sound escaped. She started to struggle but then heard Demitrus’s familiar voice and stopped, “Don’t move and don’t make a sound.” He urgently whispered as he dragged her around the side of one of the bookcases and then stopped.
She felt a cold chill expand over her body that caused the hairs on her arms and legs to stand on end. Almost immediately, she recognized that he was using magic. Being so close to him, Eliza could make out his quiet and rhythmic breaths. If he was so calm, then things should be alright, right? She told herself to calm her pounding heart.
Then the door opened, and two sets of boots clomped heavily on the wooden floor.
“Can’t you walk any quieter? Do you want to wake up and alert the whole seal inquisitor?” A voice dryly said as the pair made their way across the room.
“Can’t help it, im not built ta be sneaking about like ya.” Eliza’s eyes opened wide in shock as a familiar dwarven figure walked into her vision and around the desk. Kolgit began to peruse the documents on the desk. He picked one up and said, “Besides, nobody expects the Dwarven Inquisiti-.” He looked up from the paper and stopped, his eyes meeting Eliza’s.
“-on.” He finished, Eliza’s heart dropped, and she felt Demitrus straighten up in shock.
The man standing in front of Kolgit, confused, turned to look behind him, his gaze passed right over Eliza and Demitrus. He turned back to Kolgit and asked, “What are you looking at, my Lord?”
Kolgit began stroking his beard with one hand as he returned his gaze to the paper he held. “Nothing fer ya to worry about; how about ya go over ta da record room across the hall? I want ya to look fer anything unusual in their daily reports.”
“Yes, mi lord, '' the man said, giving Kolgit a little bow before he backed out of the room and closed the door quietly.
Kolgit waited a few moments before speaking, his voice deadly calm, as his gaze turned to look at her.“ Now lass, what might ye be doin here?
Could he not see Demitrus? Why was he speaking to only her? She lightly elbowed Demitrus. He leaned forward and quietly whispered, “Tell him you were sent to investigate the Citizenship process here.” before he let her go.
Her heart pounding, palms sweating, she mimicked the confident smile that Demitrus always had as best as she could.
“Probably the same thing you're doing here, Mr inquisitor.” She bluffed, the words slipping out of her mouth before she knew it.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? And what might I be doing here?” He said as he placed the paper back on the desk.
“Investigating the disappearances of everyone who should have received citizenship, of course. Why else?” She said in as confident of a tone as she could muster. In an attempt to draw attention to herself, She strode up to the other side of the desk and pulled herself up so that she could sit on top of the desk; once she was up, she looked back at him with a lopsided grin.
He gave her a pondering look as he calmly stroked his beard with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Seeing that his attention was entirely on her, she inwardly sighed in relief. She had all but concluded that he couldn’t see Demitrus. Suppose she was able to keep Kolgit’s attention on her. Demitrus would have the room to do something about this. She was assuming that he could do something, of course.
“Really? And what does a Silverian spy have ta do with the Kaldrian citizenship process?” His voice carried a hint of disbelief that caused dread to curl in her stomach.
He thought she was a spy, which was good; she could use that. She tilted her head as if lost in thought and leaned back onto the desk. Doing her best to look as calm as possible. As she leaned back, her hand slipped on one of the many scattered pieces of paper. She glanced down, her mind racing, and her vision locked onto the note written in the Silverian tongue.
Leisurely she reached over and picked up the letter in Silverian and waved it tauntingly in front of his eyes.
Kolgits gaze flicked to the piece of paper and then back toward her. “ So ya got a piece of paper? What about it?” his voice conveying an attitude of disinterest.
“Really, sir Inquisitor? Are you uninterested in a letter written in the Silverian tongue being present here in a Kaldrian prison camp? I can tell you that a small tip was enough to get the empire very interested in something like this.”
It was subtle, but Eliza saw his eyes open up a bit in shock, and she saw his gaze locked onto the note. He looked at it for a second before looking at Eliza, “While that is intriguing, I’m more interested in ya, can’t say I ever expected a kid like ya to be a spy.”
“And I never thought you would be an inquisitor.” She said back sarcastically. She started fiddling with the note, making sure it was clearly in his sight; why wouldn’t he take the bait already? She could feel the sweat beginning to bead on her forehead, and she feared that it would expose how anxious she was.
“I guess ya see something new every day; fine, I’ll bite; give me the paper.” He said as he held his hand out.
Eliza smiled, more a smile of relief, but he didn’t need to know that and shook her head, “ No can do; I have people who want to see this. I can’t disappoint my superiors like that. I’m sure you understand.”
He folded his arms and leaned back, a frown appearing on his face, “ I don’t think ya understand; yer in no position ta negotiate. I can yell, and half a dozen guards will be in here. Give me da paper.”
Eliza felt her heart rate increase and slowly clenched her left fist, which wasn’t visible to him. She slowly took in a breath, keeping the smile on her face. Her mind was blank; she had no idea how she had bluffed her way this far. Her mind raced for something, anything to say. Thankfully, she didn’t need to.
“I’m sure you could. But wouldn’t that put you in a tight spot, Sir Inquisitor? Rather, I would say it is you who doesn’t understand your situation.” Demitrus said from behind Kolgit.
Kolgit's eyes visibly widened in shock, and he immediately went to spin around, but he stopped when Demitrus put a sharp blade against his neck. “Careful now; we wouldn’t want to hurt you accidentally,"
As Demitrus came into view, Eliza was shocked by how different he looked. His skin was a paler white than before, and he had dark black hair similar in color to Eliza’s own. He even managed to add a little bit of an accent, mimicking Eliza's own, to his voice.
Kolgit’s face visibly darkened, “What do you want? Don’t ya dare think for a moment that you’ll get away with killing an inquisitor?”
“Really? And how would they ever know it was us? You said it yourself. What reason would Silverian spies need to be here? But let's not get hasty; we have a mutually beneficial proposition for you.” Demitrus said carefully to keep his face out of Kolgits vision.
“How could working with Silverian spies ever benefit me?” Kolgit demanded.
“Quite simply, our goals are aligned in figuring out what's happening here in this camp. You could work to get us citizenship; by doing so, you’ll get to observe what happens to those who receive it. Meanwhile, we get to investigate whoever in the empire is involved in this matter on a more direct level. Is it not a win-win solution?”
“Yer investigating this citizenship matter, and ya want to receive it? Are both of ya mad?” Kolgit asked incredulously.
“Really, Kolgit? You saw how I was on the way to this place. You surely already know the answer to that question.” Eliza said, picking up the conversation. She gave him another lopsided grin.
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Kolgit chuckled, " You're right about that, lass, yer right about that. Alright, I’ll help da two of ya in return for yer help. Can ya remove this knife? Tis a tad bit uncomfortable.”
Eliza inwardly sighed in relief; they had done it. They had somehow talked themselves out of the crisis. But Demitrus didn’t remove the knife from his neck.
“You need to promise us one thing, and I’ll gladly remove it. “ Demitrus calmly said.
Eliza felt a surge of panic; what was he doing?
Kolgit tried to glance back again but stopped when Demitrus applied pressure with the blade. He glanced sidelong toward Demitrus and asked Warily, “ What?”
Eliza watched a sinister smile spread across Demitrus’s face, “ You see, there's this guard in the food area; Daryl is his name. We suspect he has a personal hand in this business, and we need you to…take care of him for us. Using your authority as a glorious captain, of course.”
“Take care of him, how? I'll tell ya straight up, even if ya threaten ta kill me, I won’t execute someone without evidence.”
Demitrus kept silent and merely looked at Eliza, signaling her to speak.
She realized what this was about. “That's quite the noble sentiment. Don’t worry about killing him; we wouldn’t ask you to do something like that." she said, before tilting her head and smirking. "I’m sure giving him latrine duty would distract him long enough to suffice for our purposes.”
“You heard the Lady, what do you say…Captain?” Demitrus asked in his usual irritating way.
“Ya threaten an officer of da guard with a knife ta give a cook latrine duty?” Kolgit asked incredulously, ”Also, which Daryl ya talking about? I know three."
“To your first question, Evidently, for your other, the one who served lunch today,” Demitrus said.
“Fine, fine, whatever; Daryl who serves lunch, right? He’ll be assigned to latrine duty tomorrow. Now get this bloody knife away from me beard,” Kolgit growled.
“Wonderful, if that is all, we’ll take our leave, captain,” Demitrus said, removing the blade from Kolgits throat. Almost immediately, the blade disappeared into one of Demitrus's pockets. He then walked around the desk. Eliza hopped down from the desk and followed behind him, and she glanced back one last time before they left the room.
Kolgit had returned to thoughtfully stroking his beard as he watched them walk away. Eliza couldn’t help but wonder what they had just gotten themselves into.
***
Eliza and Demitrus made it out of the building without any more incidents. Eliza’s heart was pounding, her hands sweaty and shaky.
She looked over at Demitrus in time to see him staggering and almost falling. Eliza lunged forward and managed to catch his arm before he collapsed.
“Thanks,“ he muttered as the illusions he had cast melted away. A sharp stick vaguely resembling a dagger fell out of his pocket.
“Are you okay?“
“I'm fine; I just pushed it with the illusions a little too far, “ he said as he started walking forward again. Eliza held
The fact that Demitrus could pull something like what they had just done off was a bit frightening to her, but at the same time, Eliza couldn’t help but feel a hint of admiration. His quick thinking had gotten them out of a sticky situation.
When they got a decent distance from the building, Demitrus whispered, “That was some quick thinking on your part, Miss Spy.” he asked, before continuing in a playful tone, “But tell me, why did you sit on the desk?” Eliza saw his head tilt in the darkness, but in her mind, she could see a slight smile on his face.
Eliza felt her cheeks warm in the chilly night air. “I was trying to keep his attention on me.” She said, keeping her voice low. The last thing they needed was to be caught again.
“You were an intruder in the middle of the night in the commander's office. You would've had his attention no matter what you did.”
Eliza could hear the smile in his voice, and she felt her cheeks redden even more.
“Excuse me for my inexperience in things like this, Mister world-class thief. I normally don’t do things like this.” Eliza said, feeling a bit indignant.
“Clearly,” He said, letting it hang in the air, and Eliza felt a flash of annoyance well up inside her. Only for it to be quelled by what he said next.
“...But you did a good job; you have a lot of potential.” He sounded serious
Eliza had mixed feelings about her supposed potential. Her? Manipulating people? She suspected that soon she would need to do a lot of it if she wanted to get back at her uncle. But She could feel her noble ancestors turning in their graves at the thought. Despite that, she had to admit that it did feel nice to get complimented for once. The entire time she had known him, she couldn’t recall Demitrus ever giving her a compliment. With all of her recent mishaps, it was surprisingly comforting to know that she could do something right, even if it were something as distasteful as manipulation.
“With some more practice and experience, I would even consider bringing you along for some missions once we're out of here,” Demitrus said, Eliza, detecting a hint of anticipation in his voice as he walked up ahead of her.
“...Until I have more of that ‘practice and experience,’ I’ll have to say no, the last hour has given me enough anxiety to last me a lifetime,” she said, following.
As ironic as it was to say, it was less stressful for her to be on a battlefield. She only needed to worry about who to stab and not get stabbed in return.
“Is that so? What do you plan on doing about Kolgit, then? Surely you haven’t forgotten already?” Demitrus said, looking back
Eliza blanched, coming to a stop. How could she forget? Even now, the anxiety was curling in her stomach. She had no idea what she would do, and it was a miracle that she had even pulled off what she had in the first place.
Seeing her stop, Demitrus stopped as well. After a few moments of thinking, Eliza asked with uncertainty, “What else can we do but do what we said we were doing?”
“That's certainly a good place to start. What do you think we should do to accomplish that?” He said, his voice taking on a neutral tone.
“ What if we asked to find out what the people who received citizenship have done? We could strive to do something similar to avoid suspicion from Kolgit.” Eliza suggested after a few more moments of thinking.
Demitrus went silent, presumably thinking about what she had suggested. Finally, he said, “Let's do something like that, but let's take it to the next level.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, instead of wasting time asking everyone about this and getting rumors. How about we take advantage of our resources and go to the source of all this?” He proposed confidently.
The source? Surely he didn’t mean the Lord the letter mentioned; she knew Demitrus was crazy but not that crazy. But if not, Only one person came to her mind. “...Do you mean Gary?”
“Precisely, Kolgit was the one who told you to speak to him in the first place. And if you speak to Gary with Kolgit nearby….” Demitrus said, letting his words hang in the air; Eliza could tell he was expecting something from her.
“...Then he’ll have to help us, and he won't get a better opportunity to investigate what's going on. It would also alleviate some of his suspicions at the same time.” Eliza finished for him. She thought back to the letter she had read and felt concerned.
“But what if we do get citizenship? I read you the letter; it can’t be a good thing.”
“That may be true, but do you think he would give us ‘Citizenship’? We’ve only been here a couple of weeks, and, in all likelihood, he has orders to ensure our deaths. It’s a win-win situation; we can alleviate suspicion and not have to do anything else. Why wouldn’t we do it?” He said as he turned back calmly and started to walk away. Eliza began to follow.
Eliza felt like it was a much more complicated situation than he was making it out to be. Though it was relieving to have a course of action, her stomach churned from the anxiety of the whole situation. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Suddenly she realized something. The entire reason they were caught may have been because of her, but she wouldn’t have been there in the first place if it wasn’t for him bringing her!
“Wait a minute Demitrus,” Eliza said, coming to a stop, her brows furled.
“Hm?” Demitrus replied, turning back.
“Why did you bring me there?
“To get back at kitchen Daryl? He asked with a joking tone.
“Nonsense, you could have easily handled that without me, and we wouldn’t be in this situation if I were there. Even if it was only to get my pendant back, you could’ve easily just taken it and given it back,” Eliza said. There was no way that Demitrus wasn’t planning something, and he wanted her to be there for some reason.
Demitrus was silent for a few moments before responding. “I guess I can’t hide it from you. I can’t tell you much, but you could consider it a… test.”
“A test?”.
“That is what I said, yes.”
“Why do I need to be tested?”
In the moonlight, Eliza saw him raise a finger over his smiling mouth, “That's the secret, pass the test, and you’ll find out.” Demitrus said mysteriously.
Eliza sighed, “and I am already too deep in this to get out.”
“Exactly.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you're a scheming jerk?” She asked.
“Plenty, but they normally express it with more colorful words,” Demitrus said, smiling.
Eliza massaged her temple, “Fine, fine, that being the case, how am I doing on this ‘test.’”
“Since you asked, so far, you’re doing well.”
Eliza’s tiredness finally caught her, and her eyes suddenly felt heavy. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and not think about the mess she had found herself in. She abruptly shoved past Demitrus and started to make her way toward the tent.
“Are you mad?” Demitrus asked as he walked beside her.
“No, of course not; I’ve only just learned that someone I trusted purposely created a dangerous situation and dragged me into it to see how I would react. Not. Mad. At. All.” She said forcefully, her voice bleeding with sarcasm.
“To be fair, I didn’t expect someone to walk in, much less the dwarven inquisition. The test would’ve been done if that hadn’t happened.”
“Really? You had me convinced that you had orchestrated this entire thing.”
“...I’m not omnipotent. Just a mixture of caution, intelligence, and boredom.”
“Joy,” Eliza said
“Continuing from before, tomorrow, when you go talk to Gary, take Leah with you,” Demitrus said, changing the subject.
“Why? You want to drag her into this as well?” Eliza asked incredulously, turning on Demitrus. “You’ve seen how he looks at her. Do you want to subject her to that?”
“It is precisely because of that that she should be there. First, she gets an opportunity to rebuke him; second, He’ll be so pissed off at her, and in, extension, us, that he wouldn’t think of giving us ‘citizenship.’
“Even so, you can’t just plan to use her like that,” Eliza said.
“Naturally, you can explain the situation to her tomorrow and let her decide.
That put Eliza at pause for a second. “ Why the sudden lack of secrecy?”
“Put simply, if you hadn’t realized it, good job, by the way, the tests would’ve come and passed without any of you knowing, and we’d get along all fine. But since it's come to light, I might as well be transparent about it.
“Aren’t you afraid of us not liking you because of this?”
Demitrus sighed, “What it comes down to is that we are not merely a group of friends. How about I put it like this? Would a commander send out a group of recruits to handle a sensitive mission? What do you think?”
“It would depend on the situation, but If he wasn’t desperate, then normally no.”
“Exactly, He would choose those who had earned trust through surviving trials and missions before. The four of us need to rely on each other to handle the threats we face. Is it then not natural to test the limits of what each of us can do and act accordingly?”
Eliza had to admit that it did make sense, but that didn’t change the fact that she was unhappy about it. In the distance, they were coming on the tents.
“You could’ve communicated something like this much earlier, before, say, putting me into a position where I needed to bluff a dwarven inquisitor.”
Demitrus’s smile widened, “I never expected the dwar–.”
“Yeah, yeah, nobody expects the bloody Dwarven Inquisition.” Eliza snapped, cutting him off, "Once we're out of this situation, I'll be really unhappy if you pull anything else without giving me at least a heads up beforehand.
“Once we get out of this situation my tests will be the least of our concerns,” he said.
At this point, they came near the tents, and they both fell silent. They made their way back to their tent without much difficulty and Eliza sank back into her bed. She let the darkness take her, giving her a brief respite from her ever-growing list of problems.