Chapter 29 My Attention.

Isaac’s plan was simple enough. The problem was how much of it was up to luck. He needed to catch Lisa as she was leaving, slip through the gate behind her while getting Lenna to do the same, without either of them making contact with each other or making any noise. If they made contact then her Shroud would break and reveal her to both Lisa and the guard at the gate. If they made noise then Lisa would be tipped off to someone following her. Isaac and Lenna spent a few minutes, after finishing their talk with Jennie, scouting out the area around the gate to figure out how and when they would move.

Another problem was that Lenna didn’t know how to cast the Shroud spell. In fact she was almost certain that with her mana being changed, because of her broken oath, she would never be able to cast the spell. Because she didn’t know how to cast the spell, she was limited by the built in duration of the scroll. The one hour time limit caused real problems for the plan.

Lenna was leaning against the side of one of the three buildings with a clear view of the gate. She was wearing Isaac’s cloak and she held it closed with one hand. The dusty black cloak turned an almost identical shade of gray as the wall she was leaning against. Shadows slipped and wove through her armor making her every movement silent. She watched the gate like a viper waiting to strike. “I’m bored.” A voice came from behind her. She watched a book get tossed to the side only for it to vanish into thin air. She sighed.

“We’ve only been here for an hour.” She replied to her mate who was sitting on the ground leaning against the same wall that she was. His eyes were closed and his arms and legs were crossed. Shadows hid him from everything save for her. “The Windwalker boy didn’t know when she normally left.” She reminded him.

“Stake outs are the worst.” Isaac continued. “I am all for setting traps, planning ambushes, political maneuvering, assassinations, assassination attempts, robberies, and raids, but sitting here waiting for something to happen is downright awful.”

Lenna shook her head. “Patience, Isaac.” She told him. “Just let the anticipation build. Plan out every step we’ll take and be ready to take them as soon as the opportunity arises.”

“I did that fifty minutes ago.” Isaac commented dryly. “Now it’s just making this take even longer.”

Lenna shook her head again. “Are you a child who needs a toy to play with or else you can’t sit still?” Lenna questioned. She could have found a nicer way to get her point across but Isaac was really acting like a child. He was always impatient but now it felt like he was a child asking his parents when they would arrive every five minutes of the journey.

Isaac finally shut up and took a deep breath to ground himself. He knew that she was right and he also knew better than to pick a fight just because he wanted something to do. He turned his focus inwards and started to meditate. As long as he didn’t let himself go completely it would be good practice. He wanted to unlock the level of mana flow that he had while meditating for use all the time. It felt almost like his normal mana pathways were constricted like a muscle and when he reached the final level of meditation that muscle would relax. With the massive inflow of mana that that would unlock he was sure that pesky things like reality shields wouldn’t be a problem for him anymore.

“Isaac.” Lenna whispered and nudged his knee with her foot.

Isaac’s eyes shot open and he scanned the area. There she was, brown hair braided back tight to her skull to keep it out of the way. She was four feet tall and gave a cheery wave to the guard on duty as he opened the gate for her. “Heading out again huh?” The guard asked. “That makes every day this week.”

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Lisa smiled at him. “Yeah, some people like people, some people like tunnels and maps and alone time.” She replied cheerily.

The guard chuckled. “And some of us like sitting around and getting paid.” He winked at her. “Don’t tell anybody I said that though.”

Lisa giggled. “No worries Fred. I know how to keep a secret.” She told him and winked back before disappearing around the other side of the gate and off into the deep tunnels around the outpost.

“Let’s move.” Isaac told Lenna and rose to his feet while pulling out a map he had gotten from Jennie that showed where Lisa lived. Lenna gave him a curt nod and started down the street in the direction of the objective. She moved at a steady pace in total silence. She only stopped once to duck around the side of a building. Outpost Charles was dead at that time of night. It was clear that Lisa had chosen that time for a reason. She didn’t want anyone to know that she had been sneaking out every night. There was nothing that she could do about the night guard but that was probably why she was so cheery with him. The pair finally found her building and Isaac teleported inside.

Isaac looked around for any traps or anything that would show when someone used the door. Sure enough there was a small rock resting just behind the door. If the door was only opened a quarter of the way then the rock wouldn’t be moved but only someone as small as Lisa could have squeezed through the gap. Behind him was the stairs that led to the second floor where she lived. Isaac took a quick look and then teleported back out to Lenna. “Traps?” Lenna asked. They had talked about Isaac just opening the door for Lenna if there weren’t any traps so she wouldn’t have to hide next to the building where she was more likely to be spotted.

“Yeah.” Isaac replied. “I’m gonna take a quick look around. I’m afraid to touch anything though. She had something set up to show if anyone other than her used the door.”

Lenna nodded. “Be careful.” She told him and he teleported back inside.

Isaac walked up the stairs slowly while being careful not to trigger some hidden trap or move something by accident. Once at the top of the steps he looked around Lisa’s tiny apartment. It was a small place for an even smaller girl. There was one room with what looked like a closet with a toilet inside. The place was meticulously clean even though most of it was exposed stone. There was almost nothing in her apartment. It was almost like she was planning to be able to leave at a moment’s notice. Isaac couldn’t help but crack a smile at her tiny bed. ‘It’s only five feet long and three feet wide.’ He chuckled internally. ‘There are children’s beds bigger than that.’ He shook his head and continued to look around. There were a few cupboards and a small table pushed up against the wall with a single chair.

Walking up to the cupboards Isaac inspected them to try and find something that might prove that someone opened it. He didn’t find anything and that only made him more nervous. If he found something simple like a small tab of something sticking out the cupboard door then he would be able to just replace it but if it was something that he didn’t see until he opened it there was a high likelihood of it being a problem. Isaac didn’t have large hands but they weren’t child sized like Lisa’s. If she wanted to set a trap in a tiny space there was no way that Isaac would be able to reset it after he triggered it. At least not properly. He wasn’t even going to try because an improperly reset trap was even more suspicious than a trap that wasn’t reset at all. If the trap wasn’t reset then there was the chance that she would just assume that she didn’t reset it when she was done. If the trap was reset wrong then that meant that someone else had triggered it and tried to cover their tracks.

Isaac teleported back out to Lenna. “She looks like she could disappear into thin air at the drop of a hat.” He told her. “I think that we are running out of time to catch her.”

Lenna nodded. “Let’s head back for now.” She told him. “The last patrol almost spotted me.” The patrol in question was a pair of guards that seemed to wander more than patrol the outpost. Their irregular patterns made it harder to work around them but it also meant that sometimes they would leave an area completely unchecked for an extended amount of time.

“Yes.” Isaac agreed. “The last thing we need is the guard breathing down our necks.”

The pair made it back to Jennie’s inn without incident and snuck up to their room. At the top of the stairs was a familiar face, at least for Isaac. The face bore the same emerald eyes of Jennie but his hair had some light highlights of blonde that tried to sneak through. He was sitting in a wheelchair by the door to their room. He gave them a smile and a nod before gesturing towards their door. Isaac nodded and led them all inside. “The walls are thin so keep it down.” The boy in his late teens said.

Isaac nodded and sat on the bed. Lenna leaned against the wall. “Hey Chris, how are you holding up?” Isaac asked the older of the two Windwalker boys.

Chris shrugged. “Been better, been worse.” He replied honestly. “I have some information that I think you might like.” His eyes glanced towards Lenna but then quickly settled back on Isaac. “It’s about Lisa and the thefts.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “You have my attention.” He told the wheelchair bound scout.

“I know who knows and who’s helping her. Who’s doing it on purpose and who’s getting played.” Chris went on. He smirked at Isaac. “Not to be ungrateful or anything but what can I get for this information?”

“I’ll pay you for it, don’t worry.” Isaac replied. “I’ll be making good money off this if it all works out so I don’t mind sharing some.”

Chris grinned. “Is it alright if I charge you an arm and a leg? Well, a leg and a leg, I guess?”