Chapter 42 Six Days Of Work.

Isaac left Lenna in an alley a block away from the Arbencroft estate so he could sneak into Izen’s office. The job they had taken wasn’t technically official so Isaac figured it would be best if the act of turning in the bounty was kept unofficial as well. An ornate compass hung from a strap at his waist as he strode towards the side of the manor. He was invisible, of course, so he was taking his time. The compass always pointed towards its matched pair. Well it would as long as they were within ten miles of each other. If for some reason they lost connection the hand would spin once in each direction before pointing back in the direction it had felt its pair in most recently. The pattern would continue indefinitely. If Isaac was in danger his compass would vanish into his Inventory and Lenna would come running to his last known location. The same was also true as Lenna could toss hers into her Bottomless Bag in order to purposefully break the lock.

The dark mage appreciated his new armor as he walked. The light armor was not made of leather like his previous sets but was instead made of a woody leaf-like material. One of Eliza’s experiments had been attempting to grow armor using plant magic and it had been both a success and a failure. The armor had been grown over the course of five months which was far too slow for mass production but it had in fact been grown. Clayton had explained that if a druid was involved it could be done in only a few weeks but trying to get a druid to sit down and do nothing but grow suits of armor for extended periods of time was like trying to pull dragon teeth, very difficult and ill advised. It was a hard yet flexible material. The minor enchantments spread across the armor made it resistant to most forms of damage but Clayton did remind Isaac that there were certain types of acids and poisons that would be extra effective against the plant material.

Isaac’s sword actually hung at his hip as it was being cared for by his new scabbard. The scabbard would continually keep the surface of the blade oiled while cleaning it of any other material that attempted to stick to it. Isaac wasn’t known for taking the best care of his blade even if he did try, Lenna had assured that. The new scabbard would hopefully keep his blade in the best condition it could be in until the day he broke the magically enhanced steel. Anyone who had spent more than a few days with Isaac knew that he could go through gear like a princess went through her jewelry if he wasn’t careful. He hoped that his new gear could hold up.

His new cloak was the one he was the most concerned about. The black wool was actually shadow-wolf fur that had been somehow turned into thread and woven into a very normal looking wool cloak. At least it looked normal when in bright lighting. The darker the area he was in the more the true nature of the cloak was revealed. The essence of a shadow-wolf would come out as the fur turned silky and then oily under the lack of light. It continually pulled in an incredibly small amount of dark mana and used it to give off shadows. The shadows silenced movement and helped to hide Isaac even without him needing to spend any of his own mana. With the cloak lightening the burden of maintaining his nondetection it would be easier for him to bring Lenna along on his stealth missions. The reason he didn’t bring her along this time was because he needed to teleport and he couldn’t do that with her no matter how much he wished he could.

Isaac was afraid that his cloak would be the first casualty while engaged in his next fight. He had already gone through a few cloaks and they had all been reduced to ash. As much as he liked Lenna’s fire, he had a general hatred of facing open flames of any kind. Burns were painful and took longer to heal but the real reason was the damage his gear would take.

The Lord of Darkness stopped under the window to the Lord of Safeharbor’s office and closed his eyes. He felt his connection to the shadows in the small courtyard. He reached out and up the wall until he came to the window. His power snaked in and then a moment later he was standing in front of Izen Arbencroft’s desk. Izen wasn’t in. Isaac frowned and looked around. The office was exactly the same as it had been the last time he was there which wasn’t surprising as it hadn’t even been a week since then.

Isaac wandered around looking through the papers on Izen’s desk and inspecting the row of swords hung across one of the walls. Each sword had a name on a plaque. As Isaac read down the list of names he realized that each one had belonged to a former duke of Safeharbor. After his snooping was done Isaac had gotten bored. He walked over and plopped down in Izen’s chair and put his feet on the desk. He wished he had a good way to talk to Lenna while he waited but they were too far away for the Sending Stones and they hadn’t come up with a code to use with the compasses. He took out the compass and stared at the needle pointing to where he knew Lenna to be. “I hope the disappointed uncle shows up soon.” Isaac grumbled to himself, his shadowcloak ability muting his voice to the world all the while.

—

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Lenna leaned against the wall in the alley Isaac had left her in. She was a bit more calm than she usually was when Isaac was away. The compass in her hand pointed towards Izen’s office. Between the compass and her knowledge that Sera was on their side and their working relationship with Izen she knew that her mate was safe. As safe as he could ever be anyway. She rubbed her thumb across the mana stone Isaac had bought her while staring blankly at the compass. She continued to trickle mana into the stone to recharge it while she waited. She knew that one day the mana stone could mean the difference between life and death so the sooner it was charged and ready the better. The ability to pull her own mana back out of the stone was what had attracted her to it in the first place. All that was needed now was to fill it up and keep it in her pocket for an emergency. She sighed and looked around. ‘We should’ve picked somewhere with a bench. I hope they don’t talk all afternoon.’ She grumbled internally.

—

Izen had just finished eating lunch with his wife and son. His son would be heading back to the capital soon so he needed to make the most of the time they had together while he was there. Unfortunately his work couldn’t be put off forever so he was on his way back to his office. As he walked he thought about all the things piled on his proverbial plate and couldn’t hold back a sigh. Between the tension with his family and the Heindenburgs, and the increase in bandit activity outside of the dwarven fortress, he could have been kept busy for months. The Mr. Nobody incident that was still being cleaned up caused the stack of paperwork on his desk to double and he knew that it would only get worse as soon as news from the waystation and outpost arrived.

He sighed again as he put the key into the lock of the ancient oak door to his office. The lock clicked as the magical key turned off the wards protecting all the sensitive information inside. He opened the door and walked in. He closed the door and then turned around to face his desk and the pile of work waiting for him. He froze in his tracks as he saw someone sitting in his two hundred year old chair with his feet up on his two hundred year old desk. Izen’s eye twitched.

—

“You might want to latch the door.” Isaac told the duke while lounging in his chair. Izen pushed the door the last half an inch so it would latch. Isaac grinned and hopped up from Izen’s chair. “So? Who are the Heindenburgs again?”

Izen ignored Isaac’s question and walked around the desk to sit in his chair. Isaac took a step and appeared on the other side of the desk while falling into one of the chairs opposite the duke. “Did you run into a problem?” Izen asked.

Isaac shrugged. “Quite a few actually but my job is done, at least for now, hopefully.” He explained.

“Explain.” Izen replied wearily as he sat in his chair.

A bit of the gentle amusement on Isaac’s face lessened at the demand. Isaac knew that he was too touchy when it came to people ordering him around but he just couldn’t help himself most of the time. He knew that Izen didn’t mean anything by it and that the duke was technically his employer at the moment so he mentally shrugged it off and got down to business. “As I am sure you are aware, Mr. Nobody was actually a pair. A wizard and a doppelganger. I have witnessed and experienced being caught in more traps that day than I had ever before combined. I believe it is fair to say that I did, in fact, assault a wizard tower. If all of that wasn’t enough, the doppelganger refused to talk and I had to wait for any helpful information to come from extreme mental probing from our resident arch wizards.” Isaac went on. “One of my spies was almost tortured to death and a temporary hire was nearly killed, twice. That was all before we left Safeharbor.”

Izen nodded along. “I was informed on much of that by Tim and Alexander.” He replied. “I take it the rest of your job was just as eventful.”

“Two Tunnel Horrors, a dozen drow assassins, a turncoat scout in Outpost Charles that was working with a drow spy and a dozen accomplices later we are back.” Isaac confirmed. “That’s not even taking into account the other shitty things we had to deal with like the rampant racism against Lenna and having to actually perform a stakeout in order to catch the turncoat scout.”

“A lot has happened for it only being six days of work.” Izen replied.

Isaac shook his head. “It was only six days of work in one go.” He corrected him. “My information network had already spent innumerable hours preparing for this eventuality. I believe we have earned our pay.”

Izen nodded slowly. “I believe you have as well. Where are the prisoners from Ben’s End and Outpost Charles?” He questioned. He really hoped that there were prisoners and Isaac hadn’t just executed everyone. Both were an equal possibility in his eyes.

“Awaiting transport in their respective locations.” Isaac replied. “I made the local guards take care of them as best as they could. They never would have caught anyone without us though. I hope they can at least hold the prisoners.” He shook his head before leaning in and tossing his hood back so Izen could get a good look at his face. “Izen, the Guild Master of the Outpost Charles branch knew what was going on but didn’t do anything about it. His daughter was the scout that had been working with the drow spy. I promised that I would try to get her a lighter sentence but what you do with her is all on you. The spy had truly been manipulating her. She thought that she was stealing her fellow’s gear in exchange for gold so she could keep the one she loved fed. I don’t know if he used magic on her or not but he was a wizard with moderate skills. A poor lonely girl in the dark met a handsome elf who listened to her. Try not to go too hard on her, okay?”

Izen’s eyes went wide at Isaac actually advocating for someone. “I will keep that in mind.” He promised. “I will also have all of what is owed directly deposited to your account at the bank.”

Isaac nodded and got up. “Good.” He told the duke. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should go check on my men and make sure they are all healing properly.”

Izen nodded. “Thank you, Isaac.”

Isaac flashed him a smirk. “If it’s going to pay this well every time, don’t hesitate to call on me again.” He told him and disappeared leaving nothing but a quickly vanishing silhouette of shadows in his wake.