Chapter 89 Maybe It’s Fate.
“In order to conserve our mana, we will be staying here.” Fina said with a frown. The notoriously drunk wizard from Ben’s End, Keith, was at least mostly sober next to her a hundred paces outside of the walls. “I’ll take Shy’s, you handle Marie’s.” She told the wizard.
“Yes ma’am.” He replied and they both placed a hand on their respective rogues.
“Light bends and shadows mend, eyes deceive my vision reprieve.” The pair of mages chanted. Shy and Marie vanished as soon as they were done.
“Faces.” Isaac said and held his hands out. Both rogues grabbed one of his hands and put it over their mouth. He coated them in shadows so their voices could no longer be heard by anyone save for the other members of their trio. As soon as the shadows were in place he pulled his hands back. The shadows were hidden under the Invisibility spell but Isaac could still feel them. He flashed Fina and Keith a grin. “And we are off. I’d say to wish us luck but we make our own.” With that final one-liner he vanished.
“Sera is right, you are a drama queen.” Marie commented. Her every movement was silent due to the enchantments in her gear and decades of practice. She was trying to listen for Shy’s movements but couldn’t hear them. They both just had to trust that they wouldn’t trip over each other.
“A dramatic exit is the mark of a storybook hero… or villain.” Isaac replied. “I just wish I could see it from the outside.”
“I guarantee that it is less spectacular than you think it is.” Marie teased.
“Is… is this okay?” Shy asked. She was just along for the ride as the other two joked around while on the most important and potentially deadly mission of her life.
“Yes.” Marie replied. “Keeping the mood light helps keep the stress from getting to you.” She explained to the younger rogue.
“Oh.” Shy said slightly louder than a whisper.
“Just relax.” Isaac told her. “We have a long jog ahead of us before we are even in position. Have faith in Fina to keep your Invisibility active and just follow the plan. You and Marie are on anti-interference duty. If you see someone coming to mess with the fight just throw some darts at them. If you see a drow scout then take them out. I’m the one who is going to be trying to assassinate the strongest man within a few hundred miles.”
“Stronger than you?” Shy asked. She had seen the full potential of Isaac Wexler on more than one occasion and she was entirely sure that she never wanted to go up against it.
“Yes.” Isaac replied honestly. “But I have something he doesn’t.”
After Isaac hadn’t elaborated for a few long seconds Shy couldn’t help herself from asking: “What?”
“Enough poison to kill a hundred and eighty normal people.” Isaac replied simply. “Granted, a decent amount of that is going to be used on the three other people with him, but he is going to get at least sixty times the lethal dose, even if I have to pry open his helmet and dump it down his throat.”
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Shy swallowed hard. “You’d better.” She heard Marie say from half a dozen feet away. “I paid good money for that poison.”
“I already paid you back for it.” Isaac shot back. “It’s mine now.”
“Those needles are still mine.” Marie retorted.
“Fine.” Isaac grumbled but it was half hearted. He was honestly glad that Marie had given him the poison. He had been starting to doubt his odds before she had. “Any bets on how long the fight lasts?” He asked the girls.
“Fable put ten platinum on you having to drink the Ten Men potion.” Marie explained. “Edward has two on the Lets of Quickness being enough.”
“I didn’t hear about that.” Shy commented.
“Only the coffin dodgers were betting.” Marie explained. “Izen put his new pen on you trying to fight Jallen without the Lets or the potion for at least thirty seconds before you drink the potion. Celeste bet her newest foreign wine on you losing but surviving.”
“Ouch.” Isaac cut in. “How could she?” He asked in mock hurt.
“Cel is the oldest of our team, she’s seen some shit.” Marie replied. “After she made that bet everyone else was scared to bet against her.”
“My odds are that bad huh?” Isaac asked.
“I wouldn’t say they are bad.” Marie replied.
Isaac frowned. “But not good either.”
“Now he gets it.” Marie replied with a chuckle. “Shy, are you still there?”
“Yes.” Shy replied breathily.
“She’s trying to conserve her stamina.” Isaac explained. “I’ll keep an eye on her until it’s time to split up, don’t worry.”
“Alright, I’ll leave her to you.” Marie replied. They continued on for a while until finally they came upon a ridge. “By all that is holy… they look way more intimidating in person.” She commented once they crested the slight ridge in Safeharbor’s massive cavern’s floor.
Isaac stopped and took in the sight. The rogues did as well. They could see him because of the shared shadows but he could only feel where they were. A mile in front of them was a wall of enchanted steel. They were arranged in twenty groups of ten. Each group had four shieldbearers in the front, one on each side, four in the rear, and two other members in the middle. The two in the middle were a knight in plate armor with a longsword on their hip and a mage in combat robes. The mages had stone staves with quartz crown jewels and rectangular silver plates strapped to their left arms. The shieldbearers all wore platemail and had shortswords at their hips.
Behind the small army there were four wagons pulled by pecurke in a reversed wedge formation. In the opening of the reversed wedge stood a group of four around a table that had no doubt been recently assembled. The tallest of the four was in plate armor that was covered in gold runes and filigree. Half of the gold was glowing softly from the obscene mana draw of the enchantments. The rest looked like it was just there so the armor would look pretty when stowed on an armor stand. He had a round shield, much like the ones the infantry used, on a stand half a dozen feet away from him. The biggest difference between his and the ones the small army had was the massive diamond placed in the center, that and the hundred golden lines drawn across its surface.
To the sides of the man, who could only have been Jallen V’Nova, were two lightly armored individuals. One wasn’t even wearing combat robes but was wearing a cloak with a spider eating the moon motif over what looked like a casual but well made long sleeved shirt and pants. The other was wearing long black robes that fell the entire way to the ground. The robes had silver spiders woven into the fabric all across it. The last member was wearing the exact same armor as the rest of the V’Nova knight-paladins save for one small detail. He had a dark cape attached to one shoulder that was adorned with silver tassels.
“That’s them.” Marie whispered.
“Definitely.” Isaac agreed.
“You are sure you can handle all four of them?” Shy asked worriedly.
“Probably.” Isaac replied simply. “Only one way to find out.” He gestured to an area behind the targets and off to the side a bit. “Let’s head over there and wait until the chaos begins. It should be starting soon and you girls will want a nice view.”
Marie chuckled. “Damn right we will.”
“If you say so.” Shy all but whispered but followed along as the other two continued on their hike to get into position. All three of them were unimaginably grateful for their gear that aided their silence. One wrong sound at just too close to the infantry and the wrong person might expect something to be up. Of course there was always the risk that the enemy might be expecting something along the lines of what they were doing. If that was the case then their sneaky plan would turn into a death trap in a matter of moments. If that happened both Shy and Marie had a mental connection to Alexander and the duke. Alexander was more than ready to teleport out to retrieve them if he had to and the pair had flares if he needed to find them.
Isaac knew that Alexander would be willing to pick him up too if he really needed it, but they all knew that if Isaac couldn’t get out of a situation than the odds of anyone getting to him to get him out were almost nonexistent, and even if they could, the odds of them getting them both out were even lower. ‘This entire plan is feeling more and more stupid when running away had always been an option.’ Isaac thought to himself. He shook his head. ‘Who am I kidding? There was no way that Lenna wouldn’t want to protect her new friends and that I wouldn’t want to fight the bastard at least once. Who knows, maybe it’s fate.’