“What’s going on?”
“Give me a minute!”
The bickering voices came from an alley a couple streets over from the Westlake estate. Lucian and Isolde had moved away from the gate as the rogue had already spent a third of his mana maintaining the Casual Bystander skill in the face of the estate guards. It was a skill with a cost dependent on the environment it was used in. Immediately after the group had entered the estate, the guards went on full alert which began draining his mana at an alarming rate. The skill was designed for inconspicuous spying, not evading the sight of those actively monitoring the area.
Thankfully Isolde’s ability to control her summons had a very long range. The trade off was that the further away from their summoner, the weaker and more easily disrupted they were. This meant that Isolde needed to be close by for battle but enabled the summons to carry messages and spy on her behalf across longer distances. The problem the summoner was facing now had four legs and a shaggy, golden coat.
“This stupid dog is chasing my mouse,” the lephori woman complained. She fingered a strand of her reddish-orange hair while concentrating on her summon. “I’m giving the mouse more magic for speed but this dog is abnormally fast and damned persistent.”
“Just imagine if it was a cat instead,” Lucian said with a smirk. The rogue was both annoyed and amused that their plan was having issues. Wizards were already bad enough with their ability to magically open locks and turn invisible. Rogues only had so many things they did well. Between skeleton keys, various common spells, and more, it was getting harder and harder for a scoundrel to get by without going all in on anti-trap skills for dungeon sweeping. His team already had two mages. If Isolde could replace his ability to spy on people entirely then they might look to subtract a rogue and add another mage.
“Very funny,” Isolde said dryly. “I’m getting parts of the conversation at least. That’s definitely Zenith Penrose. Cordelia Westlake confirmed it.”
“What’s the captain of this year’s tree watchers doing here?” Lucian asked, slouching against the wall of the alley.
“Sounds like they’re talking to the baroness about one of the men who went missing. Gods help me, the butler is chasing my mouse too,” Isolde grimaced as she spoke. This was a disaster. The dog was ruining everything. She’d bet her cut of the pay that Zenith had it there specifically as an anti-spying measure. The lephori had heard of dogs having unique senses that let them find treasure or all manner of things so it was a real possibility.
“Sounds like?” Lucian asked with a frown.
“It’s hard to pay attention when you’re avoiding capture. A lot of the furniture is warded against dust and small creatures so I can’t even hide my mouse under a couch or something. I’m running them in circles just so I can get part of the conversation.” The dog was getting closer and closer much to Isolde’s frustration. She made a decision and had her mouse run back toward the drawing room. If her mouse was going to be caught, she was going to hear as much as she could first.
“Holy… they just admitted to it. They’re part of the cult we’re hunting down,” Isolde’s eyes went wide then she felt the mental backlash as her connection to her mouse was abruptly snapped. “Ow.”
“What did they say?” Lucian said, bouncing off the wall with sudden excitement. The skinny rogue was practically vibrating with excitement. His clothes didn’t fit the modern aesthetic of a rogue or scoundrel and, in fact, he looked more like a day laborer dressed in his plain brown trousers and an unremarkable jacket of the same color. Appearances were deceiving and he carried half a dozen concealed knives in those seemingly plain clothes.
“The cat told Cordelia that they already had their cult robes and even produced one. I saw the robe myself,” Isolde replied in a whisper.
“Holy shit. Zenith Penrose and Cordelia Westlake are the ones abducting people and they’re in a cult together no less. That’s big,” Lucian whispered back. Isolde winced as the last of the backlash headache faded.
“I’ll send word to Alden and Tobias. This is bigger than we thought. We’ll need to send word back to Count Dancarlo but then what?” Isolde shook her head as she considered the matter. The lephori summoner withdrew a small, enchanted quill from a bag on her belt as well as a piece of parchment paper. She wrote a note on the paper then summoned a small bird. The bird chirped while Isolde tied the message to one of its legs then she sent it off to find Alden, their team leader.
“We have to follow Penrose. If she and her minions have evidence of their scheme on them and we could get them questioned by the guard somehow then we could expose their whole scheme today. Just imagine the look on Alden’s face when we tell him we blew the cover on the entire conspiracy in a single day.” Lucian grinned wider as he spoke. Isolde was a little more reserved.
“Why would they have their robes on them though? It’s a bit risky to walk around with them in broad daylight, isn’t it?” Isolde’s question made Lucian’s smile falter. The rogue stopped to think about it then his eyes widened.
“Oh shit, you think they’re plotting another kidnapping? Today? We need to get back to the estate right now. This is the luckiest break we could ever have asked for. We might very well catch them in the act!” the rogue exclaimed while practically pulling Isolde along with him.
Half an hour later, Brivaria and the group were sitting at a small restaurant and eating lunch. The angel didn’t particularly need three or even two meals a day so she ate sparingly. Kseniya was more than happy to split whatever Brivaria ordered and enjoy the unwanted food herself. Trixie and the lamia both shared the trait of always having room for more. If there was more food on the plate or in the bowl, they kept eating. Nyx poked at her food and ultimately ate a bit but she wasn’t in the right place, emotionally, to enjoy the meal.
“If Jasmine is part of this cult then she might not like us showing up unannounced,” Nyx began.
“If she’s part of the cult then she wouldn’t like us showing up announced either,” Brivaria pointed out with a teasing smile. She watched Nyx slide her half-eaten meal toward Kseniya.
“You know what I mean,” Nyx pouted. “What are we trying to do?”
“If she’s not involved with this then she may know who else Terrance associated with. I can’t imagine he wrote all of his friends’ names in his notebooks,” the angel began to explain but Kseniya butt in.
“If she is part of the cult then we take her to the guard. A city this size should have individuals or mages capable of compelling the guilty to speak their crimes, you know? Though, I don’t think the baroness would like that very much,” the serpent admitted between bites of her food.
“Or we could leave her alone and follow her,” the angel suggested. Kseniya raised an eyebrow.
“You and I stick out like sore thumbs. Perhaps the cat could follow her unnoticed but I do not think we could,” the lamia looked to Nyx as she spoke, “plus I would not want to put our cat in danger. I do not think this is a good time to separate.”
Brivaria agreed with that. Their assailant from the previous night was still out there. The angel was fairly certain they’d mistaken her for this Zenith woman. At best, splitting up would only put her in danger. At worst, their attacker would decide to remove Nyx or Kseniya before re-targeting the angel. Brivaria had the sneaking suspicion that Kseniya could easily win in a straight up fight but Nyx was the lowest level of the three and definitely the most vulnerable.
“Fair enough. Let’s go and see what happens. We could spend all day working out hypotheticals or just go meet her and get it over with,” Brivaria said with a nod to Kseniya’s point.
They paid their waitress and got up to go. Trixie had been laying on the ground next to Brivaria’s chair and she stood up as well. Nyx watched as Brivaria stooped to pet the dog. The catfolk girl had never seen a dog as well-behaved as the golden sunchaser. Trixie always listened to Brivaria. While the golden was curious about all things and would happily sniff everything and everyone, it never crossed the line into being uncomfortable and would come as soon as Brivaria called.
Somehow the dog’s antics at the noble’s estate didn’t cross that threshold either but that was likely due to the fact that animal companions were fairly normal sights. The catfolk girl had seen many other animals wandering around the city with owners or masters. They were either leashed as pets or bonded as animal companions via class skills. If Nyx didn’t know better, she’d have suspected the golden sunchaser was a bonded animal companion with how polite and well-mannered the hound could be.
Instead, Nyx decided that Trixie was just a very perceptive and big-hearted dog. The cat girl still smiled inwardly at the feeling of Trixie’s head on her lap and the dog’s brown eyes looking up at her with obvious affection. As they left the restaurant, she also bent down to scritch the dog behind the ears. Trixie gave a happy wuff and her tail wagged a little faster.
The home of Jasmine Veer was less than a block away from the restaurant where the group ate lunch. The shutters were drawn despite the cool weather and there was a little wood carving on the door that read “Nothing fishy going on here” except with a little wooden fish where the where word “fishy” would have been. Brivaria went to knock on the door when it opened.
The beautiful woman who emerged from the door was in her thirties with a large mane of brown hair, hazel eyes, and an extremely surprised expression as she nearly ran into Brivaria. A fishing pole slipped from her grip which the angel caught on instinct.
“Oops, ah, hello?” she asked. Her eyes went down to the fishing pole Brivaria held and the angel offered it back to her.
“Hi there, my name is Brivaria. Are you Jasmine Veer?” the winged girl looked from the fishing pole to the backpack the woman was wearing. Was she leaving on a trip?
“Yes, what’s going on?” Jasmine’s eyes flicked to the lamia and cat girl who were flanking the angel.
“We wanted to talk to you about Terrance Grand. He went missing some time back and a friend of his asked us to look into his disappearance. He apparently had some interesting hobbies and you were mentioned in his notebook so we were wondering if you could tell us anything or might know what happened to him.” Brivaria was hoping she was being diplomatic with her phrasing but she didn’t miss the way Jasmine’s eyes widened when the word “hobbies” was mentioned. It seemed that the other girl did know something about what Mr. Grand was up to.
“Look,” Jasmine began while stepping back slightly, “I don’t know where Terrance is right now. He disappeared a while back. Didn’t tell anyone where he was going or let anyone at the shop know he was leaving.”
“You don’t know where he went yet you were part of his rather unique hobby? We visited his home earlier today and found some very interesting things inside potentially related to your activities together.” Brivaria was guessing but she felt like she was on the right track. She believed Jasmine regarding not knowing where Terrance was which was equal parts fortunate and unfortunate. Jasmine sighed.
“What did you find?” she asked, a note of resignation entering her voice.
“Robes bearing an unfamiliar insignia. There are rumors of a cult in the city as well. I’m guessing you and he are part of it,” Brivaria ventured. All three adventurers waited as Jasmine seemed to weigh their words and faces before replying.
“Yes, but it’s not what you think. I’m leaving to go visit some of my fellows now,” she lowered her voice as she spoke, “look, we have a place east of the city that we all meet up at once a month or so. Why don’t you come with me?”
“Just like that?” Kseniya asked incredulously.
“Well, why not? I don’t see any city guards with you and it would be really nice to keep it that way. Terrance was a good person. If we can convince you that we’re not the culprits and maybe help you find him then maybe you can forget we exist,” Jasmine answered.
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“I guess?” Brivaria stepped back and looked to her party members. She was used to going into these situations sword drawn and spells active. The idea of a cultist just inviting them to a gathering was new and strange to her. Most demon cults were fairly hostile to outsiders which made Brivaria wonder if this really was a demon cult at all. “One question first—is your hobby demon-related?”
“Yes but it’s complicated. It would be better if our leader explained it.” Jasmine looked vaguely uncomfortable at the subject which was even stranger.
Meanwhile, the discussion was being observed from further up the street. Lucian and Isolde hadn’t stopped following them since leaving the Westlake estate. The pair had eaten at the same restaurant as the trio though a combination of ambient noise, quiet words, and the fact that the duo were forced to sit rather far away made eavesdropping difficult. Even now, the nearest alley they could peak from was beyond casual eavesdropping range even for Isolde’s excellent hearing.
“We should wait for Alden’s reply before doing anything,” Isolde commented as both periodically looked out at the winged girl and her party.
“I’m not doing anything,” Lucian countered defensively.
“You’re thinking of doing something.”
Lucian was watching the group with an intensity that his partner didn’t match. For some reason, Isolde didn’t seem to understand the significance of what they were witnessing. Zenith Penrose being part of a kidnapping ring and a cult was news that the entire country would take notice of. The Seasoned Steel had slipped up once but if they revealed this conspiracy then not only would it undo the damage to their reputation from the Trabathan incident but it would likely get them reinstated as silver rank adventurers. This was their chance for redemption.
“Well, I’m watching and I’m not liking what I’m seeing,” the rogue said with a frown. Isolde leaned out to look herself. She saw the group coaxing the woman from her home.
“I would have made a mouse or a cat to listen but that stupid dog would chase it away again. If we can’t hear what they’re saying then we can’t be certain of what they’re doing,” Isolde complained.
“We already know what they’re doing. They’re here to kidnap someone else. Oh shit, they’re taking her now,” Lucian’s eyes went wide as the woman shut the door behind her and walked into the middle of the group. No one had drawn weapons but a team of mercenaries didn’t need to have their weapons drawn to threaten an innocent person. What’s more, he could tell how nervous the woman with them was.
“I wonder where they are going. Perhaps I should send another message to Alden and…” Isolde’s suggestion was cut off a Lucian spoke. He was drawing his daggers.
“No, we have to save her. This might be her only chance at rescue. Isolde, back me up,” the rogue said before dashing around the corner and activating a stealth skill.
Isolde grimaced. Even if the scoundrel was right, how were they supposed to defeat Zenith-fucking-Penrose herself? This was a terrible, terrible idea. She began chanting a spell to summon a pair of the Marrow Wolves that had bested them in Trabatha. Isolde had a bad feeling about this but Lucian was her teammate so she couldn’t let him do this alone. She’d assist him but from a safe distance. Everyone was just starting to walk away from the woman’s home when the scoundrel struck.
There were many ways to counter a rogue and the unique skills a rogue used to remain undetected. Some skills boosted the owner’s natural senses allowing them to see, smell, hear, or feel the approach of an assassin. There was even a skill that serpentkin possessed which allowed them to taste the air. Amid the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of skills there was also one’s ability to have a really high awareness attribute letting them perceive the world at such as level as to render low level stealth abilities completely ineffective. Of all these ways to negate stealth, Brivaria possessed exactly none of them.
It came as a great shock to both Lucian and Brivaria when the rogue neatly drove his blade into the angel’s back with no last minute dodge or skill activation. The angel wore no armor, just a white blouse and matching slacks, so nothing stopped the rogue’s dagger from sinking into her flesh and then its tip emerging from her chest. It was a perfect killing blow and the rogue watched with wide eyes as the winged woman fell to the ground, heart-punctured and almost certainly dead before she hit the stone beneath their feet.
For a single moment in time, everyone was transfixed by the sight. Kseniya and Nyx transitioned from surprise to abject horror at the sudden brutality. Isolde’s eyes were wide at the fact that Lucian’s sneak attack had succeeded. Trixie barked in confusion. Jasmine screamed first.
“Brivaria!” Nyx screamed as she turned to face their attacker, raising her hands with her claws extending.
Kseniya was far, far faster. The lamia had her ornate scepter drawn in a flash and the green orb glowed fiercely as it projected a massive hammer. The rogue was instantly put on the back foot as the hammer swung toward him. He avoided the hammer once then took a nasty cut as the the thing turned into a heavy blade midway through the lamia’s second swing which cut through his armor like it wasn’t even there.
It was Trixie’s barking that made them realize there was more coming than just the rogue. Two large wolves wearing some sort of skeletal, bone armor were racing down the street toward the group. One of them leaped toward Nyx only to have two, golden paws touch it mid-leap and push. All Trixie did was rise up on her hind legs to shove the wolf. The golden sunchaser not only succeeded in pushing the beast but shoved it so hard that it hit the solid cobblestone with a painful cracking sound. Isolde blinked in surprise as the wolf lost over half its health from what looked like a light push… from the dog.
All the while Brivaria lay on the ground. Lucian’s attack was masterful for his level and he’d put several skills into the blow to reduce the angel’s health from full to zero instantly. Admittedly that wasn’t a hard task. At 70 health, the angel had roughly half the health of most normal races and perhaps a third of others. Nyx was many levels lower and likely had more. What Brivaria did have was a cheat that she should not have possessed, two of them in fact.
A small black appendage that the angel had never possessed prior to the night before rose up the back of her bloody blouse and pushed into the wound. After working with the demon in her head all night, the angel had succeeded in fashioning a little black tail with a spaded tip. It jammed itself into the wound.
Just as with healing potions, one always wanted to apply healing directly to the wound. Drinking a healing potion would rejuvenate the body, eventually, whereas dumping the contents onto an injured leg would begin mending the leg immediately. When outside of combat or emergencies, additional health was additional health. When every second counted, getting the healing to the injured part of the body was key. When the tail found the wound, Healing Touch activated.
The other cheat the angel possessed aside from her new demonic tail was a souvenir from the deadly battle in the Cervidian Woods east of Pemburne. Brivaria had nearly died to a flesh spear attempting to pierce her heart. The heart was a very delicate organ and it was a good place to aim for. High endurance and health could repair a damaged heart but it would be costly. The angel survived the fight by using her new Flesh Sculpting skill to move the heart out of the way of the attack.
In the aftermath of the fight, Brivaria had reflected upon it across many nights. The chimera demon would not be the last creature to aim for her heart and she wouldn’t always be able to dodge a strike aimed for it. After considering the problem, the answer became obvious—why not rearrange her internal organs to avoid the issue all together? Having no rationale not to do it, the winged girl had done so.
When Lucian stabbed the angel, she’d taken the full brunt of his attack however if the rogue had been paying more attention to the actual impact of his strike then he’d have noticed a lot less blood than such a wound should have produced. Thankfully, he was not paying attention. In fact, no one was paying attention as the angel rapidly healed her wound. After all, there was a battle going on.
The lamia was far more dangerous than Lucian had expected. Despite having tipped the fight in their favor with his initial attack, he doubted he could beat the snake woman one on one. She was too fast. Between her spells, the green blades her scepter could project, and her tail periodically snapping toward him, he was barely holding his own. Meanwhile the catfolk girl and the dog were somehow winning against Isolde’s wolves.
Lucian had to tip the balance in their favor if they wanted to succeed. That was why he abruptly changed targets and went after the catfolk girl’s back. If he could strike a blow against her while she was distracted by the wolves then they could easily finish the rest. It was only the barest flicker of movement in the corner of his vision that caused him to abort his attack at the last moment. Even then, a glowing black blade sliced into his armor and left a small cut before he could get away. Lucian’s jaw dropped when he saw where the attack came from.
The winged girl was back upright now wearing a full, if damaged, set of chain armor. She had a shield and a sword that both gave off a black, ominous glow. The rogue instantly understood the danger it posed as he saw his health drop and continue dropping despite the shallow cut. The damn thing was as bad as the snake woman’s poison. Her shield began glowing with a similar black light as the sword and she advanced.
Kseniya was astonished to see Brivaria up and fighting but also that her back was entirely healed. The snake woman was even more astonished when Brivaria brought her shield up and charged the rogue. The lamia and angel had fought many battles together but she’d never seen Brivaria fight a human opponent. They’d always fought monsters together. This was the first time the serpent woman got to see how Brivaria fought a man. It was frightening.
The angel was lower level than the rogue. Kseniya would have guessed the level gap was somewhere between 15 and 25 levels judging by how fast he moved. For all Brivaria’s tricks, the lamia knew the angel couldn’t be far past level 30 if that whereas the rogue was at least level 50. Yet, despite the level gap, the man didn’t have a prayer of winning. It wasn’t that the angel was faster or stronger because she wasn’t. No, it was the fact that she had a shield and a thrusting sword paired with a lot of experience using those two things.
Lucian was backpedaling. The attack had started off so well but now everything was going wrong. One of Isolde’s wolves had been destroyed and Zenith was back on her feet. The evil magic the winged woman wielded was sapping the rogue’s strength. He felt at least 10 levels weaker now than he had moments before. His health was dropping and he had no way to get past that damned shield.
Even more frustrating, the winged woman was mocking him. Zenith Penrose was widely known to be a high level, highly skilled warrior yet she was taking her time fighting him. She was holding back and still winning. She’d taken his best attack, recovered in seconds, and was now demonstrating that she didn’t even need to use her full strength to beat him. The fucking nerve of this woman was maddening!
Isolde had watched the entire battle play out through the eyes of her wolves. She’d seen Lucian’s lucky first strike then the winged woman rise and was now watching Lucian get his ass handed to him. First the lamia had proven she was a better combatant, as a mage, which she knew would rankle the rogue and now Zenith was casually taking him apart in a clinical fashion. It would have been hilarious except that her summons were doing just as poorly.
The golden dog was a much higher threat than Isolde realized. The dog was fast, strong, and its barking somehow forced her wolves to pay attention to it. It didn’t help that the catgirl used the distraction to land a literal bone-crushing blow on one of them. This was a losing fight before she lost one of her wolves. Heck, it was a losing fight before they’d even attacked. Lucian’s initial strike had given a bit of hope that they could pull through but that was definitely not the case.
In the end, Lucian had screwed up royally. He’d badly misjudged the situation, was surrounded by enemies, and probably going to pay for it with his life. Truthfully, Isolde hated the guy. He was a jerk and just because his heart was usually in the right place didn’t change that. Still, she wasn’t going to let him die.
She put as much health into her remaining wolf as the connection would allow and ordered it to attack Zenith. How was Lucian going to get away from a sorceress’ spells let alone the rest? Isolde had no idea but she’d give him an opening to drink potions, disengage, do whatever he could to escape. At least, she thought she would. The winged girl casually flapped her wings to lift into the air and sliced through her wolf’s flank as it ran through where she’d been standing moments before. Isolde had no idea what the hell the black magic Zenith used was but it drained her wolf’s health at record speed. Her summon dissolved and her eyes widened as she felt the magic transfer to her, draining her own health.
Brivaria’s awareness was, once again, too low to hear the frightened yell from the distant alleyway but Trixie heard it. She gave a confused look in its direction before rushing toward the man fighting Brivaria! The rogue, having finally realized the fight was well and truly over, ran for it. He put all his stamina into getting as far away from the winged woman as he could.
The angel blinked as the rogue made a break for it. She considered flying after him but feared he’d have a healing or mana potion on him. She considered using Withering Ray but also feared that would kill him. She settled on something else. Her sword and shield disappeared as a different weapon appeared in her hands.
Back in the town of Tenome, Brivaria purchased a certain weapon from a trader to combat some very speedy birds. She’d bought a slingshot; not a sling but a slingshot. It appeared in her hands and a small rock popped out of her inventory and in the strap as she drew it back. The rock was infused with decaying magic via Infusion (Light) and then Current Control just to make it fly a little faster. She aimed and released. Knocking agile ravens out of the sky had been far more challenging than this and she didn’t have Current Control back then.
The rock hit the rogue’s back doing little damage but transferring the decay magic into his body. His stamina, which had already been nearly empty, reached zero. It was at this point that Trixie caught up to him. The golden’s heavy paws slammed into his back and down he went. He struck the road hard enough to make everyone watching wince and laid still after.
“What’s going on here?” came the bellowing shout of the city guard as a pair of patrolling guards rushed toward the scene. The fact that they were fighting in broad daylight and Jasmine had screamed drew the guards fast. It didn’t hurt that this was the more populous part of the city which naturally resulted in more patrols.
Brivaria mentally prepared herself for what came next while also ensuring her tail was hidden once more. She was turning to meet the oncoming guards when she noticed a System notification.
You have reached level 34.
Gained +2 Physique, +1 Endurance, +1 Arcane, +2 Spirit, +1 Awareness, +2 Presence.
Gained one new skill selection.
Well, something good came out of this at least, the angel thought.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Apprentice Shaper of Flesh
Level: 34
Stats: Health 65/71, Mana 95/136, Stamina 77/93
Attributes: Physique 58, Endurance 36, Arcane 64, Spirit 68, Awareness 36, Presence 71
Active Skills: Current Control, Defensive Bulwark, Healing Touch, Wind Formation
Passive Skills: Alternative Form, Flesh Sculpting, Infernal Seed, Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Lingering Decay, Rest, Traits (Angel)
Magic: Light of Decay
Affinity: Corruption, Decay
Unspent Skill Points: 1