At 200 strong, the Ebony Association formed a veritable army, and no one, including the Adventurers Guild, wanted to squabble with them. Additionally, they were one of the wealthiest gangs in the city, as they had a near-complete monopoly on any material that could be found in the swamp. Garrett had Isabelle touch down on the roof of the manor, staying there for a moment to observe. As night had fallen, there weren't many people coming and going, though occasionally he would see a team leaving the manor for one of the surrounding buildings, no doubt to get some sleep.
As quick as a shadow, Garrett used Isabelle's ability to enter reflections to jump to one of the Adventurers leaving the building, and then jumped again to a window on the first floor. He had never been inside the manor before, and so had no idea what sort of layout it might have. From the front window, he could see into the main hall, a large, grandiose affair with a staircase that rose two stories. The decorations were old and clearly in need of repair, but there was enough shine to the decorations on the wall that Garrett had no trouble bouncing from object to object as he headed up the stairs towards the second floor.
He assumed that he would find his target on either the second or third floor, and for the next hour, he zipped this way and that, bouncing from one shining object to another as he got a good sense for the layout. Along the way, he didn't forget to send dream seeds to lodge themselves. In the bodies of anyone he saw. Only Gero, out of the entire gang, was in the Shaper stage, at least to his knowledge. This meant everyone else was practically defenseless. Once he had completely covered the second floor, Garrett controlled Isabelle to head up to the third, continuing his search until he stumbled across what appeared to be Gero's office.
It was a simple enough matter for Isabelle to slip through the locked door, transferring from one side of the door handle to the other, through the lock itself. Seeing that nobody was inside, he had her manifest. She appeared as if out of thin air, her long hair floating mysteriously around her, her feet a few inches off the ground. For a moment, she remained in place as Garrett slowly looked around, checking for any traps or anything that might be harmful.
When nothing was immediately apparent, he moved toward the desk and began to peruse it. He found the gang's ledgers and looked through them, his eyebrows rising as he saw just how much money the Ebony Association made every month. It was more than enough to pay the Klein family's expenses twice over, causing Garrett to be quite happy.
With his curiosity satisfied, Garrett decided it was time to get to work for real. A moment later, everything around him shifted as Isabelle moved into the dream. One of the advantages of Shaper-level nightmares was their ability to enter and exit the dream at will. Most didn't have the intellect to do so, but those that did were truly terrifying.
Garrett had never been to this part of the dream before, and so, as he looked around, everything was covered by a dense fog. With a wave of his hand, his power covered the room, sweeping away the fog to reveal the appearance of the manor. It was old and dilapidated, with peeling wallpaper, a sagging ceiling, and thick dust covering everything.
Looking around for a moment, Garrett controlled Isabelle to go out into the hall, almost immediately running into a pack of drudge wraiths. With silent hisses, the drudge wraiths shook in fear and tried to dart away, but Garrett was on them too quickly, tearing them apart with sharp claws, even as others were picked up with hair and crushed.
Before he continued on, Garrett turned and began to send out dream flowers. As he did, he could feel his experience dropping. 432, 431, 430. Every time he created a seed and filled it with power, his experience would drop by one. But Garrett didn't care. If this operation was successful, he knew that he would gain exponentially more experience than he lost.
All night, Garrett moved through the Ebony Association's base, planting flowers and eliminating nightmares. By the time he was done, he had spent over 300 experience points, reducing him to only 110 out of the 640 that he needed. Still, he didn't begrudge it at all, as by now, his enemy's base was completely covered in dream flowers.
Dawn wasn't far away when he finally finished. He controlled Isabelle to leave the building, looking back with a smile that stretched from ear to ear behind the long hair that fell over Isabelle's face. Propagate. Excited by his command, the dream flowers shook, and Garrett vanished, releasing Isabelle to return on her own.
As he opened his eyes and looked to the east with a cold smile, he knew it would have been much faster for him to directly control each of the awakened, taking over their minds by forcefully growing the dream flowers he had planted. He had a sneaking suspicion, however, that such an action would be noticed. In any case, the true terror of the dream flowers was their ability to stealthily infiltrate through the dream, planting seeds in those unaware of their existence and slowly growing them until they had taken control.
Sending a command to Somnia, his overlord flower, to keep tabs on what was happening, Garrett left the dream and began to plan the second stage of the hostile takeover. Dealing with the awakened members of the Ebony Association was one thing, but dealing with Gero Twin Blade was going to be entirely another.
The possibility of being able to take over a shaper stage awakened was very low. It had only worked with Cynen because she had voluntarily given up control, embracing the guardian seed that had once been Viper. Isabelle's capture had been possible because she was a nightmare, and thus less resistant to the fusion of mental energy required to bond with a dream flower.
Gero, on the other hand, would be next to impossible to capture and convert, which meant that he really only had one other option, and that was elimination. There were a lot of ways that Garrett could think of to get rid of Gero, but each time he settled on a plan, he hesitated, as he would have rather had her as an ally than an enemy.
Additionally, if the Ebony Association lost their only shaper, it would completely destabilize their position on the Council of Ten Seats, which wouldn't serve Garrett either. The plan he had finally settled on was rather daring, and Garrett wasn’t sure if he was going to succeed. Still, if it worked, it would be better than just killing her.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
For the next week, Garrett and the Klein family laid low. Princess Eloise was in and out of the inn almost every day, meeting with nobles whom Baron Gelavin had vetted as loyal supporters of the Crown. Garrett had sent the workers from the factory back to Carraway, where they pitched in as they were able to try and get the factory back up and running. He had to reassure Ryn a dozen times that he did, in fact, have a plan, and that it was currently in progress.
About halfway through the week, at Princess Eloise's request, Garrett finally reached out to his father, sending a carefully worded handwritten note informing his father that he was still alive and would like to meet. Most importantly though, Garrett spent the week monitoring the situation at the Ebony Alliance. With Somnia's oversight, the flowers there had begun to propagate at an almost alarming rate. Any space where Awakened often gathered tended to be rich in mental energy, and every time he directed his attention towards the old mansion, it seemed that hundreds more blooms had appeared.
Garrett was also satisfied to see that the flowers had begun to plant themselves in the Awakened members of the gang. None of them were above three flowers yet, but Garrett knew that with time, four and five blooms were inevitable. There was another benefit, as the density of the flowers provided a sort of beacon for the Awakened Dreamers, who worked hard to clear the territory between Dreamer's Inn and the old mansion. Once, this had been the territory of Agma-Yoth, but with his death, it had become unclaimed, and Garrett had little trouble sweeping it up.
Even as the Awakened Dreamers ranged out from Dreamer's Rest, cutting through the fog and eliminating nightmares, Isabelle did as well, targeting all of the Shaper or near-Shaper-level nightmares hidden in that territory. They had found three greater nightmares, all of whom were warring with each other to try and become the next ruler of the area. Without a shred of mercy, Isabelle devoured each in turn, relying on Garrett's abundant mental energy and the mysterious artifacts she had collected to overpower each of them.
Soon, she was the only greater nightmare in the Ebony Association's territory, and Garrett was assured that there wouldn't be any interference as he began the next step of his plan. It started simply with a rare stroll through the Dream. By this point, flowers had been planted along the streets, forming a long path that led out to the Ebony Association's headquarters. Accompanied by Isabelle, Garrett made the journey right after the sun had fallen on the fifth day.
The only witnesses were lesser nightmares, too dumb to be afraid of Isabelle, who floated behind him. But if anybody had seen him, he imagined it would have been a strange sight, watching a man in a suit with a mask on his face and a bowler hat on his head stroll down the street, hands in his pockets, as if he had not a care in the world, while a terrifying, dire spirit with long hair that moved like snakes floated along behind him.
When he finally arrived at the mansion, he paused for a moment to look it over. There were flowers everywhere, and though there weren't quite as many as at the inn, it was still an impressive sight. A faint feeling of goodwill swept towards him as the flowers sensed his presence and their petals shifted happily. As he entered, the sound of Garrett's feet on the marble floor echoed throughout the empty space, causing a ripple in the watching flowers.
Heading upstairs, Garrett saw dozens of awakened, all bearing dream flowers. He stopped to examine a few of them, nodding in satisfaction when he saw how vibrant the flowers they carried were. Continuing on, he walked up the stairs to the third floor, found Gero's office, and stopped right outside the door. As his hand reached for the handle, he paused, mentally reviewing his plan. After reassuring himself that it really was the only viable way to produce a positive solution, Garrett took a deep breath, turned the handle, and stepped into the room.
Gero sat at her desk, a deep frown on her face and her brows furrowed. An open bottle of wine stood next to her, along with a full glass, untouched. She was currently looking at her account books, and though Garrett couldn't see them, he knew exactly what they said. Material harvested from the swamp was beginning to pile up in the Ebony Association's territory, and if it wasn't sold soon, much of it would begin to go bad. Most monster material had to be processed in a timely manner, or it would rot, making it unusable.
This was a particular problem, because while the Ebony Association's income was significant, so were their expenses. The problem was that Janus Manor lay to the south, blocking their path to the market by water. The Grave Walkers held the territory to the north, making it impossible for them to pass through the graveyard, and their prime avenues to the market, which would allow them to take their goods directly to sale, were currently occupied by the Klein family.
Gero knew that she would have to force the issue at some point, but when she did, she was liable to be attacked from multiple sides, turning what had been a careful skirmish into an ugly scuffle. She was wary of reducing her gang's power any further, as she knew there were multiple forces waiting in the wings to take over the lucrative monster material business, if she showed any sign of weakness.
Garrett stood behind her in the dream, carefully observing her, as his power gently washed away the fog that surrounded the room. When he had first entered the dream, bringing anything into focus required him to expend the majority of his energy. As a shaper, however, his very presence caused the fog to slowly peel back. Knowing that if he was too aggressive about it, Gero would sense him, Garrett made sure to work slowly, trying to avoid touching her body with his energy as much as possible.
Once the fog was mostly clear, all that was left was for Garrett to wait, which is exactly what he did, standing silently behind Gero, until, at around one in the morning, she yawned, gave her account books a disgusted look, and drank down the wine she had been ignoring all evening in great gulps.
Garrett followed her to a small room off of the office, where she collapsed into bed, having spent a fruitless evening trying to figure out the best course of action. Ever since her plan to trap him had failed, she seemed to have grown much more cautious, which Garrett honestly couldn't blame her for. After all, according to legend, Kabod's maze was not something someone should be able to return from. Yet after only a day, Garrett was back in the inn, fine and fit as a fiddle. Had he been in her place, he would have been just as cautious.
Exhaustion must have weighed heavily on Gero, because after only a few minutes, her breathing evened out, and she fell into a deep sleep. Garrett, standing next to her bed, slowly reached out and touched her, infusing a tiny spark of energy into her, as he pulled her sleeping mind into the dream. It had been a considerable amount of time since he had forcefully pulled another person into the dream, but he found it easier than ever.
Gero's eyes snapped open, and for a moment, she remained absolutely still, her eyes shifting this way and that. She could tell that something was strange, not right, but what it was eluded her. She was still in her bedroom. Everything appeared to be exactly the same. Slowly, she sat up, scanning the room as she tried to pinpoint the cause of her unease. When she saw the closed door and the soft light beaming under it, her eyes narrowed, and she stealthily got out of bed, grabbing her swords that lay next to her.