They reached the river Felix had mentioned a short time later and made their way upstream, using the water to mask their tracks.
The river was wide and shallow at the edges, so wading through it was unpleasant but easy enough to manage.
Felix shifted their direction again once they were on dry land, saying that there was a resistance safehouse nearby they could stay at.
Eager for a warm bed, they pushed on right into the late evening, none of them giving voice to their fear that the Fatesworne were right behind them.
Jake knew that if the Seekers got this close, they would have Abilities to do this sort of thing, so it was possible that the Fatesworne did as well.
If they did, and they could track them here, then Jake was out of ideas for what to do next.
“There it is!” Alan kept his exclamation to a normal speaking tone, but after hours of no talking, it was loud in Jake’s ears.
Peering out into the gloomy evening in the direction Alan point, Jake saw their destination. It was a lodge, built flush up against the side of a hill and mostly covered by trees and vegetation. If he hadn’t known where it was, he’d have easily missed it, that was for sure.
“Wait here,” Felix said, hurrying forward and opening the door to the lodge before drawing his sword and sweeping inside.
A few moments passed before Felix reappeared and waved them inside. “Settle in and rest, everyone. Jake, I’ll need to speak to you about something.”
Jake paused, his pack already half off, but Felix motioned for him to finish taking it off. Dropping it to one side, Jake followed Felix back outside.
“We need to talk about what’s coming,” Felix said, his face lined with weariness and stress. For once, the grizzled classer looked old, not just older.
“You think they’ll find us here, don’t you?” Jake stared up into Felix’s eyes, sensing the other man’s apprehension and worry.
“I do.” Felix took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I made a deal for information, and part of it is that I can’t give you too much information about the deal itself. What matters, though, is that now we know that the leader of the Fatesworne is the one tracking you.”
“So unless we kill them, they’ll keep on following us,” Jake said, a heavy weight settling in his gut as he realised the implications. “There’s no getting away, is there?”
“Not from this group. They already have our trail and are too close. If we can kill their leader, though, then part of the deal will be that you are kept hidden from that type of tracking for the next year.”
“Wait, what?” Jake shook his head, not quite understanding. “Why can’t we just do whatever that is now? Why didn’t we do it a few days ago, for that matter?”
Felix shook his head with a frustrated expression. “I’m sorry, I can’t explain. I gave my word, and I won’t risk your protection by going back on that.”
Jake went to argue further, but he saw the look in Felix’s eyes and simply grimaced. There would be no convincing the older man, he could see that. “Alright, so what do we need to do, then?”
“We need to kill the leader of the Fatesworne,” Felix said, shrugging slightly. “Exactly how we do that, I don’t know. We should expect them to strike tomorrow, I just wanted to make sure you knew about the protection, just in case.”
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“Just in case of what?” Jake asked, not liking where this was going.
Felix sighed and rubbed his face. “They won’t be coming with anything less than overwhelming power. I need you here to help bait the trap, but once we kill the leader, it will be far too dangerous for you to stay here.”
“Alright, I understand that much, but won’t they just chase us?” Jake asked, certain that there was some part to this that Felix wasn’t telling him.
“There’s an escape tunnel at the back of the lodge. You can take that through to the other side of the hill. From there, I have a map you can use to get to another safehouse.”
“How do you know about all these safehouses?” Jake asked, wondering just how many of them there were.
“Because I helped build a lot of these when I first came back to this Realm,” Felix said, looking away from him. “A one-handed classer can still do a lot at my tier.”
Jake nodded, running the plan over in his mind again. “Why do I need the map? Can’t you just show us the way?”
“I might have to take a different exit,” Felix said, pulling out a folded map and passing it over. “Here, keep this on you, just in case.”
Jake tucked the map away with a slow nod. What Felix was saying made sense, but he had a feeling that the other man wasn’t telling him everything.
“Come on, let’s head inside. The Fatesworne will likely be here tomorrow morning, so we should take advantage of what time we have.”
Jake followed Felix back inside, his stomach rumbling as he caught the smell of cooking food from the kitchen.
All thoughts of what Felix was hiding quickly faded as he hurried to see what Aspen was making.
-**-
After they’d eaten, Felix gave the others a shorter summary of what he’d told Jake, leaving out the map and the year of protection.
Jake still wasn’t quite sure how that protection would work, especially as no one seemed to know who these Fatesworne actually were. Still, Felix had seemed adamant about it, so he’d go along with it for now.
“Any questions?” Felix asked once he’d finished his summary.
“Are we going to try to fight them off here?” Alan asked, looking around the wooden lodge nervously. “What about if they try to burn us out?”
“The key is going to be drawing them in and then striking,” Felix said, hesitating for a moment before continuing. “Ari will be in here with the rest of you, so you’ll be able to put up a strong initial resistance. Then, once they’re drawn in, I’ll go for the leader. Once they’re dead, we’ll run a fighting retreat into the escape tunnel. A lever on the inside collapses the entrance, and that’ll buy us the time to truly escape.”
“This feels risky, but if they’re tracking us, I don’t suppose we have any other choice,” Nepthys said unhappily.
“At least we know where they’ll be coming from,” Aspen said with a shrug. “It could be worse.”
Jake nodded, imagining if they were caught out in the open or when camping for the evening. That would be a recipe for disaster. Still, he had concerns.
“Wouldn’t it be better for Ari to be with you to try and take out their leader as quickly as possible?” Jake asked, not liking the idea of Felix doing that part on his own.
He remembered what they’d told him about Wyrd usage, and that if Felix had to go all out, he’d be using up everything he had left. That felt all too possible here, and he didn’t like it.
“This is clearly an organised attempt to kill you, and that means they’ve accounted for us as best they can,” Felix said with a shake of his head. “If that initial resistance isn’t there, they’ll be suspicious, and if I have to fight through to the leader, I’ll be in a poor position.”
Jake nodded reluctantly, understanding the logic but not liking it at all.
“One last thing,” Felix said, hesitating slightly. “If I don’t manage to kill the leader, then Ari, that’ll be your responsibility. If I do, but don’t make it back to you, I’ll expect you all to leave immediately. Understood?”
Ari frowned and went to argue, but a look from Felix cut him off. Looking at the rest of them, Felix waited expectantly until they reluctantly said that they understood.
Jake felt a cold knot form in his gut as he considered their last conversation in a new light. Then again, Felix was probably just preparing for anything that could happen and was still confident in victory.
Try as he might, though, Jake just couldn’t quite get himself to believe that.
-**-
Felix’s warning about what to do if he failed left a weight hanging over them all, but they still went through what preparations they could.
For the most part, that meant feeding their damaged items Wyrd to help them repair, but the safehouse also came with a small stash of traps.
The half-dozen steel-jawed traps that were kept in the storage closet weren’t exactly perfect for the situation, but they made do. If anyone tried to climb through the windows at the front of the building, there was a good chance they’d get a broken leg for their troubles.
With that done, all they had to do now was wait and pray to their Patrons that they would be the equal of whatever was coming their way.