Ari was waiting for them outside the Dungeon, his pack full from his visit to Ivaldi. One look at their bedraggled appearance drew out a smirk from the older classer. “Looks like you all had some fun in there. Did you remember to leave some mud behind, or have you brought it all with you?”
“Very funny,” Jake said, rolling his eyes as he flicked off a drying flake of mud from his arm. A blast of fire from Gargan had come quite close during the Guardian floor, baking some of the mud on his clothes.
“Jokes aside, are you ready to head back?” Ari asked, nodding in roughly the direction of the safehouse.
“Absolutely, I’m more than ready to be rid of this mud,” Alan said, hurrying past Jake and waving for them to hurry up.
Chuckling, Jake jogged after Alan, just as ready to get back as the Scholar clearly was.
The Boon he’d gained here would be useful, but Jake doubted they’d be back. It was just too unpleasant, even with the changes the Dungeon had made, for the little Wyrdgeld they could make.
A tier two Dungeon would be perfect for them now, one that they could use to sharpen themselves and build up their funds. Even with all they’d done, three full nights of delving these Dungeons, Jake still needed another three hundred Wyrdgeld.
That was just to reach his next rank, let alone to increase any Skill or Trait ranks.
Jake rubbed his face and suppressed a sigh. His Boons were incredibly powerful, but the cost to advance was painful. With what they had now, Alan was due to reach rank nine overnight, leaving Jake the furthest behind at rank six.
Of course, he just had to get there and bind a single tier two Dungeon, whereas they had their Deeds to complete. Even so, he needed to work hard. He couldn’t afford to hold them back.
-**-
The trip back to the safehouse was as uneventful as always, and Jake could feel the group relax as the sturdy building came into view.
That relaxation only lasted until they saw the horse grazing outside, and it whinnied loudly.
“Yvette?” A voice came from inside the building and a moment later, a portly man was framed in the doorway, a bow in hand.
Jake stared in shock at the unwelcome surprise, but Ari simply raced forward, weaving around an arrow as he did, to grab the man by the throat and slam him up against the outside wall of the safehouse.
“Who are you, and who sent you!” Ari growled into the man’s face, his hand tightening around the other man’s neck.
The man gasped and clawed at Ari’s hands, his bow clattering down onto the wooden flooring.
“Ari, stop!” Jake shouted, rushing after the other classer, right as the horse charged forward and reared up to kick at Ari’s head.
Ari dodged aside, dragging his captive with him, giving the horse an incredulous look before turning back to the choking man. “Make it stop, or I’ll make it stop for you.”
The man spluttered but held a hand up to quiet the horse as he gazed pleadingly down at Ari.
“Ari, let him go!” Jake shouted, finally catching up and pulling Ari off of the other man. “We need him alive, damn it!”
Ari growled something under his breath and stalked away, visibly shaking with anger.
“Fuck you, I’ll never talk,” the intruder gasped in a strained voice as he glared up at Jake defiantly. “Trike-loving scum!”
Ari whirled around, murder in his eyes, but Jake got in the way. “Wait, wait, we’re not with the Triarchy.”
The man got unsteadily to his feet, his gaze flicking between each of them. “I don’t believe you. This is some sort of trick.”
“No trick,” Jake said, holding his hands up to try and calm matters further. “We’ve been staying here, we’re not Triarchy.”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“I don’t know you,” the man said bluntly, his eyes narrowing. “How did you find out about this place?”
“Felix told us about it,” Jake said, deciding not to mention the map, just in case. “He was working the resistance.”
“Was?” The other man asked sharply, rubbing at his throat before glancing at Ari.
“The Fatesworne killed him, which is why we’re here. We needed somewhere to hide where they couldn’t find us.”
“Fatesworne?” The man echoed, looking a little confused and a lot less defensive.
“Look, this is a lot to take in, so why don’t we start from the beginning?” Jake asked, making a general motion to the interior of the safehouse. “We’ve been up all night, so I’d appreciate a hot drink and somewhere to sit down. My name’s Jake, by the way.”
“Gordon,” the resistance fighter said, somewhat reluctantly. “And this is Yvette.”
The horse whinnied before tossing its head and heading back to where it had been grazing.
“Alright, good to meet you, Gordon. Let’s talk things through.”
-**-
They took a few minutes to stow away their things before gathering in the central area of the safehouse. Ari lingered in the doorway while the rest of them took their seats, which Jake took to mean that he was in charge of this conversation.
“So,” Jake said, nodding to Gordon. “You’re part of the resistance, right?”
“Right,” Gordon said in a somewhat guarded voice. “And you’re what exactly?”
“Enemies of the Triarchy,” Nepthys said simply, but Gordon didn’t seem convined.
“Several of us have Patrons,” Jake said, hoping that would explain matters a bit further. “We’ve been attacked and hunted by them since we Ascended. Nepthys was actually captured for a short time, which is when we first encountered the Fatesworne.”
“Captured…” Gordon echoed Jake with a furrowed brow. “Where was that?”
“Casthorpe, we actually met another resistance member there as well,” Jake said, deciding at the last moment not to give her name out. Just in case.
Gordon nodded and relaxed with a smile. “I know Michelle. She told me about you when I last went by there.” Gordon paused and ran his eyes over them all before nodding to Aspen and Gargan. “These two are new, right?”
Jake gave a tight nod, wondering briefly what Karl and Rhew were doing now. Hopefully, the plan had worked, and they weren’t having to deal with the Triarchy or the Fatesworne.
“Alright, this changes things,” Gordon said, sitting back and giving Jake an appraising look. “Sorry for all the confusion here, I had no idea there would be anyone using this safehouse.”
“It’s okay, no harm done,” Jake said, giving the other man an encouraging smile. “So, what are you doing her anyway?”
“I’m a messenger. I keep all the different groups updated on what’s happening so we can coordinate as much as possible.”
“Is there anything you can share with us?” Jake asked, perking up at the idea of news.
“Well, there’s been a lot of Triarchy activity all over the place in recent weeks. Starting in the south and moving north. We’ve had reports of corrupters killing Dungeons as well, though I’m not sure how they fit into all this.”
“Which Dungeons?”
“I’ve got a map here,” Gordon said, pulling out a heavily folded map that he unfurled and straightened out. “These here have been reported destroyed.”
Jake nodded as Gordon tapped at the Dungeons they’d seen themselves. Thankfully, he didn’t seem aware of any beyond that, which was something.
“You don’t seem too surprised by that,” Gordon said, leaning back from the map.
“We encountered those Corrupters and dealt with them,” Jake said, pausing for a long moment before coming to a decision. “Let me give you a summary of what has happened since Casthorpe.”
Taking a moment to cast his mind back over everything that had happened since then, Jake began to summarise it as best he could.
He didn’t go too detailed, but he made sure to cover the broad strokes of it all. This was as good an opportunity as any to try and get some more information and make some allies.
The resistance had helped them before, it might well do again.
Gordon listened to it all with an expression of growing incredulity. When Jake finally caught up to where they were now, the other man took a long moment to think about it before replying.
“Alright, this changes some things, and it puts some information I have into new light.” Gordon leaned forward once more and tapped a finger onto an area north of Casthorpe, right in the centre of Strovia. “There is a Triarchy outpost here that we’ve been keeping an eye on. They’re supplied by a nearby town called Fextran. I have a feeling that they will be of particular interest to you.”
“Why is that?” Jake asked curiously. He hadn’t heard of Fextran before, and it certainly didn’t look like a large town.
“Well, it came to our attention more than a few years ago when we noticed that there was a discrepancy between how many people were officially stationed at this outpost and the volume of supplies being delivered.”
“What did you find?” Alan asked, perking up slightly.
“We found that the number of Triarchy personnel present was exactly correct, and the supplies weren’t being forwarded on,” Gordon said, leaning back with a grin that made Jake frown.
“So, where were the supplies going?”
“As best we can tell, they’re being used. We’ve not managed to get anyone inside the outpost, so we’ve kept the place under watch to try and figure out what’s going on.”
“We were fighting not so long ago,” Nepthys said, folding her arms and giving Gordon a hard look. “Why tell us this?”
“Because for as long as we’ve been keeping watch we’ve had sporadic reports of masked classers sneaking into and out of the outpost. Most recently a band of them left and went east. Normally, they take their time and we’re sure we miss most of them, but this time, they were rushing.”
“Have you had a description of their masks?” Jake asked, wondering if this was finally the clue they needed to try to figure out what was happening.
“Yes, and it matches what you’ve described perfectly. So whatever the Triarchy are doing in this outpost, the Fatesworne are involved.”