Chapter 5: A Payoff Earned Without Blood

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She had to hide, and fast. The question was where.

The sewage again?

Unlikely she’d manage to fit herself entirely in it before the guards arrived. It wasn’t exactly designed to fit a person.

She would’ve hid in a dark corner and hoped that [Spectre’s Mirror] would do the rest, but the small torch at the doorway was providing too much illumination. Extinguishing the torch with her water was an unwise use of it, considering it was likely oil. It seemed like the Spell was insistent on giving her tough situations. She had an idea of how to extinguish it, though it wouldn’t be easy. Trials, not executions, and all that.

Taking off one of the gloves, she clambered up to the torch’s hold the same way she clambered up the drain, and wrapped her hand around the torch.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. Much more than she had expected. She wanted so badly to hiss in pain, but kept silent. Her efforts were rewarded — the torch went out, engulfing the room in darkness. The oil did not make her flesh disappear like water did; in fact, none of it seemed to stick to her hand at all.

One small issue persisted, however: the smell of smoke and burnt flesh was rather distinct.

The sound of the guards approaching meant that it was too late to move. She lay as flat as she could against the wall, one hand gripping the dagger lodged in a crack and the other on the torch’s hold. Her muscles protested against the strain of hoisting her legs up and away from the doorway, but there was no other choice.

The guards peeked their heads into the room, one wielding a sword, the other a spear.

“You smell that?”

“Yeah. Some moron must’ve been cooking and burnt something in the bathroom. Probably Alutam. He’s nasty enough to do that.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” The first guard, the one with the spear, walked around the room, inspecting the drains. Satisfied, he walked back to his partner, taking no notice of Robin clinging to the wall with all her might. “Let's go.”

Robin remained on the wall until she was confident that their footsteps were far enough away. Her landing was rough, and her hand hurt like a motherfucker, but she was alive and well. Before leaving, she put the glove back on.

Galim had told her at one point that Malo likely was situated near the back of the fortress, which she was near to. The issue was, where exactly did they keep the item? What did it even look like? She’d just have to find out.

She hurried down the corridor after the guards. It was likely that any other guards were following the same path, and she did not want to be caught in the main corridor walking towards them. She had learned that lesson the hard way breaking into a closed mall with her friends.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She glanced into rooms as she went. Barracks or storage every time. Messy hay beds, nearly empty armories, barrels full of oil. Where was it?

She could hear the sounds of combat ahead, muffled clashes of steel and screams of agony making their way through the ceiling. Each time she passed by stairs to the top level, it reminded her that they were dying for her sake.

She shook her head. They were not real people.

As she continued to inspect, one door caught her interest. It was a door without a handle, and it was locked. The lock was clearly only accessible on the other side of the door.

Unluckily for whoever owned this room, she had experience with breaking in, and this door was quite crude, made of planks.

After some fiddling with her dagger through a particularly egregious gap, she managed to slide the bolt from out of its locked position.

What greeted her was a very large ape, its arms oversized and its skull adorned with what must’ve been a custom-fit helmet. It gave no sign that it saw or heard Robin enter, simply staring off into space.

Well, this must be it. She closed the door behind her as she entered. The room was rather nice, furbished with a desk, chair, bed, storage chests, and the like. She rummaged through everything, taking care not to touch the giant ape in the corner of the room.

The only noticeable things she found were money and weapons which she was too small to wield.

A frown crept its way onto her face. There must be more to it. The door could only be opened easily from one side, which either meant there was a secret entrance, or its owner (likely Malo) could get into it without needing to open the door.

In hindsight, it was stupid of her not to ask Galim what Malo’s Aspect was. She had a feeling that Malo got in via their Aspect. There was no secret entrance, even after scouring. Whatever Malo’s Aspect was, they did not need an opening to get into a space.

Aha.

Picking up a spear from the weapon rack, she began roughly beating the stick against the stone walls, trying to dislodge them. If there was a room behind it, it would budge. Indeed, a stone uncomfortably close to the ape budged slightly. She got to work.

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The room was no wider than a wardrobe, and just big enough to fit a grown man. It simply contained a medallion in the shape of a web hung on a nail. Robin immediately wore it around her neck. Nothing happened. That was annoying. She checked her runes. No change.

Sighing, she turned around, only to find the ape facing towards her and making direct eye contact. Her heart sank at the sight, but she forced herself to calm down. It made no hostile movements, and didn’t seem particularly, well, intelligent

Perhaps the medallion created a mental link? She gave it a mental command to turn around. It did not react. Maybe a physical link. She told it to turn around. It did not react.

Big fucking help this thing was. She still wore the medallion, but decided she’d give it to the boss and let him deal with it.

As she opened the door, the ape made a move to follow her.

‘Really? It just mindlessly follows you around?’

This was both a blessing and a curse. Galim’s words gave the impression that the beast was very strong, enough to let him capture the fortress with it. However, she was weak and relied on stealth. This thing was the very definition of conspicuous. If she could use its strength, however…

The sewage was no longer an option with it in tow. She did not know how to leave besides that, besides from the top of the fortress and to take a ladder down.

In the end, the line of thinking would prove fruitless, because a bloody soldier from the Imperial side stumbled down the stairs leading to the roof. He ran to the very room she was in, barging through the door, shouting “Commander Malo!” as he ran.

He turned to her, his eyes widening in shock before he went to grab her. She dodged, but there was only so much she could do with a kid’s body. Damn the Spell!

He managed to grab a hold of her arm and was in the process of pulling her, when her arm seemed to detach at the elbow.

Robin had wiped her glove with the man’s blood in the struggle and used it to swipe at her arm. Interestingly, it passed through with some resistance, though she did not have the time to contemplate that fact. She ran.