I’m glad that after they were able to get the temple’s attendants to fetch the rest of their gear from their hotel, Kesla got ‘em to head over to our place as well to pick up the rest of ours. Given we’re going into a serious situation this time I’m a lot happier getting into my best armour, and having a choice of extra weaponry to bring along too. I’ll still be bringing my battleaxe, it’s served me well for years, but after going over the rest o’ my selection for a little while I decided on my shortswords, figuring these’ll be best if we gotta get up close an’ dirty. I’m still gonna take my usual half dozen knives along too, but ‘least if I find myself needing something with a little more reach these’ll serve.
When I draw the one strapped to my left hip it’s almost an afterthought, I know well enough it’ll be in good nick, this is just for my peace o’ mind. So I slide it free from its scabbard and look over the broad, two-foot blade with its diamond-shaped tip, taking a moment to test both edges as I turn it over. Keen an’ clean, just like I expected. I give it an absent-minded flourish, then slide it home, and almost sit back on the couch I’m perched on the edge of before I decide what the hell. I draw the one on the right anyway and give it a once-over. Same, of course. I didn’t need to bother.
Sheathing this one again, I let a light sigh go as I settle back after all, leaning onto my arms now as I plant my hands splayed wide behind me on the cushions. Giving my back a little stretch, definitely pleased with the way it don’t set the ache loose in my core, front and back, like it did right after they just started working on me when I got back from the Heath. I’m already feeling so much better than I did even this morning, when Kesla took us to the Playhouse. I got the strength back in my limbs again, the stiffness largely gone, and what tiredness there was is pretty much washed away. I know I’ll prob’ly pay for it when I finally hit my new bed when we get back from the coming battle, but that’s then. Since we don’t even know if we’re actually gonna get back in the first place …
Honestly, it’s been a sobering thing, suddenly having thoughts like that in the first place. I mean I never used to think about how I actually could have died so many times before in the battles I been in, even after the ones I got tore up some from. This is new, actually feeling my mortality, knowing there’s a real chance I might not make it outta tonight alive. It almost feels good, in a weird way. Like it makes everything else feel so much more vital, as we wait to go.
I proper stuffed my face in the canteen after I got out the infirmary that last time, not so much from hunger but just cuz that food tasted so damn good to me. And I talked Brung’s ears off the whole time we were there, too, since Du weren’t anywhere to be seen, prob’ly off looking after Yeslee. Not that the goblin seemed to mind, he mostly just sat there, picking over his own more modest platter with focused deliberation, but he nodded along and even spoke up every once in a while, which he don’t usually do. Reckon he might’ve been humouring me. I wonder if he picked up on my thinly veiled reticence after all.
‘Least Du had come out to join us when we made our way back into the lounge so we could start arming up, so he was able to help me strap my armour on. It’s interesting, he was unusually particular about every little piece of lacing, buckling and cinching, telling me everything about his mood without saying a word. He’s nervous having me along, even though I’m essentially healthy as he is now. Like my nearly dying a few days ago took all the wind out his sails.
When I reciprocated with his armour I weren’t quite so compulsive about the whole process, but I still found myself double checking laces here and there when I wasn’t immediately satisfied with ‘em. I don’t doubt he picked up on that too, and when we were finally done he just sat with me for a little while, ponderous and clearly distracted, like he wanted to say something but didn’t have the nous to find the words.
Brung did for himself like always, but then he’s never been one for a whole lot of armour, preferring to be light and fast by relying on layered boiled leather and a few scattered piece of steel plate. He broke out the rest of his knives, though, which said a whole lot on its own. He’s taking this serious as the rest of us.
Darwyn came in a little after we were done, Art following her with a pretty complicated look on his face, and I could tell pretty quick he is not happy having her along, even if she should be in as good shape as me now after the healers went at her again. I don’t know if she really took that nap Kesla made her promise about, but she does look better now than last time I saw her, at Sal’s interrogation. Maybe still a little irritable, but that might just be down to the way her former lover’s behaving round her.
They’re both gussied up in some even more well-appointed armour than I would’ve typically expected from Guild types, more serious gear like Brung’s battle wear, tough but light black leather armour augmented with strategic plate steel. That being said, in their case that metal’s the same odd, smoky dark alloy as their blades. And Darwyn’s augmented her gear somewhat, complimenting her various knives with a pair o’ long daggers which, in her hands, would be like shortswords anyway. She’s even put on a full length cloak with a hood, and a black scarf cinched tight enough round her neck she can pull it up to cover the lower half of her face quick if needed, like Art seems to favour. She clearly means business tonight too.
We started laying out our parts of the plan shortly after. Me an’ Brung are gonna be joining Lady Naru, Zuldrad and Darwyn in the infiltration of the Playhouse from the back, waiting until the specific set time when the house-lights drop to go in. Not being theatre-savvy, I had to ask what the hell Darwyn was talking about there. ‘Parently she means when the play starts, and the main lights in the big chamber of the theatre itself are mostly turned off, the only real lights left coming from the stage itself. Since that don’t mean the rest o’ the Playhouse is going dark too I don’t really see how that’d actually make a whole lot o’ difference, but she says Lady Naru reckons that’ll still be good enough since all eyes’ll be turned to the play itself. Either those watching it, or those either minding the audience or the workings behind the scenes in the wings backstage. Which is apparently where they want us to go, once we’re in. But proper discrete, like.
According to Sal, there’s an entrance into the catacombs under the Playhouse back there, which is what we’re gonna be looking for. Lady Naru’s gonna keep her magic ears open for a clue when it might be safe for us to head down there, since the plan is for us to head in the same time the other team does. The one moving in through the tunnels.
That’s Art, Tulen, Krakka, Dumoli, Sonagh and his big bugbear friend Dow. That surprised me some, I understand Kesla tried to convince the orc not to throw his hat in the ring for this, but I get the impression he feels beholden to her people after what they did for him. So he’s determined to help, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So Kesla got Shul to port over to the orc’s tavern and collect Dow, along with their gear, and they been away in Sonagh’s room since, getting ready. I suspect it’s as much so he can spend a little private time with his kids before we have to head out.
As for the golem, Driver 8’s going to be coming with us, although the plan is for him to wait outside while we pull our little infiltration. He’s only to come inside if we really need him to, cuz there’s no way we could realistically hide with a near ten foot tall fucking golem in tight enclosed environs like that.
It’s Kesla and Shay that clearly got the worst o’ this plan, though. They’re going into the theatre itself, in disguise as a noblewoman and her bodyguard. Beyond that I’m none too sure what their part of the plan really entails, but I suspect it’s less hide in plain sight infiltration than another distraction. Just more subtle this time. Don’t sound any less foolish to me, mind.
By an’ large, beyond discussing the plan the group as a whole seem particularly subdued for now, barely a word exchanged between them beyond their own preparations, which says everything we need to know about the general mood. We’re being proactive, and this does have a decent chance of working, I reckon, ‘long as we maintain the element of surprise long as possible, ‘least until it’s time to not. This is for young Foxtail, mostly, they’re all determined to get them back, but there’s more to it than that, ‘least for us three. We’re going in there to deal with that evil bitch Vandryss and those deluded idiots call themselves her friends. And we’re going in there to rescue the folk they been kidnapping across the city, ‘least the ones they ain’t had a chance to ship North yet.
Ain’t no guarantee Yulla an’ Drin really are among ‘em, but I gotta hope. That’d make this worth it all on its own, if we get ‘em back.
Finally I give up trying to distract myself and shove myself off the couch, dropping to the floor easy enough given it’s just a matter of inches. I take a moment to stretch, testing my mobility in the armour again, and it ain’t changed since I been sat down. So I turn and drag my battleaxe up off the couch, playing out the strap of the harness before starting to slip it on. Noticing Brung watching me now, crouched in his ubiquitous spot by the hearth.
“Y’all right over there, Brung?” I wonder aloud now, taking a step towards him. Keeping my tone conversation as I can with the pervading mood.
He don’t answer me, which ain’t much surprise, but he still gives a little shrug. Non-committal as it might seem, it’s still noteworthy enough for him. Then his eyes slide off towards the chamber’s entrance, much the same time as I hear footsteps approaching, and I stop in my tracks, instead turning to follow his gaze.
As Art stands up from the chair where he was half-heartedly working one of his smaller knives around a piece of wood, idly whittling the remaining time away. He puts it away quickly now, and when I give him a sidelong glance I see his eyes have widened considerably. That’s interesting … when I turn back and get a look at who’s now stepping into the lounge I understand why.
Any small doubt I might have had about Shay not convincing in her role in this plan dies the moment I get a look at her. Half-orc as she may be, it’s become clear enough in the time I known her the rest of her blood’s elven, and it’s never shone through clearer than right now, the way she just glides into the room. She’s still got that fluid dancer’s grace, but there’s more poise than I ever saw in her before, a genuine regal air that sits startlingly well with her. Despite her expression.
I mean sure, it’s clear enough she’s deeply uncomfortable just looking at her face. As she sees every pair of eyes in the chamber turn to take her in she finally falters, her last step slipping just the slightest before she manages to catch it and keep her balance. Given that, from what I can see, she’s wearing four inch heels, that’s an impressive feat in itself. But it still makes her already colourful blush grow a shade deeper …
As she adjusts her stance she reaches down with her somewhat shaky hands and smooths away at the gliding, airy-light folds of her dress. This in itself is as much of a surprise to me as the boots, peeking out from under the hemline, I really would’ve expected her to be dressed in the same kind of draped, flowing robes that I’m used to noblewomen favouring. But then I understand that, while this is a formal event, like a grand ball or highborn party it’s also a very pointed social affair, so the men and women will both be dressing up in their most striking attires tonight. So this is something a good deal more flamboyant and, above all, revealing than I thought it would be.
The skirts are an interesting design, seeming to glide and shift in extremely flattering ways with each movement of her extremely long and lean-but-powerful legs. They’re made from overlapping, interweaving layers of very fine brushed velvet and some of the thinnest raw silk I have ever seen, with at least two substantial vents running up either side to flash her legs in subtle but also very interesting ways. But when my eyes are guided up to her waist again, and above, that’s when things really start to get interesting.
If I’m honest, Shay’s never really struck me as the type who’d ever wear a corset if she had much say in the matter. But I can’t deny it does look damn good on her even so. It cinches her waist in firm, but not much tighter than the gear I seen her wear before, so she still seems to have a decent enough range o’ motion as she moves. But it does do some very interesting things to her neckline, not to mention leaving both her arms completely bare. Making the striking, very beautiful tattoo on her shoulder take pride of place amongst her myriad distractions. Well, that and her suddenly impressive cleavage, anyway.
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She’s wearing a pair of elbow-length gloves which seem to be made from particularly well-fitted satin, so snug it’s almost like a second skin, while she’s got a thick shawl, made from very rich crushed velvet, draped across her lower back and then hooked over either wrist. Even the boots seems to have been lined in something like the same satin as her gloves, albeit a little more sturdy. This, at least, I have seen before, but only in the particularly idle rich. Just about everything she’s wearing seems to be in very complimentary shades of the richest red I have ever seen, but picked out against her warm olive green skin tone it looks particularly striking. Which was clearly intentional.
While the dress is definitely rich enough, they clear ain’t scrimped on the accessories, either. There’s an interesting range of jewellery too, particular no less than three necklaces, although two of ‘em are nothing more’n simple chains of a gold so thin and fine they almost seem like they’re woven from some strange kind of gilded spider-silk. The one in the centre, however, is much more substantial , mostly made up of interlocking pieces of very fine ground diamond with more substantial stones mounted strategically through its span, with a particularly large, pinkish diamond dangling at its end. Right above her cleavage, almost like it’s pointing into it. This could explain her discomfort all on its own …
Then there’s the earrings. Far as I can remember, I don’t think Shay actually had pierced ears, so I’m a little baffled how they managed to get those on her in the first place. Especially such heavy-looking, dangling things which are very much of a style with that monster necklace. Coupled with some real striking, somewhat complex bracelets worn on either wrist over the gloves, this definitely seems to be creating a running theme in her ensemble.
Her hair’s been washed shiny clean and very studiously styled as well, teased and piled and ordered into what looks like an impressively complicated mass of artistically tousled tangles pinned at her crown, wavy bangs left to form a loose curtain across her left eye. There’s make-up on her face, which not only seems completely alien for Shay, but also entirely unnecessary, although it’s been done so well that it seems to fit the overall effect of the costume and hair. There’s even some kind of glittering effect to her skin which I’m totally baffled to find any real source for, although I suspect that could be more of a simple lingering effect of her elven blood that’s just been accentuated by the process.
“Bloody hell.” Art finally manages to get words out after what might be a full minute of everybody just standing round dumbfounded looking at her. It seems so inadequate for what we’re actually looking at I could almost burst out laughing.
“Yeah, all right, I understand.” Shay hisses with clear irritation, her cheeks still proper rosy as she brushes her hair carefully from her eye, only for the strands to fall right back into place. “I don’t look like myself. No need to make a big fuss about it.” She immediately turns a particularly hot glare on Art, raising one gloves hand to point right at him. “You, shut your mouth. I don’t want to hear one word from you right now. I know exactly what’s going through your mind.”
Brows shooting right up, he looks round at the rest of us now. “I am shocked you would possibly assume that I’d –"
“Ah-ah!” Another jabbing point, this one a lot more aggressive, but while it silences him he still grins right back.
“Well, look at it this way. ‘Least we know it’s gonna do the job we intended now, don’t we?” I honestly couldn’t actually tell if Kesla followed her into the room and we just didn’t notice in the first place, or if she only just arrived herself. Shay’s proved so attention-grabbing I only become aware of her presence when she speaks. But that’s the whole point, really.
Thing is, turns out she looks genuinely different too. For one thing, if I hadn’t already recognised her voice I might’ve mistaken her for someone else, the disguise is so good it genuinely fools me. She’s still impressively tall and very powerful, broad across the shoulders, with her solid trunk and muscular limbs, and her skin’s still that same beautiful shade of milky chocolate brown, but her features have been altered such that the woman I’ve come to know is gone. She looks a good deal more severe this way, just as intimidating but in a far more intense way than I’m used to.
Whatever it was Lady Naru did with her magic, she looks to have gained at least twenty years and a whole lot of experience, most of it at the very sharp end of a violent life. The handful of prominent scars I already knew have been replaced by a whole crisscrossed marring mass of deeper, more twisted tissue, some of it seeming almost ritualistic now I’m looking. It gives her a far sharper, more extreme visage I find entirely impossible to imagine being capable of so much as a smirk, never mind any mirth. They even managed to make her left eye appear dead, just a clouded grey lens that don’t focus like the right, although I’m sure she can see through it just fine. No way Kesla’d really stand for actually being made half blind just for effect.
Seems like they’ve given her a fair share of grey in her black hair too, and she’s got a whole lot more of it from somewhere too, which is similarly baffling. Her undercut’s gone, her tightly curly mop allowed to just flop free now, and she gives her chin an absent-minded flick now to flip it out her face as she steps up beside her friend. Almost like she’s already starting to regret that particular choice.
Certainly she looks the part of a seriously intimidating bodyguard. Much tighter britches than I’m used to on her, but these just go a long way to really accentuating how thick her thighs really are, together with the very well-polished knee-high boots they’re tucked into. Much like the flashy patent-leather bracers and fine kid gloves she’s wearing and what look to be a soft white silk shirt with unusually poofy sleeves. Meanwhile her tunic’s made from some kind of quilted linen which I don’t doubt’s reinforced, not even counting the fancy jack-of-plates I already know she’s wearing underneath, and the material seems to be coloured very much to match Shay’s dress. That’s just the kind of real fancy touch that the kinda super vain thing a proper self-absorbed highborn type o’ woman Shay’s pretending to be would think of to make herself stand out even more. Even if part o’ the point was s’posed to be that nobody actually looks at the help anyway …
Even Kesla’s sword seems to have been given a bit of a makeover. Nothing overly drastic, but I see that her bastard sword’s hilt seems to have been heavily buffed and polished, going from the simple dark bluff steel to a much more striking burnished pewter sheen, the red leather of the grip looking to have had similar treatment too. Even the scabbard looks like it’s much more well-appointed now, having had up a somewhat intricate stylised knotting motif stamped into it since I last saw it. There’s a few knives strapped to her too, but I don’t doubt she’s got a whole lot more where we can’t see ‘em, just in case it comes to a real fight. Which of course it almost certainly will. But her being purposefully armed was also intentional.
“Kes?” Art’s smile’s gone almost instantly as he takes her in, seeming as inwardly baffled as I initially felt when she first spoke. “Is that … bloody hell, you look … that is fucking uncanny, if you don’t mind me saying.”
“Yeah, well it still feels like me, so ‘least I don’t have to act any different.” She reaches for her face now, but stops short of touching it, frowning a little now. “The plan is not to talk, anyway. No more’n I absolutely have to, anyway. I’m s’posed to be the strong silent type here.”
“Classic bodyguard.” I venture now, finally managing a little grin. “Great success.”
Kesla looks down at me now, and when she gives me a cocked little grin along with a little wink it looks so weirdly alien on that face I’m truly sold on this little trick. So when I finally see Lady Naru make her way into the room, closely followed by Tulen, I give her a very respectful nod indeed, deeply appreciative of her skills.
“Nice work, my Lady. However you pulled this off, I’m proper impressed.”
Blinking, she stops a little short and gives me a look over, then nods, smiling indulgently. “Why thank you, Mistress Frostforge. Of course, I cannot accept all the praise. Mistress Kelsira contributed some of the most striking flourishes to both.”
Tulen starts blushing immediately when many of the room’s eyes turn to her too. “Oh, well I … I mean, I just wanted to help. And it’s … well, I mean, some of it’s magic, sure, but we had some strong foundations to work with. So it’s really little more than some transmutational fabrication of the costumes themselves and some surprisingly subtle glamour-based augmentation and alteration to Kesla’s seeming visage. Shay is … well, she just is beautiful already, so …”
“Oh for …” Shay hisses now, smoothing her skirts again, but her blush seems to be fading now. Like she’s getting used to it some. “This is still not me.”
“I beg to differ.” Lady Naru beams back at her. “I believe this is very much the potential you carry inside brought to the surface, my dear.”
“Yeah, but …” Another hiss as she presses at her waistline now. “It’s bloody weird, though. I feel like a fucking porcelain doll, I swear to the gods. And naked too. Not having a blade on me, it’s just … wrong.”
“That’s what I’m gonna be there for.” Kesla lays her hand on her sword’s hilt now as she shifts her footing, seeming so much like her old self despite the fact she looks like someone completely different. “Anything kicks off, I pass you one o’ mine an’ you go to work ‘til you can get your hands on something more suitable.”
Shay gives her a hot look, but don’t speak the words I can sense boiling up inside her. Instead she takes a few steps to the side, turning now so she can look round at the rest of us, and now I can see everyone else is on their feet, gathering themselves and their gear now, as if sensing it’s time.
“That it, then?” I find myself voicing the thought, and when I turn back to Kesla she’s watching me, thoughtful again. I’m more’n a little unsettled actually catching such familiar attention coming from such a strange face.
“I guess so, yeah. It’s getting dark out now, so time to make a start on preparing the way.” She turns to Lady Naru now as the sorcerer produces that shortened staff from inside her voluminous sleeve again and immediately starts to draw the shaft out to its full length again. “So how we doin’ this? If you’re going with this lot, an’ Tulen’s going with that lot, then how are we s’posed to get to –”
“The teleportation circles. I’ve already made arrangements with Cafi, they’ll have a carriage waiting for you where I send you, close enough to the Playhouse that it’s no more than a five minute ride to take you to the front entrance. From there you go in with everyone else.” She steps towards her now, slipping something from her robes in the same moment. A thick white envelope, sealed with wax, which she holds out to her now. “You present this at the door, and they’ll do the rest. Don’t worry, it’s all very simple and self-explanatory. As soon as they see where you’re sitting they’ll be falling over themselves to make sure you’re shown every deference so they know you’re taken care of to your utmost satisfaction.”
“How likely’s it gonna be that Hontiresk takes a personal interest in this new guest of his?”
That makes her frown. “Honestly, I couldn’t say. I’ve never actually had any dealings with him outside of official business with Venne and her colleagues in the Authority. But I would imagine that if he were to make a point of coming to see you, he would at least wait until the intermission. And we should make our move long before then, so it should be a moot point.”
Kesla don’t answer right away, simply frowning in no particular direction as she just ponders, and I get the impression she’s no more convinced than I am. Sounds like a whole lot o’ risk to me.
“What about the rest of us?” Art wonders now.
Lady Naru leans her staff against her shoulder now as she looks him over. “Your group will be going second, after ours. We should all make our way down to the circles now, though. Just to be safe.”
“Are we missing a few?” Kesla’s casting about, noting Driver 8 starting to make his way from the back of the room now.
“Sonagh an’ his big friend are still getting ready, I guess.” I offer up. “Less you seen ‘em on the way here?”
“I can go find ‘em.” Art starts to head off out the room without being bidden to first, leaving Darwyn to frown after him. “Ask ‘em to get a wiggle on, maybe?”
“Please.” Kesla turns back to Lady Naru, still frowning some. “Anything else you reckon we might be forgetting?”
The sorcerer considers for a long beat before simply sighing, gripping her staff in both hands now very much like I remember seeing Gael do. “I don’t know. I’ve never really done anything like this before. At least, not in this kind of environment. I’ve broken into fortresses and snuck into dungeons and other kinds of fortifications, but I’ve never had to break into a theatre before. There are an awful lot of unusual moving parts to this plan that are very new to me. I can only hope we haven’t overlooked something glaringly obvious that’s unique to the circumstances.”
Fighting the urge to suck my own breath in with a wary hiss, I turn to look at Brung, who I realise has made his way right to my side while I been distracted. Ready to go as I am, now. He blinks up at me, as if sensing my apprehension, and just shrugs.
That don’t fill me with confidence any more’n our new friends’ wariness. I can’t see any missed points in the plan, no matter how I look at it, but I can’t help the nagging worry there’s something there all the same. Something that’ll trip us up just when it’d be most damaging. I just hope when it happens we can catch it just quick enough it don’t wind up killing everybody in this room …