I didn’t feel that it was necessary to drag the cart out into the crowd again. A single day not selling anything wouldn’t be suspicious, and I could just play the ‘feeling unwell’ card if I really had to. Maybe it was because I wanted a moment to mentally prepare myself for what was to come, just a little time alone where I wasn’t concerned about keeping up appearances or needing to talk to anyone.
Was this how war felt? It was like someone was trying to dig out my insides and leave me a hollow husk. I should have been in a tornado of emotions right now, and yet I was just sitting there, bouncing my leg slightly in what could probably be called a nervous tick. Anxiousness ruled over all, and while I'd hate to apply the band aid analogy to this situation, I felt like I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, as if that would make me feel better.
Patience was a virtue though. At least, that’s what I was always told. Right about now it felt like someone had poured concrete into my lungs. It was that heavy feeling you get in your chest that makes it uncomfortable to even breathe deeply.
Hours of this, just waiting, pacing, only really coming out to eat, drink, and check on everyone in case something happened. Everything was nominal, at least for now. I had the sinking feeling that once the shit hit the fan, things would become a lot more complicated.
Slowly time marched ever onwards, and the sunlight outside started to turn deeper shades of orange and red. This was it, my time alone here had run out, and now I was forced into action. It seemed like I was forced to do a lot of things. Hell, was anything I did here my choice? Do nothing and I'm dissected, run away and I'll probably starve to death endlessly while I watch the world be consumed in war. So I could only fight, struggle, try to bullshit my way through the world with the shitty hand I was dealt, and somehow come out with the jackpot.
Time to lay it all out then. I got up and went outside for one last meeting with the group. They were as I had previously left them, sitting around and displaying their own little nervous habits while trying not to disturb each other. A hard thing to do considering how cramped it was here. They all stopped their pacing and fidgeting once I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
“Is it time?” Otar asked in a restrained voice.
I nodded at his question. “I’m about to head out, meaning that this is it. If my part in this goes to plan, then you all have to be ready to move.” There was a collective sense of tension in the air as everyone breathed heavily under the weight of the situation.
Figuring that there was no need for any sort of speech or prolonged interactions beyond this, I turned to leave and get ready for my ambush of one of the captains. As I walked, I passed by our newest additions and a realization struck me in such a way that I had to stop and address it. “I actually just realized that I haven’t bothered to learn your names. I’m sorry about that, I've just been... Preoccupied.”
The Droln chuckled and the Valus just gave a nervous little smile. The Droln then reached up and bumped me on the chest with a fist that was close to the size of my head. “Don’t worry about it, can’t fault you for being distracted by other things right now. The name’s Berl.”
“Nice to meet you Berl, sorry that the introductions were so delayed.” I looked over at the Shy Valus who awkwardly shifted his lower half around for a second.
“Uhm, my name is Colvin, sir.”
“A pleasure, Colvin, but you don’t have to call me sir. I don’t hold any kind of military rank.”
“Really? But you’re working with the coalition and running this operation, right?”
“Honestly, I'm only in charge because I'm the only one who could feasibly pull this insane stunt off.”
“Oh.” It looked like he didn’t know what to make of that information, but I doubted that it inspired a lot of confidence.
Maybe a little pep talk wouldn’t hurt. “I would like to say thank you though, for following me despite not knowing much about me.” I looked at the rest of the room. “All of you, really. Some of you know me better than others, and while I can’t say if that makes it easier or harder to follow me, you still did. So, thank you. I’m not sure how this will end, but I know that we are stronger as a team than as individuals. I’m happy to have you as friends.” A little sappy, a smidge of cliché, but I meant every word.
There were a few smiles going around as I finished off my speech. If nothing else, it seemed to have lightened the mood a little. Hopefully it would keep their minds off of what was to come, if only for a little while. Not wanting to overstay, I went out and got prepared for the night ahead.
I grabbed enough of the rope to tie and gag a person, a small chisel and an equally small hammer. Most of my tools could fit in my pocket right alongside the small crystal there as well. The rope I tossed over my shoulder and would carry until such a time as it was needed. As ready as I would ever be, I started off in the direction of the captain's office building.
I tried my best to avoid using any of the main roads and walkways. I could probably convince people that I was just taking a few things to a customer who wanted to buy them, but the fewer people who saw me out and about the better.
Nervousness ate at me as I moved. I jumped at shadows, head on a swivel, and was paranoid that someone was watching me. Every time I checked my surroundings though, I couldn’t find any reason for the feeling. In the end I just tried to pass it off as the ramifications of the night ahead of me making me overly cautious.
The light was fading rather quickly, so I put some hustle into my step. I didn’t know when the last captain would be walking out for the night and didn’t want to miss them. When I finally reached the target building, I was relieved to see a few lights still on inside. Now I just had to find a good spot to lie in wait while the last of the officers finished their work for the night. Hopefully there won’t be any midnight oil burners here.
I found a nice spot to observe the building from across the street. It was just a small alleyway between two buildings, but it had enough cover that I wouldn’t be seen if I just stuck to the rapidly growing shadows. This has become a waiting game now, and I contemplated my next move while I was there.
There were a couple of ways to approach this. I could just try to get them while they were busy with the locks, but that would mean I would have to move fast as soon as I saw them closing up, which against a military individual was probably less likely to succeed. Another option was to try and sneak up on them while they were walking away from the building. Again, an option that banked mostly on how relaxed or tired they were to not notice me. The last one I came up with was to approach them as if nothing was out of the ordinary, ask them some sort of question, and then thank them with some sort of physical contact which would then turn into a magical knockout.
All options were weighed and measured for their advantages and disadvantages. In the end I decided to go with the casual ambush, as after this it wouldn’t matter if they saw my face or not. Still, I had to wait for my target to emerge before I could even do anything.
It must have been about an hour with me sitting there and watching the front of the building. In that time a few other officers exited for the night, but none of them locked the front door just yet. There was a period of time with no activity at all, and I was starting to get worried that maybe they just didn’t lock the door at the end of the night and one of the ones that left before was my target. My worries were cut short when a middle-aged man came out the front door, turned around and started messing with some keys.
This was it! My chance to get the keys off him and get into the towers. With a quick breath of preparation, I wandered back out into the street giving my best impression of being lost. The captain no doubt noticed me as soon as he turned away from the door but didn’t appear to be paying me much attention. I made a show of realizing he was there and quickly approached him.
“Excuse me sir, might I have a moment of your time? I’m in need of some directions.” He didn’t reply verbally but did stop to hear me out. “Thank you. I was wondering if you knew where Captain Azaren is? He ordered some rope to be delivered to him and I just can’t seem to find him.”
“I’m afraid you have missed him at this time. He went home for the night a few hours ago.”
“Ahh, I see, a shame that, but I suppose there will be another time. Thank you for telling me.” I nonchalantly placed a hand on his shoulder in a seemingly friendly pat. He gave me a weird look but didn’t outright deny the contact. A mistake that he probably wouldn’t have a chance to regret.
I could see him react to the feeling of me burrowing into his body with magic, a much quicker response than any other person I had tried this on. His eyes went wide, and his hands shot up to try and cut the contact I had with him. It was too late though. As soon as he grabbed hold of my wrist, I had already wormed my way to the cluster of nerves that was my target and attacked them. He did a familiar jerk of the body before going limp, forcing me to catch him before he hit the ground like a sack of rocks.
Now I was really in the deep end. I quickly scooped the unconscious man up and threw him over my shoulder, taking him down the nearest alley and out of sight. My heart was racing as I jogged through the dark shadows between the buildings. Once I had cleared the immediate area, I set down my victim against the wall and started sifting through his pockets. A few coins in one pocket, some hastily scribbled notes in another, but what I was looking for was in his coat pocket, a small key ring.
I quickly snatched the keys and checked everywhere else on him to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Once he was fully cleared, I began to use the rope I had on me to bind and gag him. The man was placed in a hogtie and picked back up as I looked around for somewhere to stow him.
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Eventually I found a small stack of crates that was left behind a building. I looked inside of them to see that they were mostly empty, just little bits of loose trash in a few of them. As good as anywhere given the situation, I deposited my passenger into the box, making sure he was resting in an awkward position that would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get out of the box by himself. For an extra bit of added security, once I had the lid back on his box, I placed another on top of it.
Feeling that it was the best it could be, I decided to move on with the plan and make my way towards the western tower. However, as I rounded the corner, I was momentarily blinded by a light that pierced through the dark. My heart leaped into my throat as this was not something that I had planned for. Someone was holding a crystal lantern by the looks of it, but I still couldn’t see the silhouetted figures behind the light.
The hell is going on? Did someone see me? Shit, this is bad. My eyes were starting to adjust, and it helped that they lowered the lantern a little. Finally, I got to see who it was that was shining a light on me, but the answer didn’t provide any comfort at all.
It was the groping asshole whose face I had beaten in the other day. Beside him were the two other idiots that seemed to be his cronies. That made this group a trio of pain in my ass. I didn’t know how much he knew or if this was just him trying to harass me, so I acted innocent.
“Can I help you?”
None of them said anything for a few more seconds, they just continued to stare at me, and the longer they did the more I could feel my body tense in preparation for something to happen. Eventually the lead asshole spoke up. “What did you do with the captain?”
Shit, fuck! They saw me. But when, how? Had they been following me or was it just a coincidence? Either way, I was in a world of shit right now and needed some time to think of a way out, so I played dumb. “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”
“You know exactly what I mean by that! You did something to the captain and dragged him down this alley, we saw you! I always thought there was something off about you, and then I found that there was no one who had even heard of your family name or knew of anyone who did. I should have listened to my gut feeling and confronted you. Now I will make up for that mistake and you will...”
Yes, keep monologuing, it gives me more time to think. I was paying only the bare minimum of attention to his speech about the consequences of my actions, going against him, how his family will see me put away forever, blah, blah, blah. My mind was busy racing off in another direction, desperately trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation and still be able to complete my mission.
They had seen me knock out that captain, so any chance I had to weasel my way out of it through words alone was probably nil. That only left a physical resolution to this, meaning I had to somehow subdue three armed individuals while making sure they didn’t make a lot of noise. Giving them a once over, I noticed that they had yet to draw their weapons. I wasn’t sure if that was due to arrogance, or if they thought that I would simply surrender after having been confronted about what I had done. Whatever the case might have been, I was planning on exploiting that oversight on their part.
They were at a distance where if I decided to just rush them, then at least two of them would have a chance to draw and strike me, so I needed to get them closer. In an effort to achieve that, I sighed loudly enough to interrupt his monologue. “Levying baseless accusations against me after I beat you in a duel. Your idea of revenge would be hysterical if it wasn’t so pathetic. I’ve had enough of this farce, I'm leaving.”
I turned and walked back around the corner of the alleyway and out of sight of the trio, hoping that they would bite. Not only did they bite, but they also swallowed it hook, line and sinker. “Hey! Get back here!” There were three distinct footsteps running in my direction, all of them ignorant of the fact that I had stopped just around the corner and was waiting for them to get in range.
As soon as the leader rounded the corner, he was met with my left elbow flying towards his face. The resulting impact of the blow crushed his nose and took him straight off his feet. By the time his back and the lantern he was carrying hit the ground, I had already launched into another attack before the initial shock could wear off. The next closest stooge was then introduced to my fist which landed a solid hit on his jaw. His head bobbled for a second as I probably rattled his brain and fractured his jaw with that hit before he collapsed in a heap. The last one had just started to draw his blade when I lunged forward and grabbed hold of the hilt, preventing him from achieving a full draw. My free hand came up and grabbed a fistful of his hair before I pushed as hard as I could and slammed his head into the side of the closest building to us. The man went limp and there was a little blood seeping from his head as the skin had split open from the impact.
My adrenaline was pumping, my vision was tunneled, and my senses were heightened to the point where the slight sound of shuffling and groaning from behind me felt as loud as an airhorn. The leader of the group was trying to stagger to his feet, conscious, but evidently in a daze and still recovering from it. I quickly went over and seized him by the throat to silence any attempt he might make at calling for help and pushed him up against a wall. That forced some lucidity back into him as he struggled against my grip, making pained choking sounds.
Through the rush of blood in my ears that threatened to drown out my thoughts, my mind was trying to answer the extremely urgent question of ‘what now’? I had two unconscious individuals, a third choking in my grasp, and no more rope with which to tie them up. I was at a loss, the adrenaline wouldn’t let up, my heart felt like it might explode in my chest and every little idea of what to do was almost immediately destroyed by the first counterargument. The more I thought, the more the grim reality of the situation sank in.
The mortal struggle between my morality and my logic was reaching an apex, and my morality was losing. The look on my face must have been haunting indeed, as the man in my grasp started struggling more violently to free himself. I couldn’t find it, the golden path, the key answer, it eluded me no matter how hard I tried to search, and eventually I could feel my soul collapse in on itself in bleak resignation.
“I tried...” My voice came out shaky and wispy as the wind. “I tried to give you a chance, to leave with your life and try to live it. And now... now I'm trying again. I'm trying so damn hard to justify doing the same thing.” My breath quickened and it felt like I was the one who was choking. “But I can’t. I would lose too damn much, and I can’t afford that.”
At my reluctant command, tendrils of energy from my body started to invade his own. He must have felt it, his eyes went wide with fear. Slowly the tendrils snaked their way through his body like a venom towards his head, their sole dark purpose nearly at its end. He realized what was about to happen, the desperation and terror he was exhibiting turned my stomach. Then, like the plunging of a knife, the deed was done.
He went completely limp, every bodily function simply ceased in a single moment. I put him down, propping him up against the wall. It would have been painless at the very least, a poor comfort and excuse designed to try and make me feel less like a piece of shit. Even under all my revulsion, I knew that my torment was not yet done. I still had two more.
Feeling as if my body would simply give out on me, I walked over to where the two others lay unconscious, blissfully unaware of what was happening. With a presiding emptiness that swallowed my emotions, I placed a hand on their heads one by one, whispering just two words each time I did. “I’m sorry.” They would just stop breathing after that.
I felt cold. Not only because I had drained a substantial amount of the warm magical energy inside me doing all this, but because my body was physically rejecting what I had just done. I started salivating, bile climbing my throat as I leaned against a wall, my body wracked with tremors. For a moment I wasn’t sure which I would do first, throw up or pass out. It seemed my stomach won this race, and I emptied its contents onto the ground in retching heaves.
I recovered enough to stop trying to turn my stomach inside out and took gasping breaths. There was a visceral difference between fighting for your life and performing an execution. Looking over the scene I had created, I felt nothing but contemptuous self-loathing and misery. This was what it meant to be at war, this was the world I live in now. Forced to make unthinkable decisions just to protect what is important to you.
spitting the last of the bile out of my mouth, I walked over to where the lantern had fallen. It was a clever design for a handheld light source, and used a series of shutters to adjust the level of light and the direction you wanted it in. With a quick sliding of the panels, the crystal inside was closed off from the outside world and cast everything once more into darkness.
After a moment of allowing my eyes to adjust enough to the new lumen level, I started the grisly work of hiding the bodies. One by one I dragged the corpses to where I had stored the captain earlier and placed them all in their own box. I knew it didn’t matter how they were placed inside anymore, yet I still left them in as dignified a position as I could manage before placing the lid back on top.
I felt another brief wave of revulsion threatening to send me into a fit of heaving once again, but this one I was able to choke down. With a few more shuddering breaths, I was in enough control of myself once again to get on with the night. I still had a tower to break into after all.
The renewed purpose helped to keep my thoughts focused in a singular direction. I made my way towards the western wall, avoiding any wandering soldiers along the way. Eventually I stood before the wall in question and saw the tower some distance away.
Some investigation revealed a stairwell leading up to the wall. I glided up the stairs and cautiously emerged onto the rampart. Wherever the lookouts might have been, they at least weren’t here right now. Taking the opportunity, I moved fast and low along the wall towards the tower, arriving in front of the door a moment later.
I removed the pilfered keys from my pocket and started trying them on the lock. Once I reached the fourth key it slid into the lock without resistance. A turn and a quick click later, and the door was now unlocked. Hopefully there wasn’t anything else required to undo the magical protection on the door. No use putting it off wondering, I just reached forward and pushed it open.
No seizures, paralysis, or instant death overtook me, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I was allowed at least this much of a reprieve. I slipped inside quickly to not tempt fate anymore and closed the door behind me.
Once again, I stood before the colossal crystal that levitated in the middle of the room, practically humming with power. Now I had a choice to make, alter some of the runes to disrupt its ability to repel attacks, or add a few of my own that will cause a malfunction. I was leaning towards malfunction. I wasn’t sure if simply changing a few runes would completely disable it or not, and I didn’t want to risk that.
Setting up one of the ladders that were thankfully provided for me in this room, I started to locate a place to add a few new additions. It turned out that this would be a feat in and of itself as there was hardly even an inch of free space on this crystal. Several minutes of adjusting the ladders position and scanning the surface of the crystal, I finally found a small space that could fit a few choice runes. It appeared to have been left blank due to the awkward position needed to actually write there, but beggars can’t be choosers in my case, so I started chiseling.
According to Velshi, this combination of runes I was placing on it would create a self-destructive reaction in the crystal, and she made it quite clear that they should be avoided on anything you intended to use. I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen once it was activated, but hopefully it would be enough to render it inoperable. It wasn’t the cleanest work I had ever done on a crystal, but it would work, and that was all that mattered.
I put everything back the way I had found it and made to exit from the scene. A quick peak out the door revealed a clear wall, so I exited, closed the door behind me, locked it up, and it was like I was never there.
Once I was back on the street level, I could relax just a little bit. I was now just a random man enjoying the night life again, at least for a little while. There was still work to be done, because while this night may not have gone completely to plan, it wasn’t to the point of being unsalvageable. It was time to orchestrate an uprising.