All he could think about was how inconvenient court clothes were for espionage. He would have felt so much better in simple garb, the sort of stuff that might belong to a servant or caretaker than he was in the overcoat and fancy clothes of the Orroyelan Court. It was important that he presented himself this way, but when he was rummaging through the Nola ambassador’s papers it would be rather incriminating if someone walked in on him now…
He held up the document to the pale window’s light, checking for just a moment more to make sure that it was the right one. Arctic had an incredible talent to forge documents- silver clawed machines, deathly things that looked like they would chew up a man and destroy him had fabricated the paper and the writing. To even the most detailed eye it was thoroughly legitimate, down to the folds and the stains on the paper.
It was, for all intents and purposes, an actual encrypted letter, made with the same cypher that the ambassador used for his communications back with Nolabo. It was an incredibly tough one, something that would probably take hours upon hours of dedicated work to break… but he didn’t need that. Again, Arctic’s machines had been able to analyze the code and find the cipher in moments.
They’d been able to do this in seconds. No cipher, no secret, nothing was beyond his reach. Arctic had made him into the epitome of his kind… and he used it against the Nola. His people. A second’s hesitation was all it took, and he slipped the papers into natural places. Dark cabinets, a secret drawer behind one of the first ones that held a few notes and letters of credit. He’d actually found that by himself.
He put them in the sorts of places the ambassador wouldn’t see them, or would ignore them, all while being the perfect locations that would have been searched. Then went a few trinkets- pens and little coins and personal items of some value, the papers he’d stolen from other people’s rooms. They were the cornerstone of his plan.
The nobility needed to hate the Nola…
A sound.
Laeo quickly ducked to the side, hiding behind a dresser as a weary Nola man entered the room. He was a decently old man- white hair was beginning to show around the bases, streaks of the stuff running through his beard. Still, he was fit and his movements were fluid, denoting a practice that could have only come from one place.
Laeo held himself perfectly still, carefully maneuvering himself toward the window. That was how he’d gotten into the room, and if he could get out then he wouldn’t have to kill the ambassador… if he could, that was. The agents of Nolabo were all fiercely trained assassins, and he wasn’t even the best among them. That would go to the ambassadors, those people so fully interred into the other nation’s courts where they could be close enough to strike a blow at the very heart of empire.
Heart thundering, steps so careful- one after the other he made his way away from the desk as the ambassador sat down to write out another letter in his cypher. There were many rooms in his suite and he’d left the door to them open-
A breath.
Laeo froze as the ambassador rose, then quickly ducked behind the door in the second room. He was suspicious- he was certain of that… at least he was prepared. A thin knife slid so delicately into his hand, ready- it would cut through anything. At least that’s what Arctic had said.
For a moment they were just feet apart, the ambassador looking through the doorway, left and right. Lukclily- so, so incredibly lucklily- he didn’t look behind the door before he returned to his desk. Laeo stayed there, forzen behidn the door for a long minute so as to make sure that he wasn’t coming back before he slid deeper into the ambassador’s complex of rooms, taking a servant’s exit out. It would have to be good enough…
A few minutes set him gasping for breath in the hallway. That had been too close… then he straightened himself, looking for all the world an imperious Sakaxhy noble, and strode away down the hall. He’d done his job. Suspicion had been planted, just enough… all he had to do was hope the ambassador didn’t notice it.
Even so, he’d have to do something with it if he found it. Now, to go cause more chaos.
………
Laeo lifted the ring, watching the diamond on it glitter against the light. Thinly scrawled text lay deep within it, the sort of thing that no human would be able to do. Either way, it also didn’t look human… The text was some language he’d never seen before nor had ever seen anything close to. The closest thing might be some of the indigenous languages of the native Nolabo, those people which had eventually become Nola in truth… still, it was different from that.
It was clearly an artifact of god. Something salvaged from the thousands of years that immense ship had hovered over Royeleo and Royeleo only… he slipped it into a pocket, confident that it would be something that was missed.
Now, the papers… the desk was strew with all sorts of papers… At first it looked like a mess, but then he noticed the notecards cleverly inserted at certain distances- a circle. If the circle was broken, whoever had put their papers here would know they’d been disturbed.
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For Laeo’s purpose, that was perfect… he wanted the people to know their belongings had been sifted through. Needed to know. A bit of dust from a pouch made it onto the papers, as well as a crumpled up piece of wrapping, labeled in Nolaqū… it would put suspicion directly onto the Nola… he hated himself for it, but it had to be done. He knew it-
It was the will of Arctic, and Arctic’s will was the will of human survival. The will of sanity against Iri’s insanity… the will of the people who followed the mandate of god. He consoled himself with that- even though he’d never been much of a religious man, for the first time in his life, for the first time in anyone’s life, he was following the will of the Eternity Falling. The will of God. Then when he was sure that he’d set everything just right to make it look as if a Nola had searched the room- not the ambassador, but someone from the city-
He turned around, and faced a door opening.
He was quicker this time, hiding beneath the desk where it was almost impossible to see him from the entrance. This nobleman would have to die, but between his position in the far distance of the palace and how quiet he was confident he could kill whoever was entering, he was relatively certain he’d be able to cover up their disappearance for a decent amount of time…
Footsteps, and then the quiet sound of shuffling papers, and a distinctly feminine voice. “If you’re still here, then come out. Maybe I’ll make sure that your sentence won’t be as harsh as you think it will.” It wasn’t a hesitant voice. This was someone who knew what they were saying… just as Laeo wasn’t someone who’d fall for such tricks. He held onto his knife and its deadly blade, confident in its power. Arctic had equipped him with incredible things… “You’re obviously not very practiced at this if you disturbed the circle. Everyone knows not to disturb the circle. Even the visitors know not to disturb the circle.”
Laeo almost cursed- he’d made a blunder, and a serious one at that. If this noblewoman had had any chance of surviving previously all of that had been erased in the moment she’d said that. He waited, just a few seconds more for her to close the door and slowly step around-
Quickly he stepped out from beneath the desk, driving the knife down in a brutal, efficient cut. Surprisingly though, the noblewoman slid out of the way with a deftness that spoke of practice… perhaps he’d picked a poor enemy… still, he had the advantage of surprise. She was dressed in the sort of dresses and curly clothes that would hinder her movements, while he had a knife that would cut through hers- “Wait!”
Laeo found himself waiting. Not from a position of weakness, of course- he placed his knife just an inch away from her neck, at that optimal distance where any closer and she’d die of the blade’s power. “You better speak fast. One minute. You have one minute to tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”
“I know what you’re doing-” She gasped as the knife inched closer to her, cutting a small line in her neck. Hopefully she wouldn’t find it too suspicious that the blade was cutting her without even being all that close. Hopeful she wouldn’t be able to see it, actually. “I know what you’re doing, and I can be of assistance. You’re a Sakaxhy agent, right? Pushing for war?”
“How would you be of assistance? How can I be sure you won’t betray me?” A second of hesitation. “What’s your name?” He couldn’t, of course, but this was an opportunity that he couldn’t just pass up. The possibility of having a direct window into those functions of the court that he’d miss out on as a foreigner… the opportunity to accelerate his plans by an immense amount.
The opportunity to betray his country faster than he’d already been betraying it.
“Paquel, and- you can’t, obviously. That’s the name of the game… but I’m looking for power. The Emperor’s getting old, and I need to be in a better position to seize it.” It would have sounded ridiculous to the average nobleman, but Laeo just nodded. He’d been in the business for far too long to underestimate a woman with drive and skill.
It made sense… “If I leave this room, and you tell anyone about this, then I’ll kill you. I’ll hang you from the highest tower in the court.” He took a step backwards, carefully returning his knife to his side. “Tell nobody. If the last threat wasn’t serious, just take my word for this- if I die, then you will die.” It was the truth. Everyone would…
Paquel only smiled. “Three buildings down on the left, you’ll find a good place to ignite your war. He’d be furious at a Nola invasion into his rooms. Take that as a… token of goodwill, if you would.” One last smile, almost chilling in its intensity… then he was beyond the rooms, wary in the knowledge that it could all fall apart in a single moment. One blade, one trap… the world would face Arctic’s fire.
“Remember me, then.” Cold eyes met cold eyes, and he let the edge of his blade slip through hers as if it wasn’t more than a warm breeze, and saw with satisfaction the first hints of fear.
He slipped away into the darkness, the daylight miasma of Norapt, confident. Forcefully so, ignoring- just… ignoring the Nola, the green islands he’d called home, the islands he would bring to war twice over.
From above, though, from the court of the Lord of Cold Places that was just a single moment, a ship above all of everything, above the Brother and the moon and looking down… Nolabo was so little. Humanity was so little… compared to the Eternity Falling and the things beyond the stars, to the fire and orange eyes that were not eyes…
Laeo continued for chaos, to make sure the Orroyelans joined the war. He continued for God, for the mandate of the Eternity Falling, to make sure Polarity Light was returned… he continued, into the dark hallways, despite their sun-filled windows- into the shadows...