In the time that it took Akemi to come squat next to Pyre, she had already formulated a plan.

Well—multiple.

It was never good to have just one.

But first:

“How are we getting out of here?” Akemi whispered, startling Pyre, who had been in an apparently meditative state staring at the doorway. So much for a watchdog.

“S–sorry,” Pyre stuttered. She shook herself out of it—literally—with one of her red curls popping out of her disguise, which she quickly slotted back in. “It’s done?”

“Sure is. I give the current government twenty four hours before the mobs appear.”

Pyre hummed. A truly grating habit that she must have picked up from Nocturne. It was such a neutral sound, purposefully ambiguous. It made Akemi’s skin itch.

“Okay.” Pyre rose, then pressed a firm hand to Akemi’s chest. “Before you try—because I know you want to—don’t take anything from the closets. I did a seance to check the place, and the room is crawling with protective runes, especially attached to the high value stuff. If you grab something, it’ll lock us in here, then start shooting torrents of fire.”

Akemi groaned. “But the money I could sell the Viscount's things for…”

In actuality, she had completely forgotten about stealing from the man. It seemed like small pennies to her now. She was already planning on receiving her new tax collector’s salary, plus the eventual windfall from selling heroes on the marketplace. But it was good to keep up greedy appearances.

“You’ll get plenty of money from Nocturne once we turn this in.”

“Alright. Whatever.”

“Okay,” Pyre said, seemingly content with her answer. “The fastest way, of course, would be to go back the way we came. But they’re not stupid. They’ll have that area heavily patrolled by now. So unless we’re for some reason uber-confident that we can take down a bunch of high level chimeras… We’re going to have to take the long way, through their barracks. Straight into enemy territory, basically. But our disguises should take care of that.”

Akemi nodded. A bunch of snot-nosed low-level guards to toy with. Sounded easy enough.

They slipped out back through the doors and silently stalked down the hallway. The voices of the high-level blood knights were long gone, now only distant, adrenaline-inducing memories.

They took several stairways down, until Akemi could smell perfume. It was wafting powerfully through the doors, like standing at the perimeter of the airport Duty Free. It was intensely fruity, cheap and terrible. If she had thought the Viscount’s scents of choice were unrefined—these were even more grotesque. She supposed that the perfume manufacturing industry hadn’t matured in Kodra yet. The superficial bats had to make do with the bottom of the proverbial discount barrel.

Pyre nudged her hard, gesturing towards her parchment.

Shit. They must be eating dinner, it read.

Akemi stared in confusion at Pyre’s lifted paper. “Seriously? I can’t smell any food,” she mouthed to her.

It’s not about the food. It’s the perfume. Notice how you didn’t smell it on the guards that we ran into earlier? They only put it on when they change into their evening wear. We’ll be dressed all wrong.

“Who cares?” Akemi mouthed. “We’ll just say we’re on our way to change.”

Pyre frowned, but ultimately, she nodded.

I don’t like it, but okay. The exit is through the third barrack. Once we go through there, we’ll exit into the garden. The city guards end and start their shifts there, so once the next shift goes into the city, we’ll join up and go with them, posing as average city guards. Then we’ll be back in Grimguard proper. And can return to Nocturne.

You can return to Nocturne, Akemi thought, bristling. She did need to eventually return to Nocturne, yes—there’d be no other way to get the ancient map and figure out where the fjord was—but she wanted to return prepared. Specifically, she wanted to be prepared against his mindshaping. If there was any way to block it out, or twist the signals, she wanted to try it. So she needed time for a little reconnaissance.

She figured, as long as she didn’t immediately make a run for it, she’d evade suspicions. She had carefully curated her personal brand of laziness and time-wasting, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to Pyre when she insisted that she do some light solo shopping before going back to the chapel. At least, that’s what Akemi hoped.

The doors opened with a whine, and they stepped into a wide chamber, dimly lit, but with some rare and fortunate torchlight. A very long dining table was set, equipped with fine cutlery, plates of silver, and a heaping portion of what looked like insect stew spread about. It was not the kind of scene you’d expect at the center of a smelly barrack full of soldiers; in fact, it looked more appropriate for a royal palace gala.

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But these weren't your ordinary soldiers. These were chimeras.

All heads turned to them as they entered. And for the first time, Akemi could actually see the faces of the creatures; they were adorable, really, with their wide eyes, dew-drop noses, and carefully cropped fur. But the way they looked at her was so intensely judgmental—the way their gazes poured over her clothing choices with utter contempt—she felt immediately flown back to Earth, placed in her grandmother’s picture-perfect kitchen. She felt the comforting urge to stab something.

“Don’t bring that filth in here,” one commented, wearing a frilly necktie. “Don’t you know better than to come through the main entrance in your work clothes?”

“Yeah, sorry, whatever, on our way,” Akemi muttered.

Too many to stab. Some other time.

Persuasion Check (Medium)

Multiplier Applied: [Disguise]

Multiplier Applied: [Shared Language]

Success!

She strolled forward past the table, unbothered, tugging Pyre behind her. Even though the chimeras' shock and horror was clear as day, their disguises seemed good enough to not arouse any suspicion. Even if Pyre and Akemi were ignorant to the chimeras' social traditions, they still looked the part.

Soon, they were in the third barrack, surrounded only by tidy, folded sheets.

Villainous Achievement Unlocked! [Fooling Friends, or Fooling Foes?]

Sneaking around on heroes is one thing, but duping a whole room full of fellow villains? Well, that’s just dastardly. Nice work on that costume. Just remember to take off those stilts before you hit your head.

[+200 XP] [ -50 Reputation]

Akemi grinned at the achievement. Pyre, naturally, decided to be a killjoy.

“You could be more cordial, you know,” she said as they reached the end of the barrack. It was completely empty, and Akemi could already see the door to the outside, slightly ajar. “That could have ended very badly.”

“Sure, but it didn’t. Be more optimistic, P.”

Akemi swung the door open, and they emerged into the field—and into the beautiful light of day. Her nostrils immediately filled with fresh air, smelling of ripe, red flowers. The estate’s gardens were luxuriously large, some brimming with roses, but most just neatly trimmed grass, like a dictator’s hairline.

Paved roads spliced between each section of garden; two of them were clogged with guards, stood in their rigid positions, and another was stuffed full with caravans, shipments of goods to be taken out of the palace and to the city. She had read about that section of personnel in the ledger: the delivery men, one of the few non-combat units the palace employed.

“So which way now, soldier?” Akemi said, raising an eyebrow. Pyre grumpily led her towards the guardsmen, where there was a tall, lean, central commander standing at the back of the troop. He wore a slightly different outfit than the rest—he had several medals attached to his cape, and a short cap adorning his hooded head.

Cordial Commander Ravenguard | Level 34 Blood Knight

“Names?” he immediately said, feigning no pretense.

Akemi looked to Pyre. She wasn’t about to schmooze this guy up when she had the perfect schmoozer right next to her. Faking niceties was exhausting.

“Kil and Kieta,” Pyre said, gesturing between them. Apparently, Pyre's skill which allowed her to obfuscate her name could be applied to accomplices. “Registered as of a few days ago. Not sure if we’ve populated onto the registrar yet, but the barracks chief told us to show up anyway. Learn the ropes on the road.”

Ravenguard stared at her long and hard, scrutinizing her very soul, before looking down at his clipboard. Just like the ledger back in the office, this clipboard seemed to be an item which opened a System interface. A mere metaphor more than a physical object. Akemi could tell by the way his pupils went out of focus, and that odd, blue screen became reflected in them.

After a moment, he cleared his throat. “You’re not on the list.”

Pyre blinked, speechless. Her voice went hoarse.

“What?”

From under her mask, Akemi smirked. Looks like Miss. Well Laid Plans missed something.

“We recently moved over here from a different branch. That’s probably why you don’t see our names,” Pyre said. Akemi could hear the very well-hidden panic rising in her voice.

“Your name is either on the list, or it isn’t,” he said, stalwart. “Yours isn’t.”

Pyre froze up, clearly unsure what to say. Her obedience act—that was to say, her only act—wasn’t working. Akemi took matters into her own hands.

“I don’t see why it matters,” she interjected. “We’re here, aren’t we?”

“Of course it matters. How do I know you’ve been properly horse-trained?”

“Oh, I don’t know, put me on a damn horse and find out?”

He growled down at her. “I won’t take well to insubordination.”

“Excuse her,” Pyre said, making time to give her a side-long glare. “We’re sorry that the list is malfunctioning, sir. But the Viscount asked us personally to be part of this brigade.”

“Oh, yeah, personally? Right. You two low-level grunts are on the Viscount’s personal list.”

Akemi had never wanted to punch someone so badly.

Pyre seemed to be having the same thought. Her shoulders rose, tense.

“It’s fine,” Pyre said, a long breath later. “We’ll wait here until the list refreshes, sir.”

“Yes, you will,” he said gruffly. “Now get out of the way and make yourself useful somewhere else that isn’t my regiment.”

It took all of Akemi’s willpower to let him continue standing there. Thankfully, she didn’t need much of it, because Pyre was already dragging her away towards a different section of the garden, to stand under a shaded tree. The woman seemed uncharacteristically forlorn. She wasn’t used to her plans going awry, that was for sure.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until a new guard commander shifts in,” she said quietly, irritated. “One that’s a little more pliable. If only I had put any points in Mindshaper…”

Lights went on inside Akemi’s head. Two birds, one stone.

“I could do that.”

Pyre turned to her, and narrowed her eyes. “What, mindshape him? Have you even unlocked the class?” She shook her head, as if she was having a conversation with herself. “Even if you did get the class, he’s too high a level for rank one skills to work on him.”

In the distance, one of the palace’s many gates lifted. A trade caravan plodded through, gliding out of as easy as butter. Akemi followed it with keen interest, watching as gate after gate rose to allow it through, and back towards the city.

“Sure, maybe it wouldn’t work on him,” she said, smirking. “But I have a very different target in mind.”