Chapter 116
"You were given a good warning, Ranger. Maybe it's best to let it wait," Sabine cautioned, sitting on the stairs with a look of concern.
Tobias had his gear laid out on the table: exploding potions, his cloak, leather jerkin, and all the various tools of the trade, buffeted by the shopping spree that had accompanied their fruit run.
Dutifully, he was checking and rechecking; mana stones sat perched over the chest of his jerkin, recharging it.
Riley tried to stay calm among the tumult of emotion that had been buffeting her throughout the day, but there was only one conclusion to be gained from the grim resolve she felt, bordering on anger, through their bond.
Tobias was going to war.
"There are two ways to respond, actually: defensive and offensive, assuming the ratcatcher isn't involved, and that's now a big assumption…" Tobias began.
Sabine held up her hand. "He's not, my info is good on that."
"Then hitting them hard is me acting out of pattern, which is the best way to take them by surprise," he replied, as various bits began vanishing off the table.
"By visiting a sewer, you've deduced is a lead well into the night hours?" Sabine asked, her look of caution being replaced by one of concern.
"You've obviously been feeding the Ratcatcher my reports, keeping him updated on the status of my investigation. It seems an odd coincidence that he'd show up the moment I'm getting ready to make a move, so you tell me?" Tobias turned from what he was doing, holding his sheathed sword in his left, with a look of icy accusation on his face.
"Look, everyone, can we just calm down before this gets any more…" Riley began as Sabine shot off the stairs, pointing a finger.
"What exactly are you implying, Ranger?" She snapped.
Tobias braced and pointed back with his free hand. "That you're off making nice with shady people who've already tried to kill me. Which, from my vantage point, would be a fair wager to make!"
Sabine narrowed her eyes. "By the dead gods, you're right, I am! Because of those connections, a one-gold bounty is off two of my rangers, and their family is still breathing! This business isn't clean. You're one of Cid's; you should know that. If you'd pull your head out of your ass for ten minutes and bother to breathe, your head might clear enough to realize you haven't been doing all this or surviving all of this by yourself."
"Direct hit…" Riley projected quietly as Tobias blanched and then went pale.
He took a deep breath, then fell heavily into a waiting chair set beside the table, still holding his sword. "That's fair, I'm sorry. I feel caught up in this whole thing; it's some kind of terrible wave, and I'm being launched with its momentum. I don't know who to trust, I don't know where to land…"
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His voice broke into a stammer as Riley pressed up against his legs, and Sabine came around.
"It's a heavy burden, this kind of work," she commiserated.
"Meanwhile, everyone thinks I'm a hero, except that I feel like I'm drowning and being threatened by what I don't know all the time." Tobias let his sword rest against the chair so that he could hold his head and rub at his temples.
"I don't think you're a hero," Riley agreed in mock support.
"Thanks," Tobias sunk his head heavily into his hands.
"That's the side of this business that most Rangers never see until they're through training. You learn how to think on your feet, and then you spend the rest of your life honing those skills, or you die. You're trained to be on the ugly side of order, the sharp end of it, and that means getting dirty sometimes, making compromises, and going where others wouldn't go," Sabine lectured.
"At what cost though? I'm not about to throw people under the bus for a jailer, or cooperate too freely with criminals in the underworld," Tobias said, drawing a line in the sand.
"Nor should you; we get dirty to protect our people and the Ashenrealm, not because it's easy or convenient. It's a fine line to walk, sure, but it's a line you have to walk. Fall too much on one side of it, and you're a monster; fall too much on the other, and you're dead under mysterious circumstances," Sabine replied.
"And that's what you've been doing with the Ratcatcher, walking that line," Tobias concluded.
Sabine nodded. "You begin to see sense. We've been working together for years. Yes, he's scum that would sell his mother for a silver but not a copper. He deals in information and is privy to information I'd have no hope of obtaining, and occasionally, yes, he does ask for favors, and there have been occasions where I've told him no. Most of the time, he respects that; sometimes, I have to insist on that respect."
"I see; where do you draw the line? How do you draw it?" Tobias asked, his tone almost a plea.
"I do math. I look at the innocents that will and won't be hurt, and I think of the Ashenrealm. Sometimes that means I do things off-book, sometimes that means I kill people, but never for the Ratcatcher, always for the realm, and the safety of its people. The day I lose sight of that, you are free to take that blade there and use it to stake me through the chest," Sabine locked eyes with Tobias in a glare so insistent and icy that he could take it as nothing other than a demand.
"I understand. I'm sorry for my foolishness, and am grateful for your help," Tobias replied.
"We're both grateful," Riley added.
"You're too young to see it yet. It's easy to be gung-ho and think this is all a swashbuckling adventure, but all it really is, is wading through shit for far too little reward and credit. Most of the time, the people we're saving never really see what we're doing. They just get the propaganda the nobles put out that keeps them all in line. It's the way of things," Sabine sighed again, looking down at the floor, sounding suddenly tired.
"All of that said, I hold my theory is sound. You say the Ratcatcher is reliable, well, he wouldn't have shown up unless he knew something. He's counting on me to react, and that may have been his intent," Tobias reasoned.
"How do you mean? Line it out for me," Sabine asked.
"He knows something is going on, knows it needs to stop because it's bad for his business, so he warns me in a way that's guaranteed to light my fuse. He was tipping me off that I'm on the right track," Tobias concluded.
Sabine stopped and looked down, her hands rising to her hips.
"Ok, fair, how long till Justinian gets here?" Sabine asked.
Tobias turned his hand just as an expensive new pocket watch appeared in his palm. "Within the hour, I'd think."
"You can't tell me you hadn't already worked this out on your own," Riley said accusingly, pointing a paw at Sabine.
"You may be right about that, but for all my concern about the Ashenrealm, there is one overriding concern I have that you haven't considered," she paused, begging the question.
"Oh?" Riley pressed.
"I don't want you two to die; you're green, but you're mine. Something's been going on for a while, something neither I nor the Ratcatcher have been able to shake, and somehow, this case you're on is putting you right in the middle of it," she replied.