Chapter 131

The conversation had drug on for the better part of an hour.

Riley's head bobbed as even the will to focus her words was becoming a tedium. Still, an electric current of tension in the air kept zapping her awake.

"Multiple fae blinded second tiers, many with more power than they should have, operating on multiple continents, through Portal skips... By the dead gods, Rangers, you had one simple assignment. How did it lead to this?" Sabine's voice sounded haggard over the crystal. A long, slow breath rattled through the air like a chill winter wind in autumn.

"Hedwig was a cover, as was Wigstan on this side, but the Infernal running him wanted Riley," Tobias reported.

"Riley? You left that out." Sabine challenged.

"It's because it's the one piece I've been struggling to put together, but it tracks. What if our encounter at Timbergarde wasn't just about revenge but about her, too, something this..." Tobias paused, grasping for the right word, fatigue eating at his coherence, "Cabal wants or needs?"

"That feels like a leap. Every time I get around an infernal, there's this low-key rage that hits like an instinct. It makes sense that it would work both ways," Riley countered.

"You're part celestial, but you have a similar mana feeding ability. We can't overlook that aspect. All of this is tied to infernal, and all points to a wider conspiracy spread out amongst the disaffected within the second tier. Hold position. I need to bring in Central on this. Keep your crystal nearby," without further preamble, the glow dimmed before winking out in his hand.

"This way," Caedmon rose and led them across the room through the back left door, revealing a series of shower stalls in a locker room format.

Walking over to a cabinet set up against a wall, revealed rows of clean white soap, of which he took one.

"Get clean, we'll get a quick meal, and we'll wait for the thunderstorm of shit to rain down upon us. There's dark clouds on the horizon," Caedmon sighed, looking as if he was carrying all of Calaria on his shoulders.

"Do you want to go first?" Tobias offered to Riley.

Riley felt her ears flush, "That's sweet of you, but just help me get this armor off. We all need to wash, and I'll nap while I wait."

There was a particular space of bench that looked inviting underneath, shadowed, with a good view of the door and a row of lockers to one side, offering security and nominal privacy. It was close to everything she wanted at that moment.

Tobias ruffled her ears before going down on one knee. Her armor sloughed off with an audible jingling thwump, allowing the air to fully reach her back fur for the first time in days.

Eyes half-lidding in sudden relief, Riley splayed out her forepaws before slinking under the bench.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Take your time," she yawned.

"I'm gonna..." Her world went black mid-sentence as she found herself descending rapidly into an inky black world of pure exhaustion and only the barest desert of existence.

Eye's fluttering open after what seemed like a moment later; her nose flooded with the now foreign smell of soaps with a heady mix of steam.

Tobias was out of his armor, wearing instead simple linen clothes he kept stashed in their inventory, and she was in motion, gathered up in his arms.

"What? When?" She scanned around from her mobile perch.

They were halfway to the shower stall.

"You're just as shot as I am. I lost about ten minutes myself and woke up on the floor, leaning up against a wall. Best sleep I've had in days," he yawned.

A tingle of alarm ran through her groggy mind. They were strung out and exhausted, pushed well past their limits, while a hidden enemy worked against them in the shadows, but this was the embassy. It was supposed to be safe ground, home ground, where what authority she did have mattered, and all worked for the benefit of the realm.

She hoped. Memories of Timbergarde alone blew like a chill wind through her soul.

The sound of a squeaky valve being turned brought her attention as Tobias tested the water before gently setting her underneath the deluge.

Riley sat up, surprised by the warmth and the sudden relaxation in her muscles and coat before the heavy wool blanket-like blackness again claimed her.

Flashes of awareness followed, once when her coat got jostled by a scrubbing bar of soap, again as the hot water penetrated deeper, soaking her fur, until finally she was dripping and being jostled in a large towel Tobias had gotten from somewhere.

Broken hour of sleep that it was, she felt better.

"Clean at last, I can't smell you or the reptile, or me, just soap," Riley sighed in relief.

"Which reptile, cockatrice or Dracovani?" He asked, stroking back her dripping ears.

"Why not both?" Playfully, she shadowboxed with her forepaws, inspiring a brief slapfight from Tobias.

"I let you nap and hosed down both of our armors. It wasn't much, but it's something. Everything is drying now," he reported before scanning around the room with haunted eyes.

"Do you need food, or would you rather rest? I vote for rest."

"Sleep is the better course. Let's go out and tell Caedmon," She agreed.

Walking out, they found him already napping in a chair. Used to roughing it on cathedral floors, Tobias and Riley picked out a corner, set out their bedrolls, and let the blackness claim them one final time.

The softness and familiarity of her bed hit her like any drug Riley had ever heard of as a rush of pure euphoria rode in herald to the exhaustion chasing just behind.

An inestimable time later, a flashing light caused her consciousness to stir like embers catching in wet grass. A heavy, wrathful grogginess mutated into a headache as her eyes forced themselves open on a blinking com crystal.

Her throat was burning dry, and her mouth felt as if it was lined with paste.

"Tobias..." She projected with an ironic clarity.

His mouth clicked closed like he was part snapping turtle as he struggled to open his eyes.

"Sabine got back to us," She reported wearily, her eyes already drifting closed.

"Caedmon, Caedmon!" Tobias cried as the ranger startled up in his chair, instinctively reaching for his sword.

"What? Where's the target?" He demanded.

"Com Crystal," Tobias reported before pulling himself up and grabbing the magical device.

"This is Willow, authenticator: By the thirteen do we guide our lives, and keep watch against the dead Gods lest they rise again. I've three tenganuts for four coppers, for the right buyer? Are you interested in a trade?" The crystal snapped purple, as Riley replied.

"I'll take five for four if you can wait till half night. By the light of Arctos, and the power of Galdor do we walk the path in half night and high sun."

"All three of you are on the next dragon out. It's landing at the embassy in the morning. Your mission and orders are classified between the Generals and me, no one else. Pack what you need. Replacements for your station will be arriving and taking your place there. You will travel incognito. Draw from Embassy stores for golden torcs and robes. Documents are being transmitted via the secure channel. They will arrive within the hour and will allow the torcs to be encoded with your cover identities."

"Back to the Ashenvale? What are our orders on arrival?" Tobias asked.

"We prepare for a war amongst the shadows," Sabine replied.