25th of Taka, 1000, almost midnight

The Fujikan army near Fort Kitapüru

“With cat like tread. Dum.” Helen almost hummed under her breath as he skirted between two tents.

“Upon our prey we steal. Dum.” She rolled back into the shadows as someone emerged from one of the tents.

“In silence dread. Dum” The adrenalin coursed through her. Tonight was a great night she could feel it. She peeked into the vacated tent. Seeing nothing of interest she ducked out.

“Our cautious way we feel. Dum” If she was being honest there was nothing cautious about her actions tonight. It was her first war and she was loving every minute of it. Finally her boss had taken the gloves off and she was allowed to act.

There was a noise off to her left. “No sound at all. Dum.” Not that it broke up her rhythm. It wasn’t close. She was so excited, filled with anticipation at the actions to come, dread at the chance of discovery and nervous tension as she desperately tried to avoid making a sound. Her skin seemed to fairly zing in the moonlight.

The moon peeked out from behind a cloud. It was strange she realised. It had been almost five months since he had seen a cloud. “We never speak a word. Dum.” She trotted past a couple of rocky outcrops towards the next group of tents.

Her thoughts swirled around the issue of clouds. Here they usually told of weather heading for the Ryu forest. They usually stayed further south. “A fly’s foot fall…” She crept through another almost silent camp. Looking here, looking there, finding nothing as she danced on.

“…would be distinctly heard.” The night was her element. Somewhere out here a war engineer kept fixing the wrong things. Someone intent on destroying her adoptive home, well capturing part of it. She was going to find him.

“So stealthily the pirate creeps.” Her first memories were of the streets. Eating things that shouldn’t be et. Eking out an existence. Then she had been plucked out of the squalor by her first friend. Nothing here next camp.

She darted, rocky outcrop to shallow defile. “Tarantara, Tarantara.” She never understood why such a rich family should choose to adopt her. They took her in fed her, educated her, clothed her and made her family.

Glancing surreptitiously around she snuck into another of the enemies small scattered camps. “While all the household soundly sleeps.” They told her of course, when she asked. She just hadn’t understood the answer then. Didn’t now either. Mom saw a need. Son wanted a friend. Dad thought it was the right thing to do. They all had reasons. They just never made sense to her.

They hadn’t even asked her to do anything for them. She loved them all so much but just didn’t understand them. “Tarantara, Tarantara.” She snuck into the next collection of tents surrounding another small fire. Why the Fujikan army was scattered so widely she didn’t understand. It was weird. She’d been looking for their engineer for the last two nights. No success, but tonight would be different she just knew it.

She paused. She always got stuck here. What was in the middle of the song? It was long ago since she heard it she couldn’t remember. What she remembered was her new family taking her to the playhouse not long after they had brought her home. Nothing here next collection of tents

She would have been six or seven she wasn’t sure, she wasn’t really sure how old she was now. Or even if her real name was Helen. She guessed it wasn’t but it the name she could remember most from the street. It didn’t matter. What mattered was she watched the play and the singers and decided she didn’t want to be a street kid anymore. She was going to grow up to be a pirate just like the ones in the play.

Her new dad had tried to tell her it was only a story by some old people called Gilbert and Sullivan. That being a pirate wasn’t like that at all. It was a hard tough life and she would not enjoy it at all. She hadn’t cared. She was determined to make something of her life. A pirate’s life for her.

She snuck into the next little camp. Only problem was, her new family lived miles from the sea. So no pirate life then. She remembered being heart broken when she discovered she couldn’t be a pirate. It was funny how life went. Now she was a spy for crown which meant that song from so many years ago was kinda personal anthem.

Peaking into another tent, her eye suddenly fell on some curious looking drawings. She let the tent flap fall behind her stepping more fully into the tent. This was more likely as she started carefully sifting through the latter part of the song rose to her memory. “Come friends who plow the sea.” She discovered a drawing of some walls. Walls of the fort.

She paused in her careful searching. “Truce to navigation.” She popped her head out of the tent. The camp was deserted. She ducked back in what to do. She suspected she had found the tent belonging to her target. But he wasn’t there. She needed him.

She retreated out past the light circle. She needed to make a decision. “Take another station.” She searched around looking for any sign that the person in question was likely to return. This part of the desert was replete with torches and small groups of people scurrying around doing night watch things.

Turns out that fixing rock throwers was a late night job. Who knew? “Let’s vary piracy” She snuck back to the tent. She had better make sure it was actually him not some builder specialising in parapet beautification or some other equally useless.

She was procrastinating she knew it. But what to do? “…with a little burglary.” She found some detailed drawings of rock throwers, beam throwers and journal with drawings of a million little things warlike in nature. As the sound from the playhouse all those years ago swelled in her soul she realised she had her answer. Burglary indeed.

In a minute she went through the tent. She grabbed every drawing, scrap book, journal, ledger and loose leaf of paper. It was but a moment to empty out the dirty laundry sack and toss the prizes in. A blink of the eye and the top was cinched up. With a furtive glance around, she kicked the fire apart as if an angry animal has raced though the camp.

The tents were bone dry in the desert and moments later they blazed alight. She stepped back to admire her work retreating into the shadows. She didn’t have to wait long suddenly people raced over from everywhere.

With a cry in fujikan, which she didn’t understand, a man identified himself as the owner of the tent she had just raided. Some frantic shouting later and it became apparent that the loss of the tent’s contents was significant. More people arrived with blankets to try and beat the fire out.

Most surprisingly a lady appeared wearing a long robe. The engineer rushed up to her begging for something or other. Helen had no tread what. But with a curt shake of the head she turned him down. The corresponding despair that appeared on his face told the only story that Helen needed to hear.

No drawings so no rock throwers.

In satisfaction she turned away from the milling people. Now all that needed to happen was for her to get back to the fort. She took a step. And just as her foot was about to land she noticed the robbed woman also walking away. But she wasn’t walking towards one of the other fires. No she was walking back out into he deep desert.

Helen couldn’t help herself. With a grin she turned to follow. “With cat like tread.” Tonight was a wonderful night. She had stopped the Fujikans rebuilding their destructive rock throwers and now strange things were happening in the desert.

“Upon our pray we steal.” She charged after the surprisingly spry robed woman. Half an hour later Helen finally realised that lady was spending more time looping around and doubling back than actually advancing into the desert.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Helen didn’t think the woman had found her. More she supposed the woman acted that way to ensure that people didn’t follow her. People from her own side. Eventually the craziness came to an end. The woman approached a cavern scooped out of the side of a small ravine.

Whilst she had had her suspicions previously, seeing the preparations and the luxurious appointments they extended. Two others dressed like her stood watching something in the distance. Around them a four large braziers burned brightly, attended by shackled individuals. The bindings might have been made out of strange metals but a salve was a slave no matter what.

Some casual conversation and gesturing back the way the woman had come and more out towards the distance in front. Helen looked and realised they had a very sheltered place to sight the Kitapüru made tower.

The ravine seemed to run a long way across the desert in front of the robed individuals. Suddenly a light was waved back and forward at the for end. The woman Helen had followed nudged the robed person next to her pointing.

There was a brief nod. The person in the middle started to speak in a strange language then with a shout the robed male jumped slamming his hands into the ground as did so. Suddenly the fire from two of the big braziers seems to suck out of existence. A moment later and two large fireballs raced away from the far end of the ravine towards Helen’s fort.

With a smile she realised she had seen enough. She had found the enemies secret mage base. Form here they were controlling the attacks on Kitapüru. Now it was time to do what all pirates did. Leave with the loot.

26th of Taka, 1000, first light

Walls of Fort Kitapüru,

Devereux heard Mické clambering up the stairs. Really for a spy he was surprisingly loud. Still it was fun to remind the young man that there was still a tick or two to learn. He waited. It was part of the game. Loser spoke first.

“Sir, the kitchen tells me breakfast is ready for you.” Mické eventually surrendered.

With a grin to himself he replied. “Excellent.” He really shouldn’t play these funny little games with the staff but what else was he supposed to do. With the limited forces here he shouldn’t be able to hold the fort. He should have been overrun more than a week ago. But, truth be told, this little plan that Fitzhugh was here to execute was performing admirably well.

He continued. “Beautiful sky this morning, isn’t it?” The code asking for the status of the spy games over night.

Mické was on the ball. “Yes, it’s beautiful. Those pinks are just gorgeous. Of course you should have seen it last night sir. Fantastic reds, best I’ve seen in a while. You should have seen it.”

The captain raised an eyebrow. Red at night was good news. Red in the morning was bad news. A recommendation to look at something meant that a full report needed to be given.

The captain hoped that there would be news this morning so he had cleared the wall for decent distance in both directions. They would be fine to chat here. “Well the professor’s been awake for a week now. I guess we’r all hoping he’s found that journal of his.”

Mické nervously glanced around nervously.

The captain snorted. Mické might have been as noisy as catfight but he was brilliant at keeping things to himself and playing everything with a poker face. “It’s fine. The place is clear.”

Mické wasn’t reassured. “Voices bounce around walls. You can eavesdrop a long way if the wall is shaped well.”

The captain actually laughed at that. “Why do you think I sit here? It’s an acoustic dead spot. The only one in the whole fort. It’s better than my office by a mile. It isn’t obvious like Fitzhugh’s fancy disk. That just screams, we’re keeping secrets. Besides you always come to tell me breakfast is ready so nobody suspects a thing. Any way you had some good news to share. What is it?”

It was Mické’s turn to tease the captain. “You asked after the professor’s journal. It’s…” he paused for dramatic effect. “It’s still missing.”

Earning a wry smile from the captain he continued. “However, that’s not the good news. There were a few positive things actually. Firstly one of the boys managed to steal all the engineering drawing from the head engineer of the Fujikan army.”

“That is good news.” The captain remarked. Anything useful?”

Mické was many things but he knew his limitations. The captain was glad he didn’t sugar coat it. “It looks fantastic, sir, the real deal. Of course it could be chicken scratchings and I wouldn’t know. It’s with Purcell at the moment for evaluation.”

He took a breath. “Well, not the lot. Wouldn’t want any of the committee of public safety’s spies to realise what we have. One of the ranked boys gave him a drawing of a beam thrower. Told him it was smuggled in over night from the capital. Asked if it was any good for something mounted on the walls.”

He grinned. “Ploy seems to have worked. Purcell said the drawing looked legitimate but that it was obviously a design for ground mounting the things. Said he would have to think about how to adapt it. Might come in handy sir but it will take at least a week to make so who knows if we get it ready in time.”

The captain looked up at him. “You have some of your boys in amongst the officers?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Very good, which one is dealing with Purcell?”

Mické had to think for a minute. “Lindsay sir.”

The captain nodded. “Good choice. Smart I’ll get some orders drafted to that effect and the whole thing can go ahead.”

He paused. “Why do a I get the feeling that you haven’t finished with the good news?”

“Because I haven’t.” Mické said. “The professor has given up the search for his journal and spent the night creating a new one. Say’s it much more accurate than the old journal as he now has real numbers to work with. But perhaps the best point about that is he is now back acting as the coven scribe. Holding off last night’s split cast fireball was, to quote him. Fantastic for my research and at least 2% more efficient than any other block made to date.”

The captain nodded. “Good good. So we are now only one person short of having the entire coven back. Well two since Cindy is still beating herself up over that accident and spending every moment in the sanatarium with her not quite sister.”

“Now that’s a strange relationship,” Mické remarked. “I have seen strange relationships, especially amongst my boys, but theirs is right up there.”

The captain looked sharply at Mické. “Mickie, I seen many stranger, but I believe you were about to comment on positive things. Not share your opinion on the interpersonal relationships of the fort’s residents.”

Mické cleared his voice. “Sorry. Actually the twins are back in the mage tower. Clara got bored and decided it was much more fun recovering on the roof where she could check out the asses of the watchmen as they do their shifts.” He grinned ruefully. “Her life seems to be boys, parties and magic specifically in that order.”

The captain snorted. “And then?”

“Well Silvia said that if she was back on the roof she could get back in the rotation. So the coven is officially back up to full strength.” Mické stated.

”Speaking of the coven, have you and Mandy made any progress finding the spies?" The captain looked back at Mické.

“No. We’ve made no progress on that front. We have been trying o wok out how they are getting messages in and out of the Fort but haven’t made much progress on that front.” Mické replied. “Rather we have had progress on another front.”

“Oh?” The captain turned back to watching the rising sun.

“As I said before one of my boys stole planes form the enemy’s war engineer.” Mické turned the conversation back to earlier things. “That wasn’t the best thing about that action. They actually watched the enemy cast the fireball.”

The captain turned sharply. “We’ve found the enemy mages?”

“We’re not sure. Only three of the people there seemed to be mages. They also used some thing we’ve never seen before.” The captain raised an eyebrow which went unnoticed as Mické continued. “According to the report one mage used some braziers to cast the fireball. Somehow rather than dropping the cast directly they translated it so that it came from a completely different place.”

“Huh.” The captain started to smile. “That’s a relief.”

Mické looked at him in surprise.

“The enemy has been a little to obvious. They attack predictably, in measured ways. For a while I was really concerned I was missing something. They are making the defence almost too easy. They have the numbers, they should have overwhelmed us long ago.” He smiled further. “Now I know I’ve missed something. They are way to strong to attack so light.”

Mické opened his mouth to comment when the captain continued. “No this is great. Send your boys back out there. We need to observe not engage. The longer we hold the enemy here, the less chance they have of getting by and accomplishing their plan. The more time we give for reinforcements to arrive.”

“Right.” Mické wasn’t sure he understood why the captain was so happy.

The captain continued. “We may even need to send a mage out there with your boys to work out what the enemy is planning on casing. But I wasn’t you to put together a plan to kill all the msgs you have found there. It needs to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. But you need to watch the three mages you’ve found hopefully they will lead us to the the other four.”

A soldier peaked up through the stairwell. “Sire, the mage liaison is looking for you. He wants to appropriate some weird things. Engineer Purcell has referred the whole situation you sir. Normally I wouldn’t interrupt but Lord Fitzhugh is getting most insistent.”

With a sigh the captain stood. “The day awaits guard Mické I appreciate your comments on your home. Perhaps you can organise for a drawing to be done. I would love to know how everything appears.” The captain took it that Mické was smart enough to realise that he wanted an map of the entire mage camp area.

Mické nodded. “Right you are, sir. I’ll get the boys right on to it sire. They love that sort of thing.”

Obviously Mické understood what he was asking. Then a thought. “Oh and before I look at, Mandy better have look. She has an eye for detail and can see things others can’t.” The captain turned down the stairwell leaving Mické on the wall. He hoped that Mické understood he wanted Mandy to go out to the mage’s camp with Mické’s boys so that a mage could look over the mages camp. Sometimes all you had to trust was family.