Things were changing in Elderwyck.
For both the city, and us.
The General in charge of the Loyalist forces in the city had wised up to the fact that his soldiers were being targeted. At this point in time, our intelligence told us that he wasn’t quite sure who was committing the attacks on his men, but honestly? It wouldn’t be long.
It’s not like there were any other large factions that the Kingdom of Herztal was currently at war with.
In response to the sabotage and attacks, General Atticus Longstripe of the Loyalist forces had changed tactics. The guard forces of Elderwyck were still being reinforced by Herztalian soldiers, but they weren’t essentially working on a buddy system anymore. No, they were moving in squads now. It wasn’t uncommon to see groups of five or more paranoid Loyalist soldiers stalking down the streets of Elderwyck at all hours of the day, led by exasperated guards. They weren’t even bothering with being unobtrusive anymore.
It really felt like the entire garrison was being emptied to increase patrols. It seemed every single street in the city had soldiers stalking down it, watching everyone they could. But that wasn’t the only thing they were doing. No, these roving groups of soldiers had started doing door to door searches. Duke Olsen had given General Longstripe carte blanche to bust down as many doors as he wanted, in the search for whoever was operating against him within the walls of Elderwyck.
As you can imagine, this wasn’t exactly sitting well with the citizenry. In their search for us, the soldiers had started harassing people we had nothing to do with. More than one door had been outright broken down by overzealous squads, disrupting the business of innocent shop owners.
I’d actually seen one of these firsthand.
Earlier today, one of these search squads had barged into a distressed Jason’s shop and started asking the shopkeeper pointed questions. They’d dragged me out of my little brewing closet and forcibly sat me down next to Jason in the same back room I’d spoken to Rhiannon in. I hadn’t resisted, of course. My cover here was just too valuable and airtight to risk a pointless confrontation with the guards and their Loyalist minders.
The squad had rifled through the crates, storage, and shelves of the shop, obviously finding nothing. I don't even know what they were looking for. I was careful not to store anything here that could implicate me in the campaign against the Loyalists in Elderwyck. The only thing that had been on me had been one of my daggers, which was easy enough to explain.
After all, it was just a hand me down from my old grandad to protect myself. He’d been an adventurer, you see, and had owned pretty sweet weapons in his time. You could never be too careful out on the streets these days, you know, and say? Would you boys like a free sample from our new line of stamina potions? I’m sure it’s tiring work searching for those nasty saboteurs. You could use a pick me up!
Hah.
Turned out, soldiers and guards were pretty easy to bribe. I guess the stereotype existed for a reason.
After that, we hadn’t gotten any trouble from the guards or the Loyalists. On the contrary, we’d gotten some new customers.
The problem for the Loyalists, though, was that we knew they were doing these searches. And while they might catch us if we were off guard, it’s not like we weren’t watching for them or had ways to know they were coming. Turns out, there were a good amount of malcontents in the guard force who weren’t too happy about the state of things. When approached in a circumspect manner, they’d agreed to being paid for the trouble of dropping off information at certain locations regularly. This had come in handy pretty quickly. We’d had to abandon the butcher’s shop in a hurry after one of our informants had told us that it was due to be searched. By the time that Loyalist squad had showed up at Fred’s door, we’d already cleared out and left no trace behind.
Currently, our Elderwyckian base of operations was holed up in the basement of an old fishing warehouse. My understanding was that it was currently abandoned, ever since the previous owner had been killed in a monster attack out at sea. But this wasn’t even our only active safehouse in the city. It was just our most used one, right now.
God was the smell in here horrendous. The scent of years of rotting fish guts didn’t just wash away, no matter how much you scrubbed. Believe me, I’d tried. Hell, not even scouring the walls with Aetherial Melding had worked to dispel the fishy scent down here. I had no idea what that was about.
I’d had plenty of time recently to burn the scent of years old fish into my nostrils. After Rhiannon’s little stunt, I’d been pulled from the duty roster to wait for more contact from the mysterious woman. It’d been three days now, and I hadn’t heard a word from her. It was a bit odd, considering how she apparently had access to a courier service. But so far, nothing.
In the meantime, I’d taken Hook’s advice to resume my training. The spymaster himself was too busy to help me with it, so I’d taken to badgering whatever Agent checked in to get some weapon practice done. I hadn’t forgotten Hook’s advice those weeks ago to aim for the General Weapons Proficiency Talent. I just hadn’t had the time to devote to pursuing it.
After some consideration, I’d settled on the seven weapons that I was going to shoot for that would contribute to the Talent fusion. Those being Spear, Knife, Longsword, Short Bow, Long Bow, Throwing, and Stave. My original two had been Spear and Knife Proficiency, which I had maxed out just through regular usage. In the short amount of time that I’d gotten structured training after joining the Division, and before shit had hit the fan, I’d picked up Longsword and Short Bow Proficiency. Both of which were still only at level one. I just wasn’t really comfortable enough with those weapons yet, to be out using them in the field.
But now that I had a bit of downtime to dedicate to training, I’d decided to at least pick up the last three I’d decided on. That being Longbow, Throwing, and Stave. Since two of those were ranged weapons and could be reasonably practiced on my own with only a little bit of instruction, I was currently bugging other Agents to spar with me using a spare stave we’d had lying about.
It was going about as well as expected.
I’d discovered that Crook, the outspoken Agent from the other day, was actually fairly experienced in using the weapon and asked for a few pointers from her.
I was questioning that decision now.
I grunted, blocking an overhead blow from the nimble woman. I had to rapidly shift my length of wood to block a sweep from the bottom half of Crook’s own stave moments later, as she tried to take my legs out from under me. The Agent was so skilled and so quick in using this type of weapon, though, that even that was feint from her next move.
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I wasn't prepared for her to use the actual crook that she had at the top of her personal weapon to yank mine out of my hands. Moments later, I was knocked off my feet from a hard hit to the center of my chest.
Blinking, I stared up at the ceiling of the warehouse. This might just have been the tenth time Crook had disarmed and laid me out.
I groaned, covering my eyes with my hand.
The light from the evening sun shining through the high windows of the warehouse was shadowed over me. Removing my hand, I found Crook standing over me leaning on her combat stave.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a spear user?” She asked doubtfully. “Shouldn’t you be more used to handling a long weapon by now?”
I took a deep breath and leveraged myself back upright. “Ah…sort of,” I said tiredly. We’d been going at this for some time now, and I was starting to get worn out. “What I use is really more of a combination weapon.”
“Combination weapon,” Crook said flatly. She shook her head. “Whatever. I think that’s enough for now. Since it’s not that hard to pick up a Proficiency, you should have gotten it by now.”
Probably. I hadn’t checked my Status since we’d started sparring.
I did so now, focusing on Hidden Amidst the Spheres.
You have gained the General Talent, Stave Proficiency! Stave Proficiency has reached level 1! Acting has reached level 6!
Yup, there it was. Number six out of the seven weapon Proficiencies that I needed to max, in order to fuse General Weapon Proficiency. A bit odd that I’d picked up another level in Acting, though. I didn’t think I’d been doing anything during this practice that would contribute to that Talent. But, this was the first time I’d checked my Status today, and that raid on Jason’s store had been this morning before I’d finished my shift. I’m betting the level had come from that. I was curious, though. I hadn’t checked my whole Talents in some time.
Shuffling past my main Status screen, I pulled up the Talent pane.
General Talents Acting Lvl. 6 Dual Wielding Lvl. 3 Knife Proficiency Lvl. 7 (Max) Longsword Proficiency Lvl. 1 Short Bow Proficiency Lvl. 1 Spear Proficiency Lv. 7 (Max) Stealth Lvl. 7 (Max) Stave Proficiency Lvl. 1 Throwing Proficiency Lvl. 1 Tracking Lvl. 4
Class Talents Leafwhisper Step (Uncommon) Lifeblood Sense (Superior) Ringed Mind (Rare)
Coming along just fine, if I say so myself.
I refocused back on Crook and inclined my masked head to her. We weren’t always required to be masked inside our safehouses, but most people had been opting for it ever since the raids had started. You never knew when you were going to need to clear out in a hurry. “Yeah, that did it. I got the Talent. Thanks, Crook.”
The other Agent made an acknowledging sound, her weapon disappearing…somewhere. Probably a storage or concealment Skill of some kind. “It’s fine. But, if you want to be using a stave in combat, you’re going to need quite a bit more practice.”
I snorted. “You’re telling me. I’ll see you later.” I said to the woman, my eyes drifting to the sky beyond the high windows.
“Have somewhere to be?” Crook asked idly.
I smiled slightly behind my mask. “Yeah, actually. I heard a friend is getting back into town today. I’m going to go find him with someone else.”
I’d be interested to see how he’d been doing, since setting up shop in Elderwyck. After all, Healers were in high demand these days.
……………………………………..
After picking up Sylvia from her shift at the stationary store, the two of us navigated our way toward the main gate of the city. There, we found it to be mostly abandoned. After all, there wasn’t much overland commerce making its way into the city these days, and it’s not like the guards were keen to let in a bunch of refugees from the Stacks.
That made it extremely easy to see the few people that were in the plaza just past the gates.
Such as a returning merc band being debriefed by the guards there. Including one familiar Gnoll, dressed in dirt and blood stained Healers robes.
Renauld.
One of the first things I’d done when I had originally gotten inside the walls of Elderwyck had been to ask around about the Gnoll. It wasn’t even suspicious, as plenty of other recent entrants into the city were known to inquire after friends and loved ones who might have gotten inside to the safety of the walls. What I’d learned was that the Gnoll and the band of Order soldiers had made it to Elderwyck in one piece about a week before we had, and then cajoled their way inside. This had been before the situation out in the Stacks had gotten so bad that the Guard was ordered to bar all further entrance. Once here, the group had registered as an adventuring mercenary group with the city and started to take commissions. We’d only missed the group by a few days, as shortly before we’d gotten in through the catacombs, they’d departed beyond the walls on a job.
But now they were back.
He looked exhausted, I noticed. Renauld’s normally pristine black and white fur was matted with sweat, while the Gnoll himself was nearly drooping in place. I hadn’t managed to find out what the job he’d taken had been, but it must have been a rough one.
For a moment I debated leaving him be to recover. I could always find him tomorrow. But that choice was taken when Renauld noticed me and the disguised Sylvia standing off to the side and watching him.
He immediately perked up, recognizing me. I wasn't really very disguised, after all. He nudged one of the other undercover Order members and pointed my way. The man looked at me and raised an eyebrow in surprise. They had a brief exchange of words before Renauld started walking over to me. I met the other man’s eyes over top of the approaching Gnoll’s head.
He nodded at me in acknowledgment. I returned it, before focusing back on Renauld.
He grinned at me as he got closer. “You made it!” He said in a tired, yet cheerful tone. “I wasn’t sure if you would.”
I returned the smile. “Oh, it took us longer than you,” I said, aware that our reunion had drawn the attention of the guards, now watching us curiously. “But the two of us made it in one piece.” I gestured to Sylvia and I, causing Renauld to look at her curiously. After a moment, understanding hit him and he grinned at her as well.
Sylvia winked one human eye at the Gnoll.
I wasn’t sure what to call him. But, if it had worked once, it would work again.
I drew the surprised Gnoll into a hug, which he returned awkwardly. “Hans and Cynthia,” I said quietly, into his furry ear.
He got the idea. “Louis,” He whispered into my own.
I drew back. “Why don’t we all go catch up over dinner, Louis? I’m sure we both have some stories to tell the other.”
“Sounds good to me,” He replied easily. “I already told my Captain I’d be busy for the rest of the night.” He met my eyes. “And sure. I have some ‘stories’ to tell.”
“I’m sure you’ll find them interesting.”