It wasn’t looking good.

I crouched on one of the upper rafters of the dockside warehouse base, accompanied by another Nocturne Agent who went by Jangle. I was peering through one of the concealed watchpoints we had cut into the side of the building.

And what I was seeing didn’t bode well.

It looked like nearly the entire Loyalist garrison of Elderwyck was assembling in the streets outside. Accompanying them were more than a few members of the Guard. There must have been hundreds of them out there. It was like an entire military operation was underway at the docks.

Right now, they were going door to door to all of the warehouses in the area and thoroughly searching each one before moving on. They hadn’t reached our hiding place yet, but they clearly knew that we were out here.

It was only a matter of time before they found us.

And then we were fucked.

“How many are there?” Jangle asked me, in a low voice.

I shook my head minutely. “I stopped counting after three hundred,” I admitted quietly.

Jangle sighed, and then let his head thunk against a nearby wooden beam. “How did this happen? Why didn’t our contacts in the Guard tell us the Loyalists were coming?” He asked in frustration. "How did they even know we were here?"

I turned away from my surveillance post long enough to give Jangle a bleak look. Even though I had my mask back on, he could probably tell from my body language alone. “Maybe the Guard couldn’t tell us. Maybe they’re already dead,” I answered darkly. “If that’s not nearly the whole garrison out there, I’ll eat my dagger.” I abruptly shook my head. “Go tell Serpent what’s going on,” I said, referencing the most senior Agent currently in the warehouse with Hook gone. “We need to decide what we’re doing now. We don’t have long before they’re here.”

Jangle nodded abruptly, before sliding off the beam we were crouching on. In moments, he had dropped out of sight. Meanwhile, I turned back around to continue my reconnaissance. Before Jangle had interrupted me, I thought I’d seen something. I refocused, looking for it. It only took me a moment.

After all, they were carrying a big, fuck-off flag with them.

The Loyalist military forces were carrying a huge banner, proudly flying the mountain and valley of Herztal. Beneath it, I could see what looked to be a mobile command force, compromised of more than a few officers on horses. Messengers from the search force were constantly running to and from them, carrying out orders about whatever they were finding out there. In the middle of those officers was who I was suspecting was behind this all.

He was a large man, not at all soft or foolish-looking like most of the Herztalian nobility or officer corps seemed to be. I could just barely make out the impressively large mustache on his square-jawed face, crowned with an open-faced helmet. A long, crimson feather poked from the crest of that helmet, lengthy enough that its drooping tip brushed the handle of the two-handed mace on his back.

This, I believe, was General Atticus Longstripe of the Herztalian 4th regiment. The commander of all the Loyalist forces in Elderwyck.

He was supposed to be a pretty strong guy, with a reported level somewhere in the four-hundreds. I’m not even sure why he was bothering with all his soldiers on this search. He might be strong enough alone to take us all out on his own. As far as I knew, there were only a few people in the entire Division who were strong enough to take him on. Serpent maybe, as well as Sparrow, sadly still out in the countryside somewhere. Hook could, no doubt.

But he wasn’t here.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and used my middle ring to calm my nerves. When I opened them again, I nearly had a heart attack at what I found.

Longstripe was looking in my direction.

I nearly panic-slammed the board down on my surveillance post before I realized he wasn’t looking directly at me. Instead, he was just looking in my general direction. In other words, at the warehouse.

I saw him lift one hand and point a finger in our direction, before one of his messengers ran off to the search force.

Shit.

I eased the board down and then slipped off the beam like Jangle had done. I fell rapidly, impacting the floor in moments in a crouch. Thanks to how much I’d grown recently, I barely felt the impact at all, immediately standing up and sprinting further into the warehouse.

In our command center built into the basement, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Everyone was aware enough to realize what the force outside meant, and our chances against it. I ignored them, making a beeline for the command table. There, Serpent was being attended by a masked Sylvia and number of other senior Agents. Everyone huddled around the local map of the area on the table looked up at my approach.

I didn’t waste any time. “They’re coming,” I said bluntly, causing another Agent to curse. “There’s more. I believe General Longstripe is with them.”

Conversation both around the table and in the surroundings went quiet. I swear I saw Serpent’s eyes briefly shutter close behind the slit eye holes of his mask. The tall, thin man sighed. “Composition?” He asked shortly.

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“Maybe eighty percent Loyalist, twenty percent Guard,” I replied.

A small measure of tension escaped the senior Agent. “Nothing from Tlatec?”

My brow furrowed behind my mask. Tlatec? What the hell did they have to do with this? Still, I answered the question. “No, nothing. Just humans out there. Serpent, if we’re going, we need to go now. I saw the search party moving our way before I left.”

Serpent shook his head. “We can’t leave,” He said, to accompanying grim nods from everyone else. “You might not have seen them, but other observers reported snipers on the roofs. If we try and flee that direction, we’ll be pin-cushioned. Captain Isabella isn’t in port right now, either. And there are too many soldiers on the streets.”

“In other words, we can’t escape by the roof, we can’t escape by the back alleys, and we can’t escape by sea,” Another Agent picked up.

Sylvia let out a slow breath. “And so we have to fight.”

The table descended into silence once more, as everyone absorbed that fact.

“Any word from Hook?” I asked quietly, breaking the silence.

Serpent shook his head. “No, not yet. We alerted Headquarters about the assault, and he took his two-way messaging coin with him to the meeting with SED,” He nodded to the empty messaging station in the corner of the room. “So they should have him informed of the situation. But…nothing so far.”

“Maybe he’s on his way,” Jangle interjected hopefully

Another senior Agent snorted. “Or maybe the bastards turned on him, and this was their idea,” He muttered darkly, accompanied by agreeing mutters from other Agents in the room.

No love lost between SED and the Nocturne Division, I see.

“Or maybe…” I said slowly, drawing attention. “They’re getting hit as well. After all, SED seems to have split from the Loyalist cause.”

Serpent abruptly sighed and slashed his hand, cutting the conversation short. “Enough,” He said tiredly. “Enough. This is useless speculation. The fact of the matter is, Hook isn’t here to help right now. It’s up to us to either fight them off, or find another way to escape. But…it’s looking like we’ll have to fight.”

Sylvia raised her head slightly. “Could we perhaps hide, if I layered enough illusions on the basement? Or perhaps…turn this into a siege?”

“No, and no,” Serpent said, shaking his head. “No offense, Whisper, but you’re too low-level. Anything you put up isn’t going to be strong enough to fool the search party, much less the General. And if we try and turn this into a siege…”

“He’ll just blow through it anyway,” I said grimly.

Serpent nodded at me. “And so, we fight.”

“There are barely forty of us,” One Agent interjected, a note of nervousness in their voice. “We’re outnumbered nearly seven to one. What can we do against such an overwhelming force?”

“Our best, I suppose,” I said lowly.

Those words hung heavy in the air for a moment, before another Agent abruptly sighed loudly. “Well, it was nice knowing you guys,” He said bleakly.

Gallows chuckles sounded through the room, before something abruptly cut them off.

The sound of banging on the front door of the warehouse, as the search party found it locked and barred.

In the resulting silence, Serpent cast his gaze around the sea of watching masks gathered in the room, myself among them. “Ready yourselves,” He said firmly. “Take your positions outside, and give them hell. I’ll do my best against the General when the time comes.”

As the gathered Agents of the Nocturne Division slowly trickled out of the command center and into the warehouse proper, Sylvia lingered. Her hand brushed mine, as our eyes met. "Don't die," She whispered, before ghosting out of the basement to join the others. She disappeared from my sight at the top of the stairs in a shower of silver sparks, falling into an illusion.

I shook my head with a wry smile. 'Don't die', huh

Well, as you command.

Before I left the basement myself, I took a brief look around for something specific. I didn't want to lose the item that might be considered the instigator to this entire chain of events.

The map of the palace, that Rhiannon had 'gifted' me.

I found it on the command desk I'd just been standing around, buried under a pile of other documents. I rapidly folded it up, and shoved it behind the breastplate of my full Order armor. Once I was done, I exited the basement myself.

When I reached the main floor of the warehouse, I found it mostly deserted. Which made sense, after all. The Agents of the Nocturne Division mostly fought from the shadows. I had no doubt that everyone was going to do their best to strike and kill from stealth.

It’s what we did best.

The banging on the door of the warehouse had only grown in intensity, and the doors were starting to crack from the force of the blows. Outside of them, I could hear it as more and more armored boots arrived to assist in break them down.

It was time to get in position.

I aimed a hand above me and threw out a Thorn Grapple. It caught on one of the wooden support beams above, reeling me in to land in a crouch. As I did so, I activated Thorn Cloak as well. Feeling the almost comforting weight of my Skill settle on my shoulders, I drew something I’d picked up earlier, after the fight with the SED operatives.

Wisps bow.

Crook had left it behind in her rush to get the injured woman to a Healer, and so I’d grabbed it, hoping to return it later. But Wisp wasn’t here right now, and I could use a ranged weapon. It was a short bow, which suited my needs just fine. Made of a dark, nearly black wood with brass fittings, it was a recurve and nearly thrummed with crafted Mana. This was a weapon that was nearly too strong for me to use.

Nearly.

I had no idea Wisp was so strong, to handle this monster.

Testing the string and nodding in satisfaction, I drew one of the arrows from the quiver I’d grabbed earlier.

Just in time, too.

The doors of our dockside operating base finally buckled and broke under the force of the blows on them, sending splinters shooting into the warehouse in a storm of shrapnel. Good thing nobody was down there, or else they would have been torn to shreds. A cloud of smoke and dust hung in front of the entrance from the near explosion.

I breathed out slowly, feeling my emotions leave me with my breath. It almost felt like I grew colder, as I entered into my battle trance.

Moments later, cautious mailed feet edged their way into the warehouse, as the search team emerged from the cloud. They were accompanied by a number of different soldiers this time, in a departure from what I had seen earlier.

I suppose they’d figured out this was the right warehouse.

I eyed them calmly from my position above, as more and more soldiers began to stream inside.

Not yet. There weren’t enough targets in our sights, just yet. It wasn’t time to close the jaws of our trap. It seemed like my comrades agreed with me, as none of the Loyalists had died.

So far.

However, by the time enough of the soldiers had entered the warehouse to notice the entrance to the basement command center, I knew our opportunity had come. We only had so long before they started to thoroughly search every nook and cranny for us, after all.

You know.

Funny thing about using a bow. Although I’d found out pretty early on that The Scintillant Blade didn’t work well with projectile weapons, I’d discovered something pretty surprising about another Skill.

The same wasn’t true about Grinding Crimson Sunder.

The head of my drawn arrow ignited in a swirling mass of blood-red thorns. I sighted one of the soldiers below me, his head craning about cautiously. I breathed out one final breath, and on the exhale, I loosed.

My arrow streaked through the air, finding its target. The soldier’s questing head went flying as he was immediately decapitated in a spray of blood.

All hell broke loose.