Chapter 77: Before the Storm I

Leo pulled out the floorplans and spread them across the table. There was a separate page for each section of the manor in addition to an overall map. He tossed the folder next to the plates of food they’d shoved to the side when they got back, eyes never leaving the papers.

As he’d suspected, the Gillis manor was a massive, sprawling structure. Spade hadn’t lied about it being isolated, either, as it was surrounded by a large garden and a small “forest” planted in its backyard. A single winding road ran up to the front gates, and based on the overview, it was located quite close to Alnwick’s western gate.

Leo tapped the page showing the outside of the manor. A line had been drawn to represent the enclosing fence, and atop said fence, four circles had been crudely sketched in each of the cardinal directions. Leo squinted down at the note written beside the circles.

“Ward stone,” he read aloud. It wasn’t unheard of for some noble families to use ward stones to protect their property. They essentially functioned as smaller scale versions of the wards that protected cities from Echoes. Thanks to Asher, though, they already knew how to get through a ward.

“We’re gonna need to break one of the stones,” Leo said. “Probably this one.” He tapped the one situated at the back of the manor, which faced the forest. “We can use the trees to stay hidden.”

“Will they know the ward’s broken?” Allan asked.

“I’m not sure.” Leo frowned, thinking. “Back when Asher shot the stone, the barrier flickered a few times before it went out, but that was it.”

“So if no one’s looking outside, they wouldn’t notice,” Allan concluded.

“Yeah, we’ll need to deal with the guards though.” They would definitely realize the ward was broken and report it to Darius. Leo turned to Spade. “Do you know how many guards these manors usually have?”

“It varies. I would imagine at least two by each ward stone and more at the front gate.” She hummed. “Given how private the Gillises are, I imagine there won’t be too many guards inside.”

So they were looking at about ten or so guards at the bare minimum—probably more. That was a lot, but not impossible to deal with. They might be able to take them out one group at a time before breaking the ward stone, but then they’d risk alerting the other guards to their presence. They’d have to be quiet about it, find some way to knock them out without being seen.

Leo frowned, thinking. If not for the ward completely encasing the manor, they could’ve tried sneaking past the guards without facing them at all. With the stones in place, though, that was no longer an option. In some ways breaking into the manor posed an even greater challenge than escaping Sindrey’s prison had, especially since the guards were all guaranteed to be on high alert.

As Leo ruminated on the issue, a thought suddenly occurred to him. Memories of the prison break rose, and a plan began to form in his head. He looked up.

“Hey, are there any apothecaries nearby? Any shops that sell potions?”

Spade raised an eyebrow. “There’s quite a few, yes.”

Leo’s pulse quickened in growing anticipation.

“I think I've got an idea.”

—

Leo squinted down at the maps, muttering under his breath. Allan had gone to the apothecary shop while Spade was grabbing extra guard uniforms from the nearest station. Left alone in the room, Leo had taken the opportunity to draw out specific routes atop the floor plans. Now he was just waiting for the two to return.

The former [Thief] sighed and set his pen down. He’d gone over the planned paths several times already, enough that the lines were starting to bleed together in his vision. There were still far too many variables for his liking.

Leo pursed his lips as he thought. For one, it was possible that Darius had already absorbed the fragment. He’d outlined the routes so that the three of them would each cover a different branch of the manor, then they’d gather near the master bedroom, where the noble was most likely to be.

The best case scenario was that they found the fragment and didn’t have to face the noble at all, but if they were all empty handed by the time they regrouped, they would need to confront the man directly.

Of course, there was no guarantee Darius would be where they thought he was. Or maybe he hadn’t absorbed the fragment, but had dropped it off in some secure place outside of the manor. And that wasn’t even taking into account the question of Asher and whether he’d be at the manor as well.

Leo exhaled and forced his nerves to settle. They’d done what they could to prepare; thinking more about it would just make him more uneasy, and he couldn’t afford to slip up tonight.

He peered down at his hand, flexed his fingers, then closed them into a fist again. Since his last conversation with Sol, he hadn’t had a chance to test removing the fragment yet. Now was as good a time as ever.

Leo closed his eyes and focused on his palm, allowing his surroundings to blur around him. His breathing steadied. He pictured the fragment shards sitting in his palm, willing them to appear. A slight warmth rose in his chest, reminiscent of a fire, and he urged it to grow.

“Leo?”

The [Fragmentholder] yelped and jumped, knocking his knees against the underside of the table. His head snapped in the direction of the door. There stood Allan, bag in hand, brows furrowed in concern.

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“Are you okay?”

Leo cleared his throat. “Yeah, fine. I just, uh, hit my knee.” His eyes landed on the bag, which clinked slightly as the [Healer] stepped into the room and set it on the table. “Did you find them?”

“Spiderslake and bottled wind,” Allan confirmed, pulling out a few glass vials in demonstration. He smiled wryly. “The shopkeeper looked at me funny when I bought them; I had to say it was for insomnia. I was a little worried he’d call the guards on me.”

Leo picked up one of the vials and turned it around in his hand, inspecting the liquid inside. The ones labelled spiderslake certainly looked the same as the vial he’d found in the prison warden’s office. While spiderslake was most often used to lace drinks, when it was inhaled, it instead caused drowsiness. Back in the slums, some people had indeed used it to help them sleep, so it wasn’t a completely unreasonable excuse.

Leo winced a little at the price tags—bottled wind was even more expensive than he’d thought—but he reminded himself that they weren’t short on money right now. If the plan worked, those potions were more than worth the cost.

“Yeah, figures.” Leo set the bottle back down and shot Allan a grin. “Well, nothing happened, so we’re good.” That was the main reason he’d sent the [Healer] to get the potions. The city would be on especially high alert after the Echo attack, and Allan was the only one of the three of them who could get away with buying the potions without immediately raising all alarms.

“What were you doing just now?” Allan asked, cocking his head in curiosity. Leo hesitated.

“…I was trying to see if I could remove the fragment.”

The [Healer]’s eyes widened, and Leo quickly continued, gesturing at the floor plans.

“I mean, if it turns out Darius already absorbed it, I need to know what options we’ve got.” He carefully avoided mentioning Sol. He would tell Allan and Spade about the man at some point, but that would be after he had a better sense of how trustworthy the other [Fragmentholder] really was.

Allan frowned. “You think you can remove it without…” his voice trailed, but both of them knew what he was referring to.

“Yeah, I think so.” Leo squeezed his fingers together into a fist, concentrating again on his palm and that brief flash of warmth he’d felt in his chest. “I absorbed it like this, right? So I can probably expel it the same way.”

He closed his eyes, exhaling, and focused again. After the first attempt, it was easier to return to the sensation. That warmth pulsed slightly, like its own heartbeat, and Leo imagined it moving down his arm and into his palm.

A sharp pain suddenly coursed through his skull. Leo hunched in on himself, gritting his teeth as the same pain he’d felt when absorbing the fragments returned full force. It was somehow even worse this time, like something was twisting a screw into his skull, but he forced himself to continue.

Finally, the pain subsided and Leo dared open his eyes again. He was drenched in sweat, he realized, and his heartbeat had picked up. But when he opened his palm, there in the center sat a single fragment—noticeably larger than both of the ones he’d absorbed.

[ERROR: No class crest detected]

[Overriding former class]

[Assigning temporary class]

[Tier 1 [Thief] class successfully assigned]

Leo stared at the fragment. It had actually worked. Sol had been telling the truth. He raised the fragment up closer to inspect, turning it around a few times in his hand. It had the same gold specks and iridescent sheen in the light, but it was definitely bigger. The two separate fragments must have combined into one.

Experimentally, he nudged the fragment with his finger. It snapped into two. He blinked and pushed them together again, and they easily reformed into one piece. Interesting.

“It worked?” Allan’s voice sounded from the side, though Leo couldn’t quite place the tone. He nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I think it did.” A quick check of his stat sheets showed his [Fragmentholder] class was gone, as were the associated spells and skills. Allan must’ve been looking at the party stat sheets as well, because his brows furrowed.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to remove it so easily. Is the class change permanent?”

Leo shook his head. “If I reabsorb it, everything should go back.” To prove his point, he took a deep breath and focused on the shard again. The second burst of pain wasn’t quite as intense at the first, but it still sent him reeling. He must’ve blacked out at some point, because when he came to again, Allan was helping him sit up and he had a fresh bruise on his forehead where his head had fallen onto the table.

[ALERT: New class crest detected]

[ERROR: Class crest incomplete]

[Old information found, recovering data]

[Adjusting stat sheet]

[Tier 1 class successfully reassigned]

“Okay, I’m never doing that again,” Leo said once he was able to speak again. He’d confirmed that the fragment could be removed and reabsorbed with his old skills and progress still intact. The intense pain had been an unfortunate side effect of his experiment, but now he knew for sure.

Allan nodded grimly. He raised a palm, but Leo stopped him before he could use [Mend].

“It’s fine, the bruise’s the only actual injury.” Based on what he knew of the spell, [Mend] wouldn’t do anything in this case. It was better to preserve their mana. “I’m fine, just give me a few seconds.”

The [Healer] nodded slowly and lowered his hand, though he didn’t look too happy about it.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, Leo catching his breath as the pain subsided and his vision fully cleared. He released a breath once he felt fully alert again. “Okay, I think I’m good now.” He nodded at the floor plans.

“I drew some routes earlier,” he explained. He tapped the one labelled with an ‘A.’ “This is the one you’ll be taking. We’ll split up after we break the ward stone, then regroup here.” He moved his finger to the central hallway.

Dark eyes scanned the map quickly, and Allan nodded in understanding. “We’re heading out tonight?”

“Yeah, the sooner the better. We’ll go once it’s dark. All we need now is for Spade to get back with those uniforms.”

“Oh, I think she’s back already. I heard the door open while you were…” Allan gestured at the table.

Leo snorted. “While I was knocked out, got it.”

The [Fragmentholder] carefully pushed himself up from the table. The chair creaked behind him. His legs felt a little wobbly, but he quickly righted himself and turned to Allan. “I’ll go find her, could you go over the routes before we get back?”

The [Healer] nodded and began scanning the floor plans. In the meantime, Leo turned and made his way over to the door to begin searching for the [Executioner].