* "As my dear general Tibor has pointed out, our one way in, through the front gate is less than ideal. The problem is we lack any better options as far as I’m aware. As you know supplies are running low and scavenging from the nearby villages will only get us so far…"

* "Sir, if I may."

Tibor cut in.

* "I still believe our best course of action would be to pull back, gather our resources for a prolonged siege, and come back next year. The baron's army is already crushed, and he will not be able to raise a new one. Not in a year. We can con-"

Frederick held up a hand, which prompted him to stop.

* "I cannot wait a year. The governor explicitly stated that he would support no excursion into Stavograd, I need this to be over soon. Besides, in a year the baron might not be able to raise an army but their king most likely will. If this turns into anything more than a local border dispute I will lose my head."

There was a moment of silence which the old priest broke.

* "Frederick, your path does not lead to Flumevar. We warned you. Fighting against your assigned role is foolish at best and corrupts fate at worst."

Frederick snapped at him with an intensity that surprised Harek.

* "You shut your mouth, old man! The Cipher has nothing to do with this and everything to do with you and your goddamn church! If you had sent just one scribe like I requested we would have been done with those walls weeks ago! - His face turned red with anger, before collecting himself. – Be glad I tolerated you even after your senile patriarch revoked my privilegia. Bastards hoarding knowledge like it's their right…"

The priest seemingly knowing when it was time to step back, bowed ever so slightly, and did just that. The lord turned to Harek who was beginning to dread having to be at this meeting.

* "So Harek, what we talked about last time. Can you do it?"

* "We can, Erick is the best marksman I know, with him covering us, we can certainly get in, but I must protest against sending us to open the gate. There will be hundreds of men there and then we’re as good as dead. If you send a peace delegation perhaps and we do it at night-"

Frederick held up a hand again. Harek appreciated that he didn’t just talk over him, but it still annoyed him to an irrational level.

* "Can you get to their powder houses?"

* "That’s…uh"

Harek stammered for a moment.

* "We do not know where they are. If we did, maybe, but again doing this in broad daylight, I have to advise against it."

* "We do know where they are." -Frederick continued.- "At least a few of them. I’ve had a scout team climb the mountains behind us with my telescope. It was a gift."

He answered to Harek's raised eyebrow and pointed at three points in the castle.

* "They saw them carry powder barrels from here, here, and here."

* "Are we certain they are powder?"

Harek asked with a less respectful tone than he intended, but Frederick seemed to not pay attention to that now, focusing on the task at hand instead.

* "Honestly, not really, but from their position and size, they are our best guesses."

Harek nodded, then stayed silent in thought, then looked at Frederick knowingly. Catching himself, the lord understood his meaning.

* "Ah, right. You can get out of our hair now old man. Go worship the sun or whatever it is that you are doing in your free time."

Regardless of the disrespect the priest moved with grace and dignity. Before leaving he turned to Frederick.

* "“The innocence of youth emboldens leaps not from a misunderstanding of danger, but from a pure absence of the very concept.” Take heed young man, the Holy Cipher puts us on certain paths never without reason. You’d be wise not to seek those reasons out. Even this hardship is a blessing of warning to the danger you are approaching and to change course."

* "Then you’d be wise to leave before I bless you as well old fool."

He waved a hand in irritation dismissively, after which the man of the cloth left without a word or a bow. Harek saw Tibor giving a disapproving look, but he said nothing. He himself wasn’t a big fan of the church either but he was more indifferent to them than anything and wondered why did Frederick have such hate for them. Discarding those thoughts he continued.

* "We would need a line of sight, preferably to all three at once. The less time we spend inside those walls the better."

He thought out loud, then turned to Erick.

* "Erick! Come here."

He stepped forward a bit nervously, which was unusual for him, but concealed it well.

* "How far can you hit them from?"

Harek knew this of course and so did Erick, so he quickly understood it was more for the lord and the general to get caught up.

* "Distance isn’t an issue, theoretically. As long as it’s close enough for me to see anywhere from the inner walls would be fine. Even farther if not for the shield or whatever it is they have around the walls." – He boasted.

* "And how will you set them alight from a distance? Do you have a scribe perchance for such runes?" – Tibor asked.

* "Not quite." -Harek answered for him.- "Leave that to us."

The general was not satisfied with that answer but Frederick made no note of it so he let it go as Harek continued.

* "Then there’s the question of getting up the walls, without getting shot and staying there for…How long do you need?"

Erick cocked his head in thought for a few moments before answering.

* "30 seconds. Give or take a few."

* "How in the world would that be enough?" -Tibor burst out.

* "Leave it be Tibor."

Frederick spoke up, to which the general reluctantly let the subject go.

* "Yes, sir."

The lord gestured for Erick to continue, so he did.

* "Likely less now that I think about it. So we won't have to stay there for long, I’d say getting there is the much bigger issue."

* "I have an idea forming for that but it’s not particularly fast or quiet. The biggest problem is the soldiers on patrol atop the walls. With Erick being busy to get in position we will have no way of taking them out quietly."

Then Agnes spoke up from among the others as she stepped forward.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

* "We do!"

She held up her sling.

* "Can you hit them from about 50-100 metres?"

* "You know I can." -She smiled.

* "Okay then."

He smiled back reassuringly.

* "Can we speak freely?"

He asked as he turned to Frederick and glanced at Tibor.

* "You can, I trust him."

* "Harek nodded and turned back to Agnes."

* "Can you inscribe metal hooks with your “arrow” runes?"

* "I can. Why?"

* "Would they keep their angle mid-flight?"

* "I believe so, as long as their shapes are not too unbalanced.

She was starting to get where he was heading with this.

* "They should also be strong enough to make their way into brickwork, not into fieldstones though." She tilted her head in thought, then Tibor cleared his throat and said:

* "May I speak freely sir?"

* "Oh here we go." -He said with a sigh.- "Must you?"

* "I’d prefer to sir."

* "You may."

Tibor began to shout in a completely monotone voice, his straight back and eyes unmoving, yet it carried all the energy of a flailing, furious man. Agnes wasn’t sure whether she should be intimidated or impressed. She opted to be both.

* "Have you hired an unsanctioned scribe?! Have you gone mad?! Your access to the resources of the order may be restricted now, but if this gets out you and your whole line will be excommunicated! And that is if you get off lightly. You’re a nobleman for goodness sake."

With that, he cleared his throat once again and went back to parade rest, which he barely left.

* "Thank you, sir, that is all."

* "It seems I have a streak of making people angry today." -He sighed.

Harek had not met many noblemen before, but Frederick didn’t strike him as the norm. The lord continued:

* "I appreciate your concern, but we’ll be fine. No one knows of her except me and now you. They will operate away from us so our men won’t start any rumors either. As for the Zatovs, they will not see her magics, and if they do, they will die, Harek has assured me and the fact that they made it as far as they have with her is good enough for me. Now refrain from questioning me in the future Tibor."

* "Yes sir."

* "As for the timing. I can’t wait much longer but I can delay until the dawnplate reaches its halfway point. I imagine your marksman, as good as he is will still need some light. Will that work?

He asked Harek.

* "It will sir, thank you. We would also have something to report."

Frederick raised an eyebrow and then gestured.

* "By all means."

* "One of my men got kidnapped by 3 men acting as bodyguards for the ladies next to the camp. They thought he could get a runestone close enough to you."

* "It’s a rune tablet to be precise." -Agnes pointed out.

Frederick stroked his beard in thought and made a few steps around.

* "What else have you found out?"

Agnes continued before Harek could.

* "We do not know what the purpose of the rune itself is, but is incredibly detailed and intricate, more than anything I know or have seen before. Perhaps if I had the book as a reference I could find out more."

Harek rolled his eyes while Tibor and Frederick raised an eyebrow. Tibor glared at Frederick but knew better than to aggravate him further.

* "You are a bold one aren’t you?"

He thought about her proposal for a short time while turning away.

* "Fine." -he said finally.

The girl's face lit up with uncontained excitement before he held up a finger with a smile. “Looks like her mood is infectious to others as well.” Harek thought.

* "But," -He continued.- "I cannot just give away your payment before the castle is taken. You may stay here and study it until dawn. Afterward, you can keep it as agreed."

Agnes’s eyes were glowing, so Frederick deemed it better to continue with Harek.

* "Do you know who sent them or why?"

* "Unfortunately no, their leader, we had no opportunity to question and his underling knew nothing substantial, besides that their leader hired them back in Gezlov for some routine bodyguard work. We also found a curious metal box that contained the rune tablet. It’s an extremely durable number combination box. The numbers on it were recognizable but foreign. Wherever it was made must be very far away from here, and we’re quite well-traveled."

* "Interesting, I thought the first men's numbers were universal, like the measurements of distance or time."

* "That is what I thought as well. Like I said, exotic make."

* "Curious, do you have the tablet with you?"

* "We do, it’s wrapped carefully in Agnes’s bag to make sure it can cause no harm."

* "Show it to me."

Agnes carefully took out the bundle of linen, placed it on the table, and slowly unwrapped it. Its amethyst-like lines glistened in the candlelight of the tent, which made it seem like small purple and white sparks were popping in and out of existence in it as the observer's eyes moved over them. Fredericks and Tibor's eyes widened, as did Robert and Ericks who had not seen it before.

* "That is otherwordly indeed."

Frederick said in a dreamy voice then shouted at a guard at the entrance to not let anyone in, walked back behind a space separator cloth wall and a few seconds later came back holding a thick black book and put it on the table. It had golden motives and edges on its cover, but no title.

* "Do what you can little girl."

Frederick gestured at Agnes and the book. Other times Agnes might have taken offense at the comment, but now she couldn’t care less. She approached it with such care as if it could turn to dust at the lightest touch. It was heavy, surprisingly heavy for a book, even a sizable one like this.

As she turned the cover she could see no writing in it. Or it would be more accurate to say. She saw so much she couldn’t pick out a single word. Frederick give him a piece of fine, white paper and lifted the first page so he could slit it behind it. Immediately Agnes was awestruck. The pages of the book were made of black silk which had been carefully embroidered? Glued? She couldn’t tell how it was done, but the writing was made of gold! Gold and silver and amethyst? Emerald? She couldn’t fathom how could you turn gemstones into liquids or produce a liquid so similar to them. It had a purpose too, different sections, different words were made of different materials, by what logic they were separated she couldn’t tell yet. And the contents! They were written in the language of the runes themselves. She had no idea you could actually use the rune themselves as a language but she mused if there’s enough of them there’s no reason you couldn’t. She didn't recognize all the letters, not even close, but some yes. Immediately dread took over as she realized this was more than anything she could have hoped for, yet it would not be any use in finding out more about the runeplate. Not in one day.

* "Agnes?"

She snapped back, realizing they had been calling her name for the second time. Frederick leaned in front of her quizzically.

* "Will this help?"

* "Y-yes." -She managed to squeeze out.

* "Great, you can use my work table behind the wall there."

She flinched as a hand touched her shoulder.

* "Are you going to be okay here? We’re going to start preparing with the others and come up with a real plan."

* "Y-yeah, yeah! It’s gonna be fine." -She leaned closer to whisper.- "Harek this is…" -She couldn't find the words.

* "I know." -He smiled reassuringly.- "Happy birthday."

* "She laughed with a tear forming in her eye that she quickly wiped away." -It’s nowhere near our birthdays.

* "We don’t really know when it is right? Who says it’s not today?"