214. COUNTDOWN: WIREMU

Kelda left me halfway to the Fiske to go and warn Julija and the crowd. I had four bosses to hit: Alefasio, Kaelo, Kapo and Papahi. Three mer and a human. Their headquarters was busy as all their people gathered. There were a lot of preparations underway. I spotted the sentries and slipped past them. Tāoke was still with me, but I might need him to scout. I hid in the nearby shadows and watched for a while looking for opportunities. I made sure to check for people with bonds. There were two so far. One had the sense of inky water, and I am pretty sure it was a water-only bond. The other had a sense of inquisitive investigations. I had no idea what that might be. It might be the one that discovered Julija’s location. I risked placing a Hunter's Mark on that one.

I saw the sentry change come out of the HQ. This could be a chance. Before I moved, a sparrow fluttered down and landed on the shoulder opposite Tāoke. There was a scrap of paper tied to Liten’s leg. I read it. Julija had leaked their location so the Fiske would gather. They were not aware of the Claws’ involvement. Julija would be assaulting the Fiske HQ in an hour. She will hire the Black Arts to keep the Claws off her. At least Tabitha is getting paid. I guess I am stuck with the charity work. It is time to take out some sentries.

I followed the new sentry, and once the old sentry had left, Tāoke killed her. I followed the old sentry as a plan was forming. He was about my size and build. Veneer could lighten my skin colour and hair, but height and build were beyond it and always would be. I ambushed him with Sudden Strike, Power Stirke and Imbue Venom. He never had a chance, and Sudden Strike levelled. I had thrust up under the chin and into the brain so there was as little mess as possible. I changed from Dianne into whoever this guy was.

I had used Interrogate Status on him and got a glimpse that he was a Journeyman Level Thief and had a couple of specialisations. I couldn’t see what because while my attack might have upset his mental defences, he died too quickly. I changed my status to Thief but kept the rest obscured.

I didn’t bother with the other sentries. Julija will have a plan for them anyway. Tāoke rejoined me, and I Roleplayed what I had observed of this nameless guy, and we strode into the Fiske HQ. The two bruisers on the door nodded to me. They were expecting me.

The one on the left said, “Meeting in half an hour or so in the main hall.” That was going to be Julija’s attack time as well. Everyone does things on the hour.

I mumbled acknowledgement and entered. I scoped out the place, looking for the quiet corners and hiding places. Thermal Sensing was great for that, as it also told me which quiet corners were occupied. Many people were around, and about half were rogue types. I picked a young lad and used Interrogate Status on him. I figured with all the people he wouldn’t be able to identify me even if he sensed it. He didn’t. He was a Level Five Thief. Not even high enough to specialise. They had called in everyone. The lad looked excited to be included, but I knew his chances of living through the night were minuscule.

“Tom! Hey, wait up, Tom!” a voice yelled.

I had a sinking suspicion I was Tom. I darkened my skin tone, changed my hair and added a moustache. As I turned to look, I changed my body posture to Roleplay Wild Bison Bill’s more arrogant style.

It was a woman pushing her way through, “Tom! Oh, hang on, you are not Tom. Sorry mate.”

“No worries,” I said in Bill's lazy way of speaking. If this was a friend or lover, I would have been done if I had stayed as Tom.

Her eyes narrowed, “That’s Tom’s jacket.”

I smiled widely, “Awesome, isn’t it? He sold it to me just outside here.”

She wasn’t buying it.

“Hey, are you Lucy?” I asked.

“Ingrid,” she said uncertainly,

“Ingrid, sorry, I am bad with names. Tom said you might be able to help with something.” I steered her out of the main hallway into a smaller room. There were three others in the room, whom I addressed, “Gentlemen,” that go some snorts, “If you could give me a moment alone with the lovely Ingrid here?”

“No, piss off,” one of them said.

“I am sorry, Ingrid. Can I catch up with you after the main event?”

“I am going to find Tom,” she huffed and stormed out.

“Burned, man. She and Tom have been together a while, dude.”

I put on a wiry smile and shrugged. I slipped back out the door and removed the jacket. Time was ticking down. Ingrid was probably going to be thorough. I found a quiet corner and changed my appearance again. I went a full beard and blond this time. Veneer was getting a workout, and it levelled.

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Then the door crashed open, and in streamed a number of teenagers, followed by Kapo. He had bought the older teens from the street gangs. They really were bringing in everybody they could. They were desperate and probably untrusting of the Claws.

We started being herded into the meeting room. It was going to be standing-room-only. I followed the flow and ended up near the far side of the room, about a third back from the main platform. I kept my head down as I spotted Ingrid enter. She was searching for someone. I don’t know whether it was me or Tom. Probably both. Then I saw she was holding Tom’s jacket. I should have hidden that. Fortunately, there were a bunch of rowdy teenagers between us.

The room was full, and then my four targets climbed up on the platform. Alefasio was a large Mer, but it was hard to tell what type. He called for quiet and got it quickly. He started to outline that general strategy. Apparently, everybody was already assigned to a group with a leader and a specific objective. They had moved their time forward as “the young upstarts” were active.

Suddenly, a loud shout outside the meeting was abruptly cut off. Alefasio was no idiot. “Move to attack now! Defence 1!” His senior members started leading groups out. An explosion suddenly ripped the side of the building open, and arrows started raining down.

I was on the side of the blown-open building, and I was thrown into the other people in the room. I had a cut on my head that was bleeding. An arrow thudded into the floor beside my head. I am in danger from my allies. I scrambled up and pressed through the throng of people drawing weapons and orientating toward the new exit through the wall.

I kept pressing toward the raised platform. I noted only Alefasio and Papahi were still on it. Papahi was surrounded by four fighters guarding her. Then Kapo appeared next to me, yelling at the teenagers. It really was too good an opportunity to miss, so I stabbed the back of his spine with Sudden Strike, severing it. His body hid the strike from the teenagers, and he collapsed to the floor. In the panic around, I saw several people trample over him. If he had some sort of self-heal, he might survive. I kept pressing toward the platform.

I was near the platform when Thermal Sensing picked up two anomalies. There was so much going on it was hard to tell, but two figures suddenly appeared behind Alefasio and stabbed at him. Alefasio was fast, but his wounded leg still hampered him. One of the assassins got in a good strike, and the other missed. It was Julija who missed, which meant Alefasio countered the other assassin, and his head bounced off the platform. Alefasio was now wounded with a limp arm and his wounded leg, but he was still fast bringing his sword around.

I saw Papahi stop her guards from interfering. I don’t know whether she knew Alefasio was capable or she just wanted to keep her protection close. Alefasio was capable. Julija came at him fast, but he countered her, and she took a cut across the face. She was pushed back, and Alefasio was still for a second, which gave me time to throw a Lava Dart, which went into his eye. That gave Julija enough time to slice the artery in his throat.

Papahi didn’t miss the dart, and her eyes flicked to me even as I blended back into the crowd. The crowd wasn’t thinning. If anything, it got more pressed as the attackers pressed into the building. The ones out the back were trying to escape out the main entrance, but I knew there were people outside there trying to force them to surrender.

Julija had seen the lava dart, too. She could hardly miss it. Alefasio bled out on the platform, and I worked my way toward the corner when one of the people in the crown backstabbed me! I went down with a knife in my back, but Tāoke launched from my shoulder and had his fangs in Ingrid’s throat before I hit the floor on my knees. I think it was Granite Bones that stopped me from becoming like Kapo.

Ingrid hadn’t left the knife in, so I got back up and kept going. Regeneration got to work. Tāoke will take care of the vengeful lover. After all, I did kill her partner. Back on the platform, Julija is talking with Papahi. I would assume Papahi was trying to make a deal. I am glad I don’t have to deal with that.

There was one mer missing, Kaelo. I went hunting through the building. Thermal Sensing picked him up in the basement with two others raiding the safe. Looks like he is planning to do a runner. I wonder if Julija had found the escape tunnel that will be there somewhere. If everybody had kept to the original timing, I might have been able to clean out the safe before all this started. Shit, now I am thinking like Tabitha.

The stairs came into my Thermal sensing range, but I didn’t bother as they were now below me. Puia created a circular lava platform, and I superheated it to burn through the wooden floor. Ten seconds later, I crashed down into the room. They had already started running as soon as the ceiling started had started smoking. I took off after them.

I sensed them entering the tunnel through a hatch. As soon as I got there and jumped down, I splashed into knee-deep water. I put my hand on the stone wall, and spikes crisscrossed the exit, but I only caught the one who was bringing up the rear. He was thoroughly impaled, but the other two had exited already. The Tunnel wasn’t very long as the HQ was by the fisherman docks, and we came out under the wharves. If it were high tide, this would be all underwater. As it was, I was waist-deep by the time I exited the tunnel, and the other two were mer, so they were long gone. There is no way I would catch Mer in water. My Granite bones were so heavy I doubted I could keep my head out of the water for very long. If only Ruku had been here.

I waded back to where the stone pier ended and the wooden wharves started, and I used Granite manipulation to climb onto the pier. I walked back to the action, staying well back. I went to where I had stashed Dianne's gear, including her bow and found a good place to keep an eye on things.

Tāoke was telling me the fighting had died down. It seemed the Fiske were running or surrendering. Everybody was herded onto the street outside, and Julija appeared flanked by the minotaur and an orc. Papahi followed her with one guard. It seems like they made a deal. She gave a short speech about taking over and working for her. One of her people dragged Alefasio’s body out so they knew he was dead, and then she let them disburse.

I waited to see if there would be further trouble, and It was just as well as I did. A little birdie visited Julija, and then she started barking orders. From her orders, there were Claw incoming.