97. BITE BACK: TABITHA

The Healers Association was as easy as expected, and a complaint was lodged against Ört by Tjenner, who supposedly represented several unnamed clients. He claimed to be writing on behalf of the Duke’s office, including a donation to their building renovations. This is the second tentacle reaching back to the Duke's office. I will get more info from Eluf on our date in a few days. I wish Wiremu were here. I would set him to spy on Tjenner.

I did skip the Mercenary Guild. I have other Smuggler contacts whom I am sure can point me in the right direction to the crew who attacked us. I swung past their agent in a local Tavern by the fishing docks and paid for information. They will get back to me in a few days.

The Seadogs also had their headquarters in a warehouse in the fishing dock area. The reason I had no success last time because of the sheer number of members there. Now I know why. There were high-quality traps on the windows and entrances. My Disarm Traps was at the early Journeyman Level, so I was quite confident about getting through the window undetected. Right up until I triggered it.

My Sense Spiritual gave me some warning this wasn't an ordinary Trap. Underlying the trap was a Trap, and this had been modified with a very sticky substance. Only my high Physical Agility enabled me not to be permanently stuck. One arm was caught, and I had to cut it loose, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if the other arm had been caught as well. My ordinary knife wasn’t cutting it. I had to twist and draw my Blacksteel war knife awkwardly with the wrong hand. Even that took some time to cut through the sticky ropey substance. Wiremu would love to examine the trap as well because this was a step above the normal traps. He won’t get a chance as I fully intended to burn the place to the ground once I was finished.

I tried to cut a section of the sticky rope to put in my Spatial Pocket for Wiremu to look at, but I was starting to get a little desperate with the time this was taking. My hand was also going numb, so the sticky substance must include some sort of nerve-damaging toxin. Luckily most of my arm was protected by my armour. Next time I will also wear gloves, although the loss of sensitivity in gloves is also a problem. Maybe fingerless gloves are the way to go.

Time is now a problem, as the Trap didn’t just try to hold you in place and poison you. It also made an audible noise alerting the guards. Even with my low levelled Hearing Aid, I could tell one was approaching the door of the room I was breaking into, and another was following them up the stairs. I was trying to enter a second-story window of the warehouse. It was an office of some kind. I gave up on the rope and ducked into the room shrouded in Shadows Embrace. A bit of smashed glass was nothing at this point.

The door crashed open, and a thug rushed in. From Ruku’s report, the quality of the gang members was several steps below what we faced in the forest. Crashing into a room at full speed where an unknown opponent is not the wisest course of action. This idiot would have been better waiting for his mate and doing a slower entry where he could have avoided impaling himself on my knife. Well, I wasn’t going to complain, and he was now beyond educating. He was probably always beyond educating.

The walkway outside the room was well-lit, which wasn’t great for me. My Spatial Awareness showed the other guard stop at the top of the stairs when her mate rushed in. She seemed to have paused between fight or flight depending on the fate of her partner. When no sound came from the room, she decided on flight as the appropriate action. She turned and started charging back down the stairs as fast as possible. I dashed out in pursuit. I had Nyx use Shadow Manipulation to create a trip wire on the stairs. It was fragile and made of shadows, but it was enough to disrupt a foot and make her stumble down the last part of the staircase. I vaulted over the railing and crashed into her feet, first taking her down and stabbing her through the neck and severing her spinal cord. Even if it didn’t kill her, she couldn’t move to grab a potion. I did make sure to finish her off. The cut on my leg started to ache. I think I might have reopened the wound. It was bound tight.

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I paused to see if there were any other responders, which was almost my undoing. My Spatial Awareness didn’t reach the warehouse's other side, but it picked up the arrow heading for my chest. My reactions are good, but not enough to completely get out of the way, especially with an injured leg. The arrow took me in the upper arm, which cracked a bone this time. That will slow me down and make my performances difficult and painful. I heard footsteps running. The Archer had decided one shot was enough to save face and vacated the premises. I shrouded the area in Engulfing Shadows and hid, which is what I should have done the moment I left the office. Then I wouldn't have an arrow in me. Fuck, it was painful.

My Engulfing Shadows filled the warehouse; from that, I could sense no one else there. Now I only have until the runner comes back with reinforcements. I gritted my teeth and pulled the arrow, nearly passing out from the pain. I never wanted to level my Pain Resistance, and I still don’t. Fortunately, the bone is only cracked and not fully broken. I awkwardly bound the upper arm tightly and then took a potion to help speed the healing. I did have a potion to numb the pain, but it would also make me drowsy, and I was already making too many mistakes.

I set my explosives near the entrances to the warehouse and spread some easily flammable liquid around vulnerable areas. I originally wanted to set everything ablaze and be gone before any warning went out, as they may have someone with a water or earth affinity that could smother the flames. There was a small chance they had someone, but there were too many strange things to discount it.

I went back to the offices. Instead of going through and looking for information, I just grabbed everything I could and stuffed it into my pack where the explosives had been. I set my last explosives, spread the last of the liquid, and made an exit the same way I came in. I wanted to leave from the ground floor to save my arm, but I didn’t want to spend time disarming another difficult trap. As I lowered myself to the ground, I had Nyx go through and set off the explosives. It wasn’t nearly the amount of killing and destruction I had been planning, but it was something, and it was certainly giving notice that we bite back. This and the death toll from last night are all putting pressure on them, and I know that at least the Pack Rats are circling, looking for blood.

I waited in the area to see what the response was. If there was a response from the Seadogs, it must have been on the other side of the warehouse. I did circle the building to see if I could find where the runner went, but they were long gone. Eventually, the Watch turned up, and they organised to stop the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings and settled in to let the building burn down. I left them to it and went to see Ört about my arm and leg.

I expected a lecture from Ört, and I was not disappointed. He re-sewed my leg together and bandaged both the leg and arm with smelly herbal concoctions. He then gave me a potion specifically for healing the bones and used a Skill to keep the bone straight that he said would last for about two days before needing to be renewed. Ört also looked at the numbness in my hand. The feeling was returning, but it had taken close to two hours. There was nothing left on the hand for him to test. He then instructed me to go to bed, sleep as long as possible, and take the pain-numbing potion just before bed. I didn’t have anything pressing until tomorrow night’s meeting with the Pack Rats, so I followed his instructions.

I will need more backup at the Pack Rat meeting than just Modrica. I really wish Wiremu and Tāoke were here, as they would be my preferred choice. Ruku is the next obvious choice, but this would expose more of my secrets to him, and he already knows more than I am comfortable with. There are not many other choices. I will need to show strength, and I have two serious wounds. I will try to mask the wounds, but I am pretty sure the rats will smell the blood, indicating weakness, which might result in a challenge.