In the middle of the Night a white haired girl is looking from the Forest onto Halk. Her demeanour is sulking, but I can not do anything about it, as she is too conspicuous.
“Just stay here. We are back before the Sun rises.”
“But I wanna go too!”
“They know how you look. It will not work.”
With a wave of Darkness she transforms into a fully human Woman with an aged up look. Her Dress is rather flattering bulged on specific places and changing her Parasol into a Fan, she now looks completely different.
“How about now?”
“That might work. But you will have to not use your Rats in the open.”
“That will not be a problem. I just use my Shadows as tendrils. I can do that.”
“Well okay, but are you sure about using that form. You will not be able to use it otherwise.”
“It is okay! I have a even more lascivious form, prepare for it Null!”
“Not with the eyes of this trash. He would not deserve seeing you, even if he is already gone.”
Right now I am in the body of this Willard Guy. If I wreak havoc it would be great in his body to make it even more awkward.
…
An explosion rips apart the south gate and through the Fire came a noble clothed Baron Willard with a seductively woman with fan in one hand and a rapier in the other. She has a silken veil too, but is so see through nothing was hidden of her beautiful face.
“HARVEY! Bring your Blue Ice covered ass out of here! You pay for tricking me!”
The guards came quickly and saw the gigantic hole in the wall. Normal people can not see Mana but as Baron Willard is an Archmage, his ejection of Mana makes different visual phenomenon appear. Flickers of light, sparks and floating debris shows his extreme power. Arrows were fired but broke before even coming close to his body.
The Woman on the other hand was like a phantom. Every Arrow either just vanished or sailed through her like she was not even there. What a nice trick Snow is doing here. I need to ask her, what she is doing, this is a great defensive ability!
Giggle “Stop looking so fascinated, we have work to do.”
Ah! I got distracted again…
“Get out here Blue Ice! Explain yourselves!”
The Guards notice their attacks do not do anything and stop. After a while some of Blue Ice appeared but Harvey is not with them.
“Baron Willard, you are alive! Great…”
Boom
“Not so great for you, who sent me into a trap! If Harvey does not want to explain himself in front of me, then I just make my way there myself!”
After exploding the greeting committee Snow and I got moving into the middle of the Town to the Fort of Blue Ice. It has many safety procedures, but Snow already saw through many of them and the rest were no match for Willard.
His full name was William Willard… the sixth... The Willard are a renowned family, but their Naming sake is definitely off. Back to making havoc!
While breaking through the wards, I notice their repetition. A dozen Wards all repeating themselves over and over. As I do not want to look too suspicious… well too late but still… I need to break them how Baron Willard would do this. His Father is a Count, but as he is not eligible for the… Concentrate!
“Harvey! Get out!”
“What in the World is going on William!”
“Do not call me that name again! For you BARON Willard! You sent me right into the wrong place and this Elane you enslaved for me broke free from the Slave Collar you assured me would make her my Toy for Life!”
And there we go! Shouting all the dirty deeds out. She was ‘lent’ to him originally to be disposed of, as Elane started to have doubts of fighting me. She had seen too much of my hand to keep a brave face, and was vehemently against the attack while also did not want to help moving around my Castle. Willard was extremely incensed, as his mood is as explosive as his Magic. Harvey just made a calculated risk with forcing Elane into Slavery.
It was a cold and calculated risk. If Baron Willard had taken over the Crater the dirty deed about the slave he had gotten from him would be a bonding point to let the wealth flow to Blue Ice. Enslaving a Caste member is a high breach and would be punished by Arcana and even Willard would have not gotten out unscathed. Not that it is uncommon, but it is handled like “vanishing” of a Mage. Nobility is in every World corrupt it seems.
“What are you talking about Wi… Baron Willard?!”
Hiding behind the strongest barrier, Harvey is sweating profusely. This Barrier is one of their last resorts, and I can not break it. Well I can, but Willard is not capable originally. I just take it as a loss for now. He can vanish by Snow later. The higher ups vanishing should make it more believable, they are hiding the truth.
“You definitely know what I mean! I will have my revenge!”
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...No, he does not know what I mean. Just seeding chaos more and more. Who is who and what is what. With this the put on guard duty Ivory Tower Knights have heard what they needed to hear, time to leave.
“I will be back and WILL have your head Harvey you scum!”
Boom
A large explosion of Mana stopped the line of sight on us and we vanished like we were never there. The broken down parts of the Town show, we were definitely there. The whole chaos will be the talk of the whole Town and later the whole Telk.
My reasoning? Chaos! Ivory Tower can now try their best to puzzle together what information they have. The Guards of Ivory Tower staying in the Fort saw Willard alive and angry, the whole Town knows about how Blue Ice enslaved a fellow Mage of their Caste, the town was wreaked by a Baron and need closure and at my Word made by Ava there was never an attack on the Crater.
Try to make sense out of those things.
…
Entering the Fort via the Channels and ducts, the whole place is in a panic. They do not know what is going on and while the apprentices and lower Mages are all ordered to their Chambers the heads all discuss about the whole Scene.
Shouting, accusations and total confusion were all around. Out of the liquid shadow came Beta armed with knifes and bow. Wearing a special mask to not let the pollen through, as even my taken over bodies start to stagger by them.
What pollen? Of course Dream Flower Pollen. I got a pouch of them right here and right after Snow vanished with her shadow I start to open the pouch.
Those things are effective. While without Dream Flowers Illusions can not be made, it numbs and with more time the people start to sleep. I do not think I will bring them to sleep, but they will be numb enough in about five Minutes for me and Snow to take them down.
Right now Snow removed the Guards at the front door and seals the cracks between the Door for the Pollen to dissipate into the whole Fort. We only want the ones who know about the whole thing. Elane told us only the higher ups know about everything, as lower Mages only knew Willard was here, but not for what.
Minutes pass and finally the people notice something wrong as the first one fell down without reason. With my archery I shoot the most dangerous ones directly with paralysing arrows. Normal People would die right away from them, but most of them should be okay. If not, oh well…
“Ambush! Guards, come quick!”
What came inside was not what they hoped for. A wave of Rats came and with it Snow in half Beast form. Quickly we took the rest out and Harvey got some potshots at us, but was restrained right afterwards.
Now we needed to work quickly. Taking all the People into Snows shadow I use Beta to break the seals on the Emergency exit. Yes, they have one of those, but can only be used by Harvey, normally. Opening it we vanish through it and no witness was left after closing the door haphazardly.
…
Snow and I work our way through the tunnels right to the storage and took also all necessities and precious things to make it look even more like a hasty escape. They will never be found and now Halk is without a leader… again.
Two of Green Fire were still there under Blue Ice, but now all of them are gone. It is really a shame, they did not even get one respite before becoming experimental subjects for me. Maybe they were destined to go the same way of their former Caste.
Elane’s former Room was already cleaned out and her apprentices reassigned. She was rather high in the pecking order, and still she was made a sacrifice like that. How extreme Blue Ice was trying to get higher in Telk’s hierarchy is apparent.
Is it that hard to get up in their position? Well they will never learn the truth about it. Better going back before Edgar gets back here. His Guard dogs he left are already searching for the higher ups in the meeting room and even found the unsealed escape tunnel.
…
“Elane! What is going on! Where are we?!”
“You are in the lower Dungeon of the Castle in the Crater. Welcome and I hope you have as nice a stay as I had here.”
“The Cra… We are in Starfall Crater? Who is this Elf and why are we getting kidnapped?!”
Ah, Ava is close to breaking down. So I am here as Beta, but Elane should talk about it, as she is the one damaged by Blue Ice Leader the most.
“This Elf? He is my new Master, Lord Null. His normal Body is heavily damaged from the Battle against Willard. Remember the one, who you presented me to?”
“I did not do it out of malice! You know that he could have killed us all if he got incensed! You should have just listened and gone with him on your own accord!”
“Let me jump in right here. If she did that, she would have died like Willard.”
“Bullshit! I do not know why she thinks you are Null, but Willard is alive, he attacked Halk out of strange reasons!”
“Yeah, that was me. I took his body over and used him to look like he is still alive.”
“You… WHAT are you!”
“None of your business. Elane is here for you to answer her questions.”
“Elane?”
“Yes, Lord Null was gracious enough to let me see you before he removes you. I just wanted to know why? Why did you throw me away?”
“I already said it. The Willard Family was always short fused. It was better to lose one and safe all of us and your precious apprentices.”
“Buzz! Wrong, as I already looked in Willard’s Memories. He never was that angry about it, even if he was rather miffed, that a lower Mage was rejecting him. The whole Idea came from you, as you met him in private and gave him this Idea in the first place. Remember telling him how it was a present for a good relationship for the future?”
“...How did you…”
“I already said, I read all his Memories. Now you should explain your former subordinate why, don’t you think?”
“…”
“Have you no explanation for me, Harvey? You just sent me here to die! Did you not tell Willard to remove me right afterwards?”
“No! I never did, this one lies to you!”
“’After the takeover we need to remove all knowing participants. Put Elane either in the piles of the losses or clean her mind of anything she might know’, weren’t that your words?”
“…”
“William might have a short fuse like all Willards, but his Memory was crisp after takeover. So? No answer from you?”
“HARVEY! WHY?!”
“You knew too much about the Crater! They wanted to make you the direct Connection between the Crater and Halk afterwards! Those Arcana higher ups only looked at you, for how you knew more than any other person to keep you in their Reigns! I outrank you and you would have become a honorary Baroness for that, just because you were here TWICE!”
Just because she was here, Arcana would have made her… No, that makes sense. To make it easier to work with the rabble below, they needed a less dirty person and this would have needed an honorary Noble for just the transport.
I can already see the misunderstanding running through the higher ups. Blue Ice knows about the Crater, so better make one of them a Noble to keep them level. Asking who knows most of the Crater, they mentioned Elane, as she was here and even in the Castle.
So make the Person with the most relation to the Crater a Noble, and be done with it. It is just an honorary and will not be inherited anyway…
Just because of this little thing, he send her out to die, so he could get the position, as no one was here otherwise and he is the highest person. Ice cold like his Magic, damn.
“Just because… I did not even know! How could you just remove me for something I did not even know!”
“You had to have known! You already strutted around like all of us are beneath you and even declined the order by me AND a Baron to go into the Crater for logistic information!”
“I did not want to go here because I knew how dangerous it is here! I did not want to die in vain!”
“Even if that were true, I could not risk it. Were you to become a Noble with a Title, you would have taken over Blue Ice sooner or later. We pseudo Nobles are not even real Nobles in the eyes of Arcana. At best we are Village Elder who are slightly higher than the livestock working on the fields!”
Such harsh and stupid thoughts. It would have made Blue Ice way more prominent. At least if it had worked, but never would it have, as long as I am here.
With this no one will mess with the Crater for a while, at least I hope so.