Runeguard 030

“Adi, status update please.”

I spent a few moments watching Hansen to make sure he complied with my order before turning to the scrolling System messages.

Your spirit expertise skill has increased to rank 4.

Your spirit link skill has increased to rank 6. 

Your daggers skill has increased to rank 10. 

Your life magic skill has increased to rank 15.

Your armor synergy skill has increased to rank 4.

Night has reached level 6! 

Maintenance cost increased to 60 MP.

+1 rank to Night’s strength, constitution, channeling, and chaos.

I was pleased with my companion’s progress. The morning’s work had advanced here nicely. Dismissing the alerts, I looted all eight Crows.

You have acquired: 6 x steel daggers, 5 x steel short swords, and 5 silver and 7 copper coins.

They carried little of worth, but I saw no reason to leave behind even the pittance I managed to get from them. I was done with this stage of my plan, and it was time to move on.

Leaving the alley, I ducked into another nearby one. Safe from prying eyes, I re-equipped my hooded cloak and wizard’s staff. In disguise once more, I headed back towards the Crows’ encampment. 

Given the numbers of thieves Marcos had dispatched to search the town, I expected the Crows’ encampment to be less occupied and easier to penetrate now. 

It was partially for that reason I had spent the past few hours killing the Crows. My efforts had gotten more of the thieves to willingly leave their camp than I could have any other way. 

I chuckled, a trifle grimly. And besides, given the thieves’ misplaced sense of invincibility, the last place the Crows would expect me to go would be their own camp.

Squads of thieves still roamed the streets. Most rushed by, not giving me a second glance. Nonetheless, I picked my way carefully and made sure not to approach any too closely.

As I walked, I eavesdropped on the conversation of other players. Not unexpectedly, much of the talk I overheard was about the killings of the Crows’ guild members. 

Many speculated, too, about the shadowy draconic shape that had been spotted all over town. To my immense relief, most gossip connected the strange sightings with the rumors of the wyvern Evelyn and her people were spreading about. 

In most people’s minds, the shadowy draconic form and the wyvern were one and the same. That had been precisely my intent in starting the rumor, yet I hadn’t been sure it would work.

I had known I wouldn’t be able to keep my spirit guard entirely secret once she manifested, so instead of trying, I had elected to misdirect attention and give the impression that she was something… lesser, something not nearly as impressive as Night’s true nature. And so far, it seemed to be working.

It was only a matter of a few minutes before I reached the thieves’ camp. The interior looked noticeably less crowded, though the number of guards walking the perimeter were no fewer.

It didn’t matter. I had a plan for them too.

I studied the thieves near the entrance. There were a dozen guards in front of the barred gate itself, and two squads of six patrolling along the inside of the fence on either end. 

I watched them for a while to make sure I had the timings memorized before extracting Alexis’ bombs from my inventory. 

The bombs were housed in thin glass bottles, each small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and fragile enough that they were certain to break on impact.

I hefted the two bombs to get a feel of their weight. I was crouched thirty yards away from the camp’s entrance and concealed from the guards’ direct line of sight by the intervening tents.

It was by no means the easiest throw to make, but I was certain I could do it. Narrowing my focus, I waited.

When the patrols on either end reached the gate, I rose to my feet. Here goes nothing, I thought, and winding back my arm, tossed the two bombs I held.

I ducked back down immediately, resisting the urge to observe the results. I couldn’t afford to be spotted just yet.

A few seconds later, the tinkling of breaking glass and shouts of alarms heralded the bomb’s impact. Still, I waited in breathless anticipation. Had my aim been true?

A System message opened before me.

You have tossed a smelly bomb. 9 unknown players have been affected by its noxious fumes. Debuff: distracted.

You have tossed a terror bomb. 8 unknown players have been affected by its psychic waves. Debuff: panicked.

I exhaled in relief as I read the System’s response. I had done it. My tosses had not been perfect, but I had gotten more than enough of the guards.

Now to get out of here before I am seen. 

Halfway to my feet, I dropped back down at the clatter of running feet. I stilled and set my hands to my weapons, only to relax a moment later as I saw the unseeing eyes and horrified faces of the four bewitched guards that ran past.

I grinned. So that’s what terrified looks like.

I waited for another beat or two, and after I was certain no more panicked guards would flee my way, I slipped away from the chaos surrounding the gate.

Darting between the nearby tents, I circled the Crows’ encampment until I was at the end opposite the gate.

Just as I hoped it was unguarded. The patrols that should have been walking the fence on this side had abandoned their posts to investigate the disturbance at the gate.

I chuckled. Once again, the Crows’ lax discipline was proving to be their undoing. I didn’t have much time, though. Sooner or later, someone would realize the perimeter was unguarded and send the patrols back.

Skipping over the open trench, I ducked through the rope-fence surrounding the camp. Now came the most dangerous part of my plan.

To find and kill Marcos.

What I did was risky—and had about as much chance to fail as it did to succeed—but with one ‘free’ life in my pocket, it was a risk I was willing to shoulder. 

On bended knee inside the camp, I darted my gaze over the nearby tents. All appeared quiet. “Night, do you see anyone?”

“No, Dace.” 

I hissed out a relieved breath. My intrusion had gone undetected. I had chosen my breach point well, it seemed.

Rising to my feet, I strode boldly through the camp, behaving for all the world as if I belonged. As I walked, my gaze darted left and right, scanning the surrounding tents. I was betting that the Crow leader’s tent was somewhere in the center of the camp.

As I made my way deeper into the camp, I saw others moving about their business. I tensed. Of their own volition my steps began to slow. No, don’t do that, Dace. Remember, you belong here. Forcing myself to maintain my relaxed pace, I kept moving.

No one stopped me. 

No one questioned me. 

No cry of alarm was raised in my wake. 

I didn’t even warrant a second glance from most. The tension drained from me and I continued my meander through the encampment.

“Who attacked the gate, you think?” asked a voice in a subdued tone.

The voice had come from the left and my gaze swung that way, tracking the speaker. Two Crows were sitting down beside a campfire.

The speaker’s companion snorted. “It has to be the player that Marcos is so worked up about. Who else would be that crazy?”

“I heard he has killed over two dozen in town,” said the first.

The second laughed. “Ridiculous. Those numbers have to be an exaggeration.”

I kept walking and the conversation of the two Crows passed out of hearing range. 

Up ahead, I spotted a mass of players. From their trajectory, I guessed they were coming from the gate. 

“Damnit,” I cursed under my breath. Someone must have ordered the crowds who had gathered to witness the chaos at the gate to disperse. The Crows’ leaders had reacted faster than I expected.

My disguise had held up well so far, but I didn’t fancy my chances of remaining undetected for long. All it would take was a single Crow with a whiff of suspicion or curiosity to examine me, and the game would be up. 

 I turned my steps left and angled away from the approaching crowd. I passed more players, all talking about the events at the gate. One particular conversation caught my ear, and I walked closer to the chatting pair.

“You heard Soren is dead?” asked the woman.

“No!” exclaimed her companion. “What happened?”

“It was that lunatic, Dace,” she said. “Gutted him like a pig, so I hear.”

“Pity,” said the man. He paused. “I wonder who Yannick will give his tent to.”

The woman nodded. “It’s a nice tent, isn’t it?”

As I drifted closer, I noticed that the pair were standing before a white-washed tent. To my eye, it looked little different from any of the other tents in the camp, but clearly the two fancied it.

“Talking of Yannick, let’s get out of here before he catches us idling,” said the man. He shivered. “I’d rather not be sent into town chasing that bloody butcher.”

“Me neither,” agreed the woman. “Let’s go.”

The two hurried off and I waited for them to go. Pursing my lips in thought, I studied the white-washed tent. 

Why not? I wondered.

With a small shrug, and a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching me, I ducked inside.

✵ ✵ ✵

The interior of the tent was filthy.

Half-eaten food, chewed on bones, and odd bits of junk were strewn all over. My nose wrinkled in disgust. Whoever Soren had been his living habits left much to be desired.

Nonetheless it was all I had to work with at the moment. Overhearing the two thieves had been an unexpected turn of good fortune, and it had given me an idea.

It had occurred to me, now that I was inside the Crows’ encampment, my chances of remaining undetected would be much better at night. All I needed was a place to hole up until then. Which I now had.

In fact, to begin with, I would have preferred to have launched this entire venture at night, but I had decided that both the Crows and those in the adjacent camps would have found a player sniffing around their camps under the cover of darkness too suspicious to ignore.

Whatever the case, I was now inside the Crows’ encampment, and seemingly with a safe spot to hide. Sitting down on Soren’s dirty mat, I set myself to wait for darkness to fall.

✵ ✵ ✵

“Dace, wake up,” Night said.

My eyes snapped open with a start, and it took me a second to remember where I was. I jerked upright on the sleeping mat. “What time is it?”

“11 PM,” Adi replied.

“Anything to report?” I asked my companion. 

“Nothing,” she replied. “No one has come near the tent since you fell asleep.”

I rose to my feet. At some point in the afternoon, after long tiresome hours of doing nothing, I had decided to get what rest I could while Night kept watch. I hadn’t thought I would fall asleep, but I must have been more tired than I thought.

“Alright, take a look outside, and tell me what you see,” I said.

My companion, I had learnt, could materialize in the world as either cloudless spirit—invisible to the naked eye—or ethereal mist. But for whatever reason, she could take no action while invisible, only watch and observe.

Yet that alone was useful enough, and once more I was grateful that I had a spirit as smart as Night for a companion.

Even though I could not see her, I felt the black dragon’s spirit rise out of me and slip through the fabric of the tent.

A few moments later, she returned.

“The camp is quiet,” Night reported. “The perimeter and center are lit with torches, but the rest is in darkness.”

I nodded. “What about patrols?”

“There are a few,” she replied, “but they seem concentrated at the camp’s boundaries.”

“Good,” I said, ducking out of the tent myself. Night’s report was spot on. The camp was pitch black but for the globes of light marking the perimeter and a smaller concentrated cluster at the center.

Feeling my way cautiously through the darkness, I made my way towards the camp’s center, using the torches as my guide.

For the most part, I could barely see anything around me. All the same, I made steady, if slow progress, muffling my cries and biting off my curses as I stumbled over unseen obstacles.

“Stop, Dace,” Night said suddenly.

I was so focused on the placing of my feet it took me a second to register the black dragon’s words. “What is it?” 

“There are guards up ahead,” she replied. “And some are looking this way.” 

I froze. “Have I been spotted?”

“I don’t think so.”

I relaxed minutely and shifted my gaze upwards. I could see nothing but the bright glare of the torches which were still a few dozen yards away. “I don’t see anything,” I said.

“The guards are directly in front of you, Dace,” Night said. “They are standing outside the circle of torches.”

Raising a hand to shield my eyes from the torches glare, I looked anew. But again, I failed to see any of the guards Night spoke off. “I still don’t see anything,” I repeated.

I felt the black dragon’s shrug. “They are there,” she insisted.

I opened my mouth to give vent to my frustration, then closed it as a thought occurred to me. “Night,” I asked slowly, “can you see our surroundings clearly? I mean as clear as you would during the day.”

“Of course,” Night replied. “Black dragons have perfect night vision.”

“Ah,” I breathed. “Describe to me what you see. My vision is not nearly as good as yours.”

“There is a large tent up ahead, one much larger than any other in the camp. The torches have been staked all around it. The guards form a second cordon around the tent and are standing a step in front of the torches, looking outwards.” 

 That must be where Marcos is, I thought. Nothing, nor anyone else, would be that well-guarded. “Do you think I could get close enough to see the tent myself?”

Night hesitated. “I don’t think so. While the guards don’t seem to be able to see any better than you, they are looking away from the torches glare while you are blinded by it. They will spot you before you see them.”

I nodded. “Is there any way to slip past the guards into the tent?”

“Not that I can see,” she replied. “There are ten guards in the cordon, and they all look vigilant.”

“Damn,” I muttered. I bowed my head thinking. If I couldn’t get into Marcos’ tent undetected, I would have to do things the hard way. But a head on assault was sure to raise the camp. How did I take on Marcos and his guards before the rest of the camp intervened?

Another simple distraction wouldn’t work. 

I was sure Marcos’ guards were some of the best he had—his headhunters, if I had to guess. They wouldn’t just abandon their post. 

I need a bigger distraction, I decided. A much bigger one.

“Adi,” I asked, “how far away from me can Night venture?”

“Night is tethered to you by your spirit link. As your spirit link skill increases, the tether may be unreeled further and consequently your spirit guard may travel farther away from your body. Night’s current limit is sixty yards.”

Sixty yards, I thought. That might be enough for what I had in mind. “Alright Night, here is the plan.”