Touch of Fate

Chapter 220: Covert Ops

Chapter 220: Covert Ops

Mike dropped by the Almiran Scouting Corps, a sort of catch-all military organization that was once an esoteric knight order specializing in reconnaissance, but had evolved, like many others of its kind, into something else entirely. They handled most forms of intelligence gathering in Almir, covering everything from espionage to surveying.

While he didn't have complete access to their information, something that only the reigning monarchs and their direct representatives would, he could still request reports on almost anything. Unfortunately, like many other components of the Almiran military in the capital, they were woefully understaffed, with a majority of their personnel trapped behind enemies lines with the Western Army.

After a little trouble locating their office, since they had taken up in the basement of a chandler's shop across the street, Mike collected the dossier on the situation with the Second Prince. He tried asking for any further information about the Tenundians' activities, specifically about what was going on in the camp, but was told that nothing new had been uncovered.

Deciding that it would be better to head home and get ready for the mission, he went back to the dorm. He could use the time to plan and prepare. It also gave him a chance to brief the others on what was going on. Something which had surprising results.

"I'd like to go with you." Tal commented once he finished his explanation.

"I'm not sure what she said, but don't think you are leaving me out of this one." Sera chimed in as well.

He was about to categorically deny them, when he remembered his conversation with Brenden. Mere hours ago, he'd had a fight with him over just this sort of thing. Perhaps it was time to ignore his instinctive response.

[Yeah, it would keep them safer, but is it the best thing for them?]

"This is an infiltration mission at the center of an enemy fleet. If anything goes wrong, or I am incapacitated for any reason, you'd be trapped there. Are you sure you want to participate?" He asked, trying to appear solemn as he did so.

"That's fine. I have no intention of being a burden." Tal replied without hesitation.

"Right. What she said. I think." The Oracle chimed in.

Mike sighed, dropping the stack of papers from the Scouting Corps onto the table. "Alright then, we have a few hours to work on a plan. Our target is the Huntsman, a mid-sized merchant vessel that was recently outfitted for wartime usage. Crew size is estimated around thirty, but its likely the Tenundians have several soldiers on board to maintain order. Thus, we can expect a mix of Almiran sailors and enemies in a roughly equal ratio."

He lifted the first page of the document, "According to this report, the Second Prince was likely in the process of returning from a meeting with the Ateshans when the boat he was on was captured. He was traveling incognito, and is believed to have been impressed along with the rest of the crew when the ship was captured."

"That's a silly thing for him to do." Lily commented absently.

"Well, its not all that strange..." Mike blinked at the newcomer who had snuck in while he was distracted. "How long have you been here?"

"Since the bit about the prince getting captured." She replied nonchalantly while sitting down in one of the open chairs.

Sera glowered at the woman. "We're talking about something important at the moment, and it doesn't concern you. So, could you give us some space."

Lily gave the Oracle a blank look, "Why?"

Suppressing a chuckle at the vein that started throbbing in Sera's forehead, Mike cut in before this went too far. "Lily, we're planning a mission. One that's going to be rather dangerous, but also require a degree of subtlety. I'm not sure if it really suits someone of your...proclivities."

"Hm, that does make sense."

[She's aware of it?]

"Wait, wait. Why are you even entertaining taking her. I know she's a martial arts student and everything..." Sera leaned closer and whispered, "but she's kinda of crazy."

"I heard that." Lily commented with no hint of sarcasm or irritation.

Ignoring the cross chatter, he explained. "I suppose with all the confusion during the attack yesterday, I forgot to mention. Lily has a rare bloodline which gives her ridiculous strength and the ability to negate damage up to a certain threshold. Together, they make her a combat powerhouse. So much so, she played a large role in crushing the last Tenundian offensive against the main gate."

Sera frowned, "Well that's all well and good, but if she goes with us, she could end up learning certain secrets. Specifically the big one, if you catch my meaning." She waggled her eyebrow in an effort to communicate subliminally, but it ended up looking ridiculously obvious.

[Well, it had to come up eventually...]

"I don't think that's going to be an issue." He replied with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Tal asked in the ancient tongue, suddenly looking concerned, at least as much as she was able to. "Did she discover your identity?"

"In same manner the rest of you did, actually." He replied eventually, feeling guilty about it for some reason.

[This is probably how a cheating husband feels when introducing his mistress to his wife.]

Tal went stony, but remained silent. Sera, on the other hand, understood enough from context to make the logical leap.

"What? With her?! Why?!"

Rubbing the back of his head, he answered, "Well, its not exactly like I have any control of who ends up getting the title, and she did help me out quite a bit while I was storming the Tenundian encampment...I'm not really sure how this whole thing works."

"Only one?" Tal asked seriously. Despite her emotionless tone and face, the words seemed to carry an unseen pressure.

"The only one who got the title, yes." Mike paused, thinking about it seriously, "at least to my knowledge."

"Oh great! So you could be spreading your destiny around, and you don't even know who might be effected!" Sera exclaimed.

"Look! I don't know how this all works! I don't know the requirements for acquiring the title, so I can't rule out the possibility that others are out there. However, I high doubt it. I haven't seen or felt any other evidence to the contrary." He shot back defensively.

The Oracle glared at him for a few moments, then sighed. "Fine, that's fair. Still, that doesn't mean we have to take her. You said yourself, she lacks discretion."

"Anything else?" Tal broke in once more, still intense. He figured she was asking if there were any other revelations he needed to share.

"No, that should be..." He remembered his newest familiar. "Well, there is one other thing."

"Yes?" The elf prompted.

"So...to make a long story short, I ran into a Vargul while doing a request for the Adventurer' Guild, and ended up healing her condition, turning her back into a regular vampire...and forming a familiar bond in the process."

The room was still and silent...well mostly. Lily had apparently gotten bored with the proceedings and pulled out to bits of dull colored metal, and was in the process of rubbing them together.

Sera massaged her temples, "There was far too much absurdity packed into that statement, so I'm just going to forget about it so we can move on."

"Where?" Tal asked, once again ignoring the Oracle's input.

"I have her keeping an eye on Brenden at the moment."

This earned him a nod of understanding. "We can speak of her later, then. For now, we should focus on the mission."

"Right. Well, I think we were discussing basics before we got sidetracked." He said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully, and exercising his will a bit to quench the fire that had spontaneously broken out in palm of Lily's. "The way I see it, we have three things we need to focus on..."

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Nathaniel collapsed against the gunwale, utterly spent. The last few days had been a never ending slog of manual labor, as their captors forced them to transfer the Huntsman's cargo of spices and textiles to another ship. It was a painfully slow process that took the surviving Almirans much longer than it should have due to the lack of proper equipment.

Rather than making use of the block and tackle system to lift the crates and barrels out of the hold, the captives were forced to carry everything out by hand. A nightmarish prospect in the cramped and poorly lit interior of the ship, where accidents were frequent. Few members of the crew escaped without their fair share of bruises and abrasions. Though, luckily, no one suffered a serious injury.

"Looks like you're finally done, lad." A Tenundian marine commented with a laugh while polishing off the last of a bottle of grog. "Good on you. Now they'll just have to find something else to keep you busy...Maybe they'll have you move all that cargo back?"

Nathaniel shot the obnoxious man a dark look, wanting nothing more than to throttle the smug drunkard. However, he resisted the urge towards physical violence, and swallowed down the angry rebuttal, instead venturing a feeble, "Haha, that might be..."

This caused the marine to grin and lean back against the gunwale, knocking the scabbard of his cutlass against it in the process. Losing interest in the disguised prince, he glanced over towards a knot of his fellows who were likewise celebrating on deck, laughing at the antics of one of his drunken colleagues. Apparently, one of the marines had found the trumpet which belonged to Nathaniel's herald. He was currently trying to play a lively tune, but clearly had no experience with the instrument. Or music from the sounds of it.

[That's right, fools, keep on laughing. We'll see whose laughing after I make my escape.]

He worked hard to convince himself that his submissive attitude had everything to do with pragmatically keeping his head down until an opportunity arose, and nothing to do with fact that the other man outweighed him by a factor of two and looked like a veteran warrior. He nearly succeeded.

"Anyway, that's enough fresh air. Back to the hold with you. Wouldn't want the rest of the Almiran dogs getting lonely, now would we?"

Nathaniel groaned audibly as he rose to his feet, and meekly headed back in the direction of the stairs leading below deck. All of his muscles were sore thanks to the unusual level of physical activity he'd been forced to participate in.

He wondered idly if there was any food left he could scavenge. The Tenundians had only been feeding them a thin gruel twice a day, so his stomach, used to richer fare, felt practically hollow.

As he was slowly crossing the deck, he heard the marine exclaim. "Hey now...what's that?"

Glancing back, he saw the man straining to see something off the port side of the ship, down near the waterline.

"It looks like...Ah!" The marine managed a short yelp, before he was violently pulled off the deck. Nathaniel heard a muted splash down below.

Suppressing the urge to shout in alarm, he looked around at the other marines. Incredibly, they appeared to still be so occupied with their revels that they completely missed one of their comrades going missing.

Nathaniel would normally be inclined to feel as sense of superiority, since no Almiran marine would be caught so unawares. At least, he assumed so. However, he soon heard the faint scuffing of something clambering on board, and suddenly the cramped and stifling hold didn't seem so bad.

Moving with a great deal more energy than he had at any time during the last few days, he hurried downstairs. A part of him hoped that whatever it was that killed the marine would eliminate the rest of the Tenundians. However, a wiser part of him realized this was foolish.

Unless this was some kind of rescue attempt, which was unlikely considering the vast majority of his followers were half a continent away and probably weren't even aware of his capture yet, then it meant something was attacking the ship. The ship he happened to be stuck on. The ship that he was trapped inside of, unable to escape whatever creature might seek his life.

For a moment he hesitated on the stairs. Perhaps it would have been better to jump overboard and hope that he could make it to shore while the thing was busy eating the rest of the crew. He was just about to head back up and take his chances with the ocean, when he heard footsteps coming down in his direction. Heavy footsteps.

He scurried down into the hold, stumbling over a few of the prone forms of his fellow captives and creating a great deal more noise than he intended. Ignoring the cursing of the men who were woken by the clamor, he pressed himself between two water barrels and did his best to control the chattering of his teeth.

Hopefully, he would be spared from whatever horror was about to be unleashed.

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"I got him." Lily whispered calmly while hanging from the side of the ship with one arm. In what could only be described as an act of pure brutality, she'd caught the Tenundian soldier by the neck, snapped it, and chucked him overboard in one clean motion.

Mike suppressed a chuckle as he observed Sera's face. She was standing on Red's back, who was still mostly submerged, a look of surprise clearly written on her features. After all, it wasn't every day you saw a woman jump close to three meters, dispatch a full grown man, and dispose of the evidence with aplomb.

The Oracle noticed him watching, shrugged, and whispered. "Alright, I can see why you brought her. Still doesn't mean we have to get along."

Sighing, he jump up next to Lily with burst of Air Magic, doing his best to make it quiet. Fortunately, the wind was rather strong this night, so most of the noise was drowned out by the sounds of the waves brushing up against the side of the ship.

[Now for phase two.]