In Kedyn, days after King Handor's edicts...
"So...we're not getting paid anymore?" Gagaran said bluntly.
"Not by the Holy Kingdom." Lakyus answered. "When this month is out, our contract ends too, a shame, this has been the easiest job we've ever had...well, at least since that other mess was taken care of."
"Really? That other mess?" Tia said.
"That is what we're calling the near collapse of the city against an army of thousands?" Tina finished for her sister.
"Its just as well, frankly with things this easy, I'd feel guilty taking pay at this point, this is more like a vacation now than a job, and if the job is over, then we can go to E-Rantel..." Evileye said.
"And see Momon again?" Lakyus said with a grin as she interrupted Evileye.
Evileye was rarely glad of her mask, but as she was wearing it for public appearances at least, she was glad of it now as it hid her blush. "No...well...yes, but the truth is I want to meet the Sorcerer King."
Lakyus gently inclined her head, "I would actually like to do that as well." She shook her head, "As a priestess I held him as the source of evil, but seeing the gifts he's given to his followers, and now being an apostate...well I find myself rethinking everything. I have to see for myself what it is behind all this. Perhaps he really is a god the way Neia says. I'm not sure of anything but my sisters anymore." She smiled, and though her words might have been taken sadly, she wore a genuine smile on her face because she WAS sure of her sisters, and that was all she really needed to be sure of, anything else could be up in the air. They though, they were her rock and her constant. "When we go, if things are fine with Neia, we should ask her to go with us as an intermediary, she knows the Sorcerer King better than any human alive that I can think of." There was a round of agreement about this as they finished their meal, then got up to go about their business.
...Wenmark...
Sudaj had listened attentively as Neia spoke, her voice connected to him very deeply, her eyes were compelling, her passionate nature seemed to pour out like river over mighty falls, but just as when he had seen her before, for all her words, for all his listening, he was more interested in her than in anything she believed. Running into her the first time had been mere chance...but not the second time. Nor was it coincidence that he was here now, when he learned where she'd be going, he lied about how he'd come here. His obsessive watchfulness of her let him see, like no one else, that she was haunted by the suffering of the elves, and that made it easy to present himself as someone more like her. He wondered that he was not detected, but considered it most likely because he was not watching out of hostility. Her youth, her passion, her vigor, he wanted Neia, and learning of her union with Skana had sent him spiralling in frustration, but he'd managed to get himself moved to Wenmark and his careful observation in his free time had hinted to him that something was up, and now here she was...so close, yet so out of reach, asking for his help, even offering to let him closer to her, letting him join her, his thoughts were a whirlwind at the possibilities there...but the others, the demon...and...well the other demon. Skana and CZ, they were in the way, if he joined her on her terms, even after helping her, they'd still be in the way. Her plan though, that gave him the chance he wanted, he could help her the right way, the way that left her to himself alone.
As she laid out her plan to him, he laid out his own in his own mind. Let the escape attempt begin, ensure it fails, ensure that she is captured, use the leverage his saving the city into a high placed promotion, offer to free the captured Neia by marrying her, and as a wedding gift, leverage his position into finding some reason to let the surviving captive elves free, she'd be grateful and she'd welcome his embrace the way he longed for, he could even offer comfort, sympathy for the loss of her dear friends, she'd be vulnerable and emotional then, especially locked away in one of the torture chambers of Wenmark, after a week or two there, he couldn't imagine there were any lengths she wouldn't go to in order to get free. So much was so close in reach, and her plans, her foolish overreaching plans...would give her over to himself.
"And that's the idea." Neia said as she finished laying the plan out, leaving out the part about Tinamoc's smuggling people out himself, indeed keeping his very involvement out of the matter, also keeping out a few other more personal details meant to help a handful of female elves, Sudaj had listened intently, she'd watched to see how he reacted to her, and to the environment, he'd winced at the screams, he'd clutched his weapon as if restraining himself from acting, he was staring at her intently, fiercely, passionately, for a moment it reminded her more of the looks of heated passion that she and Skana had shared as the lights of their room dimmed and they embraced, but as he peppered her with questions, she thought, 'Its the intensity of a desire to take action, righteousness and justice know no bounds.' She thought, and found herself relaxing around him, his seeming confidence in her was a relief, her plan had seemed so large sometimes that she feared its moment of execution, but her leap of faith in reaching out to this acquaintance, was being rewarded as he gave his assent.
"I'll help." He said softly. "Have a voucher sent to me authorizing me to bill your merchants for enough beer to get the entire city guard drunk, and I'll get started immediately."
"Thank you Sudaj, this will change everything." Neia said and reached out and offered her hand.
He hesitated not a moment in matching her gesture, taking her hand in his, he clasped it as in a handshake, and barely restrained himself from pulling her to him, he comforted himself about his restraint by thinking of the day he would set her free of her mad plans, the day he'd enter the dungeon as her savior, and win her heart by releasing the elves she seemed to care for, and comforting her wounded heart over the deaths of her friends. Briefly he considered whether or not the undead would respond, but he doubted it, to involve himself in national affairs was one thing, but to personally act to save a single person, kings don't do that.
When they parted, Neia felt more hopeful about her plan than she had since it first began to form, and she informed Tinamoc, Illyana, Skana, & CZ of what she'd accomplished, CZ for her part, was skeptical. "You ran into him again?" She asked.
"Well, yes." Neia said.
"That isn't strange?" She asked.
"I mean maybe a little, but...I'm out in public a lot, so if someone else is out in public a lot, like the way guards are, surely I can expect to see them again a time or two." Neia answered. "Why?"
"Don't like him." CZ answered.
"What, why?" Neia asked.
"His eyes, not cute." She said.
Tinamoc scrawled out a voucher and handed it to Illyana, "Deliver this to the front desk and have it sent to Sudaj of the city guard." Illyana nodded her understanding, took the voucher, and left.
Skana pursed her lips. "This is all a very big risk, but...we're used to taking risks at this point, all we can do is move forward and hope this leap of faith is rewarded. Besides, the way he acted doesn't suggest anything nefarious."
"Still not cute." CZ said with finality.
The other two women sighed and shrugged it off.
"I have all that I need to create enough poison to 'sicken' at least some of the female elves here, I can't do anything for the rest of the city, but we can do it here at least, it won't take long to make the necessary doses, and I also have enough to create the whiskey dick powder..."
"You're bad at naming things." Neia said with a roll of her eyes.
"Really bad." Skana agreed with a laugh.
"Tripod powder then, whatever." Tinamoc said with a roll of his eyes, "Nobody will be getting anything up, but there should be no other ill effects."
"To bad." CZ said.
"Agreed." Skana & Neia said in unison.
"I'll have the elves in the warehouses make what we need, and then tomorrow I'm going to prepare to leave. The day after tomorrow, I'm rolling the wagons out of here and I'm going back to the border as fast as possible with as many as possible, then I'll wait for you at Prart." Tinamoc continued as if they hadn't spoken. "Good luck, to all of you, I've got a lot of work to do before I move out, so I might not have time to come back here, just send Illyana back to my quarters to pick up what she'll need to make this hotel safer for the little time between my departure and her escape."
Neia & Skana both stood, "We will, and thank you, worst comes to worst, know that it has been an honor." Neia said and held out her hand, Tinamoc shook it firmly and went out to undertake the final stages of his part in their plans.
The next day was a heady one, with all their final preparations made, and a few armor sets sent over from Nazarick at CZ's request, helped boost the odds as they were quietly smuggled to a few of the elves who had displayed the greatest aptitude for combat in their relatively brief training.
Illyana took the handful of poison doses she'd been provided, both for her and for the 'guests', which she smuggled to the elf cooks who were more than happy to play a role in punishing those who abused their women. The day after that, she and a few others consumed the toxins, just as Tinamoc began to roll his wagons out of the city, and just as predicted, when someone came to fetch Illyana to send her to another guest, they found her violently ill and left her alone, just as she predicted, they chose to wait to see if she'd get better on her own before spending money to treat what they believed to be a simple illness.
Neia, Skana, & CZ, along with most of the elites, hid themselves in the sewers under the city, having appeared to depart with Tinamoc and his caravan, thanks to the judicious acquisition of full face helmets that let elves pass for Black Justice escorts and walk right out of the city, increasing the number of escapees.
As he rolled towards the gate after closing up his 'business' Tinamoc looked around him, he doubted very much the city would ever look the same, and he was confident that this would...eventually at least, be for the better. His nerves were much calmer now, the constant danger of his guard and companion in his proximity had made him braver than he had been in his youth, and the creaking sound of wagon wheels was a calming influence anyway, their familiar sound like that of a warm and well used blanket to his soul.
The portculis was up to allow egress during the day, and nobody challenged his departure, he casually turned his head and looked at the moat, thinking about the body of the dead man in the water, the man he'd killed, he wondered if the man deserved to die, if he was as bad and rotten as much of the city...or if he was one of the few who was sickened by it all. It was a futile curiosity, even if he didn't deserve to die, he had to die, to much was at stake, the same went for the two that Skana had framed, they had to die too...and now a lot more had to die, the ground would be watered with the blood of righteous and unrighteous alike very soon, and as much as he hoped that the plan would succeed and all the elves would be freed, the truth was he was really more concerned with his friends, and that was how he saw them now, it was a rare thing for merchants of great success to have real friends. Everybody was a client or a competitor, and strangers saw in his abilities and resources someone they could exploit for themselves, friendship was a rarity at best, now he had several, and all of them were at risk and he was leaving them behind.
He clutched the reins tightly and forced himself to look forward, he felt the urge to turn and charge back at the city, to fight as Neia had fought in Prart, to do what she had done...but he knew it was impossible, he wasn't Neia Baraja, he was the merchant Tinamoc, and this was what he could do.
So the city began to fade behind him, growing ever smaller as he headed 'South' where he would wheel around and take a long route North so that anyone looking for him would go in the wrong direction. As the city grew smaller and smaller, he felt himself relax, his part of the plan at least, was a success, as when he reached his duplicitious position and turned on the long and isolated road that would take him well around Wenmark, still no one had come for him. The elves marching in disguise behind him, or riding on horses, or sitting on wagons, remained tense, and that tension did not go away for several days, not until someone came to meet him on the long road North.
