“Always make sure you got the right head. It would just be embarrassing to present the wrong head, after all.” - Delaz al-Madeen, famed assassin from Ur-Teros, circa 442 VA.
In the end, only Hassan and one other assassin made it back to the mercenary camp in the forest. The two that failed to meet up with him before the commotion started likely never even made it out of the central cluster of tents, while the one who separated from them as a distraction likely met with misfortune as well.
They were skilled at their job, but there was a large difference between infiltrating a palace and a military camp. For one, there were far fewer places for people like them to hide in the latter, and while it might be easy enough for them to disguise themselves as an enemy soldier, it was problematic when a language barrier was present like now.
He had no illusions as to what sort of fate awaited his compatriots if they ended up captured by the enemy. If they were lucky, some emotional enemy soldiers might kill them since they were guaranteed to resist arrest. If they were unlucky, they would be taken captive and would face torture and interrogation that made them wish they could have just died.
As such, he whispered a quick prayer to the three that failed to escape with him, as did the one fellow of his that managed to escape together, both of them wishing the other three a swift death over prolonged torment.
The two returning assassins were quickly ushered to the main tent where Reinhardt and other platoon leaders of the company awaited them despite the early hours. Some looked at Hassan’s return rather expectantly, though many of those expectant looks turned into pained winces when they noticed that he returned with only one other.
Out of the five that had gone out, only two returned, so it was understandable they reacted that way.
“How did it go?” asked Reinhardt without preamble once Hassan and his remaining compatriot were brought before the gathered platoon leaders. He gave Hassan a sympathetic yet understanding look, since he too knew how it felt to lose compatriots. Still, if it was worth the sacrifice… sometimes that was the course of action to take.
“We have succeeded, at least partially, Captain,” reported Hassan as he brought out a human head and placed it on the empty table before him. His compatriot similarly produced another head out of their storage, while Hassan searched inside the storage artifact their other compatriot passed to him for a while before he brought out a third head and placed it next to the others. “I am uncertain if those who failed to return managed to accomplish their mission or not, but given the timing of the commotion, I deemed that to be a likely possibility, so the enemy is likely missing up to five officers, hopefully of higher ranks.”
“You went for the fanciest tents, I assume,” asked Fatimah from the side, who was their platoon leader and superior, on top of being the heir to the order.
“We did, Shahzade,” replied Hassan with a nod. “We considered the possibility that the enemy might have engaged in subterfuge and had their high officers sleep in the smaller tents, but given the reports we had, these enemies seem to be rather arrogant and perhaps considered such trickery as beneath them. As such, since we considered that we might only get one chance at this, we opted for the more likely possibility that their high officers slept in the largest tents.”
“Did you find anything else in those tents?” asked Lars with some curiosity in his voice. “When the twins infiltrated the enemy camp some weeks ago they mentioned that there were documents, maps, letters, and other papers stored in the commander’s tent. We don’t know if that’s a personal habit or something commonly done by these folk, so if you could confirm, that would be helpful.”
“On that matter, Sir, we believe that it is likely something cultural to these people. The tents we broached had such documents stored in cabinets and on the desk. We brought as much of them as we could on our way out,” said Hassan as he and his compatriot fished out the various papers and scrolls they collected and arranged them neatly on another table, since the first table was occupied by the bloody heads.
Reinhardt and Lars walked over to the pile. They picked up some of the papers and unraveled some of the scrolls, returning some to the pile after a glance and looking over others for longer before they turned to Hassan and nodded with a smile on their faces.
“We can’t really tell what the papers are about, can’t read their bloody scribbles, but the maps definitely looked like tactical maps of the region, so that’s a good find,” said Reinhardt with a toothy grin. “Someone who has this is likely part of their decision making, so you did well in choosing your targets. We probably won’t see the full effects of your strike until later, though.”
“Loren will note these feats and contributions for the time being,” added Lars with a nod. “Once we can get things confirmed, we’ll calculate the appropriate compensation and bonuses depending on the identity of the people you managed to take care of tonight, which might be easier than expected if they made any headway in teaching that cooperative captive common. Great job, either way.”
“You two must be tired. Go get something warm from Ursula and some good rest. You’re relieved of duty for the day, so make sure to rest properly,” said Reinhardt. “Even if they fell into chaos, it likely wouldn’t be our job to give them the final push anyway, though an army that large ought to have a proper chain of command, so I doubt they’d be so nice to just rout and break apart from this.”
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