Interlude 7: Kayin Enabled (2/2)

Kayin felt metal under her hands, explored upward, and found the ladder. She set to climbing, grabbing hold of each rung above her, and hoisting herself up about as fast as a regular person could walk. Between her strength, agility, and absurdly light weight, it was easy.

The ladder led up to a tiny grate in the fireplace of an empty and disused guest room, where ancient curtains hung still and glowing with the sun, and dropcloths covered the bed and the furniture. Dust hung in the air in a million tiny glittering motes, playing like swarms of insects in the light of the setting sun. The glowstone sockets in the ceiling were empty, the pricey little chunks of crystal having been since moved to a more active part of the castle.

But something was off here, and it took Kayin a moment to figure it out. Some tingling in her non-existent tummy made her stop and freeze in place, staring around in the dim light filtering in through the curtain, motionless as only a golem could be.

And eventually she found it.

PER+1

The dust was too neat.

She'd left little paw tracks across it the first time she'd found this room, and they'd stayed like that undisturbed the last two times she'd been through.

But now there were no paw tracks, and the layer of dust was thick and even.

It didn't take a genius to know that someone had been sneaking around in here, and just a little too thorough when they were trying to cover their tracks.

But why?

Kayin glanced back at the ladder. No, the ashes were still disturbed from where she'd initially uncovered the grate. So nobody had been sneaking around in the crawlspace.

What was their goal here, then?

Forgetting everything else, Kayin poked around the room, headless of her tracks. She'd had her feet adjusted to leave kitty tracks. If the unknown sneak hadn't been concerned about them before, he wasn't likely to worry about them if he returned.

And under the bed she found it.

Fresh wood shavings, and a borehole that dug down into the crawlspace below. The crawlspace that clearly let anyone in it listen to the council chamber.

Yeah, someone had been spying here, and recently.

Kayin blinked in the rapidly descending darkness. This was troublesome. Graves would probably want to know about this.

She went back to where she'd last left him, and found him still in his chair, sitting across from Garon. He was blinking hard, and massaging his temples with the palms of his hands, and she knew that sign. Graves had a real banger of a headache!

Before anyone could react, even noticed she'd snuck in, she leaped on his back and made donuts on the place where his neck met his torso, purring.

She nearly got a flaming sword through her head for her troubles.

“Stand down Henweigh!” Garon snapped. “It's just Kayin. She does this.”

Graves sat back into the chair, taking care to avoid squishing her as he sighed and leaned into the massage. “Thank you. We're about done, so don't worry. I'll get some sleep after this.”

“Good reactions though,” Garon continued. “You're getting better, Apollyon.”

The armored youth in question stowed his sword, leaving wisps of smoke in the air as he brushed sweat-matted blonde hair back from his eyes. “Thank you sir. If we're almost done...”

“I think we hashed out everything,” said the halven in the corner.

Chase shot her a look. This was the blonde one's sister. Short, with dark hair wrapped in colorful scarves, wearing a set of snug leather armor and a fine blue and red dress. Attractive as halvens went Kayin supposed, but Kayin's tastes had never run that way. Hairy feet were a turn-off. And she was young, way too young to even take the notion seriously.

Besides, she might be a bad guy. She seemed like a good person, and if she was being honest, then she'd just saved Threadbare and Celia from a whole world of hurt.

If. If was the key word, there, because the God Squad had checked her out and confirmed that she was also probably the best liar in Cylvania at the moment. So Kayin couldn't trust that she was on the level right now.

“Then we're good to go,” Garon decided. “Kayin, I was going to get the Scouts to message you to come in, but we've had a new development. No, don't give me that look, I won't spend a long time telling you about it.”

Kayin tried to adjust her face into a guilty grin.

Garon rolled his eyes, a neat trick since they were glowing orbs in a hollow helmet. “Long story short, Glub's off the team. Threadbare's got a way to get him in directly. He'll be in contact with Cognac—”

“Cagna,” Chase interrupted.

“Cagna. She's not as good in the wilderness, but with Glub at the objective you'll have an edge that way. It does leave you one short, though.”

“Oh, no problem. We can get by,” Kayin said. “Less people also means we'll be more effective at stealth.”

“Actually you won't be one short,” Chase said, and smiled nervously as everyone in the room turned to look at her. She held up a handful of red-and-blue-and-gold-backed cards. “I got bored and did some divination. Your last team member is in the north courtyard, talking with the porcelain princess. Relax, they're old friends.”

“Kayin, go check that out—” Graves started, then reached around to feel the back of his head. But she was long gone.

Kayin hadn't waited for the command, and she could be fast when she needed to be.

And it wasn't that big a castle, when you got down to it. So in under a minute she was crouched up on the ledge of a second-story window, looking down on the courtyard, and the small group of people within.

The first three she saw were the newcomers. The trio that had come with the halven, and whom the God Squad had also vetted.

There was a big, burly man with muscles upon muscles, middle-aged at least, wearing the oddest set of Wizard gear she'd ever seen; barely more than a pointy hat and a loincloth. He was the Muscle Wizaard, and she looked forward to seeing what kind of spells he could bring to bear in the field.

Then there was the dog beastkin, a built woman, lean and muscled wearing highwayman's garb. She had the head of a doberman, and eyes that never sat still, and Kayin could respect that. This was Cagna, and she was a decent Scout and investigator of sorts, so hopefully she'd make up for Glub not being there.

The final figure among the newcomers was Thomasi Venturi, a tall, lanky human with a hat that looked just like Threadbare's old hat, only he had a jacket and pants to match as well. He was a bright splash of color in the gray and moss stone of the courtyard, and Kayin reckoned he had the stealth skill of a turnip. But apparently he was really good at talking his way through things, and circus stuff, so hopefully they'd encounter a group of suspicious clowns at some point. Otherwise she didn't see the use, but hey, she hadn't picked this team.

Directly past them two small figures, about Kayin's size, were talking with each other. The first was a black grizzly bear in plate mail; had to be Missus Fluffbear, and it made Kayin smile to see her.

The other...

Kayin's eyes went wide, her ears went straight up, and she was laughing, leaping, and scrambling without a thought in her head beyond a single word that burst from her mouth without bidding.

“ZUULA!”

“De fuck?” The green felt puppet whirled, yellow eyes gleaming, spear raised... then flung aside, as the half-orc golem grabbed Kayin out of the air, and laughed. “Kayin! Little Kayin! How long it been, eh? How many guys you killed since Zuula been away?”

Kayin didn't answer the question. She was too busy purring and licking Zuula's face with a tongue that didn't have any saliva at all. Yeah, it was pure instinct for a body that wasn't there any more, but she didn't care. It felt right.

After a few moments Zuula got bored and started trying to ram her into the nearby buildings to dislodge her. Kayin scrambled off, grinning, watching as the half-orc slammed herself into a wall, fell over, and swore up a blue storm.

“So... you know this woman, mistress Kayin?” a cultured voice asked from behind her, and she glanced over to see Thomasi beaming down at her, his hat in his hands.

“We all do!” Squeaked Missus Fluffbear, helping Zuula to her feet. “She's a mighty Shaman, and a really good friend!”

“To dose who deserve it, yes,” Zuula said, stumping over to stair up at Thomasi, then on to the two behind him, before her face split into a wide, toothy leer. “Oh my,” she said, looking the Muscle Wizaard up and down. “You did not have to break out de beefcake just to celebrate Zuula coming home. But it IS appreciated...”

Cagna growled.

Zuula growled back, and the dog-woman took a step backward before she could stop herself.

“I'm very flattered,” rumbled the Muscle Wizaard. “But I'm, uh... taken.” he stuck an arm out to Cagna, who tucked it into hers, ears laid back, eyes fixed on the half-orc golem.

“They told me you were here,” Celia's voice drifted across the courtyard, and Kayin smiled to see her old friend striding toward them, armored head to toe, and carrying a pack much larger than she was. “Zuula. Come with me.”

“Where we go?”

“To save Threadbare.”

“Oh, okay.” Zuula picked up her spear. “Fill Zuula in on de way.”

Without question she turned and followed Celia out the gate.

Grinning, feeling her confidence higher than it had been in days, Kayin put aside her worries and fell into line as well, hearing the others whisper, then shuffle after her.

No more talking. No more planning. No more worries, or trying to control her brain, or sorting and re-sorting out who was doing what when.

That was all done. Now it was time to act. And that was what Kayin did best!

It was much later, days out in the middle of the woods, that Kayin remembered she had forgotten to tell Graves something. But what had it been?

Marking it off as unimportant, she shrugged and went back to scouting ahead for the party. Finally she decided that if she'd left without doing it it hadn't been important, and probably wouldn't be an issue later.

That was a decision she would come to regret, in the weeks to come...