The Chase Is On Part I (2/2)

“The best of health to you, and may you never have to endure excitement,” Chase said, studying him with interest. “Now how did you know that greeting?”

“Oh I'm from Easterlynn. There's a lot of halvens there. Old, respectable town. Maybe a little too respectable, and not enough respectful, I'm coming to find out.” His face drooped, and he pulled his hood off. “Sorry, do you mind?”

“Not at all!” Greta breathed, eyes bright as she stared up at him, before scurrying to pull his chair out. “Sit down, sit down, you must be tired from all those stairs.”

Chase closed her eyes. Yes, they had been a while on the road. Yes, he was handsome for a human. But she was being very forward, and this really wasn't the time.

She considered mentioning something about it, but there was the off-chance that he hadn't noticed yet, and that would only make things awkward. And this nonsense wasn't worth wasting a divination on.

“So!” Chase said, hurrying around to the seat opposite him before Greta could beat her there, “how much of the plan has Mister Graves told you?”

“Not much. He told me to sneak down here, meet with you, and follow your instructions. Then he fell asleep.”

“Fell asleep? You were at his bedside?” Greta asked, eyes going wider, and her face reddening.

“No, no. He's got this chair made of skeleton bits that he uses to get him around when he's too tired to walk.” Apollyon shuddered. “I know it's legal now, and they're all unclaimed bones, but still...”

“That's definitely been the hardest thing to get used to,” Chase nodded.

“Oh yes!” Greta nodded, pigtails flying as she tried to reach her hands across the table toward Apollyon. “I was so scared the first time I heard that necromancy was the way of the kingdom, here. See! They tremble!”

“Um,” Apollyon said, stretching a gauntlet out, then drawing it back. “If you say so.”

“ANYWAY!” Chase said, shooting Greta a glare, “We're going to need you to help us escape from here.”

Apollyon stared at her, jaw dropping. “Wait. What?”

Several hours later, after Chase and Greta had gotten a hasty nap, they were woken by alarm bells. Alarm bells, and the groaning and cracking of the door as the stone of the frame around it warped, buckling and cracking it free of its hinges.

“Come on,” Chase said, poking her sister awake... and hesitating, as she saw what she was wearing. Or rather, wasn't wearing. “Oh you shameless hussy! Put your dress on!”

“What? What? Oh no there's no time!” said a grinning, shift-clad Greta. “We'd better go right now!”

Five minutes later, after Chase had threatened Greta with bodily harm sufficiently and a heavily blushig Apollyon had said that no, it was fine, he'd wait, and PLEASE get decent, everyone was properly dressed and ready to go.

Apollyon led them upstairs a flight, then paused at a landing. “Ah... this is the place.”

“The heavy guard post is right above us?” Chase asked, making sure.

“Yes.”

“Good. Got the snacks and the wine?”

“Right here,” Apollyon reached into his backpack and pulled out a couple of small parcels, and a bottle.

“Late-night snack, then,” Greta said, taking them from him and 'accidentally' brushing his arm. Even though she had to stand on tiptoe to do it.

They polished them off in short order after they found an empty dungeon cell, and settled in for what was by Halven standards a rushed and uncomfortable meal. It only lasted half an hour! While they ate, the alarm bells fell silent, and Chase nodded in satisfaction at the tromp of boots overhead, and the clink of armor. The stone floor was pretty thick, but those were, indeed, heavy guard.

“Right!” she announced, “now on to the next part. Did you confirm it? Are you an elite member of your guild?”

“I am...” Apollyon said, packing up the remnants of the food. “Is this part really necessary?”

“Oh yes,” Chase said, grinning widely. “Do your part now.”

Shaking his head, Apollyon turned his back to them, covered his eyes, and started counting.

“Come on. We're hiding together,” Chase said, taking Greta's arm and pulling her out into the hallway.

“But it's more fun if he has to look for us separately,” Greta said, her face completely innocent.

Chase scowled at her. “Don't lie to a liar. I'm not giving you any chance to be alone with him.”

Greta's eyes went a little TOO wide. “What? Oh, I would NEVER...”

“Not if you keep pulling this while we're on the job, you won't. Save it for when we're done.”

Her big sister rolled her eyes, and let Chase lead her to an empty cell.

It took Apollyon a while to find them. He wasn't the most perceptive of people. Which only meant that Greta's flirting was at ludicrously blatant levels by Halven standards, after he did finally track them down, and they casually walked up to the castle proper, and into the southern courtyard. Chase eyed the moon, weighed how her legs were feeling, and finally nodded. “All right. Time for the last part. Go get your guard friend. Ah... you're sure we can trust her?”

“Her?” Greta asked, frowning.

“Yes, we can,” Apollyon said. “I'll go check the post and make sure she's awake. Wait here.”

A few minutes later, he arrived with a middle-aged woman in tow. Chase heard Greta's sigh of relief and rolled her eyes as the woman smiled and offered a wave with one mailed hand. “I'm Gladys. What do you need from me?”

“It's going to sound a little weird,” Chase said, turning and pointing to a corner of the courtyard. “But we need you to march back and forth over there, patrolling, as it were. And while you do this, we're going to dodge around you.”

Gladys looked skeptical, but set to marching, and Chase and Greta spent a good frew minutes running in front of, behind, and around her.

But halvens are not sturdy, and before long Chase deemed it enough. They thanked Gladys, swore her to secrecy, and Apollyon escorted her back to her post.

After it become evident that Greta really hated to see him leave but loved to watch him go, Chase offered her a handkerchief. “You're drooling.”

She wasn't, but it was fun to watch her sister's mouth snap shut, and her glare brought impish glee to Chase's heart.

“We've been on the road a long time, and he's halven-trained and ah, that hair,” Greta whispered, flipping her braids over her shoulder. “I've seen how you look at Thomasi, Chase Berrymore, so you have no room to speak.”

Chase grimaced. “There's nothing there,” she told her sister. “You know his... situation. I have to save him. And in any case I'm too young and he's too old.”

“Your eyes tell a different story when you see him.”

“That's because I can dream.” Chase said, looking away. “And yes, it's fantasy. With who he is, with what he is, that's all it could ever be. But leave me my fantasy. I need some comfort on the long nights.”

“I'll leave you that if you let me flirt with this tall snack,” Greta said, pointing as Apollyon came back to the courtyard. “I don't expect anything to happen here either, but I want to have fun, and this keeps me in practice if someone tastier comes along. Do we have a deal?”

“Deal?” Apollyon asked, catching the last few words.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Chase lied to his face, as she shook Greta's hand. “Come on. We have everything we need now.”

Apollyon produced two more hooded cloaks, the three of them made sure their faces were more or less shadowed in a properly sinister fashion, and the three of them walked straight out of the servant's door and into the city just a little past midnight.

“So... where exactly are we going now?” Apollyon asked.

“An inn, first,” Chase said, pulling out her fortuna cards and checking them over. “Some place with a meal and a table, where I can figure out where to find the people we need to impress...”

Three hours later, in one of the worst parts of Cylvania City, in a dark and well-insulated room with bloodstains on the floor, Chase and Greta sat on chairs facing a circle of masked people.

The presence of magic was heavy in the air; the weight of attention was heavier. And Chase didn't bother to hide her nervousness as she looked around the room, surveying the black leather masks surrounding them, with only eyeslits breaking up the smooth, polished surfaces.

The magic felt of divination. She would have known that even if her cards hadn't warned her this was coming. They had broken out the heavy enchantments, to make sure that no lie would pass unnoticed.

The figure who seemed to be in charge broke the silence. “You say you were their prisoners?”

Chase nodded. “More or less. We were like guests at the beginning, but after a time they showed their true intentions. Towards the end we ate our meals under heavy guard.”

She marked which one the leader looked to; that was the one running the truth spell. And sure enough, there was a slight nod as the mage confirmed her words.

“And you escaped.”

“With the help of a friend we made,” Greta said, her poker face almost as good as Chase's. “But it wasn't easy. We played hide and seek with one of their elite guild members. He'll probably be looking for us later.”

“But we think we can use that,” Chase said. “He was a little sympathetic to our discussions. We're pretty sure we can bring him to our cause.”

That got another check, and another nod, and Chase sighed in relief. The tension was definitely easing.

“And what is your cause?” The leader asked, and Chase kept her worry to herself. This was the part she hadn't prepared for.

“This land has unnatural practices,” she hedged. “Where I'm from, they would be considered obscene!” All true. “I see no reason that harmful and blasphemous practices should continue, and I don't mind doing a little good while I'm here.”

CHA+1

Chase felt a surge of relief... and some part of it must have shown on her face, because just as the leader was turning to look at the mage, he paused, and whipped his head back to face her. His eyes burned into her own.

“This still feels... convenient. There's a lot at stake.” The leader said, standing, and motioning in their direction. Chase heard a stir of clothing and armor, and swallowed as hands clamped down on her shoulders. Steel rasped on leather, and she knew she was inches from death.

And a part of her smiled to see it. A part of her rejoiced in the thrill.

This was what had drawn her out of her boring former life.

This was what had led her out into the woods, to find help, and what had kept her going when she found adventure again.

This was what her god had prepared her for.

And because things come in threes, she sealed the deal with the last lie she'd prepared this evening. A lie that was a truth, just taken out of context.

“Oh please,” Chase said, putting steel in her voice, and contempt in her eyes. “We spent far too long dodging patrols during our escape to waste time with this stuff. If you're going to kill us do it, otherwise tell me how to help. Because one way or another, I want to fix this land, and I think with your help I can solve the problems it's having right now. So what's it to be?”

The leader looked to the mage.

Chase held her breath.

And when the mage nodded, the leader nodded, pulled off his mask, and smiled. He was a handome man as humans went, but far more satisfying were the sensations of the hands leaving her shoulders, and the awareness that the people behind her had backed away.

“Welcome to the resistance,” he said, offering his hand, and she shook, smiling.

“I very much look forward to working with you,” Chase said, as she began sizing him up and figuring out the best way to go about ruining this poor bastard's life.