37 Prepped (1/2)
We finished our briefing, the plan we developed wasn't extremely creative, but that didn't matter as long as it worked. Our plan entailed me infiltrating Whitehall, the capital of the Lord's Union located 250 miles northeast of Hampton, while everyone else enforced the stronghold and massed more men.
This part would be more important than my mission, if we had any chance of persuading the King of the Lord's Union, then we need to have enough of men to back up our claims. Rett told me we could expect up to 1,500 or 2,000 wolf-men, depending on how many found our message. Although, I'm not going to leave it up to chance, while we were refining our plan I convinced Rett to send 20 of his best men from the recon unit to locate and recruit any Moon Claws they could find.
While Rett's men did their magic, Sir Richard would try and recruit some of his old friends that he was able to contact. We needed to locate any remaining Knights of the Order, the best choice of action is to use the chaos to organize a retaliation force before the Forsaken could crush us before we grew into a threat.
I, on the other hand, would infiltrate Whitehall and discreetly make contact with Sir William Sone, the King of the Lords's Union. We haven't been able to gather much information on the state of his court or his kingdom in general, but he should still be in the capital. That's the only thing we do know, and we aren't even completely sure about that.
I had to make a decision, do I bring some men in the case I'm discovered and I need to fight my way out? Or do I use my stealth experience and go in alone? But then I would risk the possibility of being caught and then killed.
It's a decision that I spent hours mulling over in the confines of my empty room. To be honest, I didn't think that I would return back here so soon, but the universe is full of surprises I suppose. I sat there idly strumming my mandola, trying to make a decision until.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knocking at my door, perplexed as to who would visit me, I set down my mandola and opened the door. The figure on the other side was none other than jake, the good-natured rouge himself, wearing an impossibly large grin. He seemed giddy, but I returned the sentiment. I hadn't seen him since before I met Lili, I had feared the worst since I hadn't seen him manning the wall during the siege.
Enthusiastically, I step forward and wrap him in a tight bear hug. He did the same before beating my back a couple of times with well-intentioned slaps. He grabbed my shoulders and yelled.
”Christian! I'm so glad you're alive, I was so worried about you! Aliece was the only way I knew you were still alive, thank god for that bound wisp.” I smiled infectiously and summoned Shade saying.
”You mean Shade? That's her name, but anyway, how are you doing? Did everything go alright? Did you find your sister and mother?” I asked worriedly as shade began floating aimlessly.
His eyes brighten, he stepped to the side and said. ”How about you ask them yourself?”
Past him ran a little girl with black shoulder-length hair and bright emerald green eyes and a small frame. She grabbed onto my waist, nearly tackling me in the process. She squealed with excitement saying.
”Are you Christian? My brother has told me so many good things about you, he said you beat up an Archdemon with your bare hands, he said you can fly and shoot lasers out of your eyeballs. Show me!! Show me!!” She demanded while crushing my waist with surprising strength. Confused, I look at Jake while he tried suppressing his laughter. Scowling I said.
”As Jake knows,” I add pointedly. ”I can't fire lasers indoors, I like to save that for special occasions, it's supposed to be secret.”
I suppose I could ”technically” fire lasers from my eyes if I were to cast [Arrow of Light] close to my eyes, but why would I? More importantly, what has Jake been telling this girl?
She looks down, slightly disappointed, but quickly recovers and said. ”Thank you for saving my brother and my mom and me. I really missed my brother ever since those bad men took him away from us, mom said he went to a better place, but I'm glad he came back. I would wait for him every day, I was so happy when he actually came back.” Even as she said this with a child's innocence, I could see Jake turn away in grief laced in his eyes. I kneeled to look her in her eyes and asked.
”How about we introduce ourselves? I'm Knight Christian of the Paladin Order, I was your brother's best friend when we were fighting. What's your name?” I asked, she beamed at my question, then let go of my waist and curtsied like a little princess.
”I'm Cassandra, but you can call me Cassie. All my friends call me Cassie, you're my friend, ok? We're going to be best friends, just like you are with my brother. I'm going to be even better friends with you than my brother is, see Jake, I'm his bestest friend. Beat that!” Jake just smiles at her provocation.
I asked Cassie. ”How old are you?” She stood up proudly with her chin lifted high, saying.