Chapter 14: Chapter 12: Intrigue, Isolationists & Infiltrators (Part 1)

Chapter 12: Intrigue, Isolationists & Infiltrators

“I’m going to wake sleeping beauty here,” Mom said way too deeply as she lent over me. Was something up with her voice? 

Time for school? I don’t wanna get up yet.

Walking across the room, Mamaí leant over the bed from the side. “Let her sleep a little longer, she needs her rest!” she replied, her voice familiar, but wrong. “We’ve barely slept in days and have been traveling on foot almost as long. We’re hidden here, but if she collapses again on the road while we’re exposed…”

Sleeping beauty? She? Traveling on foot? What was she talking about? Something was off and not just with Mom or Mamaí’s voices.

“We really need to move,” Mom insisted, the voice leaving her mouth still much too deep and not her own. “The secret tunnel bought us several hours maybe more if we’re lucky, while they search the fortress for us, but eventually they are going to realise we escaped and send riders to scour the road from Spot to the Capital.” 

Secret tunnels, fortresses? What are they talking about? Why were they arguing? They never argue! The capital? Are we going to Washington DC? An ember of panic threatened to ignite at the thought of them going to Washington. 

No!

“What’s to stop them finding us in the Capital then?” Mom challenged, her off voice soft and quiet despite the argumentative tone. She was probably trying to not wake me up.

My thoughts were swimming as I tried to work out what the hell they were talking about. None of this made sense, everything was wrong. 

Mom and Mamaí were dead, they’d died years ago during the People’s March on Washington to End the War. It had been a protest march calling on the government to finally ratify the decades old peace treaty, agree to the UN’s demands and bring a close to the embargoes and militarised sealed borders. 

When the armed pro-Government counter protesters attacked the march, the Capitol Police just stood aside and looked on.

“I know safe places in the Capital and if we get there first they won’t be able to openly arrest or abduct us,” the deeper voice spoke loudly as the dream disintegrated around it. 

In its place, I could feel the sensation of crisp morning air on my skin and see the flicker of dancing sunlight through my eyelids. 

“Are you even trying to be quiet?!” Roxi hissed, as she tried to keep her voice down. I quietly gasped as my lungs drew in air for a small yawn.  “Shit!” she cursed, “I think she is waking up.”

Raising a hand over my face, shielding my eyes from the light, I cautiously opened them. Glancing to the side, I could see Roxi peering down at me as she knelt beside me and behind her was an apprehensive Shifty, restlessly pacing back and forth.

It had been these two arguing beside me that I heard in my dreams. 

Crap!

What had they been saying? 

“Aisling… Are you rested enough to continue?” she asked hesitantly, her face filled with concern. “You passed out or fell asleep on your feet last night. You made it to a clearing, so we didn’t have to carry you and thankfully I was able to grab you and lower you to the ground before your legs completely gave way.”

Embarrassing… Why am I always the damsel in distress? Dammit!  Checking for status conditions, I opened the UI’s character screen with a sleepy wave. [Fatigued], the status effect flashed slowly below my stats, with a tap I opened the status effect into a new window.

[Fatigued]: Extensive physical and mental activity without adequate rest and recovery has left you suffering from fatigue. Total Stamina and Mana reduced by 15%, this percentage is increased by further activity and reduced by time spent recovering through rest or via healing.

I wonder what it was before I passed out last night? Did I spend most of my decreased mana pool during our escape?

“The thicket hides us from the road and I decided we’d covered enough ground to stop for a rest. Unfortunately we can’t afford to stay here or rest much longer. We really do have to be going,” Shifty cut in before I had a chance to reply.

“I have the fatigue debuff, but it’s still pretty low. I guess the sleep helped some, lemme just try and stand first. If I collapse again you’ll have your answer,” I replied almost glibly.

Sitting up I stretched, letting out a squeak of a yawn and tried to get a feel for my body's condition. My legs were definitely still sore from their multi day work out, and I had a surprising amount of aches and stiffness elsewhere. The muscles of my shoulders, neck and back were sore from lugging around that pack and they had acquired a level of tension unheard of outside of a teasingly written pulp fiction romance novel. 

Standing with the help of a steady hand from a worried Roxi, I continued to stretch and try to loosen the various points of tight irritation. Finishing stretching my arms out behind my back, I braced myself using a tree and began to slowly twist and gyrate my waist and hips as I worked loose the knots that had formed in my muscles.

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“Ok! I think I can take it! As long as there is a soft bed at the end for me to collapse into. Just lemme grab a bite to eat and I’m good to—“ I replied as I turned back to face a dazed and red faced Roxi, “Are you alright? Roxi? Is that sunburn? Are you feeling heat stroke?”

“I uh, I— I ate a chilli I found while we were travelling through farmland. I’ll be alright,” she stammered.

Her back was to him, but I could totally see Shifty dramatically rolling his eyes behind her.

Shifty.

We were letting ourselves get pretty comfortable around this complete enigma of a person. I’d described him as almost too average and utterly nondistinctive, but his sarcasm, dry wit and the way he seemed to be internally laughing at a joke that only he knew was utterly distinctive.

Looking up at him as I squatted down and rummaged through my pack for some food, I shot him a question, “So umm… I don’t know if it was discussed after I fell asleep, but who the hell are you and why are you helping us?”

Hearing my question, Shifty let out a disappointed sigh, “I guess I owe you an explanation. I really was hoping to enjoy keeping you confused and in the dark for a tiny bit longer.” 

The human officer’s form seemed to melt, shift and change until in his place was a horned, pale purple skinned figure of ambiguous build dressed in a outfit that could best be described as an eighteenth century british naval admiral’s garb, except all in black with accents of gold thread and buttons. The overwhelming averageness replaced by roguish charm and a smile that bordered on arrogant amusement.

Eyes twinkling with enjoyment at our surprised expressions, they went into a low bow with great flourish and at the lowest part, looked back up at us making eye contact and winked. 

“Elixatmael, Darkling Infiltrator mk1, the seductive swashbuckler, hero to all, first player to visit and leave the City of Flotsam without having to resort to strength of arms. Call me El,” they asked, rising out of their bow.

“Umm,” Roxi and I replied having lost our ability to speak after that flamboyant introduction.

I’m sure they were enjoying that too, given their tittering chuckle. “So you wanted to know why I helped you? Let's just say a very rewarding quest chain from the Duchess had me investigating why the fort had lapsed in its reporting to the capital and the rumors of a military build up going on. Unfortunately highly rewarding means both highly risky and a lot of work, the amount of research I had to do in the capital before I set out firstly, then forging transfer papers and add insult to injury I couldn’t just walk around and investigate, the fort actually put me to work!” they explained sounding almost insulted.

“So then you two come along with a letter and a package that got all the officers, all the way to the Baronet at the top, excited and moving. You do still have that package don’t you?” they asked pausing for a second.

Roxi nodded, “I grabbed them back as we were escaping. I kinda wanted to know the reason why they wanted to kill or throw us in cells.”

Seeing that they were caught up monologuing I took the chance to start munching on rations. Carpe diem.

“Great! So here I was all of a sudden thinking, ‘Hey El, that package seems pretty important. I might finally learn something good and get to leave this joint if I grab it.’ So the plan was to wait for them to finish dealing with you, no offense by the way, and then grab the letter and parcel afterwards when it would be passed along to the Baronet. That plan went out the window real fast when you escaped, so I figured I ought to grab you both since you basically fell into my hands.”

Their orange eyes widened as they realised something, “Wait, I grabbed you literally didn’t I? I can’t say Lady Luck, Murphy wasn’t smiling down on me.”

“Murphy? You call Lady Luck Murphy?” Roxi asked, as if she was trying to work out how this strange player’s brain worked.

“Well yeah… Lady Luck and Murphy’s law are two sides of the same coin, who am I to upset them by complaining that their name doesn’t meet the rigors of restrictive binary gender roles,” El explained as if it was something painfully obvious, “I’d rather keep my good fortune as it is, thank you very much.”

“Huh…” uttered a taken back Roxi.

I guess it made sense in a strange, almost superstitious or religious way. Kinda made me wonder if there was a God, umm Goddess, no, Goddex maybe, out there throwing Murphies my way.

 

 

 

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