Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – Burn it Down

Night had settled over the swamps of Exarch’s Bend, and we were out to play. Bell, Cali and I crept through the brush of the forest and approached our target location. The Feddies had erected a small wooden barrier around the farmland. It wouldn’t do much good versus a pair of expert thieves and a mage though. There would be a gap somewhere, a spot where the boggy ground underneath had given way and opened a slot for us to slip through.

That was why they’d invested so much in protecting it with manpower. The wall was just a formality to keep the petty burglars away from their supplies. Anyone more serious would have to contend with the watchmen. Bell had already scouted the shifts ahead of time. We knew that at this early hour of the morning, few would be left and those that were present would be tired and not paying their full attention. I’d double-checked all of his info and felt confident in it. Bell wasn’t screwing around this time – he wanted that gold, and so did I.

“Alright Cali, we’re gonna’ leave the easiest target to you. You see that barn over there?” I pointed to the nearest building at the back of the compound. “There’s a thin channel that runs down the back where you can hide. All you need to do is wait there until you hear the trouble start, toss a fire spell in there and get out.”

“Okay.”

“Bell and me are going to the heavily guarded areas, we’ve got more experience doing this kind of thing. Just keep your head down and run like hell once we’re done.”

“I understand.”

Bell leaned in, “Alright. Let’s do it just like we planned. You remember which one you’re hitting?”

“Number two.”

Bell nodded and pulled a black mask over his face. We’d all switched out of our usual gear and brought face coverings. There wasn’t much need of anything but a basic weapon to defend ourselves with. In an ideal world nobody would catch wind of us before it was too late. Bringing Stigma and my stolen armor with me would make it very easy to pick me out from a crowd, same for Cali – who had to leave her Catalyst Lance in a safe place.

“Let’s do it.”

We followed Bell along the side of the wall until we found the gap we were looking for. One of the logs that the soldiers had pitched into the ground had been bent askew by the shifting ground. Bell stepped up through the hole and landed on the other side. I stood behind Cali and helped her up, before following them both. We emerged into a large, open courtyard. Three soldiers gathered around a burning campfire.

“I wish we could get some action around here, this graveyard shift is boring,” a young voice complained. The older of the three men shook his head.

“That’s the kind of thing you only say when you’ve never been in one of those battles. Did you hear about what happened last week?”

“Yeah,” he bluffed, “So what?”

“You want action so bad that you’d be willing to throw yourself into that? commander says that three thousand men died out there. Bloodiest battle the Bend’s seen since the second war.”

“I’m not saying I’d like to die or anything.”

“But you would. Trust me, getting the easy jobs like this is the way to go. I’ve had too many close shaves to put myself back out on the frontlines again.”

“You don’t even know how to fight properly,” the middle soldier guffawed.

“I trained!”

That didn’t stop the mockery, “Training and doing are two different things my friend!”

“They’re distracted,” Bell whispered, “Let’s split up. Give me a thumbs up when you’re ready to go.”

My target was the most dangerous. Bell had initially thumbed himself for the job, but I stepped in to take it from him. The guards were heavier there and my skills were better than his. Cali peeled off to the left, sticking to the bushes and trees as she approached the first, and smallest warehouse. Bell followed me as we snuck around the right side of the camp. There were a few other soldiers on watch, but their fatigue was evident.

We easily slipped past them, following a shallow stream that led around the side. Both barns were located in a similar location, across the road from each other. But that was the problem, there was little to no cover that allowed you to move across. This was one of the few places in the Bend that had seen significant modification from the wild foliage.

“Alright, get into position. I’m going to get across this.”

“Don’t get caught.”

Bell slinked off around the corner and holed up behind the barn that he was going to burn. The guards at the campfire and the guards by the gate were my main issue. The campfire guards were chatting animatedly, but they’d still spot me in such an obvious location. I decided to move further down the road to make it harder for them to spot me.

It was time to bust out one of my [Skills,] something that only an experienced thief like myself could utilize. [Shadow Walk] was something that every thief worth their name needed to succeed in high end jobs. It darkened your body and made you blend into the shadows. It only worked for a short, thirty second period, and had an irritatingly long cooldown to boot. This was the only time I’d get to use it. But the payoff was great, you could sneak past alert guards by sticking to a dark patch, and given the lack of torch coverage in the compound…

I focused my internal energy and faded away. It was an incredibly strange thing to see. It was like a light had been turned off over my head, making me darker than everything that surrounded me. I made sure that nobody was looking directly at me and took my chance. I ran across the dirt road and to the warehouse, ducking through the front door and closing it behind me.

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The place was filled to the rafters with crates of various goods that an army would need. I lifted the lid of the nearest box and found several weapons stacked on top of each other. The weapons would survive a fire – but the food, medicine and uniforms wouldn’t. And those were the things that really affected morale.

I left through the back door and peered around the corner. Bell was watching for me, we nodded to each other and drew our torches. I struck it alight using a piece of flint and tossed it into the nearest pile of hay. I slipped back into the treeline and headed back to the campfire. The fire spread quickly. Soon enough the flames and the sounds of the dust combusting had attracted the attention of the guards.

“Fire! Fire!” They scrambled to gather buckets of water from the farm’s old well, but they had little hope of putting out the flames now. With the campfire vacated, I snuck past and towards the last warehouse. I came across Cali just as she fired her ignition spell into the open window. Casting a spell without a catalyst would tire her out, but we only needed the one.

“Any problems?”

“No, they did not see me.”

Bell jogged up to us, “That’s some good work! Let’s get out of here before they see us.” We squeezed back through the gap and outside the fort’s walls, sneaking into the forest none the worse for wear.  “Man, those guys were even more lax than I thought they’d be,” Bell laughed, “Easiest gold you’ll ever make, what did I tell you?”

A loud explosion rang out as one of the barns exploded outwards. That would attract a lot of attention. We moved quickly to ensure that we weren’t boxed in by a search party. “Sull couldn’t find the men to come here and do that themselves?”

“They can’t sneak anybody in like this,” Bell explained, “Those guys are a bunch of muscle heads. No subtlety. We know this place better than they do too. A few gold bars is nothing compared to how much damage we just did. Those things went up good.”

“They’re planning on pushing in?”

“I don’t know. Any harder than they have already? Didn’t you go picking around that battle they were talking about back there?”

“I did. It was a mess.”

“I don’t see how it can get any worse.”

“They always find a way,” I muttered.

We eventually broke through the trees and came out onto a small path that led into the town. By the side of the road was a shallow ditch where we threw our gear. We recovered our stuff and threw away the disguises. Thankfully nobody had come by and stolen our expensive belongings while we were gone.

I bent over and grabbed my sword with a weary sigh. “I missed you so much honey!” Stigma cried, even though she’d been integrated into my body and didn’t need to be in my hands to mess with me.

“That went smoothly. I’m surprised.”

Bell rolled his eyes, “Come on man, I’m growing as a rogue, improving! That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“The introspection is certainly new.”

“That’s right, I’m a new man!”

Cali shifted from foot to foot with a blush on her cheeks, “That was rather stimulating. The risk of getting caught… I might become addicted to this.” I’d never met anyone who found sneaking around a swamp and setting a barn on fire arousing, but Cali was full of surprises.

“Meet me at the crossroads tomorrow morning. Guy who gave me the job told me that the cash will be buried near the tree.”

“He’s not giving it to us?”

Bell shrugged, “Doesn’t want to be seen dealing with people like us, I guess. Those knights are all about appearances and nobility. Probably sent some poor sap down there to dig a hole and throw it in there.”

“That is if the money’s even there.”

“It will be. This guy’s a total stiff.”

“We’ll see.”