Theft of Decks 4, CH 31

Productivity of Heart’s Succor is down for the third trimester in a row. Keepers report nothing extraordinary around the town. This means that the issue is likely internal. Please send an investigator – preferably a Heart or stronger – to look into the matter. Again. This could be a benign situation; somebody looking to aid a town that is struggling. Yet, the way they handle it is nothing short of villainous. I hate this place. (Page 54.)

In the end, they opted for speed. They could try to improve their odds, craft items to aid their chances at success. However, with Reen gone, their easy access to crafting items had also disappeared. On top of that, they knew that their hideout could very well be among the many secrets that Reen would end up disclosing.

Hence, in the late afternoon, Chase charged at a door at the western side of Salvation. On all sides, shadows emerged, spreading around him to hide his existence.

On the other side of the door, a steam-filled half-hidden world of fog emerged, threatening to drown him in vapor and turn him around in confusion. Cries of confusion arose around him. He ignored it all and moved ahead as fast as he could, grasping, discarding, snatching what he needed. He dodged worker after sweat-covered worker, until he reached the far end. There, his right leg slammed into a large, wooden chest kept closed by a massive iron padlock several times in succession.

The padlock didn’t look like it would budge any day soon. However, the wood gave after just a few kicks, and he tore out a few boards, before being awarded with his price. A row of long, exquisitely soft shirts, the dark blue of a moon-lit night, matching pants underneath. Seconds later, he was out the front door again, letting the shadows fade as he aimed for the nearest alley.

He joined up with the others, tossing the bundle of clothes at Cilia.

“We’re on!”

They switched clothes in an alley. Then moved on, at a slow pace that belied their tension.

Screams arose before they even reached the gate. Not from their chosen gate, but the next one over, just a few hundred feet farther down the wall of the palace.

At this point, they’d been embroiled in enough life-and-death situations to be familiar with the difference cadences of screams. These were screams of shock, yet not of pain. Everything was going according to plan, so far.

“What are you standing around for?” Cilia strode up ahead of the others, challenging the guards at the gate. “We are being attacked! Move!” She pointed at the next gate over, but didn’t stop walking for even a moment.

Cilia was never going to have an intimidating physical presence. She was too small, too scrawny. Over the course of her life, however, she had worked hard to ensure that her personality made up for that lack.

Up against a rapidly escalating situation, Cilia’s demanding presence, the dark blue outfit of a pillar and the illusion of the still-unnamed pillar shrouding her real features, the guard did the only thing his station had prepared him for. He obeyed, and started shouting orders at the other guards to investigate the commotion.

Cilia didn’t slow down for a second. She passed the guard, followed closely by the others, all dressed in the slightly brighter clothes of the Pristine Minds.

With swift steps, they moved straight for the center of the palace. Every inch of their composure was controlled and hardened, closed-off to show anybody that the mere thought of bothering them would end badly.

For a few minutes, it actually worked. They left the gate guards behind them, moving fast under the guise of importance.

When they found themselves at a crossing corridor blessedly free of people, Cilia paused. “Your vipers?”

“Dead and gone.” Kith shrugged.

“Okay. Time to fade from their tracking. Everybody, switch away from Devotion to Liberty. Also… we are not going to reach the center unless we have further distractions.”

Kith grinned a savage grin and faced her. He reached his hands out and asked “I’m saving the insects for our main showdown. Will you let me do the honors?”

She reached into her pockets and extracted two droplets emblazoned with tiny images of flames. “Go right ahead, Kith. Let’s give them something to think of.”

Within seconds, flames tore at both corridors, left and right.

Now they sped up, jogging through the palace. They put distance between themselves to not make it obvious that they were a full group. When they met with others, they yelled orders at them, anything to add to the chaos. About the fire, about attacks, about needing to reinforce their gates.

The notoriety of station helped them along. The vast majority of people inside the palace were servants, people of the mass, or hands, there to obey and serve and definitely not ask questions of anybody as lofty as minds, let alone pillars.

On top of that, they nearly emptied Cilia’s stores of fire droplets. On their way in, they set more than a dozen small fires, spreading smoke and panic throughout the palace.

Once, they spotted another mind in the distance, but they moved on fast enough that they weren’t forced to talk to them.

The minutes pressed on, at once in a hurry and at a pace that felt too slow to be true. A pair of Hearts in an otherwise empty corridor tried to challenge Liam. He slowed down to talk to them, and abruptly sucker punched one of them into oblivion, kicked the leg out from under the other one and punched him in the head on the ground. They left them spreadeagled in the corridors.

Soon, they started seeing things they recognized from their tour. The large map room, showing the entire glory of the Liberty lands. The fantastic murals, explaining the made-up history of the Liberators and the villainous outsiders. A few details were different, though, among these the large number of servants and guards running around mid-panic, almost like somebody had loosed hostile summons on the palace and was setting fires left and right.

It couldn’t go on forever. They managed to make farther in than they’d deemed possible, with maybe ten minutes to go. Yet, from one moment to the next, the corridors ahead of them rang with the sounds of weapons and yelled commands.

Cilia dropped back from where she’d been leading their advance. “A large group. Front and center,” she yelled.

Chase raced ahead, putting himself at the head of their group. “We know what to do. First Sera, then Cil, then me. Go!”

Seconds later, they encountered the first concerted effort to stop them. A dozen guards, at least. They nearly filled the corridor. The front rank of fighters knelt with large shields, while archers and crossbowmen stood behind them, ranged weapons slowly rising to face them. At the far back, a person sporting the dark blue color of a mind had his hands raised.

Possibly in supplication. More likely in the process of guiding the activation of some card. They never learned.

Sera shouted. “Now.”

Nature’s Shield activated, and long vines bearing ten-inch-long barbs started spilling out in the right side of the corridor. The vines thickened, turning and twisting, and solidified into long, rope-like tendrils, filling a third of the wide corridor in seconds.

The guards shouted, but didn’t move, seeing as how even the nearest roots were feet away from them.

Then Cilia activated Touch Grass, and the roots started to move. Seconds later, the first screams started.

They tried to stand tall against the twisting vines. They really did. The mind at the back unleashed some shining globe that carved out a huge chunk of the growths, as well as anything else that moved into its territory.

Only, according to the Furyborn Elders, Nature’s Shield with a Mental Power of twenty was an effective deterrent against most humans. At the moment, Sera’s Mental Power was at forty-nine.

Sera alone would have forged the vines into an impenetrable barrier, enough for a proper nuisance. But the vines moved according to Cilia’s will, now, and her will was steel. Together, their creation was a menace. The guards cried out in pain and fear, as the tendrils snaked around the Liberator’s card and forcibly pushed left, into the mass of soldiers, pushing them back against the opposite wall. The grating noise of thorns against steel armor mixed with screams as the thorns located exposed areas, pushed into flesh and drew the full attention of anybody present.

Some of the ranged fighters still had the presence of mind to train their weapons on them. Only, Chase acted now, activating Circle of Darkness. With a mental nudge, he layered the darkness right on top of the soldiers, even as he laced a path of lighter shadows along the right side. From one second to the next, the beleaguered defenders were firing blind.

A few arrows hit the wall. Yet, seconds later, they were past, and the screams of the soldiers behind them were the only signs that they’d even been there.

A few minutes later, they were beset once more, this time by a full group of ranged fighters who’d entrenched themselves inside a large, circular room containing dozens of immaculate art pieces. The archers and crossbowmen were divided throughout the room, using the art for defense.

This time, they didn’t even attack. Liam leapt ahead with Helping Hand, activated Become the Clay and hid behind his shield, allowing the defenders to turn him into a veritable porcupine. Following the initial volley, Chase used Circle of Darkness again, and they trailed after him through the room and into the far corridor, before Sera blocked the opening entirely with another serving of Nature’s Shield.

“We’re getting closer.” Kith panted. By now, they were running in a group. The time for subterfuge was long past, and anybody they met either fled them, huddled down in fear and confusion, or tried to kill them. “Two more corridors.”

Cilia was the hardest put-upon by their fast pace. Sweat ran down her face in rivulets, but she kept up without complaints. She slowed down slightly, extracted an intricately braided and carved leather ring from her right pocket, bent it in two, and placed it in her left pocket before continuing to lope ahead. “We.” She panted. “We don’t know if these can protect us from the influence of his items, but they should. I have enough for an hour, at most. Make it count!”

“Damn straight we will!” Liam grinned. He raised his old truncheon in a salute.

Kith slammed his hand axes against each other, producing a ringing sound. “Time to carve up a god!”

Chase laughed, raising his short sword high. “This is insane. I love it. Please don’t die!”

Sera shook her head in dismay at their antics, hefting her small bucklers. “We are about to challenge somebody stronger than anybody, anywhere in the world – and you still crack horrible jokes? I do love you all.”

They entered the final corridor. Beyond that, they would reach right into the very center of the palace, reach the tower holding all the decks, the home of the Savior himself, their very target.

Only, the huge doorway leading into the floor level of the tower was not to be seen. In its place lay a shimmering, dizzying display of magic. An opaque shield, covering the entire passage in magic, blocking them off from entering.

Liam rolled his shoulders. “Well. That answers one question. Guess he’s home! Who’s knocking?”

Sera strode ahead. “You already know this is my task, silly. Now, remember the deal. From here on out, this is what I can do. Please keep distractions off my back and keep me alive.” She activated four cards in short succession. Blessing of the Night would serve them as it had always done, more than doubling any buffs to their attributes. Bubbles of Blue would enhance their defense – especially that of Liam’s Become the Clay – as well as the strength of her Shields. Meanwhile, Shield of Cancelation would add a canceling effect to any shields she activated, and Shimmering Sanctuary provided them all with shields to defend against enemy hostile effects.

As they watched the miniature sun grow into existence above Sera’s head and bathe them in a comfortable warmth, they all shot hopeful glances at the barrier ahead. This was the lynch pin of their current plan. If it didn’t work, they’d be stuck behind the shield, with nowhere to go but back.

Sera stepped ahead, head held high, gaze fixed on the swimming, shimmering barrier ahead of them. “Whatever happens, know that I have cherished my time with you.”

Kith snorted. “Stop that. Nobody likes that kind of talk. It’s for losers.” He watched the barrier intently, hungrily, as if waiting for it to fall. “You’re not a loser, are you, Princess?”

She moved right up in front of the barrier, holding her hands out. The small sun above her head bathed the shield in a vibrant, warm glow. “I told you before. We have no way of knowing if this will work, or if I am even strong enough to influence anything. Your goading has no influence on the effect here.”

The shield burst apart in a shining spray of mist.

“Or does it?” Kith smirked? “I’d better keep it up. Just in case. You think you can keep up, little girl?”