A Gathering in the Shadows (Part 2)

On a side street in Stonefall, a cloaked man knocked at a rundown house’s door.

He knocked loudly twice, paused, then knocked once more but very quietly.

He heard the locks on the other side come undone as Paladin Christoph opened the door.

“We were expecting you to arrive later than this, my lord.” He beckoned the cloaked man inside before relocking the door. “Did something happen to hasten your arrival?”

Lawrence smiled as he hung up his cloak. “Only some good news I heard as I was riding north. The situation in Black Port has been successfully handled and the undead are all destroyed.”

“It is good to hear that our brothers and sisters helped bring down that infernal horde,” Isabella, a woman dressed in civilian clothing, said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t be there to help them as well, sir.”

“Well, you had your own important tasks to handle, though I don’t know if you’ll ever get the same recognition and praise as our comrades did.”

The three of them laughed as Divine Paladin Lawrence took his seat at the table.

While the Paladins were commonly known as one of the strongest defensive forces in the Holy Empire, few knew that there were far more than eight-thousand members of their order.

There were twelve-thousand of them.

While all of them were capable combatants, the lesser known four-thousand were specialised spies that reported only to the leader of the Paladins: the Divine Paladin himself.

“What have you been able to find out about the Great Disaster?” Lawrence asked.

“A lot of whispers and rumours, I’m afraid, sir.” Isabella sighed. “Depending on who you ask, you’ll hear a lot of different stories. A lot of it seems to be exaggerated and baseless, but it’s hard to figure out what’s true and what isn’t.”

“So, we have an idea as to when the stories of the Great Disaster began at least. What else do we know about the men who were killed?”

“Not much, other than the fact that they’re thugs sent to rough up merchants and shopkeepers into paying an extortionate amount of money.”

“Their public records seem to have been destroyed by the Sons at some point, so we don’t know what they were like before joining the organisation, or even what their names are,” Isabella grumbled. “Without much other choice, we just had our agents investigate their old beating grounds and have concluded that the Hierophant seems to be a possible source of the Great Disaster.”

“For what reasons?”

“Our agents discovered that on the day those men were killed, they’d visited the Hierophant and a few other shops. We were scouting out all of those locations at first, but ultimately decided to focus all our efforts on the Hierophant in the end.”

“Why?”

“The old owners had been sighted leaving the city a day after those adventurers were killed,” Christoph said. “When we learnt of that, I contacted our agents in the Federation and asked them to investigate. Apparently, the old owners had moved into a remote village and were found dead a week later.”

“What?!” Lawrence yelled. “How?”

“According to the villagers, after the old owners moved in, they didn’t leave the house, didn’t answer the door for anyone and then passed away, my lord.”

“Do we know how they died?”

Christoph shook his head. “The villagers didn’t say and had buried the bodies long before our agents got there.”

“What’re the chances of it being foul play?”

“There’s a chance, my lord,” Isabella replied. “The house was cleaned out and resold just a few weeks later, after all.”

“So, the lack of leads to follow makes it suspicious in of itself then?” Lawrence wondered. “Have our agents noticed anything out of the ordinary about the Hierophant?”

“Not a thing. Just seems to be a normal tavern. Do we take on a more aggressive strategy, my lord?”

“No, not until we have more evidence. For now, we’ll just have to pursue other leads. What have we learned about the Sons of Tartarus?”

“We did have some luck on that front, my lord,” Christoph happily announced. “In fact, we have learned of a slave auction taking place today and we know where it’ll be going down.”

***

The Sons of Tartarus’s slave auction house was located in a large stone underground arena beneath the Merchant’s District of Stonefall.

With enough seats for almost two thousand bidders and hundreds of guards, it was one of the most heavily protected places the Sons of Tartarus owned.

Today was the Sons of Tartarus’s monthly auction and over a thousand buyers from across Aangapea would be in attendance.

Sat in one of the VIP boxes close to the stage were Lord and Lady Kelsey.

“I know it’s the Dark Lord’s orders, but I hate having to disguise myself as this inferior woman,” Mania grumbled, tapping her heel angrily against the ground. “Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.”

“It cannot be helped, Lady Mania,” the Raven, her pretend husband, said. “We would not be able to fulfil his majesty’s wishes if we were not using this illusion.”

“I know that, but it still irritates me.” A beaten and bruised woman was dragged up onto the stage in chains. “What a waste.”

“Lady Mania?”

“What a waste of a nice face and a good body. Why would anyone do that to such a pretty thing?”

The Raven, a little unsure of what to say, remained silent and observed the auction below.

“Do I hear five hundred Rhams? I hear five hundred there and-six hundred to the gentlemen over there. Do I hear seven hundred Rhams? Do I hear any advances on seven hundred?”

Mania sighed. “Seven hundred Rhams for a single slave? She would’ve had more value if they hadn’t beaten her face so much.”

“…As you say, Lady Mania.”

Per the Demon Emperor’s orders, Mania was to investigate the Sons of Tartarus slave auctions in Stonefall and determine if it’d be possible to buy the slaves and bring them back to the Dread Keep to work at the castle. If it wasn’t possible, then they were to determine if it was possible to free the slaves by force and take them to the Dread Keep that way.

While there were many guards at the venue, few were in the basement where the slaves were being held, so it’d be easy for Mania and the Raven to kill them quickly. Once they were dead, they could easily break open the cells and usher the slaves through Mania’s portal to the Dread Keep.

However, that was their last resort option as it posed the greatest risk of all; drawing attention to the Demon Emperor’s plans.

They had brought ten thousand Rhams with them, but there were hundreds of slaves and the cheapest had been sold for five hundred Rhams.

Most went for twice that much.

Mania had deemed that the slave on stage sold at a low price was because of how badly she’d been beaten. Her face was swallow and had turned dark purple; her hair had been roughly cut and her body had multiple infected wounds from the crack of a whip.

“Sold for seven hundred Rhams!” The auctioneer bellowed and the crowd applauded.

“It would seem we underestimated the greed of this world, Lady Mania.”

“So, it would seem. I think we’re both in agreement that it’d be easier for us to use force than money, yes?”

“I agree, Lady Mania.”

“Then, I shall return to the Dread Keep and ask-”

“There is no need, Lady Mania.”

The Raven reached into its pocket and pulled out a small, sealed scroll and handed it to her.

“His majesty asked me to present this scroll to you for you to open should we both deem violence a necessary approach. He said that we were to open the scroll and follow the orders on it to the letter.”

Mania smiled sadly and took the scroll from the Raven.

I really have lost his majesty’s trust.

Mania opened the scroll, read it quickly and grinned. She then showed it to the Raven. “Per his majesty’s orders.”

“Per his majesty’s orders, Lady Mania.”

Free all slaves you can and bring them to the Dread Keep.

Do NOT let any witnesses survive but return to the Dread Keep promptly if you risk being caught by the Holy Legion or other law enforcement.

***

“Master.”

“What, Jorōgumo?”

“Lord Mímir would like to speak to you about a mission he wishes to undertake.”

“…How do you-?”

“I can communicate telepathically with all of my brood, no matter where I am in the world.”

“May I ask why you chose only now to reveal that?”

“I had intended to tell you, Master, but you always seemed busy and I did not wish to disturb you,” Jorōgumo answered.

“No matter. Raven.”

“Your majesty?”

“Pull over. I’ll return to the castle to speak with Mímir, then return and we’ll resume our journey to the Goddess’s Eye.”

When he returned to the Dread Keep, he found Mímir awaiting him in his office where he explained his proposal in full.

“An assassination?” David repeated.

“Yes, your majesty. By assassinating Duke Cavan and his family, the Federation will demand answers and blood, which will cause a war to break out to the north. The war will consume their supplies, their forces and their morale, making them weak and vulnerable. Then, after the Holy Empire has fallen, your armies can easily march through their lands and trample over the already weakened countries with ease.”

“You wish me to sanction a plan like this when we have no information on either of these countries? For all we know, this marriage won’t look like a political assassination caused by the Royal Kingdom and more a random act of violence conducted by a foreign enemy. The rulers of these nations might be smart enough to see through your trick, Mímir.”

“Even if they are, your majesty, what can they do about it?”

David smiled. “Go on.”

“If we assume, as your majesty has suggested, that both nations see through my plan and figure out it was done by a foreign nation, what exactly can they do about it?

“If they were to openly suspect or declare war on one of their neighbours with no proof, then their reputation among the other countries of Aangapea would drop significantly and, perhaps even, a war would break out between even more nations.

“Even if the Royal Kingdom and Federation were able to trace it back to the Holy Empire, that means that they’d have to declare war on one of the largest countries in the world. The war between them would be nothing but a benefit to us as it would make it easier for us to conduct our operations and the Holy Empire will quickly fall to your forces.”

He’s really thought this through. David was a little impressed by Mímir. Not just because it was a clever plan, but also because he’d come to ask for permission first. It seems that he’s learnt from his prior mistakes.

“How many men do you need?”

“With your majesty’s blessing, I would take six of my Ravens to the venue of the wedding and strike before the vows are made,” Mímir said. “I plan to kill as many people on the groom’s side as possible, but I will leave the Royal Kingdom’s family without any casualties to make it seem more like an assassination caused by the Kingdom.”

“Why did you choose to kill the groom’s side of the wedding party?”

“Because I thought that you would want the princess for yourself, your majesty.”

I’m sorry, what? “I would want her?”

Mímir nodded. “The report that Sylvan handed me suggests that the princess is one of the most beautiful women in the world and would be a worthy mistress for you, should you desire her.”

“Why?”

“While this might be forward of me, your majesty, as I understood it from Mania, you enjoyed bedding beautiful women.”

What the hell has Mania been telling everyone?

His heart twisted in pain when he remembered the night he slept with Mania, and the state of her body.

He had slept with Kella, too, when he visited her in Stonefall.

Just remembering those nights was like someone him a red-hot dagger into his heart.

…I wonder what Rebecca and Eva would think of me if they knew about that. Actually. David smiled wryly. They probably already know about Mania, don’t they? There’s no way Mania would’ve kept that to herself.

“…See to it that she isn’t harmed, but do not abduct her,” David commanded. “As long as she lives, the conspiracy you wish to draw up of the Royal Kingdom being responsible will grow.”

“As you command, your majesty. Shall I depart right away?”

“Is the ceremony soon?”

“It is a week from now.”

“Then make haste, but do not forget to return to the Hierophant from time to time. Conjure up some excuse as to why you aren’t showing your face and get it done quickly. While you may pile the bodies up high, you may only be brutal in your killing towards the Duke and his parents. The rest are to be quick and clean; understood?”

“Yes, your majesty.”