All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 175: Heart of the Matter

Harold pulled his hood down over his eyes as he made his way beneath the gates of Alexander. Here in Barleona, they spoke the same language as in the kingdom, but the people looked significantly different. His standard brown hair and brown eyes would stand out here amongst the predominantly blonde, blue-eyed people. All around, he could see the standard straw-colored hair and crystal eyes popping out of a dark complexion in bright relief. The shadow of his cowl hid his face, giving him some anonymity at least.

It had been a long time since he had done any field work, but he still hadn't forgotten how to move through a crowd without being noticed. Despite his magical expertise and his political acumen, flying under the radar had long been his most reliable skill. That, and knowing when to run.

Moving deftly through the streets of milling people, Harold scanned the street signs for the mark. The border crossing had been simple: a few fake documents, some bribes, and he had slipped right through. Now he just needed to find his contact. The unfamiliar city wasn't hard to navigate, but that didn't help when he didn't know where he was even going. There were more apothecaries than he would have expected. But none so far had the little horns carved into the bottom of the hanging sign he was looking for.

The mark of the Jailers wasn't always in the same spot, but the few inches of the sign base was a good way to hide it in plain sight. Hence his surreptitious glances upward as he passed.

At the fifth shop, he finally found what he was looking for. Instead of under the sign, it was at the bottom of the dirty windowsill. It had taken him a few minutes of casual "window shopping" to find it, so he wandered away for a bit before returning and going in. Hopefully, if anyone had noticed a hooded stranger stopping at the store, they would have moved on before seeing him enter.

A little bell rang as the door opened; Harold closed it softly behind him as he stepped into the dimly lit shop. The walls were lined with shelves, each one of them crammed full of random junk. Not rare materials, niche finds, and exotic wares - that was normal stuff to find in an apothecary shop. Harold was a bit of an alchemist himself, and he could guarantee that this stuff was junk. It was poor quality and overpriced. But that was on purpose.

A clattering from the back room indicated that the shop was not as empty as it first seemed.

"I'll be right there." A grumpy voice called from the back room. Harold settled in for a wait. It was a full five minutes before a wrinkled old man slowly hobbled out to the front. This was intentional as well. The point of the shop was to be as uninviting as it could be; they didn't want customers to come in. That would only get in the way of their real business.

The few unlucky souls that did come in unawares were met with the same treatment, followed by an exceedingly unhelpful and grouchy shopkeeper until they left. Fortunately, Harold was no normal customer. "When did the last batch of Wardroot come in?"

The gruff man rubbed his chin for a second. "Couldn't have been more than a month back, maybe two."

After completing the passphrase, they both relaxed. Harold cracked a small smile. Flipping up a panel that kept customers from coming behind the counter, the old man ushered him into the back, moving with a newfound grace.

After dispelling a minor illusion, Harold got a look at the true back room. It was entirely different from the front of the store. The previously dingy floor and walls were meticulously clean and well-kept back here. Actual valuable alchemy ingredients and premade salves populated the counters in neatly labeled containers. What caught Harold's eye most, though, was the room's other occupant. A young woman sitting in a straight-back chair sharpening a knife. Looking up, she met Harold's eyes.

"Harold?" She asked.

"The same." He paused for a second before he was able to recall her name. "Amy?"

The young woman stood and offered him a hand, which he took. "At least I have a package that knows how to hide."

It was odd not having command for the first time in a while; he was going to have to adjust how he interacted with his coworkers accordingly. Harold pulled his hood down and gave her his best-winning smile. "I'm not so green that I need a babysitter, just a tour guide."

Amy gave him a doubtful look from the corner of her eye but didn't comment on it. Instead, she gestured to the chair across from her. As he sat down, he realized that the old man had disappeared when he wasn't paying attention. Once he settled in, he looked more closely at his "tour guide."

If he had been asked to describe the average Barleonaen, Amy was who would come to mind. Every single stereotype was checked. Blond hair, blue eyes, a dark complexion, and slightly on the shorter side. Slim and slightly athletic, but not enough to be noteworthy. The only thing marking her from any other nameless face in the crowd was a hardness around the eyes, and he would bet that it would disappear the second they were outside.

"Are there any updates to the itinerary? Just the three sights?" Amy asked after a second of silence.

"Just the three. Any news about them?" Harold confirmed. He was finding it surprisingly easy to slip back into the coded language of the operatives. They would always assume someone was listening, and few in the organization actually knew any of the details for an operation anyways. He would be surprised if Amy actually did know what was at their destinations.

"Something out of Arwen has been causing a bit of an uproar recently. I haven't heard why. Do you want to wait till the commotion dies down?" Amy asked.

Harold frowned; the site of Arwen was where Syleth'an was held. By all accounts, it might be the weakest of the Lieutenants in pure combat power, but that didn't really matter now. There was no one around that would fare well against any Lieutenant anyways. Aside from that… thing.

From this perspective, Imposter might be one of the worst ones to be let loose as it could work its havoc from the inside. Not that they really knew what its true powers were, just old legends passed down for millennia. "No, we should go there first."

Amy rubbed her forehead. "That is going to add a bit to our travel time. There was a reason we were visiting it second."

"How much sooner can we get there if we skip the first stop?" Harold asked, not wanting to be completely unreasonable.

"Maybe a day or two. That doesn't seem much out of a two week journey." Amy said in a suspiciously neutral tone. Harold considered. He would need a day or so at each site, but if they weren't going to be there for a few weeks anyways, did it really matter? Or did every day count?

"How old is your news of the place?" Harold asked. It could be that she got it through some message instead of a rumor.

"Oh, couple weeks at least." Amy replied.

"Well, then we don't need to rush to that one in particular." Harold allowed. "When can we leave?"

—-

Bee practically floated along the forest path leading to the castle. She knew that she wanted to get back, but she hadn't been aware of how much she wanted to get back. It had already been a couple of days, and she still felt like she was walking on clouds. The rest of the caravan was not quite as happy, of course, but she could still feel the mood was lighter than it had been for the entire trip.

Sometime on the second day, a pair of figures from the castle intercepted the caravan. Bee was leading up in the front, so she was one of the first people to see them. She was also definitely the first to make out who they were. Running ahead, Bee left the column behind in the dust.

"BEE!" Tony's familiar voice rang out over the road. Not slowing, she crashed into his open arms, nearly breaking his ribs with the devastating squeeze she applied. Next to Tony, Susan gave a small wave. Stepping back, Bee couldn't take the grin off of her face.

"By Void, it's good to see you both! How is everything? Is everyone alright?" Bee asked in a rush, her words tumbling over each other as she tried to get them out.

However, even as she was speaking, Tony was also asking his own questions. "Is everything okay? Where's Void? What happened?"

They both paused, trying to parse through the other's words while occasionally cutting each other off with responses. Eventually, Susan took pity on them and stepped in. "Everyone in the castle is excited for your return Bee, though they are all slightly concerned. They want to know where Void has gone and why he didn't return to us. I'm sure they will all be excited to tell you everything, but will want to hear your story first."

"Well… I don't want to repeat myself too much, but Void is helping the army hunt down the rest of the undead and it said that it would return soon." Bee said, regaining control of herself. "So, did anything noteworthy happen in my absence?"

"Right now, the castle is preparing a feast in Void's honor to welcome you home. I'm glad the scout you sent ahead gave us good numbers, as I wasn't sure we would need the entire great hall at first. After seeing your group, I don't doubt it. Tony said.

"I told you my scouts know their work now. It was only that one time…" Susan protested.

"What one time?" Bee asked, slightly concerned there was something wrong.

"By one time she means that one of her scouts saw a cloud over one of the mountains and thought it was smoke from a fire." Tony said.

"It was a perfectly reasonable assumption." Susan defended her people. "Better to be prepared for a fire that isn't coming than not prepared for one that is."

"Well, now we have firepails in strategic locations. And directions to the nearest exits of the castle posted regularly. Just in case. it comes down to that." Tony explained while rolling his eyes. "Though with how little wood is used in its construction, I would be surprised if we would ever lose more than the contents of a single room in a fire."

Bee remembered getting a look into the castle's construction in the aftermath of their fight with Nazatreth'gak; there really hadn't been any wood. But like any alchemy practitioner, she knew the real danger wasn't the heat. There was a reason the labs were on higher floors. "It's not the flames that are dangerous, it's the smoke. If there is a fire, then we need to let the bad air out, otherwise people won't be able to breathe. Even if there isn't structural damage."

Susan sent Tony a knowing look that he pointedly ignored.

"So. What else happened besides false alarms from scouts?" Bee prompted.

"Well, some of the ki- ah, the Nighty Knights, have started getting their first levels…."