"It’s really not that bad..." Isara insisted. "Look on the bright side, no one will even suspect that it’s you!"
"Yeah, and they’ll also treat me like a kid." Alfred sighed. "But we have a bigger problem - my armour."
"What’s wrong with it?"
"It’s a custom set made by the Order’s smith specifically for me, even if they won’t recognise my face, they’ll immediately associate it with me."
"Does it have a magical signature or something else like that?" Calen questioned.
"No, but the design is one of a kind, and it has the Order’s sigil in a few places."
"Then it’s not a problem - a simple illusion spell will be enough to trick everyone. Give me one of your pauldrons and I’ll get it done in five minutes."
Just like he promised, a few moments later Alfred was standing in a completely different, and remarkably bland, set of armour.
"Now no one will recognise you - unless the mask runs out of power I guess."
"It can stop working?!" Alfred looked alarmed.
"Don’t worry, the magic stone will last for three days before it needs to be recharged, and we can do it without taking of the mask." Calen assured him, and changed the topic. "How far from here is the Order? Will we reach it by dusk if we leave now?
"We should be able to get there in two hours - but before that we should settle on a fake story about me."
"Why? It’s not like they’ll question you."
"They might - remember that two guards saw the four of you, and they’ll expect only that many people in the party."
"I think you’re overly paranoid, but sure, we can come up with some backstory for you."
"Oh, I know!" Isara grinned. "Let’s say he’s a kid from Mountainfall that was so impressed by our achievements that he begged us to join out party - and in our magnanimity we let him."
"We have almost no achievements though?" Calen raised an eyebrow. "And the ones we have aren’t public knowledge, we’re about as far from being admirable as possible."
"They don’t know that though."
"Sylara talked about us to Order representatives when they came to demand that she handed over Alfred." Cassian stated. "While she probably didn’t give them much details it would be better if we didn’t lie, as we have no idea how much they know."
"What do you suggest then? If she really talked about us then he needs the fake backstory even more."
"Let’s say he’s just a kid who really wants to become a part of the order, and asked us to come with when he heard we’re going there. They won’t question a teenager who wants to be a knight in shining armour too much."
"That’s a pretty good idea actually." Alfred nodded thoughtfully. "Mountainfall does send us recruits on occasions, so it wouldn’t be anything out of ordinary - additionally it would allow me to move independently of you, as they’ll put me into training immediately."
"Isn’t that kind of a problem?" Calen frowned. "They’ll realise you’re not a trainee right away."
"Don’t worry, I’m quite good at playing incompetent."
"Alright, it seems like everything is decided then. It’s around noon, let’s get packed quickly so that we can leave as soon as possible."
Half an hour later all of them were standing near the entrance to the temple.
"I hope the next temple we reclaim will go smoother, if not for the fact that I survived a lethal attack we would be dead."
"If pigs had wings they would be birds." Isara rolled her eyes. "We won - that’s what matters, and by the time we reach the next temple we’ll be significantly stronger than we’re now, hell, you’re already much stronger than you were when we arrived here."
That was true, although he didn’t have any opportunities to test his new firepower, he felt that the lifeforce of the Krakee chieftain strengthened the flame quite a lot.
Also there was the barrier, its size was dependent on the power of his flame, and right now it extended almost fifty meters beyond the outer walls.
He had no real point of reference since he activated the barrier after he gained all of that power, but based on the size of this one, he suspected the barrier around the First Grove was now big enough to fit a small village.
"If we manage to reinstate master as the head of the Order, I’ll ask him to send some forces here to establish a base." Alfred stated. "It would be good to move some of the smaller settlements to the temples once the barriers expand a little more, and we can prepare them for that."
"Admirable plan, but first we have to figure out what the hell happened at the Order - then we can think about solving other problems."
"Since this is the last moment when we can converse freely without fear of someone spying on us, do you have any allies at the Order? Someone who’s loyal to your master and could help us once we’re there?" Cassian inquired.
"As much as I admire my master, he was never good with politics - he never cared about building a faction, and as a result no one protested when he was hit with clearly fake accusations."
"Really? Not a single person?"
"Well..." Alfred scratched his chin. "There’s Thomas, our resident blacksmith - he was friends with master, that’s how I got the custom armour set."
"That seems like a pretty significant ally in a place where everyone is covered in steel from head to toes." Calen pointed out. "Why are you so hesitant about him?"
"Because he’s not a part of the Order, at least not officially - the round table never allowed him to take the battle trial because he’s too valuable, and they can’t let him die. It made him a bit spiteful, and he stopped talking to most people - naturally it means he doesn’t have a very good reputation."
"So our only ally will be an outcast?"
Their mission inside the order might prove more difficult than they expected.