A stray ray of sunlight licked Percy’s eyelid, causing him to wrinkle his nose in irritation. He didn’t wake up until a couple minutes later, however. The first thing he noticed was the stench of rotting wood and spoilt eggs. Not the most pleasant scent to come to, though it didn’t take him long to recognize where he was, having spent months training in this very place.
‘Why was I asleep in the middle of the swamp?’
A rush of memories soon followed, reminding him of yesterday’s events. Or, well… At least he hoped they were yesterday’s.
Shifting a little, he realized he was sitting against a tree’s trunk. Apparently, his companions had been kind enough to not leave him rolling in the mud. Nesha was sleeping in a similar position a few paces away. Tracing Micky’s location through the cord, he soon found him perched up on a branch nearby, scanning their surroundings.
‘You finished doing the thing. Then you went to sleep. We took turns watching over you. It’s been longer than a day.’
Percy nodded. There were plenty of things he had to take care of, but one of them took precedence over everything else. Not missing a beat, he pulled up his Status again, this time taking the chance to examine it more closely.
As usual, the section with his spells was a complete mess. The Status seemed to group them based on their tier, but didn’t bother sorting them beyond that. At least, they weren’t in chronological order, and Percy couldn’t spot any other pattern either. Not just that, but he could swear their order sometimes changed randomly for no apparent reason.
‘The more I learn about it, the more shortcomings Phoebe’s Decree seems to have.’
Percy didn’t want to be too ungrateful towards the titaness – her handiwork had done wonders for his sanity over the years. That said, he had to admit the Status had plenty of room for improvement…
In any case, he shook the pointless thoughts out of his head, his eyes moving to the most recent addition. Not that the question marks were particularly informative, but at least it meant the operation had been a success.
‘I suppose whatever the trait does, I’ll notice sooner or later. Hopefully, its name will update when the time comes, to help me figure it out.’
Truth be told, Percy would much rather just receive his reward directly than have to solve another riddle. He’d earned it – having worked for months on this project! But it couldn’t be helped. He very much doubted even the temple’s evaluations could shed light on something this exotic.
“You’re awake!” Nesha exclaimed, startling him.
“I’ve been up for hours.” Percy rolled his eyes, trying his best to maintain his composure. “I just didn’t want to disturb your beauty sleep.”
“Nice try.” she smirked. “Truthseeker bloodline, remember?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Shrugging, Percy didn’t dwell on his poorly executed prank much. He pulled against the tree’s trunk to yank himself to his feet. The movement hurt, his body beyond sore. His mind wasn’t doing much better, his brain feeling like mush. Even his channels burned quite intensely, despite having sat idle for so many hours. The thought of missing several doses of Aurora Dew stung the most, however.
‘And I’ll have to skip a few more.’ he grimaced. ‘Best not to push my cores too far.’
Not that losing a week off his next promotion was the end of the world – certainly not when it was over a decade away. But he’d rather not get into the habit of thinking like that. Growing up, he’d heard plenty of stories of lazy nobles who’d needlessly delayed their advancements by skipping cleansing sessions willy-nilly. Hell, if he wasn’t mistaken, Uncle Gareth had wasted quite a few years like that, reaching Green half a decade later than he was meant to.
“I think you should be more worried about the mess we’re in.” Nesha said, guessing what he was thinking about.
“It’s not that bad. No matter what we do, House Tantalus isn’t going to send a Blue after us.” he replied, before elaborating.
Following their latest stunt, the enemy family was bound to realize the culprit wasn’t just some wild beast running rampant in the bog. Their first suspect would naturally be House Avalon. And technically, they’d be correct – despite the fact that Percy hadn’t coordinated with his relatives.
That said, they only had five Blues, so they couldn’t afford to remove them from their posts. Not even for a few days. If they did that, Baldy was guaranteed to pounce on their weakness, dealing a blow far more severe than anything Percy and Nesha had done so far.
Consequently, House Tantalus only had two viable options. Either they’d ignore Bogside town completely, or they’d have to send more Greens – if and when they could afford to spare them.
“What if the war ends without us knowing? Or if you’ve misjudged how valuable this town is?”
“I haven’t. Both their towns are valuable, but not as much as several Greens – which is what they’ll lose if they give my grandfather an opening. As for the war, I wouldn’t worry about that. Wars all over Remior will only keep escalating until the lotus blooms. Probably for a while after that too, until all the losers are eliminated.”
Nesha remained silent for a few minutes, contemplating his words. In the end, she nodded, apparently not disagreeing with any of it. While she wasn’t the most experienced in a fight, she probably understood politics even better than he did, having studied them her whole life.
“So, what’s the plan then? Do we just stay here, waiting for the next Green to come our way? That sounds a little dangerous.”
She wasn’t wrong. Even with all their preparations, Percy had barely managed to kill Broose by the skin of his teeth. The next person House Tantalus sent would be a lot stronger.
“For now, let’s head back to the town. We need to gauge the situation there before we plan our next move.”
“What’s there to gauge?!” Nesha asked in protest. “The cat is out of the bag! The guy went into the bog, never to return! If we show up all injured after being gone for two days, they’ll know it was us!”
“Of course.” Percy nodded. “What I meant to say is, we need to gauge their stance towards all this.”
Nesha tilted her head in confusion, prompting him to explain.
“We’ll tell them the truth. And we’ll see how they react.”
“Are you crazy?! We’re still in enemy territory! They’ll rat us out to their masters! And that’s only if they don’t attack us themselves!”
“Nesha, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve done them a favour. These people are afraid of House Tantalus. They’d have revolted a long time ago if they could.”
“So what?! You think you’ll just tell them a few flowery words and get them to march behind you against a noble House?! They only have a few untrained Yellows and Oranges!”
“I don’t need them to “march behind me”, or even help us against the Greens. Just to keep turning a blind eye to our actions. The current arrangement already works for everyone. The evil House Avalon is ambushing House Tantalus’s people inside the Grisly Bog, while the innocent commoners of Bogside town don’t know anything about it. They only need to maintain our cover as a Red-born blacksmith living with his wife, and they get to live peacefully with their loved ones. It’s a win-win.”
Nesha shook her head.
“That sounds great on paper. But there are hundreds of them. All it takes is one coward to go behind everyone’s back, and we’ll be the ones who get ambushed.”
“Then, it’s lucky we have somebody who can recognize lies, isn’t it?” Percy grinned. “We just need to ask some well-placed questions here and there and we’ll know if anyone intends to snitch on us.”
Nesha exhaled in defeat. This wasn’t the first idiotic plan Percy had forced on her, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But hey, hadn’t everything turned out fine so far?
“Let’s assume this works. We’ve only bought ourselves more time until the next group arrives. How do we kill them?” she asked, changing the topic.
“Well, I’ve got nothing concrete just yet, but the last fight gave me a few ideas. I’ll start working on a new spell as soon as I bring a couple more runes from the Vault. And I’ll need your help with something too.”
The two bid Micky farewell, before heading back. On the way, Percy brought Nesha up to speed on his plans. By the time they arrived they’d even discussed how to approach the townsfolk.
Entering the town, they made their way to the centre, ignoring the gasps and exclamations of the residents. If the caked mud and bloodstains on their clothes hadn’t clued them in already, the grisly trophy Percy paraded through the streets certainly did.
The two only stopped once they were outside the tavern, facing a crowd of people headed by Fegan. Percy tossed Broose’s torn robes on the ground in front of them, the bloodied garments eliciting another round of sharp breaths and worried whispers from their audience. But he didn’t let their growing unease deter him, looking at them confidently before speaking.
“My name is Percival of House Avalon.”