The hidden passage slid open, the mechanism still working smoothly. Stathis held her arm out, before Semari bumped into it.

‘Wait! Just in case.’ But no alarm sounded, the only sounds were those of a few nightbirds singing. She led the way in, feeling a magical aura slide over her skin and then pop, as it acknowledged her presence. At least whatever her current state was, she still passed muster as herself to such whatever defensive spells were in place.

‘Once we’re inside, everyone stay close, and try to keep out of fights. The defensive model is “eliminate any threats, as quickly as possible”, and we won’t last long in a sustained fight. There’s all sorts of protective spells around the place, so any long-range spells might not work – Janaxia, Parth, be careful about warping about or whatever you do, as I’m not quite sure what the effects might be.’

Parth nodded, before stepping back and blurring into the shadows, as Semari jumped up and started to crawl along the wall, despite the general lack of handholds.

‘Stay out of sight. You don’t look like anyone with any legitimate reason to be around, so don’t try and bluff. And don’t hurt anyone too badly!’

‘Yeah, yeah. Got enough prices on my head I don’t want another.’ She hung on a scone for a moment before jumping around a corner, hopefully not getting into trouble.

‘We should be able to get out fairly deep into the castle, so it should be pretty quiet this time of night – most of the servants will be asleep, and the guards are mostly on the outside. There’s going to be some patrols, but we’ll have to try and avoid them, or take them out without anyone noticing. I don’t know what time the shifts change through, so best we get in and out as quickly as possible. Hakara, Kivata – you two try and stay out of fights. Vrintar, please don’t, uh, set anything on fire. Most of the walls are stone, but there’s tapestries and the like that might catch fire, and that would be a problem.’

There was a whisper of scent in the air and a vague blurring – probably Janaxia? Another smaller and darker blur followed close behind, mostly likely Skotadi.

‘Janaxia, look after Skotadi, and try to avoid combat. If something does happen, use your darkness-thing to create a distraction. We want this to be as quick a possible though, so don’t get distracted.’

The vaguely-indignant sniff confirmed that it was indeed Janaxia, and then they all entered the passageway, the entrance sliding shut above them with a stony hiss. It was a long and featureless passage, built into the bedrock and part of the original construction. It had used to branch more, but the side passages were mostly blocked now, the intent being to make it a last-ditch emergency exit, rather than a way of sneaking around the inside of the castle. The different stages of construction were obvious, with heavy stone blocks mortared into place jarring with the otherwise smooth walls. The light came from old and faded mage-lights, the things sparking into fitful lights as they passed – pale sunlight as Stathis approached, a greenish tint appearing as Parth snuck past, then blood-tinged. Probably Janaxia, again.

The differing colours made the passageway seem eerie and unearthly as the rock walls shimmered and flickered. It seemed longer than she remembered as well, but that might just be her nervousness – this had a lot of scope to go wrong! At least the secret passageway still seemed to be, well, a secret though, without any guards posted. Fortunate, considering that there were no hiding places other than occasional bricked-up nooks, or on the ceiling, and no-one other than Semari had the agility to stay up there for long!

It snaked and jinked a few times before slanting sharply upwards. When younger, she and Carissia had tried to map it to physical space several times, but there was nowhere that the passageway could go in the real world, even though there was no obvious point at which it became magical when walking through it.

Towards the end, the structure changed, moving from straight-sided to more of an uneven blob, like a natural cave, despite the lack of rock for there to be a cave in. The passageway branched and split into several paths, Stathis heading for the central one. As she did so, the glowing orb that hovered in the centre of the room flickered, the light suddenly darkened and red-tinted. Stathis turned and saw a pair of shadows stretching from what seemed to be empty space. One was Janaxia, although her horns were larger and covered with spikes, while the other was a shape of utter darkness, looking like a hole cut into space, shaped into a humanoid shape. It didn’t help that both of the shadows ran towards the light.

Stathis focused and called up a mote of light into her hand. The crimson tint abruptly vanished, the shadows returning to normal, Janaxia’s shadow snapping from out and now pointing away from the light. Stathis heard a hiss that sounded like Skotadi, the smaller shadow ducking behind Janaxia. That was something else that would need sorting out – whatever the hell was going on with Janaxia. It couldn’t just be normal evil wizard-stuff, there was something else going on as well! But that would have to wait.

Stathis led them through the passages, glad that the protective spells didn’t activate, and that everyone behaved. Armour clanked close to her, and then Pajaran spoke.

‘Ready for this? Things could get messy. Hell, things are almost certain to get messy, one way or another.’

‘Best get it over with. I can’t see any way that talking would work. We get in, fix the problem, and then try and sort whatever happens out. At least that way I’ve got an actual body again. But I don’t really want to stick around, because you know that everything’s going to go to shit.’

‘And you don’t want to run into the Commander.’

‘Damn right! Or Carissia, but I don’t think she’s going to be here. I’d rather not have Janaxia get killed by either of them.’

‘Still not wanting to go toe-to-toe with her?’

‘No. I don’t think that’s a fight we can win. I know it’s a fight I can’t win, all of us together probably don’t have that much more of a chance. And that’s without the Guard or whoever else is around. We do this like Semari would – nice and stealthy, in and out.’

Semari dropped down from the ceiling as though summoned. ‘Too many of us to make that easy. And you’re all, like, big and bulky, even without armour. You better be able to get us there, or this is going to be, like, super-messy and complicated. Don’t think I can even double-cross you without getting in shit myself.’

‘Well, thanks for being so, um, honest, I guess. Please don’t do that.’

‘Might grab a few ornaments on the way through. There’s a lot of nice stuff around.’

‘We’re not here to rob the place! Just focus on the job, OK?’

‘I’m making no promises! How about we just hand Janaxia over? She can join her brother down in the dungeons.’

‘I doubt she’d make it that far. No, let’s just get my body back, then get the hell out of here and try and sort things out from a safe and diplomatic distance. Where no-one gets stabbed or blown up!’

‘Fine, but that sounds really boring, is all I’m saying.’ Semari jumped away, grabbing onto a wall and sticking her head into a small air vent, signalling down that it was all clear. Quite what she expected to see up there, Stathis wasn’t sure. Still, it was good to see her actually paying attention to her role as a scout, ducking ahead and then coming back, using hand signals to show that the way was clear.

They came to a dead-end passageway, magical runes flaring into brightness as they approached. Stathis ran her hand along the stone wall until she found part that felt different, pressing her hand against the soft stone, leaving a palm-print on the surface.

One of the walls rumbled and shifted, a passageway opening from what had seemed to be solid rock. The floor of the hallway on the other side was several meters below them. Semari squeezed around her and jumped onto a hanging lantern, making it swing, the chain creaking.

She heard footsteps approaching, a pair of guards walking around the corner. They glanced around, sensing something was wrong, as Semari jumped over them, spun and slammed their heads inwards, their helmets smacking together. One tried to break free, thrusting behind them with their sword before Semari shifted her grip and twisted them into the air, slamming them onto the ground. Another few punches and they passed out, their body going limp.

Stathis dropped down herself, checking that they were both breathing.

‘Gonna do the armour trick?’

‘No, because it never works, and neither of them are my size anyway. Let’s just drag them somewhere out of the way and keep moving.’ She hefted one over her shoulder, Semari taking the other, and they found a nearby office to dump them in. Semari ripped apart a cushion to make several long strips of cloth, using it to bind their hands and stuff their mouths, Stathis checking they could both still breathe.

‘Keep your hands out of their pockets! They’ve been through enough without you robbing them.’

‘You’re really taking all the fun out of this, you know. I bet the guards here are actually paid well.’

‘That’s still not really worth bothering with, they might have a few gold each. Filch some ornaments if you really have to, but you don’t even need money! Come on, let’s keep moving.’

The passageway had closed up, now impossible to see, looking like a plain stone wall. In the low light, the several shimmery blurs made her eyes sting and water, trying to focus on something that wasn’t quite entirely there. ‘Is everyone still here?’

She managed to pick up everyone’s voices in the resulting babble, the sounds all overlapping.

‘OK, try to stay together. And no pinching anything, Semari!’

‘Booo! You’re no fun.’

This area of the palace was behind most of the security, meaning that there shouldn’t be too many guards around. Which was probably for the best – even with the invisibility spell shrouding them from sight, it didn’t do anything to hide their sounds, footsteps scuffling against the stone floors, and the occasional apology from Hakara or Sen as they bumped into someone else that they couldn’t see. Maybe this would have been easier with fewer people? But there wasn’t really anywhere else to leave them.

Semari appeared out of the shadows, close enough to Stathis’ face to startle her. ‘Guards up ahead. Properly arranged, got a checkpoint and everything. Looks like shift change, so there’s double.’

Stathis poked her head around the corner, pushing away a bundle of fabric that pressed against her, Janaxia’s scent close by, ignoring the indignant sniff that came from empty air. It was a long and deliberately open passageway, with a reinforced wooden barricade at the far end, with a gap only a single person wide. It was watched over by five guards, ensuring no-one could get close without being seen. And they were professional enough that they were actually keeping watch, rather than relaxing or playing guards. As Semari had said, it looked like it was shift-change, so there were ten of them, chatting amongst themselves. That meant that five of them would be heading down the hallway, and it was unlikely they could be disabled quietly just out of sight.

She started moving forward, as quietly as possible, hearing a soft metallic sound as Pajaran moved somewhere nearby. She was about halfway down the passageway when light started to shine, a pale blue glow coming from the floor around her feet. She moved faster, but hadn’t made it far when one of the guards looked over, drawing the others attention.

Stathis charged, the blue glow shifting beneath her feet, two others close by. The guards drew their swords, one stepping backwards towards a glowing alarm-stone. An arrow sang through the eye and clanged off their helm, staggering them – it must have been a blunted one. Another followed it, knocking them away from the stone. Stathis shoulder-charged the first guard, knocking them over before they realised what was happening, then swung her sword at the next, catching them with the flat. Their armour rattled, absorbing the force of the blow.

A wind rushed past her, as Semari threw herself into the centre. She was visible, but moving too fast to clearly make out, sweeping her leg around in a wide kick.

‘Keep them away from the stone!’ Stathis’ voice broke the silence, as combat broke out. She tried to hold her blow back, not wanting to cause any serious injury, feeling a slice of pain burst along her side, a blow getting through. Bolts of darkness, barely visible, shot out, slamming two of the guards backwards, and then Vrintar suddenly burst into sight, the spell rippling away from her. She clubbed an axe-handle into a helmeted head, a guard sagging down. Stathis stepped forward, seeing a startled glimpse of recognition before punching out herself, knocking the wind from another guard.

She heard Hakara’s chanting from behind her, and then a cool sensation washed over her, the magical glow fading from around her feet, the ward-stone fading as well. Whatever she had done, it probably wouldn’t last long, so Stathis moved to support Semari, as more arrows shot out and thudded against armour.

It didn’t take long until the sounds of violence stopped, and all of the guards were down. Stathis checked them over, healing their wounds as Vrintar and Semari tied them up, Semari needing dissuading from moving them into “funny” poses.

‘Hakara, I think you managed to stop the alarm going off, thanks. Janaxia, have you still got your clothing on?’

I was fortunately outside of the area of effect, and so am indeed fully clothed still.

Her mental communication gave no indication of where she was, but presumably still close by. ‘Good. Let’s keep going then and hope no-one discovers these guys. It’s not much further.’

They tried to move the guards so they couldn’t be seen by anyone casually walking past, but there wasn’t much room.

A short distance later, past a number of heavily locked and secure doors, was the chamber with her body in. She peered around the corner – four more guards, stood around a raised plinth, itself encircled by a warding circle. She glanced back at everyone that was visible, and the shadowy blur of Janaxia and Skotadi, and then stepped forward.

The guards immediately reacted with surprise, hands going to their weapons as she raised her hands.

‘Lady Stathis?’

One of the looked behind them in surprise, at her body. Now it was there, she could feel an energy, a warmth that linked her to it, her current body tingling. Another, that had paid more attention in training, raised their weapon. ‘Halt! Don’t move, stay stand there. We’ve had reports of shapeshifters trying to infiltrate the palace.’

‘Really? That’s not me.’ She kept her hands raised, before flicking her fingers forward. A cascade of arrows and magical bolts shot forward, Semari and Vrintar charging in as well to take advantage of the confusion. At such close quarters, even the elite guard didn’t stand a chance, swiftly succumbing to the attacks. Stathis checked them over, healing their wounds and making sure they weren’t in any danger.

Hakara strode forward, her robes billowing as magical light flickered into being around her. The same light started to glow from Stathis’ body, and she felt herself grow hazy.

‘This might feel a little unusual. Or not; I’m not entirely sure what might happen. Kivata, if you could assist me?’

A low, sonorous chant came from empty air, as Kivata flickered back into sight, her fingers bending and twisting through uncomfortable-looking shapes and postures. Although they seemed to be actually physically possible, unlike when Janaxia cast complicated spells, which was probably an improvement.

A body-deep weariness overtook her and she reeled backwards, leaning against a wall for support. Her flesh felt cool and numb, barely able to feel the coolness of the wall, exhaustion clouding her features. She blinked, and suddenly the world was gone, replaced by endless mist.