12 Seleszeni 10.076 Z.C., Morning

“Finally,” Lilla muttered as they emerged into a real hallway. From here on, they should be done in the tunnels.

“Keep an eye peeled for the Storm Guard Zazmo mentioned. We want to avoid them if possible,” Mav whispered as they dusted themselves off. Lilla and Splatz nodded, faces firm and focused.

Mav took point, leading the way down the hall. They kept close to the wall, checking around corners with a small steel mirror Mav carried for that purpose. Zazmodius pointed out several indirect paths through the halls which would lead them around security checkpoints. The old goblin selected their route well, for as they delved deeper into the forge complex, they encountered no one else in the halls.

Despite being grateful for Zazmodius’ assistance, unease grew in the pit of Mav’s stomach. If Jakobsmann and Rigoleto really did plan as much as Yarik, Tozinok, and the workers claimed, why would they allow a passage to the office with so little security? Did they use this route for nefarious in-house purposes, or were they so confident they overlooked this combination of halls when devising defensive measures?

Regardless of the reasons, Mav couldn’t shake the feeling they walked right into a trap.

Checking around one of the final corners with his mirror, Mav spotted the door to the office, and several sentries stationed outside it. These Storm Guards did appear formidable, with high-quality and well-maintained equipment. They’ve probably got a magic trick up their sleeves, too.

Analyzing their options, he motioned for Splatz and Lilla to back up down the hallway they just traveled.

“Four guards. A fight will make too much noise,” he breathed, leaning close to Lilla and Splatz as he produced the map. According to the blueprints and Zazmodius, the office only had one door. Jakobsmann didn’t allow the goblins to tunnel anywhere near the room, either.

Lilla hovered over the map and frowned as she studied the hallways around the office.

“We need a distraction,” Splatz whispered.

Lilla's eyes sparkled with capricious glee. "On it.”

Just don’t draw them this way, Mav scowled with concern as he bit his tongue.

Lilla’s face grew fierce as she concentrated on a spell, squinting as she shaped mana in her hands. Between the primal savagery of her expression and the telltale currents of green mana threading through her spell, Mav remembered there was a lot more to this vedalken than she let on. Her lingering loyalty to the Gruul concerned him, but as long as she didn’t turn on him, it didn’t really matter just now. He pretended not to notice the distinct lack of angel’s-blessed white mana suffusing the pulsing orb between her palms, and instead kept his eye on the mirror.

“Ready,” she whispered, and he nodded, letting her lead the way to the office. The spell sizzled at her fingertips, mana shaped and ready.

She muttered the final incantation, and a cascade of sparks shot forth from her hands, creating a fiery raze-boar beside them. The summoned creature squealed with intrepid fury before racing down the hallway and rounding the corner, charging the startled Storm Guard sentries. They faced the charging war boar with courage, standing fast with spears readied. But at the last moment, the boar veered away, racing down the hall past them. With a shout, the Storm Guard followed, chasing the huge hog down the next corridor.

“That was awesome,” Splatz praised, breathless. Wasting no time, Mav ducked past Lilla to the door of the office. He tried the knob, unsurprised to find it locked. He motioned for Splatz and stepped aside to allow the goblin room, drawing his longbow in case the Storm Guard returned. His friend already held his lockpicks at the ready and pressed his eye to the keyhole before setting to work on the door. Lilla stood on the far side of Splatz, facing down the hallway they came from.

Mav clicked his lips and chided, “A raze-boar?” While legionnaires often used the blessed white and red mana of the angels, soldiers who learned their magic outside the Legion sometimes drew on other colors to fuel their spells. Although using other colors wasn’t against Boros regulations, the act often drew suspicion and raised questions of competing guild loyalties. And summoning raze-boars, the unofficial mascots of the Gruul, would certainly raise a few uncomfortable questions about Lilla’s loyalties - not to mention her shadowy past.

“What?” she defended. “There were boars earlier.”

“Not painted raze-boars.”

She glared at him with one brow cocked, her expression daring him to go on.

Mav exhaled through his nose. He knew how it felt to be an outsider - he only wanted to help. But her combative nature and prickly personality made helping difficult. At least Nadine’s not around this time.

“Got it,” Splatz chuckled as the door clicked open. He paused to check for traps, then dove into the dark office beyond the door. Mav and Lilla followed.

“Lilla, look for anything incriminating around the office while Splatz and I find the safe,” he instructed, and the vedalken rolled her eyes.

“Yes, Sergeant,” she mocked with an insulting salute. Ignoring her, he turned to Splatz and found his friend rolling his eyes and parodying Lilla’s stance.

“Focus,” he muttered to them both, and crawled under the desk. A few moments of tapping later and he found the hidden safe, thanks to Zazmodius’ instructions. Unfortunately, while Splatz was handy with door and window latches, the goblin detested safes.

“Found it,” Mav whispered. “Tools?”

Splatz handed them over before rifling through the drawers of the desk.

His shoulders jammed into the small compartment under the desk, eyes straining to see in the darkness, Mav slipped the lockpicks into the mechanism, testing the tumblers. This safe featured a combination lock in addition to the keyhole for the tumbler lock, an additional layer of security he’d never encountered firsthand. I don’t know if I can open this, but let’s find out.

Listening to his heartbeat and feeling the tumblers, Mav tuned out the small sounds of his teammates searching the office. He closed his eyes, trying to trace the shape of the lock, but the pick kept catching. Time ran short, he knew. The guards would be back outside the door any moment, with heightened suspicions after their encounter with Lilla’s illusory boar.

The pick snagged again. Devils take you, I swear… He resisted the urge to snap the pick between his fingers, and instead clenched his teeth and slid out from under the desk.

“Can’t pick it; got that drill, Splatz?” he whispered. Even in the darkness, he could make out Lilla’s frown. Splatz retrieved the drill from his bag and handed it to Mav, who crawled back under the desk and started drilling through the lock.

“Finding anything?” he hissed back to the other two as his arms gyrated in unison. A pleasurable feeling, like working a speedbag.

“This guy has a collection of holos and newspaper clippings about the fire of ‘63,” Splatz reported nearby.

Mav heard soft footfalls and felt Lilla approach. “Some folders with information on goblin workers, not sure it will be helpful,” she whispered.

He frowned; he hoped earlier they would find more information in the office. Angels, let there be something good in here. He dropped a bit more oil into the keyhole and continued turning the hand-crank, making slow but steady progress drilling through the lock.

Before long, the bit bore fruit. Handing the drill back to Splatz, Mav opened the floor safe, relieved to find stacks of documents, folios, and a black leather briefcase. He passed items out to Splatz and Lilla, who set them on top of the desk. He stood and rejoined the others after emptying the safe, stretching his cramped shoulders.

Lilla flipped through the documents they found in the safe, beginning with a large business ledger.

“This is crazy,” she wondered under her breath, pointing to the figures. “Look at these sums, how can anyone pay this off?”

Splatz hummed. “Yeah, it’s more than any goblin makes.”

“Why do they borrow money in the first place, much less with this kind of interest? How could -.” She broke off mid-sentence after glancing at Splatz, but Mav could fill in the blanks.

‘How could they be so stupid?’

“Whatever they need the money for is usually worse than what they think they’ll get at the forge, working the debt off,” Splatz replied with obvious sadness in his tone. Mav remembered many of the goblins they knew growing up in the warrens who gave in to similar pressures, borrowing money from sharks like Jakobsmann or Krenko to pay off a fine or bail a loved one out of jail.

“But don’t they know they’ll never be able to pay it off, and just end up working for Jakobsmann?” Lilla pressed.

‘It’s especially hard for goblins because so few of the guilds really respect them as people like you and me.’ His father’s words echoed in his head, unbidden. Mav frowned, recalling his last conversation with Ace so many years ago. ‘Being poor and guildless in Ravnica brings people into very desperate situations, and that can tempt them to make bad decisions. But that doesn’t make them bad people.’

Little changed for goblins in the last thirteen years, he reflected. “They’re desperate, Lilla. They have no choice but to take the false promises villains like Jakobsmann offer them. They don’t have any better options.”

Lilla still looked skeptical, eyebrow arched and lips pursed as she considered his words. Mav grit his teeth and reined in an impulse to pound on the desk. “Don’t you get it? They may not have much, but they have hope. They still believe the guilds’ bullshit propaganda that, ‘anyone can make it if they work hard,’” he airquoted with no small amount of sarcasm.

“Even if they do realize the system is designed to oppress them and keep everyone in their place, they still hope for a brighter tomorrow. Then come the gangsters and forge bosses to prey on those hopes,” he finished, bitter.

“That’s awful,” Lilla remarked, before delivering a calculating smile. “And you’re sounding very Rakdos today.”

“That’s why we’re here, Gruul,” he returned in short order, turning his attention back to the contents of the safe and ignoring her scowl. She’s getting better at that, too.

He cracked open the briefcase, curious about its contents, and withdrew a plain folio. Holding the contents open, he leafed through the paperwork and holos inside. Evidence for blackmail, on a variety of individuals. At least two of the documents bore the Legion’s seal - did Jakobsmann have some soldiers under his thumb? Mav didn’t recognize any of the people in the holos, but he guessed an in-depth reading of the paperwork would uncover their identities and the incriminating nature of the evidence, though some revealing candid holos spoke for themselves.

Outside the door, heavy footsteps resounded as the sentries returned from chasing down the illusory boar. Keys jingled, and Mav and Splatz shared a look before piling paperwork into the briefcase and their satchels. Lilla gathered mana, murmuring as she prepared a spell, taking aim at the doorway as keys scraped in the lock. A gruff voice alerted the other guards of possible trouble as the knob turned without resistance. Aurelia, let there only be four of them still.

The door swung inward and Lilla loosed her spell, a bolt of fire arcing through the room to strike the Storm Guard square in the chest. The fire licked at his armor and died out, leaving the room in inky darkness again. Mav swore as he fumbled for the rest of the papers, his eyes no longer adapted to the darkness.

Within a few moments, he and Splatz collected all the documents from the desk in their bags.

Lilla conjured another firebolt, this time missing the towering Storm Guards as they advanced into the room, spears leveled. The blast hit a stack of newspapers, illuminating the room as fire ignited and flames spread. Mav saw two Storm Guard already in the room, the third and fourth at the door.

He retrieved his longbow, nocking an arrow and taking aim at the first Storm Guard’s spear arm. His arrow flew true, striking the junction between the shoulder and chest plates of the man’s armor. The guard flinched and grunted, but kept advancing. If they’re as good as they think they are, we’re in trouble.

Beside him, Splatz drew his daggers and leapt onto the desk. He threw one with a snarl, catching the second guard across the cheek before the blade ricocheted away. A glancing blow, but serious nevertheless. The guard touched his face, staring at the blood that came away on his hand, then gripped his spear with vengeful focus. He advanced on the goblin, his face a bloody mask of rage.

Even as Lilla kept slinging bolts of fire, the other two Storm Guards advanced into the room, faces grim but favoring their odds. I’d favor my odds, too.

Trying to evade these four long enough to fill them with arrows wouldn’t be possible in this small room. Reevaluating the battlefield, Mav put away his bow and drew his own daggers.

If we don’t dispatch these guys and get out of here, then that’s it. They’ll kill us, toss our bodies in the furnace, and no one will be the wiser. It happened all the time to the goblin workers, and as trespassers and thieves, they would fare no better.

It’s kill, or be killed.

Mav charged the first guard, careful not to give his plan away. At the last moment he ducked and rolled, dodging under the spear. Coming in low and unexpected, he plunged his dagger upward through the waist joint of the man’s armor, clipping metal but finding flesh. Hot blood spilled over his hand as he steadied himself and drove the other dagger home as well. He pulled his foe in close, to reduce the effectiveness of their spear.

The heat of another firebolt whizzed by, singeing his hair as it splashed against a picture on the wall, setting another part of the room ablaze. Behind him, Splatz loosed a goblin battle cry. Mav envisioned his friend leaping from the desk onto the guard’s face and slashing with all his might.

The first sentry grimaced, Mav’s steel biting into his torso. He reached up and bashed Mav over the head with the haft of his spear. Head ringing and still tender from last night’s fights, Mav lost focus for a moment, his eyes glazing over. The third guard, sporting numerous burns from Lilla’s firebolts, sensed the opening and lashed out with his spear.

Mav felt his skin part under the razor-sharp blade as the speartip grazed his shoulder. The pain followed a moment later, as the Storm Guard spun his spear and sliced off a small piece of flesh. Growling, Mav attacked again, withdrawing his knives and finding new joints in the armor to drive them into. He spun himself around the guard’s body as he made contact, to shield himself from the others’ spears.

The guard gasped in pain, and Mav felt their weight go limp on his blades. He twisted the handles for good measure, and let the sentry collapse in a heap on their knees. Fire flashed behind him, an oversized shadow cast on the wall as the third guard collapsed to the floor with a thud.

“That’s why you don’t mess with Krenko!” Lilla called out, laughing with diabolic intent. Splatz managed to fell the second Storm Guard, and now pummeled them with a series of punches and stabs. The spreading flames, overtaking a corner of the office, illuminated the last guard’s face; Mav saw his eyes widen in surprise as he recalculated his odds. He glanced around the chaos of the flame-engulfed office and his gasping, fallen comrades.

Before Mav could stop him, the sentry turned and bolted out the door, slamming it behind him as he ran.

Knives still at the ready, Mav and Splatz caught each other’s eye and shared a nod before turning to Lilla. Mav’s heart pounded from the fight, adrenaline coursing through his veins. So, she’s been working for Krenko this whole time...