What twists of chance do guide our lives? How are we shaped by actions our own and those of others brought to bear? Some call freedom and illusion, but all can agree that illusion or not, freedom perceived is a pivotal shaper of one’s self and society within we dwell.

-Scholar Facetious Wimbley

4993 A.D. Seventh day of the fifth week of Autumn. Eighth half Bell of the Evening, District The Poor...

Sylvia led the duo onwards until they halted in the shadows a shops recessed entrance, only a hundred meters from their target.

The shop Sylvia had raided the previous night was under far heavier guard, four meat handers clustered at the entrance, another two watchers on the roof armed with crude crossbows, and no doubt even more inside the shop.

Sylvia poked Jacques, and Hadoom as she had found the dwarf was called, and motioned them to retreat to the alleyway behind them, then she focused and created a bubble of air around them. It was far more strenuous to do so for all three of them than the usual close fitting ones she made for herself but Sylvia persevered against her emptying mana pool and set the construct in place. Good, now they could talk without alerting any others.

Sylvia directed their attention to a moonlit patch of dirt where the calgaree started drawing as she spoke, illustrating her words with simple, if effective diagrams.

“Here is the shopfront, it's not too large, little more than a counter with half empty shelves along the walls. Behind the door lies a workroom where they extracted marrow flowers and refined their juices into Joombla, but it's all abandoned currently. The upward stairs to the right lead to the manager's office but the door at the back of the sweatshop leads to a downward spiralling staircase. You go down two levels, ignore the first landing and its room, keep going to the bottom, there are alarms all along the way but after the final door there is a dungeon where Gupalagia is being held. There is also an orc held in there with her, he is co-operative so it should all be good.”

Sylvia paused, her explanation done. “Will you need help with the traps and alarms?” she enquired.

“Yes,” Jacques said, “While we could handle picking the locks, neither my companion nor I have the necessary tools to dispel magical locks and alarms on hand. Hadoom, have you got anything silent and preferably non-lethal in your bag? We are going to need some captives to question after the rescue.”

Hadoom grunted before sticking his hand in his bag and fishing around for a few moments before retrieving a large and rather intimidating looking repeating crossbow that featured gears, cogs and a little oil paper sack with a paddle on the side.

In return to Jacques and Sylvia’s demeanor of disbelief towards the non lethality of his chosen weapon Hadoom quickly exonerated himself.

“See these baby bolts? It be hard to kill a man with them, they'll give em no more than a good prick, plus its quick fire is useful for multiple targets and the venom sac only contains a muscle paralytic. This beauty will put them down fast and silent with nae a fool the wiser. I had a hard time convincing old iron fingers our quartermaster to lend it out for testing.”

Sylvia looked at Jacques in askance and got a shrug in return. They let it go.

Now mostly convinced, and with the plan fleshed out Sylvia dropped the air barrier and the trio crept back to the alley’s entrance. There they found to their dismay a large carriage pulling up.

Out hopped another two men, one being the the boss Sylvia recognised from last night, the other being a short figure dressed in flowing robes.

This was not good, they were too late! Gupalagia was getting her transfer right now!

Fiddlesticks.

Jacques sighed as he pulled out his knuckle knives, “Well there goes plan A, Hadoom plan B, put the boss man and his friend to sleep and lets go free our target.”

“Plan B?” Sylvia hissed furiously, “We never made a plan B!”

“Relax lassie,” crooned Hadoom as he popped off a few shots and exchanged his mechanical crossbow for twin pistols, following Jarques’s rapid advance with his eyes, “There’s always a plan B. Besides, look on the bright side, now you don't need to risk your neck entering, we no longer need to be quiet so Jacques and I can get through the doors and alarms just~ fine.”

Sylvia paused, watching from the shadows with indecision and morbid fascination as the duo rapidly advanced and began to decimate the assembled meat handers, finishing those outside all too quickly and disappearing into the shop, vanishing from her eyes, but not her ears, as bangs, yells and thumps continued from within the building.

Sighing to herself Sylvia straightened and followed them in, avoiding the spreading pools of blood and other mystery squishy things. She hated cleaning her paws and did NOT want them dirtied in here.

………………………

Jacques dashed into the backroom, running up the wall and jumping, funneling his momentum through his knuckdusted fist and into the face of some poor sod who stood in his way. The bludgeoned man smashed backwards against some machinery and was still.

Jacques stood, chest heaving from both adrenaline and his exertions in the short but sharp fight.

"Clear." He called, hearing the affirmative response from Hadoom a second later. Quickly they then rushed through to the back of the workroom and with solid kick Jacques smashed the door there open, splintering the frame as the lock ripped free.

The duo then descended down the stairwell two and three steps at a time, ignoring the alarms that began to shrilly cry, pausing at a landing to scope out a desolate refinery.

The tubes and alchemical contraptions therein were covered with a layer of dust that elicited a sneeze from Hadoom, but the room held no living prisoners, no sign of their goal.

Dismissing the room they continued downwards, pausing only briefly as they were halted by another door, this one with an iron reinforced door and frame. Jacques pulled out his lockpicks and fiddled for few seconds, attempting to rake or roll the lock, before giving up.

"The lock’s warded, one of the alarms must have triggered a failsafe. Got any shaped mana charges partner?" Jacques asked.

"Nay lad, old Ironfingers is real stingy with those, but door makers in Nolusburg always make the same mistake, they never seem to reinforce the hinges."

After he spoke Hadoom raised his pistols and unleashed a salvo on the two sets of iron hinges that supported the thick door, leaving them a twisted mess that tore and gave way before some forceful persuasion, their heavy burden crashing down into the room it guarded.

The duo entered swiftly, prepared for a final trap or any hidden guards, or even an unwilling captive. People sometimes went funny in the head if they were kept constrained too long

“Well?” Asked Sylvia when she came up behind them, “Why are you just standing there-”

Sylvia stopped and likewise stared at the empty cell illuminated by a guttering torch Jacques had pulled from the wall.

Hadoom grasped the cell door and shook it. “Locked. We must have missed them and they were already transferred earlier.”

“Impossible.” Sylvia replied, “This shop has been watched all of today, besides I hardly think they would have been transferred without those.” She pointed at two discarded iron collars that lay in one dirty corner.

Jacques pointed to one section of wall at the back, “Look there the colors off, the rest of the wall is black and grey rock packed quite tightly, but there it's far loosely spaced.”

A quick pick gained them access to the cell where a few solid kicks caved mismatched wall inwards, revealing a black passageway sloping upwards.

“Well that's hardly proper behaviour for a damsel in distress,” Hadoom chortled, “Makes us look like fools for coming to rescue her, I like this lass more and more.”

Jacques gave his partner a pointed look.

“Now lad, you know my stance on small tight spaces, especially underground, I’ll head back up and watch the entrance, you go ahead and chase the lass.”

Jacques nodded and handed Hadoom the torch he bore before crouching down and entering the tunnel, he swiftly disappeared into the black hole.

……………………………………..

Guppy carefully compacted the last layer of soil and pulled the tangled net of grass aside, slowly raising her head and peering around before pulling herself up out of the tunnel and into someone’s back garden.

A low growling sounded as a mean looking suk rose and left a shadowy corner, hackles raised and tail stiff as it considered the foolish intruder. Guppy frowned and kept still, not wanting to antagonise the brute of a canine that so clearly did not appreciate her presence in its domain.

Guppy heard a thump and a sigh as Jade pulled himself out of the hole behind her, she had tried to widen the tunnel as much as possible, but pressed for time and limited in mana her excavations had been narrow for the orc, leaving him with little room to pull himself along or even breath.

Jade took one look at the snarling mutt and raised himself up, letting out a guttural snarl that sent the suk retreating and whining back into the shadows.

Guppy patted the orc on his arm, showing her appreciation for a problem easily resolved.

The two quickly made it over the enclosing wall and landed in a curving alleyway, out of sight of the main road.

The two of them needed to lay low, at least until they could make it out of the city somehow, the plan they had loosely scraped together was swimming downstream and then Guppy transmuting the iron grill at the wall’s base to open up a hole large enough for the both of them to exit.

So a destination in mind Guppy led Jade along from shadow to shadow through a few streets until she was sure enough of her bearings to head towards the worker’s district, before which laid the river that cut the city in twain.

The journey was almost laughably easy as Jade’s size and scowl made would be interested parties shy away, allowing them to make good time through the small side roads towards their destination. It was only when a black robed figure dropped from a rooftop in front of them that their progress was halted.

The figure raised their hand, palm forward, and blocked their path, before lifting their cloak to reveal a compact crossbow pointed at them.

“Only one shot little thing.” Jade growled, “best make it count because if you fire on us I’ll rip your limbs off one by one.”

The figure took a half step back at the orc’s bloodlust, but regaining themselves snorted. However the moment of distraction was enough, Guppy burst into action, leaping on the figure and knocking aside the crossbow, the fired bolt skittering off the cobblestones with a whine as Guppy delivered a feinted punch to their throat which the figure hastily defended against with their free arm, only to crumple the next moment as Guppy’s knee smashed up between the man's legs.

Yes the man, for the whimper he let out as the force slammed through protective padding and into his family jewels was testament enough to his gender.

Guppy tossed the man aside and was about to continue when a slow clapping came from overhead.

The duo looked upwards, in time to see the air distort and another figure make their entrance, this one however was wrapped not in loose robes but in tight leathers that little doubt as to her gender, for all they otherwise obscured her identity they had been designed for a freedom of movement that Jade and Guppy could hardly appreciate as she landed in front of them and drew a shockstick, motioning the two to come at her.

Guppy grimaced as she saw what was colloquially called the puke stick, the pulse baton notorious for it’s stomach upsetting effects. Still, the woman stood between Guppy and their freedom, right now she didn’t really care who she was, she was in the way.

So Guppy ran at the wall, jumping off it to increase her speed and attack at an awkward angle for her opponent.

The next thing Guppy saw was the sky.

A dull roaring entered her ears, causing her to drop her head left and blurrily see Jade be taken apart by the woman in black as she avoided or blocked the orc’s punches and lunges, reacting with quick but brutal attacks of her own as she faded in and out of sight, mirages appearing and disappearing just as quickly in the shadowy night.

Soon Jade knelt on one knee and a fist, his one leg broken, his still recuperating body a mess of cuts and bruises.

Guppy forced herself up as Jade took a blow to his neck and fell to the earth, another figure appearing swiftly and binding him in black chains. She was not going to go back to that hole.

Her teeth bared in a rictus grin and she laughed, surprising herself and her onlookers by the hysterical giggle that cut through the air.

They wanted to chain her did they? Well two could play at that game, she pulled on the growing connection with the dirt and stone, feeling the resistance and then the pop as some hurdle was overcome.

Earthen hands rose from the ground, grabbing at both the dark figures.

One she got, but the blasted woman was too fast, slipping through a flicker of light and shadow.

Guppy blocked a thrust of the pukestick with her forearm as it came from the side, seeing the flow of light around the woman now as she slid across distances as if they were meaningless.

Guppy grunted as the baton discharged a wave of force into her, but she was expecting it, and it was far less debilitating than she expected, allowing her to stamp on the cobbles, sending a spray of stone shards upwards.

Were they fast and sharp, not really, her control was not good enough for that, but they bought her another moment as her opponent retreated, clearly expecting more.

Guppy pushed back at the headache that pounded within her skull, pulling more energy and forcing it to her will as she dropped her hands to the ground cobble stones flowed upwards and covered her fists and arms in rock.

Elegant? No, but it would protect against the baton, and she could now see through the trickery the woman employed as she successfully countered a few blows, her own were fast, but even able to see the cursed woman did not let her touch her with more than a glancing touch.

The black leathered woman stepped back and considered Guppy for a moment before returning the baton to her back and making a throwing motion with both hands.

Guppy moved then, but felt pricks along her legs as five of the eight needles slipped past her defenses. They stung for sure, but Guppy was not going to let this…

………………………………………………..

Emily sighed internally as she watched her target stagger and then fall, her stony vambraces crumbling as unconsciousness took the girl. Emily had noted her surprising strength and endurance and hit her with enough soporific laced needles to take down three orcs. The girl would sleep for awhile yet.

Emily hummed her displeasure as she slapped her second subordinate awake, the fool had been bested by an untrained girl, even if she had been a tough one, and she had expected more from one trained by her.

The man sputtered awake, then wilted under her look, nevermind that Emily’s face was concealed, he knew he was in suk droppings and could expect ‘remedial training’ when they got back.

Emily stood back and let her other subordinate wrap the girl up in his shadowy chains that he carried and fought with. Good, their goal was completed and now they could return.

Emily stopped as Jacques rounded the corner, holding a glowing item which he quickly tucked away upon seeing them. He inclined his head in due deference towards her before speaking up.

“Mistress, the girl?”

“She is alive and they will be taken into custody as per the orders from the Raven, he will decide their fate, go, retrieve your companion, and head back. You have accomplished your task, finding and tracking the girl even with complications, and if we intervened to make it a surety, I doubt he’ll count it against you.”

Jacques stood, fighting the conflicted emotions that ran through him, but duty won out, and Gupalagia had been saved, indeed she could be in no safer hands than those in which she currently lay. He turned and left, hoping his partner hadn’t manage to complicate things any further in his absence.