[40th Year of Foresai, Lower Wind Month, Day 1]

It was two days before the Blue Roses rode into the capital. The women passed through the city gates, and as word of their arrival spread throughout the populace, by the time they had arrived at the palace, a small crowd had formed to view them. Upon the back of an eight-legged horsekin - a sleipnir - rode a highborn woman in filigreed armor; proud and well-bred, she bore a large sword at her side, and hovering in the air behind her were six floating blades, fanned behind her back to give the appearance of wings. This was Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra, Fiendish Boss, Bladelord and Cleric, and leader of the Blue Roses.

We didn’t exactly make good time. Unlucky to run into two separate bands of highwaymen.

Despite Lakyus riding along the back of a Sleipnir, which themselves were taller than other equines, the woman walking beside her rose nearly to her height. Nearly two paces in height, the woman was a terrifying sight to behold. In a deep crimson full plate, she bore a warhammer on her back, which by appearance alone must have weighed a dozen standard weights. Her face was strong, and was in a word, statuesque. Gagaran was the muscle of the Blue Roses.

The remaining three members of the Blue Roses were not seen by the crowd. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop were two. Both of them were nearly identical in appearance; lithe, but with unusually hardened bodies. Neither rose above a pace and a half in height, and the way they moved made it clear that they possessed the strength to lift several times their own body weight. Despite running across tile, their footfalls produced little noise, avoiding heel strike and any unnecessary calls to their presence. Both bore collections of kite shaped knives, and at their sides were long sickle blades. They were the Twin Killers, Tia and Tina.

The final member of the Blue Roses had no need to run along rooftops and through back alleys to stay hidden. She simply tailed Lakyus and Gagaran invisibly. Although the sight of it was impossible, she wore a cloak dyed fully red. It left no part of her body visible, and upon her face lay a bone white mask, with only thin slits for her eyes. She wasn’t walking, but smoothly gliding a handbreadth above the ground. Even with the added height of hovering, she stood shorter than even Tia and Tina. She was an enigma, a mysterious arcanist of supreme dedication and power. She was Evileye.

Thus did all five enter the palace gate, with Tia and Tina dropping from above and Evileye dispelling her cloak. This was done out of courtesy and respect, but in truth, the castle guards couldn’t have prevented their covert entry. Shedding her mount, Lakyus led the five of them to one of the many side entrances to the palace. They may have been honored guests, but to let those who did such gruff work enter through the front entrance would have been an affront. Bearing the fierce heat of the day to greet the adventurers were two, the Warrior Captain and the Bodyguard of the Golden Princess. With a mischievous smirk, Gagaran spoke first.

“Oy Gazef, you hanging around with that virgin? Don’t let him drag you down that much!”

Oh for the Will of the Four.

Gagaran was a warrior’s warrior, and she was of a mind to effect conquest in all things, including sexual. This undoubtedly earned inner groans from all else present, and a rebuttal from Evileye.

“Hey musclemounds, we’re here to see the princess. Can’t you use that brain that rattles around in your skull to conjure some decorum?”

“You know I’m no good for that stuff anyway, that’s why we have her.”

Gagaran pointed at Lakyus, who sighed. Although she had de facto given up her title for a life of heroics, Lakyus was still a member of the nobility, and it was this that allowed the Blue Roses to earn acceptance not only for merit, but for blood. Gazef spoke, heading off an exchange of banter between the feuding wizard and warrior.

“It’s fine. Gagaran, I know you’re not one for ceremony. The king has given me leave of my duties for the afternoon. What say you, we spend some time sparing?”

“Ha! As if I could ever refuse. I still don’t accept your victory.”

“Fiendish Boss, I’m going to go with them too.”

Why do they have to call me that? It makes me sound wicked.

Tia addressed Lakyus with a moniker her twin concocted when they initially encountered and were recruited by her. Although it irked her, she had soon learned to accept it. Tina nodded, also not wanting to join the pleasantry.

“That’s fine. Climb, take us to Her Highness.”

—

Renner was enjoying a green tea when the closest thing she had to a friend knocked on the door.

“Come in!”

Laykus, Evileye, and Climb entered, Laykus having changed from her battle gear into a light green dress that she kept for such occasions.

“Your Highness.”

“Lakyus! Oh how nice it is to see you!”

Renner stood out of her chair, Laykus walked forth and took the Golden Princess’s dexter hand, bowed, and kissed it.

“Are Gagaran, Tia, and Tina not attending?”

“The warrior captain offered them a sparring match.”

“Gagaran trying to relive the Grand Tournament?”

“Indeed, I don’t think she’s ever forgiven Gazef for his victory over her.”

“I see. Please, sit! Climb you too.”

“Your Highness-”

“I’ll make it an order.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Renner indicated he was to sit as well. Laykus and Renner sat adjacent, Climb and Evileye opposite.

“So, Lakyus, what heroics have you been up to lately?”

“Nothing significant. About a month ago, a southern Barony had its crops blighted. Lord Fairland hired a local team of Gold-plates to go into the woods nearby and destroy whatever was killing his crops. When they failed to return, a mithril team was dispatched to find them. To cut a story short, it was a circle of Bafolk Druids trying to push their tribe’s territory north.”

“How scary. Still, it wasn’t that bad?”

Evileye interjected, her cold voice cutting through the air.

“It was just a matter of killing the Moongazer. They needed his power to conduct the sapping ritual. One we killed him, we just ran them down the rest in the rout.”

“You mean you killed him, Evileye. You shot him with that crystal bolt from over three hundred paces away.”

“You still hunted down the rest.”

Evileye is the most powerful of them, but she has no interest in leading the group. I wonder why. There are too many questions about her. She has a child’s body, yet she clearly possesses such a deep magical prowess. She probably isn’t human, but what could she be? Perhaps a halfling? They possess such small bodies even in maturity, but she sounds young.

Renner engaged in this sort of contemplation every time she interacted with the resident witch of the Blue Roses, but had never puzzled out a satisfactory conclusion as to her race, age, or origins. No one else in the Blue Roses knew her origin either. Her slot in the group used to be occupied by Rigrit Bers Caurau, one of the Thirteen Heros; who as she told it, won a bet against Evileye, and as payment, told Evileye to take her place in the Blue Roses and allow her to retire. Still, Evileye had repeatedly proved her worth to the group, precisely because of actions like this.

“All of you always impress me. You so casually say such impossible things.”

“Easier than politics.”

All but Evileye and Climb laughed. For the Blue Roses, politics was indeed a more difficult arena for them than that of battle. They looked up to Renner for that reason, and in some ways, relied upon her. Renner turned to the maid in the room.

“Elena, please go and get some biscuits for our guests.”

Maid Elena bowed and exited the room, and Lakyus knew it was time to shift away from small talk into the real topic of conversation.

“So, Renner, why did you summon us?”

“Lakyus, what do you think the greatest threat to the Kingdom is?”

“Baharuth is the most visible threat, but I’m guessing that’s not the answer you want me to give. I’d say Zurrernorn too, but I get the feeling you’d shoot that down as well. Eight Fingers?”

“Yes.”

“I see. They’re the only organization that can continue the slave trade. They produce black dust. They hold power over most gambling clubs in the land.”

“Yes.”

Lakyus paused, and thought for a moment, trying to trace Renner’s thought process.

“With the slave trade banned, they’ve gotten more desperate. You think they’re going to start disrupting the Kingdom more than they have.”

“Yes.”

Laykus leaned in.

“You want to go after them, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Destroy them?”

“Cripple them.”

“At what levels.”

“Arrest the division heads. Cripple the narcotics and slavery divisions.”

“I see.”

Laykus leaned back. Evileye was silent, absorbing what Renner had said. Climb’s was visibly confused.

The sudden shift in topic has left him completely in the dust, no? Doubly so because he is the only one in the dark. How cute.

“Still, they’ve always been a threat to the Kingdom. Why now?”

Renner could not tell Lakyus what her real reason was, that this was part of a scheme to ensure Zanac got the throne and that she would be left immune to the marriage wiles of the nobility. She had already prepared an excuse.

Barbro I must thank you yet again. That sword you brought was a gift not only to our father, but to me.

“The Slane Theocracy is active in Tob.”

“What?! Why?”

“I’m not sure. Suffice it to say, they’re active in the borderlands. Actually, they may be disguised as imperial knights terrorizing villiagers.”

“How do you know this?”

This is twice I’ve lucked out today.

“The warrior captain should be informing your compatriots of that now.”

Silence filled the room. Climb had gone from being visibly lost to being comically so, and had let his shoulders drop in clear resignation, no longer willing to pretend he was following the conversation. Tina was second most confused, and she was the first to speak up.

“So, you want to get rid of Eight Fingers as a problem because you think the Theocracy will become the greatest threat to the Kingdom in the future.”

“Yes.”

The Blue Roses had no love for the Theocracy. Gagaran was the most vocal about her hatred for that country. In not so many words, she thought their tenants of human supremacy were completely detestable. Lakyus herself had run into the Sunlit Scripture attempting to raze demihuman villages on the shared border where the Kingdom, the Theocracy, and the wilds met. Had she been swiffer, she could have taken the head of its leader, but only managed to slash at his face. Evileye was an unknown quantity, but everyone could safely guess that she wasn’t human, and that was cause enough for her to fight the servants of the Six Gods.

“Actually, Your Highness, you might be wrong.”

Evileye spoke up quietly. Everyone, especially Renner, turned to her with looks of confusion.

“Insofar as them being in Tob to interfere in the business of the Kingdom. Your Highness, do you know which of the six scriptures they belong to?”

“No, I don’t have enough evidence to know yet. Why do you ask?”

“There are rumors among the guild that a Black Scripture member went rogue. Took the crown of a Miko Princess and fled.”

The room was again silent.

A defector among the Black Scripture! What a terrifying thought. Still, to steal the crown of a Miko Princess. What a transgression.

The Slane Theocracy understood little justice outside of execution, but had countries like Baharuth or Re-Estize possessed such things as a Miko Princess, stealing a crown would have been considered a capital act as well. A Miku Princess would give up mind and soul to her crown, and in exchange would become an instrument of such divine magical power as to match even the most powerful arcanists of the Empire. Once put on, the crown became an inseparable part of a princess’s being. To rip one off of her head would cause unimaginable damage.

Evileye, you’re always a wildcard. You can’t be planned around can you?

“Still, Renner isn’t wrong. Even if they are in Tob hunting a defector, they are disguised as Imperials. They still are destabilizing what little peace we have. Who’s to say they won't continue even after they kill the traitor. Besides, Evileye, haven’t we wanted to destroy Eight Fingers for a long time?”

Lakyus, friend that she was, quickly salvaged Renner’s plan.

“True. Finally eliminating that cancer would be satisfying.”

Renner smiled, the Blue Roses had agreed to her course of action. Although no details had been divined, they wanted to help her weaken Eight Fingers.

“My patronage for your activities will need to be anonymous. I already earned the ire of Slane when I banned slavery. I don’t want to make myself more of a target for them.”

“Of course. I don’t think anyone here would fight that point. So, Your Highness, where do we start?”

Renner had spent the last two days preparing a list of targets. With the permission of Ramposa, she had traveled to the eastern gates of the city to give a small speech to rouse the guards. It was the sort of popular appeal that made Renner so valuable as an asset to appease the charges of the nobility. While she was there, she used Climb to acquire logs of entry and egress. By candlelight, she had thumbed through the manifests, cross checking and identifying irregularities, and by dawn had produced a list of seven regular shipments that were likely to be carrying contraband. This meant she forwent sleep, and as a result, she was wearing copious amounts of dark-circle concealer and the tea she was sipping was brewed triple strength.

“Climb, go into my bedroom and retrieve the piece of paper I have on my desk. It’ll be on top of the ledger from the gate-guards.”

Climb looked slightly embarrassed, but stood and walked to the door. Lakyus poured herself and Evileye cups of tea, sipped, and twisted her face at the taste. Evileye lifted her mask slightly, and drank; unsatisfied with the temperature, she snapped her fingers and produced a flame from their tips, using it to heat her cup. Climb walked back in, carrying a single sheet of parchment. Renner indicated that he should give it to Lakyus.

“Those are a set of five shipments that occur at regular intervals, likely to be carrying black dust. I have the likely dates and times of their arrivals listed below. There are an additional two shipments that I thought were suspicious, but I’m less certain about them.”

“This says one of these is likely to arrive tonight?”

“Yes, now it’s possible that many of the guards have compartmentalized information, and don’t know what they’re transporting. However, the one who provides the manifest to the guard should know. He’ll be the one to deliver the bribe. Identify, capture, and interrogate them.”

“What should we do to the manifest bearer after?”

Kill them.

“Whatever you see fit. I’ll pay you out a platinum standard-weight for the information.”

This was a spectacular amount of money, and accounted for about two months of Renner’s allowance, or about a decade of work on the part of a peasant. The Blue Roses were adamantite ranked adventurers, the highest ranked possible. This sort of payment would be typical to hire them, but adding on guild fees, variable costs like transport, and even guarding the delivery of the money to the guild vault itself could nearly double that.

“Half-weight. This is under the table work, so we dodge the eye of the guild on this. Besides, we’ve been waiting for you to give us the go ahead to hunt down Eight Eight fingers for a while now.”

Lakyus had a determined look on her face, and presumably Evileye did too. Eight Fingers had long been a villain in the periphery. Many of the nobles who hired them were likely paying them in part with the proceeds of that crime network. To finally be able to seek and destroy was a joy long coming.

“Good. Please don’t hit more than two Eight Fingers’ patrols at the gates themselves. Any more and they won’t write it off as an unlucky coincidence. I’ll write a bill of withdrawal for you. Oh and Lakyus?”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking I would get Climb some new armor. I know steel can be easily pierced by the things you encounter on a regular basis, and I worry for his safety.”

Climb blushed, and Lakyus suppressed a chuckle at the sight of him. Climb was the darling of the Golden Princess, and thus in the eyes of the Blue Roses, was their darling too. Although his fighting ability did not rise to the level of any individual Adamantite adventurer, he had a strong spirit despite his boyhood, and that was endearing to the entire party.

“Really? What were you thinking?”

“Mithril full-plate.”

Mithril full-plate was near the height of non-magical protection available to humanity. Stronger and lighter than steel, it has the unique property of not ringing when struck. Even running at full speed, a person outfitted in it would not create much noise. There were stronger metals, but they became far more than cost prohibitive.

“That’s not a problem. Actually, I’m pretty sure we have enough stock on hand to create him some.”

The life of a top adventurer very frequently brings a person in contact with creatures and beings who outfit themselves in their strongest weapons and armor. When they are slain, they leave their possessions behind. When a group of people make it a career to hunt and destroy such monsters, they tend to accumulate a lot of such equipment. The Blue Roses had a small warehouse to this end. Giving away the stock of mithril necessary to produce such armor, was to them, no expense at all.

“Oh? That’s wonderful!”

“Yeah. Plus, there’s a forge here that owes us a favor. So no charge.”

This was a rare gift, which to any layperson would have been shocking. Adventurers were normally very exacting in payment, and not without cause. To kill a horde of goblins and then be stiffed on the backend was common enough for groups to become zealous in securing coin for their services. This was the reaction Climb was currently experiencing, and his mouth was slightly agape. He stood up sharply and bowed.

“T-thank you! I deeply appreciate this. To you Lady Aindra and all of the Blue Roses.”

“Of course Climb. Please, you don’t need to bow. Use it to protect the Princess.”

“Y-yes!”

Maid Elena finally returned with a platter of biscuits, warm and fresh to the touch. As she set them on the table, Renner began to author the payment for the Blue Roses. Handing them a completed bill of withdrawal, Renner grabbed a biscuit and took a bite.

—

The chamber was lit by only a few beams of light, but cacophony filled the room. The two figures silhouetted were in a tight melee, clangs of metal on metal and hard blows drowned out all other sound in the room. Both were large, and their attacks were filled with such power as too inspire terror among most who would witness it. Suddenly, one figure gained a visible upperhand, disarming the other of their hammer. Taking a punch from a now empty handed opponent, the figure brought a blade down close to the throat of the other. The sparring match stopped, and two low laughs filled the chamber.

“You really had to slip that punch in the end?”

“Ay, I’m a sore loser Gazef.”

“I can see that. Feel it too.”

“...Shit, I thought I had it as long as I could hold out.”

“Keep that ambition up.”

“Ay, I will.”

Gazef and Gagaran walked over near the door to the room, breathing heavily. Stripping off their plate, they sat on a wooden bench undersized for their frames and ladled water from a bucket over themselves. Tina and Tina, both lurking in a dark corner of a room found the sight comical

“Neither of you have any modesty.”

“Tia don’t give us shit.”

Gazef broke into a laugh at Gagaran’s lack of etiquette, and then quickly regretted it as it robbed him of his breath. Silence filled the room for a few minutes, punctuated by the sound of towels being wrung and winces of pain at wounds being tended. After both had sufficiently slowed their heart rates, Gazef spoke up in a low tone.

“Oy, Gagaran.”

“Yeah?”

“I have a problem.”

Sensing the seriousness in his words, Gagaran dropped her jovial attitude, a cool level of professionalism filling her words.

“What problem?”

Gazef spilled his fears to Gagaran, Tia, and Tina, the three of whom punctuated his confession with questions. The room grew colder. As he was finishing up, there was a knock on the door, Lakyus entering.

“Fiendish boss.”

“Tia, Tina, Gazef, Gagaran. Who won the spar? You both look terrible.”

“He did the bastard! But uh, Lakyus, actually there’s something important you should know. Gazef thinks-”

“The Slane Theocracy is provoking conflict between us and the Empire. The Princess already told us. It's concerning.”

Gazef felt the wind taken out of his sails, and his head began to swirl with questions.

The Third Princess Renner? How would she know about that?

“Huh, Gazef you didn’t tell me you talked to her about that already.”

Wait, this wasn’t simply a social call? Renner collaborates with them on strategy and tactics?!

“I didn’t.”

Did she figure this out herself?

Gagaran looked slightly flummoxed, and then gave a nervous laugh.

“Oy, the Princess is kinda scary isn’t she?”

Everyone present silently agreed with Gagaran.