“Huh. Well, this isn’t looking good.” I muttered, getting a chuckle from Elendria. Backtracking a wagon to the place it turned off the road wasn’t difficult at all. There were worn track marks, and two magical signposts.

“I’m just saying, all we need to do is put a little magic into the post and the walkway will raise.” Elendria explained. “No need to go all monkey from tree to tree, as the path probably has multiple dead ends. It’s what I would do.”

“Yeah, but then they’ll know we are coming.”

“So? Wear these.” She said, pulling out two of the armors that we had removed the larvae from.

“Where? When?” I asked, confused.

“Heh, did you think you were the only one planning things? These looked like great ways to disguise ourselves without anyone knowing. As far as we know, those things don’t give spiritual sight, so nobody can tell they are fakes.” She said with a smile.

“Ugh.” I groaned, conceding the point. “Fine, it’s a start. But you get to wear it. I’ll just do this.” I said, taking off my shirt and utilizing a bit of shapeshifting. I didn’t quite copy the form of the powerful archer, but I was similar. I had a feeling that all of the tattoos would be unique.

“Why can you not wear the armor? It really isn’t that uncomfortable.”

“True, but those are for the low level grunts. A surprise inspection of the facility would need someone higher. Hence the tattoos.”

“Fine, so what am I? And if you say bedwarmer, I swear to Shalora I’ll freeze it off and test your ability to regrow things.”

“Whoah! Easy there! You’re my apprentice of course! Now, go ahead and raise the walkway for us.” I said, backing up a bit at her implied threat. Smiling, she stepped forward and put some mana into one of the pillars. With a groaning, sloshing noise, the walkway rose a few inches so that it was barely above the waterline. With nothing else to do, we started walking.

Ten minutes later, after a surprisingly straight run through the bog, we came to the compound. It had a simple wooden wall around it, with two guards in simple armor at the gate.

“Halt! Who goes there?” One asked, leveling a spear in our direction.

“Surprise inspection. I’m Roger Connery, this is my Apprentice, Penny Cash.” I said, waving a hand. I could feel the glare and confusion from Elendria, but I couldn’t help it. These were the first bits that popped into my head.

“We’ve had no word of this.” One said.

“Of course not, idiot.” I said, walking up and pushing aside his spearhead with a finger. “What part of ‘surprise inspection’ indicated that we would be telling you we were coming?” I turned to the other guy. “Let me guess, he did something stupid to get assigned to gate duty?”

“There was a small prank sir.” The guard said with a smile.

“Understandable. Out in the middle of nowhere, you need a bit of fun now and again.” I turned back to the first guy. “What do you say we let that first impression slide? I’m Roger, here for a surprise inspection.”

“Thank you sir. Unfortunately, we are under lockdown at the moment.”

“Let me guess, shipments gone missing?” I asked.

“Ya, yes sir.” He said with a gulp. “How did you know?”

I gave him a predatory grin. “Why, that’s what we are here to investigate. The higher ups are worried that there is a spy in the works somewhere, threatening our operations. Now, let’s open the gate and you can give us a tour.”

“Of course sir, but it’s just a standard layout-“ He started before I interrupted.

“Hup up up!” I put a finger in his face. “I know it’s a standard layout, everything is supposed to be standard layout. But we are looking for the smallest thing out of place, the tiniest clue will probably give away our spy.” Eyes wide in understanding, he nodded. “Don’t open the gate, either.”

“Follow me sir.” He nodded, stepping along a barely sunken path. Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to look. I noticed his foot stopped just above the waterline, and the stone was simply covered with a small illusion. Just around the corner of the compound, there was a small door that was hidden by yet another illusion. Our guard guide grabbed a plant that resembled a cotton tail back home and put in a bit of mana, dispelling the illusion and allowing us in.

“Right, well this is gas vent for the latrines. Obviously the sparker there in case of infiltration would let us incinerate an unsuspecting intruder.” He pointed out a simple sparker, flint touching a rough grinding wheel. The turning mechanism went through the door, obviously to protect the person detonating the trap.

“One moment.” I said, stepping up. I pointed to the flint, “See this? Your flint is barely touching the grinder. You might get a decent spark, but its far more likely that the tip would simply break rendering the trap useless. Here.” I repositioned the flint so that there was a flat face against the wheel and tightened it. “Now it’ll work. This could be worse than we thought Penny. Already we know the base defenses are possibly compromised.” Elendria simply nodded, and we continued on.

“By the Dark One, I had no idea it could be that simple to disarm a trap.” The guard muttered.

“Indeed. People often think of ways to disarm traps, but they usually involve the obvious. The subtle ones are the hardest to detect, and the most successful. It takes a practiced eye to detect them.” The guard nodded, almost awed by my words.

“Right. Well, along this wall we have the infusers.” He said, leading us through the latrines and into the fort proper. There were several stalls, with elves working away inside each of them. They would take a piece of armor and place it into a ritual circle, then place a glass orb with a black leech encased in it on top. A brief burst of magic would infuse the leech into the armor, leaving the glass to be reused and a tired crafter slumping in their chair. After a few minutes to recover, they would place the armor in a waiting bin before starting again. “Usually they take nearly an hour to recharge, but they are pushing themselves with the missing shipments. At half the time, they usually only need two or three mana potions per day. They can’t keep the pace indefinitely, but we are already making inroads into reaching the proper stockpile.”

“Thoughts apprentice?” I asked.

“Excellent work, if imperfect.” She said. “Utilizing mana potions to increase productivity is inspired. However, you are putting unnecessary strain on your crafters. Split them in half, and only have them use mana potions. Let the other half work normally and recover for that week. Your stockpile will grow more slowly, however you won’t burn out your crafters. Far better to slowly close the gap and win the race than to make a desperate sprint and run out of energy before the finish line. I’ll need to see more, but we can’t rule out the commander of this fort as a suspect.”

“Spot on as usual Penny.” I nodded. “Though it will take more than one bad decision to accuse the commander. There are plenty of steps along the way where an order can be misinterpreted. Let’s continue.”

Our guide nodded, and I hid a smile at the chaos I knew we were sowing. The crafters had all heard our conversation, and I saw at least one disgruntled face turn in our direction. We kept touring counter clockwise to the back of the fort, where there was a supply shed.

“Apprentice?” I asked, then paused for a second. “Should we ask our guide for his opinion first?”

“At your whim, Master.” She shrugged, so we both turned toward the now obviously nervous guard.

“Me?” He squeaked, immediately sweating.

“Calm yourself, it’s just a hunch. Tell me what you see, and if there are any obvious deficiencies.”

“Ok. Ok, I can do this.” He muttered to himself, patting his cheeks. “Right. Storage shed. Standard dimensions, with several modifications. The wards have integrated anti-vermin and anti-insect properties. It is set off from the wall, so an invading force will not immediately have access should they breach in the right spot. In case the wards fail, the gaps in the logs have been sealed with pitch to protect supplies. Hardened clay for the roof to prevent most attacks and vermin from entering from above. I don’t see any issues.”

“Hmm, a thorough analysis. Perhaps we have another apprentice on our hands.” I said, giving him a smile. “Carry on.” We kept moving around the central building, inspecting the small armory and training grounds, finding no ‘issues’ with them.

“And this part, we will need to do for ourselves. Go ahead and return to your post.” I said, placing a hand on our guard. “You’ve done well.”

“Thank you sir!” He said, full of excitement as he went back to his post. We entered the building, unsurprised at its simplicity. Straight ahead was a mess hall that could easily double as a meeting room. To the left was a kitchen, we had noticed the heat coming off the ovens as we passed by the armory. To the right were the barracks, two levels of cots. We passed straight through, to where we knew the commander’s office was. Instead of a door, he had made it easy by leaving a simple curtain because of the heat.

“Who are you?” He managed to get out as he turned to look at us. Elendria had used the ambient water to create a cage around his tattoed torso, while I sent a blast of energy into the head of the creature I could see feasting on his soul. I sighed in relief as his eyes widened in pain before he passed out, the creature destroyed.

“Nice work immobilizing him.” I said, getting a smile from Elendria.

“Yeah, well this whole surprise attack thing is growing on me.” She agreed. “Shall we head down?” She asked, indicating the locked and warded door at the back of the room. We had known the entire time there was an underground portion of the base, and were hoping the entire time our attacks had gone unnoticed. We used a key found on the commander to open the door, frowning at the stench of stale water that billowed out when the door opened.

“I’ll go first.” I said, conjuring a fairly strong set of mana armor as I descended. Elendria followed, and we were both silent as we entered and took in the room at the bottom. There were two attendants in the lowest form of armor walking around over different vats of seemingly placid water. As we watched, one of them dumped a bucketful of frogs into a vat. It immediately came alive, looking like a swarm of piranha as bloated black leeches fought to claim a mouthful of frog. As the waters died down, even the blood was swiftly absorbed.

“How do you like my children? Abhorrent, aren’t they?” We both looked up to the speaker, seeing the oddest sight. There was a female elf with an emaciated face, though her body seemed as strong as ever. Instead of tattoos swirling over her body, they were concentrated over her bloated stomach. She was slightly reclined, with her legs spread but thankfully a cloth draped over her. Beneath her chair was another vat, one that emitted a cascade of splashing noises as her face contorted in pain.

“There, there my queen.” One of the attendants said as she wiped her brow and offered her a small cup of water to drink. “Another brood successfully birthed. Are you here to replace Commander Korlin?” She asked as she looked me up and down. “Hmm, you have the muscle mass, but it appears to be more toned. Lasting power over brute strength?”

I strode forward with a smile on my face, crossing the distance as I was careful not to look into the vats below. Confidence was key. “For the moment, yes that appears to be the plan.”

“Ah wonderful! It will be so nice to have fresh-“ Her face changed to confusion as she looked down into the spirit dagger that had rocketed from my hand into her chest. Bonelessly, she dropped into a heap at the queen’s feet while Elendria quickly took care of her other attendant.

“By Shalora, what have they done?” Elendria gasped as she got closer to the queen, who had still made no move against us.

“It finally happened. I’ve lost the last bits of my mind.” The queen muttered. “That voice, it’s been lost for decades. The Frozen Lily was shattered.”

I looked between the two elves in confusion as Elendria froze, eyes wide as she stared at the queen. “What did you call me?”

“Please, Shalora hear my prayer. You must be close if I am hearing her voice, I know my end is near. You have my eternal gratitude for allowing even the delusion of her voice at the end.”

“What did you call me?” Elendria asked, almost frantic. I could see her hands trembling as she kept clenching and unclenching her fists. “Nobody is allowed to call me that. Nobody save one.”

“Ah, you even matched the fiery temper, so at odds with her magic.” The elf relaxed, for the first time giving a sad smile. “What happened to you, my Ice Princess?”

“Jeanay?” Elendria’s voice quivered. I could see her body wanting to cross the divide, but the unknown was holding her back. “Jeanay, by the gods is that you?”

“Elendria?” She asked, opening her eyes. “No, you sound like her, but the looks are all off.”

“As if we should be trusting your eyesight.” Elendria snorted. “It’s almost as bad as Marie’s sense of direction.”

“I should have known.” Jeanay said, tears dropping. “You sadistic bastards would take one last chance to destroy my spirit before killing me. This thing inside me delights on the feelings of despair.”

“Oh Jeanay, what have my brother’s done to you?” Elendria asked, crossing the divide at last and taking her hand. “What happened?” As she stood there, Elendria created a small icy flower and placed it over Jeanay’s ear.

“Elendria? Is it truly you?”

“It is! I’m so sorry you had to suffer Jeanay! I promise, I will do everything I can to help you recover.”

Jeanay shook her head. “It’s too late for me.”

‘No it-“

“YES!” She insisted, talking over Elendria. “It’s far too late for me. Each of these monstrosities require a small portion of my soul to birth.”

“No!”

“Yes.” She said sadly. “Princess, I don’t know what happened to you all those years ago, time has little meaning down here so I don’t even know what is happening. But I must warn you and ask a favor. All four of your handmaidens were taken by your brothers at some point, and I’m sure they are all in the same situation as me.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” I asked, enduring the glare from Elendria. “We are already working to stop it, but we might need to know.”

“It’s all right.” She said tiredly. “I hope it helps.” Taking a moment to steel herself, she launched into her tale. “It was a few years after your disappearance. Each of us was presented with a strange bit of jewelry, a necklace. As soon as we put them on, we immediately forgot them. For decades, I know now, this thing inside us grew. We thought it odd that your brothers would refer to us as future queens, but put it out of mind. We were in the marriage pool, though there were better options.”

“As things grew and life changed, we saw the emergence of this new religion. Most of us nobles weren’t interested, but your brother’s took to it like a moth to flame. Others faked interest, purely for political gain. They were swiftly replaced. As time wore on, we would all lose bits of our memory. Sometimes we would awaken in a group in each other’s rooms, sometimes by ourselves in random parts of the castle. These grew more intense, but no healer could detect anything. Of course, all the healers that were called for were from the new religion, and so had no real interest in healing us.”

“Years later, my consciousness returned, and I found myself in this chair with your brothers standing over me. It took nearly fifty years, but the queen had finally evolved to the point where she could bear young. I’ll not describe it, but those first few batches were horrible. See, the queen thrives on despair, and had evolved to the point where she could control my body but leave my head as my own. It makes the batches healthier. Each offspring took a small portion of my soul. It’s what allows them to be mostly physical to start, then evolve into a spirit leech later.”

“I don’t know how long I’ve been forced to give birth, but I do know my soul is in tatters. I’ll not survive without this leech holding it together, so I ask this of you stranger. Kill me, so that I can go in peace and not weigh upon Elendria. Even so, she will blame herself for my death, and I fear what having my death on her hands will do to her.” As she looked at me, I could see the pleading and resignation in her eyes.

“Before you go, know I will do all in my power to bring those who did this to you to justice.” I said.

“Justice, revenge. Those thoughts are beyond me now. All I wish for is a swift end, and to take this abomination with me when I go.”

“Very well.” I said, sending a ray of spirit infused plasma through her chest. I used all my spirit and a good portion of my mana just to ensure the ray was so powerful she wouldn’t feel a thing. She blinked one last time before smiling at me. The leech didn’t even have time to scream.

Soul Slayer

For better or for worse, you have completely obliterated a soul. This will mark your aura for those with the power to see it, and alter their reactions accordingly. This is a title that cannot be hidden.

Blessing of a Benevolent Soul

In her last act, the soul of the elf Jeanay has forgiven you for the inevitable destruction of her soul. No karma will be accrued for breaking a major Taboo. This will mark your aura for those with the power to see it, and alter their reactions accordingly.

“Make me a promise, Sean.” Elendria said in a cold voice. “When we meet my brothers, give them the same fate. Let them know that it is judgement for the fates of my handmaidens.”

I slowly shook my head. “I can’t do that, Elendria.” I said, pulling her into a hug before she could pull away. “Shhhh, listen.” I ordered, gently rubbing her back. “We still don’t know what happened, and how much control they have had over the years. Would you really consign them to oblivion if they did this while under control of their own soul leeches?”

“Don’t give me that! They destroyed the souls of my friends!” She sobbed.

“I know, and they will pay. This much I can promise.” I said. “But only for their own actions. Not the actions of others.” She didn’t reply, but I felt her relax a little in resignation. She was silent as we headed toward the stairs.

“I’m out of spirit for the day, can you handle the guards and crafters?” I asked.

“Very much so.” She snarled, and I almost felt bad for a second. “What are we going to do with this stuff?”

“Let it burn.” I said, turning and unleashing the power of the sun into the room behind me.