They say no plan survives contact with the enemy. The shattering of a cup let me know that my plan didn’t even survive contact with the innkeeper. “Zeke, get out here, now.” I ordered in the captain’s voice, and a very nervous innkeeper appeared from behind the bar.

“Easy now Zoe. No need to go and start the violence.” He said, calmly walking around the bar. His shaking hand let me know just how nervous he was, especially when he saw the second captain.

“Zeke. Zeke. Look at me Zeke.” I repeated, getting his attention. “I’m gonna need your help Zeke, as well as the help of these two. Will you help me?”

“You best start explaining.” He said with a sigh, lowering his arms and coming forward a lot faster. “Zoe may be many things, but the sun hasn’t risen on the day when she would ask the likes of me for some help. Who are you and what did you do to her?”

I sighed, slightly relieved that he wasn’t being difficult. “Who I am doesn’t matter, but what I’m doing does. Have you noticed how the guard has been changing over the years? Getting new armor that inexplicably upgrades? Then it disappears and finally they get a new set like what Zoe has?”

“Yeah.” He answered, drawing the single word out. “What of it?”

“That is the life cycle of a soul leech. The first part it infects, then it protects, evolves, and grows. So I have two questions for you now that you know this. First, are you willing to help your fellow elves recover? And will you also help spread the word?”

“You want us to fight?” He asked incredulously.

“No.” I shook my head. “Unless you can manipulate and see spirit, you would be useless. I want you to spread the word, so that people stop trusting the new religion that is pushing these things. And I want you to support the Oracles. They might have ways to help, and have been doing so.”

He stood there, staring at Zoe for a while. “I’ll help.” He said at last. “Carry her and her men to the first room there, I’ll let the oracles in to take care of them. But you’ll have to figure out how to cover for their disappearance. As far as I know, these were the strongest of our guards.”

“That’s fine, I have a plan for that. What were the other names? And tell me a bit about Zoe.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I stormed back towards the barracks, the two merchants in tow. Zoe had a fiery temper, and I was going to use it to my advantage. Striding up to what I recognized as one of the delivery wagons from the leech farms. “You, come here.” I ordered the sleepy looking merchant, before turning to look at the guards unloading the wagon. “Unload it, but don’t bother reloading.” I ordered.

“What do you think you’re-“ The merchant started, freezing at my wagging finger in his face.

“Nope! I need this wagon. Which gate did you come in from?”

“East.”

“Meet me outside the East gate as soon as you can. I’ll explain then.” Orders given, I headed into where my office was supposed to be, beckoning one of the higher up guards along my way. Once all four of us were crammed into the office, I turned and started relaying orders.

“Stevens. You’ve been chomping at the bit for a promotion for a while, and the time has come to test your abilities.” I started off, seeing his eyes light up. “We’ll start with these two. Give them the traditional bounty for a class S threat and send them on their way. Make sure there are no records, we don’t want any retribution coming their way. Once that’s done, come back here.” Stevens headed out, smile on his face and I gave a reassuring nod to the merchants. Once the office was clear, I started looking through the desk for clues. I already had an idea of what my next move was going to be, but I would much rather be like a chess player and start thinking two to three moves ahead.

Pulling out stacks of reports, I started skimming through them, but they weren’t making sense. I had lucked out with the first merchant in the yard, as he was obviously on the delivery circuit for the compromised material. The issue was that deliveries were coming way too fast. There were slightly smaller batches, but they were coming in almost three times as quickly. Before I could get into it any further, Stevens returned.

“Ma’am?” He asked tentatively, poking his head in.

“Come on in Stevens.” I said, returning everything to its stack. As soon as he sat down, I activated the room sealing ward to prevent eavesdropping, much to his shock. “Stevens, we have a problem. There’s at least one spy, probably several, and all at a high level, helping the humans. There are very few people who I absolutely trust, and you are the last on that short list. I’ve already sent Corleen, Norbad, and Selene out on top secret missions, so you won’t be able to depend on them for help. And from what I’ve learned, I’ll have to be out for a few weeks at a minimum.”

“A few weeks?” He asked, shocked.

“Yes. You heard the rumors about Kiln, right?”

“Yeah.” He said, head falling a bit. “So it’s true?”

“Unfortunately. Destroyed to the last stone. We’re hunting the culprits but they have a head start and some minor shapeshifting abilities. What you don’t know is that Kiln was a vital portion of the chain that was arming our guards. What we’re afraid of is that this attacker now knows where we are producing war supplies for our troops. If they can disrupt that.” I left the threat hanging.

“We’ll be slaughtered.” He shuddered. “Humans already have the terrain and numbers advantage, without our superior craftsmanship.” He trailed off.

“Exactly. I’m glad you see the importance and why the secrecy of my mission is vital. You’ll have to cover for my absence, as well as the others. Keep the city running, and carefully squash the worst of the rumors.”

“Not all of them?” He asked.

I gave him a gentle smile. “Always leave some. People love to complain. Let them complain about minor things, and they’ll ignore the major issues. If you come down hard on even the tiniest of rumors? People will start to wonder what you are hiding. Not only that, but they’ll start looking.” He got a far- away look for a second, before starting to nod. “Excellent. Now that you have it, I’ll leave this in the muster hall. One other thing.” I said, stopping just as I got to the door. “That stack of deliveries. Burn it, stir it up, and burn the ashes again with stacks of some random delivery supplies. We wouldn’t want any magical reconstructions.”

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted, grabbing the stack of papers and following me out the door. As we were passing the muster hall, I tacked an official order to the board and addressed the room. “Listen up. Something came up that I have to address personally. Until I return, Stevens is in charge.” Despite protest and several shouted questions, I headed straight out the door without saying a word. Luckily for me, the merchant was already gone. Ignoring the salutes of the guards, I headed out and moved through several nearby streets, taking a well-used path to reach the nearest wall access. Shocked a bit by my arrival, the guards nevertheless opened the door for me.

“Forget I was here if you ever want to do anything besides guard the latrines.” I said quietly as I passed. The door closed silently behind me, and I rapidly climbed to the wall height. Once I was clear, I headed to the west a bit before looking around to make sure nobody was watching me. Without a second thought, I leapt over the wall and dropped to the ground. Keeping close to the base of the wall, I was practically invisible. Nobody was about to look through the arrow ports without an invading army. I crossed the majority of the northern wall before there was a small stream. Keeping low, it allowed me to move quietly away from the wall and eventually into the trees that were just beyond arrow range.

Nearly half an hour later, I came upon the merchant slowly moving down the road in an empty wagon. I slipped into the seat beside him, and cut him off before he could speak. “I know what you are, creature, and we have a problem. One of the breeding grounds has fallen, and we believe the people who did it are coming here next. You will take me to the grounds as fast as you can, so that we can raise the alarm and alert the others. Sorry to blow your cover without getting supplies, but this takes priority.”

“Hehehehe, it’s about time one of you leeches showed some backbone, hehehe.” The thing chuckled until it was cut off by the point of a dagger in its side. “You sure about that?”

“Mind your tongue. The thing about backbones? If you don’t have one, your enemies can’t slowly rip it out of you as you try and writhe in agony. Remember that.”

“Point.” It muttered, before flicking the reins and speeding us along. “If I push it, we can arrive by nightfall.”

“Push it.” I ordered. “Hauler beasts are cheap.”