As Alistaira walked down the main thoroughfare leading to the primary palace of the Sultanate, she would occasionally catch suspicious movements out of the corner of her eyes and through her ‘magic radar’. Sure, the streets were filled with people, but those that were tailing her were neither subtle nor stealthy in their movements, which left Alistaira wondering to which side they belonged. Certainly, if they were from those loyal to whichever faction wanted peace then their actions made sense, however the sensation of animosity that wafted off of them led her to believe that these people were not interested in diplomacy.

Well, perhaps they were interested in ‘diplomacy by sword-point’, but that was hardly a way to act when regarding herself, let alone the Greater Darksol Empire. She wanted to see where this would all end up, but Alistaira knew better than to purposefully jeopardize her mission without proper approval. So, in order to make absolutely certain that her actions would not come back to bite her, Alistaira reached into an empty bag and, with her hand concealed, reached into her personal ‘Item Box’ and withdrew a small plaque. A few taps on the object were enough to start a program built into it, and soon enough Alistaira had a secure line of communication with someone very far away.

…

Alexis had been forced to stay longer than she would have liked in the Sanguinocracy, mostly due to the assassination attempt made by one of the Sultanate’s spies. She absolutely did not want to be here any longer, as the number of vampires and vampiresses simping over her was enough to make even someone like B*lle *elphine cringe and want to cut off contact for a while.

This was to say nothing of the absurd number of requests for her to review wa~y too many terrible smutty fanfictions that would have her shipped with any number of other bloodsuckers.

She was only here this long to make absolutely sure that the interrogation went off without a hitch and with no one altering any part of the information gleaned from the captives. It was a rather annoying task, keeping her kin from fudging info in a way that would either make them look better or the other subject states look worse, but someone had to do it.

She had, in fact, just gotten around to finishing the final paragraph of the would-be assassin’s confession (brought about in no small part due to Alexis using a carefully blended mix of magic and intimidation to thoroughly mind-fuck Fatima, breaking her will in a way that no truth serum or torture could ever hope to achieve) when a small plaque began to vibrate while playing a short jingle.

Picking up the device, Alexis pressed the touch screen and then held the device to her ear.

(Each of the following quotes in the dialogue below should be seen as replies to Alistaira, who is on the other end.)

“Hello?”

“Yes, it is Alexis.”

“Ask away.”

“I see…”

“Well, that certainly is a bit of a problem, now isn’t it?”

“Well, we already got a confession from the assassin that the ‘War’ faction was the one responsible for deciding who got sent to the Sanguinocracy. That itself is bad enough, but I also have to mention that they were informed that they were not only to blend in and gather information, but also that they were to sow the seeds of discontent and ferment rebellion if possible.”

“Yes, I am aware of what I wanted, and yes I am aware that there is a decent chance of my husband being angry if we are forced into war. However, this time we have a far more valid casus belli. So, therefore, if you do decide to engage in that course of action then it will only give us yet another reason to fight, should it ultimately come to that.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. We won’t be the ones to start the war; they will. Their actions here and what they will almost certainly try to do to you will be all we need. If trying to assassinate the Empress of another nation isn’t enough of a cause for war, then the attempted capture of a civilian ship and an ambassador would be more than enough to force an ultimatum. Just let me know when it happens, and I’ll come to ‘help’.”

“Yeah, you too, Alis. Have fun over there, okay? See you soon.”

…

Alistaira hung up and returned the ‘Cell Phone’ to her item box before continuing on her path. Every step she took that brought her closer to the Sultan and his palace also brought the ones who were trailing her closer to her as they started to close the net. Finally, just a few meters from the palace gates and within eyesight of the gate guards, a group of around twenty men in dark clothing with wrappings covering their heads rushed out of the crowds and grabber her, putting a gag in her mouth, a rope around her wrists and a sack over her head.

Alistaira half expected that the guards would do something about this, but from the sounds she could hear it seemed that the ‘something’ that they did was to take a coin purse from the kidnappers and look the other way. Alistaira was then lifted up and carried off towards a waiting wagon and unceremoniously dumped into it as the kidnappers either piled in with her or faded into the mass of people.

Sighing through her gag, Alistaira simply relaxed and began to run experiments in her own mind. She figured that it would be a fair bit of time before she reached her destination, so she would keep herself busy in the meantime. She could easily escape if she wanted to, as no self-respecting mage in the entirety of Darksol would need to use their hands, mouth or even their eyes to cast a spell. Still, she waited patiently as the cart wove its way through the busy streets, taking her far away from the palace.

…

“Why has she not come yet?” Arcail IV asked his advisors.

“Perhaps she is taking her time window shopping?”

“I doubt it.” Arcail IV retorted. As the Sultan looked out the window, he noticed a small commotion near the base of the outer wall. He could see more than twenty people rushing towards someone she was approaching the outer gate, a feat accomplished due to the outer gate and wall being made of iron grates and bars and his own lineage granting him exceptional sight.

“Wait…” Arcail IV began to grow concerned as the twenty or so people grabbed the person who was near the gate and abducted her in plain view of the guards. He expected the men to jump into action, but instead they did nothing aside from take a bribe!

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Arcail IV began to panic as he realized exactly who had just been abducted right in front of his palace. He turned to his advisors and yelled at them to find the person who had been abducted and free them, but his advisors seemed nonplussed about the whole situation, which made the wise yet young Sultan only that much more concerned.

Little did the advisors know that what their Sultan was fearing was about to come to pass and that the war of conquest and enlightenment that they wanted would be reversed within mere weeks of it being declared. As the Sultan tried to persuade people to listen to him and not only find the woman but also free her, the War faction continued its plots and plans and, in a villa not even a mile outside of the city limits, the person that the War faction had selected to replace their ‘weak and pacifistic’ Sultan was preparing for his triumphal march to claim what he had been told for over a decade was rightfully his.