"It is at times fearsome what one man's hatred, fueled and supported by others, could result in. While perhaps justified, one man's desire for vengeance, ended up causing the end of an empire as we know it." - Khaer Ul Tessarii, Lacerta Rex Imperator, First Emperor of the Third Elmaiya Empire.

Near the Aqwass River

Western section

Shadow Forest / Ævietønavæel

6th day, 2nd week, 7th month, year 80 VA.

Aideen seethed with impatience as she waited by the river bank. She was all too aware that moving troops into position, and planning the mission all took time. In fact, most of the past week was spent traveling from the central to the western side of the forest.

Even so, the thought of Kestera, Éirynn, and Mimia, all ridden with the plague back home, made her wish she could do something even a moment sooner.

Further west of them was where the forest ended and the Empire began, and roughly another hour's worth of travel that way was Fort Asconix, headquarter to the imperial special unit known as the Rangers, whose duty was to watch for and fight off elven incursions.

Every member of said unit was a volunteer, united in their hatred of the elven race, almost every single one of them having experienced personal loss from an elven raid themselves, or were descendants thereof.

In retrospect, it was not that odd that a man driven by vengeance would work with them. They just hadn't expected him to be located so close to the forest itself, right at the Ranger's fort. Then again, a man so driven by hatred as to create a plague that could potentially cripple an entire race would probably want a front row seat to witness his masterpiece's results.

The fort itself was well defended, and should its residents choose to hunker down, getting in would take a long time. Sure, Ptolodecca had enough manpower nearby to force their way in, but that time would have given their target ample warning to escape, or destroy anything of importance to them.

So instead, the plan was for the elves themselves to stage a diversionary attack, to lure away the majority of the fort's defenders, while a team of elite agents along with Aideen would infiltrate the fort discreetly, hopefully find their target before they had any warning, and either take them alive, or at least take away anything resembling research notes in their possession. Anything at all, that might give a clue on how to combat the plague, before it was too late.

The fort itself was well built, and normally infiltration would have been difficult, but it had one weakness the elves discovered recently yet were powerless to take advantage of. The fort's water supply relied on several wells, and one of them fed from an underground stream that connects to the Aqwass river itself.

While the elves neither have that many water mages nor easy access to water breathing potions, this was not an issue for the Death's Hand. Similarly, while the elves were unsuited for close combat in the cramped spaces within the corridors of the fort - the wells were placed deep within the fort itself, within the inner structure, to ensure that should the outer fort be taken the defenders could still hold the line in the inner fort - the agents had Aideen with them, who would serve as their vanguard, abusing her inability to die to forcefully push through.

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Right now, they were gathered together, a good hundred Death's Hand agents together with Aideen, a good half of the force sent to the forest to guard the healer. In their stead some infantrymen from the frontlines had been pulled back to take their place, while they hoped to find the source of the troubles and end it right then and there.

Then they heard the noise from further afield, that of elven war cries as they charged towards the fort. The elves were supposed to lure out the defenders, and had volunteered for the task, even knowing that it would likely result in many deaths. Many of the ill patients even volunteered for the mission, wishing to at least do something for the others with the last moments of their lives.

As one, the agents gulped down a small vial of potion. Enough water breathing potion to work for roughly half a day. If they took longer than that, their mission was likely a bust, and they would not be returning. Aideen had not needed the potion, and she was the first to dive into the waters.

A quick dive and she soon found the underground pathway. It was a rather narrow one, barely two meters wide, and roughly as tall. She waited until the two designated agents had assumed their places behind her, and dove into the dark underground river ahead.

Soon after they entered, one of the agents behind her caused a small ball of light to come into existence, a light mage whose purpose for this trip was to provide illumination. It was amusingly enough the young panther therian who had reported to her over a week ago.

The path itself was long, the limited room forcing them to travel in single file so that each person had enough room to swim. A distance that would only have taken an hour to travel normally, took them three hours to go through, and that was with the few water mages amongst their team helping them travel faster.

When the illumination hit an all too uniform circular branch heading upwards, Aideen knew they had likely found the well. A careful peek, the light positioned to slightly illuminate without being visible from above, showed that they were at the right place, for a metal grate was installed a few meters below the water surface.

Carefully, Aideen swam upward into the well, the other agent following her. The well was fortunately wide enough to fit them both, and would have had room for another without issue. The agent with her was a metal affinity mage, and moments later, with an application of her magic, the metal grate soundlessly parted from the wall, and they let it fall below.

They then looked at one another. The walls of the well were lined with brick and mortar, rough enough to silently climb for most therians, as their claws could find purchase on the walls. They needed a faster ascent, however, and so an earth mage swam up, manipulated the earthen bricks that lined the well, not much, but just enough to make them jut out here and there, conveniently forming handholds and footholds for them to climb on.

Aideen, the metal mage, and a third agent were soon climbing up the walls of the well silently, while below them others followed. Their ascent was silent, no noise made other than the sound of water dripping from their clothes. Everything went smoothly, until they were close to the top.

Someone had walked to the edge of the well, out of their sight, picked up the bucket, and tossed it into the well, likely to get some water. The bucket itself was caught by one of the agents below before it could hit anyone, but it was the danger of discovery, and what even a shout of warning might have meant for their mission, that drove Aideen to act.

Balancing herself precariously on the tips of her toes, she pulled her staff out, flicked out the blades on one end, and hurled it like a javelin at the direction the bucket had come from. A sound of flesh being pierced, and a falling body was the result, even as she barely caught the nearest handhold to prevent herself from falling, while the nearby agents nodded at her. She was the only one amongst the three of them whose position made that throw possible.

When she went out of the well however, her stomach churned, even as one of the agents rubbed her back with sympathy. Splayed out by the well was the body of a girl child, probably twelve or so, likely a family member of one of the rangers who lived at the fort.

The girl was as dead as can be, the blade of Aideen's weapon embedded right between her eyes. She held her nausea and tears back, hardened her heart, and pulled her weapon out from the girl's corpse.

All she could do was to close the girl's eyes before she left the well room and went further into the fort.