[Mkguild] Spies and Assassins (9/?)

[Azariah Wolf]

Sorry for the delay, let us continue!

-LurkingWolf

___

The wave of dizziness struck Lucy with the suddenness of a flash of 
lightning.She gasped and stumbled back, realizing as she did that her 
clothing was suddenly very large on her.After nine years under Metamor's 
Curse, Lucy was quick to identify the telltale signs of her apparent age 
rapidly melting away.She had no idea why it was happening, but she 
immediately began to fight the change with all of her willpower.She 
refused to be reduced to a babe ever again!

And then it was gone.As quickly as the wave of magic overcame her it 
disappeared, allowing her to immediately regain her customary stature, 
even if that was only the apparent size of a ten-year-old girl.She 
glanced over towards her companions, who returned her worried glance in 
kind.

"You both felt that?" she asked, her voice barely restrained after the 
shock of the change.

Alex nodded as Julian looked on wild-eyed.

"The Curse?" he gasped.While Lucy and Alex had been present for the 
original casting, Julian had changed afterwards, and the frightening 
sense of being forced into a foreign shape had never struck him with 
such force as this before.

Lucy nodded."Something connected to the Curse.Ever heard of a fetish 
stone?It turns the countercurse back somehow, forces the Curse to 
completion.This seems to have been a failure of some kind, but a 
disturbing attempt nonetheless."She stopped to catch her breath."And if 
someone knew to attempt such a casting, that means that they know that 
we're here.Where's Lois?"

The three turned back to the camp.In the brief moments that the three of 
them had been distracted by the sudden resurgence of their Curse, the 
situation within the camp had dramatically changed.First, despite the 
darkness of the sky behind them, trails of black smoke were rising from 
the direction of the shaman's tent, striking a contrast to the colorless 
wisps of smoke that rose from the carefully chosen wood of the 
campfires.The guards from the camp had noticed as well, and were showing 
a remarkable lack of discipline, abandoning their posts almost to a 
lutin to see what was going on.

"What did he do?" Alex hissed."He was supposed to collect information, 
not burn the bloody camp down!"

"More to the point, where is he?" Lucy asked.

Before she had finished speaking, Julian spoke over her."There!"

He was pointing a bit further around the perimeter of the camp.It took a 
few moments for Alex and Lucy to notice what the moondog was indicating, 
but they knew he was right as soon as they saw it.A pile of cloth lay a 
few paces from the tree line, one of Lois' daggers visible lying beside 
it.Despite the presence of his clothing and his weapons, however, the 
man himself was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did he go?" Alex asked.He had a sinking feeling that he knew the 
answer.

"Maybe the spell was targeting him directly," Lucy replied.Even as she 
was speaking, the mound of cloth on the ground began to shift.Out from 
under the hood came an ermine.There was nothing to its form that 
suggested that it had ever been a man, but the situation made the truth 
obvious.It stood on its hind legs and began to sniff the air.

Lucy cursed, but Alex didn't waste time on such trivialities.He quickly 
began to circle around the perimeter of the clearing, trying to get as 
close to the fallen Keeper as possible.His two companions followed him 
without question, keeping eyes on the ermine as they did.

It did not take long at all for the animal to drop back to four paws and 
make for the trees, and Alex picked up the pace immediately, dropping 
stealth entirely for the chance of catching the assassin before he 
disappeared into the trees.In doing so, however, he alerted the creature 
to his presence, and the feral ermine quickly dashed away from him, 
disappearing into the undergrowth.

"No!"Alex took a few more steps, but he completely lost sight of Lois.He 
pulled up, unsure where to go, or even what to do.Thankfully, Lucy was 
still clearheaded enough to make suggestions.

"Alex, get Lois' equipment.Julian, do you think you could scent him out 
in these woods?"

The moondog hesitated.He understood what she was asking, but it was not 
something he had ever previously considered.Still, after some thought, 
he nodded.

"I believe I could.I will prepare while Alex retrieves Lois' supplies."

Alex didn't argue, instead immediately following Lucy's instructions.The 
watchmen about the camp had thankfully left their posts unmanned, and it 
allowed him to have a few moments to collect the assassin's fallen 
equipment.He threw most of it into his own pack before heading back to 
his patrol.By the time he arrived, Julian had dropped to all fours and 
now looked like nothing more than a natural hound, the lack of the aura 
of fear making it difficult to tell that he was a moondog at all.In 
contrast to Lois' mental change, however, the mage's eyes still held a 
definite glint of intelligence.

"Here."Alex drew out a piece of cloth that had belonged to Lois and 
presented it to Julian, who sniffed at it a few times, taking time to 
appreciate the nuances of the scent before he turned his head and began 
to sniff through the undergrowth.He looked back at the others and nodded 
towards the trees, moving quietly and quickly after the retreating ermine.

The hunt was thankfully brief, and led them far enough away from the 
lutin camp to make them a bit safer.Julian tracked the scent to a small 
hole in the earth, just visible through the snow, and indicated silently 
that the feral Keeper had gone to ground within its depths.Alex sighed 
and looked to his companions.

"Now what?"

Lucy dropped her pack on the ground and began to sort through the 
supplies within.She threw a pair of breeches to the moondog first, then 
dug a little deeper into her supplies and pulled out an odd contraption 
from within.

"Lucky for you, I happen to be a trapper's daughter," she commented.She 
began to carefully set it at the end of the tunnel, taking pains to be 
certain that everything was in order."There," she said finally."Now 
hopefully, there are no other exits to this tunnel.If not, then he will 
have to come out sometime, and this should catch him easily when he does."

"In good health?" the lynx inquired.

"Of course," Lucy said as though feeling insulted.

"Let's hope it's soon enough." Julian said, stepped back out from behind 
a tree.Lucy tossed him his coat from within her pack, and he gladly 
slipped it over his shoulders."If the lutins suspect a threat, they may 
try to sweep through the woods looking for us.We must be cautious."

Alex nodded."Very well."He looked up into the canopy for a moment and 
then back at his fellows."Let's get off the ground for now.If someone 
does come, they may be a little less likely to find us if they have to 
look up."

The three Keepers were soon in the branches above the burrow, unable to 
do anything but wait for the ermine to show himself.The thought of being 
forced in mind and body into the form of an animal haunted them, and 
they hoped against hope that they would be able to rescue Lois somehow.

***

An older man sat in a dark room, writing strange symbols with a steady 
hand, one by one on the surface of the parchment before him.His 
surroundings were nearly silent, an eerie lack of sound contrasting the 
usual bustle that such fortresses so often contained.The man's breaths 
could be heard between every methodical scratch of quill on parchment, 
those two sounds breaking the heavy silence in turn.

Suddenly, the heavy silence that choked the derelict structure was 
broken by a series of desperate cries, a man's voice echoing up and down 
the empty halls.The steady quill jumped across the page, eliciting a 
subdued series of curses from the man.He sighed and stood from his 
ruined project, pulling the hood of his dark robe up over his head and 
exiting the small cell of a room, out into the halls.

He was met halfway by a younger man who had come running.The young man 
sketched a messy bow to his senior before locking stride with him and 
beginning to talk.

"It's Lois," he said in a hushed, hoarse tone.

"What?What do you mean, what happened?"

"We're trying to determine that right now. All we know is that his 
Balance is the one that just lost contact."

The two men walked in silence, the older man's face set in a worried 
expression.Soon they had arrived at a small cell, and the guard who 
stood at the door let them in through a heavy, banded door of wood and 
metal.Inside, the man who had been screaming sat, hands hanging limp at 
his sides, weeping silently and looking about the room in confusion.

"What's wrong?" the older man asked.

"What is it?What happened?I was---Vincent was..."

"Calm yourself!" the man demanded.He raised his hand before him and 
silently cast a spell on the sobbing man.His breathing calmed quickly 
until finally he had been overtaken by an almost unnatural calm.

"I succeeded.The chieftain and her shaman were both killed, and I was 
escaping.Then..."He began to grasp at the air with both hands, as though 
doing so would allow him to understand what had happened."Nothing!Then I 
was here.How am I here?Where have I been for so long?Who is Vincent 
Lois?Who am I?"

The older man tried to calm him again, but whatever conflict was driving 
him to such desperation would not give him enough peace for him to 
remain calm.With no other option remaining, the older man switched the 
spell he was using, and a moment later the desperate man fell into a 
sudden stupor.

"Keep him under sleeping spells," the older mage instructed the younger 
man."He is of no use to us until we determine what has happened."

"What has happened, sir?" the other inquired, following his senior out 
from the room.

"Hopefully, Lois has died.Such a loss would neither be so unforeseen nor 
so irreparable as to cripple us, and we could easily replace him."

"What if he has not died?What else could have severed the Balance?"

The older man stopped where he was standing outside of the cell, sighing 
softly."Braving the curse of Metamor was always a risk," he 
muttered."The Three Gates caused us to lose two valuable members, and we 
made more of a mess cleaning up that mess than we have ever left 
anywhere before.If the Curse is at fault here, then we need to be 
careful."He turned and looked at the young man seriously."Keep all lines 
of communication open, and tell them to find out what has happened to 
Lois immediately.This is of utmost importance."

"Of course."The young man bowed and was gone before another word could 
be spoken.The older man stared at the thick door before him.Lois had 
been a valuable resource for many years, but now he could very well be 
the end of them.They would have to be extremely careful to keep their 
interests secure.
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