Simply Recon
Length: ~2,300
Content warnings: Coma-like state, brief injury mention
Post themes: the plot thickens, investigation, discovery, friendship
Summary: Sadie is barely holding it together working for Taerand but she gets a reprieve when allowed to join her friends to uncover a political plot within Stawold. Taerand has suspicions about who's behind it but he needs proof before the guards will believe him. Giving the group a name and a place they are sent off to collect the appropriate evidence with little idea of what they are up against. From the beginning, nothing is what it seems and they are left wondering how deep this plot goes or if they will even make it out to report what they have found.
Intro with links to all previous posts
[next post]—-[previous post]
Nothing got better. His demeanor toward her was indifferent at best and icy cold at worst. He never yelled nor acted out and it somehow made him less predictable. Sadie was on edge around him and wasn’t hiding it well. Calling him master was starting to sound like an insult rather than an honorific and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
It was only her second day in the Calentavar household and she was ready to quit but not only was she loyal to K’lai’a’la, she couldn’t let Kireen be right so she tried to grin and bear it. The following day Kireen, K’lai’a’la, and surprisingly, Brimir were in Taerand’s study so he could finally call in his favor. Sadie made it clear that she was going to help her friends so she was given the day off. Clearly he didn’t mind having one more set of hands to do his dirty work. A servant left the four of them in the study to wait until Taerand decided to arrive.
“Well? How is it going?” Kireen asked after hugs were shared between them all.
“Just fine! The job is easy. He just has me run messages around the manor to the other servants. They are really nice. Oh and I perform for him while he has dinner sometimes. Or even while he’s doing stuff here in the study,” she manages to sound enthusiastic enough that Kireen shouldn’t catch on.
“And you enjoy performing for him?” she cocks an eyebrow.
“Of course! I love performing and he really seems to enjoy it,” in fact, Taerand never seemed to react to any of her performances to the point where she silently wondered if he could hear at all. Kireen just nodded but K’lai’a’la still looked concerned.
“There is no yelling? No hurting?”
“Of course not, he had to teach me a few things but there hasn’t been any yelling I promise,” it wasn’t a lie, Taerand didn’t yell. K’lai’a’la seemed to accept her answer.
“I’m glad everything is working out for you here, Sadie. Because I’d feel a hell of a lot worse if it wasn’t,” Brimir gave her such a genuine smile that she felt guilty for faking it. But maybe if she pretended to like it, she actually would in the end. She was pondering it and kicking her feet as they dangled off the edge of the chair when Taerand entered and took his spot behind the desk.
“I have uncovered a plot against the margrave that is being orchestrated by certain members of the elvish elite. I do not have enough proof to bring to the guards and that is where you come in. Saerophon Dahast is one of the elves involved and I see him frequenting the abandoned house on Miller Street. Find me the proof I need to take this to the guards.”
“But why can’t you just take it to the guards yourself and have them do what we are doing?” Sadie asked.
“They wouldn’t listen to him, the guards don’t dig into noble affairs without just cause. It’s a perk of being nobility,” Kireen answered with a disgusted sneer on her face but this time it was directed toward no one in particular. Sadie was surprised Kireen spoke on Taerand’s behalf. “Any other questions?”
“No,” Kireen said before the rest of them could answer. Taerand nodded once.
“Then all of you are dismissed. Sadie, you do not need to return to your duties until after the task is completed.”
***
When the four of them returned to the Stag, Dwinain was pleased to see Sadie and waved away her apologies for not explaining what happened the morning she left. Her explanation was brief as she had other business to attend to. She expected some sort of reaction from him but he just told her to be safe and that was it. Surely he was hiding his opinions but that investigation could come later because they had a more important one on their hands.
***
It wasn’t a difficult plan. When dusk fell they took a few back-alley shortcuts and found a place to wait and watch. The house was a single story, clearly unlived in for quite some time. Sadie had to admit that it didn’t seem like the place for the stirrings of a political plot but that was probably the point. They were waiting in the shadows for about ten minutes before Sadie spoke up.
“So we are really going to just sit in this one spot all night?”
“It’s been ten minutes Sadie…” Kireen said flatly.
“I know, I’m not bored now but I will be. Maybe we can move.” “Count the stones,” K’lai’a’la gestured at the ground in front of Sadie.
“What? Why?”
“It is what we tell the children to stay busy.”
Sadie wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue but was surprised when Brimir sat next to her and said “I’ll help you,” and began moving rocks around.
***
A few rounds of town guards had passed them making them move deeper into the shadows but the moon wasn’t even fully overhead when Kireen and K’lai’a’la spotted a lone figure walking down the street without anything to light their way. “There is someone coming,” K’lai’a’la breathed and Sadie straightened. Both Kireen and K’lai’a’la’s vision could penetrate the darkness but without light, Sadie could only see the outline of the nearby buildings from the light of the moon. Brimir was in the same situation so the two of them sat and listened.
The others watched as the figure, hood drawn, walked straight up the path and to the front door. The surety of their steps was proof that their eyes were adjusted to seeing in the dark as well. The door opened silently and the figure disappeared inside. They waited for several breaths but there was no other change to the building.
“What’s happening?” Sadie whispered, breaking the tense silence.
“They went into the house,” Kireen responded.
“Then let’s go so we can catch him,” Sadie stood and stared blankly into the darkness in the direction she knew the house to be.
“Not yet, if he’s not staying long he’ll walk right out into us.”
They waited for a while and nothing else happened. K’lai’a’la took Sadie’s hand and Brimir put his hand on Kireen’s shoulder rather than risk making any light. The two who couldn’t see well made more noise than they would have liked but it wasn’t much more than a few scuffs of feet on dirt.
They approached the house and crouched below one of the shuttered windows. The house was dilapidated enough that the shutters didn’t fit snug and they could tell that it was dark and silent within. Kireen was sure the figure did not exit the house at least where they could be seen but they might have left out the back.
“There’s guards coming,” Sadie could see their lantern light approaching a nearby street corner. The house was close enough to the street that when they rounded the corner they would be bathed in light and surely spotted. Four armed adventurers crouching in front of a house would get them arrested for sure.
Kireen ushered them to the back of the house, relieved to find nobody waiting back there for them. There was just a back door, an overrun garden, and a cellar door which K’lai’a’la silently pointed at. Kireen nodded, “but I want to check the house first.”
The back door was silent on its hinges and led into a bare room with a broken chair in a corner and a few cracked pieces of dishware scattered over the floor.
Sadie scooped up a pebble before stepping inside and enclosed it in her fist. She opened up her mind to the endless harmony of the weave and embraced its warm current as it flowed through her. A few plucks of her fingers and she coaxed a strand of magic to coil up within the heart of the stone. With a gentle hum of encouragement she strengthened that little coil of power until a lovely warm light shone between the cracks of her fist. She didn’t risk opening her hand any farther, but now she could at least see something with her fist held out in front of her.
There was one main room with a fireplace covered with a layer of cold ashes. Beyond a tattered hide was a single bedroom with a moldy pile of straw and evidence of rats. It wasn’t long before K’lai’a’la pointed at the floor near the wall.
“Dust. No feet,” then she pointed at the floor in a trail from the front door to the back door, “feet.”
She was right, the floor was freshly worn between the two doors and that seemed to be all that was disturbed.
Kireen nodded and approached the back door to inspect the hinges. “Freshly oiled.”
Hearing that, Sadie held her glowing fist to the front door’s hinges. “Here too. Do you think they go out to the cellar?”
“I would bet on it.”
The group exited the house once again and Sadie checked around the corner, glad to see the guards had moved on. When she came back, everyone was standing around the cellar door.
“We’re going in right?” she asked.
“Yes but we aren’t pushing it too far. If we get any sign of being caught we run. This is recon tonight,” Kireen seemed firm in her stance and the rest nodded.
“I will go first into the cellar,” Brimir said, puffing out his chest. He looked a lot more capable in his leather armor with a sword at his hip than some foppish party dress so nobody argued. He opened the cellar door and the stairs led into darkness. “I cannot see in the dark though,” he grimaced and Kireen rolled her eyes, taking the lead instead.
“Sadie if we get in trouble you can brighten that light of yours,” and she headed down into the dark. Brimir followed after with a hand on Kireen’s shoulder, Sadie was next with her dimly glowing fist lighting just enough of the stairs for her to safely get down them. K’lai’a’la took up the rear with a throwing knife in each hand.
Kireen was the first to alight upon the damp dirt floor and found herself greeted with a very mundane cellar in similar disrepair to the house above. A few rotting barrels stood in a corner, a couple moldy sacks of something stacked next to them and a broom leaning up against a bare stretch of wall. She scanned the floor in front of her and the walls for any sign of tripwires or magical glyphs. Finding none, she stepped into the middle of the cellar to allow the rest to join her.
“Where the hell did he go if this is a dead end? Did he just go out the back of the house and keep going?” Sadie frowns as she looks around the bare room.
“No tracks,” K’lai’a’la said.
“Let some light out so we can look closer,” Kireen said to Sadie who did so and the room was awash with warm glow. They spread across the room to look for any hidden signs, Sadie even looking for magic but she couldn’t find anything and she was getting frustrated. Until K’lai’a’la pointed to the broom.
“Not old.”
She was right, the broom wasn’t moldy or rotting like the rest of the things left down here. It was also propped neatly up against a random spot in the wall they only now realized was a little strange. Sadie looked at the floor and saw the pattern.
“Look, there’s brush marks from the stairs to the wall next to the broom but not anywhere else. Like they were brushing away any evidence of footprints,” She stood next to the broom with her back to the wall in order to see the path better and as she did, she leaned against the wall which swung backward and she fell on her back with an ‘oof’.
At seeing part of the wall swing inward and Sadie partially fall through it, K’lai’a’la leapt over Sadie, raising her daggers defensively as she looked through the doorway but what she saw beyond made her pause. Sadie got up and was joined by the rest of the group as they looked upon a pile of raggedly dressed people who appeared to be asleep. There was a normal door across the room but it was shut and nobody was present besides those sleeping. It was a strange enough sight that they didn’t move for a moment but then Sadie started into the room.
“We have to ask them what is going on,” she whispered. These people were not elves so they might not be involved if Taerand’s suspicions were correct but the combination of the hooded figure and the secret door in the cellar was proof that something was going on. The group didn’t protest as she approached them but watched the second door warily.
When Sadie got to the sleeping people and her light shined on them, they were worse than she expected. Their eyes were dark and sunken and they were all in various states of starvation but they seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
“Excuse me,” Sadie whispered and gently shook one woman’s shoulder. Her head rolled loosely and she didn’t respond. They were definitely breathing as far as Sadie could tell so she shook her a little harder but nothing changed. Then Kireen came over and placed her hand on the woman’s head and muttered a few words. Sadie could feel the magic on them but couldn’t understand the words. They were beautiful and comforting all the same. A ripple in the air spread from Kireen’s shoulder down over the woman but nothing changed outwardly. Kireen gently slapped the woman’s face a few times, enough that should have awoken anyone in a normal type of sleep but she remained limp and unconscious.
There was something wrong with them, even Brimir and K’lai’a’la started trying to wake any of the people. There was a snap behind them and Kireen straightened with a gasp of pain. Behind them were four elves and Kireen bared her teeth at them as she ripped the crossbow bolt out of her shoulder.
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