The night is dark and the campfires are distant enough to allow me to put my hands through the bars and attempt the lock without anyone being able to see me.
Unfortunately, the padlock on the bolt of the cage door is too complex for my Pick Lock skill of 3. Do I make Pick Lock my AFK Levelling skill and hope that the padlock will yield when I reach 4 or 5? That might take days. Instead it is better to keep going with Meditation, which is currently at 2.
A welcome discovery that I had made during the day was that my mana pool had increased from 1 to 3 with the skill improvement from 1 to 2. Thus one more skill increase for Meditation and I should meet the requirements for Blinkstep and that, I hope, will allow me leave the cage. Our jailer, currently sleeping under the cart alongside the driver, keeps the padlock key on a ring hanging from his belt. When the time is right, I will attempt to steal it to free my friends and my not-so-friendly new allies.
‘What are you doing?’ the inferni hisses at me as I give up on the lock and dropping to all fours feel my way towards Belle over the resting bodies of my companions. A more than trivial compensation for being caged was that I slept alongside Belle, our bodies pressed together for warmth. An intense feeling of happiness radiating into me, despite the circumstances.
‘I may as well sleep my fill, the lock is beyond my level of skill,’ I whisper back.
‘Well, keep trying, all night if you have to. You might get a skill increase. You can sleep by day.’
‘I require success for my chance of Pick Lock to grow and even then the odds are four hundred to one that it will do so.’
‘Our agreement was that you get us out. You’re useless if you can’t do that. The lot of you.’
‘I’ll get us out all right. But it might have to be tomorrow night.’
‘I don’t understand. This better not be a joke. If it is, I’ll tear your head off.’
Forming speech is not easy for me and in any case, I have nothing to say to the assassin. My god’s boon must remain a secret and the prospect of snuggling up behind Belle overwhelms any desire to explain myself further.
It is still dark when my dream that I have won a running (flying?) race along the cobbled lanes of Nekis resolves into the most welcome system message I have ever received. One that feels even more important than that which announced my first level.
Skill Success: Meditation
Skill increase! Your Meditation score is now 3.
My mana pool has indeed increased to 5 and the skill Blinkstep is available. I get to my feet, silently, feeling like a fledgling who has discovered it can fly. This is a defining moment. How does my new skill work? Do I imagine where I want to go? I picture myself well away from the nearest fire, in the dark shadow of a tent. Then I trigger the skill.
I am still in the cage, but I did move! About two metres, to narrowly miss finding myself on top of Lisandra. This was not the direction I had intended. My mana is all gone. Still, I am now a magical crow and I am cheerful. I squat down, listening to the night-time sounds of the camp: the fire nearest me gives a sharp crack and then settles with a faint sigh; somewhere behind me, two female soldiers are having a whispered conversation; far out in the darkness to my left are the clinking and thumping sounds of a squad of guards moving at the outskirts of the camp; ahead, beyond a dull red fire, a horse harumphs. My mana ticks up a point from 0 to 1. So, it will take about ten minutes to recover sufficiently for another Blinkstep.
Now that I’ve activated Blinkstep I could swap my AFK skill to Pick Locks, but I now think the most urgent skill to increase is Meditate, on the assumption that the larger that skill, the bigger my mana pool. Ideally, I’d be able to do two – or even three – Blinksteps in succession without having to replenish my mana. A larger Meditate skill might also mean a more rapid recovery of spent mana. And then there was Doppelganger. I had now met the mana requirements for that interesting skill, so after I maxed out Meditate, I would probably swap my AFK skill to Disguise, so as to meet the requirement to be able to make doubles of myself. Alternatively, I could continue with Stealth. Stealth is my nature, it is the most Crow-like of all my skills, and it should always be at its maximum.
It is a pleasure to contemplate upon my progress in raising my skills and in doing so, time seems to pass quickly until my mana is restored to full. Excited, I stand in the very corner of the cage and once more trigger Blinkstep… to realise I’m free, landing lightly on my feet after a short drop to the ground near the cart. I’m free! I’m free!
Crowfree. As free as the air through which I feel that I can fly, I am that lightheaded. Ha! Triumphant Crow. I look forward to seeing the response of the inferni to the sight of me on the other side of the iron bars. This is such a wonderful skill. I fear no cage. I am as hard to grasp as water. If only I could share this achievement with Master Cathaldus and Mistress Withen. They would want to see me Blinkstep again and again. They would be proud of me. No rogue I know of has taken this route, because it does not make sense when five years might pass before Meditate reaches 5. It does make sense, however, for that fine fellow, the AFK Leveller.
This blink had been in a different direction to the previous one. Was the place I jumped to random? Was there a pattern I should learn? I needed more examples.
What I ought to do now is steal the keys of the cage from the sleeping guard – a trivial challenge – and release my friends. Yet I am Crow the magical rogue and I have a Stealth of 11. In these favourable shadows I am effectively invisible. Somewhere nearby are our bags and Lisandra needs her satchel for the spell book it contains. There must also be treasures in this camp that will help our quest. There may be opportunity to make Count Basillos regret imprisoning me. I do not feel kindly towards those who would put me in a cage.
Stepping carefully over ropes and moving from shadow to shadow, listening carefully for where soldiers are awake and avoiding them, I enter tents in which people are sleeping, tents in which there are stores and tents that are readied for use, but are currently empty. Swift, efficient, I move in a widening circle around the cart, peeking into every tent, other than those where someone is awake. Eventually, without having succeeded in finding our bags, I come to the large tent where we held our meeting with the Arkine general. Yesterday I had entered that place with hope in my heart; I had left it with shackles on my wrists.
Empty now and very dark I must feel my way through the tent with slow-moving feet on the reed mat. I recall the table of scrolls and make my way to that. If only I had a means of detecting magic I would be sure not to miss anything important. Most of the items under my hand have little value: quills, bottles of ink, scraps of papyrus. There are six proper scrolls though, wound around a wooden spine and tied up with ribbon: they might be worth taking. Yes. Perhaps they are spells that Lisandra can use. Or even if just messages, it would inconvenience the general if they were taken. I unravel the six scrolls from their staves and then roll them all tightly into each other. I recall that there were chests at the side of the room and bags too? Oh, before I move away, my hand touches a small book, about the right size for the one used by Lisandra for learning her spells each day. I take the book to the tent entrance, where I can see it better. It is indeed filled with her dream-like symbols and drawings. If they kept the book here, there is a good chance our other bags are nearby too.
Again concentrating on Stealth and moving slowly, I cover the ground around the edge of the tent on hands and knees. Twice I reach an area where there are indeed several bags between large, wooden chests. There’s a bag with straps that I can use like a backpack and I take it. Although it hangs a little lower than I would like, it will do and I put Lisandra’s books and the Arkine scrolls into it. There’s plenty of room. What might be in these chests? They are locked. Good, for it means they hold items of value. What rogue can pass by the challenge of a locked chest in an enemy tent? Not this one.
Click. The first has a scimitar, lying on a silk cushion. Lovely. It seems valuable so I take it.
Click. The second has a dozen potions. The bottles are thick-based and heavy when I lift them. They are kept in dense wool that seems to have been shaped for the purpose of protecting them. What a shame there are too many to carry and the chest is unmanageable. I remove a stopper and inhale. Nose-tingling, the waft of magical scent contains hints of mint? I have no idea what that might mean. Taking a sack from the pile of bags, use the wool to line it and then fit in six potions. That’s all the bag will take. I get another bag for the other six, although I won’t bring it with me in a hurry, because I’ll receive encumbrance penalties to my skills, including Stealth. If I must, I will pour away the other six. Such a waste would be their own fault; if the Arkines had not treated us so badly, they would still have their potions.
The stopper on the last potion bottle is different to all the others, it has wax around it. When I prise the top open, the scent coming from inside is musky. On impulse, I drink the potion. Bitterness floods my mouth, though the taste is not worse than eating raw onion. Instantly, I’m hearing better, no, differently. I’m hearing thoughts! There are a dozen ‘speakers’ within my range, not including dreamers. Fascinating though the experience is, they are mostly uninformative thoughts about soldiers experiencing tiredness and boredom… Oh, I find an interesting one. One of the minds available to me is thinking about how they intend to capture Callondum.
What will it be like? To creep along the aqueduct? At the end, if we have not been detected, we will meet an iron gate in the water. Praise Asa, the wise, our agent inside the city will be ready as promised and let us in… That will be the moment of greatest risk. In the dark, cold water; in a tunnel. But if all goes well, we will have access to the walls of the city. I have been shown on a map of the city the tower from where we will lower rope ladders for the rest of the army. If we do secure the tower and fill it with our troops, the city will be ours. It’s an extremely risky plan, if it goes wrong, I will be killed. I won’t let them capture me alive though. But I’m confident. I’m Level 3 and not many – or any – of their guards on the aqueduct will be more than Level 2. I trust the emperor will have arranged everything. It will be a brilliant coup; one that will be a decisive moment for Asa in her journey to triumph. And I will have played a brave and important part in her success.
This is entertaining but I still have more chests to unlock.
Click. And here are our belongings! This chest has our weapons.
Click. And this our bags, including mine.
Carrying as much as I can without incurring a penalty to my Stealth, I bring half the weapons and the first bag of potions back to near the cage, then go return for the rest. It is even easier to move around the camp with the effects of the mind-reading potion still working. The one time I ‘hear’ someone wondering what was that sound they just heard, I hold still until their thoughts return to the fading fire in front of them and whether it is worth obtaining more wood, given that dawn is not far away.
I have no difficulty lifting the set of keys from the sleeping jailer and soon after, open the door of the cage. Although it means sacrificing the pleasure of watching Amaris trying to understand how I can be outside the cage when the door is still locked, I choose to keep my Blinkstep a secret and, having left the door ajar, I touch his arm. Immediately the inferni sits up, grabbing for me and barely missing.
‘Hush,’ I whisper. ‘Time to go.’
‘So you did it after all?’
How did this fool of a rogue manage to get that door open? Did he lie to me earlier to annoy me? He must have. Little, dung-eating, zombie-loving rat.
‘I did.’ I shake Belle awake by the ankle.
‘Oh, Crow, you star!’
Crow is just amazing. He’s done it again. It’s hard to believe that skinny boy who used to stare at me from the alleys of Nekis has changed so much. Become so accomplished. Our god really has made him a hero. Now, can we get clear of the army? Crow and I could, but Lisandra? How do we get her away?
I tap Amaris on the arm.
‘What?’ mutters the inferni.
‘If I keep this up and serve our mutual cause with all my heart, you won’t harm me, will you, when it comes time to part?’
‘I will not. If we are fortunate enough to get twenty teeth, like Lady Horsta agreed, we will go our separate ways and trust to fate to decide which of us completes the epic quest.’
Oh, I’ll harm you all right. I will take great delight in watching the hurt at betrayal in your eyes slowly fade as your blood surges out of your neck.
‘Thought so. Now, let’s wake the rest and go.’