CHAPTER THREE-HUNDRED EIGHTY-THREE

Earl Paulte Heindarl Bulifinor Magnamtir if'Gofnar

Earl Paulte keeps his pace steady as he makes his way to the thieves guild. With any luck, he won’t need to come here again until it’s time to arrest Toja for murdering his son. Too late to do anything, tragically, but in time for a grieving father to see justice done. Yes, that should play nicely to the peasants.

If he had his way, he wouldn’t be going there tonight, but the only way Toja could have made it seem more urgent would have been to come deliver the missive personally. And wouldn’t that have caused trouble? Whatever she has is urgent, and though he doesn’t think highly of her, she wouldn’t be the mistress of the thieves guild if she couldn’t tell the difference between something important and something trivial.

He glares at the guard to be let in, and is glad to see the spiderkin woman had told her lackeys to not waste time. Inside, he doesn’t bother looking at the thieves, and instead makes his way directly to her office. Inside, he can see she’s clearly been busy. The details of the hold are laid out on her desk, and if he’s correct, she has a stack of other plans as backup.

She glances at him as he enters, and she gestures for him to take a seat before speaking. “We may need to move the plan up.”

He frowns at that. “The mercenaries are still over a month away at best.”

Toja gives a grim nod. “I don’t think they’re going to be useful. I’m getting a better idea of how the hold is designed, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to cause a collapse.”

The Earl wants to argue, but he’s not blind. He’s been keeping tabs on the progress as well. A few masons are rather chatty when in their cups, but while they will usually complain about design flaws, the ones working on the Hold only seem to have good things to say. He sighs and concedes the point. “We could still cause a collapse, but it would risk bringing down the entire mountain, and I’d rather have the hold to use as a base if possible. What other options do we have?”

Toja waves a hand at the stack of papers. “Quite a few, yet really only one. Trying overt force would just bring down the army on our heads, trying to bribe the army would bring them down on us even faster. Trying to use your rank probably won’t work, trying to stage something to draw the army away would be more likely to just get the dungeon’s attention and have it send a bunch of monsters to deal with it. I have an asset working to gain levels, but he won’t be ready until after your mercenaries arrive, if even then.”

The Earl frowns as Toja snips all the other threads for their options. He could still try more subtle economic pressure, but the town is remarkably self-sufficient. Even besieging the town wouldn’t guarantee enough monetary problems for him to be able to step in and take the helm.

“Then what do you propose?” he asks. “You wouldn’t have called me here just to say we’re doomed.”

Toja nods. “In a way, I think these setbacks might be a good thing. The plan has been getting more and more complicated, and I think we’ve been getting distracted. Your Miller, if he’s the mastermind behind the troubles, has us jumping at shadows and chasing illusions. The Hold was a tempting place to set up a trap, but we were the ones to fall into the trap of obsessing over it. The dungeon was a tempting target to pin the blame on, but I think it’s too much effort to be worth it. If your Miller is the problem, he can also be our solution.”

The Earl frowns at that. “What are you talking about? Involving him is dangerous, far too dangerous!”

Toja grins. “Exactly. If he’s as dangerous as you say he is, he’s perfect. If the young mayor vanishes from under his nose, it will look suspicious. And if a large payment to him is discovered, the conclusion is obvious, don’t you think?”

Stolen story; please report.

The spiderkin woman may be convinced of her plan, but Earl Paulte is not even slightly convinced. “And how, exactly, do you intend to do away with my son without being stopped by a retired assassin? How do you intend to plant an incriminating payment?”

Toja smiles. “I’ve discovered I have a man on the inside. Did you know your son has been delving?”

He narrows his eyes at her, wanting to demand she simply spit it out, but she’s enjoying weaving her plot far too much to be budged on this. “I am vaguely aware. He carries himself with much more confidence than he used to, and I know that rapier on his hip wasn’t one he could have simply commissioned.”

“And he’s not doing it solo. He has a party, a party who didn’t know who we was until recently, and they just so happen to have made friends with one of my thieves. One of my thieves who has been getting much stronger recently. One of my thieves who is a changeling.”

“...how much stronger?” he asks, interest piqued.

“Strong enough to cow one of my enforcers without a scratch. And emotionlessly, too. The others are starting to call him Blank. Rezlar trusts him enough to reveal who he really is. We have a golden opportunity to strike!”

The Earl folds his arms to consider. He doesn’t believe for an instant that some random changeling thief is a match for Miller, but if he’s close enough to Rezlar to learn his identity… is the ashen elf losing his touch? Or is it a trap? Even if it is a trap, Miller can’t be at Rezlar’s side all the time. If he went with them delving, they’d hardly level at all thanks to the power disparity.

“You realize this could be a trap to try to bait an attack, right?”

“Of course,” nods Toja, not looking concerned. “Them being friends with Blank could be a coincidence, could be deliberate, or it could be an opportunity. I think it’s the last, and I think it’s an opportunity we can’t let slip by. If we try to deal with him in the hold, you know Miller will be there. Do you think your mercenaries can deal with Rezlar and Miller before the military catches them? But if they’re out delving, there’s only so much he can do to keep an eye on him. A trusted ally only needs a moment to drive home a knife. Even if Miller kills Blank after, that won’t save Rezlar, and you’ll still get your shot to take over the town.”

“Hmm…” That is true. Even at the level the Earl thinks Miller is at, he’d need spatial affinity to be able to interfere in something like that. And if Miller simply catches the thief and tortures him for information, that will be an easy way to lay the blame fully on Toja, too. It’d gall Miller to work together, but to be able to use him as a pawn in this? Oh how sweet that would taste.

“How confident are you in your thief?”

Toja smiles. “Growing more every day. He’s organized his group of ‘haulers’ so they won’t draw more suspicion, he’s giving me details on not only Rezlar’s abilities, but the rest of his party, and he’s even feeding me information on the dungeon. He’s even slipping in a few details of his build. It looks like he’s aiming for some variety of assassin. Killing Rezlar may be just what he needs to advance, in fact.”

“Anything new about the dungeon?”

Toja shrugs. “It’s a figurehead, pointed in the direction smarter people want. You think it’s Miller, I think that kobold priestess is running the show. And before you ask, I don’t think eliminating her would collapse anything, even if she’s the one pulling the strings. Their little cult is too organized now for losing a leader to make any difference.”

“It might destabilize the dungeon,” points out the Earl, considering his other interests. Removing the dungeon would make it easier to keep his contacts under his thumb, but it might be committing to a poor current. They may give him political contacts in the other nations, but if he can harvest this dungeon properly, he stands to make a lot more money, enough that even with the needed bribes and assassinations, he may come out ahead.

“But even if it would, we should wait. We can’t have so many high profile people dropping dead around here or the Crown might stick its nose where it doesn’t belong. The Inspector to the Crown is still here, after all. We don’t need to rock the boat quite that hard,” he decides.

Toja nods. “I’ll have Blank start suggesting more dangerous delves. That big tree is supposed to be difficult. If we’re lucky, he could even make it look like an accident.”

The Earl nods as well. “Do it, and don’t contact me about when it will be. My surprise at his death should be as genuine as possible.” With nothing else to discuss, he makes his exit. As he walks back, he considers what his funeral attire should be. Black, certainly, but with silver or gold highlights? Gold is more regal, of course, but might be seen as a bit too bright. Silver fits better for mourning, but it’s so cheap! Ah, perhaps platinum?

He smiles at the thought. Yes, platinum will be perfect. It will show he spared no expense in grieving for his son.