Cheep!? 65 (Patreon)

The wall glowed in Niko’s vision, and he had to admit that he was getting better at identifying similar essences as he went. This one felt exactly like the wall from before, perhaps it was also designed to be shatterable.

Niko wound up his head before Skye desperately put a hand on his neck, “Hold on! Maybe instead of making a lot of noise in the hallway, we try something else first?”

“Please.” Ronald let out a sigh of relief, “It’s a miracle no one came across us in the office. Let's not do that out here.”

“Fine,” Niko huffed, “How are we doing this then?”

Skye walked over to the wall before placing a hand against it. “Hmm… Ronald, you wanna try this?”

Ronald frowned, but stepped forwards while asking, “What exactly am I trying here?”

“Manipulate the essence here,” She said, “You’re better at it, so it should… hopefully be easier.”

The large man stared hard at the wall and grunted in acknowledgement before taking Skye’s place. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen visibly, but then Niko could see something fascinating happening to the wall. It was a solid wall, of course, but as Ronald permeated the object with trace amounts of his own essence, it began to respond more like a liquid. After a few more seconds, it almost looked like the surface was boiling for a half second before it surged away from him uniformly, leaving a spot that looked more like a stately archway than a hole in the wall.

“There, that might even just look like a doorway from far away.” Ronald shook out his hand as though it was numb.

Niko trilled in approval, mirrored by Skye’s words a moment later. “Very nice. Maybe you could be a sculptor on top of painting.”

Ronald turned away, but Niko saw the trace of a blush on the man that left him privately jovial. ‘For all his appearances, he does seem to have a creative touch.’

Then the moment was over, and they stood side by side while staring down a long, dark stone stairwell that descended at least one floor before turning to the right. In spite of his good vision, Niko could barely make out the stairs there, and with a private groan recognized that they were most certainly not fit for birds of his size.

“I’ll go fir–” Ronald began before Niko stepped forward.

“If I fall, you’ll have a really heavy bird going downstairs on top of you.” Niko shook his head, “Much better that I go first.”

Skye translated and nodded, “Not on my bucket list.”

“Good thing, since that’d probably be the last thing on your bucket list.” Ronald said mirthfully before stepping in behind Niko, “When we come up to a door, don’t open it immediately, alright?”

Niko nodded and began to walk down into the darkness. As warm as the rest of the building was, he didn’t expect the temperature to drop so sharply. That, combined with the unsteady footing, left him wondering at what the purpose of this passage was. Obviously, it was meant to be secret, but as they descended deeper, Niko began to realize that their destination was not at ground level. No strange essence mirage percolated at the edge of his vision to indicate a new passage or door, instead they only went deeper, past the first floor and into what Niko was certain was solid earth.

Here, the essence seemed to grow denser, and he realized why he couldn’t sense this when they were on the first floor. To his sight, it almost looked like they’d walked through solid earth, a foundation that clearly wasn’t actually there. Obviously, this was made to deceive anyone relying on essence senses only, but the question burned in his mind about what the Baron was hiding down here. “Do all nobles have stuff like this?”

“Are you thinking about the hidden underground basement that we’re walking into?” Skye clarified, to which Niko nodded. “I’d be willing to bet every nobleman in the Kingdom has something like this. Also, if there’s any reason to have something like this, I’d bet on illicit goods.”

“Probably,” Ronald whispered, “Careful going forward, the last thing we need is to run into a booby trap.”

That prompted Niko to search his footing with much more care, but even with his slower pace, he didn’t find anything that indicated a trap. Sure, he couldn’t actually tell if there was a physical mechanism before stepping on it, but no sigil gleamed in his sight, no mild pull of essence suggested at something siphoning ambient power to function.

At least, not until they finally rounded a corner, revealing an iron banded wooden door that led elsewhere at the base of the stairs. Niko chirruped, relaying what he was seeing to the other two. After a brief deliberation, Ronald patted Niko, “Slowly ahead, if it was me, I’d trap this leg of the stairwell heavily.”

Niko detected nothing with his sight as he stood in front of the landing for the doorway, a small square space no larger than a two by three meter rectangle. He knelt down in front of the door, studying the lock before making an annoyed cluck at it, “Ah, cluck. It’s the same kind of door as to the Baron’s office.”

Skye sighed, “Do we kick it down?”

“Definitely not. We’re not on the way out of the building yet.” Ronald shook his head, “I’ll go back up topside and bring the other two down if they’re done.”

Just then, noise echoed down from the stairs above them, bounding down the stone walls with every click of feet on the floor. They weren’t rushed sounding, however, though the trio shared a look of apprehension all the same.

“Hope it’s them.” Skye whispered before drawing her bow.

Ronald settled his gaze on her with a complicated expression.

“Weapons free?” She asked, “If we get caught here…”

“If we get caught here… Shit.” Ronald rubbed his temple, “Undoubtedly the Baron’s dirty. If we’re caught, we’re probably dead, right?”

He glanced at his companions, to which Niko gave him a comforting chirp, “He’ll either kill us or stuff us in a hole in the ground, I imagine, so I’m fine with fighting. Don’t worry, just blame the murder-bird if things turn out to be some unimaginably large misunderstanding. I’m fine with it.”

Skye relayed that with a grin as Ronald suppressed a dark laugh, “No, we’ll stand together. Thanks.”

“Anytime!” Niko replied cheerily in spite of his rising heart-rate. They were not in a good spot, but there was a chance that Dachna and Mithel were coming down the stairwell, and not enemies. Before he knew for sure, Niko wasn’t willing to break down the door and guarantee that their intrusion would be noticed.

Skye tensed with her bowstring, coming into a low crouch as Ronald brought his glaive to hand. It wasn’t the worst weapon to use in such close quarters, though, But Ronald stowed the weapon with a sigh. Instead, he drew a long dagger, just shy of something Niko would call a short sword.

Just when the tension mounted to an all time high, Dachna stepped around the corner of the stairwell, squinting in the darkness of the passage. Skye let out a sigh of relief before slowly releasing tension on her bow, “Good, it’s just you guys.”

Dachna let out an awkward cough, “Uh, yeah, not just us.”

Skye blinked before immediately re-nocking the arrow to her bow, “What’s the situation? Do I need to shoot someone?” She asked without the slightest bit of humor in her voice.

“No, thankfully,” Mithel called out as she came out next, “Don’t shoot, seriously. She’s on our side.”

Niko saw the moment where Skye almost let loose the arrow anyways in surprise as the third person followed them down the stairwell. “The head maid?”

“Not exactly,” Tabitha said, “Tabitha is back at the Guild at the moment. Orson asked that I take on her role some time ago.”

“What?” Niko asked in confusion, mirrored by Skye.

The woman sighed deeply, “Watch my face.”

They did so, before shooting ramrod straight as Tabitha’s face almost appeared to mold like clay for a few seconds. Niko was both entranced and horrified at the display, and with his shared perspective with Skye, found he was not the only one. She finished moments later, and Niko was greeted by a face that he still didn’t know.

But Skye and Ronald did, “Aren’t you the Guildmaster’s assistant?”

“Mary, right?” Ronald added, to which the woman nodded with a small amount of satisfaction to the motion.

“At least one of you remembered my name,” She huffed, “In any case, we must move quickly. When the Baron realizes that you aren’t in the waiting room, he’ll be worried. His Steward is not a good man, and we’ll need to rescue the others on the way out.”

“Uh… So you have a plan?” Skye asked as she tilted her head.

Tabitha, or Mary, as it were, shook her head, “Not much of one. This is much too quick. You all got into such mischief so fast.” She grinned, as her face morphed horrifyingly back into Tabitha’s severe countenance, “I’ve already sent the documents Dachna and Mithel procured back to the Guildmaster. They are… severely damning, so Orson is guaranteed to move, all we need to do now is get out. Preferably before the guard and Orson’s hand-picked adventurers storm the place.”

“How’d you get those out?” Ronald frowned, “Would those have been better to keep at hand?”

She shook her head, “The maids you met were mine. They’ve gotten out to the guards that you met before, who are also mine. All we have to do is not get caught.”

Niko squawked, “Alright, briefer talking everyone. Rescue who? This door needs opening, same as to the Baron's office.”

Skye relayed the words, and Mary nodded appreciatively, “Indeed. The other employees, that is to say anyone who might have come into contact with the Thorned Gauntlets–the poachers–are kept locked up down here. I wasn’t sure exactly where before, but thankfully the Phorus appears to be adept at finding things.”

As she spoke, Mithel and Dachna quickly got to work on the door, while Niko squeezed himself as far to the wall as he could. He still wanted to be the first person breaching the door, just in case.

“Aaaand… god that smells so awful down here,” Dachna made a face as the scent of acid worked into his nostrils.

“Try not to breath too much in, it’s mildly toxic,” Mithel stated flatly as she pulled out another pair of concoctions, which Niko recognized as her flash bomb and sticky bomb potions respectively.

Dachna shifted his head back, “Lovely.”

Niko and Skye snickered at the man, before a few more seconds rolled by and Niko noticed the essence sigils break. “We’re clear, pick it.”

Dachna immediately got to work, this time taking less than fifteen seconds to work the tumblers. Niko noted that his tools were different this time, likely from Crowe’s set, but he didn’t know enough about them to figure how much higher quality they were.

When the lock clicked open and Dachna turned the handle, Niko stepped forward purposefully. The dirty-blonde haired man glanced over and nodded before shoving the door wide. Niko darted into the room like the shock-attack bird he was, and was greeted by a stunned silly guard in a much larger hallway than the ones upstairs.

“W-what the fu–” The man started to cry out in surprise before Niko wound up, prepared to charge him.

“Hold please!” Tabitha called out, “Phil, they’re with me, we’re getting everyone out.”

Niko’s charge faltered as he turned his head around with a questioning squawk.

“Apologies, most of the guards down here are partial to us,” Tabitha said as she quickly stepped forward and around Niko to make herself readily apparent to the guard whose name Niko guessed was Phil.

“Tabitha,” Exclaimed the man with relief, “Lost a year off my life with that Phorus. You weren’t kidding about calling in a favor. What noble does he belong to?”

“Member of the Wyldwalkers,” Tabitha pointedly corrected, “And we can make proper introductions later, the Baron may be moving. Is everyone ready?”

The man, clad in light leathers and chainmail, nodded heavily. “Five minutes tops. I’ll let everyone know.”

He ran down the hallway at a sprint, opened the first door he came to and shouted into it. Other men in similar uniforms came out, albeit one of the men was immediately subdued as he tried to draw a blade on his fellows. They moved in several groups, going door by door as Niko watched them. They weren’t what he could call organized, but their haste was a boon all of its own.

Ronald started down the hallway as well before Tabitha called after him, “Would you like to help?”

“Of course,” Ronald frowned and answered as though it was the most mystifying question he’d ever been asked, “The faster we get done here, the faster we can leave, right?”

Tabitha nodded, “Then you’d be better off staying here with me and making sure no one comes down this stairwell or tries to leave without the group.” Ronald listened, but Niko and the others could tell he was less than pleased with her words. “Trust me when I say that these people will not be able to believe that you’re here to help them. They’ll be more likely to assume that you’re here to kill them.”

At that Ronald flinched, “What?”

“They’re not fools,” Tabitha scoffed, “They know the Baron must have done something exceptionally stupid to stuff them all down here, it’s only a matter of time before things either blow over or they’re removed as a source of evidence.”

To Niko, that was fair enough. If he’d been in a similar situation as these people, he would most certainly be skeptical of anyone coming in to save them.

Skye put a hand on Ronald’s shoulder, “They’re working fast. This isn’t our part of the job, they’ve got this handled. Our job is going to be getting them out of here safely.”

“And looting everything on the way out.” Dachna nodded sagely, to which Niko chirped and nodded along with him.

“You guys are… wow.” Mithel chuckled while shaking her head, “I don’t know whether to laugh or feel ashamed of you.”

“Hey! I’m not going to go looking, but we were promised a reward!” Dachna defended himself, and Niko continued to nod along with him, explicitly agreeing with him.

Then Phil came back with a large group of people, ready to leave. Niko found himself quite alarmed at the realization of just how many people had been crammed into the various rooms down here.

“We’ve got everything we can carry, the Baron’s dogs are locked up, and everything seems in order.” Phil grinned, “Everything looks good. So long as nothing happens, we might just be able to walk right out the front doors.”

The entire group of Wyldwalkers and several of the ex-employees groaned at the man’s words.

“Bant’s arse, did you have to say that out loud?” Dachna complained.

That was then accompanied by the door behind them being kicked open, a man clad in full plate revealed as he stepped into the large hall, already brandishing a greatsword.

“See!?” Dachna pointed at the armored man wildly, “I told you so!”