78: Infiltration (Patreon)

Note: I've dialed down the level of injury Vir receives from his underground escapades. It didn't make any sense for him to attempt to enter the castle with those. As usual, thanks for all of your feedback :-)

Vir stopped in his tracks, aborting his Talent. Fast moving objects were far easier to spot, and despite the few guards that remained on the ramparts, Vir didn’t want to risk detection this early on. There was a better way.

He wore the clothes of a Sawai. He was in the District of Internal Affairs—a part of the city where crime was said to be nonexistent, and a cobblestone road that ran parallel to the walls lay before him.

Vir calmly stood up, dusted himself off, and tottered out onto the road. He didn’t walk toward the wall, but rather followed the road, slowly edging his way to its center. He caught the gazes of a couple of guards, but once they saw him meander with the wobbly steps of a slightly drunk Sawai, they paid him no mind.

Edging his way closer to the hedges that bordered the wall, he bent over as if to throw up, and made the appropriate noises. Whatever guards had been looking his way shook their heads and went about their business.

From there, a single Dance activation allowed himself to pass right through the wall to the royal gardens. Vir lingered in the realm of shadows for the full ten seconds, analyzing the frozen guards, making a mental note of their positions.

Only the ramparts were manned. The royal garden looked completely empty to both his eyes and Prana Vision. Coupling Prana Vision with Dance of the Shadow Demon made for a truly unstoppable combo for infiltration activities. Dance allowed him to hide perfectly, and let him scout the immediate area for ten seconds—or more, if he kept part of his body outside the ability’s time-locked zone. Prana Vision let him see prana signatures, and every living thing had a signature.

He could not only pass through walls, he could see through them too.

The only limitation—and it was a significant one—was the limited amount of Ash prana he could draw from.

If Ash prana was as abundant as Earth prana… Vir would be unstoppable. While he couldn’t change the world’s distribution of prana, he could optimize his invocations, using the ability only sparingly when he absolutely had to.

Having determined that no guards patrolled the outer gardens, and that all the guards on the wall ramparts had their eyes trained outward, Vir simply strutted across the garden grounds as if he owned the place and was just taking a nighttime stroll.

The entire time, he analyzed the composition of the royal buildings. Tall dome-capped spires soared above the keep at each corner. The keep itself was a rectangular structure palace adorned with many golden domes, gold inlaid arches, and murals depicting scenes and rulers decorated its walls.

And, anchoring it all, was a large gold statue of some Hiranyan king, set high on a white pedestal. The king posed with his arms open wide, as if to welcome those who entered.

Meaning, only royalty…

It was all far too gaudy for Vir’s tastes, but he wasn’t here to judge. Each entrance to the building had guards, and Vir doubted any amount of acting skill in the world would get him past them.

What did catch his eye was the impressively tall temple building that sat along the northern wall, towering over all the other buildings. Narrow, skinny, and carved with a mind-boggling number of carvings, it was the most impressive structure Vir had ever laid eyes on.

That must be where the head priest spends most of his time. He marked its position in his head.

Once again, he activated Dance, and slipped through the palace walls as if they didn’t exist. This time, he had to be more careful. There was limited ability to hide inside the halls without relying on Dance, and he figured he only had a half-dozen activations left before the prana well ran dry. It was difficult to tell how much of a reserve remained until the prana was near depleted, so he always tried to err on the side of caution.

Which meant understanding his surroundings. Vir brought out some charcoal and a piece of parchment and began mapping out the palace interior.

It didn’t help that the palace was four stories high, ignoring the spires that shot several more stories into the air. After exploring one, he determined those contained either prisons or guest quarters, and all served as guard towers. He didn’t see a need to map the other three—their narrow spiraling stairs limited Prana Vision’s visibility, making for dangerous work.

His goal would not be in a spire; it’d be somewhere central in the building itself.

An hour later, he had the entire first two floors mapped. There had been a few close calls initially, but nothing that required Vir to rely on Dance. The more he mapped, the more safety he gained. With each unlocked door and storeroom found, he gained more and more hiding spots, in case a patrol or handmaiden happened across his way. Those were rare—it was just another quiet night in the palace.

Vir knew he was getting warm when he came across guards standing in front of doors. The third story had far more guards patrolling the area as well, so Vir was forced to rely on Dance to get around.

After Dancing into two of these guarded rooms, he’d learned they belonged to royalty. Not the king or the queen—he suspected they lived on the topmost floor—but the princes and princesses. So far, the rooms had been occupied by teenage boys. Sanobar and Nara Hiranya, most likely.

There was only one more room on this floor that had guards posted. With only two invocations of Dance left, he weighed the benefit of exploring it. He absolutely needed at least one Dance in reserve to make his escape. Ideally two.

But if the last room does belong to Princess Mina…

Then he might learn something about her. Maybe he’d find some evidence of how she conducted herself, or something damning that would help him decide whether to uphold Riyan’s deal, or to work with her instead.

The chances of him finding anything like that were low, but now that he was here, he’d regret missing this opportunity.

Resolving himself, he snuck through the third-floor corridor. It was quite unadorned, unlike the rest of the palace, the only decorations being Magic Lamps set into the walls at regular intervals. Vir guessed they had an entire staff whose only job was to keep the lights on.

Sensing a patrol up ahead, Vir backtracked to the nearest unlocked door he’d found—a utility closet full of brooms, blankets, some dressers, and other odds and ends—and hid until they approached. Though he doubted soldiers would enter a closet, he concealed himself under a blanket, regardless.

He held his breath as the guards passed, oblivious to his presence. After that, it was a clear shot to the bedroom. Vir used up his second-to-last invocation of Dance. It took a full fifteen seconds before it charged, allowing him to slip inside the realm of shadows. Vir suspected the next one would take twice as long.

Thanks to the lights being off inside the room, there were plenty of shadows to choose from. To his surprise, Prana Vision picked up no signatures—it was empty.

Vir appeared from the shadow of a dresser, slipping into the room as silently as a wraith.

The space was relatively unadorned. Sure, rugs dotted the stone floor, and a fourposter bed had golden tassels and carvings, but other than that, it was quite bare. No flags hung from the walls, no murals or artwork like he’d seen in the boys’ rooms.

The only pieces of furniture were the bed, a large dresser, a simple makeup station, and a basic wooden table with two chairs. An open arch led into an attached washroom.

Vir opened the dresser, finding a large variety of dresses. Everything from the elegant to the gaudy.

Guess I found her room…

Finding no clues there, he moved onto her makeup station. He opened every drawer and rummaged through each cabinet, but found nothing other than ordinary makeup. Though she did have a lot of makeup. It made Vir wonder how much of her ethereal beauty was natural and how much was merely facade.

After spending several more minutes searching the rest of the room, he finally gave up. There was nothing here. No notes that might implicate her as part of some heinous criminal scheme. No secret messages, nothing to confirm or deny whether her public identity was her real one.

Riyan had said she’d murdered his wife and children, but what was the context around that? Had he disobeyed orders, or committed some grievous atrocity? Or had his family’s death been an accident? He’d refused to divulge the details.

Vir had been a fool to expect anything else.

With a sigh, he made for the door…

When a creaking sound triggered every survival instinct he had.

Someone was here!

Vir flew into motion even before his mind processed what had happened. He dove under the bed, desperately searching for the source of the sound.

He first looked to the door, but it remained shut.

The bathroom, then? No! That’s…

The dresser he’d opened a few minutes ago had swung open, revealing a secret passage.

And out from that passage walked a face Vir knew. A black-haired, black-eyed urchin, covered in grime and dirt, who carried an active Magic Candle orb.

Amin! Riyan’s contact!

Vir’s thoughts ground to a halt. What’s Amin doing here!? How’d he know about that secret passage? Should I confront him?

Then, as Amin removed his eye lenses and his wig, allowing long, silky black hair to fall free, did he understand.

I’ve been played!

Amin wasn’t his contact. Amin was Princess Mina!

His head swam. Why would Mina be Riyan’s contact? Riyan had tasked Vir with killing her! They couldn’t be working together.

Which meant that Mina had somehow intercepted Vir’s contact. She’d known about Vir all along.

She…!?

He connected the dots. The soldiers who’d nearly killed him in the Godshollow after his Rachna battle—they’d said she had sent them.

Had Mina been spying on them all along?

Goosebumps flared up on Vir’s arms, making his hair stand on end. How could Riyan not have known?

Confused thoughts wrestled in his head, but now was not the time to humor them. He watched Mina like a hawk as she removed her makeup and wandered into the bathroom, humming to herself.

I should leave, he thought. The longer he stayed, the more at risk he was of detection. Confronting her now would only lead to guards rushing to capture him. Not only would it complicate his escape, it’d blow his cover—his makeup was the same disguise that he’d worn in front of Amin.

Better to hide the fact that he knew her secret until he could formulate a plan.

Two escape plans sprang to mind. He could either Dance back out to the hallway and find his way back out of the grounds, risking detection, and likely having to scale the wall without Dance’s aid…

Or…

He could try moving into the passage Mina had just used. She’d arrived as Amin, and unless the entire palace was in on her little secret, he somehow doubted it led to the royal garden or the District of Internal Affairs.

It’s worth the risk.

Charging Dance took over half a minute, causing his leg to tingle from the lack of blood, but it finally admitted him into the realm of shadows.

Sure enough, he saw several exits within the passage, which looked dark and empty. Perfect.

Reappearing inside the hidden hallway, he proceeded down its dark depths, relying on Prana Vision to guide him.

Soon, the tunnel turned into a spiral stairway that led down.

Down and down, Vir descended the narrow stairs. There wasn’t a single window or door, so he had no idea how far he’d traveled, but if he had to guess, this passage led all the way down to the Commons.

It made sense if the princess regularly masqueraded as an urchin. And seeing how the passage led directly to her room, she’d likely had this addition custom built. Vir couldn’t even imagine the cost of such an endeavor.

He finally reached the end of the stairs, which led out to another hall. The passage dead ended in a ceiling hatch.

It cracked open without a sound, its hinges well oiled. Vir peeked out to see the wall of a narrow alley and the sounds and stench of a slum.

He left the hatch, which locked in place behind him. A one-way lock, huh? Looking back at it, he’d never know it led to a passage. Not unless he knew it was there.

Isn’t this a huge vulnerability if anyone ever found out?

This felt like the kind of thing that could cause the palace’s demise if Daha was ever attacked by an enemy.

Vir quickly changed out of his Sawai clothes, donning his commoner warrior outfit. From there, he set out.

He’d just stumbled upon a royal secret, and he knew just the right people who could help him take advantage of it.

With determined steps, he started walking.

— —

In the palace’s audience chamber, late at night, two figures met. A bald figure with a handlebar mustache sat upon the gilded Hiranyan throne in his nightgown—King Rayid Hiranya. At the foot of the carpeted steps leading to the throne kneeled his knighted captain of the royal guard, cradling his helm under his armpit.

“Someone has infiltrated the barrier,” said the captain. “The Prana Swarm, Anadi Chakai, has become active once again.”

“Oho?” replied the king. “Quite the feat to infiltrate its prison. I take the poor fool is dead?”

“In all likelihood, yes. But…”

King Rayid frowned. “But?”

Sweat broke out on the captain of the guard’s brow. “Whoever they were disabled the barrier. It has gotten loose,” he whispered.

“Say again?”

“The Prana Swarm has escaped!” the captain of the guard shrieked, his panic mounting.

“That is impossible. Those barriers have been in place for over a thousand years!”

“I understand, my liege. However, the barriers have indeed been toppled.”

“Are you telling me that our superweapon from the Ashen Realm is freely gallivanting about our sewer system?”

“It appears to be roaming, yes. But as an Ash Beast, it cannot survive in our prana deprived lands. If it strays too far from the Ash Gate deep beneath the city, it will eventually die off.”

King Rayid spoke in a cold, even tone. “But not before killing every man, woman, child, and animal in this entire city!”

The captain of the guard said nothing.

Clutching his head, Rayid gazed at the carved ceiling, unfocused.

“We’re going to need the Altani. Summon them at once. And pray to Adinat that this city is still standing by the time they arrive.”