PreCursive

  It wasn’t looking good.

  I crouched on one of the upper rafters of the dockside warehouse base, apanied by another Noe Agent who went by Jangle. I eering through one of the cealed oints we had cut into the side of the building. And what I was seeing didn’t bode well.

  It looked like nearly the entire Loyalist garrison of Elderwyck was assembling ireets outside. Apanying them were more than a few members of the Guard. There must have been hundreds of them out there. It was like aire military operation was underway at the docks.

  Right now, they were going door to door to all of the warehouses in the area and thhly searg eae before moving on. They hadn’t reached our hiding pce yet, but they clearly khat we were out here.

  It was only a matter of time before they found us.

  And then we were fucked.

  “How many are there?” Jangle asked me, in a low voice.

  I shook my head minutely. “I stopped ting after three hundred,” I admitted quietly.

  Jangle sighed, and the his head thunk against a nearby wooden beam. “How did this happen? Why didn’t our tacts in the Guard tell us the Loyalists were ing?”

  I turned away from my surveilnce post long enough to give Jangle a bleak look. Even though I had my mask ba, he could probably tell from my body nguage alone. “Maybe they couldn’t. Maybe they’re already dead,” I answered darkly. “If that’s not nearly the whole garrison out there, I’ll eat my dagger.” I abruptly shook my head. “Go tell Serpent what’s going on,” I said, refereng the most senient currently in the warehouse with Hook gone. “We o decide what we’re doing now. We don’t have long before they’re here.”

  Jangle nodded abruptly, before sliding off the beam we were croug on. In moments, he had dropped out of sight. Meanwhile, I turned back around to tinue my reaissance. Before Jangle had interrupted me, I thought I’d seen something. I refocused, looking for it. It only took me a moment.

  After all, they were carrying a big, fuck-off fg with them.

  The Loyalist military forces were carrying a huge banner, proudly flying the mountain and valley of Herztal. Beh it, I could see what looked to be a mobile and force, promised of more than a few officers on horses. Messengers from the search force were stantly running to and from them, carrying out orders and whatever they were finding out there. In the middle of those officers was who I was suspeg was behind this all.

  He was a rge man, not at all soft or foolish-looking like most of the Herztalian nobility or officer corps seemed to be. I could just barely make out the impressively rge mustache on his square-jawed face, ed with an open-faced helmet. A long, crimsoher poked from the crest of that helmet, lengthy enough that its tip brushed the handle of the two-handed ma his back.

  This, I believe, was General Atticus Longstripe of the Herztalian 4th regiment. The ander of all the Loyalist forces in Elderwyck.

  He was supposed to be a pretty strong guy, with a reported level somewhere in the four-hundreds. I’m not even sure why he was b with all his soldiers on this search. He might be strong enough aloo take us all out on his own. As far as I khere were only a few people iire Division who were strong enough to take him on. Serpent maybe, as well as Sparrow, sadly still out in the tryside somewhere. Hook could, no doubt.

  But he wasn’t here.

  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and used my middle ring to calm my nerves. When I opehem again, I nearly had a heart attack at what I found.

  Longstripe was looking in my dire.

  I nearly panic-smmed the board down on my surveilnce post, before I realized he wasn’t looking directly at me. Instead, he was just looking in my general dire. In other words, at the warehouse.

  I saw him lift one hand and point a finger in our dire, before one of his messengers ran off to the search force.

  Shit.

  I eased the board down and then slipped off the beam like Jangle had done. I fell rapidly, impag the floor in moments in a crouch. Thanks to how much I’d growly, I barely felt the impact at all, immediately standing up and sprinting further into the warehouse.

  In our aer built into the basement, the tension was thiough to cut with a knife. Everyone was aware enough to realize what the force outside meant, and our ces against it. I ighem, making a beeline for the and table. There, Serpent was being attended by a masked Sylvia and number of other senients. Everyone huddled around the local map of the area oable looked up at my approach.

  I didn’t waste any time. “They’re ing,” I said bluntly, causing anent to curse. “There’s more. I believe General Longstripe is with them.”

  versation both around the table and in the surroundings went quiet. I swear I saw Serpent’s eyes briefly shutter close behind the slit eye holes of his mask. The tall, thin man sighed. “position?” He asked shortly.

  “Maybe eighty pert Loyalist, twenty pert Guard,” I replied.

  A small measure of tension escaped the senient. “Nothing from Ttec?”

  My brow furrowed behind my mask. Ttec? What the hell did they have to do with this? Still, I answered the question. “No, nothing. Just humans out there. Serpent, if we’re going, we o go now. I saw the search party moving our way before I left.”

  Serpent shook his head. “We ’t leave,” He said, to apanying grim nods from everyone else. “You might not have seen them, but other observers reported snipers on the roofs. If we try and flee that dire, we’ll be pin-cushioned. Captain Isabel isn’t in pht now, either. And there are too many soldiers oreets.”

  “In other words we ’t escape by the roof, we ’t escape by the back alleys, and we ’t escape by sea,” Anent picked up.

  Sylvia let out a slow breath. “And so we have to fight.”

  The table desded into silence more, as everyone absorbed that fact.

  “Any word from Hook?” I asked quietly, breaking the silence.

  Serpent shook his head. “No, not yet. We alerted Headquarters about the assault, aook his two-way messaging with him to the meeting with SED,” He o the empty messaging station in the er of the room. “So they have to have informed him of the situation. But…nothing so far.”

  “Maybe he’s on his way,” Jaerjected hopefully

  Another senient snorted. “Or maybe the bastards turned on him, and this was their idea,” He muttered darkly, apanied by agreeing mutters from ents in the room.

  No love lost between SED and the Noe Division, I see.

  “Or maybe…” I said slowly, drawing attention. “They’re getting hit as well. After all, SED seems to have split from the Loyalist cause.”

  Serpent abruptly sighed and sshed his hand, cutting the versation short. “Enough,” He said tiredly. “Enough. This is useless specution. The fact of the matter is, Hook isn’t here to help right now. It’s up to us to either fight them off, or find another way to escape. But…it’s looking like we’ll have to fight.”

  Sylvia raised her head slightly. “Could we perhaps hide, if I yered enough illusions on the basement? Or perhaps…turn this into a siege?”

  “No, and no,” Serpent said, shaking his head. “No offense, Whisper, but you’re too low-level. Anything you put up isn’t going to be strong enough to fool the search party, much less the General. And if we try and turn this into a siege…”

  “He’ll just blow through it anyway,” I said grimly.

  Serpent me. “And so, we fight.”

  “There are barely forty of us,” One Agent interjected, a note of nervousness in their voice. “We’re outnumbered nearly seven to one. What we do against su overwhelming force?”

  “Our best, I suppose,” I said lowly.

  Those words hung heavy in the air for a moment, before anent abruptly sighed loudly. “Well, it was niowing you guys,” He said bleakly.

  Gallows chuckles souhrough the room, before something abruptly cut them off.

  The sound of banging on the front door of the warehouse, as the search party found it locked and barred.

  In the resulting silence, Serpent cast his gaze around the sea of watg masks gathered in the room, myself among them. “Ready yourselves,” He said firmly. “Take your positions outside, and give them hell. I’ll do my best against the General, wheime es.”

  As the gathered Agents of the Noe Division slowly trickled out of the aer and into the warehouse proper, Sylvia lingered. Her hand brushed mine, as our eyes met. "Don't die," She whispered, befhosting out of the basement to joihers. She disappeared from my sight at the top of the stairs in a shower of silver sparks, falling into an illusion.

  I shook my head with a wry smile. 'Don't die', huh

  Well, as you and.

  Before I left the basement myself, I took a brief look around for something specific. I didn't want to lose the item that might be sidered the instigator to this entire of events.

  The map of the pace, that Rhiannon had 'gifted' me.

  I found it on the and desk I'd just been standing around, buried under a pile of other dots. I rapidly folded it up, and shoved it behind the breastpte of my full Order armor. Once I was done, I exited the basement myself.

  When I reached the main floor of the warehouse, I found it mostly deserted. Which made sense, after all. The Agents of the Noe Division mostly fought from the shadows. I had no doubt that everyone was going to do their best to strike and kill from stealth.

  It’s what we did best.

  The banging on the door of the warehouse had only grown in iy, and the doors were starting to crack from the force of the blows. Outside of them, I could hear it as more and more armored boots arrived to assist ihem down.

  It was time to get in position.

  I aimed a hand above me and threw out a Thrapple. It caught on one of the wooden support beams above, reeling me in to nd in a crouch. As I did so, I activated Thorn Cloak as well. Feeling the almost f weight of my Skill settle on my shoulders, I drew something I’d picked up earlier, after the fight with the SED operatives.

  Wisps bow.

  Crook had left it behind in her rush to get the injured woman to a Healer, and so I’d grabbed it, hoping to return it ter. But Wisp wasn’t here right now, and I could use a ranged on. It was a short bow, which suited my needs just fine. Made of a dark, nearly bck wood with brass fittings, it was a recurve and nearly thrummed with crafted Mana. This was a on that was nearly to for me to use.

  Nearly.

  I had no idea Wisp was s, to hahis monster.

  Testing the string and nodding in satisfa, I drew one of the arrows from the quiver I’d grabbed earlier.

  Just in time, too.

  The doors of the warehouse finally buckled and broke uhe force of the blows on them, sending splinters shooting into the warehouse in a storm of shrapnel. Good thing nobody was down there, or else they would have been torn to shreds. A cloud of smoke and dust hung in front of the entrance from the near explosion.

  I breathed out slowly, feeling my emotions leave me with my breath. It almost felt like I grew colder, as I entered into my battle trance.

  Moments ter, cautious mailed feet edged their way into the warehouse, as the search team emerged from the cloud. They were apanied by a number of different soldiers this time, in a departure from what I had seen earlier.

  I suppose they’d figured out this was the right warehouse.

  I eyed them calmly from my position above, as more and more soldiers began to stream inside.

  Not yet. There weren’t enough targets in hts, just yet. It wasn’t time to close the jaws of our trap. It seemed like my rades agreed with me, as none of the Loyalists had died.

  So far.

  However, by the time enough of the soldiers had ehe warehouse to notice the entrao the basement aer, I knew our opportunity had e. We only had so long before they started to thhly search every nook and y for us, after all.

  You know.

  Funny thing about using a bow. Although I’d found out pretty early on that The Stilnt Bde didn’t work well with projectile ons, I’d discovered something pretty surprising about another Skill.

  The same wasn’t true about Grinding Crimson Sunder.

  The head of my drawn arrow ignited in a swirling mass of blood-red thorns. I sighted one of the soldiers below me, his head ing about cautiously. I breathed out one final breath, and on the exhale, I loosed.

  My arrow streaked through the air, finding its target. The soldier’s questing head went flying as he was immediately decapitated in a spray of blood.

  All hell broke loose.