The Shimmering Mine was a good hour outside the city, so Shiina got to enjoy some time as a sand sled. Though enjoy was a strong word. The material seemed to be miserable no matter how you tried to cross it. It was too loose to give solid fooding and too solid to act as proper liquid. "We should have rented camels or something," she said as she tried to push herself to keep up.

  "We might need to teleport away," Zanya said. "And we wouldn't be able to take the animals too."

  Shiina sighed and continued up the dune. At least their target was near. The rock pillar that the mine was at the base off had gotten much closer as they'd progressed. And the thin smoke from campfires was now visible.

  Ife held up a hand as they were about to crest the dune. "I think we're close enough to ready our disguises."

  "We've got two days on Shiina's potion, so probably," Delilah said.

  "It's worth keeping something that good in reserve as long as possible," Zanya said. "But Shiina's going to need to take some time to get used to it. So yeah. Drink away."

  Shiina perked up. "Finally!" She pulled the flask out of her bag and drained it. The potion was bitter and bubbly, with a strange metallic taste on top.

  For a moment she didn't notice anything. Then she felt messy. Out of place. With a shudder she fixed her inefficient disguise, making sure to get the solid feeling of her chest right, while still keeping her hair fine and soft. The little details that made imitation flesh, cloth, metal, and leather different came to her easily and she fixed each part as needed.

  Turning her attention up she saw the other three looking at her in surprise. "What?"

  "It's really effective," Delilah said. "I didn't even notice before, but you really did improve a lot of details."

  Ife's ears twitched repeatedly. "Indeed. I need to work better at noticing those little things. So many bits I didn't realize were strange until you fixed them. And here I was certain I had the best eye for small details."

  Shiina let her focus go over her form. It was weird. She could tell it was a better disguise than what she normally did, but it all felt natural. Like doing anything less perfect would be inherently wrong.

  "Well that's a lot more likely to fool a high level warrior." Zanya presented her back. "Time to become a traveler's pack."

  "Right!" Shiina hopped on the woman's back before shifting. The thick cloth of the backpack was much easier to copy, letting her body shift with the Ophidian woman's movements. She decided to add a few hard bulges here and there mimicking larger travel gear inside the pack. It was an excellent disguise.

  From the expressions on her friends' faces they seemed to agree. They gave her a once over, before putting on their own masks. Shiina's focus blurred as they did. For some reason she had a hard time seeing their details now. She knew who they were, but explaining why would be difficult. Magic could do some impressive things.

  That done, they continued over the sand dune. Ife had judged things well. There were another two dunes to cross to get to the camp proper, but little bits and pieces were visible. Guards were already signaling their presence to the people below.

  Shiina did her best to get a read on the camp as she was carried closer. The mine entrance was obvious from the large hole in the mountain face. In front of that was a barricade and a guard post, alongside several mine carts piled high with gold and gems. What was strange was the group also had several groups of lizards in pens. Some looked like small plodders, while others were more aggressive looking, with big mouths.

  The camp proper was in four sections. The center was a big tent with several smaller ones around. They looked to be recently bought and not frequently used. The organization was more scattered as well.

  The other three groups' camps were perfectly arranged. The well worn tents were placed around according to some plan Shiina couldn't easily guess from up here. But she could tell where the main cooking fire and the animals were kept. Each group had their own style and layout, but just from the size of the tents involved one group was obviously halflings or some other small humanoid race.

  In addition Shiina saw riders slipping out on either side moving to flank her group, while the number of people with swords and staves outside was increasing. Nothing blatantly threatening, but if a fight did break out it'd be over fast. The guard's levels started in the low twenties and went up from there.

  Ife took the lead as they got closer, not showing any signs things were wrong. Zanya was similarly calm. Shiina could see Delilah as gripping her staff tighter, but the cloth facemask hid anything more.

  As they began down the final dune, two catfolk in robes and headscarves moved up. "Who are you and what do you wish with our people, travelers?"

  Ife held her hands up, making a circle with her thumbs and forefingers before lowering them and bowing. "We come in the name of peace. The portents are dark, and so our masters require us to speak with your leaders. In the names of the gods of Chaos and Law, we ask to meet to avoid war."

  Ife's words had the tone of a ritual, though Shiina couldn't feel any magic from it. The two guards who'd come forwards looked slightly confused, but bowed slightly in return. "May we have the names of those who seek audience?"

  "We serve the Arbiters," Ife said, letting her words ring out over the whole group.

  The two men up front seemed confused, but behind them a couple of people swore loudly. A human woman with a heavy bow and a dogman with a staff, both wearing outfits closer to what the adventurers back home preferred. The human called out, "Let them in. Wassel will need to see them."

  "We can't let them in like that," muttered one of the closer tribal guards. "Can't we bind them or something?" Shiina's insides tensed. It wouldn't destroy their plan but it'd make it harder.

  "Won't matter," the woman replied. "They've got ridiculous magic bullshit on their side if we try anything clever. Better to go for a kill if needed." Well that was totally wrong, but Shiina wasn't going to tell them otherwise. It seemed that the Arbiter's boogeyman status would be working for them.

  The catfolk she was talking to didn't seem thrilled, but he stood aside to let the woman through the crowd. She looked over them each, her eyes passing over Shiina without a hint of recognition. "Very well. Please follow me. I'll tell the bosses you're here."

  "Thank you." Ife bowed again, with Zanya following suit, and Delilah catching up after a second.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The woman waved them to follow her, and set off through the tents. A few warriors came after, keeping their group surrounded.

  After clearing the maze of tents and fire pits they arrived at the large central tent. Two guards were stationed outside, but a quick explanation caused them to open the flap. They entered into a large meeting area that dominated about half the tent. Past that were curtains concealing additional areas. Probably the places where people actually lived.

  Most interesting to Shiina was the furniture in the middle. Everywhere else had cushions and low tables. This had a solid high table, about five feet across, and chairs set up on either side. Some built to accommodate halflings.

  As Zanya set Shiina down to the side, Shiina realized how clever this was. Beneath the table was a half partition preventing small thrown weapons from passing through. With the width of the table, there was no easy way to assassinate someone at the other side. You'd have to show your attack.

  It wouldn't work against a mimic hiding under the table with a poisoned dagger. But that was a very unusual threat Shiina had to admit.

  In terms of guards there were the two at the front and a halfling mage and a lizardman with a brace of knives. Both looked very capable and dangerous. If they had to go for an assassination Shiina would have to be fast with the Arbiter Rune.

  Her friends each waited in their own way. Zanya sat unmoving, while Delilah nervously shifted about. Ife meanwhile managed to loaf around in lazy elegance. Shiina made a note to try to mimic that later.

  After a few minutes five people entered from the back. First was the warrior Wessle, wearing a gambeson and with his sword sheathed but still in hand. After that three people in local dress entered, a halfling and two catfolk. Probably speakers for the tribes. And last a catfolk woman in a plain but well made dress with a collar on.

  The four men sat down at the table while the woman stayed at the partition. Wessle set his sword against the table, probably where he could easily draw it. "So, what the hell are a group of people claiming to be with the Arbiters doing here? Don't you just show up to kill people who mess with dungeons?"

  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Ife said. "And I'm afraid what you're aiming for is pretty obvious. Trying to get a dungeon that will unleash burrowing lizards would be my guess?"

  Shiina considered the targets in front of her. She considered a slash with poison to get two targets, but that wouldn't guarantee a kill given the number of healers an adventuring group would have. She'd have to hit the femoral artery, and then add a poison that would kill if a healer tried to patch that up.

  One of the catfolk leaders spoke up. "And if we pledged to close the dungeon after our work was done? Would that cause your masters to turn their attention elsewhere?"

  Ife blinked and looked at Zanya. The woman considered for a moment. "If your work only took a day, that might be acceptable. We don't care about people who just ruin dungeons. That's someone else's problem. But using dungeons as a source of unlimited troops is something we need to discourage. Especially old dungeons."

  The mood in the room dropped considerably. Hands were moved a little closer to weapons. "That's a problem," Wessle said. "Because, you see, I really want to discourage this fucked up slavery system. And I'm not interested in killing their slave soldiers to do it. So unless your masters want to help us deal with this problem, I'm afraid we're at an impasse.

  Shiina made sure she had a strong grip on the Arbiter Rune, but Zanya didn't give the signal. Instead the woman kept her hands on the table. "I don't see how a bigger army is going to reduce the number of casualties. Especially an army of monsters that's filled with hate towards the dungeon master's enemies."

  "Forgive me if I don't give away our secret plans to a possible enemy," Wessle replied with a thin smile.

  "Um." To Shiina's surprise Delilah spoke up. "Obviously you've got some way to destroy the magic keeping the slaves bound to their masters. But I don't see why you'd need an army for that. You've got a group of adventurers in the upper thirties. I can't think of many places you can't get if you try. And once the magic item in question is destroyed the slave revolt will end Al Jirtea. That's why slave soldiers are a stupid idea."

  Wessle gave a slight nod. "You're right. If there was a single artifact somewhere in the city we could get this done without the whole army nonsense. But they aren't quite that stupid. They've got three artifacts keeping their slave system running. And one of them is in the palace treasure vault, which no thief has ever broken into. So unless you've got some way to get the sultana to just let you into the most secure vault on the continent, we need an army that can burrow into the city."

  Shiina shivered. She shouldn't. She should wait for Zanya. But...

  "I think I can do that!" she said cheerfully as she popped up from her resting place, both arms waving.

  A wave of surprise filled her as everyone started. Wessle rolled out of his chair with a sword out, all the guards had their weapons drawn, the tribal leaders had backed up out of range, and her friends were looking at her in shock.

  Zanya was first to recover. "Damn it, Shiina."

  "Come on, I've wanted to burn that city down since we got here. Now we have a chance!" She turned to Wessle. "I'm sure it can't be that hard to get a box into the royal treasury. You owe them a ton of gold after all."

  After another long moment people started lowering weapons. "Do you think it will work?" asked the halfling leader.

  "Possibly. It does end with less assassins after our head," Wessle said. He sat down again, sword still in his off hand. "The slavery enchantment is tied to three statues. The one in the central square is obvious, but the other two are in the royal treasury and atop the Sultan's Tower. Disable all those and the city is ours, no dungeon bullshit needed. Obviously the central square is easy to handle ourselves. Think you can take out the other two?"

  Ife sighed. "Well we might as well consider it. What's the basis of the enchantment?"

  The catgirl slave in the back spoke up. "By the Glory and Splendor of our city's founder all Slaves must Serve their Master."

  Ife looked at Zanya then Delilah. "Do we want to try?"

  "Yes," Delilah replied immediately.

  Zanya nodded a moment later. "I guess our work as arbiter agents is done. Which means we can't use these anymore." She removed her mask then folded her hands. "Everything from now on is just a deal with us as a mercenary adventurer group. We can definitely ruin any statues we get near. But we'll need more info from you to pull it off."

  "Excellent," Wessle gave a sharp smile and sheathed his blade. "Let's talk details."

  So as something kinda like an assassin I've had to get acquainted with different levels of 'dead'. Skilled mundane healers can bring back people from incredible trauma, and magical healers can perform feats that seem impossible. On the other hand someone can fall down the stairs and just die. So how do I know what someone can heal?

  To start we have to discuss what makes up people. All living things are made up of lots of little organisms working together. Us mimics just have a team effort where all our bits pitch in where needed, but humanoids are a huge mess of moving parts that go all over the place in their.... Sorry. Important thing is that a level 60+ healer can bring someone back so long as a single part of you is still alive. That's where stories of people 'raising the dead' come from. But you're still toast if three days pass, and there's not many level 60 hearers out there, so I don't worry about that.

  On the other end of the scale is 'alive.' So long as a humanoid's heart is beating without help they're considered alive. (Mimics are 'alive' so long as we can maintain a shape.) If you're alive, the healer just has to stop whatever's killing you. Usually the injury letting blood out, or the disease/poison destroying your insides. Now this can be really hard, especially with diseases. A healer can burn themselves out curing the damage from cholera only to watch their patient waste away again. But for adventurers 'alive' is the best state, because you can be decently sure your healer can fix you up.

  That means as an assassin I want to make sure they're 'dead.' No heartbeat. This is fixable on its own, but the preferred way to stop someone's heart is massive trauma. If there's no blood to pump, that's a lot of mana to fix things. And then there's the wounds to seal. Or poisons to heal.

  That's a really long way of saying, I can't just stab someone in the neck and run. If you want to make sure they're dead, you have to wait a bit, or deal damage appropriate for the level of healer around.