The guards plowed into the demons with what I guess you could call holy fervour. I don’t think they knew why the demons were standing around arguing with each other, nor did they care. They charged in, screaming with either rage or terror, I couldn’t tell.

No expert on battlefield tactics, I was getting a beginners lesson in the importance of ‘maintaining a battle line’ and ‘readying against a charge’. The guards were actually outnumbered, but the first exchange - over in a flurry of blows - almost evened the odds.

“Retreat!” came the voice from above, and some of them heeded it. It turned out though - another basic tactics lesson for me - that disengaging from a determined enemy isn’t all that easy. Its easier when you have an illusionist on your side, however. One by one, the demons started to disappear.

Well this isn’t good. They’re going to get away!

On the other hand, did I really care about them? The illusionist was the key, and he was always going to be much harder to catch. Would he retreat with the troops? The troops probably had a fall back position, how likely was it that he’d go there?

Pretty likely, I decided. His other options were the inn, which I’d kind of spoiled, or back to the city. He couldn’t go back tonight via carriage, and he didn’t seem like the type to walk. So I needed to follow these guys back to their extraction point. Hard to do when they’re invisible…

But not if its my spell!

I picked one of the still visible demons and cast [Greater Invisibility] on him. Now Archambault couldn’t target the guy with his own spells, and he thought he was invisible. Well he was, but not to me.

Soon I was following along behind as he made his escape. Over the wall, and into the night. He moved cautiously, but it wasn’t long before we were out of sight of the village. About five minutes after that, I started to see others in the area appear out of nowhere. The mage must have cancelled his spells, I realised, and so I canceled the invisibility on my little catspaw.

They greeted each other as they drew near, but they were quite subdued, falling into line as they headed for their destination. There were 8 of them left, from a force of about 20. Eventually they made their way to an organised camp. There were tents, a campfire and lanterns, all concealed so well by the geography and carefully placed tarpaulins, that I didn’t see it until I was almost on top of it. There were two more guarding the camp, they looked a little shocked to see these guys come back.

“What happened?” one of the guards asked.

“Mage fucked up.” replied one of the returnees.

“I did not,” said a familiar voice out of nowhere. An equally familiar middle aged man appeared in front of the soldiers. “As I said, there was another illusionist there to counter me.”

Gotcha! I crowed to myself. Although… was this another illusion?

One of the soldiers must have had the same thought, picking up twig and flicking it at the mage. It bounced off of the mage’s robes, much to his irritation.

“Yes, yes, greet the person who saved your lives with mistrust,” he said, scowling.

“Didn’t save the commander,” one of the soldiers said, and the others murmured agreement.

“I couldn’t lift their spell, they were simply more powerful than me.” Archambault admitted. He looked around, evidently for a comfortable seat, because he slumped to the ground and leaned back against a nearby tree stump. “After disguising the lot of you, I’ve now almost exhausted my mana casting [Invisible Other] on you seven.”

“Eight,” one of the men interjected.

“What?” The mage asked. Even under the current circumstances, he could still manage a decent ‘how dare you interrupt me?’ tone.

The soldier wasn’t intimidated though. “There were eight of us who escaped.”

Archambault’s eyes flicked around the group. “I only cast the spell seven times,” he said. “And no one escaped who wasn’t invisible. One of you is that illusionist, disguised.”

Hands went to weapons, and the group collectively took a step back from one another.

“Hang on,” said one of the soldiers. “There's no way someone here is an imposter, we know each other too well.”

“Except for the mage,” another said.

“Why would I sow doubt if I was the one infiltrating, you fool!” Archambault sneered.

“Everyone say their names!” one of the soldiers called out. “He won’t know his own name if he’s a fake, none of us said ours.”

“Except for the mage,” said the same one that said it before. I think he might have been a bit upset at being called a fool.

Everyone called out their names, to no real effect except I knew their names now. They all stood around confused that their plan hadn’t worked.

I should be taking action at this point, but what am I going to do? I wondered. I didn’t really want to kill them, even if that was a realistic possibility. I wanted proof of who hired them, but it didn’t seem like I was going to get that tonight. Eventually, Archambault would be going back to his house. I doubted any detours he took getting there would teach me anything. And these men probably didn’t know who hired them, I’d be better off tracking their blinded commander. Actually the spell must be wearing off around now…

“I don’t understand,” Archambault was muttering. “I know that… oh of course!” The others looked at him. “They couldn’t follow invisible people, so they made one of you invisible and tracked their own spell.”

“So they’re just standing around somewhere listening to us?” Royce asked. He had an angular face, a stubby nose and now had a worried expression.

“Undoubtably. Go and wave your swords around randomly if you think it will help.” The mage pondered for a moment. “I’m going back. Do not rejoin with your company. Stay here for as long as you think safe, and then split up. Our opponent can only follow one of you.”

“You’re not the boss of us, fingerwiggler.” Vaden, an unreliable looking man with a nasty burn scar on his face, snarled at the mage.

Archambault sneered. “Do you think I care if you heed my advice? I have given it, as contracted. Do as you wish.” For an illusionist, he was a real people person.

“If you’re so important, won’t he be following you?” Varden asked.

“They would, but I intend to make that impossible.” Archambault said. “They may be the more powerful Illusionist, but that is not the only magic at my command.” He gestured, and a sudden wind rose up, whirling around him and kicking up dust. Before I could react, he had flown up out of sight in the darkness.

Well, fuck.

Upon reflection, I decided that Archambault’s dramatic exit hadn’t been a win. I knew where he was going… probably. There were two possibilities that I knew of, and if he was going back to the nearby inn, I expected him to be unpleasantly surprised.

I was just a bit pissed that he managed to make sure I couldn’t follow him. Also that he had more than one type of magic. And that he didn’t have to walk back home. I had plenty of reasons to be pissed, but all up, I think I could count it as a win. I just had to see how it had been wrapped up at the village after I’d left.

Slipping back in was easy, even though they’d gone on full alert. There just weren’t enough guards to stop an invisible person jumping over that wall. Skulking around, I saw that the guard lieutenant seemed to have things well in hand. The attackers were either dead or arrested, and statements were being taken from the villagers and the surviving attackers. The lieutenant had a really confused look on his face, but I was confident the important details would find their way to the Count. I could fill in the rest later.

“So this is payment in full for our first job,” I said, pushing two bags of gold over to my team-mates.

“Job’s not done though?” Cloridan objected, though he happily took his bag.

“One of the clauses was to prove there’s no threat of demons. Since we’ve shown it was an illusionist, we’ve fulfilled the conditions. Thats 66 gold each, one third share of the 200 gold payment.”

“One third?” Janie asked, looking around the table.

“Since the payments come from my father, it would seem churlish to take a share,” Aubert declared.

“Must be nice, being so rich that you can turn down money,” Janie said. “But like Cloridan said, jobs not done though? Stuff is still going on.”

“True, but the Count decided that could be our second task.” I said. “Ending whatever plot is going on. If we manage that, we get the other 800.”

“At least we won’t have to deal with riots any more?” Cloridan said hopefully.

“Don’t be too sure,” I said. “I spoke with my… contact, and he says that while the truth is getting out, there are still some who believe the first rumour. Another ‘demon’ attack - if not foiled - could start them up again.”

I sighed and continued. “Most of our leads have dried up,” I said. “The Count raided the warehouse, but the troops got away before they arrived. I’m not sure if Archambault returned to the house, and Guillaume-”

“Hasn’t done anything,” Aubert quickly interjected.

“Exactly. If it makes you feel better, I don’t think he can be behind this plot,” I said. Unless your father pays his wards way too much, there too much money involved.”

“True,” Aubert agreed thoughtfully. “What we’ve seen so far would require a significant portion of the resources of a Baron.”

“Or a really rich adventurer,” Janie said.

“Such a person would be better served to become a baron,” Aubert said with disdain. “Qualifying for [Leadership] is a common preoccupation of the mid-levels,” he said smugly.

The others didn’t disagree, so I kept my mouth shut. Is [Leadership] really that good? I wondered. It had come up on our first dungeon delve, but the others hadn’t wanted him to use it, so I hadn’t given it much thought.

[Leadership] : Provides a skill bonus to underlings in return for a share of XP

As in-depth as always, thank you System. An XP share did sound like it could be a bit of a cheat though.

“Anyway,” I said, returning to the conversation. “No real leads, so for now we’ll keep looking. I’ll keep building up my network, with your help Cloridan.”

Cloridan nodded agreeably and made a half-bow from his chair. “I always enjoy spending time with you my lady,”

I snorted, “Pressure's off, so you start with the sweet-talking?” I turned to Janie. “Lundy and Maslin haven’t reached level 3 yet, so can you take them through the dungeon?”

“Sure thing - I don’t think they’ve gotten any better with explosions though.”

“If they don’t want to go with you, I can get Aubert to take them.”

“I’ll be gentle,” she promised.

“And that leaves me the only one without an assignment.” Aubert noted.

“Oh, I’ve got a special assignment for you.” I said.

“Normally, you look happier when you’re about to humiliate me.” Aubert told me after the others had left. “Dare I hope that you’ve tired of the game?”

“No,” I sighed. “There's just not much to be pleased about what's coming next. I've got some clothes for you in the next room, go and change.”

He narrowed his eyes, but left the room. I soon heard muffled cursing, but he knew protests weren’t going to get him anywhere. Say what you like about Aubey, he didn’t have a problem with authority.

He was pretty pissed when he came out. “These clothes don’t fit, and this cloak scratches,” he complained. Then he looked at me. “That is you, right?”

“Of course,” I said. I’d cast [Disguise] and was now dressed in a similarly common manner. I had a different face, but I’d still given myself a hooded cloak. No matter what I made my face look like, I still seemed to attract attention.

“Where we’re going, it wouldn’t be good for you to be seen there.” I explained. “It won’t take long."

“Fine,” he said, and stalked out after me.

It was fortunate we weren’t actually trying to fool anybody, because he was rubbish at this.

You'll never live like common people,

You’ll never do whatever common people do

The lyrics swam through my head from some old Video Hits music video. To take my mind off it, I started some conversation.

“Having an adventurer team was supposed to be cover for teaching you, but this has been getting much deeper than I anticipated,” I said.

He shrugged. “Father never does anything for only one reason,” he said. “You must have impressed him, for him to have… put you in authority over me. I’m not surprised he wants you working for him in other capacities.”

“That had better not be innuendo,” I said, but I wasn’t really worried. The Count hadn’t given any indication of that sort of interest.

“Its not, my father has been scrupulously faithful to Mother while within the County.”

“Within the County?” I asked.

“I don’t know what happens in Dorsey,” he admitted. “The courtesans of the Capital are renowned for their skills - and their discretion.” He sounded wistful.

Ew. Well at least we were at our destination, which should put an end to such thoughts. Aubert frowned as we came up to the gate.

“In all the Gods names, why have you brought me to a cemetery?