112. Aftermath: Wiremu

That concoction of Rotte’s was disgusting. I felt myself get sweaty for a while there, but it went away soon enough. Disease resistance was not something most people considered, as once you develop your Physical Constitution a bit, you don’t tend to get sick. When we broke up, I went alone to the land entrance. Tabitha wanted me just to close the tunnel and leave it, but I wasn’t going to do that. I met the six Pact Rats who were watching the entrance. They were not the best fighters. In fact, they were low-level thieves and cutpurses. I allowed them to come with me or circled around to the main entrance. I was going to block this one. Four of them decided to join me.

When the time came, we cautiously approached the entrance. They didn’t seem to have a guard close by, so I carefully looked for traps. There was a fairly simple tripwire alarm trap which looked like a child set it up. I disabled it, and all my senses were telling me there were no more. Granite Sense showed me the shape of the rock, and it was evident where people made changes. This confirmed there were no more traps, which I found puzzling. I was sure there would be a rockfall trap to close it if necessary.

When I entered the small entrance, I turned around and went straight back out. The stench was horrific. The people sent to guard this entrance were not the strongest, and the disease seemed to have hit them very hard. The aftermath of the disease means I will need to turn off my Bond Senses, and I wish I could turn off my sense of smell.

We re-entered the cave and cautiously made our way forward. We came to a particularly narrow point, and I had the Pack Rats move ahead of me. I waited until they were out of sight and walled off the tunnel. It wasn’t as permanent as collapsing the tunnel. I could remove it reasonably quickly, and it would only take fifteen to twenty minutes with a sledgehammer to open it again.

We came to the wider part of the cave where the people watching this entrance were camped, and it was a mess. They were all low levelled, and only one of them had the strength to get up and challenge us. I knocked her out quickly enough. We tied them up to come back later and question them. The Pack Rats were going through their possessions and helping themselves. We kept moving.

We found the first storage cave, and there was nobody there. There were crates lined against the walls, sometimes three high. The four of them all slowed down and started looking in the crates. When they started removing items, I turned around and said, “Do you remember that your boss made a deal about the split of the loot in this cave? That deal was made with the Black Butcher, and you will just take some stuff?”

“Whose going to know, man? It is just a few items.” one of the thieves said.

“I know, and the Black Butcher is my business partner, so that is my stuff that you are nicking,” I replied.

“Hey, help yourself, man. We won’t say anything,” was the generous reply.

“How about you put everything back, and I won’t say anything,” I responded.

“Don’t be like that, man. It is just a few things, and, like, there are four of us.” It was almost like he was trying to threaten me.

“Yes, there are four of you,” I was starting to be a bit surprised he could count that high, “Would you like there to be less of you so that you can have a bigger part of the cut.”

I think he thought that was a good idea, but his mate butted in, “Dude, he is threatening us!”

“Hey, you can’t threaten the Pack Rats!”

They must have very short memories because, from what I have been told, their first meeting with Tabitha and Nyx very definitely made them feel very threatened. Maybe that went over these guys' heads.

“Well, I just did, so what are you going to do about it?” I figured that we should just have this out here if they want to go that far. That was not the response they expected, and I think they were confused for a moment.

The slightly smarter one behind the front man pulled his knife and said, “We are going to make you regret it!” The three front people all pulled their weapons and started coming at me. The smartest one of the whole group was the one at the rear, who took a step backwards and held up his hands with no weapons.

The three were coming at me single file because that was all the space there was between the crates. I let the first one get to about two meters from me before I put a dart in his eye. He dropped dead, and the next guy tripped over him, so I booted his head hard enough to crack his skull and break his neck. The third guy was trying to stop, so I helped him with a dart in his eye too. The fourth guy was still standing there with his empty hands up. His jaw had dropped open for some reason.

“Are we going to have a problem?” I asked.

“N… N… No sir!” he stuttered. “I will tell Rotte exactly what happened!”

“Good, because I like Rotte, and I would hate for her to be on the bad side of the Black Butcher,” I emphasised the name to make sure he realised who it was they were trying to rip off. “Why don’t you take the lead.”

“Yes, sir! Ah, let me just put this back.” He crammed something into a nearby crate and hurried on ahead.

I checked that the three were dead and then followed. The fighting in the main cavern was basically over when we arrived. I had been expecting some of the Seadogs to try to flee up this exit, but I found out why that hadn’t happened. Modrica was at the entrance standing over the body of a massive Orc. The Orc had his head caved in, and it looked like Modrica had a broken arm. Mutalil was nearby, and he had Tāoke on his shoulder. That was new. The Pack Rat hurried over to Rotte, who was organising the prisoners. There were only about five prisoners here. We would collect the six we left later. The six we left were almost definitely low-level thugs. Hopefully, some of these ones have some information. The boss wasn’t going to be talking, but it was very doubtful we would have ever taken him alive anyway. I saw Rotte look at me as the Pack Rat gave his report. She just nodded to me, and I nodded back. I had probably got rid of her problem low-life for her.

“Where is Black?” I asked Modrica.

“Sea cave,” she replied. She has always been a woman of few words.

The smell here was not as bad as back at the other camp. It still wasn’t pleasant. I hope Ruku enjoyed his swim-in because they probably used the sea as their toilet. I looked over the prisoners. There was nothing Imperial looking at about them. I imagine Ruku knows the basics of interrogation, and along with my Truth Sensing, we should get the information from them. Hopefully, they have some. I feel like I missed out on this fight. I know somebody had to come in from that end, and logically I was the best choice, but I still feel like I missed out.

Rotte came over with three of her Pack and suggested we go and collect the other prisoners. She was being very polite, too polite for someone I hadn’t met before. Surely the last idiot that came with me wasn’t exaggerating the story yet. Mutalil and Tāoke came with us. Everyone was giving Tāoke a wide berth as well. I wonder what he did. He stayed uncamouflaged on Mutalil’s shoulder, giving the impression they were bonded. That was fine by me. In fact, if Ilaiya were here, I would be encouraging him to bond with something poisonous. I could imagine the venom claws and bite he could have. Such potential has been lost. I am still feeling the need for some payback.

When we came to the secondary storage cave with the bodies of the Pack Rats, Rotte pointed to them and said, “That’s what you get if you try to steal from Black. Spread the word. I will give you a slow, painful death if Black doesn't give you a swift death. Don’t steal from either of us.”

Knowing Rotte was a Blood Alchemist, I am sure she could create some very slow, painful endings. The reaction from the other Pack Rats indicated they had actually seen that. We got to the other prisoners and hauled them back to the main cave. I wished Ruku was here to wash me down with his Water Surge.

Tabitha was back in the main cave when we got back. No sign of Ruku, though. There were four Pack Rats dead in addition to the three I killed. There were a lot of injuries, small and large. We had eleven prisoners, and with some preliminary questioning, we narrowed it down to two interesting ones. They weren’t Seadogs. One was definitely from the smuggler boat, and we think the other was an Imperial, but we weren’t sure. We took those two and left the rest to Rotte.

Tabitha and Skavt stayed to divide the loot while Mutalil, Modrica, Tāoke, and I took the two prisoners to a solid structure Abigail had built to the rear of the quarry.

I caught up with Ruku the next day. The healers saved his foot, and his regeneration would ensure there was no permanent injury. He is supposed to stay off it for a week and will be limping for two weeks. He seriously recommended getting Sione in to interrogate the two prisoners. So we did. Tabitha and I were there. I, with my Truth Sensing Skill and Tabitha, with her Adjuster Skill to, squeeze and trick more information from them. Sione is a master at interrogation. I had been afraid of Smythe in the empire. Sione was at least his equal. Tabitha and I learned a lot, both about how to interrogate someone and how to resist interrogation. Tabitha’s Adjuster Skill is going to help her master it.

Oh, and we also learned something about what the Empire was up to in Obalno. The smuggler was a seaman on the Swift Wave ship under Captain Alarik. A front currently employed them for the Empire, and they knew that. He didn’t have a lot of further information. The Swift Wave was due back next week in time for the Duke’s Birthday Gala. There was something planned, but he didn’t know what. What he did know was the location of a supply cache on a small island a week’s sail away. That is where the ship headed after the failed kidnapping attempt. The Swift Wave crew built and kept the supply base, not the Empire. I suspect it won’t be there by this time next week after Sione sends out the Navy. The Navy will also be scouring the sea between here and the base to intercept the Swift Wave, but it is unlikely they will take a direct route.

The Spy turned out to be one of three here. She was the one who organised the failed kidnapping of Mayakku because they were in desperate need of Enchanters in Northport. They decided it was a good opportunity because their local contact ordered an assault on the Comedic Rhythm, so they would have the best chance of succeeding and hitting us twice. They would thereby gain favour with the local boss, who was known only as Spider. Now the traps I found at the Seadogs made sense. Spider silk with a nerve toxin. This boss has a spider as a bond. A master of traps and a web of contacts and influence. We are getting closer to the source.

The Spies contacted the Spider through Tjenner and have been unable to get in touch since his death. Maybe we should have interrogated Tjenner before we killed him. I guess we were successful in interrupting their communication. They may not have been able to contact the Spider, but there was nothing to stop the Spider from initiating communication. I think the Spider is finding him or herself under increasing pressure from Eluf and us and with diminishing resources to call on. That was the main reason for taking out the Seadog leadership. One reason, anyway. It is our turn to apply increasing pressure.

What does the empire want in Obalno? Two of the spies were long-term plants, quietly building networks and gathering information on the navy. They were activated to retrieve the enchanting plans Sione’s crowd stole. The third agent arrived on the Swift Wave, and the other two were scared of her. She must be some sort of master spy and assassin. The enchanting plans are the key. I don’t think even Sione knew how important they would turn out to be. The head Spy is definitely here for them, but is she also here to assassinate Abigail? Sione thought so. I think it would be a secondary objective if those were her orders. It is not above people in power to want revenge for disrupting their plans. More so if those disruptions have long-term consequences like killing or disabling their primary enchanters.

Tabitha is more determined than ever to find an enchanter to make a copy of those before giving them back if she gives them back. In her mind, she stole them fair and square, and they belonged to her.

The unknown question is, what does the Spider want? Power, influence, money? Did they infect the Duke? If so, why? Why is the Swift Wave due back before the gala? Has the Spider done a deal with the Imperials to do something at the Gala?