Explorer of Edregon

The council room was silent for a minute after Vin’s bold prediction as everyone contemplated just what that meant. If what he thought was true, that changed everything. Rather than having to worry about three fragments working together to conquer all of Edregon, they’d already have two allies waiting in the perfect position to assist them with keeping the rankers contained, or even possibly dealing with them for good. Phil was the first one to speak up and break the silence.

“We don’t have enough intel,” he grunted, getting nods around the table. “We don’t even know what the fragments keeping the rankers contained are. We don’t know if the beastkin and orcs in the supposed alliance are friend or foe. And we don’t know the extent of any of their capabilities.”

“You’re right,” Vin said, turning toward the final member of their meeting. “Which is why I asked Theodore to join us.”

Up until now, the Spy had been quietly watching everything going on, not wanting to interrupt a meeting between the leaders of all of Terra. It was strange seeing the usually loud and flamboyant man sitting silently for so long, but as soon as Vin brought him into the conversation, his persona changed in an instant. His face broke out into a massive smile, and he stood up, giving them all a deep bow.

“I was wondering when we were going to get to me!” he laughed, sitting back down and grinning directly at Vin. “I take it this is my first official mission?”

“I think it’s time,” Vin declared. “Like Phil said, we need intelligence. I can handle the scouting of the fragments keeping them contained, but I can’t do much about determining where the allegiance of the other two fragments in the alliance lie, or the extent of their military might. I think we need some help from a Spy.”

“I’ve been quite literally training for this my entire Edregon-life,” Theodore chuckled. “And if the rankers truly are entirely human, that makes my job even easier.”

“Some of them do have unique traits, but yeah, they’re all human,” Vin confirmed. “Oh, and just a heads up, using the dungeon in this fragment will be tricky, so I wouldn’t plan on it. They have it surrounded by a fort filled with guards, so you’re going to want to enter some other way. Probably through the exploding mist fragment like I did.”

“My Scouts should be able to get me there safely,” Theodore mused, stroking his goatee as he went over the plan in his head. Vin had almost forgotten that the Spy had taken three of Phil’s Scouts and folded them into his section of the Foreign Branch exactly for events like this. He might be a master when it came to infiltration and information gathering, but that didn’t do him much good if he couldn’t get in and out of a fragment successfully.

“Hold on, won’t the fact that he doesn’t have one of these ‘soul-brands’ give him away in an instant?” Alice asked. “That sounds like the world’s greatest identity check if you ask me.”

“Only the warriors, the rankers, are part of that system,” Vin explained. “So long as Theodore disguises himself as a support or crafter class, he should be in the clear. But yeah, if he tries to pretend to be a warrior, he’ll be found out in an instant.”

“I prefer sticking with support classes anyway, so that’s no problem,” Theodore smiled.

“Even so, stay away from the higher-ranked warriors to be safe if you can,” Phil said, surprising everyone with his concern. “There’s no telling what passives or abilities the high-level rankers might have.”

“Your concern is appreciated, but unfounded,” Theodore laughed, winking at Phil and getting a roll of the eyes in response. “Don’t worry, I’m rather good at what I do.”

“Above all else, don’t try and use your Capstone to take on the form of a beastkin until you know whether they’re on our side or not,” Vin warned. “Emrelda stated that the majority of their mages specialize in light magic, and she personally displayed the ability to turn herself invisible and conjure up disguises. They’ll probably see right through your ability if you use it in front of them.”

“Duly noted, thank you,” Theodore said, growing a touch more somber. “I’ll do what I can to gather the information I need while staying safe. I know all of Terra is potentially depending on it.”

“There’s no potential about it,” Spur said, shaking his head. “If ten thousand powerful warriors come a knocking… That’s nearly triple our entire population, and an even worse comparison when just counting our own combat classes. It won’t be much of a fight. It will be a slaughter.”

“Then we better get started,” Theodore said, getting to his feet and giving them all one last bow. “I’ll grab some supplies from Bill before heading out. Plan on me sending a report back with one of my Scouts in three days’ time. If you don’t hear anything within a week, assume the worst.”

“Be careful,” Vin said, getting an appreciative smile from the Spy before he turned and left the council room. As soon as the door closed behind him, Spur let out a frustrated groan.

“Damn that Saboteur and her insane ideologies. This would have been the perfect situation to have her help with!”

“There was no helping it,” Phil said, his face expressionless. “She wouldn’t stop ranting about wiping out everything we’d built and tearing down Terra’s walls. When she tried to burn down the town hall with Linda inside it, we had to put her down.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be annoyed about it,” Spur snapped. “I swear, this stress is bad for my health. I’m going to keel over one of these days, mark my words.”

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“All we can do is follow Theodore’s lead and get to work,” Vin said, getting up himself. “I’m going to follow up with my friends and start scouting out the fragments keeping the rankers contained. They’re probably on the more dangerous side if they’re capable of halting so many powerful warriors in their tracks, so I doubt I’ll be spending too long in any one of them.”

“Good man,” Spur said, getting to his own feet and looking like he wanted to be in half a dozen different places at once. “There’s not a ton we can do on our end just yet, but we can at least try and ramp up production of our potions I suppose. Alice, how goes the progress on the prototype you and Myers are building?”

“Nearly done,” Alice grinned. “We should be able to test it out within the next day or so.”

“Well that’s something at least,” Spur said, clearly relieved at the good news.

While the other members of the council began going over things that could be done around Terra, Vin saw himself out and went off to find his friends. Lumel had already informed them that he was safe and sound, but he hadn’t actually seen any of them yet since getting back.

If he was going to go scout out a handful of almost certainly deadly fragments, he needed some back up.

“Vin!” Alka called out, throwing a poor Slayer trainee over her shoulder and onto the ground hard enough to knock the air out of them before turning to face him. Her glowing green eyes flared in her version of a smile, and she let out a loud laugh. “Glad to see you’re still in one piece!”

“Glad to see you’re enjoying having both arms back,” he grinned, his heart going out to the poor trainee curled up in a ball on the ground. “Though I bet your trainees aren’t quite so excited.”

“Eh, I used to smack ‘em around a bit with the blunt end of the dwarven warpick, so they can’t complain,” Alka said, switching over to ghost-speak. Vin knew that to anyone listening the sound of each of them moaning at one another in the language of the dead sounded weird as anything, but it was effective at keeping their conversation private. “Lumel gave us the broad strokes, but are you really okay? I can’t imagine being thrown in jail for four days was all that great.”

“I spent nearly the whole thing within Introspection working on a new spell to escape, so it really wasn’t all that bad,” he shrugged. “The food wasn’t fantastic and the bed sucked, but it wasn’t as if I was tortured or anything.”

“Well that’s a relief. Anyway, what’s up? Is this visit just to let me know you’re alright, or did you need any help? I’ve been whipping these maggots into shape for long enough that I was starting to get bored days ago. Please tell me you’re heading out again and want some company.”

“In fact, an unkillable Slayer is pretty much exactly what I need with the plan I have in store,” he admitted. “I need to travel through a couple of fragments deadly enough to stop thousands of powerful warriors in their tracks. It’s probably going to be rough.”

“Hell yeah, count me in!” Alka said, her eyes flaring even brighter in excitement. “Just let me know when we’re leaving!”

Promising he would, Vin headed off to his next target, finding Scule and Reginald over at Bill’s place. By now, Bill was famous enough that Witherson had built him his own laboratory, so he didn’t have to use the shared space in the Support Guild. The lab was locked, but things like that didn’t really matter to him anymore.

“Mage Hand,” he cast with a grin, feeling out the tumblers within the lock and opening the door faster than someone could have managed with an actual key. Not wanting to startle anyone who might be in the middle of playing with highly volatile materials, he decided to just open the door and call out into the building. “Scule? Reginald? You guys in here?”

It only took a minute or two of waiting before the petian and his rat walked over. Reginald immediately scurried up his clothes onto his shoulder and rubbed against his face lovingly, while Scule put his hands on his hips.

“Picked the lock on the door, did you? Is this some sort of unofficial Rogue pissing contest you’re starting? Because if it is, mark my words, I can piss with the best of them!”

“I’m just going to ignore that entirely,” Vin decided, shaking his head. “Long story short, Terra is in danger, and I need to scout out a few potentially dangerous fragments. Alka’s already in, but I wanted to check with you guys as well. Any interest?”

“Bill did just ask me to keep an eye out for potential new reagents…” Scule muttered to himself. “Not to mention the last time I let you run off without us you went and got yourself kidnapped. Screw it, I’m in. Just grab me when it’s time to go.”

Reginald stopped rubbing against his cheek long enough to squeak out his own confirmation, and Vin gave them both a warm smile.

“Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!”

“Bah, words are cheap!” Scule said, turning around and heading back into the lab. As Reginald jumped down to join him, the petian called out over his shoulder. “Thank me with gold or something actually useful!”

Shia was easy to find, as the Druid and Mary were hard at work in Mary’s not-so-secret secret garden. Mary gave him a small smile as he approached, but Shia hopped up and ran over to him, pulling him into a big hug.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” she said, laughing at the shocked look on his face as she stepped back. “What, you thought I wasn’t going to call you out on your actions?”

“Hey, it’s not like I wanted to get thrown in prison,” he argued, before laughing right alongside her. “I actually need to head back out and figure out exactly what fragments are surrounding the rankers who held me captive. It’s going to be dangerous, so I’m getting as much of the team together as I can.”

“Then count me in,” Shia said, turning to throw a look over at Mary. “You want me to leave Blossom with you?”

“I’m good, but thanks for the offer,” Mary smiled, waving her away. “I keep telling you I’m tougher than you think!”

“I know, I know,” Shia said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, just tell me when and where, got it?”

“Got it,” Vin nodded, his heart swelling with how quickly all his friends had accepted his request. Telling her it would be soon, he jogged back to the apartment, where he found Lumel reading in the common room. Her soft, lavender skin was still a bit strange to see, but the color was already beginning to grow on him. Clearing his throat, he began. “So I’m heading out again…”

“And I’m coming with you,” she said as if it were obvious, closing her book with a snap and raising her brow as if daring him to object. “I’m assuming the others had similar responses?”

“Yeah,” he said, realizing he was beaming without even noticing. “We’re all together again!”