168 Threads of Deceit
168 Threads of Deceit
So, how did we actually wipe out the entire Royal Guard?
It was simple, really. After I thinned their numbers with arrows that phased through stone, I spread my empathy through the cave and deepened their drowsiness until sleep clung to them like chains. Once they were lost to it, Amelia slipped inside. With her tiger claws and quiet steps, she slit every throat without a whisper. Meanwhile, I handled the ones still awake. If I wanted to, I could have let Amelia do all the heavy lifting while I simply kept them half-asleep. But where was the fun in that? Violence was something I had long since made peace with, especially when the enemy had it coming.
The Chief of the Royal Guard was the only one who truly surprised me. Abner had mentioned his gift, Eyes of Truth, as if it were some mysterious power that let him see through all things. It made sense why the old man kept up with Abner’s speed, swordsmanship, and even that touch of precognition Abner relied on. It was a shame I couldn’t absorb his experiences for myself. The man had been an Empath like me, only his gift had branched into a strange direction. Instead of extending his senses outward, he had refined his empathy until he could read intention and emotion from objects, weapons, and even paths of action. In another world, with different choices, he might’ve become a hybrid cape, something between an empath, precog, or telepath. His development told me a lot about what was possible.
Abner took a breath, cleaning his blade before turning to me. “What’s next?”
“We corner the prince,” I answered. “Leave nothing to chance.”
“I have an idea,” Amelia said. She didn’t look tired at all. Her tail flicked behind her with confident rhythm.
“Shoot,” I told her. “I’ve never been big on scheming.”
“Oh, schemes!” Seer shouted as he appeared from behind a cluster of rocks with absurd enthusiasm, the dragon woman trailing behind him with hesitant steps. “Let me hear it too! I adore schemes!”
Amelia explained, “We send Abner ahead of us. He’ll report our deaths. The same goes for the halberd guy and the prince’s attendant. He should tell them that we planned this betrayal for a long time, and he barely survived beating me, while Eclipse escaped down the mountain. Then we wait. When the nobles and the prince come here tomorrow and see the carnage we left behind, they won’t ignore it. They’ll question his highness. Once the confusion sets in, we strike!”
Seer grinned wide. “Brilliant! My idea was almost the same, but I’ll add something better. Abner will go, and I’ll join him. With me adding my testimony, his highness won’t suspect a thing. I can even help fabricate their deaths! It will be perfect!”
Seer jumped from the ledge with graceful ease, his boots flashing with a brief burst of wind. They behaved like a magic weapon, but shaped like footwear. The landing was silent, almost elegant for someone as chaotic as him. Of course, I’m not surprised to see he was keeping something like this from me.
He waved at us. “While Abner and I handle the performance, you three should loot the Royal Guard. They should have all sorts of nice things! Bring the valuables, the weapons, the fancy gear, and anything that could help you in the coming fight!”
Abner gave me one last look, determined despite the lingering pain in his eyes. “Then I’ll go ahead. I’ll make sure the story sticks.”
I nodded. “We’ll be ready.”
He gave a short bow, turned to follow Seer, and the two of them left.
“W-what about me?” the dragon woman asked, her voice trembling like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to speak.
“Of course you’re staying with us,” Amelia answered warmly. “But if you don’t have a name, what am I supposed to call you? I can’t just shout ‘you’ or ‘hey’ or ‘dragon’ every time I need you, right?”
“P-please call me Diane,” she whispered. “It’s a name I heard from a bard… about a princess.”
“Alright, Diane it is,” Amelia said with a grin. “Now, let’s loot.”
Before stepping into the cave again, I reached for the Chief of the Royal Guard’s sword. It felt heavy in a satisfying way, humming faintly with intent when my fingers closed around the hilt. I strapped the sheath to my waist and tossed aside my old blade without regret.
Inside, the air still smelled of blood and smoke. With my empathy dampening what was left of the death-thick atmosphere, we moved deeper in search of weapons. As I touched each blade, spear, or tool, I focused on the flickers of sensation that stood out from the mundane. Not everything here was enchanted, which made sense. It seemed magic weapons were rarer than gifted, and these people had collected whatever they could find.
Diane found clothes and dressed quickly, her red hair the only hint of her true form. Amelia and I kept gathering items until we had over twenty weapons that gave off some unique psychic signature. I could guess what most of them did, using a mix of telepathy, theory, and experience. After studying Abner’s sword earlier and watching how it interacted with his speed and precognition, I had a much clearer grasp of how this world’s “magic” technology functioned.
“This one is cool,” Amelia said as she held up a shiny sword studded with gemstones. “How much do you think it’d sell for?”
“I don’t know the price,” I said while feeling its emotional residue, “but I know what it does. It increases the user’s strength and speed over time by feeding on anger, but the downside is… it also makes the wielder progressively more aroused.”
Amelia immediately set the sword back down like it had burned her fingers.
For a backward world, their technology was extremely advanced. Our homeworld didn’t have anything like this. The closest comparison was Cape bio-weapons made from dead superhumans, but even those weren’t this versatile. These creations were real metal imbued with actual power.
“What about this?” Amelia asked again, holding what looked like an ordinary whetstone.
“Give it here.” I turned it over in my palm, reading the strange emotional echo trapped inside it. “A sharpening stone. But not normal. Weapons treated with this will leave wounds that bleed without stopping. The injuries won’t heal at all. Not naturally, not with gifts.”
“Whoa.” Amelia tossed the whetstone into our pile and picked up a bow with a set of decorated arrows. “And this?”
I felt a pang of envy as I held it. This belonged to the woman who died next to the Chief, the one with the arrow through her temple. The craftsmanship was excellent. For a moment, I considered keeping it, but my fighting style needed free hands. A bow this complex would only hold me back.
“It’s unique,” I said, tracing the wood. “Every part of it has a different power. Two from the bow, two from the arrows.”
Diane leaned in, curious. Amelia’s ears twitched with anticipation.
“The wooden body of the bow carries super strength, offering extreme durability that channels power into each shot. The bowstring is tied to super speed, giving every arrow far more force than usual. The arrowheads have intangibility, letting them pierce almost anything. And the shafts…” I paused, impressed at the layered intent. “Teleportation. The arrows can return to the quiver after being fired, or jump to a matching mark.”
“T-That’s insane,” Amelia said, eyes practically sparkling. “It feels like something you’d only see in an RPG…”
She wasn’t wrong. The bow was the sort of artifact you’d expect to pull from the final chest of a dungeon, complete with absurdly broken stats. I glanced around and found the matching quiver tucked behind a crate, sharing the same teleportation signature as the arrow shafts. I tossed it to her.
“Take it.”
“No way,” Amelia protested, clutching it awkwardly. “You’d use it better—”
“No, I wouldn’t,” I cut her off. “I already have intangibility. And if it’s range we’re talking about, I’ll perform better with a sniper rifle than anything.”
Plus, I now had the old Chief’s sword strapped to my waist. It was solid, potent, and perfectly paired with my powers. I looked through the pile of magic gear we’d collected and picked a dagger that instantly teleported back to its sheath when thrown, along with a ring that heightened situational awareness. Both felt comfortable and useful tools instead of burdens.
“How about Diane?” Amelia asked while adjusting the bowstring. “She needs something too.”
I shrugged. “Her transformation will get in the way. A weapon’s just extra weight.”
“I-I’d still like one,” Diane said softly. “I can’t transform that big anymore. His highness’ blessing vanished when you freed me.”
To prove it, she inhaled, and her body shifted. The transformation was smoother this time, her form stretching a head taller, muscles thickening beneath reddish scales. Her face sharpened into something older, fiercer, like a dragon-blooded warrior. Not a full dragon, but definitely stronger than a normal human.
“I can still breathe fire,” she said, a flicker of flame curling between her lips. “But… this is as far as I can go.”
I reached for the spear leaning against the wall. Its aura was one of the strongest in the chamber. It was simple and lethal. Perfect for someone who needed a straightforward tool.
“Here.” I handed it to her. “The shaft has telekinesis. Hit someone and it’ll send them flying. The spearhead has thermokinesis, heat manipulation. It gets so hot it’ll slice through armor, bone, whatever.”
Diane held it like it was sacred, running her hand along the haft before quickly pulling back from the warmth building in the metal.
“Th-thank you,” she whispered, shifting back into her human shape, scales fading like falling embers.
I nodded. “Good. Now both of you rest. I’ll keep watch.”
“I can keep watch,” Diane offered quietly.
Amelia immediately waved her off. “No, we rest. Sleep. Nick will wake us if anything happens. Besides…” She pointed at me lazily. “He doesn’t need sleep.”
She wasn’t wrong.
With minimal effort, we made a resting area in what used to be the cave’s kitchen far from the bodies and blood. I guided the two of them into sleep with a gentle empathic nudge, smoothing their emotional rhythms until they slipped into dreams.
Then the watching began.
To keep myself from getting bored, I practiced with the telekinetic sword. It hovered around me with obedient fluidity, spinning and swaying with a motion that felt almost alive. Since empathy and telepathy were already built into my mind, directing the sword felt natural, like moving a third arm.
The activation mechanism remained a mystery. It responded like a psychic construct but hummed with something distinctly non-psychic. Calling the technology “magic” wasn’t an exaggeration.
After that, I moved to the teleporting dagger, throwing it into the shadows, feeling the brief displacement as it blinked back into its sheath. It was fast, efficient, and perfect for ambushes.
As for the awareness ring… The moment I put it on, my empathic field spread like ripples in water. Every tiny motion, every breath, every heartbeat in the cave registered with startling clarity.
It was almost relaxing.
Hours passed. Stillness settled around the cave entrance.
Then, movement was registered to my psychic senses.
Presences. Many. A structured march followed by disorganized nobles bumbling behind them. I sensed the anxiety first, then the anger, the brittle pride, the fear hiding underneath. Their emotions hit my psyche like a crowd murmuring all at once.
I reached into their thoughts, just enough to listen.
As the presences drew closer, the nobles’ voices and emotions bled into my mind from anticipation, greed, arrogance… and a thin undercurrent of unease.
“The dragon should be asleep in its lair at this hour, good, good…”
“Hah! Imagine the look on the king’s supporters when his highness returns with the beast’s head!”
“Our scouts were useless. How could they fail to map the inner layout of a simple cave?”
“Perhaps they were too frightened to enter deeper?”
“Nonsense. A proper scout forces himself to look. Bah… if I’d known the information was so thin, I would have brought my personal oracle.”
“Relax. Even without details, it’s only one dragon. With our numbers, we’ll overwhelm it.”
“Still… why didn’t the scouts report signs of movement? Or feeding? Dragons are noisy creatures. Or so, that’s how they myth goes.”
“Don’t overthink it. The beast is probably conserving strength.”
“Or waiting to ambush us…”
“Quiet! Do not spout cowardice in front of his highness.”
“Cowardice? I call it prudence. Nothing about this smells right.”
“Enough. The prince is near, so straighten your posture.”
“Hmph. Whether the scouts failed or not, today we slay a dragon. Prepare yourselves.”
Excitement crackled among them, filled with visions of fame, wealth, and glory, but beneath it pulsed the subtle trembling of people about to walk into darkness without a full map of what lurked within.
Amelia stirred beside me. “Is it time?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s time.”
Diane rose, gripping her spear with both hands. “I shall save you, brother. What do we do?”
I stood and listened to the approaching footsteps echoing faintly down the cavern.
“Not yet,” I said. “We wait just a bit more.”
I offered a thin smile.
“For now… stay put and warm up.”