Chapter 74: The Covert War Begins
The banner was set to expire in just eight hours.
Dominic sat in the manor's study, the system interface flickering softly before him. Memories from the past five days swirled in his mind: the tense auction, the glamorous ball, Vora's words, the shimmering fountain, and the shocking revelations.
Across the room, Theresa was already ready for the day, her silk scarf elegantly draped around her neck. Wobbly rested on the windowsill, its glow faint but patient, observing the busy street below. The rest of the household was beginning to wake.
He had been procrastinating, knowing the math was straightforward: three pulls at five hundred tokens each. After this, he'd have just four hundred and five tokens remaining, nearly all he'd earned since the Trials, lost to chance.
Despite everything, he pulled anyway.
First pull. The rift tore open violently, spitting out a small blue vial before vanishing into thin air. A B-rank mana restoration potion, definitely useful, but not what he was after.
Second pull. Another rift. This time, a simple ring emerged, minor protection, A-rank. He pocketed it without a word, eyes narrowing.
Third pull. The rift trembled, releasing a small grey stone that pulsed once before fading to darkness. The system classified it as a low-grade defensive charm. Worthless.
```
[Pity Counter: 5/40]
[GT Tokens Remaining: 405]
[Note: The odds were never in your favor. Save for something better.]
```
Dominic closed the interface, but the banner remained, lingering and waiting. It was about to expire. With only four hundred tokens left, he knew he didn't have enough for another pull, even if he had wanted one.
Theresa watched him from across the room. "Nothing?"
"Nothing that matters."
She crossed to him and pressed a hand to his shoulder. "Then we win with what we have."
The plan came together over breakfast.
"We need proof," Dominic said. "Anything that ties Harwick to the Church. Florence, you know the safe house best. Can we get in clean?"
"Clean?" Florence leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. "Most of the building is warded. Traps at every door; I only got in successfully because I know my way around them. But I saw a back window on the upper floor, narrow, but workable if someone's small enough."
"I'll handle the wards," Theresa said. "I can weave through them without triggering the alarms."
"Then we go now, while the city's still waking." Dominic turned to Lysandra. "You'll take the carriage. The watchers outside will follow. Lead them out of the capital, somewhere secluded."
Lysandra's jaw tightened, but she nodded. "And when they catch up?"
"Make sure they don't follow us again."
Florence grinned. "He means kill them."
The carriage waited in the courtyard, its dark wood gleaming under the morning light. Dominic, Florence, Theresa, and Lysandra climbed in together. To anyone watching, the entire household was departing.
Inside the carriage, Theresa's hands darted swiftly, executing low, precise gestures. The air around them hummed with change, thickening then softening, not silent, but subtly muted. The faint glow of amplified low-level invisibility magic cloaked Theresa, Dominic, and Florence, weaving an invisible covering around them.
"Now," she whispered.
Dominic and Florence slipped out the opposite door before the carriage fully turned. Theresa followed. The door closed silently behind them. To the watchers, the carriage still held everyone. It moved through the gates and into the street, Lysandra alone inside, her rods resting across her lap, her expression cold.
The carriage disappeared around the corner, the watchers trailing it like hounds.
The safe house was quiet.
Florence had chosen well. The back window was narrow but unwarded, a gap in the building's defenses, hidden behind a stack of old crates. Theresa's magic dissolved the lock without a sound. They slipped inside.
The apartment was clean. Too clean. A front room with a table and two chairs. A kitchen with nothing in the cupboards. A bedroom with a bare mattress. No personal effects. No papers. No signs of life.
"The basement," Theresa murmured, her eyes distant. "There's a false floor in the pantry. A warded hatch."
Florence stayed outside, circling the block, her senses stretched wide. Through the bond, Dominic felt her alertness like a second heartbeat.
The hatch opened on a narrow staircase. Dominic went first, sword drawn. Theresa followed, her detection ward already mapping the space below.
The basement was not clean.
Crates of weapons lined the walls: swords, spears, blasting rods—explosives packed in wax-sealed barrels. Documents stacked on a rough wooden table, some burned, some still wet with ink. Maps of the capital with routes marked in red—a list of names.
Dominic pulled out the recording stone, a small crystal sphere he'd brought with him from Caldmore. He activated it with a touch, and it began to glow faintly, capturing everything.
Theresa moved through the room, her hands flickering with spells as she scanned for traps. "These documents are recent. Shipping manifests. Guard rotations. Payment records." She picked up a folded letter, her eyes narrowing. "This one is different."
She read it, then handed it to Dominic.
The letter was folded once, the paper crisp and unstained, as if it had been written recently and hidden quickly. The handwriting was neat but rushed.
The package is secured at the Weary Traveler, two miles past the north gate. She hasn't given trouble. The family is settled in as instructed—payment on completion, as agreed.
No loose ends. The matter will resolve itself once she performs.
Awaiting further instruction.
There was no signature. No seal. Just a faint watermark in the corner, a circle with an eye at its center. Dominic had seen it only once before, in the basement's other documents.
He passed the letter to Theresa.
"The witness is being held outside the capital," he said. "The Weary Traveler. North Gate Road."
"It also read as if it might have a hostage situation involved."
"Then we w have to get to her tonight."
"Agreed, but first, we need to get out of here." Theresa's gaze snapped to the ceiling. "Someone's coming."
"Yeah, Florence signaled as well."
A muffled thump came from behind them.
Dominic spun. Wobbly sat in the corner, its glow spiking erratically, its body vibrating with a strange intensity. Half of an explosive barrel was gone. The creature's surface rippled, green and gold, and a faint, contained bang echoed from inside it.
"Wobbly," Dominic whispered. "What did you—"
The building stirred. Footsteps, far above.
Theresa's hands were already moving. "Invisibility, now. We need to leave."
Dominic grabbed the recording stone and stuffed the letter into his coat. Wobbly bounced unsteadily, its glow still flickering. They slipped up the stairs just as the front door opened and four men in dark cloaks stepped inside.
The agents searched the apartment. They never saw Dominic, Theresa, or Wobbly slip through the back window and vanish into the waking city.
[Hidden Quest Progress: The Capital's Game]
[Objective: Determine why House Harwick is interested in the tenth floor.]
[Progress: 70%]
[New information: The Church of the Eternal Will's operations are deeper than expected. Evidence gathered.]
[Remaining: Identify the nature of the sealed entity and the Church's ultimate objective.]
***
Night fell, and the city grew cold.
Florence and Dominic moved through the streets toward the north gate, the letter's location burning in Dominic's mind. A rundown inn called the Weary Traveler. They found it a few minutes before midnight.
"Third floor, west window," Florence murmured. "One occupant. Four guards in the hall."
Dominic nodded. They went in through the roof.
The room was small, cramped, and cold. The woman on the bed looked up when they slipped through the window, her dark hair escaping a loose braid, her eyes wide but too tired to truly be surprised. She didn't scream. She just stared.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
"Someone who might be able to help you," Dominic said softly. "What's your name?"
She hesitated, her hands nervously twisting in her lap. "Tobin. Tobin Varn."
"Tobin, we found a place in the capital tonight with a letter. It mentioned a woman being held there, her family 'settled in as instructed.' Is that you?"
Her breath caught, and she didn't answer, but her face revealed everything.
"We're not here to hurt you," Dominic assured her. "We want to uncover what house Harwick is forcing you to do and help you."
For a long moment, she remained silent, the weight of her fear holding her captive. Then, in a trembling voice, she finally revealed, "They took my family." Her whisper was fragile, almost drowned out by emotion. "My mother, my father, my little sister. They're being held at the Harwick estate. If I don't testify as they demand, they'll kill them."
"What exactly do they want you to say?"
She took a breath, steeling herself. "That I was there when the floor ten raid was filed, that I saw the guild records. That Frank Castle manipulated the documents, erased the names of those who were part of the expedition. That I overheard Dominic Kane and Frank Castle making a deal." She shook her head slowly. "They gave me a script, a lie to parrot, that Kane was never a major player on that raid, that the guild's cover-up was corruption, abuse of power."
Dominic was silent, absorbing her words. Then he asked softly, "What if I told you I'll rescue your family? All I need is for you to tell the truth about what Harwick has done to you. Will you help me?"
Tobin's eyes snapped to his. "How can I trust you?"
"You can't. Not yet." He met her gaze. "But I'm giving you a way out. If my people don't reach your family in time, if you don't get the signal, then you go ahead with Harwick's plan. I won't blame you. But if the signal comes, you tell the truth. You tell them what Harwick did to you. And you let the Crown protect you."
She stared at him. Something shifted in her face, not hope, but something close. "You'd let me do that? Go along with their plan if it falls through?"
"If it means keeping your family alive? Yes." Dominic's voice was firm. "I'm not asking you to be a hero. I'm asking you to be brave if the moment comes. That's all."
Tobin looked at the window, then back at him. Her hands were shaking. "How will I know the signal?"
"You'll know." He stood. "Stay quiet. Don't tell anyone we were here. And when the time comes, remember, you're not alone in this."
Florence moved toward the window, her hand on her blade as the sound of boots echoed from the hall. "Guards," she murmured.
"Go," Tobin whispered. "Please."
The cold air bit at their faces as they dropped into the shadows outside. In the distance, the lights of the capital gleamed against the dark sky.
The system pulsed quietly.
```
[Quest Progress: The Witness]
[Objective Complete: Witness identified — Tobin Varn.]
[Reward: 100 GT Tokens]
[Current GT Tokens: 505]
[Bonus Pending: Prevent false testimony at the Tribunal.]
[Bonus Reward: 75 GT Tokens]
[Time Remaining: 2 days]
```
***
They got home just before dawn. Lysandra was already there, her clothes singed, her expression hard. She'd led the pursuers outside the capital, ambushed them in a narrow ravine, and killed some and crippled others. The crippled ones had bitten down on poison capsules before she could question them. The dead ones had exploded, their bodies turned into weapons to erase evidence. She'd barely escaped the blast radius.
"You're hurt," Florence said.
"It's nothing serious." Lysandra pulled her tunic aside to show an angry red mark on her shoulder. "The explosion caught me at the edge. Lady Theresa already applied ointment on it."
Dominic studied her singed clothes and the exhaustion shadowing her eyes. "Get some rest. You've done enough," he urged gently.
She shook her head stubbornly. "I'll rest when this is over."
He ruffled her hair with a warm smile, and Lysandra leaned into the touch.
Theresa sat at the table, the recording stone glowing softly in the dim light. "The documents are damning: payments, orders, troop movements, all linked to Harwick. But we need more. We have to reach the Crown."
"Tomorrow," Dominic said. "First, we need to tell Frank about Tobin's family."
"I'll contact him in the morning." Theresa's hand found his.
They spent the rest of the night planning.