Monster Girl Uprising

Maia looked out the back of the carriage, trying to judge the time from the sky. It was an hour or two after sunset, but they couldn’t move until it was well into night and almost everyone was asleep.

“Can we go over the plan one more time?” Minerva asked anxiously.

“Of course.” Maia said, giving her a reassuring smile. “According to the intel Amy got from town, they are here, so we’re proceeding with plan A; in the middle of the night, we’re going to sneak up to the walls of your castle. Then, Galiena will take you up the wall, and me and Alexis will follow once she’s signaled that the path is clear. We’ll sneak our way into your parents’ chambers, where I’ll cure them and, hopefully, the rest of the province should follow.

“We’ll use this place as our main base of operations until we can take a more defensible position, which is where we’ll make the capital. From there we’ll focus on conquering this country before moving to the others on this side of the land bridge and then the rest of the world. That sound about right, everyone?”

“That’s about what I recall, but I was hoping to get more into detail about today.” Minerva said. “We can deal with the rest once we’re through here.”

“Oh.” Maia said, doing her best to hide her embarrassment like she had been taught. “Well, once we’re over the wall, the idea is to get into your parents’ room as quickly as possible. Ideally, they’ve left their windows open and I can just fly up and cure them. But, since it’s likely they’re extra vigilant after we broke you out of their mansion a few months ago, we’re planning on needing to sneak up to their rooms directly, and I have a powerful sleep magic tome that I’m planning to use liberally.

“If we do get caught, we’ll begin fighting our way up to your parents. If that happens, everyone else is going to take down the guards on the walls and make sure reinforcements don’t come in from the city itself. Hopefully that won’t happen, but we can’t just assume everything will go our way.”

“I understand.” Minerva said. “And, once again, thank you for indulging me and doing this first.”

“Well, you were right; it makes sense strategically, and there’s no reason for us to avoid starting here.” Maia said. “And, well…it feels right given what happened between you and them.”

After Galiena and her group had returned with the people from Maia’s village and Sylvie’s soldiers, Galiena had confirmed that the Deepwood was almost certainly unsafe for living in during the war. After…perhaps, but it was another way for Katrina to influence people, and Katrina certainly wouldn’t be above using her connection with it to make attempts on Maia’s life if Maia chose to live there after the war.

Of course, Katrina could always just kill Maia outright at any time, but Maia was coming to understand that she wouldn’t. Not out of any sense of morality, Katrina was obviously a complete nutcase and had flat out said that she didn’t consider mortals people, but because it’d be boring. Maia was to her as a dog was to someone who frequented a dog fighting ring; a source of twisted and perverse pleasure. There wouldn’t be any fun in killing the dog outside of the ring, it would be much more exciting to send it against progressively stronger and stronger opponents until it eventually couldn’t manage.

In essence, Maia would never be able to live in her home again, because it’d put her at risk of dying in a way that Katrina’s self-made rules would deem allowable. And, while it was nice that she wouldn’t have to live under the worry of normal Deepwood threats, in a weird way she would almost rather live that life than live in safety if it meant being able to live where she had her whole life. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be normal threats that would be coming after her. So, she had resigned herself to making a new home elsewhere.

“Alexis, how long until we leave?” Minerva asked.

“According to the timer I set, we have two hours to go.” Alexis said. “I’ll let you know when we’re thirty minutes out and it’s time to start moving towards the castle.”

Alexis’s body had turned out to have quite a few incredibly handy features that made operations much, much easier. For one, she had an innate grasp of the exact time, something even fancy noble watches couldn’t boast, which allowed her to perform maneuvers that required incredibly precise timing. And that didn’t get into the “timers” she could set that were completely automatic; when a certain time came, she would instantly get notified, even waking her up if she was asleep.

And she had a “camera” system which allowed her to capture sensory data, such as pictures and “videos” and store it for later study. There was a limited amount she could store at once, but she was also capable of conjuring up a magical vision of what was inside, allowing others to see and hear it as well. This had turned out to be incredibly useful for analyzing sparring matches or for making copies of books so she could read them while someone else had the physical book.

And that was only scratching the surface of what she could do. She had all sorts of little tricks built into her, from hidden compartments in her body to some sort of propulsion system that allowed for limited flight. The drawback of it all was that, physically speaking, she never truly excelled in any one category.

She was weaker than Elise, slower than Violet, less durable than Emily, and far less maneuverable in the air than Sylvie or Maia. She could temporarily reach levels that matched the others, but that would require her to spend Mana, and that recovered very slowly. Still, it meant that she was applicable in basically any situation, and Maia was glad to have her combat prowess with them for this infiltration.

Maia turned her attention back to the textbook she was reading. It was both a way to keep herself from psyching herself out before the mission and an attempt to cram as much knowledge into her brain as she could before it became relevant. Her lesson progress had slowed down now that she was getting into more and more advanced material, but she was doing her best to not get discouraged and carry on.

Soon enough, the carriage started moving and they were on their way. Maia didn’t put her book away until the walls were in sight, at which point she turned her focus to scanning the outside for any sign that they had been noticed. Fortunately, it seemed that they had gone undetected; there were no cries of alarm, and the walls didn’t even have any lights that would be indicative of patrolling guards.

Galiena grabbed a kitten-form Minerva and began to scale the walls. Galiena didn’t climb like Maia had heard she climbed; instead of gouging out footholds in the wall with her bones, a wide sheet of bone erupted from her, gently pressing against the wall before condensing down to a single point, anchoring herself on an already-existing foothold as another sheet of bone repeated the process.

It ended up looking like Galiena was being hoisted rather than she was climbing, but the method was undeniably effective, being both quiet and quick. She effortlessly reached the top of the wall and pushed herself over, then after a moment leaned over and motioned for Maia and Alexis to join her. They followed her up, Maia with flight and Alexis with her “jets”, then leapt down and began sneaking up to the keep proper. “How should we check the balcony?” Maia asked. “Should I fly up since there don’t seem to be many guards?”

“No.” Galiena replied. “I will do it, it will make less noise.”

Maia nodded in assent, and once the four of them reached the area under the balcony Minerva and Alexis said belonged to Minerva’s parents’ chambers Galiena swiftly ascended to the balcony, then, after a few moments more, lowered herself down a story or two on a rope of bone, then let herself drop to the ground.

“Empty, but with signs of recent use.” She reported. “It is possible that they are still awake indulging themselves. Minerva, Alexis, are there dungeons or torture chambers in this keep?”

“Yes.” Minerva’s voice hissed from Galiena’s skirt pocket. “You don’t think they’re…”

“It’s a possibility.” Galiena replied. “We know they are here, and unless they are working this late, which is very rare for the cursed, it seems the most logical option. If they were indulging themselves in more tame play, they would be in their chambers.”

“I’ll lead the way.” Alexis said, a portion of her arm popping up and revealing a small hollow with a key inside. She took it, then closed her arm and began striding towards the nearest door. “Let’s go.”

The group followed, and, sure enough, Alexis’s key worked on the door. It was a small relief; the locks were magical and thus very hard to pick, and so they had gambled that Minerva’s parents wouldn’t change their locks after Alexis’s disappearance. But, even if they had, it wouldn’t have spelled the end for the operation; there were a myriad of other ways into the building, this was just the easiest.

They crept through the halls warily, and twice Maia was able to use the sleep spell she had brought on guards or servants and proceed unseen, but their luck ran out as they neared the dungeons; four guards stood watch over the entrance, two on either side, and Maia’s spell didn’t target a wide enough area to hit more than two. Fortunately, two was all that was needed; Maia shared a look with Alexis and Galiena, pointed to herself then motioned at the left side of the door, then waited for their nods of understanding before casting the spell.

The moment she did, Alexis and Galiena burst out of their hiding spot down a corner, and rushed towards the two awake guards at top speed, silencing their cries after a momentary struggle. But, swift as that takedown was, they had almost certainly alerted someone, so the group pushed its way into the dungeons and began to pick up the pace.

As Alexis steered them through the dungeons and towards, the sound of faint screaming began growing more and more audible, and a pit began to grow in Maia’s stomach. She wasn’t sure what she was going to find in…whatever room this was happening in, but it almost certainly wasn’t going to be pretty.

Eventually, they reached a large, sturdy-looking door that seemed to be where the screams were coming from. As they stopped to allow Alexis to peer through the iron-barred window near the top of the door, Minerva wriggled her way out of Galiena’s apron. She returned to her humanoid form, looking at the door with a determined expression. “Don’t try to tell me not to look.” She whispered firmly. “I’ve seen worse and I’m not going to look away now, not when my parents are involved.”

Maia nodded. “Alright.”

“It’s them, and the door’s unlocked.” Alexis confirmed, stepping aside. “When you’re ready, go.”

Maia nodded, then pushed open the door and rushed into the room. She cast her eyes about for a moment to make sure there were no guards lying in wait, then dashed towards the center of the room, where two people that must have been Minerva’s parents were standing.

Minerva’s mother rallied quickly, brandishing a bloody sword and slashing out at Maia, but Maia was easily able to dodge out of the way, step into her reach, and begin the cure. Her husband threw himself to the side and reached for some sort of whip, but Alexis stepped in his way and restrained him.

“Who are you people?!” He demanded. “What have you done to my wife?!”

Maia ignored his words and started curing him, then turned her attention to the table Minerva’s parents had been standing near. There was a man strapped to it, cuts all over his body and ropes tied to each of his limbs stretching him out in a distinctly unpleasant-looking way. But, as Maia watched, the wounds began to close themselves as the cure began to take effect.

“I recognize him.” Alexis said, slashing the ropes with her sword. “He’s a criminal I caught some months ago, and he’s going to be a problem when he wakes up.”

“Then why’d you free him?” Maia asked.

“I don’t know how the cure is going to interact with the rack, and I don’t want to find out.” Alexis replied, hoisting the man up and heading off towards the room’s entrance. “I’m going to take him back to his cell.”

“We should be wary.” Galiena said. “Attempted prison breaks are not uncommon in situations such as this.”

“These dungeons should be fine, they’ve been specially reinforced to deal with magic in case of someone sneaking in small tomes somehow or even outside collaborators trying to break people free.” Minerva said. “It’s other, less secure, prisons we’ll have to worry about.”

Minerva looked down at her parents with a complicated expression. “I don’t think they were the type to try something like this before.”

“They likely were not. I would assume either they were seeking to vent frustrations or were trying new things.” Galiena said. “Either way, I would not think too deeply on it.”

Minerva bent down and picked up her mother. “Would you mind helping me move these two?” She asked. “I don’t want our reunion to be in some nasty torture chamber.”

Maia nodded, grabbing Minerva’s father. “Where to?” She asked.

“I don’t think we’ll have time to bring them to their chambers, we’ll take them to one of the sitting rooms instead.” Minerva replied, turning and heading out of the room. “Galiena, will you let Alexis know that we’ll be in the nearest sitting room? She’ll know where it is.”

“Perhaps Alexis and I should focus on ensuring that there are absolutely no escapees here.” Galiena suggested. “I know you are confident, but I believe it better to be safe than sorry.”

“I think that’s for the best.” Maia said, following Minerva out of the room. “And I think I’ll give you some privacy once we get there; I don’t want to intrude.”

“No.” Minerva said. “The guards will be on high alert after waking up, and they’ll probably try to imprison you if they see you. You just stay in the corner of the room so I can explain if anyone tries to take you away. And Galiena will be fine if she’s with Alexis, just as long as someone affiliated with the house is here.”

“Actually, maybe I should go let everyone else know we succeeded and have them bring the carriage around.” Maia mused.

Minerva thought on that for a moment. “No, there won’t be enough time before everyone wakes up. Just stay with me and give them a short explanation after they wake up. We can have them talk to the guards and explain the situation, and then you can go let everyone else know.”

“Alright.” Maia said. “We’ll do that, then. We should hurry, though; there’s a possibility these two will become too cumbersome to carry if we’re too slow.” And with that they fell into silence, picking up the pace as they transported Minerva’s parents to where they would finally get a proper reunion with their daughter.