Chapter 102: Espionage

The silence around the camp refused to die.

Paulina remained thoughtful, her ears occasionally twitching while her subdued tail rested against the ground behind her.

Julia looked considerably less comfortable, reluctance written across her expression as though someone had placed an unpleasant contract before her and told her to sign immediately.

Eunice appeared the most composed of the three, but even she was clearly hesitant.

All for reasons that belonged entirely to themselves.

Damian watched them for a while before releasing a quiet sigh, feeling that this was getting ridiculous!

"Look, you guys are clearly not ready for this, so let’s not bring it up again until you are."

Three heads rose.

Paulina blinked, Julia looked surprised, and Eunice’s shoulders visibly loosened.

Relief bloomed in their hearts as none of them had actually wanted to make a life-altering decision while sitting around a campfire in the middle of Moonveil Forest at some ungodly hour after spending the entire day slaughtering Redcaps.

That would be insane!

Unfortunately, relief was not the only thing they felt, because the moment Damian removed the pressure, another emotion quietly took its place.

Disappointment.

The mystery surrounding Damian remained and his absurd growth remained unexplained.

His powers, strange abilities, impossible products and everything else continued sitting behind a locked door they were now fully aware existed.

Worse still, the ambiguity surrounding their own feelings had not disappeared either.

Paulina could still refuse to think too deeply about why Damian’s opinion of her mattered so much.

Julia could still insist that romance was troublesome nonsense while somehow becoming bright red whenever Damian aimed that nonsense directly at her.

Eunice could still hide behind discipline, duty and an oath she had taken long before meeting a certain irritating Otherworlder.

Nothing had been solved, but had merely been postponed.

Damian noticed their strange expressions but wisely chose not to investigate.

Then his gaze shifted to the halfling.

"And as for you..."

Janet yelped.

The halfling immediately turned her head away, apparently fascinated by a nearby patch of dirt.

Damian narrowed his eyes.

"Hmph! I’ll deal with you later. For now, let’s get some rest and finish the tasks the guild assigned us. We can sort out all this drama afterward."

Janet nodded so quickly her hair bounced.

"Wonderful idea!"

"Don’t sound so relieved."

"I’m not relieved!"

"You look relieved."

"I’m naturally cheerful!"

Damian snorted and stood.

"I’m off to sleep."

He returned toward his tent without another word while the other four remained seated for several seconds after he disappeared beneath the flap.

Paulina looked at Eunice, Eunice looked toward Julia, and Julia noticed both of them looking and immediately frowned.

"What?"

Neither answered.

Janet slowly raised one hand.

"Group hug?"

Three murderous gazes landed upon her.

"...Sheesh, goodnight then."

The halfling retreated.

One after another, the Four Valkyries returned to their tents.

The Warning Array remained active around them, its invisible perimeter ensuring that any hostile creature attempting to enter their campsite would immediately trigger an alarm.

They should have slept wonderfully, but they did not.

Paulina rolled onto one side in her bedroll, then the other.

Her tail thumped once against the coverings before she caught it and held it still.

Julia spent almost twenty minutes staring at the roof of her tent while mentally insisting that there was nothing to think about, which naturally resulted in her thinking about absolutely nothing else.

Eunice folded her hands over her stomach and quietly recited part of an evening prayer before realizing she had repeated the same verse three times without processing a single word.

Even Janet, whose worldview had already been violently assaulted by hundreds of Experience Points, found herself lying awake.

Four women of different races, different backgrounds, and very different understandings of relationships, duty, family and freedom.

Yet as the night deepened around Moonveil Forest, each eventually found herself agonizing over exactly the same question.

How...

Did they actually feel about Damian Baines?

............

Elsewhere within Moonveil Forest, a soft melody drifted through the darkness.

Ravelhorn the Reveler sat upon the same ancient stump he had favored for years, one leg folded beneath him while his fingers idly plucked the strings of a wooden lute.

The melody was lazy and almost cheerful.

Which would have been considerably less unsettling if its musician had not ordered three villages burned several weeks earlier.

Silver-violet moonlight filtered through the trees surrounding the clearing.

At Ravelhorn’s heel rested the Moonfang Wolf, its large white body stretched across the moss as though sleeping peacefully.

Only the occasional twitch of one ear suggested otherwise.

The Satyr continued playing, then leaves rustled at the edge of the clearing.

Ravelhorn did not look up.

Three white tails appeared first.

A graceful fox stepped between the trees, her fur so pale that it almost reflected the false moonlight surrounding her. Two silver-eyed moths rested delicately upon either ear, their wings opening and closing in perfect silence.

She approached Ravelhorn before sitting elegantly several paces away.

"Good evening, Ravelhorn."

Her voice was soft and lovely, possessing the clear sweetness of a young woman just entering adulthood.

Ravelhorn’s fingers continued moving across the lute.

"You’re late, Mirelle."

The three-tailed fox’s ears tilted backward.

"I had much to observe."

"Hm."

"And the Humans have finally begun moving in force."

That earned slightly more attention, but only slightly.

Ravelhorn changed chords.

"Naturally."

Mirelle continued.

"They entered through several southern routes shortly after midday. Adventurers form the majority, although I saw Mages, temple servants, Rangers, noble soldiers and several groups whose markings I did not recognize."

"Merchants?"

"Behind them."

Ravelhorn snorted. "Of course."

Mirelle’s tails swayed.

"They have wagons, mobile healing stations, communication crystals, temporary warding equipment and prepared camps. The first groups are clearing monster territories ahead of the larger force."

Ravelhorn finally smiled, but it wasn’t particularly warm.

"Humans are remarkably predictable creatures."

Mirelle looked at him.

"You sound pleased."

"I am."

His fingers continued their lazy song.

"They’ve done exactly what fear always makes them do. Concentrate their forces, establish roads, clear dangerous territory, then move civilians away from the outer forest and pour armed bodies toward the locations they believe matter most."

He chuckled.

"Burn several settlements and suddenly kings, merchants, priests and hired killers who could barely agree on the price of wheat discover the beauty of cooperation."

Mirelle’s expression remained neutral.

"The operation is larger than before."

"It needed to be."

"And they intend to kill you."

"They’ve intended that for some time."

"They would also capture you, if possible."

That made Ravelhorn laugh.

"How flattering!"

He plucked several brighter notes from the lute.

"Let them clear the southern forest. Let them kill Redcaps, Moonwood Ents, Hags and Haglets, Goblins and every other territorial nuisance between here and Blackroot Den. Every hour they spend organizing their grand extermination is another hour spent walking exactly where we expected them to walk."

Mirelle’s ears twitched. "So everything remains according to plan?"

"For now." Ravelhorn admitted while lazily strumming his lute.

There was enough emphasis upon the final two words that Mirelle remained silent.

Ravelhorn continued playing and several seconds passed.

Then, the White Fox spoke again.

"There was this one group."

His fingers paused for the briefest moment before continuing.

"Hm?"

Mirelle hesitated. "Among the forward teams."

Ravelhorn sighed dramatically.

"Please don’t tell me you spent half the day stalking an attractive Ranger again."

Mirelle’s fur bristled.

"I did that once!"

"Three times."

"They were suspicious!"

"They were pretty."

"That is irrelevant!"

Ravelhorn grinned.

"Of course."

Mirelle huffed and reorganized herself with considerable dignity.

"There was one party I could not help observing longer than intended."

Now Ravelhorn finally glanced down.

"Oh?"

"Four women and one Human man."

Ravelhorn immediately rolled his eyes.

"Mirelle, if you’re about to regale me with the romantic adventures of one Human and his soon-to-be harem, please remember that I possess centuries of life experience and substantially better stories."

The white fox stared at him.

"That is not why I watched them."

Something about her tone removed the humor.

Ravelhorn’s smile faded slightly.

Mirelle continued.

"The women were powerful. One was a Wolf Beastwoman who fought barehanded against Redcaps and moved quickly enough to resemble short-range displacement. One was an Elven Ranger whose arrows carried Wind and Lightning. Another was a Halfling Rogue who used shadow movement, explosives and traps. The final woman was a Priestess capable of rapidly layering blessings across the entire group."

Ravelhorn’s expression remained unimpressed. "They are merely extremely competent Adventurers."

"Very much so."

"But hardly remarkable enough for you to spend hours watching them."

"No."

Mirelle slowly looked toward the darkness beyond the clearing.

"It was the man."

Ravelhorn’s fingers changed position over the lute.

"What about him?"

"I couldn’t read him."

The music stopped for half a second, then resumed.

Ravelhorn’s eyes narrowed.

"Explain."

Mirelle lowered her head slightly.

"I used <Fey Insight>."

That was different, very different.

Among ordinary mortals, Insight was little more than trained intuition.

A skilled Adventurer with a strong Wisdom Attribute and the appropriate Specialization could watch someone’s posture, eyes, breathing, speech and emotional reactions, then infer whether they were frightened, lying, hostile or concealing something.

Useful, but mundane.

The Fey had stranger versions.

Certain blessings could take that intuitive awareness and push it beyond normal observation.

Ravelhorn looked directly at Mirelle.

"Your Insight sees through appearances, intent, emotions, and life essence. Sometimes you should be able to see even the vague direction from which a threat originates before your conscious mind understands why."

Mirelle nodded. "Yes, that’s correct."

"And your Moon-Sight?"

"Nothing from that as well." Mirelle admitted worriedly.

Ravelhorn stopped playing properly this time.

Mirelle’s voice grew quieter.

"I looked directly at him and received almost no meaningful impression. I could see the Human. I could hear him. I watched him speak, walk and interact with the women normally."

Her tails curled closer around her body.

"But the moment I attempted to look beneath that surface, there was..."

She searched for the correct word.

"Resistance?"

"No."

"Interference?"

"No."

Mirelle’s pupils narrowed. "Absence."

That made Ravelhorn sit straighter.

Mirelle swallowed.

"It was like trying to examine something while instinct itself kept sliding away from the answer. I could tell there was a man there. I could tell he was dangerous. But I could not judge how dangerous, why he felt dangerous, what his life essence truly represented or what lay beneath the things he willingly displayed."

Ravelhorn’s expression became serious.

Mirelle possessed several perception blessings acquired across a very long life.

Indeed, she was not omniscient, far from it.

Powerful concealment could fool her.

Ancient creatures could overwhelm her senses.

Certain protections blocked magical observation directly.

But ordinary Humans?

Even talented ones?

Mirelle could usually learn ’something’ at the very least.

The fact that she couldn’t was worth remembering.

"If even you couldn’t see through him... then perhaps this Human is special after all." Ravelhorn murmured.

Mirelle’s ears flattened. "That isn’t even the strange part."

Ravelhorn slowly looked at her.

"...There’s more?"

For the first time since entering the clearing, Mirelle’s voice cracked from genuine disbelief.

"One of the women entered his tent tonight."

Ravelhorn stared at her speechlessly as Mirelle continued.

"She removed part of her armor first and—"

"Mirelle."

"—then climbed into his bedroll and laid across his—"

"Mirelle."

"—chest."

"Mirelle, I swear by every dead Moonwell, if you’re about to give me a detailed description of two Humans mating—"

"They didn’t!"

Ravelhorn stopped.

Mirelle looked offended. "Nothing like that happened!"

"Then why in all realms are you telling me how she entered his bed?"

"Because of what happened afterward!"

The white wolf beside Ravelhorn opened one eye.

Mirelle took a breath. "I felt the man give her something."

Ravelhorn’s brow furrowed.

"Poison?"

"No."

"A potion?"

"I don’t know."

Mirelle’s tails had become completely still.

"But her life essence changed."

Ravelhorn blinked.

Mirelle continued slowly, as though saying the words again might somehow make them less absurd.

"At first she was clearly within the Journeyman range, strong for that stage, but nothing unusual. Then she swallowed whatever he gave her."

Mirelle’s claws dug lightly into the moss.

"And her life essence rose."

Ravelhorn’s eyes narrowed.

"How much?"

"Rapidly."

"Define rapidly."

"...again."

The Satyr stared. "Again?"

"Her essence rose once. Then again and again."

The clearing became extremely quiet.

Mirelle’s voice softened to almost a whisper.

"Each time he fed her something, her life essence grew stronger."

Ravelhorn’s lute remained completely forgotten in his lap.

"Until?"

Mirelle looked directly into his eyes.

"She reached Adept."

Silence.

The Moonfang Wolf opened both eyes and its head rose slowly from its paws.

Ravelhorn said nothing.

Mirelle said nothing.

Even the two moths upon her ears had stopped moving.

Neither creature needed to explain why this was insane.

People grew stronger, which was natural.

They gained Experience, trained their Classes, received instruction, survived battles and gradually crossed the boundaries between stages.

Miraculous medicines existed, Ancient treasures existed, and the exotic Otherworlders occasionally brought strange advantages.

But taking an established Journeyman and apparently feeding her several objects until her life essence climbed into Adept within minutes?

No.

That was not normal.

Not even remotely!

"You are certain?" Ravelhorn finally asked.

Mirelle’s fur lifted slightly. "You know my senses."

"I do."

"I watched it happen."

Ravelhorn became silent again.

The Moonfang Wolf’s violet-stained eyes moved slowly toward one edge of the clearing.

Mirelle noticed, and her own head turned in the same direction, but nothing stood there.

Only trees and darkness, as well as several branches hanging beneath silver-violet light.

Yet she stared for several seconds with a strange expression.

Then looked back toward Ravelhorn.

"You seem troubled."

The Satyr released a slow breath.

"Initially, I took something for granted."

"What?"

"That your mysterious Human was still where you left him."

Mirelle blinked in confusion.

Ravelhorn looked toward the same dark section of forest that had drawn the Wolf’s attention.

His expression hardened.

"It appears we may have a problem."

Mirelle’s three tails bristled.

"Why?"

Ravelhorn’s gaze moved upward.

Toward a low branch stretching from one of the trees at the edge of the clearing.

"Because the Human you were talking about..."

His voice became quiet.

"...is likely here with us."

Mirelle froze.

Her head snapped upward.

There, seated casually upon the branch as though he had been invited, was Damian Baines.

The loose hood of his black-and-gold Supreme Adept Armor covered his head, shadows swallowing most of his features while the Longtian Sword rested silently beside him.

He looked down into the clearing.

There was no smile nor any amusement on his face, only a cold gaze fixed directly upon Ravelhorn the Reveler.