As the smoke clears, the vilges stand around, putting out the fires across the vilge. Miller arrives first, seeing the Elder directing the vilgers. The Elder turns to Miller and directs him towards a burning building before Miller shoots ahead.
The others arrive, finding the Elder as the st fires go out and he turns to face the group.
“You’re rather te.” He says jokingly.
Glyn catches his breath. “We were dealing with the monster mess outside the vilge.”
Tisha shakes her head. “What happened?”
“There was an explosion that randomly went off in the middle of the vilge. A few buildings caught fire, but the damage is easy to repair.” He says.
Glyn looks around. “I’m guessing that the bomb was nothing more than a fre trap, am I right?”
“You may be correct. It was a bright fsh and small fmes, but it didn’t seem like it caused too much damage.”
Sam looks around. “How can you be sure?”
“Easy. Since this pce is built from mostly wood, it’d be easy to burn the whole thing down with the right accelerant. Considering only the buildings around the bst area were burnt, it seems they used no accelerant in the explosion.” Glyn expins.
Tan nods along. “So why? Was it an accident?”
“More like a message.” Glyn sighs. “Elder, I have to talk with you. I need to prepare something for the vilge’s defenses.”
The Elder nods. “You sound worried.”
“Considering who we’re fighting and what he’s already shown, he’s willing to do. I have every right to be worried.”
Glyn and the Elder move into his home as everyone stands around outside. The Elder sits in his chair as Glyn sits in an opposite chair and pulls out his book. He opens it showing a page to the Elder who nods along reading the passages.
“This pn will put a dent in your fighting force.”
“I know that. But he’ll be using his pieces and some extra forces. I can’t afford to skimp out on defending this pce.”
“Why go so far for us?”
“Because technically I’m supposed to be in charge here. But really, it’d put an unpleasant taste in my mouth if you guys got hurt because of this shitty war.”
“They’ll likely call an emergency session for the council tonight. I’ll bring your pn up with them, but they’ll oppose and bring up the idea of exiling them.”
Glyn smirks. “Remind them of our deal and how I’m the only one who can manage the dungeon in its present state.”
“You were prepared for this outcome.”
“Yeah. But I didn’t expect the asshole to pull such a move before the war officially starts. Makes me want to kick his teeth in.”
“Glyn…..”
“Elder!” Miller yells out, entering the room.
“What is it?”
“We’ve caught a suspicious outsider hiding outside of the vilge. He has burns, and he’s likely the one who set off the bomb.”
Glyn stands. “Where is he?”
“The guards have him outside the vilge. They're trying to heal his burns.”
“Good, we need that guy alive!”
Glyn rushes outside of the vilge, where the guards surround a burned man in bck. He struggles to breathe as he looks up at Glyn. As he catches Glyn’s sight, he ughs and coughs.
“Stop doing that. You need to conserve your energy.” The healer says.
“It’s already too te. The Lordling is here to execute me.” The man says as he coughs. “Man. I should’ve stayed with the primary force. We never should’ve come to this isnd.”
“You shouldn’t have. But you can make it easy on yourself. I know you have a connection to Fenwick. Expin and we can put an end to this.”
“The boss won’t allow that, you know.” He tries to ugh but coughs, colpsing and falling onto his back. “He’s terrified. I guess he’s worried about you. You keep him up at night.”
“Come on, talk to me.”
“I wish I could.” The man falls back as the healers shake their heads.
Glyn stands as Miller walks up to him.
“What happened?”
“A poison.” One healer says.
“But how?”
“It’s common for assassins connected to people in top positions to have devices or cosmetics to inject poison into them in any situation.” Glyn lowers his head, biting his nails. “Damn it. Damn it.”
“Glyn, are you okay?”
“Fine. I’m just worried.”
“Why?”
“He said ‘we’ should have never come to this isnd. Meaning there’s at least one more person on this isnd he was working with.” Glyn shakes his head. “This is a mess.”
“At least we have proof now.”
“No. All we have is a corpse. We need a living witness or else we can’t get taken seriously. This is not going well.”
“What’s the pn, then?”
“We need to keep an eye out for anything strange. Until the war begins, we can’t strike at Fenwick yet. I…..”
“Glyn!” Miller yells out.
Glyn takes a breath. “Okay, I can’t get stressed out just yet. Miller, I’m leaving you in charge of operations for now. I’m going to focus on coming up with a counterstrategy. We need to be ready for another swarm of monsters or anything else.”
“Glyn, don’t take everything on yourself. We need to work together on this.”
Glyn nods. “We are. I’m going to work on a way to keep the vilge safe, but we also need to prepare for going to Albert Isnd.”
He pauses for a moment. “And I think I might have a way for us to draw out our remaining saboteurs.”
“We’ll be ready,” Miller says.
Glyn walks forward with his head lowered. “Fenwick might try to put me in a vice. But I’m going to show him. I’m going to beat him at his own game. I’m going to win this contest no matter what!”
Tisha walks up to Miller, shaking her head. “To think we had such a simple morning.”
“Tisha. What do you think?”
“I think he’s going to drive himself insane at this rate. He’s far too stressed out. I have to say this Fenwick guy is good at being annoying.”
Miller nods. “Right. It looks like we have to do more than just watch out for spies.”
“I know you hate the idea, but Mi will be stressed out if he’s stressed out,” Tisha says.
Glyn sighs. “Fine. Do whatever you want, but if it goes too far and Mi gets hurt, I won’t forgive any of you.”
“I doubt we’d be getting that far. But we have to force him to open up about what’s bothering him. So don’t get mad at us tomorrow morning, okay?”
Miller shakes his head. “Will you just shut up about this morning? I think we all want to forget that.”
“Whatever you say.”
