Chapter 90 - Eighty-Six

The next day we finally put our plan to work; as the Templar stays behind to take care of the older twin, Leonel has a hard time trying to make Aeglos move.

In the end Leo decided to buy a horse for them; and actually had to ask the Templar to go buy one so he wouldn't be recognized, by his royal or elven blood; otherwise his travel would take far too long, and even though his plans were delayed a little my weren't; that's why now, after the excruciating shore of organizing my bags and choosing my woman clothes,  me and Isa hit the road.

And I know it sounds hypocrite of me to say this; even more after being the one responsible for elaborating this plan, but...

I didn't like this plan a bit, and for many reasons; for having as sole companion Isaac, the one I disliked the most and the one I was more suspicious about, guiding me out here into a place where he held control over and knew people, plus the fact that Aeglos and Leonel would be out there alone, not that I did not trust Leonel to take care of him or anything like that, it just that it worried me nonetheless.

That's why, since both my rascal shadows had finally reached the city, I, without telling anyone about their existence, bring back Darkjaw to keep a close eye on Leonel and Aeglos as Deadbite stays behind and gathers information for me since he was the one who could speak.

From outside, looking at my figure walking alongside Isa on this path, it may seem that I was simply hiking, leisurely watching over the trail, but instead I was very attentive to any traps up ahead, to anything that could give Isa away, and to what both where doing; by now Leonel had taken Aeglos out with the horse so Darkjaw was now walking beside them with the cover of the woods, looking over as Leonel advanced slowly with Aeglos on the animal, sometimes swinging dangerously out of the saddle, making their advance rather slow.

They needed to be careful though; for being elves on human territory, for starts, and so no one would recognize Leonel because it would be obvious he had something to do with the missing gold, his missing gold, though, by his words, he said that he knew well his allies from his enemies.

Well, I could only count on his discretion to manage to get to the elves; it would be safer for him too.

I sigh when I think about how this could be a waste of time; time that I definitely do not have the luxury to waste.

A heavy sigh escapes my lips… do not think about your brother now, on how he must me fairing, no good will come from that…

The only thing I can do right now is trying to help Aeglos and search for my brother at the same time.

"Are you sure we will find the cure there?" I ask Isa, who simple looks over his shoulder, wearing all his nun attired with plates of armor on top, only his face and purple eyes visible as he says:

"How should I be sure of it? I'm not allowed there."

"There where?"

"Well, there are a lot of different roles inside the church; some, like me, are trained to give first care to the population, which means we are not very well regarded inside the church since we are the ones that truly want to help, not stay inside playing politics."

Uff, someone seems salty.

"However for that we have only training and access to the more basic magic and skills; and only the higher researching members of the church would have the knowledge or access, with their higher credentials."

He starts explaining the hierarchy, the layout, but I'm half-listening to him complaining about how they are unfairly treated and separated and blablabla.

Yeah, right, you don't have the biggest room for yourself, but at least you have food and shelter; and that is far more than many others have in this country.

Guess someone needs to travel a lot more to really understand and help out the ones in "need".

We stop talking after a while, trying to keep appearances up as well as be attentive to the road and any bandits that may want to jump on us.

It would be their last mistake though, haha.

Now I was paying attention to Deadtbite… He had reached the city, the problem now was his face, or more precisely, his snout; it was hard as it is to make others speak, even more when you clearly weren't human.

'Found anything yet?'

'Actually, a'ot boss.'

'How so?'

'Well, there is a'ot of commotions going on, some very hot debates if yo feel me.' It was already hard as it is to understand him with his lisping, I didn't need any riddles.

'Speak already.'

'You see, boss, it ain't good. It seems this country pleaded alliance to another out of nowhere, and many other 'id the same.'

'What?! Alliance? With whom? And out of nowhere like this?' Could help but frown.

'Ya see, the weird thing is not even that, 's that no one knew of the place until now! And this alliance 's more like servant contract, they totally lay down to them!'

'What? Explain better.'

'It seems that this country and others are totally under the control of that one!'

'The name, tell me the name of the country.'

''s Rotherhithe boss.'

I can physically feel the blood draining from my face. Rotherhithe, the most distant country down south, staying at the outline of an island where the Antshiva live, so far from here and so uninteresting politically speaking that anyone could see that there it was something fishy about it.

And a human country giving powers to them? To a non-human country at that?!

I swallow dry. This is starting to sound far bigger and worse than it was a few days before.

''s starting to get lot of trouble here too boss. The humans are unhappy with it and are demanding some explanation, and there are other countries who did the same.'

If our enemy is the one responsible for this then killing him just got a lot more troublesome.

And that means that this country is now under his power, his command, which included everything in it; as well as the church.

I stop when that thought hits me, looking up as Isa's back, and saying:

"Stop, Isa, we need to get back, now." He turns, a frown on his face replaced soon by a sneer.

"What? Giving up so soon? Are you that afraid of people seeing you like this?"

I, unfortunately, had to choose, in the end, if I was going with a collar or a dress; and, well, I may even argue that it wasn't a choice at all given the options, but it didn't make me any happier with the state I was on.

This dress was a lot better to hide myself under than the one I used before; it went all the way down, covering my feet and tail easily, two layers thick plus an apron knotted on my waist, leaving my fake bust more apparent, plus a red-wine dress with puffed sleeves.

Beyond all that there was a hat that covered all my hair and only let my face visible, going back like a bowl, making that the only things left for me to hide were my silver eyes and crystal, which was covered by another layer of clothing over my head, making me almost a nun.

A hot nun… and not in that way; in the way that it was really hot with all these layers of cloth, though for me it was still a pleasant temperature, with me as a furnace in the middle.

"That's not it-" I start to answer, annoyed that such important fact was passed by him as a mere pride thing, when my ears catch something not far out in the road.

"Seems like our ride has arrived." Isa says, already staying on the side and looking for the carriage.

As I turn to look at the carriage approaching us, I have the strange feeling of walking right up into a lion's den, but I may have realized it too late to go back now.

Isa waves as the carriage stop, and I try to stop myself from swearing.

I have such bad luck sometimes.