Chapter 185 – Wives Returning

*** Geta ***

Footsteps are coming my way. Just a single set, light and careful. Beastkin, most likely.

"Lady Geta," the messenger says, moving into the clearing.

"That would be me," I say. "Must be important for you to trek all the way out here."

I completed the mission a day ago, but you need to build up the difficulty a bit, so I've been camping out in the forest. I was going to wait another few days, but it seems I'm needed elsewhere.

"Yes, Princess Elora and Lord Alzi have been taken. Assumed to be someone from Edeozia Empire," the messenger states. "I know you are in the middle of a quest. Isda is asking the wives to meet in Enyebel to wait for Duchess Fluvis when possible."

"I am done now. Do you have more messages to deliver?" I ask. Shimmer got a lot closer to Alzi than I did and I can't let that continue. I can't be absent if she is present. It is clear her goals mirror my own and it won't do if she completes her mission while mine goes unfinished.

"I do not," the messenger says.

"Then tell the baron the monster has been killed and that I have to leave immediately for this business. I do not wish to be rude, but my wife and husband are in danger. I hope she understands," I say.

"As you wish," the messenger says with a bow. She turns immediately and starts her careful, quiet jog out. Maybe I should've offered to walk with her out of here. I'll make enough noise to attract all the attention soon, so it shouldn't matter.

I put away my camp, put out the fire, and start my own lumbering run out of the forest. Shimmer started after me and shouldn't be as strong, so I should be the only one back if Fluvis can just save them quickly.

*** Shimmer ***

I shouldn't have let them help me. Sure, it would be a good idea to have others, and Mother didn't want me to show too much strength. But this is too slow. We still have a full day to get to the Viridian Bird's nest.

I'm sure the Baroness is planning on staking out there for a full day and then finally going for the attack. I'll have to find a way to skip the celebration afterward. Geta is getting too close to Alzi to let her have much time with her alone.

I don't have everything I need from her to satisfy my Mother. I still need Alzi to love me despite her enslavement. Of course, I refuse to let such a good husband hate me anyway.

It took Princess Elora too long to see that Alzi needs her lovers around if this marriage is to stay together. A champion won't stay a slave for long, and Alzi is due to have some encounter pop it off.

Maybe I should try to speed this along.

I move to the main tent. The Baroness at least offered it to me, but I wished to limit the amount of time I spent with them all. A mistake is possible.

"I have a message for Lady Shimmer," makes its way out the flap.

"I can give it to her," the Baroness says. Bold bitch.

"I should only give it to her," the messenger says.

"If it was that important, Lady Isda would use mana to transmit it, right?" the Baroness says.

"Fine. Princess Elora and Lord Alzi have been kidnapped by someone from the..."

I don't need to hear the rest. I can just go up to the stupid bird's nest and roast the bitch. A mere bird would gladly give their life to me.

I pull out my horse from the group and start to ride. I just need to get inside the forest and let the trees hide me. A few hours and I'll be done here.

"Lady Shimmer abandoning us?" the Baroness dares to ask. "Should I report your house to the guild?"

"Should I report your house to the Queen?" I ask back. "I am going to do my duty without the extra baggage. You have no excuse for taking a message meant for me, a member of a royal house."

"If I did that, you would leave us like you are now," she says. "I was going to have us speed up. But now it looks like I'll need to talk to the guild again."

I kick the horse into a motion.

"My manor is the opposite way, if you remember," I yell back, coaxing the horse to speed up. "I do my duty; you should learn yours!" I'll never know why we are helping nobles so clearly in her sister's camp.

*** Elyne ***

"Should we return?" I ask. The messenger caught us just as we were about to head out. We had just made a plan yesterday after talking with the mayor and locals. A number of women are missing already, and I doubt another group is looking to come this way anytime soon.

"Can we?" Inanos says. "I want to be there when Alzi and Elora come back, but can we really give up on this mission?"

"Elora would want us to finish it," Syro says. "Alzi is a bit harder to know about. Would she care if we were back? Would she even notice it? She hates us as it is, so she may not mind us not being there. But us not being there could be used as proof we don't care."

"She would care about the mission," Ioelena says. "She comes from a village like this. She understands they don't have the fighting power we have. Aurora should be able to smooth that over, and there is a good chance we won't miss her return. Duchess Fluvis still has to catch up and then fight and then bring her back. Our plan won't take us that long. A day or two, and then we can return."

"Yes," I say with a sigh. "We also took most of the maids that can fight with us. That is the reason it was so easy to take them. If we don't even save the village, what is the point? It starts to seem like we just did this so she would be captured."

"Move smart," Ioelena says. "The worst thing we can do is come back hurt and make her heal us at the end of it all."

"I agree," I say. "We will plan on taking two days. There is no need to rush this and make it worse. We should tell the maids as well."

"Then let's go," Inanos says, standing up.

*** Leena Ashmark, Headwife of Ashmark family ***

"Was it a good idea to do this?" my first wife asks. "Aren't we going to have an issue with assassins? A Princess and likely Champion going into that unstable woman's hands for so long is going to have backlash."

"We have a duty to our Queen," I say. "I am tired of repeating this conversation. We did what we must. The dragons were weak and growing weaker. Alzi is different. One that may grow stronger than the current dragon Queen. Can we really let Elagwyn have that to themselves?"

"But if we all die for it," she says yet again.

"Then we die for it. We knew the risks when we agreed to be spies. Be happy we are allowed to leave," I say. It was painful getting everything in place for this. Our husband never saw what was special about Alzi and got us in too much trouble. The Edeozia family was looking at ending us anyway. Becoming too much of a liability.

We have had to run night and day to get some distance between us and the capital. Soon, we should be crossing over into the north, but the snow is making it harder to cover our tracks.

We got lucky that the Queen picked a house where we knew the tunnels. Not that we couldn't have pulled this off without that knowledge; it just made it so much easier to put some more spies in there.

The Queen would never give her daughter a house we lived in, but she didn't notice the builder was working on two manors at the same time. The lazy thing didn't come up with two tunnel layouts for them. I had to verify the information, but that was easy enough and made it quite easy to swap out a few maids for my own.

Finding all but Elora, Isda, and Alzi were away for a bit, and then, the extra information about Alzi's level was just a cherry on top. Something to prove my worth.

Queen Yumanea was starting to get close to finding out the truth with all our other mistakes. The stupid assassin guild actually kept records of who ordered what. I guess that should have been expected if they were operating in the capital. The Queendom of Elagwyn is hardly a failing nation that can't keep its capital safe.

Didn't help the stupid Kitsune was stirring everything up even more. So, we had to run after this one. The Queen would find some reason to kill us even if she didn't find proof of our involvement.

"What if they get Yuki to come after us?" she asks.

"That would be perfect," I say. "She basically failed against the guild. Think she would do better against our family? We'll be ready for an assassin. Build our house around keeping them out. Let the silly Kitsune come, and we will repel her, then talk to her Mother. That will have her pulling out, and the Queen will likely give up if the 'best' assassins can't get us."

"She didn't fail, did she? We both know the guild didn't kill her, so she likely got out with what she wanted. Which would be our name," she says. "We just keep on stacking up reasons to come and kill us."

"She won't have that much help," I say. "If a war breaks out, then they won't have the resources to come after us. If a war doesn't break out, they wouldn't dare send a large force to kill us."

"I'll cut our man's balls off if they attack us," she says. "His stupid hate for Alzi and your inability to control him got us into this trouble. You better find a way out of it. Cause I know it isn't over. They need to make Alzi happy, and a great way would be to serve your head and his balls to her on a silver platter. I don't think they need us alive for anything."

"They won't get them or any of you. I promise," I say.