Chapter 198

Talis pulled the chair away from the broken door and peered outside at the guards and Tamin priests who walked by. There were patrols, even here in the slums. If we were caught sneaking through the city there would be some pretty inconvenient questions to answer. Top of the list would be the five collarless pantharians in our group, each one past the first would add suspicion to our group, and sneaking through the city with five would draw attention.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Raya whispered.

"No," Lorriene replied. "But leaving is a better idea than staying here. After all the beastkin in the city who didn't own homes or property were pushed to stay in the slums, tensions have gotten high. While merchants and retired adventurers may have gotten away with sleeping in their shops or small mansions, rookie beastkin adventurers took the hit on the nose. They were forced to move into shacks and hostels by the authority of the king. What do you think happens when a bunch of people trained to fight monsters for a living barely accept that they need to stay in the slums for a while? Then what happens when the authority behind that edict disappears once it gets out that the king is dead? The Tamin church are fanatics, they'll blame the king's death on the beastkin guaranteed, whether the guards go along with that is a toss-up. The wound is still fresh and a lot of beastkin in the city are still pissed off about it, if the church or city guard starts pushing beastkin around after forcing most of them to move here, it's only a matter of time before one of them snaps and someone starts another riot. I'd rather not be in this part of town when the oil catches fire."

Lorriene had changed into a different outfit. It was mostly made from a dark grey fabric, similar to something a traditional mage would wear, but it hung loosely on her body and made her silhouette difficult to read. Her back was covered up by an attached cloak with a hood made from the same material and she wore a cloth mask that hid most of her face. The cloak hid her ears and tail too, the outfit was clearly made with those features in mind but they didn't allow for them to be exposed. She would be identifiable as a beastfolk but the outfit didn't reveal much else.

Raya frowned. "I saw what happened when we tried to stay in that hotel on the other side of town but are beastfolk really treated that badly here?"

Sibyl patted her on the shoulder. "They are. That's why I decided to retire in Goldenhearth. Aside from the Ruby Vixen, it's one of the easiest places for beastfolk to live in this country. Maybe aside from the frontier, but that's a newer development."

"Come on, it's clear," Silva told them before pushing through the door. "This way."

Silva was once again leading us through the dark streets only to duck us into cover before guards or Tamin adherents passed by. We hadn't gone through this part of town before but we made fast progress through the city.

"Do you know where we're going?" I asked.

"Yes. I've been near the place before. The political embassies of the nearby countries are in the district where the fancy nobles live. It's unfortunately on the opposite side of the city and we need to travel around the barricaded alleys again. I don't want to go back the way we came though, best to take another path this time," Silva replied.

"There's someone up ahead," Lorriene whispered to Silva.

"Where? I don't hear—"

A Tamin paladin walked onto the street in front of us with silent steps. He stopped and looked over at us with mild surprise on his face. His hand gripped his sword. "Where—"

Before he could say a second word, Lorriene appeared right behind him in a wisp of black smoke. One hand covered his mouth pulling his head back, and the other shoved a glowing red dagger upward through his neck and into his skull. The man died instantly and fell limp. Lorriene struggled to hold the armored man up and nearly dropped him on the ground before Silva ran forward to ease the body down onto the stone path. Lorriene was panting and looked fatigued from what she had just done.

None of us standing there in the alley save for Silva was ready for what had just happened.

"Shadowleap..." Torien whispered in awe. Morrigan didn't say anything but her knuckles turned white as her fingers tightened around her staff.

"This paladin is wearing a silence charm," Silva said after pulling a yellow piece of paper off the corpse, "that's why I didn't hear him."

Lorriene nodded. "What do we do with the body? Can that one eat it?" she said glancing back at Mimi.

I turned to Mimi and frowned. "Mimi... I don't know..."

She nodded with a grim look on her face. "I don't have enough space to keep the body... I'd have to eat him entirely..." She took a breath. "I promise I won't get a taste for it. If we don't have better options..."

"No," Silva interrupted. "Let's just drag the body into the alley. It won't matter if it's found. Lilith, can you put up a [Zone of Silence] please?"

I could feel Mimi's relief through the bond and I felt quite relieved as well. I'm not sure what about that exactly repulsed me but it felt... wrong. It was something that couldn't be undone.

I snapped up a relatively large [Zone of Silence] and used my magic control to keep it contained to the street and alleys themselves without bleeding through the walls. It would be dumb to get caught by casting this kind of spell in a way that garnered someone's attention.

Silva dragged the body behind some knee-high crates and covered him up with a worn blanket that had been inside of one. "Not perfect but it should be enough for now. Do you think they'd be able to recognize this wound Lorriene?"

She shook her head. "No, it should be fine. I'm not the only one who would kill someone this way and my dagger shouldn't leave any lasting indication it was me."

"Good. Let's keep moving then," Silva said gruffly.

The two pantharians that were coming with us had their eyes glued to Lorriene's back as we continued on. I suspected that I was missing the full context but it seemed like I wasn't the only one that was impressed by Lorriene's sudden attack on the guard. Torien and Morrigan also seemed rather astounded but they kept their gawking to a minimum. Since they were trained as adventurers they went right back to scanning the area for threats as we followed Silva through the maze of streets and alleys in the slums. The time we had spent walking felt longer than it probably was but we were eventually led to a spot where the barricades had already been destroyed by someone else.

"This looks like a trap," Sibyl said. "One random unguarded break in the barricade?"

Silva frowned. "I don't hear anyone nearby and we need to get through somewhere. All of the buildings on this edge of the quarter sound occupied so we can't go through a building this time."

"I'll go first," Lorriene whispered before moving forward and peeking her head through the hole. She stepped through and looked around before signaling to us that it was clear.

Silva signaled for us to stay put before going through next and also took a look around. It seemed that we may have been too paranoid. A few moments later she waved the rest of us through. On the other side of the street, our group slipped through a space between two buildings and ended up in a narrow alley.

Talis noticed me looking at the tight confines. "This part of town is an upscale business area targeted at nobles. The streets and shops are larger but as a result, the space between the buildings is a little more narrow and easier to move through without being seen at night. They're also on more of a grid so you can move through this area without getting lost, unlike the slums if you're not familiar with them. None of these buildings have doors in the rear for security reasons though so people will find it really odd if you come out of one of these alleys in front of anyone," Talis whispered.

We walked down the long narrow path between the buildings and stopped occasionally to let the patrols searching the streets pass by. Now that we were out of the slums we were able to move faster but the times we needed to pass through the large open streets to get to another of the narrow alleys was more nerve-wracking. More than once we also had to take a detour and wait between two of the buildings as a patrol of guards walked the alleys as well.

Eventually, we made it to the northern quarter of the city where all of the noble houses and country embassies were stationed. There wasn't anywhere to hide this time so we had to walk openly in the streets and trust that Silva would be able to navigate us around any more of the patrols.

"We're close," Cecilia told Silva. "It's down this street on the left. The building with leaf and vine motifs."

Silva nodded in acknowledgment and led us forward. The two elven guards outside noticed us right away and readied their spears as we approached. Cecilia signaled for us to wait before going up to the guards by herself and having a conversation out of earshot of me. The guards seemed skeptical but sent a runner into the building behind them and waited for their return. Less than half a minute later the runner came back with another elf who signaled the guards to stand down and spoke quietly to Cecilia.

With a nod, he gestured for our group to come into the embassy. The elven guards stepped aside and our group entered the courtyard. A lot of the tension faded as we stepped through the gate of the Northern Greens Embassy. The elven guards retook their posts behind us after we passed.

Cecilia stopped and waited for me to catch up with her. "Master Routil Tangleleaf wishes to speak with us while everyone gets settled into the guest rooms. He accepted us for the night but we'll need to convince him to allow everyone else to stay longer."

"Is there anything I need to be worried about?" I asked.

"No. You can be candid with him... within reason. I wouldn't reveal too many of your personal secrets but we can tell him about your connection to Silvergrove and your assassination of the king."

I frowned. "It's not like I had planned for that, Silva took it into her own hands."

She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The elves were never fond of the last few kings here and will be perfectly happy to shelter everyone once we explain things. Bringing so many pantharians will also help our case as the elves felt the pantharians were wronged by this kingdom. Come, we cannot keep Master Tangleleaf waiting."

Cecilia led me through the main embassy building to one of the offices on the second floor. She seemed comfortable with the place and seemed to know where she was going. I had known she had a connection with the elves but it seems she has been here before too. She held the door open for me and closed it once I walked into the elf's office. The elf had near-white blond hair and green eyes. He was wearing green robes but I suspected it was because we were here in the middle of the night instead of normal working hours.

"Master Tangleleaf." Cecilia bowed. "This is Lilith Baphomet. Tarklin left me with her to keep an eye on her for reasons you'll need to discuss with him. Part of my job was to keep her safe in the city and now that the king is dead, I've determined the only way I could do that was by bringing her and her comrades here. Tarklin made it clear to me that protecting her was of the utmost importance and now that I know more about her, I agree with him."

The elf shifted his focus from Cecilia to me and I shifted my weight awkwardly under his gaze. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to speak right now so I kept quiet and waited for a question.

The elven man finally broke the silence. "Yes, Tarklin Silvergrove sent me a letter about her recently. Are you the one who killed the King?" he asked after shifting his attention to me.

I scratched the base of my horn. "One of my friends did. She was a crime slave who forcibly removed her collar with magic and killed him as well as the captain of the guard before I could react."

The elf folded his hands and leaned back in his chair as he looked over me. "You claim no knowledge yet you still claim this one as a friend?"

I shifted my weight again. I wasn't sure what he was getting at with this or how much I should admit. "I had no love for the King here and while my relationship with her is a bit tenuous right now, she's saved my life in the past so it's hard not to keep calling her my friend."

"I see..." He sighed and glanced out the window. "I believe this will require a longer conversation with a few of my subordinates present. You and everyone you brought with you can stay at the embassy for now but I'll require you and your former crime slave to have a meeting with me tomorrow morning once all of us have had more sleep. You are dismissed."

Cecilia opened the door and herded me through it and down the stairs. "That went well!" she said happily.

"Really? How could you tell?" I asked confused.