With evening drawing in, the shack was slipping into
darkness. Danton withdrew one of his glowglobes from his satchel and placed it
on the table, dimming it to a soft glow. The man who entered seemed a little malnourished
and was light on his feet as he stepped forward. He bowed and greeted the three
of them much like Mullen and his brother Dakk had in the Cloudtouch apartments.
Danton was a little relieved that the façade had be bought by the mark. However
the man was full of questions, querying why Moma had changed the agreed plans
so late into the transaction and why Dehart had not been told. Danton deftly
explained away his doubt and soon the location and the time of the intended
live drop was acquired. At a little past midnight, the items were to be
delivered by the courier to breeding ranch for Seskii's. He explained that due
to the lateness of their arrival and festivities taking place, they had yet to
identify the building to secure it.
With a quick glance from Danton over to Xera and Raneaux, his
intent was understood and they left . They knew exactly where the building was
but the problem was the other of Dehart's men. He was standing outside and
refused to leave, which made them question
what they should do. Raneaux established a link with Xera, much like she
had done with Umbra. She told Xera to go
after the building while she was going to wait outside to make sure the other
man did not interfere.
Inside Danton had
tried to convince the man to leave the rest of the transaction to him but he
was refused. He told Danton that he had strict orders to wait for the currier,
this presented a problem. Danton tried to intimidate him, saying that as a
Magister, his will superseded Dehart's authority. In response, he found that Dehart had the
same authority as the robes he was wearing. This slip up made Jarvis grip tight
to his dagger.
Whatever organisation Danton had stumbled upon, he knew that
most had one weakness, the desire for power. He placed a vial of blood on the
table in front of him, the Cursed Qui blood he had extracted when in he was in
the mines. He told the guard that he had something of interest and got him to
examine it. The lackey held it at arm's length, now suspicious of Danton's
actions. He slid it across the table, quizzing him of the relevance of a vial
of unidentified blood. Without saying a word, Danton poured a drop from it onto
the table and then extended a telescopic staff from his pocket. He waved it
over the spot of blood and in just over a minute, a life-size hologram of the
Qui materialised floating an inch off the table above the spot of blood, projected
from a crystal in the staff head. The man leaned in and Danton knew he had him
hooked.
The henchman told Danton that it would be of great valuable
to Magister Dehart and if he had the schematics, they would both have a bright
future. Danton allowed him to garner a closer look, drawing his sight closer to
the table. With him distracted, Danton looked over to Umbra and drew his finger across his neck. In the
blink of an eye, Umbra had cupped the man's mouth and blood ran down his neck. Umbra
suddenly dropped the body, not in disgust but from the shock from Raneaux
shouting in his head. She told him that the other man outside had walked to the
edge of the building and had just bowed to a portly woman. She was a little
taller than Raneaux, dressed in the same robes as they were , caring a scythe
with a blade big enough to slice Raneaux in two. She was accompanied by four
heavily armoured guards each opening carrying shields with two brandishing broadswords
while the other two had battle-axes.
Umbra spurted the information to Danton and he knew now that
had to act fast. He gave Umbra a vial of Khatt-Nipp and his blowgun with the
already laced darts. Danton motioned towards the bed in the corner to hide the
body and lifted the corpse up. They dashed across room, trying not to let the
blood spill onto the floor. They shoved him under the bed and used the blanket
to cover him up. Danton quickly told Umbra to tell Raneaux to get support from Xera but she
replied that he had already left and she had actually been standing guard
outside The truth of the matter however was
that Xera had never actually left the vicinity
of the building . He didn't want to act alone and without support so he had
turned back moments after reaching the edge of the festivities. He appeared around the corner as if deliberately
following behind the woman as part of her entourage.
When the woman had caught sight of him, he was dismissed to
enjoy the party in endearing tones. Her voice was kind, gentle and nurturing.
Everything about her, from her voluminous curly locks of auburn hair, down to
the way she carried herself, conferred a sense of motherliness. For a split
second Raneaux was reminded her own family and promptly found herself with the
woman's hands rifling through her hair, with her saying how lovely she looked.
Raneaux was lost for words and did the only thing she could do and let her in.
The woman thanked her and complimented her on being such a good girl and allowed
her to stay in the room although she was told to shut the door behind her
By the time the woman and her guards had entered, Danton had
made sure the hood of his robe covered most of his face and that Umbra had disappeared
into the shadows. He tried to make light conversation, coming to the
realisation that this was most likely Moma. He told her that the guards were unnecessary
and almost seemed an insult to the trust between Magisters. She smiled and
shook her head and refuted him. She joked about Danton's lack of security and
giggled to herself. Danton was disarmed by her lack of a threatening demeanour.
She was calm and polite, she referred to him varying ways as if he was her
lover, or her child. He had never come across someone from what he thought was
the darkest corners of the Steadfast, who didn't use that fact to their
advantage. Without his words he had nothing to save himself and in turn
everyone else . Without thinking, he tried to turn the tables, knocking the
glowglobe off the table to distract her.
The globe bounced on
the wooden floorboards as the guards shouted and Danton called out for help. The
room flickered between total darkness and faintly lit. In mere seconds however,
the ball was abruptly stopped underneath the soul of the woman's left foot and
light was restored. In her left hand
was the scythe she had entered with and in her right, was now the device that
Danton had used on Dehart's grunt. Her guards were ready to leap into action
but she held out her arm to stop them. She thanked Danton for the gift before
drawing the scythe down the centre of her body. Danton looked on in confusion
and horror as the woman separated into two down the seam she had cut into her
flesh . There were now two of her, both carrying scythes but only one with the
item belonging to Danton. She thanked Danton for the gift and bowed her head a
fraction before tapping the scythe on the ground and she and the staff faded
into nothing. Danton knew this maybe the day he died.
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