100 – Extraction and Debrief

Karen crept back out to the garrison, and headed back the way she came. At the maintenance room, she encountered a familiar tingle in her senses. The psionic that had been in The Queen’s Audience Chamber was in the water room. For a brief moment, Karen thought of going another direction.

Would confronting this psionic spoil her assignment? Would not? Karen guessed that the tree had alerted this other psionic, after it sensed her. So, not confronting would spoil things. This left one course: swift victory and departure.

Karen crept into the room. The psionic was examining the puddle she had left when she had wrung the water out of her outfit. So intent was the examination that the psionic failed to notice her presence. Karen lunged along the walkway, leaped into the person, and carried that person with her into the water flowing out of the room. The other person had turned and stood as she came and lunged. It was a male Chithare elf. One of the local subterranean elves, commonly called a black elf for their skin color, as opposed to the blue elves who mostly lived to the north. As she carried him into the water and crashed against the outer wall, Karen felt the elf smack hard against it, then again against the lip of the outflow tunnel knocking him senseless. The chilly current swept them into the outflow tunnel. Karen did a quick scan, and found the elf was out cold, and bleeding from his head. The water carried them the terrifying distance out to the catch screen. They slammed against it hard, the elf’s body struggling to breathe the cold dirty water. Karen’s panic proofing lessons paying off as she felt the tunnel beginning to collapse around her.

She assessed the elf as already drowning, so not needing any additional effort from her. Karen left him unconscious, pinned to the grate by the current, and pulled her way down to the hole and let it spit her out and away from the fortress, down stream. The elf would drown by the time she got out of the water. Clear of the tunnel, her claustrophobia stopped threatening to push her into panic, and she was able to marshal her remaining air to get a good distance away.

She stayed underwater for as long as the air in her lungs and the biting temperature would allow, before heading for the surface. She looked around and scanned, checking for pursuit and witnesses. Sensing and seeing none, she swam north for the wall to her right and along it to a storm drain hole. She got on the lip of this, and climbed out of the river. She psionically warmed her body, again pushing all the cold water from her costume.

To her left was a narrow stair built into the wall. Some of the river traffic used points like this as points to tie to during the day. The city cleaners used these to get into the sewer system to service it. Karen had explored all she could stand to of the sewers. Every time she got where she could not see the exit, or feel fresh air, she began to panic. As such she avoided using this system, unlike some others from her guild. Instead she preferred the roof tops, and shadows of buildings.

Karen carefully moved up the stairs. As she went she untied her cape from her waist and unrolled it. She first put it on dark side out. Then she pulled her balaclava off, fluffed her hair a bit, then pulled the cape’s hood over her hair. She looked around the concourse that ran along the east and west riverbank. There were constables off that way, and other street and night people over the other, but none looking this way. Karen shrouded herself, and set off north across the street, and into the shadows of the building. She moved quickly for several blocks, before ducking into another alley. This was the edge of the upper class areas.

In the darkness of the alley, Karen took her cape off, and opened the seam between the hood and cape, reached in, and pulled the cape insides out. It now showed the dark red velvet of a woman of means. She resettled the cape over her shoulders and started off into the streets of the district. She moved quietly along the main avenue to a tributary street, and turned up it. Nobody was out at this hour in this area of Skarg, and anybody that was, was generally left alone. She got to the street she wanted and turned onto it. As she walked, Karen formulated her report on what she had learned. It would not be turned in until her job was completed. But many assassins kept journals, at least of target information, in case anybody needed to follow in their path, and complete a botched job.

The structures in this area were the town houses of the wealthy merchant class, and the lower level gentry. Most of the houses were four or five stories with impressive facades and wings to the back, with closed balconies for privacy. They stood very close together, with only space for a carriage to slip between. Several had walls or fences around small front or side yards.  The constables patrolled this area regularly, but unless noise or weapons were in evidence, they would not bother people. Two constables on routine patrol did fall discreetly into step several houses away from Karen, after rounding the corner behind her. She went several houses along, to one with a small yard in front of it with a low wall and tall iron fence.

Two stone pillars flanked the gate, with a wrought iron arch above it; a decorative filigree of iron work vines filled the arch. A carved lion sat on either pillar looking down on whoever entered; the right hand one had a cub under its paw, the left hand lion had an orb. Karen opened the gate, closed it behind her, and went across the yard. The scents of winter wafted past as she climbed the stone stairs. Two more lions flanked the base of the stairs, and another set the porch; each set was increasingly intricate and ornate in its decoration the closer one got to the house. She pulled the bell pull by the double doors and waited. The constables walked on down the street, on the opposite side from her. They were two houses beyond when she saw a light through the windows coming to the doors. A small panel in the left hand door opened from within.

“May I help you?” An older male voice spoke from within.

“It’s Lady Konsalva. Let me in.”

“One moment please, my lady.” The panel closed.

After a moment, the door clicked as the latch was released and it swung in. The house keeper closed the door behind Karen as she entered.

“Welcome home, my lady. What may I do for you?”

Karen turned to the old man. “Nothing tonight. I will eat and tend to business when I get up.”

He bowed, and took the candlestick with him into the bowels of the house to his quarters, leaving Karen in the dark.

Older than her father, Jasper served the family since Karen’s grandfather hired him.

At that time the family was an up-and-coming merchant family. But a series of quarrels had led to Karen’s father Oleg, the third son, pursuing a second career as an assassin. The older brothers were murdered before they could start families. Of the two sisters, one had been brutalized and found floating in the river. The other had been kidnapped, cut open and her womb removed. She later lost her life while getting revenge on the group that mutilated her. That event ended most of the overt quarreling. Oleg had seen to the rest. Jasper watched it all. His only comment on the whole affair was that Oleg had unfortunately left no sons to carry the family name.

Now Jasper and his wife kept the house. Karen kept no secrets from Jasper. Karen had been taken into the guild and raised in their houses as soon as she could walk. Most of her childhood was spent outside of Skarg. Karen was raised with her older sister, and learned all the skills of her father, eventually surpassing him.

One time her older sister had gone on a trip with their mother, and was nearly killed in the attack that killed their mother. Oleg’s only overt comment on the subject was that his wife had acquitted herself well, killing all who attacked her. Covertly he mourned her greatly.

Karen’s sister, however, had an utter lack of stomach and skill for anything the guild had to teach. She could handle herself well enough. But she was loath to even slaughter dinner. She did excel in business and management. Karen helped her sister set up and improve upon the family businesses she now used to take care of her public means. This included four taverns; one which had a brothel attached to it, two that had inns. Also shares in two major and a handful of minor land and sea shipping groups. Finally the two merchant shops their grandfather had started with his brothers, which Oleg had inherited. In all the quarrels, Karen and her sister had been the only ones left alive. No cousins of any close relation. Then her sister had been attacked and killed.

After cleaning that up, Karen continued the businesses. And she used the taverns and related businesses to help facilitate her primary career. The result was that she only came home once in a while, spending most nights at one of the taverns or inns.

Growing up, she had many bittersweet memories of the house. Sometimes they were more than she could bare, and she would avoid the reminder of family. Other times she needed to rest, and let the world alone. She would come here and forget anything beyond the walls of the yard. Oleg had made a point of never bringing work home with him. Karen had followed that example. Unlike her other properties, no blood or poison had ever stained the floors of the house.

Karen crossed the foyer, and went up stairs. The first floor had the kitchen with an informal dining area, Jasper’s quarters with his wife, a receiving room and the foyer. A mud room at the back exited to the coach yard and shed, and a privy. The second floor had the parlor, drawing room, library, study, and formal dining room. Isolated where it would be unobtrusive was a rare indoor privy with a flush and pump mechanism. The third floor had two guest suites and the ball room, which was just as often an exercise and training room. There was also a small balcony off the ballroom. On the forth floor floor were the resident bedrooms and one medium sized bathing room, the tub fed from a roof top tank heated by the central chimney. The pitched roof covered the attic storage space, save for where the water tank rested. Water from the tank was primarily by precipitation, collected from the roof; there was a wind driven pump that tapped the local aquifer that also kept the tank topped off with relatively fresh clean water.

Karen sold some of the furniture that her family had collected. She had little sentimental attachment to most of it. In some cases, she sold it because it had too much sentiment. The few pieces she kept were of specific value. Her grandmother's and her mother’s chests were in her bedroom. A bureau that a great-uncle made by hand stood between the chests. Her father’s desk and chair were still in the study. Hidden behind some of the book shelves in the study was most of Oleg’s armory.  The canopy bed that her grandparents had used was in her private room at one of the inns. Jasper and his wife had taken implicit possession of many of the other things. The china, silver, and crystal were all still in the kitchen, or down in the pantry. Some of the other finer furniture was still about the house, where they had always been. Other pieces had been replaced by Jasper’s wife. As time passed, the house gradually took on more of their character, and Karen felt more alien to it.

101 – Karen continues debriefing, The trio enters Skarg

  She entered her bed room, leaving the door open behind her. She crossed the vaguely musty room to the double doors to the small private balcony, and opened these to their stops, feeling them latch open. Even for winter it was warm out, and the room needed the air if she was going to be staying in it. She lit the fire in the fireplace, feeling the air in the vents that were through out the house circulate warmer.

  Karen turned to her closet and divested herself of her equipment and costume. The equipment and harness onto her grandmother’s chest. The rest was draped onto a chair, to be dealt with later.  The cape went on a hanger.

  Karen's leather harness and girdle had a knife hung hilt down from the left suspender, a pair of interchangeable leather pouches from the front of the girdle, and her primary weapons at her hips from the sides of the girdle. There were points around the whole where she could attach other equipment at need. Shoulder pauldrons were attached to the suspenders, and rerebrace pads fastened to these, and had straps that went around her arms to prevent them from flapping about.

  A pair of hard leather vambraces covered her forearms, the left side had a sheathed stiletto on its inside, the right a broader cutting knife, the handles arranged where she could cross draw both at the same time. Karen then removed her elbow and knee pads, putting each piece on the chest as she removed it. Occasionally she wore hard leather grieves, but only when she was expecting a lot of trouble; otherwise she left these aside for mobility.

  Her trousers had a drawstring waist, with gussets at the lower leg, as well as a billows seam at the crotch. Lining the interior of the legs were several pouches and pockets for assorted weapons and tools accessible through slits in the trousers, in addition to the normal cargo pockets and hip pockets. The seat was triple reinforced, right through the bellows seam, as also the knees. If she needed to splint her legs, she carried enough stiff things in the trousers to act as splints.

  When she wore her long boots, these covered the lower gussets and up to just below her knees; if she wore short boots, as she did this night, these only came above her ankles.

  Her jacket was cut bulky around her torso, with a draw cord at the waist, and buttons on the wide double breast all the way up. The shoulders and upper arms were loose with gussets on the forearms. Fingerless leather gauntlets protected her hands and forearms. Several more pockets and sheaths were arrayed on the interior of the jacket. The inside is the equivalent of a load bearing vest, which attached to her trousers. She chose a cloth as durable as some tent fabrics.

  Next was an insulating layer against the cold. Compared to her specialized equipment, these linen long-johns were of the usual design and construction, dyed a dark gray.

  Karen wore a bodysuit as underwear. It was of leather for support and protection, and fabric to move and breathe. The leather segments protected her ribs, trunk, and groin. It had short sleeves with some leather on the shoulders on her arms and went to her knees with thigh and hip pads below. She wore this under her business suit, or most any suit, as she felt the circumstances would require.

  As the weather or social circumstance required, she wore a cape over top of all as needed. She also carried a slim backpack with her extra sundries, as needed. She carried many knives, but no tiger claws or leg climbers as she did not need them. Two blow tubes with needles, a garrote and several assorted lengths of cord, several vials and pouches of chemicals, all were in appropriate jacket or trouser pockets, as was some black makeup. Her first aid and sewing kits were among the contents of the pouches on her girdle. Winter gloves that fit over her gauntlets were kept though not yet in use. Assorted bits of money were in a pouch in her belt. Depending on the weather, Karen used a scarf or balaclava to cover her face.

  Her favorite weapons to use was a pair of sai’s, carried on either hip, though sometimes she carried a short sword across her back attached horizontal to the girdle. Professionally Karen usually killed with a knife, most often her stiletto. She was trained to use most anything, being taught the fundamentals of every weapon the guild could teach. She was not an archer, but she could use most any bow, and occasionally carried one with the quiver attached to her back. She could use pole-arm's, staves, swords, and blunt weapons. She was not an alchemist, but did know poisons, and antidotes, as well as many herbs and other pharmacological stuff. She could sew, and sneak, pick locks, and kill.

  As Karen undressed, she made a list to herself of maintenance issues; the harness would need to be oiled, the metal buckles and equipment cleaned and inspected for rust. The tunic and trousers would need washing. Last all the leather would need oiling, the individual pieces and the body suit. Her underwear went on the top of the pile. It was all still a slight bit damp. She put on fresh underwear from the bureau, and a nightgown from the closet.

  Karen closed the doors leaving one slightly open, and moved to her bed. Set into a dais, it was a good sized pit lined with black fur and a few blankets, and very soft. She sat in the middle of it, her legs folded and her hands on her knees, palms up. Karen then began to focus her attention down to just her breathing. As she did, her mind stilled from the excitement of the evening, and the chill of the river and season left her body.

  Karen woke up, warm and comfortable, wrapped in a favorite blanket. At some point she had stretched out and pulled the blanket over her. But she could not clearly remember when. The light in the room told her it was approaching midday. The morning breeze had cooled things nicely. Now it was beginning to warm.

  Karen returned to the sitting position from the previous night, and worked to bring her memory to clear recall. She then got up, got a lap desk, her journal, a stylus, and an ink well. She also picked up her waterproof case, which was in one of her girdle pouches, with the papers that she had copied from the official records. She sat back down, and wrote in the journal all that she had read and learned. This she followed with her conclusions. She closed the book, putting the papers in the book next to the entry. This took some time, and then she was ready to proceed with the day with a meal and a bath.

  As she tended to the activities of the day, her mind worked over what she had learned, and what she was going to do to accomplish her task. The first thing she needed to do was find the parents and the wizard. People as tall as the parents were figured to be would be easy to spot in a crowd, if you can find the right crowd.

  So, how to find the right crowd?

  Caspian and the Caplan’s traveled along a road toward Skarg. It had become increasingly busy as they moved from the rural to the suburban, and finally the urban.

  Caspian had done a good job in teleporting them into the area. They had landed near the disk at the Wizard’s villa, and then traveled through the woods in the area for a short part of the day, before finding the road, and getting proper directions to Skarg. The horses and mules were quite stirred up and skittish after being teleported. The change from summer to winter did not help, as the animals quickly chilled under their summer coats. It was all that could be done to lead them for a few hours, without the animals taking fright at every rock and root, or just standing and shivering

  After a few day’s travel, they now traveled southwest on a main highway approached the tax and duty station on the northeast  outskirts of the metropolis.

  Much discussion had passed on how to get into the city, without causing commotion about Steven’s size and Roxanne’s appearance. The decision was to simply put on the ubiquitous cloaks over their costumes, get a cart to ride in, and let Caspian do the talking. Rox and Steven had enough Traders Cant to pass as northern traders, by language. Their size on the other hand . . .

  At a passing farm, Caspian had acquired a cart, with a pair of draft ponies, trading the three horses and two mules. Caspian had carefully selected other boxes and bags of stuff from two markets along the way. Steven had asked about where Caspian got the money for this, to which Caspian gave a noncommittal answer.

  Steven and Rox now sat in the box of the wagon with the cargo, their gear wrapped up in some cargo bags. Caspian’s staff was under his feet on the driver’s bench. Cyrril was somewhere nearby. It was not quite cold enough to see their breath in the day, but it did cool down in the evening.

  Roxanne asked about the language, as she and Steven did not understand the local language. Caspian was non committal, mentioning that in a free moment, he would magic it into their heads for them. Steven though this would be amusing, to mark yet another permanent new language for the trip.

  Now Caspian pulled the cart to a stop as the gate keepers motioned him to. The keepers were quickly inspecting each wagon as they entered, and checking invoices as available. As Steven watched and listened he saw the gate keeper respond with some slight pause to Caspian’s accent, and use of what Steven gathered was a local trader’s dialect, instead of the local language. But the gate keeper dismissed it, as his two helpers looked quickly over the cart and the goods in it. Rox and Steven's gear bags were looked through, with their weapons ends hanging out of them, but little other fuss was made. Evidently things were acceptable. After a moment with a requisition, Caspian paid a sum, and was waved on.

  The ponies pulled them into the city, and toward a market area. Along the way, Steven and Rox pulled their personal gear bags out, and climbed out of the cart. They had arranged for the Caplan's to find a place to stay, and meet Caspian after he had sold his goods.

  Steven led out, with the crowd parting minimally as they moved through it. They surveyed the inns for part of the area, and selected one. Using the traders language from the north, they got two rooms, and went up to put their stuff away. After securing things, they went back out to find Caspian. Cyrril found them as they moved down the street, and shortly Caspian showed up. He reported that he had parked the cart, and stabled the ponies.

  Steven led them back to the inn, and showed Caspian the room they had got for him. It was not as fancy as what the elves provided, but it had a window and all else it needed in this climate and setting. Caspian, like the Caplan's had done previously, was able to divest himself of his travel gear and lighten his load.

  The trio went out and spent the remainder of the afternoon getting acclimated to the local neighborhood and learning the landmarks. The inn Steven had selected was connected to a corner tavern with a open-air café occupying the bulk its part of the corner, the main tavern to one side the inn to the other. The area looked to cater to travelers and traders.