NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.92: Collusion
“Home?” Prisma said, looking over at Shein, not doubt wondering what the plan was to do with her at the castle.
“Home for the evening,” Elaina said. “Back to the inn.”
“What?” Prisma said, lowering her voice to barely above a whisper. “We’re already out too late, we need to get back sometime!”
“And we will, tomorrow morning,” Tira said. “We’ll be back by breakfast, though it is inconvenient that you don’t have your uniform to go back with…”
“She can borrow mine,” Flora said with a wink. “Unless she wants to be the one walking around naked with the clothes illusion?” Prisma didn’t respond to that other than by hiding her face as she climbed into the carriage the rest of the girls climbing in as well as Char got the horses ready.
“We’re not going to get much sleep tonight, are we?” Prisma said.
“No,” Elaina replied. “We still have to ‘watch out’ for her.”
“Mmhm…”
The party remained mostly in silence as the carriage made its way through the stables, Elaina focused on maintaining Shein’s level of sedation, the other girls no doubt relishing in the momentary break. By the time they did reach the inn, Carly and Flora were already starting to nod off.
“Alright girl’s, here’s your stop.”
Flora let out a yawn as she looked over at the body leaning against her. “Woah! I see her now!”
“Yeah,” Tira muttered. “Her aspect on us wore off a while back, but no need to make a stink of it.”
“She looks just like her though,” Flora continued. “Elaina was right, she is the woman from the forest.”
“Thanks, Char,” Elaina said, ignoring their conversation and hopping out and running to give her a hug. “I really appreciate it.”
“No worries,” the woman said, taking a look back at Shein as Flora lugged her out. “You sure she’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll make sure she is.” Elaina honestly wasn’t quite so sure of that, but she was certain she was going to try her best. She knew the dangers that came with leaving her alive, but they had more they needed to learn from her, and Elaina still didn’t like the idea of executing someone that was defenseless, even if they weren’t innocent.
Soon enough though, they were at Castle’s Wake. Elaina started the process of having Shein wake up, slowly letting up on the amount of chemical restraint she was pumping inside the woman’s body as Carly helped coax her into a state of half-consciousness with [Health], enough that she would walk with her arm slung over Flora’s shoulder That was enough to get them through the doors of the inn and towards the stairs, not drawing too much skepticism from Able as he tended to the night’s latest drinkers while they made their way to the rooms they’d reserved for him earlier.
“Couple extra girls staying the night with us, “Elaina said as they started up the stairs. We’ll still just need to two rooms though, and we’ll pay for their food in the morning.”
“Aye, aye,” the man said, waving them off and still barely recognizing they were there, probably about three-quarters as drunk as the most sober patron he was dealing with himself at this time of night. “No worries, just square up for breakfast and we’ll be good.”
“Isn’t that what you said you’d do?” Prisma asked as they went up.
“Yeah, but the less he thinks about us the better,” Tira said. “After all, we still don’t know what we’re going to have to do with her before the night’s over.”
“Where are we?” Shein said, almost as if she recognized being referred to. “’Snot my office, not my room…”
“Don’t you worry, dear,” Tira said, giving the woman a pat on the shoulder. “You’re safe with us.”
“You… Am I Shein, or the assassin right now? I don’t remember.”
“We’d like to know that too,” Elaina said as Carly opened one of the hallway doors. “Why don’t you come on in, and we’ll figure it out together?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea. Thanks, Elaina.”
Shein was beginning to walk on her own now, making her way to the bed and plopping herself down on it. Tira pulled over a chair from the corner and turned it around, sitting on it in reverse and laying her arms over the back. “How long till she can actually talk?” she asked.
“Right about… now,” Carly said.
Like light enters a window when curtains are drawn, it entered Shein’s eyes as well. She only took a quarter of a second’s glance around the room before jumping back further on the bed, trying the remove the bracelet from her wrist.
“Not gonna work,” Elaina said. “I’m keeping it locked. And you shouldn’t move so suddenly, you’re probably a bit woozy.”
The woman took stock of her current situation, looking around the room and untensing, sitting up slightly more straight. “Well, if you were going to kill me, you would’ve done it already.”
“Not necessarily,” Tira said. “We have information we need, but we still haven’t decided what to do with you after that.”
Both Flora and Carly winced at that, though Elaina did her best not to. Tira was technically right, after all, and it was important Shein feared them.
“Nah, information could have been gotten out there. You took me to an inn, which means one of two things. Either this is a party I don’t remember accepting the invitation for, or you’ve kidnapped me but plan on letting me leave.”
“Right before the tournament,” Elaina said, trying to avoid that other subject for as long as possible, “you said you knew where another Temmie was. We want to know where, now.”
Shein shook her head, closing her eyes repeatedly and looking back up. “Did you really kidnap me for that? We already had a deal, I would’ve told you that anyway.”
“Don’t try that card,” Tira said. “Your people were the ones who attacked us back at Mirage as soon as we won.”
“Well, yeah; they thought you’d killed me. I suddenly collapse on stage, leaving no chain of command? If you had left me conscious at least, I could have had Mille call them off. And then the five of you bowled through the place, busted a whole in the wall, told the other barkeep I would pay for that for some reason, and kicked the shit out a number of my people. All to steal something I would’ve just given you anyway!”
“There’s no way that’s true,” Elaina said. “You faked it being on stage when you were hiding it the whole time!”
“Yeah, to keep it safe. I knew you all would probably pull a stunt like that even if you lost, so I needed a decoy.”
“What is it?” Carly asked, drawing all attention to herself and blushing for a second before she continued. “Your aspect, Sense, Perception, Sight? It can’t be the last one really, since you affect the way people sense with their own aspects too.”
Shein rolled her eyes. “Cat’s out on how it works, so I guess telling you the name doesn’t matter much. Yeah, it’s Perception.”
Elaina was pretty sure she saw Carly pumping a fist at that answer. “So, you made the entire room see a fake orb, and altered our perception specifically of your office painting just in case we went in there?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t realize the Fireguard girl was actually working with you too. Should’ve probably done the entire audience just to be safe, but it would’ve taken so much mana to do that…”
“Mana that could be spent on dolling yourself up?” Tira asked.
“Oh please, that’s light work,” Shein said. “And having two faces is so very useful in my lines of work.”
“You said you never wanted to hurt us,” Elaina interjected. “But you tried to kill Carly in the cave.”
There was the slightest hint of shame, just a small glance to the corner as she responded. “I meant since then. I saw your uniforms, knew you were there on a mission to hunt us, thought I was just killing government dogs, protecting my people. That was before I fully looked into things.”
“Looked into what things?”
“Well, that circles back around to the crux of the matter, doesn’t it? The location of the second, or third, rather, since you five already possess one, subcore.”
The final word of Shein’s sentence rang silence throughout the room. “We never mentioned that word near you,” Carly said.
“Ah, yet I know it anyway, don’t I? And so do you, just like I expected.” The woman crawled off the other side of the bed, wobbling a bit as she did, but making an effort to project tallness, steadiness.
“Don’t try anything,” Tira said, standing up from her chair and pulling a knife out of her belt.
“I’m not. I meant it when I said I don’t want to hurt you.” Shein walked over to Elaina, looking at her with that same wry smile she’d wore back at Mirage. That part was her, at least, not the illusion, even if otherwise she looked nothing like herself right now. “I told you I’d tell you the location of another subcore. There’s one at Endrin Academy, probably in one of your rooms, or locked away in Strask’s office.”
Gods did that pissed Elaina off. “That is not what you meant, and you know it! You said no trickery, no word magic!”
“And I gave you neither,” Shein said as she fell back onto the bed, laying down completely this time, a very self satisfied look on her face. “I said I’d tell you the location of another, and I have. Of course, I do know where yet another one is, after all, and I’d be more than happy to divulge the location to a partner.”
“Partner?”
Shein shot up again, messy hair framing her grin an eerie manner. “Partners, you and me, Elaina. I know what a subcore is, because I have eyes and ears in many places. The details on what exactly they can do are pretty vague, but the description was perfectly clear: a round orb that acts as an Awakening crystal, exactly what we found in the cave when we just so happened to be looking for regular crystals to poach. And rumor has it, there should have been one locked up inside the academy ages ago, one that was never found. The one I know you have.”
“She knows too much,” Tira said, raising the knife and walking forward.
“And and a number of my employees do to!” Shein said, crawling back across the bed, eyes open wide. “Mille, but others too, ones I won’t name. Try all you like, Strask, but this secret doesn’t die with me.”
“She still doesn’t know everything,” Elaina said, throwing her arm in front of Tira. “And we’re not done talking.”
“Exactly, exactly,” Shein said, still looking a little panicked as Tira backed off. “And besides I’m not interested in telling anyone, is what I’m trying to say! I don’t want the kingdom getting ahold of these things, else I would have sold them ours a week ago.”
“They wouldn’t do business with you,” Prisma said. “They’d have you arrested and take it!”
“Wouldn’t do— Oh, dear, your father is the minister of defense, and you think the government would be above dealing with some low level criminals? That’s honestly very sad.”
Elaina thought she was going to have to stop another blade from heading towards Shein with the way Prisma’s face scrunched up and went red, but it was Carly that laid a hand on her shoulder first.
“I know it’s hard,” she said, “but there’s… there’s a lot more that our parents tell us, or that they don’t know in the first place about what goes on in the government.”
“Tch! Shein said, shaking her head. “One way of putting it, for sure. But as I was saying, I want these things away from the government, if only because they want them. And the way you all have acted, it seems we’re aligned in that goal.”
It didn’t sit a hundred percent right with Elaina. She still doubted she could trust Shein much farther than the range she could use [Restraint], but she still didn’t want to kill the woman, and playing along could avoid that eventuality.
“We’ll consider the offer. First, tell us the location, in good faith since you knew that’s what we were expecting when we made the side wager.”
Shein squinted, glancing into Elaina’s eyes for a good while before nodding. “Fair enough, fair as things can be while I’m your captive, at any rate. The other subcore I know of is in the capital, beneath Stormshine Castle.”