Chapter 45 - Coin for the ferry man
Sorin had long mastered the art of guard shifts. Though it had been a long time since he did security operations, but it was straight forward.
He showed Linx and Cain the ins and outs of personal security. When the week first started he briefed them on site lines making sure every angle was covered or observed. Making sure food was monitored for poison, and people didn't get unusually close.
He had a really bad feeling since the end of the social gathering earlier this evening. His gut feeling told him it wasn't over. When Cain came back from his shift, he told him about his bad feeling.
When Sorin walked passed Reegor, he could see the arms master was feeling the same pressure. Many times in his career and in life Sorin had bad feelings. Normally he could just remove himself and any VIPs from the situation, but this time he knew it wasn't going to be possible if they chose to attack.
It just bothered him not having all the information. He noticed the last names and the species. In lore Athena didn't like the Gorgons. Perhaps the mythology on earth was a spill over from this location.
In his classes they did say there is such as thing as demigods. What if that's actually what Athena was. A demigod and she hated the Gorgons for reasons he couldn't remember hence why they were at oddsfor region three? Who knows. He had known Euryale for not even a week and things were already going sideways.
Sorin had his Greater Firesense stretched out to its break even limit which covered the majority of the estate that was a full kilometer in each direction. He was hoping for a quiet night and let the problems come from inside the exam like he was thinking they most likely would.
"Reegor, I'm headed to sleep. At some point tonight when you can relax try to sleep as well. Sorin, wake me if there is just cause." Euryale said as she and her lady in waiting went into her bedroom and closed the door.
He could still sense inside the room, but for the sake of propriety he paid it as much attention as one would the corner of his eye.
There was a lot wrong with what had happened today. It seems too plotted out for it to be like the nobles in the books who just do it for their narcissistic tendencies. No there was something at play that might be bigger. Perhaps, he should ask Euryale tomorrow about everything.
After a few hours Cain came and relieved Sorin who went to his bed to lay down. Sun up was only a few hours away and he could afford to get a few hours. He was just about to sleep when something shifted.
There were 3 shapes with near ambient heat signatures moving quickly toward the houses. His gut was right, it wasn't over. They picked the worst time of the night when the watches are generally the least watchful. Yet they couldn't have counted on Sorin. There were three shapes moving not toward the main house, but to the guard quarters they were in. Sorin got up, taking his two swords from their sheaths and put them at chest height points down in front of him and walked with a sleepy appearance toward the restroom as the shaped entered.
He could see them clear as day. They stopped and looked around. First he could see them gesturing with their hands and arms a code he didn't understand. They first looked at Linx who was still asleep. Sorin while in the bathroom readied his binding skill to snag them, but they turned away from Linx and began making their way to him in the bathroom.
He faced the toilet in the event they had a similar skill than he but hoped it was less refined than his.
The door silently opened as they 3 figures appeared to draw weapons seeing him. They approached from behind and the two angles out. They had taken one more step moving them within 5 meters.
"You guys, will have to do much much better than this." Sorin said as he snapped his fingers for the sake of appearance as the binding wrapped itself around the offendeds and began to smoke and burn.
The screams of suprise and pain were horrific. The blood cuddling sound of someone burning and can't get away filled the building causing further shouts of alarm.
As they fell screaming their stealth skill dropped off revealing two teenagers and someone about his age. The shock and agony made it clear they were expecting little opposition or difficulty with the mission. The older man stopped his screaming and flexed attempting to break the binding on him casing Sorin's aether to drop like a stone in water. He must be tier 4 or 5 with that much power. Sorin moved quickly and struck him on the temple causing him to go limp, but he wasn't done. He grabbed him by the jaw forcing his mouth open to check for temperature variation of his teeth.
Sure enough he found a false molar. He reached into the unconscious man's mouth and ripped it out. Too many times spies or assassins would pull out the tooth then bite on it, ending their life before they could he questioned.
Sorin honestly had no idea if they did it here, but was glad he looked.
A large bicolored molar popped clean out.
The screaming had woken up the entire estate. Reeger, Cain, and Linx came into the room weapons drawn. Linx moving but you could tell he was stiff from the healing. Cain and Reegor assessed the situation and moved to secure the two Sorin had bound. They saw the men coming and pulled the tooth and bit down. Not to the suprise of Sorin but the horror of the other two they began foaming at the mouth and convulsing before they went still.
Euryale came in khopesh in right hand, left hand up ready to cast, but Sorin had it all taken care of. Euryale pulled a collar seemingly out of nowhere and buckled it on the unconscious man's neck as reeger manacled him.
Sorin let his skill drop and hauled the man up and set him into a chair where Cain tied him down.
Everyone paused and began to look around. Reeger, after a moment went to work checking the two dead bodies for anything. All he found were papers and a sort of wooden poker chip.
Reegor handed the paper and chip to Euryale.
"We need that one to talk." She said handing the page to Sorin. He looked down and his eye brows went up.
It was a drawing of himself.
"Seems you had a coin for the ferryman." She said solemnly tossing the chip to him.