章 678: Titus Mede II
"First phase complete." Eleril whispers as she looks over her shoulder at her companions. The only she could see was Babette, whose form was covered in shadows making even that difficult, Riki seemed to just not exist whenever he wanted, appearing and disappearing at will with no big giveaway as to where he'd end up next.
They'd gained access to the Imperial Palace, the kitchen staff were being rotated since the current ones had been working all day and night, allowing the trio to drop in through the chimney with little trouble.
Babette did burn her foot rather badly after a misstep, her vampiric weakness to fire only being balanced out by her fast regenerative abilities. Currently, they were all sneaking atop a decorative bit of masonry that lined the top part of the hallway, allowing them to stay hidden above the heads of everyone who passed by.
Unfortunately for them, there were far more people around than they'd expected, putting them quite behind schedule despite not even reaching the second floor yet...
"Wait." Riki's voice stops them as they drop down to the base of the staircase leading upwards. His form shimmers into view as he leans down to get a closer look at the bannister.
"What is it?" Babette quietly asks.
"Hm? Some kind of runic protections, ancient. If there like this here then we're going to have trouble with the protections near the Emperor..."
"Can we break through them?" Eleril questions as they'd literally have to abandon the mission here and now if they couldn't advance.
"Break? No, not without alerting the entire building... Alter though? Hmm. I learned a few tricks from some friends I made." he chuckles slightly, "A target actually, Rubick, he wasn't the 'Grand Magus' at the time but-"
"Can you tell this story later? We're literally in the middle of enemy territory here." Eleril urges.
"Fine." Riki grumbles and proceeds to pull a strange tool from his belt. It looked like a hooked chisel with numerous thin carvings across it, which all glowed as soon as they made contact with the runes on the bannister.
"Find the control rune and..." he touches each major rune with the chisel and pauses when his knife stops glowing. With that, he chips the control rune slightly, distorting the stone and causing the thing to malfunction.
"Alright, this'll do... There's a maintenance function in it from what I can tell so we won't be able to come back down through here."
The duo nod and they all start climbing the stairs, they do have to hang off the side once when a maid was coming through, but that wasn't all that difficult with how inattentive she seemed.
From there it was just a matter of patience, attentiveness, and skill. The continued through the palace, disabling defensive and detection runes all the way up to the seventh floor. Strangely, when they found the Emperor's room there wasn't anyone guarding the large ornate doors, making them think they were walking into a trap.
"What do we do? This is obviously a trap... Why would there be more guards around the kitchen than the actual Emperor's room?" Eleril cautions.
"I agree. Are we sure the Emperor didn't move and take his guards with him?" Babette questions.
Riki just hums and looks down at the floor in thought, "We know the Emperor is still in the palace, but where exactly is impossible to tell... Hm... We spring the trap and interrogate whoever's inside. There can't be more than a dozen guards, that would be too great a waste of resources for the small chance of an assassin making it all the way up here..."
"Sorry, I think I just heard that you want to willingly walk into an ambush." Babette jokingly asks despite her dire expression, "Has our 'Master Stealth Assassin' lost his mind all of a sudden?"
Eleril nods, "We should find another way."
Riki takes their thoughts into account and-...
*Click!*
'Accidentally' trips and opens the door, revealing an empty hallway decorated with many doors.
"Woops, looks like we have no choice now!" Riki sarcastically says as he steps past them.
"Y- are you serious!?" Babette hurriedly whispers.
Eleril just lets out a sigh and follows along, "It's too late to turn back now... Besides, this doesn't 'feel' dangerous." she says meaningfully.
"Night Mother?"
Eleril nods, "I don't think this is a trap..."
They go through and check the doors, finding a luxurious bedroom, common room, etc... Until they stand at the last unopened doors. They step inside and all halt in place as they look ahead, spotting the Emperor looking up at them from his desk...
"So you're finally here..." he audibly mutters, only confusing them further.
"... You knew we were coming?" Eleril questions as she glances around the room searching for traps or hidden men.
The Emperor lowers his quill, "Of course, I did hire you."
...
"What...?"
"I hired you to kill me... I admit, it sounds absurd hearing it aloud but I never expected having to explain myself to my assassin..." he says, almost sounding unhappy that they hadn't immediately murdered him.
"Well, it's not every day an Emperor uses us to kill himself... Can I ask why?" Eleril questions, wondering just what his motive was...
"No. You may not. Hm, here, I'll lean forward, just stick me in the back and be done with it." he says, resting his chest against the desk.
...
"Youknow, this isn't the weirdest bounty I've taken up." Riki remarks while Eleril steps over, "Any last words?"
The Emperor lets out a long, tired sigh. "For the Empire."
"Patriotic." is all Riki says before Eleril sticks the old man in the spine with one dagger, and stabs him in the heart with another. The Emperor lets out one last gasp before quickly bleeding out, ending the reign of Titus Mede II...
"Alright, send the signal and let's leave." Riki says, hurrying Eleril who was leaving a bloody handprint on the wall.
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