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(Vol 5) Chapter 29: Daylight in the Dark City
🕑 Added 2024-05-25 15:43:24 +0000 UTCSammy made ‘Beltrand’ wave his hand angrily behind him as he turned, to eliminate the callers' line of sight. She soon discovered a dark alleyway that she had him duck into, and then took one last look around to make sure he was unobserved before making him completely vanish.
Sitting back on her throne, Sammy breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Stage One of the Great Escape complete. Now for Stage Two.”
Sammy took her mirror array far, far away from the vicinity of the scene of her ‘crime’ and the house where she’d rescued Ash. She avoided going high up and out of the city immediately, because Ash had indicated something about wall protections, and it would expose potential vision to anyone looking up. A high enough level viewer would beat the contest and become suspicious.
The most intelligent thing seemed to be obtaining intel and working with Ash. Before she jumped into that, she began instructing her team in the Eleks to move northeast, though scouting ahead and thus conducting themselves slowly and cautiously, but getting the ball rolling on some likely small-scale protection at some point in the journey.
If she could go at full speed with her [Mirror Control] long distance, that was seven meters per second, which was 25 kilometers an hour. Decent, and difficult to match unless going full tilt with a Pegasus or Faerie Dragon.
Another option her realm consensus ventured was moving less suspicious human agents from Mot Mekess down the river, which could be very swift with an enchanted riverboat. It required some excuse, but ‘priority cargo’ sometimes called for it, so Marchioness Agatha could perhaps arrange it within hours, depending.
Continuing to bounce it all around in her head, Sammy paused to go to Ash's mirror maze realm and fill things out a little better. She formed it into a tower looking out over a sea, as some vague analog to what she wanted to build outside Geirkos. She made a balcony, put herself on it in her typical dressy goddess attire, and then made a door that opened from Ash’s room.
Open it did. Ash did a start and rose, then slowly approached. The blonde beauty paused to stare at Samantha for a moment, the wind blowing and catching her hair and robes while she looked out at the sea, hands on the ornate, wooden railing. Ash finally approached, hesitantly placing her hands on the railing as well, and glancing over… everything. Observing, analyzing, deducing.
Such piercing and critical eyes. All in all, a formidable lady, here.
“How close do you think the contest would’ve been?” Sammy asked with a small smile.
Ash turned her head and raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”
“The contests you waived. How close would they have been?”
After a long pause, as if she were studying Samantha and weighing how to answer, Ash replied, “Not close at all. This is… how should I put it… well within my wheelhouse.”
Sammy laughed in genuine amusement to hear that term. She finally turned her head to meet Ash’s eyes. “Mindscapes? Mental realms? Torture? What?”
Ash once more waited a long spell before answering, though her face was expressionless. “Willpower, I will say. I am trained well. It would take you years to break me down psychologically, and by then, you might simply have something broken and useless rather than whatever you wanted to extract in the first place.”
It’s more of a front. There’s a tumult going on behind it all.
Sammy shook her head and sighed. “Still worried over the situation, I see. I know it's hard not to be frightened, but I know in my heart that you are meant to be my ally, not my enemy. That goes vice versa, too. I am not going to hurt you, and if you refuse to reveal things, so be it. I just hope you tell me some things. Pertinent things.”
“It would seem to me your most pertinent desire is vacating me out of Dominion territory. I will assist in whatever way I can. Keeping me hidden here?” She took a long look around her and said with some irony, “However disconcerting, this is heaven to our mutual purpose. Objectively.”
“You’re welcome,” Sammy replied, with her own dose of irony.
Ash shot her eyes back to Sammy with some measure of shock… and then embarrassment. “I-I’m sorry… Thank you for rescuing me. I’m not used to- never mind.” She took a deep breath as she drummed her fingers on the railing. “I appreciate you answering my prayer… Goddess.” It was a seemingly awkward and uncomfortable title for her to use, spoken like she had to spit out a rock to get it out.
Sammy was grinning down at the fingers that had drummed on the railing. Just like me! She drums her fingers just like me! “Of course. I won’t ask yet how you knew to do that, it not being pertinent yet.”
“Indeed. Not yet. Thank you.” Attempting a polite smile that did not easily fit her face, she added, “I assume you are planning to fly and crest the walls?”
“I was planning on it, yes. I have not gone up high yet.”
“Don’t. Every bloody angle is being heavily watched. The walls and gates are swarming, well-lit, and every method over is covered with special, conceptually-bound spellcraft. This city is locked up tighter than a flea’s asshole. You said your abilities are limited by contest? What is your level grade?”
Tighter than a flea’s asshole? I swear I’ve heard Dax say that. I bet this girl is from one borderland or another despite her posh accent.
“Hmm. [Goddess] and [Magineer] add up to level ten, and then minus one for it being through a mirror, and then probably a couple of other modifiers, plus and minus. [Detection Ward] might or might not apply. Possibly a penalty depending on the angle… oh, and I have some global debuff I’m under. So, I guess I’d say eleven or twelve.”
“Goatshit on a cracker! No, not enough. Sorry. Don’t fly up, at least not over the line of the general rooftop plane, and — wait a second — did you say… [Magineer]?!” Her eyes widened and lit up. “Is that a custom [Wizard] class?”
“Yes, it is! Focused on invention. I got it from past lives shenanigans.”
Ash’s hand unconsciously hovered over to her lips as she stared and whispered, “Past lives? Invention?” She leaned toward Sammy with a growing glint in her eyes, unblinking. “Does it aid custom spell creation and enchantment?!”
“Yeah!”
“That’s incredible!”
“I know! Hee hee!” Sammy laughed in glee and bounced once, and Ash added her own barks of amazed laughter.
Ash suddenly collected herself on a dime, clearing her throat as she coughed into a closed fist, eyes closed briefly. “Ahem. As for over the wall, can you modify the categorical description of the mirror? Birds, for example, fly over freely. Most of them.”
“I can create a false aura through an ability, but I do think it is still subject to comparison. I believe I can use it through mirrors, as it is not overt and effectively informational.”
Ash shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Better one comparison than continuously testing possible eyes and spells in the air. Now, over the wall, there is a spell cancellation effect as well, but this shouldn’t affect you if you aren’t using spells.”
“It’s the power of the gods, Ash. And not what they were expecting here. No. Unless they have contingencies against us, we’re good there.”
“Go over and run for it. If they detect it, they still have to come and take it. Make multiple sources and go different directions, perhaps.”
“If it is one singular test over the boundary, I can force failure or success through a Fate power. We win.”
Ash narrowed her eyes as a hand came up to tap a finger on her lip thoughtfully.
Just like me! Oh-em-gee!
“You would need to detect the spell,” Ash concluded. “At least, this is what I assume, if you are to target a contest since it would usually be hidden.”
“Oh shit, that’s a good point, Ash. Okay, I think I can handle that. Hopefully. If not, I’m still going to go for it. We pretty much have to face it, right? It covers every exit?”
“Over the walls, through the gates, underneath. Yes. Everything discrete transitions through the spell and informs it. Possibly even intangibly passing through the walls. And it's after dark, so the damn gates are closed anyway. Hiding and hitching a ride might work, otherwise. Right now, that would require some luck or time we don’t have, waiting and watching for the right opportunity.”
“Alright, then! Let’s do this. I mean, I’ll do it, that is. You sit tight. Enjoy the view.”
Her gaze shifted to look out on waves crashing over rocks. “I suppose I will. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the sea.”
Sammy shifted her viewpoint back to the mirror array and soon realized one issue: two objects. She was going to have to ditch her extra one, leaving it behind. The worst of the issue was the half-plane of the illusion. It would not reach behind, allowing the back to be visible. She’d need to tilt the mirror and preferably go over an extremely not-occupied section of the wall.
For the time being, she moved out levitating the two mirrors, just below the rooftops, primarily sticking to alleys and dark places, but she had to cross past well-lit streets and so forth. She avoided people, which wasn’t terribly hard in the nighttime. There were guard patrols, and more guards here and there going door to door for searches, but certainly no one else.
A few times she spotted figures in robes, but only for an instant, as she broke the line of sight as quickly as possible.
Holy hell, they’re turning the city upside down to find her! Yeesh.
With only a few blocks left, suddenly something like a flare went off near the center of the city. She watched a brightness that would’ve blinded anyone else rise and rise, then hold position high in the sky, glaring down to make the city be cast with the light of a new sun.
Briefly, Sammy hid in a shadow cast by it. Her mirrors were otherwise exposed, however, because the damnable light stripped them away.
Fuck! They already know something is up. And/or she was using resistant illusions, as well. I guess mortals do have some defenses that work, eh? I gotta make some kind of dash for it, now, before they pull some other shit, too.
She almost just started blasting across the distance immediately, but hesitated, as she noticed her [Illuminate the Other Side] was still quite healthy.
Ha! Light Manipulation in this fucking glare is as good as an illusion for hiding! Maybe better. Suck on that, Dominion!
Before she did anything else, she also utilized [False Auras] on her primary mirror, to see if the city-wide spell stripped it as well. It did not, and the power effect held.
Okay, my mirror is now classified as a sparrow. Hehehe.
Whatever long shot it was, it hardly mattered, as she planned on rigging the contest anyway. Far too early in the ‘day’ for her, but it was what it was. She’d hold the last [Alter Fate] use in reserve very carefully.
She used another application of [Illuminate the Other Side] to enshroud the other mirror, and then set off, merging the glare of light to match what was coming down from the spell effect, effectively making it undetectable through her relatively versatile control.
She moved at high speed for the wall, which was absolutely crawling with soldiers at stations or patrolling over the length. She focused intently on a spot in-between, right after a patrol was passing.
Nearing the edge, she slowed the levitation, eyeing the soldiers nervously. But they were blinking in the glare or not even trying to look into it, their eyes still adjusting to the sudden brightness. They had zero chance of spotting anything unusual.
Not as effective as you thought using that against the Goddess of Light, is it, motherfuckers?! This is why lying and deception rules, and evil stinks! Or something like that.
On her throne, looking into the mirrors before her, Sammy summoned a pair of sleek, bronze goggles to her hand and put them on, staring through the primary portal after and seeking the spell she knew was there with keen focus.
Come on, come on, come on…
She saw nothing upon first inspection. She drew closer, studying the contours of the wall faces carefully as well as the well-lit air above it. She reached out with [Detect Magic] in that sight that was not quite sight.
It eluded her. She was right on the edge, she could feel it. I know you’re fucking there, spell, come on!
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