Finalizing the Plans

That night, Faylin sneaks into Fheldin's backyard, and she nudges Haalfrin awake.

Haalfrin is more exhausted than usual after spending much of the night chatting away with Lord Fheldin. So, he wakes up and nearly crushes the girl's leg in his inhumanly strong grip.

Faylin slaps him softly and says, "Wake up, idiot! ... And... please be quiet. There are dragons everywhere, and I came uninvited."

Haalfrin looks around and gains his bearings. Once he remembers that he's here to carry out a mission – not throw parties with Dragons, he groans and slowly climbs to his feet.

He takes a few minutes to put away all his swords back into their space bags before following after Faylin.

As he tip-toes away with his comrade, he notices the alarm enchantments on the entrance to the canyon…. "Faylin. Did you shut those off? That was fine work."

"No, I didn't do that. Those inscriptions are too much for anything less than a research team. No, when I showed up, they were already powered off. It seems that one of the dragons had smacked the enchantment nexus for the door enchantments with his tail while he was sleeping."

Haalfrin notices a while pillar with intricate runes carved on it. Yesterday, when he came here, this pillar was standing upright. Now, it's crumpled on the floor and broken in several places.

Why else could Faylin slip in and out of the Dragon's private play area completely undetected?

Haalfrin rolls his eyes at this and recalls what Fheldin had taught him earlier that night. "The old geezer was right when he said that dragons have terrible luck," he says aloud.

Faylin gives Haalfrin a courtesy chuckle, then she waves him on and says urgently, "Hurry! We have to finalize our plans and take out Elder Tala before morning comes. All the guests stayed for the night, so we don't have long."

Haalfrin quickens his pace after her.

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After winding their way through the corridors unhindered, Haalfrin and Faylin creep into the room where Jay, Resburn, and Myra are waiting.

"Come, sit. We have a lot to talk about," Jay says while waving the door closed with a telekinesis spell.

Seeing that everyone has gathered together once more, Jay reminds everyone, "Now, remember what we talked about in the beginning. We ABSOLUTELY can't be found out. The Rehkin are an extremely tight-knit race. If you offend one, you offend his entire clan, which would ruin all hopes of peace with the Hawk Clans." He sighs as if tired, then continues, "Resburn here is our expert in spirit magic, so we'll be referring to him a lot."

Haalfrin could've mentioned that he's an expert on Spirit Magic too, but he doesn't really care enough about the mission to show all his cards. It's better for everyone to think of him as a pair of really big muscles.

Myra raises her hand, "Why did we wait this long to finalize the plan? We could've had this meeting on the way up to the Clan Meet."

"I wasn't entirely sure what the situation was going to be like when we got here - which clans would show up, which elders, and so on," Jay answers her.

He turns to Resburn. "Tell us what kind of obstacles we might face when dealing with the Rehkin."

Resburn stands up straight and goes a little red in the face upon being called upon in front of everyone.

Everyone knows that spirit magic mainly is about the use of Spirit Threads. The Rehkin, as a race, have spirits that are so strong that they can use techniques unimaginable to a human.

Since Resburn has trained under a Rehkin before, he might at least know some of the tricks they have, even if he'll never be able to replicate them.

So, the spirit mage replies with measured words, "The Rehkin can use Spirit Threads to link each other together in almost any way. They can feel each other's status all the time; if one falls sick, then everyone automatically knows about it. If one is killed, everyone knows immediately. They can even feel thoughts and emotions through their Spirit Threads, which is really fascinating because-"

"Resburn," Jay reminds him, "Stay on topic."

"…Right. Anyway, a Rehkin's abilities only get stronger once they die. If you kill them, then their spirit becomes far too strong to restrain. Tala's spirit would flow through his Link with his tribe and immediately warn them about his killer."

"What about the Death gods?" Myra asks while looking at Haalfrin. "If a Death god shows up and takes Tala away soon enough, wouldn't we be in the clear?"

Haalfrin shakes his head. "It takes several minutes to several hours for a Death god to show up. The travel between the Death Realm and here isn't exactly short – even when they travel at near-instant speeds."

(Death gods are usually ethereal when they travel from the Death Realm, which is why the trip is so short. Das's and Haalfrin's trip to the Death Realm only took so long because they were in physical forms.)

Indeed, killing the elder is easy, but getting away with it is way too hard.

Haalfrin raises his hand and suggests, "We could barge in wearing masks and smash the Hawk elder so quickly that he can't tell his friends - even through the spiritual link."

"It's not feasible because... well... you're too powerful," Jay says. "Everybody here knows your mana signature. Plus, the clans are stationed far too close to each other, and most of them have excellent hearing. Plus, they're hyper-sensitive to fluctuations in magic. You could certainly beat them in a fight, but you're not Faylin. You're not trained to kill people without any mana fluctuations or sound."

Myra suggests, "Why don't we just find one of Elder Tala's political rivals and try getting them to kill our target for us? I know the Tribes pretty well, so I can think of a few candidates."

"Hmm…," Jay mulls it over. "This WOULD spare us the brunt of the blame and avert the ire of the clans… but I'll have to reject that idea. A political rival would be far more likely to try getting US to do the killing. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty."

Faylin notices Myra's frowning face, so she interjects, "Girl, I'm sorry, but Jay's right. Even if we actually pay someone else to do the killing, it would be far too easy to trace it back to us anyway; all the other assassins from other Clans also have their own spiritual links, so we couldn't silence any assassins to cut off the trail."

Myra frowns and retorts, "Do you have a suggestion then?"

"Sure," Faylin replies, "We COULD simply disguise it as an accident. If Elder Tala himself believes that he died in an accident, then his spirit will have nothing to complain about to his Clan."

The red-haired girl gets a childish look on her face as she digs through her storage bag, pulling out boxes and boxes - excitedly opening them all up. "Look! These are all my poison kits. I even have them color coded! The ones with blue stripes are odorless, the orange ones are tasteless AND odorless."

She then pulls out a few special... knives? They have hilts, but instead of blades, they have thin needles. "See this? If I stab this into an artery, the poison will be delivered right to the source, and they'll die several times faster. On top of that, the needles are enchanted to close the wound after I pull it out of the skin. The tip of the needle even has a numbing spell so that the target can't feel the prick."

Resburn butts in, "I hate to burst your bubble, but that's not going to work here. Remember that Rehkin can talk to the dead?"

"Yeah," Faylin blurts, "but that's not going to matter if the man dies without seeing his killer."

Resburn rubs his temples and says, "Spirit magic is basically the power of bonds and connections - hence why we use it in enchanting. There's an advanced version of spirit magic that allows one to see the connections of things beyond the spirit realm - to see ANY kind of thread."

He sits back and explains, "There is a thread of Fate that connects one to every significant person or place that affects the major moments in their life...., especially their death. An advanced Spirit mage specialized in reading Fate threads can easily pinpoint the murderer."

Jay adds, "And since this is a meeting with many of the most important people in all the lands, they'll certainly have some of these advanced Fate readers."

Resburn blurts, "They're called Fate Threaders."

"…Anyway," Jay continues, "They'll absolutely have Fate Threaders here to dissuade any would-be assassins."

"Like us."

"... Yeah... like us," Jay says slowly. The more he thinks about it, the more impossible this mission feels.

Haalfrin turns to Resburn, "You're a spirit mage, right? Couldn't you just use your magic and sever the Fate thread?"

"Dude... I have a strong spirit... for a human. Beating a Rehkin with spirit is as preposterous as beating a dragon in an arm wrestling match."

Jay snaps upright, and he looks like he just had an epiphany.

He looks at Haalfrin excitedly and asks, "What about the crow goddess? You mentioned earlier that she prioritizes coming to pick up dead souls near you, right? If she shows up herself, she's naturally going to use her tools and sever any spirit threads connecting the dead to this world."

Resburn added, "Yeah. Everyone knows that the death gods show up to collect their souls about once a month."

"Once a month!?" Haalfrin yelps. "I never knew that! She always came within a few minutes... I thought that was normal."

"Nah. That goddess favors you a lot. It's obvious to everyone why she shows up so quickly for you."

Haalfrin quickly shakes those complicated feelings out of his head before saying, "No. Freyya only shows up for the souls of those who fall in battle. Elder Tala's soul won't belong to her unless he struggles before he dies... which would kind of defeat the purpose of a secret assassination. I know a separate god for murder victims, and we're not on very good terms. He won't be doing me any favors like Freyya would."

There is a really long pause before Jay makes another suggestion. "What about the dragons? They're powerful, impulsive creatures that kill as soon as you cross their line. If one of them kills Elder Tala, then nobody will think too hard about it."

"Plus," Haalfrin adds, "if Elder Tala tries to fight back, Freyya will show up extra early, cut the threads, and go too far away with his soul for anyone to question him or divine his Fate Threads. We'd just have to find a way to stall just long enough for her to show up..."

Jay smiles. "Now we're going somewhere."

Faylin sits up. "What are you thinking?"

"All of you gave some excellent suggestions, but all of them had just one or two things wrong. However, if we use ALL of the suggestions in just the right way…"

As Jay explains his plan, everyone's mouths gape wide; Haalfrin in particular can't help fidgeting with glee.

This plan is going to be a lot of fun.