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Traps work best with bait. Believable bait. Foresight chooses her guards accordingly. Five, she thinks. Not too many and not too few. She is, after all, only a mid-ranking advisor. One just high enough to conceivably have access to tempting, damaging, information. Nothing major. Just enough of a reward to be worth the risk. But enough of a risk to have a worth while reward. Even better, she is also not important enough for there to be too big of a reprisal at her capture or death, while still being placed highly enough to make something of a statement. Foresight is the perfect bait to prove her own theory.
The raiders have been a touch too precise recently and Foresight is certain there is a spy within Mythal’s ranks. One that has enabled them to pierce the eluvian network. It is almost unthinkable, but Foresight is sure she is correct.
Obviously, using herself as bait is a last resort. She is not a very good fighter and is not deluded about her own ability to survive the very operation she is organizing. But Suvthen had not listened, thinking her overly cautious, thinking access to the network beyond any outsider’s abilities to achieve, and Foresight hasn’t dared mention her hunch to anyone else.
Foresight sighs to herself. She is not, and has never been, very cautious. But she supposes it looks like she is from the outside. Truly, she is little more than a high stakes gambler, weighing probabilities and placing her chips at as many of the most likely outcomes as she can manage. What appears to be deliberation to others is nothing more than wagers, often hastily placed, on her best guesses.
Getting herself assigned to courier duty is harder than expected, but not beyond her abilities to arrange. Then Foresight just has to make sure the information is spread at the appropriate level. Where it will reach the spy, if there is one, but not without effort. It can’t be too easy. Not to learn about and not to achieve. Herself and sensitive documents through the crossroads to one of Mythal’s more remote outposts. For the raiders it should be difficult, but not impossible, grab... if Foresight is correct about their abilities. Her guards will take care of spreading the information about themselves. Not in a way that is explicitly linked to her, but will be easy to piece together, easier than getting the information about Foresight’s route in the first place. The guards, after all, move openly about the city, telling friends they will be gone on an assignment, although they do not yet know anything more. Not where they will be going or who they will be guarding. And they certainly don’t know they probably aren’t coming back.
Their lives are Foresight’s biggest regret. She doesn’t want to die either. But she has accepted it.
It is, after all, the most likely outcome.
In the Dreaming, Duty radiates uncertainty. Foresight waits patiently. Everything hinges on this spirit’s willingness to help. Elgar’nan’s people, even the unbodied spirits, are hard for her to predict, more mercurial then those with whom she normally deals. But, still, it is a spirit of duty.
If she can not convince it she is right, then she and her guards will die for nothing when the raiders attack. She can not risk trusting anyone else. “I’ll take the blame if I’m wrong,” she coaxes. “But we can’t allow traitors to continue selling us out.”
Vaguely elvhen in shape, little flames snapping and sparking in the air around it, Duty paces back and forth in front of her.
“That’s not the problem!” Duty throws it’s ‘arms’ over its ‘head,’ continuing to pace, causing more fire to flicker from its agitated motions. “Besides, calling Peacekeepers out if there isn’t anything there means they’ll punish both of us. It doesn’t matter who takes the blame!”
“What is the problem, then?” Foresight asks, standing calmly in front of the pacing spirit.
“I can’t expect Peacekeepers to just listen to me, not if I can’t talk to them before hand! Not if you will die if I don’t get there in time!”
Foresight isn’t sure why Duty seems to think this will be as much to rescue her and her people as it is to catch the raiders. But it is a nice hope. And not technically impossible.
“I’m just a spirit,” Duty continues “A little spirit. I could tell them the crossroads were burning down and they still might not come. Not fast enough.” Duty stomps to a stop and turns to face her, resolve filling the air. “I’ll have to make them chase me.” Duty nods to itself. “Just tell me where and when. I’ll get them there.”
Foresight swallows and names the mostly likely place and the most likely time.
Seven lives now, counting her own, will be spent on this endeavor, whatever the overall outcome. Elgar’nan’s Peacekeepers should be a match for whoever the raiders send. Of course, even if everything goes as Foresight predicts, there is no guarantee that Elgar’nan will be wise enough to question the raiders before killing them. But if Duty can talk its way out of trouble, possible with such tangible rewards for its subterfuge in hand, or if Suvthen remembers Foresight’s words and gets Mythal to intervene, then it will all be worth it. Their lives will be worth it if Mythal finds the spy.
Foresight knows what duty is, after all.
Be aware of what will happen is not the same as understanding it. In between blinks Foresight and her guards are no longer alone. Terror makes her freeze, despite all her expectations.
The raiders' warriors are chilling. There are only two, but they fight with skill enough to given all but an enanuvis pause. And, perhaps, even then the outcome would not be as certain as Foresight has always assumed it would be.
The first of the raiders is a barely visible outline through a barrier so strong it is nearly opaque, but Foresight can tell that the other elf is large. The second she almost misses because they are short and slender and are careful to charge close in the wake of first, shielded from their enemies’ view. Which is what turns out to be the death of Foresight’s first two guards. The second raider, appearing little more than a shadow of the first, is wielding a spear. When the taller warrior steps forward to catch the guards’ reactionary counter attack on their shield, they allow their companion just enough room to lunge their weapon past the shield with unexpected reach. And strength. And the spear glows with power.
Almost before Foresight realizes they have been attacked (and, if she had not been expecting an attack then and there, she would still be coming to that realization), two of her number are down, probably dead. Hastily, Foresight casts the spell she has been ready to cast at the first hint of trouble. Ice, which should have enough power behind it to at least slow them down, sweeps outward from her fingers... and parts neatly around the raiders’ barrier. Swallowing, Foresight tries to back away. She’d prepared an entire list of spells that might be useful to keep them alive until help arrives, but there is so much blood. Foresight shrinks back in on herself even as three guards in front of her become two. She can recall nothing but the most basic magics.
The little one is too fast and her remaining guards are too close for Foresight to even try to hit them. Hand shaking she manages as strong a bolt of power as she can muster, but the larger raider’s barrier barely even shivers.
It is just as well Foresight has been prepared to die.
Clutching her missive to her chest Foresight has just enough willpower to not close her eyes as raiders pivot together, artfully forcing the remaining guards to move with them. Separating them from Foresight. Rather than kill the last two, the larger uses shield and barrier to block their attacks, holding them at bay. The smaller has nothing between themselves and Foresight.
They dodge the bolts Foresight sends their way as if they are dancing, calm filling the air between them. The raider calm in their skill, Foresight in her predictions. It will be a fast death, at least. A whole death, one that will not leave little shards of herself settling into the foundations of Arlathan, barely aware and existing for nothing but the weight of the city.
As the raider prepares to strike, Foresight swallows thickly.
It is pure chance that this is the moment Duty bursts through the nearest Eluvian followed by a handful of very angry Peacekeepers, some of whom are smoldering slightly.
Fast as the Peacekeepers are to adjust to the new situation, the raider is faster. They fling a flurry of spells at the Peacekeepers disrupting the charge, while their spear flashes towards Foresight, goes through the barrier she tries to raise like it is nothing, and... Duty slams into her side, into her, knocking them away and rolling them across the ground.
Foresight clings harder than she means to as Duty melts into her, gripping her back and continuing to tumble her body away with more skill than Foresight has ever had. They shake with Foresight’s terror and relief and gratitude, but it is not just hers. Not just theirs. Something is very, very wrong. They are blending, blurring. But they are still alive and... where is Foresight? She has to get to Foresight. She promised to protect... Duty? Foresight?
They scramble to their feet. Blink their eyes. “What did you, we, I do?!” they ask themselves.
Everyone has paused, feeling the shift, the warping and twisting as they became them. Or is it her, now? It is not everyday, after all, that one suddenly finds oneself an abomination. Or in the presence of one. It happened so fast. Duty and Foresight hold their breath, waiting for the madness.
They do not feel mad.
The raiders, without a word spoken between them, turn and run. Not fleeing, but using the distraction to escape. "Hey! Get back here!" they/she shout, impulsively. The raiders have vanished, but the Peacekeepers react. "Er." Fighting and surrendering would both be suicide. Foresight and Duty bolt in different direction.
Their thoughts tumble over each other as their feet move. It is not as they have always been told, this melding beyond the point of separation. They have not corrupted, they have just become someone new. Together.
I have you, Duty promises, I’ll keep us safe. I promised and I will. But...
They both know they have to go back, should go back. Yet they will be shattered, killed if they do. Foresight knows there is no other outcome. There is no undoing this.
Foresight was prepared to die for duty. This would not be that type of death. Duty was supposed to save Foresight. If it were only me, they both think, I would, I would... but I won’t let them have you.
Air burns in their lungs and running with a body is hard. But they are so much faster than Foresight ever used to be. And, from the sounds, the Peacekeepers are chasing the raiders instead of them.
Still. This did not go as planned. At all.